On a day like any other, after killing her family in a very gruesome way, a high school girl roams the streets with a grin on her face, not caring about the accidents she causes on her path. A talented illustrator gets called when her husband is found walking aimlessly on the streets in an almost amnesic state, and with close to no social skills to communicate. A reporter looking for clues about the murdered family gets shocked when a young man ask him to be his guide, and shares with him that humanity’s days are numbered, since he is part of a scouting party setting the stage for an alien invasion.
From the hand of Kiyoshi Kurosawa (director of «Cure», «Pulse» and «Doppelganger» among other films) comes «Before We Vanish» a Japanese drama film with tones of science fiction that makes us wonder if humanity should be allowed to continue on the planet for a little longer, or if it is time to be erased and replaced for another type of intelligent life form.
While the idea of a group of aliens taking the bodies of humans to learn about our civilization (and how to destroy us) is nothing that we haven’t see before, the different personalities of these visitors and their approach in order to analyze humans is what makes the film interesting and worth watching. Far from infiltrating high rank personnel and look for ways to destroy us with our own weapons, these invaders go around stealing «Concepts» from the minds of the people they meet in their daily lives, causing a severe change in the personalities of those persons, some even ending in a mental breakdown.
Following our remote coverage for the Cinepocalypse film festival, we got to see «Charismata» a disturbingly dark film from Tor Mian and Andy Collier.
Ready to give us a hit… of horror and laughs, comes «Welcome to Willits» a film to be released on select theaters and VOD on September 22 via IFC Midnight. This gory mix of aliens, conspiracies and hallucinogens is also the directorial debut for Trevor Ryan.
Recently screened at TIFF 2017 (Toronto International Film Festival), we saw «Downrange» the new film from director Ryûhei Kitamura who in the past brought us cult films like the bat-shit crazy «Versus», and the adaptation from Clive Barker’s tale «The Midnight Meat Train», both films known for their unrestrained, violent content…. And luckily, this film is no exception.
A familiy that was divided for many years gets together in a secluded house in the woods to try an extreme intervention in order to convince Justin (the younger son of the family) to leave a dangeroous cult that has turned him into a very violent person, and with a clear desdain for his family.
Looking for her big break in the movie industry, Serena accepts the main role in a Slasher film. At first she has some concerns, thinking how this might affect her curriculum in the future, but after meeting the director and seeing how passionate he is about this project, since it will be his first feature, the young actress gets on board.
Obsessed with the vampire lore, and believing he could be a vampire himself, Milo walks the streets of his city everyday, trying to find his place in the world and every now and then quench his thirst for the blood he assumes he needs. Since the other boys in the neighborhood never miss the opportunity to bully him every time they see him, Milo prefers to lock himself in his room with his VHS collection of vampire films, or watching videos in the internet about nature’s predators and slaughterhouses.
Many seek fame through video blogs and social networks, but one of the best ways to succeed in the media is to talk about what you are passionate about and/or what you know best, in the case of Sadie and McKayla, that theme would be real-life serial killers. How much do they know about it? More than enough to capture a real serial killer, try to convince him to be their mentor and to help them to create a new bloody legend in their little sleepy town.
All Liza wanted was the chance to start a new life and to get out of the dump she was living, and Chip just wanted to see his girlfriend happy. There is a reason why everybody says that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Screened recently at the Fantasia International Film Festival and coming from France, we just saw “Le Manoir” (The Mansion), a comedy/slasher film where we meet a group of students reunited on a secluded mansion, with the goal of celebrating the arrival of the new year with alcohol, drugs and sex (or at least that is what some of them hope).