Shudder Saturday: Holy Ghost People (2013)

Holy Ghost People is a film that I really wanted to like more. It's got a lot going for it, yet there's a sense of overfamiliarity that made it all feel a bit stale and unnecessary. Perhaps it will work better for people who haven't seen other movies in a slightly similar vein (from Winter's Bone to White Lightnin' to something like The Sacrament).

Directed by Mitchell Altieri, who is working once again with writer Phil Flores and actor Joe Egender, as well as some others who have had a hand in his previous movies (The Hamiltons and The Violent Kind probably being the best known originals, although the April Fool's Day remake is also on their CV), Holy Ghost People is certainly a further move away from the others movies he has made. It isn't a fun romp a la The Nightwatchmen, nor is it a grim bit of nastiness a la The Hamiltons.

Emma Greenwell plays Charlotte, a young woman who wants to find her missing sister, who seems to have vanished since joining a church community. Charlotte hires an ex-military man, Wayne (Brendan McCarthy), to help her and the two of them quickly get inside the community, attempting to make discreet enquiries while under the watchful eyes of other church members, as well as the charismatic leader, Bill (Egender).

It's a shame to criticise this movie too much, considering that it is generally well made and technically sound. It's not a bad movie, not by any means, but it's hard to figure out exactly what it wants to say. Because there must be something being said, considering that it doesn't work as more simplistic entertainment. Altieri could have chosen a number of roads to go down here, from outright horror to a down 'n' dirty action adventure, but decided to keep things quite grounded and low-key. It feels like a very collaborative final product, with the script being written by Altieri, Flores, Egender, and Kevin Artigue, and that is a good thing for the sense of realism, but doesn't help anything that isn't performance-based.

All three of the main cast members mentioned do excellent work, with Egender particularly effective in a role that requires someone who can mix charm and menace in equal measure. Greenwell and McCarthy are both easy to root for, and believably vulnerable at times, and they are the ones we watch, even in the scenes that push forward a few of the main supporting players (who are few and far between).

Although I usually say this about much stranger movies, Holy Ghost People is a film I just can't quite put my finger on. I am not sure who else will enjoy it, or how anyone else I know will react to it (love, hate, indifference). I am still fully processing it in my own mind. My final rating for the movie increased by the time I got to this final paragraph. Which says it all, I guess. This is a film that at least deserves your time. Whether you end up liking it or not is a different matter entirely.

6/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.

The Frankenstein Theory (2013)

What if Frankenstein, the classic Mary Shelley story, was actually a factual piece of work at heart? That's the premise for this movie, as Jonathan Venkenhein (Kris Lemche) pays a documentary crew to follow him as he sets out to fulfil the ambition of his lifetime, to track down and meet "Frankenstein's monster". Of course, as this is a horror movie, that's easier said than done. First of all, does Jonathan have all of his faculties intact to keep hold of such a strong belief? Second, IF the creature is where Jonathan thinks it is, it doesn't necessarily welcome strangers with open arms.

Written by Vlady Pildysh and Andrew Weiner, with the latter also directing the thing, The Frankenstein Theory has some good ideas in the mix, but doesn't do enough with them. Okay, it has one good idea, but that one good idea - Frankenstein being based on a real incident - would be enough to create a much better film than we have here. Unfortunately, Pildysh and Weiner seem to have forgotten to lace their movie with atmospheric moments and scares, instead seeming content that they came up with such a good premise in the first place.

The cast all do decent work, with Lemche being someone I have enjoyed seeing onscreen since his performances in Final Destination 3 and the sorely neglected My Little Eye. Heather Stephens does well with her role, being the only female onscreen for most of the runtime, and Joe Egender, Timothy V. Murphy, Eric Zuckerman, Brian Henderson and Christine Lakin (the one other female who is in the movie for the first 5-10 minutes) all do good enough work with what they're given.

Did I mention that this was a movie in the "found footage" style? Well, it is. That may be enough to keep some people away from it, but that particular style, although somewhat overused in recent years, is a great way to tell stories in a wide range of genres. The fact that The Frankenstein Theory ends up mired in all-too-familiar moments (noises outside from an unseen horror, the "something" glimpsed by an uncertain cameraman, the obligatory night-vision mode) isn't the fault of the format, it's the fault of Pildysh and, even more so, Weiner.

It's not an unwatchable disaster, but this is one big disappointment. Ironically, it needed someone to tighten a few nuts and bolts.

4/10

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April Fool's Day (2008)

If you're going to do a remake then this is the way to go about it. For starters, the original movie wasn't exactly a perfect film and it wasn't exactly universally loved. Getting some bright young things in front of the camera to be put in danger is a given but it's a plus when you get someone behind the camera like Mitchell Altieri and Phil Flores (AKA The Butcher Brothers). The two men have already done some good stuff in the horror genre so I lift my hopes slightly when I see them attached to a project.

Taking the screenplay by Danilo Bach as a loose template (there are easy points of reference for those who have seen the original movie but this is also different enough to feel like quite a different beast), The Butcher Brothers also engage the help of Mikey Wigart in crafting something that's slick and disappointingly bloodless and amusingly ludicrous.

A prank goes horribly wrong and those involved find themselves threatened some time later. That's all you need to know. Yes, it's a mix of I Know What You Did Last Summer and the original April Fool's Day and Valentine. I don't care what you think of me, I LIKED those movies. I didn't love them but I liked them. Despite strong disapproval from almost everyone I know I actually really like Valentine (just such a great mix of old school slasher style and post-90210 teen sheen) so there you have my position on such glossy fare, for what it's worth.

April Fool's Day has some fun moments, and the cast has a couple of decent starlets in the shape of Scout Taylor-Compton and Taylor Cole, but it's all just a bit too bland to be solidly entertaining. The fact that it comes from The Butcher Brothers makes the tame nature of the movie even more of a disappointment and it's not helped by the rest of the cast - Josh Henderson, Joe Egender, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Samuel Child, etc - looking as if they have wandered in from the set of Cruel Intentions 5 or The Skulls 6 (both of which are sequels that I'm well aware don't exist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . yet).

I wouldn't go out of my way to see this again, and I certainly wouldn't rush out to buy it, but if it was on I could manage to sit through some of it. And if I see it anywhere at a bargain price I may well just have to buy it to satisfy my DVD-buying addiction.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/April-Fools-Day-Scout-Taylor-Compton/dp/B0012OTRWA/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1342638801&sr=1-2