Plot: Six preadolescent girls face a night of terror when the compulsive addiction of an online social media game turns a moment of cyber bullying into a night of insanity.
Tagline – Death is trending.
Runtime: 1 Hour 41 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Flat Out Awful
Story: #Horror starts as we follow a group of 12-year-old girls from rich families looking to have a party, where they can act fancy and take selfies, which sees them acting horrible towards each other, while showing off their social media obsession, before getting into an intense case of bullying towards the largest member of the group.
Thoughts on #Horror
Final Thoughts – This movie was one of the most difficult to watch, not because of the subject matter, which might well be important, because it is about social status and bullying, it is how most of it is shot, with constant flashes coming on screen, with the # culture being thrown into the front of the story. It could have been a smart look at how social media can take over people’s lives and let the girls rely on what people want in life over what is needed, it is just horrible to watch, and shows how poorly it has been made.
Plot: Bad Ben: Benign begins right where we left off, as Tom Riley wanders out of the woods behind his home on Steelmanville Road, and must climb through the window to get inside. He is baffled by objects in the house that aren’t his, things moving on their own, and soon finds himself dealing with evil forces that cause him to rely on the help of others to try and figure out once and for all how to rid the house of evil…including the most powerful demon he has ever faced!
Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Bad Ben: Benign starts as we see how Tom Riley (Bach) returns home after his latest paranormal adventure, leading him to find that his home isn’t everything he remembered, things are different, things have changed and now he is dealing with a new evil force.
Tom will need to do battle, using his own skills in the paranormal to search for a solution to make it out alive.
Thoughts on Bad Ben: Benign
Thoughts – Bad Ben Benign is the 9th instalment in this franchise which has a cult following. This is the first one I have step into this and I am sure the people that have been supporting these films for so long are going to enjoy this. As this was the first visit to the franchise, I struggled to get much out of this film, because most of the film is just Tom walking around his home, dealing with little things like chairs moving and figures walking behind him. This isn’t scary, it isn’t remotely as good as it wants to be and ends up feeling like it isn’t even finished. This is low budget, it has created a following, but it won’t be an introduction to this franchise.
Final Thoughts – Bad Ben Benign is one for the fans of the franchise.
Starring: Angela Trimbur, Janel Parrish, Jonathan Howard, Zach Avry, Fairuza Balk, Carlo Rota
Plot: Two dysfunctional couples rent a modern luxury desert home for the weekend hoping to sort out their messed-up lives. Just as they are about to settle in for a fun night, a neighbour turns up at their front door saying she has car trouble. And that’s when the murderous trouble really starts. Because without knowing it, the four friends have landed slap-bang in the wrong violent place at precisely the wrong bloody time. Hopefully your nerves of steel will hold for one of the most stylish, atmospheric and terror-filled home invasion horrors of them all.
Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Forgettable Horror
Story: Hell is Where the Home is starts when two couples Sarah (Trimbur), Estelle (Parrish), Victor (Howard) and Joseph (Avery) rent a luxury desert home for a weekend of partying and ironing out the problems they have been going through.
When the couples get a visitor (Balk) in need of help, things start to spiral out of control as both sides start arguing about what to do after an accident leaves them learning the true nature of each other. Things only get worse when more invaders arrive at the house, not looking to make friends and the race to survive is now on.
Thoughts on Hell is Where the Home is
Characters – Sarah is on this vacation with her partner to help recover from losing a child, this sees her still dealing with the problems in her head, but wanting to have a friend around to help. Estella is the best friend of Sarah, she is stuck in an abusive relationship which she is trying to find a way out off. Victor is the abusive boyfriend, he has a short temper which will see him react to anything that goes against him. Joseph is Sarah’s partner, he has made a mistake which he is filled with guilt about, forcing him to want to fix the mistakes he has made. Apart from Sarah the other three are all considered bad people with what they do to their friends and loved ones.
Performances – The performances in this film are not the most convincing, this is a mix of having bland characters that just don’t let us get behind them and becoming to plain.
Story – The story here follows two couples that are on a vacation to deal with the problems they are facing only to find themselves battling with home invaders. This is a story that does seem to not give enough time to get to know the characters in opening part and just have a home invader angle which just doesn’t get going or having any motivation behind it all. The story is mostly forgettable by the end.
Horror – The horror is from the home invasion angle, which just doesn’t seem to become as intense as it could be, it just seems to fall short on every note, rushed rather than planned.
Settings – The film uses the luxury desert house as the main setting, it again doesn’t seem to become the most interesting because it is meant to be an isolation based location.
Special Effects – The effects are basic with most being aftermath of an incident.
Scene of the Movie – Sudden trip.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The characters.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror that falls short without getting to the high points it could reach being forgettable by the end.
Plot: A young mother returns to her estranged hometown of Detroit after the sudden death of her twin brother and immerses herself in his friend group, soon discovering that his death is not what it seems.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Time Now starts when Jenny (Lambert) returns home with her son Andrew, after the sudden death of her twin brother, here she gets to catch up with her mother Joan (Black) as she looks to help clean up what was left behind by her brother.
As Jenny spends more time around the town, he starts to learn more about what really happened about her brother’s death and who else might have seen or known more, putting her own place in this world in danger.
Thoughts on Time Now
Thoughts – Time Now is a thriller that will see how one woman will look to get over the loss of her twin brother, which will see her return home for the first time in years, finding herself caught up in something much bigger than she could imagine. The pacing of this film doesn’t get going quick enough, will most of the film spending more time questioning why Jenny left in the first place, rather than looking into the connections she is trying to make to fix things. It will leave us with a shattered family dynamic needing to be fixed, but nothing is going at the pace it needs to. The performances are solid, without reaching the heights needed to pull us into the intensity of the bigger picture, leaving the film coming off a lot flatter than it could have, without giving us enough meat to grab onto when it comes to the mystery around what happened.
Final Thoughts – Time Now is a slow paced thriller that doesn’t feel like it gets going quick enough.
Director: Joe West, Julien Christian Lutz, Zandashe Brown, Rob Greenlea, Robin Givens, Kimani Ray Smith
Writer: Steven Barnes, Ezra Claytan Daniels, Tananarive Due, Shernold Edwards, Victor LaValle, Al Letson (Screenplay)
Starring: Lesley-Ann Brandt, Peter Stormare, Tony Todd, Lenora Crichlow, Malcolm Barrett, Rachel True, Sean Patrick Thomas
Plot: Presents together six horror stories from Black directors and screenwriters in a single film: “Daddy,” “Bride Before You,” “Brand of Evil,” “The Lake,” “Sundown” and “Fugue State”.
Runtime: 2 Hours 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Thoughts on Horror Noire
Daddy – Daddy starts as we meet the family with young James constantly wanting to explore, while an elderly man warns his father Red to watch over him. As Red tries to get closer to his son, he builds him a special fort, but when James starts seeing a stranger in the window, he looks to find answers from his own past about who the visitor might be. This might well be one of the weaker stories of the selection, it has potential to have more, but never dives into the true horror that could be put in place. 2/5
Bride Before You – Bride Before You starts when a rich couple move into a luxury home away from where their ancestors would have been picking cotton, Mr Clay is desperate to have a baby with her husband Mrs Clay turning to a black magic to get pregnant. While the child brings the family together, the house is caught up with a creaking for decades as their child Cornelius grows up to get married himself. Bride Before You is one of the most interesting of the stories, set in a era where there would have been a deeper race divide, showing us how one woman will see her life turned upside down by reputation. 4/5
Brand of Evil – Brand of Evil starts when artist Nekani is preparing for the latest project, a mural, one that is being created to raise a large amount of money for the foodbank. When Nekani receives a mysterious phone call, wanting him to design a logo for a large amount of money, seeing it as easy work. With the job done, Nekani gets a new offer, one for double the money, but Nekani doesn’t know the cost of these designs, as the people around him start disappearing. Brand of Evil is a story that will show how growing reputation can see you sell your soul, it is the deep dive into how Nekami is caught between helping himself, or helping his neighbourhood. When it comes to where the horror comes from, we see how the splatter gets bought into the world, away from the artist style behind Nekami. 4/5
The Lake – The Lake starts when a teacher Abbie moves to a remote lake house to start a new life, she is given a warning, not to swim in the lake, but goes against them. Abbie starts to see a change in her body and eating habits, with her past also starting to catch up with her, she finds herself unsure of what will happen in her life next. This is a story that will dive into legends create around a town, showing how someone new can ignore the warnings, where the generation that have only heard the stories, will learn the truth. This is a nice opening story, one that has moments of dread, but never dives into the deeper side of things. 3/5
Sundown – Sundown starts as Marcus and Shanita campaigning for a political figure in West Virginia, looking to help make a change in the area. As the campaigners look to finish off their work, they regroup to learn the town is a sundown town, one that still forbids black people going out at night. The campaigners find themselves trapped in the town as night falls, which is only the beginning of the nightmare, as the town’s people operate at night, seeing them needing to fight for their lives. Sundown brings the series of stories to an end with a bang, diving into the most chaotic story going on, one that has the more notorious horror side of things, with the vampire side seeing the chaotic hunt going on. 5/5
Fugue State – Fugue State starts as we meet the journalist couple Arthur & Charlotte who are both working on major stories, Arthur on uncovering the truth about a religious cult known as the Third Way, while Charlotte is looking into the story about string of attacks by red faced killers. After Arthur has visited the church, he starts to change, leading to the family changing as the worry grows in from __ wanting to save her husband from a change he is going through. This is a nice horror, one that will dive into the cult transformation going on and needing to stop it before it is too late. 3/5
Final Thoughts – Horror Noire is a great selection of horror shorts, with each bringing a different horror idea to life.
We are under Y because of the lead actress’ surname Yessayan.
Director: Hans Stjernsward
Writer: Hans Stjernsward (Screenplay)
Starring: Nora Yessayan, Alec Gaylord, Ken Volok, Rob Tisdale, Kelly Mis
Plot: A young couple gets kidnapped and treated like farm animals after stopping at a roadside diner to eat meat.
Tagline – In this place you’re the main dish
Runtime: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Dreadful
Story: The Farm starts when a couple Nora (Yessayan) and Alec (Gaylord) are travelling across country when they look to stay in a remote location. They wake up separate, both in cage, like animals, with Nora being used for diary, while Alec is placed in the meet pile, as the owners of the farm are selling the human meet to the locals.
While the Landlord (Volok) has been operating this farm for years, Nora decides she is going to go down without a fight, looking to save the other women trapped their and end the operation before she becomes the latest piece of meat on the production line.
Thoughts on The Farm
Final Thoughts – The Farm is looking to create shock value with how it presents the human production line, showing the pure scale of the operation, the problem comes with showing us just how little we learn about the lead couple, they are given such a little amount of time to be placed into this world, by the time we get to the farm, which is quick, the film focuses more on how the farm operates, with the pure numbers involved, which doesn’t seem to give us enough to care about. We can have a huge operation going on without needing to focus solely on the villainous side of the events, we are given no reason to see how the couple could escape or why we should even be waiting for them to try and escape, it just wants to give us shock value, without earning any of those moments. Even the acting doesn’t seem like it hits home, with most scenes falling flat of making the impact they want with the strangeness involved with the farmers.
Starring: Thora Birch, Amy Smart, Paz Vega, Anne Heche, Sofia Vassilieva, Laura Spencer, Peter Facinelli, Will Peltz
Plot: Four families in a Heartland town are tested in a single day when a tornado hits, forcing paths to cross and redefining the meaning of survival.
Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: 13 Minutes starts as we meet the residents of the town, Jess (Birch) and her daughter Maddy (Vassilieva) who is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, she has been keeping to herself. Ana (Vega) a motel cleaner who is dealing with her own problems with her fiancée. Kim (Smart) who helps run the town in emergency management, looking to keep everything together for the town, as they look to make sure they are prepared for any threats coming their way.
With a storm building, Kim calls for the warnings to be put in place, with the community coming together to make sure everyone is safe, when the story comes their way, as any differences they might have will need to be put aside to survive this storm.
Thoughts on 13 Minutes
Characters & Performances – Jess is one of the members of staff at car mechanics, she has raised her daughter, waiting for her to go off to college, she knows everyone in town, looking to help them in if they need it. Kim runs the emergency planning team in the town, she will do everything she can to make sure the town is prepared for what might be coming there way with the storm potentially coming their way, knowing when to not panic react, but give the town a chance with warnings. This character is put into one of the hardest positions around, knowing she needs to not overreact, but also want to protect her own child, who is deaf, one she can’t be with during the storm. Maddy is the teenage daughter of Jess, she is trying to figure out what to do after learning she is pregnant, finally getting to turn to her mother for advice, while still being stuck trying to make her own decision, caught in the middle of the storm babysitting Kim’s daughter. Ana is one of the maids at the motel, she is hoping to move into the area with her fiancée, if he can find work, making the drastic decision which will save many lives during the storm. We do meet many more characters who are within this community, that show people can come together. The performances in this film come off natural from everyone involved, with a big mention needed to be said for the casting of the young deaf actress Shaylee Mansfield in the role of the daughter unaware of the alerts.
Story – The story here follows a small community that are always prepared for a storm, how they work together when one comes and the work they do if one does hit them. The story does an excellent job of putting us into the different lives of the characters, showing us how these people could see their lives turned upside down by tornadoes, focusing more on the community than the big disaster happening. This is refreshing, as we have complex characters dealing with many different issues, be it remaining professional, understand and accepting people who are different and looking to put differences aside. This will show the bigger aftermath of a tornado on a community, something people would go through and struggling with in the aftermath.
Themes – 13 Minutes is an action thriller that will give us the mega storm, but will reframe from going into anything detail with the destruction, putting more focus on the community. The small town helps shows the community how each business will work together to do favours and will come together in the aftermath.
Signature Entertainment presents 13 Minutes on Digital Platforms 1st November and DVD 17th January
Final Thoughts – 13 Minutes is a shocking look at the devastation a tornado can leave on a community.
Writer: Matthew Abrams, Padgett Arango (Screenplay)
Starring: Keenan Tracey, Brittany Raymond, Spencer Macpherson, Brittany Teo, Stephen Bogaert, Emmanuel Kabogno, Luke Goss
Plot: Miriam, Derek, Ian, and Jenny are overachieving high school students doing everything by the book. Straight A’s, sports, yearbook, band, and – when coursework allows – planning and executing elaborate murders.
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Extracurricular starts as the four high school students Derek (Tracey), Miriam (Raymond), Ian (Macpherson) and Jenny (Teo) go about their extracurricular activity of choice, murder, showing us just how deadly they are.
With their murders increasing, they look to jump straight back into the next one, as we see their careful planning to make this happen, believing they can get away with it, while Derek and Ian’s police officer father Alan (Goss) is investigating the string of murders.
Thoughts on Extracurricular
Thoughts – Extracurricular is a horror that follows four high school students that decide to go on a killing spree, planning the murders like an extra class a school, which will soon see the events start to spiral out of control. This is a horror that isn’t an easy watch because of the fact the students believe they are doing nothing wrong, but don’t seem to have a bigger goal for what they are doing, doesn’t help. The performances are fine, they work for the disturbed characters we are following through the film, with none of the performances looking out of place. This could have a lot more going on behind what we saw which will leave us feeling flat more than anything.
Final Thoughts – Extracurricular is a horror film that seems to get left out on a missed opportunity with the lack of direction.
Starring: Michael Pare, Nancy Valen, Michael Varde, Eileen Davidson, Kennedy Tucker, Trevor Stines, Tim Abell, Paul Fox, Anzu Lawson
Plot: In a small town, high-school dean Alana and her vivacious teenage daughter Samantha plan a holiday concert to save the school with the help of the new maintenance man, Army veteran Johnny, and his quiet son Max. But when a car accident lands Sam in a life-threatening condition, Alana turns to Johnny for support, and Max makes a desperate decision that will forever bond their families together. All four must question their values about sacrifice, family, and love – and what it means to be thankful for another Christmas.
Runtime: 1 Hour 32 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Christmas Crush starts when transfer student Max (Varde) and his father Johnny (Pare) start in a new school under principal Alana D’Angelo (Davidson) whose daughter Samantha (Tucker) also attends the school, preparing for the holiday concert.
Alana turns to Johnny to help prepare the holiday concert, with Max taking on a role in the show and Samantha going on to help her friend Tasha (Haynes) prepare the dancers in the show, but an accident will change the direction of their lives forever.
Thoughts on Christmas Crush
Thoughts – Christmas Crush is Christmas movie based on two different generations meeting in a new encounter, where they will all learn a valuable lesson about doing the right thing, standing up against the authority figures in their lives. This will start out with the typical type of meet cute between the school age characters, along with the parental figures looking back on their own lives with heartache. This will get turned on its head with an accident that will put even more on the line for the people involved. The story doesn’t go harder enough into the asshole boyfriend figure, which has a teasing, but in the end, they show he wants what is best. This will try to tug on the heartstrings when it comes to the peril involved about what might be happening, but in the end will dive into the idea that you will do the right thing for the person you love. This is everything you would expect from the Christmas movies we see on a yearly base, using it more as the backdrop for a serious emotional rollercoaster for the characters.
Signature Entertainment presents Christmas Crush on Digital Platforms 1st November
Final Thoughts – Christmas Crush is the early by the books Christmas Movie you can enjoy.
Director: Tara Subkoff
