Movie review: Mosquito State (2021)

24 Tuesday Aug 2021

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I cannot stress enough that this film falls firmly into the ‘be patient’ basket.

I really struggled with the opening 30 minutes of the movie that seemingly dragged along at a snail’s pace. And it didn’t help that the dialogue is dripping with a specialised niche dialogue that smacks of wankdom, but this is exactly the intricacy of its lead that cements and provides a complex character. 

The cinematography is equally stylised and polished to encompass the lifestyle and setting that elevates the feel of the movie, but could easily be strained too far… That is until the storyline sets and takes effect.

It’s clear that Director Filip Jan Rymsza is drawn to the inner psychosis of humanity and here he infuses it into the biological makeup of mosquitos, and juxtaposes this imagery alongside that of honeybees. All of which is embedded in the murky depths of trading and the stride towards success. But what exactly defines success? This defines the moral of the film.

As mentioned, our lead character, Richard (Beau Knapp) is a quirky and lonely figure, driven by his compulsive obsession with financial data, analysing the movements in trading figures. In many ways the symbolism of his character reflects the tragic gothic figure Quasimodo from Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame,  isolated in his tower, in this instance the apartment overlooking Central Park in New York.

His stride for perfection is what initially steers his love interest, Lena (Charlotte Vega – Wrong Turn, The Lodgers) away, but there is a hint of a connection that doesn’t deter Richard in his pursuit. 

The mosquitos too are part of this imagery that surrounds Richard’s psychological collapse and the infestation that has taken hold of both the apartment and his state of mind. The contagion soon takes hold of Richard and us (the viewer) embedding into the psyche and dictating his every action and one that is represented in his own disfigurement as he becomes a walking human feeding/breeding ground for the parasite.

It is this incubation that can ensnare you and for me lifts the film into a loftier response. Once Richard starts to fall from the successful heights embedded in his own ambition, he not only gains in confidence, breaking out of his shell, but subjects himself deeper into isolation and on to a journey that only some can follow.

The Diagnosis:

This movie is highly intelligent and beautifully shot. It’s the kind of film that gets under your skin.

It takes a while for it to take effect but once it does it pulls you in and infects you.

There are many elements at play with each layer revealing the dark truth behind the powers and money of the world.

Mosquito State has successfully infested my mind, a mark for me is always an important ingredient in filmmaking.

I’m still letting it resonate as I write this but I find at this stage I’ve fallen for its charm and lulled by the hypnotic score.

  • Saul Muerte

Mosquito State streams on Shudder from Thursday, August 26th.

Movie review: Nightmares (1980)

17 Tuesday Aug 2021

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Nightmares is one of the pioneer movies from the Ozploitation scene, released in 1980 by director John D. Lamond who had set out to make the most gratuitous movie that he could.
The auteur of the genre would openly admit that it’s by far from being the perfect film and had room to be better.
Provided with the opportunity to make a low-budget, quick feature was in his grasp and the weaknesses are clearly on show here, but this is also part of its appeal.
A gritty, voyeuristic journey from the mind of a deeply psychologically scarred antagonist, a product of her environment, where it is little wonder that she would become unhinged. 

As a young girl, Cathy (Jenny Neumann) tries to prevent her mother from copulating in promiscuous behaviour with a strange man, but a car accident results in her mother’s fatality and her father is more intent on blaming her for the outcome than on the reasons behind his wife’s infidelity.

The story is possibly one of the weaker components without much drive for Cathy to enact her episodic killing sprees which centre on an acting troupe for a theatre production that she is one of the cast members of called Comedy of Blood. Among her fellow cast members is a certain Gary Sweet (Police Rescue) in his feature debut and possible love interest. It’s not all doom and gloom however as there are whispers of promise from screenwriter Colin Eggleston, who had notably directed another Australian classic two years earlier with Long Weekend.

The film trudges along to its own drum, and despite the misbeats, the kills are relentless and exposes humanity at its most vulnerable, and with the full frontal deaths doesn’t shy away from brutality.
It also throws in some interesting characters ripe for the kill into the mix, which you just hope will meet their due comeuppance, a hook that keeps you engaged to the end.

The Diagnosis:

The literal meaning of the words in this piece is unimportant… the beauty and the drama is contained within the drama and the opposite nature of the juxtaposition of the words . That and the comedy of death.

George D’alberg

The words of the theatre director in the movie sums Nightmares up nicely.

It’s the thin line between comedy and horror that blends in a gratuitous way, cementing the film firmly in the Ozploitation scene.

It’s either your thing or not, but for me, a solid night’s entertainment, especially if you take it for what it is, and not scrutinise too deeply.

Nightmares is currently available as a Blu-ray release as part of Umbrella Entertainment’s Ozploitation Classics collection.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie Review: Jakob’s Wife (2021)

16 Monday Aug 2021

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For his sophomore outing in the director’s chair, Travis Stevens (Girl on the Third Floor) he serves a refreshing take of the vampire tale through the lens of a middle-aged couple who have lost their zest for life. Anne (Barbara Crampton – Re-Animator), the titular character has been playing the role of the dutiful pastor’s wife in a small rural town for the past thirty years, bottling up her emotions and constantly under the shadow of male oppression. This is exactly how the nosferatu preys on this weakness, hunger for new victims or brides to bring into her fold.

Pastor Jakob (Larrey Fessenden – The House of the Devil) is equally lost in his world. Set in his ways and with no real vocation, he has succumbed to the rituals that his position has provided to him. 

When tempted by an old flame, Anne falls into seduction and it awakens a dormant part of her life. This too coincides with the arrival of the Master (Bonnie Aarons – The Nun) and soon she begins to pick apart the remnants of the town. 

Anne reaches a crucial crossroads in her life… choose her existing life, give-in to the darkness, or find a way through turmoil and create a new path of her own.

In many ways, Jakob’s Wife defies the stereotype of middle-aged life where Stevens presents the world as a slow-paced, dull exposition, but as soon as the first kill happens, this world and our expectations get suddenly thrust onto its head. With every kill that follows, there is no holding back and the blood pours forth to the extreme. This choice in direction is what keeps us engaged and coupled with his two leads in Crampton and Fassenden, we’re provided with some depth to the extreme circumstances with some dry humour to make sure we stay tuned in.

The Diagnosis:

It’s a painfully slow start and I thought that it was going to drag, but it then suddenly unleashes with a lot of fury.

While it struggles to keep the momentum going, Jakobs’ Wife inflicts enough torment to satisfy and keep you engaged with a peppering of decent humour to boot.

  • Saul Muerte

Jakob’s Wife streams on Shudder from Thursday, August 19th.

Retrospective: Saturday the 14th (1981)

14 Saturday Aug 2021

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There’s woeful. And then there’s Saturday the 14th.

This strange attempt at comedy horror belongs in the film vault with every attempt that it tries to project with humour either falling into try hard, over the top camp, or simply dreadful.

With a cast that includes Richard Benjamin (Westworld), Paula Prentiss (The Stepford Wives) and Jeffrey Tambor (Arrested Development), the film is not short in talent in front of the camera, but when you have a script that is this poor, there’s no hope for the greatest of actors being able to breathe life into lamented script.

Speaking of, the premise of the film follows a family, father John (Benjamin), mother Mary (Prentiss), daughter Debbie, and son Billy, move into their deceased Uncle’s house. Meanwhile, a vampire called Waldemar (Tambor) and his wife Yolanda are trying to get into the house because it supposedly contains a book of evil… No, unfortunately not that book.

From here on in the movie goes through the motions of using every trope going and lifting off the monsters from yester-year to subject the supposed frights to the screen. It even resurrects a Van Helsing into the fold, who is also on the hunt for the book of evil, and tries to do a mediocre attempt at turning the tables of what or who we expect villainy to appear from.

To say that I found this film a struggle is a gross understatement. A shameful attempt at marrying comedy and horror whilst being trapped in an archaic form of humour, leaves you wishing you had your last 76 minutes back.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)

12 Thursday Aug 2021

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The more I delve into the giallo film scene, the deeper I fall in love with the sub-genre. Black Belly of the Tarantula has all the hallmarks of a classic example of the movement with a complex thriller and mystery populated with stylised murders that keeps you guessing to the film’s conclusion. It’s added benefit is that it has a beautiful score from the great Ennio Morricone, providing further substance to the drama as it unfolds.

Italian director Paulo Cavara weaves a cracking tale following Detective Tellini (Giancarlo Giannini) charged with the muder case. The murder in question is centred on Maria, who is killed by an unknown assailant, who is dressed in black and wearign surgical gloves. The killer injects Maria with a chemical that leaves her parlaysed but still conscious while they carry out their deathly needs. Our chief suspect is Maria, husband Paolo, who recently discovered her infidelity

Throughout the film we see Tellini at home discussing the job with his wife and admits that he feels not cut out for the job. This vulnerability that Tellini discloses is part of the film’s appeal, willing to show our protagonist at his weakest and most open allows the audience closer to his character in the process. 

It is when another murder is commited however, that bears no connection to Maria’s death that the case is thrown wide open, and the complexity begins. We also get another insight into the film’s title when Tellini visits a scientist who informs him of a species of wasp that paralyzes tarantulas before eviscerating them.

As the film snakes its way to a satisfying, yet brutal conclusion, the audience is dealt with some highly charged investigation that isn’t afraid to throw a few dead ends into the mix. And like most giallos, BBOTT manages to deliver sublime stylised deaths. Marcello Gatti’s cinematographer captures the visual energy of the piece, lifting the quality of the movie and for me, is one of the better films of its genre and I could happily revisit it again. 

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

12 Thursday Aug 2021

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When Roger Corman and Vincent Price teamed up to work on an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation of The House of Usher in 1960, it ignited a series of films inspired by the American writer of the macabre, such was the success of the film. The second venture however, entitled The Pit and the Pendulum would bear little resemblance to Poe’s short novella with the exception of the final act which featured the titular pendulum and pit.

Price would as usual bring another of his deliciously macabre and melodramatic performances that he had become known for. In this instance Price plays Nicholas Medina, whose wife Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) has mysteriously disappeared. It is through Elizabeth’s brother Francis (John Kerr) from which the story is told when he travels to Medina’s abode in Spain to find out what has become of his sister. Upon arrival he learns from Medina and through a local physician, Dr. Leon (Antony Carbone) that his sister has supposedly died of fright, due to her morbid fascination with the torture chamber beneath the castle, a leftover from the days of the Spanish Inquisition. The story does not ring true however and Francis becomes hellbent on uncovering the truth.

Corman with the aid of screenwriter Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) weave together a delightfully melancholic tale that embodies Poe’s unconsciousness through a psychological disintegration of the human psyche. The destruction of Medina’s mind and the mask of sanity that slowly falls is maginficientally portrayed by Price. And the supporting cast lift this larger than life fantasy to deliver an apt climax, ticking all the boxes that makes this era of filmmaking so great to revisit.

The effect would prove a financial success for American International Pictures (AIP) and would carve the formula for Corman and Price with further adaptations of Poe’s work. The Pit and the Pendulum would also have a significant impact on future filmmakers, most notably Antonio Marghereti’s Web of the Spider and Mario Bava’s The Whip and the Body, as such it’s an important keystone in the realms of gothic horror films.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Teddy (2021)

11 Wednesday Aug 2021

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There is something that I find instantly appealing about French films and the way it both challenges and delivers in-depth personality.
There are times that it misses the mark, sure… but there is genuinely a unique appeal to the country’s artistic lens.
This is why you shouldn’t be deterred by this quirky take on an age-old tale set in the heart of a rural French town.
While it certainly isn’t an out and out scare fest, there is something reminiscent about the film that taps into Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris. 

The writing/directing partnership of the Boukherma brothers Ludovic and Zoran inject some decent humour into this coming of age tale, centred around no-hoper Teddy (Anthony Bajon), the town’s laughing stock.
Teddy may have resigned himself to making ends meet at the local massage parlour, but he has grand plans to save up and build a home for him and his girlfriend Rebecca (Christine Gautier).
These plans turn sour though when Teddy is attacked by a wolf that has been roaming the woods and then the stuff of lycanthropy come to the fore, starting with the amped up sexual appetite, and leading into the bizarre such as hair growth on his tongue and protruding from his eyeball.

As much as he tries to hide these strange bodily changes, it soon overcomes him and right at a time when Rebecca appears to be losing interest in him.
The one person who seems to understand his plight and warns about the dangers of the monster lurking within, is his foster parent, Pepin (Ludovic Torrent) an admittedly slow-thinking man.

What the Boukherma brothers do remarkably well is own the grit and realism of both the setting and the characters including the actors who portray them.
Particular applause has to go to Bajon’s portrayal of the titular character, perfectly capturing the heartache and desperation.
When you’re already down, there’s no place to go but deeper and embrace the animal within.

The Diagnosis:

Yes there are flaws.
But some of those blemishes are part of Teddy’s attraction and at times the film borders on genius.
It’s a bold approach to a mythological tale and while it doesn’t necessarily scare, it does provide a quirky, and sympathetic slant that will satisfy those into curiosity.



– Saul Muerte

Teddy is currently streaming on Shudder ANZ

Movie review: Bleed With Me (2021)

10 Tuesday Aug 2021

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On face value this slow burn of a movie from Director Amelia Moses feature length debut can feel like it’s happy to flow along without much pace or kick to its narrative. But as it shambles its way pulling you into a false sense of lull, it gradually reveals more to its outward exterior with a few jolts out of the comfort blue.

Our protagonist Rowan (Lee Marshall) appears to be a lost and vulnerable soul, who welcomes the friendship and support from Emily (Lauren Beatty – Jigsaw) and her partner, Brendan (Aris Tiros – Slaxx), but like the movie itself, none of these characters should be judged by appearance and harbour secrets that run deep. 

We join the trio at the start of a winter retreat in a log cabin far from any other human contact. As the story unfolds and the wine continues to pour, the emotional instability begins to show.
Rowan and Emily are drawn to one another with whispers of a traumatic past connecting them through some harboured common understanding of the pain that they have both had to endure. Rowan clearly doubts her sanity however and begins to suspect that her Florence Nightingale saviour, Emily may actually be drugging her. Is this another sign of her losing her way, or is there something more sinister at play? Rowan continues to doubt all about her, but is trapped between trusting her judgement and allowing herself to fall at the mercy of the one person who is giving her the love and attention that she so craves. It’s an intimate and finely balanced episode that gently rests between serenity and despair. 

Moses manages to craft a lot of ambience and emotion from the remote setting and the minimal cast, that despite some flaws in substance, there is enough flair and intrigue involved to warrant intrigue into her next directorial venture, which looks to reunite her with Beatty once again in Bloodthirsty. 

The Diagnosis:

A little slow but a nice balance of psychological interplay between two women suffering from traumatic episodes in their lives.

Director Amelia Moses crafts an intricate tale that constantly questions the real state of affairs and what are ripples of past suffering.

Bleed With Me is currently streaming on Shudder ANZ.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: The Others (2001)

10 Tuesday Aug 2021

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Put this down to pure ignorance but when I sat down to re-watch 2001’s The Others as part of the Surgeon’s of Horror retrospective reviews in recognition of 20 years since its release, three thoughts came to mind. Firstly, ‘What happened to Chilean film director Alejandro Amenábar?” Of course I had forgotten that he had followed up this film with the brilliant The Sea Inside and Agora. He would take a seven year absence before then coming back to direct Regression starring Ethan Hawke, which admittedly I haven’t seen. The reason for my ignorance is that he simply slipped off my radar, despite having a clear eye for psychologically disturbing stories, especially when you look at his sophomore outing, Open Your Eyes, which would later be remade and retitled Vanilla Sky and star Tom Cruise.
It does feel though that following The Sea Inside, Amenábar lost his edge a little. 

Secondly, I have a blind spot when it comes to Nicole Kidman in that I find her grating to watch at the best of times. So I have always been reluctant to revisit it.
And thirdly, I felt that it paled in comparison to other haunting features, such as The Innocents, The Haunting, and The Devil’s Backbone. 

Upon my latest viewing, a few things in my mind altered. Namely that not only is The Others a better movie than I gave it credit for, but also that it’s potentially one of Kidman’s best performances captured on screen. This surprised me and also allowed me to scrutinise this in more detail.

Whilst it’s clear that the film was inspired by Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, the beauty of the film is the slow, enticing pace that Amenábar draws out the suspense and mystery surrounding the small remote house in Jersey.
There are rules and conventions that are set up to pull you in and manipulate your mind, falling into a false sense of security despite always knowing that something is off key. Kidman’s mentally estranged mother Grace with a tight noose around her children Anne and Nicholas, under the strange guise of photosensitivity that forces them to live in the darkness with all curtains drawn.
Then the hired help led by Mrs. Mills (Fionnula Flanegan) as the nanny, Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes) the groundskeeper, and Lydia (Elaine Cassidy) a mute maid, all add fuel to the curiosity that surrounds them all.

Whatever is lurking behind the curtains is soon sent backwards with the surprise visit from Grace’s physically absent husband, Charles (Christopher Eccleston) due to the War, believed to have been lost for dead. His return momentarily puts the needle back in the groove, before it shifts off gear again with curious noises and movement from the house, sending the family into fear that there are ghosts residing with them, only to have the sheets pulled back for the final reveal. 

When this happens, our perceptions are left spiralling and we begin to question how we weren’t able to see this all along. Again, this is clever misdirection on the part of Amenábar and is actually strengthened further with repeat viewing. Something I should have done along time ago and proves that either my tastes have changed or as stated at the fore, I was misguided by my previous misconceptions.

  • Saul Muerte

Retrospective: Session 9 (2001)

10 Tuesday Aug 2021

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Shortly after Session 9 was released there were whispers from the horror genre about it, praising Brad Anderson for his directing and character development and yet my actual watching of the feature had evaded me. 20 years down the track, the whispers have grown into a loud chorus, pushing the feature into cult status, so it would be remiss of me not to take a look and assess why the buzz has been so positive.

Firstly, its lead character Gordon Fleming is played by one of my favourite actors, Peter Mullan, who blew me away in the Ken Loach movie My Name Is Joe, so again strange that I hadn’t pushed the film to the top of my must watch list. Here, Mullan’s portrayal of Fleming is a perfect example of someone who pushes down all their emotions and feelings, a dormant volcano waiting to erupt at any given moment. 

Fleming is the owner of an asbestos abatement company in Massachusetts, who takes on a job at an abandoned psychiatric hospital… never a good idea… and takes a small team with him on the promise that they could complete the task in the space of two weeks. The pressures of money drawing him to agree to a job which will stretch the team both physically and mentally.

The team is made up of Fleming; Mike (Stephen Gevedon), a law school dropout, who has a deep knowledge of the hospital and stumbles across some recorded session tapes of Mary Hobbes, a former patient at the hospital who suffered from dissociative identity disorder (Throughout the movie, Mike becomes more and more fascinated by the tapes); there’s Gordon’s nephew Jeff (Brandon Sexton III), who has a fear of dark spaces; Hank (Josh Lucas), the wildcard of the group who has a severe gambling addiction; and lastly Jeff (David Caruso, a man who has made a name for chewing up the scenery and immersing himself deeply into his characters, here is no exception). 

The further the team starts to disassemble the hospital, the more layers are peeled back into the psyche each of the individuals. Loyalty and trust come into question and what initially started out as a strong unit, begins to unravel drawing out the weakest and most vulnerable traits that they hold. Were these cracks in their personality armour always on display, or is there something sinister lurking in the asylum shadows, feeding on their weaknesses?

When interviewed about filming at the Danvers Asylum, Caruso opened up about the uncomfortable feeling on set. The Asylum is a character in its own right and lends weight to the unsettled nature of the film, tapping deep into the psychological component on display. It’s a slow boiler, that exposes the darkest side of humanity and how everyone holds demons in their heart. Whilst the ambience is expertly crafted by director Anderson, it’s the cast that ground the weight of oppression into the film, and cut deep to the bone with its psychological exposition. With all these components combined, Session 9 more than proves itself and it’s no wonder that it has resonated among so many, myself included. 

A cracker of a movie, which like me, if it has passed you by, I highly recommend that you pay it a visit.

  • Saul Muerte