Vicious (2015)

Vicious

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” – Alfred Hitchcock

Oliver Park’s “Vicious” is a masterfully done short horror film that’s light on the exposition but packs in a powerhouse of a fright. I literally flinched back in my seat while watching “Vicious” and it takes a mighty good horror film to inspire that kind of reaction from yours truly. “Vicious” is indicative of a major directorial talent and Oliver Park deserves to go on to a bigger cinematic career. I think he can deliver a truly excellent feature length horror film if given enough resources.

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The Corpse of Anna Fritz (El Cadaver de Anna Fritz) (2016)

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(Mild Spoilers)

Ivan and Javi stop by Pau’s work at the hospital morgue on their way to a party.  Pau lets them in on a secret: actress Anna Fritz is lying in his morgue, dead.  The trio decides to go see her; to see how she looks as Pay says she doesn’t even look dead.  Once in the morgue, Ivan decides to touch her and from there gets it in his mind that a bit of necrophilia won’t hurt anyone.  However, he soon finds out that is not the case.

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Zombie Fight Club (2014) [Blu-ray]

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While I’d say “Zombie Fight Club” is not the worst zombie movie ever made, it’s definitely up there in the top five. Joe Chien’s zombie, comedy, action… horror movie (?) is so painfully written and poorly directed, it watches like an amateur production from a failed film student. The script watches like it was put together in five minutes with a bunch of concepts that never ever mix together in to a coherent or remotely entertaining movie. Explaining the premise would be like listening to a child with ADD talk as if they’re trying to cram a whole hour’s worth of nonsense in to two minutes. There’s Singapore, and a high rise where a gang of drug abusers are living. The leader of the gang gets a bag of bath salts; said bath salts mysteriously turn the users in to flesh eating zombies.

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Bear Story (Historia de un oso) (2015)

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Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala’s “Bear Story” is a soul crushing tale of loss and yet a pretty remarkable short about overcoming grief and finding a reason to keep going on. Lacking dialogue and told through excellent computer animation, “Bear Story” is a short and hear breaking tale of an old bear that spends most of his time fixing an old nickelodeon. Featuring a trio of bear dolls that stand in for his wife and son, he takes to the street one morning. Unfortunately, his is a tale of sadness, suffering, and the willingness to endure, as he opens up his theater for a young cub.

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Emilie Black’s Best and Worst of 2015

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Each year I tell myself I’ll make an end of year list of the Best and Worst movies I’ve seen during that year, but usually fail to make said list.  This year, I’ve actually done it.  Ok, I did it about a week late, but it still counts.  In 2015, I saw a little over 200 movies, not all 2015 releases, but still a “respectable” number considering I was mostly out of the reviewing business until July when the bug caught me again.  This means I’ve missed a ton of movies and am doing this list out of what I’ve seen.  2015 was as solid year for me with a lot of good to great films and very few bad ones which means this will not be a Top 10 Best and Bottom 10 Worst, but more of a collection of titles to check out or avoid.

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La Belle et La Bête (2014)

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In this telling of the tale as old as time, Belle lives with her salesman father, three troublemaker brothers, and two greedy sisters. Belle prefers to lead a calmer, simpler life than her siblings. As her father’s business goes badly and her brother loses a lot of money gambling, the father becomes indebted to the Beast and so in a trade, Belle agrees to live with the Beast. Once at the castle, she is cared for by a group of tadums, fairy tale animals who look a bit like dogs. She is given all that she could need and more, she however, has to have dinner with the Beast every single night, which does not go well at first. With time and patience, Belle and the Beast become closer and closer.

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Another Me (2014)

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The Delusseys’ family life is disturbed after the father falls ill. As the family adapts to this, Fay, the teenage daughter, begins to think she has a stalker hellbent on taking over her life and stealing her place and her identity. As things escalate, others start to think they have seen Fay where she was not and she starts thinking it’s someone who looks just like, her doppelganger, attempting to assume her identity. What Fay doesn’t know yet is that her family hides a secret that could possibly explain what is happening to her.

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