Possession Media

Not tired of being bled dry enough? Fancy having some of your energy and hard-earned free time stolen? Because that’s what Leeches! promises, and boy does it certainly deliver, becoming the perfect compliment to all your other bad life choices – college, your ex-girlfriend, your career, well at least you have a job. You DO have a job, don’t you?

Lakecrest College is being invaded by predatory parasites, and its swim team are the prey. Ben, Steve, and the rest of the swimming athletes are in hot water as they encounter deadly monsters with a taste for human blood. Small and vulnerable at first, the species has developed into a monstrous size; and alarm bells begin to ring when an an athlete turns up dead.

This is alright in terms of production. For a trash reviewer, it’s a relief that the crew invested in a tripod, and additionally learned how to use it. Though the editing and construction isn’t anything special, for the most part it makes for watchable viewing, crudely but effectively telling the tale of a disastrous invasion rapidly expanding undetected within the confines of normal society.

The flick is total teen thriller material, and if there wasn’t enough testosterone pumped into the show, there’s an unusual fascination with the masculine body, with an uncomfortable number of frames focusing on the male buttocks. The incubation sequences are legitimately unsettling and foreboding: yet the cheap props are an exceeding let down, falling short of convincing or acceptable, despite insistently edited to appear so.

Leeches! also threatens to reveal a little intelligence with its awareness of drugs. Dabbling with chemicals as rampant mutants are on the loose, the teenagers are up against two enemies at once, and there’s a brush upon something larger. For a generic slasher, there’s no room exactly for deep philosophy or wisdom of course, but it’s still a miss. The attack/death scenes are a real drag too, and are pitiful at best, proving that action is not the quality of the film either.

So this is bad – but not THAT bad. While the tropes and stereotypes are obvious, it’s far from terrible, and though its content is poor and minimal, there’s a level of competence in horror which proves for a mildly satisfying watch. Especially if you like looking at man nipples – lots of it here.

4/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0339288/

More ghosts ‘n ghoulies in this average flick based on an average indepedent comic book made by a bunch of independent creatives. Hey, hold on a second. If a small town comic like this can make a feature, why isn’t Judge Dredd getting another? Can’t Transmetropolitan break into cinema? And shouldn’t Crossed ever get the big screen, is raping someone while tearing their face off in the midst of the apocalypse that taboo?… wait, don’t answer that.

Penny Palabras is about, well, Penny Palabras, their ventures of the supernatural, and her alarming ability to communicate with individuals inhabiting other dimensions. Some forces are benign, others are crazy, but the worst is surely the dark and menacing Straw Man, and their whisperings of torment and hardship upon the pressured student teen, leaving to Penny find herself reaching for extreme solutions as her misery expands.

There isn’t much of a decent introduction or explanation and without reading the comic book, it’s tough to reliably gauge what is going on because the film lurches in movements that leaves you with the feeling you should have read something before watching. No narrative or lowdown is offered despite its obvious absence. Even though there’s this missing link, there’s a hint of general watchability, although it’s really very poor and stretched due to the badly arranged production and plotline.

It’s a nice idea at first. The characters themselves seem alright – and they’re definitely designed well. Along with the adolescent stereotypes, and struggling with the relationship with her and her mother, Penny interestingly finds herself speaking to the dead better than the living. The directives are pretty good at times too, especially the decision to keep the style black and white, which enables scenes to fulfill this sense of strange intimacy.

What doesn’t work is the woefully amateur acting which crashes so hard thanks to the cameras and productive decisions, and the incredibly tacky soundtrack that destroys the emotion and authenticity of each scene. Clearly there’s an ambition to connect with the undead in an advanced way, and that’s certainly admirable, but the cheap instrumentation and two-bit design coupled with the poorly framed settings could have demanded serious editing and second thoughts.

And it doesn’t help that the movie just plain sucks. Even with its heart in the right place, it’s tediously difficult to plow though and just seems too comic book-inspired for a serious release. Save yourself some time and give Donnie Darko another watch.

3/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6628386/

Curses! Yet again an tantalising and twisted-looking DVD cover leads this intrepid reviewer into another crushingly uninspired pile of drivel and nonsense. (Not this one, it was this and couldn’t find a larger version of it). And if Wikipedia defines this is a legitimate slasher, you may as well call Love Island a survival horror, and come to think: that wouldn’t actually be a bad redefinition.

Neverlake is a daft and completely forgettable snore about a girl who encounters ghosts and evil secrets. Little really happens and what does isn’t scary. Initially, however, its fairytale approach seems somewhat alternative and almost stylish, promising a potentially intriguing fantasy atmosphere with hopes for a dash of intelligence.

Jenny is a well-spoken young woman on holiday. Their father is loving but distant, more focused on his obsession with relics of the ancient Atroscon [sic?] civilization, yet her stepmother is generally atrocious and awful to her in comparison. With the remote location and the activities tormenting her, Jenny turns to curiosity and exploration, which proves to be deadly when it unearths horrible familial truthes.

Though the beginning is appreciatively theatrical and oddly immersive, the ride rapidly disintegrates, dropping the speed to an insulting crawl, wretchedly drifting through developments so sluggishly that any twist or dynamic was already expired before its introduction. For a presentation intended to be classy and upmarket, the irony is that its unbalanced focus between thiller and drama appears only brutalist and crude.

What weakens the narrative – and especially the spoken word poetry, perhaps one of the finer events – is the lazy sound construction. While similar to Mark Snow in personality, the lack of instruments or variety coupled with the predictable and blithering execution is lame and pretentious, sucking and trampling the life out of the emotion it tried to capture. At the same time, the cinematography is excellent, controlled and distinguishable, capable and effective in portraying feelings as well as whole landscapes.

A shame that it sucks. There are scarier kid’s books if you want to look for them, because this is just messed up unstructured crap which never deserved a cinema production. A play or poem would have been a stronger choice. And on this subject, why not try Black Death: it is a superior display of horror infused with the dramatic, and there are better actors.

3/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3301196/

How many of these cabin in the woods flicks exist? Five kids from suburban USA are up against a mutated monster in the middle of a forest and wouldn’t you guess, there’s no escape, no one to help and no phone signal. Don’t people plan in advance anymore?

In this plain and predictable drama horror, a bunch of schoolfriends find themselves discussing the technicalities of survival and fight to stay alive from a man-eating predator which doesn’t simply hunt with instinct but threatens to display some apparent intelligence. Sadly not like this film, which suffers from hardly an abundance of ideas or talent and lacks the muscle to be interesting or satisfying.

The guys are okay; Keke Palmer and her cute smile is a forgiving piece of eye candy, Paul Iacono tries to perform a cringeworthy comic act while Elizabeth Gillies seems more interested in flashing their cleavage than doing any acting. Perhaps it’s strongest point is the somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere conjured by the tight lighting setup: its average sound design its deterred with a below average soundtrack however, and a curious need to use the zombie stock effect from Doom whenever the creature is encountered.

By only a third to halfway into the show, it becomes obvious that the characters aren’t going to develop, the special effects are minimal, the gore is restricted to fleeting moments of brief violence, and it’s gonna take years to see them eventually get chewed up. The effort put into the writing is especially poor; even the scenes where the survivors are trying to make sense of their situation seem artificial, made to please, and were probably ripped right out of The Walking Dead or similar.

This is far from great and pretty basic stuff which could have used a good dose of inspiration and imagination. If you’re looking for something sticks to the beaten path and follows the orders barked at it, you’re in for a treat. For those that want a meatier meal on their plate, don’t stop here.

3/10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_(2014_film)

Everyone knows that in order to communicate with dark Gods, all you need to do is go to an isolated rural village full of eccentric weirdos, conduct an esoteric ritual, wa la! Easier than a lasagne. Your boss gives you your job back, you lose 10 pounds, holy shit, maybe even people start taking you seriously for fucking once.

Wake Wood may be about witchcraft, but it’s hardly spellbinding. Though it’s not exactly bad in any sense, and somewhat retains a few interesting scenes, there isn’t much investment beyond generating more than intermediate moments of gentle suspense and some brief overtures into body horror. Nonetheless it’s an alright watch, if a fairly eventless one.

For a flick based on the loss of a child, this starts off pretty gruesome, promptly initiating with the ferocious mutilation of Patrick and Louise’s daughter. It’s just the beginning of their concerns as they discover there could be a way to bring them alive again; that is of course the task of the stereotyped backward villagers. Get an internet connection already you cowfuckin’ hillbillies!

Despite the fearsome introduction, the viewer is then drawn into a long, slow, overdrawn, boring, and uninteresting yarn on a dead child brought to life. Its focus on the dramatic rather explicit attempt at terror is a generally sensible directive choice; it certainly enhances the eerie mood of mystery and uncertainty, yet does eventually come across however as limiting and disconnected as opposed to emotional or interactive.

Although there’s a little superficial handling of morals, with a handful of quick and cut discussions on ethics, it’s far from a thought-provoking review of mortality and resurrection. Probably the most impressive feature is the acting which is admittedly okay. Birthistle doesn’t really feel like the best pick, leaving an impression they were chosen for the role due to their popularity or industry relationships, yet by the time you’ve learned this you’re already digesting how corny it is.

There’s a couple of chances which threaten to be almost intimidating, exploiting the fear of the unknown and the unnatural clashing with reality. Unfortunately it’s an adventure with a disappointing lack of ambition, enthusiasm, exploration, or content further than the strictly average. And everything would have been avoided if only they’d considered adoption.

4/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1296899/

Settling into a new house isn’t easy: especially when it’s run by an unscrupulous landlord, inhabited by the undead, and set simultaneously in the UK and USA without a reliable point of reference in this trashy and boring horror wannabe, otherwise released and known as The Haunting of Annie Dyer.

The titular character finds that not long from moving in her apartment, something supernatural is trying to personally move into them – and they don’t want to pay rent. After seeing enough strange things happen, Dyer hires a paranormal detective to find out what the balls is going on, and the two team up together to try and discover the reason for the mysterious ghostly shenanigans at large.

Following the lengthy and uninteresting introduction, it’s apparent that not a single crew of the cast can display a convincing impression. Even the lead is painfully thin of personality or talent. The landlord actor probably is the most memorable with a hammy and humorous show of a stereotypical sleazy and clandestine scumbag, who admittedly puts some energy into the show, but that’s the best it can offer.

Worse still is the student-level ability of direction. In fact scratch that, it’s insulting to students. The special effects appear as if they’re presets which come out of the box with the editing suite. The framing composition is awkward and lopsided. Lines are dubbed with a robotic sense of emotion. And why is a residential flat furnished with a business style table and chairs?

Its cheesy and upbeat soundtrack is also strikingly unbalanced and out of place, interfering with the mood of mystery and tension which the flick is presumably attempting to create; though the dark ambient tracks aren’t so terrible, the eclectic use of everything from flutes and blaring trumpets to industrial kicks and breakdowns feels more like an act of showing off, instead of concentrating on the design and environmental presentation.

While this is total trash, one forgiving aspect (aside from the sleazeball property owner) is a moment of quality. As the poor tormented woman is being harassed out of her mind by evil and wicked forces, the cupboards start laughing in the midst of the terror. From all the blunders, this level of slapstick incompetence was legitimately hysterical, and must qualify somewhere for a so-bad-it’s-good scene. What about the rest? Just plain old bad.

2/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4187786/

You ready for some cheap to almost zero-budget slashing? Bloodletting ponders the tale of two deranged murder-obsessed maniacs, one a committed serial killer, another an aspiring young fan who team up and scheme together to unleash aimless mayhem. Well, even more aimless mayhem.

This isn’t a serious flick nor does it pretend to be. Featuring scene after scene of silly antics, adolescent innuendo and improbable dismembering, its makeshift acting, crude dialogue and foulmouthed script is best for trash lovers and unambitious viewers whose expectations are met with lines filled with the word “fuck”, and curious directive choices such as the blasting of a baby with a shotgun.

The digital filming is not so easy on the eyes. To be straight up, it’s an ugly son of a bitch, and the decently coordinated camera work and handling can’t seem to make up for it or convincingly compensate. The makeup is rudimentary, if we’re being polite, and the sets are very low quality too, consisting of what mostly seems to probably be the same house with differently arranged furniture, or ad hoc basements and garages.

There’s something half decent of a story too as the criminals explore their unnatural relationship. Butch begins to hesitate at the ramifications of all their grisly career while his butcher-in-arms only wants to turn the volume up. Highs and lows encounter the pair, emotions erupt and eventually it gets completely out of hand, with consequences that shouldn’t really surprise anyone.

Well this isn’t great and way too absurd for any serious interest to be captured, but it’s a hell of a lot better than similar indie flicks relative in terms of production, simply due to its ability to hold a story down with a pace that doesn’t leave the audience stranded or confused – which is an admirable achievement considering so many contenders do exactly that. Not a classic, neither a disaster either.

4/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126820/

Oh…. kay. Sometimes you just don’t exactly know what to make of something. These are the kind of crappy thrillers that end up somewhat strangely curious and interesting despite their ineptitude – or possibly even directly because of their ineptitude.

This unusual teen shocker begins with an uncomfortable amount of dialogue which briefs the viewer on the apocalypse, announces it was all about a girl, and includes a hilariously overacted return to consciousness at a kitchen table. Following a misadventure which leads to a murder, the offending students are left in a state of shock, seeking ways and stories to cover up the killing.

Cheaply filmed, crudely edited, and clearly on a low budget for its thrill-seeking, its desire to discuss the armageddon exposes a respectable modicum of ambition. The scripting is workable and the actors are okay; though the fight scenes are a little pathetic, you generally get the message, as with the rest of the amateur ability level of acting.

Waiting for any brilliance to show however is mostly a miss. Starting with an initially and enjoyably demented presentation, the plot soon sinks into a masculine mess on teenage life and young adult relationships. It’s difficult to take a film seriously when it is so adolescent, obsessed with status, and sex-crazed; climaxing, so to speak, with a threesome – and the desperate lust of one friend trying to sleep with his counterparts’ mother.

That’s not to say there’s no creativity at work. Claire makes for a half decent discussion for the subject of corruption, managing to create the tragedy, and becoming extremely competent in ruining pretty much anything she touches. And the men around her fall like dominos the same way, prompting a door to into a larger topic.

Its handle never gets touched, and the humanity-destroying infection celebrated in the introduction turns out to be a false lure too. That lie is unforgivable. The fuck outta here! Go play football and make forgettable movies somewhere else.

3/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329768/

Oh GOD this is boring. Don’t know why exactly, but this one rubs me up the wrong way for some reason. What a pile of crappy, old, repetitive, unintelligent overplayed stupid dogshit. This really feels so inert, moronic and self-absorbed, and there’s just no charm to it. And how long do you really want to watch a bunch of kids run around in a cornfield?

Husk is roughly about a barn with a terrible past set somewhere in flyover state America and several teens/young adults who’ve been condemned to die in it. Or next to it. Who cares, it’s an ultimately sad and uninspired attempt at slash horror which requires a vast amount of tolerance to see through if you’re brave enough to be trapped in its hour and 20 minute snooze.

First thing you notice is the raven. Clearly they used a professional trainer to coordinate the bird, and it’s a nice touch. Animals are fantastic for the use of symbolism and their powerful natural presentation, and Husk briefly but wisely takes advantage in that area; birds are especially graceful and wondrous creatures which can easily transform a scene and a film by their mere presence alone.

There’s even a fairly workable quality of gore and violence. For horror viewing, it’s always a welcome addition. The soundtrack is okay, if perhaps more designed towards action than terror. The actors are mediocre – their skill is averagely alright, nothing great, not bad, probably even slightly superior in terms of trash.

The problem is with the lack of investment encouraged in the characters. Empty of anything appealing or human, they’re portrayed as not much beyond fresh meat to be chopped up and served accordingly. While there’s an interesting take on travel between realities, there’s this insistence on pretentious morals which forms the core, and though it may be worthwhile to some, the freethinking type is going to be quickly disappointed, and find their patience dwindling, deteriorating, and disappearing by the 15 minute mark alone.

2/10

htps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husk_(film)

Demolisher is a surprisingly impressive deviation from the crowd, which dares to stand out by seeking to employ the shock of horror and murder with a gentle grasp of gentle emotion and crushed intimacy, all the while playfully toying with a sense of dark obscenity. It’s slow, sharp, twisted, and immersive – not to mention damn entertaining.

After his wife suffers a terrible and debilitating injury from a gang of criminals, handyman Barrett undertakes to be a cruel vigilante with the intent to settle the score of pain and suffering. But this is only a portion of the story, as his rapidly failing control of sanity plummets him into a fearsome world of violence and destruction.

Barrett struggles with his vengeful role as a killer as with his new reality. His partner can no longer take care of themselves. Lost and distraught within tragedy, and understanding everything he knew is gone forever, he resolves to throw away his humanity and become a heartless murderer to the murderers of his once normal life. Also Hotline Miami and Trevor Something influence.

It’s incredibly refreshing for a drama to be so strangely speechless. Usually, dramas are draped in irritating theatrics and pointless gossip; here, actions that are allowed to speak from themselves. The obsession with symbolism expresses a desire to be clinically precise, yet artistically free. And the flick understands people as humans, not simply disposable things but our flawed natures, as well as exploring the realism of impairment: its doom, difficulty, and humiliation.

Normally when you come across a bombastic title “Demolisher” with a shitty IMDB rating, the expectation is nothing further than a dry, stale, tedious pile of adolescent style crap with homemade props and not so homemade tropes. You know the drill: stupid teens, embarrassing parents, bad hairdos, ridiculous antagonists and maybe a somewhat decent plotline if you’re even half lucky.

This got trashed by the critics. What’s wrong with everyone? It’s actually alright, and certainly worth a good uninterrupted watch. Perhaps in places it could have been structured more wisely, certain areas may have had better design, and if you’re gonna be a complete neckbeard, there is a little of that fallen-superhero twist. For those that don’t fall into these categories though and have the intention to try something intelligent and experimental for once, give this a whirl – you might like it.

6/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3402594/