film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • Paintball Massacre: Review

    Paintball Massacre: Review

    Jessica Bentley (Cheryl Burniston) is newly engaged and has been invited to a school reunion, although her fiancé is unable to join her. She soon gets reacquainted with her friends from school such as Lauren Bryce, (Natasha Killip) a self-obsessed glamour model, Sara Ryan (Aoife Smyth) a woman who’s seen The Fast and The Furious a million times and Nathan Brown (Lee Latchford-Evans) who Lauren instantly takes a shine to besides not remembering him at all at school.

    After a few drinks the reunion surprise is sprung on Jessica as a way to bring them all together – paintball. Some of them are eager and Jessica is really reluctant, but after some peer pressure they all go off to face the competition.

    They’re met by their paintball Marshalls; Shelly (Katy Brand) and Eddie (Robert Portal) who show them how it should be done and make sure that they know the rules. However, after they really get into the match things get very quiet and when the red team investigate the blue team’s base, they realise that they’ve all been brutally murdered.

    With a killer on the loose with a modified paint-gun and some traps especially laid out, this will be a reunion Jessica will never forget.

    Paintball Massacre is a British horror comedy which takes on a simple premise and sets it in a very British way so that those who remember their school days or know what school reunions are like can laugh at the variety of characters in the movie. The issue is that although Paintball Massacre has a good idea behind it, the execution could use some work.

    As the friends reunited start to theorise about who the killer could be, suspicions arise and as they are blaming each other, the killer is bumping them off one by one. This does lead to some speculation about the killer’s identity, particularly as it may be Jessica’s fiancé, but for people who know the format of these kinds of films then there’s nothing new or original to offer.

    There’s also very little known about most of the characters and although that makes for good fodder as the audience watches them all get killed, it also doesn’t mean that they have anything to root for when it comes down to the final few survivors. Although tightly scripted with a good idea of what the audience wants, it’s already been done too often.

  • Boris And The Bomb: Review

    Boris And The Bomb: Review

    Boris (J. Anthony McCarthy) is a former KGB agent that defected to the US around 30 years ago and he’s having a bad night. He’s in the possession of a nuclear bomb that’s counting down and will detonate in 48 hours unless he does something about it.

    Not only that, but there are various terrorist groups, gangs and the FBI after him to get the bomb back to use for reasons that Boris fears are less than honourable. Plus, there are a few people cropping up from his past to make matters worse and it feels like it’s going to be a terrible couple of days for Boris.

    Boris and The Bomb is a feature length movie directed by David Kronmiller and co-written by Jennifer Emily McClean, based on their web series from 2009 called And Boris. Billed as an action buddy comedy in the same vein as Midnight Run, Boris soon meets an Uber… I’m sorry, Yuber driver named Jimmy (Steve Sabo) who’s the nervous type and even more nervous when he finds out what Boris is carrying so closely to him.

    Unfortunately, although Boris and The Bomb may have an interesting premise that may be ripe for comedy and parody of bigger, more serious action movies, it’s a shame that Boris and The Bomb’s tone is so uneven.

    For the first hour of the long running time, the movie feels like it has very little time to introduce any characters properly, so the audience is expected to keep up. While that may be acceptable as snippets of dialogue and action may tell the audience all they need to know, for the most part it feels very confusing.

    Especially as the audience is supposed to care about Boris and they’re given very little information about him until an hour into the movie. Then just as the audience may think they have a grasp on things, the plot moves to the villains and their stories are played out, but again with very little character development or exposition in a short period of time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XWFa0HxDso

    One minute, Boris and The Bomb is a light hearted action buddy comedy, the next there are melodramatic scenes between family members that the audience doesn’t even know about and the movie expects them to care.

    Then there’s the extended fight scene finale which may be a commentary on how all those kinds of action movies end up that way. However, to do so in such a serious and cliched manner makes it feel like the movie wished it was more than it was. Only for fans of the web series and even then, it may be difficult for people to care as it was so long ago.

  • A Creepshow Holiday Special: Review

    A Creepshow Holiday Special: Review

    A Creepshow Holiday Special: Review – Returning to make your holidays full of frights to remember is A Creepshow Holiday Special. When Weston (Adam Pally) starts to believe that he’s going through some metaphysical changes, he doesn’t know where to turn. Eventually though he finds a group that call themselves Shapeshifters Anonymous, led by Irena (Anna Camp).

    When he settles down into the support group, he starts to learn about the many different animals that the members can turn into and he’s quite surprised by the range. However, Weston believes that he can turn into a wolf, the fiercest creature of all the therianthrope and as he gets to know the rest of the group better, he’s surprised to learn that the holidays are the most frightful time of the year.

    Based on a short story by J. A. Konrath, Shapeshifters Anonymous is this years Creepshow Holiday Special written and directed by showrunner, Greg Nicotero. After the previous animated special, it may seem that this year’s Creepshow offerings have been scarce, but the holiday special comes around just in time and exclusive to Shudder.

    In an hour long special that focuses on one story, the jolly people at Creepshow must have decided to end the year with a laugh as Shapeshifters Anonymous is a hilarious Christmas tale that places its tongue firmly in its cheek.

    For all those who may not be as hopeful about the holidays and for those who never saw the appeal, then A Creepshow Holiday Special is a gift just for you.

    Not afraid to showcase Nicotero’s years of experience with special effects, A Creepshow Holiday Special doesn’t hold back just because it’s the season of good will. Fans of horror, Creepshow and Nicotero himself will laugh at the knowingly insane lore that surrounds the shapeshifters and be consistently amazed by the effects the Nicotero and his team can conjure up.

    Pally gives a fine performance as a man with very little options left and Camp brings a sweet charm to her school teacher turned man eater while she talks about not really caring about who she kills. Once again Creepshow delivers what you need when Santa couldn’t.

  • The Facility: Review

    The Facility: Review

    Grace (Harriet Madeley) and her friends are urban explorers, they find out about a place that’s been shut off to the world and so naturally they go to investigate. Captain Alexei Ushakov (Omri Rose) is also aware about the abandoned facility, but after being sent in by his boss, (Sally Phillips) Captain Ushakov’s team and Grace’s friends are put into mortal danger as what dwells in the facility starts to play tricks on them.

    The Facility is a British horror movie and otherwise known as The Rizen: Possession which is written and directed by Matt Mitchell and serves as a sequel to The Rizen which was released in 2017.

    Right from the start the audience is given exactly what they need to know, so those who haven’t seen the original can just jump in with no expectations or prior knowledge needed in order to enjoy the movie. The set up is very simple and has been seen in many films before, although perhaps with either picking the group of explorers or the special forces team as the protagonists.

    Mixing the two teams does give the audience a bit more to watch though, as for those who like military horror films like Dog Soldiers and Predator can enjoy the comradery between seasoned professionals. While others who enjoy a more conventional supernatural slasher can focus on the group of friends.

    The trouble is that there’s very little time to stay with either group and whereas they both play out some of the cliches that an audience may expect, there really isn’t enough time to care about any of them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGaqbL4YttQ

    Then the audience is introduced to the big twist and this is where it may split them in half. Fans of The Rizen may be delighted to see Mitchell’s original vision expanded upon from the first movie, but others who are new to the series may find themselves utterly confused and a little overwhelmed by the information that they are given so rapidly.

    It remains unclear as to why The Facility is called so because it only partly holds up as a stand-alone movie. However, for those who are intrigued and may want to find out more about Mitchell’s cinematic world then they can always watch the original.

  • Book Of Monsters: Review

    Book Of Monsters: Review

    When Sophie (Lyndsay Craine) was a child, her mother (Samantha Mesagno) loved reading her stories about the monsters that lurk in the dark and the variety of ways they would terrorise people. Sophie loved it too and had a real bond with her mother because knowing that she was there to protect her made her feel safe. Until one night when Sophie’s mum was taken away by the monster that lived under her bed.

    Now Eighteen and Sophie still feels a close bond to her mum, but with only her dad, Jonas (Nicholas Vince) to raise her, she feels something is missing. Although her dad tries to do the best by her, he doesn’t really understand how she’s changed.

    Then on the night of her 18th birthday, Sophie brings over her friends, Mona (Michaela Longden) and Beth (Lizzie Stanton) and when her dad has left, the party really gets started. Unfortunately, due to an heirloom passed down to Sophie from her mother, it unleashes demonic entities that only Sophie can defeat – using the Book of Monsters.

    Book of Monsters is a Kickstarter horror comedy which owes more than a little to The Evil Dead. The set up harkens back to slasher monster movies of the 80’s and is unashamedly proud of knowing where it came from.

    With an array of rather impressive monsters that are all done with practical effects, Book of Monsters feels like a British version of The Cabin in The Woods and its variety of monsters are often hilarious and highly inventive.

    Among the cast are many different types of people such as an inept male stripper and a German exchange student which adds to the flavour of the movie and all feels very British. The creativity behind the characters, dialogue and the monsters that stalk Sophie will also make the audience either laugh out loud or wonder how such impressive character designs were achieved on a low budget.

    Everything from a shape shifting succubus to zombified garden gnomes are thrown at the party and although it may not be highly original, Book of Monsters is a fun horror comedy that does a lot of things right.