68 KILL (2017) (Blu-ray Review)

68 KILL (2017)

Label: Scream Factory/IFC Midnight
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 96 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Trent Haaga
Cast: Matthew Gray Gubler, AnnaLynne McCord, Alisha Boe, Sheila Vand, Sam Eidson

Trashy thriller 68 Kill (2017) stars TV's  Criminal Minds star Matthew Gray Gubler as nice-guy loser Chip, a man beyond pussy-whipped by his Southern-hot slice of sexiness Liza (AnnaLynne McCord, Excision), a hard woman who gets her kicks from beating and strangling Chip while hate-fucking him, that is when shes not getting nailed by her wealthy sugar-daddy on the side. The sad part is that Chip knows about the other guy but let's it slide because she says it don't mean anything, it's just about the money, the poor just won't stand-up for himself, he is completely under the control of the sweet-pussy. 

Liza convinces Chip to reluctantly join in on stealing sixty-eight grand from her sugar daddy, but when the robbery turns into a homicide Chip finds himself on the run with the money and hiding from Liza with a female-hostage in his trunk, whom he begins to fall in love with, will Chip ever learn? 

This film is a blast, directed by writer/actor/director Trent Haaga the film is seedy and action-packed, loaded with trashy fucking, hardened women, and fast-paced trailer park weirdness, it goes by fast and holds up to repeat watches. Matthew Gray Gubler is perfect for the role of the spineless guy who lets women walk all over him, we keep wanting him to rise to the occasion and when he does it's awesome. There's no shortage of strong-willed women, the ones your mamma warned you about, the role of white trash vixen is tailor-made for AnnaLynne McCord who is smoking hot and so fucking diabolical, but also very charming in a sexy, crazy sort of way. Then we have Alisha Boe as the street-smart Violet and Sheila Vand as the Goth madwoman Monica who is sort of like a maniacal Lydia from Beetlejuice. I won't spoil the fun by explaining the plot any more than I have but this was a heck of a fun watch, very trashy, fast-paced and well-executed. 

Blu-ray Review: SCORNED (2014)

SCORNED (2014) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment

Region: A

Duration: 86 Minutes

Rating: R

Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with Optional English, Spanish Subtitles 

Video: 1080 Widescreen (1.78:1) 

Director: Mark Jones

Cast: Viva Bianca, Billy Zane, AnnaLynne McCord 

Scorned (2014) is a straight-to-video thriller starring the arguably once popular Billy Zane (Demon Knight) and the gorgeous AnnaLynne McCord who I thought was quite good in the body-horror indie Excision (2012) as a disturbed young woman with surgical aspirations and menstrual sex fantasties. Here McCord is yet again a disturbed young woman though the her character Sadie is much less intriguing though just as dangerous, a manic nut off her lithium at a time when she discovers her douche-nozzle boyfriend Kevin (Zane) is fucking her slutty best-friend (Viva Bianca). On a romantic weekend getaway things turn ugly quickly when Sadie intercepts  a few choice texts on Kevin's phone.  The story is set in motion pretty fast and we get a few missing pieces through ridiculous flashbacks to hours before and a fucked-up childhood - it's a bit of a mess.

Incapacitating Kevin she then lures her former-bestie to the country getaway where she quickly gets the upper hand before subjecting both to a series of psycho-sexual torture games. None of it's overly graphic but it does get a bit ridiculous with finger-breaking, electrocution and forced oral pleasuring. Throw in a sub-plot about an escaped murderer from the local prison in the area and it's just a bit too much, the tortures are so thought out that it's hard to believe she came up with this on the spot and the characters are all so unsympathetic you cannot get behind any of them, you feel absolutely nothing for anyone in this movie. 

A very vanilla thriller that is thankfully quite short at just 86 minutes. I tend to steer clear of Billy Zane projects but after Excision I had high-hopes for McCord but this is a disappointment from start to finish, the writing is lackluster and this is just a very workman-like production with little to no atmosphere or suspense. The Blu-ray looks decent in the AV department but there are no extras on the disc - not even the cast and crew would care to reminisce about the making of this limp thriller.  2 Outta 5  

Blu-ray Review: EXCISION (2012)

EXCISION (2012) 

Label: Anchor Bay Entertainment 

Release Date: October 16, 2012
Region Code: A

Duration: 81 minutes
Rating: Unrated

Aspect Ratio: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.40)
Audio: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 with English, Spanish Subtitles

Cast: AnnaLynne McCord, Traci Lords, Ariel Winter, Roger Bart, Jeremy Sumpter, Matthew Gray Gubler, Ray Wise, John Waters, Malcolm McDowell, Marlee Matlin 

Director: Richard Bates, Jr.  

Synopsis: Based on writer/director Richard Bates, Jr’s short film of the same name, Excision follows a disturbed and delusional high school student, Pauline (AnnaLynne McCord). Pauline, with aspirations of a career in medicine, goes to extremes to earn the approval of her controlling mother (played by Traci Lords). While dealing with both being an outcast teenager and having an obsession over curing her sister’s cystic fibrosis, Pauline becomes increasingly deranged as her fascination with surgery and flesh and blood grows into something compulsive and demonic, if not epic.

The Film: Wowie, this was a dark-hearted film, and a funny one, too but super dark and certainly twisted - nice to see some original fuck-uppedness out there. Pauline as played by AnnaLynne McCord (TV's Nip Tuck) is an outsider at school, attractive but in a dark, demented way. She's strange and no one seems to care for her, particularly not the popular kids. She doesn't really help herself with fun question in sex ed class like "Can you get an STD from a dead guy?", that's just social suicide in high school and in life after, y'know but she's an inquisitive young lady so what can you do.

She's has dreams of becoming a surgeon and believes she has natural God-given abilities with a scalpel which she hopes to use to cure her sister of her cystic fibrosis, let's just see how that delusion pans out at the end. Speaking of dreams, let me tell you this chic is festering in dark surreal nightmares, fantasies actually, she dreams of crawling naked over masses of corpses, licking mutilated body parts, bathing in a tub of blood and enduring toe-curling orgasms while straddling cadavers on the autopsy table - really bizarre stuff. A virgin at the start of the film she offers her virginity to the boyfriend of one of the popular cheerleaders and this poor douche nozzle just has no idea what he's been invited to partake of, definitely bites off more than he's willing chew.

The film has quite a cast including Traci Lords (Cry Baby) and Roger Bart (Hostel II) as her parents. Bart who plays a sympathetic and henpecked husband to Lords over-bearing but well-meaning mother. We also have some great cameos from Ray Wise (Twin Peaks) as the school principal and Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange) as Pauline's teacher (how fucked-up a school would that be?) plus a brief cameo from trash-master John waters (Serial Mom) as a priest who futilely attempts to bring the demented Pauline closer to God whom with Pauline speaks regularly about pre-marital sex among other things, very funny. 

Hard to believe this is a first time feature for Richard Bates, Jr., it's very well directed, definitely a guy with vision and a beautiful film too with tons of grotesque and surreal beauty. Hats of to McCord for her performance, very solid and some might think casting an actress as gorgeous as her in the role as some sort of stunt-casting ala Charlize Theron in Monster (2003) but she's got the chops, not a character you will soon forget, totally unhinged and wonderful. 

The film is pretty twisted, if you're a fan of Todd Solondz' twisted coming-of-age film Welcome to the Dollhouse (1999) with some Cronenberg-esque body horror (think Dead Ringers) elements soaked with a wickedly dark wit then this is a film for you, highly recommended. (4 Outta 5)