The same people who made this made the equally wild Lake Michigan Monster. Let me sell you on this: it’s a Merrie Melodies-influenced black and white no dialogue movie about an applejack maker whose life is ruined by beavers, so he fights back against them as a trapped and finds himself up against, well, hundreds of them.
Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who co-wrote this with director Mike Cheslik) must survive a brutal winter, then learn how to trap fur, selling the dead beavers to The Merchant (Doug Mancheski) while making eyes at his daughter The Furrier (Olivia Graves).
All the while, the beavers are planning to destroy mankind.
This movie is an absolute joy, a quick moving living and breathing cartoon in which one man challenges the odds and the beavers and the snow and the sharp objects and oh man, this was great.
Hundreds of Beavers is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
Hoping to find a cure to the disease that is destroying him from within, The Professor follows Agatha on a strange and risky journey into a forgotten but not entirely deserted urban wasteland. Sure, that’s the logline, but this film makes getting there so different, so trippy and so intense.
Kelly Bigelow and Roland Becera did just about everything in this movie from directing, writing, editing, costumes, casting, effects and animation. It’s a truly singular work that presents an ever-evolving series of images that creates a dark mood while presenting what it calls “the disintegration of nature, institutions and people.”
It’s more a series of imagery and tone than an actual narrative film, so if that’s what you’re expecting, well…then this just isn’t going to work for you. If you’re feeling adventurous, however, this movie has a rewarding look and feel. It’s like exploring a series of dark paintings and nearly falling through them, unsure if what you’re seeing is either live action or animation or something in the middle.
Agatha was watched at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
Hilarie (Jennifer Harlow) and Steve (Mark Reeb) are on the way from Texas to as mountain town in Colorado that is supposedly safe from a mysterious viral disease that makes people disappear or turn become murderers. They try and stay isolated from everyone else in the small town that they are hiding out in, as they don’t want to trust anyone. But after Hilarie is attacked by a man in the woods, he refuses to allow her to leave the house. This makes her lose her sanity and soon, he starts finding her just wandering with no idea how she got there.
This film is of our times, as there’s a battle between those wearing masks to protect themselves from the virus and those who think that makes them weak, including a talk show host who uses the radio to drive his followers to violence.
Director and writer Dalila Droege gets in all of the moments that we have lived through: isolation, racism, lack of reason and people just plain disappearing. If you want to live through that again, this movie goes even further, as it seems like nature itself is rebelling against man and all our folly.
No More Time is part of the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
Coffin Joe may be dead and yet he lives. How else do we have a new film that he hosts? Yes, through the fire and the flames, he comes back to us, warning us about making a joke of the unknown world. Perhaps he would also do well to warn us that if you see a witch in the countryside, there’s really no reason to take her photo.
José Mojica Marins, the human repository for the evil being known as Coffin Joe, originally filmed The Curse for his Brazilian TV show in 1967, but it was lost when a fire burned down the station two years later. In 1980, he started a second version, but production was halted due to financial issues. The existing footage went missing until 2007 when producer Eugenio Puppo rediscovered it while preparing a retrospective of the work of Marins.
Years of intensive restoration later — including shooting new scenes and recovering the lost dialogue with the assistance of a lip-reader — The Curse is making its U.S. debut along with a making of documentary The Last Curse of Mojica.
Based on a story in the graphic novel series O Estranho Mundo de Zé do Caixão, this near-hour-long story has Juvenal (Felipe Von Rhine) and his girlfriend Mariana (Silvia Gless) meeting that witch we discussed above (Wanda Kosmo) and deciding that it’s not only a good idea to take that photo but also to be rude to her. He’s soon left with a gaping and festering wound in his side that demands raw meat at all times or it will destroy him. Of course, his lover would make the perfect meal to stop that insatiable hunger, right?
How magical is it that we can find this film as part of our lives? All hail Coffin Joe. You shall never die.
Dan (Max Woertendyke) and Jen (Dana Berger) are in the type of relationship where you start to wonder what it would be like without the other person. He’s embarrassed her yet again and as she runs to clear her head, he tries to follow her. The only problem? It feels like they keep going around again and again, around the same path, going through the same motions, the paranormal version of what it’s like to be with each other.
They’re not alone, as the trail around the pond has others who are trapped and doomed to wander in circles as well. Can they escape?
Based on director and writer Dane Elcar’s short film The Pond, this is a dark story that progressively gets grimmer. Some couples are like that, endlessly going through the motion, one trying to stay ahead of the other, both realizing that they are locked into this endlessly repeating unreality.
If you think your relationship is bad, imagine being forced to stay within the same time and place as your partner in a never stopping loop.
This film is big on ideas and low on budget, but when is that a problem?
Brightwood was watched at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
When Max Causey (Jared Korotkin), he made the biggest mistake a kid can make. He accidentally killed Santa.
Now, 12 years later, Max has fixed that error by resurrecting Father Christmas but soon realizes the creature he created — Santastein (Michael Vitovich) — wants to kill everyone, naught or nice, and is on his way to Max’s friend Paige Byers’ (Makenzie Rivera) Christmas party.
Starting as a short made when the filmmakers — Manuel Camilion and Benjamin Edelman — were studying at the University of Miami, Santastein has become a full-length film.
After a decade without Santa, the world seems dark. And yet, as a result of Max — again — it’s about to get even darker. Christmas horror is a genre all to itself — I mean, I have a holiday Letterboxd list, I get it — and I think those that love the bloodier and more frightening side of the season are really going to enjoy this movie.
Plus, Camilion and Edelman have a great sense of humor, as evidenced by this line from the Kickstarter for this movie: “We only recently learned after making our short film that kills in horror movies aren’t real. So we need a new cast as well.”
Santastein was watched at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
Instead of going to jail, Willem (Stephen Phillips) takes a different sentence, in which he has to stay all alone in an isolated facility. Phillips takes on so much in this, because he’s largely on screen all by himself for the entire run time.
While watching the monster, Willem reflects on his life, like how everything went downhill after the death of his wife Carrie (Cecilia Low), a return to heroin and the loss of his two daughters. We also actually see his memories in the form of what looks like actual home movies.
However, Willem isn’t alone. There’s some kind of creature, one that he’s sure is just in his head, that is watching him. Is it his past pain come to life? Is it how he sees his addiction? Is it going to shred him when he goes to sleep? And why do the government agents keep asking so many questions, none of them about this monster, and shock him when he lies?
Directed by Tristan Barr (who also plays Dalesky) and written by Vincent Befi, this is a movie that puts its lead through hell yet so much of that is of his own making. This is unlike any movie I’ve seen and worth your time.
Subject was watched at the Popcorn Frights Film Festival. You can get a virtual pass to watch the festival from August 10 to 20. To learn more, visit the official site. To keep track of what movies I’ve watched from this Popcorn Frights, check out this Letterboxd list.
“Baby Shark” in the universe of this movie is “Sea Shark Swim.” There’s a kid named Kirby (River Dalton) who loves that song and his dad, the shark hunter Brock Banner, sends him a stuffed version of that beloved shark. He decided to make it even more special by including an actual shark tooth from the giant monster that he just caught, sewing it inside the toy.
In case you were wondering, “Could that stuffed shark become possessed and eat everyone?” the answer is yes.
And the dad calls it a devil fish, like something out of a Lamberto Bava movie.
By the point that Kirby is being watched by his babysitter Lyla (Daniella Donahue) — and she gets him drunk so she can have people over for a party and he’s like four or five — the shark has begun to kill all of her friends. That brings Brock back to save his son.
Where’s Kirby’s mom? She’s out getting laid.
Directed by Mark and Anthony Polonia, this is exactly the kind of movie you think it is, but also because the Polonias worked on it, it has some heart beating beneath it all. I laughed more than a few times and if a movie about a stuffed killer shark can give you that gift, it’s a worthy film.
The sequel to What the Waters Left Behind takes place in the bizarre city of Epecuén. Director Nicolás Onetti (who made the original with his brother Luciano, who composed the film’s music; they also made Abrakadabra, Francescaand The 100 Candles Game together) and writer Camilo Zaffora founded the rock band The Ravens.
Drummer Billy Bob (Matías Desiderio) is the one they all can’t stand, and he’s already slept with a groupie named Carla (Magui Bravi), who asks for a ride home and promises a barbecue. Singer and bassist Jane (Clara Kovacic), guitarist Mark (Juan Pablo Bishel, his girlfriend Sophie (Eugenia Rigón) and their manager Javi (Agustin Olcese) are already sick of their bandmate, but follow him and, as you can imagine, this becomes another cover version of the Sawyer Family’s Greatest Hits. The tension within the band is palpable, adding an intriguing layer to the narrative.
Like the first movie, the real star is Epecuén, a former spa that spent thirty years submerged before the waters rolled back and left a desert in their wake. It looks like the end of the world and makes the movie feel way more significant than it is.
Carla has a grandfather named Tadeo (Mario Alarcón), who makes the best barbecue. However, it’s for him and his family — Antonio (Germán Baudino), Chimango (Chucho Fernández) and Tito (David Michigan)—and it’s going to be anything but locally sourced. Instead, the Ravens are on the menu and may never escape the final stop on their tour.
The first movie seemed to be trying to remake Tobe Hooper’s classic, and this one is more of the same. But hey—it’s got a great location, loud and proud of its gore, and has an intriguing idea of an arguing virus that passes through the band and the family. I believe the Onettis have something great in them someday soon. Their potential is evident, leaving me hopeful for their future projects.
Michael Dupret directed and wrote the 2019 short #No_Filter, in which a girl named Anna tries new Instagram filters that bring the supernatural into her life*.
Now, he’s made this full-length movie. It’s from Belgium, but it’s in English and it won’t make you think it’s a foreign film.
You know this movie is such a surprise and delight. I loved every minute of it because I was so sure it was going to be a streaming J-horror rip-off. Instead, it is totally a movie that you would have rented at the store in the 1990s, which is a high compliment.
Anna in Bali (screen name @anna_withaA) is our heroine, played by Hannah Mciver. She’s on vacation with her family in Bali, where she catches up with her favorite influencer, Scary Scott (screen name @scare_scott), played by Samuel Van der Zwalmen.
He has a challenge where she has to make his friends happy — his scallowers — in one minute while trying to frighten him. Anna is really good at putting on a mask and sneaking up on him. He tells her it reminds him of Samara from The Ring, but she has no idea who that is. He’s nonplussed — even influencers are having younger people let them down with their lack of pop culture education these days — but impressed with her.
Here’s the only issue I have with the film. It makes an awkward cut here to Scott editing his videos and getting stalked, getting messages where he’s stabbing himself in the neck. That video comes true, and we cut to the opening credits.
It’d be nice to know how quickly things got spooky, but the film fixes this later, so stay tuned.
Cut to Anna’s bedroom and a pop punk song, where we learn she’s become popular in school thanks to her video of Scary Scott’s Scary Pic Challenge. A quick conversation shows how quickly today’s teens have moved past Mary Black-style urban legends, saying that even if you only scare yourself or your friends, it doesn’t matter unless it’s online. “If you can’t share it, it doesn’t exist,” Anna tells them.
She’s pretty philosophical, even telling her teacher Miss Potts (Dianne Weller), “Cicero said that if the face is the mirror of the mind, the eyes are its interpreters,” as she’s confronted about the honesty of social media.
Anna feels compelled to keep up her scare videos on social media, putting on face paint to scare her best friend Lauren (screen name @lau_reignn), played by Jasmine Daoud. Together, they work to make filters that distort photos and make them so frightening that they make people physically sick.
But things have to get dark at some point, right?
Jason (Kassim Meesters) is another streamer who is stalking Anna. They both record live videos simultaneously. Are all of these kids streaming content? Who is watching it?
Last year, Jason got kicked out of school because he kept sending dick pics to every girl and went after Lauren, who broke his nose. He’s trying to frighten Lauren by blasting loud music in her driveway. She comes outside only to find he’s dead in the trunk and has no eyes. Yet when she shares the footage with Lauren, all her friend sees is her trying to seduce Jason. This is where the film starts to deal with Anna becoming an unreliable narrator, as she has no idea if things happening to her are real or not, such as when she tries to confide in Lauren and learns that her best friend is hanging out with Mina(Priya Blackburn), the girl who bullied her, which sends her off the deep end. All she has left are her fans online, and many refuse to support her, saying she brought this on herself.
Within the phone, there’s now a Dark Anna, complete with black eyes, who does things like smash her fingers and stab them to frighten our heroine. She also shares photos of Lauren dead in the gym, which causes a further rift between the two friends.
That’s when Lauren invites over Tyler (Reiky de Valk), a guy she has a crush on, who oddly asks to take a shower at her place before she comes on way too strong. She breaks the tension between them by smashing a beer bottle in her hand. He leaves but then starts texting her photos in the bathtub, telling her to come upstairs. As she walks up the steps, Anna looks at herself on the phone, and there’s a fantastic camera effect as the black bars on each side of the phone slide out, and the image of Anna is replaced by her darker self, which goes upstairs and decimates Tyler.
Anna tries to escape from her demonic self. As she watches a streamer named silent_jill, she discovers that a surf influencer in Bali killed all of his friends and had the same black eyes. The supernatural influencer explains that in Bali, demons believe in a balance of light and darkness. The only way to stop the demon is purification by fire, a phrase which she shouts and stares directly at Anna through the screen.
That’s when we see a video of Scott and Anna looking at a piece of mirrored glass in a Bali temple, which is how she got possessed. This is broken by her parents calling in a panic as they make their way to the hospital, Lauren calling with the news that Scott’s body has been found, Mina dying on Facetime and Anna screaming that everyone has to delete all of their social media and burn their phones, never logging on to their accounts ever again, which is a form of death for influencers.
As her mother attempts to come back and settle her, Anna loses her mind completely — there’s another great shot in here where the Dark Anna remains in the middle of a large mirror while four small mirrors show Anna running in four different directors — and stabs her mother through the chest. She then knocks herself out by repeatedly slamming a door into her face.
When Lauren comes to save her, she can’t find her friend. Instead, she sees a camera set up in the bedroom. Looking at the videos, she can see Dark Anna, who grabs her by the hand and brings her into the makeup tutorial. There, she slices her throat and combines it with egg whites, honey and avocado. She smears her face with the mixture and then starts to eat it.
Lauren starts to close down all her accounts as she reflects on social media, saying there are two people in every selfie: One you look like and the other you really are. In response, the demonic form of her starts to headbutt from inside the monitor and threatens to break out. Anna burns all of her tech in a barrel, but at the last moment, shepauses to look at her face on the screen and admire herself.
Over the credits, other influencers begin to have black eyes.
No Filter is so much better than it has any right to be. In a year of influencer horror that barely makes the mark, it has something to say, says it well and delivers actual horror — and gore, too! — in a tense final act. It’s probably the best movie I’ve seen as a Tubi original.
*It’s similar to another short, Nakia Secrest’s Party Make Up by Nikki.
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