I missed yesterday so this will be a double review but not doubled sized.

Sunday, we kicked off with the feature Diablo Rojo from Panama. The story concerns an owner/operator of a transit bus, his young co-worker, and witched and demons that pursue them over a dark secret from years earlier. Lost in the jungle area of the countryside with the addition of a pair of traffic cops and a priest they must unravel the mystery and put things right. Competently made Diablo Rojo was perfectly serviceable but did not manage to elevate itself above that. Too many elements were crammed into the same plot and convenient exposition fell from characters that had no justification for that information just because the story required. However, these are issues common to horror and non-horror film and this one was still fun to watch and possessed the most badass priest in a long time.

The blocks for Sunday were on the themes of Isolation and People Behaving Badly. Isolation in general did not work as well as the other block, perhaps because with often only a single character it’s more difficult to craft a good story. People Behaving Badly offered up killers and slasher and gave us more shorts that exceeded our expectations. The standouts from this block were Overkill a farce of the slasher genre, and Waffle and its disturbing take on when the gig economy invades the real of friendship.

Monday my sweetie-wife and I enjoyed the feature documentary Hail to the Deadites about the growth and power of the fandom community surrounding the Evil Dead film series.

I closed out Monday evening with the feature Repossession from Singapore. Jim is a 50-year-old engineer suddenly laid off from his employment and too proud to admit it to his family or to lose his status symbols descends into deceit and desperation to maintain his lifestyle as an evil from his past creeps back into his life bringing horror and helplessness. Repossession is an excellent example of slow burn horror. The first hour of the feature plays as a drama with only hints at something unnatural afoot and the last 30 spirals into deep supernatural terror. Hands down of the feature films this year Repossessionperfectly blending character and monsters is my favorite.