The Bunny Game (2010)

The terror you witness on-screen of The Bunny Game is real. Let me clarify…it’s not just realistic…it actually happened. It’s like watching a snuff film, only no one really died during filming (as far as we know). The actors weren’t merely acting, but they were subjected to most everything you see on film. Ballsy actress Rodleen Getsic gives a graphic blowjob, pees in public, is shaved bald and is actually branded in the film, not to mention the preparation that went into her role as an emaciated, drug-addled prostitute. Getsic fasted for over a month to prepare for her role! As you probably have guessed by now, The Bunny Game isn’t your ordinary horror movie. In fact, it feels more like a brutal snuff film coupled with avant-garde performance art.

The film is about a hard-knock prostitute named Bunny (Getsic) who trolls the streets of LA turning tricks and snorting coke whenever she gets the chance. This prostitute certainly doesn’t have a heart of gold, but nonetheless you feel pretty bad for her as you watch her engage in graphic sexual acts, get high, get raped and get robbed. Things go from bad to worse when she is picked up by a trucker (Jeff F. Renfro) who takes her out to the desert and brutalizes her for days on end.

While the plot might make it seem like just another torture flick, let me assure you that The Bunny Game is anything but. Is there torture? Well, yes, but it’s more the nasty psychological kind that sticks with you for days, rather than straight-up blood and guts. And the intense psychological wringer that the film puts both the victim (Getsic) and viewer through makes the film seem that much more realistic, which, believe me, will further raise the audience’s anxiety! And after all the things the cast (namely Getsic) went through, it is no wonder the film feels so authentic!

Director Adam Rehmeier, who co-wrote the film with actress Getsic, says the film wasn’t written with a strict script (there is very little dialogue) and most of the performances came organically from the actors. They were just sorta let loose on one another and given license to go as dark as they could…and, boy, did they ever go dark! Not only were the performances spontaneous, but so was the camerawork. Most scenes were filmed in only one take (usually unheard of in a film), which only adds to the immediacy and realism of the film.

The film also has a very voyeuristic feel, which adds to the snuff-like, performance art quality of it. The shaky camera angles, the constant zooming in and out and so on really make you feel like you are right there with the characters. And no matter how hard you try and get away (or look away), you just can’t.

Despite its shocking brutality, there isn’t that much blood and gore, if that’s what you’re hoping for. Most of its terror comes from psychological torture. Bunny is just as mentally broken down by the trucker as she is physically abused. He locks her up for days and submits her to all kinds of torment – stripping her down, humiliating her body, flashing a spotlight in her eyes, chaining her up, taking her for walks on a leash, shaving her head, etc. And that doesn’t even begin to detail the physical and sexual abuse he perpetuates against her. It is this kind of damaging psychological horror that is most effective, at least in my opinion. Anyone can do gross-out blood and guts, but it takes real talent to get into the audience’s brains and truly disturb them.

Congratulations are in order for director/co-writer Rehmeier and co-writer Getsic, because they have crafted a hauntingly unsettling film! It may be intensely difficult to sit through, but at least it looks stunning and isn’t just a point-and-shoot affair. There are even some beautifully dynamic shots in the film that momentarily relieve you of the brutality on-screen. It is filmed completely in black and white, which gives it a monochromatic and artistic look.

However, even the way the film is shot echoes the manic madness of the film, for juxtaposed against the gorgeously framed shots are choppy, disorienting edits, frantic shaky cam shots, voyeuristic zooms and more to make the viewer experience even further discomfort. Even the music, which features chaotic metal in the first few scenes but devolves into a creepy score as the film progresses, adds heightened emotion to scenes that are already difficult to watch…And just when you think you can’t possibly take anymore the next scene comes up to further test your limits.

I can only use “disturbing”, “unsettling” and their derivatives so much to describe The Bunny Game, but hopefully by now you get the point. This film definitely isn’t for most people, but if you like challenging films that push limits, you should give The Bunny Game a view. It’s probably the closest you’ll ever get to a snuff film!

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Book Review: Sick Things - An Anthology of Extreme Creature Horror

As a follow-up to their Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror anthology, Comet Press has released Sick Things: An Anthology of Extreme Creature Horror, edited by Cheryl Mullenax. Does it live up to its “extreme” tag and the high-quality of Comet’s past releases? Read on to find out!

From the back cover:

Over-endowed aliens invade earth with one purpose: to mate with human females. A filmmaker documents a devil-worshipping blood cult – and becomes the main subject. A farmer with an unnatural affection for his livestock gets a special gift when his wife is bitten by a werewolf. An employee finds his new boss sexy and attractive – and so do the flys. Pissed off, flesh-eating cows take over a dairy farm. A musician returns from the dead to avenge his wife’s murder, with the help of a mysterious black possum. The Allies find a secret weapon, a monstrous blob with an insatiable appetite for dead human flesh. A chef creates his ultimate dish: an anatomically correct golem made out of leftovers. A mythical demon preys on unsuspecting college girls. And many more…

Wow, Sick Things is definitely one deviant, extreme collection of stories! I made the mistake of reading this during my lunch break and it was definitely a challenge to keep my food down! If you can think of the most vile, disgusting thing imaginable, it’s probably in one of the tales of this collection.

While all of the stories are effective, one stood out as my personal favorite. The Hansel and Gretel-themed Evil, Bent and Candy-Sweet by Tim Curran is a grotesquely beautiful short story with imagery so strong you can almost smell it. I loved the author’s descriptions (“The sky had been slit open, oozing tangles of red blood and seams of yellow fat at the horizon.”) as well as his characters, including Brother, Sister and of course the evil witch. There is just something so malignantly magnificent about this story, weaving its dark, twisted perspective into the fairy tale imagery. The collection is worth buying just for this story alone!

Other favorites of mine included Heat by Daniel I. Russell, about a farmer who is into bestiality that gets more than he bargained for when his wife turns into a werewolf, Jimmy Sticks and the Outlaw Critter of Doom by Michael Boatman, about a murdered man that comes back as a zombie to extract revenge on his and his wife’s killers, and The Special Son by Jeffrey Hale, about a special needs boy who discovers just why he is so special when his semen mixes with spider eggs to produce a whole new ghastly creature.

While the four stories above were my personal favorites, all of the seventeen stories in Sick Things are worth checking out. All of them have a high gross-out factor and gorehounds will be delighted by the visceral scenes contained in each tale.

If you are an extreme fan of horror looking for the ultimate in disgusting, vile and disturbing fiction, Sick Things: An Anthology of Extreme Creature Horror is a must-read…just make sure you have your barf bag handy!

Buy it on Amazon!

Meadowoods (2010)

You all know that faux documentaries are nothing new in the horror genre. “Found footage” flicks have been popular from Cannibal Holocaust to Paranormal Activity and are now more common than ever thanks to the heightened scare factor, immediacy and realism of faux docs. Plus, they can be relatively cheap to make for filmmakers on a budget! However, they are so “dime-a-dozen” nowadays that sometimes they are more a chore to sit through than a pleasure.

So, I didn’t really have high hopes for Meadowoods, where three college students decide to film themselves planning and executing a murder.

The three disenfranchised college kids are Stephanie (Michelle Roe), a bitter young woman who has lost all faith in humanity, Travis (Connor Thorp), the seemingly happy-go-lucky leader of the group but who hides a sinister, sociopathic nature and the brooding cameraman Ryan (Michael Downey). The three are fed up with being neglected by their parents and living in a small podunk town, so to go down in history they decide to kidnap and kill a random person, filming everything. However, once their plan starts to become a reality, Ryan starts having second thoughts, especially after he gets close to their intended victim.

I wasn’t expecting too much out of Meadowoods and figured it would just be another throw-away serial killer flick with lots of violence and brutality. Lucky me, I actually got a rather chilling story about the ambivalence and indifference of seemingly ordinary people. The scare factor in Meadowlands isn’t in the final scenes where the kids’ quarry is trapped and tortured, but rather in the scenes where each of the kids are interviewed, stating their reasons for wanting to kill someone, their views on death and the afterlife and so on. Their coldness and flippancy towards killing another is absolutely chilling and portraying this is where this film succeeds!

Of course, none of this would have worked without competent and convincing actors and surprisingly for an indie film the acting here is top-notch across the board. Connor Thorp, Michelle Roe and Michael Downey all do a stunning job playing the trio of friends. They were all entirely convincing as bored college kids looking for a sick thrill. Very spooky performances! And Ila Schactler gave another believable performance as their intended victim. She was likable and perfect as the girl next door!

I also want to give kudos to writers Stuart Ball, Scott Phillips (who also directed) and Anna Siri for creating such realistic characters and such a chilling story. I appreciated that the characters weren’t your stereotypical stupid teens and that the script offered more than just violence.

My only problem with Meadowlands was the ending, which dragged a bit too much in my opinion. It was almost like they used most of it as padding since it got so repetitive. The taunting and torturing of the victim was fine, but did we really need to see her sit there and scream for what seemed like 20 minutes straight? I think the ending killed the unsettling feel of the rest of the film, which is unfortunate since I enjoyed the first part of the film so much.

However, I would still recommend you check out Meadowlands. It isn’t your typical “found footage” horror film and really takes the time to frighten us psychologically through its portrait of today’s bored youth.

Available from Amazon!

Book Review: Pay Phone by Brandon Ford

In Pay Phone, Brandon Ford’s (author of Splattered Beauty) newest novel, charming serial killer Jake stalks victims from his tenement, calling a pay phone he can see from his isolated apartment and luring victims up where they meet their grisly deaths. Jake may be a charismatic and handsome young man, but he is haunted and tormented by the voice of a mysterious woman named Susan.

One morning Jake spies a very special victim from his perch…one who looks almost exactly like Susan. Amazingly, she answers “his” pay phone and the two strike up a conversation. Jake learns her name is Chelsea and she is a struggling actress trying to make it in the big city. Jake thinks this one is different and that she may be able to stop him from his murderous ways, but Susan’s voice whispering in his head tells him different.

Pay Phone is a quick, easy and suspenseful read from indie author Brandon Ford. The characters, from the twisted Jake to innocent Chelsea to greasy landlord Ackley to Chelsea’s bitchy roommate Haley, are all fleshed out and given ample background, though this isn’t always necessary. For example, there is a sub-plot about Haley trying to sleep her way to the top of her company that doesn’t quite fit. Though Ford goes to great lengths to describe her anguish, her chunk of the story seems unjustified considering her abrupt leave of the story. However, it’s not like Haley’s subplot took anything away from the meat of Pay Phone, and her feelings of isolation, frustration and disappointment mirrored all of the other characters’ feelings and fit the tone of the book.

I also enjoyed all of the shocking and perverse revelations about Jake, his relationship with Susan and the grisly way he dispatches of victims. There are some very gory, explicit descriptions throughout the book, including necrophilia, which are sure to satisfy gorehounds and extreme fiction readers alike!

The pacing of the novel is quick, and Ford has the ability to suck you into the story and make you want to keep reading all the way through. The character of Jake is oddly likable, despite all the horrific things he does, and you just don’t want to stop reading about this psycho. Though there are some instances in the plot that aren’t entirely believable (it’s very convenient that Chelsea decides to pick up the pay phone – and who in their right mind would actually pick up a germ-infested pay phone? Ick!), but because of the breezy nature of the novel I was able to overlook the inconsistencies of the plot and just have fun.

If you are looking for a disturbing but quick horror read this summer, look no further than Brandon Ford’s Pay Phone…just don’t pick up if you ever hear a pay phone ringing; you never know who is on the other end!

Available from Amazon!

The Killer Must Kill Again (1975)

Expecting another typical giallo, I was surprised to find how sadistic The Killer Must Kill Again really was. This is definitely not your standard Italian giallo, but something much more sinister and disturbing.

It begins with Giorgio (George Hilton) being nagged by his crazy, but rich, wife Norma (Tere Velázquez). Going out for a drive, Giorgio witnesses a serial killer (Michel Antoine) dumping a body, so he then blackmails the killer and hires him to kill his bitchy wife, making it look like a kidnapping so her rich daddy will pay the ransom.

Well, during the kidnapping/murder things go awry as two kids (Alessio Orano and Cristina Galbó) steal the serial killer’s car…with the body of Norma in the trunk. The serial killer then tracks the two kids down to a seaside town where he indulges in some sadistic revenge.

I wouldn’t call The Killer Must Kill Again a giallo, but rather a mean-spirited and violent crime thriller. First off, we know who the killer is all along, so we don’t have the standard giallo whodunit. Secondly, the killer is only after the two kids, so all other victims are people that get in his way. However, the film is just as suspenseful besides these facts and does a wonderful job at ratcheting up the tension while we anxiously wait for the killer to catch up to the two oblivious teens.

While we wait for the killer to arrive, we begin to feel closer to the two teens, making what subsequently happens to them (especially the innocent character that Cristina Galbó plays) all the more hard to watch. When the killer arrives, he finds the virginal girl all alone in an abandoned house (her loverboy is off getting busy with a slutty local, played by Femi Benussi, but annoyingly dubbed – almost to the point where I wanted her to hurry up and die). The killer brutally rapes her in a very uncomfortable and shocking scene that cuts back and forth between the chilling rape and her boyfriend getting it on with the other woman. You are simultaneously disgusted and titillated by the two different scenes, making for a very awkward viewing experience. Kudos to director Luigi Cozzi for making us feel such dissonance with this scene!

Besides the character development that makes us feel for the victims, I thought the actors also did a wonderful job. The real standout was Michel Antoine (aka Antoine Saint-John) as the killer. Not only were his cold, chiseled features scary, but his silent demeanor was also menacing. Without his stoic performance the film might have fallen apart, but he owned his role as a sociopath. The other actors were equally good, though George Hilton faded into the background when the killer/kids storyline took precedence. I especially liked Cristina Galbó as one of the kids – she brought such innocence to the role! I also thought the handsome Alessio Orano did a great job as the sleazeball boyfriend.

Though the likable kids suffer thoroughly at the hands of the killer, their outcome is not as expected. I also liked the tidy wrap-up at the end of Giorgio’s storyline, but after witnessing such disturbing violence I had hoped the ending would have a bit more resonance. While The Killer Must Kill Again has its fair share of nasty brutality (especially towards women), its ending was a bit too “happy” for me. It is a solid film, but probably one I’ll only watch once. Take that to mean what you will…

Available from Amazon!

Home Movie (2008)

Home video cameras offer families a chance to capture precious moments, whether it’s in the backyard, on vacations, during holidays or just everyday life. Home videos are usually meant to capture the best of times, but sometimes they can also capture the worst. Usually this footage ends up on America’s Funniest Home Videos or Break.com, but what if home videos showed something truly disturbing, like every parent’s worst nightmare that their kids are not the sweet and innocent children they thought they were raising but instead sick and twisted little bastards? What if a family’s home videos revealed the extent of their children’s sadistic nature?

This is the basic premise of Home Movie, which uses “found footage” to document one family’s desperation as they watch their creepy kids commit unspeakable horrors, all through the lens of the family camcorder. I hadn’t heard anything about Home Movie before watching it and wasn’t expecting much, but it delivers a truly sinister and disturbing story.

The film shows us the Poe family, comprised of dad David, mom Clare, and siblings Jack and Emily. They’ve just moved to an isolated house in the country and also bought a brand spankin’ new video camera to record their adventures (well, according to David…Clare originally bought the camera for her psychology practice). They seem like a normal loving family…except their kids, twins Emily and Jack, are pretty creepy. They don’t say much and just stare into the video camera with empty expressions. And then there’s an instance where David gets hit with a baseball…which could be construed as an accident, until Jack starts throwing rocks (“Turn the camera off…He’s throwing rocks at me”). The kids’ bratty behavior begins to escalate and goes from petulant (throwing rocks, behaving badly at dinner) to downright shocking (crucifying the family pet on Christmas). Clare recommends counseling/medication and tapes her sessions with the troublesome twosome. She also begins to suspect that David is abusing them and causing them to lash out. However, David, a Lutheran minister, thinks the kids are possessed by evil spirits and believes an exorcism is in order. Through all this, the twins’ progressively violent and shocking behavior only seems to be getting worse…are they being abused? Are they possessed? Or are they just burgeoning sociopaths?

I am really surprised that this film hasn’t been given more attention, because it’s a fine flick. Writer/director Christopher Denham creates a chilling story and shocking visuals. The children are just creepy to begin with (kudos to child actors Amber Joy Williams and Austin Williams for their convincing performances), but Denham creates so much tension by giving us a voyeuristic view of the Poe household. We feel as if we are a fly on the wall while watching the horrific events unfold.

Also, Denham uses the home video footage wisely, so it appears realistic and believable (which is much harder than it looks). For example, the parents are always saying “shut that camera off!” when something bad happens. The footage that is shown comes off as very natural and is never forced. Every disturbing detail is captured and there are plenty of shocks throughout the film as well as a twisted ending. The story builds subtly, but the intensity levels keep rising with each new “incident” the family experiences. It takes a little patience to get through the first part of the film, but the tension keeps mounting and mounting until you just can’t look away.  I also enjoyed how the story explored many different explanations for the children’s behavior. Are they being abused? Are they demon possessed? Is something evil in the house influencing them? Are they just pure evil? These different possibilities kept me on my toes and on the edge of my seat.

Considering there were only four characters in the film and the action was always focused on them, the actors all did a phenomenal job. As mentioned previously, real-life siblings Amber Joy and Austin Williams did a very convincing job of portraying evil children. The film could have easily gone campy if they gave over the top performances, but they played it very subtly, which ended up making their characters VERY unsettling. Props must also be given to director Denham for really getting these stellar performances out of child actors. Adrian Pasdar and Cady McClain were equally brilliant as the befuddled parents. Their performances came off as very natural and completely believable. You could really feel their frustration, confusion and fear through their performances and couldn’t help but sympathize with them.

This is a rare independent film whose atmosphere and psychological terror deliver unrelenting dread, tension and suspense. Home Movie is an underrated film that deserves more attention from horror fans and is one of the best “found footage” or “faux documentary” indies to rock my world. You should definitely check it out…

Buy it on Amazon!

Triangle (2009)

Triangle is a surprising straight-to-DVD flick…when I first watched it I hadn’t heard anything about it, so I wasn’t expecting too much out of it. However, it’s a great little flick that offers plenty of twists and turns that will keep your mind reeling!

I’m not even sure how to describe it so I’ll let the Netflix description do the synopsizing:

“Murder strikes the Bermuda Triangle in this gripping high-seas horror starring Melissa George, Liam Hemsworth and Rachael Carpani. Jess encounters the first of many bad omens when her car kills a seagull near the local harbor. Later that night, her yacht hits a storm, forcing her and her friends to board a mysterious deserted ship. The clock on the ship has stopped — and so has any sense of safety. Christopher Smith writes and directs.”

Though the synopsis mentions the Bermuda Triangle, it’s never explicitly mentioned within the film and the above synopsis doesn’t quite do the movie justice. When Jess (a perfectly manic Melissa George) and friends board the ship, a strange time loop occurs and Jess must essentially battle future and past selves to get off the ship. Ok, so it sounds a little hokey, but rest assured it isn’t! The film is played as straight as can be with plenty of shocks, suspense and scares! This is certainly one film that gets inside your head…even when you think you can relax Triangle surprises you with more twists and turns.

Christopher Smith, who writes and directs, did a fantastic job creating an ominous atmosphere, both within the story as well as with the visuals of the film. I really didn’t know what was going to happen and the script kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time! Also, the decrepit old ship was definitely foreboding, especially with its dark mazes of hallways and the washed-out color palate Smith used when shooting above-deck or on land. The visuals helped create a sense of disorientation that mimicked the emotions of Jess as she tried to figure out what was happening and how to stop it.

Along with messing with your head, the film also features some pretty impressive violence. People are shot, stabbed, choked, drowned and so on. This isn’t a “gore” film by any means, but I thought the amount of blood was quite appropriate for the tone of the film. It also boasts plenty of creepy scenes, like when a masked killer is going after Jess and her friends. My favorite scene? When Jess stumbles upon the duplicate bodies and bodies of her friend who, in this strange time loop, has died again and again and again and again…

Just awesomeness…

I think it’s better to go into Triangle with little or no expectations, so I don’t wanna blab and give too much away. This horror flick comes highly recommended from yours truly…and just wait for a jaw-dropper of an ending!

Available on Amazon!

Book Review: The Death Panel - Murder, Mayhem and Madness edited by Cheryl Mullenax

Comet Press follows up its fantastic short story collection Vile Things: Extreme Deviations of Horror with The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. Like Vile Things, The Death Panel is edited by Cheryl Mullenax and she definitely knows how to pick ‘em! The Death Panel is chock full of vicious, ultra-violent and hardboiled short stories from authors Randy Chandler, Tim Curran, John Everson, Brandon Ford, Kelly M. Hudson, David James Keaton, Scott Nicholson, Tom Piccirilli, Zach Sherwood, David Tallerman, Fred Venturini, Erik Williams and Simon Wood.

The collection starts with a bang with Randy Chandler’s Lipstick Swastika, a story with a ‘40s noir feel about a hotel security guard that suspects a buxom German blonde to be an escaped Nazi war criminal. The story is full of smoky rooms, irresistible broads, hard men and steamy sex contrasted against explosive violence.

The violence continues with Blood Sacrifices & The Catatonic Kid by Tom Piccirilli. This is about an older gentleman in a mental institution and the “The Catatonic Kid,” who one day snaps and escapes the institution, leaving a bloody wake behind him. Things aren’t always what they appear though, and the story features a you-will-never-see-it-coming twist!

One of the most imaginative of the stories is Kelly M. Hudson’s What Makes An Angel Cry, which creates a world where angels run Queens and Satan runs Brooklyn and the two sides are always fighting like rival gangs while humans try to steer clear. I really enjoyed this one, just for the sheer whimsy and creativity of the author, but there is also plenty of bloody fighting in it for the gorehounds out there. Hudson really develops the main character, a human named Billy who runs a bar, and the story has a gruff, New Yorker feel to it that just rang true.

In Brandon Ford’s disturbing tale The Neighbor, he keeps us on our toes as a trailer park wife suspects her neighbor may be a serial killer. This is a nitty-gritty tale that ratcheted up the suspense and kept surprising me with its many twists and turns.

The hits keep on coming with The Name Game by Scott Nicholson, about a snitch that loses his new identity only and the only way out from the mobsters he’s running from.

Next is one of my favorites, Fly by Night by Tim Curran, about some criminals who picked the wrong truck to hijack…and now must pay a very pissed creature of the night with their lives.

My absolute favorite of the collection, though, is Fred Venturini’s Detail. Precise and perfect, this short story had me by the short hairs. It’s about a car detailer that cleans up after people’s “accidents” and is known for being discreet, yet he keeps evidence against his clients in case he ever needs it. A fiber here, a blood sample there, all stored in a safe and carefully filed for potential future use. When he falls in love with a client who had been cheating on her husband, though, things take a tragic turn. Just like the stories title, it’s all about the details in this one and Venturini fits them together beautifully.

Parental Guidance by Simon Wood is about the perfect all-American family, the Barnes, and father Preston Barnes’ secret and extreme method of keeping his kids in check. Rindelstein’s Monsters by David Tallerman is a murder mystery filled with supernatural beasts confined to a mental institution. The Hooker in the Backseat by Erik Williams is about a grim father/son reunion after the son gets out of prison for covering for his pop.

The most shocking story of the collection is John Everson’s The Mouth, about a prostitute whose mouth is a vagina and whose vagina is a mouth. Apparently it gets pretty confusing for a john and he sticks it in the wrong place and impregnates her neck. Things don’t end well…

Nine Cops Killed for a Goldfish Cracker by David James Keaton is a surreal urban tale about a junkie trying to pay rent on time but having to face innumerous obstacles. I loved the inventive writing style of this one, but it’s definitely not for everyone.

Zach Sherwood’s Board the House Up end the collection with an uneasy story about a cop on suspension that decides to check out a burglary in progress but finds something much more horrifying than robbers.

There is not one bad story contained between the pages of The Death Panel: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. I eagerly read the noir-tinged and hard-boiled stories of crime, violence and horror and eagerly await Comet Press’ next release, because they and editor Cheryl Mullenax are really making a name for themselves in the horror community!

Buy it on Amazon!

Offspring (2009)

I had highly anticipated seeing Offspring, another film adapted from a Jack Ketchum novel with the script actually being written by Ketchum (he also makes a small cameo appearance in the film). The other two recent films that were adapted from Ketchum’s work, The Lost and The Girl Next Door, were both disturbing and extreme, so I was really looking forward to what they did with Offspring. Unfortunately, I was left luke-warm with this film and feel it is the weakest Ketchum adaptation to screen to date.

Offspring has a relatively straight-forward plot…a small New England town and its rural-dwelling residents are terrorized by a group of feral cannibals that are descendants from a lighthouse keeper that went missing with his family in the 1800’s. They’ve been living in the wild on the coast of northern New England and Canada and eating human flesh ever since.

This being a Ketchum-based story you can expect all the usual nasty and uncomfortable violence aimed at women and children, and this film has it in spades. Babies and children get slaughtered, women get brutalized and most of the men end up as gory slabs of meat. There’s lots of gore and blood on display, but it’s never so over-the-top that it becomes memorable. In fact, the only real gory bits that were memorable included the opening scene where a drunken mother stumbles back to her home after a night out to find her babysitter and baby butchered by the group of the feral kids and another scene where a captive woman is “eaten out” in a horrifying way. Maybe I’m just jaded, but while the violence was non-stop it didn’t really resonate with me.

Obviously, this film has its moments of shocking violence (we are dealing with feral cannibals here), made even more disturbing when it’s aimed at or perpetrated by children, but this dark tone is (unintentionally) lightened by the ridiculous look of the cannibal family. From their bushy hair to their ridiculous rags that made them look more like they were emulating the Lost Boys from Disney’s Peter Pan rather than frightening flesh-eating kids. Big points off for making the villains more silly than scary.

Despite the silliness of the costumes, there was one actress whose commanding presence was very frightening, and that was Pollyanna McIntosh. She played the matriarch of the cannibals and her snarling commands and brutal force were probably the scariest of the entire film. It was definitely nice to see such a vicious female villain for once! While the other actors all did a decent job, McIntosh was the real standout. I also appreciated that the female victims were actually resourceful and fought back against their cannibalistic captors instead of just weeping in a corner.

Director Andrew van den Houten did a great job evoking that atmosphere of the isolated and deserted New England coastline. There were a lot of aerial shots of the rocky coastline and desolate forests to show just how a freaky-looking cannibal family and its decedents could survive without detection. I also thought the evocative and sparse score, by Ryan Shore, was absolutely stunning and really made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. If anything in the film created a foreboding atmosphere, it was Shore’s score.

Sadly, there aren’t many scares in the film, just a lot of gory cannibal scenes that quickly get repetitive. Sure, Ketchum throws in an estranged asshole husband into the mix and the ineffectual police, but the real focus is always on the cannibals vs. the innocent family. It just wasn’t enough for a full-length movie and the premise starts to feel stretched thin towards the end. The “psychos-in-the-woods” bit has been done to death, and this is just a slight variation on the Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Wrong Turn, etc. formula. There just isn’t enough originality and uniqueness to the story considering all the past and present inbred/hillbilly/backwoods cannibal movies.

Offspring has its flaws and definitely isn’t for those seeking something completely unique. Rather, it is recommended for Ketchum fans who want to see his work adapted to the screen and to those that would like to see taboos of children killing/children getting killed broken. Regular horror fans may be bored at the repetitive nature of the film and gorehounds will be disappointed by lack of memorable kills (though there are plenty of blood and body parts flung around).

Order it on Amazon!

Sick Girl (2009)

Sick Girl is an independent production that I eagerly looked forward to seeing. I mean, how can you go wrong with a twisted and disturbing story who’s synopsis describes the crazy lead character as someone who “wants to f**k her older brother, protect her younger brother and torture everyone else out in her barn”?!

I was looking forward to a brutal characterization of a take-no-prisoners female character, but when I finally got around to seeing this flick I was pretty let down. It features plenty of disturbing and shocking imagery, but that’s pretty much all the film offered and therefore was devoid of any depth or real reason for even being made.

In Sick Girl, Izzy (Leslie Andrews) is left to care for her little brother Kevin (Charlie Trepany) after her older brother leaves to fight in the war overseas. Their parents passed away many years prior and the only adult in Izzy and Kevin’s life is big biker Barney (John McGarr), who looks after Kevin while Izzy is off terrorizing people. And terrorize she does – she blows away a random bunch of Catholic schoolgirls on a bus, teaches her brother’s bullies a lesson and even castrates a random dude. She’s got her own little torture barn out behind her house, where she brings victims she wants to get a little more intimate with. Yup, Izzy is a sadistic killer, but neither Kevin nor Barney has any idea about her crazy, murderous streak.

The film felt like it was made solely for shock’s worth, but hardcore horror fans won’t really be fazed by most of the violence in Sick Girl and more mainstream audiences won’t pick it up in the first place. It just feels like an unbalanced, pointless exercise in “shock cinema” that ultimately fails in the end.

The acting ranged from mediocre to pretty competent. I thought Charlie Trepany (as little brother Kevin) and John McGarr (as gentle giant Barney) did a consistently good job with their characters, but I can’t decide if I liked or loathed Leslie Andrews’ acting as Izzy. At times it felt like she was more wooden than an actor in a school play, but other times her far-away stare and sudden violence felt very real. Or was it the character that was really that disjointed? Either way, I am torn on Andrews’ performance.

I will say that I enjoyed the gritty, natural look of the film. The rural atmosphere, with its rolling fields and red barns, was a nice break from the urban atmosphere of most “disturbed killer” movies. The stark, empty setting complemented the emptiness and loneliness of Izzy’s character. Director Eben McGarr (who also wrote the film) perfectly captured the washed-out, naturally lit look of ‘70s exploitation flicks.

So, the film looks pretty, but what is it trying to say? That life’s not fair? That some of us just can’t handle the stresses of life and snap? The message definitely isn’t clear, and in fact the lead character of Izzy isn’t even sympathetic. Izzy is so f’ed up that you don’t feel sorry for her, and in fact, begin feeling sorry for her intended victims, even though they themselves are far from innocent. In fact, in her barn Izzy has tied up a horny teen, a bitchy schoolgirl and a sadistic bully. Her punishments for these predators turned prey include castration, rape with a handmade strap-on and allowing a starved rat to eat someone’s face off (while they are still alive). You end up feeling sorrier for these victims than for Izzy. And is she just trying to protect her family or does her violence extend to anyone and everyone? These guidelines are never really set up, so by the time the disturbing conclusion rolls around, you really don’t feel anything at all. There is no emotional impact, and I for one was glad the movie was finally over and that I never had to watch it again.

I love a good, shocking movie, especially when so many play it safe. What makes shocking cinema so good, though, are the underlying themes and ideas that really make you think long after you’ve seen the films and been bombarded with their disturbing imagery. Unfortunately, Sick Girl fails to accomplish this and just shows disturbing imagery for the shock value and nothing more. Which, to me, made it a displeasure to watch and very forgettable upon its conclusion. Sorry, Sick Girl, but I just wish someone had put you out of your misery before I watched you.

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The Last House on the Left (2009)

Another week, another horror movie remake. This time around, it’s Wes Craven’s cringe-worthy classic, The Last House on the Left (which is loosely based on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring), being remade by director Dennis Iliadis and written by Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth. Wes Craven’s original is a gritty and shocking film whose disturbing subject matter should at least be experienced once (that’s as much as I could handle). The remake, while competently made, lacks the down-and-dirty look and intense feel of the original. It is among one of the better reboots out there, but if you look at recent remade films out there like Friday the 13^th, it’s not saying much.

Following the story of the original pretty closely, the remake tells the story of upper class family the Collingwood’s – doctor daddy John (Tony Goldwyn), overprotective mother Emma (Monica Potter) and 17-year-old Mari (Sara Paxton) – who are heading to their isolated summer house for a relaxing vacation. The first day there, Mari begs mom and dad to take the car into town to visit her friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac). They acquiesce, and Mari roars into town, looking to have some fun with Paige.

They meet twitchy Justin (Spencer Treat Clark), who invites them back to his motel room to get high. Once there, the impromptu party is interrupted by Justin’s dad and recently escaped convict, Krug (Garret Dillahunt), Uncle Francis (Aaron Paul) and Sadie (Riki Lindhome). Turns out they are all on the run after killing some cops and don’t want to leave the girls behind as witnesses. They drag Mari and Paige out to the woods, torture them, rape one of them, and leave them both for dead.

The quartet of killers seeks respite from a harsh storm in the nearby house of the Collingwood’s, not realizing that they are the parents of Mari. When the parents realize what they have done to their daughter, they seek swift revenge on the murderers.

This is a pretty cut and dry remake with just a few changes made to the script (well, and one big and glaringly evident change that you can see in the trailer). Nothing is really done to make it its own film or to make it a better film, period. I will credit the writers with not dumbing down most of the film (well, except for the dialogue) like other remakes, but they really should have risked a bit more with the script and written something different to make this remake stand out. Unfortunately, while it’s a well-made and watchable film, it is easily forgotten whereas the original will be seared in my mind forever.

As for the brutal rape scene, yes, it is graphic and seems to go on forever, but the rest of the girls’ tortures seemed easy and breezy in comparison. Where in the original film their entire ordeal was horrific and humiliating, in the remake it is the rape scene that is the most brutal. Why is this a problem? Well, with the rape scene being the most disturbing, all of the other scenes that are supposed to be filled with tension pale in comparison. The rest of the film is just easy to sit through, which made it rather dull. Even the blood-splattered revenge sequence, while ultimately satisfying (except for the SILLIEST use of a microwave this side of Microwave Massacre!), felt like it lacked viciousness.

Also lacking viciousness was the acting from Garret Dillahunt, who played Krug. He was about as scary as a box of kittens and didn’t have a glimmer of intimidation in his glare. As the leader, he was supposed to be the most frightening of the killers, but I was no way threatened by him and felt he did a poor job portraying a sadistic psychopath, especially when compared with David Hess’ unnerving original performance. Aaron Paul and Riki Lindhome did a much better job playing Krug’s thugs, Francis and Sadie, both giving creepy and menacing performances. I also thought Sara Paxton did a fantastic job playing Mari, with fantastic performances also coming from Monica Potter and Tony Goldwyn as her parents.

The original The Last House on the Left was a fantastic social commentary on the paranoia of the changing times (Craven was inspired to write the film in response to the atrocities going on during the Vietnam War), loss of innocence, not trusting strangers, and a “what if” scenario to see what people would do when pushed to their physical, emotional and psychological limits. The remake sticks to these original concepts, but doesn’t realize that times have changed and these themes have been done to death and that perhaps new, more current ones should be explored. Therefore, it brings nothing new to the table and is ultimately a forgettable movie. However, I will say that it is much better than the teeny-bopper, bubblegum horror remakes like Friday the 13^th, Prom Night, etc. that the studios insist on putting out. If you have your mind set on seeing a remake, I would tepidly recommend this House…but not without reservations.

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Frayed (2009)

Frayed is an independent production from Washington State made by three lifelong friends with a dream of making a movie together. Though the film’s premise might sound like a typical slasher (and the film’s DVD cover certainly does it no justice), as the story progresses it offer much more than the typical stalk and slash movie. Frayed manages to transcend and discard genre conventions and delivers a film with an unexpected, shocking ending. It also manages to overcome the obstacle of a low budget and delivers a polished, professional-looking film that is sure to get tongues a-waggin’ in the horror community.

The film opens on a home video of young Sara’s fifth birthday party, complete with balloons, presents, cake and even a clown. Sarah couldn’t be happier, until her eight-year-old brother Kurt ruins her big day by being overly aggressive. Kurt is sent upstairs to his room and Mom comes in after the party, still toting the video camera, to see if he is ready to apologize to Sara. Suddenly, the video camera drops to the ground and we see Mom also violently fall…and then she is brutally beaten to a pulp by a baseball bat.

Kurt is sent to a mental institution for killing his mother, but enters into a catatonic state and won’t speak to anyone. The doctors say he has a disassociate personality disorder and can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy. His father, Pat (Tony Doupe), who also happens to be the small town’s sheriff, checks in on him regularly but after several years the doctors tell him they can do no more for Kurt and suggest he is moved to another facility. Meanwhile, sister Sara (Alena Dashiell) and step-mother Jolene (Kellee Bradley) have moved on and rarely talk about Kurt or the past.

On the night Kurt is scheduled to be transferred to a more secure institution, he escapes and starts brutally killing people again. As Pat and a lone security guard named Gary (Aaron Blakely) try to track down Kurt, it becomes clear that no one can stop him from reuniting with the family that has forsaken him while facing some very dark family demons.

When I first sat down to watch Frayed, I really wasn’t expecting much. It looked like your typical slasher so I prepared to turn my brain off and just let the mayhem ensue. It started with a bang (the mom’s death scene definitely lives up to the hype of “one of the most brutally graphic scenes ever depicted on film”, especially considering this in an indie effort), but soon I found myself thinking that the storyline was too similar to Halloween. A child killer that grows up in a mental institution but escapes to wreak havoc on his estranged family was a bit too reminiscent of the iconic Michael Myers for me. As the film progressed, though, it became more its own film, with plenty of inventive twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Despite the initial shocking bludgeoning death of the mother in the film’s opening scenes, Frayed is a lot less gory and bloody than most modern slashers. Instead, it focuses on the psychological terror of a killer that’s hot on the victim’s heels, much like the “old school” slashers back in the day. I really loved the crazy clown costume Kurt wears as he stalks his victims and how it ties back to the tragedy he experienced as a child. There is a lot of suspense and tension throughout Frayed, something you don’t usually see a lot of in the “modern slasher”. I liked how it relied more on dread and really built up the story and characters instead of just focusing on blood and guts.

The actors all did a surprisingly good job with each of their characters. The real star was Aaron Blakely as Gary the security guard. We keep cheering him on as he escapes time and time again from Kurt. I also liked Tony Doupe’s multi-layered performance as Sheriff Pat and Tasha Smith-Floe plays Sara’s sassy friend Veronica vivaciously! The rest of the cast were great as well, which is surprising considering this was a low budget film. Despite the low budget, impressive performances were found in both the leads as well as supporting actors!

Another amazing aspect of the film is that despite its low budget it looks like it belongs up on the big screen! The film was shot digitally, but looks like it was filmed in 35mm, the sound is crisp and never muffled and even though the majority of the film is set at night, you can always tell what is going on. Frayed is the first feature film for lifelong friends Rob Portmann (co-writer/co-director), Kurt Svennungsen (co-writer) and Norbert Caoili (co-writer/co-director) and together they have truly created a film that raises the bar for all independent productions to come.

Not only does the film look like a big budget production (excellent makeup effects, seamless special effects using CGI, and even an impressive car crash scene), but the story also goes far and beyond what most horror films strive for. Though it starts off a bit shaky and feels like another “reimaging” of Halloween, the story actually builds as the film progresses and gets more and more complex, a rarity in horror films today. You might be able to guess the twist ending if you pay close enough attention, but nothing will prepare you for the second twist that will completely blindside you and leave you shocked! The tragic ending just goes to show that in real life there is no tidy wrap-up and the innocent victims aren’t always avenged.

Frayed is an impressive independent film that offers much more than it first suggests. Though it looks polished and professional like a big budget film, the filmmakers took time to make sure Frayed had a well-developed and intriguing story, one whose horror will stick with you long after watching. With this as their big splash in the blood-filled horror pool, I can’t see what Portmann, Svennungsen and Caoili do next!

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Book Review: Vile Things - Extreme Deviations of Horror edited by Cheryl Mullenax

Horror anthologies are the perfect bite-sized treats to discover new authors as well as appreciate established ones. Though it’s always nice to see a story by a “master of horror” I much rather like discovering new talent within a good horror anthology. Much to my delight, there was plenty of “fresh blood” to be found within the pages of the horror anthology Vile Things – Extreme Deviations of Horror.

Unlike some horror anthologies, there is no clear theme of zombies or vampires in Vile Things – just solid short stories from the likes of Ramsey Campbell, Graham Masterton, C.J. Henderson and many other horror authors, including some new names I’m now glad to be acquainted with. All of the stories are not for the faint of heart, as many times I found myself squirming and cringing at the disturbing and disgusting tales of horror held between the anthology’s pages. The title of Vile Things definitely says it all! In this fast-paced collection of 15 stories, I thought all were horrific, but a few stood out more than the rest.

My favorite short story was Maggots by Tim Curran. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, both on the killing fields as well as the main character’s hometown of Paris, Maggots is a grotesque tale of cannibalism and possession. Except that instead of a demon taking possession of the main character’s body, the host’s body is invaded and taken over by maggots that force him to eat the putrefied remains of humans. There is a lot of gore within this particular story, all made all the more disturbing in the detailed descriptions the author gives of the main character feasting on the bloated and rotting remains of corpses, all the while all too fully aware of the atrocities he is committing.

Another one of my favorites was Z.F. Kilgore’s tale, The Devil Lives in Jersey. I love Jersey Devil stories and this one definitely doesn’t disappoint. An ex-police detective moves to the Pine Barrens after inheriting a house from his deceased grandparents hoping to give himself and his son a fresh start. Soon, though, the town’s dark secrets involving a witch burning, mysterious disappearances and grisly murders come to the surface, and the ex-detective discovers his family is inexplicably linked to the town’s bloody past…and now it seems that something is killing again. This short story was extremely well-written, with heaps of disturbing imagery (characters eating baby corpses and a witch having sex with something otherworldly, among other graphic scenes) and felt like it had so much to offer that it would be better suited as its own book. I hear that Kilgore, a retired police detective himself, has more short stories planned around the main character, and I eagerly await them!

Other favorites included the cheeky Tenant’s Rights by Sean Logan, in which an off-kilter, nerdy tenant gets revenge on his playboy roommate/landlord, but with disastrous results. I loved seeing the arrogant landlord get his comeuppance, but it was also satisfying to watch the creepy roommate get his at the end of the story! I also enjoyed Coquettrice, by Angel Leigh McCoy, a disturbing look at a satanic cult hatching their very own cockatrice…and watching the main character change from innocent to deviant was pretty jarring as well! What You Wish For by Garry Bushell was an extremely satisfying tale as well, and much like Tenant’s Rights, we get to watch a vile character meet her bloody end.

I’ve only mentioned a few outstanding stories, but with few exceptions all the tales within Vile Things are marvelously macabre! They will make you feel nauseous (Fungoid by Randy Chandler), give you the creeps (The Worm by John Bruni) or just plain scare you (Again by Ramsey Campbell). The anthology’s stories contain incest, rape, deformities, abnormalities, the disabled, infestations, demons, monsters and plenty of graphic gore, blood and other bodily fluids that will have you wishing you read it on an empty stomach! The book definitely lives up to its title of Vile Things – Extreme Deviations of Horror so prepare to be disturbed and make sure you have a barf bag handy before reading!

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Book Review: Sacrifice by John Everson

Sacrifice is author John Everson’s astounding sequel to his debut novel, Covenant, but it works extremely well as a stand-alone book as well (I have never read Covenant, though after Sacrifice I am eagerly going back to read it!).

With Sacrifice, Everson delivers a nonstop assault on the senses, mixing sex, violence, taboos (a nun becomes a sexually charged, sadistic killer, the hero falls in love with our 15-year-old heroine), solidly developed characters, a frenzied pace and scads of grisly ritualistic killings. There are so many perverted, debased acts in the novel that it definitely isn’t for everyone, but even I, who usually thinks that mixing sex and violence tends to be more exploitative than scary, enjoyed Sacrifice and its shocking tableaux.

From the book’s back cover:

They’re coming. They are a race of sadistic spirits known as the Curburide, and they are about to arrive in our world, bringing with them horrors beyond imagination. The secret to summoning – and controlling – them has fallen into the hands of a beautiful, sexy and dangerously insane woman.

Ariana has dedicated her life to unleashing in our realm through a series of human sacrifices, erotic rituals of seduction and slaughter. As she crosses the country, getting ever closer to completing her blood-drenched mission, only three figures stand in her way: an unwilling hero who has seen the horrors of the Curburide before, a burgeoning witch…and a spiteful demon with plans of his own.

The book is a nonstop thrill ride, and I had a hard time putting the book down once I started it. It immediately throws you into the intrigue of Ariana and her sexually-charged but viciously executed conquests as well as the story of our reluctant hero Joe, who is trying to escape a past encounter with the Curburide and has been burdened with the demon Malachai. When Joe picks up young Alex, who has been able to see and communicate with dead people her whole life and has her own dark past, it’s not long before Malachai reveals they must work together to stop the Curburide. Ariana is no longer working alone, though, and has picked up Jeremy, a man who is finally ready to release all his pent-up tension and aggression. There is a lot going on within the novel, and never once does author Everson allow you to catch your breath. He keeps it all steadily forging forward until you reach the unbearably tense climax, where I felt like I just couldn’t read fast enough to get to the conclusion!!

Everson does an excellent job developing all the characters, including the villains. Even though Ariana is a horrible person for wanting to unleash the Curburide on the world, I still felt inexplicably drawn to her and wanted to see what she would do next. I also very much enjoyed her back story about being a nun and finding out about the Curburide. Her sidekick, Jeremy, was also fleshed out enough where I could understand his actions and why he ultimately chose to join Ariana. Unlike most other novels, time is taken to tell the story from Ariana and Jeremy’s (the villains) side as opposed as just telling it from Joe and Alex’s (the heroes) perspective. As for Joe and Alex, both of their pasts are complex and time is taken to tell about both, without ever slowing down the fast pace of the novel. Both of their pasts contain tragedy that they are both trying to escape. There is also the awkward budding romance between Joe and Alex, which is unnerving and creepy since Alex is only around 15 and Joe is in his late 20’s. I could have done without this inappropriate romance, but in a way it made the characters of Joe and Alex more real as they each faced their temptations.

The aspect that Sacrifice never falters in is its shocking descriptions of gore. The ritualistic killings are disturbing by themselves, but what happens after the victims’ throats have been slit is even more disgusting! Let’s just say that the Curburide thrive and gain power from sexual perversion and Ariana definitely wants to please them. Besides spending a little quality time with the bodies, there is also a very specific arrangement of their organs she must adhere to in order for the ritual to work. By the time she’s done with them, the floors, walls and even ceiling are coated with bits of grue and different bodily fluids.

Sacrifice is a thrilling and shocking piece of genre fiction that deserves to be on every horror fan’s shelf. It’s got enough gore and perversion to shock even the most deviant of minds, but it also has well-developed, realistic characters and an extremely engaging and fast-paced storyline. John Everson is an excellent horror author and I don’t hesitate to call him the future of horror fiction!

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Deadgirl (2009)

Deadgirl is a beautifully twisted, if not slightly flawed, exploration of how childhood innocence is so easily lost in our disillusioned world. It is easily one of the most disturbing films I’ve seen in recent memory and while it’s a more coming-of-age drama than straight-forward horror movie, this film still managed to shock and deeply perturb me.

High school burnouts Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez, who looks like a mix of Joaquin Phoenix and Johnny Depp) and J.T. (Noah Segan) cut school one hot day and decide to seek refuge in an old abandoned mental institution. After trashing the place and downing some beers, they set off to explore the dank basement where they are shocked to find a seemingly dead woman’s naked body chained to a gurney and wrapped in plastic. While Rickie decides to high-tail it out of there, J.T. has nefarious designs on the naked dead woman…except he soon figures out she isn’t dead and, more so, can’t be killed!

Rickie soon discovers that J.T. has made the dead girl into his own personal sex slave. Yet, Rickie can’t bring himself to turn his best friend in, not even after more and more people find out about the dead girl and join J.T. in his perverse necromance. As the situation spirals out of control and the line between right and wrong blur, Rickie must decide where his loyalties lie.

Deadgirl is definitely not a fun film to watch, but then again I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from the grotesqueries on display. That’s not to say that it is at all gory or bloody, but instead the shock aspect of the film comes from the seemingly moral ambivalence of all the characters. It seems that no one really cares that what they are doing is wrong, and even Rickie, one of the few remotely likable characters, seems only worried about the repercussions if they are caught by the police. This is where the real horror lies…that these teens don’t seem to have any moral compass and that the scenario seems so plausible in real life.

Though the film never explicitly shows the many rape scenes, we know exactly what is transpiring. The film never eroticizes the rape, instead making it a vile, degrading act to watch (though the characters treat it very nonchalantly). The dead girl (played bravely by Jenny Spain) is like a hunk of meat to the characters, just another thing they can use to satisfy their teenage libidos. I’m not sure if the writer Trent Haaga or directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel intentionally wanted to make a statement about rape victims and their attackers, but J.T. and his cronies treat her like a rapist would treat his victim…they say “she’s not even human” and act like she is just a commodity to be used explicitly for their pleasure and then discarded. You end up cheering for the dead girl (the characters never even give her a name and we never find out her back story, making her appear even more like merely an object) but her rapists never seem to get the punishment they deserve.

Another theme the film explores is the “loss of innocence”, but more from Rickie’s and J.T.’s perspectives than from the dead girl’s. The characters go from rebels without a cause to perverse exploiters of human life rather quickly, and, as mentioned above, treat the dead girl as not even being human and repeatedly rape this “object”. Though “zombie” is never used to describe the dead girl, that is what she truly is and the film really turns the zombie genre on its head. Usually, the zombies are used as metaphors for our mindless consumer society, but in Deadgirl the living lead characters are the ones senselessly and coldly using up the “zombie” just as if she is another product. It says a lot about our society and how we as consumers voraciously devour any products we can get our grubby mitts on, without thought to consequences. Kudos to writer Trent Haaga for offering a new perspective and social commentary on the zombie genre. On the more distressing side, it also speaks of how ambivalent we as a society are towards rapists and the “boys will be boys” mentality.

On the visual side of things, directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel do a fantastic job of capturing the angst and alienation of youth in the film (especially accompanied by the moody soundtrack that includes Iron and Wine, Radiohead and Animal Collective). The opening scenes and subsequent framing shots really depict what it feels like to be an outsider in high school. It is a poignant journey until the twisted horror of the dead girl is revealed. From then on most of the action takes place in the dark, dank belly of the abandoned mental hospital, which J.T. slowly converts to his new crash pad, complete with softly glowing Christmas lights and a Lazy-Boy. The gritty setting coupled with the despicable acts the boys perform on the dead girl really makes your stomach turn. The setting reminded me much of Jack Ketchum’s The Girl Next Door.
 
Despite a few shaky instances, the actors in the film did an amazing job. Noah Segan really made us hate his character of J.T. and Shiloh Fernandez made us alternate between hating and loving his character of Rickie. Other cast members did a terrific job as well, especially the dead girl herself, Jenny Spain, who we both felt sorry for and terrified by.

The film does have a few flaws, namely some slow pacing and failure to wrap up some loose ends. The film already has a pretty languid pace, but there are a few instances where the story really gets bogged down. I thought the subplot of Rickie’s mom’s boyfriend didn’t add anything to the story and could have been left out. Also, I really wanted to see some justice and prolonged torture befall J.T. and others for their part in making the dead girl their sex slave, but their fates were rather tame. The film’s grim ending was shocking (though you can see it coming), but it never followed up on what happened to some of the characters or the dead girl herself. Had the script and/or editing been tightened up, the pacing and storyline would have flowed much more smoothly, but still would have been no less perverse.

Deadgirl is a hard film to recommend. On the one hand, it is hard to watch, has its moments of misogyny and the rapists never quite get all they deserve, but on the other hand it is beautifully filmed and is just so damn disturbing! The moral ambivalence of the characters and the objectification of women speak to a greater extent of how we as a society have a nonchalant attitude not only towards the loss of innocence, but also towards rape. And that perhaps is the most frightening thing of all about Deadgirl.

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Book Review: The Kult by Shaun Jeffrey

The long days of summer just beg to be spent reading a good book. A book that keeps you glued to its pages and sweeps you up in its story. I found one such book to keep me company as I lazed on the porch these hot days of summer, and that book is Shaun Jeffrey’s The Kult. I was so engrossed in this book that my lazy day of relaxing on the porch just whizzed by and I found myself under cover of darkness…and yet I still couldn’t put the book down, not even when the clock inched towards midnight!

The Kult is such an engaging book, that I finished it in just a few days because I wanted to find out what happened!

The book is about a serial killer called The Oracle who is murdering innocent people and making macabre artworks out of their bodies. He sends photographs of his “art” to the police, and Detective Chief Inspector Prosper Snow is put in charge of the case. Yet, he becomes distracted when his childhood chums come looking to him for help. They made a pact back in school that if any one of them ever needed help the rest of them must do whatever necessary to lend assistance. The group of friends called itself The Kult, and usually, they only beat someone up, but now Snow discovers that his friend wants someone murdered. And he wants The Kult to make it look like The Oracle did it so they get off scott free.

Snow and the others commit the murder and frame The Oracle, but now The Oracle is coming after The Kult members one by one for what they did…

With no where to turn, can Prosper Snow find out who The Oracle is…and live?

The Kult is a fast-paced, thrill-ride of a horror novel. It presents macabre tableaux when describing The Oracle’s disturbing “art”. There are some pretty sick and twisted scenes of depravity and perversion throughout the novel, giving it that cringe-worthy feel at times. Alongside the horror is a not-so-standard police procedural story, with cops trying to track down The Oracle along with Snow’s partner getting more and more suspicious of him as he loses his cool after being party to murder. Then there is the suspenseful part of the story where you have no idea who The Oracle is…though towards the end of the book you may have your suspicions. The book is just a perfect mix of horror, crime drama, thriller and serial killer story!

Author Shaun Jeffrey has crafted a fine novel with The Kult. His protagonists and victims are well developed, his nefarious villain is actually scary and the tense proceedings just make you want to keep reading to find out who The Oracle is!

If you decide to read The Kult (which you should!), make sure you block out an entire weekend strictly for reading because you won’t be able to put it down once you’ve started!

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Acolytes (2009)

Hailing from Australia, Acolytes is a slow-paced yet thrilling film that has quite a few surprises. Though the synopsis might make it seem like a straightforward story of kids blackmailing a serial killer to get revenge on a bully, the film is much more than that. It takes its time building up the tension for an explosive and bloody finale, all the while commenting on how evil can live behind the white picket fence just next door.

Our story opens with three teens – Mark (Sebastian Gregory), Chasely (Hannah Morgan Lawrence), and James (Joshua Payne) hanging out after school. Mark and James have been friends since they were little kids, but there is friction between them now that James is going out with Chasely, whom Mark is obviously infatuated with. When James and Chasely start to get into some heavy petting, Mark wanders off into the woods, where he comes across a man burying something. After getting a glimpse of the man’s distinctive SUV (it has a butterfly design on the back of the spare tire cover), Mark runs back to tell James and Chasely. The three return to the woods with shovels to see what the man was burying and discover a body in the shallow hole. When the cops don’t believe them, they track down the killer (Joel Edgerton) and try to blackmail him into helping them kill a bully (Michael Dorman) who caused them irreparable harm when they were kids. What they don’t count on is the killer’s truly sadistic nature as he quickly turns the tables on them.

Acolytes is quite a chilling, thrilling film from Down Under. The most chilling aspect of it was its suggestion that evil can live right next door with the seemingly pleasant married couple who have just had a baby. If you really think about it, our society is so distant from one another that it is not hard to believe you would ignore screams if they were coming from next door. Or is you saw your neighbor carrying what looked like a body bag into his house. Chances are, you would just ignore what you saw, mentally brushing it off as none of your business. So, living next door or in the same town as a serial killer really isn’t that hard to imagine. Neither is it hard to believe that if pushed far enough, you could also become a killer…

Director Jon Hewitt filmed Acolytes on a relatively low budget, but from looking at the picture you’d never be able to tell. There are some truly gorgeous shots in the film, like a panning shot of a blue-tinged dawn in the beginning of the film. The film on a whole looks great, from bright, wide-open shots at the beginning of the story to more dark and claustrophobic shots as the film nears its end. Though it does take a while to get doing, I thought the slow burn approach was appropriate as we get to know the characters and their pasts. Some viewers might find it a bit languid, but I felt the pacing was near perfect.

The story, written by Shayne Armstrong, Shane Krause and Jon Hewitt, is intriguing and surprising. Even if the synopsis seems straightforward, it really isn’t and the story takes you dark places you didn’t think the film would go. While the first half of the film focuses on the teens, the latter half focuses more on the killer as he turns the tables on them. The characters are all realistically portrayed and even the bad decisions the teens make seem entirely plausible. Plus, there is a wicked twist towards the end that explains the whole “acolyte” (meaning a “devoted follower or attendant”) title.

Most of the violence is reserved until the last half of the film, but there is a jarring opening sequence that shows a young, half-naked girl being terrorized in the woods. As for the rest of the action, we get lots of exciting car chases (and crashes), cross-bow hunting, a head getting repeatedly bashed in by a large rock, stabbings, kidnappings and so on. While the first half of the film has a tense, ominous feel to it, the last half revels in the release of pent-up aggression.

I’m not sure what I expected out of Acolytes (perhaps a standard slash ‘n’ hack movie) but what I saw far exceeded my expectations. It’s moody, atmospheric beginning slowly gives way to bloody violence that eventually leads to a grim conclusion.

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Consumption (2007)

Consumption is a short indie film from writer/director Richard Powell and Fatal Pictures. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t expecting much when I first popped it into my DVD player. With a name like Consumption, I knew something was going to be consumed, so I expected a fair amount of blood. I thought it would be a run-of-the-mill, serial killer type movie…but, boy, was I wrong.

After the first 10 minutes or so, Consumption sidelined me out of the blue with a surprise plot twist that I never saw coming…and I was never the same after that!

A nervous man (Bruno Talotta) is getting ready to meet his date, who is coming over for dinner. The man is dressed in a suit and carefully lays out the china. He answers a knock at the door and a Rose McGowan look-alike (Andrea Nettleton) greets him. It’s apparent that the two have never met face-to-face, but it’s implied that they’ve chatted online. After some idle chit chat, a cup of coffee and the girl’s favorite dish they get to the real reason of their meeting…and soon the blood starts flowing!

Consumption is a surprising short film in that it defies your expectations as well as exceeding them. In the beginning of the film, I thought that the man character was awfully awkward, stiff and formal…but as the story progressed I realized it wasn’t the actor or the dialogue, but truly how this particular character would act in the scene when his occupation was revealed! Of course, the acting wasn’t Oscar worthy or anything, but Bruno Talotta deserves a lot more credit than I first gave him. Andrea Nettleton did an amazing job as well as she went from the seemingly innocent victim to someone who is much more, how shall we say? – self-sacrificing.

I don’t want to give too much away, but when the twist hits everything pretty much falls into place. It may take a bit of patience to get there, but the gore afterward makes it all worth it! We get a slit throat that bleeds buckets of blood, flesh getting skinned and flayed, decapitation, dismemberment and disembowelment (not necessarily in that order!)! Considering this short was made on a low budget, the special FX are quite impressive!

I also liked the underlying message about how far science will go and to what end. Do the ends really justify the means or do the means slowly transform us into monsters? I won’t say much more for fear of giving too much away…but this film is best viewed with no expectations and on an empty stomach!

Consumption is a powerful short film that manages to rise above the typical serial killer horror films. Though you think you know where the story is going, there is no doubt you’ll be surprised by the twist that will have your eyes glued to the screen for the remainder of the film. Check out this short film if you get the chance!

Visit Fatal Pictures’ Official Site!

End of the Line (2007)

Young nurse Karen (Ilona Elkin) has had a rough night with patients behaving more oddly than usual and has had some startling premonitions (right off the bat we are treated to an unsettling scare). As she boards the nearly-deserted subway, a blond-haired freak harasses her, but good guy Mike (Nicolas Wright) tries to calm her frazzled nerves. Once on the subway, the train breaks down and Karen and Mike are stuck under the flickering lights. They are soon joined by a sweet old lady…but after receiving a message on her cell she tries to attack Mike with a knife made from a crucifix. Other people stuck on the subway are attack by people wielding these knives, as they are all members of a religious cult called The Church of Hope and by killing people they hope to “save” them from the end of the world. Karen and Mike escape and meet up with other survivors as they try to escape the labyrinth tunnels of the subway and reach the surface. Yet, what if the cult is right and death is better than what awaits them?

Filled with surprises, End of the Line is an overlooked horror film that shouldn’t be missed! From the beginning to the end the film is chock full of unexpected, creepy surprises that will keep you on the edge of your seat! Director and writer Maurice Devereaux has crafted an intriguing and entertaining horror film whose images won’t leave my head anytime soon!

I liked how Devereaux developed the cult member’s characters. They weren’t just smiling and singing automatons, but he portrayed their inner turmoil as well. Some of them just couldn’t go through with killing others while others had doubt about what they were doing. Some enjoyed killing and wanted to get their kicks before it was their time to go and others truly believed they were saving the masses from a much more terrible fate. The characters that did suffer a bit in character development were the protagonists. Besides Karen, we don’t know that much about anyone and so it’s a little hard to get fully invested in their predicament.

Still, the lack of the protagonists’ development didn’t damage the story as a whole too terribly. I loved how this is not just a “cult-run-amuck” flick, but something much, much creepier. I don’t want to give too much away, because the film is most effective when you don’t know too much about it, but believe me when I say that there are some jarring, unsettling moments where you’ll be thinking, “what the hell did I just see?” I also liked how Devereaux raises the issue of faith and whom (or what) people place it in. The only detracting factor with Devereaux’s writing is some of the questionable dialogue. Though there are some instances where he tries to ease the tension (like the infamous “I have to take a dump” line), it just doesn’t work and interrupts any kind of dread that had been building.

Despite some cringe-worthy dialogue, End of the Line is an incredibly effective horror film. There are shocking scares aplenty but they are never overdone. Devereaux capitalizes on the creepy factor when we get just a quick flash of something creepy-crawly under the stairs or a flash of someone (or something) down a dark tunnel. Plus, there are plenty of blood-drenched scenes, including a disturbing beheading scene as well as the death of a woman and her unborn baby. All these instances, plus the threat of the cult members, add to an every-increasing sense of dread until the chilling finale.

End of the Line is a little-seen gem of a horror film that definitely deserves more attention. Featuring plenty of thrills and chills, it is definitely worth a look!

Available from Amazon!

Mum and Dad (2009)

Family can be a touchy subject for some people. While some people absolutely adore their family and wouldn’t trade it for the world, others are embarrassed or had such an unpleasant upbringing that they want nothing to do with their relations. Regardless of whether you love or loathe your family, chances are that there are usually more than a few skeletons hidden in the family closet.

In the British film Mum and Dad, the family has its own share of skeletons (and corpses and body parts) in their home. You see, Mum (Dido Miles) and Dad (Perry Benson) are two deranged psychopaths that like to kidnap young adults from the nearby airport and torture them. Polish immigrant Lena (Olga Fedori) escaped her oppressive family and has fled to England to start a new life for herself. She works as a janitor at the airport, where she meets Birdy (Ainsley Howard), a chatty girl who invites her out with her introverted brother, Elbie (Toby Alexander), for drinks after their shift. Lena declines, but when she misses her bus she is forced to follow Birdy and Elbie to their home. Yet Lena has no idea of the horrors that await her at the hands of her new Mum and Dad…

Mum and Dad is an extremely disturbing and engaging horror film! It is probably one of the better recent horror flicks to come out of England and it just had me gaping at the screen in shock for its entire running time! The film is supposedly loosely based on the real-life horror story of serial murderers Fred and Rose West, who raped, tortured and murdered their victims, including their own children. While the atrocious crimes committed by the West’s are appalling and no film could ever truly show the horror experienced by their victims, Mum and Dad does a very good job of creating an unpleasant atmosphere and showing us how depraved the two killers are.

Mum and Dad certainly captures the perversion and savagery of the two title characters. One of the early scenes shows “Dad” pleasuring himself with a bloody body part while another shows the family gathered for a normal-looking breakfast while a hardcore adult film plays in the background. It also doesn’t shy away from showing the two killers’ sexual perversions as well. The level of depravity isn’t there just for exploitation, but to show just how completely psychopathic and dysfunctional the family is. The film by no means cheapens the experience by solely focusing on the gore (which there isn’t a lot of, though it has its fair share of torture), instead it is more of an intense psychological study of a seriously fucked up family who exist far beyond any normal moral standards.

I really enjoyed how writer/director Steven Sheil made the characters of Mum and Dad try to have a “normal” façade – especially in one of the first scenes after Lena’s abduction where the family as a whole is introduced. While the family acted like monsters the night before, at breakfast everyone is amiable and acts like a normal, happy family. Mum cooks up breakfast, Dad reads his morning paper, Birdy chit-chats and Elbie cleans up bloody body parts. Meanwhile, Lena sits very confused as a porno plays on the kitchen television. You definitely don’t see such unsettling scenes like this in your average horror movie! Also, the fact that Dad worked a normal job and had friends really upped the creep factor in the film. I mean, this family of psychos could be your next door neighbors and you wouldn’t know it! Besides Mum and Dad, the characters of mean-spirited Birdy and remorseful Elbie are equally effective. While the tortures that Mum and Dad inflict on Lena would be enough, the manipulative nature of Birdy and the forlorn attitude of Elbie contribute to her suffering. Even though Birdy and Elbie went through the same ordeal as Lena, they offer her no help and no support.

While the characters were very well-developed by Sheil, the wrong actors could have spoiled the careful tension between everyone. Luckily, Sheil cast a dynamic cast to make sure the characters were played to their full potential. First off, Olga Fedori was fantastic as Lena! She really makes you sympathize with her character and gives a very strong performance. I also liked that her character tried to outsmart her captors and waited to see when she had an opportunity to escape. Next we have Ainsley Howard as Birdy. She made her character extremely likable in the first few scenes, but when we find out who she really is and how mean-spirited she can be our opinions are soon changed! Howard handles this switch extremely well and makes it believable to boot! Toby Alexander doesn’t speak any lines in the film, but his tortured puppy-dog eyes speak volumes as to what he is going through. Finally, we have Dido Miles as Mum and Perry Benson as Dad. These two play their characters so well that even though they were committing heinous acts I couldn’t wait to see them back on screen. Benson brings a repulsive quality to his blue-collar dad and nearly oozes with unpleasantness. Miles is both doting and dangerous as Mum, who “plays” with her “children” by cutting deep gashes all over their bodies.

As for the direction by Sheil, I couldn’t have asked for better. The house where the horrors take place is equal parts dingy (in the torture rooms and where Lena sleeps) and cozy (in the kitchen and living room areas, which look normal). I also liked how the focus wasn’t on the torture and the gore, but went deeper and really showed the twisted relationships between the members of the family. The film was shot in just 17 days, but nothing feels rushed or out of place. The deliberate pacing works perfectly and there is a palatable tension throughout the entire film. The film is set right next to an airport, lending even more credence to the fact that the family had an endless supply of transients (and their luggage) to pick from.

It seems that the issues of the perverted family and/or killer kids has been a staple for horror films for years (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Frightmare, Children of the Corn the more recent Eden Lake), but Mum and Dad really hits a raw nerve with its grim tone and its “real” aspect. This is one film that will surely leave you feeling disturbed and a little dirty after watching it! It is certainly one of the best British horror films I’ve seen and will definitely make you appreciate your own family more!

Available from Amazon!