Killer Christmas: BETTER WATCH OUT (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosBetter Watch Out

Better Watch Out tells the story of a young babysitter named Ashley who goes over to babysit 12-year-old Luke one winter night. Eventually the night becomes one of terror when psychopathic home invaders come into the picture. But this isn’t just an average home invasion.

There are many twists and turns that come about during this new winter/Christmas horror film, and many of them are extremely affective. This is thanks to one very clever script. The first half of the movie plays out like a straight up horror film, but then it takes a sudden turn becomes a black comedy horror. Much of the horror that happens in this last half, as well as some of the actions and dialogue from the characters can at times be pretty messed up but you can’t help but find bits of humor in it, usually with how over-the-top it chooses to go. And I don’t mean over-the-top in a bad way. Having said that there are certain moments where it does lose its steam and kind of starts to slow down and often times feel repetitive. The movie is under an hour and a half, but I almost feel like it could have been shorter, or if they had made it longer, at least have had more going on. Another issue I had with it was that there were certain plot and character elements that I wish would have been delved into more. Some things were also brought up but never expanded upon. At least if the script would have covered more of this it would have least given more to go off of instead feeling repetitive or static in some of the scenes. Despite these few things, I had a really fun time with this movie. It brings in the Christmas feel really well, and it offers some great nods to other Christmas classics (Black Christmas and Home Alone in particular), and then the occasional slasher film nods, with some feels of Funny Games and Scream getting thrown in.

More than anything, the film relies entirely on the cast to carry the movie, and their performances are all top-notch. Olivia DeJonge is great as our main girl in how she captures Ashley’s witty and clever personality. She is someone you are rooting for, but I really wish she had been able to do more physically and be able to really boast that final girl strength. Levi Miller is brilliant in this showing Luke’s clever personality, but also showing that he still is a kid despite the tough demeanor he tries to show. Reuniting with DeJonge after playing brother and sister in 2015’s The Visit is Ed Oxenbould as Luke’s best friend Garrett. I wasn’t a fan of him in The Visit because I found him really annoying more than anything, but in this he actually has more to work with than just the annoying kid who raps everything. Even though they are in supporting roles, a huge shout out has to be made to Virginia Madsen and Patrick Warburton who offer some of the more full-on comedic moments in the film as Luke’s parents.

I admit this review was very difficult to write and might come off dry or vague, but really that’s because this movie is so hard to write about without giving away spoilers.

This is a little flawed, but fun and twist-filled movie to add to the winter and Christmas horror inventory. It’s a fresh and original story with great performances by the cast that’s definitely worth checking out.

–Cody Landman

Share:

Killer Toys: CULT OF CHUCKY (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosCult of Chucky

After being accused of murdering her family in the previous film, Nica is committed to a mental institution where she hopes she can recover from the memories of the murderous doll, Chucky. But when a Good Guy doll gets delivered to the hospital, it’s not too long before Chucky himself returns to wreck havoc on the hospital.

Following the heels of the pretty successful and well-received Curse of Chucky, Cult of Chucky goes in a different direction than the previous films. In the last film, Chucky is back to more of his roots from the original trilogy. In this film it becomes a pretty decent hybrid of those films, along with the comedy of Bride of Chucky. However it doesn’t go as completely over-the-top as Bride. Chucky still works to be terrifying, but he also brings in some good one-liners. Now, the one things that massively sets it apart from the other films is that it’s an extremely strange entry. Throughout most of the film you’ll find yourself wondering what the hell is going on, and possibly even wondering if what you’re seeing is real or some kind of delusion. By the end of the movie, there will be some questions that you’ll have remaining, but nothing terribly plaguing. Don Mancini does his best to make sure you are at least left with enough to occupy your mind until the next film (hopefully) happens.

The final act is just one wild, fun, intense, and crazy ride. In terms of kills, they’re pretty sparse, but when they happen, most are pretty gnarly and well-crafted. There’s one death scene in particular that is kind of a throwback to a kill from one of the past films, but the scene itself is so well-filmed and almost mesmerizing to watch. If anything, one of the film’s biggest flaws is that none of the characters are really well developed at all, and you really don’t care much about them. There are a couple of characters that you do kind of develop a liking for, but again, there isn’t a whole lot to them to where you are hardcore rooting for them to live. Fiona Dourif returns as Nica, and she does one hell of a job in this film, even more so than in Curse. Throughout the movie, Nica questions her sanity, and Dourif nails it. Towards the end is when Dourif gets to a little more fun with her role and it’s actually really fun to watch her relish in those moments. As always Brad Dourif does excellent voice work as Chucky, no surprise there. Besides these two characters, we have a couple of returning characters from the series whom, while not in it a whole lot, still deliver and sell their roles in it and easily provide some of the better scenes.

NOTE: Watch through the credits, there is a bonus scene with another surprise appearance that I’ve been wanting to see happen and got so damn excited when I saw it.

Cult of Chucky will probably be the most polarizing entry in the series. I personally enjoyed it for how different it was, and it definitely ended with me wanting more, so hopefully Mancini will make another one. Despite some pretty uninteresting new characters, it is the returning characters that really sell the film. Along with this, the kills are pretty solid, and it is very well-filmed.

–Cody Landman

Share:

A Remake That Isn’t D.O.A.: FLATLINERS (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosFlatliners (2017)

Five medical students begin to experiment with death when they each have their hearts stopped in order to experience the after life and then be brought back to life again. They all see this something incredible, and they suddenly have these heightened abilities. But eventually the group comes to realize there’s more to death than they expect.

I wasn’t a fan of the original film apart from the general concept and the great cast. It was definitely offered more of a thought-provoking drama than thrills. When I saw the remake was coming, I didn’t have very high expectations. I was actually very surprised with this one. The first half of the movie plays out very much like the original with similar scenes and even a bit of dialogue. This first half was fun and it allowed the cast to really let their characters shine and show their chemistry with each other as they celebrate their discovery and their new refreshed lives. But halfway through the movie it pulls an extremely huge plot turn I was actually shocked by and didn’t see coming at all. It’s at this point where the remake suddenly becomes its own thing while still having the essence of the original. Where the original and this one differ most especially is the fact that this one is first and foremost a horror film. Is it a fantastic one? No. There are some very formulaic horror moments, but it’s very clear this is all in fun. Some of these moments and have definitely been done before but they still provide enough thrills and don’t go nearly as over-the-top and jump scare heavy as I was anticipating. For being almost two hours long, it actually moves at a pretty steady pace, and again this is thanks to the mid point turn which helps break up the film and give it a new tone. From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s extremely well-filmed and often has some great visuals, most particularly in the after life sequences. The characters are pretty likable and you do have some care about them. Along with this, the cast does a great job, most especially Ellen Page and Nina Dobrev. And newcomer Kiersey Clemons also turns in a solid performance. If anyone of the cast needed more to do it was Diego Luna, he was painted the sensible one of the group but he wasn’t given enough to really push out a stronger performance.

While I personally much preferred this version of Flatliners to the original (though I will say the performances were stronger in the original), it’s still not a great horror film. But for a Fall/early October horror film it delivers in being fun and entertaining with a great cast and likable characters. The original film may be more of a thought provoking drama, but this version takes the same ideas but puts them in a fun horror film.

–Cody Landman

Share:

Eating On Empty: JEEPERS CREEPERS 3 (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosJeepers Creepers 3

Taking place between the first and second film, Jeepers Creepers 3 follows Sergeant Tubbs from the first film aiding a sheriff with knowledge of the Creeper. Meanwhile, an elderly woman grieving the death of her son at the hands of the Creeper, learns the Creeper is on his way to take back something stolen from him, and now must protect her granddaughter. These two stories will collide when the Creeper shows up once again to feed.

After going through many re-writes and controversy, Victor Salva’s sequel finally saw the light of day. Unfortunately, it was a very poor sequel. And if anything they should have gone with the original script involving the return of Trish Jenner from the first film. Instead we are given one doozy and mess of a script. For starters, as mentioned, this is a prequel to 2 and a sequel to 1. So basically Jeepers Creepers 1.5. The script is bloated with too many characters, some being extremely pointless, and it’s completely all over the place. If anything it should have just stuck with the cop story line. The storyline with Meg Foster as the grandmother just felt unneeded. I say this because with her storyline she learns much of the background of the Creeper and how to defeat him, but the kicker to that is, they learn it, but we don’t. We don’t even get a smidge of an idea. The film also lacks the thrills and fun of the previous films. The Creeper isn’t even as scary or threatening as he was. However, the infamous truck returns and acts as the new menace of the film as much as it was in the first movie. But this time the truck is shown to be more than just a truck. So even the truck gets developed more than the Creeper. As far as characters, besides Foster’s character, Stubbs, and Sheriff Tashtego are the only characters who are given really anything to do and have some interesting characteristics. The actors playing them also are serviceable. The granddaughter is utterly pointless and boring as all she does is scream and run and act shy around her crush. The actress herself is just as lifeless. The guy who plays her crush just spends the whole movie with a mopey look on his face. Then we are given this group who are aware of the Creeper and have lost loved ones to him that seek out to kill him. These characters could have offered so much to the story but aren’t developed really at all.

The look of the film is pretty dreadful in that many of the night or early morning scenes you can’t hardly see a thing. Not only this but it features some weak editing and some of the most laughable slow motion scenes I’ve seen. There are some creepy moments with the Creeer but nothing that compares to those in the first two films. The film does features some nice connections to the first film including the urban legend of the two prom goers. When it does connect to the 2nd film it raises a certain amount of inconsistency questions, and from there we are lead a final scene as prelude to an actual sequel. And unfortunately even that was tarnished with how tacked on it felt and how horrible the dialogue is in it by the character involved. The whole film is filled with bad dialogue in all honesty. If there was one major saving grace in the film besides the presence of the truck it’s the as always terrific performance by Jonathan Breck as the Creeper, even if the Creeper isn’t as menacing as before. As much as I wasn’t expecting too much going into this, I was really disappointed by just how bad this turned out.

–Cody Landman

Share:

Like, Share, Die: FRIEND REQUEST (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosFriend Request

As I pulled up to the theater, I was welcomed by a giant, red poster reading “evil is trending”. Solely from that, I assumed I was in for a good time during the new film by Simon Verhoeven (no relation to Paul).

As soon as I was greeted with seemingly hundreds of photos on our protagonist’s Facebook account, my assumption was verified. Boasting a very enthusiastic “Thumbs up!” instead of the world-renowned ‘like’ button, we spend upwards of three minutes staring at a girl’s Facebook account and intercutting with footage of her jogging. I was hooked from the first frame.

Laura Woodson (Alycia Debnam Carey) is a young, hip college student living with her friends in an apartment in the city. She soon receives a friend request (don’t worry, we get our fill of characters saying those two words throughout the film to remind you that you indeed ARE watching a film called “Friend Request”) from a classmate named Marina Mills (Liesl Ahlers). A quiet artist who miraculously has the skills of a Studio Ghibli animator, Marina spends most of her time alone with no friends, and for very good reason.

Soon after Laura politely accepts Marina’s request, she finds herself stalked and followed by the obsessive student. As Marina’s obsession gets out of control, Laura begins to back off. Following an altercation between the two, Marina then takes her own life and begins to haunt and pick off Laura’s group of friends until they can find a way to end her reign.

There is no shortage of hilarity here. With one character’s fate left entirely up in the air (despite being a moderately large plot-point throughout the film), devolving into a psycho-stalker Lifetime film in the last act, a college student who I mistook for a character’s mom when she appeared on screen, some of the most hilariously expository dialogue I’ve heard in years, and apparently a psychic reference to Hillary Clinton’s “delete your account” tweet, you’ll have as good a time as I had.

There is a rating system used by Dave White from Linoleum Knife. There’s the half star movie which you should never see, and the zero star movie that you should run, not walk, to see on the biggest screen possible. Although not quite earning a zero, due to a nice lead performance and some interesting shots, Friend Request would fall into the latter category.

Get a group of friends together to enjoy the hilarity of the situations alongside you. Don’t be Marina sitting alone in the theater.

–Noah Nicholas Nelson

Share:

Halloween Horrors: THE HOUSES OCTOBER BUILT 2 (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosHouses October Built 2

Picking up where the last film left off, we discover that the thrill-seeking crew have been rescued and were part of a mere ultimate scare. A year later the group is out to explore more of America’s greatest haunted attractions. But they then find that once again they may be stalked by the group known as the Blue Skeleton who stalked them in the last film.

I was a pretty big fan of the original film and it has since become one my must-watch films in October. When the unexpected announcement of the sequel came a mere couple of months ago, I was interested but not expecting much. Thank god my expectations were low. The majority of this movie isn’t even horror, it feels so much more like some kind of fun documentary you’d find on T.V. about different haunted attractions in America, and in that sense it’s pretty fun. Hell, they visited a couple of places in my own state that I hadn’t heard about. Even some of the other ones they visited looked fun. The first film had this aspect sure, but at least it still felt like a movie and had some creepy and horror elements sprinkled throughout. We finally get to the horror in the last 15/20 minutes of the movie, and some of it is a little creepy, but also feels a bit lacking and goes too fast. And then…we are given a stupid, nonsensical ending that makes this feel like such a pointless movie. Hell, not going to a lie I was even a bit confused as to what this purpose was and just left me with a bunch of questions as to how this was all being set-up. The original felt simplistic and left you with no questions about the motivations of the villains or any questions in general that left you aggravated. While the same characters from the first film return, they aren’t as interesting, nor do you care about them, except for maybe the girl, but even she is very one-note the whole time.

As mentioned, this movie works to give you some fun ideas on what to do during the great month of October, but as a horror movie, it doesn’t even feel like that even when the horror does come at the very last minute. Pretty pointless movie in the long run, all the way down to its plot. It should have been left with the creepy ending of the first film.

–Cody Landman

Share:

The Buzz Is Gone: LEATHERFACE (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosLeatherface (2017)

Taking place before the events of the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Leatherface tells the story of how Leatherface came to be. After being taken from custody of their mother and put into an asylum, the Sawyer brothers, along with two other patients escape, taking a rookie nurse with them. They then embark on a bloody road trip that leads Jed Sawyer to self-discovery of his deadly destiny.

After being shelved for quite a while, Leatherface is finally seeing a release. Unfortunately, this is one movie that should have been shelved forever, or even better, never been made. It’s all fine and good that they dedicated the movie to have roots to the original (I’ll give it credit for doing a much better job at it than Texas Chainsaw 3D), but that’s all it really has going for it. And these roots hardly bare anything necessary or what we needed to know. Comparing this origin Chainsaw film to the origin film of the remake series, the latter film works much better. Leatherface doesn’t feel anything like a Texas Chain Saw Massacre film until the last 10 minutes with it’s slight nods to the original, and even then they’re really short lived. Instead this movie plays out like a very poor version of The Devil’s Rejects. When it comes to the characters in Leatherface, we are given characters that we are expected to root for as they’re being hunted by a revenge-seeking sheriff whose daughter was killed by the Sawyer boys. If they really expect us to root for the Sawyer clan, they’re dead wrong. These are horrible fricken people, and we don’t even get really any sense of them as a family to really given the smallest care about them. The Devil’s Rejects miraculously captured this well, despite the characters being horrible, we still got these of their care for each other to even slightly care about them. We don’t want to feel sorry for the Sawyer clan, we’re supposed to fear them. The sheriff, played by Stephen Dorff, isn’t even likable. The death of his daughter is sad, but we don’t see him showing any real grief to give us that emotional pull, he just become crazed with revenge to where he almost becomes as much of a villain as the Sawyers.

The closest thing we have to a character to root for is the young nurse named Lizzie, played by Vanessa Grasse. Lizzie is a likable character and you do feel sorry for her, but as a final girl there isn’t exactly anything special about her. On top of that, with this being a prequel, you know what’s going to happen so you don’t even see much point in caring. For most of the film we are left to guess which of the male escapees becomes Leatherface, and it’s quite frankly obvious even though they try use the worst and most obvious red-herring ever. In general the script is extremely lazy and only seeks to gross people out with the deaths and gore scenes, and Jed Sawyer’s motivation for becoming Leatherface is so fricken stupid and groan-worthy. Most of these scenes are just plain bad and seem to going out of its way to be gross, and by the end you just become infuriated because this movie just serves no purpose and offers viewers nothing other than to see an innocent character reach their unfairly brutal demise.

Besides the script being lazy, the camerawork comes off as this as well. It felt like they were trying to capture the gritty feel of the original, but it comes off as sloppy. If I had to pick any positives for this movie it’s the occasional nods to the original, and most especially the reconstruction of the Sawyer farm. Along with this, the acting isn’t terrible, it’s actually pretty decent. Stephen Dorff does his Stephen Dorff thing, the actors playing the Sawyer boys do a good job of imitating their adult counterparts in the original as best as they can, Vanessa Grasse, as I mentioned, is really likable and manages to make you care about Lizzie. Nicole Andrews turns in a pretty solid performance as a mental patient Tammy who goes on the road trip. Andrews seems to be trying to channel a more gritty and less playful version of Baby Firefly, and she’s pretty good at it. Finally we have Lili Taylor as Mama Verna Sawyer. Taylor does a decent job here, but she really could have amped the crazy.

Leatherface is a pointless movie in so many ways and never should have been made. Even as a film in general it’s mediocre at best and feels like a B-movie. Poor script, poor direction, and it ultimately leaves you with nothing in the end. Sure it has decent acting, good nods to the original film, and a great set re-creation of the farm, but I cannot recommend this film at all.

–Cody Landman

Share:

Slasher Studios Spotlight: Jason Harlow (ANOTHER EVIL NIGHT)

Slasher Studios*Slasher Interviews

In a brand new segment for Slasher Studios, we will taking a look at various up-and-coming horror filmmakers as they chat about their horror experiences as well as why they love the genre. Today we take a look at Jason Harlow and his upcoming horror film ANOTHER EVIL NIGHT, which is currently slashing up Kickstarter.

History With Horror
“I’ve been watching horror films literally since I could ever remember. I grew up watching the Child’s Play and Scream movies. I’ve always been interested in the classic monsters such as Dracula, The Wolfman, Frankenstein’s Monster, and Gill-Man, but slasher films are what I’m most interested in.”

Making the Horror Happen
Low-budget films are more interesting than me than the Hollywood stuff, so when I was in middle school, I started researching online to find some of the lesser-known slasher films. Todd Cook’s Screamtime Films label had a few particular titles that I wanted to see, and those were Night of the Clown, The Dummy, Demon Dolls, and lastly – Evil Night, which I managed to get the sequel rights to in the summer of 2015. The film began production in 2016 and is scheduled for release at the end of this year.

Having worked with some of Memphis’ most well-known film filmmakers as well as indie horror folks such as MJ Dixon, Dustin Ferguson, Tyler Hall, and Matt Cloude, I’ve gotten a good amount of experience in my 22 years of life. Tackling this feature with mostly just myself and a rather inexperienced yet very promising film student known as Jacob Gordon, however, has easily been the biggest challenge so far. What we have created is by no means a masterpiece of any sort, but horror fans will hopefully agree that it’s very fun film with lots of great Halloween imagery.

Killing it With Kickstarter
With only a few key scenes left, including one that features rising horror star Tommie Vegas, and us using an edit-as-you-go approach, the film is close to being finished but is looking for additional funds to cover the cost of festival fees as well as the manufacturing of 250 hand-numbered Blu-rays. In exchange for people’s generous donations, we are offering producer and special thanks credits, DVDs Blu-rays, and VHS’s as well as posters signed by Ben Purvis, Tommie Vegas, Jacob Gordon, and myself.

To become an Another Evil Night backer & support indie horror, check out the official film’s Kickstarter and help Harlow make a horrifically fun final film!

Share:

The Perfect Family: “MOTHER!” (2017) Review

Slasher StudiosMother!

A young wife works to rebuild her poet husband’s home after a fire. They seem to have a simple but happy enough life. This is disrupted when two strangers show up and set off a chain of events that test the couple, and the wife’s sanity.

I want to start this review by saying that the marketing for Mother is severely misleading. It’s not the horror movie they’re making it out to be. It’s not a Rosemary’s Baby clone, it’s not about a cult or even really so much a home invasion. There may be elements of this but not as much as the trailers give off. What we get is a movie that will still rattle you like crazy. After the film was over I was left shaken and in shock wondering what I just watched. The whole drive home I was thinking about it the whole way home, and even at home I felt like I was in this catatonic state with the after effects of it. Having said all of this I hope I’m not overhyping it, so take these words however you like. What this film is, is one bottle that keeps getting shaken and shaken until finally it just bursts. And as I was watching this movie, I found myself feeling the same way. What’s so crazy about this film is that everything you are feeling as you watch it is represented on screen. The shaken bottle comparison applies to the film itself, but also with Jennifer Lawrence’s character. As the events of the movie progress, we see Lawrence begin to unravel with it, and it’s amazing watching how she shows her character’s change throughout. Everything you’re thinking and feeling, Lawrence is projecting on the screen. And she absolutely nails it. In terms of the story, there’s so much that you can interpret from it and there’s a great amount of symbolism. Everything about it, from the general story, to the cinematography is like a nightmare. It’s like you’re living a nightmare. By the time we get to the final act, the movie just completely goes berserk. Early on you’re thinking “WTF?” but by the end you’re seriously yelling “WTF!?!?!” in your head. It is a pretty bizarre movie and not for everyone. Like I said, this movie is like a nightmare. The craziest things happen in it.

Besides not being a full-on horror movie, the movie is very horrific and not conventional at all. Many will call the movie stupid because there isn’t an extremely clear direction unlike most. This isn’t a flaw at all in my opinion, but modern audiences obviously need direction with their horror, right? This alone with deter many. But what will make people absolutely hate this movie is much of the final act. A lot of horrific stuff happens here including one scene where I knew it was going to go there before it even happened, and it takes it a lot further than I expected. I’m saying this movie will outrage people, make them walk out, demand their money back, and just be furious. But this is also a movie that will stick with you after it’s over for better or worse, and it will definitely make you think about the various interpretations to draw from it. As far as acting, the whole cast is excellent. As I mentioned Jennifer Lawrence is incredible and turns in probably her strongest performance post-Hunger Games. Javier Bardem is does a fine job too with his role and really makes you hate him, but there are times when he screws with your mind and confuses you as much as he does with Lawrence’s character. Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer rock their supporting roles, mostly Pfeiffer. She’s sinister, seductive and enticing, but she also drives you crazy as the unwanted guest. Harris doesn’t get as much to do as Pfeiffer but his presence is still really felt.

Love it or hate it, Mother is movie that will be people talking and will stay with you for a long time. I will say though that if I had any issue with it is that it often feels like its only purpose is to basically crush your soul, but again, there are so many pieces present to put together something to interpret.

–Cody Landman

Share:

IRRATIONAL FEAR Slashes Up Post-Production Campaign

Slasher Studios*Irrational Fear

Want to be a part of our latest slasher feature, Irrational Fear? Here’s your chance! Every dollar raised through our Indiegogo will go straight into post-production to make this as KILLER as possible. Click on the link below to check out our exclusive trailer and pick up some slasher backer exclusives including cast & crew signed posters, limited edition blu-rays, dvds, killer props, and much more! Become a backer today and score your fearful rewards. Check it out!

About the film:
Irrational Fear is the third horror feature from Slasher Studios & first collaboration with L.A. Horror. IRRATIONAL FEAR centers around six therapy patients brought together at a secluded cabin to confront their strangest fears. Little do they know, these fears will certainly be the death for some of them. Who will make it out alive?

IRRATIONAL FEAR INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN

Share: