Horror Movie Quick Review: The Rite (2011)

Overall: B

IMDB

Directed by:

Mikael Håfström

Starring:

Anthony Hopkins

Colin O’Donoghue

I liked this one pretty well, but at the same time it didn’t feel like it did anything new.

The basic plot is that Michael (Colin O’Donoghue) begins training in seminary. Having a crisis of faith, he goes to Italy as a last attempt to renew his belief in God, and begins studying with Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins), supposedly an exorcist. Michael doesn’t believe that demonic possession is real, and he still questions his faith. But then Father Trevant is possessed, and Michael is forced to take on the role of exorcist.

It’s a movie that is pretty good at what it does, and is well acted. But it also feels like it followed the recipe for making a movie about demonic possession and exorcism to the letter. There’s the main character having a moral crisis over his beliefs and whether or not he really has a vocation, there’s the demon that causes the possessed person to speak in tongues and talk about how the main character’s dead family is rotting/burning in hell, the demon is exorcised, and the main character finds his faith. Hooray!

If you like that type of movie, this one will probably not disappoint you. But if you’re looking for something new and different, this doesn’t really deliver.

Horror Movie Review: The Tenement (2003)

Overall: D

Acting: D

Writing: D-

Story: D+

Technical aspects: D+

Effects: D

IMDB

Directed by:

Glen Baisley

Starring:

Joe Lauria

Michael Gingold

C. J. DiMarsico

John Studol

Mike Lane
Ed Shelinsky

Danielle Russo

Particular trigger warnings: sexual assault, animal cruelty, prostitution, hard drug use

Passes the Bechdel test? I don’t think so

I basically give a synopsis below, because it’s hard to pick apart otherwise. Beware of spoilers all the way through.

The Tenement is a series of four loosely related stories about different occupants of the same tenement house.

The movie starts with a man named Ethan (Pete Barker) speaking to the owner of the building (Jude Pucillo.) Ethan says that he used to live there forty years ago, and he wants to know if the new owner has seen the building do anything strange to the people living there. Ethan begins to reminisce about the time he lived there.

We suddenly cut to a scene of a girl being kidnapped and crucified as part of a cultic ritual, but we soon find out that this is just a crappy movie within our crappy movie, as this is part of Ethan’s memory. It’s 1980 and Ethan (Joe Lauria) lives in his apartment with his bedridden mother (Doreen Valdati) and spends his time either at work or at home watching horror films by director Winston Korman (Michael Gingold), whom he idolizes. Well, Korman is in town casting for a new film, and Ethan is paid to deliver black roses to him. He gets mistaken for a prospective actor, but when he can’t act and freezes up, Korman laughs at him and mocks him until he runs away. Ethan goes home, kills his cat, and then leaves his overbearing mother. He dresses all in black, and goes to Korman’s house. Korman is outside, doing all he possibly can to prove even further that he is a caricature of a douchebag and we Should Not Like Him. After an awkward chase scene, Ethan kills Korman with a shovel, dropping a black rose on the body, becoming the “black rose killer.”

            The second story happens in 1990, and focuses on a young mute girl (mute apparently due to something traumatic in her past, though this isn’t expanded on) named Sarah Weston (C.J. DiMarsico). She spends her time waltzing alone to music from her radio. A neighbor named Henry Wallace (John Studol) keeps watching her, prompting her parents to take her away on a vacation for a while. They leave her alone for a while, and Wallace breaks in and sexually assaults her. She fights back, but he keeps overpowering her. In the midst of the rape, he suddenly blacks out and appears to be hallucinating and recalling trauma from his own childhood. He wakes back up in the living room, with Sarah gone. He finds her in the bedroom, and approaches her, but she turns up her radio, he starts screaming and holding his head, and then he disappears. Later on, with the Weston family back at home, Sarah is seen dancing in her room, but the shadows and mirror show that she’s dancing with some sort of creature.

            The third story jumps forward nine years to 1999, and is about Jimmy (Mike Lane), who has begun attending a therapy group to help him deal with his relatively unspecified issues. He appears to mostly just be a shut-in. On his way home, he’s attacked by a wild animal (and by wild animal, I mean a husky that just kind of happily trotted behind him for about three seconds.) He’s bitten on the arm, and he slowly starts becoming convinced that he’s turning into a werewolf. He thinks the symptoms are obvious, though no one else sees the transformation. He kills his friendly neighbor who apparently had a thing for him, he kills a male prostitute, and then he kills a female dancer in a strip club. Here he’s apprehended, and sentenced to life in a mental hospital. But then he’s attacked by some apparently “real” werewolves, who want to kill him for bringing too much attention to them.

            The fourth story happens in 2000 and is about another serial killer (Ed Shelinsky) living in the tenement, who pretends to be a taxi driver to pick up women and then torture and murder them. We see him capture and kill a prostitute, and then go out “hunting” again. This time he picks up a girl (who I can’t remember being named, but I believe is being played by Danielle Russo.) She has him take her out to the place where Winston Korman, the horror director from before, used to film his movies. She has to give him directions, but she says she’ll just go in for a second to get money for the cab fare. When the taxi killer follows her in and attacks her, she says she “likes it rough” and attacks him back, saying it was obvious he wasn’t a real taxi driver because he didn’t know the place she wanted him to take her, and the two fight some more. Apparently they realize that they’re soul mates or something, and the two make out. Then we see that they’ve joined forces and are killing people together. Aww.

            The movie closes with the elderly Ethan and the owner discussing that they have seen the house do strange things to people. Ethan lays a black rose on a nearby bench. The owner (who by this point I was calling “goth Fabio”) confronts Simon (Chris Alo) the local pimp and drug dealer, telling him to stop hanging around and selling all he sells in front of the building. Simon pretty much blows him off before hallucinating madly about drug use and overdosing and what the fuck ever, while the owner stands nearby, leering at him, obviously the cause. The end.

This movie was pretty bad. One of the reviews on the case says that it “certainly shows an affinity for the genre” and we remarked that that seemed like a backhanded compliment. And that really feels like the nicest thing I can say about it, too. It’s clear that the makers really like horror films, and it seems like they probably even really enjoyed making this movie, but I certainly can’t say that it was very good. According to something else I found online, the director, Glen Baisley, was a sexploitation film director in the 60s and 70s, and then filmed porn for a while, before coming back to horror films, and I guess I wouldn’t have a hard time believing it. (And the “Walter Korman” film we get to see a brief snippet of during the first story is a perfect sexploitation/horror, to the point I wonder if it was a clip from something the director did in the past.)

My problems with the movie are varied. The acting was generally really substandard. Some actors were fine, but some side characters delivered their lines so badly it sounded like they were reading them off for the first time, and at other times it was obvious they couldn’t remember their lines correctly.

The stories themselves just weren’t that well-told in my opinion either. The first one, it sounds like all the dialogue between Ethan and his mother was lifted from Willard (which is a much better film.) They refuse to show the mother for a while, and I wondered if it was going for the Psycho-style twist, though apparently that was just a deliberate allusion. It reminded me more of Willard, anyway, down to the tone and pitch of the mother’s voice. Plus there were the weird dangling plot threads like Ethan's hallucination-girlfriend. The fourth story just bored me more than anything else; it was too bloodless to really be shocking the way it seemed to be aiming for, and it just managed to leave no real impression. The second and third had at least glimmers of interest for me. I want to know more about Sarah and the thing she was dancing with. Does she have strange powers? Is she allied to some kind of demon that killed her attacker? Is the creature a personification of the “monster” she killed? And the third story, while (probably deliberately) ridiculously silly, at least has a twist that could be interesting in a better film; the idea that someone who pretends to be some kind of monster is killed by the real thing.

As far as the anthology goes, judging from the title and the prologue/epilogue frame story, we’re apparently supposed to think that the building is somehow compelling people to become violent or is giving them delusions and apparently occasionally psychic powers. But without the occasional exterior shots of the tenement house, there’s nothing that tells me that these people supposedly live in the same building; none of them meet each other, there aren’t any other ties between the characters or stories (aside from Gordon Korman being mentioned in two stories, and Ethan being a character in one story and the frame,) there aren’t any other clues to the setting. There’s also never any reason given for why the building would have this effect on people. It really comes off as just being the most tenuous possible way to connect four ideas that couldn’t quite be films on their own. And despite all the stories being relatively short, averaging in the 20-30 minute range each, the film drags.

The entire time we’re skipping around from the 80s onward never felt convincing to me either – there was never anything that made me believe we’d changed time periods. Hairstyles, clothing, technology, etc. all remained so constant that it was hard to feel that this was somewhere in the past, or that years were passing between the stories. And Ethan, supposedly our “tie” between the past and the present of the building, appears to have aged about fifty years since 1980, so either their math is bad, or the frame story is set in the future.

The effects are nothing great. Fights don’t look at all convincing, with it often being incredibly obvious that there’s no force behind any of the blows. The movie doesn’t overly rely on gore effects and the like, which to me is a point in its favor, since the blood effects they have aren’t that good. Some of the scenes ended up prompting laughter when it wasn’t intentionally funny.

Pretty much everything from the acting to the effects to the scenarios just feel completely unconvincing. And allegedly this is part one of a trilogy… I’m not sure how to justify continuing this through two more films.

Horror Movie Quick Review: Case 39 (2009)

Overall: B

IMDB

Directed by:

Christian Alvart

Starring:

Renee Zellweger

Jodelle Ferland

Case 39 is about a social worker named Emily Jenkins (Renee Zellweger) who is beyond overworked, but takes on the case of a girl named Lilith Sullivan (Jodelle Ferland.) There seems to be a severe case of abuse towards the girl, seemingly confirmed when Lilith’s parents try to murder her. The parents are found not guilty by reason of insanity as they claim that Lilith is a demon and they had no choice but to kill her. Emily ends up taking Lilith in until a better foster home can be found, but then as people in Emily’s life begin to die under mysterious circumstances, she realizes that Lilith’s parents may have been right.

I’m a fan of evil child movies, so I liked Case 39. It does a pretty good job of setting Lilith up as the innocent victim (though somewhat unfortunately because of the expectations of it being a horror movie, and especially after reading a summary of it, the audience will still realize that she’s evil, so there’s not much opportunity for surprise.) It’s well-acted (and I really like Jodelle Ferland, as far as child actresses go) and the characters are pretty good as well. Emily’s conflict over proper professional behavior vs. legitimate worry for Lilith is believably handled. In a few ways it felt like the ending and resolution were a little bit rushed, and I can’t suspend my disbelief enough to not realize that Emily is probably going to wind up spending a good chunk of her life in prison after the credits roll. The film isn’t the most groundbreaking or original offering, and it felt to me like there was just something kind of missing, but it’s a well put together film that is largely successful in telling its story.

Horror Episode Review: The River, Episode 8

Episode 8: Row Row Row Your Boat

Overall: C+

Acting: C+

Writing: C

Story: C

Technical aspects: C+

Effects: B

IMDB

Directed by:

Gary Fleder

Starring:

Joe Anderson

Leslie Hope

Eloise Mumford

Paul Blackthorne

Daniel Zacapa

Pauline Gaitan

Thomas Kretschmann

Shaun Parkes

Bruce Greenwood

Scott Michael Foster

So. Yeah.

            Having found Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), the crew of the Magus is finally heading for home, intending to leave the Boíuna (the bizarre portion of the river they’ve been on) far behind them. Clark (Paul Blackthorne) gets involved with doing some final interviews for the crew, and speaks about how he’ll edit the video together for his TV show once they get home. Emmet, while surprised that the Boíuna and the related supernatural entities saved his life, seems to feel his quest was a mistake. He believes that the paranormal events that occurred really were warnings that he should have heeded. Lena (Eloise Mumford) desperately wants to know how she’s connected to everything, with her suspicious birthmark, but Emmet tells her to forget it, that he was wrong in thinking that the two of them had some special destiny related to the place.

            While Lincoln (Joe Anderson) and Emmet converse on deck, someone fires a shot at Emmet, but misses and fatally wounds Lincoln. The crew is unsuccessful at finding out the culprit since many have motives; Clark is in love with Tess, Jonas (Scott Michael Foster) was abandoned by Emmet, Kurt (Thomas Kretschmann) was overheard planning to kill Emmet (though he insists he’d never have missed the shot), Lena’s father died because of Emmet’s quest…

            [Spoilers ahead!]

            Against Emmet’s wishes and the wishes of her own father, Jahel (Pauline Gaitan) involves Tess in a ritual to call Lincoln’s spirit back to his body. The ritual involves calling on the Boíuna, which is not only the stretch of river, but is also an entity that is “God of Demons,” to return Lincoln’s spirit. Initially it seems to work, and Lincoln awakes, and says it was Kurt who shot him. Kurt is locked away by the crew. But then when alone in the kitchen with Jonas, Lincoln reveals that he actually saw Jonas shoot him. Then Lincoln kills him with seemingly supernatural strength. An obviously not-himself Lincoln also confronts Kurt, speaking German, telling him that Kurt isn’t needed to protect The Source; Lincoln (or the thing in his body) is enough.

            Meanwhile, Emmet realizes that this can’t really be Lincoln; he’s too affectionate towards Emmet, when they haven’t been on good terms since Lincoln’s childhood. Emmet gets Lena to make Lincoln drink something, which sickens him and proves demonic possession.

            It turns out the Boíuna is also possessing his body, though Lincoln’s spirit is there as well. The demon taunts them, especially Emmet and his lack of knowledge about Lincoln, and assaults Lena, thwarting their attempts at an exorcism. Eventually they speak to Kurt, as he had his own reasons for being in the region. He tells them he won’t attack Emmet, and then explains that a demonic possession can only be fought from within; Lincoln has to will the Boíuna out of his body. Speaking to Lincoln, they give him enough strength to take his body back.

            Afterwards, Emilio (Daniel Zacapa) speaks to Jahel, telling her why he’s tried to keep her from using her gifts. Her mother, who she believed to be dead, was driven mad by the voices of spirits demanding her help. He hasn’t wanted the same fate for Jahel.

            Soon they approach the end of the Boíuna, intending to rejoin the main Amazon, and a small village. But things aren’t where they’re supposed to be! And they lose the link to the satellite map! Sending up a sky camera, it’s revealed that the forest and river are literally changing in front of them, and it will not allow them to leave.

            [End of serious plot spoilers. But spoilers will continue in my reaction below.]

            So. This is how this season ends. The episode isn’t really all that bad. The demonic possession thing is at least fitting with the rest of the series. And quite honestly, the effects of Lincoln twisting around while possessed have been some of the better ones in my opinion. Characterizing the Boíuna as both an entity and a location simultaneously is cool; it strikes me as at least feeling rather authentic to the region, even if the specific entity in question isn’t a real figure. (And I do not know if it is or not.)

            However, for a show that has a questionable future, this was an immensely unsatisfying ending. Literally just about nothing has been wrapped up or given explanation. Leaving some things to interpretation or as mysteries is one thing, especially if there’s a definite future for the series to continue with, or if something being unexplained has some sort of point. But this is pretty much NOTHING, verging into the territory Lost infamously fell into with “we just didn’t plan this shit out!” Other than some random things like Clark doing final interviews, this didn’t in any way feel like a season finale. Not that I was expecting (or wanting!) it to end with them all surviving and making it home, but that this feels just like an episode from the middle of a story somewhere, with no real sense of closure whatsoever.

            A few of the things we’re left wondering about: What is with Lena’s birthmark, and the prophecy tied to it that Emmet believed in? What exactly is The Source? Why was Emmet’s life spared if the Boiuna won’t allow them to leave? Is there more explanation about the “angel-like” Zulo tribe? Why is Kurt there, and what is his connection to the area from before the series? What was with the research facility Mina had infiltrated, and how/why did they turn into zombies? Who locked the demon in the Magus, the one they found in the very first episode? If they never make it off the river, how are we viewing “found footage” from their tapes? And this is not an exhaustive list.

            In having none of these things explained, it feels like many of them had no purpose whatsoever. “The Source” was kind of downplayed here, with the Boíuna itself being the entity responsible for at least some of the paranormal things, contrasted to episode 6 when it was played up as what Emmet had devoted his life to finding. The symbol on the necklace Emmet gave to Lincoln, which is also Lena’s birthmark, which was also seen on the body of Zulo tribesman in the research facility… that and the supposed prophecy have never been relevant to the plot! So why were they in there at all? Why have a forced camera footage feel, which was often a detriment, feeling contrived and awkward, without having any plausible way for the “found footage” to actually be found?

            Now, the series isn’t officially cancelled. But it isn’t renewed officially yet, either. Viewership has been pretty low and declining, which I can’t really fault audiences for considering how disappointing most of the episodes have been. Apparently there are talks to move the show to Netflix’s streaming service for future episodes/seasons. And there’s no guarantee that even if someone makes more of the series that it’ll follow the same characters.

            If this episode came in the middle somewhere, this would probably be one of my favorites. The demonic possession was fitting for the series, and was well handled. I liked Joe Anderson’s acting between Lincoln as normal and in his possessed state – it was subtle enough until the attempted exorcisms that it didn’t seem ridiculous, but the difference was obvious. The rest of the acting was competent, though not perfect. Like I said, the effects were pretty good this time, and the story was engaging. If this had been “just another episode” it’d be a solid B. But as it is, it’s such an unsatisfying ending to the season (and maybe the series) that I have to knock it down just a bit. C+ still seems generous for how unfulfilling it was as a finale, but I did enjoy the episode, and don’t want to let feelings on the series as a whole color that too much.

            Because as a whole, the series disappointed me. The quality was very all over the place, straying from subtlety to over the top ridiculousness in almost every aspect, from acting to writing to effects to story. Some of the characters are intriguing; I’ve grown to like Kurt quite a bit, and Jahel is great when she gets to do something besides provide plot-relevant exposition. The understated drama and implication that Emmet focused too much on Lena because of her birthmark, and that being the cause for the emotional distance between him and Lincoln had potential, especially if Lena was going to have some type of special “destiny” that Lincoln didn’t. But the lack of consistency, not to mention dangling plot threads, is a huge problem for the series. While my individual episode grades have ranged from average (C), to slightly above average (B-), the series as a whole would probably wind up more with a C-. Not quite bad enough for a D, but still below average, because of all that inconsistency and wasted potential.

            Additionally, this feels like exactly the wrong length for this story to be. It could have been a decent movie, and could have lost a lot of the irrelevant filler that so many earlier episodes contained. Or it could have been a better long-form series, where episodes focusing on single legends, areas, or creatures would be more appropriate, and episodes could be devoted to character development without sacrificing so much of a limited amount of time. Of course, there’s the possibility that the series will continue and will wrap up all the loose ends I’m complaining about. But there’s also a possibility that it will do no such thing. And even if it does come back to wrap things up and maybe even gain some consistency… will enough people still care?