Review: ‘Imaginary’ (2024), starring DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Veronica Falcon and Betty Buckley

March 8, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pyper Braun in “Imaginary” (Photo by Parrish Lewis/Lionsgate)

“Imaginary” (2024)

Directed by Jeff Wadlow

Culture Representation: Taking place in New Orleans, the horror film “Imaginary” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A children’s book author/illustrator with a traumatic past moves back into her childhood home, where one of her underage stepdaughters finds a mysterious teddy bear, makes it her imaginary friend, and unwittingly unleashes terror in the house. 

Culture Audience: “Imaginary” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching silly horror movies.

Pyper Braun and DeWanda Wise in “Imaginary” (Photo by Parrish Lewis/Lionsgate)

“Imaginary” could’ve been a campy horror classic about a menacing toy that unleashes terror. But this idiotic junk goes downhill quickly and becomes a boring mess with tacky-looking monsters. For a movie that uses the characters’ imagination as a crucial part of its plot, “Imaginary” lacks imagination for that plot, which becomes worse as the movie stumbles along to its very weak ending.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow, “Imaginary” was co-written by Wadlow, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland. The movie takes place and was filmed in New Orleans, but everything is so generic-looking about the locations in the movie, it really could’ve been filmed in many other cities, and it wouldn’t have made a difference to the story. “Imaginary” starts off as a basic horror movie, but the plot and dialogue get increasingly stupid, to the point where viewers will either laugh or get angry (or do both) at all the ridiculousness.

“Imaginary” begins by showing children’s book author/illustrator Jessica (played by Wanda DeWise) bursting through a minature door in the wall of the house. She looks terrified and says, “I’m sorry we couldn’t finish our game.” She’s soon grabbed by a large, burly man who has blood on him and whose eyes are all white from damage or because he’s possessed. He mumbles something about being afraid that Jessica is never coming back. It’s later revealed that the man chasing Jessica is her father Ben Barnes (played by Samuel Salary), who is a widower.

But surprise! This scene is nothing but a nightmare experienced by Jessica, who has been having several nightmares lately about her past. Jessica is newly married to a British-born musician named Max (played by Tom Payne), who has full custody of his two daughters from his previous marriage: 15-year-old sulky Taylor (played by Taegen Burns) and playful Alice (played by Pyper Braun), who’s about 7 or 8 years old. Taylor doesn’t like Jessica very much, while Alice is much more accepting and friendlier to stepmother Jessica.

Jessica’s father Ben is currently at an assisted living community called Azalea Acres. Jessica’s childhood home is currently vacant. And so, Jessica and Taylor decide that they will get a fresh start by moving the family from their small apartment into this house. And you know what that means in a horror movie where someone in the house is having nightmares about her past.

It doesn’t take long for Alice to find a teddy bear in the basement. She names the bear Chauncey. This toy bear becomes Alice’s constant companion and her imaginary friend. Jessica and Max often hear Alice talking to Chauncey, with the bear talking back in a voice that sounds a lot like Alice’s voice. Jessica and Max think all of this is adorable.

The family has a nosy neighbor named Gloria (played by Betty Buckley), who likes to lurk outside to see what’s going on in the house. When Jessica introduces herself to Gloria, Jessca is surprised when Gloria says that she used to be Jessica’s babysitter when Jessica lived in the house as a child. Jessica doesn’t remember Gloria at all. Jessica also doesn’t remember that she had a teddy bear that looked exactly like Chauncey.

“Imaginary” has several flashbacks to Jessica’s childhood, with Rhythm Hurd in the role of Jessica as a 5-year-old girl. The story of Jessica’s past is eventually revealed in bits and pieces. There are clues, such as the illustrations she used to draw on the house wall as a child. The phrase “never ever” is also repeated in the movie because it has a certain meaning.

Jessica has had a turbulent relationship with her father, who had a mental breakdown shortly after Jessica’s mother died when Jessica was 5 years old. Jessica has a burn scar on her arm from an incident in her childhood where her father was accused of attacking her. Ben lost custody of Jessica, and she was raised by her grandmother.

Alice also has a burn scar on her arm. It was caused by her mother Samantha Dooley (played by Alix Angelis), who is currently in a lockdown facility for mental health and addiction issues. Samantha appears in the movie for some cheap jump scares. Although Max doesn’t really talk about what happened in the marriage, its implied that the problems with Samantha are what caused their divorce. Samantha and Max got divorced long before he and Jessica got involved with each other.

It should come as no surprise that there’s something very sinister about Chauncey, as people who are in the house eventually find out. One of them is a drug-using teenage neighbor named Liam (played by Matthew Sato), who has an immediate, mutual attraction to Taylor. Jessica has a rule that Taylor and Alice can’t let strangers into the house when Jessica and Max aren’t there, but Taylor breaks this rule to have Liam over for a visit when Max is away on tour and Jessica leaves the house for a few hours.

Chauncey is quite the demanding companion. Alice insists that when she is served meals, Chauncey should get a serving too, because Chauncey is always “hungry.” Alice says that Chauncey also gave her a list of things that Alice must find on a scavenger hunt. Alice carries the list with her, but she tells Jessica that what’s on the list is a secret.

Alice later tells Taylor: “Don’t tell Dad or Jess, but Chauncey will take me to a special place after I finish my list.” One of the things that Jessica knows is on the list is “something happy,” which Alice requests from Jessica, who gives her a small blue rubber ball that Jessica paints with a smiley face. Later, Jessica finds the list and sees other items that need to be found include something that burns, a bowl and a paintbrush.

Alice’s attachment to Chauncey becomes alarming enough for her to get a visit from therapist named Dr. Soto (played by Veronica Falcón), who tells Jessica about a boy patient who had similar issues with a stuffed animal that was an imaginary friend. The boy ended mutilating his thumb, and then he disappeared. Dr. Soto shows Jessica a video that she recorded of one of Dr. Soto’s sessions with the boy.

Jessica has a book series about an insect named Molly the Millipede, whose nemesis is Simon the Spider. There are several references to Jessica’s book series in “Imaginary,” but the movie does a very poor job of making effective horror out of it. “Imaginary” has a laughable part of the movie where Jessica tells Max that Alice’s weirdness with Chauncey has helped Jessica with her writer’s block.

“Imaginary” lead actress Wise puts in a committed performance as Jessica, while Braun brings a lot of enthusiasm to the role of Alice. Even with these admirable efforts, “Imaginary” still has mediocre-to-bad acting in too many parts of the film—especially near the end of the movie, which becomes an exposition dump where characters over-explain all the ludicrous things that are obvious. The movie becomes more convoluted when it doesn’t need to be.

Puppets were used for some of the monsters—including the monster version of Chauncey called Bear Beast—but they look like something you would see in an amateur haunted house. There are scarier-looking costumes at any given Comic-Con. “Imaginary” has a combination of computer-generated and practical visual effects. There are some creepy images in the movie, but nothing in “Imaginary” is truly terrifying.

There’s also a fake-out ending, which is slightly better than the atrociously limp real ending, which hints at the possibility of a sequel or spinoff. The teddy bear in “Imaginary,” which has a different name for every person who owns the bear, is nowhere close to being as iconic as the toy dolls Chucky and M3GAN, which are the center of their respectively successful horrors franchises. The stuffing of a real teddy bear has more substance than what disappointing dreck such as “Imaginary” has to offer.

Lionsgate released “Imaginary” in U.S. cinemas on March 8, 2024.

Review: ‘Monolith’ (2023), starring Lily Sullivan

March 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

Lily Sullivan in “Monolith” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Monolith” (2023)

Directed by Matt Vesely

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city Australia, the sci-fi horror film “Monolith” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people and one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A disgraced journalist, who now works as a podcaster, gets caught up in the mystery of black bricks that have a bizarre power over people who own the bricks. 

Culture Audience: “Monolith” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching suspenseful horror movies where a lot is left up to interpretation and imagination.

Lily Sullivan in “Monolith” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

The ending of “Monolith” might be frustratingly vague to some viewers, but this sci-fi horror movie is a suspenseful labyrinth featuring a captivating performance from Lily Sullivan as a podcaster trying to uncover the mystery behind ominous black bricks. Sullivan is the only person seen talking on screen for the entire movie, since she portrays a podcaster who has isolated herself inside her parents’ home while attempting to solve the mystery. “Monolith” is not the movie for you if you don’t want to watch a film where the majority of it shows someone talking on the phone with other people who do not appear in the movie.

Directed by Matt Vesely (his feature-film directorial debut) and written by Lucy Campbell, “Monolith” had its world premiere at the 2022 Adelaide Film Festival in Australia and its North American premiere at the 2023 SXSW Film & TV Festival. “Monolith” was filmed on location in South Australia, but the city where the story takes place is not mentioned in the movie. The name of the central character portrayed by Sullivan is also not mentioned and is listed in the end credits only as The Interviewer. She is a journalist working as a podcaster because she has been recently fired from a high-profile newspaper (a publication called the Evening Journal) for mishandling a news story about someone famous named David Langley, who ended up suing for defamation.

Before the movie focuses on The Interviewer, “Monolith” begins by showing a blank, black screen and eerie voiceover narration of someone identifying himself as Jarad (voiced by Damon Herriman), who says: “I want to tell you something. Ever since I was young, there was something different about my family. A secret. Mom reckoned she had been followed her whole life.”

Jarad goes on to describe a childhood memory of being at a beach with his mother and seeing his mother yelling at a man who was taking her picture. The man told his mother, “I’m sorry. This is the way it has to be.” He ran into a nearby street and got hit by a car.

The camera he left behind had thousands of photos of Jarad’s mother and their family that made it obvious that whoever took the photos was stalking the family. Jarad says the camera was given to the police, who claimed they had no evidence of who this mystery stalker was. And then, the camera went missing. Jarad also mentions in this voiceover that the stalker was from the future.

The movie then shows The Interviewer making an apology video for her mistakes in her news story on David Langley. She admits to failing to corroborate the evidence and investigate the credibility of her sources. She concludes the apology by saying, “My actions do not reflect the Evening Journal’s operations or integrity.”

The scandal has resulted in David Langley’s fans harassing The Interviewer, so she is staying at her parents’ house to lie low until the turmoil dies down. The only work she’s been able to find is for a low-budget podcast called Beyond Believable, which covers unsolved mysteries, conspiracy theories and hoaxes. It’s a big step down from the prestigious journalist job that she had at the Evening Journal.

Her podcast boss Tyler (voiced by Chase Coleman) has been waiting patiently for The Interviewer to deliver her first story for Beyond Believable, but The Interviewer hasn’t come up with any ideas, and she knows she’s running out of time before she’ll get in trouble with Tyler for not doing the job she was hired to do. Feeling desperate, The Interviewers checks her email for story ideas and comes across a cryptic email with the subject heading “The Truth Will Out.”

The email has instructions to call someone named Floramae King at Floramae’s phone number and says that Floramae needs to be asked about a brick that Floramae knows very well. With nothing to lose, The Interviewer calls Floramae out of curiosity. Floramae (voiced by Ling Cooper Tang, with a photo of actress Janet Tan shown in the movie to depict Floramae) seems very surprised to get this phone call and is very reluctant to talk about the brick.

However, The Interviewer is very persuasive in explaining why she is calling and why Floramae needs to do this interview. The Interviewer says if The Interviewer received this email, then other journalists got the same email, but The Interviewer will be better than other journalists in getting Floramae’s side of the story told. Floramae agrees to be interviewed and is told that this phone interview is being recorded and will used on the podcast.

Floramae tells her story about the brick, which was in her possession about 20 years ago. She describes it as a black brick that size of a gold bar and “darker than anything I’ve ever seen.” Floramae also says about the brick, “It was very heavy. As soon as I held it, I felt like something was changing.”

Floramae says that 20 years ago, she was working as a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family consisting of two parents who had a son and a daughter. Floramae was a single mother living with her daughter Paula, who was a child at the time. The employer family treated Floramae and Paula very well and offered to pay for Paula’s private education at an elite school. The brick appeared on the family’s property, but Floramae can’t remember exactly where on the property the brick was found.

One day, Floramae found deep scratches on the furniture in the house, with the biggest damage done to the dining room table. The family blamed Paula for this vandalism, but Paula and Floramae both denied that Paula caused any of the damage to the furniture. Even if it could be proven that Paula caused the damage, Floramae did not have the money to pay for the repairs.

Shortly after this incident, the family’s patriarch took the brick without Floramae’s permission and sold it to an art dealer in Germany. The patriarch said the money from the sale would be approximately the same amount to repair the furniture damage. Floramae complained to the patriarch that he stole the brick, and she was fired. Floramae bitterly says that the family cut all ties with Floramae and Paula.

It just so happens that when Floramae is doing this phone interview, adult Paula is at Floramae’s house for a visit. When Paula (voiced by Ansuya Nathan) overhears her mother Floramae talking on the phone about the brick to a journalist, Paula gets very upset and orders Floramae to get off the phone. The conversation is cut short.

The rest of “Monolith” follows The Interviewer investigating the mystery of the black brick by making numerous phone calls. She tracks down the art dealer who bought the brick that used to be owned by Floramae. He’s a Berlin-based art dealer named Klaus Lang (voiced by Terence Crawford), who has a collection of these black bricks.

The Interviewer also talks to a man with an African accent named John (voiced by Rashidi Edward), who tells how this mysterious brick affected members of his family. Another clues come from a woman in Ohio named Laura (voiced by Kate Box), who used to own one of the bricks. The Interviewer finds out that people who come in contact with the bricks start to lose their appetite and have suicidal thoughts or hallucinations. At one point in the movie, The Interviewer notices that a turtle in the house’s aquarium hasn’t been eating.

The Interviewer has a brother named Scott Evans (voiced by Matt Crook), who works in the linguistics department at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Scott helps with the investigation. And so does a London-based journalist named Shiloh Lowden (voiced by Brigid Zengeni), who has also been trying to solve the mystery of these bricks.

The stories that The Interviewer hears in “Monolith” are strange, but they feel even more unsettling in large part because of the way the movie was filmed. Although The Interviewer is in a spacious house with a lot of glass windows for walls, the Interviewer stays in one room (which has the podcast equipment) for a great deal of the movie, thereby making the location look claustrophobic. In addition, the musical score by Benjamin Speed enhances the increasing tension in the story.

Viewers watching “Monolith” will be very curious to find out what’s the mystery behind these bricks, but don’t expect the movie to give all the answers. The last 20 minutes of the film turn into a lot of weirdness that mostly makes sense if viewers are paying attention to all the clues leading up to the climactic part of the movie. Still, some parts of the story remained muddled, as if the filmmakers didn’t bother trying to explain everything. The horror that viewers are supposed to be left with is the feeling of not knowing if an entity that is hard to understand is really good or evil.

Well Go USA released “Monolith” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on February 16, 2024. The movie was released in Australia on October 26, 2023.

Review: ‘Out of Darkness’ (2024), starring Safia Oakley-Green, Kit Young, Chuku Modu, Iola Evans, Arno Lüning and Luna Mwezi

February 11, 2024

by Carla Hay

Safia Oakley-Green in “Out of Darkness” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

“Out of Darkness” (2024)

Directed by Andrew Cumming

Spoken in the fictional Tola language with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of Earth in ancient times (45,000 years ago), the horror film “Out of Darkness” features a racially diverse cast of characters who are cave dwellers.

Culture Clash: A group of six nomadic people seeking food and shelter encounter terror in a remote wooded area. 

Culture Audience: “Out of Darkness” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching a horror movie set in ancient times.

Chuku Modu and Kit Young in “Out of Darkness” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

Inspired by William Golding’s 1955 novel “The Inheritors,” the slow-burn thriller “Out of Darkness” is set in ancient, cave-dwelling times. It’s a cautionary tale about how people who fear monsters sometimes fail to see the biggest threats can come from within themselves. The movie excels in creating a foreboding atmosphere, but some viewers might lose interest because of the sluggish pacing in the first half of the film.

Directed by Andrew Cumming and written by Ruth Greenberg, “Out of Darkness” has a relatively small cast in telling this uncomplicated story, which takes place 45,000 years ago in an unnamed part of Earth. (“Out of Darkness” was actually filmed on location in Scotland.) There are six main characters, who are all part of a tribe, and they speak the fictional language of Tola. These tribe members are seeking food and shelter. They are:

  • Adem (played by Chuku Modu), the over-confident tribe leader, who is a man in his late 20s.
  • Ave (played by Iola Evans), Adem’s pregnant partner.
  • Heron (played by Luna Mwezi), Adem and Ave’s son, who’s about 11 or 12 years old.
  • Geirr (played by Kit Young), Adem’s trusting younger brother.
  • Odal (played by Arno Lüning), an elder advisor.
  • Beyah (played by Safia Oakley-Green), a feisty, independent-minded “stray” person who has been “adopted” by this tribe.

In the beginning of the movie, it’s revealed through a story that Odal tells that these six people split off from other members of their tribe because Adem insisted that they go somewhere new to hunt, after their usual place was found to be barren. (People familiar with Judeo-Christian teachings will notice the names of Adem and Ave as being symbolic.) Adem made this decision against the advice of the elders in their tribe. The place near the sea where these six people are also appears to be barren, until they find the remains of animals.

And there’s something else: A mysterious being in the woods seems to be stalking them. The vast majority of “Out of Darkness” shows what happens in these woods. And not everyone makes it out alive. The acting in the movie is very good, but the biggest strength of “Out of Darkness” is its story and how it’s told. It’s a story of survival but it’s also a story of what happens when “the most dangerous animal of all” does in desperate attempts to survive.

Bleecker Street released “Out of Darkness” in U.S. cinemas on October 9, 2024.

Review: ‘Night Swim’ (2024), starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon

January 6, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left to right: Amélie Hoeferle, Gavin Warren, Nancy Lenehan, Kerry Condon andWyatt Russell in “Night Swim” (Photo by Anne Marie Fox/Universal Pictures)

“Night Swim” (2024)

Directed by Bryce McGuire

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city Essex Lake, the horror film “Night Swim” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An ailing former professional baseball player moves with his family into a new home, where the backyard swimming pool causes unexplained terror. 

Culture Audience: “Night Swim” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching horror movies about hauntings that don’t deliver many genuine scares or any explanation for the origins and motivations for evil spirits causing the terror.

Kerry Condon in “Night Swim” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Ripping off many elements of “The Shining,” the misfire “Night Swim” (about a haunted swimming pool) drifts at a tedious pace and then sinks into a waste drain where bad horror movies are quickly forgotten. The film’s last 20 minutes are such a pile-on of nonsense and terrible clichés, “Night Swim” goes from tritely lackluster and irredeemably awful. Even the movie’s title of “Night Swim” doesn’t make sense because a lot of the terror that happens in the haunted swimming pool takes place during the day.

Written and directed by Bryce McGuire, “Night Swim” is based on his 2014 short film of the same name. You can tell that it was based on a short film, because most of the “Night Swim” feature-length film has a lot of repetitive filler that doesn’t really move the story forward in a meaningful way. It’s a series of not-very-terrifying jump scares and then a rushed and jumbled last third of the movie that does not adequately answer all of the questions raised in the story.

“Night Swim” (which takes place in a fictional U.S. city called Essex Lake) begins by showing the haunted swimming pool in action at the large two-story house where it’s located. (“Night Swim” was actually filmed in Altadena, California.) It’s the summer of 1992. A girl, who’s about 11 or 12 years old, is shown trying to get a small toy boat out of the water at the night. It’s later revealed that her name is Rebecca Summers (played by Ayazhan Dalabayeva), and she lives in the home with her teenage brother Thomas, nicknamed Tommy (played by Joziah Lagonoy) and their mother Lucy Summers (played by Jodi Long).

Someone or something pulls Rebecca into the pool. Underwater, Rebecca sees her mother standing at the edge of the pool. But when Rebecca rises to the surface of the water, she sees that her mother has vanished and that what Rebecca saw was an illusion. Whatever is in the pool doesn’t want Rebecca to leave. She’s seen thrashing around as if someone or something is trying to drown her.

The movie then fast-forwards about 30 years later. A four-person family is looking at houses with a real-estate agent named Kay (played by Nancy Lenehan), who happens to be the neighborhood’s busybody. Kay is friendly but she’s gossipy and nosy about everyone else’s business. The family has moved around a lot but is looking to settle down in one place permanently.

That’s because family patriarch Ray Waller (played by Wyatt Russell) is a former professional baseball player who played for several different teams in his career, which has now been derailed by multiple sclerosis. Ray walks with a cane and wants a backyard pool to help with his physical therapy. And even though the medical diagnosis is that he will most likely never play professional baseball again, Ray still has a lot of hope that he can recover and make a comeback.

Ray’s loyal and supportive wife Eve Waller (played by Kerry Condon) is more practical and is relieved that the family can now live in the same place for a longer period of time than they had previously. Their outgoing 15-year-old daughter Izzy Waller (played by Amélie Hoeferle) is a talented swimmer who is going to be on the swim team at her new school, which is another reason why the family wants a big swimming pool in the backyard. Izzy’s 12-year-old brother Elliot Waller (played by Gavin Warren) is quiet, sensitive and introverted.

The family seems to be living off of Ray’s baseball pension, because there is no indication that Eve is bringing money to the family’s household income. Eve mentions to Kay that she’s a graduate student in education and plans to teach at a middle school after she gets her graduate school degree. At first Eve and Ray were looking to rent a home. But when Ray sees the house and its swimming pool, it immediately becomes his first choice, even though the swimming pool is filthy and filled with leaves. Kay says the house is for sale, not for rent.

Kay also says that the pool hasn’t been used for least 15 years, which is the last time anyone lived in the house and why the house been sold for a bargain. And you know what that means in a horror movie. “Night Swim” does the same thing that other stupid horror movies do when they take place in a haunted house: The people who decide to move into the house never bother to find out anything (until it’s too late) about the house’s history and who lived there before.

At any rate, the Waller family moves in, and they clean the pool, but strange things immediately start happening in the pool. First, Ray accidentally cuts himself on something that’s in the pool drain. Later, Eve goes for a swim at night and thinks she sees Ray standing at the edge of the pool, but when she swims to the surface, he isn’t there. Elliot is very attached to the family’s cat Cider, whose fate is exactly what you think it is in a predictable horror movie. More eerie things happen—none are surprising.

It isn’t long before Izzy and Elliot experience some terror, although Izzy is in deep denial about it. “Night Swim” has also unimaginative visuals involving black bile in the pool and what can happen if the bile enters the body of someone in the pool. Ray seems to have a medical miracle that turns into a nightmare. There’s also a scene involving a pool cover that goes exactly how you think it will go.

“Night Swim” has very weak or non-existent storytelling about the people in Essex Lake, which is depicted as a typical suburban, middle-class American community. In other words, the haunted house in this movie is not in an isolated area. All of the characters in the community ultimately have no purpose except to be used as props for jump scares.

Ray becomes an assistant coach for the baseball team at Harold Holt High School, where Izzy is a student. The team’s friendly leader is Coach E (played Eddie Martinez), whose son Ty (played by Aivan Alexander Uttapa) is on the team. Coach E and Ty are among the people invited to a pool party that the Waller family has as a housewarming.

Izzy has a potential love interest, who is a student at the same school. His name is Ronin (played by Elijah Roberts), whom she invites over for a swim at night to play Marco Polo when her parents aren’t home. There’s almost nothing revealed about Ronin except that he is a popular athlete. All of the cast members’ performances (just like the movie’s characters) are either generic or show only the slightest glimmer of a personality.

It takes entirely too long in “Night Swim” for certain people in the Waller household to ask questions in the community or look into why something is very wrong with that swimming pool. The movie also wants viewers to just accept that there’s no explanation for the origin of this evil. “Night Swim” is just another shabbily made horror film that thinks some ghoulish images are enough to fill in the blanks, essentially ignoring that viewers want a good story along with the scares.

Universal Pictures released “Night Swim” in U.S. cinemas on January 5, 2024.

Review: ‘Raging Grace,’ starring Max Eigenmann, Jaeden Paige Boadilla, Leanne Best and David Hayman

January 3, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jaeden Paige Boadilla and Leanne Best in “Raging Grace” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media and Doppelgänger Releasing)

“Raging Grace”

Directed by Paris Zarcilla

Some language in Tagalog with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed in city in England, the horror film “Raging Grace” features a cast of Filipino and white characters (with one black person) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A live-in housekeeper and her daughter experience terror inside the mansion of a wealthy recluse. 

Culture Audience: “Raging Grace” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching eerie horror movies that include issues related to classism, racism, immigration and generational trauma.

David Hayman and Max Eigenmann in “Raging Grace” (Photo courtesy of Brainstorm Media and Doppelgänger Releasing)

The story in “Raging Grace” gets a bit messy, and some of the acting is too stiff, but it’s a genuinely unique horror movie that succeeds in offering many effective jump scares, along with astute observations about immigrant exploitation. The first third of the movie is too repetitive. Thing don’t get interesting until the last two-thirds of the film, when a character emerges from a coma and becomes a major part of the story.

Written and directed by Paris Zarcilla, “Raging Grace” had its world premiere at the 2023 SXS Film & TV Festival, where it won the grand jury prize for Best Narrative Feature, and Zarcilla was awarded the Thunderbird Rising Award for debut directors. “Raging Grace” is a story that mixes supernatural horror with the real-life horror of undocumented immigrants being exploited by employers. Zarcilla, who was born and raised in England to Filipino parents, has said in interviews that the movie was inspired by his childhood memories of helping his immigrant mother clean houses for wealthy people.

“Raging Grace” (which takes place in an unnamed city in England) centers on a housekeeper named Joy (played by Max Eigenmann), who is a single mother to a mischievous daughter named Grace (played by Jaeden Paige Boadilla), who is about 7 to 8 years old. Joy, who is originally from the Philippines, works as a housekeeper for an agency that knows she’s an undocumented immigrant. Grace was born in England.

Grace’s father is a British citizen who was not married to Joy and is no longer in a relationship with Joy. He is also an absentee father to Grace. Joy has lied to Grace by saying that Grace’s father is dead. Joy is constantly nervous and worried about many things. She gets frightened easily by small noises. At night, Joy has nightmares, some of which are flashbacks to when Grace’s father physically abused Joy. The movie eventually gives more details about who Grace’s father is.

Joy has made plans to get fraudulent immigration documents (such as a fake visa), which will cost her £15,000. She only has £10,000. Out of desperation, Joy takes a six-week, live-in housekeeping job that will pay £6,000. It’s an “under-the-table payment” job where Joy was hired directly by the employer, who asks Grace not to tell the agency.

The person who hires her for this job is a wealthy woman named Katherine (played by Leanne Best), who is very moody and strange. Katherine alternates between being cheerful and being coldly abrupt. She has hired Joy to be the housekeeper and caretaker for Katherine’s bedridden uncle Nigel Garrett (played by David Hayman), who’s called Mr. Garrett in the movie. He lives with Katherine in a secluded mansion, where he is in a coma and breathes through an oxygen tube.

Joy arrives at the mansion and smuggles Grace inside, because Joy knows that she’s not allowed to have a child with her on this job. Joy avoids answering Katherine’s question when Katherine asks Joy if Joy has any children. There are no other servants in the mansion. During Joy’s first few days on the job, Katherine gives a little bit of information about her family, by saying she’s the last living relative of her uncle Nigel.

Joy is professional and polite, but she is terrified of losing this job, because the person who will supply Joy with the illegal immigration documents expects her to pay the full £15,000 before he leaves the area in the following month. The money that Joy gets from Joy’s housekeeping work not only supports herself and Grace but Joy also sends some money to unnamed relatives in the Philippines. It isn’t made clear in the movie if Grace is homeschooled or if she is on a break from school, but Grace stays with Joy during day and doesn’t have any interaction any other children.

Katherine gives some basic instructions to Joy on how to look after the house. Katherine (who is not married and has no children) has a busy career (it’s later revealed that she’s a lawyer), so Joy gets minimal supervision during the day. However, Katherine can and does stop by the mansion unannounced. “Raging Grace” takes a while to get to the real horror of the story, because so much of the first third of the movie consists of scenes where Grace tries to avoid being seen by Katherine when Katherine is in the house.

Grace is the type of prankster who will do things like put jam in ketchup, as she does in the movie’s first scene when she is having dinner with Joy. She’s not a bad kid, but she is very lonely, restless and stubborn. And in a horror movie where there’s a kid in a creepy mansion, it should come as no surprise that Grace can see ghosts.

Yes, “Raging Grace” is a “haunted mansion” story. But who are the real threats to the safety of Grace and Joy? The ghosts or the living human beings who are in contact with Grace and Joy? Katherine eventually reveals that she’s very racist and thinks Filipino people and immigrants are inferior to white British people.

Through a series of circumstances that won’t be revealed here, Mr. Garrett comes out of his coma. This isn’t spoiler information, since Mr. Garrett regaining consciousness is in the movie’s trailer. When he emerges from his coma, he drops a bombshell on Joy: He tells her that he doesn’t have a niece.

The rest of “Raging Grace” turns into an intriguing mystery that keeps viewers guessing on who’s telling the truth and who’s lying. And what about the ghosts in the mansion? Who are they? Those answers are also revealed in the movie.

Eigenmann gives a convincing performance as protective mother Joy, while Boadilla’s often-flat delivery of her dialogue as Grace needed a lot of improvement. The movie is called “Raging Grace,” but her mother Joy is really the catalyst for much of what happens in the movie. “Raging Grace” co-star Best is competent and occasionally campy in her role as Katherine, while Hayman has the standout performance as the complicated Mr. Garrett.

“Raging Grace” writer/director Zarcella shows a knack for creating horror visuals and making editing choices that cause genuine terror and suspense. The movie stumbles a bit in trying to do too much in how a certain character seems to go back and forth between appearing to be a villain and appearing to be a hero. It starts to become muddled and comes dangerously close to ruining the movie’s narrative. However, the last 15 minutes of “Raging Grace”—despite the narrative becoming a little disjointed in a showdown scene—has enough for the movie to end in a memorable and powerful way.

Brainstorm Media & Doppelgänger Releasing released “Raging Grace” in select U.S. cinemas on December 1, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on December 8, 2023. “Raging Grace” was released in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2023.

Review: ‘Dear David’ (2023), starring Augustus Prew, Andrea Bang, René Escobar Jr., Cameron Nicoll and Justin Long

November 20, 2023

by Carla Hay

Augustus Prew and Cameron Nicoll in “Dear David” (Photo by Stephanie Montani/Lionsgate)

“Dear David” (2023)

Directed by John McPhail

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City in 2017 (and briefly in 1996), the horror film “Dear David” (based on a real Internet story that went viral) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people, and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A comic artist who works for BuzzFeed believes that he is being haunted by a ghost named David, and he chronicles his experiences in messages on Twitter. 

Culture Audience: “Dear David” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching mindless and incoherent horror movies with annoying characters.

Jarrett Siddall in “Dear David” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“Dear David” is what happens when misguided filmmakers think a social media fad story can be made into a movie that a lot of people weren’t asking for in the first place. This pointless horror flick is boring, jumbled, and a complete waste of time. “Dear David” is based on true events from 2017, when a BuzzFeed comic artist named Adam Ellis went on Twitter to detail his supposed encounters with a murderous ghost named David. BuzzFeed Studios is one of the production companies behind this forgettable flop movie.

Directed by John McPhail and written by Mike Van Waes, “Dear David” is the first feature film for Van Waes. The “Dear David” screenplay is the weakest link in this terrible movie, but it’s certainly not the only reason why “Dear David” is a complete failure on every level. What viewers will see are monotonous and repetitive scenes of protagonist Adam Ellis (played by Augustus Prew) having nightmarish visions that he’s not sure are real or part of his imagination.

The beginning of this movie shows this introductory statement: “In 2017, Adam Ellis began documenting a series of strange encounters that were happening in his apartment, He posted them on Twitter, and these ‘Dear David’ posts became a viral sensation. The following is based on those true events.”

If you believe that “on Twitter” and “true events” are automatically synonymous, then perhaps you’d like to think that Twitter owner Elon Musk can buy the Brooklyn Bridge too. Hauntings that were fabricated to make people famous have been around much longer than social media existed. You only need to look at the proliferation of paranormal-themed TV shows and Web series to see that plenty of people are trying find fame and fortune from “investigating” hauntings.

And so, the motives of Adam Ellis are obviously suspect from the start. In real life, Ellis has been open about his mental health issues, which might or might not have played a role in his ghostly sightings. The fact that BuzzFeed cashed in on an employee’s admittedly shaky mental health by making this awful movie makes “Dear David” even more repulsive.

“Dear David” begins in New York City in 1996, a year when the Internet was fairly new to the world. A reclusive loner boy named David Johnson (played by Cameron Nicoll), who’s 10 years old, spends a lot of time using the Internet on a computer in the basement of his family home. David’s mother is worried about his Internet activities. David’s father has the opposite opinion: He thinks that the Internet is a sensation that will take over the world.

An early scene in the movie shows David getting cyberbullied in a chat room by an anonymous person, who sends David a message calling David a “loser.” David writes back, “Why are you so mean?” The harasser answers, “Why don’t you kill yourself?”

The movie then fast-forwards to 2017. At BuzzFeed headquarters in New York City, Adam is a comic artist who’s not doing very well on the job. He’s distracted by Internet harassers who insult his work. Adam’s annoying boss Bryce (played by Justin Long, in a quick cameo) hints that Adam could be fired if Adam doesn’t get a larger audience for Adam’s work. Bryce says that Adam has “relatable” content, but Adam’s audience reach is “kind of lame.”

Adam has two writer co-workers whose desks are right next to his. Evelyn (played by Andrea Bang) is Adam’s closest friend at work and one of the few people he trusts will be supportive of him when things in his life get weird. Norris (played by Tricia Black) is phony and very competitive. Norris is the type of person who tries too hard to impress the boss while making passive-aggressive digs at her co-workers.

“Dear David” spends quite a bit of time on Adam’s relationship with his boyfriend Kyle Sanchez (played by René Escobar Jr.), who is loving and loyal but getting impatient and feels somewhat hurt that Adam is not ready to introduce Kyle to Adam’s mother. (The movie never says what happened to Adam’s father.) There’s also some other drama about how Adam hasn’t come out as gay to everyone in his life.

Who is the ghost that’s causing the terror in the movie? Two unlucky teens named Kevin (played by Seth Murchison) and James (played by Ethan Hwang) find out when they use false identities to go on the Internet to play pranks on people. An example of the pranks is Kevin and James pretending to be attractive young women looking for dates with men, and when they get men to be interested, Kevin and James reveal that they are really underage boys and shame the men for being perverts.

One day, someone on the Internet named David falls for one of their pranks. David doesn’t think it’s funny and tells Kevin and James that they are both going to die. During their contentious online conversation, David warns Kevin and James that when people first talk to David online, they can only ask David two questions.

It should come as no surprise that one of the teens breaks this rule and asks more than two questions. One of the questions Kevin asks is: “How am I going to die?” David answers, “Alone, afraid, and wetting your bed.” You can easily guess what happens to Kevin in this dreadfully predictable movie.

Adam also encounters David online, but David torments Adam much longer than David’s usual victims. After doing some research, Adam is convinced that the David who’s been contacting him on the Internet and who’s attacking him in these haunting visions is the ghost of a boy named David, who had a tragic story. Take a wild guess which David that is. The ghost who is haunting Adam appears to be an adult version of David (played by Jarrett Siddall), who doesn’t look very menacing and looks more like psychiatric facility patient who needs to brush his teeth.

“Dear David” could’ve had so many interesting things to say about cyberbullying and ghost hauntings, but the movie doesn’t know what to do with these narratives and just makes everything a mess. The acting performances are subpar for the movie’s characters, who are hollow, irritating or both. The overall direction for “Dear David” is sloppy and unfocused. Because the foundation of “Dear David” is a weak and gimmicky Internet story that briefly went viral, that foundation sinks quickly into a cesspool of cinematic muck where stupid horror movies are quickly forgotten.

Lionsgate released “Dear David” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on October 13, 2023.

Review: ‘Thanksgiving’ (2023), starring Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman and Gina Gershon

November 15, 2023

by Carla Hay

Nell Verlaque in “Thanksgiving” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Thanksgiving” (2023)

Directed by Eli Roth

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2022 to 2023, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, the horror film “Thanksgiving” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A mysterious serial killer, who’s disguised as Plymouth pilgrim John Carver, gets revenge on people who directly or indirectly caused the deaths of people during a Black Friday riot at a Walmart-type store. 

Culture Audience: “Thanksgiving” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Eli Roth and slasher horror movies that skillfully mix comedy with suspenseful mystery.

Gina Gershon and Patrick Dempsey in “Thanksgiving” (Photo courtesy of TriStar Pictures)

“Thanksgiving” offers a satisfying menu of unique terror scenes, whodunit suspense and laugh-out-loud comedic moments. It’s an instant classic for holiday-themed horror movies. This movie is not for people who get easily squeamish by violent gore.

Directed by Eli Roth and written by Jeff Rendell, “Thanksgiving” takes place in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a municipality famous for being the site where the Mayflower Pilgrims colony was founded in 1620. The Mayflower Pilgrims were among the first to celebrate Thanksgiving (a day to give thanks for good fortunes and blessings), which became a national holiday in the United States. Thanksgiving is celebrated in other countries too, but the Mayflower Pilgrims story is part of U.S. history.

It’s no wonder that Thanksgiving has a special meaning for Plymouth. But in the “Thanksgiving” movie, Plymouth will be the target of terror by a serial killer dressed as a Thanksgiving pilgrim. (“Thanksgiving” was actually filmed in the Canadian cities of Hamilton and Port Perry, Ontario.) The movie takes place during the Thanksgiving holiday season within a two-year period.

“Thanksgiving” opens with a seemingly harmless sequence of two very different households celebrating Thanksgiving Day in 2022, with traditional gatherings for Thanksgiving dinner. The Collins family has a middle-class household consisting of spouses Amanda Collins (played by Gina Gershon) and Mitch Collins (played by Ty Olsson), who works as a manager at a general discount store called Right Mart. (It’s very similar to Walmart.) Mitch has to work that night to prepare for the midnight opening of Right Mart for the Black Friday sales. Family friend Sheriff Eric Newlon (played by Patrick Dempsey) is a bachelor who has been invited to this Thanksgiving dinner, which includes a few other relatives in the Collins family.

The other household is that of the wealthy Wright family, whose patriarch Thomas Wright (played by Rick Hoffman) owns the retail chain called Right Mart, which is very popular in Plymouth. Right Mart is so popular in Plymouth, a crowd of about 100 people have gathered on Thanksgiving night in the parking lot of Right Mart, so that they can be the first people let into the store at midnight, when Right Mart will open to have a massive Black Friday sale.

The Collins household is festive and upbeat for Thanksgiving. By contrast, the Wright household has a lot of tension. That’s because Thomas’ teenage daughter (and only child) Jessica, nicknamed Jess (played by Nell Verlaque), disapproves of her stepmother Kathleen (played by Karen Cliche), because Jessica thinks Kathleen is an opportunistic gold digger. It’s mentioned in conversations that Jess’ mother is deceased. Thomas and Kathleen had a quick courtship and engagement before getting married. Jessica is about 16 or 17 years old in the beginning of the movie.

“Thanksgiving” introduces a few too many characters in the beginning of the film, particularly when it comes to Jessica’s social circle of friends at her high school. Jessica’s boyfriend Bobby DiStasi (played by Jalen Thomas Brooks) is a star pitcher on the school’s baseball team. He has the nickname Golden Arm because of his pitching talent. Other people who hang out with Jessica are two couples who attend the same school: rebellious prankster Evan Fletcher (played by Tomaso Sanelli); Evan’s fun-loving girlfriend Gabby (played by Addison Rae); friendly athlete Conrad Scuba, nicknamed Scuba (played by Gabriel Davenport); and Scuba’s cheerleader girlfriend Yulia (played by Jenna Warren), who also comes from a wealthy family.

On the fringes of this clique is McCarty (played by Joe Delfin), a scummy guy in his 20s who sells drugs and guns, often to teenagers. McCarty is somewhat known in the area for having a big annual party (called the McCarty Party), on a night close to the Thanksgiving holiday. Another prominent character in the movie is Ryan (played by Milo Manheim), an academically talented student who has a crush on Jessica and tries to get to know her better, even though Ryan knows that Bobby is her boyfriend.

What happens at the Right Mart in Plymouth will become a violent tragedy. Tensions are running high in the crowd of people who are anxious for the store to open for Black Friday. There’s a barricade separating the crowd from the store, but there is no orderly line for this crowd, which is one of the first signs that things might go wrong. Some people standing close to each other start to have petty arguments when they think someone else is trying invade their personal space. One of these argumentative people is a loudmouth named Lizzie (played by Amanda Barker), who is one of the more aggressive people in the crowd.

Somehow, Jessica’s friends convince her to take advantage of the fact that her father owns Right Mart, because Jessica has access to the master key to the store. Evan is the one who comes up with the idea to go into the store before the crowd can be let in for the Black Friday sales. The people outside can see what’s going on inside store through the long glass windows at the front of the store. Jessica and her pals go in the store, where Evan and a few of the others taunt the bystanders outside by appearing to be shopping inside.

This sight enrages many people in the crowd. One of the bystanders grabs a megaphone from a security guard and shouts that the store is now open. And that’s when all hell breaks loose. People rush through the barricade and crash through the front doors, with many people trampling one of the only two security guards who was in front of the store. This unlucky security guard’s name is Doug (played by Chris Sandiford), and he will be talked about several times later in the movie.

The customers in this mob scene start to act like violent looters. An unexpected arrival at the store is Amanda, who is at Right Mart to surprise Mitch with some leftover Thanksgiving food. Amanda is one of the people who gets physically injured during this chaos. The mayhem becomes such an emergency, Sherrif Newlon is called to the scene. He becomes the lead investigator in the case. At least two people die in the pandemonium. It’s a very gripping way to begin the movie.

“Thanksgiving” then fast-forwards to a year later. Right Mart’s video security footage from the Black Friday tragedy has mysterously gone missing. And so, videos that people took on their phones are what most people see of what happened in the store on that fateful night. The video that Evan took is one of the biggest viral videos out of all the videos from that night that got attention from the media and the public.

TV news reports show that there is controversy in Plymouth because Right Mart owner Thomas wants to do the same Black Friday promotion as the previous year. This decision has gotten criticism from many people who think Right Mart should be closed on Black Friday, out of respect for the people who were hurt or died in the chaos in the previous year. One of the protestors is Mitch, who no longer works for Right Mart. Thomas remains unmoved by the protests, and he refuses to change his decision.

A TV news report on the one-year anniversary of the tragedy mentions that Bobby’s injuries in the melee ended his promising baseball career. Bobby left Plymouth shortly after the Right Mart tragedy and disappeared. However, Bobby suddenly shows up in Plymouth again, close to the one-year anniversary of Right Mart’s deadly Black Friday fiasco. Bobby is apologetic to Jessica for leaving and cutting off all communication with her.

Jessica forgives Bobby, but she has a new boyfriend: Ryan, who isn’t happy to see that Bobby has come back to Plymouth. Ryan and Bobby dislike each other immensely. Their rivalry over Jessica becomes a subplot in the movie.

It’s a Wright family tradition to film themselves for a Right Mart TV commercial. This year, they will be filming the commercial at a local landmark called the John Carver House, which is named after the first governor of the Plymouth Colony. When the Wright family arrives at the house, they see that it has been vandalized. Thomas notices that an ax that had been hanging on the wall is missing.

And you know what that means. Shortly after this theft and vandalism, Jessica and her friends start getting bizarre text mesages from someone who is using the name The John Carver. The messages have photos attached that show a dining table with Thanksgiving decorations. “The table is set,” the first message reads.

The rest of “Thanksgiving” is a wild ride of scares and some laughs. It should come as no surprise that the killer (who is disguised as John Carver during the murder spree) is seeking revenge against people whom the killer blames for the Black Friday tragedy that happened at Right Mart. Some of the movie’s murder scenes are inventive and very gruesome. Hint: You might never look at trampolines the same way again after seeing “Thanksgiving.”

The performances in the movie get the job done well enough for a horror flick. Even in this fairly big ensemble cast, Verlaque naturally stands out, because the story is told mostly from the perspective of Jessica. Delfin also gives a memorable performance as the sleazy McCarty, who is supposed to be some of the movie’s comic relief.

“Thanksgiving” will keep viewers guessing on who’s behind all these murders and the details of the revenge motive. The identity of the killer is a lot easier to guess than the motive. (An end-credits scene looks like a comedic outtake from the movie.) There’s an obvious hint of a sequel, which will no doubt be expected, since “Thanksgiving” is the type of movie that will quickly win over horror fans who want to see this story continue.

TriStar Pictures will release “Thanksgiving” on November 17, 2023.

Review: ‘The Bell Keeper,’ starring Randy Couture, Kathleen Kenny, Reid Miller, Cathy Marks, Mike Manning, Bonnie Aarons, Daniel Dasent and Chaz Bono

November 3, 2023

by Carla Hay

Reid Miller and Kathleen Kenny in “The Bell Keeper” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“The Bell Keeper”

Directed by Colton Tran

Culture Representation: Taking place in Southern California, the horror film “The Bell Keeper” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one African American and one Latina) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Several young people travel to a remote camping area that is believed to be the hunting ground for a serial killer who appears after a mysterious bell is rung in the woods. 

Culture Audience: “The Bell Keeper” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching terrible horror films.

Randy Couture in “The Bell Keeper” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“The Bell Keeper” is about terror that is unleashed after anyone rings a mysterious bell that’s in a remote wooded area. A serial killer keeps vigil over the bell. Someone needs to sound the alarm that “The Bell Keeper” is pure dreck in horror filmmaking.

Directed by Colton Tran, “The Bell Keeper” tries very hard to be the type of horror film that drops in sarcastic jokes to lighten the mood. The problem is that this comedy in “The Bell Keeper” is cringeworthy, outdated, and just not funny at all. Joe Davison and Luke Genton co-wrote the awful screenplay for “The Bell Keeper.”

As bad as the movie’s screenplay is, the acting in “The Bell Keeper” is worse and makes everything much harder to watch until the movie’s idiotic ending. There are some tacky horror movies that are entertaining to watch because they are very self-aware of their low-quality filmmaking and have fun with it. “The Bell Keeper” is not that type of tacky horror movie.

“The Bell Keeper” takes place in an unnamed city in Southern California. The movie was filmed on location in Los Angeles, Santa Clarita, and Ventura County. The opening scene takes place at night and shows two gory murders in a (cliché alert) secluded wooded area that has the fictional name Bell Lake in the movie.

The first person murdered in the movie is a man in his late 20s named Gary Beaumont (played by Nick Theurer), who is beheaded by a muscular man carrying an ax. After killing Gary, the murderer takes Gary’s driver’s license because the killer collects the driver’s licenses of his victims and hangs these licenses on a wall in his home. Gary’s girlfriend Nadine (played by Bailey Castle) is tied to a chair in a shed-like building. The murderer then kills Nadine in the same way that he killed Gary.

Viewers soon find out that this killer’s name is Hank (played by Randy Couture), who has become a local legend (not in a good way), because he’s suspected of being a serial killer but has remained elusive. Hank is believed to be a recluse who lives somewhere in the woods, where there is a mysterious bell located outdoors. According to stories in the area, every time someone rings the bell, Hank appears to hunt down and kill whoever rang the bell and any willing accomplices.

After Gary and Nadine are murdered, a group of five young people take a trip to Bell Lake to make a documentary about urban legends. They arrive by a recreational vehicle camper that’s co-owned by the two brothers who are on the trip. Younger brother Liam (played by Reid Miller), who’s in his late teens, has been living in the camper after secretly dropping out of college. Liam, who loves smoking marijuana, has been making money by selling marijuana that he is growing in the camper.

Older brother Matthew, nicknamed Matt (played by Mike Manning), is in his mid-20s and is the opposite of Liam in many ways. Matt is arrogant, vain, and knows what he wants to do with his life. Liam and Matt have had a tense relationship because Matt has a long history of bullying and insulting Liam.

Although Matt and Liam both own the camper, Matt has to ask Liam’s permission to use the camper for the trip because Liam is the one who’s been paying for the upkeep of the camper, which is actually a grungy mess. Liam is tasked with being the driver for this trip. Matt is the cinematographer for this documentary crew.

Also on this trip is Matt’s confident and friendly girlfriend Holly (played by Cathy Marks), who is directing this amateur documentary. Holly has been trying to mend the fractured relationship between Matt and Liam. She’s hoping that this documentary will be the definitive documentary that will solve the mystery of Bell Lake. (In other words, you just know if Holly finds the notorious bell, she’ll want to ring it on camera and film what happens next.)

The other two people on the trip are sound technician Gabriel (played by Capri-Antoine Vaillancourt) and documentary host Megan (played by Alexis B. Santiago), who are hooking up with each other in a “friends with benefits” situation. Gabriel and Megan are both dimwitted and shallow. Megan is a diva who has some of the worst jokes in the movie.

On their way to Bell Lake, the five travel companions stop at a gas station in this remote area. Matt and Gabriel go in the gas station’s convenience store and meet a buffoonish park ranger named Eugene Carlson (played by Chaz Bono) and a menacing-looking cashier named Jodie (played by Bonnie Aarons), who both warn Matt and Gabriel not to go to Deer Lake when they find out that’s where these travelers are going.

Jodie shouts, “It’s not a joke!” She grabs Gabriel and yells at him: “Hank is ruthless!” Aarons gives a very over-the-top performance in “The Bell Keeper.” Even though Aarons shares top billing for “The Bell Keeper,” she’s only in this one scene in the movie. Her screen time is less than five minutes, but her performance is so extreme, it will probably make viewers laugh instead of feel terrified.

Meanwhile, outside the gas station, a woman in her early 20s is handing out copies of a missing person flyer. Her name is Brittany (played by Kathleen Kenny), and she’s the younger sister of Gary, the man who was slaughtered in the beginning of the movie. At this point in the story, no one except for the killer knows that Gary is dead. Brittany hands a flyer to Liam, who says he hasn’t seen Gary.

Liam is instantly smitten with Brittany, who says she’s headed to Bell Lake too, because that was the last-known place where Gary was seen with Nadine. Liam nervously tries to flirt with Brittany to let her know that he might want to date her. However, Brittany tells Liam that he has no chance with her because she’s a lesbian. Liam still wants to get to know Brittany better, so he invites her to set up her tent close to where the RV camper will be parked at Bell Lake.

The rest of “The Bell Keeper” alternates between boring scenes of people talking and poorly staged action scenes. Of course, the bell is found and rung. Hank comes out of the shadows and goes on a killing spree. The chase scenes are sloppily edited and don’t look believable at all.

As shown in the movie’s trailer, ringing the bell also causes those responsible to turn into demon-possessed creatures. It’s supposed to make “The Bell Keeper” viewers wonder: “Who’s the real menace here?” But it just makes it easier to predict who will live and who will die.

There’s also a part of the movie involving a devil worshipper named Jackson (played by Daniel Dasent), in a terribly conceived part of the story that just makes the plot more of a jumbled mess. “The Bell Keeper” filmmakers made an effort to not have the answers to the movie’s mystery be too obvious. But in doing so, there’s a revelation that just creates more plot holes.

“The Bell Keeper” has some watchable moments when it comes to the friendship that develops between Liam and Brittany. But the acting in this movie is so relentlessly terrible, it takes you out of the intended horror, and it ruins the movie. The worst acting in “The Bell Keeper” is from Couture, who recites his lines as if he’s reading a dictionary that he has a hard time understanding. “The Bell Keeper” is simply one in a seemingly endless stream of trashy horror movies that aren’t very fun to watch and are quickly forgetton.

Screen Media Films released “The Bell Keeper” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on October 13, 2023. The movie will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 5, 2023.

Review: ‘Slotherhouse,’ starring Lisa Ambalavanar, Sydney Craven, Olivia Rouyre, Bianca Beckles-Rose, Tiff Stevenson and Stefan Kapičić

October 30, 2023

by Carla Hay

Andrew Horton, Alpha and Olivia Rouyre in “Slotherhouse” (Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures)

“Slotherhouse”

Directed by Matthew Goodhue

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city and briefly in Panama, the horror film “Slotherhouse” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people, African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A college student adopts a female sloth to be a cute mascot for her sorority, but the sloth is really a serial killer that goes on a rampage. 

Culture Audience: “Slotherhouse” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching low-quality horror movies, no matter how bad these movies are.

Grace Patterson, Sydney Craven, Annamaria Serda, Sutter Nolan, Milica Vrzić, and Tiana Upcheva in “Slotherhouse” (Photo courtesy of Gravitas Ventures)

“Slotherhouse” is an intentionally campy slasher flick whose one-joke premise about a serial-killing sloth becomes tiresome after the first 30 minutes. A lot of the manic energy is drained by the end, and the subpar acting performances become irritating. The movie (which is 93 minutes long) is also overstuffed with forgettable characters.

Directed by Matthew Goodhue and written by Bradley Fowler, “Slotherhouse” starts off with the right idea to have a comedic horror movie about a killer sloth. Unfortunately, that idea is constantly fumbled with scenes that aren’t as funny or horrific as they should have been. It just becomes a mishmash of a sorority soap opera and a cutesy animal comedy, with occasional murder scenes that are very tame.

The movie uses an obvious puppet to portray the female sloth. And that’s understandable when it’s a low-budget movie that can’t afford fancy visual effects. But after a while, it starts to look like a puppet show, which diminishes the intended effect for this sloth to be a credibly menacing terror.

The origin of this sloth is shown in the movie’s opening scene, which takes place in a swampy jungle in Panama. The slot has just killed an alligator, which is belly-up, with the sloth’s claw marks on the alligator’s stomach. A poacher named Oliver (played by Stefan Kapičić), who goes by the name OExotic on social media, captures the slot and takes the animal to the United States.

The movie then fast-forwards to a shopping mall in an unnamed U.S. city. Two female best friends in their early 20s are walking through the mall and talking about social media. Emily Young (played by Lisa Ambalavanar), who is in her last year of college, is getting a pep talk from Madison, nicknamed Maddie (played by Olivia Rouyre), who tells Emily not to worry so much about how many followers that Emily has on social media. (Whenever a new character in the movie first appears on screen, “Slotherhouse” shows a social media screen grab that lists the number of social media followers the person has.)

Inside the mall, there’s a Yorkshire Terrier that accidentally got separated from its owner. Emily catches and returns the dog to its grateful owner. In the mall’s food court area, someone has noticed this encounter and quickly deduces that Emily is fond of animals. This observant stranger is Oliver the sloth poacher, who introduces himself to Emily and Madison as someone who sells exotic pets. Oliver shows them a photo he has of his pet sloth, he gives Emily his business card, and her tells her to call him if she ever wants to buy a pet sloth from him.

Emily is a member of the Sigma Lambda Theta (SLT) sorority that has a house on campus. (Observant viewers willl notices that SLT are also three of the letters in the word “sloth.”) Elections are coming up to choose the president of this sorority chapter. The sorority “queen bee” is Brianna Khinny (played by Sydney Craven), who is spoiled, rude and arrogant. Brianna wants to be re-elected president of the sorority, and she assumes that she will have no competition.

Meanwhile, Emily decides she want to get a pet sloth, so she contacts Oliver and makes an appointment for this purchase. Little does Emily know that the sloth has gotten tired of Oliver controlling her, so the sloth kills Oliver before Emily arrives. Emily doesn’t see Oliver’s body when she enters the house, but she sees the sloth and takes her back to the sorority house.

Emily announces that this sloth will be the sorority’s mascot. She names the sloth Alpha. (Never mind that in real life, most college campuses don’t allow students to have pets living with students in campus housing.) Emily and Alpha have an instant bond that makes them the center of the attention in the sorority. Predictably, Brianna gets jealous and tries to bully Emily, who then decides that she’s going be Brianna’s opponent in the sorority’s upcoming presidential election.

The rest of “Slotherhouse” gets to be a bit mind-numbing, as Alpha secretly starts killing people (mostly women in the sorority) while pretending to be a sweet and innocent animal. Alpha doesn’t doesn’t just use her claws to kill people; the sloth can also pick up weapons like a human and use them on her murder victims. The other things that Alpha does veer into the ridiculous, such as using computers (to snoop on her victims) and taking selfie photos. Very rarely does this comedy work effectively, because the set-up and execution of these jokes are so dull.

As for the other characters in the movie, Emily has a bland boyfriend named Tyler (played by Andrew Horton), who always seems to show up too late when he’s needed. An androgynous lesbian named Zenny (played by Bianca Beckles-Rose) is a quirky misfit in this sorority, which consists mostly of snobs who don’t like Zenny. (It makes you wonder how Zenny got enough votes to be accepted into this sorority in the first place.) Emily is one of the few people in the sorority who treats Zenny (who is the obvious comic relief character) with some respect. A sorority sister named Dakota (played by Annamaria Serda) is another target of Brianna’s wrath.

In the sorority, Brianna predictably has a clique of followers who seem to go along with her, not because they like Brianna but because they fear her. These weak-willed sorority sisters are Sarah (played by Sutter Nolan), Alissa (played by Tiana Upcheva), Morgan (played by Olivia Rouyre), Gabby (played by Milica Vrzić), and Chloe (played by Cady Lanigan), who are all utterly generic. The sorority also has a slightly goofy house mother named Ms. Mayflower (played by Tiff Stevenson), who isn’t in the movie nearly enough for someone who’s supposed to be supervising the house.

“Slotherhouse” goes off on a few weird and unnecessary tangents that don’t fit very well in the story. For example, there’s a segment that lasts too long about the sorority members going through a cult-like ritual. This ritual, where the sorority members wear red satin hooded robes and hold lighted candles, looks like a teenager’s idea of an occult party sponsored by Hot Topic.

The character of Alpha can be somewhat amusing, but this sloth’s personality and motives are too vague for viewers to really care. At first, Alpha looks like she wants her freedom to live like a wild animal, but then she inexplicably tries to stay in the sorority house, where she knows that Brianna and others are trying to get rid of her. There are too many story flaws and not enough laughs or suspense for “Slotherhouse” to be anything other than a hollow and gimmicky horror movie.

Gravitas Ventures released “Slotherhouse” in select U.S. cinemas on August 30, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on September 19, 2023. Hulu premiered the movie on October 15, 2023.

Review: ‘Cobweb’ (2023), starring Lizzy Caplan, Woody Norman, Cleopatra Coleman and Antony Starr

October 29, 2023

by Carla Hay

Woody Norman in “Cobweb” (Photo by Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate)

“Cobweb” (2023)

Directed by Samuel Bodin

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Pennsylvania, the horror film “Cobweb” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An 8-year-old boy thinks that a mysterious girl is living inside the walls of his house, while his parents try to convince him that he’s imagining things. 

Culture Audience: “Cobweb” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Lizzy Caplan and Antony Starr or slow-moving horror movies that aren’t very imaginative.

Lizzy Caplan in “Cobweb” (Photo by Vlad Cioplea/Lionsgate)

“Cobweb” struggles to be a creepy horror film, and it falls very short of being terrifying or suspenseful. There are too many monotonous stretches of this sluggishly paced movie. The mediocre acting performances and poorly conceived ending don’t help.

Directed by Samuel Bodin and written by Chris Thomas Devlin, “Cobweb” certainly had the potential to be a much better horror movie. The problem is that “Cobweb” has too much stagnant repetition that doesn’t do much to move the story forward. Even some of the principal cast members look bored during crucial parts of the film, which is filled with a lot of weak jump scares that don’t really go anywhere. The essential plot of “Cobweb” gets run into the ground very early.

Taking place in an unnamed city in Pennsylvania, “Cobweb” focuses on the Hall family and what appears to be the family’s haunted house. (“Cobweb” was actually filmed in Bulgaria.) Carol Hall (played by Lizzy Caplan) and Mark Hall (played by Antony Starr) are parents to 8-year-old Peter Hall (played by Woody Norman), who is alarmed because he keeps hearing things inside the walls of their house. The movie’s opening scene shows a frightened Peter waking up his parents at night because he heard noises coming from inside a wall.

Carol knocks on the wall and says she doesn’t hear anything. She tells Peter: “This is an old house. There’s bound to be bumps in the night.” As Carol tucks Peter into his bed, she adds, “You have a great, beautiful imagination.” The family house is predictably dark inside and somewhat shabby. Apparently, the Hall family doesn’t know the meaning of having lightbulbs with regular wattage.

Peter is a student at Holdenfield Elementary School, where he is bullied by a fellow student named Brian (played by Luke Busey), who is a stereotypical brat in a movie. A substitute teacher named Miss Devine (played by Cleopatra Coleman) notices that artistically talented Peter is withdrawn and troubled because he’s too frightened to go outside for recess. Miss Devine takes an interest in Peter’s well-being.

One evening, when the Hall family members are having dinner together, Mark tells Peter that a girl named Rebecca Holbrook, who lived on the same street, disappeared from the neighborhood on Halloween a few years ago. Rebecca still has not been found. The house where Rebecca lived is now abandoned and boarded up.

Carol says to Peter about Rebecca’s disappearance: “It was a very traumatic event for everyone in the neighborhood—and I personally don’t like remembering it.” Peter nervously asks Carol, “Am I going to disappear?” Carol assures him: “Peter, of course not. No. We would never let that happen to you.”

But then, it should comes as no surprise in a predictable horror flick like “Cobweb,” Peter starts to hear a girl’s voice talking to him from the walls in the house. She won’t say what her name is when Peter asks her. It’s an obvious way that the movie wants viewers to think: “Is the girl trapped in the walls the ghost of Rebecca Holbrook?”

“Cobweb” is yet another horror movie where a child makes disturbing drawings that are noticed by adults. Peter’s illustrations are seen by Miss Devine, who thinks that Peter might be getting abused at his home. And you know what that means: Miss Devine is going to show up at the Hall house unannounced to ask the types of questions where she’s acting more like social services worker than a substitute teacher.

Carol, who is a former teacher, is offended that anyone would question the parenting skills of Carol and Mark. There’s also a long stretch of the movie about the bullying that Brian inflicts on Peter, what the adults and Peter do about it, and how the violent bullying escalates. Throughout the film, Mark is portrayed as mysterious and a little weird. Carol is overprotective of Peter and very neurotic about not letting him get too close to the other students at school.

At least half of “Cobweb” rehashes the same things in a very bland manner: Peter hears sounds, such as a girl’s voice, in the walls. His parents tell him that he’s imagining these things. At school, Peter is bullied by Brian. Meanwhile, Miss Devine becomes convinced that something very wrong is going on in the Hall household.

Norman’s performance as Peter is adequate but not very interesting compared to child performances in other movies about kids who experience horror that is not believed by adults. Caplan portrays Carol as the type of Stepford-like housewife whose smile looks forced and whose mannerisms suggest that she’s hiding a lot of secrets. Starr’s performance as Mark is particularly stiff and flat. Coleman gives an average portrayal of Miss Devine, who is written as a generic character.

Of course, the reason for the noises in the wall is eventually revealed. That revelation doesn’t come until the last 20 minutes of the film, which is ruined by a ludicrous showdown that is just stupid, not scary. The big reveal just brings up questions that the movie never bothers to answer. The end of “Cobweb” hints that there’s potential for a sequel, but considering there’s very little about this tedious dreck that is crowd-pleasing, this “Cobweb” is a mess that is better off being swept aside and forgotten.

Lionsgate released “Cobweb” in U.S. cinemas on July 21, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on August 11, 2023, and on Blu-ray and DVD and September 12, 2023.

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