Tag Archives: Horror

Midnighters (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A couple coming back from a New Year’s party hits a man on the highway. As they try to figure out what to do, things take turns for the worse and worse, testing them and their resolve.

Written by Alston Ramsay and directed by Julius Ramsay, Midnighters is a thriller with touches of horror that takes its time to set up the situation and the stress of it before through a wrench into the proceeding and ads extra characters in the story and everything takes a few more turns that are surprising yet still make sense. The writing and directing of the film show that they creators work well together and them being brothers definitely help. Their work is good here and the film is a tightly planned and executed thriller.

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That’s Final (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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Two women argue as to which of them will be the final girl when a masked killer is after them in their home.

Written by Christine Gatlin and David Raines and directed by John Freeman, this short takes the slasher genre and spins it on its head. The killer here is completely ridiculous but that’s the point, in part, as it’s not about the killer but about the three, then two, women running from him and how they discuss the situation and try to figure out which of them is to become the final girl. The discussion is witty and funny with a sense of humor that will appeal to fans of films like Scream and horror in general. The film’s short format really works to its advantage here as the “joke” is just long enough without overstaying its welcome. The film itself is thus quite entertaining, funny, and just a bit bloody.

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Yesterday is Tomorrow (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A mourning woman must confront her past and her dreams as they begin blurring and causing her much pain.

Written and directed by James C. Shahanshah, this short takes on issues of grieving, regret, sadness, depression, and other mental issues. It tackles them fairly upfront and manages to make a film that is touching and emotional while also not over-doing any of it. The subtlety of the film and how it proceeds with the emotions at hand works great for this type of situation and message. The film does not skirt any part of the issues at hand, but it also does not go for too bluntly which is something that takes a mastering of storytelling and directing clearly shown here from James C. Shahanshah. He gives his leading lady the spotlight and doesn’t force the gaze upon her but more like lets it rest upon her emotions. The film layers the lead’s emotions to create something that becomes heavier and heavier as the runtime moves forward.

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Assumption (2017) [Horrible Imaginings Film Festival 2017]

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A man wakes up trapped in a cargo elevator, as time goes by, his spends his time speaking with the disembodied voice from the security room and begins to lose his mind.

Written and directed by Anthony Leone, Assumption is a one location film that does make the most of its location and that trapped feeling that happens when one is stuck in an elevator for an extended period of time.  The film explores themes of guilt and purgatory in direct and indirect ways while also showing the true colors of its only onscreen character.  However, this could have been done in less time as here the film feels overly long and repetitive after a while.  The ideas and the story are good, but the way it’s executed feels like something is either missing or it could have been trimmed by a lot.

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Nocturnally Yours (2017) [Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2017]

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After his untimely death on the night of his engagement, a man haunts his love until he finds a way to visit her in the “flesh”.

Nocturnally Yours is the sixth title on writer/director David Ferino’s IMDB resume.  Here he creates a darkly funny story of love that transcends death, of a man who is not ready to move on and a woman who is not ready to let go finding a way to reconnect that turns absolutely hilarious.  The story is wrong on quite a few levels, yet is so entertaining.  The film takes this crazy idea, runs with it, and succeeds in making something that should make people with a dark or twisted sense of humor laugh out loud.  The story is well told, the humor is on point, and the way it’s all delivered makes for a fun few minutes.

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Welcome to Willits (2016)

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A group of friends goes camping near Willits, CA. There, the locals grow very potent weed and smoke it as well while they are attacked and abducted by aliens on the regular.

The film is written by Tim Ryan and directed by Trevor Ryan who team up here to give the viewer a completely insane experience in which it’s hard to know what is true and what is a hallucination. The film plays with this constantly with only a few characters being sober and all there. The film also mixes in a tv show the locals watch called Fist of Justice which stars Dolph Lundgren. This addition sounds ridiculous at first, but it works in the film’s context. The way it goes back and forth between the two groups of people and the tv show creates a chaotic feeling for the story that works great with its insanity. The way characters created here are ridiculous but feel like real people in their environment and against one another.

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