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Movie review: Death Valley (2021)

11 Saturday Dec 2021

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When two mercenaries head out for one last gig with the promise that it will set them up for life, they soon find out that it may cost them their lives

Death Valley is about as formulaic a movie as they come but it is slightly elevated due to the time and dedication to its lead characters, in spite of how two dimensional that come across, they’re still entertaining with their odd couple buddy routine

There’s Mr. Serious, play things by the book and the soldier who comes up with the plans, James Beckett (Jeremy Nibaber), plus he’s a family man 

And there’s the joker, cowboy who is struggling to reach maturity and always resorts to wise cracks, Marshall (Ethan Mitchell). Thankfully he’s a crack shot sniper who delivers when things come to the crunch.

Their latest mission sees the duo answering the call from a female scientist who holds secret information which if it falls into the wrong hands will spell certain doom for mankind.

Naturally when they reach the remote laboratory bunker, they discover that all is not what it seems and several things are stalking them in the underground warren.

The creatures hold a pretty cool design and provide enough fear to instill a sense of dread and the desire to complete their mission and find freedom. This is amped even moreso wit the threat of a militia who will stop at nothing to bring the science experiments to an end.

The prognosis:

Death Valley may be prone to predictability and could easily fall foul as a result, but what is presented is mildly entertaining and ticks along at a descent pace.

Just don’t be surprised by the cheap choice ending and the dialogue which can be ropey at times.

  • Saul Muerte

Death Valley is currently streaming on ShudderANZ.

Movie review: The Advent Calendar

11 Saturday Dec 2021

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Who doesn’t love a bit of festive horror?

And there’s plenty to like about this French horror thriller from director Patrick Ridremont.

Eugenie Derouand stars as Eva, a paraplegic who receives a mysterious box in the guise of the titular advent calendar from her friend Sophie (Honorine Magnier). As expected with ominous gifts with offers of treats that stretch from confectionary to real life rewards, there will be repercussions.  The question though is whether the benefits outweigh these hindrances? How much is one willing to salvage for a better chance at life? For Eva, this temptation proves too great, but how far is she willing to go?

There are three rules to follow.

Eat all the chocolate… Or die.

Do every task given… Or die.

And don’t dump the advent calendar… Or…you guessed it. You die.

The premise is pretty straight up and the performances are solid across the board, allowing the viewer to step into the narrative easily. We’re even presented with a nicely stylised creature who lurks from within the box and comes out when rules are broken or when sacrifices need to be made. This helps ramp up the tension suitably, hooking you further into the drama. And sure enough when things go sour, it does so that stays firmly in believability. A tough thing to do when you’re playing in the realms of fantasy.

The prognosis:

A solid feature with some nice moments that entertains despite some predictable moments.

It helps that the performances from the leads are strong to fuel the the loss of control as the drama unfolds.

  • Saul Muerte

The Advent Calendar is currently streaming on ShudderANZ

Movie review: Dead & Beautiful

01 Monday Nov 2021

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Director David Verbeek leans heavily into the latter part of the film’s title. Strewn with stunning images throughout the Rotterdam cityscape as its backdrop in most places, whilst tantalising with the ‘Dead’ component.

Five rich socialites have gravitated to one another out of their boredom and unfulfilment of life’s medicrity and strive to spice up the dull elements with a shared mixture of experiences that challenge their vices and pushing them to the edge in order to feel something and awaken their dormant souls.

One night out quintet of rich kids descend upon a group of people who practice an ancient ritual that centres on the dark arts and a sacrifice. The group black out and wake to find a corpse and each bear a set of fangs. Instantly they are subjected to the notion that they have been turned into creatures of the night, forced to carry out vampiric means to satiate the growing thirst for blood.

The film flicks and flutters through their stifled emotions as the group becomes restless and unable to comprehend or handle this new way of life. With no guide rope to aid them in these new experiences, they are left flailing into the wind, reaching out for anything that may ground them.

Verbeek successfully captures the strengths and weaknesses of the characters  as they both fall into each other’s embrace or thrust them apart with their responses or actions, amplifying their paranoia or loss of control. All of which slowly builds to a conclusion that leaves you questioning the blurred lines of reality.

The Diagnosis:

Beautifully shot and complex characters intertwine through a deliberately slow narrative giving room to build up the central characters.

It’s a film that plays with manipulation and human conditioning at its core, where nothing is as it seems.

Like the key players, the audience is subjected to a fixed point of view that unravels and is picked apart to the point where you not only feel the trauma of the group, but just when you think you have it figured out, takes you in a completely different direction.

– Saul Muerte

Dead & Beautiful is streaming on Shudder from Thursday 4th November

Movie review: Seance (2021)

27 Monday Sep 2021

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Affiliated more for his penmanship among the mumblegore movement, especially alongside Director Adam Wingard’s You’re Next, Simon Barrett has been slowly etching his way to his own turn behind the camera calling the shots.

His opportunity arises in Shudder’s latest Exclusive and Original feature Seance.

Barrett’s name alone gets me excited to see what he would produce when in charge of the lens and I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed.

There are familiar elements at play here, with the kick-ass action sequences that come from the unexpected, plus the spiritual component that was drawn in Temple.     

That isn’t to say that Seance doesn’t carve its own narrative for the audience to be lured by.

The tale that is woven centers on a Girls Boarding school, Edevine Academy for Girls, following the mysterious death of one of the school girls when a prank goes wrong. But is there more to play beneath the disciplined exterior of the prestigious learning facility?

Newcomer Camille Meadows certainly suspects that this could be the case when confronted by a not-so warm welcome from some of the other girls and an even frostier reception from something or someone that haunts her room each night.

Have the girls stirred something from beyond when they practice a seance to get in touch with the girl who died? Is there something more untoward? Camille must navigate her new terrain and take on the role of sleuth, to uncover the truth and potentially face a haunting prospect that pushes her to the brink of the living world.

The Diagnosis:

Barrett generates a familiar plot but manages to weave it with a level of cool and panache that marks Seance with its own identity.

It helps that the actors on show are engaging and provide a little more than the two-dimensional tropes that we often expect on screen. Notably Suki Waterhouse’s (Assassination Nation) whose Camille shows levels of vulnerability and hardship throughout the film, coupled with the notion that nothing and no one are who or what they seem to be.
Plus Tobias Vethake’s score is truly captivating, ensnaring you into the celluloid world with ease, adding to the depth of the film.

Roll on Barrett’s next feature, a stepping stone into expanding the VHS franchise with V/H/S 94.

  • Saul Muerte

Seance is currently streaming on Shudder from Thursday, September 30th.

Movie Review: Martyrs Lane (2021)

20 Monday Sep 2021

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Martyrs Lane is a slow painful pull into a deep and psychological dive into grief, blame, and self-destruction immersed inside an insular family dynamic. 

We witness this story from the perspective of 10 year old girl, Leah (Kiera Thompson) at the family home, an old vicarage, who begins to unearth hidden secrets that her family members have tried to bury.

Slowly, Leah is provided with clues to point her (or lure her) in the direction of truth, but who is behind the mystery and what is the price of uncovering past haunts?

The pacing of this movie is deliberately drawn out to build up the tension of the tale which is to be commended, especially as the actors of the piece beautifully tap into the darkness. It does however serve as a detriment to our engagement, often suffering under the weight of its own caliginosity. There are listless moments throughout the film as we’re often left to languidly drift through the storyline unable to connect.

Ruth Platt’s third outing in the director’s chair proves that she’s no stranger to the craft and manages to steer her actors through a pot-boiler that wrangles every ounce of drama out of them. The children in particular deserve high praise, with some naturalistic performances that grind the drama into a sense of realism. 

The Diagnosis: 

A hard film to engage with and fall into some of the admittedly beautiful shots on display,

The performances are great and if you bide your time and indulge in the slow pacing, you will be rewarded with a fantastic tale.

But man, they make hard work of it.

  • Saul Muerte

Martyrs Lane is currently streaming on Shudder.

Movie review: Superhost (2021)

12 Sunday Sep 2021

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On face value Superhost begins by focusing on insipidly vacuous couple Claire (Sara Canning – The Vampire Diaries) and Teddy (Osric Chau – Supernatural) are unbearably false and vain, which is the point right?
But as the story unfolds there are glimpses of their former selves, prior to the burning desire to boost their social ratings. 

Claire’s and Teddy are a duo travel vloggers who spend their time residing in airbnb’s and promoting their thoughts of the locations and more importantly their hosts online.

Worried that their numbers and fanbase appear to be dwindling they start to up the ante in how to turn around their bad fortune.

So at their next location, when things appear to be hitting a dull point, they encounter more than they bargain for, but is it from the psychotic former host, Vera (Barbara Crampton – Re-Animator) from a previous location that they stayed at leaving unfavourable reviews? Or will it be the slightly off-kilter host Rebecca (Gracie Gillam – Fright Night) from their current place of stay?              

The Diagnosis:

Director Brandon Christensen (Still/Born; Z) much like his previous films manages to generate  some genuinely cool moments.
Here it is notably enhanced by the performances from Crampton and Gillam, but the end result is a mediocre affair and doesn’t generate much of a flicker outside of originality.

There’s enough here to entertain but not necessarily to stimulate.

  • Saul Muerte

Superhost is currently streaming on Shudder

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: 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.

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