2015 Horror Part Eleven

HOWL

Dir - Paul Hyett

Overall: MEH

 

For his directorial follow-up to the unwatchable piece of absolute shit The Seasoning House, visual effects/make-up artist Paul Hyett switches gears with the shameless, gimmicky B-movie Howl.  The set-up is simple and the structure formulaic of a bunch of people trapped in a single location who have to stop arguing with each other in order to survive being besieged by viscous beasts.  So in other words, a zombie movie except with werewolves.  Though the unoriginality is not a detriment in and of itself, Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler's script is full of lame-brain plotting, terrible, uninterrupted monologues, and unlikable characters, many of whom are obnoxious assholes and/or morons for the mere dramatic sake of it.  On the plus and only unique side, the creature design relies more on practical makeup than CGI, making an interesting lycanthropian look that is more demon and Neanderthal than conventional wolfman.  The tone is too miserable and the characters too one-note and annoying to make the intended humor connect, but for fans of dopey schlock who also enjoy cool monsters, this might be worth sitting through.

 

GHOST MOUNTAINEER

Dir - Urmas E. Liiv

Overall: MEH

 

The first non-documentary film from Estonian writer/director Urmas E. Liiv, Ghost Mountaineer, (Must alpinist), tells a fictionalized account of an alleged true story involving a group of students trekking through the Siberian mountain ranges only to end up in a remote Buryate village where things get vaguely sinister.  The first act is set up more in a documentary fashion with the characters providing narration over photographs and the like, but all of that is oddly abandoned once they emerge from the mountains and things settle into murky waters where aloof supernatural elements, Soviet-era politics, suspicion, and aggression all co-mingle in an incoherent fashion.  Several things are alluded to throughout the film, (some mystical and some not), but Liiv never establishes the extent of the stakes and much of the cultural hospitality troubles that the characters find themselves in come off as equally unclear.  It is a frustrating watch from a narrative perspective, but the performances are solid and Ants Martin Vahur's cinematography is captivating, capturing both the expansive beauty and horror of the harsh winter terrain.

 

REGRESSION

Dir - Alejandro Amenábar

Overall: MEH

 

Writer/director Alejandro Amenábar's long-awaited, quasi-return to supernatural horror in Regression is well acted and consistently eerie, yet it is also surprisingly formulaic and disappointing coming from such a high-caliber filmmaker.  Set in 1990 at the tail end of the Satanic panic heyday, the story is a conglomerate of several documented cases that have either been proven or widely accepted to be hoaxes, with Amenábar crafting a psychological thriller where regression therapy as well as traumatized imaginations weave dangerous results.  All of the performances are up to par with Ethan Hawke being excellent as always as a headstrong detective and Emma Watson ideally cast as the young, would-be victim.  The problem lies in the presentation which is deadly serious besides being essentially nothing more than melancholic schlock.  To Amenábar's credit, the used of hooded figures with cartoonishly creepy, painted faces conducting black masses full of baby sacrifices, child molestation, and cannibalism is meant to be cliched as it all stems from sensationalized reports, but the plotting is too textbook to deliver any profound, real world revelations.

2015 Horror Part Ten

THE GIFT

Dir - Joel Edgerton

Overall: GOOD

 

An impressive directorial debut from writer/actor Joel Edgerton, the grown-up bully aftermath thriller The Gift rides that razor-thin line of clever and formulaic with top-notch performances all around.  The script toys with the ole "Nice person must be up to something sinister" trope throughout its first act which makes for several uncomfortable moments.  While most of the behavior exhibited by the people on screen is believable due to gradually fleshed-out characterizations, there are still a couple of logical gaps that unfortunately break verisimilitude.  As things get more intense towards the finish line, it almost bypasses its expertly unnerving, psychological manipulation for crude shock value, but Edgerton maintains a tight control over such a balance which makes the entire thing that much more suspenseful.  Rebecca Hall does her usual excellent work, (with a rock solid American accent to boot this time), and Edgerton appropriately keeps the audience guessing as to the extent of his intentions, but Jason Bateman steals the show in an against-type portrayal that is the most dynamic and challenging of the lot.

BE MY CAT: A FILM FOR ANNE

Dir - Adrian Țofei

Overall: GOOD

 

Notable as Romania's first found footage horror movie and the debut from filmmaker Adrian Tofei, (who also appears on screen and handles all levels of production), Be My Cat: A Film for Anne is of the disturbing meta variety previously established by Man Bites Dog in that its initial black comedy elements turn uncomfortably dark.  Tofei developed the project over a number of years as something that blurs the line between documentary and method delusion and the movie-within-a-movie for the purpose of another movie framework has a purposeful authenticity to it that is deeply troubling.  Allegedly, only first takes were used and the actors did not meet each other until the camera was already rolling.  As one of only three major speaking characters on screen and by far the most prominent one, Tofei is terrifying in his eccentric obsessiveness, utilizing broken English and clueless glee as he films his undying love letter for Anne Hathaway amidst self-justified, deranged, and deadly behavior.  Some of the plot developments may be too aloof to buy into and it is far from a feel good experience, but the latter at least is certainly the point.  As a viscerally bizarre watch then, the stark presentation only enhances its ability to get under the viewer's skin.

 

TALES OF HALLOWEEN

Dir - Neil Marshall/Darren Lynn Bousman/Axelle Carolyn/Lucky McKee/Andrew Kasch/Paul Solet/John Skipp/Adam Gierasch/Jace Anderson/Mike Mendez/Ryan Schifrin/Dave Parker

Overall: WOOF

In the short running as one of the most unwatchably braindead anthology horror films ever made, Tales of Halloween serves no morally admirable purpose besides providing a handful of genre regulars with a paycheck.  As is often the case with such comedic horror movies which behave as if aggressively bombarding the audience with as many stupid and loud cliches as possible with a smirking attitude is all that is necessary to equal funny, everything is played simultaneously straight and nauseatingly camped-up.  Any laughs to be found are purely accidental which is not helped by every single story premise being a moronic, lazily constructed rush-job.  This is both surprising and disappointing considering some of the otherwise efficient talent on board.  Neil Marshall and Lucky McKee have respectable works between them but their segments here are as daft as those from the other slew of filmmakers who come from much more unapologetically schlocky backgrounds.  Clearly everyone's hearts were in the right place by making something so lighthearted, silly, and gore-ridden, but it simply comes off as a groan-worthy assault on the senses that overstays its welcome before the opening credits are even finished rolling.

2016 Horror Part Thirteen

WE GO ON

Dir - Andy Mitten/Jesse Holland
Overall: MEH
 
A clunky supernatural melodrama that takes on some heavy themes, We Go On is the third and to-date last collaboration between writer/directors Andy Mitten and Jesse Holland.  Its inconsistencies are balanced by a few standout performances, even if Mitten and Holland's screenplay is too silly to properly buy into.  Annette O'Toole is a funny and hard-nosed mother that at first humors her adult, phobia-plagued son in his ridiculous quest to find someone who can prove that there is an afterlife after placing an add in a newspaper; an add that gets a thousand results which breaks verisimilitude because do a thousand people even read the newspapers anymore let alone respond to adds?  The journey that O'Toole and the "too-good-looking to be an awkward agoraphobe" Clarke Freeman go on brings them in contact with a huckster, a traumatized lady who proves to actually commune with the dead, another huckster that they do not even bother meeting, and ultimately a weird airplane enthusiast that kicks off the second, psychologically nightmarish second half.  Just like the uneven writing, the scare pieces are a combination of hackneyed and inventive and the emotional core that becomes increasingly paramount seems better suited to, well, a better movie.

 

CHILD EATER

Dir - Erlingur Thoroddsen

Overall: WOOF

 

The full-length debut from Icelandic writer/director Erlingur Thoroddsen Child Eater is an unfortunate schlock-fest and a surprising one at that coming from the filmmaker who followed it up in his native country with the far more respectable The Rift.  Insultingly stupid while simultaneously maintaining a grimy, bleak tone, the boogeyman story line tosses in a number of arbitrary tropes.  We have a "weird" kid who gets told that he has an over-active imagination so grown-ups fail to listen to him, shoots a sling-shot at the bad guy during the finale, (lord help us), and wanders around investigating spooky areas by himself like all kids always do in real life of course.  Also, there is a wacky old lady with newspaper clippings all over her wall and a collection of dolls, the strained father/daughter relationship, the melancholy final girl who has a newfound sense of responsibility due to recently having found out that she has a baby on the way, characters exchanging background exposition in a campfire story fashion, and a supernaturally charged title character who is immune to bullets and blunt force trauma until he is not.  Along with all of this hack nonsense is some embarrassing dialog delivered by cringe-worthy performances that range from melodramatic camp, to wise-ass and smirky, to just plain old wooden.  In other words, crap from front to back.

HERE ALONE

Dir - Rod Blackhurst

Overall: MEH

As the zombie apocalypse train just keeps on stubbornly trudging alone, the only two angles that filmmakers seem capable of taking within it are to make it a comedy or an enormously depressing drama.  The latter is the case in Rod Blackhurst's full-length debut Here Alone; an exhaustive film with minimal virus infection mayhem so we can instead painfully bask in a small crop of character's miserable ordeal.  Stylistically bleak and grimy with people literally covering their already dirty bodies with mud and piss to throw their scent off from the plague monsters, Blackhurst of course films it all with a diluted color pallet and peppers the whole thing with a subdued violin score.  As unoriginal as they come in this respect, the script by David Ebeltoft similarly offers up nothing fresh to the formula.  Once again we are just witnessing people grieve and/or put-down their loved ones, only to become metaphorically zombie-like themselves as they wallow in guilt and desperation, meagerly surviving one wretched day at a time.  Performance wise, it is uneven and stiff at times, but to be fair, the minimal assortment of actors are given very little to do besides look sad and make a few through-provoking speeches while not getting interrupted by the person that they are trying to convince.

2016 Horror Part Twelve

THE UNTAMED

Dir - Amat Escalante

Overall: MEH

 

A curious, Mexican hybrid of Coen brothers styled, awkward violence and Andrzej Żuławski's 1981 landmark Possession, The Untamed, (La región salvaje), takes some bold chances with its opaque narrative.  The horror elements are so underplayed as to become bizarre, at least compared to the central drama between a married couple dealing with all manner of dysfunction.  Because there is no concise explanation as to the otherworldly presence or how it seems to be inconsistently affecting the lives of those who come across it, (and the fact that we are barely given an inkling to its existence until well into the film), it becomes difficult to understand what exactly writer/director Amat Escalante was going for by making this a genre film in the first place.  It certainly deals with repressed, sexual frustration, but it would be cynical to think that the entire thing merely points to people doing questionable things just in order to fulfill carnal desires once given the opportunity.  The movie deserves props for its unorthodox approach and the nuanced way that its troubling subject matter is handled, but it is also a bit too nebulous in certain eras to make its intended point, whatever that may be.

 

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE

Dir - Dan Trachtenberg

Overall: GOOD

 

A tight, popcorn sci-fi horror film pigeonholed into the Cloverfield "series", 10 Cloverfield Lane works its low key thriller aspects well; thriller aspects which take up nearly ninety-five percent of the running time.  Originally penned by Josh Campbell and Matt Stuecken as a spec script under the title "The Cellar", J.J. Abrams production company Bad Robot retooled it with screenwriter Damien Chazelle presumably as a marketing ploy to garnish significantly larger interest.  Whatever the tactics, the results play off of audience's expectations while conventionally focusing on a single, claustrophobic setting where gradual layers are exposed to wrack up the tension.  John Goodman does his usual stellar work as a bomb sheltered conspiracy theorist who persistently seems up to no good while simultaneously being a literal life saver, and the script weaves in numerous setups and payoffs that keep things on a steady, suspense-laden incline.  People may have mixed feelings about the final set piece which was either always part of the plan or awkwardly tacked on to make good on the franchise connection, but it does throw a bit of a yawn-inducing, final punctuation to an otherwise gripping presentation.  There is no rule breaking present here, but it is slick and intimate in the best possible way that genre movies with some studio backing can be.

 

THE NOONDAY WITCH

Dir - Jiri Sádek/Matej Chlupacek/Michal Samir

Overall: MEH

A collaboration between filmmakers Jiri Sádek, Matej Chlupacek, and Michal Samir, the Czech folk horror drama The Noonday Witch, (Polednice), is unfortunately stagnant despite its sincere approach.  From a technical perspective, all aspects are on point; Alexander Surkala's cinematography intimately captures the remote countryside during a particularly warm summer, Ben Corrigan's music is never overbearing, there are minimal to no overused genre tropes present, and the performances are strong with both Anna Geislerová and ten year-old Karolína Lipowská in particular making an emotionally sympathetic mother/daughter team going through a recent trauma.  The problem lies entirely with the narrative then.  Though based on a 19th century poem by Antonín Dvořák, its presentation here is never handled with any convincing menace or majesty.  In fact hardly anything of any supernatural merit transpires at all until the very end when it becomes rather clear cut that what is happening is of a psychological nature.  Before that, we are given too little information to relate to the characters and their plight, plus cryptic warnings by a local, wacky old lady are never investigated or taken seriously until they just randomly are with no proper build up.  Something got lost along the way here to examine a mother's newfound hardships in raising her daughter as a single parent through some of the inherent metaphors or moral teachings of folkloric superstitions.  Instead, we just get an aimless, underwritten series of events that is presented far more profoundly than it comes across.

2016 Horror Part Eleven

DEAREST SISTER

Dir - Mattie Do

Overall: GOOD

The sophomore effort from Laotian/American filmmaker Mattie Do, Dearest Sister is a tragic family drama that weaves its supernatural components more as a mere plot device than as a means of exploring its class-based themes.  This is not a bad thing though if for any other reason than because the material does not call for hack-laden genre tropes, so there are no jump scares or generic horror music to dictate the audience's feelings, and no situations where otherworldly activity transpires that either nobody mentions to anyone or is dismissed as "all in one's mind".  Instead, the nature of Vilouna Phetmany's protagonist who is suddenly stricken with gradual blindness as well as the ability to see the dead and receive lottery winning premonitions from them is never explained as it is not important.  What is important is how the characters face their hardships in such a situation, namely Amphaiphun Phommapunya's peasant girl giving in to the temptation of basking in a more privileged, (be it temporarily so), lifestyle.  This also has some more personal aspects for Do and her screenwriter/collaborator husband Christopher Larsen in the interracial marriage dynamics present in the story, which are treated as complex and respectfully as everything else herein.

 

WE ARE THE FLESH

Dir - Emiliano Rocha Minter

Overall: GOOD

A modern day midnight movie that spits bloody/pornographic/incestuous rage in the face of coherence, the full-length We Are the Flesh, (Tenemos la carne), from Mexican filmmaker Emiliano Rocha Minter is a nasty, boundary obliterating nightmare that will equally delight and frustrate only the most forgiving of art house enthusiasts.  Essentially, if Gaspar Noé and Alejandro Jodorowsky masturbated over each other's bad acid trips, this would probably be close to the result, which is a warped aesthetic that Minter is no doubt going for.  On paper, it merely focuses on three people in a single location, but what transpires goes off the rails at such a steady incline that the results are anything but minimalist.  Whether or not the film actually features real intercourse and bodily releases or merely simulated ones is hardly of importance since the visceral results are not for the faint of heart either way.  Though it is disturbed and uncomfortable in the type of manner that a young, hungry, and up and coming artist like Minter seems gleefully determined for it to be, this is hardly just a barrage of grotesque and incoherent images.  Well, maybe it is, but it is also cinematically bold in a way that one cannot take their eyes off of; vividly beautiful and horrific all at once like a naked, grimy, ambient, fevered nightmare of cannibalistic madness and sex.  If it says anything at all, it does so in an impenetrably pretentious manner yet it would veer towards the forgettable if it was done any other way.

ROMEO'S DISTRESS

Dir - Jeff Frumess

Overall: MEH

Shot for a measly $2,553 over the course of fifteen months with a one-to-two person crew, Romeo's Distress has a modern day SOV charm to it that is commendable, yet as one could imagine, it also does not wield the most professional of results.  Writer/director/everything guy Jeff Frumess goes for a Clerks meets Eraserhead vibe, titling the film off of a Christian Death song and featuring a couple of original ditties from collaborator/musician Nick Bohun, all of which give it the proper DIY punk rock vibe.  While the story focuses on an eccentric and stereotypically dorky loner with a profound crush on a girl that we only see in his masturbation sessions or colored day dreams, (the rest of the movie is in black and white), the mystery proves to be straightforward in its resolve, despite one or two unexplained details along the way.  It still achieves its indented midnight movie weirdness, but the home movie production aspects unfortunately undermine it.  Unnatural performances, YouTube quality visuals, and monotonous pacing make it difficult to take seriously, plus the tone is clashing with awkward attempts at dark/quirky humor, mild perversity and violence, and inconsistent music that leans heavier on the side of melancholic.  Frumess proves to have the inspiration at least for something grander, but it would require a significantly higher budget, a well-trained crew, and better actors to pull it off.

2017 Horror Part Fifteen

RIFT

Dir - Erlingur Thoroddsen

Overall: GOOD

 

Though its supernatural components may be too murky and ill-defined for some tastes, Erlingur Thoroddsen's sophomore full-length Rift, (Sumrak), excels as a heartfelt breakup film.  Björn Stefánsson, (who looks like a cross between Richard Marx and Michael Shannon), and Sigurður Þór Óskarsson play a couple that is struggling with moving on from each other, and the entire film can be interpreted as their means of coming to terms with such a traumatic breakup, even by unearthly means.  Writer/director Thoroddsen's script thankfully spends most of its time patiently and realistically showing the frustration and confusion surrounding complex romantic relationships, and being a movie where said relationship is a homosexual one, the subject matter is treated respectfully even with some obvious allusions to what many could consider to be universal hardships within the gay community.  All production aspects are top notch, from the performances to J.P. Wakayama's contemporary, naturalistic cinematography that gorgeously captures the Icelandic countryside as well as evoking an effective amount of dread where the spooky sequences are concerned.

 

MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS

Dir - Mouly Surya

Overall: GOOD

 

A collaboration between Indonesian filmmakers Mouly Surya and Garin Nugroho, (the former being behind the lens and the latter conceiving of the story), Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a low-key rape and revenge western that casts a unique spell both for its narrative and execution.  Set on the island of Sumba, (where exteriors where likewise shot), the remote location provides an eerie backdrop where even in contemporary times, people can find themselves so easily brutalized when miles upon miles of desert landscape lay between any neighbors.  Similar to the American Old West which may as well have been a lawless no man's land in such respects, the women in particular here are left at the mercy of men who will nonchalantly overpower them.  It all creates a tense atmosphere where such brutality is taken at face value and Surya downplays every threat as well as every act of violence in a chilling manner.  It takes its time pacing wise, but this is to the film's benefit.  Beautifully photographed in mostly wide shots and long takes as well as peppered with both regional music and soundtrack motifs lifted right out of the Spaghetti Western playbook, the audience is left to simmer in a combination of uncomfortable and evocative moments throughout. 

 

REPLACE

Dir - Norbert Keil

Overall: MEH

 

German director Norbert Keil's second full-length film Replace is a schlocky affair that attempts a type of David Cronenberg-inspired, psychological body horror with a tone straight out of bargain bin silliness.  Things begin interesting enough with what seems like a singular premise of a young woman discovering that both her memory is faulty as of late and that she has deteriorating skin patches at random spots on her body.  As the plot thickens though, the goofy melodrama takes center stage and half-baked ideas and characters do things like murder, fall in love, make promises to each other, or in Barbara Crampton's case, lazily behave in a way that about a billion other cold-hearted, "mad scientists working on top secret medical technology that will revolutionize the world as we know it" have.  Keil's idea for an intense finale is to loop the same piece of music over and over again to the point of daring the audience to plug their ears as Rebecca Forsythe and Lucie Aron haphazardly attempt an escape, only to give up and profess their love for each other as the credits arrive with a false sense of profoundness that the movie never earns.  The photography is excellent though, and while Crampton's one-note villainess character leaves her no choice but to B-movie her way through it, Forsythe and Aron's performances are at least decent.

2017 Horror Part Fourteen

THE CURED

Dir - David Freyne

Overall: MEH

While pessimism is often an inherent trait in horror, it becomes quite exhausting in David Freyne's debut The Cured; yet another goddamn zombie movie where the nature of humanity is thrown up against hopelessly dour circumstances.  In all fairness, Freyne's angle here is a unique one in that he presents a world where the 28 Days Later styled, aggressive "zombie" virus is actually cured, only the caveat is that the once infected are treated as lepers by the rest of the society, causing a violent uprising to stand-in for real world, "us vs. them" marginalization.  All of this sounds fine and even intelligent on paper, but things quickly become obnoxious as it is all based on shaky, illogical footing where the discrimination seems preposterously uncalled for and exaggerated.  To make matters worse, Freyne utilizes hacky genre tropes, most egregiously with predictable, deafeningly loud, monster noise jump scares and characters leaving long pauses to let each other dramatically contemplate their dialog before exhibiting asinine behavior in the messy, final act.  The presentation is heady and bleak enough to disguise its poorly thought out details with the humor kept to an almost non-existent minimum and lots of gut-wrenching crying to go about, but the whole thing collapses easily.

GOOD MANNERS

Dir - Juliana Rojas/Marco Dutra

Overall: GOOD

Imperfect yet commendable for its bold choices and unique presentation of dark fairy tale subject matter, writer/director duo Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra's latest full-length collaboration Good Manners, (As Boas Maneiras), is one of the most interesting, live action Disney homages disgusted as a horror film that one is likely to see.  Structured in two parts, it reveals its cards very slowly, unveiling more stylistic layers as it goes on which throw in everything from conventional monster movie, lesbian romance, and burst into song musical in as least likely of a manner as possible.  The first half is comparatively the strongest as it offers up the most surprises, focusing on the natural bonding between hired caretaker Isabél Zuaa and estranged-from-her-wealthy-family, mother-to-be Marjorie Estiano.  When things jump ahead, it becomes more foreseeable where it will all lead, but the emotional core at the story remains gripping, which focuses in no spoon-feeding terms on the loyalty of unconditional love.  The performances are excellent all around and Rojas and Dutra bathe the movie in vibrant colors as well as a heightened aesthetic that never becomes distracting.  Save a few minor plot holes in the end and some unfortunately terrible CGI, it is an excellent, refreshing work that has both its heart and genre admiration in the right places.

 

THE SLEEP CURSE

Dir - Herman Yau

Overall: MEH

 

It is no wonder that Herman Yau's The Sleep Curse, (Shi mian), is allegedly the movie that broke actor Anthony Wong from doing any future horror films as it is a laughably misguided mess all of the way through.  Even during the initial set up which sees Wong arguing about not being granted the funds to pursue a sleep deprivation experiment, Yau proves to be working within a schlock framework.  Yet once the narrative detours into a half-hour long flashback sequence for the second act, the momentum suffers exponentially from there as it then proceeds to bounce between two different timelines at irregular intervals.  The production values are noticeably cheap; like early 90s straight-to-video cheap except with occasional bouts of terrible CGI and modern day, screechy jump scares that would be annoying if not for how hilariously stupid they are.  Tonally, the real life World War II atrocities sit very awkwardly with whatever else Yau was going for here, especially considering that the last twenty minutes busts out cartoon level violence and preposterous shock-value tactics, though granted neither of these are new to the director's earlier gore spectacles.  We witness Wong removing a corpse's face for no reason in order to take out his brain, feasting on his love interest's arm, and most ridiculous of all, cutting a bad guy's penis off and shoving it in said bad guy's mouth before decapitating him.  At a hundred and two minutes, it is an egregious experience to sit through, but if trash fans are willing to cherry pick a handful of bloody, outrageous moments to laugh at, it at least has you covered there.