Tag: 2006

Directed by Zach Parker [Other horror films: Proxy (2013)]

I barely knew anything about Inexchange before watching it, but the little I did know pulled me in immediately.

See, this low-budget film was made at Ball State University, a university in Muncie, Indiana, and more importantly, where I went to college. The first scene of the movie shows the statue Beneficence, which is right across from the Student Center (and diagonally across from Elliott Hall, where I dormed for two years). Later in the movie, there’s a scene near Frog Baby, outside Bracken Library. I couldn’t tell which dorms they used to film in, but I did noticed a scene in the Teacher’s College, where I had a handful of classes.

This personal connection doesn’t necessarily make the movie better, but it does lend a very relatable feeling to it. It helps that the movie follows an awkward student as he’s bullied and mocked, only for him to get his revenge by making a deal with a mysterious, supernatural figure (who looked quite a bit like Candyman, as he wore the same type of coat). I was never bullied in college, but I did feel out of place (as described in my review of Last Night in Soho), and I felt for Sean Blodgett’s character.

Sean Blodgett made for a pretty solid lead. He got the awkward personality down fantastically, and it was nice to see his budding relationship with Tiffany Marie Wilson’s character (despite it not going exactly how he wanted). Wilson, for her part, played her role pretty well, and seemed a decently likable character. Both Todd Richard Lewis and Bradley J. Gunter did great at playing a pair of bullying dicks, and Andrew W. Burt shined as the mysterious blindfolded figure.

The ending wasn’t anything surprising, but what was surprising, and pleasantly so, was the score throughout, which had a dark, occasionally ambient, vibe to it. Not only was the music solid, but toward the end, there was a pretty good use of editing, showing someone having intimate relations for the first time and, at the same moment, a guy getting tied up with barbed wire and splashed with corrosive acid. Overall, the gore here isn’t the focus so much as the psychological issues that Sean Blodgett’s character goes through, but there are a few scenes here that were good.

I can’t say that Inexchange is that special a film, but the fact it was filmed largely at Ball State does make it a more interesting one for me, and while the story’s not exactly what I’d call original, it’s still a decently-made film for the budget they had. It’s not special, but even so, I didn’t have a bad time at all with this one.

7/10

Directed by Fritz Kiersch [Other horror films: Children of the Corn (1984), Surveillance (2006)]

I’ve vaguely known of The Hunt for a while. I imagine I first ran into it after hearing it was directed by the same guy who made Children of the Corn. As it was, the movie wasn’t half-bad. Well, it’s probably still below average, but honestly, The Hunt had a decent amount going for it.

What I found most intriguing about the film is that, for a lot of it, I had no idea where it was going. Sure, the main story – two guys (Robert Rusler and Joe Michael Burke) and a kid (Mitchell Burns) get lost in the woods while hunting – made sense, but it was the deeper stuff I wasn’t sure about.

At first, I thought this was going either a slasher-esque route, with a focus on snuff films. Then I thought perhaps it was something to do with government experiments, and then the idea of aliens came to mind. Before aliens, though, I was considering a Most Dangerous Game-type situation where humans were being hunted. Hell, at one point, I even thought of evil trees. It’s not that the movie’s wild or anything, but knowing as little about the movie as I did going in, I just had no idea where it was going.

The biggest problems here, I think, would be an unsatisfactory finale mixed with an uneven execution. I think part of this has to do with Robert Rusler’s character, who, along with leading me toward incorrect conclusions about the nature of the movie, was also just such a big dick that he was hard to care for. The story here is decent, and while the whole scope is just merely glimpsed come the finale, I sort of wish they gave us a little more meat in some form.

Oh, and while I sort of liked the whole “This is where the characters are after the event of this movie” thing at the end, it felt close to claiming the events of the film were true, and my hatred for that should be well-documented by now (as my thoughts on both Paranormal Activity and There’s Something in the Shadows demonstrate). This film does has a bit of found footage feel, but it certainly is more than that, so if that is one of your concerns, try not to let that turn you off.

Joe Michael Burke took a bit to grow on me, but he ended up playing a pretty decent character. As I’ve said, Robert Rusler (A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge, The Unwilling, Blood Feast) played a bit of an asshole, but he did it well enough. Cliff De Young (who I suppose I recognize from The Tommyknockers, but he was also in such films as Dr. Giggles, The Craft and The Westing Game) was decent, though he wasn’t involved in much of the action. For a younger individual, Mitchell Burns was solid, and Thomas Cunningham had a good scene toward the end.

I will say that some of the special effects during the finale were a bit suspect, but overall, I was actually happy with most of them. They’re not really necessary most of the time, of course, but when they do play a part in the film, it’s not that shabby.

Like I said, though, I think the biggest problem here is probably the uneven execution. The story is decently interesting, and though I’d have preferred a little more explanation as to what exactly was going on, The Hunt definitely wasn’t a movie I’d call awful. It’s unlikely that The Hunt will end up being a memorable movie, and it’s probably below average, but for at least a single watch, it’s not a bad time.

6.5/10

Directed by Robert Mann [Other horror films: R BnB (2023)]

I’ve known about The Pumpkin Karver for a long time, and in fact, way back in 2009, I made a list of about 150 or so horror films I wanted to see. That list has grown to 529 at the time of this writing, but the point of this is that from the beginning, The Pumpkin Karver was on that list.

I don’t really know why. If I had to guess, I heard it was a Halloween-themed slasher, and that was all it took to create interest for me. I doubt I heard much more about it, and really, aside from seeing a consistently low rating on IMDb (right now, on March 29th, 2022, it holds a 3.3/10 with 1,546 votes), I’ve not heard much about it since.

Honestly, though, after seeing it, I can see why.

This movie is rather poor. Sure, the budget is low, but the bigger issue is that the script is rather horrible, and the story doesn’t really make a lot of sense, at least not to me. That ending was absolute shit, also, which didn’t help. Even worse than the poor plot, though, is the fact it’s often boring. The film follows a group of teens as they party, and it’s not until half-way through the film that things really pick up, and I use ‘pick up’ loosely.

A few of the kills are okay, and by a few, I mean two. There’s a decapitation, which was simple, but always effective, and far more memorable was someone who was forced into a drillbit, which impaled the individual and revealed their organs for the world to see. It was really the only gore in the film, and it didn’t actually look that bad, so minor kudos for that.

And speaking of kudos, while most of the cast is rather unspectacular, I sort of dug Michael Zara as the lead. He had that quiet, brooding vibe you’d expect from John Shepherd’s Tommy from A New Beginning. It wasn’t great, but it was tolerable. Minka Kelly (who later played Dawn Granger, or Dove, in Titans) was pretty cute here, and one of the few characters who actually seemed okay.

Amy Weber (Dangerous Seductress) starts off pretty horribly, at least as far as her character goes, but doesn’t turn out half-bad come the end. Playing two utterly intoxicated fellas, David Phillips and Alex Weed were incredibly annoying most of the time, but they did provide some amusement in an otherwise dragging film. Oh, and Terrence Evans was overly silly, and while some of his dialogue was amusing, it didn’t do much to endear me to him.

Overall, The Pumpkin Karver is pretty awful, it’s biggest sin being that it’s dull. It’s a lower-budget slasher, so if you’re into that type of thing, it might be worth checking out if you can catch it free, but I really don’t think it’s worth it, and it didn’t do much for me at all, if truth be told. In the right mind-set, though, I suppose it could be fun.

4/10

Directed by Jeff Crook [Other horror films: N/A] & Josh Crook [Other horror films: Demon Hole (2017)]

In many ways, Salvage is a tragic film. It’s a movie that has potential, but despite some good ideas, I just don’t know if it’s worth it, and I definitely think the finale could have been done better.

Ambitious in some ways, especially with the twist to the story, I can appreciate Salvage for what it’s attempting to go for. It’s perhaps the type of movie that, after you’re finished watching it, you might want to read some theories online and try to make sense of it. In truth, it’s not that complicated, but it is somewhat confusing, because I just felt there wasn’t a clear enough answer given at the conclusion.

I think Lauren Currie Lewis did well with the role, especially for an individual who doesn’t have that much acting experience. Chris Ferry’s (Rise of the Dead) character never really got that much character, but he looked threatening when he was peeling faces off, so that’s not such a bad thing. Cody Darbe was occasionally amusing, but boy, was he a bad boyfriend.

Really, having seen this film once before (though I admit, it has been at least eight years, if not longer), I was hoping that the time away would allow me to come into this one fresh, and enjoy it just a bit more, or at least enough to see the uniqueness of the film’s answers. And I do sort of like what the film’s finale was going for, but I just don’t think it was executed as well as it could have been.

Salvage isn’t an easy movie for me to dislike, because I keep wanting to give credit to the film’s explanation of a Groundhog Day-esque situation, but so much of the film feels disjointed and dream-like (for the last third of the film, I was assuming all of it was a dream, which isn’t correct, but it’s also not incorrect, because that’s how we roll brahs) that it’s hard to really enjoy. 

Look, Salvage isn’t terrible. I don’t think it’s necessarily good, but it’s not terrible. I think it’s a movie that had more ambitions than they could really succeed in, but maybe if I watch this a third time, with the ending in mind going in, maybe it’ll do more for me.

5.5/10

Directed by J.S. Cardone [Other horror films: The Slayer (1982), Shadowzone (1990), Shadowhunter (1993), The Forsaken (2001)]

I can’t say that I love Wicked Little Things, because I don’t, but I do find it a moderately enjoyable film a lot of the time, and though I don’t think it’s great, at the very least it’s a movie that might be worth seeing a couple of times.

The emotional turmoil the main characters are going through (a mother with two daughters who has recently lost her husband) adds a lot of feeling to the film. Lori Heuring works great with Scout Taylor-Compton, and I buy the mother-daughter relationship. Throw in some political messages, and Wicked Little Things shows it has a bit more to offer.

Luckily, I don’t have much cause to speak about my politics in the course of reviewing movies. It may be relevant on occasion (The Thaw, for instance), but for the most part, the fact I’m on the far-left doesn’t really come into play. Here, though, we have children that were killed in a mine accident in the 1910’s coming back for revenge, which I certainly can’t fault them for.

Labor laws in the USA are still quite horrible (look at the lack of power so many unions have – any union that has a no-strike clause is functionally pointless), and if capitalism could get away with it, children would still be working in mines. You can work at 14 years old in many places (with restrictions). God bless capitalism, amiright?

Now, I think a fair point could be made that Wicked Little Things didn’t focus on this that much – even facing a descendant of the mine owner, none of this was on the forefront. Still, if you enjoy the eight-hour workday and the end of the worst of child labor, thank your local socialists and communists, as it’s due to their fight that we have those nowadays.

I wasn’t blown away by Lori Heuring (Hunger), but she did decent, and shined in her scenes with Scout Taylor-Compton (who went on to play Laurie in the Halloween remake). Taylor-Compton was perhaps my favorite performance here, on that note – she did great with the emotional scenes, and possessed a good strength. Chloë Grace Moretz (who later played Carrie in the 2013 movie, and also starred in 2018’s Suspiria) was decent as a child actress, though it’s hard to say that she really stood out.

Not a lot of other performances need be mentioned. I admit I liked seeing Geoffrey Lewis (The Devil’s Rejects), but he didn’t have a whole lot to do. Ben Cross did an okay job, and no doubt Martin McDougall did well as a dickish rich guy, but I do think his character could have done with, well, more character.

I do wish the movie had a bit more oompf come the finale, I admit. There were some elements that I was hoping would be delved deeper into, such as the miner’s lease or the relationship the Tunny family had with the mine-owners (the Carlton’s). I just got the sense a little more could have been fleshed out about some of this, and though the ending was okay, I feel it was weaker than it could have been.

Wicked Little Things isn’t above average, but I don’t think it’s really below average. I guess it’s fair to say, then, I think it’s average. I’ve seen this once before, and I think I enjoyed it more the first time I saw it, but that said, I didn’t have a bad time revisiting this. It’s not great, but it’s not awful, and certainly someone could do a lot worse.

7/10

Directed by Richard Brandes [Other horror films: Out for Blood (2004)]

One of the many movies that I saw a long time back, and remembered very little of going into a fresh viewing, Penny Dreadful was an okay experience. It’s not a good movie, really, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it does possess some decent elements. I don’t think it’s something I’d want to throw on again in the future, but for a one-time viewing, you could do much worse.

Where Penny Dreadful shines, at least in the first half of the film, is the tension, which is built up well. I do think it falls a bit flat the longer the movie goes on, but it can get pretty suspenseful at points. It’s nothing to shame Hitchcock or anything, but I was surprised by how well the tension was held. There were also some occasionally creepy scenes thrown in, which added to the fun.

Problematically, there’s not really enough meat to the story to justify an hour and a half film. For most of the movie, Rachel Miner’s character was trapped in a vehicle, being tortured by her own personal trauma (she has amaxophobia, or a phobia of cars) and a mysterious and violent hitchhiker. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I applaud the movie for being able to minimize their filming location, but I think it might have worked out a little better had the movie been tighter, maybe just 70 minutes as opposed to 90.

As it was, Rachel Miner did a pretty good job. Though she’s not a name I know (she was in Tooth and Nail, from 2007, but I’ve not seen that film in a long-ass time), Miner definitely had the ability to keep my interest in her character’s well-being alive. I was rooting for her all the way though. Mimi Rogers, in her limited screen-time, was solid. Others, including Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing, and many others), Mickey Jones, Chad Todhunter, and Tammy Filor, seemed to just be thrown in to add a little more time, and none of them were relevant at all to the story.

This isn’t a particularly gory movie – we do see some people get stabbed, be it in the foot (which was, on a side-note, probably the best kill of the movie) or multiple times in the back, along with the aftereffects of someone’s toe being cut off – but none of these are done in overly gory fashions. It’s more the suspense and surprise that could make these scenes stand out, though I doubt anything here would end up being that memorable.

Overall, Penny Dreadful wasn’t a terrible time. I think my limited memory of the film was worse than how it actually goes. At worst, this movie could be said to be pretty forgettable. It is below average, but again, I’m impressed with a few elements here and there. I don’t think I’d want to see it again anytime soon, but if you want an okay movie to pass the time with, you might as well give it a shot.

6.5/10

Directed by Carlos Don Diego [Other horror films: N/A]

A couple of Octobers back, at the time of this writing (February 2021, for the record), I first saw this film, and from what little I remembered, it struck me as a joyless experience. After seeing it again, I can confirm, indeed, that ‘joyless’ is a pretty good description of this movie.

Certainly the quality is, at best, iffy. A lot of times, lower-budget films don’t bother me, and I like to think that this one doesn’t bother me due to the budget itself, but I won’t say that the evidently low budget wasn’t problematic, mostly in terms of the pitiful camerawork, some of which was downright painful to watch.

The story also isn’t my cup of tea – basically a group of vampires are warring with aliens referred to as “Outlanders” and there’s a traitor vampire who loves a human hillbilly, and this guy in question has a first-person narration thing going on. But it’s not just normal first-person narration, it’s sometimes goofy, ‘humorous’ first-person narration said in a serious tone, because that makes it better.

And that, of course, was a joke, as it just makes the dialogue throughout the film painful. Not that the movie wasn’t already painful (even at 80 minutes, Vampire Chicks with Chainsaws feels quite a bit longer), but the script was laughably inept, which is a shame, as I think that’s where this movie was trying to provide most of the ‘fun,’

Which is another interesting thing, now that I think about it. Despite the almost-fun title, this movie just feels drab and bland. Even the color palette seems drained and muted. I don’t know where this was filmed, but the landscape just seemed so bleh. If the story and script had been better, that probably wouldn’t matter, but as it is, it just adds another weakness to the film.

I was not wowed by either Adam Abram or Jenna Lisonbee. I certainly don’t blame either one’s performance for how the final product turned out, but at the same time, I can’t say that they were great. What I can say is that they’re the only ones who really stand out in any conceivable way. Their growing attraction to each other didn’t interest me, nor did the end, nor did anything else, but at least they stood out.

There was also a dearth of quality death scenes. It wasn’t helped by the fact that the Outlanders had green blood, but even with that in mind, and even with plenty of chainsaws and hideous fight sequences, there was almost nothing here. Most of the blood came from vampire chicks biting their wrists, so that’s grand.

Vampire Chicks with Chainsaws was a painful movie the first time I saw it, and seeing it again, I can fully say that it’s an experience almost-entirely void of joy, which is something I don’t say lightly. This was a poor film, and definitely not one I’d care to experience again at any point.

1/10