Movies
Chillerama (limited)
“As the experience that it currently is, I just can’t recommend ‘Chillerama’. I believe “I Was A Teenage Werebear” is 26 minutes long and I’d be willing to take another look if it were exactly that many minutes shorter. It still wouldn’t be my favorite movie of all time (or even my favorite of the talent involved), but it would become something I wouldn’t mind watching again over a few beers.”
Alright – a few words before I really get into things here. First of all, there’s a good amount of Adam Green and Joe Lynch’s work I really like. Hatchet, Frozen and Wrong Turn 2 included. I’m looking forward to Lynch’s Knights Of Badassdom and his Everly project sounds interesting as well. These guys are going to continue to grow as filmmakers and I’m excited to see where they go. So as much as it bums me out to write this review, I’m glad Chillerama is the one-off experiment that it seems to be. As far as Adam Rifkin goes, he has the best segment in the film. He had kind of fallen off my radar a bit and I’m glad to have him back on it.
Most importantly – the vignette I have the harshest criticism for is Tim Sullivan’s “I Was A Teenage Werebear.” It’s gay themed, and that is not at all the problem I have with it. The werewolf myth has always had a sexual metaphor component, so to use it in this context is perfectly appropriate. Especially when you consider the fact that werewolf films often feature a protagonist struggling to come to terms with the true self emerging from within – I actually feel that it’s an especially apt device for examining the process of emerging from the closet and coming to terms with one’s own sexuality. Unfortunately the piece is tone-deaf and inarticulate. I’m not anti-gay, I’m just anti-bad.
Chillerama starts off promisingly enough. The first segment of Joe Lynch’s “Zom-B-Movie” (which is a wraparound device that threads the story together thematically – and provides the film’s climax) plays out nicely with a wistful nostalgia for drive-in movies and a love of cinema. I was engaged and actually found myself having a surprising bit of sympathy for Richard Riehle’s Cecil Kaufman. A guy who’s lost his wife and is about to lose his drive-in theater. His main companion is his Orson Welles poster – the guy’s a relic and he knows it. It all works, at least initially.
From there we head into “Wadzilla”, a riff on 1950’s atomic monster movies which is actually kind of a blast. Adam Rifkin stars (in addition to writing/directing) as a decent guy with an extremely low sperm count. Ray Wise is great as his chain-smoking physician and the entire ensemble is more than able to carry the 1950’s camp tone throughout. I already had the image of a giant sperm attacking the Statue Of Liberty in my head and suspected this was going to be my least favorite segment – but it’s funny, gross, and good-natured. The story is well rounded and satisfying and it gets Chillerama off to a great start.
Then we head back into “Zom-B-Movie”. I’m still digging it. The different dynamics of the people in their cars at the drive-in still work. Cecil’s story still works. I bring this up because – since “Zom-B-Movie” keeps unfolding throughout Chillerama – I’m kind of wondering if I should be using it as the barometer for how the film works ‘pre’ and ‘post’ “Werebear”. Kind of like how you might define your life in terms of ‘pre’ and ‘post’ 9/11 or how your parents might talk about the way things were before Kennedy was assassinated.
“I Was A Teenage Werebear” is an unmitigated disaster. It’s inarticulate, incompetently shot, stupid and ugly. It is pure ego unleashed upon the screen with no filter. You know how sometimes you’re glad people like Paul Thomas Anderson don’t have anyone to hold them back? They either get their financing or they don’t – but if they do – they make their f*cking movie. This is the other side of the coin. It has a of couple interesting themes that it drives into the ground with such careless repetition that it feels like a toddler with OCD is shouting the same thing into your ear for almost half an hour. After she’s hit by a truck poor Gabby West is stuck playing the single worst recurring joke I have seen in recent memory. I single her out because she’s such a good sport about it and plays it with such commitment. Gabby, it does get better.
“Werebear’s” beach-party conclusion is so awfully staged I found myself zoning out. There is no sense of geography to any of the action and the way the villain of the piece gets his comeuppance is totally consistent with Sullivan’s primary interest – making a splash instead of making a film. Egregiously, it’s the longest segment in the film by a noticeable margin.
Then we head back into “Zom-B-Movie.” I’m no longer in the mood. The same characters in the same setting with the same story that I was enjoying well enough before. But now the air has totally been let out of the balloon. Everything seems flat. It’s extremely hard to tell if Lynch’s segment actually drops off in quality or if I’m just so beaten down by “Werebear” that I’ve lost the will to embrace celluloid. Chillerama was never intended to be a masterpiece but what was once tasty cinematic junk food has turned to ashes in my mouth.
There’s a brief uptick when we head into Adam Green’s “The Diary Of Anne Frankenstein.” Perhaps brought on by the fact that it’s in black & white and I no longer want anything to do with colors after “Werebear”. Joel David Moore and Kristina Klebe are funny as Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun and Kane Hodder is game as the Frankenstein monster, Meshugannah. But, fun as it is in places, it’s an intentionally slight effort. It’s the tamest piece of the film and I almost would have preferred to see it closer to the beginning of Chillerama so there was more of a sense of escalation. Green is a funny guy and the whole thing is well put together – but it’s too little too late.
Back to “Zom-B-Movie” – the film reaches its climax with Riehle’s Kaufman mobilizing our two young heroes to action. There’s a lot of cool zombie kills (I especially liked the bioluminescent bodily fluids spraying everywhere) and a lot of famous one-liners. The very last moment is a nice – and I think honest – shout out to what most people should be doing when faced with imminent death. I should have been laughing and cheering. I could have been laughing and cheering under other circumstances. But, instead, I was spent.
If I break it down, how does Chillerama stack up? I don’t know. Rifkin comes out aces. Green and Lynch’s pieces certainly have their moments but don’t live up to their prior works. Though again – I literally cannot tell how much context has to do with it in this case. You could show me John Carpenter’s The Thing after ‘Werebear” and I really don’t know what I would have to say about it.
As the experience that it currently is, I just can’t recommend Chillerama. I believe “I Was A Teenage Werebear” is 26 minutes long and I’d be willing to take another look if it were exactly that many minutes shorter. It still wouldn’t be my favorite movie of all time (or even my favorite of the talent involved), but it would become something I wouldn’t mind watching again over a few beers.
What’s that? Another EIGHT new horror movies are releasing this week?! The fresh horrors on tap include a prequel to a box office hit, a violent thriller produced by Sam Raimi, the feature debut of a horror master’s daughter, and a skin-crawling nightmare filled with spiders.
Here’s all the new horror releasing April 22, 2024 – April 28, 2024!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
First up we have a TV series rather than a movie, but we wanted to remind you that Prime Video’s “Them: The Scare,” the second season of the anthology series, premieres on April 25.
The first season of “Them” (now retroactively dubbed “Covenant”) debuted back in 2021, and this second installment of the anthology series will consist of eight episodes.
“Them: The Scare” will once again be set in Los Angeles…
The story centers on LAPD Homicide Detective Dawn Reeve, who is assigned to a new case: the gruesome murder of a foster home mother that has left even the most hardened detectives shaken. Navigating a tumultuous time in Los Angeles, with a city on the razor’s edge of chaos, Dawn is determined to stop the killer.
But as she draws closer to the truth, something malevolent grips her and her family.
The series cast includes Deborah Ayorinde as “Detective Dawn Reeve,” Pam Grier as “Athena,” and Grammy-nominated musician and actor Luke James as “Edmund Gaines.”
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with Humane, only in theaters on Friday, April 26.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the earth’s population.”
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
Jay Baruchel (This Is The End), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie), Sebastian Chacon (Emergency), Alanna Bale (Sort Of, Cardinal) and Sirena Gulamgaus (Transplant) star in Caitlin Cronenberg’s Humane.
Sébastien Vaniček has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, but first we need to experience the film that landed him the hot directing gig in the first place. It’s a spider horror movie titled Infested (Vermines), and it hits Shudder on April 26.
Watch the creepy, crawly trailer for Infested below, which looks a bit like Evil Dead Rise… with spiders. It’s already easy to see why Vaniček was chosen to direct an Evil Dead movie!
In the horror film, “Kaleb is about to turn 30 and has never been lonelier. He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”
Théo Christine (“Suprêmes”), Finnegan Oldfield (“Final Cut”), Jérôme Niel (“Smoking Causes Coughing”), Sofia Lesaffre (“Les Misérables”) and Lisa Nyarko star.
Described as a heart pounding thriller set in the future, Jennifer Hudson and Milla Jovovich lead the cast of Breathe, coming to theaters and Digital on Friday, April 26.
In the film, “After Earth is left uninhabitable due to lack of oxygen, a mother Maya (Hudson) and her daughter Zora (Wallis) are forced to live underground, with short trips to the surface only made possible by a coveted state of the art oxygen suit made by Maya’s husband, Darius, whom she presumes to be dead. When a mysterious couple arrives claiming to know Darius and his fate, Maya tentatively agrees to let them into their bunker but these visitors are not who they claim to be ensuing in mother and daughter fighting for survival.”
Stefon Bristol directed Breathe, written by Doug Simon. The impressive cast also includes Quvenzhané Wallis and Raúl Castillo with Common and Sam Worthington.
Bill Skarsgård takes on the role of a deaf-mute action hero in Boy Kills World, a one-of-a-kind action spectacle set in a dystopian fever dream reality. The film comes from producers Sam Raimi and Roy Lee, and while not a horror movie, it’s a violent thriller all the same. Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions will release Boy Kills World into theaters this Friday.
Moritz Mohr directed Boy Kills World, which was written by Arend Remmers (Sløborn) and Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury: The Movie).
In Boy Kills World, “Boy (Bill Skarsgård) is a deaf-mute with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.”
The cast also includes Happy Death Day star Jessica Rothe, Yayan Ruhian (John Wick 3, The Raid: Redemption), Andrew Koji (Warrior, Snake Eyes), Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Famke Janssen (The Postcard Killings), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Quinn Copeland (Peacock’s Punky Brewster), and twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies).
Indonesian filmmaker Kimo Stamboel (Macabre, Headshot, The Queen of Black Magic) is back with MD Pictures’ Badarawuhi Di Desa Penari (aka Dancing Village: The Curse Begins), a prequel to the Indonesian hit movie KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village.
Lionsgate releases Dancing Village: The Curse Begins in select theaters on April 26.
In the horror prequel, “a shaman instructs Mila to return a mystical bracelet, the Kawaturih, to the ‘Dancing Village,’ a remote site on the easternmost tip of Java Island. Joined by her cousin, Yuda, and his friends Jito and Arya, Mila arrives on the island only to discover that the village elder has passed away, and that the new guardian, Mbah Buyut, isn’t present. Various strange and eerie events occur while awaiting Mbah Buyut’s return, including Mila being visited by Badarawuhi, a mysterious, mythical being who rules the village.
“When she decides to return the Kawaturih without the help of Mgah Buyut, Mila threatens the village’s safety, and she must join a ritual to select the new ‘Dawuh,’ a cursed soul forced to dance for the rest of her life.”
Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata, Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ardit Erwandha, Claresta Taufan, Diding Boneng, Aming Sugandhi, Dinda Kanyadewi, Pipien Putri, Maryam Supraba, Bimasena, Putri Permata, Baiq Vania Estiningtyas Sagita, and Baiq Nathania Elvaretta star.
KKN Curse Of The Dancing Village was the highest grossing film in Indonesian box office history when initially released in 2022. Its prequel is the first film made for IMAX movie ever produced in Southeast Asia and in 2024, it will be one of only five films made for IMAX productions worldwide.
While you wait for Cinderella’s Curse, another Cinderella-based horror movie is beating that movie to the punch. It’s titled Cinderella’s Revenge, coming to theaters April 26.
The Wrap recently reported, “The film stars Lauren Staerck as the famed young lady who finds freedom from her wicked stepmother with the help of her fairy godmother. Only this time, instead of sending her to a ball to find her prince, the godmother (Natasha Henstridge) helps Cinderella unleash a plan of bloody vengeance.”
Stephanie Lodge, Beatrice Fletcher, Megan Purvis and Darrell Griggs also star.
“I’m so excited for audiences to see this newly imagined horror version of Cinderella in theaters. The picture is scary and fun at the same time,” said producer Mark L. Lester.
In the wake of her return in last year’s box office hit Saw X, horror icon Shawnee Smith is back in Vertical’s horror movie Bloodline Killer, hitting select theaters & VOD on April 26.
Directed by Ante Novakovic, Bloodline Killer is being described by Vertical as “a terrifying horror-thriller that follows Moira Cole who endeavors to rebuild her shattered life after the murder of her family at the hands of her deranged and obsessed cousin.”
The cast also includes Taryn Manning, Drew Moerlein, James Gaudioso, Montanna Gillis, Kresh Novakovic, Adam Shippey, Anthony Gaudioso with Bruce Dern and Tyrese Gibson.
Tubi has been ramping up their Tubi Original horror movies in the last several months, and the latest one is headed to the streaming service on Friday. It’s titled This Never Happened.
In the film from director Ted Campbell, “While staying at her boyfriend’s childhood home with him and his friends, a young woman experiences terrifying visions of a violent spirit.”
María José De La Cruz, Javier Dulzaides, Conny Cambambia, Juana Serrano, and Gonzalo Zulueta star in the Tubi Original movie. You can watch the trailer down below.
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