Category: REVIEWS

Jack (Henry Rollins) is a man of few words and a set routine, which he uses to keep his habits off the radar and his life as uncomplicated as possible. With strange scars on his body and a penchant for cannibalism, Jack ends up tangled and twisted into the lives of his estranged daughter (Jordana Todosey), his hospital intern “fixer” (Booboo Stewart) and an admirer from his local diner (Kate Greenhouse), by way of the mob and a mysterious man in black.

As far as Supernatural Indie features go, writer/ director Jason Krawczyk walks the path of bigger budgeted fayre such as Legion (2010), Priest (2011), and bears a similar tonal connection to Francis Lawrence’s comic book adaptation, Constantine. Rollins’ acting shadow boxes with the quiet peculiarity of Keanu Reeves understated performance in that 2005 flick and creates a more nuanced character than one initially anticipates. Each quirk and foible annunciated and punctuated with a quiet physicality where a pause or silence delivers as much as the cynical script.

Whereas many movies of this ilk go for a more po-faced and morose execution, He Never Died addresses the possible religious and fantastical elements of the world with a dry, dark wit that perforates the gloom. The screenplay balances the threat and suspense with protagonist Jack’s skewed worldview. A weary soul living in a world inhabited by people he has to endure more than relate to.

In many low budget Indies the violence is rendered with a “disconnect” brought about by the implementation of digital effects. While a degree of post-production tinkering took place, for the most part the filmmakers opted for practical effects and an impressive use of visceral makeup and props to give weight to the visuals in the more horrific elements.

With its overall tone and world building, the execution of He Never Died feels more like an extended pilot for television than a singular feature film, which incidentally is where the continuation is set to take place. A miniseries is currently in development with both Jason Krawczyk and Henry Rollins expected to return in the near future.

He Never Died is available now via streaming and on demand services.

‘When you’re a poor kid from a poor family, religion counts for a lot. And when a priest pays attention to you it’s a big deal. How d’you say no to God?’

Andrew McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer present us with the true story of how the Boston Globe, took on the abusive institutions of the church in a city where Catholicism was so deeply entrenched that even the police were covering theiir crimes.

One thing I really admired about Spotlight is its resistance to grandstanding in tackling its fact-based story. It isn’t the one sided attack on the church that it could easily have been but a graceful depiction of a truly terrible subject.

What the film lacks is moral depth; the characters are sadly very two-dimensional. I honestly think most of the their dialogue is interchangeable throughout the movie. The actors all bring something different to their roles but you’d expect that from a cast that includes Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Lieve Shrieber and Rachel McAdams. They’re all good but Stanley Tucci steals every scene he’s in.

The Globe gets a new editor and he asks the spotlight team to investigate a case of a Catholic priest who has been accused of molesting multiple children. They take on the case and start to realise that this isn’t an isolated incident. As the investigation grows, so does our interest in the case. Most people will be aware of the findings but the film does well to entertain when we still know the outcome. Scenes in which the abuse victims discuss their past are sobering watches.

It’s such an interesting case that the film does work in many ways. You find yourself caring for the victims and for the reporters, hoping that their story will get told. The problem is, by the end, important documents are made public and as such regardless of whether the Globe report them, another paper like the Boston Herald would have done and as such the Catholic church would have been exposed anyway, so where is the dramatic stake?

The film was good but not great. The story is interesting but the shallow characters mean we are never invested as we might have been. A missed opportunity perhaps.

By Last Caress.

Purvis (David Arquette, Scream) and Buddy (Sid Haig, The Devil’s Rejects) are drifters, and murderers. They pounce upon small, sleeping parties of travellers on the wide expanses of the not-quite-tamed countryside of post-Civil War America, slitting throats and plundering belongings as they go. We join them on what turns out to be their final attack. Shortly thereafter, they wander into a mountain pass decorated with animal skulls. And human skulls. The pass gives way to a large clearing into which our loathsome pair blithely stagger, oblivious to the huge carefully hewn circle on the ground, along with numerous other associated markings and stone piles. What is this place? Temple? Altar of sacrifice? Burial ground? Whatever it is, Purvis and Buddy have trampled through it, inhuman screams are emanating from all over the valley, and… oh! Buddy’s got an arrow through the neck, and Purvis is doing his best Usain Bolt impersonation. So begins Bone Tomahawk.

The story picks up eleven days later. Purvis has made it to the small and, from what little we can see, rather dour town of Bright Hope. The sheriff of Bright Hope is Franklin Hunt (Kurt Russell, The Thing), and he is ably assisted in the rather simple running of this tiny outpost by his deputy Nick (Evan Jonigkeit, X-Men: Days of Future Past) and their general dogsbody Chicory (Richard Jenkins, Six Feet Under), to whom Hunt charitably refers as his “backup” deputy. Hunt intercepts Purvis at the local saloon where he is unconvinced by Purvis’ story and unimpressed by his nakedly hostile demeanour. The confrontation concludes with Purvis in the town jail with a bullet in his foot. The town doctor, Samantha O’Dwyer (Lili Simmons, Banshee) is summoned to remove the bullet and Hunt instructs deputy Nick to oversee proceedings. Hunt’s off to bed for the night.

By morning, all the horses in the stable have been stolen, the stable boy lays disembowelled on the stable floor, and there’s nobody in the jail. No Purvis, no deputy Nick, and no doctor Samantha.

What has happened? The only clue is an arrow buried in a strut at the jail. An arrow with a head fashioned out of bone. A “civilised” Indian resident to the town – The Professor – identifies the arrow as coming from a band of cave-dwelling, inbred creatures, native to the land for sure but not acknowledged by any of the other tribes as “one of them”. The mountains in which they dwell are a five-day ride away. It’s time for Sheriff Hunt to posse up and get out there after them. He takes with him Arthur O’Dwyer (Patrick Wilson, Watchmen), the doctors husband, naturally determined to retrieve his spouse but unfortunately carrying a nasty leg injury following a rooftop fall; John Brooder (Matthew Fox, Lost), an obnoxious but deadly – not to mention immaculately appointed – local gunfighter; and, at his own insistence, Chicory the “backup deputy”. But what are they going to find at the end of this trail?

Bone Tomahawk, the first feature from S. Craig Zahler, is high on star power and low on budget and scale. There are plenty of long shots but only of that which is completely necessary. There is a deliberate economy of movement from the cameras and there is no painting in the corners of the frame. There are no extras milling about in the backgrounds of Bright Hope. We only ever see the residents who matter to the plot and even then, they are only given enough character to fulfill their role. There is a score, composed by writer/director Zahler, but it’s used so sparingly I thought at one point that the copy I was watching had been released without the score added yet. However, far from being a negative, this spartan approach adds an eerie layer of unease to the proceedings.

The second act of the movie takes an hour of the runtime and is a stripped, no-frills four-horse road movie. They move, they set up camp, they sleep, they move on, encountering mini set-pieces along the way as is often the way with road movies. If there could’ve been some fat trimmed from this 130-minute odyssey, it probably could’ve come from here. Still, this meandering middle gives us opportunity to appreciate the poetic antique mannerisms of the dialogue, which Kurt Russell delivers as though he was actually born in 1850. He’s not alone here though; all four characters are afforded a little added depth here, and the actors all do well with the chances they get. Brooder isn’t quite as obnoxious, Chicory isn’t quite as useless, O’Dwyer isn’t just a hobbled and enraged liability, and Hunt himself… well, he isn’t quite as certain that any of them will ever see Bright Hope again.

Of course, if you’ve taken even a cursory glance at the publicity for Bone Tomahawk you’ll know that its big hook lies in its third act. For a full ninety minutes, the movie is a straight-up western, and nothing but. A pared back vague allusion to The Searchers (Ford, 1956); nowhere near as grand in its scope of course but Franklin Hunt is chasing down savages who have abducted a white girl just as Ethan Edwards did (I should add at this point that Bone Tomahawk goes to great pains to make clear that these bad guys are NOT Native Americans, oh no. They look like dusty Native American/17th century Mayan hybrids, they scalp people, and they use tomahawks and arrows; but they’re definitely NOT Native Americans, okay? OKAY?!?). But as soon as the posse reach their destination, Bone Tomahawk abandons The Searchers, abandons the western genre altogether in fact, and converts utterly to the church of Torture Porn. It’s not that this final third contains nowt but ceaseless images of severe bodily trauma because it doesn’t, but when it DOES go down that road… F*ck! I found myself wondering if it was entirely necessary to go that far that late in the proceedings, and if the movie wouldn’t have been better served had Mr. Zahler elected to present his crescendo with a little more guile and keep Bone Tomahawk planted firmly with both feet in the western genre. But the viciousness up on the screen, as initially jarring as it is, works within the context of the plot and, well, genre movies generally need a hook to distinguish themselves from the crowd and believe me, you won’t forget this one. Maybe not ever. Consider yourself warned in no uncertain terms if you’re squeamish: Bone Tomahawk takes a brief, brisk jog clear into Hostel/Martyrs/Inside territory. Not for long, but definitely for long enough.

Faults? Well it’s a subjective thing but some may find the rationed score conspicuous by its absence for long stretches; the way in which Bone Tomahawk has painted itself into a corner by wanting to return the “Red Injun” to his racist golden-era position but also shy away from its own conviction with that bit of “They’re nothing to do with us!” exposition could be considered bizarre at best and a fatal flaw at worst, if one thinks about it for long enough, which I’m not going to; and Lili Simmons in the role of Samantha O’Dwyer simply doesn’t “look” like a period character. She doesn’t.

In all though, Bone Tomahawk is a very interesting two-genre mashup. It’s not quite a “bone”-a fide classic (Ba-dum! Tish!) but it’s a good film nonetheless and comes recommended, IF you have the stomach.

Brought to you from the growing mind of Oliver Park Vicious, is a frightening short that has the ability to truly terrify. Returning home, Lydia (Rachel Winters) suspects she isn’t alone and as night rolls in; the terror begins.

Released a year ago, Vicious was quickly picked up by 6 of the best horror festivals, winning 6 awards, including the Gold Award for ‘Best International Film’ at Toronto After Dark Film Festival. This buzz surrounding this short is not without reason. The camera work is fantastic, creative and creates a true air of suspense that few films manage to replicate. It isn’t a natural scream fest, but instead accurately depicts the confusion and freezing fear that just feels much more realistic than the gore and violent screaming that covers mainstream horror.

Whilst there is very little to be critical of in Vicious, I hate to say it, but the ‘realism’ of the final scene, simply because the make-up looks a little bit like make-up, overall I find it hard to find fault with this film, except for certain attempts to open doors and escape which left me screaming, ‘turn the bloody handle and it might work!’. Rachel Winters, otherwise puts in a mind blowing performance. Her fear seems real, with just a hint of curiosity. She reacts like the ‘everyman’ that she is and isn’t a hero. Too often my nerves are tested tested by the constant presence of a marine or navy seal to save the day, or even just extraordinary and unrealistic fighting skills from your average Joe instead of the flailing arms you’d probably get from me. It’s refreshing to see someone battle a ghost alone and be truly, truly terrified.

This is a truly fantastic example of short horror and receives an enthusiastic endorsement from me, to add to the 5 stars BRWC gave Vicious when it first came out. Well worth checking out again and for those who haven’t seen it, see it!

Vicious can be found HERE!