{"id":15893,"date":"2015-07-10T17:00:43","date_gmt":"2015-07-10T21:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=15893"},"modified":"2015-07-10T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2015-07-10T21:00:43","slug":"the-murders-of-brandywine-theater-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/10\/the-murders-of-brandywine-theater-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"The Murders of Brandywine Theater (2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s refreshing in this day and age that some indie filmmakers aren\u2019t just content with splattering the audience with red ooze and goo and calling it a horror film. There are some filmmakers that really want to convey a story, and Larry Longstreth seems to be one of those directors who aren\u2019t happy with just grossing people out. \u201cThe Murders of Brandywine Theater\u201d is a complex, and very unique horror film that isn\u2019t just eerie, but it\u2019s also damn spooky to boot. To say Moxxy is a creepy antagonist really is underplaying the top notch puppetry that\u2019s put to work here. Moxxy seems very rigid when we first see him, but soon enough he not only begins to take on his own life, but his limited expression make him a menace to be reckoned with.<\/p>\n

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Every frame of \u201cThe Murders of Brandywine Theater\u201d feels meticulously crafted to unfold a narrative that\u2019s built around suppression and the manifestation of our darkest persona conveyed through a simple puppet. Henry Kosta is certainly a man who\u2019s spent his entire life being repressed, and suppressed, and he can only find an outlet through his one friend, his ventriloquist dummy Moxxy. Moxxy (voiced brilliantly by Les Claypool) is a wise cracking and nasty little creation that begins taking on a life of his own when Henry subconsciously decides that he\u2019s had enough of being pushed around and mocked by everyone. Soon the question becomes if the dog is wagging his tail or if the tail is wagging the dog, and the body count begins to rise. \u201cThe Murders of Brandywine Theater\u201d never resorts to cheap slasher movie tropes, and instead focuses on the impact of said murders and the resonance they strike with Henry in the long run.<\/p>\n

Longstreth has every chance to up the body count, but instead opts to explore the damage crucial deaths play in the development of Moxxy. The more people die, the more Moxxy comes alive, and Henry loses control of the puppet before he decides to put a stop to his chaos. The editing is slick and really manages to toy with audiences perceptions of who is controlling whom, and who is really committing the murders in the long run. Surely, Moxxy is taking on some form of cognizance, but isn\u2019t he just delivering on what Henry secretly desires? Is Henry just as guilty as Moxxy for murder? I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention the excellent performance by Dian Bachar, who seems to disintegrate from the inside out the more Moxxy gains strength.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s intentional or not, Bachar seems to waste away as he submits to the dummy\u2019s violent urges, prompting a battle of wills between him and his alter ego. There\u2019s also some wonderful supporting turns by Danielle Lozeau who plays Mindy, the object of Henry\u2019s affection, as well as Martin Klebba, and Dallas Page, just to name a few. \u201cThe Murders of Brandywine Theater\u201d is a very cerebral and complex thriller that succeeds in creating a spooky, and very ominous villain who is center stage in a truly scary story I definitely wanted more of. With shades of \u201cThe Twilight Zone,\u201d Batman, and \u201cMagic,\u201d Longstreth and co. have quite an accomplishment on their hands.<\/p>\n

Now available on PPV\/VOD (Comcast, Time Warner & COX).<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s refreshing in this day and age that some indie filmmakers aren\u2019t just content with splattering the audience with red ooze and goo and calling it a horror film. There are some filmmakers that really want to convey a story, and Larry Longstreth seems to be one of those directors who aren\u2019t happy with just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[240,259,302,477,501,617,703,809,874,1087],"class_list":["post-15893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-indie","category-movie-reviews","tag-crime","tag-dark-comedy","tag-drama","tag-horror","tag-indie-film","tag-m","tag-mystery","tag-puppets","tag-romance","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15895,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15893\/revisions\/15895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}