Dir - Spike Lee
Overall: GOOD
Nearly thirty years into his career and Spike Lee finally ventures into horror with his faithful remake of Bill Gunn's Ganga & Hess, here changed to Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. Doubling as his first Kickstarter project and shot in both Martha's Vineyard and his native New York, Lee updates yet follows Gunn's film closely, toning down the original's psychedelic aesthetic for something that is more narratively challenging. It is not a conventional film about addiction, repetition, African culture, or romance, but it weaves these motifs through a distinct, hypnotic lens that is sensual, funny, and horrifying without necessarily provoking much thought. In their respected leads, Stephen Tyrone Williams and Zaraah Abrahams have a likeable be it quirky and clearly doomed chemistry, plus an almost incessant musical accompaniment by a barrage of artists, (many of them being then unknowns), give it a forward momentum even as the story spins aimlessly around its murky ideas. Style over substance yet never boring, it plays like one long, evocative dream sequence, just with some blood drinking, attractive actors, and an eclectic soundtrack.
Dir - Adam Wingard
Overall: MEH
Several of Adam Wingard's films have long been plagued by plausibility-challenged scripts and The Guest, (his fifth collaboration with screenwriter Simon Barrett), is no different. Part of the "stranger comes to town" sub-genre of thriller, unintentionally laughable moments are present such as a family blindly taking in Dan Stevens' Army veteran stranger who claims to have patrolled with their dead son without said family contacting the V.A. or even asking for proof of I.D., military police showing up and gunning down said family's house with reckless abandon, the mercilessly bullied son choosing to blindly cover for his new role model buddy that he rightly suspects of deceiving and murdering people, and several of these violent acts happening in broad daylight because witnesses, what are those? Granted, Barrett does make a few "sure, I guess" excuses for the liberal amount of such plot malfunctions and there are a handful of purposely funny beats scattered about, but the movie's fast and loose nature still careens into schlock, especially during the dopey finale which clashes the most with the previously established tone. Less miserable than it otherwise could have been with agreeable performances and a hip synth wave soundtrack at least, it is fun if one can shut their brain off for a hundred minutes.
Dir - Joe Dante
Overall: MEH
The final solo directorial full-length from Joe Dante, (as of this writing), Burying the Ex fleshes out screenwriter Alan Trezza's 2008 short film of the same name. Shot quickly on a noticeably slim budget, Dante includes his usual hallmarks of public domain horror movies playing in the background and the film's protagonist is even a genre cinephile who works in a horror trinket shop and longs to open one of his own. Also, Dick Miller shows up because of course he does. More eyeball-rolling than clever, Trezza's script comes off as a hack-job that channels other identical zombie comedies where a doomed couple go through the post-mortem motions. Ashley Greene is purposely obnoxious as a cookie-cutter, environmentally friendly LA girl with attachment issues for days and Anton Yelchin fulfills every stereotype of the dorky guy with a girlfriend who is way outside of his league that he endlessly puts up with. His immediate chemistry with Alexandra Daddario's fellow horror geek is too conveniently cutesy to buy into and even though everyone on board does a fine job with the lazy material, this still comes off as an out-of-touch bit of by-numbers silliness from a filmmaker whose best work unfortunately seems miles behind him.
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