(2003)
Dir - Ronny Yu
Overall: MEH
Hot off his success with Bride of Chucky, Hong Kong director Ronny Yu breathes some more schlocky life into two additional and already schlocky horror properties with the inevitable crossover Freddy vs. Jason. Coming after a near decade long wait each, this was the last entry into both the Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street franchises before the immediately forgettable reboots that came a few years later, so it is triple noteworthy for being Robert Englund's final foray as Freddy Krueger. Englund hams it up as much as he ever did in a movie that has every business being as idiotic as it is, with Canadian stuntman Ken Kirzinger stepping in for Kane Hodder since all that is ultimately required for Jason Voorhees is to just be a big dumb walking meat sack with a machete. Several years in the making with various script treatments being done before all of the legalities could be sussed out, it does what a Freddy versus Jason movie is supposed to do. The bar was low enough considering the multitude of "making it up as they went along, because fuck it" sequels that came before, and this one is doubly obnoxious for adhering to the early 2000s trope of deplorably stupid teenage horror romps that insult the viewer with a nod and wink. To be fair though, Yu knows what kind of product he is tasked with making here, delivering enough nonsensical cartoon mayhem between his two slasher icons to forgive stereotypical characters who only behave the way they do because the script needs to wrap itself up at some point.
(2005)
Dir - Amanda Gusack
Overall: MEH
It is a common thread amongst found footage movies to be presented in a framework that begs the question of why they were done as found footage movies in the first place. The full-length debut In Memorium from indie filmmaker Amanda Gusack is just such a movie, since it opens with our lead character installing dozens upon dozens of cameras in a suburban house that him and his girlfriend are renting for a few months, just to make sure we get boatloads of conventional coverage to edit from. Why they are renting one instead of just chilling at their own is never convincingly explained, but that is less of a problem compared to others. The premise involves Erik McDowell being diagnosed with terminal cancer, so he decides to document the last few months of his life so that we can get a full-length movie out of it. McDowell and his devoted girlfriend Johanna Watts hold their own with the material, but Levi Powell as McDowell's stoner dude brother turns in a horrendous performance, something that devalues the heavy subject matter which deals with mortality, guilt, and the struggles that adults face with the sins of their parents having affected them. Gusack at least resists adding any scary music, but she is only able to muster the type of derivative plot points and scare tactics that have been seen countless times before and since.
(2009)
Dir - Corbin Bernsen
Overall: MEH
Actor-turned-director Corbin Bernsen has popped up in a number of horror movies throughout his career, with Dead Air serving as his only venture into the genre from behind the lens. It is also a film that can be seen as the American Pontypool, being close enough of a carbon copy to warrant comparison. Unfortunately. this is the cheaper and schlockier counterpart to Bruce McDonald's Canadian film from the previous year, which itself had its share of problems and was done on a meager budget. Bernsen's work here has a low-rent, digital television sheen, one that looks like a pathetic dollar bin action movie that used to pop up in droves on Redbox. The performances are of the same caliber, even genre mainstay Bill Moseley coming off like he is only mildly over-qualified for a high school drama production. He is the best actor here though, which does not bode well for Kenny Yakkel's heavy-handed script that utilizes post-September 11th paranoia as its driving force. The "zombie" outbreak is caused by terrorists, and the film almost becomes interesting in its third act when one of the culprits hijacks Moseley's radio broadcast and lays out all of the expository dialog and justifications. Yet it just as quickly divulges into preachy platitudes, all the while the Hallmark movie aesthetics undermine any sense of tension, as well as making the rabid 28 Days Later-style zombie attacks come off as clumsy at best.
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