Sacrilege (2020)

I had the chance to see SACRILEGE and dove on it. I love English Folk Horror films and just finished watching the fantastic THE THIRD DAY, so I wanted to make sure I caught this one to keep the folk horror rolling. Now, the THIRD DAY is a mini-series and spans over six hours of time, so I knew I wasn't going to get that level here, but Sacrilege manages to entertain. 

Does it have its weaknesses? Sure. But, it held my interest and spun a fun yarn with material that can be very familiar to horror fans. 

In a very small, compact nutshell, we have four women who go away on holiday to a lodge out in the middle of nowhere. It's established that one of our folks (Payne) has a boyfriend that just got out of prison for putting her in a coma after beating her badly. What better way to get over it than to go away? They snag a hitchhiker along the way (classic DO DO IT item in horror) who tells them about this awesome festival filled with pot and partying, so of course they want to go. They witness a ritual....then comedy ensues. :::grin:::

Like I said, very familiar territory, but they keep things rolling and have some fun horror stops along the way. I'm not sure they had enough horror elements to fill out the film 100%, but the side relationship stories lifted their weight and kept things moving forward. When the horror bits hit, they ring true and they are a ton of fun. I even barked out a laugh or two at the surprising nature of a few them. 

With it's 1:23 runtime, it's very watchable. 

A Paul L. Smith-like (PIECES) performance from Chad Graham brought another fun aspect into the film. That classic, "I'm so sinister it hurts" vibe. The main cast of ladies are solid and keep the film in a higher level than some lower budget fair - acting well and bringing their "A game". That helped a lot. 

English Folk horror fans will want to check this out. Just give it a little wiggle room to present its story. It's a fun watch and deserves some love. 

DIRECTED BY   David Creed

STARRING

Tamaryn Payne (Stalled, Vendetta, Small Town Folk) Emily Wyatt (Mission of Honor, Rise of the Footsoldier: The Heist, Facilty 31, Sensation), Naomi Willow (NSR: The Jade, Bonded by Blood 2), Emma Spurgin Hussey (The Curse of Hobbes House, A Werewolf in England), Rory Wilton (An English Haunting, Fisherman's Friends)

SYNOPSIS

After accepting an invitation to join in with local celebrations for the Summer solstice, four young women find themselves in the grips of a mysterious pagan cult.They are offered up as a sacrifice to the cult’s mysterious ancient goddess, who has the ability to sense their greatest fears. Using this power against them, she turns their nightmares into a horrifying reality.

POSSIBLY IN MICHIGAN (1983)

 

Man, I love this odd little movie. 

What a magical time. Film makers discovering the art of video. Wild experiments like this really moved things in an interesting direction. 

THE FUNERAL HOME ( LA FUNERARIA )

The Funeral Home was a solid little ghost story, but the real focus of the film really is just grim doom.

Bernardo runs a funeral home and lives in a house behind it with his family - his wife Estela and her daughter Irina. A mystery unfolds slowly as we watch the family spiral down into darkness. We get the classic bumps in the night and see that the family is doing its best to cope with whatever is going on in the house...and whoever is in there with them. 

People walk around like they are physically drained and without an ounce of joy in them. It's a very interesting take for the story. There's this feeling that everyone in the home is just being slowly crushed by gravity. Grim and resigned to just crawl through the day best they can. I loved that aspect of the film and that combined with the overall set design really set a mood that was very...very dark and sad. 

Now, this is a very slow burn and fans of a more CONJURING style of jump scare roller coaster may not find this to their liking. I, however, really enjoyed the trip. The acting is solid and the mystery around what is going on in the home is very well done and has some fantastic reveals as the film moves along. 

Mauro Iván Ojeda's writing and direction are fantastic. He manages to do a lot with the setting and lets the story unfold in a delightful way. I was riveted to the goings on and was all in on the ride. The way the story spun out along a very well defined line made it even more engaging. You're not just given everything via a spoon, but have to hang in there and work it out as the folks in the film work it out themselves. Loved it. 

I only had one item that I wasn't thrilled with in the film just because I'm not a fan of the type of plot point execution :::spoiler free::: , but I think it may just be on me and it was a very small bit of the whole, so I didn't really have all that hard a time making it through to the other side of it. :::grin::: All in all, I enjoyed the film and what it brought to the ghostly table. 

Fans of story and acting will want to check out La Funeraria for sure. 

Curse of the Blind Dead (2020) and kitchen chat

 

I really dug Curse of the Blind Dead. While I wished I had a little more BLIND DEAD action, I thought it was entertaining and a fun watch. 

Check out the video review below! 

SPOTLIGHT: Christopher Goodman

https://www.instagram.com/goodman_artist_director/

https://www.christophergoodman.com/

 Well, I had an interesting trip down the rabbit hole over the past few days. HA!

I saw an image on Instagram that gave me the creeps in a great way.....

I posted it to the Facebook group and circled back around to give credit to the artist - a must when you can, I feel. I went to his site -    - and saw that he is a man of many talents. Super creative soul. I was hankering for a horror short and fired up his short THE GOOD SAMARITANS. 

The Good Samaritans - Short Horror Film FrightFest 2018 from Christopher Goodman on Vimeo.

It was really solid and had some groovy effects work in it. Unlike some other shorts I've seen in the past, the storytelling is tight and lean, moving rapidly and not overstaying it's welcome. It lingers in one area and doesn't bite off....heh....more than it can chew or overstretch what they are able to take on in the time and budget allowed. 

I followed the road along to his Vimeo page and saw that he had done another short I featured here a while back called BLIGHT which I've reposted and raved about many times in many spaces in the past. It's friggin fantastic and an amazing effort with cool effects and solid acting. Man...beyond cool on the effects - downright stellar! 

Blight from Christopher Goodman on Vimeo.

I needed MORE! hehehehe

Next up was THE MAYFLOWER which was another "one room show" , but this time the setting was space in this sci fi horror tale. I dug it as well. It could have slipped into the "seen it before" category, but it really brought some exciting and new ideas to the table the made this a solid and original tale. 

Dropping back another year in history, I checked out FOOL'S ERRAND and was happy that Chris was still solid in 2017! heh.  Again, his writing is what really sells me on his shorts. What could have been another in a series of killer mummy shorts and films has a bit of a twist that takes this short up several notches and separates it from the rest. 

And last on the FEATURED LIST but far from least is his first short FLESH ART. Again, a solid little tale that doesn't overstay its welcome with some grand gore and zombie/infected effects work. It's not trying to be more than it is and manages to bring a lot of cool storytelling into the mix without leaving the cozy confines of the set. While it may not reach as far as some of his other work, it doesn't really NEED to to be a pleasing little horror tale.  

Now...I did catch a more recent offering called BLACK ICE that - while cool and very watchable - just didn't have the same magic for me, but even that short was amazing and really well done. The story itself just didn't ring the same way with me personally, and that's perfectly fine and reasonable. :)

Now...I mentioned earlier that he was a "creative soul" and it's time to cover some of his other talents. 

His concept work - amazing. He's done concept work for DOCTOR WHO, WATCHMEN (TV series), RED DWARF, THE OUTPOST, PEAKY BLINDERS, and more! 

Solid 3D work as well. I believe a lot of the sets and places in his shorts may be 3D, so this skill is most likely super important as well. 

And....a feature is what is really needed here. Even if it's an anthology feature of short films tied together with a through-line story. His writing is so good. I'd love to see what he could do with more time and cash seeing that he's knocking it out of the park with the shorts he's done so far. 

But, maybe that's not even on his radar and short tales is what he enjoys and wants to continue making. If that is the case, I hope that there are more avenues for short features where his work can be seen. 

Fantastic work, Mr Goodman! :)