Highly Recommended
Mandy (2018) (American Horror) – Taking place in 1983, a lumberjack (Nicolas Cage) lives in a secluded cabin in the woods. His artist girlfriend Mandy spends her days reading fantasy paperbacks. Then one day, she catches the eye of a crazed cult leader, who conjures a group of motorcycle-riding demons to kidnap her. Panos Cosmatos is one of the most interesting directors working today. One reason for this is because virtually every frame in his films is gorgeous to look at. He truly has an imaginary handling of color and light, which creates a vibrant and visually arresting viewing experience. The dark ambient score by Johann Johannsson is intense and helps to produce a disturbing, otherworldly atmosphere. The plot is simplistic and the characters are not exactly deep, but I did enjoy the interaction between them, which is crafted very nicely and is far more engaging than most films with this premise. There is some gory violence and a touch of “B-movie” madness to boot. Casting is spot on, with Cage, Linus Roache (as the cult leader), and Andrea Riseborough (as Mandy) being stand-outs. Not a film for normal people.
Recommended
Judy (2014) (Italian Horror) – A team of street performers terrorize a young woman in her house. This low-budget home invasion film is really creepy. The street performers have terrifying facial make-up and masks, and a bizarre “trick” involving a spiked crate with nails sticking out of it. Most surprisingly, there’s a fantastic amount of suspense after our protagonist has a confrontation with those nasty looking villains near the very beginning. So much so, that the viewer may question the entire premise of the film, which is impressive. This is a “Necrostorm” film, but there’s an astounding amount of patience that is exhibited by the filmmakers to avoid graphic violence for a while (after the opening scene, of course). Our protagonist does make a few bone-headed moves when danger is presented, but I can forgive that because this movie balances suspense, disturbing violence, and demented villains very nicely.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) (American Drama/Thriller/Comedy) – A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter's murder when they fail to catch the culprit. This is a rather simplistic plot that meanders around a lot, but in this case that’s a good thing because it’s all about the character interaction and performances. I like how events just kinda flowed from one to the other in natural ways, and a few of the characters that seem evil (at first) really aren’t. There’s a lot of humor in this, and it definitely feels misplaced and forced at times, which is a flaw that sticks out.
Taeter City (2012) (Italian Horror) – In Taeter City everything is managed by The Authority. They use a special radio wave system called Zeed that lets them distinguish criminals from typical law abiding citizens. Criminals are slaughtered to provide food for the masses. Three cops go after a rouge murderer who is immune to the radio waves. Camerawork almost always consists of constant close-ups, which is a bit irritating. The constant commercials for Taeter Burger restaurants also gets rather tiring after a while. However, there is certainly a level of low-budget creativity on display that is infectious and interesting to watch. This “Necrostorm” film extremely grimy, gory and disgusting – with constant references to cannibalism. The make-up effects and masks are also rather creepy. While true that this is a shallow movie that gets a bit monotonous after a while, it is moderately enjoyable.
Not Recommended
Annihilation (2018) (American Sci Fi Horror) – A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don’t apply. There’s a scriptwriting decision early on that denies the viewer the ability to worry about the lead protagonist, since the film is shot in flashbacks and we already know that she made it out alive. The premise of the movie is intriguing, but it devolves into too much sitting around, generic animal attacks, and lame explanatory dialogue. While there are a handful of cool visuals along the way (most of which are near the end), this is yet another “high brow” science fiction movie that’s as shallow as a puddle of water. After reading a bunch of online interpretations, it really feels like people are reading content into the film instead of extracting content out of it. I think this is a flimsy script that fails miserably to be thought-provoking.
Rings (2017) (American Horror) – A young woman finds herself on the receiving end of a terrifying curse that threatens to take her life in 7 days. This begins with some lame dialogue on an airplane. The scene itself has some potential, but it doesn’t build enough suspense or have a good enough money shot. The casting is remarkably unimpressive, with a bunch of badly-acted fratboys and sorority girls running around everywhere. This story is incredibly boring and could have been written by a high school kid. In fact, the scriptwriters don’t even bother to tell much of a story, simply piggybacking off of its predecessors and rehashing stuff in uninspired ways. Characters are wafer thin. The scare tactics are not good.
