F

Title: F 
Director: Johannes Roberts
Released: 2010
Starring: David Schofield, Eliza Bennett, Ruth Gemmell, Juliet Aubrey, Emma Cleasby, Finlay Robertson, Roxanne McKee, Tom Mannion, Max Fowler, Jamie Kenna, Ian Cullen

Plot: After he is attacked by one of his students, Teacher Robert (Schofield) returns from three months of forced leave deeply affected by the incident only to soon find his worst fears realised while holding an after school detention when the school comes under attack by a group of shadow faced hoodies. 

Review: After making his start directing micro budget horror films director Johannes Roberts finally got a bigger budget (150k) for this hoodie horror which taps into the headline fears of teachers struggling to deal with increasingly unruly students and a system designed to protect the students but not the teachers trying to teach them. This is discovered by David Schofield’s teacher Robert after he mockingly gives one of his students an F only to be headbutted by said student. Now faced with the school now wanting to be sued by the students parents and forced to take a break from teaching and unable to cope he descends into alcoholism and paranoia while his marriage collapses as he becomes ever more estranged from his daughter Kate (Bennett).

Upon returning to teaching it’s clear that he is a shell of his former self and this is really were the dramatic heft of Schofield really plays to the films advantage while his world weary cracked features only further sell his crumbling mindset as his fellow teachers talk about him behind his back and the students in his class run wild. But with his daughter (who handily is also one of his students) refusing to talk to him he figures why not put her into after school detention of course not knowing the school will come under attack from a gang of hoodies who start laying siege to the school and preying on the staff. 

While the setup is certainly there for the film with the school providing plenty of potential victims and setups for grizzly fates for them to befall the film still manages to fall short despite a promising early start and an impressive early kill involving a security guard being set on fire inside a chained bin. From here though the film really starts to stumble as teachers are quickly introduced only to be even quicker disposed of to add to the body count. At the same time the kills are predominantly off screen with Roberts taking the moment right to the moment of pay off only to then cut away. Whether this was due to budget limitations or the belief that what you don’t show the audience is scarier than what you do, a technique that very few directors can actually pull off. Sure we do get to the see the aftermath of what happens to some of these characters and Dan Martin’s special effects make up is certainly impressive making it hardly surprising that he has gone onto work on films like Infinity Pool and Stopmotion while continuing to be a regular collaborator on Roberts projects.

The faceless hoodies are certainly a strong creation especially as they move around the school silently like ninjas and never speaking while combined with a pack like mentality as they close in on their victims which only adds to their mystique much like Roberts defiantly refusing to reveal their identity. Confusingly while he allows one of the group to be killed off he does leave the remainder to wander the hallways of the school as he opts for an ominous ending which doesn’t land and ends up leaving the film just feeling like it ends suddenly rather than on any kind of satisfying pay off nor redemption for Schofield’s character who ultimately is only more broken than he was when the night began and a character being sacrificed that didn’t deserve to be. 

While watchable the film stumbles to live up to the high bar it sets for itself early on only to find itself on a spiral of increasingly disappointing pay offs. Roberts has more recently found better success with 47 Metres Down and its DTV sequel aswell rebooting The Strangers with he enjoyable The Strangers: Prey At Night but here hampered either by production limitations or plotting choices feels like more of a stumble. 

Prophecy

Title: Prophecy
Director: John Frankenheimer
Released: 1979
Starring:    Talia Shire, Robert Foxworth, Armand Assante, Victoria Racimo, Everett Creach, Richard Dysart, Kevin Peter Hall, Frank Welker

Plot: Dr. Robert Verne (Foxworth) is hired by the environmental agency to investigate a dispute between a logging company and the local native american tribe in Maine only to discover a monstrous threat which threatens to eliminate them all. 

Review: Coming off a failed pre-production for First Blood which would have seen Nick Nolte in the John Rambo role only for production to fall apart when distributor filmways was acquired by Orion Pictures. Here he takes on the eco horror genre with this unique entry in a horror sub genre typically plagued by disappointing plotting while the audience waits for the animal attack but bizarrely its the actual plot which proves to be the more engaging part of the film than the rampaging mutant bear which provides the film its selling point…well that and an incredible sleeping bag kill that has to be seen. 

Robert Foxworth here stars as Dr. Robert Verne who is hired to investigate the dispute between a logging company and the local native American tribe where tensions are currently high between the two especially with lumberjacks and a rescue team mysteriously vanishing which the logging company are keen to pin on the tribe. Tagging along on this trip to the woods is Dr. Verne’s wife Maggie (Shire) who has recently found out that she is pregnant but unable to tell her husband knowing that he doesn’t want children. The tribe referred to as Opies meanwhile are suffering various health issues including children being born with birth defects which they blame on the loggers. 

While Foxworth is certainly a great lead for the film Frankenheimer brings together an interesting group composed of elements from both side such as Armand Assante’s tribe member and his direct rival in Richard Dysart’s Paper Mill owner Bethel Isely who are forced to work together if they are to survive the night with a giant mutant bear on the rampage. 

Even with the simple eco-horror setup Frankenheimer throws in some interesting moral questions such as the fact that the Dr’s reporting on the destruction being caused by loggers while in turn adding to the problem by having to use 1000’s of sheets of paper to print off his report. Added to this is the stunning scenery of the Canadian woodlands of British Columbia with this film kick starting the beginning of “Hollywood North ” which saw hundreds of productions heading to Canada to shoot.

The giant mutant bear played by Kevin Peter Hall who of course is no stranger to playing giant monster having played both The Predator and the Bigfoot Harry in Harry and the Hendersons while the voice is provided by Frank Welker even though you can’t tell that it’s not just library bear sound effects. Still as expected the bear doesn’t show up till the last thirty mins outside of an attack on a family of campers which provides the film with that aforementioned sleeping bag kill in which a kid trying to escape in his sleeping bag gets swiped and flung through the air before exploding in a cloud of feathers. Frankenheimer had planned for the film to be more graphic than the film we get and while there are still some memorable moments you can’t help but wonder if it would have been more effective without the cuts. 

While the film certainly has its fans including Stephen King I wish I could include myself amongst their number as while it has its fans the wait for the bear to show up dragged on too long and could certainly have benefited from atleast one more attack to add to the tension before the film gets into the finale. Sadly while the film performed well at the box office it had the misfortune of being released within weeks of Alien which only the film look all the more schlocky and meaning that the promise of a sequel teased by the ending was never explored.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Title: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Director: Gil Kenan
Released: 2024
Starring: Mckenna Grace, Emily Alyn Lind, Finn Wolfhard, Bill Murray, Carrie Coon, Gil Kenan, Paul Rudd, Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Acaster, Annie Potts, Kumail Nanjiani, William Atherton, Patton Oswalt,  

Plot: Three years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife the new Ghostbusters team have relocated to New York only to soon face Garraka, a demon set on bringing about a new Ice Age.

Review: With the franchise revived and the winey fanboys appeased by the previous film rehashing the first film but hey if it worked for Star Wars with The Force Awakens why not Ghostbusters. Still while Afterlife brought a fresh rural setting to the film Frozen Empire decides to move the team back to New York for no real explainable reason other than being a convenient way to work the original crew into the mix. 

Hitting the ground running we find the Spenglers and Paul Rudd’s former teacher long term Ghosterbuster groupie Gary still holding up grandpa Egon’s legacy as they continue to bust ghosts much to the ire of Mayor Walter Peck (a returning William Atherton) which soon sees Phoebe being benched. Elsewhere both Podcast and Lucky are also in the city thanks to convenient plotting with Podcast now hosting a youtube show about cursed objects with Ray while Lucky is now working at a Ghostbusting lab set up by Winston who provides the real backbone to the film by being able to link the various plots together and being the much needed voice of reason when everyone is so busy giddily running around the city having their own paranormal encounters. 

The film certainly starts off on a promising note in 1904 with the Manhattan Adventurers society unwittingly releasing the ice demon Garraka and while this is followed up by the current team chasing down a sewer dragon through Hell’s Kitchen showcasing some fun new pieces of kit like a drone trap the film soon begins to stumble as it tries to find something for this greatly expanded crew of Ghostbusters to do. If the film wasn’t already creaking under the weight of its cast it further adds to this mix with Comedian James Acaster’s paranormal researcher Dr. Pinfield who is a fun addition to the team while Patton Oswalt while enjoyable as always, is really only there to provide an infodump on the background of the film big bad who themselves only shows up at finale.

Frustratingly with every character having to have their moment we do get a lack of paranormal thrills even though Slimer is brought out once more to maximise the nostalgia dollar while the Mini Stay Puffs also make a return though the reasons why are as unexplained as the reason for many characters being worked into the plot. Sure there are some fun new ghosts showcased such as slime spewing spud on legs but in a film crying out for setpieces the film instead chooses to invest its energy into establishing Kumail Nanjiani’s Nadeem’s legacy as a “Fire Master” which only serves to provide a bail out for the team rather than getting to see that Ghostbusters creative problem solving

While it’s still a fun time I couldn’t help the whole time that the film was a mini series that had been edited down into a film version. Sure there are some fun ideas introduced like the Ghost lab that I’d love to see developed further in the next film. Hopefully this film was just the transition to the city and now the foundations have been laid the future instalments can focus more on the Busting and less on the group turmoil. 

Perhaps now the nostalgia has hopefully been tapped out of the franchise we can get back to having new adventures than rehashing the past for if the cartoon series can come up with seven seasons and a spin off worth of material surely the same inspiration can be found for the films aswell.

Jug Face

Title: Jug Face
Director: Chad Crawford Kinkle
Released: 2013
Starring: Lauren Ashley Carter, Sean Bridgers, Larry Fessenden, Scott Hodges, Sean Young, Katie Groshong

Plot: A backwoods cult worship a pit with healing powers and sacrificing members of their group to the monster which lives in the pit. Ada (Carter) upon finding she has been chosen as the next sacrifice attempts to save herself but what will be the cost when the monster doesn’t receive it’s sacrifice. 

Review: As I’ve previously mentioned there is something about a rural childhood which makes Folk Horror less of a thrilling prospect especially when watching a bunch of villagers freaking out the townies with their backwoods ways is essentially a daily occurrence than having any real mystique. Jug Face however really manages to tap into something by featuring an isolated small community living out in the woods and following their own set of mystical beliefs around a healing mud pit while still maintaining a connection to the modern world.

With the group the potter Dawai (Bridgers) makes Jug Faces while in a trance like state with the villager whose face looks like one of these jugs being the next person to be sacrificed to the pit a fate which Ada (Carter) suffers when her face is amongst the latest batch of Jugs. However, choosing to hide the jug than face being sacrificed to the pit soon throws the community into chaos especially when the monster which lives in the pit starts killing members of her family. 

Initially starting life as a winning entry in 2011 Slamdance Screenwriting Competition by writer director Chad Kinkle with the film being announced the following year. Considering how unique a vision that Kinkle has with this film it’s easy to see why as he plays into the tropes of folk horror while removing the element of the outsiders to instead focus on the internal strife of a community when their traditions are disrupted by one of their own. Further depth is added to the setting through Kinkle being equally interested in the internal strife outside of the deaths being caused by the unseen monster which lives in the pit. In particular Ada who not only is pregnant from the secret incestuous relationship she’s been having with her brother but also being forced into a marriage with a boy from another family to further strengthen the bond within the community with her parents especially keen to make sure that the daughter’s virginial purity is maintained while having no idea she’s carrying her brother’s child. 

The fact that the community exists in modern day yet have a dated style to their clothes really makes for an interesting blend of cultures as while they are happy to embrace the benefits of the modern age many of their beliefs still remain rooted in the past. How the group came to worship a bubbling muddy pit is never explained though the opening animations drawn with a simplistic style hint at the roots of these beliefs dating back to Puritan times.

Despite the limitations of the budget which means the monster in the pit remains unseen while the ominous pit at the core of the villagers beliefs is limited to some bubbling muddy water and yet Kinkle’s vision doesn’t feel like its being limited by budget with an ominous ghost boy and Ada’s frequent visions of her family’s violent demise only adding to the mystique of the situation. Added to this a fantastic central performance from Lauren Ashley Carter whose doe eyes and southern drawl making her an engaging lead as well as marking her out as a talent to watch while she equally receives strong support from a cast of colourful characters and domineering parents keen to uphold the traditions of the cult.

An enjoyable and engaging indie horror which thrives off its strong characters and growing tensions from questioning traditions with the growing sense of dread from Ada’s attempts to escape her destiny as the walls begin to slowly close in on her.

Escape From Tommorow

Title: Escape From Tommorow
Director: Randy Moore
Released: 2013
Starring: Roy Abramsohn, Elena Schuber, Katelynn Rodriguez, Jack Dalton, Annet Mahendru, Danielle Safady, Alison Lees-Taylor

Plot: Despite being fired Jim (Abramsohn) is determined to make the most of his family holiday to Disneyland only to soon start suffering nightmarish visions as he begins to see a darker side to the happiest place on earth. 

Review: Released to a lot of buzz seeing how Moore and his crew used guerrilla filmmaking techniques to shoot the film especially with Disney being especially stringent against people filming in the park even though this wasn’t the first film to film covertly in the park with Banksy recording one of his art stunts in the park for Exit Through The Gift Shop while the short film Missing In the Mansion was shot in the Haunted Mansion. Moore further added to the mythos of the film by editing it in South Korea and hiding any details about the film being shot at Walt Disney World to avoid the Disney lawyers being alerted prior to the films premiere at Sundance. 

While the idea of taking a nightmarish trip through Disneyland was certainly something which appealed about the film especially as something about the dayglow front of Disney which makes it perfect to be shot through a more warped lens and while the film starts of strong as the faces of the “It’s A Small World” animatronics start to warp while a mysterious female guest reveals that the Princesses are also high price escorts for wealthy Japanese businessmen not to mention the turkey legs are actually emu. Sadly it’s a vision that the film really fails to harness with the first hour really spacing out the weirdness to instead focus on such thrilling moments as Jim stalking a pair of young french girls, Jim constantly trying to create romantic moments with his disinterested wife and getting drunk at Epcot. It’s only in the last half hour that the film finally delivers on the promised twisted reality of the park.

The character of Jim is one of the big obstacles facing the film as he’s really kind of a creep as he’s only on the monorail before he’s letching over the two young french girls which would have worked as a scene but as a sub-plot with him following them around the park just is creepy. At the same time he doesn’t get much to do other than go on the rides at the park and argue with his wife which makes it a relief when one of the weirder moments of the film happens. 

Shot in black and white it does add a nice flourish to the film though shooting on digital cameras also means that the scenes were shot on green screen really stand out against those shot at the park. The footage which makes up most of the film though just feels like your watching a bad vacation than the nightmarish trip through Disney the film wants you to think it’s going to give you and even that doesn’t happen till the last 30 minutes of the film and this is before the truly random cat flu subplot.

Frustratingly there are elements of a more interesting film in here but are generally drowned out by an annoying lead and poor attempts at comedy. Disney meanwhile while we might view them as this Unicron entity devouring franchises but even they choose to ignore the film and you’d best best doing the same too!

Pinocchio’s Revenge

Title: Pinocchio’s Revenge
Director: Kevin S. Tenney
Released: 1996
Starring: Lewis Van Bergen, Larry Cedar, Janet MacLachlan, Rosalind Allen, Brittany Alyse Smith, Candace McKenzie, Ron Canada, Tara Hartman, Aaron Lustig, Todd Allen, Dick Beals, Verne Troyer

Plot: Lawyer Jennifer Garrick (Allen) brings home a Pinocchio puppet which was evidence in the trial of child murderer Vincent Grotto (Begen) who she failed to save from death row. But as her daughter bonds with the puppet it soon starts leading her astray as Jennifer begin to suspect that the puppet is alive. 

Review: Directed by Kevin S. Tenney who horror fans will know for Night of the Demons 1 + 3 as well as Witchboard here brings a DTV effort which I remember best for its constant presence on the video store wall as well as the bargain bin DVD box in the local corner store and while it’s taken me till now to actually watch it certainly what the cover promised certainly stuck let alone the fact it was a horror take on Pinocchio. 

Opening with the titular puppet being unearthed as part of the investigation into child murder Vincent Grotto who’ had’d buried the puppet in the same grave as his son he was accused of killing. This act alone seems to be all the proof that Lawyer Jennifer needs to believe that he was framed and that he is actually innocent because murders can’t make puppets (apparently) and only fills her with all the more guilt when she failed to defend him and he is executed. It’s a flimsy plotline which holds about as much weight as her defence and really only serves to give us a reason for the puppet to come to life without the slightest hint of Grotto knowing any kind of black magic or vengeful threats from the electric chair to really give us any indication it’s him controlling the puppet. 

At the same time Jennifer has to deal with a wayward daughter Zoe (Smith) who is being bullied at school and whose retaliation against her bullies has landed her in therapy as parents don’t tend to appreciate other children biting their little monster. Having brought the puppet home (because what better place to store murder investigation evidence right?) Zoe takes an instant bond to the Puppet which only seems to escalate her problems especially when one of the bullies gets thrown infront of a bus. Add to this the puppet turning up in random locations such as spying on the showering au pair Sophie (McKenzie) which lets face it is just an excuse to work in some nudity into this car crash. 

While this is a DTV title the puppet actually looks great and suitably creepy with a decent amount of movement in the face while the scenes of the puppet moving around provided by Verne Troyer donning the puppet suit are a little more waddling than the nippy speed of the POV shots. Tenney also tries to work in the Pinocchio traits rather than settle for name recognition as he uses shadow play for Pinocchio’s growing nose and his strings being cut to bring him fully to life. This reveal the doll is alive is also revealed surprisingly alot earlier than I was expecting but Tenney confuses things with the ending which he tries to play up the psychological horror angle and go for a twist ending which lands about as well as seeing the puppet being put through a glass table. 

The decision to try and play this as psychological horror rather than a straight up killer doll movie never really works for the film as there is never any doubt that the puppet is actually alive…I mean it says so on the box! Instead Tenney tries to convince us that Zoe is instead a bad seed responsible for knocking Jennifer’s boyfriend down the cellar stairs which is an admittedly spectacular tumble but never for one second did I really feel that Zoe could actually be the one responsible even if her mother has seemingly zero concerns about whether her daughter can hear her having sex with her boyfriend next door it’s clearly the puppet!!

Despite being a DTV title it certainly doesn’t deter Tenney from trying a whole bunch of tricks to try and get this movie to float which equally proves to its detriment as this is a movie stacked with ideas but little coherency to hold it together. The end result being a film which while certainly watchable was pretty much forgotten by the time the credits rolled.

The Columnist

Title: The Columnist
Director: Ivo van Aart
Released: 2019
Starring: Katja Herbers, Genio de Groot, Rein Hofman, Bram van der Kelen, Achraf Koutet, Claire Porro, Harry van Rijthoven, Seno Sever

Plot: Newspaper columnist Famke Boot (Herbers) is under pressure from her publisher to complete her overdue book while also consumed with reading the negative responses to her work. Soon however she finds the best way of dealing with them is to eliminate them from her life….permanently. 

Review: A Dutch black comedy which rings so true especially when the focus is heavily on the abuse that women receive online especially with social media enabling anyone to pass judgement on anyone without fear of repercussion. That is of course if they are not commenting on Famke Boot’s work. Certainly director Ivo van Aart and writer Daan Windhorst saw the film as a reaction to the ever escalating levels of abuse and bullying that they saw online especially on social media and hoped to provide a wake up call to the issue with the film. 

While the focus of the film might be cyber bullying / online abuse the film really taps into a similar vain as John Waters Serial Mom with Famke initially shown as the talented writer being crushed by her obsession with checking social media for the latest onslaught of abuse in response to her columns which to anyone whose seen the way that women are attacked online should find it of little surprise that these attacks are littered with references to rape and violence against her and violence she is soon returns on her attackers starting with her next door neighbour who she unflinchingly pushes off his roof and soon begins looking for who she considers to be the head troll inspiring the attacks. The unexpected response to each murder though is not guilt but rather bursts of creativity with each fresh kill helping her to break through her writers block. 

Fanke isn’t of course completely free to go on her murder spree as she has to hide her activities from her daughter who herself is dealing with her own freedom of speech pushback as she battles the headmaster of her school over her plans to hold a freedom of speech festival. Fanke also has a relationship with Horror writer Steven who initially is introduced as another combative voice in Fanke’s life only for the pair to connect romantically when she discovers that he works around his own frustrations by channelling it into his work, urgin Fanke to do the same and not read the comments but of course she is hooked on the vitriol being spewed. But of course the best way to the get over an addiction is replace it with another which she finds in the hunt for the head trolls. 

Katja Herbers is fantastic in the role as she is perfectly able to transition between being the stressed writer struggling to deal with critics and pressures to deliver her book while at the same time she effortlessly is able to switch to being the cold blooded killer dishing out vengeance on the men who feel they are immune from the consequences of their hate filled posts and whose middle finger will soon be added to her growing collection in her freezer.

A fun black comedy which perhaps doesn’t quite stick the landing of it’s shock finale but the revenge fantasy is certainly a fun one especially when so much of the film rings worryingly true.

Lucky Bastard

Title: Lucky Bastard
Director: Robert Stuart Nathan
Released: 2013
Starring: Don McManus, Betsy Rue, Jay Paulson, Catherine Annette, Lee Kholafai, Angela Shin, Chris Wylde

Plot: Having won the chance to have sex with a porn star Dave (Paulson) thinks its his lucky day, but when the shoot goes off the rails, Dave soon starts to show a much darker side to his personality. 

Review: Opening to the police walkthrough of the aftermath of the disastrous porn shoot and furthering one of the worst trends of modern horror were it starts at the end before returning to the start. This film goes one further by having it’s start be a porn shoot which turns into an attempted rape! But wait it’s not and actually all part of the porn shoot!! It’s a sloppy shock tactic which you’d be forgiven for checking out of the film right away. It’s actually kind of a shame that Director Robert Nathan a staff writer for both Law and Order as well as E.R. chooses to open his directorial debut like this as the film which follows actually brings something to the table that some viewers might miss out on due to the misguided opening. 

Shot as a found footage horror the camera documents the disasterous final shoot for the porn site Lucky Bastard were porn fans can win a chance to shoot a scene with a porn star which this time is porn star Ashley Saint (Rue) who is reluctant to shoot with amateurs and would rather focus on moving her career towards acting in mainstream features. The site owner and director Mike (McManus) meanwhile is a far from the stereotypical sleazebag porn producer as he is troubled by problems with his ex-wife and getting access to his kids with his problems soon only being added to by what should be a straightforward shoot with the shy Dave being anything but. 

Right from the moment Mike and his team meet Dave it’s clear that something is off with him as refuses to give details about himself while showing a stalkerish interest in Ashley as he thinks it’s charming to reveal personal details about her life he’s uncovered and even though all the warning signs are there the crew continue to push on with the shoot which only becomes more disastrous with Mike pulling the plug. It’s from here the film really switches it’s focus on the horror with Dave invading the set and hunting down the crew he feels have humiliated him.  

While found footage is far from the easiest format to shoot in as any number of Blair Witch imitators have shown over the years, it is still a format that lends itself as being the budget friendly option for indie productions and certainly here it is used effectively as the camera documents the unravelling of the shoot with the film really pulling a trump card with it’s second half being shot in a house used for reality tv meaning that it’s full of cameras ready to capture all the action like an episode of Big Brother something we haven’t really seen since My Little Eye and inturn saving the audience from being subjected to another round of shaky camera work and fleeting glimpses of the horror. 

All of the cast despite lacking in star power really bring a lot to their roles fleshing the characters beyond being porn caricatures which is only added to by the script bothering to add details to their characters especially for Mike and Ashley who are dealing with their own outside issues and even if the film had removed its murder rampage third quarter this would still have had the potential of being a Living in Oblivion style romp about an out of control porn set. As it is though we get an enjoyable build up to Dave finally snapping and the cracks slowly starting to appear in his everyman persona. 

As to be expected about a film set in the porn industry there is a plentiful amount of sex and nudity even if the occasional moments of blurring are distracting as you wish that director Nathan had worked out his shots better. Equally the final quarter does get a little too nihilistic and less of a fun slasher romp especially as it boils down to Dave and Ashley while one of her co-star attempts to beg and plead his way out of the situation he’s found himself in. 

While its not going to make the best of list especially with it’s opening which hangs over the rest of the film there are still some interesting ideas and direction to be found here with the film really making its limited budget and great cast work. Equally with the film popping up as a recommendation on Prime hopefully it will only help more people to stumble across it especially as the sort of title which lends itself well to the streaming format, especially when hardly offers anything you’re likely to have missed the first time round. But forgive or fast forward the clumsy and ill advised opening and there’s fun to be had here.

Spontaneous

Title: Spontaneous
Director: Brian Duffield
Released: 2020
Starring: Katherine Langford, Charlie Plummer, Hayley Law, Piper Perabo, Rob Huebel and Yvonne Orji

Plot: High school senior Mara (Langford), just wants to make it through her last year at school with best friend Tess (Law) only for her fellow students to start inexplicably exploding. 

Review: While they say never to judge a book by its cover the same could certainly be said about a film and its poster especially as the poster for this film hardly gave me much hope for this film which you’d be forgiven for mistaking as another twee teen romance rather than a sharp black comedy.

The directorial debut of Brian Duffield who despite getting his break with Divergent: Insurgent has since gone on to craft some great original scripts including The Babysitter and Love and Monsters for Netflix as well as the much overlooked aquatic horror Underwater and here brings a fun twist to the teen romance genre with the addition of randomly exploding high school seniors. 

Mara is a great character reminiscent of Ghost World’s Enid as while her fellow students are making plans for life outside of high school the only dream she seems to have is to become a pot smoking granny with childhood best friend Tess. However when one of her fellow students randomly explodes in class one day it soon makes her and her fellow students start reassessing what’s important to them and leading fellow classmate Dylan (Plummer) to reveal he has a crush on her leading the pair on a less than conventional path of growing feelings much like the paranoia about what is causing their fellow students to keep exploding at any given moment. 

Duffield here delivers a fresh script which is full of whitty banter between the leads while straying away from the traditional high school romcom tropes as Mara and Dylan are a charming couple whose relationship is more about having fun even when their class is put into quarantine by the government baffled by the situation soon referred to as the Covington Curse. Because the film isn’t just fixated with creating cute postcard moments for the couple especially with the unique backdrop to their relationship it never really loses focus on the fact that students are randomly exploding much like their shared quirky sense of humour which keeps things light and breezy. Add into the mix a great selection of supporting characters like best friend Tess and the brother sister twin drug dealers.

The fact that in the third quarter the film throws in a surprising twist which could threaten to derail the film with it’s shift in town and somehow doesn’t really is more of a credit to Duffield and in fact only strengthens the film as Mara is forced to face up to the situation rather than escape into the comfort blanket of her friends and Dylan as the situation builds to its reflective monologue which forms its finale which almost feels cathartic in a sequence which sees her having fantasy visions of becoming president while also finding a way to work in a tirade against Trump.

Carefully blending the splatter with the laughs, while managing to still engross us as much in a geeky pop culture infused romance as in the hunt for the cure while only further added to by strong performances throughout from the cast in particular Katherine Langford who only continues to add interesting roles to her resume after her breakout in the first two seasons of 13 Reasons Why while Hayley Law as the hip best friend Tess equally marks herself out much like her director as a talent to watch.

Hellraiser (2022)

Title: Hellraiser 
Director: David Bruckner
Released: 2022
Starring: Odessa A’zion, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Goran Visnjic, Selina Lo, Kit Clarke, Adam Faison, Aoife Hinds, Jaime Clayton

Plot: Recovering addict Riley (A’zion) stumbles across the puzzle box not realising that it holds the key to unlocking the door between realms and summoning the Cenobites

Review: Hellraiser as a franchise has always shown a surprising longevity even after they reached what could be considered a fitting conclusion with Hellraiser: Bloodlines only to stumble into an era of films starting with Hellraiser: Inferno were the scripts felt less about expanding the mythology but instead about working Pinhead and his Cenobite brethren into scripts that the studio had lying around. Now with this latest offering the series gets a much needed reboot but still retaining many familiar ideas from the first two films while also tweaking others. 

The idea to reboot the series though can be traced back to 2006 were Clive Barker announced on his website that he was working on a new script while Dimension were still churning out new entries including the controversial Hellraiser: Revelations which was really only made so that the studio could hold onto the rights of the film which caused Doug Bradley who had long served as the iconic Pinhead to leave the franchise. It would be the reboot of Halloween in 2018 though which would set the wheels fully in motion for the series to get it’s own reboot with David Bruckner directing and essentially starting the project fresh by co-writing the film with Luke Piotrowski and David Goyer.

Bruckner is certainly an interesting choice to direct the film especially with his previous films leading more toward psychological horror having previously directed The Ritual than the splatter the series has become renown for here is certainly manages to recapture the feeling of the Hellraiser world while bringing more than a few new ideas to the table most notably by giving us a female Pinhead now known as “The Priest” who is accompanied by her own Cenobite followers which include a new version of the classic Chatterer (Always my favourite) while the puzzle box now is no longer a key to open the door to the hell dimension but rather a vessel for offering sacrifices in order to receive a reward. Thankfully none of these changes feel especially jarring but then when you consider what the fans have had to endure with the previous five offerings it’s kind of refreshing to have some actual good ideas brought to the series. 

Opening with Goran Visnjic’s hedonistic millionaire Roland Voight using the box to further his own obsession with harnessing the power of the box, the film skips forward six years to introduce recovering addict Riley who lives with her brother Matt, his boyfriend Colin and her roommate Nora. At the same time she is also involved with Trevor, a fellow recovering addict who is also responsible for bringing the box into her life after he encourages her to join him in breaking into an abandoned warehouse where they find the box. Of course as always is the case with these movies she has no clue what the box does and in fiddling with it manages to mark herself for collection by the Cenobites and in turn her friends as well.

The film which follows ends up feeling kind of like an ultra violent Scooby Doo episode as the friends attempt to find a way to break the curse of the box, while their numbers are slowly whittled down by the Cenobites with the group eventually finding their way back to Voight’s mansion which itself enclosed inside a giant cage makes for a great finale especially when the planning Voight put into its design are revealed like him. 

The cast are all good in their roles though A’zion really shines as Riley who is fun to follow on her quest even if her friends are more forgettable and disposable. Elsewhere Jaime Clayton effortlessly slips into the Pinhead / Priest role even if her character lacks the booming and deliciously evil voice of Doug Bradley she still makes the role her own though this version does certainly feel more chatty than previous incarnations of the character in the same way that the new Cenobites at time felt clumsy than all powerful demons. Goran Visnjic equally continues makes me question why he has never become more of a star especially when he carries himself with such effortless charisma and is perfectly cast in the role of Voight.

A promising return to form for the series with this reboot regaining the focus of the series while also setting up a new world to expand upon which hopefully we’ll see with future instalments but for not at least the future looks bright (and bloody) for the franchise.