College student Natalie (Amy Forsyth) returns home to visit her best friend Brooke (Reign Edwards), and is surprised to discover that Brooke is now roommates with Natalie’s former adversary, the overbearing Taylor (Bex Taylor-Klaus). Annoyed at first, Natalie chills out when Brooke informs her that not only are the three of them going to Hell Fest, a legendary traveling horror attraction, later that night, but the VIP tickets for the event were secured by none other than Gavin (Roby Attal), who has the hots for Natalie.
Along with Brooke’s boyfriend Quinn (Christian James) and Taylor’s beau Asher (Matt Mercurio), the trio and Gavin head to Hell Fest, hoping it will live up to its reputation as the greatest horror attraction of all-time.
But the six will get more than they bargained for when a real-life serial killer (Stephen Conroy), donning a mask that makes him look like just another park employee, sets his sights on Natalie. And this particular killer never stops until he’s finished the job.
One of the best things about Hell Fest is its setting. Laid out like an amusement park, Hell Fest boasts dozens of rides and mazes to get the pulse pounding. Many of the attractions are damn creepy, as are the actors working them (the haunted school was especially eerie).
More than this, Hell Fest proves the perfect setting for a slasher film because the killer can take someone out and patrons will assume it’s all part of the show! Bloodied carcasses become just another prop. We get a sense of this early on, when Taylor and Brooke tell Natalie about a tragedy from a few years earlier in Orange Grove, when a girl was stabbed to death at a haunted attraction, then strung up, hanging there for days until her body started to stink (the movie’s opening scene features this very murder, the victim portrayed by Cynthea Mercado).
The actors playing the friends / potential targets of Hell Fest have great chemistry together. We really care about all of these characters, and while we accept not everyone can make it out alive, we root for them anyway. Most impressive of all, though, is Stephen Conroy as the killer. Hidden behind a mask the entire time, he moves methodically, never running or even walking at a fast pace. Like Michael Myers in Halloween or Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th sequels, the killer in Hell Fest doesn’t need to rush around. He knows he will catch up with his targets eventually, making those moments when he does all the more intense (a scene with Natalie in a rest room had me on the edge of my seat).
There is also a great reveal at the end of Hell Fest, a final scene so strong it will have you wishing a sequel, perhaps even an entire franchise, was in the works. As of this writing, that doesn’t look to be the case, and that’s a real shame.
A solid horror film and a terrific entry in the slasher subgenre, Hell Fest is sure to become an October staple for genre fans, and will stay one for many years to come.
Rating: 9 out of 10
Two are executed, while a third is tortured by having the skin peeled from his face. Now badly deformed, this soldier vows revenge.
Shot mostly hand-held, this opening features some genuine excitement. Still, it’s not exactly how you’d expect a movie titled Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! to kick off, is it?
Jump ahead to a modern-day Halloween night. The all-girl rock band Kill, Pussy, Kill has just finished a gig, and are on their way to an even bigger venue when they stop for gas. While there, one of the band’s members, Misty (Kelly McCart), disappears without a trace.
Searching for their friend, the rest of the group, aka Amber (Sara Malakul Lane), Cat (Lauren Parkinson), Natalia (Nicole Starling), Bridgette (Kelly Lynn Reiter), and their manager Roger (Tristan Ott), are approached by the station attendant Dale (Richard Greico), who claims he was asleep in back and has no idea of Misty’s whereabouts. To add to their problems, Roger’s van suddenly won’t start.
Informing the distressed musicians that his uncle has a van they can borrow while theirs is being repaired, Dale drives the group a few miles down the road, then gases them, rendering them all unconscious.
When they come to, Roger and the girls find themselves locked in a basement, where they are informed by an ominous voice (over a loudspeaker) that they are going to be tested. Those lucky enough to survive the test will gain their freedom.
Of course, not everyone will survive, as they discover when their first test is revealed: move to the next room and locate a hidden gun. The person who finds the gun must then kill one of the others!
Borrowing heavily from Saw, Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! has its share of violent scenes, some of which are effective (like when the gun is found by one of the girls), and some that are spoiled by wonky CGI (especially bad are the various explosions littered throughout). The film also introduces us to the Mastermind of this “game” (played by Jed Rowen but voiced by Dave Mustaine) and a few members of his “family”, including Bertha (played by producer Kelly Erin Decker) and an elderly little person in a child’s dress (Zahra Susan Ingersoll), a trio that gives the film something of a Texas Chain Saw Massacre vibe as well.
Considering Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! is a low-budget affair, the acting is fairly good, especially the girls in the band, who struggle with the decisions they are forced to make while under the control of the Mastermind.
Also turning up to help the girls is DJ Speed (Demetrius Stear) and his buddies (Tim Casper and David Oakes). DJ Speed is a former bandmate who was tossed out of the group earlier that night for forcing himself on Misty. He’s pulled into the chaos when he stops at the same gas station and notices Roger’s van off to the side. Though late to the “party”, the scenes with DJ Speed are fairly intense, and prove to be some of the film’s best.
Alas, Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! loses its way a few times, notably in the scenes involving the Mastermind’s family and how they handle the trick-or-treaters who knock on their door throughout the evening (they are literally in the middle of nowhere. Who in their right mind would walk several miles for a single piece of candy?). Intended to be funny (they aren’t), these scenes add nothing to the film. I also didn’t buy the Mastermind’s motivation for putting strangers through such a terrible ordeal, claiming it’s to help them appreciate their freedom (an even more egregious rip-off of Saw, and not a convincing one).
In addition, the music that plays throughout Halloween Pussy Trap, Kill! Kill! isn’t memorable, and even the band’s trip through the torture chamber eventually wears thin.
It’s hard not to feel some affection for Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill!. Writer / director Jared Cohn is clearly a fan of the horror genre, and he and his cast did their part to make it an entertaining homage to several classics that came before it. Unfortunately, the results are mixed, and while I’m not unhappy that I saw it, I doubt I’ll be adding Halloween Pussy Trap Kill! Kill! to my October watchlist anytime soon.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Ready to crash before the party ends, Sergio makes his way upstairs, only to hear sexual moans coming from behind a closed door. Chastising the lovers, he throws the door open.
There is nobody in the bed.
Suddenly, he hears the moans again, this time in the closet. Again, Sergio opens the door. Again, there is nobody to be found. Confused, he steps out into the hallway, where he has a frightening encounter with what could only be the ghost of a woman.
These opening moments of 2013’s Ghost Team One get the movie off to a chilling start. But as its story plays out, the scares give way to laughs, and while it is neither the funniest nor most frightening horror / comedy ever made, if is still an entertaining watch.
Initially reluctant to admit their house might be haunted, both Sergio and Brad have a change of heart when the gorgeous Fernanda (Fernanda Romero) shows a keen interest in the paranormal, and offers to help the two investigate these strange occurrences. Sergio, who is single, is immediately smitten with Fernanda. Brad is attracted to her as well, despite the fact he’s been dating Becky (Meghan Falcone) on and off for a while now.
As their probe into the house’s ghostly history intensifies, Sergio and Brad begin competing with one another to win Fernanda’s heart, never realizing that the spectral entity sharing room and board with them is becoming increasingly more dangerous.
With its emphasis on comedy over horror, Ghost Team One does have its share of funny scenes, most of which center on the leads’ attempts to win the affections of Fernanda, who is herself too busy obsessing on the supernatural to even notice. Also getting a few laughs is Tony Cavalero as Chuck, who is always confronting his roommates over what he sees as their lack of respect for the house they share (when we first meet Chuck, it’s the night after the party, and he’s screaming at Sergio and Brad after discovering someone took a shit in their kitchen sink).
Ghost Team One also boasts a couple of effective jumps scares, but horror is definitely not the film’s strength. And while the ghost does seem ominous at times (it turns out the angry spirit is that of a Filipino prostitute who once resided there), the film’s final 10 minutes, which feature a very unusual “possession”, are just silly enough to undermine the entity’s effectiveness.
I am definitely not a fan of how Ghost Team One ended, but it didn’t ruin all that came before, and with decent performances from the main cast and a handful of funny sequences, I ultimately had a good time with it.
Rating: 6 out of 10
FBI agent Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) and her partner Griffin Down (Colin Hanks) have teamed with detective Eric Box (Billy Burke) of the Portland police department to track down a serial killer, one who live-streams his murders over the internet. In fact, the more visitors the killer’s website (killwithme.com) receives, the faster his victims perish, often in the most brutal ways imaginable.
An expert in cybercrime, Marsh does what she can to pinpoint the killer’s whereabouts, only to be frustrated at every turn. And now that the investigators have put themselves in this psychopath’s crosshairs, it may only be a matter of time before one of them becomes his next victim.
Diane Lane is superb as Agent Marsh, a dedicated investigator juggling her professional responsibilities with being a single mom (her daughter Annie is played by Perla Haney-Jardine), while Hanks, Burke, and Mary Beth Hurt (as Marsh’s mother, Stella) are solid is support.
It’s the story of an internet killer, though, and the manner in which his victims are slaughtered, where Untraceable truly distinguishes itself. Using everything from heat lamps to sulfuric acid, the killer leaves it up to his audience as to how quickly his “subjects” die. The more viral the video goes, the faster the death. And these killings are vicious! The subjects do not die quickly; even late in the film, when the viewership numbers jump exponentially by the second, these poor souls suffer for what seems like an eternity, making each fresh kill tougher to watch than the last.
Director Hoblit and screenwriters Robert Fyvolent, Mark Brinker, and Allison Burnett also throw us for a loop at one point. The killer’s identity remains a well-kept secret until just before the movie’s halfway mark, at which point we the audience finally see his face. Yet his motives, his exact whereabouts, even his identity remain a mystery. It is as if the filmmakers were toying with us in much the same way the killer toys with the police and the FBI. In most thrillers, an early glimpse of the villain functions as an “a-ha” moment, an exposé that answers a few questions we might have had up to that point. In Untraceable, we see his face. That’s all we get, and just like before this slight reveal, we’re relying on Agent Marsh to fill in the rest of the blanks.
As mentioned, Untraceable is not subtle about what it’s trying to teach us. The internet has made the world a much smaller place, granting anyone and everyone access to grisly real-life images and shocking news videos from around the world. With mayhem and murder a simple Google search away, we have become passive observers, taking in real-life violence as if it were nothing more than a TV show, with no concern whatsoever for the people whose lives have been forever changed.
Yet while Untraceable may deliver its message with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer, this does not detract at all from the film’s overall effectiveness. A taut police procedural and a first-class thriller, Untraceable will have you nervously biting your nails from start to finish.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
And she was phenomenal in it!
It’s the early 1930s, and Jean Brodie (Smith) is a teacher at the Marcia Bline School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland. Though her assigned subject is history, Jean Brodie often discusses art and poetry with her students, which puts her at odds with stuffy headmistress Miss Mackay (Celia Johnson). A free spirit, Jane also has an active love life, and is avoiding the amorous advances of married art teacher Teddy Lloyd (Robert Stephens), with whom she recently had an affair, to instead forge a relationship with the dull but kindly music teacher, Gordon Lowther (Gordon Jackson).
More than anything, though, Jean Brodie is dedicated to her pupils, four of whom: Sandy (Pamela Franklin), Jenny (Diane Grayson), Monica (Shirley Steedman), and newest student Mary McGregor (Jane Carr), have formed a group known around the school as the “Brodie Girls”. Taking them on weekend field trips and tours of the city, Jean Brodie is especially fond of her Brodie Girls, and believes she is preparing them for very bright futures.
But when Jean, who is no stranger to controversy, crosses a line by extolling the virtues of fascism to her students, it may spell the end of her academic career.
Everything about Ronald Neame’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, from the costumes, sets, and locations to the music (“Jean”, written and performed by Rod McKeun, won that year’s Golden Globe for Best Original Song), impressed the hell out of me.
Across the board, the performances are solid. Robert Stephens, who at the time was married to Maggie Smith, is cocky as the oversexed Teddy Lloyd, yet has genuine feelings for Jean Brodie, to the point that he believes she may be the only woman he has ever loved. Also good are Gordon Jackson as Jean’s other romantic entanglement, a man who is dependable yet not near her league, and Celia Jackson as the uptight headmistress whose attitude towards Jane may be driven as much by envy as a genuine distaste for the outspoken teacher’s methods.
The finest of the supporting turns, however, is delivered by Pamela Franklin as Sandy, the most gifted of the “Brodie Girls”. At the start, Sandy and the others idolize Jean Brodie, and want to spend as much time with her as possible. But as the girls mature, (the film’s events span several years), Sandy takes special notice of the failings of Jean Brodie, some genuinely observed, others brought on by Sandy’s own jealousy (she, too, has an affair with Teddy Lloyd). Playing a character whose age ranges from 12 to 17 over the course of the movie, Miss Franklin perfectly conveys the wide-eyed innocence of youth as well as a budding, independent young woman.
At the center of it all, though, is Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie. Talking at times as if she were a character in an Oscar Wilde play (especially in her opening scenes, addressing her class on the first day back at school), Jean Brodie is a force of nature in this movie. She is outgoing, energetic, dedicated, and flamboyant, and we see almost immediately why both men and her students are drawn to her. Jean is fiercely independent, refusing to adhere to a curriculum so that she can broaden the horizons of her pupils, and a scene in which she stands up to Miss Mackay, who is demanding that Jean resign, is one of the film’s high points.
But as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie reveals, Jean is far from perfect, and it’s a credit to Maggie Smith that, even in those scenes in which her character is crossing a line, or allowing her own selfish plans to get in the way of what’s best for her girls, she does not hold back. Perhaps most controversial, for both the story and the film’s potential audience, is Jean’s insistence that Fascism is the wave of the future, and should be embraced. On holiday, Jean spends her free time in Italy, and expresses admiration for “Il Duce”, Bentio Mussolini. Even when her support for Franco’s efforts in Spain results in a tragedy that rocks the Brodie girls, Jean does not waver. From start to finish of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the title character oozes charisma, and has a magnetic personality. Our opinions of her may change over the course of the film, but Jane herself does not change.
My favorite Maggie Smith performance is in Robert Altman’s Gosford Park, where she plays the witty but snobbish Aunt Constance. Part of an amazing ensemble, Smith still managed to steal every scene, and though she didn’t play the most likable character in Gosford Park, I couldn’t help but admire her. The same can be said of her Jean in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Whether we love her or detest her, Jean Brodie is the film’s most fascinating individual, and we are as drawn to her as the film’s characters.
And the late, great Maggie Smith is the reason why.
Rating: 9 out of 10
And then Abigail proceeded to exceed my expectations and blow me away!
The young ballerina is our title character, Abigail (Alisha Weir). She doesn’t know it yet, but she is being stalked by a team of kidnappers, a group of criminals and outcasts each with their own specific skillset. The goal: kidnap young Abigail and hold her in a remote mansion hideaway until her rich daddy coughs up a $50 million ransom.
For security reasons, the kidnappers do not know each other’s names. Instead, their employer, Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito), assigns them aliases inspired by the Rat Pack. Frank (Dan Stevens) is the unappointed leader of the group, mostly because his pissed-off demeanor intimidates the others. Joey (Melissa Barrera) obviously has some medical training, and is there to watch over Abigail. Sammy (Kathryn Newton) is a computer hacker who does it for kicks, while the dim-witted Peter (Kevin Durand) is the muscle. Rounding out the team are Dean (Angus Cloud), the stoner who is also a hell of a getaway driver, and Rickles (Will Callett), the ex-military weapons expert.
The kidnapping goes off without a hitch. Abigail is tied up and tucked away in one of the mansion’s upstairs bedrooms. Frightened and confused, the young girl is comforted by Joey, and a bond forms between them. As for the others, they have nothing to do but wait for Lambert to return in 24 hours with their share of the ransom money, and spend their time enjoying the amenities of their luxurious hide-out.
It isn’t long, though, before the criminals realize they are not alone, and that someone… or something… is stalking them. As the hours drag on, the odds that any of these criminals will survive the ordeal grow longer and longer.
As mentioned above, the trailer spoiled the fact that Abigail, which opens as a crime / thriller, transforms into a vampire film at some point (much like the trailer for Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn ruined a similar twist in that film). Now, for those of you who have not seen the trailer, I will reveal nothing more. But for those who have watched the trailer and not the movie, rest easy. Abigail features additional twists and turns, each as surprising as the last.
The primary reason these surprises work is the film’s superior cast. Melissa Barrera, Dan Stevens, and the others do a masterful job bringing this diverse set of kidnappers to life. Their various interactions are at the core of this film, from the camaraderie that builds between some (Sammy and Peter flirt a little early on, which develops into mutual trust and genuine affection once things get real) to the antagonism that blossoms amongst others (Frank and Joey engage in a battle of wills that only intensifies with each new scene).
When all is said and done, however, the finest performance in Abigail is given by Abigail herself, Alisha Weir. Her range is phenomenal, and she is convincing as both a frightened child and a bad-ass in complete control. Ms. Weir steals every scene in Abigail. And that is no exaggeration. Every… damn… scene! I would go so far as to rank her turn as Abigail up there with Hailee Steinfeld’s Mattie Ross in 2010’s True Grit as one of the greatest child performances ever captured on film. There are many reasons to watch Abigail, and Alisha Weir is at the top of that list.
What else does Abigail have going in its favor? Well, it’s a horror / comedy that works on both levels, with copious amounts of blood spewed in every direction (though enhanced digitally, the majority of the gore scenes were done practically, and it shows) and plenty of laughs (often times, the funniest moments are the ones featuring graphic violence). Abigail proved an incredibly entertaining motion picture, and if you have not yet seen it, you should absolutely treat yourself and watch it right now!
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
This time around, the year is 1977. Night Owls, a late-night talk show hosted by Jack Delroy (David Dasmalchian), has been a perennial runner-up in the ratings since its debut six years earlier, finishing second to Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show. Having recently returned to Night Owls following a long sabbatical, during which he mourned the death of his beloved wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig), Jack is hoping this Halloween special will finally catapult him to the number one spot on the ratings chart.
Joined as always by his trusty sidekick, Gus (Rhys Auteri), Jack has invited guests who specialize in the paranormal, including psychic Christou (Faysaal Bazzi); former magician-turned-skeptic Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss); and author / paranormal investigator June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), who believes that her protégé, 13-year-old Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the lone survivor of a demonic cult, is possessed by an evil entity.
Things go from bad to worse during the broadcast. Christou claims at one point to be receiving signals from a powerful spirit, and has a violent reaction to it. Then, with Carmichael Haig continually alienating the audience by way of his assertions that the supernatural is phony, Jack decides to up the ante, and convinces a reluctant June Ross-Mitchell to “contact” the demon living inside Lilly… live on the air!
The Night Owls sequences throughout Late Night With the Devil, where Jack and his guests are in front of the cameras, broadcasting to the entire country, are a hell of a lot of fun. Starting with Christou’s psychic readings of audience members (where his results are hit-and-miss) through to the terrifying moment when the demon inside Lilly bursts to the surface, we believe we are watching a live TV show.
Yet it’s what separates this film from others like it that really impressed me. Throughout the entireties of both Ghostwatch and The WNUF Halloween Special, never once do the filmmakers break format. At all times, what we are seeing in those two excellent films is exactly what anyone who watched the programs “live on TV” would have seen. In contrast, Late Night with the Devil also features “behind-the-scenes” footage (shot in B&W), supposedly captured during the commercial breaks. Throughout these asides, we eavesdrop on conversations between Jack and his longtime producer Leo (Josh Quong Tart) discussing the best way to maximize ratings, all as Gus and a few others in the crew express their concerns that things are getting out of hand.
By including these extra scenes (which are too polished to have actually been shot during the breaks), the Cairnes are essentially “stripping away” the realistic vibe that the earlier films went to great lengths to maintain, all in an effort to increase the tension (when Gus is volunteered to be the subject of a demonstration staged by Carmichael Haig late in the movie, the studio audience doesn’t know what we know: that Gus is already scared out of his mind!).
The Cairnes’ do a fine job recreating the look and feel of a ‘70s late-night talk show, right down to the cheap set pieces and gaudy clothes; and David Dasmalchian gives a solid performance as Jack Delroy, a guy just charismatic enough that we believe he’d be the host of his own show, yet at the same time mediocre enough to convince us he’ll never beat Carson in the ratings (Jack always goes for the obvious joke). Yet it’s the approach that Late Night with the Devil takes in telling its story, and its willingness to occasionally suspend the realism other movies of its ilk strive to preserve, that helps it stand apart from the rest.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
