Did you see “Scream 4”? Do you remember the finale and surprise reveal, as well as the reasoning for the murderer’s devious deeds? Well, then you’ve seen “Tragedy Girls.” It feels a lot like Tyler MacIntyre loved the finale to “Scream 4” so much that he took that one twenty minute explanation, and transformed it in to a ninety minute movie that presents glimmers of brilliance, but stumbles quite often. While many will liken “Tragedy Girls” to “Heathers,” it’s actually about as smug and annoyingly self-satisfied as films like “Detention” and “Easy A.”
Category Archives: Movie Reviews
The Night Watchmen (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
Coulrophobics look out, “The Night Watchmen” is easily your worst nightmare come true, but it’s also one of the best horror comedies I’ve seen in a while. Director Mitchell Altieri delivers one of hell of a great horror gore fest that imagines the world overrun by vampire zombie clowns. “The Night Watchmen” is set primarily in an office, and Altieri makes great use of it, picturing the night shift from hell. You could make a sub-genre out of horror movies set in an office work place, these days, but “The Night Watchmen” has a great time making use of the back drop, with the various halls and corners of the office, and the typically monotonous setting.
Le Serpent aux mille coupures (Thousand Cuts) (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A man on the run hides in a farm house, taking the family living there hostage. As the search for him intensifies, dead bodies start to pile up. Who is he and what has he done, who is killing these other people and why.
Based on the books by DOA and adapted for this film by DOA and director Eric Valette, Le Serpent aux mille coupures is a tense French polar, a sort of Thriller the French way. The film takes its premise, adds extra bad guys, and pushes the limits a bit while still keeping a fairly simple way of going at things. This creates a tension and suspense while the police and others are looking for a killer who tortures horribly his victims before killing them, while the man in hiding may or may not be this killer. All the tension comes from how the story unfolds even after the audience knows who is doing what, something that is a sign of strong writing and directing.
Jailbreak (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A special police team is sent to transfer a high risk prisoner from holding to a local prison where the Butterfly clan should not be able to get to him. Once at the prison, things go south fast and the team members find themselves in a fight for their lives.
Dead Man Tells His Own Tale (El Muerto Cuenta su Historia) (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2017]
A man who can best be described as a misogynist cheating liar finds himself undead and bound to do the biddings a coven trying to raise their goddess to take over the world.
Written by Nicolás Britos and Fabián Forte with the latter directing as well, Dead Man Tells His Own Tale sets up its lead to be despicable and dislikable, doing so very successfully and keeping that up almost throughout the entirety of the film. Then it attempts to make the public care for him and his undead plight, something that works a lot less given that he’s still an unlikable being and still is trying to do what he always has and wanted to without much care about how it affects the people around him. The way they build him makes it very hard to care for him. Most of the characters built are hard to care for as most are written in a way and into situations where they do things that make them less than likable. This creates an atmosphere of negativity that evolves towards the ending here which makes sense, but does not make this viewer want to care.
Bushwick (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival]
A young woman coming home from school to introduce her boyfriend to her family arrives in Bushwick as an unknown military force is invading and killing people left and right. As she tries to make her way home, she stumbles upon an ex-military man who helps her in her quest.
Mayhem (2017) [Fantasia International Film Festival]
In a law office building with raising tensions and a myriad of issues, Derek Cho is wrongfully fired as a virus takes hold of the workers making them lose all inhibitions and moral barriers. During the CDC imposed quarantine, Cho and a soon to be homeless homeowner climb up the floors to get justice.