Review Category: Movie

BAPHOMET

When a proud father is visited by a strange young man who offers to buy his land for a ridiculous amount of money, he is resolute that the home he built with his bare hands would not be for sale. Unfortunately, soon after this, his family is beset with tragedy after tragedy. It starts with the death of his daughter Rebecca’s boyfriend and progresses, but it’s only when a local white witch gets involved that they realise there’s something more sinister at play.

You can be forgiven if you’re expecting a full-on orgy of demonic sacrifice and shenanigans when watching the first few minutes of Baphomet. Legendary Italian actor Giovanni Lombardo Radice (best known under his anglicised name John Morghen in films such as Cannibal Ferox) is the head of the satanic cult we’re introduced to, and he’s desperate to get his hands on the farmland to open up a gateway to Hell. Now, Giovanni’s thick accent does make his lines a little hard to understand, but his presence is imposingly effective if a little underused. Writer/director Matthan Harris also plays the role of the dead boyfriend, who’s brought back from the grave by Charlotte Bjornbak’s witchy Marybeth. She’s given tips by a (literally) phoned-in Dani Filth, who is the right sort of stunt casting the film needs.

The rest of the world are surprisingly accepting of the dead boyfriend being around, and this all leads to an impressive climax that provides enough thrills to help you overlook the occasional lacklustre acting. The cinematography – by Pedro Avila and Andrew Scott Baird – gives this low budget effort another kick. Harris does a decent job of bringing everything together, keeping things entertaining and tight (the movie runs less than 75 minutes).

This US Blu-ray release of Baphomet boasts a few extra features that are worth delving into. While the deleted and extended scenes bring nothing to the story, the interview with Cradle of Filth frontman Dani Filth is fun and adds to the value of the disc.

Baphomet won’t win any awards for originality or skill, but for fans of indie movies, it’s a decent enough satanic shocker that delivers what it promises… eventually.

Baphomet is available on Blu-ray and DVD in the US and digital in the UK.

THE NEST

The Nest (originally labouring under the preposterous title The Bewailing) is an eerie, slow-burn horror film likely to appeal hugely to fans of classics such as Invasion of the Bodysnatchers or, indeed, anyone who appreciates a story about the loss of humanity and human identity, the invasion of the physical form and the surreptitious replacement of the self with the other. It’s got creepy insect-things in it too, which is a bit of a plus.

Beth (Sarah Navratil) is addicted to painkillers following the birth of her daughter Meg which nearly killed her. She’s lost her job and her reputation and her marriage to Jack (Kevin Patrick Murphy) has hit the rocks. But there’s a chance for the family to start again when they’re forced to move into Beth’s deceased uncle’s house. At a local yard sale young Meg (Maple Suttles, daughter of the film’s director) becomes fixated on a tatty teddy bear and Beth buys it for her in the hope that it might help to ease the child’s crippling separation anxiety. But the bear hides a terrible secret; inside its belly lurks a crawling parasite creature that quickly infects Meg and changes her behaviour, making her even more clingy and yet also more remote and unfathomable. The creature slowly extends its influence over Beth’s family and eventually she is forced to question her own sanity when everyone around her starts to behave strangely and she has to fight her own addictive nature if she is to hang on to her own humanity.

The Nest is an intriguing and unnerving film and also a slightly frustrating one. As a creature feature it delivers the goods to an extent (although we don’t see a great deal of the parasite itself) and there are a number of scenes in which we hear the clicking sound of the creature inside its host and the odd sight of an insect leg sticking out of someone’s mouth. This body possession element is in itself a familiar and always-disquieting conceit but the film sometimes loses itself in its handling of Beth’s condition and the narrative doesn’t seem entirely sure whether it wants us to think that the whole situation has been conjured up and exacerbated by her addiction or is actually an insidious assault upon the human condition (despite an opening sequence that quite clearly sets out the film’s stall). Eventually though the film seems to decide what it wants to be as Beth, beleaguered on all sides, finally realises that something’s really not right with her family and the body horror moves into high gear in the final reel.

Despite an overlong running time and occasionally suffering from the restraints of its low budget, The Nest (which also features an appearance by E.T. star Dee Wallace) is a haunting and sometimes flesh-crawling experience enlivened by some pleasing practical visual effects and a sense of ambiguity in relation to the nature and purpose of the parasite creature itself. The film takes its time and there are certainly some pacing issues yet it’s never boring as the core idea grips from the opening scene and delivers those moments of disconcerting dread that come with the territory of films in which the individuality of humanity is subsumed by something utterly alien and entirely inhuman.

On DVD and digital from August 16th

LETHAL VIRUS

The democratisation of independent filmmaking in recent decades has been driven by one overriding determinant: greater access, at reducing cost, to better and better technology. That progress has made it possible for writers and directors to produce and shoot digital format films, and distribute them through a growing number of streaming platforms, with only a fraction of the budget that their predecessors would have needed.

It’s something that’s reduced the barriers preventing new generations of cinematic talent from breaking into the industry and has led to the release of countless high-quality indie films. Movies that, in terms of artistic quality and cinematic literacy, can equal anything that the Hollywood production machine can produce only at an eye-watering cost.

But time and again, films come along which remind you that removing gatekeepers that previously controlled the filmmakers’ journey from script to screen comes at a cost. It means that terrible independent films – movies that would never have made their way through the approval process in earlier decades – also get made.

The Covid pandemic has encouraged several indie auteurs to believe that now is the perfect time to release movies tracking the devastation wreaked by a viral apocalypse. New Spanish production Lethal Virus (aka Covid 21: Lethal Virus, Contamination: Virus-21 and Lethal Contagion) is another entry in this horror niche, which imports the familiar beats of the cheapo zombie flick, and the motifs of the ‘one person who can save humanity’ storytelling, to complete its portrayal of plucky survivors in a world of the countless undead. The complete lack of originality is one thing; the abysmal delivery is something else entirely.

The premise of Lethal Virus is set out in the collage of news footage and spliced-together voiceovers of the energetic title sequence (the film’s most accomplished segment). Global warming has led to the thawing of permafrost in the Antarctic, which has unleashed a long-dormant virus that has quickly overwhelmed the world. The usual zombie tropes are in effect. The film opens when gruff, rugged ex-soldier Scott (Christian Stamm) is forced to flee from a zombie horde when raiding a shopping mall for supplies. Deep in the forest, a crack military unit is transferring single-minded, nerdy biochemist Allyson (Loretta Hope) to a medical facility in the belief that she will be able to distil a cure for zombification. When the unit is overwhelmed by a zombie surge, Allyson soon finds herself alone in the forest, before she’s rescued by Scott. As the pair throw in their lot together, two survivors from the military convoy are already following their trail.

The script, written by director Daniel H. Torrado and Nerea Bermúdez, is not particularly concerned with matters of characterisation. Scott’s back story (the reason he’s ‘like he is’) is shoehorned in during the third act, while the audience is asked to take Allyson’s claim to be the world’s best virologist on trust (which make later events even less convincing). For characters that are so thinly drawn, it’s surprising how unsympathetic both of them manage to be. This means that the film stands or falls on the quality of its action sequences. Early on, there are a few reasonably well-evoked images of Scott wandering through early morning city streets (a homage to 28 Days Later and others in the genre). But once the zombies turn up, the audience is subjected to badly choreographed, poorly framed and ineptly executed ‘teeth-tag’. The film crew rely on endless, exaggerated ‘shaky cam’ footage to make up for the lack of tension, thrills or decent prosthetic effects.

There’s not much more to recommend in the acting stakes, although the dire dialogue would be a dead-weight around the neck of more talented casts. The bewildering range of accents on display makes it difficult to develop any sense of place, and there’s nothing in the locations to ‘ground’ the drama, which only adds to the sense of disconnection. The film concludes without an ending, opting instead to pitch for a sequel it has done nothing to earn. Lethal Virus is both derivative and incompetently made.

Lethal Virus is available in the UK on Amazon Prime Video.

WEREWOLVES WITHIN

Following the expensive flop Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft Films took its time (five years) before putting out another film based on one of their properties. Their approach to Werewolves Within—inspired by the game of the same name—was radically different: No big names attached, no expensive set pieces. Just a solid script and enough production values to deliver a quality product.

The strategy seems to have worked. Werewolves Within is a delight, with the added bonus of being topical without forcing the issue.

The setup is like a game of Cluedo, with one-trait characters to boot. Sheriff Finn Wheeler (Sam Richardson, Veep) arrives at his new posting in a small town in Vermont in the middle of winter. It doesn’t take him long to notice a rift between the locals triggered by a pipeline: some are willing to sell their land for a pretty penny, some don’t. Wheeler also becomes friendly with the local postman (Milana Vayntrub) who seems to be the only person with common sense in town.

The ongoing divide among the population becomes background noise (or does it?) when the power grid crashes and a dead body is found under the local bed-and-breakfast. The marks in the body indicate something untoward. Inhuman. Canine. To add to the hapless group’s misery, an avalanche leaves the town disconnected from the rest of the world. Yet, much like in The Thing, the residents’ pettiness distracts them from the real danger.

The film is engaging throughout. Perhaps most notably, Werewolves Within is the rare horror-thriller that lands without a glitch. The dialogue crackles and it’s consistently not easy to predict, not a small feat. Richardson carries the movie with ease. Never mind you would be hard-pressed to recognise the rest of the cast (perhaps Glenn Fleshler from Joker or Harvey Guillén from What We Do in the Shadows), they’re all delightful even when revealing darker shades.

If nothing else, the film could have survived riskier twists and turns, but as a piece of disposable entertainment, it doesn’t get any better than this. It also provides a handy reminder: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Werewolves Within is available on DVD on July 19th.

D-RAILED

D-Railed is an interesting low-budget confection that marries several cinematic tropes – the murder mystery, disaster movie, creature feature, ghost story – to create a flawed and slightly schizophrenic narrative that ultimately entertains and passes muster despite the nagging sensation that it doesn’t hang together quite as well as it thinks it does and certainly doesn’t make a lot of sense.

A bunch of paying passengers board a Victorian-era themed Halloween Murder Mystery train and are initially diverted by the cast’s theatrical antics once dinner is served and the train is underway. But it quickly transpires that all is not as it seems and they soon find themselves in the middle of a heist and held at gunpoint. The train drivers are compromised and the train plunges off a bridge and into a lake where the survivors discover that a strange aquatic creature is stalking them and dragging them under the water. A handful of these unfortunates eventually make their way ashore but they are still not safe. They hole up in an abandoned house but the lake-creature has got the taste for blood and isn’t far behind…

D Railed is a bit all over the place but that’s really part of its shambolic charm. If you’re not gripped by the heist element of the plot then don’t worry, there’s a train crash on the way and if that doesn’t hold your attention well…here comes an aggressive amphibian to provide a handy volte-face. It’s not unreasonable to take the view either that this suggests a film that doesn’t quite know what it wants to be or a film that’s challenging conventions by defying them and happily mixing and matching tones to keep its audience guessing, We’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and go with the latter. D Railed is fun but it’s not wholly satisfying, possibly as a result of cramming too much into its brief running time, resulting in too many unanswered questions. Aboard the train, one of the passengers seems to suffer strange visions of insects crawling across the table which seems to have no bearing on anything that happens later on and we’re not offered any explanation for what the creature in the lake actually is or where it’s come from. The conclusion – where spit-and-cough guest star Lance Henricksen finally gets something to do – veers off into yet another direction and if it ultimately doesn’t completely convince – (like the whole film really) the journey has been pleasantly enjoyable thanks to some spirited performances from a largely unknown cast and a decent script. On reflection, we’re probably not minded to ask for a refund on our ticket and we might not even object to travelling with director Dale Fabriger again as long as he has a slightly clearer idea of where he’s going and how he plans to get there next time out of the station.

Release Date: July 19th

UNION BOUND

The 1864, Battle of the Wilderness heralded the start of a new and bloody phase of attrition in the Virginian theatre of the American Civil War. Indie historical flick Union Bound is inspired by the real-life diaries of Union soldier Sergeant Joseph E Hoover who was amongst the many combatants on both sides who were captured during the three days of intense fighting.

After Hoover and his compatriot Ryan escape from a tented stockade, the pair face a daunting journey, unsupported and on foot, back towards the safety of their force’s frontline. The film focuses on the vital help that the fugitives receive on the way from sympathetic locals.

Civil War ‘reenactment societies’ remain extremely popular in the US. It makes good sense for period filmmakers working with a modest budget to take advantage of this enthusiasm. The larger such societies, composed of dedicated enthusiasts, can provide access to authentic costumes, firearms, horses and extensive experience of staging battle sequences in the field. The producers of Union Bound avail themselves of exactly that sort of backing, which means that the opening and closing skirmishes between Union and Confederate troops are realised to decent effect. But the bulk of the film is a more intimate, small-scale affair, focusing on the plight of the isolated escapees.

The fugitives’ journey back towards their own lines sees director Harvey Lowry get equally good value from the woodlands, open fields, lakes and rivers of some timeless rural hinterlands. But it’s when attention moves past the film’s visuals that things rapidly go downhill. The quality of the acting delivered by the small ensemble is patchy, and cast members are often defeated by the clunkier lines of melodramatic dialogue. Lowry also struggles to invest the escapees’ flight with much in the way of tension or excitement. The original soundtrack is serviceable enough, but it’s used to saturating effect right across the film to try to inject a sense of atmosphere that’s otherwise often lacking.

But the film’s biggest shortcoming is in the realisation of its central premise. The escaped Union soldiers evade capture because of the bravery and sacrifice of black slaves that shelter and guide them towards freedom. On several occasions, that selflessness comes at a terrible personal cost. Writer John Errington does not challenge the narrative lens of his source material, so the original diarist’s sense of which lives matter the most is retained in his screenplay. This is an historical film light on insight into the times in which it is set and with an oddly skewed sense of who the story’s heroes are.

Union Bound will be available on streaming platforms in August.

THE RINGMASTER

The Danish aren’t known for horror movies. The Ringmaster recognises this, flashing a title card, which states how the Danes are recognised for being benevolent, giving the world the concept of hygge (Scandinavian for cosy). Director Søren Juul Petersen does his best to dispel this impression, with a low budget but highly effective affair that manages to build tension and disturb in equal measures.

Agnes (Anne Bergfeld) is studying psychology but works at her father’s petrol station part-time, she joins the unstable Belinda (Karin Michelsen) on a quiet night shift, as most people are watching Denmark in an unspecific sports final. We start to cut back and forth between the station, where a small group of unhinged characters visit (including Belinda’s deadbeat boyfriend) and a disturbing present, in which Agnes has been kidnapped and tortured by an unknown assailant. This technique builds the tension successfully, as we know that something is going to go seriously wrong, every false start putting us on edge even further.

Once the tension dissipates we finally see the crux of the matter, unseen customers using the dark web to watch Agnes and Belinda being tortured by the titular Ringmaster (who speaks in English, whereas the protagonist converse in Danish). The scenes are disturbing with some extreme violence and female nudity present, but nothing viewers of the Saw franchise haven’t seen before. Not everything works, there is a pointless introduction from a tenor channelling Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and the film unsuccessfully tries to link Roman Gladiators to the sick online spectacle we have witnessed. Peterson must be applauded for skilled work though, if there is an opposite to hygge, he creates it here.

The Ringmaster is available on digital and DVD in the UK and Blu-ray in the US.

BLACK WIDOW

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is back – and it’s about time. Principal photography on the long-awaited, much-anticipated solo outing for Scarlett Johannsen’s superspy Natasha Romanoff finished in October 2019 and events of the last sixteen months or so resulted in the film bouncing around the MCU release schedule and for a while, it looked as if the film might ultimately find itself shunted off exclusively to the Disney+ streaming service. Wiser heads have prevailed, though, and we can now finally head back to the Multiplex and enjoy the thrill of that evocative and rousing Marvel Studios fanfare before settling down to immerse ourselves in another instalment of modern cinema’s most successful and irresistible franchise.

Against all the odds – especially bearing in mind how long we’ve waited and how much our anticipation levels may have ebbed – Black Widow is another mighty Marvel triumph. Critics and MCU fans alike have questioned the point and purpose of the film, bearing in mind that we know, thanks to Avengers Endgame, the character’s ultimate tragic fate and whilst it’s true that this is a film that really should have been made and released several years ago, Black Widow has been cleverly structured so that the story itself is what’s important; what we know about her future is barely relevant and the fact that the audience knows she’s going to make it out alive at the end of the film really doesn’t diminish our enjoyment of a thrilling, absorbing adventure story that marries the best of Bond and Mission: Impossible (raising the bar certainly for the former of those esteemed franchises) with a generous helping of Marvel magic, humour, and spectacle. This is a film that finally gives us some context for Natasha’s life as an Avenger and a superhero and tells us something about her history and her childhood which, in some ways, is as tragic as her unavoidable destiny.

In Ohio in 1995, Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz) and their two wide-eyed young daughters are on the run for reasons we’re not yet aware of. During an audacious escape sequence, it becomes apparent that Alexei is possessed of extraordinary strength and agility. The family flee to Cuba where they are met by the sinister General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) and the fate of the entire family – especially the two young girls – changes forever as they are taken to the Red Room training facility.

Fast forward to 2016 and Natasha Romanoff is a fugitive from the Government, having violated the regulations imposed by the Sokovia Accords (see Captain America: Civil War). The Avengers have been split asunder and many of them are imprisoned. Natasha flees to Norway to keep her head down even as her sister Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) terminates a rogue Black Widow and discovers the secret of the Red Dust that removes Red Room conditioning. She sends the Dust to Natasha and in time the two are reunited – they’re very different people now despite their shared experiences – and Natasha learns that she has unfinished business not only with Dreykov, who she believed she had killed years ago but also with her own family. But the super-powered, armoured Taskmaster is on their trail along with a troop of trained Black Widows and the pair embark on an audacious jailbreak to free the one man who might be able to help them make sense of their past and bring a final end to the brutality of the Red Room.

Black Widow brushes aside those potentially valid criticisms of its timeliness by sheer virtue of the fact that its story is so damned interesting and the dynamic between Natasha and Yelena (effervescently played by Pugh, who virtually steals the show) is so potent. This is a film that races along from explosive set-piece to explosive set-piece; Natasha herself is on top form and the fight sequences are both balletic and kinetic as she takes on the imposing Taskmaster and groups of gun-blazing Black Widows. But the film’s real strengths are those familial bonds it eventually builds when Natasha and her ‘family’ are finally back together and we find out more than we or even Natasha might have suspected about her true background. David Harbour shines in these more intimate scenes, his bulk squeezed back into his Red Guardian costume (he was injected with the Captain America super-soldier serum) and, along with Pugh, he provides the film’s best and most beautifully judged comedic moments and even though she’s slightly underused, Rachel Weisz is a formidable presence capable of her moments of ruthlessness when required.

Circumstance leads the entire family to the location of the Red Room and a final confrontation with the Black Widow training programme, the implacable Dreykov, and the Taskmaster, whose identity here might annoy Marvel purists but is entirely appropriate in this new context. The finale, needless to say, is action-packed and explosive… and you will, of course, stay for the post-credits sequence that links jaw-droppingly back to recent developments in other areas of the Marvel Universe.

Black Widow is terrific entertainment and if the film had appeared any earlier in the MCU timelines the chances are it would have been a rather different movie. As it is, it stands as a perfect ‘full stop’ to Natasha’s story, adding some much-needed colour to a character who had previously been a reliable Avenger whose previous life was little more than a blank page. If we’ve any criticisms – and of course we have – then it’s slightly frustrating that what’s been a well-balanced action movie with moments of genuinely affecting human drama tumbles into the standard bombastic Marvel CGI climax cliché and whilst Ray Winstone is good value as the ruthless Dreykov his Russian accents does meander now and again into Fiddler on the Roof territory. But these are really minor quibbles on what will never be remembered as a game-changing, top tier entry into the MCU because it was never intended to be taken that way. It’s easily top mid-level stuff, comfortably rubbing shoulders with the Ant-Man series and the early Thors, hugely entertaining in its own right, adding colour to an underserved supporting character and providing the cinematic thrills and spills that only the MCU can deliver with this effortless bravado.

Black Widow is in cinemas now and available on Disney+ with Premier Access.

FEAR STREET PART 2: 1978

If Leigh Janiak’s Fear Street: 1994 was her Scream riff, then the second film in the series is a love letter to the summer camp subgenre. As Freddy vs Jason taught us that Camp Crystal Lake was but a few miles from Elm Street, so we find that Shadyside has its own equivalent. Enter Camp Nightwing – a summer camp straight out of The Burning, Sleepaway Camp and Friday the 13th.

Like its predecessor, this is a horror film designed to appeal to horror fans without alienating a wider audience. A killer is on the loose in Camp Nightwing, influenced by the witch Sarah Fier (these are books for kids and teens, remember). Troubled teen Ziggy Berman (Sadie Sink) is either responsible or set to be a victim of the killer(s) – an outcast, bullied mercilessly by her fellow campmates. Meanwhile, in the present day (well, 1994), Deena (Kiana Madeira) tracks down Ziggy’s sister (Gillian Jacobs) in the hope that she can help fend off the still-persistent witch’s advances. The film’s bookends tie it back to 1994, but this sequel largely stands as its own entity, with its own distinct tone and atmosphere.

With the audience already hooked, the pace is a bit slower, the story more mystery focused than it is concerned with gory kills and flashy action sequences. While it retains the R-rated splatter, there’s nothing to match the first film’s bread slicer sequence – no one expected Fear Street to go that hard, and it’s impossible to capture that sense of surprise for a second time.

With less time spent on references and nostalgia (save for a lot of Stephen King talk and a very familiar-looking burlap sack), Janiak uses 1978 to get on with making a taut, effective slasher movie. Like its predecessor, it could use fewer needle drops (yes, we also remember seventies music), but gives good homage to the subgenre it imitates. It’s darker, more mature and less winkingly ironic. Horror fans who already lived through the first wave of summer camp slasher films won’t find anything particularly new here, but Fear Street: 1978 is an enjoyable throwback. Next up: the swinging sixties. Witch-swinging sixteen-sixties, that is.