Having already placed a haunting, psychological tale in a public convenience, starring Ryan Kwanten in Glorious, director Rebekah McKendry has established that she conveys stories from the most unusual setting. Her latest venture to hit Shudder, chooses to relocate to an elevator. The substance of the movie lays ground in an online phenomenon where people play a specific game to test their fears and the spectral myth that once you have ridden any elevator whilst stopping at a set order of floors, to invoke a ghost. The trick is to not open your eyes when you reach the fifth floor, or end up haunted to your own death by the female phantom.
Told from the perspective of high school graduates who run an online series debunking similar urban legends. They fall down on their luck when their sponsor threatens to pull the plug unless they can turn around a successful show by the turn of the week. Thankfully, or maybe not?, the team meets Ryan (Gino Anania) who presents them with the afore-mentioned game. The hook, or catch in this instance is that not only is the urban legend real, but Ryan’s sister may have been a victim and he believes the team are also responsible. Fuelled by vengeance and the search for truth beyond the known world, Ryan will go to all costs to seek it out.
The Prognosis:
I’ll be honest here. The thought of yet another social media horror feature immediately halted my need to watch this film, but it is markedly better than a few i’d like to mention.. Ahem Countdown or… cough Unfriended. Elevator Game does unfortunately share one characteristic though… unlikeable characters, so yes that in itself is part of the game, to watch these deviants get their comeuppance, but in this instance it comes at the cost of the film.
It’s fairly obvious who will end up in the finale, such is the predictability on show, but it’s still a fun ride. It also misses some of the humour present in Glorious too. Mark this up as a missed opportunity to elevate her career, but still promise that she may still reach the penthouse suite if McKendry keeps producing solid outings.
Upon its 10th instalment, the Saw franchise poses an interesting timeline for John Kramer (Tobin Bell) and his devoted followers in order to continue the journey through the various physical and psychological traps that the numerous victims have had to endure. I realise at the time of writing that the Saw film series has become an essential entry into the horror genre with its iconic visual conundrums, and a serial killer with a mantra to cleanse the world of the mistakes we make and thereby absolving humanity through an excruciating ordeal. Besides perhaps Scream, there hasn’t been a horror film series through the 2000s that has had the kind of impact and idiosyncratic themes that lure its audience in. There are some that may say that the franchise has strayed a little from the initial premise, getting lost within its own compendium of complexities focusing on the elaborate persecution devices. The last instalment, Spiral: From the Book of Saw starring Chris Rock promised to take the series into a whole new direction, and expand the metaverse while keeping the mystery and brutality of the original at its core. It also posed the first in the franchise not to star John Kramer in its fold, so it is somewhat surprising that the latest venture, Saw X marks a return of the serial killer and some other notable faces to boot. Although Rock’s multiverse vision was thwarted by lower than expected box office return, which could be why Twisted Pictures and Lionsgate Films chose to jump back into the realm, and pull into what made the series so great? That question probably speaks for itself, but let’s delve a little deeper.
The most prominent decision was to try and add a little empathy towards our loveable villain, a tricky concept to execute when we’ve spent eight stories of the macabre which does exactly the opposite. We love Kramer’s exploits because of his cold-hearted and callous approach to retribution. So, to try and fill a back story into his plight and facing the cancer demon that threatens his life, sits as an uncomfortable juxtaposition to his exploits. It is for good reason, but we’re treated to some meaty exposition to Kramer’s personal ordeal as he is conned by a group of experimental medics who promise a false dawn in treating his brain tumour. There’s even some tongue-in-cheek quips on his road to supposed salvation. One the half an hour / forty minute rug is pulled from under his feet, Kramer pulls out the WD-40 and oils down the elaborate machinery and sets to work enacting revenge on those who wronged him and the twisted fun truly begins. One thing’s for sure… never piss off John Kramer.
The traps themselves are delightfully disturbing albeit primitive when compared to the lengths that we’re used to. Then again, this fits nicely into the timeline, presumably set between Saw and Saw 2. It is however, the reintroduction of Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) that adds heart to the piece as she is being taken under Kramer’s wing and we’re not only reminded of her tragic story arc yet-to-come but also of Smith’s performance range, which has been much missed in later additions to the series. She also counter-balances Kramer’s personality who is consumed by his mantra. The moments of inner conflict that Amanda experience throughout the torture sequences is fundamental to hanging the false integrity that pilots Kramer, and the problematic stockholm syndrome facet that Amanda is presented with.
The Prognosis:
This latest instalment of the Saw franchise plays out like a love song to what made the series so great. While it never quite reaches the height of the macabre and twisted delights of the original trilogy, it does paint the story with a familiar trait, rekindling our love for the world of Saw with John Kramer and his cohorts. If you can be patient enough to sit through the opening act, fans of the series will be treated to some dark fun and relish in Kramer’s disturbing approach to retribution.
Having already established an impressive turn in Godless: The Eastfield Exorcism, Georgia Eyers turns out another remarkable performance for Steven Milhaljevich’s sophomore feature, Violett. The scene is set in harrowing circumstances as a series of child disappearances have dominated a small, local town. Sonya (Myers) is a tormented mother, who lives in fear with the local community, consumed by the shock and turmoil that these events have taken. For Sonya, who we learn is struggling with an undefined mental illness, struggles in a constant state of paranoia that her 11 year old daughter, Violett (Valentina Blagojevic) will be snatched away at any given moment.
Drifting through life in this perpetual frenzy that has left her stagnating in the world, dormant to the life around her and disconnected from her husband, Stan (Sam Dudley – The Dustwalker). It is through her mind snap that Sonya starts to suffer from visions that confound and complex her understanding and the lines of reality are blurred. Is there more to be uncovered from this affliction that she has come to endure? Can she really trust herself? And is there greater danger in exposing the truth?
The Prognosis:
Milhaljevich encapsulates what it means to wallow in grief and trauma, enhancing this emotion and draining away all other sentiment. His vision is all the more intensified through Eyers representation of a mother on the brink of sanity and existence; and Shane Piggot’s cinematography, which perfectly embodies the spirit of the piece and emboldens the surrealism.
All of these components lay weight to an experience that leaves its mark on the audience and demonstrates that Milhaljevich has a unique voice, and one that presents itself with a clear identity; one that will highlight any future ventures with decisive interest.
Here’s the thing with James Wan and the Conjuring Universe. The credo “if they don’t care, they don’t scare” runs strong with him. For Wan & co, scares are good, but tension is better.
Which instantly tells you, they think about their films. And by that, I mean, they seem to air-check. them. Especially new ones they enter into their franchise.
What evidence do we have to support this? Three off the top of our head, Annabelle Creation, The Conjuring 2 and Insidious 2. (Although before you get up in arms, YES we know technically Insidious isn’t part of the TCU, but spiritually it is – pun intended)
So, what do these movies have in common? Answer: they are all better than their chronological predecessor. (Although I’ll also admit this is a bit of a stretch with The Conjuring, as that was a pretty decent first outing. But its sequel is arguably at least as strong). And back to the point at hand, re: the other 2 films, as far as Annabelle (blah) and Insidious (paint-by-numbers) is concerned, their 2nd instalments are magnitudes better.
It’s as if the Wan production ethos is to sit down and say “Ok. I know we made money off these. films, but where can we make them better? And what mistakes can we eliminate?”.
If this is true, it’s a very egoless way to run a production company (very rare in real life). And regardless, the results speak for themselves; for whatever you think about the Wan cinematic. universe, you have to admit there is something to the formula he and his team have developed. Sure, their flicks are slick and therefore overtly “Hollywood”, but they are successful, and they are. not afraid to develop & improve within their mainstream constraints.
So, it was with this framework I went into the Nun II a little keen. After all, even taking OUT the above elements as a factor, the first film was so excrementally ordinary the filmmakers could have got an Ai bot to write the script (YIKE! Uber sensitive topic at the time I’m publishing this – be interesting to see how that all plays out, eh? Saul Muerte?) and it would have been better by a factor of 11.
Anyway – The Nun II picks up a year (We think…? It’s never really stated) after the first movie and 2 of our main leads are still with us. Taissa Farmiga’s Sister Irene, and Jonas Bloquet’s Maurice (Frenchie).
The 3rd lead from the first film – Demian Bichir’s Father Burke – we soon learn has died off camera. between movies. An accident? Or tactical foresight by Bichir? Maybe the demon did it…
For those of you who remember how we left it at the end of movie 1, The Nun was beaten, BUT Frenchie was exorcist style infected by it. So he’s like a bad guy now….
And this new film doesn’t forget that, but they also go the route that Frenchie doesn’t control the Nun possessing him; so he’s back to being a good guy, trying to stop the Nun from doing….what exactly?
Well, it turns out she needs him to kill a bunch of people who are protecting an artifact macguffin that will give her super-duper powers (or something) although the exact same artefact can inversely. destroy her (natch).
Sister Irene is then pitted along with a new sidekick Sister Debra, played by Missing’s Storm Reid) to take on The Nun in a school that is built over a deconsecrated monastery. (Frenchie works as a caretaker in that school, you see).
Cue jump scares and what not.
The main cast is mostly female – yet more fuel for anti-woke men to lose their shit over… oh won’t anybody think of the men!?? – with Narnia’s Anna Popplewell in the mix in a role thoroughly underwhelming for her talent.
For you see, the Wan sequel formulae has failed this instalment big time; to the point I’m having a hard time disbelieving he sat down in front of his team and said “Hey – in the spirit of switching things up, how about we make this one worse?”.
It had such a low bar to jump over, but the Nun II is not only ordinary, it commits the unforgiveable sin of not being scary. Like… at all. The movie at best has about 2 to 3 creepy moments, and that’s it. The plot is holey (geddit) and internal logic wise, it just makes no sense. Even down to who the Nun actually is. At several points she seems to appear in several guises at once as her nun avatar and its original demon form Valek; but if it has the ability to be in more than 2 places at once in multiple forms, then why does it even bother? By definition such power makes it impossible to beat, as she can be anywhere she wants to be, yet it seems to go out of its way to not kill anyone (unless it’s a random character we don’t care about – see 2nd sentence of this review) and its ability to appear in different forms at different (or the same) time have no logical consistency at all.
Tassia Farmiga is utterly charmless (which is partially the fault of her character. But even if she is an unworldly emissary of God, she can still be funny, or witty, or steely or something! Instead, she presents as older and boring-er than she was the first-time round). Plus, several other characters make some truly idiotic decisions.
The Prognosis:
Not just disappointing, it’s completely pointless. And to prove this with facts, it’s box office return is already TRIPLE its budget. In an age where the inmates run the asylum, what further proof do you need? Nun.
Saving Grace is an example of what Australian filmmakers do well; embellish the natural beauty of the landscape, whilst exposing the hidden dangers both in topography and in the psychology of those who walk the country.
The directing, writing partnership of Gareth Carr and David Sullivan work well together in slowly drawing out these concealments of character, ebbing away at the exterior to expose the true intentions.
Sarah (Kirsty McKenzie – Magic) is a live-in care worker, who discovers her patient has passed away. Seeking a chance for change, Sarah abandons the chaos of city life to take up residence in a serene, idyllic location to look after an elderly lady (the titular Grace). Grace is incapacitated and mute, so requires 24 hour care as a result.
Surrounded by waterways, Sarah seeks refuge during her downtime, but the remote setting is shared by the resident gardener, Albert (Gary Boulter – Skinford), a man who’s friendly demeanour warrants closer scrutiny, as does his tale of Grace’s past.
This is only part of Sarah’s concerns though, as she begins to have dark visions, forcing her to plough headlong into ominous terrain where every choice is questioned, and suspicions heightened.
The Prognosis:
Kirsty McKenzie is profound in her portrayal of Sarah, twisting and turning through every decision she makes, as the narrative equally flitters in an unpredictable way. It’s a compelling approach by the film makers, allowing for our trust to reside in the characters and the land in which it is set. Trust though, is the very thing that we, the viewer, can not rely upon. Beauty is only skin deep and just as our eyes rely upon what we see, this can be deceptive, allowing Carr and Sullivan to play with our senses, and our securities, before veering us into a entrancing-yet-disturbing direction.
When Jack Dignan launched his directorial debut feature, After She Died at A Night of Horror International Film Festival last year, it came with a bold, well-structured, pot-boiler of a movie that etched out the pangs of grief with minute detail. It was enough to make one sit up and take notice, eager to know where Dignan would go next in his creative celluloid venture.
This year, he has chosen to serve a familiar tale woven through the theme of a broken psyche. Choosing to self-rehabilitate at a secluded house in the woods (always a troublesome sign), a young drug addict, Kate (Kaitlyn Boyé – The Furies) is accompanied by her older sister, Olivia (Laneikka Denne) to aid her through the process, As the night unfolds, and they unpack the shared and isolated trauma that the siblings have gone through, the inadvertently fall through the cracks of time and dimension, trapped in a continuing vortex of sequences, fighting to find their way out of their turmoil.
The Puzzle Box is a metaphor for the predicament that the sisters find themselves in as each door within the remote house opens and slides different sections of time and dimensions, in a convoluted vessel of complexities that will force the pair to search deep within themselves and solve the paradox.
Dignan hones his visual prowess in this film, choosing to use a found footage approach to the narrative through his cinematography to convey his concept. The result is an unsettling, and nauseating feel to the final product to deliberately set the viewer off kilter. To double the sense of dread, we’re also presented with a screaming, ‘banshee-like-woman’ (Gotta love a good banshee!!) to hound and barrage both Kate and the audience in a relentless pursuit, that seems to have no end.
The Prognosis:
Jack Dignan comes out swinging for his sophomore feature and delivers a haunting and harrowing journey into a paranoia filled rabbit hole. The shifts and turns are deliberately jarring and part of Puzzle Box’s charm is the unsettling way he drags the viewer down and pulls you along the disturbing pathway into a perpetual void.
Ursula Dabrowsky has been slowly crafting her Demon Trilogy to continue her fascination with demonic possession and the fragility of the human mind. Where Family Demons (2009) and Inner Demon (2014) fostered the fears and anxieties that unfold through isolation and complexities of a disturbing or unsettled ménage, her third instalment, Devil’s Work grounds these ideas and gradually shifts the sands of perspectives in an almost seamless single take.
Once again, Dabrowsky chooses a remote setting as her playground, following a couple, Charlie (Cassandra Kane) and Dustin (Mark Fantasia (Bad Girl Boogey) who plan a romantic getaway at a quiet cottage away from life’s ailments; only to be hounded by Charlie’s sibling, Linda (Luca Asta Sardelis – Storm Boy).
Dabrowsky delightfully unfolds the traumatic episode with ripples of paranoia, meticulously crafting a simmering storyline, ready to boil over at any given moment.
As the audience is tantalisingly told about Lindy by her sibling Charlie, we begin to paint the picture of a disturbed mind, who is on the brink of sanity, harbouring some ill feelings and terrorised by a darkness that consumes her. Once the scene is set or our predetermined ideas settle about Lindy and her deranged behaviour, the audience is then presented with a harrowing notion; Charlie and Dustin are not alone. Somehow Lindy has found out where they are and is about to rip apart any ideals of mystique that the couple had hoped would be born out of their weekend.
It is the solitude that will haunt them and determine if they are to survive their ordeal and the extremes that Lindy will put them through.
The Prognosis:
Every family has their ailments, but what if a sibling was so dangerously unhooked that a very real danger could threaten your world?
Ursula Dabrowsky is well and truly in her comfort zone, revisiting similar themes for her third feature. Beneath this simple premise is a dark and disturbing tale that moulds itself around you and slowly consumes you.
Dabrowsky not only has the gift of piloting the voyeur through a disconcerting vision, but she is also ably supported by cinematographer, Maxx Corkindale to lure into a false trance, before subjecting us with Luca Asta Sardellis’ wonderfully fractured portrayal of Lindy.
These are how stories should be told to unsettle the soul.
Writer, director Joe Lo Truglio makes a curious choice for his feature length directorial debut.
We initially side with Kate (Beth Dover – Orange Is The New Black) a victim of domestic violence, but decides to remain head strong and vigilant in her recovery process.
Her decision is somewhat marred however as she ventures to a remote location to mend her wounds, which just so happens to be an outpost designed to spot fires in the surrounding woodland and alert the authorities to prevent widespread.
The issue is that by segregating herself from the world, albeit within range of a local town community, she not only is running away from her fears but is also doing so in a place where she is forced to live with her own thoughts, surrounded by the threat of danger, lurking at any moment. Naturally, Kate is on hyper alert at all times nursing herself through the aftermath of a traumatic experience.
All of this bodes well in theory and people seem to be bending over backwards to support her needs so that she can feel that sense of accomplishment, but things soon start to unravel as her paranoia sets in and her trepidation escalates.
It is from this point that there are clumsy choices that soon push the viewer from empathy to disdain, as gradually Kate goes from victim to assailant, acting out her pent up aggression and unleashes on all who cross her path.
Whilst you can understand the transgression, the twists and turns she takes in order to get there are drastic, forcing the viewer to disconnect with our initial protagonist and abandoned without any sense of direction or where their loyalty should belong.
The Prognosis:
For a debut feature, Joe Lo Truglio goes bold, but fails to pull off his vision due to a lack of cohesion, nor depth in his skill set for it to land successfully.
A lot of promise, but ultimately stranding the audience without a solid ground from which to draw conclusions from.
– Saul Muerte
Outpost (2022) is available on major streaming platforms in UK & Ireland from September 11th and Australia & NZ from September 13th.
It’s clear from the get-go that this film is Director Adrian Langley’s love song for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Butchers follows a similar path, or should I say journey?. as we follow a small group of friends travelling across the remote Canadian landscape when their car breaks down ala Wrong Turn. Instead of inbred hillbillies, they encounter a pair of sadistic butchers who have taken the law into their own hands. If anyone dares to enter their domain, it’s fair game and there’s a strong possibility that they could be carved on the cutting block
While it tends to stick along the line of predictability, there is a little more going on beneath the engine of a cannibalistic gorefest. Langley and his writing partner Daniel Weissenberger take the literal concept of butchery to the extreme as the barbarous Watson brothers, Owen (Simon Phillips) and Oswald (Michael Swatton) take pleasure in kidnapping and impregnating women with plans of breeding them for more meat. This warped outlook makes for gruesome viewing in spite of walking the all-too-familiar lines of a well-trodden formula.
Naturally, our would-be-victims fight tooth and nail for survival, making ridiculous choices along the way to meet their demise, including battling their own internal conflicts, but the performance holds strong enough to keep you engaged throughout, most notably Phillips’ smart and gruelling butcher and potential final girl in the mix, Julie Mainville.
The Prognosis:
Much like his more recent feature Bunker, Adrian Langley offers a mediocre-yet-fun movie that puts the characters through the paces. The tension mounts with a steady pace, and the conflicts are torturous on the right side of entertainment.
It may not offer anything new or even stretch the realms of originality, but Butchers is a tough ride that will apply the hook and keep you gripped to the end.
Saul Muerte
Butchers is currently streaming on VOD and available for Home Entertainment.
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, writer/director Laura Moss transforms the classic Gothic tale with a modern, gritty and rooted interpretation and one which elevates a tragic perspective of its two female leads.
Our Doctor Frankenstein in this instance is Morgue Technician, Dr. Rose Casper (expertly portrayed by Marin Ireland – The Dark and the Wicked) who’s obsession with raising the dead has brought her on the brink of humanity. So vastly disconnected from the world around her, Rose delivers an icy, cold and blunt demeanour, warding anyone away from her.
Rose’s methods lead her to an encounter with maternity nurse, Celie (Judy Reyes – Smile) who works ungodly hours to support her only daughter, Lila. When Lila suddenly dies, Celie’s world crumbles into grief, but unbeknownst to her, Rose has taken the body to perform her experiments and has successfully brought Lila back to life. When she first finds out, Celie is angered by the subterfuge, but soon realises that she can have a second chance of life with her daughter and before long forms a bond with the wayward Doctor Rose; one that would lead them both down a macabre, and deeply immoral path.
The Prognosis:
While it’s fair to say that there’s strength in the basis of Frankenstein for this film, Laura Moss and her co-writer Brendan J. O’Brien transforms a catastrophically modern take and weaves a deep narrative, mixed with strong performances from its two leads. Dr Rose, is candid and abrasive, content to sit on the periphery of society, and Celie forced to accompany her through the grief of losing her child. This unlikely duo is the heart of the movie and draws you into their world as a result.
The script is tightly woven together, allowing the characters to have equal opportunity to shine in its darkly lit limelight. It also takes a bold rise out of life’s slough to provide moments of bleak humour to pepper through its macabre tone.
Laura Moss captures the pulsating beat of its inspiration and amplifies with a delightfully twisted take for a contemporary audience.