Overall: GOOD
This kickstarter-funded outing from the writer/director team of Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer is rather on the nose yet expertly done. Taking the long-established cliche that much of Hollywood is run by evil studio executives and then making that quite literal, Starry Eyes uses such a premise for strange, unsettling, and fantastically gory results. This includes but is not limited to one of the most brutal head smashing scenes ever. Sinister bizarreness is center stage though. The narrative concept is exaggerated to a horrific extent yes, but also to an amusing one which never lets the tone get too beak or serious. Relative newcomer Alex Essoe is quite good as the desperate actress Sarah, who is in just about every scene in the movie. Without giving too much away, (hopefully), her body almost ballerina-style "becomes" something quite...well yeah. Gene Simmons son Nick is also in three scenes randomly so there is that. The presentation is certainly unflinching, but once again, the dark, funny, and over the top tone is balanced well enough to make the subject matter not as heavy as it otherwise could be.
Dir - Patrick Brice
Overall: WOOF
Urge to kill...rising! Creep is a found footage collaboration from Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass and quite possible the most insulting movie ever made. Far too often in horror, the viewer is talked down to by being asked to accept too much illogical behavior, depending on the movie of course. The last set piece to this film exists based on such an enormous lack of logic that someone would have to be clinically braindead to not be bothered by it. Such an ending made all the other predictable and enormously aggravating moments that happened elsewhere in the film, (including making "jump" scares officially note cute anymore...more so), THAT much more unacceptable. Whether or not it is just one offensive practical joke by Brice and Duplass or not, it is so infuriatingly bad that each man should be ashamed of themselves and held accountable in a court of law. Anyone unfortunate enough to endure this criminally terrible film well deserves their seventy-eight minutes back, that is for damn sure.
Dir - Alexandra Aja
Overall: GOOD
Alexandra Aja is responsible for one of the worst horror movies ever made with Haute Tension as well as the thoroughly lame The Hills Have Eyes remake so one should logically be skeptical when venturing into his latest offering Horns. Well, that would be the case if not for the fact that it is rather pleasantly decent. Based off Joe Hill's novel of the same name, it is a modern day fairy tale that bounces around from horror, to black comedy, to pretentious art film. Thankfully though, it stays consistently entertaining throughout said bouncing. The middle of the movie is the most strange yet also the most engaging, where both we and Daniel Radcliffe's Ig Perrish are trying to piece things together. There are a number of equally odd and funny moments here, more than enough to carry you through the third act which is where things dumb-down a bit. Yet the twist is not that well thought-out and is rather predictable aside. The true heart of the story though is the quirky and hilariously dark fairy tale element. Thankfully, Aja successfully creates an atmosphere where everything is just as easy to buy into as it is to enjoy.
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