Directors Moreau and Palud’s “Ils (Them),” is an unnerving and spooky horror entry almost in the vein of “The Strangers,” and “Last House on the Left,” that sets down on the countryside where hooded beings are terrorizing the locals and tourists. Clementine and Lucas go away for the weekend to their country home for holiday, and after a night of dinner and love making learn that they’re being terrorized by an endless group of hooded individuals who engage in a rather horrific game of cat and mouse.
Tag Archives: Horror
Cutting Class (1989)
Director Rospo Pallenberg’s “Cutting Class” is a slasher film I’ve grown to enjoy over the years, and maybe that’s because there’s rarely a slasher that doesn’t win my heart. I first caught it during a late night screening on cable, and since then it’s grown on me immensely. It’s a late eighties last gasp at the slasher sub-genre that relies on the comedic styling of Martin Mull who attempts to survive an arrow attack in a conspicuously detached sub-plot from the central premise of a slasher stalking a high school.
You Have to See This! Contamination .7 (1993)
What if “The China Syndrome” was remade but featuring the budget of the Craft Services, three writers amounting to a horrible script, and a cast with zero skill to deliver even the most fundamental dialogue? You ultimately get the utterly awful “Contamination .7” where in a small town named Smallsville, is being terrorized by a deadly outbreak of man killing tree roots that murder anyone and everyone for reasons unexplained. They reside in a contaminated forest covered in radioactive waste. Not a single troll rears its head at any point in the movie.
The Funhouse Massacre (2015)
Haunted attractions are big business in the US around Halloween time, each one trying to outdo the other. In the countryside, a new one called “Land of Illusion” decides to use local killers and their stories to up their scare factor. Little do they know, the six maniacs escaped the asylum housing them and find their way to the fun house and bloody, bloody mayhem ensues.
Five Favorite Filmmakers Working Today
With the revolving door of filmmaker working in today’s movie industry, Hollywood is thankfully being more and more open to the works of independent filmmakers. They’re welcoming self made directors more and more, offering them bigger projects and the chance to prove themselves. While sometimes they can stumble, often times they prove they can access any audience, and stand alongside the cinematic titans of yesteryear. Every year there’s a new success story, and these are only five of my favorite filmmakers working today, all of whom have broken through on their own terms.
Who are some of your favorite filmmakers working today?
Lurking Fear (1994)
Courtney Joyner’s “Lurking Fear” is classic Full Moon Entertainment from the nineties. It has a modicum of a budget, some great production value and a solid horror story. Thought it’s a loose adaptation of the HP Lovecraft tale, it does take the elements and combine them to form a classic folklore horror tale about greed and criminals getting their comeuppance. John Martenses is an ex convict who has just been released from prison and is seeking a new start. As well as the fortune apparently left behind by his family.
The Smiling Man (2015)
Director A.J. Briones’ short film “The Smiling Man” is a beautifully terrifying and demented short horror film that’s centered on building terror and then delivering one of the most warped final scenes I’ve ever seen in a horror film. The whole basis around the premise of “The Smiling Man” is not so much the inevitability of doom, but how we perceive evil and how evil can perceive good.