Kill Game (2018)

Three years after high school, a group of friends attend a funeral for one of their own.  Afterwards Blake, who is now a cop, tells them it appears Jimmy was murdered. As the group considers who would want to kill him, they wonder if it had something to do with the pranks they played in high school, one of which resulted in a friends death.

This group of idiots loved doing pranks except what they call pranks are cruel and criminal.  A few of the things they admit to and still laugh about are:

1. Forging a letter from a doctor to tell a mother her sick child has HIV
2. Shooting the valedictorian’s graduation gown and face with paintballs
3. Putting a firecracker in a bathroom stall while someone’s in it
4. Slipping adult pictures into a teachers slide projector for a class presentation
5. Convincing their girlfriend to seduce a coach so they can take photos and blackmail him
6. Drugging and burying Brandon in the sand while the tide is coming in, resulting in his death

So they killed one kid and traumatized countless others at their high school. How will they figure out who the killer is when they had so many victims? Jessie decides to apologize to Helen but it’s not a real apology.  It’s one of those where she says the words I’m sorry but takes no responsibility or acknowledges she’s done anything wrong.  When Helen angrily rebuffs her, Jessie smiles and condescendingly tells her to get over herself since it was just a funny prank.  

While they’re trying to figure out who might want them dead, Beth tells them she was approached by Liam, Brandon’s twin brother. They were unaware he had a brother. Liam is hoping Beth can tell him about Brandon since she knew him and was there when he died. The group thinks he may be the killer since it seems too much of a coincidence that he would show up and people involved in Brandon’s death are dying.

Based on their lack of remorse, you’ll want them all to die. The movie takes an odd tact when the killer murders innocent doctors, nurses and a receptionist in a hospital.  When it’s more upsetting to see peripheral characters died than the main characters, that seems like an odd choice. Couldn’t they have given us one person to root for?

Listen for the Wilhelm scream near the end of the film when a character gets his hand cut off as he’s reaching for the door.

Unrepentant dialogue

Enough with the drama, Helen. It was all in good fun.

Brandon had a way of seeing things. He liked to laugh. He had a sense of humor too.

Everyone involved in the death has a full page in the yearbook

Check out the text on the left. They forgot to replace
the filler text and  it’s mostly a list of different cuts of meat

Only Jimmy and Beth were in the flashbacks at
the beach so how did the others get involved? 

This isn’t how you should look when apologizing for
traumatizing someone with a cruel prank

Wearing sunglasses inside at night inside

Rush for Your Life (2022)

Tasha goes undercover at college, pledges a sorority, and joins the college newspaper to expose what happened the prior year when a pledge named Sophie died.  Clancy, the editor of the paper, was Sophie’s roommate. She was also a pledge but dropped out after Sophie’s death. She hates the sorority and would love to publish an expose on them.

Why is it when people go undercover to look into a crime, they are super obvious?  Tasha has no sense of subtlety. She asks way too many questions about Sophie and has her phone out recording secret ceremonies. 

She meets frat boy Anthony and they become friendly.  While trying to find info on Sophies death, they break into oher students rooms. But then they sit there and have an heart to heart where Tasha reveals guilt from her past. There is no heartfelt conversation you should have when breaking and entering. Wait until you’re no longer committing a crime.

To get into the sorority, you download an app where you will be assigned tasks. These brainiacs put their hazing in writing.  Tasha is assigned tasks that get more and more dangerous, which ends with her on the same roof Sophie fell, jumped or was pushed off.  Silly Sophie, don’t you know you should never join a sorority, especially when you’re investigating a death and they’ve realized you’re a mole?

Social media for the person on the phone

Live streaming your illegal activities during hazing

How did the sisters not notice she was recording?

Breaking into a dorm is a great time for a heart to heart.

Obviously recording on her phone during the secret initiation

It’s not much of a threat if it’s been printed in the paper

Triggered (2020)

A group of high school friends who haven’t seen each other in years go camping in the woods.  There’s some tension in the group but it’s not clear why.  When Cici gets mad at her boyfriend, they joke about how he’d better be careful after what she did in school. It turns out a teacher gave her detention for using her phone in class. So she used his computer to sign up to websites and newsletters which got him arrested and put on a sex offender registry. The weirdest part of this reminiscing none of them are horrified. You’d think being ten yers older they’d feel awful, but they just laugh. Good times.

After some tense moments, everyone heads off to their tents. Later that night they all wake up wearing weird vests with timers on them. Who could have done this?  Well if you guessed it was the high school teacher whose life they ruined, you’d be wrong.  It’s because their friend Caleb dies at a party and someone thinks one of them killed him.

They get no explanation about the vest, other than the timer shows how much longer they’ll live and only one of them will leave the woods alive. Later they learn that you can steal other peoples time by murdering them or being near them when they die.  So the rest of the movie is people either partnering with each other to find a solution, or trying to murder their friends.   

The biggest problem is the person who set this up overlooked one thing. Since one person will make it out alive, it could be the person who killed Caleb. If someone has already killed, it might be easier to kill again. Shouldn’t revenge ensure the killer dies, rather than leaving it to chance? Also what if not everyone in the group decided to go camping? Plus for most of the film we are left to wonder if Caleb was really murdered or it was an accident.  

Amusing dialogue

This is why I wasn’t allowed to sleep over at Caleb’s house.  

Spirit Halloween: The Movie (2022)

Alec Windsor shows up at the orphanage and tells them he’s bought the property and they need to get out.  The woman tending the orphans is a witch who curses him and he falls down dead.  

Eighty two years later, junior high students Jake, Carson and Bo have decided they’re too old for trick or treating. They see the Spirit Halloween store and decide to sneak in and spend the night. What they don’t realize is it’s on the  land where the orphanage was and Windsor’s spirit is still there.

The kids hide inside the store and once the staff leaves, they run around and hang out until one of the animatronic ghosts comes to life, possessed by Windsor’s spirit.  When they try to escape, they find there is no way out, and must fight the ghost.

Meanwhile Carson’s sister Kate has come looking for them after discovering Carson is not at either friends house. She discovers their bikes outside the store. When she can’t get in, she climbs through a door in the roof down into the store.  Except now she’s trapped as well and the four try to figure out how to stop Windsor and survive the night.

This is a kids movie.  There’s nothing really scary in it and it takes place mostly within the Spirit Halloween store.  My friend contemplated whether it was written by AI due to the flow and lack of originality. It’s not horrible, but doesn’t have the charm that other kids movies have managed to pull off, probably because it’s a promotion for a Halloween store.

The thing that struck me the most is they live in a town where they can leave their bikes unlocked, even over night.  We also questioned whether a store would have no motion detectors or video surveillance which would alert them that someone was inside. After the battle the kids fought, you’d think there would be some sort of alert. The poor worker who opens the store in the morning has to deal with picking up everything they trashed.

Valley of Death (1988)

 Aka Memorial Valley Massacre

A developer opens a camp ground, even though there’s no running water, the road isn’t complete and there was a death in a construction accident that morning.  The ranger doesn’t think it’s safe, but the developer thinks that’s a lame excuse to not make money from the rubes waiting to camp.

David, the developers estranged son, shows up to work. He’s the opposite of his father, is going to college and wants to do what’s right for the environment.  The ranger doesn’t cotton to no city boy telling him what to do, but David is just here to do his job and isn’t trying to question his authority.

The camp ground must have had good marketing. There’s a line of campers waiting to get in and a number of stock characters waiting to be murdered by what is essentially a caveman that’s been living in the area since he was a child. With no human interaction, he’s reverted to grunting rather than speaking, and wants everyone off of his land. 

As the deaths mount, some of the people leave in fear that an animal is on the loose.  But we’ve still got the featured characters left to meet their maker.  It’s kind of slow moving and you’ll wonder why the caveman has unruly hair, yet is clean shaven.

Vaudevillian dialogue

Teen: Does he look sorta like you?

Chuck: Why yes.

Teen: Sorta dumpy and stupid?

Chuck: Now wait a minute

Rick: Kind fat and weird?

The Prey (1983)

Three couples go on a weekend camping trip. They check in at the park to get their permits and then hike deep into the woods.  The girls talk about how romantic this trip will be, while the guys talk about scoring. 

When they stop for a short break, Gayle says her feet hurt and boyfriend Greg tells her she should have broken in her new boots before the hike. Gayle is not amused. However she is obsessed with how she looks and opts to stay behind to continue brushing her hair rather than leave with the others.

When Gayle catches up too group, she says there was something in the woods following her, but the others don't believe her. Sadly Gayle’s boyfriend pays the price for not protecting her, even though she’s the one who told him to leave while she finished her hair. 

The first night they sit around the fire telling stories and eating marshmallows.  After they go to bed. Gayle hears a noise in the woods and Greg thinks it may be Skip pulling another prank.  Gayle isn’t sure since she heard noises earlier in the day. You’d think that Greg would check to see if Skip was at the campsite, but instead he tramps off into the woods.  

At day break, there is no sign of Gayle, Greg or their belongings.  Nancy is concerned but the others think the couple either went back to the ranger station, or will catch up with them later.  They pin a note to a tree and move out.

Cut to Rangers Mark and Lester having lunch  Lester tells Mark that fifteen years ago there was a horrible forest fire in the mountains. Some gypsies living in the caves were burned to a crisp.  When Lester went up to help with the reseeding, he saw a burned boy who scampered away into the forest.  Lester has never told anyone about this, but he really should have.  Maybe get him some medical attention? So we know where this is headed as Ranger Mark goes out the door to see if he can find the animal that killed two middle aged campers.

Apparently there are two versions of this movie.  The one I saw was the theatrical release which was 80 minutes. There was a home video version that clocks in at 97 minutes. It cut out some scenes and added an origin story and gypsy back story.

The theatrical version has a ton of padding. I would not be surprised if almost half of it was nature stock footage.  There are also plenty of scenes with no dialogue and one cut away to the ranger playing a banjo. Why? 

Gayle should not be on this trip.  Combing her hair is more important then hiking with the group. Later she puts on lipstick and cranks her radio up while Greg asks her to turn it off and appreciate nature. At one point Skip mentions that Gayle must be dating Greg because his father is rich. Because a pretty girl like Gayle could never like a geek wearing short shorts. 

This is a slow paced movie.  It’s nature shots, the group walking, occasional dialogue, and the only deaths in the first hour are the two campers at the beginning.  The most interesting thing about the movie is that Lester is played by Jackie Coogan, who played Uncle Fester on the Addams Family tv show.

Amusing dialogue

Stop it, you octopus!

Look girls, it’s hunky Ranger Mark

Gayle choosing to stay behind for her hair

Popeye

Why did we cut to the Ranger playing a banjo?

Margaux (2022)

Drew and his friends rent a house for vacation and on the way there, he tells them it’s a smart house. Each of them downloads the app and agrees to the terms of service, except Hannah who hits the decline button.  Hannah is a programmer who is concerned about online privacy and doesn’t use social media.

The house is referred to as Margaux and interacts with the group. It keeps urging Hannah to download the app. It’s located every one else’s social media and knows what they like, but hasn’t been able to figure Hannah out, other than the small amount of info on her friends pages.  

It’s unclear how Margaux manages to have every type of food they like in stock or how she cooks it. And do any of them really like their ham cut a half inch thick? It’s not appealing. 

Tentacle arms come out of the wall, which should be alarming but the group oohs and aahs over the house doing so much for them.  It even provides top grade weed after Clay drops his in the pool.  But what the group doesn’t realize is that Margaux has killed guests before and now she’s set her sights on them.

The biggest question is if Margaux has killed a ton of people, why has no one noticed? How could so many people disappear from one house? Has anyone notified the police that their loved ones have gone missing?  Who cleans up? Does Margaux get rid of the blood and personal belongings? Where does she put them? Where does the food come from? Is Margaux creating it out of the goo that runs out of the vents?  How does the house have ultra modern AI when her hardware is super old? And why is the exercise equipment outside? It’s electrical and it would seem rain would be an issue. 

Muck (2015)

The movie begins and we are thrown right into the middle of a story already in progress.  A group of friends are stumbling through a field. Something big has already happened because one guy is seriously injured and a dazed woman is in her underwear.   Where have they been? Who did this? Who are these people? Why are they in town since they don’t live here? Who attacked them? What happened?  I hope those questions aren’t important to you because they’re not going to tell us.

The group stumbles across someone’s home and breaks in. While there’s some panic over the injury and the traumatized girl, there’s no real sense of urgency. One girl is fixated on taking a shower.  Noah decide to get help since there is no phone. The injured guy says don’t ask the local Sheriff for help, but call someone for a ride.  Why don’t they want the Sheriff to help? Did the local police attack our group? No idea.

Noah runs till he finds a bar. Does he ask for a phone or for help? No, he quietly walks up to the bar, then heads into the bathroom to wash his face. When he comes back, a woman hits on him, he orders drinks and then asks to use her phone.  He calls his cousin Troit and asks for a ride for five people. Then he runs back to the house to make sure his girlfriend is okay. But on the way back, he runs by a house and sees a girl inside in underwear so he stops to peep through the windows. What the hell, movie.

Troit gets in his car with the two women he’s drinking with and drives to the town of Wescraven, yeah I know.  And that’s when the albinos show up. The rest of the movie is the few people left alive trying to survive the multiple albino attacks.  And it ends as it starts - with no resolution and seemingly in the middle of the story.

They just took the middle of a movie, no beginning or end, and no plot.  Noah never tells Troit where he is, other than the name of the town, yet Troit finds him.  The bartender warns Troit not to go to that town, but there’s no info as to why or what the bartender knows.  The women with Troit are overly concerned with their clothing.  When the first one thinks they’ve going home together, she goes into the bathroom and tries on multiple sets of matching underwear. Who brings that many changes of clothing to a bar?  After their car tips over, the other woman says she needs a change of clothing. Why? Her clothing isn’t  even dirty.

Legend of the Lizard Man (2023)

In 1988, Darnell is found in a small boat in a stream in the woods, claiming he and his parents were attacked by a lizard man.  No creature is ever found and rumor has it Darnell’s father killed his mother and ran off to avoid the consequences.

Cut to current day and a group of friends come to town because Sidney is doing research on the lizard  man.  They head to the Lizard Man museum where the proprietor has his face like painted like a lizard.  If you saw him anywhere but the museum, you wouldn’t know he’s supposed to be an lizard. The group also gets in a brief verbal spar with some locals who hang out outside the museum and harass women. Why?

The guy at the museum gives them a map so they can find the location of the lizard man incident, which is where they’ll set up camp. They’ve brought beer and a boombox on their trek into the woods, which is always conducive to research. One of the guys wanders off on his own since he believes if he finds the lizard man, it’ll be easy money and make him a millionaire.

Soon we’ve got the lizard man, the local thugs, Darnell, the ranger, and the group of friends on a collision course with wackiness.  Actually it’s more a course of tedium as you’ll wonder if anything is going to happen and there’s no satisfaction in the end. People make ridiculous decisions and the twists are lackluster. 

While this takes place in South Carolina, the accents are either over the top southern hick or have a lilt of the actors own accent, which is distracting. Louisa Warren is a UK filmmaker so I’m assuming they shot this in the UK based on the accent issues.

The movie ends with interviews with the proprietor of a museum with lizard man info. So it’s a real legend.  Plus theres an interview with a woman who went to high school with the guy who actually saw the lizard mani in 1988.  What is hilarious is the filmmaker didn’t edit this woman’s train of thought monologue. We get info like in high school she worked at the KFC, which she then expands upon because it was called Kentucky Fried Chicken when she worked there. Or everyone in high school believed the guy because why would he make up a lizard man since he was handsome and popular.  This overlooks the fact that sometimes people just want attention and a little story can become so big they don’t see any way out of the lie and have to perpetuate it. Who knows if it’s true, but people lie for all sorts of reasons.

Ridiculous dialogue

Missing people go missing all the time.

Ding ding bingo.

Jason: Then what is it?

Darnell: Short answer, no idea.

Sid: How long have you been tracking it? The whole time?

Darnell: Not at first.

A view of Darnell’s car from inside the lizard man’s mouth

The van right out of the 70s.

The sign to the museum is taped up using electrical
tape, and the arrow is also electrical tape. 

On the right is a man on a bicycle. I thought this must be
someone following them and was part of the plot but
apparently it was just someone riding down the road. 

The group sees a cabin in the woods and gathers on and
near the porch which is weird since the lights are on and
they aren’t staying there.

What sort of forest has lanterns hanging off trees
that anyone can take to go into the forest at night

Uh okay, not what I was expecting for a lizard creature

The decidedly un-lizard like lizard make up.

Eradication (2022)

David has been in isolation for a couple years due to a virus that’s broken out.  He spends his days with timers set for tasks and is told not to venture out after dark.  He misses his wife Sam, who he only sees on video calls at designated times.

Sam tells David his blood is the only hope for the future. She’s infected and his blood could be the cure.  Apparently he’s the only person who hasn’t become infected by the disease. 

At designated intervals, he draws blood and brings it to a drop off point where he exchanges it for food.  At one point he gets bent out of shape because he’s given canned food that contains meat and he’s a vegetarian.  It’s ridiculous to be so arrogant during an apocalypse.  

It feels like the zombies must come out after dark since he’s told not to leave the house other than during the day. But at one point, he runs into a zombie during the day. So what’s really going on at night?

There are only a few actors in this film and it’s mostly David alone.  There’s no zombie action, it’s pacing is slow, and you’ll be left with questions. 

The Mount 2 (2022)

An old weirdo brings some twenty somethings to an abandoned mansion, where he cuts his finger and demands the two girls suck the blood off it. They’re upset but surprisingly comply.  The weirdo does a ritual and then requests his fee for guiding them there, but they tell him they can’t pay.

The kids hang out, listen to music, play games, talk, and get bored. There are ghosts in the house and it seems like one of the guys can see them, but he doesn’t say anything.

Then four teenaged ghosts walk up the path to the house and holy crap now they’re singing. What the hell.  

I haven’t seen the first movie. I’m not sure if it would make a difference. I don’t know who the teen ghosts are or why they’re singing. But do I need to know anything about them when it’s people in a haunted house? I did not enjoy this, but if you’re going to watch it, you may want to watch the first one in case there was some plot point that was relevant.

The ghost teens are going to sing

Alien Valley (2012)

Alien Valley tells the story of the reality show, Paranormal Mysteries, whose crew disappears when they go to investigate weird happenings in a small town.  Interviews with other paranormal investigators and town folks make up the movie, along with the footage found on their cameras.  

Since this is reality tv, the skeptics point out that the show is scripted, uses music and sound effects to build drama or tension, and is essentially like a documentary soap opera with drama between characters.  There is counter point by others who think the team  actually disappeared after finding something paranormal.

The cast and crew are kind of annoying, other than a camera man who bonds with the local ranger.  The group doesn’t care about rules and regulations, and is also prone to fake evidence to make their show more interesting. Unfortunately for them they are in cattle mutilation territory and there are things going on that are not of this earth. 

The Outwaters (2022)

Michelle, Angela, Scott and Robbie go to the desert to shoot footage for a music video and disappear never to be seen again. Five years later someone finds Robbie’s camera and this footage is on it.

It’s like watching your friends home movies and that’s not interesting for anyone.  They sit around, talk, sing, do nothing or visit family.  There’s no plot, character development or any reason to care about these people.

After they head out into the desert, it’s more of the same.  Then at fifty five minutes in something happens in the middle of the night as they’re camping.  Robbie is off on his own when he hears the screams of his friends. The next morning we see he’s hiding in crevice, his hair is matted with blood and there are still forty five minutes left in this film. Oh god.

Much of the movie is at night and Robbie is using a small flashlight to illuminate what he’s seeing. So get ready to see almost nothing for half the film.  It’s a pinpoint of light in the desert, often looking as if he’s shining a flashlight through a toilet paper roll.  So while we know his friends are dead, we don’t see anything other than blood. All the action happens off camera in the dark.  

It’s not clear why they were camping for multiple days to shoot this video. The second day they’re lying in the sun, recording sounds in the rocks, or hanging out for most of it.  Why stay so long? You hike in, shoot your dusk scenes, camp for the night, get up and shoot your day scenes, and hike back.

It’s also not clear why the blood is always wet.  The blood should dry especially with the high heat in the desert, but it’s always wet and gooey.

You’ve got almost an hour of shots like this.

Unnatural (2015)

Aka Maneater 

Brooking, an arrogant photographer, brings his assistant and two models to a remote lodge in Alaska to do a photo shoot. There’s only four hours of sunlight a day so he’s got limited time to shoot. The girls are wearing bikini’s and fur hats while they pose in the freezing cold.

Lodge owner Martin and his staff try their best to deal with Brookings horrible personality, rude demeanor, and unreasonable demands.  But with him insulting everyone and making racist remarks about the locals, they’re just waiting for the day the group leaves.

Unfortunately they are on a collision course with a rogue polar bear from a genetic testing laboratory.  The bear has escaped the secret lab in the wilderness after killing two scientists. Doctor Hanna escaped and is wandering through the woods after her truck broke down.

Things start to go wrong for the visitors when the bear drags one of the models into a hole in the ice while on a shoot.  Later Martin finds Hanna in the woods and brings her back to the lodge.  She feeds Martin some garbage about why she was out there, but he doesn’t trust her narrative.  

As the massive polar bear tracks down anyone who goes outside, you’d think it would get more exciting. But about sixty minutes in, I just wanted it to be over.  Even with actors like James Remar, Graham Greene, Ray Wise, and Sherilynn Fenn it couldn’t keep my interest.  Also surprisingly there is twelve minutes of credits at the end of the film.

Also note that when Brookings looks through his photos, we find out he’s not very good. He spent $10,000 to fly two models to remote wilderness, travels by snow mobile to a lake, and is taking close ups of Ella’s face which could be done without leaving his home.

The polar bear in the hallway

He could have taken this shot in his backyard. 

Demonoid (1981)

Jennifer and her husband Mark buy a mine in Mexico hoping to get rich. But after finding a hidden tomb inside the workers fear entering again because the tomb was cursed.  Mark isn’t afraid of a stupid legend so he goes inside to find antiquities. Not only does he find quicksand but also a hand which attaches itself to whoever holds it  and possesses them.  

Mark ends up gambling in Las Vegas because where else would you go with an evil hand.  Jennifer tries to track him down but things do not go well since the only way to get rid of the hand is to chop it off.

Looking for revenge for her husbands death, Jennifer seeks the help of a priest, who is skeptical until he sees the hand in action.  No one is safe from the hand, which is hilarious since it involves actors holding the hand onto their faces while flailing, or spinning around with the hand attached to their hair.

It’s not the most exciting thing to watch, but I do have an affinity for disembodied hand movies.

The huge glasses that cover half her face

Quicksand in a mine? Who knew

The evil hand is on the loose

Jennifer shows the deadly artifact to the priest

Hand attack!

Having to throw yourself around as if the
hand you’re holding on your face is attacking you

JeruZalem (2015)

Sarah, whose dad gave her a pair of smart glasses, is taking a trip with her friend Rachel to Tel Aviv. They meet Kevin on the plane who is heading to Jerusalem. When the plane lands, he asks them to join him and they rearrange their schedule. Because if there’s one thing that’s safe it’s going off with a man you just met while in a foreign country. 

They stay at a hostel where Rachel asks Omar, the owners son, for hash and invites him to hang out that night.  In the next few hours, Sarah’s bag is stolen by a child, she injures herself while giving chase, the group goes out for drinks, and she hooks up with Kevin. 

The next day they do some tourist things, like visit the Western Wall where you write your deepest wish. Sarah wishes for her dead brother to come back. Uh oh.

When they visit some underground caverns, Kevin becomes uncomfortable and wants to leave.  After doing research, he says they need to leave town right now because something bad is going to happen.  He gets so upset the hotel owner calls the police drag him off to an asylum.

That night Sarah sees a plane drop a bomb on the city and the news mentions terrorists. Shortly after that a couple of soldiers show up at the hostel and advise everyone to get to the gates of the city because the military is going to lock it down.  

At this point Sarah becomes liability.  Her first priority should be getting to the gates. But she has trouble keeping up with the group and when they are running past the asylum, she stops, stomps her little feet, and insists they rescue Kevin. 

Although she’s only known him a few days,  can’t speak the language, and the news has reported terrorists are attacking, she refuses to go further and runs into the asylum. The soldiers decide they’ll help her look for three minutes.  The asylum is huge. She has no idea which floor or wing he’s in. Plus what if he’s already been evacuated?  When the soldiers tell her time is up, she throws another fit and stays behind.

As unlikely as it is due to the size of the asylum, she finds Kevin and helps him escape.  Then she’s back to being an idiot again. She crashes a bike and starts pulling a Velma when she can’t find her glasses. She even sets them down on the ground. Good god woman, you can’t see without them. It turns out her friend is couldn’t get out before the gates were locked. So everyone’s trying to escape the messed up creatures in the city and it just gets worse from here. 

Ridiculous dialogue

Man: We have a lot of superstitions here. Do you believe?

Sarah: No, I’m old school. I believe in science.

Man: You are stupid.

Glass, take a picture.

It would be a pain to have this stuff popping up in your vision

The glasses pull up your social media once they recognize you

Good old trustworthy Kevin

The Canal (2014)

Five years after buying a home, film archivist David is reviewing old news reels and discovers his house was the site of a vicious murder in the early 1900s.  He and his wife are unnerved but it’s not like they’ve had any issues in the house so life goes on.

When David’s wife invites him to a business party, he notices her client Alex is too familiar with her and begins to wonder if she’s having an affair. One night he follows her and confirms his fears to be true as she meets Alex in one of his buildings that’s under construction. David picks up a hammer and considers doing them harm. But the horror of this thought sends him running out of the building and he throws the hammer in the canal.

The next morning when he discovers his wife hasn’t come home,  David notifies the police. After an investigation and a search, they find her body in the canal. Since they know she was having an affair, Davis is ant the top of their list of suspects. David denies any knowledge of this.

He begins having nightmares and seeing the man who committed the murder in his house one hundred years ago.  So is David hallucinating? Is the murderer’s spirit haunting this home? Did David murder his wife? He’s acting weird, the nanny is afraid of him, and the police have found the hammer in the canal.

This is an Irish movie which has some creepy parts and is psychological horror.

What We Become (2015)

When a new family moves in across the street, Gustav becomes interested in the teenaged daughter Sonja.  They’ve barely gotten to know each other when an announcement on TV says there appears to be an epidemic beginning. If anyone is sick avoid hospitals, doctors and 911, and instead call the health hotline.

A few days later, the military show up on their street, order people back in their houses, and barricade the streets at the edge of town.  Those who try to escape are shot.  There are daily health checks and food is delivered to each home.  

But Gustav is curious about what’s going on and sneaks out one night to the school where the military have their base.  He sees townsfolk being brought inside and sees some unsettling things. When he starts to open the a box truck in the yard, the military notices and shoots as he runs off. Behind him he hears screams and the gunfire stops.  

When no more food arrives, some of the families go looking for supplies.  Others split apart, like when one person thinks their partner is sick and doesn’t want to catch it.  At this point they discover there is no more military in town, though the barricade is still up and the military will still kill anyone who gets too close to it. Also there are also zombies wandering the streets which is not going to go well for anyone.

This has suspense but if you’re looking for zombie action, you’ll be disappointed. It’s more about atmosphere and the characters than the zombies, who are almost all the last part of the film.