Silent Night, Deadly Night (2025) - Horror Film Review

I had heard there was a remake of cult classic eighties Christmas horror; Silent Night, Deadly Night, but I can't say I had been in any rush to check it out. I did enjoy the original, even if it was a bit of a strange movie, and the anti-hero protagonist was a bit of an oddball. It turns out that rather than a straight remake, this new Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn) directed and co-written version of Silent Night, Deadly Night is a reimagining. Would this be garbage, or is garbage day to be found elsewhere?

As a young child, Billy witnessed his parents be viciously murdered by a maniac wearing a Santa outfit (Mark Acheson - 1922), who ends up killed in the process. Now grown up, the young man (Rohan Campbell - Halloween Ends) has some troubling quirks. Whenever Billy wears a Santa outfit he gets an intense urge to kill, and he also has a voice in his head (also Acheson) that constantly tells him to punish bad people. This is no twisted trauma born of his experience as a child, instead it is something more supernatural. The voice is able to accurately identify evil people just by Billy looking at them. Each Christmas period, Billy is compelled to kill one person every day over advent, with the voice stating this will prevent innocents being killed in their place. Always on the move, Billy arrives in a new town where he gets a job at a toy store. It is here he falls for his colleague, and daughter of the store owner; Pamela (Ruby Modine - Happy Death Day 2U, Happy Death Day). His feelings for the girl have him pondering if maybe he could somehow give up his bloody life crusade, but may be powerless for that to happen.

I have to admit, even after hearing this reimagining was a pretty good horror I was still sceptical. The changes made here were really all for the better, at least at making the anti-hero protagonist less weird, and with motivations slightly more understandable. There was scope for the voice in Billy's head to be misleading the boy, tricking him into killing innocents, but time and time again that is shown not to be the case.  Delphine (Sharon Bajer - Orphan: First Kill) is a case in point. It seems she is just a typical 'Karen' rather than anything more sinister, then later revealed she is the cartoonishly evil leader of a group of Nazis! That part made for a fun mid-film massacre sequence that was over the top and deliriously entertaining. Some touches to the style of the movie channelled Quinten Tarantino, with title cards introducing each new target of Billy's, leading to a small montage of red tinted images of the villain in close up. I liked how relatively normal Billy was. I may have detested Halloween Ends, and the character Campbell played in it, but it wasn't his fault that film was so badly written, here, he fits an almost identical role much better. Modine was also great as Pamela, a character with a violent streak towards injustice that had her as almost a counterpart to Billy, she had a great scene at an ice rink.
By having the victims of Billy be genuinely bad people, and with the voice in his head so sincere and fatherly, he became an anti-hero I was rooting for. This diverges from the original, introducing a subplot about missing children that later becomes more important.

There are many many kills and all featured lovely looking practical effects. You get decapitations, severed limbs, axes embedded in heads, and even a disembowelment. Many of the iconic kills from the original are replicated here, albeit in different context, and mostly in the form of a montage sequence showing Billy's past kills. I did love the practical effects, even if occasionally the victim being attacked did have the look of a dummy to them.

I was very pleased with Silent Night, Deadly Night, and wasn't prepared for how much I was into this by the time the end credits roll. It isn't a film that takes itself too seriously, or abides by real life rules too much (how on Earth was Billy getting away with all these ill-prepared murders over the years without being caught?). Still, by the end, I was almost leaping off my chair in excitement at what was going on, even if it were hardly surprising. In this reimagining there is no younger brother, there is no mindless rampage, and the inclusion of the supernatural made this feel like a different film. Sure, you might need to switch your brain off somewhat, but this was a surprisingly entertaining Christmas slasher. Silent Night, Deadly Night is currently streaming on Netflix.

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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.

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Let the Right One In (2008) - Horror Film Review

I saw Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In a long time ago originally, likely very soon after it came out. It has been over a decade at least, so with the film coming to digital platforms in the UK and Ireland, I felt it was time to revisit the cult classic. Directed by Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this slow burn coming of age vampire movie was nominated for a BAFTA, and had seventy six wins and fifty eight nominations in total worldwide.

It takes place entirely in a small Swedish town in winter, most of the scenes taking place at night or in the evening. Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a twelve year old loner whose only attention at school is from the local bullies. One evening he meets a strange twelve year old girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson) who tells him that she recently moved into the next door apartment from his. With the hopes of finally having a friend, Oskar begins to spend more time with the girl despite her not really giving much information about who she is. Elsewhere, there is a series of murders in the small town, that unknown to Oskar is related to Eli. She is actually a vampire, with her ward getting too elderly to supply her with her regular blood supply (he being the one doing the killing), she has turned to Oskar, seeing something common with him due to both their social isolation, but not wanting him to share the same life long fate as her ward had.

This is nearly two hours in length but the time just flew by, despite me already remembering many of the story beats. I guess that shows how much the film had stuck in my mind, as I remembered key scenes from this, and even recalled how it ended, something I can't say I can do for many films. This is yet another example of a slow burn horror done right, and if you are after a peaceful film then this is a great example. There are screams every now and again, but for the most part this is a film that paces itself well, lots of scenes of not much noise, characters quietly speaking amongst themselves. The setting is perfect for the story being told, the snowy landscape adds a lot of atmosphere, and of course, red blood on white snow never fails to look good. Oskar was interesting as the bullied protagonist, having to put on the pretence of being happy while at home with his mother, keeping his unhappy existence a secret. Eli was also a great character, she doesn't talk much, but the increasing closeness between the two young teenagers felt natural, and I liked how there could be seen an ulterior motive for why Eli is getting close to the boy, something that is never implicitly brought up.

Being a vampire, Eli is shown able to climb sheer walls, have super strength, and an aversion to sunlight. There are plenty of scenes where she is attacking people, but this is always done in an understated way, or with the dramatic finale, mainly takes place away from the lingering shot from under a swimming pool. The violence never felt gratuitous, and was carefully considered, being used as and when the story required it. Blood effects look great here, the blood being the right colour and consistency to shine on camera. Special effects were also impressive, there was great make-up effects to show a character who had badly mutilated their face, a scene where a character bursts into flame, and an almost amusing scene when a character is attacked by multiple cats!

Rather than take the route of high action and high horror, this instead looks at the subject of a vampire from a more cursed perspective, with Eli doing what she needs to survive but not enjoying what she has to do, and Oskar finding an unlikely soulmate due to both being outcasts of a type. The story isn't deep, but it is effective, focussing more on the relationship between the two lead characters rather than a more extravagant story. I don't mind vampire films, and watching Let the Right One In, I was reminded of how good and different this particular one felt. Vertigo Releasing brought Let the Right One In to UK and Irish audiences across digital platforms on 20th January.

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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. 

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We Are Zombies (2023) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Co-directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (Summer of 84), We Are Zombies is a Canadian comedy horror film (based on the comic book series The Zombies That Ate the World) that stars the best movie monsters of all time - zombies (the title was a bit of a giveaway). I often find that films purporting to be comedic turn out not to be so. Initially I thought this would be the case here. As the film's story progressed however I came to find the irritating leads to be quite endearing.

The movie takes place in a dystopian near future in which the dead have returned to life. Rather than be the typical flesh eating kind, these undead are more an annoyance than anything, with the still alive humans forced to co-exist alongside the rotting reanimated who typically due to limited intelligence (as a result of brain damage) are only able to perform simple jobs. Various laws were passed, classing the undead as the 'living impaired', and a powerful organisation called Coleman were tasked with retrieving the recently dead and storing them at their facility should their family members opt to pay a fee for the service.
Maggie (Megan Peta Hill - Open Water 3: Cage Dive), her half brother Karl (Alexandre Nachi) and his best friend, Freddy (Derek Johns - The Boys TV show) are three small time crooks who have been posing as Coleman employees in order to steal zombies under the guise of retrieving them for the company and instead selling them to a shady fashionista. Their crime has resulted in the real Coleman employees - Rocco and Stanley (Patrick Abellard) being tasked with repaying the lost earnings, and to do this they decide to kidnap the grandmother of Maggie and Karl so they can demand a ransom.
Meanwhile, high ranking Coleman employee Hannity (Benz Antoine - Gothika) is working on a plan to make the docile zombies violent, in order to turn public opinion on them and get official permission to cull the undead. With everyone who dies returning as a zombie he fears that one day the walking dead will outnumber the living.

I wasn't that impressed to begin with, I found the protagonists to be irritating and I thought idiotic Freddy being infatuated with an obviously uninterested Maggie to be quite the tired trope. Over the course of the movie my opinion on them changed, the three had some fun chemistry between them, and I came to really enjoy their antics. I also thought that Rocco and especially Stanley made for fun comedy bad guys, they had some funny scenes that were amusing to watch. Some of the side characters were not as great, with one central character in particular being a bit annoying.

This is a world where people immediately return to life upon dying, retaining their memories and able to communicate still. It has resulted in life becoming a lot cheaper, with people not that fussed when people they know die. This both makes for some comedic moments, and also makes the bad guys harder to stop as they have to be beaten twice.

Thankfully, the make-up for the zombies is great, as were the special effects, especially for one specially modified one. There are a lot of cool moments, such as various zombie heads that are separated from their bodies but still moving, and a funny part where the protagonists accidentally get a ghoul wrapped around their van tyre, with the creature mildly trying to make conversation with them. For the most part they are not flesh hungry at all, but without too many spoilers this might possibly change in the film's third act when Hannity's plan is put into motion. That results in a few bloody high action sequences that feature such highlights as Freddy performing wrestling moves on them, and an amusing undead version of Mother Teresa.

The soundtrack is pretty decent, lots of eighties synth style sounds, and one fight scene that has a high energy drum and bass tune.

I was surprised just how much I came to enjoy We Are Zombies, it had a good blend of amusing characters, and while it was rarely laugh out loud funny, there were some highlights here and there. A much better film than it appeared it would be, I liked this different take on the undead, and enjoyed the special effects around them, making this worth a watch. It was also nice to see zombie legend George Romero mentioned as special thanks in the end credits (alongside a few other notable names). We Are Zombies streams exclusively on SCREAMBOX.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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The Sacred Spirit (2021) - Comedy Drama Review

One of the many films joining the Arrow streaming subscription service in March is the Spanish comedy/drama/sci-fi film The Sacred Spirit (original title Espíritu sagrado). Written and directed by Chema García Ibarra this surreal movie plays its comedy with a super straight face and was all the better for it.

The film begins with Charo's daughter Vanessa (and twin sister of Verónica, played by Llum Arques) having recently gone missing with the story all over the local news. Elsewhere, Julio (José Angel Asensio), the head of a small group of ufology enthusiasts made up of misfits has recently died, he left his belongings to José (Nacho Fernández), who just so happens to be Charo's brother. Unknown to the rest of the group, who believe the aim for them is to be taken by aliens, Julio and José had a secret plan, one that involves bringing an ancient spirit into the world, using a young child as the vessel.

The Sacred Spirit takes place in a bizarre world, but one that within its context feels completely normal. The humour here is deadpan and comes from the many characters. I would say it kind of shares similarities with Napoleon Dynamite in the way the comedy plays out. There is nothing laugh out loud funny here, instead it is the dialogue that is said, and the way it is spoken by the deeply earnest characters. It seemed to begin with that Charo was going to be the protagonist, but this instead falls on José. This man, obsessed with Egyptian mythology (his apartment that he shares with his Alzheimer's afflicted mother is full of gaudy and tacky Egypt themed knick knacks) was strangely likeable despite the film hinting at a darkness that he may be involved in. He genuinely believes that an ancient spirit is going to return to the world, and that he alone is the one who can get this done, there is almost a sadness with José and despite everything I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. That comes with many of the characters who while extremely weird had an innocence to them that made them endearing. The UFO group for instance have share a strong bond.

Anonymous Animals (2020) - Horror Film Review

Anonymous Animals is a French horror film written and directed by Baptiste Rouveure that tackles the topic of animal cruelty as well as the whole meat industry in a unique way (possibly 2018's The Farm did something similar but I haven't seen that personally). Despite being French made, the film can be perfectly understood in any language as there is zero dialogue here.

The movie takes place in a nightmarish world where anthropomorphic animals rule. There isn't really a story here to follow, instead there are a variety of different situations shown. A chained bearded man out in the woods gets captured and taken to a variety of different farm locations, at each one he is chained up and treated like an animal by his captors. Another section features a group of scared humans kept in an electrified pen in a large cattle shed, their captor, a bull headed creature using a stun gun on them.

It became quite clear early on that this is designed to show the horror of how some animals are treated by humans. By reversing the roles a strong horror vibe is created. The various humanoid animals have blank, expressionless faces, the noises they make are relevant to whichever animal they happen to be. The stag out hunting with a shotgun, the bear, the bull, the pack of dogs and more all have their own natural sounds that make them all pretty terrifying. Mostly these animal heads on the actors don't move, they don't blink or for the majority have any type of movement but this adds to the creepy factor. Early on I wondered if these were all humans wearing masks, but as the film played out it became apparent this was a nightmare world of humanoid animals.

Sam Was Here (2016) - Horror Film Review

I have intended for 2022 to be the year that I spend more time watching films of my choosing rather than solely watching horrors sent to me for review. I found the Christophe Deroo written and directed Sam Was Here towards the back end of my Shudder queue and I admit I chose to watch it based on its short running time of seventy five minutes. This remains Deroo's only feature length movie he has created and it stands apart as a very mysterious film, style over substance, but that is one of the things that I really appreciate in films.

Sam (Rusty Joiner - Resident Evil: Extinction) is a travelling salesman who is travelling through the Mojave Desert back roads of California in order to get home to his wife and young daughter. After his car breaks down he is baffled to find everywhere he visits deserted, yet with signs of people having recently been there. He also finds he is unable to contact anyone on telephones, either receiving dead ringtones or answer phone messages. The only bit of normality he does find is a local radio station hosted by a man called Eddy. The radio show is talking about a killer on the loose and the more Sam listens the more he begins to realise that the person being talked about is himself. Soon he finds himself hunted by the inhabitants of a rural community who want the confused man dead.

I had read beforehand that this film was like an episode of Black Mirror if it had been directed by David Lynch, I can kind of get that. While not as surreally nasty as Lynch's work can feel, this had its weird moments that really did give off a vibe such as that. For one thing you have a strange red light constantly showing up, both far off in the sky, and closer to home. Then you have the story that is a slow burn of limited reveals. I fully expected the film to loop around on itself like Lost Highway, it had a similar kind of vibe at times, I also expected maybe this was a Twilight Zone style hellish afterlife in which a bad person is forced to face endless persecution. Instead the film ends with nothing explained which I can see frustrating some people. There is plenty of suggestions throughout but nothing concrete or definite is ever given. Apparently Deroo said of the film that the only part of Sam Was Here intended to be understood was the atmosphere, and the paranoid desperate journey of Sam's, punctuated with moments of brutality certainly maintains a cruel atmosphere all the way to its finale.

Deadly Games (1989) - Horror Film Review

It was just the other day that I first heard of the French Christmas themed slasher Deadly Games (original title 36.15 Code Pére Noel and also known as Game Over) for the first time. It was described as a more realistic take on Home Alone, and indeed it does share many similarities. This film was released a year before that classic though, and so if anything the makers of that took inspiration from this one (so much so that the director René Manzor once threatened to sue them).

Thomas (Alain Lalanne) is a child genius who lives in a huge mansion in which he has created lots of secret doors and traps, as well as designed an entire home security system which he controls by a device on his wrist. Despite his intelligence he has an active imagination and still believes in Santa. His toy store owning mother wants her son to keep his innocence as long as possible and so encourages this belief. This turns out to be a bad move though as through a series of events a perverted psycho (Patrick Floersheim) has dressed up as Santa and broken into the mansion, with his eye on the boy. Being Christmas eve, Thomas is convinced that this maniac actually is Santa, and that he has become murderous due to Thomas staying up to try and see him, rather than being in bed asleep. With no other help but his elderly and sickly grandpa (Louis Ducreux) Thomas must find a way to either stop or escape the killer.

You can tell right away this is an eighties film as it opens on a montage of Thomas dressing up as a Rambo style soldier. With an impressive mullet Thomas exudes the spirit of this decade. This character was the most interesting part of Deadly Games as he genuinely believes the intruder is Santa and so has to constantly battle his unwillingness to hurt his hero. Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone movies is supremely confident, full of wise cracks, and with traps that always outwit the villains he faces. Thomas is much more believable as he is visibly traumatised by the events of the movie. At several points he breaks down in tears and cries for his mother and by the film's conclusion has a haunted 'thousand yard stare'. There are no wise cracks to be found here, aside from maybe the maniac who doesn't break the character he has created. Underneath all his madness there is a kind of childlike innocence, in his eyes it all might be a literal game he is playing with the boy. Both Lalanne and Floersheim were expertly cast and there is a great dynamic between the pair, the same can be said of the tender relationship between Thomas and his grandpa.

Under the Bed (2020) - Short Horror Film Review

Under the Bed is the latest short horror from French director Kévin Mendiboure (The Mannequin, The Follower). This time around he is joined by Vincent Darkman (writer of both this and The Follower) who co-directs alongside. Much like The Mannequin this doesn't try to break the mould of short horrors, instead picking a typical idea and crafting an effective enough short around it.

As a child, the woman (Alexia Zahedi - The Mannequin) in Under the Bed was scared of a creature, which she told her mum lived under the bed. Now grown up, over one long night she discovers that the fear of her childhood is very much real.

Despite being a French film there isn't a need to know that language. Get past the introduction and there is no dialogue here, save for screams. The short is just over 4 minutes in length and so quickly gets into the swing of things. It was all very typical, there are false scares, and moments where it seems something terrible is about to happen. I appreciated how it approaches this terror, rather than the very tired approach of having the monster suddenly appear in full view at the films conclusion it is quite early into this that it is shown. This was an effective moment, but it did then lead to a feeling that it was just playing around with the woman rather than being a legitimate threat. The creature design was decent, I especially liked the long fingers of it.

Under the Bed is an effective short horror film, but it doesn't do a lot that was novel or surprising. Instead it is content to follow a lot of the tropes of the short horror genre, though follows them in a competent manner. For its short length alone this is definitely worth a watch.

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Rutabaga (2018) - Horror Film Review

Rutabaga is a French horror that was written and directed by Julien Botzanowski, who also stars as the main character. I at first assumed 'rutabaga' was a French word, but as it is revealed in the movie it is actually the name of some sort of turnip hybrid. This was an odd one to watch, not much at all happens, yet this wasn't a slow film, there is always things going on. The story is purposely vague, open to interpretation and often to a fault.

After an argument with his girlfriend, journalist Adrien (Botzanowski) is given an assignment deep in rural France. He has been asked to go to a newly opened remote guest house in order to write a promotional article. He is greeted by one of the owners, Mademoiselle Agathe (Anouchka Csernakova), and spends the next few days there, his article facing some difficulties due to no electronics seeming to work in the area. When he is due to leave the owners insist he stay a little while longer, but the more time Adrien stays at the guest house the more he begins to suspect that something really is not right with the place.

At seventy minutes in length it is no small wonder that this felt like it raced along at breakneck speed. Usually if not much happens in a film you would feel like it is a slow burn, here there is a whole lot of nothing, but this nothing maintains some solid atmosphere. This could be accused of being a bit tame in terms of what is shown, but for me the mystery was just about worth it. There are times where characters see things off screen and react to them, but the viewer never does get to see what they have seen. There is a bunch of exposition thrown in towards the finale, but it is said in such a way that the character speaking assumes prior knowledge and so it was never clear exactly what was going on.

Nécrologies (2018) - Horror Anthology Film Review

Anthologies are one of my favourite styles of horror films. I have said it so many times before, pretty much every single time I review one of them in fact, but it's a simple fact that having a variety of stories rather than just the one means even if some aren't great there is always something new and different not that far away. Despite the bland title, Nécrologies turned out to be something good, even the weakest of the short films here had something unique to offer at the very least.

Within the film there are five different stories, with a sixth one working as the wraparound. The set-up is that a horror vlogger has snuck into a graveyard at night in order to take some selfies. He gets caught however by the graveyard keeper (Jean-Claude Dreyfus - The City of Lost Children) who takes him to his hut. He tells the vlogger he is going to call the police to report him, but after learning the man is interested in horror he decides to tell him a series of bizarre and unsettling tales about how some of the many people buried in his graveyard came to meet their ends.

The first short is The Call of Death, that was written and directed by Nathalie Epoque. Here a woman who is home alone begins to get threatening calls on her phone from a man who seems to have an intimate knowledge of the woman's life. All the shorts within the movie are around ten to fifteen minutes long, and that really works for this one. There is the right sense of suspense here, and the length means to doesn't have time to become dragged out. The pay-off for this is absurd, but it wasn't something I at all saw coming, so this was a great start to the anthology.