Shudder Saturday: Boo! (2018)

If you want a slick and enjoyable mainstream horror movie then you're probably best staying away from Boo! It's not as if it's a terrible movie, not really, but it so consistently mishandles the material (and the central plot hinges on an idea that could have been used well) that it only really works well as a shining example of how not to present a horror movie. This is one to watch when you're feeling a bit jaded and needing a reminder of why so many people watch and enjoy the content from Blumhouse and people like James Wan.

The main storyline is simple. A family receive a "boo" on their doorstep. It's something that apparently should be passed along, otherwise those receiving it are stuck with a curse, but they don't. The father instead decides to burn the piece of paper that has a rhyme written on it. This leads to every family member having visions relating to their greatest fears, and it develops and widens cracks in their relationships, adding more and more tension until things reach an inevitably damaging conclusion.

The fictional feature debut from director Luke Jaden (who has a filmography that includes a documentary and a number of shorts), Boo! shows someone who knows what they're supposed to be doing, but just somehow can't quite get anything right. The script, co-written by Jaden and Diane Michelle, isn't terrible, certainly not compared to the many worse horror movies out there, but the execution is either flat or a bit muddled. It doesn't help that things really start with the arrival of the curse, without letting viewers see some of the underlying issues within the family unit that will be exploited throughout the rest of the movie. Okay, maybe that's a script issue, but it otherwise does an okay job, unsupported by the film-making techniques that feel as if they are going through the motions.

The cast don't help. Jaden Piner and Aurora Perrineau aren't as bad as Caleb and Morgan, respectively, but Jill Marie Jones is a bit weaker, and Rob Zabrecky doesn't find the right tone for his character, a man of faith who would much prefer things if his family pretended that they never had any problems. Charley Palmer Rothwell doesn't do too bad, playing the boyfriend of Perrineau's character, but his character feels a bit wasted (again, okay, highlighting that the script has a few more flaws than I initially thought).

Despite one or two individual moments that simply focus on being enjoyably creepy, this is a Halloween movie that never really feels like it is all taking place on Halloween. It's almost as if everyone forgot the events unfold on Halloween night, which should have been an easy plus point for the film.

Not painful, not laughably bad, just really disappointing. And not worth your time.

3/10

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Concrete Plans (2020)

Although it brings nothing very original to the table, Concrete Plans is an enjoyable thriller that puts people into a bad situation and slowly makes things worse and worse until it is time for the end credits to roll. The script isn't bad, and the cast all help to lift it slightly.

A group of workmen are hired to renovate an old farmhouse, not knowing that the posh owner who hired them (Simon, played by Kevin Guthrie) is having some major financial issues. He keeps doing all he can to delay making any payments, which is no good for the foreman/boss, Bob (Steve Speirs), and leads to him being badgered about it by his increasingly-wary workers. The group is made up of Dave (William Thomas), the old hand, bratty young Steve (Charley Palmer Rothwell), Jim (Chris Reilly), and hard-working Viktor (Goran Bogdan). As storm clouds start to gather, it soon becomes clear that at least one of the men will push things further and further to ensure they get the money due to them.

Trying to balance everything out, and not with complete success, Concrete Plans has a group of central characters it is often hard to like, making it potentially more satisfying when everything starts to go wrong. Viktor seems like a nice guy, Bob too, and Dave has been in the game long enough to know that causing a fuss might lead to you not being picked for future jobs (although paying someone for their work is a pretty basic civility). Steve is a twat, there's no better word for him (okay, maybe brat, but a brat is just a twat with added childishness and energy), and Jim has, we discover, lied his way on to the job. Then there's Simon, the worst kind of toff, someone who feels entitled to shout at others, and try to boss them around, even when he's not actually in any position to be giving orders.

Writer-director Will Jewell, making his feature debut (I'm not counting This Time Next Year, a 2011 film that only runs to an hour), handles everything well enough, and puts all of the pieces in place nicely for a third act that delivers some nastiness and a number of twists and turns. It's a shame that the execution of the material leaves it slightly lacking the full impact it should have (Jewell dilutes the strength of things by having one or two moments happen offscreen, or he presents them in a way that allows you an extra moment to see things one step ahead of the characters), but the overall end result is still good enough to make this worth your time.

I mentioned that the cast all help to lift the material, and that is true, although some are more restricted than others. Some of the less likeable characters are made even worse to make the third act more tense and satisfying, which leaves both Guthrie and Rothwell stuck in their respective “horrible shit” pigeonholes. Reilly is riveting though, and all of the relatively good characters are excellent, even with the moral ambiguity (to put it diplomatically). There are also good turns from Amber Rose Evah (as Amy, Simon’s girlfriend) and James Lance (Richard, a slippery financial advisor).

Probably not a film destined to be remembered as a classic, or one you will turn to for numerous rewatches, this at least provides an enjoyably tense distraction for about ninety minutes, and at least shows Jewell as a writer-director who takes good care of his material when getting it from script to screen.

7/10

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Play Or Die (2019)

Based on a novel by Franck Thilliez, entitled "Puzzle", Play Or Die is a typical example of what you get when you have a first-time director, Jacques Kluger, making something that he believes manages to deliver something trendy with a bit of a twist.

Charley Palmer Rothwell is Lucas, and Roxane Mesquida is Chloé. The two friends work together to find the location of an intense "escape room" game called Paranoia. It's set in an abandoned mental hospital, and a few other players have managed to find the place. Everyone is soon made to realise that the ultimate prize for solving each riddle isn't just being the person who beat the game, it's getting away with your life intact.

From the very earliest scenes, showing Rothwell and Mesquida solving the clues that lead them to the location of the main game, Play Or Die has a problem in making the whole premise seem remotely plausible. Nothing is done to help show the lure of the game, nothing seems so tricky that only the best of the best would crack any of the clues, and it all just seems ridiculous. Things only get worse once the leads reach the main location, where most mistakes will end in certain death. The solutions to the problems become more complicated, and participants are expected to solve time-sensitive puzzles while the threat of instant death looms ever larger over them.

It would seem that we can lay the blame squarely with Kluger, who also co-wrote the script with Amiel Bartana (another first-timer). What may have worked in novel form, and I am only supposing here, just doesn't work onscreen, at least not without the distraction of some more style and wit that this is, sadly, lacking. Any film working within this realm is potentially ridiculous (from the Saw series to the many Escape Room films that have popped up lately), but they can often be enjoyable at the same time, depending on the logic and fiendishness of the traps, and the cast of characters being made to go through them.

This is another area in which the movie stumbles. Rothwell and Mesquida aren't the strongest of leads, with the former actually being slightly annoying for a lot of the runtime. It's not necessarily his fault, the script paints him as a glum figure who doesn't even seem to enjoy the thrill of the puzzle-solving (which adds to the lack of believability). Mesquida, on the other hand, at least gets to be enthusiastic and energetic for most of her screentime. Disposable supporting players are portrayed by Marie Zabukovec, Thomas Mustin, Daphné Huynh, and Hippolyte de Poucqes.

There are so many movies out there that are better, and similar, to this. It doesn't matter that this one tries to do something a bit different at the end, I still recommend you check out any of the other films I have mentioned in this review. Or you can watch Nerve if you fancy some light fun, and Would You Rather if you want something darker.

3/10