31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 19

TERRIFIER

Part stalker, part slasher, part torture porn, and part supernatural injected evil entity, this 2016 low-budget effort owes a huge debt to Halloween and Friday the 13th, amongst other like-minded horror outings.

While the gore is splatterific, there just seems to be an inherent meanness to the film. The antagonist, Art the Clown, is creepy AF—imagine Marcel Marceau as a demonic butcher—but he’s also sadistic beyond reproach and comes off even more empty and evil than Michael Meyers, if you can believe that. The film definitely would have benefited from a bit more humor as much of the action just feels callous.  

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by the acting, the production value is pretty damn bueno for such a cheaply made film, and the pre-title intro is wickedly weird (and voraciously violent in a packed-out 70s Italian horror kinda way).

Ultimately, however, this film is aimed squarely at gore hounds who favor violent onscreen kills over story and character development.

31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 18

BLACK MAGIC 2

While the Shaw Brothers first Black Magic film was lacking, this not-quite sequel goes full gonzo.

We’re talking man-eating alligators, hopping zombies, empty eyed ghouls, breastfeeding evil sorcerers, slutty living dead escorts, grave robbing, worm and writing maggot infested wounds, melting faces, and blistering skin. There’s a bit of clunky kung fu tossed in for good measure, too.

Imagine a Hammer horror film gone awry, then crossed with voodoo and The Devil’s Rain and you’ve only just scratched the surface.

This is pure midnight movie madness.

31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 17

SHREDDER - Netflix DVD mail order subscription

If you shred, you’re dead! *

Somebody is killing off all the obnoxious snowboarders poaching the closed (and possibly haunted, or so the locals claim) Rocky Summit ski resort.

Welcome to the world of Shredder, where being a snowboarder is hazardous to your health.

Snowsports are sorely underrepresented in horror movies. Sadly, this effort doesn’t up the ante all that much.

A veritable paint-by-numbers slasher affair teeming with mediocre acting, lots of over ethusiastic use of outdated slang, beyond stereotyped stoner boarders, and ho-hum kill scenes are intermingled with okay riding and skiing sequences (this ain’t no Aspen Extreme or Hot Dog, though).

The major takeaway: KNOW THE CODE!!!

*(BTW, the producers really dropped the (snow)ball by not using that as the tagline in the trailer).

31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 16

THE SADNESS - streaming on Shudder and AMC+

This Taiwanese update on the inner city zombie outbreak is a strange, uneven, yet relentless beast of a film. Definitely not for the faint of heart as the gore is insanely gruesome and stomach churning. I have a pretty high threshold when it comes to cinematic violence and I found myself wincing more than once; the bloodletting is in that video nasty grindhouse vein a la I Spit On Your Grave and makes Tom Savini’s work look like amateur hour.

I mentioned the film is uneven and that’s due to stop-and-go pacing, which initially is kind of frustrating. There are bouts of intense violence followed by seemingly long stretches of dialogue that feels like needless mansplaining exposition. This technique also made it predictable as to when crazy stuff was going to jump off. It was distracting until I realized that it may very well have been intended to mimic the actions of the zombies. 

The film manages to mix in Covid hysteria, politics, and conspiracies rather nicely, too. As for the ending, at first it feels like a complete cop-out. But when you realize the subtle nastiness of it, it becomes quite brilliant.

Oh yeah, stalwart horror geeks should no doubt recognize the obvious homage to films like Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Comet, and The Crazies (though I recently learned that it may have been influenced by Crossed, a comic book written by Garth Ennis (The Boys)--yeah, I may be slippin').

Who's The Boss? - The Good Boss film review

Javier Bardem delivers a delicious turn as a narcissistic owner/boss of an industrial scale company in this delightfully subdued dark comedrama.

Unfolding like a mellow telenovela, the story is teeming with undercurrents of lust, egotistical illusion, infidelity, and touches on such cornerstone heavy topics as classism, racism, and integrity.

It’s got some wonderfully unassuming callbacks that resonate with quiet punches to both the guy and the brain, plus Javier B delivers a powerhouse performance.

While my main experience with Spanish cinema has been through the films of Almodovar, this effort is leaner and meaner, but no less captivating.

* [screening at select theaters (in Spanish w/subtitles)]

31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 15

SEANCE - streaming on Shudder and AMC+

Simon Barrett, best known for penning two of my favorite genre flicks from the past decade—You’re Next and The Guest—steps behind the camera for this slick and entertaining swipe at late 90s/early oughts ensemble horror films.

Mixing Mean Girls-styled melodrama with ghost stories, Ouija boards, masked killers, and a tale of revenge, Seance tweaks tired tropes just enough to keep things interesting. Sure, a large chunk of the ending is utterly predictable, but there’s decent enough red herrings swimming throughout, a passable double-twist, and a well choreographed boffo brawl to even things out.

Some (clueless) critics complained that the film was a convoluted jumble. They obviously missed the fact that it's a nifty genre mash-up, much like Barrett's other films (i.e. The Guest) and the riffs on these various genres is what makes it fun and entertaining.

31 Days of Horror (Films) - Day 14

SHE WILL - streaming on AMC+ and Shudder

Cabin in the woods? Check.

Weird folk horror trappings? Check.

Creepy score? Check.

Witches? Check.

Owing an obvious debt to Dario Argento (who just so happens to have produced this effort), Charlotte Colbert’s debut feature is a dreamy, art-house horror offering that slides by the eyes with lush imagery and an eerie tone of feminine vengeance and nature’s immense power. A little uneven at times (there’s a somewhat incongruous comedic performance from Rupert Everett, for example, plus some overt #MeToo allusions), the film is beautifully shot, has fantastic sound design, and the preternatural elements stir up enough unease and tension to make it thoroughly engaging, not to mention just a tad thought provoking.

The concepts of transformation and revenge are as old as the horror genre itself, but here they are unleashed with such visual flair as to make them seem sufficiently fresh.