THE BEACH HOUSE **** USA 2019 Dir: Jeffrey A. Brown. 87 mins In 2020, we probably don’t need reminders of how fragile our existence is on Planet Earth, but the job of the horror genre, and specifically of writer-director Jeffrey A Brown’s feature debut, is to reinforce it anyway. A deliberately paced exercise in sustained dread, it employs vague but alarming radio communications that recall how anxious we became during our first watch of Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Grotesque physical mutations expose our bodies for the easily warped and diseased flesh bags they are, in the tradition of…
Author: Steven West
THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT **** USA 2018 Dir: Johannes Roberts. 85 mins This long-gestating sequel, although boasting the same “based on true events” tag, shuns the grimness and slow-burn terror of its predecessor in favour of briskly paced 80s slasher-style cat-and-mouse thrills. After a nicely creepy stranger-in-bed pre-titles frisson typical of its inspiration, we follow a troubled family, stopping off at a family member’s lakeside trailer en route to dropping their rebellious, Ramones-loving daughter (Bailee Madison) at boarding school. The unlikeable adults (Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson) are side-lined pretty swiftly, leaving Madison and her kid brother to do the…
THE STRANGERS **** USA 2008 Dir: Bryan Bertino. 86 mins Opening with a questionable “inspired by true events” tag, violent crime statistics and a solemn documentary-style voiceover in the tradition of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, Bryan Bertino’s home invasion horror is very much a genre film of its time. Unfolding over the course of a single night without humour or conventional resolution, it riffs on American slasher films of the 1970s and 80s but, like other key post-9/11 American ordeal-horror films, emphasises terrorisation and hopelessness over cathartic kills and crowd-pleasing jump scares. It also replays the scenario of the…
BREAK IN BREAK OUT **** Canada 2019 Dir: Michael Driscoll. 8 mins This latest short from the clearly talented Michael Driscoll (BE RIGHT BACK, TWO BLACK COFFEES, TO THE BOATS) is a sardonic, frenetic, technically superb take on the now-overdone home invasion scenario for jaded 21st century audiences. There are shades of DON’T BREATHE and some of the zesty old-school exploitation spirit of recent features like Joe Begos’ VFW. Energised by Lee Wilton’s marvellous synth score and a game cast, it’s another cracking calling card for the filmmaker. The story is framed TV news broadcasts containing the only dialogue in…
HOST ***** UK 2020 Dir: Rob Savage. 57 mins Rob Savage, director of the eerily effective “Ghost in the Wall” episode of 2018 anthology TRUE HORROR, makes a virtue of his own legally enforced restrictions with his Shudder movie HOST. It was shot during the national UK Coronavirus lockdown of Spring 2020, using as its backdrop the principal form of workplace communication during this period: the dreaded Zoom call. Distancing rules meant he never physically met his stars, who were responsible for the individual stunts and special effects in their individual segments. Savage’s target audience may cringe at the all…