Review: All Must Die

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2022
Images from the Internet.

All Must Die (aka Utdrikningslaget; Alle må dø)
Directed by Geir Greni
Snurr Films AS; LevelK; Breaking Glass Pictures
83 minutes, 2019 / 2022
https://manymore.no/film/alle-ma-do/

Uff da. No, that is not a comment on the film, but is just about the only Norwegian I know other than some foods (e.g., krumkake, Lefsa, Lutefisk). I have been to Oslo and Bodø in Norway, and this was filmed in the former; it is in Norwegian with subtitles. Thanks to Google translate, I know the original title of the film (the long, single word above) translates to The Bachelorette Party.

The original name makes perfect sense because you will never guess what is the focus of the film, at least at the start: Gina Moen’s Bachelorette Party! But hold on there, I know there are some reading this thinking this is going to be silly, but the thing is that Gina (Vicktoria Winge) is a fan of all things horror. So, guess what the Bachelorette Party is going to be when it comes to a theme? And as things being what they are in the genre world, that is a good thing for the audience, but it certainly will not be for Gina and crew.

Vicktoria Winge

After an ominous start, including a flashback of an argument with her fiancé Even (AndersV Rydning), Gina and her pals are off to a – you got it – secluded farm out with out-buildings (e.g., barn, workhouse) surrounded by woods, miles from anywhere in Heggelia, to celebrate. If you think all Norwegians are pale and blonde, the cast is quite diverse, which is more accurate. Good choice on the director’s part.

Including Gina, there are six women: Camilla (Julia Schacht), who wears a Brooklyn tee and drives the van, Ida (Veslemøy Mørkrid) who is Even’s sister, Stine (Marte Sæteren) in a checkered shirt, Marte (Tinashe Williamson) who is the Maid of Honor, and co-worker Elise (Linni Meister) who is overdressed for the occasion (work clothes), considering the locale of the event.

As is common for this getting-away-to-a-remote-location genre goes, basically the first 20 minutes or so is the car ride, as we get familiar with the half-dozen so the viewer can get an idea of their personalities and some social dynamics. Normally I find these rides boring, but I like the characters, so my interest remained focused. But there are also a bunch of clues in there, on a second viewing of the film (yeah, I watched it twice).

By the end of the first act, I have a guess on the killer, and the reason behind it. I will let you know if I’m right, but not who it is, so no spoilers.

It’s clear these women like each other, even with the occasional behind-the-back talk, which is part of life in the real and reel world. Lots of shenanigans such as a twisted and drunken “treasure hunt” of sorts with Gina that leads to territories beyond the map (sorry, a little General Semantics snuck in there). Things dissolve quickly at this point and follow some directions I was not expecting (again, always a good thing). For me, the oddest thing was the plan to have all of Gina’s ex’s come to the house, as well. That felt icky to me.

That Gina is a horror fan, and there is a similar theme to the get together, this leads us to not be sure at times what is part of the party and what is not for quite a while. What this does is add a dimension to the story that most genre fans watching this might connect to on various levels. I have to say, I was totally impressed with how everything worked out.

In that vein, I was totally wrong on my guess on the killer, but that is because so many red herrings were weaved into the story, and that was part of why I liked this so much. Also, the cast is quite engaging, especially Winge. That being said, I found Schacht and Sæteren also strong in their roles.

The SFX appear to be all practical, and they look great. There is lots of carnage, most seen after the fact, but enjoyable nonetheless. I also enjoyed how Director and co-writers Geir Greni and Robert Næss pace the film, and work in the reveal as nearly the entire third act.

If you have ever been to Norway, or even seen pictures, it should come as no surprise that the scenery is beautiful, sometimes artfully shot by drones (as films now are wont to be if there is any kind of traveling). Just breath-taking. In fact, through the whole film, Torstein Nodland’s cinematography is lovely to watch, even though half the film is shot at night.

Though I had some issues, which seem to have stuck with me, I found this to be enormous fun that takes some standard motifs and throws it on its ear a bit. At the end, as the credits rolled, I found myself smiling with satisfaction. I hope there is a sequel.

All Must Die will be available on Digital, VOD platforms, including iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Xbox, and Vudu. In the US, there will be a dubbed version.

IMBD listing HERE

Review: An Amityville Poltergeist

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

An Amityville Poltergeist (aka Don’t Sleep)
Directed by Calvin Morie McCarthy
Breaking Glass Pictures; 7th Street Productions
89 minutes, 2020 / 2021
www.bgpics.com/amityville-poltergeist /

By sheer coincidence, a few days before this writing, I viewed one of the director’s earlier works, Jesus I Was Evil (2018), on Tubi. It is a silly dark comedy slasher with a pseudo-religious bent that I enjoyed. So, when this one came up, I was glad to get the opportunity to view it. Let’s see if it is worth the watch.

Despite the Amityville name, the film was shot in Portland, OR. I grew up on Long Island, where the original Lutz house still stands and is a tourist trap (which is why it keeps getting resold, more than because of its reputation), but I will not take that personally (smiley emoji goes here, FYI). But the house does have the prerequisite double round-topped windows, so it is kosher…enough.

A shy young man in his twenties, Jim (Parris Bates, giving off a Justin Long/Jeepers Creepers period vibe with a whipsy, high-school ‘stashe) who is strapped for cash (could it be because he’s wearing a Joy Division tee, rather than New Order?), decides to take a job as a housesitter. You can already see where it is going, thematically. But with that title, what else would it be, and if you like this stuff, as I do, that should not matter.

Parris Bates

The house’s living occupant is an older woman, Eunice (stage actor and championship ballroom dancer Rebecca Kimble; is she related to a doctor who is looking for a killer with one hand? Sorry, bad joke…), whose son, Tony, believes her to be a bit messugga, but she warns Jim, in an almost When a Stranger Calls (1979) catchphrase, “I’m not afraid of someone breaking into the house, I’m afraid of what’s already in the house.” She’s seen staying the weekend with her daughter, Donna (Airisa Durand, who also did well as one of the profane leads in Jesus I Was Evil).

Jim has two toxic buddies who are a couple, the annoying pothead and masculinist Collin (Conor Austin), and his cute and oversexed girlfriend, Alyson (Sydney Winbush), who are certain to be phantasm fodder, hinted at by the prologue so I’m hopefully not giving anything away. I write this while still in the first act, so I’m not exactly sure, quite honestly. For example, Collin wears a tee that says “Bitches Be Trippin’” and she cell phones pictures of herself in various sexy attire (or none) to Collin (I notice that one of them is too far away to be a selfie and I don’t see a selfie-stick – is that still a thing? – so I wonder who took it…). Anyway, their personalities are so different from Jim’s, I wonder if they would be friends in real life. Another thing is, as a non-smoker myself, I could tell that these people were puffing, not inhaling. Made me laugh, especially in a scene between Alyson and Jim. That bein’ said, there is a lot of beer, wine and weed that gets absorbed in three or four days.

Sydney Winbush

As the second act starts when Jim is alone in the house which is just when you expect the spookies to start manifesting, and thankfully they do, indirectly at first and then it ramps up, as it should be. Most of the time it looks pretty good, I am happy to report, especially since the obvious budget constraints. Nice move.

There definitely are some serious questions that I have (sometimes I have trouble with reality vs. story), such as the first time Jim sees a Samara-like entity, he is still there the next day, and invites his couple friends to come over. For me? If I would have seen that, I would have pushed right past it, gone out the door, and said screw it, walking home if necessary. In the flow of this story, it’s closer to the first The Amityville Horror (1979) film in that the family obviously stayed too long after the creep factor started.

Jim is a braver man than I, and sticks it out. And throughout, there are a number of really well-done jump scares, be it spirits or soundtrack music, including one that uses kind of a well-worn trope, but still fun.

I am not going to lie, the film seems really slow in spots, and the timeline is at first confusing in a smoke and mirrors kind of way, even with (or because of) title cards with the day and time that pop up on occasion. But when the viewer (i.e., me) gets the gimmick, it is definitely an a-ha moment (no Norwegians involved, though) that makes it all click and the story becomes way more interesting. It is a wise style choice by the writer/director to which I tip a hat and almost insures a second viewing to catch what one missed the first time.

As it should, the third act ramps up significantly, and by the end I was really enjoying myself. Things are explained, origins are clarified and violence is ensured, but certainly not in ways one would expect. The last 15 minutes made up for the previous, though they are somewhat necessary to fully appreciate the outcome, even though some serious editing could have been done to shorten the film. For example, the first act could have been cut a bit, such as most of the conversation of Jim and Alyson sitting on a bed, toking.

A filter is used throughout, that has a bluish hue, sort of like looking at someone in a room where the only light is from an old, black and white television. This makes everything look a little darker. The murkier the tone, the better chance of some spooky action (it is the film’s “tell”). I understand what the director was trying to do, but perhaps it went a little too dim. It’s easy to make out everything, but it is also not as clear as it could have been. For me, this was the biggest flaw in the film, so that’s not bad, despite all my kvetching.

A subtheme of the film is sleep deprivation, and how it can affect the psyche. I know at least two people who have had psychotic breaks from lack of sleep over an extended period. This film plays a bit with that.

The original title was Don’t Sleep, but distributors love to overuse the word “Amityville” for the name (as they do with “Ouija”). I did a quick search and gave up counting at fifty. Sure, it is symbolic for evil ghost by name association, but because there are so many of them, it can easily get lost in the group, which is not fair to the film. And it ends up being time well spent.

 

Review: The Long Way Back

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2021
Images from the Internet

The Long Way Back (aka Pacing the Cage)
Directed by EB Hughes
EBFilms; Breaking Glass Pictures
72 minutes, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/The-Long-Way-Back-552584021456390/

The opening shot is not only beautiful in a harsh way, but sets up the mood right from the start. We see a close-up of barbed wire on a wall, with a clear blue sky, the sound of the wind howling and the soundtrack piano plinking.

Denny Dale Bess

We are at first silently introduced to the protagonist of the story, Max (Denny Dale Bess) as he gets out a prison just west of Atlantic City after six months, and heads back to his old haunts in Alphabet City, on the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan. I remember once driving around there with a member of the Dead Boys and his new band, in the early 1980s, and he made me stop and jumped out so he could cop (I found that out later). That’s the kind of neighborhood we are talking about. Max is a seriously flawed human: an addict who is still using, but he claims he is trying to straighten up as he moves into a fleabag hotel. There he meets a neighbor on his way in, Sara (Reyna Kahan).

Mark Borkowski, Ron Rey

Max wants to “move forward,” but there are things holding him back, such as his addiction, and the fact that he ripped off his supplier, “Uptown” Lucius (award-winning playwright Mark Borkowski, giving off a Harvey Keitel vibe) for 20 grand just before he went to jail. So, you can see it is like that iconic line from The Godfather: Part III (1990), when Pacino laments, “Just when I thought I was out, they pullme back in!” Violent and controlling, Lucius has sent out his right-hand man, Johnnie (Ron Rey) to “fetch” Max to settle the score.

The main thread is following Max and Lucius as they spin around each other, with the connection being Johnnie. As the film goes on, the revolving gets tighter and tighter, until they start to collide, as one would expect.

Reyna Kahan

However, expectation here is wisely kept so the viewer (i.e., me) has one anticipates where the film is going, and then, where it actually does follow. Meanwhile, Max keeps trying to improve, and Lucius continues down into the spiral. Also following these men are their relationships, which reflect their current positions. It is all very engaging, watching this cat and mouse game and how it affects those around it.

New York City is practically one of the characters in the story, sometimes appearing beautiful, others leaning more towards how it looked and felt in Taxi Driver (1976). I marveled at how beautiful and ugly the city can be, having moods just like a person. There are some keynote locations used, such as the Landmark Tavern, deep in Hell’s Kitchen. While I have never been inside, I have passed it many a time.

In the neither-here-nor-there rhetorical question department, why is it that nearly any movie that shows someone walking “uptown” (e.g., Upper East – or West – Side), at some point they will be walking under some building scaffolding? Also, in the Special Thanks section of the credits, it is nice to see my old Jersey-based fanzine publisher/editor/writer acquaintance Chip Lamey listed. But I digress…

It is easy to tell the director was heavily influenced by the early, gritty works of Martin Scorsese, such as Mean Streets (1973); there is also a hint of the up-close-and-personal unflinching of Abel Ferrara’s The Bad Lieutenant (1992). Like those, this film is more character based than anything else, with subtle violence and reactions that get under the skin.

Sayra Player, Rey

There are a few interesting secondary characters, such as the manager of the hotel and Max’s friend, Ziggy (Don Striano) and especially Lucius’s tweaking coke-head girlfriend, Mona (excellently portrayed by Sayra Player). She had a stand-out scene with Johnnie that, to me, is an anchor example of good acting and writing in the film. That is not to say the rest of the cast is slacking in any kind of way. Everyone does a bang-up job, which is a rarity in independent, low-budget cinema. If this was released in the ‘80s, it could have easily had played at either art house or mainstream cinemas.

Cinematographer William J. Murray is worth noting, as well. This is especially true in the lighting, such as in Lucius’s apartment, a beautiful mix of shadows and light.

This crime drama is understated in what one might expect, and I liked it even more for that. Rather than an overladen, too long ego-trip, it is short, succinct, and gets the job done. Like I said, it’s more based on the personality of the characters than anything else, which is quite refreshing.

Review: Is That You? (Eres Tu Papa?)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019

Images from the Internet

Is That You? (aka Eres Tu Papa?)

Directed by Rudy Riverón Sánchez

Breaking Glass Pictures

107 minutes, 2018

www.facebook.com/erestupapa/

itunes.apple.com/us/movie/is-that-you/id1474443199 

I have been trying to remember whether I have ever seen a film from out of modern Cuba before, let along a horror film. As an isolated island both physically and geopolitically, it kind of makes sense that someone from there might have a different perspective or use some older tropes from the pre-revolution days. Hell, so much of their equipment (cars, motorcycles, etc.) are from that early-to-mid-1960s period.

Gabriela Ramos

Actually, just calling this horror isn’t quite accurate as it falls more into the psychological subgenre range, such as Psycho (1960) or Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962). It’s a deep look at the goings on with a family living in a shack in rural Cuba, where baseball is still large, and men are kings of their castle, no matter how low many rungs down run the life ladder one is situated.

The family in question is a threesome. First, and foremost, there is Lili (Gabriela Ramos), a damaged, nearly 14-year-old who is has divided loyalties between her parents. The second is dead old dad, Eduardo (Osvaldo Doimeakdiós), who is self-unknowingly suffering from a series of negative traits, especially toxic masculinity and a foot fetish. As for mom, there’s Alina (Lynn Cruz), who has spent years under the yoke of her husband and is essentially a prisoner in her own home, be it ever so crumbly.

Osvaldo Doimeakdiós

Dad plays his daughter’s affection for his own gains, damaging her psyche and indirectly using her to control his wife when he’s not around. Lili’s dead eyes give away her own mantle of PTSD. Eduardo even tells Lili that she’s his favorite person, even over his wife. While Alina wants to get away, Lili in her own way is still trapped but can’t see the bars. Her dad has soaked up all her emotions, leaving her a flat line where her heart should be. One could argue that Lili represents Cuba’s isolation amid it’s Latino neighboring islands that shun her.

The film follows the family at a very slow and methodical pace for quite a long time. With hardly any incidental music other than a few snippets here and there, we are also left in a vacuum of time and space. But even at glacial speed and the lack of any real action for a significant amount of time, it’s hard to turn away from the story that is unfolding.

Lynn Cruz

There are two other characters in the story, one being a limping African descendant who works as a servant for Eduardo named Carlos (Jorge Enrique Caballero). He’s a gentle soul who gets caught up in Eduardo’s rage and jealousy. When Eduardo disappears (hence the name of the film), Lili goes to visit an elderly neighbor, Caridad (Cuba legend Eslinda Núñez in a cameo role), to try to bring her father back from wherever he has gone.

Until this point, it’s an intense family drama with some harrowing moments, but the deeper psychology that leans towards horror comes in after the introduction of the Latino religion (some may say superstition) of Santeria.

This family is definitely broken: abusive husband, shell-shocked and physically abused mom, and the hormone-surged teen daughter who is caught in the middle of it all, with her own issues. Of course, as the film goes on, everything gets magnified and more intense until the conclusion, which will definitely remind most of us of another film, but I’m not going to give any kind of reveal.

Eslinda Núñez 

What I also liked was that there was no pure evil character, but rather time is given to flesh out everyone into a more complex personality. Each has their flaws, and all some humanity within the anger and even the abuse.

The dialogue is sparse, and of course read through subtitles as I don’t speak Spanish. The acting is superb and nuanced. A lot gets said through body motion and expression. There is also a strong use of symbolizes throughout, some more obvious than others, be it the dropping of a rosary or Lily looking at herself in a cracked mirror. The film can be taken on a deep level or more surface glide, but either way, it’s hard to dismiss the story.

For some – arguable most – this will be a long sit-through because the action is subdued, and happens mostly toward the end of the film. But I would stand that the end only makes sense if one sits through the rest, and I found it to be a nice, tight, wire-walk of increasing tension.

Review: Lost Child

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2018

Images from the Internet

Lost Child (aka Tatterdemalion)

Directed by Ramaa Mosley

Green Hummingbird Entertainment / Laundry Films /
Variant Pictures / Breaking Glass Pictures

101 minutes, 2018

twitter.com/lostchildmovie

Have to say, I really like many of the local legend subgenre releases, whether the mythical beings are “real” (e.g., can be found on Wikipedia) or made up simply for a particular film. It seems many of them refer to backwoods areas like the Ozarks regions. This one, y’all, is one-a-‘em, about a life-draining spirit that comes in the form of a child called the Tatterdemalion (translated as a person in tattered clothing, or being dilapidated). This film actually began titled with the name of the creature, but they were wise enough to change it to its present, more accessible one.

Leven Rambin

Here, we meet redheaded Fern (a glamoured-down Leven Rambin, o the mainstream-level. The Hunger Games, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and “True Detective”), who has come home to said Ozarks after nearly a decade to look for her brother, bringing with her a strain of PTSD from multiple tours of combat. While ramblin’ about looking for her kin, she stumbles into a kid named Cecil (newcomer Landon Edwards) roaming around the woods by his own self, and takes him in.

Of course, everyone is nervous that the kinder is said tatten… you know what, I’m really glad they changed the name. Anyway, people keep giving Cecil different kinds of tests (like to see if he avoids salt). The response is left kind of open of course, not to show a hand one way or another.

That’s one of the things I like about the film, that you really don’t know what’s going on between suspicion, fear and reality. Meanwhile, Fern has been fading and weakening, having trouble sleeping and eating. While they take place, the viewer is left to try and guess if these tests prove if it’s the PTSD or perhaps the Tattythingie.

As a side note, one of the things that drives me a bit crazy and seems inconsistent in the storyline is that if Fern grew up in these here woods, why has she never heard of the Tattsrats if everyone else has? This seems like a bit of a plot hole. And let’s not talk about that Cecil wears the same clothes throughout most of the first half of the film, that are unstained while living in the woods, being tan cargo pants and a white tee.

Landon Edwards

Anyway, like most psychological or supernatural dramas, whatever this turns out of be, it has a pretty slow build, so the viewer gets some perspective about the people and the area, though a bit of patience is needed as an uneasy bond builds between Cecil and Fern. Luckily, it’s beautifully shot with hues that are of earth tones, nice angles, and the camera isn’t afraid to linger on a shot for more than five seconds, as with most modern releases; usually the bigger the budget, the less space between edits.

The film seems to take place in the early 1990s, considering the huge size of computer, lack of cell phones and internet, and I’m pretty sure Fern is coming back from the first Gulf War. It was a tipping point in history, just before different cultures would collide and then splinter even further thanks to the World Wide Web. But it also makes people to not be able to look things up and get instant answers (such as me looking up the Tattentinkle on Google).

There’s also three dudes that come acallin’ in one form or another. The first one is Mike (Jim Parrack), a relative Southern Gentlemen social worker type who isn’t afraid of a one night stand, another is Billy (Taylor John Smith) her estranged brother who is a patch of rough and violent southern gravel, and the third, Fig (Kip Duane Collins) is neck deep in the local mythology. Some extremes to choose from, but I’m willing to bet that not everyone is as they seem, even though I haven’t gotten that far (yes, I’m writing as I’m watching).

 One of the things I really like about this film is that it does not shy away from social commentary about the first Bush years. There is extreme poverty shown, a kids in custody problem (which currently still exists, even in the North, by the way), drug use, and essentially backwoods ignorance that one would hope has improved somewhat (though the occupant of present White House may show different).

Jim Parrack

A fanatical belief in creatures in the woods is similar to religious fervour, which brings fear, blame, and then anger in a misdirected way to adapt to what is going on around one; in logic it’s known as a fallacy from ignorance: my sheep died so there must be something evil out there as I don’t know why else.

As slow a start as the film kicks off on, it gradually builds, and the entire third act is an incredible thriller that comes as a surprise due to its step-by-step building of events and personae. If you’ve started the story, give it the time. There’s no jump scares, no viscera, but there is violence and hardship coming to a very satisfying conclusion.

This film has a lot to unpack. It’s more than just about some Untiddytang creature, it’s also about the overarching social and governmental routine as monster, which did not take care of veterans, was unsupportive of extreme poverty, and a social system of child custody, which is one scary mofo (I have loosely been involved with the latter, and see the results of government policy as it stands).

This is definitely from a female perspective, of a female character in a male society, but even with all the political and social standings it presents, it never takes away from the story nor does it hit the viewer over the head. It’s all subtle and emphasizes the points of the story rather than distracts from them.

Again, to be overly redundant, it’s good they changed the name of the film.