BARE BONES: THE DEVIL’S WOODS and DON’T GO TO THE REUNION

THE DEVIL’S WOODS (2015)

Low budget horror has two couples (Stephen Cromwell, Danielle Keaney, Daniel Mahony and Caoimhe Cassidy) heading to a music festival and deciding to camp out in the Irish backwoods, in an area said to be haunted and a site where there have been many disappearances. Makes sense! Obviously there is someone…or something…awaiting them in the woods and their numbers begin to dwindle as one by one they meet a gruesome fate.

Written and directed by Anthony White, this is a very familiar story that features all the clichés. We get the stoner idiot who neglects to tell the others that they are going to an area known for disappearances, creepy redneck locals who stare at strangers and masked individuals stalking our youths in the spooky woods with pointy objects. There is little or no suspense and the acting is strictly amateur, though Danielle Keaney shows some spunk and fire as our final girl, Jennifer. Characters do stupid things, obviously, by the initial story set-up, including the villains who don’t understand the concept that your victim won’t kick you in the nuts and escape if your tie her up properly. Duh, even most inbred rednecks know that! A strictly low budget effort that shows White may have a love of horror flicks, but needs to learn a bit more about what makes them actually work.

-MonsterZero NJ

DON’T GO TO THE REUNION (2013)

Ultra low budget flick looks like a home movie, even if it has it’s heart in the right place. Flick has a very simiar plot to the recent Most Likely To Die with a group of in-crowders gathering for a ten year high school reunion at a remote house that has been arranged for them by an unknown individual…already not a good sign. Back in high school, the group orchestrated a terrible prank on the introverted, horror movie loving, high school nerd to insure their friend made school valedictorian instead. Their prank got the kid expelled and put him in a mental institution where he later committed suicide. Now the group are being slaughtered one by one and in ways the echo classic horror movies!

Directed by Steve Goltz and written by Kevin Sommerfield this horror homage wants to have it both ways. It wants to be like an 80s horror with it’s plot of a prank gone wrong being avenged years later and also wants to be a post-Scream slasher complete with all the meta horror movie references and deaths derived from horror classics. And if you didn’t get the point, the villain will explain it to you step by step like the killers in Wes Craven’s 1996 classic did. I appreciate the effort and that our filmmakers obviously have a love for these type of movies, but even as a homage it’s not very original and the dialog, acting and kills are all strictly amateur. It’s also might be a bit insulting that after all the obvious horror movie references, the filmmakers felt a need to have a character explain it to us in case we missed the blatantly obvious.

-MonsterZero NJ

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: FROM THE DARK (2014)

FROM THE DARK (2014)

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

Irish horror film begins in the rural countryside where a farmer (Gerry O’Brien) is doing an excavation and unearths what appears to to be the corpse of something humanoid buried beneath the ground. It proves to be not quite dead and attacks him. At the same time young couple Sarah (Niamh Algar) and Mark (Stephen Cromwell) are traveling through the area and run into car trouble. As fate would have it, they arrive at the farmer’s home to seek help and encounter the man with a severe neck wound and acting strangely. The farmer isn’t their only problem, though, as something else is out there in the dark night…something with a thirst for human blood.

Conor McMahon’s last film was the 2012 clown horror/comedy Stitches but, here he goes for a completely serious approach as he tells his Irish vampire story. He generates some nice tension and suspense, especially when using a plot device dealing with the creatures aversion to light…of which there is a lack of. There is some nice atmosphere and McMahon gives it a deliberately smoldering pace which works very well in maintaining the mood. There is plenty of action and more than adequate blood spilling and we also get a fiery and resourceful heroine from Algar’s Sarah, who has to battle the creature once Mark is badly wounded early on. It’s a small film and true, some scenes could have used more impact but, otherwise this is a fresh twist on the time-worn vampire story and a case where the ambiguity of our blood sucking fiend works very well for it. The Nosferatu-like creature (Ged Murray) is effective and kept in shadow and there is a tense cat and mouse game between it and Sarah for the last act. McMahon also establishes Sarah and Mark’s relationship and character very quickly which helps us sympathize and empathize with them throughout the story. There is some crisp cinematography and good use of the remote Irish locations by Michael Lavelle and a spooky score by Ray Harman to add to the film overall. A solid little horror.

I liked this little movie. It could have used a bit more intensity at times but, the minimalist approach worked very well in maintaining a subtle creepiness and the scenes of full-on horror are very effective. It’s atmospheric and manages to add a few small fresh twists to vampire lore while delivering the bloodshed and suspenseful action expected. Niamh Algar makes for a very endearing and feisty heroine and our creature is effectively vicious and mysterious. A good little horror that goes for a smaller, more intimate story in an age of bombastic FX overkill. Recommended.

-MonsterZero NJ

3 fangs.