Clif Prowse and Derek Lee’s “Afflicted” is a mix of “Innocent Blood,” and Cronenberg’s “The Fly,” with a hefty injection of “Chronicle.” It’s rife with cliches, predictable plot twists, and is about ten minutes too long. But in spite of all of that, I’d definitely suggest “Afflicted” to horror fans. Because while it’s retreaded horror fodder, it’s well directed, tightly edited, and solidly performed horror fodder to say the least. I knew what was coming, but I was also very much invested in the characters. I also really enjoyed the special effects.
Tag Archives: Thriller
Captain America (1979)
Oh Reb Brown, where would cinema be without you? Without Brown, we wouldn’t have had the 1979 Television movie “Captain America,” a movie so inept, it can’t even mimic Evel Knievel well. Brown is Steve Rogers for some reason, who came back from the war, and now drives around in a very kick ass van that also sports his favorite motorcycle. He’s a an ex-Marine/surfer/artist/motorcycle racer who also happens to be involved with a scientist developing a new formula for super strength (with the acronym F.L.A.G.), so while he’s helping develop a potentially groundbreaking formula for humanity, he is constantly moping around about the war and his lack of money. The sad fact is that the serum can only work for the Rogers blood line. Why? Because it’s a Captain America movie.
Fargo (1996)
Leave it to the Coen Brothers to provide movie audiences with a crime heroine that we’d never really see coming at some of the worst criminals around. Marge Gunderson is not your typical gumshoe and probably never really desired to be one growing up. She’s a small town simple woman who is about to give birth to a baby, and only really works until she is able to head off to the hospital. But things go from mundane to extraordinary when what seems like a random series of homicides on a snowy road side turns in to a very disastrous plot to extort and embezzle money out of a car dealership.
Last of the Living (2009)
What’s worse than a bad zombie movie? A bad zombie where the zombies are painfully easy to kill. How can you be terrified of zombies that can be killed by drum sticks and golf clubs? It’s also a lot of fun when the director can’t seem to decide if his zombies are shamblers or runners. Sometimes they run, sometimes they shamble around in a sleepy haze. Sometimes they bite relentlessly, but when lunging at our characters, they’re easier to fight than a toddler with a full diaper. Which is a shame, because nine times out of ten, the zombies look creepy as all hell, while director Logan McMillan manages to paint a pretty atmospheric apocalypse. For the first fifteen minutes, at least.
Contracted (2013) (DVD)
You can definitely look at director Eric England’s horror drama in two plains. You can either watch it as a gory tale of a woman rotting gradually in to something beyond herself, or you can look at it as a metaphorical tale of a woman rotting in to the ugly being she’s probably always been her entire life. When you cut it down, the character Samantha is the protagonist, but never really is an empathetic individual. She’s this lecherous, vapid, and utterly narrow minded being who does nothing but ride on people’s good will and expects big returns. That’s not to say she deserves what is coming to her, but who’s to say her final transformation isn’t what she’s been her entire life?
Knights of Badassdom (2014) [Blu-Ray]
Hopefully someday we’ll be able to see the director’s cut of “Knights of Badassdom” as originally envisioned by Joe Lynch. Truth be told, he’s a very talented director, and I’d be more than willing to watch this again. Anything with Summer Glau gets a free pass by me. In its current state as the Producer’s Cut, “Knights of Badassdom” is still a great horror comedy that takes a bunch of LARPERs and drops them smack dab in the middle of a horrific situation involving a flesh eating demon with the face of a goddess.
Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
I didn’t think it was possible, but Greg McLean has managed to create a sequel to “Wolf Creek” that’s even more despicable than the first. Almost ten years later, Greg McLean has seemingly come up dry in the realm of new ideas for his character Mick Taylor, and apparently fulfills a contract, judging by the quality of this long in development follow up to his terrible 2005 horror film. Not only does “Wolf Creek 2” drop the pretense of a narrative, but it reduces the entire film to nothing but a string of really violent deaths, turning Mick Taylor in to a maniac who kills just because he has nothing else to do. Director McLean revels in cruel and disgusting murders that are repetitive and senseless and lacks any and all ability to provide scares, tension, and a genuine sense of unease. It’s just a large maniac running around destroying people left and right, and nothing else.