Slaxx: Skinny Jeans Really Will Be The Death Of You

Written by Luke Barnes

Slaxx is a horror comedy film directed Elza Kephart. The plot sees the workers of a fashion store come under attack when a possessed pair of jeans goes on a murderous rampage.

This is one of the best surprises I’ve had recently. Though this film’s premise sounds absurd it is actually surprisingly well executed, and actually quite thoughtful as well. The backstory of how the jeans came to be possessed, and yes there is a significant backstory put in place for this, which I won’t spoil as this is a fairly new film is actually inspired and has a spot on message behind it.

The jean kills, are hilarious in the best way. A few made me laugh out loud, and the rest made me chuckle, they are so comically over the top and gory it is perfect. The unique nature of watching a pair of jeans kill someone is something that really hasn’t been covered much in the horror genre and this film makes up for that in a big way.

The acting is serviceable, and they manage to sell the serious threat of the possessed jeans rather than breaking down laughing so I will give them props for that.

Overall, a hilariously silly horror comedy film that you should definitely check out.

Pros.

The hilarious premise

A surprisingly deep backstory for the jeans

The jean kills

The gore

Cons.

The characters are a bit thin

4.5/5

Interview With Hunter Farris: Writer, Director, Producer and Actor For Cursed Camera

Written by Luke

Hey Everyone! I recently had the chance to sit down and chat to Hunter Farris about his new horror shot Cursed Camera, which is a delightful play on the found footage demonic possession genre, with the camera itself being possessed by a demon and killing anyone who goes off screen. We chat about, curses, found footage horror and Martin Scorsese’s quotes on cinema. I hope you enjoy.

Q: If you had to sum your film up in one word what would it be?

A: Experimental.

Q: Who is your filmmaking inspiration?

A: Todd Strauss-Schulson. I love how he used movies about movies to explore deep, universal themes.

Q: Do you have any funny on set stories?

A: I forgot to write the last scene until almost the last day of shooting. It wasn’t even in the outline; it was just an afterthought. But because of that, our cinematographer/editor was unable to plan the shot properly. So he solved the problem by taking a single screenshot and focusing on that with everything in voice-over.

Q: If you could travel back in time to when you were first starting in filmmaking out what would you say to your younger self?

A: First starting out in filmmaking. Slash your budget down to nothing. Then work with what you get. First starting out on this video? Everything will work out just fine. There were a few issues with production that caused me a lot of stress in the moment (like recasting someone on the day of filming), but none of them ultimately affected the finished product.

Q: What would you do if you were caught on the cursed camera?

A: Oh gosh… The whole point of a horror movie is that you can’t win. I mean, sure, I could try to outsmart it by following the rules and staying onscreen… until the rules change, and the camera starts randomly turning off and on. So I guess the best thing to do is turn the camera toward the wall and report the camera to the rental house so they can take care of it.

Q: What was your catalyst for making this film?

A: Honestly? I just wanted to make something that could go to a festival, without spending a dime on production. A found footage movie seemed like the most narratively interesting excuse for no budget and killing off characters was an easy way to make sure people only had to show up for a few hours of filming. So when I asked how they could die without spending money on makeup, effect, props, or costumes, I remembered Martin Scorsese’s quote (“cinema is the art of what’s in the frame and what’s not in the frame”) and decided to play around with the relationship between the character and the camera.

Q: Are there any particular films you are homaging, referencing, or spoofing with curse camera?

A: I’m gonna be honest, I haven’t watched a single found footage movie or possession movie yet, and pre-production went so fast that I didn’t have time to research. So I didn’t want to comment on any movies I hadn’t seen, so I was more commenting on the very idea of a camera. Not many movies make the camera diegetic, and I wanted to make the camera as diegetic as possible to play around with the idea of the interaction between character and camera.

Q: What is your favourite possession film?

A: I wish I could give you a good answer, but I don’t think I’ve seen any possession movies yet. I look forward to watching a lot of possession movies.

Q: How would you describe the state of modern horror?

A: It seems to me that modern horror is splitting into 2 camps: One wants to use horror as a vehicle to explore a theme, and the other wants to use horror as a vehicle to have fun with fear. And I think those are equally valid camps.

Q: If you ever won an Oscar or other award who would you thank in your acceptance speech?

A: I’m always deeply grateful to *every* member of the cast and crew. If I can, I always like to express gratitude to each one by name. And I’d definitely be thanking the people who financially support me while I’m chasing my dreams of filmmaking.

If you want to check out Cursed Camera you can find it on Youtube, and as always there is a review of the short up on my site now!

Know Fear: Commune With The Darkness

Written by Luke Barnes

Know Fear is a horror film directed by Jamison S. LoCascio. The plot follows a family who come under demonic attack and must do battle with an otherworldly beast. Each member of the family has to commune with the demon in order to fight back, this takes multiple forms for each different family member, but one by one they do battle.

Demonic possession films are a dime a dozen at his point, and the genre is oversaturated, and that is why this film makes me happy- because it provides us with something fresh. The demon here doesn’t just target the kids, or the wife no it goes after everyone which makes for a nice change from the usual Conjuring Universe shenanigans.

Moreover, this film has far more of an intensely personal dimension to it, than a lot of other genre fare. We are given a very intimate look into the film of this film; we view them as real people more so than characters in a film and that makes the scares and the threat far more impactful.

Overall, a nice breath of fresh air in an overcrowded subgenre.

Pros.

The intimate feel

Focusing on the whole family and each individually

The scares

The freshness of it

Cons.

A bit slow at times

4/5

Little Evil: That Kid Is Looking At You Funny

Little Evil is a horror comedy film directed by Eli Craig. The plot sees a new step dad (Adam Scott), have to deal with his new step son who as luck would have it, turns out to be the Anti-Christ; can the power of the father son bond overcome even the greatest of evils?

I found the parody of things like The Omen funny at first, but as the film went on and on and kept repeating the same parody jokes over and over again they quickly became played out. The same can be said for a lot of the humour of this film.

I will give the film praise for getting the balance of horror and comedy closer to even then it normally is in these sorts of films. The film obviously favour the comedy elements over the horror ones, but there are a few good scares that I actually found quite effective, the worm scene and the early scenes with the hand puppet would be what I point to here.

Adam Scott is just likeable enough to allow you to root for him, and he has enough dad vibes to make his and Lucas’s (Owen Atlas) relationship believable and have emotional resonance.

A final point would be that it is uncomfortable to see Chris D’ Elia in this film, and he features quite prominently as well. He took me out of the film and soured the film as a whole somewhat.

Overall, this film is goofy fun. Is it the best horror comedy film you will ever see? No. Is it without any problems? No, again. However, if you just want something mindless to sit and turn your brain off to then you can do worse than this film.

Pros.

Scott

The initial parody

A few funny jokes and a handful of good scares

Cons.

It gets tiresome

Chris D’ Elia

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Apartment 143: Smacking Your Head Against The Wall

Apartment 143 is a Spanish Horror film directed by Rodrigo Cortes. The plot sees a father and his two children become the victim of a poltergeist believed to have something to do with the recently deceased mother of the children – as is custom the father hires a team of paranormal investigators to get to the bottom of it.

The only positive I can give this film is that there are a few moments that do actually feel quite scary. These are not the moments where something paranormal might be a foot, but are instead the moments when we see that the father might have far more to hide than we first thought. That the real monster might be alive and well; however they ruin this as the film goes on and just ignore the plot thread in favour of a more generic supernatural ending.

The characters are all deeply generic and the plot goes exactly how you would expect. That really is my main take away with this film, it is not bad – it is watchable, but it is deeply generic. If you have even a slight interest in the horror genre and have seen more than one other haunted house/ and or possession film then you have seen this film before.

Overall, boring, and generic.

Pros.

When it looks like the supernatural is not the real cause of the evil

Cons.

Promptly ignoring that plot line

It is boring

It is generic

It is not scary

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Cleansing Hour: The Hottest Live Stream In Town

The Cleansing Hour is a horror film directed by Damien LeVeck. The plot focuses on a live stream exorcist Father Max (Ryan Guzman), who pretends to fight the forces of evil and rid the world of demonic forces. However, one night, on a stream, rather unexpectedly it all becomes far too real and Father Max comes face to face with the Devil himself.
This was an unexpected treat. I recently joined back up with Shudder to watch Anything For Jackson, and as I have it for a month I thought I would check out some of their other newer offerings as I already had the service earlier in the year. As such I stumbled across this film, I went in with low expectations of vapid teen focused fare and walked away genuinely surprised by one of the best twist endings I have ever seen in a horror film. The ending I am still thinking about now, well over a week after I watched the film.

I enjoyed how the demon fed of the secrets and lies, this resulted in slow drip-fed character development and an exploration of the character’s world and inner motivations. This made me care about the characters and made me invested in their story and survival. Likewise, I thought Guzman was a strong lead, the wayward priest who has fallen to the dark side but who still longs for a more noble cause is a role he plays well; in this he adds new emotional depths to the standard character architype and adds his own spin.

Overall, this is a horror gem that you can’t let pass you buy.

Pros.

The ending

The twist

Guzman

The character development

A novel new approach that felt, at least to me, very original

Cons.

None

5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Anything For Jackson: Demons Are Surprisingly Flexible, Who Knew They Had Yoga In Hell

Anything For Jackson is a horror film directed by Justin G. Dyck. The plot follows an elder couple of devil worshippers who kidnap a pregnant women to use as a bargaining chip in the demonic resurrection of their dead Grandson.

This film really is a testament to the use of practical effects. The demons in this film are genuinely menacing, more so than anything I have seen in recent memory, why? Well because they seem all too real. The main two demons that I would like to draw attention to are the tall ghost demon, I like how they played around with the size, and of course the contortionist main demon who quite frankly was unlike anything I have ever seen before in a horror film- truly chilling.

I enjoyed the empathises this film placed on creating scares through its atmosphere. The film manages to a have a few good jump scares that don’t feel manufactured and that come about organically because of the tense atmosphere, the early resurrection of the bird would be a good example.

My issues with the film are only slight. Firstly, the first act is too slow, I understand it is establishing a lot of things, but it does become a slog after a while, luckily the film quickly rectifies this. Secondly, the central couple were fine but did not blow me away, anyone else could have played those roles.

Overall, this is a very strong, very original horror film that you need to see as it is trying something new and different and pulling it off to great effect.

Pros.

The demons

The scares

The ending

The atmosphere

Cons.

The first act

The main couple were bland

3.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

The Haunting In Connecticut: A Whole New Fluid To Be Disgusted By

The Haunting In Connecticut is a horror film directed by Peter Cornwell. The plot sees a family move into a home that use to be a funeral home where the mortician performed evil rituals on the dead to boost his son’s supernatural gift, naturally after they move in things start getting out of control quickly and the spirts start attacking the family.

I remember watching this film when I was younger, and I remember being scared for days afterwards. So, when I decided to revisit recently I went in with high expectations, and I can safely say they were not met.

The scares are all fairly tame, the two ‘scary’ parts of the film are the flashback scene where the bodies are mutilated and the ectoplasm scene, the latter is more fascinating as a concept than it is scary. For the most part the scares are just the usual obvious jump scares that blight most horror films these days, they are incredibly obvious and have no impact at all.

Secondly, and stick with me on this one, I don’t like how up the churches arse this film is. Yes, I understand that religion and God will play a key role in these sort of films as they are fighting demons, but in something like The Conjuring 2 you don’t see them stopping to pray every 5 seconds and having a character (the mother), who’s whole purpose is to spout about how great the church is and how we all need to have faith; it felt like I was watching Gods Not Dead or something alone those lines. My issue to clarify is not that it is in the film, it is the total lack of nuance or subtly with it.

Overall, though the body mutilation scenes did creep me out a bit, I can’t recommend this film as the scares just aren’t very good. They are the by the numbers jump scares that you would expect from some of the lazy Blumhouse fare, with that in mind this fails as a horror film.

Pros.

A few creepy scenes

The idea of ectoplasm and the way the film explains it

Cons.

The writing lacks subtly

The scares don’t work

The characters aren’t sympathetic and are caricatures

1.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Annabelle: Demons Patiently Wait On Lifts, Respect Social Distancing

Annabelle is a horror film directed by John R. Leonetti, serving as the first spin off film of the wider Conjuring Universe. The plot of this film focus on Annabelle, the breakout star of the first Conjuring film and goes a ways to explain how she ended up in the Warrens private collection; though to understand that you will have to watch all 3 Annabelle films.

I remember seeing this film a long time ago and I remember it being generic and boring. However, the other night, perhaps as a result of a masochistic feeling, I decided to revisit it and see if it was as bad as I remember. It is bad, definitely the weakest of both the Annabelle trilogy and the Conjuring Universe as a whole, but it is not terrible.

The only pro I have for this film is the basement life scene, when Mia (Annabelle Wallis), first sees the demon and she gets stuck in the lift. This I think is easily the best scene of the film, both in terms of scares and execution as it actually manages to feel tense.

The issues with this film for me are twofold. Firstly Annabelle Wallis should not be cast in anything ever, why is she? She can’t act and her name being associated with anything is a sign of poor quality, The Mummy, King Arthur Legend Of The Sword, Tag, I could go on. Wallis seems incapable of showing even the slightest amount of emotion in any sense, and to call her wooden would be a disservice to wood everywhere.

Secondly there is no third act in this film. Things just plod along in the usual investigative way these films do and then bang its over. There is no final standoff between Mia and the Demon, no, instead she almost throws herself out a window, but then she doesn’t and someone else does; wow gripping stuff there.

Overall, though this film isn’t as terrible as I remember it being it is still bad, not worth your time and easily the weakest of the Conjuring films; takeaway stop casting Annabelle Wallis.

Pros.

The lift sequence

Cons.

Annabelle Wallis

There is no third act

The doll really isn’t all that involved

There is a lot of aimless plot that goes nowhere

It does not justify its existence as a spin off

1/5

Reviewed by Luke

Annabelle Creation: Demons Love A Good Chair Lift

Annabelle Creation is a horror film directed by David S. Sanberg, serving as both a prequel to the first Annabelle film as well as adding to the Conjuring Universe as a whole. The plot this time around serves to explain the origins of Annabelle the doll, showing how the possession occurred.

This is the best film in the Annabelle trilogy by far, as it is actually scary. I enjoyed the tragic reveal of Annabelle’s creation and I think it is smart to actually show us the demon controlling the doll rather than just the doll itself. I am surprised to note that the demon actually looks like how you would imagine a demon to look, not like the Conjuring Universe’s other demons that are basically just people with yellow eyes.

Personally, I think the scarecrow scenes where the scariest and best done of the whole film.

I think by and large the film wastes most of its cast, with veteran actors like Miranda Otto brought in to do very little. Though it does continue Lulu Wilson’s rise in the horror genre, she has been in 3 ‘good’ horror films to date and is shaping herself to be a generation z scream queen for sure.

I thought the ending was clever, tying the end of the prequel into the start of the first film it is not a new idea but it is effective here and it helps us to further understand the timeline.

Overall, though a series of clever decisions this film proves itself to be more than just a collection of jump scares.

Pros.

The scarecrow scenes and showing us the demon

Lulu Wilson

The ending

It does what it says on the tin, it explores Annabelle’s origins and it does it well

Cons.

The cast bar Wilson is wasted

4/5 Reviewed by Luke