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Movie review: The Power (2021)

12 Monday Apr 2021

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What starts off as a promising horror film with an eerie setting, The Power soon gets lost in its own labyrinth of darkness and dissolution.

Let’s face it. There’s something that is imminently scary about hospitals and the thought of death hanging over you and by choosing to set the film in a dilapidated one during the early 70s when the decor is sparse, drawing forth the feeling of isolation amongst the empty corridors heightens this sensation further.

It doesn’t help that the hospital is at the hands of a current mining strike and has the electrical power being shut down at the dead of night, thrusting the audience into constant panic and despair.

Guiding us through the darkness is a young nurse, Val (Rose Williams), new to the hospital and on a temporary probation. She stumbles her way through the rigorous and meticulously structured system within the varying wards. We’re instantly drawn to Val’s empathetic nature, but we soon learn that there’s a reason for her good-hearted nature having been a victim of abuse in her childhood at the Catholic orphanage.

It is her eagerness to please and help others though that finds her on the wrong side of the hierarchy and forced to work the night shift. When darkness will descend on all.

There is something sinister lurking in the darkness that has an instant connection with Val and opens up old wounds among the staff.

Is this presence a dark one though or is there something more to the gloomy outlook?

The Prognosis:

The initial premise is a strong one and the balance of power between light and darkness, male and female, and social status is constantly shifting and fluctuating through a nicely woven script.

Corrina Faith develops a strongly directed narrative and combined with Laura Bellingham’s (Amulet) visual flair, projecting an atmosphere that chills.

It’s main flaw is that once it builds up the tension, it quickly transcends into predictability and the usual horror tropes that we’ve come accustomed to.

Despite this, the script, performances and direction is tight, making The Power an enjoyable watch regardless.

  • Saul Muerte 

Movie Review: Violation (2021)

07 Wednesday Apr 2021

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My gut reaction following watching this movie was to declare it the best film of the year so far, and while the dust has settled now and along with it the stirred up emotions that Violation incurred on this writer’s soul, there is still some resonance of the raw energy that is prevalent throughout the film’s narrative.

It is this intensity drawn out by the writing, directing partnership of Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli produced with a simmering and festering boiling pot of turmoil that pulls you in and intoxicates the mind.

Maybe it’s that Sims-Fewer had an amount of creative control and with this a freedom of expression to tap into the complexities that her character Miriam holds, but her performance is beyond exemplary as a result and is captivating to watch. 

What we witness is Miriam, a woman who has become labelled for her feisty and headstrong personna that has often landed her in difficult circumstances, but beneath the surface is an incredibly fragile figure, who is starting to unravel. Among her troubles is a pending divorce from her husband Caleb (Obi Abili) and when they decide to spend time with Miriam’s younger sister Greta (Anna Maguire) and brother-in-law, Dylan (Jesse LaVercombe), she yearns for the safety of people that she can feel comfortable with and expose her vulnerability to.
Families are often a complex thing though, and Miriam’s past behaviour clouds what could be a straightforward and reliable road with Greta, who has constantly had to endure living in the shadows of her larger-than-life sister.
There is also a past that Miriam shares with Dylan, and at time when she really needs someone to lean on, he betrays her in the most violating way, hence the title, and with this traumatic experience, Miriam is left reeling and with her own base responses to rely upon.
But first she must exact vengeance and clear the way forward for her to heal. No matter what it costs.

The Prognosis:

Best movie of the year?
Possibly.

Best performance of the year?
With Madeleine Sims-Fewer’s portrayal of the central character Miriam and the violation that occurs combined with the trauma that this leaves on her… Definitely 

Violation is a slow burn, but a perfect exercise in raw performance with a tightly knit script to explore a wrenching-yet-topical subject.

It awakens the senses and projects every ounce of emotion onto the screen. I always fall deep for movies that elicit such a response, and for that, I can’t rate it highly enough.

  • Saul Muerte 

Movie Review: Koko-di Koko-da

06 Tuesday Apr 2021

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Despite being released in the festival circuits back in 2019, Koko-di Koko-da deserves a bigger audience, and thanks to Shudder’s Exclusive and Original distributions, Swedish director Johannes Nyholm gets to see his sophomore feature receive greater access.

There are some that may instantly be turned away from the subtitles, but if you’re not averse to this, then you’re in for a disturbingly surreal tale about grief.

The film begins with a couple, Tobias and Elin take their daughter, Maja on holiday to the coastal town of Skagen for a holiday. What should be an idyllic occasion soon turns sour though when Maja is struck ill from an allergic reaction to eating seafood. This swiftly becomes fatal and Tobias and Elin are left rocking from this tragedy.

The real holiday begins though three years later when the now estranged couple try to rekindle their relationship, having felt the strain that the loss of their daughter has had on them both. Embittered and self-destructive, the couple have reached their limits, but somehow they find it in themselves to find a way to reunite in one of the most dire things that a couple can do… go camping!

It seems an odd choice considering their torment, as anyone who can attest to that may have gone camping, it’s not the most relaxing of things to do, and can generate ill-feeling when things go awry. 

Driven by the desire to see the trip through, Tobias strays off the road and decides to camp in a remote woodland location. Never a good idea, but they never thought that they would encounter a strange a sideshow troupe made up of an elderly man in a white suit who serves as a sort of emcee to the macabre and twisted events that he forces the couple through; a large muscle man character, and a thin gothic looking woman. 

The nightmare becomes stranger still when it becomes evident that the couple have fallen into some kind of time warp and no matter how hard they try to change the course of events are forced to endure. They must work together and find a path that unites them both and not born out of a selfish need to survive, if they are to make any way out of their suffering.

The Prognosis:

This is definitely one for fans of surreal horror infused with dark comedy. It is stitched together with short shadow play depictions of the grief that lay at the centre of their ordeal, which also slips Koko-di Koko-da into artsy terrain and may turn people away. 

However, I enjoyed the reality that Nyholm plays with the subject of grief and the depth that this can take on the central characters.

It’s an emotion that can send you transcending downward in a spiral of destruction, often willing to subject oneself to the agony and guilt of it all. 

For this, Koko-di Koko-da is a tough but fascinating watch.

  • Saul Muerte 

Movie Review: Slaxx

05 Monday Apr 2021

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Slaxx is one of those movies that on paper smacks of the ridiculous and even though its moralistic message is on overkill, the film itself actually surprises.

The movie narrative follows a young sales clerk Libby (Romane Denis) starting her first day for a corporate clothing store that prides itself on producing high quality clothing using naturally organic fibres.
It doesn’t take long for Libby and the audience to realise that the company is with wankdom and its employees are equally vacuous and insipid.
Thankfully for us, that means there is plenty of unlikeable victims to meet a grisly encounter.

The mode of slasher/stalker isn’t exactly what you’d naturally expect and where the farcicial component comes into effect, as a pair of killer jeans.

Part of Slaxx’s appeal comes with the comical tone that Director Elza Kephart plays throughout the movie, whilst also delivering some satisfyingly gnarly deaths.
A fine line to balance on without falling into lame or over the top ridiculousness, which Kephart delivers with ease.
Hats off to the Bollywood dance number, which could easily have tipped things off kilter but manages to hang on by it’s sheer audacity and having placed the attitude tongue firmly in it’s cheek from the get-go.
And with pretty much everyone up for grabs having all bowed at some point to consumerism and being guilty for succumbing to hedonism at some point, the kill count is gonna be gloriously high.

The Prognosis:

There’s a lot of fun to be had in this over-the-top, hilarious, and bloody tale of killer jeans on the rampage.
Yes the morals smack of overkill but can be forgiven for its humour and is for proudly  wearing its identity on its britches.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie Review: Stay Out of the Attic (2020)

01 Thursday Apr 2021

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My immediate reaction to the opening 20 minutes of this movie was admittedly a struggle as the performances were grinding and felt forced, painfully trying to shift out of first gear. In many ways it smacked of low-budget b grade execution and I had a moment of wondering if I were going to be able to endure the 80 minute running time. 

The premise of Stay Out of the Attic follows two convicts Imani and Carlos, who are promised a second chance in life outside of prison walls when they work for fellow ex-con Alber Schillinger’s removal company. Each of them have their own demons to exorcise and on their first job get more than they bargained for and are forced to confront their past haunts and misconceptions, which is also incredibly two-dimensional in its delivery.

Filled with hopes over turning a new leaf, the intrepid trio venture into the house where they are greeted by Vern Mueller, an elderly man with a sickening past. Basically he’s a psychologically deranged Nazi medical practioner carrying out fucked up experiments. We later learn that he is practicing the works of Josef Mengele and has been torturing people in both the attic and basement of his house in a crazed search for a rejuvenation serum. 

Mueller manages to trap the trio in his mansion where he then inflicts pain, torture and carnage in order to act out his malicious will. Admittedly this is where Director Jerren Lauder manages to step away from the realm of predictability and serves some delightfully macabre moments. By the time he plays this hand though, the film has already slipped into mediocrity.

The Prognosis:

Stay Out of the Attic is both painful to watch in its failure to deliver anything masterful and gut-wrenching in the manner that it inflicts salacious ways for the main characters to endure. 

Most of the time, it’s incredibly slow and meticulous but there are some glimmers of inspiration that stop this film from being a disaster and hangs on the right side of watchability.

  • Saul Muerte 

Movie review: Lucky (2021)

05 Friday Mar 2021

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Saturday night on Shudder:

It’s Saturday night! Time for a venture onto the Shudder platform with their latest Exclusive and Original feature.

This week’s focus is on Lucky, directed by Natashsa Kermani (Imitation Girl) and starring Brea Grant (Eastsiders), who also took on writing duties for this movie.
Brea stars as May, a self help novelist, who is being stalked on a nightly basis by a threatening figure in her own house.
On face value, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Lucky feels like a standard made-for-tv feature due to its low budget and slow pace in delivery, but the deeper you delve into its narrative, the more complex and smart it becomes.

The character of May is an intriguing one, and as our lead protagonist, serves as a portal into the universe that is created around her. The intricacy involved in the narrative however also rests on this point of view; because we view things through May’s perspective, we are reliant on this depiction of the events that surround, but here’s the ticker… May is a trauma survivor, and trauma itself is an incredibly complex thing. No one person experiences trauma the same way, and as such, can experience fragments of these memories that have mentally scarred her discernment of the world. Like her, the audience is left to put these pieces together and figure out why she keeps seeing this violent presence each night and why those around her become distant and withdrawn, especially her husband Ted (Dhruv Uday Singh).

If you have the patience to journey through these fractured events that May is traversing, it can lead to a climax that has been building throughout the film towards a revelatory conclusion.

Some may spot that conclusion coming, and the dots that are formed slips easily into predictability but in some cases this allows the viewer to scrutinise the message further and for this reviewer, that feels like the most relevant expression that Kermani and Grant are aiming for. A subject that is ripe for conversation and through Lucky have provided a mode of thought that feels like a strong and passionate project on behalf of the creative team.

The Prognosis:

Don’t be misguided by the “artsy” mode of delivery that this film goes for.
Nor the low-budget style of direction that the feature is subjected to.
Lucky is a relevant and poignant film that strides to tackle or expose a subject that we should all be paying attention to and discuss. That subject is trauma and not only the shockingly commonality that violence has become in society, be it domestic or otherwise, but also the absence of support or understanding that is out there for survivors of a traumatic episode.
Often, those victims are termed lucky for surviving their ordeal, but the mental scars that are left over have a resounding effect on all facets of their lives. It can be an isolating experience where it feels like no one can understand what they are going through, and yet with so many cases, why are we not able to address and confront these issues together?
This may sound like a deep analysis of what is on show, but it’s a subject that absolutely needs to be addressed and I think that both Kermani and Grant have produced a solid, entertaining movie that takes on this tough issue and presents a solid representation of what it means to be forced into a world where the remnants of trauma is with us in every waking moment of our lives.

  • Saul Muerte

To listen to the audio review please click the link below:

https://anchor.fm/saul-muerte/embed/episodes/Movie-review-Lucky-2021-ernl7v

Movie review: The Dark and The Wicked

02 Tuesday Mar 2021

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There is an ongoing belief that isolation can have damaging consequences on the human mind. While there are those that repress their emotions and adamantly believe that by placing a rift between ourselves and society or community, we are less likely to encounter any harmful or negative experiences and therefore be safe from the dangers that the world can expose.

And yet the fear of being alone or dying alone is incredibly prominent in some circles and can signify the feeling of a life not yet lived or to the full.
This is why it is often the subject in horror films and can stir the trepidation of being stranded or stuck in the middle of nowhere, far from any hope or signs of life, tormented by an evil presence.
Sometimes this is done well but often can fall prey to horror tropes and jump scares with little or no lasting effect on its audience.

The Dark and The Wicked, the latest Exclusive and Original feature from Shudder is happily from the former and delivers a deeply psychological and disturbing feature.

Set on a secluded farm, two siblings Louise (Marin Ireland) and Michael (Michael Abbott. Jr) return to the family homestead to help their mother (Julie Oliver-Touchstone) with their dying father, whom we are told is at death’s door.

Their mother though appears distraught and disconnected from everyone, and warns the siblings that they shouldn’t have come. Before long, she snaps, cuts off her fingers and then hangs herself.
The siblings are then left trying to figure out what could have possessed their mother with the help of their father’s nurse (Lynn Andrews) that a demonic spirit is trying to take the soul of their father.

Spun out by the overwhelming and perturbing manner in which their mother took her own life and the threat that there may be something dark and sinister lurking in the shadows, that is driven to bring all those in the vicinity into its wake.

Are they experiencing a group hallucination? Is there more to the mysterious priest (Xander Berkley) or has something else taken up residence among them?

The Prognosis:

Director Bryan Bertino (The Strangers) is clearly drawn to the subject of isolation, fractured lives and what the fear of the unknown can have on the psyche.
Here, he crafts and wrangles out every last ounce of agitation from a small, yet strong cast by wallowing them through grief and the brink of despair until they are consumed by their emotions.

It is a slow-burn, but the strenuous ordeal through which both its leads and the audience is drawn through is well worth the payoff.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Shook (2021)

20 Saturday Feb 2021

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Shook, the latest Original offering from Shudder attempts to examine the vacuous nature that Social Media harbours from reality.

Unlike previous films that have tackled a similar subject in Spree or Cam, this home invasion prank gone wrong, misses the mark by a country mile.

Writer, director Jennifer Harrington has a difficult task to pull her audience in by projecting her lead character Mia (Daisye Tutor) as a social media star, who has turned her back on her ailing mother in pursuit of recognition and fame.

The cost of which would come back to haunt her.

By painting Mia in such a dark light from the get go however, the audience struggle to connect with her and feel for her plight. In many ways, this same mould is what turned me off another social media horror film, Unfriended, where all of these characters were instantly likeable.

So as much as Harrington puts Mia through the wringer, we’re always going to struggle with caring for her.

The majority of the film centres around Mia’s family home, where she has come to look after her sister’s dog. Her sister, Nicole (Emily Goss) has flown to San Francisco for medical tests, for a crippling disease that her mother died from. At first the audience are completely unaware of the prank as Mia hooks into her various social platforms, ironically feeling isolated from the world despite being connected in the cyberworld.

To use yet another couple of films as referential points, there are elements of Scream and When A Stranger Calls when Mia receives a telephone call from the mysterious Kellan across the road and with it, our primary suspect looms large.

Slowly it is revealed that the sinister phone calls and threats to the dog and her “social” friends was just a prank, which is where we the audience are then meant to feel sorry for Mia, subjected to bullying tactics for the sake of money and online recognition. The twist then hits when someone has turned the prank on them all and begins to subject Mia to a torturous game of choice. 

Here, Harrington really labours the point further about how neglectful Mia was towards her mother during her time of need, marking this as a personal vendetta and once again subjects our protagonist onto the pile of the damned. 

And when our reveal occurs, Shook falls so swiftly and easily into predictable territory that we’re beyond caring about the outcome.

The Prognosis:

It feels like a slow start for horror streaming platform Shudder, with the painfully slow A Nightmare Wakes and now the lack of originality in Shook, this year doesn’t seem to have been able to shift out of second gear.

Shook is a middle of the road fair which fails to ignite anything beyond the flatline of a thriller, straining to find a resemblance of a pulse.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: A Nightmare Wakes (2021)

12 Friday Feb 2021

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I really wanted to like this movie.

For one it boasts one of the more infamous settings in Gothic literature, the stormy night that Lord Byron challenged his guests to come up with a story to scare and chill the soul. This challenge brought his physician, John William Polidori to come up with his novel, The Vampyre, but more importantly it bore witness to the birth of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

With that kind of source material cast on the banks of Lake Geneva and set during the romantic victorian period you’d think it would be ripe with potential.

Sadly though it feels more like a blurred dream as director Nora Unkel strives to create her vision in a living nightmare.

The tone seems completely off and out of key, which is a shame.

If I can take any positives out of the film is that it centres on Mary Shelley’s plight as the mistress to the great poet Percy Shelley and the status that she is subjected to because of her position in society. Unkel expertly wrangles out the male chauvinistic attitude that was portrayed at the time and in some cases is still prevalent today. I found it interesting and indeed a bold choice to cast Percy Shelley in a dark light, where he was the perfect image of sentimentality. The brutal truth exposed, but could have been capitalised further and in order to capture the stuff of nightmare, could have sharpened the tools of doom and disaster.

It is during the aforementioned time that Mary stays with her partner, Shelley, her sister Claire, Lord Byron, and Polidori ata the Byron house where all manner of sinister things occur that she begins to hallucinate, drawing her fictionalised novel into reality.

These illusions albeit shocking for the time that it was set, feels too trapped in the romantic side of the Victoria Era and although it does draw forth the dramatic component of the free-living lifestyle that that led, it doesn’t tap into the darker side that the period became known for and sparked numerous classic pieces of literature as a result.

The Prognosis:

A Nightmare Wakes has the perfect setting and source material to pull from, but rather than rise to the occasion, it shuffles slowly along to an incredibly boring conclusion.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Hunted

05 Friday Feb 2021

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Directed by Vincent Parranaud, who also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Alexandre Perrier, Hunted stars Lucie DeBay and is currently available on Shudder.

The film may speak on a very average sense, but there are some elements that I did enjoy.

While it does tap into that thriller element that we see all too often, with a woman being hunted, or the victim, or being chased down by either serial killers or someone planning to do ill.

Hunted taps into these themes in a big way.

Lucie DeBay plays the central character, Eve, where we get two guys who accost her when they trick her into getting into their car and end up in the woods.

From here all manner of stuff arises as the film becomes a story of survival.

What I kind of like about the film is that it’s basically The Little Red Riding Hood story inverted with a lot of the story elements coming to the fore.

The character Eve wears red throughout most of the movie.

The woods obviously ties in really nicely which includes a twist on the woodcutter component that comes into that fairy tale.

Obviously the biggest image at play is the wolf, which at first comes across as the men, but there is this dog-like energy that comes across the movie and propels the narrative to a bitter and frenzied conclusion.

The Prognosis:

I like these elements that Parranaud plays with which slightly elevates it above the average movie.

  • Saul Muerte