DESOLATE (DVD Review) - Wild Eye Releasing

USA/2013
Directed By: Rob Grant
Starring: Jez Bonham, Justin Sproule, Teagan Vincze
Color/77 Minutes/Not Rated
Region FREE
Release Date: January 20, 2015

The Film
A man suspects his best friend is the reason his relationship with his girlfriend failed but must fight for survival with them after a mysterious event has rocked their city and just making it through the night won't be easy.

DESOLATE is an example of filmmaking at its rawest. With no script and no crew, this film was shot during free time over the course of three years and it turned out to be a pretty good little film. The cast is solid and what writing there is manages to pull out enough emotion from the audience to really make us feel the turmoil the characters are going through.

Simply made using what was available to them, director Rob Grant really comes through with a film far more successful than films with a fill cast and crew, a polished script and lots of special effects. More isn't always more.

The Audio & Video
Wild Eye Releasing gives DESOLATE the home video release it is deserving of. The A/V quality is representative of the low end camera and gear it was made with so don't expect a beautiful HD presentation. The disc is technically sound however with a clean picture and a well done audio mix job.

The Extras
-Audio commentary with the director
-"Making of" video series
-Behind the scenes featurette

The Bottom Line
It doesn't always take a big production with lots of money and fancy equipment to make a tense, emotional and scary film and DESOLATE is proof of that.

DESOLATE is available HERE

October Horror Challenge 2015 - Day 8

Dr. Giggles is one of those movies that I've seen bits and pieces of over the years but have never made it a point to sit down and watch in its entirety despite liking what I saw. This 1992 is a slasher holdout from the 80s, easily one that could have been made a few years earlier if it had less jackets around the waist and more big hair. The humor presented within is typical of the silly turn slashers started to take towards the end of their glorious (or not so glorious run) the decade before but it is played perfectly straight faced. Violent, a bit funny and not without a giant what the fuck moment in the "birthing" scene. I now fully understand the love this one has attained over the years and am on board.

Next up was a Masters of Horror chapter I'd never seen and frankly didn't hold out too much hope for- Peter Medak's The Washingtonians, a story that turns our founding fathers into cannibals and now a loyal historical group maintains their practices. There's a bit of fun to be had here with trays of cheap looking human body parts on display as folks in powder wigs and further American Revolution era garb go to town on the feast like wild animals but the writing is weak and abrupt at every turn. There's not a hint of subtlety here, which I get is the point but it just comes off as trying to squeeze as much crap in as we can. And then we get the ending which feels extremely dated at this point and made me roll my eyes.

Finally I wrapped it up with our first Netflix viewing of the month, one I've heard very mixed things about over the last year or two but never lost interest in seeing - Jug Face. I'm glad I finally gave this one a chance because this is a sad and tragic film filled with some seriously fucked up ideas and lifestyles. An obvious commentary but not one heavy handed enough to turn away viewers simply looking for a well made film, Jug Face is the independent horror that we should be praising. Wonderful writing and top notch performances are key here and they couldn't be better. This may come as one of the biggest pleasant surprises of the month.

Today's Rundown
Dr. Giggles - 8/10
The Washingtonians - 4.5/10
Jug Face - 8/10

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT (Blu-ray Review) - Artsploitation Films

Argentina/2014
Directed By: Ivan Noel
Written By: Ivan Noel
Starring: Ana Maria Giunta, Sabrina Ramos, Gregorio Munoz
Color/100 Minutes/Not Rated
Region A
Release Date: October 6, 2015

The Film
A reporter from Buenos Aires named Alicia is invited to visit a children's refuge in a small town where the children all battle and suffer from a disease that has no known cure. Alicia accepts the invite and shortly upon arriving discovers the refuge, named Limbo, is actually a sanctuary for vampires. The vampires at this sanctuary are of various ages but are all stuck in a childhood body as their bodies stopped aging at the time they were bitten. They carry out their lives slowly spreading their race across the land while practicing a Catholic faith including Baptisms, and trying to avoid encounters with local hunters who are hellbent on erasing their race from the planet.

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT is a very regional film in the sense that it was filmed on location in a small Argentinean town and the entire cast of children was picked from that area with no real acting background at all. Sabrina Ramos who plays Alicia was quite good at being torn between the life she knows and her forgotten past that calls her, and Ana Maria Guinta, who sadly passed away in March of this year, was very believable and endearing as the head mother figure of the sanctuary.

The children must also be commended, especially Toto Munoz who played Siegfried and Lauro Veron who played The Count. These two boys were the lead roles for the children and kept things natural and believable. Yes, they're a bit rough around the edges, the whole movie is, but they gave it their all and the movie is better off for it.

The film isn't without its flaws, there's some moments where the sound echoes quite a bit because of the interiors in which they're shooting. Sometimes you can rectify that problem and other times there's no time or money. It's a minor problem here especially compared to the soap opera visual style the film has for the majority of the film. There are a few different camera types and visual styles used in the film but the biggest one is our standard camera that gives the film that overly smooth look common to soaps. This was easily my biggest problem with CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT, and it really wasn't that big of a deal once I adjusted to it and settled in.

The story here is interesting and takes on more angles and ideas than you'd want to sit here and read about. It is far from being a single note vampire film. Some of the ideas come to fruition nicely, like our main story. That is the most important, but sadly some of the ideas introduced in the film are left as loose ends. When it's all said and done it makes little difference to the overall success of the film but it would have been nice to see these rather original ideas that have been introduced to this take on vampire mythology play out a bit more and give us a bit of satisfaction out of them.

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT is a raw film, that uses its regional resources, including local fire departments and electrical companies to help achieve the final goal, it is obviously shot on a budget and on location doing the best with what they have. There isn't a doubt in my mind however that this movie wasn't made by a group of people, old and young, passionate about pulling it off and making it the best they can while having fun doing it. They succeeded. I think this movie is fantastic.

The Audio & Video
Artsploitation Films gives CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT a home on Blu-ray with a nice full HD 1080p transfer that keeps the film's natural look and OAR in tact. There are several different camera styles and looks on display in the film and the Blu-ray keeps them looking sharp with good detail and color representation and deep black levels for the most part. When lesser cameras are used in the film it is obvious that the Blu-ray transfer will suffer a bit, especially during darker scenes but it is an attractive picture for the most part. The 2.0 Spanish audio track handles the soundtrack and dialogue just fine with a well done mix job and no damage or background noise to speak of. Optional English subtitles are included and are translated and timed perfectly.

The Extras
-Audio commentary with the director
-Making of featurette (A really enjoyable 20+ minutes spent behind the scenes)
-Trailers

The Bottom Line
I've sort of fallen in love with this movie despite its flaws. Something about it simply calls to me and I want to watch it again right now.

CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT is available HERE

October Horror Challenge 2015 - Day 7

Things started out with a very late night/early morning viewing of Return Of The Living Dead. It is one of my favorite films and I've seen it countless times. I watch it every October so there's really no need to waste anymore time on it. It's perfect.

Next up were a pair of little films from director Len Anthony... I have no idea who he is aside from these two movies that Vinegar Syndrome released on limited edition DVD. So first up was Fright House... a schlocky, stupid and cheap tale of devil worshipping and Satanic sacrifice. Something about it was slightly entertaining and I'm not exactly sure what. Grampa Munster is even in it, which says quite a bit about the direction his career went sadly but he doesn't add too much life to the film. I'm not really sure anyone could. Still, it wasn't the worst piece of shit in the world. Maybe I'm just a sucker for cheap devil worship films where you throw down a cloth with a pentagram on it, light some candles and get some people to put on cloaks and chant some bullshit. That must be it.

The other Len Anthony film was Murderous Intent which left me with murderous intent for anyone involved with that piece of shit. The story is some convoluted bullshit about a writer who meets this dreadlocked man while waiting to pick up his child and this man begins to show the writer that his deepest fantasies may not just be fantasies... or some bullshit like that. It was impossible to pay complete attention to because it was awful. Just picture a movie where a nerdy white guy dreams of putting on a cheap samurai Halloween costume and hacking up his wife because the mysterious black man told him to. And relive that same scene over and over for 90 minutes and add in some awkward voodoo-ish dance imagery that feels slightly racist and you have Murderous Intent.

The day ended with a very cool little film out of Argentina called Children Of The Night. I have posted a full review of the Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films so I'll leave you with this - This is a vampire movie worth checking out if you're a fan of independent horror or vampire mythology in general. You can see that review HERE

Today's Rundown
Return Of The Living Dead - 10/10
Fright House - 5.5/10
Muderous Intent - 2/10
Children Of The Night - 7.5/10

October Horror Challenge 2015 - Day 6

Things started off with one of Boris Karloff's later performances in Cauldron Of Blood. This one is a take on the murderous sculptor story that has been a part of horror for decades. Add in a slight giallo feel, some trippy psychadelic scenes and a strong script with good performances and pacing and this one is a really rock solid horror film from the late 60s.

Next up was MILFS vs Zombies a movie I was a bit more interested in checking out after enjoying Ghoulish Tales from the same director the day before. Well all the cheesyness that worked in GT ended up annoying the piss out of me in MvZ. The film wastes no time giving us the gory goods but it still felt like the film took forever to actually get started. The script was obnoxious and didn't work for me at all. The positives are that the gore and nudity that were on full display in Ghoulish Tales were once again on display here so at least it has the eye candy factor going for it. And the scene where a woman is disemboweled through her vagina. There's that too.

We Are Still Here will undoubtedly go down as one of my favorite movies of the challenge and of the year in general. I fucking loved this movie and it is down right scary. There are some scenes in this one, particularly early on that had me shook. The atmosphere is thick, score is moody and the design of the ghosts is very cool. The third act also features quite a bit of blood and guts being thrown around which was a bit of a departure from the tone of the rest of the film but it didn't feel out of place. I don't like handing out perfect scores to films I've only seen once and I'm not sure this one would have been a perfect 10 either way but it is certainly up there.

The night came to a close with some Fred Olen Ray cheese in the form of Biohazard. This one is filled with ridiculous shit like huge supermonsters hiding in dumpsters and weird worm monsters and a genuine disdain for E.T. If you want something light hearted and purely of the 80s, but filled with blood and boobs, Biohazard is a film for you. The new Blu-ray edition is quite nice as well.

Today's Rundown 
Cauldron Of Blood - 7.5/10
MILFS vs Zombies - 3/10
We Are Still Here - 9/10
Biohazard - 7/10

October Horror Challenge 2015 - Day 5

Three films for the day and things started off with a double feature of 1990 Italian films I'd never seen before courtesy of the new Blu-ray from Scream Factory. First up was George Eastman film Metamorphosis. I was excited to see this one based on the artwork and that it was directed by Eastman who I love as an actor. Unfortunately the film doesn't take advantage of the potential it had. There's a few bizarre moments that could have made this film something special if the film did more with them but they end up showing up towards the end of the film and we get but a fleeting glimpse of how crazy the movie, or a sequel, could have been.

The 2nd half of the double feature comes from director Claudio Fragasso. Oh, that name doesn't ring a bell? Well maybe his American pseudonym, Drake Floyd, does. No? Okay, well he directed Troll 2. Yeah, now you get it! Beyond Darkness came shortly before Troll 2 but it certainly has a similar feel at times and even co-stars Joshua from Troll 2. This one is a weird mashup of Lucio Fucli's The Beyond, Troll 2 and The Exorcist without being as graphic as The Beyond or quite as ridiculously campy as Troll 2. It has a pretty decent atmosphere and some simple but effective effects work and set pieces. It is far from perfect but I enjoyed this mashup and found it to be an entertaining time.

Finally was Ghoulish Tales, a very low budget independent horror anthology from 2014 filled with gore and nudity. That's really all you need to know. It's a splatter film with a shit ton of girls getting naked. I was surprised that the intentional cheesy writing didn't annoy me as movies of this tone often do but the acting is competent and the stories range from a masked lunatic to vampires and we get everything from castration and disembowelment to full frontal nudity. This would go perfect with a night full of beers.

Today's Rundown
Metamorphosis - 4.5/10
Beyond Darkness - 7/10
Ghoulish Tales - 6/10

October Horror Challenge 2015 - Day 4

A weak day filled with weak quality VHS rips thrown on to budget bin DVDs...

I love that artwork for Funeral Home. It's atmospheric and creepy in its simplicity. You know exactly what you're getting yourself into. I enjoyed the movie but felt had it given us a little bit more of the goods it would be a bit more highly regarded and talked about. The film based around a funeral home turned B&B where guests go missing and wind up dead is a fairly common plot and this one doesn't do much to make it original  but it uses tried and true plot devices to pull together a nice little chiller of a movie.

If my viewing of Carnage could be summed up by what my meeting with the film's director Andy Milligan would be like it would go a little something like this - "Hi Seth I'm Andy Milligan" "Hello Andy Milligan, I'm Seth, and that's about enough of you". My introduction (I'm pretty sure I've never seen an Andy Milligan film before) to the director who has released a handful of titles that have a decent cult following wasn't a good one. This film about a house that is haunted by a husband and wife who committed suicide in it several years prior is pretty fucking awful. The acting (if you can call it that) is dreadful, especially out of the ghost couple. Continuity and quality control on some things are piss poor (just take a look at the flying meat cleaver seen) and the effects work is cheesy as shit. There's something to the effects that was endearing in how obviously fake they were but somehow you still think "that was kind of cool". The movie is a bore as the vengeful spirits are more worried about keeping their house the way it was before they killed themselves than doing anything remotely interesting from a horror film standpoint. What a drag.

Today's Rundown
Funeral Home - 5/10
Carnage - 2.5/10