Death Trip: Why Can’t We All Just Love Our Neighbor

Death Trip is a horror film directed by James Watts. The plot sees a group of friends go and stay at their parents cottage, whilst staying there they start to learn troubling secrets about the neighbours, and after a while one of the number is found mutilated. The friends now find themselves trapped in a hostile environment.

The mystery of what is going on here, which I won’t ruin as this is fairly new, is one of the best I have seen in years: it really had me going, I thought I figured out what was going on early into the film, but boy was I wrong.

I found this film quite scary, which is surprising considering that the home invasion/ evil neighbours sub-genre has been done to death several times over at this point. I ended up liking and becoming attached to the characters, so when they faced annihilation it felt all the more weighty and made me very tense. The threat is very real and present throughout, even in scenes that seem happy and light there is always a little bit there.

My one issue with this film, only a slight one, is that there are a few pacing issues mainly in the beginning of the film that make it a bit of a slog, luckily the film picks up after the first twenty minutes, so it isn’t that bad.

Overall, an interesting take on the sub-genre.

Pros.

The story doesn’t go where you are expecting it to

The characters are feel real and relatable

A palpable sense of threat

Doing interesting things with the genre

Cons.

Pacing issues mainly in the first twenty minutes.

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Reckoning: A New Action Hero Is Born

The Reckoning is a adventure horror film directed by Neil Marshall. The plot sees Grace (Charlotte Kirk) be accused of witchcraft after she turns down the sexual advances of her landlord, following her husband’s death. Needless to say she is horribly and violently tortured by the local Witch Finder General (Sean Pertwee), but Grace stays strong and refuses to confess.

I think the story is well done and fits nicely into the genre. It won’t win any prizes for writing though, as the Me Too metaphor is a little too on the nose and has about as much subtly as a Michael Bay explosion. I understand that Marshall and Kirk wanted to use this film to take aim at some of their Hollywood enemies, and that is far enough, but don’t claim that is has nothing to do with that when it very clearly does.

The costume design is strongly done and the scenes with the Devil in them, yes that’s right whilst on the inside Grace is tormented every night by the Devil demanding her soul, are easily the strongest from a design perspective of the film. Looking at the Devil character here reminds me that Marshal has always handled creature design well: with some of the best examples of my point being Baba Yaga (Hellboy), and the werewolves in Dog Soldiers.

Kirk is a strong lead, and a believable ass kicker. I thought from an empowerment perspective, that she was yet another sorely needed female action hero, with the final scene of this film begging for the sequel treatment. We need to see Grace reunited with her kid after all, or maybe just hunting down some more evil doers- I’d happily watch either.

Overall, top tier Marshal even if the metaphor is a little too on the nose. Marshal really is one of the most underrated directors working today.

Pros.

Kirk

The creature design

The ending and the sequel set up

Sean Pertwee

It is more of Marshal doing what he does best

Cons.

The Me-Too Stuff is way too on the nose, and obviously inspired.

4.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Red Dot: Taking The Originality Out Of The Netflix Original

Red Dot is a Swedish horror thriller film directed by Alain Darborg. The plot sees a struggling young couple head up to the mountains for a hiking retreat to fix their issues before their child is born, however, once they head up the mountain they become the prey of a killer, a hunt for survival ensues. Real original I know.

Don’t waste your time with this please. I am a big defender of Netflix in a lot of ways, I think they are often given an unfairly hard time, however, when they release trash like this one can understand the hate. The film is deeply, and I do mean deeply unoriginal: this feels like the 4^th or 5^th time I’ve seen this premise done and it does not feel any fresher.

Moreover, the main couple, who I have no idea what they were called and don’t care to look it up, are two of the most bland and unlikeable characters ever put to film. The opening ten minutes is just them having argument after argument, yay? That’s interesting. To be frank with you by the time they made it up the mountain I already disliked them so much that I was hoping the killer would hurry up so I could lose less of my free time.

Everything about this film progresses as you would expect it to and there are no surprises.

Overall, the weakest Netflix original of 2021 so far.

Pros.

There are some pretty shots

Cons.

The main couple are awful, and you don’t care about them

It is not tense or scary

It is predictable

It is sorely unoriginal

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Willy’s Wonderland: Perhaps The Best Nicolas Cage Film Ever Made

Willy’s Wonderland is an action, horror, comedy film directed by Kevin Lewis. The plot sees a man known only as the Janitor (Nicolas Cage) have to work off the debt of repairing his car, by cleaning an alleged haunted pizzeria, where the animatronics come to life and murder people. Basically Five Nights At Freddie’s, but not for legal reasons.

This is easily my favourite film of 2021 so far; it is one of the few films I have enjoyed so much that I preordered it on DVD immediately after watching. There is something so wonderfully weird about this film that makes it what it is.

I saw a review call this this something to the extent of the most ‘Nicolas Cage weirdness ever put into a film’ and it truly is that: this film was made without a doubt based on the internet’s love affair with the odd performances and behaviour of Nicolas Cage, and no one else could have pulled it off.

Nicolas Cage is majestic here, he truly sells the weirdness of a man who has to drink a can of soft drink every hour or so or face dire consequences. There are so many great weird Nicolas Cage moments here, such as him doing a fabulous dance after finally besting the arcades pinball machine, or just scene after scene of watching him rip apart animatronic machines.

Moreover, Cage does not say a single word in the whole of the film, yet he conveys so much emotion and character just from facial expressions that he doesn’t need to: it is a gutsy stylistic choice but one that works out for the film.

Overall, one of the best films of the last few years and maybe my favourite Nicolas Cage film ever, check it out!

Pros.

It is hilarious

It is cool

The action and the horror elements are both solid

Nicolas Cage

The ending

Cons.

None

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: Falling To Earth, A Series Retrospective

This will serve as a retrospective over the entire run of the Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina, serving not necessarily to give an ultimately score of the series but more to talk about it in generally, the highs and the lows and what became of it in the end. I will be referring to each part as a season, because let’s face it that’s what they are, Netflix you aren’t fooling anyone.

So, when the CAOS was first announced I was excited, the idea seemed interesting, Riverdale was still good (yes such a time existed, the first season and the first half of the second season), it had not yet lived long enough to become the villain it is today, everything seemed to be in its favour.

When the first season came around everything went well, Kiernan Shipka and the rest of the cast perfectly fitted the shows sense of style, the tone maintained a good balance between scares and teen antics. All was well with the world, of the show that is.

Then came the second season, and things were still good: we got to see more of the world, Hell became a more regular player in the show and that allowed it to open up in a number of interesting ways. However, the cracks had begun to show many of the characters would go on cringey and forced rants about trendy political talking points, in perhaps some of the most token ways possible the show was trying to be woke. The subject matter itself was not the problem it was the way it was handled in the writing that becomes an issue, with the ideal of subtly being well and truly dead. However, I still enjoyed the show and skipped most of the needlessly political speeches, and I binged the second season in a handful of days.

Then came season three and the shows fall from grace. There was so many things wrong with season three I don’t know where to begin, go and read my review of that season for my comprehensive thoughts on it. Making Sabrina a cheerleader? The forced musical numbers and scenes that were widely mocked and condemned online, making the series into Riverdale, really forcing politics into every part of the show, I could go on. This was by far the worst season of the show, and the first I struggled to sit through, and the show seemed to realise that itself.

With the final season the series tried to fix some of its past mistakes, it tried to get the tone and soul of the series back to what it used to be. It had some good scary moments, was it back to the heights of season one? No, not by a long shot, again why do we need musical interludes every few scenes? Although it was better than season three and that was the crucial point this season needed to land.

The ending was very fitting of the show, I wont spoil it as it is still fairly new, but it ended in a way that felt correct that felt right by the characters with enough room there to come back in some way if Netflix has a change of heart.

Overall, in the beginning CAOS was something special and thanks to a very talented cast it never became truly bad though it did lose its way, it tried to return to its roots in the end with mixed results.

Bloody Hell: Don’t Try And Be A Hero, It Is Not Worth 8 Years

Bloody Hell is an action horror film directed by Alister Grierson. The plot sees Rex (Ben O’Toole), attempt to stop an armed robbery in his attempt an innocent women is killed, and he is sent to prison. When he is released from prison some view him as a hero others a monster, anyway his new found celebrity status proves too much for Rex, so he gets on a plane heading to Finland hoping to leave all his craziness behind: then he gets kidnapped by a family of cannibals.

I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would, and I have found over the days since I watched it, it has returned to my thoughts quite a few times. The greatest issue with this film is that the opening of the film, Rex getting to Finland is incredibly slow, however, once he gets captured things get much more interesting.

This film does a lot with a little, and even though only one or two locations are used, and the set pieces are not that elaborate or fancy, they still feel suitably tense and nerve-wracking. You are filled with dread hoping that Rex will be able to slip out of his restraints before the cannibals come to finish him off. Likewise in the final fight scene despite it being relatively small scale we are treated to a gore feast that is one of the best you way ever see.

My favourite thing about this film is its use of inner monologues, Rex talks to himself, no more than that he has full on conversations with another version of himself. I think both Rexs have great chemistry with the other and the banter between the two never leaves you wanting.

Overall, a strong B movie that makes the most out of what it has and has one of the best final brawls in recent memory.

Pros.

The ending fight

The final joke

Rex’s conversations with himself

The tension

Cons.

The opening is painfully slow.

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Psycho Goreman: Children Are Brats

Psycho Goreman is a science fiction horror film directed by Steven Kostanski. The plot sees two small children unwittingly reawaken an ancient evil. However, lucky for them they also find the gem that controls said ancient evil, which means they know have a world ending new toy.

I’m mixed on this one, for what it is worth before we get into it I don’t think you should watch the trailer before you see this film as it is misleading, and makes the film look like something it is not. Firstly, this is not a horror film it could be called a horror comedy but would be more likely fit under the science fiction comedy heading and there is no real horror in the film.

I enjoyed the campy pulpiness of this film and thought it definitely had a lot of B movie charm to it. I thought the humour also worked, at least to my tastes, as I often laughed at how off the wall and downright odd a lot of the jokes were.

The emotional plot beats and the bond between the kids is nice to see develop, they do put a lot into character work here and it does pay off as the final transformations feel earned and satisfying. The child acting was ok, they were annoying at time as child actors often are, but I have to say I have seen worse in other films.

My main issue with this film is the lack of action, I understand it is a comedy film more so than anything so we are not going to get these big intense battles, but a little more action would have been nice. We get these teases across the film of PG’s (Matthew Ninaber) past which elude to huge battles, but then cut away right before things get interesting which I found to be disappointing.

Overall if you are looking for a niche comedy you will enjoy this film if you are looking for horror or action look elsewhere.

Pros.

The B movie charm

The humour

The ending

Cons.

The child acting wasn’t good

The lack of action

2.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Voices: A Human Body Takes A Surprisingly Large Amount Of Tupperware Containers To Hold

The Voices is a black comedy horror film directed by Marjane Satrapi. The film follows the life of Jerry Hickfang (Ryan Reynolds), a mild-mannered office worker who is just trying to live his best life. However, Jerry hears voices particularly the voices of his cat and his dog and sometimes these voices lead him astray, such as when they encourage him to become a serial killer.

I have tried to watch this film before but watching it this most recent time I decided that I would stick it out until the end. Now, before I get into it I just want to say that I know comedy is subjective and black comedy even more so, however this film was just a bit too much for me in two regards.

Firstly, the cringe, there are multiple scenes in this film that are crawl up into a ball and die kind of cringe. Any scene when Jerry is trying to hit on women is particularly bad cringe to a point where it made my whole-body cringe, I think they over did it a little bit.

Secondly, this film is depressing, and you will leave it feeling bummed up. I understand that this is a dark comedy about a morbid subject but damn, this film is hard to get through. It made me laugh once or twice but for the most part it just made me feel sad. Particularly the ending.

The performances from Reynolds, Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick are all okay, I cant fault the acting though I will say no one blew me away with their performance.

Overall, this may just come down to comedic sensibilities for me this film was a bit too much, you might disagree with me and think it is hilarious: comedy especially dark comedy is very hard to judge.

Pros.

The premise is interesting

The acting is okay

Cons,

The cringe is too much

It is depressing

It feels familiar

2/5

Reviewed by Luke

The 100 Candles Game: Blowing Out The Light

The 100 Candles Game is a New Zealand horror anthology film. The plot sees a group of people play the 100 candles game which basically involves sitting in a circle and telling each other spooky stories and then going to look in a mirror after blowing out your candle and seeing if you can commune with the spirits.

I have mixed feelings about horror anthology films, as very often they end up not being very good: indeed often one bad sequence can ruin the whole film, especially in terms of tone. So, I went into this with cautiously low expectations and I am please to say that this film far exceeded my expectations.

All of the segments in this anthology work, and work well at that. They are all scary and smarty written it is nice to see the consistency maintained over the whole film rather than just have one or two good stories surrounded by bad. A lot of the segments really did scare me, and I don’t scare easily at this point, I think personally for me the black-eyed children segment was the best as it was the most tense, but that is subjective.

My one criticism of the film would be that the ending is a bit cheap and comes out of nowhere, deeply unimpressive.

Overall, ignoring the final moments this is an incredibly strong horror anthology.

Pros.

Consistency

Genuinely scary

Smartly written

Good twists

Cons.

The ending is bad

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Funeral Home: Sleeping Amongst The Dead, Never A Great Idea

The Funeral Home is an Argentinian horror film directed by Mauro Ivan Ojeda. The plot sees a family of morticians have to deal with the strains of running a funeral home, whilst something else, something far more sinister is also going on in the background.

This is an incredibly strong horror feature. This film builds its scares so well over the course of its runtime and they feel scarier for it. The atmosphere is key to all good horror films as you have heard me say before and this film nails that, as the familial tensions rise so to do the iffy not quite right goings on- till both reach a fever pitch.

I personally, though it is subjective, found the film to be scary. I think part of that comes from the originality of the film, in that the scares did not happen where and when I thought they would, and that it kept me guessing about the mystery. However, also part of this fear comes from the very real very personal struggle and infighting of the family.

I only have two slight issues with the film, one is that there were a few jump scares in there, which is a shame as the horror works so perfectly on its own it really doesn’t need them. Also, I thought more could have been done with the family yes, the drama and the friction helps to build tension and does make for some very tense scenes, but they feel a little underdeveloped as a whole.

Overall, a near perfect horror film that is brimming with fresh blood and memorable scenes.

Pros.

A strong atmosphere

Genuinely scary

It kept me guessing

The personal and often unsettling family drama

Cons.

A few jump scares

The family as individuals rather than the unit as a whole could have been better developed

4/5

Reviewed by Luke