Unfriended: Dark Web (2018): written and directed by Stephen Susco; starring Colin Woodell (Matias), Stephanie Nogueras (Amaya), Betty Gabriel (Nari), Rebecca Rittenhouse (Serena), Andrew Lees (Damon), Connor Del Rio (AJ), and Savira Windyani (Lexx):
Effective bit of social-network horror, to be watched only on a big screen or two feet away from a computer screen. Or by someone with a really big TV and really good eyesight! This second Unfriended film from the ubiquitous Blumhouse explores paranoia and conspiracy theories and privacy issues where the first explored on-line humiliation and bullying.
The leads are all likable and believably competent in the face of malign hyper-competence. There are genuine shocks amongst the jump-scares. I'm actually looking forward to more movies in this franchise, though I have a feeling that the next one may take place entirely on smartphones. Recommended.
Truth or Dare (2018): written by Michael Reisz, Jillian Jacobs, Christopher Roach, and Jeff Wadlow; directed by Jeff Wadlow; starring Lucy Hale (Olivia), Tyler Posey (Lucas), Violett Beane (Markie), Hayden Szeto (Brad), Sophia Ali (Penelope), Nolan Funk (Tyson), and Landon Liboiron (Carter):
So-so horror flick from the ubiquitous Blumhouse. Most of the cast is way older than the early 20's college students they play, a sometimes-distracting fact. A game of Truth or Dare turns supernaturally deadly because of a mysterious supernatural force.
I think the message of the film is 'Don't vacation in Mexico,' or maybe 'Don't play stupid teen-aged games in a sinister, abandoned church in Mexico.' Certainly an adequate time-waster, though even at a bare 90 minutes it feels about 15 minutes too long. Lightly recommended.
Cam (2018): written by Isa Mazzel, Daniel Goldhaber, and Isabelle Link-Levy; directed by Daniel Goldhaber; starring Madeline Brewer (Alice/ Lola), Patch Darragh (Tinker), Melora Walters (Lynne), Devin Druid (Jordan), Imani Hakim (Baby), and Michael Dempsey (Barney): Former cam-girl Isa Mazzel co-wrote this horror movie of stolen identities and mysterious online presences (she also cameos as a check-out clerk).
Protagonist Alice, screen-name 'Lola,' finds her attempts to climb the ladder of popularity for cam-girls complicated by the appearance of another cam-girl who looks and sounds exactly like her -- and is willing to do stuff that Lola is not.
Cam takes us into cam-girl culture, an online niche I'm not that familiar with. Alice seems to make a good living from her feed, supplementing it with gifts from some of her more ardent admirers. The ardent admirers are... pretty creepy. Is one of them the source of doppel-Lola? Or is something even weirder going on?
Madeline Brewer makes for an engaging protagonist. The film doesn't condescend to her cam-girl shenanigans -- it's a job, even if it involves nudity and feigned sex acts. And as things escalate both online and in the 'real' world, Alice has to find reserves of character she may not be aware of possessing. All this without a Very Special Ending in which cam-culture is revealed to be The End of the World As We Know It.
Cam is visually interesting, moving between the mundane colours of the day-to-day world and the vibrant f*ck-me colours of Lola's cam-room, other cam-rooms, and the online presences on the cam-girl site. Directot Goldhaber handles both the gradually building weirdness and a couple of explosions of violence with care. There's even a stunner of an 'embarrassment' scene that doesn't pay off later in quite the way the viewer expects it will.
In all, this Netflix film is a solid piece of horror, its characterization of Alice sensitive, its willingness to avoid pat answers a godsend. It even plays fair within the rules of the cam-girl site when it comes to facing the mysterious entity. Highly recommended.
Happy Death Day (2017): written by Scott Lobdell; directed by Christopher Landon; starring Jessica Rothe (Theresa 'Tree' Gelbman), Israel Broussard (Carter Davis), Ruby Modine (Lori), Charles Aitken (Gregory Butler), and Rachel Matthews (Danielle):
Satiric slasher riff on Groundhog Day gradually loses steam towards the end of its eternally returning day of doom for a grumpy sorority girl.
Still, it's a fairly engaging piece of entertainment for most of its length. Part of the reason it bogs down is that it also wants to be a heart-warming tale of someone who learns better, riffing as much on A Christmas Carol as Groundhog Day in this regard. The funniest scene comes as the sorority girl and her new boyfriend discuss Groundhog Day and the films of Bill Murray.
Jessica Rothe does a decent job of making our time-shifted protagonist growingly sympathetic as she tries and fails again and again to avoid her fate. The identity of the killer seems sort of obvious to me, but your results may vary. There's a red herring that feels like it needed another two or three minutes of exposition, or some personal connection to the protagonist that never materializes. It's another Blumhouse horror movie. Are they trying to match the annual horror output of Hammer or AIP back in the 1950's and 1960's? Lightly recommended.
Seven in Heaven (2018): written and directed by Chris Eigeman; starring Travis Tope (Jude), Gary Cole (The Guidance Counselor), Haley Ramm (June), and Clark Backo (Nell): Filmed in Brampton, Ontario! Very slight Blumhouse Joint is less horror movie and more Mirror Universe episode by way of Narnia's magic closet and some risible playing cards. The cast is at least pleasant. Gary Cole wanders through as a Guidance Counselor with mysterious powers. An adequate time-waster for Netflix, but certainly avoidable if you've got something else to watch or do. Very lightly recommended.
Sinister 2 (2015): written and created by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill; directed by Ciaran Foy; starring James Ransone (The Deputy), Shannyn Sossamon (Courtney Collins), Robert Sloan (Dylan Collins), and Dartanian Sloan (Zach Collins): Any and all name actors having been eradicated in the first movie (or in between the first and second movie in the case of Vincent D'Onofrio's literally phoned-in professor in Sinister), Sinister 2 comes across as comfortably anonymous.
That's a good thing for some horror movies, this one included. Bughul the demon still remains regrettably visualized from the neck down, the scary face of the early scenes of Sinister burdened with a blazer-and-pants combo that suggest the Sumerian boogeyman just got off his yacht and is about to offer the viewer a gin-and-tonic. But the performances by the kids are pretty good, Shannyn Sossamon has a sweet desperation to her character, and James Ransone brings a goofy charm to the hero of this one.
Yet another stupid 'stinger' ending ruins some of my good feelings towards this movie. Stop it, horror movies. Stop it right now. In a demonstration of 'less is more' in horror, the scariest scene in the movie involves a ham radio's creepy broadcast. Recommended.
Ouija: based on the Hasbro board game; written by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White; directde by Stiles White; starring Olivia Cooke (Laine Morris), Ana Coto (Sarah Morris), Douglas Smith (Pete), and Daren Kagasoff (Trevor) (2014): This wouldn't be the worst horror movie in the world if it were the first horror movie someone ever saw. The scares are pretty tame and the 'twist' ending stereotypically lame, but the young actors are surprisingly good. The direction underplays everything, leading to a bit of dullness.
That Ouija is actually a licensed Hasbro board game is probably unknown to most people. What's surprising in a contemporary movie of this sort is that no one uses the Internet to research ghost-busting. What's divertingly stupid about this movie is that no one researches anything useful. One interesting tic of the script is that the teens are on their own in a world in which parents and helpful adults are almost as rare as in a Peanuts cartoon. As those ubiquitous Blumhouse horror joints go, far from the worst. Very lightly recommended.
