Grab your stapler or whatever you can find to turn your office utensils into a weapon as The Belko Experiment sets up this Battle Royale fight for survival.
Greg McLean follows up his disappointing feature The Darkness with this highly enjoyable movie that pits peers against peers where there can be only one person to survive.
Although the film does fall into predictable terrain, The Belko Experiment has a strong enough cast to propel the narrative along and provide the audience with the sort of delights that brought McLean to the attention of horror film lovers with Wolf Creek.
John Gallagher Jr who’s is fast making some smart choices following Mike Flanagan’s Hush and 10 Cloverfield Lane plays the heart of the movie, striving to keep everyone alive whilst sticking to his strong principles.
To counter his stance are some prolific performances from Tony Goldwyn (Scandal) and John C McGinley (Scrubs) alongside some comedic elements delivered by Josh Brener (Silicon Valley) and Sean Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, and writer for this film) to inject some much-needed humour into the macabre environment find themselves in.
And I haven’t even mentioned Michael Rooker’s involvement into the proceedings which is highly welcoming and an example of how awesome he can be despite his short screen time.
The Belko Experiment romps along with some awesome set pieces that feel realistic and not just shoved into place for the gore factor.
By its conclusion the movie rewards with a potential for further franchise development among a faceless nemesis in a human experiment that is purely set up on the basis of some ‘bigwigs’ scientific enjoyment.
McLean could well be back to finding his voice again, and with the Daniel Radcliffe film, Jungle next on the horizon, there’s more promise that this success will continue.
Of all the movies listed in the SUFF schedule, It Stains The Sands Red was the one that had me the most intrigued.
Directed by Colin Minihan, one half of the Vicious Brothers who brought Grave Encounters to the screen, but don’t let that deter you from seeing this movie.
Although, much like our last review on The Bad Batch and the podcast on It Comes At Night, the trailer much belies the film.
I did wonder how the premise of a woman stranded out in the Nevada desert during a zombie apocalypse whilst being pursued by a a lone walking dead, could possibly maintain its narrative without straining at the seems.
Whilst it does struggle in places, there is some nice enough moments broken with flashbacks detailing Molly’s dilemma.
Having fallen from grace and found her life spiral out of control Molly has landed in with a questionable crowd.
Heavily reliant on drugs, her clouded mind begins to clear as she is forced to endure the environment and head for an airport and ultimately salvation.
The fact that It Stains The Sands Red never shies away from what it means to be a woman from dealing with menstruation and turning that into empowerment is a huge salute to Minihan’s direction.
Brittany Allen cuts a fine performance as our lead Molly who is believable as we learn that she had left behind her son in what she believes is the safe hands of her sister.
The realisation soon sinks in that she must act, and take responsibility for him by getting back to him but not before going through a journey of humiliation, desperation, and appreciation.
One could argue that the BIG flaw of this film comes in the guise of the afore-mentioned Zombie, who Molly dubs Smalls after the size of his appendage.
But to state that means that you miss the point of the film, where Molly must find redemption in order to get her life back on track.
Her domestication of Smalls, ultimately lends her to adapt and by looking out for him, she can take on the skills she needs to look after her son once again.
By the time the film concludes, Molly could easily stand shoulder to shoulder with Ash (Evil Dead) in Her battle for survival.
Yes, she is a bad-ass, but needed to be forced into the unimaginable to get there.
This might not be for everyone and those expected an all-out gore fest in the heart of a desert wasteland maybe sorely disappointed, but I for one really enjoyed It Stains The Blood Red and feel that Minihan is growing from strength to strength as a director.
Cannibalism, amputees, Jason Mamoa, and a Cult leader / DJ called The Dream, who lures people into a false sense of sanctity played by Keanu Reeves.
Throw in a dash Giovani Ribisi’s quirkiness and Jim Carrey playing an estranged hermit living on the outer rim and you have all the ingredients that take up Ana Lily Armipour’s sophomore outing following A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night.
Both The Bad Batch and Armipour’s previous effort deal with isolation and the notion of the outsider struggling to fit into a post-apocalyptic world.
In this instance, The Bad Batch sees Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) as our protagonist, forced to suffer an early ordeal at the hands of a family of cannibals living by their own means in a desert landscape.
In what feels like a deviation from what the trailer and film write-up had promised, Arlen soon resolves her predicament albeit with the loss of her arm and leg on her road to recovery.
And therein lies the beginning of a series of thinly-veiled metaphors that are riddled throughout the movie.
One could forgive this, if the plot line was strong enough to carry you through buy even this falls on the light side, so much so that the films failings become even more noticeable.
Not that it doesn’t have some strong points. Armipour certainly has a strong eye for creating some visual imagery from Arlen’s pop-culture style shorts to The Dream’s trance-like rhythms. Plus, you know, the whole Jason Mamoa brooding thing.
Whilst part of me really wanted to like like this film, because I genuinely like Armipour’s style and strongly believe that she is a talent to watch with a keen eye, ultimatelyThe Bad Batch struggles and much like Arlen limps its way to finding a conclusion or a way to ‘fit-in’.
Having said that, I don’t believe the movie needs to bow to conformity.
In doing so would go against the grain of the filmmakers vision.
With a little more time though, Armipour could well have crafted a stronger narrative that would have continued her unique style and story.
Instead it comes across as a unfinished symphony a half thought, waiting to be voiced with any sense of clarity as we’re left trailing like a tumbleweed in the wind.
Aka: The other horror movie released alongside It this past week.
Is John R. Leonetti the polar opposite of Mike Flanagan?
Where the latter has been going from strength to strength, knocking out three pretty solid movies in 2016, with Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Before I Wake, Leonetti has struggled to transfer his impressive skills as a cinematographer to the director’s chair.
After helming mediocre material with Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and The Butterfly Effect 2, Leonetti had the chance to redeem himself with what on paper looked like a winner in Annabelle.
Unfortunately, he missed the mark by an epic margin and failed to deliver the scares. So much so, that when it was announced that there would be a prequel movie in the works, people were left scratching their heads, but Annabelle: Creation director, David F. Sandberg proved those naysayers wrong.
Leonetti would follow up with Wolves At The Door, a harrowingtale of the Sharon Tate murders, which should have been a confronting film of one of the most notorious crimes in Hollywood, but once again rode the line of safety and never offering anything new or stimulating to lift it above the ‘norm.’
With horror movies breaking records in the light of the recent It movie, there is a high expectancy to bring the goods and offer something compelling.
On paper, Wish Upon already sounds like a weak proposition with its premise of a girl who discovers an ancient Chinese box that can reward you with 7 wishes but holds a heavy caveat that with every wish, a blood pact must be served.
There’s further promise with some strong support players in Ryan Phillippe and Sherilyn Fenn, but instead of produced what could have been this generations answer to The Craft, we’re provided with a feeble attempt within the teen horror market that would barely make an impact on the small screen.
Joey King (The Conjuring, Independence Day: Resurgence) tries her best to carry this film as the lead, Clare Shannon, but ultimately she was let down by a poor plot that left us sadly wanting.
It’s little wonder that the International market were left pondering what to do with this film once it had tanked in the States, and one can’t blame them for trying to sneak it under the radar by riding on the coattails of It.
There are worse movies out there, but we’re now used to seeing high calibre efforts on the big screen and in order to impress, genre filmmakers need to lift their game and not rest on their laurels.
Here’s the thing about the golden age of drama we’re currently living in: it has put movies on the back-foot. Which would be a really good analogy if The Endless were a boxing movie.
But it’s not. It’s not even a horror movie – but we’ll circle back to that.
Back to high end TV drama and their ability to craft complex story-lines and characters over a solid (but not too long) period of time. It’s clear these days movies (with their relatively short 2-3 hour sittings) are losing ground as a “competing” format.
It did have cinematic-ness in its corner (which is a real word, no need to look it up) until CGI balanced that ledger too. Sure as a science and an art-form computer imagery is still evolving, but if done right, big screen special FX can be just a mouse click away for even the tiniest micro-budget film.
So what do these two developments have to do with The Endless – the latest offerings from Indie filmmakers Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson?
Well for a start it has the 5D aesthetic of an Indie offering (although no doubt it was shot on a much bigger gauge) but towards the end it has surprising quality special FX for a movie that initially looks so sparse, it almost feels like a found footage film!
And secondly it is an adjunct to Moorhead and Benson’s 2012 effort, Resolution. By that I mean The Endless takes place parallel to the events in Resolution (and literally about a block away from it).
So yes – TheEndless is a cross-over film. And this brings me to an interesting thing film has done to “push back” against the serialised superiority of TV drama. And that’s franchising, i.e. Movies that aren’t sequels per se, ‘cause not all sequels respect or even acknowledge films in their own canon (James Bond much?) but rather ‘share the same universe’.
Marvel are the current bar setters of this trend, and movie studios everywhere are following suit (lack of originality will ‘always’ be a universal constant with Hollywood).
But it also appears independent filmmakers don’t need an excuse to franchise off their own bat. Which would have helped to know in advance when events from The Endless crossed over into Resolution.
But on with some actual review stuff! The Endless centres around 2 cult “survivors” (played by Moorhead and Benson themselves). They are brothers trying to subsist in an ‘ordinary world’ that cult living failed to prepare them for.
The younger brother especially (Aaron played by Aaron) feels rudderless and out of sync, and retains more good memories about the compound they grew up in, and as such convinces his older brother Justin (played by Justin) to go back and visit for a day or two.
This is after they mysteriously receive a VHS tape featuring a woman who used to babysit them there (played by Callie Hernandez of Blair Witch and Alien Covenant fame).
And this is where the first confusion sets in, as all the characters we meet ‘appear’ to be roughly the same age. Throw in the fact that the boys themselves seem to have left the compound in the 90’s (if news footage of them exiting is to be believed) yet they themselves look to not have aged a day in 20 years.
Yet continual references by Justin to his younger brother that there appears to be a “spark” between him and their former sitter seem odd, as Hernandez looks several years younger than both of them. Yet no one makes any attempt to explain these discrepancies in any sort of story-telling capacity; and so you’re left confused. No doubt this is a deliberate ploy from the filmmaking duo who brought us the Bonestorm segment from VHS Viral, but unfortunately it does tend to come across as if the film is gleefully disappearing up its own mythos (something re-enforced when it crosses over into Resolution).
Now despite all this, The Endless does evolve at an intriguing pace and is a sci-fi page turner that has the courage to be both sparse and visually spectacular where it needs to be. Something ‘is’ going on at the compound, and you ‘do’ want to see it to the end.
The movie’s central theme is time, whereas Resolution was story. Where & when they cross over – once you know what’s going on – does work.
But is it a horror film? Not by a long stretch. Is it worth seeing? Definitely.
The beating heart of writer, director Le Binh Giang’s debut feature, Kfc is laid bare with no holds barred and all guts, no glory.
At least not for the characters portrayed in this gritty, violent, and sadistic world, we find ourselves in.
With a short running time of 69 minutes is certainly not to be scoffed at as Le manages to cram enough twisted, blood-fuckery to warp the mind and melt the soul.
Straight from the off-set, we’re provided with the confronting images of violence and mayhem that will flow through the narrative like a gushing artery, with a guys casually talking with a motionless figure before ripping up a coke can and stabbing them in the neck with it.
Said character is mowed down outside of his abode by a passing vehicle and from here-on-in, we’re sentenced down into a whirlpool of loathing and disgust that leaves the head reeling in response to the grotesque that is on display.
That’s not to mention the necrophilia doctor and his accomplice that deliberately hunt for their victims in their ambulance by smashing into them and dragging their bodies away to be defiled and cut to pieces.
In some ways this film reminds me of Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, minus the beauty of Rio.
There’s no shying away from the brutality of Kfc, but does paint a similar picture of the rough terrain and gang mentality, where only the most deranged will survive.
The films focus is on a trio of sadists, who inflict their cruelty on the world around them without any inflection of emotion, which only adds to the haunting carnage that they leave in their wake.
And it’s only when emotions play a part and brim to the surface with themes of love/lust, anger, and revenge that these three accomplices fall apart.
The energy of the piece propels you forward and there’s enough material to keep you engaged without feeling too violated.
Le Binh Giang manages to craft a cyclical tale with some key observations on how parentage and society can have a serious negative impact on the way we carry out our lives.
Anarchy and chaos will reign but only for a period of time before something or someone else comes along to wipe you off the streets and a new world of pain will begin.
The director apparently wasn’t able to graduate from the University of Ho Chi Minh, due to the extreme violence in Kfc, and although it may not be suited for the faint-hearted, it certainly offers up a fresh take on the body horror genre and could very well propel Le Binh Giang onto greater things as a result.
Ever since Max Schreck transformed into Count Orlock in the now infamous silent film, Nosferatu, directed by F.W.Murnau in 1922, the subject of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has graced the screens across the ages.
Like the titular character from one of Gothic literature’s finest creations, Dracula seems to be eternal, forever gracing the celluloid art form, whist adapting and transitioning across the years.
With the latest news coming from geek tyrant that It director, Andy Muschietti and Bram Stoker’s Great Grand Nephew teaming up for a project involving the prince of darkness as a prequel, entitled Dracul, I thought I’d take a quick snapshot of this enigmatic character and what draws us to him year-on-year.
Notably, it would be Universal who would elevate Stoker’s creation into the limelight with Tod Browning’s Dracula on 1931.
Starring Bela Lugosi, who’s interpretation would be the catapult for the look and feel that his character would bring to the screen and would initiate a further four sequels before Abbott and Costello turned his image into a comical adaptation.
It would take a further 10 years before a production company would bring Count Dracula back into the darkness with Hammer Films 1958 version starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
Hammer would use their new-found success and blood red recipe to push the Dracula series into a total of 9 films, with the afore-mentioned Lee appearing in 7 of these movies. Interestingly Dracula wouldn’t appear in their first sequel, Brides of Draculadirected by Terence Fisher.
During this time, numerous other production companies would try their hand at the subject matter, including Blood of Dracula, an attempt from producer Herman Cohen to repeat the success of I Was A Teenage Werewolf, the latter would appear in the It Mini Seriesmade in 1990 as it was the height of pop culture Stateside during the 50’s and would see the Loser’s Club watch it at the cinema.
As the Hammer recipe grew stale, Roman Polanski would inject some much-needed zest with The Fearless Vampire Killers in 1967 and a blatant parody of the British film company’s vision.
Following this Jesus Franco would add some Spanish flavour with Count Dracula in 1970, starring Christopher Lee again in the titular role, before Blaxploitation movement would see an African prince lured into the land of the dead in Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream before Andy Warhol would dabble as well introducing his own visual style with Blood for Dracula in 1974.
Five years later, Universal would try to re-invent the fable and bring some much-needed sex appeal and casting Frank Langella as Dracula.
This also coincided with another version of Nosferatu coming to the screen, directed by the enigmatic Klaus Kinski entitled, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, and has its own cult following as a result.
A brief interlude in the comedy realm would see Duncan Regehr take on Dracula in The Monster Squad, which comes across as a haunted version of The Goonies.
And then, he would pretty much stay dormant until, he would be moulded once more for Francis Ford Coppola in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins, in the early 90’s.
Mel Brooks would craft his comedic touch with Dracula, Dead and Loving It by 1995 and starring Leslie Nielsen, before the shouldn’t be comical, but tragically is, Dracula 2000, presented by Wes Craven and starring Gerard Butler.
It’s only saving grace during this timeframe is the simply brilliant, Shadow of the Vampire, a quirky portrayal of the making of Nosferatu that would depict actor Max Shreck as a real-life vampire, awesomely played by Willem Defoe.
By the mid-2000’s Count Dracula would find himself morphed into the Stephen Sommers universe with Van Helsingstarring Hugh Jackman, a movie, which in my mind is probably best forgotten.
Another film director auteur would try his hand at the subject in 2013, when Dario Argento would provide us with Dracula 3D, but would be pale in comparison to his earlier work.
The last time, we saw Dracula grace our screens would be in the under-whelming Dracula: Untold starring Luke Evans, which left us wondering if there was life still in this age-old tale?
This may all disappear in the coming years, if Muschietti and Dacre Stoker’s project sees the light of day.
Dacre Stoker has delved into the world of his lineage before with his novel, Dracula, theUn-dead, so he is no stranger to the subject, and one can already see comparisons with Stephen King’s creation Pennywise. A character that feeds on the fear of the innocence.
Stephen King would also seek inspiration from the Count in his own tale, Salem’s Lot, so it certainly bodes well with the announcement of this latest pairing.
I for one can’t wait to see how they re-vamp Dracula for a modern audience that will horrify and delight the masses.
It’s hard not to view the directorial debut from Flying Lotus without uttering these words into the mix.
Kuso is a film best described as an experimental, avant-garde piece that suits the twisted mind of it’s artist.
His music that blends hip-hop and electronic into a stylistic and fresh approach to the scene that has had people both gripped in either love or despair, so it should come as no surprise that Flying Lotus carries this across onto the visual canopy of film.
When the film premiered in Cannes, there were reports of people walking out of the movie in disgust. The numbers of which may have been grossly overestimated, but when viewing Kuso, you can understand the temptation to turn away.
Whilst I too felt the compulsion to revolt in the comfort of my chair when watching the film, I felt compelled to see it through and challenge myself not to resort to the knee-jerk reaction to what was being laid bare.
Flying Lotus flings everythingat the viewer not only to confront our visual senses but also to shed light on the grotesque and ugly of society.
The film is essentially broken into 4 vignettes that are interspersed throughout the post-apocalyptic narrative following the mutated survivors of an earthquake in Los Angeles.
Labelled as a body horror that would have the likes of Cronenberg and Lynch proud.
We’re thrust into a world with a talking, singing boil; inter-dimensional creatures getting stoned in an apartment, and a large bug that lives inside a doctor’s anus set to cure a man from his fear of breasts; a kid who is prone to self-defecating and feeding his faeces to a creature in the forest; and a woman who eats concrete and steered by God to travel down a hole in search of her missing baby.
The end result is a mishap of the strange, vulgar, and wonderful.
It’s not for the faint of heart and could steer the hardened viewer away from the screen.
While it may suit the fans of experimental and challenging films, I challenge the average viewer to step outside their comfort zones and witness a spectacle like no other.
But be warned, some of the images may scar you. It’s been a while since a movie from this genre has warped the senses and disturbed the soul.
Driven by the voice of her unborn child, seven month pregnant Ruth embarks on a homicidal killing spree to avenge the recent death of her husband.
This slasher black comedy is the brilliant directorial debut of its star Alice Lowe. Seen in various low budget Brit flicks particularly the absolutely outstanding Ben Wheatley classic “Sightseers”, she cements her role as that crazy woman you wouldn’t sit anywhere near on a bus.
“Prevenge” is a low budget low key thriller that appears influenced by the days when Hammer Horror ditched the monster creature features and produced a couple of contemporary horrors, see “Straight On till Morning” if you haven’t already. It’s the real life monsters that are in fact the scariest, and in this case; pregnant widows.
Partly reliant on what appears as a largely improvised or bare bones dialogue script it’s the editing, cinematography and the understated music that’s the real driving force here. Music from ex-Unkle members now Toydrum, the synth atmospheric score creates an unsettling edge complimented by Lowes insanely real performance.
Naturalistically shot, clearly using available light, the cinematography places the audience deep into this gritty grainy story whether they want to or not.
The supporting cast are excellent too, with the female supports getting the biggest slice of the corpse. Jo Hartley (This is England, The Mimic), Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones, The Moorside), & Kate Dickie (The Witch, Prometheus), the standouts.
If I did have one quibble, it would be that the demises were mostly one note. A bit of gore-induced variety wouldn’t have gone astray.
I absolutely applaud Lowes tenacity in making this film whilst being 7-8 months pregnant herself. Her drive, or axe to grind, very apparent in getting this beautifully crafted horror comedy out of her system.
There’s a message here deep at the films core…don’t piss off Alice Lowe…EVER!!
Australians have been producing quality horror films for some time now, whether you look at the films of yester-year with the likes of Long Weekend, or Turkey Shoot, to more modern scares with The Babadook, Wyrmwood, The Tunnel, or Wolf Creek.
There’s a range of psychological emotions that come with each of the afore-mentioned movies with one thing in common…the ability to heighten your senses by scaring and entertaining you.
It’s part of the reason that as a film lover, (and to isolate that down further) a fan of the horror genre, that I’m proud of the quality movies that are being produced on this Southern land that I call home.
And it’s also why I’m a huge campaigner of the films that are being produced here in Australia.
So with eagle eyes, I’ve noticed a recent ripple in the genre on our homes soil, with the much-touted Killing Ground.
Directed by Damien Power, who has been turning heads with his short features for the past few years, most notably with Peekaboo, and A Burning Thing, which starred Nashville’s Clare Bowen.
Killing Ground would be Power’s feature length debut and it certainly packs a punch.
Utilising two of Australia’s strong identity components in the bush land and the sun.
Firstly, I’d like to look at the first element…the bush.
Australia is notorious for its ever-rolling landscape, with is a strange mix of the wild and beautiful thrust together in co-existence.
It’s an area that has been explored before with the afore-mentioned Wolf Creek, where director Greg McLean highlights the fear within Australia’s red centre.
With Killing Ground, Power takes that same initiative, but thrust the viewer into the bush land, centring on a couple, choosing a romantic getaway at an isolated spot known for its walks among the fauna.
All gets flipped over though when said couple, Sam (Harriet Dyer) and Ian (Ian Meadows) unwittingly stumble on a crime scene and have to resort to their wits in order to survive.
Meadows is fast crafting a name for himself in the genre following the Cairnes brothers movie, Scare Campaign, and carves a decent performance in Killing Ground as Ian, a doctor by trade, but when push comes to shove, becomes indecisive and ultimately only thinks of himself. It feels like a natural response coming from this character and tears down the walls of predictability with Ian’s reactions or lack thereof highlighting his plight.
Equally, Harriet Dyer’s journey of Sam bends a strong character arc that shines brightly by the films conclusion and is enjoyable as a result.
In order for the film to be successful though it does hinge on the antagonists to be brutal, savage, and fearful.
And this maybe my only criticism of the piece, from what is essentially a well crafted film.
The highlight, hands down, is Aaron Pedersen’s portrayal of German. The menace and savagery that he brings to the table is haunting and Pederson delivers a character that is embedded in dark mind that can be turned on and off with horrifying ease. He was a delight to watch and it was a shame to see his comeuppance come so swiftly, when it does arise. (Although, again it feels like a realistic moment when it does occur).
As a result though, the film relies on the unhinged Chook (Aaron Glenane) to carry out the proceedings of hunting down our protagonists, and unfortunately this is where I feel it falls flat.
Chook is unbalanced, and clearly motivated by his sexual appetite, his character never feels threatening enough. Yes, he’s a crack shot with the rifle and that’s plenty to be fearful of, but he’s bumbling approach to life, dampens the threat a little.
It’s a shame as it feels like so much attention was focused on the other characters that with a bit more work on this would have made for an excellent climax.
Speaking of which, the ending to the movie feels like it takes a bit of a stretch, and maybe because I had high hopes, I was left wanting.
Yes there is a resolution and one that does satisfy with our central character’s journey, but that satisfaction is left a little empty as the threat level diminishes.
I say all this, but it negates the films strong points. It’s a well-crafted slow burner of a thriller that propels you along with its split timeline narrative and allows the horror to be drawn out in a compelling way.
Damien Power certainly has a gift for spinning a thrilling yarn both as director and writer of Killing Ground, and this effort is definitely one to be proud of.
I look forward to seeing where his talents take him next.
Surgeons of Horror 