Mary (Leatherface’s Vanessa Grasse) is on probation and suffering from paranoid delusions after setting her serial killer boyfriend James (Cole Vigue) on fire. Trying to get her life back together, Mary lands a job on the night shift of a 24 hour gas station convenience store in the middle of nowhere. Strange things starts to occur and Mary starts to think someone is stalking her on her first night. Is it her hallucinations acting up? Has a scarred and vengeful James somehow gotten out of prison?…or has someone else indeed targeted the young woman?
Flick is written and directed by Padraig Reynolds (Rites of Spring, Dark Light) and if you can overlook a few plot-holes, like a police officer’s death, and thus disappearance, not alerting anyone at the PD to send more cops, this is an intense, suspenseful and sometimes bloody violent flick. Reynolds establishes Mary’s tendency to hallucinate very well and then plays with the concept, so even we aren’t sure what Mary is really seeing, even though we know someone dangerous is indeed out there. There are some red herrings as to who that someone may be and once things really get going, there is a nasty and intense last act, as Mary confronts the individual who has targeted her and has been killing anyone near the gas station. There is some nice atmosphere and intensity and when the gore comes, it’s very effective. Vanessa Grasse makes a very likable heroine as the troubled Mary and the remote gas station location works to establish isolation…even if it all does evoke John Carpenter’s The Gas Station episode from the anthology flick Body Bags. A solid and entertaining slasher/horror from Padraig Reynolds. Now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Monster flick has a simple and familiar plot. Annie (Jessica Madsen from Leatherface) is a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown and returning to her old, rural childhood home with her daughter Emily (Opal Littleton). Once there, she finds that something inhuman has moved into the long empty house and it wants her daughter.
Flick written and directed by Padraig Reynolds is a bit of a mixed bag. There are things he gets right and things that don’t work so well. The movie looks great. Reynolds has a real good visual eye and really knows how to frame his shots. He also makes great use of his farmhouse location and the surrounding area. There is some intensity and some spookiness and while the success of his creatures may be a matter of taste, they are an original design and well executed. It’s the script that holds things back. It’s simply too reliant on far too many familiar elements. We have a woman seeing monsters and having her daughter go missing and her previous mental state casts a lot of doubt on her credibility and innocence. We have Annie tracking down a conspiracy theorist (Gerald Tyler), who has heard of these beasties and is hunting them and is the only one who believes her. How convenient! The character is basically there for exposition and then disposed of quickly. He could have been removed from the flick entirely with no harm to the thin plot. Obviously, as in all these scenarios, Annie is vindicated in the last act when her estranged husband (Ed Brody) and the local sheriff (Kristina Clifford) finally meet our critters and they team up to rescue Emily. It’s all very cliché. Still, it is well made and there are far worse things you could waste your time with. Currently streaming on Netflix.
(Clicking the highlighted links brings you to corresponding reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)
Rites Of Spring is nothing original. It’s plot is a mash-up, of sorts, of things we’ve seen before. It’s basically Children Of The Corn meets From Dusk Till Dawn with bits and pieces of a few others thrown in for good measure. But, it is well made and well directed by filmmaker Padraig Reynolds and is a perfectly suitable horror entertainment for a night on the couch.
This tale of terror has two separate story lines occurring at once. One is the kidnapping of a rich couple’s little girl by four individuals, two brothers of whom are a bit reluctant, and the other is the kidnapping of two young women (Anessa Ramsey and Hannah Bryan) by a strange man in a bar parking lot. One abduction is for the purpose of extortion, while the other is for a far more horrifying purpose. Obviously, these two separate stories will collide as kidnappers and abductees alike will face a blood-thirsy abomination that wants both victim and criminal dead with equal relish. Will any of them survive?
Again, this is not an original story nor is it anything we haven’t seen before but, writer/director Padraig Reynolds presents his story well and knows how to build some suspense and chills. His script is nothing new but, it is atmospheric and moves quickly and kept my attention throughout the familiarity of it all. Not a great flick but, I was entertained and only a last act coincidence of two characters from the separate story lines knowing each other had me grimace, as it seemed a bit too far-fetched and had no baring on the story. It was a pointless attempt to give A.J. Bowen’s kidnapper Ben a reason to risk his life for heroine Rachel (Anessa Ramsey) when his moral difficulties with being involved in the kidnapping and the events following, were enough for us to believe he wants to make things right. Other than that small misstep, and that the ending is also a bit abrupt, the film works fine and we get some well-orchestrated blood and gore to go with our decapitation happy creature. The film also keeps our monster in question just ambiguous enough to add an air of mystery, as we only know “The Stranger” (Marco St. John) needs to feed it during the weeks of Spring to ensure a healthy crop. It’s origins are never discussed and in this case it worked for the character though, it could have carried a bit more menace. As for the rest of the low budget but, good looking production, the cinematography by Carl Herse accents Reynolds efficient visual style nicely and we get some added atmosphere by Holly Amber Church’s creepy score.
The cast are all adequate though, no real stand-out performances. Indie horror fixture A.J. Bowen is fine as Ben, the first-time criminal with a conscience. Ramsey has a bit of a grating scream but, otherwise is feisty and resourceful as abductee and potential monster meal, Rachel who never gives up fighting. Sonny Marinelli lays it on a bit thick as Ben’s partner with his own agenda and Marco St. John is a suitably creepy “Stranger”. The supporting cast, including Katherine Randolph as Ben’s eager to kidnap girlfriend Amy, are all fine and there were three people listed in the cast as the creature dubbed “Karmanor” and all do well in giving the creature some menace though, it could have been a bit stronger a villain overall.
So, I enjoyed Rites Of Spring. It’s not a great movie or an original one but, it is solidly enough made and filmmaker Padraig Reynolds seems to know enough about what makes a horror film work to keep it from getting dull. There are some spooky moments and some bloody kills and enough suspense to make this a pleasant 80 minutes on the couch if you are looking for something to watch and an indie horror will do. I’ve seen much better but, you could do far worse.
MonsterZero NJ's Movie Madhouse 