The Last Blog on the Left

New Review: The Sacrament

2014-05-05T10:36:00.000-05:00

Ti West is an interesting filmmaker. His first real splash came with the release of The House of the Devil, a film that apes the devil/cult thrillers of the late '70s and early '80s to masterful effect, and that movie is widely regarded as one of the great horror releases of the 2000s. With The Innkeepers, West explored the haunted house film and, I believe, succeeded once more. Subsequent viewings have only cemented my earlier impressions of the film as a fine example of the subgenre. There have been missteps, however. From the producer-meddling result of Cabin Fever 2 to his largely dismissed work in V/H/S and The ABCs of Death, West has been consistently producing work that is, at least, noteworthy for the past five years.

His most recent film, The Sacrament, explores another type of horror, eschewing the supernatural terrors of The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers for a tale that is all-too-familiar for those of us born in the early-to-mid-'70s. Using the found-footage style he explored in the anthology films, West attempts to recreate one of the most horrifying real-life stories in a fictional setting. The result is strangely ambiguous.

Our heroes are reporters for the outlet VICE, journalists who practice "subjective honesty" with regard to their subjects. In this case, one of the reporters, Patrick (Kentucker Audley, an incredible name) regales his peers with the story of his sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz, You're Next), a recovering drug addict who has fled the country with a religious group, that could easily be viewed as a cult. Inspired by his story, cameraman Jake (Joe Swanberg, A Horrible Way to Die) and reporter Sam (AJ Bowen, The House of the Devil) organize a visit with Patrick to document the reunion and capture footage of the compound where Caroline resides.

After being met by gunmen, the trio venture through the jungle to a clearing, christened "Eden Parish" by the residents. While the initial impressions are of a commune for the outcasts of society, a sinister cloud gathers as Jake and Sam explore the grounds prior to their meeting with the charismatic and mysterious Father, played with equal parts dread and folksy charm by Gene Jones.

Of course things go wrong, and the film descends into a roller coaster ride of shocks as Father gathers his flock to execute one final act of defiance to the outside world. Along the way, the film suffers from the usual "Why are they filming all of this?" problems most of these films have, leaning on the old chestnut, "We have to let the world know what happened." It's a thin excuse, and many of the later shots bend the logic to the point of breaking, but it's not the most egregious offender of this type of filmmaking.

The biggest problem with the film is a subjective one, and one perhaps elusive to a younger generation. The Sacrament exists in an odd uncanny valley, where the fictional and the real collide in a jarring way. There is no way to view the final act of this film without conjuring tales of Jim Jones and the Guyana tragedy. If you aren't familiar with this bloody historical footnote, perhaps The Sacrament will play better, but I could never shake the feeling that I was watching a very well-done dramatization on one of the murder-porn cable channels. As soon as Father begins his final speech to his congregation, echoes of Jim Jones demand to be considered, and I am unable to discern if West wants the comparison to be so naked, or if he could not tell the true tale of Guyana due to copyright. What remains is a film that feels part documentary, part horror film, and neither component meshes well with the other.

That's not to say the movie isn't compelling. There are thrills to be had here, and even some playfulness with expectations of found-footage films like this one. The performances range from capable to astounding (Jones really is remarkable here), and the few visual effects used in the film are graphic and visceral. The characters, likewise, are relatable and push the story forward in a number of intriguing ways. In particular, the relationship between the estranged Caroline and Patrick results in the most chilling and heartbreaking moment of the movie.

As I reflect on the film, my lingering sense is one of confusion rather than satisfaction. I will be curious to hear West speak about it on the director's commentary, and I dare to repeat that those unfamiliar with Jim Jones and Jonestown may find a new well of terror to draw from. For me, it was a reminder of the real-world horrors we visit on ourselves and how no fiction can surpass the true evil that men do.

New Review: Afflicted

2014-04-15T15:22:00.001-05:00

If there's one thing that can sour me on the very notion of a film these days, it's the descriptor “found footage.” Too often, filmmakers use the found footage tropes to disguise a dearth of creativity or budget, instead shoveling the same old shaky-cam antics down viewers' gullets one more time in the name of horror. Honestly, if I never read a synopsis that contains the phrases “team of investigators,” “asylum,” and “found footage” again, I would count myself lucky. And yet...

And yet the indie horror market continues to provide the exception that proves the point, a film of such vision, originality and passion, it makes the old tropes seem new again and makes for surprising and satisfying viewing. Tired of vampires? Check out Kiss of the Damned. Sick of zombies? Give The Battery a go. Fed up with found footage? Meet Afflicted.

Yes, Afflicted is a found footage film, the primary difference being that this movie looks fantastic. The filmmakers have given the subjects license to use professional equipment and multiple cameras to make for a movie that looks and feels more like standard visual narrative than most films of this type. That's not to say the movie is without the common vocabulary of these films, it just does a little more with it than most.

The story is straightforward and understandable. Derek Lee has learned that a vascular bundle in his brain is poised to debilitate or even kill him at any time. Determined to live despite the threat of death, Derek enlists the aid of his life-long pal, Cliff (Clif Prowse), to aid him in a year-long tour of the world, starting in Europe. Cliff and Derek have dabbled in filmmaking throughout their childhood, and Cliff goes so far as to create a body harness so he can record their adventures hands-free or with multiple cameras.

During a night out with friends in Paris, Derek connects with the seductive Audrey (Baya Rehaz), and it's not long before Derek's drunken friends decide to burst in on the couple, mid-coitus. What they discover, however, is Derek left alone and bleeding in the hotel room with no sign of the Parisian fling. As the trip continues, Derek exhibits symptoms and abilities that both disturb and excite them, but Derek's condition is more terrifying than either may initially suspect.

As Cliff works to aid and understand Derek's sickness, clever use of an overplayed genre convention makes the back half of the movie a thrilling haul through gloriously beautiful locales and upends common assumptions all at once. As their friendship is tested by Derek's deteriorating condition, some of the old found footage tricks are on display, as lights in a dark room will inevitably find a scare at the last possible moment, but this movie is far, far more than a collection of easy jump scares.

The use of the camera harness in the last act makes for some of the most exciting sequences I've seen from this sort of film in some time. Some of you may have seen the superhero/found footager called Chronicle, and Afflicted is cut from the same cloth, unafraid to be both visceral and attractive. There are moments that soar with discovery and others that descend into the depths of horror involving Derek's illness, and both are done with grace.

In short, Afflicted is a confident and exciting entry into the found footage sub-genre that packs some satisfying emotional moments while delivering on the promise of the subject matter. Though some of Derek's motivations in the latter half of the film become muddy, the quick runtime, strong performances from the leads, and a healthy dose of creative license involving a tried-and-true curse set this film high above most found footage exercises. It's not perfect, but it's a great ride.

New Review: The Banshee Chapter

2014-02-10T11:01:00.001-06:00

Much like the zombie sub-genre of horror, I have grown weary of found footage films. I don't discount the possibility of a great found footage movie, after The Battery restored my faith in the possibility of a great indie zombie film, but starting any film in this sub-genre begins with the roll of the eyes and a sigh that accompanies expectations established now in this well-worn category.

The Banshee Chapter begins using these found footage tropes. We see James (Michael McMillian, True Blood), a student researching the series of MK-ULTRA experiments of the 1950s and beyond, who has taken a mysterious substance called DMT, allegedly to replicate the same experiments conducted by the government. When he does, video recorded of him shows strange goings-on and a jump scare and then we are treated to opening credits. So goes the found footage template.

The film expands in scope after this, however, preferring to combine the found footage style with a more cinematic feel, giving The Banshee Chapter a tenuous-at-best categorization of found footage. Instead, it uses some of these familiar jump scare tactics to push along its narrative, as James' friend, Anne (Katia Winter) searches for her lost friend. Along the way, her fate is entangled with that of gonzo novelist Thomas Blackburn (the always-welcome Ted Levine), who is an advocate of all things hallucinatory. When he and a young chemist take the drug, and said chemist goes missing, also, after what appears to be a break-in, they feel the presence of another entity that has seen them through the drug-induced perceptions. Hounded by this malevolent force, they must solve the riddle of the MK-ULTRA experiments, strange radio transmissions, and the fates of their friends.

At its best, The Banshee Chapter taps into Lovecraftian horrors, and the author is, in fact, name-checked by Levine's Hunter S. Thompson-influenced character as he suggests that the DMT taken by test subjects and experimenters turns the brain into a receptor for visions beyond our dimension, which, in turn, allows them to see us. It's familiar territory for Lovecraft readers, or just those who have managed to see the movie From Beyond (and you should!), but Banshee Chapter doesn't quite go far enough down those creepy roads, instead providing an answer to the central mystery of the story which isn't nearly as satisfying as the mystery that's been propelling the story.

Still, The Banshee Chapter does some interesting things with its scares. The use of the so-called "number stations" is a nice touch, and provides a creepy background sound that indicates danger, in much the same way that static alerted a player to danger in the Silent Hill games. There's also a very nice scare related to surveillance cameras that is worth the ride. When the movie goes for it, it manages to build some tension and deliver a few jumps that don't feel cheap.

Katia Winter's Anne is given some much-needed characterization as the film proceeds and we learn that her relationship with James may have leaned more towards romance than friendship, but it doesn't overwhelm the narrative, and that's a good thing, too. Levine's Blackburn is perhaps a bit too on-the-nose with its incorporation of Hunter Thompson's legendary exploits, but Levine appears to be having some fun with the character and is genereally welcome in every scene, especially when the shit goes down and his character offers a completely appropriate response to the situation from hsi point of view.

While this isn't going to make the list of anyone's best movies ever made, it's a solid pick for a genre fan looking for a well-paced and smartly-done horror/conspiracy film. There are a few moments I felt were cheats, and going more into detail on that account would spoil some of the later aspects of the film, but nothing so egregious as to stain the overall fun I had with this one. Don't go in expecting perfection and you'll find more treats than tricks here.

New Review: Cassadaga

2014-02-04T10:59:00.000-06:00

Stop me if you've heard this one before... A deaf art teacher is wrecked by the death of her younger sister and moves to a small town called Cassadaga to deal with her grief. There, she finds a murder mystery involving a young woman who lived in the same guest house in which she now resides, and, following a psychic reading, is haunted by visions supplied by the ghost of the former tenant. What she learns of this serial killer places her in his crosshairs and she must learn his identity before she becomes the next victim.

Cassadaga does not boast the most unique of concepts, and the plot, on its surface, feels like a retread of old giallo films of yesteryear. This film, however, leans into the more supernatural elements of its plot, rather than the more slasher-y turns, depositing Cassadaga more into the 'supernatural thriller' category than in the serial killer genre. It also helps that the movie concentrates very heavily on its characters, especially its lead, Lily (Kelen Coleman), who is given a nicely tragic back story and a reason to root for her survival. Despite the fact that her character is hearing impaired, the script never presents her as hamstrung by her disability, choosing instead to portray a character that is strong and motivated by her grief rather than decimated by it. Sure, director Anthony DiBlasi, who helmed the very good Clive Barker adaptation Dread, doesn't miss an opportunity to use Lily's hearing loss to crank up the tension in a scene or two, but it's not a character defined by this handicap, which was refreshing to see.

Her new paramour Mike (True Blood's Kevin Alejandro) is likewise given some nice character beats as a divorcee struggling to win a custody battle with his ex-wife. While he is, at first, reluctant to accept the supernatural goings-on, when he's presented with tangible proof he is on board to help Lily resolve her terrifying visions. I always respect a movie where a character can change his or her mind in the face of proof, rather than adhering to the old 'doubting Thomas' trope for the duration of the film. A very good scene in which Mike keeps watch as Lily investigates the bedroom of the strange son of her landlady gives us a moment of true thrills as two completely competent characters struggle to find the truth.

In fact, the best part of Cassadaga is that it treats its characters and audience with a degree of respect that is missing from many genre films. And yet... I find I like this movie, but I wanted to like it more. The serial killer in the film, who creates grotesque puppets of his victims, is used as the central mystery of the film, but its not hard to sniff out very quickly who our killer is. There are some bizarre aspects to his kidnapping technique that are not fully explained, beyond the notion that he has some eerie powers like many seem to in this town. Some lip service is given to the high number of psychically active people in Cassadaga, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more attention paid to the killer's apparent psychic ability, which is difficult considering the pains taken to hide his identity.

There are a number of scenes that we've seen done elsewhere, especially in the visions Lily experiences following the oft-sudden appearances of the ghost that haunts her, and Cassadaga feels like a greatest hits of other movies, only with better characterization. It's greatest flaw lies in its familiarity, other than the honest depictions of its characters and their relationships.

I would tentatively recommend the film more for its characters and its solid, though familiar, story than for the horrific aspects of the film. Still, it's well-acted and well-directed, with some tense scenes peppered throughout. I wish it had been braver in some of its story decisions, especially in regard to the killer, but Cassadaga is still a good pick for those viewers who want a little brain with their blood.

New Review: Curse of Chucky

2014-01-31T09:40:00.001-06:00

The Child's Play franchise has never been one of my favorites in the genre. The first film, directed by Fright Night's Tom Holland, was a perfectly serviceable horror film, but the series quickly took a downturn from there. Brad Dourif's performance as the voice of Chucky the killer doll is always solid, in much the same way Robert Englund's efforts as Freddy Krueger are often better than the movies surrounding them. After numerous recommendations from horror fans, I reluctantly turned back to the Child's Play films with the recent release of Curse of Chucky. Despite some script problems, I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The strength of Curse of Chucky is immediately discovered in its characters. From the first scene, we're introduced to Nica (Fiona Dourif), a paraplegic young woman who lives in a large house with her troubled mother. Over protective to a fault, Nica's mother, Sarah (Chantal Quesnelle), is surprised to be the recipient of a Good Guy doll from an unknown sender. She trashes the doll, but ends up dead later that night, the victim of an apparent suicide. Nica's sister, Barb (Danielle Bisutti), and her family descend on the house, along with Father Frank (A Martinez). Also in tow are Barb's husband, Ian (Brennan Elliot), and an attractive young nanny, Jill (Maitland McConnell), and there appears to be a bit of a spark between husband and nanny. It becomes all-too-apparent that Barb, under money strains, wants to sell the family home and send Nica to an assisted living facility. Nica resists, assuring her family she can survive on her own despite her disability. She also gifts the Good Guy doll to her young niece, Alice (Summer Howell), who shares a strong relationship with her aunt.

The majority of the action in the film takes place in a single night, as Chucky reveals himself to young Alice and goes about the business of dispatching the other family members so he can hijack Alice's body as a repository for his doll-bound soul. In typical horror-movie fashion, the night is a dark and stormy one, with frequent timely power outages and phone failures, but those contrivances serve to build tension in a fun way, despite their familiarity.

Writer and director Don Mancini, who wrote the original Child's Play, as well as the other films in the franchise, helms this effort as he did with Seed of Chucky, and he has a nice visual eye and sense of pacing. He clearly enjoys the use of reflection and background action, even going so far as to ape a moment from Carpenter's Halloween to great effect. The film looks clean, and has a real sense of atmosphere thanks to some great lighting and angles. It doesn't hurt, either, that the production design is rock solid, all contributing to make this setting a spooky old house worth remembering.

Also, Chucky is big in this movie, almost as tall as Alice herself. One of my greatest complaints with killer doll movies is the fact that these are, in essence, small things that you could hold at arm's length like Moe from the Three Stooges. This one, though, is well-articulated thanks to some great forced perspective shooting and fantastic mechanical effects, and comes off as being threatening and a real danger. Couple that with Brad Dourif's performance as the killer Charles Lee Ray in doll form, and you have yourself an honest-to-goodness scary doll. For the first time in this series, I found the notion of Chucky to be a frightening one.

The script, sadly, is a bit of a mixed bag. While the characters are well-defined, and well-acted, too, Mancini raises some issues that never see much resolution. As if to thumb the eye of Ibsen, the nanny, Jill, displays aptitude in opening a locked bathroom door that doesn't matter anywhere else in the film, and there's little exploration of A Martinez's Father Frank and Nica's resistance to religion, except to create an excuse for an early kill. And yet, there are also some nice turns, and one moment that defies audience's expectations of the nanny character in a wonderful way. I wish another pass had been given to the script to tighten up some of the loose ends, but it's not a travesty by any stretch of the imagination.

The biggest sin the script commits, though, is Chucky's plan. His aim, apparently, is to steal Alice's body away from her. It begs the question, however, how does he know of the existence of Alice? There is explanation of his relationship with this family, which is perfectly satisfactory, but his plot to kill Sarah in hopes of drawing the family back to this house, along with a child he couldn't possibly be aware of, is a fairly shoddy evil plot for this villain. When the third act info-dump comes, one expects Mancini would have accounted for this fairly basic question.

Still, the movie operates at its base level as a thrill ride, and it's very successful at what it aims to do. I was actively rooting for Nica to survive and Chucky proves a worthy adversary to Nica and her family in this film. The resolution of her character is surprisingly dark, but in a way that makes sense for the characters and the tone of the film. The last moments suggest a relationship to the previous films, one of which I haven't seen, so I'll forgive the abruptness of its arrival as a nod to fans of the franchise and resist too much red-pen criticism of these final images, suffice to say it seems like the end of this movie should have been the real beginning, in terms of Chucky achieving his goal.

With all its flaws, Curse of Chucky is the best of the series since the original film and may, in fact, be better than that 1980s favorite. If you're looking for a put-logic-on-hold-and-eat-some-popcorn scary movie, this one fits the bill nicely and has me excited to see what Mancini brings to the table in the next entry into the franchise. And that may be the best praise of all.

New Review: Bio-Slime

2014-01-29T10:35:00.001-06:00

If a movie like The Battery has taught me nothing else, it's that low-budget filmmaking, even micro-budget filmmaking, can be glorious. It can also be a quagmire that sucks you into its murky embrace until no light remains. Somewhere in between Bio-Slime lies.

The set-up is pretty standard fare. Some ne'er-do-wells inhabiting a rundown building find themselves besieged by a slime creature that may or may not be some sort of biological experiment conducted by the government. Among them are the alcoholic artist Troy (Vinnie Bilancio), actresses from the porn movie shooting upstairs, Mary (Victoria De Mare) and Annie (Gia Paloma), Troy's buddy Hal (Ronnie Lewis), drug entrepreneur Jack (Magic J. Ellingson), mail-order bride Constanza (Micol Bartolucci) and runaway abused girlfriend Shannon (Kelli Kaye). The movie does a good job with creating a fun bunch to bounce off one another when the slime goes down, which, to Bio-Slime's credit, happens fairly quickly.

Essentially, Troy opens a briefcase stolen from a lab somewhere that has made its way into his building, thanks to a theft gone bad, and some of the titular bio-slime escapes, though it doesn't have a taste for Troy because of his booze-infused blood. This would be more clever if I hadn't seen the far-superior Grabbers before seeing this movie, but it still works well enough.

A bunch of people get slimed and consumed by the growing, oozy presence in the building, and I was honestly surprised by how good some of the effects work in this movie turned out. The dripping, whipping tentacles, the slime crawling up the walls, it all looks fairly convincing. Writer-director John Lechago is clearly inspired by Carpenter's The Thing, even paraphrasing one of that films best moments, but I find that begging a comparison to that classic is a losing battle. It really only serves to remind how much more I would have preferred to have been watching that film.

As with any affair of this budget, the acting can be dodgy, and Vinnie Bilancio in the lead is a tough sell as an actor, but I've seen far worse. The big problem is dialog that disposes of characters very quickly and doesn't bother to paint much of a picture of them beyond the frames of the film. The characters say and do the things the movie needs them to say and do, but there's not much life in these roles. I suppose that's not the point of a movie like this, but it would have made for a more interesting watch, to be sure. Also, the behavior of the characters in the last act is head-scratchingly stupid, tossing around some loose science and making the characters engage in behavior that is simultaneously trite and thick-headed.

While most of the slime effects are good, and one bisection of a slime-infected victim is particularly impressive, there are some dodgy computer effects and the lighting throughout is pretty bad, overblown and not timed down. It gives the movie a cheap look throughout that a better camera might have resolved, or, perhaps, simply better timing in post.

Between the spotty acting, choppy editing and amateurish camera work, it's hard to recommend a film like Bio-Slime. And yet, the heart is in the right place on this one. It's a tough sit in places, and the resolution is, frankly, very dumb, but if you're a body horror fan like myself, it does manage to scratch that itch, but that's damning the movie with faint praise. If you want to see something better, and I do recommend that, check out The Fly from Cronenberg's oeuvre, or even the movie Bio-Slime most wants to be when it grows up, The Thing.

New Review: Hell Baby

2014-01-28T10:29:00.000-06:00

I am, admittedly, partial to the comedy of Tom Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, writers and directors of Hell Baby. I like absurdist comedy and their work on Reno: 911! was an often-hysterical send-up of Cops. They've made quite a career of doing films for, I would expect, a great deal of money. Movies like A Night at the Smithsonian and The Pacifier, which are done more for career reasons than for the love of the game. That's why Hell Baby was such an anticipated viewing for me. I wanted to see these guys and their friends do a horror spoof without the expectation of a family-oriented script. Despite some nice moments, though, I walked away disappointed.

Jack (The Daily Show's Rob Corddry) and his pregnant wife, Vanessa (Leslie Bibb), move into an old home, referred to as "The House of Blood" by the locals, including squatter F'resnel (Keegan-Michael Key), whose name is pronounced just as it's spelled, i.e., Frah-nell. F'resnel informs the new tenants that the house hasn't seen a murder in two, two and a half months, so they should be fine in their new home. Very quickly, boxes begin stacking themselves and Vanessa begins to exhibit behavior that points to a possession by the house's spirits.

The best parts of the film come with the arrival of exorcists Father Sebastien (Rober Ben Garant) and Father Padrigo (Thomas Lennon), perpetually smoking their way through the movie to exorcise the house of its demons. Along for the ride is Riki Lindhome as Vanessa's hippy-dippy (and sexually liberated) sister Marjorie and Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel as two cops bumbling their way to danger in the house.

As parodies go, it's not the worst, and there are some genuinely big laughs in the movie. Key is very funny as the oft-appearing neighbor, who, it seems, actually lives in the basement, and Lennon and Garant shine in their roles, clearly written for themselves. Sadly, some of the running gags wear thin too quickly and there are more thuds than bursts when the jokes land. Often, the movie feels like a collection of sketched-out, largely-improvised scenes that never quite catch fire. While something like the trip to town in Wet, Hot American Summer plays great because of its ridiculousness, the repetition of characters eating po' boys from a local diner doesn't generate a lot of laughs, despite the screen time spent on them.

The devil baby, when it finally makes its appearance, is a pretty good effect, but the ending is abrupt and not very funny, save one line from Garant that's a real, darkly comic gut laugh. There's comedic talent to spare in the movie, which makes the sparsity of laughs a real shame here. Still, if you enjoy Lennon and Garant, you'll get some chuckles, though not as many as one might expect from this duo. If you're looking for a sharp skewering of films like Rosemary's Baby on the other hand, it's a misfire. Check out the supremely funny Reno:911!: Miami instead.

Free Stuff!

2014-01-27T10:59:00.000-06:00

So, I do a couple of podcasts, as many of you know. Devour the Podcast is the one I've been with the longest, and those of you who have followed this blog remember Jamie and I doing one for the site, and you can find us both there now.

Additionally, I appear on Graveshift Radio with Ryan and John, which has produced some pretty hilarious discussions. I encourage you to give it a listen, and you can find the episodes from the Facebook page.

But what about the free stuff, you ask? Well, Rhetorical Device, just leave us a post telling us your favorite Frankenstein film and why (that's important), and you could win a Blu-ray copy of Frankenstein Created Woman, as well as a poster for the movie! So, hop on over, leave us a message and, hopefully, give the show a listen. We're going through all the Hellraiser movies now, so, you know, a lot of those are terrible, and that produces some comedy.

New Review: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

2014-01-06T12:27:00.002-06:00

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones is the fifth film in the franchise that began in 2007. The original Paranormal Activity was ground-breaking for Hollywood in that a) it was cheap, and b) it made a bazillion dollars. I would contend the first, at the time of its release, was a genuinely frightening film that did the job of making people jump out of their skins in a darkened theater or on their sofas with an inspired glee. Is it the greatest horror film of all time? Certainly not. But it does get under the skin and create some wonderfully harrowing moments. The franchise has faltered in recent years, doing little to extend the mythology of the story and generally repeating what worked about the first film until not even the first one works the way it once did. Enter The Marked Ones...

I'll get this out of the way right off the bat. This ain't your daddy's Paranormal Activity. Rather than limit itself to a single location, such as the house from the first couple of these movies, it moves around in a Latino neighborhood in California. From the apartment of Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), our lead, to the streets of his neighborhood to a downstairs apartment where a bruja is rumored to live... there are more settings and a sense of scale which separates this from its predecessors. In the process, the claustrophobic feel of the first film is lost, but that's okay. We've seen the security-cameras-around-the-house bit enough for a while, and Marked Ones wisely chooses to follow our characters around with a handheld camera wielded by Jesse's buddy Hector (Jorge Diaz) and a GoPro used for surreptitious spying. It doesn't quite shake the 'Why doesn't someone put down the camera and just run?!' problem all of these found footage films suffer from, but at least it has some variety.

The Marked Ones contributes to the mythology of the series in some interesting ways, giving a real reason for the events of the movies that precede it in relatively logical ways, though I won't venture into spoilers here. What I will say is that the movie eschews scares for plot, and that's not a bad thing. Sure, there are plenty of jump scares built into the film, but it's far more concerned with establishing its characters and taking them through the story of Jacob's possession and the reasons behind it. Marked Ones also boasts some real laughs, making it the most well-rounded film of the franchise. It moves and feels like a narrative film, rather than a series of gags like most of the entries.

It's not all rosy, however. There are some loose threads involving a girl who knows an awful lot about the doings of the witches and the titular 'marked ones' who populate these films without an explanation of just how she knows these things, though that may be a nod to the upcoming Paranormal Activity 5. The end, too, descends into a familiar sequence where our heroes must rescue Jacob from a house of horrors and this scene, more than any other, feels like some plain old Paranormal Activity hijinks. The use of weaponry is introduced in a wonderfully absurd way, but that fun is quickly lost when we move into the house.

Still, this movie is pretty good, and, while not as scary as the first film, has some moves that previous sequels were unwilling to make. It feels bigger, which is just what this franchise needs if it is to continue in a viable way. The Marked Ones does presuppose a working knowledge of the series thus far, so may not be the best point of entry into the franchise, but some nods to the original make it tie neatly into the series as a whole. If you liked the first couple of these movies, I can easily recommend The Marked Ones to you. If you didn't see or didn't care for the earlier films, give it a shot when it hits video, just to see what can happen when a franchise is knowing enough to see the rut it has found itself in and dares to to climb out.

Raising the Dead... Some Thoughts on Novel vs. Screen

2013-12-23T16:27:00.000-06:00

Good guys Corey and Eric asked me to do a piece on their blog, which you should follow and support, and so I did. Here's the link: http://writemaniacswrite.com/weblog/raising-the-dead

Also, they wrote a little movie called Die, Maniacs, Die! that sits at the top of my list of favorite horror films that are woefully unproduced. Keep up with all their work here: http://writemaniacswrite.com/weblog/

New Review: Aftershock

2013-12-20T14:36:00.000-06:00

Eli Roth has done one film I am quite fond of (Hostel) and another that I think was an interesting and occasionally effective first salvo into the world of horror (Cabin Fever). Though he did not direct Aftershock, he served as co-writer and producer, as well as one of the film's stars. He cannot distance himself from this, so closely tied is he to the production. Thus, I blame him for this travesty of a film, a bro-injected piece of trash that can scarcely be called a movie. It's as if, rather than be carried through a narrative by sight and sound, this film was told to me second-hand by a five-year-old. The number of “and then”s that occur for no good goddamn reason... But, I get ahead of myself. I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the plot synopsis of Aftershock:

Eli Roth, known as “Gringo,” is touring Chile with Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolas Martinez), on the hunt for, apparently, a young girl for him to have sex on top of. Despite the fact that he is clearly in his mid- to late-thirties, his pals are assisting him in finding a barely-legal model on vacation to perform sex acts with. They target potential partners for each of them with Monica (Andrea Osvart), and models Irina (Natasha Yarovenko) and Kylie (Lorenza Izzo), and there's a bit of business about sisters Monica and Irina feuding. Something about Irina using drugs and Monica living in India... ah, who the hell cares?

While at a club, an earthquake strikes, killing a bunch of partiers and sending our heroes, for lack of a better term, into the streets to escape further injury and seek higher ground after an air raid siren warns of an impending tsunami. The more immediate danger is presented in the form of roving hooligans - prisoners, we learn, who have escaped after the earthquake breached the prison's walls. Fortunately, all the escapees had time to change into something more casual than a prison jumpsuit, and they loot and pillage and, ultimately, kill Eli Roth, which made me happy given how annoying and lecherous he is in this film.

SPOILERS BELOW FOR A FILM YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER SEE!

The last act of the film is essentially a chase film as the survivors try to escape their pursuers and get to safety before the tsunami strikes, which sounds more interesting than it is. Some tunnels beneath the city figure in and we get a completely stupid reveal that the strange firefighter that's tagging along is – ohmahgerd! - a killer! Monica, our last survivor, manages to kill the antagonist we've been aware of for all of twenty minutes and then escape to the beach, just in time for a big-ass tsunami to hit and, it's suggested, kill our heroine.

END SPOILERS FOR A FILM YOU SHOULD NEVER, EVER SEE!

So, you say, that doesn't sound so terrible. It might be fun. Well, Rhetorical Device, let me deflate your optimism. This movie feels like a bunch of ideas that sounded great on paper, such as a killer stalking survivors in the chaos created by a natural disaster, but what I have presented is far more cogent and satisfying an idea than the depiction of such a thing in this film. Too much time is spent with characters you couldn't find a fuck to give about, even if you scoured your cushions and moved the furniture, all in pursuit of the almighty 'getting laid.' That works when the characters are college students or high-schoolers whose hormones lead them into stupidity, but Eli Roth's character is a grown man. Did I mention he has a kid? He has a child back in America who, one assumes, looks up to him and loves him and needs guidance and a moral compass. “Gringo” is a swinging-dick American who is shudderingly into a girl almost young enough to be his daughter. It's gross.

Also, the roving bands of prisoners that make up the villains of the second half of the film are paper-thin stereotypes of 'bad guys,' who steal stuff and hurt people and what not. Worse, there is a scene which depicts the rape of one of our protagonists. No, not Eli Roth, one of the too-young models. For a movie that absolutely loves ogling its attractive cast, presenting them in bikinis and cutaway dresses to show as much flesh as possible, making the rapist/escaped prisoner the epitome of evil by violating one of these girls is not only unearned depiction of the violence and horror of rape, it's hypocritical in a way the filmmakers don't seem to understand. Note to future filmmakers: you cannot spend the bulk of your film depicting every female character as a sexual object with little more going for them than their aesthetic beauty, then expect your audience to be horrified when one of them is sexually abused. You, the filmmaker, are doing what your on-screen rapist is doing already, only with a camera.

And, normally, I love an ending that goes from bleak to bleaker, but the last 'action' sequence of this film is so jarringly stupid, then capped by something that is, once again, unearned, it actually made me angry. If you have a character you put through hell that the audience likes or can identify with, or, best case, both, then pull the rug out from under them in the last moments (much like Ash's escape from the cabin in Evil Dead, only to be chased down by some invisible demon), it can make your film memorable. If we don't relate or care about the character, it's just more stuff that happens.

And so, we come to the overarching problem of this film... characters you don't care about suffering through one minor crisis after another until things just end. This is a juvenile, misogynistic attempt at filmmaking and the writers and producers should all feel bad about themselves.

Lazarus Lives!

2013-12-19T13:18:00.000-06:00

Happy to say, Book Two of Lazarus and the Wife Who Came Back is now live on Amazon. If you haven't read the first part, you can pick that up here for $.99. A dollar for a whole bunch of awesome, you ask? Why, yes, Rhetorical Device! Enjoy!

New Review: The Purge

2013-12-19T13:08:00.001-06:00

Ethan Hawke appears to have resurrected his career with genre films. With Sinister, Daybreakers and this film, The Purge, it's clear this guy knows how to cash a paycheck. Sure, he can do more prestigious work like Before Midnight, but he seems cool with doing the odd horror flick for a few bucks. I wouldn't presume to say whether or not he is a fan of the genre, but he does turn in a performance in these films, not merely content with phoning it in. For that, I commend him. It would be nice, though, if he did work that was worthy of his not-insignificant talents.

The Purge has a fairly interesting premise. In the not-too-distant future, a new government has arisen which sanctions a single night a year, the titular Purge, upon which murder is completely legal. As a result, crime has fallen significantly and society has become a near-oligarchy, where the "new founding fathers" are treated with reverential awe. The downside of this Purge? Turns out, most of the murderizing is done by wealthy people who inexplicably hunt down the poor and homeless to fulfill their violent urges.

Ethan Hawke plays James Sandin, who is the top seller of security systems for the well-to-do to shield them from the anarchy outside during the Purge. When seven o'clock rolls around, he locks his wife, Mary (Lena Headey), his son, Charlie (Max Burkholder) and daughter, Zoey (Adelaide Kane), safely away from the violence with one of his comapny's security systems. Unfortunately, that scamp Charlie offers safe harbor to a homeless guy seen on their front lawn running from a group of ruffians who have all seen The Strangers way too many times. This role is credited as "Bloody Stranger" because, I suppose, "Homeless Guy" sounded insensitive.

Regardless, the not-Strangers show up on the Sandins' doorstep demanding to be given the stranger or they will force themselves inside to kill everyone. Bad luck for the family, as the Stranger has hidden himself away somewhere inside the house and time is ticking.

There are plenty of interesting ideas suggested in this film: the notion of the inhumanity created by distancing oneself from the weak or poor, the suffering hidden on America's streets away from the eyes of mainstream media, the illusion of safety penetrated by the chaos of life.. Sadly, this movie brings all of these issues up but ultimately doesn't know what to do with them. We understand that the Bloody Stranger is a veteran, but only because of the dogtags on his neck. While the movie attempts to humanize this character, no effort is given to showing him as more than a two-dimensional stand-in for "the poors."

Look, I get class warfare. Frankly, I'm all for it. And I understand that this movie is straining to make a metaphor of this Purge night, it just happens to do so in an incredibly clumsy fashion. Ethan Hawke and Lena Headey both give strong performances, but the film wraps up in a scene so ridiculous, it almost negates the point of the film as a whole, if, indeed, you can find one consistent theme throughout. The denouement is overly convenient and, worse, laughable. There is an opportunity to make a point about the nature of human violence, that it may not be governed by a law or curfew, but, instead, the movie shrugs its shoulders and wraps up.

This isn't a staggeringly terrible film, and, in fact, the scenes where chaos reigns are solid and thrilling. But The Purge wants to be all things - sharp criticism of American politics, slasher movie, examination of class separation - but does none of them with great success. The end result is a reasonably engaging watch, but it feels like empty calories. If you want to see a real dystopia, check out the more effective Escape from New York, instead.

New Review: I Spit on Your Grave 2 (2013)

2013-10-27T10:14:00.001-05:00

Steven R. Munroe, the same man who brought you Mongolian Death Worm and Ice Twisters, has found some inspiration in the abuse of women. With 2010’s remake of I Spit on Your Grave, Munroe presented a fairly faithful adaptation of the 1978 film, though many of you may recall I took issue with some of his decisions to linger on the abuse and revenge aspects of the film. Obviously, these must be components of what is a revenge story, but Munroe’s camera seemed to linger a few seconds too long, to delight in seeing what makes the subject matter so terrible, though not unworthy of portrayal.

With 2013’s I Spit on Your Grave 2, Munroe grinds out another tale of a woman subjugated and terrorized by the brutality of men. In this case, Katie (Jemma Dallender) is a would-be fashion model who makes the mistake of contacting a sketchy business that promises free photographs. When the three brothers who run the shady enterprise suggest Katie get nude for more risqué shots that could entice employers, she rightly tells them to screw and leaves.

The creepy youngest brother, Georgy (Yavor Baharov), shows up late one night, taking pictures of her with his phone while she sleeps. When she wakes and flips out over the home invasion, Georgy takes it upon himself to murder a potential rescuer who storms into her apartment, then sexually assaults Katie. When Georgy realizes the weight of his actions, he calls his brother, Ivan (Joe Absolom), who arranges, with the other brother, Nicolay (Aleksandar Aleksiev), to dispose of the dead body and erase Katie from the equation. Katie is drugged, placed in a box, and awakes in the basement of a run-down house where she is again sexually assaulted, then urinated on. When she attempts to escape, discovering she has been taken to Bulgaria, she finds herself brought back for more abuse, including the application of a cattle prod to her genitals.

I highlight this level of abuse only to say it is presented in an unflinching and extended manner. Where the remake of I Spit on Your Grave may have lingered a moment too long for my tastes, this film absolutely revels in the filth of Katie’s abuse. At a certain point the horrors of her assaults move past the presentation of abuse in a necessary way to lingering, a voyeuristic peek into the worst things I can imagine happening to a woman. When she is finally placed in a box and buried in this same basement, it’s almost a relief to the viewer that the ritual desecration of this woman is over. Also, this abuse runs for much longer than the remake, and the “revenge” portion of this revenge thriller doesn’t begin until late in the film’s runtime.

Obviously, Katie must escape and exact her revenge on the men who have wronged her and it plays out pretty much like you would expect. Of some note is the fact that her base of operations is the tunnel system that runs under the city, and I couldn’t help but think that she has become a bit of a mole person for the sake of the film, rather than doing the natural thing – getting to the United States embassy and getting the hell out of the country. Instead, she gets each of the men alone and whispers to them the awful things they said to her during her abuse before she kills them. There’s nothing surprising about any of this as it follows the natural progression of the punishment fitting the crime for these miscreants. Jemma Dallender is a very attractive actress who is really (I hate to say it) at her best in the scenes of abuse. When she begins to bring her wrath to bear, her limited range as an actress is revealed, though most of the other performances are fine.

I am not one who is made queasy by the extreme aspects of horror. I think both A Serbian Film and Martyrs are excellent examples of the fringes of human behavior used in effective ways to make a larger point. This movie seems intended for adolescent male demeanors that delight in seeing the abuse of a female character, somewhat justified by the attackers’ comeuppance, but that feels like a cheat. As I’ve stated before, horror must shed this view of women as targets of needless abuse if it’s to evolve beyond the more prurient baseline criticisms of the genre. To focus an entire film on the sexual and physical humiliation of a woman is fine, so long as there is some payoff, some larger goal in illuminating an aspect of the human condition. It’s not enough that the villains of I Spit on Your Grave 2 “get theirs” in the end. That’s only the natural, and lazy, resolution to a film that spends far too much time cataloguing horrible ways in which a human being can be mistreated. There is no grander theme in this film, and that lessens not only this movie, but the genre we hold dear.

There are those for whom this type of violence is enough for its own sake, and they will enjoy seeing a young actress pretend-raped for forty minutes or so, then enjoy the effects work (which is just this side of rinky-dink) while the “heroine” tortures her captors right back. To those I say, please keep your enjoyment of this kind of film under wraps. Some of us are aiming higher.

Kickstart Something Scary

2013-10-24T13:46:00.001-05:00

You know what's awesome? The Stuart Gordon/Jeffrey Combs films. So, what if there was a project that you could help fund that would reunite these two for a movie about Edgar Allen Poe? Well, nameless internet denizen, there is! Click here to get all the details, as well as score some pretty great incentives for funding the project.

New Review: Carrie (2013)

2013-10-19T08:18:00.003-05:00

Kimberly Peirce, the director of some truly fine films like Boys Don't Cry and Stop-Loss, has some pretty big shoes to fill when it comes to remaking Carrie, the first of Stephen King's published novels. Brian De Palma crafted what has become a modern masterpiece of horror, using his now-trademark split screens and soft focus to examine the harshness of femininity and man's discomfort with it, as well as tell the story of Carrie White, the long-suffering victim of both her mother and her classmates. Such a shadow to work under must have been difficult for Peirce, and one wonders if, ultimately, it did not paralyze her creatively.

It is unavoidable to compare this film to the 1976 version, mostly because it's built on the same script, with some variation. In both films, Lawrence D. Cohen is credited, only this time the name Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is added, filling in a few minor gaps in logic in the original film. One addition is the first scene of the film, in which we see Margaret White (Jullianne Moore) deliver her unwanted child into the world, tempted to kill her with a pair of scissors from jump. From there, it's pretty much the De Palma, film, with a few a touches intended to show the depths of Margaret White's quiet insanity.

Carrie White, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, is the brunt of social scorn and ridicule. We do get the shower scene (although stripped of De Palma's in-your-face sexuality) and the chant of "plug it up!" with the nice added touch of inserting social media into the film, as the whole incident of the girls throwing tampons at Carrie is recorded on Chris Hargensen's (Portia Doubleday) cell phone, too. Otherwise, the scene plays out almost shot-for-shot as the original.

In fact, my largest issue with the film is how reverent it is toward De Palma's movie. Much of the dialog is identical, as are some of the shot choices. There are minor tweaks to the character motivations, which are all fine and make perfect sense, but something is lost in this reinterpretation. Peirce is a fine director, but she limits herself to a more workman-like effort behind the lens, content to capture Moore and Moretz as they offer up some great performances, but never coloring outside the lines. When the shit goes down and Carrie lets loose at the prom after the bucket of pig blood spills onto her, the only thing Peirce didn't ape from the original was the split-screen effect that made the prom scene so memorable and terrifying.

That's not to say this is a bad movie, not at all. The script is as solid as it was 37 years ago, and the new flavoring from Aguirre-Sacasa does nothing to diminish it. Moore and Moretz are both astounding in this movie, and they anchor an otherwise by-the-numbers approach to the material. Moore, in particular, finds a quietude to Margaret White, and her portrayal of a deeply disturbed parent is really something to watch. Unlike the histrionics of Piper Laurie from the '76 version, she comes across as believable and masochistic, rather than larger-than-life.

The film will ultimately rest on the shoulders of Chloe Grace Moretz, though. She has a small burden to bear, in that she's a very pretty young woman. She manages to transform herself through body language and reactions into a skittish and mistrustful Carrie White, who has been down so long, it looks like up to her. When she gets all telekinetic, she finds a ballet with her hands to indicate the use of her powers, and that works very well. Her scenes with Moore are wonderfully entertaining, and watching one actor at the height of her abilities and another young actor with a load of promise go toe-to-toe is a treat for the audience. Still, I miss the vulnerability that Sissy Spacek brought to the role, and I think she makes the definitive cinematic Carrie White.

The rest of the cast is solid, if unremarkable. Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell is almost impossibly attractive, and her performance is fine, if not particularly nuanced like that of Amy Irving's. Judy Greer takes on the role of the good witch of the gym in Coach Desjardin, and she's honest and conflicted in the part, though much of that is due to some nice writing from Cohen.

At its heart, this is a remake in the strictest sense, whole scenes that appear in the '76 film appearing here, only with different performers saying the lines. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is an unfortunate thing. Peirce does make comment on the state of bullying and the potential of violence earned by abuse, and you could substitute Carrie White mowing down her classmates with an AK-47 after bearing their scorn for the telekinesis and not much about the tone and performance would change. That sort of examination is not new, nor is it as daring as De Palma's film, another point of comparison where this remake feels unnecessary.

My greatest complaint with the film is that it should have been more its own experience. Having so recently seen the De Palma film, I was looking forward to seeing a new take on the material from a decidedly feminist director, but all I got was the original with some new scenes and a lack of bravery. Though the two central performances are certainly worth watching, not much else recommends the film as a must-see viewing experience, especially if you hold the De Palma film dear to you. If you've never seen Carrie before in any version, there's no reason not to start with this one, and the clothing, music and references will seem more of this time (though give it 30 years, and this is going to seem very dated, too). If you love De Palma's Carrie, but like the idea of swapping Moore and Moretz into it, this is the movie you've been waiting for. Just don't expect the same levels of subtext and craftsmanship and, yes, sheer balls from it and you'll be fine.

New Review: Fright Night 2 (2013)

2013-10-17T09:47:00.003-05:00

When it comes to sequels, no prospect may be more treacherous than the direct-to-video sequel to a remake. Let's face it, you have to do something on the (relative) cheap that speaks to what the remake has done differently from the source material, and, as all good sequels must, build the mythology and give things a new spin. Or, you could do what Fright Night 2 does, which is to do yet another remake of the source material, one that is strangely closer to the original film than the remake you are, in theory, a sequel to. Oh, jeez, my head's starting to hurt. Let's just get into this thing.

Charlie Brewster (Will Payne) and his friend "Evil" Ed (Chris Waller) are studying abroad in Romania. Charlie is on the outs with his girlfriend, Amy (Sacha Parkinson), who saw him kissing another girl (or something). Charlie tries to woo her with chocolates (seriously, does that work on anyone since the age of Reparations?), but she's having none of it, which is completely understandable given Charlie's emo hair.

Charlie catches a glimpse of his architecture professor, Gerri Dandridge (Jaime Murray), who strangely teaches a night class, making with the freak-freak with a woman through the window of her apartment. Another occasion of his sexy professor gettin' it on with a classmate leads him to believe something is seriously up with the professor, especially after he sees her leap from her apartment window with a classmate-sized grabage bag tossed over her shoulder.

After a little reconnaissance in Gerri's apartment, Charlie is convinced that the comely professor is actually a lady vampire, what with the bathing in blood and coffin and what not. So, he and his pal, Evil, attempt to convince reality-show host Peter Vincent (Sean Power), that his television search for monsters makes him the perfect candidate for putting an end to Dandridge, who is, it turns out, the actual Countess Bathory. An animated comic book fill sin more of her legend, which is pretty much what you'd expect: "Vampire, blah blah blah, needs the blood of a virgin born on the second Tuesday following St. Swithin's Day, blah blah blah." Fortunately for Dandridge, Amy happens to have been born under said sign, so she chases down Charlie and his pals to retrieve the virginal Amy and use her in a ritual to make her immune to sunlight. Or whatever.

As a fan of both the original Tom Holland film, and a supporter of the remake, which I found to be quite fun, if uneven, Fright Night 2 is almost head-scratching in its insistence to tell the same story again, but with slightly altered details and setting, and the gender swap of the vampire. That said, it ain't all bad.

Jaime Murray as Gerri Dandridge/Countess Bathory is sexy and sinister and chews the scenery with relish. The opening scene of the film contains a fun gag involving a victim and a vampire's inability to appear on camera, and I liked the scene where Char

lie steals into Dandridge's lair to witness an old-fashioned blood-draining quite a bit. Unfortunately, the film also suffers from dropped plot-thread disease. There's much made of Amy and Charlie's feud, but it's lost until they make kissy-face at the end, and I was never entirely clear on how the ritual needed by Dandridge to walk in daylight was to be performed, as it seemed so convoluted to be nearly impossible to ever perform.

The worst offenses come from Waller's portrayal of "Evil" Ed, which is so irritating and over-the-top, it makes Stephen Geoffreys' performance seem downright subdued. The finale of the film is filled with a lot of vampires growling and hissing at one another to the point it becomes ridiculous, and the eponymous line, "Welcome to Fright Night. For real." is so misused here, it should come with a fine.

Still, if you like vampire flicks, this isn't the worst by a long shot, and if you turn off your brain to ignore the gaping plot holes and leaps of logic, it can be sporadically quite fun. At the very least, it doesn't squat over the franchise and leave a bloody pile of offal on the memories of the previous films. And, it's probably better than the original Fright Night 2 (1988), of which the less is said, the better.

New Review: Wither

2013-08-29T09:41:00.000-05:00

When one goes plumbing the depths of indie cinema for a good horror film, one is immediately prepared to be forgiving, I find. By eschewing the bigger budget horror, filmmakers are given the freedom to explore the more extreme visions, to let the gore flow, to allow taboos to be shattered. Or, at least, this is what one hopes. We go into these dark corners of cinema, prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. Somewhere in the middle lies a film like Wither, a Swedish take on the aggressive possessions of The Evil Dead.

To say that Wither is a Swedish version of The Evil Dead is to diminish how similar the two films are. In both, a group of young adults travel to an abandoned cabin for a vacation. In the case of Wither, there are more of them, to the tune of seven, as well as a creepy guy with a rifle skulking around the forest. Also unlike The Evil Dead, there is no Necronomicon to be read aloud, or tapes to discover. Instead, the somewhat reserved Marie (Jessica Blomkvist) ventures first into the cabin to scare the rest, at the behest of Markus (Max Wallmo), and finds herself face to face with a mythical Swedish beastie that steals her soul and replaces it with something else, something evil and violent.

Happy couple Ida (Lisa Henni) and Albin (Patrik Almqvist) lead the group to the cabin, and their relationship is warm and genuine. Ida’s friend Linnea (Amanda Renberg) is hot for Ida’s brother, Simon (Patrick Saxe), who steals away to get goth-busy with Tove (Anna Henriksson), at least until the possessed Marie shows up to chew off Tove’s upper lip. From there, the notion of transmission by bite or blood is forwarded and the residents of the cabin find themselves bitten by, spit at or vomited on by their possessed friends. It’s a typical set-up, but I’m surprised, actually, that fewer films rip off The Evil Dead so directly. It’s a good formula for a horror film, and a talented writer and director could do a spin on the recipe that would make the idea fresh again.

Unfortunately, Wither is not that movie. While watching the film, I found myself wrestling with my evaluation of it, one minute bored and wanting the film to get off its ass and do something already, the next appreciating the commitment to going all-out on the blood and bile, the next shaking my head at a particularly bad bit of camera work. It’s frustrating because there are certainly things to like about the film, and there’s a spirit of fun and frenzy in some moments, but it cannot quite sustain its momentum.

None of this is aided by the cameras themselves. This looks so entirely digital that it truly distracted me from the movie in several moments. Seeing this on film would make this a more enjoyable experience, but even this would not change the awkward camera work that is, no doubt, intended to mimic Raimi’s left-of-center camera work from the original The Evil Dead, but, as the old jazz player said, it’s not enough to play the notes, you have to know why you’re playing them. Wither feels like a horror movie made by people who like horror movies, but don’t love them.

The cast is average, although lovely to look at, and some of them make good demons, but there are an equal number of scenes in which the performances are stiff or too emotive. And the possessed themselves are a bit two-faced, one moment in near catatonia, the next lumbering zombie-like towards a potential victim. There’s a little Romero zombie in these possessed characters, as well as some desire to replicate through violent means, but it is never truly clear what their intention is. The fact that they speak very little is a detriment, I find, given the intense creepiness of the “We’re gonna get you”s from the source material.

There is a difference between cheap and amateur. Too often, Wither falls on the amateur side of things, which is a real shame. The heart is in the right place in this one, and I’d be curious to see what directors Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wiklund could do with some more cash, or perhaps even a better director of photography and some more advanced cameras. Regardless, Wither is a nice pastiche of The Evil Dead, but shows its flaws when compared against that classic film. Still, if you are like me and enjoy this type of film, there are moments that will reward you for the viewing.

New Review: Detention of the Dead

2013-07-26T13:53:00.003-05:00

The zombie film has become the slasher film of yesteryear, an eponymous subgenre that inspires countless low-budget auteurs to raise their cameras, jot down some words, assemble a cast and throw their hat into a ring littered with hundreds of other hats. Detention of the Dead makes sense as an entry into the zombie pantheon, or, at least, I can hear the pitch that led to the film being made. It went something like this… “How about a zombie movie set in a high school, where the survivors are the kids sent to detention, and they’ll represent standard stereotypes and we’ll riff on The Breakfast Club some, so it’s kind of like if John Hughes and George Romero movies had a baby.” Someone thought this was a good idea, checks were written and we have this movie.

Not to dismiss Detention of the dead entirely. In fact, I come so close to recommending this movie, I may apply a condition or two for those who are intrigued by the premise. First, let’s sort it out.

Jacob Zachar is Eddie, your typical nerd, down to the tape on one arm of the glasses. He is on his way to detention when he first sees some of his fellow classmates shuffling about. He shrugs it off, desperate to have a mysterious slight expunged from his record by his teacher, Mrs. Rumblethorp (Michele Messmer). Alongside him in detention are future ROTC student and football hero Brad (Jayson Blair), his head cheerleader main squeeze Janet (Christa B. Allen), pothead Ash (Justin Chon), meathead linebacker Jimmy (Max Adler) and best friend of Eddie and Goth girl Willow (Alexa Nikolas). As you might have gleaned, most of the names are taken from horror films, and the movie makes no bones about referencing as many flicks as it can. In fact, one of the most refreshing things about Detention of the Dead is that it doesn't waste time getting to the zombie outbreak, and the film exists in a world where the characters have heard of zombies and seen many of the films that Detention of the Dead is referencing.

The kids are forced to barricade themselves in the library where they await rescue or death, while also bouncing off one another in a series of arguments and liaisons that match the moments of The Breakfast Club almost beat-for-beat (and a little Sixteen Candles for good measure). One of the larger problems with Detention of the Dead is that the stereotypes of Hughes’ classic teen angst film are in need of updating. But, rather than introduce us to a new set of stereotypes grounded in a modern context, Detention of the Dead is content to beg, borrow and steal its references from everywhere it can. Couple that with some jokes that fall flat and rushed character resolutions in a film that finds plenty of time to build to them, and you have some big marks against this school-based flick.

Still, there are some winning moments. A running joke about the woefully out-of-date library computer works, as do many of the personal moments between characters. Christa B. Allen’s superficial Janet reveals details about herself that are surprising and winning, a credit to both Allen and co-writer and director Alex Craig Mann for making a rote character more human. Alexa Nikolas’ Willow is also very charming, though some emotional beats in the third act come off as ill-timed and out of place.

The zombie gags are fine-to-below-average, especially in a world in which Shaun of the Dead set such a high bar for undead comedy, but there are moments in the late going where I found myself not only entertained but genuinely engaged in the fates of the characters. Unfortunately, some of the goodwill is wasted on some strained action sequences and too-convenient resolutions that squandered much of my affection.

Still, this isn’t terrible and there are some nice moments, especially if you’re a fan of the ‘80s teen comedies upon which much of Detention of the Dead is based. I won’t go so far as to say you should see it, but if you happen across it, prepare yourself for some wasted potential and you just may find the silver lining I did.

Dracula - Prince of Darkness Rises! (Two Weeks Later!)

2013-07-26T10:15:00.001-05:00

We had previously reported that Millennium Entertainment's release of Dracula - Prince of Darkness was appearing on store shelves on September 3rd. That date is actually September 17th. All the special features and gorgeous transfer are intact, however. You can see all those details here.

Viscera Announces Winners!

2013-07-25T13:10:00.002-05:00

THE VISCERA 2013 FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF THE 4th ANNUAL CELEBRATION

OF WOMEN FILMMAKERS

CO-PRESENTED BY THE AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE

The Viscera Organization is thrilled to announce the winners from the fourth annual Viscera Film Festival which showcased 13 incredible short horror films to a packed house at the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood. The 2013 VFF was co-presented by the American Cinematheque and celebrated emerging female filmmakers from several continents spanning across the globe. During an awards ceremony on July 13th directly following the short films program, the Viscera Film Festival winners were revealed.

BEST FILM

Karen Lam, “The Meeting”

BEST DIRECTOR

Jen Moss, “My Brother’s Keeper”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“No Place Like Home” director Nicholas Humphries and producer Christine Joy with their award, which was created by Vincent Damyanovich at Soul F/X Studio.

Mai Nakanishi and Christine Joy (producers), Nicholas Humphries (director), “No Place Like Home”

FRESH BLOOD (under 18)

Maddison Lopez, “Outbreak”

Director Jennifer Lynch was also at the Viscera Film Festival this past weekend where she accepted the Inspiration Award in honor of her pioneering filmmaking career starting with 1993's BOXING HELENA; Lynch has continued to establish her legacy of powerful storytelling through various other projects including SURVEILLANCE, CHAINED and the controversial HISSS.

This year's festival kicked off with a bloody carpet ceremony featuring many familiar faces from the independent horror world and wrapped up at the legendary landmark, the Cat & Fiddle, afterwards where festival-goers partied until late into the evening.

The Viscera Film Festival will also be kicking off an international tour shortly for the selected short films as well as a handful of tour selections that aren’t screening at the premiere event. This past year, the Viscera Tour landed at over 20 venues around the world ranging from independent movie houses to universities, screening an eclectic program of shorts that have been curated by the Viscera Organization since 2007. The tour provides an outlet for up- and-coming female filmmakers around the world to have their work shown on the big screen and to industry professionals. For more news on the upcoming Viscera Tour, please visit www.viscerafilmfestival.com.

Sponsors for the 2013 Viscera Film Festival include include American Cinematheque, Cat & Fiddle, The Redbury, ARRI, Final Draft, SoulFX Studio, FEARnet, OKC & Norman Vapes, Fast Custom Shirts, Fangoria Magazine, Western Digital, Spider Energy Drinks, Wooden Nickel Lighting, Evil Supply Company, Jungle Software, Sony Creative Suites, Scream Sirens Magazine, Too Fast Brand Alternative Apparel, Mago's Magic Shoppe, Horribly Eclectic, The House of Mirthquake, Joshua Hoffine, Irene Langholm, The Homicidal Homemaker, Undead FX, Laughing Vixen Lounge, Deep Midnight Perfumes, Fangtastic Cards, Evil Episodes, The Art of Kamille Freske, Solocosmo: Art by Jessica Grundy, NikytaGaia Photography, Dolled up or Dead, The Shoggoth Assembly Special Effects, From the Vomit, SoCal Death Militia, Epic Leather, Lycan it!, and The Poisoned Apple.

About the Viscera Film Festival and Viscera Organization:

The Viscera Film Festival was created in 2007 by Shannon Lark to encourage and promote the work of female horror filmmakers. The fest has grown each year, morphing into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with an ever-expanding, dynamic staff of men and women who eat, sleep and breathe genre cinema. Beginning as a touring festival, Viscera has now become a highly anticipated genre event every summer in Los Angeles, complete with a carpet ceremony (what we affectionately refer to as the “Bloody Carpet”), celebrity guests, and a raucous after party. 2012 marked the third annual Bloody Carpet event in Los Angeles at the Egyptian Theatre and Viscera’s tentacles continue to encircle the globe, programming films at festivals and theaters throughout the world. http://www.viscerafilmfestival.com

Want to Make a Horror Short?

2013-07-24T14:14:00.000-05:00

Now's your chance to be a producer! Fatal Films is looking to crowdfund their latest short. Read below for their official release, including what you can get by tossing some money their way!

FATAL PICTURES in association with RED SNEAKERS

MEDIA presents “HEIR”

The final short film from FATAL PICTURES

From Richard Powell and Zach Green’s Fatal Pictures, the company that brought you the critically acclaimed, award winning horror shorts WORM and FAMILIAR, comes their new and final short film “HEIR”, a touching tale of father and son. Starring the Emmy award winning Bill Oberst Jr. (ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS.

ZOMBIES, TAKE THIS LOLLIPOP, CHILDREN OF SORROW) and Robert Nolan (SICK, WORM, FAMILIAR).

Synopsis:

After connecting with a stranger of similar interests online, family man Gordon and his son Paul, embark on an ill-fated road trip in which Gordon aims to indulge in a secret passion. Before the day ends a horrible truth will be uncovered and a harsh lesson will be learned.

Combining the best and brightest of our previous film, FAMILIAR, with new and accomplished collaborators (BILL OBERST JR, MARC ROUSSEL and RON

BASCH from Red Sneakers Media), HEIR is set to be a disturbing, practical FX driven horror short which examines one of societies darkest taboos in a way only Fatal Pictures can. HEIR stands to be our darkest, sharpest and most successful film to date!

Credits:

Written and Directed by Richard Powell

Produced by Zach Green, Marc Roussel, Ron Basch and Richard Powell

Produced in association with Red Sneakers Media (REMOTE & THE SWEETEST HIPPOPOTAMUS - both Director’s Guild of Canada nominees for Best Short

Film)

Associate Producer Heather Wixson (Founder CINEMAYHEM FILM FESTIVAL, Journalist DREAD CENTRAL)

Special Effects by The Butcher Shop (FAMILIAR, DEVIL’S NIGHT)

Cinematography by Michael Davidson (SICK, FAMILIAR, BERKSHIRE COUNTY)

Editing by John Nicholls (SEX AFTER KIDS, THE SWEETEST HIPPOPOTAMUS)

Music & Sound Design by Bernie Greenspoon (CONSUMPTION, WORM, FAMILIAR)

Quotes:

Unlike many films seeking the support of filmmakers and film lovers across the various crowd-funding platforms, we felt it appropriate to seek out and obtain some feedback and insights on the HEIR screenplay first in order to reassure potential supporters that we have the goods! Below are a few of the supportive and enthusiastic comments from a cross-section of the horror community including critics, festival directors, distributors and cult horror actor Bill Oberst Jr. himself.

"HEIR promises to deliver a disgusting dose of Lovecraftian body-horror that will make you squirm in more ways than one!"

- Jason Thorson, (Editor-in-chief, RavenousMonster.com)

"Considering Familiar, its last work, I would say that Fatal Pictures will definitely bring us, with Heir, a must-see short film. Graphically shocking and original with its body modifications, i would bet it'll be a great masterpiece. The horror in its very best form: disturbing and unique."

- Nicolas Tonsho, Fantaspoa International Film Festival

"A monstrous spin on an all-too-familiar tale of bad parenting."

- Alyse Wax, FEARnet

"With HEIR, Fatal Pictures have planned a stunning and memorable swansong. Set to delve into darker and more grotesque avenues than they have even ventured before, HEIR is certainly going to be another sucker punch from one of the most exciting independent studios out there. Be afraid, because you most definitely won’t be prepared."

- Colin McCracken, Zombie Hamster

"Powell is an unflinching examiner of the perversion of humanity that is born of our deepest fears, doubts, regrets and hidden hurts. He reminds us we walk among the wounded and mutated every day."

- Dave Pace Bonello, Fangoria

"Powell and his producing partner Zach Green are breaking new and horrific ground with HEIR. This project shows that the pair's festival monster FAMILIAR was no fluke; Powell and Green are in the vanguard of horror's new cinematic masters. HEIR is an honest-toGod, bonafide new notion of terror."

- Bill Oberst Jr.

Our goal is not only to create a chillingly memorable short film but to demonstrate what can be done after a film is funded. Our supporters will see the film they helped make in festivals around the world, in print and in distribution. That is our commitment, to produce one of the most successful crowd funded film projects to date. In need of further proof? You can check out our previous short film Familiar on FEARnet at http://www.fearnet.com/shorts/familiar.

Description:

In addition to several new and exciting collaborations, HEIR will also mark FATAL PICTURES’ introduction to crowd funding. The campaign to fund the hard costs of the production will be launched shortly. This process will allow the film community a unique insight and stake in this disturbing horror tale. The combination of talent and passion we have brought on board so far means we have a great chance to create something special, but we can't do it without the support of film lovers, filmmakers and daydreamers just like you!

Support comes in many shapes and forms, a "like" or "share" of our page means a lot! This is your chance to help contribute to what stands to be the final short film from FATAL PICTURES before we stage our feature film debut. This is also your chance to take advantage of some of these great, fresh new perks!

• The full rights to an original, unproduced short film script from Fatal Pictures will be up for grabs. Make it, expand it into a feature, do whatever you like with it, it's

yours! The script, entitled VESSEL, embodies everything that makes a Fatal Pictures short film what it is; complex characters, disturbing social commentary

and our signature blend of horror and drama. Matchflick.com describes VESSEL as "a unique blend of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE and

FRANKENSTEIN".

• The original HEIR poster painting, signed by key members of the cast and crew. This is a one of a kind reward that one special supporter will claim.

• For fans of our previous film Familiar, we will be creating limited edition dvd/blurays, which will feature an extra special, exclusive bonus feature, which will

remain a secret until the discs ship. These limited editions will be the first physical release of Familiar for home use from Fatal Pictures, something that’s

been a long time coming!

• Continuing with the exclusives, two major props from our previous films will be up for grabs! From WORM, Geoffrey Dodd’s suitcase of horrors (hand crafted by

writer/director Richard Powell) and from FAMILIAR, the squid monster which John Dodd digs out from his leg! This unique piece of our filmmaking history was

created by the spectacular FX team The Butcher Shop (the same team on HEIR) and comes covered in dried blood and all!

These are just a few of our unique rewards, more to be announced shortly!

New Review: The Conjuring

2013-07-23T13:50:00.003-05:00

The Conjuring, the latest from Saw and Insidious director James Wan, is a throwback in many ways, presenting a classic ghost story, set in the early 1970s, investigated by paranormal researchers determined to rescue a family from an aggressive haunting. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are Lorraine and Ed Warren, respectively, who give lectures on their experiences with demonic spirits and ghosts. They are approached by Carolyn Perron (Lili Taylor), a mother of five who, with her husband Roger (Ron Livingston), have been terrorized by odd noises, strange bruises and even some phantom forms. Hesitant to draw his wife into another investigation after a recent exorcism affected her deeply, Ed agrees to help the family and begins his exploration of the house’s spirits and history.

Wan has certainly mastered his craft and the direction in The Conjuring is some of the best in any horror films in recent years. From the camera movement to the sound design, the technical aspects of this movie are top-notch, highlighting some really effective gags with confident timing. Likewise, the performances in The Conjuring are rock solid, especially from Vera Farmiga and Ron Livingston as characters on opposite sides of the belief spectrum as things in the house take a distinctly supernatural turn.

Despite the irreproachable direction and performances, the script is fairly routine, and the dialog feels a little too on-the-nose at key points in the film, but it’s a fairly minor quibble for a ghost story that does a very good job of producing some nice scares. Still, one wishes that there had been some inventiveness in the film beyond the references to films past, but it does twist these references in fun ways for the most part. The one exception to this is the use of a possessed doll, shown early in the film, which fell a bit flat for me.

Despite the hype surrounding the film, much of which is deserved, I found myself rolling my eyes a bit in the third act, which gets a bit silly. For fear of giving away too much, I won’t say what, exactly, was silly, but there are similarities between this film and a classic horror film from the ‘70s (which you cannot miss) that remind you of how well that film did it, and how The Conjuring does not quite meet that bar of believability.

This brings me to my biggest problem with the film, which is an entirely personal one. The movie begins and ends with assertions that this is based on a true story, Depending on one’s belief system, this may be plausible, but it took me out of the experience in a fundamental way, which is unfortunate. Had the film simply presented its story, I could have been more apt to forgive the third act’s baroque machinations, but by asserting that this is somehow a thing that could have happened, especially given the fantastical elements of the film, torpedoes the suspension of disbelief. Never mind the fact that the work of Ed and Lorraine Warren has been largely debunked, and has even been described as predatory in their relationships with homeowners, a ghost story is just that, a story, and any assertions of veracity are patently ridiculous. Again, this is a subjective reaction and for a vast majority of filmgoers, the aspects of the film that most distracted me from experiencing it as storytelling are little to no factor. But any film’s impact, like any other work of art, ultimately is viewed from the prism of the audience’s experiences and beliefs and, for this one, some needless claims detract from the overall experience.

Still, I would recommend the film to horror fans, especially those who enjoy seeing a ghost story done with technical success and some very nice nods to the films from which it borrows. There are some very great moments to be found in the early goings and, if this is where Hollywood is going in terms of horror films, I’m all for it.

New Review: Sharknado

2013-07-23T10:13:00.001-05:00

It’s interesting what the cultural zeitgeist latches onto, and I suppose it is a reflection of the white noise of social media, 24-hour news cycles and 300-channel cable packages that something as blatantly ridiculous as a movie entitled Sharknado cuts through the haze and becomes a phenomenon, albeit a brief one, by all accounts. Perhaps it is not so surprising, given the vague awareness of the SyFy channel’s propensity for churning out crap movies with schlocky titles like Mega-Piranha vs. Gatoroid or what have you, and Sharknado is a wonderfully simple concept to provide the umbrella for all the silliness of these films. It’s kind of a catchy name, and it is completely absurd. It also put SyFy in an interesting position to capitalize on some notoriety, had The Asylum, the company behind mockbusters like Transmorphers and The Day the Earth Stopped, put any effort into making the movie any good, even bad, B-movie, cheesy good. They didn’t.

Sharknado’s story is pretty standard fare for a monster movie. A father named Fin (Ian Ziering), estranged from his wife, played by Tara Reid, who is apparently a famous person for some reason, and daughter, runs a bar on the beach in between surfing. His waitress, Nova (Cassie Scerbo), dodges come-ons from the resident drunk, George (played by the guy who ate John Heard), in between avoiding questions about a scar that is so clearly from a shark, the fact that she doesn’t initially want to talk about it drives me crazy. So, there’s a hurricane which blows a bunch of sharks onto the shore and into the sewers of Los Angeles, which I believe would mostly be freshwater, and also filled with pee and poop, but I’m no scientician. Sharks begin eating people as the water floods through the streets of L.A. (and this is a generous description, believe me), and then there are waterspouts that pick up the sharks and toss them around. Eventually, Fin and his rag-tag group of sharknado-fighters discover a way to stop the sharknadoes with bombs, which will raise the temperature enough inside the sharknadoes to disrupt them. Again, not clear on the science of this, but that sounds pretty wrong.

While there are some moments that call back to Jaws for a couple of good gags, Sharknado misses the opportunity to be as silly as its title, instead presenting yet another poorly-made film from The Asylum, who seem to care nothing about making anything that is actually good in favor of something cheap and salaciously-titled for whatever profit they can squeeze out of it. Along the way, we get the usual shitty digital effects, repetition of stock footage shots, some truly horrible acting and action sequences that are so jumbled and confused, it makes one wonder if the film were cut within an actual sharknado. Ian Ziering is the only actor in the cast who acquits himself reasonably well, given the nonsense surrounding him.

The Asylum, should they have the slightest bit of inspiration, could be a great provider of B-movies the likes of which would hearken back to the days of Roger Corman’s films, but even those Corman movies, at heart, seemed built to entertain on some level. The Asylum’s intentions are more cynical, and that is an affront to the viewers, as well as to the filmmakers who allow themselves to be prostituted for the sake of a dollar.

New Review: Pacific Rim

2013-07-19T11:00:00.001-05:00

In thinking of Pacific Rim, one cannot help but compare Guillermo del Toro’s kaiju versus giant robot film to other tent pole films, most notable Michael Bay’s Transformers films. Both filmmakers enjoy a large palette, but somehow the Bay films come across as being dumb, jingoistic and insulting to most adults, whereas Pacific Rim has been both critically well-received and pleasing to the audience, at least those who turned out for it. And, it sheds nationalism for humanism in a welcome change from the usual flag-waving, America saves the day movies.

Pacific Rim begins after the first of the kaiju, or “giant beasts,” have risen from the depths of the Pacific and generally rocked San Francisco and other coastal cities. As more of them appear, the governments of the Earth pool their resources into the Jager program, which leads to the construction of massive robots to combat the monster invasion. Over time, the Jager program is abandoned in favor of a “Peace Wall” that will line the coast and keep the kaiju on the watery side.

Charlie Hunnam is Raleigh Becket, a former Jager pilot who abandoned the program after his brother was killed in battle. For these big ass Jagers to work, it requires two pilots connected via a neural network called “the Drift,” which shares every thought and memory between the pilots. Therefore, one’s co-pilot must be compatible with the other. Stacker Pentecost, played by the always-great Idris Elba, rescues Raleigh from his life building the Peace Wall as the last jagers are mobilized to prevent a final onslaught by the kaiju that will lead to the end of human life on this planet. Raleigh must overcome his fears, help his co-pilot, Mako Mori (Rinko kikuchi), and save the world. Typical hero’s journey fare, right?

What separates a film like Pacific Rim from the Bay-directed blockbusters is the sense that del Toro is having so goddamn much fun making this movie, that the viewer can hardly resist the earnestness and vibrancy with which the tale is told. It’s a bit of a hackneyed apocalypse story, but it’s presented on such a grand scale and with such a sense of confidence from del Toro, that even the corny dialog and predictable character arcs feel not so much routine as right in this scenario.

And let’s talk action. This film bills itself as giant robots whomping giant sea monsters, and I’ll be damned if that’s not exactly what it is. The battles between the Jagers, each with its own personality and nationality, and the kaiju are phenomenal filmmaking and result in some truly jaw-dropping moments. The effects are top-notch and are executed with an inventiveness that few big budget studio films seem capable of. Del Toro is at his best when he’s world-building, and Pacific Rim is full of nice touches, from the kaiju-organ black market to the Jager bases, the whole thing feels real and well-considered. I don’t know of another filmmaker besides del Toro, Spielberg or Lucas in his prime who have pulled off the same level of believability when dealing with such fantastical concepts.

Sure, some of the dialog is a little too on-the-nose and the performances aren’t always sterling, and even the characters are essentially archetypes with little depth, but holy crap is the movie so dazzlingly entertaining and well-paced, that these flaws are easily overlooked when counted against the “Did you see that?!” moments of the film.

If, like myself, you grew up watching the kaiju films of the ‘60s coming out of Japan, this is both homage and ass-kicking update to those films, and you must go see it. If you like well-done spectacle films, you must go see it. Really, if you enjoy being entertained in the hands of a master filmmaker having fun with some big budget toys, you must see it. Just go already!