2022 Horror Part Twenty-Four

SISSY

Dir - Hannah Barlow/Kane Senes

Overall: MEH

 

The second collaboration Sissy from the writer/director team of Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes rides the typical line for black comedies with emotionally distraught performances and ridiculous set pieces creating a persistent tonal clash.  Here, the emphasis is on a type of amplified social acceptance addiction as suffered by influencers.  Aisha Dee's central character runs a successful YouTube page full of sponsored ad reads and simple-minded therapeutic tactics that champion personal space, meditation, and self-worth.  This is portrayed both convincingly and silly, yet it becomes clear that Dee's well-intended bubbliness is directly connected to a childhood trauma that re-ignites itself when she runs into the old friends and not-friends who were involved.  What follows is a "worst day ever" scenario that goes from bad to worse and the humor stems from the violent details as well as the increasingly unhinged manner that Dee's desperately fabricated persona breaks down.  This causes a conundrum though since we feel bad for what our protagonist/antagonist is enduring even as her behavior goes into full-on wackadoo mode and the somewhat-to-full-on assholes around her hardly deserve the fate that they are given.  Then again, there lies the macabre fun.

WOLFKIN
Dir - Jacques Molitor
Overall: MEH

While filmmaker Jacques Molitor's Wolfkin, (Kommunioun), boasts a unique deviation from the typical werewolf story, it is not the most pleasant of viewing experiences by design and suffers from an uneven screenplay and presentation.  A co-production between the director's native Luxembourg and France, (both languages of which are spoken throughout), is has the common jumping-off point of a youngster who goes through his bestial change as a metaphor for puberty, but the addition of him having an aristocratic family lineage and the struggles that both he and his fully-human mother most undergo in order to adapt present an interesting angle.  Throughout, Louise Manteau is running on pure desperation once it becomes undeniable that her son is anything but normal, yet her baby daddy's lineage is deeply rooted in its own traditions that keep the lycanthropian urges at bay through dubious means that any mother would be hesitant to fall in line with.  Unfortunately, the story suffers curious tonal issues and cannot sustain its premise as we the viewer increasingly questions the extents that Manteau goes along with in her predicament, all while we grow aggravated with the alarming behavior of everyone else involved.  It leads to a clumsy and rushed finale that seems to spring up out of nowhere and play out as if someone hit the fast-forward button in the editing room, but there are at least some interesting ideas here.

SADAKO DX
Dir - Hisashi Kimura
Overall: GOOD

Thirteen films in across two different countries and the Ringu franchise finally decided to get intentionally silly with Sadako DX, a meta take on a tired formula that was long overdo.  Television director Hisashi Kimura and anime writer Yuya Takahashi are both new to the series and their goofy take on the material exaggerates the consistently convoluted and evolving lore within the "girl in the well" mythos.  Rightly assuming that they can do anything they want within such a framework at this point since taking this stuff seriously had long proven to be a fool's errand, the rules are turned on their head as the Sadako curse has gone viral in both meanings of the word.  Breaking down the details will induce headaches, (which is part of the fun), but it essentially boils down to the fact that you now have to watch the cursed video tape every twenty-four hours to NOT get killed by it, meanwhile the vengeance ghost will turn into your loved ones while slowly encroaching up in your business.  The cast of characters are all likeable, even the quirky and annoying ones as it is laugh-out-loud hilarious each and every time that someone calls Kazuma Kawamura a pussy, per example.  There are some tonal issues where it is still gingerly dipping its toes into straight-faced J-horror at times, but for the most part this is a breath of fresh air for a beloved property that may as well get the piss taken out of it from here on out.

2022 Horror Part Twenty-Three

DARK NATURE

Dir - Berkley Brady

Overall: MEH

Canadian filmmaker Berkley Brady's debut Dark Nature may not offer enough unique ingredients to the steadfast "people go hiking in the woods" type of survivalist horror, but its small band of traumatized female characters remain compelling even if the freaky elements seem undercooked.  Shot in Kananaskis County, Alberta, it brings to mind flashes of Neil Marshall's The Descent if it was a self-help group of women embarking on a nature retreat instead of experienced spelunking friends foolishly venturing into an undiscovered cave system, though we ultimately get such claustrophobic moments here as well.  There are also more psychological elements at play, as the icky force that they encounter seems to conjure up vivid hallucinations that tap directly into their already ravished emotions.  It has a foreseeable outcome where Hannah Emily Anderson's protagonist stares her own all too real demons in the face in a well-deserved moment of empowerment, but it comes off as less hokey than it could have if this had a more schlock-peddling presentation.  Brady treats the material more nuanced and respectfully than that, which is a plus since nothing life-threatening transpires until the third act and once the otherworldly horror kicks into heavy gear, it comes off as more of a derivative afterthought than anything else.

NIGHTSIREN

Dir - Tereza Nvotová

Overall: GOOD

The contemporary folk horror outing Nightsiren, (Světlonoc), enigmatically explores close-minded superstitions, chauvinism, bigotry, the fear of outsiders, and most importantly, the trauma that befalls those who try and co-mingle with such suffocating clutches after years of escaping them.  Shot in the picturesque Slovak mountains, the locale is both intimidating and gorgeous as it melds the modern day with ageless scenery and vague, ancient mysticism.  Moments that toy with the supernatural can easily be interpreted as straight-up, drug-fueled hallucinations or a cinematic look into the character's subconscious fears, with co-writer/director Tereza Nvotová taking an explicitly arthouse route in providing no concrete answers to the images that she presents us with.  While such ambiguity will require further views and musings to come to terms with, what is unmistakable is the harrowing, anti-feminist scenario that both Natalia Germani and Eva Mores' characters have found themselves in, where wife-beaters, rapists, and all manner of disrespectful pigs of the male equation are not only tolerated, but nonchalantly embraced by their small, isolated community.  How a thinly-veiled tale of witchcraft intertwines with such things is inconclusive at best, but Nvotová opens a number of doors here that are worth peering into as well as being atmospherically engrossing in the process.

GLORIOUS

Dir - Rebekah McKendry
Overall: GOOD

A dark yet absurd Lovecraftian comedy from director Rebekah McKendry, Glorious has a fun, bare-bones premise yet the effectiveness of its inherent tonal challenge is a mixed bag.  Utilizing few actors, the brunt of the movie falls on Ryan Kwanten's shoulders as a tortured man who seems to be fleeing the aftermath of a meaningful relationship gone wrong, only to come in contact with an ancient god in a bathroom stall.  Such a silly hook carries things through and the script by Joshua Hull and David Ian McKendry manages to remain engaging even as we are stuck at a single location with Kwanten and the always engaging voice of J.K. Simmons throughout the entire ride.  The flashback/fever dream sequences never let on to the final act twist which arrives when the entire universe is facing imminent doom unless Kwanten's character makes a painful sacrifice, (the specifics of which are never explained nor important), but such a reveal sours an already increasingly bleak trajectory.  Despite the movie's title which is likely done with its tongue-in-cheek, this is a cynical story about mankind being oblivious to the monsters that inhabit and threaten it, but it is also an impressively inventive one done on a small scale even if the subject matter is grandiose in scope.

2022 Horror Part Twenty-Two

SATAN'S SLAVES 2: COMMUNION

Dir - Joko Anwar

Overall: MEH

For round two in what may turn out to be a franchise for the recently relaunched Rapi Films, writer/director Joko Anwar picks up three years after the events of the Satan's Slaves remake, delivering Satan's Slaves 2: Communion, (Pengabdi Setan 2: Communion), as an over-long and largely uninteresting supernatural trope fest.  With the surviving characters from the first movie returning and setting them up in a creepy high rise apartment building that has seen better days, Anwar creates an ominous mood throughout the two-hour running time as well as utilizing the slow build approach with little action in the first act in place of introducing new characters and side arcs that prove unnecessary or are even abandoned.  Unfortunately, the film basks in its mood for too long so that by the time that more and more arbitrary spooky stuff starts to actually propel things forward, there is little investment to be had within such a sluggish and weak story.  This is a horror movie where individual moments are impressive if taken out of context, (an eerie opening with mummified cult members in servitude position, a ghostly voice down a garbage shaft, a woman praying where it goes Silent Hill topsy-turvy every time that she flips her shall, etc), but everything together just makes for a mediocre mystery that could use some editing.

THE HARBINGER

Dir - Andy Mitton

Overall: GOOD

 

Writer/director Andy Mitton turns out a pandemic horror film two years after the fact with The Harbinger, which offers a thought-proving look at the initial COVID-19 paranoia that was still felt for months following the virus' outbreak.  More to the point, the story attempts to dig deep at the lingering trauma that was suffered by people who took the strictest precautions and felt cut-off from their loved ones and the world as a whole.  The real life backdrop of a recent time that is still fresh on the viewer's minds is fused with a familiar if still clever boogeyman story that utilizes the age-old concept of waking nightmares to explore the bleakest of outcomes, where people are literally forgotten after unwelcome forces have gotten them.  This is a clear and on-the-nose metaphor for the multitudes of people who succumbed to coronavirus complications and have in some ways gotten lost amongst the still-raging politics and divisiveness surrounding such an outbreak, but thankfully Mitton's treatment of the material never gets heavy-handed at the cost of a compelling and dreary outcome.  The supernatural concept is more scary than the presentation which does not elevate the bar for desensitized horror buffs, but the somber and often low-key atmosphere is a welcome change to many of the hackneyed genre tropes that otherwise could have offensively muddled up the proceedings.

THE COFFEE TABLE

Dir - Caye Casas
Overall: MEH

It is difficult to imagine who a movie like The Coffee Table, (La mesita del comedor), is for; the darkest of dark "comedies" that bites off an impossible task and leaves the audience exhausted and confused by what merit could be found in its horrendously bleak outcome.  Co-writer/director Caye Casas's first solo full-length has a perplexing agenda and deserves props for how ambitious of a tonal balance it tries to maintain.  Explaining the jaw-drop in the first act here would be egregious and such a move is what kicks things into gear when it is no longer cute to see Estefanía de los Santos and David Pareja's strained new parents simply bicker about the former buying a tacky coffee table after being promised that he could make such an interior decorating decision since his wife seemingly calls all of the other shots.  Things go awry quick and they go awry hard, leaving the majority of the movie to sit with an increasing strain of uncomfortableness as we wonder how in the hell it is going to get itself out of such a mess.  When we find out, the character's impossible tragedy has become overbearing so that we do not so much feel a sigh of relief as we do just sick to our stomachs.  By trying to make the film's predicament simultaneously funny, Casas simply asks too much of the audience.

2022 Horror Part Twenty-One

THE BLACKENING

Dir - Tim Story

Overall: GOOD

 

While the world needs another slasher parody as much as it needs another pandemic, the full-length adaptation of 3Peat's short film The Blackening gets by with its relentless stereotype skewing, kinetic pace, and consistently ridiculous tone.  Director Tim Story's filmography can politely be described as "uneven", but he proves to be ideally suited in bringing Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins meta-heavy script to life; a script that takes the piss out of its chosen genre while laying into the African American-ness of every character on the screen.  Said characters are portrayed by a front-to-back hilarious cast, all of whom prove to be on equally clever footing while busting each other's balls and simultaneously having hackneyed heart-to-hearts with each other as deranged killers seem to be racially inclined to take them out with a crossbow. Sticking a crop of goofy friends in a cabin in the woods where the minuscule amount of other people around are white and ergo suspicious, it provides a perfect set up that is deliberately formulaic so that the quips about how stupid of a movie everyone is in can fly at a mile a minute.  Difficult to keep up with at times and one may argue that the "twist" is anything but, yet any cynical finger-waving must take a backseat to how genuinely funny the entire presentation is.

 

OX-HEAD VILLAGE

Dir - Takashi Shimizu

Overall: MEH

 

Filmmaker Takashi Shimizu's final entry in his "Village Trilogy" is more of the same, meaning that it indulges with another bloated running time and just keeps on going and going without any priority to trim the fat.  Ox-Head Village, (Ushikubi Village), drops in some YouTubers conducting a live stream in a creepy place while exploring an urban legend, (as was the case in the previous two entries Howling Village and Suicide Forest Village), before the mystery gets underway which this time concerns a vague ritual where one unlucky half of a set of twins is thrown into a hole with a cow mask on because reasons.  Since the movie is so sluggishly paced and over-long, (as well as loaded with stock J-horror scare tactics), Shimizu and co-screenwriter Daisuke Hosaka's story never musters up enough intrigue to overcome its shortcomings, which can be argued to be both indulgent and lazy.  Thankfully, the film looks great and though the characters are as uninteresting as they are in any of Shimizu's previous installments in this unrelated series, the performances are acceptable and there are no awkard tonal issues or accidental comedic moments besides some unconvincing CGI during one of those good ole "cut in half by an elevator" gags.

PENSIVE

Dir - Jonas Trukanas

Overall: MEH

A promising yet problematic full-length debut from Lithuanian filmmaker Jonas Trukanas, Pensive, (We Might Hurt Each Other), takes an unorthodox approach for what it turns out to be, yet what it turns out to be is yet another entry in a loathsome sub-genre that is littered with questionable choices here.  Broken up into two halves, the first of them establishes a handful of recently graduated high school kids who celebrate with one last hurrah at an isolated cabin, only with ominous and primitively carved wooden statues scattered around the place.  Trukanas and co-screenwriter Titas Laucius patiently let the viewer guess where it is all going, yet we know it will not arrive anywhere good for the lot of characters on screen.  There are convincing dynamics between everyone though and once things go awry, the agenda abruptly switches and stays on a course that is oddly undermined by tonal issues that may or may not be intentionally goofy.  The fact that Sarunas Rapolas Meliesius' protagonist has an aloof personality at best is directly addressed and his unsympathetic behavior offers a singular tweak and challenge for us to get behind, if we are even meant to.  It is interesting that the film tries to find a new angle within its cliches, but it sadly stumbles in such a task.

2022 Horror Part Twenty

MEGALOMANIAC
Dir - Karim Ouelhaj
Overall: MEH

 

Belgium filmmaker Karim Ouelhaj's Megalomaniac is his first full-length venture into horror and it shows that the New French Extremity movement is alive and well in its neighboring country.  Any investigation into such a film must come with a warning label as this is far from easy consumption, except for those with the most desensitized of pallets.  Ouelhaj dives right in with a brutal pregnancy opening that is only a hinting of the visceral nastiness to come, as well as something that is bookended before the credits roll as we follow a dysfunctional family that is based off of the still unidentified Butcher of Mons serial killer.  Benjamin Ramon is as inhumane and cold as any such cinematic character has ever been with his pasty skin, no eyebrows, dead expression, and unflinching dedication to carrying out his infamous father's "work", which is torturing and murdering women.  His sister, (played by Eline Schumacher, who Western audiences will have a hard time not picturing Elisabeth Moss in as far as an American remake goes), represents the bleakest presence in the film as a woman born from evil who lives a life of perpetual loneliness, ridicule, and rape.  This sibling duo leads a diabolically nurtured existence that needlessly continues the cycle with no hope of escape.  Too unflinchingly bleak to recommend, but its stylized brutality casts a wretched spell that is impossible to take lightly.

 

SWALLOWED
Dir - Carter Smith
Overall: MEH
 
The third full-length from writer/director Carter Smith sees him quasi-returning to horror with Swallowed, which is actually more of a queer-centric thriller if we are to split hairs.  Taking place within a time frame of less than a day, it follows two friends who have just about the worst luck imaginable as they are forced at gunpoint to transport what they believe to be drugs across a border via swallowing the goods and naturally depositing of them later, from out the other end.  Gross.  Things get more uncomfortable from there and the film would be a refreshing and tension-fueled nightmare if not for how consistently dour it is.  Jena Malone turns in an against-type performance as a hard-edged drug dealer with Mark Patton laying it on thick as her flamboyantly terrifying boss.  The movie largely belongs to its lead Cooper Kotch though, whose character maintains a keen survival instinct while being victimized, leading to a finish that is rewarding from a comeuppance perspective.  Despite its unique, homosexual point of view towards a crime gone wrong synopsis, the "horror" elements are too underplayed which if properly fleshed out, would have provided a more interesting genre mash-up than what is given.

 

ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS

Dir - Alex Phillips

Overall: MEH

 

A goofy and disgusting midnight movie debut from writer/director Alex Phillips, All Jacked Up and Full of Worms has its absurdist heart in the right place, exploring drug-fueled depravity in a way that echoes its broken character's desperation.  Whether longing for parenthood, enlightenment, connection, or just more vile behavior to feel alive, every person on screen goes through some form of icky metamorphosis brought on by tripping off of actual worms, which may as well be a stand-in for actual addiction and the more dark areas that it can take someone.  Of course this is just one interpretation of what Phillips has concocted here and who is to say if it is the "correct" one?  Allegedly, he had written it as a stage play first, which would fit right at home in some dingy city basement while performed to a combination of alarmed gasps and giggling for an audience looking for something that John Waters would approve of.  The results are a mixed bag in their ridiculousness, but whether intentionally or not, it is difficult to take anything seriously that transpires on screen.  Even if nothing here is profound and the fringe genre fans that it targetsare probably too desensitized to be appalled, it is at least a brisk seventy-two minutes that delights in its WTFness.

2022 Horror Part Nineteen

SALOUM

Dir - Jean Luc Herbulot

Overall: GOOD

A unique supernatural crime film from West Africa of all places, Saloum is named after the delta system in Senegal where a group of mercenaries lay low on their route to the city of Dakar in transport of a Mexican drug lord escaping from the 2003 Guinea-Bissau coup d'état.  Rooting its story in a real, war-torn setting gives the movie a palpable atmosphere and Congolese writer/director/producer Jean Luc Herbulot stages the plot as a contemporary Western, except with some vengeful folklore spirits thrown in halfway through to raise the harrowing stakes.  There is a lot to keep up with in the busy plot and plethora of characters who engage in pivotal dialog exchanges, (including sign language), that makes for an intense enterprise long before an ancient swarm curse descends upon the land.  The performances are stellar and though Herbulot utilizes shaky, hand-held cinematography to the detriment of being able to follow many of the action sequences, it still creates an appropriate, guerilla-style aesthetic.  The CGI-realized spirits are hardly intimidating, but this minor visual disappointment plays second fiddle to a brutal tale of redemption, brotherhood, and survival that ends up being more grounded than frightening.

SATANIC HISPANICS
Dir - Alejandro Brugués/Mike Mendez/Demián Rugna/Eduardo Sánchez/Gigi Saul Guerrero
Overall: MEH

Another clumsily executed horror anthology with inconsistent tonal issues for days, Satanic Hispanics brings together four Latino and one Latina director who have all delivered genre offerings of varying quality before, yet unfortunately most of them are on their F-game here.  Mike Mendez' wrap-around segment "The Traveler" has a frustrating premise where an immortal bad-ass spins all of the tales to a pair of condescending detectives who have no logical reason whatsoever to believe him, that is until the inevitable finale where his warnings of course come true.  Considering that Demián Rugna is the most consistently good filmmaker here, his "Tambien Lo Vi" is not only the best yet also the only entry without an abundance of doofy humor, accidental or otherwise.  Eduardo Sánchez drops the ball with the painfully unfunny "El Vampiro”, Gigi Saul Guerrero's "Nahules" is an awkard and unintentional schlock-fest, and the worst is saved for last with Alejandro Brugués' moronic “Hammer of Zanzibar”.  Save for Rugna's segment, there is an abundance of actors in filth-covered monster make-up who scream like idiots into the camera, as well as groan-worthy dialog and comedic beats that consistently miss their mark.  Bloated to nearly two hours in length, it is a chore of missed opportunity.

MAD GOD
Dir - Phil Tippett
Overall: MEH

 

An impressive achievement considering that it was thirty years in the making, special effects man Phil Tippett's Mad God is a visually dense treat of grimy, dystopian stop-motion animation, yet its unapproachable narrative and relentlessly glum tone grows weary after awhile.  Tippett initially began it in 1990 while working on Robocop 2, picking the project back up decades later and eventually finishing it with the help of a successful Kickstarter campaign.  A dialog-free, surreal trek into a hellish, industrial underworld, there is no conventional plot.  Instead, the film follows through with a linear series of set pieces that prod deeper and deeper into a sickening landscape where wretched monsters destroy lesser lifeforms to the point where an entire new cosmos seems to be created with the blood-turned-gold-dust from an infinite worm creature; a cosmos that is rapidly shown to undergo the same tragic, apocalyptic fate as the previous one.  It is all guess work as to what could possibly be going on story-wise besides it being some kind of essay on nature's infinite destruction, yet it may be a detriment for viewers who do not wish to endure such unwavering bleakness without a single bone thrown their way.  Visually though, Tippett does startling work, creating a richly detailed universe that is as endlessly inventive as it is nasty and downtrodden.

2022 Horror Part Eighteen

THE LEECH

Dir - Eric Pennycoff

Overall: MEH

A demented bit of holiday horror from writer/director Eric Pennycoff, The Leech is hilariously uncomfortable up until the point where it just becomes uncomfortable.  Utilizing the ole "guests from hell" premise, Jeremy Gardner and Taylor Zaudtke's white trash drifters invade the home of Graham Skipper's troubled Father with a heart of gold, who takes the couple in with the sole purpose of saving two more of god's "lost flock".  Things go as awry as one would expect, humorously at first with a series of perverse, "Oh sorry about that bro", lifestyle clashes before Pennycoff's script jumps head-on into psychological terror.  This tonal shift is jarring and what if any supernatural elements are at play, (likely none), are poorly executed as the third act just becomes a mess of tormented hallucinations that sacrifices the earlier established, R-rated ridiculousness for something more alarming.  All four of the cast members are delightful in their respected roles though, with Gardner stealing the show as the jolly, bi-sexual, metalhead, alcoholic, drug addict dip-shit that has pushed the patience of Skipper's priest so far that he is either a demonic entity or just a scuzzy wildman who cannot walk away from a roof over his head.

 

THEY WAIT IN THE DARK

Dir - Patrick Rea

Overall: MEH

Plot inconsistencies unfortunately muddle up prolific writer/director Patrick Rea's They Wait in the Dark; a dour genre piece about abused children becoming abusive adults.  Done with minimal ingredients, (a small cast, a modest number of locations, most of it taking place at a single house, only a handful of invisible specter special effects, etc.), the tone is consistently bleak as we open with a quick flashback, only to primarily spend our time with Sarah McGuire's troubled mother on the run who is introduced to us while sleeping on the floor of a convenient store with her adopted son.  Rea pulls of an ambitious trick by solidifying the audiences' sympathies with McGuire's character before gradually peeling back disturbing layers as her harsh mood swings and some eventual plot-twist backstory sheds a different light on what was previously portrayed as a purely victimized individual.  This makes for a finale that is eons away from being a "feel good" one, but the emotional weight of the whole thing is undermined by a shoddy screenplay.  McGuire flees her abusive girlfriend on foot, long enough to get to her family's still-standing house that was willed to her; a house which said girlfriend apparently has no knowledge of even after being with her for at least seven-to-ten years judging by the age of their son who was a baby when they got him.  There is also lazy supernatural activity where a vengeful ghost merely toys with her victim for the soul purpose of getting the film to the ninety-ish minute mark, which is a common faux pas in virtually every ghost story out there.

 

THE SOUND OF SUMMER

Dir - Guy

Overall: WOOF

 

The full-length debut from a filmmaker simply calling himself Guy, The Sound of Summer blows a skin-crawling premise on a boring presentation that is largely made up of mundane montages before the last several minutes deliver some icky, body horror mayhem at long last.  Shot digitally with a budget that is small enough to not afford proper miking equipment for its actors, the dialog is sparse anyway and at least the sound design was disturbingly manipulated in post, creating a cacophony of off-kilter music, wailing cicadas, squishes, scratches, and moans.  Far from Eraserhead levels, (though isn't everything?), but the audio is still impressive in this regard, at least by the finale where a literal bug man shows up to make a bunch of ungodly noise in his underwear.  Elsewhere though, this is an amateur-level waste of time.  Our lone protagonist has no personality, is given no backstory, and an unacceptable amount of time goes by where nothing of interest happens.  That is unless you consider it intriguing to watching someone wake up, listen to the radio, walk around, do a full shift at work, visit a doctor, not be able to sleep, and gradually itch her gaping insect wounds for over an hour.  At seventy-five minutes, the film feels like seventy-five hours, ending with some nasty strangeness that both just abruptly stops and comes too little, too late.

2022 Horror Part Seventeen

HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN

Dir - Michelle Garza Cervera

Overall: GOOD

 

Similar to a handful of noteworthy genre films yet refreshingly presented, Michelle Garza Cervera's Huesera: The Bone Woman is an exceptional full-length debut.  The fundamental "fear of pregnancy" theme most famously goes all the way back to Rosemary's Baby, yet the questions that Cervera's story raises equally if not more prominently concern a woman's place in conformative domestic life.  In this instance, Natalia Solián's protagonist suffers a traumatizing ordeal almost immediately after finding out that her own motherhood is impending, as she questions her many life choices in getting there.  Everything contributes, from closeted lesbianism, to a dysfunctional upbringing based on tragedy and cripplingly judgemental attitudes from her family, to her own youthful aspirations that she neglected to pursue out of fear, to her partially insincere attempts to find happiness in a conventional marriage.  It makes for a complex tragedy that is respectfully handled even as it utilizes the age ole "everyone thinks that an upset woman is just crazy" tropes.  Solián is terrific in the lead and carries most of the weight, plus Cervera bypasses hackneyed stylistic tropes, which makes the frightening supernatural moments more satisfying and unsettling.

 

A WOUNDED FAWN

Dir - Travis Stevens

Overall: GOOD

 

A part-throwback hybrid of Greek mythology and slasher movie, A Wounded Fawn is the latest from filmmaker Travis Stevens and probably his strongest genre effort to date.  Told in two acts with a protagonist/antagonist shift halfway through, it goes deep inside the mind of a brutal serial killer who is compelled to do away with the beauty and power that he jealously finds threatening in women.  A common excuse/psychological assessment of male rapists and murders who target the opposite sex, it is shown through a mythological lens here, involving the chthonic Erinyes deities of ancient Greece who are given adequate screen time once the movie dives full into the killer's sociopathic psyche.  Bright red blood and an absurdist, Euro-horror dedication to weird and garish nightmare visuals pay fitting homage to the work of Italian gore masters Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento, but Stevens has an accomplished eye of his own that keeps the audience guessing as to what ridiculous spectacle we will witness next.  Along with the unorthodox plotting, quick pace, and solid performances, this makes for a refreshing work that is brutal, funny, and freaky as it deconstructs familiar motifs.

 

TALK TO ME

Dir - Danny Philippou/Michael Philippou

Overall: GOOD

 

While there are refreshing attributes to Danny and Michael Philippou's debut Talk to Me as well as some stellar performances, the movie also crumbles under its flimsy supernatural logic and loose plotting.  Shot in the brother filmmaker's native South Australia, it presents a unique tweak on the seance motif that is deliberately rooted in the contemporary age where young adults contact the dead for shits and giggles, capturing the ensuing mayhem on their phones with little to no regard for the mysterious forces that they are playing with.  Once the cards are laid out, things follow in a foreseeable manner where Sophie Wilde's fun yet deeply grieving protagonist falls prey to the predatory nature of the spirits or so we are likely lead to believe in such a cautionary, "don't fuck with the dead" tale.  The Philippous sprinkle in a number of wonderful set pieces, even if they just as often succumb to tired scare tactics and tropes involving ghosts behaving arbitrarily.  Everyone on screen gives it their all as to keep the film captivating despite its increasingly heavy and downer tone, which at least does not insult the audience with a syrupy and melodramatic sense of trauma recovery, (cough, Michael Flanagan, cough).  Unfortunately it takes too many liberties with narrative cohesion, getting from point A to point B with a couple of cheap maneuvers that undermine the more inventive presentation aspects and sincere themes.  It is still a solid offering, just imprecise if one is to be fair.

2022 Horror Part Sixteen

THE OUTWATERS

Dir - Robbie Banfitch

Overall: WOOF

 

Possibly the worst offender of "unwatchable cinematography" in any found footage movie, (which has long been a legitimate complaint hurtled at the sub-genre), The Outwaters melds impossible to decipher visuals with comatose pacing and a bloated running time.  The first full-length from Robbie Banfitch since 2007's White Light, the filmmaker handles all levels of production and is virtually the only person on screen for more than half of it, not that anyone could notice.  It cannot be understated how poor the found footage framework is used here as Banfitch holds on to his camera for no reason whatsoever, letting it hang by its side or upside down, pointing it in random directions, and carrying it with him when his character seemingly ventures into a hellish underworld.  While the daytime, Mojave Desert sequences are claustrophobic enough with extreme, blurry close-ups and shots of inconsequential nonsense, (including the first forty-five to fifty minutes which is apparently still not enough time to get to know or care about its small group of characters), the scenes at night are an entirely different and frustrating ballgame.  With either a tiny pocket flashlight's worth of illumination rapidly scattering all over the frame or worse yet just pitch blackness and a cacophony of muffled camera shuffling noises and freaky sound effects, you may as well just run into a hurricane with tar in your eyes for two hours and get the same experience.

 

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT

Dir - Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead

Overall: MEH

The latest genre mash-up Something in the Dirt from filmmakers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead continues their fascination with cosmic realities and trippy science fiction ideas and is back to an indie scale after the comparatively larger budgeted Synchronic from 2019.  Both collaborators carry the movie on screen as well, with Benson playing a down on his luck deadbeat with a rap sheet and Moorhead as a divorced member of an evangelical, apocalyptic church who each team up to uncover strange phenomenon in their Los Angeles apartment building.  There are a lot of concepts being explored here, too many in fact to keep up, which involve mathematical patterns, coincidences, secret societies, ancient aliens, inner dimensional doorways, and gravitational pulls to name some of the more prominent ones.  The film's primary agenda is dealing with how these obsessions bond/cause tension between the two protagonists, but Benson's script alludes to just as many psychological elements as it does mystical and pseudo-scientific ones.  In other words, it is an ambitious project that spirals into numerous directions without properly landing on anything for long enough to ponder.  It is also a bold move to present it as a part documentary, with interview and archival footage mixed in with an otherwise conventional cinematic framework that confuses things that much more.

 

NOCEBO

Dir - Lorcan Finnegan

Overall: GOOD

 

The latest from Irish director Lorcan Finnegan and screenwriter Garret Shanley, Nocebo offers up a few unique and freaky ideas within a familiar "mysterious caregiver" framework.  Foreign mysticism has often been presented as sinister in Anglo productions where well-to-do white people come face to face with ancient magic from an impoverished part of the world, but Shanley's story here does not use such a concept for cliched, insensitive purposes.  Instead, its main goal is to shine a light on the injustices suffered by sweat shop labor at the hands of capitalist mores.  In some ways, the characterizations are sensationalized for dramatic effect, (Eva Green as the wealthy, oblivious fashion designer and Chai Fonacier as the Filipino witch lady that is out for comeuppance), but the sympathetic shift is satisfying if still contrived.  Such manipulation plays into the plot as well where the audience knows that Fonacier's mysterious house servant is up to something even if those around her are either trusting or eventually suspicious under the wrong assumptions.  The otherworldly details have the appropriate and disturbing psychological effect as well, offering up some nifty black magic set pieces for genre fans.

2022 Horror Part Fifteen

BODIES BODIES BODIES

Dir - Halina Reijn

Overall: MEH

The sophomore effort from actor-turned-director Halina Reijn based on a spec script from author Kristen Roupenian, Bodies Bodies Bodies is painfully aggressive by nature which is both what makes it work and be borderline unwatchable all at once.  A Gen Z play on the Agatha Christie whodunit, its social commentary of privileged twenty-somethings reverting to unhinged morons within minutes of being deprived of their cellphone service is cleverly fused with the rapid-fire pacing of the murder mystery itself.  This subverts expectations where audience members may be paying attention to inconsequential things while caught up in the mayhem of it all, only to catch-on to the black comedy agenda the more that it plows along.  Unfortunately, the tone clashes where the sly and ridiculous satirical aspects are drowned by relentlessly awful characters that are impossible to root for.  Their reprehensible behavior is obviously the point, (both to cast suspicion on everyone and showcase emotionally braindead stereotypes attributed to young adults in the age of information), but the persistent screaming, nausea-inducing handheld cinematography, and sheer nastiness of the ordeal is anything but amusing.

 

V/H/S/99

Dir - Johannes Roberts/Vanessa Winter/Joseph Winter/Maggie Levin/Tyler MacIntyre/Flying Lotus

Overall: MEH

 

The fifth entry in the V/H/S series doubles as the most consistently silly, which is probably for the best even if it produces some annoying results.  In keeping with the usual format, V/H/S/99 brings in a fresh crop of talent to the franchise, most of whom are up and coming filmmakers with few if any full-lengths on their resumes.  Breaking the formula though is that someone finally made the wonderful decision to jettison the framing narrative which was consistently the weakest in every previous installment.  While it is replaced by utterly useless toy soldier stop-motion that has nothing to do with the concept, it at least keeps the humorous tone in check.  Sadly, each of the actual segments save the closing and strongest "To Hell and Back" by Joseph and Vanessa Winter is exclusively made up of aggressively irritating, unlikable characters which is an odd choice aside from adhering to late 90s bro-punk culture.  Maggie Levin's "Shredding" fits this bill precisely with not one but two awful Hot Topic-adored zombie bands, Johannes Roberts's "Suicide Bid" utilizes age-old sorority hazing and buried alive cliches, Flying Lutus' "Ozzy's Dungeon" is a disgusting Double Dare nightmare that clearly comes from the same guy who did the unwatchably gross Kuso, and Tyler MacIntyre's "The Gawkers" puts Medusa in a hilariously unlikely scenario.  There are some clever moments here or there and everything is on an even playing field, but it is too relentlessly grating to properly recommend.

 

THE ELDERLY
Dir - Raúl Cerezo/Fernando González Gómez
Overall: MEH

For their second collaboration and follow-up to the gross-out alien comedy The Passenger, filmmaker duo Raúl Cerezo and Fernando González Gómez have concocted something more sinister and strange, looking at the deteriorating incapacity of old age through a supernatural lens.  There are a lot more bizarre ideas thrown in into The Elderly besides that though; ideas that are purposely never explained.  Dour in tone, it takes place during a record-breaking string of hot days where senior citizens start behaving more and more irrationally, much to the confused concern and aggravation of their loved ones.  Zorion Eguileor's grandpa character stares off miserably into space, only to snap out of it when he needs to threaten his family, tell his son about the voices that he hears through radio static after covering up a mirror so that no one can watch them, or crudely slicing some circuitry into his chest.  The finale is straight-up Night of the Living Old People and amazingly, Cerezo and Gómez manage to ward off the audience's laughter with their increasingly frustrating yet sincere presentation.  Unfortunately, the plotting becomes repetitive and people behave like stupid horror movie characters too much, but it gets by to a point by pushing its ambiguous agenda to violent, head-scratching, and end of days levels.

2022 Horror Part Fourteen

HE'S WATCHING

Dir - Jacob Aaron Estes

Overall: WOOF

 

Part found footage, part creepypasta, and part incoherent student movie, He's Watching is a frustrating viewing experience from writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes.  A COVID-19 lockdown family production, it almost exclusively stars Estes' children Iris and Lucas who play fictionalized versions of themselves haphazardly filming a video journal of their time alone at home while their parents are in the hospital due to some mysterious illness that is never explained along with everything else that happens.  The found footage gimmick is used poorly as well as being unnecessary here during the first half where everything is edited together conventionally with "The following day" style title cards, scary music, and a barrage of clips from some unknown entity all mixed in together.  This throws the the viewer off quickly, but things only get more aggressively nonsensical from there as Estes goes for a low-rent David Lynch vibe that rambles in unintelligibly without any humor or purpose.  It all becomes an aimless bore which would make for a trippy and atmospheric viewing experience if not for its arbitrary mix of cinematic sub-genres and embarrassing scare tactics.

 

MOLOCH

Dir - Nico van den Brink

Overall: GOOD

A contemporary-set folk horror outing and the sophomore effort from Dutch filmmaker Nico van den Brink, Moloch has a conventional structure yet wields successfully ominous results.  While the specific legend frequently mentioned throughout the story is fictitious, the film's title has numerous origins in ancient Hebrew and Canaanite religions of a bull-headed deity that demands sacrifices, which in turn provides ideal fodder for an unsettling genre movie.  The film strictly plays within the confines of such a genre, all without being insulting even as it lingers on fog-ridden shots of the woods, punctuates the soundtrack with muffled percussion, a part-throwback synth score, and wide-mouthed screams, plus throws in some creepy, pagan-styled eye candy during the finale.  An emphasis on character during the slow boil approach is appreciated, with wonderful performances from the leads, (especially Sallie Harmsen as a traumatized mother who increasingly realizes just how much of the town's celebrated fables are directly linked to her cursed bloodline).  It may not pack any inventive scares into the mix, but it is impressively atmospheric and stylized.

 

ATTACHMENT

Dir - Gabriel Bier Gislason

Overall: MEH

 

Tonal inconsistencies ultimately undo writer/director Gabrial Bier Gislason's full-length debut Attachment, (Natten har øjne), but there are still admirable qualities herein.  On the surface, it is a quirky romantic comedy between a lesbian couple with one of them having a doting, Jewish mother that fits the stereotype of being overprotective and disapproving of her daughter's new love interest.  Even before this bare-bones/misleading premise is established though, Gislason interjects a sinister undercurrent that grows more prominent as things roll along.  Talk of dybbuks, golems, and the Witch of Endor provide some interesting mysticism and because no one in horror movies can ever just plainly spell anything out, various odd behaviors and rituals are picked up upon until their true meaning finally is unveiled within the last set piece.  Though the humorous elements are genuinely funny and the creepy elements are unnerving, the problem is that they do not gel together.  Most of the comedy disappears for large periods of time, only to inappropriately pop back in to remind us that the movie is trying to be two different movies at once.  This is a shame as far as considering the big picture here, but it is still a noble, genre-fusing attempt by Gislason that at least becomes unique in the process.

2022 Horror Part Thirteen

HELLHOLE

Dir - Bartosz M. Kowalski

Overall: GOOD

 

Reveling in a type of grimy blasphemy for the mere camp-fueled sake of it, writer/director Bartosz M. Kowalski's Hellhole, (Ostatnia wieczerza, Last Supper), is unapologetic and demonic fun.  While the bulk of the movie plays out in a conventional manner with easily foreseeable plot maneuvers and a type of laughably filthy aesthetic that borders on pure schlock, Kowalski pulls-off a wonderful, refreshing subversion within the last handful of moments.  As the movie seems to end when it still has twenty-odd minutes left with some sly, psyche-out humor, this in and of itself puts the audience on edge for what follows and what does is likely to delight genre fans with such an unorthodox, end of days conclusion.  Many filmmakers have tried to balance bleak nastiness with well-trotted cliches and derivative story lines when it comes to horror, but this is an impressive work that manages to be clever with its deliberately familiar components.  Maybe someday the well shall run dry when it comes to shady priests speaking in Latin, elaborate exorcisms, upside down crosses, thousand year-old grimoires, and screechy monster noises, but this little ditty proves that there is still some diabolical juice left in such a well.

 

VENUS

Dir - Jaume Balagueró

Overall: MEH

Possibly the least faithful adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story since Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, Venus finds Jaume Balagueró wildly interpreting "The Dreams in the Witch House", which Gordon coincidentally also did a version of for the first season of Masters of Horror.  A genre mash-up of gritty crime film and the aforementioned source material, Balagueró delivers some brutal images and set pieces that are on par with his best work, plus Ester Expósito is excellent in the lead as a stereotypically troubled go-go dancer with an unfortunate past who crosses the mob while simultaneously ending up in an otherworldly apartment complex.  Dario Argento's Three Mothers Trilogy is an obvious influence on the last act yet unfortunately, that is precisely when the movie falls apart tonally and goes from being an emotionally-driven, high-tension redemption story into ludicrous schlock.  The Lovecraft elements are detrimentally underplayed and borderline pointless, so that when cosmic, supernatural unwholesomeness is busted out with mere minutes to spare in the running time, the about-face comes off as hopelessly messy and misguided.  To a point, the film is admirable in its ambition and large parts of its execution, but it also falls down the stares in spectacular, awkward fashion.

DEADSTREAM

Dir - Vanessa Winter/Joseph Winter

Overall: GOOD

A fun found footage outing that leans heavier into comedy than most, Deadstream is the full-length debut from writer/director/producer team Vanessa and Joseph Winter.  The latter appears as a shlubby, likeable YouTuber who due to various means which are quickly explained right out of the gate, has to spend an entire night in a haunted house while live streaming the event.  Winter is hilarious as the only person on screen for most of the time, perfectly encapsulating the type of obnoxious influencer who one can easily see garnishing a loyal following.  Like several other inventive, DIY movies in the found footage camp, a whole lot is accomplished with primitive means.  Besides the consistently humorous tone that forgives ludicrous narrative inconsistencies and even blatantly explains the ridiculous behavior of our internet personality host, there is a smorgasbord of creepy details, call-backs, and set pieces that enhance the enjoyment as the movie pulls increasingly in two different genre directions.  It is an impressive accomplishment in this regard where the end results would be nowhere near as successful if it was not both equally funny and off-the-walls creepy in delightful, (and often very gross), measures.

2021 Horror Part Twenty-Two

MADRES

Dir - Ryan Zaragoza

Overall: WOOF

 

It is a shame that the twist in Madres, (Mothers), is based on an all-too-real and concerning issue that was largely suffered amongst ethnic women in the 1970s and then again decades later.  That is because the full-length debut from director Ryan Zaragoza terribly stages its agenda within a moronic supernatural horror context that is as hackneyed as they get, full of unintentionally funny moments on top of insultingly cliched scare tactics that do everything in their power to undermine what should have been handled with some semblance of respect.  The seventh installment in the Welcome to Blumhouse series plays by too many rules; generic scary music that only shuts up for a jump scare, freaky nightmares of screaming specters, arbitrary spooky things/hallucinations, a minor key nursery rhyme played on a baby's toy, ominous ravings found in a creepy old house that some city folk move into, a gaslighting husband, a hysterical pregnant wife, a weird cryptic local lady, an understaffed hospital that is allergic to turning any lights on, etc.  This is not to say that this is a travesty since the filmmaker's hearts seem to be in the right place, but sometimes it is all too apparent that getting your message across via a horror framework just so that people will see your movie, (Since who goes to see independent dramas with no star power nowadays?), is just destined to fail. 

 

THE HAUNTED HOTEL

Dir - Jean Campbell Hogg/Joshua Carver/Adam Collier/Joshua Dickinson/Amy L.Feeley/Jane Gull/Tony Roberts/Deveril

Overall: MEH

Several British filmmakers with few if any full-lengths on their resumes all join forces with the low-budget anthology movie The Haunted Hotel.  Shot quickly and on location at the Great White Horse Hotel in Ipswich, Suffolk, it begins with a Charles Dickens quote relating to the real life setting which was an allegedly and famously haunted one that seems ideal fodder for a horror film.  Broken up into eight segments with a different cast and creative personnel in charge of each one, they naturally vary in quality and tone, yet the whole thing predominantly leans on the lighthearted side.  Bouncing non-chronologically over a hundred and fifty-year time span, none of them properly convey the decade for which they are set due to the mediocre and digitally-shot production, (plus the fact that the hotel's decor hardly changes throughout), but this is forgivable under the modest means for which it was made.  Nearly all of the stories are predictable and concern people interacting with those who they or at least we the viewer are not supposed to know right away have passed on, but the more interesting ones skew this formula.  That would be Joshua Dickinson's "The Writer" and Deveril's "Housekeeping", with the closing "Devil Inside" by Toby Roberts being the only one that is not comedic in nature.  The whole collection is more dopey than either scary or funny, but it is mediocre enough to suffice.

MARTYRS LANE

Dir - Ruth Platt

Overall: MEH

A full-length expansion of her 2019 short of the same name, Martyrs Lane is low-key and atmospheric, yet it suffers from a lumbering plot that sticks exclusively to a child's point of view and never becomes that interesting in the process.  Though Platt cannot help but to indulge in some sudden nightmare jumps and there is technically a creepy kid in Halloween make-up, she still manages to skew her set pieces from the norm, presenting everything in a dour yet intimate fashion that does no rely on incessant music or unintentional schlock.  Instead, everyone behaves seriously, too seriously maybe as there is little to nor humor or joy to the proceedings in place of a dreary narrative that meanders without providing any necessary hooks.  Since the entire movie revolves around her perspective of her mother's emotional illness and the identity of the friendly ghost kid that starts showing up once some trinkets are found, it is a good thing that Kiera Thompson does a fine job as far as child actors go, even though she is still delegated to being unrealistically stoic which is usually the only thing allowed for youngsters in horror movies.  The mystery reveal is far from surprising for anyone paying attention and the ending is anti-climactic as well, which is actually in keeping with the overall lackadaisical presentation though.

2021 Horror Part Twenty-One

THE PASSENGER

Dir - Raúl Cerezo/Fernando González Gómez

Overall: GOOD

 

The first collaboration between directors Fernando González Gómez and Raúl Cerezo has a fun genre hybrid premise of a goofy, character-building road movie with a slimy, extraterrestrial monster parasite, all taking place off the beaten-path in Spain's countryside.  It is a similar mishmash as far as the script goes, which was originally written by Javier Echániz and Asier Guerricaechebarría and then reworked by Luis Sánchez-Polack some time later, though thankfully it does not have the feel of too many cooks in the kitchen.  Cerezo and Gómez have to balance a tricky tone where characters must act rationally traumatized when people die around them, but their joke cracking after the fact seems well-earned due to the casual comradery build-up between the two likeable leads in Ramiro Blas and Paula Gallero, plus the simple fact that when being chased by an alien creature inhabiting your mom's body, what else can you do besides chuckle in order to psychologically cope?  At least that is the plausibility pill that we are asked to swallow and enjoyable performances, tense/schlocky set pieces, and some predictable yet clever set-ups and pay-offs help it all go down smoothly.

 

SHE WILL

Dir - Charlotte Colbert

Overall: MEH

Sadly, artist/filmmaker Charlotte Colbert's full-length debut She Will gets lost in its own psychological weeds, telling a potent tale of decades-overdue vengeance through a murky display of busy music, nightmarish astral projection, and CGI witch ashes.  As she is perpetually cast to play, Alice Krige is a creepy old lady who is also the victim this time; a recovering actor that is still reeling from the sexual abuse that she suffered at the hands of a movie director decades older than her.  Look at it as a fictionalized, supernatural re-imagining of the Roman Polanski and Samantha Gailey scandal, with Malcolm McDowell standing in as the odious perpetrator who chalks up his icky, underage fling as something that "made her career", took place "in a different time", and that Krige's thirteen-year old sufferer "knew exactly what she was doing".  Potent material to look at in a post MeToo landscape to be sure, but Colbert's stylized vision takes a rambling trek to get there.  Clint Mansell's score is occasionally unorthodox and trippy, but it also propels things along without letting any of the surreal images sink in properly; images that are captivating sometimes and unimaginative at others.  A finale involving digital black stuff swirling around McDowell's bewildered frame is unintentionally funny and recalls Jan de Bont's The Haunting, which is the worst remake ever made and ergo something that one should never be reminded of.

THE MANOR

Dir - Axelle Carolyn

Overall: MEH

There is nothing extraordinary in writer/director Axelle Carolyn's old folks home creepshow The Manor; a cliche-fest that steers shy of being insulting yet is also instantly forgettable in the process.  The eighth installment in the Welcome to the Blumhouse series, it is a sufficient enough staring vehicle for Barbara Hershey whose seventy-plus age is made the driving narrative factor for a character that willingly checks herself into a swanky manor house for the elderly.  From there, it is all predictable plot points involving gaslighting from everywhere, CGI monster nightmares, panic-stricken residents giving vague and ominous warnings, passive aggressive staff members, weird occult things, a clue in a photograph, and Hershey's protagonist following an arc trajectory that a five year old could predict.  Carolyn keeps things moving enough even though every avenue that her story ventures down is well-trotted terrain, plus Hershey is her usual solid self even if she seems to have her tongue-in cheek most of the time, (which, who could blame her?).  The ending is unintentional schlocky silliness, but it is also satisfying for a movie that plays by the horror movie rules in the most disciplined sense.