Tag: horror

Review: ‘Barbarians’ (2022), starring Iwan Rheon and Catalina Sandino Moreno

April 27, 2022

by Carla Hay

Iwan Rheon and Catalina Sandino Moreno in “Barbarians” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

“Barbarians” (2022)

Directed by Charles Dorfman

Culture Representation: Taking place in Surrey, England, the horror film “Barbarians” features a cast of nearly all-white characters (with one Latina) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: Four people who are gathered for a dinner party have their party interrupted by home invaders. 

Culture Audience: “Barbarians” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching an unimaginative and dull horror movie that has too many boring conversations and not enough scares.

Pictured clockwise, from left: Tom Cullen, Iwan Rheon, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Inès Spiridonov in “Barbarians” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

“Barbarians” is being marketed as a horror movie about a home invasion. It’s actually a tedious 90-minute movie about an annoying dinner party, with the formulaic home invasion happening only in the last 30 minutes. There’s no good excuse for why the movie drags on and on in showing nothing but the dinner party hosts and their relationship issues before and during this dreadfully boring dinner party. It all just comes down to a horror movie being lazy and unimaginative.

Written and directed by Charles Dorfman, “Barbarians” (which takes place during a 24-hour period in Surrey, England) wastes a lot of time showing the movie’s central couple’s relationship conflicts and some background about the home that they have recently purchased. Adam Davies (played by Iwan Rheon) is a movie director who’s frustrated because his career has stalled. His partner Eva Velasquez (played by Catalina Sandino Moreno) is a world-renowned artist whose specialty is making large sculptures. Adam and Eva, who are both in their late 30s to early 40s, are not married and have been together for an untold number of years.

Adam and Eva have recently moved into a housing property development called The Gateway, which has been designed to be a progressive community of homes for like-minded creative people and other “hipsters.” A massive stone sculpture made by Eva is at the center of the property. It’s an avant-garde eyesore that’s being touted as “bespoke sculpture.”

Real-estate developer Lucas Hunt (played by Tom Cullen) has sold Adam and Eva a house in The Gateway. Lucas hopes to sell more housing units, so he has made a promotional video that he has posted on the Internet. The opening scene of “Barbarians” is a clip from this slick promotional video, where Lucas has the tone of an infomercial hack.

In this video, Lucas talks about how The Gateway got its name from a famous stone on the land called Gaeta (which is Gaelic for “gateway”), which has “attracted people far and wide with its mystery, its magic, its power. They come to celebrate the solstice as a way of marking the transition from one season to another.” Eva’s sculpture adorning the property is meant to resemble the Gaeta stone. Lucas mentions that the land where The Gateway is located had been owned for generations by a family with the last name Wickes.

Lucas says in the video that he worked out a deal with the Wickes family to sell the property to him, by assuring the family that for this land “steeped in history,” he would be “respecting its past to create something truly special.” As if to prove that he had the Wickes family’s blessing, the video includes Lucas posing for a photo with family patriarch Alan Wickes (played by Kevin Ryan) and Alan’s three sons: John (played by Will Kemp), Dan (played by Connor Swindells) and Neil (played by Tommy McDonnell). Everyone is smiling and seeming to be on good terms with other.

There’s a pointless part of the movie about a wounded fox that Adam finds outside on the property, because the fox got caught in some fence wire. When Adam approaches the fox to try to help it, the fox snarls and snaps at him, so Adam backs off. Later, the fox mysteriously shows up on the kitchen floor in Adam and Eva’s house.

Dan Wickes just happens to be there, and he covers the wounded fox with a jacket and kills it with no hesitation. The killing of this fox really has no bearing on the story, except to show that Dan can get violent (even in a “mercy killing” of an animal), and Adam feels emasculated in his own home because Dan acted in a “macho” way to kill the fox. Adam also thinks that Dan flirts inappropriately with Eva, but she denies it.

Adam’s birthday happens around the same time that he and Eva have moved into their new home, so Adam and Eva are throwing a small dinner party to celebrate. Their only guests at this party are Lucas and his actress girlfriend Chloe (played by Inès Spiridonov), who has been in a relationship with Lucas for an unnamed period of time. “Barbarians” (which is writer/director Dorfman’s feature-film directorial debut) is a poorly made movie that skips over a lot of character development. All four of these characters come across as very shallow and often self-absorbed, with unremarkable acting from all of the movie’s cast members.

The main thing that viewers will learn about Adam and Eva before this dinner party happens is that Eva wants to start a family with Adam, who is more reluctant about the idea of being a parent at this point in his life. Adam seems to want to wait until he has a more stable income. Eva is frustrated by his hesitation, so she tells Adam that if he’s not ready to have a family with her, he needs to be up front and tell her. Adam says he’s sorry and tells Eva that he’s committed to her and will go with what she wants.

The dinner party is just more irksome relationship drama, with Adam and Lucas acting like immature rivals. Adam feels like an insecure “beta male” because he thinks “alpha male” Lucas is trying to make flirtatious moves on Eva. That seems to be a pattern of jealousy that Adam has when another man is interacting with Eva. Lucas thinks Adam is kind of a wimp. Lucas tells Adam to hit Lucas. Adam doesn’t punch Lucas but slaps him instead, so Lucas calls Adam a “pussy.”

And it should come as no surprise that some secrets, lies and betrayals are revealed during this dinner party. The identities of the home invaders (who wear animal skull masks) and the reason for the home invasion are so obvious, this movie has no real suspense or mystery. By the time the horribly staged home invasion happens during the dinner party, viewers will feel like “Barbarians” invited people to a horror movie, but instead offered a time-wasting void of monotonous and forgettable drivel.

IFC Films/IFC Midnight released “Barbarians” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 1, 2022.

Review: ‘You Are Not My Mother,’ starring Hazel Doupe, Carolyn Bracken, Ingrid Craigie and Paul Reid

April 25, 2022

by Carla Hay

Carolyn Bracken in “You Are Not My Mother” (Photo by Cait Fahey/Magnet Releasing)

“You Are Not My Mother”

Directed by Kate Dolan

Culture Representation: Taking place in North Dublin, the horror film “You Are Not My Mother” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After a single mother mysteriously vanishes for a few days, she comes back to her home and seems to be a strange and different person, and her teenage daughter begins to wonder if this mother is possessed by something evil. 

Culture Audience: “You Are Not My Mother” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in predictable but effective horror movies about the supernatural.

Hazel Doupe and Ingrid Craigie in “You Are Not My Mother” (Photo by Cait Fahey/Magnet Releasing)

“You Are Not My Mother” has a mystery that’s very easy to solve, but this well-acted horror movie adeptly maintains suspense in a story influenced by Irish folklore. It’s a solid feature-film directorial debut from Kate Dolan, who also wrote “You Are Not My Mother.” The movie should satisfy people who like supernatural thrillers that can be frightful but don’t wallow in a lot of bloody gore. “You Are Not My Mother” had its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.

In “You Are Not My Mother” (which takes place in North Dublin), teenager Char Delaney (played by Hazel Doupe) is an introverted loner who attends an all-girls Catholic school. Char is about 15 or 16 years old. Char lives with her single mother Angela Delaney (played by Carolyn Bracken), Angela’s brother Aaron (played by Paul Reid), and Char’s grandmother Rita (played by Ingrid Craigie), who is the mother of Angela and Aaron. Char’s biological father is not seen or mentioned in the move.

“You Are Not My Mother” opens with a scene in the woods, where a baby (played by Dante Woods) is being taken by Rita, who lights a circular fire around the baby. The baby then apparently burns to death. Why would Rita do such a horrible thing? By opening the movie with this scene, writer/director Dolan foreshadows too much of the movie too early. Within the first 10 minutes of the film, it’s obvious that Char’s family has secrets that will eventually be revealed.

Angela has had a long history of depression. In the beginning of the movie, her depression is so debilitating, she is frequently bedridden. One day, Char asks her grandmother Rita for money to take a bus back home from school. Rita says in response: “Why don’t you ask your mother? I’ll get her out of bed.”

Angela manages to get out of bed, and she gives Char a ride to school. However, Angela seems so distracted, Angela almost hits a horse on the road with her car. Meanwhile, Char says, “Mum, we need food in the house. Mum, what’s wrong with you?”

Angela, who seems exhausted and sad, replies: “I’m sorry. I don’t think I can do this anymore.” When Char comes home from school, her mother isn’t there. Later, Char finds her mother’s car abandoned in a field, with a bag of groceries left on the front passenger seat. Angela is nowhere in sight.

Angela’s concerned family eventually contacts the local police to report her missing. Aaron is very concerned that Angela could’ve been kidnapped. A policewoman named Officer Jenny (played Aoife Spratt) has come to the home to take the missing person report. Aaron gets impatient and angry when it’s suggested that, because of Angela’s history of depression, she might have left to go somewhere on her own for a while. Later, Char has a nightmare about finding her mother dead.

When Char’s mother goes missing, it’s just another stress in Char’s life. At school, she is bullied by a group of “mean girls,” led by a snooty brat named Suzanne O’Connell (played by Jordanne Jones), who has her own mother issues that are later revealed in the story. Two of the other girls in this “mean girls” clique are named Kelly (played by Katie White) and Amanda (played by Florence Adebambo), and they later participate with Suzanne in a very cruel prank on Char.

In one of the movie’s classroom scenes, Char is first seen having to interact with Suzanne, who reacts with annoyance when art teacher Ms. Devlin (played Jade Jordan) tells Suzanne to sit next to Char. When the teacher isn’t looking, Suzanne takes some gum out of her mouth and smears the gum on Char’s notes. Char is considered an outcast at this school because she comes from a working-class family who is considered a little strange.

Later in the art class, Char shows Ms. Devlin a drawing that Char made of shadows engulfed in flames. Char tells the teacher that she made the illustration from a dream that she had. It’s a very cliché and obvious clue in the movie.

Another clue is when after Angela goes missing, Rita gives Char a small ball of twigs and leaves, while saying, “I made this for you—for protection.” Why does Char need to be protected? Could it have anything to do with that apparent birthmark on her face?

At any rate, Angela eventually returns to the home after a few days, with no explanation of where she went and why. However, Char and the other family members notice that Angela is not the same person she was before Angela disappeared. This new Angela is more energetic and in better spirits. She even starts doing things like cheerfully making dinner. It’s close to Halloween, so the meal includes pumpkin.

But this new Angela now has a loss of appetite. And this mother, who was once so listless that she could barely get out of bed, is now enthusiastically talking about taking a mother-daughter trip with Char. It’s an idea that Aaron vehemently opposes.

“You Are Not My Mother” is much more of a psychological horror film than a movie that relies on a lot of action-packed jump scares. There are some moments that are meant to induce terror, but a lot of the horror is about what can’t be seen rather than the story being about a killer on the loose. This movie could’ve benefited from more character development, but “You Are Not My Mother” also doesn’t clutter the movie with a lot of unnecessary scenes.

All of the cast members give reasonably authentic performances, but the horror merits of “You Are Not My Mother” are mostly in Bracken’s eerie transformation as Angela. Without this unsettling performance, “You Are Not My Mother” would just be an average or laughable horror movie if mishandled by someone who was miscast in the Angela role. (Fun fact: Writer/director Dolan appears briefly in the movie in the role of a pharmacist.) “You Are Not My Mother” is not a going to be considered a classic horror movie, but it delivers plenty of intrigue for horror fans who are looking for a thriller that explores issues of generational trauma and family burdens.

Magnet Releasing released “You Are Not My Mother” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on March 25, 2022.

Review: ‘Willy’s Wonderland,’ starring Nicolas Cage

April 17, 2022

by Carla Hay

Nicolas Cage in “Willy’s Wonderland” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Willy’s Wonderland”

Directed by Kevin Lewis

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional town of Hayesville, Nevada, the horror film “Willy’s Wonderland” features a cast of predominantly white characters (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: After his car breaks down in a remote area, an unnamed loner agrees to pay for the repairs by cleaning an abandoned funhouse that has some sinister secrets and a group of animatronic mascots that kill. 

Culture Audience: “Willy’s Wonderland” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Nicolas Cage and people who don’t mind slasher flicks with hollow characters and a concept that quickly wears thin.

Emily Tosta and Nicolas Cage in “Willy’s Wonderland” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

“Willy’s Wonderland” wastes its unique production design and potentially clever premise by just becoming another repetitive slasher flick. Nicolas Cage’s one-dimensional performance becomes a complete bore. The rampaging animatronic mascots in the film have more memorable personalities than the human characters.

Yes, “Willy’s Wonderland” is about a funhouse with animatronic figures that kill. The movie could have been a wildly funny and entertaining horror story, but it’s unable to sustain much of its appeal and tension during the last two-thirds of the film. It just becomes a tiresome checklist of people who get killed in uninspired and gory ways. It’s also very easy to predict who will be the last ones standing as the survivors at the end of the movie.

Directed by Kevin Lewis and written by G.O. Parsons (in his feature-film debut as a screenwriter), “Willy’s Wonderland” certainly can be commended for its entrancing and eye-catching production design of the Willy’s Wonderland funhouse that’s at the center of the story’s mayhem. (The “Willy’s Wonderland” funhouse scenes were actually filmed at PopCom in Atlanta.) Unfortunately, it looks like the filmmakers of “Willy’s Wonderland” put more thought into how the movie looks than into developing an engaging story that delivers surprises or meaningful characters.

Cage is the unnamed protagonist of “Willy’s Wonderland” who becomes the unwitting main target in this deadly funhouse. In the beginning of the movie, his car breaks down after getting a flat tire in the small, remote town of Hayesville, Nevada. Hayesville is so behind-the-times, it doesn’t have Internet service.

Meanwhile, this unlucky stranger gets a ride from truck driver passing by named Jed Love (played by Chris Warner), who takes him to the nearest mechanic, who will only accept cash as payment. But this stranger is out of luck because the only ATM machine in town doesn’t work. What’s a cash-strapped owner of a broken car to do when the closest mechanic will only take cash?

If he’s in a mindless horror movie like “Willy’s Wonderland,” he doesn’t consider other options, like calling to find a car repair service that will take other payments besides cash. No, he takes a “too good to be true” offer from a guy named Tex Macadoo (played by Ric Reitz), who steps in at just the right moment. Tex tells this stranger that he will pay to have this stranger’s car fixed. All the stranger has to do is spend a night cleaning Willy’s Wonderland, an abandoned family fun center that Tex owns and says he has plans to re-open.

Tex says that these janitor duties can only take place at night, and whoever cleans the place has to spend the entire night there. These requirements immediately sound suspicious, but some people will do anything to get their broken car fixed for free. Of course, there’s more to the Willy’s Wonderland story than Tex is willing to tell this stranger, who will be called the Janitor in this review, since that’s the name that’s listed for him in the film’s credits.

Meanwhile, there’s someone in town who hates Willy’s Wonderland and everything it stands for so much, she tries to burn the whole place down. Her name is Liv Hawthorne (played by Emily Tosta), an orphaned teenager who is quickly arrested for this attempted arson of Willy’s Wonderland. And it just so happens that Liv’s adoptive mother is the town’s chief law enforcement officer: Sheriff Eloise Lund (played by Beth Grant), who handcuffs Liv to a trailer.

Liv screams at Sheriff Lund: “You’re a bitch!” Sheriff Lund replies sarcastically, “I love you too,” as she leaves to go back to work. Liv doesn’t stay handcuffed for long, because her friends come by to rescue her: Chris (played by Kai Kadlec) is Liv’s airhead love interest. The other members of Liv’s teenage clique are Caylee Cowan (played by Kathy Banes), Bob McDaniel (played by Terayle Hill), Aaron Powers (played by Christian Del Grosso), Dan Lorraine (played by Jonathan Mercedes), Jerry Robert Willis (played by Grant Cramer), who are all just there because every slasher movie needs a body count.

And what a coincidence: Liv and her pals head over to Willy’s Wonderland on the same night that the Janitor is working there. The Janitor soon finds out that he’s not safe in Willy’s Wonderland after all. There are are eight talking animatronic mascots, and they are all just waiting to kill people: ringleader Willy the Weasel (voiced by Jiri Stanek), Siren Sara (played by Jessica Graves Davis), Cammy the Chameleon (voiced by Taylor Towery), Tito the Turtle (voiced by Chris Schmidt Jr.), Arty the Alligator (voiced by Christopher Bradley), Knighty Knight (voiced by Duke Jackson), Gus the Gorilla (voiced by Billy Bussey) and Ozzie the Ostrich (voiced by BJ Guyer).

By the time Liv and her friends arrive at Willy’s Wonderland to commit some vandalism, the Janitor has managed to fend off attacks from Ozzie and Gus. The teenagers meet the Janitor, and Liv has news for him, in case it wasn’t obvious enough: “You’re here as a human sacrifice.” Liv also says that that Willy’s Wonderland being a murder trap is the town’s dirty little secret. It’s eventually revealed why Willy’s Wonderland ended up being a sanctuary of evil. The rest of the movie is just a series of violent fights with the humans against the attacking animatronic mascots.

Cage’s role as the Janitor could have been more interesting, but the character doesn’t talk in the movie. He’s almost as robotic as the animatronic mascots. It’s never explained if he’s deliberately mute or has a genuine speech disability, but the movie gives the impression that it’s more likely that he’s made a choice not to talk because he doesn’t really like to be around people. One of the biggest disappointments in “Willy’s Wonderland” is that this protagonist has a severe lack of a personality.

Liv (generically played by Tosta) has a backstory that explains why she has a personal hatred of Willy’s Wonderland. It’s not a surprise, considering that she’s an orphan. Liv’s friends are underdeveloped characters who don’t leave much of an impression because their purpose in the movie is exactly what you think it is.

“Willy’s Wonderland” might be amusing to people who think it’s hilarious to see animatronic figures acting like murderers. The problem is that these killing scenes just become tedious after a while. The “jokes” in the movie are witless. And the suspense quickly disappears when it becomes obvious that “Willy’s Wonderland” is just following the same over-used formula that too many other substandard slasher movies have used before, with diminished returns and underwhelming results.

Screen Media Films released “Willy’s Wonderland” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on February 12, 2021. “Willy’s Wonderland” is also available for streaming on Hulu.

Review: ‘Kicking Blood,’ starring Alanna Bale and Luke Bilyk

April 16, 2022

by Carla Hay

Alanna Bale and Luke Bilyk in “Kicking Blood” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Kicking Blood”

Directed by Blaine Thurier

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Canadian city of Sudbury, Ontario, the horror film “Kicking Blood” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with one black person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A female vampire becomes romantically involved with an alcoholic man, and she has inner conflicts over whether or not she should continue to hunt humans for their blood.

Culture Audience: “Kicking Blood” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in vampire movies, no matter how dull and misguided the movies are.

Ella Jonas Farlinger and Benjamin Sutherland in “Kicking Blood” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Kicking Blood” tries to draw parallels between alcoholism and a vampire’s lust for blood, but this boring horror flick fails miserably as a scary movie and as an intended love story. Everything about “Kicking Blood” is done in such a half-baked and muddled way, it looks like the filmmakers and the cast members were confused about what type of movie they were really trying to do. The movie’s hackneyed screenplay, below-average acting and amateurish editing further sink “Kicking Blood” into the abyss where bad horror movies go and are quickly forgotten by anyone who had the misfortune of watching them.

Blaine Thurier directed “Kicking Blood” from a screenplay that he co-wrote with Leonard Farlinger. Overall, it’s supposed to be a horror movie, but there are no real scares. “Kicking Blood” tries to be a satire, but there’s nothing funny in the movie. It also wants to be a romance, but the central couple in the movie has no real passion or chemistry together. The entire movie plays out like a series of scenes that came from a sloppily conceived screenplay draft.

All of the movie’s characters are drab, with very little charm or appeal. “Kicking Blood” desperately wants viewers to root for the two main characters to get together as a romantic couple, but the entire movie does not answer these questions: “Why should these two egomaniacs be together in a dysfunctional relationship? Why should we care? Why was this movie even made?” The atrocious ending of “Kicking Blood” completely destroys the entire premise of what makes a vampire.

In the Canadian film “Kicking Blood,” a vampire named Anna (played by Alanna Bale) is leading a double life. By day, she’s a mild-mannered librarian in Sudbury, Ontario. By night, she’s a blood-sucking predator who’s always on the lookout for more human victims. Anna isn’t just part of the undead because she’s a vampire. She has a very dead personality too. In addition, viewers find out very little information about her background during the entire movie.

The movie gives a not-very-convincing explanation that Anna is able to function during the day, as long as she avoids sunlight. There’s a couple of scenes where Anna moves away from a window where sunlight is coming in through the window. However, the movie never explains what Anna does when she has to walk outside in the sunlight, which is inevitable since she has a day job and has to go to and from the building at some point. Unless she’s wearing a hazmat suit (which she does not do), some part of her skin is supposed to get burned by the sunlight.

“Kicking Blood” has a completely useless subplot about Anna’s library co-worker Bernice (played by Rosemary Dunsmore), an elderly woman who is Anna’s work friend and has several scenes in the movie. In the beginning of “Kicking Blood,” Anna witnesses a tension-filled conversation between Bernice and another co-worker named Gerry (played by Shaun Austin-Olsen), who’s about the same age as Bernice.

Gerry is giving Bernice a somewhat rude brushoff because he ended their recent fling, and her feelings are hurt. “You told me you loved me!” Bernice wails. Gerry replies haughtily, “It’s an expression, Bernice.” Before she storms off, Bernice then bitterly hisses at Gerry, “Go to hell!”

The next thing you know, Anna has shown up unannounced at Gerry’s home, where he finds her lounging on his living room couch. This movie is so badly written, Gerry doesn’t seem concerned or curious to find out how Anna got into his home without his knowledge. All Gerry seems to care about is that Anna took up his offer to come over to his place for a drink.

Because Anna is a vampire, Gerry finds out the hard way that the drink Anna really wants is blood from his neck. “This is for Bernice,” Anna smirks as she grabs Gerry by the neck to feed on his blood. Throughout the movie, Anna’s targets for bloodsucking are men who behave badly. If it’s supposed to make Anna look like some kind of feminist, “Kicking Blood” pathetically misses the mark.

That’s because the “bad boy” whom Anna spares from becoming her next victim—because the movie has her fall in love with him—is an alcoholic loser who’s awful to almost everyone around him. His name is Robbie (played by Luke Bilyk), who is the epitome of being a toxic train wreck. “Kicking Blood” doesn’t give very many reasons to root for Robbie and Anna to become a couple. Separately and together, Anna and Robbie are just a mess with no charm or redeeming qualities.

Viewers first see Robbie waking up on his sister’s couch after a night of drunken partying. The place is in shambles, with empty liquor bottles everywhere. Robbie has been temporarily living with his sister Angela (played by Telysa Chandler), and he is clearly an inconsiderate house guest. Robbie is woken up by Angela, who is pregnant and furious with Robbie. And it’s not just because of his partying that’s left her home in disarray.

Angela reminds Robbie that at this party, Robbie had a kissing makeout session with Angela’s fiancé, who is not seen in the movie. Robbie was so drunk that he only has a vague recollection of this loathsome betrayal, but he thinks it’s kind of funny. Angela isn’t amused at all, and she tells Robbie he can no longer stay at her place, effective immediately. It’s mentioned in this scene that Robbie has been in rehab before, but he’s obviously relapsed.

Robbie is next seen loitering in an alley at night because he’s now homeless. And guess who just happens to walk right past him? It’s Anna, probably on her way to find her next victim. This is the terribly written “meet cute” moment in the movie: As she walks past Robbie, he yells out to her: “Where do we go when we die?”

Anna stops and replies, “I have no idea.” Robbie then tells Anna, “I think it’s time for me to end it”—as in commit suicide. Anna seems unbothered by this confession and says flippantly, “Do it then.” Then she adds sarcastically, “I absolve you of your sins.”

Because this physically attractive woman is paying attention to him, Robbie suddenly doesn’t have “suicidal thoughts” anymore. He tries to flirt with her and asks Anna, “What are you doing tonight?” Anna says, “I don’t know.” Robbie replies, “Sounds fun. Can I come?” Anna nonchalantly replies, “Up to you.”

And then, Robbie follows her and ends up staying at her place, but they don’t hook up right away. As Anna crudely puts it: “I don’t fuck humans.” This is the kind of junk dialogue that litters the entire movie. There’s nothing funny or interesting about anything these characters have to say to each other, even though it’s obvious that the filmmakers want to bring dark comedy elements to “Kicking Blood.”

Anna quickly finds out that Robbie is an alcoholic when their first date takes place in a bar. Robbie just as quickly finds out that Anna doesn’t drink alcohol. For much of the movie, Anna treats Robbie as a house guest she’s reluctantly allowed to stay at her place. It’s pretty obvious though that she has feelings for him because she never bites him to get his blood. She comes close to sucking the blood out of him, but she changes her mind.

Even though Anna comes right out and tells Robbie that she’s a vampire, he doesn’t quite believe her. He just thinks she’s a wild eccentric who drinks blood and has convinced herself that she’s a vampire. Robbie doesn’t actually think that Anna has vampire characteristics, such as never outwardly aging or never needing to eat food. By the way, “Kicking Blood” doesn’t say how long Anna has been a vampire, which is one of many examples of how the character’s backstory is non-existent.

Anna has two vampire friends who often hunt humans with her. Their names are Boris (played by Benjamin Sutherland) and Nina (played by Ella Jonas Farlinger), who are the very bland “villains” of the story. Boris and Nina can’t understand why Anna hasn’t made Robbie one of her victims. They think that Anna is going “soft” because Boris and Nina have a lot of contempt for humans.

Meanwhile, Robbie has an ex-fling named Vanessa (played by Vinessa Antoine), who has lingering feelings for Robbie and tries not to let it show to him that she’s kind of jealous that he’s met someone new. Robbie has definitely put Vanessa in the “friend zone,” but she keeps dropping hints that she wants to rekindle whatever relationship that they had. When Vanessa finds out that Robbie doesn’t have a permanent home, she goes as far as telling Robbie that he’s welcome to stay at her place. It’s a very weak attempt by “Kicking Blood” to introduce some sort of love triangle.

“Kicking Blood” gets its title from the part of the story where Anna decides that she could stop being a vampire and turn back into a regular human being if she abstains from drinking blood. And it’s around the same time that Robbie decides to kick his addiction to alcohol. There’s an unnecessary plot development where Anna’s library co-worker Bernice announces that she stopped her habit of popping pills, so she’s on this self-rehab journey too.

What does all of this mean for “Kicking Blood”? Nothing except a lot of tedious scenes where Anna is torn between continuing her vampire lifestyle with Boris and Nina, or starting a new life with Robbie as they try to kick their “addictions” together. It’s a fairly good concept, but it’s bungled badly in “Kicking Blood,” which has a ridiculous and horribly edited showdown near the end of the movie. It’s ironic that this shoddily made vampire film sucks all the life out of what could have been an intriguing story.

XYZ Films released “Kicking Blood” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on March 31, 2022. The movie is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on May 17, 2022.

Review: ‘Room 203,’ starring Francesca Xuereb, Viktoria Vinyarska, Eric Wiegand and Scott Gremillion

April 15, 2022

by Carla Hay

Francesca Xuereb and Viktoria Vinyarska in “Room 203” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

“Room 203”

Directed by Brian Jagger

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Quincy, the horror flick “Room 203” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two young women, who’ve been best friends since childhood, become roommates, and find out that their rented apartment is haunted.

Culture Audience: “Room 203” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching formulaic horror movies that take too long to get to anything that can be considered “scary.”

Eric Wiegand and Francesca Xuereb in “Room 203” (Photo courtesy of Vertical Entertainment)

“Room 203” had the potential to be a better horror movie, but this uninspired clunker goes downhill into a quicksand of stereotypes about a home that’s haunted by an evil spirit. Some of the technical aspects of the movie, such as the production design and the musical score, are up to basic horror movie standards. However, the movie’s screenplay and pacing have too many areas that drag with monotony and unanswered questions. Any real scares don’t happen until the last third of the film, but these terror scenes are completely formulaic and look like ripoff versions of better horror movies.

Directed by Brian Jagger, “Room 203” is based on Nanami Kamon’s Japanese novel of the same name. Jagger, John Poliquin and Nick Richey wrote the “Room 203” screenplay. It’s yet another movie about people who find out their home is haunted, and they didn’t bother to get any background information about the place before they moved in.

Even after strange things start happening in the home, it takes too long for anyone in “Room 203” to do a basic Internet search to get background information about the place. Even worse: One of the residents who’s being haunted is an aspiring journalist. It just means that she’s got lousy investigative/research skills if she’s so slow to think about doing something as simple as an Internet search on the history of the home. Maybe she should think about finding another career instead of journalism.

“Room 203” is set in a fictional U.S. city called Quincy in an unnamed state. (“Room 203” was actually filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana.) Near the beginning of the movie, wannabe journalist Kim White (played by Francesca Xuereb), who’s in her late teens, is about to move in with her longtime best friend Izzy Davis (played by Viktoria Vinyarska), in their first apartment together. Izzy is an aspiring actress who is grieving over the death of her mother Liana, who passed away not too long ago from an accidental drug overdose.

Kim’s parents Samuel White (played by Patrick Kirton) and Ann White (played by Susan Kirton) are reluctantly driving Kim to this apartment. Samuel and Ann don’t approve of Izzy, because they think she’s a bad influence on Kim. In the car, Samuel warns Kim: “You’re making a big mistake.” Ann, who’s driving, chimes in: “You step out that door, don’t come back to us asking for help.” Izzy isn’t a bad person, but there are obvious signs that she abuses alcohol. It’s also revealed that after Izzy’s mother died, Izzy tried to commit suicide.

The movie opens with a scene that leaves no mystery whatsoever about what will happen to anyone who ends up in Room 203 in the apartment building where Kim and Izzy are going to live. It’s actually an unnecessary introduction because it foreshadows too much what will eventually happen in the movie. A young contractor employee named Chad (played by Jeroen Frank Kales) is renovating Room 203, when he notices that there’s a hole in the wall with plaster dripping down from it.

When he puts one of his hands in the hole, Chad has trouble pulling his hand out. When he does, it has a bloody scrape on it. He also finds a brass necklace hidden in this hole. Chad’s supervisor Bob (played by Terry J. Nelson) shows up and tells him something about this particular apartment unit: “The tenants never stay long, and that hole is always there.”

The supervisor continues, “I did hear this story. That cavity in the wall? It’s alive. It’s waiting. It’s hungry. And if you stare at it long enough, it becomes a glory hole.” He means the last sentence as a joke, but you can bet that the rest of what he said has some truth in it because this is a horror movie. Of course, Room 203 in this apartment is where Kim and Izzy will be living.

Later that evening, Chad gives the necklace to his girlfriend Lena (played by Cameron Inman), during a romantic nighttime rendezvous in Room 203, long after his co-workers have left for the day. Immediately after Chad puts the necklace on Lena, she starts making a choking sound. She then breaks a beer bottle nearby and uses the broken bottle to slit her throat, while a horrified Chad calls for help. Chad and Lena are never seen or mentioned in the movie again.

An untold number of days later, Izzy and Kim move in together at this cursed apartment. They meet their creepy middle-aged landlord Ronan (played by Scott Gremillion), who never cracks a smile, and he speaks to people in a condescending way. Ronan spends most of his screen time giving these two young women menacing looks when he’s seen lurking around. It makes it all the more obvious in this poorly written film that Ronan is probably up to no good.

Ronan tells these new tenants that the three of them are the only people who live on the floor, which he says is the last floor in the building to be renovated. Throughout the movie, no other tenants are seen in the building. Any sensible person in this living situation would want to find out why no one else is living in this very large building, but these dimwitted new residents never ask.

On the day that Izzy and Kim move into this building, Ronan does mention that it used to be a commerce building with a bank on the first floor, and the building’s other floors were converted to apartment units during the Great Depression. Ronan also barks out a list of apartment resident rules: No smoking, no loud noises after 9 p.m., no cats, no dogs. And residents absolutely cannot go in the basement. As soon as he says the rule about the basement, you just know that at some point in the movie, someone is going to break that rule.

Because Kim and Izzy have no credit history, Ronan also tells them that they have to pay all of their tenant expenses in cash, including the first and last month’s rent and a deposit for damages. This “cash only” policy is worth it to Kim and Izzy though, because this apartment is renting for a price they can afford. And the apartment comes fully furnished.

Room 203 has a large stained-glass window with religious imagery that depicts battle scenes. When Izzy walks over to touch the stained glass, Ronan angrily orders Izzy and Kim to never touch the stained glass because it’s a historical building, and there better not be any damages. And it’s yet another point in the movie where you know that rule will eventually be broken too. “Room 203” has absolutely no subtlety at all.

You know what happens next: After Kim and Izzy start living in Room 203, eerie and spooky things start to happen. Izzy finds the cursed necklace that caused Lena to kill herself. And before you know it, Izzy starts acting strange. More than once, Kim finds Izzy walking around in a daze, holding a circular music box that has figures of a man and a woman in a dance embrace inside the box. In one scene, while Izzy is in this trance, Kim finds Izzy with blood dripping down her forehead from a head wound.

Soon after moving in, Kim discovers the hole in the wall. She also starts to have nightmares about it, such as seeing a black bird flying out of the hole and coming to attack her. All of the “scares” in this movie are stereotypical and quite boring. Kim also appears to hear voices coming out of the hole in the wall, which eventually gets covered up with wallpaper. Not that it’s going to stop the obvious evil spirit lurking in the room.

“Room 203” drags the story out with a lot of scenes showing Kim and Izzy pursuing their career choices and meeting potential love interests. Soon after they become roommates, Kim and Izzy hang out at a bar, where they meet two guys who are a few years older: Steve (played by Sam A. Coleman) and Tony (played Quinn Nehr), who have a flirtatious conversation with Kim and Izzy.

However, Steve gets inappropriate when he starts rubbing Kim’s leg with his hand without her consent, and he ignores her request to stop. When Steve calls Kim a “bitch,” Izzy gets angry and punches Steve hard enough to knock him to the ground. Izzy, Tony and Kim then quickly leave the bar and go back to Izzy and Kim’s apartment.

Kim calls it a night and goes to bed. Tony and Izzy are attracted to each other, so they start kissing. Tony thinks it will lead to sex with Izzy, but she’s so drunk that she passes out. A disappointed Tony stays in the apartment and ends up in the bathroom, where out of nowhere, a knife gets plunged into his abdomen.

The next morning, Kim and Izzy don’t see Tony, so they both assume that he left the night before. There’s no sign of Tony’s blood in the bathroom, or no explanation for what happened to Tony’s dead body. Tony is never mentioned again in the movie. It’s an example of how substandard “Room 203” is when it comes to its screenplay.

Kim has enrolled as a journalism student at Quincy College of the Arts, where she meets a fellow student named Ian (played by Eric Wiegand), who is friendly, respectful and a little on the nerdy side. Ian is also a journalism major. He wants his specialty to be video journalism, while Kim wants to be a journalist with written work. Ian and Kim predictably start dating each other.

Meanwhile, Izzy (who’s openly bisexual or queer) meets a woman named Sandy (played by Bria Fleming) in a bar, and they start dating casually. Sandy just happens to be a casting agent assistant, so she helps Izzy land an audition. “Room 203” never actually shows Izzy doing this audition or going on any casting calls, but Izzy does mention to Kim what she’s doing to try to find work as an actress.

Another time-wasting subplot to the movie is when Kim gets a school assignment to do an analytical profile on someone, so she chooses to write about Izzy (without using Izzy’s name or asking Izzy’s permission) in an essay called “Those Left Behind” It’s a psychological profile of someone grieving the death of a loved one from an overdose. This essay has a lot of personal details about what Izzy is experiencing.

What does all of this have to do with the horror story? Almost nothing, but these are examples of how “Room 203” gets sidetracked with a lot of filler instead of focusing on what should have happened earlier in the movie: Kim finding out the history of Room 203 and why it appears to be haunted. The explanation is extremely unsurprising and underwhelming. It all just leads to a hokey showdown that looks like a mundane retread of other climactic scenes in dozens of other horror flicks.

The performances in “Room 203” range from average to unimpressively amateurish. Wiegand (who has the best acting skills in the movie) and Xuereb share some good scenes together, as Kim and Ian’s budding romance looks very believable. Xuereb and Vinyarska aren’t entirely convincing as longtime best friends Kim and Izzy, but that has a lot to do with some of the cringeworthy dialogue that the cast members have to say. As for Gremillion’s portrayal of the mysterious and perpetually scowling Ronan, it’s the worst performance in the movie. Gremillion’s acting (which alternates between being hammy and stiff) in “Room 203” is likely to elicit some unintended laughs from viewers at how Ronan looks constipated instead of terrifying.

“Room 203” isn’t a completely horrible movie. It just doesn’t do anything that’s original or very thrilling. The apartment basement is predictably dark, dingy and has flickering lights, which are really just strobe light effects. Places that are supposed to be “scary” are just poorly lit. Worst of all, the story behind the evil spirit is very muddled and vague. And it just makes “Room 203” a time-wasting horror disappointment when the movie never bothers to explain the origins of the demonic ghost that’s causing all of the terror.

Vertical Entertainment released “Room 203” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 15, 2022.

Review: ‘The Cursed’ (2022), starring Boyd Holbrook, Kelly Reilly and Alistair Petrie

April 3, 2022

by Carla Hay

Boyd Holbrook and Kelly Reilly in “The Cursed” (Photo courtesy of LD Entertainment)

“The Cursed” (2022)

Directed by Sean Ellis

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed English village in the late 1882, and briefly in France in 1917, the horror movie “The Cursed” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A small village in England is plagued by disappearances and murders that are being blamed on a possible werewolf. 

Culture Audience: “The Cursed” will appeal primarily to people interested in werewolf horror stories that have elements of intrigue and visual terror that are better than most horror films.

Amelia Crouch and Kelly Reilly in “The Cursed” (Photo courtesy of LD Entertainment)

“The Cursed” makes some unique and effective visual departures from a typical werewolf horror movie. The movie’s pace is sometimes sluggish, but the terror scenes more than make up for the film’s minor flaws. It’s not a movie that’s going to be considered the best horror film of the year, but “The Cursed” is very memorable and has the benefit of talented cast members who make their characters entirely believable.

Written and directed by Sean Ellis, “The Cursed” was originally titled “Eight for Silver” when it premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Although “The Cursed” is a very generic title that’s the name of several other horror movies, it’s actually a more accurate description of this movie’s plot than “Eight for Silver.” “The Cursed” has some gruesome violence that isn’t overly excessive. One of the best aspects of the movie is in how it builds suspense.

“The Cursed” opens with a scene taking place in France’s the Somme in 1917, during World War I. (History buffs might nitpick because World War I’s famous Battle of the Somme actually took place in 1916.) Soldiers wearing gas masks are in the battlefield trenches when they come under attack. Some of the wounded soldiers are then taken to a very chaotic medical tent. One of those soldiers, whose identity is revealed at the end of the film, undergoes emergency surgery, where a doctor extracts a large silver bullet from this soldier.

The movie than jumps to a scene taking place in an unknown country, where a middle-aged woman named Charlotte Laurent (played by Annabel Mullion) begins to tell a story about a life-changing experience that she had 35 years ago, in 1882, when she was about 14 or 15 years old. Most of “The Cursed” consists of Charlotte’s flashback memories to this point in time in her life.

The teenage Charlotte (played by Amelia Crouch) lives with her family in a very isolated small village, which does not have a name in the movie. And as is typical for a horror movie, this village is near a heavily wooded area. The village is presumably in England, since the residents have English accents, but there are a lot of people with French names in the village too. (“The Cursed” was actually filmed in France.)

Charlotte comes from a wealthy family whose patriarch, Seamus Laurent (played by Alistair Petrie), is a tyrant who’s used to getting what he wants. Seamus and his dutiful wife Isabelle Laurent (played by Kelly Reilly) are the parents of Charlotte and Edward (Max Mackintosh), who’s about 11 or 12 years old when this story takes place. They all live in a mansion that will soon become hub of supernatural and terrifying activities.

Seamus is not only a bully, but he’s also greedy and racist. In an early scene in the movie, he and several other men are having dinner at his home and conspire to take land away from the gypsies who are living in an outdoor camp on this property. Meanwhile, an unnamed gypsy woman (played by Pascale Becouze), who appears to be the gypsies’ spiritual leader, tells her tribe that a storm is coming. She says of an unnamed entity: “We have protected it for generations. It has protected us for generations.” Then she begins chanting.

It isn’t long before Seamus and his group of marauders invade the gypsy camp on horseback and armed with guns. A massacre occurs that will be very hard for sensitive viewers to watch. The gypsies who aren’t shot to death are captured, tortured, and murdered in other ways.

The gypsy leader has an unnamed male companion (played by Jicey Carina), who is a blacksmith. They both suffer the cruel fate of being tortured before dying. He is strung up like a scarecrow and hanged to death. She is thrown into a shallow grave and buried alive.

Before she is buried alive in this grave, Seamus and his men steal from her a denture mold of a human mouth that has silver teeth, because they want the silver. Of course, the gypsy woman is no ordinary spiritual leader. She is somehow connected to the supernatural, and she places a curse on the murderers who have massacred her tribe. And you know what that means in a horror movie.

Meanwhile, a pathologist named John McBride (played by Boyd Holbrook) has arrived in the village to investigate what appears to be a series of animal attacks. The villagers are starting to suspect that this is no ordinary animal but something supernatural and evil. John is a scientist whose beliefs about the supernatural evolve, based on what he experiences during his stay in this village. John is also a widower who has his own tragic story that’s eventually revealed.

Not long after this murder spree, Edward starts having nightmares of seeing the gypsy leader coming to attack him in the same field where she died. Edward has no idea about the terrible crimes his father Seamus has committed, so Edward is frightened and confused by what he’s seeing in his nightmares. The wives and children of the massacre killers also have no knowledge that these husbands and fathers have committed these heinous crimes.

One of these children is Timmy Adam (played by Tommy Rodger), who is about 11 or 12 years old. Timmy is the son of John Adam (played by Sean Mahon), one of the men involved in the gypsy massacre. One day, Timmy and Edward are outside playing when Timmy finds the denture mold with the silver teeth. Timmy then viciously bites Edward on the neck, while Charlotte (who is nearby and witnesses this attack) runs away to get help.

Edward is wounded, but it’s not fatal. The doctor treating Edward tells the Laurent family that the bite wound looks like Edward was attacked by a wild animal. The wound is infected, but the doctor gives some medicine to treat it. Not long after this bite attack, while Edward is bedridden during his recovery, Charlotte starts seeing strange things in Edward’s room at night, such as slimy creatures coming out of Edward while he’s in bed.

And then, Edward mysteriously disappears from the home without any of his family members seeing him leave. His family finds out that he’s missing the next morning, when they see that he’s nowhere in the house. Timmy has no memory of biting Edward, and he is among the villagers who participate in the frantic search for Edward. Edward’s disappearance leads to more people vanishing or being murdered in the village. And the murders seem to be coming from a wolf-like animal.

The rest of “The Cursed” shows the mystery behind what’s happening in this plagued village. The werewolf creature is not a typical hairy monster with fangs. The movie does some clever re-imagining of werewolf lore, in terms of how this creature looks and how it attacks. Fabien Houssaye, Carl Laforêt and Miko Abouaf are the three actors who portray this werewolf creature in “The Cursed.”

One of the best things about “The Cursed” is that it looks convincing as a story that takes place in the years that it takes place, due in large part to the authentic-looking production design and costume design. The most terrifying scenes in the movie are absolutely gripping. And although there are some predictable jump scares, not everything in the movie is formulaic.

“The Cursed” writer/director Ellis is also the movie’s cinematographer. He infuses the movie with a lot of brown and gray tones that make the movie look foreboding instead of drab. Likewise, the camera angles keep audiences feeling a certain tension that anything can happen, even when the movie’s pacing tends to slow down.

Holbrook and Reilly have the standout roles as John and Isabelle, because they are the adults in the story with the best moral compass. All of the cast members do well in their performances, but no one is going to be nominated for any major awards for this movie, whose dialogue can be a bit forgettable. “The Cursed” is a solid addition to werewolf movies that should satisfy most horror fans who like a horror film to have an intriguing mystery along with the frightening scenes.

LD Entertainment released “The Cursed” in U.S. cinemas on February 18, 2022. The movie was released on digital and VOD on March 15, 2022. “The Cursed” is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on May 10, 2022.

Review: ‘A Banquet,’ starring Sienna Guillory and Jessica Alexander

March 29, 2022

by Carla Hay

Jessica Alexander and Ruby Stokes in “A Banquet” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

“A Banquet”

Directed by Ruth Paxton

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in an unnamed part of England, the horror film “A Banquet” features a cast of predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A widow who’s raising two teenage daughters is alarmed when one of the daughters refuses to eat, but this daughter strangely doesn’t lose any weight after starving herself. 

Culture Audience: “A Banquet” will appeal primarily to people interested in horror movies that intersect body horror and science fiction, but be prepared for a slow-paced, clumsily conceived movie that doesn’t live up to its potential.

Sienna Guillory in “A Banquet” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

Using an eating disorder as a plot device for a horror movie is a slippery slope that “A Banquet” mishandles in uninspired ways, and it essentially sinks the movie. If you watch this disappointing film, be prepared to see a lot of repetitive scenes where a teenage girl acts spaced-out while she refuses to eat, but she doesn’t lose weight. It could have been an interesting metaphor for something artistically provocative, but the big “reveal” of why this teenager is acting so strangely is actually very underwhelming. “A Banquet” didn’t need an eating disorder angle, which comes across as a cheap gimmick to get attention for this movie.

Directed by Ruth Paxton and written by Justin Bull, “A Banquet” is Paxton’s feature-film directorial debut. The movie has recurring themes about mother-daughter relationships, but so much of how it’s presented in “A Banquet” comes across as very pretentious and phony, all because this movie is desperately trying to be a high-minded, artsy horror film. The movie also doesn’t adequately explore the impact that death and grieving can have on a family. Instead, the “A Banquet” becomes fixated on the eating disorder gimmick to try to make the movie’s horror mystery more interesting than it actually is.

In “A Banquet,” which takes place in an unnamed part of England, the central family suffers a devastating loss in the beginning of the movie. Holly Hughes (played by Sienna Guillory) is taking care of her terminally ill, bed-ridden husband Jason Hughes (played by Richard Keep) in a home-care setup in the family living room. The couple has two teenage daughters: rebellious Betsey Hughes (played by Jessica Alexander), who’s about 17 years old, and obedient Isabelle Hughes (played by Ruby Stokes), who’s about 16 years old.

Soon after Holly feeds her husband a meal, he dies. Isabelle witnesses this death too. The death is barely mentioned in the movie again, so there’s really not much context given on what kind of husband and father Jason was. There are also no flashbacks showing what his relationship was like with his wife and daughters.

Instead, the movie’s focus abruptly shifts to Betsey’s perspective. Viewers see that she’s met with a guidance counselor (played by Jonathan Nyati) at her school. The counselor suggests that Betsey take a “gap year,” since Betsey doesn’t know what she wants to do after she graduates from high school.

Betsey is then shown at a house party with other teenagers. She’s hanging out with three guys, who take out some white powder from a small plastic bag and chop out some lines to snort. They offer Betsey some of this unnamed drug. She snorts it, and immediately says that her nose feels like it’s burning. The guys laugh and tell Betsey that what she snorted is really powdered alcohol.

And then, things start to get weird. At this party, Betsey goes outside and collapses in the backyard. The camera then pans up, and something appears to leave Betsey’s body. She regains consciousness, but for the rest of the movie, Betsey often acts like she’s in a trance. She also starts to experience what seem like hallucinations, such as hearing incoherent noises coming from food that’s in a frying pan.

Meanwhile, more of Betsey’s “spacing out’ continues. Isabelle is involved in ice skating, so when Holly and Betsey watch Isabelle practice at a rink one day, Betsey goes into a complete trance, as if she can’t see or hear anything around her. It’s one of many incidents which cause her family members to question Betsey’s mental stability.

Betsey also refuses to eat. At her mother’s insistence, Betsey sees a doctor (played by Deka Walmsley) for a medical exam, because Holly suspects that Betsey has anorexia nervosa. Betsey tells the doctor, “My body shuts off. I haven’t really been eating. I just get nauseous around food since it started.”

What exactly is “it”? That question is answered at the end of the film, but Betsey keeps dropping hints that she thinks that she’s being summoned to do something important. Betsey also repeatedly goes to a wooded area, as if something is compelling her to go there.

As Betsey continues to go into trances and refuses to eat, her mother Holly becomes increasingly alarmed and angry. Meals at the family dining table become a battleground where Holly tries but fails to get Betsey to eat a full meal. If Betsey does manage to eat anything, it’s usually a very small bite, but it’s questionable if she swallows the food. Betsey’s friend Dominic (played by Kaine Zajaz) doesn’t seem to know what’s going on with Betsey either.

During all of this family turmoil, Holly’s mother June (played by Lindsay Duncan) comes over to the Hughes home for a visit. June doesn’t seem as upset as Holly is about what’s going on with Betsey. June tells Betsey, “We’ve all got problems, darling. Don’t be the show.” It’s at this point, it’s obvious that June knows more than she’s willing to tell at that particular time.

During a private conversation between Holly and June, where they are discussing Betsey, Holly says to June: “Are you suggesting that Betsey is possessed by a demon?” June then says to Holly: “Quite the opposite. I think Betsey has possessed this family—you most of all.”

Unfortunately, “A Banquet” has sluggish pacing that repeats the eating disorder/trance scenarios without furthering the story very well. The character development is non-existent, although June does provide some sarcastic quips from time to time that liven up the story. Isabelle and her thoughts and feelings are basically shunted to the side, almost rendering her as a useless character. By the end of the movie, viewers still won’t get a sense of who Isabelle is, other than being somewhat of a bystander in her own family.

“A Banquet” has some striking close-ups of food, which are intended to make viewers either feel hungry or sickened. Food is used in the movie as a symbol for earthly needs and primal desires on a human level. In one scene, Holly has a nightmare about seeing smeared food with teeth coming out of it. The movie’s cinematography from David Lidell is actually quite good, but “A Banquet” is truly a case of style over substance.

While watching “A Banquet,” viewers might ask themselves, “What does all of this mean? Where is this story going?” The answers and the payoff aren’t as rewarding as perhaps the filmmakers intended. The end result is a mostly boring horror movie that wastes a lot of time being more concerned with how scenes look, rather than viewers knowing enough about the characters to care about what happens to the people in the movie.

IFC Films/IFC Midnight released “A Banquet” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on February 18, 2022.

Review: ‘Morbius,’ starring Jared Leto

March 30, 2022

by Carla Hay

Jared Leto in “Morbius” (Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures)

“Morbius”

Directed by Daniel Espinosa

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in the New York City metropolitan area (and briefly in Costa Rica, Greece and Sweden), the horror/action film “Morbius” features a cast of predominantly white characters (with some African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A brilliant but illness-plagued biochemist named Dr. Michael Morbius finds the cure to diseases and death, but it comes at a price of becoming a superpowered vampire who craves human blood. 

Culture Audience: “Morbius” will appeal primarily to people interested in movies adapted from Marvel comic books, but the movie’s weak screenplay ultimately lowers the quality of this already-mediocre film.

Jared Leto and Adria Arjona in “Morbius” (Photo by Jay Maidment/Columbia Pictures)

“Morbius” works better as a horror movie than as a vampire superhero origin story that’s supposed to have a place in the “Spider-Man” franchise. “Morbius” has too many plot holes and not enough personality for it to ever be considered a classic superhero film. In fact, “Morbius” recycles so many familiar vampire clichés and action battle scenes, viewers will feel like they’ve already seen the movie before it even ends.

And so, what’s a stereotypical movie to do when it doesn’t have a lot of new ideas to offer? It usually has to rely on the charisma of the cast members to engage viewers in a way that will make audiences feel personally invested in what happens to the characters. But that charisma is mostly lacking in “Morbius,” which has a very talented cast that is limited by uninspired dialogue that renders their characters as nothing more than generic and hollow. “Morbius” was directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless.

That’s not to say that “Morbius” is a complete waste of time. The movie’s visual effects, although not spectacular, still get the job done well enough that they look convincing in most parts of the film. And the acting isn’t terrible. The performances in “Morbius” just are not up to the memorable standards they could be for audiences who have become used to superhero movies where the main characters have strong and distinctive personalities.

Even as an origin story, “Morbius” falls flat. Dr. Michael Morbius (played by Jared Leto), a brilliant biochemist, is first seen in Costa Rica with a team of people, as he entices a cave full of bats out of the cave, by taking a knife and using it to slice the palm of his hand with a superficial wound that draws blood. Considering that bats wouldn’t just swarm out of a cave because they saw or smelled a human being’s bleeding hand, this scene is supposed to show these are no ordinary bats. They’re vampire bats.

“Morbius” then abruptly cuts to a flashback that takes place 25 years earlier in Greece. Michael (played by Charlie Shotwell), at the age of about 12 or 13, is in a children’s ward of a hospital when he gets a shy new roommate who’s about the same age. The newcomer’s name is Lucien Crown (played by Joseph Esson), although Michael insists on calling him Milo. This new roommate quickly goes along with being called by this new name, with the implication being that he’s got self-esteem issues and is desperate for a new identity. Milo uses crutches to walk and needs a machine to help him breathe.

The two boys have health problems that mostly confine them to their rooms, so they know what it’s like to feel like outcasts. From their hospital window, Michael and Milo can see bratty schoolboys, who are about the same age, taunting them for having health issues. Milo asks Michael after one of these tauntings: “What would you do if you could be normal for just one hour?” Michael curtly answers, “I don’t think about it.”

Milo and Michael become fast friends, with Michael being the more assertive and confident of the two. Michael tells Milo that they’re both in this hospital because they have the same blood disease and because “there’s something missing from our DNA,” so they are undergoing experiments. A scientist named Dr. Emil Nicholas (played by Jared Harris) is the leader of these experiments.

Dr. Nicholas is kind and paternal to Michael and Milo. Where are these boys’ parents or other family members? The movie never answers that question. However, people familiar with Morbius from Marvel Comics already know that Milo comes from a wealthy family, while Morbius was raised by a single mother. The Morbius in this movie never talks about his family or anything else about his background.

One day, Michael saves Milo’s life. When Milo’s breathing machine malfunctions, and Milo loses consciousness, Michael is able to quickly solve the problem. He fixes the machine by removing a tiny spring of coiled wire. Dr. Nicholas is so impressed with Michael’s problem-solving skills, he tells Michael that Michael will be sent to a school for gifted children.

Before Michael leaves, he writes a letter to Milo in which he promises that they will see each other again. Soon after Michael leaves, Milo is outside and being harassed by some of the bullies who have found Milo carrying this letter. The harassment turns into an assault that’s halted when Dr. Nicholas comes to Milo’s rescue.

The movie then flash-forwards to the present day. An adult Dr. Morbius is on stage in Sweden and about to receive the Nobel Prize. At this point in his life, he uses arm braces to walk. While a Nobel Prize official makes an introductory speech, it’s mentioned that Morbius was a prodigy who completed his doctorate at the age of 19. Viewers never get to see what happens next, but it’s described in the next scene.

“Morbius” then makes an abrupt time shift once again. He’s now back in New York City, where he lives. Morbius works at a hospital and has built a scientific lab on a cargo ship, where he can do his top-secret experiments. While attending to a patient—a girl named Anna (played by Zaris-Angel Hator), who’s about 9 or 10 years old—she says to him, “I can’t believe you dissed the king and queen of Sweden.” Morbius then makes an anti-monarchist comment in response.

What happened on the way to Morbius getting a Nobel Prize? A newspaper headline reveals that he refused the prize, after going to all the trouble of being at the ceremony. This was a missed opportunity for the filmmakers to show Morbius having an irreverent, maybe mischievous side that made Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Tony Stark/Iron Man so fun to watch for many fans of superhero movies. Unfortunately, what happened on that Nobel Prize stage stayed on that Nobel Prize stage, only to leave it up to viewers’ imagination what kind of uproar Morbius caused at that event.

Morbius’ closest colleague is Dr. Martine Bancroft (played by Adria Arjona), who is more cautious than Morbius is, when it comes to his radical experiments. She warns him that she knows he’s doing experiments that mix good DNA and bad DNA, and he could lose his medical license if authorities found out. Morbius is undeterred by Martine’s concerns. Martine later becomes Morbius’ obvious potential love interest, even though Leto and Arjona have little to no romantic chemistry together.

Meanwhile, Morbius’ former childhood friend Milo (played by Matt Smith) and Dr. Nicholas are both in New York City too. Milo (who is now a flashy extrovert, in contrast to how introverted he was as a child) is eager to get the same serum that Morbius has been working on to cure them both of their blood diseases. Morbius tells Milo that he can’t have any of the serum until Morbius tests it on himself first. You know where this is going, of course.

Because “Morbius” is a comic-book movie, viewers have to suspend disbelief that within this hospital, Morbius works in a lab with a large cylindrical cage full of bats. It’s implied that these are the same bats that Morbius got in Costa Rica. Morbius wants to see if he can solve his health problems by infusing his DNA with bat DNA in a serum, so that Morbius can not only eliminate his illnesses, he can also possibly live forever. Try to read that without laughing.

A trial test on a mouse proves to be successful. And the next thing you know, Morbius and Martine are on the cargo ship off of the coast of Long Island, so she can inject him with the serum. Why have the lab on a cargo ship, which is out in the open and would put it on the radar of the U.S. Coast Guard or other entities that monitor sea vessels? Don’t expect an answer for that either.

It’s all just a way for Morbius to end up killing people when the serum experiment goes very wrong, and he finds out that he has become a homicidal vampire who craves human blood. A massacre ensues that leaves eight people dead on the ship, with Morbius and Martine as the only survivors. Martine’s injuries (she was knocked down by one of the ship’s crew members) leave her recovering in a hospital. It won’t be the last time she gets seriously injured in this movie.

Meanwhile, the formerly sickly-looking Morbius finds out he’s now healthy with an athletic physique and superpowers, but he’s also a vampire who now craves human blood. Morbius is horrified and deeply ashamed of what he’s become, and he wants to make things right by trying to reverse the serum. However, he’s the main suspect in the cargo ship massacre, so he goes into hiding. And where does this fugitive go when authorities are looking for him? Right back to his workplace, where no one seems to notice that he no longer has to use braces to walk.

Two agents from the FBI are hot on Morbius’ trail: Simon Stroud (played by Tyrese Gibson) and Alberto Ramirez (played by Al Madrigal), whose names are not Mutt and Jeff, even though they act like Mutt and Jeff stereotypes. Agent Stroud is the stoic, no-nonsense type. Agent Ramirez is the goofy, nervous type. Agents Stroud and Ramirez are assigned to the FBI’s Department of Enhanced Individuals.

That’s why these FBI agents don’t really seem shocked when Morbius is brought in for questioning, and he starts to partially transform into a vampire right in front of them. Agent Ramirez brings holy water to protect himself in this interrogation, while Agent Stroud somewhat scoffs at Agent Ramirez’s fear of vampires. It’s enough to say that Morbius’ stint in a detention center is short-lived, and he goes on the run again.

The rest of “Morbius” is essentially a “vampire on the loose” story, with the FBI trying to capture Morbius, who gets blamed for some more vampire murders that he did not commit. The movie falters in how certain fights involving Morbius (such as a major brawl that happens in a subway station) are treated as everyday occurrences and certainly not investigated adequately by law enforcement that has launched a massive manhunt (or is it vampire hunt?) for Morbius. But viewers can’t really take this “massive manhunt” seriously when Agents Stroud and Ramirez are the only FBI officials who seem to be available to show up and investigate the vampire crime scenes.

The action sequences in “Morbius” liven up an otherwise dull storyline that lacks originality. Smith seems to be having some campy fun in his role as the adult Milo. Leto has done much better work elsewhere, although “Morbius” certainly isn’t his worst movie. The rest of the cast members are serviceable in their average roles.

Two mid-credits scenes tease Morbius’ involvement with a character who was in 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming.” Who this character is not a secret, but it won’t be mentioned in this review anyway, so as not to spoil the surprise for viewers who don’t know. Spider-Man and Venom both get briefly mentioned in “Morbius.” It’s enough to say, based on what the underwhelming “Morbius” has to offer, any future “Morbius” movies—just like many other superhero movies—might have to rely on Spider-Man to bring more excitement to the story.

Columbia Pictures will release “Morbius” in U.S. cinemas on April 1, 2022.

Review: ‘Hypochondriac’ (2022), starring Zach Villa

March 22, 2022

by Carla Hay

Zach Villa in “Hypochondriac” (Photo by Dustin Supencheck/XYZ Films)

“Hypochondriac” (2022)

Directed by Addison Heimann

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Hypochondriac” features a cast of white, Latino and African American characters representing the working-class middle-class.

Culture Clash: A pottery maker is haunted by his traumatic childhood in ways that begin to affect his relationship with his boyfriend. 

Culture Audience: “Hypochondriac” will appeal primarily to people in horror movies that explore themes of mental illness and generational trauma.

Zach Villa in “Hypochondriac” (Photo by Dustin Supencheck/XYZ Films)

Although it can get a little repetitive, “Hypochondriac” skillfully shows the blurred lines between psychological horror and mental illness. The movie’s plot is fairly simple, but the striking and often horrifying visuals in the movie will leave an impact. “Hypochondriac” is the feature-film debut of writer/director Addison Heimann, who shows promise as a filmmaker who can craft stories and characters that hold people’s interest. “Hypochondriac” had its world premiere at the 2022 South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival.

In “Hypochondriac,” which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, the opening scene shows a mentally ill woman (played by Marlene Forte) having paranoid delusions in her home. She looks frantically out of the window, because she thinks people are out to get her. And then, this unnamed mother turns hostile toward her only child—a 12-year-old son named Will (played by Ian Inigo)—and she accuses him of “being in collusion with them.” After Will denies her accusation, she does something horrifying: She tries to kill him by strangling him.

Later, another incident that’s not shown in the movie involves this mother, a knife and a lot of blood in the house’s kitchen. Viewers find out that this incident is the one that caused the mother to be sent to a psychiatric facility. Will’s unnamed father (played by Chris Doubek) tells Will that Will’s mother has been taken away to get psychiatric help, and he orders Will to not look in the kitchen until it can be cleaned up. But, of course, Will does look in the kitchen. And he sees that it’s a blood-splattered mess.

“Hypochondriac” then fast-forwards 18 years later. Will (played by Zach Villa), who is openly gay, is now a pottery maker for a small company that caters to upscale clients. He seems to be fairly happy, and he has settled into a loving relationship with his boyfriend Luke (played by Devon Graye), who is as laid-back as Will is neurotic. Will and Luke (who is an AIDS counselor) have been dating each other for the past eight months.

Will has been guarded with Luke about his past. But things happen in the movie that cause Will to open up to Luke about the childhood trauma that still haunts him. Will also has a co-worker named Sasha (played by Yumarie Morales), who is a sassy friend, but she has her own personal struggles too. There’s a scene in the movie where Sasha has a panic attack, and Will helps her get through it.

It isn’t long before Will’s seemingly stable life starts to unravel. He gets mysterious headaches. Then he seems to be having random fainting spells. Throughout the story, Will visits a series of clinic doctors and other medical professionals, who can’t find anything that’s physically wrong with him. Michael Cassidy has a satirical cameo role as a nurse practitioner named Chaz, who insists on being called “NP Chaz” and who gives off-the-cuff, incompetent diagnoses.

Will also starts getting phone calls from his mother, whom he does not want to hear from at all. His mother repeatedly warns him not to trust Luke. She also leaves a lot of rambling messages on Will’s voice mail. And there are recurring visions of someone dressed in a wolf costume that have to do with Will’s Halloween memories from when he was a child.

It’s very easy to tell at a certain point in the movie how much is reality and how much is a hallucination. Thanks largely to Villa’s riveting performance and the engrossing direction of the movie, the entire journey of “Hypochondriac” is a harrowing ride that takes viewers into the mind of an increasingly disturbed person. “Hypochondriac” has an ending that might not satisfy some viewers, but it realistically shows how mental illness remains with people throughout their lives and isn’t like a nightmare that goes away when someone wakes up.

UPDATE: XYZ Films will release “Hypochondriac” in select U.S. cinemas on July 29, 2022. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on August 4, 2022.

Review: ‘Umma’ (2022), starring Sandra Oh

March 18, 2022

by Carla Hay

Fivel Stewart and Sandra Oh in “Umma” (Photo by Saeed Adyani/Stage 6 Films)

“Umma” (2022)

Directed by Iris K. Shim

Some language in Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed part of the U.S., the horror film “Umma” features a cast of Asian and white characters representing the working-class ad middle-class.

Culture Clash: A single mother, who works as a beekeeper/honey merchant, is haunted by memories of her abusive mother. 

Culture Audience: “Umma” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Sandra Oh, whose talent is wasted in this boring and predictable horror movie.

Tom Yi and Sandra Oh in “Umma” (Photo by Saeed Adyani/Stage 6 Films)

In the forgettable and formulaic horror flick “Umma,” the main character is a beekeeper with mother issues. Bees in a hive have more purpose and intelligence (and can scare more people) than this silly mess of a film. So much of “Umma” is a waste: A waste of a talented cast. A waste of a potentially good idea for a horror story. And a waste of time to anyone who watches this disappointing flop.

Written and directed by Iris K. Shim, “Umma” gets its title from the Korean word for “mother.” That’s because “mother issues” are at the center of a Korean American family haunted by abuse. “Umma” takes place in an unnamed part of the U.S. but was actually filmed in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

In “Umma,” Amanda (played by Sandra Oh) is the only child of Korean immigrants, who are now deceased. Amanda is a single mother to a daughter named Chris (played by Fivel Stewart), nicknamed Chrissy, who’s about 17 years old. Amanda is a beekeeper/honey maker who owns a small business called Chrissy’s Honey Bees, where Amanda and Chris are the only workers.

Most of their honey is sold online, with help from Amanda’s friend Danny (played by Dermot Mulroney), who owns a hardware store not too far away and who manages the website and social media for Chrissy’s Honey Bees. Business has recently been doing so well for Chrissy’s Honey Bees, many of the products are selling out. Danny tells Amanda that she might have to hire more people to help her keep up with customer demand.

Later in the movie, it’s revealed that Amanda started this business only because Chris became obsessed with bees, and Amanda wanted a way to have a closer bond with her daughter. Amanda previously had a less risky and more financially stable job as an accountant, and she had to overcome her fear of bees to start this business. Because of this personal sacrifice, Amanda expects Chris to work with her in the business as long as possible.

Amanda is extremely protective and controlling of Chris, who has been homeschooled her entire life and has no friends. Chris’ father is never seen or mentioned in the movie, and he’s never been involved in raising her. Later in the movie, when someone asks Amanda where her husband is, she replies defiantly that she’s never felt the need to have a husband.

Amanda is deeply fearful of electrical appliances and distrustful of modern technology—so much so that she doesn’t allow Chris to have a smartphone. Chris has to make do with an outdated mobile flip phone. And needless to say, there are no TVs or computers in their house, which is an isolated, rural area. Of course it’s in a remote area. This is a horror movie, but the scares in “Umma” are underwhelming.

The opening scene of “Umma” shows why Amanda has a fear of electrical appliances: As a child, Amanda’s domineering mother would physically abuse her with heated electrical wires. This abuse is not shown in graphic detail in the movie’s flashbacks, but enough is shown for viewers to know what’s happening. Hana Marie Kim portrays Amanda as a child in these flashbacks.

Amanda’s family history is revealed in bits and pieces through conversations and flashbacks. Amanda’s parents had a happy marriage until they moved from Korea to the United States. Amanda’s mother (played by MeeWha Alana Lee) became depressed and difficult to the point where Amanda’s father couldn’t take it anymore, and he abandoned his wife and daughter. (Amanda’s father is never shown in the movie.)

Amanda’s mother then became increasingly paranoid that Amanda would leave her. In the flashback shown in the movie’s opening scene, a young Amanda can be heard wailing in fear, “Umma, I promise I won’t run away again,” before she can be heard screaming as her mother inflicts some violent abuse on her. Expect to see several scenes of Amanda waking up from nightmares.

You know where all of this is going, of course. Amanda is afraid that she’ll end up just like her mother. Amanda has lied to Chris about her family background, by telling Chris that she was raised by two people named Gloria and Bill, who died before Chris was born. The movie shows whether or not Chris finds out the truth. Amanda is also upset that Chris intends to apply for admission to West Mesa University, which is in another state.

In the meantime, Amanda unexpectedly gets a visit from someone she doesn’t want to see: Her mother’s brother (played by Tom Yi), who does not have a name in the movie. However, he knows Amanda by her Korean birth name: Soo-Hyun, which is a name that Amanda hasn’t used since her very unhappy childhood.

What’s the reason for this unannounced visit from Amanda’s uncle? After he scolds her for not being in touch with the family and for making it difficult to find her, he tells Amanda that Amanda’s mother died a few months earlier. He’s there to deliver a small trunk that has her mother’s ashes and several of her mother’s most treasured belongings. One of these items is a Hahoetal, which is a Korean death mask.

It’s at this point in the movie that you know the ghost of Amanda’s mother will begin haunting Amanda’s home and the surrounding property. But does this ghost really exist? Or is she a figment of Amanda’s imagination? The movie wastes a lot of time with predictable jump scares in a weak attempt to confuse viewers over what’s real and what might be Amanda’s delusions.

And it should come as no surprise that it’s yet another horror movie where the main character’s mental stability is questioned because this person claims to be seeing an evil spirit. But what other people see is Amanda having blackouts while sometimes wearing her mother’s clothes. And predictably, Amanda becomes increasingly disturbed.

There’s nothing truly scary or unpredictable about anything that’s presented in “Umma.” Yes, there are violent attack scenes and people screaming when things get out of control, but too much of it is shown in a very stale manner that’s been done many times already in better horror movies. And for a movie that takes place mostly on a beekeeping farm, there’s surprisingly very little use of the bees in the movie’s terror scenes.

“Umma” has a somewhat time-wasting subplot about Chris becoming friendly with Danny’s teenage niece River (played by Odeya Rush), who gives Chris confidence-boosting pep talks about how it’s okay to be a weirdo and a misfit. Unfortunately, everyone in the movie, except for complicated and confused Amanda, is written as bland, two-dimensional characters. The movie also badly mishandles mental health issues.

The technical aspects of “Umma” are competent, except for an almost laughable visual-effects scene involving a very fake-looking fox with multiple tails. This creature is supposed to be terrifying, but looks like it belongs in a kiddie cartoon, not a horror movie. And with the manifestation of Amanda’s mother, “Umma” tritely uses the Hahoetal death mask as a symbol for how people sometimes hide their true selves from the world, since it’s implied that Amanda’s mother was able to keep her child abuse crimes a secret.

“Umma” missed some big opportunities to have quality depictions of generational trauma. The movie also has a very limited view of Korean heritage, which is mostly used in “Umma” as a plot device to invoke fear in the characters. “Umma” is just a series of half-baked jump scares and underdeveloped characters, with a rushed ending that leaves some important questions unanswered and audiences feeling like “Umma” is a just another ripoff horror movie.

Stage 6 Films released “Umma” in U.S. cinemas on March 18, 2022.

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