The rousingly titled 4/20 Massacre attempts to cash in on the “unofficial holiday” with blood, guts, slasher horror, and mounds of marijuana. In fact, a case can be made that the film may have been too eager to hit screens – the distributor couldn’t wait to release this film on Friday, April 20 apparently. No worries for me though; I wanted an excitable movie to entertain me. However, 4/20 Massacre amounts to a major buzzkill.
Hell’s Kitty, a film that has been assembled from a web series of the same name conceived by writer/director Nicholas Tana, makes for an amusing in-joke for horror hounds. The cameos alone from iconic character actors are enough to make those fans beam. For instance, The Hills Have Eyes’ Michael Berryman appears as a testy detective, while Heir’s Bill Oberst Jr. and The Shape of Water’s Doug Jones star as a devout duo who attempt to exorcize…
The Wasting is a small film with large misfires. It’s an unfortunate directorial debut from documentary writer Carolyn Saunders and, boy, what a reluctant debut it is.
Cruel Summer, a film based on a tragically wrongheaded crime, is a knockoff of Larry Clark’s Bully. I’m fine with that; following that model isn’t necessarily problematic.
By: Nick van Dinther Black Hollow Cage is so visually special, you could watch it on mute. The fact that writer/director Sadrac González-Perellón attaches a surreal story and engaging characters to the presentation makes this a must-see.
Mom and Dad is a touchy sell, even if the film is up front with its maniacal plot about parents killing their children and how it shoots for the moon in terms of dark comedy.
Strawberry Flavored Plastic combines elements of found-footage horror and mockumentary to create a story about two documentarians (Nicholas Urda, Andreas Montejo) making a movie about a serial killer, Noel Rose (Aidan Bristow). With testimonials, first-person video, and video conferencing, the audience learns how this “film” slips out from underneath its makers and how it goes awry.
Horror fodder like Friend Request tends to be dismissed based on its timely nature, which is really too bad. These digital age thrillers may borrow from other formulas (or other movies), but they certainly are not derivative. In the case of Friend Request, it owes a debt of gratitude to fellow social media flick Unfriended, but it fuses its modern premise of cyberstalking with revered lore and finds a good balance between “old” and “new”…
By: Nick van Dinther There are so many wonderful and creative upstart filmmakers putting out fantastic work. Whether they’re film students or people with a true passion for the industry, they do their best to fund an idea, bring it to life, and share it with the world. When they decide to release the project for profit however, it needs to meet a certain standard. Brownwell Entertainment’s Friends Don’t Let Friends, a horror/thriller about covering…
Another WolfCop is a fury of fun, and this is coming from someone who hated the first movie. Talk about a switcheroo.