MONSTERZERO NJ’S 15 REASONS WOMEN OF COLOR ARE GOING TO ROCK YOUR HALLOWEEN!

Native American actress Amber Midthunder made quite an impression as Comanche warrior Naru in Prey!

Horror films have always been a step ahead with having diversity in their casts and women of color have played important roles for decades! To celebrate their contribution to our favorite genre, here are 15 reasons women of color are going to rock your Halloween🎃!

VONETTA MCGEE in BLACULA!

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PAM GRIER in SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM, GHOSTS of MARS and BONES!

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KELLY JO MINTER in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS and POPCORN

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EIHI SHIINA in AUDITION

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LUCIANA FAULHABER in THE NIGHT CREW and DON’T LOOK!

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CHASTY BALLESTEROS in THE NIGHT CREW and GIRLHOUSE!

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LUPITA NYONG’O in US and LITTLE MONSTERS!

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TARA BASRO in SATAN’S SLAVES and IMPETIGORE!

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CHELSEA ISLAN in MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU and MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU TOO!

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KIANA MADEIRA in THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY!

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ROSA SALAZAR in BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR!

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CRISTINA RODLO in NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!

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JENNA ORTEGA in SCREAM and X!

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AMBER MIDTHUNDER in 14 CAMERAS and PREY!

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TSAI HSUAN-YEN in INCANTAION!

Versatile and talented Latina actress Jenna Ortega in Ti West’s’s chilling X!

These talented ladies aren’t the only ones and women of color are now also getting a chance to add their voices behind the cameras, with writer/directors like Nia DaCosta (Candyman) and Gigi Saul Guerrero (Mexico Barbaro) making a name for themselves and opening doors. All the more reason that women of color are going to rock your Halloween🎃!

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-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: THE CURSE OF LA PATASOLA (2022)

THE CURSE OF LA PATASOLA (2022)

Indie horror flick finds two young couples, Naomi (Najah Bradley) and James (Patrick R. Walker) along with Sarah (Gillie Jones) and Daniel (A.J. Jones) camping in a remote forest despite ominous warnings from a park ranger (Mark Pettit). There they encounter their own personal melodrama and a bloodthirsty creature from Amazonian folklore called La Patasola (Luciana Faulhaber).

Flick is directed by star A.J. Jones from a script by he and Shaun Mathis. As per its opening conversation, the film tries way too hard to be “woke” and it feels forced and not like natural conversations between friends. Daniel is also too ignorant in his views to be believable as someone the others would even want to hang out with. Naomi is South American in origin and thus provides the background exposition for our seductive creature and the film tries to set the mood with the ominous warnings of the park ranger as well. Cliché yes, but done right, the time-honored clichés still can work. Again, here it seems forced, as is Naomi relating the folklore of La Patasola as a campfire tale and it just so happens the creature is actually here in Florida, USA. What are the odds! The Amazonian folklore is interesting, but the character melodrama is not. The film is boring, not scary, so it’s faults only become more obvious, since there is nothing to distract us away. The acting is stale as is the dialogue. Only Luciana Faulhaber gives her role a little life, imbuing La Patasola with a bit of spooky sex appeal in her far too brief appearance as the human form of the creature. Disappointedly amateur and forgettable despite being based on actual untapped folklore.

-MonsterZero NJ

 

MONSTERZERO NJ’S 12 REASONS WOMEN OF COLOR ARE GOING TO ROCK YOUR HALLOWEEN!

Luciana Faulhaber is an actress that doesn’t wait for the phone to ring! This hard working and talented Latina directed, co-wrote, as well as starred in, the backwoods horror Don’t Look!

Horror films have always been a step ahead with having diversity in their casts and women of color have played important roles for decades! To celebrate their contribution to our favorite genre, here are 12 reasons women of color are going to rock your Halloween🎃!

VONETTA MCGEE in BLACULA!

PAM GRIER in SCREAM BLACULA SCREAM, GHOSTS of MARS and BONES!

KELLY JO MINTER in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 5: THE DREAM CHILD, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS and POPCORN

EIHI SHIINA in AUDITION

LUCIANA FAULHABER in THE NIGHT CREW and DON’T LOOK!

CHASTY BALLESTEROS in THE NIGHT CREW and GIRLHOUSE!

LUPITA NYONG’O in US and LITTLE MONSTERS!

TARA BASRO in SATAN’S SLAVES and IMPETIGORE!

CHELSEA ISLAN in MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU and MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU TOO!

KIANA MADEIRA in THE FEAR STREET TRILOGY!

ROSA SALAZAR in BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR!

CRISTINA RODLO in NO ONE GETS OUT ALIVE!

Versatile and talented Indonesian actress Tara Basro in Joko Anwar’s chilling Impetigore!

These talented ladies aren’t the only ones and women of color are now also getting a chance to add their voices behind the cameras, with writer/directors like Nia DaCosta (Candyman) and Gigi Saul Guerrero (Mexico Barbaro) making a name for themselves and opening doors. All the more reason that women of color are going to rock your Halloween🎃!

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-MonsterZero NJ

BARE BONES: DON’T LOOK (2018)

DON’T LOOK (2018)

Routine backwoods horror has five friends, Lorena (Luciana Faulhaber), Ted (Jeff Berg), Sebastian (Javier E. Gómez), Nicole (Lindsay Eshelman) and Alex (Curtis K Case) traveling to a remote house in the country for a holiday getaway. There are some twisted redneck neighbors (Jarrod Robbins and Hailey Heisick) they cross paths with and a masked psycho soon starts stalking and killing them one by one. You’d think, at this point, city folk would stop vacationing in rural farmhouses or cabins in the woods, but…nope.

Low budget horror is produced, directed and co-written, with Jessica Boucher and Danielle Killay, by star Luciana Faulhaber (The Night Crew). Story-wise there is definitely nothing new here, though following a classic horror storyline did seem more like the point. Film is low budget and has a bit of an amateur production feel, though Faulhaber does direct well enough and makes good use of the rural Plowville, Pennsylvania locations. The cast are fine, performances vary with Faulhaber giving her fiery Lorena some sex appeal and strength, though oddly Lorena takes a backseat to another character in the last few scenes. Robbins and Heisick are also amusing as the twisted rednecks who live on the property and the flick does take a while to let us know if they are the killers, or a red herring (redneck herring?). There is a last act twist that isn’t totally unexpected, but fits in with the familiar tropes this film embraces. Not a lot of suspense, but there is some intensity in the last act. There are some decent kills with a sufficient amount of gore and the flick doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at a scant 71 minutes long. Overall, it’s an amusing enough watch for the spooky season on Amazon Prime and if Luciana Faulhaber continues to hone her craft she might turn into a director to keep an eye on.

Personal Note: I always support independent horror filmmaking and love the fact that Faulhaber didn’t sit around waiting for a movie role, she made her own movie! You can get your movies made, filmmakers!-MZNJ

 

-MonsterZero NJ

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: THE NIGHT CREW (2015)

THE NIGHT CREW (2015)

(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)

While this flick is 95% action movie…and a bloody one at that…there is a bit of a horror film element that seems to exist to set up an even more interesting sequel/further adventure…and it kinda works.

The Night Crew has four hardened bounty hunters, Wade (Luke Blade 2 Goss), Ronnie (Paul Sloan), Crenshaw (Bokeem Woodbine) and Rose (Luciana Faulhaber) going deep inside Mexico to recover fugitive Mae (Chasty Girlhouse Ballesteros) and bring her back to the states for a big payoff. Unknown to them, Mae is also wanted by a powerful drug cartel and the four and their quarry find themselves surrounded by an army of vicious killers who want the girl back and them all dead. Adding to the already desperate situation, is that Mae is more than she appears…as is the drug lord (Danny Trejo) who hunts her.

Low budget action flick is actually a very satisfying bullet and blood-fest with an interesting supernatural twist thrown in by writer and star Paul Sloan and co-writer/director Christian Sesma. This ‘element’ not only adds something a little different to the story, but sets up an even more interesting direction if there is a sequel…and hopefully there is. The movie is competently directed by Sesma and while some of the elements are very traditional to testosterone fueled flicks like this, they are stylishly presented and Sesma does serve up a lot of intense and bloody action on his moderate budget. Add in some very pretty ladies in Faulhaber and Ballesteros and you have a fun and entertaining B-movie action flick with a touch of horror movie thrown in. The movie is not perfect. There are some plot holes and lapses in logic, but you watch a flick like this for the action and on a low budget level it delivers. The horror movie elements not only add something interesting to the characters involved, but Sesma and Sloan work it so it sets up a potentially more interesting and entertaining direction as well, if we see more of some of these characters. It’s just enough of a twist to give the more traditional action elements an off-beat angle and an air of mystery and that helps give this enough of a boost to lift it out of the routine. Sometimes entertainment is all you are craving and this flick does serve some up without trying to be more than it is.

The cast all work well in the context of the material. The underrated Goss is solid, as usual, as is his hard-nosed team of Sloan, Woodbine and sexy Luciana Faulhaber. The beautiful and exotic looking Ballesteros gives Mae the mystery and sensuality the character needs and she can be a badass, too, when she needs to be. The villains are appropriately slimy and vicious and Danny Trejo is…well, Danny Trejo…as the cartel king with an even darker aspect to his personality. There is also an amusing cameo by Jason Mews as a security guard who gets caught in the middle of a bullet-riddled bloodbath.

Is The Night Crew a classic…no. Is it an entertaining B-Movie with an intriguing horror element thrown in?…for sure! I liked this flick. It gives us a lot of intense action and spattering blood on a small budget. We get some tough guy anti-heroes and vicious villains and a couple of gorgeous ladies who can kick-ass, too. It won’t win any awards, but it will entertain you on a B-movie level and director Christian Sesma knows his material and delivers it in a no-nonsense way, yet not without a bit of style. A solid B-movie action flick made for a night on the couch and a few of your favorite brews. Also stars Don Swayze and there might be an uncredited cameo by cult favorite director Robert Rodriguez, but the camera never focused on the familiar looking bartender to tell for sure!

-MonsterZero NJ

3 bullets.