Review: ‘The Pope’s Exorcist,’ starring Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto, Alex Essoe and Franco Nero

April 13, 2023

by Carla Hay

Daniel Zovatto and Russell Crowe in “The Pope’s Exorcist” (Photo by Jonathan Hession/Screen Gems)

“The Pope’s Exorcist”

Directed by Julius Avery

Some language in Italian, Spanish and Latin with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1987, in Italy and in Spain, the horror film “The Pope’s Exorcist” (based on a real person) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latinos and black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Catholic priest Gabriele Amorth defies a cardinal’s orders not to perform exorcisms, and the priest is sent by the Pope to do an exorcism on a boy at an abbey in Spain that has a connection to the priest’s past. 

Culture Audience: “The Pope’s Exorcist” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Russell Crowe and exorcism horror movies, but the movie’s frequently ludicrous plot and oddly placed comedy make it a substandard horror flick.

Pictured clockwise, from upper left: Peter DeSouza-Feighoney, Russell Crowe, Daniel Zovatto and Alex Essoe in “The Pope’s Exorcist” (Photo courtesy of Screen Gems)

In “The Pope’s Exorcist,” Russell Crowe hams it up as an Italian priest who performs exorcisms. But the jokes aren’t funny enough to make “The Pope’s Exorcist” a comedy, and the exorcisms aren’t scary enough to make it an effective horror movie. It’s just a loud and incoherent mess. The demon-fighting, alcohol-guzzling priest portrayed by Crowe comes across more like a drunk who’s a failed stand-up comedian than a formidable clergy person who is skilled at exorcism.

Directed by Julius Avery, “The Pope’s Exorcist” clearly wanted to make the movie’s title chararacter someone who isn’t a typical exorcist. But all the mediocre and often-cheesy jokes in the film just undermine the scenes that are supposed to be deadly serious. It’s a movie that tries to be amusing and terrifying and ultimately fails at being either or both. Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos wrote the disjointed screenplay for “The Pope’s Exorcist.” The screenplay is based on 1990’s “An Exorcist Tells His Story” and 1992’s “An Exorcist: More Stories,” two of the memoirs of real-life controversial Catholic priest Gabriel Amorthe, who was the official exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, from 1986 to 2016. Amorthe died in 2016, at the age of 91.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” opens with a scene taking place in June 1987, when Father Gabriele Amorth (played by Crowe) visits a family at a farmhouse in Tropea, Italy, in order to perform an exorcism. (“The Pope’s Exorcist” was actually filmed in Ireland.) Father Amorth is accompanied by an assistant named Father Gianni (played by Alessandro Gruttadauria), who mostly just stands by while Father Amorth does the talking and exorcism rituals. The family has a son in his late teens named Enzo (played by River Hawkins), whom they think is possessed by the devil.

When Father Amorth and Father Gianni arrive at the farmhouse, Father Amorth saunters in and takes his time before he gets around to attending to the hissing and convulsing Enzo, who’s in a nearby bedroom. Father Amorth barely says anything to terrified parents Carlos (played by Jordi Collet) and Adella (played by Carrie Munro), who don’t say much to him either. Instead, Father Amorth zeroes in on the couple’s unnamed daughter (played by Laila Barwick), who’s about 7 or 8 years old.

Father Amorth asks the girl if she knows any prayers. She says she knows the Lord’s Prayer. Father Amorth tells her that she needs to keep repeating the Lord’s Prayer during the exorcism. The first thing that might go through some viewers’ minds is, “Why would a priest require a child this young to be involved in something this disturbing and possibly dangerous?” Most parents also wouldn’t want to put their child through the trauma of watching an exorcism.

But “The Pope’s Exorcist” wouldn’t exist if people acted realisitically in the movie. Even in the movie’s context of religious faith being more important than facts, too many people do things that look mindless and illogical. At any rate, the exorcism of Enzo looks like an unintentional parody of exorcisms, with the usual snarls and body contortions that are always seen in these types of movies. The expected “demon voice” is heard also coming from the possessed teen.

When Father Amorth asks the demon what its name is, demon replies: “I am Legion. I am Satan.” (The acting in this scene is horrendous.) Father Amorth than taunts the demon by saying if the demon is so powerful, the demon should be able to possess anyone in the room.

And what does the demon choose to do? The demon takes possession of an unlucky wild boar that’s in the room. Carlos quickly shoots the boar. The demon miraculously goes away. Enzo is no longer possessed. And that’s the end of that exorcism. Father Amorth is satisfied that he has completed another successful exorcism.

But not so fast. Father Amorth is later seen going to a stern meeting before a panel of five Catholic clergymen in July 1987. It’s a formal hearing in Rome, where Father Amorth is being reprimanded for performing that exorcism of Enzo in Tropea, because the exorcism was not officially authorized by the Vatican. Father Amorth also has to answer for other unauthorized exorcisms that he performed.

Father Amorth is a wisecracking “rebel” who tries to use prickly jokes and sarcasm to get himself out of contentious situations. He explains to the panel that 98% of the exorcisms he’s called to do aren’t real exorcisms. “They just need a little conversation … and a little theater.” Father Amorth says that 98% of the people he is told are possessed by the devil are people he refers to psychiatrists.

And what about the remaining 2% of those people? Father Amorth dodges answering that question. Most of the panel doesn’t say anything while Father Amorth defends himself. The person who does the most talking on the panel is Cardinal Sullivan (played by Ryan O’Grady), who is in his late 20s and is openly hostile to Father Amorth.

Father Amorth’s only real ally on the panel is Bishop Lumumba (played by Cornell John), who defends Father Amorth. Days before this meeting, Bishop Lumumba told Father Amorth in a private conversation: “Don’t worry, I will defend your faith.” Father Amorth replied, “My faith does not need defending.”

Cardinal Sullivan announces with a smirk that the Catholic Church will formally vacate the position of exorcist. In other words, Cardinal Sullivan is telling Father Amorth that he’s being fired as the Catholic Church’s chief exorcist for Rome. Father Amorth doesn’t accept that decision. Before the meeting is over, Father Amorth gets up and defiantly tells the panel, “If you have a problem with me, you talk to my boss.” Father Amorth then storms out of the room in a huff.

Meanwhile, an American family of three are driving to a dilapidated abbey in Castilleja, Spain. Julia Vasquez (played Alex Essoe) is a widow who inherited the abbey from her late husband Roberto Vasquez IV (played by Santi Bayón, briefly seen in a flashback), who died in a car accident a year ago. The abbey had been in Roberto’s family for years. In the car with Julia are her two children: rebellious daughter Amy Vasquez (played by Laurel Marsden) is about 15 or 16 years old, while obedient son Henry Vasquez (played by Peter DeSouza-Feighoney) is about 11 or 12 years old.

Conversations in the movie reveal that Julia is financially broke and has no income. The only thing that Roberto left for her in his will was the abbey. Julia has decided to relocate herself and the kids to Spain to refurbish the abbey and sell it, hopefully at a profit. It’s a move that Amy sulks and complains about in the movie, as Amy does things to annoy her mother, such as smoke a cigarette inside the church, flirt with the construction workers, and climb up on unsafe places in the abbey.

Julia is apparently so broke, she can’t afford to stay at a hotel, so she is staying with the kids in the priests’ living quarters at the abbey. It doesn’t take long for spooky things to start happening in the abbey, especially at night. A construction worker is severely burned by lighting a flare near a gas valve. (That’s not supernatural. That’s just stupidity.) This injury is enough for the foreman to have his construction crew quit working on the abbey.

And then the inevitable happens: One of the kids gets possessed by a demon. The unfortunate victim is mild-mannered Henry, who has been mute, ever since his father Roberto died. Henry was in the car during this fatal accident, and he witnessed his father get impaled.

But as soon as the demon possesses Henry, the boy begins to talk. And after being silent for a year, the first words out of Henry’s mouth are: “You’re all going to die.” And then he drags his fingernails hard on his face, leaving deep and bloody scratch marks.

Henry is possessed by a foul-mouthed and lecherous demon. While Henry is possessed, not only are his rants filled with curse words and threats, but he also sexually attacks his mother Julia, by grabbing and fondling her breasts without her consent. The demon yells through Henry: “This baby is hungry, you fat cow! You never breastfed me!”

The demon also demands, “Bring me the priest!” When a priest is brought to the possessed Henry, the priest is thrown across the room, as possessed Henry snarls: “Wrong fucking priest!” We all know which priest this demon wants for a showdown.

Somehow, the Pope (played by Franco Nero) finds out about this demon possession. And before you can say, “silly exorcism movie,” Father Amorth is seen having a one-on-one meeting at the Vatican with the Pope. (In 1987, Pope John Paul II was the leader of the Catholic Church. The Pope in “The Pope’s Exorcist” doesn’t act or sound like Pope John Paul II and has only a slight physical resemblance.)

In this private meeting, the Pope sends Father Amorth to the abbey in Spain to investigate this report of a boy being possessed. The Pope warns Father Amorth that this particular abbey has been problematic in the past for the Catholic Church. “Be careful,” the Pope tells Father Amorth. “This demon sounds dangerous.”

In Spain, Father Amorth meets the family and the young local priest who has been asked to help: Father Esquibel (played by Daniel Zovatto), who appears to be very pious and well-respected. Father Amorth sees for himself that Henry is indeed possessed. When Father Amorth asks the demon what its name is, the demon snarls, “My name is Blasphemy. My name is Nightmare.” Father Amorth quips, “My nightmare is France winning the World Cup.”

Father Amorth does a lot of zipping around on motor scooters, as if he’s some kind “on the go” exorcism delivery boy. Father Amorth is seen driving his Lambretto scooter for the trip from Italy to Spain. Apparently, the Catholic Church apparently doesn’t want to spend money on planes and trains for Father Amorth’s exorcism business trips. And when he’s not on his motor scooter, Father Amorth is gulping down drinks from his ever-present flask of alcohol.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” attempts to give the story some depth by showing that Father Amorth has a dark past that includes the death of a young woman named Rosaria (played by Bianca Bardoe), who is a sore subject for Father Amorth. The Rosaria character is in the movie, just to show another “supernatural force” on the attack against Father Amorth. As shown in flashbacks, there are other things that haunt this unconventional priest, including his experiences when he was in military combat as a young soldier in World War II.

Most of the action scenes in “The Pope’s Exorcist” are poorly staged and sloppily edited. Priests get thrown around and fall from tall heights in satanic brawls, but these priests emerge with no fractures or broken bones, which would surely happen in fights that are this violent. “The Pope’s Exorcist” is overly enamored with its adequate visual effects as being enough to make this movie terrifying. But it’s difficult to feel any terror when the exorcist is walking around cracking jokes.

“The Pope’s Exorcist” also seems to be making up exorcism rules as it goes along. Father Amorth says that he tells jokes because “The devil doesn’t like jokes.” In another part of the movie, he says the only way to get rid of a demon is to find out its real name. But that contradicts the earlier exorcism scene of Enzo being “cured” of demon possession because the demon possessed a boar that was quickly shot to death. And that exorcism doesn’t make sense either, because the demon spirit could still escape from a dead body and possess something or someone else nearby.

As the sardonic Father Amorth, Crowe seems fully game to lean into the wisecracking tone of “The Pope’s Exorcist.” The problem is that the rest of the cast members act like they’re in a life-or-death, grim horror film. Some of the supporting actors over-act and are just not believable in many of their scenes. “The Pope’s Exorcist” might give audiences some chuckles, but it’s the type of absurd horror movie that’s so bad, viewers are more likely to be laughing at it than laughing with it.

Screen Gems will release “The Pope’s Exorcist” in U.S. cinemas on April 14, 2023.

Review: ‘Renfield’ (2023), starring Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage

April 11, 2023

by Carla Hay

Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult in “Renfield” (Photo by Michele K. Short/Universal Pictures)

“Renfield” (2023)

Directed by Chris McKay

Culture Representation: Taking place in New Orleans, the horror comedy film “Renfield” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Asians, African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A real-estate attorney, who has been forced to become an indentured servant procuring victims for vampire Count Dracula, finds himself involved in various hijinks with Dracula and a drug-smuggling gang. 

Culture Audience: “Renfield” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Nicolas Cage and over-the-top comedies about vampires.

Pictured in front: Adrian Martinez and Awkwafina in “Renfield” (Photo by Michele K. Short/Universal Pictures)

Nicolas Cage’s campy performance as Dracula is the best thing about “Renfield,” a horror comedy that sometimes gets a little too one-note and manic for its own good. The movie doesn’t take itself seriously, and neither should viewers. It’s not a movie for anyone who’s overly sensitive to graphic violence on screen, because there’s plenty of blood and gore, in case anyone forgot that “Renfield” is a vampire movie.

Directed by Chris McKay and written by Ryan Ridley, “Renfield” has a very simple concept that frequently gets muddled with the movie’s overreach in trying to do too much action and comedy at once. “Renfield” is supposed to be a satire of support-group culture and how therapy of co-dependence could be applied to someone who is a “familiar” (a servant of a vampire) trying to get out of a toxic relationship with a blood-sucking employer. However, there are subplots that get tangled in the mix that could have been presented in a more straightforward way.

In “Renfield,” Robert Montague Renfield (played by Nicholas Hoult) is a native of Great Britain who is living in the United States and working as a real-estate attorney. That’s how he met Dracula (played by Cage), who forced Renfield (a bachelor with no children) to become Dracula’s familiar. Renfield is tasked with finding murder victims for Dracula and cleaning up Dracula’s messes.

Dracula and Renfield move from city to city to avoid getting caught. In the beginning of “Renfield” (which has frequent narration by Renfield), Dracula and Renfield have settled in New Orleans. Most of “Renfield” is about a madcap feud involving Dracula, Renfield, mobster criminals and police. A drug-smuggling cartel, led by Bellafrancesca Lobo (played by Shohreh Aghdashloo, doing her best Mafia queen impersonation) ends up blaming Renfield for a stolen supply of drugs worth millions.

Meanwhile, Renfield attends a support group for people who are in unhealthy co-dependent relationships. The scenes with the support group meetings are hit and miss. A running gag that gets old quickly is that Renfield shows up and interrupts the meetings at very inconvenient times, usually when someone is in the middle of sharing their emotional pain with the group.

Also hit and miss is the subplot about budding romance between Renfield and a wisecracking New Orleans police officer named Rebecca Quincy (played by Awkwafina), who is trying to prove herself as worthy of her police badge, because her deceased father was a New Orleans police captain who was a well-respected local legend. Rebecca’s serious-minded sister Kate (played by Camille Chen) is an agent for the FBI. Rebecca and Kate have a sibling rivalry that is clumsily shoehorned into the story and is ultimately not essential to the overall plot.

Rebecca and Kate are the only ones who are living in a parent’s shadow. Bellafrancesca has made her bungling son Tedward “Teddy” Lobo (played by Ben Schwartz) her second-in-command. And he’s desperate to impress his mother, but he often fails miserably, because he’s such a buffoon. You can easily predict who will be in the movie’s biggest showdown toward the end.

Character development is not the strong point of “Renfield.” The main characters don’t have much depth, while the supporting characters aren’t too interesting and just exist in the movie to react to the antics or give a few unremarkable quips. Rebecca’s police supervisor Chris Marcos (played by Adrian Martinez) could have been a hilarious character, but he doesn’t get enough screen time to have an impact. The leader of the support group is a sensitive counselor named Mark (played by Brandon Scott Jones), who is written and portrayed as a character to be ridiculed for being a counselor who is immersed in political correctness.

There aren’t very many surprises in “Renfield,” but the movie can deliver some laughs for people who might like this type of entertainment. Hoult plays the “straight man” to Cage’s wacky Dracula. The movie has some dull reptition, but the overall pace of the movie is energetic. Renfield is a mixture of neurotic and empathetic, and Hoult is perfectly fine in this role, but the filmmakers made the mistake of naming the movie after this character. The real star of the show is unquestionably Dracula.

Universal Pictures will release “Renfield” in U.S. cinemas on April 14, 2023.

Review: ‘Malum’ (2023), starring Jessica Sula, Eric Olson, Chaney Morrow and Candice Coke

April 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

Jessica Sula in “Malum” (Photo courtesy of Welcome Villain Films)

“Malum” (2023)

Directed by Anthony DiBlasi

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Lanford, the horror film “Malum” (a reimagining of the 2015 horror film “Last Shift”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A rookie police officer with a tragic family background is assigned to be the only cop on duty during the last shift of a decommissioned police station that appears to be haunted. 

Culture Audience: “Malum” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of “Last Shift” and horror movies about cults and prisons.

Jessica Sula in “Malum” (Photo courtesy of Welcome Villain Films)

“Malum” is not very original, it can get repetitive, and some of the acting is amateurish from the supporting cast members. However, the movie excels at some terrific horror visuals, and the lead performances carry the movie during its weaker moments. “Malum” is a slightly inferior reimagining of the horror movie “Last Shift,” which was released in 2015. The ending of “Malum” is much more predictable than “Last Shift,” but there are unique jump scares and story elements in “Malum” that are improvements from “Last Shift.”

“Malum” and “Last Shift” were both directed by Anthony DiBlasi and written by DiBlasi and Scott Poiley. Both movies have the same concept: a rookie female cop is working the last shift inside a decommissioned prison that is haunted. However, certain aspects of both movies are different from each other. In “Malum” (which takes place in the fictional U.S. city of Lanford), the rookie cop has the same name as the “Last Shift” rookie cop: Jessica Loren. In “Malum,” Jessica Loren is played by Jessica Sula.

“Last Shift” begins with a “found footage” scene of a Charles Manson-like cult murdering young women who have been kidnapped. Viewers later find out that this was a cult known as the Farm Cult, who lived on a remote farm. The cult’s leader was a sadistic maniac named John Malum (played by Chaney Morrow), who was arrested for the murders, along with several other members of the cult.

The police officer who led this group arrest of the Farm Cult was 52-year-old Captain Will Loren (played by Eric Olson), who is hailed as a local hero. But in the beginning of the movie, Will is shown at the Lanford Police Department committing a heinous crime: He murders two other police officers with a shotgun before using the same shotgun to committ suicide.

One year later, Will’s daughter Jessica is shown visiting Will’s grave. Someone shows up at the graveyard who is an unwelcome visitor to Jessica: her mother Diane (played by Candice Coke), who is very unhappy that Jessica has decided to become a police officer. Jessica and Diane have an argument over her career choice and other issues that have been going on longer than before Will died. Diane is an alcoholic, and Jessica (who calls Diane by her first name) blames Diane for Jessica’s unhappy childhood.

Jessica’s very first night shift job as a police officer is to work the very last shift at the decommissioned Lanford Police Department station. A new Lanford Police Department station has already been built and is open. It’s where almost all of the Lanford Police Department staff works. On this particular night, members of the Farm Cult who weren’t arrested have been wreaking havoc around the city, so members of the Lanford Police Department have been busy responding to the chaos.

Before Jessica begins her shift at the decommissioned police station, she gets a very hostile reaction from police officer Grip Cohen (played by Britt George), who is the only other cop in the station when she arrives to take over the work shift. Before he leaves for the night, Grip yells and curses at Jessica, in an attempt to intimidate her. He gets even angrier when he finds out that she is Will’s daughter. Grip asks Jessica what she’s doing working at this police department, and she says she just wants to work as a cop.

The rest of “Malum” shows Jessica having strange and terrifying encounters at the police station. She think she’s alone in the building. But is she really alone? And through it all, Jessica keeps getting harassing phone calls from women who seem to be members of the Farm Cult, because they keep using the Farm Cult’s names for a police officer: “pig” or “piggy.” Eventually, Jessica looks through her father’s former locker and finds something that helps solve some of the lingering mysteries that have haunted her and other people in Lanford.

One of the biggest questions that viewers ask whenever there’s a horror movie about a person or people getting attacked in a haunted place is: “Why don’t they just leave?” In “Malum,” the reason why Jessica stays is because she is determined to prove to people like Grip that she has what it takes to be a brave police officer. She also knows that several people want her to quit the police department, because of what her father did, and she does not want to give her naysayers the satisfaction of having her quit.

Jessica does not excuse the murders that her father committed, but she wholeheartedly believes that there could be a sinister explanation for why he did what he did, since he had no previous indications of ever being mentally ill or inclined to murder. The revelations in “Malum” aren’t too surprising. And the repetition of Jessica seeing terrifying visions and getting threatening phone calls can get a little tedious. However, Sula gives a very compelling performance that makes “Malum” an effective horror thriller for viewers who have the tolerance to see gruesome, blood-drenched scenes.

Welcome Villain Films released “Malum” in select U.S. cinemas on March 31, 2023. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on May 16, 2023.

Review: ‘Legions’ (2022), starring Germán De Silva, Lorena Vega, Ezequiel Rodríguez, Mauro Altschuler and Fernando Alcaraz

March 27, 2023

by Carla Hay

Marta Haller in “Legions” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Legions” (2022)

Directed by Fabián Forte

Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Argentina, the comedic horror film “Legions” features a Latino cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: An elderly, powerful sorcerer, who is locked away in a psychiatric institution hopes to reunite with his long-lost daughter to save Argentina from demonic forces.

Culture Audience: “Legions” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching tacky-looking and incoherent horror movies.

Germán De Silva in “Legions” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Legions” tries too hard to be bizarre. The end result is a horror movie that isn’t very scary. The visual effects are also very cheap-looking and tacky. The father-daughter sorcerer storyline isn’t as interesting as it could have been. And the movie’s intentional comedy is often clumsily handled and not very funny at all.

Written and directed by Fabián Forte, “Legions” (which takes place in Argentina) tells the story of a powerful sorcerer named Antonio Poyju, an elderly man (played by Germán De Silva), who has been locked up in a psychiatric institution for many years. He says in a voiceover in the beginning of the movie: “Some people call me a shaman, a sorcerer. I prefer to be called a mediator between worlds. I belong to a lineage of powerful men. My blood is sacred.”

A flashback to 1980 shows Antonio as a young man (played by Fernando Alcaraz) in the Missionary Jungle, where Antonio says he confronted “a very dangerous demon, from the lower levels.” In this flashback, a 16-year-old girl (played by Julieta Brito) appears to be dead on the ground, until a young Antonio blows smoke in her face. She then appears to come to life, and she attacks him.

She says to Antonio: “Sorcerer, I condemn your offspring,” as Antonio throws holy water on her. Viewers later find out that this girl was daughter Elena, and she was possessed by a demon. Did the demon’s curse happen?

A flash-forward to the present day shows that Antonio has heartbreak in his life: Elena disppeared from his life in 1980, shortly after the demon’s curse. Antonio has been looking for her ever since. Another flashback shows that when Elena was a baby, Antonio once found his wife Amanda (played by Laura Manzaneda) with black bile coming out of her eyes and mouth, after she was seen in a trance asking something unseen: “Why do you want to take our baby.”

In the psychatric institution, Antonio complains to a psychiatrist: “I’m surrounded by faithless young people.” The movie then goes on a very dull and weird tangent by wasting a lot of time showing a dramatic play that is being staged in the institution. The play is based on Antonio’s life story, so he is overseeing it and acting like he’s some kind of important director. Other patients in the institution are elderly Roberto (played by Mauro Altschuler), middle-aged Olga (played by Marta Haller) and young Eduardo (played by Víctor Malagrino), who at various times bicker with each other and with Antonio.

It’s enough to say that an adult Elena (played Lorena Vega) comes back into her father Antonio’s life. The spirit of Elena’s dead grandmother Isarrina (played by Isabel Quinteros) possesses Elena and warns Elena and Antonio that a demon named Kuaraya wants to sacrifice Elena on “the red moon’s night.” And then there’s some nonsense about Antonio and Elena having to team up to save Argentina from a demon takeover.

Overall, “Legions” is not the worst horror movie ever. It just doesn’t tell the story in a way that is very intriguing. The acting performances aren’t impressive. It’s one of those horror film that fills up a lot of “jump scare” time with scenes of demon sightings and people with blood coming out of various body parts. The inevitable showdown is a jumbled mess that offers no surprise. “Legions” is ultimately a forgettable horror film among the many horror films about people with supernatural powers who try to stop demons.

XYZ Films released “Legions” on digital and VOD on January 19, 2023. The movie was released in Argentina on December 1, 2022.

Review: ‘The Devil Conspiracy,’ starring Alice Orr-Ewing, Joe Doyle, Eveline Hall, Peter Mensah, Joe Anderson, Brian Caspe and James Faulkner

March 26, 2023

by Carla Hay

Alice Orr-Ewing in “The Devil Conspiracy” (Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films)

“The Devil Conspiracy”

Directed by Nathan Frankowski

Some language in Italian with no subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Italy, the horror film “The Devil Conspiracy” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An art historian uncovers a sinister biogenetics plot conjured up by Satanists, while the evil angel Lucifer plots his revenge on good archangel Michael.

Culture Audience: “The Devil Conspiracy” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching idiotic horror movies that are a mishmash of other movies’ concepts that use characters from Christian teachings.

Joe Anderson (below) and Peter Mensah in “The Devil Conspiracy” (Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films)

“The Devil Conspiracy” is a bombastic train wreck of a horror movie with an onslaught of bad acting and stupid scenarios. It’s a weak ripoff of ideas from Rosemary’s Baby and Legion, but with the setting in Italy, instead of New York City or Los Angeles. The movie tries to juggle two different stories that are supposed to be connected. The ends result is that “The Devil Conspiracy” doesn’t succeed at telling either story and is just a jumbled mess.

Directed by Nathan Frankowski and written by Ed Alan, “The Devil Conspiracy” shows the first story, which is a battle between the evil angel Lucifer (played by Joe Anderson) and the good archangel Michael (played by Peter Mensah), with Lucifer losing the battle. Lucifer falls from the sky. Michael then puts Lucifer in chains and says that Lucifer will be set free if Lucifer joins Michael as an ally. Lucifer refuses and says he will return as Michael’s master. legions of demons join Lucifer in hell as Lucifer plots his revenge.

“The Devil Conspiracy” then ignores this Lucifer/Michael feud for most of the movie until the last third of the film. The second story is about an art historian named Laura Milton (played by Alice Orr-Ewing), an American. She is spending a lot of time at a museum that has a very special exhibition: the shroud of Jesus Christ, also known as the Shroud of Turin. This shroud has a major role in a poorly conceived biogenetics plot development that is revealed later in the movie.

Before she goes to the museum to see this shroud, Laura meets Dr. Andre Russo (played by Andrea Scarduzio) from Turin University, and she has an awkward conversation with him. Laura pleads with Dr. Russo to reconsider her thesis. He replies, “The last thing Turin University wants to hear is a young American lecturing us on what our great Italian artists believed or didn’t believe.”

Laura then says she doesn’t believe in angels or a dark side of the afterlife. Dr. Russo says they can continue this discussion at his apartment. Laura knows exactly what he means by this invitation. And she wisely declines. It’s probably one of the few smart decisions that Laura makes, because this character is the unflattering stereotype of a horror heroine who makes some very bad decisions.

At the museum, which is crowded with people eager to see the Shroud of Turin, Laura doesn’t have a ticket, but she gets a laminated pass from a priest she knows as a professional acquaintance: Father Marconi (played by Joe Doyle), who won’t be himself for much longer. Through a series of circumstances, something happens that is already revealed in “The Devil Conspiracy” trailer: Father Marconi is murdered in the museum. Archangel Michael then immediately comes down to Earth and inhabits Father Marconi’s body, which is brought back to life with the spirit of Michael inside.

“The Devil Conspiracy” then wastes a lot of time with repetitive scenes of Laura lurking around the museum after it’s closed and seeing strange things that might look scary to her, but actually look like cheap-looking horror movie tactics. A witchy-looking woman named Liz (played by Eveline Hall) shows up occasionally, with and without some cronies, to cause some murders and other mayhem. Laura is then kidnapped and put in a glass cage in a room with three other young women who are also in glass cages: hysterical Sophia (played by Wendy Rosas), tough-looking Alina (played by Natalia Germani) and sensible Brenda (played by Victoria Chilap).

The rest of “The Devil Conspiracy” then becomes a tangled mishmash of science fiction and demonic possession that is so ridiculous and poorly explained, even the characters in the movie who are supposed to believe in what’s happening never look convinced. These characters include Dr. Laurent (played by Brian Caspe) and Cardinal Vincinia (played by James Faulkner), representing the inept way that “The Devil Conspiracy” tries to present conflicts between science and religion. The movie is also plagued with tacky-looking visual effects that are more laughable than terrifying. The film editing is atrocious and just makes the entire movie look even more scatterbrained than it already is.

And some of the soundtrack music is enough to make a viewer’s eyes roll with the corniness of it all. For example, there’s a scene where archangel Michael, while inhabiting the body of the dead Father Marconi, is listening to some songs while driving a car. The songs are INXS’s 1987 classic “Devil Inside” and Real Life’s 1983’s hit “Send Me an Angel.” Yes, really.

One of the worst things about “The Devil Conspiracy” is the very incoherent showdown scene that’s supposed to be the big climax to the movie. Apparently, “The Devil Conspiracy” filmmakers haven’t learned that throwing a bunch of low-quality visual effects into darkly lit scenes does not automatically make a movie thrilling to watch. By the end of “The Devil Conspiracy,” viewers will feel that the only convincing hell that this movie was able to conjure up was the hell of having wasted time watching this junk.

Samuel Goldwyn Films released “The Devil Conspiracy” in U.S. cinemas on January 13, 2023. The movie was released on digital and VOD on March 3, 2023.

Review: ‘Huesera: The Bone Woman,’ starring Natalia Solián, Alfonso Dosal, Mayra Batalla and Mercedes Hernández

March 17, 2023

by Carla Hay

Natalia Solián in “Huesera: The Bone Woman” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Huesera: The Bone Woman”

Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera

Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Mexico, the horror film “Huesera: The Bone Woman” features a Latino cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman’s pregnancy and her sanity are threatened when she keeps having nightmarish visions of her bones breaking and women who can contort their limbs and seem to be agents of death. 

Culture Audience: “Huesera: The Bone Woman” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in seeing bizarre horror movies with intriguing stories and striking visuals.

Natalia Solián in “Huesera: The Bone Woman” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Huesera: The Bone Woman” delivers plenty of creepy images and convincing acting performances. Just don’t expect a clear and complete explanation for all of the disturbing incidents in this effective horror movie. The movie’s sound effects are just as terrifying as the visuals.

“Huesera: The Bone Woman” is the feature-film debut of director Michelle Garza Cervera, who co-wrote the movie’s screenplay with Abia Castillo. The movie had its world premiere at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, where Garza Cervera won the awards for Best New Narrative Director and the Nora Ephron Prize, an award given to emerging female filmmakers. Garza Cervera is certainly a talent to watch, since “Huesera: The Bone Woman” is the type of movie that will immediately hook viewers into the story and won’t let go.

The beginning of “Huesera: The Bone Woman” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Mexico) has a stunning visual of people gathered at the feet of La Virgen de Guadalupe (a giant gold statue of the Virgin Mary), somewhere in wooded area in Mexico. This statue (which is about 100 feet tall) doesn’t exist in real life, but it was created through visual effects for the movie. Religion and motherhood are major themes throughout “Huesera: The Bone Woman.”

The movie’s protagonist is a woman in her 30s named Valeria Hernandez (played by Natalia Solián), who has been married to her mild-mannered husband Raúl (played by Alfonso Dosal) for an untold number of years. Valeria (who makes furniture in her home shop) and Raúl (who works in advertising) seem to be happily married. But soon, viewers find out that the only strain in their marriage is that Valeria and Raúl have been trying unsuccessfully for a long time to have a child.

That disappointment is about to change when Valeria visits her gynecologist (played by Emilram Cossío) for a medical exam because she’s fairly certain that she’s pregnant. The doctor confirms that she’s three months pregnant. Valeria and Raúl are ecstatic about this happy news and start making plans for their first child. Valeria wants to make a crib for the baby, even though her doctor advises her to temporarily stop doing any furniture-making work while she’s pregnant.

Not everyone is thrilled about Valeria’s pregnancy. One day, Valeria and Raúl go to visit Valeria’s parents Luis (played by Enoc Leaño) and Maricarmen (played by Aida López), who are excited to hear that Valeria is going to become a parent. However, Valeria’s older sister Vero (played by Sonia Couoh), a single mother who lives in her parents’ household with Vero’s two kids, is skeptical that Valeria will be a good mother. Also in the household is Maricarmen’s sister Isabel (played by Mercedes Hernández), who has never been married and has no children.

Vero makes snide and sarcastic comments every time Valeria talks about the pregnancy, such as saying that she thought Valeria would never get pregnant because Valeria was getting to be “too old” to conceive a child. Vero also says that she wouldn’t trust Valeria to babysit or be alone with Vero’s two children: Jorge (played by Luciano Martí), who’s about 10 or 11 years old and Paola (played by Camila Leoneé), who’s about 9 or 10 years old. Why is so Vero so uptight and hostile about Valeria being around children?

When the family is gathered for a meal at the dining room table, Vero tells Raúl why she thinks Valeria won’t have good parenting skills: When Valeria was younger (perhaps when she was an adolescent), she was asked to babysit an infant, but Valeria dropped the child on the ground. An embarrassed Valeria tells Raúl that the baby wasn’t injured, but viewers later find out that it’s a lie.

After this uncomfortable family gathering, Raúl and Valeria are driving back to their home when a woman stops the car to talk to them. Her name is Octavia (played by Mayra Batalla), who was close to Valeria when they were in high school together. Octavia and Valeria haven’t seen or spoken to each other in years. They make small talk, as Valeria introduces Raúl to Valeria.

Octavia looks at Raúl suspiciously and immediately gives off “jealous ex-girlfriend” vibes. And sure enough, later in the movie, it’s revealed that Valeria and Octavia were lovers when they were teenagers. Raúl doesn’t know, and neither does Valeria’s family. It’s implied that Valeria has been keeping her queer identity a secret from most people in her life.

Flashbacks in the movie show that teenage Valeria (played by Gabriela Velarde) and teenage Octavia (played by Isabel Luna) were both in a rebelllious, hard-partying clique that included other queer people. Valeria and Octavia even made plans to move away together after they graduated from high school. However, Valeria changed her mind, and that’s what ended her relationship with Octavia, who seems to still be heartbroken and bitter over this breakup. Valeria later finds out that Octavia, who still has a hard-partying lifestyle, lives by herself and is not dating anyone special.

Because “Huesera: The Bone Woman” is a horror movie, it doesn’t take long for some frightening things to happen. Valeria begins to imagine that bones in parts of her body (such as a foot) suddenly break. She also sees faceless women who contort their bodies in grotesque ways and seem to be coming after Valeria to attack her or do something violent.

There’s a scene where Valeria is looking at the apartment building that’s directly across from the apartment building where Valeria and Raúl live. Valeria is horrified to see a faceless young woman contort her body, climb on the balcony, and jump to her death. Valeria even sees the bloodied and mangled corpse on the ground. But when Valeria rushes to tell Raúl about what she saw, and they both go to investigate, there’s nothing there.

“Huesera: The Bone Woman” can get a little repetitive with the over-used horror narrative of a woman seeing terrifying visions that no one else can see, and then people start to think that she’s mentally ill. However, many of the images in “Huesera: The Bone Woman” are truly unique, particularly in the movie’s last 15 minutes. Fire and water are both used effectively in some of the film’s best scenes, by tapping into fears of drowning or burning to death.

And get used to the sound of bones being contorted or fractured. Not only does Valeria have a habit of cracking her knuckles, the visions that haunt her almost always include the sounds of bones breaking. It might be too nauseating for some viewers, but the movie’s sound design and sound mixing are top-notch for achieving the intended horror. The cinematography by Nur Rubio Sherwell is also noteworthy for how it creates a foreboding atmosphere, amid what is supposed to be domestic bliss for a new mother.

“Huesera: The Bone Woman” blurs the lines between what is religion and what is pagan witchcraft. More than once, Valeria visits a spiritualist named Ursula (played by Martha Claudia Moreno) for guidance and some rituals. Valeria’s Aunt Isabel, who is treated like a weirdo in the family, because Isabel never got married and has no children, becomes more important to troubled Valeria, as Valeria starts to question her own life choices.

All of the cast members play their parts well, but “Huesera: The Bone Woman” would not be as memorable without the stellar lead performance of Solián. Even when the story gets a little muddled, and viewers will begin to wonder why it’s taking so long to explain why Valeria is experiencing all this terror, Solián maintains an authenticity to her character throughout the movie. Valeria is not a typical “damsel in nightmarish distress” from horror movies, which often care more about the murdered body count than the interior lives of the protagonists.

Is there a bone woman named Huesera in the movie? In real life, there is a fairly obscure Mexican folk tale about an elderly woman named Huesera, who collected bones and brought these bones back to life, but don’t expect that to be part of the movie’s story. “Huesera: The Bone Woman” could have done the most obvious thing and made the movie into a ghost story, with Huesera haunting Valeria. However, by the end of the film, viewers can understand the intended message: Sometimes, what can haunt people the most is when they try to hide from their true selves.

XYZ Films released “Huesera: The Bone Woman” in select U.S. cinemas on February 10, 2023. Shudder premiered the movie on February 16, 2023. “Huesera: The Bone Woman” was released on digital and VOD on February 17, 2023.

Review: ‘Sound of Silence’ (2023), starring Penelope Sangiorgi, Rocco Marazzita, Lucia Caporaso, Daniele De Martino, Chiara Casolari, Peter Stephen Wolmarans and Alessandra Pizzullo

March 14, 2023

by Carla Hay

Penelope Sangiorgi in “Sound of Silence” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

“Sound of Silence” (2023)

Directed by Alessandro Antonaci, Daniel Lascar and Stefano Mandalà

Some language in Italian with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Italy and briefly in New York City, the supernatural horror film “Sound of Silence” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A New York City-based aspiring singer travels to her Italy with her boyfriend after her parents are injured in a mysterious incident, and she finds out that her parents’ home in Italy is haunted by a vengeful spirit. 

Culture Audience: “Sound of Silence” will appeal primarily to people who want to experience some ghost images and loud noises in a monotonous and predictable horror movie.

Peter Stephen Wolmarans in “Sound of Silence” (Photo courtesy of XYZ Films)

The horror movie “Sound of Silence” over-relies on annoying sound effects as a distraction from the very limp and predictable story. Note to filmmakers: Repeating loud noises doesn’t automatically make a horror movie scary. Unfortunately, “Sound of Silence” is also hindered by substandard acting for underdeveloped characters that are just hollow vessels in a cliché-ridden and vapid story with an idiotic ending.

It’s usually not a good sign when a non-anthology film is written and directed by three or more people, because it usually results in the film having “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome. “Sound of Silence” was written and directed by Alessandro Antonaci, Daniel Lascar, Stefano Mandalà (collectively known as T3), which means it took three people to write and direct a lousy flim with a flimsy plot. It’s yet another “haunted house” film where a vengeful spirit is inflicting terror on people in the house. It’s okay to have this over-used concept in a horror movie if the movie has a great story with credible acting. It’s not okay if the movie is just a waste of time with bad acting and tedious storytelling that is more irritating than scary.

“Sound of Silence” (which is a very darkly lit film) begins in an unnamed city in Italy, where middle-aged Peter Wilson (played by Peter Stephen Wolmarans) is fiddling with an old radio in his attic. The radio is shaped like the upper half of an oval. Peter’s wife Margherita Wilson (played by Alessandra Pizzullo) briefly appears in the room to tell Peter to come downstairs in about 15 minutes for dinner. After she leaves, Peter notices that every time he turns on the radio, a ghostly figure of a woman appears and gets closer to him every time. After Peter turns the radio on and off several times, the next time he turns on the radio, the woman suddenly goes up to him and strangles him.

Meanwhile, Peter’s daughter Emma Wilson (played by Penelope Sangiorgi) is a New York City-based aspiriing singer whose career has been stalling because she has panic attacks every time she goes to an audition, often in front of the same judges. The movie shows one such audition, where Emma shows up but then doesn’t say a word when she gets in the audition room and then quickly leaves. Emma has a supportive live-in boyfriend named Seba (played by Rocco Marazzita), who encourages Emma to not give up on her dreams.

One day, Emma gets a call from Italy telling her that her father Peter is in a hospital because he has broken ribs and a concussion. Emma and Seba go to Italy, where the hospital doctor (played by Alessandro Marmorini) tells Emma that Margherita has defensive bruises on her face and arms. The doctor tactfully suggests to Emma that Margherita might be the victim of domestic abuse and is lying about it to protect Peter. Meanwhile, Margherita makes this comment to Emma about Peter: “He tried to kill me, but he wasn’t your father.” It’s at this point you know there is also going to be a ghostly possession angle to this movie.

The rest of “Sound of Silence” is a repetitive slog of Emma revisiting the attic and a home recording studio that her parents built for her when she lived in the house. Emma discovers the radio in the attic, as well as the radio’s connection to the ghost lurking around this dark and dreary house. Then there’s some nonsense about the people in the house being paranoid about the ghosts hearing their conversations. And so, the people in the house have to communicate in silence—or if they talk out loud, Emma wants to something in the room at a noisy volume to drown out the conversation.

Expect to hear the blaring sounds of radio/TV static and screaming turned up to obnoxious levels throughout “Sound of Silence.” Other characters in this muddled movie include a woman named Angelica (played by Lucia Caporaso), a girl named Alice (played by Chiara Casolari) and a man named Claudio (played by Claudio Dughera). It all just leads to a very underwhelming revelation and a very silly last scene hinting at a “Sound of Silence” sequel that probably will never get made.

XYZ Films released “Sound of Silence” on March 9, 2023.

Review: ‘Swallowed’ (2023), starring Cooper Koch, Jena Malone, Jose Colon and Mark Patton

March 13, 2023

by Carla Hay

Mark Patton and Cooper Koch in “Swallowed” (Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures)

“Swallowed” (2023)

Directed by Carter Smith

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. state and Canadian province near the U.S.-Canada border, the sci-fi horror film “Swallowed” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with one Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Before an aspiring porn actor moves to Los Angeles, he and his best friend are forced to go on a drug-smuggling run by swallowing the contraband, but the contraband ends up being dangerous insects that people use for intoxication. 

Culture Audience: “Swallowed” will appeal primarily to people who want to see gratitous body horror scenes with an uninteresting story that has a lot of plot holes.

Jose Colon and Cooper Koch in “Swallowed” (Photo courtesy of Momentum Pictures)

“Swallowed” starts off as an intriguing but somewhat far-fetched horror film. However, when Mark Patton and his terrible acting show up, the movie turns into a campy, boring and repetitive mess. The movie’s ending is also very weak and unimaginative.

Written and directed by Carter Smith, “Swallowed” could have been a much better film if it had a consistent tone and if the last half of the movie had a better-constructed story. Instead, the latter half of the movie just has idiotic scene after idiotic scene that are meant to shock and nauseate viewers without bothering to answer questions that “Swallowed” brought up in the beginning of the movie.

“Swallowed” begins by showing two American best friends in their 20s named Benjamin (played by Cooper Koch) and Dom (played by Jose Colon), who are drinking at a bar on their last night together before Benjamin moves to Los Angeles. The movie takes place in an unnamed U.S. state and in a Canadian province near the U.S.-Canada border. “Swallowed” was actually filmed in Maine.

During this bittersweet get-together, Benjamin (who sometimes goes by the name Ben) says to Dom: “Tell me one good reason why I should stay here,” in a tone of voice suggesting that Benjamin would stay if Dom gave him a good reason. Dom doesn’t try to convince Benjamin to stay. Instead, he warns Benjamin that the people who are paying Benjamin’s living expenses while Benjamin is living in Los Angeles will probably expect Benjamin to pay them back, one way or another.

It turns out that Benjamin (who is openly gay) is moving to Los Angeles to become a porn actor. And the unidentified people who are telling Benjamin that he could be a porn star are the ones who have convinced him to move to Los Angeles, with the promise that they will cover his expenses. Dom identifies as heterosexual, but the movie repeatedly drops hints that Dom is bi-curious and has some sexual attraction to Benjamin. Dom tells Benjamin that he has a surprise: He wants to give Benjamin some money as a going-away present.

But there’s a catch that Benjamin doesn’t find out about until it’s too late: Dom is getting this money through a drug deal. Dom drives himself and Benjamin to a remote wooded area, where Dom goes to meet the drug connection. Dom is alarmed to see his cousin Dee (played by Hannah Perry) in the passenger seat of a car. Dee looks barely conscious and is obviously under the influence of an unknown substance.

Dee’s friend Alice (played by Jena Malone), who set up this drug deal, won’t tell Dom what Dee ingested. All that Alice will say is that Dee “isn’t feeling well” and that Alice will look after her. Dee was supposed to be part of this drug run, but since she’s unable to do it, Alice says that Dom will have to make the drug run without Dee.

And then, Alice tells Dom that he has to swallow the drugs, which are wrapped in condoms. Dom refuses and is about to leave with Benjamin, who tells Dom that he doesn’t need any money from Dom. But then, Alice pulls a gun on both of them, makes them swallow what appears to be a white substance in the condoms, and tells Dom and Benjamin that they both have to go on this drug-smuggling run, whether Dom and Benjamin want to or not.

Alice refuses to tell Dom and Benjamin what they swallowed. However, she gives specific instructions that when the drugs are delivered, the condoms have to be “clean,” because she assumes that the condoms will exit Dom’s and Benjamin’s body through defecation. Before Alice drives away, she tells Dom and Benjamin where to meet her after the drugs have been smuggled safely over the Canadian border.

During this tension-filled road trip, where Dom and Benjamin argue about what to do about this problem, the two pals go to a rest stop so that Dom use the restroom to try and defecate out condom-wrapped drugs that are in his intestinal system. It doesn’t work, and Benjamin goes in the restroom to check in on Dom. They have a conversation while Dom is on a toilet in a locked stall, and Benjamin is directly outside the stall.

Almost as soon as that happens, a stocky, homophobic bully (identified in the movie’s end credits as Randy Redneck, played by Michael Shawn Curtis) goes in the restroom. When Randy Redneck sees Benjamin in the rest room talking though the closed bathroom stall to Dom, this homophobe automatically assumes that Dom and Benjamin in the restroom for a sexual tryst. As already shown in the trailer for “Swallowed,” when Dom tells the Randy Redneck to back off and mind his own business, Randy Redneck punches Dom very hard in the stomach.

From then on, Dom is in excruciating pain, as it’s implied that Randy Redneck’s punch ruptured one of the condoms inside Dom’s body. One of the condoms eventually comes out of his body. The condom is intact, but it doesn’t have powdered drugs in it. The trailer for “Swallowed” already reveals that what’s inside those condoms are white caterpillar-like creatures that Dom and Benjamin have never seen before.

Dom is in so much pain, he can barely walk. He also says that he can’t feel his legs. During this long road trip, Dom tells Benjamin: “I can’t feel my legs, but my dick has been hard for an hour.” He then nuzzles up close to Benjamin in a sexually suggestive way, as if he wants Benjamin to do something about Dom’s erection. Benjamin just looks uncomfortable and scared.

As Dom’s intestinal pain gets worse, a terrified and panicked Benjamin decides that Dom has to be taken to a hospital—even if the drugs are found in their system, and they get in trouble for it. But just then, an angry Alice arrives back on the scene in her car and knows exactly where Dom and Benjamin are on this deserted road. Did she put a tracking device on Dom’s car? The movie never says how Alice found them so easily. There are lot of these types of plot holes in “Swallowed.”

Alice is impatient to get this drug deal done, but Benjamin insists on going to a hospital to get medical help for Dom and possibly himself. Alice says they says she’ll help Benjamin bring Dom to a hospital, on the condition that she does the driving in her Jeep. Anyone with common sense can see that Alice is lying. However, Alice still has a gun, which she uses as a threat, in order to force Benjamin to do what she wants.

Instead going to a hospital, Alice takes Dom and Benjamin to a remote wooded area, where she says her boss lives. They go to a small cabin, where Alice holds Dom and Benjamin hostage. She tells Dom and Benjamin that they won’t be going to any hospital until the drugs come out of their bodies first. Because she doesn’t want to do the dirty work herself, you can imagine what happens next.

Eventually, Alice’s boss—a lecherous creep named Rich (played by Patton)—arrives at the cabin. None of this is spoiler information, because the trailer for “Swallowed” gives away about 85% of the plot. The movie gives no explanation of the origin of these insect-like creatures that Alice eventually reveals are being sold as exotic and trendy ways for people to “get high” if they lick these animals.

“Swallowed” also never explains why it was so urgent for Dom and Benjamin to swallow the packets when there was little to no chance of their car being searched when they crossed the border, as long as they made sure not to call attention to themselves by acting suspicious. Drug mules who swallow contraband almost always do so because they have to go through airport security to get where they’re going. It’s pretty obvious that “Swallowed” writer/director Smith didn’t do enough research into the realities of drug trafficking before making this poorly conceived movie.

During all the scenes with Rich, “Swallowed” takes a steep nosedive into over-exaggerated acting, awkward pauses and fake-looking emoting during conversations. Rich, who is openly gay (he calls himself a “queen”), immediately shows that he’s lusting after Benjamin. At a certain point, the movie goes from body horror into something that looks like a predatory Grindr hookup gone bad.

Malone and Patton portray one-note villains in “Swallowed,” and their performances are not impressive at all. Colon spends most of his screen time playing a shallow character who’s doubled over in pain. Koch is the only cast member who is required to show emotional range, and his performance is adequate but overshadowed by how stagnant the movie gets in the last half of the story.

And don’t be fooled by the poster/key art for “Swallowed,” which has a misleading image that’s never in the movie. One of the worst things about “Swallowed,” besides Patton’s cringeworthy acting, is that the movie gets more and more ridiculous, thereby ruining the potential to be a truly scary horror film. Instead, it just turns into series of gross-out “proctology” scenes and the villains yelling a lot while they point a gun at their victims. It seems like this time-wasting, junkpile movie was made as a pathetic excuse to depict some twisted fantasies involving bugs and a human anus.

Momentum Pictures released “Swallowed” on digital and VOD on February 14, 2023.

Review: ‘Bunker’ (2023), starring Eddie Ramos, Luke Baines, Julian Feder, Patrick Moltane, Michael Mihm and Quinn Moran

March 6, 2023

by Carla Hay

Luke Baines and Eddie Ramos in “Bunker” (Photo by Nancy J. Parisi/Blue Fox Entertainment)

“Bunker” (2023)

Directed by Adrian Langley

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Germany during World War I, the horror film “Bunker” features a nearly all-white cast of characters (with one Latino) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A group of American and British military men find themselves trapped in a bunker with a mysterious German soldier, and it isn’t long before they find out that something evil is lurking in the bunker. 

Culture Audience: “Bunker” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching horror movies that take place during a war, no matter how poorly made and dull the movies are.

Patrick Moltane in “Bunker” (Photo by Nancy J. Parisi/Blue Fox Entertainment)

An evil creature isn’t the only thing that’s hiding in the World War I horror movie “Bunker,” because a good story and credible acting are nowhere to be found in this dreadfully dull misfire. The last 15 minutes of the movie are especially awful. The vast majority of “Bunker” is an unimaginative and repetitive depiction of World War I soldiers trapped in a bunker and being in various states of denial that something evil is lurking in the deep recesses of the bunker. At various times, some of the trapped military men start vomiting up a milky white substance, which is supposed to be scary, but it just looks like they have dairy indigestion.

Directed by Adrian Langley and written by Michael Huntsman, “Bunker” is a movie based on a half-baked idea that obviously got made into a movie because the filmmakers had nepotism connections. Michael Huntsman’s father, James Huntsman, who is one of the movie’s producers, owns Blue Fox Entertainment, the distributor of “Bunker.” It’s not that original to do a horror movie about people being trapped somewhere with something evil, but some not-very-original horror movies that have this concept end up being noteworthy because the story is genuinely scary and well-crafted. Unfortunately, “Bunker” has none of the qualities that could have made it an entertaining thriller.

“Bunker” (which takes place an unnamed city in Germany during World War I) is filled with a lot of cringeworthy dialogue and even worse acting. (“Bunker” was actually filmed in Buffalo, New York.) It’s a story so poorly conceived, limited in scope, and shallow, it’s barely enough to make a short film. Instead, viewers will have to sit through 108 minutes of watching military men trapped in a bunker and doing the stupidest things possible in their attempts to escape.

The military men, who are British and American, are trapped in this bunker after going on a mission to No Man’s Land to attack Germans. There’s no explanation for why this military unit is a mixture of British and Americans. The unit’s leader is Lieutenant Turner (played by Patrick Moltane), a pompous Brit who acts like a know-it-all when he’s actually the one who shows the least common sense. Moltane’s acting, which is very hammy yet stiff, is easily the worst in this movie that’s a cesspool of mediocre-to-terrible performances.

The men under Turner’s command are Private Segura (played by Eddie Ramos), a courageous medic from the U.S. 90th Infantry Division the U.S. Army; Private Baker (played by Julian Feder), a terrified American teenager, who has recently joined the military; Private Gray (played by Michael Mihm), a racist British bully; Private Lewis (played by Quinn Moran), a very religious Brit; and Lance Corporal Walker (played by Adriano Gatto), a paranoid American.

Before getting trapped in the bunker, Segura and Baker had a harrowing experience above ground, when Baker was attacked by a German soldier (played by Samuel Huntsman), who appeared to be dead on a battlefield. Segura came to the aid of a wounded Baker, who stabbed the attacker to death in self-defense. It’s the first time that Baker has killed someone, and he is haunted by the experience.

However, the movie deals with this trauma in glib and superficial soundbites. Later, when Baker confides in Segura about how much this killing is disturbing Baker, this is Segura’s response: “Compassion is lost in conflict. It’s you or them.” Baker then says of war combat, “I just shouldn’t be so thoughtless.” It’s an example of the movie’s atrocious dialogue.

The men find the bunker, but get trapped inside when bombing above ground causes an avalanche of rocks to block the bunker entrance. There’s a radio inside the bunker, but Turner gets angry when Segura uses the radio try to call for help. Turner shouts at Segura: “You’re not here to think! You’re here to follow my orders!”

Turner says that calling for help is “sacrificing our defenses,” because it could alert the enemy. Instead, Turner’s plan to escape is for the men to randomly dig an underground tunnel, even though they have no idea where the digging will lead. The digging is also counterproductive, because they need to go above ground, not further underground.

Meanwhile, the men find out that there’s someone else who’s already in the bunker: a barely conscious German soldier named Kurt (played by Luke Baines), whose hands have been nailed to a cross. The men remove Kurt from this crucifix and try to get him to talk. Segura gives Kurt medical aid. At first, Kurt stays mute and pretends that he doesn’t know English. Eventually, Kurt stops this charade and begins communicating in English, mostly with Segura.

The movie has a foreshadowing of the mayhem to come before the men go on their unlucky trek to No Man’s Land. Gray tries to scare Baker by ominously saying that there’s a legend that the ghouls of No Man’s Land will kill people: “They’re not afraid to fill the trenches, looking to fill their bellies with the tastiest meat.” And in case it isn’t made clear that Gray is a racist, he calls Segura a “greaser” and treats Segura with disdain.

The visual effects in “Bunker” are straight out of the Corny Horror Movies Handbook: As soon as the men get trapped in the bunker, a mysterious cloud of smoke suddenly appears and seems to be moving in their direction. A milky white substance keeps getting vomited up by some of the men. One of the men vomits up this milky white substance that’s mixed with something resembling a deformed squid, but dimwit leader Turner keeps denying that something is seriously wrong.

Meanwhile, the men soon run low on food and water. The only rations found in the bunker are grossly spoiled and inedible. In this dire situation, Turner (like a fool) orders the men to keep digging, when the men should be using their energy for a better escape plan. Kurt is usually shown smirking and giving creepy stares, which make it obvious that Kurt knows more than he’s telling.

Segura secretly continues to use the radio to call for help, and he makes contact with a British military officer. But viewers who are good at voice recognition can easily tell who’s behind the voice that’s communicating with Segura, who apparently is too dimwitted to notice. Therefore, when something is revealed about the radio, it should come as no surprise. And during this crisis, Segura makes time to write in his journal, which is supposed to add gravitas to the last shot in the movie.

“Bunker” is a slog of tired horror clichés of shallow characters trapped somewhere, with predictable conflicts and deaths. The movie has a melodramatic musical score that’s supposed to evoke movie thrillers of the World War I era, but this music just sounds bombastic and overly contrived. Segura is obviously supposed to be the most heroic person in the group (and Ramos is adequate in his efforts to make this character believable), but there’s no character development or real insight into anyone in “Bunker.”

The film editing of “Bunker” is often sloppy, while the movie’s cinematography has very inconsistent lighting that blinks at certain moments, in the movie’s lukewarm attempt to create a foreboding atmosphere. The movie’s cinematography often makes the bunker look more like a kiddie haunted house instead of a genuinely terrifying place. “Bunker” makes no effort to craft a cohesive story or interesting personalities for these characters. As for the evil lurking in the bunker, don’t expect an explanation for it either—just like there’s no good explanation for why this movie exists, except as an example of how nepotism in the movie industry can sometimes result in bad movies getting made.

Blue Fox Entertainment released “Bunker” in select U.S. cinemas on February 24, 2023.

Review: ‘Project Wolf Hunting,’ starring Seo In-guk, Jang Dong-yoon, Sung Dong-il, Park Ho-san, Jung So-min, Ko Chang-seok and Jang Yong-nam

February 28, 2023

by Carla Hay

Pictured clockwise, from left: Seo In-guk, Ko Chang-seok, Lee Sung-wook, Jang Dong-yoon and Park Ho-san in “Project Wolf Hunting” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Project Wolf Hunting”

Directed by Kim Hong-seon

Korean with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly on a ship going from the Philippines to South Korea, the sci-fi/horror/action film “Project Wolf Hunting” features an all-Asian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: South Korean criminals, who are being transported by ship from the Philippines to South Korea, take violent control of the ship, and they find out that they have been captured for reasons other than to face criminal charges. 

Culture Audience: “Project Wolf Hunting” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in suspenseful horror movies and have a high tolerance for watching scenes of bloody violence.

Jang Young-nam and Jung So-min in “Project Wolf Hunting” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)

“Project Wolf Hunting” revels in a lot of gore, but this sci-fi horror movie also has a solid story that’s packed with thrilling action. Plot twists and memorable characters make “Project Wolf Hunting” better than the average bloody horror flick. The movie starts off looking like it will be one type of story, but then it turns into something else that is far more intriguing. “Project Hunting” had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

Written and directed by Kim Hong-seon, “Project Wolf Hunting” doesn’t waste time before the mayhem starts in the first 15 minutes of its 123-minute total running time. The movie begins by showing several South Korean criminals being escorted by law enforcement officers onto a ship going from the Philippines to South Korea. All of the criminals were arrested and convicted in the Philippines for their crimes, but the convicts are being deported to South Korea to serve out the rest of their prison sentences. At least, that’s what they’ve been told.

A cunning, handsome and ruthless prisoner named Park Jong-doo (played by Seo In-guk) has no intentions of going quietly on this trip. He is a leader who has concocted a plan with some of the other prisoners to take over the ship, in order to escape. The other prisoners who are part of the scheme include Lee Do-il (played by Jang Dong-yoon), a baby-faced killer who is famous; Lee Seok-woo (played by Park Ho-san), who is; and Choi Myeong-ju (played by Jang Young-nam), one of the few women on the ship. Myeong-ju has a secret connection with someone else on the ship, and this secret is eventually revealed.

Before the hostage crisis on the ship happens, several of the police officers are seen gathered in the ship’s kitchen. They express frustration and disdain that the prisoners are getting special treatment by the South Korean government. One of the cops complains, “The perps are getting better food than us.”

Elsewhere on the ship, a severely burned man, who is lying down on a gurney and breathing through a ventilator, is in a secret room that looks like a scientific lab. He has maggots coming out of his mouth. This mystery person is then given an injection. It won’t be the last time that viewers will see this charred-looking and infected person.

The criminals’ hostage plan is set into motion when a guy dressed in a mechanic’s uniform secretly takes a wrench and tampers with a safety bolt on this ship, causing a mechanical malfunction. The ship’s crew is distracted by trying to fix this problem (just as the criminals had planned), when Jong-doo and the rest of his cronies attack the crew and police officers, take weapons, and commit a brutal slaughter. How vicious is Jong-doo? He bites off an ear off of a man, chews up the ear, and then spits it out.

One of the ship’s crew members whose life is spared is Go Kun-bae (played by Ko Chang-seok), because the criminals need a few of the crew members who know the ship’s mechanics, in case anything goes wrong with the ship. Meanwhile, the ship has mysteriously gone off the radar of the South Korean government. A few other characters in the movie have pivotal roles, including a corrupt government official named Chief Pyo (played by Choi Gwi-hwa) with the code name Alpha; the ship’s captain Oh Dae-woong (played by Sung Dong-il); and a young police officer named Lee Da-yeon (played by Jung So-min), one of the other few women in this movie.

“Project Wolf Hunting” has some predictable moments, but there are some plot developments that steer clear of the usual stereotypes. It’s already shown in the movie’s trailers that what’s happening on this ship is somehow related to Japan’s 1910 to 1945 occupation of South Korea. The movie also reveals in the first 15 minutes that the massacre isn’t the only sinister thing happening on this ship.

“Project Wolf Hunting” is certainly not going to win any prestigious awards. And some of the violence is very excessive. However, Seo’s performance as the evil gang leader Jong-doo is riveting but might be too disturbing for some viewers. What makes “Project Wolf Hunting” a twist-filled story is that Jong-doo might or might not be the movie’s biggest villain. And who ends up in the final showdown cannot be easily predicted in the movie’s first 15 minutes.

“Project Wolf Hunting” has well-paced action, competent acting and some social commentary about how governments can treat prisoners and other people whom society has deemed “undesirable.” It’s not a groundbreaking film, but the plot surprises are indications that the filmmakers made an effort not to stick to the usual formulas found in similar sci-fi horror movies. Viewers who think they’ll want to watch all of “Project Wolf Hunting” just have to prepared to see many gruesome depictions of humanity at its worst.

Well Go USA released “Project Wolf Hunting” in select U.S. cinemas on October 7, 2022. The movie was released in South Korea on September 21, 2022. “Project Wolf Hunting” was released on digital, VOD, Blu-ray and DVD on February 14, 2023.

Copyright 2017-2024 Culture Mix
CULTURE MIX