Salem Horror Fest - Hall (2020)

 

Hall (2020) - When a debilitating sickness spreads across a long hotel hallway, a few scattered victims fight for survival, and try to escape from the dark narrow stretch of isolated carnage.

  This film was a bit too close to home now a year and 8 months into our own pandemic. There is a great way that writers Derrick Adams, Francesco Giannini(story) & Adam Kolodny spend time in the script allowing the audience to know characters. There are these really smart introductions with just enough background that when the shit starts hitting the fan the audience cares about characters and fewer seem like a body count. Primarily bouncing between Naomi (Yumiko Shaku), a woman who has fled to America on the premise of work but really has fled the husband of her unborn child because as she puts it he is a "bad man". In her interactions with the other lead Val (Carolina Bartczak) a woman in an abusive relationship looking for a way out and trying to protect her daughter while she finds it. The instances and dialog of "Mommy's clumsy" etc. are cliché in establishing the abuse but the feeling director Francesco Giannini creates with framing and music really brings home the threat of the husband character Branden (Mark Gibson) and kudos to him too for his ability to scare and threaten just with his quiet moodiness.  When a viral agent is released on the floor the two women are staying, we flash between them seeing how they got to where they are but also suddenly the effects of the crisis on each and the steps they take to deal with it. The viral agent does not just sicken those exposed but also makes then violent in the last throws of the sickness. Having to navigate the hall full of infected people creates a drama that is as menacing as the personal lives these women lead. Broken up into what is happening during the outbreak and Flashbacks that add a nice character development, I came away really liking this film, even though If I don't have to see another thing about viruses for several more years, I would be glad.

The Children (2008) Revisited Horror Christmas

The Children (2008) - REVISITED! As a virus infects the children of a couple families having Christmas together the sick children get pretty evil and begin to kill the adults. I noticed the  character's relationships a bit more this time through. The visiting family of Mother Elaine (Eva Birthistle) has a young adult daughter Casey (Hannah Tointon) and a young boy, Paulie (William Howes) who I have to say is a real Mama's boy, from an earlier relationship, Her husband Jonah (Stephen Campbell Moore) also has a child from a previous relationship a little girl named Miranda (Eva Sayer). It is obviously not the perfect nuclear family but they seem to be making it work. This is to contrast Elaine's sister Chloe (Rachel Shelley) who has a sucessful husband Robbie (Jeremy Sheffield) and two children Leah (Rafiella Brooks) and Nicky (Jake Hathaway). The dynamics between the sisters is some what interesting as sister relationships are in real life. The younger, Elaine seems a bit put off by her more successful older sister. She seems to have the perfect house and husband. They are both already retired in their forties after selling a company. They live in a large beautiful house and Chloe is portrayed as a know it all when it comes to raising children. There is the conflict between couples about permissive upbringing versus strict rules based child rearing. Robbie is a tall successful and handsome man who now spends his days investing his money and living a life of leisure. He is the cool uncle but really comes across a bit creepy when he interacts with the Casey. There is also the dynamic of how unsuccessful Jonah is, he is a schemer trying to hit it big. It is revealed that he has been scammed in the past and is not great at choosing his opportunities. He is hoping to sell some Chinese medicine scheme to Robbie but gets cut off each time. It all works to create a tension that is wonderfully under the surface of the weekend.
Then there is the fundamental disbelief the parents have when the harm starts. Of course as a parent there is no way you are going to think your child is trying to kill you. This movie co-ops the fear that behind the innocent faces there is evil waiting to strike. The underlying tension also comes to the surface also which is really well done. It makes it difficult for the parents and Casey as the adults to join together to deal with the situation. In fact the parents can never think that the children are responsible for acts of violence. Where most of the damage at first happens when adults are isolated from one another it the makes then think each other are negligent for the apparent accidents that are happening.
When I think of evil children the movie that comes to mind is "Children of the Corn". It is a more overt film with the theme being right out there from the beginning. The children killing the adults of the town is one of the first scenes and you know from the start what will happen. In The Children" The process is slower and the immediate danger is not there, but the threat grows as more of the kids get infected. The film is effective at not letting the parents catch on too quickly and even though the Casey seems onto the games of the kids. Being the younger than the parents but older than the children she is not really listened to by the adults when she knows something is wrong. In fact she is seen as not helping enough early on and then becomes distrusted as the possible killer later.
There are not too many ways this plot can go so.  What it does is builds a series of mishaps to the adults who think that negligence and accidents are to blame. Then as more evidence that it is the children comes to the fore they start to turn on each other. The children on the other hand use their relationships with their parents to do the maximum damage. It becomes a fight for the parents to deal with a threat from the most innocent beings they know.
During the film you wonder what the hell, why are the police and ambulance not responding. It in the end can be cleverly explained though.  There is also a great twist between Elaine and Jonah that I did not see coming. It really is a cold blooded change that fits one of the characters pretty well. When the last couple of survivors try to get away what will they be running to? You will have to watch it to find out. There is this one final scene that the staging of I have to say I don't really like. You come across the a situation and you are in the protected inside of a car. Do you ever leave that safety to check a scene out? I say no! but over and over again in horror film it is necessary for the tension to have someone get out of the car and investigate something.
Writers Paul Andrew Williams and Tom Shankland (who also directed) do a good job making this a believable story and the horror of parents being attacked and having to defend themselves against there children is chilling. The directing was sharp enough to build a believable survival story. There is that one thing though, when is it when the people are in a car and see what looks like a dangerous scene, one or both of them have to get out of the car to investigate? I can see early in a film but late in a movie when the characters already know there is a ton of danger. Watching this film for a second time I was impressed with the construction of the characters and the blocking of the incidents so that the reactions of the adults were somewhat believable. In the end I think I liked this film more on a second viewing. If there is one drawback I would critique it on is one of the characters totally seems to give up at one point even though fighting would not be that hard. I just hate that in a character.
Rating (6.6) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

Venomous (2001) Horror Snakes

Venomous (2001) -Well another snake movie this one in the guise of an epidemic film. There has been a lot of these lately and I make no apologies for that, although my views has suffered because of it. I guess snakes are not the new zombies. This one with the always interesting Treat Williams takes place in the California desert and it is a wild adventure ride. Let me not get ahead of myself though, first the setup.
  The opening scene has a scientist Dr Dutton (Marc McClure) help two people he thinks are reporters, into his secret base in the Mojave desert Dept. of Defense research facility. He brings them into a room where there are lots of rattle snakes in cages, and talks to them about how they are doing gene splicing with infective agents. He thinks he is being a whistle blower and setting them up for a great story. What he doesn't know is they are actually Iraqi terrorist here to fight for their homeland. When they see the snakes the two kill Dutton and a couple other people before dying in a shootout outside. The bomb they left behind explodes blasting the building open and releasing all the dangerous snakes.

  The film picks up ten years later in Santa Mira Springs CA. There have been quite a few small earthquakes and we see from shots of rattlers under ground that the shaking is making them active and has them leaving their lairs. Local mechanic Bob Jenkins (Lee de Broux) has to head into town so he calls his dog Gertrude in from the desert. Poor dog is bitten by a rattler on the way in, but Bob does not notice the bite while petting the dog. Sad news for old Bob because on his way into town he suddenly gets ill and collapses in his truck.
  This brings him to the hospital and Dr. David Henning (Treat Williams) and he just doesn't know what is causing the illness. When Bob quickly dies, David calls his wife in Maryland a worker for the Dept. of Defense Virology Research Center asking if she could run some more sophisticated blood test on a sample he will send. They set up that David and wife Susan (Mary Page Keller) are breaking up, hell she is already using her maiden name again. Later when she calls back it is a brand new virus, and she says she will take it to her superiors.
Another case comes in Billy (Brian Poth) who was bitten by a rattler, that fool gets the anti-venom and then heads to his job at the local diner. Cooking for a good portion of the town mean the virus is about to spread really fast. It is not long before people are pouring into the hospital sick and quickly dying. This is a full blown epidemic and so far all the pieces are not in place to be sure it is the rattlers although Henning does have the idea as a possibility. He send more samples to his wife but then a twist happens.
  Her boss Gen Arthur Manchek (Geoff Pierson) knows what this knew virus is but he is not talking. Since we had the opening scene we can put two and two together and see that he and the DoD covered up the escaped snakes ten year before. This virus we learn is similar but not an exact match so breeding in the wild has changed it a bit. So if they deal with this event and send in a cure there will be all kinds of questions that may expose him and his boss Major Gen. Sparks (Tony Denison). They can't have that so they intercept the next shipment of blood samples from Santa Mira and replace them with blood containing e coli. This of course throws the search for a cure for a loop.

  The evil of these guys is not limited to blood samples though. They take the next step which is to quarantine the town and begin lobbying the White House to firebomb the whole area. They figure if they get that option although it will kill everyone in the town it will also kill all the snakes and they will continue to cover their asses. So to help with the lie they tell the Presidents chief of staff that everyone is the town is dying of a mysterious virus and they have to act fast.
  Meanwhile Henning is coping and figuring out that the snake bites and close proximity to someone who was bitten is how the virus is spread. Susan rushes back to the town and soon is working with him to figure out an antiviral medication they can manufacture to save the town. Mixed in with this is snake collecting to milk venom, more victims, people trying and failing to get out of the quarantine, soldiers hassling citizens, and the ever recurring earthquakes, where each time the ground rumbles we get shots of underground snakes breaking out of the ground coming right at the camera fangs bared.
  So the two tracks of the movie are established, the doctors seeking a cure but being hampered by a Department of defense determined to firebomb the region, a thing they call directive 712. It all comes together as the cure is found, but at the same time the Generals lie to the White House and say everyone in town has died of an ebola type virus and the only way to be sure the virus does not spread is to go ahead with directive 712. They get the okay and have to do everything in their power to make sure the media just outside the quarantine zone don't see anyone alive. The plane is in the air when our hero doctors try to make sure Horton hears a who.
  This film overall is pretty lame, sort of a TV movie with decent acting but nothing challenging or surprising. It plays out just as expected even the relationships which were so blatantly set up turn out as expected. The effects with some live snakes but more silly looking rubber ones were disappointing. There were the requisite number of close calls and family and friends sick, to set up a race for the cure but at every step you saw it coming. So I don't think I can recommend this film although I thought it was at least a more complex script that Snake Island (2002) don't go out of your way to find it.
Rating (4.3) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

Phase 7 (2011) Apocalypse Thriller

Phase 7 (2011) - QUICK HIT! This Argentinean thriller about the end of the world as we know it was a pleasant surprise for a quick view one weekday night. The title refers to the plan of the wealthy elite of the world to reduce the number of people on the planet by 90 percent by introducing a virus to kill most of us off. Protected themselves with an antidote they with their wealth and armies can rule as they want without all this nasty voting and democracy. Sound outlandish? Well its not going to sound so crazy when we start dropping like flies. You wait and see it will be utter chaos!
The film takes a look at one apartment building that is quarantined early in the epidemic and pretty much stays there exploring the reactions and strategies of the residents as the crisis escalates for a long period of time. The primary characters are Coco (Daniel Hendler), his pregnant wife Pipi (Jazmin Stuart), survivalist conspiracy theory neighbor Horacio (Yayo Guridi) and Older former hunter, neighbor Zanutto (Federico Luppi). There are some other neighbors who are left a bit more undeveloped but do impact the plot.
The main focus of the first part of the film is to establish the crisis. Coco and Pipi just arrive home from doing a really big food shop and we see in their travels some signs that the world is getting a bit off. People rushing to the supermarket as they are leaving, a crashed car abandoned on the corner, people packing up and getting out of the city. They are oblivious as they talk about mundane things. It is only when they hear a bullhorn outside of the apartment that they learn that they have been quarantined inside their building and are prodded to turn on the news. The building is sealed in plastic and they learn that a international crisis is brewing with a virus that it fast moving and deadly, sweeping the world. They are told to stay in their apartment and avoid contact with other people. They do that and we see some quick cut scenes of them stemming off boredom as time passes.
The film picks up as the people in the building start running out of supplies. The film then shifts to Coco heading out and interacting or eaves dropping on neighbors as they plot and plan to take things from each other. His floor's other apartment belongs to Horacio who has heard of the Phase 7 conspiracy and has been preparing for year in case the event occurs. He tries to educate young Coco by giving him a video, but Coco is very nonchalant about it. He still doesn't get the coming survival of the fittest mentality that will sweep through the building. Slowly Horacio teaches him about the crisis and gives him some of the things he needs to survive. Horacio is a character, a paranoid who is proven right, he has everything you need for the situation. He has food stores, contamination suits, weapons and flash explosive he can rig on the stairways to stun and warn of intruders. He takes a liking to Coco and it is the best thing the naive young man could have happen.
As time passes some of the neighbors get desperate and try to take from others, Guglierini (Carlos Bermejo) and Lange (Abian Vainstein) with a young nephew make an attempt get older Zanutto to open his door. When he does we learn Zanutto is not a man to fuck with and the special effects are great. He is instead a man you should fear, he also knows how to survive this situation and for him it means eliminating those in the apartment building who could threaten you at some point. He sees that as meaning everyone and with his elephant rifle he starts the main thriller part of hunting down his neighbors. This is the main conflict of the story, with Horacio and Coco dealing with the very dangerous Zanutto. It is a good threat and a satifying plot line. The only thing this writer did not like is that each time Coco went out to deal with happenings in the building he left poor Pipi alone. The thing is he never (well at least not until the end) told her what was happening in the building. I get his motivation, she is very pregnant and he did not want her upset or worried. Still though the crisis was big enough and the killing had started so he should have told her what was what. Hell Zanutto could have come and killed her while he was roaming about the building and would have no idea anything was wrong.
Still in the end, and I purposely left out a lot of details so you will see this film, it was a satifying story. I like end of the world films and this one was entertaining enough to keep me engaged through out. Available on Netflix Streaming it is not a bad couple hours.
Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended. Stream it!

Last of the Living (2008) - Horror Zombie

Last of the Living (2008) - Writer Director, Producer, Best Boy, hell just about everything in this low budget New Zealand zombie flick was done by Logan McMillan. Its existence is because this guy had a vision and worked really hard to make it happen. It is a story about three guys, Morgan (Morgan Williams), Ash (Ashleigh Southam) and Johnny (Robert Faith) after the world has ended in a zombie apocalypse, as we all know it eventually will. They are just surviving, gathering food, killing zombies for fun and generally not getting on in a world without purpose. It would have probably stayed that way but for the chance that they ran across a guy (Mark Hadlow) and his daughter Steph (Emily Paddon-Brown). These two have a cure for the zombie virus, but in the meeting the three morons break the last vile and Dad is bitten by zombies. So the three must go with Steph to a hospital to make a new sample. I was about ready to give up on this film before this. It was very Small scale low budget with stationary footage that took place for no particular reason. Little in the way of character development had been done and to this point the plot was nonexistent. So now we had a plot but the execution was just awful. The one foreshadowed event was Johnny's berserker fighting move and it was pretty lame too.

They get to the hospital but before the sample is finished being spun the power goes out in the building. This sets up two things, Morgan and Ash heading down to the cellar to get a generator going and Johnny and Steph upstairs, while all the security locked doors come open and the zombies get in. They finish and fight their way out while Morgan and Ash resolve some pent up feelings in some of the most poorly constructed dialog I have seen in a movie. Still they all make it outside and only Johnny is bitten so onward to the berserker so the other three can escape. They head to the airport with Steph now bitten. They have to get to Stewart Island before she changes into a zombie. Suddenly also there are new zombies with red eyes who are fast and chasing them. Whatever, this movie was bad... an example they get to the plane and get in the air and the two guys go in back and take a nap. Yes with the pilot bitten and sure to turn into a red eyed zombie and they nap. Still they manage to get her out of the plane and then Ash manages to land it. Then the worst is that the whole story is for not as in the end they all fail even though they make it to the Island. WTF!!!

The movie is just pointless and hard to watch. All the camera work is reduced fields of sight like there was just one camera and a tripod or handheld. The plot goes nowhere fast and then when it gets a purpose the character interaction does not fit the situations. They introduce a new zombie type for plot convenience with no explanation. None of the characters is more than a outline and then the ending is a downer. So besides the credit a independent film maker gets for getting a project done, Last of the living gets a poor score here.

Rating (2.6) 5.0 and higher are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Skip It!

The Children (2008) - Horror virus

The Children (2008) - Children of the snow. As a virus infects the children of a couple families having Christmas together the sick children get pretty evil and begin to kill the adults. There is not a lot more plot than this really. There is the conflict between couples about permissive upbringing versus strict rules based child rearing. There is the teenage girl sort of flirting with her aunts husband and his creepy acceptance of it. Then there is the fundamental disbelief the parents have when the harm starts. Of course as a parent there is no way you are going to think your child is trying to kill you. This movie co-ops the fear that behind the innocent faces there is evil waiting to strike. When my daughter was small 3 or so I had this dream that I awoke and heard her little feet pattering out of our room. Strange I thought and got up to follow her, the apartment we had could be circled in going room to room. I would hear the patter and follow only to not see her. Then I entered the kitchen after the footsteps, flicked on the lights. Joy was up on a chair reaching enough to pull a butcher knife out of the block. When the light went on I only saw this in a glimpse as she push it back in quickly and leaned to the sink saying, "dwink, water". The whole dream was wrapped in a feeling of being a bit afraid. This is what this film does. The parents can never quite be sure what is going on. There is a threat but it is from the least likely to cause it.
When I think of evil children the movie that comes to mind is "Children of the Corn". It is a more overt film with the theme being right out there from the beginning. The children killing the adults of the town is one of the first scenes and you know from the start what will happen. In The Children" The process is slower and the immediate danger is not there, but the threat grows as more of the kids get infected. The film is effective at not letting the parents catch on too quickly and even though the teenager seems onto the games of the kids. Being the teen she is not really listened to by the adults and in fact becomes distrusted as the possible killer.
There are not too many ways this plot can go so I was waiting for the reveal that the problem was not just an isolated incident but a worldwide epidemic. When the last couple of survivors try to get away what will they be running to? Will they escape and infected zone or just be heading into new terrors? You will have to watch it to find out.
Writers Paul Andrew Williams and Tom Shankland (who also directed) do a good job making this a believable story and the horror of parents being attacked and having to defend themselves against there children is chilling. The directing was sharp enough to build a believable survival story. There is that one thing though, when is it when the people are in a car and see what looks like a dangerous scene, one or both of them have to get out of the car to investigate? I can see early in a film but late in a movie when the characters already know there is a ton of danger.
The acting was solid with Eva Birthistle and Rachel Shelly as adult sisters, Stephen Campbell Moore and Jeremy Sheffield as the husbands, and the lovely Hannah Tointon as the teenager Casey. Oh and one more thing, Blue Crayon!
Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended in the Zombiegrrlz rating system I would say Rent It!

Thirst (Bakjwi) (2009) - Horror

Thirst (Bakjwi) (2009) - This South Korean film is about a priest who participates in medical experiments where most of the participants die. He lives though with the side effects that he has become a vampire. To stave off boils and other physical ills he must drink human blood regularly. Priest Sang-hyeon (Kang-ho Song) struggles with the moral consequences of his affliction. He attempts not to kill but instead to feed off coma victims in a hospital ward he volunteers at. Things are complicated further by the fact that the vamperism seems to increase his desire to sin. He finds himself lusting after the wife of a sick man. She is Tae-ju (Ok-bin Kim) and she is trapped in what she portrays as an abusive relationship with an over bearing Mother in Law (Hae-sook Kim) watching her every step. She says she is trapped and she sees the priest as a way out of the marriage. Sang-hyeon after realizing that it is too hard to follow God and his lustful ways leaves the priesthood and with the help of Tae-ju kills her husband Kang-woo (Ha-kyun Shin). Guilt is a terrible companion though and soon Sang-hyeon can not tolerate the life he has chosen and the acts he has committed. He is further driven with the knowledge that Tae-ju was never abused and lied to get his help out of her situation. He then makes a decision and executes a climactic plan that is worth the wait. Not to spoil it here it is a very in character approach for the former priest.

Rating (6.9)

Pontypool (2008) Horror/Thriller

Pontypool (2008) - Grant Mazzy(Stephen McHattie) is a has been shock jock trying to make a come back in a tiny town in Ontario. On this morning all hell breaks loose as a virus that lives in words spreads through the town causing the infected to kill and then commit suicide. How will he , producer Sydney (Lisa Houle)and technician Laurel Ann (Georgina Reilly) figure out the virus and inform the airwaves of how to beat it.

This movie is a slow burn, taking its time in an attempt to gain the momentum needed to make its plot leap. I am not sure that it really pulled it off. From reporting the crowds at a local doctors office to the crowds showing up, not much happens. I have to say I was not sold at this point. The solution was "retahded"(A Boston term meaning stupid).

The camera work was totally stationary on this small set movie, with no camera movement at all just cuts to different shots. The acting was okay and the concept not horrible. The execution of the solution needed more fleshing out. We have the story get bigger and bigger but then there is a 4 minute sequence where they figure out the virus and counteract it. It was way too easy. The action in the movie consisted of infected whacking themselves against hard thing. Oh and "Kill is Kiss."

Rating (4.8)