The Mothman Prophecies (2002)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

How have we not had a great movie about the Mothman yet? It’s one of the creepiest urban legends in American folklore and one of the spookiest series of events to unfold, and we still don’t have a compelling horror film about the phenomenon yet. Richard Gere stars as reporter Jeff Klein, a man who travels to West Virginia to potentially buy a new house with his wife Mary (Debra Messing). While driving home, Mary is frightened to her wits by a red winged demon that causes them to veer off the road and hit her head on the glass.

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Eyes in the Dark (2010)

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Say what you want about the found footage sub-genre, but director Bjorn Anderson smartly takes from “Cloverfield” and builds an intriguing gimmick. Naming his movie “Eyes in the Dark” leads the audience in to a very tightly wound and spooky found footage horror film where a group of hapless individuals wander in to the Cascades and are stalked and hunted by glowing red eyes in the dark. Part of the fun is finding out what the red glowing eyes are, and the mystery of the unknown is a valuable tool that director Anderson implements for his audience.

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Kill (2011)

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Much as I hate to admit it, “Saw 2” pretty much aced the concept of the strangers waking up in mysterious circumstances scenario that’s become so prevalent in modern horror. Directors Chad Archibald, and Gabriel Carrer don’t even seem to try with “Kill,” which is just another variation on the premise from “Saw 2,” except “Kill” is filled with so much more inconsistencies. Not to mention the cast is filled with terrible actors portraying obnoxious characters that literally do nothing but bicker and argue from the first moment they wake up in a mysterious house.

A group of people wake up in a house that’s been boarded up and barred down. They soon realize they’re being terrorized by a mysterious entity watching them, and proclaims that in order to survive and make it home to their significant others, they have to kill each other. Nope, this isn’t “Battle Royale,” although I’d bet the parallels aren’t a mistake. The surviving member of the group gets to go home. I think. Why are the victims awoken in white clothing? Who knows? What is the relevance of the connection that inevitably rises to the surface in the middle of the terror? I wasn’t sure, and I immediately stopped trying to care. What do the tiki men signify? What’s with all the imagery of knights and medieval drapery? And what are the TV’s even for?

Details and plot devices are brought up and abruptly rendered invalid moments later, and there’s just no plot progression until the final twenty minutes. There are even stunning moments of sheer stupidity, like when one of the characters confirms one of the victims has a pulse, prompting another character to ask “Is he alive?” And you have to enjoy how the characters break free from the house while a character screams “Stop! This is someone’s house!” The production is pretty poor as well, with bad editing, and really dicey direction that never fulfills the intended illusion of claustrophobia and paranoia. One of the most distracting elements of “Kill” that tore me out of the narrative was the bad sound.

I don’t know if the rooms on the sets echoed, or if there was ambient sound dripping in to the movie set, but every piece of dialogue sounds canned. So much so that you could almost swear the movie was dubbed. There’s a lot of really ambiguous plot elements brought up and featured with no real clarification, and truthfully I never cared to ponder what I’d seen. I was just happy it ended. “Kill” is terrible because it feels incomplete, rushed, and incredibly half hearted. Almost as if the directors just made points up as they went along. I’m also assuming the directors thought they’d lay the ground work for a follow up. I don’t think there’s any kind of material available for another droning ninety minutes of pointless violence and a script that’s one note and with zero narrative.

The Devil Incarnate (2013)

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

Gustavo Cooper skids the surface of a gimmick with “The Devil Incarnate” jumping from found footage, to pseudo-mockumentary, to classic narrative, and meta-horror erratically. And to the point where it becomes incredibly frustrating. “The Devil’s Incarnate” jumps between formats so much that it seems to try to unfold its narrative through these various formats to really emphasize the true horror of the scenario. And while you think that’d lead in to a very innovative and creepy horror film, it’s really just half baked and utterly mediocre when all is said and done. I can understand why people are sick of found footage movies, but what I’m sicker of these days are retreads of “Rosemary’s Baby.” And at least that story had something to say.

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Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

I never thought I’d hate a post apocalyptic movie for being too grim and miserable. But surely enough one of the biggest downfalls of “Vanishing on 7th Street” is that it’s so downbeat it cuts off any chance of entertainment. I know that grim and hopeless moods come with tales about the end of the world, but director Brad Anderson almost has nothing to do with his premise and concept, thus he revolves his story around a series of very unlikable characters. It’s a shame considering director Brad Anderson is such a competent often brilliant director, but he’s behind the camera lensing what is an obviously incomplete movie.

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Frailty (2001)

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

It’s indicative of the kind of veteran Bill Paxton is that he would choose “Frailty” as his first directorial outing to bring to audiences in 2001. Paxton approaches Brent Hanley’s script with a brilliance and very low key delivery that keeps “Frailty” one of the best horror mysteries ever conceived and yet one constantly over looked. This is a film where even McConaughey manages to shine in his lead performance, and I’m rarely one to endorse his acting abilities. “Frailty” is one of those horror movies that sneak up on you, presuming to be one kind of animal, when it’s a whole other sinister animal entirely.

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Deadly Weekend (2013)

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Felix Vasquez

“Deadly Weekend” (AKA “Zellwood”) is one of those very poorly put together horror movies where every aspect of the production is shaky. So much so that you can sense the cast spend more time struggling not to acknowledge the camera than they do trying to get in to character. There’s even a very brief introduction in the beginning involving the owner of an airboat in the film and his daughters. The two tween actors spend their screen time so blatantly trying to stay in the scene without ruining the take, that it’s pretty embarrassing. Sadly, they play key roles in the narrative, mid-way.

“Deadly Weekend” is yet another back woods horror slasher about a group of friends having one last booze and fuck fest before they all move away from one another. Model and former playmate Sara Jean Underwood is pushed front and center for this eighty minute waste of time, for the simple fact that she’s not only the most notable name in the cast, but is pretty damn gorgeous. Director Sutton is wise to feature her in as many skimpy outfits as possible, including a tank top that barely clings to her for most of the movie. Not surprisingly Underwood is not much of an actress, and the movie itself just feels like cobbled together takes all edited to present the illusion of a seamless narrative.

If you’re investing time in “Deadly Weekend” for the sake of ogling Underwood, just look her pictures up online. You’ll save yourself some IQ points. Director Jason Sutton’s film amounts to literally nothing, watching like a lame student horror film where the script was a mere after thought. Instead there’s a ton of gore and torture effects, all of which have zero impact, because we never get to know or like the heroes, and we never get to really fear the villains. The latter of which are so utterly over the top and cartoonish, it’s tough to believe anyone could have a difficult time battling them, let alone four very fit thirty year olds.

The villains are utterly inexplicable and their introductions so random, I had a hard time forcing back laughter most of the time. Sutton fills the movie up with so much filler and padding that you could literally edit the movie to forty minutes and length and probably come out with something a little less embarrassing. From the overlong red herring opening scenes, to the endless rambling dialogue between the characters that bear no relevance to the movie’s resolution, “Deadly Weekend” mainly just seems to want to build up to the blood soaked finale. You can’t really root for four people that camp out near a muddy lake while their busty girlfriends work on their tan during an obviously cloudy afternoon. Production aside, “Deadly Weekend” is really just an empty, ridiculous horror entry that brings nothing to table. The acting is horrific, the script is paper thin, and the ultimate resolution is pitiful.