This year's festival is by far the best so far. There wasnt any movies that I just out right despised. There were definitely a few stand outs and the rest were close but no cigar.
Heres the first Batch ( Definitely Rent or put in Netflix Queue)
1. From Within
Directed by Phedon Papamichael
Starring: Steven Culp, Adam Goldberg, Elizabeth Rice, and Thomas Dekker (aka John Connor)
Easily my favorite movie of the horrorfest. The vibe of the movie was somewhere inbetween Raimi's The Gift and The Final Destination films. Its about this curse that spreads through this small Christian town, that forces people to see evil versions of themselves and eventually take their own lives. Once someone dies then it spreads to the next closest person to the death. Aidan (Thomas Dekker) the brother of the original kid that died, is an outcast at school because of the rumors that his mother and family were witches. He befriends Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) but her jealous b/f Dylan is the town preachers son and the most popular guy in high school, convinces everyone in town that Aidan is also evil and the cause of everything thats going wrong. Lets just say there are some very interesting turns and a cool twist ending that worked. There are a few scenes I didnt fully buy into but in the context of the movie it still worked. Adam Goldberg kicked ass as a white trash guy that still believed he had a calling from God.
Rating: 8.1
2. Autopsy
Directed by Adam Gierasch
Starring Robert Patrick and some other no names
This was the funnest film of the group. If you're not a fan of films like Re-Animator, Dead Alive or that type of goofy, gory fun then this movie may not be for you. The movie is about a group of friends that are drinking and driving and hit some dude on the road. Soon after an ambulance pulls up with some suspicious looking emt's that tell the kids to get in so they can take them to a hospital to get checked out. Once they arrive at the almost empty hospital they kids start to disappear one by one. Robert Patrick is this mad doctor thats trying to find a way to keep his sick wife alive. The first half of the film is pretty tame until one of the girl's discovers the secret of whats going down. After that the movie goes bat shit crazy. There are some crazy gory kills and an ending that just insane but genius fun. There is also a kill where this girl bashes this dudes face in with an oxygen tank that ranks up there as one of my favorite kills of the year. (F13th and My Bloody Valentine included!) To say anymore would spoil too much. Highly recommended.
Rating: 8.0
3. Butterfly Effect 3 :Revelation
Directed by Seth Grossman
Starring: Chris Carmack and Rachel Miner
I enjoyed the first Butterfly effect and dug the cool ending. (The baby ending at least). The second movie was enjoyable but it was more of the same. Luckily in this third installment they go in a totally different direction. Instead of trying to explain how it works it just goes with the fact that some people have the ability naturally. The main character Sam Reid (Chris Carmack) plays a dude that uses his time travel butterfly ability to go back time to watch crimes happen and then when he comes back to current time he goes to the police and reveals the identity of the murderer. In the movie they have some set rules he must follow as told by his mentor Harry. He must never get involved with the events that he watches, he can never go back to a specific time more than once, and he must have someone help him jump to make sure he is cooled down and doesnt drown or fry his brain. In Sam's past he had a g/f that was murdered, and the little sister contacts Sam to get him to help find out what happened. Eventually he decides to go back to the past and change the events of what happened. Once he jumps back he doesnt stop the murder and someone else ends up dying. Sam's sister is his "Butterfly" helper and she tries to warn Sam from jumping too much and changing the past. But Sam cant let it go cuz he has to find out who the Detroit serial killer is. Basically its a time travel thriller with a little bit of horror thrown in. The first 2/3rds of the movie really works but the last 1/3rd was a little clumsy and it had kind of a letdown ending. I dug the twist but the execution was not as good as the rest of the movie. Still worth recommending if you are even a remote fan of the other two movies.
Rating: 7.1
The next group of movies are not terrible but they are flawed. If you are a fan of the particular horror sub-genre or think the plot sounds interesting then they might be worth checking out.
Directed by Phedon Papamichael
Starring: Steven Culp, Adam Goldberg, Elizabeth Rice, and Thomas Dekker (aka John Connor)
Easily my favorite movie of the horrorfest. The vibe of the movie was somewhere inbetween Raimi's The Gift and The Final Destination films. Its about this curse that spreads through this small Christian town, that forces people to see evil versions of themselves and eventually take their own lives. Once someone dies then it spreads to the next closest person to the death. Aidan (Thomas Dekker) the brother of the original kid that died, is an outcast at school because of the rumors that his mother and family were witches. He befriends Lindsay (Elizabeth Rice) but her jealous b/f Dylan is the town preachers son and the most popular guy in high school, convinces everyone in town that Aidan is also evil and the cause of everything thats going wrong. Lets just say there are some very interesting turns and a cool twist ending that worked. There are a few scenes I didnt fully buy into but in the context of the movie it still worked. Adam Goldberg kicked ass as a white trash guy that still believed he had a calling from God.
Rating: 8.1
2. Autopsy
Directed by Adam Gierasch
Starring Robert Patrick and some other no names
This was the funnest film of the group. If you're not a fan of films like Re-Animator, Dead Alive or that type of goofy, gory fun then this movie may not be for you. The movie is about a group of friends that are drinking and driving and hit some dude on the road. Soon after an ambulance pulls up with some suspicious looking emt's that tell the kids to get in so they can take them to a hospital to get checked out. Once they arrive at the almost empty hospital they kids start to disappear one by one. Robert Patrick is this mad doctor thats trying to find a way to keep his sick wife alive. The first half of the film is pretty tame until one of the girl's discovers the secret of whats going down. After that the movie goes bat shit crazy. There are some crazy gory kills and an ending that just insane but genius fun. There is also a kill where this girl bashes this dudes face in with an oxygen tank that ranks up there as one of my favorite kills of the year. (F13th and My Bloody Valentine included!) To say anymore would spoil too much. Highly recommended.
Rating: 8.0
3. Butterfly Effect 3 :Revelation
Directed by Seth Grossman
Starring: Chris Carmack and Rachel Miner
I enjoyed the first Butterfly effect and dug the cool ending. (The baby ending at least). The second movie was enjoyable but it was more of the same. Luckily in this third installment they go in a totally different direction. Instead of trying to explain how it works it just goes with the fact that some people have the ability naturally. The main character Sam Reid (Chris Carmack) plays a dude that uses his time travel butterfly ability to go back time to watch crimes happen and then when he comes back to current time he goes to the police and reveals the identity of the murderer. In the movie they have some set rules he must follow as told by his mentor Harry. He must never get involved with the events that he watches, he can never go back to a specific time more than once, and he must have someone help him jump to make sure he is cooled down and doesnt drown or fry his brain. In Sam's past he had a g/f that was murdered, and the little sister contacts Sam to get him to help find out what happened. Eventually he decides to go back to the past and change the events of what happened. Once he jumps back he doesnt stop the murder and someone else ends up dying. Sam's sister is his "Butterfly" helper and she tries to warn Sam from jumping too much and changing the past. But Sam cant let it go cuz he has to find out who the Detroit serial killer is. Basically its a time travel thriller with a little bit of horror thrown in. The first 2/3rds of the movie really works but the last 1/3rd was a little clumsy and it had kind of a letdown ending. I dug the twist but the execution was not as good as the rest of the movie. Still worth recommending if you are even a remote fan of the other two movies.
Rating: 7.1
The next group of movies are not terrible but they are flawed. If you are a fan of the particular horror sub-genre or think the plot sounds interesting then they might be worth checking out.
4. Perkins 14
Directed by Craig Singer
Starring: Patrick O'Kane, Shayla Beesley, and Richard Brake
On paper this movie sounded the most interesting to me. I really did end up liking the story and plot but there were too many things that brought it down. The story is about this small town officer who had a son that was kidnapped and it is now the night of the 10 yr anniversary of that event. Earlier that day a strange man was picked up and brought to jail. Officer Hopper is suspicious of the man because he has a finger missing and he remembers that his son bit off the finger of his kidnapper. Officer Hopper convinces an off duty officer to go check out he residence of Mr. Perkins. Lo and Behold Perkins secret is found out and his minions are let loose on the city to cause havoc and murder. The first half of the movie is kind of like a horror/ thriller and then the second half has a big tonal shift and becomes more of a survival horror pic. I'm a big fan of when movies change midstream i.e. Death Proof and Dusk Till Dawn. Sounds cool right? Well it would be but its hard to overlook some of the terrible acting. Some of it was so bad that it took me out of the movie. Also the ending of the movie was mucho obviouso. I was hoping it would turn out different but nope just as i suspected. Some of the killing stuff in the second half was cool but it was a little lackluster compared to the first half of the film. Not bad but could have been so much better.
Rating: 6.8
5. Slaughter
Directed by Stewart Hopewell
Starring: Amy Shiels and Lucy Holt
Another movie that I really enjoyed the majority of it but ending up falling apart the last 30 minutes. The movie is about this chick Faith that moves to another city to get away from her abusive b/f. One night at a club she meets another chick thats in need to get away from her date. They quickly become friends and Faith moves out to Lola's farm to help work and become roommates. There is also a pig slaughterhouse there and Lola's dad and brother are very mysterious characters. Lola is a slut and when the guys come back to her place the end up disappearing. Faith knows something mysterious is going on and tries to find out the big secret. Of course things go wrong and there is more than meets the eye to Lola and her fucked up family. When the crazy shit at the end starting happening I was all for it but none of it was really original or fun. The movie lost a lot of steam and drug on a little too long. Another movie that had potential but didnt live up to it.
Rating: 6.1
6. Dying Breed-
full review here.
Rating: 6.0
7. Voices aka Du Saram-yida
Directed by Ki-hwan Oh
Starring: Jin-seo Yun
Im pretty burnt out on Asian horror movies so I was happy to see it wasnt your usual ghost/haunting movie. It still has a supernatural element to it but it was at least different. The movie is basically about this girl who's family is cursed. Her family members all of a sudden snap for no reason and kill someone. The main chick Ka-in all of a sudden has murder attempts on her by her teacher, classmates, and relatives. Majority of the movie is just people snapping and attempting to kill her while she fights them off. There are a few gory scenes but nothing too to flip your lid over. This is one of the few Asian movies that I thing would actually benefit from an American remake. I liked the concept even though the execution was a little weak.
Rating: 5.9
8. The Broken
Directed by Sean Ellis
Starring: Lena Heady (Sarah Connor) and academy award nominated Richard Jenkins
Its a shame the movie that had the best production values, great cinematography and great acting was my least favorite movie overall. The movie is about this woman Gina (Lena Heady) that sees herself driving another car along the streets of London. She follows the woman but gets into a gnarly car crash. After the crash things dont seem right and her friends and family act very different. The main problem with the movie is that its based upon a big twist reveal ending that I saw a mile away. Its so obvious you can probably guess it just from the trailer. I still watched in anticipation that it was going to play out different. But nope I ended up disappointed. Other than that the movie had a great feel and look to it but not much happened. There were a few tension building moments but no real scares. The worst movie overall but still better than most straight to dvd crap.
Rating: 5.7
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