¡Qué horror! 2013

Candidate #8

THE DAY

(September 2011)

It’s a film brought to us by WWE Studios, with Iceman and Meriadoc Brandybuck in it in front of the cameras, and as co-producers.

How can you possibly resist?

Sure, it’s yet another dark, nihilistic post-apocalyptic tale, but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that it’s a well-made one, with just enough moments in its narrative to make you want to see it through, if only to see who lives and who dies past the end credits roll.

Plus, aside from Shawn Ashmore and Dominic Monaghan, there are some other familiar genre faces here: Ashley Bell (from The Last Exorcism), Michael Eklund (from yet another dark, nihilistic post-apocalyptic tale, The Divide), and Shannyn Sossamon (who you may remember from either A Knight’s Tale, Wristcutters: A Love Story, Life Is Hot in Cracktown, or the English-language remake of One Missed Call, depending on your particular cinematic leanings).

Plus, Marc Blucas is also in here as a co-executive producer (I presume because he’s collaborated in the past with director Doug Aarniokoski, on the less than stellar Animals, which I believe has a review stashed somewhere in the Iguana Archives*).

So, if dark, nihilistic post-apocalyptic tales are your horror speed, you could do a whole lot worse than The Day.

* Reviews for The Last Exorcism, Wristcutters: A Love Story and The Divide can also be found in the Archives as well.

(The Day OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best, Most Recent Horror Movies I’ve Seen
[11 of 13]
THE RUINS (April 2008)


As for anyone who isn’t familiar with the story’s premise, I’d prefer not to spoil the nature of the temple’s threat here, so I’ll just say this: if you, like little old me, love your horror, treat yourself to a walking tour of The Ruins.
Fun, fun, fun!!!

Read the entire review here.

(The Ruins OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by Ignition Print].)

SOLSTICE
(Review)

Still bearing the guilt and the grief of her twin Sophie’s suicide, Megan Thomas (Point Pleasant’s Elisabeth Harnois) takes a trip to her parents’ house on Nowell Lake in Louisiana, for the traditional celebration of St. John’s Eve, on the summer solstice.
This year’s celebration is the last of its kind though, as the Thomases are planning to sell the place, so Megan and her friends intend to have a last hurrah.
But something lurks at Nowell Lake, and Megan becomes increasingly convinced she is being haunted by the spectre of her dead sister.


That’s the basic set-up of Daniel Myrick’s Solstice, which, other than a creepily effective opening titles sequence, doesn’t quite manage to hit the right buttons.
To be fair, it is a good thing that the script (by Myrick, Marty Musatov, and Ethan Erwin) doesn’t degenerate into a pretty-young-things-being-slaughtered-one-by-one deal.
There is a mystery here, though it’s approached in a rather awkward manner, and the film takes a tad too long to really get moving.


Given what the film is ultimately about, there also seems to be an overabundance of characters here, many of whom are left to stand around with nothing particularly significant to do.
Among the narrative’s dead weight are Mamma Mia!’s Amanda Seyfried and Hilarie Burton, who joins the likes of her fellow One Tree Hillers Sophia Bush and Chad Michael Murray, as well as Harnois (who did a 6-episode stint on the Hill), in their transition to feature-length horror.
Those fortunate enough to have been given just a little bit more to do though, are the X-Men franchise’s Shawn Ashmore (as Christian, former boyfriend of the deceased Sophie) and 7th Heaven’s Tyler Hoechlin (as Nick, local Cajun boy who knows a thing or two about ghosts and magic).
R. Lee Ermey’s also here as Leonard, the creepy old codger who lives across the lake.


It’s that surfeit of mostly unnecessary characters, and the film’s annoying red herrings, that make Solstice’s script the major culprit here.
Which is sad since I was hoping Myrick (co-director of The Blair Witch Project, with Eduardo Sánchez) could convince me that he could helm an effective horror film minus any shakycam improv and with an actual script, as Sánchez did with Altered.
Instead, what we get in Solstice is a lukewarm ghost story that doesn’t really scare or thrill. Doubly sad, since there’s so much narrative potential in the idea of the solstice, of that temporal transition, where the barriers between the quick and the dead are weaker than normal.
Here’s hoping Myrick wins me over with his upcoming The Objective…


Parting shot: A review of Eduardo Sánchez’s Altered can be found in the Archive.

(Solstice DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.com; images courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

THE RUINS
(Review)

Four young American tourists are on a Mexican vacation, when a chance encounter with German Mathias (Joe Anderson, from Control and Across The Universe) sends them on a trek to an ancient Mayan temple, one that isn’t even on the guide books. This being an R-rated horror movie, it should come as no surprise then that there is something in the temple, an insidious, persistent horror that will put these pretty young things in terrible jeopardy.


Based on a Scott B. Smith novel, The Ruins is a crackerjack exercise in shudder-inducing horror with a commendable cast that includes two of young Hollywood’s dependable performers, The Black Donnellys’ Jonathan Tucker and Donnie Darko’s Jena Malone, as Jeff MacIntyre and girlfriend Amy.
There’s also some good work in here by Laura Ramsey (as Amy’s best friend, Stacy) and, as her boyfriend Eric, Shawn Ashmore, the younger Ashmore twin who plays Iceman in the X-Men franchise, not the one who plays Jimmy Olsen on Smallville (that one’s Aaron).
I’m particularly impressed with Ramsey, whose past work has been in some less-than-stellar fare like The Covenant and She’s The Man. She does a number of things in The Ruins I hadn’t thought her capable of, based on what I’d seen of her before.
If there’s an aspect of one performance here that could be a tad dodgy, it’s Anderson’s accent. But in the end, I’ve heard far worse, and for all I know, it could just be me, and Anderson’s accent is spot on.


At any rate, it’s partially to the credit of these young actors, who place believable characters before us, that the film works as well as it does, since—unlike in many a lesser horror film—we actually care if these kids live or die. There’s something very natural about the performances and the rapport between these characters that puts us in the middle of events as they unfold, that makes us sympathize with the dire situation they find themselves in.
And while Malone and her fellow actors rope us in and hold out attention, director Carter Smith and the other, apparently unrelated Smith (the writer, who adapted his own novel, though is credited without his middle initial as the film’s screenwriter) put all involved—particularly the audience—through a nasty cinematic wringer, the sort that makes you squirm and cringe, in very nice horror movie ways, mind.


It should also be noted that there’s some interesting work here by frequent Peter Jackson collaborator, production designer Grant Major, as well as some good cinematography by ace shooter Darius Khondji, who’s been DP for directors like David Fincher (Se7en and Panic Room), Danny Boyle (The Beach), and for the Caro-Jeunet tag team (Delicatessen and La cite des enfants perdus), as well as Jeunet in solo mode (Alien: Resurrection).
Think what you may of some of the films I’ve just mentioned (personally, I’m not a very big fan of Panic Room, The Beach, or Alien: Resurrection), but it’s hard to deny that they look good.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned this ‘round these parts before, but I’ve always felt there are four saving graces in The Beach: 1) Tilda Swinton; 2) Robert Carlyle; 3) Virginie Ledoyen; and 4) Khondji’s cinematography.
Now, admittedly, The Ruins doesn’t have as potent a visual signature as some of the above films, like Se7en, for example. Nonetheless, it’s a well-shot horror film that actually does it work, and Khondji’s a part of that success.


As for anyone who isn’t familiar with the story’s premise, I’d prefer not to spoil the nature of the temple’s threat here, so I’ll just say this: if you, like little old me, love your horror, treat yourself to a walking tour of The Ruins.
Fun, fun, fun!!!

I’ll also leave you with this…
The Ruins has, as one of its executive producers, Ben Stiller.
Yes, that Ben Stiller. Derek Zoolander.
Now that, in itself, is a scary thought.*


Parting shot: Scott B. Smith also wrote the novel A Simple Plan, which, likewise, has a very good film adaptation directed by Sam Raimi.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of Raimi’s best.
In fact, why not make it a Scott B. Smith-adaptation double feature…

* Just for the record, I love Zoolander. Thus, when I think “Ben Stiller,” nasty, R-rated horror is the farthest thing from my mind…

(The Ruins OS courtesy of impawards.com [design by Ignition Print]; images courtesy of filmz.ru.)