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Movie review: Good Madam (2022)

11 Monday Jul 2022

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It is clear from the offset that this psychological thriller is a heartfelt commentary about the post-apatheid impact on South Africa. Director Jenna Cato Bass, who grew up in the troubled country, weaves together her insights into her homeland with a mystical feel that could very well be drawn from her study of magic.

The story unfolds through the eyes of Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa), who is forced to move in with her estranged mother, a woman who has lived a life of servitude, tied to the domestic lifestyle, enslaved to white empowerment.
The madam in question is virtually catatonic for most of the movie, and is symbolic of how in spite of how tides have changed in South Africa, the presence and long lasting effect that this gruelling oppression has on Black Africans and widening the race divide. 

This trauma is not one that can easily be vanquished and will be passed on from generation to generation, scarred from what transpired and stuck with this demon that resides in the consciousness, tearing apart your mental wellbeing.

The more entrenched that Tsidi becomes in her mother’s lifestyle again, the more embroiled she becomes to the torment and enslaved to suffering. Cosa portrays this anguish with great pose and dignity, fuelling our own heartache as she fights tooth and nail to resist or overcome what is inevitable. Resolution can only be found in unity, but can Tsidi find kinship with her mother and brother, or is the weight of history too overbearing?

The Prognosis:

Good Madam is a slow burn psychological commentary on trauma and oppression. It weaves a delicate balance of torment and hope, slowly dialling up the tension to a dramatic conclusion.

The pace may turn people away but for those who like to be emotionally churned up with a steady transgression, they will be gifted with a well crafted tale.

  • Saul Muerte

Good Madam will be streaming on Shudder ANZ from Thu Jul 14th.

Movie review: On The 3rd Day (2021)

05 Tuesday Jul 2022

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Daniel de la Vega’s latest feature, On the 3rd Day finds its place on Shudder’s Exclusive and Original platform. While it does serve up some fairly predictable choices, there is certainly some appeal in the manner that de la Vega chooses to weave his tale.

The centrepoint of catharsis stems from the moment when Cecilia and her son Martin are involved in a car accident. Cecilia was in the throes of escaping her abusive husband when the catalyst occurred. The story picks ups three days later with Cecilia trying to piece the puzzle along with now trying to find her son; absent since the car crash.

Who was responsible?

Who is this mysterious elderly religious man, hellbent on his own quest and the other party in the collison. Is this coincidence or divine reckoning that has brought these two together only to counter against one another towards the film’s climactic reveal?

The further Ceclia digs into her lost days, the more of the past she uncovers with brutal truths exposed.

The air of intrigue that hangs in the air of Cecilia’s character is the main draw card here and Mariana Anghileri’s portrayal of our protagonist is a big draw card as she delicately dapples with strength and vulnerability. It is this balance of emotional range that allows the audience to play along with the poetry of the piece and despite its obvious movements, is captivating all the same.

The Prognosis:

On the 3rd Day treads a foreseeable trail but in this case it’s not the destination that is its selling point but the journey it takes us on.
Celia’s plight and dedication to find out the truth of the mystery carries our own intrigue with careful deliberation to hook us in and deliver a satisfying tale.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Revealer (2022)

24 Friday Jun 2022

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Luke Boyce has steadily been making a name for himself in the film industry behind the camera as a director or producer, namely in making promos for the big sporting teams of Chicago. His latest outing sees him in the Director’s chair for his first feature length movie and with a promising hook.

The premise has a stripper, Angie (Caito Aase) trapped in a peep show booth along with a religious protester, Sally (Shaina Schrooten) when the world is hit by an apocalyptic event. Oh and it has a retro fit of 1980s Chicago as a setting for good measure.

Unfortunately, the film struggles to meet these bold expectations, providing the audience with tired and two-dimensional characters for us to champion their desire for survival.

If you’re going to have a primarily two person feature to keep you captivated for 1hr and 26 mins, then you have to provide a weighty script with characters that have depth to their personalities.

All of this is sadly lacking and we’re left with a lacklustre narrative that is far from apocalyptic.

Our two leads manage to fight their way out of said phone booth when faced with a zombie, only to be tested further when they venture into a labyrinth of snake type nasties in an underground world. This underbelly of Chicago feels like a cheap attempt to replicate the upside down in Stranger Things. The effects are fairly good however, showing that there is promise in Boyce’s vision, and that hope may lay in his next feature, Revival.

For Revealer though, these tests of mental will and endurance seem pale and much like the story itself, on a road to nowhere.

The Prognosis:

There are nuggets of potential in this flick but too often the dialogue is weak and doesn’t offer enough to support a decent premise.

  • Saul Muerte

Revealer is currently streaming on Shudder Australia

Movie review: Offseason

16 Thursday Jun 2022

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Having launched into the film industry as an intern through hit or miss horror production studio, Blumhouse, Mickey Keating has now directed six feature films including Darling, Carnage Park, and Pod.

HIs latest outing, Offseason, now streaming on Shudder, much like his other movies is drenched in inspirational nods to the films of yester-year. Most notable here is 1973’s Messiah of Evil, a supernatural horror that follows the pursuit of a young woman’s lost father.

Similarly here, we journey alongside Marie (Jocelin Donahue) who receives a letter to attend to her mother’s grave, which has been vandalised on a remote island. Accompanying her is George, played by a criminally underused Joe Swanberg (You’re Next), known for his involvement with the mumblegore movement.
It’s important to stress this link because much like those movies a similar style is at play with a guerilla style improvisation in the dialogue that never quite hits the mark on this occasion. 

Once the couple brave the storm and cross the only bridge from the mainland, they encounter a strange and isolated town that strikes as if it was pulled straight out of Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth.
There are legends of a demonic creature from the sea, a cult that are ensnared by his command, and all this ties to a pact that involves Marie’s deceased mother.
Are these all figments of a deranged collective?
Or is there truth to it all, and Marie is part of a trap, lulled to fulfil a prophecy?

It is clear that Keating has a vision in mind with some stylistic set pieces that weave together Marie’s plight into a strange world.  There are moments of promise, but in his execution Keating fails to string together these moments of confusion to form any sense of clarity. We, like Marie, end up lost in the exposition, struggling to navigate our way towards the films conclusion with any sense of satisfaction.

The Prognosis:

Despite having a great calibre of actors to fill his cast, Director Mickey Keating struggles to harness any weight to this Lovecraftian inspired horror.

There are some promising set pieces but it fails to produce any cohesiveness and instead wallows in its narrative mire.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: Night’s End (2022)

30 Wednesday Mar 2022

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Once again I find myself struggling to connect with the latest Exclusive and Original offerings from horror streaming platform, Shudder.
Last year I saw high calibre movies, Violation, The Dark and the Wicked, Skull, and The Boy Behind The Door really resonated with me and featured in my Top 13 Horror movies of 2021.
All of which marks a difficult run of events for Shudder this year to continue to raise the bar. Not that it has been without moments of quality thanks to the cracking home invasion movie, For the Sake of Vicious. I highly recommend this if you haven’t yet caught Reese Eveneshen and Gabriel Carrer’s movie.

March has proven a different obstacle though I’m afraid to say as Night’s End is hampered by its own ambitions through a low-budget, tightly constrained story, made through COVID times. I feel like I could be over-critical due to my expectations, as I equally want to applaud the efforts from director Jennifer Reeder who helmed the V/H/S ‘94 segment Holy Hell. The problem is that through capturing the isolation, loneliness and desperation that the protagonist Ken Barber (Geno Walker) endures at a time that he is at his lowest ebb, losing his job, and his family, it also highlights the areas that fall south in various departments, namely the evidently weak plotline and the cheap visual effects.

It’s a shame as there is a subject here that is ripe to explore in depth. Ken’s issue as a father who is on the brink of despair, at his lowest, to shed light on a social dilemma where depression and alcoholism can lead the most decent person to ruin. For it is clear that Ken has a good heart, and for whatever reason has folded under the pressures that life can take. This stigma that he now has to bear also leads those closest to him to question his sanity when certain paranormal events unfold.

It takes a wicked turn into unbelievability though when Ken starts to get online recognition through social media following and in particular an online paranormal debunker Dark Corners (Daniel Kyri). The hammy performance from spiritual medium Colin Albertson (Lawrence Grimm) also shifts the audience out of the realm of credibility. In addition, the presentation of communication by each of the characters through Ken’s computer (cyberspace) makes the world disjointed. 

What Night’s End does boast however is a great performance (as always) from Michael Shannon as Ken’s ex-wife’s partner. A key supporter of Ken’s paranormal investigations and constantly delivering a high level of engagement on screen. 

The Prognosis:

A bold and promising premise to be explored in a confined environment and deliver a tough subject is ultimately let down by the lack of cohesion and budget constraints to pull off the vision.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Bunker Game (2022)

25 Friday Mar 2022

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Some games are not for everyone.

While I may not have been the most athletic kid growing up, I did enjoy taking part in games. Be it in physical sports or the tabletop board games.

For their latest Exclusive and Original features, Shudder have launched Italian director Roberto Zazzara’s film The Bunker Game onto their platform.

The premise is that a Live Action Role Playing Game set around the rise of the Third Reich buried underground and living the life of the Nazi’s regime. When the games’ creator disappears, the line between game and reality blends and the players are forced into a battle for survival.

The idea of a live action role-playing game seems ripe for a bloody scene. By playing with the idea of realism the game and the horror element is heightened but the problem comes from no clear understanding of what the rules of this game may be. Is it set in the now, or a warped future where the Reich have sneaked underground with the means of a new uprising? Or is this world merely the stuff of some rich man’s playground?
By throwing into the mix, a paranormal element that could be behind everything, then we start to get into really murky and convoluted territory.

This isn’t the only real issue however, as both characters and the performances therein are borderline dry. There’s two-dimensions and then there’s flatline. The writers couldn’t do much more in order to shirk their audience away from the content. The narrative is like wading through treacle, but unfortunately nothing sticks so that by the films conclusion we’re beyond caring about whatever they may have concocted to draw the movie to a close.

The Prognosis:

Unfortunately, March hasn’t been too kind for horror streaming platform Shudder. So far the exclusive and original content has been underwhelming.
In the case of The Bunker Game, it simply struggles to hold your interest and falls on so many crucial elements along the way.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie review: The Seed (2021)

19 Saturday Mar 2022

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A few weeks ago the horror streaming platform Shudder released The Seed as part of their Exclusive and Original content.

The film sees Sam Walker in the director’s chair for the first time overseeing a feature length movie, and is centred in the Mojave desert where 3 girls are settling in for a weekend retreat. Their plans however, would  be disrupted due to a bizarre alien invasion.

The choice of location may seem a strange choice but is packed with promise for it’s remoteness and ripe with tapping into dealing with a crisis when isolated from society.

What surprised me though is that The Seed gets swamped in vacuousness, both in narrative and character depth. There is simply nothing here for the audience to grab hold of.

The girls in question are some of the most frustrating characters I’ve seen on screen in some time with no redeeming features whatsoever, particularly from Deidrie (Lucy Martin) and Heather (Sophie Vavaseur).

These so called friends are so self-consumed (which I get is the point) that any grace we would have for their predicament dies along with their performances. Any vein attempt to dilute their negative energy with our lead protagonist Charlotte (Chelsea Edge) who at least has some sense and is in touch with reality, is lost in the mirth of pained scripting choices.

What is does boast is some creditability in the effects department, creating some suitably gross visual creature effects in the alien life forms design. If this is anything to go by there is still potential from Sam Walker to produce something worthy, but we’re too bogged down by it’s obvious weaknesses for this area alone to warrant any high praise.

The Prognosis:

Quite simply, this movie is dull and lifeless

The characters propel you from the narrative and there is little care to hold your attention beyond some fairly decent visuals.

Movie review: The Scary of the Sixty First (2021)

05 Saturday Mar 2022

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When I first heard about The Scary of the Sixty First I was intrigued about the premise and highlighted it as a must watch for 2021.
Living in Australia sometimes means that things slip through the cracks during the time of global release.
Thankfully though, the streaming platform has picked up the slack in some cases and TSOTSF has been released through their Exclusive and Original content.
Unfortunately the anticipation didn’t live up to my expectations.

I had heard comparisons to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and 1970s thrillers of which Roman Polanski was such a prominent figure in. These collations are far-reaching I fear, as these auteurs of the the celluloid craft are some of the greatest, and with all due respect to Director Dasha Nekrasova, this is her feature debut, and while their are elements of appeal to her final cut, there are flaws to her offering that can’t quite allow her to fall in with such pedigree.

The film setting takes place in the Upper East Side of Manhattan where two women, Noelle (Madeline Quinn) and Addie (Betsey Brown) move into an apartment with ominous ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his nefarious sex trafficking activities.
This subject alone is hard to connect with as a viewer and Nekrasova forces us to endure the provocation that such a subject carries with it. Always a hard subject to explore and pose thought around, and Nekrasova doesn’t shy away from tackling this and the trauma that surrounds it head on. It’s probably the reason she cast herself in the role of The Girl, who is investigating the issues around Epstein’s activities and the apartment in question.

The narrative then takes us through a cobweb of fractured moments surrounding the three women as they explore, investigate or come under the influence that the strange apartment block and a hidden energy that possesses them at various stages throughout the film.
By the journey’s end the murkiness lifts if but for a moment to try and tie up any loose ends, by this stage though, the wading through the mystification has been hard work and the audience is left feeling stagnant by the subject and the effort to shock or shake a response from us.

The Prognosis:

Dasha Nekrasova tackles a tough subject for her feature film debut before the lens.
There are moments that intrigue, but all too often the film struggles through disillusion and bewilderment, that forces us to disconnect with the material.

Yes, we should definitely keep Nekrasova’s name on your watch list, but for now this film gets lost in confusion and drowns in a topic that may be too tough to develop for a first time director, not that the subject should be ignored all together. 

A bold attempt.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie Review: Hellbender (2022)

26 Saturday Feb 2022

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Shudder’s latest movie to hit the streaming platforms Exclusive and Original content is a triage powerhouse of creativity. Written and Directed by John and Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser (the latter of whom also take on leading acting duties) weave a coming-of-age tale of witchery.

Toby and Zelda play the mother-daughter dynamic, secluded in the mountainous range of North America, harbouring a secret that has been passed down from generation to generation. 

Their seclusion from society is for good cause, and the mother (Toby Poser) at first comes across as over-protective and even sinister as early events unfold. She even tries to feed her daughter’s interest in music by forming a rock band consisting of just the two of them. By the stories’ end, we discover that there is a method to the matriarchal madness.

As Izzy (Zelda Adams) ventures further away from her abode and her mother’s grasp, the more she begins to discover herself but at what cost?
Her first encounter is with Amber (Lulu Adams) who unbeknownst to her at the time has snuck into a neighbouring house to use their pool. There is an awkwardness to their encounter, harnessed by Izzy’s own fumbling curiosity. Izzy survives through the help of small talk and some of the quirky facts that she produces but like any dormant threat buried deep beneath the surface, there will be an explosion of emotions and ferocity that she may not be able to contain next time around. As her confidence grows, so does the power she tries to contain within.

The prognosis:

While there are elements that are trying to hinge on the independent mantra, feeling a little strained in its delivery, there are some notable moments that seep to the surface, making this a worthy film. It also demonstrates enough appeal to place the directing trio of Adams, Adams and Poser as names to keep an eye out for.

Both Adams and Poser also deliver strong performances to keep the audience engaged and willing to see how the balance of femininity will unfold.

  • Saul Muerte

Movie Review: For The Sake of Vicious (2022)

18 Friday Feb 2022

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As I attempt to play fast catch up with my reviews, I centre my attention on the latest bout of streaming films that have been available on Shudder this year, starting with For The Sake of Vicious.

If I could sum up this movie in one word it would be, ‘relentless’

This home invasion movie takes things to the next level when a nurse, Romina (Lora Burke) returns home from a grueling day of work only to find that her night of torment has only just begun when she discovers a bruised and beaten man, Alan (Colin Paradine) tied to a chair in her kitchen with another  unhinged psychotic man, Chris (Nick Smyth) calling all the shots.
What starts out as a battle of wits among the trio as Romina tries to work out what is actually going on and why, shifts through some gnarly gears when they become the subject of bedlam as intruders begin to infiltrate the domain, to kill them all.

These intruders come donned in clown masks, demon masks, and cycling helmets, to add to their mystery and fuel the tension as they rip apart the house, chucking every available item except the kitchen sink at each other. This battle for survival in a domestic style battle royale keeps pushing the envelope and is brutal in its delivery.

The Prognosis:

Each character draws upon their internal strengths through an amazing ordeal that is gripping and intense throughout the narrative. I didn’t expect to be so gripped by this film, but the Directing and Writing partnership of Gabriel Carrer and Reese Eveneshen tantalise our expectations of just exactly how far they can push the action and keep the insanity of it all grounded in reality.

  • Saul Muerte