The Hive (2023) - Horror Film Review

The Hive might just be the strangest home invasion film I have ever seen. Written and directed by Jared Allmond, this has a central twist so obvious that I can't believe it was ever intended not to be realised. It made for a very interesting premise, though the unlikeable protagonists meant they were quite hard to root for.

Albie (Timothy Haug) and his wife, Penny (Christie Griffin) are in the death throes of their marriage. This is mainly due to Albie being supremely self centered and egotistical, oblivious to his wife's wants and needs. With her mother looking after the children, the two go out to the opera. Arriving back home later that evening, they are startled to find a very strange acting pair in their home who insist that it is theirs. After threatening them with a gun, the couple retreat to Penny's nearby sisters house, who convinces them to return and try and get video evidence of the intruders, as for some reason, neither the next door neighbour or local police want to get involved. After sneaking into their home they are swiftly captured by the strangers and tied up, and then subjected to some cruel interrogation, with the questions making no sense to either of them. Independently, both attempt to escape, but their relationship issues are always at the forefront, hampering their escape attempts.

While I feel it was obvious who the strangers actually were (again, I am almost certain this was intended), the film brought to mind several different movies, some of which added to the atmosphere and some which detracted from my experience. The strangers (played with creepy perfection by Miles Taber and Julianne Ruck) have some nonsensical questions they are asking the couple, with the often repeated main one of "Where is the access port to the collective hive mind?" This key miscommunication makes up a lot of the plot of the movie, with the strangers unable to realise that their questions are making no sense, and the captured couple baffled as to what on earth is being asked of them. There are a handful of other characters, but it is these four who the focus is on. The strangers are perpetually smiling and cheerful acting, even as they torture the pair (primarily by the use of some type of Vulcan nerve pinch type assault), of course bringing Smile to mind. As to the couple, their doomed relationship did come across as believable, with moments where it seems they might actually be brought closer via their shared experience, but then these are ruptured again, typically by awful Albie, a mostly pathetic person who has an inflated sense of his own worth. While Penny wasn't as bad a person, some of the things she does, especially later in the film, are really bone headedly stupid, meaning that neither character I cared about.

This worked as a low key Invasion of the Body Snatchers type story, also bringing to mind the indie horror, They Look Like People. Sometimes the indie nature of The Hive brought it down slightly, such as the third act which I feel would have benefitted by more characters being present to really ramp up the threat level. The bizarre way of talking the strangers have felt right out of Dude, Where's My Car? but this led to some intentionally amusing moments. I did like the back and forth the core four characters had with each other. Special effects are used sparingly, but when they are there they looked pretty great truth be told. I liked the arthouse style quick snap moments of character's heads in pitch black screaming, was a cool technique used several times, and I thought the plot was interesting enough that you would want to stick around to the end.

Despite not really liking either of the two protagonists, I thought that The Hive was an interesting diversion to a typical home invasion film. Blending sci-fi with horror worked well, and the story, while well trodden, was still engaging to watch. The Hive releases on Cable and Digital VOD today, October 27th.

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Unwelcome Guest - Short Horror Film Review

Today is a review of another horror film that can be found on Dark Matters' YouTube channel. If the title alone wasn't clue enough, Unwelcome Guest is a home invasion short, something that is established really early on with some apparent real life facts about this type of crime. Directed by John Sabatine (Brew House) and produced and written by Vincent Yanni, this bleak horror manages to break out a little from the formula I had come to expect.

Sheila (Wendy Wygant) is home alone in her remote home one evening listening to the radio, specifically a local news story is being spoken of about a notorious serial killer who has escaped from a local prison. She ends up turning off the radio, though maybe she should have paid more attention as it isn't long before she is disturbed by the sounds of breaking glass, and the arrival of a masked figure (Keri Jenzer)...

The short takes place over thirteen minutes and I thought it was well paced. The initial opening establishes the remote location and the character of Sheila until three minutes in when the horror begins. I liked that this was (with the exception of the radio report) completely dialogue free, both the attacker and the defender never say a single word. The desperation of the protagonist can be seen with Wygant's physical acting. The killer wasn't a hulking brute as you may expect, instead it was more of a lean looking person, that was all fine. Hardly the fault of the film, but the killer's red hoodie reminded me far too much of the lame antagonist from The Maze who was similarly attired and slimly built. The white expressionless mask they wore was functional, though I have seen that used in other horror films.

Onto the special effects and the pacing of the thing then. This was at times more violent than expected, though mostly this is indicated by sound effects rather than actually seeing the violence being done. That said there was one particularly nasty looking moment that made me wince, always a good sign when it comes to special effects. The constant back and forth battle between the two was well choreographed, and the short as a whole was split into various moments where things naturally fade to black, leaving a few seconds of darkness to then start it all up again (such as one early moment where Shiela turns off a light switch). Credit also goes to how this finishes, I've been trained over the years to expect some kind of lame jump scare ending, especially when it comes to short films, thankfully that isn't the case here.

Outside of the actual look of the killer I didn't have many complaints here. The camera work is good at building up paranoia and hidden threat, such as a few voyeuristic looking shots and a nice one taken from the floor next to a prone person, and there is a good flow to the story. Unwelcome Guest can be viewed on the Dark Matters' YouTube channel, where it premiered on 18th February.

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An Intrusion (2021) - Thriller Film Review

I'll start off with my whole spiel about how I never really look too deeply into films sent my way for review. I much prefer being surprised than going into a movie having a solid idea what it is about. Nicholas Holland's An Intrusion (directed, written and edited by him) I thought was going to be a home invasion thriller, instead it uses the home invasion idea as a leaping off point for one man forced to confront the demons from his past. This featured an unlikeable protagonist but as the story progresses it becomes obvious that this was the point.

It is the run up to Christmas and one dark night teenage Rebecca (Angelina Danielle Cama - Agramon's Gate) encounters an intruder in her home, her screams scaring the figure off. The next day, her father Sam (Dustin Prince - Last Call) receives an email that reveals the intruder was linked to him, and that this person knows that Sam has been cheating on his wife, Joyce (Erika Hoveland - Blood Immortal, Before I Wake). With Sam's increasingly erratic behaviour, and the disappearance of Rebecca's teenage boyfriend (who Sam had disliked) the police begin to suspect that he may be the person responsible for all the troubles. Wanting to keep his secrets safe Sam decides to try and deal with the mystery intruder himself, while trying to also deal with the police's increasing suspicion of his activities.

The biggest obstacle I had with An Intrusion was that Sam was the central character the film followed around. It was quickly established he was more than a bit of a jerk, and I was also put off with how easily he was able to lie and hide his actions from all around him. This actually was quite the point of Sam, his affair with another woman establishes that this ability to lie isn't a new thing, so becomes much less of an issue. The way the story plays out eventually explains away this deficit to his character in a way that was very interesting. In other films of this type it would have been the daughter or maybe even the wife who would have been the protagonist, so with them relegated to side roles it changed things up slightly. Joyce gets her own chance to reveal her innermost thoughts, but sadly Rebecca doesn't have that opportunity. This was strange, especially when her boyfriend goes missing relatively early into the film and yet she seems to show little to no reaction for the duration. Come to think of it nor do any of the other characters. This plot point helps in making detective Savannah Simpson (Scout Taylor-Compton - The Lurker, Cynthia) become suspicious of Sam, but that seems to be the only result, the movie ends with this part never resolved which felt a little odd.

Hush (2016) - Horror Film Review

Hush is a home invasion film with one vast difference that sets it apart from all the others; the heroine of the film; Maddie (Kate Siegal from Oculus) is both deaf and mute. This one fact means that despite quite heavily following the tropes of the home invasion genre the film constantly feels fresh and exciting.

Deaf and mute Maddie is a struggling writer who lives a secluded life at a home deep in woodland. One night while writing, a masked attacker (John Gallagher Jr. from 10 Cloverfield Lane) appears at her property, one who seems to want to torment and kill the woman for seemingly no reason. Yet as the night goes on it starts to seem the maniac may have underestimated his target who is determined not to go down without a fight...

Knock Knock (2015) - Horror Film Review

Knock Knock sounded like a terrible idea on paper; a home invasion film starring bland Keanu Reeves who has the emotional acting range of a vase. This film is directed by Eli Roth though (Cabin Fever, Hostel) and so my interest was successfully gained.

Reeves stars as family man Evan Webber who is left home alone for the weekend when his artist wife Karen and their two young children head off to stay at their beach house. Late at night Evan gets a knock at the door, answering it he discovers two teenage girls who are looking for their friends house. As it is pouring with rain he invites them in to dry off and call for a taxi, but it is not long before the duo have seduced Evan. The next day riddled with guilt he is horrified to then find out the girls were underage, he eventually manages to get rid of them and thinks it is all over with, but the following evening the girls turn back up, and this time they are there to teach him a lesson he will never forget...

The best thing about this movie is the excellent soundtrack, really cannot fault that at all and even ends on a classic Pixies track (that coincidentally I had been listening to on my drive to the cinema). It also does not look bad either, despite a small cast and a small location the set design is pretty solid. The main cast of Reeves, and the two psychos; Genesis (Lorenza Izzo who is actually Eli Roth's wife in reality) and Bel (Ana de Armas) are all easy on the eye and so it was not a bad film to watch, also nudity if that is your thing. The theme of paedophilia runs deep in this film with it pretty much sign posted that an event from at least one of the crazies pasts is what has set into motion their nefarious plans.

For a lot of the 99 minute run time I thought this was a terrible film, home invasion thrillers have been done to death and this seemed nothing too different. Reeves playing the guilt ridden husband and father increasingly tries to outdo himself with impassioned pleas and monologues where he tries to justify his actions, the two insane girls on the other hand are so crazy and over the top that they become increasingly irritating. A lot of Knock Knock sees Reeves tied to an office chair, it was quite humorous to see him wheeling himself around on the chair trying constantly to find a way out of his terrible situation.

This is where Knock Knock really steps up a gear, I came to the conclusion the decision to cast Reeves was a stroke of genius. Not just me but several other people in the cinema were laughing out loud at every single thing he does and says by the halfway point, such as seconds after getting hold of a weapon accidentally flinging it out of shot never to be seen again, or tied in his chair shouting empty threats and begging to be let go but with the monotone way he speaks coming across as absurd. This was not so bad it was good, this was a poor film, but it became bearable by Reeves's performance. The joke was on me though, the events gets increasingly bizarre and more silly until it dawned on me that this was all purposeful; Eli Roth was playing a joke on the audience it seemed to me! A real curve ball ending devolved the thriller into a farce and seemed to become a parody of home invasion films, the humour became more obvious and purposefully funny and I was left feeling I had been played for a fool.

The plot is not the best thanks to a fair few glaring plot holes and conveniences, not least the fact that despite living in a suburban neighbourhood in Los Angeles all the neighbours have apparently all left for the weekend which one of the girls usefully explains when Evan is in the back garden screaming his head off for help (though this could also be a jab at other home invasion films were no one ever intervenes to help). Also just how they came to choose him as their victim is never explained when they insinuate they had somehow been spying on him previous to first meeting him. Also, and minor spoilers here they state he is not their first victim yet with the astonishing amount of DNA they must have left at his house it is baffling how they have never been caught before.

While I did enjoy the fun ending (which had a frankly hilarious scene involving social media) the rest of the film did not stand up, Evan is flawed enough that I didn't really care if he escaped his fate or not, while Reeves does a terrible job of playing a loving father. The two girls I really wanted to be brought down a peg or two with their over the top antics reminding me of Harley Quinn from the Batman franchise but they barely ever have anything bad happen to them. This certainly has Roth's stamp mark on it but with its strong themes of sex and not too much going on this just didn't really appeal to me.

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The House on the Wrong Side of the Tracks (2013) - Horror Film Review

The House on the Wrong Side of the Tracks shares both title and the premise of home invasion with the likes of The Last House on the Left and The House on the Edge of the Park but takes a modern twist by being a film from the much maligned found footage genre. The film was apparently filmed in just 23 hours and I have to say this did set alarm bells ringing in the halls of The Rotting Zombie HQ as I was concerned how a film shot in such a short time frame could be any good.

Three scum bags; psychotic Ray (Eric Sopko), his besotted girlfriend Liz (Amanda Baker), and brother Nathan (Alec Drake) decide for fun they are going to invade the house of a middle aged couple and rob and trash the place. Also for fun they are going to film the whole event to watch back later on. Initially things go to plan but the arrival of the couples intellectually disabled son sees the tables turned with the invaders becoming prisoners of what turns out to be a very crazy family.

The first twenty minutes of The House on the Wrong Side of the Tracks actually really impressed me, there are long scenes without a break including a fantastic one in which the worlds longest train goes by all while Ray almost preaches about why he does what he does. The three delinquents have a certain charm to them and come across as a tight unit, Ray with his psychotic behaviour is a nut bag but all had a magnetic aura around them. The acting as I expected was not great but I was able to look past that for these three. It is just a shame that as soon as the home invasion begins the film starts to unravel.

I expect a lot of this film was ad-libbed, characters frequently stumble their words and over emphasise but this never bothered me. The introduction of new characters sadly ruins things. The middle aged couple whose house the trio invade over act a lot, the wife in particular I just did not enjoy. When tied up she looked like she was trying not to laugh, and throughout her hair looked like a wig that was distracting. No one seems sure of what to do once they are in the house, the three invaders are just kind of standing around while Ray shouts at his captors. When the three become prisoners this trend continues with the actors playing the family seeming unsure of what to do, obviously not wanting to actually hurt the actors playing the thugs they instead meekly push them around while shouting abuse which does not look good on camera.

With the three now captive the film changes tack and goes on a misguided and sadly boring tangent of focusing on the family. Losing the most interesting characters was a bad move, it falls flat with the wind knocked out of the sails and never manages to recover despite an almost enjoyable finale. With feeble non threatening antagonists it falls down to special effects to save the day but again just does not excel. Some severed fingers and other body parts look quite terrible with virtually no blood to be seen at all. A body in a bath tub looked like a mannequin, I guess with the bizarre design of the house maybe it actually was. On that note the house is well designed, I approve of the look with so much clutter and detail (the front room full of TVs, the Star War dolls on the shelf in the hallway, great stuff!).

The influences that this film cribs from are plain to see, the huge son dressed up like a werewolf brought echoes of Leatherface, while the whole insane family could be straight from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre also. Meanwhile a later scene in which Liz apologises to her family while crying at the camera was a big nod to The Blair Witch Project. The house the film takes place around features a load of horror  pictures on the walls such as a drawing of a zombie from Night of the Living Dead as well as a poster featuring Planet Terror and Death Proof (I have the same poster in my house). It was cool to see these films displayed in the film but they did feel very out of place.

Filmed in Youngstown (the home of RagNBone Productions who produced this) and filmed in such a short space of time what was achieved is admirable. It was just a disappointment that the strong beginning was too much for the rest of the film to live up to and that the most interesting characters got relegated to the background in exchange for less interesting ones. A nice idea having the hunters become the hunted though!

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Home Alone (1990) - Christmas Horror Film Review

Upon release in 1990 this was dubbed a family comedy due to an error at the production company. It instead was supposed to be the main charge in a resurgence of home invasion films along the lines of The Last House on the Left, The Purge, and The Strangers but with a 90's twist. Heavily edited from its original 18 certificate to appeal to a broader audience it is still nonetheless a gruelling ride.

Macaulay Culkin stars as Kevin McCallister; a young eight year old boy who is accidentally left home alone when his neglectful family go on holiday without him. This coincidentally coincides with the arrival of two hardened criminals who are in the area to rob the neighbourhood, though their obsession with the McCallister's house is actually due to being hired by Kevin's parents to assassinate him (a subplot cut out entirely for the PG rated cinema release). When the home invasion starts the twist happens; rather than an hour of the criminals brutally terrorising and torturing the young boy as expected you instead discover that Kevin is a sick, psychotic deviant who relishes in the game of pain he unleashes on the unsuspecting duo.

To begin with Home Alone may not seem like horror, yet the final third is the jewel in the crown and really unleashes the violence, leading me to vomit once or twice with fear I am not afraid to admit. Long before the likes of Saw and Hostel came around John Hughes (the writer) managed to blend elements of the so called 'torture porn' horror sub-genre with home invasion to sickening effect. Nails inserted into the skin, heavy blunt object trauma, gunshots (fun fact the BB gun used by Kevin in the PG version was originally supposed to be a 12 Gauge Shotgun) and all ends (spoiler alert) with the burglars actually biting off all of Kevin's fingers in a protracted ten minutes slow-mo sequence set to the music of Kate Moss, before they are bludgeoned to death by the local serial killer; Old Man Marley (The South Bend Shovel Slayer) and their remains mummified in his salt bin.

Out of interest the sequel Home Alone 2 is based on the ending to the PG version, and not the R Rated version. Now some of this may be a bit of lies but in reality Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as the 'bad' guys were known to swear quite a lot during their scenes, and also Pesci did bite Culkin's finger hard enough to scar it, so there is some evidence to suggest that the 18 rated version still exists out there somewhere still to this day, a closely guarded secret by all involved.

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