Yummy (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2020]

A young woman travels to a remote plastic surgery clinic to get a breast reduction with her boyfriend and her mother who loves getting plastic surgery. Once there, things go sideways and a virus is unleashed in the clinic, making the people therein ravenous and crazed.

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Padmavyuha (2020)

Raj Krishna is a fantastic director, one who has promise to bring audiences entertainment with substance. While I’m never a big fan of films about religion and affirming religion, it’s a good change of pace to see a film like “Padmavyuha” that explore the complex and unique dimensions of Hinduism and how a man struggles with his core beliefs and his all encompassing faith.

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Yummy (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2020]

Now Streaming Exclusively on Shudder

Lars Damoiseaux’s “Yummy” reminded me a lot of the sub-plot in Robert Altman’s “The Player” where the two aspiring executives have an idea for the opening of a drama. Tim Robbins’ character snickers behind their backs that they have a movie with no second act. “Yummy” is a movie with a great concept, but no real execution behind it. It’s a gory darkly comic zombie movie set in a plastic surgeon’s office… and then… not much else happens beyond that.

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A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio (2019)

“On this stormy night, we are going to tell horror stories, because horror stories never end.”

I’m a big fan of the concept where studios or a collective of directors take various short films from indie directors and create anthology horror films in the vein of “Tales from the Darkside” or “V/H/S/.” The idea is a great one and opens up a broader audience, and allows them some great exposure. “A Night of Horror: Nightmare Radio,” is one of the many that’s come along, mixing seven stellar horror shorts told by a lone radio DJ in the middle of the night.

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Perfect (2018)

I’m all for psychologically challenging genre fare, especially in a time where most directors and actors are convinced that many modern audiences aren’t interested in that kind of entertainment anymore. With “Perfect,” Eddie Alcazar taps in to the type of dark science fiction that can be placed beside “2001” and “Waking Life” as just pure utter mind fucks that will leave your head spinning. Alcazar’s sheer visual brilliance sadly tends to mask a narrative that otherwise has no real direction or pretty much anything of real merit to say.

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