Movie review – The Strays (2023)

25 Saturday Feb 2023

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There’s a lot to unpack from Nathaniel Martello-White’s psychological thriller The Strays, It’s a cyclical social commentary on racial discrimination and elitism that unfolds through a series of events. 

We begin with a prologue sequence where Neve (Ashley Madakwe) is in the throes of a mental breakdown, trapped in an as-yet-undisclosed world with only the thought of escape on her mind. So she packs some of her things and leaves her flat and whatever troubles that she can’t face behind her.

Cut to a title sequence informing the audience that its years later and Neve has now established herself a life of privilege as deputy principal of an elite school with a husband and two kids. The social ladder that she has climbed has seen her as a socialite within the small town community.

Try as she might to hide behind this facade, the mask soon slips as she questions whether she is losing her grip on reality or has her past come back to haunt her as two mysterious assailants appear to be creeping further into her new life threatening to rip it apart at the seams.

SPOILERS AHEAD

When we reach the third segment, we get to go back to find out the true identity of the two assailants, Marvin (Jordan Merle) and Abigail Bukky Bakray) are revealed to be her two children from a previous life. Naturally there is a lot of pent up aggression having been abandoned and to discover that their mother is now living a wealthy lifestyle.

The film’s climax entitled Family Reunion is a pot boiler of emotion all shot in one take to embody the natural performances from each of the characters. It’s nervy, unsettling and delicately poised as the audience is left ambling along with the characters to find a solution. What is presented is one that may leave audiences baffled or applauding its direction.

The Prognosis:

Martello-White delivers a stylised directorial piece that examines the cyclical behaviour that trauma has on society. The performances are solid, particularly from Madakwe and Bukray throwing powerful portrayals of their respective characters. 

The experiment and mode of delivery may irk, especially with its stylised execution but for a debut feature, there is enough punch to make one sit up and take notice.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective – The Mummy (1959)

24 Friday Feb 2023

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Within the last three years of the 1950s, Hammer Films had reshaped the Universal Classic monsters canon with The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula and The Revenge of Frankenstein, bringing into full glorious and gory colour for a then, modern audience, With it, Hammer would also unite one of celluloid history’s greatest co-stars in the horror genre in Peter Cushing and Sir Christopher Lee. Before the turn of the decade, the British production house would turn their attention to yet another Universal offering, The Mummy, and keep that winning formula of Cushing, Lee and film director Terence Fisher. Cushing played the dashing hero, and Lee subjected to the ‘monster’ character and hidden behind full make up for the last time with Hammer. It was a tortuous and gruelling affair for its two leads, and would lead Cushing to the hospital following a scene gone awry. Cushing would also become more bold in his acting choices and in cementing his character traits on screen and guiding his director in some of teh action sequences.

The familiar tale of the mummified High Priest Kharis (Lee) resurrected under the power of Mehemet Bey (George Pastell) to seek revenge for disturbing Princess Ananka’s tomb, is given the Hammer treatment. Here Cushing plays the part of John Banning, one of the doomed expedition crew. His father, Stephen (Felix Aylmer) has been driven mad and escorted to the asylum with his prophecies of the forthcoming mummy. Initially scoffed at and ridiculed, the subject takes a dark and sour turn when Stephen is killed by Kharis’ bandaged hands.

Kharis would also be moved by his lost love, Ananka, whose appearance is uncannily similar to John Banning’s wife, (Yvonne Furneaux) and thus brings about our damsel in distress theme.

Jimmy Sangster would once again herald the screenplay writing duties, fusing Universal’s The Mummy; The Mummy’s Tomb; and The Mummy’s Ghost to puff out his take on the story for Hammer. 

Upon its cinematic release, the name Hammer was starting to cause quite a stir among moviegoers, and The Mummy became a big success for the company. It even surpassed its successors in the box office and in some ways is a more solid feature in its narrative, and effects. Despite the climatic ending where Kharis played by go to stuntman Eddie Powell sinking into the depths of the quagmire, the British Film company was rising to new heights. And it was all in the name of horror.

  • Saul Muerte. 

Retrospective – The Hound of the Baskervilles (1958)

24 Friday Feb 2023

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Before Benedict Cumberbatch donned the deerstalker hat for Moffat and Gatiss’ modern interpretation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s infamous detective, another British icon had made an impressionable mark for Hammer Film Productions’ The Hound of the Baskervilles. Having already portrayed literature icons Baron Frankenstein and Van Helsing, it was time to turn his head towards Sherlock Holmes for one of his greatest adventures. 

His Doctor Watson would be ably performed by Andre Morell (The Plague of Zombies) who himself would become a Hammer staple, but it would be the casting of Sir Chrisopher Lee as Sir Henry Baskervilles (once again unite Hammer’s most memorable duo on screen) in the first representation of the tale in colour surrounding the dreaded curse and the beast the walks the moors.

Hammer would look to sensationalise or create drama that was absent from the initial storyline, including the tarantula scene. Probably the hardest trick was to produce a larger than life hound for the film’s climax; a tough act considering Lee’s stature, but Hammer found their answer with a Great Dane called Colonel. 

It was initially conceived to be the gateway to many more Sherlock Holmes’ adaptations, but would be the only occurrence, much to the company and cinephiles’ dismay. It would have been interesting to see Cushing take on the role in numerous other stories. 

The great Terence Fisher who had stamped his signature vision; and one that became synonymous with the Hammer style with The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, would wield his take of the action from the Director’s chair. With the talent in front of the screen from which to mould the narrative, Fisher had created a feature that stands alongside these Gothic treatments that made Hammer Horror’s name, so it’s a shame that there weren’t more chances to delve within Conan Doyle’s world.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review – The Welder (2023)

23 Thursday Feb 2023

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Is it wrong to judge a movie by its trailer?
There is always that element of luring the audience with the most tantalising elements of the film and yet, there was something that captured my intrigue towards David Liz’s sophomore feature. 

The Welder boasts all the hallmarks of a decent horror movie, with a psychologically unbalanced killer, who comes into contact with a traumatised victim to force the latter into confronting and potentially overcoming her fears.

At the heart of the movie Liz injects the theme of race and the gulf that divides us. More importantly it tackles the notion of what happens within this chasm when it is not adhered to and left within the wastelands of neglect.

This theme is driven through the eyes of Eliza (Camilla Rodriguez) a young latino woman, a former military doctor who faced her fair share of traumatic experiences that continue to haunt her. This deeply immersed incident is what encourages her boyfriend, Roe (Roe Dunkley) to book a holiday for them to a remote ranch, away from life’s turmoils so that they can be together and recuperate. 

But it wouldn’t be a horror thriller without a catch to their chosen paradise. This comes in the guise of ranch owner, William Godwin (Vincent de Paul) who harbours a secret beneath his pleasant demeanour, one that has pushed him to madness, experimenting with a warped vision to eradicate this racial discrimination.

The Prognosis:

There are some suitably scarring moments that are brought to screen with the image of body mutilation and psychological tension brought to the fore. The dialogue is often delivered naturally between the two leads, Rodriguez and Dunkley with great chemistry. Rodriguez in particular is great to watch drifting through the various stages of anxiety and fear. I did feel that de Paul’s performance as the doctor struggled to lift out of the innate appeal to shift into the heightened state of macabre delirium needed to convey enough scares.

It’s a slow burn which has its pros and cons in that it allows time to build up character depth, but loses out in delivering enough for a satisfying climax. 

Still, a worthy effort and has enough strong parts from which to fuse Liz’s narrative and creativity.

  • Saul Muerte

The Welder is available on digital platforms from Feb 24th.

Movie review – Skinamarink (2023)

19 Sunday Feb 2023

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I’m caught between minds about Skinamarink, this experimental directorial feature debut from Kyle Edward Ball. In part it leans heavily into minimalism to explore the finest examples of terror through the eyes of two children, who wake up in the night to find their father missing and strange things happening around the house. The fact that we never see the children, nor their father, with Ball stripping the viewing experience down to its bare bones and denying the audience a window into the depth of the film. Instead, the idea is to focus on the empty space, a phrase coined by theatre director Peter Brook, for his book of the same name. In it he expresses, “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged”.

If we take this aspect or perspective and that the space is merely a place that means nothing until something enters its domain, then it bodes to mention that Ball is willing to explore a similar concept within the location or setting of his movie. If the space is a vessel in which spirits or beings pass through, then we surely can’t connect with the space until something or someone interacts within it.

As such, the viewer is poised through endless frames of emptiness, only to be treated with nuggets of movement or sound to stimulate our senses and push the boundaries of fear.

In reality however, these absences of action only switch off our interests, and slowly the audience will struggle to remain captivated. Is this the fault of the director though, when we as a society have become so engrained in action on screen, that to take this away or prevent us from this engagement, speaks volumes about how we interact with life. If we take note of the smallest of intricacies, then and only then can we really acknowledge the beauty that surrounds us?

The question though is, Is Horror the right genre to explore such an abstract playing field? Sure, Horror has been known to be forgiving, but when it comes at the cost of engaging with the audience, then you are left pondering its purpose.

The Prognosis:

While I applaud (Director) Ball for a bold approach to filmmaking which at times is reminiscent of The Beatles own exploration of music in Revolution No. 9, the outcome is all too repetitive and a struggle to connect with. It’s hard to believe that the content has been stretched to feature length when a short would probably have sufficed, Having said that though, his experimentation would not have been explored without pushing the boundaries of time.

It’s hard as a viewer to go beyond the limits of conception when we are being forced to observe its formulation. What constitutes horror and is it enough to hint without explanation? A question that may frustrate most who come to watch.

  • Saul Muerte

Skinamarink is currently streaming on ShudderANZ.

Movie review – The Lair (2023)

17 Friday Feb 2023

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Watching Neil Marshall’s (ahem) descent from action horror pioneer to low grade fluff has been a painful process to watch. Ever since he hit the ground running with werewolf, military action thriller, Dog Soldiers and swiftly followed this with the female empowered cave shocker, The Descent, I’ve been eagerly awaiting his next big moment to arise. Instead, we’ve seen him slowly repeat similar incarnations of these movie highlights in a decline into lesser quality. That’s not to say there hasn’t been glimmers of hope, especially with his foray into the Game of Thrones series, and perhaps it’s this that keeps on bringing me back.  I should have known to be cautious however following his previous venture The Reckoning, a sadly lacking tale of witchery and persecution. 

Which brings us to The Lair, an amalgamation of the aforementioned Dog Soldiers and The Descent, but instead of remote Scotland as its setting, we find ourselves in Afghanistan. And instead of werewolves or The Crawlers; cave dwelling humanoids, our protagonists come face to face with souped up human/alien hybrids that are being tooled as biological weapons. 

Charlotte Kirk returns as Marshall’s kick-ass muse (as well as a writing credit) to take on our heroine Lt. Kate Sinclair. Sinclair, along with a handful of militants and an Afghan hostage, seek refuge in a bunker facility to escape confrontation only to come into conflict with the beasts below.

So far, so promising right? 

The issue comes in its delivery. Yes there are action sequences on display, and a couple of typical one-liners that make you groan, the collaboration of a mix-match group, strung together to fight a common cause are all on display, but there’s nothing new on show. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is incredibly two-dimensional and clunky when delivered. When the tension shifts, the audience struggles to connect as a result and are left trailing along to what becomes a predictable and tired conclusion.

The Prognosis:

Neil Marshall’s descent into woeful movies continues to sink into greater depths. Average action, a worn out narrative, and ropeable dialogue only adds weight to his plummet. 

  • Saul Muerte

The Lair is currently screening on ShudderANZ

Movie review: Sorry About The Demon (2023)

17 Friday Feb 2023

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We’ve all been there right? Coasting aimlessly through life with no set direction, happy to drift into oblivion with no real aim to find or improve our lives for the better, only to be dropped by your girlfriend for apparently having no prospects. Then you’re left ruminating and wondering if there is anyway to win back your love’s heart, but get hoodwinked by a real estate agent and his family to move into a house as a means to sacrifice oneself for a demon, just so that they don’t have to deal with the crap themselves? You’ve been there, right? Right?

Such is the premise of this horror comedy from writer, director Emily Hagins (VHS, Scare Package) who is fast making a name for herself in the off kilter genre scene. And with Jon Michael Simpson as her muse to enact the downbeat, hapless romantic character, Will, she is able to tap into a rift that is entertaining albeit hit and miss in the humour department. Oh the irony in a name, to be called Will when you have no will of your own.

Simpson (Scare Package) is ably supported by Jeff McQuitty (more known for his work behind the lens) as the faithful best friend Patrick. When Will’s girlfriend Amy (Paige Evans) ditches him as he clearly struggles to commit to anything including her, Will once again plunges headfirst into another project, by moving into a huge house and great living costs. The catch? It’s possessed by a demon. But we’ve all had that one flatmate to share an apartment with yeah? 

If you haven’t, you probably were that demonic housemate.

Anyway, I digress. Now stuck with this problem, Will has to face up to his problems, one that another Aimee (Olivia Decayen), who just so happens may be able to rid the house of the demonic spirit. Can he amount himself to anything and find his place in the world or will he lose it all to the detriment of all those closest to him?

The Prognosis:

Sorry About The Demon has some moments of delight in this absurd horror comedy to make one grin, but these aren’t laugh out loud flickers of gold. There’s enough there to entertain and the performances are solid, but the characters and humour doesn’t always hit the mark. 

If your looking for something to pass the time, and go in with low expectations, then you’ll be pleasantly delighted. The magic is a little lacking, and much like its lead character, happily coasts along in its own sphere, unaware of just how savage life is on the exterior when we don’t pay mind to the small details.

  • Saul Muerte

Sorry About The Demon is currently screening on ShudderANZ.

Retrospective – Curse of the Undead (1959)

16 Thursday Feb 2023

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Those who know me, know of my aversion to the Western genre in cinema. As a cinephile I indulged in the classics especially the Ford era of which we are supposed to marvel at the sweeping landscapes, but send me into a state of lull. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions that have lit a fuse in my love of the celluloid art, and there is intrigue to be found in blending this genre with a vampire sub genre twist. 

With some of the townsfolk falling prey to a mysterious illness, and the reveal of two punctures in the neck of the latest victim we pave the scene of a nosferatu in the mix. 

The Western influence throws mistrust and turmoil among a neighbouring family, where all must find a way to unite in order to rid the town of the foul fate that lay before them.

There’s the obvious love scenario two between the mysterious Drake Robey (Michael Pate) and Dolores (Kathleen Crowley), plus the hope and steadfast clergyman in Preacher Dan (Eric Fleming). All the ingredients are there to provide a somewhat entertaining tale.

All too often though I found myself drifting off and disconnecting from the content, with a lack of depth in the characters and both genres telling a tale too often told to stimulate the mind.

It was a bold approach from writer, director Edward Dein to try and merge what should be successful film categories but there’s no style or substance for that matter, so for that Curse of the Undead slips all too easily into forgettable terrain.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Daughter (2023)

12 Sunday Feb 2023

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It’s been a far cry since Casper Van Dien declared revenge on those bug creatures in Starship Troopers for what they did to Buenos Aires, but it’s great to see him on the screen in a different guise as the misguided patriarchal figure in his latest feature Daughter.

Presented as a cult-like, claustrophobic thriller, this directorial debut from Corey Deshon has enough tension built up to fuel the oppression for Van Dien’s Father character to channel the hatred and desire for control that he upholds. And he doesn’t hold back on delivering such a taut and highly strung person; a tirade of manipulation that ripples with devastating effect through the makeshift family dynamic.

With the titular daughter (Viven Ngô) brought into the household to fulfil the requirements of a sister to the precious Brother (Ian Alexander) to play out this misogynistic and outdated answer to salvation. 

Rounding out the quartet is Mother (Elyse Dinh) who also cuts a fine performance of the restrained, and fear driving matriarch, a character who shifts through the motions of obedience, self-protection, and salvation with effortless and minimal motions. Dinh along with Ngô are the pivotal characters in propelling the slowburn of a narrative through to its conclusion and serve as the juxtaposition to Van Dien’s Father. With the seemingly compliant Brother in the mix too, it’s hard to know when or who will break, as like a tightly wound clock, the springs are going to snap and all that tension will come pouring out swift and fast.

The Prognosis:

While some will feel that the pace is too restrained, and that the payoff is all too hasty, in my mind Deshon is able to craft out a painful picture of suppression through the gaze of male-dominated world.
All the performances are subtly executed and deftly supported by a tightly shot sequence of events on 16mm footage thanks to cinematographer Hana Kitasei helps amplify the claustrophobia instilled throughout.
You’re either going to resist the flow or glide along, but one things for sure, Deshon has made a fantastic impression in wielding his vision.

  • Saul Muerte

#Daughter is Available on all major Digital platforms, including Apple iTunes / Google Play in Australia & New Zealand, from February 22nd.

Movie review – Wolf Manor (2023)

10 Friday Feb 2023

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There is enough talent in front of the screen in what is essentially a labour of love mixed with pangs of nostalgia over Britain’s celluloid history of lycanthrope horror. There is a healthy mix of nods to Hammer Films and the Gothic films produced under their banner and the Peter Cushing style veteran performing yet another battle against evil to satiate the hounds of the genre past. The most notable homage comes in arguably the greatest werewolf feature, An American Werewolf In London, with numerous quotes and references throughout the movie. 

Set in a quirky village town where a film crew has set up in an abandoned house to shoot a vampire flick, Wolf Manor takes a turn when they decide to hang back one more night to do some extensive reshoots. It just so happens that the night in question should fall on a full moon and with it the awakening of a lycanthrope appears to disembowel them one by one.

While the creative team of Director, Dominic Brunt, and writers Joel Ferrari and Pete Wild have a deep passion for the field in which they paint their narrative, it is evident that it lacks the killer punch that made these pioneer movies so great. There are moments where they try to ignite that instinctive attraction through the British wit upon which the nation has produced some comedy gold, but no matter how hard the talented James Fleet taps into that humour, it is often served cold and the tumbleweeds drift by with ease.

Despite the obvious tweaky script and gaps in depth of character, Wolf Manor does boast some nice special effects; a combination of prosthetics, make up and visual effects weaving together and grounding the supernatural elements. 

The Prognosis:

I had high hopes before watching this, such is my love of the doomed lusus naturae, but it falls foul of trying to live up to and replicating werewolf features of yester-year rather than creating an identity of its own. Sometimes, you have to break free of rigidity for creativity to be unleashed. Unfortunately it took its inspiration literally, staying on the road and keeping clear of the moors. Just imagine what could have happened if it dared to stray into the wilderness.

  • Saul Muerte