Review: Wrath of Souls

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

Wrath of Souls (aka Aiyai: Wrathful Souls; Aiyai: A Wrathful Soul)
Directed by Ilanthirayan Alan Arumugam
GVKM Elephant Pictures; Aiyai; YSA Screen Media
83 minutes, 2020 / 2021
www.aiyaifeaturefilm.com/
https://phoenixworldent.com/films/wrath-of-souls-featured/
www.facebook.com/aiyaifeaturefilm

It seems in the last decade, Australia – in this case, Brisbane, Queensland – has been bursting with genre releases, I am happy to say. Like their European counterparts, they tend to go for the pure silliness of the likes of SheBorg (2016) to the dark and moody Rage (2020). This spookfest is closer to the latter, with artistic hauntings and a tone of dread.

For those interested, the term Aiyai is a Tamil word for a woman, or any variety of birds, especially pigeons (thank you Google), both of which come into play here.

Kabir Singh

Like Dellemorte Dellamore/Cemetery Man (1994), we are introduced to Kiran (Kabir Singh) briefly in a prologue after something mysterious has occurred, and then the film is in flashback bode until the storyline catches up. He has just obtained a position at an old graveyard/chapel/funeral parlor, where it is his job to maintain and clean, including the crematorium. Joyful start, right? His co-worker and office manager, Darren (William Wensley) is a total Aussie cliché; I half expected his floppy hat to have corks hanging from it. Also, there is something off about him, naturally, as well as the parlor director Albert Fischer (Richard Huggett). There is also burly and extremely sour landscape maintenance man, Michael (Craig Ingram, who grumpily steals every scene in which he appears and is underused).

Through a series of flashbacks, Kiran worked in an East Indian restaurant. He has some violent confrontations with a pimp (ex-AFL-er and ranked barefoot water skier Ozzie Devrish) and his lackey (Marco Sinigaglia) when Kiran helped the pimp’s abused drug dealer, Sarah (Pennyanne Lace) whom the pimp is demanding to bring more money. These clashes lead to the cemetery position. Lots of quick edits project the dire situations and the violent turns of events. Of course, this is all background to what is yet to come in the following acts.

Pennyanne Lace

In fact, once all the background information is presented and we have an idea of the troublesome spirit that is Kiran, the second act starts in spooky earnest when he begins his mortuary job. Shadows swirl, gray ash and messes mysteriously materialize, and the dissonant background soundtrack begins. And this viewer’s attention is grabbed.

This isn’t your run of the mill poltergeist that merely moves chairs flinging across the floor and slamming some small cabinets; rather, this one is hell-bent on flinging and fighting, death and destruction. You know, the fun kind. We see some quick glimpses of the beastie. It also has a hold on Kiran, possessing him and turning him into a nearly werewolf-ish creature. This is not the usual Catholic-based possession, I’m happy to say (hasn’t that been done to – er – death?). That is part of what makes this so interesting. As it is not European-based, again Catholic, there are better chances of being caught by surprise due to it being a step away from the familiar. This reminds me more of The Changing of Ben Moore (2015), than, say, The Exorcist (1973).

Tahlia Jade Holt

While wilding Kiran settles up with old adversaries, he’s being cared for by his overly protective student girlfriend, Sara (Tahlia Jade Holt) and muscle-strapped roommate Felix (Vinod Mohana Sundaram), and is wanted for questioning for murders by a police duo, led by Detective Blake (Vicky Loughrey).

The interesting question for me for part of this is as follows: is the wraith out to avenge Kiran’s trials and tribulations, or is it seeking revenge of some kind of its own? With all the stories tying up by the third act, the answer is quite clear and not all that expected, despite clues given throughout the story.

I am not going to lie: the ending actually pissed me off a little bit, but despite that, for a debut feature, Arumugam shows he knows his way around a story, and how to shoot it. That the film has won over a dozen festival awards attests to that. The cinematography is superb, with changing angles, a sense of both metaphorical and physical darkness, and the camera is used in both even-handed and occasionally jarring ways. Plus, there is some nice use of the increasingly ever-present drone shots.

William Wensley and Singh

The effects are effective. There isn’t a huge body count as it is not a slasher kind of story, but much more personal. Not a ton of blood and almost no gore per se, but enjoyable deaths nonetheless.

Despite this being a directorial introduction, Arumugam has assembled an accomplished and dedicated cast that holds up to scrutiny. There is not a weak spot to be seen, which is rare for both this budget and the director’s industry influence.

The film was reportedly shot for US$3 million and employs the use of purposefully jerky edits that work, along with the occasional jump scares. But mostly it is the feeling of dread that runs through that makes this beyond just an ordinary ghost story. Arumugam has two films in the works, and I am looking forward to them.

The film has recently been released in North America on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, InDemand (Comcast and Cox), Microsoft Store, Vudu, YouTube Rentals and Hoopla.

 

Review: Nécrologies

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

Nécrologies (aka Obituaries)

Directed by Fabien Chombart, Guillaume Defare, Nathalie Epoque, Francois Message, Alexis Wawerka

Les Films d’à Côté / Sticky Notes Films / SRS Cinema

75 minutes, 2017 / 2019

http://necrologies-lefilm.com/

www.facebook.com/necrologieslefilm/

http://ukfilmchannel.co.uk

When one thinks of French cinema, the obvious go-tos are romances or silly comedies (Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, 2001, was both), emotional dramas such as those by Goddard and Truffaut, or cinema of the fantastique, like The City of Lost Children (1995, also by Jeunet).

They do not, however, produce too many films of the horror genre, so when I had the opportunity to get a glance at this anthology, my bouche began arroser.

Alexis Wawerka

For the wrap-around story, a guy with a horror blog (why does that sound familiar…) is taking selfies of himself in a late-night, closed cemetery. He is stopped by the gargle-voiced cimetiére watchman (Jean-Clause Dreyfus, lead actor of the 1991 post-Apocalyptic film, Delicatessen). He presents our blogger with a book, from which springs our tales. We return between each of the stories to the office of the caretaker as the blogger becomes more and more intrigued by these tales, requesting more. Googly-eyed Dreyfus is more than happy to comply, putting off calling the cops on the trespasser to tell just one more…

Sophie Jarmouni

First up is Nathalie Epoque’s "Appel Mortel" (“The Call of Death”). It’s kind of a silly story in the long run, but on the other hand, there is a level of imagination that went into this very simple tale that made it enjoyable when the punchline hit. In it, Elsa (Sophie Jarmouni) returns home after a rendezvous, and starts getting phone calls on her outdated flip phone from a stalker, threating to tell her boyfriend about her little tryst. Essentially, this is mostly a one-person story with most other voices coming over the phone. Luckily, Jarmouni, who has a bit of a Liza feel to her appearance, can totally handle it. Again, it had me saying, “really?” at the end, but I was smiling at the time.

Fabien Chombart, "La Bête" (“The Beast”) is up next (there is a bit of a “Belle” here, as well). As an everyman type guy (David Faure) is driving through the woods, he spots a woman (Sabine Rosoli) along the road who appears to be wounded. Following her deep into the forest, he learns the secret that at first scares him. While I thought of a number of ways the story could go, it didn’t follow any of them, so all the better. While there is some dialogue, honestly it wouldn’t matter if the sound was on or off for this one, as the story about the connection between the two of them crosses the language requirement. So far, the collection is impressive.

For the third story, Ludovic (Alexis Wawerka), the trespasser passes one along, namely François Message’s "Le Retour des Hommes-Lézards" (“The Return of the Lizardmen”). While the other shorts so far deal somewhat with technology, this one relies heavily on the paranoia conspiracy theories that are rampant on the internet. An indie filmmaker investigates a ritual by the Duckpeople (who believe in a Christ-like figure) who claim there are Lizardpeople trying to control of the Earth (what, no mention of “V”?), even though there is no proof of any of it on either side. It’s easy to see where it’s going, but this one is actually very funny in a dark tone that never really gets too heavy. Again, I smiled all the way through it for its reliance on conspiracies in this era of Internet loonies who will believe just about anything that is outside the norm (flat earthers, “Killary,” the moon landing, Trump followers believing the ContraVirus is a hoax, etc.). The ending is predictable, yet still kept my interest.

Linnea Quigley

Wawerka (who also plays the blogger of the wraparound), directs the next one, “Une affaire d'enfer" (“A Hell of a Bargain”). A real estate agent is heavy handedly pressuring an old woman and her pet to sell her house at a bargain rate. When she refuses, the result is shocking. But not as much so as when her pet, Puzo, takes it personally. There is a bit of puppetry involved here, and a nice appearance by our own Scream Cameo Queen, Linnea Quigley. It’s not brilliant, but it is bloody and relies on a bunch of previous work such as Trilogy of Terror, yet there is still some originality in it, a bit of body parts, and a satisfying ending, even if you see it coming.

Up last is "L'oeil de Taal" (“The Eye of Taal’”), by Guillaume Defare. This is definitely the most fantastique or surreal of the collection. Taal is the embodiment of death, a leather-wearing cowboy (yes, in France) with a skull-like face. An artist tells some tales about people who have met him (oui, this is an anthology within an anthology; perhaps a meta-anthology?); those who come face to face with our soul rustler tend not have long endings. This one is a bit heavier than the other tales, and is still enjoyable, but I also found it the weakest of the batch, even though it looks beautiful, is well edited and the execution of mixing color with black & white work well. That probably is because most of these are pretty light tales of fluff and fun, and this one is deeper, and some ways doesn’t fit it. Perhaps it should have been in a different collection where it would have been cozier, or started this one off. Again, good tale and I’m not complaining about it overall, it’s more the juxtaposition with the others.

As for the wraparound, well that ends pretty predictably, again with a nod and a wink, but it was also nicely done. As anthologies go this one is a really fine gathering of material that generally works well together, which is just want you should want as a viewer.