Tag: horror

Review: ‘Amulet,’ starring Alec Secareanu, Carla Juri and Imelda Staunton

July 24, 2020

by Carla Hay

Alec Secareanu and Carla Juri in “Amulet” (Photo by Rob Baker Ashton/Magnet Releasing)

“Amulet” 

Directed by Romola Garai

Culture Representation: Taking place in England and unnamed European countries in unspecified modern time periods, the horror film “Amulet” has an almost all-white cast of characters representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash:  A former soldier-turned-Ph.D. philosophy student takes a job in London as a live-in handyman in a creepy house that’s occupied by a young woman and her mysterious mother, who lives as a recluse in the house’s attic.

Culture Audience: “Amulet” will appeal primarily to people who like horror movies that excel in creating a foreboding atmosphere, but makes viewers watch a lot of extremely slow-paced scenes to get to the movie’s underlying messages and plot twists.

Imelda Staunton in “Amulet” (Photo by Rob Baker Ashton/Magnet Releasing)

The horror film “Amulet” (written and directed by Romola Garai) makes a bold effort to flip a lot of tropes and shatter a lot of stereotypes that are seen all too often in psychological thrillers. But in doing so, the movie’s execution falls short of being completely engaging, since it’s bogged down by extremely slow pacing. And making matters worse, several parts of the movie have dialogue and reactions that are so simple-minded, it makes you question the intelligence of the Ph. D. student who’s one of the movie’s main characters.

People who hate movies that have flashbacks that might be confusing, be warned: “Amulet” is full of these types of flashbacks. The gist of the story is that there’s a former war soldier from an unnamed continental European country who has ended up in a haunted house in London. The movie never states what war he was in, but he keeps having nightmare flashbacks to that war, where he worked for a time as a lone soldier manning a checkpoint booth on a very deserted road in a wooded area.

The former soldier’s name is Tomaz (played by Alec Secareanu), and somehow he’s ended up in England, where he’s enrolled in a doctorate program for philosophy. Tomaz (who has a beard in the present day) keeps having nightmares about his time as a soldier, when he didn’t have a beard. (It’s one of the ways that the movie distinguishes between the past and the present.)

Tomaz’s nightmares are shown as flashbacks in non-chronological order, so viewers have to piece together the puzzle of this story. It might be a challenge for viewers who have short attention spans or who are watching this often-dull movie with other distractions.

The most important things to know about the flashbacks are that while Tomaz was a soldier, he found an amulet buried in the woods, and he got to know a woman in distress whom he met when she ran to the checkpoint and collapsed in front of him. The checkpoint is located in the same wooded area where Tomaz found the amulet.

The woman’s name is Miriam (played by Angeliki Papoulia), and when Tomaz first saw her running toward the checkpoint, he yelled at her to stop and that if she didn’t stop, he was going to shoot. Just as Tomaz raised his gun to shoot her, she collapsed in front of him. It’s shown in flashbacks that after Miriam regained consciousness with Tomaz’s help, they began having conversations and he became her protector, since she apparently needed food and shelter.

Flash forward to the present day. While Tomaz has been working on his dissertation in London, he’s ended up living with some homeless people in an abandoned church. A fire breaks out at the church, so the homeless people scatter.

The next thing you know, a bloodied Tomaz is being treated at a hospital. A nurse asks him, “Who tied you up?” He replies, “Friends. It was a joke.” Tomaz then mentions that he had a bag with him but it’s now missing.

The nurse tells him that Tomaz needs to speak to the orderly, who has the bag and a message for him. While on his way to retrieve his bag, Tomas passes by a room where he sees a pregnant woman sitting on a floor, and she’s crying out in pain because she’s in labor. The only purpose of this deliberately confusing scene is to set the tone for themes of some very female-centric pain that’s shown later in the story.

Why is Tomaz homeless? The movie might answer that question, but in the meantime, Tomaz finds a new place to live when a nun from the local diocese, who knows that Tomaz was one of the squatters in the burned church, tells him about a house that needs a live-in handyman.

The nun’s name is Sister Claire (played by Imelda Staunton), and she tells Tomaz that the people in the house are offering free room and board in exchange for him doing repairs and renovations. And because this is a horror movie, you can bet that some very bad things are going to happen in this house.

The cottage-styled house looks quaint and charming on the outside, but on the inside there’s a lot of emotional rot and turmoil. There are two people who live in the house: Magda (played by Carla Juri), a woman in her 20s and her unnamed mother (played by Anah Ruddin), who lives as an ailing recluse upstairs in the attic. The mother can often be heard moaning in pain, and Tomaz tries to avoid being in contact with her as much as possible.

As Tomaz gets to know Magda, he begins to see that she is a very naïve, sheltered and passive woman. She says she hasn’t traveled outside of the city, nor does she show an interest in traveling or going outside her comfort zone. And there are signs that she doesn’t have much experience with romance or dating.

But what disturbs Tomaz the most is that Magda’s mother appears to be physically abusing Magda. (He sees Magda secretly covering her bruises and possible bite marks with bandages.) And Tomaz is also starting to get creeped out by strange things that are happening in the house.

He finds a mysterious white bat-like creature in the bathroom toilet, which is filled with a disgusting dark liquid. Tomaz kills the creature by stomping on it. Magda is there too, but she oddly doesn’t seem as frightened by this bat-like creature in the same way as Tomaz.

And when Tomaz does some ceiling repairs, he sees (or is it hallucinates?) that the ceiling has engravings that look a lot like the engravings on the amulet he found in the woods. It startles him so much that falls off a ladder while he’s looking at the ceiling. Tomaz believes that the engravings are to ward off evil spirits.

Magda doesn’t see a lot of the same things in the house that Tomaz does, so he begins to wonder if he’s going crazy. Tomaz has also seen what Magda’s mother looks like, and she’s decrepit-looking old woman who would be a stereotypical example of what a witch is supposed to look like. Is it any wonder that Tomaz thinks that maybe Magda’s mother is behind some of the eerie things that he’s experiencing in the house?

Tomaz tells his suspicions to Sister Claire and says that he thinks Magda’s mother doesn’t want him in the house. The nun replies: “What we want isn’t always what we need.” At least once during the story, Tomaz threatens to quit.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Tomaz and Magda starts to become more emotionally intimate. It’s obvious that she wants something sexual to happen between them. However, Tomaz is very resistant and tries to let Magda down easy without insulting her. (After all, she’s technically one of his bosses.)

Unfortunately, the Magda character is written in such a simple-minded way, that the conversations she has with Tomaz are excruciating to watch. Magda says things like this to Tomaz about his soldier past: “Did you kill people? It’s a sin to waste your life.” And when the emotionally stunted Magda starts to show a romantic interest in Tomaz, it’s like watching an adolescent girl trying to be sexually attractive to a grown man. Very cringeworthy.

Sister Claire is an interesting character (and Staunton is by far the best actor in this cast), but she isn’t in the movie enough to bring more energy to this often-listless story. Because “Amulet” is told from Tomaz’s perspective, he spends most of the movie being confused about what’s going on in the house while dealing with his nightmare flashbacks that appear to seep into his current life. Therefore, viewers have to figure out what might be “real” and what might be a “delusion.”

“Amulet” is the first feature film for Garai as a writer/director. She is also known as an actress who’s appeared in British TV series such as “The Hour” and the 2009 miniseries adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Emma,” which starred Garai in the title role. Most of the actors in “Amulet” are well-cast in this movie, except for Juri, who gives a very annoying performance.

Although the production design, cinematography, visual effects and cinematography suit this horror film very well, the weak links are the movie’s screenplay, editing and overall direction. The characters often speak with long pauses, which might work for a play on stage. But this is a horror movie, and lethargic dialogue and sluggish pacing are antidotes to the type of suspense that’s crucial for any good horror flick.

“Amulet” certainly deserves a lot of credit for having some twist-filled elements that add intrigue to the story. It’s too bad that these plot twists arrive so late in the film, that a lot of bored viewers might stop watching the movie before getting to the film’s shock-intended conclusion.

Magnet Releasing released “Amulet” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on July 24, 2020.

Review: ‘The Rental’ (2020), starring Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White

July 24, 2020

by Carla Hay

Dan Stevens, Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White in “The Rental” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

“The Rental”  (2020)

Directed by Dave Franco

Culture Representation: Taking place in Oregon and in California, the horror flick “The Rental” features a predominantly white cast (with one character of Middle Eastern heritage) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash:  Two couples rent a cliffside vacation home for a weekend and find themselves spied on and stalked by a mysterious stranger.

Culture Audience: “The Rental” will appeal primarily to people who like suspenseful yet formulaic slasher flicks that have better-than-average acting.

Alison Brie in “The Rental” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films)

It might not be a widely known fact, but the 2020 horror film “The Rental” (directed by Dave Franco) has a coincidentally similar plot to the 2019 horror film “The Rental,” directed by Tim Connolly. Both movies are about two men and two women who rent a house for a weekend, only to become targets of a deranged killer. (In Connolly’s “The Rental,” the house is in the mountains, while in Franco’s “The Rental,” the house is perched on a treacherous oceanside cliff.)

Franco’s “The Rental” has gotten more attention than Connolly’s “The Rental” because it’s Franco’s feature-film directorial debut, after he’s spent years as an actor best known for co-starring in movies such as “Neighbors,” “21 Jump Street” and “The Disaster Artist.” Franco isn’t an actor in “The Rental,” but he’s one of the producers, and he co-wrote the screenplay with independent film veteran Joe Swanberg.

“The Rental” doesn’t have an original concept—there have been numerous horror movies about a killer who goes after people in an isolated house—but the movie does have above-average acting talent in its very sparsely populated cast. The actors make the best out of their roles in a movie that starts out as a psychological drama and then ends up being a formulaic horror film.

In Franco’s “The Rental,” a sleek but isolated cliffside home in an unnamed Oregon city has been rented for a weekend so that two couples can celebrate a recent milestone. Ambitious alpha male Charlie (played by Dan Stevens) and his intelligent business partner Mina Mohamnadi (played by Sheila Vand) have just received a great deal of investor money (the movie doesn’t say how much) to fund their start-up company in northern California. (The movie also doesn’t say what is the company’s industry.)

Mina is dating Charlie’s troubled younger brother Josh (played by Jeremy Allen White), while Charlie is married to loving and supportive Michelle (played by Alison Brie, who is married to Franco in real life). They all live far-enough away in California from the rental house in Oregon, that their road trip takes several hours to get there.

The dynamics between these two couples are established early on in the story, so viewers know about the underlying tensions in the relationships. Before they go on their road trip, Charlie and Michelle discuss Mina and Josh’s fairly new romance. It’s not stated in the movie exactly how long Charlie and Michelle have been married, but they’ve been together for about five to eight years, based on conversations that happen later in the film.

In a private conversation in their bedroom, Michelle remarks to Charlie that she can’t believe she’s going on a vacation with Josh. Charlie makes a cynical remark that the relationship between Mina and Josh probably won’t last because Charlie thinks Josh and Mina are a mismatched couple. Michelle is more optimistic and says that Josh seems “motivated” now that he’s been dating Mina, whom she calls “the total package.”

Why is there all of this negativity about Josh? It’s because he’s been struggling to get his life together after being an aimless troublemaker. He got expelled from college for nearly beating a guy to death in front of a frat house, and Josh spent time in prison for this assault. Josh is currently working as a part-time Lyft driver while taking some night classes.

Michelle comments on how Josh’s romance with Mina seems to have changed him for the better: “I’ve never seen him like this. He really loves her. I think it’s sweet.” Charlie replies, “Of course he loves her. He hit the fucking jackpot.” And why does Charlie think Mina is such a great catch?

The opening scene of the film shows Charlie and Mina (who is the CEO of her and Charlie’s start-up company) in their office, looking at house rentals on the same computer. They are on a website that is not named, but it’s clearly a website that is like Airbnb, the popular online company that allows home owners to be their own real-estate agents in deciding which of the website’s registered members will get to rent out their homes. The cliffside house, which is Charlie and Mina’s first choice, is a little of out their price range, but Charlie and Mina decide to reward themselves by splurging on the rental.

Based on their comfortable body language with each other (they’re leaning in to look at the computer closely together) and based on how they’re talking, it would be easy to assume that Charlie and Mina are a couple. Does this mean there’s some sexual tension between Charlie and Mina? Of course there is. And maybe that’s why Charlie thinks Mina is too good for his younger brother Josh, who has a history of being an ill-tempered screw-up.

It seems that Josh is still a bit of a rebel who likes to break rules. When Charlie and Michelle go to pick up Mina and Josh for their road trip, they see that Josh has brought his French bulldog Reggie along for the trip, even though Josh knows that the house’s rental policy clearly states that pets aren’t allowed in the house. Charlie (who’s doing the driving, of course) immediately objects to the dog going on the trip.

However, Josh insists that the dog go with them, and he says that they can hide the dog until after the person handing them the house keys will leave. Because Charlie doesn’t want to waste time arguing about it, he lets Josh have his way, and the dog goes with them on the trip.

During the drive to the rental house, Mina comments that her application to rent the house was rejected, even though she has practically the same qualifications as Charlie, whose application was accepted immediately. She thinks that her Middle Eastern name had something to do with the rejection, but Charlie dismisses the idea.

“The Rental” has some obvious messages about racism, sexism and “white privilege” by showing viewers how Mina and Charlie have very two different perspectives on how they navigate through life, based on how people treat them. Mina is very aware that being a woman of Middle Eastern descent means that bigots will exclude her from opportunities and make negative assumptions about her, while Charlie is more likely to be given opportunities and a positive benefit of the doubt because he’s a white man.

The movie makes it clear that Charlie is someone who doesn’t like to acknowledge that “white privilege” exists, because that would mean admitting that he has an unfair advantage over people of color in many situations where he benefits from people who believe in white supremacy. Someone like Charlie gets uncomfortable thinking that opportunities and accomplishments might have come his way a lot easier than for people of color who are equally or more qualified than he is.

Therefore, when Mina brings up the likelihood that she was discriminated against, Charlie doesn’t really want to hear it. Mina tells everyone in the car that she was rejected for other rental applications too, whereas Charlie was not rejected. Charlie says to Mina that there were probably other reasons why she was rejected.

Mina’s suspicions about the discrimination grow even more when the two couples arrive at the house and meet the caretaker who will hand them the house keys. The caretaker’s name is Taylor (played by Toby Huss), a scruffy, middle-aged guy who mentions that his brother is the house owner who never lives there, but Taylor is the one who looks after the house and oversees the rentals.

When Charlie introduces everyone to Taylor and mentions that Mina is his business partner and is Josh’s girlfriend, the caretaker rudely comments to Mina, “How’d you get mixed up in this family?” When Mina asks Taylor what he means by that, he denies that he meant anything by it.

Mina is bothered by the subtle racism that she seems to have gotten from Taylor, so she tells Josh in a private conversation outside that she doesn’t feel comfortable giving their money to a racist. Josh convinces her that they might as well stay to enjoy their vacation as much as possible, since the rental was paid for already and they already made a long road trip to get there.

Later, Mina confronts Taylor in front of everyone, by asking him why her application was rejected and Charlie’s application was immediately accepted. Taylor looks uncomfortable and says he doesn’t remember her application. Mina then reminds Taylor of her full name, while he looks increasingly uncomfortable. Charlie is starting to look embarrassed, and he tries to diffuse the tension by indicating that he wants Mina to stop this line of questioning.

Mina then tells Taylor that she and Charlie have nearly identical qualifications, but the application from a white man (Charlie) was accepted, and her application was rejected. Taylor still won’t answer the question. Instead, he turns the conversation around and tells Mina that if she has a problem, she can cancel the rental. 

Taylor’s deflection is shady and manipulative, because Taylor knows that the rental is in Charlie’s name, and it’s pretty obvious that Charlie doesn’t want to cancel the rental agreement or cause any arguments with Taylor. Mina also knows that the other people in the group don’t want to cancel the rental agreement, so she has no choice but to let the matter go.

This heated conversation between Mina and Taylor is meant to exemplify how people who try to confront issues of discrimination are often “shut down” and labeled as “difficult” by people trying to divert attention away from the real issues. Meanwhile, people who aren’t directly affected by discrimination, but know about it, often won’t speak up and will act like they want the issue to just go away—as exemplified by how Charlie, Josh and Michelle do nothing to come to Mina’s defense.

Before he leaves the two couples to have the house to themselves, Taylor shows that he’s not only a racist but he’s also a creep when he mentions that there’s a telescope they can use in the house, in case anyone wants to be a Peeping Tom. Taylor says it in a joking manner, but his tone of voice indicates that he’s only half-joking.

After getting settled in, the two couples go for an evening walk on the beach. When they come back to the house that night, they see that someone (presumably Taylor) set up the telescope in the living room while the two couples were away.

Mina immediately expresses discomfort that Taylor can come and goes as he pleases while they’re staying at the house. But the other people in the group act as if she’s being a little too paranoid and “difficult,” so Mina is made to feel once again that she’s in the minority.

“The Rental” is written in such a way that the entire movie can be viewed as a social commentary about peer pressure and how failing to speak up and report problems—for the sake of pretending that everything is okay and going along with a group mentality—can ultimately be dangerous to someone’s well-being. There’s also social commentary about power dynamics and rivalries between men, women and siblings and why people keep certain secrets.

In one scene, Michelle and Josh are having a private conversation while they’re hiking in the woods. It’s revealed in this conversation that Michelle is a lot more insecure about Charlie and Mina’s relationship than she would like to publicly admit. Charlie clearly admires Mina’s intellect and ambition, but Michelle doesn’t have those same qualities, so Michelle feels that Mina is giving Charlie a type of emotional fulfilment that Michelle, as his wife, can’t give.

It’s never stated in the movie if Michelle works outside of her home or not, but it is made clear that she has nothing to do with Charlie’s start-up business and doesn’t help him make any decisions about the company. Michelle’s insecurities are fueled when Josh divulges some information about two of Charlie’s former girlfriends whom Charlie dated before Charlie met Michelle.

The movie also has a not-so-subtle message about invasion of privacy and the type of trust that people willingly hand over to strangers in a house-rental situation that was arranged online. The trust issues go both ways for the renters and the house owners. And when these transactions are done online, where people can write relatively anonymous reviews about their rental experience, there might be a false sense of security that things will be completely safe.

Not long after getting settled in at the rental house, Mina and Josh find a guest house, which has a locked door on a lower-deck level. The door has a key-code lock. What’s behind the door? It’s revealed in the movie whether or not what’s behind the door is relevant to the story.

Meanwhile, some Ecstasy-fueled partying in the house and some hidden surveillance result in a chain of events that bring on the horror. It’s enough to say that the couples in the house are being stalked and spied on, and there is some bloody mayhem that ensues.

“The Rental,” which has a lot of scenes that take place at night, certainly brings the right atmosphere to the movie, as things get more sinister as the story unfolds. The abundance of fog can be explained by the fact that this story takes place mostly in a cliffside house near a treacherous ocean. And the film’s musical score by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans is a definite asset in the movie’s most effective thrilling scenes.

However, a lot of horror fans might not like that it takes so long (about two-thirds of the movie) for “The Rental” to get to any suspenseful action. Most of the film is really a character study of the increasingly tense relationships between Charlie, Michelle, Mina and Josh. Because the dialogue is realistic, the actors are well-cast, and the acting is better than what’s in an average horror movie, it’s worth the wait to get to the scenes in the movie where the characters are in real danger.

“The Rental” director Franco shows promising talent for telling a good story, but in the end, not much of it is very original. In fact, the least original part of “The Rental” is the murder spree, which has been seen and done in many other horror movies. Although “The Rental’s” characters are engaging and believable (Vand and Brie give the best performances), the action scenes are very formulaic.

People who expect a slasher flick to have the first killing happen within the first 15 minutes of the movie will probably be bored or disappointed by “The Rental.” Anyone who sees this movie has to be willing to sit through a lot of realistic relationship drama before getting to the over-the-top and predictable horror violence.

IFC Films released “The Rental” in select U.S. cinemas, digital and VOD on July 24, 2020.

Review: ‘Game of Death,’ starring Sam Earle, Victoria Diamond, Emelia Hellman, Erniel Baez Duenas, Thomas Vallieres and Catherine Saindon

July 15, 2020

by Carla Hay

Erniel Baez Duenas, Sam Earle, Emelia Hellman and Victoria Diamond in “Game of Death” (Photo courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment)

“Game of Death” (2020)

Directed by Sebastien Landry and Laurence Baz Morais

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed Canadian area, the horror flick “Game of Death” has an almost all-white cast (with one Latino) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: During a house party, seven teenagers find a sinister portable electronic game that will make their heads explode unless they kill people.

Culture Audience: “Game of Death” will appeal primarily to people who want the lowest-common denominator type of horror film that places more emphasis on gross-out bloody scenes than having a coherent plot.

Thomas Vallieres, Catherine Saindon and Nick Serino in “Game of Death” (Photo courtesy of Cleopatra Entertainment)

If the sight of blood makes you squeamish, then you probably won’t be able to watch the “Game of Death,” which is essentially a repetitive, mindless bloodbath. The movie is only 73 minutes long, but it feels longer since the acting is so bad and the moronic story is even worse. Directed by Sebastien Landry and Laurence Baz Morais, who both wrote the screenplay with Edouard Bond, “Game of Death” makes a feeble attempt at being a dark comedy. But that angle to the story is essentially blown to bits, just like the exploding heads of some people in this movie.

There’s not much that can be said about “Game of Death,” because there really isn’t much of a plot. The movie, which takes place in an unidentified area of Canada, starts off at a house party attended by seven teenagers. They’re all various degrees of drunk, stoned and/or horny.

Ashley (played by Emelia Hellman) is a sarcastic “mean girl” type. Ashley’s boyfriend Matthew (played by Thomas Vallieres) is her male counterpart, because he’s equally obnoxious and cruel to others. How mean-spirited is Matthew? As a prank, he gives a drink to nerdy party guest Kenny (played by Nick Serino)—and the drink turns out to be Matthew’s urine.

Everyone at the party seems to know each other pretty well. Beth (played by Victoria Diamond) is a blonde Barbie doll type. Mary-Ann (played by Catherine Saindon) is the “nice girl” of the group. Tom (played by Sam Earle) seems like a regular guy until his true nature comes out later in the movie. And then there’s Tyler (played by Erniel Baez Duenas), a pizza delivery guy who’s a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

There are no adults in the house during the party, so the teens have free reign to do what they want. The movie has predictable scenes involving sex and drugs, but these scenes are filmed in such an amateurish way that it looks like a movie made by teenagers. And that doesn’t include the phone footage that’s supposed to represent what these partiers are filming for their social media.

After playing spin the bottle, the teens move on to another game. They gather around an octagon-shaped electronic toy called Game of Death that has a display window in the middle. It’s never explained how they got this mysterious toy, but an instruction card tells them the game’s numerical display shows how many people have to die for the game to end. If someone isn’t killed by a certain period of time (the movie doesn’t say for how long), then a game player’s head will explode. The card also warns that once the game starts, anyone playing the game can’t stop it until the required number of people are dead.

The teens think that all of this is too far-fetched to really happen, so they start playing the game. They place their fingers on the game’s finger slots. As soon as their fingers touch the game, they get an electrical shock that draws blood from their fingers. The blood dripping onto the device apparently activates the game to start.

Tyler freaks out and shouts, “That’s not even a a game! It’s an STD dispenser!” His pals tease him because they think he’s over-reacting. When one of them suggests that Tyler go to the hospital if he thinks his injury is so bad, he immediately rejects the idea because he says that the people at the hospital will experiment on him.

It isn’t long after that when someone’s head explodes, just like the game’s instruction card had warned. The numerical display shows that by the end of the game, 25 people have to die. Every time someone dies, an evil electronic voice from the game says, “One down,” and then gives a sinister chuckle. The rest of the story is basically a series of people’s heads exploding or people getting murdered. All of these death scenes are extremely bloody.

The visual effects are hit-and-miss in this film. The head-exploding scenes are fairly realistic-looking. However, a scene that looks dumb and very fake is when someone gets deliberately run over by a car, and the dead body’s splattered intestines look like elongated spaghetti covered with red paste instead of bloody human guts. To make matters worse, the dialogue throughout the film is just terrible.

While this deadly game is happening, the teens argue with each other about what they should do. Some don’t want to kill anyone. Some want to kill only “bad” people. Others in the group don’t care who they kill. The game unleashes a blood lust from two people in particular, who go on a murder spree that was clearly inspired by “Natural Born Killers.”

During all of this bloody mayhem, there are some bizarre moments that are meant to be funny but they just come across as very silly. After the first head explosion, the rest of the teens are covered in blood for the rest of the movie and don’t bother to clean themselves up, even when they eventually leave the house and do what they end up doing.

While driving Tyler’s Pizza Hawt car on a fairly deserted road, they’re stopped by a police trooper named Marilyn (played by Jane Hackett), who starts singing the Pizza Hawt theme for an interminable minute that seems like longer. When she asks the teens why they’re covered in blood, they tell her that they accidentally hit an animal with their car. It’s an obvious lie that this dimwitted cop easily accepts.

And then there’s a scene where there’s a gun showdown in a hospital hallway with a young girl hooked up to an IV pack and walking in the middle of this shootout. The problem with this scene is it’s filmed almost as if it’s a dream sequence: The hospital suddenly becomes deserted and the hallway gets that foggy look that indicates that it might be a dream.

But it’s not a dream. This gun showdown is also one of those unrealistic battle scenes where people point guns at each other, but then stand around and talk too much instead of blowing the opponent away. And one of the characters also gives a very pretentious, preachy speech about life and death.

“Game of Death” might have been intended as a dark comedy, but that only works when there’s anything that’s actually funny in the movie. When a movie is this bloody, it should either be very scary or very funny or both. “Game of Death” is neither. The only heads that might explode for “Game of Death” are when viewers get bored or frustrated with this bottom-of-the-barrel horror flick.

Cleopatra Entertainment released “Game of Death” in the U.S. on digital and VOD on July 14, 2020. The movie was released in France and the United Kingdom in 2017.

Review: ‘Relic,’ starring Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin

July 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

Robyn Nevin in “Relic” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

“Relic”

Directed by Natalie Erika James

Culture Representation: Taking place in Australia, the horror film “The Relic” has an all-white cast representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: An elderly woman, who shows signs of dementia, is convinced that something evil is out to get her, while her daughter and granddaughter who come to visit have very different reactions to her distress.

Culture Audience: “Relic” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind slow-paced, “slow burn” horror films, because most of the action doesn’t happen until the last 20 minutes of the film.

Emily Mortimer in “Relic” (Photo courtesy of IFC Films/IFC Midnight)

Is “Relic” a haunted house film or a psychological horror film? The movie can be considered both, but it’s really more of the latter. “Relic” (the feature-film debut of director Natalie Erika James) is not the kind of movie for people who like fast-paced action throughout most of the film. Nor will it satisfy people who expect a full explanation for all the horror that goes on in the story. Instead, “Relic” is the type of movie that creeps up on viewers in the type of slowly rotting way that’s similar to the mysterious dark mold that malignantly spreads throughout the haunted house in this movie.

“Relic” begins with an eerie scene of an upstairs bathtub overrunning with water in a dark and creepy two-story house, with the water eventually flowing down the stairs. Meanwhile, a naked elderly woman with long, flowing white hair is standing in a daze downstairs, looking at a lit Christmas tree’s lights that are blinking. The woman is alone in the house, which is filled with lit candles. Is this a witch?

Not exactly. It turns out the woman is a widow named Edna (played by Robyn Nevin) who lives alone in the house, which is in a remote wooded area of Australia. (Melbourne is the closest big city.) The next thing that viewers find out about her is that she has disappeared. Edna’s no-nonsense daughter Kay (played by Emily Mortimer) and Kay’s aimless daughter Sam (played by Bella Heathcote) have driven from Melbourne to Edna’s house, after finding out from a neighbor that Edna has gone missing.

When Kay and Sam arrive, they see that Edna’s bed is unmade and her possessions are still in the house. Sam also notices that there are strange mold-like stains and marks in Edna’s bedroom closet. It’s been a few weeks since Kay last spoke to her mother, while Edna’s middle-aged neighbor Alex (played by Jeremy Stanford) says that he hasn’t seen Edna for a few days.

Kay files a missing person’s report with the local police, while Kay and Sam also join the search party in the woods. Kay has told the police that Edna has flooded the bathtub before, by forgetting to turn off the faucet. The implication is clear that Edna’s forgetful ways and mysterious disappearance might be signs of Edna having dementia.

Kay and Sam have a tense relationship because Kay is frustrated that Sam hasn’t quite figured out what to do with her life. Sam tells Kay that she recently quit her job at a gallery and that she’s gone back to working in a bar. When Kay asks Sam if Sam plans to go back to college, Sam says that she doesn’t know what her future plans will be. An exasperated Kay tells Sam that she can’t work in a bar for her whole life, but Sam just tries to shrug off her mother’s concerns.

One night, while Edna is still missing, Sam is smoking a joint out on the house’s front porch, when she sees a neighbor named Jamie (played by Chris Brunton) coming over to the house and greets him in a friendly manner. Jamie, who is Alex’s son, is an 18-year-old with Down syndrome whom Sam has met before but she hasn’t seen in in several years. Sam comments to Jamie on how much he’s grown up, and she lets him have a hit off of her joint when he asks her. It’s revealed later in the story that Alex and Jamie have been keeping their distance from Edna because of a disturbing incident that happened with Edna not too long ago.

While the search continues for Edna, there’s some information about Edna that Kay didn’t tell the police but she tells Sam in a private conversation that they have at the house. A few weeks prior, Edna called Kay and told Kay that Edna suspected that an intruder was coming into the house, because doors were left open and furniture was rearranged.  While Sam believes that Edna could be in real danger, Kay dismisses that notion by saying that Edna probably caused those changes in the house herself and forgot about it.

Meanwhile, some more strange things occur. One day, while Sam is wearing one of Edna’s long sweaters, she finds a note in the pocket that says, “Don’t Follow It.” And she also notices that a large mold-like stain is on a living room wall when the stain apparently wasn’t there when Sam and Kay first arrived at the house.

After disappearing for three days, Edna suddenly comes back to the house. Kay is startled to see Edna calmly cutting up food in the kitchen sink and acting very unaware that several people had been looking for her. Kay’s exasperation with Edna increases when Edna refuses to say where she was and what she was doing when she disappeared, even though Kay later finds blood on Edna’s nightgown.

Edna is given a wellness exam at her home to determine her mental and physical health. It’s determined that Edna is healthy, but she’s cautioned not to wander outside. Kay has her doubts about how well Edna is, while Sam is more inclined to think that things can go back to normal.

The intergenerational dynamics between these three women show that Edna and Sam don’t get along particularly well with Kay. Therefore, Edna and Sam have moments of bonding together, such as when Edna gives her wedding ring to Sam, who is surprised by this unsolicited gift.

Edna insists that Sam keep the wedding ring and tells Sam: “You might need it one day. Your mother’s already had a go.” Sam’s father is not seen nor mentioned in the movie, but this comment suggests that Kay is divorced from Sam’s father.

As for Kay’s relationship with Edna, she hints that the tensions between them have been there since Kay’s childhood. In an old book of illustrations that Kay and Sam have found in the house, there’s a drawing of a cabin that used to be in the woods nearby. Kay mentions that her great-grandfather, who went crazy, used to live in the cabin, which was a place where Edna used to threaten to send Kay as a child when Kay misbehaved.

The cabin was torn down years ago, after Kay grew up, but the ominous aura of the cabin still haunts Kay, who has noticed that a stained-glass window from the cabin is now part of Edna’s house. It’s clear that this family background was mentioned in this scene for two reasons: (1) to establish that this family has a history of mental illness and (2) to make it clear that there might have been something sinister about the cabin that is now part of Edna’s house.

After Edna comes back from her unexplained disappearance, things get even weirder. She acts as if someone or something is out to get her. One night, while Edna is in bed, she appears spooked by something. She asks Kay to look under the bed. “It’s here, under the bed,” Edna tells Kay.

A skeptical Kay barely looks under the bed and tells Edna that she doesn’t see anything. Edna tells Kay to look again, but more closely. When Kay looks underneath the bed again, she sees something moving, and is so startled that she hits her head on the bed frame. Kay thinks Edna is playing a cruel joke on her and blames Edna for her causing the accidental head bump.

It comes as no surprise when Kay tells Sam that she wants to put Edna in a nursing home and starts the process by visiting a nursing facility in Melbourne. However, Sam is very much against the idea and thinks that someone in the family should take care of Edna, but Kay doesn’t want to do it.

In a private conversation between Sam and Edna, an offer is made to Edna: Sam says she will move in with Edna and take care of her, presumably for free room and board. Edna isn’t keen on the idea, but when she finds out that Kay wants to put Edna in a nursing home, she lets Kay know that Sam is going to move in and be Edna’s caretaker.

Before that happens though, Edna’s behavior becomes more erratic. Kay and Sam witness Edna talking to herself on different occasions. And one day, Kay finds Edna in the woods doing something bizarre: Edna is eating some old photos, which Kay stops her from doing.

Edna is also trying to bury a photo album in a hole that Edna dug. Edna tells a horrified Kay: “There’s a coldness in the house … I wish we could bury my soul so it can’t get at me.” What exactly is “it”?

“Relic” does a very good job at conveying a dark and foreboding atmosphere throughout the film, thanks in large part to production designer Steven Jones-Evans and cinematographer Charlie Sarroff. But the main reason why the horror elements work best in the film is because of Nevin’s performance as the deranged and disturbed Edna.

Some of the evil-eyed stares that Edna gives Kay (particularly in a scene around a dining room table) are more chilling than a murder scene in a typical slasher movie. Mortimer and Heathcote are very believable as mother and daughter, but without Nevin’s unsettling performance, this would be a very forgettable horror movie. “Relic” also uses some of the same predictable tropes of other “haunted house” movies, such as someone walking around the house with a flashlight (because apparently turning on a light switch isn’t possible) and someone mysteriously getting trapped in a room.

The “Relic” screenplay (which James co-wrote with Christian White) doesn’t have any plot holes, but it does bring up a lot of questions that remain unanswered by the end of the film. The visual imagery of “Relic” (including some genuinely gruesome scenes involving rotting skin) goes a long way in telling this horror story, but there’s not enough context or background information about these characters to explain what happens in the last 10 minutes of the film. Many viewers will think that “Relic” doesn’t reveal enough about the movie’s three main characters to really root for any of them.

And the slow pacing for most of the movie will definitely turn off some people. These are valid flaws that make “Relic” disappointing on those levels. But if people have the patience to watch until the last 20 minutes of this 89-minute movie, there’s an underlying message about grief, mortality and how old age can bring personality changes to a loved one that can be harder to deal with than death.

IFC Films/IFC Midnight released “Relic” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on July 10, 2020.

Review: ‘Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge,’ starring Jesi Jensen, Nathan Kane Mathers, Sam Logan Khaleghi and Jerry Narsh

June 26, 2020

by Carla Hay

Jesse Dean and Jesi Jensen in “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” (Photo courtesy of Cinedigm)

“Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge”

Directed by Sam Logan Khaleghi

Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in Lake Orion, Michigan, the horror flick “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” features a racially diverse cast (white, African American and Asian) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A demon goes on a bloody killing spree in Lake Orion.

Culture Audience: “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” will appeal primarily to people who like tacky low-budget horror films.

Grover McCants in “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” (Photo courtesy of Cinedigm)

There are two kinds of cheesy horror movies in this world: Movies that are so bad that they’re funny and movies that are so bad that they’re boring. Unfortunately, the moronic “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” falls into the latter category, as the characters in the movie don’t do very much but show up around different parts of the city and occasionally react when the movie’s “demon on the loose” goes after another victim. You know it’s bad when the demon, which is supposed to be the scariest thing about this film, looks like someone in a very cheap Halloween costume.

“Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” (directed by Sam Logan Khaleghi and written by Aaron Russman) begins with the demon attacking two casual acquaintances who are hanging out together at night in a graveyard in Lake Orion, Michigan. (The city is depicted in this movie as an industrial wasteland suburb of Detroit.) The two graveyard victims are Rochelle Winston (played Angelina Ebegbuzie) and Raj Dilal (played by Rish Mitra). Rochelle is savagely murdered, while Raj manages to escape.

It should be noted that apparently this demon likes to shop at Adidas, because the red demon is decked out head to toe (or maybe head to hoof) in black-colored streetwear, including a hoodie sweatshirt and athletic shoes. Yes, it’s that kind of movie.

Raj is the main suspect in Rochelle’s murder, since he was the last known person to have seen her alive. Raj is brought into the Lake Orion Police Department (LOPD) for questioning. He’s interrogated by Detective Liam O’Connor (played by Nathan Kane Mathers) and Detective Sammie Alayoubi (played by Amma Nemo), who think that Raj is guilty, especially when Raj starts rambling about how he saw a devil in the graveyard, and Raj insists that this devil is responsible for the murder.

Also on the LOPD staff are Chief Romano (played by Jerry Narsh) and Staff Sergeant Billie Jean Finnick (played by Jesi Jensen), who is the main field investigator in what will turn out to be the demon’s killing spree. Finnick is no pushover cop (she threatens to punch Alayoubi when he makes a sexist comment to her), but she’s open to the possibility that there might be supernatural forces involved in the murder.

Finnick (which is what most people in the movie call her) is also a military veteran with a tragic backstory of having her best friend Alice die in her arms while on a mission in Eastern Europe. (The death is shown in a flashback.) Alice’s father Cal (played Andrew Dawe-Collins) is a mean and bitter drunk who blames Finnick for his daughter’s death, which adds to Finnick’s feelings of guilt.

The purpose of the Cal character in the movie seems to be to occasionally show up and insult Finnick, whether it’s at the graveyard when he’s visiting Alice’s grave (it’s the same graveyard where Rochelle was murdered), or when he comes home and is enraged to find out that his son Ellis (played by Robert Laenen), who still lives with Cal, has taken a romantic interest in Finnick. Why is Ellis still living with his father? Ellis is an aspiring bronze/metal sculptor who’s trying to get his life back on track since he’s a recovering drug addict.

The murdered body count starts to pile up in Lake Orion. Finnick is called to a crime scene inside an abandoned temple, where another massacred body is found, and she sees the demon for herself, but it eludes capture. It isn’t long before Finnick decides she needs help outside of her jurisdiction.

She places a call to someone and says (try to not to laugh at this cheesy line): “I’ve got big trouble in a small town, sir.” The next thing you know, foul-mouthed Detective Nightingale (played by Grover McCants) from the Detroit Police Department shows up. He’s on special assignment to help Finnick and the rest of the LOPD to solve the mystery of this killing spree.

The Nightingale character is the best thing about this bad movie because the flippant lines he throws out show that he’s not easily impressed and he doesn’t really care what people think about him. His presence also brings some much-needed humor to this dreadfully dull movie.

Detective Nightingale takes Finnick to meet with Dr. Khadir (played by Nepoleon Duraisamy), who works at a nearby museum. Khadir tells them that an ancient Ottawa Indian tribe knife was stolen from the museum. Legend has it that whoever owns the knife can summon a “ruthless guardian angel,” but only if the owner of the knife doesn’t become greedy. French settlers in 1700s Detroit didn’t heed the warning, so death and destruction followed.

Khadir says that whoever stole the knife from the museum probably summoned the demon, which is called Le Nain Rouge, which is French for The Red Dwarf. However, this movie’s red demon (played by Jesse Dean) is definitely not dwarf-sized. “We have to find that knife!” says Nightingale.

While Finnick and Nightingale try to get to the bottom of the mystery, “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” features some other people who might or might not cross paths with the demon. Marcellus (played by the movie’s director Khaleghi) is a well-connected hoodlum who’s been able to avoid serious prison time because his godfather is Mayor Flynn of Detroit (played by rapper Swifty McVay), who is very corrupt and growing increasingly annoyed with covering up the crimes of Marcellus.

Pastor Wilhem (played by John C. Forman) is a Lake Orion clergyman who’s become increasingly concerned about the crime rate in the area. Anna Lee (played by Judy Stepanian) is a middle-aged spinster who does work at the pastor’s church and is convinced that a demon is on the loose. Ike Bruce (played by Dennis Marin) is a drug addict who operates a meth lab.

And by the time Lake Orion Mayor Marion DeVaux (played by Amy Andrews) shows up in the movie, she’s giving a press conference to announce that the city will have an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew because there have been 17 deaths in a week. Of course, if that type of murder rate in happened in real life in this city, the local police would ask the FBI for help, but why let those pesky realistic details get in the way of this bad movie?

“Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” was shot entirely in Michigan, so the movie has some local Detroit-area notables in the cast. Narsh, who plays Chief Romano, was the real-life police chief of Lake Orion, until he retired in 2019, after 38 years with the LOPD. Andrews, who plays Mayor Marion DeVaux, is in real life a news anchor at KTVI-TV, the Fox affiliate in Detroit.

And two of the cast members have a connection to Detroit native/rap superstar Eminem. Mathers, who plays Detective O’Connor, is Eminem’s brother. McVay, who plays Mayor Flynn of Detroit, is a member of Eminem’s former rap group D-12. But this movie is not going to be a Detroit classic, like “8 Mile,” the 2002 drama that was Eminem’s film debut. The closest that “Devil’s Night” comes to “8 Mile” is that the demon is clad in streetwear that looks like what Eminem would’ve worn in “8 Mile.”

Speaking of the demon, the visual effects in “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” are very amateurish, since the demon’s tail and long tongue don’t look realistic and are obviously digital visual effects. There’s also a very fake-looking explosion in the movie. And although the best technical aspect about “Devil’s Night” is the appropriate foreboding musical score, the film editing is terrible (the jump cuts would get a failing grade in film school) and the acting in the movie is even worse.

Most of the actors sound like they’re just reciting their lines instead of having realistic dialogue. And in some of the terror scenes, there’s some seriously awful over-acting. At one point in the movie during an action scene, a character shouts, “Don’t get any bright ideas!” while another character replies, “I used up all my bright ideas!” What a perfect way to describe this derivative and disappointing movie.

Kyyba Films and Cinedigm released “Devil’s Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge” on digital and VOD on June 23, 2020.

Review: ‘You Should Have Left,’ starring Kevin Bacon, Amanda Seyfried and Avery Essex

June 18, 2020

by Carla Hay

Avery Essex and Kevin Bacon in “You Should Have Left” (Photo by Nick Wall/Universal Pictures)

“You Should Have Left” 

Directed by David Koepp

Culture Representation: Taking place in the United Kingdom region of Wales and briefly in the Los Angeles area, the horror film “You Should Have Left” has a cast of nearly all white people (with one African American character) representing the upper-middle-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An American husband, wife and their young daughter go to Wales for a vacation and experience terror in their rental house.

Culture Audience: “You Should Have Left” will appeal primarily to people who like horror stories to have more psychological drama than bloody violence.

Amanda Seyfried and Kevin Bacon in “You Should Have Left” (Photo by Nick Wall/Universal Pictures)

In trying to put a unique spin on movies about haunted houses, “You Should Have Left” succeeds in some ways and fails in others. It’s one of those horror flicks that relies a lot on clichés, such as jump scares and terror scenes that often turn out to be just a nightmare from a character in the movie. However, “You Should Have Left” (written and directed by David Koepp) shows some glimmers of originality in its underlying social commentary about how couples should communicate with each other before things go stagnant or awry in their relationships.

One of the best things about “You Should Have Left” (which is based on Daniel Kehlmann’s novel of the same name) is that it doesn’t overstuff the movie with unnecessary characters. The story revolves around just three main characters: retired businessman Theo Conroy (played by Kevin Bacon); his Hollywood actress wife Susanna “Susie” Conroy; and their 6-year-old daughter Ella (played by Avery Essex). Theo is about 25 years older than Susie, and he’s made enough money before retiring that the family could be considered upper middle-class, but not so rich that they can afford multiple homes or a fleet of luxury cars.

The movie begins in the Los Angeles area, where the family lives. Theo visits Susie on the outdoor set of a movie where she’s working, but he’s stopped by a production assistant (played by Joshua C. Jackson), who tells Theo that it’s a closed set. Theo insists that he is Susie’s husband and that he’s on an approved list of people. The production assistant still refuses to let Theo onto the set.

As Theo stands by, feeling emasculated and powerless, it becomes clear why it’s a closed set that day, as the sounds of a sex scene being filmed can be loudly heard nearby. Theo gets even more uncomfortable because he knows that Susie is filming this intimate scene, while he has to stand outside the set, as if he’s an unimportant nobody.

After Susie is done with her work for the day, they talk about what happened. In their own ways, they both experienced some kind of indignity. Susie tells Theo that she felt somewhat exploited by the director in the sex scene, but she tries to minimize it by saying that at least the film seems to have been shot beautifully. Theo says that he was embarrassed about being prevented from being on the film set. Susie apologizes and tells Theo that she definitely told the production team that Theo was going to visit the set that day.

This scene is important to establish the dynamics between Theo and Susie. Although Susie married a well-to-do older man, she still wants to have an independent identity. She doesn’t want to be perceived as a “trophy wife,” so she has mixed feelings about how her sexuality is being used as an actress. Theo is accustomed to being an “alpha male,” so it bothers him that he doesn’t get respect in Susie’s world when he goes to visit her when she’s working.

Theo also mentions something that’s important to the thread that ties this story together: He says that the production assistant recognized him—and not in a good way. Susie replies, “They think you’re dangerous.” There are other hints dropped later that Theo has a major, high-profile scandal in his past. It’s easy to figure out what’s going on with this story, especially when the scandal is revealed.

Before they head home, Theo and Susie have sex in their car. To relieve some of the tension over this scandal that continues to haunt Theo, he suggests that they take Ella on a getaway trip to the United Kingdom, since Susie has a few weeks off before she begins shooting scenes for a movie in London. They rent a remote countryside house in Wales that was found online.

The furnished house is modern and spacious, but eerie. The architecture has some odd features, such as hallways that are too narrow and stairs that lead to a basement area that’s disproportionately larger than what it looks like it could be from the outside. The house was rented from a mysterious owner named Stetler, who might or might not be the baseball cap-wearing creep with a cane who shows up in visions and nightmares that Theo keeps having. Ella and Susie are also having nightmares.

Even before the family took this trip, Theo spends a lot of time on his phone listening to recorded self-help “mindfulness” lectures. (The voice heard giving these lectures is a Deepak Chopra sound-alike.) Theo follows the self-help instructions, including doing meditation and writing his thoughts in a journal. But during the family’s stay at the vacation house, Theo starts to find ominous messages written in the journal, such as “Leave. You should go now” or “You should have left.  Now it’s too late.”

Theo encounters some local residents who aren’t very friendly when they find out that he and his family are staying at this house. When Theo goes to get groceries at the nearest store (a small grocery shop), the shopkeeper (played by Colin Bluemenau) eyes Theo suspiciously and asks, “You staying up the hill? Anything happen yet? You met Stetler yet?” Theo tells him no.

On another occasion, Theo goes outside to find a local woman (played by Lowri Ann Richards) standing in front of the family’s rental car. She doesn’t even introduce herself, but instead asks Theo if he saw Stetler. When Theo says no, she responds, “Well, he saw you,” before she walks away.

Adding to the paranoia, Theo snoops around by looking at messages on Susie’s phone and her laptop when she’s not in the room, such as when she’s taking a bath. He begins to suspect that all is not going well in their marriage when he finds out that Susie has a second phone that she deliberately kept a secret from him.

Ella, who is a bright and energetic child, senses that something weird is going on with her family, even before they took this trip. She asks Susie why people are afraid of Theo. After Susie tells Ella about Theo’s scandal from his past, things start to get even more terrifying in the house.

“You Should Have Left” has some pacing issues because much of the story has several filler scenes that don’t really go anywhere. There isn’t much character development, but Essex does a very good job portraying the intuitive and curious Ella. (“You Should Have Left” is her film debut.) Bacon and Seyfried make convincing parents to this child, but they’re less convincing together as a couple, since there isn’t much chemistry between them.

Their lack of chemistry has less to do with the big age difference and more to do with the fact that Theo and Susie don’t have much to talk about, other than Ella, and their marriage definitely looks like a “trophy wife” situation. Even when Theo and Susie are supposed to be together at the house, when they spend time looking after Ella, they often do that separately.

It’s also a little too convenient to the story that Ella and Theo are a “loner couple” who don’t seem to have any family members or friends to confide in when things start to go wrong in the house. However, their social isolation probably has a lot to do with Theo’s scandal.

Koepp and Bacon previously worked together in the 1999 horror film “Stir of Echoes,” which is a much better film that shows Bacon as someone haunted by supernatural forces. “You Should Have Left” does have some genuinely creepy moments, and the movie is worth seeing if people don’t mind horror movies that have a “slow burn” intensity. Other people might be bored or disappointed with the movie, which doesn’t do much that’s new in the horror genre, and the film has an ending that’s very predictable and obvious.

Universal Pictures released “You Should Have Left” on digital and VOD on June 18, 2020.

Review: ‘Algorithm: Bliss,’ starring Sean Faris, Sarah Roemer, Seth Kirschner, James Saito and Frank Deal

June 10, 2020

by Carla Hay

Sean Faris and Thomas Kopache in “Algorithm: Bliss” (Photo courtesy of Green Apple Entertainment)

“Algorithm: Bliss”

Directed by Dena Hysell-Cornejo and Isak Borg

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the sci-fi/horror film “Algorithm: Bliss” has a predominantly white cast (with one Asian character and one African American character) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two inventors with a medical background face ethical issues after they discover a way to transfer emotions from one human being to another—through brain waves and computer technology—and some of their experiments go very wrong.

Culture Audience: “Algorithm: Bliss” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching poorly acted, low-budget horror flicks.

Sarah Roemer in “Algorithm: Bliss” (Photo courtesy of Green Apple Entertainment)

“Algorithm: Bliss” had a lot of potential to be a memorable high-tech horror film, but the movie’s best ideas are wasted on a flimsy plot and uneven, subpar acting from several of the movie’s cast members. When the movie doesn’t what know what to do next, it just resorts to violence and bloody gore that’s supposed to be shocking, but it’s really not very original to any horror aficionado.

Directed by Dena Hysell-Cornejo and Isak Borg, “Algorithm: Bliss” takes too much time (about two-thirds of the film) to get to the horror of the story. Instead, the movie starts off as a straightforward drama with sci-fi elements. In the beginning of the film, it’s shown that Vic Beckett (played by Sean Faris) and his nerdy best friend Henry (played by Seth Krischner) are Harvard medical students who’ve gotten into some serious legal trouble (the details aren’t revealed until later in the movie) and they’ve been asked to leave the school.

The matter is serious enough that Vic and Henry are shown in a meeting with an attorney, who tells them that they should take a deal that has been offered to them. A distraught Vic says, “I’ll never practice medicine again.” What exactly happened? A big clue is in the movie’s opening scene when Vic is shown performing an autopsy in a pathology lab.

After being expelled from medical school, Vic is seen at a snooty cocktail party by himself, looking very uncomfortable. A blonde named Elizabeth (played by Sarah Roemer) approaches him and they start to make small talk. She admits that she’s also not a fan of this boring atmosphere at the party, and says as an icebreaker, “I hate these things, don’t you?”

Elizabeth tells Vic that her job is coordinating housing and social services for homeless people. Vic won’t tell her what he does for a living, but he hints that it’s something scientific that will be so big, “it if all works out, it could change the world.”

There’s an obvious attraction between Vic and Elizabeth, but there’s also a problem: She has a boyfriend named Robert (played by Ryan Farrell), who’s at the party. Robert makes it clear from the way he shows up and kisses Elizabeth at the party that she’s his girlfriend and not available to flirt with anyone. And it just so happens that Robert is Vic’s former roommate from Harvard.

When Vic and Robert have a moment alone at the party, Robert shames Vic by telling him that this is an alumni party and Vic isn’t welcome there, since Vic never graduated. Before Vic slinks off in embarrassment, Elizabeth sees Vic  leaving, and she asks him where he’s going. Vic makes an excuse that he just has to be somewhere else.

Meanwhile, Vic and Henry have been working in a lab, where they’ve been secretly experimenting on transferring memories from one being to another through a non-invasive way of attaching wired patches to the head and making the transfer by computer technology. Henry and Vic have been experimenting on rats that they put through a maze. However, Henry believes that it’s not just sense memories that can be transferred, but emotions can also be transferred.

Henry pressures a reluctant Vic to start trying this experiment on humans, and Henry volunteers to be the one to have his emotions transplanted by someone else’s. An unidentified man is part of the experiment, and it seems to work very well. Henry describes the feeling about having his emotions transplanted: “It feels like I couldn’t imagine worrying about anything, like everything was just good.”

Henry explains that it’s not the same feeling as getting high on a drug: “It’s a feeling of peace, like a mother’s hug—not like my mother’s, of course, but an ideal mother.” This experiment’s blissful effect on humans gets Vic really excited about the possibilities, but he wants to take the experiment further.

Vic later tells Henry, “I want to test this on someone who’s truly problematic.” And this is where the movie’s plot starts to go downhill. Vic pays an orderly at a psychiatric institution to let Vic take a deranged and violent man (played by Thomas Kopache), who’s still strapped to his gurney bed, out of the psych institution and to the lab. While at the lab, the psych patient starts angrily ranting and forcefully trying to get out of the bed.

But when the patient is hooked up to the experimental equipment, Henry is able to transfer calm and happy emotions to the patient. The patient goes from acting like a rabid dog to acting like a docile child. The patient says to Vic in a blissful voice, “Thank you.”

Although Vic and Henry are elated at the findings of this experiment, they end up getting fired by their no-nonsense boss Dr. Stein (played by James Saito), who found out through video-surveillance footage that Vic illegally brought a psychiatric patient onto the work premises and experimented on him. However, Vic and Henry’s dismissal from their jobs doesn’t deter their enthusiasm for their discovery.

They decide to launch a start-up company to make their “emotion transplant” invention available as an app that can be marketed to consumers. The idea is to have the emotions transferred from people who are hooked up to a machine at the company headquarters. People around the world will be able to access the emotions through an app that will be connected to a wireless wristband worn by people who sign up for the app.

Vic and Henry name their new company and app Mudita (pronounced “moo-deetah”) and have a meeting with potential investors. Vic, who’s the alpha male of the pair, does all the talking in the sales pitch, but he gets flustered and nervous in trying to explain this invention, so the meeting is a disaster. One of the potential investors even questions Vic’s sanity and asks Vic when he’s going to check back in the psych ward.

As a dejected Vic and Henry leave the meeting, one of the men from the meeting catches up to them in the office lobby and tells Vic and Henry that he’s interested in their invention. His name is Kirwin (played by Frank Deal), and he offers to buy a 51% stake in the company. In exchange, Kirwin says that Vic and Henry can run Mudita any way that they want to run the business. Vic and Henry immediately accept Kirwin’s offer.

It isn’t long before Vic and Henry start beta testing the invention with more people. Kirwin observes some of the experiments, by watching them on video monitors. During a four-way video monitor observation, one of the testing patients has an adverse reaction to the experiment. Instead of being calm and peaceful, he acts as if he’s hallucinating something terrible.

Vic rushes in the room to take the wires off of the distressed man. Kirwin begins to have doubts about his investment in Mudita, but Vic assures Kirwin that this was a minor issue that can be fixed. “The tracking was too long,” Vic explains to Kirwin.

Meanwhile, Sarah breaks up with Robert to be with Vic. Sarah and Vic have a passionate love affair, and they end up living together. And after eight months of dating each other, Vic secretly buys an engagement ring. Things are apparently going so well for Vic and Henry, they have enough money where Henry is now attracting “Russian models” to date, according to Vic. (Viewers actually never see anything about Henry’s personal life, since almost all of the characters in the movie are written in a very two-dimensional way.)

Once the beta testing is done, Mudita will be available for sale. Word has gotten out to the public about the app, thanks to a high-profile TV appearance Vic has made on an Oprah Winfrey-styled talk show hosted by Crystal Blue (played by Kimberley Locke), who tries out Mudita on the show. Crystal loves the results, and gives the app an enthusiastic endorsement.

Even before the Mudita app is for sale, it has 2 million pre-orders. To celebrate the success of the pre-launch, Mudita throws a party, complete with a celebrity appearance by “American Chopper” star Paul Teutul Sr. as himself. But it isn’t all smooth sailing for Mudita.

On a business TV network (similar to CNBC or Bloomberg), three analysts give their opinions if Mudita stock would be a good investment if the company goes public. One analyst says Mudita would be a great investment, one analyst is neutral, while one analyst warns that the investment would be too risky.

The public attention for Mudita, with Vic as the frontman for the company, also means that Vic’s background is facing scrutiny. His exit from Harvard Medical School and his scientific credentials are being called into question by scientists and other skeptical parties. Although the circumstances of Vic and Henry’s ouster from Harvard Medical School are supposed to be part of a confidential settlement, it doesn’t take long for rumors to leak that Vic and Henry’s forced exit was for scandalous reasons.

And it’s not just scientists who are questioning the ethics of Mudita. Religious leaders are also condemning Mudita for trying to “play God” with people’s emotions. Vic tries to do damage control by appearing on a cable TV news network called Newsline on the prominent “Becky Sanders Show.” Instead of it being a good PR move, the interview is a humiliating mess for Vic, as host Becky Sanders (played by Leslie Marshall) interrogates Vic, who’s caught off-guard and does a terrible job of defending himself. (It’s actually one of the best scenes in the movie.)

Things get worse for Vic in his job and his personal life. And this is where the horror part of the movie kicks in—he starts making drastic and desperate decisions in order to save the business. He says it’s not about the money, but for the greater good of humanity.

Unfortunately, “Algorithm: Bliss” is such a poorly conceived movie, that there’s not much that can be improved from this ridiculous plot. (The screenplay was co-written by co-director Borg and Golan Ramraz.) Even if there’s an alternate world where technology like Mudita could exist, the movie has a laughable portrayal of the company headquarters as a dark and dingy warehouse-styled place, which is definitely not equipped to serve at least 2 million customers. This is a low-budget movie, but the production design is still very amateurish.

Another big problem is that none of the characters has a meaningful personality. Vic and Henry’s expulsion from Harvard Medical School is the only backstory that’s presented in the movie. Meanwhile, Faris (whose Vic character is the main focus of the story) is just not a very good actor, since he over-acts in some scenes and is very wooden in other scenes. Some of the supporting actors in the “horror” scenes also ham it up too much, so that the acting almost becomes campy, even though the movie takes itself way too seriously.

The pacing of “Algorithm: Bliss” sometimes drags, which makes this thriller a lot more boring than it should be. And the “twist” at the end of the film isn’t very surprising, since anyone who’s seen enough sci-fi movies about “change the world” type of inventions can easily predict what can happen when these inventions are no longer a secret.

“Algorithm: Bliss” might have been a better movie if it continued with the concept that is presented in the very last scene of the film. Instead, the movie lazily becomes just another forgettable horror flick in the last third of the film, with lots of bloody mayhem to try to make up for the weak storyline and plot holes.

Green Apple Entertainment released “Algorithm: Bliss” on digital and VOD on June 2, 2020.

Review: ‘The Deeper You Dig,’ starring John Adams, Toby Poser and Zelda Adams

June 5, 2020

by Carla Hay

Toby Poser in “The Deeper You Dig” (Photo courtesy of Dark Sky Films)

“The Deeper You Dig”

Directed by John Adams and Toby Poser

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed rural U.S. city, the horror flick “The Deeper You Dig” has a racially diverse cast (white, African American, Asian and Latino) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man who tries to cover up a hit-and-run accident finds himself haunted by guilt and other forces.

Culture Audience: “The Deeper You Dig” will appeal primarily to people who like slightly offbeat horror movies.

John Adams in “The Deeper You Dig” (Photo courtesy of Dark Sky Films)

“The Deeper You Dig” is a weird, hallucinogenic type of horror movie that will turn off viewers who want to see a more conventional thriller, or it will intrigue people looking for something other than an average ghost story. The movie is also unusual because filmmakers John Adams and Toby Poser not only wrote and directed the film, but they also star in the movie with their daughter Zelda Adams.

Although “The Deeper You Dig” should be commended in trying not to be a formulaic film, the results are mixed. This low-budget movie definitely accomplishes having a creepy and unnerving atmosphere, but some of the  film’s pacing is a little too slow and elements of the story are at times very repetitive.

In “The Deeper You Dig,” which takes places in an unnamed U.S. rural area where it snows heavily, Kurt Allen (played by John Adams) is a loner who’s been fixing up a dilapidated and very messy house. Viewers find out later in the story that he plans to flip the house—in other words, renovate it and sell it at a profit. Kurt doesn’t say much for most of the movie, and his main activities outside of the house are going to the nearest convenience store and eating by himself at a local restaurant. He keeps to himself and hasn’t met any of his neighbors.

Meanwhile, Kurt’s neighbors—single mother Ivy Allen (played by Toby Poser) and her 14-year-old daughter Echo Allen (played by Zelda Adams)—have the kind of relationship where they’re more like close friends than mother and daughter. Echo seems to be a free spirit who doesn’t like that a schoolteacher has told Echo that she can no longer wear blue lipstick when she’s at school.

When Ivy picks Echo up from school, Ivy tells Echo about her plan to visit someone named Mrs. Minskey later. Echo asks, “Is she trying to talk to her dead husband?” Ivy replies, “Yeah, but I’m going to shake her out of a little more money before she gets to talk to him.”

“That’s cunt-y,” Echo says. “I like it.” Ivy responds, “Thank you. It’s called business.” Echo says, “Noted.” It turns out that Ivy makes money as a psychic who reads tarot cards, and Mrs. Minskey (played by Joan Poser) is one of her customers.

Later in the movie, a client session with Ivy and Mrs. Minskey demonstrates that Ivy knows how to put on quite a show as a psychic, since she dresses in a black cowl and spews a lot of mystical mumbo jumbo when she reads tarot cards. And it’s obvious to viewers that she will tell Mrs. Minskey enough of what she wants to hear for the right price. However, talking to the dead husband seems to be the “carrot stick” that Ivy uses to get more money from this gullible widow.

A snowstorm is about to hit the area, so Echo decides to do some snowsledding before the weather gets dangerous. Meanwhile, Kurt makes a stop at the convenience store, where a radio newscast playing in the store reports that the area will be experiencing subzero temperatures. He then has dinner at a nearly empty restaurant.

As Kurt is driving back home on this snowy night on a deserted road, he sees a few deer crossing the road and slows down to let them pass. But then, as Kurt continues driving, he hears a loud thump as he accidentally hits something in the road. He gets out and is horrified to see that the car has hit a teenage girl. Kurt doesn’t know it at the time, but that girl is Echo.

In a panic, Kurt goes to a nearby wooded area and to bury the body. But the ground is too frozen for him to dig a large-enough hole. He then takes the body to his house, where he puts Echo in his bathtub while he tries to figure out what to do next. Kurt is shocked when she suddenly wakes up and finds herself in a stranger’s bathtub. And then, Kurt quickly makes an even more heinous decision to murder Echo, by smothering her to death.

It’s not a spoiler to reveal that Kurt is responsible for Echo’s death, since that information is already in the trailer for “The Deeper You Dig,” which makes it clear that the movie is about Kurt being haunted by the ghost of Echo. What’s revealed later in the movie is if Ivy ever finds out what happened to Echo and if Kurt is punished for his crimes.

There are several scenes of Kurt nervously trying to cover up for his crimes, as he plays almost a cat-and-mouse game with an increasingly suspicious Ivy and police detectives Jay Sanford (played by Bob Lane) and Esther Davide (played by Izzy Figueredo), who are investigating Echo’s disappearance. He tells anyone who asks that he’s never seen Echo before the news of her disappearance.

Kurt starts to see visions of Echo haunting and taunting him at various times of the day and night. Meanwhile, Ivy is also sensing that Echo is trying to contact her psychically, because she hears Echo’s voice whispering to her.

These ghostly scenes are not as unsettling as the scenes of Ivy turning to the occult to get some answers. It’s revealed later in the story that Ivy has a past with a former protégé named Dell (played by Shawn Wilson), whom Ivy asks for help when she becomes desperate to find out what happened to Echo.

The decisions that Ivy makes in the film will keep viewers guessing on how much she might be hallucinating and what she might do if she finds out that Kurt killed Echo. Will she turn him into the police or will she take the law into her own hands?

“The Deeper You Dig” is not for the faint of heart, since there is enough bloody gore to make sensitive viewers very queasy. (In one scene, someone vomits up blood filled with maggots.) The screenplay has elements inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” so horror fans won’t be impressed by some of the more derivative aspects of the film.

What’s more impactful for “The Deeper You Dig” is the cinematography by John Adams and Zelda Adams—as well as John Adams’ music, film editing sound design—which all give the movie a panic-inducing feel of someone on a bad psychedelic trip, which seems to be the filmmakers’ intent. And it works well for the quirkiness of this horror story.

Where the movie falls a little flat is with some of the acting from John Adams, but maybe that’s because Kurt has no backstory and doesn’t have much of a personality. And a few of the scenes have slow pacing that drags down the movie. However, the supernatural freak-outs that Ivy experiences to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Echo make “The Deeper You Dig” one of the more uniquely disturbing horror movies of the year, for better or worse.

Dark Sky Films released “The Deeper You Dig” on digital and VOD on June 5, 2020.

Review: ‘The Clearing’ (2020), starring Liam McIntyre and Aundrea Smith

June 4, 2020

by Carla Hay

Liam McIntyre in “The Clearing” (Photo courtesy of Crackle)

“The Clearing” (2020) 

Directed by David Matalon

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the zombie horror flick “The Clearing” has a racially diverse cast (primarily white and African American) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man and his teenage daughter go on a camping trip and encounter a group of rabid zombies.

Culture Audience: “The Clearing” will appeal primarily to people who like formulaic zombie stories with plenty of bloody gore and other violence.

“The Clearing” (Photo courtesy of Crackle)

“The Clearing”  is one of those B-level zombie movies that doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is: mindless, bloody entertainment. Even though it’s an utterly predictable movie, that doesn’t mean that people who like this type of horror won’t enjoy it, because “The Clearing” delivers when it comes to action and over-the-top violence. “The Clearing” is an original feature film from the streaming service Crackle, a joint venture from Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (which owns the majority stake in the company) and Sony Pictures Television.

Written and directed by David Matalon, “The Clearing” opens with a man named Tom (played by Liam McIntyre) waking up in a messy camper trailer and seeing his teenage daughter Mira (played by Aundrea Smith) sleeping nearby. But the next time he looks over at her bed, she’s gone. In a panic, he goes outside where his truck and trailer are parked in a campground clearing. He sees a frightened woman racing toward him from a nearby wooded area, and yelling at Tom to run.

And then, all of a sudden, a rabid pack of zombies overtakes the woman and kills her, as Tom barely makes it back into the trailer alive. These aren’t the slow-moving zombies of “The Night of the Living Dead.” These are the type of zombies that can run quickly and attack like a mob of wild, drug-crazed cannibals.

There’s a small rooftop window that he uses to get on top of the trailer, where he sees that the trailer is now surrounded by zombies. This “trapped on a vehicle roof and surrounded by zombies” scene is straight out of the zombie TV series “The Walking Dead,” whose premiere episode featured this type of scene as a cliffhanger.

“The Clearing” then flashes back to days earlier, to give a little backstory on who Tom and Mira are and why they’re on a camping trip together. At the time they took the trip, their father-daughter relationship was tense. In a flashback scene, Mira and her mother Naomi  (played by Sydelle Noel) are working on a Girl Scouts activity together of picking flowers for an art project. Tom sees them and dismissively says that what they’re doing isn’t a “real” Scout activity, which he defines as physical sports or learning survival skills. It’s obvious that Mira isn’t the athletic child Tom wants her to be.

Later, in a private conversation between Naomi and Tom, Naomi chastises him for being rude about Mira’s Girl Scouts activities and because Tom isn’t spending enough time with Mira. Naomi insists that Tom take Mira on a father-daughter camping trip that weekend, even though Tom says he’d already promised to play poker with a male friend in that time period.

While Tom and Mira are driving to the camping site, a radio newscast reports that the county has been experiencing a “rash of violent attacks,” and police are trying to establish the cause. Tom turns off the radio before more information can be heard. When they arrive at the camp site, things are still very strained between Mira and Tom. She says to him, “I don’t want to spend any time with you because I don’t like you.”

Tom wants Mira to do physical activities with him, such as hiking and fishing. Mira tells Tom that she would rather play computer games on her phone, which he eventually orders her to put away so that they can go hiking together. The tension starts to ease a little bit between Mira and Tom when they discover a Chinook arrowhead together, and he teaches her how to light a fire and the basics of smoke signals and Morse code.

Later, in one of the film’s poignant scenes, Mira tells Tom that she’s sorry she wasn’t a boy because she knows that Tom wishes that she were a boy. Mira says, “I can try to be like a boy.” Tom asks why. Mira replies, “So you can spend more time with me.”

Tom and Mira also meet some friendly families who are camping nearby. The camping trip is turning out better than Tom and Mira thought it would. And then the zombies attacked. The rest of the movie is about Tom’s fight against the zombies, as he frantically tries to find out what happened to Mira.

During this intense battle, he makes his way to his truck, but the engine won’t start. (Of course it won’t.) Later in the story, Tom encounters another uninfected human—an unnamed park ranger (played by Steven Swadling), who crashes his jeep into a tree while being chased by zombies, and is quickly rescued by Tom.

Will they both make it out alive? And where is Mira? Those questions are answered in the movie. “The Clearing” has almost non-stop (and mostly unrealistic) action, but the movie still has plenty of suspense-filled moments to almost make up for the formulaic and unimaginative screenplay.

McIntyre is best known for starring in the TV series “Spartacus” from 2012 to 2013 and for his supporting role as the Weather Wizard/Mark Mardon in “The Flash” from 2015 to 2018. He’s got the athletic skills to convincingly pull off the action scenes in the movie, even if viewers constantly have to suspend disbelief that Tom is able to fight off a group of 10 to 20 zombies at a time without getting bitten. Tom does have a few guns and other weapons at his disposal, but there’s a limited number of bullets.

At one point in the movie, Tom duct tapes some mattress material to his arms and legs for protection, but that protection doesn’t last long. And he still doesn’t get bitten. His injuries are never serious enough to keep him down. Tom’s job is never mentioned in the movie, so maybe he’s had special training to explain why he fights like a professional combat warrior.

Thanks to the competent acting of the handful of cast members with speaking roles, “The Clearing” doesn’t sink into the “abysmally bad” category of most zombie movies. It’s a mediocre horror flick with a lot of bloody action, and it’s the kind of film where it’s easy to know how everything’s going to end even before the movie starts.

Crackle premiered “The Clearing” on June 4, 2020.

Review: ‘Body Cam,’ starring Mary J. Blige, Nat Wolff, David Zayas and Anika Noni Rose

May 20, 2020

by Carla Hay

Mary J. Blige in “Body Cam” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Body Cam”

Directed by Malik Vitthal

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Swinton, Louisiana, the horror film “Body Cam” has a racially diverse cast (African American, white, Latino and Asian) representing the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A veteran cop goes rogue in investigating a series of mysterious and bloody murders that have been recorded on surveillance videos.

Culture Audience: “Body Cam” will appeal primarily to Mary J. Blige fans and to people who like formulaic and predictable horror movies.

Nat Wolff in “Body Cam” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Grammy-winning singer Mary J. Blige was nominated for two Oscars for the 2017 Netflix drama “Mudbound” (Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song), so it’s a shame that her next role in a live-action film turned out to be such an embarrassing dud.

After “Mudbound,” Blige had voice roles in the animated films “Sherlock Gnomes” (2018) and “Trolls World Tour” (2020), with both roles as supporting characters. In the live-action “Body Cam,” Blige is front and center as the main character— a troubled cop named Renée Lomito-Smith, who lives and works in the fictional city of Swinton, Louisiana. The movie is Blige’s first time getting top billing in a major motion picture—”Body Cam” is from the ViacomCBS-owned companies Paramount Pictures and BET Films—and it’s an unfortunate career misstep for her as an actress, due to her wooden acting in the film and the movie’s silly plot.

The only saving grace is that “Body Cam” has little chance of being seen by a large audience, so there probably won’t be permanent damage to Blige’s efforts to be taken seriously as an actress. Paramount Pictures apparently has so little faith in this movie that the studio didn’t even release a trailer for the film until the week before “Body Cam” was dumped as a direct-to-video release.

The beginning of “Body Cam” (which has almost every scene taking place at night) shows Swinton as a city in racial turmoil over police brutality. The opening scene takes place in a local diner, where a TV news report shows that a white cop from the Swinton Police Department has been acquitted in a fatal shooting of an unarmed black man. As the news report is shown on TV, a black cop named Kevin Ganning (played by Ian Casselberry) enters the diner, but he is told by the older black gentleman who serves him a cup of coffee that he’s not welcome in the diner.

After Kevin leaves the diner during this rainy night, he’s alone on patrol duty when he encounters a green Chevy van in a routine traffic stop. He looks inside the vehicle and sees something bloody in the back. He then orders the driver to step outside. A black woman in her 30s, wearing a hooded jacket, steps out with her arms raised. And then, a mysterious force swoops Kevin up in the air.

The movie’s story then shifts to 12 hours earlier, when Blige’s Renée character is seen in a meeting with an internal affairs psychiatrist named Dr. Lee (played by Han Soto), who interrogates her about her mental health, by asking if she has insomnia or troubling thoughts. “Have you moved on from your son’s death?” he asks.

As viewers learn, Renée has been grieving over the death of her pre-teen son Christopher (played by Jibrail Nantambu in flashback scenes), who passed away from an accidental drowning in a neighbor’s swimming pool. Although her husband Gary (played by Demetrius Grosse) is grieving too—Christopher was their only child—and Gary is very supportive of Renée, her emotional turmoil has apparently affected her job performance.

Renée is under investigation because she slapped a civilian during an argument with the civilian—an incident that was captured on her body cam, but not shown in the movie. The meeting is to determine if she will be suspended or be able to continue working in the department. Ultimately, Renée (who was on administrative leave during the investigation) gets to keep her job.

When she returns to the police department, Renée is put on the night shift and welcomed warmly by her colleagues. They include Sergeant Kesper (played by David Zayas) and patrol-duty fellow police officers Kevin Ganning, Darlo Penda (played by David Warshofsky), Gabe Roberts (played by Philip Fornah) and Mariah Birke (played by Naima Ramos-Chapman). Renée also finds out that she’s been paired with a rookie cop named Danny Holledge (played by Nat Wolff), who previously worked with Ganning.

The police staff meetings led by Sergeant Kesper show that there is a culture of strong solidarity that’s expected of the cops. Kesper expresses that the recent acquittal of their fellow cop colleague was the right decision. He also warns his subordinates that the controversial shootings have caused a lot of anger toward cops, so extra care must be taken in dealing with the public.

Meanwhile, Renée’s colleagues tease her about getting stuck with a rookie. She isn’t thrilled about having to train a newcomer, but she brushes off the good-natured ribbing and does her best to work with Danny, who is a “by the book” type of cop and eager to impress his more experienced co-workers.

It isn’t long for Renée and Danny to find out that they have very different styles of working. Renée is more of the “take charge” type, while Danny is more of a passive observer who follows the lead of someone who has authority over him. While out on patrol, they encounter a black boy who’s about 5 years old sitting alone in the middle of the street. As Renée approaches the boy with concern, his mother bursts out of a nearby house and shouts at Renée not to touch her son.

A small group of angry neighbors suddenly appear, and they’re hostile to Renée and Danny. Because they are cops, they’re clearly not wanted in the neighborhood. Renée quickly diffuses the situation by reassuring the crowd that she was only trying to help the boy because he wasn’t being supervised by an adult. As they leave the area, Danny tells Renée that he respects how she handled the incident.

Renée and Danny then arrive at an apparent crime scene: Officer Ganning’s squad car has been apparently abandoned, with the cop nowhere in sight. The green Chevy van shown earlier is near the squad car and also appears to be abandoned. The van has no license plates. And soon, Renée and Danny find a lot of blood near the car and bloody teeth on the hood of the car.

When Renée looks at the surveillance footage from the dashboard camera, and she sees how Officer Ganning encountered the mystery woman and then appeared to be abducted and lifted up in the sky by a mysterious and shadowy force. He was then brutally thrown on the ground. While the injured and bloodied cop is crawling on the ground, he is scooped up again and lets out a horrified scream.

While she’s still absorbing what she just saw, Renée tells the investigating cop Detective Susan Hayes (played by Laura Grice) that Office Ganning was probably murdered. But when Detective Hayes looks at the surveillance video, she tells Renée that the video was apparently erased because the footage doesn’t exist.

Upon further investigation, it’s confirmed that Office Ganning was murdered, when his mangled body is found impaled like a scarecrow on a steel link fence. In shock, Renée and Danny commiserate with each other at a local diner, where she opens up to him about the incident that put her on a leave of absence. She admits that she “lost it” with the civilian because he called her a “black bitch.”

She also tells Danny about her son Christopher and how he died. “I can’t let another person close to me die without doing something,” Renée tells Danny. And so, the rest of the movie is about Renée’s attempt to solve the mystery of her colleague’s murder and other similar murders that happen throughout the story.

Through surveillance footage, Renée was able to find out that the mystery woman in the van is a registered nurse named Taneesha Branz (played by Anika Noni Rose), who used to work at Winton Hospital but has mysteriously disappeared. And by doing an Internet search, Renée finds out that Taneesha had a 14-year-old son named DeMarco (played by Mason Mackie) who died of foul play, since he was found shot in an abandoned industrial area.

Unfortunately, this shoddily written screenplay from Nicholas McCarthy and Richmond Riedel has Renée breaking all kinds of laws to get to the bottom of the mystery herself. She steals evidence from crime scenes, and she breaks into Taneesha’s abandoned home multiple times. Danny uncomfortably witnesses some of these law violations (he’s with Renée the first time that she breaks into Taneesha’s empty house), and he voices his objections, but Renée essentially ignores him and does what she wants anyway as she tries to solve the case all on her own.

Part of her “going rogue” also includes a laughable scene where she convinces a morgue attendant to leave her alone in a roomful of bodies so that she can find the thumbprint that she needs to unlock a cell phone that she stole. This takes place after the “killer on the loose” strikes again by massacring several people in a rampage at a convenience store.

Danny and Renée—who are apparently the only cops in Swinton who get called to murder scenes in Swinton—are the first police officers to arrive after this mass murder spree. And, of course, Renée goes straight to the store’s security video to see what happened, since the ongoing theme in the movie is that Renée (and the viewers) are putting the pieces of the puzzle together through video surveillance footage.

The lackluster direction of Malik Vitthal and the moronic screenplay are mainly to blame for this dreary and unimaginative movie. The pacing in “Body Cam” is sometimes too slow for a story that’s supposed to be a suspenseful thriller/horror movie. The expected bloody gore (which isn’t very creative) takes place in numerous scenes, but the movie lacks character development in its paint-by-numbers storytelling that’s derivative of so many below-average movies in the horror genre.

And some viewers might be very annoyed that because almost everything in the movie happens at night, the entire color palette of the film is very dark and often very murky, even in the interior scenes. “Body Cam” cinematographer Pedro Luque lights a lot of scenes as if almost every location in Swinton is grimy and polluted. The movie was actually filmed in the vibrant city of New Orleans, but you wouldn’t know it from how the cinematography makes this movie’s city look like a depressing urban wasteland.

Blige often delivers her lines in a monotone voice and stiff demeanor that might be her attempt to portray Renée as someone who is numb with grief, but it comes across as simply dull and dreadful acting. The other actors in the film do an adequate job with their underwritten characters that have very forgettable dialogue. And in the case of Rose, who plays a mostly mute Taneesha, there’s hardly any dialogue to be said. Blige is the one who’s supposed to carry the film as the main character, and it appears that she’s not quite ready for this type of heavy lifting. Blige’s original song “Can’t Be Life” is tacked on to the film’s end credits, but even that tune is forgettable and certainly won’t be nominated for any awards.

The ending of “Body Cam” is very easy to predict, even down to the climactic scene that takes place in a dark and abandoned building where no self-respecting cop would go without backup. Unlike the surveillance video in the movie, “Body Cam” can’t be deleted or erased from Blige’s list of acting credits, but she probably wants to forget that she made this substandard film.

Paramount Pictures released “Body Cam” on digital on May 19, 2020. The movie’s VOD release date is June 2, 2020.

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