Category: Uncategorized

“Driven To The Edge” (*1/2 out of four) was an utterly stupid suspense thriller about a young fashion designer (Taylor Spreitler) who shares a ride with a passenger (Danielle Burgess) in an Uber and soon realizes that she has taken a dark obsession with her and will do anything and everything to dominate her life and make sure they are never apart. Perhaps the final word in all “Fatal Attraction” wannabes about the fatal consequences of meeting someone in an Uber! Even by the low standards of these clunkers, this one is really dim and lame and soon drives itself off a cliff.

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“Evil Takes Root” (** out of four) was a tired supernatural thriller about a paranormal investigator (Nicholas Gonzalez) who arrives in a nowhere Midwestern town to investigate the disappearance of his ex and hopefully atone for many of his own past mistakes but soon begins to realize that she fell victim to an ancient evil that returned home with her from the Phillipines and he subsequently realizes it may threaten to overtake the entire town. Director Chris W. Freeman employs some stylish touches that help this get off to a good start but film soon gets swallowed up in its own hokey absurdism.

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“Beckman” (** out of four) was an ungainly B-movie actioner about an underground contract killer (David A.R. White) who finds God and turns his life around to become the reverend of an L.A. church but is called back into action when a villainous cult leader (William Baldwin) kidnaps his daughter and he springs back into bloody vengeance but this puts him at odds and question with his newfound faith. Heavy-handed mix of pulp action and religious sentiments at least has some good action scenes in its second half after a sluggish opening. Strong supporting cast including Jeff Fahey, Burt Young, and Brighton Sharbino are mostly wasted. Both Fahey and Baldwin both co-produced.

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“The Bellwether” (0 out of four) was an excruciating horror drama about a book-store owner (Alex Reid) who is locked in a church and is interrogated and scrutinized by an unseen church servant (voiced by Sally Clawson) to try and force her to conform from her evil and sinister ways but she has a few tricks up her sleeve and decides to interrogate the church servant back and the church in general. Abjectly painful movie is an entire one-character story and is claustrophobic, cheap, and (worst of all) boring. If you make it through the first 15 minutes, you might make it through the entire movie. You might remember Reid from 2005’s “The Descent” but judging by this clunker, her career seems to be in fast descent.

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“The Dead Ones” (* out of four) was a deadeningly awful horror thriller about four misfit teens (Sarah Rose Harper, Brandon Thane Wilson, Katie Foster, and Torey Garza) assigned to summer detention of cleaning up their high school but soon realize they are not alone and that The Four Horsemen of the apocalypse are in the school with them and terrorize and stalk them to the death. Amateurish from the beginning and even looks visually ugly and blurry. One of the head villains is played by Muse Watson who ironically played the fisherman in “I Know What You Did Last Summer” a reminder (as if we needed another one) on the right way to do this type of horror story.

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“Sinfidelity” (** out of four) was an obvious, empty suspense thriller about a married woman (Jade Tailor) who begins to suspect that her husband (Mark Jude Sullivan) is having an affair so she decides to have an affair of her own with her husband’s co-worker (Aidan Bristow) but this turns her life upside down when she finds out that he’s a vengeful sicko. Cleverly titled movie turns out to be yet another “Fatal Attraction” knockoff which is fatally illogical and predictable. Thomas Callaway’s cinematography is a definite asset but this is overall an affair to forget.

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“The Babysitter: Killer Queen” (** out of four) was a strained sequel to the surprise 2017 hit about the continuing misadventures of Cole (Judah Lewis) who survived a satanic blood cult and now has to embark on the even more dangerous ground of attending high school but the physical and personal demons from his past soon return and he has to find creative ways to fight them off. Director McG directs with his usual flamboyance and panache and throws in some homages to earlier teen classics (with a nod to “Risky Business”) and some great soundtrack selections (yes the Queen title track) but it’s a lot of energy expended over nothing, since the story is practically nonexistent. Only for die-hard fans of the original.

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“Nocturnal” (** out of four) was a reductively remote drama about a young schoolgirl (Lauren Coe) who develops a relationship with a middle-aged man (Cosmo Jarvis) who is obsessed with her; while they seem like complete opposites in terms of age and their positions in life, their need for companionship results in their relationship soon blossoming. Well-acted by the two leads in naturalistic fashion but story never connects emotionally and remains hazy and aloof. This was oddly selected to open last year’s BFI London Film Festival.

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“Welcome To The Circle” (* out of four) was a shapeless bore about a father and daughter (Matthew MacCaull and Taylor Dianne Robinson) who are attacked and left for dead on a camping trip but survive and are then subsequently trapped by a demon-worshipping cult called The Circle and they have to try to band together to psychologically and physically survive. Terrible acting and filmmaking turn this into both psychological and physical torture for the audience as it plods on endlessly for an hour-and-a-half. Inauspicious directing debut for noted documentary creator David Fowler.

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“Antebellum” (** out of four) was a maddening horror melodrama about a successful author and inspirational speaker (Janelle Monae) who finds herself trapped in a horrifying reality which seems a series of dreams and nightmares reflecting back to when she was in slavery and she must sort out the mystery between the present day and the past before it’s too late. Monae is solid as usual but the thin storyline veers back-and-forth between the past and present bizarrely and becomes pointless and pretentious after a while. Film also doesn’t end so much as stop. Directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz admitted this was all-too-obviously inspired by (i.e. ripped-off from) “The Shining”.

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