This film follows Jane, a lonely librarian who finds a note at her desk with her name on it and a $50 bill, instructing her to play the game. She is helped by Brace, a new friend, in solving the puzzles and getting double the money every time she finds a new envelope. Jane and Brace quickly find out that she is playing a very dangerous game. Her strength, fortitude, and sanity are strained as she finds out just how far she’ll go for the cash, and the thrill.

I found this movie because of some tweet that had a few hundred likes saying it was some sort of hidden gem. I looked it up and could not find much about it, save a couple articles and Letterboxd reviews. I found a rip of it on Youtube through a Reddit post and told the guys, hey this is the movie we’re gonna do this week. It was shot on video, never had a wide release or any sort of release at all. It was made by writer-director Clifton Holmes, along with his brother Dwayne producing, and co-written by Richard Laymon, the author of the book this film is based on. From an article on steemit.com, user modernzorker states that the film is incomplete, not in editing or shooting but in ADR and sound mixing, apparently all the sound we hear was the live recordings of each scene. 

With all that said, I loved this film. I love finding horror that is so underground that even though this movie was posted for free on Youtube eight years ago, it only has 12k views. It has 1.6k watches on Letterboxd. It basically doesn’t exist. While you’re watching it, you feel like it shouldn’t exist.

I don’t say that to mean it is a so-called ‘cursed’ film, like the movie Antrum claims to be. I mean that it probably shouldn’t exist, and it almost doesn’t. The only way to watch it is in 240p on Youtube or buy a DVD rip of it from some dude on eBay claiming he’s the only one who sells them (and yes, listener, I did buy it for nine Great British pounds). It basically isn’t real. 

It’s hard to watch in 240p, I was begging for at least 480 but you get what you get when you wanna watch something like this. The low quality adds to the uneasiness and uncertainty of the film’s vibe, but at some points it just sucks not being able to discern what is happening, mostly when they are shooting at night.

All the lore aside, this film is excellent. It reminds me of Blair Witch and Clerks in the way it is shot. With a limited budget, we only see the aftermath of gore instead of the action happening, which I think works in its favor. You feel the dread alongside Jane, but she also is a very unflinching, dedicated protagonist. She is brave, and you know that she is from the start.

There’s almost no music in this movie, save for a few moments of characters listening to music, and every time we see our antagonist a crescendo of guitars rises to the front. The only other time we hear sound other than voices is when Jane is playing Silent Hill on her PlayStation, we hear the footsteps of Harry Mason running through the endless fog.

This film is creepy, wacky, captivating, and so much more fun knowing that you’re probably one of the only people in your generation to ever have watched this. It was such a treat and tonally great for spooky season. It’s slow at first, but as the tension builds it just goes off the rails in the best possible ways. It’s a crazy movie. Look up (aka click here) Richard Laymon’s In The Dark on Youtube to watch it, you will not regret it.

10/10

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Good Boy is what we are reviewing this week on Horror Movie Talk. Also, I will be saying good boy a lot on this episode. Stay tuned.

When his owner Todd moves into rural home, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever named Indy starts noticing strange shapes in the shadows. Told completely through Indy’s point of view, we see as supernatural forces increasingly grow more menacing and seem to affect Todd. Indy proceeds to stare blankly and do very little to warn Todd, but who can criticize that face?

Good Boy’s charm relies solely on its premise of being a supernatural horror movie told completely from a dog’s POV. It’s the type of premise that entices you, and makes you wonder how they are going to pull it off. In this case, they barely make a case for a feature length movie. 

The highest praise I can give this film is that it is a spiritual successor to Paranormal Activity. There are a lot of lingering shots that exploit the Eye Spy/Where’s Waldo genre of that franchise. 

Another good aspect  is the score, which is perfectly sparse and effective for the mood of the film.

While it is engaging to look at a cute dog for a while, the lack of compelling plot developments makes it feel like a short film stretched to its breaking point. 

The film is filled with similar scenes of Indy seeing figures in the darkness creeping towards him interspersed with some genuinely good jump scares. All the while, Todd is getting sicker and more of an asshole to Indy throughout.

The implied explanations for the haunting and Todd’s decline are many and non-committal. It could be a cursed house, or environmental factors. Or maybe that giant entryway into hell in the basement. Or it could just be cancer and the specter of death. Unfortunately the film never really lands on one and leaves them all open to interpretation.

However, the regular expectations for hollywood polish should be tempered with the fact that this film was never really meant for a theatrical wide release. In reality, this is an extremely high quality low budget independent film that performed so well at festivals that it earned a wide release. If this was only released on streaming, it would be declared a hidden gem, but in the bright lights next to big budget releases, this film is outclassed.

All that being said I do love the underlying narrative technique and did enjoy watching Indy’s exploits. The hour and 12 minute runtime does feel long at times, but somehow I am still left wanting more, and hope someone picks up this gimmick and makes a truly great dog POV horror movie.

6/10

Lake Mungo is about an Australian family that loses their 16-year-old daughter in a drowning accident while having a picnic at a local dam. As time passes, each member of the family grieves in their own way, with some wanting to move past the tragic event, while others deny that Alice even died at all. As strange things begin happening in the home, the family must piece together Alice’s past in order to make sense of her death. 

Lake Mungo is a mood (as the kids would say). It’s not super scary or exciting, but it is thoroughly creepy and left me feeling very unsettled. In true documentary fashion, the movie relies on old photos and videos to piece together the story, and every time a ghost appears on the screen, I feel unnerved. The secret sauce is the simplicity of the film. There are no jump scares or suspense-building scenes. A character just describes an event, and we are shown a picture or video to accompany the tale, leaving the viewer to put the puzzle together. The ghostly images are nothing more than blurry photos of a girl standing in a corner, but for some reason that really freaked me out. I also think the movie does a good job of sticking to the documentary format without getting too weird with it, except for one scene that no documentary ever in the history of the world would show. Other than that, it feels like a pretty real documentary. 

Score 8/10

Him is a story about an all-American boy who learns to love an all-American sport. Cameron and his family are obsessed with football, specifically the football team, the Saviors. Encouraged by his father, the young Cameron begins to idolize the Saviors’ quarterback, Isaiah White, who apparently is the goat. As Cameron grows, he dedicates his life to the sport and is soon well on his way to being drafted in the NFL. With his hero Isaiah White on his last season, it is even likely he will be replacing the goat himself as quarterback for the Saviors. To celebrate, as well as help train his replacement, Isaiah invites Cameron to his secret football bunker for a weeklong sports bootcamp/slumber party. 

From the synopsis I just gave you may be wondering where the horror element comes into the film. Well, basically football is just evil and I will leave it at that until the spoilers. I really enjoyed the first two acts of the movie. The tension was steadily built and I was finding myself more and more interested in the dark underbelly of this world. However, for me the tension never quite reached the apex the film was going for and I found myself disappointed with act 3. Although I will say that act 3 is not devoid of delightful gore and surprises, the climax just didn’t do it for me. I wanted there to be a bigger pay off than there was, yet I am left wondering why I expected much of anything given that the only real character development we get throughout the movie is related to how much Cameron does or does not enjoy football. I think it is a really fun idea to combine the sports genre with the horror genre, and I don’t think Him does an entirely terrible job, it just could have been better. 

Score 6/10

In a dystopian America, fifty young men are chosen to participate in a walk with no finish line for a chance to win endless riches. The catch: the winner is the only one who survives.

I went into this film saying, oh so I’m just gonna watch a bunch of dudes walk for almost two hours? And yes, that is exactly what happens in the film. But, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson are a great pair, they perform incredibly well as the two main characters. There is not an actor in this film that is unconvincing; I truly believe they were on a grueling walk for their lives. Like I said, yes it is a film where we are just watching men walk and die and walk and die over and over again, but the script is absolutely rock solid. I teared up, I laughed, I winced, I flinched, I felt all sorts of things. This is the ultimate dudes rock movie. It reminded me of how I felt watching Stand by Me for the first time. I loved this.

10/10

Paranormal Investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga think they are retired from ghost busting, but just when you think you’re out, the demons pull you back in. The Smurl family in Pennsylvania start experiencing malevolent supernatural happenings after the grandfather gives a terrible birthday gift to the second oldest daughter. A broken mirror. Gee thanks Grandpa.

The hauntings ramp up and soon it is apparent that a demon is infesting the house.

The Warrens reluctantly engage with the Smurls and soon find out that the demon has actually lured them into a trap. 

This is the ninth installment in the Conjuring Universe films, 11th if you include Wolves at the Door and Curse of La Llarona. In my opinion, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. That’s not to say that this movie is bad. This movie along with all the other conjuring movies is competently made, maintains a consistent style, and has good acting. My criticism is that like the other films, this one prioritizes atmosphere and technique over substance.

A beef I have with these movies is that they all suffer from what I call spooky house syndrome, where every house is dimly lit with 25 watt bulbs, and is suffering from a concerning amount of mold damage and electrical problems. Are they trying to scare us with ghosts or the horrors of home ownership?

Similarly, the script is competent, but surface level. I can’t tell you anything about the personalities of any of the characters outside of the tired tropes of “the protective father”, and the “brat sister”. 

What the film does well is display some of the most professional turning around acting I’ve ever seen. After four films as Lorraine Warren, Vera Farmiga has perfected the art of slowly turning her head for effect. It works so well at establishing the tension that they do it about 178 times in this film.

The film makers know you are coming for tension and jump scares, so that’s what they prioritize here. There are some really great scenes of creepy dolls, whispered voices, and foreboding darkness that are masterclasses in technique. However they are all interchangeable and do little to move the story forward other than just increase the intensity. 

6/10

In this prequel to X, we get the origin story of Pearl. Pearl is a young woman who lives on her parents’ farm while her husband is away fighting in World War 1. Pearl is miserable on the farm and dreams of running away, and maybe even becoming a famous dancer. But the truth is, life is hard, and Peark quickly learns that it’s a dog-eat-dog world and no one seems to care if she ever fulfills her dreams or not. The only thing that matters on the farm in 1918 is survival, and seeking happiness is far down the list of priorities, such as working for the next meal, avoiding the deadly Spanish flu, and taking care of those around you. This slowly drives Pearl into insanity, which I dont count as a spoiler because we already know she is full-blown bananas from the first film.

The full title of the movie is Pearl: and X-traordinary origin story. This is Ti West’s second entry into the X series, so if you haven’t already seen X, you might want to see that first for context. This is my favorite movie in the X trilogy. While I liked X, this one just feels more fun, and it is leagues better than whatever Maxxine was supposed to be. Pearl is a much more stylized film, calling back to horror films like the Universal monster movies from the early to mid-1900s with its intro, music, and acting style. It’s really fun to see this type of movie made in modern times, and I hope that we can see more movies like this in the future.

Score 7/10

When a small town catholic priest commits suicide, he apparently opens a gate to hell. Elsewhere a young psychic predicts the resulting apocalypse of the dead rising from the grave, and she promptly dies. Did I say she dies? Just kidding, a reporter finds her alive in a graveyard. They travel to the small town she saw in the vision named Dunwich, and team up with another couple and… do things? 

What is there to say about City of the Living Dead that hasn’t already been said by wacky mad libs? It feels like someone with attention deficit disorder and short term memory loss was tasked with making a horror movie, and made it up as they went along. Even the title is a misnomer, at most this is a village or hamlet of the living dead. If you find yourself asking what is going on, rest assured that you will not find answers by the end. I’m sure if you asked Lucio Fulci to explain, you’d get some hand wavy explanation that would mention H.P. Lovecraft, the Salem Witch trial, and Heresy against god.

The impression is that making sense is not a large concern for this film, this is more of a strap in and enjoy the ride film. Along the way you will be treated by some surprisingly good practical effects including bleeding from the eyes, lots of smashed brains, and a drill press through the jaw. 

I can’t say that it held my rapt attention, but it did have some good moments. This is a great movie to watch with friends, preferably under the influence of some kind of substance. In my case sitting alone, sober, watching this movie as an assignment from patrons, It was not super enjoyable.

3/10

When a family takes a road trip looking for a fun and exciting vacation in sunny California, they find themselves off the beaten path and searching for a main road. Things spiral out of control when military jets fly overhead, startling the family and causing the vehicle and the trailer it pulls to crash in the middle of nowhere. As the sun sets, the family splits up to find a way to call for help, but danger may be lurking just around the hills. 

This was my first time watching the original The Hills Have Eyes. I had already seen the 2006 remake, which surprisingly stays true to the story and content of the original very well. However, it’s hard to beat the charm and originality of the 1977 version directed by Wes Craven. This movie is dark, gritty, and tugs at your nerves from almost every conceivable angle. As a father of a one-year-old, the terror felt by the young couple caring for their baby was palpable to me, and it genuinely made me feel ill at times. But you may be saying, “Max, I’m not a young parent to a baby, will this movie still apply to me?” Well, that depends. Do you care about dogs? Cause if the answer is yes, you will probably still feel on the edge of your seat with worry the whole time. This movie pulls no punches, attacking the family dynamic from all sides. No one is safe, and all shots are below the belt. 

Score 8/10

When seventeen children from the same classroom run out of their homes in the middle of the night and vanish without a trace, a city is in ruin trying to pick up the pieces and figure out how this happened, where the children have gone to, who could have orchestrated such a thing, and why this occurred. 

This film is mind blowing. I absolutely loved Cregger’s Barbarian, he did something unique and subverted all expectations in his 2022 horror hit so this film was one of my most anticipated of this year, and it did not let me down. I was deeply moved by the end of it, and if I wasn’t in a full theater, I would have let the tears flow. I loved this film. It made me really sad.

The way this story is told through its individual characters’ experiences instead of chronologically works in its favor, and as we get more into the stories of our main characters, the horrors of this story unfold in shocking, brutal, and unexpected ways. I am shook to my core more than I thought I would be. I was almost catatonic leaving the theater, relying on my muscle memory to get me back to my car while I pondered the events of the film.

This is a poignant and relevant story about the state of this country, about our lack of community, our lack of care for our children and for each other. It shows us the butterfly effect of thoughtless actions and unwillingness to protect one another and how that leads to the destruction of family, love, and the collective. Our community will fail if we continue to turn a blind eye, if we continue to fail each other, and fail our children. The call is coming from inside the house.

As if those themes aren’t horrifying enough, there is one particular jumpscare that got me and my entire theater. There’s great gore, and also some great comic relief in an otherwise melancholy film. The acting is great, especially from Cary Christopher (who played the little kid Alex). I loved this movie. No notes. And if you are struggling with what this movie is truly about, there is quite literally a house-sized AK-47 thirty minutes into the movie to remind you.

10/10