Author: Joel Fisher

Natalie Paxton (Kestie Morassi) and her daughter, Rose (Taysha Farrugia) live with her mother, Anna (Louise Siverson). Natalie is a nurse and does well with providing for her daughter as well as adjusting to being single. However, Rose misses her father terribly and Natalie is worried. She gets even more worried when Rose tells her that somebody has been keeping her awake by pinching her at night.

Then suddenly one night Natalie wakes up in immense pain and starts bleeding profusely. She’s rushed to hospital where she’s the doctor tells her that she’s lucky to be alive considering that she had recently given birth. Shocked by the revelation, Natalie strongly disputes that she’s just had a child but child services are brought in and she’s introduced to Lauren (Jane Badler) who is convinced that Natalie has done something wrong.

Pleading her innocence doesn’t seem to make any difference either and when Lauren comes for a home visit and finds bruises on Rose’s back, it only gets worse. However, Natalie becomes slowly convinced that something more supernatural is affecting her daughter.

Surrogate is an Australian supernatural thriller directed by David Willing and co-written by Beth King. At first there may be something very familiar with Surrogate as you don’t have to go far from horror stories about single mothers scared that their child is in danger without thinking of The Babadook. However, Surrogate is something altogether more conventional, but still quite affective.

The story of Surrogate is that of a mystery and director Willing unfurls the story slowly, leaving little clues here and there and revealing the mystery piece by piece until it’s all laid out. Those looking for a jump scare a minute may not be interested, but those looking for a horror film done well with the right elements played out just at the right time may love it.

There’s nothing better than curling up in front of a great horror as it tells you a story. With an intriguing plot and one of the best séance scenes you are likely to ever see then Surrogate may be the best horror you see this year.

Maddie (Katie Chang) is an insecure teenage girl who’s been the victim of cyber bullying. She feels alone and that’s not helped by the fact that she’s still grieving over the loss of her father. She lives with her mother, Ellen (Rosemarie DeWitt) and like most mother/daughter relationships, they don’t always get along.

Then one day Maddie gets a message from a stranger online and the stranger helps her out and makes her feel a little better about herself. However, then Maddie starts to believe that the stranger online may actually be her father, David (Daniel Dae Kim).

As Maddie investigates further and gets her mother involved, they soon realise that it is indeed the man that they have both lost and have gone through immeasurable grief over. However, after finally coming to terms with what may actually be an uploaded intelligence, Maddie and Ellen reconnect with their lost loved one.

Pantheon is a new animated series coming to AMC, based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu. However, unusually for an animation and besides the science fiction setting, there really doesn’t seem to be anything that couldn’t have been done in live action. Recent times have caused productions to change and so having something animated which could have easily been done for real shows that perhaps there’s going to be a change in how things are done.

However, for some it may seem somewhat cynical as although the animation doesn’t really add anything to the production, it seems like an animated science fiction show could be aimed at a nerd- based audience who don’t mind their content being drawn. Things like Ghost in The Shell and Akira have proven popular, so why not?

Also, it does bring in a cast with names such as Paul Dano, William Hurt and Aaron Eckhart which couldn’t possibly have been afforded otherwise. Whether audiences will see this as a new way to enjoy what they always have, or see it as a way to cut corners remains to be seen.

The story behind Pantheon is still compelling though and even if the subplot about teenage boy, Caspian played by Paul Dano may be more interesting than the main plot, there’s enough to keep an audience engaged. It just may take a little adjustment on expectations for an audience to fully immerse themselves in Pantheon’s world.

Adam (Ryan Hansen) and Margo (Melissa Tang) are having a house warming party as they’ve moved into a new place and Adam is excited because. He thinks that they’re finally moving up in the world. They invite all their friends they have a great time, although they can’t quite place this new couple who appeared at the party.

Then later that night they meet Tom (Timothy Granaderos) and Sasha (Perry Mattfield) who have seem to have gotten so caught up in each other that they didn’t realise that everybody had gone home. However, Adam’s eager to be a gracious host and wants to make friends with who he thinks are charming and upwardly mobile people. So, they stay, but getting rid of them will be harder than Adam and Margo think.

Who Invited Them is a black comedy horror written and directed by Duncan Birmingham which seems like a story that could have taken place at any time because the couples seem so familiar. Adam and Margo are a couple who seem quite different, Adam is always ready to please and he feels like he’s going places whereas Margo was just happy where she was.

Then there’s Tom and Sasha and they seem like the cool couple who have everything going for them.

It may seem like there are couples everywhere that are just like them, but it could just be that their perfection highlights Adam and Margo’s faults. However, as both couples start to get on like a house on fire, little things start creeping in, although Adam and Margo never suspect what’s really going on.

Who Invited Them is a cleverly written film that audiences may think they have seen before, and once a certain conversation about the house starts, then alarm bells should be ringing for horror fans. However, with a story such as this, it’s more about the journey rather than the destination.

This means that it’s all left down to the script and the performances and thankfully both aspects work well together. Even if perhaps a subplot could have been cut entirely because it makes no difference to the plot. Who Invited Them is on Shudder and is entirely welcome to stay.

Blanco (Javier Bardem) is the boss at a company which has been awarded for its excellence by the government for many years. There’s another on the way soon and all Blanco has to do is to keep it together as he always does with his own brand of insincere charm. However, it seems that things may not be entirely in his control as his right-hand man, Miralles (Manolo Solo) is going through a divorce and is not taking it well.

His once trusted partner is slowly losing his mind, his money and his power and Blanco is the one trying to pull him out of it. There’s also a disgruntled employee, Jose (Óscar de la Fuente) who is making his presence well known by protesting daily outside of the company walls and although he’s mostly ignored, he’s a constant presence.

Then there’s Liliana (Almudena Amor) who seems to be causing Blanco the most trouble and it’s all his own fault. That’s because Blanco has always had a wandering eye and he’s finding himself getting ever closer to the young intern. All Blanco has to do is keep it together for one week.

The Good Boss is the latest film collaboration between Javier Bardem and writer/director Fernando León de Aranoa. Spain’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at this year’s Oscars, it tells of the kind of boss who puts on the charm for his employees and deep down has the morals of a snake.

Bardem plays the role particularly well, although considering his reputation as a handsome leading man then perhaps the part could have gone to somebody less appealing to hammer the message home a little further. His performance is suitably slimy and his appearance is altered to make him look like an experienced if aging businessman, but it may make you wonder why they didn’t hire somebody else.

There’s also the matter of the story and that’s where it feels a little dated. That’s because although the film is about a man past his best still chasing after younger women while maintaining his own empire, these days a film such as this perhaps should have an opinion on his behaviour.

Sure, there is the rather unsubtle metaphor of the scales of justice being unbalanced, but a tip in the other direction could have led to a more satisfying conclusion.

Elizabeth Stanton (Anna Hoots) has grown up feeling guilty about her sister’s death. Her parents have also taken it upon themselves to try and find a way to explain how their daughter died and due to a family history, have blamed it on schizophrenia. This means that Elizabeth has been taking medication since she was a little girl, but since she started having disturbing dreams, she comes to think that her problems are more supernatural.

This is made even more evident when Elizabeth’s hallucinations start getting stronger, making her think that she may in fact be haunted.

Guilt is the latest feature by writer/director William Chaffin which takes on a lot of issues surrounding family and mental health and wraps them in a horror movie. Mental health is always a tricky subject to tackle as well, but thankfully the more realistic way that Elizabeth sees the world and her parents misguided decisions feel a little more realistic. Misdiagnoses do happen after all and it’s far better than saying a supernatural force is causing mental illness.

However, there is something charmingly amateurish about the whole production. It doesn’t do anything other than what bigger budget horror movies do, but that’s not to say that there are some issues.

Firstly, and perhaps more obviously there needs to be a better sound mixer. Having such a low budget production has its limitations of course, but there are scenes where either the dialogue is too quiet or the sound of distant traffic distracts from what’s going on in a scene. It’s not Birdemic levels of bad, but it’s noticeable.

Also, having a low budget movie of this nature does lead to problems because there’s an implication that the production is biting off more than it can chew. Although Anna Hoots does give a good performance in the lead, there’s no denying that some scenes where the demon strikes could have been handled with more weight and the cliches in the script do come thick and fast.

However, who among us can say that we don’t all enjoy a cheesy horror movie every now and then?