Monthly Archives: July 2022

movie, Reviews

(movie) Woodland Grey (2021) is a paranoia infused folk horror beauty.

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Folk horror is very popular these last few years and in the flood of some great and some bad movies sometimes there are some indie low budget films that are jewels in the crown of underground. Well, Woodland Grey by director Adam Reider, who is also co-writer managed to create that creepy absurd atmosphere that I lack so much in newer horror movies.

There are only four actors in this one, but this one manages to do some scare. Emily(Jenny Raven) tries to cope with the death of her grandfather, Vietnam veteran (Art Hindle) and goes to a camping trip in the woods. She gets lost and William(Ryan Blakely), weird recluse who lives in the woods saves her life. But, things sometimes go wrong way and Emily discovers in the shed a little girl and then things start to go spooky and there is no certainty what is real and what is not anymore.

Well, that is the story. I will start with something that really bothers me in whole screenplay and the movie and bothers me a lot. That is, how a girl with dialysis goes to camping? Huh? Wow. But, there are much better moments in the movie which cover that bad and illogical one. This is basically a mixture of mindfuck, psychological horror and folk horror. Atmospheric and strong, absurd in its eeriness with that girl and rabbit mask, that red ribbons around trees and some more ugly scary moments which are not so scary per se, but their absurdity and madness spooked me while watching this one. There is also a story how mind copes with loss of beloved persons as an underlayer of the horror story. Ending is okay, but could have been a bit better and is a little let down, but the movie is okay.

6/10

Reviews

(review) Within Temptation – Don´t pray for me (Spinefarm Records)

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Dutch veterans Within Temptation are back with new e.p. out with Spinefarm. They started as more gothic metal oriented band, but in decades evolved into more epic symphonic metal but stayed with some gothic roots and influences. There are eight songs on this one, four plus four instrumental versions. What to say? Grand majestic songwriting, epic keyboard passages and melodic guitar work, sometimes traversing into more harsh and brutal side of things, topped with vocalist Sharon, who is by far one of the best girl singers in metal scene. My personal favorites on this one are Don´t pray for me and The Purge. Instrumental versions are not needed and serve only to fill in space. Nonetheless this little e.p. is a nice way to catch time for new full length once in the near future.

7/10

movie

(movie) Where the Scary Things Are (2022) is a failed nostalgic trip to eighties era.

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Where the Scary Things Are tried to bring back that eighties kids horror adventure spirit with movies like Stand By Me, Goonies, if you want Stranger Things also coming to mind as you watch first third of the movie. The story evolves around group of highschool kids that call themselves The Dokkers whose main preocupation is making photos and videos of other kids and teachers and then blackmailing them for something.

Problems start when their teacher gives them an assignment to create their own urban legend project. They find a creature called Crockamole in the pond of the abandoned amusement park where The Dokkers gather. But, tensions and old fights rise and tragedies are about to happen.

Well, I get that the author of this movie, director/writer B. Harrison Smith tried to deal with thematics of teenage angst, insecurities, relationships and failures packed into creature feature. The only thing that looks good in this movie is exactly and only the creature which is a kind of combination between spider, ant and two legged Swamp Thing. Everything else really sucks. Acting is bad, characters are obnoxious and have absolutely no chemistry with one another. The origin of creature and hows and whys are not explained, ending is sooo bad and boring like most of the movie is. Like the author who wrote screenplays for Camp Dread, The Fields, and Deathhouse could not decide whether to make an adventure horror movie with nostalgic low budget trips to eighties and legendary movies, psyhological horror about angst or plain bad creature feature. This was a bad one indeed.

1/10