Gehenna: Where Death Lives

I just checked out a screener for the film Gehenna: Where Death Lives and I have to say...it was pretty alright!

Now, off the bat, it does have a few issues with pacing and the usual items that go along with a lower budget film, but it holds it's own really well.

From IMDB:
A group visits Saipan to search for locations for their company's newest resort. As they find what they think is the perfect spot, they discover a hidden bunker on the property...

The film moves along well and keeps the twists and turns coming. It help my interest as I tried to piece together exactly what was going on and managed to toss in so many variables that I didn't know where it was heading - a VERY good thing! And, the ending did not disappoint. Not in the slightest.

The film has some good performances, but it's big claim to fame is having the wondrous Doug Jones playing a monstrous character. Fun stuff for sure. There are some deliciously strange and cool PRACTICAL effects in the film as well. That made me very happy.

Director and special effects guy Hiroshi Katagiri's work here is grand as well, taking a small space and making the most of it in various ways. It's a creepy little set that he works wonders with. I think all his effects gigs helped him work out a lot of things that other small budget directors choke on.

I highly suggest checking the film out. It's a fun little ride!

Lake Bodom

Well well well...what a mean spirited, nasty little film we have here. hehehehe  I'm going to keep this super short for fear of saying too much.

The film is based in the real world location of several murders that occurred in 1960 at Bodominjärvi Lakeis located in Uusimaa, Espoo.

From WIKI
The Bodominjärvi Murders are the most famous homicide cases in Finnish criminal history. On June 5, 1960, at Bodominsky Lake, 15-year-old females, Leo Irmeli Björklund and Anja Tuulikki Mäki, and 18-year-old male, Seppo Antero Boisman, were killed while sleeping inside a tent by blunt force trauma to their heads from a stone. The fourth youth, then 18-years-old, Nils Wilhelm Gustafsson, who was in the excursion, was found outside of the tent badly injured. The perpetrator remained at the time uncovered despite extensive investigations, and various types of theories were presented on the killer. Gustafsson was arrested unexpectedly on suspicion of murder in 2004, but he was released the following year. The identity of Bodominjärvi's murders has not been discovered.

So, it's obvious that this would be a fantastic spot to go exploring around, right? At night? With no one aware of where you are?

Four teens think so.

The mesmerizing Nelly Hirst-Gee :::swoon::: stars alongside Mimosa Willamo, Mikael Gabriel, and Santeri Helinheimo Mäntylä and, as the story unfolds I was left with many, "Wait a minute...what's going on here?" moments - but in a good way, not bad.



It's always interesting when a film is mean spirited and brutal, but it comes off as well done and planned instead of lazy. It's easy to set up a bunch of campers to be slain, but hard to do it and remain an interesting and engaging film. This is partially due to the writing in Lake Bodom which gives us a solid story and partially due to some solid acting.

Taneli Mustonen's directing is fantastic as well. (He and Aleksi Hyvärinen wrote the film) It's kinetic, but easy to follow. There's a lot going on in the film, but it never felt disjointed. I need to see more movies from Finland and Sweden. I'm currently watching Jordskott - an TV series offering from Sweden - and I love it as well.

Lake Bodom (also known as BODOM) is well worth a viddy for sure. It's currently available on the WONDROUS AND MOST AWSOME SHUDDER...at the time of this posting.

Man, I love Shudder! :)

Savageland

HOLY COW! I loved this film! 

SAVAGELAND is a riveting and completely engaging "mocumentary" about the lone survivor of a small town attack by unseen forces. He shot a roll of film with many disturbing shots of multiple attackers, but was still tried for the murders.

What really happened?



This film was a masterwork of both writing and acting. Like LAKE MUNGO, this film is presented in documentary style and interviews are held with the people involved in the investigation - both within legal realm and the news and reporting realms. The actors playing the parts sell it all without question and the writing is rock solid.

And the images that were caught on film are horrific and creepy as hell! heheheh  I love them!

 Bad acting and crap writing can kill a film like this in a heartbeat, but the writer/director team up of Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert, and David Whelan was pure perfection! Things were tight, believeable, and took a few turns that I was not expecting, but loved when I saw them.

No, there are no masked, ax swinging madmen in here or smashed in jump scares. This is a creepy tale that takes it's time telling a story and brings it all home with some nightmare fuel stills that are fantastic. A must watch for lovers of a good, creeptastic, dark story. 

Currently available on AMAZON PRIME. 

Live Evil

HOT DAMN, I loved this movie! heheheheh   It's just a ton of fun.

Let's start off with the bad and get it out of the way. The film's ending came on rather abruptly and was not as strong as I had hoped it would be. It was solid, but just not as dazzling as the rest of the film. Now that that's done....

Deputy Hancock is due to pack it in for the night on Halloween, but one more call sends her to a mansion where someone....or something...very evil is. When she brings it back to the station, everyone there seems to see some "BIG BAD" from their past in Hancock's prisoner and they want to blow it away. They finally get a hold on the situation, but what are their small forces able to do against....Evil? Deputy Hancock and Sheriff Pete need to figure something out before time runs out on the world.

I'll say no more about the plot. :::grin:::

Like I said, this film is a ton of fun and a great watch. It's set to be released on AMAZON October 31st and I think it'd be a great Halloween Eve watch. Wish they released it sooner, really, but....what'r'ya gonna do?  The film has great dialog, fab music, and a peppy pace. A majority if it is presented in black and white with these fun, full color vision scenes mixed in that I loved. They also have a few comedy elements that play rather well for the most part. It's a tricky one - they play around with various horror elements and the humor has a placement that is more natural than forced. Hard to do that successfully with smaller films.

I believe that one of the main reasons the film works so well is the actors attached to it. They are all super capable and help to get the viewer invested in the film. Bad acting or a bad script can kill a film in minutes. (As I found out with another film earlier today....whew.)  Everyone in LIVE EVIL carried their own and really came off as believable.  Charlene Amoia's portrayal of Hancock could have sunk the whole venture if she came off as cardboard, but she was far from that. She was spunky, sure of herself, and tough without coming off as "I'm putting on my MAN costume and being tough."  Prague born Vladimir Kulich was fab as the Sheriff as well - again, for from a caricature.

LIVE EVIL had an Italian horror feel to me - like a take on Fulci's THE BEYOND. It had a great look and feel to it that seemed well thought out and which worked within the budget they had without over extending itself. For instance, there are masks used in the film which can be a bit distracting and..."meh". But, here they dolled things up and made the masks the overall stylistic look for the dead in the film, spicing things up with some visual effects work that was well executed. As a matter of fact, the visual effects bits were friggin spot on. Glowing eyes, muzzle flashes, strange dreamy sequences, and general "spice" peppered in perfectly. And, just when you think you've seen all the visual nuggets they have to offer, they switch things up and add some other cool scene that does another series of cool effects visuals.
 

I clapped and said, "HA! I love this F#$%*&^ film!" out loud. (Sadly...all by myself, as usual.)

There was a nice little Day of the DEAD reference in here as well that I smiled a big, wide smile at. Very cute.

And...TONY TODD!  Yeah, you can never have enough of Mr. Todd.

I'll be owning this film in the near future. I want to support this effort from Ari Kirschenbaum and Team. Kirschenbaum's writing and directing was a ton of fun and I want to see more.



Now...odd thing about this film. I think it might have been held in some sort of HORROR GULAG - IMDB has it listed as a 2015 film. However, we all know this can happen for sure. (TRICK 'R TREAT) I really should set up and interview - I'm just at a loss as to what I'd actually ask. I don't want to get on a call and just gush about how much I love someone's movie. While I'm sure they wouldn't mind hearing it, it's probably not the best use of their time. Heh.

I've seen a bunch of screeners over the past few months and this has to be one of my A LIST picks for sure. I highly recommend that you grab a few friends and give this a viddy this Halloween! 

The Moose Head Over The Mantel

I got word that there was a chance to see and review this film and jumped at the chance. I had reviewed a previous production by these folks called THE BIG BAD and had enjoyed it, so I was excited to see their new offering. And - spoiler - I loved it.

The Moose Head Over The Mantel review comes with a main caveat: This isn't your standard horror film. It's not a simple watch that you half pay attention to while gulping down handfuls of popcorn. There are some complex goings on here that require thought. If you're wanting horror bashes like HATCHET or THE CONJURING, leave this one alone - you probably won't be happy.  

However, if you like fine acting and an excellent story presented in an absolutely interesting way, proceed!





Now, let's start with their awesome tagline:
One family. One hundred years. Countless victims. 
Love it. We have it all right there.

The Moose Head Over The Mantel tells the story of the Hoffhienze Family. A family with a past filled with tragic stories. As 1983's Lillian Hoffhienze-Bachman, her husband Jay, and their son move into the family home, the onionskin-like layers of family history unfold. We have six stories that go all the way back to 1881, all seen by the titular...moose head over the mantel.

I loved the concept. It's a fun and entertaining way to present things. While the gimmick of the moose head isn't 100% (We see several angles of the room, but I let it go after the first few minutes) the story is super solid and the use of the head as a central hub was very cool. People see the huge thing and all have questions about it. And, it seems to move as well. That combined with some very cool sound designs and music queues keep the flow and pace of all the stories super fluid and kinetic.

We jump around in time between 1983, 1966, 1945, 1922, 1904, and 1881 seeing how generations of Hoffhienze seem to be the center of horrors of various sorts - "a bloodline wrought with abuse, dysfunction and violence." As things move on, you see the patterns and understand that the family is doomed to be in this violent cycle.

All the stories are strong here, which can sometimes be an issue in multi-story line films. I've seen anthologies where you love one of the four stories and that's a sad thing, indeed. I found something special in each one of the tales and thought that the way they were presented was exceptional. It was like watching a fluid play that worked like a top notch time piece. The gears of the story spun along and you saw various time periods whirl before you, but I never felt lost or confused. I believe this is due to the strong writing style of Jessi Gotta who also played Lillian Hoffhienze-Bachma. She knows how to write characters you actually care about and are interested in. Combine that with and additional five, solid Directors that have a background in producing and performing live theater and you have gold.

Directors:
Rebecca Comtois     ...     (segment "1966") 
Bryan Enk     ...                (segment "1983") 
Jessi Gotta     ...                (segment "1945") 
Matthew Gray     ...          (segment "1904") 
Shannon K. Hall     ...      (segment "1922") 
Jane Rose     ...                 (segment "1881")





Now, this is a slow burn of a film. No MTV like cuts or music videos here. You need to think about it like we're setting in for an atmosphere filled,  gothic tale. Spooky tales told around the fireplace. Maybe a moose head peering down at you eerily in the firelight. :::grin::: Old tales of the past. Creepy tales spawned by real life stories. Yet another interesting layer the film. 

Statement:
The Hoffhienze family story is influenced and inspired by the notorious lives of H.H. Holmes, The Bender Family, Lizzie Borden, Carl Panzram and The Fox Sisters, as well as the Spiritualism movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the rise of psychiatric pharmacology in the 1970s and ‘80s.



I highly recommend  The Moose Head Over The Mantel. It's not just a film. It's an experience. An immersion into a series of spaces and time periods that adds a new and vibrant energy into a genre that can really use it!

TRAILER:

THE MOOSE HEAD OVER THE MANTEL | TRAILER from Inappropriate Films on Vimeo.

Deliver Us

"Exorcism is still a fact of contemporary life. Every year, more and more people claim that their illnesses are caused by demonic possession.  

Father Cataldo is a veteran, one of the most sought-after exorcists in Sicily. Every Tuesday, many believers follow his mass of liberation, searching for a cure for some adversity for which there does not seem to be a label or a remedy."

This was a fascinating documentary.  It fits into the horror camp - I mean...exorcism. Hello. :) The thing that really got me was the fact that people are so into it. Like, all in. I'm not a religious person, but I loved seeing people who are religious jumping in with both feet as Father Cataldo worked his magic. The faith they have in what they believe in was somewhat inspiring. I couldn't think of anything that I had that kind of faith in other than immediate Family, honestly. These folks travel from far and wide to be seen by him and helped.

Seeing people who believed themselves caught in the heat of a possession was wild. It's one thing to see our horror movies do it with actors and actresses bouncing around and screaming lines of written dialogue, but it's way different when "real people" are doing it feeling like they are possessed by evil.

The flip side was also very interesting - the fact that some of the people were just being talked about as having medical disorders, not a possession, and how they distinguish between the two. A very tricky line.

It's also interesting to think that a ways back in the 1500's, many of these people might be "dealt with" in various, sordid ways - being possessed and full of evils.


A fantastic and well produced piece. Well worth a viddy for those so inclined. It was very interesting.

Who Saw Her Die?

 
Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l'ha vista morire?)  is a very sad little mystery. Very sad, indeed.

From IMDB:
A young girl is brutally murdered somewhere in France. Sometime later, the same thing happens to the daughter of a well-known sculptor. This time the parents (the sculptor and his wife) start investigating, and soon find they are in way over their head. Meanwhile, the body-count keeps rising as the killer now starts butchering all those who find out too much...

Who Saw Her Die? is a dark giallo with some fantastic twists and turns.  Aldo Lado's Direction is fantastic - dynamic and artful and when it's paired with a solid story and some fine acting, it creates a film that whips along at a grand pace and keeps you guessing till the very end. There are some shots in the film that are rather haunting. Yes, there are some Wait - WHAT?! moments, but no more than most gialli. :::grin::

George Lazenby (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) is Franco Serpieri, the well-known sculptor. While it's odd to hear an American accent instead of The Queen's English, he turns in a grand performance as the Father turned Investigator in the twisty little murder mystery. The striking Anita Strindberg (Your Vice is a Locked Room) plays his wife and also nails the "grieving Mother" role extremely well. She's on the edge as her husband plunges them both further and further into the investigation of their daughter's murder. We see them pull further and further apart and it adds to the overall heartbreak.

And...we have more slightly creepy child Nicoletta Elmi as Franco's slain daughter. :::shiver:::  :)

Characters swoop in and out of the story as we try and figure out who might have been involved in not only this latest murder, but the murder we see earlier.  People hint at shady goings on on one side while another group tries to distance themselves from the matter which adds to the WHO DONE IT? feel.  And when the film ends, all the pieces fit into place expertly.



As gialli go, this film is very high on my BEST OF list and is well worth a viddy! Check it!

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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Cold Moon

I'm sick today. Called in sick, dropped my daughter off at school, grabbed my dog, and headed to the sofa. I was done. Bundled up and cozy, I fired up COLD MOON and settled in to watch, not rally knowing much about the film or who was in it. I love watching films this way. In a world filled with trailers coming out months before the film does, it's nice to go into something and just having it wash over you. And Cold Moon does that in spades!

Now, I don't want to say too much about this film. The press kit blurb sums things up nicely.

"In a sleepy southern town, the Larkin family suffers a terrible tragedy. Now the Larkin's are about to endure another: Traffic lights blink an eerie warning, a ghostly visage prowls in the streets, and graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror . . . And beneath the murky surface of the river, a shifting, almost human shape slowly takes form to seek a terrible vengeance."

I think that's vague enough as not to spoil much.

I was pleasantly surprised by Cold Moon on several fronts. The cast really through me for a little loop. Christopher Lloyd, Frank Whaley, Candy Clark....  I wasn't expecting this level of talent, to be honest. Everyone brings their "A game" to the movie and there are no weak performances.

The story was super strong and crafted expertly. I'm definitely going to have to pick up Cold Moon Over Babylon by Michael McDowell - the book on which this film is based. I love these small town horror movies. People up to no good in a tiny town is really a fun little sub-genre and this story really takes advantage of the small town feel as the sheriff tries to piece together why bad things are happening in his small community. And bad things happen. A lot of bad, shocking things.

And, this is a ghost story with some effects that I have not seen played out to death...so to speak. :::grin:::  For instance, there are no massive, wide open mouths screaming in this film, thank God. These effects are fun and help to seal the deal on this lovely, vicious little Tell Tale Heart-like tale. We have some jump-scare shocks, but they also have some simply haunting visual elements that will surely please fans of the paranormal.

The cinematography is beautiful and Griff Furst's direction is interesting and kinetic.  There's a care taken with the shots and storytelling that you don't always find in horror. There are no music video style cuts here.

Do yourselves a favor and make an effort to get out and see Cold Moon in a theater with an audience. It's released in theaters October 6th, 2017.  




Starring Josh Stewart ("Shooter", The Dark Knight Rises), Christopher Lloyd (the Back to the Future series), Robbie Kay ("Once Upon a Time", Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides), Candy Clark ("Twin Peaks", Zodiac), Rachele Brooke Smith (Center Stage : On Pointe, The Nice Guys) and Frank Whaley ("Luke Cage", The Doors), Cold Moon is based on the novel Cold Moon Over Babylon by the late Michael McDowell, author Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas.