WHAT GOES AROUND

Stars: Catherine Morvell, Jesse Bouma, Gabrielle Pearson, Charles Jazz Terrier, Taylor Pearce, Aly Zhang, Maximilian Johnson and Ace Whitman.
Writer/Director: Sam Hamilton.

Currently available globally via Prime Video, Genflix and Vimeo on Demand.

Rating: ★ ★ ★

The cinematic DNA of ageing ensemble shockers Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) is coursing through the bloody veins of Sam Hamilton’s What Goes Around. Hinting at the cyclical nature of the slasher movie fad from the title on down, this splattery, silly but undeniably entertaining reworking of shopworn stalk-&-stab tropes will wear some deep critical cuts but also prove a blast for audiences for whom the ‘90s is that distant decade in which their parents got married.

Aiming for a demographic smart enough to know its horror movie references but not so gratingly ironic as to dismiss them outright, Hamilton’s feature directing debut talks the talk to today’s 20-somethings - his cast drink a lot of coffee (and milkshakes), text all the time, converse (and dance) awkwardly at parties. Out front is Erin Macneil (the terrific Catherine Morvell, recalling Emily Blunt by way of Kerry Armstrong; pictured, top), a socially withdrawn film-school student who remains in touch with her bff, Rachel (Gabrielle Pearson). 

The ol’ high-school gang are also around, including tart-mouth stirrer Marnie (Ace Whitman), upwardly-mobile jerk Cameron (Charles Jazz Terrier), his doormat gf Cara (Aly Chang), and support players Jake (Taylor Pearce) and Tom (Maximilian Johnson), for whom these sort of movies never end particularly well.

Erin’s documentary-class crush is Alex Harrison (Jesse Bouma; pictured, above), the narrative’s ‘Skeet Ulrich’-type, who somewhat suspiciously leaves his laptop right where Erin can find it. Find it she does, and soon spying upon his private emails is she. Things turn ugly when Erin opens an email from ‘Snuff Boy’, and a brutal killing-video unfolds before her disbelieving eyes. As with even the best of this genre (throw in Urban Legend, Halloween H20, The Faculty, all the Scream and Summer sequels), the plot moves forward based upon one or more characters making bad choices; here, Erin ignores said snuff footage and allows herself to be wooed by Alex. 

As the bodies pile up and the group’s backstory comes into focus, Hamilton’s skill at moving his story along at a clip (the pic is a thankfully tight 78 mins) is appreciated; implausibilities are pushed aside and the cool stuff that slasher fans pine for moves centre-stage. The kills are staged with efficiency and build with intensity; come the final frames, nail-guns and hacksaws feel about right.

Bring a few grains of salt. The gruesome murders all take place in a middle-class Australian suburb with seemingly no police force; despite several bloody deaths amongst their core group and a cyber-crime component which places it under federal jurisdiction, no character is ever interrogated or seeks counselling. Things move pretty fast in slasher movies, rarely allowing for such affectations as mourning or police procedural work.

Not that the lack of such subtleties proves an anchor for What Goes Around, as Hamilton knows what makes the genre tick. The balance of charismatic performers, a bloody bodycount and the occasional wink to the audience in service of the mid-level mystery plot is what rejuvenated the slice-&-dice romp 25 years ago, and may do again.

What Goes Around | Official Trailer from Bounty Films on Vimeo.

ANTRUM: THE DEADLIEST FILM EVER MADE

Stars: Nicole Tompkins, Rowan Smyth, Dan Istrate, Circus-Szalewski, Shu Sakimoto, Kristel Elling and Pierluca Arancio.
Narrated by Lucy Rayner.
Writer: David Amito.
Directors: David Amito, Michael Laicini.

Available in Australia on all digital platforms including Foxtel Store, iTunes, Google Play and FetchTV.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

The 1977 horror film Antrum began to travel the festival circuit in the early 80s. Its legend grew after the strange deaths of several festival programmers, each of whom had only just watched the film. In 1988, a screening in Budapest ended in tragedy, when a cinema appeared to spontaneously combust, killing 56 patrons. In 1993, a San Francisco theatre owner dared moviegoers to defy the cursed movie, only to have a panicked audience flee the screening, trampling a pregnant woman to death. The lone print of Antrum, the deadliest movie ever made, was thought to be destroyed…

In Antrum: The Deadliest Movie Ever Made, Canadian filmmakers David Amito and Michael Laicini challenge doubters of the curse to endure the original film. They begin their potentially lethal resurrection of the work with academic, psychoanalytic and festival director types, who put their own spin on the legend of Antrum; then, a ‘Legal Notice’ fills the screen, exempting all who brought the film to you of any claims should you, indeed, die. The film’s header frames blur by, numbers and scratched images merging…

Antrum is the story of a teenage girl, Oralee (Nicole Tompkins), and her younger brother, Nathan (Rowan Smyth), and the gateway to Hell they uncover while trying to recover the soul of their dead dog, Maxine. The pair head to a clearing in the woods, Nathan having been convinced by Oralee that it is the exact point on Earth where Lucifer landed when God cast him out of Heaven. As they begin to dig, chapter headings herald the uncovering of each new underworld layer, until soon the kids’ fading sense of reality and the exponentially increasing grip of insanity are melding.

I hope it is obvious by now that the legend of ‘The Deadliest Movie Ever Made’ is an intricately staged cinematic con-job; there was no Antrum, the doco is a mocko, and any convoluted backstory about dead Hungarian cinemagoers is pure fiction. But Amito and Laicini ensure it all unfolds in an earnestly told and legitimately chilling manner, both their faux-70s filmmaking technique and pretend ‘experts’ convincing. Though shot entirely in 2018, ‘Antrum’ (Latin for ‘cave’) is an authentically arty, folk-horror facsimile that could have emerged from the distant decade.

As the horror becomes tangible for Oralee and Nathan, so must it have for Tompkins and Smyth; the young actors are, quite literally, put through Hell by their directors. In one shocking scene, Smyth is dragged from a cage and placed in the cast-iron belly of a goat-demon oven. Both are called upon to do hard physical work in the course of their performances, while Tompkins especially conveys the emotional and mental cost of her fight with demonic forces.

There is just enough research afforded the meaning of sigils, pentagrams, biblical references and Latin text to make the ‘cursed film’ construct believable. The film’s bookends - the ‘documentary’ parts - examine key frames, where semi-subliminal imagery of the kind that welcomes demons into our world is revealed. The film is rich with subtext exploring how a young child deals with death, grief and spirituality; ambiguous but compelling parallels are drawn, for example, between Nathan’s connection to Maxine after her passing and his fear and fascination with Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards Hell’s gates.

Most fascinating is the challenge that Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made sets for you, the viewer who wants to know how effective a film that causes madness and death in those that watch it can be. You will register the scratched frames; you may glimpse split-second scenes of torture; you’ll likely see shadows that seem alive, or discordant sounds that unbalance you. Rest assured, it’s all a brilliant fiction; if it wasn’t, this review, deliberately and dangerously leading you astray, would be the work of the Devil...    

STAY OUT STAY ALIVE

Stars: Brandon Wardle, Brie Mattson, Sage Mears, William Romano-Pugh, Christina July Kim, David Fine and Barbara Crampton.
Writer/Director: Dean Yurke.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Hoary old horror movie tropes still have a lot of life left in them if Dean Yurke’s Stay Out Stay Alive is any indication. The debutant director rakes over such well-trodden ground as Native American curses, creepy old mines and college kids who should no better than going bush, yet within those familiar parameters he delivers a convincingly scary spin on just how ugly human nature can be when tempted by greed and twisted by paranoia.

Like a million other films in the history of horror cinema, Yurke introduces his protagonists packed into a minivan, riffing on the pros and cons of camping deep in the woods. Gregarious blonde Bridget (Brie Mattson) is all giggly and flirty with her jock bf, Reese (Brandon Wardle); studious Amy (Christina July Kim) is focussed on her PhD paper, barely registering her nerdy guy Kyle (William Romano-Pugh); and, making up the numbers, just-dumped Donna (Sage Mears), who feels her solitary status so much it makes her wander into the night as her matched-up friends party by the campfire.

When Donna falls into an abandoned mine, her attempted rescue leads to the matter-of-fact discovery of a gold seam. No one considers the ease of its uncovering particularly strange, until clues point to a) the mass death of past visitors to the pit and b) a curse placed upon the woods by a Native American Chief, whose ghostly tribesman may still haunt the region (Yurke based it upon a legend stemming from the Mariposa Indian War of 1851, during which the son of a tribal elder was killed and the region was believed placed under a vengeful curse).

The production’s decision to cast actors slightly older than your average cabin-in-the-woods horror kids works in favour of the deeper themes at play and serves to elevate the psychological drama of Yurke’s narrative. Relationship dynamics, patriarchal hierarchy and middle-class entitlement all surface as rapidly as the storm waters that threaten the valley, each bringing a heightened and masterfully sustained tension between the characters. Yurke bounces jauntily through the prerequisite first act genre beats (phones don’t work, check; sexy tent action, check; red herring scares, check) before settling comfortably into the meat of his drama.

The pic’s supernatural visitations are superbly creepy; one sequence late in Act III, in which one character is confronted by spirit animal manifestations of the murdered Natives, is particularly chilling. Bringing legitimate horror movie cred is an extended cameo by the great Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, 1985; From Beyond, 1986), whose off-kilter ‘Ranger Susanna’ represents another memorable turn in her indie horror-led career resurgence (You’re Next, 2011; Lords of Salem, 2012; We Are Still Here, 2015; Beyond the Gates, 2016; Reborn, 2018).

Despite its mid-budget pedigree and occasionally underground setting, it should be no surprise that Yurke’s debut looks so damn good. With 25 years behind him as one of Hollywood’s most respected digital artists and long ties to employer Industrial Light & Magic (who facilitated post work on the film), Yurke delivers a thrilling, visually engaging close-quarters shocker. Hard to believe with his CV he’d need to impress with an ambitious, accomplished calling-card work, but he has; 2½ decades into a distinguished b.t.s. career, Dean Yurke the director has arrived.

Stay Out Stay Alive - Official Trailer from Dean Yurke on Vimeo.

  

BLOOD VESSEL

Stars: Nathan Phillips, Alyssa Sutherland, Alex Cooke, Robert Taylor, Christopher Kirby, John Lloyd Fillingham, Mark Diaco, Vivienne Perry, Troy Larkin and Steve Young.
Writers: Justin Dix and Jordan Prosser.
Director: Justin Dix

Screening at FANGORIA x MONSTER FEST 2019 from October 31-November 4. Check the official website for session details.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Blood Vessel plays like the movie equivalent of the best cover band you’ve ever seen. Grab-bagging iconic moments from classic genre films and pumping them full of fresh energy, director Justin Dix and his ensemble of committed players offer a ripping high-seas yarn that plays as both a joyous homage to beloved horror tropes and a bloody nightmarish adventure in its own right.

The sophomore feature for effects guru Dix (his 2012 calling-card debut, Crawlspace, earned praise and profit on the genre circuit) is set during the final months of the Second World War. The Axis forces are settling scores by defying wartime convention and have torpedoed a hospital ship; the survivors, a potpourri of international characters representing the combined Allied effort, have been set adrift in a life raft.

Manliest and most level-headed amongst them are the Aussie, Sinclair (Nathan Philips) and Russian, Teplov (Alex Cooke); U.S. military might coms in the form of square-jawed Malone (Robert Taylor), upright African-American hero Jackson (a terrific Christopher Kirby) and whiny New Yorker Bigelow (Mark Diaco); flying the English flag are a nurse, Jane Prescott (Alyssa Sutherland) and cowardly code-breaker, Faraday (John Lloyd Fillingham). There is a twinkle in the eye of every performer, each recognizing that the quality dialogue and opportunity for impactful drama does not often exist in these types of old-school horror romps.

Suffering from starvation and exposure, the group are happier than they should be when a lumbering German minesweeper emerges eerily from the fog. Weighing their fatalistic odds – die slowly at sea or quickly at the hands of a crew bearing the Nazi flag – they decide to board, affording Dix the opportunity to stage an exciting action set piece to kick off proceedings. The already frayed racial tension amongst the group must soon cope with such developments as a ship devoid of crew, bar the occasional gruesome discovery, and a secured section deep below-deck that carries ancient Romanian types best left undisturbed.

Dix and co-writer Jordan Prosser clearly know and love their B-movie inspirations, and they treat that knowledge with respect in crafting the character dynamics and narrative beats of Blood Vessel. The ‘haunted/mysterious ship’ sub-genre is a rich one; Alvin Rakoff’s Death Ship (1980) and Steve Beck’s Ghost Ship (1980), most notably, but also Bruce Kessler’s 1978 TV movie Cruise into Terror and Amando de Ossorio’s 1974 Spanish shlockbuster, The Ghost Galleon, both of which exhibit elements used to great effect in this new Australian entrant.

They provide a framework, but ‘haunted boat’ movies are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the films to which Dix tips his hat. The German crew’s method of ensuring the horror doesn’t spread (and the lighting and camera angles adopted by DOP Sky Davies to depict the result) visually echoes the discovery of the Norwegian base in John Carpenter’s The Thing; Nurse Prescott’s relationship with a little girl they find on board (played by Ruby Hall, her appearance mirroring that of Lina Leandersson in Let The Right One In) recalls the bond between Ripley and Newt in Aliens; the whole ‘Nazis and the Occult’ angle was the spine of Spielberg’s Raiders of The Lost Ark (remember, “Hitler's a nut on the subject”).

Dix returns that which he has borrowed with interest; while horror buffs will spot the references, attention is never drawn away from the on-screen action. Bathing his supernatural thriller in rich blues, deep blacks and primal reds, Dix crafts a closed-quarters, claustrophobic nail-biter that belies its mid-range budget through the use of skillful set design, expertly rendered miniatures and icky gore effects. Genre festival berths and a long life servicing genre fans hunting for legitimate frights are assured.

NIGHTMARE CINEMA

Stars: Mickey Rourke, Sarah Elizabeth Withers, Faly Rakotohavana, Maurice Benard, Elizabeth Reaser, Zarah Mahler, Mark Grossman, Eric Nelsen, Richard Chamberlain, Adam Godley and Annabeth Gish.
Writers: Mick Garris, Alejandro Brugues, Richard Christian Matheson, Sandra Becerril, David Slade and Lawrence C. Connolly.
Directors: Mick Garris, Alejandro Brugués, Joe Dante, Ryûhei Kitamura and David Slade.

Screening at Monster Fest VII on Friday November 23 at Cinema Nova, Carlton.

Rating: ★★★★

The five-part anthology Nightmare Cinema continues co-producer Mick Garris’ dark obsession with short-form film narrative, the kind that he ushered to cult status as the driving force behind the TV series Masters of Horror. Rife with a degree of references, homages and nods that only a super-fan will fully appreciate, Garris has corralled a rogue’s gallery of international horror director heavyweights, resulting in a stylistically diverse creep show but one that sustains the shared goal of chills, thrills and giggles.

The deceptively simple premise features five would-be protagonists who stumble/are drawn into an empty picture palace, where visions of their own demise unfold before them based upon horror sub-genres. Argentinian filmmaker Alejandro Brugués (Juan of The Dead, 2011; ABCs of Death 2, 2014) starts the party with ‘The Thing in The Woods’, hurling young actress Sarah Elizabeth Withers into her own Friday the 13^th–inspired battle for survival. Costumed to recall franchise favourite Kirsten Baker and facing off against a high-concept villain called ‘The Welder’ (Eric Nelsen), Withers (pictured, below) proves a good sport when the going gets gruesome, her director changing tact at the midway point from slasher tropes to something else entirely.

Brugues’ segment is a loving nod to 80s VHS nasties and could just as satisfyingly been conjured from the mind of longtime Garris cohort, Joe Dante. The beloved director of The Howling (1981), Gremlins (1984) and Innerspace (1987) instead opts for a horror hospital riff called ‘Mirari’, in which a scarred woman (Zarah Mahler) reluctantly appeases the wishes of her handsome fiancé (Mark Grossman) and undergoes reconstructive work by the hands of Richard Chamberlain’s too-charming plastic surgeon. Dante indulges in some of the film’s most icky practical effects work while displaying his skill with the short-story format; Mirari recalls the classic Twilight Zone episode ‘Eye of he Beholder’, reigniting the debate as to whether Dante or Dr George Miller delivered the very best bits of Twilight Zone The Movie (1983).

It is following Dante’s segment that we are introduced to name player Mickey Rourke as The Projectionist, a Mephistophelian figure who oversees the unspooling of each film from his darkened booth and wanders the aisles of the cinema dispensing enigmatic menace. Rourke doesn’t have a lot to work with, unfortunately; he is no Cryptkeeper, guiding the audience on their fearful journey, or voice of subtext wisdom like Rod Serling. He largely lurks, albeit with Rourke’s still potent onscreen presence.

Nightmare Cinema settles into its truly horrifying groove with segments three and four, the most fearlessly ambitious of the compendium. In ‘Mashit’, Japanese director Ryûhei Kitamura (Versus, 2000; Azumi, 2003; The Midnight Meat Train, 2008) unleashes the titular demon (pictured, top) on a morally corrupt Catholic school. The insidious Father Benedict (Maurice Bernard) and the nun-led-astray Sister Patricia (Mariela Garriga) are no match for a dorm of possessed children led by a horned, malformed deity from Hell or a director who can deftly deliver a jump-cut scare.

Hollywood’s most under-valued horror director, David Slade (Hard Candy, 2005; 30 Days of Night, 2007) provides the psychologically troubling vision, ‘This Way to Egress’. Shot in richly textured black-&-white, it stars Elizabeth Reaser (pictured, above; currently seen in the hit Netflix show, The Haunting of Hill House) as a mother of two brattish boys slowly losing her mind in the waiting room of her ‘specialist’, Dr Salvador (Adam Goodley). As time passes, the pristine office surrounds become overwhelmed by a dark filth; the faces of those that she passes in the halls grow increasingly deformed. Slades’ film is a masterful take on mental health, depression, social disconnection; while it foregoes the visceral horror of the film to this point, it is a warped walk in a convincingly disturbing, Cronenberg-esque realm.

Finally, Garris himself steps into the director’s chair for ‘Death’, in which musical prodigy Riley (Faly Rakotohavana) starts to see dead people as he recovers in (another) creepy hospital ICU after a carjacking that claimed his parents. Hunted by the murderer (Orson Chaplin) and haunted by his mother (Annabeth Gish), Riley’s plight in the hands of Rakotohavana proves not only thoroughly creepy but also surprisingly moving; Garris nods to The Sixth Sense perhaps once too often, but does so with heart and conviction.

The all-encompassing title implies a genre of its own, so it is fitting that so much of Nightmare Cinema draws from then reinterprets the horror visions of filmmakers that have gone before, delivered by Garris and his peers with a true understanding of a horror fan’s fixation.

THE SOUL CONDUCTOR

Stars: Aleksandra Bortich, Evgeniy Tsyganov, Vladimir Yaglych, Aleksandr Robak, Vasiliy Bochkaryov and Ekaterina Rokotova.
Writers: Anna Kurbatova and Aleksandr Topuriya.
Director: Ilya S. Maksimov.

Screening at the 2018 Russian Resurrection Film Festival. Venue and session information available here.

Rating: ★★★★

The ties that bind us beyond the grave are explored within a thrilling supernatural framework in Ilya S. Maksimov’s The Soul Conductor (Provodnik). A ghost story that relies less on the ‘boo!’ factor and more on the haunting sadness of a life left incomplete, this high-end commercial entry from the Russian offices of 20th Century Fox offers both pensive, thoughtful meditation on regret and memory as well as spectacularly realised and chilling moments of modern movie horror.

Emerging star Aleksandra Bortich plays hardened 20-something Katya, a young woman not only able to see dead people but forced to co-exist with three desperate souls (Aleksandr Robak, Vasiliy Bochkaryov, Ekaterina Rokotova) who randomly materialise, often with their own agendas. Katya is also haunted by the grief of family tragedy; she was orphaned following a car accident that claimed both her parents, and is left shattered when her twin sister disappears, occasionally visiting Katya as an ethereal vision.

On top of all this burdensome emotional and supernatural baggage, Katya is drawn back to a decrepit mansion where, as a little girl, she witnessed an act of violent demonic transference (hence the title). The entity may have been responsible for the deaths of three young woman, blonde and blue-eyed like our protagonist, and Katya establishes an uneasy alliance with boozy career-detective Kapkov (Evgeniy Tsyganov) to bring about the beast’s downfall.

Bortich is a compelling presence, playing sweet and strong, damaged and defiant, with confidence and charisma that ought to be noticed by Hollywood suits keen to establish a new YA heroine figure (the 'Russian Jennifer Lawrence' tag is unavoidable). Scripted by Anna Kurbatova and Aleksandr Topuriya, The Soul Conductor affords the actress a multi-dimensional character the likes of which only emerges in those genre films with thematic weight to distill. The intrusion of memories into real life and the associated terror, grief and regret are played out convincingly by the 24 year-old Belarusian actress, who must also front up for the arduous physical acting required of a female lead battling a serial killer/satanic force.

The redemptive arc of the narrative is no surprise, but director Ilya S. Maksimov is making his film directorial debut after a decade in television, where clear, precise storytelling is a virtue; his skill at nailing strong story beats and maximising every frames potential is to the pics benefit. All other department heads under his watch provide slick, professional service, especially DOP and long-time collaborator Yuri Bekhterev, whose imagery is often breathtakingly lovely given the dark material.

TRAUMA

Stars: Catalina Martin, Macarena Carrere, Ximena del Solar, Dominga Bofill, Daniel Antivilo, Eduardo Paxeco, Felipe Ríos and Claudio Riveros.
Writer/Director: Lucio A. Rojas.

AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE: Screening Friday, September 14 at the SYDNEY UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL.

Warning: Some content may offend or distress.

Rating: 4.5/5

The most horrifically violent period in Chile’s political history casts a very dark shadow over the current war between the sexes in the perfectly prescient and appropriately titled Trauma. Taking as its entry point a stomach-churning sequence destined for frame-by-frame breakdown by censorship bodies around the world, writer-director Lucio A. Rojas’ blistering vision embraces the unthinkable reality of Pinochet’s torture-chamber hell and how his homeland still suffers under the legacy of the brutally soul-crushing dictatorship.

Assured of cinematic infamy, the prologue is set in the mid 1970s, at the height of the neo-fascist’s military reign. A seasoned torturer (Alejandro Trejo) is in the midst of committing unspeakable atrocities upon a woman, his ultimate dehumanizing act being the introduction of her teenage son, Juan. There are ties that bind the three participants, a bond thematically linked to Rojas’ exploration of family discord and systemic violence in traditionally male-centric domesticity.

The narrative moves to Santiago, 2011 and introduces Rojas’ protagonists (by way of some equally graphic Sapphic love, reinforcing the material’s  ‘sex and violence’ genre credentials), four twenty-somethings destined for a rural getaway. Andrea (Catalina Martin, a fierce central figure in her own right) is tightly wound, slightly more mature than her travel mates, and rather too good at the ‘passive/aggressive big-sister’ persona, leading to some familial tension with her sister Camila (Macarena Carrere) and Camila’s girlfriend, the free-spirited Julia (Ximena del Solar); the sister’s cousin Magdalena (Dominga Bofill) is younger still, sweet but adventurous.

There is a familiarity to this Act 1 set-up that horror fans will recognize. The girls reveal aspects of themselves on the long drive, further defining their character traits; the region is so remote, Andrea forgets where her uncle’s retreat actually is; the group stop for directions at ‘Gloria’s Tavern’ (suspiciously lacking a ‘Gloria’), the creepy locals acting as both sexist bullies and a warning sign that the girl’s don’t decipher. Intercut with these scenes are moments in the life of the now adult Juan (Daniel Antivilo, reuniting with the director after their 2015 collaboration, Sendero), a local ‘identity’ who lives with his adult son Mario (Felipe Ríos) in a ‘house of horrors’ directly linked to the pre-credit sequence.

The girl’s first night in the cabin is a boozy one, marred by issues they had hoped to work through on the trip. Julia unwinds with a striptease, which Rojas and his ace DOP Sebastián Ballek shoot in a leery, overtly-sexualized manner that initially seems to betray the care he has taken in creating these complex female characters. When it is revealed, however, that Juan and Mario have been watching the dance, Rojas turns the ‘male gaze’ in which he has indulged back on the viewer; in a deceptively clever piece of deconstruction, the director has coerced his audience into being at one with the psychopathic villain.

The centerpiece of Trauma is the home invasion sequence that follows, a passage of visceral film imagery and design that will be too immersive for even some seasoned horror buffs. Although it is all but impossible to decipher as the unfettered sexual, physical and psychological abuse unfolds, the passage serves to spin Rojas’ film into the realm of gender-based conflict; the family of women, however flawed they may be in their own ways, are now unified and at war with traditional familial patriarchy, in which toxic masculinity, sexualized violence and generational abuse has festered.    

The group tracks the men to their maze-like home, and Trauma becomes a series of gruesome encounters and tense near-misses in the darkness. The narrative continues to deliver as a bloody horror film, but the subtext that enriched the first hour makes way for well-staged, heavily stylized ‘final girl’ genre tropes in Act 3. Nevertheless, Rojas contemplates his themes and shoots his action in a manner that demands that his work be closely watched in years to come; he is one of the new wave of exciting Latin American horror filmmakers, amongst them Javier Attridge (Wekufe The Origin of Evil, 2017), Jorge Olguin (Gritos del Bosque, 2017) and Samuel Galli (Mal Nosso, 2017).

It is hard to envision a denouement to Trauma that inspires hope, so steeped as it is in ‘sins of the father’ and ‘scars of history’ symbolism. But that is precisely what Rojas affords his cinematic world and, by association, his country. The final images suggest that the time for rebirth is now and that faith be placed in a maternal nurturing of a new national spirit. For a film so consumed by painful memories, the most potent act of killing that Trauma imagines is the one that leaves the ghosts of the past behind for good.

WARNING: TRAILER CONTAINS IMAGES THAT MAY DISTRESS AND OFFEND.

I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER

Stars: Max Records, Christopher Lloyd, Laura Fraser, Karl Geary, Lucy Lawton, Bruce Bohne, Matt Roy and Dee Noah.
Writers: Billy O’Brien and Christopher Hyde, based upon the novel by Dan Wells.
Director: Billy O’Brien

Rating: 4/5

The ‘teenage American Gothic’ ambience of Dan Wells’ young-adult novel I Am Not a Serial Killer is recaptured with an occasionally morbid yet invigorating cadence in director Billy O’Brien’s bracingly icky, hugely entertaining adaptation.

In equal measure a small-town murder mystery, alienated teen saga and bloody body count slasher, O’Brien and co-scripter Christopher Hyde have crafted a work that has had reviewers recalling everything from TV’s series Fargo, Dexter and Six Feet Under to publishing franchise Goosebumps to George Romero’s 1977 film Martin (we’ll offer up Bryan Singer’s Apt Pupil and some Twin Peaks, too). But the atmospherics soar when it is bringing its own uniquely dark and dirty take on murderous urges and giving the forward momentum over to its two outstanding leading men.

Key protagonist is John Cleaver, a young man pulling shifts draining blood at his broken family’s mortuary while being completely self aware of his borderline sociopathic state. In the hands of the great Max Records, Cleaver takes his place alongside Jake Gyllenhaal’s Donnie Darko as one of contemporary teen cinema’s most vividly etched characters; like Darko, O’Brien’s anti-hero is introduced peddling his own way through a landscape that is at once familiar yet disorienting. His snow-covered Midwestern burg is in the early stages of a serial killing spree, the by-product of a mindset with which Cleaver is himself grappling.

Cleaver’s ‘Hardy Boys’-like guile has him zeroing in on a suspect; when he witnesses the stranger smooth-talk his elderly neighbour Crowley (Christopher Lloyd) into a car trip into the wilderness, Cleaver suspects the worst. In one of the great second act kickers in recent memory, O’Brien spins the story into a whole new and shocking realm that rattles both Cleaver and the viewer. To detail the narrative developments would be unavoidably spoiler-y, suffice to say it allows for Cleaver to fully explore and better understand the nature of his own tendencies while still wonderfully servicing the requirements of both the ‘teen loner hero’ and ‘slasher pic’ tropes.

Expect Christopher Lloyd’s performance to come into sharp focus during award season prognosticating. It is entirely deserving of recognition in the always hotly contested ‘Supporting Actor’ category, so menacingly understated and against type for the actor, still best known as Back to the Future’s Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown (in a perfect world, he will be up against John Goodman’s similarly enigmatic mystery-man Howard in 10 Cloverfield Lane). An Independent Spirit nod seems most likely; could A.M.P.A.S. see past the film’s genre roots (horror rarely gets noticed) to award Lloyd, one of Hollywood’s most beloved ageing icons? Records nails the tone required of him by his director, as well; his delivery of Cleaver’s ‘cardboard box’ speech, in which he dresses down a bully with eloquent insight into how he keeps his homicidal drive in check, is an instant classic.

O’Brien has reworked some hoary horror tropes in the past to deliver sly, sinister, engaging B-movies (genetically-modified farm horror in Isolation, 2006; rampant alien-human crossbreeding in The Hybrid, 2014). I Am Not a Serial Killer is more of the same, only better. Blessed with a macabre sense of the absurd, a pulse that beats with as much emotion as it does blood and the mean streak required to pull off the inherent nastiness of the premise, Dan Wells and Billy O’Brien’s nightmare world is a horror fan’s dream come true.

THE LAUNCHPAD DIRECTORS: REVIEWS & INTERVIEWS FROM A NIGHT OF HORROR/FANTASTIC PLANET 2015

For the second consecutive year, Screen-Space was a proud contributor to the annual A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet Film Festival, which closed out the 2015 edition last Sunday night. In addition to presiding over the Jury, we conducted the Launchpad Interviews – Q&As with film-makers world premiering their latest at ANOH/FP. 

Each director proved open and engaging, their films – a found-footage monster movie; a bleak take on child exploitation and violence; and, a genealogical-themed apocalyptic thriller – strong and unique visions. But were they any good…?

PIG PEN
Directed by JASON KOCH (Pictured, above right).
RATING: 4/5
From the first frame, this brutal odyssey into the nihilistic netherworld of disenfranchised suburbia is the stuff of nightmares. Koch has walked a similarly dark path in his two previous efforts (Lamplight; 7^th Day), but many will be unprepared for the bloody dismemberments, psychological torment and teenage exploitation that feature so prominently in this truly shocking vision. Countering the ferocious presence of Vito Trigo as the sadistic psychopath/stepfather Wayne is Lucas Koch as Zack, aka ‘Pig Pen’. The actor (the director’s son) evokes a degree of empathy as the wayward, victimised tween-ager that is truly heartbreaking; few Best Actor trophies in the festival’s nine year history have been so richly deserved. As the mother helpless in the face of her own demons and witness to her son’s disintegrating childhood, Nicolette le Faye serves Koch Snr and Jnr superbly.
The Launchpad Interview: “I would have never been able to approach another parent of a child actor and say, ‘Trust me, it’ll be safe.’ Where I knew this would actually be the case, others may not have been easily convinced.” Read the full interview here.

GITASKOG
Directed by DRAZEN BARIC (Pictured, above centre).
RATING: 3/5
Debutant Drazen Baric’s calling-card effort is a solid entry in the found-footage/cabin-in-the-woods genre. It falls well short of its inspirations (Evil Dead; Cabin Fever; The Blair Witch Project), but does manage to recall (somewhat unexpectedly) John Boorman’s wilderness-set study in macho posturing, Deliverance. A group of brash, occasionally ‘dickish’ man-child archetypes disrespect the native people and their land while checking out a log home by a lake in the Canadian wilderness; said lake may also be home to a mythical beast, due its ritualistic feeding. See where this is going? The shrill yelling and goofy raunchiness of the group gets tiresome and the leaps in logic needed to establish the camera coverage is naff, but the money-shot in any found-footage monster pic – the reveal of the beast – is handled effectively by Baric. His film never quite soars above the clichés, but moments of convincing terror do emerge.
The Launchpad Interview: “It was an incredible risk to make this type of film in this type of genre because of today’s impatient sensibilities and lack of tolerance. We made this film on the basis that it would be something that ‘we’ would want to watch.” Read the full interview here.

NORMAL
Directed by MICHAEL TURNEY (Pictured, above left; with lead actress Nicola Fiore).
RATING: 3.5/5
…or ‘The Most Ironic Film Title of the Year’. Michael Turney has an eye for the brazenly shocking – his film opens wordlessly as his blindfolded, headphone-wearing protagonist, Pingo (Nicola Fiore), submits to a stranger’s animalistic thrusting. But, despite some confronting sex and violence, to 'shock' is not Turney’s modus operandi; the auteur’s first feature is both stinging social satire and oddly intimate account of a foretold fate. In searching for an emotional and spiritual self-knowledge, Pingo discovers a dark destiny that will impact all of mankind. Normal feels small-scale in its execution (and occasionally a bit too oblique for its own good), yet resonates as a horror/drama with lofty artistic and thematic ambitions. Clearly energised by the dark corners and edgy eccentricities of the NYC shoot, Turney amps up the end-of-days imagery in the final act and the lasting impact is both emotional and visceral.
The Launchpad Interview: “My main theme is always balance and I hope people realize that men and women need each other to maintain it regardless of how frustrated we may be with one another.” Read the full interview here.

A NIGHT OF HORROR VOLUME 1

Stars: Bianca Bradey, Craig Alexander, Jessica Nicole Collins, Jessica Hinkson, Karissa Lane, Jane Barry, Rosie Keogh, Pauline Grace, David Macrae, Steve Hayden, Emily Wheaton, Lelda Kapsis and Tegan Higginbotham.
Writers: Daniel Berhofer, Bossi Baker, Jon Hill, Clare d’Este, Goran Spoljaric, Carmen Falk and Matthew Goodrich.
Directors: Enzo Tedeschi, Bossi Baker, Justin Harding, Rebecca Thomson, Evan Randall Green, Goran Spoljaric, Carmen Falk, Matthew Goodrich, Nicholas Colla and Daniel Paperis.

A Night of Horror Volume 1 will screen as the Opening Night feature at the 2015 A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet Film Festival; ticket and session information can be found at the official event website.

RATING: 4/5

The opening ‘Elm St’-ish chords foreshadow the nightmare landscape beckoning in A Night of Horror Volume 1, an Australian anthology pic brimming with an artful corpulent excess and supremely slick genre smarts. A unique initiative between co-producers Enzo Tedeschi (The Tunnel, 2011) and Dean Bertram, founder of the Sydney genre celebration from which the project takes its name, A Night of Horror Volume 1 deserves attention from international splatter fests that pride themselves on breaking new, fresh visions.

Tedeschi self-helms the compelling bridge-narrative that connects the short films. A disoriented Sam (Wyrmwood’s Bianca Bradey, sporting the modern kick-ass genre heroine ‘must have’ - a white singlet) awakens in a darkened, mannequin-populated warehouse (‘shadowy recesses’, literally and psychologically, is a recurring motif); as she wanders room to room, Sam finds key elements that materialise in the stories to follow.

Dwelling on what lurks in the dark is a key thematic device. The psychosis that inflicts a young woman in Evan Randall Green’s satisfying ‘Dark Origins’ haunts her from the shadows; Bossi Baker’s Hum, a nightmarish riff on the mysterious ‘suburban hum’ that is said to emit from modern cities, exists in a muted, darkened space both physically and psychologically; co-directors Nicholas Colla and Daniel Paperiss explore the ghostly legends of Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges in the ok ‘Flash’. The notion that ‘public transport is hell’ is explored in Goran Spoljaric’s ‘The Priest’, whose titular evil presence (memorably played by a chilling David Macrae) deserves to emerge as the Krueger-like star of the pic.

The film’s most enjoyably scary scenario is Justin Harding’s ‘Point of View’, which features a morgue attendant terrifyingly evading a freshly risen corpse who can only move when unseen (imagine playing the children’s game ‘What’s The Time, Mr Wolf?’ but with a zombie). The influence of Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator looms large over the segment, one of several knowing references lifted from film and classic literature – an isolated rural family in the grips of grief face-off against a ‘Jack Torrance’-type father/axe-wielder in Matthew Goodrich’s atmospheric Scission; the influence of Grimm fairy tales infuses Carmen Falk’s darkly funny gross-out bit, Ravenous; and, Rebecca Thomson’s utterly revolting, slyly hilarious Botox body-horror skit I Am Undone (which credits ‘pube wranglers’ and ‘boobateers’ as key contributors) recalls elements of Brian Yuzna’s Society and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.

It’s a tough ask, pulling off an anthology film. Not everyone is going to like everything, all but ensuring a mixed critical reaction; the blending of various visual styles and storytelling techniques will invariably seem jarring to most horror buffs. Even the best to emerge from the current compendium craze (the V/H/S and ABCs of Death series; Fool Japan The ABCs of Tetsudon) waiver in quality.

But Tedeschi, Bertram and their band of skilled, young filmmakers (all stepping up to ‘feature film’ contributor status for the first time) are clearly united in their aims and equally matched in talent. While the look and feel of each segment differs, the relentless drive and unyielding desire to make every bloody post a winner is self-evident; it is that dark spirit that binds and defines both A Night of Horror Volume 1 and the vast horror community, who should lap it up.

SCREEN-SPACE editor Simon Foster is the Head of Jury at the 2015 A Night of Horror/Fantastic Planet Film Festival.