CONCRETE PLANS (2020) (Dark Sky Films DVD Review)

CONCRETE PLANS (2020) 

Label: Dark Sky Films

Region Code: 1

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 92 Minutes 

Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.39:1) 

Director: William Jewell

Cast: Goran Bogdan, Kevin Guthrie, Chris Reilly, Amber Rose Revah, Charley Palmer Rothwell, Steve Spiers, William Thomas, James Lance

Seemingly well-off jerk Simon (Kevin Guthrie, Dunkirk) hires a disparate crew of desperate construction workers to renovate his countryside property, it's an off-the-books job paid under the table. Nice guy crew boss Bob (Steve Spiers, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest) has assembled a small crew, perhaps to small for the scope of the project, that includes his shifty shit of a nephew Steve (Charlie Palmer Rothwell, Dunkirk),  a Ukrainian immigrant named Victor (Goran Bogdan, TV's Fargo), old-timer Dave (William Thomas, TV's Torchwood) and the hot-headed Jim (Chris Reily, Wrath of Man) to get the job done. 

Things start off tense from the get-go with Simon proving to be an inhospitable employer, sternly warning the workman to stay away from the main house on the property, and then housing them in a drafty barn with a leaky roof. On the other hand Simon's posh fiancé Amy (Amber Rose Revah, Netflix's The Punisher) is quite a nice lady, and her looks have not gone unnoticed by the workmen, especially when she can be seen in various states of undress through windows of the main house, which gave me a distinct Straw Dogs vibe.  

The inhospitable simmer soon begins to turn to a boil when rightful payment for their services seems to keep getting delayed by Simon, which pits the Bob in a bad place with his employees as her tries to balance the feelings of his employer with the steadily growing dissatisfaction of his crew. It turns out that Simon's inherited wealth is experiencing some of tax-law complication, which he keeps from the crew, and to smooth things over he attempts to bond with the blokes over a game of poker, but it ends when Simon loses a hand and storms off angry.

After that it does not take long for tension between the cash-strapped employer and increasingly disgruntled employees to rise to a fever pitch, especially after the men inadvertently discover that the pompous shit-heel is planning to flee the country without paying his dead. When they angrily confront him the hotter-heads on the crew snap and bloody violence erupts... and let me just say that fucking with disgruntled construction workers is just a bad idea on it's face, all they do is handle heavy-duty equipment all day, and their pretty good with a hammer, you know? 

Concrete Plans (2020) is a solid violent thriller but it does not quite sticks the landing. Its a bit muddled with cliché one dimensional characters, but I appreciated the set-up, the tension-filled build-up, the solid cast, and the explosion of violence and even the twisty finale. It's not a home run but a solid three-bagger thriller, and a heck of a debut film from director Will Jewell. 

Concrete Plans (2020) arrives on DVD from Dark Sky Films with an anamorphic widescreen presentation with Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 with optional English subtitles. No extras on this one, just the movie. 

HOSTS (2020) (Dark Sky Films DVD Review)

HOSTS (2020) 

Label: Dark Sky Films
Duration: 89 Minutes

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Audio: English Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 & Surround 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.39:1) 

Directors: Adam Leader & Richard Oakes
Cast: Neal Ward, Samantha Loxley, Frank Jakeman, Nadia Lamin, Lee Hunter, Jennifer Preston, Buddy Skelton

On the night of Christmas Eve Michael (Frank Jakeman, Lifeforce) invites his neighbor Jack (Neal Ward) and his wife Lucy (Samantha Lockley) to come have dinner at his house with his wife Cassie (Jennifer K. Preston), and grown children Eric (Lee Hunter) and Lauren (Nadia Lamin), and youngster Ben (Buddy Skelton). Things begin warmly enough with friendly conversation and light-hearted bickering among the children. Later over dinner the mother reveals that her formerly aggressive cancer has now gone into remission, as the family celebrates the oddly behaving Lucy perpetrates a brutal bit of violence upon the mother to the shock and horror of all, except for her husband Jack, who joins his wife by brandishing a shotgun. 

Unbeknownst to Michael and his family earlier in the evening both Michael and Lucy were unwillingly inhabited by the mysterious evil-entities that would end up ruining dinner. With faintly glowing eyes the possessed couple set about restraining each of the family members and torturing them, putting them through the wringer emotionally and physically, exposing long kept family secrets and seemingly intent on exploring the human condition through torturous acts that threaten to destroy the close-knit family from within long before they die or become possessed by the entities.   

Hosts (2020) is a low-budget flick but you wouldn't know it by watching it other than it's kept to a mostly single house location, it's a well-lensed and stylish flick that comes off a bit like the home invasion thriller The Strangers (2008) by way of demon-possession flick Demons 2 (1987), but not nearly as gory as the latter, but it certainly has it's moments. Set in a confined space it is tense and claustrophobic, with bits of nerve-shredding violence, the first bit of which is so jaw-dropping that I actually stopped the DVD and started it over again, it totally caught me off guard. 

I won't go onto spoil any more of this because I feel like this has the potential to be a significant discovery for those who like me did not know anything about it before viewing it, I was quite impressed by the potency of the movie. The cast is uniformly great and sell the tension and emotion of the nightmare scenario, and even even though I think the set-up and start of the film is superior to finale I never checked out, I was in it from the beginning and gripping the arm of the couch right on though to the end. 

Audio/Video: Hosts (2020) arrives on anamorphic DVD from Dark Sky Films framed in 2.39:1 widescreen with both 2.0 and 5.1 English Dolby Digital audio. The flick looks great in standar d definition, but I do hope they, or someone, upgrade this to Blu-ray at some point because it's a sharp-looking film. Audio is clean and well-balanced, the surround mix has a decently immersive experience that help up the creep factor a little bit, optional English subtitles are included. 

Extras are plentiful when compared to other recent Dark Sky releases, we get a nearly hour-long making of doc that has plenty of humor and cool behind-the-scenes footage, plus about thirteen minutes of interviews with the cast and crew, in addition to a trailer for the film and a selection of trailers from the distributor. The single-disc release arrives in a clear keepcase with a one-sided sleeve of artwork which is also mirrored on the disc inside. 

Special Features:

- Behind the Scenes (59 min)

- Interviews (13 min) 

- Trailer (2 min) 

Hosts (2020) was a fantastic watch, I was in it from the beginning and still gripping the arm of the couch right on though to the end, highly recommended. This is one of my favorite discoveries of 2020 so far, and sure to be a new annual Christmas terror re-watch for me! 

More screenshots from the Dark Sky Films DVD: