Tormented (2015)

"Tormented" was a quick Redbox rental for an evening of disposable drunken viewing a few nights ago, so I wasn't expecting anything short of generic horror drivel. And that's precisely what I got. Thanks again, Redbox... If you've seen any recent 'home invasion' flick, you've surely seen a better version of what "Tormented" is.

After video of her blowing some douchebag at a Halloween party makes it rounds on the web, a humiliated high school girl heads to her babysitting gig at a rich family's lavish estate. That night, she is visited by a trio of creeps in pig masks (one of which is a young kid...) who break into the house and stalk her around the property, while collecting the kids for some kind of illuminati meat-market operation out of their pork truck...

Pretty dull flick, overall. Total knock-off of stuff like "The Strangers" and "You're Next" - just toned WAY down, as far as any violence and tension goes. It's a shame, considering the movie is fairly well shot and had a bit of decent atmosphere going for it, I'd say - though, unfortunately, it fell flat, failing to deliver on any originality, the bloody 'goods' and ended on a very weak note. I can't recommend wasting a buck-and-a-half on this one.

Der Todesking (1990)

Jorg Buttgereit - auteur Germain director behind the Super 8 masterpiece "Nekromantik" and the well-known 1993 serial killer study "Schramm", expressed his versatility well with his most "arthouse" release "Der Todesking". Differing from his bizarre, isolated story lines dealing with ultra-macabre subject matter such as necrophilia and vagina monsters, Buttgereit swapped out the strict "story" aspect for an episodic bit of melancholy film making that still delivers his unique brand of bizarre AND isolated indie madness...

"Der Todesking" displays different characters, places, and mental collapses throughout each day of the week - starting with a man's undisclosed reason for over-dosing on pills in the bathtub which is shown in a dishearteningly voyeuristic manner from inside his drab apartment. The next involves a new guy, picking out an "Ilsa - She-Wolf of the SS" parody from a video store, watching it and shooting his wife or girlfriend in the head as her nagging ass come walking in the door... Next is easily the most harrowing segment showing a man sitting on park bench when a woman shows up. He explains how his wife bleeds during sex and how he is depressed and confused by it. It ends with him shooting himself in front of the woman. Thursday's part is a documentary type 'tour' of a motorway bridge that includes captions of the names and ages of people who have jumped from the bridge over many years... Certainly a haunting scene. Friday is, for me, the least memorable. A woman sees a young couple in the window of a neighboring apartment having sex. She has a flashback of her parents fucking, then receives a letter telling her to kill herself. The next scene is a woman reading a philosophical passage from a book that explains the psychological reasoning behind mass murder. It cuts to a woman strapping a camera to her chest, picking up a gun, and then shooting up a rock concert before being shot and killed, herself. Sunday, the final day, shows a man sleeping on a bare mattress who wakes up in a frenzied outburst and frantically begins bashing his head against the wall until brain damage undoubtedly takes effect... The movie is interlaced with shots showing a decomposing male corpse, via stop-motion animation.

In terms of Jorg Buttgereit's lexicon of film making, "Der Todesking" is probably the one I like the least. That's not to say it is without merit when it comes to Buttgereit's style, though "Nekromatik" reigns supreme for me. "Der Todesking" is, without a doubt, an extremely personal and intimate film that is for sure something you'll remember. Buttgereit's artist influence has been there within each of his films, but this one deals with a much less "horror movie" tone and more of an intense portrait of psychological decline and the various 'drives' behind suicide. It's not an easy film to get a hold of, but if you have the chance, enjoy the experience...

Hayride 2 (2015)

I didn't see the first "Hayride" so I wasn't totally up to speed on this 'saga', but I think I got the gist, despite this sequel clearly being a direct continuation of it's predecessor. Based on it's own merits, the "Hayride" series appears to suck ass.

Again, appearing to pick up where the original movie left off, the survivors of a massacre involving a fat, masked hillbilly with Ku Klux Klan ties, named Pitchfork, are in the hospital being treated for injuries sustained. Pitchfork breaks out of his ambulance with his sights set on getting to the hospital to finish these punks off while, in the meantime, a detective is attempting to dig up some back story on the redneck killer...

Seriously standard slasher formula, here. Actually, the beginning shows a bit of re-cap from the previous installment, which looked quite a bit better in comparison to what I ended up watching. Looked like some decent kills and Pitchfork running around, hacking people up with a chainsaw. Where was the chainsaw in THIS one? Not only is there a no chainsaw, but the majority of the deaths are off-screen, save for a few fairly bloody pitchforkings. The rest of the time characters are sitting around a hospital waiting room, reminiscing about shit and showing boring flashbacks while sappy music plays. The thing was just too heavy on filler and needless character development, considering it's a sequel... to a SLASHER movie.

Can't say I'm tripping over myself to check out the first "Hayride" flick. Should've probably checked that one out first, but circumstances landed the second one in my lap first, so that's that. Pretty weak slasher joint, overall, with a typical looking killer, dull characters/dialog, light on gore and just too conventional. Don't waste your time.

The Guest (2014)

Until recently I never really connected guys like Adam Wingard and his other film-maker buddies - Ti West, Joe Swanberg and whatever others, with the "mumblecore movement". I guess it's mainly due to the fact that I had never even heard of these types of films before, but I looked up some info and apparently it's a subgenre consisting of pretentious, angsty, micro-budget hipster romance comedy-dramas that typically feature improvised, depressive performances. In other words: bullshit. So I guess the "cool" thing now amongst these guys is incorporating some of the "mumblecore" characteristics into their multi-faceted 'horror-thriller' flicks. Generally, looking back, these types of films have been relatively hit-and-miss with me, thus far, but "The Guest" turned out to be a pretty generic and over-rated film.

A soldier, presumably on his way home, unexpectedly arrives at the home of one of his fallen unit members. The dead serviceman's family offers to let the man stay with them and soon enough the guest becomes more and more involved in the lives of the family - dealing with the teenage son's bullying issues, the 20-year old sister's social life and the father's work life... Of course, shit begins to spiral out of control when some 'red flags' go up and a deeper look into the visitor's history reveals some potential threats...

I'd say, while it's very reminiscent of quite a few other movies - namely, Takashi Miike's "Visitor Q" and "Hesher" (which was, in itself, a knock-off of the aforementioned film...), "The Guest" is a watchable enough flick. A little heavy on the 'quirkiness' than I would typically prefer (namely, a bar fight scene that seems to go on a bit too long...), but that's the idiosyncratic "mumblecore" influence rearing it's ugly, genre-contrasting head. Overall, it's a pretty standard type of mainstream'thriller' that's an easy watch if you're in a somewhat easy-going mood, but don't expect anything crazy.

Maggie (2015)

I definitely picked up on the "fresh spin" this one was going for and, while I appreciated it's ambition in mixing up the 'infection/outbreak/zombie' genre a little, it never quite managed to pick up the proper momentum and bolster the strength I think it could've had.

In a near-future setting, a new virus has hit that turns people in raving, zombie-ish lunatics. A farmer's teenage daughter is bitten by one of the infected lunatics, but apparently, the effects of the sickness don't set in immediately so those who are tainted are allowed to go on with their lives while being frequently monitored by the authorities and doctors. Once they've hit the point-of-no-return (everyone else smells like delicious meat and they go crazy...), they are whisked off to some quarantine zone where they are killed. The father is doing his best to cope with the inevitable while his daughter comes to realization that she's quite literally falling apart...

The concept here is a bit different than many flicks of this kind and it plays out as more of a tenebrous drama than a total 'horror' film. There ARE a few scenes early on that are reminiscent of "28 Days Later", involving infected, zombie-like creeps getting roughed up (one scene actually being pretty effective...), but for the most part, it tries to stick with a more emotional human element. Unfortunately, it's not done especially well, considering the characters are bland and particularly hard to 'connect' with, which seemed to offset the movie's essence. Arnold Schwarzenegger tries to pull off a little 'depth' with his character, but he really couldn't carry this film. Stylistically, it looks good - dreary tone; almost colorless, though, in terms of the premise and pacing, it didn't work for me. It was very plodding and left me feeling like I saw a ten minute movie stretched into a pretentious 95-minutes.

"Maggie" showed promise in certain areas, but the delivery was pretty lacking, I'm afraid.