LUCIFERINA (2018) (Artsploitation Blu-ray Review)

LUCIFERINA (2018) 

Label: Artsploitation
Region Code: A
Duration: 114 Minutes 
Rating: Unrated
Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1) 
Director: Gonzalo Calzada 
Cast: Sofía Del Tuffo, Marta Lubos, Pedro Merlo, Malena Sánchez, Francisco Donovan 

A young nun Natalia (Sofia Del Tuffo) returns home to visit her dying father, with whom she is estranged. While home she is invited by her gothy sister Angela (Malena Sanchez) to join she and her bad-boy boyfriend Mauro (Francisco Donovan), and friends Abel (Pedro Merlo), Osvaldo (Gaston Cocchiarale) and Mara (Stefania Koessl), to an island where they plan to ingest drugs under the supervision of a shaman. All this happening in a abandoned nunnery that was closed down her earlier after what we are told was a demonic-possession incident... what could possibly go wrong? 

Luciferina (2018) is a stylish indie demon-possession film, we get some appropriately spooky surroundings, there's plenty of sacrilege to go around, plus strong performances from just about all the young cast. The supernatural film does good work building unease and suspense, provides plenty of unsettling imagery along the way. This is a well-executed if not all that original tale of virginal innocence versus evil with a satisfying amount of hallucinogenic visuals and a sex-fueled finale that is the cherry on top of this devilish bit of horror from Argentina. 

From what I can tell this is the first film in a planned trilogy, not sure if those other films will come to fruition but this is a solid film all on it's own, a fever dream of a demon possession film that delivers the goods.

MOLLY (2017) (Artsploitation Films Blu-ray Review)

MOLLY (2017) 

Label: Artsploitation Films

Region Code: A

Rating: Unrated 

Duration: 91 Minutes 

Audio: English 2.0 Dolby Digital, 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English Subtitles

Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)

Director: Colinda Bongers & Thijs Meuwese

Cast: Julia Batelaan, Mounir Aboulasri, Annelies Appelhof, Cheraine Baljé, Joost Bolt, Tamara Brinkman

Molly (2017) is a Mad Max by way of Turbo Kid-ish post-apocalyptic thriller wherein the titular character, played wonderfully by young Julia Batelaan, is a scavenger in the wastelands. She's strong and is able to hold her own against threats while scouring the desolate land for the food and weaponry she needs to survive. The coastal area is ruled by bad-guy named Deacon (Joost Bolt) who reigns from what looks to be the ruins of an offshore oil rig, where he runs an underground fight club of sorts, wherein victims who have been drugged with some sort of serum which turns them violent, known as "supplicants", are pitted against each other for sport and entertainment. The preferred currency of the apocalypse seems to be bullets for weapons, which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. 

We learn that Molly has a supernatural abilities, the power to a form a telekinetic force field, which have made her existence something of a local legend. When Deacon's marauders report back to him that she has killed several of his underlings he sends his minions to capture her, kidnapping her new found young friend as bait, luring her to his offshore lair, leading up to a violent bone-shattering finale. 

Molly is a spunky and lo-fi of movie making, it has style and is imaginative with a lead character who is quirky yet strong, throughout we are given brief flashbacks about her past with hints of medical tampering leading to her abilities, it makes for a compelling watch. I did find it a bit difficult not to think of Turbo Kid while I watching this, I feel they're kindred spirits, and their stories could be happening in the same universe on different continents, so if you have an affinity for one I think you will dig the other. The story is definitely old hat though, there's nothing new under the post-apocalyptic sun here but they way it's told with a bold vision was strong enough to keep me plugged in right up tot he closing credits

The character of Molly is a cool-looking creation as we,l, she wears nerdy glasses, and is decked out in a post-apocalyptic 80's looking wardrobe. Her weaponry include a savage sword type blade, a homemade bow and arrow, and a pistol, not to mention her telekinetic defenses which she summons from time to time, plus a winged bird of prey which keeps her company and warns her of impending threats along the way. I like that she's not part of a group, she's solo, making her own way, keeping to herself, and actress Julia Batelaan really sold the character to me, conveying an inner strength, required vulnerability and determination the character needed. 

There's also some cool baddies, a menacing tracker and a mechanical-armed woman are the highlights, the ringmaster-esque main baddie was the least interesting of the threats, his performance is the only one that stood apart as plain bad for me, but I'm willing to consider that has more to do with the English performance from a Dutch actor. That the film is largely wordless for a good amount of the time might have been a wide move, and that he probably had the most speaking parts might be why stuck out so sorely for me. 

Audio/Video: Molly arrives on Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films, presenting the film in 108p HD widescreen (1.78:1) - the low-budget flick has an interesting look, high contrast and blooming with colorful, a unique choice for a post-apocalyptic film, plenty of bright colors using post-production techniques to saturate the color like an Instagram photo, I liked it. The image is nicely crisp with good clarity and depth. Audio comes by way of lossy English Dolby Digital stereo and surround mixes, the 5.1 is solid with good use of the surrounds, creating a good immersive experience, it's too bad we don't get a lossless option though, but the track is solid, optional English subtitles are provided. 

Extras on the disc include an audio commentary from directors Colinda Bongers & Thijs Meuwese, a trailer and a thirty-one minute making of doc that consists of behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the film. 

Special Features: 

- Audio Commentary with Directors Colinda Bongers & Thijs Meuwese

- Making of Molly (31 min) 

- Trailer (2 min) 

Molly is a bad-ass and quirky slice of post-apocalyptic cinema, a few of the fight sequences look a bit stiff and sloppily executed, but it has a lot more going for it than it does against it, including a solid performance from Julia Batelaan as the titular character, a solid lo-fi film. 

THE EPITAPH VOL.1: A TASTE OF PHOBIA (2017), GERMAN ANGST (2015), PYEWACKET (2018), 24X36 (2016), READY PLAYER ONE (2018), & SAVANNAH SMILES (1982)

THE EPITAPH VOL.1

 A TASTE OF PHOBIA (2017) - GERMAN ANGST (2015) -  PYEWACKET (2018), 24X36 (2016) - READY PLAYER ONE (2018) - SAVANNAH SMILES (1982) 

We're trying out a new semi-regular weekly capsule review column on the site, I'm calling it The Epitaph, these will be brief summary of recent release we think you ought to know about. Here we go...

A TASTE OF PHOBIA (2017) on DVD from the worldly and adventurous movie lovers over at Artsploitation Films, this fear-exploring anthology features 14 director from around the globe doing shorts based on fears, from the scatological to the psychological, and the more mundane, some with polish and some just looking rough. As with all anthologies this is loaded with a mic that runs the gamut from straight rubbish to rather cool, but you have to be not just a a die-hard anthology fan but also a real fan of lo-fi indie filmmaking, which I happen to be, and even I had a hard time digesting this in one sitting. Not just because some of them are sickening, but the quality wavers throughout, but if you're a fan of lo-fi anthologies this is worth a watch, for all others it might be a bit of slog. If you're on the fence this one is streaming on Amazon right now and free with your Prime subscription. 


GERMAN ANGST (2015) arrives on Blu-ray also from Artsploitation Films, we have three twisted tales from three German directors, most notably Jörg Buttgereit (Nekromantik) who offers up 'Final Girl', a tale of a young girl who seems normal at first, until we see that she has a man tied up and gagged in a room at her apartment, We learn what he's done and why he's there, and let's just say it's not gonna end well for him, nope. A nicely told tale that keeps a mystery about it as it plays out, feeding us back story along the way, and shot with some nice lensing. My favorite of the trio is the second film entitled 'Make a Wish' about a Polish deaf and mute couple who are exploring an abandoned warehouse when they are attacked by a group of skinhead neo-Nazis. This one involves a talisman that allows for body transference which makes an interesting twist to the story. This one also has some great flashbacks to the WWII era ancestors of the mute man, for a low-budget short it looks fairly convincing, this one is sort of like a nightmare version of the Freaky Friday but with murderous skinheads. The last one comes from Andreas Marschall (Masks), 'Alraune" is the story of a man seeking heightened sexual thrills which he finds at a bizarre underground sex-club, but he finds he may have gotten involved with something more sinister than he could have imagined, and he's right! This one is the most gruesome of the bunch with some Lovecraftian nods and tentacled weirdness. As a whole this was a more concise and entertaining anthology than the A Taste of Phobia disc, if it comes down to just one I say go with this one - this one is also streaming on Amazon Video and free for Prime members.
  

PYEWACKET (2018) on Blu-ray from IFC Midnight/Scream Factory, this team-up that doesn't always knock it out of the park in my opinion but occasionally they'll wow me with something like The Autopsy of Jane Doe or The Devil's Candy, and along the lines of the latter we have Pyewacket, a film that spells out exactly why you shouldn't dabble in the dark arts, it's almost always bad news. A young girl and her mom each grieve for their late father/husband in different ways, mom turns to drink while the daughter turns to black metal and occult dabbling, but when she summons a spirit to kill her mother after a spat things go all screwy. The rural setting and spooky vibe of this one gave me goosebumps, who hasn't wished their parents dead at some point when they were teens, but not many of us went out to the woods and performed a satanic ritual to make it happen? Highly recommended, loved the special effects used to achieve the demonic presence, super-creepy. 

24X36: A MOVIE ABOUT MOVIE POSTERS (2016) is on DVD only from Filmrise and the MVD Entertainment Group, a doc about movie posters, duh. The title references the dimensions of a traditional one-sheet movie poster, there's discussion of the inception of lithography in 1798 and how that lead to movie posters, with talking heads including Joe Dante,  fawning over classic illustrators and painters who made the classic vintage movie posters we all love, stuff from Philip Castle (A Clockwork Orange), Albery Kallis (Creature from the Black Lagoon), Reynold Brown (Attack of the 50 Foot Woman), Bob Peak (Superman: The Movie), John Alvin (Blade Runner), Roger Kastel (Star Wars), Richard Amsel (The Dark Crystal) and others. The first half of the film is an appreciation of the vintage stuff, the second half deals with the decline of poster illustration in favor of the floating heads photoshop style that permeated the nineties and aughts, and still does sadly. It concludes with the rise of Mondo and the new-style of collectible poster art, which I don't find nearly as interestibg as the vintage stuff, and they spend a bit too much time talking about properly licensing the properties, or not as the case may be. I wanted more vintage stories from the masters, but even so I think this is a fascinating doc, even if you don't collect movie posters, just as someone who grew up watching films there's something here to love, and some of the stories are great, like Roger Kastel speaking about riffing on the Gone with the Wind poster for his The Empire Strikes back poster, and the story of Guillermo Del Toro commissioning Drew Struzan to do his Hellboy poster only to have the studio pull back on it.  

READY PLAYER ONE (2018) gets the 4K treatment from Warner Bros., this Spielberg movie proves he's still got the magic, a nostalgic slice of pop culture-porn based on the Ernest Cline novel. Set in the dystopian future virtual gamer Wade Watts seeks a series on Easter Eggs hidden away by the creator of the virtual gamer world the OASIS, whoever finds them all first will inherent the creators fortune, and indeed the entire virtual world, but he must contend with corporate baddies Innovative Online Industries (IOI), headed by Nolan Sorrento. A fun and spirited gamer fantasy/adventure film, this one relies heavily on 80's nostalgia, and I was won over immediately. Any film that brings me the Iron Giant, Mechagodzilla, the Delorian from Back to the Future and cameos from Freddy Kruger and Chucky from Child's Play (along with hundreds of others!) is bound to be an entertaining slice of pop-culture,, I loved it and it looks and sounds great in 4K, of special note the tribute to Kubrick's The Shining was hands down the best part of the movie for me, so good.  

SAVANNAH SMILES (1982) is the last one this week, the 80's heartwarming comedy comes to Blu-ray/DVD combo from MVD Entertainment Group as part of their phenomenal MVD Rewind Collection. This story of a lovable little girl who fed up with feeling neglected by her careerist parents stows away in the back of a car at the park that turns out to be driven by a  pair of bumbling thieves who luckily for her turn out to have kind hearts. That however doesn't stop them from taking advantage of the situation with a hair-brained ransom plan. Poor Bridgette Andersen died far too young in real-life, but this kid friendly kidnap film is a testament to her talent, the kid still makes me smile and laugh, so damn adorable. Notably this movie was the first film to ever make me cry as a kid, I remember being nine years old and watching it on the TV, during the final scene tears started streaming down my face and I could not understand why I was crying, not yet old enough to understand the power of cinema, even a semi-cheesy kids film like this one! The film get an HD release from the only surviving elements, the HD image looks a bit iffy in spots, no so much because of the transfer but because of the condition of the elements, it's rough looking, but MVD go all-out with a slew of extras, we get an audio commentary, a making of doc, interview with the composer and a heartbreaking look back at the young actress with her mother. The 2-disc release includes a fold-out mini poster and limited edition slipcover. 

RED CHRISTMAS (2016) (Artsploitation Blu-ray Review)

RED CHRISTMAS (2016) 

Label: Artsploitation Films
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Durataion: 81 Minutes
Audio: Enlish
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Craig Anderson
Cast: Dee Wallace, Geoff Morrell, Sarah Bishop, Janis McGowan, David Collins, Bjorn Stewart, Gerald Odwyer, Sam Campbell 

Synopsis: Horror legend Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters) stars as the stressed-out mother of a squabbling family, gathered together in a remote Outback estate on Christmas Eve. When a mysterious, deformed young man named Cletus appears at their door, things soon change from petty insults to bloody, imaginatively orchestrated violence as Wallace attempts to protect her family from the vengeful intruder. The film deliriously infuses comedy, dark family secrets with outlandish gore and adds the always controversial subject of abortion in its blood-stained mix.

Australian director Craig Anderson's Red Christmas (2016) is a gleefully blood-red abortion-themed Christmas slasher that you won't soon forget, opening with the bombing of an abortion clinic by pro-lifers, the explosion interrupts an abortion in progress, in the end the fetus is unceremoniously tossed into a bucket, where it clings to life as evidenced when a bloody hand emerges from the bucket, it is rescued by a pro-lifer.

With that low-standard of taste established we move ahead twenty years to Christmas gathering at the home of Diane (Dee Wallace, The Howling) with all her children and in-laws gathered. We have her second husband Joe (Geoff Morrell, Rogue), down-syndrome afflicted twenty-something Jerry (Gerard Odwyer), uptight daughter Suzy (Sarah Bishop) and her preacher hubby Peter (David Collins), the very pregnant, stoned and horny Ginny (Janis McGavin) and husband Scott (Bjorn Stewart), plus adopted daughter Hope (Deelia Meriel). The gathering is a typical Xmas get together with the usual amount of family tensions, particularly from Virginia who is angered that her mother is on the cusp of selling their childhood home to go on a European vacation, and Suzy who has been struggling to have a child is resentful of her preggers sister Ginny - all pretty typical family/holiday stresses. 

The difficult yuletide gathering is interrupted when stranger draped in a black cloak and covered in bandages shows up on the doorstep. In the spirit of the holiday Diane allows the stranger into her home, his name is Cletus (Sam Campbell) and he has down's syndrome. While seated in the living room Cletus begins to read a letter to the group with a muffled voice, it's a note addressed to his mother, it has religious overtones that touches on the subject of abortion, which angers Diane, who angrily forces him to leave the home immediately. 

However, the cloaked Cetus shows up later in the night and a proper bloodbath ensues with family members meeting their doom at the end of his ax. Red Christmas is a fairly standard low-budget holiday themed slasher with a strange abortion  theme, it doesn't pretend to have a great deal of mystery about it, but it is bathed in blood and gore, which is executed nicety with what looks to be old school, practical, special effects. The killer draped in a Grim Reaper style cloak makes a visually intriguing killer, and his origin story is somewhat unique - it feels very Troma-esque at times - you could have called this one The Aborted Avenger, especially when we catch a very brief glimpse of his deformed face! 

Dee Wallace, bless her, still has the strength and presence she brought to her roles in Cujo (1983) and The Howling (1981), chewing on the scenery with the matriarch trying desperately to stop the extinction her bloodline at the hands of the deformed abortion survivor - who may or may not be her son. The kills are well done if not completely original, we have someone being sliced in-half the long way down, someone getting their brains scrambled by a blender, and an umbrella through the eye - the latex and blood kills are fun - even when the budget limitations show through from time to time. 

The movie is drenched in red and green lighting, this is maybe the most retina-burning red movie since Argento's Suspiria (1977), every scene towards the final third is deeply lit by colored lighting - despite having had the power cut - which gives the whole thing a surreal feeling, which is both stylish and perhaps a way to cover-up some of the low-budget nature of the film, but it does feel overdone at a certain point. However, you cannot deny that this xmas slasher is bathed in more moody Christmas lighting than few films before it. 

Dee Wallace is playing this straight but the movie sure seems like a black comedy to me, most of the kids of this family are down right annoying, with he exception of down's syndrome afflicted Jerry, who turns out to be a very capable adversary and protector, but his sisters and their hubbies are just unsympathetic meat for the grinder, these are not victims you mourn for honestly. The mix of family dysfunction, abortion themes, pregnancy, special needs and bloody carnage make for an odd mixture, but I loved it. 

I couldn't quite get a grip on the abortion theme, was this movie pro or con on the topic of abortion? On one hand if Wallace's character hadn't of had the abortion none of this would have happened, on the other hand, if the pro-lifer hadn't of rescued the deformed fetus from the waste bucket that too would have been the end of the story, I don't mind the ambiguity if that's what it is, this is a pretty straight ahead slasher, and the abortion theme is just another layer of exploitation.  

Special Features:
- Feature-length commentary with writer-director Craig Anderson (20 min)
- Dee Wallace speaks - Director Craig Anderson Interviews Dee Wallace (20 min) 

- An Interview with Gerard Odwyer - Craig Anderson and Actor Sam Campbell (Cletus) Speak with Actor Gerald Odwyer (10 min) 

- Blooper Reel (3 min)

- Deleted scene (1 min) 

- Craig Anderson Mini-Interview (2 min)

Dee Wallace shines in the yuletide bloodbath that is Red Christmas (2016), it's great to see her still doing her thing in this fun and cynical abortion-themed slasher movie. While the movie is not a stone-cold Christmas terror classic along the lines of Black Christmas (1973) it is a fun dysfunctional family Christmas slasher with loads of gore, you should give this a turn in your Christmas horror-thon this year, you won't be disappointed.

Red Christmas, Starring Scream Queen Dee Wallace, to be Released by Artsploitation Films

RED CHRISTMAS 

Controversial Abortion-Themed Horror Film Set for Genre Festivals and Theatrical before DVD/Blu-ray/VOD Release

Artsploitation Films has acquired US rights from international sales agent Devilworks for the Australian horror film Red Christmas directed by veteran television director/producer Craig Anderson. The dark,violent and sickly twisted tale had its World Premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, its North American Premiere at Fantasia Festival and its European Premiere at London's Frightfest.

The film stars (and was co-produced by) horror film acting legend, Dee Wallace (The Hills Have Eyes, The Howling, E.T., Cujo, Critters, Halloween,The Lords of Salem) as the mother of a squabbling family, gathered together in a remote Outback estate on Christmas Eve. When a mysterious, deformed young man named Cletus appears at their door, things soon go from petty insults to bloody, imaginatively orchestrated violence as Wallace attempts to protect her family from the vengeful intruder. The film deliriously infuses comedy, dark family secrets with outlandish gore and adds the always controversial subject of abortion in its blood-stained mix.

Initial critical response: 

VARIETY: "An energetic, candy-colored romp through genre tropes that manages to take its subject matter seriously while poking fun at itself at the same time."

RUE MORGUE: "Nothing is sacred to Anderson and setting murderous mayhem on the eponymous holiday is only the beginning of Red Christmas‘ challenge to propriety and good taste.”;

BIRTHDEATHMOVIES: "Anchored by a genuinely great Dee Wallace performance, Red Christmas is a completely bizarre horror film...it enters the realm of perverse fascination."

SCREAM MAGAZINE: "Striking, bold and brilliant; a sure-fire Christmas classic for horror lovers.”

Artsploitation Films president Ray Murray says, "We are excited to release this over-the-top, deliriously entertaining genre film. With its odd anti-abortion angle, it could very well be the first horror film of the Trump era!" Devilworks president Matteo Rolleri remarks, "’We are thrilled to be working with Artsploitation and couldn’t think of anyone better to release such a striking exploitation film! Red Christmas sits among the classics; it is kinetic, untamed and saturated in gore.’’

The US premiere of the film and the initial festival run will be announced in the coming weeks while the limited theatrical run is scheduled for August and DVD/Blu-ray and VOD scheduled for October.

THE DEVIL LIVES HERE (2015) (DVD Review)

THE DEVIL LIVES HERE (2015)  
AKA O DIABLO MORA AQUI (THE FOSTERING) 

Label: Artsploitation Films
Duration: 80 Minutes 
Rating: Unrated 
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Audio: Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo with English Subtitles
Directors: Rodrigo Gasparini, Dante Vescio
Cast: Pedro Carvalho, Ivo Müller, Sidney Santiago, Clara Verdier, Diego Goullart, Pedro Caetano, Felipe Frazão, Mariana Cortines

In this Brazilian slice of folk-horror we have three friends, Ale (Marianna Cortines), Jorge (Diego Goullart) and Maria Augusta (Clara Verdier)driving out to a remote plantation to spend the weekend at a small plantation home with their friend Apolo (Pedro Carvalho. The plantation was once owned by the sadistic Honey Baron (Ivo Muller) who treated his black skinned slaves with a particularly harsh brand of cruelty, before they rose up against him. The tale involves a curse placed on the Baron by the mother of a slave named Bento (Sidney Santiago) who figures prominently into he story.

A few descendants of the former slaves must return to the plantation every nine months to perform an occult ritual to ward of the ghostly return of the Barom, but a recent death in the family has disturbed the usual proceedings, which places the four teens, and the would-be exorcists, in peril. A lot of the mishap stems from Apolo performing his own misguided ritual, which he had hoped would free the spirit of a young boy said to haunt the home, but as you might expect when kids go out to a cabin in the woods and fool around with demonic spirits shit has a way of going wrong, which it does. 

The movie is well-shot and acted by all involved, I love Brazilian folk-horror aspect of it, and the movie is plenty bloody. You can sort of sum up the movie's influences as cabin-in-the-woods horror of Evil Dead by way of Candyman, with flashbacks to the past involving the Honey Barons brutality complete with a beehives and honey-laden killing. A certain ghost wears a odd looking wicker-made beekeeper suit which looks great on screen, and the movie also touches on the racism of the past, which is another nice touch and adds to the story. 

The imagery has a nice creepy tone to it with the cinematography casting a copper glow that brought to mind Del Toro's Spanish ghost-tale The Devil's Backbone which suited the story nicely. I will say that I didn't quite "get it" the first watch, a second watch brought a greater appreciation, though I didn't love it, I thought this was a very good foreign occult entry, and I look forward to what directors Rodrigo Gasparini and Dante Vescio do next, this was a nicely executed first film, well-worth a watch. 3/5