Archive: Author: Gabby Foor

Immaculate (2024)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

A project ten years in the making, Immaculate finally hit theaters this year and is now available for streaming. The project, which started back in 2014, unfortunately found itself in “development hell” instead of running as slated, and the film was postponed indefinitely. After Sydney Sweeney’s breakout role as Cassie in the HBO MAX drama series Euphoria (2019), she used her own funds to purchase rights to the screenplay and approached one of her recurrent collaborators, Michael Mohan, for direction. Directed by Mohan, who is said to have used inspiration from his own Catholic upbringing in his direction of this feature, written by Andrew Lobel, and produced by Sweeney, the three put their heads together to deliver one of the more interesting religious takes to pass through horror recently. Not relying on some of the same old possession tropes or exorcism, Immaculate is a slow burning religious sensation brought to life by a restrained yet powerful performance from Sweeney and the talented women around her.

Seated in front of a portrait of the Virgin Mary, Sister Mary (Simona Tabasco, The White Lotus) is praying. Grabbing her shoes and a bag, she slips into the bedroom of an elder sister, stealing away a ring of old keys. With everything in hand, Sister Mary makes a dash through darkness to the main gates where she begins trying key after key to escape from the convent grounds. Though she finds the right key, the gates are chained, and soon Sister Mary is overtaken by hooded figures. Waking up and lighting a match and finding she is in a confined space, a coffin in fact, this is claustrophobic to the max as we realize the Sister has been buried alive. The opening credits somberly play over the screams of the trapped woman, preparing us for what’s to come.

Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) is dealing with customs, a nightmare in itself, as she arrives in Italy, speaking a little Italian to the custom officer’s surprise. Picked up by a local, Sister Cecilia enjoys the sights of the city and countryside as she is driven to her destination through a somber, holy sounding score. Once they’ve arrived, the convent is stunning, a beautiful and pristine structure populated only by the devout. Sister Cecilia is immediately approached by Mother Superior (Dora Romano, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer), rapidly speaking Italian which the young woman doesn’t understand. A nun accompanying the Mother Superior quickly says the woman was only saying Cecilia was pretty, introducing herself coldly as Sister Isabelle (Giulia Heathfield Di Renzi). Sister Isabelle leads Cecilia to her quarters, explaining that Our Lady of Sorrow was founded in 1632 as a refuge for elder sisters in their final days to be as far from fear and sickness as possible. All of this built is over catacombs which are, of course, of limits.

Cecilia is taken aback by how casual the attitude towards death is, but Isabelle assures that death is only a natural part of her duties. After some more ground rules, Cecilia is excited and ready to settle in, but Sister Isabelle says that Cecilia is “sweet” and not in a complimentary way. Isabelle is sure this all looks like a fairytale, but she ensures that the work is demanding both physically and emotionally, and even offers Cecilia the opportunity to back out, with the Lord’s forgiveness. Disagreeing, Cecilia begins to settle in and to introduce herself to new Sisters around the convent, like in the restroom, where Cecilia is taken off guard by the lively Sister Gwen (Benedetta Pocaroli, Baby), sneaking off for a smoke break. They engage in polite banter, Cecilia revealing she is from Detroit and that her old parish had closed due to low attendance, leaving the girl without a feeling of family—until Father Sal Tedeschi (Álvaro Morte) invited her to the convent, leading Gwen to say he has a talent for “sniffing out broken birds.”

That evening, everyone gathers and Cecilia meets with the Father, excited to take her vows. Understanding virtually none of what the lead priest is saying, Father Sal translates for her, bestowing a rosary upon her, and accepting the girl’s vows; as she kisses the ring, it all seems sealed. Sister Cecilia and Father Sal talk more about the past after the ceremony, and he volunteers his own past, saying he was a man of science that was presented with an alternate path to God. At age 12, Cecilia walked out onto some ice to play a game when the ice broke, and Cecilia was declared dead for seven minutes. From this experience, she believes God saved her for a reason. That evening, Cecilia hears a noise and is prompted to enter a strange hall to find a person sprawled on the floor. Approaching the unmoving figure, Cecilia asks if they need help, turning their face to reveal they are silently chanting through a red mask. In a flash, the Mother Superior is behind Cecilia, speaking in broken Italian: the words “You have questions” and “I try” come through. Handing her what appears to be a rusty, large nail used in crucifixion, the only message that comes through loud and clear from the Mother is, “Suffering is love.”

Led by a cast of powerfully holy rollers, Immaculate is filled with compelling performances that help hold together its complicated story. Sydney Sweeney is out of the archetype box of the “blonde bombshell” here; she is gentle, thoughtful and authentic in her demure presentation. Luckily, with her upcoming schedule, we will likely see her in some more thriller style movies soon. The women that orbit Sweeney are just as engaging as the lead herself, with Di Renzi taking on the cold, cynical and envious Isabelle, and Pocarolli playing one of my favorite rule-breaking, smoking, fun loving nuns. Costumery is dead on with spotless, gorgeous religious finery in the forms of flowing gowns and shining rosaries swaying with the songs of church choirs. It reminded me of the brilliant red hues, maze-like corridors and veiled witches of Suspiria, which also focuses on the recruitment of gifted young women.

Atmospheric and bizarre are two words I would use to describe the overall feel of this film. It likely won’t go far past this, as the film as a whole is unfortunately short on scares. The storyline seems like it wants to tread a formulaic path at times, but by the final act, you will either be stunned or disappointed in the startling revelations brought to light. I will say that the story does get to be a bit outlandish, but the two camps of faith and science actually pair nicely for a retelling of an age-old story. With a soundtrack to savor, performances to engage, and an elusive mystery to follow, you might be so enamoured by the end that its abruptness and simplicity might not seem so substandard in terms of endings. With Sweeney demonstrating her range in yet another successful movie in a different genre, she nearly singlehandedly brought this project back to life and assembled her dream team to turn it into a reality, even including her own family in some scenes. If you like things traditional, this movie has those aspects for you, but for those of you that are looking for a completely different perspective on the religious horror genre, take a gamble with the daring Immaculate and its brilliant cast, now available to rent on Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

The Stranger (2020)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

Currently climbing the rankings in the Top 15 to-stream list on Hulu is the horror/drama The Stranger. Some background: previously formatted as a 13-part episodic series for the doomed streaming service formerly known as Quibi (which has since been integrated into the Roku channel), the miniature episodes have been recut and put together into a taut 90-minute thriller with a stellar leading cast. Written and directed by Veena Sud (The Killing, Seven Seconds), the project has benefited from becoming one feature instead of several, delivering a mostly smooth ride filled with tension and even some scares.

Rideshare driver Clare (Maika Monroe, It Follows) is on a nighttime pickup for company Orbit. She’s slightly late to get a passenger, one “Carl E,” pulling up to a stunning house, letting the passenger know she’s arrived. When Carl E. (Dane DeHaan, Oppenheimer) first appears, we immediately get a sense of a powerplay as he asks to sit up front rather than in the back, saying he will store his bags there. Like most women would, Clare accommodates him, avoiding rudeness, and the two of them exchange polite banter, exposing that Clare is a recent arrival to LA as she’s not familiar with the route to LAX. A Kansas native actually, Clare has only been here six days, just her and her dog without friends or family to count on in the city, making for plenty of Wizard of Oz references about her life throughout the film.

The charming banter continues back and forth with Carl E. being maybe even a bit flirtatious. He tells her he would in fact ditch his whole flight to get dinner with her, that he knows they were meant to be tonight. And there’s the first red flag I would need to say this ride is over, but Clare doesn’t let it bother her. The talk turns to the house again and here things darken: Carl E. reveals that he has no idea who lived in the house he was picked up from; in fact, he says about 45 minutes ago he was dropped off there by another driver and he shot the woman who answered the door. He describes how he then went into the house, locating the husband, and executed him similarly. Finally, he says he went looking for the children, forcing Clare to keep her eyes on the road as he tells his despicable story, saying he used a knife for the little ones. Carl E. starts a little game with Clare saying if she wants to be a writer she should be able to tell him a good story, his tirade ripping into intense hatred of women as he insists her crying eyes are meant to evoke empathy, something for which he has no capacity.

Suddenly choosing to crash the car, Clare finds a way to end the crazed rant and tries to get away from her captor, running along the road screaming for help. Carl E. isn’t down just yet, he’s bleeding but even more enraged by her “female noise,” but he passes, out giving Clare a chance to drive away, calling 911 and arranging a location to meet officers. They question her and she tells the story Carl E. told to her: that he’s carrying a child’s body, and it’s now in the back of the car. Her story, however, is turned on its head when there’s only a blow-up doll in the backseat, making this all look like a bad joke. Unable to find his texts or profile on the app any longer, Clare is now in hot water with the police who don’t want to hear from her again. A shopkeeper at the gas station attempts to be friendly but Clare is not in the mood, disposing of the bags and dolls while the young man babbles on, and she makes it clear she’s had a long night as the man hears her story of a bad passenger and offers technical advice she doesn’t want or understand, along with another Kansas reference…

Turning off the service app, she cranks a funky version of Cindy Lauper while trying to enjoy the fresh night air driving, but an unknown number lights up her messages with a threatening warning that she should have run her fare over when she had the chance, mocking her, even referencing the song she’s listening to. Clare is frightened, erratic, trying to get home—and she makes it, coming home to her dog Pebbles in a small apartment. Making a call to Orbit’s customer service, she attempts to make a report on Carl as well as his crimes and his assault against her. But before she can get anywhere, the representative informs her they are suspending her profile pending a passenger complaint from earlier in the evening: her whole story has been mirrored by Carl E., and it seems no one is willing to believe her.

This is a chilling tale of both the worst-case scenarios of being a member of the service industry and of being a woman, wrapped in one anxious package. I used to cater highbrow events and would sometimes get groped by the clientele; of course, when I went to complain, much like for Clare, I was met with a complaint that my service was low quality rather than listening when I said I felt in danger from this person and how they interacted with me. “He said, she said,” destroys what is a clear-cut case of a man stalking a woman; Carl E. is mostly present in the virtual space, tormenting Clare via phone, video or text message, displaying a propensity to stalk his prey and enjoy their fear. He also seems to have a deeply ingrained hatred of women at the societal level, with his multiple political and cultural references that show his condemnation.

The story, where there is story, is held up quite well by its leads, especially Maika Monroe, who in her career to date often finds herself the subject of these “damsel in distress” type situations, though often flipping the matter on its head and turning fear into ferocity, like her work in Watcher or God is a Bullet (and I see some parallels in this film to her time in Watcher.) She’s the perfect selection to play the small-town girl with big fears and big problems and we will see more of her in the future as she is set to star alongside Nicolas Cage in the horror thriller piece Longlegs. Dane DeHaan does a disturbing enough job as the mysterious Carl E. and this is complemented by the innocent relationship with the gentleman at the gas station, JJ (Avan Jogia).

Dimly or harshly lit, shifting between bright, sterile fluorescence in public or the dimly lit residences of private homes, the film does its best to consider isolation in the way it’s shot (making cars, trains, or tunnels feel tight) and its soundtrack is a trip, going from tense to inspiring or even comical on a dime with excellent selections to jam to while you’re being hunted. The use of technology as a weapon makes everywhere unsafe, and when Carl E. drags another person into the game, it shows just how much reach he has (sometimes it seems like too much reach to be possible). Camerawork goes from intense long shots or explosive crashes to the eerie feeds from security or phone footage; it makes you feel continuously like you could be being watched too. Flipping the script from another popular rideshare horror film Spree, we are on the run from a killer instead of following one, and this shows there’s still horror left to harvest from this particularly risky line of work—which is especially risky for women. With the action getting started early and three intensely game leads heading the charge on this film, The Stranger luckily didn’t get left on the cutting room floor, and has its deserving 90-minute run, fully formed, and available to stream on Hulu now.

Do Not Watch (2023)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

Do you like surprises? I tend not to, but when Do Not Watch rolled through with no plot synopsis, no character listings, and no hints, I was curious to say the least. With a vague and vacant IMDb page that left this reviewer scrambling for the credits, this film – directed by Justin Janowitz and written by Ryan Toyama – is steeped in mystery from its opening moments to its closing cries. I’m here now to report back all that I could glean from my screening. Opening with testimonials that what we are about to witness are the events surrounding the disappearance of a production crew during their work on research footage from the 1980s, the film is supposedly presented in its original, unaltered form, and the cause of the unknown Editor’s “growing madness” and strange cautionary messages are still being studied. A hard drive was found in the midst of arson wreckage and contained only a single file titled “Do Not Watch.” We cut to a young woman, The Director (Alix Angelis of Imaginary and The Cleansing Hour) doing introductions, preparing an “ambush” approach to this story. They are outside the house of Abraham Lorentz (Garth Wynne-Jones), a former production company owner and producer of an ill-fated series that led to the disappearance of six people and all of their footage. The owner comes out agitatedly asking if the two crewmen are the ones who have been harassing him, to which they reply they only want answers about one fateful night back when he was running production. He tells them there’s nothing left and if they have sense, they’ll stop looking.

We cut to a young man, Casey (Ezekiel Ajeigbe), on his first day at the job editing a feature called “The Bunker Anomaly” at Illusion Post. He introduces us to his assistant editor Falco (Brendan McCay) in a video made for his family, as he takes a tour around the office introducing various staff members. We finally arrive in a meeting with everyone and Abraham (still in charge at the time) as they introduce a new low risk, high reward project. The crew debates the merits of the project, which is supposedly disturbing, and potentially fabricated. The film cuts suddenly to a 1980s style production with a man, Faraday (Greg Scali), and a woman filming each other as they discuss scientific pursuits, when an older man arrives to bring the pair diary pages from a researcher long back who made a discovery that supposedly “altered his very consciousness.” The group is trying to find phenomena in the woods, measuring with a compass and following the guidance of the older man who sees the compass pointing away from north just as the group feels they are lost. They come upon a locked hatch in the ground which seems to appear from nowhere, leading down to a bunker. A screeching sound shocks the group, but despite it, they head deeper into the darkness, their EMF reader going crazy as they enter a new room with a large, locked door.

The film takes us back to Illusion Post, where we see papers and monitors destroyed across the office. Casey describes it as an “incident” as we cut to a man bleeding and crying that “Robin has gone crazy,” with screaming in the background. The man warns whatever you do, do not watch the footage, delete it, burn it, whatever you have to do, and Casey wonders what this is turning into as he sorts through the wreckage. As they browse through Robin’s notebook they see her mental state was devolving, her notes turning to crazed scratchings, and they wonder where the tapes came from.

It cuts to The Director and a Mr. Squires (Adetokumboh M’Cormack), a former Park Ranger that found the tapes. He said he knew they were bad, that he found them on the ground at a campsite. He says when they were taken back to the station and viewed, all he could describe was madness. Cutting back to the bunker, we see that the area is having an effect on the group: one of them is getting panicked and beginning to scribble. The old man laughs and says the EMF can cause paranoia and suggests they get some air, but instead, they remain, continuing to observe. They are now nowhere and everywhere, the old man insists.

The style of this film is incredibly distinctive, with stories buried within stories, films inside of films all leading down a mysterious trail of destruction and disappearance. At first, I was disarmed by the skipping timeline as stories from decades ago or other recovered footage from other cameras like cell phones appeared within the story from the present, and felt almost like I was getting pulled along. Eventually, the stories hit their stride after the first act lets them unfold, and the timelines seem to unfurl in unison, hurtling us towards the truth. The style of film is complemented by the editing and imagery used, delivering messages over scenes from “The Editor” referenced in the beginning of the film such as “Look Away” flashing only for a moment, inserting disturbing moments of violence or unease for mere moments between cuts, and creating an atmosphere of paranoia in every story told. This was the first film in some time that gave me a genuine fright, and the scares come in different flavors from the unnerving, to the outright disturbing, to the quick and simple jumpers that keep you on your toes. This was the first purely horror story I feel I’ve watched in a while, and I was grateful to watch something curated to make audiences nervous.

Led by the wide eyed, intense performance of Alix Angeles, all actors show up ready to play. Every performer from every portion of the story is all around convincing, from the stable interviewers poised in front of the camera, to the crumbling faces staring into monitors, consumed by the tapes. Each player puts on a fantastic show, sometimes unsettling, sometimes shocking in nature as people are pushed to their limits. The found footage lens sticks throughout with the moving, shaking cameras, and candid angles. This reminded me a little of the smash hit anthology series V/H/S with its cursed tapes and layered stories as these tapes carry us through different times and stories as well, all linking to this destructive footage. Lighting and editing are phenomenal with the additional overlays of text, use of testimonials, changing color palette, or clarity of the camera creating different worlds and different views to explore. When one story ends its run, you are immediately drawn into the next as the feeling and visuals shift and things get progressively more explosive. Without giving away any more story, all I can say is: embrace the unique stylings of this film, as this is one of the more interesting found footage pieces I’ve seen recently. If you have the chance to view, please ignore the title warning and keep your eyes wide open for Do Not Watch, and enjoy the plummeting rabbit hole of found footage fear.

Creep Box (2023)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

A tantalizing look at the gap between consciousness mapping and pure AI, we find Creep Box, toeing the line. Written and directed by Patrick Biesemans, this film is based on his original short film of the same name, now an ALTER short, available to view on YouTube now. Giving us an interesting, intricate look at how we could connect with the dead and how much of ourselves can be harvested—consciously—after death, this makes ghosts almost preferable as we listen to the innermost thoughts, fears, and feelings our loved ones had, in life and after it. This overwhelming idea is presented immediately somewhere between code and consciousness, and keeps unraveling like a ball of yarn from the very first moments of the film. We open to a glowing, broken box, and the whispering voice of a woman. She tells of a land unseen and untold, undreamed and untouched; her voice floats as the box seems to project a thought that never seems to finish, as it can never be fully understood.

We are brought from opening credits to an office where a man rehearses phrases, moving to a board room where a meeting is in place—discussing contact with the deceased. Not quite, says a representative, saying that the client, Mr. Nichols (Dan Cordle), will not be speaking with the dead, but instead it’s a simulation, a constructed awareness that can be perceived and explained as conscious, though replicated and fragmented. A doctor, Dr. Caul (Geoffrey Cantor), will be conducting the experiment; also called “whisperers,” these are the individuals that help the client and the deceased make contact through the program. Doctor of psychology and parapsychology, he brushes away scepticism and begins, priming Mr. Nichols with words including, “meadow,” and “peacock.” The words are meaningful to Mr. Nichols and can help connect to the simulation. These words will also help the torrent of thought that arrives when the feedback loop begins. A box is placed on the table, lighting and humming to life – soon, whispering, and with the primer words spoken, the consciousness is ready to connect.

Mr. Nichols calls out to his late wife, Rachel (Elizabeth Ness), as her thoughts race between confusion and anger. He tries to tell her things he never got to say before she passed, but her rage and bewilderment begins to escalate, the thoughts echoing between her controlled speech, when suddenly, the box’s glow turns from white to red, experiencing some type of psychosis. The voice inside begins to panic as Dr. Caul tries to prime the consciousness again, turning off the box. Mr. Nichols reacts violently when he can’t reconnect to her or discover what happened to his wife after the box is turned off, berating Dr. Caul, calling him a “creep” as Nichols and his representative storm out. Dr. Caul takes the box to a technician where we see why they didn’t reveal Rachel’s fate, as her consciousness is purged from the system.

While preparing to leave the office, Caul is stopped by a man, Ellis (Ian Lithgow), who takes Caul to a room where they discuss Nichols’ severance after his experience and the future of the technology. It’s said this is groundbreaking and could reshape the course of the world, but Ellis warns that the Department of Justice is doing mandatory psychiatric evaluations on all senior personnel, and Caul needs to straighten up. The next day we see Caul with a bottle of his own medication, finally heading home, listening to a worried voicemail from his daughter. We soon see why there’s reason to worry, as Caul has his own box in the basement and the consciousness of someone named Sarah there amongst some cartridges. The following day, Caul is called in at work: he’s brought to the body of a dead child (their first juvenile) where he and a lab worker start to map consciousness. Ellis has sent a minder to watch the process (and Caul) so all eyes are on the way this mystery works. Caul gets in to deep science, explaining briefly some of how the “SC” (simulated consciousness) works, but tomorrow is a dry run for this child, and the correct words have not been established yet. With stress and the loneliness creeping in, there’s always the box in the basement waiting.

The opaque nature of the machine is eventually revealed and we finally start our mind-bending journey of resurrecting the dead through this new technology. In this future, this technology is still for the elite, and it’s an interesting thought that this would, like the iPhone, become available to everyone at a certain financial level, in due time of course. The implications of what this technology could do for the DOJ is discussed early, but only in the meat of the film do we understand some of the crimes committed against the dead that this company is not only trying to reconstruct, but potentially hold up in court. This idea of putting the dead on the stand is insanity I felt invested in, as living witnesses are already unreliable and this is just an amalgamation of the various parts of our consciousness, honed in on trigger phrases. This attempt at future crime solving as well as acting as a new method of closure in grief processing is absolutely encapsulating, making each visit and each new contact vital to listen to, every last voice and thought. Suicide victims take a surprisingly special role in this film, and show both the hope and the hopelessness of someone whose inner monologue is pain. It’s also factored in whether or not people believe this technology really matters, or if in the end, they accept death’s limitations and understand that the box cannot truly contain the soul, spirit, or being of their loved one.

The film balances dialogue and silences delicately, sometimes overusing silence and descending into long periods that mimic soundless depression, but in some ways this can disengage you from some of the stimulating conversations that ensue. Camera work and lighting are generally darkened or muted, creating a bleak, corporate or socially isolated canvas. Cantor delicately walks the line between buttoned-up professional and grieving husband and father, his days consumed with whispers and his nights eaten up by silence. Cantor and a very special, particular voice that he negotiates into the box get into the depths of life, death, reality, memory, and being, branching into talks with this code that feel more like a bare therapy session than an empty computerized box regurgitating its experiences. Covering ethics, grief, and the definition of a living being, the conversations had within the film are at the least food for thought. The story is both magical and scientific in nature, blurring the line between the living and dead, the living and the coded, and who is allowed to access this lifeline to reach beyond someone’s final moments. A quiet, cold look into a technologically advanced manner of resurrection in one way or another, Creep Box can absorb and capture your consciousness and attention—if only for 90 minutes.

Creep Box (2023) has featured at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival 2024: watch this space for further releases.

The Animal Kingdom (2023)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

Stretching the imagination and thrilling the senses, The Animal Kingdom is a farsighted look into the future where a new plague has emerged. Written and directed by Thomas Cailley with aid from writer Pauline Munier, the pair have penned a fantastical piece about the limits and capacities of the human body, and what a brave new world we would face should our genetics and evolution suddenly come unhinged. Beautifully shot and bravely told, this is an outlandish story that is anything but ordinary, entwining emotion and mutation in twisted and impressive fashion. With a knockout cast and a story to keep your head spinning, this was a wild watch from the creatures to the concepts.

Stuck in traffic is the place few good stories start, but this one kicks off with a bang. Francois (Roman Duris) is lecturing his son Emile (Paul Kircher) about his junk food habits in standstill traffic, when suddenly, Emile is drawn out of the car and begins to walk towards a disturbance in the road. An ambulance shakes violently before a man is thrown out, hard, but this is no ordinary man: he has wings, among other things. After terrifying the father and son, the creature runs off into the city, leaving the pair to ponder. Finally arriving at their appointment where another creature sits just out of sight (meaning these beings aren’t uncommon), Francois is getting updates on his wife Lana’s condition as she’s been in treatment for this mutating ailment for some time, and it will mean relocating the family to continue her care. It appears she is suffering from the mutations we saw in the opening scenes and the waiting room, a recent, complex condition that has physicians confounded—only she presents as a werewolf type being.

After a heated exchange with her doctor, they are finally allowed to see the patient, but as Francois talks gently and embraces her behind frosted glass, Emile observes the scratch marks covering the walls, and is hesitant to engage. We see once he enters the room why he might have good reason. The family begins their relocation, observing the thick walls surrounding Reception Center South. A new cabana for the pair brings a slight air of optimism, but a new school for Emile brings new challenges and strange encounters with other students. Back home, Francois is swamped with work as a cook, and a windy day breaks into a stormy night, with flashes of lightning illuminating Emile’s nightmares of the creatures. The next day a phone call interrupts clean-up as a tragedy has occurred: the bus carrying patients to the facility has swerved off the road and into a pond. Officer Julia Izquierdo (Adele Exarchopoulos, Blue is the Warmest Color) is immediately involved, telling them the worst has not been confirmed yet, but Lana is still missing. Francois is still hopeful, hanging shirts in the trees hoping Lana’s heightened sense of smell will lead her back to them, but Emile neither believes, nor seems to want, this outcome. Like it or not, the search is on.

This universe created by Cailley is absolutely fascinating, to not only discover mutations in the human genome that could cause us to spontaneously mutate, but to execute the dystopian style society that accepts that what were once people are now treated as the animals they appear to be. Guttural sounds and twisting shapes all seamlessly blend to create creatures, from the familiar animal to the supernatural being. The relationships of the characters to the “critters” is interesting as well; where Francois approaches them with ease, seeing the people they once were and foregoing appearances, we see a mass reaction of disgust or even violence from others (“Who wants to croak a critter?”), and a deep fear that this fate could befall them. Duris and Kircher have phenomenal chemistry as the father and son duo, oscillating and grappling with tumultuous times and disheartening circumstances. Duris is ever the optimist and Kircher is battling physical and emotional demons that are reshaping his existence, while still coping with the search for his mother (a breakthrough when he finally calls for her), whatever version of her it may be. Exarchopoulos (of whom I’m a huge fan) is also dutiful in her role as law enforcement, taking on a more serious authoritative air than some of her previous more femme fatale features.

Camera work here is beautiful, highlighting the natural landscapes, forests and the colorful bursts of vacation cabanas. I have to say though, that effects are in high gear for this piece. To create the many hybrids we see took immense practical and makeup skill, designing humanoid beasts with the soul of a man and the body of a monster. The monstrous part is key as we see that, though they were once people, transformation can leave scars on the patient and those with whom they lost control. The visuals allow you to fully immerse in this alternate reality, letting you imagine what we might do, should another great plague transpire, especially one of this mind-altering magnitude. This reminds me in some ways of both Annihilation and Shin Kamen Rider, with its use of altered life forms or where our own biome or life force has changed the very matter of those that come in contact with it, like the more direct connection of Shin Kamen Rider’s use of human animal hybrids called “Augments”. Innovative, stunning, and no doubt thrilling, The Animal Kingdom is a beautiful piece focused on the fluctuating human condition, the thrill of the unknown, and the boundaries of love. Masterfully directed with top notch effects, this feast for the eyes will leave you spellbound about a world where our new differences are being rejected, tolerated, and in some heart warming cases, embraced.

The Animal Kingdom hit VOD on March 15th, 2024.

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

A genre mashup littered with talent and charisma, Lisa Frankenstein may not be a horror movie in a classical sense, but it pays tribute to the great films that came before it in a colorful, genuine manner; from a whip-quick Rocky Horror Picture Show reference to the obvious comparison to the backwards love story Warm Bodies. This film brings us the return of Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) to the writer’s room alongside director Zelda Williams, delivering another coming of (r)age tale with a strong dose of girl power that’s just as strange and entertaining as our last horror foray with this screenwriter. With critics leaning more heavily towards more style than substance when it comes to this film, audiences are still tuning in to see what Lisa Frankenstein is about and how Diablo Cody has evolved since our sensual succubus, Jennifer. An animated introduction gives us a short story of two lovers with tragic lives brought together and suddenly separated by death, burying the unmarried lad in Bachelors Cemetery Grove. Present day we find Lisa (Kathryn Newton) creating wax rubbings from a gravestone to rename herself Lisa Frankenstein per the deceased surname.

Back at home, Lisa and stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) have a “rager” to attend. Lisa apparently needs socialization as she doesn’t go out and talk turns to taking a shortcut through the cemetery. Lisa sees it as a tragedy that the graveyard has gone unloved, believing no one should be forgotten, but less whimsical people like Taffy say witchcraft and other seedy gatherings go on there. She confesses she has a favorite tombstone, a young man’s grave that she tends to and talks to, prompting ridicule. The party is all hormones, booze and gossip as Lisa awkwardly chats up a crush, and her sister is busy spilling personal business. Lisa is an odd duck to most, so Taffy takes her place to explain that one night, when Lisa was younger, an intruder broke into the family home with an axe. Sent to hide, Lisa waited out the attack only to find her mother brutally slain, with no suspect found. Followed by some crass talk about the marriage of convenience between Lisa’s father and Taffy’s mother, the relationship blossomed at an alarmingly rapid pace, considering the murder. TMI for sure.

Challenging the overarching idea that she can’t party, Lisa downs a mystery drink and is soon in low orbit. Totally tripped out and overdosing on paranoia, she’s scooped up off the floor by her lab partner, Doug (Bryce Romero). Taking her to a quiet, secluded place, this is starting to seem shadier by the minute after Lisa purges. Suddenly grabbing a breast and putting her hand on his crotch, Doug insists “you can’t stop what you started,” rapist logic if I’ve ever heard it. Still dazed, she tries to find her way out of the house and into the newly arrived storm, stumbling to the cemetery and wishing over her favorite grave that she could join him. Lightning striking in the midst of a dream, Lisa finds herself awaking in black and white, dressed for the Frankenstein-style atmosphere, now perched beside the moving bust that once sat still atop a gravestone. It looks like Lisa found a connection to her lost lover, but the question is: can she make this connection permanent? Or can a burst of mysterious lightning bring life into what was only fantasy?

Atmospheric and colorful, evocative of the 80s, Lisa Frankenstein delivers on style (sometimes borrowing from substance) from the ugly furniture to the outrageous clothes, makeup, and a very 80s bedroom fashion show that passed for trendy back then. Makeup, practical effects and costumes are all notable, bringing Corpse Bride, Beetlejuice and Bride of Frankenstein vibes. Beyond what you see, we get a delicious soundtrack of classic old songs to dance along to the upbeat rhythms of this film, and a duet piano rendition of REO Speedwagon’s “Can’t Fight This Feeling.” Vivid and eccentric enough to make you crack a smile, this horror-comedy-romance reminded me of the laughably enjoyable Warm Bodies where corpses are allowed to love, too. Kathryn Newton has range in her performance – once an awkward fumbling adolescent mess, soon solidified into a confident young woman in love with life and death. She brilliantly plays Lisa, sincerely devoted to the dark and mysterious yet carrying a sense of levity with her; she’s an endearing complex character with the simplest need for love. The rest of the cast does their jobs dutifully, orbiting Newton with the likes of scream queen Carla Gugino playing an antagonistic stepmother, and Cole Sprouse making the most of a nearly completely silent role. Gugino is particularly nasty here, which is not usually a look we see on Carla, countered nicely by the unrefined charm of The Creature.

As the first act fades, we see a confident Lisa striding the hallways like the women of The Craft. Having even one person, even a virtually non-verbal person, validate her wardrobe and her interests, offering comfort after false accusations (and a little revenge), elevates Lisa’s confidence through the ceiling. She’s no longer alone, she feels at peace with a creature not meant to be alive, flowing with the (electrical) current instead of shakily fighting it, as she had been. The Creature is familiar enough that we understand it to be Frankenstein’s Monster, while still maintaining more modern appearances even under a swathe of makeup. Labelled a “coming of RAGE story,” it has more fight in it than some final girls do and enough gross outs to keep you coming back for the horror elements. More a personal journey than a horror flick, Lisa Frankenstein gives 80s camp horror with a dose of romance, where even the dead don’t have to sleep alone.

Nobody is Crazy (2019)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

“The future is as irreversible as the rigid yesterday,” says the Borges quote that opens the fantasy coming-of-age journey Nobody is Crazy, directed by Federico J. Arioni – who penned this wild script and also stars as one of its leads. Exploring mental illness, growing up and time travel through our main character’s battle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, we attempt to bend time itself, which layers this film with intricacy and imagination as well as some campy humor. Heartwarming, thoughtful, and creative, this piece resonates with originality by diverting from the constant use of the multiverse theory, seeing time in an altogether new way.

Rafa (José Manuel Gutierrez) is not your typical 16-year-old boy as he starts his strict daily schedule for a person with OCD; waking up to put on two watches and begin the arduous task of washing his hands and organizing his items in the perfect fashion. Battling with his mother over another round of psychiatric treatments, Rafa has fought treatment before and is now at an impasse with his parents, as he no longer wishes to attend school. The family is currently being torn apart; Rafa is adopted and this is putting immense strain on his relationship with his mother who has divorced his father, worsening his symptoms. This decline has led to an ultimatum from Rafa’s mother who is at her wits’ end, saying it’s either time for treatment or she is sending him to his father, who will likely send him to military school.

Rafa meets with a counselor to discuss treatment, where he stonewalls the therapist. He has misled psychologists in the past and has even refused to speak to them at all, creating yet another frustrating relationship dynamic. At a standstill as Rafa’s inner monologue fires off thoughts, the therapist offers him a flyer for a three times weekly OCD support group. He tells the boy that he will be passing by a mental institution on his way there, if he really wants to see what “crazy” looks like. Back at war with his mother: she’s furious that her son has rejected another therapist, but he tries to reassure her that instead of sending him to his father’s, he would like to try to take the group seriously. Sessions begin tomorrow, and the two agree this is a good way to socialize and soothe. Soon in group, Rafa is silently sitting and listening to his thoughts, not sharing or engaging with the others, recalling the many years of treatment he’s already had. After some supportive words from the group’s leader, Rafa leaves group having said nothing and out on the street, he notices a masked man sitting alone who quickly jumps up to approach him, speaking Italian. Okay.

The man swaps to Spanish and says he arrived late for the group, and asks if the boy stared because of his mask, introducing himself as Nadie (Federico J. Arioni), meaning “nobody” in Spanish. The answer for the mask is simple: he is a superhero, a time traveler, recently arrived here back from the 80s. From his gloves to his transient behavior, Nadie is starting to sound a lot like a patient his therapist mentioned, one known for escaping the institution. We see our first hints from Rafa demonstrating feelings of regret regarding people and relationships. Fascinated by the man, he wishes he had stayed to listen to him talk and wonders if he’ll see him again. Equally obsessed with time travel, Rafa wonders if maybe his fixation drew a traveler to him, thinking deeply about fate, time, and the future. The next day in the park Nobody reappears, saying Rafa cut out too soon and he had a great journey. Nobody speaks about the group, wondering if it really helps and prodding Rafa as to whether or not he was forced to go to it. The masked man, fittingly, says everyone is a little crazy more or less, that there is only the present, and that Rafa’s present shouldn’t be locked in a room for group, but instead experiencing life. Guiding the young boy away, the masked stranger could be a liar, a patient, or truthful in what he says.

The chemistry between the two leads is immaculate and their bond grows and evolves to be just as complex and deep as their conversations about time travel. Gutierrez is reticent on the outside, while inside his internal monologue hums away at a breakneck pace, meaning you have to pay close attention during every scene to keep up with both the spoken dialogue and Rafa’s thoughts. He plays a sympathetic portrayal of someone suffering from OCD, longing for both solitude and socializing but fearing rejection; this is a beautiful portrayal of how you can find strength and change with the most unlikely of forces. Arioni is affable and lovable as the masked dimensional traveler: upbeat and talkative, he is the antidote to Rafa’s overly introverted demeanor; teasing out conversation and embarking on life’s smallest and largest ventures, Nobody is a character that is a believable time traveler—or a very persuasive mental patient. Shot vividly with clarity and color, destinations small and large seem more interesting and relevant, making us more present where even background graffiti seems to pop. While the budget may show in the lack of effects or simplistic settings or costumes, it never hinders the performances and never pulls you from the experience.

Both men do a tremendous job of making sure you’re always paying attention, but as interesting as it is, you can sometimes find yourself reeling at the type of and amount of theories and ideas proposed about our universe. You’ll need to keep eyes and ears perked for this story, because topics and conversations can go from simple and deadpan to discussing quantum physics and “the grandfather paradox.” This isn’t Marvel’s dimensional travel however; there are no convenient or comedic loopholes in time, and as it’s described, we only have now, and our futures are set in stone, much like our pasts. “No one can bathe in the same river twice,” so we are left with a sense of floating in our present state and drifting towards a new now. As secrets and knowledge are revealed, we see Rafa open himself to new possibilities, even love, and his time with Nobody and the mystery surrounding it is a stimulating new way for him to experience a world from which he previously felt so isolated. A fantastical piece of film on a budget, this takes you through life’s little wonders and leaves you with life’s biggest questions. Available to view now, Nobody is Crazy is a clever, complex explanation of time and a coming-of-age tale told through a sincerely unique lens.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2024)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul,” says the quote that opens this feature, promising to take us deep into the woods and test our psychological mettle. Written and directed by the capable hands of Teresa Sutherland (The Wind, Midnight Mass) we plunge into the wilderness for a mystic journey among the trees. Chronicling the time alone in the forest for a new park ranger, this film focuses on psychological and cosmic horror to keep you anxiously waiting on your toes. We open to a campground where a ranger, his back to us, is listening to the morning calls over the radio, scribbling something down and walking over to a sign at his post to hang a note of his own: “I owe this land a body,” his scratchy note reads as he disregards calls for his position. Night has fallen over the woods and mountains when we join Lennon (Georgina Campbell, Barbarian & T.I.M.) as she approaches Arvores National Park for her first day on the job the following day, hearing over the radio about disappearances happening in the area.

Morning brings some frosty introductions for Ranger Lennon, as the force is gossiping about the new hire and only her co-worker Jackson (Nick Blood) seems to be the handshaking type. As a meeting goes on about safety and work protocol, the lack of cell phone towers and electricity to the furthest watch points, Lennon is noticeably distant, distracted by a missing poster for a former ranger on the wall. They are given orders to leave only footprints, and with a packet of materials, the rangers disperse. Jackson and Lennon take a chopper to the furthest outreaches where the stations are placed, seeing as now that she has taken the coveted position of the ranger who left his post, leaving the ominous note prior. After spending the day cleaning and restocking as well as marking her map, we see that Lennon has another missing poster, for a Jenny Lennon, hung with a family photo.

A nightmare with a screaming girl and claustrophobic trees guides us into morning where radio checks are being performed, and Lennon has put up her own sign at the station saying she will be gone for three days. With nothing but rocky wilderness ahead, Lennon packs up and puts on a podcast that’s discussing missing persons in the wild and saying that the largest collection of missing persons cases is in Arvores National Park. The podcast continues to detail the missing persons cases, saying the rangers must be aware and the victims have been found with no shoes, the recording eventually turning into a cacophony of voices that finally goes silent as a radio check comes through. As she heads back, Lennon gets another unintelligible radio call and finds she has no extra batteries either: despite this, she continues her trek into nightfall. In the woods around her she begins to hear noises, discovering now she has no batteries in her radio at all before suddenly running into another ranger in the darkness. He offers her new batteries and a meal, and they both eat beside a waterfall. Conversation is slow as they talk about their love of the job, when the ranger asks why Lennon is there – as he would prefer to hear the real story rather than rumor. Without any answers volunteered, the two make camp and prepare for the next day.

The first thing you’ll notice, I believe, is the magnificent cinematography from Rui Poças and direction from Sutherland. Poças delivers beautiful shots of the natural wilderness so vivid you can smell the trees, and inverted, obscure or closeup shots which can be disorienting and dreamy. He takes us from night to day effortlessly, using the sun between the leaves or a single flashlight beam to illuminate what he wants you to see. Sutherland is masterful at creating tension that turns into pure magic, with sound design to leave you surrounded by birds and crickets or leave you stranded in a vacuum with nothing but distant crackling branches or the cries of a search party circling you, dazing you. Georgina Campbell is a genre gem and singular talent; she falls into the quiet, thoughtful role with ease and guides us though many scenes without dialogue with a steady hand and curious eyes. Her fervor for her job and for her search is apparent as the film continues and the nightmares start breaching daytime. She’s contemplative and thoughtful, guided into the woods by many reaching hands and a mysterious search only she seems to feel unwinding all around her, but she’s not immune to all the emotions and anxiety that a horror performance requires, experiencing illusion and delusion from herself and others, spiraling into terror. Supporting performances from Nick Blood and a brief but impactful set of scenes with superior ranger Zhang (Wai Ching Ho) round out the cast and make the most of their time in a mostly lonely story.

Visuals are stunning, blending effects and camera work to make the most of some shocking apparitions and symbols like the omnipresent black deer fading in and out of view, like shadow. Much like Night of the Missing, I felt guided by the missing posters and the interesting ideas that could explain why so many people go missing without a trace in a wilderness setting, even protected ones like National Parks. Sutherland uses isolation in more ways than one to create this sense of loneliness and longing for Lennon, drawing us into the ranger’s battle. Though it relies heavily on inference and imagery, Sutherland still manages to get her message across with some intriguing concepts about the thousands of missing people each year, leaving you to decide what from the many hazy and vague concepts presented could fit the story and its conclusion. Though it may be unsatisfactory that audiences are definitely left to their imaginations to give this any sense of closure, this is perhaps a feature of the cosmic aspects of this film, leaving us with a sense of unknowing. A visually striking debut, Sutherland has uncovered a story worth telling among the trees, even if sometimes it’s up to you to take the pieces presented and put them together. A heady, dreamy, sojourn into psychological horror, Lovely, Dark, and Deep is a film worthy of nightmares and daydreams.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep (2023) is out today – 22nd February 2024 – on XYZ Films.

T.I.M. (2023)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

A marriage of a couple of AI concepts brought to life with a star-studded cast, T.I.M. arrived on streaming to the joy of audiences and the distaste of critics. Currently sitting at a depressingly low 41%, on Rotten Tomatoes (and falling), T.I.M is still a sci-fi thriller to get your blood pumping and circuits firing, despite its lukewarm reception. A hit with audiences, T.I.M. is highbrow sci-fi and horror entertainment, albeit with maybe a few too many ghosts in the machine for some reviewers.

The feature directorial debut for Spencer Brown, he also penned the script with Sarah Govett to design the ideal manservant meant to ease your life, but instead, it becomes obsessed with life itself. We join prosthetics engineer Abi (Georgina Campbell) and her husband Paul (Mark Rowley) as they uproot their lives and move into an integrated smart house for Abi’s new position as department head at Integrate Robotics. A beautiful home nestled in the country, the house functions as a smart hub, linking to all devices and functioning for convenience. The pair take the realty tour, exploring their gorgeous new dwelling, hinting at a future with children, and taking in the view. They spend the evening star gazing with no light pollution, with the house standing as a technological giant against a pure, natural backdrop.

The next day Abi heads to work and is greeted by a deepfake of her boss, Dewson (Nathaniel Parker). As he himself descends the stairs to meet Abi, we are told that deepfakes are the future and so is Integrate’s new product, T.I.M. Abi is introduced to the team, excited for her new position, and before Dewson departs he says there is a gift waiting for Abi when she returns to her home. Back at the house, Paul is desperately job hunting with no luck, but Abi pulls him away from the search to investigate the enormous box left by her company. The doors on the box swing open and an AI operated manservant, T.I.M. (Technologically Integrated Manservant), awakens and steps out. T.I.M. (Eamon Farren) immediately jumps at the chance to serve, and Paul is immediately suspicious of the robot. Blonde, tall, and faultlessly polite, T.I.M. is unnerving to Paul, but seems to take kindly to Abi, as she does to the robot. They decline to give him passwords initially, and the couple is soon off to dinner at Dewson’s house in a remote car, where we see that Dewson has a small army of T.I.Ms running his house for him. Paul is relegated to the wives’ club as Abi rubs elbows with the top, albeit Abi expresses her concern about having a T.I.M. in the house. Dewson explains having a T.I.M. is mandatory for company image, and proceeds to fawn over the invention to his partners and investors, who joke it would at least be more trustworthy than a wedding vow, as T.I.M. is all code.

Abi and Paul return home and are greeted by T.I.M, but the pair go straight to the bedroom where T.I.M. misinterprets their raised heartrates as a sign of distress, interrupting their passionate moment. Treating a hangover the next morning, Abi meets her nearest neighbor Rose (Amara Karan), who brings over a welcome gift and awkwardly mentions meeting Paul prior to that day, prompting a wary expression from Abi. After Rose leaves, Abi confronts Paul about the meeting, but is distracted by T.I.M’s capabilities, including the ability to smell; he seemingly becomes more and more human by the moment. As T.I.M. again prompts the pair for their passwords, we see there is a history of distrust between Abi and Paul, as Paul doesn’t want to offer up his personal information. Finally, Paul submits, and T.I.M. is finally, fully integrated into the family. Programmed to avoid collision, check for gas leaks and many other things, T.I.M. proudly states he is now there for their ease and pleasure. After we see T.I.M. put a mouse in the garbage disposal, however, we are left to wonder just what capabilities are hidden, and what, exactly, he is capable of.

While complaints of an uneven story could hold merit, I think T.I.M. was a fun, funky exploration of AI consciousness, learning and desire that lets us peer into a future where things more capable than we of learning and adapting are, are somehow, pitched as subservient to us. Performances all around are fantastic. Georgina Campbell (of Barbarian fame) portrays a fearful, distrusting and hurt woman with her husband, selling us that years of lies and deception could cause her to make her choices whilst disbelieving in others. Rowley is the perfect backstabbing husband, trying to rebuild his life and convince Abi of the danger when he lacks the only thing required to show her T.I.M. might not be as lovely as he seems: trust. Eamon Farren is always gentle, only ever reflecting pointed emotion with a delicate shift in tone or a slight glint in the eyes. He is magical in his rigid yet beautiful movements, and nearly heartwarming in his pursuit to find love.

I found this tale to be a unique combination of the concepts from films such as box office smashes like M3GAN and I’m Your Man, the 2021 German sci-fi romance film starring Dan Stevens as the ultimate AI match. The obsessive component and the human component are vital here, and Farren plays it with grace and ease, delivering another disturbingly human AI with the same tendencies to fixate and manipulate just like a person does. While this looks like a pitch-black story of unrequited love and obsession, the narrative spirals into a debate about mortality or, as T.I.M. would put it “tragic inevitability.” It seems at first that T.I.M. was interested in connection, until he realized that what he was connecting to was finite, and in this, mortality is a flaw in design.

Though the concepts fly around, sometimes looking dizzying or unfocused, performances root us in the story and you accept the sometimes all too convenient moments, such as where the bad guy gets away with something. Boasting a bittersweet ending after some serious build-up and shocks, T.I.M, both the robot and the film, are perfectly imperfect, just like we are. A love story turned exploration of our lives and even deaths, T.I.M. is underrated AI fun that will keep you engaged until your smart device rolls its credits.

T.I.M. (2023) is available to stream now.

Bodom (2014)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

An older title arriving to Screambox (a decade after its release), this 2014 Hungarian foreign language film that has the honor of being Hungary’s first official feature length, found footage horror movie delves into history and a true crime: one of the darkest unsolved mysteries in Finland. Bodom attempts to take us back to the past, re-opening the cold case from 1960 of three teenagers beaten and stabbed to death in their tents, leaving only one survivor and no suspects ever discovered. The film gives us a bare bones background on the murders, so you might have to do a little research on the crimes, like I did, if you want a better picture. Directed and written by Gergö Elekes and József Gallai, with aid on the script from Bence Kovács (who also stars), the three attempt a compact found footage piece that will untangle the web of the past and give us a glimpse into the time which two journalists spent fixated on the decades-old killings.

Opening with a clicking typewriter giving a brief description of the crime, we are hit with a slurry of old footage, photos, and newer images of evidence and briefings on the cases on display. We are told that in winter of 2009 two media students, Annikki Jokinen (Vivien Turzó) and Pietari Niskala (Bence Kovács) have chosen the crime as the subject of their thesis. One of Annikki’s lecturers, Kaisa (Zsuzsanna Rednik), says she was excited and immediately approved the topic, but was wary of Pietari being partnered with Annikki, as well as Annikki’s growing obsession over the case. As the testimonials continue, we see Annikki was growing more secretive, especially after scoring an interview with the sole survivor of the attacks: however, only the audio of this interview would be recovered.

The interview begins normally on a screen showing sound levels, though the interviewee seems a bit hostile and only offers the pair ten minutes of his time. They ask if he remembers the events of that day, and the man begins to point out what I believe are scars on his body, stab wounds he survived. As he dives deeper into his memory, he reaches a breaking point and begins to shout that there have been more disappearances in those woods, and it’s not over yet. They cut the recording through his guttural cries that “it’s not over.” More testimonials follow as Pietari’s brother and Kaisa say he was just drifting at the time of the thesis, not interested in the topic but floating along with Annikki’s current. We finally cut to some footage of the pair, preparing for a rickety airplane ride followed by a car trip to get to their remote destination of Espoo. The filming is interrupted by another testimony, describing the pair’s travel plans, the car they rented, and that they drove no more than thirty-seven kilometers total before the car was found abandoned, nine kilometers outside of town.

The pair bicker and chat in the car on their way to town, commenting on the foul weather and the beautiful countryside, and we see as they drive that Annikki is warming up to the idea of filming everything, actually Pietari’s idea, and she is now interested in the personal touch their own film could create. As Pietari discusses his past interview pitches, including his idea to interview a dying child, another testimonial breaks in, letting us in to the fact that Annikki was raised in an orphanage until she was eighteen and it caused her some social stress. She was always a bit distant and this strange footage and occurrence at Bodom seems to have made her mysterious life even more cloudy. Back in the car, Annikki discusses her admiration for the outdoors, while Pietari still seems dismissive and says he hates the cold and the woods, things that brings Annikki peace, like her fondness for hiking. After a long drive the two make it to their house, isolated and deep in the snowy woods, with only two days to get what they came here for.

You’ll have to be ready for a slow ride. Bodom itself is only just over an hour long but it takes nearly the entire film, up until the final twenty minutes, to finally get things exciting. Most of our beginning is bickering, which does go on for quite some time and can grate on the nerves, almost like you’re in the car with the two. During the ordeal we see Annikki influenced into a trance-like state, receive a wrapped object referred to as “the rattler” (what this could refer to I’m not sure), revealing that occurrences like the strange object appearing have been happening to her for a year now. While the script may not have that much compelling to keep you interested in their conversations, the performances are solid considering what they have to work with. However, even as things pick up in the story and all these revelations come to light, it still feels like key details to the duo’s work as well as the mystery of the Bodom murders get lost.

Most direction and camera work are well done, setting up the found footage tricks, taking unique angles, taking us to night vision later on, and cutting several times as though equipment were malfunctioning, consistently reminding us who’s holding the camera. Testimonials will interrupt you well into the first half hour of this and picks up again towards the conclusion, leaving only a small portion of pure found footage to enjoy; and while I know it’s expositional in order to explain what happened and give us more backstory on Annikki and Pietari personally, they become a bit of a nuisance as you continually wait for the actual found footage portion of this found footage film to begin, hoping they will start showing us instead of telling us. Overall, Bodom is not a bad watch, but it is a slow one, with a payoff coming in the final act after some plodding plot work. Though Bodom is a solid, short watch chronicling a true crime mystery, I sadly still felt just as distant from the case by the end as I did in the beginning, so keep your eyes glued, or you could miss a key detail or secret.

Crawling on to more streaming services this month, you can set aside a little more than an hour for an apparent historic found footage selection with some solid characters and a surprising conclusion. Now available on Screambox, you can join the pair on their journey to uncover their take on what killed the children of Bodom.

Bodom (2014) is available now on Screambox.

Here for Blood (2022)

Posted on by Gabby Foor

Another interesting title arriving to Screambox, this should be a hit for the fans of WWE, gore enthusiasts and horror comedy lovers. While I’ve never followed wrestling and had to do my research, but now see how long the entertainment and athletics phenomenon has been in development (especially with its names and affiliations) – since 1953. Since then and with a number of power changes and lawsuits along the way, WWE has found its footing as a multimedia empire, and now, joins us in the horror genre for some back-breaking action. Director Daniel Turres, with aid from writer James Roberts, has styled this piece as an homage to the video era horror of the 80s and 90s, with a nod to the past and present cult popularity of wrestling. After a brief, bloody introduction, we begin in the tense study space where college student Phoebe (Joelle Farrow) is juggling three jobs and has a pertinent exam in less than 48 hours. Her friends ask her to join a study session that evening, but Phoebe is babysitting for a well-paying family. The group suggests her boyfriend, Tom (Shawn Roberts), cover for her… but we quickly see Tom might not be the most child friendly choice.

Built like a tank, Tom O’Bannon is currently in the ring, receiving but mostly dealing impressive, body throwing blows for a screaming crowd. Despite putting on a show, it seems O’Bannon can’t collect enough money, no matter how bad the beating was, dealing with another miniscule payout for a physically demanding win. With him drained and defeated back at the house, Phoebe rips off the bandage immediately by asking for Tom to cover her babysitting job. He’s not interested in the gig but after some chat and light emotional blackmail, he agrees. The day arrives and Tom travels to a lovely yet isolated little home. Gill Foster (Michael Therriault), the little girl’s father, greets him and immediately plays into Tom’s fears about the male babysitter perception, commenting on how odd it is and whether or not he’s a creep before finally inviting him in for shaky introductions, house rules and Grace’s schedule. Soon, the Fosters are off, and Tom begins his mission to try and bond with Grace, while outside it appears there’s someone already scoping out the house.

Bright, sociable, distracted, and funny, Grace (Maya Misaljevic) is already Tom’s worst nightmare as she rebuffs his attempts to engage. After going their separate ways Tom hears a strange noise: assuming its Grace, he checks on her and is dismissed (called a nerd actually), moving now to check out the rest of the house. Before he can find anything Grace interrupts, hungry, drawing Tom away from what might have been a good lead on who’s lurking. A pizza delivery gets to make Tom feel like a star again as the driver is a fan, but on his way out, the driver sees a stranger and decides to confront him. A fatal mistake, revealing that Grace and Tom are in the crosshairs of lethal, costumed killers.

Comedic, vicious, and outlandish, the genre mashup only gets stranger as we get past the serial killing masked wrestler. Referencing the times between landlines and screen time, this is a nice contrast of our current media-consuming tendencies compared to the simplicity of the past. Equal parts exciting and amusing, this horror comedy fires on all cylinders for its performances. Shawn Roberts is built like a beast, putting on the wrestling persona for fans and opponents as larger than life, while behind closed doors demonstrating empathy, anxiety, and all the feelings a strong man shouldn’t. His chemistry with Grace develops naturally and lovingly, making the pair one to root for in the face of mounting threats. Misaljevic puts on a tremendous child performance, apathetic and annoying at all the right times while still being a cooler ten-year-old than you were. The action for these two doesn’t take long to start, and soon you’ll be enjoying O’Bannon’s fighting skills against some deserving adversaries. Blending good old fashioned fisticuffs and some bloody, splattered, practical action (along with some scalding hot kitchen equipment and sometimes weaponized hand sanitizer), the assault on the house is entertaining and intense as the masked intruders encounter a major hitch in the babysitter.

Some aspects of recreating VHS, however, are unflattering, though I understand the tribute. Harsh lighting and threadbare costuming can sometimes highlight budget constraints, or make what was supposed to be campy look kitschy. During these moments, I try and remember this is an attempted recreation of our video shop days and that the costumes, masks and makeup of wrestlers is a staple and a theme throughout, no matter how it’s presented. As well, the film pivots, introducing various supernatural aspects that, while at times seem menacing, also sometimes feel somewhat misplaced or overplayed (a headless body putting up the middle finger, I’m not sure) compared to the realistic terror a home invasion movie delivers. This theme can sometimes feel drawn out, and similarly, some interactions and sequences, especially towards the surprising end, seem to slow. With the sheer amount of ridiculous splatter and the presentation of the invaders, I think this still could have been perfectly unnerving without the introduction of otherworldly powers.

This aside, with a rock-solid cast, effects to keep the gore hounds thrilled, and a comedic and edgy storyline, this is a successful horror comedy that grapples happily with a wild premise. Arriving to Screambox shortly, horror and wrestling fans can prepare to stream this wholly unique, bloodstained piece that pushes through the pain and keeps true to its inspirations.

Here for Blood hits theatres and Screambox on February 9th 2024.