Late Phases (2014) Horror Werewolf

Late Phases (2014) - A blind retired Vietnam veteran is moved by his son into a retirement community. Soon after he and his neighbors are attacked by a werewolf. Ambrose (Nick Damici) is not one to let his disability get in his way and starts investigating. What he learns is the monthly attacks at the development at the edge of town are seen as animal attacks. He is a competent man defined by twenty years in the army. Instead of hiding and hoping everything will be alright like some of his neighbors he takes action. Working his aging body into as much shape as possible while preparing for the next full moon by learning his surroundings and creating defenses. He is a man willing to make the sacrifices necessary even knowing he may not survive the outcome.
   It is also a story about the elderly and the perceived notion that they are a burden and disposable. After the first attack we learn that this is a regular occurrence in this neighborhood of Cresent Bay. Seen as animal attacks the police are less than enthusiastic about patrolling the area. The children of the residents are feel they either have no choice but to leave the parents in danger or are so disconnected that they are not participating with their parents in life, just when they are needed most.  The well defined issues between Ambrose and his son Will (Ethan Embry) speak to the time we may all have to face when our children no longer see us as vital in their lives. The isolation is necessary for the plot since this must be a community isolated from the world. Where no help will be coming, where the stories of the victims will be questioned as those of the old and incompetent. Will is worried about his father and the cracks in their relationship eventually ends in a way further isolating his father.
  The red herring in this story is Father Roger (Tom Noonan) at least for a little while when Ambrose smells the smoke on the killers hoodie. Since he knows that the minister smokes he is the one writer Eric Stolze wants us to think about. Problem with the writing is that its about three scenes later that the red herring is exposed and the real killer is revealed. The end of the second act, so it would have probably been better if the hints about Father Roger came a bit sooner in the story. It could have built to a confidence about the killer through the eyes of Ambrose and then dispelled with a turn. Instead it comes across as a bit anticlimactic. Instead the turn is that the killer is "in the know" as he sees Ambrose return with his silver bullets and appears to recognize the store name on the bag. Then things get interesting for the climax as the community is transformed for the final scenes. It makes the most out of the approach, where on one hand the reveal could have been more deceptive Stolze still turns the table a bit with an unconventional plan by the werewolf.
  Its a wonderful ending that this film pulls off, unexpected in scope and with nice effects. It is said of werewolf films that if you don't show at least one transformation then you have failed. This film does not fail although the length and action of the climax are limited by the handicap of the main character. Concern for his neighbors could be Ambrose's undoing in the final scenes of this film. The hilarity of the security guard's reaction to seeing a werewolf is very enjoyable and totally within character. The wonderfully ridiculous but at the same time believable final fight scenes between Ambrose and beasts could have been longer.
   Yes a blind man can fight back, of course we learned that the blind are not helpless years before with Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark, but still she did not fight a werewolf.  Sacrifice again come to the forefront and when all is said and done the viewer is left feeling like they saw a well crafted film. Well executed by one of my favorite directors Adrain Garcia Bogliano (Cold Sweat, Here Comes the Devil) who keeps the pacing lively and hits all the right beats.The acting is solid with lead Nick Damici pulling off playing older than he is. Certainly they needed an actor with the physical ability to deal with the role and in Damici (Stake Land, We Are What We Are) they got that (since Jack Palance is dead). Ethan Embry (The Guest, Cheap Thrills) also is good as the son with so many things to worry about when it comes to his father. Also of note is Noonan (More wonderful films than can be mentioned here.) who is a professional, competent presence and Lance Guest as the somewhat tortured soul and main bad guy.
  So a recommendation for this film not the most perfect but certainly very enjoyable werewolf story. 

Dark House (2009) Horror Ghosts

Dark House (2009) - Claire (Meghan Ory) is a traumatized woman, as a child she saw the horrors of a mass murder of the seven other children in a foster home. Now as an adult in college she struggles with paralyzing fear, taking medication and seeing a therapist Dr. Freeman (Tim Snay). His brilliant idea is for her to confront her fear by going into that same house, of course he adds no other supports for her, like making sure he goes with her. No just send the terrified girl back into her place of horrors and ensure her she will come out on the other side better off. Claire really wants to get over her emotional hangups, unable to form healthy relationships, and unable to be in touch fully with her feeling because of her medication she struggles in her college acting courses. In fact she has been avoiding her meds just so she can be more connected to her emotions during class.
Well wouldn't you know the opportunity arises when horror entertainment mogul Walston (Jeffrey Combs) arrives to offer the actors in Claires class a chance to work in his latest horror amusement the Dark House. He has purchased the very same house that Claire was so traumatized in and has spared no expense to
create a horror themed fun house. He needs actors to man the place though and this is an opportunity Claire for one will not pass up. She lies and says she has never been to the house even when the other actors talk about the tragic murders that took place there 12 years earlier. After convincing the rest of her class to join her off they go to see the place.
The house is something to behold with state of the art holographic technology it has a cast of terrifying characters that look so real they scare the actors. A strength of this film is the make up department headed by Megan Areford who make the non computer effects wonderfully imagined hideous in effect. After a quick demonstration of the scary holographic characters the actors learn their roles and prepare to do a run through for a couple horror amusements beat writers. ( Is there such a thing as an amusement beat writer?)

As the fun begins down in the cellar things are not going too well. Harris (Michael Albala) the computer genius who came up with the technology is killed by the ghost of the murderer Ms Darrode played with vigor by Diane Salinger. Now as he lay dying on the keyboard the

ghost enters the machine. This is such a weak part of the film, somehow it is always really cluncky when the supernatural is melded with technology.

Its probably because science has shown us there really is no such thing as the supernatural

so it challenges the logical parts of our brains when we see the two together. Writer / Director Darin Scott tries through flashing computer screen warnings to convey the idea that the evil spirit has entered the holographic programming and has corrupted the code with pure evil.
The effects of this conceit is that now the holographs will be able to kill the players in the house. Once just scary projections now they will slice dice and clobber the actors and others into pulpy messes. Here again is a weakness in the film, most of the kills in these sequences involve really shoddy computer effects that take away from the scare in really comical ways.

Like when Eldon (Danso Gordon) is attacked by the knight with the mace. Beside that fact that there is a roomfull of people who just watch instead of banding together to try to help, when he finally has he head clubbed off, the spew of bits from the computer effect is ridiculous is its fountain of red. On top of that in each scene where the CGI is featured there is never a natural consequence from it. I mean to say there are no puddles, blood smears or anything that would tell you someone died here. It really leaves the viewer uninvested in the hyper reality of the story when after a kill there is no evidence it ever took place.

*******SPOILERS******

It is very quickly a fight for survival and Claire is seeing it for what it is. The ghost in the machine appears to her on occasion and just terrifies her deeply.

One by one the characters are killed off until of final girl must confront the ghost and her past. Then this not quite passable film pulls the cliche that sinks it. The police arrive and find Claire in the kitchen acting crazy and stabbing the floor repeatedly. We quickly move to the explanation of the entire film. Lets me say that if as a writer you have the need to wrap things up at the end of your script by recapping the entire film, you're not doing it right. Especially when you have

Bob Pinciotti (Don Stark) from That 70's Show deliver it. In this case I am sure that the writer was very clever in what information he left out.

In the early scene when Claire was just a girl it was played to lead the audience to think she was the little girl who, on a dare, entered the scary house to find the murder scene. That scene ends when looking through a keyhole, another eye peers back. So there was a survivor from the massacre, guess which one of the two Claire is.

Wait you don't have to guess because you get an entire scene showing how she as the leader of the foster kids got all the other kids to burn their bibles and thus set off Ms. Darrode's killing spree. Lesson, never burn your bible. Christian foster mom will never be able to check to see if "Thou shalt not kill." is a commandment and so will slaughter you all. Just in case this was not enough for you to understand the story, we get a scene with the other little girl, all grown up visiting the house too. She and her boyfriend are doing exactly what Claire's therapist suggested but in a much healthier way, Claire's way as explained by the cop was to lose her mind and kill off all her actor friends. WHAT? WAIT! Yes that's right everything we say for the last hour and a half never happened. Instead Claire lost it soon after entering the house and being off her medication and worked her way through the players and employees until she was all alone.

To add emphasis to the point we finish the film with a shot of Claire in a rubber room wearing the expected straight jacket. Oh my, that did not end so well. Even though this film had Meghan Ory, who we here at Soresport movies have loved to look at since seeing her in Decoys (2004) it was just not enough to pull a recommended out of us. She can be currently seen at times in the first season of Once Upon A Time on ABC. Also recently she appeared all sexy and evil on an episode of Supernatural. A pretty face can only take you so far and all the problems with this film overwhelm any of the good.
Rating (3.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!