The Darkest Hour (2005) Horror Slasher

 Darkest Hour (2005) - I have too say I wrote some really terrific stuff on this film but this damn blogger and my touch pad highlighted everything and deleted then auto saved leaving me with part of the word "and" nd. Swearing can only do so much to relieve the frustration and in the end if I am going to write about this film I will have to try to dredge the thoughts back up and repeat them. Still i felt I was so in the mood to talk about this low budget first feature by Dan Zachary that finding that groove again is going to be hard.
  Not a lot can be expected from a low budget first horror feature and I have to say this one is a bit on the cliche side. Ben Traimer (Todd Hann) is making a movie, a Slasher and is having a murder mystery weekend at a local campground to promote it. there is something about this location being the actual site of a slashing adding to the sensationalist tone of the event.
  Early in the film we get to see the actual killer in action, a reaper dressed robed character with a skull face and a scythe, as he stalks a couple rednecks going down a rough dirt road in their truck. The scene plays out in expected fashion, ugly people acting mean and stupid coming across a body in the road. Then the music and the stalking by the killer all cliche and as expected. So cliche in fact that at the end of the scene the woman runs down the dirt track being chased by the Reaper Killer and instead of running into the trees and bushes on either side of the road, runs down the path chased by the killer driving the truck. On top of that she falls down in the road. (A part of me thought maybe this was satire but another part fear it is not.)

  Then we start getting introduced in a minimalist way to the characters. The women apparently chosen to be attractive, Ben's  ex-girlfriend Lauren (Lee Tomaschefski), and current fling Stacey (Tamara Pender) as well as participants Lisa (Angie Zachary, any relation? and I have a personal weakness of brunettes with raspy voices.)  and Rosemary (Patricia Nudd) finishing with the sexy goth Therese (Tristan Risk @littlemissrick) who also has her first IMDB credit in this film and later went on to play the wonderful role of Beatress Johnson in the Soska Sister's American Mary (2012), and last year appeared in my friend Izzy Lee's Innsmouth (2015) (It may be presumptuous to call her my friend but I think she is great), a real up and coming feminist film maker who is sure to make waves. Preetty standard for low budget horror. Then the men who are pretty much dogs trying to get laid. Really not my favorite variety of character.
  It does not matter in the end though, there are a lot of characters but the plot is driven by story and not character. A flaw in most schools of screenwriting but not in the Slasher sub-genre where a minimal  introduction and basic personality conflict is all that is needed before slicing and dicing. The characters are introduced and somewhat pair off with some being successful at sex and other not. Surrounding this though is the story. A murder mystery weekend hosted by Dreighton Sawyer  (Benjamin Gutknecht) a face painted fiend setting the participant up for a weekend "Who wants to host a murder". except little does he know that because the real life killer from the area was never caught that actual death is just around the corner. Sure the story is known and shared by the participants but belief is a tough thing in a low budget horror flick.
  There are parts of this film that are promising like early in the film there is a kill. A strobe effect where the girl is attacked and a knife is seen and we know that it her end. Well done but the timing is sort of off. Instead of building the fear with strobe, the movie spend 20 or so seconds. It would have been so much better to draw this kind of scene out. Instead of lots of this we get a lot of daytime scenes with a large cast who explain to us all the different serial killer stories from twentieth century America.  This stuff is really filler until the real killing gets starting and mostly accomplishes that role playing games should only be done with friends and when everyone is willing to fully participate.
  Once night comes and the slasher starts slashing we get a lot of what you would expect, in any one of the multitude of Friday the 13th movies. The stalking the stabbing the He is right behind you and you don't see it, moments. Then there is the woman crawling and screaming for help as she is being murdered, I was never much of a slasher fan and it may be the misogynistic stereotypes that really turn me against it. I get the psychology of the final girl but there is so much running and screaming by women in these movies. I much prefer the always capable always strong heroine like  the character Erin (Sharni Vinson) in Simon Barrett's & Adam Wingard's You're Next (2011) . Unfortunately even when there is a final girl in this film it is a trope of the guys trying to protect the women and it is just so Slasher. failing at it and we always seem to get so much running and screaming and falling while being chased
  Even with all this criticism I have to say there is a part of the horror me that really does not mind the attempt. It did not work particularly well but there is always a place where the slasher movie even if sub ar has a part in my consciousness.
 As with every film this year I am doing an experiment where I will follow a lot of the people involved with the films I see this year to see my Twitter account grow.  Then see where it sits at the end of the year. I am hoping that some of the people involved follow me back @Soresport like recent  Actor, Director, Producer @davidheavener did this week. He is the first and I really appreciate it.

KM31 : Kilometre 31 (2006) Horror Ghost

KM 31 : Kilometre 31 (2006) - "KM 31: Kilómetro 31" (original title) This is strange film right from the start with its eerie music and effeciency in getting the story going. A women Agata (Iliana Fox) after an argument with her boyfriend Omar (Raúl Méndez) is driving to stay with her twin sister Catalina (also played by Fox) in the mountains of Mexico. At the kilometre mark 31 she hits a small boy who runs into the road. She screeches to a halt and gets out of her car to check on the child laying in the road. When she walks up to check the child is a transformed specter, a ghost child that causes her to recoil, right into the path of a truck coming up the hill. She goes under the truck a mangled mess. Her sister not far from the site of the accident goes into a convulsion and sees with that special twin connection ability that her sister has been hurt. She rushes off to save her. This is just the set up and only after her Agata has had her legs amputated and is laying in a coma do we start the meat of the story. She is trapped between life and death. Catalina must solve the mystery of the ghost child so save her. The bigger mystery of that marker on the highway looms for her and with the help of Omar and her own boyfriend Nuno (Adrià Collado) she will try to find the secret of the child ghost and save her sister.
 The horror themed music by Carles Cases frames the supernatural mood perfectly. Having worked on some other well scored films, like The Nameless (1999), Dagon (2001) and Darkness (2002) Cases knows how to set a mood. The music and sound design add to the creepy feel of this film, giving the viewer chills at the right times. It helps in the creepy factor of this film which does have a very creepy mood most the way through. Writer / Director Rigoberto Castañeda does a very nice job creating a world that crosses from real to spirit world and back again mixing the fantasy with the events of the characters to create a strange and scary film. The "La Llorona" style plot points are a bit strained at times but in the end we have a dark and chilling film.
  There is a sequel to this film planned for this year, it should be interesting to see what will be done with the material a full nine years after the original. Iliana Fox will be back to raise her parts of Agata and Catalina from the grave and the director is on board but considering the ending I wonder where the story goes after its somewhat final ending.
  Overall this is a decent film with a haunted stretch of highway that has cause many deaths as we learn from the obsessed cop Ugalde (Carlos Aragón) then why is this not a very publicly known phenomena. The real plot hole in the film has to do with the location. When Agata is struck at Kilometre 31 Catalina runs downs the street to the location. So that means she lives on the route not far from the accident scene. So how does she not know about the haunting, or at least all the accidents and deaths at that location. Considering it is the route between her home and Mexico City how is it that she has not had a strange experience or eight. Once the plot delves in the trouble seems to happen every few nights.

  I liked the blurring of reality where the ghost world is merged in at times and the plot twist is one that is dark enough to hold attention. The director does a good job with some interesting visuals to enhance the effects. Particularly in the climax enhancing Nuno's hallucinations with background visuals that help separate his perceived reality from the actual setting he is in.  The ending is more than expected and for this viewer going with the expected route was enjoyable. This is not strongly recommended because the story could have been a lot cleaner. Some themes about Omar, Catalina, Agata and Nuno relationships were touched upon but some of the drama from those ideas were blunted by the ghost plot before fully being explored. Still I would recommend this film as a solid ghost story.

The Suckling (1990) Horror Mutant Baby Monster

The Suckling (1990) - Continuing on with the theme of pregnancy and baby horror I chose this little known and not very good entry into the sub-genre. The suckling may have some unintentional messages about the need for legalized prostitution, protections of a woman's right to choose, toxic waste cleanup and the dangers of illegal force back room abortions. Okay the writer director may not actually been making any statements at all but like any good English class the more you see in it the higher your grade. This film is not an exact fit for the theme because the monster grows so fast and is not a baby when it is doing the horror, but because of the ending I feel obligated to include it. It is not every day that the woman's condition is the same at the end of a horror birth movie as it is in the end.
  The film is a story sandwiched between two scenes that chronologically after the events. Starting the film is a plot outline in text that scrolls up the screen and then at the end the outcome for the main character who survived the ordeal.
    " On April 1st 1973 the most bizarre and macabre event in all of Brooklyn's modern history occurred. Twelve people, inhabitants of a reputed house of prostitution and illegal abortion clinic were killed. Only one occupant survived.
    When found by police she told a story so fantastical and horrific, she was believed to be insane. Authorities immediately placed her in an asylum.
    The most brilliant investigators spent years trying to solve this gruesome mystery, but to this day are still baffled.
    Could the rantings of a girl supposedly insane be true? The makers of this film believe so."
 Starting with the Girl (Lisa Petruno) having a double dream sequence that is amazing not in an original way but a cliche one. We certainly get that she is off her rocker right away as she imagines being rolled through a hospital and as she moves her groggy headed views are of nurses topless in rooms of patients disposing of them with axes. She wakes from the dream and starts another where she plods sleepily into the bathroom to get something from the medicine cabinet. When she closes the mirrored door a doctor is behind her and slits her throat. She wakes again and then the story starts. It is a bit off putting to have all this stuff before we get to the meat of the story. An outline and then these two tangentially connected dreams all to get to the real nightmare that is the story.
   There is a lot wrong with this movie, lets start with the characters, so many really unlikable characters that it is difficult to connect as the plot unwinds. You have the boyfriend Phil (Gerald Preger) who bullies the girl into going to an illegal abortion room in a whore house. Not only that but lies to her about why they are there. While the girl thinks they are there to talk, and she has no inclination to go forward choosing adoption over ending the pregnancy, he has other plans for her. Then there is Big Mama (Janet Sovey) a make up covered hefty who is willing to drug the girl and perform the abortion without her consent. Her son Axel (Frank Rivera as Frank Reeves in what is his first film role) who with a small man inferiority complex acts tough and bossy but really isn't. Candice(Susan Brodsky) the hooker from room five who through out the film is just the worst kind of irritant, constantly verbally abusing those around her with the anger only a forty something prostitute could posses. Along with this group of hideous beings is Customer #1 who besides liking a rotating dildo up the ass is just a dick to everyone around him. So many really offensive people that  it is quite difficult to pull for their survival. So when the killing starts besides Petruno's character and maybe the black prostitute Dawn there is no one you are pulling for. On top of this neither of those two characters show any agency of their own making pulling for them tough as well.
 
  The story is a fight for your life story versus a monster. The monster is the fetus taken from the drugged girl and flushed down the toilet. We get the drainage pipe view as the toxic waste outside (labelled toxic waste) trickles down onto the fetus giving it life and deforming it into a vengeful monster. It quickly grows in size, teeth and claws to a critter to be reckoned with. It seals the group inside the house by somehow putting membranes over the windows and doors. It travels through the pipes and after it grows too big the walls to stalk and kill the people in the house.  While this is going on the people in the house are at odds all the while. Axel and his complex feels Sherman the only other alpha man is challenging him too much. Prostitutes are at odds with Johns and the girl is freaked by everyone's willingness to kill her baby without her consent. When she finds herself trapped with these people she is pretty useless offering nothing to help in the situation. Since we are sure that the girl is the survivor it is just these horrible people in their horrible interactions being killed off one by one until we get to the climax of Phil, the girl and the baby monster who recognizes its mother. None of this is very enjoyable and really the view will mostly wanting this film to end. I can't recommend this film but there are some unique moments in it.
  Odds and Ends

•   There are some places where there was some humor in what is mostly a not so funny film. First there was the customer / prostitute interaction. They had him where a propeller cap that spins when he gets excited. She with her whip catching the dildo he is holding and snatching it away from him. Then the sound effects as she uses the dildo on him.
• Big Mama picking the remains of the abortion from her bent up hanger and then reshaping the hanger to hang up her lab coat.
• The death of one of the characters trying to get the creature but instead getting electrocuted until his head blows up is just great.
• The creature running towards its mother making baby sounds as it moves forward. The end of this scene hilariously unique so I don't want to spoil it.
• There are several places in the film where stop action animation was used but unfortunately never well done.
• The addendum scene in the mental hospital was mean spirited and really offensive. Rape is never a good thing to have to suffer through even if the rapist gets this due. 

Attack the Block (2011) Horror Aliens

Attack the Block (2011) - I first saw this film at the Boston Science Fiction Festival / Marathon and liked it immensely. Defined character arcs small though they are, and snap quick pacing made it a really enjoyable. It is a small tale of a group of kids on the verge of being thugs who learn that the community that will be their target is more than a bunch of victims. After watching it again last night I think that still holds up as an enjoyable small budget science fiction film.
 The youth of this development are tweens and teens who are disengaged from the community, lead by 15 year old Moses (John Boyega) the prowl the neighborhood looking for trouble. They mug fellow resident Sam (Jodie Whittaker) and in general act like they own the subsidized housing. Dressed in hoodies and carrying weapons they are intimidating in numbers. Still they are not the real threat older and more dangerous young men like Hi-Hatz (Jumayn Hunter) grow and sell drugs and carry guns so these kids are really trying on a role that they are not quite ready for. There are a couple of even younger boys who aspire to hang with Moses and his crew to give an even better contrast to the setting. It is a story about consequences. The actions the boys take make the story move and they in the rush to be tough guy cost people their lives.
 This is a film with a simple setup that is well executed. After showing us the boys are callous in mugging poor Sam they see a meteor come crashing down from the sky and go to investigate it. It is the decision by the teens of the Block that drive the story Moses leads his friends to the site of where one of the creatures landed and they proceed to kill it and carry it around like a trophy. Like the boys in Lord of the Flies they have done a manly thing but parade like children. Along with Moses is Jerome (Leeon Jones), Dennis (Franz Drameh), Pest (Alex Esmail) and Biggz (Simon Howard) and little do they know that the blood of that alien creature will attract a far more deadly gender of the species.
  Those creatures dark as night with glowing rows of teeth descend on the Block in search of the female already killed by the boys. Her scent on the boy's clothes is a scent that the creatures do not mistake and they come in force seeking out the kids. A fight for survival ensues where the eyeless beast stalk and kill those they smell the female on while the boys do there best to survive and figure out how to deal with the situation. Mixed in this mess is Sam who ends up taking a change on her former assailants and joining the cause. There is also a subplot with Hi-Hatz where he comes after Moses for damaging his car again consequences for actions that started as just a bit of teenage fun.
  In the end Moses and Sam hatch a plan to blow the aliens up and work together towards that end. Now I am not saying this is a great movie but I find it really enjoyable. You have a kid learning lessons and adults who go from fearing him to understanding he is on the cusp of becoming a criminal but with the right support can still be redeemed. There is a recommendation for this film as some good light science fiction that has a bit more to the story than just the aliens.