Author: Joel Fisher

Thomas Graham (Scott Haze) lives with his father, Josiah (Robert Patrick) who still has a very stern hold over him. Feeling oppressed by his father, Thomas doesn’t see a way out and the local police still talk about his mother killing herself as if it’s some kind of urban legend. However, there is a family reunion on the horizon so perhaps Thomas has some hope.

Thomas’s brother Eli (Nick Stahl) is heading home, but he’s fallen on the wrong side of the tracks and has found himself in a life of crime. He tries to get out of the situations that he finds himself in, but it always seems to be the easy way out. Mary, (Kelli Garner) the only girl in the family has seemingly led an ordinary life despite her troubled upbringing. Now happily married to Ross (Tony Hale), Mary has got everything she ever wanted, but the past still haunts her in disturbing ways.

Once home though, the Grahams find that there is more to be unearthed in their mysterious past.

What Josiah Saw is a slow burn horror movie which found its way onto Shudder. However, like some of Shudder’s catalogue, What Josiah Saw barely passes as horror as it’s more focussed on family trauma and the effects of abuse.

Setting up the scene, the audience is introduced to Thomas and his imposing father and soon after the rest of the family are introduced. The disjointed way in which each family member is introduced may put some audiences off though as although it shows their lives now and where they are, it’s not exactly a character study which may keep their interest.

It’s only really at the end and at a few fleeting moments which may lead the audience to believe that What Josiah Saw really is a horror movie. However, this does end up feeling like misdirection and manipulation to hide the real themes of the movie.

The premise and framing of What Josiah Saw is clever and may offer something different for Shudder viewers as it’s beautifully shot with great performances all round. Unfortunately its inflections of horror somewhat undermine what could have been a more thoughtful story.

Sam Harris (David Daniel) is still grieving over the loss of his mother. He seems to be the only one that’s really suffering as well what with his sister, Amy (Olivia Sanders) being too young to understand and Sam’s older brother, Michael (Sam Hadden) too concerned with things that concern teenage boys. Even his dad, Daniel (Jeremy Carr) has moved on and remarried after meeting Kim (Tuesday Knight).

Sam is also a typical boy of his age and is obsessed with comic books and a TV hero from a cartoon show called Barbarian Man. However, there’s also the legend of The Bloody Man which creeps into Sam’s young mind and even though it may scare him, he can’t help but tell the story of how he came about.

The trouble is that the more The Bloody Man is remembered, the stronger his presence becomes before he’s able to come into the Harris family’s lives and torment them for real.

The Bloody Man is a horror movie and homage to everything Eighties directed by Daniel Benedict and co-written by Casi Clark. However, despite some good moments, there’s definitely room for improvement.

Firstly, The Bloody Man is far too long and could have done with having about an hour cut from it’s run time. With so much time spent on building up the arrival of The Bloody Man, too much time in the movie is taken up and rather than suspenseful storytelling, it comes across as meandering plot with little direction.

Secondly, once The Bloody Man does arrive then his presence is rather underwhelming partly due Nicholas Redd’s performance and partly because of the lack of thought of his character design. There’s not much scary about a man in robes with a smattering of fake blood poured over his bald head, but at least the production tries.

There are some interesting parts in the third act, but they feel rather out of place considering the rest, but at least it may wake up some audience members. Sam’s rotoscoped comic book imagination brought to life is a particular highlight. Also, Amy’s retelling of the story of The Bloody Man is adorable. However, it’s all very little too very late and a waste of time for what seems to be the first draft of a horror movie.

Cecilia Amato (Mariana Anghileri) and her son, Martin (Octavio Belmonte) are the unfortunate victims of a car crash which leaves Cecilia’s car spinning off the road. Three days later Cecilia wakes up in hospital and is given the horrific news that her son is dead.

Meanwhile, Enrigque (Gerardo Romano) has taken a young woman hostage and is about to do terrible things to her. It’s clear that Enrique is up to no good, but what does it have to do with Cecilia and will they ever meet? They’re clearly on different trajectories and may as well be in different movies, but something will surely connect them.

On The Third Day (or Al Tercer Día) is a Spanish horror movie that’s exclusive to Shudder. Possibly trying to evoke the kinds of supernatural horror movies that they don’t make anymore, The Third Day has a number of elements which may seemingly work if they were executed properly. Unfortunately, in this case it seems they were not.

Firstly, somewhere along the way it was decided that the movie would be dubbed into English. This also means that whereas dubbing could be a seamless and easily translatable experience, in this case the production may have not had the budget for the right actors, least of all the right direction.

This leads to unintentionally funny moments where flashbacks show Martin being remarkably articulate for his age and his mother’s delivery being very dull and flat.

Also, as mentioned earlier there may be some attempt at evoking horror movies of time gone by, but the use of crash zooms and stilted dialogue again only adds to the unintentional comedy. There’s also the fact that there is so little connection between Cecilia’s ordeal in the hospital and whatever Jose is doing that when the link is revealed, it may have been two different movies anyway. Particularly where Jose’s storyline is more interesting than Cecilia’s and it’s treated like a subplot.

You may have to be in a certain kind of mood to watch The Third Day and for those who are looking for something totally misjudged with accidental humour then go ahead. Otherwise chalk it up to another bad decision by Shudder.

Betriek (Sallie Harmsen) is a single mother who lives with her daughter and her parents. They live on the edge of a peat bog in the northern part of The Netherlands and are quite happy in their quiet lives.

However, one night a man breaks into the house and attacks her mother, leaving all the family shocked, especially after Betriek’s father is able to kill the intruder. An investigation is opened and soon Betriek meets Jonas (Alexandre Willaume) who knew the violent assailant and doesn’t understand why he would act this way.

Soon Betriek and Jonas get to know each other better and a romance starts to blossom, but the more Betriek thinks about the intruder and how something like that could have happened, the more she starts to think that the intruder may have been taken over by a spirit.

Moloch is a Dutch supernatural horror directed by Nico van der Brink and co-written by Daan Bakker that’s exclusive to Shudder. Starting out as an ordinary European drama, the audience may be lulled into a false sense of confidence, or at least given the impression that the movie is something else entirely.

However, over the course of the movie, the tone changes and during the police investigation things start to become somewhat more ghostly.

Taking inspiration from Dutch folklore, Moloch presents a unique story which could only have come from Holland, but it unfortunately does feel a little formulaic with too many elements. Those familiar with Scandinavian police dramas may also be intrigued by the start as it certainly feels like it’s going that way. However, amongst the supernatural and the procedural is a love story and putting that in the mix may be the straw that broke the camel’s back for some.

It also feels somewhat televisual and that may have something to do with the setting or the police investigation, but it all feels a little too familiar. There is a dramatic ending though which is quite different in tone from the rest of the movie, but it may be too little too late and the twist is let down by striking, but low budget CGI.

Kurt (Xai) is a teenage boy living in a conservative town where he feels stifled. He’s also being bullied on a regular basis by an ignorant and homophobic group of girls because he’s queer. His best friend, Luanne (Molly Ferguson) does her best to make him feel better, but she doesn’t fully understand what Kurt is going through and it’s starting to feel like Kurt will always be alone.

Then one day he meets Landon (Chris Asimos) who seems to know what Kurt needs and before he knows what’s happening, he’s attacked. Luckily though, he’s rescued by Carly (Emma Bleby) and she says that she’s saved him just in time, but not before he was killed and turned into a vampire. Learning to cope with the change, Kurt starts to realise that his new life may be a blessing rather than a curse and sets out to get revenge on the bullies who tormented him.

So Vam is an Australian vampire horror movie exclusive to Shudder told with a queer and transgender cast and crew. Starting out, the story of a young queer boy living in a backward town is nothing new, but it may also be a good place for a genre vampire movie. It’s just a shame that it never explores its premise deeply enough in the way that something like Ginger Snaps would have done.

The movie also seems to be obsessed with vampire lore and putting this in with the drag performances (which are the best part) it feels like unnecessary padding for a movie that barely lasts over an hour. There’s also the fact that the cast are not very experienced and although they may have worked with director Alice Maio Mackay before, it seems like they’re reciting lines rather than delivering a proper performance.

With a better cast then perhaps this would have helped with the more dramatic and emotional scenes.

Considering that there are very little movies that represent the LGBTQ+ experience, then So Vam may be something to add to the list of growing representation. However, a shlocky vampire movie is so easily forgotten when put up against something like Titane.