Welcome to the darker side of AICN! M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. Clowns seem to be the current flavor of horror and here are some films to prove it, along with some other horrors new and old!
You can pay me back by ordering my upcoming comic book called GRAVETRANCERS from Black Mask Studios. It’s in July’s Diamond Previews under item code #JUL171455. Please let your comic shop know they should order a plenty as it’s a pretty potent little horror tale, if I do say so myself with mesmerizing pencils and inks of James Michael Whynot, psychedelic colors by Dee Cunniff, and bold and beautiful letters by Jim Campbell! The four issue miniseries follows Maribel and Anthony who are in search of the grave of their dead father, not knowing that they are stumbling into a graveyard owned by an eccentric clan of grave-robbers who’ve devised a highly-addictive drug made from human remains–and the fresher the corpse, the stronger the dose. What started out as an attempt to reconnect with the past becomes a descent into a psychedelic, neon-colored nightmare—will Maribel and Anthony find their way through the hallucinogens or will they become the next hit? I think it’s a story fans of grindhouse horror are going to love.
The news broke on Bleeding Cool here and on ComicCon.com. I’ve been bopping all around the Interwebs doing interviews at ComicCon.com and First Comics News. GRAVETRANCERS has also been covered on Dread Central, ComingSoon.net, and Horror Society!
You can order GRAVETRACNERS #1 from Previews under item code #JUL171455 by clicking here, GRAVETRANCERS #2 item code #AUG171290 by clicking here, and GRAVETRANCERS #3 item code #SEP171274 by clicking here! If your comic store doesn’t have it, give ‘em shit for it and tell them to pick this hardcore horror series the hell up, pretty please!
With my October Best of the Best in Horror 2017 coming up, I also wanted to give out an open call to advertisers interested in helping to keep this column running. Any inquiries should contact me here!
On with the horror reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
Retro-review: TOBOR THE GREAT (1954)
Retro-review: PHANTASM (1977)
The Boo Tube: IT (1990)
CLOWNTERGEIST (2017)
RYDE (2016)
AGAINST THE NIGHT (2017)
THE GARLOCK INCIDENT (2012)
THE GHOUL (2016)
THE SUBLET (2015)
IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017)
IT (2017)
And finally…Crispin Hellion Glover’s CLOWNY CLOWN CLOWN!
Retro-review: New on BluRay from Kino Lorber!TOBOR THE GREAT (1954)
Directed by Lee SholemWritten by Philip MacDonald (screenplay), Carl Dudley (story)
Starring Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray, Henry Kulky, Franz Roehn, Hal Baylor, Peter Brocco, Jack Daly, Franklyn Farnum, Norman Field, Alan Reynolds, William Schallert, Robert Shayne, and J. Lewis Smith as the voice of Tobor!
Retro-reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
The name Tobor is Robot spelled backwards and that’s about as clever as this monster on the loose flick gets. Still there’s a saccharine sweet feel to TOBOR THE GREAT that will melt the hearts of fans of matinee cinema.
Charles Drake plays dashing Dr. Ralph Harrison, a moralistic scientist who doesn’t approve of the unethical shortcuts the government is taking in their race to conquer space. Professor Arnold Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes) agrees with him and brings him to his private estate to show Dr. Harrison his newest achievement in space travel technology—Tobor, a mechanical man designed to withstand the pressures of space. The robot also has ESP somehow. Prof. Nordstrom has a scampy little grandson named Gadge (Billy Chapin) who gets into all kinds of trouble with the new robot. But when the Russians hear of Nordstrom’s invention, they plan on stealing it, finding all kinds of traps on Nordstrom’s property and finally resorting to kidnapping Nordstrom and Gadge in exchange for the robot blueprints. Connected through ESP to Nordstrom and Gadge, Tobor won’t sit idly by and watch his maker and his grandson die!
Thrilling and harmless fun is in store for those taking a chance with TOBOR THE GREAT. It’s got wonky science and a semi relevant plotline involving the space race. I’m sure at the time, this was a film addressing real issues, but everything feels kind of quaint because a lot of the technology is commonplace these days. Security alarms made to scare off burglars, robots, and space travel being accomplishments we take for granted these days, it is fun to reflect on a time where that only existed in the imagination.
The design of Tobor is also quite fun. He’s just a big clunky robot and looks to be a knockoff design of Robot from LOST IN SPACE. Still it’s fun to see him go on a rampage, wrecking through the house, and defending its loved ones from the kidnappers. What the man-machine lacks in mobility it makes up with its soft heard which this film actually communicates pretty efficiently.
TOBOR THE GREAT is great robot fun. Not really scary. Not really over the top with effects or scientific mumbo. Still, it’s a fun tale you might want to share with a budding sci fi fan. Reminiscent of THE IRON GIANT in many ways, this robot flick from yesteryear is a damn good time. Not much in terms of special features here, but it’s steeped in robot goodness.
Retro-review: New this week in a PHASTASM 5-Film Collection set from Well Go USA!PHANTASM Remastered (1979)
aka MORNINGSIDE, THE NEVER DEAD, ZOMBIESDirected by Don Coscarelli
Written by Don Coscarelli
Starring A. Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester, Terrie Kalbus, Kenneth V. Jones, Susan Harper, Lynn Eastman-Rossi, David Arntzen, Ralph Richmond, Bill Cone, Laura Mann, Mary Ellen Shaw, Myrtle Scotton, and Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man!
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Retro-reviewed by Mark L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
There’s a wicked genius to the often nonsensical and often creatively overstuffed film called PHANTASM. It was a film I visited and revisted through the years. As I kid, I loved the endless waves of random monstrosities Michael, his hep cat brother Jody, and singin’ ice cream man Reggie confront in this film. But as I grew older, I began to understand some of the method behind the madness.
Watching the film again in this review, I kind of finally understood what PHANTASM is about. Sure there is a lot of hullabaloo about other worlds, corpse collecting Tall Men, silver flying balls, grunting Jawas, and toothy flies that just won’t go down the drain. But at its core, it’s about a young man trying to understand that which is unexplainable—death. As an adult, it’s hard enough to understand why someone is taken from one’s life, but as a child, it’s even harder to fathom. As Michael (played by A. Michael Baldwin) tries to understand the death of his parents and ***SPOILER the death of his protective brother Jody (Bill Thornbury)END SPOILER***, he encounters one horror after another. Along the way, his brother appears to him, gives him advice, but then disappears just as quickly, leaving Michael to cope and understand the personification of death in the form of The Tall Man and his little Jawa monsters. A fan of scifi and horror as indicated by the posters and toys in his room, Michael of course incorporates familiar monstrosities from those films as physical threats to take him to the same place where they took his parents. We see this film through Michael’s eyes, and because of that, the narrative is choppy and nonsensical. People pop in and out of the scene with little explanation. Motives are murky. And randomness abounds. But that is the world of a mind that doesn’t fully understand what is happening after a tragedy, as the Tall Man appears again in the final moments, it’s a feeling that seems never ending and indefinable. In one scene, Michael even climbs into a coffin himself in order to hide from the Tall Man, so he even experiences what it is like to be dead as an attempt to understand it. This film is a nightmare through a child’s eyes with a childish understanding. If you understand that, you’ll appreciate this film a whole lot more.
Then again, it is also a very amateurly made film. While symbolic significance can be applied to it, there are some very rough edges to Coscarelli’s PHANTASM. If you are of a more literal minded viewer, I’m sure there will be aspects of this film that will be unforgivable and downright unwatchable. A maid, never before mentioned in the film, pops up for a jump scare. A hair-brained plan to knock the Tall Man into a well is hatched at the last second. People die and then appear alive ten minutes later. All of this is what makes this film much more of a stream of consciousness nightmare you just ride out rather than rack your brain to make sense of. If you do that, this film is sure to give you a headache and you’ll be left wondering what the hubbub is all about with this movie.
In terms of ideas, PHANTASM is loaded with them, but the genius in the ideas comes from how this film seems to have been pieced together with whatever was around that particular day. They have an idea for a fly that grows from a severed finger, so a fake fly is used for the scene. Someone has a few extra robes? Well, let’s have the monsters be snarling Jawas. It’s that type of ingenuity that makes this do it yourself nightmare fun. This is before CG effects, but somehow, Coscarelli manages to create an entire world and mythos with this first film—a mythos that is elaborated on and developed in future installments. But the charm here is that nothing is really explained. It’s just random shit happening to Michael and his loved ones and this unpredictable nature makes the entire film a rapidly paced thrill ride of a film.
Sure the acting stinks. Seeing Baldwin trying to emote and not be nervous in the quieter scenes is wince inducing as are most of the other performances aside from the truly iconic look and feel of Scrimm as the Tall Man. It’s because of Scrimm’s every action that this film became the series it is today as everything about him makes him something that seems to have stepped from the most twisted childhood nightmare. But despite Scrimm, this is some rough thespian work exemplified here.
That said, this new restoration cleans up this film so well. It highlights the depths of the darkness Michael is running through and even delves in to clean up the effects by taking out the obvious wires the silver balls were floating on. But thee most significant improvement is the way this film sounds. Not only is the score cleaned up and sharpened, the creature effects make the whole thing feel all the more chilling; from the guttural grunts of the Jawas to the otherworldly hum of the silver orbs.
See PHANTASM if you can. If you saw it as a kid, you most likely didn’t pick up on the heavy themes of death and acceptance. It plays with the narrative and tries to fool you into following one POV (Jody’s), yet it is telling a story with an idealized version of that character seen through the eyes of his brother (Michael). These are themes that only made me appreciate this film more after seeing it again. Seeing it as an adult made me appreciate it more as well as long for that time when I simply marveled at the cool effects. It’s one of those rare films that is just as good seeing it later in life as it is when you first saw it and if you’ve never seen it. Hang convention at the door and just dive into the oblivion. You’ll enjoy it better that way.
Retro-review: Available for rental at FandangoNow and on Special Edition BluRay from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment!STEPHEN KING’S IT (1990)
Directed by Tommy Lee WallaceWritten by Tommy Lee Wallace & Lawrence D. Cohen (screenplay), Stephen King (novel)
Starring Richard Thomas, Harry Anderson, John Ritter, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole, Tim Reid, Johnathan Brandis, Seth Green, Brandon Crane, Adam Faraizl, Emily Perkins, Marlon Taylor, Ben Heller, Sheila Moore, Jarred Blancard, Chris Eastman, Tony Dakota, Olivia Hussey, Chelan Simmons, Michael Cole, Florence Paterson, Jay Brazeau, Gabe Khouth, Michael Ryan, Venus Terzo, Frank C. Turner, Caitlin Hicks, Steven Hilton, Sheelah Megill, Merrilyn Gann, Susan Astley, Claire Vardiel, Garry Chalk, Terence Kelly, Donna Peerless, Steve Makaj, Helena Yea, Charles Siegel, Kim Kondrashoff, Noel Geer, William B. Davis, Scott Swanson, Tom Heaton, Russell Roberts, Bill Croft, Laura Harris, & Tim Curry as Pennywise!
Retro-reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
Leading up to the release of the new IT, I decided to take a trip back and see the original two part miniseries event that scared the nation because it was on national television and therefore free for all to watch. Because of this, Pennywise the clown was seared into many a child’s consciousness and was the cause of not only an outbreak of coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) but sealing the character as a true terror icon.
I can’t say that I have read the book, so I don’t know how accurately the film follows the storyline, but the miniseries opens with the death of a young boy, Georgie, who happens upon an evil clown in a sewer after losing his paper boat. After the boy is abducted, it is revealed that there have been several disappearances in the area. A group of children, one of them the brother of Georgie, are thrust together as the Loser’s Club and are able to defeat the giant clown they have dubbed It. After vanquishing the monster, 27 years pass and the film picks up in the present day, with the seven now adults and suddenly remembering the incident from their childhood that they had previously forgotten. The seven return to the town of Derry, where they defeated the monster the first time to take him out once and for all.
The film switches back and forth between the past and the present, telling each of the children’s experiences with It—each tale giving us clues as to what the monster is and how it can be defeated. So the miniseries sort of tells the story ROSHOMON style, as we are given the entire picture through different points of view, this enriching the tale as well as the characters. It’s not a terrible way to tell the story and if you’re trying to condense a 1000+ page story and thirty years of character into three and a half hours, I would have to say the film does a decent job of doing so.
The problem is that the movie simply is a product of its time. It’s got low budget TV sensibilities and despite a few effective scenes of It terrorizing the kids, everything plays like a clowned up version of A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET with Pennywise assuming the role as Freddy Krueger. The characters aren’t really characters, but human representations of phobias with Pennywise tossing their greatest fears at them. With ANOES such a success at the box office at the time, it makes sense that the film would try to frame the film in such a way. Still, because of the low budget, the lack of attention on character, and a flat directing style from Tommy Lee Wallace, the film comes off as rather dull and not very well done.
What IT does do well is make Tim Curry’s clown form iconic. Curry’s exuberant performance exudes real menace. From his first scene in the sewer to his appearances in the kid’s dreams, he truly is a movie monster worth shivering to. Because this form is so effective, when It appears in some other form, the film really just loses its luster. The clown is what is scary. Not some leperous hobo or a movie werewolf. And certainly not some kind of stop motion spider. None of these images stack up to Curry’s white painted face and that laugh that let’s you know he is having way too much fun doing this.
Another problem is that the film really loses its way once the story focuses on the adults taking on It. There’s something about a story of a bunch of kids fighting a monster that is worth getting behind. The power of friendship and other sappy moral plays simply play better when seen through the eyes of a child. As adults, it just seems kind of sad seeing what these kids with all of that promise grow up to be and the group hugging in order to defeat the monster scenes just aren’t convincing. By the end of this miniseries, the schmaltz factor is on overload.
Filled with a talented cast such as Richard Thomas (sporting a wicked mullet ponytail), Harry Anderson, John Ritter, Dennis Christopher, Richard Masur, Annette O'Toole, Tim Reid, Johnathan Brandis, and Seth Green, the talent was there and sometimes shines throughout the series. The late great John Ritter gets the meatiest part and does the best job. As the film wrapped up though, the cast felt as tired with this miniseries as I was and the final scenes fall pretty limply and lacking resonance. A lot of it has to do with the strongest parts of the film were the Tim Curry clown scenes and that simply doesn’t make a whole movie. In the end, while IT has its moments, as a whole, the film simply doesn’t deliver. Still it exists as a showcase for some fun talent and a truly inspired performance by Curry.
New this week On Demand from High Octane Pictures!CLOWNTERGEIST (2017)
aka FEAR ITSELFDirected by Aaron Mirtes
Written by Brad Belemjian (story), Aaron Mirtes (screenplay)
Starring Brittany Belland, Monica Baker, Aaron Mirtes, Burt Culver, Madeleine Heil, Tom Seidman, Johnjay Fitih, Sean Patrick Murray, Caity Runger, Ella Romero, Jesse Mendelsohn, Caitlin Rigney, & Eric Corbin as Ribcage the Clown!
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
Make way for the clowns! With the popularity of IT, expect an inundation of clowny horror coming down the pike. This week, we get an amalgamation of POLTERGEIST and IT called CLOWNTERGEIST. Sure, it doesn’t roll off the tongue, but as far as clown horror goes, I’ve seen worse.
For no real particular reason, a small town is being terrorized by the ghost of a clown. One young girl seems to be the prankster’s latest target and if this is anything like the last person being haunted, she is in serious trouble. Appearing in the night with increasing frequency, this Clowntergeist is out for blood.
CLOWNTERGEIST is a rather toothless and harmless little movie that never really finds a place for its own resolution. Sure there are a couple of decent jump scares and some moments of tension, but the story itself simply ends with no real explanation as to what the clown is or why it chose this particular person to haunt.
Acting is very amateur level here, though it appears everyone is sincerely trying their best. The effects are next to nothing here as most of the money seems to have gone into the production of the clown suit. And while the clown sneaks around, very little is done to make him look ghostly as he simply walks around dark hallways and creeps up on people.
CLOWNTERGEIST is a noble effort on a zero budget. It feels rather toothless and while there is a death or two, they are bloodless and off panel. Taking full advantage of the recent clowny horror phenomenon, if you’re looking for IT level scares, you’re going to be very disappointed. This is GOOSEBUMPS level horror that might startle your ten year old, but it’ll bore adults to tears with its low level stakes and production.
New in select theaters and On Demand from Gravitas Ventures!RYDE (2016)
Directed by Brian Frank ViscigliaWritten by Brian Frank Visciglia, Kat Silvia, Dustin Frost
Starring David Wachs, Jessica Serfaty, Ronnie Alvarez, Kyle Thomas Schmidt, Veronica Loren, Delpaneaux Wills, Valerie Lynn Smith, Dylan Taylor, Lindsay Crolius, Claudia Funk, Gayathri Iyer, Chloe Catherine Kim, Ayesha Perry-Iqbal
Find out more about this film @RydeTheFilm and on Facebook here
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
Have you heard of that new-fangled app for your phone that is like calling a taxi except instead of a licensed professional picking you up, a complete stranger with random car can pick you up at a lesser rate? If you don’t know about Lyft or Uber, don’t worry, the folks behind RYDE will over-explain it to you in great and monotonous detail in the opening minutes of the movie. I understand that not all of America and beyond know about these apps, but the remedial way this film introduces it to the viewer is beyond tiring. I wish I could say it gets better after that, but this serial killer in a car flick takes much too much time doing very little of anything.
A serial killer named Paul (David Wachs) murders a driver for Ryde (this film’s version of Lyft or Uber) and goes on a rampage picking up annoying, rude, and drunk people only to kill them soon after. It seems this killer is like most celluloid madmen and only murders people who offend his strict moral code. So this Dexter wannabe ends up picking up a young woman named Jasmine (Jessica Serfaty) and her asshole boyfriend Marcus (Ronnie Alvarez) and after Jasmine gets fed up with Marcus’ douchebaggery, she calls Paul again to pick her up and take her home, not knowing that he has set his sights on her.
I don’t need to know the backstory to every movie villain and not knowing why Paul kills is actually refreshing as he kind of just sort of cruises through Hollywood and looking for people to murder. While his annoyance with the people he drives around seems to be his prime motivator, Jasmine doesn’t really fit that criteria, so why Paul targets her is a mystery. How, in all of Hollywood, is Paul able to not only pick up Jasmine and Marcus, not once, but three times is stretching the limits of believability knowing the amount of drivers are out there on any given night. Also, Paul seems to adapt pretty quickly to being a hired driver, not knowing what the Ryde app was in the opening moments. So there are quite a bit leaps in logic here required for this film to work.
Even looking past this and seeing it as catharsis for Uber, Lyft, and cab drivers everywhere, the snail’s pacing of this film made it pretty arduous to get through. From the stunted pace of the way Paul talks to his customers, to the repetitious scenes of people getting picked up, annoying Paul, and then being killed by Paul, I was screaming “put the pedal to the metal” at this film at the halfway point. There’s suspense and then there is just lengthening scenes to fit feature length. RYDE is the latter. While the acting is decent and some of the scenes do play off as suspenseful, it’s best you wait for the next ride and skip this RYDE.
New in select theaters from Gravitas Ventures!AGAINST THE NIGHT (2017)
Directed by Brian CavallaroWritten by Brian Cavallaro
Starring Frank Whaley, Tim Torre, Hannah Kleeman, Luke Persiani, Erik Kochenberger, Amy Zenone, Nicole Souza, Leah Holleran, Yesenia Linares, Josh Cahn
Find out more about this film here, @againstthenightfilm, and on Facebook here
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
Familiar territory is spiced up a bit by some swift action, unpredictable scares, and dense atmosphere in AGAINST THE NIGHT, a film which splices found footage first person POV with cinematically shot scenes with decent results.
A group of friends are convinced by their filmmaking buddy to venture into a prison that is said to be abandoned and haunted. Once inside, the kids find themselves locked in separate cell blocks and tormented by mysterious people/apparitions/creatures who seemingly appear and disappear in the darkness. As the kids start dropping, the kids uncover a meth lab and other bizarre things going on in the prison.
We’ve seen this song and dance many times before, but the mixture of meth, monsters, and a creepy prison worked for me. Maybe it’s because I worked on a ghosthunting show in my twenties and the Mansfield Prison (where THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION was filmed) was one of the locales of the shoot. Seeing these kids walk past the prison cells, not knowing if something was inside and ready to leap out, brought back vivid and fun memories of working on that show. So maybe this is just a film that struck the right nostalgic chord with me. Still, it captures that chilling feeling of wandering around in pitch blackness extremely well. Whatever it is, this is a nicely atmospheric film that takes advantage of the darkness to really amplify the scares.
Some of the actors are annoying, but you get some decent nudity and a few gory kills. AGAINST THE NIGHT is no barn burner, but it is adept at doling out the scares and is structed in a manner that is less annoying than most films that mix found footage with cinematically shot scenes.
New On Demand, and digital platforms such as Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play!THE GARLOCK INCIDENT (2012)
Directed by Evan J. CholfinWritten by Evan J. Cholfin
Starring Ana Lily Amirpour, Adam Chambers, Sean Durrie, Joy Howard, Alycen Malone, Sean Muramatsu, Casey Ruggieri, Larissa Wise
Find out more about these films here!
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
One of BLAIR WITCH PROJECT’s main criticisms from what I’ve heard is that the film is an awful lot of nothing until the end when nothing is shown. I don’t necessarily agree, but I can see why folks think that way. And if you do think that way, THE GARLOCK INCIDENT is going to be just as maddening. And while it can be argued that this films spends an awful lot of time following a group of people wandering around lost and alone in a secluded locale, I found the interactions between the cast and the depiction of the disintegration of societal norms, rights, and wrongs to be riveting to experience.
A low budget filmmaker and her cast of good looking stars make their way in a van to Vegas to shoot their new film. With only one director serving as the crew, I am wondering what kind of film the director had in mind making, but it might have been established somewhere in the film that the rest of the crew was going to meet them in Vegas.
Who knows? What matters is that the vanload of pretty people and their always-filming director decide to visit a ghost town area in the middle of the desert between Vegas and LA and end up being stranded. The car breaks down. The cell phones don’t work. And the area, according to one of the actors the area is known to be haunted by a miner who killed his family.
It’s a pretty typical “group gets lost and films it” scenario which relies very little on paranormal things happening and much more on the breakdown of the relationships between the group. As with most zombie films, the story isn’t about the zombies; it’s about how different types of people interact under a time of crisis. As the actors miss their cell phones, their posh hotel rooms, and their normal living conditions, stress levels raise as they begin blaming each other, turning on each other, and in the end tearing each other apart.
All of this is performed in a very convincing manner as the actors chosen for this film seem natural and real (which is the point of all found footage films). In that, THE GARLOCK INCIDENT is a very successful look at how one random factor can turn us into poo-flinging apes intent on self preservation for the sake of others. As a horror film, I think some may be disappointed in the lack of supernatural things that occur and the ending which works within the framework and limitations they have set up being all filmed by one camera, but ultimately feels a bit sudden.
In the end, I liked THE GARLOCK INCIDENT because that type of psychological shit interests me. There are some good moments of tension some of the lost stumble upon a shed which appears to be abandoned and a blood spattered mine shaft, as well as some great interactions between some very talented unknowns. As with BLAIR WITCH, a mock site was set up feigning an effort to search for the cast and director here. Though it feels somewhat tragic and trite, it’s that kind of extra oomph that I feel permeates this film. As a well thought out and well performed descent into chaos, THE GARLOCK INCIDENT shines, but if BLAIR WITCH PROJECT wasn’t your thing, this film won’t be either.
New on BluRay/DVD from Arrow Films/MVD Visual!THE GHOUL (2016)
Directed by Gareth TunleyWritten by Gareth Tunley
Starring Tom Meeten, Alice Lowe, Rufus Jones, Niamh Cusack, Geoffrey McGivern, James Eyres, Paul Kaye, Waen Shepherd, Dan Renton Skinner, Rachel Stubbings
Find out more about this film here and @TheGhoulFilm
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
THE GHOUL delves into the deepest and darkest of crevices in psychological horror and while it isn’t a scare a minute shockfest, it will unnerve you if you let yourself get caught up in this deftly made descent into madness.
In his fantasy world, Chris (Tom Meeten) is a homicide detective and forensics specialist assigned to the most grisly and unsolvable cases. But in reality, Chris is suffering from severe depression and seeing a therapist. When his therapist assigns him to another therapist named Moreland (Geoffrey McGivern) with some rather unconventional methods of intervention, Chris meets another one of Moreland’s patients named Coulson (Rufus Jones) and follows him to his home. When Coulson notices Chris, he strikes up a conversation with him and the two begin talking about their eccentric therapist Moreland. Agreeing to come to a party with Coulson, Chris is plunged into a world of madness, where manic depressives and those suffering from all kinds of mental maladies converge to hypothesize and conspiracize about everything from their government to the gods above to their own therapists. Chris is compelled by Moreland’s techniques and seeks a normal life with a longtime crush and the girlfriend of his college buddy Kathleen (PREVENGE’s Alice Lowe), but is also pressured by Coulson and his league of lunatics to ignore Moreland’s guidance. To them, Moreland is an angry celestial being bent on destroying souls and inhabiting his patient’s younger and healthier bodies. You know, kind of like BEING JOHN MALKOVITCH.
While the premise is a bit wonky, everything is played dead seriously, which makes THE GHOUL all the more creepy. When we meet Chris, he is a confident detective and we think this is going to be an investigative drama about headless corpses found in a bloody apartment. As compelling as that is, it is equally compelling to see that same confident man breaking down in a therapist’s chair a shell of that confident detective we were just introduced to. The lines between Chris’ fantasies and his dreary real world begin to blur and by the end, you don’t know what is real and what isn’t alongside Chris. That’s where this film is so engrossing. It really does a fantastic job of putting you in Chris’ shoes so you as well as Chris are questioning every move he makes and everything that happens around him, asking whether it is real or not. Because we are placed in the shoes of someone so out of control and so manipulated by anyone around him, it’s an uncomfortable place to be, and for some, this will be too much to endure.
If you stick with it, though, THE GHOUL (which is the name Chris gives his mental illness) will definitely get under your skin and take you to places that are less filled with tactile scares, and are more uncomfortable to endure. Director Gareth Tunley offers up a look into an unwell mind in a way I haven’t seen before as well as delves into psychological complexities such as the relationship between patient and client, the stresses that occur when a caregiver must leave a client, the delicate dance done in order to build trust between caregiver and recipient, and finally, the dangers of the intersection of people suffering from different mental disorders. THE GHOUL is a deft psychological thriller that pulls the grounding right out from under the viewer and leaves them unsettled in a mania-laden nightmare.
Available On Demand and digital download such as iTunes and Amazon here!THE SUBLET (2015)
Directed by John AinslieWritten by John Ainslie, Alyson Richards
Starring Tianna Nori, Mark Matechuk, Krista Madison, Rachel Sellan, Porter Randell, James Murray, Mary-Elizabeth Willcott, Jeff Sinasac, Mark Ettlinger
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Thrilling and creepy, THE SUBLET has elements of other horror movies, but manages to still deliver the goods.
Joanna (Tianna Nori from THE DEMOLISHER – reviewed here) and her fiancée Geoff (Mark Matechuk) have moved into a sublet as Geoff takes a job as an actor on a TV show while Joanna stays home with their new baby Porter. Even as they enter the place for the first time, things are odd as no one is there to show them the place and a note explains that if they like what they see, they can stay. Just don’t go into the locked rooms. While Geoff is away though and Joanna is left home alone with the baby, weird things begin to happen. The locked door opens, the couch moves, and no matter how much Joanna tidies up the odd religious iconography, they seem to always return to their place. Not to mention the weird homeless woman outside staring at Joanna and the fact that Joanna’s family keep insisting that she is missing when they talk with Geoff. Things get weirder as a horrific history of the sublet is revealed through a journal Joanna finds.Those who like all of their answers may want to take a pass with this little mind-fucker of a film, but anyone who enjoys a little ambiguity with their horror are going to want to seek this one out. It’s got elements of ROSEMARY’S BABY as it seems the world around Joanna is out to get her and the haunted history and bizarre photos around the sublet apartment gave me a vibe which reminded me of THE SHINING. Still there are no direct lifts from these iconic films and if you’re going to be reminded of a horror film, these two films are ones to go for.
Nori is amazing as Joanna and basically, this is a one woman show here. She sizzled with rage and sorrow in THE DEMOLISHER as the vigilante’s invalid wife and here she handles a range of complex emotions really well. In many ways this is a fantastic representation of post partum depression and the insecurities a woman feels after having a child, though things get supernatural and weird along the way. While Matechuk is great here as the aloof and distant husband, this is Nori’s show through and through. You believe her, no matter how crazy things get around her and that’s crucial in a film such as this when up and down are questionable.Though there are some pretty gory scenes, the best parts of THE SUBLET are the surreal twists and nightmarish turns that occur throughout. This is one of those films that will burrow under your skin and won’t let you forget it. Filled with an overall sense of creep from minute one, the scares and shocks intensify to a nerve-shredding level by the end of THE SUBLET.
New on BluRay/DVD and digital download from A4 Films!IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017)
Directed by Trey Edward ShultsWritten by Trey Edward Shults
Starring Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Riley Keough, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Griffin Robert Faulkner, David Pendleton, Chase Joliet, Mick O'Rourke, Mikey as Stanley the Dog!
Find out more about this film here, @ItComesAtNight, and on Facebook here
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
One of the most effective trailers of recent memory (see below) delivers on nerve-shredding tension and suspense as well as some of the best acting you’re going to find in a horror film, yet will most likely infuriate the more literal-minded folks that take a chance on this film. If you’re looking for a monster movie—a hulking, threatening, terrifying IT promised in the title and hinted at in the trailer for IT COMES AT NIGHT, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you’re more literate than literal, you’re going to be impressed at the restraint director/writer Trey Edward Shults exudes in the bulk of this movie. I fall somewhere in the middle and will explain below.
We are not made privy as to what ended the world, just that society has collapsed and a small family comprised of patriarch Paul (Joel Edgerton), his wife Sarah (Carmen Ejogo), their son Travis (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), and his dog Stanley (Mikey) live in a secluded area in the woods in a boarded up house with only one single door (painted red) blocking themselves from whatever threats there are outside. Apparently, some kind of virus is airborne, requiring anyone stepping outside to wear gas masks. The rest of the house is sealed and Paul has a particular set of guidelines, processes, and rules he follows in order to ensure the safety of his family. When a man named Will (Christopher Abbott) breaks into the house, Paul defends his home, knocks him unconscious, and ties him to a tree outside. But after a while, Paul softens to Will and eventually invites Will and his family to live with his family. The more people, the more defense they have against whatever the treats are outside. After a series of events, the seal is breached and it is possible that someone got infected, causing a breakdown in Paul’s structure and impending doom for all of them.
This film hinges on what filmmaker Trey Edwards Shults does not tell you. How did the virus start? Is society destroyed or has the damage been fixed? How did Paul and his family come together? Is Travis, a young black man, actually the son of Paul (a white man) or is this a hodge-podge family whittled together after the apocalypse? Is Will trustworthy? Most of these questions are left unanswered resulting in a highly compact and no frills storytelling experience that I appreciated. It’s interesting to see practically all of the fat trimmed from this movie bone and have it simply tell a story of palpable paranoia and undeniable tension. It is about the family, the house, and the threat outside. The story never leaves the family, the house, and the surrounding woods. And because the film has such a talented cast, this gives everyone a shot at flexing their acting muscles to their capacity to carry the entire movie and the cast does so amazingly. Edgerton plays the morose and cautious yet strong willed head of the family. Travis is the outlying factor with all of the random challenges that come with being a youth testing the waters on how far he can stray from this family and its rules before they break in a way all teens do. Abbot is both sympathetic and suspicious at times, and even in the end, you don’t know what exactly is truthful or not about the stories he tells Paul. Through these interactions comes the tension and with an unknown and invisible threat outside, without these strong performances, this film would fall completely apart.
That said, I’ve seen some reviewers go out of their way to defend IT COMES AT NIGHT and I don’t feel as a reviewer I have to do that. A movie should stand on its own and the “those who don’t get it are just dummies” attitude just doesn’t fly with me. The IT in IT COMES AT NIGHT is not a monster as the trailer and title indicates. IT is the darkness, the fears, the unhampered imagination that looks into the dark and sees all kinds of creatures and evils. IT is the nightmares we have and the fears that keep us from trusting people. Shults is clear with this in the film, though the trailers suggest otherwise. Sure, this is the marketing department’s fault and not particularly the filmmaker’s, but if you’re going into this film hoping to see monsters, zombies, or infectoids running or schlumping after screaming survivors, you’ll be disappointed once the lights go up. But the marketing department can only have so much of the blame as some might think that the intended obtuseness of IT COMES AT NIGHT with all of its unanswered questions and intentionally vague title is simply trying to be the smart film in the room, batting down those who want more details as being ignorant. While I was satisfied with the story that was presented, I’m saying there is an audience, and sadly, that is the audience who will be going out to theaters to see this one, who are going to be pissed at it. Plain and simple, those who like things explained. Those who like a comedic jump scare to release the build-up of tension. Those who want a monster to blame for the evils that happen in this film. All of them are going to feel gypped by IT COMES AT NIGHT.
Still, if you thirst for an entire hour twenty of film with tension ratcheted up to a painful level, unbelievably dark shadows that threaten despair, destruction, and absolute terror, top tier acting from a cast to die for, and dialog/story with teeth that shred into humanity’s most common weaknesses then IT COMES AT NIGHT will fill your cup and then some. The mood of this film is as heavy as it comes. There are some gruesome effects scenes of those infected that will get under your skin and the nightmare imagery definitely hit the target. Just don’t come looking for answers. Come looking for a barebones tale of the ultimate in paranoia and your takeaway will be plentiful.
In theaters now! See it!!IT (2017)
Directed by Andy MuschiettiWritten by Chase Palmer, Cary Fukunaga & Gary Dauberman (screenplay), Stephen King (novel)
Starring Jaeden Lieberher, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Wyatt Oleff, Nicholas Hamilton, Jake Sim, Logan Thompson, Owen Teague, Jackson Robert Scott, Stephen Bogaert, Stuart Hughes, Geoffrey Pounsett, Pip Dwyer, Molly Atkinson, Steven Williams, Elizabeth Saunders, Megan Charpentier, Joe Bostick, Ari Cohen, Anthony Ulc, Javier Botet, Katie Lunman, Carter Musselman, Tatum Lee, Edie Inksetter, Martha Gibson, Neil Crone, Sonia Gascón, Janet Porter, & Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise!
Find out more about this film here, @ITmovie, and on Facebook here
Reviewed by M. L. Miller aka Ambush Bug
IT is the type of big blockbuster horror I’d love to see more of. While it isn’t a perfect movie, it will bring attention to the horror genre and you’re going to see plenty of headlines reading “Horror is a big thing again!” With the success of the film, expect knockoffs from unimaginative hacks. But despite that, it allows mass audiences to try to understand what it is about horror that we all love. Maybe more money will be put into the production of some other genre filmmakers project because of IT and because of that, I am not hating it for its mass appeal. MAMA director Andy Muschietti put together a slick production, a talented cast, and one hell of a scary clown to produce one of the best looking horror films of the year.
IT focuses on the town of Derry. A small town with a long history of violence and death. More kids go missing in Derry than anywhere else. And it seems that every 27 years, a major catastrophe causing a large loss of life occurs. While the original miniseries interspersed the stories of the adult protagonists with a tale from their youth, IT focuses directly on the childhood years, or rather, one summer where a group of kids’ innocence was lost to an entity they refer to as It. After the death of a young boy named Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott), seven kids are each haunted by a clown-like entity and are proven to be no match for him. But together, this group self-dubbed as the Loser’s stand a chance to vanquish this monster.
Taking full advantage of our love of all things Amblin, Muschietti is able to capture that nostalgia of riding your bike through suburban streets until dark and getting into all kinds of adventures. It’s an American dream age/simpler time that many folks long for and the establishing shots of the summer of 1985 really does feel authentic through Muschietti’s lens. It’s the real feel of familiarity and nostalgia that Muschietti lulls us in to a comfort zone to be disrupted by Pennywise the Dancing Clown played by Bill Skarsgård.
Skarsgård is a standout here. It would take something original to break the mold Tim Curry set as Pennywise the Clown and apart from being a clown and speaking some of the same key lines, breaking that mold is exactly what Skarsgård does. From his first appearance, cleverly shadowed all but his mouth and eyes inside a sewer drain, Skarsgård is the epitome to menace and innocence lost. Seeing a creature that is meant to entertain be twisted and perverted as it is with Pennywise, it truly is the stuff of nightmares and Skarsgård brings a lot in simple unblinking eyes, some drool from his pouty lips, and a cartoonish voice that is both outlandish and tempting as he tries to lure Georgie into the sewer where he can float with the rest of the circus. This opening scene is staged and played perfectly by all involved and this seduction Pennywise is attempting with Georgie is terrifyingly realized and paced to perfection, culminating with some truly graphic violence that tells the viewer that we are about to witness some truly awful stuff.
But it is in these opening moments that a glaring problem occurs. Pennywise is successful in luring Georgie into the sewer by being subtle, more like a fisherman tugging a lure ever so slightly in order to get his prey and eventually, it works. This scene takes a while to play out, but the tension is nerve-shredding. Later in the film, Pennywise adopts a more aggressive tone, choosing to appear as the kid’s worst fears and simply trying to take them with force. I would have liked to see a little more variation to Pennywise’s strategy with some temptation and subtlety rather than simply bombastically running at the kids and trying to snatch them up. Sure it makes for a startling jump scare, but repeating it seven times for each kid kind of gets tedious, even though Muschietti varies it up with different twisted imagery. Still, each attempt to take the kids can be summed up with Pennywise or some kind of version of Pennywise haunting and scaring the kids and then charging them. Why change to a more aggressive strategy when the baiting one worked so well with Georgie?
That said, this cast of kids is so, so good. All of them (okay, maybe despite the reserved performance of Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff who gets less screen time than most) are realized in a likable, yet flawed way. Standouts abound. Sophia Lillis epitomizes that girl everyone is has a crush on, and she knows it, but simply doesn’t care because hanging with these losers is better than the hell she has at home. Finn Wolfhard might have been the only distraction simply because of the similarity of the imagery to STRANGER THINGS, but his Mouth from GOONIES like demeanor sets him apart from that role pretty well. Jack Dylan Grazer is hilarious and tragic as the hypochondriac and common sense spouter of the group. Jeremy Ray Taylor is the shy kid in all of us, who longs to connect, but is just too self-conscious to do anything. Taylor plays the role perfectly and instantly becomes something much more than another annoying fat kid Chunk stereotype. And leading the Loser’s is MIDNIGHT SPECIAL’s Jaeden Lieberher who is flawed himself, yet shows leadership and bravery all the way through. His obsession with finding his lost brother is the guiding force of this film and Lieberher is believable all the way through.
While Muschietti relies a little too much on the “comin’ at cha!” effect and jump scares in this film, the moments where he calms down and simply plots out a suspenseful scene is pretty great. The child cast worked with honors. And Skarsgård proved to be a risky, but inspired choice as Pennywise. There’s a lot to love about this movie, despite it’s flaws, but the true challenge is going to be the second movie where you don’t have the comfort of nostalgia or the cuteness of child actors to propel the story and win the audience. Casting will be crucial with IT: CHAPTER TWO and I’m rooting for it to work. While the adult portions of the miniseries is where its failings are most evident, I’m hoping the second outing in Derry will be equally terrifying as this one. I’ll be seeing IT: CHAPTER ONE over again as it is definitely a crowd-pleasing movie filled to the brim with scares and looking forward to what comes next.
And finally…all of this clown mania is getting out of hand. I think it’s up to the wise words of Crispin Hellion Glover to ease our nerves with his melancholy tune, CLOWNY CLOWN CLOWN. Enjoy!
See ya next week, folks!
Ambush Bug is M. L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 15 years & AICN HORROR for 5. Follow Mark on the Twitters @Mark_L_Miller and on his new website collecting posts for AICN HORROR as well as all of the most recent updates on his various comic book projects on MLMillerWrites.com.
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