This movie is a big step up for director Ti West whose debut film was like an immature fan boy’s homage to everything schlocky, while his sophomore film was nothing more than a terrible sequel to a rather terrible film. West matures considerably with what is basically a slow boil homage to the seventies that is obviously inspired by the classic “Rosemary’s Baby.” Everything from the marketing campaign to the posters works under the pretense that this is a time capsule of the seventies, an unexplored gem from that decade that many haven’t quite explored yet.
Tag Archives: Indie Film
Massacrator (2010)
Watching “Massacrator” is frantic, jarring and violent, and in the end you feel very violated. I had every reason to love Pierre Ayote’s ode to Grindhouse silliness but instead I just couldn’t jibe with what was happening on-screen. Being a simultaneous ode to everything from Grindhouse to science fiction we meet Massacrator, a borg sent in to the present (or future?) to… kill a girl, I think. After decapitating a few poor suckers, he makes his way to a young woman who manages to get away just in time to avoid his super punch.
Why Hire a Killer? (2009)
I always say that you can tell if a movie is going to be really good or flat out stink by the first ten minutes. And that’s because the first ten minutes is when any sensible filmmaker starts off with a hook. It’s a device that gives us something of a bang for our buck that convinces us to stay or just flat out leave it out in the cold for someone else to deal with. Sadly, “Why Hire a Killer?” leaves very little reason to stick with it. Judging by the five minute long opening credits, Director Oscar Sanders really doesn’t have the ability yet to hit us with a hook.
Nice Knowing You (2009)
Director Joe Burke is a man seen around these parts for the last two or three years and he’s a man who has managed to spawn some great reviews from yours truly who has been so far impressed with what his indie shorts have to offer. A man of many genres, Burke best knows how to capture that twenty something sentiment enabling his cast to work within their limits while painting the portraits of cities that are darker than our own and lives that seem to be nothing but heading for a dead end romantically and emotionally. Past efforts like “Coop’s Night In” have proven that he knows how to portray actual characters on screen without any need to exaggerate what we’re seeing.
Cabbie (2009) (2nd Cut)
Back in 2007, director Donlee Brussel submitted a film to our website called “Cabbie.” It was a short comedy about a cabbie played by Steve Gelder who approaches his job with passion and a stiff tongue in cheek attitude. The movie was less than watchable up viewing the short. Two years later, Donlee Brussel has taken his original twenty minute short comedy and reduced it to fourteen minutes with a heavily edited final product that has a more definite and even tone as opposed to the last cut that needed some drastic work on the comedic atmosphere and storytelling. Was this second chance worth it from Brussel? Honestly no.
Season's Greetings (1996)
Back in the late nineties to early millennium there was a series on the Science Fiction channel here in America called “Exposure,” it was a fantastic take on a mini film festival by taking experienced indie directors and showing off some of the best and worst short films they could dole out to the audience. In the meantime we also were able to see early works from legendary filmmakers in Hollywood. “Season’s Greetings” was one of the best I’ve ever seen.
Upstairs (2006)
Writer-Director Mark Howell’s short is one of the finest examples of short horror cinema I’ve seen in a while. He wastes no time in explaining his characters to us, leaves our experience completely ambiguous and also leaves me wanting a sequel. When a young couple happen upon a house being sold in a seemingly mundane neighborhood, they decide to buy it under the house’s value and are talked in to the purchase by a content realtor who seems to know the house’s ins and outs as the new buyers prepare to move.