Dany Doremus, a lonely secretary roped in by her boss to work on a big project at his home, steals her boss’s car for a joyride to the sea as her boss and his family go away on holiday. When she makes numerous stops from town to town, the townsfolk approach her, claiming and swearing they know her even though she’s never been to this particular area before. If things couldn’t get weirder or even more suspenseful, a dead body is discovered in the car’s trunk. Dany wonders if she’s deranged and crazy or just a part of a some elaborate murder mystery conspired against her.
“The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” is a remake of the 1970 Anatole Litvak film of the same title. Though I’ve never seen the original Litvak film based off the award winning crime novel by Sebastien Japrisot, I’m sure director Joann Sfar’s film doesn’t stray much from the main artery that is the story, but Sfar spices up the tale through the addition of a young and feverishly heart-throbbing cast of actors and actresses. A murder mystery that sells sex more than thrills, Joann Sfar explicitly has Scottish born actress Freya Mavor and “Nymphomaniac’s” Stacy Martin do more than their fair share being sex symbol and straining the barrier of sexual tension, especially with a couple of highly eroticized topless scenes from both actresses. In a bombardment of thigh high mini skirts and tight at the waist dresses, the film setting is to reflect the 1960s to 1970s time period where if the story was in the technology age, “The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” might have had a totally different outcome.
Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH
Like any good crime novels or films, noir plays a bit part and with the Sfar remake, noir is ever present from beginning to end. Dany’s noir scenario has her being plagued by a retraced trip she’s never initially taken, being roughed up by a glove-wearing mystery person in a duo of giallo familiar scenes, and discovering a dead body in the trunk of her boss’s Thunderbird. All the pieces come together to form one big elaborate undertaking with the big twist at the end and while I’m not sure if the novel and the Litvak film do marvelous work in the detail to wrap Dany’s adventure, I feel Sfar’s missed the mark by not filing in the holes that construct a twist ending. Maybe Japrisot’s novel a bit vague too, but there’s certainly multiple voids that needed to be filled to plausibly and logically explain the ending.
As I said before, Freya Mavor’s sexiness couldn’t be any more potent. The relatively young in the industry actress has tons of potential outside the European film market. Stacy Martin has been on that fringe of the industry since her controversial breakout role in Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac.” Both Mavor and Martin work well together, creating the tension between their characters while pulling off a lustrous vision. The male lead playing Michael, Benjamin Biolay, reminds me of a young Benicio del Toro with a very reserved demeanor and calculating coldness about him.
Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH
Magnolia Pictures proudly releases the remake of “The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” in limited theaters across the nation today, December 18th, and will also be available on demand. Another variation of an award winning story with modern actors set in a time period that has been long forgotten, “The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” stimulates the whodunit objective that keeps you on the edge of your seat for every second.
Erotic escort Love falls for on the side boyfriend Ned, a regular client with who she’s madly in love and with who she doesn’t charge a dime for her services. When Love wants out of the escort business, her controlling pimp Sunny says otherwise by sending her and two other girls on Love’s final trick, an all night mansion party. When the girls arrive at the gated mansion, they’re greeted by three strange hosts: Cleb, Selma, and Hate. Each of the three girls partner up with each of the hosts and move forward to their separate rooms where the escorts fall victim to sadistic tendencies, but Hate has more in store for Love. Ned, concerned when Love didn’t call once all night, sets out on a rescue mission to track down Sunny and gain information in means necessary on the whereabouts of the girl who love struck him.
“The Last House” is a 2011 mixed subgenre film directed by b-horror director Sean Cain that was originally released under the title “Breath of Hate” and was penned by first time writer Wes Laurie. The ambitious story plays out cordially with a talented cast of actors behind the camera, but the story, though larger than life for a b-horror flick, follows a non-linear path that builds and builds for a grand finale and while that sort of tension usually creates a good setup, the ending nearly fizzles, not generating enough pizzaz and spark worthy the wait of the last five minutes of the total 91 minute runtime. However, the Laurie script fascinates and entertains throughout because of character structure through the aforementioned non-linear layout and because of the physical and emotional outpouring portrayed by the actors such as Lauren Walsch, Timothy Muskatell, Jason Mewes, and, especially, Ezra Buzzington.
“The Hills Have Eyes” remake actor Ezra Buzzington steals the entire movie as Hate, leader of the three sadistic maniacs, and Hate, in himself, is an interesting character who seeks to start revolutions against humanity through brains and brutality and maybe even something more. Buzzington embodies a “Die Hard with a Vengeance” Jeremy Iron’s type personality with a calm demeanor on one face and a ruthless side on the other, but he single handedly separates the character from the likes of any other and creates Hate, with the help of a Laurie twist ending, to be potentially a long time running franchise character. There is a fierce downside alongside Hate where his lackeys were served a overshadowed injustice. Monique Parent plays another sadist, Selma, and her time on screen didn’t add to the girth and felt unnecessary. The then 46-year-old actress, with more than 100 film credits to her name, looked absolutely stunning, sizzling with lust for her cougar age. That should be no surprise to fans of Parent who are mostly familiar with her previous work in a number of softcore porn films. Sadly, Parent has no nude scenes though the part strongly suggests it; “Evil Head’s” Joanna Angel and “Amateur Porn Star Killer 3’s” Regan Reece take the burden of skin diligently – thank you Joanna and Regan. The third sadist, Cleb, is portrayed by Jamaican native Ricardo Gray. Gray’s take made Cleb, frankly, my least favorite sadist as Gray went overboard with a character that could been a menacing psycho-sexual deviant to a half-witted, Jurassic role-playing pervert. If there was perhaps more of Cleb’s backstory, a better picture of this sadist’s mindset might have reversed the first unfavorable impression.
Jason Mewes has always played the part of the funny guy character. The same stereotype description can be laid upon other actors of similar character such as Hollywood studs Jim Carrey, the late Robin Williams, or the cult favorite Bill Murray. Mewes, a strong supporter of independent work, has most famously, for most of his career, teamed up with writer-director-actor Kevin Smith and produced some of the most notably comedic material to ever be released for about around a decade starting near the mid-1990’s. Not many audiences, aside from fanatical Mewes fans, are aware that the same Jay, of “Jay and Silent Bob” films, has had quite a few horror credits. From John Gulager’s “Feast,” to David Arquette’s “The Tripper,” Jason Mewes doesn’t just do comedy, but what makes “The Last House” unique from the other independent horror films is that Mewes is cast in a serious horror film whereas “Feast” and “The Tripper” are horror-comedies that still tap into Mewes endless vein of laughs. Instead, “Dead Girl” actor Timothy Muskatell takes the reigns on the comedy as a pot smokey, womanizing lackey and Muskatell is born for that type of part. Porn star Timmy Pistol also delivers some goofy laughs in a brief cameo with Jason Mewes and also, fun fact, Tommy Pistol and Joanna Angel were both in “Evil Head!”
Mewes, Buzzington, and even Parent are major, recognizable names in the movie industry, big enough that even audiences so attached to Hollywood stardom would still be familiar with them. Two of the names mentioned headlining “The Last House” are accompanied by one more name that isn’t familiar to mainstream audiences, but any knowledgeable horror enthusiast would surely recognize. “Sleepaway Camp” actress Felissa Rose is that third headlining name and, unfortunately, shouldn’t have been exploited. Rose’s on screen appearance runs a total of around two minutes as the mansion realtor, but her presence falls from the face of “The Last House’s” universe after her single scene. Her iconic name alone will draw in the horror masses, but when she filmed the minor role, Rose was near popping at 9-months pregnant and she didn’t have one single story merit line or action.
Distributed by Wild Eye Releasing, “The Last House” picture quality looks amazing presented in a detailed widescreen format. The audio quality comes and goes; at some points during outside scenes the ambience or the soundtrack plays at a whisper. When in more confined scenes, the tracks blare with some crackle. However, none of these will impact watchability nor take away from the film itself. “The Last House” aka “Breath of Hate” will make a deep gash into the independent horror scene and Wild Eye Releasing will help deliver Hate into your home entertainment on November 24th.
Max believes he’s found the perfect move-in girlfriend with Evelyn: she’s nice, she’s hot, she loves sex. However, when Evelyn’s over-protective, save the planet, go vegan or go home boorish attitude becomes too much for Max to bare, he attempts to break up their dwindling relationship, but ends up accidentally killing her long after making a solid promise, in front of a mysterious satanic genie figurine, to always be with her. Max’s regrets surge him into a depressive state until he meets the beautiful Olivia, the perfect opposite sex carbon-copy of himself. Everything seems to be coming together for Max until Evelyn digs up and out from her grave and returns to him as a decomposing and clingy zombie girlfriend, picking up right where their relationship left off.
The 2014 romantic horror-comedy “Burying the Ex” is the first feature film from “Gremlins” director Joe Dante since 2009; a six-year stint that resulted in the outcome of this odd, but familiar blended genre film. Dante hasn’t kept his directorial hands too much in the horror genre pot in over two decades with the small exceptions of a “Masters of Horror” short film and 2009’s “The Hole,” the director hasn’t lost his signature touch of dishing out deadpan humor and fusing a knowledgeable palate of horror to go with it making “Burying the Ex” one of the most morbidly fascinating horror releases in the modern zombie age. Another trademark of Dante is casting a familiar face and sure enough, Dick Miller makes a cameo appearance. I swear I thought he was dead.
“Burying the Ex’s” cast is compiled of seriously underrated, but without a double awe-inspiring generating actors and actresses with the reboot of “Star Trek’s” Anton Yelchin headlining the way as the film’s main character Max. Max’s passiveness quality fits perfectly with Yelchin’s dry delivery and awkward mannerism style and Max’s passion for horror feels natural coming from Yelchin with the actor’s similar background work from “Odd Thomas” and the remake of “Fright Night.” However, aside from playing Chekov from “Star Trek,” this character is more of the same from the 26-year-old actor. Yelchin’s antagonist portraying co-star Ashley Greene, from the vampire romance series “Twilight,” marks well being the strong, opposing character against Max, portraying the snobby and overbearing girlfriend Evelyn. Though Greene is usually quite beautiful and stunning in other roles, the Evelyn character is a breath of fresh (or rotten in this case) air with a bit a sassy appeal. Greene casts an already slightly models-like thin appearance with features that strike well with the characters overall gaunt look, creating a well on it’s way decomposing zombie.
The supporting actor and actress completely round out Dante’s playfully twisted take on a stalking ex-lover. Oliver Cooper has Max’s back as his sex-crazed, exploitive half brother Travis. Cooper’s fast talking, negotiating-type personality reminisces his “Project X” work and though Cooper’s range as an actor feels limited, Travis works here as being the yang to Max’s yin. Finally, the absolutely gorgeous Alexandra Daddario’s relieves the, if any, thrilling tension and Max’s shortcomings with a quirky, adorable, and cute as hell horror-inspired malt shop owner. Though Daddario’s role might not spark a social media firestorm like her “True Detective” bare it all role, Daddario’s Olivia attempts and achieves an one-eighty, pulling off a split personality from the standard hot girl part in these types of romantic horror-comedies and showing that even the most nerdy of girls can be the girl of your dreams. Daddario is also almost unrecognizable in this role when compared to her previous works.
The script penned by newcomer Alan Trezza needs some fine tuning. This fantastic hard sell doesn’t fall to fault from with the cast as the story moves along at a roadrunner pace and fails, purposely I’m speculating, to explain the background on the satan genie statue that’s extends the root cause of Max’s problem. Not even a smidgen of background to alleviate any the tiniest inquiries of satan genie is revealed and just leaves the audience wondering just who sent the evil wish granting product. However, the subtle tongue and cheek manner of Trezza’s first feature revels in quirky contentment, leaving the horror and the comedy as equals. “Burying the Ex” shares a similar story we’ve all seen before – “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Life After Beth,” “Warm Bodies” – but each of those tales told have a distinctive quality and a cast of a different caliber.
Since this a screener copy from UK distribution company High Fliers Films, I’m unable to review the picture and audio quality nor comment on the extras, but as far as a distributed film pickup for the company to release, “Burying the Ex” will live, and return, beyond the grave again and again and again. Dante’s romantic horror-comedy feasts on horror homage and dry wit while delivering surprisingly only little gore. “Burying the Ex” is available on UK DVD from High Fliers Films and can be purchased from most UK online retailers.
From the demented minds of Brian Dorton and Douglas Conner, “The Horror Network” anthology has set sail on it’s first volume maiden voyage, shipping five petrifying and on the edge of your seat horror shorts right to your television set. Stories so darkly atmospheric and spine tingling that leaving the lights off while watching would be a horrible mistake. Each tale tells a different kind evil including demented demons, child stalking predators, family abusers, and a sadistic plaster saint. Certainly not intended for the faint of heart or the easily offended for each episode turns up the intensity, the fear, and the scares. Leave the lights on, take a blanket to hide under, and make sure you grab a couch partner to watch with you and then ask yourself, are you ready to tune into “The Horror Network?”
“3:00 A.M.”
A young woman named Georgia drives through the English countryside to get away for a few days. When she arrives at her remote farm house, a strange sense of foreboding overcomes her and weird, sporadic noises emit from all around her throughout the day and into the night. When the digital clock nearly reaches 3:00 A.M., she hears a concerning noise from downstairs and when she investigates, a ghostly presence lies in wait.
Before the anthology’s credits even begin to roll, the Lee Mathews directed film “3:00 A.M.” will for damn sure kickstart anybody’s heart. The atmosphere is violently tense when Georgia explores the strange occurrences downstairs and even before the night falls. Initially, the main focus kind of misguides you through much of, what were led to believe to be is, Georgia’s imagination from the one after the other false jump scares: a branch scratching at a window, a cat jumping out of the shadows, a jack in a box toy. Okay, maybe that last one is a bit obvious and not so much a surprising jump scare, but the toy does tie into the story near the end, giving the toy a reason to exist and a hint of menacing. Many of the jump scares are accompanied by screeching sound effects, like fingernails across a chalkboard, which would make any poor soul, who fears the dark and supernatural, jump out of their skin.
“3:00 A.M.” is a good introductory 10 minute short that sets the tone for the four other films in tow; a tone with a subtle message that insinuates the maturity of this anthology. Despite being a little redundant with the classical jump scares, especially with the cheesy jack in the box jump scare that could be seen coming from miles away, for director Lee Mathews, with “3:00 A.M.” being the only credit to his name, creating a nail biting short of that magnitude is fairly impressive and inviting.
“Edward”
Hal has mental problems. He can’t sleep. He can’t stop sleepwalking. He can’t seem to stop dreaming about death. Psychiatrist Dr. Aleksey is determined to root out Hal’s issues, but when Hal informs him about the news of a school friend named Alice being murdered, the good doctor decides to put Hal under hypnosis and determine just what’s going on in Hal’s mind. Under the semiconscious state, Hal recounts his last dream and sleepwalking incident where he describes in detail a man coming into his room from outside his window. The man has Hal follow him into Alice’s room, the same Alice Hal said was brutally murdered prior to going under hypnosis. When Dr. Aleksey discovers the truth about what happened to Alice, Hal’s hidden inner demon named Edward reveals himself, leaving Dr. Aleksey at wits end in trying to cure the incurably evil.
“Edward” is a gothic tale that isn’t too overly gothic in setting onscreen. The ominous presence, whether through the acting of Hal played eerily and perfectly by Nick Frangione or the chilling atmosphere, remains always present in the confined space of Dr. Aleksey’s office. The “Edward” short is a stray genre short from director Joseph Graham, a San Francisco based director who has been credited in directing feature films about homosexuality and the cultural-based stigmas – reminds me a little of the work helmed by Gus Van Sant. Graham’s “Edward” has an pitch black aura that seeks to let loose the horror-elements, yearning to be freed, because everything about the story of “Edward” is well told and well shot, as if you yourself were standing in the room with Hal and Dr. Aleksey, experiencing the fate of both men. However, Dr. Aleksey’s fate could have, and probably should have, contained more exposition, especially when the doctor arrives back home to his wife and sleeping child.
“The Quiet”
Alice, a partially deaf young school girl who particularly loves the quiet instead of using her hearing aid which eventually to taking the brunt of the cruel jokes from her classmates, rides the bus home from school. When she’s being dropped off at her remote stop, she forgets her cellphone on the bus. With her mother no where in sight, Alice decides to walk home alone, but when a suspicious blue van seems to be stalking her, she makes a break for the woods where she unfortunately loses her hearing aid. Lost in woods and unable to hear good, a cat and mouse game ensues between her and the man with the blue van whose on her closing in on her.
Unlike “Edward” where dialogue catapults the film into a tension-filled frenzy, “The Quiet” lives up to the title with the duration containing no dialogue until the twist ending. The built-in weakness of our protagonist Alice and the constant bullying of her helps the audience sympathize with her character more, making Alice a relatable person rather than a whimsical character everyone wishes instant death upon. The story has a strong beginning, continuing to build once the blue van man is introduced, but there are moments of unclarity that create more confusion than add value to the story; for example, the scenes of a padded room, a tortured little girl’s doll, and someone whispering, “I’ll love you forever,” don’t seem to connect up or match with the rest of the story, making the scenes seem out of place and unnecessary. The twist ending also becomes mysterious and diluted when were giving more information about the man in the blue van, but his intentions still aren’t made crystal clear, leaving way too much to the imagination and not in a good artistic way. Imwiththemproductions is behind the production of “The Quiet,” that’s supposedly based on a true story about a young girl being kidnapped when walking home with friends, and has a runtime of 21 minutes.
“Merry Little Christmas”
Christina and her mother Lola have lived many years with the scars bestowed upon them by Christina’s father, Lola’s husband. On the Eve of Christmas many years back, Christina’s strikes Lola unprovoked, continuously beating her, slashing her face with a straight edge razor, stabbing her, and raping her. Christina’s inner struggle constantly fights to restrain her internal, monstrous-illustrated hatred and self-destructiveness while Lola’s alcoholism and self-inflicted cutting addiction amplifies every Christmas Eve and this year, the mother and daughter grapple on keeping it together for one more year, but that battle will be lost in a fierce tragedy when they receive a phone call from the man who hurt scarred them for life.
“Merry Little Christmas” is the 20 minute Ignacio Martin Lerma and Manuel Marin visually graphic directed film from Spain. Surprising and suspenseful, “Merry Little Christmas” isn’t your old fashion gay and jolly-filled holiday film where Saint Nick brings all little boy and girls toys. No. In fact, Christmas is defined as a terrible point in time for Christina and Lola, a time when pain and fear are symbolic for tis the season. Lerma and Marin deconstruct the mother and daughter down to reveal their complexity and they’re characters are filled with various demons that become flesh in Christina’s mind when their abuser makes an unexpected phone call. A bravo should be awarded to Blanca Rivera for her bathtub scene, exploring her cutting addiction as well as attempting to learn to lover her body fully in the nude. The demon special effects are downright nasty, frightening and fantastic from “[REC] 2” and “[REC] 3” special effects guru Juan Olmo and the Doug Jones of Spain actor Javier Botet portraying the Demonio, or Demon. “Merry Little Christmas” is callous and cold without any remorse and no apology is needed for the cynicism or the brutally that it portrays.
“The Deviant One”
A young man becomes the victim of a suburban sexual sadist who lives a facade life of scripture and holiness. The atrocities committed might be the misinterpretations of the good Lord’s holy book and no one is safe from the deviant’s hungry claws and thirst for sexual and murderous gratification.
Perhaps my least favorite short from “The Horror Network” anthology, “The Deviant One” is helmed by the anthology’s co-creator Brian Dorton who also starred as the deviant neighborhood sadist. In the 8 minute black and white story of a young man’s death, body desecration, and body disposal, a lack of story glorifies the private life, but just doesn’t tell the tale fully of the deviant’s public church-going life. While the deviant walks up to a church, I wanted scenes of him standing at the pulpit, in front of shoulder-to-shoulder filled pews, opening the bible, and reading from the book, preaching his version of the scripture upon those ears listening. An opportunity was missed to strike at the heart of church hidden hypocrisy. On a positive note, Dorton, as the deviant, plays and looks the part so uncomfortably well that it’ll be hard to distinguish his off-camera self from his on-screen character.
“The Horror Network” material is nitty gritty with loads of passion behind the camera and from the crew of all the shorts. One of my favorite anthology releases of 2015 from Wild Eye Releasing. The DVD contains shorts that were shot in various formats and aspects ratios so I won’t be too harsh on the quality of the picture, but I will say that the noticeable posterization in “The Deviant One” and “Edward” stood out from the rest. The audio tracks do need fine tuning as there was some faint, but obvious feedback and the dialogue tracks were slightly overpowered by the soundtracks. The extras include an extended cut of Dorton’s “The Deviant One” which contains dialogue and additional scenes of Dorton, but the short works better without the clunky, kindergarden dialogue and Dorton’s testicles as he makes love to a severed head – yup, testicles. An image gallery and trailers for the shorts round out the rest of the bonus material. The DVD art, from “Merry Little Christmas’s” demons, amazingly exhibits and sells this release and stays true to form from the disturbing short. I expect volume two to exceed the fear bar!
Peter Herro and Cthulhu Crush Pictures have released the first trailer for independent slasher “WTF!” A sole survivor of a gruesome massacre attempts to re-enter society with a trip with 6 close friends at an isolated cabin only to be brought back into the nightmare world of mass killings once again.
Herro directed from a script he co-wrote with Christopher Centanni and Adam Buchalter. Callie Ott (The Horror), Sarah Agor (Hatchet II, VH1’s “Scream Queens”), Andrea Hunt, Ben Norris, Johnny James Fiore, Nick Reilly and Adam Foster starred as the unfortunate group of friends.
