Shudder Saturday: First Contact (2023)

I may have mentioned them before, but there are one or two studios/distributors that have me rolling my eyes when I see their logo appear before any many feature. One of them is Wild Eye Releasing. The other is Uncork'd Entertainment. The latter distributor is the one attached to this movie, so my expectations plummeted not long after pressing play. I then saw, however, that this was another film written and directed by Bruce Wemple. Wemple may not be a name familiar to you, but he's an independent film-maker who has managed to deliver one or two gems throughout the last decade (including Monstrous, one of a few films made about a dangerous Sasquatch).

As the title may have already informed you, First Contact is about potential first contact with visitors not from this planet. Casey Bradach (Anna Shields) and Dan Bradach (James Liddell) are siblings trying to get to the bottom of just what their late father (Dr. Ian Bradach, played by Paul Kandarian) was obsessing over. What they discover may just be something important enough to share with the entire world. If they survive their journey.

I'll be brutally honest here, First Contact isn't very good. It certainly pales in comparison to the much more enjoyable creature features that Wemple used to focus on. Having said that, it's also far from atrocious, although I am sure that less forgiving viewers will give up long before the end credits roll and rush to name it as one of their "worst movies ever made". Wemple just cannot quite make things work, despite being a pretty dab hand at making the most of a low budget and limited resources. He needs a better selection of special effects and cast members for First Contact to work as well as it needs to. And some tweaking and editing to help the pacing wouldn't go amiss.

Shields and Liddell do okay, but they're unable to detract from the many moments that feel like too much filler in between the few better moments. Kandarian plays his part as expected, the typical genre doctor who seems to be talking nonsense until people get enough context to help them heed his warnings. Elsewhere, Chris Cimperman has fun being covered in decent make up, Caitlin Duffy does well with her lesser role, and the other supporting players all do what is asked of them.

The special effects are a very mixed bag, but some of them are all the more impressive when you consider what budget Wemple would have been working with, and the horrors of the scenario are presented in an effective way. It's not enough though. Sadly, Wemple covers territory here that has been much better-served in many other films (as well as on TV). It's uninspired, almost consistently dull, and everything leads to a final act that is hard to care about, despite what is at stake. 

I wouldn't say this is awful, and I will always make time for the efforts of Wemple. But, as I already stated a few paragraphs ago, it just isn't very good.

4/10

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

Shudder Saturday: Monstrous (2020)

A film about Bigfoot that doesn't really focus on Bigfoot, Monstrous is an interesting way to make a low-budget creature feature without leaving viewers completely unsatisfied. Which isn't to say that everyone will be pleased with the final result. This is a film that people should be warned about beforehand, in order to suitably lower expectations.

Spurred on by her friend, Jamie (Grant Schumacher), a young woman named Sylvia (Anna Shields) heads on a trip to try and discover what happened to a missing mutual friend, as well as some other missing individuals. She meets up with Alex (Rachel Finninger), a young woman who may have some idea of things that have gone on, and a relationship starts to develop. Bigfoot, meanwhile, may be waiting to strike, supposedly starting to kill humans after years of existing peacefully alongside them.

Shields, as well as bagging the lead role, also wrote the screenplay here, and she has a good overall feel for dialogue and teasing out some of the main plot points. It's fairly obvious early on exactly what is going on, but there are some nice misdirections that never feel as if they're cheating viewers.

Director Bruce Wemple, who made this as the first of three creature features in a row (his last one, Dawn Of The Beast, ALSO being a Bigfoot movie written by Shields) knows what he's doing when it comes to overcoming the limitations of a low budget, most of the time anyway. He puts in some cracking shots that show the size of the main creature, but keeps things either shown from afar or partially hidden. It's only in the finale that he slips up, but we all know that his only other option would be to get criticised for never showing the central creature, so I think he tries his best with what is available to him. Importantly, and often a small thing not well-used enough by independent film-makers, the sound design helps, especially in a key creature moment.

Shields and Finninger do well in their roles. Although she gets a lot right, the main problem with the writing is the rapid pace with which the two main characters form quite a strong connection, but the performances help to make that less of an issue. Schumacher isn't onscreen for long, but he does well enough with what he's given. And Dylan Grunn is credited as the main monster, so he deserves a mention here for his good physical work.

Probably destined to be criticised by many for what it isn't, rather than what it is, Monstrous comes close to being a rough little gem. It's a Bigfoot film that's not really about Bigfoot, with the title having a nice double meaning, but it's also a character piece that also has the monster available to keep things from becoming staid. The fact that it doesn't all quite come together as well as it could is outweighed by the fact that everyone tries their best to make it work. It's an admirable attempt to avoid the laziness that can so often be found in this subgenre. 

6/10

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