Review: Guilt

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

Guilt
Directed by William Chaffin
Few Man Crew Films; Brave Runner Films; Indie Rights Movies
75 minutes, 2022
www.facebook.com/Guiltmovieproject

Two quick comments that I will follow up with later. First, this is a relatively short film at 75 minutes (i.e., perfect length) so the action begins pretty right off the bat. Second, this incorporates a mixture of horror and psychological uncertainties, which is right up my alley. Love it when reality and in the mind combine for a bit of confusion on the viewer’s part.

We are introduced to our protagonist Elizabeth Stanton (Anna Hoots) as she comes home to her parents, Ann (Sarah Turner Holland) and Josh’s (Christopher Rowley) house, with luggage that matches her car. Love that bit. But things are not – of course – as simple as that, as she has images/dreams of a demon, smoke filled rooms (I remember the days when music clubs were like that, but I digress…), and murder.

Anna Hoots

Y’see, Elizabeth has a history of schizophrenia but is now off her meds and obviously has a touch of OCD. She is just home from undergrad college with an ironic psychology degree, and wants to live a normal life. However, her college roomie and best friend Victoria (Darby Flynn) is dead and she is accusing Victoria’s boy friend, Kyle (HaRoon Khan), though the police, led by Detective Olivia Mattingly (Liz Fletcher), believe it to be suicide. Also on the case is an ex-priest-turned-Private Investigator, the appropriately named Matt Gravesman (Jared Noble); his business card reads “Paranormal PI.” In an odd conversation together, Mattingly tells Gravesman that she is “not very religious,” even though she has a prominent cross necklace. Anyway, I found that amusing. They are adversaries of sorts at first, which means, I am guessing, they will team up before long.

Through all this, Elizabeth keeps having violent dreams where that robed demon is killing people she knows, and awakes to find out they are actually dead. Is it the demon or a manifestation of her own personality that is knocking people off? And why hasn’t she been arrested, when she admits she was the only one in the room when someone died, other than her demon self that is supposedly trying to possess her? The bodies pile up, an she’s still running around off her meds and claiming she’s not schizophrenic.

The only one who believes her is Gravesman, who used to perform exorcisms when he was still a priest. In certain parts of the film, though not prevalent, there is an undercurrent of religiosity that sometimes feels a bit overdone, but luckily its only in a few scenes, or I would have exorcized this film right out. As with most exorcism films, there are a number of Catholic tropes, such as saying the “Hail Mary” (aka “Ave Maria”) prayer from Luke, along with the general “Our Father” from Matthew (I may be an atheist, but that does not mean I am ignorant).

The demon is leaning on Elizabeth because it is feeding on her guilt of events earlier in her life, hence the name of the film.

The biggest issue I have with this is that it goes against its own philosophy about being possessed when dying, but I will not say who or under what circumstances because that would give away one of the better surprises in the film. However, perhaps they were going for the possibility of a sequel? If that is the reason, then I can relax about it.

Hoots, Liz Fletcher, Jared Noble, David Moak

Despite a few holes such as the couple I mentioned above (the rest are pretty minor), there are some good surprises throughout, which I did not see coming (always a good thing), and I liked the make-up. I also like the bread-and-butter filmmaking of Elizabeth’s dreams being indicated by either smoke or a smoke filter. Sometimes the smoke is a bit on the dark side, giving some nice shadow effects. Speaking of which, the cinematography by Benjamin Paul Rigney, who has worked mostly on shorts, is to the point without drowning in arty flair (including the drone shots which seem to be all of the same street/same height/same angle, arguably shot at the same time; you can tell the difference of time though, by the varied cars traveling the road).

Even so, the film is a stripped-down, meat-and-potatoes (there goes a food analogy again) fare that is what it is, with no real pretentions or artifice. While there is some profanity, there is no nudity, no gore, and I cannot remember any blood, but there is at least a decent sized body count, including some that are not expected.

Overall, this can be an enjoyable afternoon sojourn into the world of priests (and ex-priests), a cool demon, and exorcisms.

IMDB listing HERE 

Available free on TubiTV HERE 

Review: Lycanimator

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2020

Images from the Internet

Lycanimator

Directed by Sébastien Godin

C-Word Productions; Melting Man Films; Wild Eye Releasing; MVD Entertainment

41 minutes, 2018 / 2020

www.facebook.com/Lycanimator

www.wildeyereleasing.com

www.mvdentertainment.com

Just going in, merely by the title, I’m going to predict this is about a (green) formula that turns people into werewolves. That’s what the combo title seems to imply, mashing lycanthropy and the title of the 1985 Stuart Gordon (d. 2020, RIP) classic, The Re-Animator.

First off, it is important to know that this film is short. I mean, the story part clocks in at just over 30 minutes, with almost eight minutes of slow crawl credits, stills with the actor’s names, and a brief Marvel Universe-esque tag at the end. It probably could have been cobbled together with three others to make it a feature-length anthology. But y’know what, that’s okay, it’s the story that counts, and let’s get on to it.

A bunch of friends take a trip to stay at a secluded house. We don’t get to learn much about the history of these two couples and the third wheel (classic trope), but we sure get an idea of their personalities.

Jonathan E. Smith

First off, there’s milquetoast Jeff (Jonathan E. Smith). I don’t know about this guy, as he looks pretty young, wears a lot of eyeliner, and his hair is dyed black while his scrabbly beard is either blond or red. Mostly, he is a buzzkill, seeming always negative. His girlfriend is May (Cayt Feinics… wait, pronounced cat phoenix? It's probably Kate). She is a tattooed gal who is mostly in control of the relationship, but seems to put up with Jeff’s nonsense. The second couple is Brian (Kii Hornick) and Nikki (Briana Wyman). Brian is a tall, thin and violent bully and a total douche tough guy to everyone, especially Nikki. Oh yeah, you hope from early on that he will be part of the body count. Nikki is a cute, multi-pierced redhead who for some reason also puts up with her boyfriend. The last is Allie, who organized the get-together; we never see her sober, so I know nothing about her except, “Oo-hoo, par-taaay.”

Essentially what this film does is it takes the usual first act, where we are introduced to the characters, and truncates the standard first 20 minutes or so into about 5 minutes. In that time, we are also presented with the standard “warning older man” character, Niven (Scream King and filmmaker Joel D. Wynkoop, who has been in films like Clownado, Dreaming Purple Neon, $kumbags, and the classic Creep, most of which were reviewed on this blog) who in this case, is more of a key to the story than just an ignored sideman.

Joel D. Wynkoop

The secluded house (as opposed to a cabin in the woods) that our jolly travelers have rented to spend the weekend has a dark secret past concerning a Herbert West-ish scientist who has invented the (yes, green, albeit not florescent) formula for, well, you know, and has conveniently left some of it in a jar in the basement (rather than a book that raises demons). When one of our intrepid quintet meets up with the goo, we go to act two and body-count city.

The creature looks both cool and silly at the same time. We’re definitely dealing with miniscule budgets, and it’s so obviously a person in a mask with a costume cobbled together, but because the filmmakers just accepted it for what it is, I believe so should we in cases like this (one of the joys of non-$$ filmmaking, in my opinion). I mean, the beastie is no An American Werewolf in London or Dog Soldiers creature, but you get what you get, if you get what I mean. There is a decent head-only version (for biting) that looks cool, designed by the one-and-only puppet master, Dustin Mills.

Lots of cameos abound in this short piece, most of them literally phoned in. In other words, they appear merely as voices usually on the telephone, such as filmmaker James Balsamo, actor Michael O’Hear, and 1980s Italian actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice (who appeared in films by Argento and Fulci, among others).

There is some interesting editing and visual FX thrown in, such as the gratuitous cameo scene with Niven and truck driver Ben (cult director Todd Sheets) – despite terrible sound quality – as Niven grabs hold of a Bowie knife. The gore, however, is all practical SFX, rather than digital.

There is also a bit of subtle humor that runs throughout, such as when the werewolf thingy is chasing one of our campers, it stops to close the pocket door to the room. Wait, what? My fave though, is a line from Officer Tony (Alberto Giovannelli): “Sweet Christmas Jesus on toast!”

The extras are few, but nice. There are selected trailers (though not for this film), a 4-minute Making Of that focuses in on the director that is short and sweet, and the inclusion of one of Godin’s 13-minute shorts, “Fleshflower.” In it, a young woman is dying, I am assuming, as she is bleeding out her mouth profusely. She eats from a mysterious flower with dire effects. It’s a nice piece with some really artistic editing and minimalist sound.

Review: Loon Lake

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Films, 2019

Images from the Internet

Loon Lake

Directed by Ansel Faraj

Round Town Productions / Hollinsworth Productions / Three Knots Entertainment / Indie Rights

95 minutes, 2019

www.hollinsworthproductions.com/loon-lake.html

As Kelly Erin Decker, one of the producers of this film explained in an email to me, “My friend Nate [Nathan Wilson, who also is the main protagonist of the story – RG] wrote the script based on a legend in the town [in Minnesota] where he grew up, and we returned to that same town to film...”

Nathan  Wilson and David Selby v.1

The basic premise is that Lewis (Wilson) had recently suffered a tragic loss, and to get away from his pain, he picks up from Minneapolis and takes a respite in Round Lake, a real and little community in the middle of nowhere whose two claims to fame are the story of the witch, which I will get into in a moment, and an actor that came from there (yep, I mean Wilson). But as Harry Chapin sang, “You can travel on 10,000 miles and still stay where you are.” (“WOLD”).

He rents a house and a few denizens at the bar tell him the story about a local woman, Mary Jane (Decker, who uses the name credit as Kelly Kitko here) who was beheaded as a witch in 1880 because she turned down the advances of the local pastor (David Selby… wait she refuted Quentin Collins?!?!).

Anyway, a local woman, Gracie (Brittany Benjamin), has her eyes on Louis but he is too distracted by his memories (Sierra Schermerhorn) … and the witch, who’s grave he possibly crossed too many times. Y’see, the legend goes – in Candyman and Bloody Mary fashion – if you walk over Mary Jane’s grave three times, she will come back to kill you in three days. But how much of it is “reality” and how much of the events that follow are in Louis’s head? This delves from possible supernatural to possible psychological, as we probe into Louis’s thoughts through dreams, and his own anger. This kind of gives a possible double meaning to the title of the film with Loon being both literal and figurative.

Kelly Kitko aka Kelly Erin Decker

This is smartly put together by director Faraj in the way that it plays with the two natural and supernatural elements, putting it on us to try to figure out which is which. Not a new premise, but when it’s handled well, as it is here, it keeps the tension going.

Another nice element to the story after the opening prologue, is that we keep returning to the 1880s throughout the story, to fill in the legend and possible history of events.

Religion plays a strong part in the story, and occasionally comes off as a bit preachy as certain characters question their own faith (e.g., what if there is no afterlife? Is there a God? Is there a Satan?) and those of others. While not a central theme, it certain is prevalent in various parts of the story. As someone who is non-religious, I was not bothered by it, but I was conscious of it.

 From what I understand, the director is a big fan of the original “Dark Shadows” television series (as was I), and he often casts members of the show into his films. Here, as I mentioned, he has not only David Selby playing dual roles as the Pastor and his great-grandson, but the Pastor’s spouse is an enjoyable cameo by Kathryn Leigh Scott (wait, Quentin Collins is reunited with Maggie Evans?!?!).

David Selby v2 and Kathryn Leigh Scott

It’s pretty easy to tell that this is shot on a budget somewhere between little and none, but it also is a perfect example of how much can be done with so little. Under the right circumstances, filmmaking is a collaborative art form (e.g., without one member, such as directors like Kubrick, who demands exactitude and subservience from his crew and cast; where would they be with a huge budget?). With everyone involved giving their all for something that means something to them,

This film was shot with a limited budget and crew. As Decker put it, “We had a total crew of 5 people (including me and Nate, who did double duty as actors and various crew functions). Everything in the film comes from our hearts and our hands, down to the loon models which I made myself.”

The acting here is quite solid, as Wilson and Decker dance around each other. Selby does the most work as two divergently difference characters (even if from the same gene pool). Everyone else in the cast is consistent, and that’s a good thing. Benjamin also does well as a strong woman who is smitten but not desperate (as so many female characters are written to be). Time wise, Scott is briefly there in her cameo role, so while she is fun to watch as always, especially ringing the nostalgia bell, she shines and her intensity level is set on high (I smiled through her performance).

As I’ve said before, it’s important to look at small budget indie films like this one through different eyes than blockbusters, or even those independents with some cash flow like the Annabelle or even the Freddy/Jason/Michael franchises. There is a lot of ingenuity and heart that goes into smaller films, and they usually deserve the love that is put into it. Yes, a bad film is a bad film, but this one is quite impressive. It’s worth turning your brain on, and giving it a thoughtful viewing.

PS: Please note that I did not have to look up any of the names of the “Dark Shadows” characters.

Review: Zombie A-Hole

Text © Richard Gary / Indie Horror Blog, 2012

Images from the Internet

Zombie A-Hole

Written and directed by Dustin W. Mills

108 minutes, 2012  

Facebook.com/zombieahole

MVDvisual.com

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.