2023 Horror Part Thirty

MALIBU HORROR STORY

Dir - Scott Slone

Overall: MEH

 

Writer/director Scott Slone's Malibu Horror Story tires to be two different types of horror films at the same time, a conventional one and a found footage one.  While this is an admirable ambition from a conceptual standpoint, unfortunately the results are tripe at best and obnoxious at worst.  The trajectory which is laid out in the first act maintains some good grace for awhile, where we meet four young and attractive leads, (that are not annoying dipshits for once, but worry not, those guys arrive shortly), who are paranormal investigating a cave where some recently graduated high school bros went missing some time prior.  We then get a refreshing way to deliver just about all the exposition that we will need in a lengthy documentary format that our protagonists are currently working on, bringing us up to date in order for the film to switch to a version of Neil Marshall's The Descent, except with Native American mysticism, non-written characters, and loud screechy soundtrack noises literally every time that the camera movies quickly to catch something potentially "scary".  The final set piece where evil forces are finally unleashed is borderline terrible due to how insultingly generic and uninspired it is, but the road to get there alludes to a more unique hybrid of styles, be it one that unfortunately it cannot live up to.

 

PINK FOR THE MASSES

Dir - Sid Lucero/Vic Lucero

Overall: WOOF

 

No budget faux-art house nonsense, Pink for the Masses is an embarrassingly ambitious debut from the filmmaking duo of Sid and Vic Lucero, one that is an unapologetic excess of fetishism via pretentiousness.  It recalls other trying-way-too-hard micro-budgeted student films, (or films that look and behave exactly like student films), that are experimental either deliberately or they just come off that way because the creative personal behind them has neither the means nor the talent to do anything that is provocative or interesting in a remotely user-friendly context.  A woman prattles on aimlessly with "evocative" dialog that sounds as if it was written by a twelve year old who did a school paper on Stockholm syndrome after Google searching what "BDSM" is.  Shown almost exclusively in hand held and digitally obscured close-ups, said woman writhes around either naked or in pink panties and a tank top, occasionally making herself puke and drool or letting her tormentor/soul mate cause such puking and drooling when he shoves his fingers down her throat for minutes on end.  It bounces between arty pedestrian imagery, some of which is softcore and some of which also softcore yet uglier, telling no narrative and saying absolutely nothing about anything.  It is too pathetic and ridiculous to warrant any emotions from the audience besides boredom, which is probably the opposite effect of what any highbrow bit of "challenging" movie-making is going for.

 

IN MY MOTHER'S SKIN

Dir - Kenneth Dagatan

Overall: MEH

 

For his second full-length In My Mother's Skin, (which like its 2018 predecessor Ma also falls squarely into regional folk horror), Filipino filmmaker Kenneth Dagatan has crafted something exhaustively bleak.  Period set just as World War II is wrapping up, the focus is on abandoned family who has to fend for themselves when their father departs, accepting the help of a smirking supernatural goddess that is clearly up to no good.  While the situation could be worse, (said family lives in a spacious mansion in the middle of nowhere, which is better than being homeless at least), they are fucked from the onset, at the mercy of predatory military personnel and left with hardly any food to eat when their mother becomes cripplingly ill.  It is no wonder then that one of the children goes for the tempting offer made by the mysterious and loudly decorated fairy in the woods, even if we and probably even she knows that there is a good chance that there is a diabolical catch to it all.  Everything becomes clear when it is too late of course, and it is thematically adjacent to Guillermo del Toro's historical dark adult fairy tale Pan's Labyrinth, except there are various stock horror beats, no sense of childlike wonder, and no uplifting reprieve.  This is miserable and heavy stuff, and Dagatan stays the course for those who can appreciate the relentless atmosphere and harrowing trajectory.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Nine

HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE CARMICHAEL MANOR

Dir - Stephen Cognetti

Overall: MEH

 

Filmmaker Stephen Cognetti continues his consistently faulty found footage franchise with the obligatory sequel/prequel Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor.  For anyone interested in the mythology that he has carved out around a creepy hotel, a creepy cult, and also some creepy clown mannequins because why not utilize as many stale tropes as possible, the fourth installment here may satisfy those appetites.  The format is the same, as it is presented as a documentary with the "found" footage spliced between talking heads, with scary music, conventional editing, and obnoxiously loud noises thrown in for jump scare purposes.  This is always a moronic idea that laughably deflates the entire purpose of a sub-genre that only works if we experience the raw footage without any enhancements or distractions, but lord knows that maybe only one or two people in cinema history who have actually made one of these movies is aware of this fact.  Cognetti is not one of these people, so his property can only offer up some unsettling mythos and a handful of freaky set pieces for a popcorn-munching audience that expects nothing more from such films.  To be fair, there are some hair-raising moments here, plus the performances are better than usual, but as always, its hackneyed and misguided laziness undermines the whole.

 

ET TU

Dir - Max Tzannes

Overall: MEH

 

It is difficult to make heads or tails of whatever writer/director Max Tzannes' full-length debut Et Tu is on about.  Deliberately comedic, it reveals its absurdity at a gradual rate where we are not aware that we are in some kind of psychological warp until the bodies start piling up, alarmingly so at that.  Set almost entirely within a modest theater where an obligatory production of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" is being staged, three characters end up being consumed by some sort of euphoric determination to put on the best possible show no matter what the obstacles.  This is a misleading summary though, since it goes into ridiculous directions that provide no convincing motivation for anyone's behavior.  Egos, jealously, pretensions, and just good ole fashioned mental illness all commingle, and just when we think that we have an angle on why such a dark escalation is taking place, more tidbits rear their confusing head to throw us off.  Is it a film about the pressures of the theater, about the hopes and dreams, (whether squashed or burgeoning), of the people involved in putting on a production?  If so, the stakes never seem high enough to warrant such spiraling folly.  Tzannes keeps up a kettle-boiling atmosphere in the first act before the gloves fly off and it is anyone's guess as to how such a mess will resolve itself, but it is an interesting if not altogether exemplary watch.  At least Lou Diamond Phillips is getting some scene-chomping material to work with.

 

THE TOXIC AVENGER

Dir - Macon Blair

Overall: MEH

 

Though far from a disaster, Macon Blair's long-awaited remake of Troma's The Toxic Avenger still misses its mark more than it hits it, and it tries very hard to hit it.  The movie's excess is a necessary component though since there is no other approach to such material than to overdo it, and in this regard Blair and his team of willing participants lock into the kind of scatological, ridiculous, and gutter-trash aesthetic that Lloyd Kaufman and his particular brand of D-grade filmmaking consistently delivers.  At the same time though, this is a slick production that looks as if it has the budget of every Troma movie combined, (plus tens of millions of dollars more), yet this is not as jarring as one would think.  As far as narrative allegiance to the original, Blair uses the bare bones concept and updates it with modern if still vulgar sensibilities that succeed in being eons less offensive than Kaufman's aggressive stock and trade.  There are minimal sex jokes, even less nudity, no fart or diarrhea gags, and minorities and the disenfranchised are spared.  On that note, the gimmick of casting Peter Dinklage in the title role never plays off the actor's size, (something that Dinklage may have insisted on), but he is so effortlessly charismatic and effective as a do-goody, struggling stepfather that even when Luisa Guerreiro takes over the physical transformation part with Dinklage's voice, this new Toxie still ends up being a charmer.  While there are a handful of laugh out loud moments, most of the gags fall flat or are even worse embarrassing, (Toxie singing "Overkill" from Motörhead for absolutely no reason is enough to deduct an entire star rating).  Still, it is hard to hate a movie that has its moronic heart in such a good place.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Eight

HOSTILE DIMENSIONS
Dir - Graham Hughes
Overall: MEH

 

A crackerjack premise that proves horrendously suited for the found footage/mockumentary format, Hostile Dimensions is the second full-length done in such a mold from Scottish filmmaker Graham Hughes.  Utilizing much of the cast from 2019's Death of a Vlogger, (his first foray into the sub-genre), Hughes kicks things off with a creepy hook, presenting a literal door into other dimensions that are home to any combination of the horrifying, the absurd, and the hilarious.  Whenever any characters venture through such a door, the results are usually memorable, plus they give Hughes an excuse to arbitrarily indulge in his imagination.  It is everywhere else that the film suffers.  The documentary within a horror movie is comedically edited, broken up into chapters, and has oodles of scary music added to it, and of course there is a prologue where the otherworldly footage has already been shown to the masses, shattering any and all semblance of plausibility.  On that note, why these underwritten characters are filming the things that they are filming in the first place is barely given a thought, and the whole thing has a goofy and reckless tone that can only lead to a sloppy conclusion.  It also sets up a sequel, so time will tell how much more off the rails this potential franchise will get.

 

SANA
Dir - Takashi Shimizu
Overall: MEH

 

J-horror mainstay Takashi Shimizu collaborates with the J-pop group Generations in the textbook "young female ghost up to shenanigans" romp Sana, (Minna no Uta).  "Romp" is a misleading word actually as the film feels its hour and forty-two minute length, meandering more than frightening.  The premise once again utilizes the J-horror staple of a nasty specter being able to influence and/or murder people through antiquated technology, (an audio cassette tape in this case), but the pretty boy Generations gang playing themselves plus a small handful of older actors sleepwalk through their scenes, as if they are bored by the stale nature of the material the same way that many viewers may be.  As derivative as it is compared to a style that Shimizu himself was instrumental in popularizing, the writer/director can still effortlessly deliver some freaky moments.  A flashback plays out in front of more than one character, (mundane at first yet increasingly eerie with each loop), the mother in said flashback lunges towards the camera wide-eyed while making a goofy noise, and the title ghost slowly floats down a staircase while strangled by an impossibly long extension chord looking like a grotesque abomination in a haunted house display.  It also has a laughably underwhelming ending, basically just stopping once the mystery is solved, the ghost apparently satisfied enough to just return everyone back to normal and leave them alone.

 

DARIUSS
Dir - Guerrilla Metropolitana
Overall: WOOF

 

Remember Jay Sherman's student film L'artiste est Morte, which was presented as a pretentious embarrassment that was up its own ass?  OK, now imagine an hour long version of that, in color sometimes, and done by a mentally compromised twelve year-old with raging hormones who wants to watch his mom and grandma have sex with each other.  Oh, and also imagine a painfully loud dripping noise that is looped ad nauseam every minute and forty-five seconds, give or take.  Shit, also also imagine two pieces of music that are played in between the aforementioned "please kill me this is so annoying" dripping noise and various other squishy, horny sound effects.  This will give you at least a starting point to the trying-way-to-hard-to-be-profound, (Maybe?), trainwreck that is Dariuss from Italian filmmaker Guerrilla Metropolitana, (his real name, presumably).  Every once in awhile a "movie" like this comes down the pike, something that is done with no finances and no talent, yet with a seemingly sincere intent to challenge the form and at the very least, not be like anything else.  While there are other examples of this floating around like E. Elias Merhige's unwatchable Begotten and Kyle Edward Ball's also unwatchable Skinamarink, Metropolitana's work here could be argued to be even more poor and unintentionally hilarious.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Seven

TOTALLY KILLER
Dir - Nahnatchka Khan
Overall: GOOD

Boasting the same bare-bones "travel back in time to save a parent's murder while a serial killer is on the loose" premise as Todd Strauss-Schulson's The Final Girls, Totally Killer is loosey-goosey with a handful of its details and sacrifices plausibility in a time of crisis for nyuck nyucks, but it otherwise hits its mark as an R-rated meta slasher romp.  The second full-length from director Nahnatchka Khan, and scripted by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo, it crams in various pop culture references, is liberal enough with the blood splatter, and mostly plays off of the inherent fish-out-of-water tropes found in all time travel stories.  While its cat and mouse slasher set pieces offer few surprises, there are thankfully some clever subversions elsewhere, and the characters, (even if most of them adhere to typical high school stereotypes), are well-drawn enough to warrant investment.  Also, Stone-faced scream queen Kiernan Shipka seems to be having more fun here than usual, running around Marty McFly-style while trying in vain to save lives and preserve her own timeline.

 

INVOKING YELL

Dir - Patricio Valladares

Overall: MEH

 

Taking a full-length stab at traditional found footage, Chilean filmmaker Patricio Valladares' Invoking Yell is ultra low-budget and ultra faulty, representing a black metal version of The Blair Witch Project which is only partially not as terrible as it sounds.  Slow boil to a problematic extent, things meander aimlessly as three young metalheads venture into the woods, act bitchy towards each other, make metal faces and devil horns while posing a lot, and repeat themselves several times when discussing their chosen genre.  Two of these women are in the "depressive suicidal black metal" band of the title, and the other one acts as documentarian, hoping to join what is likely the only all female extreme metal outfit in Chile.  We quickly get a handle on everyone's less than agreeable personalities, which makes it problematic and downright boring that such a long build up takes place where nothing of interest happens.  On this note though, once something of interest DOES happen, it seems to come out of left field even if many signs point towards it en route.  Unfortunately, the final act stumbles wildly, making for a confusing mess that is both visually and thematically unfocused to say the least.  Not that the film promised much to begin with, but it delivers even less.

 

ABRUPTIO

Dir - Evan Marlowe

Overall: MEH

 

Gimmick movies can easily be dismissed for trumping sensationalism over commendable storytelling.  The interesting thing about writer/director Evan Marlowe's Abruptio though is that even if it was not shot exclusively with life-sized puppets instead of actors, it would still be a strange and ambitious work that would leave a lingering impact on its viewers.  So yes, the hook is that puppets are running around here killing people, being tormented by aliens who sew bombs into their necks, and suffering psychological breakdowns that need to be shaken out of them via testicle electrocution.  Plus some other stuff.  Marlowe's choice to go full The Dark Crystal/Meet the Feebles with the presentation is obviously designed to be the main talking point, and it does enhance the surreal nature of the material which often times has the aesthetic quality of a cheap YouTube video.  The puppets are unsettling and only human-like to a point, (think a less caricatured version of Genesis' "Land of Confusion" video), so even when they are ranting, raving, and engaging in questionable behavior, their blank and squishy foam faces come off as hilariously odd.  The film can be applauded for its ambition, struggling with its impossible quirky tone as it puts its alcoholic with a deep secret through the ringer of soul-crushing torment, Matthew Chookiat Sakveerakul's 13 Beloved-style.  At the same time, it bites off more than it needs to, and the goofy puppets take away from its more sincere themes.

The Bad Ben Series - Part Four

BAD BEN: EULOGY
(2022)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: MEH

 

There are some fun moments in the tenth installment to Tom Fanslou's relentless Bad Ben franchise, but it also drags at regular intervals and overstays its welcome.  Some could argue that the entire series has overstayed its welcome by this point, and no one could fault anyone for dropping out before making it this far.  For those who keep checking in every year to see what more goofy, micro-budgeted nonsense Fanslou has conjured up in his ever-expanding narrative, Bad Ben: Eulogy offers another formula detour and an appreciated one following the previous year's paint-by-numbers Bad Bed: Benign.  At the end of that film, Fanslou's schubby paranormal investigator died and went to hell, this episode delivering on its title and serving as a compilation eulogy that cobbles together various footage from past clients of his, all of whom have less than flattering things to say about his ghost/demon/big foot-exorcism methods.  Many of these vignettes are amusing, showcasing just how much of a clueless dope Tom Riley is as he bumbles his way through one supernatural event after the other, usually making things worse for the people who call on him for his assistance.  A podcaster has cobbled together the footage in his attempts to understand Riley's legacy, ultimately leading to a finale that was predictably teased at and leads us right into the same year's Bad Ben: Undead.

 

BAD BEN: UNDEAD
(2022)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: WOOF

 

Tom Fanslou has never made any claims to be a found footage Orson Welles, but his work here in the eleventh Bad Ben movie seriously raises questions as to his directorial abilities or more to the point, his lack-thereof.  Bad Ben: Undead rides that razor-thin line of a movie that has such major problems that one has to wonder, (or at least hope), that the lone creative voice behind it was in on the joke and merely pulling a con on his audience.  Namely, the pacing is so redundant that it becomes comical long before a segment hits about an hour in that is either one of the funniest elongated gags in film history or one of the biggest laps in judgement on the filmmaker's part.  It is an expository dialog dump for the books, one that manages to shoehorn in presumably every Bad Ben fan, financial backer, or buddy that Fanslou possibly could into a hysterically monotonous name-dropping sequence that goes on for nearly twenty goddamn minutes.  Whether or not Fanslou meant for it to obliterate any narrative momentum is up for debate, but in any even, this moment alone is worth the price of admission, something that puts the whole movie in the "so bad it's good" category.  Elsewhere, Fanslou's Tom Riley comes back to life, (it's a long story), visits a zoo, acts like a crotchety asshole, puts on a purposely amusing and ill-fitting pink shirt at one point, and roams around the woods with two other dipshits while people in, (very), cheap Halloween masks are supposed to be zombies slowly lurching at them.  Fanslou is taking the piss out of himself as much as ever, but how much comedy is here on purpose as opposed to how much is on account of him not knowing what the hell he is doing is the real question.

 

BAD BEN: ALIEN AGENDA
(2023)
Dir - Tom Fanslou
Overall: WOOF

 

Though he does not do it nearly as hilariously as he did in the previous year's abysmal Bad Ben: Undead, Tom Fanslou still egregiously shoehorns in his financial backers in order to balloon up the running time in Bad Ben: Alien Agenda.  An inevitable avenue to cross with these movies was giving them some kind of sci-fi angle since every other genre premise is getting checked off the list, but anyone expecting this to be a trek through the cosmos where Fanslou and his partner in boredom three movies running Scott Tomlinson run away from little green men while filming the evidence will be grossly disappointed.  Instead, Fanslou and Tomlinson arrive back on earth within the first few minutes after being abducted at the end of the previous film, only to just slum around the woods or his Morgan Freedman talking car, (voiced by Red Letter Media's favorite guest Josh Robert Thompson), while frequently cutting away to fans of the series who donated money.  Fanslou is getting more incompetent, lazy, and less funny as he continues to churn these indie franchise installments out, shooting long endless takes as he prattles on with lore, stumbles his lines, and forces Tomlinson to stand or sit there uncomfortably as he tries to act remotely interested.  Whereas the series was originally a clever send up of found footage/haunted house tropes, and Fanslou's average Joe schlubbiness has always been consistently hilariously, he seems to be begrudgingly churning this one out.  Even scrapping the barrel with the same shit different movie routine would be preferable to whatever zero effort agenda he has going on here, the longest and worst of the lot.

Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi Series - Part Three

SENRITSU KAIKI FILE SUPER KOWA TOO! FEAR ADVENTURE: KOKKURI-SAN

(2015)

Dir - Kōji Shiraishi

Overall: WOOF

 

The same year that Kōji Shiraishi "wrapped-up" his Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series with Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi: Final Chapter, things keep right-on chugging along, as Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Fear Adventure: Kokkuri-san demonstrates.  Considered that the world ended in the last installment and everyone teleported to a new past timeline where memories were supposedly wiped, this one barely touches base on any of that nonsense and simply picks up almost where everything began.  Yet apparently in THIS universe, Shigeo Ôsako and Chika Kuboyama's paranormal DVD series is still a thing and is now given a new branding, even though absolutely nothing to the formula has changed to warrant such a new branding.  Ôsako is still the biggest asshole on the planet and even more hot-headed than usual, looking for a supernatural fight and any excuse to beat up women that he can get.  Shiraishi is playing things for laughs at this point if one can actually find Ôsako's misogynistic and rage-fueled behavior "funny", but as far as the found footage spook show moments go, this is easily the lamest assortment of them yet, not to mention some of the most instantly forgettable that the sub-genre has ever produced.

 

SENRITSU KAIKI FILE SUPER KOWA TOO! DARK MYSTERY: SNAKE WOMAN

(2015)

Dir- Kōji Shiraishi

Overall: WOOF

 

The longest in the now nine-deep Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series was also the last to be produced for almost a decade, signifying that enough was finally enough already.  Judging by the direction that this and the proceeding, (and terrible), Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Fear Adventure: Kokkuri-san was heading, it was looking like we were back to a new urban legend per episode within a formula that had already grown stale with a bombardment of these in so short a time.  Thankfully we were sparred, and the franchise took a much needed break after the dead end that it had steamrolled into.  Regrettably and predictably at this point, Senritsu Kaiki File Super Kowa Too! Dark Mystery: Snake Woman is some pretty horrid stuff, arguably the worst of the lot.  It cannot be overstated how obnoxious and not at all funny Shigeo Ôsako's hot-headed douchebag is in all of these movies, and on top of his usual penchant for screaming at and beating the shit out of anything that he feels like at any given whim, he also comes to one moronic conclusion after the next.  In fact every character here behaves irrationally, which would be hilarious if not for director Kōji Shiraishi's inability to convey a proper comedic tone, if that was even what he was going for.  Instead, it is a painful bore with occasional loud noises thrown in to wake people up, as well as a story centered around a "Huh?" love story between a pathetic peeping tom dipshit and the young snake woman of the title, (as well as her also aggressive and wacky mom).

 

SENRITSU KAIKI WORLD KOWASUGI!
(2023) 
Dir - Kōji Shiraishi
Overall: MEH

 

Why horror mockumentary devotee Kōji Shiraishi decided to resurrect his Senritsu Kaiki File Kowasugi series after an eight year break is anybody's guess.  Maybe enough time has gone by that fans of the series are jonesing for a legacy sequel and in this respect, Shiraishi delivers one.  It may not be the most ridiculous entry in the franchise, but it still probably is since never before was the humor so direct, nor was the piss taken out of the well-worn tropes that each installment indulged in.  Shigeo Ôsako and Chika Kuboyama reprise their roles as the director/co-director duo who openly disdain each other, and as usual, both actors behave as if they are here at gunpoint, physically abusing one another while looking miserable.  Ôsako's character, (easily one of the worst in any horror franchise), is as big of a ranting and pathetic buffoon as he always was, but Kuboyama gives it right back to him, which still does not explain why they are bothering to make a new movie after so long in the first place.  As far as the supernatural shenanigans go, they touch base on the more topsy-turvy motifs that came before, (world jumping, psychic medium badasses, time travel, and arbitrary supernatural rules getting abused and made up on the fly), but the choice to shoot at the same factory location as Shin'ichirō Ueda's also absurd One Cut of the Dead seemed to rub off on the whole production.  Met on its own oddball terms, it is a wild and uneven mess that has no business being taken seriously.

A Ghost Story for Christmas Part Four

MARTIN'S CLOSE

(2019)

Dir - Mark Gatiss

Overall: MEH

 

For anyone assuming that A Ghost Story for Christmas was going to get back on the slow boil and moody aesthetic of its bygone era when returning to M.R. James for the source material, (as opposed to the previous year's contemporary-set original segment The Dead Room), the ruinous tone of Martin's Close will squash those hopes.  This is the program's most overtly comedic episode yet, at least in comparison to everything that came before.  Writer/director Mark Gatiss tries to balance characters taking things seriously while others take them not at all seriously, always in the same scene and always causing a jarring viewing experience.  Elliot Levey's eccentric performance of a judge who cannot stop amusing himself while a young man is on trial for murder, (all while Peter Capaldi melodramatically prosecutes said young man and we infrequently cut to Simon Williams narrating things with a bit of Vincent Price campiness at his disposal), kills any and all atmospheric spookiness.  That is until the finale which drops one eerie showstopper, or at least it would be an eerie showstopper if the rest of the presentation was not so inconsistent.  Gatiss seems to be having fun by turning this into "The Cloak" segment from The House That Dripped Blood, so for anyone who does not mind the misplaced nyuck nyucks, knock yourself out.

 

THE MEZZOTINT

(2021)

Dir - Mark Gatiss

Overall: GOOD

 

It took seven episodes in sixteen years for the annual, resurrected A Ghost Story for Christmas program to deliver something that was not undone by its faults.  While 2021's M.R. James adaptation The Mezzotint still does not come close to the 1970s run of the author's reworkings in overall quality, it keeps its Amicus/Hammer camp at arm's length enough to achieve the proper menace that the source material relies on.  Mark Gatiss had been running the show for four entries at this time, and he wisely omits the glaring tonal issues that plagued his other installments while still offering up some throwback popcorn horror vibes, such as a ghoulish monster reveal and a hammed-up performance from Frances Barber.  The premise about a 19th century mezzotint with a mind of its own recalls the celebrated Night Gallery pilot episode, but Gatiss makes some well-suited additions to James' narrative.  These alterations raise the stakes and enhance an inevitable finish where not just Rory Kinnear's typical and scholarly James protagonist grows concerned over the supernatural predicament at hand, but his colleagues do as well, subverting the trope where only our main character is getting spooked while everyone else merely grows concerned for their friend's mental stability.

 

COUNT MAGNUS

(2022)

Dir - Mark Gatiss

Overall: MEH

 

While not aggressively goofy, Count Magnus does feature an eccentrically jovial protagonist played by Jason Watkins, one who allows for writer/director Mark Gatiss to keep things more on the popcorn entertainment side, be it of the still ghoulish variety.  This is not a bad thing, as A Ghost Story for Christmas had been cruising in such a lane through its modern incarnation, at least ever since Gatiss took the wheel.  It is just something to come to terms with if one is to engage in these annual spookshow yarns on their own terms while not endlessly comparing them to the stylistically different 1970s incarnations.  On that note, the show's original director Lawrence Gordon Clark had wanted to do this particular yarn during his tenure, but the BBC and their steadfast insistence on spending as little money as possible prevented the location shooting in Sweden.  No matter since this version was shot in England anyway.  Gatiss may love his M.R. James tales as much as he enjoys getting to adapt them in such a format after the BBC's small screen tradition had been retired for decades, but he has both a modern sensibility and an unavoidable itch to wink at the audience along the way.  Embracing such a tactic then, this one is acceptable if not remarkable.

 

LOT NO. 249

(2023)

Dir - Mark Gatiss

Overall: GOOD

 

The first A Ghost Story for Christmas segment to be based on a work from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lot No. 249 nevertheless follows the pattern that Mark Gatiss has consistently set for the program ever since the writer/director took it over some years and entries before.  Gatiss is unapologetically making his own Amicus horror shorts with each of these annual throwbacks, yet the tale chosen here was also adapted in Tales from the Darkside: The Movie in a similar vein that mixes schlock and the macabre.  This interpretation sticks to the period setting of Doyle's original, emphasizes the gay subtext, and throws in a reference to Sherlock Holmes because the author apparently can never escape the shadow cast by his most famous creation, even in this case when resurrected Egyptian mummies are concerned.  Said monster looks fantastic, especially considering the fact that this was a typically tight-budgeted BBC production that was allegedly shot in only four days.  Kit Harrington makes a fine protagonist who tries to get to the bottom of and then stop the ghastly shenanigans that are going down at Oxford University, but Freddie Fox wears his villainous intentions on his sleeve in a performance that pushes things into camp terrain.  Even those unfamiliar with the source material will be able to predict every beat before it happens, but it is fine popcorn fodder for those who are not looking for anything wheel-inventing.

 

WOMAN OF STONE

(2024)

Dir - Mark Gatiss

Overall: MEH

 

Four years straight brought forth just as many annual A Ghost Story for Christmas installments, the most steady run since the program's 1970s heyday.  Woman of Stone once again steps away from the works of M.R. James, this time adapting Edith Nesbit's 19th century short story "Man-Size in Marble" which writer/director Mark Gatiss has gone on record as stating was the first supernatural tale that he ever read.  It fits the period and throwback agenda for the series, making it a logical addition as opposed to merely a passion project for Gatiss to shoehorn in.  The structure is faulty where Celia Imrie plays Nesbit herself, regaling her fanboy doctor with this particular tale which features yet another character regaling two other people with yet another tale.  Each timeline is bounced back and forth, giving this a disjointed and rushed feel on top of the predictable and macabre outcome.  Gatiss is still presenting these episodes with more tongue-in-cheek glee than any desire, (or ability, if one is to be cynical), to create an intoxicating mood of supernatural suggestion and mounting dread.  Some of his other to-date seven segments are more goofy, but this one is just underwhelming, proving that either some more evocative material or a new approach is needed to elevate these above being merely half-hour time fillers.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Six

IN FLAMES

Dir - Zarrar Kahn

Overall: MEH

 

A troubled full-length debut from Pakistani/Canadian filmmaker Zarrar Kahn, In Flames is a rarity in the horror genre as hardly any come out of the former country, yet it is also a movie that does not belong in that genre.  Shot and set in Karachi where a mother and daughter find themselves in the unforgiving throes of a patriarchal society after the man of their home has died, the film brings up a concerning trend among up and coming writer/directors who frequently find themselves venturing into the only genre available that has a slight chance of getting some commercial eyes on their work.  This is to say that horror elements are so vaguely and gingerly sprinkled throughout Kahn's film that they seem unnecessary at best and distracting at worst.  There are no supernatural ingredients at all for almost the entire first half and enough to count on one hand after that, but the oppressive tone is well-suited to the material which shines an all-too-real light on the brutal conditions that women in Pakistani society have to endure.  Sadly, the viewer is left asking "Why are there random kind of/not really ghost moments popping up here?" where we should instead be solely invested in the plight of our characters.  Performance wise it is strong, and Kahn's intentions are all-too admirable, but it is unfortunate that in a cinematic era where independent debuts have an impossible time gaining any notice, filmmakers have found themselves at the mercy of shoehorning in horror tactics that would be better left alone.

 

T BLOCKERS
Dir - Alice Maio Mackay
Overall: GOOD

 

Another indie-queer genre excursion from Australian filmmaker Alice Majo Mackay, T Blockers fuses a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer, John Waters, Gregg Araki, David Cronenberg, Kevin Smith, and Ed Wood together into its quirky, neon-colored, punk rock aesthetic.  Best and most important of all though, Mackay, (herself transgender), channels the all too real trials and tribulations of the LGBTQ community into a story where people are just trying to be people amongst not only the rising tide of conservative oppression, but also a nasty parasite that turns already testosterone-fueled men into rage zombies.  The horror elements are treated humorously and are even half-baked, but this is not a bad thing since it lends the story to focus more on its likeable band of characters who form a vigilante force to handle the otherworldly predicament.  It all hits purposely close to home for the trans community, and there is a moment where our lead protagonist Lauren Last breaks down in defeat at the hopelessly unaccepting state of the majority of the populous who will make the life of her and others like her endlessly more difficult no matter how many parasite-ridden bigots they stomp out.  These are the touches to Mackay's film that are the most paramount and immediate, and even if it bum-rushes through its horror elements and inescapably low-end production values still rear their head from time to time, it is still an impressive work that champions the more noble efforts that single-voiced DIY movie-making can offer.

 

HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON
Dir - Ariane Louis-Seize
Overall: GOOD

 

Many familiar tropes and themes run through Ariane Louis-Seize's full-length debut Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant, Humanist Vampire Too Sensitive to Kill); a French-language Canadian coming-of-age dark comedy with a benevolent hipster point of view.  It immediately recalls Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, Ana Lily Amirpour's A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, and Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In with its undead members having retro vinyl collections, being solemn outcasts, and/or connecting to equally lonely humans who they form a touching bond with.  Seize's script never takes every last one of the elements from such an array of contemporary, cinematic blood-sucker revamps, (pardon the pun), but it fuses its ingredients together around a story that is more compassionate than poignant.  Its two leads in Sara Montpetit and Félix-Antoine Bénard turn in likeable performances even if they lean into quiet, melancholic, and anti-social teenager stereotypes, and this could be said about the entire movie that forgoes offering up any surprises in the plot department in place of a refreshing tone that never lingers in cynicism.  Sometimes it is just nice to see two young, (or comparatively young as far as vampires go), people bond together and live, (in a manner of speaking), happily ever after.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Five

SORRY ABOUT THE DEMON
Dir - Emily Hagins
Overall: WOOF

 

Sometimes one feels cruel when shitting on a movie that appears to have the best intentions, and writer/director Emily Hagins' Sorry About the Demon is just such a movie.  On paper, this is an innocent and adorable horror comedy about a down-on-his-luck schlub who is likeable, also on paper.  Yet everything that happens here adheres to a type of cutesy and obvious shtick that grows wearisome immediately, and shoehorning in endless jump scares and haunted house/demonic possession cliches that are played for nyuck nyucks makes for a persistently annoying experience.  At the film's core is a story about lamenting a failed relationship, second chances, and coming-of-age as a grown man, all of which are admirable traits that should give the movie enough emotional baggage to forgive the lame-brained humor and lazy horror tropes.  With everything combined though, (plus a bloated running time that passes the one-hundred minute mark), it overstays its already rocky welcome by undermining its heartfelt agenda with the worst kind of quippy and mugging goofiness; the kind that tries and then fails to be funny.

THE BEAST

Dir - Bertrand Bonello

Overall: GOOD

Jumping off from Henry James 1906 novella The Beast in the Jungle, French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello crafted an uncompromising tableau of impending doom and fate running rampant with unavoidable cruelty.  The Beast, (La Bête), bounces between three timelines as Léa Seydoux' solemn protagonist wrestles with an unshakable fear that has permeated through all of her past lives, past lives that can potentially be purged of their emotionally baggage by future technology.  Along the way, Bonello stylistically and thematically channels the two Davids, (Lynch and Cronenberg), presenting a world of aloof characters, cold technology, psychological playgrounds, a Roy Orbison song, and quirky yet bleak humor.  At nearly two and a half hours, the film takes its time with numerous recalls, including verbatim dialog exchanges and immediate flashbacks from different points of view, all of which slam home a persistent theme of, well, persistence.  In this wold, (as in our own), anxiety is often justified by life moving along without our permission, throwing chaos into our midst as we wrestle with what we want and what we are inescapably drawn to.  Bonello's film deals with such things both precisely and ambiguously, letting us enter the shifting headspace of Seydoux' character as if she is passing through a nightmare that we are all equally a fly on the wall to.

 

HAUNTED ULSTER LIVE
Dir - Dominic O'Neill
Overall: MEH

For anyone who really enjoys 1992's seminal BBC mockumentary Ghostwatch and is curious to see what a less good carbon copy of it would be like, writer/director Dominic O'Neill's Haunted Ulster Live has you covered.  The entire structure and presentation is so derivative of the film that is is paying homage to/ripping off that it is bound to make many an eyeball roll, and this is ultimately what undermines its potential as either a spoof or a bit of genuinely hair-raising found footage.  O'Neill tries to do both at various times, setting the story in 1998 to give it some throwback charm and dated references, but it becomes difficult to tell if the performances are tongue-in-cheek or just subpar.  Twilight Zone elements gradually reveal themselves as it inches towards the finale, but its ghostly camera glitches, urban legend boogeyman, unconvincing spooky photographs, kid acting creepy during a seance moment, and student art film montages of weirdness have all been done better in, well, better movies.  With no unique ideas of its own and no way to combine what it has into anything either funny, compelling, or scary, the movie just deserves a C+ for effort, even if its heart is in the right place and it never outright insults the audience.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Four

BLACKOUT

Dir - Larry Fessenden

Overall: MEH

 

Indie horror mainstay Larry Fessenden continues his solemn, modern day Universal monster reworks with Blackout, this time updating The Wolf Man to go along with 2019's Depraved, which was his version of Frankenstein.  This is specifically a cinematic adaptation of one of Fessenden's Tales from Beyond the Pale podcast episodes which throws back to old timey radio serials of the horror variety, but he takes a more relevant approach by fusing daddy issues and small town politics together.  It is an interesting angle to familiar tropes and material, but there is a tonal issue present in how much of the movie wants to be introspective and timely and how much of it also wants to be unabashed schlock.  The performances are a mixed bag; sincere yet stuck within dopey dialog, forced expository information dumps, and simple-minded character traits that would be fine if it all did not take itself so seriously.  From a production standpoint, Fessenden has been in the game long enough to turn in a professional looking film on a meager budget, and the cinematography, location setting, werewolf make-up, and gore all look splendid.  In order to work though, the story deserves a screenplay that is both less-on the nose and trimmed of its unintentional goofiness.

FROGMAN

Dir - Anthony Cousins

Overall: WOOF

Predictable, obnoxious, and ergo insulting, Anthony Cousin's full-length debut Frogman is another lazy found footage entry that could have been a fun parody if not for a barrage of mistakes made along the way.  As is almost always the case with these movies, finding justification for the characters to keep the cameras rolling proves to be an insurmountable task, and here we have three unlikable dipshits who go to a town that milks their local frogman legend for tourists.  One of our protagonists caught the creature on a camcorder when he was a kid and now is determined to prove that what he saw was genuine.  While this is a stock if acceptable jumping off point, Cousins and co-screenwriter John Karsko's script piles on the hackneyed tropes, plus the presentation can never decide how serious to take things.  Our three main characters who joke around and film private moments that have no business being filmed, Nathan Tymoshuk being a mopey loser who is desperate to capture the title creature yet insists on doing it with his grainy low-def camcorder from the 1990s, locals being interviewed, the footage becoming indecipherable when the "good stuff" finally shows up, a diabolical twist that a two-year old could see coming, and the list goes on and on.  Instead of evoking genuine Blair Witch scares or taking the piss out of the formula with amped-up ridiculousness, the movie just clumsily rides its line and recalls countless other films that have done the same thing either worse, better, or just as bad.

 

LAST STRAW
Dir - Alan Scott Neal
Overall: MEH

 

After three short films, casting worker-turned-director Alan Scott Neal delivers his first full-length Last Straw; a nasty revenge thriller of sorts that takes a few clever divergents along its route.  As a tale about over-wrought young adults who spiral down a rabbit hole of bad decisions during a particularly stressed-out evening, it gets by to a point, particularly in its first act which focuses on Jessica Belkin's protagonist who gets one tough break after the next while working in her dad's remote roadside diner.  Yet when the plot takes an about-face twist midway through, the plausibility wheels start to get loose and this leads to an inevitably messy finale that sees people behaving in too barbarous of a manner to buy into.  Performance-wise, everyone does acceptable work and Neal forgoes stylistic embellishments for stark brutalism, but there is little to no humor present to make the over-the-top spiral go down smoother.  Instead, the movie becomes increasingly ugly, which does not jive with its narrative implausibility.  It short-changes itself in the end, but the attempt is at least noble.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Three

RED ROOMS
Dir - Pascal Plante
Overall: GREAT

 

True crime fixation and voyeurism make natural if disturbing bedfellows at times, and the latest from Quebec-based filmmaker Pascal Plante examines the darker aspects of sleuthing and more importantly the detachment that is necessary to truly initiate oneself amongst the most depraved.  Red Rooms, (Les chambres rouges), is a calculated thriller to say the least.  From its opening twenty-minute single shot of a courtroom briefing where we meet our main character and are immediately struck by her impassive demeanor, the film never lets its true agenda reveal itself.  This is mirrored in Juliette Gariépy's stunning performance and the protagonist/antagonist that she portrays, who is so emotionally barren that we are constantly fixated on what and where her curious motives are coming from.  All of the film's suspense stems from this fixation since the man who has presumably committed the story's horrendous crimes is already on trail from the onset, so the focus lies instead on those who are drawn to sensationalized atrocities and what murky waters this unwholesome pull trudges through.  Several moments are startling in their intimate disturbingness, punctuating the movie with surreal jumps that somehow only intensify the spell.  Anything that goes down the rabbit hole of snuff films and the dark web is icky stuff that is never for the squeamish, but Plante's work here ventures into this abyss in such a controlled and evocative manner that it only ends up challenging the viewer in the most rewarding of ways.

THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
Dir - Thomas Cailley
Overall: GOOD

The second full-length from French filmmaker Thomas Cailley, The Animal Kingdom, (Le Règne animal), takes a concept that has been explored in David Freyne's zombie drama The Cured as well as the entire saga of the X-Men, but the presentation is unique and cuts right to the bone of the fears of "the new norm".  Here, human beings have begun to start morphing into animal hybrids, ones that have violent tendencies that are both inescapable and brought on by the rest of the world's understandably terrified reaction to them.  Complicating an already hopelessly complicated matter is that life goes on.  People still have bills to pay, jobs to get to, school to attend, college to think about, love interests to nurture, family to protect, and communities to integrate into.  The last thing that humankind needs is their teenage son turning into a wolf, losing the ability to communicate verbally, and inevitably having to find a new home amongst their mutated brethren instead of their old civilized existence.  Cailley keeps up a no-nonsense pace and utilizes some of the better CGI effects in recent times, helped significantly by excellent practical makeup and visual tricks as well.  Best of all, the film is not a nihilistic downer that offers no hope for such a harrowing outcome.  In fact, the strange turn of events are only disturbing if grief and fear overcomes all who are involved.  Embracing the "new norm" on the other hand, (with compassion and acceptance), leaves a much-needed glimmer of hope.

BOOGER
Dir -  Mary Dauterman
Overall: MEH

For anyone who cannot stand Rupert Holmes "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)", (which should include every human on earth), writer/director Mary Dauterman's debut Booger should come equipped with a severe warning since such an abysmal yacht rock staple shows up in various forms throughout.  An aloof grief comedy that falls short of hitting its mark, the film plays its quirky components close to the vest which is nice for a change, but it does lead to unrealized results.  Grace Glowicki's portrays a young woman whose best friend and roommate has just died while also, (and more puzzlingly), transforming into their missing stray cat of the title.  The audience understands what is happening early on if not why it is happening, and in fact we never get any answers to such a question, but several characters here point to the fact that Glowicki is side-stepping the whole mourning part of her buddy's death.  The problem is that this is not convincingly conveyed.  Instead, Dauterman indulges in gross-out moments, people saying wacky things once in awhile, and Glowicki not so much as avoiding her emotions about her friend as to not having many to begin with.  There is no profound revelation, just the movie going about its oddball business until it is time to wrap itself up  At this point we have entered into murky psychological terrain and Glowicki seems to be ready to be happy with those around her again, yet it is through no fault of anything that has transpired.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-Two

PANDEMONIUM
Dir - Quarxx
Overall: GOOD

Though imperfect since its Lars Von Trier-worthy cynicism becomes an intentional endurance test, Pandemonium from French multimedia artist and filmmaker Quarxx is singular enough to maintain one's interest if they can tolerate its unforgiving nature.  A fantastic opening sequence finds two humorously logical men contemplating their new otherworldly predicament as a pair of doorways appear on a stretch of road that is becoming increasingly snow-covered.  What follows are two more detours that turn the film into an anthology, and even though Quarxx throws in some opaque humor everywhere, (except in his almost unwatchabley bleak tale of a mother who cannot cope with her teenage daughter succumbing to unwarranted bullying), the story has a clear agenda that is far from user friendly.  This is that mankind is inherently evil and doomed to suffer throughout eternity, but on the plus side, the whole thing borders on spectacle as far as its aesthetics go.  Everything from the aforementioned deserted mountain road, to deformed monsters, to a glamorously decorated mansion, to the ashy underworld of doomed souls casts a fetching aura that forgives the narrative loose ends and austere tone.  It may not leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside, but most viewers will be hooked on the dour ride.

 

ADALYNN

Dir - Jacob Byrd
Overall: MEH

 

Coming from the indie writer/director team of Jerrod D. Brito and Jacob Byrd, Adalynn is a postpartum psychological nightmare with its heart in the right place, but its noble ambition is undermined by inadequate production means.  The story is sufficient if not unique.  Sydney Carvill plays a mother who is struggling with all of the textbook new baby blues, except she also suffers from severe OCD, panic attacks, and is instructed not to take neither her meds nor any alcohol to help levitate the symptoms when her "way too dashingly handsome to be convincingly cast as a doctor" husband leaves her alone for a number of days because work.  Carvill narrates her own journaling, gets no sleep, is impulsively moody, finds it impossible to bond with her newborn daughter, and worse yet, starts spiraling into a series of hallucinations that lead to a plot twist that most viewers will be able to predict within the first few minutes.  Everything is in its appropriate place, but Byrd is equipped with limited funds here and the more well-versed, (i.e. cynical), audience member will be able to notice the cost-cutting measures every step of the way.  This is excusable of course, but Carvill and her supporting players occasionally embarrass themselves with hackneyed dialog, plus Byrd uses scare tactics that would be unforgivably lame even in an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?.

 

TIGER STRIPES
Dir - Amanda Nell Eu
Overall: GOOD

 

A solid, multi-national co-production between eight different countries including Malaysia from which it is set, Tiger Stripes utilizes the common coming-of-age motif where blossoming womanhood leads to bestial transformation.  The debut from writer/director Amanda Nell Eu, it has a familiar enough premise that has been used in your Ginger Snaps and Perpetrators to name but two, but the specific focus on a young girl who gets her first period while being systematically shunned by her friends, ignored by her father, and berated by her teachers and mother is given a singular trajectory.  Newcomer Zafreen Zairizal turns in a pitch-perfect performance as such a young girl who exhibits innocently rebellious behavior before she starts literally transforming into something that no one in her community, (least of all herself), can handle.  There is something to be said about the long stretches that go by where no adults seem to be either aware or concerned with the chain of events that are happening to their children, going about their routines until things have gone too far, which is when they hilariously bring in a huckster exorcist that is more concerned with getting social media likes than actually expelling evil.  Even as things become more violent and silly, Nell Eu treats her characters with nothing but empathy, making this an honest genre exaggeration about how rough it is being a kid, as well as how the expectations that we place on those kids can inadvertently unleash the beast in them.

2023 Horror Part Twenty-One

STRANGE DARLING

Dir - JT Mollner
Overall: MEH

For his sophomore full length Strange Darling, writer/director JT Mollner props up its gimmicks and clever subversion at the cost of properly exploring its subject matter.  In and of itself, this is not an automatic faux pas since there is nothing wrong with a movie that has nothing to say, especially if it is edge-of-your-seat paced and stylized to the gills.  Such is the case here as Mollner announces right off the bat that his new film was shot in 35 mm, (by known actor and first time cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi no less), is based off of a "real" serial killer, and is told in six chapters, (actually seven counting an epilogue), and then starts right in the middle with chapter three.  Every nuance to the presentation is calculated, from casting the perpetually brooding Kyle Gallner and giving his character the name "The Demon", to opening with a chase scene where he is sniffing coke, shooting a shotgun, and trying to catch up with an injured and panicked Willa Fitzgerald in an ancient Ford Pinto.  Details cannot be divulged without ruining the fun twists, but those twists are clouded by our two underwritten leads who only seem to be behaving in a way so that the audience gasps at the rug pull.  In other words, we need more information to get somewhere here.  Instead, this is a sly, violent, darkly comedic, wonderfully shot and performed whirlwind of gender dynamics played against each other, but Mollner stops short of digging into the can of worms that he opens.

 

THE VOURDALAK

Dir - Adrien Beau
Overall: GOOD

 

Shot on 16 mm, the full-length debut from French filmmaker Adrien Beau is a delightfully dour yet stylishly humorous adaptation of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's 1839 novella The Family of the Vourdalak, which genre fans will recognize as having been brought to the screen fifty years earlier in Mario Bava's famed anthology movie Black Sabbath.  The Vourdalak, (Le Vourdalak), takes its cue from such bygone gothic cinematic haunts out of England and Europe, but it has a singular aura that differentiates it from your typical unimaginative throwback.  The tone curiously rides a line between absurd and melancholic as a dainty courier of the King of France finds himself ambushed in the Eastern Europe countryside, only to come across a doomed family whose patriarch has recently returned as a member of the undead.  Along with the retro aesthetic, the fact that said patriarch is not played by a living organism gives the movie another gimmick, but Beau, (who also provides the voice for it), manages to make the title creature both alarmingly freaky and hilarious.  There are some pacing lulls that rear their head in the third act, but the grimy and haunting atmosphere remains in check, making this a left-of-center work to take note of.
 

RAGING GRACE
Dir - Paris Zarcilla
Overall: MEH

A frustrating yet well-intended debut from director Paris Zarcilla, Raging Grace is a relentlessly miserable watch that hinges its momentum at least in part on implausibility and tired genre tropes.  Little Jaeden Paige Boadilla delivers an agreeable performance as an ignored child who endlessly jump scares Max Eigenmann, much to the annoyance of both her and the audience.  Wide-mouthed/white-eyed screaming ghouls and a few bog-standard nightmare sequences also show up, with none of the horror bits coming off as anything within miles of unique.  The problems are not limited to unfortunate genre hacks though since the story takes a sincere look at abused immigrants who are at the mercy of their manipulative employers, but watching Eigenmann's harrowing ordeal where every break proves itself to be yet another humiliating trap is borderline insufferable.  This is intentional of course since we are meant to understand the horrendous trials and tribulations that foreign workers, (particularly single mothers), all to often have to withstand, but several of the plot maneuvers that get Eigenmann from point A to point B will have audience member's yelling at the screen due to how poorly thought out they are on the character's part.  Zarcilla can be commended for celebrating his Filipino heritage and shining a light on something that needs to be addressed, but the subject matter deserves a tighter script and less stupid jump scares.