Review: The Trees Have Eyes

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

The Trees Have Eyes (aka Dead Bounty)
Directed by Jordan Pacheco
Lock It Down Productions; Cyfuno Productions
75 minutes, 2020,
https://www.facebook.com/DeadBounty

There must be something in the water in the area between Boston, MA, and Providence, RI. The amount of cinema – especially genre films – is stunning. Directors Richard Griffin, Lenny Schwartz, Laura Pepper, Richard Chandler, and Alex DiVincenzo, among others, all come from this area, producing quality work. And let’s not forget Jordan Pacheco, who recently came out with the fun Blood Pi (2020; reviewed HERE, and available on TubiTV, etc.). 

Cate Carson and David Carpenter

We start off with five rough and tumble bail bondsmen/woman, also known as bounty hunters – four men and one woman – who scour out into the woods in search of their prey. They are an older gent, Henry (Timothy Patrick Quill), his son Junior (James Baker), Junior’s partner Hannah (Cate Carson), Colt (David Carpenter), and macho/toxic masculinity-embused Bosk (Tony Moran, the original adult Michael Myers in 1978’s Halloween).

They drive a car that has the slogan “It’s more fun if they run” and scratch marks for the numbers caught that is often used by prisoners in these kinds of films (four horizontal lines and one diagonal through them). They are searching for a(n alleged) murderer (and the only black member of the main cast), Darnel (Kevin O. Peterson).

Good mourning campters!

Sharing the woods with our hunters-select, are a group of really obnoxious youths who are camping out. This gaggle includes a lesbian couple, a straight couple, and two other women, including Clair (Alexandra Cipolla) who is the “flirty” one in the cheerleader outfit, Tucker (Johnny Sederquist in a somewhat cameo role), and the group is rounded out by one woman out for a nude nighttime swim. Most are sitting around the campfire, talking smack and one pretending to be “manly”: Randall (Alexander Gautheir, who starred in the comedic 2016 short “Trouser Snake”; reviewed HERE) is embarrassed that he was intimidated by the huge, gun carrying bounty hunters in front of his girlfriend, Samantha (Jacquelyn Fabian). Hell, I would have been terrified and not be ashamed of it…they were pointing guns). Anyway, considering the cheerleading duds, I’m guessing these over-agers are supposed to be in college. While this group is definitely more stereotypical of these films, it also increases the number of the future body count, so I’m okay with it.

It is obvious these groups are going to meet in other ways in the second act when the zombies start to attack. Yep, zombies. While they are the slow, stumbling Romero type (director Pacheco has stated that the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead is his favorite zombie film, and rightfully so), they still manage to come out of freakin’ nowhere to kill and give a good jump scare or few. Once it starts, the attacks are relentless, which of course is part of the fun for the viewer, if not the characters.

Johnny Sederquist

The special makeup SFX looks great for a low budget release, thanks to a team led by Phil “Skippy” Adams, and including Eric Rodrigues, who graduated from The Tom Savini’s Special Makeup Effects School. When the carnage starts proper, the blood and gore flow generously.

Most of the characters, as I find to be true in films with large fodder casts, are not that likeable, other than Hannah and Colt, whom Cate and David, respectively, allow to show some empathy. Nearly everyone else is out for themselves, and that hubris often brings their downfall. And speaking of cameos, there is an enormously short one with Rhode Island stalwart actors Nathaniel Sylva and Jamie Lyn Bagley.

Tony Moran

There is a similar theme to Dog Soldiers (2002), as a group – including a military-style one – is lost in the woods and being hunted by blood-thirsty creatures, albeit zombies rather than werewolves. But the deadly end result is the same, except in this case, just because you kill a zombie does not mean you have killed the zombie. The undead are tricky that way.

Alexandra Cipolla

While this is certainly not a comedy per se, there are some giggle-worthy moments here and there, which are great fleeting tension breakers. Just what is the cause of this zombiemania? There’s a couple of guesses within the film, but it’s left open. Though a major lesson here seems to be that when the zombie apocalypse does occur, people are going to crash their cars if they drive on small roads, to make them easy pickings.

A nice aspect about this film is that when it reaches the point where it would probably end in most cases, that is just the start of the third act, as the survivors (won’t say who) end up in a farmhouse and gather more wood for the fire, or meat for the zombies, as it were. Pacheco has found some clever ways to keep the story and blood flowing, and it’s appreciated. Also, the last section really is the finest moments of a quite good picture overall. The blood red cherry on top of the gray skinned cake. And the ending looks like there could be more baking in the oven. Cut me up a slice.

The film is available on the likes of Amazon, Tubi and YouTube. As zombie films go, this one is worth checking out.

 

Review: Blood Pi (Blood π)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020
Images from the Internet

 

Blood Pi (aka Blood π)
Directed by Jordan Pacheco
Lock It Down Productions
91 minutes, 2020
https://www.facebook.com/BLOOD-Pi-1475601389429732

College is a time for growth, for learning, and apparently for dying by a horrible method, if you follow the trend of a multitude of slasher films. For this dramedy, we are welcomed to River Falls University (RFU), which I am assuming is in New England, where this was shot… er… filmed.

RFU is also a school that likes its winning football team and especially its wild parties, where the overaged female students are all beautiful and the males are the beef. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. There is no surprise about who is the killer as we see the striking -yet-warped coed Amber (Anna Rizzo) take umbrage with her family in the prologue, which also gives a hint of sharp (pun intended) and gory humor in the first couple of minutes.

 

Anna Rizzo

As the film starts proper, we are introduced to shy lovely-but-made-to-look-frumpy-before-being-made-to-look-lovely Agnis (Sarah Nicklin) being bullied by the cool girl Omega Pi sorority squad. After a stressful turn of events with a teacher (not what you think), she is taken under the wing of the very same Amber, who gives her a make-over and some of her mom’s now-unneeded clothes, and especially her heart-shaped necklace.

Of course, Amber is a completely murderous sociopath who is obsessed with Agnis, so you know the friendship between the two at some point is going to turn on its head.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Of course, Agnis and Amber have a blow-out, leading to two altering actions: Amber goes further off the rail (man, Rizzo is good at playing “psycho” with both simmer, eyebrows and rage), and Agnis joins in with the same sorority mean girls who rename her Angie. It’s interesting that the psycho tells her to “change your hair, change your make-up, but be yourself,” and the hot shots want her to change to suit them. As nuts as Amber truly is, she’s actually the better friend than the sorority sisters. There’s an academic paper in there somewhere.

As for the Halloween party which starts Act 2, well, what better way to put some bodies on display (and there is a lot of that in this film), and in harms way of a psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est? Agnis, now dubbed Angie by the cool contingent, arrives at the party, as does Amber (Rizzo sure can rock a corset, as she showed previously in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in 2017). Angie hooks up with a Kavanaugh-ishly rapacious frat boy, Keith (Jamie Dufault, who ironically starred in a film called Murder University in 2012) which does not go well for both parties.

Sarah Nicklin

However, it’s a second bash (again, costumes and Halloween themed) that’s more like a black-light-lit rave. Despite Angie’s trying to leverage between the Pi gals and Amber, she’s having trouble seeing the truth from both sides, making her the weakest link for a while. One of the best and most graphic kills occurs at this point that you’re not going to want to miss. Let’s just say it’s reminiscent of Terrifier (2016).

Then there’s the – I kid you not – third shindig, starting the final act, where things really begin rockin’ and people start droppin’. And let the games – and the flowing of blood – begin! Damn, I’m giddy as a sbool boy (Monty Python reference, sorry). Amber learns of the Pi gals’ nefarious plans at Angie’s “pledging” to the sorority where the shit hits the fan and the body count significantly rises. There is one particular kill that is bound to make people squirm (did me), again in a Terrifier motif, but the previous party’s kill kind of balances it out, I guess.

The film touches a bit on some previous work, such as the obsession of Single White Female (1992) among many, and Mean Girls (2004). What’s nice is that this is a pretty meat and potatoes kind of picture, without trying to be too arty, and just give us what we genuinely want to see. There is also a strong influence of a plethora of 1980s releases where a ball becomes an abattoir.

A question I have, as there is no back stories on any of the characters, as is the nature of these kinds of genre blood-lettings, is that I wonder whether Amber was always a bad seed and had killed before, or was there a trigger that set her off on the path of rack and ruin. The other thing about these kinds of genre blood-lettings is that sometimes the backstories are irrelevant to the fun that’s on the screen at the moment, and we have a heap of that here.

 

Jamie Dufault

While there is no nudity, there is amble cleavage, some gore done with beautiful practical SFX by John Lauterbach, and lots of dead bodies scattered about. My only real objection to the film involves a “date rape” and the casual way the aftermath is handled. This left me feeling a bit uncomfortable.

 Shot beautifully in widescreen, this is straightforward and to the point – with some very sharp points – which is just what is both expected and desired. There is truly little fat on the story, which makes a good viewing. Plus, there is a cast to die for, full of actors for whom I am a huge fan, like Nicklin, Rizzo, Dufault, and as the wonderful comic relief, the effervescent Johnny Sederquist as a drug dealer. Also noteworthy is Lilith Asteroth (I’m guessing that’s not her birth name) of the death metal band Sorrowseed,  as one of the Pi sorority who is more than what she seems.

The film definitely pushes some envelopes, which can be seen as good or bad, but either way it’s bound to shock some and have others hiding their eyes behind their hands. Of course, true deep genre fans are bound to be drinkin’ and a hootin’.