BLOOD HARVEST (a.k.a. The Curse Of Audrey Earnshaw / The Ballad Of Audrey Earnshaw) *** Canada 2020 Dir: Thomas Robert Lee. 93 mins Afforded the awful new title of BLOOD HARVEST (which already belongs to a memorably bonkers 80s Tiny Tim slasher flick) instead of its original, more appropriate THE BALLAD OF AUDREY EARNSHAW moniker, this atmospheric sophomore feature from writer-director Thomas Robert Lee screened at Fantasia as THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW. In the late 1950s a pestilence swept through a remote Protestant community, with the exception of the farmstead of Agatha Earnshaw (Catherine Walker), where she gives birth,…
Author: Steven West
METAMORPHOSIS *** South Korea 2019 Dir: Hong-seon Kim. 113 mins This cluttered but sometimes creepy, well acted South Korean horror movie has a visceral opening – albeit on very familiar ground – as a handsome young priest fails to save a possessed young woman, complete with old-school throat-inflating bladder FX. Before falling to her death she vows endless torment for him and his family. Subsequently, the priest’s brother and his family buy a house at an auction for a new start. Mum is sick of “Gods, churches and everything”, forbidding their teenage daughter from seeing her uncle. A dead cat…
TAILGATE (a.k.a. Bumperkleef) **** Netherlands 2019 Dir: Lodewijk Crijns. 82 mins Willem de Wolf, as the ominously named Ed, is a memorably nondescript psychopath in this intense Dutch riff on the daylight road terrorisation of DUEL, with a dash of its nightmarish native cousin THE VANISHING. Clad in an office shirt and sensible jumper, he’s a disarmingly boring-looking middle-aged antagonist who, in the very first sequence, pursues and kills a cyclist in his van. Subsequently, we meet a stressed out family whose time on the road is miserable even before they encounter Ed. Dad Hans (Jeroen Spitzenberger) is consumed by…
32 MALASANA STREET (a.k.a. Malasana 32) *** Spain / France 2020 Dir: Albert Pinto. 104 mins A story haunted by a horrific hate crime from another era, this Madrid-set chiller is effectively creepy and impressively downbeat, even if it treads on very familiar stylistic ground. After an eerie opening involving two young boys, a runaway marble and a Hitchcockian old lady in a rocking chair, it unfolds in post-Franco Spain, circa 1976. A struggling family consider Madrid as the future and strive to overcome financial woes by starting a new life in the big city. While essaying another memorable antagonist,…
THE CLEANSING HOUR **** USA 2019 Dir: Damien LeVeck. 94 mins Although some of its noisier overt demon stuff gets a bit listless, here’s a genuinely fun, witty take on the familiar 21st century horror trope of the doomed documentary crew venturing into territory best left unexploited. Ryan Guzman is well cast as Max, the host of an allegedly Vatican-approved, much-merchandised live webcast with staged exorcisms purporting to be the real deal. A narcissist prone to getting off his face and fucking whatever meagre groupies happen to throw themselves at him, he’s assisted by loyal pal Drew (Kyle Gallner) and…