Dir - Adam MacDonald
Overall: MEH
This full-length debut from Canadian actor-turned writer/filmmaker Adam MacDonald is survival/nature horror at its most textbook. Everything that always happens with people in movies getting lost in the woods happens here; a guy is arrogantly sure that he can navigate the wilderness without a map or cell phone in case of emergencies, the person with him thought they had said items with them the whole time, they run into a shady character early on to get them and the audience on edge, they hear noises at night, and awaken to concerning things around their campsite in the morning. While the script is rather barren on surprises then, MacDonald tests his abilities in creating a carefully controlled, suspenseful mood. That is until the third act when the tension is exponentially revved up. For the most part, the two leads in Missy Peregrym and Jeff Roop are decent and their dynamic as a couple is relatable enough to give the film some emotional weight when it is most needed. With every little twig snap more heart-racing than the last, it does arrive at a rather intense place, but the crawl to get there just may be too gradual and pedestrian for some tastes.
Dir - Richard Bates Jr.
Overall: GOOD
Richard Bates Jr.'s follow-up to the uneven yet interesting Excison has a similar, fundamental theme of a young person hopelessly at odd with their parents, but other than that, it is a rather contrasting beast. Most prominently, Suburban Gothic is a full-fledged comedy and it plays not one of its moments for anything besides laughs. Thankfully it is pretty damn funny, yet in an aggressively quirky way that might annoy or even befuddle certain viewers while delighting others. Every character is either an asshole or a smart-ass though usually both. The two leads Matthew Gray Gubler and Kat Dennings make an amusingly non-charming couple and their lack of chemistry is played-up rather well. Ray Wise probably brings the most to the proceedings though as a judgemental, racist, dirtbag dad who is a lot more likeable than his character sounds on paper. As far as the humor specifically goes, it is part horror parody and part John Waters tastelessness. This is no accident as Waters himself cameos as a blowjob-happy museum curator, which is the second hilarious fellatio joke to show up within about five minutes.
Dir - Anthony DiBlasi
Overall: MEH
There is an abundance of problems with Anthony DiBlasi's Last Shift that squander its potential. Set in a soon to be abandoned police station with a lone rookie cop on duty there, it features a rather relentless stream of supernatural set pieces. Many of them would be positively skin-crawling if not for the stock sound design that robs them of all their impact. Strip away the generic music and bangy noises every fifteen seconds and it would be quite creepy in a more natural context. Making matters worse though, the plot points are horribly predictable and as generic as they come. There is an emotional undercurrent to the story, but when everything around it is so big, loud, and above all else derivative, then it comes off as an eye-ball rolling schlock-fest played seriously. Which is the worst kind of eye-ball rolling schlock-fest. As a mere haunted house attraction then, those who still think bloody pentagrams, bloody masks, bloody writing on walls, bloody hillbilly ghosts doing random things on an anniversary of something affecting the woman they are terrorizing, (a woman who does not mention all the wadkadoo shit that she is seeing the first several times that she is given the opportunity to of course), then this movie has all of that plus several bloody jump scares more.
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