CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF ANNUAL HORROR REVIEWZ ONLINE!
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One special event that took place this past year was director John Carpenter finally receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. I was privileged to be at the ceremony to listen to the speeches and see stars like Kurt Russell, Keith David, Adrienne Barbeau, Nancy (Kyes) Loomis and P.J. Soles; as well as Carpenter crew regulars Larry Franco, Nick Castle, Greg Nicotero and the legendary Debra Hill. Best of all, I was able to speak to master-cinematographer Dean Cundey. I told him, “Thanks for all your work Dean!” to which he smiled and humbly responded, “Aw- it was my pleasure…”
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Congrats to John and company for such a well deserved honor. As J.C. put it in his acceptance speech: “My name is now forever etched in the streets of Hollywood, where dogs and humans can pee on me any time they like. Now let’s have lunch!”
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Welcome to this year's reviewz. Enjoy the list and keep watching movies!
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THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER (2015) recommended!Dir: Osgood Perkins (THE MONKEY, LONGLEGS, I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE)
Stark, ambient, slow and silent, this film is about its directorial style as much as it is about its story. Long passages without dialogue or pressed pacing create a gravitas of mood and tone that is as tense as it is creepy. Terrific camera compositions and moody music add to the bleak atmosphere. What I appreciated in this film is that it didn't seem to care about any other films or the Horror genre in general, it obeyed its own rules. I appreciate when the vision of a film can only be achieved through Cinema- not as a novel, or play, or comic, etc. The story is not that compelling or particularly original, but the telling of it is what makes it worthy. The film's esoteric title comes from a line in a children's poem repeated by one of the characters: "Deedle, deedle, Blackcoat's Daughter, what was in the Holy Water? Went to bed on an unclean head, the Angels they forgot her."
Somewhat reminiscent of the mood and tone of THE SHINING(1980) with some elements akin to HEREDITARY(2018)(see review.) Most likely a film for acquired tastes, but refreshing in its bold, indy spirit that reminds us that Horror Cinema can be just as much about what is not there as what is there.
Writer/director Osgood Perkins is on the rise as one of Hollywood's current "it" directors in Horror, with last year's LONG LEGS(2024) and this year's THE MONKEY(2025) receiving critical and box-office acclaim. He also performs in the musical acts that provide the score for THE BLACKCOAT'S DAUGHTER. Notable Horror fact: Osgood is the son of Anthony Perkins, star of Hitchcock's masterpiece PSYCHO(1960)!
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CLOSER TO GOD (2014) recommended!
Dir: Billy Senese (INTRUDER)
Stark and dry tale of hubris and its consequences. A genius scientist perfects cloning and creates a human baby girl, eschewing all laws and ethics along the way. Because his success has always been to charge-on-through as if rules don't apply to him, our Doctor Frankenstein enjoys unparalleled success and fame. Society has different ideas however, as civil protests begins building up, as well as legal investigations. Doc and company keep up appearances but secretly hide a horrible secret. The baby girl turns out to be a monster who does not develop correctly into a maturing human, but stays at an animal level of the "id". Prone to violence, the girl is kept cordoned off in a secret room, but this cannot contain the growing menace. Realizing the Pandora's box he has unleashed and how with each step he only sinks deeper in the quicksand; Doc finally decides to change course. Too late! Now that he has lost everything, the Doctor tries to alleviate the situation, only to bring on his own demise. Moral of the story: ethics matter.
The film is directed with a sparse and claustrophobic feel, mimicking the closed off world of the Doctor's stunted morality. Taking place almost exclusively inside the Doctor's house/lab, the performances are stoic and plain, which allows the moments of chaos to become that much louder. Well done indy, although quite the downer.
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A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE (2024)
Dir: Michael Sarnoski (PIG)
Another story in the reality of the first two films, but dealing with completely different characters. The place is New York City and the residents are trapped on Manhattan island once the deadly aliens arrive. Lopita Nyong'o is her usual understated best in a strong performance of a woman who, rather than fleeing Manhattan island during a violent end-times invasion, chooses to walk uptown in search of her father. Contemplative as well as tense, the strong themes and subtext make this franchise-adjacent entry surprisingly strong. FX and score are terrific.
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STONEHURST ASYLUM (2014)Dir: Brad Anderson (THE MACHINIST, SESSION 9)
The inmates are running the asylum at Stonehurst; but this doesn't the least bit indicate who is actually sane or insane! Plot-twist maestro Brad Anderson (who directed Christian Bale in the painfully under-rated THE MACHINIST(2005)(see review)) reveals a tale of empathy and injustice in this Victorian romantic drama, based on an Edgar Allan Poe short.
When a young and idealistic medical internist arrives at the rural Stonehurst for residency training, he discovers a mental institution where members of rich families are "parked away" out of embarrassment and inconvenience. Labelled insane, but not at all, many of the inmates are victims of trauma or have otherwise normative issues, but are tucked away at Stonehurst against their will. The masterful Ben Kingsley steals the show in a nuanced and moving performance as Silas Lamb, the chief-doctor of the facility. Michael Caine is his adversary and the two are locked in a chees match over which methods of inhumane treatments are the least unethical. Instantly falling for the tragic and alluring Eliza (Kate Beckinsale), our young doctor plots to steal her away, but will Stonehurst allow any such freedoms? What secrets underlie this madhouse? Brendan Gleeson, Jim Sturgess and David Thewlis round out the solid cast.
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REPLICAS (2018)
Dir: Jeffery Nachmanoff (THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW)
A little late in the rash of A.I. Cinema entries of the decade and not terribly original, but not without its own statement. Will Foster (Keanu Reeves) is a scientist who has figured out neural-mapping and can download the essence of a person onto a hard-drive. He tries unsuccessfully to load the essence of dead soldiers into a cyborg body, but it never works and he cannot fathom why. Will's team is also closing in on perfecting animal cloning, although not with humans as yet. When his family is killed in a car crash, Will does the unthinkable and tries bringing them back to life by growing clones of them and mapping their recorded neuro-profiles into them. Both the cloning and the mapping are a surprising success! They have achieved the impossible and Will has his family back! However, the company they are working for turns out to be a black ops military program. Will's evil employers demand the formula to his techniques and plan to kill him and his cloned family. Does Will have any cards left to play? Can he come up with a strategy when his actions have been hurried and based on panicked emotion? Once again, the lessons of Frankenstein are lost on the brightest of minds.
Early in the film, Will and his wife Mona (Alice Eve) debate the ethics of Will's project. "There must be something more than just chemicals in the brain," Mona insists, "what about the soul?" Ultimately she is correct, although it is not a supernatural element but a deeper physiological one. Will's neural captures cannot map onto new bodies unless that body's profile is pre-installed in the capture. Mind and body have to go together because the mind is part of the body, not apart from it. It's as simple as organ compliance versus organ rejection. This is why Will's experiments have failed up until now. He brings his family back as "replicas," but they are not mere facsimiles, they are the real genuine article. Mona was right to intuit there is more than body versus mind, but it is not a soul, its a cohesion that flows from the fact that mind and body are one. As "replicas," she and the kids have become immortal, able to be neurologically captured and downloaded into a new cloned body of themselves when needed.
Out of time and options, Will copies his own neural profile, complete with his physical profile, and successfully loads himself into a cyborg vessel. Now there are two Wills, the organic "original" and one that is a robot! In one poignant scene, he introduces himself to himself! The robot makes quick work of the bad guys and the family makes their escape, at least for now. Moral of the story: don't invent what you cannot control.
*See more reviewz of A.I. Cinema (HERE)
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SIMULANT (2023)Dir: April Mullen
Dark take on a near future where robots and "simulants" are part of our everyday lives. Simulants are cyborg replicas of living persons, created specifically to continue relationships after one dies. When a woman who has been living with the simulant of her deceased husband can no longer play the charade, she must tell the simulant he is not real- only a facsimile. All existential hell breaks lose! Interesting take on what makes a person a "person", reminiscent of the tragic elements in Spielberg's A.I.: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE(2001) and the more recent BBC drama HUMANS(2015-18).
*See more reviewz of A.I. Cinema (HERE)
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THE BEEHIVE (2023)
Dir: Alexander Lasheras (CADENCE)
Wanted to like it but the pacing killed it. Nothing the editor couldn't have solved- but didn't. Script had heart- A young girl in love with Nature notices some strange hive structures growing on trees nearby. Aliens have invaded! Starts out as if it's going to be the standard: young person believing in the extraordiary while none of the adults do; but actually ends up as a more mature ethical dilemma of decisions and consequences. Curious to see the director's next outing.
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DAY OF THE DEAD (2008)
Dir: Steve Miner (STITCHERS, DEAD OF SUMMER)
Tepid and pointless entry to this new remake franchise of the George Romero originals. Mena Suvari is utterly unconvincing in military uniform as a local soldier protecting her hometown from zombie invasion. Ving Rhames, star of Zach Snyder's 2002 DAWN OF THE DEAD remake (see review), returns once again, but as a totally different character who only lasts through the first act. There is plenty of over-the-top action, but mostly played for yuks. Absent is the visceral body horror that cemented the original Romero film as the goriest of all time (and the height of Tom Savini’s masterful gore effects.) Some of the original motifs are hinted at, but not fully played out. There is an abandoned military complex where the teens go to party, but it does not serve as the main location. There is Romero’s usual themes of the government withholding information from the public and not knowing how far to trust the military. In order to take positive action, the characters must disobey command, etc. There is one Romero character in the form of a local radio host, who supplies the gray-ponytail set, paranoid about conspiracies and smoking lots of weed. All-in-all, a needless remake that adds nothing. The only thing this film has in common with the original is the title.
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DAY OF THE DEAD: BLOODLINE (2017)
Dir: Hèctor Hernández Vicens (BEACH HOUSE, THE CORPSE OF ANNA FRITZ)
Much more of a remake of the original DAY OF THE DEAD than the previous remake of the same title. This new "sequel" has a bunch of survivors holed up in a military bunker complex, as with the original Romero version. A young, yoga-pants-wearing, looks-way-more-like-a-model-than-a-doctor Zoe (Sophie Skelton) is a civilian medical specialist in the camp, who is working on a serum to solve the zombie virus. Every step Zoe makes steps on the toes of the military interests of the camp's leadership and tensions rise. Sure enough, every act Zoe takes to advance her research actually does put the camp in greater peril, including loss of lives. Will she find a cure so that the ends justify the means? Will the paranoia of the military command prove right all along? Will humanity merely survive, or have another chance to thrive? Some of Romero's themes are present: the importance of communication and democracy as essentials for society; and the fascist threat of unchecked military control. Light on the gore and basically a so-what that adds nothing to the legacy.
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QUATERMASS 2 (1957)Dir: Val Guest (THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT, WHEN DINOSAURS RULED THE EARTH, THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN, THE CAMP ON BLOOD ISLAND)
I was a big fan of the first film THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT(1955)(see review), also by writer/director Val Guest; and particularly appreciated the performance of Brian Donlevy as the crusty professor Quatermass. This film is not as tight however and even Donlevy’s performance suffers.
This time our colorful professor is working on a government sponsored rocket propulsion program when his team stumbles into an alien conspiracy. Bizarre rocks fall from the sky, but not in any random order, but guided! Turns out these objects are actually pods whose gas contents turn people into zombies! These pods are traced to a rural town that hosts a giant industrial complex to “make food," but the good professor uncovers the real truth. The complex is run by evil aliens who are trying to create habitats for their species and subsequent Earth invasion! The shooting location used is quite impressive and lends well to the physical action. The third act is the most interesting as the plot leads to its climax; but could have been stronger if the performances and pacing weren't’ so abrupt. Perhaps its the direction that is at fault, but these details that worked so well in the first film fall flat here. Still a worthy Brit-SciFi/Horror watch, but not as good.
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THE CURSE OF THE NECKLACE (2024)
Dir: Juan Pablo Arias Munoz (PUMPKINHOLE)
Very movie-of-the-week story about a divorced Mom and her two teenage daughters being haunted by a possessed necklace. Shocker- the tragedy brings the family back together (yawn) as the demonic force possesses whoever wears the cursed neckwear. Highlight is a grumpy medium who comes out of retirement to hold a seance to rid the demon. Nothing new.
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BAD FISH (2024)
Dir: Brad Douglas
Folks in a seaside town seems to have bred with the fish in this Lovecraftean paranoia tale of conspiracy and tension. Not quite “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” but certainly takes cues from it. Meditation on the old: the-entire-town-is-a-cult-and-you’ve-unknowingly-stepped-in-it angle. Not necessarily bad (get it? “bad” as in the title? lol) but kind of a big so-what.
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ZOMBEAVERS (2014)
Dir: Jordan Rubin (DRONE)
Hilarious drive-in fodder full of yuks. This one is just smart enough to offer some charm in its sarcasm. Lots of bloody effects!
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MAUSOLEUM (1983)
Dir:
So good I remember nothing about it.
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