Tag: 2020

Bloody Hell (2020)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Bloody Hell is a 2020 independent horror comedy from director Alister Grierson and writer Robert Benjamin. It is based on an idea Benjamin came up with while at an airport and is his feature film debut. The film stars Ben O’Toole and Meg Fraser (Also making her debut). Support is from Caroline Craig, Matthew Sunderland and Travis Jeffrey (Playing twins). The movie is mostly set in Finland, even though none of the main actors are finnish and most of the movie was actually filmed in Australia.

Rex (O’Toole), is an ex-military man that has just been released from jail after his heroics in taking out a gang of bank robbers cost the life of an innocent woman. He is seen by some as a hero and others as a villain. Either way his celebrity status is too much for him and so he opts for a fresh start… in Finland. Unfortunately for him he is immediately kidnapped by a family of cannibals and wakes up tied to the ceiling in a basement and missing a foot. Fortunately he is tougher than he looks and he has an ally… the voice in his head.

Hello Me

There are many different flavours of horror comedy around. Some are dark and twisted, others are so heavy on the laughs they barely count as horror. Some lean heavily into B-Movie effects and aesthetics and others are more realistic and rely on fluke and idiocy to create mad situations. That last group is where you’ll find “Bloody Hell”, but it’s a specific sub-flavour of that because it relies on the protagonist being quite unhinged himself. The situation in which he finds himself in should by all rights be terrifying, but because he is talking to an imaginary version of himself that is calmer and more in control, the situation actually becomes a comedic one. It’s quite a clever idea conceptually.

One of the things I noticed with this film is how fast the time went by. In actual fact the protagonist spends most of the film strung up in the basement, but it doesn’t feel like then while you are watching it. Other things go on around him, including flashbacks revealing what happened at the bank. These help break it up, but in actual fact most of the movie is one character talking to himself. We see the voice in his head as a physical manifestation so the scene feels like a genuine conversation. This works surprisingly well and then when the final act kicks off and he breaks free, the action is swift and clever. The pacing is pretty much spot on.

Finnish Him

It’s impossible not to see the influence of Deadpool on this movie or perhaps more accurately Ryan Reynolds. In many ways the movie reminds me of Reynold’s “Voices” horror comedy, which used a very similar trick. In that Reynold’s is a serial killer but the film is framed through his imaginary conversations. Sometimes with his pets and occasionally the dead bodies of his victims. Bloody Hell isn’t quite as funny as Voices, but it does have the scope for sequels. Indeed the film definitely hints at more to come and I hope we see it. O’Toole doesn’t have Reynolds natural wit and charisma on screen, but he does and pretty good job of impersonating it. This was Meg Fraser’s feature debut so her performance was very impressive. It’s worth noting, since none of the cast were actually Finnish, so they had to learn to speak the dialogue for the role.

Overall, this is a smoothly put together movie that works pretty well for what it is. It isn’t overly funny or particularly scary but it keeps you entertained. The protagonist is likeable despite being a little crazy and the action scenes, while minimal, are fun. I imagine the film would drag a little on second viewings but it’s definitely worth watching once. This is a solid 6/10 and a recommendation. Apparently a sequel is being considered, I’ll be there for it!

Rating: 6 out of 10.

Possessor (2020)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Last October I was introduced to Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg through his movie “Infinity Pool” (2022). While it wasn’t one of my top films of the year, I was impressed by Brandon’s style and interested by both the similarities and differences with his father. So for this years Halloween Challenge I had a look for anything else directed by Brandon and found “Possessor”. It actually scores higher than Infinity Pool on IMDB (and more than Brandon’s only other feature film “Antiviral” (2012). So it seemed worth a shot. Possibly several shots and a few stabbings. Let’s find out!

Familiar Territory.

Written and Directed by Brandon Cronenberg, possessor stars Andrea Riseborough (as “Tasya Vos”) and Christopher Abbott (As “Colin Tate” and “Tasya Vos” in Tate’s body). It also has a support role for Jennifer Jason Leigh (Who also starred in David Cronenberg’s “Existenz” (1999)) and Sean Bean who you naturally assume is not going to survive the movie, but I’m not giving spoilers. The set up is very much something from a Science Fiction Action movie and had it been in that genre I’d probably comment on it not being especially interesting. However, this is Brandon Cronenberg, so I’m not expecting explosions and car chases.

Much like with Infinity Pool, the plot here is based on a fairly out there science fiction concept, in this case taking control of another persons body and using it to perform assassinations. Both movies are also sort of casual about it, the movie doesn’t appear to be set notably in the future and there is no real explanation about the technology. It ultimately is not about the tech and instead more about human psychology and the film uses the technology to examine that.

What It Is About And What It Really Is About.

True to form, the story seems barely interested in the actual assassination job for which Vos was hired, instead it is really about her mental state and that of her victims. This is a film about identity and the dark desires that hide in the back of peoples’ minds and provides a conclusion that is… well, very Cronenberg. Like with Infinity Pool, the classic Body Horror stuff you tend to expect from the family is present but used sparingly (Except on the marketing material, where it’s overused to the point that it could be called misleading).

What grounds the film more in Horror than Sci-Fi is we are looking at the main characters journey into her own darkness. Shedding her humanity (Much of which seemed to be faked, reacting as people would expect instead of how she feels). While this is laid out for the viewer fairly early on, the journey still offers some surprises and there are perhaps some double meanings behind a few of the scenes. Pacing wise it is a little slow with probably too much focus on people having sex (Another Cronenberg trait) but neither of these are particularly problematic. The film has a feel of a dream and the Jim Williams soundtrack is clearly designed to emphasize this.

Dark Desires

Abbott and Riseborough put in solid performances. Both play Vos, but in Abbots case only while she is in Tate’s body. This means Abbott has to convince the viewer he is two different people in one body, in some cases including Vos pretending to be Tate and others in a way that is meant to feel like it could be either. He does this pretty well. Risenborough meanwhile gets to play Vos as herself, which is largely unemotional and cold, but underneath that a character disturbed and frustrated by her own emotions. She does it well.

Overall I feel about this movie a lot like I did with Infinity Pool. It is interesting and well executed. However, it is a pretty linear feeling journey where we always feel like we are just slowly plodding from A to B. There is a little bit of depth but not enough to really drive discussion. The technology involved is one that obviously opens a lot of philosophical debate (Like in Infinity Pool) and yet Brandon (Again) ignores most of that to hyper focus on a fairly simple character journey.

Once again this feels like taking a David Cronenberg film and watering it down a bit to make it more accessible to the audience. The end result is a movie I definitely enjoyed, but will probably not watch a second time. I can’t help but feel Brandon has an all time great Horror in him, but this isn’t it. It is instead a narrow 6/10.

Rating: 6 out of 10.

A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

Posted on by fenrisfil

For todays movie I’m hitting the sequel to one of the movies from last years October challenge. That is A Quiet Place Part II from 2020. Released in the middle of the pandemic this one sort of slipped by without the hype that followed the first, reactions to it were only lukewarm, but the film still holds a decent IMDB score of 7.2. The first film I had issues with but gave it a decent score because of how well it did the tension and the how good the monsters looked.

The sequel reunites Emily Blunt As hardened survivor “Evelyn”, Millicent Simmonds as her deaf daughter “Regan”, Noah Jupe as her son “Noah”, and John Krasinski briefly as their father, but mostly in assuming his role as Director. They are joined by Cillian Murphy as “Emmett” a previously unseen family friend who reluctantly finds himself slotting into Krasinski’s role. Fun fact between Krasinski and Murphy you have the most common fan casting for Reed Richards and Doctor Doom. Don’t hold your breath on that one.

October Review Challenge – Day 12

Anyway, the movie starts off with some flashbacks to remind us of the premise, to give a glimpse of Day 1 of the arrival of the monsters and of course to give Krasinksi a bit of screen time since he’s going to be around anyway (Spoiler for the first movie – He died). We’re then lead into what seems like not especially long after the events of the first film where the family are searching for a new place to live. Noah is injured by a bear trap, but the group stumble across an Emmett at a steel mill who helps them out.

In the mill they discover a signal on the radio which Regan thinks is a sign of survivors and also thinks they can use the radio tower to broadcast the high frequency signal she discovered can incapacitate the monsters so that other survivors can use it (Assuming they have a radio, it’s tuned to that station and they figure out the purpose of the signal). The rest of the group think this is a bad idea so she goes out on her own. Emmett ends up following her where they do indeed discover some other survivors. It’s never that easy though and the monsters naturally show up to ruin everyone’s day.

Plot Armour and Squishy Heads.

The monsters look great. Perhaps better than in the first movie. However the tension of the first movie is diminished a little here. The fact that we already know the monsters have a weakness and also that you can basically just shoot them in the head, lowers the tension somewhat and the fact that they basically have to orchestrate through stupidity ways for the characters to attract the monsters doesn’t help. At one point Regan kills one by pushing a metal bar into it’s head. If a child can kill these creatures in such a way, I don’t really feel like they are at global extinction level for threat status.

This is one of the biggest problems with the film, while the monsters look good they feel less of a threat. Partially because of the things learned in the first, but also because this film seems to have activated plot armour on some of the characters. Especially true of Regan who really, let’s be honest as a deaf child in a world were monsters with great hearing home in on the slightest sound is not going to be a great survivor. This movie even has her go off on her own and while she did almost get killed she survived long enough that Emmett turns up to save her at the last possible moment.

Make Some Noise.

What I did like is that at least one member of the group saw the value in finding a way to broadcast the signal. My biggest criticism of the first film was that it took a complete fluke for anyone fighting these monsters to figure out that creatures that have insanely good hearing may be sensitive to sound. Seemed kind of obvious, but having discovered that had the group not looed to use it on a larger scale I would have been really disappointed.

Unfortunately only Regan seems to see the value in this as Evelyn is too busy protecting her three kids and Emmett has largely just given up. That’s not a flaw as such, given the situation not everyone is going to be thinking of the big picture. I’ve got to say though, if Regan’s plan was just to broadcast the feedback it seems to make a wild assumption that random survivors are going to figure out they can now use radios as weapons.

Dumbass Raiders.

At one point in the movie a group of raider types try and kidnap Regan and it seems unnecessary contrived. For a start the group is much larger than any group of survivors we’ve seen. They seem to have a technique to trick people so they can attack them and that plan seems to entirely rely on the idea that their victims would rather have their possessions taken, their children kidnaped and basically be left for dead instead of risk making a noise and attracting the monsters.

On top of that they seem to rely on the kidnapped children also remaining quite. Something that seems unlikely. Obviously it doesn’t work and they all get themselves killed. Dumbasses. It’s worth noting at this point while this is going on, Evelyn is picking through an abundance of supplies at a local pharmacy, even finding extra oxygen tanks for the contraption she uses to soundproof her baby. This is not a world where everyone is fighting for a few resources.

Plot Contrivances.

As far as I can tell the group exists just to facilitate how a monster got to the island sanctuary and to set up the drama at the end. Which they wouldn’t need to do had they not decided to put the radio tower on an island with a group of survivors that are free from the monsters. The pair are barely there for a moment before things go to hell and they end up in a desperate chase to the radio tower, which makes the entire Island thing pointless. Had they been after a tower on the mainland they wouldn’t need the dumbass raiders.

While all this is going on the story also throws in a tense situation with the rest of the family which is basically entirely set up by Marcus being stupid and ruining the safety of their steel mill hideout. Their entire sub story felt unnecessary and put in just so these characters had something to do. I can’t help but feel Emily Blunt is wasted in this one.

Conclusion

Ultimately I feel like this is a sequel that wasn’t needed and adds nothing to the story. At the end of the first film, they’ve found a way to fight and lost two family members along the way. This film, the family loses nothing and they take the next logical step in using what they learned in the first. It’s not a story that needs telling or really impacts anything. The only person with a character journey in this is Emmett, who was introduced for this film and his story isn’t exactly good since it’s pretty much done just through dialogue. With all that in mind, I can’t really give it higher than 5/10 and that is only for the strength of some of the individual scene involving the monsters. The story is weak and the novelty has well and truly worn off here.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

Vicious Fun (2020)

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October Challenge – Day 7

Tonight’s movie is Canadian Horror Comedy “Vicious Fun”. A movie about killing serial killers set in the 80’s because… why not, I guess. The film stars Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb and Ari Millen, is directed by Cody Calahan and written by Calahan and James Villeneuve.

Synopsis

Our story follows Joel (Marsh), a loser film critic for a Horror magazine that manages to stumble into a gathering of America’s most successful psychopaths. At first he attempts to blend in, but his rouse only lasts until the arrival of Bob, another psycho that also happens to be dating his roommate and specialises in faking occupations, so is quick to rumble Joel. Then it becomes a struggle for survival, but fortunately for him one of the psycho’s isn’t all she seems.

Admittedly that seems a bit of a spoiler, but they unfortunately telegraphed it a bit too much in the opening scene where we see a woman (Goldfarb) hitch a lift in the car of someone that is obviously a serial killer and then kill him. That wasn’t a great start. Not only is it a bit cliché (I’ve seen the victim turns out to be the killer many times since I first came across it in Blade II in 2002 when it was still a subversion), it also gave away that she wasn’t a legit member of the psycho fun club and diminished the surprise of Joel realising the situation he is in (Would have been so much better if it come out of nowhere).

Psycho Buddies

Joel and his saviour, Carrie, find themselves having to deal with the other killers and a bunch of horrendously incompetent cops to boot. The psychos themselves are a colourful bunch of of somewhat stereotypical loonies, including a classic hulking slasher type (Robert Maillet), a John Wayne Gacy type (Julian Richings), an Yakuza assassin type (Sean Baek), an ex-CIA torture specialist (David Koechner) and of course Bob (Millen), whose ability to disguise himself isn’t actually that impressive and relies on everyone being an idiot. Fortunately this is very much a comedy horror and very much a self aware one with Joel even pointing out how bad Bob’s disguise was. Bob is clearly modelled on Patrick Bateman from American Psycho but really just comes across as your typical 80’s movie douchebag (The kind of person that is inexplicably dating the hot girl and challenges the hero to a skiing competition).

For the comedy side of things the best part is the interaction between the serial killers. That was actually quite fun, while Joel’s general pathetic incompetence was too clichéd to enjoy. Eventually Joel has to pull himself together and grow a pair with the guidance of bad ass Carrie. But this is something I’ve seen done before and much better in “Guns Akimbo”. Not only did that feature two better actors in Daniel Radcliffe and Samara Weaving, but the balance was a lot better with Radcliffe actually becoming quite badass by the end and Weaving not feeling like an unstoppable ass kicking machine with impenetrable plot armour. It is frankly a much better film.

Assessment (some spoilers)

The way most of the killers are despatched is a little too easy for my liking, with Bob really being the only threat for Carrie, but only through luck and then even a weakened Carrie, after losing a load of blood makes short work of him. Honestly Carrie is way OP in this. Not only that but when Joel’s room mate turns up, she randomly pulls out some martial arts and takes out the John Wayne Gacy type killer. You can tell this movie came out recently. It also seems to have made the mistake of assuming it would get a sequel seeing as the movie has a big set up with no pay off (Specifically a big bad that is talked about but never shows up).

The violence is pretty well done, but the real strength of this movie is the initial premise and the synopsis I read seemed to suggest Joel pretending to a be a serial killer would go on for a lot more of the film and it’s a shame it didn’t because that was the best part I would have liked more of that and more of the killers in general. Everyone other than Bob who was just a douche. A lot more interesting things could have been done with this premise but they missed that opportunity by basically turning it into a less interesting version of Guns Akimbo. It’s also worth noting the serial killer convention idea was done in The Sandman comics back in the 90’s so the most interesting part of the film is also not original.

Stranger Nostalgia

The soundtrack is 80’s style Synthwave, reminiscent of Stranger Things. Again at this point that’s become somewhat of a cliché thanks to Stranger Things, but I’m not complaining because I like Synthwave. That brings me to the fact the movie is set in the 80’s. It’s clear they wanted to go for some kind of 80’s style but the truth is this movie could have been set any time before mobile phones were common and not change one bit. Also because it’s heroes are very much from the archetype of 2010’s/2020’s heroes and not the 1980’s ones it means that theme simply fails to click. Indeed it was only the end credit soundtrack that reminded me it was an 80’s movie.

The film seems to want to be retro while not really committing firmly enough to that to pull it off. Meanwhile the imaginative premise is blown far too early and the movie ends up going exactly as expected it to after that opening scene. The performances are all competent enough (Especially Julian Richings, David Koechner and surprisingly Robert Maillet who used to Wrestle under the name “Kurgen” in the 90’s) and the production values are solid. So it’s not actually a bad film as such, just very average.

Final Judgement

As such I’m going to give this a 5/10. Too many conflicting ideas and too many modern cliché’s waste the films few good ideas and push the interesting characters into the background. A movie that wants to cash in on 80’s nostalgia but doesn’t really show any affection for the decade itself.

Rating: 5 out of 10.