So Behind: The Hallow/The Sacrament/Devil

Ok, just let me first preface this post by saying, "Yes. I know. I'm all kinds of behind. I suck.

Well, there we go. Yeah, I'm an ass and I've fallen off the horror map. This past week was crazy with concerts and being off the grid camping, but I'm back now. This post'll be for three films, one of which I watched a few days ago and two from a double feature I did yesterday. That still puts me a few days behind, so looks like I gots me some double features in the future. 

So without further ado...

10/5: For tonight's horror film (and by that I mean last Wednesday's...) I watched the Irish flick The Hallow. The story centers around a young family (dad, mom, and infant daughter) who move from London to rural Ireland to scout an area that's been designated for removal by a lumber company. They are met with resistance from the entire town (the most vocal of whom being Roose Bolton) who fears that they will anger evil spirits that call the forest home.

'Git out muh forest or I'll... kill ya at ur weddin' er somethin'.

While having pretty typical conventions there was enough originality with this movie that I found I really enjoyed it. There's a clear love (at least for the most part) of practical special effects, especially with the monsters who are Pan's Labyrinth-esque and genuinely creepy; especially that damn momma evil spirit, the scene with the binky was brilliant. Colin Hardy, the director, does an excellent job of creating iconic images as well, from the flaming scythe to a scene involving escaping from a car trunk.

Ultimately The Hallow injects something fresh into the monster/zombie genre and truly captures an atmosphere that makes it memorable.

8/10

Double Feature!

10/9: The first movie for tonight was Ti West's The Sacrament. I'm starting to wonder if Ti West is beginning to suffer from M. Night Shamaylan's (sp? Eh, I don't care) Law of Diminishing Returns (each film he releases is half as good as the one before it), which is especially ironic as my other film for the double feature was Shamaylan-related. I loved West's first movie, House of the Devil, but The Innkeepers wasn't quite as strong and The Sacrament was largely pretty weak. I should have guessed with Eli Roth attached...

The Sacrament should really be called The Story of the Jim Jones Massacre but Not Really but Actually Yeah it Totally is. In case you don't know the Jim Jones massacre, Jim Jones was a cult leader that killed his "flock" of 900 by having them knowingly drink poisoned Kool-Aid. Jones ended up killing himself in the process and took down a US Congressmen and several reporters with him as well. Yeah, that's basically the plot of The Sacrament. Well, not even basically, it is.

From the poisoned Kool-Aid down to the Jim Jones-equivalent Father's (played masterfully by Gene Jones, by the way) suicide by revolver, West doesn't hide his inspiration. He does throw in a pretty disturbing self immolation scene and the modern trappings of VICE Magazine, but it's not enough to set The Sacrament apart from it's source material. It's an interesting story and disturbing as all hell, but if you're in the market then just make a Jim Jones movie. I kept waiting for something out of the Jim Jones story mold to happen; it never did, and that's what really hurt what could have been a unique and horrifying movie. Oh, and quit it with the shoehorned in found footage. It was killin' me here bruh.

5.5/10

My second movie for the night was Devil, story by Mr. Shamalamadingdong. Never encouraging, and neither was the plot: 5 people are stuck in an elevator and one of them is the Devil. Yeah. If this plot sounds familiar to you then yes, I'm flattered, you did read something similar to it in a short story I wrote in college. You are indeed correct in remembering that my story was way better as, you know, one of the people in the elevator was not the devil in my story. 

Joking aside, the bizarreness of such a storyline actually yields to some pretty cool potential for a movie. People stuck with themselves in an elevator, trapped guessing which one of them will kill next, digging deep into the flaws and fears of each character. Of course, Shamadingaling and crew (I know, he didn't direct) squanders this potential on a plethora of cheese and lame plot twists (his MO!), but still manages based on the novelty of the idea to make at least an entertaining movie. If you can look past the cheese, we'll call it Swiss if you will, it actually has it's own brand of fun. It's certainly not a masterpiece, but take a drink for every time something Shamalamabingbam-style contrived happens and you'll have a good time.

6/10