Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For - Report 1

Victim in the throes of death? Killer in the throes of . . . killing?

I don't need to remind anyone that I'm a huge fan of the horror genre. It should be painfully obvious to those of you who read this site. Yes, I'm a massive fan of movies in general, but horror films are of particular interest to me. Why? Partly because I was raised on them. I used to watch monster movies with my mom when I was a wee lad. The classic Universal monster movies (i.e. Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolfman, etc.), Them, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. You name it, I watched it. When I was eight, I saw Carrie in a theater. It was my first real introduction to the genre in a movie house (actually, I saw Jaws at a Drive-In a year or two earlier, but that was an entirely different kind of horror movie) and I was all but hooked immediately. Through the years, I've become quite the connoisseur of the genre. It makes my friends laugh. They'll say something like; " How can you possibly put The Descent and Hostel on a best of list right along side titles like The Queen, The Departed, United 93, and Thank You For Smoking?" The answer is quite simple. The Descent and Hostel are great movies in terms of the genre they're representing.

When I heard the new movie distributor After Dark Films would be throwing a special one weekend only festival as a means to showcase eight horror pictures they deemed "to shocking for the general public," I should have known better than to get my hopes up. After all, these particular films would be screened in regular "public" movie houses across the country. Still, I had to be there. I'm always on the look out for that next special horror flick.

And in fact, 2006 has been a damn good year for horror films. The Descent, Hostel, Feast and Slither are exceptional. Even some of the more flawed genre pictures this year have had moments worth mentioning be it the visual splendor of the trippy Silent Hill or the brutality of The Hills Have Eyes update. Hell, I even enjoyed Saw III.

Are the After Dark films I saw at Horror-Fest better than the previously mentioned movies? I'd say no, but I still commend the distributor for opening the door for new film makers.

Unfortunately, I hadn't the time to see all eight films, but I did manage to knock out five of them. Here's the rundown.

UNREST
Starring Corri English, Scot Davis, Joshua Alba, and Derrick O'Connor

Unrest weaves it's tale around a group of medical students who come face to face with a disturbed spirit while learning the finer points of Gross Anatomy. Suffice it to say, this is nothing like the TV show. And in fact, the film makers allegedly used real cadavers for the making of the film.

Unrest isn't without it's creepy moments. There's an effective scene in which our fearless heroine Alison Blanchard (Corri English)–a woman whom, for whatever reason, can sense restless spirits--stares at a sheet covered corpse, laid out on a stretcher in a hospital hallway. As she continues to stare, she notices blood seeping through the sheet. As the blood becomes more and more plentiful, the body...well, I won't spoil the surprise here. That would be a cheap shot. Besides, there really aren't a whole lot of surprises throughout the movie, so that would make it an even bigger spoiler.

Shot mostly in Salt Lake City, Unrest can't seem to maintain any sort of consistency. It starts off strong enough, and I must confess, I was fairly engrossed, and wanted to know where the hell the movie was headed. Sadly, the mid portion of the film, in which we find out why this particular spirit is at unrest, is pretty darned dull and uninspired. Thankfully though, the movie rebounds a bit in the final act. There's a repulsive bit of nasty business featuring a tank full of corpses and body parts.

I do give Unrest it's props for injecting a little more character than the average horror film. Alison is an atheist, and when she begins encountering things she doesn't understand, her opinion of the hereafter begins to sway. Still though, other films of the genre have handled similar themes to much stronger effect (including Exorcism of Emily Rose and Prince of Darkness).

Most of the performances are decent. I really enjoyed Derrick O' Connor as the Gross Anatomy professor.

Unrest isn't horrible. Clearly, it's low budget, and director Jason Todd Ipson does manage to pull off a few effective moments, but the movie never came together for me as a whole. I liked the restrained nature of the project, but it never scared me.

As for the reports that real cadavers were used, it's hard to say. Certainly some of them look real, but I suppose only those involved in the making of the film know for sure.

Grade: C+

DARK RIDE
Starring Jamie-Lynn DiScala, Patrick Renna, Andrea Bogart, and David Clayton Rogers

Dark Ride isn't a mere homage to 80's slasher films. For much of it's running time, it actually feels as if it were made in the 80's. And in fact, this movie is big time tip of the hat to Tobe Hooper's The Funhouse. Dark Ride even makes indirect references to that gem of the movie.

As Dark Ride opens, we learn of a terrible incident that claims the lives of two young girls at an amusement park horror house attraction. Cut to several years later, a group of college students stop at the very same attraction while on a road trip. Little do they know that a crazed psychopath has just escaped from a nearby mental institution and claimed this particular Dark Ride as his home. Eager for adventure on a late rainy night and completely unaware of the terror that awaits them, these twenty-somethings bust into the attraction hoping for a few cheap thrills.

Dark Ride has a lot going for it in the early goings on. It has energy and a spirited cast. Patrick Renna (the freckled youngster from The Sandlot and Son-In-Law) is a riot as movie geek Bill. He's simply excited that the cool guys on campus would invite him along on their road trip. His stab at Michael Cimino's widely ridiculed Heaven's Gate is laugh out loud hilarious. The most entertaining of the cast though, is Andrea Bogart who appears as a hitchhiking bimbo. Her introduction monologue had me in stitches. It also helps that she's the only gal in the cast who's willing to get naked (an 80's slasher film prerequisite), and yes, she's hot.

There is gore in Dark Ride but not as much as I hoped for. There is a decapitation sequence worth the price of admission, not because of the head severing itself, but because of what's happening when the head's being chopped off.

Director Craig Singer brings a lot of energy to the project but loses his way once we're inside the "Dark Ride." Inside the attraction he resorts to flashy editing. What's more, much of the film, most notably the scenes when the killer strikes, are shot in muddled fashion. It's hard to see what the hell is going on.

How's the killer? Well, he's no Jason or Freddy, but I like that we never see his face, and I enjoyed his slow, menacing demeanor. Too bad his big exit in the film isn't nearly grand enough.

As for the plot, it's somewhat amusing, particularly if you're a fan of 80's slasher movies. Since I grew up on them, I guess I just saw the humor in it. The film even offers up a twist that reminded me of three other 80's standards, Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, and April Fool's Day. Sadly though, the ending of Dark Ride falls flat in a big way.

Dark Ride has it's moments. It's a nice balance of comedy and horror, but it doesn't offer up much of a payoff, and once the central characters are knee deep in shit, the movie becomes surprisingly tepid.

Grade: C+

Watch for Report # 2 featuring Grave Dancers, The Abandoned, and Penny Dreadful