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!

Boston Science Fiction Fest and Thon

I am gearing up for 10 days of Science fiction which will completely take over this blog. This year's Fest and 'Thon happen Feb. 10-20, 2012 at the Somerville Theatre in Boston, MA. You can get information about this GREAT event in a couple places, on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/BostonSciFi and at their own website http://bostonsci-fi.com/

Everyone should buy tickets and attend!

Penetration Angst (2003) Horror Vagina Dentata

Penetration Angst (2003) - Purchased in a discount bin for $3 this film cover entitled Angst was a mystery, its full name not yet revealed would have cleared up a lot of that mystery. When in 2007 the film "Teeth" made horror headlines for its unusual subject matter, vagina dentata, we at Soresport Movies thought that the subject was probably seldom covered and doubted we would ever come across another movie on it. Of course if we had taken the time to go to wikipedia.org we would have seen this film listed under the subject. Instead a chance purchase and here we are reviewing an earlier film on the same subject. Writer / Director Wolfgang Buld has put together a strange, not uninteresting film with unique situation and characters and of course vagina dentata.
Helen (Fiona Horsey) is a traumatized (by an incident in her childhood) virgin who is not ready for sex. She is loved by wimpy loser Dennis (Paul Conway) but does not return his affection. When tricked into a compromising position by her boyfriend Jack she is raped, as he does this heinous deed suddenly whooop! He is gone. Devoured by the very vagina he could not wait to have contact with. Shaken and confused Helen turns to see Jacks clothes left behind and can not explain the incident. She knows something is not right with her body so she has to try to get answers. Seeing her doctor for answers seems like a solution but unfortunately for poor Helen her doctor is a real creep too. They talk out her fears of vagina dentata and do an exam. After giving her a sedative he takes a turn on the unconscious girl. She wakes late in the night with a used condone between her legs and a pile of clothes on the floor.
Her interactions with Dennis do not add anything early but do establish the two as a possible future couple. Laying in bed poor Helen now gets the full extent of her condition as her vagina screams at her "Feed Me!" over and over, using the rainy night to set the mood for a turn she goes to the kitchen to feed herself hotdogs. Her crippled step father harasses her even as the fights the voice. Clocking him with a pot it is time for her to make a break. There is no way she can stay there. Still the voices won't let her rest and get really persistent when she is at the bus station with Dennis. She is going to Feed her vagina but Dennis stops her saying he loves her but doesn't want dirty sex in a bathroom.

Saved his damn life too.

Cut to seven months later and Helen works as a prostitute trying to pick the slimiest guys to feed her condition. It is not always easy but she manages to deal with her problem even with the guilt when she kills a family man.

At this point the story starts getting a bit strange, okay stranger. The Siamese twins Silvia (Amy Steel) and Sonia (Beth Steel), Silvia the bookworm meets and connects with Dennis in a London bar. They hit it off but Sonia is more inclined to want to have beers and get laid in a night out, not like the poetry readings and candlelight favored by her sister and Dennis. Eventually they work it out so Dennis is coming over to consummate his love for Silvia. Only problem is that nagging Sonia can't let them enjoy the sex. Dennis and Sylvia decide from the back might be the position for them and the twins turn over. Dennis uses the opportunity to hold Sonia's head into the pillow so she can't ruin the mood with her incessant talking and finally gets to have a go. When done he realizes the never switch sides of the bed and actually fucked Sonia while keeping Sylvia from stopping him. Sylvia is pissed and Sonia gloating at his stupidity which just sets Dennis off and he takes an electric knife to the twins.

Really the entire purpose of this is to move Dennis into the role of fugitive and it works as he grows a mustache and sleeps in parks. Sylvia survives to become a celebrity on a crusade for vengeance

against the man who killed her twin.

After a terrifying scare with a John who tied her up, our girl Helen finally meets a good guy who just happens to be named John (Matthew Brint).

She is in love but even after their wedding night is putting him off on the sex front. She of course does not want to devour him so instead she sneaks off and gets other less desirable men. N This is not the honeymoon John was hoping for having taken the plunge in the hopes he could finally get in Helen's pants. So they drive around an island in an RV and John becomes more and more frustrated with the situation. Helen for her part plays the past trauma card well enough to keep him at bay. We the audience only see one way this situation can end.

Yet things do not always go the way you think they will. Dennis while hiding out in a strip club is recognized by stripper Bonnie (Natasha O'Brian) who likes the idea of being with a murderer. In fact she has an idea for the two of them to score big.

A robbery on the very island Helen and John are honeymooning on. Dennis agrees as he really needs the money and would

now have to kill this stripper since she knows who he is. They do the robbery but Bonnie kills the security guard and the two need a place on the island to hide. Just happens Bonnie comes across an RV with a couple in it. Guess who? She ties up the couple and covers there heads with bags, which means that when Dennis comes in he does not recognized Helen.

Enough of this though, if you have made it through this fairly mediocre film you don't want me spoiling it. Okay I will go all the way, whenever the review is a not recommended it is easier to give things away. Eventually John shows himself to be a douche and Dennis recognizes the sound of Helen's vagina. Helen figures out her trauma and magically the desire to eat men vanishes. Sylvia appears to help move the craziness forward. Bonnie flips and in the end John and Bonnie are blown up in the RV.

I don't even remember what happens with Sylvia? Oh yeah she ends up on the beach trying to get to the gun before Dennis does. Anyway this film is totally nuts, not completely but just enough to leave you scratching your head. While Dennis and Helen walk off on the beach together finally getting to be the couple they were destined to be.

So for Helen and Dennis it is a journey to finally be together but really the film shows an awful lot of carnage to get them here. The penetration angst of the title ends up being cured just by remembering the trauma. Not really any growth just plain old remembering so it is not satisfying for the arc of the character. I see that a lot of it was played for humor but not really in a funny way. So in the end I can not recommend this film, just a bit too strange and unfulfilling.

Rating (4.4) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Copenhagen (2012) (Flat Earth Theatre Company)

Copenhagen - It is a rare event for Soresport Movies to head out to a play but that is indeed what we did this week. Boston has an active high quality theater community and including the Flat Earth Theatre Company a small but active group producing several plays a year. Choosing challenging plays from a wide variety of subject matter the group challenges their audiences to be active and thinking in experiencing their work. Shows include "The Goat" by Edward Albee, Steve Martin's "The Underpants", and Tracy Letts "Bug".
Copenhagen by Michael Frayn is a challenging look at a meeting between two of the most famous physicists of the WWII era. German scientist Werner Heisenberg traveled to occupied Denmark to meet with his mentor Niels Bohr, a Jewish physicist known as the "father of modern nuclear physics" who received this vist prior to fleeing his country and joining the Manhattan Project in the United States, that group eventually developed the atomic bombs that were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Over the decades much has been guessed about the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg but little actual details are known about what was said. This play looks at the relationship of these two men, their motivations and roles in the war and in the development of nuclear fission.
Lets not pretend that Soresport Movies is adequately knowledgeable in theater production or acting to give valuable review of this production. Lets instead take these comments for what they are the impression from the night. Firstly is the play itself, well written as an examination of meeting between two men at a key point in history. The Germans were working furiously to develop a fission bomb and included Heisenberg as one of the leads in that effort. They had little success and the play proposes a possible reason for that. Most of the worlds theoretical physicists were Jewish and most fled to the United States early in the war. Bohr remained in his homeland Denmark after the German occupation and would only escape later after the fateful meeting with Heisenberg. Looking at that meeting and challenging each others views about motivations the three characters of the play weave a story of science, politics and challenged integrity. It both informs and challenges the audience to think about the moral decisions people have to make in times of crisis and that there are different views of the decisions that are made.
The players Matthew Zahnzinger as Niels Bohr was subtle and physical at the same time. In becoming the older man, shrinking his posture, limiting his flexibility of movement and creating hand and voice mannerisms that really sold it. He was strong from begining to end. Using a British accent you are reminded of many of the old war movies where whether German, Italian, or Danish, everyone shared the same accent. His delivery was sharp and concise with active interaction with the script that even when having to deliver complex scientific ideas was crystal clear. Margrethe Bohr played by Emily Hecht was good as the audience surrogate. Her role the lesser in this play about two men but still important in clarifying motivations for the audience. Emily has a strong presence on stage but sometimes seemed to be waiting for her lines, whether this is a problem with the script or the actress is for better minds to decide. Kevin Kordis' Heisenberg seemed to struggle a bit more than the other two actors, certainly a competent actor filling a large demanding role there were times when he seemed to muff a bit of the dialog. Understand that there are some complex and lengthy explanations of scientific theory he has to recite and those seemed the most challenging. He also seemed a bit one toned in his physical delivery with a constant clenched body language that seemed more nervous than intentional. Still over all the cast was very engaging and the execution was not off putting.
The layout of the stage was certainly a surprising and enjoyable experience. A small circle in the center of the room, the audience first row up against it. A nucleus for the actors to stand on and then to orbit around passing behind the first row. The small space holding only 40 or so seats was excellent for this smaller more intimate play. The actors using the stage and the circular aisles weaved back and forth around and across the space like protons and electrons orbiting a nucleus. An excellent decision that worked well. Director Jake Scaltreto said it was a play with no stage direction so this innovation was a production decision. It enhances the experience, fits with the subject matter and increases the energy of a play that frankly is a conversation and runs the risk of stagnating. After the intermission the second half increases the characters movement around and across this small stage reinvigorating the audience as the story moves towards its climax.
Copenhagen was an engrossing and enjoyable night out and runs for one more weekend, more information and tickets can be found at the Flat Earth Theatre website

Demons 2 (1986) Horror Demons

Demons 2 (1986) - "Demoni 2: L'incubo ritorna" directed by Lamberto Bava and written in concert with Dario Argento, Franco Ferrini, and Dardano Sacchetti this is a sequel to the movie theater madness that was Demons. Instead of a theater this time we have a highly secured luxury apartment building called The Tower. Safety is first to these people and that need for security sure has a way of backfiring. The film starts in darkness with a voice over to set the atmosphere "A terrifying centuries old prediction foretold the spawning of the demons on earth. That prediction came true when spectators in a movie theater were transformed into blood thirsty fanged creatures and spread death and contagion. Days of terror that convinced the world demons can exist." It is unclear whether this voice over is for us viewer or is the start of the "movie within a movie" that runs throughout Demons 2. Similar to the first Demons film there is a movie about Demons being played during the unfolding of the plot. In the first film it is why all the people are at the theater in the first place and in this sequel many of the people in the apartment building are watching a film on television. There is the woman with the dog (Anita Bartolucci), the boy left alone Tommy (Marco Vivio), the security guard (Lino Salemme) Sally Day the birthday girl (Caorlina Cataldi-Tassoni) and a variety of other guests. It is a fairly well executed technique, we get to learn the players in the apartment building and at the same time the plot of the inevitable demon cross over approaches. A bit of exposition to let us know that the demons pass the demon plague on through their nails and body fluids. It is the single most important plot point. It is because in both instance the film and the real life events sync up that the demons can cross over into this world but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

The opening scene is a humorous misdirection, a close up of a knife with what could be dripping blood, a man's feet an apron red with the fluid, pan out to the baker putting the finishing touches on Sally's birthday cake. This is the introduction and then we head off to the main set at the apartment building.

This is a large cast and many people are introduced as living working and playing in the building. There are George (David Edwin Knight) and Hannah (Nancy Brilli), she is pregnant and he is a student who live in the building. The Haller family consists of Mr Haller

(Antonio Cantafora), wife Helga (Luisa Passega) and daughter Ingrid (Asia Argento), there is the prostitute visiting a client named Mary (Virginia Bryant).

Of note though if you read Soresport Movies early review of Demons (1985) then you know of the "Pimp with a plan" Bobby Rhodes and here we get to see him again as the gymnasium instructor with the same gusto her brought to his first role.

This film like the first uses the method of cutting the scenes within the building, people watching the scary movie, the party goers dancing, George studying with the scenes from the movie within the movie. In that film two couples are investigating what is call the forbidden zone,

The clunkiest part of the plot is the party and the cross over of the demons. Sally is a borderline personality who can not seem to be happy that her birthday is here. Recently broken up with Jacob she is pissed when she learns he is coming over. This is set up to draw another parallel to the first film where we saw a group of punk rockers driving in a car eventually making it to the movie theater and letting the demons out into the world.

In this film Jacob and his three friends drive towards the party playing hard rock music and acting very much like the punk rockers in the first film. The problem with this stuff is that it has no bearing on the plot at the apartment building.

Jacob drives really fast and in the end crashes into Tommy's parents' car in front of the building.

It does not really do anything, it does not attract police to the crisis. None of the people end up getting into the building, it is really a dead end. It does moves Sally into her bedroom away from the party that seems to just go on without her. Not even her best friend bothers to join her in her room. She sits watching the horror movie moping while the party goes on without her.

In the movie in a movie the two couples investigating the forbidden zone come across a demon body dried out and trapped beneath rubble. On of the girls cuts her arm and drops land in the mouth of the demon, this starts its rebirth. Pam (Eliana Miglio) sets up the group for a photo with the demon even with none of them noticing it coming back to life. At the same time at the party Ulla (Maria Chiara Sasso) is setting up the party goers for a group picture. When the two women snap the photo at the same moment, in both cases the flash fails and this little bit of synchronicity joins the world of the demon movie and the apartment building. Sally watches in horror as the demon in the screen seems to see her and walks right at the television screen. Its face pushes out and when she turns it is in the room with her. This is a really weak connection but it gets the job done and it is a short jump until Sally is a demon also and the friends in the other room are target of the Sally demon.

Not before Sally spills bodily fluids from her body, a new form of demon acid blood or something that eats through the floor and drips through the ceilings of the floors below. Its only purpose is to create a way to spread the Demon transformations more quickly.The party is quickly a total demon feast. Unlike the first film where the transformation from wounded human to demon took a bit of time it is not so here. Really about a half minute is all that is needed for the change to happen, so very quickly Sally's apartment is full of hungry demons.

They break out of Sally's apartment and the entire building is now compromised. The smart reviewer out there must see this as a historic piece connecting to the two recent [rec] movies, [rec] and [rec]2 films of recent years. Another film that may have taken or at least shared ideas with this film is The Horde which also used an apartment building as a centerpiece, in its' case a zombie and revenge film rolled into one. Although those films reduced the scope of the building and have original origins for the demon infestation the mechanic as pretty close to being the same.

The rest of the film breaks down into scenes of each of the areas of the building and the people in them and how they are effected by the outbreak. The woman with the dog, hears the dog growling and sees the demon blood dripping from the ceiling.

She watches in horror as the dog transforms into a demon dog.

Then the struggle for her is to try to avoid it and stay alive.

Tommy, home alone gets locked out of his apartment and in so doing must hide in the ventilation system to avoid the Sally demon who is prowling the halls. In the gym the leaking demon blood transforms a man in a steam box which then sparks another chaotic fight between the "Gym Instructor with a plan" Hank and his muscle heads against an ever increasing number of demons.

Three workout women are huddled hiding in a car when the demons attack you see not only are the windows rolled down but the sunroof is open making for easy demon feeding. Can't figure out that choice at all.He and his crew and the Haller family all end up in the parking garage but find that the building is locked down so tight that no one is getting out. They are going to have to make there stand right there. Arming themselves as best they can they circle the wagons for a final battle. It is so useless, with the claws of the demon converting each person they scratch it does not seem it is a winnable battle. Poor little Ingrid (Asia Argento in her first movie role) has to watch as her parents are killed and she is surrounded by demons. While we are talking about the garage scene there is the most ridiculous thing in it.

George and the Hooker are trapped in the elevator when the power goes out. She has already been set up as terrified of elevators and so there is quite a bit of hysterical behavior on her part and calming words on George's part. Through a crack they can see the carnage befalling the residents of the building but are helpless to do anything about it. For them the challenge is finding a way out of the elevator.

George is part of the through story and he the actor is a bit stale in the role but he has the internal drive to get back to his pregnant wife. In the commentary Lamberto Bava talks about not really liking the actor very much, feeling that he was not giving his all in the film. George does eventually make his way back to his apartment and finds his darling wife Hannah has survived a dual attack. The first part by a little demon child who squeezes in through the changed door and then by the true demon that emerges from its stomach. George arrives just in time to save her.

The final sequence is Hannah and George making their way to the roof so they can repel down the side of the building onto the roof of the television studio next door. All the while having to fight off demons and the very persistent Sally demon. When all is said and done George and Hannah have a brand new baby boy and they are free from the apartment building. How they get there is worth your time. So although not as scary as the newer films I mentioned in this review, this film is a very competent attempt at making a demon film with chaos and struggle that work in group and for individuals. The effects are all eighties cheese and the soundtrack include the likes of The Smiths and The Cult. Sure there seems to be things that go nowhere but that has often been the case with Lamberto Bava films. In this movie at least those things do not impact the overall storyline. You can't say that everything is perfectly explained but for the most part the simple story of survival plays out to a some what satisfying conclusion.

Rating (5.7) 5.0 and up are recommended

Terror and Black Lace (1985) Horror Thriller

Terror and Black Lace (1985) - "Terror Y Encajes Negros" is what some call a Mexican version of a giallo. It is not quite that but it is a story that is heavy on moral message wrapped in a thriller. Isabel (Maribel Guardia) is a young wife of an older man, she is a kept woman safely ensconced in her penthouse apartment she longs to interact with the world. Her husband Martinez (Gonzalo Vega) likes to know where she is, to know what she is doing, as well as controlling her access to money. It is always great when a scene sets up a character without exposition about that character and there is a great simple one to show how Martinez thinks. He comes home and there is a service truck in front of the entrance, he gets out of his car and rips off the wipers from the van before it can speed away. When upstairs with his wife she is doting on him, calming him with a drink and dinner. She tells him she made him pork chops and rice. He says he already had something like that today and then proceeds to take her in the kitchen and explain how she will make him a "tortuga" totally ignoring the work she did in preparing him a meal. He is bit of a dick but it sets up both her and him. His overbearing behavior is going to drive Isabel to do things she probably not do. Of course the moral lesson is hers to learn and through her the audience gets the message.
Little do the residents of the apartment building know that there is a deviant in their midst. Cesar the instrument maker has a compulsion that will blow up into murder later in the film. The movie does a good job hiding his predilection with a bit of misdirection. The opening scene has the creeper Cesar (Claudio Obregon) in a mall following a woman onto an escalator. He stands really close to her and after he gets off we continue to follow the woman. Suddenly people notice that her dress has been cut up on the back. Did that creeper really just cut pieces off her dress in public? Later we see Cesar in the elevator of the building fighting the urge when women enter. He says to himself, not at home not where he lives. You get the picture from this that his urge is strong and it takes all of his will power to restrain himself. Still though it is surprising when you see what his real deal is. If you pay attention to his interaction with the cleaning girl Coquis (Claudia Guzman) you can figure it out but this viewer was a bit slow. We cut to scenes of Cesar and his mistreatment of women throughout the film. We really get the full picture of his fetish and know that at some point it will come into play with the main story.
That main story about a kept woman romanticizing about a different life is a bit mundane. It is well developed if not particularly interesting. Isabel decides to change her life by getting out more and in so doing she meets another man. The black lace outfit she initially thought would get her husband back to treating her like more than a useful piece of decoration is now a way to break from her boring life. She meets and flirts with Ruben (Jaime Moreno) on a few occasions. So her husband was right all along thinking that if he gave her too much freedom she would soon stray? She decides to meet Ruben at his apartment on a weekend when Martinez is going out of town Ruben for his part is thrill with the idea of finally getting this woman in bed and who wouldn't Maribel Guardia is a former Miss Costa Rica and a beautiful women. Ruben is exactly the reason Martinez is so protective of his wife. He is a single man who thinks nothing of trying seduce another man's wife. His smarmy coolness makes the viewer cringe and thus he is the perfect foil for the moral tale being told here. So when he gets Isabel to agree to join him at his apartment we are set up for the lesson.
Isabel for her part will have to make a decision before the night is out. She sees her husband off and gets ready for her night out at Ruben's. She knows what she is getting into dressing in the black lace outfit she is beautiful and then puts her blue dress over it and heads out. It is sort of a shame really what happens to her. Martinez with a chance to impress his boss and possibly get a promotion has some really bad luck. A flat tire and a bad car jack make him miss the opportunity of a lifetime. He heads home a broken man. His scenes are really played almost for comedy with every one of his reactions a real exaggeration. Isabel has equally bad luck, even after making her decision at Ruben's she is punished for even thinking about cheating on her husband. As she rides the elevator back to her apartment she has the misfortune of coming in contact with Cesar.
He has been having his own bad night and it has spun completely out of control. An argument with Coquis turns fatal and it is poor Isabel's fate to be in the elevator just as Cesar is trying to get rid of the body. This starts the rather good final sequence of the film where Cesar does all he can to get Isabel and make sure no one ever knows about his crime. It is a long sequence and Isabel has several very close calls in and out of the elevator, the roof and her apartment. When finally she manages to reach the apartment of the party and it seems she is safe, the moral lesson smacks her one more time. Her husband arrives home as she is being calmed on the balcony and from his viewpoint it is his wife in a black lace outfit surrounded by men. He is furious and refuses to listen to anyone pulling her out of the party and forcing her back into the elevator, the place of her trauma. As she cries in a ball in the elevator he walks up the stairs to see the door of his apartment hacked open, he realizes something more has happened and cries for forgiveness.
The lesson in this film is a rough one with Isabel even though she ends up making the right decision is a victim for just thinking about cheating on her husband. In a way the film presents her as young and naive and Martinez as her protector. This is a bit of a relic of a pre-feminism world maybe reflecting Mexican society at the time but maybe not even that. Reflecting on it with today's views Martinez comes across as more manipulative and Isabel is responding to his smothering personality. A women though who would cheat on her spouse becomes fair game for any psychopath lurking in the world. It does not matter if she follows through or not, if only she had listened to her husband and accepted her cage nothing bad will ever happen to her. Not the most modern of messages. Still the film was reasonably well constructed and the final sequence well done. So it will get a pass from Soresport movies. Oh and since you are wondering here is the toruga recipe
1. Open a roll and pull out most of the bread leaving a hollowed crust.
2. Refried beans spread on one side, avacado and chilies spread on the other.
3. In the middle Ham, slices of tomato, avacado, cheese, onions, and some chili peppers.
Eat and be merry!
Rating (6.1) 5.0 and up are recommended.

TrollHunter (2010) Horror Trolls

TrollHunter (2010) - TrollHunter takes the Scandinavian myths and brings them to life in a surprisingly entertaining film. It is a slow starter but with enough leaking of information to keep the viewer interested. Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), Johanna (Johanna Morck) and Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) are a group of college students investigating bear poaching and hunting in Norway. In particular they are following a man named Hans (Otto Jespersen) suspected of poaching. The film spend a fair amount of time having the students attempt to get Hans into an interview. Hans at first wants nothing to do with them but after a lot of staking him out and following him he starts to interact with them. He only agrees after spilling that he hunts trolls. They had followed him out into the forest one night and find his empty car. Off in the distance are sounds and flashes of light. Hans comes running out of the darkness and yells for them to run and "TROLL!" The troll takes out the kids car and when they find it need a ride from Hans. They still have seen nothing and this guy could just be a crazy. Even after Thomas is bitten by a troll as they flee he thinks it may have been a bear. This is really the first third of the movie and it is a bit slow. The filmmaker Andre Ovredal does a nice job only slowly revealing the monsters.
Things pick up when they get to go along on a the hunt. Hans again leaves them and goes off to face a troll. He is armed with a light gun which plays into the myths, where trolls turn to stone in the sunlight. The students are left at the vehicle wondering if this is a goose chase. When Hans comes running out of the forest screaming for them to haul ass they are treated and terrified with their first up close and personal troll experience. The combination of night vision camera shots and CGI troll are very effective. We are with Kalle the camera man for the scene and boy does he just get away by the skin of his teeth. The honest reunion when the group finds each other after the episode is also refreshing. It is excited and relief at the same time. The crew has seen what they thought was only myth. They had a very close and dangerous encounter and come out unharmed. Well done scene.
It is great that this film also touches upon beliefs about the government in its plot. We learn that Hans works for the government, a hunter that is doing his job controlling the troll population. After he kills any troll that leaves it's territory and comes in contact with humans or domesticated animals. They are predatory animals and need to be controlled. After the kill Hans calls the wildlife service bureaucrat Finn to come in and make the troubled area seem like an area where there is bear activity. The idea is to keep the trolls existence secret. Finn (Hans Morten Hansen) comes in and sets up a bear caucus that will be found and made the scapegoat. Later when the group goes to a electricity provider about some downed wired, there is an amusing scene where the unquestioning employee explains how the power lines that the power travels out from the plant in a giant circle and back to the plant. Hans explains later that the wires are actually an electric fence to keep trolls in a particular territory.
The film really is pretty enjoyable and build on the troll myths by giving answers to how and why trolls are killed by sunlight. They really take the time to allow the audience to have a full story. This while there are encounters with several different kinds of troll. There is a great scene when the group while investigating a report of troll activity get caught in the cave that is inhabited by a clan of trolls. It is a wonderfully tense and frightening scene, with the hairy penis nosed trolls.
The final expedition out into the north of Norway is against a giant troll and whether or not the crew will come out of it alive is in play. Overall this was a very competently done film with an interesting story that takes a set of myths and builds on them creating an accessible modern myth. The scares are decent and the CGI very expertly done.
Rating (7.0) 5.0 and up are recommended

Living Hell (2000) - Horror

Living Hell (2000) - Original title Iki-jigoku, is a gory family drama with an unexpected twist. This film's packaging bills it as the "The Japanese Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which throws up a red flag right from the get go. It sets up all kinds of expectations about the kind of horror we are about to see. It may not be a fair thing to do to a film. The opening scene is standard horror fair. A noise in the house, was it the dog, wakes the wife while the husband sleeps soundly. She gets up and carries a baseball bat out into the hall to investigate. Why don't people ever turn on lights? It seems like the first thing you would do if you were investigating a noise in your house. No though on this dark and stormy night it is just a woman in the dark with a baseball bat. When she reaches the end of the hall we see her shocked expression as she stands behind a girl down on her knees who is... what?... Eating the dog? The woman with the bat is horrified who would eat a dog, raw? Too bad she was not paying attention in her fear because at this moment she is struck from behind. On the floor now the woman is turned face up and the killer places a stag beetle on her eye and it immediately borrows into her head. Where did that come from? Next we see the husband as he wakes to see a hammer heading into his skull.
This first scene although a couple of the elements are a bit bizarre is really a standard piece of work. In screenwriting you want the first couple scenes to really pull people into the film. To raise questions that will be answered as the film proceeds. It has to be compelling to capture the audience. This first scene okay but nothing special, it gets added to the next scene of the cops at the house investigating the deaths to set us up with who the killers are. We learn that the they think it is not an outside killer but a family member, the girl near the dog disappeared. They only find the 72 year old senile granny alive in the house and she is destined to be locked up as crazy.
So we set up the story proper for the film a group of adult live at home children and there often absent (working) father accept into their home some distant relatives, an old lady Chiyo (Yoshiko Shiraishi) and the Mute grandaughter Yuki (Naoka Mori). Ken (Kazuo Yashiro) is the oldest of the children, with adopted daughter Mami (Rumi) in the middle and both caring for the youngest wheelchair bound Yasu (Hirohito Honda) must accept the newcomers no matter how strange they are. The film takes some time in the early going to show us some nicely shot scare scenes where Yasu is frightened by the newcomers, but is he hallucinating. The point is made to have Ken and Mami talk about their little brother wondering if he is getting worse.
The movie at this point devolves into a long slow torture session for Yasu. Chiyo and Yuki at first creep him out, then outright scare him and then harm him repeatedly and without mercy. Yasu's life becomes the living hell in the title of the film. Along the way there are some excellent scare tactics for the viewing audience. Some is to make you think that Yasu is actually having hallucination, some to lead you into thinking that there is something supernatural in the story. Some just to gross you out. It is important to note though, that although there is some blood in the film it is by no means a gorefest. Most of the torture is not seen on scene while it is happening. Using cut away and them coming back for the after affects is useful in creating the illusion but by no means is this a gory movie. Well okay there are a couple things that should not be spoiled by writing about them.
A secondary storyline is a reporter Mitsu who is tracking the original murder story and continues to delve into the strange old lady and her silent granddaughter. It serves essentially to have there be the chance that the weirdos will be caught and that there is hope that Yasu will be saved. Unfortunately for Mitsu he happens to be working at the paper where Ken works and although this creates some tense scenes as Mitsu closes in on the home where the family lives it also gives away that Mitsu can not be successful. He is useful though in laying out everything there is to know about Chiyo and her children.
Through a Dr. Kurando, who meets with Mitsu we learn about Chiyo and her son became part of an experimental program. How she was part of an experiment to have and separate Siamese twins. The doctor describes the woman as a monster and her son as worse. All of this is already known by poor Yasu though and the final part of the film where he receives the revelations of all the information the audience has has to be seen to be believed. As an audience member you are probably thinking that this movie is more of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation and possibly feeling pretty disappointed with the plot of the film. Well a final twist will have you shaking your head and wondering why?
Overall the film does not live up to the hype. Wait was there really any hype? What is has though, which gets it a recommendation from Soresport Movies, is some very effective scare tactics. Some of the camera tricks in those scenes is excellent. The smaller amounts of practical gore effects are well done. Personally I enjoy when someone suddenly appears and runs right at you terrific low key jump scare. The story seemed convoluted and the twist really unnecessary at the end of the film, after everything else had played out and a bow could be tied on the film. Writer, Director and player of the part Mitsu has done an effective enough job to give this film a pass.
Rating (5.1) 5.0 and up are recommended

Strigoi (2009) Horrorish Vampire Quick Hit

Strigoi (2009)- Quick Hit ( Not a full review but at least something in passing) This is a quirky little film that really isn't a horror movie, but although there are some comedic elements is not a comedy either, not even a dark comedy. What is it? A drama murder mystery that uses the traditional pre-hollywood ideas of vampires as a center piece to move the story forward.
In a Romanian village a conspiracy is carried out against the wealthiest land owner and his wife. Constantin Tirescu (Constantin Barbulescu) and his wife Lleana (Roxana Guttman) are killed by the villagers and there property taken. They are accused of a crime that is not specified but this could just be an excuse. He is the largest land owner and richest member of the village having even built the church. The villagers are tired of one guy having so much though and they take it all away through murder. The problem is these two corpses won't stay buried.
The story from there centers on Vlad Cozma (Catalin Paraschiv) an underachiever in a family of doctors who dropped out of medical school in Italy and has returned to the village to get his bearings. He is staying with his cute little old grandfather Nicolae (Rudi Rosenfeld) and helping the old man while he avoids the rest of his family. After leaving his house in the morning in search of cigarettes Vlad comes across his neighbor Mara (Camelia Maxim) passed out in her doorway and gets her up and in the house. She feeds him and talks about having to prepare food for the funeral of another villager who has passed away named Florine. Vlad makes his way to Florine's to find the mayor Stephan (Zane Jarcu) and some other villagers sitting around the body talking. It is a tradition to sit with the newly dead for three days and nights to make sure the dead does not come back as a vampire. They sit and tell stories and talk to the body then after the time period the funeral will take place. Vlad notices that Florine is wearing a very nice watch. Much to expensive for a peasant he questions the group about it. He is a sharp guy and notices other things too, fancy shoes on on man etc. strange he thinks.
As he talks to people in the village he senses something is amiss, were those bruises he saw on Florine's neck? In speaking with the village priest and his friend growing up he learns that Florine's death was ruled an accident and a paper was filed that he supposedly signed as the one who examined the body. Although everyone wants him to drop it he is going to investigate this. The next day he contacts his police officer friend and then visits the home of the Tirescu's. to the audiences surprise they are there. Lleana facially a bit bloated with blood and very disheveled leads him to her husband. We learn a bit about this form of vampirism from the appearnce of characters. The Tirescu's are bloated dead bodys that leave their graves to wander back into the familiar places of their lives. They can communicate and function but the sound affects of the bubbling gases they contain and the flush of there faces give away that something is not right. Vlad though does not know they have been killed and talks to them as he normally would. He is subject to a bit of history about Romania of hoe the Constantin gathered up his land holding by first working with the Russian invaders and then using the money he had accumulated from them to buy up the village lands since it was all confiscated in communism but was now available.
Mara at this time has her own problems as the undead Lleana arrives at her house and proceeds to eat everything that was prepared for Florine's funeral. The undead are insatiable and poor Mara is nervous and frightened and franically starts making more food to appease Lleana. She will get to play this storyline out as she runs out of food the undead Lleana will have only her to eat.
Vlad with some slow meandering will solve the mystery of the town. In doing so the viewer gets to be surprised to learn who is undead and who is alive in the town. Not wanting to spoil this film lets leave it as a solid mystery with Vlad being the protagonist and the villagers who are in the plot the antagonists. There are some very good scenes between Vlad and Nicolae where the old man relays what life in Romania has been like since WWII. First the Germans invaded he says and they were forced to fight a war they wanted no part of. When the Germans lost he had to walk all the way back from Russia alone. Then the Russian came and were far worse. The Communists took the land that had been in his family for generations, said it was no longer his but he had to work it as he always had and give his bounty to the government. Then when the Russians left men like Constantin used their corrupt money to try to buy the land from him. These scenes were very touching and well acted and so improved the story. Overall the film is a bit off center but in a compelling enough way. The acting is solid and the mystery compelling. So this quick hit is a success, it is available On Demand in FOIS but not yet available on Netflix.
Rating (5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended

Offspring (2009) Horror Cannibals

Offspring (2009) - How is it that Soresport Movies ends up with so many cannibal movies. You would think that in the thousands of films at our disposal that these would be few and far between. In this case it was all luck, picked up in a discount bin and filed away in giant books of DVDs Offspring was chosen completely by chance, a dice roll to be more specific. Sometimes when we just want to review something but do not know what to choose we just roll some 20 sided dice and let chance decide. So was Offspring a lucky choice, a movie of worth, well I guess that is what this review is all about.
Deep in the woods of Maine for more than 160 years there have been nomadic tribes of feral people just looking for a cave to sleep in and a bite to eat. Because we civilized humans have been encroaching on their habitat these feral nomads have taken the opportunity to get that bite to eat at our expense. Picking through our garbage like raccoons in the night? Ransacking our vacation homes for can goods? No, littering the countryside with our corpses as they kill and eat us. That is the premise and by golly this idea will be explored to the gore filled fullest.
To set it up we get the early kill we need to understand how vicious these people are. A drunk woman named Gloria (T.J. Graye) comes home, there is no way she should have been driving in her car with how much she staggered when she got out of it. A belligerent drunk Gloria yells for the babysitter when entering the wide open front door of her house. To her surprise the babysitter is in the kitchen, well it wasn't a surprise that she was in the kitchen really, it was a surprise that she was dead in the kitchen being eaten by cannibal children. Her alcohol fogged mind slowly comprehended what was going on and she turned to see another cannibal with the parts of her baby in a plastic bag. Yeah those cannibal children are a nasty ( hungry) bunch.
A quick introduction of the characters before we get into the bulk of the story. Computer game programmers Amy (Amy Hargreaves) and David Halbard (Andrew Elvis Miller) live and work in their home in the woods. They are a happy couple with a little baby named Melissa. They talk about being visited by their friend Claire (Ahna Tessler) and her son Luke (Tommy Nelson) who after being abandoned by her scumbag, financial manager husband need to get away from possibly being tracked down by the abusive lout. He also is a criminal like all those Wall St. types just in case being an abuser is not enough. They are coming for some quiet time in the woods and they will get part of that. Steven being a fucking thief he is also misogynist and all around asshole when he dies you are expected to feel good. Played with a spite filled gleam in his eye by Erick Kastel you do not even have to hate him for his implied financial crisis connection. You can hate him for just being a woman hating and abusing douche bag. Did I mention he was an alcoholic? Now that is just piling on.
He does serve a role though beyond being a driving force in bringing Luke and Claire to Maine. He is a counter evil to the cannibals. They are feral hunters who just happen to hunt humans. Predators who seek the easiest prey, most certainly dangerous but for reason outside of good or evil. Steven on the other hand shows how you don't have to be feral to be a predator. His personality was shown very well in a scene of him driving his Porsche to Maine to track down Claire. He stops to pick up this college girl who is hitching to Portland she is friendly and nice, but he is suggestive and cold. When she sees him drinking while driving she wants out. There is this dialog where he tries to convince her to be his guide in getting to hi upstate location even though she is not heading anywhere near there. He phrases it as an invitation with sexual possibilities but when she balks he plays it off as not that. She insists on getting out so without slowing down he tells her to get out of the car with a seriousness that is intimidating. Then he does what this kind of asswipe needs to do, to show control over the woman. He makes her throw her backpack out the window before he will stop. She is reluctant but sees it as the only way out so she lifts it with both hands to chuck it. As she does he takes a long firm feel of her breast. At least he only takes it that far but the girl is definitely feeling like she dodged a bullet when she got out of that car.
The remaining characters are the old retired cop George Chandler (Art Hindle) who was on the job the last time the feral tribe came through town years before. He is recruited by the local cops to help in tracking them down. Is expertise consists of not stopping them before they moved on the first time so it is surprising that he can be any help this time. Then there are the Cannibals lead by Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) who no doubt got her role in the more acclaimed "The Woman" from her performance here. She brings a fire to the role of the woman in this film. I did not quite get why it was a matriarchal society since her male counterpart at least in age seemed more physically superior. It may be that they wanted a counter to the strong male roles already in the film. Whatever the reason she is menacing and able to lead. The kids are somewhat interchangeable as the tribe with the exception of the blond, maybe called First Stolen? Maybe Girl, I am not sure.
The plot is simple enough, this group of fine young cannibals attacks the home of David and Amy, there is killing and capture. Fleeing with baby Melissa are Claire and Luke. They hide in the wood in a tree house but when they see one of their friends being taken to the cannibal cave Claire heads out to save the day. At the same time Stephen arrives at the house and is run off by the crazy cannibal children. Drunk and belligerent he runs right into the police and George who are hot on the trail of the tribe. The rest plays out in a sluggish and standard survival movie way. Who will survive by fighting off the cannibals? Will Luke and the baby find help? Will the old cop still have what it takes to deal with the threat? Will a horror movie ever end without first setting up for a sequel?
Thoughts on this movie are these: It is a hard premise to sell. In a 160 years a group of survivors from a shipwreck went from being a civilized group to no more than cannibalistic cavemen? They mostly lost their language and apparently the ability to act human really? 160 years ago my could have been your great grandparents, so that would mean that living in the woods caused your grandparents to become cannibals, to not teach language to the next generation and thus your parents just have half words and grunts, they are possible eaten by their children because there was no obvious maternal caring in the tribe. No I just don't buy it, it is not a sound theory. Maybe the writer could explain it. What I did like about the movie were some of the characters and the wonderful gore. It was bloody and gruesome even though the film itself is just mediocre. Art Hindle was great a veteran actor in the horror genre with parts in some well known films like Black Christmas, the 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and The Brood. Actress Amy Hargreaves gets a Soresport point for appearing in the best Edward Furlong movie ever as Kimberley in Brainscan (1994).
So I am barely going to recommend this film but it is truly a borderline call. You may just hate it for its stupid premise and ridiculous cannibals, or like me really enjoy the blood and guts of it and appreciate the writing of the character Steven. I normally don't feel so much venom for a movie character as I do for him.
Rating (5.0) movies rated 5.0 up to 10 are recommended on this blog.

Bloody New Year (1987) Horror Sci-Fi Ghost

Bloody New Year (1987) - This film is a bit of a mess, not sure if it is a sci-fi film with horror elements or a Horror film with some sci-fi mixed in, probably the latter. What it is for sure is a somewhat poorly done and not well though out film from the eighties, with unfathomable scenes that really add nothing to the film. Okay that's being a bit harsh, it is just the early scenes really have just one purpose, to bring a group of people together for the main story. The problem is all except one is already in there group so why have such an elaborate set up to get that person onto the sailboat. Lets start from the beginning:

The first scene is at the cusp of the new decade of the sixties. A New Years eve party with a drinking and conga line and fun. The night is winding down and the last of the participants is closing the room. She walks over to a mirror and suddenly her reflection reaches out and grabs her pulling her through the looking glass. Ghost story? You don't know but at least later on when the sci-fi plot point comes up you can judge whether this was effective or not.

Cut to the group who will be the focus of the film, all young and having fun at an amusement park.When a woman, Carol (Catherine Roman) is harassed by some carnies the group help her get away and are all chased into the fun house. This whole scene seems to have just a few reasons, it brings Carol into the group for the story to come later. It also foreshadows that bad things are going to happen by having Janet (Nikki Brooks) and Lesley (Suzy Aitchison) visit a fortuneteller who is terrified by what she sees in the crystal ball. It is a elaborate set piece that ends with one of the group drives his Land Rover, sailboat in tow, through the wall of the fun house and picks everyone up. They drive off with the carnies running behind them. The third thing it does is introduces the sailboat which is used briefly in the next scene.
Next we see the now six people are out on said sailboat having a good time. Joining the girls are the brave men who defended them, Spud (Colin Heywood), Rick (Mark Powley) and Tom (Julian Ronnie). Very quickly the boat hits a rock and the group has to swim for the shore of the island they are near. As they are struggling onto the rocks and out of the water someone is watching from the woods. Searching they come across some old plane wreckage and then the old abandoned Island Grand Hotel and we see it is the same place that was in our opening scene. Now the bulk of the film can take place. They are at this big creepy hotel and we get to see it get scarier as the film goes on. Well not really because although they were going for scary they really only reached the level of strange.
Ghosts and things moving on there own, then aggressive ghost and the deaths of some of the characters it is all so weird. We learn from a 1959 television report about a experimental plane that is trying to bend light and do some sort of time travel experiment. What seems to have happened is the plane doing the experiment crashed on the island back then and the people that were there are some how trapped in time, as ghost or some such thing. They are pretty pissed off from what I can tell. It does not make a lot of sense that the victims in that experiment would kill these new arrivals. It is what happens though right down to a final girl. One of the strangest things in the film is Spud Janet and Rick are watching a movie that is playing in the mini cinema of the hotel. Spud is up from doing impersonations of what is happening in the movie. Suddenly and without explanation the Arab stereotype in the movie leaps out of the screen and onto Spud and proceeds to kill him. WTF! Other equally bizarre things include a killer possessed fishing net, footprints appearing on the sand of the beach but no one connected to them, snowing in the living room of a house, a table monster that you have to see to believe, and random quicksand that is in the paths for no other reason then to kill them.
This movie is really a mess from beginning to end. About the only positive thing I had happen in my time working with this film is that I was researching the actresses and Nikki Brooks happens to also be the name of a porn star so a bunch of her images came up when I searched the name. Made by the "cult" director Norman J. Warren who did Inseminoid(Horror Planet), and Alien Prey I was expecting a bit more from this. Why I was thinking that I don't know neither of those films was particularly good but one always hope for good. I might cover his 1976 Satan's Slave at some point but it will not be until I get the taste of this one from my mouth. That might just take awhile. This film just did so many things wrong that it can't even be put into the category of campy fun.
Rating (3.5) 5.0 and up are recommended