Shudder Saturday: Abraham's Boys (2025)

I have liked some of the previous directorial work of Natasha Kermani. I have also liked a lot of the writing of Joe Hill (including his collection, 20th Century Ghosts, that contains this story, although I cannot say that I remember it). Titus Welliver being in a main role will also get me to watch something. Which makes it all the more frustrating that Abraham's Boys was such a disappointing work. There's an interesting idea somewhere in the middle of it, but Kermani isn't able to explore it in the best way.

Welliver plays the Abraham of the title, and he's one Mr. Van Helsing. He's now married to Mina (Jocelin Donahue). They have two sons, named Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey). Things might be good for them, but the work of a Van Helsing is never done, which is something the sons need to learn as they start to worry about their parents.

Here are the things I liked about Abraham's Boys. The performances from Welliver, Donahue, Hepner, Mackey, Aurora Perrineau, and Jonathan Howard (playing Arthur Holmwood). That is all. Okay, maybe I enjoyed some of the last scenes, but not half as much as I expected to. The strength of this film lies in the performances, and I think it would be very interesting to see this adapted into a one-man show, with someone as capable as Welliver carrying the entire thing on his shoulders.

That doesn't mean that I disliked everything else here. I just didn't find anything else very interesting or impressive. The visual style throughout is sparse and quite dull. I get that it is aiming to reflect the rudimentary way of life apparently preferred by the main patriarch, but it doesn't do anything to improve the weak and disappointing screenplay. Kermani seems to have too much faith in the central idea, but it's only good enough if used as a starting point for an actual journey. There's no journey here. In fact, it feels as if it spends 89 minutes going absolutely nowhere.

The strangest thing about this is that I can't see why Kermani was drawn to it. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe she viewed it as an interesting challenge, but was subsequently undone by it. Or maybe she just wanted to try something different. It's hard to see see any connecting threads between this and her previous two features though (note: I've not seen Shattered, the 2017 film she directed), and I would argue that she clearly works better when it's a screenplay with more of an overt female view of certain subject matter. Whether or not any of my theorising is correct, I can at least opt to blame Joe Hill for this. That way I can still look forward to whatever Kermani decides to do next.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Netflix And Chill: Deadcon (2019)

If you're going to create a horror movie set at an event alleging to bring together some of the biggest social media influencers in the world (mainly YouTube and Instagram stars) then you should do your best to avoid making the main characters as annoying as viewers will, rightly or wrongly, expect them to be, or you can ramp up the nastiness in a way to make it all more satisfying.

Deadcon does neither of these things.

Lauren Elizabeth is Ashley, a young woman who ends up in a haunted hotel room after an overbooking situation. Claudia Sulewski is Megan, and her big problem for the weekend is trying to get some private time with the young man she is secretly dating. He's Dave (Keith Machekanyanga), and he's not happy when given such limited time, especially when Megan hasn't completely broken up with her boyfriend yet. All of these things are revealed after a prologue that shows a man on a computer speaking to a spirit named Bobby. The years may have passed by, but Bobby (Judah Mackey) has stuck around.

Although he seems to have a background in comedy material, writer Scotty Landes ended up with his name on both this and Ma in the same year. Having now seen this, I shall reserve judgement on his value as a contributor to the horror genre until I see Ma. Because I think it might be a bit harsh to dismiss him immediately, based on this alone, especially when there are moments that show him doing some decent work in between the weaker scenes.

Director Caryn Waechter has a bit more experience with darker material, although most of her previous work consists of short films in the run up to her debut feature, The Sisterhood Of Night, and she tries to do what she can with what is essentially a supernatural curse movie revolving around characters who are social media stars (just typing that out made me want to throw up in my mouth slightly). It's a shame that the budget didn't stretch enough to make the onscreen environment feel more real - background noise feels like it's pulled from a generic "crowd noise" selection, and there are scenes in which a dozen heads/hands holding phones up are supposed to give the illusion of a big crowd . . . it never works - but Waechter makes up for these moments with some of the teen-friendly scares. The brief runtime, just under 80 minutes, also helps.

Elizabeth and Sulewski are both fine in their roles, with the former particularly nailing how entitled and out of touch you expect these young, new breed of celebrities to be. Machekanyanga does enough to make his character likeable enough, despite having at least one major doucehbag moment, and Mackey does a lot better as the silent and spooky did than he did in his "normal" role in Anderson Falls. Carl Gilliard is the one person who believes he knows what is going on, and he does well in his thankless role, while everyone else is either eminently forgettable or just annoying enough for you to want them to disappear ASAP.

Although nobody, from the director and writer to the various cast members, can quite do enough to make up for the inherent pointlessness of the whole thing (and I mean that in relation to the main characters and also the main paranormal activity), Deadcon almost rises up to the level of average because of a number of people trying to do the best with what they've got. It doesn't manage it, but I was impressed that it almost did.

4/10

Anderson Falls (2020)

There's a point in Anderson Falls that somehow marks the divide between the good and the bad. It comes along just after the opening scenes, a thrilling sequence that shows the M. O. of two killers played by Gary Cole and Richard Harmon. Shawn Ashmore is the cop who finds his wife dead, an apparent suicide that he knows is really murder. And it is the way the film shows his mindset after her death that, to me anyway, marks the start of a swift plummet in quality. Ashmore has a beard. Yes, this is a film in which a good cop is shown to be upset by the fact that he has given up on shaving. Because we all know that if you give up on shaving then you give up on life.

At the risk of spoiling anything for viewers tempted to see the film, that first paragraph sums up the film. That's it. Ashmore is the only cop convinced that a number of suicides are actually homicides. He knows this because his wife would never kill herself, she had everything to live for. While obsessing over the case, he upsets his ex-partner-now-Captain (Daniella Alonso), he upsets his mother (Lin Shaye) and he keeps delaying a planned trip to Disneyland with his son (Judah Mackey).

First of all, if you are director Julien Seri, or if you're a friend of his in any way, then please look away now. Seri was supposed to be presenting this film as the first film on the final day of Glasgow Frightfest 2020, but technical issues meant that it ended up being the last film of the festival. And Seri kindly stuck around for the whole day, introducing his movie in a small Q & A session. He seemed very nice, and earnest in what he seems to view as a decent little thriller with some nice twists and turns. Which is why he, or anyone who knows him, should look away now.

Anderson Falls is absolutely awful, in a way that made many viewers laugh out loud during moments that weren't really designed to be comedic. A lot of the problems lie with the script, by Giles Daoust. I'm not familiar with the filmography of Daoust, and this doesn't make me want to check out anything else he has done. Interestingly, he wrote and directed a movie called The Room back in 2006. Maybe he's always wanted to tap into the same rich vein of comedy gold that Tommy Wiseau lucked into with his movie, and maybe Anderson Falls is his best attempt at that. If so, well done. He almost manages it.

This is a film you must see if you want to watch Shawn Ashmore stringing together various photos and news items a la Charlie Day in that popular conspiracy theory image, or if you want to see him shouting "I hate you, I hate you" at those same photos, or even chuckle at him just moments later telling his captain that he has managed to think like the killers and has a list of women he would kill next. Because the killers kill women. Every time. And make it look like the same kind of suicide. Every time. And there's no actual reason for it. No, nothing. Seriously. Which doesn't stop the killers having their own board of connected items and photos in their house basement, despite none of the victims being connected in any way.

Perhaps you'd like to watch a black and white image of Shawn Ashmore making faces alongside other black and white images of Shawn Ashmore making faces in a fleeting scene that looks like the rough cut of a 1980s Godley & Creme music video. Well, good times, this is the film for you. Or maybe you like Gary Cole, who is a great actor, but want to see how he deals with some of the worst dialogue that he's ever been given. Again, have your fill.

I doubt that a better cast could have helped this, considering how much both Cole and Shaye even struggle to do their usual good work, but Ashmore is far from a strong lead. I LIKE Ashmore, I really do, but he is not the right fit for this role. At all. Alonso gets to utter every typical Police Captain line to the troubled cop she cares about, of course, and Mackey is a child, so he can either greatly improve in the next few years or eventually quit if he continues to be as bad as he is here. It's Harmon who comes out of this best, and it's no coincidence that he also has the least lines of dialogue.

Julien Seri got himself a fair few fans with his previous movie, Night Fare (which I have yet to see). I can't see this one making him popular with anyone, aside from bad movie connoisseurs. Avoid at all costs.

2/10