Shudder Review: Among the Living (2014)

"So the directors of Inside decided to make themselves their own version of Stand By Me, huh?"

Released in France way back in 2014, and in many other parts of the world since then, Among the Living is finally available to U.S. audiences, thanks to the superb streaming service, Shudder.

The filmmaking duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury burst onto the Horror scene in 2007 with the superb Home Invasion Thriller, Inside (review HERE). It took them four years to deliver a follow-up film, Livide (review HERE), and yet another three years to arrive at Among the Living.

They're also the duo responsible for this year's Leatherface, which we reviewed a few days back, right HERE.

While nothing they've made since Inside comes close the the twisted perfection of that film, they sure do know how to make movies that offer gorgeous visuals and graphically disturbing bloodshed.

On Halloween night, a deranged pregnant woman tries to kill her asshole husband and mongoloid son Klarence, only to turn the knife on herself to escape her shitty existence as a French housewife. Father and son then take off to "start a new family" somewhere else.

YOU DROVE HER TO THIS!

Some years later, on the last day of school, three teenage friends decide to skip class and have some fun. After trying their best to burn an old man's barn down, the trio of Dan, Tom and Victor head for the ruins of an abandoned film studio where they find a bound and gagged woman in the trunk of a car. A man in a clown mask spots them and gives chase, but they elude him, and escape. They tell the Police their wild story only to be laughed at, because the kids are assholes who are always causing trouble and lying.

THEY KIND OF HAVE IT COMING.

Later that night, the hairless freak known as Klarence seeks each of the boys out, with the intent to kill them so that they can't tell the Police about what he and his father's new home, and the fact that they kidnap girls and force them to join their new family. Of course the no one believes the kids anyway, so really, killing them could have been avoided altogether.

Creepiness and blooshed ensue.

NOTHING CREEPY ABOUT THAT.

Among the Living had the feel of a Spielberg movie from the 80's, and I'm pretty sure that was by design. Some people have called it Stand By Me meets Slasher flick, and while I get that, I have to say that the kids in this movie aren't likable enough to draw that sort of comparison. I mean, they plot to burn down a guy's barn, and one of them almost kills his sleeping dad with an axe, so they're hardly on the same tier of lovable that the kids who starred in movies like The Goonies, Super 8, or even Stranger Things, which Among the Living definitely tries its best to vibe off of.

Seeing that the film spends a lot of time developing the kid characters, and showcasing their school-skipping adventures, you'd think that you'd want them to come off as less asshole-ish than they do.

The film gets better marks for its intensity when the kids are evading the masked creeper at the film studio, and even higher ones for ratcheting up that intensity in the 3rd act of the movie, where said creeper comes after the boys, intent on killing them all. Kudos to Maury & Bustillo for taking the film where they did; I figured it would be about the kids being trapped at the movie studio, trying to survive while being chased around, but it was kind of ingenious to turn it into a hunt-and-kill type of thing where the killer comes after them later on, in their own homes.

There are definitely parts of the movie that are unnerving, and downright scary. Klarence makes for a terrifying movie monster, and the part in the bedroom gave us chills. Uneven it might be, but it delivers on the scares. It was cool to see Maury & Bustillo regulars Beatrice Dalle and Chloe Coulloud show up in this one too.

DAT ASS.

There's gore frigging galore in this one, including, but not limited to: pregnant belly stabs, foot-in-mouth violence; a nasty cast break; a face being shorn off; and all sorts of other bloody and brutal bits throughout. The long, drawn out kill scene in the house towards the end was all kinds of disturbing.

It's odd though, that with such a bloody beginning and finale, that they don't show the kills in the middle of the movie...

GORE GALORE.

We get to see Klarence in all of his fully nude glory, and the gorgeous Chloe Coulloud sheds her top in death.

AU REVOIR, MON AMI.

While we wish that the movie had been stronger and more cohesive overall, we have to give credit to Maury & Bustillo for crafting a gorgeous, scary, and overtly-bloody film in general. It's not quite Inside, but it's still an above average effort.

Give it a watch if you're a fan of the films of the French new extremity.

C+

Among the Living is streaming now on Shudder.

Chloe Coulloud is tres magnifique.

Random Streaming MOTW Review: Haunt (2014)

"Not to be confused with Haunter."

(aka Not Haunter)
Release Date: March 7, 2014.
Country: USA
Written by: Andrew Barrer.
Directed by: Mac Carter.
Starring: Liana Liberato, Harrison Gilbertson, Jacki Weaver, Danielle Chuchran, and Ione Skye.

Every week, we sit down, surf through the Netflix and On Demands of the world, find ourselves a random, B-Grade Horror flick that we've never seen, and watch it. Sometimes we're surprised with how well they turn out, and sometimes they're just as bad as we expect them to be. 

Either way, it makes for a good time. This is one of those films. 


*This is a re-post of a review that we did back in 2014, but since a few of us didn't see it before tonight, it seemed right to revisit.

When it comes to Horror movies that feature teens in peril, most of them end up falling flat. That's mainly because such movies tend to treat their teen characters like they're lovelorn morons who are all but devoid of any sort of depth or real personality.

We're not talking about the "dumb teens who party too much and get what's coming to them," because those are the kinds of teen characters that usually populate Slasher flicks or Torture Porn, and they don't really need personality. They exist only to up the body count. We're talking about the "normal" kids next door, who are always somehow crazy attractive, and exist only to be in love, or to sass their parents, or to mope around whining about how no one understands them. Those are the kinds of teen characters that should be more fleshed out, because they're meant to be more than just numbers to add to a kill count... at least in theory.

The cool thing about Haunt, is that for all of its faults, it actually manages to give us a pretty effective Haunted House flick that features teen characters that actually feel real, and end up being likable. Sure, there's still a teen love story going on here, and yes, we have to suffer through a bit of shy moping now and then, but that's alright; because real kids do those sorts of things. At least with Haunt, we get likable, smart characters doing some cliche' things, because that's just how normal people behave.

Haunt begins with a creepy prologue about the cursed Morello House, where all but one member of a family died under mysterious circumstances. The lone Morello survivor is the Mother, and she narrates the house's fateful history, and lets us know that there are ghosts and such most likely roaming around the place.

So it goes without saying that when the Asher Family moves into the old Morello house, things begin to get creepy. Shy son Evan Asher meets Sam, his cutie pie next-door neighbor, and they become fast friends; two damaged souls drawn together by... blah. Point is, that not only do they team up to uncover the mystery of what went on in the creepy house, but they somehow manage to fall in love along the way. Awww.

They are so in love.

Somehow Sam knows that there's a ghost radio in Evan's crawlspace, and she convinces him to try it out with her, so that they can "find heaven" or some such crap. They obviously don't find heaven, instead they unleash a vengeful spirit into the world.. or maybe the spirit was already there, but couldn't be proactive until someone used the ghost radio... we can't say for sure.

"Does this thing get Sirius?"

Either way, the house is full of ghosts, one of which is out for blood, the rest of which just kinda hang around and look creepy. What really went on in the Morello house? Is the Asher Family doomed to suffer the same grisly fate? What's with that ghost radio? Why do we just not trust Sam? We don't know anything about any of that, but we can say that by the time the movie ends, neither will you.

What does this even mean?

Two things keep Haunt from being a disappointing effort: its atmosphere, and the performances of its cast. 

The scares found in Haunt will definitely affect the younger folks in the audience, but we older Horror fans have seen too much to fall for a bunch of jump scares and music cues. Lucky for us, the movie does a pretty solid job of establishing a creepy and tension-filled atmosphere, which was every bit as effective (and even more so) as were its scares.

As far as the cast goes, Liana Liberato is the star here. Sure, mopey and broody Evan is the "main" character for all intents and purposes, but its not until he meets cute little Sam that the movie really gets interesting. Liana can act, she's likable, and the kid delivers here. Harrison Gilbertson (Evan) was equally as likable, and he made a good pair with Liberato.

The real treat of the movie though, was Jacki Weaver. She's devilishly creepy in this one, which may surprise fans of her Oscar Nominated performance in Silver Linings Playbook. She's no stranger to genre work though, her pedigree reaching as far back as 1975's Picnic at Hanging Rock. She was a treat in Haunt, and she definitely classed the movie up a bit. It was also nice to see Ione Skye on screen again (seems like it's been a while), even if her part was a relatively smaller one.

Haunt is not the most original movie, and in fact, it's about as run-of-the-mill as it gets as far a Haunted House flicks go, but it does manage to do some pretty engaging things within its limited trappings. We'll take overly-familiar as long as a movie is enjoyable, and for the most part, Haunt was.

Looks trustworthy to us.

***BEWARE ENDING SPOILERS***

The whole backstory element was really confusing.

So did the old woman kill her kids, or did she just off the woman that her husband was sleeping with? I have to assume that the mistress died first, then her angry ghost killed the woman's kids as revenge, but if that's the case, why would the dad cover his sons mouth and say "Don't make a sound! Don't even move!" as if he were afraid that the Mother would kill him too?

And why would they bring a dead body through their sons room while he's in bed sleeping, and take it into his crawlspace to bury it? Why not wait until no one was home?

All of this leads us to the big question: Where did the box come from? Even better, how did the Morello parents know what it was, and how to use it?

But why?!?

Jump-scares. Jarring music cues. Quick-cut & stuttered movement. Why have do Horror filmmakers still insist on using these lame gimmicks, as if they haven't been tired and ineffective for years now?

Yes, people are conditioned to become alarmed when they suddenly hear a loud noise, or when someone jumps out at them, but when you're going for mood, "loud and sudden" just does not fit. Nuance. That's all we want. We know it's not really that simple to achieve, but execute your big "scary" moments with a bit more style or something. Maybe there's no clear cut answer to the jump-scare issue, but man do they ever take us right out of a scene when done poorly.

As for the whole stuttered/broken movement thing goes though, can we please give that a rest? It was effective for a while in the early 2000's when Asian Horror became so popular, because seeing dead people/ghosts shake, shimmer, and move in quick-cut jumps was new and kind of startling. It was fun.

Years later, it's not really fun anymore. It's like jumping out at the same person, from exactly the same hiding place, every single day; at first, you got them. After a while, you still get them, but it's just not as effective, because you've gotten them before. After a while it becomes ineffective, because they know you're going to be there, and they're expecting you.

We're done ranting now, because we know that none of this will ever stop. It's just all so frustrating!

Don't look at us that way. We're picky.

Haunt has some bloodshed in it, but save for one death scene, most of it is pretty tame. There's lots of creepy imagery throughout though, so it's at least a bit bloody.

We are NOT going to make a "Hammertime" joke here. Not gonna do it.

Nope.

Never open the "spirit box" and play with it. Not ever!

Not ever!

Haunt is a decent little Haunted House flick that is big on atmosphere and character, while being a bit confusing in its mechanics, and feeling a bit rushed towards the end.

It's definitely worth a rental on VOD, just go into it knowing that it's a fairly by-the-numbers endeavour, and you'll be fine.

C+

Haunt is available now DVD and VOD.

Seems like just yesterday that we were watching Liana Liberato for the first time when she appeared on Sons of Anarchy, and now, she's all grown up. She's as beautiful as she is talented, and we expect nothing but big things from her career from this point out.

 

VOD Review- Deadly Weekend aka Zellwood (2014)

"At least Sara Underwood is hot..."

See that girl on the poster there? The perky blonde with the sinful body? That's Sara Underwood.

She's a sexy little Playboy Playmate of the Year with elf-like features, who used to be on Attack of the show, on the now defunct G4 Network. On AOTS, she'd read the news, sometimes she'd co-host, but most of all, she just showed up and looked sexy.

We loved the show, and she was a fun part of it.

Turns out that she's also the star of her very own Horror flick called Zellwood, which has since been renamed Deadly Weekend. Not sure why they decided to give the movie a new title; sure, Zellwood is pretty lame as movie titles go, but is Deadly Weekend any better? Sounds really, really generic to us.

Point is, we've been fans of Sara Underwood's since her G4 days, so we were naturally excited to see her not only star in a movie, especially since it was a low-budget Horror flick. She's bound to get naked in a low-budget Horror flick, right?

Wrong!

The movie opens up with a bunch of statistics about how shitty of a place Zellwood, Florida is to live in, mainly because it has so much crime. Apparently, you're more likely to get burgled, assaulted, or murdered in Zellwood than anywhere else in the U.S. To illustrate the point, the opening shot of the movie is a mortally wounded guy trying to crawl across someones lawn, we're assuming, to escape whoever mortally wounded him.

Why are you looking into the camera, QT pie?

Cut to Sara Underwood having a crazy dream about a threesome that ends with a dude getting his joint cut off with a bolt cutter, and waking up screaming. After some "acting" takes place, we see a group of friends getting ready to go camping, because that's what groups of friends do in Horror movies. We also see a family getting ready to host the campers, and give them an Airboat Ride. Then there's some driving, and some more "acting," and then a lot of walking.

LOTS of "acting."

20-some minutes more of walking, camping, over-acting, and everyone being pissed-off because "Sara Underwood is a whore" later, things get really crazy when one of the friends pushes a little girl on the ground, and then gets hit in the head with a baseball bat by her sister. Then, everyone drinks some iced tea and takes a nap.

"Did I just get roofied... again?"

When everyone wakes up from their nap, they find themselves tied up and about to be tortured to death. Sara Underwood also gets to play hide-and-seek too, which only serves to add to the tension of it all. At this point in the movie, watching her run for her life while wearing a skimpy outfit is all we have.

They are perfect. We'll let you decide for yourself exactly which "they" we're talking about here.

The main problem with Deadly Weekend, is that it takes forever for anything to happen in the movie. Aside from a quick scene at the beginning, and a "dream" that felt like a cheap add-on, nothing even remotely horrific happens until about 49 minutes in. When we say that, keep in mind that this movie is 83 minutes long. So basically it's about 50 minutes of melodrama followed by about 30 minutes of some decent torture porn and gore.

We thought things were about to get better when the man characters all drank some poison and died... until we realized that it was only tea with some sort of knockout drug in it, which means that they woke up, and the movie continued.

Sorry, Sara, but you know we're right.

Had the movie focused more on the part of the plot that involved the family, and made the group of friends the "secondary" plot, it would have been much better for it. The whole family dynamic of Deadly Weekend, while not perfect, was at least more interesting than the dynamic of four morons walking through the woods and arguing/pouting for most of the movie's runtime.

And what was with that ending? The whole "family get-together" thing sounded kind of interesting, and we would have liked to have seen where that would have gone. Then again we would have liked to have seen what happened to Sara Underwood's character too, but that didn't happen either. 

What did they do to Sara?!?

The acting in this one isn't so hot either, aside from the Daughters (and maybe even the Dad at times.) It's mostly the fault of the lackluster script, and most likely the direction, and maybe even the budget... but for a 170k, you can take a minute or two to coach your actors a little bit better, you know? They tried, it just didn't work out very well for most of them.

So much of the movie just felt awkward. Take for instance the scene in which a wounded Sara Underwood limps around a living room and gets tackled over a couch; we actually laughed at that, and it wasn't supposed to be funny. It felt like someone just told the poor girl "pretend someone is chasing you, and you're real scared!" and then just called "Action!"

"Just pretend that you're Googling something... and... Action!"

That "poor girl" is the lovely Sara Underwood, who despite being a former Playboy Playmate, didn't even get naked in this movie. That really begs the question: why was she in it to begin with? We adored her bubbly personality on Attack of the Show, we truly did, but the girl can't act to save her life. It's not her fault either; she's famous for being gorgeous, not acting, so we really we can't hate on her for trying.

She literally spends a 12 minute segment of the movie writhing around on the floor, and acting all terrified: She wakes up bound and alone in some sort of plastic-covered room, and she begins to whine "Why?!?" (for 12 minutes, like we just said), which mirrored exactly what we had been thinking the whole time... about the entire movie existing.

Because, Sara. Just because.

It was just a mess of a movie, kept from being truly horrible only by a few likable elements. If you think we're being unnecessarily harsh here, allow us to present to you the title card for one of the movie's stars, Patricia Morales... the one where they spelled her name wrong. Yeah.

Sorry, Particia.

There's a lot of good Torture Porn action in this one, and that of course means that its a pretty gory affair. If nothing else, this movie made the most out of some cheap practical effects, and really went for the gore.

Best scene in the movie.

We get some random dream-sequence boobs at the beginning, but none of them belong to Sara Underwood, who somehow manages to stay clothed throughout. I mean, she looks good wearing skimpy clothes, and she's pleasant to look at in general, but why was she not naked in this movie? She's built a career on being hot & naked, and yet she hardly leaned on her strengths here at all.

"No naked me, for you! LOL"

Sara Underwood is really hot. Then again, we already knew that, so maybe we learned nothing from this movie.

H.O.T.

Pro's: The "kids" in the movie were pretty good; Sara Underwood is really hot; and there's a lot of gore to be had here, most of which was pretty cool.

Cons: The acting; the bad dialogue; the poor delivery of said dialogue; choppy editing; horrible pacing; the fact that nothing really happens until nearly an hour into the 1hr 23m runtime...

Unless you're a die-hard Sara Underwood fan (and even then), there's really no need for you to see this movie. If you do happen to want to watch it, you'll at least get to see her running around in some skimpy clothes (in addition to some good gore), as the reward for your bravery. Good luck.

D-

Deadly Weekend is available now on DVD and VOD.

Deadly Weekend/Zellwood may not be a good movie, but Sara Underwood is so lovely to look at, that she definitely made it more bearable. At least now we can say that she was a Horror Hottie once in her career, and I suppose that's something.