2017 Horror Part Nine

THE ENDLESS
Dir - Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead
Overall: GOOD

The follow-up to their quite excellent, 2014 film Spring, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's The Endless acts as a quasi-sequel to their collaborative debut Resolution.  Essentially Lovecraftian horror with nods to Twin Peaks and the Heaven's Gate cult, it ends up being a highly unique, ambiguous hybrid that very gradually becomes more unnerving as it goes on.  The performances by Benson and Moorhead in particular are both convincing and funny, consistently mumbled dialog aside.  Though it has a slightly awkward finish, the filmmakers balance their more comedic tendencies for the most part with an intriguing and bizarre story that frequently circles back to its dominant, mysterious tone.  The movie confidently poses more questions than providing answers and some may be unwilling to forgive the cryptic leniency, but it most likely will benefit those who revisit it.  Which is actually one of the main plot points of the film itself; returning to something to obtain closure yet instead unlocking more boxes to challenge that closure.  The fact that such an interpretation can be either way off or right on the nose is one of the things that make the movie work in the first place.

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD
Dir - Shin'ichirô Ueda
Overall: MEH

Essentially a (very) long build up to a (very) long joke, Shin'ichirô Ueda's One Cut of the Dead, (Kamera o Tomeru na!), tries the viewers patience to an aggravating extent.  To its credit, it is wildly ambitious for such an independent film, and if you absolutely have to make yet another goddamn zombie movie, it is admirable that Ueda here chose such an unorthodox way to go about it.  On the technical end of things, the opening thirty-seven minute single take is impressive, as is the third act which goes it one further and brings everything ridiculously together.  It is a shame then that the road to get there is so boring and off-puitting.  The first segment is great for those who love when director's never say "cut", (pun intended), but it just goes on and on, and with no context, (as that would spoil the finish), it comes off as clumsy and juvenile.  Ultimately, the whole movie comes off more like a prank that overstays its welcome where the payoff is fun for everyone not being pranked, yet the victim of such a jest will be left brimming with an awkward mixture of anger, humility, and eventually honest amusement.

THE BAR

Dir - Álex de la Iglesia

Overall: GOOD

 

Another top-notch, wonderfully dark and violent entry from Álex de la Iglesia, The Bar, (El bar), was the first of two films released in 2017 by the director, the other being the straight comedy Perfectos desconocidos which was a remake of the previous year's Perfect Strangers from Italian filmmaker Paolo Genovese.  As far as this one is concerned, it utilizes an almost Hitchcockian gimmick, (people trapped in a single location that they cannot leave), and it follows the usual patterns of such high-tension thrillers where the characters quickly and aggressively begin to not trust each other, resulting in much mayhem ensuing.  Said mayhem is consistently amusing and increasingly, (as well as literally), messy.  While de la Iglesia sees the mysterious, quarantine-based origin of what starts off his character's predicament as being of little importance, in doing so he emphasis that the real threat is merely normal people reacting paranoid under extreme circumstances.  The plot avoids having any kind of payoff in this respect which might aggravate anyone hoping that the entire thing was leading to something more profound.  The lack of a twist though is actually refreshing and it rather becomes a twist in and of itself that it does not have one. 

2017 Horror Part Eight

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

Dir - Issa López

Overall: GOOD

 

A strong offering from Mexican filmmaker Issa López, Tigers Are Not Afraid, (Vuelven), is an unflinching and dark fantasy/narco-crime film hybrid.  The title is frequently referenced throughout and serves as the steady theme of overcoming extreme childhood trauma.  The cast is almost exclusively focused on orphaned kids whose parents have been picked-off by the cartel and now have to brutally fend for themselves.  Referencing the Narcosatanists and top to bottom corruption, López does not shy away from the all too real and disturbed lifestyle these children find themselves unwillingly in, and it is all heartbreaking and uncompromising in its depiction of hopeless violence at the hands of nearly every adult they encounter.  The movie works best in this very grounded context, but when it comes to the supernatural fantasy elements, things are ill-defined and almost haphazardly thrown in.  Thankfully, the presentation is strong and the movie is emotionally powerful enough to forgive certain moments where it does not seem to know how to logically weave its horror genre components into things.

MOM AND DAD

Dir - Brian Taylor

Overall: GOOD

 

This fun and gruesome comedy from Brian Taylor has him reuniting with an always gonzo Nicolas Cage after Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance from six years prior.  Working away from his frequent collaborator Mark Neveldine this time, Mom and Dad is still done in the trademark frantic, combative style of Taylor's other works.  It suits the material in this regard where the majority of the film indulges in delirious violence, this time set in the white picket fence, soccer parent-friendly suburbs.  Cage of course is ideally present and doing essentially what people hire him to do at this point which is to dial it up to eleven and perform as if he is trying to simultaneously terrify and amuse every other character in the movie as well as everyone at home watching him.  Taylor's screenplay only offers up a vague, deeper meaning of domesticated stress and crushed dreams manifesting themselves in a blind rage towards the objects of such torn feelings of disappointment, meaning one's very own children.  It is more focused on clever set pieces and a consistent tone of dark humor that forgives its rather bare bones narrative and borderline sudden finale.  For Cage fans alone it is a must and thankfully there is enough else present to warrant sufficiently disturbed giggles.

TERRIFIED

Dir - Demián Rugna

Overall: GOOD

The latest and somewhat unique, supernatural genre film Terrified, (Aterrados) from Argentinian writer/director Demián Rugna, plays many of its cards rather interestingly.  While it does feature some standard poltergeist activity, psychic experts, a conventional horror movie score, and a jump scare hither and tither, Rugna's script fuses these with a rather singular premise.  The story is not concerned with properly explaining any of the highly spooky goings-ons, but the idea of multiple hauntings on a single block bringing in multiple paranormal researchers and detectives on board and then told at various intervals in flashback does not really follow the standard point A to point B plotting for such films.  The set pieces themselves are frequently creepy and benefit the keen viewer who does not blink often and pays particular attention to what is lurking in the background.  Besides parts of it coming off rushed and a few curious reactions from actors who do not seem to be as terrified as they logically should be, it is impressively a few notches above average and done with enough unorthodox tweaks to recommend.

2016 Horror Part Ten

THE CONJURING 2

Dir - James Wan

Overall: MEH

The third installment in the Conjuring cinematic universe and second to find James Wan returning to the director chair, The Conjuring 2 is a similarly textbook example of modern supernatural horror sensibilities for which Wan particularly is a consistent enforcer of.  While he surprisingly shows some level of restraint in keeping the jump scares down to a minimum, (at least for him), and the script rather quickly lets every character witness ghostly happenings in a group as opposed to seeing them individually and mentioning them to no one for the first two acts, the film still buckles to many other overused hallmarks.  Evil entities follow the rules of there being no rhyme or reason to their mischief and generally only perform their arbitrary tricks when it is in the middle of the night, they are asked to do so by psychic investigators, or when the music gets either all spooky scary or jarringly quiet for another patented psyche-out.  Said entities in this case are hardly interesting, (a crotchety old man), or cartoonishly silly and merely shoehorned in there for future franchise inclusion, (the Nun and the Crooked Man).  It is conventional to a fault and the ending is borderline ridiculous, but Vira Farmiga and Patrick Wilson's highly fictionalized Warrens do provide a strong, heart-felt undercurrent at least.  For shameless popcorn horror, it fits the mold for those who crave such things.

 

TRAIN TO BUSAN

Dir - Yeon Sang-ho

Overall: MEH

 

In his live action debut, South Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho tackles a rather ambitious zombie outbreak film with Train to Busan, (Busanhaeng).  While there are moments of humor dashed about, things becomes super dark and ultimately almost unwatchably depressing by the incredibly heartbreaking end.  For those expecting a mere popcorn zombie movie, the dizzying action and frantic pace that tries to catch up with the aggressively fast, infected ghouls this round may be misleading in conjunction with the bleak avenues that the movie progressively goes down.  It does not necessarily uplift itself from its gimmick, (zombies on a train), and unavoidably features conventional characters and conventional predicaments for them to overcome that are in nearly every other film of the same irk.  At the same time though, it is anything but a B-movie production, both in its very fleshed-out, emotionally-fueled script and over-the-top action sequences that are successfully on par for walking (or running in this case) dead movies of the modern era.  There is nothing really here that is able to elevate it over the massive burn-out this sub-genre has succumbed to, but for those who cannot get enough, it is as decent as they seem to get.

THE MONSTER

Dir - Bryan Bertino

Overall: WOOF

A borderline abysmal offering that balances between monotony, miserableness, stupidity, and annoyance, Bryan Bertino's The Monster fails staggeringly.  Centered exclusively around an abusive, alcoholic, dismissive, unsympathetic, and all-around dirtbag mother and her traumatized daughter, Bertino seems to be posing a rather direct "Who's the real monster?" question as the simple premise has them fending for themselves on a stretch of road that literally no one ever drives down apparently.  Bouncing between flashbacks that become more and more uncomfortable and then the present time-frame which becomes more and more one-note and boring, the end result spins its wheels for the duration.  When the emotional payoff is a kid proclaiming "I'm not afraid of you!" while standing up to a huge, ridiculously dangerous creature that kills everything, it practically feels laughable which jives poorly and oddly with how much of a downer everything else is.  Worse, Bertino indulges in completely foreseeable jump scares to a criminal level and his characters behave in a way that will both confound and irritate anyone watching.  For a film that is technically well made, taking itself so incredibly seriously, and with committed performances, it is a perplexing shame that it gets so much so very, very wrong in the process.

2016 Horror Part Nine

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

Dir - Tom Ford

Overall: GOOD

Fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford's A-list follow-up to his debut A Single Man came a full seven years later in the form of Austin Wright's novel adaptation Tom and Susan, here titled Nocturnal Animals.  It is a meticulously crafted film, down to Ford's screenplay, the performances, and the crisp, polished look.  Even when its story-within-a-story embarks on a more grimy, Coen Brothers-esque trek into neo-noir Western terrain, Ford still places enormous emphasis on detail and the somewhat romantic quality (which is no doubt narratively intentional), is never lost.  Above being a thriller or anything else, the movie's potent core is that of a thoroughly heartbreaking, cautionary love story.  Bouncing between two plot-lines where the fictitious one becomes more and more clearly an explicitly addressed metaphor for the real one, the flowing structure blurs the lines in a very emotional, impactful way.  The entire cast is exceptional and though it technically breathes as a melodrama, the film has an unmistakably grounded weight to it.  Far from a feel good movie which should probably be understood going in, it certainly leaves an impressive, well, impression.

SIREN

Dir - Gregg Bishop

Overall: MEH

The full-length adaptation of David Bruckner's "Amateur Night" segment from V/H/S, Siren is mostly uneven and disappointing.  While the found footage original was effectively creepy, this one goes for bombast in a more tacky way.  The director chair handed over to Gregg Bishop, (Dance of the Dead, the "Dante the Great" story in V/H/S: Viral), the film leans enormously heavy on schlock while also dipping its toes into torture porn.  This balancing act becomes problematic, but that is only part of the headache.  The dialog is mostly crap, the performances mostly hammy, moments of sentimentality are awkward, and the plotting is predicated on logistically flimsy character motivation.  The script tries to justify some of this by having people be tripped out on drugs and making a pledge to be hellbent on not saying "no" to anything during a bachelor party weekend, but it ultimately makes everyone we meet seem stupid and unlikable.  On the plus side, Hannah Fierman, (reprising her role), is equally unsettling and alluring as the title character and even though it is a tonal mess, Bishop maintains a steady pace navigating through such chaos.

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

Dir - Colm McCarthy

Overall: MEH

Dystopian zombie movies have been a dime a dozen for years and ever since 28 Days Later popularized the concept of the living dead moving at lightning speed, the sub-genre has boomed to the point of overkill, (nyuck, nyuck).  In this respect, Scottish television director Colm McCarthy's The Girl with All the Gifts is inescapably derivative or at the very least, a trendy offering.  For a major budgeted adaptation of Mike Carey's novel of the same name, (Carey who also wrote the screenplay here simultaneously with the book), it is at least impressively done.  The cast is strong, the music by Cristobal Tapia de Veer is quite haunting, and the production value is adequate enough to stage a few single-take, heavily populated walking dead action sequences.  The second and third act spend the most time humanizing both the desperate military personnel and the film's title character, sort of a zombie version of Blade minus the cool sunglasses and wicked kung-fu moves.  For the most part the story is engaging as McCarthy is ultimately less interested in indulging in gory set pieces than presenting a hopeless gray area for those infected and those not to be able to co-exist.  It takes a respectable stab at eschewing certain formulas, but too many seem unavoidably present to raise it above just being a well made post-apocalypse movie like many others.

2015 Horror Part Nine

TAG

Dir - Sion Sono

Overall: GOOD

 

The relentlessly challenging headtrip Tag, (Real Onigokko), is filmmaker Sion Sono's adaptation of Yusuke Yamada's novel Riaru Onigokko which had also been cinematically made in 2008 as The Chasing World by Issei Shibata.  Set to ethereal shoegazing music from Glim Spanky, the film starts off with a bang and then patiently meanders around with a handful of other left-field endeavors thrown in to up the strangeness.  While it becomes increasingly difficult to put together in any conventional narrative sense, the film's themes about destiny and fate seen through a feminist lens seem to become that much more important.  Even the way that the movie uses visually amateurish CGI appears to somehow enhance its otherworldly nature as it endlessly flows into one more dream state after the other.  The culmination of events is not likely to spell anything out in plain English, (or Japanese in this case), but it leaves a lasting impact and is enticing enough to warrant repeated views to possibly grasp.  Even if comprehension is a futile endgame, it is a bold and beautiful work that if anything else is thoroughly unique.

HIDDEN

Dir - Matt Duffer/Russ Duffer

Overall: MEH

 

A year before launching Stranger Things, the Duffer brothers Matt and Russ made their halfway decent full-length debut Hidden.  Direct parallels can be drawn from this and John Krasinski's more mainstream accepted A Quiet Place, which is either a good or bad thing depending.  Some technical annoyances like an overly rusted color pallet, unnecessarily dark cinematography, shitty CGI, and a mumble-heavy dialog track do get in the way of a rather touching story of a traumatized family trying to protect themselves from a largely unseen menace.  The fact that said threat is kept off screen for the majority of the proceedings does achieve two things.  One, it lets the audience gain more sympathy for the desperate characters and two, it allows for an increasing amount of tension to be built up throughout a rather prolonged second half.  Things are broken up along the way by flashbacks that stir up one too many zombie outbreak motifs seen an abundance of times which unfortunately give it a bit of a derivative quality.  Similarly mixed feelings can be garnished from the finish as well which is both twisty and kind of sentimental-grabbing.

 

HELL HOUSE LLC

Dir - Stephen Cognetti

Overall: MEH

 

Another found footage outing ruined by justifiable criticisms often attributed to the sub-genre, Hell House LLC is the full-length debut from writer/director Stephen Cognetti who followed it up with two like minded sequels.  It would seem that the premise is well equipped enough to justify the plot holes and standard, "stupid people in horror movies doing stupid things because they're in a horror movie" motifs, but sadly this is not the case.  While arguing about how dangerous it is to be in the house of the title, numerous unexplained events are clearly caught on camera for the characters to review and they either never think to do so or seem completely unphased by them.  The finished documentary presentation which is exponentially more difficult to pull off is understandably a far bigger blunder though.  One of the benefits to the sub-genre is the naturalism with raw, unedited footage that is void of any post-production conventionalism.  So when you take that bare-bones footage and edit it to smithereens, throw creepy music on it, and add loud sound effects to jump scares, you may as well have just shot it as a normal movie.  Also, the interview segments are jarringly poor, not just because of the bad acting and weak dialog, but because even more unexplained things are captured there which still make it into the final cut for everyone to see.  It is worth a few freaky moments, but it is also heavy on the dumb.

2014 Horror Part Eleven

BACKCOUNTRY

Dir - Adam MacDonald

Overall: MEH

 

This full-length debut from Canadian actor-turned writer/filmmaker Adam MacDonald is survival/nature horror at its most textbook.  Everything that always happens with people in movies getting lost in the woods happens here; a guy is arrogantly sure that he can navigate the wilderness without a map or cell phone in case of emergencies, the person with him thought they had said items with them the whole time, they run into a shady character early on to get them and the audience on edge, they hear noises at night, and awaken to concerning things around their campsite in the morning.  While the script is rather barren on surprises then, MacDonald tests his abilities in creating a carefully controlled, suspenseful mood.  That is until the third act when the tension is exponentially revved up.  For the most part, the two leads in Missy Peregrym and Jeff Roop are decent and their dynamic as a couple is relatable enough to give the film some emotional weight when it is most needed.  With every little twig snap more heart-racing than the last, it does arrive at a rather intense place, but the crawl to get there just may be too gradual and pedestrian for some tastes.

SUBURBAN GOTHIC

Dir - Richard Bates Jr.

Overall: GOOD

 

Richard Bates Jr.'s follow-up to the uneven yet interesting Excison has a similar, fundamental theme of a young person hopelessly at odd with their parents, but other than that, it is a rather contrasting beast.  Most prominently, Suburban Gothic is a full-fledged comedy and it plays not one of its moments for anything besides laughs.  Thankfully it is pretty damn funny, yet in an aggressively quirky way that might annoy or even befuddle certain viewers while delighting others.  Every character is either an asshole or a smart-ass though usually both.  The two leads Matthew Gray Gubler and Kat Dennings make an amusingly non-charming couple and their lack of chemistry is played-up rather well.  Ray Wise probably brings the most to the proceedings though as a judgemental, racist, dirtbag dad who is a lot more likeable than his character sounds on paper.  As far as the humor specifically goes, it is part horror parody and part John Waters tastelessness.  This is no accident as Waters himself cameos as a blowjob-happy museum curator, which is the second hilarious fellatio joke to show up within about five minutes.

LAST SHIFT

Dir - Anthony DiBlasi

Overall: MEH

There is an abundance of problems with Anthony DiBlasi's Last Shift that squander its potential.  Set in a soon to be abandoned police station with a lone rookie cop on duty there, it features a rather relentless stream of supernatural set pieces.  Many of them would be positively skin-crawling if not for the stock sound design that robs them of all their impact.  Strip away the generic music and bangy noises every fifteen seconds and it would be quite creepy in a more natural context.  Making matters worse though, the plot points are horribly predictable and as generic as they come.  There is an emotional undercurrent to the story, but when everything around it is so big, loud, and above all else derivative, then it comes off as an eye-ball rolling schlock-fest played seriously.  Which is the worst kind of eye-ball rolling schlock-fest.  As a mere haunted house attraction then, those who still think bloody pentagrams, bloody masks, bloody writing on walls, bloody hillbilly ghosts doing random things on an anniversary of something affecting the woman they are terrorizing, (a woman who does not mention all the wadkadoo shit that she is seeing the first several times that she is given the opportunity to of course), then this movie has all of that plus several bloody jump scares more.

2013 Horror Part Eight

ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW

Dir - Randy Moore

Overall: MEH

This independent debut from Randy Moore is an odd, somewhat notorious offering in more ways than one.  From a production standpoint, it garnished a significant amount of attention from critics as the film was shot almost entirely at both Disney World and Disneyland, both parks of which fit in quite narratively as well.  Disney eventually acknowledged the movie without pursuing any serious legal action, but from such a sue-friendly company, the mere existence of Escape from Tomorrow is in and of itself remarkable.  As far as the actual film goes, it is strange though not exclusively for good reasons.  It was shot with inexpensive cameras that could remain hidden from Disney staff, then rendered in black and white.  While this gets around the issue of lack of lighting control, it still gives it a bit of an off-putting, amateur YouTube channel quality.  Embarrassing use of green screen in a few instances further emphasizes this.  Some of the story elements like a family dysfunctionally disintegrating while on a stressful vacation and the husband's sex-deprived marriage leading him to horndog hallucinations are interesting and occasionally amusing.  Things increasingly go into sloppy, surrealistic mode though with a nonsensical and pretentious third act and payoff. 

 

+ 1

Dir - Dennis Iliadis

Overall: MEH

 

Full of trippy, Twilight Zone-level aesthetics with plenty of psychological themes in place, Greek filmmaker Dennis Iliadis' follow up to the 2009 The Last House on the Left remake + 1, (Plus One, Shadow Walkers), is interesting though ultimately uneven.  A solid example of posing far more questions than providing answers, those questions sustain the film to a point.  The concept of reliving a regrettable moment with a near immediate level of hindsight gives the movie an emotional backbone that is more intriguing than the rather ill-defined, sinister bizarro-world stuff that becomes more prominent in the third act.  Iliadis goes for a tone of balancing humor with mounting doom, but it is a bit rushed in the violent, catastrophic finale where things seem to arrive there awkwardly.  Likewise, most of the character arcs resolve themselves clumsily and a kind of ugly feeling permeates after the credits role.  It is ambitious and deserves credit for what it may be trying to attempt though, plus the final showdown is visually impressive as far as how it was pulled off.

 

STOKER

Dir - Park Chan-wook

Overall: MEH

A knowing quasi-re-working of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt by actor-turned-screenwriter Wentworth Miller and South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook in his English speaking debut, Stoker is a partially successful thriller.  The three leads in Nicole Kidman, Mia Wasikowska, and Matthew Goode turn in quite different though equally strong performances, though Goode's incessant smirking does become a bit irksome after awhile.  Chan-wook does an impressive job with the material, maintaining a dreadful tone with no breaks for humor and his frequent collaborator Chun Chung-hoo photographs everything beautifully and stylishly from the cinematographer chair.  It is a shame that the material in question is rather sub-par.  Far fetched and melodramatic in parts with a somewhat foreseeable reveal opening up doors that are fumblingly gone through, the story becomes dull and almost ham-fisted when it should be oozing with tension.  With a lesser director or lesser actors, the movie could have been in far more serious trouble.  As it stands though, it is clearly flawed yet meritable in enough areas to elevate it out of being exclusively mediocre.