The Kyiv Seminary (a college that trains students to be priests, rabbis, or ministers) are sending their students home for vacation. Three of them decide to get piss drunk and ends up lost in the countryside in the middle of the night. When they see an old farmhouse, they ask the old woman who lives there if they can spend the night. She agrees, but her condition is that they sleep in separate areas of the farm. One of the students, Khoma Brutus, is placed in the barn. Later, the old hag tries to seduce him, which ends up with him getting hypnotized and the hag rides on his back like he was a horse. Weirdly enough, it isn’t until she also makes them both levitate that he realizes that she must be a witch. Huh! Who would’ve guessed! He ends up attacking her by violently hitting her with a stick, and then she suddenly turns into a beautiful young woman. Terrified, he runs away and back to the seminary, where he later gets the news that a wealthy man’s dying daughter has requested for Khoma himself to come and say prayers for her soul. I guess there’s no big surprise who this girl turns out to be. Anyway, she ends up dying before he arrives, but he will stand vigil and pray for her soul for the next three nights. In the chapel where the dead girl’s corpse lies, he starts praying and every night the girl wakes up, trying to get him while he’s protecting himself by standing inside a sacred circle he draws by using chalk. Can Khoma get through all three nights without the witch getting him in the end? Well, if she doesn’t, maybe all the vodka will…
Viy (Spirit of Evil) is a Soviet Gothic horror fantasy film from 1967, directed by Konstantin Yershow and Georgi Kropachyov, and it was the first Soviet-era horror film to be officially released in the USSR. It is based on a story by the same name, written by Nikolai Gogol, which also inspired Mario Bava’s Black Sunday.
The synopsis for this movie may sound rather straight-forward, but damn…it really is so weird at times, and starts off rather slow and fails a bit with keeping you fully engaged. In between the strange supernatural elements, the protagonist and the other people around him are mostly walking around getting totally sozzled on vodka or whatever the hell they’re drinking, while singing songs and goofing around. Khoma is pretty much constantly hammered during the day, and then fighting off the undead witch and whatever she summons at night, that’s pretty much the flow of what is happening here.
The movie saves up the best for last, where Khoma’s final night is where all the good stuff starts happening. This is where the witch finally summons the film’s namesake, the Viy, which is a large humanoid creature. This was actually played by a guy who was a circus artist, because the costume was so heavy they cast him for his strength. In addition, all kinds of other hell-spawn is summoned and we get some really surreal, fun and inventive scenes here.
Overall, Viy is a fantasy horror movie that feels more like a folklore-fairytale than outright horror, but amusing enough in its own way and with a pretty bonkers finale.
Viy was released on DVD in 2001 by Image Entertainment, and then re-released in 2005 by Hanzibar Films. Severin Films released it on Blu-ray in 2019, and it’s also available on several streaming sites, including Tubi.
Directors: Konstantin Ershov, Georgiy Kropachyov Writers: Konstantin Ershov, Nikolay Gogol, Georgiy Kropachyov, Aleksandr Ptushko Country & year: Russia, 1967 Actors: Leonid Kuravlyov, Natalya Varley, Aleksey Glazyrin, Nikolay Kutuzov, Vadim Zakharchenko IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062453/
A young girl named Ellen is filled with a soul-crushing loneliness, causing her to pray in despair and desperately seeking comfort from anyone…or anything. Unfortunately for her, her prayers are answered. Then, some years later in 1838, she’s happily married to a man named Thomas Hutter, and they live in the town of Wisborg, Germany. Her husband works as a solicitor and estate agent, but he’s struggling a bit financially and hopes to achieve some financial security for them both. His employer, Herr Knock, tells Hutter that there is a reclusive and eccentric count in Transylvania, Count Orlok, who wants to buy Schloss Grünewald, and asks Hutter to travel to the count’s place and seal the deal. Upon hearing this, Ellen is terrified and begs him to stay, but he dismisses her and heads off to the Carpathian Mountains while his wife stays with his wealthy friend, Friedrich Harding and his wife Anna. When he arrives in Transylvania, the locals try to warn him off, but of course he doesn’t pay heed to their superstitions. The evening he arrives at the castle, he meets the intimidating Orlok, dines with him and pretty much wants to finalize the purchase of Schloss Grünewald as soon as possible and get out of there. Instead, Hutter finds himself a victim to Orlok’s bloodlust. Finally managing his escape by falling out of a window and into the river below, he is later found by a nun who brings him to a nearby church where they start nursing him back to health. Meanwhile, Orlok’s coffin is on board a ship sailing towards Wisborg (and Ellen) bringing with him plague-infested rats and death.
Nosferatu is another remake/reimagined version of the 1922 silent movie by F. W. Murnau, a film that was a little too closely inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula novel from 1897 and almost ended up as lost media when Stoker’s widow took legal action and a judge ordered all copies to be destroyed. Thankfully, some survived, and there has since been several remakes and spinoffs made: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) by Werner Herzog and Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu, Nosferatu in Venice (1988) also starring Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu and originally intended to be a sequel to Herzog’s 1979 film and co-directed by Kinski together with Augusto Caminito, Shadow of the Vampire (2000) which is a movie based on the making of the 1922 film where Willem Dafoe plays Nosferatu/Max Schreck, and a 2023 crowd-funded remake with Doug Jones as Nosferatu. Not to mention all references in other media, even including Spongebob.
Robert Eggers had his directorial debut with The Witch (2015), and have since continued to impress with his blend of horror, mythology and folklore, which can also be seen in The Lighthouse (2019). A reimagining of Nosferatu done by this guy sounds like every folklore-horror lover’s dream. And while honoring the source material, he also adds his own flavour to it of course.
The development for Eggers version began in 2015, where he was very much thinking of it as a passion project. Many actors have been cast and re-cast since then, where Skarsgård was originally cast as Thomas Hutter, but then re-cast as Count Orlok (quite the change). To prepare for his role, he lost a significant amount of weight and worked with Icelandic opera singer Ásgerður Júníusdóttir so he could lower his vocal range. The prosthetic makeup took up to six hours a day to apply, and needless to say…he’s completely unrecognizable in this film. While you could clearly see some of his traits beneath his Pennywise makeup in IT (2017), he’s totally unrecognizable here. No wonder he considered his Orlok-transformation experience as “conjuring pure evil“. His looks as Orlok was also kept a secret prior to the film’s release, making a lot of people wonder what the result would be. And while some people found his moustache off-putting for some reason (sure, his looks differ a lot from the goblin/rat-like Orlok from the original) it’s easy to see what Eggers went for here, making him look more like an actual ancient Romanian count. Eggers have deliberately gone back to several of the actual folklore aspects regarding vampires and vampirism, where they were quite literally walking undead corpses.
The filming took place primarily in Prague at Barrandov Studios, and they were also shooting on location at the 14th-century Rožmitál pod Třemšínem Castle in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, and Pernštejn Castle (also used as the location for Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre), Prague’s Invalidovna complex, and some exterior shots were captured in Corvin Castle in Romania, which is actually the castle where Vlad Dracula was briefly imprisoned. Great use of locations, without a doubt. The film was also shot on 35mm in color by cinematographer Jarin Blaschke,using special filters to adapt the desaturated look reminiscent of 19th century Romanticism. Another fun tidbit is that 5000 live rats were used in this film, and none of them were harmed or lost. There’s one scene featuring Willem Dafoe where he had to work with 2000 rats around him, which he didn’t mind as he’s an animal lover but admitted they could be a little unpredictable but were “great acting partners“. No musophobia to be spotted here, at least!
There’s certainly been put great attention to details in Nosferatu, with costumes, locations, sets and cinematography. Despite the film being dark and moody, it’s also manifestly gorgeous where it’s gracefully blending its grotesqueries with beauty. Regarding performances, I have to give praise to Lily-Rose Depp in her role as Ellen, she does a formidable job with her role as the haunted and possessed woman. Willem Dafoe is fun to watch as the Van Helsing-esque occult expert, and it’s especially fun to see him in this movie since he played Max Schreck/Count Orlok in the 2000 movie Shadow of the Vampire. The actors are all doing great, but there’s no doubt that the most impressive performance comes from Skarsgård himself where the transformation is utterly radical and he really does go all in. I have to admit, though, that I gave some involuntary chuckles when he first started speaking with the deep, slow, raspy voice where he sounds like he’s in desperate need of an inhaler. It took some getting used to, but once I did, I thought it suited the character pretty well, especially with how he otherwise looks like a literal decaying corpse. I also couldn’t really shake it from my mind how my brother, upon seeing a picture reveal of Skarsgård’s Orlok version, said he looked like “a grotesque Dr. Eggman“. Yeah…couldn’t really unsee it afterwards…thanks, bro.
There’s no doubt that the Eggers version of Nosferatu is a visual, stylish experience layered with ominous atmosphere and overt sexual undertones. It many ways it differs from both the original and its other remakes, with elements that will be enjoyable for some and off-putting for others, but we loved it through and through!
Writer and director: Robert Eggers Country & year: USA/UK/Hungary, 2024 Actors: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Emma Corrin, Ralph Ineson, Simon McBurney, Adéla Hesová, Milena Konstantinova, Stacy Thunes IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5040012/
Hobo with a Shotgun was originally one of the delightful and awesome fake trailers made for the promotion of the double-feature release of Planet Terror and Death Proof back in 2007. And just like the same trailer for Machete, and much later Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, it was made into a full-length feature. But unlike the two/three mentioned, this one was more independent, made far away from the mainstream Hollywood system, and didn’t get any wide theatrical release. A damn fucking shame because this is meant to be seen on a big screen with a solid sound system and not on a laptop. Anyway, in the fake trailer, we saw David Brunt having the days of his life as an unhinged hobo. He was also supposed to play the role in the film, but a severe panic attack with the stress of carrying a whole feature-length on his shoulders made him disappear for weeks. He was reduced to a quick cameo as a “no dirty cop“ while Rutger Hauer took over the title role. The film got funded with 3 million dollars and shot in the back alleys over 24 days in Dartmouth. And no, that’s not a region somewhere in Mordor, but a city in Canada.
We’re in the 1980s where it all starts with some fresh optimism as Hobo is on a cargo train to explore some uncharted territories. Unfortunately, he couldn’t have dropped off in a worse city where they could use a RoboCop, a dozen of Paul Kerseys and maybe a Batman. But we’re soon to learn that you should never underestimate a hobo with a shotgun who’s about to meet the final breaking point. The city is ironically called Hope Town (tagged over as Scum Town) with the slogan “where the railway ends and life begins!“ Too bad that the city is already in its final stage of full psychotic collapse where the trash floats as much as the cocaine, graffiti on every wall, stink of piss and shit everywhere I can imagine, insane rampant crime, corrupt police, punks smashing people’s heads like melons with bump-cars while hookers do their thing to survive — and just everything imaginable to make this the worst urban dystopian nightmare on Earth. Nothing much new that Hobo hasn’t seen his whole life already though. So what is it that’s making Hobo finally raising his eyebrows? Good question.
The answer: As Hobo is shuffling around with a loot-shopping cart in some neighborhood, minding his own business, he gets to witness a random handcuffed guy running with a manhole around his neck (of course). “He’s gonna kill me“, he screams. He gets confronted by a guy in the most spotless white suit with his two sons, Slick (Gregory Smith) and Ivan (Nick Bateman). We learn that the dude in the white dress is called Drake (Brian Downey). He’s a batshit crazy gangster Joker-style sociopath who’s taken over the city, and if you don’t obey him, well, get ready to be decapitated by a barbed-wire noose in broad daylight in full public. We’re still in Canada, by the way, and not in the Middle East. Yeah, well whatever, now Hobo’s seen that. This poor guy was the third son of Drake, by the way, who got gamed over with no continues because he wouldn’t be any part of this deranged family.
The next thing for Hobo is to beg for enough cash to buy a… yes, you guessed it — a lawnmower. Because the grass is always greener on the other side, I guess. And just sitting on the sidewalk with an “I’m hungry“ sign doesn’t do shit, so over to plan B: to get paid by eating glass for the camera. No pain, no gain, as we say. The road to scrambling up enough money has been brutal as he’s also been a victim of police brutality with getting carved “scum“ on his chest before they threw him in a dumpster. Welcome to Fuck Town. But the day is finally here; to buy that shiny lawnmower. The optimism is back in full blossom as Hobo stands in front of it in the pawn store like an eager kid on Christmas morning. And, oops… the store gets robbed by a gang of thugs, of course. A baby gets a gun pointed at its face. As Hobo is trapped in a corner, he picks up a shotgun and blasts away. Hobo has had enough, and a vigilante is born as he goes on a rage-filled rampage around the city, blowing the brains out of all lowlife scumbags he stumbles upon, from sleazy pimps to a pedophile Santa. Hobo for president!
Hobo becomes the one big news headline after another that soon gets the attention of Drake, the crazy guy in the white dress we saw earlier, and he wants Hobo’s head on a platter. In the midst of this, Hobo does all he can to make sure that the young street hooker Abby (Molly Dunsworth) is safe, a golden-hearted hooker, who gave him shelter.
While the film has a far more polished look than the fake trailer, Hobo with a Shotgun still has the heart, spirit and the rebellious energy like a true Grindhouse exploitation ride. Almost everyone is over-the-top in a cartoonish Troma fashion, which can be tiresome in the long run. The two guys who play Ivan and Slick really sticks out, as they do their best to top eachother as they both seemed to approach their roles by mimicking a manic Tom Cruise. Jason Eisener has been clever enough to not give them too much screentime. Rutger Hauer does a more low-key performance in all of the madness where he can make the most cheesy lines sound dead serious and believable. He plays the role with a heavy heart and vulnerability where his eyes show layers of emotions, from fear, despair to pure rage. Top tier acting. Then we have his somber words of wisdom-speech in front of the infants at the hospital which is just sad and bleak, but also true, and even more true in 2025. He and Molly Dunsworth also have some great chemistry going on and is a charming duo to root for. And no, don’t worry, there’s no awkward and cringe sex scene here. Thank God.
The cinematography by Karim Hussain really spices up the film with vibrant use of colors. Yes, we’re used to seeing this in numerous throwback films, but Mr. Hussain adds its own look and personality to it that also fits the tone perfectly. The soundtrack is a solid plus, where we have all from synth/darkwave to some appropriate use of Disco Inferno during a morbid scene that includes a school bus filled with kids. The hospital-invasion scene is especially a standout, where you’ll recognize the tunes if you’ve played Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, or vice versa. Jason Eisener was a consultant on that game, by the way. He also likes to “borrow“ classic theme music, as he also did in his short film Treevenge, and used the theme from Mark of the Devil (1970) in the opening credits of Hobo. Kids of the 80 and early 90s who grew up with The Raccoons will also have a pleasant surprise to have the nostalgia meter up to eleven.
Hobo with a Shotgun is pretty much a flawless film, and after fifteen years it’s still a unique gem in the modern Grindhouse genre. It’s fast-paced and entertaining as hell. The distinct tone keeps its track steady all through without falling off like a drunken walk-and-turn test, and blends the satire, the overall blood-filled insanity with the more gritty, serious and nihilistic undertones better than it should. That’s perhaps much because the whole cast and crew seemed to be right on the same page as director Jason Eisener and writer John Davies, who undoubtedly had a clear vision from the start. Or maybe the whole thing was just a lightning in a bottle. And Rutger Hauer was a phenomenal actor who couldn’t be a more perfect fit for the title role. RIP.
And I was, of course, curious to see what Jason Eisener would do next. Probably the sequel Hooker with a Shotgun? Oh, well. The years went by, and we finally got Kids vs Aliens, which I also did a trailer reaction of. And the film was a big letdown, to put it in a nice way, where there was no badge to give. Bummer. That said, I read somewhere, sometime long ago, maybe in a fever dream, that Jason Eisener was rumored to direct the remake of The Toxic Avenger. Well, there’s already one made where no distributors have the balls to touch it because it is “not safe enough to market“, so it’s not too late.
The time is also way long overdue for Rob Zombie to finally make his Werewolf Women of the SS with Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu!!!
Director: Jason Eisener Writer: John Davies Country & year: Canada, 2011 Actors: Rutger Hauer, Pasha Ebrahimi, Robb Wells, Brian Downey, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Drew O’Hara, Molly Dunsworth, Jeremy Akerman, Andre Haines, Agnes M. Laan, Duane Patterson IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1640459/
Chris is the new kid in town, and has started hanging out with a group of other teens: Zack, Brett and Tonya. Story goes, that Tonya’s little sister disappeared several years ago after attending a now closed day-care center. The owner, an elderly woman named Edith Cranston, is put to blame by the teenagers and they have made it a tradition to torment and vandalize her property. Chris joins them for another such evening of vandalism, and while he does not take any part in it, he’s still getting a piece of Edith’s mind when she comes out, furious (and rightly so) and telling them all off. The teens, of course, don’t give a shit as they’ve already villainized the old woman and fails to see how the acts they’re committing could end up with dire conseqences. And of course, it does…Edith commits suicide, which causes her husband to contact the teens. The reason he contacts them is because Edith did something very strange prior to killing herself: she included them in her will. They will all inherit a lot of money, and all they need to do in order to get it, is making a call to a phone that has been installed in her casket…
The Call is a horror film from 2020, directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. and written by Patrick Stibbs. It’s starring Lin Shaye (known for her role in the Insidious franchise) and Tobin Bell (known as Jigsaw in the Saw franchise). It received generally negative reception upon its release, and while the movie is not exactly a masterpiece, it’s really not that bad. Sure, some of the experience might be a bit heightened due to the performances by some well-known horror actors, but the story is also fairly okay and the cinematography is quite decent, where some of the scenes have a colorful and vibrant halloween-vibe to them.
The story offers some twists and turns, and sure.. some of them can be seen from a mile away. It’s not exactly a spoiler to reveal that Edith’s suicide was all part of an elaborate act of revenge, and neither is it really much of a spoiler to reveal that the disappearance of Tonya’s little sister offers a bit of a twist reveal. The characters are unfortunately very bland, which is more common than not in many horror movies featuring a cast of teens (or “teens“, especially in older movies). It works for a storyline like this, though: an easy-going and slightly cheesy flick.
The Call isn’t very original, but makes for an entertaining enough halloween-ish movie with some fun appearances from horror icons Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell.
Director: Timothy Woodward Jr. Writer: Patrick Stibbs Country & year: USA, Canada, 2010 Actors: Lin Shaye, Tobin Bell, Chester Rushing, Erin Sanders, Mike Manning, Sloane Morgan Siegel, Judd Lormand, Randy J. Goodwin, Brooklyn Anne Miller, Leah Contreras, Toby Leeder, Aidan Bertola IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12971924/
Three friends have traveled to a ski resort to have some fun: Dan Walker, his girlfriend Parker O´Neal, and Walker’s best friend Joe Lynch. It’s about to get dark and nearing the ski resort’s closing time, but they manage to have the ski lift operator let them go for just one final run down the mountain. Unfortunately, the ski lift operator is relieved from duty by another employee, and while he tells them there are three people left, the second operator closes everything when three other people comes skiing down. The chairlift they are still sitting on is then stopped, and the three friends do not realize the big heap of trouble they’re in until the lights on the ski resort goes out. And the biggest problem of all: the ski resort will be closed for an entire week. As no one else knows their whereabouts, they are trapped with seemingly no way to get out of the situation.
Frozen (not to be mistaken for the Disney movie) is a psychological horror film directed by Adam Green. The film premiered on the Sundance Film Festival in 2010, where it apparently caused numerous faintings as certain audience members couldn’t handle the tension of the film. It was later released in North American theaters with distribution from Anchor Bay Films.
Movies where the protagonists are trapped in a single location always come with the challenge of limited scenarios, but with the right amount of build-up and the perfect location these kinds of movies can be very tense. And Frozen definitely is. Not only are they in the dangers of frostbite and literally freezing to death, there’s also wildlife putting their lives at risk. There’s a realistic sense of dread throughout the entire movie, and the realism is of course heightened by the fact that the movie was shot entirely practically: there’s no greenscreen, no CGI, no soundstage, and the actors and actress were in reality suspended over fifty feet in the air on a real mountain in Utah: the Snowbasin Ski Resort in Ogden. Kind of gives me the chills just thinking about it…the shots of the moving chairlift were all done by the director himself and the Director of Photography Will Barratt, because the camera crew were too nervous to do it.
The movie moves at a rather quick pace and doesn’t let down on the tension, the threat is always imminent and you keep wondering what is going to happen. The characters, obviously having tempted fate by ignoring the dangers of going for that “final ride down the mountain“, are people you still feel sorry for despite thinking they acted like idiots. And while being stuck in a chairlift doesn’t sound like a concept that could bring in too many threats, there are actually some pretty inventive ways to put the characters in constant peril.
Frozen is a chilling thrill ride packed with tension, where you can’t help but imagining yourself in such a dire and helpless situation. A nice watch during a cold winter day!
Happy Holidays!
Writer and director: Adam Green Country & year: USA, 2010 Actors: Emma Bell, Shawn Ashmore, Kevin Zegers, Ed Ackerman, Rileah Vanderbilt, Kane Hodder, Adam Johnson, Chris York, Peder Melhuse IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1323045/
The year is 1996, and the teenagers Owen and Maddy start bonding over a TV show called The Pink Opaque. The show is about two teenage girls, Isabel and Tara, who use their psychic powers to fight the supervillain Mr. Melancholy. Owen, who isn’t allowed to stay up late enough to watch the show, sneaks over to Maddy’s house so they can watch it together. Both of them live rather isolated lives, but Maddy ends up wanting to run away in order to escape her abusive stepfather. She wants Owen to join her, but he finds himself not being able to go through with it. So, Maddy ends up missing, and at the same time, The Pink Opaque is cancelled…
I Saw the TV Glow is a supernatural horror drama film, written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun. The series in the film, The Pink Opaque, was inspired by 90’s TV shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990) and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994).
If you’re familiar with A24’s repertoire, you know that they often release some really artsy movies (like Beau is Afraid). This one belongs to this category, as another unconventional arthouse film which is naturally divisive. They are also often filled with loads of metaphors and allegories, surrealism and awkwardness. I Saw the TV Glow looks, on the surface, to be some kind of 90s nostalgia throwback film, but it’s also layered as a much more complex coming-of-age movie. The director started writing the script three months after having begun hormone replacement therapy, and while wanting to make the movie about the transitioning of coming out, the director made the choice of leaving this more ambiguous. This makes the movie work as an allegory for a lot more, and portrays a lot of themes and situations many of us can recognize.
Now, I was born in the 80’s. This means I was a teenager during the 90s, and watched several of the typical 90’s TV shows, remembering some of them fondly. And there is a scene, where Owen in his older days decides to re-watch some episodes of The Pink Opaque, only to see that they’re not quite the way he remembered them. I think many of us can very much relate to how certain things are so layered with the rose-colored glow of nostalgia that we remember them so differently…not because they were different, of course, but because we were different. How the sort of magic that exists in your youth cannot be replicated in adult life, no matter how hard you try…and how you must simply come to terms with that, and find a new magic in your life and fill it with new interests and new things to do. Some people are not so lucky, though. In I Saw the TV Glow, Owen and Maddy become so consumed by the TV show The Pink Opaque because they use it as a coping mechanism.
I Saw the TV Glow is an arthouse movie that’s mostly an allegory for finding your identity. More surreal drama than horror, and definitely not everyone’s cup of Mad Hatter’s tea, but if you’ve lived for some time on this arduous earth, you’re most likely going to resonate with at least some of the themes it represents.
Writer and director: Jane Schoenbrun Country & year: USA, UK, 2024 Actors: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Lindsey Jordan, Danielle Deadwyler, Fred Durst, Conner O’Malley, Emma Portner, Madaline Riley IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15574270/
Karen is traumatized from some kind of horrible event on a subway train. We get to see a few flashback pieces from what she apparently went through, until we go all the way back to see what actually happened to poor Karen. We learn that she worked as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital, and on her way home she is approached by some weirdos on the subway train. What follows is a tension-filled ride where no one is safe.
End of the Line is a horror film from 2007, written, directed and produced by Maurice Deveraux. The film debuted to a limited release, received fairly positive reviews from critics and also won a few prizes a festivals. The film didn’t get a Blu-ray release until 2023, however, and have remained a lesser known movie.
Now, the horror genre has a lot of religious-themed movies (demons, possessions, cults and more), but more often than not the movie’s portrayal of such are often depicting them as the ones who are right, and sometimes ending up throwing away what could have been an excellent portrayal of religious madness (looking at you, Frailty!) in favor of a supernatural simplification. After all, there’s an even more unnerving horror behind the concept of individuals having such an unwavering faith in something that they would do “anything“ in the name of their god or savior. History has already proven how horribly that can go, and today is no different. The world is a place filled with people who would do pretty much anything for their faith, and would easily justify all means possible to achieve what they believe would be the “right“ thing. Religious fanaticism and the hypocrisy from therein is more than a good enough theme for horror movies, and End of the Line is a prime example of this.
While there are limited surroundings, the film doesn’t overstay its welcome and keeps everything at a decent pace. There’s enough tension to keep your attention, and it also keeps things behind a slight veil of mystery. There’s also some decent gore to appreciate here. While the crazy cultists are enough of a threat by themselves, there is of course a character that makes for a bigger villain than the rest: a guy named Patrick, played by Robin Wilcock. In many ways, this character works well in representing how cults and groups of certain types of people inevitably attracts those who join them not because they believe in their cause, but because they want to join in the mayhem and chaos they’ll evoke. Patrick isn’t a religious fanatic, but he finds himself attracted to the group as a means of doing what would otherwise be perceived as bad deeds but which he can now commit under the disguise of being “good“.
Other than knowing the obvious, that a religious cult is causing trouble at a subway station, I think this movie is best seen without too many spoilers, so I’m going to refrain from saying more. Overall, End of the Line is a fine low-budget thrill ride with some story aspects that easily ends up for discussion once the movie is over. What was really going on? Were the cultists right? While the film doesn’t give it away openly, there is actually a very clear answer to this which is shown early on during the film. I’m not gonna spoil, but I’ll give a little hint: muffin.
Writer and director: Maurice Devereaux Country & year: Canada, 2007 Actors: Ilona Elkin, Nicolas Wright, Neil Napier, Emily Shelton, Tim Rozon, Nina Fillis, Joan McBride, Danny Blanco Hall, John Vamvas, Robin Wilcock, Kent McQuaid, Robert Vézina, David Schaap IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494224/
A newlywed couple, Hyeon-soo and Soo-jin, are as happy as they can be together with their adorable little fluffy dog. That is, until one night Hyeon-soo starts sleepwalking, and acts in ways that are totally unlike him. It all keeps escalating, to the point where Soo-jin fears that he will harm either himself or her. Soon, they also have a baby on the way…how can they make sure that his sleepwalking stops being a threat? And is it all really just a simple case of sleepwalking?
Sleep is a South Korean horror thriller from 2023, written by Jason Yu in his feature debut and stars Jung Yu-Mi and Lee Sun-kyun. This is one of the final films that Lee Sun-kyun starred in, as he died the same year after an incident of drug use allegations, charged on suspicion of using cannabis and psychoactive drugs. He tested negative, which probably should have been the end of that if it wasn’t for South Korea’s high moral expectations of public figures, and a very strong social disapproval of drug use. On December 27th, 2023, he was found dead inside his car with a charcoal briquette in the passenger seat, which is commonly used in suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning in South Korea. So this gives the movie an even darker sentiment than from the subject matter alone…
Now, Sleep has a premise that may sound a bit simple, but the film manages to deliver an overall suspenseful story. You keep wondering if the husband’s sleep disorder harbors something darker and more dangerous, and as the movie progresses you’re not really sure what to expect. There are some incidents which proves that Hyeon-soo’s sleepwalking incidents are far more than a mere nuisance, where no one is safe. The husband is a loving and good-hearted person while awake, but once he sleeps, there’s no way to predict what he can do. At first, the couple tries everything…making him go to bed in a sleeping bag in the hopes of him not being able to get up and start his sleepwalking shenanigans, an attempt that proves to be completely futile. Soo-jin is at her wit’s end, and place a bell at the bedroom door so she will wake up when he leaves the room. And soon, the sleepwalking becomes a danger to everyone. In some ways, I think Hyeon-soo’s sleepwalking and the fears and danger Soo-jin is placed in because of it, can be a bit of an allegory to living with someone who’s a substance abuser or someone having a mental illness that changes their personality and behaviour drastically. Soo-jin never knows how dangerous things might become when her husband falls asleep, and lives in constant fear of what could happen. Her own sleep is totally disrupted since she can never relax, being watchful every night of what her husband might be able to do once he’s in the sleepwalking state. The tension is very palpable due to the strong performances, and you feel sorry for them both.
Sleepwalking is not a theme that’s got a lot of horror movies dedicated to it, so far we’ve only seen the Swedish 2000 thriller movie Sleepwalker which deals with the same subject matter. Thus, Sleep is another entry into this genre, a suspenseful thriller powered by strong performances, where a man’s sleepwalking habits turns him into a danger to his own family.
Writer and director: Jason Yu Original title: Jam Country & year: South Korea, 2023 Actors: Jung Yu-mi, Lee Sun-kyun, Kim Geum-soon, Kim Gook Hee, Lee Kyung-jin, Yoon Kyung-ho IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8209702/
Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are two Mormon Church Missionaries, who ends up at the home of a man called Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant) who has asked for their visitation. Reed is a bit of a reclusive, but the lovely smell of blueberry pie in the oven that he tells them his wife is preparing, is quick to put the young women at ease. They begin discussing religion, and Reed starts asking a lot of questions and makes a few uncomfortable comments about their faith. They are being served one red flag after another, until they have had enough and decide to leave. Only to find out that they can’t, of course. And now they are trapped in Reed’s house, where he puts them up to challenges and giving them lectures, claiming that he has found the one true religion. And he wants to show these young women his findings…
Heretic is a psychological horror film, written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Haunt, 2019 and 65, 2023).
This is a movie where the few characters and limited location leave the actors with limited tools, but in the right setting such movies can work wonders in building up a tense atmosphere. This one certainly belongs in that category. The acting is good and the characters believable, where Hugh Grant really sells it as the coldly vicious villain. This was his second horror film since The Lair of the White Worm (1988), where romantic comedies have been his main department over the years. Well, it’s often nice to do something completely different after such a long time! Also, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East were both raised Mormon so they carry their roles with what appears to offer a good insight and a convincing performance.
As can be expected, the underlying critique of religious structures and the control they maintain is served through much of Reed’s lectures. And while you’ll probably ponder a bit what the so-called “one true religion“ really is, which Reed claims he’s found, you probably won’t be too surprised once it’s revealed. The film also doesn’t hammer it down on your head which “side“ you’re supposed to agree with the most. In fact, Reed is undoubtedly completely right with many of the things he lectures about to the young women, but Barnes and Paxton also provides reasonable views and thoughts on their own beliefs. Now, I am not a religious person myself, but I did find myself agreeing with the young women on certain points even though they weren’t “right“…like how Sister Paxton mentions how prayer experiments have shown that praying doesn’t help, but she still considers it a nice thing to do in order to offer comfort to someone else. Reed might be right in a lot of his conclusions, but just like certain religious aspects which he’s eager to criticize, he’s using his beliefs to commit and justify his actions and thus inevitably placing him in the same category as other religious fanatics trying to control others.
I don’t want to spoil anything else as this movie is best watched while knowing as little about it as possible. Heretic is a suspenseful and dark theological thriller, very dialogue-driven but mastering it with great skill.
In the film’s credits, there’s the statement “No Generative Al was used in the making of this film“. So thumbs up for that!
Writers and directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods Country & year: USA, Canada, 2024 Actors: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East, Topher Grace, Elle Young, Julie Lynn Mortensen IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28015403/
Extra Terrestrial Visitors. Yup, this movie actually exists, and no, this is not a very long-delayed mockbuster from The Asylum. Extra Terrestrial Visitors was originally meant to be a straight-forward horror film with an Earth-stranding alien who goes on a murder rampage. Sounds just like in the right alley for the Spanish director Juan Piquer Simón, who had just made the ultra violent Grindhouse classic Pieces.
Then came the global megahit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the producers demanded to have the script rewritten and add a storyline with a boy and a friendly alien and cut as many horror elements as possible. Not a good idea, to quote Tony Stark. In the UK, the film was released on VHS with the shamelessly fake clickbait title E.T.: The Second Coming. So what we have here is probably the most pathetic and desperate attempt to squeeze out a cash-in within the last minute. The producers who were confident enough to think that this kind of director was a good fit to piece together a mainstream, family-friendly E.T.-ripoff with zero to none resources, except an overuse of smog machines, must have snorted too much cocaine. Trumpy took the rest. Trumpy who? He’s a friendly, furry alien who has a big trunk like an anteater. More about him later.
A meteor crash lands in some rural forest landscape. Two poachers are out hunting and one of them sees a red gloving cave while the fog machine already works on overtime. As he goes into the cave, he enters a room filled with some large alien eggs. After he smashes them with his rifle, except one, he gets attacked and killed by an unseen entity. Mommy alien, we can guess. The last remaining egg gets later picked up by the boy, Elliot Tommy, who brings it home and hides it in his room.
Then we have a rock band, of some sort, who are in the studio recording. I can’t remember a single name, but what we have are two guys and four chicks. The melodrama is all over the place where it’s hard to give a single fuck. Here we also get some of the worst, retarded and hilarious dubbing I’ve heard recently. And the written-on-a-toilet paper dialogue with the amateur acting makes it all better. It’s already easy to see why this was picked up by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The rock band drives out into the woods to have a picnic. They start to argue over some bullshit that makes one of the girls leave them and go into the smog-filled woods. And speaking of fog, I’d guess that this film has the world record for using smog machine. She stumbles upon mommy alien somewhere in the thick fog who makes her fall from a cliff and die. The rock band carries her body to the nearest house where they get to seek shelter. And yes, the same house where Tommy has hidden the alien egg in his room.
Suddenly, the egg hatches, and out comes a little cute alien who Tommy feeds with nuts and milk in all secretly in his room. And the faster he eats, the faster he grows until he’s as tall as Tommy. The alien is, assumedly, played by a kid in a cheap, funny costume that looks like something you’d see in the background of the Star Wars cantina just to fill some empty space. He has, as mentioned, a big trunk which he eats through and gives some blank, empty stares with stiff emotionless eyes. As hard as Tommy tries to act excited, there’s zero chemistry or charm here. It’s just unsettling and off-putting. To put the golden raspberry on top, he names the alien Trumpy. And he’s here to Make Earth Great Again. Or maybe not. Trumpy also has telekinesis power, and trust me, it’s cinema magic at its finest and will blow your mind.
And if you thought the dubbing was bad, you’ll have some serious brain farts when you hear Tommy. Trumpy’s alien mom goes on a rampage and body counting, because this was, after all, originally meant to be a horror film. Alien mom kills its victims by slapping and shoving them where they die instantly, one-hit-death Alex Kidd style. Lousy stuff. How does this turkey show end, you ask? Do we get an emotional goodbye scene like we did in E.T.? —Spoiler warning— After our two friends have a run in the woods, Tommy tells Trumpy to fuck off. I hate you Trumpy, he says. Uhm…OK. Poor Trumpy, I guess? And since there wasn’t any budget to make a cheap-looking spaceship to pick him up, Trumpy wanders into the fog-filled woods to never be seen again. The End.
Well, that was… something. Making Contact (1985) comes to mind, only this one is far more tone-deaf and completely inept in all aspects. To Juan Piquer Simón’s defense, he had no control over the final product as he was fucked over by the producers. Showbiz is brutal. Extra Terrestrial Visitors is still a fun, amusing trainwreck to watch for all turkey lovers. It’s available on Tubi and on Blu-ray from Severin Films.
Director: Juan Piquer Simón Writers: Joaquín Grau, Juan Piquer Simón Original title: Los nuevos extraterrestres Also known as: Pod People Country & year: Spain, France, 1983 Actors: Ian Serra, Nina Ferrer, Susana Bequer, Sara Palmer, Óscar Martín, Maria Albert, Emilio Linder, Concha Cuetos, Manuel Pereiro, Frank Braña IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086026/
The Kyiv Seminary (a college that trains students to be priests, rabbis, or ministers) are sending their students home for vacation. Three of them decide to get piss drunk and ends up lost in the countryside in the middle of the night. When they see an old farmhouse, they ask the old woman who lives there if they can spend the night. She agrees, but her condition is that they sleep in separate areas of the farm. One of the students, Khoma Brutus, is placed in the barn. Later, the old hag tries to seduce him, which ends up with him getting hypnotized and the hag rides on his back like he was a horse. Weirdly enough, it isn’t until she also makes them both levitate that he realizes that she must be a witch. Huh! Who would’ve guessed! He ends up attacking her by violently hitting her with a stick, and then she suddenly turns into a beautiful young woman. Terrified, he runs away and back to the seminary, where he later gets the news that a wealthy man’s dying daughter has requested for Khoma himself to come and say prayers for her soul. I guess there’s no big surprise who this girl turns out to be. Anyway, she ends up dying before he arrives, but he will stand vigil and pray for her soul for the next three nights. In the chapel where the dead girl’s corpse lies, he starts praying and every night the girl wakes up, trying to get him while he’s protecting himself by standing inside a sacred circle he draws by using chalk. Can Khoma get through all three nights without the witch getting him in the end? Well, if she doesn’t, maybe all the vodka will…
