MicroCinema Reviews
Five
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
“Twilight Zone”-flavored horror-thriller, from New Zealand director Amit Tripuraneni, features five camping friends, and the secrets that are revealed over a long weekend in a remote cabin. Five, Tripuraneni’s follow-up to the admirable, muscular spy thriller Memories of Tomorrow, plumbs a traditional genre, but with a different vibe. Tripuraneni coached naturalistic, almost improvised-seeming performances from his leads, but coupled that with energetic visuals and a crisp pace. The visuals are eye-searing and the editing leaves scenes charged with menace.
Quench
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
After suffering a loss, a young man comes home to the midwest to try and rekindle an old friendship, but quickly learns that the friend he left behind has gravitated towards a new, sinister “family.” Zack Parker’s Quench bills itself as a “modern gothic tragedy,” with perhaps a bit of emphasis on the “gothic” and veined, so to speak, with dark horror undertones. Some explicit sex, and liberal use of blood, startle against the strikingly-shot Indiana landscapes.
Trailer Park Double Wide Trilogy of Terror!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
I’ve always been a fan of Joe Sherlock’s retro-styled features, marked by funny storytelling and rickety “let’s put on a show” production values, but anyone unfamiliar with his work who wants to watch a horror anthology called Trailer Park Double Wide Trilogy of Terror pretty much will know what they are in for.
Last Rites of the Dead
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Last Rites of the Dead is the best zombie movie I’ve seen since Shaun of Dead, but even more than that, the first hour or so is also the most relevant since George Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. It’s a real political allegory that is frighteningly real in this era of Mexican-hating Minutemen, as we’re introduced to a world where the dead come back to life. In a smart twist, they are not flesh-eating mindless monsters, but rotting humans who still retain all their brain functions, memories and mannerisms—they’re just like you and me except they have no heartbeat.
Die and Let Live
Sunday, April 15, 2007
It took a little while to get into Die and Let Live. It has everything going for it—a punchy opening set-up and a great title sequence—but for the first twenty or so minutes, as main characters Smalls (Zane Crosby) and Benny (Josh Lively) hang out around a coffee-shop, speaking in highly-contrived Kevin Smith-approved youth-speak (with a constant wink of ironic delivery), it took every ounce of will-power not to turn it off. These two guys, sitting around, pining over girls and avoiding meathead boyfriends—it was tedious and wreaked of trying too hard to be clever. If there is one trend young filmmakers need to stop, it’s this shit.
Camp Blood: The Musical
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Filmed for less than $200, the ultra-indie Camp Blood: The Musical, in it’s tight thirty-minute runtime, deliver more laughs than all four Scary Movies combined. And not only is it the funniest genre parody to come along in quite a while, the songs that give it it’s “musical” part of the title are clever, witty and catchy, and instead of acting as some sort of gimmick for the film, these songs actually add to an already well-told story.
Chaos: The Director’s Cut
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Yes, Chaos is, for the most part a rip-off of Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left. Let’s be honest here. But, was Craven’s Last House not itself a take on Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring? The fact that Chaos pretty shamelessly does copy Last House should be beside the point – Chaos, as a film, is powerful, brutally evocative filmmaking that goes places that Last House never could. It’s a survivalist horror neo-classic and I can say that without a hint of irony. This is really a great film. It’s scary, it’s devastating and it’s frighteningly realistic. I don’t care how jaded a horror fan you are–it’s impossible not to finish Chaos and not be left shaken.
LovecraCked! The Movie
Monday, April 02, 2007
This indie horror-comedy has huge aspirations: one of the most unfilmable authors is HP Lovecraft and only few, Stuart Gordon, for example, can pull it off with a real sense of authoritarianism. And not only are Lovecraft’s works filled with multiple histories of ancient gods and demons, to truly capture their look, it would take a nice effects budget, headed by a team of pros. So already, LovecraCked should have those two strikes against it.
But I’ll be damned if it doesn’t pull it off.
Chainsaw Sally
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By day, Sally is a shy, reserved librarian, coldly shushing patrons for talking too loud and chiding those who use bad grammar and spelling. But, when darkness falls, she straps on a Hot Topic goth/club kid wardrobe and brandishes a chainsaw, slicing up anyone that infuriates her. That is the basic idea behind Shock-O-Rama’s long-in-production horror flick Chainsaw Sally, a low-budget feature that’s actually more entertaining than you’d think.
Woodchipper Massacre
Imagine that, locked away somewhere in the TGIF vaults, a long-lost, long-suppressed episode of Full House was uncovered. In that episode, father Danny Tanner leaves DJ, Stephanie and Michelle for the weekend with their evil Uncle Jesse, who, instead of being the cool, Elvis-worshipping rock’n’roller we have all grown to love, is a mean, spiteful crone who makes the kid’s lives hell. All he does is scream, complain and chide, bringing the girl’s self-esteem to new lows, leading them to as “whatever happen to predictability?”
