Movie Review: SOUTHBOUND

southbound

If Southbound feels like part of the V/H/S franchise, the reason for that is not just the obvious anthology format, but the fact that some of the same talent is involved.  Roxanne Benjamin who wrote/directed the Siren segment of this movie was a producer on the first two V/H/S movies, and David Bruckner, who wrote/directed The Accident here also directed Amateur Night in the original V/H/S.  In terms of production quality, freed from the stifling “found footage” format, Southbound is a step up, allowing a much broader storytelling scope.  Side by side, the V/H/S franchise is the ugly sister.  It’s a neat coincidence that I watched this back to back with Carnage Park last night – while vastly different, the American southwest setting tied them together.

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Movie Review: CARNAGE PARK – Indie auteur Mickey Keating is back with a tense 70s-styled thriller

carnage park

I think I had at least heard the title of Carnage Park when it was recommended to me over the past week, but I knew almost nothing about it.  A quick trip to the web told me it was purportedly based on a true story (which I now doubt), and while the description didn’t set me alight, it seemed worth a watch.   Set in the late 70s, this is less of a horror movie (though it’s not a stretch to say it’s vaguely similar to The Hills Have Eyes) than it is a old-school thriller – other than the more adult content (The Walking Dead’s Greg Nicotero is thanked in the closing credits), it’s something that could have been a Quinn Martin production (if anyone can remember those!) back in the day.

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Movie Review: THE BOY

boy

The Boy, starring Lauren Cohan (The Walking Dead’s Maggie) is a rickety movie built upon a tottering premise that completely self destructs in Act 3 … but I won’t lie, for the most part, I enjoyed it.  Cohan plays a young American woman who applies for the job of nanny to the child of an elderly couple – trouble is, they live alone in a Gothic castle that looks straight out of The Woman in Black … and their child is … a doll with a porcelain head.  Continue reading “Movie Review: THE BOY”

Movie Review: CHAPPIE

Chappie_poster

Far from it from me to tell a ton of people they’re wrong about Chappie, Neill Blomkamp’s first movie since Elysium, but I liked it.  I took a quick look at the Rotten Tomatoes rating, and it currently stands at 32%, which I find somewhat astonishing.  While the movie isn’t exactly a thought-provoking meditation on the vast implications of the inevitable developments in AI, and has a plot containing some significant holes (typical of Blomkamp, the writer), I found the movie to be pretty entertaining. Continue reading “Movie Review: CHAPPIE”

Movie Review: THE INVITATION

invitation

About 20 minutes into The Invitation, I considered shutting it off and picking something else to watch – which would have been an error on my part.  By means of explanation, I’ll say that even up to that point, the movie wasn’t bad at all.  It opened well, with a nicely defining moment for the protagonist, Will (played by Prometheus’s Logan Marshall-Green), as he and his girlfriend drive through an LA canyon, responding to a dinner party invitation.  There’s a palpable layer of tension in this movie from the outset, and it never lets up.  Continue reading “Movie Review: THE INVITATION”