Stopmotion

IT was American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson that once said, “the glory of character is in affronting the horrors of depravity to draw thence new nobilities of power: as Art lives and thrills in new use and combining of contrasts, and mining into the dark evermore for blacker pits of night.”

This pretty much sums up the premise of director Robert Morgan’s disturbing psychological horror about a stop-motion animator who struggles to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother.

Now streaming on Shudder, Stopmotion is one of the most perverse, discommoding, downright bizarre and truly unforgettable films I have seen in a long time. The stuff of nightmares and/or high art, Morgan’s debut feature is as unorthodox as it is original and ghastly with it.

Fantastical night terrors meets snuff movie, the film tells the story of Ella (Aisling Franciosi), a stop-motion animator living under the thumb of her exacting mother (Stella Gonet), a famous animator whose hands are failing due to arthritis.

When not kowtowing to her conceited mother in the studio, Ella is caring for her every other need from cutting her food and putting up with her continuous insults. She feels in life, just like the marionettes they work with on screen, a glorified puppet that has no influence and every action and decision carried out for her by others.

When Ella’s mother has a stroke she decides it is time to strike out on her own. But without a guiding hand, this insecure young woman becomes lost, totally adrift in a tumultuous current of unfulfilled individuality and emotional instability.

Stopmotion is gruesome in places. For all its artful lighting and stilted beauty, viewers will be quickly caught off guard by the depths of depravity and violence that Morgan subjects us to. I was left squirming at some of the more visceral and baroque scenes, which boil over with debased hints of Francis Bacon and David Lynch.

(4/5)

Monster

INDONESIAN kidnap thriller Monster tells the story, with no dialogue, I might add, of two young siblings that are abducted and taken to a house in the woods.

Directed by Rako Prijanto, the film opens in a dingy side street where 13-year-old Alana (Anantya Kirana) and her young brother Rabin (Sultan Hamonangan), are fooling around in a video arcade after school. Things quickly take a more sinister turn when the pair are grabbed and locked in the trunk of a car.

Looking to films like A Quiet Place and The Black Phone for influence, Monster is a reimagining of the 2020 American horror movie The Boy Behind the Door. Set in a low lit and grubby murder house, what unfolds is like something out of The Silence of the Lambs, only with far less drama or tension.

After giving her abductor Jack (Alex Abbad) the slip, Alana uncovers the full extent of her abductor’s heinous crimes as she attempts to save her brother from the monster that has him in its clutches.

In one room she discovers a camera on a tripod set up next to a bed, indicating child pornography amongst her kidnapper’s many crimes. While in another scene a child’s body is cut up and placed in a cooler box before a courier comes to collect the gruesome package.

The lack of dialogue does add a certain tautness to proceedings, and the film’s fast-pace and lean 86-minute running-time makes it a more entertaining watch than the original film.

As Alana creeps around a desolate rural dwelling, uncovering horrendous evil lurking behind every door, a game of cat and mouse is played out as she tries to evade capture and save her sibling from harm.

Now showing on Netflix, the focus throughout the film is Alanna’s game of hide and seek with this psychotic killer but little is done to rack up any real sense of unease, mainly due to an almost skittish movement of cameras from captor to prisoner.

Overall, Prijanto’s film is predictable and follows the same well mapped territory of many other abduction horror films.

(3/5)

Death Whisperer

FANCYING itself as Thailand’s answer to The Exorcist or Evil Dead, Death Whisperer is just your bog standard awkward Asian horror.

Directed by Taweewat Wantha, this tiresome film is formulaic, cliched and overstays its welcome like an unexpected visit from the mother-in-law.

Adapted from the novel Tee Yod… A Distant Voice Wails Madly by Krittanont, this absolute shambles is poorly acted, lacks suspense or atmosphere, and for the most part is totally lifeless.

In the film’s more thrilling scenes, which are few and far between, Sam Raimi is a clear influence, but it lacks structure, depth and a sense of humour.

Wantha’s film, now streaming on Netflix, wouldn’t be so painful, if it didn’t take itself so seriously. The cast is wooden, and the whole things seems nothing more than a vessel on which to build hunky leading man Nadech Kugimiya’s career around.

When a remote village is plagued by a deadly curse, Yak (Kugimiya) must fight to save his family from a bloodthirsty spirit.

Based on true events, the story is set around a rural farming family who finds itself under supernatural threat when second eldest daughter Yam (Rattanawadee Wontong) begins to act strange.

Things are really slow to get off the ground, and when they do, they escalate quickly, but by that point I was already struggling to stick with it. There’s a couple of gory scenes, even one or two chilling encounters worthy of Mr Raimi himself, but there’s more wailing and squawking than anything else.

I thought Death Whisperer would never end. It is excruciating and rather banal. But what do I know?

The film was a blockbuster smash in Thailand. So much so that a sequel is due for release by the end of the year. I will certainly be giving that a miss.

Despite some half decent effects, this one drags like overtime on a Monday night.

(2/5)

History of Evil

HISTORY of Evil, now streaming on Shudder, is a dystopian thriller set in the not too distant future where a fascist, God-fearing government has taken over the United States.

The debut feature from Bo Mirhosseni mixes genres to give us a haunted house horror with a dark vision of the world that we could soon find ourselves living in — sooner rather than later, if we remain on our current trajectory!

And while it all sounds lively enough on paper, it is for the most part dull and meandering.

For a film that comes off like a mixed assortment of The Hunger Games crossed with The Shining and The Amityville Horror, it is sadly one big infuriating muddle.

With the US plagued with war and corruption, turning it into a theocratic police state, ordinary citizens have hit back against the oppression and formed a group very originally called The Resistance.

Alegre Dyer (Jackie Cruz), History of Evil’s answer to Katniss Everdeen, is one such member who breaks out of political prison and reunites with her husband Ron (Paul Wesley) and daughter Daria (Murphee Bloom).

On the run from the militia, the family takes shelter in a remote safe house, which they are told most people are too frightened to come near. But their journey is far from over, as the house’s dark past begins to eat away at Ron, and his earnest desire to keep his family safe is overtaken by something much more sinister.

The house, as it happens, is haunted by a white racist – a real good old boy who, in life, was a member of the KKK. He comes off like the country cousin of LIoyd, the bartender from The Shining, who manages to get under Ron’s skin and makes him believe that his family needs ‘correcting’.

Unfortunately, the best ideas here are borrowed from much stronger material, and what we are ultimately left with is a poorly executed shambles.

(1/5)

It’s a Wonderful Knife

IT’S A Wonderful Knife is a camp Christmas slasher that reimagines a cinematic festive favourite with all the flourish of a blunt blade slicing through roast chestnuts.

In short, it definitely could use some sharpening.

In fairness, Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) is no George Bailey, and this mturkey of a Yuletide horror-comedy isn’t a patch on Frank Capra’s 1964 classic, It’s A Wonderful Life.

New to Shudder, It’s A Wonderful Knife is far from wonderful despite moments of mildly entertaining seasonal revelry. But look, I have seen worse, and its heart is clearly in the right place.

The story unfolds on Christmas Eve. A year on from saving her town from a psychotic killer and Winnie’s life is not so great. In fact, it’s far from wonderful.

In a desperate James Stewart twist of fate, she wishes she’d never been born and finds herself in a nightmare universe. In this parallel Scooby Doo existence, Winnie discovers that, without her, life could be much worse for those she loves, giving her new purpose.

The killer is still at large in this Wes Craven-esque world and she must team up with town misfit Bernie (Jess McLeod) to put an end to the murder spree and get back to her own reality.

Sadly, the gags fall flat on their face, the characters are all teeth and glee but bring about as much pizzazz to the party as a parish priest at a swinger’s night.

It’s all very chipper but it lacks surprises, and turns out to be overly generic with few scares or anything exciting to leave under the tree. The cheesy love story at the centre of the film gives proceedings a certain festive warmth, but if you are looking for a Gremlins or Krampus edge, you have most certainly come to the wrong place.

This turkey is cold!

(2/5)

Sister Death

NEW to Netflix, Spanish horror film Sister Death is the prequel to Veronica, and focuses on the story of Sister Narcisa (Aria Bedmar) and her first encounter with the spirit world.

Set in post-war Spain, Narcisa, a young novice with supernatural powers, arrives at a former convent, now a school for girls, to become a teacher. As the days go by, the strange events and increasingly disturbing situations that torment her will eventually lead her to unravel the terrible knot of secrets that surround the convent and haunts its inhabitants.

On its release back in 2017, the original film was hailed by Netflix as the scariest movie on the streaming service – that week, at least!

Again directed by Paco Plaza, Sister Death is more an origin story than a prequel. But it is more stylish and sober with it, and equally captivating as leading lady Bedmar, is mesmeric as the innocent and at-sea young postulant, struggling with her faith and paranormal abilities.

Sister Narcisa, played in her old age by Consuelo Trujillo, appears in the original as an ominous presence christened ‘Sister Death’.

And while the pace of Plaza’s latest film moves like molasses, the overall air of mystery and the chilling atmosphere is amped up by a far more compelling and moodier tale that draws us in and holds us in its powerful grasp.

Most of this is down to the winning performance from Bedmar, a star in the making, as well as the distinguished camerawork and lighting that adds to the God-fearing aura of dismay throughout the dark convent halls.

Sister Death is a far more memorable and enjoyable experience than its predecessor and Plaza has directed a sequel that is effectively tense and disturbing.

From the Spanish filmmaker who brought us such horror classics as Rec and Rec 2, this is a film worthy of Netflix’s braggadocious claims of ‘scariest film’ this week.

(4/5)