As his fiancée is expecting his child, Michael struggles with his heroin addiction. As his habit threatens his growing family, he is kidnapped and taken to the woods. Written by Thomas Jakobsen and Justin S. Moore and directed by Jakobsen, the film takes the addiction head on then moves in surprising directions. The characters built are believable within the film’s established boundaries but also as humans. What happens to them is not something everyone will go through but their reactions make sense, their actions as well. One twist was a nit off feeling but once it’s passed, the film resumes being believable.
Author Archives: Emilie Black
Crow (2016) [FrightFest 2016]
A rich land developer buys a big piece of land on which stands a protected forest and wants to clear most of it to build a mansion for his wife and himself. Standing in his way are a group of travelers squatting the land and its farmhouse. As he forces them out and starts clearing the land, forces show their discontent.
Abattoir (2016) [FrightFest 2016]
Julia, an investigative reporter, starts looking into the disappearance of complete rooms from houses where violent deaths have occurred. As she gets closer to the truth, things and people get weirder. Her investigation puts her life in danger as she gets too close and discovers more about the rooms and herself.
Francesca (2015) [FrightFest 2016]
In Italy, a detective and an inspector investigate a string of murders happening in their city. They are soon led to a 15 year old kidnapping case which may shed some light on their current investigation. Director Luciano Onetti with his co-writer Nicolas Onetti builds an almost perfect old school giallo, however it was shot in 2015. Their film builds a story and characters straight out of the subgenre and these create an entertaining film about two police detectives looking for a serial killer.
Lost Solace (2016) [FrightFest 2016]
Spence is a sociopath who preys on rich women in their times of need. He starts off as the absolute perfect boyfriend, the man most women want: He’s romantic, thoughtful, takes charge when needed, helpful, and he’s good looking. In reality, he’s cold, calculated, doesn’t care about anyone, he’s a sociopath. After he meets his new mark Azaria, he gets in deeper than usual with her family as his health takes a bad turn.
Através de Sombra (Through the Shadow) (2015) [FirghtFest 2016]
Brazil, 1932, during the coffee crisis, Laura takes a job for a rich man to go to his coffee plantation and be in charge of his niece and nephew and to take care of their education. While attempting to take full control of the situation at the plantation, Laura starts hearing and seeing things no one else is, things she may be imagining or simply the only one who can hear and see them.
The Creature Below (2016) [FrightFest 2016]
After a diving accident that almost cost her life, Olive finds an odd egg in her damaged oxygen tank. Sneaking it off of the boat after being fired, she brings it homes to study it and see what kind of beast might emerge from it in this Lovecraftian tale from the UK. The Creature Below is directed by Stewart Sparke who wrote the story Paul Butler based his script on. They create an interesting lead who loses her job and returns home to her boyfriend after 5 months at sea. Tensions are clear and expected between them and they get stronger as she works with the creature in her home office and as her sister visits.