Director: M Night Shyamalan

Writer: M Night Shyamalan (Screenplay) Pierre-Oscar Levy, Frederick Peeters (Graphic Novel)

Starring: Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Abbey Lee, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung

Plot: A thriller about a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly reducing their entire lives into a single day.

Tagline – It’s only a matter of time.

Runtime: 1 Hour 48 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Old starts when a family Guy (Bernal), Prisca (Krieps) and child Maddox and Trent get invited to a private beach in the luxury holiday island, joined by two other families, when they discover a dead body floating in the ocean.

As the people try to put together what is going on, the shocking realisation that they are aging quickly comes to light as the children start growing up, leading to a desperate panic to figure out how to escape before their time runs out.

Thoughts on Old

Characters & Performances – Guy and Prisca are the parents that are having their own problems using this holiday as the last chance to deal with their problems or deciding to walk away, over the time on the beach, they do start to realize what was important to them before. Maddox and Trent start as 11 and 6 years old, when they start aging they will become key to how suddenly things are changing, maintaining their innocent child-like mentality no matter what age their bodies are. The performances from everyone involved are great, with Gael Garcia Bernal and Vicky Krieps as the parents, aging slowly, compared to the host of different stars are the children characters. In the supporting roles Rufus Sewell as the doctor who is slowly starting to lose his mind being the more terrifying side of the human characters.

Story – The story here follows a group of families that find themselves stuck on a beach where they will see them age drastically faster, to the levels they may live a whole lifetime in a day, as they need to find a way to escape before it is too late. This is a genius idea for a story that will keep us wondering as to what is happening or how they can escape for the whole film, we get to see different reactions to what is happening, with certain ones being wilder than they need to be, but once you figure it out, which is something that becomes clear earlier on with why they are there, it only becomes a message of how to escape. This is a story that will leave you wanting more, which is always something you want to see.

Themes – Old is a horror thriller that uses the lure of the beautiful location to draw the characters in to the breath taking beach on the tropical island, to the mystery about why what is going on is happening. The camerawork is used to hide a lot of what is going on, be it the side effects of what is happening, or covering up certain age changes. The world being built is a place we could re-visit and continue to see more from, as we just know there is much bigger thing going on.

Final Thoughts – Old is a fascinating thriller that will keep you guessing and wanting more all at once.

Director: Juan Diego Escobar Alzate

Writer: Juan Diego Escobar Alzate (Screenplay)

Starring: Yuri Vargas, Jim Munoz, Sharon Guzman, Conrado Osorio, Daniel Paez, Marcela Robledo

Plot: An atmospheric Jodorowskian trip that portraits the real horrors of faith and men.

Tagline – Good and Evil are the same being.

Runtime: 1 Hour 44 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Luz the Flower of Evil starts as we follow a community led by a preacher El Senor (Osorio) who believes the community has discovered the new messiah in a young boy, but as El Senor’s three daughters Uma (Vargas), Laila (Esquivel) and Zion (Guzman) soon start questioning more about the God they following, leading them down a dangerous path, one El Senor can’t control.

Thoughts on Luz: The Flower of Evil

Thoughts – Luz: The Flower of Evil is a film that will put up the big question about how people will see a God like figure in their world. It will follow the community with their beliefs and does make the point of showing us that we are in a modernish world with a tape recorder in the film, without going into true details. How everything unfolds is how you would imagine when questions come to discuss how the world might be bigger. This might not be the biggest movie, with how deep everything goes, but the unsettling nature of the events will leave the more to what could have been. The settings being used are great with how the isolated the community is with the beauty of nature being involved.

Luz: The Flower of Evil is on digital 26 July and Blu-ray 23 August from Fractured Visions

Final Thoughts – Luz: The Flower of Evil is a spacey God fearing creation.

Director: David Charbonier, Justin Powell

Writer: David Charbonier, Justin Powell (Screenplay)

Starring: Lonnie Chavis, Ezra Dewey, Kristin Bauer van Straten, Scott Michael Foster, Micah Hauptman, Rich Ceraulo Ko

Plot: After Bobby and his best friend Kevin are kidnapped and taken to a strange house in the middle of nowhere, Bobby manages to escape. But as he starts to make a break for it, he hears Kevin’s screams for help and realizes he can’t leave his friend behind.

Runtime: 1 Hour 28 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: The Boy Behind the Door starts when two boys Bobby (Chavis) and Kevin (Dewey) are kidnapped and taken to a mysterious home, Bobby manages to escape his situation, only to learn the Kevin is still trapped. Bobby doesn’t want to leave his friend, so looks for a way to rescue him, learning more about the house in the process.

With Bobby needing to stay out of sight, he finds himself needing to figure out the solution before it is too late, where he will need to try and hide, staying one step ahead of their captor.

Thoughts on The Boy Behind the Door

Characters & Performances – Bobby is one of the two boys kidnapped, he is the one that manages to escape, but doesn’t want to leave his friend behind. He will do everything in his power to find a place to hide from the captor, as he looks for a way to rescue his best friend, smart, tough and unwilling to give up. Lonnie Chavis does a great job in this role, he gives us a performance that show the toughness needed to survive. Kevin is the friend that has been kidnapped too, he is put though something horrendous, needing to find a way to escape, but also knowing he doesn’t want Bobby to go through what he did. Ezra Dewey does well in his role too, showing the true pain his character has been through, balancing the desperation to escape with the fear of something worse happening. The captor has been putting the kids through a torture for their own pleasure, they will do anything to keep their secret and doesn’t want to lose what they have either.

Story – The story here follows a young boy that is looking to save his friend after the pair are kidnapped by someone that wants to use them for their own means, giving us a high-end tension filled experience. The story will leave us within the one location, as the boys don’t know how to get out of the situation, not knowing where they are and not knowing how dangerous the captor is. This will get involved in a dark subject matter, one that will leave us in shock when we see what is going on, or what the plans are, while we get to see the survival side (thankfully) where we see how the boys must look to fight back to survive.

Themes – The Boy Behind the Door is a horror thriller that will show us the isolated location the two boys find themselves in away from anywhere they know. The tension comes from seeing how the boys need to try and stay ahead of the captor, with plenty of searching sequences, while we do get the shock moments when it comes to seeing the fights between the adult and child.

Final Thoughts – The Boy Behind the Door is a horror filled with tension, while tackle a disturbing subject.