Dir - Adam William Cahill
Overall: MEH
Zombie comedies are hardly a thing that anyone ever needs again, but for better or worse, Adam William Cahill's full-length debut Follow the Dead at least throws Ireland's hat into the ring. Shot in 2017 and released three years later in the heart of a global pandemic, there is a thematic through-line of people not trusting the severity or even existence of an undead apocalypse when it is broadcast via something as fickle as social media. The likeable characters are mostly schlubs; getting high, being bad in relationships, or trying to bump up interest as an online influencer. So when the zombie mayhem starts, a clear Shaun of the Dead aura takes over where everyone is more keen on cracking jokes and busting each others balls than taking their situation seriously. Things gradually shift though to the point where it becomes tonally imbalanced. Instead of revving everything up to a bloody and ridiculous conclusion, the final act pulls a 180 degree turn and strips out the nyuck nyucks for sad piano music playing over some harrowing loss suffered by the characters. This "Well that sucks" maneuver into full-blown tragedy feels incorrect or at the very least over done, but even with its missteps in tow, the cast does solid work and it deviates from the norm enough to be of interest.
Dir - Ángel Gómez Hernández
Overall: WOOF
The full-length debut Don't Listen, (Voces), from Spanish filmmaker Ángel Gómez Hernández may be the modern poster boy for a movie that is ruined by exhaustive jump scares. Not that the story steers itself from derivative supernatural nonsense that has been done countless times either. Every year we get yet another goddamn horror movie where a family moves into a creepy, isolated house and the unnaturally quiet kid experiences ghost activity, only to not be believed by any grownups. The first act here gets off to such a hackneyed start, which makes the increasing number of "everything gets pin drop quiet so that a loud screechy noise can spring out of nowhere" moments that much more painful and lazy. To be fair, the performances are better than the schlocky material deserves, plus the film throws a couple of abrupt moments into its insultingly stale framework, switching gears early on so that it can usher in even more cliches with paranormal investigators who all-too-easily uncover even more cliches still that are lurking behind a fly-breeding wall. Every time that something interesting shows up to spring the viewer out of their eye-ball rolling boredom, Hernández just as quickly undermines it with a laughably tripe presentation and several willy-nilly plot maneuvers that everyone involved should be embarrassed by.
Dir - Hideo Nakata
Overall: MEH
An uneven comedy/horror hybrid from J-horror maverick Hideo Nakata, Stigmatized Properties, (Jiko Bukken: Kowai Madori), is an adaptation of comedian Tanishi Matsubara's "non-fiction" book of the same name. Said title refers to the any piece of Japanese real estate where a murder and/or hauntings allegedly occur and/or occurred, with Matsubara's written exploits concerning his numerous experiences in such locations. The film follows the same narrative principal where a struggling comedic personality gets the job of staying in haunted abodes in order to document the results for a TV station. At nearly two-hours in length, the movie struggles to keep the momentum going with a bland and borderline unlikable protagonist who goes from one vaguely supernatural encounter to the next, until the final set piece lets loose with a ghostly CGI spectacle that is more cartoony than frightening. In fact nothing at all goosebumps-worthy happens throughout, probably because Nakata awkwardly stumbles through a tone that tries to be lighthearted and spooky without committing enough to either. On the plus side, Azusa Kosaka makes for a charmingly sweet fangirl and even though her character is as underwritten as the lot of them, she interjects some tenderness into a film that seems to be going for a general audience appeal anyway.
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