Tag: 2015

Directed by Eric Red [Other horror films: Body Parts (1991), Bad Moon (1996), 100 Feet (2008)]

There’s very little about this Syfy film that’s worth seeking this movie out for. The fact it stars Rob Morrow is one of the few things I enjoyed about this, because otherwise, it’s pretty unremarkable.

My first big problem is the plot – some meteors fall from space, and it causes all dogs and wolves in a local area to go crazy and start attacking people. The funny thing is, despite the fact that these meteors were a bright glowing green, only once was it brought up that they might have something to do with it, and exactly no one in the movie seemed to notice them scattered across the town (despite them being, you know, a glowing green).

Speaking of colors, it wasn’t uncommon for there to be a red light tinting some of the scenes. Apparently, according to IMDb, director Eric Red was influenced by the lighting of Suspiria (1977), which amazes me. It’s great that he’s seen the classics, but after watching Suspiria, he thinks that this pile of trash is a good way to give reverence to it?

Rob Morrow, who I know mostly from the television series Numb3rs, of which I’ve seen every episode, is a fun presence here. His character’s decent, but more importantly, Morrow himself is just a solid actor to see here, which is a positive, as few others stand out. Playing his daughter, Tristin Mays did fine, but wasn’t particularly memorable. Her two friends, played by Mary Risener and Mary Katherine O’Donnell, were pretty pointless characters, and neither actress was impressive (Risener in particular). Lastly, Kelly Rutherford didn’t do a thing for me.

There are some solid dog attacks in the film, and there was a somewhat gory aftermath (including a body torn apart) that I enjoyed. But toward the end of the film, a lot of time is spent on random dog attacks in the downtown area, and as it dragged on and on, I was just bored out of my mind seeing characters I didn’t know get killed by dogs that hadn’t appeared before, especially since few of the attacks there were really worth seeing. Also, there were about five to six scenes using slow motion, which just looked ridiculously dramatic and utterly unnecessary.

Personally, if it weren’t for Morrow, I’d rate this movie quite a bit lower. It’s still nowhere near a good movie, or even an average one, but I think I see it in a slightly better light because Morrow’s one of the stars. That said, if you couldn’t care less about Morrow, than I suspect that Night of the Wild is one Syfy flick that you could do without. Even with Morrow, I understand that feeling.

Also, the CGI dogs at the end didn’t help either. It’s a poor movie, period.

4/10

Directed by Christopher Ray [Other horror films: Reptisaurus (2009), Megaconda (2010), Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus (2010), 2-Headed Shark Attack (2012), Shark Week (2012), Mega Shark vs. Kolossus (2015), A House Is Not a Home (2015), Circus Kane (2017), Minutes to Midnight (2018)]

This follow-up to the disaster that was 2-Headed Shark Attack is a marginal improvement, but make no mistake, it’s still pretty awful. The best I can say is that there are actually a few memorable characters here, and it didn’t feel nearly as shallow as the first one.

Even the story is a bit better, what with some of the main characters actually being scientists as opposed to just college kids who want to party and have carnal relations. While the underwater base was likely impractical, I actually thought it was sort of cool in a Jaws 3 type of way. The movie goes down a more generic route once the facility gets destroyed by the shark, which was a shame, though not a surprise.

Before I talk about the quality of performances overall, I want to speak specifically about Danny Trejo for a bit. Possibly one of the most well-known and prolific Latino actors, I’ve seen a handful of his films. I enjoyed Machete, and a few other roles of his. But the fact that he seems to accept any role offered to him doesn’t much endear me to the guy. In this film, he’s basically used the same way Carmen Electra was in the first one – to have a big name to draw people in. As it is, I liked Trejo’s character here, for the little he appeared, but his arc is exactly what you’d expect, and ultimately, he was pretty pointless as far as the film goes.

For other performances, you have a few that legitimately did okay, such as Karrueche Tran, Jaason Simmons, and Rob Van Dam. Jena Sims was rather attractive, and I somewhat liked her character, but she didn’t really amount to much, which actually caught me a bit by surprise. Generally, though, this movie, much like the first, seems more concerned about showing girls with impressive breasts in bikinis as opposed to crafting an even halfway decent story. While I won’t deny that some of the girls in question are beautiful (such as Brianna Ferris), it doesn’t add anything to the story being told.

In reality, while the movie was pretty terrible, it did improve a bit upon the first one (but honestly, given that I rated the first one extraordinarily lowly, that really isn’t saying much), and it seemed to want to be a better movie. It didn’t reach anywhere near average, but 3-Headed Shark Attack is a movie I could almost see myself re-watching at some point, which is definitely something I can’t say about the first one.

4/10

Directed by Peter Sullivan [Other horror films: Summoned (2013), High School Possession (2014), The Sandman (2017), Cucuy: The Boogeyman (2018)]

I’ll first say that this will be a shorter review than usual – I’ve seen Ominous twice now, and really, it’s not worth extrapolating on. Really, there’s only about one reason to see it, and that’s for a hilariously bad death scene. Everything else had been done before, and ultimately, this made-for-TV flick is just bland and pretty God-awful.

The cast is almost wholly poor. Mark Lindsay Chapman (who played Nick in The Langoliers, a fact I didn’t realize until after the movie finished) was the best of the bunch, and he had a solid, moderately sinister presence. None of the other performances did anything for me. There’s a few interesting names here, such as Barry Watson, who starred in 7th Heaven for quite some time, and Esmé Bianco, who I know mostly as a supporting character from Game of Thrones, but their acting didn’t come close to wowing me here.

A lot of the fault, though, can go to the uninspired plot. I just don’t get why anyone would want to see this film, in which bereft parents make a deal with the devil to raise their recently-deceased son from the dead, only to discover he’s the Antichrist, when they could stick with a classic like The Omen, or even a different take on the story, like the 2017 Little Evil. It’s a bad, low-budget television movie (which really shows in it’s special effects failures), so I just don’t get why anyone would opt into watching this willingly.

Admittedly, I’ve seen it now twice. Luckily, there are a few terrifically horrible scenes that make at least portions of this film bearable. In a classic sequence, a priest gets clobbered over the head by a falling cross, and then set on fire. In another, multiple people die from flying projectiles at a park. And then we have the bird attacks at the end – while slightly better-looking than Birdemic (which isn’t actually praise, believe it or not), the birds were horribly rendered, and it just looked so God-damned awful.

Which, when it comes down to it, is what this movie is. Ominous (which, by the way, is a terribly bland title) just sucks hard. It’s one of those modern-day television flicks which just reeks of pointlessness. As fun as some of the sequences are, it’s definitely not worth it to watch the whole of this film.

3/10

Directed by Stephen Cognetti [Other horror films: Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel (2018), Hell House LLC III: Lake of Fire (2019)]

Like few found footage movies before it (Ghostwatch being the one that most comes to mind), Hell House LLC blew me away, and seeing it a second time, little of the impact was lost.

Done by seeming to be a documentary about a tragedy that occurred in a haunted house attraction, with interviews of journalists and authors, and mixing that up with different forms of media such as video captured from the event and put on YouTube, this film goes beyond a simple ‘one guy holds camera and films creepy stuff’ idea. It feels real, and even the multitude of movie (provided by videotapes of the haunted house crew in the months leading up to the tragedy) have an uneasy vibe about them.

One of the reasons much of this movie really works out well (even for rewatches) is the fact that many of the scares are quite subtle. Sure, the clown scenes were openly terrifying, but there are others that you could easily miss watching through this the first few times (such as unexplained figures, creepy shadows, that type of thing). And even the more obvious scares, such as the frantic, chaotic ending in the basement and the clown scenes have an organic feel to them. Nothing here really seems forced.

The cast throughout did a fine job, and really, no one stands out with a bad performance. All of the main performances made a good impact, and while no one blew me away, they all did competently enough as to not really cause any hindrance on the story.

I’ve spoken quite a bit about my problems regarding many modern found footage horror films, but that’s not to say that I can’t enjoy a good found footage movie when I run into one, this movie being a good case. It has enough flexibility and story-telling techniques going on that it strikes me, even after having seen it twice, as something special. A great film, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any fellow fans of horror.

8.5/10

This was covered on Fight Evil’s seventh podcast by Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and myself. Give it a listen below.

Directed by Ben Samuels [Other horror films: 6:15 (2015)]

Despite quite an interesting premise, a strong performance by Robert Englund, and pretty solid atmosphere, ultimately, Kantemir isn’t able to fully reach for the heights it aimed for.

The setting is good, an old fashioned mansion, which assists with the dreary atmosphere. Because the movie battles with ideas such as what reality really is, it adds sort of a creepy layer to the film.

In New Nightmare, toward the end, Heather Langenkamp (playing herself, of course), goes back to her house, only to run into John Saxon, who calls her ‘Nancy.’ That scene was always damn creepy to me, and that’s the type of thing that happens a lot in this movie, as these actors go in and out of character, losing their grip on reality. It’s done well, but it’s not enough to fully hold my interest.

As I said, Englund has a strong performance here (and to be honest, without his presence, not only would this not be even a decent movie, I probably wouldn’t have bothered watching it). He does a good job as the lead character (and I can’t say I’ve seen many films with him as the star), and toward the end, when everything’s unraveling, he really shows off his abilities. Daniel Gadi was almost hilariously serious and contemplative in his role, and didn’t really come off feeling like a real person. Diane Cary and Justine Griffiths add to the film also, though I don’t really think either is particularly noteworthy.

The idea behind the film, like I alluded to, was interesting. But also like I said, it wasn’t enough to fully captivate me. After forty minutes in, it’s not that hard to guess where the movie’s going, and it pretty much travels the expected path (including the entirely obvious conclusion).

Were it not for a somewhat stylish feel, solid atmosphere, and Englund’s presence, Kantemir probably wouldn’t be worth much. As it is, it’s not an amazing movie, or even that good. However, I think it’s palatable, at least for a single viewing, and if you’re an Englund fan, and don’t mind movies that are a bit more meta (Resolution, or Berberian Sound Studio), you might get more out of this than I did.

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 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 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