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…
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.
CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER *** USA 2019 Dir: Mickey Reece. 82 mins The Vampire in film has changed from the Gothic into the killing machine, partying teenager, and now, mysterious adults bent on befuddling their friends. Returning to destroy the one that loves you is a recurrent theme in all vampire literature and film. Mickey Reece’s CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER (2019) takes that motif a step further with his splendid, talky homage to the Undead “Big Chill.” Two sisters, Alma (Ginger Gilmartin) and Elizabeth (Mary Buss), along with their dog that they call a “philosopher,’ have come to a remote…
BLACKSTOCK BONEYARD ** USA 2021 Dir: Andre Alfa. 80 mins Southern Noir has been a genre unto itself; along, perhaps, with Southern Horror. Those goings on in the swamps, plantations, roads, hidden cabins and police jails transplant urban fears to a section of the country. BLACKSTOCK BONEYARD (2021) is an odd film for me since it mixes social messages with standard rising dead killings. The story is not the creatures but the people that are caught in the events. The film chooses to make them clichés of Southern people with little in the way of interesting virtues. BLACKSTOCK BONEYARD (2021)…
TWENTY TWENTY ** USA 2019 Dir: Dave Sweeney. 31 mins Experimental film can be interesting viewing in any genre. Film Noir had the Robert Montgomery Directed film LADY IN THE LAKE (1946), shot mostly in the p.o.v of detective Philip Marlowe. Curtis Harrington bent us with the odd love story NIGHT TIDE (1961) with a young Dennis Hopper. The work of Kenneth Anger with his sharp colors sharp, pristine images with occult and homoerotic symbolism. These films took form, narrative and editing to layer images into a story. In viewing the short film TWENTY TWENTY (2019) one can see influence…
HEAVY TRIP **** Finland 2018 Dirs: Juuso Laatio/ Jukka Vidgren. 92 mins Metal music is one of the few styles sufficiently secure in itself to let itself be made fun of. The mainstream example is Rob Reiner’s THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984). The Finnish made HEAVY TRIP or HEVI REISSU (2018) is a knock about romp on to the world of the small town music scene that doesn’t disappoint. The film is part road movie and part love story that connects well because the characters are genuinely, awkwardly human. Along the way you have a Viking attack with full swords,…