film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • The Mortuary Collection: Review

    The Mortuary Collection: Review

    Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown) is a mortician on the verge of retirement. He still very much enjoys his work, but with a Help Wanted sign outside, Montgomery Dark is looking for new blood. Then one day a young woman named Sam (Caitlin Fisher) answers that wanted ad and applies for the position, whatever that may be. What follows is a series of short stories as told by Montgomery to his new apprentice on what could be the very last night of their lives.

    The Mortuary Collection is a horror anthology movie coming to Shudder with a spectacular looking production value, all tipped off nicely by a creepy and sometimes comical script and a larger than life performance by cult actor Clancy Brown.

    A collection of Morality tales, The Mortuary Collection sets its tale in decades gone by, evoking the Fifties right through to the Seventies although it’s difficult to tell when exactly the movie is set.

    Supposedly this adds to the timeless quality of the movie, where fans of horror can indulge in anything from Lovecraftian bathroom scares to Halloween slasher pastiches. However, it could be said that the subgenres that it ties itself to so closely are its constraint, because as well done it is and as lovely it is to look at, The Mortuary Collection sometimes feels like style over substance.

    Having a horror anthology with a single writer/director (Ryan Spindell) also limits the range of the stories, although often critiqued by the characters themselves for their unoriginality, some different voices with different things to bring to the table may have added more variety.

    All the actors play their parts well, but there isn’t really one story that stands out over any other and some different artistic styles and visions may have helped to liven it up.

    Although for fans of a bit of tongue in cheek horror with buckets of blood, gore and… um, well other bodily fluids, then The Mortuary Collection may just be what you’re looking for. After all, who could deny themselves the pleasure of watching Clancy Brown camping it up for a few laughs?

  • Fugue: Review

    Fugue: Review

    Malcom (Jack Foley) wakes up one morning with no recollection of how he got there or who he is. He meets Helen (Laura Tremblay) who tells him that she is his wife and that he has been suffering from short term memory loss. A while later, Helen opens the door and it’s their friend, Ian (Mike Donis) who comes inside and hopes to help Malcolm regain his memory.

    However, later that night Malcolm and Helen are woken up to intruders who try and force Malcolm to open their safe, but with Malcolm not having any idea who he is let alone the safe combination, they knock him out.

    When Malcolm wakes up the next day, he cannot remember a thing about the night before and goes about his day with his wife and his son, Samuel (Evan Siemann) who’s celebrating a sixth birthday. Little does Malcolm realise that although he may have forgotten the events of the night before, the intruders haven’t and they’re coming back to get into Malcolm’s safe by any means necessary.

    Fugue is an intense home invasion thriller with familiar tropes that have been used time and time again when it comes to protagonists suffering from memory loss. Right from the start the audience may be wondering whether Malcolm is really in a situation that he is and so suspicion falls onto Helen and Ian from the word go.

    Both are being rather cagey and seem to be hiding something, however the extent of their deception is played so well that although the audience may know where the plot is going, the performances are enjoyable enough.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9txZxp0KXE

    However, there’s enough to distract the audience, at least for the most part, so that it doesn’t really matter whether the audience realise how familiar the story may be, not to mention the large plot hole that never gets addressed.

    All the actors play their parts well, particularly Tremblay and Donis who play well off each other when the full extent of their relationship is revealed. Fugue’s plot may not be all that original and the low budget Inception-like plot may grate a little, but it’s enjoyable enough as long as you don’t think about it too hard.

  • Acute Misfortune: Review

    Acute Misfortune: Review

    Adam Cullen (Daniel Henshall) was a renowned Australian artist and Acute Misfortune tells the story of his life through the words from his biography as written by Erik Jensen (Toby Wallace). For those who haven’t read Jensen’s biography and have seen a lot of biopics about various famous people (or people they never heard of) then perhaps they would be expecting a particular kind of format.

    However, actor turned director Thomas M. Wright’s biopic of Adam Cullen does away with any of the familiar tropes and cliches that audiences may have come to expect. The rose-tinted glasses are thrown away as Acute Misfortune is not told through the eyes of a fan or the carefully drawn up agreement made by Cullen’s estate so as to not show him in a bad light.

    Instead, Acute Misfortune shows Cullen very much as he would have been. Warts and all may be a phrase that is bandied about to bring in an audience, but in this case the warts and all are just the honest truth and a terrific portrayal by Henshall.

    Drafted in to write Cullen’s biography, Jensen doesn’t know quite what to expect. After all there’s a fine line between genius and madness and as he gets to know Cullen, Jensen starts to realise that the world of an artist (particularly this one) is not one in which he may want to involve himself.

    Henshall’s performance is as close to the real man that anybody could imagine and thankfully besides a little eccentricity and intensity in the script and his performance, Henshall still manages to stay in a character that’s real and the film doesn’t wander off into spectacle over realism.

    To any other director, a a cross between A Beautiful Day in The Neighbourhood and Ex Machina may have been tempting to exaggerate Cullen’s behaviour to extraordinary levels.

    However, Acute Misfortune manages to dig deeper than that, so that by the end of the film the audience will see a portrait of a man whose life they may or may not have known about, but by the end they will feel as if they know him through and through.

  • Monster Force Zero: Review

    Monster Force Zero: Review

    A.I. (Adam Singer) and his friends, Kadabra Couture (Dalena Nguyen), Ammorama (Aeon Cruz) and Squatch (Greg Farinelli) are all enthusiastic cosplayers and comic book fans. A.I. writes a comic book series himself, Monster Force Zero and like most people who cosplay, they secretly dream of having the powers that the characters they dress up as possess.

    Then while at a local comic-con they meet The Janitor (Pat Tanaka) who introduces them to his alien friends who imbue the powers onto them that they always wanted. However, they also have The Destroyers of Destruction (a rival cosplay team) to contend with led by Gunns Lazer (Heath C. Heine) and they had better learn to use their powers fast because they may be the Earth’s only hope.

    Monster Force Zero is a crowdfunded movie which at first glance has an interesting set up. A group of cosplayers get to live their dreams by becoming the heroes they portray is a good hook and has worked for many cartoon and live action shows of the 80’s/90’s, however, the problem is with everything else from the script and special effects to the acting.

    The idea may have been there, but there just isn’t enough for anybody to enjoy, even if they didn’t mind the bare bones of the plot and total lack of characterisation.

    What could have been a lovingly written parody of the lives of comic book fan and cosplayers instead feels like a cynical attempt at throwing what they could at the screen with enough cameos and bright, flashing lights to distract its audience from the quality.

    Even an unexpected and out of place cameo from Garret Wang (Star Trek: Voyager) can’t lift the movie out into a place of ‘so bad it’s good’. It just seems that the movie was thrown together with little thought and whoever they could grab at the time to be in the movie.

    Monster Force Zero’s premise, unashamedly bright and sparkly special effects plus a finale which may as well have come out of the mind of a ten-year-old may very well speak to the child in all of us. However, with so much else on offer along the same lines, it may be a better use of your time to watch something else.

  • Piss Off, I Love You: Review

    Piss Off, I Love You: Review

    Sandy (Jessie McCormack) also lovingly known as ‘Murica is a TV host looking for a new job. She gets a call from her friend, Gina (Gaylor Howe) about a job that she would be perfect for and so she soon sets on her way for London. So, Sandy is soon doing Vox pops for a new TV show which lovingly makes fun of the Brits, but not without a few pot shots thrown Sandy’s way for good measure.

    Piss Off, I Love You is a new series written, directed by and starring Jessie McCormack which judging by its opening episode is a funny, insightful and all too knowing swipe at the relationship between the UK and America.

    Starting off with some of the interviews with typical members of the British public, Sandy finds that although there are some issues of our own, there is more than enough material for the British to slap right back in her face.

    However, it’s not just a gentle ribbing back and forth between the countries, as Gina’s relationship with her husband, Hugh (Robert Wilfort) shows that there’s even contention between family members as the dreaded B-word (Brexit) rears its ugly head.

    Although from the first episode it seems that as much of a love/hate relationship between the US and the UK as there is between members of the Great British public. Piss Off, I Love You shows that as bad as our situations may be, we’re all in this together.

    Sandy’s interviews with various members of the public are well acted and may be a bit stereotypical on the side of what the Americans may think of us, but that may well be the point. Safe to say though that if they weren’t so wittily written and that there was a decision to talk to real members of the public, the responses may be a lot worse.

    Piss Off, I Love You captures quite accurately just how we all feel about each other, whether from the US to the UK and even between ourselves. Sit back, laugh and just try not to think about how bad things could really get.