Fran (Patsy Ferran, a force of nature in this) has the idea that if she looks through the phone book and cold calls men all across the country with the last name Kafka that she can find her soul mate. She has no job, a Ph.D. and a $700 phone bill from all those calls in the middle of the night.
Director Robin Blake (who also wrote the script with Nick Blake and Marianne Wiggins) somehow take the idea of one woman on the phone with a thick Boston accent trying to find the Kafka man who will take her all away from this doesn’t seem like it would be the movie that would get in my head and stay there, but here we are. This is so darn well made and mesmerizing and man, Patsy Ferran is absolutely incredible at this dialogue that sounds like she really said it and no one wrote it and that is the best dialogue of all.
I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site.
Break Any Spell impacted me more than nearly any other short that I’ve seen in some time, as it made me think about the deteriorating mental condition of my father and how lost we become thanks to dementia and Alzheimer’s and just plain age.
Directed by Anton Jøsef, who co-wrote the film with Lisi Purr, some will watch this and laugh at the Live Action Role Playing (LARP) that the heroine falls in love with, but it seems like that’s her tether to keep her going in the world, as her mother begins to disappear and become someone else due to early stage Alzheimer’s.
The moment when the magic spell she’s been saving and all the work of her team means nothing in the face of a big man from out of nowhere with a sword? That’s life. That’s exactly how this life feels.
This movie feels like it needs more, that it could be part of a longer tale, but for what it is now, it is supremely powerful.
I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site.
While monitoring late-night calls at an AI companionship service, a lonely customer support agent named Leah (Sera Barbieri, Potato Dreams of America) acts as one of the artificial dream girls — Rachel — to chat with Isaac (Anthony Shipway), a customer that she’s in love with.
As we grow more disconnected and alone in our private bubbles, the idea of callable companionship and GFE (Girl Friend Experience) doesn’t seem so alien any longer. It’s to the credit of the direction by Joanny Causse (who co-wrote the script with Steph Kwiatkowski) that this seems so daring and original, as well as the great acting by Barbieri.
This movie totally deserves the awards that it’s been earning, such as the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film at the Seattle International Film Festival 2022 and the Jury Award for Best Screenplay at Fantasia International Film Festival 2021.
I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site. You can also read more about Rachels Don’t Run at its official site.
In a world where their femininity is bought and sold, two sex workers find themselves in love with one another and can see a world of happiness, if only they can get through the darkness that exists in the heart of their lives.
Sascha (Katharina Behrens) and Maria (Adam Hoya, a performance artist and former escort herself who was the subject of the documentary Searching Eva) work in a Berlin brothel. Sascha sees her son every few days but otherwise is fine with her life; she has regular clients and gets along with her fellow sex workers. Maria is a younger woman that immediately bonds with her, but can the two of them navigate the barrier between sex and love when they sell intimacy to survive?
Director and writer Henrika Kull has made this her debut film and it’s an assured movie that seems like it came from a veteran. There’s a moment of true sadness in this as Maria keeps making phone calls to her dead father in Italy, leaving him rambling voice mails that no one will ever hear. The conflict between the lovers comes as Sascha has accepted her career as someone who has sex with others for money; Maria sees herself as perhaps something more.
This movie feels as if we are hidden in the rooms where the women work, privy to their lives and the secrets of what it’s like to give of yourself for money yet try to hold something for the person you give your heart to, which may be the most difficult transaction.
Between the two Sinister films, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Deliver Us From Evil— hey even Urban Legends: Final Cut and Hellraiser: Inferno, I’ve liked Scott Derrickson’s films. I also allowed myself to get beyond hyped for this movie and it seemed like it would be forever before it was released in theaters. It premiered all the way back at Fantastic Fest in September of last year and then was held until the summer season as it tested so well.
Sadly, I shouldn’t have allowed myself to get so excited.
The Black Phone is about Finney (Mason Thames), a teenager trying to escape a masked serial abductor and killer called The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) by using a disconnected phone on which he can speak to the teens who have not been so lucky.
And I realized maybe twenty minutes into this that this would have made a great episode of a show or piece of an anthology, but there’s no attempt at stretching or filling in the story beats beyond the hackneyed. Worse, the production’s slavish obsession with It — I get it, Steven King’s son is Joe Hill, who wrote the original short story — keeps reminding you of other films other than moving on and making something fresh and new.
Look, I prefer my Michael Myers with no backstory, but when you set up The Grabber as someone with seemingly so fascinating a tale to tell and deliver next to nothing, well…why does he wear those cool Tom Savini masks? You won’t ever find out. The great James Ransone as his goofy brother who is trying to solve the Grabber’s identity? Seemingly from another movie.
This felt like it was doing its best to not be Prisoners, a movie about abducted children and how it impacts their parents that stands heads and shoulders above this. What it does have is some great cinematography by Brett Jutkiewicz and well-realized sound design that pushes this away from being just another thriller — at least in looks — than the rather flimsy film that we’re left behind with. There’s also an astonishing amount of teen on teen violence in this, which places it in a much different world than other films. That’s appreciated. I just wish that this movie felt like it had a purpose for being; it feels so gorgeous on the outside and frightfully free of any content within. From everything I saw before, I felt promised so much more than this slight trifle. a
Directed by Maximilian Elfeldt (Avengers Grimm: Time Wars) and written by Conor Dowling, this is a movie by The Asylum and if you know what that means, well you know what that means. Now, The Asylum may have already made War of the Worlds and War of the Worlds 2: The Next Wave, but this is not a sequel to those mockbusters.
General Skuller (William Baldwin) is in charge as meteors land on Earth, unleashing a toxic cloud that wipes out nearly every soldier in its path. One of his soldiers, Ashlaya Wellish (Arie Thompson) goes AWOL to rescue her son Lucas (Kennedy Porter) after her husband Jutta (Michael Marcel) is killed. She rescues Lucas and meets up with a doomsday prepper named Tiago (Noel G) and a tense alliance is formed.
There’s also a doctor named Patlin (Rashod Freelove) who saves one of the enemy soldiers who ends up being a female human named Gwen (Emree Franklin). This goes over with the other humans — who have just watched giant walkers destroy so much of their planet — about as well as you think.
Most of this movie feels like it was shot in a warehouse or an office complex with CGI that was sourced from other movies. And I love the sheer anger this movie has engendered on IMDB because soldiers have long hair, beards and unmatching weapons, as if that’s the most unrealistic thing about it. Also, Billy is doing an impression of his brother, which is kind of sad and yet makes me happy in a juxtaposition of pathos and cringe.
This movie is mired in a sea of one star reviews. I mean, it ends with Baldwin commanding a spaceship and attacking a planet. That deserves at least two stars.
Adolf Eichmann (Peter J. Donnelly) has been captured and brought to Israel to stand trial. Without enough evidence to prosecute him, the job of getting a conviction falls to Israeli Mossad agent Avner Less (Richard Cotter).
The first full-length film directed and written by Vir Srinivas, this is a big concept: two men in one room discussing why the Holocaust happened, all shot in black and white.
At one point, after learning why Eichmann joined the German cause, Avner makes him stare at the direct result of his evil, as he plays graphic — and real — documentary footage of the mass burials within the extermination camps.
Where Eichmann claims that he was only following orders, saying “I was a small cog in the gigantic machine of the Third Reich,” Avner is his opposite, a man of convictions who stands in the way of execution until he the proper evidence to viewed.
What Avner finds is worse than he believed it could be: Eichmann is not some horror movie villain. Instead, he’s just a bureaucrat that coldly filed the paperwork to order at least six million people to die. That’s more frightening than someone baring their teeth and threatening you outright.
This feels like a stage play, but it works for film and takes advantage of the talents of its leads. Sure, it’s odd to hear both speak in Australian accents, but you get past it as the quality of the script is that good.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This was first on the site on April 15, 2022. Arrow Video is releasing it as a two disk blu ray set with an exclusive second disc containing a selection of award-winning short films by director Chema Garcia Ibarra including The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5, Protoparticles, Mystery, Uranes, The Disco Shines and The Golden Legend.
It also has a fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Shelagh Rowan-Legg, author of The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy, and Sci-fi, a fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative, and a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Oink Creative.
The set also includes Beyond the Eye of Horus, a visual essay about the use of surveillance and Egyptology in The Sacred Spirit by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas; Pyramid Scheme, a visual essay examining conspiracy, class and capitalism in The Sacred Spirit by Josh Nelson; Domestic Science Fiction, an interview with writer-director Chema Garcia Ibarra; four behind the scenes featurettes; Elche Vision, a series of six location reports about the making of the film, hosted by actress Lorena Iglesias in character as Esther Armengol, presenter of The Sacred Spirit’s fictional local TV show; promotional videos in which the characters of The Sacred Spirit talk about themselves; uncut background television broadcasts shot especially for the film and presented here in full; an image gallery and theatrical trailers. You can order this set from MVD.
“Cosmic Pharaoh” José Manuel is a member of the ufology association Ovni-Levante (UFO-Raise), which meets weekly to exchange information about the latest messages from the stars and abductions down here on Earth. When their leader dies unexpectedly, José becomes humanity’s only hope, the keeper of a cosmic secret. Even more mysteriously, that knowledge ties into the disappearance of José’s niece Vanessa from the town of Elche.
This movie packs in every conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard — ancient aliens, organ harvesting, secret societies — and places them alongside the very human drama of growing up weird in a dysfunctional family in a small town in the middle of nowhere.
Director and writer Chema García Ibarra has put together something quite strange here and that last image of the Sphinx — inflating as it brings the goofiness, the strange and the everyday together much like the rest of this film — is one that will stick with me for some time.
And that first scene, where Vanessa’s twin sister Verónica gives her class a speech about what devil worshippers look for when they kidnap children? It perfectly sums up the rest of the film, a story about how believers search for meaning and yet often miss the darkness gathering around them if it doesn’t fit the mythology they’ve created for themselves.
You can watch this movie first on the ARROW PLAYER. Head over to ARROW to start your 30-day free trial. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This originally ran on June 15, 2022. It’s been updated for the blu ray release from Arrow Video. Their blu ray release has brand new audio commentary by writer, director and actor Mark O’Brien and editor Spencer Jones; cast and crew interviews with writer/director/actor Mark O’Brien, producer Mark O’Neill, actors Henry Czerny, Mimi Kuzyk, and Kate Corbett, editor Spencer Jones, cinematographer Scott McClellan and production designer Jason Clarke; a roundtable discussion with Mark O’Brien and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett and Chad Villella of Radio Silence; a stage presentation and Q&A with Mark O’Brien and Henry Czerny from the World Premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival 2021; the Grimmfest 2021 live-streamed Q&A with Mark O’Brien; the original soundtrack; an image gallery accompanied by the film’s original score by Andrew Staniland; a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Grant Boland and Oink Creative; and a fully illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Sean Hogan. You can get it from MVD.
This first feature from director-actor-writer Mark O’Brien (Ready or Not) is about Frederic (Henry Czerny) a grieving man already struggling with his faith who decides to help an injured Aaron Smith (O’Brien) when the man knocks on his door and claims to be lost in the woods.
Frederic and his wife Ethel (Mimi Kuzyk) invite the man to stay, but Frederic soon begins to doubt why the man is there and the stories he tells. In fact, he could be there to test everything that Frederic — a one-time priest before he got married — knows. He’s already endured the tragic loss of his daughter. What can be next?
Filmed in striking black and white by cinematographer Scott McClellan, this movie is either a man of lapsed faith against the very human past sins made flesh or a home invasion movie. It could be both. As Aaron starts putting his feet up on the table, reading the brochure on the dead child’s funeral expenses, asking some very personal questions and perhaps getting too close to Ethel, this film proves itself to be a long simmering and suspenseful effort that isn’t afraid to its time, nor worried about a small cast. After all, there’s so much talent here.
The Righteous is also available on digital and on the ARROW player. Visit ARROW to start your 30-day free trial. Subscriptions are available for $4.99 monthly or $49.99 yearly. ARROW is available in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland on the following Apps/devices: Roku (all Roku sticks, boxes, devices, etc), Apple TV & iOS devices, Android TV and mobile devices, Fire TV (all Amazon Fire TV Sticks, boxes, etc), and on all web browsers at https://www.arrow-player.com.
Look, I’ve said it before and God knows I’ll say it again, but if you leave home, never come back. If your mother dies telling you there’s a curse; if your father paints pictures of a dark stranger and a bloody moon and leaves you messages saying to never come back; if you need to fix a will; no matter what, never go home again.
Director and writer Mickey Keating has made Psychopaths, Pod, Carnage Park,Darling, Ritual and Ultra Violence over the past years and now, he’s back with Offseason, which has Marie Aldrich (Jocelin Donahue, always and forever House of the Devil) going back to the coastal town of her birth, a place where her mother Ava Aldrich (Melora Walters) has just passed away in and begged to not be buried within. Now that the tourist island has called her back — her mother’s grave was desecrated — she must get in and get out before the small village shuts down and refuses outsiders until the season returns.
Look, when Richard Brake controls the entrance and exit to your hometown, get out. Get out and never come back. Then again, seeing the relationship that Marie has with George (Joe Swanberg), she doesn’t have much on the outside either. But this is a place where the locals stop talking the moment you walk in, where everyone is an outsider if they’ve left the place behind and where menace hangs in the air. It’s a wonder people aren’t devoured at the grocery store.
You may ask, if you’re as obsessed by Messiah of Evil as I am — check out our commentary track — is this Point Dume? The streets look the same, the fog feels the same, but this all had to have had a catering budget equal to that classic’s entire overall cost, right? Regardless, this has some potent visuals and looming Lovecraftian menace, even if it doesn’t really get anywhere by the end. You’ll see the close coming and be fine with it — this is technically a gorgeous film — but wonder how this could have surprised you more.
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