Aftershock (2012) Disaster

Aftershock (2012) - A quick watch on a cloudy afternoon and maybe a very quick review also. Why? Well sometimes there is not a lot you can say about a film. Sometime said film is so void of redemption that talking about it is really just wasting your time. Sometimes a film has so little consideration for its audience that the viewer does not want to give it any consideration in return. This is the case for this particular movie. Framed as a disaster film but crossing over into thriller and horror it is a fight for survival from both mother nature and from bad people taking advantage of an already bad situation. Unfortunately though the film does a lot of things that make it a vapid exercise in voyeurism with almost no reason to care for the characters we may want to pull for.
  The plot centers around three men, two Chileans Ariel (Ariel Levy) and Pollo (Nicolas Martinez) and an American called only Gringo (Eli Roth) who are out and about to show Gringo a good time while visiting Chile. Shallow men in their thirties who are only focused on getting laid they go from one club to another failing at their goal. Trying to make Gringo a more likable character with a scene of him talking to his daughter on the phone fails to elicit any good feeling. His friend Ariel is nondescript but trying to be a helpful wing man. Pollo the wealthy guy with the connections to get them into the clubs is a womanizer who is flitting through life without a care because of his father's money.

They are making a play for three women friends Monica ( Andrea Osvart), Irina (Natasha Yarovenko) and Kylie (Lorenza Izzo). The main thing we want to note about these three is a bit of background concerning Monica and Kylie. Half sisters with the same Father there is a bit of sibling rivalry but also Kylie is a recovering drug addict and Monica the responsible one is traveling  with her to try to keep her from slipping up. The scant back story is just enough to let the audience know these are the characters we should cheer for without giving enough information to actually care for them. They are the eye candy for the film and the damsels who will later be in distress. We get to see quite a bit of these people before the main events of the film start to know that they are not a very likable group. Superficial young people who have very few qualities to make us care if they live or die.
Then the roller coaster ride begins and since the stage has been set we know who will be the final girl. The adventure starts with trying to get to the hospital on the hill. When this subplot is resolved we learn the prison in the city has broken and dangerous prisoners are rampaging the streets raping and killing. So onto the new plot of the dangerous prisoners raping and killing our main characters. Mixed in are some lost friends and close calls escaping just in time, and of course the titular aftershocks which drop things around and on the characters both benefiting and harming them. Some of what is written into the plot by Roth and Nicolas Lopez is harsh, the rest is mean spirited. Not that we want to pull for these characters but when they are in crisis most of the outcomes are a real "Fuck You" to the viewer. If you were hoping for anything positive you were a fool. When the daylight moment comes for the final girl, at least this viewer knew what her seeing the ocean meant. For that final scene I did wonder whether these pricks of film makers were cruel enough to pull the last dirty trick.
 There was no Maureen McGovern  singing  "There's Got to be a Morning After" and the cruel intentions of the script stayed true until the end. Is that a unique surprise or is it just plain mean? I would have to leans towards the later. In order to make it original we would really have to love these characters. That is not possible because the scenes where we got to know them showed them as American Assholes, Chilean spoiled rich kids and uptight mother hens. There is no reason to care when they are crushed under stone, raped and murdered or burned alive. True the final survivor is the best of the lot but you don't really care if she lives or dies. Recommending this film is not really a possibility after a review like this. Sure anyone who is a die hard disaster film lover might get something out of it but this reviewer expects a lot more from this genre than these cheap tricks.

Nurse 3D (2013) Horror Psycho

Nurse 3D (2013) - Sometimes advertising is a real influence in getting people to watch a film, Nurse 3D has some really great poster art and with it came my choice to watch the film. I really wish the film was half as good as the posters, but it is not. What it is at heart is a story of a psychopath damaged as a child by the so overly predictable trauma of seeing her Dad fucking someone other than her Mother. This trauma follows her into adulthood where she works as a nurse and on the side uses her ample assets to lure married men into cheating and then doling out punishment for being so weak. The film could be an homage to movies past but I don't think from listening to the director, writer Douglas Aarniokoski's commentary that this idea was in his head at all. He was trying to make a sexy, crazy thriller that he thought was cool. In fact he cared a lot more about the shots in the film more than whether the story was original. Maybe I am being a bit harsh off the top of my head I can only think of one film with a similar traumatic event, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Still the film just does not feel very original. It could be that there are some things that are small that seemed to be played over the top and I just didn't like. Later in the film when we get the flash back to the damaging events, they just did not seem that traumatizing. The fact that the killer as a child does something horrible in a tense situation between her parents I suppose is suppose to carry the idea into her adulthood but that seemed a stretch.
 There is also a real lack of subtext here..There could have been social commentary about the objectification of women but for all of the sexuality oozing through the film it really just says its a great tool for a serial killer. Abby (Paz de la Huerta) is a woman who punishes men for their infidelity but it is really not saying anything about infidelity because the character is so insane she takes the impact away. You really can't pull for the killer even though the men are cheaters because the impact of their cheating is never seen. It also does not touch the question of the impacts of those deaths on the spouses and children left behind. It all is just a premise to have this serial killer go after men.
  The story is about a serial killer woman Abby posing as a nurse who has boundary problems and a need to punish men who cheat on their wives. She is off her rocker and it is not good for the people around her. Still the avenging angel of infidelity persona only lasts enough time to establish a motivation. The story being told is how she gets interested in fellow nurse young attractive, Danni (Katrina Bowden), after a night out drinking together, whether Abby drugged her is probable, Danni wakes in Abby's apartment embarrassed because she blacked out. In the strange voice over we hear Abby explain how the finger fucking of young Danni to orgasm and it was a great experience. Then the story is about the two women, Abby who feels slighted by the non responsive Danni start a plan of fucking with her life. Danni who just wants to forget the night comes to realize just how fucked up and dangerous Abby is. As she learns the about the psycho she also realizes that Abby is setting it up so that no one will believe her if she exposes the lunatic. Eventually thing unravel for Abby in a blood soaked rampage that is so unbelievable that the viewer is left mouth agape wondering why cops and security guards do not exist in this world.
  The first is the lead Paz de la Huerta who just seeps sexuality in this film. She plays the character so strangely that it is hard to believe a single person in the story's reality would not find her creepy. She is so unreal and strange but everyone interacts with her like she is perfectly normal. The director too loves not only this character but the actress and spends a good deal of time making her look sultry. Slow motion walks with semi see through dresses, lace underwear, lots of cleavage all to make her hot and irresistible. Paz de la Huerta gives it her all and really plays a psycho really well but the character seems too bizarre not to have been found out long ago.Then on top of it the premise that she could just get a job at a hospital using someone's identity seems pretty far fetched. She takes the name of the nurse who cared for her in a psychiatric ward and goes to work as a nurse. How?  Just how does that happen that she can replace a woman twice her age and no one finds her out. The actress does all with her acting skills to sell that Abby is a very damaged and emotionally unstable woman but flaws in the screenwriting makes it hard to believe.
  In fact there are several small things done for effect that really bothered me, like needles full of fluid being displayed that are way too big and used just for effect. In one scene we see Abby give a needle with about an ounce of fluid in it to a victim and later she describes it as 4cc. You would use a tiny little needle for that. In a scene where Abby is fucking a dead victim we see like twenty needles stuck all over his chest and stomach, so ridiculous that it takes away from the tension of the movie. Then there is the age thing, we have a back story for Abby where an orderly tells her story to Danni but he tells it as he was there, the actor though looks like he is the only a few years older than her, in order for her to be eight at the asylum that man should be at least 50 years old. Then there is the Danni shower scenes, who the hell showers in her underwear? I understand if the actress does not want to do nudity. That can be respected but you do not have to shoot it so she is standing in the shower in full view with her panties on. How about just a shot of the head under the shower head or just cut out the lower half.
 Costar Bowden does a fine job as the new nurse who has her life turned upside down by Abby. She is vulnerable and then fights back with a strength that is admirable. I found myself wondering what else she was in and did not really remember her roles in other film. Seeing a lot of film makes it hard at times to place actors, but Bowden was in the very forgettable Piranha 3DD and in the recent comedy Movie 43 in the segment Super Hero Speed Dating. She holds her own here, if this film was meant to be a comedy, she would be the straight guy to de la Huerta's clown. Maybe this is a comedy and I just did not get the humor?
There are some smaller parts and cameos that should be noted here, Judd Nelson as Dr. Morris plays a great douche bag of an attending physician. In the end he gets what every harassing ass should get in a film about punishing the likes of his character. Then for one scene a quick appearance by Kathleen Turner who sounds like the smoking has finally caught up with her. Comedy actor Niecy Nash does a sassy black nurse character that is a stereotype of stereotypes but does it with the confidence to pull it off. All characters in this movie are substantiated only to drive the simple plot so are sort of wasted.
 Amazed by the final fight sequence that was so over the top that it leaves you wondering how the security at this hospital manages to get paid. Then the unbelievable scene where Abby strips and lays in a bed in a hospital room covered in blood from the destruction she has just done. When Danni and her boyfriend Steve (Corbin Bleu) come is they attend thinking she is another victim I shuddered at the stupidity. WTF she is totally recognizable!This is a film that may be a lot of fun in a roomful of drinking buddies but fails as a serious horror film. There is certainly camp value here but not enough to get a recommendation in this blog. The sequel ready ending is enough to make this reviewer want to rip his beard out.

Dust Devil (1992) - Horror Magic Psycho

Dust Devil (1992) - I chose this film after listening to director Adrian Garcia Bogliano's commentary on his film "Here Comes the Devil". He says that this film is the film that made him become a film maker. It certainly a film like no other I have seen. What Richard Stanley's demon serial killer Namibian epic is all about is style.  Loosely based on a real life serial killer who hid in the outback of Namibia the story adds a legend of supernatural to make the film . Sweeping shots and saturated colors of reds and orange by Cinematographer Steven Chivers while amazing musical themes by Simon Boswell play through in what could be mistaken at times for a spaghetti western. The music is an amazing mix of classic Western style themes that really make the film more than a horror film. Stanley uses closeup, camera movement, expansive arid landscape, and helicopter shots to widen the breadth of the film. It is a very unique horror film that blurs the line of genre. I remember a conversation on the Splattercast podcast (you all should be listening to this one) talking about camera shots and movement and that every shot should have a purpose. So when you watch this film pay attention to the really cool moving shots. Are they really for a reason? What are the effects on the viewer when these shots are shown? Since this film is very stylized it is an interesting example to talk about this area of film making. My background being more in the studying screen writing generally leaves me at a loss to answer whether this film is shot well. It certainly looks good to me but I don't know the answer.
 A story of a demon made man who kills and uses  "body magic" to attempt to leave the earthly plane after generations of wandering and building the power of his rituals through murder and mutilation. Looking to do enough magic to escape the human plane the Demon is drawn to people contemplating suicide and so he finds our main character Wendy Robinson (Chelsea Field). She is a woman escaping a failing relationship with her paranoid and abusive husband Mark (Rufus Swart) she heads west towards the sea and to her inevitable meeting with the Dust Devil.
 Dated by its political setting the film touches the very real conditions of the country at the time of shooting.  Set in the arid sand filled wastes of Namibia just a couple years after it had won its freedom form South Africa. (1990) We follow the wanderings of the Dust Devil (Robert John Burke) a serial killing demon who victimizes strangers for his cut and dice magic which uses placement of body parts and blood drawings to move the demon ever closer to escaping this plane of existence. There are many examples in the film that give away the political conditions during filming. The tension between the white and black police officers, where the whites more and more are being moved out and black africans are taking the lead. Little thing that are more subtle like in a bar in the country side where segregation is the rule. The pinball machine which was on the white side is taken during the film andthen resides on the black side of the bar.
 Countering this malicious spirit made man is Ben Mukurob (Zakes Mokae) a former military commander who fought for the wrong side in the revolution but now a police officer with the experience to track the Dust Devil. Seeing the hideous remains of his magic Ben struggles with the idea of magic but can not deny that the killer believes. Haunted by a past that not only cost him his standing but also lost him his wife and son fifteen years before he is a man looking to move on who can't. Ben has the skill to catch this serial killer but to do it he will have to let go of the reality he knows for magic in front of his eyes.
 Wendy is an interesting character in that she is both strong but also contemplating suicide those feelings though are what attracts the Dust Devil. Her journey is one of discovering the strength to go on living. She goes from abused wife to strong fighter who does not need anyone else to thrive.
 The film is a complex one with several strands that the direct manages to weave into a very enjoyable experience.  The experience though may be trying to do a bit too much. There is a "let me tell you a tale" voice over that although adds something to the story could probably been excluded without hurting the story. The same thing can be said for the husband Mark, when Wendy left him he had served his purpose and although the metaphor of walking past him in the end of the film is effective to show the growth of the character it ultimately is a bit too on the nose and unnecessary. The pacing is slower than some horror and definitely slower than modern horror but growing up in the seventies I sort of like that. Certainly I will recommend this film it is above the average and a wonderful mix of magic Western and serial killer. Hell I have now watch the film four time and each time I have enjoyed the viewing and gotten a bit more depth from it. So for sure add this to your viewing list.

Skinned Alive (1990) Horror psychos

Skinned Alive (1990) -  . Its a simple setup for a very simple film. Tempe DVD is still in business and still selling some wonderfully horrible trash films. This one is horrible but not wonderful and really difficult to get through. What do you expect for a film made for $18k? A family of psychopaths travel the country looking for victims to kill, skin and make leather products out of. Could be an interesting set up but the script written by director Jon Killough is a horror comedy lacking both horror and comedy.  The primary problem is the cast that just yells at each other in every scene and swears constantly. Playing completely over the top might have seemed like a good idea at the time this feature was made but it really has not aged well. We have a family of killers here, Crawldaddy (Mary Jackson) the Mom is the handicapped matriarch with two adult children, Phink (Scott Spiegel) and Violet (Susan Rothacker) who drive around killing people and then skinning them. The chaos of what they do is not in their actions but more in their interactions with each other. Shouting, cursing and general low brow behavior makes the film almost unwatchable. There is a bit of a storyline when they settle into a neighborhood after their van breaks down. They are invited by the locals Paul (Floyd Ewing Jr.) and Louise (Jennifer Mullen) to stay with them, contrasting the trusting locals with the traveling assholes. There is some killing and then stupidly not getting rid of the bodies, so the risk of getting caught but there is a problem with this set up. The locals are way too simple to get these people are jerk offs and family of killers are way too unlikable to care if they get caught. You sort of want them to get caught just to shut them up.
  The sort of one reasonable character is the neighbor Tom (Lester Clark) a former cop with a powerful gun. When the shit hits the fan he lets the human leather making family have it and its the one thing that we can cheer about in the film. All and all though this is not a fil I can remotely recommend. Its on you if you need to make yourself suffer through it.

Dracula 3D (2012) Horror Vampire

Dario Argento's Dracula 3D (2012) - This film is taking a lot of heat as it makes its round being reviewed by various horror podcasts and websites. It certainly does have its issues, the CGI is under developed making it look very cartoonish. Its a shame since there are many shots filling a good amount of the film. Most of the new tropes for the many forms of Dracula are primarily shown through CGI, the fly transformation, the giant pray a mantis, a wolf transformation and all are less developed than they should have been before releasing the film. Then there are script issues that add to the mixed reception of the film. Writers Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, Stefano Piani and Antonio Tentori decided to without major plot points until the final scene and by doing so created an incoherent collection of scenes missing a primary motivation. Now who is to say, who wrote what in this script, or how many revisions it went through but understanding what was done can only happen after seeing the entire film. The central character Dracula (Thomas Kretschmann), as well as Lucy (Asia Argento) had motivations that were left unexplained until the final conflict.
  Then the knowledge that Mina (Marta Gastini), like in the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola version, is a look alike for Dracula's dead wife is also withheld. It is his primary reason for hiring Jonathan Harker (Unax Ugalde) and thus luring his wife to the area but we the audience don't learn about it until the end of the film. So in that last scene there is so much exposition that it muddles everything that comes before it. I am sure the writers were seeing it a a big reveal but because of other issues in the film it just leaves the plot rudderless. More foreshadowing of the reveals would have helped. Then there is the strange weirdness to the dialog, not quite shooting for any region or time period, but sort of existing in its own world. The players have odd phrasing making the dialog ring false throughout the film. Add to it what I think were a incredibly moody performance by Thomas Kretschmann as Dracula. He goes all over the place presenting Dracula sometimes as a sad and depressed creature bored with his existence. Then at other time flashes into the monster with a violent streak that make an abusive drunk seem stable. Then at other times he is a driven man who knows what he wants and is determined to get it.It makes for a very convoluted image of the character that is not easy to connect with.
 Now I will move a bit into some *** SPOILERS!*** in the writing so you have been warned. I know that you are thinking this is Dracula there just can't be spoilers but there are. The writing team changed the story and character arcs enough that it is possible to actually have spoilers. Lets start with the simplest of the changes that did not make sense. Renfield (Giovanni Franzoni) is not a want to be vampire eating bugs and doing the bidding of the vampire well at least at first. He is a neighbor in the opening scene where Tanja (Miriam Giovanelli) is attacked by Dracula, he knows she is having an affair with is married neighbor but does nothing about it. When she is killed, bitten and put in a grave he arrives in time to stop the locals from driving a stake through her heart. In the bloody exchange he is overpowered after killing another local. Although under the power of Dracula this character is a bit more sane than Renfield's who have appeared in other films. He is an improvement over past versions of the character, primarily obsessed with the lovely Tanja vampire he is a servant with size and power. She Tanja is herself a more active bride of Dracula. Like in other films she is a showcase of the seductress vampire but not one Dracula is interested in loving. Unfortunately this bride is young and petulant a child who can not handle the power that comes from being undead. Its a bit confusing whether Dracula wants her to be a vampire, we see that the locals are doing his bidding but when Tanja is bitten they bury her in a shallow grave with the intent to stake her before she can drink some of Dracula's blood to become a full vampire. Well so was it Dracula who sent them to do this? Then why in the very next scene is he giving her a drink of his blood. It's very confusing. The major characters are another story with the greatest change coming in the form of Lucy.

In other versions of the story Lucy is a victim; a close friend to Mina who is used as the example of the power of the vampire. He seduces and feeds and she grows weaker and weaker before dying. In this film all of that is shortened and at the end a major revelation is revealed about Lucy that changes all her motivation. She is seen to die after one feeding by Dracula which at the time seemed odd. Then we learn in the exposition in the end of the movie that she was working for Dracula. She had traded her friends for the gift of immortality, yes that's right after Dracula saw the photo of  Mina and Jonathan in Lucy's home and realized Mina was the spitting image of his long dead wife he made a deal with Lucy. So instead of being an innocent victim she is an evil co-conspirator. It explains her reaction to hearing Mina was not with Jonathan, she seems scared and worries that something has happened to her friend. You think it is worry for the girl but really she fears Dracula will be angry. So is the town for that matter, most of the locals are working for Dracula, so it changes the basic premise of past films. Instead of a village terrified by the old castle on the hill everyone seems to be working against the Harkers.

  Of all the characters in the film poor Jonathan gets the worst deal. Hired to catalog the Count's library he is very quickly just a food source. Locked up and drained when he turns and is killed by Van Helsing (Rutger Hauer) it is a truly tragic ending for him. He really has no other purpose in the story so other than setting up Mina's arrival. So he is used to give us the story of Dracula when he reads the books in the library. After seeing the film the second viewing makes so much more sense. When Dracula is talking about Mina's arrival he says "A wife's place is with her husband." Knowing he envisions her as his long lost bride we can see the double meaning of the line.
  Dracula feels a psychic connection to Mina and she to him, symbolized as a warning her her dream, she is running through the woods and comes across her own body laying on the ground, a wolf is feeding on her insides. Foreshadowing of the wolf threat she feels while riding to the castle. This connection is furthered in the later scenes as Dracula seems able to impose his will on her whenever they are together. The film sets up triangles in relationships, Mina - Jonathan - Dracula, Mina - Dracula - Tanja couples or desired couplings countered with established relationships. Again I can see what Argento is trying to do here the duality of the structure is useful but we are too distracted by the surrounding effects to really pay attention to the story.
  It is Mina who calls Van Helsing and hires him to deal with what she thinks is a vampire. This is very much a change from the original. Also Van Helsing has a history with Dracula, as shown through a flashback. Dracula sends one minion after another to try to kill him unsuccessfully. Not the most well put together part of the story. Van Helsing does not show up until the third act and then he is all business. He puts an end to one minion after another and has a ridiculous preparing for battle montage before the final scene. In the end van Helsing is a bit old and frail for the job and it is Mina that strikes the vital blow to Dracula. Very underdeveloped as a character it is a real weakness instead of the amazing enhancement having Rutger Hauer could have been.
 Considering that the bells and whistles of the film, from story to score to costumes to performances is all about the emotion the film itself somehow comes across without emotional impact. People also have been really critical of the lighting calling it too bright to create mood, but I believe a lot of that has to do with the 3D effects, comparing the 2D and 3D versions you can see that with the gray glasses used for the effects the colors are dulled enough to get good lighting and a decent mood. In the 2D version though it is a bright colorful film lacking a hint of the necessary creepy mood. Recommend a setup with recognized 3D for viewing this one. The effects needed to be better and this Dracula seems to have a shape shifter ability, he can be or maybe control most animals. We see him as an owl, a wolf, a collection of flies, a giant prey mantis, then there seems to be bug spies, rat spies all letting Dracula know what is happening in the town. Then there was that time where he just appeared in Lucy's room after a bolt of lightening. All this added stuff needing special effects to make it work does not work. It confuses the myth of Dracula and because of the less than stellar effects is a real distraction from the story. So too are the incredible number of 3D shots which are well done in the film. Watching in the format is a very cool experience because so many of the scenes were designed and shot for the effect. The problem ends up being too much of a good thing and when you add to it the effects on lighting it works against a story that is trying to be a new telling of an old tale.
  With all of this working against the film it still manages to try to tell this well worn tales in a slightly new way. Think about how hard the task was for Argento. One one hand he is trying to tell a story we can recite by heart without effort while at the same time trying to find a way to make it compelling. If he had stuck to the story and character changes he thought of and did not bother with all the transformations and special 3D effect this could probably have been a very enjoyable version of the story. Unfortunately that is not the case. So no recommendation on this film but unlike a lot off the review I have seen and heard I think there is something here of value its just that the whole package does not work. I have included some screen shots of many of the effect here for your amusement.

Here Comes the Devil (2012)

Here Comes the Devil (2012) - The final film in this set a dark tale of family secrets and devil possession. So far each film has presented me something new and interesting, Rooms for Tourists the secret of the little village the girls arrive in. In Cold Sweat the unique way the victims are killed. In Penumbra the wonderful twist in the final ceremony during the eclipse. Well,  Here Comes the Devil continues with a family secret revealed. It is creepy and built with little "tells" being shown as we move towards the third act. It is a shame the inevitable ending scene is telegraphed a bit too much. Don't get me wrong I really enjoyed this film; It is a compelling and disturbing tale of a family that is creepy and in the end tragic. In fact I have enjoyed all the films in this recent set and can be counted as a Adrian Garcia Bogliano fan at this point. The horror wheat fields are full of chafe so when you find the grains of goodness you should make a point of appreciating them. These film have been a hearty meal of horror goodness and I look forward to future releases.
 In the opening scene we see a couple of women hot and heavy into each other on a bed. When the post coital talk is done one of the women is attacked brutally while downstairs. The killer is injured by the surviving woman and runs off to a rocky hill filled with caves. It is a harsh and brutal start and Director Adrian Garcia Boliano says in the commentary that he was looking for the style of 1970's Italian thrillers where the film opens more like a second act instead of the first. The idea is to have strong scenes that leave the viewer thinking about them, or with an emotional charge that lingers into the next scene. The music by Julio Pillado certainly adds to the feeling and throughout is a strength of the picture. It certainly does what is intended, from the surprising love making to open the film, two blurred bodies come into focus as two woman, Sandra (Jessica Iris) and Abril (Dana Dorel) are making love. When they are finished they casually talk about their relationship before one goes off downstairs to a violent and shocking turn. It definitely leaves the viewer wondering "What the fuck am I in for?" It also establishes a location that will become central to the main story.
  When a family of four are out for a picnic the two children on the verge of puberty venture out on their own to explore some caves on the hillside, they go missing over night creating a nightmare for the parents. Guilt ridden but relieved when they are returned the next day the parents take them home determined with a new appreciation for the family. Built into the story are ideas about the first sexual experience a young people have. The parents Sol (Laura Caro) and Felix (Francisco Barreiro) before realizing the children are missing have an uncomfortable (for us viewers) heavy petting session in their car while they describe their first times showing their privates to the opposite sex. We watch there struggle with the guilt of their actions even though the  incident really is a faultless one. This is a parallel to their own children who are at the same ages the parents were when they started exploring sex. The parents never make the connection between the age of their first experiences and the ages of their children. It is a foreshadowing of the secrets that are later learned of by Sol.
  This film is surprising in its turns and the extremes that the characters go. After the return of their children the concerned parents watch and see that the children are not acting all together normally. Taking them to a psychologist they learn that it is possible that some kind of traumatic sexual incident could have taken place. I know at this point if you had not seen the opening scenes you would think this is a family drama. The parents putting pieces together figure out that the strange guy they saw in the gas station was staring and a bit too interested in their daughter. Lots of things build the feeling that the incident must have to do with him. Is this the secret that must be dealt with? Confirmed by the reaction of their children to seeing the man again from their car only confirmed their ideas. Felix and Sol pay a visit to the man and from this point on all bets are off in this movie. I was not expecting this particular scene and it was a wonderful horror surprise.  With the motivation of confirming that this man harmed their daughter the parents are not taking this to the police and the film turns as the concerned parents become vigilantes. Unexpected this turn leads the couple down a road neither will ever be able to come back from.
  Still the film has more surprises for it's audience with the introduction of a supernatural element. The exposition for this is set up early in the film with a gas station attendant telling the couple about the bad mojo of the hill the kids disappeared on. This is always a horror movie with the trapping necessary to keep you believing it, even when the drama of the family or the investigations of the police come into play. It is just has more to it than your average horror film in plot twists and turns and character motivation. Incidents with flashing lights and strange behavior by the children Sara (Michele Garcia) and Aldolfo (Alan Martinez) keep it firmly in the horror realm while the character developments make you feel for the family. The stylish and terrifying experience of baby sitter Marcia (Barbara Perrin Rivemar) stands out as an example of the Devil doing evil deeds and of the filmmakers command of the craft. Although not explicitly stated as a evil spirit rape scene I was pretty sure that that is what it was. After viewing the film and seeing the extra it was confirmed with an even longer and more stylish deleted scene.
  Really the flaws, as I saw them have to do with the Mother's reaction when she figures out the kids secret. She is way too internal in how she deals with it. Instead of filling in her husband on what she believes she instead keeps that information to herself. She develops an entire plan for revealing the horrors of the ending to him but never stops to think that what he will think is going on may be different than what she intends. The secret is a big one and I can't believe this would not be a major conversation as soon as it is learned. Now it could probably be argued that after the experience the parents shared in confronting Lucio (David Arturo Cabezud),  (yes I purposely did not describe the events here) that there could be a strain between the couple. Felix after that incident is seen more of getting on with life. Returning to work and although nervous about the police looking into events concerning Lucio is starting to get back to life. While Sol carries the plot for a while being the investigator in the strange behavior of her children. It works for the plot for her not to be filling in her husband on all the goings on she has had around them but it sort of telegraphed the final scene. Her big discovery at the end of the film and her orchestration to reveal it to Felix could only end one way. He did not have all the information that she did and his reaction unfortunately was all too predictable.
  Still the film is a really well put together piece of horror with lots of cool little thing for you to take away from it. There is family drama, guilt and reaction to it, vigilantism, supernatural possession and other secrets not to be revealed here. It is worth the price of admission and this viewer already owns the Blu Ray. So if you are looking for original horror find this director's stuff and I am sure you will enjoy it.

Penumbra (2011) Horror cult

Penumbra (2011) - Well the third installment in the Adrian Garcia Bogliano athon is certainly a clever film. It sets the view up with almost an antihero and then flips the expected plot course on its head and then you realized why she is so unlikable. Using the conflict in the relationship between many Argentinian born residents and Spanish nationals who own and live in the country to draw lines in this film was very smart. Not being from there I am not totally sure how much the two groups do or do not get along but it really worked in how it was presented in this film. It allows the main character Marga (Christina Brondo) not only to be drawn as a rude pushy European but to be seen in the Buenos Aires neighbor in which the story takes place to be a real outsider. This outsider status is essential to the film's final outcome and is really handled well by writers Adrian and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano.
   The story centers around Marga a very busy business woman who is trying to quickly rent an apartment she inherited. The character is built as a too busy and often annoyed, pushy Spaniard who although she needs to deal with this personal chore does not have the time. Pressure from her boss, and backstabbing of her coworker makes the simple task of renting out the apartment a bit more to handle than she wants. Constantly having to make and receive calls she is distracted by her phone regularly in the film. It is a theme that runs through these writers movies. In Rooms for tourists it is the phone that is the focus of salvation for the lead character. In Cold Sweat the internet is used to attract victims to the torture house and also to help the protagonists as they navigate the dangerous conditions there. Here it is a large reason why Marga ends up not seeing the signs that something may not be right with the real estate man Jorge (Berta Muniz) as she interacts with him about the apartment.
  Marga is set up to be a character who is not very likable and this is essential to the story. First we see her being bothered by a homeless man. She is offended but in this tight knit neighborhood the people who live and work there see him as harmless so when she is pushy with the local police officer in talking about the homeless man he sort of takes her side. Her snippy remarks about the locals in front of the cop will never help her get on his good side. Marga talks on the phone to people back in Spain and her disdain for Argentina comes through with sharp tones that anyone overhearing her will make her seem like an asshole. She sees it as a primitive country compared to where she is from and thinks the people are uncultured. (You might compare her to the Ugly American stereotype if this were a US character.) We also see her interacting with a woman who lives in the apartment.  The woman (Mirella Pascual) makes an effort to connect with the Spaniard, a second generation immigrant she still holds some of her parents love for Spain. Their family left during the civil war but she still holds a connection. Marga is a bit dismissive and after being nice to get what she wants rudely ushers herself out of the apartment. (The funny side incident with the fish was really good.) All in all the character is not likable and so as the main plot develops the viewer finds themselves wanting her to notice the danger developing around her and maybe hoping that the plot will give her a story arch where she learns not to be so dislikable.
  That main plot develops in the apartment as it becomes apparent that Jorge is not who he says he is. Obvious to us in the audience it takes a while for the perpetually distracted Marga to catch on. Other associates of Jorge's arrive, Victoria ( former child star Camila Bordonada), Angela (Victoria Witemberg), Alberto (Diego Cremonesi) all with the promise of a lucrative rental contract from their boss Salva (Arnaldo Andre). Marga should have been nervous very early but the idea of having the business taken care of in a day and for a lot more money than she hoped kept her believing even when stories stopped making sense. Finally when the gig is up and our protagonist realizes that things have gone horribly wrong it is too late. She is captured by the group and is witness to the reason they came to the apartment.
 I will not spoil that here because there is definitely a recommendation coming from this blog to see this film. Let me say though the first scene of the film sets up the climax but I was surprised by the direction it took. The epilogue is equally surprising but when you then think back on how it was all set up it makes great sense. I may be short changing Ramiro Garcia Bogliano but it is not intentional. He has been a writer and co-director on this film and writer on "Cold Sweat" and "Rooms for Tourists" so I am sure a lot of the very entertaining writing is his. I really enjoyed this film and will continue my look at this director in my next installment, "Here comes the Devil"

Cold Sweat (2010) Horror psychos

Cold Sweat (2010) - Continuing on the switch to the movies of Adrian Garcia Bogliano I get to "Cold Sweat" a story of a couple radicals of right wing anarchy who years after they have past their prime carry on a sick and twisted vision of creating utopia through torture. Bogliano like in "Rooms for Tourists" uses a house as the tight claustrophobic setting for the fear to come. The opening of the film give us a bit of a history lesson in Argentinian politics. Scenes and images of right and left wing protest flash across the screen telling the story of 25 cases of stolen dynamite and the torture and abuse rendered by sides to try to find it. The right had the Triple A, an anticommunist death squad that operated under President Isabel Peron in the mid 1970's. It is an origin story for a couple of the characters in the film but when viewing it you really don't know that yet. The intro although useful to understanding the motivations of the bad guys in this film is secondary as they are the only ones affected by that story. It is like showing scenes of pacific fighting during WWII just before you tell a story about a Japanese soldier who is still fighting the war 50 years later. This story is very similar, the two old men who are the antagonists of the story are still fighting the Communist in a society that has already moved on.
  The modern day story of these two men is introduced by two other characters Ramon (Facundo Espinosa) and Ali (Marina Glezer) who are working together to find Ramon's ex-girlfriend Jackie (Camila Velasco) who went missing after hooking up with a blonde guy on the internet. Ali and Ramon are outside the house of the old men and little do they know the house of horrors awaiting them inside the house. They think this blonde guy is a person who Jackie is fooling around with and Ramon is obsessed with catching them. He has looked through her email and chats and he and Ali have tracked him to this house. Ali goes in as another flirty girl to meet the blonde guy and hopefully have a look around. When after entering the house a white haired old guy (Omar Gioiosa) sneaks up behind her and knocks her out you known something is horribly amiss.
  What this leads to is a story of a couple old agents still fighting the war against communism in a very unique way. They could be said to just be crazy at this point and not really in touch with the reality of the world but even so they are committed to their cause. Can you call killing young people a cause? We enter their world with victim number one (Noelia Vergini) harnessed up hanging in a room. Walker using old guy (Omar Musa) puts a drop of acid down where the young woman's head can be moved. She is terrified, we don't know it yet but he has put nitroglycerine on the girl's head and if it comes in contact with the acid it will cause it to explode. The scene is a very good and gory example of setting the stage. Ali also captive in the room knows the stakes after watching the demise of the first victim and when a drop of nitro is put on her forehead she is clear of the implications. I have never seen this as a murder method and liked the original (at least for me) way of execution.
Unfortunately what follows can only be termed a horrible mess of poor decisions by the protagonists of the film. When Ali does not come out of the house he looks to go in through a back window to find her. He is clumsy and not really brave but manages to get to her in the maze of an apartment. I am always frustrated with the idea that tech savvy people can't seem to make a simple phone call to the police instead of putting themselves in jeopardy. I am not saying that the film making is bad, I just hate the horror trope of people going in to the horror situation on their own without first calling for help. The actual sneaking around the house are pretty tense and suspenseful scenes, especially when Ramon ends up behind a two way mirror where he witnesses the first on screen killing. Ramon does just that setting up a film where he and Ali sneak around but can't seem to find a way to leave. Ali after being freed by Ramon wanders about never finding a way out. Ramon still seeking the Jackie decides to stay around until he finds her. Shit if he had called the police in the beginning all of this would have been resolved in an hour, the old men arrested and everyone that could be save would have been. Instead we get a fairly enjoyably tense game of cat and mouse based on these horrible decisions.
  Baxter the white haired old man is still fit enough to be a physical threat but the walker guy is not and Ramon could have over powered him anytime but instead just sneaks around avoiding contact. When he finds Jackie covered in nitro and scared he has to problem solve getting her out without blowing her up. The film like I said is somewhat unique and entertaining. As we move into the third act the old men discover the young people and we get a final gory showdown that is worth the look. There is also some (unintentional?) humor when the nitro covered Jackie is dragging herself across the floor trying not to drip the explosive off her skin and is being pursued ever so slowly by the walker guy. He has a syringe of acid and is trying to blow her up by squirting it at the nitro on her body. It is the slowest chase scene in the history of film but even still well done on a movie making level.

A decent film I thought it was original and fun with unlikely villains and some messages about how there is a danger in modern technology. Early in the film we see both sides of technology, Ramon reading the messages of Jackie learns she is going to meet this blonde guy and affectively cheat on him. Also though with Ali they track the IP to this house and the benefits of the internet is used to find the missing woman. Jackie was attracted to the house by chatting with a blonde guy but that guy another captive is not even really communicating with the girl. Instead we learn that the walker guy is the brains behind it. He sees youth of the day as stupidly too trusting and exploits the internet to attract victims.These old men use the internet against a generation too trusting of chat rooms and avatars it is quite a message. Then when Ramon goes into the torture room to save Ali he quickly uses his phone to look up what to do to neutralized nitroglycerine, a good use of technology in a tight situation. There was no cliche loss of signal or anything like that. A draw back is the strange cannibal women of the cellar, who are never really explained. I guess past victims who were never killed, or maybe the way the old men got rid of the bodies?
  So I will recommend this film it has some cool ideas and is original enough to keep you interested. Having to overlook the stupid behavior of a couple of the characters is challenging but still I think the tension created by the director out weighs those flaws. So far in this new  Bogliano themed week I am pretty please. There is a lot of originality, a definite skill for creating tension and what seems a love for making horror movies. I look forward to the next choice for this this director Penumbra.  So enjoy.

Rooms for Tourists (2004) horror travel

Rooms for Tourists (2004) -  This very low budget Argentinian film by Adrian Garcia Boliano is a horror film through and through. The idea of religious people deciding who deserves life and who does not is an interesting contradiction in this film. Done in black and white with a deep throbbing score the film presents a frightening mood that is thick compelling. Its imagery if stark and scary with the main character Theda (Elena Siritto) having visions of brutal acts. Little do we know that those initial dreams all will tie into the story about to unfold. Film making wise it is a clever trick, while it seems completely unrelated at least for a while each of these scenes of torture and death are later revealed to be a history of the village the film takes place in. Theda is a nervous wreak and is jumpy from the start obviously out of her element. When she and four other girls have to get a connecting train in a small town they are thrown into events connected to their unbeknown shared secret.
The first most striking thing about this film is how the music makes interaction with the locals very ominous. Instead of watching people go about normal interactions about train schedules that we would think is nothing, instead there is a pall, an idea the music gives us that things are not right in this village. When they see the local church and the ultra conservative preacher delivering his hell for sinners sermon they are all a bit more on edge. Theda's nerves actually help her in this film. She is so worried about having missed the connecting train that she starts to look for a phone to call home. She manages to call her father early in the film but can only leave a message for him to call her back at 7 am but will she survive the night?
Low angle shot camera shots and shadows which are more engaging in black and white add to the horror feel of the film. When five young women miss their connecting train they are thrown together and offered rooms at a local house. In this small town the populous is devout in their following of the fire and brimstone preacher you know that it will effect these young ladies before the film is over.  At this point I am thinking more of Children of the Corn where people from the outside come into a small town and are put in jeopardy.When we learn that Elena is struggling with the fact that she is pregnant we are given a hint to the mystery. Taking the rooms in the house and after a ominous dinner with the moralizing preacher we are set for the action.
  When film student Silvia (Mariela Mujica) is murdered with a cleaver in a wonderfully gruesome scene the remaining girls suddenly realize that it may be too late to escape the same fate. Finding the house boarded up and all the doors locked the young women must try to find a way to survive the night. Blonde and naive Ruth (Brenda Vera) struggles with her emotions and soon has more than the dark to worry about. Punk girl Lydia (Victoria Witemberg) saves the day but how long can the women's luck hold. Played in the closed up house with lights turned off the with only small lighting sources the film builds a nice claustrophobic feel. Add in tricks and booby traps of the locals and you have a fairly suspenseful little horror film.
  Director Boliano does a nice job in the writing with brother Romero Garcia Boliano to have the characters fight for survival not be too predictable. The girls for the most part stick together and try to problem solve the situation. They use there small group to fight back so the film does not end up feeling like a slaughterfest. It is always a plus to have strong female characters something a lot of male writers seem to have a problem writing. The nice saved at the last minute conclusion in the town was a bit on the nose but certainly set up early in the film. Then the conclusion reenforces the well thought out early imagery. The director does a really nice job making this a suspenseful and ultimately enjoyable little film. I have always found overly religious people just a bit scary and this film does everything to solidify those feelings. The music is excellent by Rodrigo Franco and the skill of this new writing tandem shows through. Now I have to note that this is far from a Hollywood film so there is no gloss to be found. My recommendation comes as a lover of horror. I have to be critical of micro budget horror so often that it is refreshing when someone does it right. Even though this is a subtitled movie (which I know a lot of my readers don't like) and it is really a micro budget, I have to recommend it. In fact since it throws off my vacation horror theme just a bit I think I will end that strand of reviews and focus on the boliano brothers a bit more and review their other two films Cold Sweat and Pnumbra with an eye to catching their latest "Here Comes the Devil" on PFV.
 

Demon Island (2002) Horror Pinata

Demon Island (2002) - I saw this title as Pinata: Survival Island and it is quite the strange film, a combination of screwball college comedy, ancient tribal myth and bad CGI monster murder and attempted survival. Not totally a CGI monster ther is a small person who manned an outfit for some of the shots but the effects are really there and a bit cheesy.Really it is a survival story just the slasher in this case is a hundreds year old clay pinata that comes to life. The film starts with the origin story for the killer. Created by a central American tribe to end the bad luck they were having, it was formed by a ancient process to appease the angry spirits. A sacred ceremony was held to cleanse the souls of the tribe members locking the evil from each member into the pinata. So they kept the good and shed the evil and then the pinata with a tribes worth of evil was set afloat down the river. It is a long introduction and serves to explain why the sin filled pinata is evil upon being awakened.

Come to modern times and we have a college fraternity, sorority gathering on a tropical island. It will be a giant panty hunt and wouldn't you know that one of the features of the party is that around the island their are pinatas with bottles of alcohol.  Very quickly we learn about our main character and then they are paired off and the search begins. Our main characters Kyle (Nicholas Brendon) and Tina (Jaime Pressly) have just broken up, when he walked in on her kissing another guy. You can predict that their story arc will bring them back together by the end, but for now like all couples they are handcuffed together.  Bob (Robert Tena) has snuck a key to allow he and Lisa (Lara Wickes) more mobility but unfortunately for them they find the pinata. They get high and  and when the opportunity arises they try to crack it open. Now I thought I paid attention to the myth at the beginning but it sure seems that the evil spirits were itching to get out. Once cracked that Pinata became a demon infested killing tool and all the couple became the bait. The released evil spirit starts hunting down the kids.
  All the while there is a certain sense to the film. These guys don't just get slaughtered, instead they try to think things through and do their best to fight back. It is refreshing when everyone is not a moron in a horror movie. Being a horror movie though there is going to be a body count and most of the characters are indeed bludgeoned to death by the angry pinata.
  Our actors are a mixed group of known and not so known. Nicholson Brendon found fame on the hit TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer playing Zander. Recently I saw him in the very interesting Time shifting film Cohherence (2013)  as well as being a reoccurring character on  the television show Criminal Minds.  Jamie Pressly works steadily doing voice and comedy roles. After a turn on My Name is Earl playing  Joy Turner she continues to work in TV and films on a regular basis. At the time of this role she was a pretty stunning twenty five year old. Eugine Byrd who played Doug went on to be a regular character in the show Bones. Garrett Wang who played Ensign Kim on Star Trek Voyager just prior to this film is suddenly working more in 2014.  Lara Wickes stunningly adorable as Lisa seemed to get less work after the film than she did before it, as an actress that is she is currently working as a producer.
  Not that this is a great movie but it at times was a bit entertaining. Some of the CGI leaves something to be desired and the plot has holes all through it. The strategies the characters come up with in thinking how to destroy the pinata monster are base on thin air. Unlike the audience they have no idea the myth of the creature so knowing to burn it or break it into tiny pieces really is just a shot in the dark. The story arc only exist to establish differences betweenthe character but lets be honest here. This is a survival movie so you only need a small amount of character development. Most of the characters are sure to end up dead. I can't really with a good conscience recommend this film. You are more likely to laugh at it than be scared so do what you will with that information.

Demon of Paradise (1987)

Demon of Paradise (1987) - I have not been writing for a while, first there was the exhaustion from covering the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, then I went on the oldest of winter activities a beach vacation. Yes nine days in the beautiful warmth of Sanibel Island FL for walks on the beach, sipping adult beverages and visiting my favorite baseball team the Boston Red Sox. Not that vacations are commonplace in this life. The last one this family had was in 2005 so it has been a good span of time since we left the winter behind. A graduation gift for my lovely daughter the trip was just what was needed to deal with what has been a very long and hard winter. Joy is finishing her senior year at college and we wanted to fit this trip to Spring Training in before she heads off to law school.
  The beach part of the trip is not my thing, I don't really like the beach, or the ocean but my wife loves it. She can sit for hours doing nothing while I am more of the climb a mountain or go fishing kind of guy. I was able to fill in the stretches of boredom with wildlife seeking, Sanibel has some extensive wildlife areas and geocaching. For my wife Elisa it was certainly a vacation paradise with her favorite activities sitting on the beach and bike riding.
We also spent a couple full days doing nothing but sitting in the sun baking a nice layer of redness onto our skins at the ball park. Meaningless games but still a wonderful relaxing experience. We have never been down to spring training and if I had planned this vacation I would have spent more time checking out the player routines and talking to people around the park. Still I have to say the vacation was a fair compromise and everyone ended up with something they liked from it.  So with the relaxation of vacation in mind I will be doing some movies having to do with going on vacation and how things can go horribly wrong, hey this is a horror blog after all.
  First up is the Roger Corman distributed film Demon in Paradise (1987) set in the islands of Hawaii it is a monster movie set around a lakefront resort which is the place most of us would love to vacation in. This is a low budget horror film  and should be treated like it. Like many Corman films the script is serviceable with a through plot but lacking that special something that would separate it from other classic horror films like The Creature from the Black Lagoon.  The struggle the film has it has a bunch of character development but never really settles on which of the characters are going to drive the story. Many of them are reactionary to the events of the film while others are only developed to trigger plot points. One that does not work is the dead end plot points concerning the dynamite fishermen. They are the reason the mythical creature "Akua" is awakened from his slumber to terrorized the locals. They have a dual plot line with a pair of them four men building TNT sticks and wanting to get the other two to sell the excess. The second two guys have a plan to bring in "mob" TNT already packaged and want to cut the first pair out of the business. So in the end they served their purpose but the development of all this other stuff was not particularly useful in moving the main plot forward after the creature is up and attacking. Then there is the climax hostage scene that ends in an explosion as all hell is breaking loose and the monster is attacking. It is certainly causal but awkward in its resolution.
  The main plot centers around how the local authorities deal with what looks like a murder and what is later learned to be a sea creature. Actually right from the start the locals are telling the main cop Keefer (William Steis) that it is the mythical monster but apparently eye witnesses are not enough for him to believe it. Maybe its because he is too busy flirting with herpetologist Annie (Kathryn Witt) to listen besides his back story is he left the big city for the small island life to avoid having to do any actual policing. Again there is a missed opportunity in that there is just enough chemistry between the two characters to establish that they like each other but the relationship is only tangentially explored. We needed Annie more to be the scientist who could confirm the possibility of the monster. She also gives us some suspenseful scenes where she is at risk while diving in the lake.  The creature of the rubber suit type is elusive but is attracted to the noise of the local resort.
 A secondary subplot where reporter Ike (Frederick Bailey) and resort owner Cahill (Laura Banks) exploit the monster angle to attract tourist serves the purpose of having many bodies around for the creature to kill later in the film. They also never believe that the thing is real either, at least until it is knocking down the door. Written by Bailey and C.J. Santiago the story never fully develops any of these characters into a proper protagonist so it is difficult to stay interested in the film. Ike and Cahill are also very unlikable characters making them the last people you want to center a story around. Coming in close to being the lead character is Keefer our cop who does not really want to deal with the shit that is going down.  He at least has some bonding scenes with Annie and a back story. That leaves the creature itself  but it really is not its story either, the monster is just a threat to all these other character none of which carries the plot forward with a story arc that is satisfying. The film does throw in some odd characters and the requisite skin shot provided by Leslie Scarborough who plays Gabby a coked up model who goes swimming topless.

 Good things I can say about this film is that it does have a couple decent gore shots to show the damage the monster can do. The film also escalates really fast all the way to the climatic scenes when the National Guard is involved and using its ample firepower to end the situation. Although not totally a lost cause this film just misses that something that is needed to make it a classic monster movie. I don't think I will recommend it but I can't say that it was hard to watch either.