Jug Face (2013)

Jug Face

Killing the Netflix List

Jug Face excited me with its trailer last year and I have been pretty excited to get to see it. It is about a backwoods community fueled by superstition and sacrifice. It focuses on a young girl who finds she is next in line to be given to "the pit" by finding her likeness made in to an ugly jug, a type of folk art which you can read about here. Anyway she doesn't want to be sacrificed, and has other secrets to keep from her family besides. The tension builds as to whether she can deal with this situation. It is a well put together movie that makes the most of its budget. There are some supernatural elements to film as well, but they did not hit that well with me. And some of the editing and visual effects involving them as well did not really thrill me either. The script and acting are actually pretty solid, considering. If you are in the mood for an original supernatural thriller, definitely give this one a go.

Almost Human (2013 (not the one with Karl Urban))

Almost Human

I'm going to try to burn through my Netflix list as it has piled up something fierce, and for some reason I felt writing short reviews would somehow make me more likely to do this... Yeah I'm confused by my own reasoning.

Anyway, Almost Human is very independent but not entirely cheap feeling sci-fi horror gore romp. The plot is damn simple, a guy gets abducted by aliens, comes back a few years later and kills a bunch of people, because. The acting and script are a little weak, but entirely forgivable. The production is surprisingly good however, particularly the sound and music. Fantastic, chilling, creepy, obviously influenced by John Carpenter's The Thing (so of course I like it). Some of the gore-gags are pretty well done, and at least one made me say "what the fuck" out-loud, which is a good thing. Its a decent, short, indie horror flick. While not amazing, the people involved obviously know horror and how to make a movie. Its fun and worth adding to your list if you have run through the big horror titles already.

Review: Resolution

Resolution (2012)

I'm very happy I finally got to watch this movie. I had heard about it when it came out but couldn't find it at first, and then forgot the title but had kept my interest so it was even harder to find. When I asked people about "that movie where that guy chains up his friend to detox him off meth and a bunch of weird shit happens to them" no one had a clue what I was talking about. This is that movie, and that is basically the plot. The one character receives a map and a video of his friend smoking meth and shooting guns and acting kind of crazy. He decides to go out there to help him, to try to bring him to rehab one last time. When he refuses to go he decides that his last chance is to chain him up and let him sweat it out. But it wont be that easy when all the other weird people show up and weird stuff starts to happen. As the friend from the city starts exploring the area he starts finding lots of strange things: records, film, pictures, of people doing things that he assumes are stories and some of themselves. I cant give too much away, but its a tight and engaging psychological thriller with a lot to say about friendship and depression. While there is some heavy shit going on it remains thoroughly watchable between the mystery going on and the hope for the happy ending. Vinny Curran also brings a certain amount of humor to his role as the junkie to keep things from getting too heavy, while remaining convincing and sympathetic. Like I said, I cant go over this too much without spoiling things, but I want people to watch it so I talk about it. I will be watching this one again, I could tell there were detail I missed. I feel like it probably took some inspiration from the mystery alternate reality game web series' that were popular a few years ago, like Marble Hornets. If you want a smart movie that will keep you guessing until the end, I really suggest this one.

I feel like this movie needs something to keep you awake, acute and aware, like, uh...

Lucid Lucy

2 oz Absinthe
1 oz Rumple minze
1 oz Goldschlager
red bull

Shake up the liquor and pour into a highball glass with ice, then fill with red bull. A sort of take on a Ball and Chain but amped-up and with absinthe instead of Jagermeister. Probably a pretty dangerous cocktail and I wouldn't suggest more than one.

Review: The ABCs of Death

The ABCs of Death (2012)

Ok so ABC's of death is an anthology project with each letter being tackled by a different group of filmmakers making a short film themed with a word starting with a certain letter from the alphabet. Overall I was kind of exasperated by how weird or kind really stupid some of these were. Only three or so really stood out to me as being really good, and it was kind of a shame for them to be mixed in with a lot of these which I really hated. The majority are horror-comedy or just dark comedy, or just stupid toilet humor, or just really fucking weird. I'm going to go through each letter briefly, without giving too much away.
A- meh
B- pretty good
C- ok, simple, cute premise
D- one of the stand-out's, it has a satisfying twist
E- meh
F- Goddammit Japan
G- boring
H- Goddam Furries
I- pretty tense
J- Goddammit Japan
K- stupid
L- one of the most fucked up, but actually tense and not just annoying
M- quick and fucked up
N- funny, classic comedy bit gone violent at the end
O- just weird
P- well done, tragic and tense
Q- I lol'd R- I didnt really get the symbolism or something, kind of wanted a little more explanation because I was intrigued and left hanging.
S- ok
T- hey look, more toilets and poop.
U- ok
V- probably my favorite, crazy, distopian, brutal
W- fucking weird, but kind of funny
X- ok
Y -just kind of weird, but ok I guess.
Z- GOD DAMMIT JAPAN!! So to tally it up, there's about 9 that were worth watching, about 8 that were meh, and another 9 that I really disliked. That's not really a great ratio. I would skip it overall, I kind of wish segment V would just be its own movie and was just longer, maybe not even feature length but a good 30 minute short film. If you really want to watch the whole thing anyway I suggest that you skip any of the shorts that start to be annoying or boring, because they dont get better at their ends.

Review: Pontypool

Pontypool (2008)

Pontypool is a zombie movie, but with very little zombie in it, its mostly about a talk radio DJ and his producer and assistant hunkered down in their radio station. The thing that makes this different from every other zombie movie is that the people are infected not with a virus in their bodies but in their minds by repeating words. The movie plays with the idea that language being mimetic is infectious like a virus, and that ideas and meanings behind words are infectious, but it specifically and almost contrary, the infection is caused by the repetition of a word until it becomes meaningless and the victim goes crazy and starts trying to kill people. This churns into a mass hysteria, but we don't really get to see too much of it since most of the action is played out in our minds as we hear it phoned in (literally) to the radio station. The drama plays between the characters in the radio station as they try to make sense of what is going on and how they can use their position to help people. I didn't really enjoy this one that much, but I don't want to say it was a bad movie. I applaud them for taking a different approach and trying to breath more life and intelligence into the zombie genre. I do like the idea of building the analogy of infectious ideas that spread like a zombie plague, but I'm not a fan of how they implemented it. The way it infected only words of the English language didn't really make sense to me. Also the part where they are repeating words over and over until they don't make sense, but then the way its defeated is by thinking the word means something else was a little weird, and it was never really explained how that would travel from person to person through exposure. That and the guy's voice sounded too much like Space Ghost which took me out of the movie a little. Overall it was an interesting idea, but the details of how they implemented it didn't make sense to me.

Review: The Possession

The Possession (2012)

A little girl becomes the victim of a vicious demon from the ancient Hebrew world, set over the backdrop of a newly divorced family. I have to wonder why demons tend to possess little girls, I guess its just because they seem the most vulnerable to any kind of corruption. I was definitely sympathetic to the family, I thought their performance was very good, although I found the mother's character a little frustrating (pretty sure I was supposed to). The movie was definitely pretty creepy at parts, and I liked that the demon this time was from Hebrew mythology. I found it refreshing to dip into a different pantheon. I had heard about this one quite a while ago, glad I finally watched it.

Review: The Innkeepers

The Innkeepers

Are you in the mood for a spooky ghost story? The Inkeepers focuses on the two clerks who work at a hotel that's going under, who pass the time trying to prove the presence of the paranormal. This is a slow-burn movie, taking its time to build up the tension, with a few jump scares sprinkled through until the climax. Over the last weekend of the hotel's operation the duo take turns working and investigating with cameras and voice recorders looking for ghosts. They also start learning about the last guests staying at the hotel and their mysterious backgrounds. I really liked Sara Paxton's performance as the very believably awkward and vulnerable Claire. She has a relatabley mundane life of a young 20-something college drop-out along with her male counterpart both are trying to find meaning or substance in their lives by trying to find the ghosts at the hotel, and then things get bad for them. I definitely recommend it for people who like creepy atmosphere and subtlety mixed with a couple jump-scares. This is my first time watching a feature from director Ti West, I heard good things about him from this and The House of the Devil but I didn't really care for his segment in V/H/S. I enjoyed this so I'm going to have to see House of the Devil.

Review: Strippers vs Werewolves

Strippers vs Werewolves (2012)

You probably wouldn't expect a lot from a movie called "Strippers vs Werewolves", and you would be right not to but it does at least have a lot of strippers and some werewolves. The really weird thing is that they are all British as this takes place in London. Makes sense for the werewolves, but I didn't know they had strippers in England. Shows what I know. Hopefully they don't actually dance to any of the terrible music that they do in this movie. There are quite a few decent gags in the movie that had me laughing and a little bit of good violence. It definitely leans much more on the comedy side of the horror-comedy axis. Somehow they got Robert Englund for one scene, and his is easily the best performance in the whole movie. If they got him to be more involved in the movie it might have actually been kinda good. You might also recognize the club owner, Sarah Douglas, as Queen Taramis from Conan the Destroyer. If you ever find yourself drunk and flipping through netflix, and if you associate with me you probably do, its worth checking out.