Double Feature: Hell House LLC and 21 Days

I recently had a daytime, sick day double feature. A rare treat for an active Father of two. I fired up Amazon Prime and went through my list and was happy to see that HELL HOUSE LLC was and top of my list. I snuggled in and settled in for the viewing.

Hell House LLC is a found footage film that documents the strange goings on in an abandoned hotel as a group of 20-somethings build out a haunted house attraction.

From IMDB:
"Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened."

I loved the storytelling here. You see the horrific outcome via some footage that was posted to YouTube and some interviews speaking about the events gravely, but you don't know what happened other than something went very wrong and people died.  When additional footage is recovered, the tale unfolds in classic, found footage style.

The film has some really chilling visuals, even for a horror hound like myself. I found myself pulling for the characters even though I knew they didn't make out alive at the end. I was invested and concerned and I was freaked out more than a few times. Many of the situations were very creepy and well executed. I was happy about the whole situation. :::grin:::

 

The acting felt real and the relationships seemed honest which really helped to sell the whole story. The fact that GoPro camera's where mounted as a safety precaution for the haunt nights sold the reason why they had so much good footage. And, documenting the haunt build for future advertising and the like made constant taping understandable. 

I'm not usually a found footage fan, but this one was super solid and didn't bother me at all.  The storytelling was the thing that really locked it in for me. We're right there in the thick of the story, investigating along with the people in the movie to try and sort out what happened. Clues drift into place as the movie rolls along and you twist and turn along with it as opening night looms ahead.



I have not felt the same way about a film like this since I originally caught The Blair Witch Project when it came out in the theater or when I curled up with Lake Mungo for the first time. I was completely invested in the film, story, and characters.

All in all, Hell House LLC had a fun story with some grand scares and chills. It is a new Halloween Fave for me that I plan to own very soon! I loved it.  A fantastic first feature length film for Director Stephen Cognetti. I can't wait to see more!






Which brings me to 21 Days......

Now, I usually don't bash films if I didn't enjoy them taking the tack of, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." But, seeing as this came on the heels of Hell House LLC, it was an interesting juxtaposition of what works and what doesn't that might be beneficial to filmmakers.

This was Kathleen Behun's first feature as well and I'm looking forward to see what she does in the future. I would assume that a found footage feature might be a bit easier to do as a first film with a smaller budget - especially when you only have three people in one location, but it might have other limitations for sure. Juggling time between three people in a house requires some careful planning. I think she pulled that off along with making the single location interesting and engaging.

21 Days tells the tale of a house that people can't last more than 21 days in. Things are so disturbing within the house that occupants usually end up fleeing - leaving all their belongings behind, and if they don't, they go mad.

From IMDB:
"Three filmmakers embark on a paranormal challenge by barricading themselves in a house so haunted, no one has been able to live in for more than 21 days."

The house had an interesting lore behind it. The movie had all the usual scary tropes in there as well. Things in mirror reflections, doors slamming, stuff appearing....the usual. But, there were a few things that 21 Days had that grated on my nerves a bit.

The acting and writing were not at the same level as Hell House LLC, which instantly took me a little further away from what was going on. While LLC had a documentary feel that was super strong, 21 Days felt like a movie made to scare. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It did have a Paranormal Activity aura around it.

I jokingly put of a tweet while watching the third act that said, "The last 21 minutes of 21 Days was filled with shaking cameras, screaming, and darkness." Up to this point, things were relatively forgivable, but even my wife said, "God...that woman just keeps screaming frantically. I hate that," as she was walking through the room. The panic in LLC seemed genuine and the fact that there was a huge crowd involved really helped to set the scene at it's finale. But, 21 Days only had three people bottled in a house. They tried to have emotional spikes and heated interactions (handled expertly in LLC), but they just came off as script readings when all is said and done.

Now, don't get me wrong - there are some cool things in 21 Days as well that I'm sure will freak out someone in the mood for a haunted house flick. The scenes that took more time and subtlety played out really well and had me looking for little nuggets here and there on the edges of the screen. However, the film's final act crumbles into camera's being carried around by running people and he house becoming darker and darker until at one point there's a solid black screen with someone talking. The scene brightens a bit to reveal the big finish and there's a fun post credit scene, but I wish they had found some way to avoid the shaking cameras and screaming a bit.

At one point, someone is even filming with their iPhone and they drop it in a panic. The phone drops, but it's almost like they've placed it on the floor. And, the framing is set perfectly when it's dropped -  spot on for catching the same character running to the door and banging on it to be let out. Have you ever tried to place your camera somewhere to get a family photo on a timer? It's usually SUPER hard to find somewhere that a camera can be placed for the shot. Yet this person drops the phone and gets the perfect framing? That's the kinda thing that completely removes me, but that I can see someone else not even thinking about.

But, all of this might have been different if I didn't finish Hell House LLC minutes before. I also think it isn't played for someone like me - 48 with WAY too many horror movies under my belt. I'm sure this film was a hoot for a younger crowd who are a lot less jaded about horror. I think I owe this film a re-watch.

21 Days is solid and very worthy of a watch, but if you happen to do this same double feature, watch Hell House LLC AFTER watching 21 Days and not before. :::grin:::

Both of these should be added to your Halloween viewing list!

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Cute Little Buggers

I was passed a CUTE LITTLE BUGGERS screener today and I gave it a watch at once. I had seen a teaser and few articles on it and then it dropped off my radar. When I saw the screener link roll in, I was super excited. Now, before I really get rolling, I'm going to address the elephants in the room.

• This is a low budget film. Relatively, of course. I just saw a short with the budget of $25, so....

• This does have some rather dodgy 3D in it. Some bits more wonky than others. I mean...we're dealing with CGI rabbits on a low budget. But, even though it may not be "A List", it was solid.

• Lastly, we have almost a full ADR dubbing situation. Some of it comes off as odd, but seeing as I'm a huge giallo fan, I was over that within 10 minutes.

But, none of that matters in the long run.

Tony Jopia, Garry Charles, Andy Davie, Kristofer Dayne, and the cast and crew of CUTE LITTLE BUGGERS have managed to do something highly entertaining and fun here. That means a lot to someone who was a teen horror lover in the 80s. Their press kit was saying that this is "Hot Fuzz meets Gremlins", but - while those ARE fun films, I'm going to give this film an even bigger complement. This totally reminds me of the fun I had watching the awesome Peter Jackson work of the 80s and 90s with films like MEET THE FEEBLES, BRAIN DEAD and BAD TASTE.  It's wacky, silly, funny, and a bloody good time.

The plot is throwback as well. Aliens are using our women to breed. And, what better tool to use as a hunter / gatherer for said women than...rabbits. The rabbits are altered to become fierce creatures of death that the aliens use to drag women back to their breeding chamber and to defend. When the towns folk find out what's happening, they have to fight back to save their women...and their world!

I had a blast watching this. It's just a lot of fun all around. While the budget might have been low on this, it had a ton of things going for it that elevated it immensely. At the base, of things the writing was lively and highly entertaining. The overall look and feel of the film was very professional and far better than many indy films I've seen. It was clear that the filmmakers knew what they were doing. The lighting and camerawork were grand.

The 3D in the film was ambitious and totally got the job done. The 3D and effects production teams were doing a lot of work here and it shows. I was watching the film and trying to think of just how long the effects production work took seeing all the shots that had some sort of 3D or post effects work done on them. I believe the aliens had post work done on their eyes and tongues, ALL the rabbits....so many rabbits...moving around and attacking. But, the thing that I found to be the most fun about this was the CG gore.

I'm not usually a computer gore fan. Blood sprays that used to be done with squibs back in the day were far more visceral and real than 75% of the CGI stuff we are seeing today. When used sparingly, computer generated gore and blood can be a big help. (see Greg Nicotero and Team's WALKING DEAD work)  What I loved about the use of computer aided nastiness here is the fact that they didn't dabble.



It's like they just said, "Ok...we have rabbits whose heads split open with tentacles attacking humans. Let's go big!" And big they go. Blood sprays, limbs are ripped from bodies, and deadly rabbits fly!

The characters were a hoot as well. Over the top caricatures of small town residents were in abundance from the slightly bumbling police officer, to the crazy old folks, to the wondrous Caroline Munro appearance as Mystic Mary. This really had a BRAIN DEAD feel for me because I love over the top characters being alive, energetic, and invested in films. You could tell that these folks were not just phoning it in. They were going above and beyond and they were having fun doing it.

 And, while I'm chatting this film up, I have to mention the women. :::swoon::: While they are not going to be seeing a passing grade on the Bechdel test, they are taking things back to the 80s here again with the amount of beautiful women finding various ways to "get their kit off" as they say.  It's comical in it's own right and really did remind me of 80s movies. Shirts were flying.



This film managed to entertain me, but it also did more than that. It provided some genuine laugh out loud moments that had me giggling and chuckling at all over the place. By the end of the film, I found myself being very surprised and just how much I was laughing and how I wasn't doing my usual indy film groan & eye-roll ® combination. A refreshing treat!

You're going to want to down this as soon as it comes out. Get some food and beverages, gather your friends round the TV, and prepare to have a silly good time!

 TRAILER

The Witch Who Came from the Sea

The Witch Who Came from the Sea is one of those interesting films that gets a sort of pass for some of it's shortcomings due to the fact that it's such a time capsule of the time it was created in - in this case, 1976.

Millie Perkins plays (Aunt) Molly, a somewhat sad waitress at a bar who is struggling through working, drinking too much, and memories of a very shattered past. Her boss, Long John (Lonny Chapman) helps her out when he can as does her sister and two nephews, but things start to unravel and spiral down a very dark path when Molly turns into a kind of siren - luring men in and slaying them viciously. The reason behind her violent actions is rather easy to figure out, but watching it play out on screen is very interesting.



This is more an exploration of sexual trauma than a horror film, but there are horrific elements in the film to be sure. The film leans towards an art house esthetic as well as the scenes play out with dreamlike and nightmarish twists and turns as she falls deeper and deeper into a state of mental illness.

There are also interesting references to television. As a matter of fact, I think it's safe to say that television itself is a major character in the film. The sexual and drug morays of the day also play out wondrously as people party, speak freely about drugs and sex, and wander from lover to lover like shaking hands.  

Matt Cimber's direction is rather interesting.  He takes his time with shots and really lets you sink into the scenes as they unfold. He introduces certain elements throughout with care and grace, but some he just shoehorns in almost as an afterthought. There are some police characters that seem like Cimber is just showing them because he has to and he jumps away from them quickly so he can linger on more of Molly and her madness.

I caught this on SHUDDER and almost switched over to something else when I saw the look and style, but it slowly pulled me in and held my interest. Fans of 70s films really should check this out. It's a slow burn, but the acting and overall visual interest of the shots and clothing and acting style make it a fun watch.

Nightmare City

I was an 80s horror kid. VHS tapes rented, junk food purchased...I would snuggle in and watch horror all weekend or stay up late on Friday night watching horror triple features with my pals playing "Who's gonna fall asleep first" as we plowed through gore filled grinders.

NIGHTMARE CITY was one of the 1980s wonders. An Italian gorefest that was filled with the crazy crap we loved to laugh at. It wasn't really scary. Nothing that would have you checking around corners for as you went to bed. This was pure Italian blood spraying at silly levels.

Don't like gore? DO NOT bother with this film! LOL! It's packed with the goo.

Umberto Lenzi has 65 director credits from 1958 to 1992 including fab splatter like EATEN ALIVE!, CANNIBAL FEROX, THE HELL'S GATE and NIGHTMARE BEACH to name a few. He's classic Italian, tossing stuff in all over the place and keeping the action high even if it makes no sense! :) The film had three writers which I find funny because it still really doesn't have a plot! hehehehe  MAN, I LOVE THIS FILM! hahahahaha

NIGHTMARE CITY stars the fab Hugo Stiglitz (...who's name was used in Inglourious Basterds...) who is forced to battle these violent, radiation zombies. They don't only eat people. On NOOooo...they just....LASH OUT and RAMPAGE throughout the movie. Guns, knives and whatever else they can get their crispy little hands on. The movie bounces from scene to scene as people stumble around making little to no effort to avoid the massive plague of radioactive psychos as they kill everything in sight.

In short - a FANTASTIC popcorn movie to put on with fellow gore-hounds!!!  Breakout the adult beverages, pass around the popcorn and have a few "WTF?!?!?!", laugh out loud moments. :)

Creature: Wha Happon'?

The BEST-HORROR-MOVIES.com podcast featuring Director Fred Andrews got me curious about the 2011 film CREATURE. For those who are not aware, Creature was a somewhat low budget (ok, really low budget) horror film that got a major studio release. So major that it failed miserably, dying on the vine and earning a mere $327,000 from the 1507 screens it was shown on. Evidently, it was the lowest grossing first weekend ever for  film being shown on over 1500 screens and the second worst per location...ever. I had to see it.

FROM MOVIELINE:  $220 per screen and 6 people per showing

Now, in the interest of the new mantra of THE HORROR SHOW, there will be no bashing of this film. On the contrary - it's really not as bad as some I've seen.

The plot is super basic. Group of 20-somethings go off for an outing. Said trip sees them wandering too far off the path. There's a monster and "hillbilly bad guys". ::::shrug:::  Stop me if you've seen this before. And, they start dying. Nothing new. Nothing major. The monster design and makeup were fine. I mean, it's a dude in a suit and it's obvious and the lighting doesn't help in hiding the fact. This film is lit up all sorts of ways and in all sorts of dramatic styles. I'm not saying that they work for this film, but...they are there. The story was interesting - a good mix of reality and "it just happened through some sort of magic" that appealed to me. No need to go into the micro-details of how a sad man became this alligator monster man. I'm good with magical unknowns. Sure! Why not? It's an alligator man for cripes sake.

The cast is...there....being the cast. Sid Haig Sid Haigs things up as usual - always fun. "That black dude from True Blood" Mehcad Brooks and "That hot brunette girl...from something I've seen before" Serinda Swan (turns out it was SUPERNATURAL) turn in performances. There's another girl that I'll call "NOT the delicious Linda Cardellini" Amanda Fuller and Lauren Schneider who couldn't hang on to her accent, but was intriguing in that redhead showing her breasts sort of way. The rest, like I said, were there being the cast and saying their lines. :)


Everything was going along just fine as I watched Fred Andrews work his directorial magic and the plot unfolded before me. It was going so well that I found myself saying, "Man, this film REALLY got a bad rap! I bet it was just marketed incorrectly - it's not bad at all."  Then it happened. Everything started to fall apart in a rather spectacular way. 

People were taken away and tied up to be offered to the creature...and their foot was cut off? Um...why? Why did they do that? I...

There were six people in the group. Two couples and a brother and sister. The guy and girl from the couples were brother and sister as well. When the S goes down, the guy asks his buddy to save his sister...but doesn't seem to remember that he had a friggin GIRLFRIEND there as well! LOL "Get my sister safe! To hell with the girlfriend. I can always get another girlfriend!" No, he didn't say it, but he thought it! :)



WHOLE GROUPS OF PEOPLE APPEAR...then just WALK THE F AWAY and DISAPPEAR. People that might have been able to DO something had they stayed. And...where did they go? They just wander away into the swamp area.

The creature bites NUMEROUS people through the film, but proceeds to punch and pummel the guy who fights him in the end instead of just...eating him, really.

It goes on. I'd love to go on as well, but it starts to get mean after a while. :::grin:::  Above all, I was not mad about the time I spent watching this film. (Granted, I was doing other things as well most of the time) I had some laughs. I had some WTF?! moments. I found myself talking at the screen like crazy at the end with a big smile on my face saying things like, "Wait...they keep leaving these women around for the creature to find..." and "HA! POP GOES THE CREATURE! Didn't see THAT coming, did you, Buddy?!"

I had a good time, but I'd NEVER think about sending this thing off to the masses in a friggin theater! A few small theater showings around Halloween - sure, maybe. heheheh

WHAT the HECK was the studio thinking here? It's really their fault that this film failed in the theater. It shouldn't have been there. This would have done well released to DVD and Netflix, doing it's thing and being fine. If anything, it might have done better with more camp and less seriousness, but that's just a personal opinion.

Again, from the MOVIELINE article found here:
"Chalk the failed experiment, perhaps, to the elder Sheinberg's past successes; while at Universal Pictures, Sid Sheinberg released the game-changing Jaws and in the process birthed the blockbuster by forgoing small-scale roll-outs in favor of national release. Creature seemed to similarly attempt to launch a wide-scale release with but without sufficient awareness efforts among a proportionate audience, and as a result the film arrived without enough of a trumpet blast and lacking enough of a draw (great reviews, buzz) to make the gamble work."

I hope that Fred Woods recovers and makes more films. It looks like he's still going strong as a production designer. 

CREATURE is not the problem here and is well worth taking a look at over pizza, beer and popcorn on Netflix some rainy night for fun. It's just a shame that it was pushed out into the world like it was.

Freddie Francis

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a wacky little vampire spoof called The Vampire Happening. aka Gebissen wird nur nachts









(The trailer is NSFW - there are breasts EVERYWHERE!)


 


I see that the Director on the film is Freddie Francis and I jump over to IMDB to see what other goofy movies this guy did. Now, mind you, I'm not a name person. Tell me your name and it takes me a few times to remember it. Artist brain. :) So, I didn't place Mr. Francis' name. Not until I saw his filmography.

WHOA!


Francis was NOT who I thought he was. This was no one shot, "boobie movie" Director with two films to his credit. He's one of the biggies in genre film direction in my book. Many of the 60s and 70s drive-in style horror nuggets I loved as a kid were directed by him. DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS, NIGHTMARE, THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE, GIRLY (what a fun, strange little film), TALES FROM THE CRYPT, THE CREEPING FLESH and TALES THAT WITNESS MADNESS were all loved by me growing up. But, his direction wasn't the only stand out aspect of Mr. Freddie Francis.



Francis was a cinematographer as well. An Oscar winning one at that. He won for SONS AND LOVERS in 1961 and GLORY in 1990. His award list rolls on and includes several BAFTA nominations as well. He was also the Cinematographer on THE ELEPHANT MAN!

So...go figure! It turned out that Freddie Francis was one of my favorite directors and I didn't even know it! Take a look at some of his work when time allows. Just make up a big bowl of popcorn and take in some of his 60s and 70s goodness. They are a lot of fun!

Quickie: THE HAMILTONS

This was another one of those films that was fine. It was what it was.

There's a creepy family. Mom and Dad are dead and the kids are all living together. They've had to move towns. They have a secret. Good, bad and neutral family members interact. At the end, the secret - which wasn't very secret - is revealed. FIN.

I wouldn't watch it again, but I didn't fast forward or turn it off. (Granted, I was working on a project at the same time, but...)  The flow was slow and the plot rambled. Like LAST KIND WORDS, this would have made a fantastic short film. Maybe rolling in around 30 or 40 minutes instead of (checks)....oh, it was just 86 minutes long? Hmph...seemed way longer.   :::grin:::

Like creepy family horror with a not so secret twist? Tossing THE HAMILTONS on while you're painting your nails or doing your taxes isn't a bad idea.

Mullberry Street

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473514/

I REALLY liked this low budget little nugget! Story comes first. Acting second. Then everything else you want in a good scare picture – effects and monsters and creeps. To me, that is a success. Tossing blood around the screen for 70 to 90 minutes takes no skill. Jump-scares are a bore. But, if you tell a good story and have some acting talent behind you, you can tell a good, creepy tale and have it really get to people.
Not quiet a “zombie” movie, but it does have some zombie movie aspects to it. A fun little rat disease picture, MULBERRY STREET delivers some good old movie fun and some people you actually want to see live through the movie. Check it out, keep the lights low and make sure your feet are up off the floor......