Tag: USA

Directed by Tod Browning [Other horror films: The Unknown (1927), London After Midnight (1927), Dracula (1931), Freaks (1932), The Devil-Doll (1936)]

Having seen this twice now, I wish that I could like it more. The problem is, though, that the finale seems to come out of nowhere, and there’s a certain incoherence when it comes to the ending of the film. Many comment that it seems some scenes where removed, and it’s easy to see why.

Ignoring that for now, the rest of the movie is decent. The atmosphere is solid, what with a decrepit mansion (it doesn’t look too dissimilar from the mansion in Dracula, from four years earlier), some mystery, a village afraid of vampires, and all that stuff.

The cast is solid, but generally unmemorable. You have big names such as Lionel Barrymore (1926’s The Bells and 1936’s The Devil-Doll), Bela Lugosi (Dracula, The Black Cat, and many others), Lionel Atwill (Doctor X, The Vampire Bat, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Secret of the Blue Room, and others), and a few unknown names who did decent also, such as Elizabeth Allan, Henry Wadsworth, and Carroll Borland.

Problematically, because of the mess of the plot, I don’t really think many of these actors really get to shine. Lugosi, of course, is good, but while I appreciated Atwill and Barrymore, neither really blew me away.

Apparently this film was originally an hour and 15 minutes, but 15 minutes were cut, which was, from my understanding, mostly comedic additions. If, instead of an hour, this had been 75 minutes (with the additional 15 minutes being plot-orientated, finale information), Mark of the Vampire wouldn’t feel as disjointed as it sometimes does. Make no mistake, this isn’t as bad as Vampyr, but most definitely this could benefit from some explanation, given how the ending, again, seems to come out of nowhere, and felt utterly convoluted.

A final note, this is generally considered a talkie remake of the unfortunately-lost London After Midnight from 1927. That film, too, had something of a surprise ending, but I suspect it was probably laid out better than it was here. There was a reconstruction using still photographs by TCM, released in 2002, so in some form, the original story is out there.

As for Mark of the Vampire, I appreciate some of what it was going for, but otherwise, having seen it twice, I find it underwhelming.

6/10

Directed by Josh Boone [Other horror films: N/A]

Filmed in 2017 but not released until 2020, The New Mutants had a somewhat troubled production, but that doesn’t really matter. What matters is that I loved pretty much every second of it, and as a fan of the 80’s comics this film is based on, I’ll go in depth as to exactly why and how I enjoyed this so much.

I don’t own all one hundred issues of the original run of The New Mutants, but I do own quite a lot of them (at the time of this writing, I just bought another issue off eBay to help fill in a gap), and I’m very familiar with the characters of this movie. I 100% expected to be overly critical of different aspects or missed opportunities, but I was so pleasantly surprised with virtually all of this that such negativity won’t happen.

Generally, I’m not the type to squee. Nothing against squeeing, it’s just not me. But I squeed a lot in this movie. That opening with the unseen growling – I knew instantly we’d get some Demon Bear action (and I was not at all disappointed come the ending). Then that Lockheed hand-puppet. Then some Limbo. Sam’s accurate accent. Comic-based origins all around. Illyana’s fantastic reply to “It’s magic,” as she says, “So am I.”

OH MY GOD IT’S SO GOOD

And it doesn’t end there, because we got a fantastic reveal about an hour in that I loved, and we got to see Illyana and Lockheed (IN THE FLESH!!!!!!!!!!!) kick some Demon Bear ass and Wolfsbane going badass on that bitch Reyes and Roberto’s and Sam’s friendship.

Absolutely. Loved. It.

I will now talk about each of the five central characters and why they rocked.

Dani Moonstar (Mirage) was never a favorite of mine from the comic books (primarily because I thought most of the other New Mutants tended to be more interesting), but I think that Blu Hunt did fantastic with the character. Her growing relationship with Rahne was cute, and watching her come to confront her fears toward the end was oddly inspiring, soothing the Demon Bear into submission with confidence unforetold by humanity. A+.

A favorite of mine from the comics is Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane), who was younger than all the other New Mutants and had a lot of religious baggage due to her upbringing. Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) does fantastic with her character, and while the same-sex attraction (which wasn’t present in the comics) threw me off, I really think it helped flesh out her character. Also, that accent. Loved it. A+.

From The VVitch, we get Anya Taylor-Joy, playing Illyana. Making her the cold bitch was an interesting choice, but story-wise, it makes sense, especially given her comic book history and time spent in Limbo. Those Smiling Men were a new addition as far as I am aware, but they were creepy, so no complaints. Magik (as Illyana is sometimes known as) isn’t a character I often focus on in the comics (though her friendship with Kitty, or Shadowcat, always warmed the heart), but she was done great here, and Taylor-Joy was fantastic.

And that line? I’ll set it up and repeat it, because life isn’t often filled with such pleasures:

“Are you crazy, that thing will kill you,” Sam shouts out.

“He’s right, it’s magic,” Rahne passionately agrees.

With supreme confidence, Illyana replies, “So am I.”

Quality dialogue from the film

Fuck. Yeah. A+.

Lockheed didn’t get much screen-time, but as both a puppet and a living being, he was cute, and I’ve always loved him in the comics. Loved how his eyes matched Illyana’s at the end – just heart-warming.

Roberto da Costa (Sunspot) was cast fantastically as Henry Zaga. I don’t know who Henry Zaga is – just heard his name for the first time tonight – but he got down Sunspot’s characteristics as accurately as one could. The CGI with his mutant power was a bit off at times, and I would like to think the design could have been done more comic-accurate, but regardless, Zaga was great here. A+.

Charlie Heaton played Sam Guthrie (Cannonball), the Kentucky-born coal miner. Heaton himself was born in the United Kingdom. I literally couldn’t tell. Fantastic job with the Kentucky accent (because let’s be honest – Cannonball without his accent is Wolverine without his healing abilities and claws), and his rather depressing background was done fantastically, as were most things regarding the characters in this film.

Cecilia Reyes was never a big comic book character – I have a handful of her appearances in the late 1990’s – so she was an interesting choice to be the doctor overseeing the New Mutants, and I think that Alice Braga did great. I didn’t know where her story was going, so it was definitely interesting to see what they came up with, and though it potentially does a disservice to Reyes’ comic counterpart, I thought it was quite satisfactory.

While watching the credits (and confirming that Sienkiewicz was rightfully credited for his obvious contributions), I saw that Williams, Heaton, and Taylor-Joy had dialect coaches, and I think that’s a big reason why their characters felt so authentic to their comic book counterparts.

Williams’ dialect coach was Jan Haydn Rowles, and helped her achieve a quality Scottish accent (Williams herself was born in Bristol). Heaton’s Kentucky accent was assisted by Jamison Bryant, and for Taylor-Joy’s Russian accent, we have Howard Samuelsohn to thank. These three gave this movie a lot, and I think they’ll probably be overlooked, so I definitely wanted to give them a mention.

Now, for a horror movie review, I haven’t spoken about the horror aspects at all. It could fairly be said that some of the more tense and spooky scenes here were run-of-the-mill or, at the very least, merely passable. Personally, that didn’t bother me, as I thought that, while some of the CGI was a bit much at times (maybe the Demon Bear finale or the Smiling Men), it was good enough as to not detract from the story being told, and as I was engrossed already, the fact that some of the horror aspects weren’t as good didn’t matter in the slightest.

The New Mutants has gotten primarily lukewarm reviews. I get it. It’s not a movie for everyone, and I can sense that some were definitely disappointed. I wasn’t at all expecting much myself, and watched this more out of interest than anything else (I haven’t seen an X-Men movie since I stopped First Class a third of the way through due to my frustration with that movie), so when it turned out that this was a new-age classic, I was more surprised than anyone.

Ratings are about how movies made you feel, and this movie made me feel happy. I love the New Mutants comic books of the 1980’s (even the issues that weren’t as good still had those characters you’ve grown attached to in order to offset the less-than-enjoyable story arcs), and that love translated here in a way I never would have expected, but I stand by it.

10/10

Directed by Mitchell Altieri [Other horror films: The Hamiltons (2006), April Fool’s Day (2008), The Violent Kind (2010), The Thompsons (2012), Raised by Wolves (2014), A Beginner’s Guide to Snuff (2016), The Night Watchmen (2017)] & Lee Cummings [Other horror films: N/A]

More than anything, I think that Star Light is a film with potential. The production looked quite professional throughout, and plenty of the performances left positive impressions on me. Problematically, though, the story here doesn’t gel with me, and because of that, despite how decent some aspects were, I can’t say this was a good film.

Filmed in Graves County, Kentucky, Star Light looks very nice for the lower-budget it was made on, and I think it’s a damn shame that the story can’t live up to the quality production surrounding it. Even the special effects, while not great, weren’t really that far off from what you might see in Hollywood films, so this isn’t some Michael Taylor Pritt film (which is also a bit of a shame, as his films generally have heart).

Much of the younger cast were decent, with only a few really stand-out performances. Playing the lead, Cameron Johnson didn’t do too shabby. Better was Liana Ramirez, and I wish that her character had been more of a focus than she was (and, on that note, I wish she had a better conclusion). Though his character didn’t amount to much, Garrett Westton had a suave aura about him I appreciated. Chandler Rachelle (in thus far her sole role) did good with a pretty terrible character, and Rahart Adams, while he had his moments, ended up somewhat forgettable.

Hagen Mills didn’t have a big role here, but I did appreciate his character if only because he was the only one that had a noticeable Kentucky accent, and seemed a good ole boy. Apparently Mills died prior to the release of this film at the tragically young age of 29 (I won’t get into the story, but apparently it was suicide after an attempted murder, based on what’s been reported). Regardless, like I said, Mills wasn’t a big focus here, but I did feel the need to mention him.

I don’t doubt that Bret Roberts is a good actor, and I’m sure he was given a very specific character-type to play, but boy, is his performance in this movie somewhat too much. He provides what little comedic elements this film has, and just feels a bit goofy at times. Perhaps of interest to some, Scout Taylor-Compton (of Wicked Little Things, Halloween, and Ghost House) takes a central role, though I can’t say I really get her character, and Tiffany Shepis (Dorm of the Dead and Bonnie & Clyde vs. Dracula) pops up a bit also.

Even toward the end, there are some things that I’m not understanding. I guess we sort of know the origin of Taylor-Compton’s character (though it’s never really explained well at all at any point, which was a bit annoying), but there’s unanswered questions (such as the nature of that old-woman-beast thingy that appeared-ish in two scenes) and to top that off, a really God-awful conclusion. I don’t know if the antagonists here were mutants, demons, or aliens, and that’s something I’d have liked, at some point, to be clarified, which never happened.

Star Light looked nice, and it really had a quality production, but the story really faltered past the first twenty minutes, which I thought was such a shame. If the story had been tightened up, this might have been a really solid film, but as it stands now, it was just a disappointment. A glossy disappointment, but a disappointment all the same.

5.5/10

Directed by Matthew Vincini [Other horror films: N/A]

A somewhat bleak film, The Cattle Farmer struck me as a movie with a decent amount of potential, and while the final product was somewhat palatable, a few things definitely could have been tightened up, and the execution on the story made this one end a bit drab.

The general story isn’t bad, and more so, while it’s not screaming originality, I thought there was a lot to like about how the mystery unfolded, though I’d have liked a few more creepy scenes before we’re presented with the answer. Even the final twenty minutes have a somewhat horrifying vibe to them (which falters somewhat with the execution, but the gist of the situation was definitely dark), though I do think a twist at the end is somewhat weak.

Philip Lombardo (as Gabriel) felt a bit too all over the place at times. No doubt he was a threatening guy (that scene in which he forces Konner to play Russian roulette was a quality case in point), but he felt a little bit ridiculous at times. I wasn’t entirely enthralled with Jake Blakeslee (Konner) either, but that has more to do with where the story took him than is does his performance, which I thought was solid during the finale.

I wish that Hannah Lullo (Astrid) had a bit more to do with things, and I guess more importantly, I felt like her character was misused toward the end, or at least as far as I could tell. Lastly, I wish we found out a bit more about Kathryn Milewski’s character (Claudia), but maybe there wasn’t a good place to throw that information in.

There are definite elements here that needed work, outside of aspects of the story. The audio seemed somewhat iffy at times, which I think had more to do with the delivery of some of the lines as opposed to equipment, but that’s outside of my league. Related, some of the lighting was, well, dark. Some really dim and hard-to-see scenes take place in this film, and especially toward the end when you want a clear-cut image of what’s going on, it can be a bit annoying.

While I do like elements of the movie, such as the darkly somber tone and finale (if they could have extended the suspense they had in the final twenty minutes throughout the whole film, that would have been a treat), The Cattle Farmer felt more like wasted potential than it did a good movie. This still may be worth a look, and I recommend doing so just so you don’t take my word for it, but as for me, it didn’t quite work out.

6/10

Directed by Evan M. Philyaw [Other horror films: N/A] & Seth M. Philyaw [Other horror films: N/A]

This found footage film, inspired by the 2016 clown sightings that permeated the country, was a pretty simple movie, though not one without promise. It ran for just 46 minutes, and featured pretty much what you’d expect out of a lower-budget found footage movie. By no means groundbreaking, Clownz R Us still did a serviceable enough job with what they were going for.

And that may sound like faint praise, but it’s not meant to. The story here isn’t that involved, as a bunch of kids are terrorized by three clowns (not unlike Clownhouse, only this is obviously far more unpolished), and they run around the house and yard trying to get to a safe place. There are plenty of spooky clown scenes, some of which actually caused me to jump, but at the same time, there’s nothing particularly innovative here, for whatever that’s worth.

Seeming to star the Philyaw family (all five credited performances appear to be members), the acting was weak. I don’t much hold that against the film, especially given what they were working with, but it could be said that if anything hurt the film, that did.

Certainly there were some story elements that felt off (such as two characters arguing about who should have locked the side-door for half a minute as opposed to quickly locking it as soon as they realized they missed it, or the kids sitting around a dead body in a rather casual manner), but I think a lot of that could probably be hand-waved away as these characters were all pretty young, so of course they may not be the most logical of individuals.

I did enjoy the opening tone, as the film began with news clips from various creepy clown encounters (some of which were definitely creepy), and that set this up well as potential real footage, despite the shabby acting. Still, Evan M. Philyaw was decent as the main character (the one making the video), and I thought that, all things considered, Seth M. Philyaw did pretty well also.

Given the film is only around 45 minutes, it’s not too difficult to get through, and generally keeps a good pace, but I will admit that a few things felt a bit repetitive to me, especially during the frantic scenes in which it was somewhat difficult to tell what was going on (such as the scene in the closet, or any scene in which they were running in the pitch-black outside). Luckily it wasn’t as bad as other found footage films can get (the one that immediately comes to mind is Atrocious, a Spanish film from 2010), but Clownz R Us is not without it’s flaws.

Generally, though, I would say that they did most things right. Nothing here reinvents the wheel, but if you’re looking for an easily-digestible found footage horror movie, this may be worth looking into. It’s not special, and ultimately ends up around average, but I definitely appreciate what they were going for.

7/10

Directed by Miles Doleac [Other horror films: Demons (2017), Hallowed Ground (2019), Demigod (2021)]

I had some qualms going into this one, among them, I admit, the two-hour run-time, but based on what little I knew (and more so, what I anticipated), I thought The Dinner Party could pull out a victory.

That is not what happened whatsoever.

For most part, I found large portions of the movie tediously pretentious. Certainly that may have far more to do with the characters within the film than the style of movie-making in of itself, but regardless, I haven’t seen a film with conversations as pretentious as this possibly ever.

And if you’re wondering what I mean, the set-up is such where a couple is invited to a dinner party with a group of wealthy elitists, who proceed to discuss, with passion, their favorite plays and operas, doling out plots and names that would make most working men cringe. Obviously, these people can enjoy whatever entertainment they desire, but listening to debates over operas felt entirely disengaging, especially as it’s not just a couple of minutes, but goes on for close to forty, and takes up a large part of the beginning.

Among conversations of Puccini’s Tosca (Sebastian’s second-favorite opera) and Verdi’s Rigoletto (apparently a play about the fickleness of women), we also get a rather lengthy (eight minutes total) tarot game in order to decide who gets to pick music. It’s not nearly as fun as it might sound (personally, it doesn’t sound fun to me at all, but different strokes for different folks, I guess), and just adds to the tedious nature of the first half. A five minute conversation about Bluebeard and his wives was okay, and I guess learning about Alban Berg’s Wozzeck was educational, but this type of conversation taking large chunks of time, again, made the film so tedious.

Unfortunately, the second half is little better, though certainly the quota of action is upped, which does prevent the movie from being, as the kids call it, a total borefest. The violence and related special effects aren’t bad – in fact, while lower-budget in some ways, the movie generally looks nice – but the story just doesn’t work. These elitists keep one of the couple alive and proceed to torture them psychologically, which doesn’t really go anywhere, and just becomes generic in it’s approach. There was an okay decapitation, though.

Sure, the movie tries to throw in a surprise or two near the end, much of it regarding Lindsay Anne Williams’ character, but it didn’t really make any impression on me because by the time she goes into her origin, I was probably too far gone to care. Also, I hated the ending, but I guess this movie has consistency in how much I just didn’t give a damn about it. Also, if that cop surprised anyone, I’ll eat sneakers up in this bitch.

I wasn’t really happy with anyone in the cast, but that really has more to do with the pretentious characters they play as opposed to their performances in and of themselves. I guess that Alli Hart does okay as the lead, and certainly both Bill Sage and Miles Doleac have some charm. Sawandi Wilson is just another pretentious douchebag. Mike Mayhall’s controlling character was pretty hateable, so I guess Mayhall did well. Lindsay Anne Williams was eh, and Kamille McCuin, while naked her first time on-screen, didn’t do much for me either.

The story wasn’t without potential – I even liked the small, interspersing scenes of Haley’s background scattered throughout the film, and the second half of the film definitely could have been something worth something, but The Dinner Party didn’t go that route. I mean, I guess the title wasn’t lying – we do get lengthy scenes of a dinner party, so kudos there?

If you like pretentious dinner parties, this movie may be for you. If you want a horror movie of quality, though, while this certainly had decent production value, I’d recommend you perhaps look elsewhere.

4/10

This is one of the films covered by Fight Evil’s podcast. If you want to hear Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I tackle this pretentious piece of trash, listen below.

Directed by Stevan Mena [Other horror films: Brutal Massacre: A Comedy (2007), Bereavement (2010), Malevolence 3: Killer (2018)]

Like many of the movies I’ve been watching in recent times, Malevolence is a film I first saw a long while back, and though I had positive feelings about it, I honestly, if asked, wouldn’t have been able to explain why that is. Seeing it again with fresh eyes, I’ll admit the movie isn’t amazing, but I do think it’s very solid in spite of the fact it really does seem to rip off Halloween at times.

I mean, come on. That little chime/sound that pops up every now and again, or the design of the antagonist (though the hood is definitely more The Town That Dreaded Sundown), it just feels really familiar. I don’t fault the movie for that (though I can see why some do), because I still think that Malevolence has solid tension.

Admittedly, though, it takes a while to get there. The first thirty or so minutes, if not forty, are almost void of interest. I guess getting to know the bank robbers is something, but really, it’s slow-going in the beginning, and while I like the final effect (in which the finale seems a lot more action-packed), it’s not always the most exciting content.

Worth mentioning also, Malevolence is pretty low-budget, made for around $200,000, and it does sometimes show, but I definitely don’t find that to be detrimental to it, because, as I said, it can possess a solid lease on suspense when it wants to. Personally, for a lower-budget flick, I though some of the camera angles were pretty interesting, and I certainly like the low-key, yet effective, setting.

Jay Cohen, who played the antagonist here, really did a solid job, and seemed to have much the same feel as Michael Myers (though he did seem to move a bit quicker). Samantha Dark, who played an abducted mother (her daughter was played by Courtney Bertolone) was decent here, though she didn’t have that much opportunity to get into the action save the finale. I was more engaged with Heather Magee, who had one of the more interesting characters, but she barely went anywhere. R. Brandon Johnson made for a unique hero, but really, I have to say the best performance here is by Gurdy, who played a scary tree.

From all I’ve read, Malevolence seems to be a somewhat divisive film (which is backed up by it’s IMDb rating, right now at a 5.1/10), and I obviously lean more toward the ‘It’s a good movie, get off it’s back’ side, but I can see why it wouldn’t work for everyone. Personally, I like the suspenseful nature of the film once the movie gets there, and the footnote investigation at the end too. It’s not a perfect movie, no, but I did find it quite worthwhile.

8/10

This is one of the films covered on Fight Evil’s podcast. If interested, listen below as Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this movie.

Directed by William Lustig [Other horror films: Maniac (1980), Maniac Cop (1988), Maniac Cop 2 (1990), Uncle Sam (1996)]

I didn’t love the second Maniac Cop, but I did think it was a bit above average. Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, this sequel doesn’t fare nearly as well, and I generally didn’t care for it whatsoever.

It’s not like the movie’s awful or even that much worse in quality from the second, but I didn’t care much for the route the story took, what with a corrupt cop (Robert Z’Dar, our titular maniac cop) trying to protect an injured corrupt cop (Gretchen Baker) while another corrupt cop (Robert Davi, returning in his role from the second film) does other stuff.

The beginning of the film mentions that Cordell’s character was ‘framed’ and sent to prison. I won’t deny that whatever crime he was thrown into prison for might have been a frame-up, but I will point out that Cordell should have gone to prison anyway, as he absolutely partook in police brutality, the same as Baker’s character, it seems. And on that note, Baker had every right to shoot when she did, but she was using an illegal weapon and illegal ammunition (yet she’s still cleared in the mind of her corrupt cop peer, Davi’s character), so Baker’s character also should have gone to prison had her outcome in the film been better.

My point is that there’s no likable characters in the film. Even the one with potential, a doctor (played by Caitlin Dulany), then falls in love with a cop who just literally tortured her patient minutes before. Again, jail time would be nice.

I don’t like cops, and I don’t respect cops, but this hasn’t really hurt my feelings on the first two movies (though from the beginning, I scoffed when Cordell is called ‘sympathetic’, as he’s not at all). Here, though, it grated on me because there’s not one likable character in the bunch, and their behavior appears to have zero consequence (the video that was uncovered that would have ‘cleared’ Baker’s character, again, still showed multiple illegal actions), but that’s par for the course as far as the corrupt institution of the police force goes.

Throughout the film, there are some okay kills, mostly with firearms, but a solid stabbing is thrown in. As it was, the ending rubbed me the wrong way, also, mainly because I absolutely refuse to believe that someone on fire could drive a car for twenty minutes without 1) melting the seat, 2) causing the gas lines to malfunction, 3) effect the engine, or 4) screwing up the steering wheel. Did it look cool? For the first minute or so, but then it just keeps going. And using the burning arm to light a cigarette, eliciting laughs from his new love? Ugh, kill me now.

Despite all of this, I wouldn’t even be averse to watching this again, as there were some decent scenes, but it’s definitely nowhere near as good as the first movie, and doesn’t much come close to touching the second. It’s not terrible, but it’s not good, and I wouldn’t really go out of my way to recommend this unless you’re already a fan of the series, in which case you’re like to be disappointed anyway.

5.5/10

This is one of the films covered on Fight Evil’s podcast. Listen below as Chucky (@ChuckyFE) and I discuss this one.