A family struggles to cohabitate with a malevolent spirit that becomes violent whenever its presence is acknowledged.
Ignore It is a creepy horror short based on the viral NoSleep story “You’re Going to Notice a Woman in Your Home, You Must Ignore Her…”
Directors: Sam Evenson
Country & year: USA, 2021
Actors: Madison Rojas, Michael Perl, Madison Leyson, Crystal Hughes
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt11085736/
Joseph lives in the remote Canadian wilderness together with his wife Anne and their daughter Renee. They try to make a living from selling the fur of the animals they trap, which isn’t much but enough to make them go by. They feel threatened when a lone wolf starts eating the animals they’ve trapped, and Joseph decides to track down the wolf and get rid of what is threatening both their livelihood as well as their safety. When hunting down the wolf, however, Joseph comes across something far more dangerous and threatening…
Hunter Hunter is a slow burn thriller, which is offering quite an amount of atmosphere due to the cinematography and feeling of isolation in the remote wilderness setting. There are always those people who want to live away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, in remote areas and in total or near total isolation, Mountain Men-style. This kind of lifestyle is almost always very hard, where just making a living requires hard work (and some luck). The characters in this movie is no exception to this, but Joseph appears to be the most determined to never return to the comforts of modern life, while the wife (Anne) is thinking about their daughter whom she thinks should grow up under more… normal circumstances, going to school and meeting friends. With the wolf ruining much their livelihood as well, things have become harder than usual. But things won’t be as easy as just getting rid of the wolf, of course…
The film does suffer a bit from a slow start of what initially appears to be a simple man vs nature/beast story, but when you’re becoming aware of how much of a darker turn it takes, it manages to keep the tension on track. The acting feels believable and realistic, and while the characters themselves doesn’t really offer much personality or traits to make them memorable, their performances heightens the build-up of tension and foreboding.
Now, the movie’s ending is inevitably what has gotten most people’s attention, and yes…it really does pack a punch with its vicious brutality, and probably gives it the extra bite it needed. It’s not a movie for those who are not fond of slow-burners, but overall it’s a tense thriller which provides a few surprises and twists along the way.
WARNING: watch the trailer at your own risk, there’s a lot of spoilers…
Director: Shawn Linden
Country & year: Canada, 2020
Actors: Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell, Devon Sawa, Nick Stahl, Gabriel Daniels, Lauren Cochrane, Jade Michael, Erik Athavale, Karl Thordarson, Blake Taylor, Sarah Constible
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt2226162/
Andrea visits deceased painter Arganti’s house to investigate his cursed pantings of the crying kids, among them The Crying Boy.
The Crying Boy is an atmospheric horror short about haunted paintings (inspired by the famous “The Crying Boy” painting).
Directors: Alessandro Antonaci, Daniel Lascar, Stefano Mandalà
Country & year: Italy, 2019
Actors: Elena Cascino
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12337710/
Dark Water focuses on the narrative of a deep-sea environment that unexpectedly manifests in the walls of a grieving women’s suburban dwelling; an impossible, flooded inner-architecture. It explores familial trauma through the darkly surreal tale of a woman who discovers an ocean within her house. The life forms that dwell in this space are both real and a manifestation of the resident’s internal psychological state, as she comes to terms with the death of her mother. Dark Water is underscored by both a sense of human loss and contemporary concerns around habitat loss within our oceans.
Dark Water is a strange and surreal little horror short!
Director: Erin Coates, Anna Nazzari
Country & year: Australia, 2019
Actors: Zachary Drieberg, Alexandra Nell
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt11492724/
A strange discovery leaves a woman haunted by her husband’s absence.
Pare isn’t exactly a jolly Christmas tale…instead, we get chills and suspense as a woman experiences strange events after finding a bloody jacket which might belong to her husband…
Director: Lauren Sick
Country & year: USA, 2020
Actors: Dana Drori, Josh Ruben
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13658316/
An animatronic Santa head has a different kind of present to give.
Jolly is a simple, yet effective, horror short! It’s made by the “Midnight Video” team. Time to get into the perfect holiday mood…
Director: Todd Spence
Country & year: USA, 2020
Actors: Todd Spence, Zak White
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13884852/
A father discovers his children are grieving their mother’s death in their own terrifying way, after having met a mysterious entity in the woods.
The Rickety Man is a dark horror tale with a nice amount of creepy atmosphere and great cinematography.
Director: Cameron Gallagher
Country & year: USA, 2021
Actors: Ava Torres, Russell Shealy, Wyatt Cary, Kurtis Martin, Allison GiamBruno
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt13915690/
A hunter hidden up in his tree stand chances upon gunmen executing hostages. He jumps into action, using his rifle and limited ammo to save the victims.
Ten Shots is a suspenseful short horror film, told with no dialogue at all yet still able to keep up the tension.
Director: Gordon Shoemaker
Country & year: USA, 2020
Actors: Raymond Sammak, Lindsay Mushett, Brian Rock, Adia Smith-Eriksson, Ben Folts, James Graham, Sarah Lange, Adam Dash Roberts, Steven Vaughn
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt11160794/
The middle of nowhere seems the perfect location to dispose of a corpse; but the middle of nowhere calls all sorts. Fresh in the act of burying her victim, a killer is caught red handed by a hovering drone. She must chase down the drone and it’s pilot to prevent her secret ever leaving the scene of the crime.
Pelican Milkshake is a suspenseful little horror short, with a bit of comedic vibes amongst the tension!
Director: Marcus Newman
Country & year: Canada, 2020
Actors: Sophie McBean, Roberto Lanzas
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt11347410/
Less Violence – more Shit.
Karl the Butcher has been dead for 25 years, and now spends his time in Hell, chained to a chair in a dark room. He gets a message from Satan that he has to go back to Earth to kill a new potential Butcher (known as Axe). “Make a wish”, Satan says. Karl wants his mask back. A naked blond chick gives him his mask whom he then rips the head off, before he resurrects on the surface. Of course, what else did you expect?
It’s now the year 2023 and world has become an apocalyptic wasteland which has been split into gang communities. Among them, we get the pleasure to meet the female trinity gang led by the complete unfunny nutcase Queen Scara, who captures and ties up men, attaches their dick to a tube connected to a “sperminator” that drains them from sperm (of course) which Scara drinks while she gives the worst and obnoxious performances I have probably ever seen from a woman. It’s actually so bad in the most painfully cringy way possible that the witch from Troll 2 is Oscar worthy in comparison. The two other ladies, and rest of the cast for that matter are just as awful, but Scara really sticks out, and this trinity gang has a lot of unnecessary screen time with scenes that really drags on and on. I didn’t even chuckle once, and it’s obvious that they act bad on purpose. It looks like something you would see on a bad unintentionally unfunny YouTube film/skit.
Where was I… as soon as Karl the Butcher (played by Andreas Schnaas as usual) emerges to planet Earth, he wastes no time to hunt for Axe and other victims. He kills a random naked chick with some really big, solid boobies before he enters one of the gang communities. The word that Karl the Butcher is back from Hell spreads fast, and the female trinity and some other gangs comes to hunt him down. And yeah, who’s this Axe person, you may ask. He’s just some dude who lives with his lady in the woods (played by co-director Timo Rose). He also wears a mask and has a funny-looking axe which looks like a cheap Halloween prop from some Walmart discount bin, and there’s nothing interesting about him. When he finally stumbles upon Karl, the whole premise takes an unexpected turn when The Butcher and Axe rather decides to team up and become buddies, when they realize that the gangs is out to kill them both.
It took two long decades before Andreas Schnaas finally gave us the not-so long anticipated Violent Shit 4: Karl The Butcher vs Axe, co-written and co-directed with Timo Rose. And I have to say I was a bit curios to see what two directors would come up with in the so far final chapter in the Violent Shit series. And it still looks like shit, as it’s probably meant to be, with overall inept directing, and still amateur hour all way through. The biggest sin here is that it’s mostly boring. It’s also the least violent of them all where it’s too far between the killing scenes, or the Violent Shit, if you will. Instead we get less Violence and more Shit with yawn-inducing and terribly written dialogue scenes where the “actors” seem to be bored out of their minds.
The film isn’t completely hopeless, though. It has it’s Snchnaas trademark moments with limbs getting ripped apart, static close-ups of beheading, castrations, bad choreographed fighting scenes with goofy, cartoonish sound effects, and of course some fresh nudity. It’s nothing new to see, but better than nothing, I guess. The final act is the most entertaining part with gunfights, silly video game-style fights, and of course when Karl the Butcher drinks some green liquid and becomes the Super Butcher, just like Super Shredder from Turtles 2. And his jacket-up bicep-costume looks something like this. Yes, really.
And of you still haven’t gotten enough Violent Shit and the murderous adventures of Karl the Butcher, there actually exists an Italian remake from 2015 of the first film, called Violent Shit: The Movie.
Violent Shit 4: Karl the Butcher vs Axe is available on DVD from Synapse Films.
Directors: Timo Rose, Andreas Schnaas
Country & year: Germany, 2010
Actors: Andreas Schnaas, Timo Rose, Magdalèna Kalley, Eileen Daly, Eleanor James, Marysia Kay, Marc Rohnstock, Mario Zimmerschitt, Marc Trinkhaus, Timo Fuchs
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt1517076/
Prequels:
– Violent Shit III: Infantry of Doom (1999)
– Violent Shit II (1992)
– Violent Shit (1989)
