Dir - Jordan Grahm
Overall: MEH
Shot in Yosemite National Park and Santa Cruz, Jordan Grahm's Sator is the type of incredibly slow-boiled, minimalist, independent genre film that is impressive in a DIY cinematic sense. Grahm handled every level of production with a small cast of unknowns, including his actual grandmother who not only delivers the only naturalistic performance in the entire film, but also served as the inspiration for the quite spooky premise of an unknown entity keeping watch over a family. There is some utterly gorgeous cinematography here from the woodland setting to picturesque, haunting images of lurking creepiness in every frame. Unfortunately though, the narrative is handled frustratingly as the characters never answer anyone's questions and persistently stare off into the distance, making the lack of narrative information more obnoxious than it is worth. Grahm is clearly working the "less is more" angle and relying on the power of suggestion as an endless stream of moments occur where people sit quietly, hear a faint noise, then look around still quietly for several minutes until the next scene starts with virtually the same modus operandi. There is a lot of promise here to be bone-chilling, it is just at the cost of humanity, humor, or anything else that could hold the audience's attention.
Dir - John Adams/Zelda Adams/Toby Poser
Overall: GOOD
Overall: GOOD
A wicked, funny, and interesting supernatural horror work all around, The Deeper You Dig comes from the husband/wife/daughter filmmaking team of John Adams, Toby Poser, and Zelda Adams, the latter who makes her full-length, co-directing debut along with her folks. The entire family also appear as the main characters and in a round about, supernaturally trippy manner, they end up fulfilling an on screen family dynamic through ghostly possession means. By utilizing its occult high-jinks more for oddity's sake than mere spookiness, there are a number of moments designed to bring out head-scratching chuckles, particularly when age-old cliches like psychic medium gobbledygook and mischievous hauntings end up having a camp quality that is hardly ever seen in other contemporary, somber-toned, independent genre films. Since this also kind of qualifies as the latter, such elements could have easily made it a messy affair, but the consistent quirkiness gives it an unnatural feel that is ideal to its otherworldly subject matter. Some less than ideal CGI notwithstanding, it makes the most out of its simple, cold, late autumn setting where dead leaves, dead trees, dead animals, and wacky hallucinations create an earthy yet macabre aesthetic.
Dir - Harold Hölscher
Overall: GOOD
The full-length, non-television debut from South African filmmaker Harold Hölscher The Soul Collector, (8: A South African Horror Story, 8), has some genuinely creepy moments along its sincere, folkloric trek. The set up has been done a trillion times where a family moves into an old, remote house, but it does not adhere to a boatload of thematic cliches and instead offers up a simple yet increasingly touching story involving curses, revenge demons, mystical tribal ceremonies, reincarnation, and realms between life and death The dialog is occasionally lazy, the score which liberally borrows the famous, key melody from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" becomes a bit too whimsical at times, and Hölscher utilizes a number of fades between scenes that come off more like they are signifying a commercial break than anything else, but these are thankfully just minor qualms. Tshamano Sebe delivers the stand-out performance as the tortured, supernaturally doomed title character, yet newcomer Keita Luna is an atypical horror movie kid who has a more mature sweetness to her that is a refreshing break from the usual scaredy-cat that simply annoys their parents with imaginary friends that no one else can see.
No comments:
Post a Comment