The brilliant stand-up comedian Richard Pryor had a routine about venereal disease in which he expressed his concern that drug-resistant STDs were becoming so worrisome that soon, a man would begin the act, and his junk would immediately explode. Until the day Brother Richard’s prophecy comes true, we have David Robert Mitchell’s new horror film, It Follows, which centers around a particularly virulent form of VD. To wit, have sex just one time – particularly if you are a teenage female – and an evil spirit, that may or not take the shape of someone you know, will track you down and bend you like a pretzel until you snap, penicillin or industrial-strength Trojans notwithstanding. The film works as social satire and horror flick until it doesn’t, which is to say that it never pushes past its initial premise to develop into a story greater than its log line.
Archive for the ‘Horror’ Category
It Follows Review
Posted: September 12, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, ReviewsTags: David Robert Mitchell, Detroit, Julio Perez IV, Maika Monroe, Mike Gioulakis, Oedipal Complex, Richard Pryor, Teenage Sex
Rufus Review
Posted: September 5, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Horror, ReviewsTags: Dave Schultz, Edward Cullen, Lawrence Talbot, Merritt Paterson, Richard Harmon, Rory J. Saper
Rufus is not a bad movie. In fact, it is almost a good one. One final rewrite of the script, the removal of one character, a clarification or two of the central figure, and a slice of about 20 minutes from the 110-minute runtime, and you would be staring straight at a modest Canadian independent production with strong cult appeal that would play very well on the festival circuit. As is, however, Rufus suffers from a lack of clarity and purpose. Director/screenwriter Dave Schultz overextends in what should be a more barebones effort; in the process, he muddles the narrative and leaves the audience wondering what might have been.
Starry Eyes Review
Posted: September 3, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Alex Essoe, Black Swan, Contracted, Dennis Widmyer, Fabianne Therese, Hollywood, Kevin Kolsch, Louis Dezseran
The beautiful young woman who goes to Hollywood and sells her soul for fame and fortune as an actress is a familiar allegory, but seldom has it been spun in quite as chilling a manner as seen in the new horror flick, Starry Eyes. Even more rare is to see a unknown in the lead role turn in such a remarkable, defining performance that she elevates the movie above mere Midnight Madness fun. Alex Essoe as Sarah Walker, the would-be thespian who discovers how far she is willing to go for success, is astonishing; it’s sweet justice of a sort for a newcomer to use such a role to establish her own claim to stardom. The directing/screenwriting team of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer wisely piggyback on Essoe’s achievement to bring a fully realized story to the screen.
The Babadook Review
Posted: September 1, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Drama, Horror, ReviewsTags: Bedtime Story, Boogeyman, Essie Davis, Jennifer Kant, Movies, Noah Wiseman
While the debate goes on about female roles in mainstream movies, women continue to kill it – literally and figuratively – in genre films. On the second day of the 2014 Berlin Fantasy Filmfest, audiences were treated to consecutive screenings of a trio of strong flicks with an actress in the lead role, two of which also have a female director/screenwriter behind the projects. Honeymoon stars Rose Leslie, and Starry Eyes features Alex Essoe, but it is Essie Davis in The Babadook who turns in the most remarkable performance. Working in her feature film debut, director/writer Jennifer Kant unleashes childhood horrors on a defenseless widow (Davis) and her maladjusted son (Noah Wiseman) in a movie that works the nerves of the audience by manifesting familial dysfunction and behavioral disorders into the ultimate boogeyman in the closet.
Honeymoon Review
Posted: August 31, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction, ThrillerTags: Harry Treadaway, Leigh Janiak, Phil Graziadei, Rose Leslie, Under the Skin
Imagine the body as a vessel, an exterior shell that holds the essence of the individual. The body plus the psyche equals the being. Now, imagine an external force either filling the vessel or emptying it.
Two thought-provoking films with this concept at the center have been released this year. The first was Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, in which Scarlett Johansson plays a predatory alien who first acquires a body and then a sense of humanity in order to attract her prey. The second is Honeymoon with Rose Leslie as a newlywed who is seemingly having the humanness drained from her. Under the Skin became something of a darling for the Art House crowd, due to Johansson’s superior, naked-in-more-ways-than-one performance and a moody, broody atmosphere that bordered on pretentiousness, but never quite crossed over. Director Leigh Janiak’s Honeymoon is less ambitious and more conventional than Glazer’s work, but remains a worthy companion piece to that film.
The Voices Review
Posted: August 30, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Comedy, Horror, ReviewsTags: Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterton, Marjane Satrapi, Michael R. Perry, Olivier Bernet, Ryan Reynolds, Serial Killer, Talking Pets
The Voices is the type of movie you root for.
If you see a lot of films and are disappointed by far too many of them, you savor the hidden gem, the flick tucked away in the schedule of a film festival, the one without a trailer, with only a faint whispered positive word-of-mouth. Generally, you’re hooked from the first scene as the director invites you into a corner of the world you’ve often walked by, but never entered. Once inside this director’s world, you don’t want to leave. That’s a telling sign for this type of movie. Unlike so many films produced today, there overlooked treasures seem to end too quickly. You enter the theater as a jaundiced viewer; you leave as a cheerleader, hoping that the film will find its audience.
Out of the Dark Review
Posted: August 28, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, ReviewsTags: Bad Movies, Colombia, Enemy, Haunted House, Julia Stiles, Lluís Quílez, Pixie Davies, Stephen Rea, The Last Days
Out of the Dark is a useful reminder that resumes are not always accurate predictors of success in the movie business. How often do we see the phrases “From the Producers of” or “By the Director of” or the even vaguer “The Team That Brought You” splashed across the promotional material, only to find that the new film is nothing like its purported antecedents? Here, we have a collaboration of writers whose recent projects include fan favorites like Enemy and The Last Days. With such credits, viewers could reasonably expect, at the very least, a competent, workmanlike ghost story, while holding out hope for a new take on the familiar haunted house flick. Instead, screenwriters Javier Gullón (Enemy) and David and Àlex Pastor (The Last Days) deliver a dog of a script that is banal, derivative and so fraught with third act problems that the onscreen action provoked derisive laughter from the audience at the film’s premiere at the Berlin Fantasy Filmfest.
Leprechaun: Origins Review
Posted: August 26, 2014 in Horror, ReviewsTags: Chucky, Dylan Postl, Hornswoggle, Jennifer Aniston, Leprechaun, Stephanie Bennett, Warwick Davis, WWE
Nostalgia is not what it used to be when it comes to consideration of Leprechaun: Origins, one of the oddest of all possible horror franchise reboots. What you remember from the original Leprechaun films, the first of which debuted in 1993, will be of little value. Longtime fans hoping for another glimpse of Warwick Davis dispensing rhymes and rough Irish justice for anyone fool enough to steal his gold will be in for a disappointment. WWE studios produced the movie, so it comes as no surprise that they have cast one of their own in the lead role. Dylan Postl, known as Hornswoggle in the wrestling ring, takes over as the Leprechaun, but he’s buried under latex and has no lines. Why they have stripped Postl of any possibility of making an impression in the role is unclear. Indeed, why even draw attention to who is under the make up, when the actor will suffer by comparison to the original?
The Possession of Michael King Review
Posted: August 16, 2014 in Horror, ReviewsTags: Cullen Douglas, David Jung, Eyde Belasco, Horror, Movies, Phil Parmet, Shane Johnson
This is what horror for grown ups looks like.
The Possession of Michael King is a terrifying tale well told with solid performances throughout the cast, a smart script, and technical wizardry that all combine to deliver a story with an escalating sense of nihilism and dread, more than enough jolts of terror, a smattering of gore, and a taste of real taboo. In short, this flick has all the ingredients necessary for a superior scary movie. In his first feature film, director/screenwriter David Jung announces himself as a force within the genre and gives horror fans an unexpected and genuine treat. (more…)
Crawl or Die Review
Posted: August 13, 2014 in Horror, Reviews, Science FictionTags: Alien, Crawl Bitch Crawl, Explotation, Horror, Movies, Nicole Alonso, Oklahoma Ward, Sci Fi, Sigourney Weaver
Crawl or Die has two things going for it, the first being the title. The exhortation with threatening consequences invokes a warm, familiar feeling for fans of the exploitation genre. And yet, how great would it have been if the movie had been released with its original title, Crawl Bitch Crawl? That name alone would have guaranteed the movie’s admission into a score of film festivals, while simultaneously generating invaluable attention and publicity from the professionally outraged and easily offended among us. Director/writer/editor/cinematographer/producer/set designer Oklahoma Ward promises a sequel at the end of this one, and the film’s official web site is http://www.crawlordietrilogy.com, so there’s still a chance for this Hall of Fame-level title to find its way into the record books.
Meet Mr. Karma 