There's Something in the Bag (2026) - Short Horror Film Review

There's Something in the Bag is an atmospheric short film written and directed by Dylan Volker (The Bad Taste Better), that smoothly blends the crime genre with the supernatural. Due to a complete lack of dialogue, this is literally a film anyone in the world could watch and appreciate.

It is 1971 and two blood stained men (Owen Adams and Hrithik Krishnakumar) arrive in an open-toped Cadillac to the middle of an American desert road. Silently, they pull out what appears to be a body bag and together they carry it off into the desert where someone quite unusual (Tyler Dudley) awaits them.

Eight minutes long, I have to say I do appreciate a quiet movie. There might be no dialogue, but there is plenty of ambient noise of the desert, and noise of the men carrying out their dark task. Not much really happens throughout the short, but there is a good atmosphere, and the simple story goes along fluidly. This looked like an authentic crime drama, the setting and the characters bringing to my mind Breaking Bad, albeit in the 1970s setting. The intersecting with pure horror was unexpected and mostly worked well. 
Despite no dialogue, the two protagonists put a lot into their roles, purely from body language and the glances they give each other throughout.

Not much may have happened in There's Something in the Bag, but I liked the story. It was told with some great directing, and a spot-on pacing that meant not a second of this short was wasted. There's Something in the Bag is available to watch on YouTube.

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Chronicle of a Serial Killer (2020) - Thriller Film Review

Chronicle of a Serial Killer is a crime thriller directed by Steve Stanulis (Clinton Road), who also co-stars, and with a story written by John Bianco. The dialogue is so cliché and predictable that there were parts of this where I began to suspect it was actually meant to be taken as a comedy, but I don't think that was the intention. At least the make-up effects were quite fantastic.

Det. John Bosley (Stanulis) and his partner Det. Kelly Smith (Dominique Swain - Rottentail, Face/Off) are doing their best to try and stop a serial killer who is operating in their city. This killer (Brendan Sexton III - El Camino, Dark) has serious mother issues, and his modus operandi is to kidnap, torture, rape and kill women who look similar to his memories of her. An increasing body count causes growing anger for Bosley, who becomes more and more determined to catch the killer.

From the title, I initially expected the film to follow the killer himself, and to begin with it did seem this would be the case. While the antagonist is of course an essential character, it is far more the procedural investigation of Bosley and Smith that takes up much of the one hour forty minute runtime. In total, I would say around three quarters of the movie follow the duel protagonists around, with the other quarter dedicated to the twisted serial killer. Dubious mention has to go to the tired and unoriginal script. All characters here, especially the police, act like they are in the most generic 'made for TV' film of all time. They spout out tried and tested lines with nothing original or memorable being said. The police side of things has a smaller character count than you might expect, with the same few characters constantly turning up at different crime scenes. One of the police force actors is former rapper DMX, with this apparently being his final film role before his death.

The killer was easy to hate, and he is shown to be quite crazy. Flashback sequences of him being abused by his father as a child try to point to how he came to be so messed up. We only really see him during his crime phases, and being so unbalanced it seemed unlikely to me he would have been able to pass himself off as just a normal person outside of his crimes.
Chronicle of a Serial Killer may have been a tired and idea-less thriller but one thing it does get right is the fantastic make-up effects for the victims of the killer. One early scene in which a woman has her teeth bashed in with a hammer looked pretty gnarly, the blood effects, and injury effects always looked really strong, and were a highlight of what could often be a mean-spirited movie, where things don't always play out as you might expect.

As good as the make-up effects were, it couldn't prevent Chronicle of a Serial Killer feeling like a bit of a pointless movie. I didn't much care for any of the characters, made even harder for them to resonate by their clumsy and bland dialogue. The killer wasn't the worst here, but there wasn't much satisfaction with that side of things either. Not the worst, but definitely plenty forgettable.

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Death B*tch (2024) - Thriller Film Review

Death B*tch (my asterisk of course) is a grindhouse exploitation style crime movie directed and co-written by Ken Brewer (Zombie Rage), who also had a hand in many other aspects of the movie, from editing to the cinematography and even had a starring role as the main antagonist character. From the trailer it seemed to have some good scenes, but also a lot of suspect acting. Having now seen the whole thing I have to say it was enjoyable, if perhaps slightly too long.

In a crime ridden American city the police are not only having to deal with a serial killer operating in the area, dubbed 'the Southside Slasher' (or something like that), but they also have a criminal killing vigilante on the loose, who the press have simply dubbed 'The Vigilante'. It becomes clear to the two detectives investigating the vigilante - Detective Maddie (Traci Burr - Zombie Rage) and her partner, that the person is targeting in particular members of a gang who work for a local crime lord named Dante (Brewer). That person is Alexia Walker (Linnea Swanson - Zombie Rage), mild mannered dog groomer by day, cold blooded agent of justice by night, someone with nothing to lose after the gang murdered her family. Can she finish her goal of cleaning up the streets before the detectives discover her identity though?

The focus in the movie is far more on the detectives investigating the breakout of street slayings than on Alexia herself. This gave things more of a crime movie feel than a more grindhouse style one. I liked the rapport with the detectives, and I enjoyed following them around. These moments are interspersed in multiple ways. You have the slasher, relegated to a sub plot off doing his thing, you have Alexis heading out at night looking for criminals to shoot dead with her trusty pistol, and you have Dante's gang, a group of men and woman who don't value life in the slightest, heading out for random carnage. These gang members were best summed up with Stella Smith (Bridget Powers), a psychotic little person whose wild anger outsizes her short stature, making for a fun bad guy

There were many criminals here which led up to a lengthy third act that was a series of gun fights taking place around the one area which all the central characters had congregated at. For an idea of how action packed this was, the IMDB page states that in the final ten minutes alone there were over a hundred and sixty six gun shots fired! Admittedly in execution this leads to plenty of scenes of people standing facing each other and repeatedly firing their guns until the loser falls down. I especially liked the head shots that had the victim always seeming to look up at their forehead confused before falling down dead.

For a film with inspirations from grindhouse and exploitation movies, there wasn't that much blood, used more functionally than anything else. This also never tried to seem like a film from decades back, instead content to have that style of film using modern filmmaking techniques, and a few drone shot moments. With a large cast there were going to be some actors who were better than others, this means there are more than a few actors who either sounded like they were adlibbing or delivering their lines in a bit of a wooden way. To be honest, either that was on purpose, or it was a happy accident as the sometimes stiff delivery fed into the exploitation style vibe of the film. My only real complaint was that Death B*tch did start to feel a little samey due to multiple scenes of the same thing happening over and over again just with different characters. At around ninety minutes it wasn't excessively long, but could have maybe been tightened up slightly.

Death B*tch had plenty of action, a bunch of fun characters and a good pacing, the indie film having a healthy dose of necessary cheese. I enjoyed this more than the trailer made me think I would, and even if it did slightly stretch out the run time, this a decent bit of escapism from the misery of the real world. Death B*tch is having its American premiere on Thursday August 29th at the Starlight Terrace Theatre in California, with its Canadian premiere at the Evans Theatre in Brandon Manitoba in September. The DVD and Blu-ray are available for pre-order now on the Livid Media website and will be shipping September 2nd. 

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Greed & Gore (2023) - Short Horror Film Review

Greed & Gore is a short fourteen minute horror film that was directed and co-written by Adam Kirkey. It lives up to its title with a story that is a cross between Reservoir Dogs and The Strangers, featuring plenty of greed, and indeed, plenty of gore.

After robbing a bank and taking a hostage, a group of criminals are out in rural Canada on the way to a safehouse that their driver has chosen. When arriving, despite the poor condition of the property, they decide to hunker down for the night, celebrating their heist with alcohol and partying. After the lights suddenly go out one of them heads into the basement to check the generator, unaware that there is an intruder in the house who is none too happy to see them there.

I love short films that feel like they are much longer than they actually are. With Greed & Gore you have a feature length story crammed into a short, but without feeling like it is really missing too much. From the initial car journey, to the partying montage scene, up to the first kill, events move along swiftly but without seeming rushed. The anti-heroes are a slightly generic bunch, you have strong silent Whiskey (Nick DeWolfe), comedic joker Tango (Matthew Bell), perpetually angry Romeo (Krishan Dutt - The Boys TV show) cold Sierra (Monica Zelak), with calm and collected Delta (Curtis Desrosiers) rounding out the crew. I did enjoy the montage scene of Tango throwing notes around everywhere, was a fun little sequence.

From the moment of the first kill events ramp up. The gore part of the title fits well as there are some really fun looking moments of violence. From a severed hand, to a head split in half horizontally, and numerous axe blows, this all looked great, if a little clean. While there is a reliance on practical effects, some of the stuff around the edges seemed like it had some CG assistance, such as the frequent cutaways to show the house in the howling wind and rain. The killer was a typical masked maniac, but I liked his look, the mask that looked like a zombie clown was pretty neat. In terms of the story, I liked the hostage angle, it is never made clear if the killer is purposely leaving her, or if they have just seen her as a non-threat. The first kill that takes place in the basement around the blindfolded victim (Julie Mainville - Confessions of a Haunting..., We Are the Missing) was a highlight, loving the way the blood from the kill splashes over her.
There was variety with the filmmaking throughout, from drone shots, to shots that appear to have been done from chest mounted cameras on the actors, and insert shots, it was varied but never felt too much.

The award-winning Greed & Gore is available to stream now from Slinger Pictures, with the filmmakers hoping to start production on a feature version of this idea this Autumn. This short doesn't outstay its welcome, is full of violence, and looks fantastic. Maybe some of the kill effects looked a little too crisp and clear, but overall I was impressed with how this was made, exceeding my expectations.

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The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for June 2023

This month felt like it really zoomed by, with the arrival of summer almost taking me by surprise. I have been neglecting my new PSVR2 unit, I need to get back into doing that as there are plenty of horror video games that are on there waiting to be tried out. Especially considering I have yet to play a scary game on the system. Blame goes to The Elder Scrolls Online that I continue to be addicted to.

A new teaser trailer has been released by MegaCity Media for sci-fi action adventure movie Space Goblins. Directed by Ams Overton, and starring Bill Hutchens (Curse of the Blind Dead), and Richard Blenkiron (Guardians of the Galaxy), this tells the tale of two brothers who find themselves pitted against hordes of terrorists and criminals that are attempting to overrun the universe.

The Only Ones is an upcoming indie comedy horror film, and an official teaser trailer and new poster art has been released. Directed by Jordan Miller (the award winning short film Three), this stars Nya Ford, Paul Cottman (Three), Emily Classen (The Forgiving), Zach Ruchkin (We Own This City), Nancy Anne Ridder (Scream), Christopher Inlow (Deer Crossing), Kim Krut (Dawn of the Dead), with voice over work by Brett Wagner (The Crazies). The press release doesn't reveal much, other than to say '...an exciting and original indie movie about distrust, isolation and what happens when situations spiral out of our control'.

Horror film Beneath Us All has been given an official release date of September 19th 2023, where it will be released on VOD and physical media from Painted Creek Productions and Deskpop Entertainment. This won Best Horror Fantasy Film at The International Horror Hotel, where director Harley Wallen was also nominated for Best Director, and Kaiti Wallen for Best Lead Actress in a Feature Film. Described as a 'retro fresh look at Vampires', this sounds like some hapless people will find themselves up against Viking vampires. The cast includes Sean Whalen (The People Under the Stairs), Maria Olsen (I Spit on Your Grave), Yan Birch (The People Under the Stairs) among others.

Dracula in the Hood is a new vampire film, directed by Will Collazo (Night of the Zomghouls). Telling a typical story, this has two best friends (David Perry and Collazo) forced to call on the skills of vampire hunter Van Helsing (Tim Hatch) after encountering Dracula. Filming is to begin this summer.

Author Shaun Hutson's novel Deadhead is now available in paperback and eBook formats. In this one, Nick Ryan, a troubled detective, finds his daughter kidnapped by a gang behind a series of disturbing murders. Nick begins a race against time to hunt down the people responsible and rescue his daughter. The press releases states '...is a haunting exploration of the depths of human depravity and the indomitable spirit of a father. With its relentless pacing and shocking twists, this novel is set to leave readers breathless and craving for more'.

'Haunting' is the new single from German synthpop project Meersein. The track is about memories of a love that is impossible to forget. The song is available on most digital platforms, including Apple Music.

Beach Day is an experimental fourteen minute long short horror film from Robin Johnson in their directorial debut. This stars Carly Jordan, Adam Grodman and Hannah Marie Fonder, and follows a young woman whose day of 'self care' at the beach goes to some strange places. The film completed post-production in February and has won awards at the Astoria Film Festival, Cooper Awards, and WRPN Women's International Film Festival among others.

Maid Droid is coming this summer from Cinema Epoch Classics. The synopsis has a man recovering from a break-up who decides to hire an android from the 'Maid Droid' agency. The creation is designed to serve the man's every wish, but soon it begins to learn human emotions, as well as recall memories from its past.

Finally for this month's round-up. Los Angeles based The God Bombs have released their latest single and video, 'Bleed', with the video described as a horror film about mental illness. Check out the gothic industrial track below. To me it sounds a little like Korn crossed with Placebo.

My Cherry Pie (2021) - Horror Film Review

My Cherry Pie is an Australian horror film that was written by Addison Heath (Vampires Prefer Black), and co-directed by them and Jasmine Jakupi. It's off kilter feel brought to mind early Peter Jackson movies like Bad Taste, while its plot felt like an indie version of House of 1000 Corpses.

Freddy (Sotiris Tzelios), Green (Tim Jason Wicks), and Jack (Dylan Heath) are three low level criminals who are on the run after Freddy stabbed some people to death shortly after being released from prison. Out in the country, Jack's car breaks down, but they are soon spotted by local man Edwin (Glenn Maynard), he offers the trio a place to spend the night at his property, with the promise that come morning he will tow their car to a mechanic. He leads them to his home, a former hospital, now converted into a place where him and his niece, the titular Cherry (Trudi Ranik), lives. With it at first seeming that the criminals might decide to get up to no good, it soon becomes clear that maybe Edwin and Cherry are the more dangerous of the two groups, and that they might have something to do with a notorious serial killer operating in the area.

This had a relatively small cast in terms of characters that get decent screen time, but it featured more than one stand-out actor. The characters here are larger than life, with a feeling of comedy to the exaggerated reactions and behaviour of the group. An early highlight were the three criminals and their behaviour with each other. Suit wearing Jack was constantly stressed and complaining from his very first appearance, Green was forever more chilled out, giving the two a humorous odd-couple feel. From the moment Tzelios' character had a shave he was another character who shined with his reckless feel that felt like he could erupt into violence at any moment, though he seldom did. Later it was Maynard's Edwin who began to shine, especially with one scene in which he retells a story about his family's tragic past. Due to the protagonists being bad people, when the horror starts it felt less serious than it could have, while not evil people, they were chaotic idiots, and what happens was darkly amusing at times.

There was quite a bit of blood throughout My Cherry Pie, with even the less stabby kills leading to lots of the red stuff. A hand is severed, heads are cut off, and axes are stuck blade deep into characters heads, all practical effects, and all looking deliciously wonderful.
The plot itself was quite simple, and it doesn't really try and do any deep twists. When I saw the serial killer in the prologue, I already had a good idea of who would be under the plague doctor outfit, I was right, but this reveal happens not long into the second act, and so I don't believe it was ever meant to be some big secret. I liked how this initially felt like two different films, comedic crime thriller, and crazed slasher flick, the two merge together in a way that really worked at merging the two worlds together, with a key dinner scene being when it really felt like the film was coming together in a satisfying way.

My Cherry Pie was an entertaining horror that had a great mix of eclectic characters, while not skimping on blood and guts. Some elements didn't work quite so well (such as the two twins), but having likeable, yet also deserving victims with their larger than life personas made much of the movie fun to experience. My Cherry Pie came to region free Blu-ray on 30th May from VIPCO & BayView Entertainment.

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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.

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Ash & Dust (2022) - Thriller Film Review

I wasn't entirely sure that Ash & Dust was a horror or not. The synopsis sounded like this was a crime thriller, but the trailer brought horror vibes to me. Well, it turns out the Adrian Langley (Slasher Film) written and directed movie is the former of the two. While the snowy setting reminded me of Fargo, the near complete lack of dialogue turned this into something of an experiment. The synopsis is my interpretation of the events, the lack of talking means I wasn't able to completely fathom the actual plot.

A precious box has been stolen from a local crime boss in a remote Canadian town, and his enforcers, led by Zach (possibly Simon Phillips - The Nights Before Christmas) have set out to locate this McGuffin. Being violent criminals they do this the only way they know how, by torturing potential suspects in the hope they will reveal where it is. One such man they capture, Wade (Michael Swatton - Age of the Living Dead TV series) is taken out to the woods and shot, but unknown to his assailants he manages to survive. Returning home to find his wife dead, Wade sets out with bloody vengeance on his mind.

This is an incredibly slow film to watch, with scenes far more interested in slow pans and long shots than with any kind of dialogue. That the film somehow manages to tell a story despite there being barely any dialogue at all was impressive, but I wish there had been more dialogue than what was given. Time doesn't seem to flow normally during Ash & Dust, while a lot of it is in a logical order, there are elements that felt like they were either from the past or the future occuring. There also wasn't really a protagonist to be found here, there are several characters put forward but none really felt like they were the lead. Of course, there is Wade, yet his journey doesn't really begin until the second act. Then there is Joel (Blake Canning - Butchers), a low level criminal who is integral to the story and seems like he may get a redemptive arc. The most noble of the characters is Detective Bronwyn (Kayla Meyer), she appears in many scenes investigating the various murders after they have taken place, to my knowledge this character doesn't actually have a single line of dialogue. Her only piece of backstory is provided by a note she picks up when in her car.

The Rotting Zombie's Round-up of Horror News for May 2022

It has been another month and I am back with another news round-up. My blog has been more quiet on the film front lately, that is a lot down to me getting through various books and videogames that have eaten up slots in my five posts a week schedule.

Now, Shadows isn't really a film I would typically cover here as it is a crime drama rather than horror. Distributed by Midnight Releasing, Shadows is an indie film coming from Michael Matteo Rossi. This stars Rahart Adams, Krista Allen, Vernon Wells, David Labrava and Eric Etebari and is about a young man, Cody (Adams) who has to resort to low-level crime in order to survive. This eventually leads to him inevitably getting in over his head. This has won several awards, including Best Feature at the Santa Monica Film Festival and Best Score at the Silicon Beach Film Festival, and can be seen on a variety of streaming platforms including VUDU, iTunes, YouTube, GooglePlay, Microsoft and Verizon Fios.

Realm of Divinos is a 3D adventure game with visual novel elements that is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds. It has currently raised £4,079 of its £17,422 goal with fourteen days to go. This is a single player game that takes place in a war torn fantasy world. Able to customise your character, you are also able to aid either the heroes or villains. If funded, this will be released initially on Windows in October 2024. Check out the Kickstarter page here, and a payable demo can be found on Steam, here.

Kill Shelter (UK based alternative artist and producer Pete Burns) has announced a new single with Agent Side Grinder, The Necklace. This is taken from their sophomore album Asylum and is about 'a darkly energetic exploration of the quest for personal sanctuary in the face of constant physical and mental abuse'. This is said to be reflective of the upcoming album that looks into themes such as human trafficking, domestic abuse and disillusionment.
Following on from debut album, Damage, Asylum is the second in a series of collaboration albums featuring artists from around the world. Interestingly, the album is going to be available in two versions, with a different track listing in each territory. Metropolis Records in North and South America, and Manic Depression Records in Europe and the rest of the world.

Let's have a look at the notable releases heading to the Arrow streaming service for June. There are two films from Gaspar Noé, apparently the 'the arch provocateur of New French Extremity' whatever that means. Those two films are Lux AEterna and Enter The Void. June 10th sees the release of the excellent black and white thriller The Righteous, while the first of the month sees the release of all six Trancers films, I've never heard of them but apparently they are cyberpunk, a great genre. The bloody fun Intruder 1989 cult classic drops on June 13th while June 17th has the arrival of Maniac Cop 2 (US/CA) and Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (US/CA).

The sharktastic thriller Shark Bait is released on DVD, on altitude.film and other platforms from 6th June in the UK. This sees a group of friends being terrorised by the creature off the coast of Mexico. It includes among its cast Holly Earl (Humans TV show), Catherine Hannay (Doctors) and Malachi Pullar-Latchman (The Three Musketeers).

Coming from Synapse Films on June 7th is the Blu-ray release of the classic UK zombie film The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue. In this one, two travellers arrive in a small town where an experimental agricultural machine has had the unintended effect of bringing the dead back to life, meanwhile a detective thinks the travellers are Satanists who are the ones responsible for the dead's path of destruction! This comes from Spanish director Jorge Grau and is restored in 4K from the original camera negative. The Blu-ray of course includes a whole host of extras including two commentaries and a full length documentary.

This Game's Called Murder (2021) - Comedy Crime Film Review

I was in two minds whether to watch the Adam Sherman (Dead Doll) written and directed comedy crime film This Game's Called Murder. I decided to in the end as it featured some notable names, plus I liked the psychedelic colours of the poster. Often I find myself on the side of style over substance, but not so much here, thanks mainly to the cast of very unlikeable characters that made it hard for me to care about any of them.

Jennifer (Vanessa Marano - Dexter TV series) is the privileged daughter of a world famous shoe designer, Mr. Wallendorf (Ron Perlman - Hellboy) and his wife (Natasha Henstridge - The Unhealer, Species). In a rebellious phase she has started dating bad boy Cane (James Lastovic) who lives in an underground commune of criminals. Her family are murderous and evil, while her new found friends are also just as murderous. Not really fitting in either place, revelations make her start to look for a way out.

If either of the two sides in the film had been vaguely likeable then I would have enjoyed this more. Instead, protagonist included there isn't a single character in the whole hundred and five minute movie who I could stand, except maybe Jennifer's silent and masked chauffeur. There is a Tim Burton-esque vibe the film tries to build up, and it does this by throwing scenes of craziness at the viewer and hoping it will delight. Instead there seemed to be no soul to the film, I didn't understand character's motivations or reactions to events and I was left looking at what were certainly attractively shot scenes but ones lacking enough substance for me. The prologue is a case in point, a male model wearing high heeled shoes is murdered by Mr. Wallendorf as part of an elaborate photo shoot involving shoe firing cannons. It all looks good and sets up the notion that Wallendorf is cold blooded but it didn't really add anything. I guess Mrs. Wallendorf is handled better visually, a crazy woman whose mirror reflection talks to her while bathed in different coloured lights. As to Jennifer, she felt to me like Lydia from Beetlejuice, the character trying her best to be painfully kooky and different but who had motivations that were a bit stupid.

The Wrong Sarah (2021) - Thriller Film Review

The Wrong Sarah is a crime thriller that follows an F.B.I agent's hunt for a serial killer. Written and directed by Jason Toler (who also stars in this), this somehow retained a chilled vibe despite the subject matter, while the relatively short length (at just over an hour) made this easy to get through.

F.B.I agent Jack (Toler) is in charge of the investigation into the 'black rose' serial killer, so called for leaving a black rose at the scene of his crimes. The man targets young females named Sarah, apparently seeking out one in particular due to his habit of writing 'wrong Sarah' near every victim's corpse. After Jack gets a clue as to the identity of the killer's next potential victim, he races to L.A in order to protect a young woman named Sarah Thomas (Elliott Woods - Amityville Cop).

There were a bunch of familiar faces in The Wrong Sarah, so it was fun spotting all the actors I recognised from previous films they have worked on. Sarah's mum is played by Lisa London, a fellow agent of Jacks is played by Chris Spinelli, Sarah Brine makes an appearance as an earlier victim of the killer, while Shane Ryan-Reid also features, these I have all seen previously in Heartbeat and Choke among various other films. Elsewhere some of the casting choices seemed slightly odd, especially during the first F.B.I scene in which one of the team members looked to be about fifteen years of age, so was a bit distracting.

Sheep Without A Shepherd - Crime Thriller News

2019 crime thriller Sheep Without A Shepherd grossed over $192,000,000 in its theatrical China release. This is from Malaysian director Sam Quah and is his debut film. A big budget thriller that is a remake of the 2013 Indian film Drishyam.
In the film a family man falls into conflict with the law after his daughter accidentally kills someone who was blackmailing her. The blackmailer's mother turns out to be the police chief and she is determined to bend the rules to bring her son's killer to justice.
This comes to DVD and streaming services on 23rd March thanks to Artsploitation Films.

Turnabout (2016) - Thriller Film Review

These are weird times we are living in. Turnabout isn't really a horror film in the traditional sense, and it wasn't even one I was obliged to review, as it was sent my way along with a bunch of other films that I could pick and choose from. Traditional horror films rarely scare me anymore, and when they do I can see the ropes and pulleys that are creating the illusion of horror. I am quite an empathetic person, able to read the emotional state of people around me and subconsciously change my own state to match, an annoying habit. So with this crime drama I felt I was a third passenger on the night of madness that unfolds, and I found myself with heart in mouth fearful for all the repercussions this night brought with it.

After a failed suicide attempt in which waster Billy Cain (George Katt) was saved from drowning himself in the river one dark night, he decides to call his old best friend to ask for help. Perry (Waylon Payne - Walk the Line) hasn't seen Billy for over fifteen years, but as he tells his wife, it is his duty to help out his old friend, and so he leaves the comfort and safety of his bed to travel out to help. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and over one long night of deviancy Billy is indeed saved, but with a high cost to Perry...

I really enjoy the types of film whose story takes place over one single span of time, and with Turnabout nearly the entire film takes place from around midnight to half six in the morning. Both Katt and Waylon were expertly cast and fitted their roles perfectly. Katt plays the waster rascal, a seemingly loveable rogue who frequents the dives of the town they both live in. Waylon on the other hand has grown to be a respected member of the community, the owner of a small opticians, and with a wife and child. A lot of the format of the movie has Billy taking Waylon to places he would never normally frequent, and do a lot of things that is totally out of character for him. I empathised with his plight, as he keeps saying, he has work in the morning, so the last thing he wants is a wild night. In real life, when pubs were still a thing, I have been in situations where I really wanted to get home to get some decent sleep for work, but have been convinced against my better judgement to keep on having 'just one more drink'. Throughout the movie I kept projecting myself onto Perry, and so was keenly feeling his anxiety.

She's Just a Shadow (2019) - Thriller Film Review

She's Just a Shadow is a Tokyo based crime thriller from director Adam Sherman. It really isn't horror based, but there were enough interesting elements here that I wanted to check it out. From blood drenched scenes to a sick serial killer, and almost art house style montages this sounded like something a little bit out there. But would it be too much style over substance (abuse)?

There are several storylines all revolving around a Tokyo gangster, Red Hot (Kentez Asaka), his partner Gaven (Kihiro), and his girlfriend Irene (Tao Okamoto) who is the head of a ring of prostitutes. As they struggle to defend their turf from a rival gang led by a man named Blue Sky, Gaven torn between two lovers fantasises about escaping from his life of crime, while Irene in a loveless relationship dreams of controlling the city. Meanwhile in the background a perverted serial killer sets his sights on Irene as his next victim.

There really wasn't much plot here despite how many different plates are spinning. The majority of the characters spend most the film snorting copious amounts of cocaine and drinking heavily. This decadent lifestyle was draining to watch, with no end of montages of naked females doing crazed coke binges. In fact, with the exception of Irene nearly every female character here spends most of their time completely naked. It makes sense in that they are prostitutes, but on the flip side, outside of some stylish scenes there isn't too much going on. The heavy and often serious dialogue would like you to believe this is deep, but the sometimes corny script turns the lines into a whole lot of nothing. As far as I could tell everyone was miserable due to the way they are living their lives, but no one is that concerned about really making an effort to change it.

Snowflake (2017) - Film Review

On the odd occasion a film comes along that just straight up blows me away, that is the case with the stunning German Adolfo J. Kolmerer and William James directed film Snowflake. Now to be truthful this isn't a horror, this has elements of comedy, action, crime, and even a little bit of a post apocalyptic feel, however I was fascinated about the idea of this and so just had to watch it.

Snowflake takes place in a Berlin of the not too distant future, due to complete societal and economic collapse the country has became a place of near total lawlessness with anarchy ruling the streets, due to very limited emergency services. Javid (Reza Brojerdi) and Tan (Erkan Acar) are two rogues on a life long mission to find the man responsible for the death of their families as children. They stumble across a haunting discovery when they find a script for a film that perfectly mirrors their actions in both the past, present and probable future, and so they set out to find the author of this prophetic writing. Meanwhile in a seemingly unrelated story Eliana (Xenia Assenza) seeking revenge for the murder of her parents teams up with her parents ex-bodyguard - Carson (David Masterson) to go on a mission to hire some hitmen to kill the two men responsible.

I feel whatever I write in this review just cannot do justice to the majesty of this amazing movie. This seems stuffed to the brim with symbolism to do with religion, fairy tales and other topics, whilst also given a commentary on society as well as inner peace. I feel I am not clever enough to really understand it all but it was fascinating to watch. This was also really meta in how it was constructed. The author of the film script titled Snowflake is a man called Arend (Alexander Schubert), the writer of Snowflake itself is Arend Remmers and so there were plenty of clever moments. For instance scenes are interrupted by Arend commentating on how cheesy they are, scenes play out in their entirety to then be revealed to just be characters having read ahead to see what was going on, and as characters play out their scenes occasionally text will appear on screen to mirror what is going on. It also plays with the audience by revealing the entire plot of the movie early on that provides an apparent clear path for the plot, but then puts hurdles in the way that change expectation, some of which are really quite funny ("Logic trap" being perhaps my favourite example of this).

The Depths (2017) - Thriller Film Review

Award winning crime drama The Depths isn't really the type of film I would normally review on this blog, that is my fault though for not really looking into what type of genre this was for before accepting. That isn't to take away from what a solid drama this was, I was certainly kept glued to the screen long after the realisation sunk in that there would be nothing really horror like about this. The story was almost Shakespearean in how it chronicled the disastrous fall out between two flawed friends, and how the descent into the darkest parts of the human soul can happen to anyone given the right push.

Ray (Michael Rispoli - Kick-Ass) and Mickey (Patch Darragh - The First Purge) are best friends who for the last two years have been writing a screenplay together with the dream of selling it in order make their riches. After this screenplay gets rejected the two fall out and soon Mickey finds himself out of a job and addicted to cocaine. Both decide to write a new screenplay independently of each other, though Mickey feels to really get to know the mind of a killer (which their story was about) he has to expose himself to the rawest parts of humanity.

Early on in The Depths the two friends pitch their idea to a businessman, it became obvious there and then that the story they were trying to sell would actually prophetically come to pass as the plot of the movie itself, so in that respect there were not too many surprises in the overall gist of the story. Neither of the two characters are that angelic to begin with, Mickey is lazy and unwilling to put in the work to improve his life, while Ray is shown to have quite a bad temper. The tipping point of their rejection leads to two very different paths travelled with Ray keeping at his job while working to better himself by researching at the local library. Mickey meanwhile loses his job, gets evicted from his apartment, and sees coke as the answer to his creativity. Wallowing in the lows of society is his solution, an early visit to a crime scene inspires him onto this path. Most of the movie focuses on Mickey with Ray relegated to a secondary role.