For William Castle buffs, Mill Creek recently offered you the chance to witness some of his best films in the five movie set on DVD. And they have also released these titles in double bills on Blu-Ray. William Castle movie are already fun and novel horror films with some fine gimmicks, watching them in bunches pairs provides a fun experience altogether. William Castle was a one of a kind director and showman and this is a neat collection for horror fanatics. There’s “13 Ghosts” from 1960 starring Charles Herbert, Jo Morrow, Martin Milner, and Rosemary DeCamp respectively.
Tag Archives: Horror
All Girls Weekend (2016)
“All Girls Weekend” isn’t anything that the cool poster promises. It’s an ensemble, is set in winter, and is not really a slasher movie. Lou Simon’s horror movie is actually a film in the vein of “The Descent” and “The Ruins” where a group of young female hikers going away together for a fun weekend end up getting lost in the middle of the woods. Before long their hike turns in to an endless trip in to insanity where the woods are seemingly sentient, and hell bent on driving them mad. What keeps “All Girls Weekend” lackluster and the aforementioned movies white knuckled horror entries is simple: The characters.
While the all female cast seem to do their damndest to pull in great turns (and many of them look like they can potentially dominate horror down the road), the concept of being lost in the woods and going hungry and thirsty never seems to dawn on them. At all. When another of their friends is stabbed in the leg with a branch and is seemingly so wounded she can barely breathe, the friends do nothing but apathetically mock one another. When she dies, it has no punch dramatically and adds nothing. After leaving her corpse behind one of the characters literally asks aloud “Aren’t we all upset?” to which the other replies, “Of course. God I’m thirsty. Anyone have any water?”
Compare that with the devastating claustrophobia and the delirium of running around in a dark cave in “The Descent” and the difference is apparent. What should have been a mind fuck about falling victim to a sentient natural landscape comes off as a mere nuisance to the characters most times. By the time they realize they’re in deep dung, it’s too little, too late. It’s a shame since I really enjoyed Simon’s previous horror outing “HazMat,” and I love her idea of filling these genre entries with more minority characters of great importance to the narrative. Sadly, “All Girls Weekend” is filled with truly vapid and unlikable protagonists, feels stretched thin, and is under developed.
Available on VOD.
The Unseen (2016) [Fantasia International Film Festival 2016]
In a small Northern Canadian town, a man who left his family behind to protect them receives a call that his daughter needs him. Risking everything and possibly exposing the fact that he is becoming invisible, Bob Langmore takes a job for the local drug dealer to be able to see his daughter and help as best he can.
The Unseen is writer/director Geoff Redknap’s first feature as such, having made himself an enviable career in special effects on projects like The Cabin in the Woods, Supernatural, and Deadpool. His background in effects shows in how Bob’s progressive invisibility is brought up and showcased. Rednap not only does this really well, but he also creates believable characters and situations within an “invisible man” scenario. The broken family dynamic feels real and human while their reactions and interactions blending naturally with the situations that are anything but natural. The story does take its time getting started, making the first act seem long but once it does get going, the pace changes and the story makes the wait worth it.
The lead actor chosen for the part of Bob Langmore is very important and so Aden Young was carefully chosen and does great with the conflicted character who want to stay hidden while making sure his daughter is safe. Viewers can see his struggle between self-protection and his need to protect his child. Young’s performance shows this inner conflict and worry, as well as care and determination. Supporting him as Bob’s daughter Eva is Julia Sara Stone whose expressive doe eyes lend themselves perfectly to the part of a girl finding herself while finding out her father’s secrets. Another good performance in the film is Camille Sullivan as Eva’s mother and Bob’s ex, Darlene. Her performance of as a caring mother feels genuine and adds to the family dynamic.
These three, with the help from the support cast, bring the story to life in a realistic manner, as much as can be. The effects, as can be expected from a special effects artist turned film writer and director, are great. They are not only CGI as one would expect lately, but a mix of traditional effects, animatronics, and visual effects. This paired with the original take on a man who is becoming invisible creates a striking look for the titular “unseen” man. The way this look is created and how it evolves is a new take on the subject and very interesting. Yes, it’s gross at times, but it’s absolutely worth it. The look is unique and interesting; the way it evolves keeps the attention. The crew behind this does a fantastic job.
Framing the story and its effects is the cinematography by Stephen Maier which showcases the Canadian North, almost creating a new character out of the locations and making some scenes feel as cold as the weather. To go with these images, director Rednap tasked Harlow MacFarlane with composing the music for the score which mixes typical score music and industrial sounds that fit the settings perfectly as it sounds organic in the woodmill environment and in the rest of the film. The songs chosen to add to the score are sometimes haunting, beautiful, and well chosen. Only one song felt out of place, but the rest of the songs quickly made up for it.
The Unseen is an interesting take on the invisible man trope, showing a new way for the invisibility to take hold as well as a new source for it. The acting is very good and the story works on multiple levels. It’s a fairly serious horror drama but not stuffy or heavy per sey. It explores an original side to the often seen story of a struggling broken family amidst the invisible man aspects.
Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 14th to August 3rd, 2016.
Five Reasons Why You Should Buy “In Memorium”
I am proud to say that ever since Amanda Gusack sent Cinema Crazed her found footage film “In Memorium” back in 2006, we’ve been fans and have tried to spread the word about it to everyone who would listen. Amanda Gusack’s found footage horror film is a brutally eerie and creepy take on the sub-genre. I received an email from Ms. Gusack recently that “In Memorium” can now be rented on Amazon. If you’re a fan of “Paranormal Activity” when it was still a creepy ghost movie with an air of mystery and mystique to it before the sequels bogged it all down, “In Memorium” is right up your alley. It’s a creepy, well directed ghost tale and one I still boast about, and these are five reasons you should give it a shot.
The Laundryman (2015) [New York Asian Film Festival 2016]
A hit man who works for a laundry company as a cover up grows a conscience. He’s highly trained and excels at his job, however, for a while now, he is plagued by ghosts and he must find out what they want from him in order to restore some sort of peace to his life. To do this, he enlists the help of a cute but possible clueless clairvoyant. Through all of it, he finds out more about his victims, his boss, and himself.
The Laundryman is a hybrid horror/comedy/action film by director Chung Lee and written by Yu-Hsyun Chen and Chung Lee. The tale built here fills the complex task of mixing multiple genres without going into parody or satire or become a send-off/homage to its genres. Here the mix of the genres works very well and has the story evolves its elements just work. However, the comedy levels are more present in the first third or so of the film and then occasionally throughout the rest of the film. The comedy works because the viewer is not hit over the head with it.
That being said, some of the scenes are completely ridiculous in the best way possible. The horror, mainly from the ghosts and not much blood outside of a few short scenes works here as well. The ghosts here are not meant to scare but they work so well with the story. The first fight sequence is fantastic, the way its written and shot make it really fun. The rest of the fighting is also entertaining. Getting all of these elements together creates a really fun whole.
The casting here feels rather perfect for the story and the style. Hsiao-chuan (Joseph) Chang is an entertaining lead. He has a charisma that helps carry the whole film. His acting is just about perfect for the material. It may not be the top performance seen at New York Asian Film Festival, but it’s still a damn good one. Supporting him is Regina Wan as the clairvoyant and Sonia Sui as the boss, both opposites until the end. Their performances show excellent talent as they both do extremely well. The cast for the ghosts is fantastic too and they manage to keep a straight face through some truly ridiculous situations.
For a partially horror movie, the effects are not super prominent but what we’re given is well done. The CGI is good and blends well in the scenes where it is present. It’s not overly used which avoids it becoming an annoyance. Outside of the effects, the film looks really good, it grabs the attention from the get go with its colorful representation of Taiwan and the life of a man who, by all accounts, could be living a very grim life. Most of the film, besides the flashbacks, feels all so chipper. In general, the film looks very good.
The Laundryman is a really fun, funny, and entertaining film. It may be hard to find for a while being a festival title, however it’s absolutely worth checking out. The story is good, the acting is on point, the fighting “punchy”, and the ending, all the way after the credits, will make you giggle.
Train To Busan (Bu-San-Haeng) (2016)
“Train to Busan” is very much steeped in the idea of humans using the warped concepts of segregation and isolation as a means to survive, not only from the menaces lurking outside our doors, but inevitably from one another. Sook-woo is a hopelessly disconnected workaholic who is confined to his office desk and is still reeling from a bad divorce. Trying to rebound from a bad business deal with a local corporation, and re-connect with his estranged daughter Soo-ahn, he submits to her birthday plea of taking her to Busan on train to see her mother. Despite protesting against it initially, he accompanies her to see her mom. But much to his, and everyone’s surprise, a viral outbreak has exploded on to the train station turning the infected in to rabid, running, flesh eating zombies.
Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)
DC And Warner have at their hands one of the most iconic Batman narratives of all time, a narrative that asks the question if the Joker is truly someone too weak to endure a really awful life, or if he can submit someone to so much pain they can become exactly like him. All it takes is one bad day, he insists. “The Killing Joke” is surprisingly only seventy six minutes in length and still manages to feel way too long. For an iconic story with such a meaty premise, DC and Warner obviously have absolutely no idea how to put it to screen, and manage to botch this adaptation big time. With “The Killing Joke” we have to endure what is one long winded and dull prologue that leads literally to nowhere, just to allow the viewer to connect to heroine Batgirl.