Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (1999) Horror Mummy

Ancient Evil: Scream of the Mummy (1999) - The best thing to say about this film is that the story had a beginning, middle and end. Ancient Evil is a low budget movie about a crazy worshiper of an Aztec God, Norman (Trent Latta), who wants to bring about the end of the world by sacrificing a virgin. Of course we don't know this early on but even after the first scene we know there is something not quite right about Norman. The film open with a few students, Norman, Don (Jeff Peterson) and Stacy (Ariauna Albright) standing around waiting for the scene to start with their teacher, Professor Cyphers (Brenda Blondell). When we get dialog it is long and pretty much explains how they are getting this Mummy ready for a show at this school's museum. How it is a special Mummy unlike all the Aztec finds because it exists, since they did not mummify remains and it is even stranger in that it was buried knife in hand. Professor Cyphers (really can't believe that it the name they went with) is translating the inscriptions found in the pyramid with the mummy. Poorly written by Matthew Jason Walsh it is basically a 'Here let me catch you up on things' scene that is awkward in execution. Walsh who also penned a couple reviewed films on this blog Witchouse and Witchouse 3:Demon Fire continues to work with director David DeCoteau to this day as they are finishing the project "1313 : Cougar Cult (2012)".
  We spend some time meeting the other bodies, uh I mean players in the film. Arlando (Russell Richardson) and Morris (Michael Lutz) talk about how Morris wants to get with Janine (Michele Nordin) but she won't give him the time of day. Lutz is painfully bad as the bad boy student looking to get laid and the dialog is equally poor. Morris steals a bracelet from the mummy for no reason other than to impress Janine, and we see Norman skulking around paying attention to the goings on. If there is on actor worse than Lutz it is Trent Latta. His over reacting emotions in every scene he is in makes Lutz look subtle. There is a dynamic set up with the bracelet that I think was suppose to make you think it is important but the idea is so simple and not fleshed out that it really doesn't end up mattering at all. After giving the bracelet to Janine and actually getting a date out of it. She being involved in this archaeology program knows what it is and scolds him for taking it. She says she will return it to the mummy before he gets in trouble. So starts the passing of the bracelet which goes to 3 or four other people and no one actually tries to put it back on the mummy even though that is each persons intent as they each tell you when they get the damned thing. It would probably have been better if it got passed a couple times without fanfare, maybe the audience would not be sitting knowing the bracelet was some super important thing, but would instead forget about it and it could then be used as a turn in the story.
  Anyway it is not long before Norman is standing over the body of the mummy and seeming to be praying. He wakes the monster from its slumber and now has control of it. When night falls there is the weirdest storm ever, constant lightning but no rain. Just flashes of light and thunder but that is about it. I originally thought that it was to add to the mummy waking, you know a mood thing. The lights go out, the students can't contact the outside world etc. Because the rain never came it all seemed so fake, and became annoying after a while. The mummy is up and its shuffling gets the attention of the Professor Cyphers as she works deciphering the text. Even though she is at her desk with a light on, when she hears a noise she walks around the museum with a flashlight and never turns on a light. Better yet is that there are candles lit all about the place. We know she is going to be the mummy's first kill but not before Norman comes in and tells her a long winded version of everything we don't know about him. He is a high priest of the Rain God and he is going to do a sacrifice to bring about the end of the world. The professor is not impressed and tells Norman he will be in trouble if he doesn't leave right now! Then she stand and watches the mummy enter the room, slowly he shambles up to her, and she does not move, then stabs her and she dies. She could easily have ran away but apparently was in too much shock.
  The rest of the film consists of the students deciding to party in the museum, that is how we get them in the area of the mummy. Then the script goes through many twists of logic to separate the students from each other so that the mummy can kill them off one by one without the others finding out before it is there turn. What's worse is the ridiculous writing that every time someone is alone they have to talk to themselves out loud to tell us what emotions they are having or to call out thinking the other students are there. So bad...
  Don and Stacy find the deciphered manuscript and learn about the sacrifice while the other characters are having their turn to die at the hands of the mummy. It is done away from those left so people are still in the dark. There is a running joke about no one believing that Stacy is a virgin and considering the actress is thirty at the time of the shoot I can see why. She and Don read the text and we all know what is going to happen at this point. So eventually Stacy is tied to the alter and the High Priest Norman is going to sacrifice her. Lucky for the world that Don is there. After being injured tussling with the mummy he realizes that crushing the bracelet might help. How does he know this you ask? He doesn't it is just Norman wants it back so he figures it must be important. When he crunches it under foot the control Norman has over the mummy is gone and it stabs him. Then Don stabs the mummy with its own knife which apparently is enough to kill it, then Stacy and Don are the winners and the movie ends.
  One more thing about mummies, they are as you know dried up bodies wrapped in cloth. When a film features a mummy it should appear to be dried up and wrapped in cloth. This film has the fattest mummy on record. Its damn thighs rubbed together and it had a beer belly. Really at least make an attempt at giving the audience a monster that looks like it should.
Rating (2.2) 5.0 and up are recommended, some just more recommended than others.

The Woman (2011) Horror

The Woman (2011) - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT PLOT POINTS IN THE FILM!!! Evil is a word brandished about in the horror genre, to describe any number of things, devil cults, serial killers, demons, vengeful ghosts and Satan himself. Even though there are none of these supernatural elements in the film "The Woman" it is no doubt about evil. It is the evil that man does to his fellow being that is on display here. The evil he persecutes on his family and those you would think a man considered loved ones. The Woman is less about the Woman of the title and more about the man who comes to possess her. It is a film about a particularly evil man and how he imposes his will on those around him.
At he introduction of this man, Chris Cleek (Sean Bridgers) we see him as a mild mannered husband hanging out at a cookout with the neighbors. Still there are some signs that things are not quite what they seem. Director Lucky McKee makes a point to show him standing on a porch high enough that he can scan the yard. High enough to see his family, to know who they are interacting with. We also get a look into his families reaction to him. The teenaged daughter Peggy ( Lauren Ashley Carter) is caution in even seeming to talk to a boy who is showing interest. She looks over her shoulder knowing her father is watching. When he sees his son shooting free throws at a basketball hoop his interaction is not one of encouragement but more of pressuring the son to practice towards perfection. Later at home he is established as the controlling douche bag he is. So we think we have an idea of who he is but evil? That will be confirmed as this film continues.
   When we first see The Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) she is wounded and stumbling to a stream to wash her wound. We see this montage like fever dream that may be letting us know her origin as a woman raised by wolves. She is definitely feral with what looks like the remains of a tent for clothing. It is a stylish introduction that is nonverbal but effective.  It may have been that she had a baby that was taken by wolves and that is why she kills one. It was a bit confusing but the ending leads to believing that there is a motherhood hole she needs to fill.
  A couple days after this she is spied by the hunting Chris Cleek as she washes herself in the stream. Her breasts exposed or at least in Chris's imagination they are he gets an idea that will change the world he has created. The music in this scene is a bit too on the nose as he watches her walk away. Still it forecasts the coming events.
 He captures the woman and takes her back to his root cellar where he strings her up a shackled captive. This does not make her helpless as he learns when he lets his hand get a bit too close to her. In a wonderfully performed scene we see that The Woman has some power in this relationship that has been forced upon her. It is a real stark reality for Chris to meet a woman he can't dominate. He has the upper hand, well at least most of it, but he will never truly control this woman.
There is a dynamic in this film that is perfectly structured. The women who are part of civilized society are dominated by the men. Chris over his wife and daughters, his taking advantage, financially of a neighbor who comes to him in business, the boys teasing a little girl at the cookout. We have society's nurture relationships of all showing the dominance of men over women. Chris is the front man in this, a misogynist prick who rules with an iron fist and only sees women as weaker beings to be used and abused as he sees fit. He represents the male perception of superiority in society. The Woman is nature, the wild woman, the being who without societies molds is as potent and powerful as any man. She represents what women are without the structures of society imposed on them.

 No one in his family will challenge him they are all too afraid. It is not just that he must have dominance there is also a sexual element to Chris that creeps into the way he looks at the woman. Like the imagining of her breasts as she washed in the stream. You can tell he is not really thinking about how to civilize this woman. He is a much sicker man than originally thought and every revelation makes the audience wonder how far can it go. Sure the proper foreshadowing of his deviance was in place early in the film but when we get to the middle of the film we realize he is a truly evil person. Lucky McKee does a fine job in presenting this family as well rounded but lets the audience see the cracks that run through its foundations. When he brings his entire family into the cellar and shows them the Woman he talks about how they owe it to her to civilize her. There is no questioning of him in this scene, no one says maybe they should call the cops. Everyone in the room who is old enough to understand knew he intention with the woman was to a a fuck toy and not to help her in any way. In fact in the privacy of the bedroom his mouse wife Belle, excellently played by Angela Bettis, asks the simple question "Should we really be doing this?" His response of hitting her hard across the face without a word is all you need to know about his absolute power in this family. This is such a complex set of circumstances for this character. Rewatching the scene where he is checking in with his older daughter is sooo much more creepy when you realize that he has imprgnated her. The way his wife hovers behind him obviously nervous for her.

 When we see Chris go out in the night to use The Woman's strung up body, while is wife lays awake knowing where he is. While The Woman sheds a single tear during her rape. It is a horrible thing that Belle is letting her husband do what he wants to the woman. She also knows though that by doing so she is also protecting her family, if his abuse is focused on the stranger in the cellar than it is not focused on the family members. 
  Adding to the disturbing look at this fucked up family is how the father seems to be grooming his son Brian (Zach Rand) to be a misogynist as well. We see the boy who is acting out like his father and instead of a firm hand the father makes it clear in his belittling of the women in the family that a mans place is the dominant one and the boy will stand at his right hand in running the family. When Brian takes a turn at abusing the bound Woman and is caught things really come to a head in the family. With all the abused and craziness that Belle has been subject to the straw that gets her to stand up is that her son may become like his father. She confronts the boy and then his father saying that the behavior is sick. Finally confronting him does not really work out as she planned and as her unconscious body lays on the kitchen floor the doorbell rings. Peggy's Teacher, Genevieve Raton (Carlee Baker) arrives right at this moment to reveal her suspicions that Peggy is pregnant and offer her help.It is also an interesting choice to have the attractive possibly lesbian teacher be the only proactive woman in the society that we see.
  These final scenes where Chris goes over the edge and attacks the teacher are incredibly harsh. He obvious can't come back from this and as an audience member who cares if he does. The women in their desperation to help Raton finally get to fighting back. In the gory and violent ending we finally get to see the Woman respond to male aggression with arms free. We learn just want was meant when the word "anophthalmia" was bantered about earlier in the film. We see the oppressive male structure not be able to handle to wild nature of the Woman in what was a very satisfying ending. This was never intended to be a feel good movie so if you are looking for truly happy endings this is not the film for you. Nor is it the film for those who hate to see violence towards women. It does treat its characters honestly and they behave to the character traits they were given no matter how disturbing that is to the viewer. The acting is excellent from Pollyanna McIntosh, the Woman to Belle Cleek, Angela Bettis and the wonderfully evil Chris Cleek, Sean Bridgers. The music somewhat counter intuitive in its upbeat score during really horrific scenes was interesting although this seems to be a fad in horror. I am also not a big fan of music montage to move things along and there are a few in this film. It is not that they are poorly done, just a personal preference. Still the gurgles of gore where present and the mood was set throughout with a score that added and did not take away from what was happening on screen. The revelations we well drawn out in a script that revealed just enough to keep you thinking as you watched. I am not sure how much was added by the last revelation of the daughter with no eyes living with the dogs. Having worked in mental health many years ago I did know of one case where a child was made to sleep with the dogs in a pen. In fact I met some people who did equally horrible things to their families. So for this viewer at least Chris Cleek was just another sick bastard and I enjoyed his final scene. I just wish it had been longer and more painful. So with that let me say I strongly recommend this movie but with a bit of a warning.
This is an extremely disturbing film and it will not be for everyone. It is a story about a character who has a complete disdain for women and the scenes and revelations showing how poor a human being he is are disgusting and hard to watch. So if you do not think you are able to deal with it avoid the film. Otherwise have at it.
Rating (7.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, some just more recommended than others.

The Curse of El Charro (2005) Horror Ghost Curse

The Curse of El Charro (2005) - I watched this film a few weeks ago and was so unimpressed that I was going to skip reviewing it at all. Sometimes though you just couldn't get a film out of your mind. It is not that it is a particularly memorable film. It is that one aspect of the film was so terrible that I kept thinking I had to write about it. First though a bit of story about it.
Now the producer/writer Ryan R. Johnson and director Rich Ragsdale describe what they were going for in the bonus, making of video. A horror movie for the Latino audience that was tired of the gangster shoot em ups that have been so prevalent. So they came up with the idea of El Charro a cowboy ghost killer of northern Mexico. This is not a Latino film, it is a film with a ghost killer who originates in Mexico. That is the only connection. The character Maria sure enough is supposed to be of mexican descent but there is only a slight connection through the film. Her visions are of places in Mexico, even though the film location itself is in Arizona.

The script focuses on a road trip to a small Arizona town. These four girls, the All American girl Christina (Heidi Androl), the Goth Rosemary (KellyDawn Malloy), The strange and disturbed by dreams lead character Maria (Drew Mia) and possibly the worst stereotype of a young black woman ever put on film, the saucy and sexually aggressive Tanya (Kathryn Taylor). There is a girl gone wild vibe but not really in what ends up being a fairly tame horror film. In fact I think it is how the male writer sees a girls road trip but does not really get it right. Christina is taking her friends down to her Uncle's house for a week of partying and relaxation. It is more like a bunch of guys getting out on the road than woman. The interactions just do not come across as correct, something is a bit off. The purposeful contrast between the characters makes one think that this group would never hang out together but so be it. Including Maria is Christina's idea (They are college roommates) but the other two make it clear that the depressive trouble girl is really not welcomed. In what can only be described as a scene straight out of a bad teen soap opera they directly confront the sad sack so she knows the pecking order in the group and she is dead weight. Although it would be way more likely that Tanya and Rosemary would play nice but maybe internally want Maria to leave instead there is this outward show of disdain. It is more like when young men create a pecking order than when women do. Maybe it is because the writer is a man that this is so skewed, or maybe to have conflict so the story will have more to it; Either way the dynamic is a bit off.

Maria is troubled by dreams of her sister, who recently committed suicide. This eventually gets worse as the movie progresses and through them we learn of the titular curse.

The story takes the girls through desert highways and small towns where they work there way out of trouble through flirtation and possible sexual favors. It is left unclear but Tanya appears to go down on a sheriff who pulls them over. She claimed to have other tricks being the sexual beast she is. They eventually make it to the very nice house and then head into town for some dancing and drinking.
Picking up some local men they head back to the house to continue the party.

Mixed in with this is the story of El Charro (acted by Andrew Bryniarski but voiced by Danny Trejo) , he was a wealthy Mexican land owner who had his eye on a village girl. Shown through silent film style and influenced by the directors fondness for German expressionism the story is in fact the most stylistically interesting part of the film. When spurned by the girl he desired El Charro goes off and kills her. The townspeople angered by this act hang El Charro but as he died he cursed the family of the girl. Now how this brings us to the present some 100 years later is quite the question. If El Charro always comes back for the descendants of the girl how are there any left 100 years later? Maria and her sister are getting visions of the creeper driving the sister to take her own life but why these two? What about their parents? Grandparents? It does not make a lot of sense but sense is not what this film is about. There is an early scene where after a conversation with a priest the priest makes a call to his superiors to talk about her having visions like her sister. This seems to indicate a bigger story with the church involved but the film never comes back to it. Only in the last scene do we see him again but really it is too late then. Other than letting us know she is having visions and so did her sister it adds nothing.

What also does not make a lot of sense is a ghost that walks to where he wants to get to. Here we have a ghost who stalks like a serial killer but at other times just appears. It makes no sense.

Made for 200 thousand dollars you can't expect a superior film but technically the film is well put together, music, sound and filming is not bad. The director was not unskilled and the makeup for El Charro was decent. The acting was not great but some of that was not the actors fault. So where does this film fall down? Well the writing of course, and I would like to say in particular the character of Tanya is a fine example of what not to do in a script. She is the worse stereotype of a black woman, aggressive and mean, with a cat like stance ready to pounce on any weakness. Her interactions are selfish and she while sexually the loose girl of the group is also dismissive when not impressed by a man. At the end of talking about her is the incredibly dreadful dialog she spouts. Here are some wonderful examples of what not to have your young black female character say.

While waiting for Maria who is late, her first line to establish her personality.

" Christina didn't we beg you to tell her freaky ass to stay home?"

" Okay fine she can come, but she better not fuck up my game or I'm kicking her ass."

" Oh and that goes for you too bitch, this is a vacation not a funeral." to the goth.

" Can I help it if I got needs, and don't even trip, you Marilyn Manson looking mother fucker."

When introduced to Maria, "Oh are you coming with." "Anyway you two can sit in the back."

Then immediately challenge sexually by Rosemary we get the comeback.

"Oooo, some lucky man is going to be flossing with these tonight." and "Well we'll just have to see about that. Or maybe I'll have mercy on you and save you my sloppy seconds when I'm done with them."

When introduced to the music for the ride a band called Tard, "Tard! Hell yeah that is the shit! Oh I like them. Arizona here we come."

It is not cool that instead of a mature character the black woman is a smart assed slut. Our societal stereotypes for black women as rude and over sexualized is not something we need reinforced.

So they are driving down the road and Rosemary brings out the pot to smoke and our girl says "Oh you are so sharing that bitch." and then starts singing "Pass the weed, pass the weed." takes a drag and says "Now that's what I'm talking about." " Oh and that was some good shit." Her coughing fit gets them noticed by the cops and the creepy sheriff that pulls them. Here we truly get her stereo type she flirts with the cop. The cop takes her to his car and they both get into the back seat. We see through the rare view window that she goes down on the cop. When she comes back laughing and joking with the cop she tells her friends. "What are you talking about? Like I don't have more tricks up my sleeve that that, God."

I think you get the idea, it was really offensive. I am not sure if it was an intentional joke to have El Charro rip off her jaw as a means to killing her.

So Maria has more visions and the killing comes and slowly we work our way through the death and destruction. We learn all about the curse through Maria and her visions and it is clear through the silent film dreams that this killer ghost is coming for her. She also seems to have a protector in Saint Michael. It is all too confusing. The final scenes are gory good but the film as a whole is not.

When the story gets back to the house with all the locals and the girls we have plenty of bodies for El Charro to machete through. He has to walk to the house so the killing does not start until well over an hour into the movie. At this point the couples are pairing up doing drugs and drinking. A good time I guess in the Arizona desert.

The additional twist at the end was so cliche that any good feelings you had towards this film vanish in the tangle of the straight jacket. I hate when supernatural stories end with, oh it was just a woman who went crazy, but there you have it.

Rating (3.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, some are just more recommended than others.

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009)

Dead Hooker in a Trunk (2009) - Jen and Silvia Soska present this really bad day of violence and death in this home brewed exploitation flick. Starting in a club we follow our lead "Badass" (Sylvia Soska) as she enters and has a drink with her friend "Junkie" (Rikki Gagne) but we are also there for the argument between the "Cowboy Pimp" (John Tench) and his "Hooker" (Tasha Moth) as they go at it in the bar. We get a forward flash where she is taking a baseball bat to the head, thus setting up the title of the film.
A look into the past shows us Badass as a little girl witnessing the death of her mother at the hands of her father. She as a child picks up the gun and shoots him, so we know what her issues are. That is how she got so Badass?, the trauma of having to murder your own father? No that's a starting point but unfortunately the film doesn't fill in the character any more than this. Instead we get to accept that the events of her past have slotted her into her personality. When she comes out of the memories She and Junkie go to pick up her sister Geek (Jen Soska) and head off in Badass's bad ass car to take Geek to her youth group. Geek on the other hand having avoided watching her mother die nor having killed her father has grown to adulthood a good girl. Thus the need to get her sister to drive her to pick up a friend at the church's youth group. There are a couple reasons for this, one is the fourth main character in the adventure that is about to start, Goody Two Shoes (C.J. Wallis) he is a holy roller who longs for the companionship of Geek but doesn't have the balls to do anything about it. The second is to have this really strange interaction with the Priest at the church. Probably because she is pure evil and going to hell inexplicably Badass catches on fire and he puts her out. Then he talks to a hoodie guy about Badass but thinks they should not mess with her. So it is quite obvious though that he is not quite right. This telegraphing makes the movie less fun but as violent romps go it doesn't take too much away. We certainly can sense that the Priest and the hoodie guy will show up again somewhere down the line.
The four head out to get some "shit" for Junkie, but a strange smell gets them to look in the trunk of the bad ass car and find the titular dead hooker. That is all the setup we really need to get because from here this film is a, this happened, and then this happened. It is a bad day that just gets worse while the entire time we wonder why the characters driven by Badass keep making poor decisions that make things worse. The first problem is since Badass and Junkie are a bit fuzzy about the night before they don't want to call the police. So begins the wild romp for the next couple days as they try to solve their problem without getting in trouble. They are being followed by Cowboy Pimp but seem oblivious to his vehicle just feet from them. So not just are they making bad decisions but they are not noticing who is around. Let me tell you last time I had a body in the trunk of my car, I became very hyper aware of my surroundings. You would think the characters in the film would too.
It all gets a bit strange from here which leads one to believe that maybe this is not just a poor low budget action film but instead a stealthy empowerment fantasy. That this is the hard core decisions making fantasized by a little girl who killed her abusive father. Instead of a scared traumatized child she sees herself as "Badass" the super decisive bitch you do not want to fuck with. It doesn't matter how stupid her decisions are, she will make them work with gall and spunk. Every curve thrown her way will be smacked out of the ballpark. Unfortunately I am not sure this is the case, so Badass becomes a one toned character who forces her will on those around her. She lacks a story arch that brings her from her starting point to somewhere new and surprising through the adventures of the day.
Deciding to bury the corpse instead of say, dumping it on the side of the empty road, or leaving it in the hotel room they got, or sitting it on a park bench to be found by a jogger, anything except keeping it with them for a day so they can depose of it. Note that although they have this body in the trunk of the car, they had no part in putting it there. They owe nothing to the hooker nor do they need to risk accessory to murder by touching it. Sure the setup is there that the police might blame them but like I point out above there are lots of things to be done with a dead body. Letting the hotel desk guy molest it in the car as payment for the room was pretty low on my list of things.
Geek has the very strange idea to call the cops on her sister. Really? The make believe that follows can't easily be explained nor can any real rationalization for the decision be made. The cops though do not end up looking very good after the music video encounter with Badass. She struts her sexy self well enough to leave them wishing they never responded to the call. It is much ado about nothing and in the end the foursome is back on the road with the hooker again in the trunk.
They head out get a fix for Junkie at her old boyfriends apartment, I use that term "apartment" as a very flexible way to describe a place to live but most human beings would not consider the pit he has to be livable. Cowboy Pimp is there again as he continues to track his Hooker, did he put the body in the trunk? Could he not ask them for the body? I believe he knows they have seen the hooker so whats the deal? Junkie gets a fix and a fuck with the boyfriend when for no real reason some Asian guys come and are going to kill them both. I am sure it is a money owed thing concerning drugs but again we shift into a long line of events with little organic origins in the film. There is some excellent gory violence while they are killing the boyfriend and cutting her arm with a saw. Lucky for Junkie that she has Badass for a friend. Saving the day with some more cool gory violence they get out of the situation now leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Now she is a killer but since it is for the right reasons, saving a friend there is no reason to be appalled by it.
Meanwhile Geek is again calling the police, this sister rivalry has to stop! While that call is happening a hooded figure walks up behind her and cracks her in the head with a pipe. Down she goes her eye knocked clean out of her head. You are probably saying "What the fuck!" at this point as was I. Even the fact the Goody Two Shoes was in the car while Geek was being attacked directly outside the door was enough to almost make me turn this film off. They all end up back in the car driving away the whole while the Cowboy Pimp watches from the sidelines. When they stop on the side of the road and a passing truck takes the arm right off Junkie we know we are in a complete fantasy. Badass does punch out the trucker and pulls the severed are from the grill. A bit of duct take and bingo Junkie can make it until the hospital. Which I should mention is not NOW! No instead the film goes off the rails with the explanation of the arm reattachment, the single line "I can't believe this actually worked." I remind you that this was a completely detached arm and I don't care how high Junkie was there is no way that a severed limb is not going to be extremely painful and life threatening. Okay so there is no way we can continue to suspend disbelief, and even though I watched this strange piece of work to the end I was dumbfounded by the irrational twist it takes. Questions still need to be answered and I am sure you will be drained while finding the answers. Will they ever bury that damn hooker? Will the Cowboy Pimp ever make his intentions known? Who is the strange hooded attacker? Will the Junkie ever get that arm looked at by a doctor? Will the Goody two shoes ever get that kiss from Geek he so desires? Will this day and this film ever end? Hey and although I did not mention it we do find out how the Hooker gets in the trunk and who killed her. They why is what is so fucked up in this scenario.
So many more things just happen and the climax is energetic and all the loose ends tied up. No doubt that our sisters will come out of it relatively okay. When the line that sums up the movie is " I can't believe there aren't any repercussions for all the things we have did over the last... " Neither can the audience.
So will I recommend this film? No, but I have to say I have always sort of enjoyed gory violence and did so in this film too. In fact I don't know what it is about exploitation that makes me "want" to watch it. It is not like a Giallo where the violence and nudity is mixed in a mystery of a story. It is probably because the films in this genre are so straight up and in your face. In a time where everything is so packaged it is refreshing to see a blunt instrument used to cause the audience damage. It did not make a lot of sense but it is a ride of sorts. I also appreciated the pretty decent music in the film. When all is said and done you still have to give a lot of credit to the Soska sisters for creating a film that they wanted to create. They wrote , produced, directed, acted in, did stunts for and I am sure had a hand in everything else in this film too. They created an internet presence and have given themselves a start in the business. That is more than can be said for all us film lovers out there that write blogs. So props for the work they have done and who knows, maybe this won't be the last Soska Sisters review I will do.
Rating (4.8) 5.0 and up are recommended, some films just more recommended than others.

Season of the Witch (2011)

Season of the Witch (2011) - QUICK HIT! I don't really want to spend a lot of time talking about this film, but I saw it the other night on Netflix streaming and gave it a whirl. Opening scenes are important and the opening of this film is all about the book of Solomon. Witches are being taken from a village for hanging and drowning. A priest oversees it and after the poor women are killed he requests they be pulled up so he can do a ritual from the book to keep demons from entering them and bringing them back to life. Unfortunately on this day the soldiers are tired and leave him to do that work himself. You can guess what happens. So we know this scene has not been put here for no reason so it is bound to come up again later in the film.
Set in the 14th century or so the crusades are in full swing. We are introduced to our hero's the buddy team of Behmen (Nicolas Cage) and Felson (Ron Perlman). We get to hear there buddy banter as the compete for the right to drink free by slaughtering their way through multiple fictional battles.Whoever kills more enemies drinks for free, which is how we do it at our family gatherings. The sequence may be a bit long I think it had five battles highlighted and is designed to show that these are quality fighters, the brutality of battle and to highlight that they are fighting on the side of good. The Gulf of Edremit 1332, The siege of Tripoli 1334, The Battle of Imbros 1337, The Battle of Artah 1339, Battle of Smyrna 1344, the final battle is the the crusader breaking into a city. Some of these battles never took place in history others like the battles of Imbros and Artah took place at different times but the idea is to show they are seasoned veterans of the crusades as well as how the crusades went from war with the armies of Islam to corrupted slaughter of innocents. Finally when ordered into a city where Behmen in the fog of war drives his sword through a young woman. As the smoke clears he and Felson see that they have been slaughtering women and children. A personal crisis of conscience that leads to their decision to desert the army.
As they head back toward home, a month into that trip the two men come across a farm where they first see the black plague. The excellent special effect make for a gruesome scene.
When they next reach a town they see more of the plague. They are captured as deserters and brought before the plague infected leader of the town. There offered the task of helping take a convicted witch to a monastery 200 leagues away, where a book of Solomon exists that can deal with her magic. It is thought she is creating the plague and the verses in the book of Soloman can be used to negate the magic. Even though our heroes refuse it is inevitable that it is going to happen, there would be no movie! So with a priest (Stephen Campbell Moore), a young knight wannabe (Robert Sheehan), another veteran knight (Ulrich Thomson) and a criminal (Stephen Graham) who happens to know the way the two men with witch (Claire Foy) in caged wagon spend the next 40 minutes of the film on the road. There is much to do about how the witch will use her powers to turn one man against another but remarkable this does not really happen. Sure they have their doubts about each other but the road is long and the way treacherous so stress levels are high. I am not saying that this is not an interesting part of the film, it is a good enough story. Only two characters die before they reach the abbey so not too much chaos is wrought. The climax is exciting with some good creatures and fighting and saving the world. Thirty minutes of taking care of the business at hand. We know because Nick Cage is in the film that he gets to have that moment of doubt before finally winning. This movie is really not bad but does a recap thing that I did not like very much as Behmen has a moment of recognition of her plan. You do not have to explain the breadcrumbs that the writer Bragi F Schut left on the road. He wrote the really underrated and short lived show Threshold. Director Dominic Sena does a decent job and in the end I recommend this as a fair view. Filmed primarily on sets it has a strange old time horror movie feel, lit primarily in blues it can be dark at times. The music is good in that it is not overwhelming. So give it a view.
Rating (5.7) 5.0 and up are recommended but some more recommended than others.

Frightmare (2000) Horror Slasher

Frightmare (2000) - Listed on imdb as "Paranoid" (Not the Jessica Alba movie where she is drugged and taken advantage of) it is a not so great slasher film that just was all over the place never really forming solidly into a coherent plot. It lacks honest motivation and action in the characters and the authority figures act so irrational and dismissive that it is maddening. When the reveal does happen it is way too late to save this film. In fact I would argue the way you find out the details of who the killer is and his/her motivations is the worst possible way of finding out. It is so horrible when the killer explains everything he/she has done while chasing the final victim in a locked enclosed space. So instead of the story showing through the character her/his motivations we are just told at the end. It is a very frustrating approach that negates the storytelling earlier in the film for the cheap surprise of a reveal at the end. Don't get me wrong it is not easy to balance the line between wanting to hold back details for the turn and giving foreshadowing through character. This film unfortunately fails to do it in a way that is satisfying to the viewer.

In the opening scene we have a worker (Tyler Thebaut)at a Gold's Gym closing up for the night and at the same time being stalked by a dark figure. It is classic horror with flashes of the figure and the victim creeping around the empty gym, the tense music adding to the atmosphere. There is some misdirection here as you see the stalker take the girls keys but when she gets panicked and reaches for them they are there. Did the stalker take her car key? She gets out of the gym and goes for her car the figure closing behind her. She does have the key and drives away just in time. So what does it mean? Since the focus stays on the girl, we see her as she arrives home we know there is more to come. The music gives away that we should start getting tense as she finds her front door opened. After the kill scene we learn through the reporter on the television that this seems to be the work of the serial murderer known as the "Conscience Killer", but it is odd that he has moved to the small town of Sugar Hill.

Introduced to our main character at the end of the news report, Sarah Falls (Shanda Lee Munson), a high school student who happened to lose her sister Rebecca in a murder a couple years before. Her Mother and father are heading out on a trip, her Mom obviously still very depressed since the death of one of her twins. Sarah working with her fellow students on a haunted house to raise money for the senior trip to the Cayman Islands. We meet the group, Jason her boyfriend, Norman (Brandon O'Dell) the unpopular kid trying to change his image by creating the haunted house, Courtney her hot blond friend, Hell Raiser (Denny Zartman) the druggie always looking for a party, and Michael the guy who just moved to town from Boston and the really obvious red herring and dating Courtney.

Four of them Jason (Shawn Wright), Sarah, Michael (Michael Short) and Courtney (Summer Sloan LaPann) head over to Hell Raiser's place together only to have Michael's car overheat. To find water for the radiator they wander to a nearby abandoned house. Here we get to hear the single most annoying piece of thinking out loud in the movie as Sarah walks with a flashlight and says "It so isolated and alone" speaking about the house. It is not alone though as we can plainly see candlelight in the vacant frames of the windows. The four go in finding no water but definitely finding the trouble and saying stupid shit. Examples you say?

"Hello we're a bunch of high school kids with a broken down car, we need some water for our radiator." shouts Michael (At least with this line we can assume that the writer is being tongue in cheek by having this line spoken out loud.)
Jason says" I don't think anyone lives here as he stands in front of a mattress with rumpled sheet, a small TV that is on, and lit candles all around. Really that is the best dialog writer Ash Smith could come up with? No who are we kidding you don't even have to put two and two together. Neither do most of the characters either. as they look in the room with all the articles pinned to the wall including a wanted poster, they find weapons and a bloody clothes. Sarah says "Things are starting to add up. This is the perfect house to hide in. Killer articles, bloody clothes, weapons no two being the same." and two different characters at this point pipe in "What are you trying to say Sarah?" Really it is not evident what she is getting at. These characters are really that dumb. Oh wait she must be saying it for the audience since either we are seen as really dumb or the writer was so unsure we would figure out who lives there he had to spell it out. grrrrrr... Anyway if you are paying attention there are some clues to the somewhat complicated plot here. When they find writings on the wall for the Conscience Killer and he shows up in a mask and with a chainsaw we are in full swing. There is a chase and an escape but there is no real tension in it.
Now the incompetent police in this genre of movies but really. This crew in Sugar Hill is something to wonder at in their inability to perform the simplest of investigative work. After the murder that opened the film the kids head to the police with their story of seeing the killer in the abandoned house. Not only do the police laugh and dismiss them as playing a prank, but the chief locks his own son, Jason in a cell for safe keeping or to learn respect or something. This is not like in Killer Klowns From Outer Space when Mooney does not believe Debbie and Mike as they explain there are Klowns from Outer Space killing people with popcorn guns and cotton candy cocoons. This is a group of teens who are reporting finding the hideout of, and seeing the killer the night after a gruesome murder and the police just laugh it off. They do not even send out a car to check out the house. WTF! Now again if the film's intent is to parody cops in horror films then this is spot on and the writer is hilarious, but to this point the film seems to be taking itself very seriously so it is difficult to see this as parody.

As you can guess the killer starts after the kids but boy is it a slow process, there is a large chunk in the middle focusing on the Concience Killers motivations and the kids acting out since they are not being listened too. We learn about Sarah's sister Rebecca and ho her killer was never caught. Oh and did I mention the killer Rave, yes taking time out from being hunted and talking and talking about being hunted they have a party. It sure takes a long time from the time they are confronted at the killer's house and the beginning of the climax, like 55 minutes. So finally we get to the final night of the fund raiser and all the seniors are going on their trip. Celebrating in the haunted house with the main group minus Michael who was killed in the rave, wonder what happened to him. Some suggest maybe he was the killer, body never found he is just gone. When the three guys head into the black light room to smoke some killer weed it is just moments until the death and destruction starts up. The climax as I explained in the beginning is just a mess and after the killer is reveal her/his motivation it is really dumb. Adding some bullshit weird last scene can not save this film. So If I were you I would just skip this film and not suffer through it.

Rating (3.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, some are just more recommended than others.

Absentia (2011) Horror Monster

Absentia (2011) - This character driven film is less a horror film than a meditation on grief and closure. Sure at the end it is a horror flick in that just when the main character Tricia (Courtney Bell) starts to move on her past life comes stumbling back to haunt her. Early in the film it Tricia with the company of her little sister Callie (Katie Parker) works toward filing papers to have her husband Daniel (Morgan Peter Brown) declared dead by absentia as he has been missing for 7 years. These actions bring up very difficult feelings for the pregnant Tricia. Pregnant?, you say. Yes it appears our miss Trish has already started moving on. Her love interest and father of her child is Det. Mallory (Dave Levine) who has been working the case for several years. It is part of a well put together set of characters who are not perfect and it plays well in the film. Each has a set of issues that are honest, Tricia having hallucinations of her lost husband as she prepares to seek the death certificate. Mallory who has the awkward professional / personal relationship with her. Callie who is there to help her sister but is struggling to deal with a drug addiction.
Callie I guess is a protagonist in she has some strange experiences in a tunnel that runs from the neighborhood to a park on the other side. Early on she encounters a strange man in the tunnel who wants her to help him. Looking like a vagrant she is slow to react but her heart is bigger than that and she brings him food in exchange for some trinkets. She is warned by a local passer by that she should not trade with "it". Ominous, but not the only strange thing that is going on in the area. There have been a bunch of strange break-ins where the person doing it leaves obvious things of value for trinkets. Strange also are the pets in the neighborhood disappearing at an alarming rate. This all sets up a nice dynamic of having mystery while these full characters struggle with there inner demons.
When the turn comes it is sort of expected but still enjoyable. Things are thrown for a loop and all bets are off for these people. Then the film moves from character driven drama to solid enough horror flick. Unfortunately the explanation comes in a trope that may be overused in Hollywood. Callie searches the internet and then there is suddenly so much clarity for her. Tricia plays the skeptic to make sure we the audience are forced to be convinced. There is a history in this area of people vanishing and Callie "traded with it". Still she has only missing persons information. How is it that police have worked these cases for years without ever seeing the patterns that Callie sees. Is it that in her drug addled mind she is making connections that aren't there? All this combines for a bit of a monster movie without really ever seeing the monster. The film makers did do a nice job creating the idea of the monster, shot for very little money they worked movie magic with glimpses and shadow and things moving behind curtains.
The second turn in the film does the opposite of what we would want in a script. Instead of building off the first turn we get a bit of excitement and then a return to the quiet drama of the first half of the film. The music is not dynamic enough with a very one note tone that never lets tension build but instead holds it at a low level. When the climax begins in what should be pulse racing thrills instead we get a muted flashback of what Callie saw happening in the house. Oh and there is this stupid thing where on two occasions characters are asked to file missing person reports. In both cases it is common knowledge that it is way too soon to do so; so each case is off putting. The climax is also less than fulfilling with a confrontation that is never seen. A trade that is never seen and closure that never comes. You are left guessing if her ploy works or not.
This film is a testament to what can be done with limited resources it is not brilliant but it is decent. So kudos for Mike Flanagan for using Kickstarter to get his project done, and to his friends the actors who pulled off honest portrayals. I can recommend this film as one I liked but wished for more. More? well from the pacing and the music and if ever they could have had more money, and more of the monster.
Rating (5.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, some are just more recommended than others.

Spaced Out (1981) Sci-Fi Sex Comedy

Spaced Out (1981) - I have reviewed so many very serious horror movies lately that this surprise from my Netflix queue was welcomed. Believe me when I tell you that it would be hardly welcomed any other time. I don't even remember adding it to Netflix, but it arrived and ended up being a decent, if ridiculous break from the heavy stuff I have been watching. I think I may have been adding movies from director Norman J. Warren who has a slew of sci-fi horror entries that could get reviewed on this blog and the one that was Bloody New Year (1987). Originally titled "Outer Touch" it is about three aliens who are awful at running their ship, who have to land on Earth. In doing so they take onto the ship four Brits and then go back into space. Not being the smartest aliens in the galaxy, they do not understand the concept of men or their function in procreation. It is intended to be a hilarious learning experience, but isn't really.
The Earthlings include the couple arguing, Oliver (Barry Stokes) and Prudence (Lynne Ross) because she won't put out, a horny young teen, Willy (Tony Maiden) who is in the park masturbating to porn magazines, and an older guy, Cliff (Michael Rowlatt) nosing into the couples affairs. They are all in the park when the spaceship lands and what else is there to do but go aboard. This first image is how our boy Cliff imagines Prudence as he watches through the bushes. What ever happened to his dog?
Then comes the humor as the three aliens observe men for the fist time. All the while the ships computer voice keeps telling them about different components that are failing and how he needs an overhaul. Yes I said he, apparently voices that sound like men are not uncommon with the aliens although they have never seen a man. The Captain is a cigar smoking leather clad warrior who is just called Skipper (Kate Ferguson). She thinks that there is something to be gained through hand to hand combat with the males and ends up in a silly but amusing duel with the very drunk Willy. He shambles around in a slapstick farce evading her attacks while accidentally knocking her on her ass. Leaving her rather agitated and perplexed.
Willy probably the primary character of the humans manages to sleep with each alien. Considering that coming in he was a virgin its good news for him. The mechanic Partha (Ava Cadell) is the first to encounter him as she examines his body and they have what is suppose to be a funny conversation about penis' and what they are used for. Early on though she is interrupted before they can get too far so it has to wait til later. He does seal the deal with the ship scientist Cosia (Glory Annen) who has her bit measuring him and because of the ships malfunctions is told he is a super special specimen and thus has to experiment with him.
Partha pulls the older guy Cliff in for a roll in the hay, and likes it so much she wants it over and over again, the big joke being Cliff says no mas after eight times. Partha exceptional looks shine though in these love making scenes but note this is not pornographic. There is a bit of breast and bum but pretty much this is silly and tame. At least the alien women are beautiful to look at and Partha in particular showed her assets.
Prudence and Oliver go through the full gambit with their relationship during this little space flight. In the beginning she insists they wait until they marry for sex. She said he can do it all the time...at least on Saturday nights. Of course she is jealous of the very attractive alien women that her man is now noticing. They fight and break off their engagement. He is a bit of a dweeb when it comes to her. In the hospitality room he meets a being from another planet, Wurlitzer who just happens to be a jukebox. When you feed coins into him he is a therapist by trade and helps Oliver to get through to his woman. They finally do it on the spaceship and their relationship is better for it. Quite the useless storyline.
When all is said and done the humans are dropped back off on earth, except Willy who stays to have sex with the three aliens. There lives have been changed and they have had quite the adventure. The ship heads back into space and while Willy bangs Skipper, Cosia gets her chance to drive the ship. The computer complains and then there is one final surprise. It was a really silly film with some poor acting and silly jokes more for the 13 yr old boy than anyone else. Not many of the actors really went on to do too much more of note. Not that this is something of note.
Ava Cadell has gone on to act in bit parts in movies like Smokey and the Bandit 3, and Commando but her real news was after acting. She became a Doctor in sexual studies She now counsels and lectures on relationships and sex. She can be found at WeTalkSex.com
Rating (2.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, some are just more recommended than others.

The Dead (2010) Horror Zombie

The Dead (2010) - It has been a long time since someone made a zombie movie where the zombies were a relentless shuffling presence, we have been so inundated with fast moving infected that we have forgotten the dread of the shuffling dead. This film for me was a real throwback, paced almost like a 1970's film it was determined to remind us that slow zombies are terrifying. It has a relentless dread that makes it a winner in my book. Modern audiences and their fickle need for action every three and a half minutes may not be as enthusiastic but for this product of the 70s it is refreshing. Written and directed by the brothers Jonathan Ford, and Howard J Ford it is simple and honest in the reality they created. The film starts with the main character who has not been introduced yet dealing with some slow moving zombies in the desert. It is clear at this point he is skilled in not wasting his ammunition as he dispatches them. We will return to this present Brian Murphy later but first we see his story.
Rob Freeman is Lt. Brian Murphy, an air force engineer who is on the last plane out of Africa and in the plane we learn that the dead are turning into zombies who want to chew the flesh of the living, as a dying man reanimates on the plane. The crisis on the ground meant that this plane full of the last aide workers there just took off even before the plane was ready. It is barely in the air and in fact will shortly crash leaving Murphy as the sole survivor. Struggling to the shore after the plane hits the ocean Murphy can see the dead slowly coming for him from all direction, the injured soldier on the beach next to him will give him enough time to gather weapons and some clothes before he must start moving to keep from being surrounded. We see the crisis is no longer a struggle that is going to be won. The country is overrun by the dead and there will be no real safe haven. It is now all about survival and the only way it seem to do that is to keep moving and supplied with enough bullets for when the dead get too close.
The scenery is really amazing in this film, the African plains, dusty reed filled fields and vast vistas but that being said it reveals a real problem too. In this vast area it seem there are a terrifyingly large number of zombies wandering around. In fact everywhere that Murphy goes there are so many zombies slowly shuffling without rest towards him he really only gets a minute or two of reprieve before moving on. You would think in such a large continent that there would be lots of places where there are no zombies. It seems though every time Murphy slows down there are too many to handle. Certainly there seems to be an innate ability for the zombies to find the living, they seem drawn towards them even from great distances. You have to wonder though what the range of the living beings radar is? Everyday everyone is just shuffling, but would a good amount of them just shuffle on out away from what was civilization?
Don't get me wrong, the tension the zombie prescience for the living adds is great but it just seems a bit unrealistic.
There is another more awkward problem with this film. Giving the film makers the benefit of the doubt, they set the film in Africa, a location that does not get a lot of attention in movies. They unfortunately created a white, blue eyed lead character who wanders around the entire film shooting black Africans in the head. The perceptions of this will certainly create a lot of conversation. We could have had the lead be the soldier that Murphy comes across and works with for a good part of the movie. Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia) is a strong solid character who when he shoots his own countrymen does not do so with the same Colonial occupation history as a white man. Granted Murphy in the film is an American but the English film production makes for a bit of bad mojo in this instance. It is impossible not to have Murphy kill Africans in this particular movie situation, the continent has a 99% black population so by following this characters story it is the only way things can turn out. I just wonder whether this was a foreseen issue or something the film makers did not even think about. It is not a racist movie, we have two characters one white and won black who travel together and help each other for a good part of the film. They are equals, the living, and there is no mention of race. In fact the scenes of villages and the people from these place I think is a really honest representation of some places in Africa.
When Murphy and Dembele get together with a shared purpose if you were paying attention to the beginning of the film, you know that eventually Murphy is alone again. You may also have noticed he is carrying Dembele's gun so you can guess that this is not the soldier's story. He had returned to his village, deserting his roadblock assignment to find his wife and son. His wife dead and his son missing he guesses that the survivors would have travelled north a couple hundred miles to a military base. This is where he is heading when he meets Murphy. There is a nice parallel between the two as Murphy also has a family he wants to get back to. Isn't that really where we all want to be if the end comes, with our loved ones. On their journey together they meet former soldier all defending their own village from the zombies and it is clear in those conversations that it is better to die defending your home than out in the desert fleeing for life. It really is a theme that is present, a way to have hope that there can be an ending that is not determined by fear. Dembele wears a necklace with a carved symbol that stands for hope and after his demise Murphy carries it on himself as he completes the journey to the military base for his fallen comrade.
This movie with this bit of hope really is quite bleak. The end for the living is never pleasant, a hurt leg or lack of water can slow you down just enough that you no longer can out run the dead. Soon you are having your flesh bitten from your body, dying in agony. The zombies with their white contact eyes that don't blink just keep coming. The are scary but not in a "Oh My Gross" way but more the building fear that comes from the inevitable slip the living person will make. There are few places to rest and even fewer to sleep. Where they seem to sense the living it is impossible to avoid being found by any zombies that get in range. Exhaustion or waking just a bit too slowly and your doom is sealed. It is a really frightening way to try to survive. The attack scene are a good gruesome collection as the zombies bit in chew flesh or the bodies and parts are seen laying around an attacked area. The CGI of the kill shots is less impressive but seem to be the way films are going with gunshots.
Unimpressive also was the way too fast and seemingly impossible fight at the wall of the military base. Murphy by himself has to kill enough zombies to get up over the wall before being grabbed. The scene is quick cuts and reaction inside of people hearing him fight. I thought is all a bit too fast and easy, even a bit impossible. Still for the story's sake he needed to get in, unfortunately it is right at the final moments of the walls holding. The incredibly hopeless ending can't be saved by the small personal moments just before the end. Even some of those are strange, Murphy walking through the crowds of survivors, being touched by them like he is the second coming, then unwrapping his head and revealing his white face. There is a hope there that the film then tries to build on only to kick us in the balls all over again. Murphy fixes the broken radio and actually contacts someone he knows at an American base. He again gets them at the worst possible moment, the base is about to be over run and his friend is there to tell him his family is probably dead and there is no safe place for the living to go. WOW! really did that huh!
Now I don't mind the downer ending and you know he finds Dembele's son but to end talking about hope as your death approaches I don't know about that. So in all I really liked this film. The kind of zombie film it is really falls in my sweet zone. Sure there are problems but I don't think any intentional malice or callousness. I would definitely recommend this film to those who choose the slower paced scare over the action scare.
Rating (5.9) 5.0 and up are recommended films, some just more recommended than others.

Dream Home (2010) - Horror

Dream Home (2010) - "Wai dor lei ah yut ho" original title, from Hong Kong this film is a surprising gory and brutal story that has enough back story to make it all seem reasonable, in a crazy kind of way. Cheng Li-sheung (Josie Ho) lives in Hong Kong and dreams of the apartment with a view of the ocean. She works two jobs and puts aside as much money as possible for that Dream Home. Skipping the fun her friends and coworkers enjoy instead focusing on her goal of saving money. If there is a drawback to this film it is that she is not a fully rounded person in the world. She has few friends and her sexual life consists of liaisons with a married man. She has a brother but really her world is compact. She strive alone to gain a goal and is single minded about it.
There is good reason for this as we see in the flashbacks to her childhood. Cheng Li sheung had a tough childhood. One where the people in her parents and neighbors were fighting to keep their housing in the face of redevelopment pressure. Touching on Hong Kong's growth problems the film highlights the struggle of the poor in a fight for affordable housing. The tactics used by the developers include locking people in buildings and releasing poisonous snakes in the building. These kind of incidents influenced or lead character. The friendship she had with the boy across the street who later vanishes as his building was empties and demolished impacted her greatly. This is the foundation of her drive for the perfect home. Cheng Li-sheung is a character shown to have a deep personal motivation. It is good writing by Ho-Cheng Pang who also directed, in his solid screenplay and story. Not only does he create a forceful character but there are some intesting secondary characters who she comes into contact with. He wrote in societal subtext about housing in Hong Kong without hitting you over the head with it and allowed it to be the prime motivation in the leads personality.
A second commentary on Chinese society in Hong Kong is the absent husband. Through her relationship with a married man and other characters conversations in the film. We see the issue of how husbands must work hard but then also how they keep mistresses and really secondary lives outside the home. It is a small thing in the film but it is seen throughout.
She has a choice to make when her father (Norman Chu) becomes ill and needs expensive treatment. Caring for him at home she shows her character as he struggles to hold onto life. Later we see her again when her dream is threatened step up and make the hard choices to get that apartment. With the price still out of reach and the sellers questioning if they should be asking for more, Cheng Li-sheung puts a strategy in motion to bring the price down. It is shocking and well executed movie making, brutal and gory the film almost descends into a slasher.
Driven with a need Cheng Li-sheung goes about entering the apartment building she so desires and working her way through several apartments killing the residents. I liked that this was not portrayed like a slasher film would do it. The kills are not easy or comic book quick. They are intense, gory and a struggle for the main character. She is not a killer but she really has thought out how to do it. She persists through the things that go wrong that night and manages in the end to get out of it in one piece. It is again a fine piece of writing to get the audience to cheer for the killer. She is butchering innocent people and yet we are on her side.
Some of the kills are a sight to be seen but be warned if you have a weak stomach for gore you will not be pleased. After the killings in the building she has quite a negotiation tool in talking down the price and very soon has her Dream Home. The ironic timing considering what she did to get the place is a final twist that I found just a bit too cute. Overall though this was a fine film with a deep enough back story to make it all make sense.
Rating (5.9) 5.0 and up are recommended in the zombiegrrlz system, I say RENT IT!