Author: Joel Fisher

Four friends, Fay (Zoe Graham), Violet (Elizabeth Trieu), Wendy (Courtney Oliviér) and Ari (Diana Rose) meet up for a weekend to relax and forget their everyday lives. However, Wendy is obsessed with the idea that they should try and contact the goddess, Erzulie (Leila Anastacia Scott) who uses the appearance of a mermaid, but one like no other who devours any man who comes into her path.

Starting to get into the mood for fun, the women all start the ritual in hopes that something fun or spooky may happen – but nothing does. Disappointed but not surprised, they get on with their weekend and soon they learn things about each other, becoming closer than they ever were.

Then they hear a splash outside, where they find Erzulie laying in their pool. She sees the hearts of the women who have called her and wishes to give them their heart’s desires. However, Erzulie is in danger and soon the friends have to band together to save her.

Erzulie is a creature feature with a twist directed by Christine Chen and co-written by Camille Gladney. Starting out as the typical kind of thing you may find in a monster movie, Erzulie’s scene is set as four friends go away for the weekend to a secluded location. So far, so Evil Dead. However, time passes and as the film gets to know these characters, there seems to be things developing in some places and some that come out of nowhere.

For example, when Wendy realises the power that she has now that they have summoned Ezrulie, she says that she wants revenge on all the men that have wronged her. A tall order indeed, but something that is never followed up on and instead is ignored so that they can hide Erzulie from the men that want to kill her.

Similarly, Rhet (Jason Kirkpatrick) is the kind of villain one might expect in this kind of situation, but his motives are as two dimensional as his character and seemingly only appear because the movie needs a villain.

Ezrulie has a mixed message and one that it doesn’t seem to want to settle upon. On the one hand it could have been a good opportunity to explore feminism and what it means to get everything you want like The Craft. However, it feels too bogged down by its need for a monster movie.

Gregorio (Lorenzo Richelmy) is the master of ceremonies at the bunker game. Bringing together a group of enthusiastic LARPers (Live Action Roleplayers), they all dress up, get into character and look forward to recreating a scenario from World War Two, complete with Nazis.

However, their unusual and elaborate hobby has led them to a real, World War Two bunker and there’s something still inside. So, when Gregorio disappears, it’s up to the rest of the immersed party members to find him – or face their death.

The Bunker Game is a horror movie exclusive to Shudder directed by Roberto Zazzara. Setting up all his players, Zazzara paints a picture of many different people from many different walks of life and puts them all together in a confined space. This is a typical set up for a horror movie and one that is usually meant to build up the tension while the events are put in place.

The trouble is that the director seems to have lost his focus and the movie reveals where his true passion lies. When using tension in a horror movie it has to be paced in just the right way, but there seems to be a fine line and if that line is crossed then the audience will start to get bored.

Unfortunately, it seems that with director Zazzara’s background in cinematography, he’s far more preoccupied with how his movie looks rather than telling a good story.

This leads to many of the vast array of characters feeling rather two dimensional and not given enough time for the audience to care as it goes back and forth from one character to the next. There’s also the fact that after a while the audience may come to realise that the majority of the film is set in a quiet bunker where the characters spend most of their time arguing with each other and not doing much else.

So, for those expecting a tense thriller, a by the numbers slasher or a character driven murder mystery then they may be disappointed. Just sit back and enjoy the visuals as there really isn’t much else to see.

Yan Lepentrec dit Le Dob (Vincent Cassel) is better known as Dobermann due to that vicious look in his eyes that he’s had ever since he was a baby. Now all grown up, Dobermann is a notorious bank robber who leads a gang who love the money as much as they do the chase and the violence. However, whilst preparing for their latest heist, Commissaire Sauveur Cristini (Tchéky Karyo) is hot on their tails and is willing to do anything to stop them.

Dobermann is a French action movie based on a graphic novel by Joël Houssin who also wrote the screenplay. Designed to excite for a big screen experience, Dobermann amps up the violence and the gunplay to give its audience plenty of excitement.

It’s just a shame that while there are cool shots of Dobermann and his girlfriend, Nathalie (Monica Bellucci), the movie forgets to tell a compelling story in place of action, gratuitous violence and increasingly characters with increasingly grey areas.

Commissaire Cristini is certainly willing to do what it takes to take down Dobermann and his gang and there are certainly scenes that will make the audience feel uncomfortable. However, the problem is that there really aren’t any redeeming features of Dobermann either besides his gang of diverse friends.

Just because he has a deaf girlfriend and one of the gang members is gay, doesn’t really excuse his ethics when it comes to killing and stealing, but the movie seems to think it does.

This unfortunately makes Dobermann a case of style over substance, where the filmmakers seem to think that as long as they keep the audience engaged during the action scenes, then everything else doesn’t matter. This is particularly evident as when there isn’t any shooting or fighting, the movie’s pace slows right down. Not to mention that besides Dobermann’s affinity with guns, the audience doesn’t know enough about him to make an informed judgement on his character.

Dobermann wants to be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen and when it first released in 1997 it may have attracted audiences. However, besides the fast-paced shootouts with pumping music, there’s little else that stays in the memory.

Great Scott (James Maslow) has a great online following, he has a close-knit group of online friends and life couldn’t be better. It’s all going really well, apart from with his offline girlfriend, Aly (Christel Kalil) who when on the way out of their apartment one day says ‘we need to talk’.

After a while, Scott acknowledges her presence and the last thing she said starts ringing in his ears. After all, what could ‘we need to talk’ possibly mean? It’s not like Great Scott has done anything wrong… has he?

We Need to Talk is a romantic comedy written and directed by Todd Wolfe. Set in the world of online gaming, We Need to Talk puts its comedy into something that may appeal to audiences, while leaving others curious about how a gamer like Scott could ever have a girlfriend. Unfortunately, it seems that gaming is just the hook to make the movie modern and relevant.

There really isn’t any kind of deep knowledge of what somebody who games online for a living actually does, so people who know will smell a rat. There’s also the question of how Scott managed to get and keep a girlfriend which is never answered, because for the most part he has no redeeming qualities.

It’s a common trope of comedies about relationships that when a character says ‘we need to talk’, it’s usually not a good sign. However, because of the title of the movie this means that Scott has to be blissfully unaware of that fact and go on a journey of self-discovery. This also means that the audience has to spend an inordinately long period of time with Scott which makes it excruciating as he’s so unaware and unlikeable.

There are other characters like Joe (Jonathan Fernandez), Scott’s best friend and his potential hook up, Amber (Emily Bett Rickards) who try to mix up the story a little, but there’s little to no reason as to why Scott is so clueless and why he deserves a girlfriend at all.

In the end, the message of We Need to Talk is a little confused which makes for an unsatisfying ending. Saying that we should all learn to appreciate people in our lives while never changing ourselves only makes Great Scott all the more unappealing and not a story you’ll want to stay with.

Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) are a couple who are having the best time in their relationship. They have their differences though and occasionally Jim will put his foot in it, but otherwise they are an idyllic couple.

The news is talking about a virus and there are some very worried experts, but most people think it’s no worse than the flu, so they carry on with their lives. However, Jim sees a woman covered in blood on a rooftop who has a dark stare which worries him and before he realises it, the virus takes hold.

The Sadness is a Taiwanese zombie movie with a difference. Whereas in most zombie movies, the infected become mindless and either stumble about slowly or run around in a red mist of rage, The Sadness gives its victims full awareness of their actions and removes their inhibitions. The excuse is that the virus makes people rely on their most basic instincts, but what it really does is mix in sex amongst all the blood and gore.

When Night of the Living Dead was released, it was to critical acclaim, because alongside the horror aspect was social commentary which gave horror a new spin. However, The Sadness doesn’t seem to have this kind of social commentary because the virus can affect anybody and can change a character’s personality in seconds.

Therefore, even the most sympathetic characters don’t stand a chance and when they do get infected, the audience doesn’t feel for them as they should because rather than dying, they just become as bad as the others.

The excuse starts to wear thin pretty quickly too, as at first the story follows Jim, but then turns to Kat’s ordeal as she seems to be in the centre of the chaos. This means that the protagonist is now a seemingly weak and defenceless woman who has to navigate her way around as many of the infected try to have their way with her.

For a zombie movie, it almost seems to revel in the idea of its lead character getting mutilated and defiled in the worst ways possible. For those who love their blood and gore then the movie delivers on its practical effects. However, the tone and direction the movie may seem to be going feels like it wants to shock rather than tell a story.