Capture Kill Release begins in the middle of a devious plot: young lovers Jenn and Farhang (played by Jennifer Fraser and Farhang Ghajar) are toying with the idea of murdering a random person. Their intentions and motives are deliberately foggy, which makes the film’s fly-on-the-wall experience more unsettling, disturbing, and impossible to look away – this is not for the faint of heart.
Sometimes, a film may fail at one or two or even five things. A much rarer find is a film that manages to fail at absolutely everything it attempts. The term “attempt” is important, since The Before Time did unintentionally succeed at making me laugh out loud several times – a much higher success rate than many recent comedies.
Most of what Yoav and Doron Paz offer movie goers in their horror film JeruZalem feels re-gifted. We’ve seen this sort of panicked science fiction in films before – from tent-pole thrillers like Cloverfield to foreign imports like [REC]. While that may sound like the “jaded critic” side transforming me as one of the film’s demons would, I feel like I have a legitimate argument.
By: Addison Wylie There’s nothing new in Always Watching: A Marble Hornets Story that you haven’t already seen in other found footage horrors. See if you can keep score at home: a small news crew ([REC]) are stringing together interviews and B-roll for a project (The Blair Witch Project), when suddenly a box of abandoned videocassette tapes containing disturbingly transfixing footage is discovered (name that Paranormal Activity sequel). A looming creature – evoking infamous Internet legends…
By: Addison Wylie It’s often said that art reflects life. Unfriended turns the mirror towards a modern age of teenagers who sometimes veer on being brain dead, yet can problem solve with the drop of a hat when they need to use technology. Twenty years ago, a movie would only call on one token techie. Now, a movie can afford to fill its roster with this type of character. While Unfriended deals with terrors that…
By: Mark Barber David Gelb’s The Lazarus Effect offers an intriguing concept, but gets bogged down by convention. Despite its compelling concept, the premise is familiar: a group of researchers led by Frank (Mark Duplass) and his fiancée Zoe (Olivia Wilde) create the “Lazarus” serum, a formula that brings the recently deceased back to life. This God-like power to cheat death causes things to go awry very quickly. Zoe is killed in a laboratory accident…
By: Addison Wylie I thought As Above, So Below was very, very dumb. And, I’m someone who throughly enjoyed both National Treasure movies. What does that say about me? Not wise enough in general, or wise enough to draw a line? My self-prognosis coming soon. But, yes, As Above, So Below is as dumb as movies get, and it wants its audience to take it so very seriously. The aforementioned National Treasure movies fill similar…
By: Addison Wylie Happy Slapping is a movie that slowly won me over. It’s a film that’s difficult to get used to, but I’m glad I finally did. That said, I am torn. Despite my surprised reaction, Christos Sourligas’ film is something I can’t outright endorse. At least, not without a few warnings and reservations because of how it was conceived and how it ultimately looks on screen. You may have heard of Happy Slapping…
By: Addison Wylie Afflicted isn’t a found footage film, but rather a mockumentary documenting Derek Lee and Clif Prowse’s year long trip around the world. The film does, however, use the same techniques we’ve seen in previous found footage horrors. Luckily, the filmmakers in charge of this creature feature know what they’re doing. In fact, there are a lot of things filmmakers/co-stars Lee and Prowse do brilliantly in Afflicted. Firstly, the duo cover their asses extremely…
By: Addison Wylie Following in the same footsteps as other horror franchises, Paranormal Activity has its faithful fans and its hardcore haters. It’s also a franchise that decides it has to change its beat every third movie in hopes of convincing movie goers that they aren’t watching the same movie over and over again. It’s a business plan that works for me. Since Paranormal Activity 4 was ordinarily playing the same tune as its fantastic…