Possession Media

Uzumaki is probably the finest piece of horror manga to exist. The only competitors who could compare maybe would probably be Tomie or the Floating Classroom. Then there are the other epics such as Akira. Apart from that, there are few stories which could ever hope to match Junto Ito’s apocalyptic masterpiece of mystery and terror.

Despite being a manga, a discipline of drawing usually reserved for comedy and adventure to younger readers, Ito uses the style instead to deliver a surreal storm of splatter, gore and perversion. What’s worse is the crushingly bleak gloom and dread that lurks beyond each page. It’s an outstanding piece of work which any horror enthusiast needs to give at least one read.

Falling into the dizzy green hills of Kurozu-cho, two schoolchildren journey into hopelessness as their town and its people are torn into turmoil by a wretched and invincible force. For no apparent reason, everything slowly begins to undertake a transformation into a spiral. Plants, animals, humans and objects are subverted into monsterous shapes, with the resulting and bewildering destruction developing into panic, chaos, and insanity.

This cinema conversion is pretty bad – firstly in that it doesn’t even try to be much of a film. Instantly, just like the comic, “chapters” are announced. With each one finishing on a scare, this episodic style feels curious and unnecessary with no significant gain exploited from the division, and disruptive to creating a movie which would have an original mind. Then, it becomes apparent that most of the entire film is to be a clone. Well that explains it.

But just cherry-picking out the standout moments and expecting others to fill in the gaps is a real miss. The friendship of Reiki and Shuichi is the spine of the story, and is hardly explored. Ignoring the aggressive deterioration of the town and its supernatural doom is another failure. Finally, this half-assed collage gets played at the end and then the credits roll, like the directors just gave up and ran out the building by the time of post-production.

Well, it’s okay. While disturbing and unsettling, especially with some of the special effects, this was a fairly lackluster job to me and relatively forgettable. Ultimately so much more would have been accomplished if the creators paid more attention to the influences of what they were looking at rather than copy what was already right in front of them.

5/10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzumaki_(film)

It’s time for yet another haunted house flick. How many of these things are there? This time the ghosts aren’t so obvious, taking not the shape of gremlins or demons, but in the form of secrets and forbidden tales in this plain Jane drama, known also as Stranger in the House.

Recently wed, Eve is here to try and settle into her home, located in her partner’s hometown. Inspired by her new life and filled with hope for the future (not to mention treated as royalty in a massive fucking house), she must face the cracks that begin to appear in the facade, soon falling into a world of whispers and gossip, becoming ever more motivated to discover her husbands dark past.

This one has more than your average amount of polish. Snazzy set design, careful acting and a gently depressive score build a comfortable yet unsettling environment. Some of the performances and characters are not bad at all; Eve, protagonist, timid and warm housewife, contrasts impressively with her distant husband, the eccentric villagers, and most especially the chilly personality of her housemaid who mercilessly thwarts any kind of friendship she tries to build.

Initially the mystery is appreciatively convincing. The movie only drip-feeds its vital clues, encrypting its intentions, proving difficult to crack and makes for a worthwhile watch. At first. Sadly, through the use of pretentious overdramatics, sloppy writing and overloaded gimmicks, interest begins to wain rapidly towards the midpoint as the film soon exhausts its promises, and trust me, it really doesn’t get any better.

Toying with the suggestion of the paranormal rather than overtly creating any visible malice is a nice directive trick – the first one or two times. Soon it becomes a very overused and unwelcome cliché. And as the entire show reveals itself to become solely focused on only the decaying trust under Eve’s unravelling marriage, things only become more contrived and exhausting, as a series of multiple twists ruin what was to begin with a fairly tidy affair.

Overall this is a standard, safe, basic, normal, routine, generic watch. Slickly presented, dumb as dirt, nothing fantastic, not terrible, enjoyably watchable, mostly forgettable, a netflix-tier slice of solid pulp with an unknown adorable eye-candy protagonist which is sadly underused.

4/10

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2618590/

There’s a curiosity which has always appealled to me. Why did intelligence develop on land instead of the water? By volume of population alone, there’s no match. Since life is mostly mutation and natural selection, ocean-goers are clearly in heavier competition. And yet reason was developed and gifted to land-dwellers for no… reason.

None of it here either, as Toxic Shark aims to delight the viewer by throwing approval-seeking teens into the jagged teeth of a deranged and mutated amphibian monster. Featuring a cast of male chiguaguas with breasts superior to the women, skulls emptier than a black hole, and jaws so diagonal they evade radar, there’s at least some satisfaction when they are senselessly obliterated by the crazed predator.

Simply lurking in the water isn’t enough for this big guy. Once encountered, the shark sprays a green corrosive liquid, simultaneously infecting its victim with insanity and containing a rapidly infectious property. Soon, the whole tiny island of partying students have graduated into zombie mayhem, tearing themselves and the survivors apart.

Although there’s plenty of bloodshed, Toxic Shark has a disappointing lack of gore. Victims are mostly swallowed or merely removed from existence in the blink of a mouth. Considering the formidable ability of the antagonist to spawn evil indefinitely, this is a real missed chance to create scenes of more interesting destruction and depravity.

As the creature is built upon the corrupted effect of physical man-made pollution, there is no consideration of this force responsible for its unnatural calamity nor the harm it may be feeling. It’s fine to have a villain that makes no sense. It’s not fine to have protagonists that make no sense. Yet the flick has better ideas about that, launching from one empty discussion to another, remaining trivial and wasting its strength.

The final question is: why aren’t any of the girls stacked? OK there’s some ass, but look – if you’re gonna do a trash film and do such an appalling job of it, at least provide some more substantial tits. Food for thought.

2/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6973866/

Putting someone under pressure is sometimes the only way to find out who someone really is. This is why plane disasters are such a great setting. Ripe for the design of characters to bring along their personal joy, pain and strife, which are to become amplified in the tiny space of a fragile piece of infrastructure speeding above the ground at 1km per 4 seconds.

Flight 7500 chronologues the tale of misfits at large – not excluding the crew themselves – their terrible venture into the unknown. Following the introduction of a strange man and his briefcase, people start dying; matters start to deteriorate, and soon it becomes a mystery enough for the passenger to take matters into their own hands.

One of the few high points in this flyer is the nicely crafted dysfunctional married duo. The exhaustingly demanding and selfishly critical wife contrasts strongly against their endlessly compromising husband. Their fatalistic goth antagonist is a nice bonus, contrasting ironically with her uptight counterparts, and offering a window to something more interesting.

The advantage is never taken of, and the movie reverts to a plodding hour of half-baked supernatural horror which is overall dismally dull and unsatisfying. Given that the main appeal of these flicks is the sight of fragile egoes corroding in the face of the inevitable, the lack of personality from pretty much the rest of the cast results in a crushing black hole of empty viewing.

The rest of the material is an aimless deviation from anything convincing or sensible and can’t land anything solid let alone a runway. It’s boring, dull and pointless. Although the story is wretchedly processed enough, the big twist at the end when everything is X is bewilderingly meaningless. You might as well see Final Destination again. Screw that, re-watch some good old X-files.

2/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1975159/

Don’t go to Inverness. Because according to Dark Nature’s blurb, the entire area is inhospitable for mankind. Even worse, there’s a crazy murderer on the loose in the hills, with Emily and her family facing an evil killer who threatens to turn them all into chopped haggis in this stupid adventure based somewhere you’ll never go in Scotland.

Another road trip holiday disaster flick, a small family come to get away from the city life by taking themselves and their tourist money to the faraway land beyond Hadrian’s Wall. The overbearing mother clashing with her hooligan daughter while their oblivious father looks on (or just doesn’t give a shit) doesn’t make for such a bad start, and the music is intriguing well produced.

With somewhat interestingly educational elements – such as the species of moth which has evolved through natural selection to adapt specifically to human cities, and a forgotten piece of history wherein Americans accidentally invaded Scotland – and the playful scenes of mysterious yet tempting nonsense, there’s an attempt to build some form of appeal here. The scene of crawling insects in jars is especially creepy and perhaps its best.

The audio work itself alone is surprisingly good, and a refreshing break from the choice of sterile industrial soundtracks and drab pop music, as there’s a fascination with nature here which goes beyond the simple title. Filled with countryside life, the soft and weepy soundtrack sings behind the cackling of crows, singing of gulls and crunching of boots against leaves, and occasionally an ominous siren screaming in the distance.

It doesn’t help itself to be so unbelievably dull and meandering. Sloppy cameras, unambitious acting and an unconvincing story make for really tiresome viewing, with the attempt at a Lynchian fragmented structure falling completely flat on its face. Sure, this may be a young director, fair enough, but shit films will not help your new career.

2/10

http://www.darknature.net/

Wow this is low budget. Really low budget. Well not that that’s a problem – you can appreciate a flick that makes itself with the minimum of equipment, especially if someone’s just starting out. Gotta respect that. Not everyone is rich, because as you know reader, big budgets don’t necessarily mean quality.

Beginning with an introduction so dismally bad proves at least you know what you’re going to get. After finding themselves a house, two young renters invite their friends around to celebrate their new life only to discover evil spirits haunting their newly purchased property, and are plagued with nightmarish hallucinations and the vision of a disfigured nun. Well doesn’t that just suck. Kind of like this film as well.

Set predominantly in the haunted house, and sometimes in the pool out back (did you really need to rent a whole swimming pool!?), the new owners party and get drunk, falling into the clutches of the bizarre apparition which appears to have the intention on killing them all. The kids are defenseless against the evil entity, with only the shady sales agent who sold them the property in the first place seeming to stand a chance of survival.

This is straight-up cheap low fi horror. Rather than make a serious attempt to produce a meaningful adventure, Holy Terror spends an hour deliberately rolling around in its own ineptitude with a talentless cast and a story written presumably by an inexperienced and very hormonal teenager. Amateurish in every aspect, the camera work is awkward, the editing skills leave much to be desired with even the grindcore loop left noticably unfixed, and the rushed production – especially the half-baked antagonist – is cringeworthy and almost painful to watch.

Though it’s unreasonable to expect a classic maybe, at least a token of originality could have been attempted, like the dream sequence in the beginning for instance; this is a nice diversion and may have been expanded. The evil duo of monk characters have a nice sense of menace and also could have been employed a little further. Thankfully the film is cut short at 60 minutes before it becomes completely insufferable.

2/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290657/

More dumb bitches get chopped into pieces in this trashy yet relatively entertaining slasher about a group of strippers faced with a crazed psychopath. If you’re bored and want to see a bunch of stupid sluts take off their clothes and get turned into mincemeat, then you’ve come to the right place. If not, this might not be the right review blog for you.

After humiliating a bar owner, a group of feisty entertainers decide to park their big fat butts on a campground for the night with the intention of exposing them in front of drunk patrons. Fine in my book, because a girl’s gotta make a living. If there was anything more to the story for a synopsis then apologies: it was genuinely difficult maintaining enough interest to pay attention.

Though mostly a tedious ramble into familiar territory, and seriously lacking in any substantial material, the jumpscares are alright and the gore isn’t too bad. Some of the kill scenes are pretty gruesome and violent; thankfully there’s no tacky special effects, with the direction relying on props, costumes and makeup. This was a good choice as they’re done convincingly well a by crew clearly experienced with the job.

Its main selling point for sure is the surprisingly decent performances and fun personalities from the unashamed bimbos as they fight for survival against their merciless axe murderer. Refreshingly, they actually have a sense of comedy and aren’t afraid to not take themselves seriously instead of being the stone cold props which most slashers seem to produce, and put up an excellent show of screaming and squirming for their lives against the brutal antagonist.

This is probably the weakest point of the flick. Weakened by a lack of clarity as to what he actually is, other than an undeveloped and generic homicidal maniac who appears to slaughter without discrimination and collect human heads, his idea or reason to exist is barely discussed or explored at all. There’s also the question how someone which is constantly growling and attacking people with the ambition of decapitating them is walking around freely in society. Yeah… not normal.

By the end the whole thing has lost the plot and has collapsed into disappointing meaninglessness. Usually spoilers are against the rules in these writeups but this one is an exception, because the bullshit decision to kill off everyone was completely self-destructive and unnecessary; with the strongest appeal of the flick being the characters themselves and their down-to-earth personalities, something more memorable could have been salvaged or accomplished from the mayhem.

3/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235876/

“Hawks, buzzards, kestrels, falcons — he had forgotten the birds of prey. He had forgotten the gripping power of the birds of prey.” While Nat considers the crowds of finches and sparrows assaulting the building, throwing their appallingly tiny bodies against brick, he ruminates upon the murderous horror of the muscular and exotic members of the species: true predators, bloodthirsty in their normal aspect alone, now wickedly united against man to unleash nothing but death. It’s a line from The Birds which has always stuck with me.

This time it’s dogs. Rendered mad by the influence of a mysterious meteor, the once treasured pets suddenly become man’s worst friend as they turn upon their unsuspecting owners and unleash a terrible path of destruction upon a slice of smalltown americana. Even the most docile of companions become beserk with rage, with a new taste for human blood, and the survivors are left bewildered and overwhelmed as the canines overrun the population, leaving the streets littered with carnage, bodies and gore.

With the careful editing and co-ordination, the presentation of the dogs is definitely a win. There’s a good few moments where they really get to show their teeth, stalking, hunting and finally chewing apart the stupid men and women getting in their way, with their performance as animal actors arguably surpassing that of their own humans. The unnatural alliance of canines is a little creepy in itself and fun to watch, and at one point it’s suggest that felines are also possibly affected.

The predominant characters, conjured as a typical working-class crowd of townspeople, are designed as such presumably with the idea to be genuine and authentic. Instead they’re predictable, simple and plain, with the end result of being merely uninteresting and unsatisfying, showing little emotion as their loved ones perish. Unlike many sci fi B-movies, there’s no soldiers or scientists driving around to find a cure; so to enhance the horror, Night of the Wild uses defenseless civilians who don’t have much of a prayer. It just doesn’t really work.

Even though there’s a fair amount of panic and fear as nerve-wrecked humans stampede to safety, the shallow plot and lack of tension undo most of its work. The overexcited camera work is particularly disorientating and interfering; although admittedly this is a good strategy for the dog attacks, which are confidently the best parts of the flick, it wears out any scene where people are trying to talk or think about something. More use of a tripod would have been such a better option.

And for such brainless slapstick violence, there is a disappointing lack of comedy where the makers could have done more to not take themselves so seriously. This is where the film really misses the target; there’s so many opportunities that are missed, and even a few jokes could have gone a long way. Sadly there is no respite from the endless tedious pattern of chase scenes. At least the dogs are cool.

2/10

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/night_of_the_wild

Talking on the phone constantly during a movie in the cinema is generally considered bad behavior. A theatre is a place to enjoy a new experience, become briefly immersed into a different world, relieved from the responsibilities of this one. Someone gossiping on the phone about everyday events is particularly annoying; not just distracting, but antagonistic to the idea of taking interest in the normal instead of the fantastic. And if a patron does not respond graciously to others’ complaints, the staff are comfortably within their right to politely ask the offender if they would be so kind enough as to leave.

This film is the literal representation of the above. The character spends virtually the entire movie, sitting down in a seat in front of you, talking on their phone. They don’t move. They won’t budge. Occasionally they briefly abscond with the tantalising prospect that their departure is permanent, only as misfortune would have it to come right back to talk on the phone some more, with no one to throw them out.

Suffering from amnesia, and too afraid for their life to flee, Doctor Hope hunkers down in their vehicle during the zombie apocalypse. And that’s it. No, really: that’s it. Virtually the entirely of the flick is a helpless woman in a car, weeping on the phone, as lethal infectees crawl around outside. These are disappointing zombies too; they can’t even be bothered to try and break the window for that delicious cranial goodness.

While these are your typical monsters, Almost Dead accepts this, and attempts to deliver a new perspective by subverting the theme and subjecting the protagonist to an extended period of isolation. Hope despairs upon her deteriorating condition and reflects on the final hours of her life, clinging to faraway voices, broken memories, and their own misery, as the tale degenerates into a predictable the-government-did-it-all-along bash.

The lackluster performance of the script fails so poorly to deliver a convincing depiction of panic or dread. The rousing score is particularly out of place; rather than create an emotion of doom and hopelessness, the soundtrack curiously feels more designed towards a thrilling fantasy epic. Worse, Hope’s talent is wasted: clearly they are a confident and competent actor more than able to portray a convincing personality, and who probably spent much of the time wondering what the fuck was going on.

There’s nothing really wrong with this idea. The concept definitely could have been presented as formidable ingredient to an existing story, and could potentially have been an exciting sidekick in deeper terror. Alone, with so few ideas and such trashy direction, the flick is impossibly stretched thin, suggesting the superior option would have been a play, or an audiobook, or a short, or set of shorts as part of a larger piece of multimedia.

2/10

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5037358/

Here’s a strange one. Hospitals and horror are more staple as steak and eggs, so usually your expectations aren’t going to be high when you’ve seen something done to death. This time it was interesting to see a few new rabbits pulled out of the hat.

Set in what is presumably sister-fucking hick county, Carter the cop can’t traffic ticket his way out of this one when he’s faced with a terrible supernatural force which reaches all the way down into a dark local history. That’s all the excuse needed for people to start tearing their faces off. If you like gore, you’re probably going to like this.

There’s some pretty good stuff here. Brutal fights, buckets of blood and impressive props, all the while punctured with strange nightmarish sequences. Each moment of evil is refreshingly unpredictable and violent, and the score is oppressively atmospheric; nice to know Lustmord is still turning tricks.

Yet I’m not sure if it could have been casted better. Fathers does a great job of being a jerk, but many of the others just don’t seem scripted or arranged right. Poole in particular only feels like a wiped out hysterical goon and only became irritating to me.

Finally, the film really suffers from a lack of suspense. As this was clearly made by horror enthusiasts, it’s bewildering to see so few moments where a moment of tension is allowed to be built up and released. And despite its fiery entrance, The Void rapidly loses momentum by the midpoint, slowly grinding to an uninteresting halt by the end.

5/10

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_(2016_film)