Women In Horror Month: Anya Taylor-Joy

Slasher Studios*Women in Horror

Ever since breaking onto the big screen with 2015’s indie hit “The Witch”, Anya Taylor-Joy has become a pretty strong presence in the horror world, and damn, she is one presence worth welcoming. With every role Anya has grabbed, she’s displayed so much depth and range that I’ve always been left in awe and wanting to see her in more final girl/leading lady horror roles, and films in general of course.

In her breakthrough film “The Witch”, Anya plays Thomasin with so much innocence, but yet makes you wonder if there is something to her character than we don’t know about. She shows her character’s struggle of being the black sheep of the family and growing into womanhood, all the while she and her family are being targeted by a witch. By the end of the film you’ve seen her develop this huge arc that’s enough to leave you with chills and astounded. When I watched it a second time and really observed her character, I noticed that her character really does seem to be teetering between two sides as the conflict arises.

Anya’s next film was the pretty underrated “Morgan”, here she plays an artificially created being and has to display different levels of personality. Anya perfectly captures Morgan’s childlike persona, despite the older appearance, showing great wonder and curiosity. However, she can instantly switch that off and give us extremely cold and deathly looks and glares that can be chilling and leave you unsure of what she will do or is capable of. But despite all of this we also see her showing Morgan’s unsure knowledge of what it means to be human and the emotions she’s supposed to feel.

Most recently she starred in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” where she played the troubled and lonely Casey. She is thrown into a situation with two classmates with James McAvoy’s multi personality character and must find out how to survive. Once again, Anya displays strong emotions here as she struggles with her very troubled home and social life, but also trying to overcome that and her current situation. There are moments where we see her reflecting on her past that almost parallel with her capture, and all the while she working to make herself stronger, but also use her smarts to try get her and her friends out. This role is essentially her first “final girl” type role and it’s fairly different from others in that she’s not a badass, but she’s using her smarts and emotions to try survive. But it’s also great seeing once again, a great character arc that Anya shows her character going through, and she nails it.

Up next she teams up in 2018 with Olivia Cooke in the thriller “Thoroughbreds” as two revenge seeking girls who will do anything to have each other’s backs. In 2019, we have the unfortunately bumped “New Mutants” with Anya as a new addition to the X-Men universe as a mutant who’s been locked up in an institution with various horrors waiting to torture her and her fellow mutants. Also in 2019 is the follow-up to “Split” entitled “Glass” in which she will reunite as Casey with M. Night Shyamalan and James McAvoy as well as Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.

I can only hope that apart from other roles, Anya will continue to take on more horror.

–Cody Landman

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Bad Foundation: WINCHESTER (2018) Review

Slasher StudiosWinchester

A doctor travels to the Winchester mansion in order to evaluate the sanity of Sarah Winchester, and whether she can continue to run the Winchester family company. Claiming that her house is haunted and her family is cured, the doctor disbelieves her claims until he begins to witness her encounters first hand.

My expectations for this film weren’t very high. I wasn’t sold by the trailer at all, but I knew that having Helen Mirren involved would be at least some silver lining. While she was indeed the silver lining to this movie, she really didn’t get a whole lot to do. This movie is so dull, boring, thinly-written, and uninspired. This plays itself out more with drama than a horror. It throws in the whole dramatic concept of grief that’s been done before numerous times, but done way better. On top of that, the script throws in emphasis on gun control. When it comes to the horror, it’s completely void of any real scares or thrills. Any of this it does have is so cliché and ridiculous it’s laughable. When it comes to the script, it’s so thin with very little going on with almost no real plot or plot development, the same can be said about its characters, they’re extremely uninteresting and undeveloped. The niece and great nephew of Mirren’s character might as well not even exist because of how pointless they basically were with no development. Had this been primarily about Mirren’s character, which that alone would have been better. That said, Mirren’s character is the only real interesting character, but of course they go and not give her nearly as much attention as she should have gotten. Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke are definitely giving it their all with little material they have, but as mentioned, it’s a shame Mirren didn’t have more to do. Apart from Mirren and Clarke’s dedicated performances, the only other positive is that it uses its production design to its advantage. The setting of the Winchester house is great and well-used, but I do wish we had seen more of it.

Unless you’re dedicated Helen Mirren fan, I say stay away from this film. It’s the most boring, poorly written, and uninspired horror movie I’ve seen in a while. Everything about it is so cheesy and cliché from the dramatic elements to the horror. Despite Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke, it’s not enough to really save this movie.

–Cody Landman

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Just Wanna Have Fun: TRAGEDY GIRLS (2018) Review

Slasher StudiosTragedy Girls

Two teenage girls who have an obsession with death and serial killers, take it upon themselves to trap a murderer to teach them the ropes. After his refusal, the girls take matters into their own hands by using their classmates as examples. This is all done in hopes of gaining followers on their channel entitled “Tragedy Girls”.

Tragedy Girls is a fairly decent dark comedy-horror slasher film. It succeeds for the most part at being a slasher film by having some pretty solid kills, the humor has its moments but it wasn’t nearly as witty and filled with black comedy like I was hoping. It’s unfortunate to say that I found myself bored and waiting for more kills, most of the kills take place within the first hour, and after that it becomes more or less drama between the two leads. So in some ways you could say it’s a bit all over the place. It goes from slasher comedy, to an almost slasher version of Heathers (but much tamer black comedy), but then it goes into teen the teen drama territory as the two friends end up being torn apart. As far as the ending goes, I can accept it, but I didn’t find it particularly good because it felt very forced with how they chose to wrap it up. The script is all over the place, but the dialogue works, and I think a lot of this has to do with the very solid performances from Brianna Hildebrand and Alexandra Shipp. Their individual performances are great and they share some great chemistry as our two leads.

Overall I was a tad disappointed with this film, but it’s definitely not without its pros and occasional solid moments. What really drives the film are the performances by the two leads. I would say I recommend it, I can imagine some will love it way more than me, but in general it’s worth your time and you might have fun with it.

–Cody Landman

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Invitation to Ignore: THE OPEN HOUSE (2018) Review

Slasher StudiosOpen House (2018)

A mother and son move into a house the mom’s sister is putting on the market. While they live there, strange occurrences begin to happen and the son starts to think people are lurking around the house, all the while they encounter several odd locals.

This one of the most pointless and unsatisfying movies I’ve seen in a long time. There is literally no point to it. Some parts are creepy, but they’ve been done way better in other films. But for the most part it’s pretty boring and repetitive. All of this leads up to an extremely unsatisfying and infuriating ending. Not only isn’t there anything revealed, the who’s, the how’s, and why’s, but it also leaves an extremely bad taste by the time credits roll. I’m all for unhappy or unconventional endings, but that’s only if they’re warranted. This ending isn’t warranted at all. This is also in relation to the fact that nothing is revealed. Why this family? Who is doing it? None of this is revealed. I should also mention that yes, no motives sometimes make it the scariest, but when you’re watching a movie that really focusing on these two characters and adding in their melodrama and introducing all of the other weird characters, you would expect some kind of clues as to why this is all happening. We don’t get any of that whatsoever. The only pros for this movie is that it is actually really well-filmed, and the acting pretty decent, especially from Dylan Minnette. Even if the melodrama was groan-worthy, the performances by Dylan and Piercey Dalton who plays his mother are engaging enough. But even their whole storyline felt contrived. I guess one other aspect I enjoyed was the overall location. The house made for a great setting and was used to advantage in several scenes.

I can’t stress enough how much I don’t recommend this movie. It’s boring, pointless, unsatisfying, and extremely frustrating despite being well-filmed, a nice setting, and decent performances.

–Cody Landman

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Family Bonding: MOM AND DAD (2018) Review

Slasher Studios*Horror

Parents in a small town suddenly turn on their children and start killing them. Carly and Josh eventually find themselves trapped in their house with their crazed parents and must now fight back against them.

This is a film that might discourage many due to the subject matter. But for those who enjoy some good dark humor/horror will enjoy this film. Granted there are some parts that might put at a little unease, it kind of adds to the intensity. The reason for the parents going crazy isn’t revealed, but it plays with certain ideas involving parents just getting fed up with their kids and instead sarcastically saying they’re going to kill them, they actually do it. It’s a weird blend of almost zombie and slasher horror. The parents don’t act like zombies, but there’s one big sequence where it’s filmed like a zombie film involving a big group of parents outside the local high school. And along with that there are a few chase scenes that play out like slasher chase scenes. One sequence in particular towards the end involving a grandfather, father, and son as well as mother-in-law, mother, and daughter is just a blast to watch. What brings the most fun to this film is just how over-the-top it is, especially from the performances. Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair as the lead parents are fantastic and are clearly having a blast in their roles and easily deliver one of their best performances. The whole cast does a great job. Unfortunately it’s not without its flaws. It definitely could have had more development of the family before the events began. We get some flashbacks as the events unfold, but I feel it wasn’t enough to really service the family and make you hope for a positive outcome. And most of all, the very end is frustrating as hell, there’s no real payoff or major showdown between the kids and parents, it just abruptly ends. And when it ends, you feel like there should be at least another fifteen minutes. I apologize if that may come off as too big of a spoiler, but it has to be said.

Despite the disappointing ending and some underdevelopment, it’s still a fun comedy-horror that I would recommend, even just for Cage and Blair’s performances alone.

–Cody Landman

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Redundant Remake: INSIDE (2018) Review

Slasher StudiosInside (2018)

The remake of the French classic horror film revolves around the pregnant Sarah, who recently lost her husband (and her hearing) in a car crash. One stormy night, a woman breaks into Sarah’s home and attacks her, she narrowly escapes and hides out in her bathroom. As bodies begin to pile up, Sarah must now fight back as she discovers what the woman is after.

Understandably, most people slammed this remake from the start. The original film is a bloody and brutal foreign horror film classic. People hated the remake of Martrys (I honestly enjoyed it), so I thought I could very well enjoy this remake too. I love Rachel Nichols who plays Sara, and Laura Harring as the woman was fantastic in Mulholland Drive. So to see Harring as the villain had potential to be great. Sadly, even these actresses couldn’t save the movie. Unfortunately, I honestly didn’t find these normally solid actresses all that good, in fact, their performances I found were really weak, especially Nichols. There were very few good things about this movie, one being that it was very well-filmed, and the other was the nice touch of making Sarah deaf, but at the same time they didn’t do as much with that aspect as they could have.

As far as the movie goes, they hardcore downgraded this into a super dramatic Lifetime movie that was nowhere close to brutal. There wasn’t much tension or thrills either. Needless to say, they really played this movie safe to where it was almost nothing like Inside. And then you have the ending that is so laughably cheesy, bad, and unrealistic. To be fair though, they make Sarah at least semi-likable in this movie, whereas I wasn’t too fond of her in the original, she was a strong enough lead, but I think that she was kind of downgraded due to Nichols’ performance. Which is so baffling because she played an excellent lead in P2 and her performance was great in that.

I definitely can’t recommend this movie. The acting is weak, it’s pretty boring, and the final act and ending is just ridiculous. If you hated the remake of Martyrs, you’ll hate this one even more. If you’re curious, wait for Netflix, but other than, stay away.

–Cody Landman

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Pushing Further: INSIDIOUS: THE LAST KEY (2018) Review

Slasher StudiosInsidious: Last Key

The 4th entry in the horror franchise follows Elise between Insidious 3 and the original film. She get a phone call from a man saying his home is being haunted. She then discovers that the house he is now living in is the same home from her troubled childhood. While at first hesitant to return, Elise faces the demon that plagued her as a young girl.

Lin Shaye returns as the psychic Elise. And she is better than ever. The story gives us more insight into Elise’s past when she was just discovering her abilities, as well as the abuse she succumbed by her father. While her background isn’t exactly needed, it does serve as a way to make the story focus more on the fan-favorite Elise, as opposed to focusing on another haunted family. Shaye provides her best performance of the series, and quite possibly one of the best of her career. We’ve seen Elise’s bad ass and comedic side, as well as her compassionate side. But here we see a much more personal, afraid, and emotional side that really rounds her character even more. For the first half of the film it does play out like a by-the-numbers supernatural film, but around the halfway point it throws us a couple of nice plot twists that help change the story up into something we haven’t seen in the series before.

In a way, this film works much better as a dramatic suspense film as opposed to a horror. It’s very atmospheric, well-filmed, and the set design is great, but there isn’t much suspense, and even the jump scares are half-assed. And in some ways, the script can be very rushed and undeveloped in some places. There are characters that deserved to be much more developed instead of being used as mere plot devices in order to push the story along. While this entry does try to do something different with its plot, and for the most part it works, it doesn’t do anything particularly special or needed to the series. I really do hope that this is in fact the final film in the franchise, it perfectly wraps up Elise’s story, and let’s be real, we don’t want to see an Insidious film without Lin Shaye’s character at the center of it all. It implies that a new character may carry on the torch from Elise (as you know her character dies), but I feel like that will only make these films go completely downhill. But like the previous films, I think this entry’s biggest flaws are the characters of Specks and Tucker. Leigh Whannell and Angus Sampson’s performances are fine, but the characters themselves still remain two of the most annoying characters to exist in horror. There isn’t anything funny about them or their lines. They’re just cringe-worthy more than anything, and it’s even worse in this film.

If you’re a big fan of the Insidious films, chances are you’ll really enjoy this one. If you’re on the fence about this one, or just don’t care, you’ll probably want to pass, because it won’t change anything for you. It’s not the worst film in the franchise (that goes to Chapter 2 for me), and it doesn’t rank up there with 1 or even 3 (which I really enjoyed), but it has its own special place in the middle.


–Cody Landman

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The Worst Horror Movies of 2017

Slasher Studios*Top Ten

The Gracefield Incident
While this film does have some great scenery, it’s extremely boring with nothing happening until towards the end (where you don’t even see anything), the characters aren’t worth carrying about, the acting is bad, and the ending is extremely lackluster in how it tries to teach a heartfelt lesson.

Amitvyille: Awakening
I tried to give this movie the benefit of the doubt, but I was very wrong. This movie is terrible in so many ways, down to the script, the acting, the scares, music, characters, etc. The moments of self-awareness is about all I’d give it for the aspects I like. And initially it seemed like this would be so bad it’s good, but it ultimately just becomes plain bad. I feel so bad for Jennifer Jason Leigh, and especially Jennifer Morrison in the most thankless role I’ve seen in a while (I’m serious when I say I think she owed someone a favor).

Leatherface
This one is just a pointless prequel with no real suspense, and feels nothing like a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film. Instead it appears as a younger version of The Devil’s Rejects. More than anything, this movie only seeks to try be gross and sadistic above anything else. The acting is fine, that’s all I can say about it, but unlike the prequel to the remake (which I didn’t mind), it at least tries to be a good film and gives us character to care about and root for. This one just doesn’t do anything to push the story as a prequel, and it’s very clear it’s pointless to care about the final girl. It’s just a terrible script that makes Texas Chainsaw 3D look good.

Jeepers Creepers 3
Yet another film that suffers from a terrible script. But more than anything, like Leatherface, this is just a pointless film. It revolves around the characters figuring out the Creeper’s origins, and guess what, we don’t even find out what it is or even get some kind of clue. The characters are unbearable except for Meg Foster, Stan Shaw, and Brandon Smith (all providing fine performances). It’s the young cast that are the most expendable and do nothing for the plot. On top of that we have some of the most unintentional laughs, an extremely anti-climactic ending, and a final scene (before the real final scene) that makes no sense whatsoever. The real MVP of this movie though is the creepy BEATINGU truck that is character of itself, and a very welcoming one at that.

Rings
The first act of this film offers promise in that it introduces the cult following the death tape has and how it has suddenly become this twisted death game. I would have loved to have seen this throughout the film, but unfortunately it turns into a teen remake of the original, only it’s boring, uninteresting, and the lead female is terrible in character and performance.

Eloise
Despite a great cast and a creepy setting, this movie is boring, makes no sense, and is completely forgettable. As a matter of fact, I don’t remember anything about this movie other than it being boring and making no sense.

The Dark Tapes
In an attempt to try rank itself up there with V/H/S, this movie just fails. The segments are uninteresting and often laughable, though one segment did stand out more than others as its own take of Ghost Hunters. The wraparound story was good, but it was the most undeveloped of the segments. In general, the segments have nothing in common and don’t connect in any way. And what’s a bad movie without some bad acting?

Jigsaw
It’s not that Jigsaw is a terrible movie, but as a supposed reboot, it’s awful. This movie offers nothing new to the story, the traps are fine and good, as is the acting, but the script is just a complete rehash of the entire series, including some of the twists. And the final twist is just cringe-worthy in how pathetic of an attempt it is to try restart the series. In terms of gore, this is the most tame film in the series, we only get slight glimpses of gore, and that’s what this series is supposed to be known for.

Clowntergeist
I was having a blast with this film for how bad it was up until the mid-point when I felt it should have started to go somewhere, and it ultimately didn’t. By that point until the end, really nothing much happens and when things finally do happen, the movie is basically over. Along with that, the twist towards the end is just a letdown and kind of ruins any fun the film began with.

Friend Request
This was another film I was thought was going to be bad fun, but ultimately just became plain bad. Not only was it boring and uninteresting, but it took itself way too seriously. To be fair, it started out fine, but then once it become more of a supernatural/witchcraft film, that’s when it really started to go downhill. Had it focused more on being a fun supernatural slasher, it would have been a bit better. But at the same time you didn’t care about any of the characters because they were so uninteresting (and poorly acted). Then you get to the ending and that was just the cherry on top of its stupidity. It does have some great occasional imagery however.

–Cody Landman

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Now Shipping: IRRATIONAL FEAR on DVD

Slasher Studios*Irrational Fear
DVD Artwork created by David GIron.

Our latest horror feature IRRATIONAL FEAR is now shipping on DVD. Pick up yours below available as a solo DVD or DVD with 11×17 IRRATIONAL FEAR poster. Get yours in time Christmas and spread the fear into 2018. Limited edition Blu-Ray copies will begin shipping next week.

KILLER BONUS FEATURES!
Cast & Crew Commentary
Filmmaker’s Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Cast & Crew Interviews
What’s Your Fear? Featurette
Slasher Studios Horror Podcast: The Making of Irrational Fear
Theatrical Trailer
Indie Horror Trailers
Photo Gallery


Irrational Fear




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Picking Favorites: The Best Horror Films of 2017

Slasher Studios*Top Ten

It
It ranks up there as one of the most perfectly made horror films of all time. For the full 2 hours it completely grasps you and makes you almost a part of this world. You genuinely feel like you are a part of the Losers Club and feel the fear they have of Pennywise. It’s a perfect blend of horror and coming-of-age film. The young cast does an amazing job, as does Bill Skarsgard as Pennywise. The production design and everything down to the costumes and the overall feel is pure nostalgia.

Happy Death Day
What Happy Death Day does is take the slasher genre and breathe new life into it by taking the tired “groundhog day” plot and turning it into something fun and thrilling. We have some great kill sequences, a fun montage, a clever whodunit story, a very creepy masked killer, and most of all a tremendous performance by Jessica Rothe as the leading lady who greatly shows different layers to her character as the story progresses.

Annabelle: Creation
Having not liked the first Annabelle film at all, I was massively surprised by how great this sequel was. But at the same time, when you have David F. Sandberg who brought us the pretty damn scary Lights Out, I shouldn’t be entirely surprised. Creation is extremely atmospheric and suspenseful with some great and effective jump scares and two great and likable performances by the two young leads, Talitha Bateman and Lulu Wilson. It’s doesn’t push the story or the Conjuring franchise really anywhere, but it’s a fun and effective supernatural horror film.

The Babysitter
This straight to Netflix horror film is probably the most fun you’ll have this year. We have a great young lead in newcomer Judah Lewis and a deliciously fun, sexy, and evil performance from Samara Weaving as the title character. The supporting cast does a great job as well, particularly Robbie Amell and a surprisingly hilarious performance from Bella Thorne. If you want a fun, hilarious, and bloody horror film, check this one out.


Split
M. Night Shyamalan’s best film in a while is also one of great thrills and performances. James McAvoy gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a man with multiple personalities and McAvoy tremendously exhibits them all. And Anya Taylor-Joy, who is continuing to make a name for herself in the horror genre is brilliant as the lead female and a character you hardcore root for who uses her smarts while also showing emotion when her inner demons are shown. Also worth mentioning is Betty Buckley who is just as terrific as her two co-stars.


Raw
This French film revolves around cannibalism, but more than anything its strength comes in the form of a character study. We see this young girl go from a shy and sheltered girl and gradually become this monster that’s always been within her. Garance Marillier is amazing as our main character as she portrays her characters’ change mentally and even physically, definitely one of the best female performances in horror this year.


Get Out
The politics regarding this movie aside, it’s a brilliant and well-made horror film with a great lead that you are rooting for the whole time even though he’s clearly not an idiot. It also has a great way of making you feel just as uneasy as the lead, brilliantly played by Daniel Kaluuya (who also deserves an Oscar nomination), as things start to be uncomfortable to complete insanity as the climax nears. Along with Kaluuya we also have solid performances from Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, and Allison Williams. Jordan Peele really delivers in his directorial debut the provides extremely thrills and major laughs (particularly from Lil Rel Howery).


The Blackcoat’s Daughter
This dreary and haunting film, brilliantly directed by Oz Perkins, takes you on a suspenseful, twisted, but also emotionally-driven ride. It’s definitely one you have to pay close attention to as the two storyline reach their ultimate collision that will leave you pretty mind-blown and pondering about the ending. Kiernan Shipka and Emma Roberts are brilliant in their roles, showing a great amount of mystery and haunting in their performances. It’s also a huge breath of fresh air in that it’s not like your conventional possession film.


Mother!
Probably the most controversial and divisive film you’ll see this year, Darren Aronofsky brings us this nightmare-like film. And I mean this very literally. The film has such a great build-up that is very nightmare-like and when it reaches the final act where everything just goes insane to really fucked up and you just waiting to wake up. The ending and much of the events that happen in it are like a punch in the gut. Aronsofky really strives to make this film visually striking and work to fit the tone of the film as it progresses. He and Jennifer Lawrence (who provides her most dedicated and Oscar worthy performance yet) work their asses off you really make you feel what Lawrence’s character is feeling, and you most definitely do. The whole time you are right there with her, so as her emotions change, so do yours. Michelle Pfeiffer (who should have gotten much more screentime) and Javier Bardem also are brilliant in their respective roles, especially Pfeiffer.


47 Meters Down
What 47 Meters Down succeeds at is really putting you on edge and holding your breath as much our two leads are. And this happens several times throughout the film, and the jump scenes are extremely effective, even if you see them coming or not. It’s a perfect blend of survival film and shark film. Claire Holt and Mandy Moore are great as the two leads and have solid chemistry as two sisters fighting for survival.

–Cody Landman

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