Tag: After Dark Horror Fest 2009

After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘The Broken’

Tom:

Yet another reworking of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, Sean Ellis’s THE BROKEN jettisons all of the sci-fi elements of past versions and focuses on the psychological journey of a single victim. It’s an even slower film than the recent, poorly-received INVASION, but it’s deliberate pace works in it’s favor, generating an impressive amount of suspense. It’s easily the least horrific film in this year’s Horrorfest, but there is a lot to be admire in this classy thriller, including it’s clever twist ending.

Gina McVey (Lena Headey), the beautiful British daughter of an American diplomat (Richard Jenkins) in London, has a loving family, hunky French boyfriend, and fine career as a radiologist. The plot is set in motion at a birthday party for her father when a large mirror inexplicably breaks. The next day Gina is unnerved to glimpse a woman who looks exactly like her. She follows her double to a strange apartment for an off-screen confrontation. While driving back home, Gina has a spectacular slo-mo head-on collision with another vehicle (a crash that is shown again and again throughout the film from different angles, as if there are clues to be found within). Saved by her airbag, Gina recovers but soon has nightmares about her boyfriend and his strange new behavior. She’s convinced he’s not the same person he was and it turns out she’s not the only one in London with twin problems.

THE BROKEN, an incredibly quiet film, overflows with mood, atmosphere, and symbolism. Mirrors shatter left and right as a metaphor for Gina’s shattered mind. It’s a device that could easily be tired and overused in a lesser film, but Ellis somehow makes it seem fresh here. In terms of supernatural elements, it’s an ambiguous film. There’s no mention of “pod people† and there is no attempt to explain the origin of the doppelgangers. The film wisely stays focused on Gina. Lena Headey is at the center of most scenes, and is required to carry the film (her inherent coldness is essential to make the final payoff work).   She does a fine enough job but I think the material is good enough that an A-list actress could have made this a commercial success.

Not everyone will like THE BROKEN. The agonizingly slow build-up will strike some as an exercise in tedium. There are a couple of mildly bloody scenes, but some attending Lionsgate’s Horrorfest may expect more horror and less crafty suspense. For the sake of variety though, this year’s Horrorfest organizers were wise to include THE BROKEN. There are screenings of THE BROKEN at Ronnie’s 20 Cine at 1:00 and 7:40 on Tuesday.

Travis:

‘The Broken’ is one of those movies that start you off with the central character having a seemingly normal day, then at some point something strange happens and we begin to follow the character’s dark journey of discovery that inevitably leads to something mysterious.

Gina McVey (Lena Headey) is a radiologist with a close-knit happy family and and a loving French boyfriend, living in London and working as a successful radiologist. Everything is peachy keen until one day on her way home from work she notices a familiar red Jeep Cherokee pass her by on the street and she swears the person driving the vehicle looked just like her.

This begins Gina’s unnerving experience of following the woman to where she makes a creepy realization. Not long after, with her mind firmly fixated on what she’s witnessed, Gina is distracted and finds herself in a terrible automobile accident. When she awakes in the hospital, she finds she has no recollection of the accident. Gina begins having flashbacks and nightmares, all of which encourage her to rediscover who she is. In the end, Gina regains her knowledge of the truth and is, in dark and eerie way, reborn as an entirely different version of herself.

‘The Broken’ is a dark and compelling mystery that held me in and entertained me, leading to an ending that was only somewhat predictable nearer to the end. Lena Headey did a fine job and Richard Jenkins was great as her father, who has an especially creepy, albeit short, scene with himself. The story (without giving too much away, and that’s hard to do) is sort of a minimalist take on ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ that works because it’s character-driven and not reliant on special effects. As much as I really want to talk about the ending, I can’t. But, I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at the outcome, even if the entire movie relies on the the twist at the end.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]

After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘Slaughter’

Travis:

So there’s two significant revelations I had from this movie, one right at the beginning and one realized once the film ended. First, I was not aware that this story was “inspired by true events” as the opening titles state. This instantly increased my interest in the movie. The other revelation, which occurred after seeing the movie, is that ‘Slaughter’ is not the film I thought it would be. That’s a compliment.

I went into this screening with the thought in mind that it would be a movie filled with violence and gore and have little actual story. In fact, the exact opposite occurred. ‘Slaughter’ is actually a great little horror-thriller with a well-written and carefully crafted story that does still have the necessary violence and gore, but none of it is gratuitous. The “yucky” stuff doesn’t truly make it’s appearance until the second half, following the mystery and character development that dominates the first half of the movie.

The story follows Faith (Amy Shiels), a just barely under 18 girl who moves to Atlanta to escape her abusive, (heck… he’s down-right creepy psycho) boyfriend Jimmy (Vance Daniels). Up arriving in her new, yet undetermined life, Faith meets Lola (Lucy Holt) in a downtown night club through a friendly effort of saving her from the unwanted advances of some guy in the bar. The two girls hit it off and Lola gives Faith her number. It doesn’t take long and creepy Jimmy starts calling Faith’s home phone, thus freaking her out and she calls upon an offer from Lola to be her room-mate in her renovated barn-house on her family farm.

During her seemingly serene stay with Lola, Faith feels she’s finally safe from Jimmy. Something doesn’t quite feel right though as Lola’s father keeps his distance from Lola and she senses some secrets are being kept within the family. She repeatedly finds herself uneasily drawn to the metal slaughterhouse on the property that Lola’s father and older brother work in, keeping the goings on inside secret. Another strange and recurring observation Lola makes is the frequency by which Lola brings men home to her bed, only to find her sleeping alone the next morning with an expensive gift and no sign of the man.

‘Slaughter’ certainly describes what Lola’s father does to the pigs, but it’s actually a very misleading title for the film. The movie is a great mystery-thriller and sports not one but a couple plot twists to keep you guessing. The movie benefits from an on-screen energy and flow that holds you in and the pace is just right. The cast of ‘Slaughter’ won’t win any acting awards, but the performances are perfect for what the film requires to tell this creepy story that’s even creepier when you consider it’s inspired by true events. I also noticed the film has a good strategically placed soundtrack. I attended the 5:30pm screening on Saturday, January 10. The next screening will be at Wehrenberg’s Ronnies 20 Cinema at 5:30pm on Tuesday, January 13.

[Overall: 4 stars out of 5]

After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘From Within’

Tom:

I loved Night Shyamalan’s deliriously awful THE HAPPENING on a perverse so-bad-it’s-good level, but it turns out it was not the only film of 2008 about a suicide epidemic. Like THE HAPPENING, Phedon Papamichel’s FROM WITHIN has no suspense, mystery, or surprises but it also lacks the ineptness and unintentional humor that made me so enjoy Shyamalan’s film.

Odd and unexplainable events are afoot in the religiously oppressed town of Grovestown. A teenage boy ruins a make-out session with his girlfriend by sticking a loaded revolver in his mouth and blowing his brains out. The girl, in return, runs screaming to her father, then sticks a knitting needle in her neck. The father then hangs himself, and so it goes. The opening minutes are indeed unsettling. FROM WITHIN’s story begins with interest, but the film quickly bogs down into a heavy-handed bashing of religious fundamentalism. Turns out the suicides are an ill-defined curse brought on by a book that came from a Wicca-style witch who was burned to death by the God-fearing townsfolk after she was framed for the murder of a war vet by the town’s Christian leader who had a homosexual fling with the young man. Got that? (Trees being angry at mankind for causing global warming actually seems like hard science compared to this convoluted explanation) The story centers on teenage Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) who befriends the late witch’s brooding son son Aidan (whom the Christians actually refer to as a “godless heir of a soulless mother†) against the wishes of her alcoholic mother (Laura Allen) and her boyfriend Dylan (Kelly Blatz), who’s an even crazier bible-thumper than his preacher dad. Dylan and his gang of fundamentalist vigilantes blame Aidan for the rash of deaths and demand blood.

The movie stops for some fairly serious religious debate about faith and the effects of loss. In itself, this would not be a bad thing, but juxtaposed with the jumpy horror elements, the result is an unfocused mess. FROM WITHIN is also inconsistent within it’s own rules. Some suicides inexplicably see their own double just before their deaths while others don’t and some of the suicides are actually homicides. The deaths are also not nearly as clever or fun as those in THE HAPPENING (no one walks into a lion’s cage and gets his arms torn off and no one runs over themselves with a tractor!), although one nasty drain cleaner-drinking scene was kinda memorable.

Director Papamichael is the acclaimed cinematographer of, among others, 3:10 TO YUMA, PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS and W. I was expecting this film to look better but, with it’s preponderance of close-ups, FROM WITHIN seems like made-for-TV fare. The acting is unremarkable, and the humorless script takes itself way too seriously. Everyone in Grovestown is so somber and gloomy, it’s almost no wonder the teens there would rather be dead. FROM WITHIN is not a boring film, just a bland one. If you only see one or two films at this years Horrorfest, this is one that can be skipped.

Travis:

I always enjoy seeing films that take a concept that’s been done to death and attempt to give it a new coat of paint by integrating an element that hasn’t been there before. ‘From Within’ does this with moderate success with the idea of religion and religious extremism, focused on a small town of “devoted” Christian Evangelists that clash with a notion that a family of witches reside in their midst. This tale takes place in modern times, but certainly still maintains the traditional feel of the Salem witch trial stories of old.

Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) is a high school girl in a small American town that is semi-dating a son of the town preacher, but is somewhat troubled about her faith. ‘From Within’ doesn’t waste too much time with back-story before getting right into the central series of events on which the story follows, like a trolley on it’s cable. Two teenagers dressed in Goth attire sit near the lake, looking all depressed and apathetic, when Natalie (Rumor Willis) asks Sean (Shiloh Fernandez) if he really wants to do this and he replies “Yes, but there’s one more thing I have to do first.” At this point, the Sean commits suicide and the trigger has been pulled on a mysterious chain reaction that engulfs much of the movie.

The most intriguing aspect of ‘From Within’ is the non-horror plot that involves Lindsay and her extremely “faith”ful boyfriend Dylan (Kelly Blatz), her awkward relationship with Sean’s brother Aidan (Thomas Dekker) and the town’s eerie and blind devotion to their faith, driven by fear and hatred. Lindsay serves as a sort of link between the two worlds and is being pulled from both sides. Some of this is lost when we finally realize the truth about Sean and Aidan, but it’s the uncertainty of who’s really right and wrong in the events leading up to the film’s climax that make ‘From Within’ fairly enjoyable, if not disturbing in a very real sense.

On the other hand, ‘From Within’ also suffers from the same sort of redundancy that it attempts to avoid. As I watched this part-psychological, part-supernatural thriller, I began to pinpoint strong similarities to other films. The movie relies heavily on basic plot devices from two different movies… ‘The Ring’ and ‘Final Destination’. The way in which the “curse” migrates throughout the town is very similar to how the cursed tape makes it’s way from one victim to the next in ‘The Ring’. The deaths of the victims in this movie are all unique and creatively devised but maintain the appearance of having been “suicides” just as all the deaths in ‘Final Destination’ are unique and creatively devised but maintain the appearance of having been “accidents”.

This recycled feel draws away from the appeal of the story and it’s originality, but ‘From Within’ does still manage to survive harsh criticism for it’s effort. The film was directed by Phedon Papamichael, who is primarily a cinematographer and it shows. The film is well photographed in a realistic way that eludes to something mysterious. The dark ending offers a nice twist that leaves the story open-ended, once again an example of a very un-Hollywood way to close a film.   I attended the 7:40pm screening on Friday, January 9. The next screenings will be at Wehrenberg’s Ronnies 20 Cinema at 1:00pm and 7:40pm on Monday, January 12.

[Overall: 3.25 stars out of 5]

After Dark Horror Fest 2009: ‘Dying Breed’

Tom:

Lionsgate’s HORRORFEST: 8 FILMS TO DIE FOR festival is back for it’s third year this week at Ronnie’s Cinema. I’m old enough to remember when “direct-to-video† was not an option for low-budget horror films, when films like these would haunt drive-ins and run-down city theatres. Most of these 8 films at this year’s Horrorfest would otherwise never play a single date theatrically, so Lionsgate should be commended for assembling this mini festival. I just wish they did a better job of promoting these as this year’s attendance, like last year and the year before, was sparse. Judging by the three films I’ve seen so far, they’ve done a good job of choosing films of variety and, mostly, quality.

For me anyway, this year’s HORRORFEST started off well with the 2008 shocker DYING BREED, a scary Australian take on a familiar horror genre that anyone who enjoys films like THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE or WRONG TURN will want to seek out. The premise and exotic location may remind viewers of the recent WOLF CREEK (it even has that film’s star Nathan Phillips), but DYING BREED is a much rougher ride.

Zoologist Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) and her three attractive, adventurous friends Matt, Jack, and Rebecca (Leigh Wannell, Nathan Phillips, and   Melanie Vallejo) venture into an Australian island jungle. Ostensibly the plan is to prove the existence of a rare Tasmanian tiger, but really Nina is trying to solve the mystery of her sister’s death there eight years earlier. After a disturbing visit at a grungy hostile Tavern/Motel, the group soon finds themselves in the wilds, hunted by cannibalistic descendants of local legend “The Pieman† aka Alexander Pierce (a real 19th century figure, there’s even a Pieman River in Northwest Tasmania).

There’s nothing terribly original or complex about DYING BREED. The sense of dread and foreboding in the build-up is familiar and heavy-handed, including lots of subjective “someone’s watching† overhead shots. The tiger subplot is disappointingly   abandoned early ( I kept bracing myself for a tiger attack that never happened). The pre-slaughter banter is shallow and the four young leads are the usual sketchy mix. Jack, the trouble-making hothead, and his sexy and passive girlfriend Rebecca are obviously doomed early on. These are criticisms that could apply to most horror films though, as DYING BREED is mostly an exercise in mood and scares, and that’s where the film succeeds. The horrific set-pieces involving hunting knives, crossbows, bear traps, and false teeth are intense and often genuinely terrifying. There are some surprises. Heroes Nina and Matt attempt to   turn the tables on their pursuers in the expected way, but don’t exactly succeed.   The ultimate fate of Nina’s sister (shown in flashback) is quite disturbing and the film has a realistic downbeat climax that stays with the viewer.   The gore quotient is high enough to appeal to Fangoria readers without lingering or going over the top. When the primary Pieman kller is finally revealed, he is truly a frightening villain (and I wonder why this movie wasn’t given the more obviously commercial title PIEMAN). First-time   feature director Jody Dwyer, while not reinventing the wheel here,   has an obvious knack for this type of material.   Dwyer has made, with DYING BREED, a slick, scary, unpretentious horror film can stand on it’s own merits and the organizers of Horrorfest were wise to include it in this year’s line-up.

Travis:

I would really love to see more genre films from Australia get theatrical screen time here in the States, but it seems it falls into the same black hole of American theatrical distribution of the many other foreign film markets that repeatedly produce quality movie. What amazes me however, is that Australian films are, for the most part, in English and not subtitled, leading me to wonder why we don’t see more of them here. ‘Dying Breed’ is yet another example of a decent genre film from Australia that’s going to likely get lost in the midst of endless direct-to-DVD horror films, relegated to online forum banter between the most devoted of horror movie geeks. [I further emphasize this with the 2006 black comedy/horror movie ‘Black Sheep’ released here on DVD by Dimension Extremes. Actually, it’s a New Zealand film, but still…]

‘Dying Breed’ is written and directed by Jody Dwyer and stars writer-actor Leigh Whannell (Saw I, II, III). The film begins with an opening sequence that sucks you into the historical back-story and influence for the movie’s modern tale of terror. Upon exiting the opening sequence, we are thrust into modern day as a young couple fly into Australia for a trip to Tasmania. Matt (Whannell) and Nina (Mirrah Foulkes) meet up with Matt’s macho-testosterone friend Jack and his girlfriend Rebecca. The purpose of the trip is for Nina to search for and hopefully document the Tasmanian Tiger, which she believes is not extinct. Nina’s true mission is to complete this research that her sister began before she mysteriously died eight years prior to this trip. It’s a round-about way for Nina to bring some kind of closure to her grief.

Jack and Rebecca are very stereotypical characters and it’s no surprise that they become little more than “axe” fodder for your traditional horror movie plot development. While the first half of ‘Dying Breed’ can move a bit slow at times, it still manages to maintain it’s appeal and slowly leads you into the heart of the story’s darkness. About halfway through the film, the story’s twist begins to reveal itself resulting in a diminished “shock” impact. Despite this, we are still rewarded with some disturbing details and some grotesquely gruesome scenes to test the strength of our stomachs.

The story pulls from two legendary Australian footnotes of history, combining them to create an under-stated hybrid that doesn’t needlessly over-blend the two separate ingredients. No, there’s now half-man/half-beast, no shape-shifting or supernatural beings. Instead, the film takes the idea of the Tasmanian Tiger’s disputed status of extinction and uses it as a plot device and to some extent, is used to create the classic Hitchcock McGuffin effect to draw the audience into a direction other than where you’ll ultimately end up. This is combined with an Australian origin story that lives on with urban legend notoriety, which has Alexander Pearce (aka The Pieman) being the only prisoner to have ever escaped the British island penal colony of the 1800’s, now known as Tasmania.

‘Dying Breed’ touches on multiple sub-genres within the genre of slasher/horror films, features a handful of Australian/Irish accents that add a cool element to watching this film and has realistic and effective special effects to make the gore convincing enough to create discomfort. Above all else, I felt the “true” ending of the movie is beyond icing on the cake and reaches the status of the cherry on top. The little girl named Julia (Bianca Cutrona) is the subject of a twist that revels itself simply and briefly but effectively in the final moment of the movie, creating that wonderful lingering aftertaste of freakishness that makes good horror movies good. I attended the 5:30pm screening on Friday, January 9. The next screening will be at Wehrenberg’s Ronnies 20 Cinema at 5:30pm on Monday, January 12.

[Overall: 3.75 stars out of 5]