September 18, 2020 “Paranormal Attraction” (*1/2 out of four) was an enervatingly routine horror show about a young woman (Brooklyn Haley) who moves into an abandoned house which (to the surprise of no one but her) turns out to be haunted with evil spirits and subsequently all Hell breaks loose. Passable beginning soon gives way to too much mumbo and too much jumbo and film sputters as it covers territory covered in millions of other direct-to-DVD horror films. Originally titled “Unholy Attraction” but the word paranormal is just too damn popular these days. Continue reading →
September 17, 2020 “The Last Laugh” (** out of four) was an unconvincing melodrama about a stand-up comedian (Steve Vanderzee) on the verge of both a breakout and an emotional breakdown who is about to perform in a theater when he discovers that a murderer is on the loose and he cannot convince anyone that this is not part of his act! Awkward attempt at mixing elements of both horror and comedy with backstage drama and elements of mental illness. Writer/director Jeremy Berg deserves points for trying something new but viewers eager for a more deft and powerful look at similar subject matter would best watch Martin Scorcese’s masterwork “The King Of Comedy” instead. Continue reading →
September 17, 2020 “One Hour Outcall” (*1/2 out of four) was a tedious melodrama about a middle-aged businessman (William Norrett) whose interludes and relations with a high-class escort (Natalia Ochoa) force him to re-examine his relations with his own family and to confront his own problems in life. More of an experiment than an actual film and on that basis it runs out of steam pretty quickly and soon turns into a bore. Opens up well but after a while you’ll want to hang up on this wrong number. Norrett also scripted. Continue reading →
September 17, 2020 “Killer Therapy” (*1/2 out of four) was a muddled, unpleasant horror thriller which only kills your time about a mentally unstable young man (Michael Qeliqi) who seeks vengeance on all the therapists he blames for messing up his mind and life and goes out on a mission to kill them all one-by-one. Potentially intriguing storyline is drably executed and becomes ugly and unredeeming after a while. One-time horror siren P.J. Soles has a minor role as one of his therapists but she totally deserves better roles than this. Continue reading →
September 16, 2020 “Fear Pharm” (* out of four) was a dreadful Halloween-themed horror show about four friends (John Littlefield, Aimee Stolte, Emily Sweet, and Tiana Tuttle) who enter a maze in a cornfield for a Halloween contest but become stalked and slaughtered by the deranged family who own the property. Film’s setting is all-too-appropriate since the film itself is corny and also stupid and boring. David Minadeo’s striking widescreen cinematography is film’s only value. This was actually filmed on location in Dixon, California which has the largest cornfield in America but I doubt they want this film standing as its legacy. Continue reading →
September 16, 2020 “The Coming” (* out of four) was a staggeringly awful horror story set in the future in which a group of young friends (Christina Alexandru, Jamelia Amor, Charles Askenaizer, and others) have to use an all-mighty book in order to survive through a city of disarray and chaos and soon realize that only the strong will survive. Incoherent story is yet another post-apocalyptic pile of trash derived from other (and far better) movies. It’s movies like these that make you regret the day “Blade Runner” and “28 Days Later” were made. Terrible ending is the icing on this moldy cake. Continue reading →
September 15, 2020 “Silence And Darkness” (*1/2 out of four) was an uninspired thriller about two sisters who are both blind and deaf (both played by Joan Glackin) who live in a secluded house with their father (Jordan Lage) but soon begin to realize his vindictive nature and deteriorating mental state and that he has lied to them and kept them hidden from the world their entire lives. So little actually happens in this movie that this really is much ado about nothing. Solid performances do what they can but are unable to inject much life into this drab material. Continue reading →
September 14, 2020 “Archaon: The Halloween Summoning” (* out of four) was a mindlessly low-rent horror story about four college students (Christopher Dalton, Jaire George, and others) who stumble onto a 15th-century Celtic artifact and the resurrect the horror legend Archaon whose spirit haunts whomever puts on his mask and causes (yawn) all Hell to break loose. Utterly cheesy and unimaginative from the beginning; this snooze summons on its own the memories of much better films such as “Halloween”, “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers”, and also “Scream.” Give yourself a Halloween present and check those movies out instead of this time-waster. Continue reading →
September 13, 2020 “A Dark Path” (** out of four) was a lukewarm horror thriller set in Eastern Europe in which two girls (Makenna Guyler and Ade Dimberline) on their way home from a rave party end up stranded in a local forest in which they become under siege from a ravenous beast and they have to fight back together in order to stay alive. Impressively creepy atmosphere and elegant direction from writer/director Nicholas Winter hold your attention for a while but it soon sputters to a halt and starts to fizzle out just when it ought to be peaking. Not the worst of its disreputable genre but horror fans still needn’t bother going down this “path.” Continue reading →
September 13, 2020 “Parallel Minds” (**1/2 out of four) was a fairly engrossing thriller set in the not-too-distant future in which a revolutionary contact lens called Red Eye 2 can record data and help resurface buried memories; when a researcher (Tommie Amber-Pirie) at the Department Of Memory finds the owner of the program murdered, she teams up with a world-weary police detective (Greg Bryk) to uncover the murder and the larger business/governmental conspiracies at hand. Ultimately too derivative of too many other time-travel/futuristic thrillers but told with style and holds your attention with its gimmickry and good performances. Refreshingly tight also at less than an hour-and-a-half long. Continue reading →
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