Director Jean-Christophe Meurisse has created a film that really has no limit of how low it will go. It has four stories that all take their own paths.
An elderly couple has gone so far into debt that their home will soon be repossessed, so they enter a dance contest in the hopes of winning an SUV and selling it to repay as much of their debt as possible.
Their son is a lawyer trying to climb the corporate ladder as he works for the financial secretary of France who is trying to change his image.
There’s also a young girl who is kidnapped and assaulted by an old man with a grudge against the government not long after her doctor explains to her that she’s entering womanhood and she plans to sleep with her boyfriend.
And the aforementioned lawyer attempts to get past a scandal by committing even greater crimes.
The film moves from rough dialogue to even rougher action; this movie is beyond cynical and dark until it starts to pile shock beyond shock in an attempt at either upsetting or numbing the viewer, depending on who they are.
That said, this movie feels very vibrant in the way that it’s shot, nearly like improvised chaos that all comes together well. This definitely is the kind of movie that people are either going to be major fans or major enemies of.
Blood Oranges is playing Fantastic Fest. We’ll updated this post when it begins streaming.
Co-writers and co-directors Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks have put together a claustrophobic story that stays nearly all in one apartment as Charlie (Bennett) attempts to get her two-story Brooklyn apartment ready for the return of her erstwhile lover Simone (Emma Myles). Something has happened between the two of them, but from the positivity on the phone, Charlie is beaming.
That’s when everything starts going wrong.
Shadows randomly appear. Voices are heard through the vents. The WiFi makes ordinary Facetime sessions demonic. Her mother (Barbara Crampton in a surprising and wonderful cameo) alternately throws vague praise her way or decides to condemn Simone as a witch. Random calls pepper the film, as a friend (Dora Madison) at a club begs her to finally leave the house. But when she finally goes outside, she can’t. Her home is wrapped up tight — quite literally — and no calls to the landlord or 911 can change things.
While this film takes advantage of COVID-19 time filmmaking — Crampton and Myles appear on screens — it also allows Bennett the opportunity to shine as a performer, pushing the narrative forward all under her own power. As the walls start to close in, we see more of what may have happened between Charlie and Simone, there are glimpses of Charlie being shut out of artistic opportunities. There are photos on the walls that seem either embarrassing or emboldening of Charlie on the walls. And there’s a man’s name showing up on Simone’s smartphone.
So is Simone coming back home? Is there even a home? Is Charlie going mad or is she already there?
Alone With You is playing Fantastic Fest along with Knocking, which tells a similar story of a trapped woman dealing with being haunted inside a small apartment. Both have their own way of telling the same story and it was really interesting to see where both films took their characters. And they end in such different ways…
Alone With You has been acquired by Dark Star Pictures and is playing Fantastic Fest. When we have streaming information, we’ll edit this post.
Charles Dorfman has produced plenty of movies as of late, including VFW, Satanic Panic, The Fanatic, Boys from County Hell and plenty more. Barbarians is the first film that he’s directed but it sure doesn’t seem like it.
The concept is simple: our friends come together for a birthday celebration in a remote country home.
Yet you know how movies about dinner parties go. There are secrets to be unearther and hell to be unleashed.
You can sense the tension from the moment that the party begins. By the end of the main course, Lucas, Adam, Chloe and Eve have gone from polite conversation to outright resentment. And them, well, three armed gunmen intrude on the festivities.
At the heart of all of this is the conflict between two brothers. Tom Cullen is perhaps best known for his work on Black Mirror and Downton Abbey, while Iwan Rheon was Ramsay on Game of Thrones (and Maximus in Marvel’s first take on The Inhumans and Mick Mars in The Dirt). Their interplay and how their long-standing relationship — and how it changes as their partners come into their life — form the backbone of this tale.
By the end, things get dark. And not just in narrative tone, but the film gets literally shadowy in tone, which feels like something Rheon was used to coming from the inky blackness of Thrones. Also, this is yet another film that presents chapter headings for each narrative shift of the story.
Personally, I’ve had enough tense family dinners to last me the rest of my life, but if you’d like to sit in on another one, this is an intriguing film that explores the ridiculousness of influencer culture and masculinity while telling a gripping and brutal story.
Known in Portugal as Um Fio de Baba Escarlate (A Scarlet Little Thread), this 59-minute film has no spoken dialogue and tells the story of a serial killer whose latest kill is interrupted when a woman throws herself off a balcony and lands next to him. As he embraces her, she whispers something to him and he gives her a last kiss before she dies.
That act causes his life to be forever changed, as a crowd complete with smartphones has gathered and view that last kiss as an act of kindness delivered to a lost and dying woman. But what were those last words she said to him? And when several push their way to the truth, how will it change the life of our killer?
Make no mistake, this movie borrows the feel and look of the giallo — if not the need for a procedural investigation — to tell the story of the murderer. Yet it has artistic aims — the same actress, Joana Ribeiro, plays all of the victims — and could pretty much be telling us that serial killers are the new saints. The director, Carlos Conceição, said of his film: “In a contemporary sense, the serial killer is just a convention. My interest is not in his murderous impulses but in the fact that society turned him into a kind of superhero.”
In his only second full-length film (he made Serpentarius in 2019), Conceição is making a major statement here. By removing the voice from the film, he’s asking you to determine what you have heard the killer say. That said, the end symbolism may be a little too easy, but by the time you’ve gone on this ride — what movie makes a post-coital killer catching his breath next to his garotte-killed lover look this gorgeous — you may not mind. Consider it an hour-long music video for you to explore.
Name Above Title is playing Fantastic Fest this week. When it starts streaming, we’ll update this article.
Johannes is a young man who has never left home and only knows his mother — a recovering addict — and the vet that cares for his eagle Arthur. Maria, the mother, has raised him on a life of hard work, isolation in the Austrian alps and service to God.
All is well.
That is, until a ski resort developer intrudes, obsessed with owning the land that Johannes and his mother live upon. His harassment starts with phone calls, but before it’s over, he’s unleashed a torrent of threats and a veritable squadron of drones upon our protagonists.
Johannes is a child trapped in a man’s body and that man is about to learn that the world that his mother has told him is true is something quite different. Has she been raising him — really, not raising him — to never grow old, to remain a child for as long as she is alive? If she’s found God in her solitude, why has she treated her son this way? And is their relationship oedipal?
Susanne Jensen, the non-actor who plays Maria, and Franz Rogowski, considered one of Europe’s finest actors is Johannes, have tackled some truly challenging roles here. This isn’t a crowd-pleasing movie per se; this is a claustrophobic piece of film that goes from stark wilderness to religious unawakening to a battle against a relentless sea of machinery within nature.
Peter Brunner is just getting started as a director — this is his third film after To the Night and Those Who Fall Have Wings — and as the son of a psychoanalyst and a painting therapist, you can see the contemplative nature of that kind of upbringing has turned him into an intelligent filmmaker; he’s also studied under Michael Haneke (Funny Games, Amour) at the Vienna Film Academy.
There’s a claim that this movie is “inspired by the true story of an exorcism.” The director also claims that this only comes at the dark end of this film. I leave that interpretation up to you, but for someone who mostly watches the work of low-end directors, seeing an artistic film like this is often like staring at the sun.
Luzifer is playing Fantastic Fest this week. When we have streaming information, we’ll update this post.
Matt’s older brother Deco turns up with a hangover one morning — like always — and when he’s let in, it turns out that he needs more than just some aspirin and sleep. His new fangs prove that he’s been attacked by the vampires that haunt Dublin, led by the ex-fiancee of Henry (Anthony Head, Giles of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), once just a trainspotting history lover, now a vampire killing cab driver.
Obviously taking its title from Let the Right One In, this is a comedy take on vampires filled with more gore than you’ll see in several undead movies.
Director Conor McMahon made Stitches a few years back. This is a big movie for the director and feels like exactly something Shudder would pick up, just like 2019’s Thirst. The film also boasts lush scenery — and some Dublin dives — including Ringsend, as well as the Bram Stoker Museum/Castle Dracula in Clontarf.
While it’s played for laughs here, the metaphor of drug addiction being like vampirism and you make the problem worse when you invite the person into your life — or the vampire inside your home — is a solid one. It may not contribute much new to vampiric lore — seeing Giles teach a young kid about sandlewood stakes is a nice touch — but it’s the kind of movie that is out to make you laugh, cheer and shout out loud.
Let the Wrong One In is playing Fantastic Fest this week. As soon as we discover where it’s steaming, we’ll update this post.
We’re also really excited that a movie we love so much has our review on the back cover!
Sam’s take:
Released by Vestron Video in 1987, this forgotten folk horror—also known as Cry Blue Sky—is very similar to The Witch, minus any arthouse aspirations. Instead of a man whose pride casts his family out of their village, this movie is about a reverend accused of adultery and polygamy.
Reverend Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb, Under Siege) and his followers leave their town behind to live in a valley haunted by an ancient evil. A rugged woodsman, Marion Dalton (Guy Boyd, Body Double), is along for the ride because he has his eye on Smythe’s lusty wife, Eloise. Hijinks, as they say, ensue. And by hijinks, I mean whatever is in the woods begins to haunt and kill everyone.
Rob Paulsen, who plays Jewell Buchanan, would become a voice actor. Perhaps you’ve heard him as Raphael and Donatello, two of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or Pinky from Pinky and the Brain. He’s also in the movies Stewardess School, Warlock and Body Double. He’s also the voice that says, “Cheers was filmed in front of a live audience.” In all, he’s been in 1,000+ commercials and been the voice of 250+ cartoon characters.
Director Avery Crounse started his career as a photographer and only made two other films: The Invisible Kid and Sister Island, which starred Karen Black.
R.D’s take:
Okay, so this is more demons than Satan. Well, it’s actually evil Native American spirits, but it’s a rare obscurity and that’s what B&S About Movies is all about.
Shot outside of St. Louis, Missouri, for under $3 million and theatrically known as (I think, the better titled) Cry Blue Sky, it was poorly edited, chopped down from its original 108-minute running time to 86-minutes and retitled for its home video and pay cable version (it ran on HBO).
To sum up the plot: If Eyes of Fire were made today, it would be known as Cowboys vs. Demons and programmed alongside the Aslyum-styled mockbuster “Cowboy vs.” knockoffs Cowboys Vs. Vampires (2010; aka Dead West) and Cowboys vs. Zombies (2014).
Oh, but this film is so much better than those films.
I was actually inspired to give Eyes of Fire, the directing debut by Avery Crounse, another watch after picking up (from the public library on a whim) a copy of the supernatural period horror film, The VVitch (2015), the commendable directorial debut of Robert Eggers.
Eyes of Fire tells the story of a wicked, polygamist preacher (is there any other kind) who runs the old west (circa 1750) town of Dalton’s Ferry. When the Reverend Will Smythe (Dennis Lipscomb) is called out for his adultery among his parishioners, he and his flock are subsequently banished. Of course, God tells the Reverend to make a new life in a valley foretold in Indian legends as the “Forest of Darkness,” a wooded area with souls trapped inside trees and running amok with “mud people.”
Before you know it, all hell breaks loose in the Promised Land, Blair Witch-style, as the settlers can’t seem to find their way out of the forest and they’re picked off one by one. It’s up to a rugged frontiersman, Marion Dalton (Guy Boyd), and a crazy, woods-dwelling witch who proclaims herself the “Queen of the Forest” (Karlene Crockett) to battle the marauding Indian spirits.
While Eyes of Fire is low-budget and under the radar, there’s no denying that it’s well made and features great cinematography, costuming and special effects (the tree-trapped spirits are excellent), along with solid acting from the cast of unknowns. Granted, some quarters may say it’s slow: if you watch the home video cut instead of the theatrical cut, it is a bit choppy and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in places (it loses 22 minutes between its different cuts), but that only lends to its Phantasm-like foreboding. It’s certainly more entertaining than other films of its ilk*, such as Aramand Mastronianni’s (He Knows You’re Alone, Cameron’s Closet) The Supernaturals, which I remember as being very boring—and I ejected it from the VCR less than half way through, never to watch again.
It’s unfortunate that Crounse disappeared from the industry (maybe he went into commercial work?) after two more films: The Invisible Kid (1988) and Sister Island (1993), as he showed a lot of promise. I vaguely remember the former as a theatrical with Jay Underwood, who was “hot” at the time. I never heard of the latter—one of the many low-budget romps from the extensive resume of Karen Black (Burnt Offerings).
There are lots of familiar TV faces afoot: Guy Boyd (pick a late ‘70s/early ‘80s TV series) was a semi-regular on Remington Steele, a co-star on 2000’s Black Scorpion, and was in Brian DePalma’s Body Double—and he’s still active today. You can play “pick a TV show” with the late Dennis Lipscomb as well, with his starring roles in Cop Rock and Wiseguy, while Karlene Crockett was a regular on Quincy M.E and Dallas. Eyes of Fire was the only feature film appearance by Rob Paulsen, as he reverted into voice work and became Pinky from Pinky and the Brain (1995) and Yakko from Animanicas (1993). Keen eyes will pick up on Kerry Sherman, who made her debut in Greydon Clark’s Satan’s Cheerleaders (1977), and Fran Ryan, who’s been in everything from TV’s Gunsmoke to Bill Murray’s Stripes(1983).
* Night of Horror (1981) with more Confederate Civil War ghosts (one of those “the cover is better than the movie” flicks and a VHS-eject), Ghost Riders (1987) with western ghosts deep in the heart of Texas (well made, but boring; a VHS eject), and Stones of Death (1988) with aborigine ghosts (Aussie Indians) going “Poltergeist” (better made, but ho-hum familiar). Honorable mention: William Grefe’s (Mako: Jaws of Death) awful but fun drive-in nostalgia romp Death Curse of Tartu(1966) with its burial ground Indians.
You think the pandemic we’ve had has been strange? Well, in the world of Glasshouse, an airborne dementia known as The Shred has left humanity adrift with no memories left inside their brains, unable to even remember who they are. Meanwhile, a family has remained inside their airtight glasshouse until a stranger arrives who changes — and maybe ruins — everything they’ve worked so hard to build.
Director Kelsey Egan said, “I’ve been working towards directing features since I made my first short back in 2008, so to end up directing my first film in 2020 of all years feels like some form of dramatic irony. To shoot this intimate post-apocalyptic fable during the pandemic was a surreal experience.”
Even the location for this movie is strange and eerie. The Pearson Conservatory is a Victorian glasshouse marooned in the Eastern Cape of South Africa since 1881.
The occupants of this glasshouse are Mother, her three daughters and one son. Their days are spent tilling the garden that keeps them fed, protecting one another from the outside world, conducting story rituals and creating stained glass windows to remind them of the past. But when one of the daughters, Bee, takes in an injured man, his manipulative ways may spell the end of this idyll.
Yet the girls are not without the ability to protect their family, as we see them murder an interloper and use the body to fertilize their crops. And their brother has begun to lose control, as exposure to The Shred has destroyed his mind.
At once post-apocalyptic, folk horror and even a riff on The Beguiled, there hasn’t been a film quite like Glasshouse ever. It’s a future without the need to show massive effects or change. Instead, it traps us inside the walls of the home as those very walls close in around its characters.
Glasshouse is playing during Fantastic Fest this week. We’ll update this post with information on how to see it for yourself when it goes into wide release.
What do hired killers do on their days off? I’ve always wondered that and hey — here’s a film ready to fill in the gaps. Chisato and Mahiro are teenagers who pull of a double life worthy of Donna Wilkes or Betsy Russell, as they’re high school graduates with menial jobs by day and killing machines battling the yakuza by night, which arises when a battle breaks out at the theme maid cafe that they work at and gets worse from there.
Martial artist and stunt person Saori Izawa — whose stunts were amongst the few highlights in Snake Eyes — plays the caustic Mahiro, with the laid-back Chisato played by Akari Takaishi. The team has great odd couple chemistry as well as the ability to move from moments of humor to action setpieces. The action moments take their time to get on screen, but when they do, they are more than worth the time we’ve spent with our lead characters.
Known as Baby Walkure in its native Japan, this is the first — but by no means the last — film that we’ll see exported to our shores by creative force Yûgo Sakamoto.
After leaving a tragic accident — the film begins with our heroine embracing her girlfriend who runs into the water and is never seen again — and a stay at the mental hospital, Molly moves into a new apartment where a strange knocking keeps on getting louder and louder. No one else can hear it. And it’s not going away.
Adapted from a novel by Johan Theorin, this movie lives and dies by the intense performance of lead Cecilia Milocco and the so tight you’re face-to-face cinematography of Hannes Krantz. The tension keeps increasing and much like so many “is it supernatural or mental illness” movies, the questions keep increasing as Molly begins taking increasing risks to determine where the knocking and sobbing is coming from.
At just 78 minutes, this is a short film that nearly begs for even more time and it’s rare that I feel that way. The end just arrives after the slowest of builds, but I’ve been obsessed with the moments that exist between waiting for something to happen and the actual second that everything changes.
Knocking is playing Fantastic Fest this week and will soon be available on a wider basis. We’ll update this post when it’s streaming.
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