Would You Rather

"Would You Rather" (2012, David Guy Levy, Lambrick Foundation, LLC, Periscope Entertainment, Social Construct Films, Dreamher Productions, IFC Films) is a film about how far a group of desperate people can be pushed if they think it will end all of their problems.


Iris (Brittany Snow) looks after her sick younger brother (Logan Miller) but cannot pay for his expensive treatment. Her brother's doctor introduces her to a philanthropist called Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs) who offers to make Iris a deal; if she wins a game at his dinner party, he will pay for the treatment. After thinking about it, Iris agrees to attend the party.


Once at the party which takes place at Lambrick's manor home, Iris is introduced to the other guests; Lambrick's petulant son, Julian (Robin Lord Taylor), and fellow contestants; Travis (Charlie Hofheimer), Lucas (Enver Gjokaj), Linda (June Squibb), Peter (Robb Wells), Cal (Eddie Steeples), Amy (Sasha Grey) and Conway (John Heard). Before the game officially begins, Lambrick begins offering large sums of money to his guests to perform simple tasks that make them uncomfortable; a vegetarian eating a steak, a recovering alcoholic drinking scotch... Although the guests are outraged, the thought of all that money makes them stay and they decline to leave before the lockdown and the official game begins. Assuredly, the real game has higher prizes and even higher stakes...


I was pleasantly surprised by this film after I eventually gave in to Netflix's incessant advertising of it to me by seemingly adding it into every possible category on my homepage. It's silly, fun, fairly ridiculous, contains several familiar cast members including, of course, the wonderful Jeffrey Combs; a man who can chew scenery in the most entertaining way, and it actually boasts a fair few grim scenes.
The parlour game is equal parts cheesiness and darkness with just enough tongue-in-cheek dialogue to keep it from being bleak. While it's hardly a classic by any means and suffers from some pacing issues, I found it to be entertaining and not to spend too much time pondering over whether its core message or taking itself too seriously.

[Image: IFC Films, et al]

Hani

The Babysitter

"The Babysitter" (2017, McG, Netflix) is a comedy horror with plenty of gore.


Cole (Judah Lewis) is a 12 year old kid who gets bullied a lot at school. His only solace is that his babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving), is super hot and pretty cool. And she also plays down the part where she's his babysitter. When his parents go on a weekend away, Cole creeps out of bed to spy on Bee and her friends having a party in the living room, but he soon discovers that the teens are up to something much worse than drinking alcohol.... human sacrifice. Can Cole get over his crippling fear of, well, everything in time to save himself? And will he finally get his first ever kiss? Only time will tell in this gory flick.


While it's far from a genre-defining, ground breaking innovation, the film delivers exactly what it needs to; humour, gore and a host of disposable characters who get to die in a bunch of gruesome ways. Our collection of would-be Satan worshippers cover all the usual stereotypical bases (eg. jock, cheerleader, etc...). Only Bee and Cole truly stand out as characters who break stereotype.


The film spends a good while setting up the relationship between Bee and Cole. He fancies her. He's awkward. She's easy going and a little wild. Cole tells Bee all of his secrets, while unbeknownst to him, she uses this against him any way that she can.


When the murder and mayhem begin the film does not scrimp on the gore and we see a lot of innovative kill scenes which expertly mix humour and ick-factor without becoming too silly.
Gore aside, the film also makes use of interesting camera perspective, a lot of 80s-feeling tropes (despite being based in present day) and just enough character depth to instil a sense of betrayal from Bee when we find out her intentions.


All in all, I found "The Babysitter" to be a fun and worthwhile watch which I've even revisited on occasion.

[Image: Netflix]

Hani

Needful Things

"Needful Things" (1993, Fraser C. Heston, Castle Rock Entertainment, New Line Cinema, Columbia Pictures) is the screen adaptation of Stephen King's novel of the same name.

Castle Rock is a small town in Maine, USA. The locals are unsettled when a mysterious man named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) opens an Antiques store called "Needful Things". Slowly different town residents enter the shop to find that Gaunt just happens to have something that is really sentimentally valuable to them. Each resident 'buys' a treasure with Gaunt 'kindly' agreeing to accept favours as part payment. The favours, it transpires, come in the form of cruel pranks played on each resident's neighbours.

Gaunt seems to be very reasonable, knowledgeable and always open, but his true colours begin to show and it becomes evident as time goes on that Gaunt has twisted intentions.

Some films of King's work are admittedly sub-quality. Needful Things is not one of them, in my opinion. The characters are portrayed by recognisable actors and the action is suitably paced but with very little gore. It's more a study on human psychology than a horror film. The plot is uncomfortably familiar, which is possibly why a lot of people don't like this film; it's maybe a little too close to home. Imagine someone could give you something that you really want and the price seems so small... What morals would you shirk in your desperation to get it?

Although it's not a scary film, in the usual sense of the word, it's an entertaining yarn.

[Image: New Line Cinema, et al]

Hani

Jessabelle

"Jessabelle" (2014, Kevin Gruertert, Blumhouse Productions, Lionsgate) is a strange horror film.

Jessie (Sarah Snook) and her fiancé are about to move in together and have a baby. But this is a horror movie, so before they can get that far they have a horrific car accident which kills him and causes Jessie to lose the baby and the use of her legs.

Several months later, Jessie moves back to her dad's house to recuperate. Her dad, a strange and impulsive man, puts her up in her mum's old room. Jessie finds a shoebox marked "Jessabelle" filled with video tapes. She plays the first one to discover that it's her mum giving her a tarot card reading from beyond the grave. Her mother tells her that there's someone in the house with her and they want rid of her.

Terrified, Jessie begins to experience creepy happenings. This is by far the film's strong point. The effects are good, the scenes with the bed are really effective and, although clichéd, the mirror scares are really well done.

Eventually, Jessie and her friend, Preston (Mark Webber), begin to unravel the strange circumstances surrounding Jessie's family and the deeper they go, the more convoluted the plot becomes.

In fact, the plot was so complicated that I just did not understand a whole segment at the end. It was holding it together until the last act when it just got very cheesy and complex. The scares were promising and, as tropey as the action was, it was an otherwise well paced film with Sarah Snook providing a strong, yet sympathetic lead role, however, the plot just goes haywire at the last moment, going from slow burning creepfest to fast action, voodoo-ghosty-adultery-racism vibes. It just makes a mess.

[Image: Blumhouse Productions]

 

Hani

Day of the Dead

"Day of the Dead" (1985, George A. Romero, Dead Films Inc., Laurel Entertainment Inc., Laurel-Day Inc., United Film Distribution Company) is the third in Romero's series of "...of the Dead" films.

After "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) the world has become overrun by zombies, and now, hiding in caves and fortresses, the remaining living civilians and army personnel are dwelling, hoping to find a cure or more survivors.

This film explores the slow decay of one such micro-society and the turning of the humans against one another at this inhuman hour.

Also, a scientist, known unaffectionately as "Dr. Frankenstein" (Richard Liberty), who had gone decidedly mad, trains a zombie called Bub (Sherman Howard) to listen to music, communicate and shoot a gun. Definitely not the best idea I've ever heard...

All in all, it is, in my view, the weakest and most poignant of the films with a lot to say about humanity and where we are headed (zombie apocalypse or not), but it's certainly a good film with lots going on, excellent acting and some excellent gore. There are comparatively few scare scenes with the zombies creeping up on the characters until the end, but between the zombie-infested-cave-adventure and the fantastic Bub-fights-back scenes, it's well worth the wait.

[Image: Laurel-Day Inc. & Dead Films Inc.]

 

Hani