It's just turned to November 5th which is Bonfire Night here in England - the skies have been filled with fireworks. Hope everyone had a great Halloween!
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‘The Underwear Seller’ (1982, La vendedora de ropa interior - German Lorente)
Respected family figurehead Ramoncín (José Sazatornil) fights to keep his house in order when his daughter Paquita (María José Nieto) gets a job as a lingerie designer and sets about testing her new products on her friends and relatives.
‘The Underwear Seller ‘ is a funny comedy in which novice saleswoman Paquita enlists some amateur models to help her test the effects of her new range of underwear, the only trouble being that her three excited models are her uneducated maid Rosa (Andrea Albani), her frustrated mother Doña Elvira (Florinda Chico) and herself. Veteran Spanish filmmaker German Lorente maintains a sprightly pace throughout this bright comedy of manners and energises the double-ended dialogues and absurd family squabbles proposed by satirist Juan José Alonso Millán at every turn.
'That '70s Girl' (2004 - Johnny Crash)
Busy career girl Ashleigh (Julian Wells) and her unemployed sister Jennifer (Suzi Lorraine) take in carefree lodger Petal (Erin Brown) and her pal Mandy (A.J. Khan) to ease their rent burden.
'That '70s Girl' is a funny low budget comedy about a pair of straight arrow sisters jolted into living by a pair of stoner chicks preaching love, peace and flower power. It has a quartet of dynamic comic turns, a hilarious screenplay co-authored by literate underground producer Michael Raso and a befuddled cameo by John Link. The chief liability is E.I. Independent staff editor Johnny Crash's unimaginative direction which shows none of the visual invention he brought to 'Spiderbabe' (2003) a year earlier. Despite the "point and shoot" approach to filmmaking, it remains a lively piece of dinner theatre. Misty Mundae sings the title track ‘That ‘70s Girl’ by The Pink Delicates in harmony with Tiny Tim Tomorrows.
'Legend Has It' (2008 - Jason Bolinger & Insane Mike Saunders)
Film student Al Cunningham (Rich McNinch) protects his friends from a rampaging plant monster ... badly.
The experimental digital project 'Legend Has It' is a microbudget monster movie with a postmodern sensibility. Amnesiac movie geek Al is like a young Woody Allen, shaping events by manipulating space and time while dictating the story's terms. Al's eye-rolling commentary exudes a nerdish charm and intelligent student Heather (Stephanie McNinch) strikes up an easygoing chemistry as his Diane Keaton. There's funny support from Leila Zimmerman as daydreamer Dee Baker and Jeremiah Tuttle as crude slob Bert O'Bannon. 'Legend Has It' was filmed in Ottumwa and Iowa City in the state of Iowa and marked the first collaboration between horror filmmaker Insane Mike Saunders and Davenport native Linnea Quigley who'd go on to appear in 'Collapse' (2011) and 'Demonica' (2014).
'The Taint' (2011 - Drew Bolduc & Dan Nelson)
Stroppy student Phil O'Ginny (Drew Bolduc) tags along with hardcore park ranger Misandra (Colleen Walsh) during a daylight apocalypse.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare 'The Taint' to be that rarest of things, a good gross-out comedy horror. It's defiantly juvenile, infuriating at times, even pathetic on occasion, but despite a few misfired gags it's pretty entertaining from start to finish (helped by a short running time). The film benefits from its broad comic takes on stock characters and jaw-dropping make-up effects. The filmmakers use flashbacks, animation, news clips, propaganda reels, monochrome juxtapositions, dream sequences and graphic inserts to paper over the cracks left by an absence of cogent storytelling. Drew Bolduc goes all out as an aberrant schoolboy who declares war on misogynists in the name of red state U.S.A. while blowing off a plentitude of dribbling c*cks. My favourite scene is a music video montage depicting an all-American pump crew's sweaty workout routine that parodies similar sequences in the genre films of David DeCoteau, Rick Sloane and Richard Gabai.
'Aaaaaaaah!' (2015 - Steve Oram)
A society of human apes runs wild.
Steve Oram's tedious experimental comedy 'Aaaaaaaaah!' is excruciatingly annoying. There have been some great comedies about feral people and ape behaviour but 'Aaaaaaaah!' is built around a single gimmick. I'm sure the cast had fun pretending to be apes for 79 minutes. The line-up includes Lucy Honigman, Holli Dempsey, comedian Noel Fielding and singer Toyah Willcox whose husband Robert Fripp (of King Crimson) contributed to the soundtrack.
'Bad*ss Monster Killer' (2015 - Darin Wood)
Undercover Agent Jimmy Chevelle (Jawara Duncan) battles supernatural forces in the city of Camaroville.
It's always fun seeing a new movie inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft. 'Bad*ss Monster Killer' is writer-director Darin Wood's expressionistic take on Lovecraft's mythos filtered through the lens of funky 1970s crime cinema. You're immediately struck by its bold and colourful visual design which is unique to Camaroville. The storytelling is vibrant and energetic, illuminating bright characters with flashlights who emerge from the fringes, sometimes transmogrifying into weird and wonderful creatures before returning to the shadows. I really enjoyed Wood's creature feature 'Monster From Bikini Beach' (2008) but he has a significantly bigger budget to work with here and it shows. Stephanie Hyden - so good as roving reporter Raquel Vanvanderzander in 'Monster From Bikini Beach' - performs an incredible torch dance in 'Bad*ss Monster Killer' as mystical demon Nina Valencia, flanked by cosplay superstarlets Marilyn Monroach and Boots Trader. I'd like to see Wood's other horror features 'Curse Of The Golden Skull' (2005) and 'Planet Of The Vampire Women' (2011).
'The Lure' (2015, Córki dancingu - Agnieszka Smoczyńska)
Nightclub performer Wokalistka Krysia (Kinga Preis) takes singing sisters Golden (Michalina Olszańska) and Silver (Marta Mazurek) under her wing when she sees them being exploited by the venue's management.
The mermaid musical 'The Lure' is a tail-thumping tragedy set in Warsaw, Poland during the 1980s. It's inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale 'The Little Mermaid' (1837) and based upon the true story of singing sisters Barbara Wrońskie & Zuzanna Wrońskie. The musical numbers are clunky obstacles with live singing; Kinga Preis, Michalina Olszańska and Marta Mazurek rehearsed rigorously in character during a designated pre-production period to be ready to shoot on the hop and it shows in how they fully inhabit their characters. Olszańska and Mazurek are cerebral in human form and intuitive as mermaids, emerging from the water as an enigmatic double-act with a cool fusion. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's film is a cruel subversion of a fishermans' parable that captures the pain and joy of sisterhood.
'Other Halves' (2015 - Matthew T. Price)
Office manager Jasmine (Mercedes Manning) pushes her staff to debug their new dating application 'Other Halves' before launch date.
'Other Halves' is an independent horror film that's original and thought-provoking, investigating a topical premise set by screenwriters Kelly Moor and Matthew T. Price. It analyses one paranoid night in the life of a team of expert coders desperately looking to debug a program that's been infected with something designed to deflect and demolish. Maverick software programmer Devon Reid (La Nova multi-instrumentalist Lauren Lakis) clashes with graphic designer Beth (Megan Hui), digital profiler Elle (Lianna Liew), depot engineer Jana (Melanie Friedrich) and data analyst Shawn (Sam Schweikert) as they come to suspect a saboteur is stalking them. The confrontational visual design is constructed as a series of alarmed compositions and the pace is driven forward by rat-a-tat-tat dialogue exchanges and a diverse high technology soundtrack. Director Price introduces a range of interesting visual tricks including instant messenger captions, blurred cursor movements, circuit board x-rays and hyperelectric ultra neon screens. The virtual reality game the team enters frequently places the viewer inside the diseased mind of a computer during diagnostics and anti-virus treatment.
'Sociopathia' (2015 - Ruby Larocca & Rich Mallery)
Film prop maker Mara (Tammy Jean) kills and preserves her prey as human love dolls. She becomes dangerously obsessed with Kat (Asta Paredes) which sends her into a tailspin.
Ruby Larocca has been one of digital horror cinema's greatest performers this century, so I was keen to see how she did in the (co-)directors chair with relative newcomer Rich Mallery. I think they've produced a decent looking picture with 'Sociopathia', yet reading reviews online, it seems many horror fans had the same problem with it that I did, finding their script way too derivative. If you look beyond a fine central performance by Tammy Jean it's basically a horror homage, drawing inspiration from stylish genre pieces like 'Tourist Trap' (1979), 'Maniac' (1980). 'Frankenhooker' (1990) and 'May' (2002). It works well enough as a character study but the story didn't engage me. Both Larocca and Mallery are part of an excellent cast that brings forth fine work from Asta Paredes, Nicola Fiore, Nicolette le Faye and Tabetha Ray. I hope Larocca directs another feature as she's shown great promise here: she gave a terrific performance in Erin Brown's feature-length directorial debut 'Lustful Addiction' (2003) which raised hopes that Brown would continue behind the camera, hopes that so far remain unrealised beyond a couple of short subject films.
'Tales Of Halloween' (2015)
Directors :
Darren Lynn Bousman ... (segment "The Night Billy Raised Hell")
Axelle Carolyn ... (segment "Grim Grinning Ghost")
Adam Gierasch ... (segment "Trick")
Andrew Kasch ... (segment "This Means War")
Neil Marshall ... (segment "Bad Seed")
Lucky McKee ... (segment "Ding Dong")
Mike Mendez ... (segment "Friday the 31st")
Dave Parker ... (segment "Sweet Tooth") (as David Parker)
Ryan Schifrin ... (segment "The Ransom of Rusty Rex")
John Skipp ... (segment "This Means War")
Paul Solet ... (segment "The Weak and the Wicked")
Ten acts of terror are perpetrated at Halloween.
The horror anthology 'Tales Of Halloween' brings together alot of talent but there's no revelations because all the stories are so short and compacted. It's a seasonal treat for candy freaks that projects the holiday spirit and is professionally mounted. My favourite episode would probably be either 'The Night Billy Raised Hell' or 'Friday The 31st' but they all have their charms. Horror filmmakers Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Stuart Gordon, Adam Green, John Landis and Greg McLean have cameo roles.
'Locked Up' (2017 - Jared Cohn)
Wayward college student Mallory (Kelly McCart) is enrolled by her guardian at the Lattsan Correctional Facility following a violent incident.
'Locked Up' is a gritty prison drama that depicts the incarceration of a young American woman at a secret detention centre in Thailand in grim detail. There are no surprises here but the film's strength comes from its central performer Kelly McCart who suffers all manner of threats and indignities. It's a tense, unpleasant viewing experience but a powerful one.
'Strip Club Massacre' (2017 - Bob Clark)
Office worker Megan (Alicia Watson) loses her job, her boyfriend and her home in the space of a day. She leaves Louisiana and travels to Georgia to stay with her friend Amanda (Courtney Riggs) who secures her a job waitressing at an underground strip club.
'Strip Club Massacre' is an ugly, ultra-violent strip club thriller that recalls producer Roger Corman's night-life stripper cycle. The grisly special effects are ghastly and gross but shoddy and unconvincing. Sequences mounting wall-to-wall depravity become boring after a while and poor execution mutes the overall impact. The stand-out performer is Erin Brown who totally kills it as sadistic switchblade sister Jazz.
