Tag Archives: 2021

SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE: Saloum (2021)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I originally saw this at Fantastic Fest and am so fired up that it’s on Shudder. This was first posted on October 1, 2021.

Bangui’s Hyenas, an elite mercenary team, have already extracted a drug dealer and his treasure from the chaos of a coup and are heading straight for the payout in Dakar. Yet as much as we love it when a plan comes together, we also seem to love a movie where things fall apart. And the Hyenas have found themselves stranded in the Sine-Saloum Delta, a group of isolated islands filled with local legends and dark magic. Now, the police — and maybe much worse things — are coming down on them.

The Hyenas — Chaka (Yann Gael), Rafa (Roger Sallah) and Minuit (Mentor Ba) — have survived so many wars and missions thanks to their skill and trust in one another. But this time feels different. That’s because it seems like Chaka, their leader, is hiding something. And as they stay within a small lodging camp until they can figure out their escape, the mute Awa (Evelyne Ily Juhen) threatens to expose them to the police unless she can go on the run with them.

Yet by the end, this movie goes from Italian western to American action to a supernatural take on Predator. What a strange ride this movie takes you on and the effects totally work, feeling as real as the gunplay at the start of the film.

SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE: Hellbender (2021)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This was first on the site on September 29, 2021. You can watch this on Shudder.

Toby Poser, John Adams, and their daughters Zelda and Lulu made The Deeper You Dig, a movie that divided Becca and me. For their follow-up, the Adams family has created a movie all about 16-year-old Izzy (Zelda), whose mother (Toby Poser) keeps her isolated due to a rare illness. Yet as Izzy begins to grow as a woman — beyond playing metal songs (written by Toby and Zelda) as the band H6LLB6ND6R without an audience may not be enough — she escapes to another home in the woods where she meets Amber (Lulu), who gives her a bikini and the chance to drink with teenagers.

Yet when she consumes a live worm, the hunger of being a hellbender opens her eyes and she soon learns exactly why her mother keeps her from others.

At first, I felt like this movie was kind of like seeing an opening act at a show and not feeling the first few songs that they play. It feels inauthentic. Not metal? Silly facepaint? And then before you know it, you’re nodding your head and feeling the urge to headbang by the end of the set. This film took some time to grow on me — The Deeper You Dig had some of the same issues — but when it works, it works.

The effects either look great for the budget or remind you of the budget, yet never feel like they’re organic to the film. That’s fine — this is a very DIY effort — and it actually becomes charming. I’ve never really trusted homeschooled kids who are too close to their parents, but maybe this is one of those families that gets the dynamic right.

It’s intriguing that Hellbender has been playing Fantastic Fest with Luzifer, another film that centers on an isolated relationship between a mother and child, albeit one that’s more sacred and profane at the same time.

SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE: Mad God (2021)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This incredible movie is now on Shudder. I first watched it at Fantastic Fest on October 1, 2021.

We shouldn’t have to tell you who Phil Tippett is. He’s the artist who animated everything from the Star Wars miniature chess scene to ED-209 in RoboCop, the aliens of Starship Troopers and the dragons in Willow and Dragonslayer. He’s been working Mad God for thirty years and let me tell you — it was worth it.

An assassin explores a decimated world following a map that is rapidly falling to pieces, taking him through lawless mutant worlds and followed by faceless drones commanded by a monstrous infant. When he finally finds his target, it’s a dud, his life’s mission ruined and he’s captured. Then, the film becomes something else, a metaphor for war, destruction, creation and so much more, all animated by a true master.

While this film was created by dream logic, it also has the destruction of the Tower of Babel, Repo Man director Alex Cox as The Last Man, electrocuted brains, cosmic babies, Hell, Heaven and honestly whatever you want it to be and anything that you see in it. There hasn’t been a movie this formless or as willing to challenge you to answer what it’s all about in, well, forever. It’s a nihilistic apocalypse that somehow makes me want to celebrate being alive.

One of the sales lines for this film states: “Each piece of Mad God is handcrafted, independent and created from the heart.”

This is a film that I feel like I could write thousands of words about and you still wouldn’t know what it was truly about. You must see it and feel it for yourself. It’s begging to be explored and dissected and just plain experienced.

You can learn more about the movie at the official site.

SHUDDER EXCLUSIVE: Good Madam (2021)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally ran on September 29, 2021 when I watched this at Fantastic Fest. It’s now streaming on Shudder.

The original title of this movie Minguy Wam is from the Xhosa tongue and translates as Good Madam, as the white madam is at the center of this film, a comatose woman being looked after by Mavis, the mother of Tisdi, this movie’s protagonist. As they live in the wealthy suburbs of Cape Town — yet always apart from the city — the darkness within the old woman’s home may engulf everything and everyone.

Directed by Jenna Cato Bass (who co-wrote the script with Babalwa Baartman), this movie may take place decades after the end of apartheid, but the shadow of the past looms large. Tisdi has been estranged from her mother, who has spent the majority of her life with the home of Madam — Diane — and even raised her son Stuart alongside the rich white children.

Only Mavis is allowed to enter the room of the dying woman — which reminds one of Burnt Offerings — while keeping the home immaculate as if the lady of the home could rise at any moment and nothing has changed. Her sacrifices to her duty have even kept Mavis from going to the funeral of her mother.

Why are Mavis and Stuart so comfortable in this home of white privilege and Tsidi so haunted? Why was she rejected and her brother accepted and perhaps even adopted or co-opted? And why have we never seen Madam outside of photos from the past? And when Tisdi’s daughter Winnie been loved by Mavis so easily when a connection between mother and daughter has been such a trial?

As Americans, we may struggle to understand the complicated history of South Africa, but sadly, we all understand the struggles of racism and enduring horrible relationships that only have one worse thought: what if tomorrow is worse than the pain we have endured in the days before?

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

Artists In Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse (2021): This mockumentary follows four hitpeople who all died in the infamous Coda Teahouse Massacre: Frosty (Jason Frost), a new father balancing killing with child-rearing; stay-at-home mother Lucien Mercy (Ariadne Shaffer); Red Rick (Pall McQueen, but there’s also a musical version played by Paul Byrne) and his apprentice Lady Faith (Kate Huffman, but again, there’s a musical version of this character played by Liz Fenning).

A documentary crew has been following each of them to this final moment and shows how things got here and just how everything got so out of hand. The entire doc is narrated by ex-CIA Agent Jonathan Sully (Chance Hand) and explains how the greatest artist — as this movie refers to killers for money — Rockstar (Frank Kitchin) just may have killed them all.

Director Kenneth Lui has an interesting concept here and excels at the action scenes in this. It just feels like so many ideas and the mockumentary format keeps getting broken so that we’re in the loop on every thought of every character instead of letting the action play itself out. It also feels way longer than its runtime, as every time it feels like it’s nearing a moment of clarity or resolution, there’s still so much longer to go.

You can learn more at the official web site.

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: Fame Fatale (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

Fame Fatale (2021): Michael (Michael James Daly, who also co-wrote this film with director Michelle Iannantuono and story consultant Maddox Julien Slide) has been acting for twenty years and trying to get his break. The role he’d been so hopeful to get has been awarded to someone else, so he heads off to a horror movie convention to try and get his mind off the loss.

The director said, “Michael and I have both spent a lot of time on the film circuit, and we’ve seen a LOT of indie horror movies. And while gay characters are certainly becoming more prominent in horror films, they are still often the first to be victimized, or they are villainized due to their sexuality. Often, their sexuality is their singular character trait that defines and motivates them – which is simply not a reflection of reality. On top of that, very frequently heterosexual actors are hired to play gay roles, making the pool of opportunity even smaller for struggling LGBT performers.

We wanted to create a horror film that stars a gay character, played by a gay actor, who is well-rounded, funny, and sympathetic. His identity is core to his portrayal, but his character is not motivated by it.”

With a strange interaction with Halloween Kills actor Michael Smallwood and an indie filmmaker panel that nearly destroys whatever hope for a career that Michael has, Fame Fatale does a great job at showing just how clique-ish the so-called horror fam of conventions can be. Yet there are still individuals that want to make it better, that know how to reach out to one another and not gatekeep. There’s still a reason to love fandom and push yourself to want to be a creator.

I really loved how Fame Fatale used VHS tracking to denote dream sequences and get inside the head of its lead. It made me consider the indie films that end up on the site and consider the lives and careers of every actor and crew member, no matter how small.

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: GUTS (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

GUTS (2021): Chris McInroy is the director of Bad Guy #2, Death Metal, We Summoned A Demon and the segment “One Time In The Woods” in Scare Package and if you’ve seen that, you have some idea of just how bloody and brilliant this short is going to be.

GUTS is all about Tim, who is in love with a girl in his office, wants a promotion and has to deal with all manner of bullies during his day because, well, his guts are on the outside of his body.

Do not watch if you are grossed out by guts, eating guts, drinking guts, eyeballs ala Fulci, whittling awards killing people, spraying blood, ooze, gristle, gore, more guts and fun. I almost puked at one point and I thought I had a cast iron stomach, so Mr. McInroy, you can consider that a standing ovation.

Hunt this down, find it and fall in love. Or throw up. I mean, either way, you’re living, right?

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: Smile (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

Smile (2021): Six minutes, two characters and incredibly unsettling, Smile is a simple metaphor for depression told in an incredibly stunning way.

Anna (Konstantina Mantelos, who was in one of my favorite recent horror films, Anything for Jackson) is the only human we see in this movie — we hear Ashley Laurence (Kristy from the Hellraiser films) as the voice of her mother — and we’re with her as she struggles to smile and then deals with Moros (Tyler Williams), who in Greek mythology is the living and personification of impending doom and a demon destroys mortals fated to die.

Director and writer Joanna Tsanis has made several shorts, but this is the first of her work that I’ve seen. She also has the benefit of great cinematography by Jason Han and magical special effects makeup by Carlos Henriques.

GENREBLAST FILM FESTIVAL: Blood of the Dinosaurs (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

Blood of the Dinosaurs (2021): Once, we went to a Mystery Spot and after we walked toward the center of the room, it kept pushing us into the walls and I was young and trying to hold my mother’s hand and it made me cry. Then, we all got on a train and it went through a forest and animatronic dinosaurs appeared and the driver told us to reach under our chairs for guns to kill the rampaging lizards and I yelled and ran up and down the length of the train begging for people to stop and that we needed to study the dinosaurs and not kill them. This was not a dream.

Another story. I was obsessed with dinosaurs and planned on studying them, combining my love of stories of dragons like the Lamprey Worm with real zoology, but then nine-year-old me learned that they were all dead and I had to face mortality at a very young age which meant I laid in bed and contemplated eternity all night and screamed and cried so much I puked. This is also a true story.

The Blood of DInosaurs has Uncle Bobbo (Vincent Stalba) and his assistant Purity (Stella Creel) explain how we got the oil in our cars that choke the planet but first, rubber dinosaurs being bombarded by fireworks and if you think the movie gets boring from here, you’re so wrong.

Can The Beverly Hillbillies become ecstatic religion? Should kids have sex education? Would the children like to learn about body horror and giallo? Is there a show within a show within an interview and which reality is real and why are none of them and all of them both the answer? Did a woman just give birth to the Antichrist on a PBS kids show?

This is all a preview of Joe Badon’s full film The Wheel of Heaven and when I read that he was influenced by the Unarius Cult, my brain climbs out of my nose and dances around before I slowly strain to open my mouth and beg for it to come back inside where it’s wet and safe.

Badon co-wrote this film’s score and screenplay with Jason Kruppa and I honestly can’t wait to see what happens next. Also: this was the Christmas episode of Uncle Bobbo so I can only imagine that this was him being toned down.

GENRE BLAST FILM FESTIVAL: Specter of Weeping Hill (2021)

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The GenreBlast Film Festival is entering its sixth year of genre film goodness. A one-of-a-kind film experience created for both filmmakers and film lovers to celebrate genre filmmaking in an approachable environment, it has been described by Movie Maker Magazine as a “summer camp for filmmakers.”

Over the next few days, I’ll be reviewing several movies from this fest, based in the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia. This year, there are 14 feature films and 87 short films from all over the world. Weekend passes are only $65 and you can get them right here.

Specter of Weeping Hill (2021): Lillian (Brianne Solis) comes back to an abandoned and fog-filled cemetery that has haunted her since childhood in an attempt to come to terms with the recent loss of her sister in this quick but gorgeous short film.

The directors The Barber Brothers (Matthew and Nathan, who also made Go Back and No One Is Coming with Solis) said that they saw this film being about “dealing with grief and the lengths at which it can take someone. The story of the titular Specter is inspired by a traditional theme in paranormal hauntings in which a ghost searches for a loved one that has long passed.”

Naming Glory — which had horror master Freddie Francis as its cinematographer — as well as The Changeling, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and the visual style/ editing of 70s horror films as inspirations let me know that I need to be on the lookout for anything they make. The fact that this looked amazing and was imbued with true emotion made it all that much the better.

You can learn more on the official website, Facebook and Twitter pages.