KRISTY (2014)

 

(Director: Oliver “Olly” Blackburn. Screenwriter: Anthony Jaswinski.)

Review

KRISTY opens with several hoodie-wearing people leaving a female corpse, Heather Price (listed as “Dead Girl” on IMDb), in a gray-morning field while a newscast is heard telling how she’s been missing for three days.

Cut to working-class college student Justine Wells (Haley Bennett) getting ready to spend her Thanksgiving break in her dorm with her roommate Nicole (Erica Ash). Nicole flakes on her “stay-behind” (as Wayne, a college security guard calls it) with Justine when her dad surprises her with a trip to Aspen.

When Justine, alone, goes to a nearby minimart for late night food, she’s in-store stalked by a creepy young woman wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. Justine leaves the store after the creepy woman leaves, only to encounter her driving a muscle car on the road. Justine manages to lose her, makes it back to her dorm and takes a nap, thinking everything is okay despite the “weird” (her word) encounter with the pierced-lip, creepy woman (Violet, played by Ashley Greene). Everything is not okay, because she’s been followed by not one, but several hoodie-wearing strangers, and as her terrorizers up their assault tactics, it looks like Justine—although a capable fighter—might not survive the night.

KRISTY is a good, steady-build slasher film, with effective foreshadowing, solid acting, a few solid twists (the killers are not random), and equally effective cinematography (credit Crille Forsberg) and consistent, mostly entertaining flight-and-fight pacing (editor: Jeff Betancourt, THE GRUDGE, 2004)—aside from a few instances when Justine should end her would-be killers instead of running. KRISTY isn’t memorable, but it’s well-shot, well-written and tightly edited, a relatively non-gory flick that provides some welcome T-Day thrills and chills.

 

KRISTY’s other notable cast members include:

James Ransone (SINISTER, 2012) as Scott, Justine’s friend and would-be protector;

Chelsea Bruland, a stunt woman in quite a few films (including Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, 2014) as Heather Price, or “Dead Girl” (as IMDb lists her role);

and

Mathew St. Patrick (SIX FEET UNDER, 2001-2005) as Wayne, a  night-shift security guard in Justine’s dorm.

**Taking a break from posting reviews. Fresh posts in November 2023!

 I will be taking a break from posting film reviews so I can work on other projects. Thanks for reading and see you in November 2023!

KNOCK KNOCK (2018)

 

(Director/screenwriter: Paul Catalanotto)

Review

In this six-minute horror short, a woman (Christine Tonry, ANTI-VAXXER, 2021), excited and getting ready for a date, is stalked by a stealthy, hard-to-track faint knock in her house. She follows the intermittent and spooky knocking throughout it, and you know it’s not likely to end well for her.

KNOCK is an all-around solid, every-shot-counts, suspenseful short, with—aside from the woman not grabbing any kind of weapon—a promising premise, and a worthwhile not-quite-a-twist ending. Hamp Overton’s (SACRILEGE, 2017) cinematography is impressive, especially considering KNOCK’s limited budget, and its sound department (John Charles, Mike Gilbert, and Qing Yu) maintains an unsettling feel throughout. This feels like a “proof of concept” work, one worth watching.

ATTACHMENT (2022)

 

(Shudder Original/streaming film. Director/screenwriter: Gabril Bier Gislason)

 

Review

Danish actress, Maja (Josephine Park), meets Jewish academic (Leah, played by Ellie Kendrick) in a bookstore, and they quickly fall in love. When Leah, who has strange seizures, returns to her mother’s home, Maja goes with her. Chana, Leah’s mother, is a strict practitioner of Jewish black magick. Furthermore, the serious older woman doesn’t seem to like Maja, driving her to figure out the changes in Leah’s personality, her relationship with her rigid mother, and the Kabbalah-related objects hidden around Chana’s house.

If you view director Gislason’s feature debut for what it comes off as—a barely R-rated made-for-television, initially fun and romantic drama with occasional PG-13 horror moments—it might be a good viewing choice for you. If you’re one of those sensitive souls who sincerely use the phrase “elevated horror” and doesn’t get the joke (all horror work has inherent subtext, it’s not meant to be worn as a fan-badge of arrogance and/or ignorance), ATTACHMENT could easily be your vaguely, occasionally horrific check-it-out flick as well.

If you’re an Old School/traditional horror fan looking for a well-edited film that effectively, continually builds up to a satisfying, suspenseful horror-flick ending, you might want to skip it. ATTACHMENT‘s first twenty or thirty minutes are promising, relatively fast-paced, a steady-build work. Then it hits a drawn-out, glacial-paced thirty or so minutes, where Maja, initially smart, becomes so love-dumb and gormless that she strains believability. By the time all is spoon-fed, er, revealed to her, it’s a moot point—experienced horror viewers will likely have sussed out the film’s lacking-in-suspense storyline and upcoming shots early on and, like me, just wanted the movie over with already.

On paper, I see where ATTACHMENT might’ve worked as an hourlong television/streaming horror show episode. It builds like an unedited novella (one can almost see which scenes would be dramatic chapter endings), but as a feature. . . Gabril Bier Gislason, his cast and crew are clearly able to put out part of a good movie. It’s a shame that its snail-crawl middle-to-end section relies on its lead (Maja) being excessively dumb, even for someone newly in love, and scenes recycling (without building on) previously established plot points.

 

Standout actors include:

Sofie Gråbøl (THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT, 2018) as Chana, Leah’s intense, black magick-practicing mother;

David Dencik (DEPARTMENT Q: THE ABSENT ONE, 2014) as Lev, a bookstore owner and Ellie’s uncle.

 

If you don’t like gore, suspense, violence, good editing, or anything darker than weak milk chocolate in your movies, ATTACHMENT could easily be your cinematic kick for an hour and forty-five minutes. If you’re not, feel free to skip it.

SWEET SIXTEEN (1983)

(Director: Dmitri Sotirakis, billed as Jim Sotos. Screenwriter: Erwin Goldman.)

Review

In a small Texas town, the recently arrived fifteen-year-old Melissa Morgan (Aleisa Shirley, her cinematic debut) is flirty, lonely, and lusted after by many of her male peers and a few of the older men. This isn’t much of a problem until that the last guy she went out with (Johnny Franklin) is found stabbed to death the next morning. The most likely suspect is a local Native American bad ass, Jason Longshadow (Don Shanks, HALLOWEEN 5: THE REVENGE OF MICHAEL MYERS, 1989), who’d almost gotten into a bar fight with aggressively racist Johnny, his older brother Billy, and one of Johnny’s friends the same night Johnny was murdered.

Easy-going Sheriff Dan Burke (Bo Hopkins, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY, 1999) begins investigating the crime even as the violent Billy Franklin, riling up local ire, looks for Jason Longshadow. More murders happen, all of them centered around Melissa, culminating in a bloody, deadly showdown that’ll likely be talked about in that town for decades.

More a well-written drama with an almost Seventies feel than a slasher film, SWEET is a solid, if sometimes oddball work. Slash-and-stab scenes occasionally punctuate the steady-build drama, with full-frontal female nudity (Aleisha Shirley), mostly solid acting, effective foreshadowing, a shoehorned and character-unlikely shock ending, and scenes that recall better movies (FRIDAY THE 13^th, 1980, and HALLOWEEN, 1978, e.g., the shot where Tommy Doyle, holding a pumpkin and being bullied, is watched by Michael Myers). And if you’re a fan of cheesy Eighties ballads, Joel Wertman and Mark Wertman’s “Melissa’s Theme” (which plays during certain Melissa-focused shots. . . foreshadowing?) might be your briefly heard favorite new tune.

 

Other actors (beside Bo Hopkins and Don Shanks) who stand out:

Dana Kimmell (FRIDAY THE 13^th PART 3, 1982) as Marci Burke, Sheriff Dan Burke’s murder mystery-reading teenage daughter;

Steve Antin (THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, 1982) as Hank Burke, Sheriff Dan Burke’s teenage son;

Patrick Macnee (THE HOWLING, 1981) as Dr. John Morgan, Melissa’s protective, archeologist father;

Susan Strasberg (BLOODY BIRTHDAY, 1981) as Joanne Morgan (née Platt), Melissa’s protective mother;

Don Stroud (THE AMITYVILLE HORROR, 1979) as Billy Franklin;

Logan Clark (NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN, 1972) as Jimmy;

and

Michael Pataki (GRADUATION DAY, 1981) as George Martin, a shady politician.

You might enjoy SWEET if you’re looking for a solid (sort of) murder mystery with occasional, slasherific kill scenes. Anyone wanting an edgy thriller should seek something else.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to IMDb: Leslie Nielsen (PROM NIGHT, 1980) was originally set to play Dr. John Morgan, Melissa’s father, but bowed out because of scheduling conflicts.

QUEEN OF BLOOD (1966)

 

(a.k.a. PLANET OF BLOOD. Director/co-screenwriter: Curtis Harrington. Based on Mikhail Karykov and Otar Koberidze’s story/film MECHTE NAVSTRECHU.)

 

Review

1990. Ambassadors of a mysterious alien race, enroute to Earth to establish relations with humans, crash-land on Mars. On Earth, the International Institute of Space Technology, created to “explore” Mars and Venus, sends a rescue mission for the aliens, with whom communications are hazy at best (along with their general appearance).

The crew of the Oceano are on their way to Mars when multiple complications occur, starting with a sunburst, which damages the Oceano’s system. Upon reaching Mars, the crew members find a lone survivor (a green-skinned, exotic-looking, and mute Alien Queen (her character end-credited as “?”, played by Florence Marly, DOCTOR DEATH: SEEKER OF SOULS, 1973). Several men, especially Paul Grant (Dennis Hopper, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2, 1986), are dreamily, romantically drawn to her. After she drains one of her admirers of blood (offscreen), killing him, the remaining crew members decide to restrain, not kill her, because she’s a scientific specimen. . . an obviously bad decision, an opinion voiced by alarmed crew member Allan Brenner (John Saxon, TENEBRAE, 1982), who wants to destroy her.

QUEEN, with a fun, familiar twist or two, is a fast- and tightly paced (for its time) low budget movie, with an all-around solid cast and crew. Its look is sumptuous in an often color-drenched B-movie way (opening with John Cline’s exotic, science fiction-monstrous “title” paintings and stock spooky-theremin music by Ronald Stein, billed as Leonard Moran—Moran’s credits include SPIDER BABY, OR THE MADDEST STORY EVER TOLD, 1967). QUEEN’s look is further augmented (and made more atmospheric) by impressive special effects lifted from bigger budgeted and uncredited Russian films, BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN, 1959, and MECHTE NAVSTRECHU, 1963), fitting because QUEEN is a remake of MECHTE, English translation DREAM TOGETHER. (MECHTE was also titled DREAM COME TRUE in some countries.)

 

QUEEN’s other notable players and behind-the-scenes crew include:

Basil Rathbone (SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, 1939) as Dr. Farraday, head of the International Institute of Space Technology;

Judi Meredith (THE NIGHT WALKER, 1964) as Laura James, scientist and Allan Brenner’s romantic interest;

Don Eitner (KRONOS, 1957) as Tony Barrata, one of the crew members;

Forrest J. Ackerman (THE HOWLING, 1981, and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD II, 1988) as Dr. Farraday’s assistant (“minus his trademark glasses”, according to IMDb’s QUEEN OF BLOOD “Trivia” page). Ackeman, then-editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, holds something in the movie’s last shot;

Virgil Frye (GARDEN OF THE DEAD, 1972) as “Control Panel” (Frye’s first feature);

Gary Crutcher (GIANT FROM THE UNKNOWN, 1958) as an uncredited spaceship crew member;

Leon Smith (VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, 1965, also co-directed by Curtis Harrington) was VOYAGE and QUEEN’s set designer, then billed as "set decorator".

and

Vilis Lapenieks (VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, 1965) was VOYAGE and QUEEN’s cinematographer.

QUEEN might be worth your time if you appreciate its above-noted qualities, particularly if you’re a fan of MARS ATTACKS! (1996; director: Tim Burton) and ALIEN (1979; director: Ridley Scott), the latter of which shares a similar, if darker, more primal, and feminist storyline.

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

According to IMDb: though Ronald Stein’s spooky theremin music sounds like it’s mixed with Louis Barron and Bebe Barron’s FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956) “tonalities” it’s not.

Florence Marly reprised her role of “?” (her character’s end-credit in QUEEN) in a six-minute, 16mm sequel, SPACE BOY (1973). In SPACE BOY, her character is named Velarna, and Marly is billed as Florence Marly von Wurmbrand.

QUEEN’s running time is an hour and eighteen minutes, a good choice if you’re looking for a shorter movie to watch.

SUBSPECIES (1991)

 

(Director: Ted Nicolaou. Screenwriters: Jackson Barr and David Pabian, based on Charles Band’s idea.)

 

Review

In fictional Prejnar, Romania, Radu Vladislas, monstrous offspring of a twisted sorceress and a briefly ensorcelled King Vladislas, returns home and kills his elderly father for the Bloodstone, a mystical gem that contains the blood of saints—a powerful, addictive elixir.

Radu’s vampiric half-brother (Stefan, played by Michael Watson), arrives and finds his father dead. He, good, kind, and half-human, seeks to avenge his father’s death, and poses as a college student studying local “nocturnal creatures”.

Stefan is not the only new arrival in Prejnar. Three medieval-history-studying college students—Romanian native Mara (Irina Movila), free-spirited Lillian, and bookish and especially resourceful Michelle—show up and stay at a local fort near Castle Vladislas, where Radu lurks.  

When Lillian takes to her bed with “anemia” after secretly being visited by Radu, the blood-fueled sibling conflict between sensitive Stefan and his ruthless, more virile brother (as well as his devilish, pint-sized minions) ratchets into full-blown war, with all around them—including local groundskeeper Karl (Ivan J. Rado, PUPPET MASTER II, 1990)—caught up in their designs.

SUBSPECIES has an authentic Romanian feel, strong writing (a lot of its dialogue comprised of interesting Romanian bloodsucker mythology and real-life history), tight editing (credit Bert Glatstein and William Young), and great cinematography (Vlad Paunescu, whose work adds to the realistic feel of SUBSPECIES) and striking, spooky scenes. The rest of the behind-the-scenes crew nailed it as well. When combined with the strong acting of its cast, particularly Anders Hove’s shadowy, hiss-whispery Radu, all of this makes SUBSPECIES a fun, well-made take on bloodsucker tropes, one worth checking out. 

SUBSPECIES‘s other noteworthy actors include:

Angus Scrimm (PHANTASM, 1979) as the visibly ailing, spirited King Vladislas;

Michelle McBride (THE MASK OF RED DEATH, 1989) as just-do-it Lillian;

Laura Mae Tate (DEAD SPACE, 1991) as the studious Michelle, whose mutual attraction to Stefan might save them.

Followed by four sequels and a spin-off movie, its first sequel BLOODSTONE: SUBSPECIES II (1993).

 

Deep(er) filmic dive

SUBSPECIES is the first American movie to be shot in post-Communist Bucharest, Romania (called Prejnar in the film).

According to IMDb’s Trivia page, Radu’s character was inspired by Radu the Handsome, real-life sibling of Vlad the Impaler.

In Justin Beahm’s article “From TerrorVision to Subspecies: Ted Nicolaou Interviewed (Part One)” (Scream magazine, issue 56, September/October 2019), Nicolaou said that Michael Watson (who played Stefan Vladislas) recommended his GENERAL HOSPITAL co-star Anders Hove to play Radu, and Full Moon head/producer Charles Dance almost immediately cast Hove after meeting him.

Nicolaou also mentioned how Laura Tate (SUBSPECIES’s Michelle) “left the shoot two weeks” before it was completed, after she slept-walked into Nicolaou’s hotel room where she woke and freaked out. Tate’s remaining scenes were shot with a double.

Also noted in Beahm’s article: Nicolaou was a boom operator/sound guy on Tobe Hooper’s THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974). Nicolaou owned the van that Sally and her friends traveled in.