Dir - Aneesh Chaganty
Overall: GOOD
An ambitious crime thriller in that it exclusively utilizes the newly emerging screenlife gimmick, filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty's full-length debut Searching equally, (and thankfully), boats a plot-twist heavy narrative that is infectious as it unfolds. Though it was shot in less than two weeks, the finished project took an additional year and a half to edit all of the webcam, iPhone, GoPro, helicopter, drone, and mini dv camera footage together. The results play out like a conventional cinematic mystery to some extents, with incidental music used and more twisty-turvy revelations than most true crime stories ever deliver. Some of these gasp-worthy moments stretch plausibility to a certain extent, especially during the finale where the audience knows that there are twenty-odd more minutes left for another one-upping rug-pull or two to emerge. Still, Chaganty and Sev Ohanian's script comes close to leaving no room for error and the exciting presentation as well as rock solid performances elevate what is already a heart-racing experience.
Dir - Dennison Ramalho
Overall: MEH
The first full-length from Brazilian filmmaker Dennison Ramalho, The Nightshifter, (Morto Não Fala), suffers from a bloated running time, yet it offers up some freaky ideas along the way. Essentially a vengeful spirit story with a couple of familiar motifs thrown in, (supernatural activity that no one mentions to anybody else, everyone thinking that the protagonist who is suffering from most of said supernatural activity is just going crazy, etc), the tweak of Daniel de Oliveira's title character/morgue worker having always been able to communicate with the dead is an intriguing one. The first act is the strongest, setting everything into motion where Oliveira breaks the rules apparently and uses a recently departed gang member's secrets for his own scheme to rid the world of his unfaithful wife's adulterer. Things get more formulaic from there as the tone goes darker, even if there is a thin layer of camp permeating the proceedings. The CGI effects are noticeably distracting and the film takes too long to deliver its message where both the haunted and the haunter are on morally disastrous paths, but the atmosphere, gore, and several of the set pieces are ideally unnerving.
Dir - Timo Tjahjanto
Overall: MEHA diabolical cliche-fest that goes hard with the popcorn horror high-jinks, May the Devil Take You, (Sebelum Iblis Menjemput), is the first solo full-length from director Timo Tjahjanto, who had previously done segments in The ABCs of Death and the best one in V/H/S/2, as well as co-directing a number of films with Kimo Stamboel as the Mo Brothers duo. Low on story yet nearly two hours in length, it is admirable on the one hand how unapologetically cranked-up the freakshow set pieces are as they only let up for the occasional, most bare-bones amount of character development. The film becomes way more stupid than scary though, throwing loud, gory nonsense at the audience and more wide-mouthed demon baddies than should be legally allowed. There is also old timey music played for chills, a stoic and largely unphased child, and some egregious "dumb people in horror movies" or just plain ole stupid plot maneuvers in the third, over-the-top act to keep things bulldozing along. It is not enough to merely tolerate so much arbitrary mayhem in order to enjoy it; one has to crave an experience where your thinking cap is taken off from the get-go and then screaming, bloody, possessed hellspawn are allowed to bombard your eyes and ears.
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