Protanopia (2024) - Horror Film Review

In hindsight, watching the very arty Protanopia after just three hours of sleep the night before was perhaps not the wisest decision I've made. A good indication that a film's theme and story has totally been lost on you is reading the synopsis after having watched it and not recognising anything it talks about.
A quick search of the word protanopia reveals it is a type of colour blindness in which the person is unable to perceive any 'red' light, I'm not sure how that fits into anything.
This Matthew Mahler (What Jack Built) written and directed horror may have gone completely over my head, but it did have some really stand-out aspects to it that kept me along for the ride. I will include both what I had thought the film was about, as well as what the general synopsis stated it was about in this review.

Luke's (Anthony Carey) step-sister has gone missing while under his care, and so he hasn't been able to concentrate on his job as a writer. The Detective in charge of the case (John Heerlein) starts to suspect that Luke may be involved somehow. Meanwhile, Alan (Timothy J. Cox - What Jack Built) has become the president of the local neighbourhood committee after the death of his father. Here he finds himself in conflict with Janice (Paula Mahler), a busybody woman who obviously believes she should be the president of the committee. Their first order of business is to help search for a missing woman from the next town over.
The synopsis states that after Luke's sister goes missing he begins to have dreams of a strange house. The house is owned by Alan, and he appears to take care of the property in strange and unusual ways.

This was both very indie and very art house in its style. Despite the low budget look to much of this, the editing and camera effects were both very impressive, even if they did help in adding to my confusion. There are tints of various colours applied over the film, blue, green, and indeed red tints (I guess I must not suffer from protanopia to see that!), and often the film uses an effect of characters moving in weird frames, with after images of their movements staying behind for a few seconds constantly. 
The very best part of the film was the sound design. Both sound effects, general audio, and especially the music were fantastic, most impressive. There was nothing to complain about in that regard, with the music just perfectly fitting the surreal vibe. A highlight for me was roughly halfway into the seventy five minutes movie where Luke (in what I assume is a dream sequence) encounters his missing sister singing am atmospheric song, with her face distorted.

I would say my personal biggest issue with this is that I just could not follow what on earth was happening. It seemed that Luke and Alan's stories were both taking place at the same place, though reading the synopsis afterwards it seems much of Luke's side of the film takes place within the context of a dream. It appeared that the house was perhaps sentient, either that or Alan was quite disturbed, as at several points he is shown talking to the twisted ghost of his father. The constant use of an insert shot of some type of rotting animal carcass with bugs crawling over during the first part of Alan's side of the film was a bit off putting, it wasn't really for me, but Alan himself was a strange character who was fun to see simply existing. I don't really understand where the story went, or what it was really trying to say, the IMDB tagline simply says 'A surreal horror film about greed and masculinity in American suburbia'.

On the one hand, Protanopia was quite impressive. From the somewhat basic text font used it is obvious this was low budget, but this is hidden very well with the variety of visual effects used constantly throughout. Then there is the soundtrack that was just perfect. I am hit and miss when it comes to more arty films, and as is apparent, I just could not follow what was happening here, leaving me confused, but not frustrated with the movie.

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Poughkeepside is for Lovers (2022) - Apocalypse Film Review

Poughkeepsie is for Lovers is something a little different to what I typically cover. It may be a romance and it may be a drama, but it also takes place in the lead up and to the outbreak of a worldwide nuclear war. Written, co-directed (along with Kelly Van Dilla) and starring Bill Connington, this felt like it was constantly trying to straddle the line between a traditional film and an arthouse movie.

Taking place in the near future, Gothic hipster Charles (Connington) and his artist wife Eve (Natia Dune) have headed out of New York City for a break in the countryside, doubling as a practice escape plan for if Nuclear war breaks out in America. This is something that the government have stated is a very real possibility due to ramping tensions between North America and Russia. The couple are in love, but their relationship has became strained recently. As the unthinkable happens, the couple must find a way to become closer rather than drift apart.

Despite the somewhat pretentious title I still had some hopes for the film. Global apocalypses are a real world horror, and that this film charts the onset of one, rather than taking place in a post-apocalyptic world was a unique take, at least compared to other films I have seen. This may all take place to a backdrop of imminent destruction but the focus is one the couple, with the two being the only actors in the whole film. The only other voice is the news reporter who updates over radio the increasingly desperate worldwide situation. This is also presented as government updates sent via the early warning system to the couple's phones. It seemed implied their relationship had hit a rough spot, I hope that was the case anyway as other than a similar look in the way they dress, the couple had barely any chemistry between them. It leads to a series of arthouse style sequences of them holding hands in various outdoor locations.

Nocturna: Side B - Where the Elephants Go to Die (2021) - Horror Film Review

Nocturna: Side B - Where the Elephants Go to Die is a companion piece to the brilliant Nocturna: Side A - The Great Old Man's Night, both of which were written and directed by Gonzalo Calzada (Luciferina). I had heard this part of the double bill was more experimental, but I wasn't prepared for just how experimental this turned out to be. Was this arty? Sure, but for me personally, was it interesting? Not so much.

Side A focussed on the elderly Ulises (Pepe Soriano), this second part instead focuses on his wife, Dalia (Marilú Marini). This is vaguely a retelling of that first movie, in so much that key parts of that story are represented here. More than anything though this is a monologue from Dalia as she tries to explain her mindset of the world, and how hard it is to let go.

Thankfully this wasn't too long of a film, running at just over an hour long. To me it felt like it was a lot longer and found myself frequently clock watching or even worse subconsciously picking up my phone and starting to browse various websites. Of course, this is an insult to the director but while I appreciated this I could not get into it. I think part of the problem is the subtitles, dubbing is the very worst thing in my opinion, I always listen to foreign language films in their native tongue, but with Part B at times there is so much dialogue being spoken that I found my eyes glued to the bottom of the screen reading it, missing out on the various images that are meant to combine with the words. There is a lot of repetition here, both in what is being said and what is being shown, so eventually this became less of an issue, especially after the very fast editing that makes up the prologue to the movie.

Doggo and the Shotguns Choir (2018) - Film Review

Doggo and the Shotguns Choir is a surreal Italian film that was an abrasive mix-up between two different styles of film. Directed and co-written by Paolo Treviso (Crappy Toilet) this was a hard film to follow, though admittedly mainly due to the fact the screener I watched for review featured no English subtitles. I had to try and piece together the intent from the acting, and what was shown on screen. I have seen non subtitled Turkish horrors before (Baskin), and non subtitled Spanish horrors before (Omnivores), but this was my first Italian one. The plot summary is pieced together from what I gathered was going on.

There are two different stories playing out over Doggo and the Shotguns Choir, initially these seem very unrelated but as both the plots play out they begin to show certain similarities in the themes present. In modern day, and shot in black and white, a freak show attraction known as 'Doggo' escapes his cruel captors and heads to the nearby city where he becomes befriended by a blind woman seeking companionship. Elsewhere, and in colour, seemingly in Wild West times, a lone cowboy goes on a bloody path of vengeance to get revenge for the woman he loved.

This was a movie of two halves, with the two very distinct stories playing out over the top of each other. If this had purely been the Western story I would have loved this I feel. This part of the movie gave me real nostalgia for the classics, and most keenly a yearning to go back and watch El Mariachi. That may not be set in olden times like this part of the film seemed to be, yet both shared a similar feel in how the story basically plays out. Much of this story features the lone gunman walking through a gully, encountering various people who I imagine were hallucinations. There was a light art house feel that could be seen through characters whose clothing changes between shots. My favourite parts of this were the gun duels, all the classic Western tropes like close ups of characters eyes, and their twitching hands as they go for their guns. In particular the finale here was excellent, taking place by a sunflower field, and featuring an element that was very unexpected (and which I loved). The camera work here was lovely to see.

She's Allergic to Cats (2016) - Horror Film Review

I figured the one good thing about this pandemic would be the amount of free time I would have to work on my blog. Instead it is the opposite, ended up not only still working full time, but the added bonus of all holiday being cancelled and so I'm not going to get a chance anytime soon to catch up on my outstanding posts. I'm currently fit to bursting with movies to watch for review and so I need to be a bit more picky. Director/writer Michael Reich's She's Allergic to Cats didn't sound like horror in the traditional sense, but it sure sounded unique and so I knew despite my new found pickiness I had to check it out.

Mike Pinkney stars as Mike, a dog groomer in Hollywood with aspirations to make films. As a hobby he makes video art, and his big dream is to re-make his favourite horror movie Carrie, but with cats playing all the parts. One day at his day job he meets the mysterious Cora (Sonja Kinski - Holidays segment "Mothers Day") and instantly they form a connection. They agree to a date, a date that will tragically change their lives forever...

She's Allergic to Cats is a really bizarre film, and that aspect is what drew me to it. It straddles several different genres, it is both horror, romance, and comedy wrapped up in an art house bow. Art house can be a tough style of filmmaking to love, I sometimes feel the abstract nature of it can hide deficiencies in the storytelling. Here it is pure art house at times, my unofficial criteria of this genre includes nightmare sequences, non sexulised nudity and a general unraveling of cohesiveness. This had the feel of a more indie Garden State, helped by the fact that Pinkney really reminded me in look of Zach Braff, and how the main characters of that film were also oddballs like Mike and Cora were.

Your Flesh, Your Curse (2017) - Horror Film Review

For better or for worse Your Flesh, Your Curse (written and directed by Kasper Juhl - A God Without a Universe) is an arthouse film of the highest order. This particular type of film can be a bit hit and miss with me, I really have to be in the right mood. Where some go for quick edits this one instead goes for long slow shots. I have to be truthful, I barely understood much of what was going on here, and that did get in the way of my enjoyment, but regardless this has some wonderful cinematography, and some great directing.

Juliet (Marie-Louise Damgaard Nielson) is a deeply troubled girl which seems to stem from sexual abuse at the hands of her father many years previously. Now she spends her days taking all manner of drugs in order to get high and escape the desolation that is her life, and to pay for these drugs she works as a prostitute for some pretty perverse low lifes. One day while passed out in a field a random stranger rapes and then brutally murders her. Juliet awakens in the afterlife where a spirit guide sends her back to pivotal moments from her past (possibly, as I said I got very lost very quickly).

As you may have guessed my biggest problem with this is that I just completely lost track of what on Earth was going on. In the middle of a very busy and stressful work week where my brain has started to feel like mush this wasn't perhaps the most fitting time to view this. The structure of Your Flesh, Your Curse is interesting in that it doesn't play out in an order of any sort, it seems almost cylindrical in that scenes pop up again and again at various times. Scenes that have already occurred take place again with different outcomes, such as a scene where Juliet takes ecstasy with her best friend, the second time it occurs she instead refuses the drug and leaves the room.

Apocalypsis (2018) - Horror Film Review

I realised with a mild kind of horror while watching indie thriller Apocalypsis that over half an hour had passed and I was none the wiser to what the hell was actually going on. Sometimes I watch films that pass over my head somewhat and this was one of them. Still with plenty of arthouse style editing, interesting main leads, a decent soundtrack, and a sustainable feeling of paranoia I may have left confused but I also left with nary a sign of boredom upon my person. This is actually the third film in a trilogy, Imagination (2018) and Glitch in the Grid (2012) preceding this, though I assume each one may be stand alone in nature.

My confusion started with the synopsis I was sent along with the screener that seemed to be from a different film entirely, so much so that I had to pause the movie to double check I was actually watching the right thing! From what I could make out Apocalypsis takes place in a parallel world to our own that wouldn't feel out of place if it appeared in an episode of Black Mirror. In this world the American government is known as the NWO (New World Order) and they are in the process of getting every citizen fitted with a microchip so that they can be monitored wherever they go. People without these chips are seen as malcontents, and the film follows two of these people. Albino Evelyn (Maria Bruun) has recently converted to the Eastern Orthodox Christian religion and while studying the book of Revelations in the bible has started to get visions of the end of the world. Meanwhile hyperactive hacktivist Michael (Chris O'Leary) has gotten terrified at the increasingly dystopian state of America, with his friends he has decided to try and do something about it. Unknown to both, their actions are being monitored by a shady group who are waiting for the right time to pounce...

This is very much an arthouse film with many, many montages that uses a variety of techniques to create unique views of what is going on. By far my favourite of these are the visions that Evelyn has of angels, as these consist of a lot of creepy looking stop motion animation of religious beings and imagery. These stop motion figures all look rough around the edges and basic, but this just adds to the other worldly charm of them. Angels spinning in circles, God looking down from the heavens, all combined with the effective soundtrack create a feeling of mystical confusion. More than anything these brought to mind the videotape segments from The Ring series. Director and writer Eric Leiser created the stop motion himself which was interesting to find out. These parts are also the most horror based parts of Apocalypsis. Aside from these bits there are also a lot of moments when footage gets over saturated, or the colours get inverted. The reason I mentioned in my synopsis that Evelyn is an albino is down to the fact that Leiser makes uses of this unique condition for his film work. There are scenes where everything is so lightly saturated that all you can see on screen is her eyes, nostrils and mouth, everything else as white as her skin. Then there are moments where she is surrounded by leaves of what appeared to be a cherry blossom tree, again blending so well with her light skin and creating novel scenes.

DIS (2017) - Horror Film Review

I first heard of Bill Oberst Jr. back at the start of 2014 when I saw his powerful performance as the star of arthouse horror Coyote. I am firmly of the mind that he isn't capable of giving anything but his all to his performances as here he is in his latest film; DIS (directed and written by Adrian Corona) and once again he gives an intense and gruelling show. This film is the most arthouse I have seen for a while and with that style I sometimes enjoy them, I sometimes dont. Still at around an hour long this one doesn't have time to drag, instead telling an abstract tale that flows naturally.

So this was a bit hard to follow and I will admit the plot summary comes from both my own experience of this, and of the IMDB plot blurb filling in some blanks. Oberst Jr. stars as Ariel; an ex-soldier with a criminal past who has taking refuge in Mexico, in some woods after a probable recent escapade. While out hunting one day he comes across a ruined building, while investigating it (after seeing the figure of a half naked woman) he is ambushed by a hooded man who wants Ariel's bodily fluids as food for his mandrake garden.

So this is about the legend of the mandrake plant that this film states is grown from the blood of murderers. Even without Bill saying this was an arthouse film it wouldn't have been hard to guess (he also says this was one of the strangest projects he has ever worked on). It has full frontal male and female nudity, discordant music, and quickly edited together abstract shots so ticks all the arthouse boxes. DIS takes place in two different times, the present that has Ariel and his accidental meeting with the mandrake gardner, and black and white segments that has Ariel arriving at a remote criminal den after needing to lie low. The only dialogue (aside from screams) occurs in the brief black and white flash back moments and so a lot of what is going on is up to the viewers interpretations.

BoXeD (2016) - Horror Film Review

BoXeD is written, edited, produced and directed by Daniel A. Finney and it is an art house film. I used to watch this TV program when I was younger, I believe it was called Headf*ck or something like that and this film brought memories of that show back to me as it featured plenty of similar style videos of which this would have fitted right in.

Due to the unique way BoXeD is shown I am not totally clear on the actual plot so this summery may be wrong. Jane Hamlet stars as Rachel whose sister has gone missing, though meanwhile her ex boyfriend Richie Prendergast (Charles O'Neill) is putting pressure on her to display his artwork at her gallery. Flashbacks to a time when her sister was not missing sheds some light on what may have actually happened.

Cannibal Fog (2014) - Horror Comedy Film Review

Cannibal Fog is a Swedish horror that the makers have described as 'a meta drama comedy with art house influences in the urban cannibal genre'. Before I start the review proper I have to state for the record that stuff was occurring in my personal life that may have made me less receptive than usual in my pursuit and acceptance of all types of horror.

Michael (Linus Karlgren) is a young man who has wasted his life in the pursuit of porn and meaningless sex. A chance encounter with contaminated food at a local cafe sets him upon a search for the addictive new taste. Meanwhile middle aged man Albin (Malte Aronsson) who resides in the same city as Michael is a secret cannibal serial killer who serves his 'special' meat dishes up as meals for food connoisseurs. Eventually the paths of Michael and Albin meet and fate plays out.

I watched this film in two sittings and at nearly two hours long I had to do it this way as I just could not get engaged with it due to the bizarre humour and the art house stylings it plays with. Much of the film follows Michael; a greasy haired loser, whose family have all but given up on him. His obsession with sex mirrors Albin's obsession with food providing a grim parallel between the two. The problem with the Michael segments is that not much really happens, The one plot hook is that he keeps waking up with flesh from his leg removed; just who is cutting away his flesh as he sleeps? Albin on the other hand has far shorter screen time but his segments are actually not that bad. One scene in which the pretentiousness of food critics is played up was actually pretty funny truth be told.

The soundtrack is pretty awful with lots of shouty rock and middle of the road forgettable background Muzak that sounds like it would be at home in an elevator. The film is in its native language with English subtitles and while occasionally the dialogue shines for the most part it is nothing special. Acting is hard to tell but it seems to be at least competent and I was delighted to see the man of many roles; Kim Sonderholm in a bit part. I have said it before and I will say it again, that man just gets everywhere!

Cannibal Fog starts strong showing as it does a scene from the end of the film to leave you wondering how things get to that stage, and in general the last quarter of the film is pretty darn good. With the introduction of a secret cannibal society and a mad finale that was exciting and fun to watch it really picked up, but by then it was too little too late. I loved the relationship between Michael and Albin but it comes so late into the film that it just seems a wasted opportunity.

There are some great ideas here, the explanation of the films title Cannibal Fog was unexpected and leads to some great moments but when so much of the film follows a disgusting unlikeable character again it is far too late to make up for what comes before. Dealing as it does with flesh eaters there is plenty of human meat being prepared which turned my stomach a bit, not really into the cannibal genre it turns out! It is easy to see the contrast between pleasures of the flesh and pleasures of eating the flesh, as well as humans obsession with food types and the preparation of it.

If your after mild art house and a strange time then Cannibal Fog might be right up your alley, for me though I just could not get into it until far too late when it had all but wrapped up.

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