HOUSE OF LAST THINGS (2013)

HOUSE OF LAST THINGS (2013) 

Label: Revolver Entertainment

Region Code: 1 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 110 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital Stereo
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Michael Bartlett
Cast: Lindsey Haun, Blake Berris, RJ Mitte, Randy Schulman, Diane Dalton, Micah Nelson

I found myself home sick today with the what feels like plague, not capable of much other than vegging out in front of the TV on the couch wrapped in my favorite afghan blanket. A screener for this film arrived yesterday and was conveniently near the DVD player so I curled up with my blanket and watched it, which turned out to be a good decision, even in my delirium thus surreal haunter kept me rapt for the next two hours. Alan (Randy Schulman) and his wife Sarah (Diane Dalton) live in a very nice house in the Portland area where he is apparently a successful classical music critic... is there such a thing as a successful critic anymore, are people making a living reviewing film and music these days?

Sarah has just been released from an institution where she ended up after an unspecified family tragedy some months earlier. Arriving at home it's easy to see that she is still in a fragile state but Alan surprised her with a trip to Italy, which she is hesitant to accept, but she does agree to go with some prodding. 

Watching the house while they are abroad is an attractive young blond named Kelly (Lindsay Haun) and her younger brother Tim (RJ Mitte) who looks to be suffering from some form of mental illness of his own. As soon as Alan and Sarah are out of the house Kelly's boyfriend Jesse (Blake Harris) arrives and makes himself right at home. He's a bit of a scum bag, not a nice guy, and apparently quite a thief as Kelly warns him right away that he is not allowed to steal anything from the home. 

As the three settle into the home they become aware of a few strange happenings around the home, it house seems to be casting some kind of spell over them, particularly Jesse who begins to wear some of Alan's clothing and begins listening to classical music, in addition to wearing glasses and driving Alan's car around town. On one short jaunt to the store he meets an eight-year-old boy named Adam and on the spot decides he should take him home, the idea being that he can ransom the boy for profit, which does not sit well with Kelly.

With the arrival of young Adam the house has an even more profound effect on the inhabitants of the home all of whom begins to transform to one degree or another, there's some kind of transformative process happening but what it all means is not quite clear. As the strange events unfold at the home in Portland we have the story of Alan and Sarah unfolding in Italy. Some of the strange happenings have are eerie synchronicity to what's happening back at home in Portland as the couple start to argue and the cause of their emotional turmoil is revealed.

I loved the David Lynchian vibe throughout the film, a surreal haunter that reminded me at times of Lynch's BLUE VELVET and TWIN PEAKS, both feature idyllic locations with a dark underbelly. That actress Lindsey Haun bares a resemblance to Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) from TWIN PEAKS certainly didn't hurt either. There's a dream logic narrative at play throughout the film that might make it hard to embrace for some but having a predilection for odd narrative structure and my own cough syrup fueled convalescence I was transfixed, not a film that lays it all out on the first viewing, this is something that can be enjoyed during multiple viewings. There's some nice shot composition and design behind the film, an attractively shot low-budget feature with some thoughtfulness behind the camera which I can appreciate. 

There are a lot of cool visual motifs at play, including an abundance of symbolic red delicious apples, creepy yellow balloons and golf balls throughout this haunting tale of possession and transformation, there's a menace to what's happening but not the kind that inspired terror at any time, it's a tension filled eeriness that permeates this one, this is something quite different altogether. It also features some fine lensing from cinematographer Ken Kelch (Abel Ferarra's DRILLER KILLER, BAD LIEUTENANT) 

The principle cast is almost uniformly good from start to finish, with the exception of RJ Mitte as the disturbed younger brother. he came across odd and uneven throughout for me, which may have been an acting choice on his part being that he was portraying someone with a mental illness of some sort, but it drew attention to itself, and not in a good way. Haun and Berris do the lions share of the work here, particularly Berris who goes through the most significant transformation both visually and internally during the length of the film. 

Unfortunately there are absolutely no extras on the disc from Revolver Entertainment, this is a film I would have enjoyed hearing the writer/director Michael Bartlett discuss the making of and his inspirations, if just to unravel some of the mystery about it. Not a film for everyone, the odd narrative structure ensures that but for those who don't mind a little off kilter narrative this strange haunter is highly recommend.  

DVD Review: ANGRY NAZI ZOMBIES (2013)

ANGRY NAZI ZOMBIES (2013)

Label: Revolver Entertainment

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Duration: 89 Minutes 

Rating: Unrated 

Audio: English Dolby digital 2.0 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen
Director: James Eaves Pat Higgins Alan Ronald
Cast: Tina Barnes, Paul Kelleher, Cy Henty

They say you shouldn't  judge a book by it's cover and perhaps the same can be said for movies but I was prepared to hate this one from the get-go. We have some uber generic DVD artwork, an uninspired title and yet another Nazi-zombies mash-up. The sub-genre has been around for decades with Shock Waves (1976), Zombie Lake (1981) and Treasure of the Living Dead (1982) but since the Norwegian import Dead Snow (2006) there seems to have been a massive (and mostly generic) resurgence of this particular brand of undead cinema. Upon close inspection my curiosity was peaked a bit when I discovered this is actually an anthology films comprised of three vignettes that occur during World War 2, oddly only one of the stories has an actual zombie Nazi which a bit misleading but I guess if gets your foot in the door. 

The first story from director Jim Eaves (Bane) Medal of Horror features a young British soldier George (David Wayman) on a suicide mission to rescue the daughter of a superior officer from a Nazi temptress named Jezebel (Tina Barnes). There's a bit of a back story about why the young George - who's just a typing clerk - was chosen for the mission, apparently George is quite a Lothario with the ladies. The segment starts off a bit meandering with a surprisingly steamy bit of burlesque then pretty much straight into our soldier infiltrating enemy territory on his quest and encountering some Nazi opposition with a decent chase through the forest. Then suddenly a zombified Red Baron arrives and kung fu battles an undead Japanese pilot. This bit is so out of left field and ridiculous - the sudden shift in tone was unexpected and awkward. The film climaxes with the expected face-off with Jezebel and a mechanized Nazi menace which is a very decent pay-off and turns out to be the best part of this particular story. The tone is uneven but I enjoyed this one quite a bit and I thought Tina Barnes was fantastic as the Nazi vixen - we needed more of her!

The second and best entry is Harriet's War from director Alan Ronald. Paranormal investigator Harriet Price (Lara Lemon) arrives in a sleepy little village to investigate a series of strange deaths wherein the victims bodies have had swastikas carved into their flesh. This one reminded me a bit of Sleepy Hollow as her character utilizes steam punk technology to sleuth the mystery aided by a young constable while getting the stink-eye from the local clergymen. Lara Lemon is pretty great as the paranormal investigator, definitely want to see more of this young woman in the future, quite captivating. Enjoyed the rural setting and characters village plus some neat supernatural elements, a lot of fun.

The final and least favorable entry is director Pat Higgins' Devils of the Blitz.wherein three members of a family seeking shelter from Nazi blitzkrieg are terrorized by pint-sized flesh eating demons. The family are comprised of a young woman named Ruth, her mother and a grandfather who are arguing about the recent actions of Rith's brother who is a deserter from the armed forces. Tensions are high and Grandpa is a bit of a douche, there's a lot of angsty turmoil between the three who must at the same time contend with the pint-sized monsters in the basement. The problem with this one are the creature effects which are quite awful and glimpsed only briefly, the cast however is quite good and turn in some layered performances.

The title and artwork are purposefully exploitative and misleading to a point but Angry Nazi Zombies is worth a rental or Netflix watch. The performances are strong throughout and the micro-budgeted tales do pack some punch with some decently executed ideas. The execution is not perfect but the cast is strong and the production values are decent and it's way better that suffering through any of the Deadtime Stories entries or (gulp) Creepshow III. 2.5 Outta 5

DVD Review: SALVAGE (2010)

SALVAGE (2010)

Label: Revolver Entertainment
Region Code: 1 NTSC
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 76 mins
Video: 16x9 Widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Director: Lawrence Hough
Cast: Neve McIntosh, Shaun Dooley, Linzey Cocker
Tagline: Fear Cannot Be Contained
 
In this British horror-thriller set in a quiet cul-de-sac it's Christmas Eve and a young girl named Jodie (Linzey Cocker) is rather unwilling dropped off at her estranged mother's doorstep by her father. It's not quite a happy homecoming scenario and it's made worse when Jodie lets herself into mum's place only to catch mom Beth (Neve McIntosh) amidst a rather steamy  one-night stand with Kieran (Shaun Dooley, EDEN LAKE) a man she met just the night before. A barely dressed Beth chases after her perturbed daughter into the streets where there's a brief confrontation ending in Jodie tossing her mother's house keys at her quite hard and fleeing to a neighbors home. 

Beth is definitely a flawed mother character, a lot of their issues stem from Beth abandoning her marriage and daughter to further her career, and the tension between the two is thick with animosity and regret. Beth returns home and dresses a bit more appropriately and attempts to recover her daughter from the neighbors only to have the door shut in her face. Standing in shock outside the door her attention is drawn towards a helicopter overhead just as a neighbor emerges from his home covered in blood and carrying a large knife. Just then Beth is tackled by a military soldier who commands her at gunpoint to return to her home as the neighbor is gunned down after refusing to comply. As the military infiltrate the cul-de-sac Beth is left inside her home with a man she's only just met, near strangers who must come together to deal with an unknown threat that has descended upon the usually quiet neighborhood.

The nature of the threat is unknown at first but the film plays up fears of terrorism, particularly Kieran who's obsessed with the notion that the gunned down neighbor must have been part of a terrorist cell. Adding to the mystery are reports of a shipping container washed ashore in the nearby river Thames that seems to be the epicenter of the carnage that's overtaken the neighborhood. Trapped in the house together the two argue, panic and give in to varying degrees of paranoia and anxiety, it's not over-the-top hysterics and plays quite realistically into what I would assume one would experience during such an event.

As gunshots ring out in the neighborhood the panic worsens as does Beth's concern for her daughter's well being. She sets out to rescue her only to find the neighbor's house in shambles, blood is everywhere but there are no signs of her daughter. Discovering an injured soldier outside the house they bring him inside and are able to piece together what's the military is there to contain and it's far worse than they could have imagined. At the 53 minute mark the tense paranoiac thriller turns into a mutated creature horror fest and while the pace picks up it perhaps loses a bit of it's punch but is still quite a fine film.

SALVAGE is a great case of economical low-budget horror filmmaking, it's tense, atmospheric and nail-bitingly good. The acting is fantastic from start to finish, particularly Dooley and McIntosh, and wisely the creatures are kept mostly in shadow and not over exposed. The film's a nice combination of THE CRAZIES violent infected and terrorist paranoia thriller RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR.

DVD:The disc from Revolver Entertainment presents the film in 16x9 enhanced 1.78:1 widescreen and looks very good with nice black levels and a generally subdued color tone. The DVD boasts an impressively immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound track that accents the tension quite well, very good sound design and a tense score. Dialogue sounds crisp and clear, no subtitles are included.

Special features include a commentary track with Director Lawrence Gough plus writer Colin O’Donell, associate producer Alan Pattison and star Shaun Dooley who discuss the genesis of the film from a short subject film to it's development as a feature length production. It's a decent listen if a bit dry at times. There's also nearly 45 minutes of cast and crew interviews and a behind-the-scenes making of featurette. Not too shabby, but don't talk about the short film and not feature it on the DVD, c'mon guys. It had better be on YouTube or the film's website, seriously.

Special Features:
- Behind the Scenes Making Of (10:08) 16:9
- Cast and Crew Interviews (44:34) 16:9
- Commentary from Director Lawrence Gough, writer Colin O’Donell, associate producer Alan Pattison and star Shaun Dooley

Verdict: Having just watched British film TONY (2009) and then straight away watching this it's hard not to reflect upon the great many number of kick ass British horror films in recent years, it's very promising indeed. I'm a bit pist that I somehow managed to miss this one which was actually released last summer on DVD, better late to the party than never right?  Not a hugely original film but very well executed, tense and bloody, well recommended.

www.salvagethefilm.com/