Shudder Saturday: Founders Day (2023)

Here is another horror movie from brothers Erik and Carson Bloomquist (the former directing, both of the having written the screenplay together), and I think it's clear that they are only able to deliver movies that hang around the level of average. Look, that's more than I could do, and it's more than a lot of other people could manage, but it's a shame that nothing in their filmography shows a spark of something better.

Founders Day is a slasher movie. It's set in a small town as a local election looms, which means many of the residents are already viewing one another with some suspicion and bitterness as they clash over priorities for the community. One young woman (Allison, played by Naomi Grace) is traumatised by a murder that she witnesses, but she may feel worse before the final scenes, especially when it becomes obvious that the killer may have a special plan for her.

There are very small germs of decent ideas here, but none of them are developed in a way that makes them feel worthwhile. People becoming increasingly divided in this age of polarising political stances, politicians making use of any tragedy to spin their image into a more positive one, and a very Hot Fuzz narrative that shows how things are being done for the greater good ("the greater good"). These could have made for a decent little slasher, especially if there was a good sense of fun alongside the commentary, but it falls flat. The Bloomquists don't have any sharpness to their writing, and they also forget to make the kills fun and inventive enough to distract from weaknesses elsewhere.

Grace is pretty good in her role, but she's one of very few highlights. Olivia Nikkanen isn't bad either. Catherine Curtin and Emilia McCarthy are both underused, despite doing solid work, but I can't say I was very impressed by Devin Druid, William Russ, Amy Hargreaves, Jayce Nartok, Andrew Stewart-Jones, or anyone else. Not that they were bad (okay, maybe some of them were bad), but they're unable to do anything to improve upon dialogue that feels one foot away from tame TV movie stuff.

I admire the fact that people tried to make use of another calendar date for some masked killer shenanigans, and a good enough concept can keep me easily amused if enough little touches are sprinkled throughout to tie in with the central theme and iconography, but Founders Day probably wasn't the best event to try and liven up with a killing spree. Others might have done something better with it, but we're left with this . . . and this is about as much fun as standing in a polling booth and reading the list of candidates before finally using your pencil to mark down who is getting your vote. Okay, it's a BIT more fun than that, but not by much.

4/10

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Shudder Saturday: Super Dark Times (2017)

First of all, Super Dark Times was recommend to me by someone I like to think of as a good friend, yet also know doesn't always have tastes in line with my own. Whenever he recommends something highly though, well, I always go into it with a sense of optimism. That optimism isn't always well placed. Secondly, and important to note for others who may be debating whether or not to watch this movie, Super Dark Times starts off feeling very much like so many other movies that have mined the same ground as Stranger Things lately, but stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a very different beast.

Written by Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (who have built up a nice selection of genre films over the past few years, including the enjoyable Stephanie), this is the tale of teenagers being typical teenagers. The heart of the film is Zach (Owen Campbell) and his firm friendship with Josh (Charlie Tahan). Everything seems happy and normal until a nasty accident starts to push a wedge between them. Covering up their misdeed, to put it mildly, Zach becomes more and more worried, and Josh seems to be becoming more and more distant. And maybe even more determined to use the accident as a springboard for a whole new way of life.

The directorial feature debut from Kevin Phillips, this is a well-paced and well-crafted work that mixes together the ups and downs of teenage turbulence. And the journey that the main characters go on is done in a way that somehow manages to avoid feeling as if things have gone from 0 to 100 with no gradual increase in the speed of the changes. That's not to say that the plot doesn't actually unfold that way, it does, but there's enough time given to little moments scattered throughout that help to distract viewers from feeling rushed towards what is an enjoyably dark and twisted final reel.

I'm not sure there was any need to really set this in the early 1990s, and keeping everything set in the modern day would have helped to avoid that early feeling of "uh oh, they're going to do Stranger Things", but it doesn't feel forced down our throat for most of the runtime. It also doesn't really affect the plot in any way. Maybe Collins and Piotrowski assumed that the latest tech would remove any tension. Or maybe that's the time they remember from their own teenage years (I have no idea what age they actually are, this is purely hypothetical).

Campbell and Tahan are both great, and they both go through some big changes from their first scenes to their last. Max Talisman and Sawyer Barth are also good as part of the foursome who eventually start to go their separate ways, some less voluntarily than others. Elizabeth Cappuccino gets less to do, playing Allison, a subject of young love, but she does well in her role, and everyone else, whether teen or adult, helps to round out a movie world that stays quite believable and grounded.

Weak opening aside, Super Dark Times is an excellent little film that lives up to the title. Check it out if you already enjoyed Summer Of '84. Check it out even if you didn't enjoy that one. It's worth at least giving a shot.

7/10

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Brainscan (1994)

Horror movies have always incorporated popular trends, and have always had fun with hobbies and interests that have been used as scapegoats by some scare-mongering news outlets. Whether it's the dangers of heavy metal, the perils of watching other horror movies, or videogames. And Brainscan is one of a number of movies to remind you that videogames are a corrupting influence on the youth of today. Well, the youth of the early 1990s, which means Edward Furlong.

Furlong plays Michael, a young man who ends up getting a CD-ROM of a game that allows him to commit violent crimes without fear of any real consequences. Except there does end up being consequences. Encountering a figure, The Trickster (T. Ryder Smith), who steps out of the screen, Michael finds himself in real danger. There's a detective (Hayden, played by Frank Langella) on the trail of a killer, and a young woman (Kimberly, played by Amy Hargreaves) who could become the next victim.

Written by Andrew Kevin Walker (yes, the man who would give us Seven just one year later), Brainscan is one of those horror movies that gets almost everything wrong. It desperately wants to make a memorable character with The Trickster, but fails, and none of the big plot points are as nasty and violent as they should be, which leaves the whole thing feeling far too take, especially for those who would have been the target audience for this in 1994.

Director John Flynn just doesn't have any handle on the material, as weak as it is, and makes a lot of wrong decisions. Had The Trickster been a better character then focusing on him would have been a good move, perhaps even giving him some more screentime (although he gets plenty), OR there could have been an attempt to make things even more complex between Langella's detective and Furlong's character, who keeps appearing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Considering how much better Langella is than anyone else in the movie, that could have greatly improved things.

Furlong is okay in the main role, but he's not someone I usually consider the best first choice for any role, and that is also the case here. He does what is asked of him though, moving from cocky teen to scared victim as it becomes clear that he may have actually committed crimes that will get him a hefty prison sentence. Langella is so good in his role here that I wish he'd been given similar roles in many other horror movies from about this time. In fact, I can't deny that I imagined a little fantasy universe in which Langella got the John Saxon role in the Elm Street series, and I wasn't disappointed. Smith is lacking a special quality needed to help make his character more entertaining, while both Hargreaves and Jamie Marsh (as a friend named Kyle) don't get time to make any strong impression.

Fun to watch once as a kind of relic from the 1990s, Brainscan isn't one that you should ever be too bothered about having missed off your viewing schedule. If the opportunity arises, decide whether or not you want to give it your time. It's quite poor, but it's not absolutely awful.

4/10

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Bonus Review: Blue Ruin (2013)

As slow burn thrillers go, this is one of the best I can think of in recent years. I could start to describe the different movies it hews close to, but that just might end up doing it a disservice. So I'll just say that it takes a lot of familiar beats from the revenge thriller subgenre and twists them ever so slightly, making things feel a lot fresher in the process.

Macon Blair is Dwight, a young, homeless man. He may seem to have no plan in life, and no ambition, but it soon becomes clear that there's one thing he wants, at any cost. Revenge. When a kind police officer takes him back to the station to break some bad news - the killer of his parents is finally being freed from prison - Dwight then sets about preparing for what he knows he must do. Unfortunately, it doesn't go quite as planned, which sets off a damaging sequence of events that Dwight is then desperate to stop.

Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, Blue Ruin is one of those movies best described as quietly powerful. Or, perhaps, brooding. Almost every scenes is loaded with the potential for danger and pain, either physical or emotional. But that's not all there is to it. There are some jumps here and there, some scenes that will get your heart racing, and a number of scenes that show just how good Saulnier is at using various cinematic techniques to wring more tension from the material.

The cast all do a great job, but the top honours go to Blair for his portrayal of Dwight. First shown with an unruly head of hair and big, shaggy beard, Dwight may physically transform as the movie unfolds but his behaviour never changes. He has always been determined to get his revenge, but he's also a timid man who doesn't really know what he's doing. Amy Hargreaves doesn't have much screentime, playing Dwight's sister, but she does well enough, Devin Ratray is enjoyable as an old friend who helps Dwight out, and Kevin Kolack, Eve Plumb and David W. Thompson all do a good job as relatives of the man Dwight is aiming for.

Although I don't think it's QUITE as good as all of the praise it has been garnering over the past few weeks, Blue Ruin is still very good indeed. It's worth seeing, and it's worth going out of your way to see it at a local cinema, because supporting quality independent cinema means that we can get more and more of it. Which is good for us movie lovers.

8/10