It Follows

The previews of this film had me very hyped up to see it, because within the previews it looked fantastically creepy and as if it had the potential to be a very high quality horror film. All in all I would say I was not disappointed.

There are a lot of really great things about this film. The fact that it was low budget I think it is something that often times can really be a great asset to a horror film. It makes the film makers really think creatively and not just relay upon fancy high-tech special effects which can sometimes be a detriment to a film. It really had to develop subtleties as a way of building tension and use simply methods to induce fear, and it did do a great job of using some very simple ideas to create a very creepy concept.

Also the whole idea behind the film was so original and unique, not quite like anything I have seen before, it was both very refreshing as well as innovative.

The premiss of the film was that there is this unknown thing of unknown origins which will follow you. Wherever you go, it will eventually find you, there seems to be no escaping it, though for a time you can out run it. It can take on the shape of anyone, including people you know and if it finally does reach you, it will kill you. But it walks slowly, so you can easily out run it, but it is persistent. The only thing you can do is pass it on to someone else if you have sex with them, but even that is not a permanent solution, because if the person you pass it to fails to pass it on and it kills them, it will come back for you.

With that being said there where a few little problems with the film, there where some inconsistencies, and things that did not entirely make sense. In part some of it I think does come from being a low budget flim and thus the makers simply had to use whatever they could find and whatever was readily available as far as props and set go. And I can forgive the film its little errors for all the things right that it did. But still they are worth mentioning.

Two of the things which where most disorienting because they seemed a bit vague and uncertain was the time period and the weather.

To elaborate, first the question of time. Presumably this film is set in the modern time, it is supposed to just be now, present time but there where a couple of things that did not completely jive with that. For one thing everyone in the movie the film all seemed to have TVs from the 1950s on which it seemed the only things they ever watched where old black and white movies. And also no one within the movie seemed to have a computer or accesses to a computer. The phones also looked quite old (and there was also a lack of any sort of cell phone) And yet one of the characters did have what appeared to be a shell shaped make-up compact, but was actually apparently some kind of e-reader. Now I am not up on all the latest and newest tech but I haven’t heard of or encountered any sort of digital devices that resemble make-up compacts. It looked like a pink plastic shell the size of her palm that she would flip open and be reading a digital book on.

And on the question of weather, I could never really get a gist of whether or not it was supposed to be hot or cold because you would see within the same scene one person wearing a sleeveless summer dress and another couple bundled up in coats. Half the people in the movie where dressed for summer and the other half where dressed for winter or fall. There was this one scene in which this girl is getting ready to go swimming and I would think to myself it seems kind of cold to be getting in the pool, and than I would be completely confused as to if in fact it was actually supposed to be hot out or not because everyone was dressed all mismatched.

There was also this one particular scene of which really didn’t jive and didn’t make sense with everything else that was going on, and I really believe that there most be some clip that was left on the editing floor that provided more back story which would give more explanation to this particular scene.

Fair warning,  I am going to give a detailed analysis of said mentioned scene, along with my own personal theory to provide an explanation to make sense of it. So beyond this point there will be certain spoilers. If you have not seen the film yet you might want to stop here and come back later after having watched.

 

DON’T READ BEYOND THIS POINT IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE EXPOSED TO SPOILERS

 

In said scene referenced above the main character sleeps with her neighbor to pass on the thing that follows to him. He is aware of what is happening, but doesn’t entirely believe her (as only the person who is being followed can actually see the thing following them) and he is attracted to her, so he agrees to sleep with her.

After that for some unexplained reason it seems that he doesn’t have any experiences with the follower. A few days pass and he still sees nothing. Then all of the sudden at night, the girl is in her room when she notices what appears to be her neighbor walking zombie like (like one of the followers) outside. She knocks on her window to try and get his attention but he ignores it. He then stops in front of his own house and throws a rock through the window and goes into the house.

Ok first problem with this, is that while we are told that the thing that follows can take on any shape, look like anyone there has never before been an instance of it actually looking like the person it is following. And why make the point of him saying he hadn’t had any experiences in so long?

So the girl tries to call him on the phone but gets no answer so she runs over to his house goes inside, and runs up the stairs to his bedroom where there is a woman, presumably the neighbors mother (or at least appearing as his mother) is banging on the neighbors door, he eventually opens it and the mother-creature lunges at him and attacks him and proceeds to attempt to have sex with him prior to killing him.

My theory about what might be alluded to in this whole scene is the idea that the boys mother was in fact a sicko who molested her son. So what I think happened is that after neighbor boy had sex with the girl his mother than engaged in intercourse with him so he passed it on to his mother, and than the thing which looked like him was coming for his mother, got her, and than appeared as his mother to go back after him.

 

Needless to say in spite of some of the imperfections of this film all in all I did really enjoy it and thought it was as well made film and one that is worth seeing.

Rating: 4/5 stars

 

 

 

The Lazarus Effect

First of all I just have to say that I was quite excited when Olivia Wilde was interviewed on The Daily Show for this film because it is nice to see a horror movie receive that sort of acclaim and recognition and to be treated as a film which is worth seeing.  I do think that we are living in a new and exciting age with Horror. With Blum House productions (of which this movie was) we are seeing horror movies being taken to a whole new elevated level, and more and more we are seeing horror brought into TV.  It is interesting to consider what this might say about the state of our society or the mind set of people to see them turning to horror more and more, but that is perhaps a topic for another day, so not to get too off track back to the movie.

The Lazarus Effect is a sort modernized conceptualization of Frankenstein. While I don’t know if in fact it was the intent of the movie makers to recreate Frankenstein so to speak, but the similarities and comparisons are needless to say impossible not to notice and well there is a Frankenstein reference within the film. There where also some aspects of this movie which made me think of the movie Lucy, of which I did not particularly care for, but of course The Lazarus Effect takes the concept into a more horror direction opposed to the Sci-Fi/Action Adventure aspect of Lucy.

The story centers around a group of Berkeley Medical students working upon a new serum which can bring the dead back to life, and obviously whenever one does seek to bring the dead back to life things have a tendency to go very horribly wrong.

One of the things which I liked about this movie is the way in which it sort of draws things from other horror genres without fully going into that particularly direction. What I mean this,  is of course the primary concept of the dead being restructured has a very zombie like aspect to it, but this film also has a very supernatural side to it which sort of touches upon some ideas reminiscent of demonic possession without in fact actually being about demonic possession.  In a way it is also very Pet Cemteryish as well. Becasue of the idea that things do happen in the transition between death and life of which we do not fully understand (and weather or not there is some sort of soul/consciousness/energy) when one does seek to bring that which is dead back to life,  well for one thing as the question was posed within the movie how do you know they really wanted to be brought back? And for another thing in that transnational process how do you what comes back will in fact be the same as it was before?

In addition to having all the cool spooky effects and scenes and creepy moments, and all that good stuff one expects from a horror film this is also in some ways a rather intelligent film because of the questions it poses and the things of which it can leave you contemplating over after seeing it. It is thought provoking and in some ways philosophical.

The biggest downside I would say about this movie was the ending which I felt came off as a bit weak. It was in some ways too expected, or too predictable, and clearly a set-up to allow for a sequel to be made. That is one thing which bothers me about a lot of horror movies, when they end in a way where they are leaving themselves open to the possibility of making another one because endings like that often do tend to feel a bit too forced.

I don’t know exactly how I would have ended this film differently but I thought it could have done with a stronger ending.

Rating: 4/5

 

 

As Above So Below

In a way this movie was a bit like Indiana Jones meets the horror genre and that was one of the things which I enjoyed about the film. I really liked the way it seemed to mesh different genres together so it was not completely one thing or the other and it did try to take the best of both worlds. Of course doing this can also be a risk. I do appreciate their attempts, and the fact that I did feel that this film had some innovative and original ideas so it wasn’t just another horror film. On that note I cannot say that this was a brilliant film, or an amazing film, but it was a decent film. I do feel they could have amped up/focused more upon the supernatural elements of the film, which is one of the difficulties of trying to cross genres the fact that you do sometimes end up focusing on too many different concepts at once to the effect of not really strongly presenting either.

I did enjoy the sort of treasure hunting/archaeological/historical adventure mixed in with these really creepy elements. I loved the name of the move and thought that they did some clever ideas with that, and I enjoyed the use of alchemy within the film.

One of the things which disappointed me was that there seemed to be this other side story going on, and this mysterious and eerie woman who seemed to keep popping up and I kept waiting/hoping for the film to elaborate more upon that and for her to play a stronger role in the film, and there where some things of which I really wanted more information on, but of which where never really fully explored.

I also felt that the ending fell a little flat and it just kind of fizzled out for me.

So there where some good things about this film, and some things of which I think could have been done a lot better to make it a much stronger move than it was, but I would still say all in all it was better than I had anticipated and it did do some things which surprised me and of which I was not expecting.

Rating: 3/5 stars

 

 

Horrorthon – Skeletons in the Closet

You can tell this film was a low budget movie which was not filmed with high-tech professional cameras. It did kind of feel/look like something an amateur was filming, or like it was filmed on a personal camcorder. But that does not mean it was truly a bad movie. I have certainty seen worse acting in much bigger budgeted films, in fact the acting in this movie wasn’t really all that bad. In addition it was a very compelling physiological thriller with many twists and turns, I was never sure where it was going to go next.

The movie revolves around Seth, a troubled teen who sense his mother was killed in a fire when he was six years, has been having emotionally and psychological problems, and slowly it is unraveled that Seth’s mother had been abusing him, a memory which Seth had oppressed but was starting to bubble up to the surface. Suspicions start to emerge that Seth’s dad had in fact set the fire and killed Seth’s mother in order to protect him.

Meanwhile Seth’s erratic and unpredictable behavior lead Seth’s dad to suspect his son is a killer. As Seth becomes aware of his dad’s suspicions of him he proceeds to torment and provoke his dead. With his growing paranoia the dad starts more and more to look like the crazy one.

Rating 4/5 stars

Horrorthon – Prey

The description of this film sounded very familiar to that of Night Wolf,  at first I thought maybe it was an American remake or something, but it turns out Prey is a French film and I was intrigued by the idea of watching two movies with a similar concept from two different countries. As it happens this was a very different film in many ways than Night Wolf, but there where some basic similarities between the two.

Prey (like Night Wolf) centers around the coming together of an estranged family in which there seems to be a lot of issues, secrets, conflicts, and tensions that pay at work as the film progresses. They all gather together at a remote family home in the country on a farm and find themselves hunted by some creature. But the similarities between the two films ends there.

In Prey a dear is found dead caught up in a fence at the family farm, within the deer the tusk of a boar is found, so the family which consists of a dad and his two sons and the husband or boyfriend (in the movie it is not made clear if they are married or not) of the daughter of one of the sons, decide to go on a hunting trip to find the boar that attacked the deer.

It is soon discovered that a new fertilizer used on the farm contaminated the water, and is causing the animals to act almost as if they are rabid and the hunting party finds themselves terrorized by a pack of boars. In the midst of having to fight for their lives tensions between members of the family continue to mount.

Like Night Wolf this film also does a good job of not revealing too much of the actual “monster” so to speak, even though we know what it is that is attacking them, sometimes the special effects can detract from the realism of the movie so by not actually showing the boar, or only showing brief glimpses of it, it helps preserve that moment of staying in the reality of the film, instead of than watching something that is obviously computer generated.

I also like how this film had a psychological aspect to it. In addition to being terrorized by this outside force, you see the way they all start to turn against each other as well.

This was all in all a very well made film I think, and I thought the beginning of it really set off a very eerie tone and really grabbed you and immediately pulled you into what was happening.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Horrorthon-Night Wolf

This is a horror film from Brittan, you know I always enjoy foreign horror films and Brittan has made some pretty good ones in the past. Overall I think this was a really well made film, and did some great things. But I also think that it had its problems, and the ending I didn’t feel was great and I think there were a lot of gaps within the film.

The movie starts off with a woman returning to her estranged family after she had been gone for a long time, and we are brought into a situation in which there is clearly a lot of past history and stuff going on that we are not really privy to. Though slowly bits of more information is let out to give a better picture of the situation. So she comes back home to her family home in the country, and goes out to the barn to see her brothers, and there is this big party in the barn with a bunch of guys, and one girl all smoking and getting high and what not, but I found it was really hard to keep track of who was supposed to be related to who and how. Some of the guys where her brothers and some of them where just friends, and the girl was making out with one of the boys, so apparently they weren’t related, but I couldn’t quite figure out how she fit in.

I found it confusing to keep track of how all these individuals where related and connected to each other, because there was so much of a back story they all had, of which the viewer was not really privy to.

There is a big storm outside and the power goes out, so everyone hands back inside the house to get supplies and fix the fuse and that is when they find themselves suddenly being hunted down by some unknown creature. Now this is part of the film that I really liked. For one thing, I loved the fact that throughout most of the film you never actually see or know what it is that is after them. They never show the actual monster (of course you know it is some kind of canine like creature) but you don’t see it. The reason I like this is because in horror movies, whenever something is happening and you don’t know what it is yet, it builds up the anticipation a lot, but than when the monster is finally revealed it is always a disappointment. And it always looks so obviously fake that it isn’t scary any more. So I liked the way this movie really kept the suspense going and kept you in the moment of the fear the characters where experiencing.

And it was kind of interesting I thought that whenever the animal was about to attack you saw things through it’s eyes, from its perspective, and in this way they avoid actually showing it.

So this film had some really good things about it, but I just felt like the ending really spoiled it a lot for me.

 

Rating: 3/5 stars

 

 

Devil’s Due

I have to say that I found this movie to be something of a disappointment. In a way it seemed like a combination of Rosemary’s Baby and Paranormal Activity, but failed to really live up to either one of those. To start with it was filmed in that home camera/documentary style of which though I do think is starting to become a bit overdone now and is no longer innovative, but simply trendy, but it can still be done well and make sense for the movie and help enhance certain aspects of the movie. In this case though it felt too much like a gimmick, it was seemed clearly too forced and it did not really make a great deal of sense for the movie to be filmed in this style. It did not help that the movie came out around the same time as the new Paranormal Activity movie (of which I have not seen yet) because it made Devil’s Due feel as if it was just trying to mimic Paranormal Activity. This is one case in which I felt that the movie could have been more effective and stronger if they had not filmed it in that home movie way.

The story itself, of which revolved around the birth of the antichrist was also nothing new under the sun, but again it can still be fun and interesting, and well we all know how much P do love creepy/evil children in movies. But In the case of this movie I felt it really didn’t bring anything new to the idea, the whole movie in fact felt a bit pointless.

Nor was it particularly scary. It had its moments that were a bit spooky, or eerie, it had brief glimmers of potential, but in a way it feels almost as if the film was too flushed, maybe intentionally wanting to ride on the back of the release of the new Paranormal Activity film they just slapped together this horror flim which was not really well thought out.

It is not often that I say this about movie, but in this case I really do not think there is any reason to spend money on this film. If you do not see it, you will not really be missing anything. If you really want to see this movie, I do advice waiting until it is available either on DVD or online streaming.

Rating 2/5 stars

 

 

6 Films to Keep You Awake (Spectre and The Blame)

I have previously mentioned the collection of films which make up 6 films to Keep You Awake, but it to give a bit more detail about it, it is a collection of six films which were made for TV in Spain, and consist of obviously six different movies made six of Spain’s best directors of horror. FearNet currently has all six of the movies available and so I have decided to watch each of them, as several I had already previously watched without knowing they were a part of this collection, and fond them quite enjoyable and interesting.

The last two films of the collection which I had yet to watch (at least until now) will be featured in this review. The rest of the six films are already posted within my blog. If you want to check them out here is this list of all six films:

The Baby’s Room

XMas Tale

Real Friend

To Let

Spectre

The Blame

I will be reviewing Spectre and The Blame here, reviews for the rest of the films can be found within this blog.

Spectre

This was quite an interesting film I thought. It did have a rather orignal idea, and I enjoyed the psychological angle to it. A film about obsession, young love, passion, and trust (or lack of trust) and how a young man’s infatuation with a mysterious older woman destroys the lives of many people including his own.

In a small Spanish village a mysterious, beautiful woman moves into a house just on the outskirts of the village. It does not take long before rumors start to spread that she is a witch among other things. A group of boys sneak up to her house to spy upon her, and one of them soon develops a passionate obsession with the woman and engages in a secret love affair with her, but he is tormented by the rumors of her as being a loose woman, and that she receives strange visitors at night.

The story is told in the form of flashbacks Tomas as an older man, yet still haunted by his first love, the passion of his youth returns finally to his home after having fled long ago to try and escape the memories, and the image of the woman whose fate became so closely entwined with his. Slowly the story of what happened in those youthful days starts to reveal itself, while as an older man Tomas continued to be tormented by his past.

Rating: 4/5

The Blame

This was an interesting film in many ways and did have a certain creepy element to it. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I did feel, particularly towards that end, that the film took on a bit too much of a propaganda feeling to it, but still the idea behind this film does easily lend itself to horror.

A young nurse who is struggling financially moves in, with her daughter into the house of a female doctor she works with who runs an abortion clinic out of her home. It soon become clear that the doctor might have more than just a friendly interest in the nurse, and starts to become frustrated when the nurse turns down her advances. Then the nurse becomes pregnant as a result of a casual intimate encounter with a man. The doctor persuades her into getting an abortion by dropping subtle hints that if she keeps the child she may lose her room within the house, or might be laid off from her job. Soon after agreeing to the abortion unsettling events start to occur within the house.

Rating: 3/5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Conjuring

From the same brilliant minds who brought us Insidious, Sinister, the Paranormal movies, and many other fantastic modern horror films comes The Conjuring. Of course I was stoked to see this one as soon as I heard about, and knew who was involved in the making of it.

I have to confess that in truth I did not find the film particularly scary. But then I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to scary having been an avid horror fan since early childhood, I do not scare easy. Granted while it was not the most terrifying movie I have ever seen it did have its startling moments, and I will give it high marks for creepiness. And of course as an all around movie it was brilliantly made. They once again show their masterfully understanding of what works best when making a horror film. Of what to hide, what to show, what not to show, and how much should be revealed. Also the movie does a good job of building up tension in the viewer.

One thing which can really be appreciated about this movie is that fact that it is a true classic horror film. In fact it was in some regards reminiscent of The Exorcist, which is  one of the best classical horror films of all time. The other thing which I enjoyed about this film is the way in which they combined together elements of various different horror movies together in a way that really worked. It was a ghost story in part, as well as being of course a story about demonic possession and exorcism, and it even included a scene involving a creepy doll. It included familiar effects from previous movies they have done which I thought was a touch of whimsical fun for those who are fans of their work. There are scenes that are very reflective of the Paranormal movies, and there was a scene involving birds “attacking” the house ala Dark Skies.

They were also able to incorporate moments of humor within the film which can be used as a break in the tension, but done so in a subtle way which did not detract from the intensity of the drama. Again they executed their ability to exorcise control for maximum effect.

A highly recommended film for the summer.

 

Sader Ridge

I am doing a very special feature, for this film was edited by my sister and was reviewed on FearNet:

http://www.fearnet.com/blogs/surviving-cinema/three-must-see-indies

Needless to say I was privilviied to see an early prescreening of the movie. This is a low budget, underground  independent horror film and as many of us true horror fans no these can sometimes be the best horror movies out there because they do not fall prey to over commercialization  They are not about appealing to the masses but expressing a true artistic vision. In addition not having the advantage of millions of dollars forces new innovation and creativity in the movie, and with less distractions of expensive shiny objects, and mind blowing effects it is that much more important for everything else to be spot on.

I know I am biased but I will say this, because I do believe it to be true, I can always be trusted to deliver my straight honest opinion, the editing of this film really was quite good, there were some really great cut away scenes and sequences that were great tension builders in the film.

The acting was a bit mixed. Some of it was spot on and some if left something to be desired by these are all unknown, still fairly fresh new actors trying to get their foot in the door. I do have to point out that D’Angelo Midili who plays Eric one of the leading roles really does steal the show and does a fantastic job.

Sader Ridge is a psychological horror thriller, and without the benefit of big budget special effects most come up with innovative techniques in order to build tension create suspension and send chills down the spine of the viewer, and in many ways the simplicity of the film adds to the intensity of it.

The film focuses on Samantha who inherits a piece of property and takes a trip with a group of friends to check it out, while there she is drawn into a horrifying vision of her past as old memories of the terrible events that happened to her a child start to resurface.

For those that want to travel off the beaten path, check out something different, get away from the mainstream this movie is strongly recommended.