Dir - Maximiliano Contenti
Overall: GOOD
For his second solo directorial effort The Last Matinee, (Al morir la matinée, Red Screening), Uruguayan filmmaker Maximiliano Contenti delivers an unapologetic giallo/80s slasher throwback that is both high on gore and low on originality by design. As one could logically guess from the title alone, it takes place entirely in an independent movie theater that is of course showing a horror movie, (Ricardo Islas' ultra-cheap, retro Hammer-styled Frankenstein: Day of the Beast, Islas also appearing here as the eyeball collecting maniac). Contenti utilizes extreme, unsettling close-ups, slow-motion suspense building, vividly eerie color schemes, a synth musical score, campy call-backs, and cliche-heavy plot points that recall many video nasties of the Euro-horror/low-budget American trash variety. The film looks far better than many of the genre movies it is a homage too though, beautifully photographed even in its most grotesque moments. There is also a simple charm to the whole thing that while deliberately not trying to reinvent the wheel in any fashion, also does not come off as insulting by means of a lazy execution. If it took itself too seriously or winked too hard at its nostalgic-hungry audience then it might not get a pass, but it is an innocently unfancy, stylish bloodbath as is.
Dir - Steven Kostanski
Overall: MEH
The latest from Astron-6 writer/director/special effects man Steven Kostanski is an aesthetically impressive yet largely unfunny and obnoxious sci-fi spoof. Part of the charm with a movie like PG: Psycho Goreman is how it manages to exist at all, cobbled together with a noticeably minimal budget yet featuring inventive practical and makeup effects that look like a cross between tokusatsu action TV and 80s monster movies. Tonally, it is deliberately chaotic, indulging in splattery violence, filthy jokes, fish out of water plot points, and cringe-worthy musical numbers all within a preposterous, comic book parodying framework. While much of this sounds fun on paper and one or two chuckles land as intended, nearly every character merely behaves in a fashion to simply allow for whoever they are conversing with to respond with groan-worthy quips. In the process, it is mostly a series of arbitrary behavior from all involved, except of course where Nita-Jose Hanna's brat protagonist/antagonist is concerned who simply will not stop being annoyingly awful. Her wacky, unnatural parents are a completely different problem, having a bizarre ark that persistently falls flat in every instance that they are on screen. An admirable mess, yet one that needs a substantial rewrite from top to bottom in order to be worth one's time.
Dir - David Charbonier/Justin Powell
Overall: WOOF
An aggravatingly unoriginal and ergo insulting cat and mouse thriller from the newcomer writer/director team of David Charbonier and Justin Powell, The Boy Behind the Door has very little to offer. Since it has such a bare-bones premise, it is necessary for it to get by on a clever use of its set pieces which in this case are predicated on pure suspense building. Regrettably though, Charbonier and Powell rely on obvious call-backs, (*cough rip-offs), to much more famous horror movies, particularly The Shining whose entire "Wendy trapped in the bathroom while Jack hacks it down with an axe" scene is recreated almost shot for shot. Also, public domain classics Night of the Living Dead and The House on Haunted Hill are heard in the background which have been used for characters to be watching on TV in horror movies for decades now. These are honestly more minor blunders though as the rest of it is littered with obvious psyche-outs and twists to wrack up the tension, one-note villains who are not only evil just for the sake of it but also morons, groan-worthy "friends till the end" nonsense, and eye-wincing nastiness for mere gross-out value. The more it builds to its conclusion, the easier it is to entirely check out and lose any and all interest in something so thoroughly underwritten and lazy.
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