Neighbor (2009) Horror Psycho

Neighbor (2009) does not leave you guessing very long, bringing us into the very deranged character of  "The Girl" (America Olivo). We are introduced to her through a couple short scenes where she has bound and tortured people in their homes. Cutting their flesh biting their skin while showing a psychopathic joy in their suffering. We can see her cruel actions in purposely killing an elderly woman by switching out her life saving medication, her nonchalant reason of wanting to see how long it would take the lady to die exemplifies her callous glee in killing. Already you can see that a lot of this film will be carried by the lead.
As the movie sets up the other characters we see The Girl on the edges of the action, in a bar or a bookstore. She is infiltrating the community looking for the link that will get her in, In this case it seems to be anyone she comes across, but mainly we see Don Carpenter (Christian Campbell) a love lorn musician who with his friends are the only ones we see in the film that are not already victims. Director Robert Angelo Masciantonio is taking the common middle class neighborhood and showing how behind the closed doors we do not know what is happening. Safety is thinking that it can't happen to you, even though gruesome murders are on the nightly news next door is never a place you would consider as the next target.
   The Girl is successful because everyone thinks they are safe in their cul-de-sacs, Don with his sound proof recording studio wakes to realized that the sinister Girl is a real threat as she proves it with a pair of clippers. The very gruesome realistic torture affects make will make the squeamish turn their heads and block their ears as holes are drilled into flesh. Casual in her approach knowing that neighbors never knock on each others doors she rips and cuts her way through Don as he goes through the stages of being a victim. First his rage and then he negotiates, then he begs and hallucinates, all the while Olivio plays the part of loon with a zeal essential to pull off the role. So cruel and fucked up that she does the one kind of torture a man does not want to see.
  Masciantonio plays the lines between reality and fantasy well and leaves the viewer in a state of anxiety guessing what evil act will come next. Upping the ante each time we let relax in the slightest. The torture is well cut with closeups and the after affects of her acts even when not seeing the gruesome cuts. This said so there are enough bloody gory fake blood spurting practical effects to satisfy the most depraved viewer.
  What is underwhelming about this film is that although The Girl is strongly motivated in her killing ways we never really get why she is how she is. Willing to harm without regard but just being motivated does not round out the character. The viewer is left with "just a crazy bitch". Leaving the turn that she will totally get away with her crimes because of her amazing luck that another killer had escaped from prison just at this time. Or did she mastermind that too?
  

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.

Tomb of Torture (1963) Horror Ghost

Tomb of Torture (1963) - Also titled "Metempsyco" This is such a misleading title, bringing to mind maybe the film Mark of the Devil, but it is nothing like that film. Instead it is a horrible little story of the death of a Countess at the hands of a greedy confidant. It is also the tale of how her mystery is finally told, as the ones responsible find that guilt is a hard thing to live with and one bad deed begets another.
  In a castle somewhere two girls investigate, they are thrill seeking in the old place. Just looking around through still furnished rooms for something to scare them. Ester (Emy Eco) and Cathy (Terry Thompson? guessing on this one) don't know it but they are being watched by the occupants of the castle. They are confronted by Countess Elizabeth (Flora Carosello) the heir to the castle and get scare when doors start shutting and lights start flicking as they try to make there way out. The entire scene is contrived to introduce the laughing deformed man. He stalks them driving them to tears before capturing them and taking them to his Tomb of Torture. It is called tomb of torture because down in the secret part of the cellar is a torture chamber among the tombs. We open the scene in that room with the laughing deformed man pushing Ester's dead body off the rack while Cathy bound in chains screams, screams that will never be heard.  We establish the way in and out of these rooms is hard to find and that the monster of a man is willing to kill.
  Dr Darnell (Adriano Micantoni) and his daughter Anna (Annie Alberti) happen to be returning to the castle after a long absence when they come across the villagers looking at the girls just discovered bodies. He goes over and indeed they can't be helped by a doctor. Raman (Fred Pizzot) happens to be there to give the audience some background. He is also ink faced to make his skin darker as he attempts to be from India. The turban on his head with the jewel makes the unintentional racism all the more offensive. He has been at the castle area since his love the countess Irene disappeared years before and has never given up the search for her. Isn't the loyal Indian servant also a racists stereotype?
  Countess Elizabeth has inherited the castle but is still desparately searching for where Irene has hidden her jewels. No money and a castle do not go so well together. Now with Dr. Darnell and Anna returning maybe something can be discovered. Raman and then Elizabeth believe that Anna is the reincarnated soul of the missing Irene. It would seem that way to the viewer also as almost upon entering the castle, Anna starts seeing the ghost of Irene in the mirror. We quickly see that Anna has been having a reoccurring dream showing the death of Irene in the Tomb of Torture. The voice that laugh in the dream is so obviously Elizabeth that we already know she had something to do with her death. Well actually we can't be sure with this American dubbed version because we don't know what the original Italian had in that place for a voice.
  It is also very possible that the translation garbled a relationship in the film too. After the dream sequence we see Anna out at the lake skinny dipping. She is interrupted by a man George Dickson (Marco Mariani) it is the Oh I won't look while you dress scene we have seen in many movies. The thing is that after this seemingly first meeting where they are introduced, the next scene has them madly in love and ready to get married. It really makes no sense after the scene at the lake but suddenly he is her hero and protector and she is in love with him. Hell they even sleep together!
  The story is a bit convoluted with one character using the laughing deformed man to do the dirty work. What is desired is that the psychic connection Anna has with the spirit of the deceased Irene be used to find her riches. When in the end things fall apart it is just a matter of time before the good guys win and the bad guys die. Everything culminates in the Tomb of Torture.

  This is not a great movie. I would even be wary of calling it good. The music by Armando Sciacia is a strange mix of over the top horror themes and whimsical melodies more likely to be heard in a Charlie Chaplin film. The translation I think is really horrible and the plot pretty see through. There will be no recommendation for this one. I do have to say though lovers of older horror will find something of value here, just look for an in Italian version with subtitles to get the real story.
Rating (4.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

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

Farmhouse(2008) - Horror Torture

Farmhouse (2008) - What writer Daniel Coughlin and director George Bessudo are trying to do in this low budget horror flick from the Alliance Group Entertainment group is difficult to pull off. They are trying through flashback to slowly reveal who are main characters are, how they got to this point and then give a big twist to the current story in the film. What is difficult is that the current story of the couple who drive off a country road when the husband Chad (William Lee Scott) falls asleep. Find a farmhouse with a seemingly kind couple and then find themselves in a nightmare fighting for their lives, makes the slow reveals out of place to the current life or death story at the farmhouse. Combine this with needing to hold back certain information for the big twist at the end and you have a choppy story that does not quite work.
The early scenes before getting to the farm are all the background you need to know why Scarlett (Jamie Anne Allman) and her husband Chad are on the road. They have recently lost a child and that Chad is a timid cowardly ass wipe with a gambling problem, actually the gambling is over and there is a paying off the bookie problem. They head out on the road and the writer had a ridiculous need for Scarlett to point out a 20 hour drive is not a good thing is high lighted by Chad falling asleep and the car hitting a phone box (Steven Weber) because they made a point to tell us it was a phone box) and crashing into a ditch.
The two of course have no cell service and have to walk a ways off through the grape vines to a farmhouse in the distance. When Samael (suddenly appears behind the couple only not 10 minutes into the movie I wrote in my notes "Supernatural?". This because at the farmhouse they get to see pictures of a whole bunch of other couples hanging on the wall. It is a give away that the farmers Samael and Lilith are not what they seem. Then there is the fact that his name which he repronouces for the couple as not Samuel but Sam 'A' el is the name of a biblical archangel who in the Jewish tradition is the seducer, accuser and destroyer, there was reason to believe that our writer Coughlin wanted us to figure it out. By then naming the deaf farmhand Alal (Nick Heyman) I think it is sort of Angel name sounding but who knows. Certainly Samael's wife Lilith was named for the cliche evil woman name in so many films. She is played by the beautiful hard working actress Kelly Hu in a wonderfully sinister performance.
In fact I had no real issues with the acting, Jamie Anne Allman is properly cardboard which was appropriate for a character forcing down the hard life experiences of her life. A person fighting to get through a stage in her life that sucks. William Lee Scott had me wanting to punch him in the face through the television, his impotent and pathetic approach to his situation was spot on. Steven Weber with a sinister sparkly behind his eye was just great going between jovial host to psychotic tormentor in a split second.
What really hurt this movie was the structure, at the farm after Chad accidentally(?) sees Samael banging Lil through their ajar door things go from a helping hand to a stranded couple to a robust torture sessions and attempted escape scenes. The tension of the events is well paced but each time things rev up we cut to another flashback that is just boring filler for our two victims and how they got to this point. It is a real mood killer and just ruins what could have been a great fight for survival.
There are three main torture scenes the drowning one which has such a predictable pathetically unoriginal outcome that this reviewer thought about turning the film off and skipping this review. That feeling was also present when Samael used torturing Alal as a way to get Scarlett to come out of hiding. It was very much predictable and too cliche for anyone who regularly watches horror films. The third bit between Scarlett and Lilith was wonderful gruesome in sound and sight.
Everytime there was some good though it was squashed by the damn flashbacks. Not that some of the information in the scenes were not essential for the big twist in the end. The problem is they were slow and informational and that information was enough for the viewer to figure out the twist before it is announced in the film. This is so fucking frustrating we want to be surprised not lead to solve the mystery ourselves to only then have our guess confirmed. Damn you Daniel Coughlin!
Okay calm down there Soresport... Writing a script is difficult, and you couldn't do it better. Give the poor guy credit and don't get too disappointed when it isn't perfect.
No! No! I instead say to Coughlin what Samael says in his toast to our couple (victims) "May the worst day from your past be the best day of your future."
Closing out let me say that the twist about Scarlett I figured out ahead of time. The escape I expected and the big twist at the end, saw it coming! The last scenes seemed straight off the Syfy channel with effect so silly looking that it ruined the ending. I blame director George Bessudo for that oversite or even the productions company. So no this film will not be recommended.
Rating (3.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, In the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!