The Nightmare

The Nightmare

The Nightmare is the new documentary from Rodney Ascher, the director of Room 237 which delved into Kubrick's The Shining. Much like Room 237, The Nightmare is a documentary that focuses on the human perception of reality as opposed to a factual or scientifically based approach. The subject matter here is sleep paralysis, a topic that is more frightening than your average horror film setup because it is a real condition.
The Nightmare has a pretty simplistic approach to what it wants to say: it films 4 subjects telling of their sleep paralysis condition and reenacts their stories as they tell it. The scenes play out like a Hollywood horror movie as the people explain what happens during sleep paralysis in voice over. The scenes are played up for maximum effect and are executed superbly to create an extremely creepy atmosphere. The people tell of shadow men in their rooms at night, seemingly alien visitors, and demons whispering into their ears. All of this as they lay awake paralyzed and helpless, just waiting for the episode to end. These reenactment scenes are very scary and make great use of sound and music. The music is very eerie and full of tension and the sound is created to stay with you, especially the voices of some of these unwanted nightly visitors. There were a number of times I felt the hair on my arms stand up, that's how effective and chilling these stories are portrayed, with one moment in particular that made me literally jump!
An interesting choice that I thought worked well was that as the movie jumped back and forth from the 4 people and their experiences it separated each segment with a quote from the upcoming segment that wasn't said yet. It gives the viewer a kind of precursor as to what will be addressed or discussed and works as a link among the people and gives the film a nice sense of unity.
The interviews themselves are dimly lit with the camera set back a little ways so the viewer sees the subject lit up and a lot of the darker room in which they sit. As they tell the terror of their sleep paralysis, it is almost as if we expect to see long and lanky shadow men come out of the dark areas that stretch across the room behind them. It's a nice touch that plays on the confusion and terror of sleep paralysis itself by blending awakeness with sleep, reality with dreams, and lightness with the dark.
The Nightmare is a new breed of documentary. It relies on story to tell it's truth. The Nightmare never gives us any scientific research on sleep paralysis or any potential physiological explanation as to why this condition occurs. And perhaps it doesn't need to. The condition is very real and extremely scary to the people that suffer from it and no explanation will comfort them. The viewer is given lore and legends from around the globe that span all time depicting the terror of sleep paralysis and maybe that's comfort enough to the victims of it, knowing they are not alone in their suffering. Then again, they all suffer alone when sleep paralysis hits, and that is absolutely terrifying. Watch this movie and be warned: some of this might seem familiar to some viewers and you'll probably go to sleep a little nervous.

Spring

Spring
  

Spring is the latest feature from collaborators Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, both working as directors here. It's about a young man named Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) who takes a sudden trip to Italy to get away from his suddenly deteriorating life. While there Evan begins a passionate, whirlwind romance with a young woman named Louise (Nadia Hilker) who has an ancient, dark secret.

Spring is a movie that has a most unusual mash-up to set up it's story: it's Richard Linklater meets David Cronenberg, Before Sunrise meets The Fly. And it works beautifully. We get plenty of Evan and Louise walking through the streets of Italy getting to know each other and having conversations about their pasts and beliefs. It's a movie that takes it's time, you spend as much time getting to know these characters as they spend getting to know each other. And that's the charm of the film, you LIKE these people and their relationship with each other.

But all is not what it seems. From early on we hear music that warns of something coming, something beneath the surface. A soft and yearning piano plays as a deep swell rises underneath the spaced out and lonely notes taking them over and warning of danger. It's simple and effective music that prepares the viewer for the scattered scenes of Louise fighting back what she really is: a 2,000 year old monster of sorts who takes injections to maintain her human form when she starts to break out into her monster self. The scenes where we see Louise as the monster are well shot and frightening, the camera almost seems dizzy filming her as she moves in frantic stutters and devours animals to satisfy her craving for flesh. All the while Even grows more suspicious that something isn't quite right.

Throughout the movie there are plenty of shots of nature and bugs and insects, lots of worldly sounds and animalistic noises mixed in with the sound of people and human commerce. Much like the relationship between Evan and Louise, there is a joining of human nature and mother nature interspersed throughout the film. It shows these two habitats can live and coexist together in one world. It's a smart and effective nod to the different species in the world and a nice compliment to the two main characters and their story.

Perhaps the most successful outcome of this movie is that it makes you believe in love and therefor you believe in the film itself, you completely buy in and root for it's characters. The biggest contributor to this is the performance of Lou Taylor Pucci. The success of the film rests mainly on his shoulders; if we don't believe in him, we wont believe in the love we see on screen. Pucci nails everything the role demanded, he gives a fully realized and sensitive performance. He's so comfortable as this character, so natural and effortless that I felt the pain and feeling of loss that Evan was experiencing. Pucci is a very promising and talented young actor.

Spring is a beautiful story with horror at it's heart. It asks the question, “how powerful is love?” and runs with the question and the answer. Thanks to the two leads, Lou Taylor Pucci and Nadia Hilker, and a thoughtful script, the film never falls into schmaltzy or overly sappy Nicholas Sparks territory. It plays it straight and thinks through it's story. It's a different kind of love story and a different kind of horror story and it's very well done.

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead

Wyrmwood is the advertised Mad Max meets Dawn of the Dead mash-up from writers Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner, with Kiah also directing. The story is about a virus that ushers in the zombie apocalypse. Amidst the chaos of roaming packs of flesh eating zombies in the Australian Outback, a mechanic named Barry (Jay Gallagher) is looking for his sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey) who was kidnapped and experimented on by a deranged mad scientist like doctor.

The opening scene is bloody and tone setting and shows a rag tag group dressed in random and worn out and beat up sports gear like helmets, shoulder pads, and hockey masks. The group comes out fighting zombies looking like Slipknot on a battlefield.

As the story is set up and the virus descends upon the living, we see a number of people turn into zombies. One in particular will leave it's imagery in my mind for a long time. The photo shoot sugar skull zombie is fantastic and terrifying, a maniacal bloodthirsty thrashing rag doll of fury and color and is one of the most memorable zombies I have ever seen.

When it comes to the zombies, the sound is very effective and haunting. This isn't the clogged up, blood rattled dry wheez breathing of The Walking Dead, it's an all out siren scream that sounds like a drowning horse being ravaged by a pack of animals. It's disturbing and unnerving and freaking awesome.

The lab where Brooke is held hostage is portrayed like a house of horrors come to life. We see grisly and gut covered computers and keyboards, human experiments and zombies restrained to the blood soaked walls angrily wiggling and fighting to be free. all overseen by a disco dancing deranged doctor.

Jay Gallagher shows shades of Bruce Campbell from The Evil Dead movies in his performance sometimes and it meshes greatly with the vibe of the movie. One scene in particular has his face sprayed and covered in blood and I couldn't help but think of Ash fighting the Deadites. There's even a scene when Gallagher loads up a gun and says, “fuck yeah,” that is seemingly his version of Campbells “groovy”. Don't misread here though, it's an overall serious portrayal of a grief stricken man who lost his family to the virus and he does a great job here.

I haven't even gotten to Bianca Bradey yet. While she spends the majority of the movie held hostage in the house of horrors lab, she makes the most of her screen time. Even tied up in the lab her stare alone is enough to knock you out and her icy cool delivery of lines like, “you want a zombie? I'll get you a zombie,” turned me into an instant fan. She is a powerful screen presence and has one hell of a commanding aura about her. Her role here reminded me of another great performance I saw recently, Nicole Alonso in Crawl or Die.

Wyrmwood reportedly took 4 years to make, being filmed on weekends and around everybody's work schedules. It sounds like a draining and daunting task to take on. But the end result is a damn awesome movie that is one of the best zombie movies to be seen in years. I loved Wyrmwood, I loved every minute of it. This movie is a horror fans dream. It's the kind of movie you want to make with your friends: a brilliant love letter to horror that also stands strong as it's own story. Wyrmwood also manages to add a new twist to the zombie mythology that worked beautifully in the world of the film.

Do yourself a favor and watch this immediately, and then watch it again with all your friends. The movie is loud and gritty, colorful, fast, and a bloody good time. Movies like this is why horror fans are horror fans.

Cut!

Cut!

Cut! poses a pretty simple yet interesting concept: a couple of aspiring filmmakers plan on scaring people in real life and filming it to turn into a horror movie with genuinely fearful performances. But what if the scaring goes too far? What if someone really gets hurt? What if someone gets killed? Does that all then just become part of the movie?
These are the questions that are raised throughout Cut! as we see the two main characters get deeper and deeper into their desperate situation. Lane (David Banks) and Travis (David Rountree, also writing and directing here) are two wannabe filmmakers who find themselves working for a production company that is soon to close it's doors due to bankruptcy. In one rather fun scene, we see the two at first seem desperate to get Gabrielle Stone (playing herself) to star in one of their upcoming movies and when she says no, Lane (an ex convict with a chip on his shoulder) begins to tell her off in a way that all but guarantees no future contracts with the rising indie film actress. It's a scene that shows where these two are in their career and in life: they are out of options and have nothing left to lose.
When the idea arises to set up and film real people in life threatening situations, the two men turn to prostitutes. They bring a girl to a dark and secluded room and say they'll be right back. Instead, a large homeless man who has been paid off by Lane and Travis enters the room and proceeds to pretend to kill the girl so that her terrified reactions can be filmed and spliced into a movie. But the homeless man really kills her and so begins the descent of the two men into a dark and twisted scenario that has them taking the lives of their "actresses".
Some interesting inner struggle takes place throughout the film as well as struggle between the two men; Lane is all in on the experiment and Travis has serious concerns but he never seems to fully commit to them and instead goes along with the plan for the most part. Fame and ultimately a sense of purpose are what's at the center of Travis and Lane's actions. They are so consumed by their dream of being filmmakers and distraught by the closing of their failed production company and careers so far that they they have lost touch with what film is in the first place: an imaginative platform to create and tell a story. Instead, they are so stuck in the emptiness of their reality that the only story they can create is by stealing moments from other peoples real lives. And, in the end, their actual lives as well.
There are a few pretty decent and bloody and intense scenes here and there (one involves a bathtub and a saw) but I was left feeling underwhelmed by the movie. The trailer for the film promised a brutal and bloody experience, but about half way through the movie itself I was feeling disappointed that that wasn't going to be the case and I started to lose interest.
Cut! definitely had me thinking about fame and how far some people will go to achieve it, and kudos to the filmmakers for that. But I never felt very invested in this movie as the story focused a bit too much on the characters and left me longing for that bloody movie that was promised in the jarring trailer. Don't get me wrong, I love character driven stories, I just feel as though the script and the acting ability of the two leads weren't up to the task of creating sympathetic characters in such a twisted situation. Also, the filmmakers couldn't help themselves and threw in a ridiculous twist at the end that couldn't possibly have surprised a single viewer. Overall, Cut! seems to squander it's interesting premise with a weak script and suffers from somewhat unconvincing performances. It isn't a bad movie, but it isn't a very good one either.

Maggie

Maggie
 

Maggie is the directorial debut from Henry Hobson and is a refreshing take on the very saturated zombie drama. It tells the story of Maggie (Abigail Breslin) who becomes infected with a disease that turns people into flesh craving zombies. The onset of the disease and the transformation from human to zombie is not instant or quick as in other films, it takes 6-8 weeks to turn. While the disease slowly sets in and takes over, Maggie's father Wade (Arnold Schwarzenegger) stays by her side as long as possible.

If there is one word I had to choose to sum up this movie, it's beautiful. And everything comes out of this beauty that the film so eloquently exudes: the performances, the characters, the setting, the emotion. If Terrance Malick were ever to direct a zombie film, the result would be Maggie. I absolutely loved every minute of this movie.

Hobson's directorial debut is very strong and extraordinarily well realized. The atmosphere and world is dark, dreary, beautiful, and real. The way the zombie sickness is handled and portrayed really turns this into a story about the loss of a life as opposed to the undead. These characters are our neighbors, our friends, and our children and their turning isn't played for horror or gore, it's drawn out and sad and emotionally exhausting. To add a sense of urgency and emotional punch, there is a constant underlying pulse to this movie; throbbing low, gritty beats and sorrowful music. Hobson had a clear vision for this film and it shows. The viewer is also left with the impression that the only way this film works effectively is with strong and believable performances from the cast, particularly Maggie and her father Wade and their relationship.

In great contrast to his Hollywood image, Arnold Schwarzenegger is searching to be a hero here. He knows he can't save his daughter from the inevitable but he also gives the subtle impression that his little girl will always be his little girl and perhaps it will be ok. He's very still, very quiet, and let's his weathered statuesque features display the coldness and stillness he feels inside while showing great emotional depth with his eyes. It's a very touching and loving and grounded performance from the former action star that left me feeling that Arnold still has something left to show us as an actor. It is, in my opinion, one of the best performances of the year so far and of his career.

I give credit to Abigail Breslin for getting such a great performance out of Schwarzenegger. She gives such a heartbreaking and remarkable performance as Maggie that all Arnold had to do was absorb and play off of her emotion. Yes, she is THAT good. Breslin is so natural here that this almost feels like a documentary of her instead of a character in a film. There is one bloody scene where she first displays the growing effects of her zombie sickness and I couldn't take my eyes off her. Her tears were real, her fear was real, and her mad, confused hysteria was heartfelt and riveting.

Maggie is a powerful and fantastic story that every horror fan, every zombie fan, and every fan of film should see. Abigail Breslin gives a performance that has me checking her future projects and Henry Hobson delivers a movie that has me anxiously waiting to see what he does next.

Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial is a film from The Vicious Brothers (Grave Encounters) and the story puts a nice little twist on an age old horror plot line: college kids going to party at a cabin in the woods. But instead of zombies or evil spirits coming to crash the party, this group of coeds gets a visit from aliens. And with that fun sounding set up, let the party begin.

April (Brittany Allen), accompanied by her boyfriend Kyle (Freddie Stroma), is sent by her mother to take pictures of the family cabin to get ready to sell it. This automatically makes the characters a tad more relateable as they are being sent to the cabin for a reason and not just to party. April seems genuinely sad that they are selling the cabin, as that and her parents divorce symbolizes the loss of her childhood and innocence. But Kyle invites some friends and the partying begins as soon as they arrive.

There is a nice human element in the movie as April and Kyle are in danger of reaching the end of their relationship, and right in the middle of an argument we see a UFO fly over the cabin and crash not far away. It's a fantastic touch that ups the stakes and makes these characters that much more human, and that the UFO interrupted and crashed right in the middle of a dramatic scene was jarring and unexpected and very well done.

From here the movie only speeds up and we get plenty of action and scares as the group fights/runs from the aliens. The ensemble cast as a whole is pretty decent all around, there are no bad performances that distract from the other actors at all. The standout is definitely Brittany Allen, who does an excellent job here and conveys a lot of raw emotion. Her performance reminded me greatly of another breakout performance from last year, Alex Essoe in Starry Eyes. We also get a nice little turn from Michael Ironside as a pot growing Vietnam vet who may not be as crazy as he first comes across.

The movie does offer a number of old cabin-in-the-woods/horror standbys such as finding a bunch of home grown marijuana, a fallen tree blocking “the only road back to town,” and lots and lots of rain. But these tired horror tropes almost feel like old friends at this point and given the alien twist in this story it was almost comforting to see them still show up as obstacles regardless of what/who it is that is terrorizing our main characters. There is a very well done moment where they acknowledge the rainfall when it stops when Kyle notices and says, “at least it stopped raining.” The reason for the rain stopping and the way the sequence was filmed is great stuff.

Extraterrestrial is a dark movie washed in alarming reds and blues and greens. The aliens are tall and lanky and nightmarish and when a character is taken aboard their ship it is a gruesome and terrifying scene. The soundtrack is full of loud and clunky, electronic mechanical sounds, deep blaring horns and loud drums for a heroic and constant danger feel at the same time. It's a big and dramatic feeling movie with great effects that reminded me of the films of the 1980's, a sort of Close Encounters/Evil Dead/Fire In the Sky mash-up and I thoroughly enjoyed it. As of this writing it is currently streaming on Netflix and you should definitely check it out.

SICK: Survive the Night

SICK: Survive the Night

  

The SICK are the result of an epidemic outbreak that turns people into bloodthirsty zombies that roam and have taken over the land. While scientists try to understand the epidemic and how to control it, teams of survivors travel in groups fighting to survive. When Dr. Leigh Rozetta (Christina Aceto) leaves the safety of her underground government facility to return to the house that she grew up in, she finds herself trapped there for the night with two survivors fighting for their lives.

This is the set up for SICK: Survive the Night, a slice of life zombie flick from director Ryan M. Andrews. The SICK are very effective here. They wander and drag themselves around until they see a live human, then they become full of rage and run towards their prey and completely maul them as they eat them alive. It's a nice little twist to see this mad spark in the zombies. They don't slowly eat people as they slowly fall apart and decompose, they ravage them with their eyes looking like demon snakes. These aren't your father's zombies.

The look of the film is interesting. The outside world during the day has a pale faded yellow and cold look to it, while the interiors of the windowless government facility is washed out in over white fluorescent lighting. It gives an already-dead feeling to the living, who's survival and existence have become fighting off and understanding the dead. The night scenes are very sharp and almost appear more colorful than the washed out daytime. This suggests a clearer focus to the lives of the living as the SICK are more active at night and the survivors must be on the top of their game.

The acting in the film is pretty good on the whole. Some of the military speak and mannerisms come across as a bit unconvincing but overall everyone puts in a solid effort. Richard Sutton and Robert Nolan as the survivors Seph and McKay do some nice work and have the appropriate chemistry of people who have been around each other for a long time but don't necessarily like each other. A standout in the film is Jennifer Polansky. She has the tough, bad girl appearance of Gina Gershon and the attitude to back it up. Her delivery is confident and daring and she plays the ready-for-anything character of Claudia nicely. She by far has the most interesting character in the film and I enjoyed every second she was on screen. I only wish she played a bigger part. We are also treated to a wonderfully mad little performance from Debbie Rochon in a small role as a doctor sending out a video feed of herself as she tries to understand the disease and communicate it to others.

Director Ryan Andrews knew to create sympathetic characters to enhance the bleakness of this world populated by the SICK and there are some nice little back stories here and moments to go with them. One moment has Dr. Rozetta in her old room as the camera pans some of her old belongings. She then pulls out a blue dress to wear that contrasts greatly with the current situation and seems wholly inappropriate. It's a small touching scene that reminds us that we are all human with pasts and memories regardless of how un-human we seem in dire circumstances.

SICK is a bleak and grim film, it doesn't reinvent the zombie wheel but it doesn't try to. The movie is smartly done and showcases some very engaging zombies while allowing for plenty of human drama to play out as the characters are stuck inside the house together amidst the chaos and unknown of the SICK outside. It's a solid film, and I recommend it.