Man, I loved Zombieland  and the best thing I can say about Double Tap  is that I’m happy to see the original cast back but the bets bits are all in the trailer.

The original film was a charming, funny, and ultimately touching movie about the power of found family. The sequel is a collection of gags strung together with barest of plots and utterly devoid and any real story.

It’s been ten years since the Zombie Apocalypse and our heroes have taken up a stable residence but haven’t changed or grown much as characters, When Little Rock, in the original film the characters avoid the painful memories of their previous lives referred to themselves by significant destination and not their names, who has now become a young woman and is feeling the isolation of no romantic companion ship and her sister Wichita, feeling strangely stifled in her relationship with Columbus, suddenly leave, Columbus and Tallahassee are forced out of their routine and embark on an odyssey. They face many new dangers and meet many new characters before the entire family emotionally returns back to where they had started.

Characters in good fiction have needs and wants, and note that those are usually not the same thing, a character may want something but need something that is the opposite to complete their emotional arc. The characters of Double Tap  have wants but few needs of any kind and what they do want is the most plot driven of objectives. While the film is populated with talented actors who can turn a fine comedic performance the lack of an emotional story that is compelling ultimately make the movie hollow and empty. There are gags, and many of them are on display in the trailer, but there is no theme. The film is in the end not about anything at all. The script feels like one that has had many comedic hands working the sequences and the jokes are decent, but without a compelling story none of it really matters. If during the running of your film I am thinking to myself just how lovely Emma Stone’s eye are then you have lost me because I simply do not care what happens on the scree.

I cannot recommend Double Tap  and your time would be better spent putting in the Blu-ray and watch Zombieland  again.

While I saw the theatrical cut of this year’s Midsommar  twice during its release I unfortunately missed the brief run of the film’s director’s cut. At nearly three hours and combined with it quite limited time in theaters I simply never managed to clear my schedule enough to make room for the feature. Now it has been released on home video, the longer cut available exclusively from Apple, and I can give my opinion on it versus the original version.

Director’s cuts of things are not always a blessing. The example that best comes to mind at this moment is the musical Little Shop of Horrors. The director’s cut has an extended sequence at the end where the plants have grown to monstrous size and are kaiju  stomping about the world’s cities eliminating humanity. However by this point ALL of the major characters are dead and there is no emotional tie for the audience making for a dull, plodding, and ultimately boring end to the movie/ The theatrical version is far superior.

Gladly this is not the case with Midsommar. Writer/Director Ari Aster has mostly expanded scenes in this version, carrying various sequences a bit further and greatly expanding the depth of his characters and illuminating more of their natures. There is one wholly new sequence, another ritual by the Swedish cult that follows in the evening of the day after the visitors have witnessed the horrifying attestupa. This evening sequence along with a further dissolution of Dani and Christian’s relationship further isolates the non-cult members and gives Dani’s character a moment to shine as the brightest among the visitors.

Midsommar’s  director’s cut is a deep careful exploration of the themes and wholly satisfying. I can say without reservation that it is my deeply preferred version of Aster’s vision.

One of the things that my sweetie-wife and I enjoy is British horror films, particularly of the Hammer variety and Shudder has a few offerings in that vein including the later period Hammer movie Twins of Evil.

Hammer horror films, iconic color movie that made stars out of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee started in 1958, though the studio had been well established before that, and pretty much ended production with To The Devil A Daughter  in 1976 so Twins of Evil  represents the dying gasps of the once great horror house.

The movie stars Mary and Madeleine Collinson as twin sister Frieda and Maria, recently orphaned and now sent from their home in Vienna to live with their stern Uncle Gustav (Peter Cushing), a devote man who  leads The Brotherhood a collection of men that hunts and burns suspected witches attempting to purge the area of a festering evil. The two sisters chafe under their unyielding uncle and each becomes enamored with local men, Maria with the rationally minded and atheistic Teacher Anton and Frieda with the decadent Count Karnstein, who, under the protection of the Emperor, publicly flaunts his wickedness.

Cushing is his usual professional and talent self, convincingly playing a man so devoted to his singular vision of virtue that he is untroubled by the frequent execution of young women without even the flimsiest evidence of witchcraft. The rest of the cast vary from competent working actors to Damien Thomas chewing the scenery as Karnstein and ended on the Collinson twins who were most likely cast by Hammer to take advantage of the status of Playboy  centerfolds.

The pacing of the movie is off, starting, despite the repeated instance of women being burned at the stake, out quite slow but once the film reaches the second half and vampirism appears in the plot the film moves quite deftly towards its somewhat uneven conclusion.

Production is overall well done with interesting set and well designed costuming but the movie does suffer from some of the worst day for night shots every committed to film. Lengthy forest sequences set in the dead of night are clearly shot in bright sunlight with the characters appearing quite ridiculous as they hold up their torches for illumination.

With some violence, an explicit beheading, and brief nudity this movie will not be to everyone’s taste but I appreciate that Shudder  presented the feature unedited. Twins of Evil  is far from Hammer’s best horror film but it also far from their worst and there are worst ways to spend 90 minutes.

Premiering in 2015 at the South X Southwest  festival The Corpse of Anna Fritz  is a Spanish Language thriller/horror film about  morgue attendant Pau (Albert Carbo) who finds himself alone with the body of a young and extremely popular actor Anna Fritz (Alba Ribas.) Pau texts photos of Anna’s corpse to his friends Ivan (Cristian Valencia) and Javi (Bernat Saumell) who join Pau in the morgue to ogle the actor’s corpse. Being men of low character and with their inhibitions eradicated by cocaine the word of the day becomes necrophilia. A bad and immoral idea turns disastrous when Anna awakens from her unexplained comatose state and the three young men are faced with the serious criminal charges but lack the moral fortitude to do anything approaching what is right.

Anna Fritz is a horror film that presents no supernatural elements existing in the continuum of thriller and thrillers turns on their characters and their acting. This film does an admirable job at both of these factors. The young men with their limited intellect and obsession with partying are sadly not outside of the bounds of reality and their divergent reactions to Anna’s living state drive the dramatic conflict at the heart of their relationship. Alba Ribas as Anna is phenomenal, her character at times is paralyzed leaving the actor with only her eyes to express her terror and shock and she is terrific at it. The most empathetic character in the small film Alba’s Anna is the emotional heart that beats the movie’s lifeblood of tension.

With a brief running time of just 74 minutes Anna Fritz  does not overstay it welcome, moving directly into the tense plot and telling its story with economy.  Currently streaming on Shudder  Anna Fritz  is not a film to everyone’s tastes but it successfully captures the terror, tension and idiocy of its character without devolving, despite prominent nudity, into titillation with the real horror always centered in Anna’s experiences.

I love a good documentary and that is only amplified if it is a documentary about films or filmmaking. After all two Christmases ago my sweetie-wife got for me the 13 hours documentary The Story of Film  and I was thrilled. So discovering that the streaming services Shudder  is offering the massive 6 hour and 40 minute Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13^th  was exciting news.

Crystal Lake Memories  covers every installment in the successful franchise from the first film in 1980 through the most recent re-boot and including the 90s television series and the monster match-up movie Freddy vs. Jason.

Each installment gets it’s own chapter in the documentary, part of the reason why it is so massive in its extended running time, with cast and crew interviews and a history of the writing and production decisions surrounding the films. This makes it very easy to watch the documentary over several viewing. Full disclosure I am not the most engaged fan of this franchise. I have not seen every entry; I did enjoy the series though it had nothing to do with the main storyline of Jason and killed campers. I still enjoyed this documentary quite a bit and for people who are fans this is a rare glimpse into the decisions that shaped the franchise and why some of the most controversial calls were made in the manner they were.

Shudder  has become one of my favorite streaming services and gives in my opinion fantastic value for the low monthly cost.

Released in 2017 to a limited theatrical run The Void is a modestly budgeted cosmic horror film set in a rural besieged hospital.

Daniel Carter is a sheriff’s deputy in a small rural community when late one evening while on patrol his discovers an injured man, bloodied and disorientated on an isolated back road. He takes the men to the closest hospital, one that is in the process of closing down after a fire devastated most of the building leaving the facility this night with a skeleton staff and only one patient already admitted. Daniel’s wife Allison works at the hospital as a nurse and though they are not estranged it is clear a tragedy haunts their relationship. Before long Daniel, Allison, and the small collection of characters are besieged when masked cultists willing to murder anyone who attempts to flee the building surround the hospital. Strangely, the cultists seem uninterested in invading the facility and it quickly becomes apparent that the real horror is already inside the hospital.

Avoiding second tier digital imagery and boasting practical creature effects The Void  makes the most of its limited budget. Inspired by but not based upon the works of H.P. Lovecraft, this film starts itself grounded in a real and recognizable world before sliding into a scenario of monsters, madness, and unimaginable horrors from beyond. Competently acted and directed the film is not perfect but works overall as an entertaining horror movie that is perfectly willing to leave questions unanswered and matters to audience interpretation. While there is plenty of gore and injury effects the heart of this movie is about loss and how loss transforms us into people we may have little understanding of. There is a slight cinematic trope of ignoring serious injury after a few scenes but overall the movie is fast paces, enjoyable and for fans horror well worth their time.

The Voidis currently streaming on the horror service Shudder.

This year was the 10^thannual Horrible Imaginings Horror Film Festival. For the second year, the festival has been hosted by the non-profit theater The Frida Cinema and this year I managed to attend 2 of the 3 day run time. I am sad that I missed Friday but day-job commitments are paramount.

Saturday started with a block of short films programed around the theme ‘A Shock to the System’ where the horror lies more in systemic and cultural issues than a beastie or man with a knife. There were 11 films in this block and many were quite compelling. The film that most disturbed me was Off Fleek  which centered in a young woman and the terrible effect of the cyber-abuse she endured. It is a film that haunts the mind well after its brief running time has ended. Per haps most entertaining  was Kathy  a film about growing up gay in a fundamentalist household where demons and possession are common dinnertime discussions. And most artistic visually striking of the block was LVRS a film without dialog that symbolically explored the nature of abusive relationships.

The next block continue the theme with the longer films Conversion Therapist  and What Daphne Sawand included a panel discussion about the issues of ‘reparative’ therapy and human trafficking. We rounded out Saturday with two feature films but the one I enjoyed the most from that evening was Reborn  starring Barbara Crampton and Michael Pare.

Sunday again started with a block of short subjects, this time the theme being Monsters, Sci-Fi and Beyond. Nest  was a ‘found footage’ style short that understood brevity if powerful in that model of filmmaking. How to be Alone  was a wonderful exploration of isolation and the mental toll that can take on a person while Ulysses  presented perhaps the best mermaid design I have ever watched.

Then we were treated to a long form short film block where instead of running times between 2 and 12 minutes the films were along the lines of a half an hour including a lovly film about a séance in the White House at the height of the Civil War. Though perhaps my favorite of that black came from Brazil For My Cat, Mieze  where justice comes paired with a fine wine.

We rounded out the day with two feature films, Antrum – the Deadliest Film Ever Made  which included as part of its conceit a mini-documentary about the fictional film Antrum  and the deaths associated with it, but the film struck me as more gimmick that story. The final feature was Pornoa movie about religious teenagers who accidentally summon a succubus in the theater where they work. It’s over-the top, bloody, sexy, and funny, providing one of the festival’s’ most memorable line of dialog; “I’m not going to get excited by your exploded testicles!”

All in all the festival was a grand time well worth the 3 hours of drive time each day.