Overall: GOOD
A promising debut from British filmmaker Remi Weekes, His House showcases a few unique ideas while playing it safe in other areas. Technically a haunted house film, centering it on a refugee couple from South Sudan besieged by malevolent, mystical forces from their homeland, the cultural elements give it a promising spin. The tired and played-out horror formula is tweaked in a few instances to great effect, though elsewhere, relentless music, ghoulish visuals, and predictable jumps undermine these more refreshingly creepy moments. Thankfully, there is a far greater emphasis on how overwhelming guilt eats away at those in severe desperation, which serves as the traumatic heart of the movie's horror in the first place. The two lead performances by Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu are superb and without them and such a powerful, emotional backbone to the proceedings, the movie's more genre-pandering visuals and beats could have become too distracting. What is strong here is not only quite strong, but ultimately more important than what is not.
Dir - William Eubank
Overall: MEH
The third feature from cinematographer turned director William Eubank is
also notable as the last film ever to be released under the 20th
Century Fox label after Disney acquired the company and changed it to
20th Century Studios a week following its release. While this technically gives Underwater some historical importance, the movie itself
is anything but memorable. Tailor-made to check off every "crew
besieged by an unknown monster while trying to survive" trope that there
has ever been, there are so many other works that many elements here
can be traced back to that it is a rather a futile chore to list them
here. We have all seen this kind of stuff before. The underwhelming,
derivative nature aside, Underwater also suffers from frequently
muffled dialog, confusing editing, and forcefully gritty and
disorienting camerawork that puts the viewer at a complete loss as to
what is going on during many would-be tense set pieces. Throw in a gang
of characters that are exclusively underdeveloped, incessantly obnoxious
and predictable jump scares, and unnatural CGI and that does not really
leave a whole lot else to recommend. That is unless you are simply a fan of
watching Kristen Stewart run around wet and bleeding in her underwear a
lot.
Dir - Bryan Bertino
Overall: MEH
The latest from writer/director Bryan Bertino, (The Strangers, The Monster), is a very brooding, slow-boil examination of malicious dread, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. The Dark and the Wicked's tone is consistently miserable without a solitary moment of humor and this suites the story where characters continually succumb to hopelessness. What does not suite the movie itself is how relentless cliches bombard each other for screen time, each one taking more and more away from its intended, affecting impact. The soundtrack is particularly determined; barely a scene is allowed to breath in any semblance of verisimilitude as the creepy music is incessantly driving the viewers emotions, never once allowing them to forget that they are watching a by-the-books horror movie. None of the supernatural components are given any semblance of purpose as they are only there to provide a hefty quota of arbitrary creepy stuff for the utter sake of such a thing. In the process, it all comes off thoroughly predictable and even grating after awhile. For something so dour and hyper-focused on evoking an emotional reaction, it is a shame that it takes zero chances in its presentation and relies so unflinchingly heavy on banal conventions.
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