The Draft! (2023) - Horror Film Review

Indonesian horror; The Draft! (also known as Setan Alas!), was directed and co-written by Yusron Fuadi and tells a wild story that both plays with audience expectation, as well as with horror film tropes. It creates a story where you really can't tell where it is going to go next.

Five college friends have headed away to a remote villa for the weekend. After one of them is found murdered, as well as groundskeeper Mang Dadang (Ernanta Kusuma), the friends decide to flee the place but find themselves unable to. Film nerd Amir (Winner Wijaya) suggests a theory; that they are all characters in a horror film script and are stuck following the whims of a writer. This outlandish idea surprisingly turns out to be the reality for the group, and with previous events altering and characters coming back to life seemingly randomly, they realise that they are trapped within a draft of a script.

It is an interesting premise, and one I have enjoyed in the past, with films such as Resolution and of course; The Cabin in the Woods. Things begin predictably enough for a horror film, so predictably that Iwan (Adhin Abdul Hakim) can't resist pointing them out to his friends. There was a bit of a hump accepting the characters had discovered they were trapped within a film script, but eventually that is made apparent purely by the wild happenings. There is plenty of amusing, almost fourth-wall breaking moments with the script, where characters criticise the writer for being lazy and not having developed them enough than to have hazy backstories. Amir becomes the heart of the film, it is him who is the first to realise, and also the one who becomes skilled at forcing positive changes in the story playing out. As the film plays out it switches horror genres also, it manages to fit a decently sized zombie section, as well as a slasher, and a demonic horror. This led to never really knowing what was to come next, with characters able to accidentally 'will' items and events into being, while coming to understand that while they are in a draft there is always a way for them to come back from apparent death.

This strange direction also removed much of the horror aspect from the picture. The amusing script, and how cheaply death is treated never comes across as too serious. One highlight was a corpse that various characters keep tripping over and reacting to each time they pass it. There are bleak moments on occasion, usually these are sign posted as being there as an intention of the writer, with characters stating how what they are saying is meant to create sympathy from the viewer, before overly cheesy sorrowful music begins playing.
There are some really exciting scenes throughout the movie, particularly towards the end of the second act in a wonderful little mini-event within the film world. I loved how wild that part got. I also thought one of the storylines having people get possessed and then ripping their jaw off their face was fantastic, I would have loved to see an actual horror about that!

The Draft! is a clever horror that completes the assignment it gave itself well. It keeps you guessing while being at times both purposely generic and playful with expectations. This naturally leads to a reduction in any legitimate terror, but is balanced out with an interesting set-up and a likeable cast of protagonists. The Draft! came to Screambox on 23rd September.

SCORE:

V/H/S/2 (2013) - Horror Anthology Film Review

I have a scheduled list of exactly when I am going to watch films sent to me for review. When the screener turns out not to work I always give myself the option to instead watch a film of my own choosing. I love anthology films, and have long wanted to work my way through the V/H/S series of horror anthologies. I can't believe it was so long ago, but back in 2022 I reviewed V/H/S, and now is the turn of its sequel - V/H/S/2.

As the title suggests, this anthology series uses the found footage genre as the concept that links the shorts together. I felt the first film showed promise, so hoped this sequel would build on the strengths.

Contained within this is a moderately sized wraparound story as well as four short films. The wraparound is titled 'Tape 49' and was written and directed by Simon Barrett (the writer of wraparound segment 'Tape 56' from the first V/H/S and writer of You're Next). Here, a private investigator named Larry (Laurence Michael Levine) has been hired to find a missing student at the request of his mother. He heads to a house with his assistant where the mother thought might be one of the locations her son could be. After breaking in, they find the place deserted, though a video they find on a laptop point to the missing young man having been there. While Larry searches the house, his assistant finds a bunch of strange VHS tapes and decides to check them out to see if they offer any clues. The tapes she watches then makes up the four short films. Much like the first movie, this wraparound segment was functional as a means for the shorts to appear, but the story wasn't particularly exciting, nor does it end up going anywhere surprising.

 After an eight minute intro, the first short begins. Titled 'Phase I Clinical Trials', this one being directed by Adam Wingard (V/H/S, You're Next), who also stars in the lead role, again, with the story written by Barrett. Wingard plays a blind young man who has recently had an operation to implant a chip in his brain that will allow him to see. Wanting to monitor the man's new implants, the company who installed the devices are recording everything that he sees. This reminded me of a Japanese film I once saw about a woman who begins to see ghosts after an eye transplant. The same thing happens here, with Larry able to see ghosts with his new 'eye'. It wasn't too enjoyable as I didn't think the very physical acting ghosts looked that scary. I thought the plot of a woman also able to see ghosts appearing (Hannah Hughes) was rushed through a bit, leading to an obvious finish.
After seventeen minutes (roughly) it is back to the wraparound before heading swiftly to second short film 'A Ride in the Park'. I was interested in this one as it is a zombie found footage film, obviously I love zombie films. Taking place in woodland, this sees a man (played by Jay Saunders) on his mountain bike accidentally getting caught up in an undead outbreak. What made this stand out a bit was the protagonist actually dies not long into the film, with nearly the rest of the short showing things from the now zombified man's perspective, as him and his new found friends gate crash a children's birthday party!. Directed by Gregory Hale, this was straight forward, but zombies are my favourite movie monster. I liked how the zombie occasionally gets reminded of the person it used to be, and the effects were decent enough, but not too memorable. 

'Safe Haven' is the third film and was by far the best one here. This Indonesian horror (directed by Gareth Huw Evans) has a film crew going to the remote headquarters of a sex cult. There becomes a triple threat of danger, what initially appears 'just' to be a deranged cult soon devolves into the undead once again appearing, and a rampaging demon. I loved this, I loved how crazy everything got. Certainly didn't expect the twists and turns within this. The story at twenty nine minutes contained a lot, I felt this would have worked equally well as a feature length film. A highlight of this was a room full of men who all commit suicide by gunshot at the exact same time, looked great on camera.
This just leaves the final film, which also happened to be the least interesting. 'Slumber Party Alien Abduction' was directed by Jason Eisener and mainly took the form of pranks a brother and sister were playing on each other, before the arrival of zombie-like aliens. My issue with this was the sheer amount of camera glitches and shaky hand camera action meant it was really hard to tell what was going on. This comes to a head with the lengthy final part which went on and on and on far longer than I felt it needed to be.

Much like the first film, V/H/S/2 showed potential but was a bit of a mixed bag. The wraparound story felt just as uninspired, but 'Safe Haven' was a definite highlight, worth the price of admission alone. With some many films in the series, I'm sure it will find its footing, maybe with the third entry? V/H/S/2 is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

SCORE: