All Things Horror wants your submissions for the 2nd
Annual Shudderfest to be held in the
Somerville Theater Microcinema Friday October 26th and Saturday October
27th
Chris and I are seeking out the best in independent horror
films for both feature and short movies. Over the course of two nights we’ll be
hosting a minimum of four programs. Being so close to Halloween, we want to
give the rabid horror fans in the greater Boston Massachusetts region an
alternative to the fifth consecutive showing of Saw IV on the SyFy Network.
So give us your zombie films, your supernatural ghost story,
tales of creepy clown dolls with minds of their own. Send us your slashers and
your spoofs. We need your movies about swamp things, killer kids gone bad and
noises that go bump in the night.
We are accepting DVD and Bu ray formats for screening. If
you wish to submit your short film (20 minutes or less) via a secure streaming
link for consideration, that is acceptable. However, we require a DVD or Blu Ray
for the festival itself. There is no entry fee.
All Submissions must be received by Friday September 14th
for consideration.
Intrepid festival goer Dede continues her sojourn to the land of french fries slathered in mayo to deliver her report from the Fantasia Film Festival:
Funeral Kings (dirs. Kevin &
Matthew McManus). Not to be one for generalizations, but I generally
dislike young male coming-of-age movies. Unless they are openly
hilarious, or involve the pre-teen characters being chased by a
machete wielding psychopath, I find them boring. I myself never was
a prepubescent boy, and even at their age I found that whole
population of my middle school tedious an unrelatable. This is why
it was so surprising to passionately care about the young characters
in Funeral Kings. The film watches four boys as they are
rushing too fast to grow up. Breaking in to a trunk that contains
fireworks, porn, and a gun certainly makes their haste easier. They
are all around 14 years old, though they always tell girls and video
rental clerks that they are 16 or 17. All of the boys are decently
cast, however Alex Maizus’s performance actually blew me away. He
was the one kid on screen who could convincingly convey the mixed
emotions of getting into trouble versus doing the right thing. I am
very much looking forward to following the brothers McManus as they
go on to bigger films, and better budgets.
Memory of the Dead (dir.
ValentÃn Javier Diment). Were I to write the liner notes for Memory
of the Dead’s DVD, I would simply describe it as an Argentinian
The Big Chill as directed by Dario Argento. After the sudden
death of her husband Jorge, Alicia invites his closest family and
friends to their home to give him a grand send off. Closely
reminiscent of a giallo, the film then turns into a ghost invasion as
the dead stalk the house where they have gathered. Not quite as fun
as Hausu, Memory of the Dead is not quite settled on
how much horror, or how many laughs it should balance. But there is
a pool filled with blood, and a satisfying twisted ending, so it is
worth the effort to hunt this one down.
The Victim (dir. Michael Biehn).
As a Michael Biehn fan, it pains me to not recommend his directorial
debut. In all reality the film is poorly paced, with an unclear
plot, and poor performances. His wife Jennifer Blanc is capably cast
as a woman on the run from dirty cops who killed her coke addicted
stripper roommate. After running through the woods she happens upon
Biehn, who has retreated to be alone and avoid his murky and possibly
violent past. Sounds like it has potential, right? Unfortunately
the idea for the script is the best part of the film. The characters
are all one-dimensional caricatures. I was certain the mustachioed
police office was an attempt at parody, but at the screenings Q&A
with Biehn he seemed confused when someone asked him about the
touches of humor in the film. Biehn claims that the entire film is
played straight, with no intention of spoofing the genre. It is
never a good sign when the director is not in on the joke.
Hemorrhage (dir. Braden Croft).
This mirco-budgeted Canadian indie horror might just be the film that
sticks with me the longest after Fantasia is over. It is a slow
burning film which explores mental illness, and the effects it has
both on the sufferers and their victims. Oliver (expertly played by
Alex D. Mackie) was a medical wunderkind, before his mental health
took a turn for the worse. After his parole from a state institution
he attempts to find a normal life. Living in a halfway house, being
trailed by his own demons, this is impossible. He attempts to woo a
nurse that works at the same abortion clinic as he works, but when he
is unable to relate to her, he kidnaps her and forces her to be his
companion. Oliver seems like a kind soul, but kind souls do not
often have a criminal record and a woman in the trunk of their car.
Director Croft is adept at creating scenes that watch this ersatz
couple from the outside, as observers would seem them passing by.
Hemorrhage is also a great exploration of storytelling with an
unreliable narrator, but I will leave it at that so as not to spoil
the ending.
Alter Egos (dir. Jordan
Galland). If you have seen the criminally ignored gem Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Undead, then you can delight in knowing that
director Galland has followed it up with an equally charming film
about superheroes. In the world of Alter Egos there are
superheroes everywhere, but they are organized by the government and
the government has cut their funding. The heroes were simply too
good at their jobs, and have rid the world of super villains, which
has made them nearly obsolete. Add in America’s current hatred of
government handouts, and you can understand why they would be
stressed. Somehow our protagonist, Fridge (Kris Lemche) is also
suffering from confusion between his alter ego, and his superhero
self. This dialogue is quick witted and punchy, yet not unrealistic.
Also, it has the added benefit of seeing some very fit men in some
very tight costumes.
Resolution (dirs. Justin Benson
& Aaron Moorhead). It worries me when films ask questions,
though you can tell throughout the film that the director not only
has no intention of answer the question, but worse yet, does not know
the answers themselves. I love ambiguous endings, but only when you
can tell that the director themselves actually knows the answer.
Resolution clearly knows both the questions, and the answers,
but never quite tells you which is which, instead taking you on a
horrifying plot that barely keeps up with itself. If this all sounds
too vague, that is intentional. What I can tell you is that Michael
(Peter Cilella) tears himself away from his lovely home and his wife
to try to forcefully detox his buddy Chris (Vinny Curran) from crack.
Handcuffing Chris to a pipe in the shed Chris calls home, the men
settle in for what will be a tense week. The beauty in the premise
of the film is that the tension is built in. Rather than sending the
men out for a weekend of male bonding and arguing about incidents
from their childhood, here we have a caring friend and a man who
needs help. While in the cabin they have run ins with the local
crack heads, Native land owners, and a dope smoking Frenchman. The
film takes a great turn when someone, or something, begins leaving
Michael little presents of folk lore. The film quick spirals from
there with adept pacing, and undeniable chemistry between the two
leads.
If you've found yourself lying awake deep into the wee hours of night, tossing and turning before kicking up the covers and pacing the floors of your bedroom, wearing grooves in the hardwood floor as you chain-smoke one unfiltered Pall Mall after another asking yourself "WHEN, OH WHEN IS MIKE GOING TO POST ANOTHER LUNCHBREAK HORROR SHORT?" then you have my deepest apologies. Consider the gap in posts my going away to summer camp in order to learn archery, make beaded wallets during crafts and earn my Tadpole Badge in swimming. Meanwhile I've left you, my dear reader (is it too much to hope for plural?) staring at your monitor, furtively banging away at the F5 key with diminishing hopes of a fifteen minute respite from spread sheets and TPS reports in a windowless cubicle in the middle of an office where the air conditioning went on the fritz during the worst heatwave in ten years. Meanwhile you're pretty sure the fat temp worker at the ham and cheese Hot Pockets you left in the community fridge because you failed to label themas your property. All I can do is promise that it won't happen again and leave you with the best lunch break horror short we've posted to date.
Why You Should Watch VICKI
With his previous effort THE LIVING WANT ME DEAD Bill Palmer gave audiences the biggest belly full of laughs they could ever hope to find in a short horror flick. Whether it's an overweight mailman blinded by rage getting poleaxed by a bus or the sight of a hobo giving solid financial advice or death by cat-in-a-sack, it a laugh riot through and through.
For his follow up, Palmer teams up once again with DEAD's lead Adam Conger for a fifteen minute spoof on John Carpenter's slice of 80's cheese Christine. Paying homage to the master while at the same time skewering 80's horror, fashion and pop culture, it's a more than worthy follow up that's every bit as funny. For those of a certain age, some of the references are sure to make you bury your head in your hands with embarrassment thinking back to a day where you though Ray Bans was a solid fashion choice. For you youngsters, the film is a nice little history lesson about the days when cocaine was in abundant supply and Huey Lewis was cool.
Ongoing contributor Dede Crimmins
is soaking up eight days of movies at the renowned Fantasia Film
Festival in Montreal. She's mapped out close to a few dozen films she
plans on elbowing old ladies over in order to reserve her seat and
she's been gracious enough to give us a handful of mini reviews of
her festival favorites for the 21st and 22nd. Dede probably watches more movies than Chris and I combined, and I'm not entirely unconvinced she doesn't strap monitor glasses and earphones to her head at night in order to soak in another three films while she sleeps. Stay tuned for more updates from Dede throughout the week.
Sushi Girl(dir. Kern Saxton).
Starting my Fantasia week with a bang was the international premier
of Sushi Girl. Presented by the superb ensemble cast of Mark
Hamill, Tony Todd, Noah Hathaway, James Duval, Andy Mackenzie,
Michael Biehn, as well as the writers and directors of the film, it
was clearly a hit with the sold out audience. The film is a heist
gone wrong and subsequent revenge scenario that cannot escape
comparison to Reservoir Dogs, but that is due to happen any
time you secure a crime confidant to a chair and try to beat answers
out of him. Not technically a horror film, however it is
satisfyingly gory, with very creative modes for flesh destruction (a
sock filled with glass, to name one) while trying to pry secrets out
of one of their heist buddies. The film drags a bit while
unsuccessfully building suspense for the inescapable torture, but it
is often rescued by the antagonistic relationship between Hamill and
Mackenzie’s characters. Todd chews the scenery in the best way
possible, and this film serves as a testament to the fact that Todd
is a film legend for very good reason. All of the characters are
unsympathetic, and the actors all seem to get such joy out of
exploring their own sadistic sides.
Wrong(dir. Quentin Dupieux).
Following 2010’s Rubber, director Dupieux creates an equally
absurd and yet somehow relatable comedy. Wrong follows Dolph
(a great performance by Jack Plotnick) as he awakes, at 7:60am, to
find his dog missing. The film twists and turns from there, and as
long as you surrender every notion you have about reality and how it
should function on screen, it is a very fun ride. The gardener has
to break the news to Dolph that his palm tree has turned in to a pine
tree. It is constantly raining inside of Dolph’s office. And
Dolph’s neighbor refuses to admit that he likes to jog. Had I not
seen it with the enthusiastic audience at Fantasia, I might have felt
like it was slow moving, but the pacing is actually quite appropriate
for the material. It can take some time for Wrong’s
oddities to sink in, and a faster pace might leave the audience
behind. But with a great crowd that appreciates the absurd, both in
this film and in everyday life, it was a great cinematic experience.
Lloyd the Conqueror (dir.
Michael Peterson). Lloyd (Evan Williams) and his slacker friends are
barely holding on to their passing grades in community college.
After phoning in a presentation in class they are given an ultimatum:
join their professor’s LARP (Live Action Role Play) guild, or fail
out of school. The logic to arrive at that decree is a bit murky,
but it turns out that their professor is an evil ruler of the local
LARP group, and he needs more guilds to fight against, or there will
be no final battle this year. The film suffers from some weak
casting (both Williams and his buddy Patrick, played by Jesse Reid,
are hard to believe as losers), but both Scott Patey as the slacker
Oswald, and Brian Posehn as the owner of the local gaming shop make
the film fun. A decent comedy which clearly has affection for
male-bonding, but not necessarily a must-see film.
Dead Sushi (dir. Noboru Iguchi).
The premise of Dead Sushi is one of the most delightfully
irreverent premises at this year’s Fantasia: Sushi comes back to
life, and attacks humans, creating a zombie/sushi/human hybrid which
then wages battle against an ass-kicking ex-sushi chef. Director
Iguchi, known best for Machine Girl, does an outstanding job
of proving that he is one of the most bizarre directors getting
exported from Japan right now. This film has an obvious fondness for
the silliness in many kung-fu films, and it celebrates with without
ever poking fun at it. Interestingly, the plot of the film follows
the trajectory of a slasher film. A group of business partners are
at a remote inn for a weekend of hot springs and sushi. A strange
vagrant appears. The vagrant is approached by a young horny couple,
whom he kills… with a living dead squid. Dead Sushi is just
as much fun as you would hope it would be.
My Amityville Horror(dir. Eric
Walter). Fantasia often hosts genre-related documentaries to support
the horror and science fiction programming they offer. This year one
of those documentaries was the world premiere of My Amityville
Horror. The film came about after ten years of research and
three years of shooting. It is the first time that one of the
children who fled the infamous Amityville house in 1975 after a
series of paranormal occurrences drove them away. While the film is
described as an investigation into the impact of international media
scrutiny on a family, it is actually a sad portrayal of a lost man.
Daniel Lutz’s family spent only 28 days in the house that had a
mass murder inflicted by the previous occupants, and yet his entire
life has been clouded by those occurrences. The film takes an
appropriately neutral point of view when it comes to questioning
whether or not the incidents in the haunting actually occurred.
Through clever editing of many on camera and audio-only interviews,
Walker is able to pull the audience back and forth, until no one is
sure whether Daniel is telling the truth, or if he simply has grown
to believe his own tall tales.
(Deirdre Crimmins lives in Boston with her husband and two black cats. She wrote her Master's thesis on George Romero and works too much.)
With the success of the
Paranormal Activity franchise, haunted house and supernatural films
are back in vogue. Burned out on a decade where horror consisted of
detailed torture and gristle strewn across the four corners of the
screen, audiences have reconnected with the simpler chills derived
from fear of the unknown.
Annie (Caity Lotz) returns
home to bury her estranged mother. Still bitter and troubled from a
strict, abusive upbringing under her mother's thumb, Annie has to be
coerced into returning by her sister Nichole (Agnes Bruckner), a
single mother struggling with her own demons. Upon arrival she's met
by her cousin Liz (Kathleen Rose Perkins) who has Nichole's daughter
in tow. Nichole's disappeared, yet Annie isn't concerned. She chalks
it up to just another one of her sister's episodes when she gets too
stressed out or overwhelmed.
Of course when they return
to the mother's home Annie realizes how wrong she is. The presence of
something or someone else being there with them hangs heavy in the
air. Annie finds herself under attack by an unseen presence in the
middle of the night. In one of the best sequences of The Pact she's
hurled in all directions and barely makes it out with her niece in
tow. Liz has gone missing with no trace of her left behind.
The location works in The
Pact's favor. The recession removed the haunted house picture
from the expansive gothic mansions of the one percenters down to Main
St, Everytown USA. He mother's house is little more than a GI Bill
tract with paneled walls and wallpaper that went out of style fifteen
minutes before the backing dried out. McCarthy has a way of filming
the home so that no quarter is given. It's a cramped, claustrophobic
atmosphere that allows the viewer to feel every flickering light and
passing shadow.
The Pact also makes good use
of modern technology to heighten the scares. Cell phones, Skype, digital
imagery and GPS devices all play a hand in unfurling what's behind
the events in the home. Smart phone screens flicker to life in the
presence of ghostly matters and spectral images point towards clues. The opening scene featuring a Skype chat with Nichole and her daughter culminates in an absolute chilling line from the little girl that's delivered in such a sweet and innocent matter it made the hairs on my arm stand up.
Lotz carries the bulk of The
Pact on her shoulders and she's more than up to the task despite a
script that makes it difficult for the audience to feel empathy for
her throughout much of the running time. Surly and antagonistic with
a massive chip perched on her shoulder Annie keeps her distance from
everyone, including those looking to help her out. This
standoffishness extends to the audience, making it tough to get a
bead on the character early on. However as the film continues it
becomes clearer why Annie acts the way she does. Lotz also injects
hints of vulnerability into her character as things progress, making
it easier to root for her.
Where The Pact falters is
its second act. The focus shifts from the supernatural to more of a
“whodunnit?” where Annie tires to unravel the mysteries
surrounding her mother, secret rooms in her home and a deceased woman
who keeps turning up in photographs. Casper Van Diem shows up just to
remind everyone that Starship Troopers was a very long time
ago. Seriously, I can't think of anything his grizzled cop character
adds to the mix. He doesn't push the plot forward or take part in any
reveals Lotz' character would not have discovered through her own
investigation.
The film's climax redeems
itself by kicking up the heebie jeebie factor and using the tight
confines as a great source of tension. Audiences looking for old
school atmospheric scares without an emphasis on gore would do well
to check out The Pact.
With films like The
Signal (2008) and
YellowBrickRoad (2011) under her belt, Anessa Ramsey has made a name
for herself with smart genre fare. On the eve of her latest film,
Rites of Spring (IFC
Midnight), Ms. Ramsey took a few minutes to talk to us about her
latest work, doing her own stunts for the first time and the perils
of shooting in the great outdoors.
Rites
of Spring comes out in a week, what can you tell us about it?
It's
really two genres combining into one which makes it different from
your usual creature feature or kidnapping flick. There's a
kidnapping that goes horribly awry and simultaneously there's an
event that happens every spring where another pair of girls are
kidnapped and the two events converge together and become one
horrifying tale. The two events are related. I don't want to give too
much away but there are two people involved that know each other and
they are involved in the two separate events. When everything
converges it comes full circle for the two of them. It is coincidence
they run into each other, but not a coincidence that the events are
happening at the same time.
You've
built quite a nifty resume in genre films with The Signal and
YellowBrickRoad. Is there anything about horror that draws you in, or
is that what comes along?
I
love doing this genre because the good ones have a bit of everything.
The really good horror movies have drama, they have a little bit of
comedy, they push special effects and who doesn't love being covered
in thirteen gallons of blood at the end of the day? There's a little
bit of everything and they're a lot of fun.
Plus
the films you tend to do are a little smarter than the standard “half
naked woman runs from a killer” type of fare. Is there anything in
a script you look for?
I
hate to say what everyone says, but I look for a script that's going
to give me a good challenge. It's not that I only take roles where
I'm the smart girl, but I've been luck that I've been cast in that
role a few times now. I want it to be something I would be interested
in watching and would provide a good artistic challenge. In this last
one I opted to do my own stunts for the first time. At first they
were opposed to it but I convinced them and it was a lot of fun. That
was something I hadn't done before.
What
was the craziest stunt you got to tackle?
I
think it's a toss up. I got to body check a guy down a flight of
stairs and I was pulled out of a car by my hair. Those were some fun
ones.
Is
that one where you just hope you get it right on the first take?
I'm
not going to say it was fun. I'm not going to say it wasn't painful.
I definitely walked away with some war wounds that I'm proud of. We
had a lot of rehearsals for the car one especially and there's a lot
of safety precautions and body gear because you don't want to fall on
your neck or anything like that. That's the biggest worry. By the
time we were ready to shoot I was hoping we could get it in one or
two takes.
Is that one where you look in the mirror later on and wonder if you're missing a patch of hair?
Yes! "Is that real blood? Does it taste like corn syrup?" It's all fun.
It
looked like there were a lot of challenges for you from the trailer.
I know there's one shot where you're bound and standing on tiptoes.
How long do you have to stay like that over the course of filming?
Oh
Mike. You don't want to know. I don't even know. They were so nice.
They wanted to loosen the ropes for me and it was that tiny twine
that digs in and I told them “I know you want to get some really
good close up of my hands all bound so why don't you just tighten
them up? Just make it hurt” My wrists suffered a bit that day. It's
fine, if your hands are turning purple you can see there's some kind
of actual tension there.
So
no CGI purple hands for you then!
No
CGI purple hands!
YellowBrickRoad
was one of my favorite films of the NYC Horror Film Fest. How was it
shooting outside in a natural setting weeks on end
I'll
tell you what, it was very beautiful and I can't complain very much.
But in June when we were shooting outside, it actually snowed. One of
the biggest challenges was the cold. There was one day I had to suck
on an ice cube so you couldn't see my breath, but it brought a lot of
reality to our situation. We were uncomfortable and huge jackets in
between takes and lots of under armor underneath our some clothes. I
got really good aboyt bugs. I was really afraid of bugs and by day
three there were spiders on me and my reaction was more “oh” as
opposed to “OH CRAP GET THEM OFF”.
Does
anyone ever ask about the ending of YellowBrickRoad? That's one where
I still scratch my head every time I watch it and think I'm too sure
what's going on right now.
Yes.
Lots of people ask and I love that the conversation is still going
on. I think there it's whatever you want it to be and there's twenty
five different answers I could give you. To be honest, every time I
watch it I think there's another way of looking at it. I don't even
know if there's a correct answer but I do think the conversation
itself means the film's a success
Rites
of Spring is getting the video-on-demand treatment which is becoming
more common with new horror movies now. In the past these little
indie films might get lost in the direct to DVD shuffle. But at the
same time it means some companies are bypassing theaters. Do you
think this way of releasing films is a good or bad thing?
Video
on demand is becoming a lot more prominent as a means of releasing
films of late and I know I personally take advantage of it. I do
think that companies like Bloody Disgusting who put out
YellowBrickRoad video on demand and in limited theaters and IFC
Midnight and these other companies that are independently focused are
great. I love that the horror genre is such a phenomenon that
companies are willing to put these films out there when they have
just gone straight to DVD. Any kind of exposure is great and we're
lucky to have it.
It
definitely helps smarter fare like Kill List or Rites of Spring find
a home.
Absolutely,
I think it's awesome.
So
what do you have coming up next?
Well,
I just got back from Atlanta for a small part on a new movie called
The Devil's Map starring Colin firth and Reese Witherspoon and it's
based on the case of The West Memphis Three. They were just released
this past September and two of them are executive producing. I'm
really excited to see how it turns out. It's getting a lot of
attention and I think it's going to be incredible. It was very cool
to be out there, and was a lot of fun. It was HOT. I forgot how hot
it is out there, and I don't know how I lived out there for ten
years.
Thank
you for taking the time to talk to us today and good luck with Rites
of Spring.
Thank you and have a great weekend.
Rites of Spring will be available VOD via iTunes, Amazon, Vudu and
more on July 27th. The film will also have a limited
theatrical run, check your local listings for participating theaters.
It stars Anessa Ramsey along with AJ Bowen and Katherine Randolph. Check out the trailer below.
It’s hard to believe Chris and I are approaching three years working on this site. When this thing started I thought it'd just be a way for me to talk about how much I love The Thing (a whole bunch) or every now and then write up what was playing midnights at the Coolidge on any given weekend. When we started this thing I had no how much indie horror existed. Getting the opportunity to cover the NYC Horror Film Festival a few months into our existence and getting to see films like Maidenhead, Must Love Death and Sweatshop opened our eyes up to a world of filmmaking that we couldn't soak up enough in.
Since that time we've done our best to champion the smaller films as best we can. I think it has served us well and that we've carved out a nice little niche for ourselves. We've gotten to work with some amazing folks these past few years.
One thing that's happened is we're constantly approached to review film we either have a passing familiarity with or have never heard of. It got me thinking about what I look for when I either seek out a film for review or am approached by a filmmaker to take a look at their work for our site. I've come up with brief list of things to consider when promoting your film or seeking out screening opportunities or sites to review your film. Obviously this is just one man's opinion and not gospel truth, but it all boils down to one thing: Follow the Gospel Rule of Common Sense and you'll make out okay.
Create an official site for your film. There’s no doubt Facebook serves as a powerful promotional tool for filmmakers. Easy to create and update, it allows you to reach your potential audience with ease. What it doesn’t do is allow potential reviewers or programming directors to get in contact with the right person quickly, nor does it allow you to stand out amongst the thousands of other small films sharing the platform. While your film’s official site doesn’t have to win any awards there are a few simple things you should adhere to. Have an embedded trailer. Don’t rely on Youtube since the phrase “Backyard Zombie Massacre” may yield many things before your trailer shows up on page three. A concise story synopsis and a cast and crew page are helpful. Most important (to me and other reviewers at least) have a contact page where potential reviewers of festival programmers can reach the person who handles the screeners. Post a page with synopsis of your better reviews. There's a list of sites I follow and trust. Chances are if Marc at Brutal As Hell digs your film then it's going to be up my alley as well. There's only so many hours in a day and I want to spend them watching movies I'm going to love, not the ones that make me want smash my television set with a lead pipe.
Make it easy for reviewers to get in touch with you. This is a corollary to the first point, but important enough to bear repeating. Here's a peek at how I go about finding films for our monthly screening. I try set aside a three to four hour block one Sunday a month to scour reviews, search festival lineups and catch trailers for smaller indie horror films. If something catches my eye, I'll seek out contact info. If it takes me more than one minute to find a point of contact, I'm moving on to the next potential film.
When available, ship Blu Ray over DVD. You want your film t be seen in the best potential light. Nothing beats the level of color clarity, depth of field and attention to detail of Blu Ray. We screened a film last week in Blu that I’d been given on DVD for review purposes. I was able to pick up on so many more visual cues and minor details that the film was elevated from a good film to something spectacular. I understand that Blu Ray is much more expensive to both master and duplicate. Don’t be afraid to ask a potential reviewer what he’ll be watching your movie on. If it’s being viewed on a laptop or a screen smaller than forty inches, DVD will suffice. Don’t be afraid to ask for a time frame for the review, or explain that because of the higher costs, you’ll be including a self addressed envelope and will need your movie back once the review is posted or screening is completed. Last October during Shudderfest we were fortunate enough to show all four features on Blu. Three of the directors explained they’d need the movie back for future screenings and included return postage. We took no offense and were happy to oblige. If a reviewer gives you a hard time about having to send the film back, send him a DVD or pass on sending anything at all.
Grammar and spelling count. In the age of Twitter and texting spelling and grammar often get tossed by the wayside to make room for expediency. It's tough for me to criticize anyone else's misuse of the English language, as anyone that's read more than one of my posts knows I tend to drop words when I get over excited and I've never met a run on sentence that I didn't fall head over heels in love with and want to marry then have a million of its space babies. Treat an email to a potential reviewer like you would your resume. You wouldn't hand a potential employer a ketchup stained document rife with misspellings written in all lower caps. Take the time to craft a simple email that introduces yourself and your film and tell me why you think I'd enjoy it. If I'm struggling to make sense of a short email, my Spider sense is telling me that trying to sit through your ninety minute feature is going to be akin to the shrieking of nails on a chalkboard. Change your delivery settings so a message can't be sent before spellcheck gives it a once over. At least take the time to use capitals correctly. Also, if you have a trailer up for your work, post a link in the email. Don't make anyone hunt around for it.
Promote the hell out of your screenings. Chris and I have run a monthly screening since January of 2010 and it never ceases to amaze me how few directors that have given us permission to screen their movies even make a single mention of when their film is playing. You’d like to think movies are created for an audience, yet we often find ourselves getting zero help from the folks responsible for the film. This shouldn’t be a large commitment on your part time wise. Take five minutes or less a day to do one of the following in rotation: send a tweet, a Facebook post, an email your distribution list or post on forums like Reddit, Dread Central to inform your potential audience. Post the details of the screening in the news and screening sections of your official site. It does you zero good to screen your film to a bunch of empty folding chairs.
Don’t harass reviewers. Most of the people you send your films to run their sites as a hobby out of a love for talking about film in general and horror in specifics. It's going to happen where we fall behind from time to time, and that film you sent four weeks ago has been languishing in out "to watch" list right after plowing through all four seasons of Breaking Bad via Netflix. While it's understandable that you're miffed and feeling a bit hornswoggled at the moment, sending threatening emails every other day demanding a review isn't going to speed things up. If anything, most sites will dig in their heels and put off the review as long as possible.
By the way, if you're running a review site, the reverse applies to you. Don't approach a filmmaker for a free screener then put off watching the movie for six months. Don't tell someone you'll review their movie right away then blow them off. You know your schedule. If someone approaches you to review their film, be a decent person and give them a realistic time frame of when you can get to it. There's no shame in letting them know that you're swamped at the moment and it might be a few weeks or even a month before you can get to their movie. Ask if they're okay with that much of a lag or f they'd rather wait and approach you again later. Don't act all huffy when someone who poured their life savings into their project wants to know when you'll get around to upholding your promise.
Go easy on the watermarking. Nothing pulls someone out of a film than giant block letters screaming PROPERTY OF XYZ ENTERTAINMENT FOR SCREENING PURPOSES ONLY flashing across the screen every five minutes. Piracy is a problem...if you're Joss Whedon or Martin Scorcese or Edgar Wright and people are clamoring for your work. Your little indie film has a very limited appeal to a small niche (at least for the moment) of people that want to see your movie succeed. We're not going to torrent your movie. Of course, if you get a bad vibe then...
Don’t be afraid to say no. At the end of your day it's your sweat, toil and money that went into your work. If you're approached by someone to review your film and something just seems hinky about the whole thing, tell them thanks for the interest, but there just aren't any screeners available right now. If they bitch and moan, screw them. you don't owe anyone a free movie. I read a post from one of my favorite indie directors recently, one we've worked with a few times now and has been receiving fantastic press from site like Ain't It Cool, where he'd received an inquiry to provide a retrospective on his work. When he offered to make himself available for interviews, he was met with, "Well what I was hoping for was you would send me all your movies for free so I could better acquaint myself with them". Basically, someone just wanted free swag. The technical term for this is "Being a shitbag".
It's fitting that I find myself watching Midnight Son in the wee hours of the night. The midnight hour is populated by any number of misfits, addicts, freaks, and lonely people. The protagonist in Scott Leberecht's stunning feature could count himself among all four categories. In fact, he might be the penultimate member of the cast of janitors, bar hoppers, security guards, and convenience store clerks who go through the motions of life under cover of darkness. Though they carry on as if it's all completely normal, there's a gaping hole in their lives that must be filled whether it's with drugs, alcohol, microwave pizza, or worse.
Confined to his basement apartment, Jacob (Zak Kilberg) lives banished from the sun due to a rare skin disorder. His sense of isolation is so profound, he's painted landscapes of burning sun to cope with the loss of daylight and normalcy. Night after night is a routine of sameness and loneliness. Working as a security guard during the graveyard shift, he experiences hunger pangs that can't be satiated by dozens of microwaved dinners. The phrase "dead end" has larger implications for him than simply a low wage job.
When he meets Mary (Mya Parish), a young woman with her own demons, the two form a complex bond of late night trysts and meaningful conversation. She provides a spark missing from Jacob's isolated life, further enriched by her interest in his artwork. Their relationship is sweet, yet tumultuous, neither able to trust one another enough to connect fully. Jacob's life is further complicated when he discovers blood keeps the hunger at bay. What started as anemic discomfort grows to full blown blood dependency. As his hunger grows, so does his propensity for violence.
Midnight Son has been compared to George Romero's Martin, and it's an apt comparison. However, Jacob's vampirism becomes much less ambiguous as the story moves along. Jacob deals with a medical worker named Marcus who supplies Jacob with blood from the hospital. The two soon become intertwined, set on a course for violence in the final act. While it's clear by the climax that Jacob's vampirism is very real, a lot is still left wide open. Possessing neither fangs nor uncanny super abilities, the origins of his affliction are a true mystery. Is it the result of his condition? Is it genetics? A mutation? These are questions Leberecht smartly leaves lingering.
Midnight Son puts a unique spin on the vampire mythos, but it's primarily about relationships. Jacob, who at one point only talks to a janitor who works in his building, now must contend with Mary's role in his life, as well as Marcus. The sinking ship that is Jacob's life is getting a little crowded. As the boat takes on water, Jacob finds that the responsibility is too much to handle. As if his own bloodlust wasn't enough to juggle, he's now let in all these outsiders.
If there's one thing I might criticize, it's an unbelievable scene between Jacob and a police detective investigating a murder at Jacob's work. Jacob confesses to the crime, yet with mounting evidence against him, the detective lets Jacob go. This isn't a dealbreaker in any way, but just a minor bump in an otherwise exemplary film. One could argue that the detective possesses evidence that something supernatural is at play, and may be biding his time. Though it is difficult to believe that no security cameras catch Jacob in the act of his many crimes.
Midnight Son is a film worthy of your time. It's clear enough that you know you're getting a bonafide vampire flick, but ambiguous enough to keep you guessing. Scott Leberecht has succeeded in creating the best vampire film since Let the Right One In. It's a romantic film with tragic characters, but one that has all the bite missing from lesser attempts at vampire love stories. The acting is incredibly good and nuanced, and I wouldn't be surprised if Kilberg and Parish became instant stars. It's an incredible feature debut for Leberecht, a talent who should be on every film fan's radar.
Anyone worried that success would go to the Soska sisters heads and soften the on screen carnage they displayed with tremendous gusto with Dead Hooker In A Trunk can let out a sigh of relief. This past week the twin terrors debuted the trailer for their sophomore feature American Mary. As you can see above in the one minute teaser, having a bigger sandbox and budget to play with by no means softened or prettied up their grim vision. If anything, Mary promises to be a darker, more nightmarish journey for the viewer. With American Mary, the sisters look like their going Cronenberg and offering up a tale of disgustingly beautiful body horror.
One thing that sets the pair apart is a shrewd marketing acumen on par with their storytelling skills.The first rule of marketing is "know your audience" and it's clear both Jen and Sylvia know theirs. Standing out at Comic Con when tens of thousands of people are descending on Hall H and the other larger exhibits with hopes of gleaning any exclusive trailer, panel or news nugget on expected blockbusters like The Hobbit or Expendables 2 can be a daunting task. Never ones to turn down a challenge, the sisters hit the floor in full on Catwoman and Black Cat outfits on a mission to drum up interest and interact with their legion of fans both current and future.
It's hard not to love them for this. While it's obvious that they possess a ton of talent and work ethic that shames most of us, you also can't help but come away with the sense that they real joy in what they do. As someone that's had the pleasure to interact with a number of indie filmmakers I can vouch that it's an increasing rarity.
Aside from the beleaguered World War Z There might not be a more anticipated horror film rife with questions than the upcoming Spanish import REC [3] (hitting various VOD outlets August 5th & select theaters September 10th). The first two installments gave both the zombie and found footage genres a much needed dose of originality and adrenaline. The two films really play like one longer, seamless story, with REC [2] moving in the unexpected but thrilling realm of demonic possession. Both films earned heaps of love from both fans and critics alike, and the first even garnered a near shot-for-shot remake that earned tens of millions at the box office, proving once again that Americans are too lazy to read.
Act III takes the franchise into uncharted waters, and with these sea changes, the question has to be asked whether audiences will go bananas for the film this time around?
Can Paco Plazo pull it off on his own? The first two films were written and directed by the two man kayak team of Plaza and Jaume Balaguero. For the final two installments the pair is splitting up and helming a film apiece. While on the one hand you have to believe that the desire to one up each other could fuel the creative juices, there's no denying the pair click with one another. Who knows how much might get lost when Plaza doesn't have his partner to bounce ideas off of or provide a second set of eyes behind the lens?
Will dropping the found footage angle help or hinder REC 3? The original [REC] predates the Paranormal Activity phenomenon and ensuing boom in faux reality horror films by a solid two years. Even he sequel found a creative way to justify keeping the cameras rolling by including a military strike force with built in helmet cameras. While found footage horror continues to be a money maker, there's a definite fatigue that has set in. for the third go around this aspect gives way to a more traditional narrative. While I find this a welcome change, the question remains whether fans will be on board with this new direction.
What effect will leaving the apartment building and broadening the scope of the film have? Both installments of REC convey an atmosphere of suffocating claustrophobia which you can attribute to the single location setting of the tenement building. Anyone trapped within found little room to maneuver from the growing swarm of undead. Viewers felt cramped right alongside them. One always felt that a screeching infected was moments away from popping out from a door frame or would come sprinting up the narrow stairwells. No place offered ore than a few minutes respite at best. The one location setting might be singular reason why [REC] resonated with horror fans.
Plaza moves in a completely different direction this time around. [REC] 3 takes place at a wedding in with what looks like a large banquet hall or church, and it's obvious from the trailer the action won't be confined to one place. There's footage that suggests sewers are involved and there's even outdoor scenes. While this gives Plaza a bigger sandbox to play in, you have to wonder if this change, along with dropping the found footage angle, makes the film a [REC] entry in name only.
Will "The Bride" be the next great horror icon? There's something awesome watching the striking Leticia Dolera wield a chainsaw in her torn bridal gown with mascara running down her face. I could be way off base here, but something about the trailers suggests Plaza's looking to inject a little laughter alongside the knuckle chewing horror. Has Plaza found the female equivalent of Ash with Dolera? That's one of the main questions I hope is answered in the affirmative when the film hits.
With less than a month to go before the film hits, anticipation runs high for [REC] 3. The series managed to avoid the dreaded sequel letdown the first time around. Here's hoping the new direction, location and cast help keep the series fresh and fans clamoring for more.
Velvet Road (2011) Directed by L. Gustavo Cooper Written by Bragi F. Schut and Alexandria Lewis Velvet Road Official Site
What if the Bay of Pigs fiasco or the looming dread of the impending Vietnam War weren't the worst things to worry about in the 1960's? What if the biggest struggle on our own soil - that for civil rights - wasn't waged in quite the way we're familiar? These moments in our turbulent history - the decade in which the U.S. lost its "innocence" - might have been shaped differently had a different kind of threat been introduced: a zombie apocalypse. This is the framework chosen by first time director L. Gustavo Cooper in his fantastic debut short Velvet Road.
Finding a new angle on the standard Romero-esque zombie outbreak story is perhaps the biggest challenge facing directors who choose to partake in the popular genre. Cooper and his crew may have found a loophole. By bringing his story full circle back to the era where Romero's mythos first started, they've somehow made it fresher. Although not overtly political, Velvet Road has lots of room for lofty and relevant discussion. In his film, the black community is blamed when a zombie outbreak hits the deep south. Writers Bragi F. Schut and Alexandria Lewis bring a whole new dimension to the racial tension of that torrid era. They lace their fast moving tale with several moral dilemmas, quite a feat for a relatively short film. They are careful to provide a sense of ambiguity so that the anguish of our characters is palpable. There are no clear cut right or wrong responses, and the film is more effective for it.
After a stunning opening that really gives us a sense of the time period, the film takes us to a barren rural road where Bobby (Thomas R. Martin) rushes with his wife Carolyn (Heather Ricks) to escape a mysterious plague. We soon learn that she has been bitten, succumbing quickly to the effects of a virus. In the haste of fear and adrenaline, Bobby crashes their pickup truck amidst the farming fields. Awakening in the wreckage, Bobby finds Carolyn missing. Wounded and disoriented, his search for Carolyn brings him to a deadly encounter with huge moral implications when he finds a black man handcuffed to the back seat of a police car. With a zombie threat looming, should Bobby free the man, or will fear and prejudice influence his choice? Bobby will face other heartbreaking choices as the story progresses.
Velvet Road has many strengths. The cinematography by Andy Howell is among the best I've seen in any format thus far this year. The film is anchored by powerful, convincing performances by its core cast. The practical makeup effects are startling, and succeed in making zombies scary again. The pacing, thanks to excellent editing, is brisk, and Gustavo and company leave us wanting more by the film's end. I believe there are plans to expand into a feature length film, and there's plenty of room to grow from this exceptional foundation. If Cooper continues with this cast and crew, his feature version will be at the top of my must watch list.
Velvet Road is without-a-doubt a gorgeous and moving film. Despite existing in a world decades removed from today, its central themes are still relevant.Where most recent zombie films have gone off the track of making political statements, Velvet Road urges us right back in with an intimate and emotional setting that doesn't hit the viewer over the head with an agenda, but is clearly designed to make us think about things. The sobering, bleak climax leaves little hope other than a great future for Cooper as a filmmaker. For his characters, that's another story. Highly recommended!
I've suffered a slow down in
my writing these past few weeks, especially when it comes to reviews.
I've felt burned out by the notion that I haven't been able to watch
a genre film in a while without half my mind focused on how I'd
review the picture once I could get in front of a keyboard. To be
frank it sucked a lot of the joy out of movie watching for me. With
that in mind, I took a few days off work in order to revisit some of
my favorite non-horror films with no goal in mind except to sink back
into the sofa and turn my brain off for two hours at a time.
Of course a number of films
I ended up watching had a number of horrific elements in them
anyways. While they may not be considered outright horror films
(though I'd make a strong case for the first film on this list), they
all contain a number of unsettling moments not for the feint of
heart. Maybe we'll revisit this concept shortly down the road, but
for the time being here you go:
We Need To Talk About
Kevin The dividing line on
whether this falls in the horror camp seems to be whether the person
viewing is a parent or not. For me this film is a two hour punch to
the stomach that lays out all my worst fears and misgivings of
parenthood. Tilda Swinton gives a powerhouse performance (shame on
the academy for overlooking her) as a woman engaged in a test of
wills with her offspring from the moment of his birth. For me, the
horror of Lynne Ramsey's film (and Lionel Shriver's source novel)
stems doesn't stem from the obvious arc of no one listening to
Swinton's warnings that her son was a burgeoning psychopath. What the
film and novel both nail, and what I found most chilling was the loss
of identity that comes from surrendering one's life to a squalling
mass of hunger, tears and shit that cannot be reasoned with or often
times even mollified despite one's best efforts. While it's easy for
me to say now how much I love being a father (the best bits of my day
are the ones where I walk in the front door and bathe, roughhouse
with, read to and comfort my two year old daughter) the broken nights
of sleep and the never ending screeching of an unhappy infant are
never too far from my memory. There's a scene early in the film where
an exhausted Swinton stands near a construction site just so the
sound of pounding jackhammers can drown out the screaming wails
coming from within Kevin's stroller. Passersby look on with horror
but it was a moment I could empathize with. Kevin
also reminds just how much of one's own life they have to sacrifice
for someone that will one day slam a door in your face howling “I
never asked to be born”. The days of packing a knapsack for an
impromptu weekend getaway are long past. Hell, even the simple desire
to catch an early evening movie becomes a weeklong exercise in
planning and budgeting. It's almost like reliving one's teenage year
except this time there's less hormones and more fat around the middle
and the curfew is entirely self imposed. All this for a tiny creature
that could one day turn every interaction into a test of iron wills
and both horrify and frustrate you at every turn. The film acted like a stomach punch by stirring so many memories of the early days of fatherhood where I was convinced that lack of sleep and loss of self would bring about a nervous collapse.
Hannibal
There's a large number of critics that will say with a straight face
that Jonathan Demme's Silence
of the Lambs is
a thriller and not a horror film. The only argument they have at
their disposal is it won the Best Picture Oscar and horror films
simply don't carry that sort of prestige. While I'm clearly in the
Horror camp on that particular movie, the decade-later sequel
Hannibal
veers more towards black comedy than horror or even thriller.
Realizing he had a cash cow on his hands, novelist Thomas Harris
churned out a never intended sequel to the work that made Anthony
Hopkins famous. The white knuckle tension of Lambs
made
way for a ludicrous plot and lurid, gory tale better suited for
Herschel Gordon Lewis than Hollywood's A-list. Upon reading the novel
Demme and Jodie Foster passed while Hopkins saddled up for another go
round, and the best paycheck of his career. Julianne Moore stepped
admirably into the shoes of Agent Starling and Ridley Scott culled
some of the sillier aspects of the novel (and changed the ending
where Lechter and Starling share Krindler's brains and become
lovers). Still, for a blockbuster film Hannibal is a gore lovers
dream come true. An unbilled Gary Oldman plays a one-eyed mangled
pedophile seeking revenge on Lechter since the doctor had him carve
off his own face and feed it to the dogs in a drug induced suggestive
state. The film is filled with gore, eviscerations and half ton wild
swine trained to chew the faces off men. Of curse, there's the final
dinner scene that had audiences puking into their popcorn buckets as
well. While it's nowhere near the masterpiece of Demme's film, Scott
has a blast bringing a campier aesthic to the series, and the Italian
locations in particular look gorgeous.
Death
Proof this
film, or to put it more accurately this director, inspired the post
you're reading. I've had the house to myself for a few days and
burned some vacation time in order to clear my head, relax and watch
a bunch of movies I love. I ended up on a Tarantino quick, watching
all his films in a three night span. It hit me that I'd love to seem
him do a straight up horror flick. Tarantino possesses an
encyclopedic knowledge of genre films and I'd love to see him bring
something to the big screen. While his counterpart in 2007's
Grindhouse Planet
Terror was
a homage to the1970's low budget horror, Tarantino's own film focused
more of boss stunts involving muscle cars with badass women spouting
the back and forth banter he's made famous. Tarantino claims an early
script treatment veered more towards straight ahead slasher film
territory and it's easy to see the influence in the final work.
Instead of a machete or kitchen knife, Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell in
his best role in years) uses his souped up “death proof” '71 Nova
as his killing tool of choice. The stalking elements of early slasher
films are all present, with the Nova skulking in the background early
on, giving off vibes of foreboding and unease. While the film has a
terrific kill scene at the midway point that's chock full of carnage,
the second half eschews the horror elements an gives us a straight up
action and stunt extravaganza. Perhaps it's the stink of Robert
Rodriguez' inferior entry to Grindhouse
that leaves Tarantino's contribution so under appreciated.
Seven
It's
the film that put David Fincher on the map and gave Brad Pitt the
type of role that allowed him to demonstrate he could do more than
look good. Steeped in film noir and far ahead of its time when it
came to procedural dramas, Seven
knocked
audiences through the back of their seats with scenes of unrelenting
atrocity and a grim, nihlistic ending rare for its day. Everything in
Fincher's unnamed city is drenched in grime, rot and decay and it's
not until the climactic scene that the viewer escapes the weeklong
torrential downpour that beats down on the pavement. Seven
works
because Fincher only shows the aftershocks of John Doe's reign of
terror. Left with the bloated corpse of a man forced to eat himself
to death, we're given a brief description of what occurred then left
to fill in the terrible details with our own imagination. For sure
the Devil lives in those details when you hear chilling nuggets that
at one point Doe left the crime scene, and went on a second grocery
trip in order to finish the job. These moments stuck with viewers
long after the lights went up, serving as a breeding ground for many
a nightmare.
In its second chapter, the
downloadable Walking Dead video game continues to hit the right notes
from Robert Kirkman's source material while making me wonder why the
AMC television series can't approach the quality of the game.
The start of chapter two
finds our protagonist Lee, the young girl he rescued Clementine and
the band of survivors he's hooked up with still holed up in the
fortified motel they found at the end of the first chapter. Three
months have passed and the group finds themselves arguing over the
meager remaining rations. Starvation proves to be as large a threat
as the walkers outside their barrier. This chapter finds Lee send
company trying to find a way to restock their rations while avoiding
both the walkers and the roaming bandits that steal and kill from
other survivors at will.
Telltale Games promised the
decisions you make throughout the game will have lasting effects on
the story and how it plays out. Decisions you made in Chapter One
have repercussions both in this chapter and the subsequent ones. You
start to see that early on as different characters react to you in a
positive or negative way based on how you interacted with them in the
previous chapter. At first playthrough it appears Telltale upped the
number of diverging paths this go around by giving the player more
points in the story to choose different dialogs or action options.
The result of your choices often have repercussion moments later as
factions and alignment change. One character I was on very good terms
with entering the second chapter would barely acknowledge me by the
end of my first go around.
Without spoiling too many
plot points, the emphasis of the Walking Dead game remains on human
drama and interaction with the undead providing a constant background
threat. It's nothing like the Dead Island or Dead Rising
games which provide nonstop actions and zombies filling every corner
of the screen. The life and death decisions you need to make (often
on the fly with a countdown giving you a short time to make your
choice). Instead of searching for weapons that decapitate the undead
as quickly as possible, you're left scurrying for loose change in
order to remove screwed in items blocking your path. While this could
make for a boring game, the writing remains top notch providing
characters you care about and scenarios that have you sweating
bullets.
If you've played the first
chapter, both the visual style and gameplay elements remain in place.
The controls still appear a bit stiff and clunky and are better
suited to the point-and-click style of PC gaming rather than the
console experience. They don't take too long to get used to and are
offset by the stunning, comic book inspired visuals. The Walking
Dead simply looks like a
gorgeous animated film. At the low cost of $5, The
Walking Dead remains
an essential purchase for anyone that considers them selves a fan of
the original series.
Low (2011) Directed by Ross Shepherd Written by Jamie Tighe Low Official Site
Like an irresistible magnetic force, grief can bring people together in profound ways. There are negative and positive ways in which the grief-stricken can connect. Two people can bond over loss, and hopefully use empathy to help one another cope. Or, they can descend further into hopelessness, each feeding off the others depression. What's important is that there is someone to share the experience, lest they fade alone into an oblivion of complete despair.
From across the pond comes Low, a microbudget thriller from director Ross Shepherd (Heathen). He brings two downtrodden, grief-stricken characters together in a setting of complete isolation. Low is the second feature from Shepherd, and a solid film at that. What it lacks in expensive production values, it makes up for in solid storytelling, acting, and creative use of its minimal set up. With this film, Shepherd has set the stage for two disparate coping methods to intermingle. Since this is a horror/thriller, it's to disastrous results.
Alice (Amy Comper) has arrived by train to a secluded spot in the woods to hide a dark secret far away from her home in the city. While burying her past, she is approached by Edward (David Keyes), a man whose menace is barely disguised by his attempt at pleasantness. A threatening aura looms over Edward, and it's not long before he reveals sinister plans for Alice. Alice - alien to her surroundings in the woods - finds herself pursued by a madman.With little to her advantage, her focus is on protecting her secret at any cost.
Keyes is impressive as a man who's lost everything, and wants everyone else to feel his loss through the pain of senseless violence. Comper is competent as the confused and scared Alice. She's able to hold her own with the intensity of Keyes. Alice wants to bury her past forever, but Edward wants to shout about his to the entire world. Edward has committed terrible crimes as a means of coping with a tragedy in his life. He wants nothing more than to share it with a witness, in this case Alice. The two become entwined in a twisted form of therapy, one in which innocent people will die. When Alice's own dark secret is revealed, the emotional resonance reaches even the sympathetic ear of Edward.
In its first act, Low requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. Alice is easily taken by Edward despite opportunities to escape. You may find yourself yelling at the screen that she didn't capitalize on those opportunities. Later on, we learn her history is that of being manipulated by intimidating men in her life. It starts to make a little bit more sense how she can be overpowered by Edward. Edward is also very pursuasive, and having encountered similar people in real life, I can totally see how Alice can become his captive audience. It isn't until the climax that Alice finds her voice and desire to fight back, especially when it's clear her secret is in danger of exposure.
Low obviously has some limitations, but as I stated before, Shepherd and his team have a great grasp of the elements within their control. They deftly work around those limitations, and deliver a satisfying film. The cinematography by Shephard (yes, he shot it himself) is crisp and inventive. The sound design and score are very well done. This could have been a fairly routine stalker-in-the-woods film, but Shepherd and Co. have elevated it to a compelling morality play about the unhealthy ways people cope with loss, and the terrible things people do when no one is listening.
The Road (2011) (Philippines) Directed by Yam Laranas Written by Aloy Adlawan and Yam Laranas The Road Official Site
A bout of insomnia can set the perfect viewing stage for a horror film. The aggravation, adrenaline, and exhaustion combine to enhance feelings of panic and disorientation you hope to get from good scary films. It's the perfect recipe for a terrifying ride, and a guarantee that one is in the proper mindset. A number of films have paired well with my occasional fits of sleeplessness - Martyrs, Dead End, and Absentia being particular favorites. I've found a new film to add to the canon, the traumatic Filipino horror film The Road.
In some ways, The Road is reminiscent of the quirky 2003 film Dead End. In both films, people find themselves nightmarishly trapped on a stretch of isolated, haunted country road. In both instances, the characters are doomed to repeat themselves, caught in an endless loop of horror. That's where the similarities between the two end sharply. Where Dead End added a touch of dark humor and sarcasm, The Road is filled with much more palpable dread. It's one of the more brutal films I've seen this year. It's a film told in distinctive but connected vignettes, all leading up to an intensely emotional climax.
The Road starts out with a group of teens sneaking out for a night of joyriding. Ella (Barbie Forteza) reluctantly joins her cousin Janine (Lexi Fernandez) and Janine's boyfriend Brian (Derrick Monasterio) as he sneaks Janine's mother's car out. Spotting a police car, the nervous trio veer off into a hidden secluded road. After driving for a time, they are overtaken by a vehicle that appears to go without a driver. In Groundhog Day fashion, they are overtaking a few more times by the same car, seemingly caught in an endless time loop. Their car now stalled on the road, Brian and Janine leave Ella to search for help. The teens are soon confronted with terrifying images of The Road's previous victims.
The next two vignettes take place during past decades. In 1998, Lara (Rhian Ramos) and her sister Joy (Louise delos Reyes) are kidnapped by a psychotic teenaged boy (Alden Richards). He imprisons them in a dilapidated house just off the road. In 1988, a young boy (Renz Valerio) is captive in his own home by his overbearing, abusive mother (Carmina Villaroel). Her rule is absolute, and she resorts to murder to keep her son obedient. I don't want to get too into the synopsis of these two sections, as the core of the film is revealed through these two stories. Each intertwining tale gives us a glimpse of the ripples caused by family abuse.
Each story is wrapped around the investigative efforts of Inspector Luis, an award-winning police officer. At a ceremony, he is approached by a woman asking that he search for her missing daughters. It turns out her case is based on a missing persons report she made 12 years ago, now forgotten. Though reluctant to give her false hope, but once the three teens go missing, he finds an opportunity to reopen the investigation.
The Road filled a void for me left by movies like Ju-On: The Grudge. It harkens back to a period of primal Asian ghost stories that assaulted with frightening images. The "ghosts" in The Road aren't so much ghosts as they are echoes of trauma. There are creepy images of burned, plastic wrapped bodies that are jarring and gruesome, yet able to illicit sympathy for the victim. The film overall is very stylish and atmospheric, each vignette crafted with the utmost attention to creeping the viewer out.
By the film's end, not everything quite adds up. Worse, I found the climax predicable. However, Laranas' relentlessly grim style and sure-handed execution kept me invested throughout. There's a second denouement that accompanies the climax, one that is beautiful, sad, and poetic. Overall, you can't go wrong with this scary, gruesome, occasionally touching film about the ramifications of abuse, and the threat of seclusion.
