Undergods (2020)

Director: Chino Moya
Starring: Johann Myers, Ned Dennehy, Burn Gorman, Kate Dickie, Tim Plester .UK/Estonia. 1h m

After watching a deeply profound movie Undergods from Chino Moya, I still have questions, but I don’t really want to utter them too loudly in fear that the Corpse Collectors might come.. Very much in the vein of Domink Moll, Peter Strickland, and Ben Wheatley, this trippy blend of strange comedy and the darker elements of human nature, really creeps under the skin and while the film trips over its own message from time to time there’s mountains on mythology and messages worth contemplating. There’s a familiarity in both worlds depicted here, worlds in which we can all recognise but just uncanny valley enough for us not to properly understand.. or maybe we don’t want to admit to it.

Vile blackmail (2018)

Director: ?
Starring😕 Nigeria. 1h 28m

There isn’t much to this short Nollywood production, although for some unknown reason one distinct story seems to gets swallowed by another part way through, maybe everything went to hell during the production, or the director has a change of heart, it becomes confusing but results in more hectic drama and heartbreak but sadly doesn’t make a better movie.

The film comes together over the cruel and mindless layabout trying to make some money, constantly scrounging from his friends, the lazy douchebag spends his days laying on a sofa watching TV and promising to pay everyone back when he gets his next big role, because this actor is apparently going places, it’s the markets fault for being so darn dry. When this excuse starts to wear thin he hatches a new devious plan. Using facebook he entices a young woman into the home promising her an acting role but first she has to submit a fee and act out a special sex scene for him, not realising that she’s being prostituted the girl goes ahead, free sex for friend and he gets to watch.

The Employer (2013)

Director: Frank Merle.
Starring. Malcolm McDowell, Paige Howard, David Dastmalchian, Billy Zane, Katerina Mikailenko, USA. 1h 30m.

Malcolm McDowell somehow manages to steal the show while only playing a small but vital role in this dark twisted interview from hell as he looks away a handful of top contenders for a new role in his powerful company allowing them to eliminate each other for the perfect job.

I was really impressed to see this “sub-genre” of interview/exam thrillers cropping up within the Escape Room horror genre. It’s pretty scary enough to have a few strangers locked in a room desperate to escape but when greed or desperation for a new job is also thrown into the mix there seems to be a heighten level of underhandedness in an already cut throat world.

Each candidate is entered in the first of a series of jobs interviews with their fierce future boss, played by the seasoned McDowell whose presence rightfully dominates his screen time, his no nonsense approach gives a great indication of his ruthlessness in the boardroom, and his determination to find the right person. But waking up in a locked room with a few strangers, it’s James (Dastmalchian) who starts to steer the movie. I haven’t seen him in much since Prisoners where he plays that freaky psycho with the snakes but in a total reversal he’s quite a pleasant and capable lead but he’s only just stands out in this mix of mad characters.

Here Alone (2016)

Director : Rod Blackhurst
Starring : Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adan David Thompson, Shane West  . USA 1h 38m.

Here alone is one of those modern Zombie/Infection films that steers away from showing thousands of scenes of people being attacked and eaten, meelie kills and explosions and focuses on the aftermath of  such a devastating event. Ann (Walters) struggled to survive in the forest after a virus has infected and decimated most of the human population, but her reasoning for forging an existence on the edge of the forest is unusual. it’s not totally unique, there are other films that deal with life in a post apocalyptic future, at all stages, from The Road (2009) Carriers (2009) and to an extent even Mad Max 3 (1985), but the film which has more similarities is The Survivalist (2015) at times in both of these movies it’s hard to believe that the rest of the population had been killed or are roaming around as a mindless body, as they are set in lush edens.