Review: Doomsday Stories

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2023
Images from the Internet

Doomsday Stories
Directed by Derek Braasch, Marcelo Fabani, Phil Herman,
James Panetta, Joel D. Wynkoop
Cheevies Film Productions; Herman Productions;
IkuZo! Studios; Lonewolf Studios Uruguay; Wynkoop Productions
120 minutes; 2023
www.facebook.com/search/top?q=doomsday%20stories

It has been a while since I reviewed an anthology film. Personally, I like them as a concept, generally. It is like reading short stories instead of a novel. And as I have posited before, anthologies tend to fall into three different categories: the first is a series of short films cobbled together, such as The ABCs of Death (2012); the second is a few stories strung together to tell a larger story like Bad Candy (2021); and the third is the one where the stories are all mixed up together, going back and forth with either overlapping characters, or jump around. What tends to be the most common aspect that is usually present is the wraparound story, which introduces either the premise at beginning and end, or each “chapter.”

The second point I have also noted before, is that COVID was both a curse and a blessing, in a way. The former is obvious, but the latter has to do mainly with the arts: people stuck at home have written or created fine art more, and filmmakers either were forced to make limited, smaller films with few cast and crew, such as Prince of the Crimson Void (2022), or as a subject matter, for it creating the apocalypse, e.g., Ravage Nation (2022). 

For this film, the stories are 30 years after the apocalypse. As the intro voice-over states, the end starts with COVID in 2019, which developed into the “Meanies” virus in 2025, which wipes out all but 8,000 people. Our tales begin in 2055. So, what we are looking at, is the second form of anthology listed above. The narration is handled by Michael Moutsatsos, who directed Ravage Nation mentioned above.

Phil Herman

For the wraparound, a lone man, Zorack (Phil Herman, curator of these tales and director of the wraparounds) comes across a notebook with some stories in it. He roams the countryside (which looks like it could be either the Jersey Shore or the Pine Barrens) and narrates out loud to himself (hell, I do that too). When his memories – which we see in stark and vague backsplashes – get too much for the lonely guy, he reads the stories in the marble-themed scratcher. What we get to see is the realization of those tales. Whether these stories are supposed to be the writer’s fiction or memories is unclear, and unimportant, but worth noting.

The first of these, “A Broken Promise” (directed by Derek Braasch) is a about a man and his dog (no, not Don Johnson). Rick (Justin Bower) wanders around a lot for food and water, showing kindness to some and killing others by defending himself, while mooning for his late wife, Emma (Lillian Lamour) and infant daughter, seen in flashbacks. Most of the story is of him roaming through some rusty truck graveyards (coolest thing about this one). The story is way longer than it needs be, but it does tug the emotional heartstrings as well as having some nice practical SFX.

Justin Bower, Lucy

In “Bomb Threats” (directed by James Panetta), annoying phone-addicted Katrina (Debbie D, aka Debbie Dee, who also wrote this section, and had appeared in a few Bill Zebub films) is getting ready for a nice vacation the next day, when the titular bombs start a-flyin’ and she’s rightfully a-scared. The Meanie virus is just starting to take hold, so she coerces a business associate, Alvin (Jim Ewald), to let her stay overnight in his bomb shelter (that looks like a garage). I will not say how, but things do not quite work out as planned. I will note that one of the scenes reminds me of a classic image from a particular Hershell Gordon Lewis film in the early 1960s.

Filling in for the Zorack stories are some of his own, that show up occasionally with Herman in a bad blond wig and baseball cap whiningly phoning various people he knows who are in the “turning point” of the Meanie virus, such as much tattooed Kate (Constance Payne), cute Kelly (Alba O’Neill), and his pal, Frank (Carl J. Grasso) who has a thick Long Island accent. I am guessing these segments were filmed during the actual COVID pandemic, because each person’s story is shot individually.

Alba O'Neill

“Forever Man” (directed by Marcelo Fabani) uses some decent animation and SFX (along with some cheesy ones). The main character who does not speak is Frank 21 (Chandra Mouli Nandy), though we hear his inner narration. The area he lives in, post-Meanies, where in this case turns people into zombies rather than maniacs, demands its denizens to sell their organs. In doing this, Frank 21 becomes a cyborg killing machine. I think. To be honest, this segment tried too hard to be artsy in both visuals and dialogue, and it becomes befuddling.

With an interesting concept, “Joel D. Wynkoop’s 187 Times” (directed by Joel D. Wynkoop), James Kirk (Wynkoop) had a wife, Diana (M. Catherine Wynkoop), that was killed, and he spends the titular number of times going back in time from the year 2050 to try and save her. But, of course, he keeps screwing up the timeline. He is aided by an Alexa kind of electronic voice called Aistda (the voice of M. Catherine). In this tale, it also explains how the whole Meanies virus got started. There appears to be snippets from other films, probably made by Wynkoop over the years, which is a nice choice. In one sequence, he goes back to 1977, and I was thinking, dude, while you have the chance, go see the Ramones! But I guess his priorities are different than mine…

A question I have is as follows: It has been a while since the apocalypse, so water and food is understandably scarce. So why are so many still overweight, and especially, why are they clean in both body (including hair) and clothes? You would think washing…anything would be an issue. For example, someone has a non-stained KISS shirt that looks right off the rack, though the Motörhead one appears lived in a bit. While I am at it, why are people scrounging for canned good?. Does no one grow anything? I have a garden and that does pretty well for us most of the year. There is also no leaves or weeds on what looks like freshly mowed lawns, and parked cars are shiny and clean. And there is still electricity and television? Just sayin’, not complaining. These tend to be true across many post-apoc films. There is a lot of inconsistencies through the stories, but then again, if I read this right, they are just stories written in a notebook, so that would explain the differences from tale to tale.

Put together by the same people who did the Horrortales.666 anthology franchise, this goes on longer than it needs be (especially “Broken Promise”), but this is true indie filmmaking with a budget of miniscule proportion. They work both as individual tales and as a collective, which is nice. If you get a kick out of the duct tape level of cinema, as I do, you might find this interesting. Not for anyone who likes cohesive storylines or an artistic flair, but this is solid meat and taters.

This movie is available for $20, which includes postage. It can be acquired through contacting Phil Herman or Joel D Wynkoop on Facebook Messenger. Add it to your post-apoc pile.

IMDB listing HERE

Review: American Mummy (3D)

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2017

Images from the Internet

American Mummy (3D) [aka Aztec Blood]

Directed by Charles Pinion

TX-2 Productions / Fusion / Inferential Pictures

Wild Eye Releasing / MVD Visual

82 minutes, 2014 / 2017

www.wildeyereleasing.com

www.mvdvisual.com

I have absolutely no doubt that this film, originally titled Aztec Blood a few short years ago, is being rereleased under its new title because of the re-tick of The Mummy series with the diminutive Tom Cruise. If he find out, will he dance in his undies to “We take those old films off the shelf / Rename them to promote ourselves…”?

Tezcalipoca mask

Honestly, I have no problem with any indie, low-budget film doing that (though it may be irksome if a major did it). The possible problem I do see with this, though, is part of me is wondering if it smacks of appropriation. This is supposed to be about finding a remanence of an Aztec culture, a civilization pretty much wiped out through European intrusion in the 16th century (I suggest reading James Michener’s excellent and massive centuries-spanning 1992 tome, Mexico). In this case it’s regarding a god named Tezcalipoca and of… well, I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be the mummy of Tezzy himself or one of his priests The latter would actually make more sense considering Tezzy was one of the four creators of the world; it’s nice they made a film about him rather than the feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl, another of the four who gets way more coverage.

Suzeiy Block

Anyway, this film should be noted as one of the few I’ve seen to have two prologues that set up the story, which is, essentially that an archeological class from Monroe College (thank goodness they didn’t use the overdone Miskatonic name) is out in the desert somewhere on a excavation, which I’m assuming a Southwestern state considering the film’s title [The director, Charles Pinion, wisely pointed out post-publication that: "Regarding 'American,' I'd like to flip that to the presumption of 'American' only including the United States. Mexico is in fact on the American continent. United States' imperialism (the name Monroe College alludes to the Monroe Doctrine) is central to the under-arching theme, if you will. They find something, they claim it, and they plant a flag there."], after a couple of students come across said mummy. The dig is led by the totally inept Professor Jensen (Suzeiy Block), so it’s a good thing she’s cute; had a boss like that once, but I digress…

Of course, there’s that one student – in films like this anyway – that has an ulterior motive: Carmen (Esther Cantana) is trying to raise the mummy using an ancient Aztec book of the dead. At this point it may be worth noting that there are a bunch of themes used from other films, such as the cabin in the woods/camping in deserted areas tropes, of course the mummy series, and mostly the Evil Dead (1981). Another to add on could be the viral zombie mini-apocalypse, or even Bava’s Demons (1985) and [*Rec] (2007). One could argue for The Thing (1982), but I would disagree due to lack of shape-shifting.

Erin Condry

I will applaud that they do try to build up some context through exposition of the characters, rather than them being merely fodder. Yet it’s still tough to feel deep sympathy, never mind empathy, for most of the characters, though I did for at least one named Connie (Erin Condry, who I’m pretty sure I’ve seen elsewhere in a genre pic that’s not listed on IMDB).

That’s not to say there isn’t a certainly level of accuracy about the characters. I mean, I’ve been to a few academic conferences, and there is a lot of hooking up and abuse of substances that goes on in that world, never mind in the middle of nowhere. In films like this, I’m happy to say that leads to a lot of nudity, though most of the sex is implied. They even manage to have a shower scene in the middle of a desert. For that alone, they get some extra points. Thankfully, it’s an attractive cast.

As Dylan said, “The line it is drawn / The curse it is cast,” and you know that one-by-one the demon fever (or whatever it is) will spread through the group via blood and green tongues. The effects are pretty nice, with lots of blood and even some unbelievable bits look pretty good. It seems most of the SFX are appliances rather than computer generated, and that’s another check mark in the plus column.

Esther Cantana and her green tongue

The acting isn’t necessarily stellar throughout, but there are some fine moments and decent characterizations, though some are a bit over the top; an example is the seemingly unnecessarily thickly-accented Dr. Lobachevsky (Greg Salman, who is also a producer on the film). I could never find a reason why he was Russian in the story, or what his true purpose was to the story as a Russian, as opposed to a scientist of any other nationality.

One aspect I find interesting is the actual lack of motion of the titular character, other than some limb wiggling. As a side note, I think calling it an “American” mummy when the mummy-proper dates back before the Europeans even came to the New World is presumptuous and a bit settler colonialization (or, as I up it at the beginning, appropriation; this is the same mentality that uses the term American Indian, rather than First Nations, as do the Canadians). Getting back to the point, it does sort of leave it open to the interpretation of the viewer whether it’s some kind of genre viral infection (such as was true(r) with the Tomb of King Tut’s “curse”), or the actual mummy having some mystical power raised by the fanatical student and her sycophant.

There are definitely a few holes in the story, the biggest perhaps is why Carmen was so determined to raise the mummy – or his curse, anyway. In other films, such as various Universal Monsters’ version of the Mummy, at least we were told that the person performing the rite was part of a cult following of the person/god/mummy. Well, even from early on, it’s obvious she’s eager to find the thingy, so that’s something.

There are a bunch of extras that come along with this Blu-ray, such as both a 2-D and 3-D version, some minor and quick outtakes and behind the scenes that don’t really add up to much, and a couple of different generations of the trailer. Being a Wild Eye Releasing – err – release, there are also a bunch of other trailers.

This film isn’t brilliant, but it’s certainly enjoyable, and the second half certainly is bloody and has a decent body count. Plus, there is a lot of decent research on Tezcalipoca and Aztec sacrificial procedurals that make it even more interesting. It did keep me pretty entertained all the way through.

Review: Bad Meat

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films Blog, 2013
Images from the Internet

                            

Bad Meat

Directed by Lulu Jarmen
MVD Visual
Jingai Films
92 minutes, 2011 / 2013
http://en.wordpress.com/tag/bad-meat
www.MVDvisual.com

I truly had high hopes for the proudly self-proclaimed heavily flesh and fluid film that is Bad Meat. After all, it was filmed around Winnipeg. But alas and alack, it wasn’t meant to be.

Indie horror films, even bad ones, can be a joy, sometimes because of how bad they are. Then there is something like this one. Before I wrote this review, I actually did something I never do, which is read other people’s reviews. I’ll explain why in a bit.

Shades of the original The Hills Have Eyes II (1984), this project was started and not really completed first time around, under the helm of Robert Schmidt. The budget either was pulled or ran out, or studio interest waned, and the project was pulled after being mostly put in the can. After the relative success of some of this young cast, it was decided to be revived. Stories vary whether it was Schmidt who sewed it together with some new footage, or gave up and the studio did it. Either way, Schmidt didn’t want his name on it, and they put the imaginary Jarmen to it.

While there are definite problems with the initial storyline, it still had a lot going for it. The plot centers around six teens (who for once actually look like teens), three males and three females, who are dumped by their parents at a motivational camp for various “crimes,” such as fire fetish, lesbianism and letting the frogs loose from the school’s biology lab. Hardway is not so much an Outward Bound as a hard labor camp. All that’s missing is the metal balls chained to their feet. Running away isn’t an option because it is too far in the middle of nowhere (okay, no Winnipeg jokes here).

The camp is run by a physically and emotionally sadistic leader (scene stealer Mark Pellegrino) who is obsessed with Nazis (e.g., he has a chessboard where the “king” is Adolph), and he is shown reading a book about the Final Solution (Death Camp: The Josef Mengele Story) and laughing. His underlings include an Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS type, her lover/co-“counselor” is an equally sadistic huge black man, with the last being a bar bell boy that could be Larry the Cable Guy on steroids.

All of them abuse the young six, as well as the hired cook. The latter takes some tainted dog meat and serves it at dinner, before quitting and taking the only vehicle on the property (of course). The young charges are forced to eat a potato while the bullies have the, well, bad meat, thereby unintentionally saving them from it. After a night of a lot of puking on a The Family Guy Ipecac level, the four leaders become guttural, sex-obsessed cannibals.

The story is shown in a series of flashbacks by the sole survivor (I’m not giving anything away here since that is explained in the first few minutes), who is wrapped from head to toe in bloody bandages that continually weep red.

The gore effects are mostly top notch, relying totally on appliances, models and make-up rather than digital enhancements. They are beautifully done and appropriately gross with lots of vomit, blood and body parts

All of the actors playing the teens are solid in their parts, having made their way through multitudes of recurring parts in various television series. And some even have famous siblings in real life (Dave Franco, brother of James, and Tahj Mowry, brother of twins Tamera and Tia). But I digress… There isn’t much chance for character development because they obviously filmed some of the harder scenes first, probably leaving that to the end of the shoot.

And there lies the problem with this film. Because of the disruption to shooting and the slapdash way it was put together, there are way too many gaps in the story. I’m not talking about a question here and there, but rather entire scenes missing. I thought the DVD had skipped, and that’s when I went to other reviews to see what I had missed. Apparently, everyone had the same comments. Characters disappear and reappear as just a jaw bone being chomped. Another, who is given the impression of being the lead, is tossed away in a cage and we never see him get out (or die). In fact, more than half the characters are still alive in the flashback when the final shot is shown in the present.

Whether Schmidt gave up trying or he was booted for going over budget (the film does have a wonderful and mainstream look), this is a sorry case of caveat emptor, because this sounds like it should be a great film, and it really could have been, but it’s not all there, like your money when you purchase it.