A Horror Film Blog

A young couple decide to have a weekend away at his daddy's beach house in a town perched on the edge of the ocean.  Damned if they don't choose the weekend of some terrifying ecological catastrophe for it. Emily and Randall smooch.  We don't get many essentially nice people smooching in horror films, so let's celebrate them. I enjoyed the first two acts of this of this film a lot. And they are distinct acts - the initial establishment and location of character, then confusion and mounting horror, followed by an action-orientated climax. I particularly appreciated the director's willingness to take things slowly and let unease and uncertainty build up. For the first half hour everything seems normal and mundane.  Our characters - Emily and Randall - arrive at the beach house.  They meet an older couple who are also planning on staying there.  Delightfully, and so unusually for films, no-one is unpleasant or acts like a total dick. Misunderstandings smoothed over...

If you can overlook the ludicrous premise of this film there is a lot of fun to be had here. The story is nonsense but the film makers play it absolutely straight. Christmas Eve, and foul mouth record store owner Tori (the awesome Riley Dandy) is knocking off.  Reluctantly, she allows her employee Robbie (Sam Delich) to talk her out of going on a Tinder date and get wasted with him instead.  They drink and bicker, which makes up the first act of the film.   Meanwhile, the ex-military war robot, reprogrammed as a Christmas Santa at a local toy store (I told you it was stupid) develops a bug and - I guess - re-sets to factory settings, which means it is looking for people to kill, ho ho ho.  For reasons unclear, in the second act, it decides Tori is its prime target and sets out to rain Hell fire down on her boozy 'default date' with Robbie.  Being a true and worthy Final Girl, she doesn't take to this idea, and the final act consists of the two of them mauli...

 After watching Mickey Keating's Offseason I decided to check out more of his work, so I watched Carnage Park.  I'm glad to report it is another win - a slick micro-budget thriller centred on brilliant performances by Ashely Bell as the hapless victim of terrible misfortune, and the genius of sound designer Sean Duffy.  Keating helps out a bit as well. Vivian is not having a good day. First, the obvious criticism - this is nothing original.  A bank heist goes wrong and two hoodlums try to escape with a hapless woman - wrong place at the wrong time, lady! - in the truck.  Their flight to Mexico is cut short when they blunder into a cheerful local psychopath's devil's playground. Thus far, we could be watching any number of cheap and cheerless Tarantino or Rodriguez knock offs.  Keating signals his influences cheerfully - there are about half a dozen references or borrowings from Reservoir Dog s and From Dusk Till Dawn in the two sentences above, and Keatin...

Finally, after a long line of grotesque, sadistic and exploitative trash masquerading as horror I stumbled upon  Offseason  , directed by Mickey Keating, a near brilliant film. It will be appreciated by those who like atmosphere, suspense and the horror arising from being trapped; but disappoint those who like gore, jump scares, nudity and on camera eviscerations. "Just try and blend in, everything will be fine." Keating seems to have gleaned a lot of information about Things I Like and put them all together in one place: films that centre on strong female characters; abandoned places; a pervading sense of doom or punishment for crimes known or unknown; and that mysterious hinterland where the land becomes the sea.  It's also a very Lovecraftian films without actually invoking Lovecraft. So it has a nodding acquaintance with films like Carpenter;s The Fog (there  is s lot of fog billowing about the empty streets in Off Season); the magnificent Messiah of Evil directe...

So, there is a short film on Shudder called White Girl.  It's directed by Nadia Latif.  It's 13 minutes long. The plot is fairly simple, as befits a short film.  The titular white girl - a wholesome looking teen - wanders the streets of London, interacting briefly with various people - usually people of colour who react in a variety of ways, mostly guarded or hostile. In the end she is approached by an elderly woman in a hijab, and the girl savagely murders her. This is the picture pretty much everyone uses when they talk about this film, so I'll use it, too. On Shudder, a lot of the reviews complain about racism.  I mean, what are we to make of this? no polotics for Satans sakes Or what about: Next up, the sequel "Black Girl" and the prequal "Arab girl" and the remake "Asian Girl"....Oh, wait. Thats right, your only allowed to point at white folks in "current year". If people cant see the psychological programming going on in Hollywo...

This Australian film is on Shudder, but it isn't exactly a horror film - look elsewhere if you want gore or shocks. It is, however, a very well made film and Quentin Tarantino's championing has helped get it some much deserved attention.   The plot does revolve around the search for a serial killer - kind of - and there are some well crafted suspense sequences, so if you need justification for its inclusion here, there's that. It's a semi-comic thriller built on three great performances - Stacey Keach as the trucker Quid; a hound credited as 'Killer' as his 'dingo' companion; and his truck as ... his truck. All roads lead to Rome, but what road diverted Jamie Lee Curtis to Australia in 1981? It's worth taking a moment to consider how Stacey Keach manages to be brilliant in many remarkable films (this one; Fat City; The Heart is a Lonely Hunter) but inexplicably hasn't enjoyed the success of lesser actors. More intensity, Stacey! While we are on t...