Everyone who reads this webzine already know that H.P.Lovecraft is my favorite horror author of all times. I also love works of so called Lovecraftian Circle, meaning writers who were his friends or contemporaries and those who continued his cosmic horror style in their short stories and novels. Well, but I also love horror movies. And I love when it has that Lovecraftian cosmic horror vibe. Well, The Devil Below didn’t disappoint me. The story evolves around group of five explorers with leader Arianne who are looking for town called Shookum Hills which disappeared in the seventies with thousand miners and inhabitants. Legend says that they were digging and drilling hole to Hell like the one in Siberia and then something happened with underground fires burning still to this day. As it usually is, our heroes do not take local people warnings to their brains, find the lost city and then troubles start when they unleash something sinister from under the earth, something set on replacing humanity with other inhabitants. This is action packed sinister horror movie with lots of running, parts of mock found footage parts and nightvision, the only thing that lightly disappointed me was the finale under earth in the caves which was somehow to psychodelic and not directed and filmed to my taste, could have been better done, but I think that they did it on purpose because they were hiding lack of money for better prosthetic or CGI effects on monsters. The ending is satisfying and somehow bleak, just how I like it. Actors are so-so. Veteran Will Patton who plays local chief of security and ex miner looks somehow confused maybe due to lack in this character script development. Other young actors are Alicia Sanz as Arianne, main character, known for her tv roles in ‘El Cid’ and ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ tv series. She is somehow too wooden and not so convincing. Others like Adan Canto or Chinaza Uche are too thin, so the acting is not so good as it could have been. The movie was directed by Bradley Parker who worked on visual effects on ‘Ad Astra’ and ‘Loki’, also being assistant director of second unit on ‘The Batman’ and ‘War For The Planet Of The Apes’ and directed ‘Chernobyl Diaries’ which was a fine movie to my taste. Story is written by Stefan Jaworski and Eric Scherbarth. This is an average movie by some standards, but I loved it and I love Lovecraftian cosmic horror themes, so I give maybe bigger rate it deserved.
Shudder never ceases to amaze me with their original program, movies they make for that horror streaming platform. A Wounded Fawn could be called art horror. It could be called body horror and mindfuck psychological horror, because it is all that. Co-written and directed by Travis Stevens(producer of ‘Girl On The Third Floor’ and ‘Jakob’s Wife’), this little movie with only two actors most of the time, shows how you can get great movie with little money if the story and idea are alright. Story starts when Bruce(Josh Ruben of ‘Scare Me’ and ‘Werewolves Within’) loses at the auction for eerie statue. He then goes to dinner to a house owned by winner of the auction Kate(Malin Barr of ‘Honeydew’) and we find out Bruce is a serial killer devoted to some pagan deity which compels him to kill. Fast forward, Bruce takes our main character Meredith (Sarah Lind – ‘The Humanity Bureau’) to a house deep in the woods which previously belonged to Kate. Meredith sees women that should not be there, supernatural things start to happen, and then Bruce tries to kill her. End of chapter one. Why? Because then movie totally nicely surprises me turning from boring serial killer chase I thought it would be to mindfuck psychological body folk horror with Bruce paying karma vengeance for his deeds. Some parts are so poetical, so beautiful done with such colors that reminded me of Argento’s Suspiria by its beauty, not story. Also, the ending is so nice, and poetic justice never sounded nicer. Acting and characters could be better, but since this is mostly two characters movie, it doesn’t really matter. Good one indeed!
This is only thing I can say after having watched this HBO documentary about Aryan National Front, Alabama based skinhead nazi organization led by their so called fuhrer Bill Riccio. In this one hour movie shows all the preying on young boys from broken families, whom Riccio gathered in his compound, so called WAR house. Through undercover filming of their rallies, lame direct actions and fraternizing with Ku Klux Klan who were not much impressed with them and it is in fact sick how one lunatic can gather and fill the minds of broken teenagers, broken family stories, beaten and abused kids and put into their minds ideas of white supremacy and nazism. Some of their tries to convince people on the streets to take their side and join their ranks are so stupid that I laughed out loud couple of times while watching this one. Riccio served time in prison and is now active in local KKK in Birmingham, Alabama and former followers only now bring out all the charges of sexual abuse and mental abuse that so called fuhrer did over them. Never again, I wish Riccio and all like him to drop dead right now. Urgh!
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