Horrorfest 6: Even Festier

A little late getting these on here, but here goes:

THE LAZARUS EFFECT
(David Gelb, 2015)
Cross between Flatliners and Pet Semetary. Olivia Wilde and Mark Duplass play a couple trying to bring the dead back to life. An experiment on a dog works, but their research is shut down once the university they work for discovers what they're doing. So, as horror plotlines go, Wilde dies and is brought back to life. Of course, she doesn't come back "normal". This is a good setup for a horror film, but the film's second half has way too many cliches of modern horror (flashy jump cuts, overpowering soundtrack) and isn't scary at all. Sarah Bolger, Evan Peters and Donald Glover round out the hip cast. GRADE: C-

THE GREEN INFERNO
(Eli Roth, 2015)
Oh, Eli Roth. When will you grow? We get it - you love Cannibal Holocaust. The horror director's latest tracks a group of privileged college student activists as they go to the amazon (captured in some very cheap and overly saturated digital photography)
to save a swath of it that is being threatened by bulldozers. Their plane ends up crashing right into the heart of a tribe of cannibals. There's one really great, stomach turning set piece, but the rest is surprisingly tame given the director's track record. What is present is Roth's penchant for oddly placed, juvenile humor. I wish someone with more talent were to tackle a story like this. It's fun to be make fun of white privilege, but I'm not so hot on this film's anti-activism message. But hey, maybe #SJW's need a cautionary tale. The best part of this film may be musician Sky Ferreira's performance, which is so legitimately awful I wished she was in every frame. GRADE: D+

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 2
(Genndy Tartakovsky, 2015)
I didn't really like the first film. It had it's moments, but there's so few non-horror Halloween themed films out there I figured why not watch this one. Plus, my nephew wanted to see it. While the first film focused on the residents of the titular hotel, this one continues the story of Adam Sandler's vampire character who becomes a grandfather. The largest aspect of the plot is whether or not the grandson will be a vampire or human. Of course, the teaser trailer kind of gave that away. The film has some cute gags and my nephew liked it. Overall, it's entirely forgettable and there are better kid-friendly Halloween movies. The animation is fine, noting spectacular. Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Mel Brooks also contribute vocal work. GRADE: C

THE BATTERY
(Jeremy Gardner, 2014)
Two baseball players roam the New England wilderness months after the zombie apocalypse breaks out in this dark comedy. Very low budget (IMDB says $7k, but I don't buy that.), but definitely not without its charms. The non-actors are good, there's some clever scenes (a zombie lady being used as spank material!) and the final act takes place entirely in the back of a car. Best of all, whereas other apocalyptic films showcase people coming together to form makeshift families, this one cleverly depicts just how rocky a relationship with the only other living person would be. Excellent use of indie music on the soundtrack, too. One of the more original zombie fare I've seen in a while, and that's always appreciated. GRADE: B+

SPRING
(Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, 2015)
I'll echo what other reviewers have said: this is Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise crossed with HP Lovecraft. An American, recovering from his mother's death, takes a trip to Italy where he falls for a beautiful young woman with a, uh, interesting secret. My only gripe with this is I didn't quite understand what exactly was happening to her and why she needed to do what she needed to do. It was all explained so fast, but I guess that keeps with the film's whimsical yet still dark mood. More of a fantasy/romance with some horror and sci-fi elements, this is another low budget film that actually has some solid visual effects works, probably the most impressive creature since Splice. One thing I absolutely loved about this was Lou Taylor Pucci. I'll admit despite seeing his name on numerous indie films and the Evil Dead remake, I'm not all that familiar with him. He's so effortless, charming and sexy as this character I was just absolutely smitten. That's the kind of charisma and intuition most young actors wish they had. Come on, Hollywood! Give him some great material. Nadia Hilker co-stars as the bella. GRADE: B+

UNFRIENDED
(Leo Gabriadze, 2015)
So, Modern Family did something similar to this a few weeks before it opened, which oddly may have dwindled some of the interest. Truth be told, this works better than expected. While we've had found footage films, this is a live desktop (I guess that's what I'd call it?) horror film about a group of teens being stalked a year after the suicide of a classmate. Skype, Facebook and various other modern computer programs are utilized as a way of building suspense. My big issue is that - and I should say I have no idea if this was a problem in theaters - any time someone was typing something or there was a Facebook update, I had to squint to read it. So by about halfway into it, I had a massive headache and my eyes hurt. Surprisingly, there are some decent death scenes but the film isn't entirely successful in its endeavor. I kind of laughed at how long the ending credits were given someone probably could have made this movie for a couple hundred dollars. GRADE: C+

13 EERIE
(Lowell Dead, 2013)
Forensic students venture to the remote location of an old prison for a project involving examining corpses, but end up fending off mutated former inmates. Yeah, sounds fun? I knew this wouldn't be great, but I caught some of it on Chiller one night and didn't hate what I saw so I decided to save it for Horrorfest to watch unedited. It's about what I expected: stupid yet watchable. The gore is decent and I appreciated the old fashioned makeup effects. I didn't like the inmates turned the people into zombies, though. We can keep zombies out of every horror film, people! The characterizations are wafer thin, but I found the very last scene pretty amusing. They also didn't take advantage of the setting enough, as there were only about 4-5 locations used. Katherine Isabelle, no stranger to the genre, stars. GRADE: C