BARE BONES: SATANIC and THE PHOENIX INCIDENT

SATANIC (2016)

Forgettable horror has a group of obnoxious youths heading to Coachella and stopping off to tour true crime sites with occult activity allegedly involved. They get more than they bargained for, of course.

Written by Anthony Jaswinski and directed by Jeffrey Hunt, this is a dull and predictable horror with some really obnoxious and annoying characters. There is nothing here we haven’t seen before and done better. I had a hard time paying attention as nothing held my interest other than it being very teen centric, yet rated R so the intended audience can’t see it. Stars cute Sarah Hyland who should stick to Modern Family.

-MonsterZero NJ

THE PHOENIX INCIDENT (2016)

Found footage sci-fi flick uses real life footage of alleged UFO activity over Phoenix, Arizona and uses it to spin a yarn about a conspiracy involving alien creatures. It centers around four friends who are investigating the UFO activity and get caught in the middle of a confrontation between extraterrestrials and the military. Film takes place after the men disappear and an investigation into the cover-up discovers their footage.

Written and directed by Keith Arem, an interesting concept is given the routine found footage treatment. It’s a cookie cutter found footage flick with the worst of the genre all present and accounted for from annoying shaky cam to even more annoying characters running around and screaming each others names for an hour. Done far better in The Vicious Brothers’ fun Extraterrestrial.

-MonsterZero NJ