After the success of writer-director James Cullen Bressack’s “To Jennifer,” a sequel begins to shape from the mind of aspiring filmmaker Spencer. Spencer’s quest is to locate the perfect, the one-and-only, Jennifer actress, who must bare the birth name as well. With a trip to Los Angeles and the help from his former high school buddy Mac, Spencer has quickly lined up a handful of potential Jennifers in hopes of one of them becoming his leading lady. Spencer and Mac finally decide on Jennifer Pope, a young actress who has yet to see the original film. Everything seems to be on track, but a dark cloud lingers overhead, slowly developing upon a hidden secret that’ll take the sequel “2 Jennifer” to the next deranged level.
Hunter Johnson’s directorial debut hits the home entertainment market three years after Bressack’s iPhone shot suspenseful thriller “To Jennifer” in 2013 courteously from Psykik Junky and MVDVisual. Johnson, who also dons the role of the film’s star, Spencer, writes and directs the official sequel about the unofficial sequel to “To Jennifer.” You got that? Bressack tags along as executive producer with the Sector 5 distributed indie horror, which is also shot on cellphone cameras and small digital cameras, co-starring David Coupe as Mack and Lara Jean Mummert as the film’s namesake – Jennifer. To throw in a couple of familiar and iconic horror actresses to legitimize “2 Jennifer,” “Deadly Revision’s” Dawna Lee Heising and “Sleepaway Camp’s” Felissa Rose make cameo appearances that are strategically satirical.
Now, I haven’t yet sat down to view James Cullen Bressack’s “To Jennifer,” even though I do own a copy. However, the sequel can and does stand alone as a separate body of work, an entity that doesn’t need to crutch or leech itself from the original movie. “2 Jennifer” sets up the necessary information in the prologue with numerous faux interviews, one of them being Dawna Lee Heising, needed to convey to comprehend any sort of background in order for blind buy viewers who don’t know that “2 Jennifer” is a sequel (or viewers like me who haven’t yet watched the original, but is aware of it’s existence) to proceed with a voyeuristic tale of disturbing macabre.
The story starts off slow. With the artificial interviews designed to construct a clean and clear enough picture of Bressack’s original film, super fanatic Spencer then jumps into camera view to fulfill Bressack’s wish, as seen from the last interview segment, of a brand new filmmaker tackling a followup to his hit film. Spencer seems like a normal joe, cultivating crew, equipment, locations, and talent that sizes him up to be a gung-ho participant for his Jennifer horror story. While Spencer dedication is unwavering, his underlining intentions are hard to surface and, eventually, something isn’t quite right with Spencer. Mack senses turmoil, but doesn’t grasp the full picture either. As Spencer start to unravel is when the tale begins to pick up a dangerous and unpredictable amount of steam, energizing a massive, ominous train of horror and lunacy that funnels down a twisted tunnel of reality disconnecting tragedy.
The acting overshot the mark of realism by a hair over the margin. For a film that’s shot digitally on phones and handhelds, a more natural performance needs to be approached and all the acting conveyed nothing short of very staged. Staged in a good way as the acting wasn’t terrible, but far from it. The affect just didn’t fit the mold. Hunter Johnson performed troublingly naturalistic with his transmogrified character whereas David Coupe profusely oozed of trained actor. Even Bressack’s semi-small role of himself perceived overly rehearsed with the director portraying to be coked out of his mind and joyfully intoxicated in the midst of his small party of fraternizers and partakers of substances.
Sector 5 distributes the original LAHorror.com “2 Jennifer” film through local cable providers and pay-per-view services come this August. The 90-minute film sent to me was a burned screener disc copy and won’t have the audio or video qualities critiqued for obvious reasons. Bottom line is to give Hunter Johnson’s “2 Jennifer” a go, especially if you’re a fan of the first film. The characters develop nicely with their niceties getting their throats cuts in a jaw-dropping, gut-checking ending that’ll sure to please every gore fan.
Resident Evil 7 trailer breakdown and theories.
Last night Capcom surprised us with the new Resident Evil 7 reveal trailer. After watching it 100 times, I feel the urge to analyze the video and see if there are any clues relating to the past games.
So first lets start with this image. This to me is a throwback to the first game, when it showed the ”Raccoon Times” news paper with a headline about strange murders taking place around Arklay. Now it seems the residents of this new location cannot explain what kind of creatures they are seeing and they refer to them as ”ghosts”. Many people are complaining that maybe the new enemies will be paranormal. I for one do not believe that and still believe that the new enemies are the outcome of a biological weapon.
This shot I found interesting. To me it looks like someone holding a rifle with a flashlight and wearing tactical gear. Could this be Umbrella security trying to protect a testing site? Maybe a BSAA operative or it could be Hunk? I would be very excited if it is Hunk, a guy can dream.
Now could this be one of our protagonists? Many people are thinking this is Rebecca Chambers, which could be true since she is supposedly returning in the new Resident Evil: Vendetta movie. I have money on either being Rebecca or Moira Burton.
This I believe is more of symbolizing what has happened. A virus or whatever it is spreading over this couples photo, with the glass being smashed over the husbands face. Maybe the husband is behind what is happening in this house? From the demo one of the characters says something about their son ”Lucas” being a ”bad seed”. maybe this couple’s son had ties to Umbrella and therefore had his hands on some very nasty biological shit and came back home to spread it. Who knows, but this shot is interesting.
Here is the part in the trailer I’m sure had Resident Evil fans going crazy. This is obviously Oswell E. Spencer, founder of the Umbrella Corporation. I mean who else could this be? An old, balding guy in a wheel chair inside in the famous Spencer mansion. Does this mean Spencer is back even though Wesker killed him in Resident Evil 5? I don’t think so, I think this might be a flash back or who knows maybe he did survive and he himself is infected with a new virus.
This isn’t from the trailer but I had to throw in. This is a screenshot I took while playing through the demo. While in the attic of the house I found this old photograph of what appears to be an Umbrella Corporation helicopter. Before picking up the photo there was a phone beside it ringing. I answered it and heard a mysterious female character telling me that ”Memories hold the truth. Do not let appearances mislead you”. I have an interesting theory about that and have written it below. Please skip ahead to the next picture if you do not want spoilers.
I am entering SPOILER territory now. So if you have NOT played Resident Evil Revelations 2, please skip down to the next picture. In Resident Evil Revelations 2, Albert Wesker’s sister was introduced as the main antagonist. She, like her brother dealt with viruses and all sorts of biological weaponry. She was obsessed with living forever and wanted to find a suitable person to transfer her mind into. Nearing the end of the game Alex was in the process of moving her mind into Natalia, a little girl who Alex picked as her new ”vessel”. During that process Alex then kills herself, to be free from her aging body. The very end of Revelations 2 it is shown that Natalia is slowly turning into Alex, showing that Alex’s experiment was a success. So could it be that Natalia’s mind has now completely transformed into Alex Wesker and she is behind this new viral outbreak? From what we are told on the phone, it does make sense but we’ll have to wait and see.
Another screenshot from the demo that I wanted to add. I took this one to show that no, we are not dealing with ghosts. This is one of the enemies that shows up in the cinematic cut scene at the end of the demo, judging from her face it looks like she has some vein inflammation (possibly from an infection?) and her eyes being blacked out. Who knows what the hell is going on, I know there are plenty of theories being thrown around and I honestly can not wait for this game. I am going to see if there are anymore secrets hidden in this demo.
Pre-order RE7 for PS4 on Amazon!
”Fear comes home again” Resident Evil 7 reveal trailer.
Well the Sony E3 conference just ended and all I have to say is wow. Just wow. Yes you read the title right, Resident Evil 7 was revealed with a very interesting trailer. When the trailer started I had absolutely no idea what it was about, then when it picked up and threw that awesome Resident Evil logo on the screen I couldn’t help but to jump and cheer.
Resident Evil 7 is the seventh installment in the main Resident Evil franchise. It is of course being developed by Capcom and will be released on PS4, XBOX ONE, and PC on January 24, 2017. This trailer is very interesting and I have to admit that I probably watched it about 50 times. I’ve noticed many people complaining about how different it looks from the others and I have to agree that it does, but so did Resident evil 4. Which ended up being one of the best in the series, so I would say that everyone should relax and wait until we get more information about the game. But as for me, I am incredibly excited and I salute you Capcom for going back to horror.
Battle Evil With Friends! “Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse” review!
Joel, Darryl, and Roy are mates who work at an Australian telephone exchange. Joined by Roy’s daughter Emma, her boyfriend Lachlan, and his friend Ryan, the surviving group of six hold out in the exchange while the world crumbles around them from a sudden and vicious zombie apocalypse. Trapped and desperate, the survivors bicker amongst themselves in trying to formulate the best plan of escape and who should be recruited for the company cricket team. One shotgun with eight shells, two paintball guns, a machete, a tiny homemade cricket bat, and a grenade is all that stands between them and a cannibalistic horde of zombified Aussies.
Writer-director Declan Shrubb’s sophomore film stars an eclectic cast of veteran and amateur actors from the 20 years of experience and upcoming TV series “Wolf Creek” actor Greg Fleet to the hilarity of stand-up comedians and radio personalities of Jim Jefferies and Alex Williamson. “Me and my Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse” is a tongue-and-cheek zombie comedy straight out of Australia, a country known for it’s intense and respectable homage heavy renditions of America’s video nasties from the 1980’s while also combining brazen wit that hurts so hysterically good. Shrubb’s film nowhere nearly disappoints, living up to the whims and visceral intensity comparable to that of 2007’s “Undead.”
Just in the simply put title alone, “My and my Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse,” should warrant that the 2015 film doesn’t take itself seriously, but Shrubb blends together various facets of humor, slipping in countless forms of comic relief from crude sexual humor to the harmless play on words while also sprinkling throughout with off-color dialogue. A majority of the characters initially feel aloof or appear as pot smoking knuckleheads; yet, the characters can rise to the occasion at times seemingly becoming a formidable force against the living dead, labeled by the exchange workers as ‘Rotters.” Surprisingly enough, the characters’ dumb luck practically leaves them unscathed or, if really unlucky, placed in the folds of another hair raising scenario to only escape in a goofy fashion.
Alex Williamson is by far a fan favorite as the hapless company cricket team recruit Darryl who spits out off-the-way quips that make him a likable blockhead much in the same way Goofy is a smart klutz friend to Mickey Mouse. Then Greg Fleet portrays Roy, a pissed off father and cricket coach, looking for the easy way out without his balls turning purple (you’ll have to watch the movie to know what I’m talking about). Fleet’s character grows immensely, withstanding many personal pains from not only the zombies, but from his so-called friends. However, Roy is a tough bird, a real nut puncher when needs to be, bringing his character to the forefront of the film. The third friend, Joel, played by Jim Jefferies was a character that had a role reversal from the actor playing him. Jefferies is an actual stand-up comic, but Joel had to be the most serious and smartest character of the bunch, whipping up communications in a jiffy with meager tools while not being too funny about doing it.
Like always in Australian or New Zealand zombie horror, the special effects realistically pit our heros against a nasty, grotesque bunch of undead and decaying ghouls whom can dig out your innards in no time flat to make a delicacy out of them. The zombies didn’t appear cheap with rotting skin, gnarly gashes, and effective blood smears and were portrayed actively well, even if applied with some brain smarts to be able to get past Darryl’s homemade and shoddy powerful electric fence. The macabre wasn’t too shabby either with a very Romero-Savini-esque death sequences that’ll be stuffed with plenty of pig intestines.
UK home entertainment distributor Matchbox Films courteously releases “Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse” on DVD. The 90 minute film was sent to Its Bloggin’ Evil for review via an online screener link (as you can tell from the watermark on the screen caps) and a review of the audio and video qualities, plus any bonus material, won’t be critiqued. With that being said, the movie itself nails being impressively amusing. Your sides will burst, your throat will hurt, and your eyes will transform into a torrential waterfall as Declan Shrubb’s horror comedy bites hard into becoming an apocalypse of zombie buffoonery.
Buy “Me and My Mates vs. The Zombie Apocalypse” at Amazon.com. Currently on sale! The laughs don’t ever stop!
”Fear the Unknown.” Call of Cthulhu E3 Trailer.
With E3 starting this week, developers and publishers have been giving us glimpses at their new games. One of them happens to be a cool looking new horror game based on one of Lovecraft’s most famous stories.
Call of Cthulhu is an upcoming Horror/RPG based on H.P. Lovecraft’s ”Call of Cthulhu”. Players take the role of an investigator who must uncover the truth behind a mysterious town called ”Dark Water”. This is not a sequel to the 2005 game ”Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth” but rather a reboot of the game series. The game is being developed by Cyanide Studios.
I’m sure we will be seeing more information on this game this week, since E3 starts this Sunday. I am so excited to see what horror games will be announced, there have been some heavy rumors about a new Resident Evil and a sequel to The Evil Within being revealed. Looks like horror might make a return to mainstream gaming once more.
It's Bloggin Evil! 