John’s Horror Corner: Critters 3: You Are What You Eat (1991), an inferior sequel with less gore, blood, action, humor and storytelling.
MY CALL: Sure, it’s still entertaining. But it’s also exceedingly dumb, watered-down, devoid of gore and completely uninspired compared to parts 1-2 that I wouldn’t recommend it or even consider it comparable to the other two. MORE MOVIES LIKE Critters 3: Critters (1986) and Critters 2 (1988), Gremlins (1984), Ghoulies 2 (1988), Tremors (1990), Grabbers (2012)… maybe even Munchies (1987) and Hobgoblins (1988). Leprechaun (1993) is also a decent R-rated horror comedy follow-up for fans of Critters.
FRANCHISE SIDEBAR: In part 1, a batch of critters escaped a maximum security “prison asteroid” and were followed to Earth by shape-shifting intergalactic bounty hunters. With the help of a teenager and the town drunk, they thought the threat was eradicated and Charlie (Don Keith Opper; Critters 1-4) joined the ranks of the bounty hunters. But remember how part 1 ended with a clutch of eggs? Well, after yet another deliciously cheesy SciFi spaceship opening, the alien bounty hunters received orders to return to Earth and eliminate the remaining monsters. So in part 2, Charlie and bounty hunter Ug saved the town yet again. However, they clearly didn’t complete the mission successfully because here we are for part 3 which actually begins near Grover’s Bend, Kansas where this all started…
Beginning with SciFi scenes in outer space, parts 1-2 opened with a sort of flair indicative of the filmmakers’ love for their work. These goofy space scenes felt inspired and offered unconventional ways for us to meet our monsters and protagonists. But this sequel is the first to feel like a generic 80s horror flick from its outset. This could just as readily be the first few minutes of Pumpkinhead 8 or Tremors 10.
We quickly meet our generic protagonist family including Annie (Aimee Brooks; Sorority House Massacre, Monster Man), her new friend Josh (Leonardo DiCaprio; The Revenant, Shutter Island), and when we are reintroduced to Charlie it feels as hokey and uninspired as can be. Typical of the era, Charlie gives a montage review of parts 1-2 to the group of children to catch the audience up.
Driving through the site of parts 1-2 (Grover’s Bend, Kansas), critters lay a clutch of green oozing eggs under our protagonists’ car to hitchhike to the city. Our victims end up trapped in a Los Angeles apartment building with the monsters, making for an easy (and uninteresting) low budget venue. It was every bit as unexciting as it sounds.
HORROR IN THE BIG CITY SIDEBAR: Lots of horror franchises decided to break out from their cabins in the woods and remote farms to try their hand at the big city. Among them are Friday the 13th part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989), Pinhead went solo in the club scene in Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992), Leprechaun 2 (1994) took its diminutive rascal to Las Vegas and then the Hood twice (2000, 2003), Carol Anne moved downtown only to be followed in Poltergeist III (1988), and now the critters have packed their bags to head to Los Angeles.
This is easily the most hokey installment of the franchise (so far). The critters watch cooking shows, they get bowled down like pins complete with sound effects, they fart and burp and giggle about it amidst food fights, and they eat whatever they can (including dish soap) for cheap comic relief. One gets a bleach burn and actually resembles Stripe from Gremlins (1984). But far less serious, the kitchen scene antics are really more like Gremlins 2 (1990). This Stripe-like leader was the most interesting development, paling in comparison to part 1’s giant critter or part 2’s critterball and the comical bounty hunter shape-changing (into a Playboy Playmate with a magazine staple on her sternum).
Director Kristine Peterson (Kickboxer 5, Deadly Dreams) fails to capture the fun magic of the series. Critter action is less frequent, the writing isn’t clever, the gore is nonexistent (way less than parts 1-2), the blood is reduced, and the plot is as generic as they come. When Charlie finally comes to the rescue it all falls flat. I felt the creature effects also dropped in quality, and the only gore moment worth mentioning was when little old Mrs. Menges (Frances Bay; In the Mouth of Madness, Nomads) hacks a critter in half with a giant cleaver. I miss the gory flesh-eaten bones and skeletons and cadavers.
Honestly, the most interesting part was the last few minutes. Moving into the credits, Charlie finds critter eggs and gets an interstellar call from his old bounty hunter buddy Ug (Terrence Mann; Critters 1-4) informing him that they are the very last two of eggs of the species and they are to be preserved in a space pod that crashes into the building in the final shot with a big “to be continued” across the screen. It’s this Sci-Fi connection that always made the earlier movies more lively. But still, it’s nice to see some returning characters.
This sequel is clearly inferior to parts 1-2, so it’s really hard to recommend. It completely lacks the off-the-wall inventiveness that made the earlier installments work so well. But I didn’t hate it.
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John’s Horror Corner: Mara (2018), a sleep paralysis demon using The Ring’s (2002) playbook and Mama’s (2013) monster choreography.
MY CALL: If you really want to see more creatures like Lights Out (2016) and Mama (2013) and you’re feeling adventurous on trying a film with a significant risk of disappointment, then this is it. I felt similarly about Veronica (2017). MOVIES LIKE Mara: The concept smacks strongly of things like Shadow People (2012), but the style is much more akin to Lights Out (2016) and Mama (2013).
After a man is brutally killed sleeping in bed with his wife (Rosie Fellner; Nine Lives), Dr. Kate Fuller (Olga Kurylenko; Centurion, Oblivion) is the criminal psychologist called to the scene. A witness to the death of her father, a young girl indicates to Kate that the killer was named “Mara.” The wife describes symptoms of sleep paralysis and, like her daughter, names the demon Mara as well. So now I just want to know how everyone knows this fiend’s name?
We jump into the plot a little too hard and fast, throwing around terms like “sleep demon” in the first 15 minutes and pouring over more melodrama than situations deserve. And, alas, the hyperbolic writing continues throughout the first act leading us to Kate’s attendance of an erratic sleep paralysis support group (led by Mitch Eakins; Evil Bong 1-2) where she meets Dougie (Craig Conway; The Descent, Dog Soldiers), yet another person referring to the exact same murderous demon by the exact same name: Mara. And still, even if one were to find a strong enough correlation to identify a single supernatural killer—where and how did they get this name? Wikipedia? It’s all simply too convenient, and still so early in the film.
The set-ups for our sleep demon also feel displaced… almost as if Mara was a common Boogeyman doing whatever things a low budget filmmaker can manage to muster up a scare or a creepy shot. Mara appears under tables or wandering about the kitchen. And that’s all fine for a ghost haunting a venue or a mentally disturbed vagrant. But this is an ancient demon whose power is contingent on you being asleep. So why, WHY would it be skulking under the kitchen table like a gremlin? The victim seeing Mara is paralyzed with sleep paralysis, so there’s surely no reason to hide!
This film is clearly calling plays from The Ring’s (2002) playbook. People are exposed to Mara, they are marked (e.g., “seven days” in The Ring), and then they die the next night in their sleep looking something like Samara’s contorted victims. I also find it amusingly similar to name our sleep demon Mara when our phone/videotape demon in The Ring movies was Samara.
Mara is played by Javier Botet (It, The Conjuring 2, REC 4, Mama, The Mummy, Crimson Peak), the Spanish Doug Jones. Botet is inexperienced in playing gangly monsters and, for the few scenes that we see much of the demon, he does well with unnatural movements. However, the direction for the demon is weak. Mara strangles her paralyzed victims to death. So, there’s no fight, action or violence to it. Instead the film relies on the creepy movements of the demon as its twitching elongate fingers reach for your throat. Kind of neat once, but exceedingly boring thereafter. As a result, our death scenes largely fall flat. Besides a suicide by immolation, all the other effects are simply seeing Mara walk around in a translucent nightgown. She’s strikingly similar to Mama (2013) to such degree that if you called this Mama 2, the film would be every bit as credible. Many of the Mara shots felt like direct echoes of Mama (2013) and Lights Out (2016).
For his first feature film, director Clive Tonge (Emily and the Baba Yaga) showed up and tried. A few scare shots really missed the mark for me, just a few good jump scares, so-so atmosphere—really, I didn’t think this was worth it. The photography is decent, with more great shots being attempted than actually captured. But I recognize and appreciate both the effort and the product. To be fair, there were some very nice shots. The quality was just inconsistent.
For a VOD rental, you could probably do a lot worse. But I’m not going to recommend this film. As someone who watches a LOT of horror movies, I don’t necessarily regret this either. And it was nice seeing the callbacks to aforementioned films influencing the present film. So I’ll keep my eye out for Clive Tonge’s next film for sure.
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John’s Horror Corner: Critters 2: The Main Course (1988), the gorier sci-horror comedy creature feature sequel that is somehow NOT rated R.
MY CALL: Every bit as fun as part 1 and a satisfyingly fun creature feature for fans of Gremlins (1984) and Ghoulies 2 (1988). Loads of off-the-wall inventiveness, some blood and boobs, and likably cute miscreant monsters make this a blast! MORE MOVIES LIKE Critters 2: Critters (1986), Gremlins (1984), Ghoulies 2 (1988), Tremors (1990), Grabbers (2012)… maybe even Munchies (1987) and Hobgoblins (1988), although they are of considerably lower quality. Leprechaun (1993) is also a decent R-rated horror comedy follow-up for fans of Critters.
Remember how part 1 ended with a clutch of eggs? Well, after yet another cheesy sci-fi spaceship opening, Charlie (Don Keith Opper; Critters 1-4), Ug (Terrence Mann; Critters 1-4) and Lee (Roxanne Kernohan; Not of this Earth, Scream Queen Hot Tub Party) the alien bounty hunters receive orders from their big-headed ruler Zanti (Cynthia Garris; Sleepwalkers, Psycho IV, The Stand) to return to Earth and eliminate the residual “crites.”
In the stupidest way possible, the yet unhatched crite eggs are sold as Easter eggs by local yokels—just in time for the resurrection! And when they hatch, they’re like a batch of rabid infernal Pomeranians gnawing on dead dogs and biting off toes and chunks of feet! The blood is moderate and the gore is mild for horror in general, but perhaps on the heavy side for PG-13.
With ironic timing, Brad (Scott Grimes; Critters) returns home two years after the first Critter invasion just in time for the hatch. And things kick into gear during Easter service bringing an edgier approach to the franchise we love.
Brad teams up with Megan (Liane Curtis; Girlfriend from Hell), Charlie and the bounty hunters to protect their little Kansas town from these diminutive carnivorous threats yet again and things are goofier than before. We see Lin Shaye (Critters, Insidious 1-4, Chillerama) with a fire axe, the Easter Bunny death scene is riot, and the eating scenes are 100% Gremlins influenced (in the most wonderful and self-aware way).
Director Mick Garris (Sleepwalkers, Psycho IV, The Stand) brings all the fun and humor to this sequel to make it a worthy follow-up to the beloved original. When an alien hatchling is stepped on it makes a gooey mess, another is cartoonishly flattened when run over by a car, they ravage kitchens like Gremlins, and everything feels just and lively and feisty as before. They still talk in subtitles saying silly things and zany sound effects complement the humor. Not only that, but this PG-13 movie managed to slip in some healthy boobage during Lee’s transformation into a naked Playboy Playmate (which includes the actual STAPLE from the magazine binding). That said, this sequel is less kid-friendly than part 1. Even the gore is notably dialed up with macabre flesh-eaten bones. How is this not rated R?
Part 1 had a giant critter, so they sequel balls up loads of critters into a giant killer ball of mouths that mows over panicked townsfolk like a flesh-eating lawnmower leaving bloody skeletons in its wake. Meanwhile the individual critters get loads of screen time, both as cute and menacing as ever, with a combination of animatronics and cute puppet work.
This sequel isn’t trying to be anything it isn’t. Despite taking place in the exact same setting with many returning characters, it remains a delight all on its own and every bit as good as (or better than) part 1. In the end Charlie saves the day, Ug beams up to another spaceship (to go home I guess), Charlie is deputized, and everyone acts like this happy ending didn’t at all involve seeing people eaten alive.
This fun creature feature will happily please fans of Gremlins (1984) and Ghoulies 2 (1988). What it lacks in intrigue, it more than compensates in off-the-wall inventiveness, frequent self-aware nods to the genre, and likable miscreant alien monsters. Enjoy.
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The MFF Podcast #149: Ready to Rumble
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Tune In, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
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The #1 ranked podcast on Ranker’s “Best Movie Podcast” list is back! This week we’re talking about a movie featuring farting nuns, lots of poop jokes and Oliver Platt crushing fools. Ready to Rumble is a terrible movie that was thrown together quickly and written by somebody who hates wrestling. Despite its badness, we did our best to find positives amongst the juvenile jokes, and managed to applaud the performances of the wrestlers and the soundtrack featuring songs which will make you nostalgic for the early 2000s. If you are a fan of wrestling, you need to listen to this episode.
Make sure you check out Mo Lightning’s wrestling podcast at WrestlingAudio.com
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As always, we answer random questions and ponder if Oliver Platt would reprise his role as Jimmy the King in Ready to Rumble. If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the pod!
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Tune In, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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John’s Horror Corner: Summer of 84 (2018), a reimagined Disturbia meets a solid Stranger Things 80s score.
MY CALL: Equal parts nostalgic and endearing, with the throwback soundtrack being the best things about this film. Everyone on the internet is saying “if you love Stranger Things then you’ll love this.” Well I LOVED Stranger Things, and I thought this was nothing particularly special. Not bad. Enjoyable even. But I’d only recommend it for seekers of Horror Lite. MOVIES LIKE Summer of 84: The first thing that comes to mind is Disturbia (2007). And for something heavier, check out the Losers Club kids in It (2017).
From its first minute the soundtrack mentally delivers me into the Stranger Things (2016-17) early-80s-universe. The scoring is perfect, and our 80s teens feel tropishly credible as they verbally prattle over going to second base, masturbation, crushes and general insecure pubescent banter.
Young conspiracy theorist Davey (Graham Verchere; Fargo) suspects that a series of teen murders are all linked, and that his police officer neighbor Wayne (Rich Sommer; GLOW) is the culprit! With the help of Eats (Judah Lewis; The Babysitter), Woody (Caleb Emery; Goosebumps) and Curtis (Cory Gruter-Andrew; Okja, The 100), they begin to investigate their suspected serial killer neighbor.
It’s cute. They do recon and all the private investigator stuff like staking out his house, learning Wayne’s schedule and habits, and eventually they graduate to breaking and entering. Of course, they get caught, get into trouble, but insist that their neighbor is the Cape May Killer. Is their suspect really the killer?
François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (the directorial team that behind Turbo Kid) have succeeded in entertaining us, but I won’t call this film great. In some ways it’s very good, yet in many ways it’s just plain above average. If it wasn’t for all the talk about masturbation and impregnating teenage girls, this would otherwise feel like a very PG horror-beginner movie. It’s generally light-hearted and jovial until a throat is slit on-screen. But the kill is about as unintense as it could be—so we’ll call it PG-13-ish endeavor. It’s a lot like if Goosebumps did a more serious slasher movie.
I enjoyed this film, I want to be clear about that. But it failed to live up to the reasons I thought I’d love it. As much as this smacks of Disturbia (2007)—directly recounting numerous scenes from the 2007 film—the acting is just okay, the pacing isn’t riveting (although the film, in general, isn’t terribly engaging or exciting outside of a few short scenes), and the photography was wholly unimpressive. Moreover, Judah Lewis doesn’t come close to his flawless performance in The Babysitter (2017)—but maybe that’s not a fair comparison. Everyone is comparing this to Stranger Things but, to me, this feels circumstantial to the music, setting and locker-room talking youngsters. 84 captures not a fraction of the dread, creepiness, emotional intensity or character sincerity of Things (or Disturbia). Even the love interest with Davey’s neighbor Nikki (Tiera Skovbye; Supernatural, Riverdale, Once Upon a Time) felt drowned in weak writing, an absence of chemistry and likewise performances. It’s still sweet, though.
A little bland, at times… but, honestly, quite endearing and nostalgic. I was pretty critical in this review, but it’s still a nice watch if you’re in the mood for some Horror Lite. I’d watch it around sunset as an evening opener, before getting into something heavier.
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John’s Horror Corner: Hereditary (2018), an emotionally heavy family therapy session and séance gone wrong.
MY CALL: Emotionally challenging and strikingly acted, this film is really different in all the ways I like. However, its ending wanders perhaps too far into the deep end for some viewers’ taste. MOVIES LIKE Hereditary: Other slow-burn films about suppressed guilt and the family dynamics they affect include The Uninvited (2009), The Babadook (2014), Goodnight Mommy (2014) and The Witch (2016). I’m also reminded of The Skeleton Key (2005) for its connections to conjurations.
Loss, grief and guilt… we all have our own way of dealing with them; expressing them… and how we do so may differ from one loss to another. Hereditary examines Annie’s (Toni Collette; Krampus, Fright Night) family after the loss of her mother—grandmother to her teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff; My Friend Dahmer) and eccentric daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro). As Annie questions her own grief—or, lack thereof—her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne; Gothic, End of Days, Ghost Ship, The Keep) responsibly assumes the role of emotional caretaker, offering support and parental/husbandly surveillance over the household’s feelings. Most curious (or eerie) is young Charlie, who fears no one will care for her now.
Emotionally disconnected, Charlie is a strange girl—perhaps even troubled. While everyone else tries to fall back into something more normal, Charlie is… looking for something else. It all begins weird, and then it gets way weirder.
Despite its lengthy over-two-hour running time, it wastes no time leading the audience into unease with revelations of the deceased matriarch’s secrets, their family history of serious mental illness, messages from beyond, and glimmers of hallucinations (or even spirits?). We find visions of the deceased, birds kamikazeing into windows, and grave desecration. There is disturbing imagery in the form of severed heads swarming with ants, mismatched reflections, being burned alive and a troubling séance. But that’s nothing compared to the traumatizingly surreal—or maybe way too real—suffering the family endures in response to each other’s hysterical manifestations.
Writer and director Ari Aster (upcoming Midsommar) fearlessly breaks into his first feature film. In collaboration with a powerful cast, this emotionally heavy movie finds an uncomfortably tangible sense of grief, blame, rage, melancholy, all manner of contempt; just normal mania pushed to the abnormal limits of our sanity. It’s rare I feel so uncomfortable and impressed at the same time.
The pacing yo-yos from quiet and emotionally dismal lulls to normalcy until the middle, when things shift into erratic gear. Despite being well-lit and quite colorful, an outdoors scene momentarily smacks of The Witch (2016). It’s that slow-burn, dread-cultivating, mysterious mysticism. Another scene creepily samples from the Exorcist franchise. And with these honorable samplings of the past, the flavor presented is really all its own.
This film gets so weird (and perhaps convoluted to its own detriment) that it sort of flies off the hinges. It does so to such degree that it may turn people off. Think along the lines of the unexpected turns in The Ritual (2017) or The Shrine (2010). To some, this makes it its own unique entity in the genre. To others, it makes it “uneven.” I’m more the former, but can easily recognize sentiments of the latter as well. In either case, I thought this movie was wowingly impactful.
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John’s Horror Corner: Spider Labyrinth (1988; aka, Il nido del ragno), an Italian B-movie about a cult and their demonic spider god.
MY CALL: It’s not the worst Italian B-movie I’ve seen (not by a long shot), and it was worth it just for the zany monster at the end! MOVIES LIKE Spider Labyrinth: For more “enjoyable” B-movie Italian horror, try Alien 2: On Earth (1980), Evil Clutch (1988), The Church (1989) and Shocking Dark (1989). And for more evil monster baby B-movies that are hardly worth watching except for the creature finale, go for Night Feeder (1988) or The Unborn (1991).
Professor (of Oriental languages) Alan Whitmore is summoned to go to Budapest to investigate the disappearance of Professor Roth and his Intextus project. In Hungary Alan finds notes about a labyrinth, a group called the weavers, and discovers the existence of “living Gods” being worshipped by a sect.
At this point I feel it’s only fair to offer a DISCLAIMER: 1) There basically is no “Labyrinth,” but instead some catacombs. 2) Almost all of the spiders in this movie suck… except one very special one at the end.
The plot is tossed haphazardly in our lap, characters seem to randomly disappear mid-scene without explanation, windows magically fix themselves, Roth ends up hanged and festooned in cobwebs, and Alan is bombarded by dire warnings that he should return home.
I’m sure it will come as no surprise that basically nothing interesting happens in the first hour. Yes, some people die. But they are lackluster death scenes by some random (perhaps mutant) cultist and the special effects… well… aren’t so special. We have some unnecessary stop-motion spider work, some weak stab wounds and a sharp-toothed crazy cultist lady.
But after the 60-minute mark (i.e., the last 20 minutes) things get interesting! The catacombs sets are decent (maybe the most ambitious aspect of the film), complete with corpses, cars and cobwebs. We enjoy a spit loogie-noose strangulation (yup, you read that right), an enthusiastic sex scene, yet more action/fight scenes with the crazy-toothed cultist lady, and then there’s the living god. Oh, this is a pleasure! A green-skinned evil demon baby gorily transforms, sprouting a long prehensile neck and spider legs from its side to create a stop-motion/puppeteered monstrosity! This was really cool and more than worth the price of admission!
I’m not surprised I could only find an old gritty version of this film. But it’s too bad since that final effects scene was just glorious (in that bad 80s vein). Honestly, as a big fan of B-movies, this was more enjoyable than I expected.
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The MFF Podcast #148: Live Free or Die Hard
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
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The #1 ranked podcast on Ranker’s “Best Movie Podcast” list is back! This week we’re talking about the underappreciated Live Free or Die Hard. It is an analog action film in a digital age and we love how Bruce Willis seems to be genuinely enjoying himself throughout the mayhem. Director Len Wiseman does a fine job capturing the “Die Hard” magic and he loads up the movie with inventive action scenes featuring fire hydrants used as weapons, elevator fistfights, and a car taking out a helicopter (it’s awesome!). If you are a fan of the Die Hard franchise or action films you will love this podcast.
As always, we answer random questions and ponder how much it would cost to make a fake bomb filled with whiskey. If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the pod!
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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The MFF Podcast #147: Tomb Raider and A Simple Favor
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
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The #1 ranked podcast on Ranker’s “Best Movie Podcast” list is back! This week we’re talking about Tomb Raider (2018) and A Simple Favor. We’re big fans of these movies, so we did a ton of research, calculated the time it would take to restock a closet, and made sure to mention multiple times that Daniel Wu and Walton Goggins are in Tomb Raider. What we love about Tomb Raider is how it tells a fun adventure story and allows Alicia Vikander to be awesome. It is unpretentious, streamlined and much different than Angelina Jolie’s take of Lara Croft. What we love about Paul Feig’s A Simple Favor is how it combines humor with tension, great clothes and well-timed pizza references. You should check out these movies, then come back and listen to this podcast.
They need a sequel!
As always, we answer random questions and ponder how long it took to build the tomb in Tomb Raider. If you are a fan of the podcast make sure to send in some random listener questions so we can do our best to not answer them correctly. We thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the pod!
You can download the pod on Itunes, Stitcher, Podbean, or LISTEN TO THE POD ON BLOG TALK RADIO.
If you get a chance please make sure to review, rate and share. You are awesome!
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John’s Horror Corner: Cold Skin (2017), elegantly mixing Dagon (2001) with The Descent (2005) in this gorgeous film!
MY CALL: Come for the fish people, stay for the visual depth. I expected to love this, and I did, but not for the reasons I anticipated. MORE MOVIES LIKE Cold Skin: Rather than suggesting Lovecraftian film adaptations, I’d go for visually spectacular films like The Pirates of the Caribbean (2003; and sequels), The Shallows (2016), A Cure for Wellness (2016) and The Babysitter (2017).
In 1914, a man (David Oakes) travels to a remote island near the Arctic Circle for a one-year weather duty and finds himself battling pseudo-Lovecraftian humanoid sea creatures with the lighthouse caretaker Gruner (Ray Stevenson; Black Sails, The Book of Eli). The film elegantly mixes Dagon (2001) with The Descent (2005), but is less monstrous than either and is based on a book by Albert Sánchez Piñol.
The opening scenes feature stark green-screening and weak CGI sea life—which is highly deceptive of the true quality to come (just get past the first few minutes of the film). But fear not! My worries swiftly flecked away when we were greeted by the gorgeous shots of the island with its craggy marine scapes and even the watchtower interior. All the shots are just gorgeous—down to every wave’s crash or seaside plant! Few films are so scintillating (e.g., The Shallows, A Cure for Wellness).
The special effects on our fish people felt minimal… in the sense that the film wasn’t trying to wow us with them. They looked good—quite good up close. But they are simply a race of ichthyoid people in large numbers attacking a lighthouse en masse trying to kill or eat its human inhabitants. They aren’t showcased as in a “monster movie.”
The gore is non-existent; the blood is minimal. And, you know what, I was surprisingly fine with that. Likewise, the action is fine, even exciting at times, but it’s not the soul of this film. This is more about Friend and Gruner, their lonely island, and the evolution of their relationship as they thwart their marine-evolved foes. Like two final survivors in a zombie apocalypse, they come to despise yet depend on one another. Just one problem: one of them has sympathy for their opposing species and desires a life outside of exterminating their foe. Our actors breathe life into their polarized characters. Ray Stevenson’s brash and shameless candor when it comes to nudity is tempered by Oakes’ patient and prosaic narrations.
Best known for his gruesome approach to horror, director Xavier Gens (Frontiers, The ABCs of Death “X is for XXL”) marries the deep ones of H. P. Lovecraft’s Dagon (2001) with enamoring photography and a sieging horde. Gens really shocked me here, but with beauty over brutality. The ending brings close to a cycle of sorts; a resolution, but not quite catharsis.
If you’ve read this far, you should really just go see this. Even if you don’t care for the story I’d dare anyone to contest the visual splendor of the film and the depth of the actors’ performances.
Movies, Films & Flix 