Author: Joel Fisher

Jordan’s (Shelley Regner) life is anything but ordinary. Being plagued with guilt over the death of a friend that she couldn’t prevent, she spirals into a life filled with trauma and mental health issues. Her everyday life seems fine and her social life is still good, even if her best friend Zoey (Kelly Leon Guerrero) has to drag her out herself.

However, Jordan starts experiencing night terrors and it’s taking its toll on her and her family. So, her mother Danielle (Diane Franklin) gets her some prescription drugs to deal with her problems. Starting to see her life put right again, Jordan feels like she can finally put her past behind her. The problem is that when she kills a man in a fit of rage, she starts to realise that not all her problems have been solved.

Waking Nightmare is a horror movie directed by Steve Craig and Brian Farmer. The kind of film that would be a typical set up for a horror movie, Waking Nightmare unfortunately feels a little outdated and confused.

Jordan’s life is all too ordinary besides her best friend trying to bring out her wild side. She seems well adjusted and despite her night terrors, the audience may never think she could do something so bad. However, this is where Waking Nightmare falters as it uses this contrast to instil an image of mental health in the audience’s mind which is a dated stereotype.

Whilst almost completely unexplained, it feels like the movie is blaming her past trauma on the incident. With things like psychedelic visions on TV screens and a short delve into her remorse for her actions, it feels more like a trippy Oliver Stone movie than anything substantial.

Then there’s the issues of the pacing and the tone. It seems that a story of a woman who inexplicably kills a man for no apparent reason wasn’t good enough for the directors as they seemingly decide to throw in anything they can. Including previously mentioned images, it also feels like Waking Nightmare wants to be a horror comedy at times, so while Jordan’s inner turmoil is going on, the audience is meant to laugh at the excessive blood and gore of other acts of violence.

All of this adds up to a movie that has no clear direction and a meandering plot which may lose the audience’s interest.

Tom Weidlinger had a somewhat adventurous early childhood which took his family from their home in Hungary, to Boliva until finally settling in America. Tom’s father, Paul was a well-respected structural engineer and so despite the best efforts of the world around them, Tom’s father was always able to find work. Even today some of the sculptures he helped create still stand in New York City.

However, there was another side of his father that Tom didn’t know about and as he started documenting his father’s life for his documentary, he came across some astonishing discoveries.

The most prominent one being that his father was Jewish and their family had to flee Hungary just before the start of World War Two. That and his childhood was fraught with many situations that could have put them in danger.

The Restless Hungarian is a documentary about Paul Weidlinger’s life, told by his son Tom who became a filmmaker. Somebody who perhaps the world would not have known about, Paul’s work took him all over the world and his brushes with history made more of an impact than his son ever realised.

Using stock footage, photos and some creative reenactments, Tom Weidlinger tells the story of his father’s life whilst coming to terms with what it all meant. A documentary which could have been a simple fact checking of Paul Weidlinger’s life becomes something more personal. Something which is carefully balanced due to his son’s skill as a filmmaker as he balances warmth of family whilst acknowledging the horrific events which touched his family’s life.

While also something so personal, Tom decides to mostly stay off camera, choosing to tell his father’s story perhaps as it was intended. This while also helps to distance him emotionally, it could be said that it helps the audience to not just see The Restless Hungarian as a passion project.

A story worth telling with an amazing trajectory through the space of over twenty years. The Restless Hungarian manages to tell a fascinating story of one man’s life and how it went from near disaster to a lasting legacy.

Father Kurdt Waidmann (Elvis Stojko) has seen things that would scare any mere mortal. Treading the path between the living and the dead, the dark and the light is an everyday occurrence for him. Then one day a demon is unleashed and Father Waidmann sees it as his duty to bring an end to its reign of terror.

Some years later and Father Waidmann is still on the hunt and it brings him to where a group of people are just trying to find their way home in the snow. Manny (Kenneth Bemister) and Laura (Jaqueline Godbout) are a loving couple just looking for a way to get out of the cold.

Meanwhile, Tim (Aaron Heels) and Amy (Paige Foskett) are looking to get what they need to get done and to get out of there. However, the weather seems to derail them and they all find themselves in the same place. Easy prey for the demon that lays in wait.

In its Wake is a horror movie directed by Lee Foster and co-written by Angela Cavallin and Ryan Kobold. A throwback to perhaps a more broadly generic horror movie, In its Wake puts all of its players in place and waits for the carnage to ensue. However, whilst some of this works it feels that in other places the characters are not so fleshed out.

This means that while the movie seems to want to focus more on its group of attractive twenty somethings, this leads to other characters being little other than fodder. For example, there are a few businessmen who are similarly trapped and Father Waidmann’s companion also serves to pad out the time.

Having little else to go on other than what they are doing there, the audience may not care and know where their story is going.

A final act plays out well as there are a couple of twists leading up to this point. The main group of characters are well thought out and play well off each other too, it just might have helped if the demon was kept out of sight to maintain the mystery of its true form.

Carla (Krystal Millie Valdes) and Dean (Ernesto Reyes) are a couple looking for a fresh start. Buying a house in a remote forest, they think they’ve finally found the peace and tranquillity that they’ve always wanted.

However, once they get there they realise that a cult has settled on their land and they’re not about to give it up. Also, their leader believes that he has telepathic powers and is able to communicate with the legendary Bigfoot that roams the woods. Something that turns out to be a test of their disbelief and their relationship as Carla’s involvement with the cult grows stronger.

Summoning the Spirit is a dark drama directed by Jon Garcia and co-written by Zach Carter. A genre horror on the surface, it turns out that Summoning the Spirit goes far deeper than the audience may expect.

As Carla grows closer to the cult, her relationship with Dean is tested. He’s completely exasperated as to how this could have happened so quickly, yet Carla seems happier than she’s been for a long time. Showing the cult in an even light, they just seem to be the happy clappy, one with nature type and don’t mean any harm to anybody. However, it’s the nature of Carla and Dean’s relationship which may turn out to be more damaging.

Those expecting a genre horror where a group of people are gathered, underestimating nature’s power as the Bigfoot tears them to shreds may be disappointed. Because Summoning the Spirit could barely be called horror at all.

Instead, it’s about the relationship between its two leads and even leads to Carla’s redemption and perhaps freedom to be the person she wants to be. This is particularly evident as when Carla joins the cult, it’s left up to the audience to decide on their virtues.

In fact, there may even be a little mismarketing as the grizzly, red eyed Bigfoot monster barely makes an appearance and when he does, there’s more to him than first impressions allow. A film experience that may not be what they audience were looking for, but one that may make them sees things differently.

Logan (Tyler Gene) is a YouTuber who’s afraid of nothing. His latest venture takes him out into the woods of North Carolina where the mythical wendigo is said to still be active.

Excited for the prospect of perhaps being the first person to catch a wendigo on camera, Logan goes in head first. However, when he finds what he’s looking for, then his friends are determined to track him down and hope that he’s safe.

The Wendigo is a movie directed by Jake Robinson and co-written by James S. Brown. Something of an homage to found footage movies such as The Blair Witch Project, The Wendigo’s premise is simple and won’t be too much of a surprise to fans of the genre.

Once out there, it’s hard to deny that Logan’s friends all want to find him. However, it’s also very clear that they’re in the same line of business as their friend and that they are desperate for views. Something that would normally make the audience more excited as one by one the obnoxious influencers get what they deserve.

The problem is that there’s very little to them beyond that and whereas the audience are not meant to sympathise with them, there’s very little reason to wonder what grizzly fate awaits them. Besides Jay (Hunter Redfern), the rest just seem to be there to fill up the cast and even Jay has anger issues which make him an obvious target for the Wendigo.

There’s also the unfortunate nature of the movie, because whereas the format may seem very familiar, despite its relatively short running time of just over an hour, it seems to want to do too much. This means that there’s an overly long prologue with Logan which is followed by his friends going through the story step by step in order to look for their friend.

Although it may have meant the movie would have run shorter, perhaps a better edit would have made it feel less drawn out. Also, with a bit more fleshing out of the characters it would have helped to connect with the audience.