A witch uses love spells to get men enamored with her. Things go well at first, until the men become too attached and overly needy, at which point the love witch has to find a way to move on.
Tag Archives: Horror
The Inerasable (2015) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
A horror writer works on a serial using fan letters about paranormal activity in their lives. After receiving a letter about a haunting that rings a bell, she teams up with the student who sent it and they work to uncover where all the paranormal happenings in the area come from.
Red Christmas (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
A mother wants to have the best Christmas ever with her family. During the traditional day, tensions come to a boiling point when a stranger shows up at their door and wants to kill them all. This sets the mother on a warpath to protect her brood.
This Australian horror film is written and directed by Craig Anderson who starts by building a family with lots of issues and strife between its members. Most of their issues are the same as a lot of families while others are more unique. This family cares for each other against these odds and when all hell breaks loose, their bonds are tested. The writing here develops this family well and then brings some original kills to the table but the characters are not the most likable so it’s hard to root for them. This is all well directed for most of the film so the few issues seen here and there are not entirely awful, but the film lacks a bit in fun. Sadly, the killer’s motivation feels a bit preachy at times, making his condition a bit of a case of one too many things in the story. The way the killer is portrayed is unfortunately a bit grating and not really menacing.
The cast does ok with the material but it’s hard to tell if their characters were written that way or if they were directed to do this or if the way they act leads to this, but almost all the characters come off as unlikable and just disagreeable, selfish people. From the looks of things, it seems to be a combination of the three with other factors added to those. Knowing that Dee Wallace can play mother so well, her performance here is not as expected which may be due to putting too much hope on her. She is good, but some angles of her character are so dislikable, it’s hard to look over those. The rest of the cast being less familiar, they did not have as much expectations put on them, yes they still come off as dislikable to despicable as well.
As Red Christmas is a slasher, the kills and their effects are of high importance. The kills here are good with some original ones. However, the effects are decent at best with some pieces being not so good to just bad. The make-up and prosthetics on the killer look a bit like Toxie, with a low budget look and even somewhat of a family resemblance. Also an odd choice is how the kill set pieces are shot. In some cases, the lighting makes it hard to see what is going; on while in other cases, the shaky cam is nauseating, making the viewer look away and miss out on the scene.
This film has a lot of potential, but does not go for it. It has good ideas for kills with effect that are just not good enough to support those ideas. The characters are not people the viewers can get attached to. The killer is one of those that could have been good but his background and reason to kill make him hard to get into or behind. This reviewer wanted to love this as the last few years have given us so many good holiday themed horror movies, but even after giving Red Christmas as much slack as possible, it’s not a movie that can be considered good. A few good scenes here and there do not a great movie make.
Fantasia International Film Festival ran from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016 and will be back in the summer of 2017.
La Rage du Démon (2015) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
At the Musée Grévin in Paris, in January 2012, film scholars and filmmakers were invited to a mystery screening by one of the world’s foremost film collector, Edgar A. Wallace. The film shown turns out to be La Rage du Démon, a late 1800s lost film that creates quite a ruckus every time it’s screened. The last screening in New York City ended in tragedy. The Paris screening does not go much better. This documentary explores both what happened at those screenings as well as the film and its history.
Writer/Director Fabian Delage explores the history of horror cinema, of what lead to the making of the short silent film often times attributed to George Mélies who never claimed it as his own. He builds his documentary on interviews with film scholars, filmmakers, researchers, and even a relative of Mélies’. He explores the films of Mélies and of Victor Sicarius, the other potential director of La Rage du Démon, he also explores their lives and what they brought to cinema. Some of the interviews here are with Dave Alexander, Philippe Rouyer, Alexandre Aja, Christophe Gans, and Pauline Mélies amongst many others.
These interviews are very informative creating an educational documentary all genre fans should see. La Rage du Démon may be the main subject here due to the mystery surrounding it, but the whole history of the horror genre pre Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is exposed and explored. Also touched upon is how such films came to be, their inspirations and how they were made. Footage from the late 1800s/early 1900s adds to the subjects discussed and brings visual interest to something that could have been a very dry subject given all the historical facts and anecdotes involved.
Fanian Delage clearly has an eye for good, fascinating documentary subjects as well as has a touch that makes the documentary entertaining and almost mystifying as he chose a subject here that will probably never be fully clarified. La Rage du Démon is relatively short at a run time of just one hour which is definitely a good choice as any longer could have become tedious and boring. The short run time forces things to be tight and well edited, leaving all extraneous footage on the cutting room floor. La Rage du Démon is a must see for both horror fans and film history buffs alike.
Fantasia International Film Festival ran from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016 and will be back in the summer of 2017.
Shelley (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
In a remote house completely off the grid, Louise and her husband Kasper hire a Romanian maid to help with house chores and take care of their chickens. As the bond between Louise and Elena, the maid, grows, Louise asks her to carry a child for her as she cannot do so herself. After careful considerations, Elena accepts. Unfortunately, this is where the honeymoon phase ends and things take a turn for the odd and creepy.
The film is directed by Ali Abbasi who co-wrote with Maren Luise Kaehne. Together they created believable characters in an interesting setting as they live completely off the grid without any technology but make due with what they have. In this film, it’s a choice by the characters and not imposed in any way. The characters have different backgrounds and speak different languages, leading them to speak English to understand each other which is a nice way to get a European film shot in English for a good part of it. The differences in cultures also add nicely to the depth of the characters.
Unfortunately, these characters are given very little to do that is of interest. Even when Elena’s pregnancy takes a turn for the weird, it’s barely enough to keep the attention which is too bad as it could have been great had it been exploited better, a great take on pregnancy horror, a sub-genre we see very little of (Grace, A l’interieur, Rosemary’s Baby), that fell flat without enough happening or strong enough happenings.
The very small cast keeps the film feeling intimate and minimal with three strong lead performances. In the part of Louise, Ellen Dorrit Petersen brings a calm and quiet, yet strong presence. She handles things beautifully when it would have been so easy to go into overacting in a movie with this subject. Together with actress Cosmina Stratan as Elena, they build a visible friendship and bond and then, when things change, they show the strain between them without saying much. Supporting these two performances is Peter Christoffersen as Louise’s husband Kasper. He does well with the smaller part he is given. His emotions feel rawer, less controlled. The rest of the small cast is also talented and believable in their parts.
Shelley is another film with two cinematographers working in tandem where which scene is whose is indistinguishable. Nadim Carlsen and Sturla Brandth Grovlen do this while bringing serenity to the scenes, particularly the outdoors sequences. The film looks peaceful, even once the creep factor is turned up. Many scenes on the lake could be turned into a tourism add for overworked city folks.
Supporting all of this is the music by Martin Dirkov which is subtle yet effective. Some of the scenes when things are going oddly and supernatural elements may be involved, the music bring home the creepiness while not becoming overbearing or telling viewers what to feel.
While Shelley is an interesting take on the pregnancy horror sub-genre, the film is very slow with very little going on, making it less interesting than it had potential for. The less is more approach usually works for this reviewer, however here it was much too little and lead to an expected ending with very little pay off.
Fantasia International Film Festival ran from July 14th until August 3rd, 2016 and will be back in the summer of 2017.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
Philip Kaufman’s 1978 remake and adaptation of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” remains one of the most resounding arguments for the purpose of remaking films. Often times like the case of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” directors can rework certain ideas and add something to the mythology, allowing for a starker and very bleak vision that helps a film stand on its own. John Carpenter achieved that with “The Thing,” and Philip Kaufman succeeds in adding his own layer of dread and futility with “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” A lot of horror movies are filled with some tinge of hope that perhaps humanity or our heroes will prevail over the unusual menace threatening to consume a portion of Earth.
The Best Thing I’ve Seen in 2016
Netflix’s “Stranger Things” is the best thing I’ve seen all year. TV show, Movie, Web show, et al. The Duffer Brothers “Stranger Things” season one is eight episodes long at fifty five minutes each and it’s the easiest eight hours I’ve ever spent watching a series. There’s no filler, no flab, no pointless segues in to a sub-plot that wanders aimlessly. Every element of every episode is crucial and important and The Duffer Brothers have no time to fuck around.