2018 Horror Part Ten

DACHRA

Dir - Abdelhamid Bouchnak

Overall: GOOD

 

A rare horror film out of Tunisia, Dachra serves as the feature-length debut from writer/director Abdelhamid Bouchnak and it is an effective, (and relentlessly), unsettling one at that.  Many of the narrative motifs here have been bedrocks in the genre for some time; the secret, psychotic lady in a lunatic asylum who refuses to speak, the eager/doomed college students playing detective, the priest, (or in this case imam), to the rescue, an extremely creepy kid, psych-out nightmare/hallucinations, figures in black robes standing around at night, an isolated community where everyone is weird, getting stranded with no cell phone service after a series of "friendly" people lead characters to spend the night in a less than ideal location, etc.  On paper, these might be enough egregious cliches to sink the ship, but Bouchnak's commitment to an incredibly dreadful and sombre tone goes a long way, plus the lead, emotionally demanding performance by Yasmine Dimassi is excellent.  She and her cohorts endless bickering does get a bit annoying after awhile, but it simultaneously comes off as natural, providing the movie with its only source of humor, be it minimally.  The film also pulls of the nifty trick of going a foreseeable route as far as things escalating from concerning to extremely bad, yet still with a few surprises regarding the plot specifics that leave things off in an uncompromisingly frightening place.

 

BUTTERFLY KISSES

Dir - Erik Kristopher Myers

Overall: MEH

 

An ambitious, meta take on the found footage sub-genre, Eric Kristopher Myers' first horror film Butterfly Kisses takes a noble attempt at cracking the code, yet it ultimately stumbles down the stairs in the process.  The concept is simple and convoluted at the same time; an unknown would-be-hot-shot independent filmmaker "discovers" a box of footage in his in-laws basement, footage that just so happens to be from another aspiring filmmaker from a decade and a half earlier.  Yet another filmmaking crew then begins to film him assembling and trying to get verifiable cred for his discovery, turning the whole thing into an essay on how far someone is willing to go to receive legitimacy amongst their peers.  The problem is in the melding of spooky, faux-urban legend concepts ala The Blair Witch Project, (plus countless others), with the struggling frustration of a rather unlikable protagonist who is persistently thwarted in his attempts to try and get both paranormal experts, other mockumentarians, and the general public to take his work seriously.  Myer's supernatural fable may not be the most unique out there, but it is far more interesting for the average horror enthusiast than all of the behind the scenes/on screen drama that gradually overtakes the proceedings.  In its documentary within a documentary within a documentary format, (where the scary bits are ideally placed for maximum popcorn munching value), it just comes off as being silly.

TAU

Dir - Federico D'Alessandro

Overall: MEH

Art director Federico D'Alessandro's full-length debut that sits him properly behind the lens is the mildly entertaining though ultimately hokey A.I. thriller Tau.  The film's problems pretty much all come down to the script by Noga Landau which gets a jogging start with some bog-standard ideas in the first place and then messily runs through a number of convenient, poorly established plot points to get to the finish line.  Certain rules are established concerning the Gary Oldman-voiced, sentient title-computer, but such rules are routinely broken in an attempt to humanize him and bring forth a connection between he/it and Maika Monroe's down on her luck thief who is held captive by Ed Skrein's heavily underwritten, one-note villain.  The interaction between Monroe and Oldman is at times touching and provides the movie with its humane core, but the loosey-goosey chain of events that brings them together breaks verisimilitude and will have audience members chuckling while having a difficult time buying into everything.  Not surprisingly coming from D'Alessandro and his major budgeted, CGI-heavy resume, the movie is visually pristine and creates a solid, near-futuristic, high-tech atmosphere.  Still, there is very little if anything unique being brought to the table here and though it steers shy of being insultingly derivative, it only ends up being a pretty yet forgettable/mildly suspense-laden techno-yarn.

2018 Horror Part Nine

THE DARK

Dir - Justin P. Lange

Overall: GOOD

 

A promising, somber, yet oddly uplifting debut from filmmaker Justin P. Lange, The Dark transcends its almost problematically generic title.  In large parts, what actually lies in the movie itself is refreshing genre-bypassing.  There is no conventional, incidental music and when any musical motifs do arrive, they are not only very few and far between, yet also provide a fitting, narrative role.  Lange's script is at once simple yet arguably overly-stuffed as certain side arcs are deliberately glossed over while simultaneously being too disturbing to warrant such negligence.  Still, the most important element is the core, simple theme of overcoming extreme trauma after it has effectively monsterized you.  This gives the movie a potent, emotional core and the serious tone is kept entirely in check throughout.  Lange finds little to no use with nonsense like jump scares or exaggerated, muted color pallets, though there is still a fair amount of grime and nastiness.  Again though, the end result is less bombastic and more introspective as is appropriate for the material.  The fact that it surprisingly ends up not being a completely dour experience is novel in its own right as well.

 

IN FABRIC

Dir - Peter Strickland

Overall: MEH

 

British filmmaker Peter Strickland delivers another utterly perplexing genre workout with In Fabric, a movie whose humor stems from the increasingly ridiculous presentation that goes nowhere.  Strickland seems to delight in such eccentricities where every last scene dares instead of challenges the viewer; challenges them not only to make heads or tails out of the peculiar goings on, (which is utterly futile), but also to simply come to terms with their own visceral reaction to what is on screen.  In the most bare bones sense, there is some sort of hypnotic, supernatural tomfoolery afoot regarding a particular red wrap dress and a department store made up of funny-accented foreigners who speak in unintelligible riddles, cast synchronized beckoning spells on their patrons, and masturbate to a menstruating mannequin.  Long story.  As visually intoxicating as it is, the demented pretentiousness is only tolerable to the most forgiving of viewers.  In this regard it is a popcorn movie for arthouse cinephiles; something with zero substance and instead just a never-ending stream of flashy, preposterous nonsense that leaves nothing beneath its surface to uncover.

THE PERFECTION

Dir - Richard Shepard

Overall: MEH

Flashy both in its twisty plot and backtracking structure, Richard Shepard's The Perfection ultimately bites off more than it can stomach.  Following up her memorable turn as a manipulative psycho in Get Out, Allison Williams is once again, well, a manipulative psycho here.  Yet the script by Shepard, Eric Charmelo, and Nicole Snyder has a lot of fun flipping everything around more than several times to the point where the movie becomes overblown and a bit ridiculous.  Several details are present that are not for the squeamish and when the story reveals its truly unwholesome nature, it comes off as more cartoonishly vile than properly disturbing.  It is not so much that the movie botches its tone; it is more that it asks a bit too much of the viewer to take it as seriously as the subject matter may or may not deserve.  For those that can appreciate the "WTF" revelations and the somewhat quirky presentation while taking them merely at face value, the film may be a bizarre enough ride to endure.  For others that are easily insulted by any sort of about-face that veers into schlock territory though, this may prove a frustrating experience.

2019 Horror Part Sixteen

BLOOD QUANTUM

Dir - Jeff Barnaby

Overall: MEH

Unfortunately, what ended up being the final feature from Mi'kmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby Blood Quantum hinges its Indigenous metaphor via a zombie outbreak concept on schlocky, macho-aggression and characters that range from dour to unnecessarily unlikable.  The movie was shot at both Kahnawake and Listuguj reserves in Quebec, Canada and features an almost entirely Indigenous cast with a subject matter that tries desperately to squeeze some relevance out of the horrendously over-saturated zombie genre.  Here, the historical context of European settlers wiping out large portions of Native people from centuries past being parallel to a corpse-raising plague that said contemporary Natives are immune to is both a weighty and interesting one, but the cliche pandering is still front and center.  Though the perpetual rage and desperation of everyone on screen is understandable in such a context, the narrative grows increasingly muddled with their unnatural dialog and pointlessly idiotic behavior.  It all creates a miserable, confused tone to say the least, one that is gritty and stylized yet punctuated by unintentional absurdity and potent, sociopolitical themes that are in messy contrast with each other.

DIABLO ROJO PTY

Dir - Sol Charlotte/J. Oskura Nájera

Overall: MEH

A colorful, quasi, Euro-horror throwback from writer/director team Sol Charlotte and J. Oskura Nájera, Diablo Rojo PTY seems to be a purposely messy affair that basks in some of the more campy, gore-ridden genre tropes of yesteryear.  Focusing on a Panama buss driver who veers off into a logic defying nightmare world on one particularly unfortunate evening, the movie has various elements of Lucio Fulci's Hell Trilogy and Zombi, along with Italian cannibal films and some of the more contemporary comedic horror elements of Álex de la Iglesia's The Day of the Beast.  While much of it sounds delightful on paper and does provide a few gory chuckles on screen, the story has half-baked character moments and does a weak job of establishing the supernatural rules at play.  Granted, this is probably on purpose to lock it into the old school philosophy of just having a bunch of wacky, weird, and violent things happen with narrative cohesion being an afterthought at best.  Fair enough, but it seems aggressively backwards thinking in this regard and other elements like the incessant, inappropriate musical score, (another foreign, B-movie hallmark largely abandoned in recent decades), wretched digital effects, great practical effects, and inconsistent humor makes for a mangled affair that is merely enjoyable in parts while just kind of outdated and curious in others.

ATLANTICS

(2019)

Dir - Mati Diop

Overall: GOOD

Serving as the non-fiction, full-length debut from French-born, actor-turned-director Mati Diop, Atlantics, (Atlantique), adopts a rarely seen perspective for a genre film, being the worker corruption and class dynamics found in Dakar, Senegal.  The "ghosts with unfinished business returning from the sea" tale is an age old one, given a unique, contemporary backdrop here and handled in a subdued manner by Diop.  While supernatural elements are undoubtedly present, they are downplayed in a manner that makes them startling without having the agenda of being bone-chilling.  In other words, the uncanny bits solely serve the story where wronged laborers were denied several months wages, only to take desperate measures from beyond the grave.  The focus is particularly on Mame Bineta Sane's protagonist who is caught up in an unwilling, arranged marriage while struggling with her lost love's visits that ultimate serve as a positive, life-affirming awakening.  This makes the film poetic and beautiful in its sincere themes and Diop creates many visually intimate sequences as well as an inviting yet haunting atmosphere.  It could afford to trim about twenty minutes here or there along its slow-boil trek, but that is a minor and not at all universal complaint, and certainly not one that tarnishes what is a ultimately a compelling work.

2019 Horror Part Fifteen

I SEE YOU

Dir - Adam Randall

Overall: MEH

 

Proving that mere expectation subverting is not inherently a good thing, I See You manages a genuine rug pull half-way through as well as a random twist in the finale, yet both of these leave an unsatisfying aftertaste.  As the screenwriting debut for actor Devon Graye, the bold choices he makes certainly achieve their initial gasps from the audience and the structural shift which allows for the entire narrative to replay from the perspective of different characters gets by only to a point on its cleverness.  The fact that both these new characters and the initially established ones lean heavy on the unlikable side is part of the problem and the final result oozes cynicism where nobody is without moderate to significant flaws.  Director Adam Randall keeps the humor to the barest possible minimum and though it is probably more of the script's fault than not, but the performances seem stiff , especially in Helen Hunt and Jon Tenney's case.  That said, it is refreshing to see a Hollywood couple that were actually born within two years of each other instead of the usual elder gentleman with a wrinkle-free wife that is half his age.  For those who like their thrillers perpetually dark and will gladly partake of home invasion chills, (as well as also still finding creepy masks to be, well, creepy), this should be most agreeable though.

DEMENTER

Dir - Chad Crawford Kinkle

Overall: MEH

 

Writer/director Chad Crawford Kinkle's follow-up to his independent debut Jug Face is the even smaller scale Dementer, which once again reunites him with Larry Fessenden, be it in a minor, infrequent role.  Featuring Kinkle's actual sister Stephanie who has Down Syndrome, the story has a unique premise for a genre film involving a benevolent, ex-cult member who takes a new job as a caregiver for special needs adults while suffering psychologically combative trauma from her occult-fueled past.  Though the presentation is wholly respectful towards the real life, disabled cast members and Katie Groshong turns in a naturalistic performance in the lead, the actual narrative is meandering and frustrating.  Nearly the entire movie simply bounces between Groshong trying to go about her business while disjointed flashback sequences aggressively not only interrupt her day, but also the flow of the movie.  Said sequences are nothing more than Fessenden repeating goofy things and counting a lot, disturbing, out of focus images being edited in rapid-fire succession, and non-melodic, ominous music incessantly overlapping everything.  None of the occult tomfoolery is explained which is not a problem in and of itself, but it leads to a confused, anticlimactic finale that fails to crescendo the intended, malevolent tone.

THE VIGIL

Dir - Keith Thomas

Overall: MEH

A combination of genre familiarity and potent, Semitic traditionalism, filmmaker Keith Thomas' full-length debut The Vigil is occasionally impactful in its intense mood-setting and guilt-consuming metaphors.  Set almost entirely in a two-story, Brooklyn home and focusing on a highly troubled, down on his luck, former Orthodox community member who is reluctantly tasked with keeping vigil over a deceased Holocaust survivor with an equally traumatic past, it uses the Jewish, mythological Mazzik demon as a tool to feed off of the internal suffering of others, who it then maliciously attaches itself to.  While there are a couple of light touches of humor stemming from Dave Davis' awkwardness with women and newfound adjustment troubles to contemporary, civilian life, Thomas predominantly upholds a thick, brooding, and ultra-creepy atmosphere.  Unfortunately, the scare tactics that he utilizes do eventually become predictable and even occasionally grating with jump scares and lots of loud, ambient screechy noises on the soundtrack.  Still, Davis is fantastically vulnerable in the lead and at least the first act is very gripping as it teases the inevitable supernatural shenanigans in a "can't look away" manner.  It steers clear of having an insultingly simplistic, emotional backbone and the Jewish folklore subject matter is refreshing in and of itself, but it slightly misses the mark to break as much new ground as it deserves to.

2019 Horror Part Fourteen

SKYMAN

Dir - Daniel Myrick
Overall: MEH

 

After an eleven year break, Daniel Myrick, (half of The Blair Witch Project's creative team), returns with Skyman; a mockumentary styled UFO film that takes a sincere approach to its subject matter while only particularly justifying its found footage style.  On the one hand, it is difficult to image the movie as being presented conventionally since the story revolves around a man who has a film crew follow him around as he attempts to reunite with extraterrestrial beings that he met thirty years earlier on his birthday.  Remove the documentarians and much of the information would have to be explained via distracting expository dialog, though the fly on the wall intimacy could probably still be maintained with standard, handheld camera work.  In either event, the casting of unknowns brings a level of authenticity to everything and the performances are fittingly natural.  This helps make each character likeable and the inherent theme far more compelling of a startling childhood episode and troubled family dynamic shaping one's adulthood in an obsessive was.  The alien encounter specifics are not very important, but that is also a problem since the entire movie then builds to an unsatisfying climax that leaves too little on the viewer's plate to truly dive into.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Dir - Jeremy Gardner/Christian Stella

Overall: GOOD

 

The second collaboration between filmmaking duo Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella, (with another such duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead serving as producers), After Midnight hits its themes rather on the head; themes of a troubled, well-meaning man struggling with his own relationship "monsters".  Thankfully though, there is a lot of emotional weight that is both genuine and amusing.  Taking place in a backwoods Florida town and dealing with two likeable people hitting a wall in their ten-year romance, it has various hallmarks of a typical breakup movie where half of the couple takes a sabbatical and the other half is left to relive happier days via flashbacks while wallowing in self pity and alcohol.  Gardner's script throws a strange, otherworldly curve ball into the formula though which would serve as a bit too obvious of a metaphor if not for the fact that it is all grounded by excellent performances and a quirky tone that sprinkles its humor around without becoming overbearing.  Stylistic choices such as a barrage of indie pop/folk/country songs and incidental music do become somewhat annoying to a point, yet the most important moments are given room to breathe, including a fantastic, very long take of Gardner's protagonist patiently taking in Brea Grant's grievances.

 

SADAKO

Dir - Hideo Nakata

Overall: MEH

Returning to the franchise that put him on the J-horror map, Sadako is director Hideo Nakata's first entry in the Ring franchise since 2005's American remake The Ring Two.  Stepping away from the cursed video tape angle and ushering the story line into the modern, YouTube personality age, one could see the obvious narrative aspects that are bypassed as either a clever subversion of expectations or a missed opportunity.  So no, the long-haired, title ghost does not come out of laptop screens or cellular devices after her cursed video goes viral, but what does transpire still manages to come off as a mangled mess that rehashes some of the same information without delivering any unique scares.  A big thing that is missing this far into the series is any source of mystery, yet the story still plays out as if the characters need to get the the bottom of something.  Such a tactic would be fine if there was a less conventionally chilling atmosphere maintained, genuine surprises, or engaging characters to root for.  None of these things are the case though which makes it all a slog to sit through.  Worse yet, when Nakata does bust out the spook-show set pieces, they not only seem to abandon most of the previous rules that were established, but also come off as silly since they rely largely on wide-eyed jolts and revved-up scary music that recalls dozens upon dozens of similar movies that were directly inspired by the initial Ring movies in the first place.

2019 Horror Part Thirteen

SATOR

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.

THE DEEPER YOU DIG

Dir - John Adams/Zelda Adams/Toby Poser
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.

THE SOUL COLLECTOR

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.

2019 Horror Part Twelve

LVX ÆTERNA

Dir - Gaspar Noé

Overall: MEH

 

As one would expect from a filmmaker who is always eager to find new angles to make his viewers uncomfortable, Gasper Noé's Lux Æterna, (stylized as LVX ÆTERNA), is equally frustrating and pretentious as it offers up a contemporary take on Federico Fellini's movie about movie-making 8 1/2.  Conceived of as a short film yet ultimately stretched out to fifty-one minutes, a brief intro montage of witch torture utensils over narration, (ala 1922's Häxan), gives way to various single take/"fly on the wall"/split-screen/on set documentary-styled footage of a faux production of a film called God's Craft which follows various actors, producers, extras, cameramen, and other personnel around.  Chaos increasingly erupts which is probably difficult to follow by design and it all culminates with a seizure-inducing barrage of strobing lights while quotes from famous directors about maintaining control over one's art are shown on the screen.  It could be saying something about women's objectification in cinema, the enormous struggle of getting a movie made, the desire to create something profound in an often shallow medium, or just random religious stuff, but good luck trying to come to any profound revelations upon viewing.  It is bold, silly, often gorgeously shot, hurts your eyes afterwards, and is definitely something that only Noé would have the gall to unleash in the first place.

RED 11

Dir - Robert Rodriguez

Overall: WOOF

For more noble reasons than its end product is worth, Robert Rodriguez decided to make his own solo version of a bottom-barrel Redbox movie with Red 11.  Meant to be an inspiring experiment done with no crew, virtually no money, and shot on real locations within a remarkably small filming schedule, Rodriguez' independent spirit is in the right place at least.  Yet the lesson here turns out to be an unintended one in that producing something with such a DIY trajectory is not nearly enough to warrant it as watchable let alone not alarmingly terrible.  As one could guess, it looks as cheap as it actually is, more like a mid-tier YouTube video than something from the guy who made visually exciting, cinematic delights such as Sin City, Planet Terror, and From Dusk Till Dawn.  Every other aspect is equally as underwhelming though, from uncomfortably amateur performances, wretched plotting, cricket-chirping attempts at meta-comedy, accidentally hilarious/bizarre schlock, and an overall story that is astonishingly convoluted and lame.  It is impossible throughout to properly gauge what in the hell Rodriguez was going for here as it joins the ranks of Francis Ford Coppola's Twixt as a perplexingly embarrassing time-waster from a filmmaker that has long proven to be far, far, far better than this.

VILLAINS

Dir - Dan Berk/Robert Olsen

Overall: GOOD

Filmmaking team Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's Villains hits a handful of familiar home invasion/wackadoo Jesus-loving couple beats along its route, but it is also a mostly successful pairing of comedic and suspense laden sensibilities.  The script was on 2016's Black List with production beginning two years later after Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe signed on as the two cocaine-snorting, Bonnie and Clyde leads who eventually square off against Kyra Sedgwick and Jeff Donovan's significantly more dubious bad guy couple, hence the movie's title which applies to all parties involved.  The cast's overall likeability goes a long way as we root for the two love-struck bank robbers who are up to no good while feeling a certain level of pity for the love-struck psychopaths who are also up to no good.  Berk and Olsen make some stylistic visual choices that are fun and build up a handful of nerve-wracking set pieces that still manage to have a few well-placed, outrageous chuckles thrown in for good measure.  The grand finale somewhat suffers from a noticeable tonal shift that sends the whole thing off on a more heartwarming-via-tragedy angle, but the performances, complex characterizations, and occasional trope tweaks make it darkly entertaining for all of the intended reasons.