2014 Horror Part Two

THE CANAL
Dir - Ivan Kavanagh
Overall: GOOD 

Irish filmmaker Ivan Kavanagh's The Canal is a mostly enjoyable, contemporary spookfest.  Opening rather undramatically with the line "Who wants to see ghosts?", the grounded yet unnerving tone is set pretty directly from the outset.  The soundtrack is a strong point, with low, droning hums and completely unmelodic ambience conveying the right atmosphere.  The standard dream sequences are marvelously done as well, (a particular scene in a rather filthy, public toilet is quite memorable).  Another strong component is the performances and as opposed to the same year's The Babadook, youngster Calum Heath's Billy is a remarkably pleasant and well behaved movie kid.  For a ghost story, it is nice for once that "imaginary friend" tropes are not attributed to him as he pretty much never encounters any of the bumps in the night as children in horror films almost 100% seem required to do.  Considering that the material is rather conventional on paper, Kavanagh's approach is noticeably fresh.  This nicely elevates it from hoards of other more by-the-books, supernatural horror movies.

KRISTY
Dir - Oliver Blackburn
Overall: WOOF

Opening with long set up and even a fun montage to become familiar with the lead protagonist, Olly Blackburn's Kristy eventually becomes an obnoxious checklist of illogical and over-used slasher movie nonsense.  By being so generic in structure as well as execution, there is zero that happens which is unique in anyway shape or form.  Nearly every move is predictable, every character does stupid things, the laws of physics are ignored, the lights are all off, cell phones do not work, the villains wear masks and tilt their heads like a pug while the soundtrack makes banging noises, blatant foreshadowing stinks up the joint, and, well, you get the idea.  For those familiar with the concept of a pretty girl left all alone while a bunch of maniacs chase her around, then you likewise know all the rhythms and cliches which this film misses not a one.  Haley Bennett's performance is fine and the movie looks OK so there are no problems there.  Everything else though is a different story.  As an extra negative, the final line of dialogue and the post credit scene are both terrible in a cringe-worthy manner.  The same can truly be said about the whole movie really.

TUSK
Dir - Kevin Smith
Overall:  GOOD

Well this is certainly...a movie.  From the SModcast episode where Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier both conceived of the film in real time, to the Twitter post by Smith to ask his fans if they wanted him to make this insanity a reality, to the updates on filming and casting and the eventual release of the trailer, the final unveiling of Tusk certainly delivers on its ludicrous promise.  This movie walks an incredibly tricky line.  The concept, (on paper and screen), is absolutely ridiculous and obviously Smith is well aware of this considering the well-documented, marijuana-influenced circumstances of its origins.  Johnny Deep's entire character as well as a handful of other scenes throughout definitely reek favorably of Smith's laugh-out-loud sense of humor.  On the other hand, the majority of it is played very straight.  When things gets real, they get very real in an intentionally unpleasant way.  Michael Parks steals the film and is astounding here, turning in a Vincent Price worthy performance that sees him taking the camp level to an utterly believable place, making the absurdity of it so very disturbing.  It is equally one of the most preposterous major-released horror movies out there yet also one of the most balls-out unsettling.