Tag Archives: film

Saturday is Horror Day #208 – Berberian Sound Studio

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Berberian Sound Studio


Gilderoy (Toby Jones) is a British sound engineer hired to work on an Italian film he believes to be about horses, The Equestrian Vortex. But that illusion is quickly dispelled when he finds himself actually working on a horror film involving witches, priests, and torture. Not that either the producer, Francesco (Cosimo Fusco) or the director Santini (Antonio Mancino) will admit to that. In fact, Santini pompously proclaims it is not a horror film, it is a Santini film!

Things begin to go wrong from the outset. Gilderoy tries to be reimbursed for certain expenses he incurred on his way there, but is given the runaround. The room he was promised turns out to be a cubby hole within the studio. Uncomfortable with the film to begin with, Gilderoy’s only connection to reality are the letters from home he receives from his mother. But before long, the line between reality and film begin to become hopelessly blurred.

 

This film is probably not for everyone, but I found it very interesting, especially with the peek behind the scenes into the sound end of movie making. We never see the film that is being made, but we get a pretty good picture from what we hear. The various actors come to the studio to record their lines, and some to record unusual sounds that the characters make, such as a demon. I was fascinated to see what sorts of things were used to produce the sounds that correspond to what we see on the screen.  For example, someone being drowned was made by swishing clothing around in a tub of water. Gilderoy stabbs heads of cabbage to imitate a stabbing in the film. 

 

I’ll admit that while the concept is unique, the delivery is somewhat flawed and at times confusing. Gilderoy undergoes a transformation from the timid little man he was at the beginning of the film, but it isn’t really clear why he changes as he does, or why this horror film that everyone says isn’t a horror film affects him so. The ending itself it ambiguous and I had to look up an explanation. Still, I found it a very interesting film and I think it won’t disappoint. I’ll give this film 3.75 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #203 – Carnage for Christmas

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Carnage for Christmas

Lola (Jeremy Moineau) is a true crime podcaster. She decides to head home for the Christmas holidays, albeit rather uncertainly, as it’s been a long time and she knows that not everyone is accepting of her as a transwoman.  She stays with her sister, Danielle (Dominique Booth), who loves her dearly. Not so much so her roommate,  Riley (Olivia Deeble) who has nothing but snide remarks for her.

But then Riley and her girlfriend Kat  (Lewi Dawson) wind up dead. Lola didn’t expect to find herself in

the midst of a trail of murders that seem to mimic what happened to her as a child, when she was the one who discovered the body of a young victim. Nobody seems to believe her when she says it’s happening again,  and it’s time to search for the truth, but at what cost?

This film came out in 2024, and was only 70 minutes long, but I have to say I enjoyed watching it. I saw it described as Australia’s first transgender holiday horror, and that’s a pretty accurate description. The main character, Lola, is a very interesting and strong woman with a great smile and no-nonsense attitude. I loved how her sister is so caring and warm herself, accepting Lola completely for who she is.

Naturally there are people who don’t accept Lola, but she doesn’t let these assholes get to her. Even the cops are less than helpful and quick to dismiss her. But in the end, Lola shows them just what kind of woman she is. It’s nice to see films about transgender people played by transgender people. I’d like to see more of Jeremy Moineau in the future. I give this film 4 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #191 – Trap

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Trap

Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is the kind of father teen-aged girls dream of when he gets tickets for them to the concert Riley (Ariel Donoghue) is dying to see! She’s had issues at school recently with being bullied by a group of girls she thought were her friends, and Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) is her very favorite performer.  Riley knows the words to all her songs (although she doesn’t sing them very well) as well as her dance moves.

As they make their way to their seats, Cooper can’t help but notice a massive police presence in the venue, far more than a mere concert would warrant. He quickly figures out they are searching for him, everything is a trap, and he has to find a way to safely himself and his daughter out of this place.

I don’t consider it a spoiler to reveal that Cooper is the serial killer the police are searching for, hence the title of the film. You can see this much from watching the trailer. Unfortunately, the trailer is more interesting than the film. We watch Cooper continually leaving his daughter alone as he tries to find his way out, which entailing a lot of perfect coincidences falling into place and everything going his way, including getting Lady Raven to choose his daughter as her Dream Girl.  Honestly, I felt as though he sleepwalked through is performance, and I do like Josh Hartnett. The girl playing his daughter was okay, but she needs more acting lessons. And Saleka Shyamalan does too. I wonder if she would have been cast if she weren’t the director’s daughter.

I watched this movie despite thinking Shyamalan hasn’t done anything good since The Sixth Sense, and I won’t watch anything else after seeing this. It’s rather predictable, not very interesting, despite hopeful moments I thought might lead to something interesting… but they didn’t. The twist at the end was not even logical and rather ambiguous. There is a small extra scene during the credits, if you make it that far. I had high hopes for this but those were dashed. Lackluster all the way around. I’ll give this film 2.5 Stars.

On a side note, look for Hayley Mills as a police profiler. Nice to see her again. Sorry it was in this film.

Saturday is Horror Day #190 – Unhinged

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Unhinged

Rachel (Caren Pistorius) thinks she has problems, between her ex-husband, being behind on bills, and then losing her job. But she’s about to learn things can get a whole lot worse… and they do. While attempting to get her son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman) to school on time, because she overslept, she gets behind a truck with a driver who sits through one green arrow. She honks at him then angrily passes him. But she’s picked the wrong man to upset, as this man (Russell Crowe) has just killed two people and isn’t in the best of humor himself. He catches up with her and calmly requests an apology. She refuses, and now the game is on.

Russell Crowe gives new meaning to the term road rage. Of course, Rachel doesn’t know this when she

confronts him, but she quickly discovers just how unhinged he is. What makes this movie scary, in my opinion, is that I can see this happening. Road rage is real and becoming more and more common, unfortunately. Crowe’s character escalates it to a degree that is terrifying, and the people in Rachel’s life suffer for her actions. This sort of things could happen to anyone. My advice is to keep calm, no matter what, and consider that the person you are honking at might be a potential homicidal maniac if you push the right buttons. I found it amusing that Rachel threw her boss under the bus in order to save herself and her son. Wonder what happened when that came out? Definitely worth a watch. I thought Russell Crowe did a good job as the man, while I had little sympathy for Rachel. She was whiny and made bad choices.  I give this film 3.5 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #189 – Sharknado 2: The Second One, Fright Night (1985)

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Sharknado 2: The Second One

Having successfully defeated the Sharknado in LA, Fin(Ian Ziering) and ex-wife April (Tara Reid) head to New York City for some family time with Fin’s sister Ellen (Kari Wuhrer) and her husband Martin (Mark McGrath) and their children Mora (Courtney Baxter) and Vaughn (Dante Palminteri). Despite having been close friends at one time, Fin and Martin are barely on speaking terms now. On the plane to New York, a freak occurrence happens in the form of another Sharknado! In the course of fighting if off, in order to save the plane and its passengers, Fin is forced to fly the plane and April ends up losing a hand.

They arrive in New York safely. The original plan is for April to join Ellen and Mora for some girl time,

while Fin joins Martin and Vaughn for a Mets game. But plans change, due to April’s injury. As if this wasn’t bad enough, strange weather patterns are emerging – an arctic front from the north, which is bringing snow to NYC in July! And a warm Gulf stream bearing sharks from the South., which are feared will form into Sharnados. Al Roker and Matt Lauer follow the action for their viewers on The Today Show as Fin finds himself having to go to Met Stadium to rescue his brother-in-law and nephew and hopefully meeting Ellen and Mora at their agreed upon rendezvous point. Meanwhile, April refuses to lie quietly in the hospital when there is work to be done.

The second Sharknado film is actually funnier and more interesting than the first one as it doesn’t even pretend to take itself seriously. There are a number of Easter eggs, and I’m sure I didn’t get them all. For example the Airplane references in the airplane they take to New York, including Robert Hays as the pilot. They end up in a taxi driven by…. Judd Hirsch. Andy Dick plays a cop, Richard Kind a one time baseball great, Robert Klein is the mayor, and so on. Vivica A. Fox plans an old wanna-be girlfriend of Ziering and she kicks major add in this. Some I didn’t realize were there until I saw the credits include Billy Ray Cyrus and Kelly Osborne.

Great moments in filmmaking? No, it’s not. Fun to watch? Yeah, I thought so. And I plan to keep watching them. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.

Fright Night(1985)

Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) is a typical teen with the usual things on his mind – having sex with his girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) and watching late night horror shows such as Fright Night, hosted by premiere vampire killer Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowell). But he quickly becomes more interested in what’s going on next door when he sees two men carry what looks like a coffin into a newly sold house. He learns from his mother Judy (Dorothy Fielding) that the house has indeed been sold. While looking out his window, Charley spies a pretty young woman in the window next door, next to a man who unexpectedly bares what appear to be fangs, before drawing the shade on whatever is happening. The next day, Charlie learns of another murder of a young woman in their city, and he knows it was the woman he saw, and his next door neighbor is a vampire!

Neither Charley’s best friend Evil Ed (Stephen Geoffreys) nor Amy believe him. Charley tries to

involve the police, but ends up looking foolish. Desperate, he doesn’t know where to turn until he remembers Peter Vincent and turns to him, unaware the actor has just been fired and is in rather desperate straits himself. But even the vampire killer doesn’t want to help Charley. What’s a boy to do?

Charley thinks he has the answer because Ed tells  him a vampire can’t enter your home unless he is invited, but that plan fails when his mom calls him down to meet their new neighbor, Jerry (Chris Sarandon), whom she has invited over. The vampire lets Charley know he is on to him and has unpleasant things in store for him. Charley has to find a way to contain Jerry and keep him continuing to kill the residents of his town.

Before I watched this, I saw the 2011 version and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the original, or how closely the two films resemble one another. The answer is they do have the same characters and basic plots. And the original was actually pretty good. I was afraid it would be a cheesy 80s flick but it wasn’t. It’s usually fun to watch actors in their younger days, and this is true here. I remember William Ragsdale, who plays Charley, in a series which I enjoyed called Herman’s Head, while Amanda Bearse/Amy is best known for playing Marcy Darcy in Married With Children. Roddy McDowell is famous for many things, but if you want to see him do more horror, watch the comedy horror film Arnold and a segment of Night Gallery called The Cemetery, both of which I enjoyed

I liked Fright Night, and I plan to look for the sequel. Not sure if I want to see the modern sequel, since it looks like none of the original actors came back. This version is enjoyable. And I have to say the dance sequence between Jerry and Amy was rather seductive. I give this film 4 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #176 – Warning: Do Not Play

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

Warning: Do Not Play

Mi-Jung(Seo Ye-ji) is running out of time to get her horror film finished. The trouble is she’s been working on one for 8 years and has gotten nowhere. But then she hears about a student film which was banned and she begins to research the film and its director. When she steals a clip of the film, she posts it online, only to be contacted by someone demanding she delete the post. Of course, she refuses, only to learn that the request has come from the film’s director himself, Jae-Hyun (Jin Seon-Kyu). She agrees to meet with him, and he tells her to forget about his film, Warning. Of course, she doesn’t listen.

I think what began as an interesting premise needed a little work. It becomes more of a mystery than a

horror film, including some jump scares. I would have liked to know more about Mi-Jung, and why, if she is so determined to make a horror film, she feels the need to steal one. I would have liked more horror and less obsession on Mi-Jung’s part. That being said, I think it was worth watching, however, and I’ve seen far worse. I’ve been told the director of the film has a better film called The Butcher. Might have to check that out. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.

Saturday is Horror Day #167 – The Elevator Game, The Toolbox Murders (1978)

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Reviewer: Julie Lynn Hayes

The Elevator Game


A young girl disappears after she attempts to play an internet game known as The Elevator Game.  Her brother vows to find her, refusing to give up, even if it appears that the police and his own parents have done just done. A group of high school graduates have an internet series that explores and debunks various urban myths and legends. But the series isn’t doing well, and the sponsor is breathing down their neck. They bring on an intern, Ryan (Gino Anania) but he doesn’t exactly receive a warm welcome, especially from the host of the series, Kris (Alex (Carlos).

The sponsor demands they upload something the next day, so Kevin (Liam Stewart-Kanigan) asks for ideas. Ryan suggests the Elevator Game, since it doesn’t require a budget, and the building where it originally took place is nearby. Kris is skeptical, but there are no better ideas, so off they go.

 

There is a set of rules that must be followed, after which they will supposedly see the “Fifth Floor Woman”. But if the rules are not followed exactly, she will tear you apart. So they enter the building and begin their quest to find this woman, and see the supposed Red World she comes from. But nothing happens, and half their footage is lost through a technicality, so they decide to call it a night. But the night is actually just beginning…

 

I thought this wasn’t a half-bad horror movie, and I thought it was worth watching. Granted, there is no explanation of the Red World, and the Fifth Floor Woman, but perhaps a sequel is in the works that will be more forthcoming. That being said, it’s far from perfect, although the actors did a good job. My biggest complain is that the actor playing Kris was too over the top, and not in a good way. And judging by what I saw of their web series, I would never watch it. But then again, it’s not real. I think you’ll enjoy it, for the most part. I’ll give this film 3 Stars.

The Toolbox Murders (1978)


Terror abounds in an apartment complex when a masked man with a toolbox murders women with his tools.

To put it bluntly, this was one terrible movie, which is why I didn’t even finish it, and it’s only an hour and a half long. Cameron Mitchell plays the apartment manager, who is not happy about the murders and is baffled at how someone is securing entrance. He played brother Buck on the High Chaparral.  Tim Donnelly plays a detective on the case. You might remember him as Chet from Emergency. Pamelyn Ferdin plays a teenage who is abducted, and her brother, played by Wesley Eure is more worried about her than their mother, played by Aneta Corsaut, who played Andy’ girlfriend Helen in the Andy Griffith Show. Pamelyn was a child actress with a number of credits.

That being said, the acting was horrible., for the most part, and the writing atrocious. Directing was bad. I realize this was the 70s and films weren’t quite as graphic as they are not, but even so, this as badly done and had horrible timing. The beginning of the film is just a gorefest. From what I read, the rest was a snooze fest. I happen to like Cameron Mitchell, so I’m sorry he felt he had to do this. If you want to see him in something scary, watch his episode of Night Gallery called Green Fingers, along with Elsa Lanchester.

My advice it to avoid this film entirely.

Saturday is Horror Day #164 – Titane

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Titane

As a result of a childhood accident, Alexia (Agatha Rousselle) is left with a titanium plate in her head. Fast forward to her adulthood. Alexia is a car model, wearing skimpy clothing and writhing on top of automobiles. She leads a rough life and is clearly unhappy. One night, an encounter with an obsessed fan ends badly. Afterwards, she finds herself in the car she has come to love, having sex – with the car.

Due to her own actions, Alexia has to become someone else to avoid the law. She spots a computer-aged

picture of a missing boy who would be 17 now, and disguises herself as him. She presents herself to the law and the father Vincent (Vincent Lindon) is called. He identifies his “son” Adrien and takes “him” home. Vincent is the captain of a firefighting brigade and they don’t know how to take Adrien. Alexia binds herself to pull off her disguise, including her pregnant belly. But the deception begins to take a toll on her.

This is, without a doubt, a strange film. I was intrigued by what I read was the premise, of a woman having a sexual relationship with a car and getting pregnant, but this is not what I expected. It’s rather dark and violent, and the scenes with Vincent are both tender and sad. He wants to hold on to his “son”, no matter what – including if he isn’t his son. I can’t deny it’s well-made, and the performances are good, but it just didn’t do it for me. And leaves many questions.

I can’t say I recommend it, but I will give it 3 Stars. I wouldn’t watch it again.