Angelica

 "Angelica" (2015, Mitchell Lichtenstein, Pierpoline Films) is a ghost story set in Victorian England, and loosely based on a novel of the same name by Arthur Phillips.

Mitchell Lichtenstein, the man also behind 2007's "Teeth", brings us a ghost story centred, of course, around the lady bits of a young Victorian woman called Constance (Jena Malone). 

Constance marries surgeon Joseph Barton (Ed Stoppard) and soon falls pregnant with their child, Angelica. However, after a traumatic birth, the Bartons are warned to halt all future sexual intercourse; something that both Constance and Joseph find difficult to adhere to. Constance also suffers from severe postpartum depression and finds she cannot separate herself from Angelica for any length of time, to the extent that it further damages her marriage. 

When Constance begins to tell of a sexually explicit apparition of a man haunting the room of Angelica, Joseph dismisses this as further strange 'womanly' behaviour, leading Constance to seek the help of their servant, Nora (Tovah Feldschuh) and her occultist friend and con-artist, Anne Montague (Janet McTeer).

A film that attempts to straddle the line of elegant Victorian stuffiness and perversity, but is subject to a heavy-handedness that leans further towards the latter. Without the strong lead from Malone, who manages to maintain an air of decorum despite the plot's many indignities, it would be a somewhat difficult watch. Many of the scenes head more towards incidental humour and the film lacks the more horror elements that would usually be associated with a Victorian ghost tale.

[Image: Pierpoline Films]

Hani

Knock Knock

"Knock Knock" (2015, Eli Roth, Camp Grey, Dragonfly Entertainment, Sobras International Pictures) is a home invasion thriller.

Evan (Keanu Reeves) and Karen (Ignacia Allamand) are happily married with kids, a dog and an idyllic home. When Karen and the kids go away for the weekend, Evan stays at home to work but his night is interrupted when two young women (Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas) come to the door in the pouring rain looking for a house party. Evan tries to call them a taxi but the girls proceed to make themselves comfortable before the cab gets there... and what started as him helping them out becomes a potentially life ruining game of seduction and violence...

An interesting premise that became a little repetitive as the film went on. It is essentially one big cautionary tale: On one hand, that women can be predatory too and that it's pretty easy to ruin your life in one easy step.

The characters aren't developed in Roth's usual style, although the film differs vastly in style and genre from Roth's previous films so much that it's not really worth comparing. Reeve's misguided and somewhat naive character is set up from the start with a few scenes portraying his loving family man side and his sexually frustrated side. It's disappointing, but not surprising when he gives in to the two promiscuous ladies cavorting around his home. The devious vixens themselves are not as well rounded as characters and go from victims to cackling, comic villains pretty quickly with not as much build up as I anticipated.

There are one or two fun scenes, but the more torture-orientated scenes seemed satirical and the film in general would have benefited greatly from either delving more deeply into the implications brought up or by maintaining the satiric humour throughout.

A lot of people have expressed disappointment in the end of this film, but I thought this was probably the scariest part of the movie. All in all, the film had some weak points, but overall it was an interesting 99 minutes.

[Image: Camp Grey, et al]

Hani

All Hallow's Eve

"All Hallow's Eve" (2013, Damien Leone, Ruthless Pictures) is a supernatural slasher about a killer clown and a VHS tape. With Halloween just around the corner, I thought I'd start looking at some films I haven't seen before.

Sarah (Katie Maquire) is babysitting Tia (Sydney Freihofer) and her brother Timmy (Cole Mathewson) on Halloween night. We all know that's a bad idea for a start. Timmy opens his trick or treat loot to find that some strange neighbour has put a VHS tape in instead of sweets. Sarah is obviously keen to check the tape's contents before letting the kids watch it. Personally, I would have just put that creepy shit in the bin, but whatever.

The tape turns out to be an anthology of murders which all feature Art the Creepy Clown (Mike Giannelli) in some way or other. Thinking it's just a somewhat disturbing movie, Sarah gives in and lets the kids watch some of it before putting them to bed. But Art the clown makes a special guest appearance later that night, with some unhappy results...

Art the clown was first invented for a short film called "The 9th Circle" in 2008 and was again seen in another short called "Terrifier" in 2011. He's a pretty creepy character, but the film doesn't do him justice as it's just not scary enough to make the most of him.

The film itself isn't awful by any means, but there are long boring stretches and the lack of dialogue in large segments of film, while mostly effective, result in a loss of interest from the viewer after a while. The subject matter is violent and gory with most of the action centering on the depraved clown who just seems to hate lone women and want to hurt them.

There are some really disturbing scenes and some good practical effects, considering the film's low budget. I particularly appreciated the beginning to the end of the wraparound plot, which is by far the best part of the film. Unfortunately, some other effects and costumes are much less effective (I'm sure I could get a more convincing alien costume in 'Poundland') and lose some of the viewer's engagement.

The whole VHS tape thing is becoming a trope of its own and I couldn't review this film without obviously comparing it to "The Ring" series and "V/H/S", which both enjoy much more scares than this one does, but also bigger budgets. One thing that "All Hallow's Eve" did do quite well was slowly make the babysitter's environment more menacing as the film went on.

They've tried to give the film a gritty, video tape vibe with some muting of colours etc. Each segment has a different post-production hue, which I liked.

So, it's not a masterpiece. I'm not a huge fan of torture-porn films and the low budget hindered some of the film's effectiveness. The overall linkage of the shorts is pretty sketchy, the actual shorts themselves are not great and some of the action is more funny or just gross than scary. But it shows a lot of potential from Damien Leone as his full length debut and Art the clown is truly very creepy.

[Image: Ruthless Pictures]

Hani

Julia

"Julia" (2014, Matthew A. Brown, Farraj Factory, Kinetic Arts, Tycor International Film Company) is an artsy rape revenge film.

Julia (Ashley C. Williams) is a quiet, mousey nurse who is drugged and gang raped by some monstrous men. Sure, there's a guy who wasn't too into it, but he's still detestable for being there, and he's eventually coerced into taking part, so.... Yeah...

They leave her for dead but she manages to get home and survive. Seeking a way to cope with the horrific ordeal, Julia comes across an unusual therapist who tells her to follow his teachings to the letter and she will have her revenge. She also becomes entwined with one of the therapist's many tough female vigilantes (ex-patients, I assume), a lesbian woman called Sadie (Tahyna Tozzi). Unfortunately, Julia takes matters into her own hands, exacting terrible revenge on her tormentors without the help of her therapist, resultantly pissing him off.

This film is very stylised. It's like an alternate reality where all men are mysogynistic rapists and all women are emotionless and stabby. The plot takes a while to get going and we are shown the full story in flashbacks, which left me confused for a while until more was revealed. The colours are very strange and muted and the lighting is very red and green. Stylised is fine, but when it's aesthetics over entertainment I begin to lose interest.

I get that Julia is meant to be caught in an emotional vortex after what was done to her, but the complete lack of emotion in, not just her but all the characters, made it somewhat difficult for me to empathise with anyone and thus care too much about them.

I'm not sure what message this movie was trying to purvey. At first I thought it was going to be about female empowerment, but even when Julia becomes a badass in leather pants, cutting dicks off and gouging eyeballs here, there and everywhere, she's still not a very empowered character. So, I'm stumped as to whether there is a message to be honest.

I'm also not clear on the therapist's rules. He seems to be essentially telling her to honeypot entrap men in random bars and then kill them for finding her attractive, rather than actually to get back at the idiots who hurt her? What is his agenda? I just don't get it.

Essentially, it's a visually pretty film and has some commendable gore. The rape scenes are very, very difficult to watch (but then, what rape scene isn't?) and some of the revenge is pretty squirmy too. However, the characters are unlikable, blank and uninteresting and the long artsy pauses where we watch Julia stand on an escalator and such may be striking, but essentially lose their shine after a second and I found myself thinking about making a cup of tea whilst she finished ascending this apparently endless staircase...

I just don't get what all the fuss is about, really.

[Image: Tycor International Film company, et al]

 

Hani

Horns

"Horns" (2014, Red Granite Pictures, Mandalay Pictures, Dimension Films, Alexandre Aja)

Based on the novel by Joe Hill, this film explores several themes of humanity; murder, betrayal, mystery, misery, goodness, badness, darkness, loss and jealousy. And it does it all with a guy with horns growing out of his head. Awesome!

Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) is accused of the brutal rape and murder of his girlfriend, Merrin (Juno Temple). He's now being ruthlessly hounded by the press, outcast by his fellow townsmen and regarded with suspicion by his friends and relatives.

One day, Ig awakes to discover two growths protruding from his forehead. In shock he goes to the doctor's surgery where two things become apparent: 1 - although very noticeable, people do not seem to be running away from his horned visage and 2 - people are now sharing with him their darkest thoughts and desires.

We follow as Ig, initially horrified by his fellow man's appalling admissions, learns some harsh truths and eventually begins to think that maybe he can embrace his dark power to clear his name. But throughout, we're also asking ourselves, if Ig is showing demonic signs can he be truly innocent?

A really engaging film with some strong messages and a lot of really nice visuals. Radcliffe once again shows us his true home is with horror, portraying a strong male character in an unfortunate situation. He also has quite an impressive American accent.

I definitely recommend seeing this film, it is a nice break away from the jumpy, mindless crowd-pleasers filling up the screens, and still manages to deliver that chilling feeling we're all craving.

Plus, another film with a pretty red head female main character in it. I'm noticing a good trend starting!

[Image: Red Granite Pictures, et al]

Hani

Savaged

"Savaged" (2013, Michael S. Ojeda) is a rape-revenge story which explores some pretty dark themes but manages to create a funny and gory film.

A pretty deaf mute girl called Zoe (Amanda Adrienne) heads out on a road trip to move in with her fiancé. As she goes she documents her trip with her camera phone. A habit that both saves and condemns her.

A near miss on the road causes her to stop and she's taken by surprise by a group of American Indian-hating red necks who have sickening plans for her, ending in her death.

She's found by a witch doctor who tries to revive her with magic, but what comes back is so much more than Zoe, and it's out for revenge.

The film touches on several dark themes: rape, racism, murder, black arts, the destruction of the indigenous race of the USA, brutality towards women and police corruption.

But "Savaged" is not a cerebral or preachy film. It's a self-aware, gory, silly horror with lots of action, excellent gore effects (a scene with barbed wire will stick with you for a while) and an interesting, if completely batshit, plot.

It's an odd mix of rape-revenge, zombiism, spirit warriors and comedy gore. The feel is a cross between The Crow, I Spit on Your Grave and an x-rated episode of Goosebumps (I blame the green mist for that last comparison, an effect that was often used in the children's horror show).

While nothing new, it's entertaining and a good first film at Glasgow Fright Fest 2014.

V/H/S

"V/H/S" (2012, Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Radio Silence, Bloody Disgusting, The Collective, Magnet Releasing) is a horror anthology done in the found footage style.

I was excited for this film after reading the blurb:

A group of violent hoodlums and criminals are offered the chance to make some extra cash if they can find a specific video tape containing a rare piece of found footage from an abandoned house. However, they get there to find that a corpse is sitting in the house in front of several old TV sets and there are hundreds of VHS tapes. We join them as they go through each tape, finding stranger and stranger footage as they go.

I'm a huge fan of horror anthologies and I thought that this enveloping plot sounded really creative. And it is. However my main criticism is that because the enveloping story is also done in found footage style, the whole film feels very jumpy and can be quite taxing to watch and follow.

There are five shorts in the film, not including the narrative tale about the video tape.

Amateur Night (directed by David Bruckner)
This short is about a group of guys out on a night out who have fitted a pair of thick rimmed spectacles with a camera and plan to take home some drunken females in order to film the resulting shenanigans. Unfortunately for them, they weren't too picky about which drunken females they have selected.

A very rapey tale that's premise is terrifying in a very real way. The short is well put together, is easy to follow as we see what our glasses toting would-be 'lover' sees, and the acting is good, especially that of Hannah Fierman (who plays Lily) and it's nicely gory.

My main issue with the story is that it just wasn't scary! It was obvious where the plot was heading, and if I'm honest, I was glad to see all those gits get ripped apart.


Second Honeymoon (directed by Ti West)
A married couple on their 'second honeymoon' receive a strange prediction from a theme park fortune telling attraction (similar to the movie 'Big') and who then are stalked in their motel room.

Slow burning and quite tense, the gore is kept at a minimum. There is also a twist, which I admittedly was not expecting, but I wasn't really scared.

Tuesday the 17th (directed by Glenn McQuaid)
A group of kids go for a camping trip at the lake (see what they did with the title, yet?). But, as they are settling down for a fun drunken night, it becomes apparent that their friend Wendy (Norma C. Quinones) has an ulterior motive for inviting everyone up there, and it might all be a trap!

Just a bit of fun with some dodgy camera effects and a well-trodden, recognisable setting.

The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger (Directed by Joe Swanberg)
This one seems like a haunted house short of the same ilk as "Paranormal Activity", but it has a twist.

This one was the only short in this colletion that was actually verging on scary. I love a good ghosty jump scare, but I found the twist took away from what was a nice, traditional spooky short. Although, I did enjoy the extra twist which gave a new sick dimension to the James character.

10/31/98 (Directed by Radio Silence) 
A group of young people in fancy dress are heading to a Halloween party at a friend's house. They take a wrong turn without knowing it, and wind up in the wrong house only to find out that this house is haunted and, once inside, the spirits might not want them to leave.

Not the best haunted house short out there, the script seemed confused as to whether it was an all-out haunting or Poltergeist activity... But the bit with the car was pretty good!

...

For me, I was a bit disappointed after all of the hype! I would say that "V/H/S" was a 'hit and miss', but it was more like a 'hit and some misses'. I really should learn to avoid the hype and go in open minded...

A difficult one to fully judge as each horror segment has its own strengths and weaknesses, but on the whole I wasn't so enthralled with the full product.

[Image: Magnet Releasing]

 

Hani

Hollow Man

"Hollow Man" (2000, Paul Verhoeven, Columbia Pictures) is a modern day retelling of H.G. Wells' famous story, The Invisible Man (a fantastic book!).

Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a ego-maniacal scientist, who along with his team (including his ex-girlfriend and her new lover), is working on an injection that can render a living creature invisible.

Finding success with animals, albeit with a nasty side effect of insanity, Caine decides the next logical step is to try it out on a human. Getting the support from his team, he steps up as human guinea pig and becomes invisible.

For a while he enjoys his new found freedom, but when the attempts to bring him back to the visible realm fail, he begins to lose it and things turn nasty.

Soon, he decides he likes being invisible better anyway, as he can do whatever he wants... to whomever he wants....

The effects are still pretty top notch to this day, which is impressive for CGI-centred work. But I'm still a bigger fan of physical effects.

The acting is good, the effects are good and there's certainly a lot of blood, but on the whole it's a pretty unremarkable 2000's misadventure, and besides updating the scenery, doesn't really do anything that the original tale and subsequent films haven't done already.

[Image: Columbia Pictures]

Hani

Humanoids from the Deep

"Humanoids from the Deep" aka "Monster" (1980, Barbara Peeters, New World Pictures, Roger Corman) is a slice of schlocky good-Mc-badness. A low budget 80s sea misadventure which is just a bit of cheesy fun!

The small seaside town of Noyo, USA is terrorised by humanoid fish creatures with a thirst for blood and a lust for human women.

Gloop, nude ladies, blatantly obvious jump scares, rubber monster suits, wooden acting, a plot so thin you can see through it & 80s clothing galore: what more can you ask?

A wannabe drive-through film that harks back to the old 1950s creature features, "Humanoids from the Deep" is a thoroughly 80s attempt. And that's what makes it so damn entertaining!

It's hardly a nail biter, and winds up being more funny than scary with its splattering blood and 'monster noises'.

Not one for the dog lovers, though, with a high canine death count. Be warned!

Things of note:

One of the tunes played by the band at the festival sounds a lot like 'head, shoulders, knees and toes'...

A guy with a ventriloquist dummy as part of his chat-up line actually almost gets laid! 

The monsters also seem to love boobs. Well, what self respecting salmon-monster doesn't?And the film's quota of naked ladies was certainly used to the full extent!

Something for when you're in a not-too-serious mood and you want to watch some slippery villains try to kill a bunch of fishermen and get as many blonde chicks naked as possible, with an ending that will make you snort cola out of your nose (or red wine in my case!).

[Image: New World Pictures]

Hani

Aftershock

"Aftershock" (2012, Nicolás López, Eli Roth, Cross Creek Pictures, Dragonfly Entertainment, sobras.com Productions, Vertebra Films) is a Natural Disaster movie with some twists and turns in there. 

A visually shocking and exciting film, it starts in a way similar to "Hostel" (which isn't surprising when you consider that Eli Roth plays a large part in both writing and acting in this film), where Gringo (Eli Roth) is currently in Chile with two Chilean friends, Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolás López) enjoying the underground nightclubs, vineyards and pretty young women, in particular the company of Kylie (Lorenza Izzo), Irina (Natasha Yarovenko) and Kylie's uptight, straight lace, half-Hungarian half-sister, Monica (Andrea Osvárt).

All the fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when an earthquake hits while they're partying. Soon they're fighting for their lives, but they've yet to learn that the earthquake may not be the total of their troubles!

The film starts off like a completely different kind of film, which as much as this is becoming the horror norm these days, I actually really enjoyed, the characters, although not entirely likeable, were nicely built up and the scene was set. I quite enjoyed the repartee between the characters and they reminded me very much of some of the kinds of people you meet on holiday. 

When the horror begins it's pretty brutal and the disaster scenes are edgy and realistic. The panic on display is also pretty lifelike, and seeing this on the big screen definitely adds to the feeling. 

There's a lot going on and, like all horror movies, you could easily over analyse the plot into rags, but that's not part of the amusement!

An effective, bloody film with enough to keep you watching. However, as a warning, there are rape scenes (because what else would you do while an earthquake is destroying your home?!).

Hani

Jack Frost

"Jack Frost" (1996, Michael Cooney, Moonstone Entertainment) is a festive horror comedy from America.

Surprisingly entertaining and laugh-out-loud cheesy this film has fast moved up my shelf and may not live with the other 'Christmas only' films.

Low budget, tacky and with some hilarious flaws (the main one being the severe lack of real snow! And also being able to catch glimpses of the actor under the costume during one particular scene), this film hits all the right notes with me for a Christmas slasher:

• It's short (only 84 minutes)
• It's got a lot of cheesy kill scenes
• It's chalk full of bad puns and wooden acting 
• Quite a lot of good low budget gore
• It has a bloody ludicrous storyline
• The killer is a snowman in a brilliantly bad snowman costume!

On his way to execution, serial killer Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) suffers a freak accident and is contaminated with some questionable hazardous material. He then, of course, turns into an abominable snowman and quickly resumes his killing spree.

Jack brutally goes around town killing, maiming and raping - yes, there's some snowman rape - the locals of Snowmanton (And yes, that is the name of the town). Who can stop this chilly madman?

It's a good thing local sheriff Tiler (Christopher Allport) and FBI Agents Manners (Stephen Mendell) and Stone (Rob LaBelle) are on the case . Watch for Manners' hilariously unconvincing beard stubble!

So, all in all, this film is pretty good in that wonderfully cheesy low budget way. With everything from Shannon Elizabeth's winter strip-tease to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", to the disturbing snowman guts this film hits the button in an entertaining way. Not worth a lot of your money, however, I managed to score a copy from a charity shop for £1.50. Bargain!

Also, I enjoyed the random statements and quotes laced through the credits :)

[Image: Moonstone Entertainment]

Hani