Stung (2015) [FrightFest 2015]

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FrightFest 2015

Julia has inherited her father’s catering company and has a big event to work at Mrs. Perch’s estate. This is a yearly event and is attended by the most affluent people in town; it could make or break her. To help her out, she has hired bartender Paul who has a less than subtle crush on her. Mrs. Perch and her son Sydney are what some might call a bit eccentric and their mansion also has a beautiful greenhouse filled with very lush plants and flowers. As Julia, Paul, and a stoner musician hired for entertainment prepare for the event, slightly bigger than usual wasps come out of an in ground nest quickly becoming a pest but no more than regular bugs. After the dinner guests arrive and start mingling, more and more wasps show up. Soon the mayhem starts as really big wasps take over and attack the guests, implanting their eggs in them which eventually burst out of their human hosts as even bigger wasps looking to attack anything that moves.

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We Are Still Here (2015) [FrightFest 2015]

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FrightFest 2015

Anne and Paul Sacchetti lost their son to a car accident. In an effort to move on, they relocate to New England, to a quaint looking house made for a family. No sooner have they arrived do odd things start happening. Higher than normal heat in the basement, frames falling over, possible apparitions, … A few weeks into their living there, the Sacchettis are visited by the McCabe and are told that the house needs a family. As the phenomena multiply, Anne becomes certain it’s their dead son letting them know he’s there with them. To get to the bottom of this, she invites her friend May who is a medium to come spend a weekend and possibly try to reach her son. Once May and her husband Jacob arrive, something is clearly not right. One day, while May and Anne are out shopping, the men have a séance which turns very bad and is followed by all hell breaking loose.

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Gotham: The Complete First Season [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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What do you do when you want a Batman series but can’t actually feature the character? Sometimes the networks get creative and give us “Arrow.” Other times, they belly flop disastrously and hand us “Gotham.” Essentially “Gotham” is a crime drama set in Gotham City that’s basically either an Elseworlds tale, or a prequel. The series never can decide. It’s a lot like “Smallville” in that it features a world before the superhero came to fight for justice. And much like “Smallville,” the series pretty much stinks from the word “go.” Granted, “Gotham” is a good idea for a series. Who wouldn’t want to see what Gotham was like before the Batman came along? The problem is “Gotham” is so concerned with lip service to Batman rogues, and paying tribute to the fans that it never actually comes together to form an entertaining series.

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

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It’s been thirty years since George Miller made his visit to Mad Max’s apocalyptic tundra, and with “Fury Road,” it’s almost as if he never left. The newest “Mad Max” is a spectacle of pure raw filmmaking, while also brilliantly carving out a new chapter in the world of Mad Max. In a time where most post apocalyptic films are more dread soaked than anything, Mad Max storms the gates once again as the hero of the end of the world that we need, and the man who unwittingly plays a huge role in a massive war, once again. “Fury Road” is an accomplishment on the part of Miller from beginning to end, exploring a world where Mad Max is a hero whose entire persona is carved out by his character and less by the person playing him. This makes it very easy for Tom Hardy to take on the role that Mel Gibson once made iconic.

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Cosmodrama (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

A group of people wake up on a giant starship and wonder why they are there, what their purpose id, where they are going, and why. This group is composed of widely different people including an astronomer, a physiologist, a biologist, a reporter, etc. The film follows their activities and interactions as they question everything and as they wonder the meaning of everything. Not a lot happens besides conversations that do not go anywhere really. Even the apparition of a women on television screens who is not part of the crew on the ship or the multiplication of one character are not explored or taken anywhere, they only bring more questions and very few answers. This is a film about the meaning of live in a way, but it brings no information, just questions through a rather lackluster story.

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Hostile (2015) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Two orphan sisters, Emilie and Anna, are taken in by Meredith who only wants to give them as good a life as she possibly can. Not long after the girls move in, odd and scary phenomena starts happening. The girls act out and Meredith calls a reality show, SOS Adoption, for help. Their host Chloe and her cameraman Chris come to stay with the girls while they send their new mom away. The odd events and the scare factor kick up a notch after she leaves. This is only exacerbated by the fact that Chloe thinks they might be facing a case of possession as she has seen one before.

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Børning (2014) [Fantasia Film Festival]

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FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL

Roy is a racing enthusiast who takes it a step too far and crashes his car with his pregnant girlfriend on board. As his child makes her debut in the world, he is taken to jail for his illegal street racing. Fast forward about a decade and a half, Roy now run a car-part/repair shop called Stallion Parts and obsesses over his yellow Mustang. His daughter Nina comes to spend time with dad as her mother and family go on holiday. As Nina tries and tries to get to her father, to get to know him and build a relationship, he prepares for a big race and mostly ignores her, even forgetting she’s there at times. On race day, Nina tries one more time to get his attention, but to no avail. She then decides to mess with is car in revenge causing him to lose the race. TT, Roy’s car racing arch nemesis since the start of his passion, sees this as a perfect taunt opportunity and the two decide to race across the length of Norway to finally decide who the best driver is.

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