The Influence (La Influencia) (2019): adapted from the Ramsey Campbell novel by Michel Gaztambide, Daniel Rissech, and Denis Rovira van Boekholt; directed by Denis Rovira van Boekholt; starring Manuela Velles (Alicia), Alain Hernandez (Mikel), Emma Suarez (Victoria), and Claudia Placer (Nora):
Available on Netflix, The Influence (made in Spain and thus really 'La Influencia') very loosely adapts Ramsey Campbell's superior late 1980's horror novel to decent effect. Some changes make sense either because there's a need for compression in a 100-minute adaptation of a 350-page novel or because certain things in the novel aren't 'cinematic.' Some of those changes may make one view The Influence as being derivative of Hereditary, though Campbell's novel predates that movie by 30 years.
Chief among these later 'cinematic' changes is the decision to have the malign, elderly Victoria on life support for the duration of the film. In the novel, she dies at the beginning. But I can understand the film-makers wanting to leave the door open for a physical battle between 'Good' and 'Evil' at the climax of the film and not simply a spiritual one.
There are other weird lapses that make me wonder about a longer cut of the movie. The disappearance of a major character goes almost unremarked-upon. The coda seems a bit rushed and implausible as one would imagine SOME further police investigation of the events of the movie.
A few moments of implausibility do jar one out of the horror narrative from time to time. I mean, can you really start a massive fire in your urban backyard in Spain and not arouse the attentions of the police and fire department? Because that is one seriously big fire that gets started about halfway through the movie.
The direction is mostly assured, though, and The Influence has a lot of scares both intellectual and visceral. The actors are all competent, especially the child actor playing Nora. And there's a really nice design for a demonic figure, made more effective by the decision not to linger too long on it. Recommended.
The Silence (2019): adapted from the Tim Lebbon novel by Carey and Shane Van Dyke; directed by John R. Leonetti; starring Stanley Tucci (Hugh Andrews), Kiernan Shipka (Ally Andrews), Miranda Otto (Kelly Andrews), Kyle Breitkopf (Jude Andrews), Kate Trotter (Lynn), and John Corbett (Glenn):
Competent horror-thriller just as long as you don't think too hard about its central presence. Like A Quiet Place, it pits a small family group against monsters that hunt by sound.
In this case, the monsters come from a recently opened cave system "1000 feet below the Earth" rather than space. They look like the offspring of Gremlins and medieval gargoyles. They breed so fast that they rapidly threaten the Earth. What were they eating in that cave system during their millions of years of imprisonment? One another, I guess.
It's all solid and occasionally squirmy. Don't think too hard about the creatures' sensitivity to sound and the way they swarm it. Or what they ate. Stanley Tucci and Miranda Otto are solid pros. As in A Quiet Place, a deaf daughter plays a key role, along with American sign language. Certainly an adequate time-waster with something of an abrupt ending. Lightly recommended.
It Comes At Night (2017): written and directed by Trey Edward Shults; starring Joel Edgerton (Paul), Christopher Abbott (Will), Carmen Ejogo (Sarah), Riley Keough (Kim), Kelvin Harrison Jr. (Travis), and Griffin Robert Faulkner (Andrew):
Tense, claustrophobic thriller is set during some sort of zombie-plague apocalypse but uses that apocalypse to explore the horrors of human beings under pressure. Father, mother, and teen-aged son hide in a house in the woods. A stranger arrives. Charity fights with fear.
Anyone expecting pitched battles with the walking dead will be disappointed in It Comes At Night. But if you're in the mood for a downbeat tale of character and failure, the movie is a solid effort. It's a use of the zombie to comment on human frailties that the Grandfather of Zombie Movies, George 'Night of the Living Dead' Romero, would have thoroughly enjoyed and endorsed. 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.
Veronica (2017): written by Fernando Navarro and Paco Plaza; directed by Paco Plaza; starring Sandra Escacena (Veronica), Bruna Gonzalez (Lucia), Claudia Placer (Irene), Ivan Chavero (Antonito), Ana Torrent (Ana), and Consuelo Trujillo (Hermana Muerte):
Set in 1991, Veronica is vaguely inspired by a 'true story.' It's about as truthful as The Exorcist -- the events of the film are entirely the invention of the Spanish director/co-writer best known for the found-footage horror film REC.
The real events involved the death of a young woman. So even with the names changed and the events leading up to that death entirely invented, there's more than a whiff of exploitation to the film. That's too bad. It's a solid supernatural thriller with a sympathetic teen-aged protagonist (Veronica, that is). Traumatized by the recent death of her father and overwhelmed by doing the majority of the care-giving for her three younger siblings, she's gradually going adrift.
And then she and two friends decide to consult a Ouija board.
During a solar eclipse.
Oops.
And there's also a somewhat sinister, elderly, blind nun at Veronica's school who warns her of tampering with the supernatural. Too late!
The result is a movie that conveys creeping, escalating dread quite nicely. Though it's no wonder there's a blind nun at the school -- the protocols the school follows for watching that eclipse would result in a whole lot of visually impaired school children. It's a pretty distracting sequence, really, because it's born of inadequate research and not intentional horror.
Boy, do those nuns not understand how the sun during an eclipse works! Maybe they should have consulted a Ouija board! 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.
Malevolent (2018): adapted by Ben Ketai and Eva Konstanopoulos from the novel Hush by Eva Konstanopoulos; directed by Olaf de Fleur; starring Florence Pugh (Angela), Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Jackson), Scott Chambers (Elliot), Georgina Bevan (Beth), and Celia Imrie (Mrs. Green):
Solid straight-to-Netflix horror movie about fake paranormal investigators and real ghosts. Hey, didn't Supernatural do that bit years ago? And Stephen Volk's The Awakening? There are probably a few too many jump-scares and not enough set-up, but for the most part the movie plays fair with its ghosts and monsters and psychics real and imaginary.
It also makes surprisingly effective use of the 1958 novelty hit "Beep Beep" (aka "Little Nash Rambler"). Certainly better than most of the Insidious/Sinister/Conjuring movies, though bafflingly set in 1986. Because there weren't any cellphones? That's my best guess. Recommended.
Cargo (2017): written by Yolanda Ramke; directed by Yolanda Ramke and Ben Howling; starring Martin Freeman (Andy), Anthony Hayes (Vic), and Simone Landers (Thoomi): One of those Netflix movies whose lack of a theatrical appearance baffles the viewer. It's a zombie-plague movie set in Australia with fine performances from Martin Freeman and Simone Landers. Landers is especially good as Thoomi, the 11-year-old aboriginal girl whom Freeman meets in the countryside at a dire moment.
The plague has been around long enough that "countdown watches" are available to those recently bitten, giving a 48-hour count to the point at which a person will zombify. Freeman has been bitten as the movie begins. But in the depopulated countryside of Australia, he needs to find someone to take charge of his young daughter Rosie, the cutest 1-year-old girl ever to appear in a zombie movie.
Thoomi has her own trauma to deal with. The film-makers handle the growing friendship between the two delicately. It helps that Freeman's default acting mode is a sort of baffled, affable humanity. Thoomi is understandably cautious around him, but Rosie The World's Cutest Baby eventually wins her over.
There isn't a ton of violence in Cargo, though there is some zombie-fighting action (and human vs. human action, these catastrophic zombie events never bringing out the best in humanity). Cargo does hold out hope, though, in the manner of some of George Romero's genre-defining zombie classics. I shed a manly tear or two at the end. Recommended.
