The Girl Next Door (2007)

Based on the Jack Ketchum book of the same name, The Girl Next Door tells of the horrors hidden behind white picket fence suburbia in the 1950’s. It is an unflinchingly brutal and heartbreaking film that stays true to the book’s narrative and manages to bring the book’s disturbing scenes to shocking life.

The film begins with every kid’s favorite time of year…summertime! A time of freedom, hanging out with friends and long summer days to do whatever you want. On a dead end street in suburbia, though, the summer of ‘58 will forever change the life of a young boy. David (Daniel Manche) lives next door to the Chandlers. The Chandlers consist of single mom Ruth (Blanche Baker), whose husband ran off with another woman years ago, and her three sons, Woofer (Austin Williams), Donny (Benjamin Ross Kaplan) and Willy Jr (Graham Patrick Martin). They have just adopted their two cousins, Meg (Blythe Auffarth) and Susan (Madeline Taylor), whose parents died in a car accident. Both girls were involved in the crash, and while Meg escaped with only a few scars, younger Susan has to now walk with leg braces and crutches. David and the other boys spend their days lounging around the Chandler house (Ruth has always been a cool mom and lets them drink and smoke). David gets a crush on Meg, but begins to notice how poorly Ruth treats the girls. She verbally abuses them, and things quickly escalate to physical abuse. Woofer, Donny and Willy Jr. quickly join in, and soon even other neighborhood kids are joining in to torment the girls. David seems powerless to do anything, even when things get so bad that Ruth has Meg strung up in the basement, blindfolded and just hanging by her arms. Meg’s torture only gets more and more sadistic and brutal at the hands of Ruth, her sons and the neighborhood kids. Can David do something to help or will he too fall victim to Ruth’s insanity and cruelty?

Book adaptations are tricky to pull off, but The Girl Next Door manages to recreate the intensity and horror of Jack Ketchum’s book. The horrifying events that take place in the Chandler household feel very real and watching the film you are very aware that this could possibly be happening right next door to you. It is, in fact, based on the shocking true story of 16-year-old Sylvia Likens, who was beaten, raped and tortured until her death by an adoptive family and the neighborhood kids in Indiana in 1965.

The real crime that was committed, along with the book that was inspired by it and this film are all examples of how vile, cruel and evil some people can be. The depravity in the film is shocking, and not just because it graphically shows the torture (it doesn’t). It’s the emotion (or lack of emotion) and mob mentality behind the actions of the Chandlers and all who joined in that will really chill your bones. I run a horror review site and I’ve seen some pretty messed up stuff in my day, but the cruelty portrayed in this movie actually brought tears to my eyes.

Director Gregory Wilson films unobtrusively and lets the film unfold before our eyes. The audience is treated as a voyeur, and like David, there is nothing we can do to stop the evil occurring right before our eyes. We are stuck just watching the shocking torture that is happening to Meg and Susan. The direction is so unobtrusive that you actually feel that you are there, a trick that Jack Ketchum also pulls off in the novel.
Speaking of the novel, screenwriters Daniel Farrands and Philip Nutman did a fine job adapting the book and showing the heartbreaking emotions that Meg, Susan and David go through, as well as the hate that Ruth feels towards the younger girls. The confusion and conflict David goes through feels very real and is portrayed quite well by Daniel Manche. Blythe Auffarth does an amazing job in her portrayal of Meg. Meg’s strong will, even through extreme pain, is shown very well by Auffarth. I expect to see great things from this young actress in the future. Blanche Baker also does a great job as Ruth, really making the audience hate her.

My only complaint with the characters is that there wasn’t enough time spent on Woofer, Donny and Willy Jr. Their characters just weren’t fleshed out enough to truly buy their horrific actions. The book paints a much clearer picture as to who each one really is and what drives them to engage in such deviant and disturbing behavior. Still, with the time constraints of a film, I understand that some things needed to be trimmed down and the overall feeling of the book remains intact.

The Girl Next Door is definitely not a film for everyone. When faced with the true horrors of this world as opposed to the cartoonish and larger-than-life slashers and serial killers, most people will wet their pants after watching this film. It is a heartbreakingly brutal look at the vile nature of some humans and is packed with sincere emotion.

It’s also a film that must be seen.

Available from Amazon!

Wretched (2007)

Wretched is a short film about one woman’s struggle to maintain control through bulimia through her failing marriage and deepening depression. While this might seem more like a Lifetime tearjerker than a horror movie, in the able hands of writer/co-director Heidi Martinuzzi and director Leslie Delano the tale is spun as horrifyingly as possible, complete with buckets of blood effects care of Gregory Nicotero.

A married couple is sitting in a diner and enjoying a meal of burgers, fries and chocolate cake. Jenny (Jaime Andrews) seems ravenous and really digs into her meal while her husband Eric (Joe Bob Briggs) digs into her, belittling her for being “lazy” even though he knows she is depressed. Jenny excuses herself, goes to the bathroom, and forces everything she just ate back up again. She goes back and forth between the table and the bathroom, excusing herself every time her relationship starts to spiral out of control and her husband asks her pointed questions she has no answers for. Pretty soon, she herself starts losing control…with very bloody results.

Why don’t more women tackle the horror genre? If there were more women directors and writers in the genre, I believe there would be a lot more female fans out there. Then perhaps women would get more horror films that were actually relevant and catered to them, instead of the predominantly male point-of-views we usually get.

Wretched is an example of the kind of films we could get with more women behind the scenes. It was written and co-directed by horror journalist and founder of Pretty-Scary.net Heidi Martinuzzi and directed by Leslie Delano, who also made the feminist slasher Deadly Lessons. Wretched is a rare film, one that is intelligent, female-centric and extremely bloody!

The performances by Joe Bob Briggs and Jaime Andrews are pitch-perfect. Everything feels extremely realistic, especially the way the husband and wife act towards each other. Their body language shows that they have no real connection and they are completely distant from each other. Briggs and Andrews do a wonderful job portraying the unhappy couple. While Briggs’ character acts as the antagonist, constantly nagging and harassing his wife, Andrews plays Jenny with wide-eyed confusion, only feeling control when she’s upchucking in the bathroom. Very believable performances from both actors.

Another aspect that makes the film so believable (and therefore, more disturbing) is the script. The story draws you in and quickly unfolds. The characters are familiar to us (who hasn’t known a bickering couple?) and well-developed. The film also takes on the serious subjects of bulimia, depression and abusive relationships and offers a glimpse into a woman’s psyche.

Wretched is a well-written, expertly acted, thoughtfully directed and socially conscious film, but it doesn’t stop there…it also doesn’t skimp on the blood! Special FX guru Gregory Nicotero handles the blood effects in the film and he certainly doesn’t disappoint. The result is an intelligent, engaging and blood-soaked film that will hopefully encourage more women to pick up a camera and get involved in the horror genre.

Wretched – Official Site

Interview with Filmmaker Shannon Lark

Shannon Lark is a multi-talented director, writer, producer, performer, actress, dancer and manager in the horror business. She has written, directed and produced her own films, acted in many independent horror flicks, founded indie-filmmaker forum (where those in the horror film industry can mingle and mangle) and production company The Chainsaw Mafia, founded The Viscera Series and Film Festival that encourages women in the male-dominated horror industry to submit their own artwork and films, and is the gore wrangler and dancer for the zombie dance troupe, The Living Dead Girlz, among MANY other horror-related things! Currently, she is running for this year’s Miss Horrorfest.

She loves horror and isn’t afraid to show it!! And that’s what we love about her…

Lark is extremely passionate about what she does, and even though she has accomplished so much, she has no plans of stopping anytime soon! Fatally Yours recently got the chance to interview the lovely Ms. Lark, whom you should definitely go vote for in the Miss Horrorfest competition (go here and vote 5 stars on the video!). She definitely deserves it…if you read on, I’m sure you’ll see why!

Fatally Yours: Shannon, your love of horror is apparent. You’ve acted in, directed, written and edited numerous horror films, founded the production company and indie forum The Chainsaw Mafia, performed in splatter theater with the Living Dead Girlz and the Primitive Screwheads, written for horror sites including Pretty-Scary.net, created and run the Viscera Film Festival for women and now you are running for Miss Horrorfest. Horror definitely flows through your veins! How did your love of horror begin and what made you decide to pursue a career in the horror business?

Shannon Lark: It all started with an experience at the ballet when I saw a gruesome rendition of Romeo and Juliet when I was four. Ever since I have been hooked to the genre and every morbid image I could get a hold of. It was just a natural progression from obsessive viewing to obsessive creating. Being an artist in the horror genre is what fuels my imagination and that means everything to me.

FY: Most people take their whole lives to accomplish as much as you have. How have you accomplished so much in such a short amount of time?

SL: Oh wow. Thanks for the compliment! I would hope that people accomplish more than this though, since I feel I have done very little in the big scheme of things.

How I did accomplish what I have so far is by obsessiveness. If you want something bad enough, you don’t just stand around and talk about it or allow your fears to engulf you so you never do it.

I jumped in, head first. I harassed people, made them teach me what they knew when I was hired to act in films. I took independent classes, bought books, and created The Chainsaw Mafia, my horror production company and website.

I started directing films, even though I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. I learned how to edit films, how to write them, how to direct and produce them (along with splatter theater productions).

Directing film festivals came just as naturally as making films. I knew a lot of horror filmmakers in the Bay Area whose films deserved to be shown. Festival Directing, The Chainsaw Mafia, and the Living Dead Girlz have sprung off from these platforms I set up.

It’s all about networking…which is more like beating people over the head with a bloody mallet until they comply.

FY: What was the first project you worked on in the horror genre?

SL: Haha. This is a fun one. I directed this film when I was a junior in high school about nuclear proliferation and the potential effects it could have on the world. I grew up where the US Government tested the first Atomic Bomb, so it was a pretty hot topic.

The film is called “Blood in the Sand,” and features a bunch of my classmates. It had a Marilyn Manson soundtrack and took place in the desert, after the world had been “blown” up. It was cute and we showed it to a panel of Los Alamos Scientists. They really didn’t know what to say….

They probably just said we were all Satanists. Hail Satan!

FY: How did you learn how to act, direct, write, etc.?

SL: My sister was a pretty popular director in our hometown by the time she was 13. She was always an influence in the acting field (she once did an 8 minute scene for a class where she had multiple personalities, it was brilliant!). She really helped me get into acting and dancing and putting on shows.

Directing and writing films came from reading books and talking to people. It takes a while to get down the formatting of writing scripts. It took a lot of crappy scripts to finally get it right!

FY: How did the Living Dead Girlz gig and the Primitive Screwheads opportunity come about?

SL: The LDG were created after I made this film called What Ever Happened to the Zombie Killers. It was one of my first short films and had a cute zombie dance sequence. Amber Steele designed and taught the choreography for the zombies (along with acting in the film). At one point she turned to me in a half joking manner that we should start a zombie dance troupe. That’s where it all started.

About 5 years ago I was cruising Craigslist, looking for horror productions to be involved with. I saw a post by the director, Sean, and contacted him for the role of Annie in Evil Dead: Live. I drove in the craziest rain to get to the audition and was in traffic for 3 hours, arriving over an hour late. I found parking, ran to the theater building at SFSU.

He waited for me, I couldn’t believe it. I auditioned and he gave me the part immediately.

FY: The Chainsaw Mafia and The Viscera Series and Film Fest are both great opportunities for independent filmmakers, especially women. Can you tell our readers more about these?

SL: The Chainsaw Mafia is a free networking forum on the web, so it helps to facilitate link ups with filmmakers and let people know what’s going on in the independent horror filmmaking community. TCM is about bringing a feeling of family and unity in the genre. Discounted equipment rentals and a one stop horror shop coming soon!

TCM also houses film festivals, for men and women, and helps other filmmakers work to be seen and honored.

Viscera is a Film Festival and Series featured on thechainsawmafia.com. The films in the Series are made completely by women, in every aspect of production. Any woman can enter their film (as long as it falls within these guidelines) for the Series.

Along with the Series are Viscera Women, these women are particular females who are being honored on the site because of their roles in the horror genre. Ones who are making an impact and creating their own art are especially candidates.

The Film Festival features women directed/produced films, and has a monetary award for women-only films. Viscera is also sponsored by many horror organizations and Festivals that will review the winners on the DVD and potentially view their favorite Viscera films.

FY: The roles for women in horror, both in front and behind the camera, have been pretty limited in the past. How do you feel about the role of women in film today and do you think there has been an improvement?

SL: I think a lot has changed for women in horror, and its just picking up speed as time goes along. I think more women than ever are creating their own productions and taking projects into their own hands. I think the majority of women are still a bit timid, not just in horror, but in many other career choices. I think we have a way to go before we are considered equal in the work force, but it might be reachable in our lifetimes.

FY: It seems that men make up the majority of horror fans. Why do you think that there are fewer women as fans and how would you convince women that aren’t fans to give horror a chance?

SL: I agree with you, and I think it’s because men are what horror films are marketed to. There is such a flooded market of slasher films wherein the formula is so straightforward. Women are used as objects to be penetrated (with whatever phallic object used in the film), and the final girl is the one in which men can relate to. She takes on a male-like character (not sexy, usually a virgin) and overcomes all obstacles.

I think as more horror films come to light that aren’t your typical slasher film, we will see more an more women become spectators. I also believe that as more women become involved in the genre, we will see a huge rise of female interest. It’s like a message to other females that the waters fine, and nothing bad is going to happen to them if they like it.

FY: Your films contain a lot of social commentary. Do you believe it’s important for films to carry a message along with being entertaining?

SL: For many of my films, yes. I don’t think all horror films need to carry on an important message, intentionally.

I think horror films carry on more of a subconscious message than any other genre of film due to its extreme content. It’s hard to make a good horror film without critics analyzing it to death and creating reasons on why you did what you did to make it effective.

Sometimes I just want to make something fucked up, and people point out to me their conclusions on morality issues on my material. It’s just a natural thing for humans to look for the message. Even if there really isn’t a message there, we want answers.

FY: You are competing for Miss Horrorfest 2007. What was the driving factor that made you want to do this?

SL: Well, I entered last year with a really great film called Prom Queen. It was just a really disturbing film that many people thought was snuff. Youtube ended up kicking the film off the site, even though it contained absolutely no nudity and showed no penetration of any object.

Although Prom Queen was effective, I don’t think it was right for the contest. So I entered again this year, with more of an iconic image in mind. I think it’s time for a strong female character to become more apparent in the genre and I hope to help many women become involved as well.

If I win, in 2008, I plan to start a Scream Queen Camp for budding girls who are interested in getting into the business and expand The Chainsaw Mafia to helping filmmakers even more so.

FY: Who do you look up to in the horror industry?

SL: Peter Jackson, David Lynch, and Alejandro Jodorowsky.

People who I know and love are Heidi Martinuzzi, Michelle Fatale, and Amber Steele.

FY: What are your top 5 favorite horror films?

SL: Dead Alive (Brain Dead), Santa Sangre, Evil Dead, The Shining, Elephant Man

FY: Shannon, you’ve contributed so much to the genre and the horror community is lucky to have you. We at Fatally-Yours.com applaud all your efforts and you definitely have our vote for Miss Horrorfest 2007!

Nailed (2007)

Have you ever experienced an especially vivid nightmare filled with bright lights, dark corners and ominous figures that you could swear was actually happening? When you wake up, you feel disoriented, spooked an uneasy?

If you have, then you’ll pretty much know how you’ll feel watching Nailed, a surprisingly effective horror film!

This under-the-radar film starts off like a crime drama, with two low-level thugs, Keller (Charles Porter) and Scott (Sam Sarpong), dropping off a drug delivery only to find out they are smack-dab in the middle of a huge bust. After a chase through inner-city streets, during which Scott gets shot in the arm, the two take refuge in a boarded-up house. They assume they are all alone, until they hear strange sounds coming from upstairs. When they investigate, they find a man, bandaged head to toe, lying in a bed begin cared for his “caregiver,” Adam (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). Relieved to find a doctor in the house, they force Adam to patch up Scott’s arm. Keller and Scott are forced to stay in hiding in the house because the cops are still looking for them outside. That’s when things begin to get a little strange…

I wasn’t expecting all that much from this movie…with a name like Nailed, I was half-expecting this movie to feature half the cast from Jackass, complete with copious amounts of unnecessary nudity and over-the-top gory deaths. Much to my surprise, it was completely different from what I expected. It actually had a tense atmosphere and had me on the edge of my seat, you know, genuinely frightened! Imagine a horror movie doing THAT!!

Director Adrian O’Connell utilizes the cramped space of the boarded-up house and capitalizes on the claustrophobic atmosphere. Sunlight streaming in between the slats on the windows forms a sharp contrast to the murky depths of the house, creating a disorienting feeling. The intensity of the situation is multiplied by the fact that Scott is slowly bleeding to death and Keller is freaking out over the moans and groans that the man upstairs is making.

The film is essentially carried by the performances of the three actors inside the house (I’m not counting the man in the bed, since he doesn’t do much but groan) – Porter as Keller, Sarpong as Scott and Heredia as Adam and all three manage to pull it off. Porter plays the secretive Keller as the strong, silent one until his sanity begins to slowly deteriorate. Things inside the house start getting to him and he turns from calm and collected to frantic and desperate. Sarpong plays the light-hearted but with-something-to-prove Scott with ease, and actually makes the audience care about him even though he has shot a cop and continually threatens Adam. Adam is played by Heredia in a very creepy, detached way. Adam acts calm and emotionless, even when a gun is waved in his face, which makes you think from the start that something is just not right with him.

The film builds slowly, first with a few strange things occurring, which the characters just brush off as due to stress, but soon the scares become more and more frequent. Keller discovers a doll house that looks exactly like the one they are in, complete with boarded up windows and little dolls that look like him, Scott, Adam and the man in the bed. Then he begins getting sores all over his body and starts seeing things a little more…ominous. The pacing of the film is excellent and even the beginning with the drug bust and ensuing chase fits in. Director Adrian O’Connell and writer Stephen McAnena have created quite a taut film with Nailed.

My only complaint was that the ending felt a bit generic and can be figured out when you actually get into the film. Other than that, Nailed is a solid horror film that focuses more on psychological terror and cramped spaces than grue or goo.

Check it out if you’re looking for a terrifying trip…or just go watch Jackass.

Available on Amazon!

Slime City (1988)

Are you a fan of oozy, gooey B-movies? If so, you will definitely be a fan of the underrated and little-known 1988 movie Slime City!! Filmed on the seedy and shady streets of New York in the 80’s, Slime City can best be compared to Street Trash with its putrescent and neon-colored gore. It revels in grossing you out, but also has an entertaining story.

You see, Alex (Robert C. Sabin) is looking for an apartment all his own…one where he can have a little privacy with his girlfriend, Lori (Mary Huner). He and Lori find a reasonably priced apartment that is close to both Lori’s house and Alex’s work. Alex decides to take it and soon meets the interesting tenants of the place. Across the hall is a Goth prostitute named Nicole (Mary Huner again) who likes to parade around in scant yards of chain, black leather, and fishnets and doesn’t leave much to the imagination. Downstairs is Roman (Dennis Embry), a punk poet who is quick to befriend Alex and invite him over for dinner. Dinner turns out to be blue and green glop that Roman calls “Himalayan yogurt” and a green alcohol that Roman tells Alex was created by the alchemist that used to live there.

After eating the green goop, Alex ends up giving in to Nicole’s wiles. Later, he wakes up covered in a slick, wet slime. Soon, his whole body is oozing and dripping with the stuff. He loses control and kills a homeless man on the street, whose spilled blood manages to turn Alex back to normal. Still, Alex cannot get enough of the green goop that Roman fed him, so he avoids his girlfriend Lori and chugs the stuff whenever he gets his hands on it. He also learns that the alchemist, named Zachary, was also a Satanist and committed suicide in the basement, along with his followers who also lived in the apartment complex. Alex keeps turning into a walking open sore, and takes to wrapping himself in bandages (a la The Invisible Man) before he relieves himself by killing someone.

Pretty soon, we learn that Nicole, Roman and the rest of the tenants just aren’t themselves…their bodies have actually been taken over by the spirits of Zachary’s followers. Zachary is also trying to come back…by invading Alex’s body!

Slime City is a fun and deliciously disgusting (and gut-busting) piece of splatter cinema! If you like your blood splatter mixed with gangrenous greens, lurid yellows and bloated blues, that is! The movie is like looking at a piece of splatter art, you know the kind you used to do when you were a kid? You spun the paper around and around and splattered all different kinds of colors on it? Imagine that and you’ve got Slime City!

For a low-budget film things work beautifully. Director and writer Greg Lamberson knew his limitations and worked within them to bring us this picture. I imagine the bulk of the budget was spent on paint and fake body parts!! Everything looks the way it should, and the grainy, low-budget look of the film only adds to the ambiance of the movie. There are some odd close-ups of characters speaking dialogue, but either I missed the director’s intentions or it is just an amateur’s mistake.

The acting is serviceable and the actors do their jobs quite well. Of course there are some scenes of over-acting, but for the most part everyone plays their characters well. Mary Huner does a wonderful job playing both Lori and Nicole. She gives such impressive performances that I didn’t even realize the same person was playing two different characters.

As for the “slime” in this City…oh, it definitely delivers!! The wet, oozing and sore-infested Alex is gross to look at and we get some impressive limb decapitation via Alex’s deformed body, along with copious amount of Technicolor bodily substances (blood, ooze, pus and so on). The end of the film is where the big payoff is, though, and I’m not giving any of it away.

If you are looking for a good time with some slime, I highly recommend the underrated, underappreciated Slime City.

Just don’t drink the green goop if it’s offered to you…and stay away from Himalayan yogurt!

Available from Amazon!

The Cleaner (2007)

I admit it…I’m a neat-freak. I cannot rest until every square inch of my humble abode is arranged just so and devoid of dust, dirt or debris. On the off-chance that I get busy and can’t clean up, I’ll devote an entire day to picking up the slack and cleaning EVERYTHING.

And while I’m taking out trash that includes DVD and In ‘N’ Out wrappers, energy drink cans, coffee grinds and dust bunnies, Grace, the lead character from The Cleaner, is taking out the trash of an entirely different sort in this short film.

Grace (Kristin Burke) is a pretty redhead who just happens to be obsessive about cleanliness. Everything must be clean and germ-free in her world. She carries disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizing gel wherever she goes to rid herself of that not-so-clean feeling she always gets. Her co-worker Paul (Chris Angelo) likes to harass her about her condition while her husband (Owen Thomas) feels like he can’t even touch her without her needing a shower. One day, Grace gets fired from her job and comes home early, only to find her husband in bed with another woman (Shannon Lark). Right away, Grace snaps into cleaning mode, snatching the filthy sheets from Vicki, the other woman, and throwing them in the washer. Her husband calls her a freak and tells her he is leaving her…she can have everything but he wants nothing to do with her anymore. Grace finally comes to the realization that she isn’t the dirty one, but everyone else is, and decides it is time for some heavy-duty spring cleaning…

The Cleaner may only be a 22-minute low budget film, but for how well it is made it ranks up there with any big budget film. I’ll let you in on a little secret. I actually know the filmmaker, a fact most reviewers would be loath to reveal because they may be more likely to skew their reviews towards the positive when they know the filmmaker. I am usually hesitant to review anything a friend has done due to the fact that I’m honest. And in being honest, sometimes you lose a few friends. Still, I was eager to see what Michelle Fatale had done with The Cleaner and I am pleased to say, friend or foe, no one can deny that The Cleaner is a very fine film.

Every detail, from the acting to each shot within a scene, is meticulous and clean. This is no sloppy, low-budget offering by a couple of frat dudes with a camera, gallons of fake blood and a few naked girls. The Cleaner is a polished, engaging and high-end tale of obsession and revenge. And it’s damn fun, too.

The script, penned by Michelle Fatale and Craig McGee, draws you into the story from the opening credits that show a perfectly put-together suburban home to the sly, winking-at-the-camera closing scene. Everything in the film is believable and there are no plot holes – two major things that most horror movies sadly seem to lack. The character development is done well and even though the film is only around 20 minutes long, it still gives us characters we care about.

In low-budget films, I’m usually used to bad acting, but not in this film. Like everything else the acting is top-notch. Grace is portrayed by Kristin Burke as isolated and kind of an ice queen, but we still empathize with her character. I couldn’t help but root for Grace when she seeks her revenge and starts “cleaning up” the neighborhood! Shannon Lark as Vicki also does a remarkable job, though her screen time is indefinitely shorter than Burke’s. She does not waste the time she has, though, giving it her all and really playing spectacularly against Burke’s character. The men of the short, Chris Angelo as co-worker Paul and Owen Thomas as Grace’s husband, play their sleazeball parts to a T. It was a pleasure seeing them both get their due at the end of the film.

Which brings me to the gore portion of the film: Grace uses industrial strength cleaning products on different areas of the human body, all with the same result…death! The revenge scene was pretty much my favorite within the film, with Grace getting nitty gritty on us and taking out the trash! The special FX are handled appropriately for a low budget film and look great!!

I don’t normally kiss ass and I’m usually hardest on my friends, but I was very impressed by Michelle Fatale’s The Cleaner. Despite the low budget the short film looks professional and has high production values. The acting, writing and direction are impressive for any film, not just good because it’s a low budget film. I highly recommend this film and look forward to its success in the future!

Clean freak or not, it looks like I “cleaned up” with The Cleaner!

The Dead One (2007)

Another day, another comic book adaptation to film, eh? Today it is Javier Hernandez’s El Muerto: The Aztec Zombie that has been remade into The Dead One (El Muerto).

As a young boy crossing illegally into the United States, Diego (Darien Dikeos) follows an old Indian (Billy Drago) who makes him give a blood sacrifice to the Aztec gods. Years later, Diego (Wilmer Valderrama) is all grown up and passionate about celebrating the Day of the Dead. He paints his face to look like a skull, puts on his best black mariachi-inspired suit, complete with bone tailoring, and begins driving to the festivities. Problem is, he never gets there. He crashes his car and dies. The Aztec gods have returned to claim their blood sacrifice.

Diego wakes on the Day of the Dead, in his now permanent costume, to find that he’s been dead a whole year. He sees his friends and girlfriend, Maria (Angie Cepeda), praying over his grave in the cemetery. After being lost and confused (for a little too long), he discovers that the Aztec gods have tapped him to help them reclaim power and kill those whose bloodline was responsible for wiping out the Aztec religion.

Through the love of his amor, Maria, and help from his best friend Zak (Joel David Moore), Diego is able to resist the evil and fight against it. Still, people close to Maria and the church where she works continue to die horrible deaths. Can Diego stop the old Aztec evil from bringing about the end of the world or will he succumb to it?

When I originally heard about this film and its mix of Aztec mythology and Mexican folklore, I was really intrigued. It sounded very original and one of the few horror movies that focused on the Latino community. Then I watched it…and while it has some pretty nifty ideas floating around there somewhere, it was all lost on the presentation.

The Dead One falls victim to a slooooowly-moving story line. I appreciate the fact that it dives headlong into the story at the beginning and doesn’t waste time explaining the Day of the Dead to the audience, but from the time Diego comes back, undead, it just halts and we see the same scenes played out a few too many times. Diego looking confused. A bad CGI storm signifying the arrival of the evil Aztec gods. A dewy-eyed Maria, remembering promises of undying love. Diego running and hiding from police, friends, etc. Over and over again, we get these same scenes. Not to mention the anticlimactic fight scene between Diego and an Aztec baddie (funny, Billy Drago doesn’t really look Aztec…).

For a slow moving, repetitive flick, it sure doesn’t explain much. Anyone not familiar with Latin culture, Aztec mythology, Catholicism or Mexican folklore may have a hard time following along. I wasn’t too sure what was going on most of the time. One minute, they are talking about the end of the world and the next the Aztec gods are just planning on reclaiming world dominance. I was a bit fuzzy on the whole Aztec mythology and Diego’s reason for coming back one year after his death. Was he called back because of the love between him and Maria or because the Aztec gods sent him back?

The movie wasn’t all bad, though. Despite its poorly paced and convoluted storyline, the acting was pretty decent. It was a kick to see Billy Drago both as an “old Indian” and in drag and Wilmer Valderrama did a fine job as someone other than “Fez” from That 70’s Show. It also has good performances from familiar faces Michael Parks (Kill Bill), Tony Plana (Ugly Betty), Maria Conchita Alonso and Tony Amendola. This film showcases a very talented Latino cast…if only they had had a better script to work with!

The direction by Brian Cox (no, not the actor) was pretty basic and pedestrian, but still above average for a low-budget film. Still, since this was a comic book adaptation, I expected more KAPOW! and WHAM! action and instead of just dreary interior scenes over and over again. The only real “showdown” scene is at the end and it really is a sad sight for a comic book movie. Cox also wrote the script and shows the same problem…no clue on pacing and he makes it more of a teenybopper love story than one it’s supposed to be, which is a action-packed horror film.

Besides lack of action, there is also a serious lack of horror in the movie. Instead of horror, it really should be classified as drama (or the previously mentioned love story). Besides all the supernatural happenings and the scenes of the laughable Aztec god, there really isn’t anything remotely scary about The Dead One. It’s mostly about the love between Diego and Maria, but, DAMMIT, I wanna be watching a horror movie, not an Oxygen Network flick!

No matter how much I wanted to enjoy The Dead One (El Muerto), it was pretty near impossible not to wish I was six feet under instead of watching this dreary excuse for a horror movie. Still, I did enjoy the acting and it is a great Latino cast. The real fault here is the direction and script, which is a real shame because of the rich foundation laid by Javier Hernandez in his comic book.

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