Director: Tony Sebastian Ukpo Starring: Eke Chukwu. Haruka Abe. Gabby Wong, Anthony Ofoegbu .USA. 1h 30m
This subdued experimental movie seems to tell a pair of harmonious stories, set in a bleak future where space travel is everyday and our social norms are quite alien from what we understand today.
Initially an astronaut has crash lands in a tranquil field and attempts to find help but the social dynamics is unsettling to him, families seem to be “clumped” together any male plays a father, any child adapts to the family they find themselves with that day, language isn’t a barrier, it seems everyone is adapted to all human languages and it just rolls off the tongue.
Director: Matt Jaissle Starring: Deanna Cockrum, Ezekiel Alexander Enriquez, William Jassle, Rich Massey, Don Mature, Adolf Mulzer. USA. 1h 16m
It’s great to see that the truer elements of BMovies haven’t quite died out just yet. And Matt Jaissle is one of the busier directors, having a ton of interesting titles under his belt including… and then there’s the grindhouse epic of Revolution 666 blending together a pseudo Manson cult and a zombie Helter Skelter plot to destroy the world.
Director: Aaron KeelingAustin Keeling Starring: Cathy Barnett, Emily Goss, Taylor Bottles, Jim Korinke. USA. 1h 51m
There’s something provocative about a haunted house tale, many directors have used this eternal additional character to emphasise the dark natures within its occupants or at times it’s a portal into a darkness that we neer want to look into. And while there’s some admiration in what Aaron KeelingAustin Keeling as directors have achieved in the bitter ending, there’s a boring tropey slog to get to the good bits.
Director: Matt Winn Starring: Mischa Barton, Robert Knepper, Andrew Buckley. USA. 1h 24m
Quietly unassuming but a strangely profound thriller, that draws on all the good aspects of the Descent (2005) mixed with all the horrors of Storage Wars !!?
Matt Winn sets his chilling horror mystery in the basement of a complicated system within a self storage unit. With a set up that begins like an episode of Steve Wilkos show. Ella (Barton) is attempting to discover if her future husband is cheating on her. After suspecting that his lock up is holding nasty secrets, Ella entices her bestie, Molly (Atack) to help her gain access to the unit, using a lock pick and borrowed card key, which they discover will change their lives forever.
Director: Kristian Levring. Starring. Mads Mikkelsen, Eva Green, Eric Cantona, Mikael Persbrandt, Douglas Henshall, Michael Raymond-James, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jonathan Pryce.USA/Denmark/South Africa. 1h 32m.
Westerns have long been a tough genre for me, I grew up watching them with my mother and grandfather and I really started to hate them. I suppose any entertainment that makes the adults lose interest in how cute you are will do that to a child’s psyche.. the only entertainment was playing with Gramps while he slept through some of the classics. Later on in life, when I got over the trauma, I rediscovered Spaghetti Westerns and I started to accept the genre back into my life, unless there’s a Mexican revolution a haunting Ennio Morricone soundtrack and less white people attempting to make believe that America has always been white, then the better things start to get. I’ve loved the reassurance of darker and more graphic horror westerns such as Seraphim Falls (2006), Brimstone (2016) and the almost instant cult classic Bone Tomahawk (2015), which have won me over. But without having a mythical foe or a revolution, there’s a striking grasp of The Salvation which has a more believable story of two immigrant brothers just trying to get ahead in the wild west and meeting ugly adversity.
Director: Martin Radich
Starring: Denis Menochet, Barry Keoghan, Goda Letkaustie. UK. 1h 23m
Sometimes cinema can be drab and unkind, which is the unnerving feeling you’ll end up with after watching Martin Radich’s Surreal coming of age art house drama.
The downtrodden ,depressing atmosphere permeates from the screen, as a father attempts to protect and train his son. While living off the grid in a remote rural location the two have strained relationship, mulling around their isolated home, their only connection is watching tv together. Unbeknowst to the son, a job from the past has caught up with his father and now their lives are in danger and one more murder must be commited, just one more contract or one more act of revenge.
Director: Stephen Cognetti Starring: Danny Bellini, Gore Abrams, Adam Schneider, Ryan Jennifer, Hared Hacker .USA. 1h 23m
Here we go again, the scariest found footage horror of all time!? Where have I heard that before?!!maybe with every new found footage release? It’s almost one of the tropes of the genres now, but it’s an intriguing selling point but after it’s got bums on seats out only opens the film up for ridicule later on. Continue reading Hell House LLC (2015)→
Director: Hank Braxtan Starring: James Remar, Sherilyn Fenn, Ron Carlson, Graham Greene, Gregory Crux .USA. 1h 29m
A year after his gross toxic adventure featuring a group of strong femme friends in Chemical Peel (2014), Hank Braxtan is back with a similar environmental disaster movie, but this time a similar uncaring tech company aren’t illegally transporting chemicals but instead they have something dangerous brewing in their icy labs.
There seems to be a drive within Braxtan to warn us of the dangers of covert labs and the dark secret organizations who are totally ruthless with their chemical waste and with arcane unrelenting needs to control nature. In the opening scene we have a gleaming smile from the cult actor Ray Wise who is the spokesman for Clobirch claiming to be an environmentally conscious company they have everyone’s interests at heart.. But no one is fooled.
Director: Guillermo Del Toro Starring:Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam. USA. 1h 59m
With the lack of modern genuine gothic literature making it to the big screen, Crimson Peak had a lot to make up for, however despite it’s well crafted story, delicious cast amongst opulent sets, I wasn’t blown away by this epic ghost story. There’s a massive divide between Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish and American work. Crimson Peak battles with its style and substance, for the most part it will wow it’s audience with an oil slick blend of colours but it seems to pluck the worse elements of gothic literature to mix but remains true and doesn’t step a foot out of the box. Continue reading Crimson Peak (2015)→
Director: Max Perrier Starring: Jared Cohn, Ardis Barrow, Victoria Curtain .USA. 1h 35m
A romp through the woods in search of secret fields of dope, turns into a hellish nightmare, filled with native tribal monsters and strange dangerous entities in Max Perrier’s tepid horror.
The typical loser, while down on his luck, calls in a debt from a friend which involves trading all outstanding money for whatever homegrown he has been busy growing out in the wilderness. Eager to get his hands on the green gold he heads out speedily with his girlfriend but finds his sister stowed away in the back of the pick up before finding the sweet spot. She’s a pain in the ass but another pair of hands and they’ve gone too far to turn back. Continue reading Feed the Devil (2015)→
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