All genres of suspense, terror, and horror will be reviewed by Richard Gary. His address to send preview copies supplied upon request to rbf55@msn.com.
Showing posts with label Indie Horror Film blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indie Horror Film blog. Show all posts
More of a thriller than horror, we watch as a wanna-be writer is brought in for questioning regarding a masked intruder to who has been stalking him after someone had used a cudgel on his wife.
Through a series of flashbacks interweaved with the present, Alex Luna (Luis Rodriguez, who is also the co-producer) is first confused when talking to a police therapist (Lisa Armosino-Morris), and we watch as he deteriorates when confronted with the possible truth of evidence that he may be more than he appears. Even the last name, Luna, signifies “loony” or mystery, subtly connoting that there is something more, something hidden.
This is a nicely shot short, with muted tones and minimal movement, except for those involving around the masked man, which leads to chases, fights, and threats. But even in those more static moments, such as Alex talking to the police, his wife Maggie (the lovely Emmy Frevele), his best friend Dylan (Oscar Garza), or his son Julien (Osvalso Garcia), a level of tension is always present, both leaving us to question what is happening, and also leading the action towards its not-so-obvious conclusion. It took me a good minute before the truth is revealed to figure it out, which says a lot for the film, when I can usually figure out most mysteries pretty early on in the story.
Director Williams does well with his low budget and digi-cam, getting some nice performances out of his actors (most with nary other credits listed), and pulls the most he can from the minimalism of the story, making them both work for him. He is also aided with some strong editing, so the story can jump time frames coherently; and this with short of a film, that helps make it that much more compelling. With a mixture of muted lighting of Alex’s darkened house and yard, and the bright florescence of the police station (and yet retaining that industrialized office dankness feel), we watch the story unfold, as Alex begins to question his own sanity.
It’s a strong film with minimal blood (mostly post-action), relying largely on the story and acting to bring the conclusion to fruition. Every second will keep you interested and guessing, and for a relatively new director, that makes for an enjoyable turn.
This film is to be released in April, and the link to the film will be added then. Meanwhile, here is the preview, which is also worth seeing.
Is this one of the best names of a film recently, or what? You really do know exactly what you’re getting, and this certainly won’t disappoint. After a summer of blockbuster films costing in the hundreds of millions of dollar to make, my interest was keenly kept with a central cast of three or four, and a $3,000 budget. Shot on a single Cannon 60D DSLR and made to look like film with wear marks and all, there’s no wimpy vampires, shirtless werewolves or annoyingly monotone women. No, we get a fashionable, mobster-natty zombie.
As is clearly and succinctly explained in the film, there are four kinds of zombie. The last one is the least used, which is an undead – or infected – person possessed by a demon. Hey, it’s posited in the opening scene, so I don’t believe I’m giving much away here; this cause for zombism has been mostly used in foreign films such as the Night of the Demons cycle (1988-1997), the original [*Rec] film franchise (2007-20012), though in the States there is the Evil Dead series (1981-1992). So there aren’t multitudes of flesh eaters crawling through the woods or cities ready to eat your brains. Rather, a serial killer who dies, comes back as said a-hole demon, and goes around killing identical twin women. The undead Pollux is himself a twin, the latter of whom, Castor, is searching for his brother to end the reign of terror.
And why twins? Two reasons (pun not intended). First, in this story, the demon can gain power to unlock the gates of you-know-where if he absorbs the energy from the twins he kills due to their higher psychic abilities to communicate with each other (yeah, I know, it’s kind of weak, but original). But the real reason is explained by Mills himself in the hilarious commentary: half the number of actors and twice the number of kills, as he gets to do in each one twice. Brilliant, in its own way.
One of the seemingly unwritten rules of this film is that the murdered twins are all women, each pair lives together, and one has to be murdered while the other is taking a bath or shower so the audience gets to see some nudity; Roger Corman would certainly be proud. As Dustin also points out, there are many different body shapes here, not just the standard thin with big boobs. Though a large amount of the female cast is apparently multiply tattooed.
Let’s get down to the gritty. First there’s Frank Fulchi (nice nod to the Italian goremeister), played with country-aplomb and religious fervor by Josh Eal. This religiousness is shown when he get angry when women cuss, but doesn’t seem to mind when men do it. Yep, that sounds about right. As we head into the election where the Tea Party rhetoric sounds just as hypocritical, the timing is ideal for this subtle (less than subtle if intended) dig against that mentality (and I use that word loosely), though I don’t believe that was necessarily where Mills was going. Played with a cowboy hat, square jaw, and lots of macho enthusiasm, Eal does a fine job of presenting a type that is familiar to horror films (e.g., Woody Harrelson in Zombieland [2009]). This is Eal’s only listed credit. His acting is kind of one note, but honestly, that is what the character dictates, so good on him for staying the course.
The female lead is Mercy (Jessica Daniels), who, during her first meeting with the title zombie, loses her twin sister Mary, as well as an eye, which we see yanked out very slowly (but not slo-mo), the optic nerve streeeeetching… Mercy doesn’t take crap from anyone, not even Pollux, and even though she loses the peeper (giving her that cool, Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) look, she is ready for battle the next time they meet. Daniels is believable because I know she can certainly kick my ass. Of course, to show she’s tough, the film has her smoking stogies like Clint “Empty Chair” Eastwood. The anger she feels is more palpable than the others, but her character is sort of secondary for most of the story, which is a shame. Daniels has one other credit, as the voice of Gwen in Dustin Mills’ first film, the also wonderfully titled The Puppet Monster Massacre (2011) [my review HERE].
As Castor, Brandon Salkil plays him with a mixture of lantern-jaw nerd who is able to read the - I mean, an - ancient book of the Necromicon, and an unsure monster hunter who looks like he’s about to pee his pants some of the time; or at least burst into tears. Salkil has two other film credits, including the character Wilson in the aforementioned The Puppet Monster Massacre.
In a dual role (as I said, twins), Salkil also portrays the title monster like he stepped out of Sin City (2005), full of noir machismo and a good use of body language since his face is a mask and cannot move face muscles much. With the élan of a dancer, Pollux is the exact opposite of Castor, and Salkil does well to separate the two completely in body and spirit. While sometimes his performance feels the most forced, at other times, it seems the most natural.
Essentially, this is a road trip buddy film, with Frank and Castor driving in a car and getting to know one another. The story mostly jumps back and forth between them and Pollux doing is de-twinning. Note that there is plenty of action and gore.
Speaking of blood and guts, lets get to the gristle and talk about (well, I will anyway; not expecting much of a spontaneous dialog, y'know) the SFX. Some of it looks pretty good, though you really can notice the digitization. For example, when someone’s head gets pushed on a spike, you can see the layers, especially if you’re like me and you slo-mo the action. But with an $8,000 budget, what do you expect, Titanic? Some of the effects, honestly, are laughable, and this is part of the enjoyment. For example, when zombie Pollux spews out some The Fly-type sputum to melt flesh, it’s obviously Silly-String. And pulled flesh is pieces of ropey, rubbery goo, apparently called nerdies in the business. The a-hole also has retractable intestines, apparently, that can grab like tentacles (in fact, the subject of Mills’ next film is tentacle related), but looks like ropes (i.e., too stiff and not membraney enough). Then again, there are some moments that are great, such as when the zombie reaches up through a bed and the hand goes through a (twin’s) body, holding up the heart. This looked superb. Similarly, with a very brief moment where a face is ripped in half off the skull. But don’t make me go into the whole Energy Beam Welder thingy.
Now, you may be asking yourself, “This is the director of The Puppet Monster Massacre, are there any puppets? Well, class, to answer that, let me state that by far, the silliest moment is when Pollux pees (red, so I’m assuming blood) in the woods, and a slew of skeletal creatures come out. In actuality, this are a Halloween skeleton you can buy to put on your lawn. Mills fixed it up with pop-out white eyes and a couple of other thingies, and then just replicated it digitally to make it into multitudes. It looks bad and fakey, though Mills rightfully states in the commentary, “You can’t pretend it’s Schindler’s List.”
That being said, the other puppet is some kind of chained wizened creature in a small box that turns on with a skeleton key (side-note: in an early scene, Frank drops the key, but has it moments later without bending down… I’m guessing there is a small part deleted there?), that is one of the more imaginative and interesting ideas in the film (and there are some good ones here). Named Selwyn, after the baby in the classic Dead Alive (1992), it is superbly voiced by Eugene Flynn.
There are only two extras on the disk, one being the trailer, and the other is a noteworthy commentary by director Dustin Mills and the title character actor, Brandon Salkil. Goofy at times, there is also a lot of information about both the production and the plot that makes it worthwhile.
What happens in the story? Well, suffice it to say the film proves Carol Clover’s seminal book, Men, Women and Chainsaws (1992) to be correct. Let’s leave it at that, other than there is supposedly a sequel down the road that I’m looking forward to watching.
Meanwhile, there is an interesting interview with director Dustin Mills on another site HERE.
Kids Go to the Woods… Kids Get Dead Written,
produced, directed by Michael Hall Dark Star Entertainment / Planetworks
Enterprises, 2009 / 2012 85 minutes, USD $14.95 Darkstarentertainment.net Kidsgetdead.com MVDvisual.com
There is a large
difference, in my mind (such as it is), between a horror film and a slasher
one, even if they overlap to some extent. This definitely falls into the latter
category. But there’s nothing wrong with that…
Michael Hall
writes, produces and directs his first full lengther here, with a mix of ‘80s-style
clichés and some interesting updated touches, which are just enough to send
this into the noteworthy aisle. Supposedly, the idea and film’s name germinated
from Hall watching Friday the 13th, which he described
as this release’s title. Not surprisingly, a lot of the elements of that 1980 piece
of cinema appear here.
For example, rather
than following the recent done-to-death found footage route (thank you for
that), he presents this as a ‘80s film that was taped over some VHS home movies.
There are also some (fake) commercials and a horror hostess that interrupts the
film to bookend the “ads” and return to the story. This is part of a
non-existing program called Midnight Movie Madness – though
I can see this as part of a series – presented by Candy Adams (a name take-off
of the non-sexy Cindy Adams?) played with lots of cleavage and innuendo by
Carly Goodspeed. While a smart idea, it is also one of the just misses of the
film in that Candy is more goofy than goddess, e.g., Elvira (the obvious go-to
comparison, I know) or Ivonna Cadaver, nor does it match the over-the-top
campiness of, say, Matilda LeStrange or Morella. But Goodspeed shows she’s game and seems to be
having fun with her role.
The premise of
KGTTW…KGD is that a group of (high school? college?) friends
get together to celebrate the birthday of one of their clique, who is forced to
bring along her younger brother by her parents. He is reading a horror novel, in
which a gas-masked killer terrorizes the woods, and then appears to come to
life to start picking them (and others) off, until there is an adequate body
count. Unfortunately, how (and I won’t give away the plot
line) this becomes a reality is never explained.
Perhaps the point
is to – er – point out the clichés of the ‘80s straight-to-VHS films that
glutted the market, and in that case it was successful, though the fact that I
wonder about it means it’s not as effective as it was meant to be, in that
case. Here are some examples, and please know I don’t mean this as whiney as I
make it, mostly.
There was a
MadTV sketch called “Pretty White Kids with Problems” (great
theme song by Lisa Loeb, but I digress…) about older actors playing teen roles
in over-dramatic television shows (can anyone say Pacey? Dylan?). This is what we are
presented with in this film, as well. Everyone here seems to be at least in in
their late 20s (didn’t spot any bald patches, at least). This is especially egregious
in the younger brother character, Scott (played by the great monikered Andrew Waffenschmidt). Either he is supposed to be around 15, or he is, as they say in New England, wicked retahdid (no insult meant).
Here is the group that takes off into the woods to be to potential killer-fodder: there's said brother, the birthday girl and the lummox who is trying to bed her, her bestie and the lummox who is trying to get past third base with her, and a lesbian couple who have been having home runs apparently many, many, many times (and supply most of the nudity). The two guys are just brutal to the equally lecherous (in his own way) younger bro, and I was sitting there listening to them talk and smirk, just hoping the dude in the mast would show up soon to shut them the hell up.
Leah Rudick
The acting by this troupe is passable, but you don't really get that they're taking this too seriously, while the director seems to be taking it much too seriously, espeically for a supposed comedy horror (as it is listed on IMDB). The one who ares the best, though, is the birthday girl, Casey, excellently played by Leah Rudick. She definitely comes across as the most talented of the group in this department.
As for the ancillary
characters, there is the nutsy older local who runs the gas station /
convenience store, a Vietnam Vet who warns the hero/ines to stay off the moors…
I mean out of the woods. He is especially played to a chewing the curtain rods
level (I’m thinking purposefully) by Kevin Shea. Then there is the totally
ineffectual town cops who are too busy threatening the local previously mentioned Veteran to stop
bothering the “kids” rather than to notice that anything is amiss in the burg.
Now there is the
killer, played forcefully and effectively by Joseph Campellone (paisan!).
Unfortunately, the name of this beast is, well, “The Killer.” No fancy “The
Shape” or “Jason” that’s memorable. The audience never sees his face, of course.
I must say, though,
for a film shot for $10K in the woods around Orange County, NY (the Middletown
/ Goshen area, aka The Catskills, as my grandparents would have called it), it has a good look. There’s lots of gore for the buck (though
they need to work just a bit on the formula for the blood
mixture), and that is a plus, and even a couple of good shocks (unfortunately,
one is spoiled by the trailer).
The one
stereotype that really bugged me, though, was that the killer always walks at
an even pace while the youngsters he is chasing run like mad. And yet, when
they inevitably trip and fall (I thought, at the time, “really?”), he’s a few
feet right behind them. And, of course, they roll over onto their back (or just
lay on their front) and cry while the guy with the knife walks over to them,
rather than getting their asses up and running more. Didn’t like that in the ‘80s,
and it still annoys me now.
As the slasher genre
goes, this is pretty par, though for the production financials, that’s saying a
lot in the positive column. Plus, the film gives a whole new meaning to the
expression, “Not on my face” that alone makes this worth the watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChFkPBDk4K0
Okay, so a meteorite falls out of the sky (shades of The Blob, 1958) bringing a zombie plague from outer space (Night of the Living Dead, 1968). What do you do? Dude, what do you do, dude? Well, if you’re the two main characters of this amusing film, you sit back and light a fatty. A lot.
But grass takes such a long time to grow. User and experimenter Edwin (Mark Wynn) explains to his stoner compadre Tommy (Jy Harris) that by mixing mushed up zombie brains with H20 and using that “green goo” as a fertilizer, it produces not only instant hemp plants, but also a form of superweed for which Harold and Kumar would eat brains (personally, I’ll stick with the White Castle, but I digress…).
The government, however, has cleared most of the land of the flesheaters, keeping them isolated (28 Weeks Later, 2007), in what’s known as the “Danger Zone.” With the pot smoked and no patience to wait for a plant to grow with the brownish tap water (effective visual piece of humor there), our heroes decide to take their beat up car and drive the however many miles to the Zone, so they can get some new fertilizer. Actually, now that I think of it, that’s quite a poetic turn, with the living guys looking for zombie braaaaains. After all, as the film’s tag line states, “There will be bud” (not to be confused with C.H.U.D. II’s subtitle of “Bud the C.H.U.D.” [1989]).
Thankfully, only a small segment of this is actually a buddy travel film, because that’s been done to death (puns intended) more than the derm-chompin’ zombie flick. Along the way they run into this really nasty zombie, Alex (Barry Nerling), who, for an unexplained reason, keeps his consciousness, so he can think and talk (he’s the only one). He wants to raise a zombie army and take over (he wears a modified Gestapo uniform at one point).
Our potheads also run into a lovely and resourceful woman, Leah (Simone Bailly), who is on her own; her family ran the town garage, and she is both fierce and mechanically inclined. Plus, now she had to put up with these two losers. She builds some weapons to fight off the zombies, such as one based on a weedwacker, a car with spinning blades to chop up the zombies (Dead Alive, 1992), plus a set of retracting blades in arm-length leather gloves (Blade, 1998).
Will she join forces with these guys (and more importantly, why would or should she?), and help them get to the Danger Zone to get zombie brains to grow some additional weed? Well, one thing about these kinds of films is that plausibility needs to also be checked at the door.
Director, Thomas Newman
The Zombie genre seems to lend itself well to comedies, as some previous ones have shown, such as Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Aaah! Zombies!! (2007; aka Wasting Away). Same with horror bong films (yes, I went there), such as Evil Bong (2006), Evil Bong II: King Bong (2009), and, I kid you not, Evil Bong 3-D: The Wrath of Bong (2011). Seems only natural someone would combine the two together, especially with the success of the Harold and Kumar franchise.
When one considers the logistics of this film, it is quite an amazing feat in itself: Director Thomas Newman also wrote the film, shot it for $5,000 in 15 days on a single camera, and then took two years to do all the post-production graphics (CGI, etc.) and editing on a single MAC computer in his basement. Plus, he managed to score quite the cast for such a low budget production.
Simone Bailly
As the quick-witted and hard drinkin’ Leah, Simone Bailly (who has a sort of Eva La Rue vibe going), has a long resume, including film and television. She’s been on numerous cult shows, including some recurring characters, in the likes of Battlestar Gallactica, Stargate SG:1, The L-Word, Smallville and DaVinci’s City Hall. Leah is possibly the only sane one in the whole film, though I’m not sure about her judgments. And, happily, her shower scenes aren’t gratuitous.
Dealer-turned-stoner Edwin is played by Mark Wynn, who has a bizarre sideburns-beard combination going on, and a joint nearly always within reach. Wynn has also been in numerous (mostly) television programs in smaller roles, including Smallville, Fringe, and the TV film The Boy Who Cried Werewolf. Edwin is the smarter of the two roommates, but that’s not saying all that much. Without the constant pot intake, he may have gotten somewhere. That is if that annoying little global zombie breakout didn’t happen, of course.
Jy Harris, Mark Winn
His stoner-stayed-stoner roomie is Tommy, portrayed by redheaded standup comic Jy Harris [standup is HERE]. Tommy is an annoying character, honestly, like an unhousebroken puppy you can’t control, but Harris gives him some warmth and sympathy, thankfully.
Barry Nerling
Actor and stuntman Barry Nerling plays the lead evil zombie, out to rool de verld…I mean rule the world. As with many villains, even in grade-A films, he hams it up to a John-Lithgow-sit-com-acting level, showing off his yellowed eyes and big teeth as much as possible. Of course, it’s a comic role, and he is both menacing and funny at the same time, so kudos.
Considering that Newman did all 355 effects by himself is by itself stunning, but the fact that they look that good is astounding. We see meteors fall out of the sky, explosions, bridge stanchions knocked over, and let’s not forget the exploding heads, etc. On a rare occasion, the F/X is clearly unreal, such as the fake-looking smoke coming out of the duo’s car, but 98 percent looks as good as a big budget bonanza (Bong of Independence Day?). Mix in Mike Fields’ make-up and prosthetics, and you have a powerhouse production on a shoestring.
For an area that has been cleared of zombies, there are thankfully a lot of them in the movie, including face-chewing (and topless) lesbians and a pregnant woman (and hence a zombie baby, a la, once again, Dead Alive) among the throng. Of course, there would need to be to keep the action exciting, and this certainly fits the bill.
Andres Santana
There are a couple of nits here and there for me, as there nearly always are: right off the bat, you notice that the voices don’t always skew up to the players mouth motions. Ah, I thought, overdubbed voices. Sure enough in the end credits, in an act of full disclosure, Thomas admits that no sound in the film is from the original shoot, but foleyed afterwards by sound producer Andres Santana. This makes the film sound a bit flat, as everyone in every situation is at the same level. But to his credit, as well as the actors, the film’s principals all dubbed in their own voices, and probably were paid the same rate as the shoot itself (I’m guessing $0, as tends to be on this type of project of love).
Also, there are a number of inconsistencies / anachronisms, such as one character saying that after the plague, the television went dead, and then the radio. Yet, at the garage, Leah listens to a song on the radio. Another, Leah and the boys are supposed to check the generators every four hours, but they’re all drunk or stoned and sleep heavily through the nights. Okay, then there is that blood always pouring out of a zombie’s head and into someone’s face (and therefore their mouth), yet they don’t change (but once bitten…). Last one I’ll mention: to protect them, they armor a vehicle, including netting over the front windowframe… but wait, there is just the grating and no window. How is that safety? Anyway, you get the idea. Nothing earth shattering, but noticeable.
The only extra on the DVD is the trailer.
As a non-stoner, there probably was a bit lost on me here and there, humor wise (the aforementioned White Castle and Manhattan Special Espresso Soda are my drugs of choice), as similarly was Cheech and Chong growing up, but there is a lot to recommend here, including decent acting, effects, and story.
Newman’s main work is in the field of make-up (e.g., Millennium, X-Files, Lake Placid), and this is his first – and so far only – film, so when one considers the lack of experience matched by the quality of the work and look for the film, I’m looking forward to more. The end of the film leaves it open for a sequel (actually, it promotes it), though Newman’s next film tentatively scheduled is Deadsville, a 1880s-based “Western/Action/Horror Zombie“ film. Either way, based on Bong…, I’d like to see it.
