Category: 2010’s

Directed by Michael Taylor Pritt [Other horror films: Fun Time (2015), Miles Before Sleep (2016), Night Howl (2017)]

This was the first 2017 movie I saw, and the second Michael Taylor Pritt film I was able to watch (Mile Before Sleep, which I previously reviewed, being the first one). And though this is one of Pritt’s newer films, I actually preferred Miles Before Sleep.

Before any of that, though, let’s briefly discuss this movie. A group of five friends go to a secluded house to party before two of them defect to Canada, but shortly after getting there, they’re stalked and killed off by a mysterious killer. The plot’s simple enough, and honestly, the film doesn’t throw many unique plot points out at you. The kills are decently done (especially one toward the end), but overall, I don’t know how memorable they’d be.

The design of the killer’s mask (which is partially glow-in-the-dark) is pretty cool, and other small things, such as the atmosphere (save for the ending, which I’ll expand on shortly) work out well.

The acting’s a mixed bag – I rather liked most of Pritt’s acting, and others, such as Alyssa Cordial and Rob Pemberton, did a pretty good job, but some of Bridgette Kidd’s lines felt forced. Actually, quite a bit of the dialogue was flaky, and sometimes fell a bit flat, but most of the time, that was tolerable.

One of the places this was most notable, though, was the reveal of the killer. It felt a bit rushed, and I think that’s something that could have been done better. The final ten minutes felt rather out of place, though. Obviously, I won’t go over plot points, but let’s say that the ending, in my opinion, came out of left field, and really, I didn’t feel the final ten minutes were necessary.

At an hour and 15 minutes (the final five minutes being credits), I think the movie could have been cut down a little bit, maybe trimming the ending (or removing it entirely) and a few scenes throughout the film. Miles Before Sleep, not counting the outtakes, was around 53 minutes, so given how this one was about twenty minutes longer, I couldn’t help but feel as though it was dragging a few times throughout the film.

All this said, it’s a perfectly acceptable low-budget slasher flick. It’s more formulaic than Miles Before Sleep was (or at least that’s my impression), but I rather liked the group of friends as a whole, and thought that they did well together. It’s a bit below average, but for a fan of lower-budget horror, it may well be worth checking out.

6/10

Directed by Paul Arnone [Other horror films: N/A], Tom Komisar [Other horror films: House of Whores 2: The Second Cumming (2016), Blood Moon River (2017)], Daniel Murphy [Other horror films: And Then YOU Die! (2013), Night of the Dolls (2014), House of Whores 2: The Second Cumming (2016), Blood Moon River (2017), Horror, Madness & Mayhem Vol 1 Snuff Party (2017), Slaughterhouse: House of Whores 2.5 (2017), Death Care (2020)] & R.J. Cecott [Other horror films: Blood Moon River (2017)]

I have to say, that was certainly something. In it, three women are sexually tortured and humiliated when three individuals in clown masks come to a home where a porno shoot was about to start.

The gore is cheap but done decently enough. Cheese graters to penises, power drills and electric saws to vaginas, and feces and urine to mouth. The film as a whole is 43 or so minutes (53 if you add in the extra ten minute footage of masked Nurse Hatchet dancing and spreading blood over her body), and has the unique feel of a slapstick movie to it. Corny sound effects, repeated scenes, some ragtime music thrown in, some animation and “amusing” captions, all juxtaposed with brutal scenes of rape and sexual abuse. This super low-quality film is pretty sadistic and sick, despite the playful nature much of the content is portrayed with.

Thinking on it, House of Whores makes me think that some friends watched House of 1000 Corpses one too many times and decided to make a film of moderately attractive girls being brutalized. House of 1000 Corpses, while an odd film, never had the level of slapstick that House of Whores has, though. I will say, the three clowns (Slasho, Smasho, and Shago) were acted pretty well. They seemed legitimately screwed up, and had that frantic quality and bizarre mindset you might expect from these types of people. Which brings me to another comparison, being Hate Crime (2012). Now, Hate Crime had a higher budget, and dealt with a family being tortured as opposed to three women, but the same idea permeates both: mentally unstable people torture and kill for kicks.

House of Whores isn’t a great movie, but if you’re going out of your way to find it, I can’t imagine you’d expect anything different. It’s watchable, and it’s pretty sick (did I mention forcing a woman to suck on her bloody tampon? No? Well, now I did). Is it something I’d watch multiple times? Not at all, but I am glad that I’ve seen it at least once. God help anyone else who suffers the same fate. An effective, if not a bit too silly, movie.

6/10

Directed by Tyler Christensen [Other horror films: N/A]

This movie doesn’t have that atypical a plot: On Halloween night, four high school kids go looking for a legendary haunted house, reputed to refund your money for each floor of the house completed. It’s a moderately generic plot, but the execution is superb in most ways.

The characters are all decently realistic, and when the haunted house makes them face their inner fears, it really humanizes some of the characters who were less real beforehand (Ryan, played by Brad Fry, is a good case in point). The whole concept is done well, really. Four teens enter this house, and throughout the night, secrets that each one holds become revealed. Some of them seemingly small, and others rather big. And it’s a fun ride throughout (despite much of the content and secrets being rather serious and culturally topical).

My biggest issue with this film is the ending, though, which I didn’t think did enough to explain things, and it felt both corny and unnecessary. I had a list in my mind of different possible endings that would have been better, but apparently that wasn’t to be, which for an otherwise deeply enjoyable film, was a bit of a letdown. The production value on this movie is quite a bit higher than I foresaw it being, and while there are jump scares here and there, this movie has more to offer than that. A surprising movie that I rather enjoyed, this is a Halloween movie I’d recommend.

9/10

Directed by Jeremy Saulnier [Other horror films: Murder Party (2007), Hold the Dark (2018)]

This film is, while decently suspenseful and tense, a moderately forgettable fair.

There was quite a decent amount of hype when it came out, and to an extent, Green Room delivers. The story is pretty enjoyable, there’s good gore throughout, and many of the actors did their parts well (especially Patrick Stewart). It’s not all good, though, as the character of Amber, from my perspective, seemed to be a red herring for most of the film, and it was never really touched on. And near the end, a few scenes fall a bit flat, though the final scene with the dog was extremely well done, and more so, deeply sad.

Green Room’s a good, thrilling film with good gore, but ultimately, I don’t know how memorable it’ll be. For what it did right, overall, I think the movie’s just about average. Not much more to say on this one.

7/10

Directed by Ivan Kraljevic [Other horror films: N/A]

Well, The Harvesting didn’t yield all that much, truth be told.

In it, two tales are told, which dovetail near the end, being 1) an Amish teenager must battle the anger he feels after going through a tragedy and 2) a couple nearing divorce take their children to the country in an attempt to save their marriage. The main focus is the second story, which doesn’t help much as it was a slow, plodding story of increased annoyance and anger growing between the family members. In a way, it almost feels like a low quality Burnt Offerings (1976), the way family members are slowly becoming more and more unstable. Throw in a few Amish ghosts and an unspeakable evil force that pulls those who are angry toward it and you get The Harvesting.

It wasn’t a great film at all. Honestly, the first hour did next to nothing for me, and the ending only made it better due to a twist which, ignoring everything else, was actually pretty fun. But as decent as the final twenty minutes were, it wasn’t worth sitting through the first hour to get there. And on that topic, the final scene of the film made no sense whatsoever. Nowhere in the film was an ending like what was implied suggested. *sigh* Overall, this is a slow film with not much to offer save an interesting twist. There’s little to no gore, no outstanding actors, and little to remember. The story itself wasn’t that shabby, but it wasn’t executed that well. I wouldn’t recommend the Harvesting – it’s in the lower class crop of film. 😛

5.5/10

[Worth noting, I saw this film in 2016 or 2017. I don’t have the exact date at hand, unfortunately. IMDb used to have this film dated as ‘2015’, which is what my entry at Fight-Evil has the movie listed as. Why is was changed to 2019, I don’t know, but I know that I saw the film at least a year before it’s ‘official’ release. As I do use IMDb’s listing as the final authority, I’ll list this one as a 2019 film, but I wanted to point this discrepancy out.]

Directed by Dustin Ferguson [Other horror films: Terror at Black Tree Forest (2010), The Legacy of Boggy Creek (2010), Silly Scaries (2011), Escape to Black Tree Forest (2012), Silly Scaries 2 (2012), Slumber Party Slasherthon (2012), Black Tree Forest III (2012), Die Sister, Die! (2013), Doll Killer (2013), Gloved Murderess (2014), Cheerleader Camp: To the Death (2014), Invitation to Die (2014), Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival (2015), Demon Dolls (2015), Meathook Massacre (2015), Blood Claws (2016), Camp Blood 4 (2016), Camp Blood 5 (2016), Tales for the Campfire (2016), Night of the Clown (2016), The Dummy 2 (2016), Grindsploitation 2: The Lost Reels (2016, segment ‘Satan’s Gang’), The 12 Slays of Christmas (2016), Tales for the Campfire 2 (2017), Meathook Massacre II (2017), Penny Pinchers: The Kings of No-Budget Horror (2017), Wrong Side of the Tracks (2017), Amityville: Evil Never Dies (2017), Trashploitation (2018), 2 Die For (2018), Grindsploitation 4: Meltsploitation (2018), A Taste of Phobia (2018), Die Gest: Flesh Eater (2018, segment ‘Bad Apples’), House of Pain (2018), Grindsploitation 666 (2018, segment ‘Satanica: The Devil’s Mistress’), Conjuring Curse (2018), Schlock-O-Rama (2018), Runaway Nightmare (2018), 60 Seconds 2 Die: 60 Seconds to Die 2 (2018), Drive-In Grindhouse (2018), Conspiracy X (2018, segments ‘Operation: Fist of God’ & ‘The Skunkape Slumber Party’), Moon of the Blood Beast (2019), Meathook Massacre: The Final Chapter (2019), Direct to Video: Straight to Video Horror of the 90s (2019), Home Videos 2 (2019), Penny Pinchers 2 – Scenes from the Underground (2019), Axegrinder 2 (2019), Celluloid Slaughter (2020), Tales from the Campfire 3 (2020), Frames of Fear 3 (2020, segment ‘Cooking With Jenni Caroline’), 5G Zombies (2020), Axed to Pieces (2020), Angry Asian Murder Hornets (2020), The Beast Beneath (2020), Clowns of Halloween (2020), Stale Popcorn and Sticky Floors (2020), I Drip Blood on Your Grave (2020), Bootleg Death Tape II (2020), Arachnado (2020), Bootleg Death Tape III (2020), VHS Violence II: VHS and KILL (2020), Tales from the Grave: The Movie (2020, segments ‘Crawling Chaos & ‘Deadly Doll’), Found Footage of Fear (2020), Creepypasta: Deathnet (2020), Asylum of the Devil (2020), Rattlers 2 (2021), Zombi VIII: Urban Decay (2021), Ebola Rex Versus Murder Hornets (2021), Bubba’s Dead: The Final Massacre (2021), Jaws of Los Angeles (2021), Ebola Rex (2021), Mondo Shock 2 (2021), Faces of Dying IV (2021), Doll Killer 2 (2021), Hell of the Screaming Undead (2021), Amityville in the Hood (2021), VHS Violence (2021), Not for the Faint of Heart (2021), Faces of Dying III (2021), Faces of Dying II (2021), The Worst of Faces of Dying (2022), Night of the Clown (2022), Dying Scenes (2022)] & Mike Johnson [Other horror films: N/A]

At an hour and six minutes (though really, 58 minutes, as everything afterwards are credits), this low-budget movie was able to fit a decent, and surprisingly dark, plot in.

The premise is simple enough. Celebrating his 50th birthday with his children, Mark, after unwrapping a toy monkey, slowly becomes influenced into butchering his children and their relations. For such a short film, there was no lack of additional relations to butcher.

Mark, being the good Catholic that he is, has five children. Two of the children have a significant other. And that’s not mentioning Mark’s mother, who also lives with him, or his late wife’s sister and daughter, who are also visiting. So this movie has more than a few characters shoved in. But you know what? It manages to work despite that.

Though surprising, I was mostly able to keep each character separated, for the most part, which really helped out in the second half of the film. Speaking of which, given the fact the movie’s quite short, most of the action doesn’t occur until there’s just twenty minutes left, so things tended to feel a bit rushed. The idea of a father going on a rampage and killing his children and others in the house was a fun one, though not the best executed on the budget constraints they had. That said, I actually rather enjoyed this one.

An ultra-low quality film, and one that’s not likely to appeal to most, but I don’t see how it’s much worse than many other films.

7/10

Directed by Sean Byrne [Other horror films: The Loved Ones (2009)]

This is a simple, digestible, yet highly intense and enjoyable, horror flick.

Directed by Sean Byrne (his first full-length movie being 2009’s The Loved Ones, another very solid movie), The Devil’s Candy is pretty straight and to the point, with a moderately short run-time and not all that many characters to play around with. Luckily, this low-fi approach doesn’t much hinder the movie, and in fact, makes the whole thing play out much more intense than I suspect it otherwise would have.

Music, be it heavy metal or deafening ambient, is used to fantastic effect throughout the film. Early on, the metal that daughter Zooey (played by Kiara Glasco) and her father, Jesse (Ethan Embry) bond over really humanizes them as characters, and who can’t help but smile at the mother’s (Shiri Appleby) amusement at the scene? It’s a good way to introduce the main characters of the film, and I think it gives them strong characterization from the off-set. Heavy ambiance is used to additional fantastic effect, especially toward the end – a loud boom, a few seconds pause, another loud boom. That alone assisted in ratcheting up the intensity.

And make no mistake, this movie is intense. While not all that gory, The Devil’s Candy certainly possesses a brutality to it, but also isn’t afraid to throw in some subtle, uncomfortable scenes. Much of the success of this is due to the actor’s fantastic performances.

Ethan Embry and Shiri Appleby both do a really good job, especially Embry during his more intense scenes when he’s spaced out. While both are solid, though, despite not having played all that many noteworthy roles, the true stars are both Kiara Glasco and Pruitt Taylor Vince. Glasco has had some roles in a few television shows (Bitten and Copper, though I’ve seen neither one), and does amazingly here, as we feel her urgency and desperation toward the end. She’s a lovable kid, her love of metal fun, and is a very memorable character. Glasco did very well with her portrayal. Vince is a known quantity, perhaps best known for his role in 2003’s Identity, and here, he’s appropriately creepy, menacing, and brutal.

What helps The Devil’s Candy out the most is the solid cast, and because that cast does so well, what on the surface might seem a simple movie is really an intense ride from start to finish. Because it’s a bit on the shorter side, nothing seems out of place or slow, and everything is paced well. Like I said, it’s a digestible movie that deserves all the praise it can get. One of the best horror movies I’ve seen from the last five years or so.

9/10

Directed by Vincent Masciale [Other horror films: N/A]

For all intents and purposes, Fear, Inc. is basically a horror version of The Game (1997). Halfway through the film, the main character himself, Joe (Lucas Neff), alludes to as much.

The plot is certainly similar – bothered by the fact that the haunted house he and his girlfriend often go to isn’t scary enough, Joe decides to take a stranger (Patrick Renna, from Dark Ride and X-Files episode “Bad Blood”) up on his offer and call Fear, Inc., a company that specializes in custom scares. When he does, he finds himself, along with his girlfriend and friends, in very real trouble. Or is it all a game?

Fear, Inc. keeps you guessing on whether or not the whole thing is an elaborate prank, though it’s answered at the end of the film. Plenty of references to other horror films occur, given the fact Joe (again, Neff) is a big horror fan: Friday the 13th, Saw, April’s Fools Day, A Nightmare on Elm Street, randomly Game of Thrones, and even I Know What You Did Last Summer all played a small part in the film, though Saw being the most extensive.

When watching the movie, I didn’t quite know what route it ultimately was going to take – whether it’d be a Seven Footprints to Satan (1929) type ending or not, I went back-and-forth on. Plenty of surprises occur throughout the film, though I think most of them could be expected. The gore, though there’s not a whole lot, is decently done. While many of the actors and actresses feel more generic than not (including Caitlin Stasey, Chris Marquette, and Stephanie Drake), the main character Joe, played by Lucas Neff, did a really good job playing the stoner/goofball/thinks-the-whole-thing’s-a-joke type of guy, and for his short screen time, Richard Riehle (from Hatchet and a few hundred other things – seriously, his IMDb credits are boss) was fun also.

While labeled a comedy/horror, it seemed to me that the comedy was notched down from what it otherwise could have been. There’s a few amusing lines here and there at the beginning, but past a certain point, the film takes a mostly serious tone, which I appreciated. The ending, while foreshadowed, didn’t really work out that well in my opinion, but everything before that made this film a fun romp. I find the film almost above average, partially teetering that line. Generally, though, I’d recommend it.

7/10