From Within (2008)

Smalltown Hypocrisy, USA

"From Within" is a drama/thriller with elements of horror and the supernatural that includes religion, intolerance and stubbornness in an area called Grovetown that's full of small town views and a local legend that's on the hush hush. A teenager that looks like a goth reads from a book in an odd tongue while sitting next to his girlfriend. He pulls out a revolver as casually as if it's a picnic basket and shoots himself with the horrified girlfriend as a witness. She runs into town a bloody mess as if being chased from something and dies by her own hand as well. From then on out, each unlucky person who was the last to see the person commit the act or their body dies.

The perspective of the small town is shown through another teenage girl named Lindsay who goes to the local high school as well as attends the local church and likes the minister's son at both places named Dylan. Rumors spread about the connection to it all and blinded tempers and closed-minded fears come out. Dylan gets into a fight with a soft spoken kid named Aiden, who's not a member of the church and the brother of the first teen to commit suicide. Lindsay drives him home and there it comes out about Aiden's mother dying in a suspicious fire out back from a fear that she was a witch. Ominous threats are in the air as if a battle is about to ensue with opposing religious beliefs. The local Sheriff sweeps speculation under the rug which causes Lindsay to meddle before anything drastic breaks out. As the suicides begin to pile up, the minister's son holds some clout over the town and takes matters into his own hands with Lindsay caught in the middle between Dylan and Aiden.

"From Within" offers a series of intermittent, sudden scares mixed with the main body of a small town drama that reveals some skeletons in its closet. Some of the pop outs seem too in your face with crisp effects that have tendency to be caught in the frame for too long, leaving out anticipation or mystery as to what it is or how it came to be. On the one hand, it's not going to be as enigmatic as "The Broken" was but parts of it feel too simplified nonetheless. Some of the deaths start to seem less and less random as they so happen to coincide and are spaced out with current events. It takes away from the it-could-happen-to-you-at-anytime nervousness. Though in some areas right before the person is going to get it, it does play on the something-lurking-over-your-shoulder angle with the audience being a witness but helpless to the fact. The one by one death sentences almost seem like something out of "Final Destination" though somewhat less elaborate. Some people go quickly, while others at a later time when convenient to the narrative.

The subtext here concerns religious hypocrisy on both sides that are using it with their own interpretations or how they deem fit for personal gain. There's also intolerance and stubbornness even when faced with some facts. If there was ever going to be an exceptional example of the mentioned, Grovetown is that place. No one is all the way in the right here and that sentiment comes without resolve and a bleak conclusion that it got so out of hand. This is redneck stuff we're dealing with so guns, pick up trucks and beer play a role when it comes to accelerating action. Some of the personalities are caricatures that make the story a little black and white and somewhat easily deciphered. It makes you wonder if the filmmakers didn't think the audience would get the point, hence the obviousness and exaggeration at points. Elizabeth Rice as Lindsay sticks out with a decent portrayal and a share of emotions across the board to feel for her character's actions. Thomas Dekker as Aidan and Kelly Blatz as Dylan get a little more range than the supporting cast but still play their parts with only a few steps outside the box, so essentially you can count on their next moves, which takes away from surprises. This is a little more catered for the late teens crowd, though overall this was a decent enough experience with an actual story and message to share for the experience.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Phedon Papamichael (Dark Side of Genius)
Stars: Elizabeth Rice, Thomas Dekker, Kelly Blatz, Adam Goldberg
Link: IMDB

Voices (2007)

An explanation for why murder/suicides really happen

Have you ever wished someone around you would just die or go away but kept your actions to yourself? Hey, hey, not all at once. Well, getting along with those you normally have to isn't even an option here. One thing that should be learned about the experience is that it isn't very liberating, just a dark and deplorable look at primitive emotions that were thought to be left back in the cavemen days. This is a supernatural horror tale from Korea that centers around a teenage girl where those that get too close try and kill her.

After a horrific opening scene with a family getting mudered, it plays out with some humor and good natured vibes, until a woman named Ji-sun falls off a balcony at her own wedding. If that wasn't enough, when she's in the hospital her sister brutally stabs her to death. There appears to be certain violent tragedies in the family with kin killing kin dating sometime back. Her niece, a teenage girl named Ga-in Kim, is having nightmares about "something" out to get her, which makes her ill. She's in the nurses office when she gets attacked by someone who is jealous about an earlier event. The morose new kid at school gives her advice that it wasn't just an "accident" (must have been a mistranslation to mean "coincidence" instead) and that she shouldn't trust anyone--friends, family and herself included. Soon enough more attacks happen and she tries to piece it together that it may be a curse by asking her auntie and older relative about what's making people out for blood.

Part of the story doesn't transition as smoothly as it could have, that she would just go with it that it is a curse. The people don't always look ghostly and often speak with her during the attacks. Now, from an audience's point of view it may be more effective at making you think back when someone has killed their family or friends that they didn't look any different either. Though from her character's point of view, they're just jealous of her happiness. Possibly Asian culture has a closer acceptance of superstitions, but for some skeptical western audiences there isn't always more of a convincing element to make you cross over with her. The rules of its mythology are spread about, so part of its own mechanics don't always line up about when certain people become violent and when they don't. Or what pulls them out of the trance and what can keep that going for a longer period of time. There are some effective uses of anticipation but this usually jumps right into them to make sure you still have a functioning heart beat. It makes the events happen more at random than the filmmakers intended them to since it tries to do the whole one-by-one format like a slasher and string it along till an ending revelation that might make sense then but not always during.

There's a kind of hidden moral message here with jealousy, rage and hate fermenting inside for those that might have better opportunities than you. It deals with temptations to erase that person from this world that is causing you so much pent up turmoil. Whether you give in or not is possibly an option I'd imagine--at least I'd hope for the sake of the human race--but this keeps it downbeat in that everybody is susceptible to a risk of seeing nothing but red. There are no heroes here and the relating points that you might find to the character's lives are trampled at some point for scares and shock. This is told from Ga-in's perspective, so at certain points the story is heavily elusive--more like a never-ending nightmare than a typical narrative unfolding--and it's hard to make heads or tales for a share of it till the end as a result. The atmosphere is somewhat depressing in that she has to eventually avoid human contact and goes around in a state of confusion.

"Voices" tries to make you lower your guard by showing a scary scene, then a positive one, then back to putting the fear of murder back in you. It delivers a sort of black-and-white, tense-and-relax type of formula that sprinkles some personality and dramatic moments into the characters to make it more impactful when a senseless and unexplainable situation of violence ensues. This mode of filmmaking doesn't always come with a natural tone and flow by at times resembling a template to manipulate the audience into a certain emotion. Part of that keeps this just a cinematic experience than an organically occurring possibility. This is cruel and bloody for the morbid onlookers, and the performances are well-received in either behaving normally or crazed. "Voices" has some neat ideas to work with, they just weren't all told in an appropriate order, and would have made more sense watching this from the ending to the beginning. Sometimes I wonder if surprise endings are worth it, as some filmmakers, western ones too, want to hold on to that twist for dear life, even if it can jeopardize part or all of the rest of the picture.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Ki-hwan Oh (Art of Seduction)
Link: IMDB

Final Destination (2000)

A slasher in disguise

Apart from some stiffness or misplaced ailment when stepping out of bed in the morning, have you ever had the inkling that there was just something different about that day from others? Not just a fleeting feeling or a sense of change, but a strong emotion that twists and turns your guts because you believe something is going to actually happen of grave consequence? Most die with either a quick surprise or complete numbness when a sudden, freak accident catches them by unawares, though this is a story that swallows up peoples' souls and spits them out on the other side like a revolving assembly line. "Final Destination" involves a young man that takes the premonitions and warning signs seriously and perseveres through paranoia and accepting the unacceptable to not get taken up by cold, dark and incorporeal hands that are just a reach away.

"Live it up Alex, you've got your whole life ahead of you," his dad tells him just before a senior trip with his New York high school pals going to France for the summer. From the night before with an icy chill, to various omens that he picks up on going to the airport for what's supposed to be a fun trip--such as the accident prone, dead-as-a-door-knob John Denver spouting tunes in the restroom--Alex (Devon Sawa) doesn't just pass up on what his anxious nerves tell him. However, if something out there was trying to warn him any more, it might have slapped him in the face because it's everywhere he turns. But then again, most of us are skeptics to the supernatural until we see it with our own eyes and feel it with all of our being, simply because we don't want to look stupid going out on a limb in front of others unless we're positively sure. Alex ends up being right as rain, but dead wrong about the thunder with the forces he's messing with after an accident involving the plane he just got kicked off of with several others from going ballistic from a sweaty nightmare when he dozes off before departing.

Soon enough the safety boards, FBI and media encroach with their questions and speculations. "I got this feeling..this weird feeling," Alex says, because even though he gave a sort of premonition, he still seems just as confused, not to mention lucky as the worried family members arrive to take home their loved ones in one piece. For the seven survivors themselves, the whys and guilt that come with escaping and being that close to death are pouring down, not to mention with anger and confusion directed at the source of rescue. After a supposed accident with someone who survived from the plane, Alex suspects something amiss and that there might be a design or pattern to it all that he feels he can crack. Though after breaking into the funeral home to see if he can rule out foul play he meets the director who gives him a chilling warning, "In death, there are no accidents, no coincidences, no mishaps, and no escapes." So much for the heroic rescue attempt, which instead turns into people desperately running from something that's not entirely in physical form and with the only thing on their side being that the entity plays with a kind of sportsmanship just before its take-them-out-one-by-one game.

Like "X-Files" and "Millennium" that director James Wong and co-writer Glen Morgan were involved on, the lighting is often dark and the camera shots are often panned with dramatic music in the background. Shirley Walker (RIP) provides a score that resembles what she did on "Batman: The Animated Series" with big, bombastic and almost thumping hits, along with higher pitched horns and strings overtop to provide tension. Instead of playing out as a straight horror this also includes some elements of a drama/thriller to lend a hand to the steady but also escalating pacing. There are a lot wink-wink moments here that are going more for the theatrical than the realistic. It gives the audience a knowing-it's-coming point of view that gives this a sadistic sense of humor with a person being completely oblivious themselves. It's a movie that takes the omens over-the-top, but after awhile it makes you start to suspect danger at every little nuance and encroaching path. It makes every movement important and detrimental to the story, which creates a constant red alert atmosphere that can be carried anywhere whether that be night or day or in the safety of your own home: a regular bathroom, an innocent kitchen, just walking down the street. Not many movies are capable of every second being taken up with its concept, not to mention having the audience be an active participant, including Easter eggs throughout.

"Final Destination" isn't without its flaws, as it has some cliches, hit and miss performances to the point of caricature and some of the dialogue isn't perfect. Ali Larter, as Clear, has the most range with a background that gives her strength of character, Seann William Scott overdoes the whole goofy dude thing as Billy, Kerr Smith as Carter performs as a one-note jock and Devon Sawa plays the role of Alex a little spaced out at times. Though the thing this does have down is it provides an engaging cinematic experience and an original concept with a steady tone. This isn't just a straightforward march to the extermination chambers as some unexpected left hooks are thrown to make the fight more interesting. The sequels and spoofs have since capitalized on it to turn it into a recognizable formula but when it was in theaters it was definitely a fresh spin on an old take. This had the last word in a series of teens-on-the-cover-box slashers around 2000. It added a twist to that straightforward convention made infamous in the '80s, as the killer here is practically invisible compared to physical beings that you at least have a combative chance of escaping from like in "Scream," "Halloween" sequels, "Urban Legend" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer." It was more similar to what "Fallen" did but focused on the carnage, and came with less biblical themes and provided a different age demographic.

Rating: 8/10

Director: James Wong (The X-Files writer/producer)
Stars: Devon Sawa, Ali Larter, Kerr Smith, Valerie Lewton, Tony Todd
Link: IMDB

My Soul to Take (2010)

A lot of blood spilled over a soulless killer

A homicidal man with schizophrenia named Abel Plenkov speaks to himself and tries to fight the demanding voices in his head. Though the evil personality of him takes over and several people end up dead. He gets injured when the police show up and he's placed into an ambulance, but on the way escapes and is never captured. Seven were born on that day 16 years ago and remember the anniversary each year called "Ripper Day" due to Plenkov's weapon of choice: a curved pocket knife with the inscription of "vengeanace." This creates an urban legend along the lines of "Candyman" meets superstitious rules of psychology like "Mirrors" that's all fun and games at first until someone crops up dead again.

The first ten minutes hooks you in as it's highly cinematic and ludicrously exaggerated. The slasher element, instead of being omnipresent, comes and goes as the rest of the movie switches around flow and tone. This dodges a fore-fronting investigative route with the detectives who are still around from the original incident as well as the town isn't sent into a panicky fright, but this instead concentrates on the Riverton Seven through their daily activities and struggles as teens. This has sarcasm along the lines of "Mean Girls" and the "Heathers" as there is a hierarchy system with elite young ladies running the social circle at the neighborhood high school.

This has an element of mystery and some revelations are unveiled to carry you along. Could it still be Plenkov? What about that person due to that suspicious action or sentence? Taking the template from "Scream," it's going to keep you guessing till its close, that is if you didn't guess it right away. The picture is unsympathetic--so there's hardly a care if anyone gets killed--with the exception of the unexceptional guy named "Bug," who plays an innocent along the lines of "Forrest Gump" who's slow on the upkeep and gets the brunt of every joke and beating. He's afraid of most situations and gets taken advantage of, though his character is slowly but surely gaining strength to protect himself from the cruel world around him that he doesn't quite grasp. Though the get-to-know-him angle seems like a lost cause and a major distracter because it's hard to really step in with both feet and feel sorry for him as the mysterious killer could be just about anyone without exclusion.

During the course of watching the tone jump in and out of supernatural visions spliced with teen sitcom, the darkly dressed killer appears and hardly seems like a menacing presence. He's the run-of-the-mill slasher archetype where he can literally be anywhere to jump out out with cheap, short lived, shock theatrics; think of some of illogical physicalities done in "Jason Takes Manhattan" and you wouldn't be too far off. He intuitively knows what the victim's next moves are before they do, so what's the point and where are the building thrills? It also doesn't help that this has some of the cheesiest one-liners spoken from a killer in an attempt to personalize him when he does show up. Freddy Krueger could be both funny and condescending, though the guy here should have kept his mouth shut as it threw all fright factor out the window and made the laughs directed at him.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream)
Stars: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Emily Meade, Denzel Whitaker
Link: IMDB

Strange Behavior (1981)

Something funny is going on

This came out during the slasher boom around the early '80s, except "Strange Behavior" dodged the norm from the infamous films of the heyday such as "Halloween," "Friday the 13th" and "Prom Night," as there isn't one killer at large and the murderers aren't cold-blooded psychopaths with twisted pasts, even if their bizarre motivations make them act like maniacal blood fiends.

The continually annoyed and stressed looking local Chief of Police--who never dons a traditional uniform as everything is usually hunky dory--must investigate these mysterious deaths. The strange part is the audience hardly ever witnesses the small town in the grip of fear. Some innocent gets sadistically killed and others go about their lives as if the grass is always greener on the other side with frivolous humor and their regular routines intact. This is the type of plot where there's an "elephant in the room" and only one man detects it, as this focuses on a connection between the Chief, experimenters at the local college and the Chief's late wife fitting right smack in the middle. The story thickens when the Chief's son opposes his stubborn father to make decisions as his own man but gets ensnared by the affiliation.

"Strange Behavior" throws in some distractions to lighten the load from watching violence and blood, such as a subplot between the Chief's son and the newly met, easy-going, blond secretary, as well as the chipper step mother who wants to fill the role of late wife. This takes cues from "Halloween" type killings meets "Altered States"-esque mad science meets "Bond"-like villains meets small town TV mystery/sitcom/love connection. This had the makings to be an esteemed film, though the filmmaker's ambitions were aiming sky high in an attempt to appease a viewer with scenes of the surreal and macabre, as well as the person who wants established, down-to-earth characters, though both sides bump heads to compete and this hardly feels steadily creepy or like it could actually happen as it doesn't fully come together and keep one on the edge of their seat. Even a potential for one last scare wasn't capitalized on. This could have learned from the weirdness that "Dead & Buried" had: to keep the atmosphere alive by feeding throughout.

Rating: 5/10

Stars: Michael Murphy, Louise Fletcher, Dan Shor
Link: IMDB


10 things to learn from "Strange Behavior":

10. Small town America looks oddly similar to New Zealand.
9. If the lights mysteriously go out stay in one spot.
8. Chiefs of Police can drink beer on the job.
7. Horny teenage girls need extra locks on their windows.
6. You don't need doors to operate a car.
5. You don't need dance lessons to have a good time.
4. Don't listen to pretty scientist ladies.
3. Scientists are all a few steps away from madmen.
2. Never, never go back and check a dead person without arming yourself first.

And the most obvious one of all:
1. Never participate in any experiments.

Prowl (2010)

Look it's a bird, it's a plane...I don't know what that is

This starts out like a coming-of-age drama with a young woman named Amber who's sick of small town life in Famfield despite her close friends, mother and part time job. There are some unexplained snippets with ominous visions that include people chasing her and decomposing bodies. Is something calling her, or is it just the stress and mounting pressure of cabin fever? She wants to move away and get her own apartment in Chicago but first she has to get there with a deposit before another prospective tenant. Her five friends tag along for the road trip, until right outside of the city limits their car breaks down. As chance would have it, a friendly semi-truck driver pulls over and they beg him to take them to the windy city, but not before telling him they want to snap his picture, that one should ride up front and, of course, their family should know who they're with for safety's sake. Can never be too careful, or can you?

They hang loose in the back cargo area by playing games, drinking and smoking drugs. Suddenly they take a nasty swerve and get thrown about. They call the driver and he gives them the run around to stop, which makes them suspicious enough to call 911, though where they just entered the signal doesn't go through. The driver backs into a loading area of an abandoned warehouse that looks like it used to be a slaughterhouse. After the back door opens, everything turns into chaos when they step out into the factory with no visible way out and strange creatures who fly through the air, crawl on the walls and want to consume their flesh sooner than they can rip it off. From then on out it ends up being something like "The Most Dangerous Game" as these victims are treated like not only lunch but challenging sport.

"Prowl" is a director's film first and foremost. It has a steady pacing that keeps up a certain element of mystery without laying out a full view of its blueprints, as well as it manages to escalate the story to different levels while still slowing down in a few areas to catch its breath and explain. The dialogue also dances around and doesn't lay it all out for the audience, which gives it some challenge and curious questions even after the credits roll. It manages to cover up its plotholes--sometimes after the fact, which makes you wonder about a few in the meantime--such as certain physicalities. It gradually unveils the blood-craving beasts from quick shots to extended, which keeps a viewer guessing as to what they are and what it all means while--thank the horror Gods!--doesn't fold in on itself and make what they have going too cheesy. This is more intriguing and mysterious like a thriller than it is continually scary like a horror, though there are still a few jumping shocks used to rile one's pulse, even if not terrifying.

What at first seems like it's only prolonging the inevitable, comes full circle and turns into a tale of finding out what Amber's life means before she even gets to her promised land. The blood is more watery than the truly crimson looking stuff and there are frantic camera shots that go a little overboard. Though this was a quick, basic and entertaining piece that could have been a run-of-the-mill movie with different direction, less measurement and passion put into, not to mention it's a simple story that only has a few conventions tweaked around and isn't the most original out there, but the way it carried itself was turned into an effective experience that urges forward. One where it's a little more unexpected than other don't-take-rides-from-strangers fare.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Patrik Syversen
Stars: Ruta Gedmintas, Courtney Hope, Joshua Bowman, Perdita Weeks
Link: IMDB


10 things to learn from "Prowl":

10. Guys with glasses never get the hot girl, Clark Kent included.
9. Abstinence from sex = survival in a horror tale
8. It's cheaper to shoot a film in Bulgaria, as it's cheaper to make products in China.
7. You can fly without wings.
6. You can leap highly without frog legs.
5. Women have ass kicking abilities too.
4. Don't do drugs while taking rides from a stranger, as it will only make things stranger.
3. Don't trust nice guys--they're often not so nice.
2. Stay put in the same town, as it's safer.

And finally:
1. Don't take rides from strangers--ever!