Film Review: SUMMER SCHOOL (2006)

Anthology films are very hit or miss, but more often than not they are miss.  The same can be said for the film Summer School (2006) which suffers from being an anthology with a unique premise that is destroyed by subpar acting and production values and weak and uninspired direction (from all the directors).

It’s the first day of summer school and Charles (Simon Wallace) just wants to get through the day without any problems because he just spent last night watching a lot of B-level horror films.  Today will be anything but normal as Charles soon discovers that he is living a nightmare within a nightmare of different style horror films.  The only way of escape is when he dies at the end of the nightmare and wakes up but what is a nightmare and what is the real world?

The film has a great concept behind it as the short films contained within are from different genres from a vampire film to a mutant infestation film to a hillbilly “Wrong Turn” like film to more.  This is an excellent idea for a horror film but the overall film is hampered by a weak lead in with Wallace who cannot carry the film and seems out of place in many of the shorts (his performance is very inconsistent).  His co-stars all seem to be having more fun as each short has the same actors portraying different characters from one story to the next.

Most of the direction is pedestrian and lacks imagination and causes the film to drag especially when you’re stuck in scenes with just Wallace.  The low budget (or no budget as it looks) aesthetics of the film hamper it at every turn leaving nothing in the film to actually enjoy.  This is a shame since the film’s concept is its driving force and allure.  This is one of those independent films that could do with a remake that had a budget to do the story justice.

Film Review: DIRE WOLF (2009)

I’m not a big fan of director Fred Olen Ray but he has a lot of films behind him of which Dire Wolf (2009) is just one of them.  I wasn’t expecting much from this film but I must say I was pleasantly surprised.   The film is written by Dan Golden and Patrick Moran and for the most part is a solid-monster-escapes-laboratory-and-wreaks-havoc-on-small-town film.  In this case science has decided to splice the human DNA with that of a dire wolf.  When the creature awakens from its sleep it escapes the lab into the open world and kills just about everyone in its path.  The only person that can stop it is Sheriff Parker (a superb Maxwell Caulfield) and his son and several special agents who were sent in to capture the science-gone-amok creature alive.

The monster kills and a lot of people die in gruesome fashion as fitting a good horror film.  Horror fans will delight in the chaos and bloodshed on display in the film despite the very familiar storyline but it is Caulfield as the Sheriff who really shines.  He runs his police office like something out of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks adding a bit of originality and humor to the film.  By the end of the film I was wishing for the Sheriff to get his own TV series from the same town where bad things just always happen but the Sheriff will get to it in his own time.

This being said the rest of the film is pretty standard stuff but its standard stuff done very well and therefore will entertain you from beginning to end.  Now if you can’t stand the cliché monster film then this is definitely not the film for you but if you enjoy a good cup of coffee with your monster movie then this film just might be what you’re looking for.

Film Review: OCCUPIED (2011)

Mollie Binkley writes and directs Occupied (2011) a psychological thriller about a young woman Sarah (Liza Binkley) who goes to babysit her cousin Charlotte (Lucy Bock) in her home in the countryside while her father is away on business.  This would be the perfect vacation except Sarah is suffering from some emotional trauma that threatens her from the inside out.

Sarah’s relationship with the young and precocious Charlotte is the stuff of BFFs even if it has been many years since the two have seen each other but the isolation from the rest of the world slowly tears at Sarah in ways that she was no expecting and the safe place in the countryside becomes a prison for both of them.

This is not a horror film in the traditional sense but a character piece that builds slowly as you get to learn about the two women and the different worlds that they come from.  Binkley does a great job building the character relationships between the two as well as the history subtlety instead on large chunks of information.  I also must commend Binkley who holds her own and can carry most of the weight of the film on her shoulders but I cannot dismiss Bock who is exceptionally good as well.

Because the film is a character piece it may be a tad slow for most viewers but the cinematography of Noah Rosenthal brings the idyllic countryside to life and is never boring especially considering the fact that most of the film takes place in a single house.  The film makers make a lot out of the limited means that they have.  This is a very good debut film from Binkley who does a fine job with character pieces and I hope she continues on this road with future productions.

Film Review: KILLJOY (2000)

Killjoy (2000) is one of many of the Full Moon Entertainment films that for some reason has many sequels (and they keep making more) despite the fact that the first film is not all that good of a film.  Written by Carl Washington and directed by Craig Ross, Jr. the story of Killjoy is nothing original.  Jamal (Lee Marks) is a misunderstood young man who is picked on and beat up by the neighborhood gangster Lorenzo (William L. Johnson) because he’s in love with his girlfriend.  Lorenzo isn’t one to sit back and let Jamal punk him out so one night he and his thugs decide to teach Jamal a lesion only the lesson is fatal for Jamal.  Unbeknownst to Lorenzo, Jamal will have the last laugh as he has conjured up the spirit of Killjoy who intends to enact revenge on everyone who has hurt Jamal. 

Now, this is a plot that’s been used more often in horror films than I can name - among them The Toxic Avenger (1984), Prom Night (1980), The Burning (1981), and many, many more.  So, in the year 2000 this is a tired old story.  The only saving grace for the film is that is an almost all African American cast (very rare for horror films).  Unfortunately, the cast is saddled with a very cliché script and very “domestic” direction.  There is no flare for the film.  This isn’t all that surprising as the ‘00s were not a good time for Full Moon as most of their output of films looked cheap with bad visual FX and little to no fight choreography.  This film is locked into very few locations which limits the amount of camera set ups which seem repetitive by the half-way mark.

There are a few moments that will appease fans of Full Moon’s “low expectation” audience which is the fact that the film is filled with bad jokes but at least they’re delivered with flare by the entertaining Killjoy which is probably what has allowed the franchise to live as long as it has.  I don’t really recommend this film unless you are a die-hard Full Moon fan then you might actually think it’s better than most of the films the company produced during the ‘00s.

Film Review: THE INFLICTED (2012)

Let me tell you what I liked about the film The Inflicted (2012).  It stars Bill Mosely, Sig Haig, and Doug Bradley.  That is all that is good about this film. David O’Hara (Matthan Harris who also wrote and directed the film) is a medical student who also happens to be a serial killer trying to make up for the mistakes of his murdering father (played by Mosely).  David has been plagued by the death of his sister when they were young by his father who drowned her.  Now he is trying to create his own perfect family by kidnapping Melissa Daniels (Lindsay Hightower) and impregnating her and forcing her to have his child. 

The only bad thing is that David isn’t all that good of a serial killer as despite the fact that he has killed many people before kidnapping Melissa.   The cops discover him very quickly and he becomes a simple killer on the run for most of the film.  Once Melissa escapes from David’s clutches she is haunted by his memory and the fact that she is carrying his unborn child.  She seeks help from her psychiatrist Dr. Gardner (Haig) but she can never forget her tragedy.  David has managed to stay on the run due to the help of his father but the local cops and special agents are after David who seems to be able to get out of every scrape with the law by killing a few people.  Oh, and Doug Bradley (Pinhead of the Hellraiser films) is Agent Wilson who is quickly killed by David in a thankless cameo.

The film is seriously hampered by a really bad directing and overall acting.  This is a small gripe as the writing is what really kills the film as it portrays David as a serial killer that can get out of any mess by killing a few people despite the fact that if he was as good a serial killer as written he would’ve never been caught in the first place.  This film truly is one of those films written and directed by an actor who wanted his own starring film and who wanted his own character to be better than all the rest despite the huge jumps in logic audiences would have to make to find any of it believable in the slightest.  This was a really badly done film whose only redeeming quality is Mosely who surprising gets more screen time than Bradley and Haig put together.  Even though his performance is all over the place (something I’m attributing to the bad direction of the film), Mosely does the best that he can with what he’s been given and I can commend him on that.