In-And-Out Evil! “The Diabolical” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on December 21, 2015

Single mother Madison lives with her two small children in their presence-plagued home. When money becomes severely tight and her son’s violent behavior erupts once again, the family of three are hesitant to leave their home, but once one of the apparitions transmit something to the children that won’t allow them to leave the house without becoming severely ill, the family is forced to remain stuck in their abode cell. Madison’s scientific boyfriend Nikolai looks to help the weary family fight this evil that won’t let them leave, but when Madison digs further into the apparitions, she discovers that their is more to their sudden and random appearances and that the once trusted Nikolai might somehow be maliciously involved.

“The Diabolical” is an interesting horror film from first time feature film writer-director Alistair Legrand. Legrand, whose credits mainly include music videos, opens the story up to a withering family on the verge of destruction with the father-husband having already left due to a lingering love-hate relationship between him and Madison and they’re well aware of the presences, some more grotesque than others, that come and go with a sudden spark of electricity. No set up laid out to introduce the initial contact between apparition and family; instead, the characters, though still unsettled by each frightful visit, continue to live life amongst the paranormal. Not even paranormal scientists have the fortitude to challenge the eidolons, which pokes fun at films like “The Conjuring.”

I say that “The Diabolical” is an interesting film because the apparitions have complexities that are not made clear until near the end, but hints are strewn through to give that something isn’t exactly clear sensation. However, Legrand doesn’t quite piece together the story to deliver a packed full package to feel the full effect. The story feels undercooked and when the finale is revealed, many of the previous events in the film don’t quite add up to conclude nicely the twist ending. The apparitions have qualities that are never explained and don’t contribute to their reason for being. Another frustrating underdevelopment is with Madison, the family, and their relationship with Nikolai. Were not quite sure if Madison’s husband left because of Madison, a little exposition states that’s the case, or if their son Jacob did something to harm him fatally. The father just doesn’t exist and his presence felt neglected, ignored, and forgotten to the point where there was really no need to have the off-screen existence. Nikolai fills in that father shoe, but his relationship with Madison seems very casual as if Madison didn’t just come off a serious relationship and was dating for the first time.

Madison is not the kind of typical role for lead actress Ali Larter. The Resident Evil and Final Destination star has been an archetype of strong female characters in most of horror movie credits and while Madison is a strong female lead, envisioning Larter as a mother of two children sits unimaginably. Besides, Legrand doesn’t make the beautiful and unflinching Larter seem like a worn and torn down person whose husband has is gone, bills are piling up to the ceiling, and harmful apparitions are popping up all over the house. Legrand also doesn’t necessarily pit the evil apparitions against Madison until near the tail end, painting the apparitions almost as if their part of the family’s imagination in the beginning. The sense that the family is completely cool with these ghost-like-gruesome and terrifying presences does nothing to motivate the family, especially Madison, to move out form the house.

The special effects department delivers top notch phantasms even if some of the apparitions move around the house like Bill Cosby in “Ghost Dad” or look like creatures from the “Silent Hill” films. Nothing from the practical or the computer generated effects appeared shoddy. I’m pleasantly appeased by the work special effects artist Jason Collins and his colleagues have conjured up. However, the story doesn’t reflect the effects as the story loses steam abruptly for a knockout ending; the ending felt, as it looked, rushed. Tying up the mystery of the apparitions into a brief, underdeveloped scene. Then to top off the ending, leave an open ending scene that doesn’t quite work to solidify an understanding.

“The Diabolical” is truly diabolical as Alistair Legrand’s horror film with a Sci-Fi flair teases a good and fascinating story, yet only manages to founder with an over saturated underdevelopment. I really wanted to like this movie, especially since I’m fond of Ali Larter and her work, but trying see past the Alistair Legrand’s flaws is like throwing a no hitter and still walking half the batters that come to the plate – its not a perfect game. In any case, I would still recommend “The Diabolical” from the UK distributor High Flier Films for a unique story, eye glazing CGI, and, of course, the gorgeous Ali Larter!

Evil Takes a Ride! “The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on December 18, 2015

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.

An Evil Bouquet of Purgatory. “Flowers” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on December 6, 2015

Six dead women relive pieces of their previous mucky lives embodied in one seamless soul that’s trapped in the literally gory innards of their serial killer’s home. Forcibly held in the limbo of a filthy purgatory, each woman find themselves in a different, and extremely hellish, part of the house and each carry the same gruesome autopsy laceration across the front of their chest, crudely stitched together and coming apart at the seam ready to pop open their insides at any moment. Unknown to why their confined, an ill-fated reason develops at the end of the maze’s demented journey through the home made of severed body parts, decorated with pieces of human tissue, filled with decomposing bodies, strewn with ghastly entrails, and drenched with blood.

Director Phil Stevens composes an avant-garde horror story orchestrated with no dialogue what so ever through the duration and spatially effective in close, uncomfortable quarters . Certainly unique from anything else I’ve ever witnessed, “Flowers” doesn’t apologize for being overly gory and disgusting, pursuing a stomach-churning reaction from all allegoric angles. Slip-and-sliding through the murderous muck and goop, each of the six dead women seem hysterically unfaded, yet more intriguingly curious to their surroundings, even if that means putting their hands through a tonnage of viscera and ripping their own flesh open. Indie films like Phil Stevens’s “Flowers” will never catch the eye of most mainstream audiences and will never know of their existence, but a few lucky viewers, like myself, get to experience the surreal work from the horror underground. Fans of Marlan Dora’s “Cannibal” or Jörg Buttgereit “Nekromantik” will revel in “Flowers’s” grisliness and gloomy nature.

The cast is made up of six alternative lifestyle women, each one credited only as Flower 1 through 6, and take up a particular different segment and sprinkled into their story is their merciless and necrophiliac killer, only credited by the name The Exile. In sequential order, the Flowers are played by Colette Kenny McKenna, Krystle Fitch, Anastasia Blue, Tanya Erin Paoli, Kara A. Christiansen, and Makaria Tsapatoris and the killer is played by Bryant W. Lohr Sr. The majority of the actresses take on more than their literal roles in the movie. The physical body horror effects are applied by Anastasia Blue and Krystle Fitch to create open wounds across the actress’s chests and the uncleanliness costumes and wardrobes are provided by Makaria Tsapatoris, whose experience has been from the 15 year participation of the horror season attraction Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.

The abstract story is intensively focused on the women’s lives rather than their slaughterer The Exile. Their stories are personally tragic as if the Flowers are trying to purposefully or unintentionally ignore real life by way of drug abuse, prostitution, or both. Each actress has to put forth extra effort in their silent performances as dialogue is nonexistent and they’ve successfully compel themselves to act out the scenario, working with their surroundings and being, well, dead. The Flowers may not seem frightened of their killer’s house made of guts, but the Flowers are definitely disgusted, nearly tossing their insides in a few putrid cladded rooms. You may not want to eat while watching some of the segments. Very little is known about The Exile, a very large, but well kept man with a hankering to kill the gutter girls, bathe in their guts, and, sometimes, have sex with their gut-exposed dead body.

“Flowers” is available in two DVD editions, a standard one disc which is reviewed here and a three disc limited edition set, from Unearthed Films and distributed by MVDVisual. The technical video is presented in a widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a 2.0 dolby digital audio and, frankly, the two channel audio is all “Flowers” needs with no dialogue or major sound effects as a poetic soundtrack guides with harmony mostly through all of the audio work. The image quality is detailed and vividly enticing, but the colors are intentionally dull and for darker scenes that create ebony silhouettes that are practically not visible or coherent; these scenes only deter for only the first 20 minutes of crawling through the house’s bloody undercarriage and won’t ruin the remainder. For only the disc one edition, extras are fairly good with interviews with The Exile actor Bryant W. Lohr Sr., an audition tape of Makaria Tsapatoris, behind the scene stills, an isolated FX track, and commentary tracks with director Phil Stevens and associate producer “Ravage’s” Ronnie Sortor. I recommend the grotesque “Flowers” to any horror fan without a weak stomach and a mind for the abstract!

Evil Makes the Naughty List! “Krampus: The Christmas Devil” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on December 2, 2015

Thirty-years ago, little Jeremy Duffin barely escaped the clutches of the Krampus, the horned companion of Santa Claus who punishes naughty children the coldest weeks before Christmas. Now as a grown man and an officer of the law, Duffin, still haunted by memory of his own abduction, obsesses over the similar current child snatching occurrences and, on the direction of his captain, constructs a three man team to hunt down the child predator. Confronting the Krampus doesn’t go as expected as bullets fly harmlessly through the mystical creature, resulting in Jeremy becoming a brief prisoner and his team facing a more fatal outcome. Jeremy escapes and makes his way back home where Krampus homes in on, seeking to punish Jeremy’s only daughter Heather, but one of Jeremy’s prior arrested offenders was released from jail and also has vengeful plans for Jeremy and his family. A trigger-happy obsessed cop, a vengeance seeking convict, and a child punishing anthropomorphic becomes a superbly wrapped deadly and wild gift on Christmas Eve.

On the verge of Michael Doughtry’s “Krampus” being released in theaters, the UK’s High Fliers Films distributes to home DVD the older, more experimental black sheep brother “Krampus: The Christmas Devil.” I say older because this Krampus Christmas horror film, written and directed by Jason Hull, was released over two years ago. Now with all the interest in Doughtry’s bigger, star-studded production being released this holiday season, the Snowdog Studio production filmed in Eerie, Pennsylvania is finally receiving a home DVD release in the United Kingdom and was just released here in the States only a month ago as well. Now while “Krampus: The Christmas Devil” will be exposed to the world, I fear that Doughtry’s “Krampus” will completely overshadow this microbudget film and, in all honesty, will rightfully do so due to the feeble and disjointed plot.

The Jason Hull film’s swiss cheese story is missing many pieces to this Christmas tale puzzle. The begiining voiceover description of the Krampus backstory is great for those who know nothing of the myth, but in the duration, the creature travels to a particular part of the North Western side of Pennsylvania to solely strike the top ten misbehaved children in one year, 25 days before Christmas. Krampus, like his brother Saint Nicholas, travels the world in those hours to various lands to punish all the naughty listed children. The scope of Hull’s Krampus was written too narrowly, missing to portray Krampus as on a grander wickedness. Another plot hole is with Jeremy’s daughter Heather. Santa specifically requests Heather Duffin to Krampus by pointing out that she’s truly a terrible child, even worse than a child who tortures and murders animals. The reason why Heather is a horrible brat isn’t explained and is rather ignored. Heather seems like a sweet and smart girl even when she knifes a man who attempts to rape her. Heather’s wide open story plunges into a pit of wonder.

Bill Oberst Jr. is one of the big names attached to this project and his part is rather slim, playing the role of Brian Hatt, the released child rapist looking to strike a vengeful blow upon the Duffin family. Oberst, hands down, raises the value of “The Christmas Devil” tenfold by being a wisecracking villain with a submachine gun and showing no mercy. If Oberst was ever awarded a role in a Batman movie, he would be a fascinating, if not terrific, Joker. Just sayin’. Finding more the good in “The Christmas Devil” has yet to be seen. Aside from Bill Oberst Jr.’s superb wayward performance, only an extended topless scene of Model Mayhem model Angelina Leigh as Krampus’s cave-chained Pet slowly discharges any kind of titillating and riveting on screen arousal.

The production value is unmistakably low level and this reviewer wasn’t expecting much when considering sets and post-production quality, but Hull should have spent film funds on skilled talent to the likes of Oberst or to the opposite likes of novice actor Paul Ferm, who plays the part of a biker-salty Saint Nick with an on/off personality switch. Lead actor A.J. Leslie as Jeremy Duffin frustratingly shows no range and aimlessly makes his way through Duffin’s most conflicting and life-threatening moments. Even Duffin’s bar fight with costar Darin Foltz and his two cronies conveyed no raw emotion needed to sell the action and, speaking of the same bar fight, the staged event looked awfully fake all around.

The High Fliers Films and ITN distributed Krampus Christmas horror film is 82 minutes of discombobulated mess. The story crawls slowly across to coherency, lightly candy coated with moments of acting talent and gratuitous nudity. Surely to be blown out of the water by the bigger and badder PG-13 “Krampus” film, “The Christmas Devil” can be considered to be a low end starting point for the anti-jolly myth of Santa Claus, helping those to jump start in learning all about the horned devil-like character and his brat-napping ways. I’m unable to review the audio and video quality and bonus material of the film as I’m sent a DVD-R copy and doesn’t truly reflect through a burned copy. “Krampus” The Christmas Devil” comes to DVD and Blu-ray in the UK courtesy of High Fliers Films.

A Pair of Duo Dunces Take on Horror Homages. “Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween” review!

Posted by Steven Lewis on November 27, 2015

The homeless twosome Caesar and his half brother Otto haphazardly take down a notorious serial killer and are awarded a fall-to-winter housesitting gig at a powerful California politician’s summer home where multiple families have been brutally murdered. Their good fortune seems ill-fated as the two encounter strange house employees, random levitating objects, and an endless supply of dead bodies. Tagging along with the brothers is their drunk and inattentive father Fred who spearheads his own agenda in a house full of secrets. When Fred ends up trapped on the other side of the spirit world, Caesar and Otto’s antics strive far and wide within their bag of tasteless tricks to not only save their hapless father, but also save their very lives and, perhaps, the entire state of California. In the middle of all the chaos, Otto is informed that his once thought dead mother is truly alive and discovers he was born with a hidden talent that’s soon to be pertinent to his current and dire situation.

My second “Caesar and Otto” experience compares to nearly the same tomfoolery as their “X-Mas” inspired horror spoof, except that “Paranormal Halloween” is vastly more superior when considering the comedy quality. Caesar himself Dave Campfield once again stars and directors the spoof that pays tribute to many classic and modern horror films such as “The Amityville Horror,” “Paranormal Activity,” “Halloween”, and “The Conjuring.” Campfield joins forces once again with his longtime sidekick Paul Chomicki as Otto to produce and star in the Campfield’s and Chomicki’s four feature film of nitwit wonders Caesar and Otto who resemble a one more tool in the toolbox version of Harry and Lloyd from “Dumb and Dumber.”

Campfield pens more dialogue for Caesar who hilariously continues to generate a well-defined lisp while spit firing one-liners, comebacks, and insults at Otto and anyone and everyone standing in the vicinity. Chomicki’s Otto is the big lovable oaf whose on-going hunt for love in all the wrong places, but manages to catch a break in nearly biting the bullet by sheer dumb luck and stupidity. Campfield and Chomicki’s whole schtick isn’t groundbreaking as we’ve seen this kind of film before in “Scary Movie” and even outside the realm of horror with “Airplane!” Unlike “Scary Movie,” Campfield and his team dedicated horror icons maintain a sense of dignity and respect that honor horror more than just dumbing it down. My first experience with the “Deadly X-Mas” Caesar and Otto wasn’t a very pleasant one as I couldn’t grasp the scene-by-scene speedy pace, the cut rate budget, and the inexplicable reference, after reference, after reference structure and I was a bit hesitant in enduring another episode of their continuing legacy. Now that I’ve matured as a viewer a little bit more from two years ago, I can honestly state that “Paranormal Halloween” is calculated corniness and precisely patronizes faithfully the horror outlets.

Like the predecessors before, “Paranormal Halloween” contains the usual cast of entourage actors that coincide with Dave Campfield, Paul Chomicki, and Scott Aguilar as the fatherly Fred. Deron Miller again ends up shaggy and disoriented, Ken MacFarlane once again plays a guy with a J name, Avi K. Garg is calm and cool until he loses an arm, Ray Plumb quickly makes an appearance, Keith Bush sports a rad stash, Samantha Barrios makes another cut, and “Sleepaway Camp” legend Felissa Rose conjures up some on-screen time and this marks the second time I’ve seen her in a film that I’ve reviewed twice in a month. The credits also add other “Felissa Rose” type stardom actors from the similar molds such as “The People Under The Stairs’s” Sean Whalen, “Commando’s” Vernon Wells, b-horror vixens Tiffany Shepis, Debbie Rochon, and Brinke Stevens, and along with “Return of the Living Dead’s” Beverly Randolph. An excellent lineup for a horror spoof of this size. Tack on a few cute faced actresses and a nude scene from Model Mayhem model Jin N Tonic and you have a decent, well-rounded cast to support this Wild Eye Releasing film.

The Wild Eye Releasing backed production “Caesar and Otto’s Paranormal Halloween” won’t be the last of it’s kind (a hint from the film suggests that Caesar and Otto’s Spring Break of the Dead will be the next title) from funny guys Dave Campfield and Paul Chomicki. A second chance or a second look never hurt anybody and taking a plunge after a seemingly disastrous first round with “Deadly X-mas” will now be deemed as only a fluke. With giggly-garbage writing, a cast of willing horror legends, and cruise ship filled of homages (or horror ripoffs such as the same John Carpenter “Halloween” font used on “Halloween” in the title), “Paranormal Halloween” smarts oh so good and doesn’t apologize for any or all of it’s budgeted quality.