THE FAMILY *** Canada 2021 Dir: Dan Slater. 110 mins I recently was able to co-chair a panel discussion on the state of Horror. I asked what themes might come out of the current upheaval. Isolation as a base was brought up; of which I agreed that was not really new. Variations on the idea could be interesting if handled well. Dan Slater’s Canadian picture THE FAMILY (2021) uses the idea of a family locked in their own world with predictable results. However, the point is not the idea but how it is works on the screen. THE FAMILY (2021)…
Author: Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood
Terry Sherwood Born in Ottawa Ontario, Canada; Terry is a "Monster kid ', film fan and popular culture person. Once worked in television as a commercial writer/ Director. Writer of the SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET site covering aspects of the Horror Genre from Books, Comics, to Film old and new. He has previously written for WE BELONG DEAD and MONSTERMANIA magazines, The Spooky Isle UK website, Horror hound and Turner Classic Movies. Published Book of own writings titled SCREEN AND SCREEN AGAIN: ESSAYS ON THE HORROR FILM on amazon world wide plus contributed to other genre books. Chaired numerous convention panel discussions on Horror and Comics Terry is member of The Horror Writers Association and Dracula Society in U.K.
FILTERED *** Canada 2021 Dir: Vincenzo Nappi. 5 mins Reading this review maybe longer than the film. Writing short fiction or today’s Flash Fiction is hard to do. There is no padding the story, events must be direct with a sledgehammer ending. With that in mind, I was taken aback when I first began running FILTERED by fellow Canadian Vincenzo Nappi on my computer. The picture opens up with a computer sign on screen followed by a seamless transformation to a desktop that is the major background for the film. FILTERED (2021) becomes part of the subgenre of film that…
THE VOICES ** USA 2020 Dir: Nathaniel Nuon. 108 mins It’s tough watching a film that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It can also be hard to watch a film that seems to have elements attached to it to give it meaning. Working the rich vein of birth horror and the terror of everyday events you have the non-horror, monstrously long film THE VOICES (2020). Nathaniel Nuon’s feature debut works well technically, it is, after all, wonderfully photographed. Unfortunately, it dissolves into clichéd characters, muddled multi-timelines and poor one note acting. The story concerns Lilly (Valerie Jane Parker),…
REPTILICUS ** Denmark 1961 Dir: Sidney W. Pink (English version). 81 mins Monsters – even giant ones – can be comforting friends to watch on Saturday matinees. Stuff yourself with ridiculously over salted popcorn and a soft drink, stare wide eyed as some beast smashes a city to ruin. You watch the adults run, you see the military fire weapons with no effect. Then some lantern jawed male hero, coupled with a lovely but taciturn female scientist, reporter or simply local gal, saves the day with an obscure fact or idea. The solution is fired into, sprayed onto, lured to,…
OCCUPATION: RAINFALL * Australia 2020 Dir: Luke Sparke. 128 mins The battle for Earth and the anticipated enslavement of humans. Why in our species like privileged existence should we care? OCCUPATION: RAINFALL (2020) reeks of MAD MAX, BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, PREDATOR, GI JOE and practically any militaristic science fiction film around. Weapons blast, vehicles drive fast, explosive CGI flybys and dog fights in the air; all interspersed with clichéd, ridiculous character moments that endeavor to humanize the cardboard walking round as people. OCCUPATION: RAINFALL (2020) is visually unpleasant viewing from start to finish, with the same dark sets, battle-weary people, who…