For It Is Man's Number: verity marks

Showing posts with label verity marks. Show all posts

Saturday, 23 September 2023

Shudder Saturday: Elevator Game (2023)

I was slightly predisposed to disliking Elevator Game before I saw it because I saw the words "based on actual events"on the poster for it. While that's true, in terms of the silly social media trend of pressing elevator buttons in a certain order in the belief that you will see some other world or summon some spirit, or both, it's a work of fiction that only uses a small amount of truth as a starting point. It happens, and has been happening for decades now, but I am still allowed to be irritated when it's such a tenuous use of the phrase.

Anyway, the very simple plot is that a group of people who make videos debunking urban legends end up being asked to record themselves taking part in the elevator game. Viewers know this may not end well, having seen one young woman face a horrible fate at the very start of the film, but there's over an hour of the film dedicated to showing us the group participating in the game and dealing with the consequences of it.

Made by the people who delivered the slightly disappointing The Creatures Were Stirring (Rebekah McKendry directing, while her husband, David Ian McKendry, is tasked with joining Travis Seppala in the writing department), BUT also gave us the pretty great Glorious, Elevator Game isn't terrible, but it's missing some care and skill to make it any good.

While the game itself seems silly to someone like me (i.e. someone not interested in jumping on to any social media trend like a lemming), that wouldn't have been a problem if the rest of the film had made up for the dubious starting point with some enjoyable set-pieces and decent characters. There are some scares here that aren't too bad, for all they feel like weak imitations of scares from much better movies, but the characters and tone are never as strong as required (especially noticeable when someone walks into a restaurant to claim as much salt as possible in order to prepare some kind of protection).

Nobody onscreen is doing bad work, and I'll take a moment here to namecheck Gino Anania, Alec Carlos, Nazariy Demkowicz, Madison MacIsaac, Verity Marks, Liam Stewart-Kanigan, and Megan Best, they're unable to develop anything beyond the weakest of characterisations. No one character really stands out until you see who is being left for the final scenes, and I suspect most viewers will struggle, as I did, to be invested in the outcome of this. Ultimately . . . it's a film about people finding out after having fucked around. Which is enough to make me enjoy the few gore gags and shrug for the rest of the runtime.

I am sure that McKendry has the ability to make another properly good horror one day, but this isn't it. In fact, it feels like a big step backward when compared to the wonderful strangeness of her previous feature.

4/10

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Friday, 6 November 2020

Toys Of Terror (2020)

The last film I saw from director Nicholas Verso was the atmospheric horror-tinged drama Boys In The Trees. Toys Of Terror is quite a step away from that, although it shows Verso once again happy to deliver a movie without easy labels.

At the very basic level, Toys Of Terror is a film summed up by the title. A family move in to a large house. There are parents, three children (one a teen and two younger kids), and a nanny. And there is a big chest that is found to be full of toys. Those toys are livelier than most, and quite deadly.

It isn’t a great movie, marred by some uneven CGI and occasional moments that are simply bizarre, but Toys Of Terror somehow uses everything onscreen to its advantage. That uneven CGI makes it feel like a “little film that could”, while the more bizarre moments show that those involved are happy to acknowledge the influences from both the world of horror and the world of Christmas tales (there’s definitely a hint of Rankin/Bass in the mix).

The script by Dana Gould is worthless when it comes to most of the dialogue, but shines in the more creative moments. It is also impressive for being enjoyably playful and often showing things as they would best appear to children. Take Dolls, Krampus, Child’s Play, and The Orphanage, throw them into a blender, and flick the switch, and here is your end result.

Unfortunately, Verso doesn’t have quite the grasp on the material as he had on his previous film. That doesn’t mean he fails in his directorial duties, it just means that things tend to bump from one sequence to the next, rather than flow smoothly throughout. Again, that slightly adds to the charm, even as viewers may be baffles by some of the more surreal scenes.

Kyana Teresa and Dayo Ade are fine in the role of the parents, and Verity Marks is good as a plucky teen that you can root for, but I was personally most taken with Georgia Waters, playing the nanny, an actress not entirely unlike Jessica Chastain in looks and mannerisms, but obviously less precious about the kind of film roles she takes. And good for her. Saul Elias and Zoe Fish are the younger children, and both do a good job of becoming sullen and influenced by the house/toys.

If you get to the end of Toys Of Terror and end up disappointed by what was in the film then it's ultimately on you. The film hasn't hidden what it is, from the title to the trailer, and it's perfectly enjoyable for those in the right mood. Will you revisit it? Will it be one remembered years down the line? I doubt it, but it's a passable distraction nonetheless.

6/10