Dir - Nick Murphy
Overall: MEH
Filmmaker Nick Murphy came from a television background and has since returned to it since making his debut films The Awakening and the following year's Blood. The first of these is the type of Gothic, muted-color-pallet-ridden, all too familiar ghost story that gets very few if any unique workouts. Similar yet better films such as The Others were more stylish and inventive, to name but one. The very fact that the plot here has a twist is in and of itself predictable as are most of the scares that come at the nearly always-required spots where the soundtrack gets silent for a few seconds and something quickly pops into frame, ushering in that dreadfully overused "boo scare" cliche that one cannot complain enough about. What works here are the rock solid performances and even a few spooky details that step away from the purely calculated ones. The cinematography otherwise would be impressive if not for the after-mentioned dull, routine, lack of a color scheme that even superhero movies seem required to have now, (looking in your direction Wonder Woman). So if it sounds like the movie adheres to too much contemporary, banal genre pandering, well, that is because it regrettably does.
Dir - Sean Branney
Overall: MEH
Though the intent is genuinely heartwarming for the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society to produce a full-length, independent film adaptation of The Whisperer In the Dark made in the deliberate style of black and white "talkie" films of the early 1930's, the result does not overcome its amateurish shortcomings. Instead of coming off as the labor of love that it is with only the most fanatic Lovecraft fan as its target audience, anyone else coming in will notice significant pacing, production, and acting issues. First off, at a hundred and four minutes long and again made exclusively by the most diehard of Lovecraft enthusiasts, one could logically speculate that the most minimal attempt was made to edit the movie down to a reasonable length as most of the staging is overstuffed. Many scenes simply drag on far too long and continue to repeat the same information. A tighter cut of the film would have kept things flowing much more sensibly. The very poor CGI can be forgivable due to the movie's minimal budget, but this is another case where "less is more" would have been far more effective than seeing the Yuggoth native creatures in a fully lit, visible form. Performance wise, Matt Foyer's exaggerated frowny-face and Daniel Kaemon's attempts at being a hammy villain both come off as silly. The liberties taken with Lovecraft's source material to provide more character depth and story arcs are rather clumsy as well and mixed with the other aforementioned problems, there is unfortunately just too much that does not work here.
Dir - Adam Brooks/Jeremy Gillespie/Matthew Kennedy/Steven Kostanski/Steven Kostanski/Conor Sweeny
Overall: MEH
Going into a Troma film expecting anything but the most absurd, gross-out shock garbage for garbage's sake would be disingenuous and by that decree, Father's Day is certainly a Troma film. The usual completely inept, technical ingredients such as high school play level acting, a billion cuts, hand held camerawork, extreme closeups, absolutely terrible cinematography, not bothering to record anyone's dialog properly, and throwing in as many plot holes as you can possibly fit into a single screenplay are all present. As far as actual content, the movie equally does not disappoint in its unpleasantness. A homosexual demon rapes and mutilates himself and his victims in unflinching detail, including dicks being ripped off by the mouth, gorged upon, and sliced apart. There is also hardcore incest because why would there not be? As clearly self-aware-obnoxious as Father's Day most confidently is, sitting through it is hardly the most pleasurable experience even for the most genuine movie trash lover. Over the top everything is great and can be often appreciated, but the majority of what is on screen here combined with how intentionally incompetent it is presented just makes it a chore. On that note, the movie is just too damn long. One can easily tune-out long before it literally ventures into hell where there was nothing more to be appalled at. Seeing Lloyd Kaufman as God is a hoot, but do we really need all the man-rape, penis eating, and sister banging?
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