Suitable Flesh (2023)

No Netflix and chill on the blog this week, mainly because I had the opportunity to cram some of the latest horror movies at a local cinema.

Loosely based on "The Thing On The Doorstep", a short story from H.P. Lovecraft I read many years ago now, Suitable Flesh is a horror film written by Dennis Paoli that feels very much like a new film from director Stuart Gordon, despite it actually being directed by Joe Lynch. I don't say that to unfairly compare the film to past glories. I say it as a very deliberate compliment.

The framing of the main narrative involves Heather Graham as Dr. Elizabeth Derby, a therapist who is locked up and being interviewed by a friend and colleague, Dr. Daniella Upton (Barbara Crampton). It turns out that Dr. Derby has been going a bit off the rails, to put it mildly, since her first encounter with a patient named Asa Waite (Judah Lewis). Asa kept making claims about out of body experiences, a problem that he kept linking to his father, Ephraim (Bruce Davison). Although it's easy to believe that Asa has mental health issues, it soon becomes easier for Dr. Derby to believe that there's something to his feeling of being taken over by another entity.

Made with what seems to be fairly limited resources (I would imagine that the budget went mainly on the cast and a couple of very impressive practical effects moments), Suitable Flesh won't necessarily draw people in from the opening moments. It takes a while to really settle in to what it wants to deliver, with that time laying groundwork that helps to acclimatise viewers to the wild ideas at the heart of the script. Paoli has adapated many Lovecraft tales before this one, of course, but he does some of his best work here when it comes to translating a head-scratching concept from page to screen in a way that doesn't lead to complete confusion and unintentional comedy.

Lynch does a very good job of working with everyone in a way that feels in line with the material. The emphasis here is on macabre fun, and the tone is perfect throughout, although it's just a shame that this is a film that has received comments for the amount of sexual content when it still feels rather tame compare to the films it is otherwise successfully emulating. Lynch keeps a lot of humour and transgressiveness onscreen, but there's a sense that he remains slightly restrained, trying to balance things out between the potential craziness and the ability to have the film be a marketable commodity.

Graham has a lot of fun in her lead role, going wonderfully over the top when playing the wilder incarnation of her character, I'd be tempted to even say that it is her best role in years, and Crampton is as good as she always is alongside her. Lewis moves between understandable nerviness and unnerving cool confidence, Davison makes a strong impression with his few scenes, and Johnathon Schaech is the confused husband of Graham's character, and someone who proves to be surprisingly easily seduced by some of the new ways in which his wife wants to fool around. Graham Skipper has a small role, a lot of fun as the kind of pathologist who eats his lunch over a corpse on the slab, and Hunter Womack is a likeable security guard who gets caught up in the escalating madness of a satisfying third act that pulls out all the stops.

Weird, wild, and brilliant, Suitable Flesh is a real treat for horror fans. The pairing of Lynch and Paoli is a rewarding one, I hope this isn't their only collaboration, and if they make any more vehicles for some of my favourite actresses then all the better.

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Scare Package II: Rad Chad's Revenge (2022)

The fact that I have a daily blog is only part of my reason for reviewing movies. The main reason is the fact that I watch so many movies, because I am both compelled to do so, and love doing so, and reviews can remind me of my thoughts on everything I watched. Which is why I try to review everything I watch, whether it is in-depth or in capsule form. So I dived into Scare Package II: Chad's Revenge after reading a review of Scare Package, and reminding myself that I enjoyed, but didn't exactly love, it. 

What we have here is another anthology of horror tales, all of them also overflowing with humour and meta commentary, couched this time in a Saw-like framing narrative, as the mourners attending the funeral of Chad end up forced to watch some short films in between engaging in some deadly games. As well as Chad, there are a couple of other characters returning from the first movie. But who will be left alive by the time the end credits roll? And why does Chad still command so much attention from others, despite the obvious obstacle of him being dead?

Although not everyone comes back to work behind the camera on this, both Aaron B. Koontz and Cameron Burns, the main creators of the concept, once again curate a fine selection of tales from a variety of talented people, including themselves (of course),  Alexandra Barreto, Anthony Cousins, Jed Shepherd, John Karsko, Ryan Schaddelee, Rachele Wiggins, and Jed Shepherd. In fact, and there's no need for me to beat about the bush here, everything here is better than what we were given in the first package. The main storyline feels less smug, the jokes and references all land better, and you get a general feeling of the central idea having been given a shot in the arm. It's so good that I'd happily now pick up both Scare Package movies in a nice double-bill set.

I won't go through every one of the segments individually, but highlights include a brilliant parody that blends Stand By Me with Re-Animator (as well as adding a touch of The Fly), the frankly near-flawless "Welcome To The '90s", which uses genre tropes to explore the changes to horror movie final girls over the years, and a reunion for most of the women who were last seen onscreen together in Host. And the main Hellraiser gag in the third act made me laugh harder than any other comedy horror moment I can think of from the past year or two, as ridiculous as it was.

The cast provides a good mix of the familiar, either due to their involvement in the first film (Jeremy King, Zoe Graham, Byron Brown, etc) or their standing in the horror genre (Kelli Maroney, Graham Skipper, Maria Olsen, and one or two others), and everyone feels very well-suited to their roles, whether they are playing a killer, an expert in horror lore, a potential survivor, or a frustrated participant in a deadly game.

I am still not sure if this just caught me in a much better mood than the first movie or whether it really was such a step up. Every gag (comedy and gore) feels like it lands, the energy of each sequence helps it to feel perfectly paced throughout, and I could have easily rewatched it as soon as my first viewing was over, knowing I missed some details and jokes that will reward repeat viewings. I hope this ends up released on some double-bill with the first movie, and I would now be eager to see if they could successfully pull off a third instalment.

8/10

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The Leech (2022)

Christmas brings different worries for different kinds of  people. Some fret about having enough food and drink in stock to feed a hundred unexpected visitors. Some worry about having enough money to get a decent gift for their loved ones. Some feel the strain of pressure added to them by the fake/unrealistic displays posted all over social media. And some worry about the many guests they will have to tolerate for most of Christmas Day, whether it is a friend of a friend, a relative not seen at any other time of the year, or someone you just know is going to drink a bit too much and make things tense after dinner. The Leech makes use of this last worry to craft a darkly comedic horror movie, and the end result is, well, it sure is something.

Graham Skipper plays Father David, a priest who ends up offering his home as temporary shelter to Terry (Jeremy Gardner). Terry isn’t exactly the most respectful and appreciative houseguest, and things become more problematic when Father David also allows Terry’s down-on-her-luck partner, Lexi (Taylor Zaudtke), to use his home as her own. Boundaries are tested, and pushed way beyond breaking point, and Father David finds himself struggling to change the ways of his guests while they resist his moral lessons. In fact, the pair become more and more determined to erode away the goodwill of their host, almost as if they relish the mindgames and battle of wills  

The second feature film written and directed by Eric Pennycoff (who did great work on Sadistic Intentions, also working with Gardner and Zaudtke on that one), The Leech is almost as good as you might expect a horror comedy with this cast to be. Almost. 

There is nothing to complain about here when it comes to the cast. Skipper, Gardner, and Zaudtke have a lot of fun together, whether they are probing one another with subtle jabs or engaging in outright antagonism, and the fourth main performance, a small turn from Rigo Garay, is enjoyably low-key alongside the escalating insanity of the three leads.

The big problem comes from Pennycoff, who doesn’t seem to set his mind on exactly the right tone he wants. Despite some ridiculousness, and the great performances (Gardner sells every line so well), there isn’t quite enough solid laughs here. Nor are there quite enough moments of tension or horror. Pennycoff may be happy with the end result, and I have seen a lot of praise for this from other film fans, but I couldn’t help feeling as if it was a prowling tiger that you soon realise has had the claws and fangs removed.

Working best when playing out like some horrible nightmare you cannot wake up from, The Leech has great potential in its premise, and has the right onscreen talent, but ends up as a slight disappointment. It isn’t bad, and I always appreciate someone trying to do something a bit different. It’s just not great.

6/10

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Shudder Saturday: Bliss (2019)

Dora Madison plays Dezzy, a young artist who isn't really in the best place. She isn't making the progress she hoped to be making on her latest piece, she seems to be saddled with a guy (Clive, played by Jeremy Gardner) who is happy to freeload his way along and coast through life, and she's dropped by her agent. But thank goodness for drugs. Dezzy heads to see Hadrian (Graham Skipper) to purchase some recreational mood-enhancer, and she ends up getting some Bliss, which is not to be taken lightly. What follows is a crazy rollercoaster of sex, unconsciousness, productivity, and blood. Quite a lot of blood.

Written and directed by Joe Begos (who impressed a lot of people with his directorial feature debut, Almost Human), Bliss is a very nice pairing of form and content. Viewers are dragged along with Dezzy as her senses are bombarded, with inventive and varied visuals often paired up with a loud and pounding soundtrack. I liked the full audio-visual experience, although it's easy to see how this could end up putting many people off.

What I liked a little less was the lack of specific points that could have been made. I appreciate that is my own thing, and it's unfair to be too critical of a film because of what it isn't when there's a lot to appreciate about what it is, but it held it back from being as great as I wanted it to be. I kept waiting for Bliss to step up to a higher level, but it always seemed poised to make a leap without ever committing. Having said that, Begos certainly pulls out all the stops in the third act, which certainly takes a step up in terms of the wilder moments, the bloodshed, and gore. There's one moment, just beyond the one hour mark, that is absolutely incredible, and major kudos should go to Begos for getting hold of enough resources/talented people to help him complete his vision.

I try not to focus on negatives when it's a film I am being generally supportive of. It's not good to mistake insults and unnecessary nastiness with constructive criticism. With that in mind, I will say that Madison is slightly uneven in the main role, disappointing in the scenes in which she has to act more "normally" opposite people (it feels very much like her attitude, both to others and to her art, is something that doesn't fit right on her), but fun to watch when getting wild and vicious and bloody. Gardner continues to be as impressive an actor as he is as a director (so I will happily watch anything he does), and he's a highlight here. Tru Collins and Rhys Wakefield are a hedonistic couple who help to start Dezzy on her main journey, Skipper is just fine as your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer, and you get some nice little supporting turns from George Wendt, Abraham Benrubi, and Jesse Merlin, as well as some other familiar faces who have become part of a loose collective of impressive artists within the horror community.

I've yet to check out some more of the offerings from Begos so far, after being one of the few people underwhelmed by Almost Human, but I'll hope to change that soon. He certainly isn't afraid to make some bold decisions, and that helps to freshen up a central concept that doesn't really shake up the subgenre it's working in as much as it could. He deserves credit for this singular vision, as does everyone, from cast to crew, who helped him get it all onscreen.

7/10

You can order the disc here.

Yule Love It: All The Creatures Were Stirring (2018)

Maybe I was a bit harsh on A Christmas Horror Story. That was my first thought after the end credits rolled on All The Creatures Were Stirring. As I put my thoughts, and rating, in order, I started to think it more and more. In fact, I'll need to revisit that film one day, considering I rated it only slightly higher than this one and now think back on it with a vague memory of constant Christmassy-infused horror fun.

I won't find myself thinking back on this film with such hazy fondness. Co-written and co-directed by David Ian McKendry and Rebekah McKendry, All The Creatures Were Stirring is a Christmas-themed anthology horror movie, hence my mind heading to A Christmas Horror Story, that proves to be almost consistently disappointing. It has a great framing device, the strongest part of the whole film, but nothing much works when it comes to the short tales.

Graham Skipper and Ashley Clements play Max and Jenna, two friends who meet up for a sorta-date during the holiday scene. They buy tickets and go in to see a piece of theatre, entitled "All The Creatures Were Stirring", and that's when things start to get odd. The performances, shown at the beginning and end of each tale before a transition to standard movie presentation, are odd enough, but the whole atmosphere is a bit off. The first tale is a Secret Santa scenario in an office space, but someone has tampered with the gifts. The second tale shows a man who ends up locked out of his car when he just wants to get home for dinner. The third is a modern riff on A Christmas Carol. The fourth shows the consequences of a seasonal hit and run. Last, we get the odd tale of a Christmas dinner with a major difference. Meanwhile, the wraparound material gets weirder and weirder.

It's hard to pin down exactly what has gone wrong with All The Creatures Were Stirring but I'll try to rattle off a list of contributing factors. Bear in mind, however, that this is decent stuff, from a technical standpoint. Although the script isn't anywhere near as good as it could be, the McKendrys can at least be applauded for trying to make everything look and sound as good as the budget allows, and they're helped by a pretty solid selection of main cast members (Jonathan Kite is the main reason I got through the third tale).

Okay, where to begin, where to begin? I've already mentioned my enjoyment of the framing device. No complaints there. And I really enjoy the first tale. It still has flaws but it's a fun start to the proceedings. Things start to sour when you realise that a) none of the stories have a resolution either satisfying or amusing enough, and b) most of the stories don't actually make the best use of the trappings of the season. That may sound silly of me to say, especially when one tale is literally just a truncated and updated version of the famous Charles Dickens Christmas classic, but it's true. Most of the tales feel as if someone remembered at the last minute that they were set at Christmas and then threw some tinsel around. They also feel very disconnected from one another. I don't need all modern anthology films to have criss-crossing narratives and connective tissue but I do think some more hints at a cohesive mythos would have helped these stories to feel more satisfying, even without any proper resolution.

It's obvious why the McKendrys decided to take this route, having already made a number of short films on the way to this feature debut. They must have thought that an anthology horror would allow them to basically piece together a few shorts and stay within their comfort zone. The final product reminds us, and perhaps them, that there's a bit more to it than that. I'll be interested to see what they do next though, especially if they move towards filling a standard runtime with just the one story to tell.

4/10

If you're a multi region kinda person then you can pick this up here.
Americanos can pick it up here.

Shudder Saturday: Sequence Break (2017)

It is probably my own fault. I may have brought along some unfairly high expectations when I sat down to view Sequence Break, written and directed by the very likable Graham Skipper. I was rooting for Skipper, and I had heard people make shorthand comments comparing it to some murky hybrid of Tron and Cronenbergian horror. How could it fail?

Chase Williamson plays Oz, a young man who works on many arcade machines, getting them back in working order for his boss (Lyle Kanouse). Unfortunately, he is about to lose his job. His place of employment is no longer making money, times are hard. The good news is that he meets a young woman, Tess (Fabianne Therese), and a date looks very likely in his near future. He heads back to his work, finds an envelope with a motherboard stashed inside, and when he places that motherboard inside a game cabinet things start to get weird.

Written and directed by Skipper, Sequence Break is an odd film that deliberately blurs the lines of the onscreen reality until things are almost impenetrable, and then decides to use the very last moments to turn things back to a more traditional film style. It's quite the paradox, being both experimental and daring and yet also surprisingly safe. It's a film full of impressive small details that can never push everything together to make a satisfying big picture. The low budget is obvious in every scene but just a bit more creativity and madness could have distracted viewers from it.

Williamson is a solid lead, Therese is just as good alongside him, Kanouse does fine, and John Dinan pops up occasionally to be the mysterious man who knows about the situation well enough to provide oblique hints regarding how to resolve things. None of the main cast members are bad, which helps the film immensely because they're not given much to work with. The film is more concerned with the idea of the machine, the way it affects the mind and what else it may cause to happen, but it doesn't even explore that central stand as fully or effectively as it could. As the runtime is only 80 minutes, this is something that could have been improved upon throughout most of the second and third acts.

Skipper, perhaps tellingly, does better in the scenes that just have characters talking to one another. He clearly makes an effort to let the acting be the focus of dialogue-heavy scenes. Which makes it a shame that most of the film is taken up with characters gazing at, and being gazed back by, the machine.

But hey, I've seen a lot of people praise this, a lot of people liked it more than I did. I could be wrong in my view. It happens (rarely). So you may want to give it a go for yourself and see what you think. Just don't take any notice of anyone trying to compare it to other, better, films.

4/10

You can buy the DVD here.
Americans can stream the movie.

Dead By Dawn 2018: Downrange (2017)

Director Ryûhei Kitamura has been entertaining horror movie fans for a good few years now, and that's not going to change any time soon, if Downrange is anything to go by. It's an enjoyable, implausible, thriller with some top-notch gore moments that will impress gorehounds and fans of drawn-out tension.

Here's the premise - a group of young adults blow out a tyre during their car journey. They get out to check over the car, find out that the accident wasn't an accident, and then someone gets shot through the face. The bullets keep flying as the stranded travellers quickly realise that they are being picked off by a sniper. 

I can't really say, hand on heart, that Downrange gets everything right. Not by a long shot (no pun intended, but you know I grinned when I thought about typing that out). The script, by Joey O'Bryan and Kitamura, is very slight, in terms of both plotting and characterisation, and that subsequently leaves the cast hanging out to dry.

And the cast all do decidedly okay with the little they're given to work with. I'll namecheck them here; Kelly Connaire (what a wonderful world we live in when people are named after Nicolas Cage movies), Stephanie Pearson, Rod Hernandez, Anthony Kirlew, Alexa Yeames, and Jason Tobias. Unfortunately, nobody is given enough material to make them stand out. I didn't dislike any of the individual characters onscreen, but I couldn't tell you right now who was who. 

The upside of such weak characterisation is that Downrange is harder to predict, at times, than it otherwise might have been. Anyone can take a bullet at any time, there aren't even any clues about the motivation or any perceived order of the kills. It's a shame that this level of unpredictability can't last all the way through to the finale.

There are other mis-steps throughout, such as a moment with some local wildlife that doesn't feel like anything more than an extra contrivance shoehorned into a film already based on quite a contrived scenario, but Kitamura manages to keep you distracted for most of the 90-minute runtime. There are just enough potential victims, the pacing is perfect, and that predictable finale still manages to be a lot of fun.

7/10

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Americans can buy stuff here.

Almost Human (2013)

Oh well, it happens every now and again. Probably quite often, if I'm entirely honest. A movie will come along that lots of people rave about, and I just end up wondering why it managed to garner so much praise. Almost Human is a film that you may have heard about already, especially if you're a horror fan. It's a low-budget, independent, sci-fi horror that went down well at numerous festivals during the last year or so. And it just didn't do anything for me.

The plot pilfers from a great variety of titles (the filmography of John Carpenter, the superb Xtro, any "body snatchers" flick) as Mark (Josh Ethier) is rudely interrupted at his home one evening by a panicked Seth (Graham Skipper). Seth has lost one friend already that evening, and wants to find somewhere safe. He's rambling about something implausible when a loud noise causes them some discomfort. Then Mark goes outside and disappears. Two years later, Mark returns. Which doesn't bode well for Seth, Jen (who was Mark's girlfriend at the time), or anyone else in the immediate vicinity.

Written and directed by Joe Begos, I won't deny that there's some good stuff here, considering the small budget that he was working with. However, a small budget is no excuse for such a slim viewing experience, a movie that seems to overstay its welcome by a good 20 minutes or so, despite not being that long in the first place.

The script is weak, the acting is in line with the script (Vanessa Leigh, who plays Jen, and Skipper have some moments that are better than others, but they don't do enough to earn their sizable amount of screentime), and the homages start to pile up so thick and fast that viewers may, as I did, just start to wish that they're revisited one of the many classics referenced instead.

A weak script and weak acting isn't something that puts me off a horror movie though. Let's face it, we horror fans are used to such things, and they sometimes make the movies more enjoyable. If the movie had enough elsewhere to compensate then all would have been fine. Some tension can be a bonus, as can some good gore. And let's not underestimate the redemptive power of some gratuitous nudity. Almost Human can't even deliver the goods in those departments. Others have praised the practical effects, but they left me cold because a) they weren't THAT good (although, admittedly, they were good for the budget) and b) there weren't that many of them to enjoy. Of course, with so many people disagreeing on that point, you may as well be safe to assume that I'm in the wrong. But don't say you weren't warned IF you end up left as cold as I was.

It's a tough call. I'm glad that Begos made this movie, and made it in the way that he did. He shows potential, despite the many flaws that stack up during the film. Yet I still can't say that I actually liked it, and I don't think I would even be able to label it as average. Some moments bored me, some moments irritated me, and very few moments actually entertained me.

4/10 

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Re-Animator: The Musical.

Well, I review movies on this here blog and I sometimes rant about things that pop into my head but I've never really considered this space a viable option for other materials to be pored over. As far as I can recall, I've not included any book reviews here (I'd be terrible at that, just ask any of my old English teachers), no album dissections and no stage shows. Oh, I may have mentioned events going on around me and things that I have visited but I don't think I've ever gone into detail.

With the Edinburgh Fringe gathering speed I began to wonder just what good it would do me to review anything that I saw this year. Surely, these shows will have been and gone by the time that people read my li'l attempt to praise or criticise them? But then I realised that I'd been fortunate enough to see a number of shows at the very start of this busy time. Not only that, a lot of these acts go elsewhere after the material has been well-received in Edinburgh. Maybe I can help in my own little way by recommending some favourites. And it also helps me to write a little bit more about Edinburgh, in general.

Don't worry, I'm not about to start reviewing absolutely everything I do in life (meals in restaurants, drinks in clubs, etc) but I DO think that shows are something I can comment on. I'm no expert (but, then again, I am no expert on movies and that's never stopped me before now) but I'll try to mix in as much information with my opinion as possible.

Which brings us to the first review of this kind that I've ever written and, indeed, it's the main reason that I finally caved in after arguing with myself about including stage fare here. Re-Animator: The Musical. When I heard that it was showing here in Edinburgh I knew that I had to see it. In case you weren't aware of the fact, I am a huge fan of Re-Animator. Director Stuart Gordon created something I will always love. And now, in a very different way, he's done it again.

Yes, Stuart Gordon is the director once more and the music and lyrics are by Mark Nutter. Between them, these men have taken the elements that fans love about Re-Animator and crafted something that just shouldn't work but really, REALLY does. It follows the movie quite closely, albeit with many more songs in the mix, and all of the best-loved lines from the movie's script are either recreated here or made into a song lyric.

The cast are exemplary. George Wendt is the most famous name among them, as far as I'm aware, but he generously makes way for the leading men to . . . . . . . . . . lead. Graham Skipper plays Herbert West and, amazingly, captures the essence of the character as we know him from the movie while also putting his own stamp on the performance. Jesse Merlin is positively channeling the spirit of David Gale in some places and is bloody superb as Dr. Hill. Chris L. McKenna and Rachel Avery, playing Dan and Megan, respectively, were both great. I even almost forgot about Barbara Crampton while watching this new incarnation of Megan. Almost.

Everything you want is here. There's zombie action with blood spraying out over the audience, that memorable sequence with the cat is here, Dr. Hill is creepy and scheming and there's more zombie action that results in more blood spraying over the audience (if you're brave enough then try to get a seat front and centre to be located in the coveted "Splash Zone"). Then there are, of course, the many songs. They're often very silly but they're also very catchy and I'd be lying if I tried to say that I hope to purchase a CD with accompanying lyric-covered liner notes.

I still like to give my movies ratings out of 10, just for my own personal preference, but I can change things slightly for stage shows and use a 5-star system (not to be confused with the 5-Star system, which is based on the lyrics of System Addict). Yep, sometimes even I can be traditional.

*****

And here is the website for all of your information/purchases.