Jack Travis (William Holstead) is a horror writer working on his new play in an ancient castle that is starting to possess his teenage daughter Bee (Grace Courtney). You know how those old manors go — all the supernatural beings within the walls looking to ruin lives.

Written, produced and directed by Toby and Fionn Watts, this tells the tale of a young man who was walled inside said castle that has been able to kill from beyond. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, if you have writer’s block, do not go to a haunted castle, hotel or house in the hopes that it will lead to you writing the great American novel.

This movie switches main characters at some point, so don’t get used to the hero, the heroine or even the antagonist. That said, it sure looks pretty and has plenty of gothic atmosphere. So once you move from father and son to Jenny (Helen Mackay) and Callum (James Rottger), just try to stay with it.

This is available on all streaming networks from Devilworks.

Talk about being knocked for a loop. Who knew that the movie that I think had the biggest impact on me in 2020 would be a film that for all intents and purposes looks like a training film from the 1980’s?

Survival Skills begins as an unearthed police educational film narrated by Stacy Keach and turns into something much different, a film that plays with the very media that it has been created within, turning the characterless characters of these videos — I’m a huge fan of stuff like Grill Skills and McC: Inside and Outside Custodial Duties — and discover what their real lives were like, if they ever had them. Who are the side characters in their lives and what is life like for them? And what happens in the cheery reality of these unliving beings when real life rudely intrudes?

Jim Williams (Vayu O’Donnell) is someone you may know, a cop who is just starting on the job, who must confront the harsh realities that the police academy never prepared him for.

In the wake of calls to defund the police and a look at the way the men and women wearing the badge must protect and serve a public that has come to hate and fear them, this movie takes a stark look at the training and videos that prepared them, including Dave Grossman and his killology philosophy, which teaches “officers to be less hesitant to use lethal force, urge them to be willing to do it more quickly and teach them how to adopt the mentality of a warrior,” according to the Washington Post. 

But what happens when a cop like Jim just wants to help a victim of abuse that can’t seem to break from the cycle? Surely society has ways to help people in that situation. You’d think so. But this film shows that the truth is quite darker.

Jim also grows darker in this story, going from the by the book example from every one of those fake educational videos into a haunted soul who has turned to his original shell of a personality to hide from the anguish that being a real person involves. Every positive step he’s tried to make is a failure; people won’t or can’t help the abused woman who he just wants to save.

Even the film stock itself has meaning here. Unlike so many movies that believe being 80’s influenced means just having vague allusions to John Carpenter-esque synth background music and bad takes on fashion, this film uses the tracking and hum and hiss of videotape to pile on the slowing growing current of hopelessness. Keach shines brightly as the narrator, going from telling the story to commanding parts of it, even able to snap his fingers and take us from his reality to the reality of Jim, changing the look from drabness to high def and back again. And unlike so many of the faux 80’s films that litter the landscape, this one gets one thing right: the specter of Reagan hung heavy over everything.

There’s also a moment of Satanic Panic in here that I don’t want to ruin, but only want to say that it does the best job I’ve seen a film do in translating the strangeness of that era, a time when police would come to your school or church to warn you of the dangers of demons hiding throughout popular culture.

Quinn Armstrong, who wrote and directed this, has made a movie that does exactly what great films should: I’m still thinking about this movie hours after watching it, wondering how the characters have moved on, as if they were real people. It’s an astounding film that tells a story perfect for our time and has my highest recommendation.

Survival Skills will be available on demand on December 4, but is playing in virtual theaters now. You can learn more at the official site.

Before she was Lucille Bluth, Jessica Walter scared the hell out of the men of 1971 with her role as Evelyn Draper, the caller who continually asks KRML-FM* DJ Dave Garver (Clint Eastwood, making his directorial debut) to “play “Misty” for me.”

What started as a simple evening of sex — well, for Dave at least — has turned obsessive and he thinks he cuts Evelyn loose. She responds by slasher her wrists, then destroying his house and even stabbing his housekeeper (I didn’t realize DJs on 500 watt stations made enough to have servants).

While she’s in prison, Dave gets back with his ex-girlfriend Tobie (Donna Mills**) and deals with calls and letter from Evelyn that concern Edgar Allan Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” And oh yeah — she proves how cured she is by getting in bed with him and trying to stab him with a gigantic butcher knife.

Of course, she ends up taking his Tobie hostage and Dave has to punch her through a window, which is how I assume folks dealt with spurned women in 1971.

While Eastwood was sweating out his first-time behind the camera, he had help from his buddy Don Siegel (the director of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers), who also plays a bartender, as well as Siegel’s usual team of cinematographer Bruce Surtees, editor Carl Pingitore and composer Dee Barton. It worked out — Eastwood came out $50,000 under budget and four days ahead of schedule.

Kino Lorber has just re-released this on blu ray, with some great extras to go with the new 2K transfer. There’s commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, an interview with Donna Mills, a video essay with film historian Howard S. Berger, a documentary on the film, a featurette about Siegel and Eastwood, and even the Trailers From Hell segment where Adam Rifkin discusses the film. You can get it here and it’s yet another great release from Kino Lorber, who are putting out so much good stuff as of late.

We also reviewed Play Misty for Me — with another take on the film — back in March as part of our “Exploring: Radio Stations on Film” week of film reviews.

*1410 AM, a real station in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, the same town Eastwood was the mayor from 1986-1988.

**The greatest thing Donna Mills ever did was her how-to video, The Eyes Have It. Here’s  some clips.

After an accident hurts a film’s Latino star, the hunt for his replacement begins. The role of the undercover cop Basco is up for anyone who can get it, which seems to be a two-man race between Steve Fernandez, a struggling actor, and a man who has just thumbed a ride into town named Alejandro Costello, who isn’t who he seems to be.

Welcome to Hollyweird, originally called Hóllyweird.

With the tagline “Some people lie to themselves, other people lie to the world. (Alguna gente se miente, otra gente miente al mundo),” this film presents the behind the scenes world of the Latino Hollywood experience. It comes from director Edwin Porres, who co-wrote this with Jaime Marie Porres.

It’s interesting because Steve (Douglas Spain, But I’m a Cheerleader) is Latino but doesn’t play to the stereotypes that Hollywood has placed upon them, while Alejandro (Michael J. Knowles) — spoiler — isn’t Latino at all but may be better at playing the role than someone who has born into it.

If you’re in the mood for a movie about the making of movies, Hollyweird is now available on Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, Vubiquity, iNDEMAND, DIRECTV, AT&T Universe, VUDU, Vimeo, Roku, FandangoNow, Redbox, Cox Cable, Spectrum Cable, Comcast, Verizon Fios, Xtreme and YouTube Movies.

There have been plenty of movies about girls telling scary stories in the dark. However, this one has a style all its own, as its young actresses stare right at you in long takes of them voicing each frightening story, while narration is provided by the only one of them to survive a horrible night back in 1986.

Written, produced, directed and edited by Graham Swon, each girl’s story goes from the mistreatment of Christian women to how witches were hunted and finally to just how simple it is to go mad.

Your enjoyment of this movie is going to depend on how much you can handle the artiness of locking the shot and having twenty minutes of dialogue play as a character stares directly at you with no other action. I found it somewhat brave and an interesting choice, while Becca loudly encouraged me to turn this off and put in something else.

That said, all of the women in the cast — Elena Burger as Becca, Dennise Gregory as Clara, Ayla Guttman as Suzie, Alexa Shae Niziak as Emily and Violet Piper as Mel — are quite good at delivering the lengthy dialogue that this film demands, as well as the subtle emotions that need to be conveyed. It’s by no means a perfect film, but one that I couldn’t stop watching, even with the cajoling of my wife.

I’m so glad I never went to any parties where I was asked to look into mirrors or participate in seances. My teen years were strange enough without walking the left hand path. Once things start getting fuzzy and you start seeing double images, you’ve either be drugged or you’re about to be part of something occult, right?

If you’re willing to listen — and go along with this film’s leap — you can get this movie on blu ray from Kino Lorber, who were nice enough to send us a review copy.