Chris’ Mini-Bite Recap of Some Recent Horror Films in his DVD Player.

Man, I wish I had more time to devote to writing, but the reality is lately I’m swamped. Between work, home responsibilities, projects, supporting DIY shows, I can barely keep up with my favorite past time: watching, thinking about, and writing about horror films. Sometimes I feel like I’m doing a huge disservice to the genre when I don’t take time to fully explore exactly what it is I’m trying to articulate in my posts. I always feel like I forgot to mention something important.

I’ve decided in the interest of keeping up with posting new content to All Things Horror, as well as finding some zen moments in an otherwise breakneck lifestyle, I’m going to do some occasional mini-bite reviews. These will serve to make sure I’m writing something, and that anyone interested in reading this blog will get some new bites to chew on. I’m going to try to limit them to a paragraph each, but who knows if that’ll stick.

Anyway, here are a few films I recently watched and figured worth time to comment:



Summer School (2009): I’ve been pretty excited about this ever since my bud Cortez the Killer at Planet of Terror posted a very enthusiastic write up about it a few weeks ago. Since I had a long weekend to catch up on a few movies, I decided to check it out on Netflix watch now. I’m glad I did! Even though it took me about 25 minutes to get past the mess of a beginning (oh lord, the soundtrack) and spotty acting, it settled into a nice little flick that was obviously short on cash, but long in imagination and fun. I liked the Groundhog Day meets Waxwork (Anthony Hickcox) vibe where the central character was forced to live out various horror movie scenarios every time he nodded off in class. There were some really good special effects, a few bad ones, nice use of location, and mostly solid performances from the amateur actors that were probably the director’s buddies. Pretty fun overall, but don’t expect a masterpiece.



Carriers (2009): Mike and I don’t always agree, but we can usually find common ground with most horror flicks. However, (this is a BIG “however”) I absolutely hated this movie, while Mike put it in his top ten of the year (as well as a few other trusted bloggers). I was actually screaming at Carriers the entire time because I hated it so much. I just couldn’t get past the feel that someone took a Melrose Place level TV show and injected an apocalypse virus scenario in at the last minute. I think it may have to do with a failure to set the stage properly. How long has this been going on and why is everyone acting like they’re headed to Ft. Lauderdale for Spring Break? Why isn’t anyone upset about their dead families. Are they so traumatized that their banter and behavior feels like they're on an excursion to catch a few waves and get laid? For such a supposedly bleak and depressing movie, I just didn’t get a sense of things being all that bad. I mean, I get that people sometimes divorce themselves from reality as a mental survival tactic during a catastrophe or might joke to ease tension, but the dialogue and actions of the characters seemed really hokey to me. Ugh, I’m frustrated thinking about it. I appreciate that the filmmakers broke some conventions, especially in terms of making and following some grim rules. I don’t know, something about this made me understand why it never got a proper release. Anyway, I don’t like to focus too much on negative reviews. Usually when I hate something this much, I’ll skip talking about it in lieu of discussing something I did enjoy. Sorry, Mike. I love you!



Life is Hot in Cracktown (2009): Ok, this is not technically a horror film, but it does present the pretty horrifying way of life for those struggling in the drug and violence plagued inner city. Based on his novel of the same name (which is brutal as all hell), the film version was directed by Buddy Giovinazzo who made the startling bleak, low-budget film Combat Shock (1985). Decades later, he is still portraying the lives of very realistic, but extremely desperate everyday folks. Some critics have accused Giovinazzo of being too over-the-top or too relentlessly depressing in his work. However, his style is to paint an overwhelmingly hopeless picture that mirrors the hopelessness of the real people who live daily in these situations. This film is unflinching in its brutality, but always offers a glimmer of hope in the form of love some of the characters feel for each other. Again, this one is relentlessly bleak, so don’t start your day out with it or you’ll be bummed.



Before the Fall (Tres Días) (2009): This is a pre-apocalyptic horror film that explores events that unfold before a catastrophe has taken place. B-Movie Becky over at The Horror Effect wrote a great review about how she accidentally stumbled upon a screening of it. The inhabitants of the entire world have become aware that in just three days a meteor will hit the earth, scientifically assured to kill everyone on the planet. Handyman Alejandro just wants to get drunk and listen to music for the last few days, but finds himself compelled to protect his family from a revenge-seeking killer from the past. At first Alejandro resists getting involved, but soon finds himself immersed in a life or death situation where the outcome really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things. Or does it? What does matter is a lesson Alejandro learns along the way: That one’s actions really do matter, even if the end of the world is near. Really, death is just around the corner for all of us, and wouldn’t it be better to leave as an honorable person? I wasn’t quite sold on the killer part of the movie when it descended into a typical climax, but everything else was so well-done, it didn’t bother me too much.