Dante Yore’s “Fear Pham” is three quarters a really good Halloween horror film, and one quarter an absolutely ridiculous waste o time. It’s a shame because for most of “Fear Pharm,” I was genuinely lost in the engaging concept and entertaining mix of horror and comedy. Yore has a great concept with a narrative that’s mostly smooth and interesting. Yore makes good use of limited scenery while also building entertaining and sympathetic protagonists forced in to an absurd but creepy circumstance.
Tag Archives: Survival
Slumber Party Massacre II (1987)
The “Slumber Party Massacre” movie series has never really been too much of a straight faced horror movie franchise. The original film is a dark, silly bit of slasher fodder that is famous mainly for its title. The sequel from Deborah Brock basically takes the whole series in a direction that’s bizarre, completely unusual, and borrows very much from 1985’s “Freddy’s Revenge” with its strong and blatant LGBTQ overtones.
Get The Hell Out (2020)
Wang Yo-Wei works as a security guard at parliament and is regarded as a loser by others. One day during a Parliament session, as a fatal virus is spreading inside the parliament, the MPs are infected and become zombies. Strangely, Wang proves to be only one immune to the virus. Together with his girlfriend Xiong, they not only fight their way out but also save many lives.
Shortcut (2020)
I admit that I was a bit hesitant during “Shortcut” as it seems to meander back and forth between time lines and whatnot. However, during the final half, Alessio Liguori’s “Shortcut” finds a path and sticks to it, offering a horror movie with great substance. “Shortcut” is a mix of It Chapter One” and “Jeepers Creepers 2” (sans the uh… uncomfortable pedo overtones) and really sucked me in as a creepy, weird, and engaging tale of coming of age in the face of a dark force on a deserted highway.
For The Sake of Vicious (2019) [Fantasia Festival 2020]
The visceral raw energy and violence of Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen’s “For the sake of Vicious” is bound to be compared to the masterpieces like “The Green Room” very soon. The set up at least conjures up memories of “Assault on Precinct 13” except in a smaller scale. In either case, it’s a classic white knuckle home invasion siege thriller that spares no one, even when it successfully builds on empathetic and fascinating protagonists.
Alone (2020) [Fantasia Fest 2020]
John Hyams’ “Alone” begins kind of sketchy. In fact I spent the first fifteen minutes not quite sure where the screenplay was going, if anywhere. But sticking with it, I’m glad to discover that “Alone” is one of the best and most exciting thrillers of the year. While it does get off to kind of a sputter, it transforms in to a journey of self discovery and evolution for a woman who is shambles when we first meet her. By the end, she has to figure out if she can keep charging head first in to the world, or if she wants to recede back in to the night.
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.