Category Archives: Chilly Thrilly

EVIL’s Duality May Be More Than What Meets the Eye. “The Ugly” reviewed! (Unearthed Classics / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“The Ugly” Limited Edition Blu-ray Now Available!

A famed female psychologist is requested to work the possible acquittal case of a serial killer named Simon Cartwright and understand his possible motive for slashing his victim’s throats at seemingly random.  Unscrupulously tormented by a pair of odd orderlies, Simon Cartwright calmly carries himself as a humble, articulate, and friendly conversationalist and confessed killer with a darker side, an ugly side that drives him to kill at will.  Cartwright gives her the anecdotal trappings of his kills that prove to be unprovoked and unsystematic from a side of him he can’t ignore.  Confounded by this, the psychologist pushes him to brink for an exact reason, one Cartwright keeps buried deep inside his subconscious that may or may not be supernaturally driven.  As Cartwright’s past continues to haunt him and with the psychologist assertive herself into his psyche, the dangerous method of analyzing criminal behavior won’t stop a plagued killer from killing again as his next victim might just be sitting across from him in the cross-examination room.  

Themes of split personality, past abuse and trauma, and the limited authority of control course through “The Ugly’s” veins like acid, sweltering with tension and ready to burn a hole through the safety of custody and storytelling once the twisted truth is told.  New Zealand filmmaker Scott Reynolds debuted with his feature length film back in 1997. Reynolds also wrote the script that kept an intimate approach between killer and doctor, kept audiences guessing the supernatural aspect, and made taut the lead-up moments filled with human tenderness that went into subsequent violence that painted a portrait of a conflicted killer afflicted by derangement that might not be his own.  Shot in Auckland, New Zealand, “The Ugly” is a production of Essential Films with funds from the New Zealand Film Commission and is produced by “Jack be Nimble” producer Jonathan Dowling.

In a vague mirroring of Dr. Hannibal Lector and FBI Clarice Starling from “Silence of the Lambs,” there’s still the intention to understand the mind of a serial killer.  In the Clarice-like role is a civilian, a psychologist to be more precise, one that has received recognition to get the most dangerous criminals released from incarceration, is Dr. Karen Schumaker, played by Rebecca Hobbs (“Lost Souls”) that would be her biggest lead role in the New Zealand film market.  Opposite her, across the table mostly and chained to a chair, is Paolo Rotondo with a cold stare and a handsome face that doesn’t exactly say I’m a serial killer.  When graced with a prosthetic that makes half his face appear melted or scared in fleeting glimmers or reflections, scenes that often felt needed more attention or a longer say, that’s when Rotondo could exact his intimidation upon the viewer as the true monster, as Cartwright has referred to himself in more words.  Instead, Cartwright’s a clean shaven, well-dressed, and respectable Patrick Batman type without the three-piece suit and the Huey Lewis and the News obsession and not as King’s British and as quirky in his demeanor as Anthony Hopkins as Lector.  Both characters fall and fail hard to the supporting case of the two orderlies and their employing resident psychologist.  Sporting dreads and walking with confidence like a WWE wrestling being introduced, Paul Glover (“The Locals”) has more flavor in his mostly stoic intimidating orderly performance alongside his more animated and ragdoll movement buddy in Chris Graham (“Moby Dick”) as the two mistreat the Cartwright with disdain.  Their employer, Dr. Marlowe, has a snooty creepiness about him that’s akin to being a mad scientist-type that’s fits into the goon orderly dynamic with Roy Ward (“Perfect Creature”) at the helm.  Darien Takle and Vanessa Byrnes costar as chief supports. 

‘The Ugly” is certainly a child of the 1990s with that glossy gleam without it a lens flare spark of digital anamorphic.  The aesthetic matches the subject matter with dreary, cold, and gloomy nu metal nuisances, teetering on the edge of being also grungy.  Editor Wayne Cook’s transitions and cuts are indicative of the era in filmmaking with whooshing transitions and flashes of disorienting cuts, such as white outs or seamless segues.  This techniques also translates into Simon Cartwright’s headspace with acute and fleeting glimpses of his mental state visualized into the real word, or it’s the real world sheathed by a layer from beyond the grave, but either way his perspective quickly provides a glimpse into his reason for killing, his duplicitous degradation into insanity, and that it can be projected to others outside the exclusive rights of his person.  Most of the story is told anecdotally through Cartwright’s perspective and as storyteller, his events are muddled by his own struggle with killing that becomes more evident as the story progresses.  What’s most interesting about Reynold’s film is it’s reality bending to keep the audience engaged as he puts the psychologist character, Dr. Karen Schumaker for those who forgot, right into the frame of his story as a third party speaking directly to Cartwright and only Cartwright can see and hear, but she’s implemented naturally as if sitting at the table with the storied characters or being a part of a three-way conversation that but not truly.  Between these style characteristics and the narrative’s odd macabre, along with the deep black, sour crude oil shaded blood, “The Ugly” is grimly beautiful with visuals and stimulating to watch. 

Unearthed Films, under their Unearthed Classics sublabel, provide a new Collector’s Edition Blu-ray release to the table.  The AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition resolution, BD50 has stored on it a 4K restoration from the film’s original 35mm interpositive and looks neat as a pin presented in it’s 1.77:1 widescreen aspect ratio, rendered with a well-diffused color palette of a lighter blues and grays that contrast starkly with the deeper black blood in a semblance of a dystopian or alternate reality in circa late 90s to early 2000s films.  Saturation is copious with all colors and the details are sharp mostly in the peripheral setting with the focal objects having be defined nicely but there is some textural loss on the skin and clothing under its higher contrast.  The audio formats within are an uncompressed LPCM 2.0 Stereo of the original theatrical audio and a relatively uncommon 4.0 DTS-HD MA that caters to the side and back channels rather than a central output and a LFE subwoofer, so the track is not as deep and resonating and it discerns as such with more range and less punchy impact that encompasses at the dialogue, ambience, Foley, and soundtrack excellently considering.  Dialogue is clean and clear without obstruction or touchups to the original audio files.  English SHD and Subtitles are available for selection.  The collector’s edition contents include an isolated score from composer Victoria Kelly (“Black Sheep,” “The Locals”), a 1997 radio interview from New Zealand with writer-director Scott Reynolds, an audio commentary with chief principal actors Paolo Rotondo and Rebecca Hobbs, Reynolds’ early 90’s short films “A Game With No Rules” and “The M1nute,” “The Ugly Visual Essay” compares “The Ugly” to true crime serial killers of reality, a photo gallery, and the original theatrical trailer.  The physical presence of “The Ugly” is anything but with it’s beautiful packaged design, beginning with the commissioned Slipcover cover art that wholly embodies the essence of the story, rather than being an exploitative mislead, by Scott Jackson of Monsterman Graphic.  The clear Blu-ray Amaray case has a reversible sleeve with the same Jackson art with the reverse containing the film’s original one-sheet artwork.  Inside is a 6-page booklet a pair of essays by Jason Jenkins along with monochrome and colored stills.  The disc is also pressed with a tense hunting scene as well.  The 18th Blu-ray title for the Unearthed Films’ sublabel is region A locked, not rated, and has a runtime of 93 minutes.

Last Rites: As far as understanding the mind of a New Zealand serial killer, Scott Reynold’s “The Ugly” depth charges reality with not only a promising supernatural layer but also a strange world these characters live and act against that invigorates a rather talkative and anecdotal story with eccentric and uncomfortable personalities that rival the killer himself.

“The Ugly” Limited Edition Blu-ray Now Available!

Keep an Eye on EVIL Unloved Ones with a Camera in the Coffin! (Wild Eye Releasing / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Watch Me Sleep” Now Available on DVD!

After the death of his abusive mother, recovering alcoholic Sean returns to his hometown with ulterior motives other than attend her funeral.  He hires a webcam company service to install a camera inside her coffin to ensure that his mother, who would repeated micro-stab him in the back with knives, is, in fact, dead.  As he struggles with his addiction and plagued by nightmares of random occult images involving his mother, Sean can barely hold it together to watch the video fee but when he does, what he sees often horrifies him – a rotting skeletal corpse with maggots, brief movements caught in a glimpse, and even her staring right back at him.  He implores a town friend to check his sanity, but all seems normal as normal can be with a coffin-cam facing directly at a corpse.  As the nightmares intensify, a presence takes hold of Sean, a familiar presence that hasn’t terrified him since he was a child. 

“Watch Me Sleep” might sound like a ploy phrase your kids would say to get you to stay with them at night or during nap time but for John Williams – the director of the 2023 film and not the “Jaws” and “Star Wars” composer – the lingering effect of trauma can be a powerful, often adjacent to being supernaturally scary, and is nowhere near being child’s play.  The director of 2015’s “The Slayers” and “Creatures of the Night” writes and directs the British voyeuristic graveside thriller that concentrates on the lasting aftermath effects of trauma despite our past being buried six feet underground.  Filmed in Staffordshire England, “Watch Me Sleep” is an independent production with Williams and Claire Ward as their third production together since 2021, behind “Creatures of the Night” and “There Something in the Shadows,” and executive producer Volker Plassmann, producer behind “Next Door” and “The Beast of Riverside Hallow.” 

Small production equals small cast but that doesn’t equate to poor performance as “Watch Me Sleep’s” cast is brilliant within the oversimplification explanation of the plotline which is more or less a traumatized man obsessed with watching his dead mother on camera to ensure she stays dead.  That doesn’t sound too exciting but with the actors’ performances and with Williams evolving of the plot to keep Sean’s sanity teetering on edge, “Watch Me Sleep” is more fleshed out with richer than expected character backstory and development of Sean, played intently and without hesitation by William’s go-to actor Darren McAree, and his problems with alcohol, a tormented childhood, and his blinding spite for his mother.  Mum is played by Sarah Wynne Kordas in a dialogue-free peripheral of psychological spookiness as a lifeless head on a webcam for most of the picture but is able to shine in the shadows of Sean’s vivid imagination and be diabolically on point when that lifeless head moves unexpectedly in a not-so-subtle manner for the chill and thrill triggered moments.  While the mum is certainly a presence, Sean is basically a one-man show of bopping between his struggles with drinking, his affliction of nightmares, his hesitation of webcam voyeurism, and trying to blow off steam and showcase his questionable sanity to townie friend Tom (James Whitehurst, “Creature of the Night”) who humors his friend’s hysteria with rather tranquil patience that is unusual.  The rest of the characters support where needed with brief interactions surrounding Sean’s cam setup and AA meetings with  Zane Hopkins (“The Beast of Riverside Hollow”), Steve Wood (“Cannibals and Carpet Fitters’), Charles O’Neill (“The Jack in the Box Rises”), Katie Elliff, and David Tunstall (“Beyond the Witching Hour”) as a mysterious man once friend to Sean’s mother. 

Despite the budget and some unpolished areas, there’s surprisingly more bang for your buck in “Watch Me Sleep” with a thrilling storyline that houses competent performances, editing, and one hell of a movie magic accomplishment in its special effects.  The black and white dream sequences of randomized occult and supernatural imagery are reminiscent of “Ringu’s” the contents of VHS tape with more visceral sound design to give it a lasting, haunting discord and the editing done an all accounts of these dreams are spliced perfectly into Sean’s sleeping and waking nightmares.  Between this reoccurring onslaught of mixt pernicious phantasmagoria and the out of left field special effects that reap the success for “Watch Me Sleep,” John Williams’ little English film is a bit a sleeper itself we should watch in a statement that’s ironically punned.  Keeping it mysteriously ambiguous, Williams doesn’t define the context that is kept open to be obscure and confusing for Sean who’s trying to pieces his dreams, evidence, and his mother’s curious connections together, a puzzle that could be an explanation why she tortured him with a knife, but the gist of the story delves into the occult as his mother dabbled in ritual and paganistic indoctrinations in the layer much more satanists or demonology driven.  Yet, those details are never verbal explained and that keeps you guessing whether his mum had dark dealings with the Devil or is the trauma, stress, and alcohol withdraw doing a number on his fractured psyche.  

You never know what kind of film you’re going to unearth at Wild Eye Releasing with its mysterious grab bag of horror schlock and independent ambition.  There have been titles of questionable taste that not even the sleaziest or gorehound fans would touch with a ten foot pole, but titles like the now out-of-print first-person-shooter occult-actioner “Hotel Inferno” and the satirical crude-humor of “Race Wars:  The Remake” are absolute low-budget gold held in high esteem.  “Watch Me Sleep” ranks up in that small layered stratosphere for the company who releases it on DVD.  The MPEG2 encoded DVD5 leaves much on the table technically with fuzzy detail on its standard 720p definition.  There’s no intricate picture quality nor does it have textural achievement but what you see is what you get, a picture constant and watchable B-horror you may catch on USA’s Up All Night hosted by Rhonda Shear and guest starring Gilbert Godfrey on cable television, broadcasting in analog through a tube set.  I will say the special effects are damn good for money and with no signs of how they’re achieved, such as wires, CGI, nor other.  The UK English language PCM Stereo 2.0 has its problems as well with a boxy, depth-less dual channel output that has a subtle layer of interference static, likely due to inexperience or poor equipment, but the dialogue track remains front and center with prominence and the sound design, the jarring clicks and pops along with the discord sounds of Sean’s nightmares and the overall brooding score, shoulders a lot of the weight by carrying the film’s technical problems.  There are no available subtitles.  Bonus features include only an image gallery, the trailer, and other Wild Eye Releasing previews.  The clear DVD Amaray comes with Wild Eye Releasing’s on brand exaggerated artistic rendition of an intense and scary old woman emerging from her coffin.  It’s a bit hyperbolic but eye-catching.  The reversible sleep has a sheet spanning, bloody depicted still from the film and no other bonus inserts.  The region free DVD is not rated and has encoded a 91-minute runtime.

Last Rites: Definitely one Wild Eye Releasing titles to pick up and enjoy, “Watch Me Sleep” has mother issues, alcoholic issues, trust issues, relationship issues, paranoia issues, and supernatural issues in what is a sleeper hit from the writer-director John Williams.

“Watch Me Sleep” Now Available on DVD!

An Ice Fishing Contemplation Becomes Interrupted by Kidnapping EVIL! “Dead of Winter” reviewed! (Vertigo Releasing / Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

After the death of her husband, long time Minnesotan Barb travels to the snow covered, frozen over Lake Hilda to ice fish, the spot where her and husband had their first date.  When asking for directions from one of the few people she’s seen in hours, she inadvertently interrupts the kidnapping of a young girl by a husband and wife with an illegal self-preservation plot.  With help hours away, Barb knows she must do all that she can, push the limits of herself, to help the young girl escape the clutches of a determined woman who will stop at nothing and do anything to keep her desperate plan intact and moving forward.   Two against one seems like impossible odds but Barb is determined to keep her promise to the girl tied up in the basement and soon to be murdered for the one thing the wife, the lady in purple holding the rifle, needs. 

A transfiguration of one last goodbye during sudden loss into a destiny of saving a life brings chills to the bone in Brian Kirk’s snowy thriller “Dead of Winter.”  The 2025 released film is the latest feature length film from the “21 Bridges” director from a collaborating script between actor Dalton Leeb (“One Day Like Rain,” “Feeding Mr. Baldwin”) and composer Nicholas Jacobson-Larson (“Wildcat,” “Leave the World Behind”) in what would be the writing duo’s first screenplay as individuals and as a duet.  Koli, Finland doubles for the fictious Lake Hilda in the coldest parts of an upper Midwest winter that’s ever fleck of the season with snowcapped trees, drifts of snow, and a frozen lake, an overall sense of frigidity that reestablishes reference back the film title.  The Finnish, Germany, and U.S. coproduction from the company partnership of Stampede Studios, Augenschein Filmproduktion, Leonine Studios, Zweites Deutsches Fernshen, MMC Studios, Crafthaus, and Wild Bunch Germany is produced by Quirin Berg, Max Conradt, Cloe Garbay, Jonas Katzenstein, Greg Silverman, Maxmilian Leo, Max Widerman, Cosima von Spreti, and Bastian Sirodot. 

Two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson finds herself in a tan mechanic suit driving up a frozen lake in the middle of nowhere and coming across a kidnapping.  The English actress, fondly known for her dramatic period pieces in “Howard’s End” and “Sense and Sensibility,” develops Minnesotan attributes for her role as Barb, a smalltown woman who lost the love of her life, a husband for decades, now on the precipice of letting him go for good by spreading his ashes into the lake where they first courted, as part of his last request.  While going through the emotional catalogue of reminiscent flashbacks and teary-eyed loss, Barb’s distracted by young woman, hands tied, and being held at gunpoint by a kidnapping hisband and wife.  While their names are never divulged, only credited as Camo Jacket for the man and Purple Lady for the woman, their scheme is not lost upon them as they are very aware of the dangers that confront them.  The only difference is the danger they face is dichotomized, Camo Jacket sees the immorality and the punitive measures of kidnapping someone for harm but does it anyway to save Purple Lady whose mortality is at stake with a terminal illness.  “Companion’s” Marc Menchaca doesn’t wear the pants in the dynamic in doing his wife’s bidding but the fear, the reluctance, and the sense is there enough to where it becomes pitiful to what he’s reduced as a man and as a husband whereas “Jurassic World’s” Judy Greer is an unstoppable monster with calculated intent who will stop at nothing, and I mean nothing, to get the young girl’s healthy organ.  Hearing Thompson in a Minnesota accent is not terribly jarring but it’s carries with it enough of a zing that it doesn’t suit her well but her character Barb’s tough as nails without exuding an equal presence as such and resourceful inside a mild panic veneer when coming inches away from death every time her and Purple Lady’s path cross.   “Dead of Winter’s” remaining cast sees Laurel Marsden (“The Pope’s Exorcist”) as the kidnapped girl in a role that doesn’t have any depth compared to Barb’s overdrive depth, Emma Thompson’s daughter Gaia Wise and Cúán Hosty-Blaney as young Barb and her husband Karl, and Brian F. O’Byrne (“Bug”) and Dalton Leeb as two hunters caught in the middle.

There’s something to be said for these genre types where an unfortunate, regular pedestrian is thrown into a forced hero position.  There’s an extra something when the setting is snow-covered and isolated with limited, what’s-on-your-person resources.  Barb’s very well written to be that exact person as if she was destined to be, maybe even lead by Karl’s hand, to be a young girl’s savior.  The root cause for the kidnapping is a bit of a far stretch with an illegal and clandestine medical procedure held out from being completed until Camo Jacket and Purple Lady can setup a pop-up surgical tent over the iced lake, a concept that often feels longwinded through the whole ordeal, but this gives Barb the opportunity to make constant fools of the kidnappers by sabotaging gear and setting up traps that cause they enough harm to make the cold by an extreme factor and delay them enough to attempt rescue.  Kirk misses a few important editing and factual elements that put blights on the authenticity and the performance of an otherwise competent action-thriller.  Barb scouts, hides, and runs around an area with less clothes than her counterparts and perhaps Barb’s lifelong residence in the extreme cold of Minnesota has acclimated her body but for this long period of time without being indoors would, shielding from the outside elements, would have taken a toll on anybody.  There are also some editing issues, such as a flame shown before the fire start in the next scene, in a blatant miss of continuity.  Barb’s flashbacks of her past life with Karl are active and sporadic throughout which feels out of place with a contemplative activity when time of slaving someone’s life is of the essence and the threat is always near.

Vertigo Releasing releases elderly woman tenacity and determination to do what’s right in “Dead of Winter,” now available on Blu-ray.  The UK release is an AVC encoded, 1080p high-definition, BD50 presented in an anamorphic widescreen 2.23.1 that captures the majestic of a winterized Minnesota (aka Finland) with extra wide shots and creating immersive depth.  Despite all the snow, there’s no whiteout here with a higher contrast to define shapes amongst the powdery white stuff, such as the tall tales, hillside terrains, and the man-made objects that stick out in the back and foreground without losing focus or delineation.  Textures are nicely crisp around the edges and on the body to get a full sense of each character’s attire – which is important for credit classification – and the environment surrounding.  There are select scenes of superimposed effects, such as when people go under the frozen lake and into the water, that appear more angelic in the slowed down moment of dramaticism that denote a very polished stylistic choice in what too is a stark contrast against a harsh winter landscape.  There’s also a purposeful desaturation of color that juxtaposes against Barb’s flashback scenes that are more brilliant with the colors and softer lighting to recount Barb’s happier days.  Skin tones and details appear nature with an extra wrinkle or two on Emma Thompson’s face to make her appear more midwestern rugged.  The English language 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is accompanied by a second encoding, a 2.0 LPCM Stereo.  The surround sound mix is the preferred option here that captures the reverberations of a snow-scape through the side and backchannels.  The gunfire really comes through with a pop and a directional sense.  Every effect hits the intended marker with clarity and has a vigorous impact while Volker Bertelmann’s synch-harrow score weaves into and out of the action and the reminiscing moments.  Dialogue is clean and without issue, and though I made a negative remark of Thompson’s Minnesotan accent, it’s not, in fact, that terrible but does feel unnaturally off as it contents with her classic British English.  English SDH subtitles are available.  Extras include a making-of featurette and the theatrical trailer.  The Vertigo Releasing physical set is also just as simple with a standard Amaray case with a battered and bruised weary Emma Thompson in character on the front cover.   There is no reverse side image on the sleeve insert, no other physical extras, and the disc is pressed with the same front cover design.  The UK certified 15 feature, for strong language, threat, violence, and injury detail, has a runtime of 98 minutes and is region locked on B. 

Last Rites: “Dead of Winter” ices the filmic competition with a tundra-sized unlikely hero thriller who never looked for trouble, but trouble finds her in a fit of righting wrongs kismet. The standard Vertigo Releasing Blu-ray is just that, standard, but the film itself embraces the cold elements with stark winter harshness and an even colder organ heist.

EVIL Does Not Sit and Rollover. “Good Boy” reviewed! (Visions Home Video / 4K UHD Blu-ray)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

“Good Boy” Now Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video

Indy is a good boy, a loyal nova Scotia Tolling Retriever pet and friend to his owner Todd who’s had him since being a puppy.  When Indy senses trouble, a troubling shadowy figure lurking and following his owner, he tries to do all that he can to protect the one he loves the most.  Struggling with a chronic illness, Todd retreats to his grandfather’s isolated cabin deep within the woods for a little rest and relaxation after a medical scare that put him in the hospital.  Indy senses the supernatural force has followed them away from the city and into the rural family home.  As the presence moves about the house, moving closer and closer toward his friend, Todd’s chronic illness becomes increasingly worse, and Indy’s nightmares bend reality as the shadow begins to take a horrifying shape.  Todd’s disease has him nearly incapacitated and unaware of the dangers that surround him, leaving Indy as the last line of defense against the looming dark force that wants to take him.

Pet owners rejoice!  A horror movie with a story from the perspective of its star, a dog.  The 2025 supernatural thriller “Good Boy” has Indy, the then 8-year-old dog’s real name, headlining the film, directed by Indy’s owner Ben Leonberg, horror short filmmaker with such recent credits as “The Fisherman’s Wife” and “Dead Head” from within the last decade.  Leonberg also wrote the script alongside Alex Cannon and took over three years to make due to the complexity of working with untrained animal actors, a task that’s easier said than done, to accomplish Indy’s character narrative from his point of view, and, of course, the rigorous A-to-Zs of creating a feature length film. Leonberg coproduces “Good Boy” with Kari Fischer and Brian Goodheart.  “Good Boy” is a self-referential studio made film with the company name called “What’s Wrong With Your Dog?”

If casting an animal with a hesitation stillness and pensive piercing eyes, Indy is the four-legged fur baby on the short list.  This specific Nova Scotia Tolling Retriever, a breed known for his hunting qualities and retrieval of gunned down carcass and not acting, is an untrained thespian by all means but has a multitude of expressions that work toward the menacing supernatural sense of dread and uneasiness.  When Indy stares into a dark corner, it’s shadows expanding slow across the walls and floors, the stare does convey concern.  When Indy cries and whimpers in apprehension of being left alone or his owner unaccompanied outside the house, those high-pitched cries and frantic movements from window-to-window bring narrative tension to unsafe separation from man and his loyal best friend-protector.  It’s clear that director Ben Leonberg treats his star pup with star focus, providing a dog-level perspective view that incepts and evokes a reaction just like any human character.  This applies even to the interactions with Todd (Shane Jensen) and his swaying, emotional reactions working through his own ebb-and-flow pain of a mysterious illness that plagues him.  Our first scene with Todd has him sitting motionless on the couch, in the dark, and drooling blood from his mouth in an indistinguishable view of his face, a motif amongst all human characters in frame to keep the focus on Indy’s facial Rolodex of emotions.  We never do know what’s wrong with Todd, whether be cancer, organ failure, or perhaps even the supernatural’s malevolent exposure, but it’s made clear he’s on death’s door in more ways than one.  The only human face shown is through the VCR playback of Todd’s grandfather and it’s the unique bone structure of horror friend Larry Fessenden (“Habit,” “Jakob’s Wife”) who often seems to be in, in some way, shape, or form, in a number of Shudder distributed films recently.  Arielle Friedman and Stuart Rudin bring up the small cast rear. 

“Good Boy” is simply not a novel concept.  There have been a few animal centered and perception movies throughout the decades, to name a few we start with “Babe,” the loveable little pig who finds friendship with a barn spider, then there was the tearjerking one with an orphaned bear cub who hitches to an adult male to avoid game hunters in “The Bear,” and, lastly, “Homeward Bound” was an adventurous return home with human voiceovers for two dogs and one cat team.  The element “Good Boy” does differ from those aforesaid examples.  Aside from giving Indy a voice, the non-personified canine is dropped into an intensely atmospheric horror framework that removes the safety net of having opposable thumbs and the misunderstanding between man and animal that makes the tense situation that much more riveting when Indy can’t express to his human the danger that lurks.  There’s a heavy theme of animal sensing danger or something amiss with someone carrying an unseen disease, that disease in “Good Boy” manifests as the shadowy figure that acts like the harbinger of death, or to the dark tune of a grim reaper, lying-in-waiting and eventually reaching for Indy’s human pal, Todd.  In this concept is the tragic downhill of Todd and the heartbreaking care Indy tries to protect and care for his unsuspecting master but in between all of that concern and drive for Indy is a steady fear something isn’t right, looking past Todd’s ailment toward a showier threat that, to an extent, plays like a device of ignorance for Indy, one that truly distracts him for the real danger plaguing Todd that bets the question, do dogs cope with trouble by creating a diversion? 

Visions Home Video, a premium home media label from UK’s Vertigo Releasing, retrieves “Good Boy” for a UK-Ireland 4K UHD Blu-ray release that’s supported on a HEVC encoded, 2160p ultra high-definition, BD100.  Through surreal nightmares, inky darkness, and graded with primarily dark gray and bluish tones, “Good Boy” faces images challenges with an indie production attempting to instill atmospheric fear and subtle bumps in the night.  That challenge is ultimately met its match with DolbyVision that’s able to decode those type, often blocky, negative spaces and darker color scheme in its high dynamic range.  Texturing works to fiber explicate Indy’s golden coat but much of the other details are kept in the dark as Indy’s, with his coloring, is represents almost like a bright spot amongst the color palette, even Todd is obscured in darkness, rain, or mist, but the details that do show do emerge.  Two English audio tracks are encoded with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and a LPCM 2.0 Stereo.  In regard to the surround mix, back and side channels diffuse the atmosphere non-diegetic sounds to create an immersive environment of a creaky old house pitter-pattered by rain and gusts of wind.  Coupled with the front work dialogue and the forceful jump scare moments creates a cinematic bubble that puts viewers right into the dark and stormy eeriness while sitting in their living room, if the viewer has the appropriate audio setup.  Dialogue is clean, clear, and prominent albeit ambiance tries to nudge it out of the way at times to but unsuccessfully.  Minor instances of depth of Indy, or even the presence, scurrying about the house have leveled balance in what is mostly a still air progression of Indy’s voiceless communication efforts. English is the only available subtitles. Special features include a making-of featurette Making an Indy Film and the theatrical trailer. There are more attractive physical features within Visions Home Video’s black and silver two-toned cardboard O-ring slipcover that leans into the shadow motifs. The same image art is also on the Scanova one-sided sleeve but inside, in the insert, is a double-sided folded mini poster with the same art plus an additional design. There are also four post cards with stills from the feature. The UK 15 certified release has strong horror and bloody images in its brisk 72-minute and region free runtime.

Last Rites: In horror, animals are mostly the perceptive ones, able to see and sense danger that can’t be seen with the human naked eye, and Ben Leonberg captures that phenomena through a fear-induced illness metaphor, one that lies and waits until terminal lucidity knows there’s no escaping the inevitable. Not even man’s best friend can stop it.

“Good Boy” Now Available on 4K UHD Blu-ray from Visions Home Video

Stick With Jordan Peele’s EVIL Social Commentary. “Afraid?” reviewed! (Cleopatra Entertainment / DVD)

Posted by Steven Lewis on

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!

After going through a physical domestic violence incident with her aggressive stepfather that ended with her a little banged up and with his arrest, Sarah can’t wait to spend time with her high school friends at an isolated cabin near Bin Bow Lake over the Halloween season.  Sarah feels like a fifth wheel while her friends have significant others in their party of five, but she makes the best of the situation with anything being better than at home on the weekend with her abuse-recovering mother and unpleasant memories of her stepfather, but the boozy, time-alone getaway turns into a fight of survival when a masked killer targets them, hunting them down one-by-one.  With no cell service, the car not starting, and not a single person around to help, the group scrambles for options of escaping the killer’s malice aforethought in a rural area that wasn’t all that friendly toward their kin color to begin with. 

Claiming to have the same Jordan Peele story vibes, “Afraid?” is the Sky Palmer, aka SkyDirects, helmed urban slasher from 2025 that faces social justice issues point blank in front of a masked killer backdrop.  “Afraid?,” aka “What Are You Afraid Of?,” is the sophomore feature length film for the California-born director fashioned from his own screenplay treatment with an infused racial overtone amongst the horror trope allotment.  The PR and communications tech startup founder and film director SkyDirect’s involvement doesn’t quit there as writer-director, as he also serves as executive producer under his production company SkyDirects Flix alongside co-executive producers with Cleopatra Record’s film entity, Cleopatra Entertainment, with “Frost” and “Cocaine Werewolf’s” Tim Yasui  and Brian Perera, who handle the exclusive distribution of the film, with freelance producers Gregory Mejia and Brian Cooper, the latter Cooper having collaborated with SkyDirect’s debut feature, “Run Nixon.”

The urban thriller is cast with primarily African-American actors and Caucasian actress Rezia Thornton in a semi-lead protagonist role of Sarah with the teen girl’s harrow opening skirmish with an aggressive stepfather and she also becomes the bookend storyteller of survival stemmed from events involving four of her friends, a pair of romantic couples, looking to getaway for a weekend as a group.  Thorton’s doesn’t portray to be your traditional mayo-vanilla character as she fits socially inside the dynamic of culture that surrounds her.  Kendre Berry plays Terrence, a high school football athlete exploring the possible opportunity of collect scholarship while testing the potential distant relationship waters with Latina girlfriend Lisa (Teairra Mari).  Berry and Mari are to have a strong character bond tested by the Sarah’s flirtatious eyes for Terence and while there’s a moment of heated tiff between the lovers, they go right into the one trope you’re not supposed to do in a horror movie, do sex acts in the woods.  The contention is nothing more than a spat when Sarah’s brought in under fire from Lisa’s Latina wrath in a nearly forgotten character plot foil.  Those types of fizzling devices extend to the other couple, Jamal (Gemaine Edwards) who is a military prospect and Jasmine (Nakosha Briggs), with Jamal’s decision to quit his path toward service because of military operations and causes he can’t support because of their support for wealthy interests.  This too gets murky inside the couple’s progression with the quick snap introduction of the killer, never influencing their characters and acts in a solely spout-off with the movie being a platform to convey the message, a common theme throughout “Afraid?’s” hollow horror shell.  There’s one character Dexter (but credited as Nerd Kid?) trips into the discussion of getting away this weekend during their high school hallway hangout, as if part of the crew, but never makes the trip and isn’t seen again in an odd character introduction of wasted space and missed opportunity to become kill-or-hero fodder.  The rest of cast rounds out s and to support to Sarah’s backstory and suspicious rednecks, any of which could be our killer, with Michael A. McGrath, David Ian Wood, P.T Ashlock, and Ashley Heath. 

SkyDirect’s entry into the slasher genre is exploited for platform messaging gain on social and political issues and conspiracies against race and culture as well as the American dream, subverted by wayward government intentions and systematic bigotry of authoritative figures.  “Afraid?” is a film that’s compared to the likes of Jordan Peele, using horror as a metaphor for the undertone, and also often blatant, glitches in American society, typically against African-Americans and other minority groups.  However, “Afraid?” very much feels like a bald-faced weaponization, like a caricature of concept, that doesn’t try to hide the fact under a blanket of horror as characters play into conventions and stereotypes with a hefty amount of exposition to back it up.  The idea of “Afraid?” is that fear inside every black person’s they’re made to be the target of prejudice, whether by the Podunk population of rural, nowheresville America or by unprovoked police offers who question their late-night purposes.  Scenarios of being shot run through their mind, depicted in an unjust nature, and even the interaction with an uber-creepy, stuttering roadside assistant instills a fear despite him being nothing but helpful with their flat tire.  SkyDirect’s introduction of multiple characters with callback actions and lines don’t ever flesh out, such as with Sarah’s abusive stepfather opening that doesn’t add anything to the rest of the storyline or Terence and Gemaine’s partially contentious friendship with a corner drug dealer who was a high school friend where Gemaine’s beef with him is never fully opened and explored.  The acting from the cast renders over fine enough but the scripted dialogue is hackneyed and exclamatory hyperbole in its stating of the obvious that it makes scenes almost painful to hear.  All these negative elements take away from the film’s core slasher theme that does have some decent kills and a definite eerie atmosphere and appearance. 

Cleopatra Entertainment distributes their co-produced venture on DVD home video, a MPEG2 encoded DVD5 with an upscale 720p standard definition, presented in a widescreen 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio.  Despite its narrative and character shortcomings, “Afraid?” has a polished picture with a dark, cold grading with a higher contrast to formulate shadow work around the tenebrous trees to the ominous inky corners of a pitch-black cabin without power.  Cobalt toned in its processed coloring, and perhaps some gel work here and there, brings traditional horror color schemes back to the horror table.  Details are not too terrible either but can be eroded by the grading’s creeping shadows and some scenes fair better than others, such as medium-to-close up shots are better equip to handle capacity pixels rather than drone medium-long-to long shots with a drone or a crane, you see the image start to block when Sarah becomes lost in the woods and the camera pulls and away from overhead.  Though not listed, the DVD comes with an English PCM 5.1 surround sound mix.  The audio assortment finds fair footing amongst it’s clear and verbose dialogue that’s the dominating layer, it’s ambience that places last amongst the layers but still pulls off a variety of diegetic and non-diegetic environment noises in a spooky-laden, rain-drenched woods with potent thunder and a deluge of pelting rain pitter-patter, and a vigorous selective soundtrack produced and hyped by its Cleopatra Records’ artists DMX, Pleasure P, and Mase, to name a few.  Bonus features include promotional trailer clips of the film and a image slideshow with the physical DVD, inside a standard tall Amaray, has a photoshop rendered image of a masked killer looking through inky eye openings and over his shoulder with title just below and the tagline Don’t Look Back underneath that.  Disc is pressed with the same image and there are no other extra materials inside.  The 89-minute production is not rated and is region free for global playback,

What Are You “Afraid” of? Check out the DVD now Avialble!