Frankenstein (2025) - Horror Film Review

I thought it was neat that iconic film director Guillermo Del Toro (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth) was making a film adaptation of Mary Shelley's timeless Gothic novel - Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. Saying that, after seeing it was two and a half hours long, I figured I would never find the time to get around to watching it. Well, having lost my job at the end of last year, I now have a lot more free time on my hands, and so gave it a watch. Obviously, this has been adapted to film countless times over the past 100 years, and the character of Frankenstein's Monster is known by most people due to how iconic it has became in the public consciousness. Would this latest version of Frankenstein outstay its welcome, or indeed, do enough to set it apart from all that have come before?

The story is well known, though key elements are handled a little differently here. That is to say, if you are familiar with the story, this follows all the same beats, but occasionally those beats are reached by different means as to how they were in the original novel. The film tells the story of Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac - Moon Knight TV series, Annihilation); a brilliant but troubled scientist who had become obsessed with creating life. Of course, one fateful stormy night he is successful, and from that success comes the creature (Jacob Elordi - Saltburn, The Mortuary Collection). Its monstrous appearance, and apparent lack of intelligence causes Victor to be repelled by his creation, and in a fit of madness he burns down his laboratory, believing the creature destroyed. The creature managed to escape however, and after being treated as if he was a monster by nearly all he comes across, the creation decides to seek out his creator and ask a request of him.

Much like with video games, in my middle age I find I have less and less interest in pursuing remakes and remasters of media that I am familiar with. It was because of that I wondered what exactly a new adaptation of Frankenstein would bring to the table. From the font alone, this looked like it would be quite pretentious. I figured maybe it would go down the route of 'less is more' and rarely show the creature on screen. This is almost the opposite of that. Of course, much like the novel, the prologue takes place in the story's present, with a ship trapped in the Antarctic ice encountering Frankenstein. Here, things become much more dramatic and action packed, with the creature appearing at almost the same time. After a thrilling prologue sequence where he attacks the ship's crew, we then get the start of Victor's story as he recounts how events led to this moment for him. Interestingly, at the film's midway point, we then get the rest of the story recounted by the creature, which is when many of the changes come about, with it suggested the original story as told in the novel, was from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. All the characters are here, from Elizabeth (Mia Goth - Pearl, A Cure for Wellness), to Victor's younger brother, William (Felix Kammerer - All Quiet on the Western Front), but all have some slight change to them. For instance, Elizabeth's relationship with Victor is quite different, while William is portrayed as a grown man. This was a star-studded film, just looking at some of the side roles, we have Christoph Waltz (Alita: Battle Angel, Inglorious Basterds), Charles Dance (Frankenstein, Game of Thrones TV series), David Bradley (The World's End, the Harry Potter films), Ralph Ineson (The Witch) among many others.
For some of these characters, their inclusion was perfectly fine, but some I didn't get on so well with. Victor is well known to be the real monster of the movie, so it is understandable he wasn't the most likeable character. Here, his mistreatment of his creation seems to stem from mistreatment he had from his father (Dance) as a child, and some of his motivations seem a bit abstract, not helped by him disappearing from the movie for much of the second act. Least favourite character for me was Goth's Elizabeth. From the way her character acted to the clothes she wore, she just came across as a weird person, even if her scenes with the creature were decent.

As to the creature himself, rather than keep him on the sides of the screen, the creature is front and literal centre screen for many of his appearances. Stitched together from various body parts, the creature's look changes over the course of the movie. Initially, he really reminded me of Rocky from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, mainly due to the bright yellow loincloth he wears. I don't know why that bright colour was chosen, but it was a bit distracting. He later appears with long lank hair and wearing furs, making him seem much more intimidating. The creature is extremely powerful and full of rage, but he is also shown to very much be the victim of the story. The film doesn't shy away from his violence, but also presents him as someone who is very lost and desperately yearning for company. From the changes in events (Victor often blaming the creature for the death of pretty much any character who dies even when not remotely responsible), it is nigh impossible to dislike this miserable creature. He isn't scary either, despite the scenes of him hulking out and throwing people around like dolls. It leads to some violent scenes, my favourite of these being when he rips someone's jaw off of them! Different to other times, here, the creature is suggested to be indestructible, able to rejuvenate from any injuries sustained. He did feel a bit like the Incredible Hulk at times, but I liked this more unstoppable portrayal.

The make-up effects for the creature were fantastic, there was nothing throughout the whole film that looked sub-par. Especially neat were the locations used, real sets created rather than CG, Frankenstein's laboratory was a real highlight, channelling the contrast between beauty and ruin that Del Toro is known for.

Frankenstein is a heck of a long film, I admit to watching it in three chunks, rather than in a single sitting. Despite being extremely familiar with the story, I still thought this was great. I enjoyed the changes that stopped this feeling as familiar, the filmmaking itself was stellar from start to end. The third act somehow felt a little bit rushed, speeding through huge amounts of the story within around a 40 minute timeframe, but the wonderful cast, amazing effects and set design combined to make this a film I became engrossed with, even if I very much doubt I would ever return for a second viewing. Frankenstein is currently streaming on Netflix.

SCORE:

Stéphane (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Co-directed by Timothée Hochet and Lucas Pastor, Stéphane is a spell binding found footage horror comedy that was like a French cousin to the fantastic Creep. The cast may be small but they really made an impact on me.

Timothée (Bastien Garcia) is an amateur film director who one day while trying to film some scenes for a short film contest, encounters a most eccentric man. This larger than life character introduces himself as Stéphane (Pastor), and impresses the young director with his tales of having worked as a stunt man. By a series of misadventures, Timothée ends up on Stéphane's private island where they decide to make a short World War II film alongside the meek and subservient Bianca (Eva Gregorieff). While Timothée is earnest in making the film, he is also secretly working on a mean-spirited documentary about Stéphane, finding the man at once both utterly ridiculous and fascinating. There may be a more dark and sinister side to the man however, and getting on his bad side may be a most terrible thing.

As a found footage this was wonderful, the small cast are mostly made up of the three core characters who were all perfectly cast. With Stéphane you have someone who really reminded me of Mark Duplass' Josef (Creep), but this character is somehow even more weird, yet more likeable. The horror remains just out of reach but there are moments where the viewer is secretly shown his more sinister side, such as when he takes a shotgun to his car engine while Timothée is sleeping (having offered to drive him home) and pretends the car broke down on its own, or when he sees the director flirting with Bianca and so purposely throws a wine bottle on the floor and states it was an accident. The character carries himself around like a bull in a china shop, causing chaos wherever he goes, an intense screen presence, and a powerful aura hidden beneath his bumbling ways. Timothée is much more normalised, but he is hardly the most noble protagonist, having amusing delusions of grandeur about the film he is trying to make when it is clear that he too seems to be a bit of an idiot. I liked the intense co-dependant relationship the two men seem to create, and how easy it was for Timothée's ego to be stroked. Last of all is Bianca, a character who barely has any lines in the whole seventy eight minute movie, but is able to perfectly look like someone who is with the two men against her will just by the constantly scared and bewildered look on her face. It was impressive to be able to act so effectively in near silence, even if her role seemed mostly to exist for comedic purposes.

The comedy/horror split mostly centres on the former. Throughout there are hints of horror, especially with some fantastic unsettling moments where almost subliminal images are edited in to show hints of something far more scary happening (as if it were footage that had been recorded over). Without going into too many spoilers, it is around ten minutes left when the shoe drops and the horror really begins. I did feel this was too little too late, I would have preferred a longer section for this final part. Saying that, it was visually exciting to watch, and featured some good looking special effects, and a neat twist that I wasn't expecting. The comedy side occurs around the two men, with Timothée it is his overblown confidence in his abilities, while as strange as Stéphane can be, there was something almost endearing about him, though saying that as someone watching him on screen, I'm sure if I had been in a room with him I would have been terrified!

This French version of Creep excels with its perfect core cast, especially with Pastor. It may have veered more on surreal comedy than horror, but there was still a mix of the two genres that could be felt throughout the runtime that made for a captivating found footage film. To be fair, even the IMDB page for the film doesn't label this as a horror, citing only 'comedy'. Stéphane is currently streaming exclusively on ARROW, worth watching.

SCORE:

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Tim Burton's 1988 comedy horror film Beetlejuice is near universally recognised as a classic, coming out during the director's most iconic period. Truth be told, I don't actually rate it that highly. It is an ok film with some good scenes but had a lot of pacing issues. My sister has been raving about the sequel - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, ever since she saw it at the cinema some weeks back. Getting sick of her constantly asking if I've seen it yet I headed off with my bestie to check it out.

Taking place in present day things have changed a lot for the Deetz family. Former goth teenager Lydia (Winona Ryder - Black Swan, Alien Resurrection) now has her own paranormal investigation show. She also has a teenage daughter - Astrid (Jenna Ortega - Scream VI, Wednesday TV show), who sees her mothers claims of being able to see the dead as pure lies. After Lydia's father is killed in a tragic and amusing accident the family come together to mourn his passing. Lydia and her mother, Delia (Catherine O'Hara - Elemental voice work, Home Alone) pulling Astrid out of boarding school and returning to Delia's house (the same one from the original movie) for the funeral. It is here that it is discovered Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton - Spider-Man: Homecoming, Batman Returns) is still operating and still hopes to one day be reunited with Lydia (who he had previously tried to marry as a means to be able to return permanently to the land of the living). This is something Lydia intends to prevent at all costs.
Meanwhile in the underworld, Beetlejuice learns from detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe - Spider-Man: No Way Home, John Wick) that his cultist wife from when he was living - Delores (Monica Bellucci - The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix Reloaded), has escaped her afterlife confinement and is now hunting for the ghost with the most. With her having the power to consume the souls of the dead this becomes a problem for the denizens of the dead realm.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is exactly how I figured it would be. Thankfully it is in a better place for me than the original. As I said, that first film was ok with moments of goodness. This sequel is instead good with moments of greatness. The whole comedy horror is in full force and looks better than ever due to the modern day effects. The dead especially look great, such as Delores' initial reforming scene where she staples back together her chopped up body. Special effects throughout were impressive and includes returning stop motion effects. There were some twisted moments here that were gross as well as fun, such as Lydia having a baby version of Beetlejuice burst out of her stomach (the baby looking much like the one from Peter Jackson's cult comedy zombie film Braindead). There was also a well done scene where a room full of people have their faces contort into grotesque shapes before they are sucked into their mobile phone screens. The most memorable parts of the first movie reappear, namely people forced against their will by Beetlejuice to mimic singing old songs. This included a late scene set in a church which was near perfection. There was also a neat call back to the iconic dining room dance scene from the first movie, with a choir singing the same song from that part at Lydia's fathers funeral.

I didn't mind a lot of the characters. Due to real life controversies surrounding the actor who played the father, this character is dealt with in an ingenious way. An entertaining fully stop motion sequence is used for the flashback showing how he died, and due to being eaten by a shark, when he does appear in the film it is as a walking torso, they got around not being able to use the original actor cleverly. I enjoyed the character of Lydia and I though Delia had improved a lot, being quirky rather than a nasty person. I had expected Astrid to be the stand-in for the teenage Lydia, fully expecting her to be all gothed up like Ortega was in Wednesday, so I was surprised to see her as a much more normal girl. I had heard complaints that Beetlejuice wasn't in the movie much, but he felt to me that he wasn't that prolific first time around either. I though having duel antagonists was interesting, especially as the two never actually meet with each other. Unfortunately they didn't really have much screen time to shine, Delores in particular felt almost pointless. I also didn't like how swiftly both of these villains were dealt with once they had served their purposes. Outside of that, the story felt like it flowed more smoothly even if it wasn't the most amazing story going on.

I thought Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a good movie. I enjoyed the ties to the original and loved the special effects. For the church scene alone I am going to be picking this up on Blu-ray when it releases, the highs really were very high indeed. 

SCORE:

The Advent Calendar (2021) - Horror Film Review

As it is so near Christmas, it felt fitting to watch a horror film based around that season. Having recently gone crawling back to Shudder, I decided I would find an old classic to watch, but then I spotted The Advent Calendar and was intrigued. This Belgium based French language horror (original title Le calendrier), written and directed by Patrick Ridremont, follows somewhat of a familiar format for a cursed time frame horror, but impressed due to how clever it became towards the end.

Paraplegic Eva (Eugénie Derouand) is gifted an ornately crafted antique advent calendar on her birthday by her best friend, who had picked it up while working in Germany. She notices it has some sinister rules surrounding it, that if you attempt to throw it away, refuse to eat any of the chocolates hidden behind each of the twenty four locked doors, or not follow the instructions then you will be killed. Figuring that wasn't something to take seriously, Eva opens the first door and eats the chocolate within. She begins to experience strange events associated with each new door she opens. A door that contained her father's favourite chocolate behind it for instance led to him calling her, something that should be impossible, not only as he is in late stages of Alzheimer's and long ago forgot she existed, but also because he calls her from a phone that had been disconnected. Elsewhere, a door that contained within it a toy car (that is promptly savaged by Eva's dog), results in a man who tried to rape Eva getting into a deadly car crash. At first Eva puts these strange situations down to coincidence and the chocolates being drugged, but with the use of her legs slowly starting to come back as a result of eating the chocolates, Eva comes to realise that completing the calendar may result in her disability getting cured completely, though at a terrible cost to her and those around her.

So, as I said in my intro, this does fall into a well trodden sub-genre of horror, one that me personally stretches back to The Ring, though I guess goes back to at least the classic 'Monkey's Paw' fable. The most recent entry I can think of would be Smile, a great concept if not executed that satisfyingly. Here, the cursed time frame is associated with the twenty four advent days of December. This neatly splits the film up into little mini chapters, usually opened with one of the dates appearing on the screen. Eva doesn't make for the most sympathetic of protagonists, but she is one with reasons for being the way she is. Sardonic, and quietly bitter, she misses the good times before the accident that claimed the use of her lower body. She is surrounded by people that are not good for her, a horrid boss who appears to have only hired her for the grant he would be given, a wicked stepmother and an Alzheimer's riddled father. Even her best friend, Sophie (Honorine Magnier) is shown to be very self centered, not only was she the one who gifted Eva the cursed calendar (revealing later she had stolen it), but it is clearly insinuated that she was the one that caused the accident that made her wheelchair bound. As such, despite all the terrible things that begin to happen, you do question if it is worth the cost for someone so unhappy with their life.

There are some interesting moments that occur within the film as a consequence of the curse, time travel, teleportation, missing time, blackouts. These all lead to Eva becoming visibly messed up, with good make-up effects to show her deterioration. The scenes of violence are often implied rather than shown, but work well. Having a dog chew up a toy car, edited together with scenes of the real car getting broken in a similar manner were fun, as was later when the effects inflicted on a doll are edited with scenes of a character in a bath suffering similar trauma. Also, there was one very bloody sequence involving man's best friend, that looked great on film.
The central antagonist appears more and more as the film goes on, a somewhat generic look of a thin demonic looking humanoid. I did like his interactions with Eva, less about being some terrible evil, more about him encouraging the woman to continue with her chocolate based pact. The religious angle was also neat, with the demonic being having some link to religion, and many of the chocolates referring to religious iconography. It was cool also that there is zero explanation for how the calendar came to be, there is a reveal of who the previous owner was (linking to the clever direction the plot went in). It leads up to an open ended finish, in which it is up to the viewer to decide what direction the protagonist chose to head in.

As much as the central character wasn't the most noble of people (going out of her way to be twisted on occasion), it felt fresh having a disabled character as the lead, and it was fresh that the film seemed to suggest being selfish is as much a valid choice as being noble. The Advent Calendar is currently streaming on Shudder, it might be a familiar story, but it was executed wonderfully.

SCORE:

Pandemonium (2023) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Pandemonium is a French horror film written and directed by Quarxx. It was over half an hour into this before it revealed itself to be a secret anthology film, rather than just the one story being told. The quality remains high throughout, while the jet black nihilism is often interspersed with some darkly comedic moments.

Nathan (Hugo Dillon - The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon TV series) wakes up on a misty mountain road to see his car smashed up and on its roof. He soon encounters Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj - Taken), who informs Nathan that they were both in a car crash and that they are now dead. At first he is hesitant to believe the man, but it becomes apparent that this is the case. Then two gates appear, one that Daniel can hear beautiful music coming out of, and one that Nathan can hear screaming coming from. On Nathan's travels he encounters the bodies of other people, and is able to witness the events that led up to their tragic deaths.

So, Nathan's story is the focus but I wouldn't say it is a wraparound in the traditional sense. It starts off as its own film in its own right, and felt like something that would work tremendously as a stage play. There are comedic elements here, especially with Nathan and Daniel's interactions with each other, and the little revelations that alter events beyond what they at first appear. Aside from a few scenes, this storyline then goes into the background until the final part of the film that gives closure of a kind.
The second story is the most fantastical. In this one, Nina (Manon Maindivide) wakes up one day in her mansion to discover her parents have been murdered, something which she claims no responsibility for. Knowing it couldn't have been her younger sister Claire, suspicion falls on her older brother, Tony (Carl Laforet), a disfigured 'monster' who her parents had made live in the basement. Rather than be upset about the new change, Nina sees it as a chance to do exactly what she wants to do, and it becomes clear that she is not the most stable of people. Nina was an interesting character, and someone who is prone to some severely messed up things. It tallies up with the rest of the shorts in that horrific things happen to innocent people, with this ending on a note that is pretty shocking!
The final story is more down to earth, in this one a mother discovers her daughter Chloé (Sidwell Weber) has killed herself in the bathtub. Unable to process her grief, the mother tries to carry on as if her daughter is still alive, and eventually, when facing the truth she tries to do something about it. This was a mix of present day sections and flashback scenes. The real life horror here shows how Chloé was bullied at school, but that her work obsessed mother didn't really pay attention from what her daughter was trying to say.

Each of the shorts were directed by the same person and so there is no abrasive feeling. This also helps in linking the stories together, as it is Nathan who is encountering the dead bodies of the protagonists from the two other stories. There are some effective creature makeup effects here, particularly with Tony and a few demonic beings that Nathan encounters. The quality of the camera work and editing throughout remained solid, in terms of the stories being told, there are some dark moments here, and the film is a cruel place, with punishments on various characters who really didn't deserve them. Slightly balancing things out are the moments of humour, with all three of the stories featuring funny moments, such as when Daniel throws a screaming little girl through the gateway to Heaven, or Nina's twisted actions in general. None really have a perfect resolution however, with them often ending unsatisfactorily, or abruptly.

Pandemonium was a well made anthology horror that had a nice blend of different things going on. The English subtitles were perfect, and the actors, at least to me, seemed good in their roles. I didn't mind how dark some of this got, but I did think that none of the stories ended in the best ways, whether that was due to abruptness, or a lot of story trying to be told in a short timeframe. The Black Mirror of death rather than technology, there is plenty to take in here. Pandemonium had its US premiere at Screamfest on October 14th and leads the May line-up on ARROW, the streaming subscription service.

SCORE:

Blasphemous II (2023) - Horror Video Game Review (Nintendo Switch)

Blasphemous was a fantastic metroidvania that breathed new life into the crowded genre for me, styling itself as it did on religious horror. After recently playing through it again in order to see the newly added canonical ending as part of the final DLC (Wounds of Eventide) I moved onto its sequel, Blasphemous II. With early indications this was also a great game I was excited to get into it. Could it possibly live up to the excellence of that first game though? Spoilers for the canonical ending of Blasphemous to unavoidably follow.

As a quick recap, Blasphemous saw you as a resurrected penitent who was tasked with defeating a Pope like figure who was using the 'miracle' for his own perverted means. The miracle is an unexplained phenomenon that has the power to twist the wishes of the devout, often turning them into monsters based on the guilt they hold within their heart. After the penitent one defeated the mystical beings who were secretly controlling the miracle, that power left the land, and the penitent one fell down dead, due to the miracle's power no longer sustaining him.
A long time later (according to many people online it is about a thousand years later, though I don't recall anything in game stating it to be that long), the miracle returns to the land in the form of a gigantic beating heart containing an unborn gigantic mystical being floating in the sky above a giant city. The miracle's return brings the penitent one back to life, where he is tasked to make his way to this giant being and stop it from being born, as it has been judged to be a false God.

Initially I was very impressed with Blasphemous II, and don't take that to mean I didn't enjoy this, it was a great game, it just didn't live up the lofty heights of the first for several reasons. Upon starting the game you are given a choice of three different weapons. There is a giant metal ball on a chain, slow but powerful, and has the ability to ring bells that create floating platforms to appear. There are twin rapiers that are quick but weak, these also grant you the ability to teleport between mirrors dotted around the various rooms. Finally is a barbaric looking sword, this one has a powerful downward slash move that can be used to break through vines blocking doorways. My issue with these weapons is that the ball on a chain was by far the best weapon, it may be slow but it has a big reach and can often hit enemies multiple times as it swings by them. Outside of one boss fight designed for its use, I only used the rapiers for the teleport sections, and as for the sword, I never once used it in a combat situation. With the metal ball being so powerful it outclassed the other weapons far too much, making their inclusion feel a bit pointless. Each of these weapons has its own skill trees, granting various bonuses.

The item screen is better designed for the sequel, no longer do you have to switch in and out the special abilities you gain over the course of the twenty five hour or so game (roughly the same length as the first), but they aren't as interesting. You get four abilities that allow you to explore and open up more of the game world, but included among these are a very unoriginal double jump and air dash; useful, but not very exciting. There are no end of side quests to complete, with various grotesque friendless dotted around the map. Many of these are located in the central hub area, where there are a variety of shops. The fervour gained from killing enemies are now used solely for buying new items, with the upgrade trees dependent on a seperate currency earned or found around the levels. You have new wooden statues you can equip that give various buffs, and the rosary beads are back. As always, everything has lore attached to it, but where before you always seemed to get several paragraphs of lore, now, many objects give you just one or two sentences.
There are two endings, to get the good ending one of the steps is to collect the thirty three floating cherubs hidden around the game. On paper that didn't sound too bad, but I spent two or three hours right at the games end searching every inch of the maps for the remaining two, meaning that was one of the dullest parts of the game.

The design of the world isn't as memorable for the sequel. The first game had locations that seemed to naturally and logically lead off into each other, here the design felt more gamelike, with seemingly random locations all dumped on top of each other, making this feel much more like a video game than an authentic atmospheric world. Some areas do shine, I thought the wood area made for a decent change, a return to a key area from the first game now in ruins was neat, while there was a fantastic level set in an upside down cathedral covered in wax, that place really invigorated me late into the game due to its combination of fascinating design and fantastic music. In general the soundtrack is great, I wouldn't say it had as many memorable tunes as before, but there are still some great ones here.

Along with plenty of new enemies types, a large chunk of enemies return in the exact same form as before. The game also liked to reskin these a lot, so later game saw you battling different coloured and tougher versions of earlier enemies. My favourite of the new enemies was this weird combination between a bishop and a slug, and old crones who were eaten by crows upon dying. Sadly, many of the special kills that were unique to each enemy type have been devolved. Most special kills now all use the exact same animation. Bosses are also nowhere near as memorable. The first game had a heavy reliance of horrific screen filling monsters, the few human adversaries you faced made for a nice change. Here it is the complete opposite, nearly every boss encounter is against a human enemy, with only a couple of giant bosses. While the boss encounters were all a lot of fun, they really were nowhere near as memorable, I'm not sure why it was felt these needed to be changed.

Blasphemous II is a great video game, but it loses some of the cohesiveness of the first, with a world that felt far more artificial, and bosses that were a bit underwhelming in terms of design. There were some lovely changes made here (thank God spike pits no longer cause instant death!), some not so good changes (automatic markers on the map showing you where to go to next) and a smoother feel, but I wish it had made its world as hauntingly intimidating to explore. Where Blasphemous was a nine out of ten, very close to a ten, this one is a solid eight. Hopefully, like that one, there will be a lot of DLC added over time, which I will be sure to get,

SCORE:

Bunker 717 (2022) - Horror Film Review

Being off work for a week, I decided that every day I would watch a different horror film for review. Browsing Shudder, I came across the Grégory Beghin directed French horror film Bunker 717 (also known as Deep Fear), and with it having a picture of a Nazi zombie thought I would check it out. It turns out that title picture was a little misleading, as was the title as a whole (the Bunker 717 one). The titular place doesn't turn up until forty five minutes into this eighty minute movie, and I'm not entirely sure the zombie from the cover picture was actually a zombie. Thankfully, once I had gotten over my disappointment, I found this to be a great little horror.

This takes place in Paris in 1991, and Henry (Victor Meutelet) is due to report for mandatory military service. Wanting to give him a good send off, his best friends, Sonia (Sofia Lesaffre) and Max (Kassim Meesters) arrange with a shady friend of Sonia's, Ramy (Joseph Olivennes) to have a private and illegal tour of the catacombs below Paris, something to remember. After encountering rats, skinheads, and flooded corridors, the group get completely lost, and eventually end up inadvertently at a newly discovered entrance to a part of the underground that hasn't yet been explored by the collective of people Ramy lives with. Promising to lead the friends back to the surface after having a quick look at the new area, Ramy heads inside, which turns out to be the worst mistake in a long series of bad moves.

Underground horror films fit into a tidy little subgenre of their own, in terms of setting this must closely resembles both The Tunnel, After..., and As Above, So Below, the later being most in tune with this as they are both set in the exact same location, albeit different areas. Unlike that one, and despite one of the protagonists carrying a bulky handcam, this wasn't a found footage, outside of a couple of moments that are shown from a first person perspective. It also shares a wonderfully atmospheric location, with set design that never looked anything other than claustrophobic. The group squeeze through very narrow looking passages in a few scenes, never failing to look far far too narrow, with the cast often starting to panic at how tight it all is. I had expected lots of Nazi zombies, I blame the cover image used, as that was a bit misleading. It may well a spoiler me even mentioning that, but then there is the short prologue that takes place two years prior to the events of the main plot, in which someone is dragged screaming away off screen by an unseen antagonist, so something is certainly down there.

Much of the horror comes from the friends being trapped underground, they go through plenty of maze like sewers, caves, and stone quarries. I'm not particularly claustrophobic, but watching this I was again reminded of my pledge to never go the catacombs under Paris in real life! Adding in a gang of roving skinheads was a great idea, as this gave a very real danger to the group, that the gigantic, yet ultimately passive catacombs couldn't provide on their own. The protagonists were not the most exciting of characters, yet the actors were good in their roles, they felt like long time friends, and there were subtle hints of subplots that never actually got addressed. While this was in French, the English subtitles were always well written, so I didn't feel anything was lost in that respect. The special effects were sparse, but led to some fun looking moments for the hapless heroes. It did take a heck of a long time to get to that titular bunker though, and the last twenty minutes were perhaps the most exciting to be found, but almost felt like a different move entirely. It leads up to a wonderfully bleak finish, and the most darkly comedic moment of the film a few minutes before that.

I spent the majority of Bunker 717 waiting for the (alleged) zombie to appear, I wasn't impatient, but with the dwindling run time I was confused as to when this would all kick off. In hindsight, the journey was better than the eventual destination, as there was a lot that happens, even if the core plot was a bit light. The catacombs of Paris as depicted in the movie were full of atmosphere and horror, and it was a nice touch that the end credits play over a series of photos from the real world inspiration, for there is indeed a Nazi bunker under the streets of Paris. Bunker 717 can currently be streamed on Shudder.

SCORE:

Ravenous (2017) - Zombie Horror Film Review

Ravenous (original title Les affamés), is a Canadian, French language zombie horror film directed and written by Robin Aubert (Saint Martyrs of the Damned). In the past I had a girlfriend who insisted on having a film playing in the background when she slept at night, I came to recognise certain films that I was able to sleep to, due to how quiet they were, and this one would fit the bill, as throughout the characters are virtually silent. It makes for a slow burn horror, but one where there is actually a lot going on.

The movie takes place in rural Canada, where some weeks or months previously there had been a devastating viral outbreak. Those infected became violently deranged, with a thirst for non-infected human flesh. Bonin (Marc-André Grondlin) is one of the few survivors, and after meeting up with a woman, Tania (Monia Chokri) and a young girl, Zoé (Charlotte St-Martin), they eventually join with a few other survivors at a farmhouse. Knowing that a herd of infected are coming their way, they decide to head even deeper into the wooded countryside, with the intention of making it to an old bunker that is situated there.

With the whispered way the protagonists speak, this had a vibe of A Quiet Place to it, often the characters say more with looks and gestures, than by actual dialogue. I liked that these characters worked together well, and don't hesitate when hard decisions have to be made, though it did also mean a lot of them were blank slates. The world is a bleak and hopeless place, with death around every corner. The core cast lose a lot of their members over the one hour forty five minute run time, and there is a sense of resolute acceptance for their chances of survival. Grondlin was the highlight of the movie, and for a character who barely speaks he became someone I really came to be rooting for. I also loved that a character dubs him 'the cornball comic' due to his way of telling terrible jokes as a way to break tension, even if he only does this on a handful of occasions, while looking as miserable as sin while he does this. The body count among the small cast is quite deep, with not even the younger characters spared from gruesome zombie attack.

The characters felt believable, but there were a couple of moments that felt silly. One of these is the recurring figure of a 'village idiot' type man, someone who keeps popping up in the most random of locations, leaping out at the survivors and screaming in order to prank them, completely oblivious to the apocalypse that is going on in the area around him. That at least leads up to a fun payoff. I also thought a character who appears at the very end was slightly ridiculous, even if that does link up the short prologue (set at a pre-apocalypse racetrack) with the rest of the movie.

The zombies fall into the infected category, they run, and while headshots kill them straight away, they also respond to trauma on other areas of the body, rather than be undead creatures who don't feel pain. They are also very weird acting. For the most part Ravenous feels like it is set in the 28 Days Later universe, but the infected, when they are not pursuing non-infected get up to some strange things. Mainly they stand or lay around in The Girl with All the Gifts style, but they also build strange towers made out of chairs, children's toys, and any other junk they can get their hands on. Completely unexplained, but it makes for a surreal vibe which plays into some tense scenes. There are several thrilling sequences when the heroes find themselves pursued by the infected, including a great running battle through dense woodland, and a creepy part that takes place in a misty field. Was also cool that the infected seem to work together, their screams alerting others nearby to their location, and they even appear to set traps at point.

That the film (outside of the prologue) picks up quite a few weeks into the outbreak, with characters completely clued in to what is happening, makes for a mysterious film. With no explanation for how the event happened, and with bleak and depressed characters not really having any hope for their own survival, I found this morose and sad film engaging, especially when the somewhat stale notion of other survivors being the real enemy not factoring into the story. With some lovely special effects (a highlight being a shotgun blast to an infected man's head), and a great cast, Ravenous was a good entry in the crowded zombie genre, even if the overall plot left something to be desired. Ravenous can currently be found on Netflix.

SCORE:

That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes (2021) - Horror Film Review

That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes (also known as Tes Yeux Mourants) is a New York based French language somewhat experimental horror written and directed by Onur Tukel (Summer of Blood, The Pigs). The film has been at a number of festivals, winning over fifteen awards, including Best Film, Best Actor (Alan Ceppos, Max Casella and Franck Raharinosy), Best Editing, and Best Cinematography. It certainly has horror elements to it, though these don't really affect the more grounded, if bizarre drama playing out for the unfortunate protagonist.

The prologue introduces us to happy couple, Leonard (Raharinosy) and his girlfriend Marie (Nora Arnezeder) in their New York apartment in lighter times, literally, as this is one of the only parts of the movie to be in full colour. Fast forward to the present and things are a lot different. Due to infidelity on Leonard's part the couple have split up, though awkwardly, with Leonard not able to afford to move out, he remains in the flat, sleeping on the couch. Due to this self inflicted trauma in his life, Leonard's job as a chef has began to suffer. With Marie away on business in Europe, she tells her ex that her once renowned photographer father Dennis (Alan Ceppos) is coming to stay, and that Leonard has until she returns to find a new place to live. Leonard begins to experience strange hallucinations, seeing once normal people as zombie like creatures, though whether this is down to the stress of his situation, or due to 'theta waves' that a local conspiracy states is causing citywide psychological issues it is hard to say.

This is a hard film to review, and I'm sure I won't do it justice. Basically, the horror elements here are slight, and they don't really have much bearing on the course of the events of the film, but I still felt they were essential at displaying Leonard's state of mind. As to whether random characters are literally turning into zombies or not, I like how that is never really explained. On the surface it does seem it is all occurring in the flawed protagonists mind, especially when turned characters later show up as perfectly fine, but there are many purposeful insert shots to show that the wi-fi boosters said to cause these anomalies are in the areas where Leonard encounters odd moments. 

A lot of the vibe for this came to be what I termed grounded surrealism, which is also were the comedic elements come into the film. While not tagged as a comedy on IMDB, there are some amusing moments to be found throughout Leonard's series of humiliations that make up his journey. There is the part for instance where the man returns to his ex's apartment to find Dennis taking photos of a naked male model, to which Leonard immediately about turns and leaves. Later he again returns but this time the whole apartment is full of naked male models, with a priceless reaction from the flawed protagonist upon seeing this. Perhaps my favourite comedy moment was where he was speaking to a woman who had been attacked by her sister with a brick while they were building a house. Leonard questions whether they finished building to which she replies deadpan something along the lines of "no, we were a brick short". So silly, but also enjoyable.

With all the apparent zombified characters, fake realities in which Leonard finds himself back in colour experiencing what his life would have been if he hadn't cheated on Marie, characters he has met who inexplicably deny knowing him, and bizarre conversations (this is quite a dialogue heavy movie) it can occasionally be confusing what is real and what is not. By the end of the movie, outside of the fact that Leonard is somehow watching himself from an earlier scene in the movie on a TV, things seemed to have settled down into normality for him. There is no great character arc for the man, he ends the film just as self pitying and flawed as when he began, but at least appearing to be at the end of his surreal downfall. I did enjoy the double meaning of the title, both referring to the milky eyed look of the undead, Leonard's intense depression, and Marie's death of the love she once shared with the man.

I am sure there are lots of parts of this that I didn't understand, but I enjoyed my time with That Cold Dead Look in Your Eyes, weird but not too weird, and with some entertaining dialogue and some good performances, this was a lightly experimental movie that was a fun way to spend an hour and a half.

SCORE:

A Woman Kills (1968) - Horror Film Review

Jean-Denis Bonan's A Woman Kills (original title La femme bourreau) was a French crime thriller that spent forty five years in limbo. Originally created in May 1968, during a period of civil unrest, the film never saw a proper release due to controversy. Now, fifty five years later the black and white film is due to have a limited edition Blu-ray release in a brand new HD restoration. Very experimental in style, this was certainly a strange film, which thankfully benefitted by a pretty decent final act.

Set in Paris, this takes place soon after a woman, Héléne Picard, had been executed for a series of prostitute murders that had shocked the populace. It was hoped that would be the end to it, but the authorities are disturbed to discover that the crimes are still continuing despite them having been convinced of Picard's guilt. The executioner, Louis Guilbeau (Claude Merlin) begins a relationship with the investigating officer, Solange (Solange Pradel), who begins to suspect there is more to the man than there initially appeared to be.

Very experimental, very arthouse in style, something that can be picked up from the soundtrack alone, which is made up of lots of discordant jazz music. The film follows a bizarre format, with a stern and serious narrator (Bernard Letrou) talking over the events like it was a procedural crime documentary. Characters get introduced by him, giving lots of needless details such as birthplace and height, which creates a cold impassionate feel, This happens during the murder scenes, and even during the chase scenes, where the narrator instead begins to describe the internal thought processes of the characters.
The few natural feeling scenes occur mainly between Solange and the very creepy Louis, but even these feel like snapshots in time, such as multiple shots of Solange laying scantily dressed on a bed while smiling at someone off camera. Of course, being an experimental French film there is nudity, but tastefully done at the least.

Without going into spoilers too much, it was obvious where this was heading. That may well have been the point however as the twist occurs roughly halfway into the seventy minute movie and hardly came out of nowhere. This leads into a much more enjoyable second half, with Merlin getting some great scenes. The majority of the final act is one long chase sequence down squalid side alleys, and across crumbling rooftops, leading to a final showdown. There is a body count, but most of the kills are only partially shown, but this was effective enough. I will say I did find the first half very slow, and some of the music choices were dreadful. There are a series of songs sang throughout that just had the absolute worst lyrics. Maybe they just didn't translate well, but they ruined all the scenes they popped up in, one example had some guy singing about how large people are unable to row in small boats due to them sinking them, so weird in a bad way.

A Woman Kills was a curio from the past that did have some interesting moments, especially the second half where thankfully things began to get more exciting. I did struggle a bit with the first half, the experimental nature of how this was paced not making for the most exciting of times. Still, it's good this lost French thriller has finally been able to get seen by those who would want to see it, and with the Blu-ray release on February 7th thanks to Radiance Films, it is the best way to see it.

SCORE:

Brain Freeze (2021) - Comedy Zombie Horror Film Review

Seeing there was a new zombie film up on Shudder I had to check it out. Brain Freeze is a French language Canadian comedy horror that was directed by Julien Knafo, who also wrote the story and composed the music. Unfortunately, this never seemed to find its groove and spent its run time idling about without really doing anything that exciting. 

An experimental fertilizer is used on the golf course of a rich gated community on Peacock Island in French-Canada, with the aim of keeping the grass rich and vibrant even throughout winter. The fertilizer has a bad side effect however, namely that anyone who ingests the liquid becomes a green blooded zombie/plant hybrid. With the stuff getting into the islands water supply, it isn't long before nearly everyone on the island is infected. Seemingly the only survivors are teenage André (Iani Bédard), his baby sister, and security guard Dan (Roy Dupuis). With access off the island prohibited by a nervous government, they decide that it is down to them to try and find the cause of the outbreak and find a way to stop it.

I spent most my time with Brain Freeze waiting for it to reach its potential. Instead it is near enough ninety minutes of not much at all occurring. This is billed as a comedy horror but the comedy is only very slight, there were a few amusing gags, but just a few. It felt like the comedy was more about how the characters react to their situation, or how they don't act. Early on for instance, André's mother ends up being killed while chasing him, to which the boy shows zero sadness about. Dan on the other hand appeared to be on a quest to reach his daughter, who is shown in hiding at the golf course where she worked. I figured she would become one of the protagonists, yet the bizarre decision was made to not only have her get infected and turn in a scene that doesn't appear on screen, but Dan also rescued her and subdued her also off screen. It then turns into a meandering journey for the three survivors as they go to random locations in search of the cause, with the baby inevitably wandering off to get into trouble every other scene. With a late dip into The Crazies territory things do get slightly dark, but it made me wish that either they had committed to this being more funny than this was, or making this into more of a horror than it was.

At least the look of the zombies is kind of original. These are of the running variety, but are different in that their blood is green, and the more advanced ones are sprouting growths of grass on their bodies. They are also attracted to both water and sunlight, both of which has a calming effect on them, that had them only moving around when bothered, reminding me of the zombies from The Girl With All the Gifts. It was cool to see animals were also infected, one of the few comedic elements that worked was this small yappy zombie dog that got booted across a room in one amusing scene. There were plenty of scenes where characters were running from the zombies, but not really any where they were battling them. Probably a good thing as the limbs were very brittle, breaking off the ghouls with minimal effort. Zombie makeup was fine, green eyes, and green spittle, but nothing too memorable. Sometimes some dodgy looking CG effects were used, a bad looking explosion early on, a few helicopters and a rough looking CG zombified fish.

Brain Freeze always felt it was about to get good, but it never did. With a random group of characters who did little to shine and seemed aimless, and with comedy that was only ever slight, I was mostly bored with what I was seeing. Brain Freeze is currently streaming on Shudder.

SCORE:

Prey (2022) - Horror Film Review

I had heard a lot of good buzz around Prey; the latest film in the Predator series of sci-fi/horror films. I can't say I really paid it too much attention, I assumed this was coming out at the cinema, a place I don't really visit anymore. It was a nice surprise then to see this was streaming on Disney+, seeing it there I just knew I had to check it out.

Prey takes place in 1719 and follows Naru (Amber Midthunder - Legion TV series), a member of the Comanche tribe. She yearns to be a hunter like her older brother, Taabe (Dakota Beavers) and the other men, yet she is expected to do the same jobs the females of the tribe are expected to do. Because of this, Naru is always out in the wilds practising, and it is while she is away that she witnesses a strange sight which she equates to a mythical creature called a thunderbird. In actuality it is a predator arriving in its spaceship (Dane DiLiegro - American Horror Stories TV series), an alien whose species exist only to hunt, and pride themselves on this fact. With the hunters of her tribe not believing her about this new deadly foe, Naru sets out alone to hunt down and destroy this threat to her people.

There have been so many bad entries in the Predator series that it isn't hard to argue that there had never been a decent film after 1987's Predator (entries such as Predators and The Predator were both shadows compared to the original). Prey finally breaks that trend thankfully and does so in a simple way, by stripping things back to basics. Maybe more so, the original had a squad of heavily armed soldiers out in a jungle, eventually coming down to a battle between Arnold Swarchenegger's character and the alien. Here you instead have an otherwise unremarkable young woman battling it out, instead of guns the character is armed with a flint axe and bow and arrows. This film not only goes against the increasingly outdated views of women as weak, but also tells an entertaining 'David vs Goliath' story. Of course, that also means the story is fairly bog standard, there isn't anywhere this goes that really surprised me, even if it did elicit some emotion out of me.