Tag Archives: Drama

Control (2017) [Final Girls Berlin Film Festival]

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“A Real Scream” Shorts Block

I found Kimmy Gatewood’s “Control” to be pretty fucking excellent, and it’s probably one of my favorite short films of the “Final Girls Berlin Film Festival” so far. The premise is genius and her short brought me back and forth from grinning to tisking in sheer sadness; let’s just say I related to her creation more than I thought. While the premise has every chance to be exploitative and played for cheap laughter, there’s an inherent sadness underneath every moment, and it’s more poignant, in the end.

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The Short Films of Maude Michaud [Women in Horror Month 2019]

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Maude Michaud is a filmmaker from Montreal who has an affinity for the dark side and horror films. See our interview with Maude and previous reviews of her work “At the Door,” and “Frankenstein Unlimited,” to see some of the other things she has going.

Maude’s films are all fascinating to watch as they give insight into the mind of a creative woman with a dark twist to her endeavors. Here are short takes on some of her short films.

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The Poison Ivy Collection [Blu-Ray]

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For all three of you fans of the “Poison Ivy” movie series wondering when we’d finally see all four of the films from the series on Blu-Ray, Shout Factory finally brings it to us with extras and restorations. Truth is I’m eagerly awaiting the “Devil in the Flesh” duology on Blu-Ray (Sidenote: Do you think anyone has the balls to release the entire “Wild Things” saga?), but for now we have this neat box set of some of the best worst erotic trash that’s ever been brought to movie fans from Warner bros. And just in time for Valentine’s Day and Women in Horror Month, too! You can ogle a pre-career renaissance Drew Barrymore, or up and comer Jaime Pressly, or a post-“Degrassi” Miriam McDonald.

There’s no wrong option, is the bullet point of my explanation.

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Knock Knock (2018) [Final Girls Berlin Film Festival]

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“Social Horror” Shorts Block

Kennikki Jones-Jones’s short horror drama is a film with a premise that rang a bit too close to home for yours truly. Growing up in the Bronx, there are certain kind of boundaries and rules people are expected to follow. Often times children can be heard in the distance crying or being disciplined by their parents and it’s kind of a mutual agreement among many to ignore it unless it gets all too severe. And even then, people tend to turn a blind eye.

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Valentine (2001): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

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Jamie Blanks’ “Valentine” is one of the many latter day slasher films that would completely steal from the premise of “Slaughter High” and retrofit it to a new generation, as well as blatantly ape the gimmick of “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” “Valentine” is one of the more ambitious slashers that not only steals from “Slaughter High” but also jumps on the valentine holiday as its primary gimmick for the stalking and slashing. “My Bloody Valentine” always has my loyalty, while “Valentine” is just a sub-par absolutely vanilla slasher thriller with the classic whodunit plot motivation that also became a common element of latter day slashers post-“Scream.”

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Mothering (2018) [Slamdance Film Festival 2019]

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There are those short films that you go in to, and when they’re done, you wish they could have been so much longer. Lucy Bridger’s drama about a young girl name Mia (Sapphire Paine) who learns to live with a new foster family is subtle, sweet, touching, and actually quite excellent. I would have to see director Bridger adapt this in to a full length film someday very soon.

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