Dir - Igor Legarreta
Overall: GOOD
This Basque-language, French/Spanish co-production from filmmaker Igor Legarreta is heavily atmospheric and picturesque in its lush yet grimy, period-set cinematography that goes for a melancholic mood that never lets up. A vampire movie, All the Moons is thematically no different from many others, taking a somber approach to immortality that strips away all of its romanticism and instead focuses on the painful isolation of such an existence, particularly in a late 19th century-early 20th century Spanish wilderness. Haizea Carneros portrays a character that is perpetually tragic, born motherless and taken in by a convent that would rather pray than flee during a late Third Carlist War bombing, at which point she is found by one of the undead who "saves" her only to unintentionally abandon her once her flock of blood-drinkers is hunted down. While the movie has none of the flashy cinematic motifs of vampires, (no fangs, prissy mannerisms, ghoulish appearances, or monstrous outbursts), and the tone is more rooted in folkloric fantasy than anything garishly genre-pandering, the bare-bones story adheres to the ageless motif of suffocating loneliness brought on by a sort of non-living between two worlds, as well as the trauma and confusion that comes with venturing into a perpetual existence on your own.
Dir - Péter Bergendy
Overall: MEH
Overlong and unintentionally hilarious, filmmaker Péter Bergendy's Post Mortem is a rare horror entry from Hungary that blows its unnerving premise of a World War I veteran who has taken up a profession as a corpse photographer, as was the trend of the time. The ghostly shenanigans here consist of invisible specters who push, pull, possess, and grab people, putting them in outrageous poses and often while hovering in mid-air as if they are voguing for "Matrix night" at a club. Throw in some cartoony monster faces, cartoony monster voices, cartoony shadows, blaring horns on the soundtrack, and a big, loud special effect- heavy finale that jives awkwardly with the period setting, and it becomes a schlock-fest that lacks the subtlety to deliver the chills. The performances are also uneven, occasionally mugging, occasionally genuine, (especially where Viktor Klem and Fruzsina Hais are concerned, who have a sweet, mentor/student chemistry with each other), and occasionally wooden as if the actors had no idea what kind of post-production scariness they were supposed to be reacting to. Beautifully photographed at least, (that is when the lousy CGI does not interrupt things), but otherwise a clumsy and sluggish mess.
Dir - Adam Stovall
Overall: GOOD
A no-budget indie outing from first-time filmmaker Adam Stovall, A Ghost Waits is an occasionally funny and sweet tale of the supernatural that manages to overcome its home movie awkwardness. Cinematically speaking, there is little to impress here since it was shot in an ordinary, modern house in non-atmospheric black and white, more to evenly match footage that was compiled from different periods in production than to provide any kind of old school spooky vibes. The SOV aesthetic is fine for those who adjust their expectations to this type of DIY form of movie-making; a form that works due to its inventiveness, touching story, and the chemistry between the two leads. Co-writer MacLeod Andrews is compelling as a well-intended yet lonely handyman who finally meets someone that is actually interested in him when Natalie Walker's "spectral agent" goes about fulfilling her duty of scaring him off of her property, which was assigned to her by an afterlife bureaucracy program ala-Beetlejuice. Their blossoming love story is silly in its abruptness and unnaturally implausible of course, but each character is fleshed-out and good-natured enough to sympathize with. It also helps that much of their banter and several of the set pieces are actually amusing, as it provides a quirky alternative to the usual haunted house movie since this one is more interesting in making fun of itself and bringing two lonely souls together than busting out arbitrary scares and/or solving a diabolical mystery.
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