10 more great Halloween novelty songs

DEoL's readers will recall that last year, on the final day of the annual Halloween Badvent calendar, I posted links to 10 of my favourite Halloween novelty songs. Well, by popular request, here's ten more to get the Halloween party going.

#10 - The Beast of Sunset Strip - Teddy Durant - this is the B-side of Durant's only 45, all the way from 1965 (the A-ide was 'The Night Stalker', which is also great and worth checking out). 'The Beast' has three writing credits, namely Mr Durant, Darrel Dee and one C. Francis, popularly believed to be the Coleman Francis, legendary director of 1961's The Beast of Yucca Flats starring Swedish wrestler Tor Johnson and guest actor in a number of Ray Dennis Steckler movies (Teddy was also the publicist for this flick). Anyway, as well as being released on 45, it was also included as a track on the superb 1967 compilation LP 'Mondo Hollywood' (the soundtrack to the Robert Carl Cohen film of the same name, in which Teddy appears as himself conducting an interview) credited to 'Terry & Darrell' with the writing credits including 'T. Charach', apparently Teddy's real surname, his first being Theodore. In real life Darrel (real name Daryl) was actually Teddy's brother: they recorded a spoof album called 'These Are the Hits, You Silly Savage!!' in 1967, which included covers of songs like 'These Boots Are Made for Walking' and 'Strangers in the Night'. Anyway, I digress. This is two minutes and twenty five seconds about monster drag racers, and it's a weird blast:

#9 - Cha Cha with the Zombies - The Upperclassmen - all the way from Inglewood, California come The Upperclassmen, a four piece doo-wop group active from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, when two members, Ritchie Rotkin and Arnie Marcus, split off to form The Rip Chords, who had a smash hit a few years later with 1964's 'Hey Little Cobra.' Anyhow, this song dates from 1959, and feels like the kind of tune you should be mixing a cocktail to, while firmly ensconced in your tiki bar:

#8 - Rockin' in the Graveyard - Jackie Morningstar - Willie Morrell Sr was born in Florida in 1938. By the time he was signed in 1957, his agent had given him his new 'Morningstar' title - and in 1959, he recorded his one and only single under that name. But Morningstar wasn't some dyed in the wool psych-rocker, despite what the song might sound like. 'Rockin' in the Graveyard' was the B-side to a soppy number called 'No Date' putting it very much in the novelty record category. But one listen to those primitive drums and scratchy guitar confirms, along with the background howls and screams, that this is one outta sight song. Written by Morrell himself, this is a blatant attempt to cash in on similar songs by selling "a million copies too." (hence his reference to Sheb Wooley's 'Purple People Eater' from the year previously).

By 1967, Morningstar had been dropped and he was plain ole Willie Morrell again, releasing a single entitled 'Brother, I'm Gettin' Ready' backed with 'I'm Making Plans to Be With Jesus.' Sadly those plans would have to wait until 2006 when Morrell died in obscurity at the age of 68, not knowing that his hit had sold more than a million copies via 7" re-releases and on numerous Halloween compilations:

#7 - Rockin' Bones - Ronnie Dawson - little Ronnie Dawson, with his blond buzzcut and high pitched voice, was 19 when he broke on the scene in 1959, first with the rather perky 'My Big Desire', which was followed by a must hear rousing little number called 'Action Packed' which found a whole new audience when it was featured on the soundtrack of Season 6 of The Walking Dead. His third single that year was the fabulous 'Rockin' Bones', all about a musician who, when he dies, wants first to be buried with his rock and roll records, then changes his mind and wants his body to be hung on a wall to show "the rotting gears of a bopping machine" (surely one of the finest lines ever heard on a rock 'n' roll single). Originally recorded in 1957 by Elroy Dietzel and The Rhythm Bandits (who recorded it rather differently), 'Rockin' Bones' was later covered by The Cramps, who reverted to Dietzel's version. Dawson revived his musical career in the 1980s, and his song 'Rockin' in the Cemetery', recorded in 1989, is also worth checking out:

#6 - The Monsters Hop - Bert Convy - Convy started off his extensive career as a singer in the 1950s and 1960s before branching out to become an actor in musical theatre (he was in the cast of Roger Corman's 1959 movie A Bucket of Blood) and then finally a game show host in the 1960s and 1970s. As a member of vocal group 'The Cheers' in 1955 he had a Top 10 hit with 'Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots.' 

The Monsters Hop, backed with 'The Gorilla' (also good but not really seasonal), was Convy's third, er, wax, released in 1958 and co-written by Convy and Robert Emenegger. I really like the song's driving beat and there's some great sax work combined with background weirdness. The B-side does include a reference to 'The Purple People Eater' but I'm still not including it.

#5 - The Monster - Bobby Please - probably one of the most batshit insane Halloween novelty records out there, and interesting not just for Please's execution (and the fact that the song kind of runs away from him at one point) but the very story specific nature of the lyrics, almost as if this was a sequel to an earlier song about his creation of the Frankenstein monster. Released in 1959 by 'Bobby Please and the Pleasers' as an A-side (the B-side was the more straightforward dance craze themed 'The Switch'). A Billboard review at the time concluded that 'the flip appears the money item.' Yeah, what do they know? Oh and two years before this Please had recorded a single titled 'Your Driver's License Please' in which he is harassed by the man when he's just trying to get frisky. No I know nothing about this bloke so I'm just padding the paragraph out with some random facts.

#4 - The Mortal Monster Man - The Savoys - The Savoys hailed from San Jose, California, and played throughout the bay area during the late 50s and early 60s.They comprised Albert Richie (lead vocals, piano), Beverly Soares (vocals, percussion), Chris Ray (lead guitar, vocals) and Bruce Hird (rhythm guitar, vocals). Their total output was three 7" singles between 1959 and 1960. The B-side of this 1959 single, called 'Watching the Sea,' emphasised the close harmony origins of the group, but the A-side comes from a different place altogether. From the slightly out of tune start to the singer's gruff oration about his rock and roll credentials, the more up tempo sound is possibly due to the addition of 'The Bella Tones,' the house band of Bella (the record label), on the disc.

#3 - Transylvania Twist - Baron Daemon and the Vampires - to 1963 we go for Number 3 in the chart. The bastardised Bela Lugosi impersonation adopted by Mr Daemon was the voice he used to make his living. For the Baron, or Mike Price to give him his birth name, was a popular TV horror host. His career started in radio, but Mike is best known for his "Good News" segment on WSYR 9 news on weeknights. Baron Daemon was a vampire-like character who hosted a late night movie show. He also became the host of a weekday afternoon children's show from 1962-1967. Price just retired in June 2008, but back in 1963, this record was a huge hit in the Syracuse area. The backing band on the record, The Vampires, were actually Sam and The Twisters, led by Sam Amato. Here's the Baron, socking it to 'em in 1993 where he revived the character (and the song) for one night only.

#2 - The Headless Horseman - Kay Starr - a version of this song, sung by Bing Crosby, was used in the 1949 Disney movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Catherine Laverne Starks aka Kay Starr covered the song at around the same time, with slightly different lyrics. It was never released as a single and first cropped up on a 1998 compilation. There are no details of who wrote the song, but it's a favourite from childhood, so it's rather baffling how I remembered it from being a kid.

#1 - Dinner with Drac - John Zacherle - horror hosts weren't a feature of TV when I was growing up, mainly because any fright flicks shown on UK television were programmed way after the watershed, where adults wouldn't have really enjoyed a wisecracking thesp yacking on and on when all they wanted to do was watch the movie.

In the US of course it was a very different scene, with local TV stations needing personalities to draw ratings, and with 'creature features' regularly broadcast during the daylight hours. One of the most famous was John Zacherle, who between 1957 and 1960 hosted two different late night horror shows, 'Shock Theater' and 'Zacherley at Large.' Initially, he played 'Roland,' a ghoul who performed skits in-between moments in the film while speaking to his wife, a character who never exited her coffin. In 1958 he moved from Philadelphia's WCAU to New York's WABC, where he changed his name from Roland to Zacherley (the station added the "y" to his last name), and his show continued as if nothing was new.

Zacherle was also a recording star, releasing four albums and a number of novelty singles, of which 'Dinner with Drac' was the loopiest, and broke into the Billboard Top 10. To be honest, you probably only need to listen to one Zacherle song (they were all pretty much a muchness) but this is fine, fine, nonsense.

Happy Halloween...whatever you are!

The Demonic Tapes: The Podcast

I'm a big fan of the work of Richard Mansfield, from his short shadow films to his low budget but extremely atmospheric features. Mansfield is unafraid to embrace new media, and the pandemic lockdown presented him with the opportunity to do something a little different: a podcast which links to his Demonic Tapes films.

Mansfield explains: 

"The Demonic Tapes: The Podcast follows medium and paranormal investigator Jonathan West as he records his cases on audio cassette. The podcast is presented as found footage giving the listener the experience of rifling through Jonathan's cassettes and piecing the adventure together. Season 1 is called 'The Man without a Face' and is based on a ghostly experience I had a year ago working in a haunted office. The series was written by me and Adam Wootton during lockdown over Facetime calls, the cast recorded their scenes over Zoom meetings on their phones and emailed me the audio files so it was a true quarantine production!

Season 2 is in Post production at the moment and will be released before Christmas. Season 2 will follow Jonathan's Mother Eleanor West as she investigates the haunting of Varley Grange in 1973."


Here are the links to it on various podcasting platforms and it's also available on Youtube. I can't recommend it highly enough, biased as I am because of my liking of Mansfield's work, but there's a real cleverness to the build up of the story that unfolds over the episodes. Perfect for Halloween. Or any dark night really!

Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-demonic-tapes-the-podcast/id1534848806
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1Bd1xmOr8OPrwcpniyg7jN
Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkLnBvZGJlYW4uY29tL3RoZWRlbW9uaWN0YXBlcy9mZWVkLnhtbA
Podbean https://thedemonictapes.podbean.com/e/the-demonic-tapes-the-podcast-promo/

Youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLXEeXdKo_ClP-aB2h8MPZYHEFLYErzmH

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2020 #10: Reviews of The Haunting of Margam Castle (UK 2020), Devil in the Woods (UK 2020), Witches of Amityville (UK 2020), House of Shadows (UK 2020), Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night (UK 2020) and Awakening the Nun (UK 2020)

The Haunting of Margam Castle (UK 2020: Dir Andrew Jones) Jones is back! His third release this year (a fourth, A Killer Next Door, has yet to surface on these shores), after The Cabin Murders and The Jonestown Haunting; this guy certainly does churn them out.

A US team, headed by doctors Annie Holzer (Amy Quick) and Daniel Barron (Ashton Spear) are carrying out expensive studies in ESP and parapsychology within a New York academic facility. But their funding is about to be curtailed by Dean Michaels (Garrick Hagon) unless they start generating a bit of publicity for the college; and he has the perfect solution. He wants the team to travel to Wales for a day (!) to investigate Margam Castle, which has a history of hauntings, and capture a ghost on camera, whether or not they have to fake the footage.

Now it's worth mentioning at this stage that Margam Castle is a real place in Wales. It's open to the public, mainly in the form of overnight ghost hunts, so bizarrely Jones's film is like a kind of extended publicity brochure for the pile. He even includes the ghost who's said to haunt the place within his screenplay, hence the 'Based on a true story' strap accompanying the film.

So the team travel from New York to Wales, stopping off en route at a 'friendly' Welsh pub for an extended chat with the landlady (Caroline Munro, the first of many british horror actresses from back in the day who put in an appearance here) for a culturally confusing conversation about what exactly goes into a welsh rarebit. The air cools a little when the group announce where they're headed; another Brit horror lady, Judy Matheson, is also on hand to ominously warn: "they're waiting for you. They've always been waiting."

When they arrive they meet the owner Hugh Morgan (Derren Nesbitt, pretty sprightly at 85, and last seen being brilliant as a drag artist in 2018's Tucked) who is accompanied by Edith Withers (Jane Hands of the Ripper Merrow), a medium, who rabbits on about the Pendle Witches and Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General. Morgan gives an account of the history of the house (which actually is the history of Margam Castle), and its ghosts; a woman and her daughter, who died in a domestic tragedy, and Robert Scott, a gamekeeper with a filthy temper, who dies in an altercation with a trespasser.

For most of the movie, things move very slowly; something Jones is a dab hand at, which you'll know if you've seen any of his other films. But the last third, where the psychic phenomena kicks off, is quite un Jones like: it's actually quite exciting and spooky. I won't say any more but The Shining was clearly an influence on story development.

Despite the usual pacing problems (something that affects most of his films) and English actors doing US accents with varying degrees of skill, I did like the atmosphere in this one, helped enormously by the location, which is skilfully lit and photographed, and a bigger than usual budget. There's a lot of stories within stories which enriches the plot, and while the last third is rather bonkers it's great fun ("Psychological warfare!" exclaims Withers at one point). No points though for brandishing a copy of the Necronomicon, which, rather than the fabled 'Book of the Dead' mentioned in HP Lovecraft's writing, is actually a volume of HP's stories given that title on the cover. Oops!

Devil in the Woods (UK 2020: Dir Terence Elliott) - Four young students, Tess (Francesca Howe), her friend Julian (Dan Wale), and their other friends Jen (Amy Joy) and Chris (Alex Sleigh), have come together to make a final year film for their media studies course. None of them really know what they're doing, although Tess and Julian are serious about the project; Chris on the other hand is a hopeless stoner and his friend Jen is easily led.

Tess has been working on a screenplay for her sister Alison (Dani Thompson) so clearly has some skills in the script department; no surprise then that when the roles are allocated, she's the scriptwriter, Jen's the director, Chris is the producer and Julian is the editor because he's good with computers.

Elsewhere in the town of Dunwich (yep!) the police are dealing with the disappearance of a young man, Duncan (Glenn White). Duncan's dad Russell, a nasty bit of work who's just been released from prison for assaulting a police officer, has been up to his old tricks again, and after taking out another copper he runs off into the woods - yep, the same woods in which our four are planning to shoot their film. But Russell has even darker plans; he's laid his hands on some black magic texts and is keen to summon up a demon or two. But guess what? He needs a sacrifice. As Tess, Julian, Jen and Chris soldier on making their movie (which Chris wants to turn from a drama into a found footage horror), the forces of evil are summoned. Who will survive?

Devil in the Woods was shot overlapped with Elliott's other film this year, Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night, reviewed below. Both used some of the same cast and crew and were filmed in the New Forest (the Hampshire area seems to be a hotbed of local Brit horror filmmaking, rather like the Kidderminster House of Horror). This is, be warned, a very rough round the edges production, which is blessed with an extraordinary orchestral score from Andriy Sovetov which is lush, impressive, really loud (at times it drowns out the dialogue) and really pretty inappropriate for a low budget movie based around a living room, and office and a patch of woodland.

But did I like it? Well yes, actually. The cast are, I'm guessing, not professional, and a lot of the 70 minute movie is spent watching the four students trying to get it together. But once they reach the woods, and the horror kicks in, this is pretty impressive stuff, surprisingly nasty and gory and with a downbeat ending I wasn't expecting. As you'll know the NWoTFF reviews are here to celebrate the low/no budget world of independent British horror film making, and there is, as I've mentioned before, just no point holding Devil in the Woods up against a bigger budgeted film - or even The Haunting of Margam Castle, come to that. But from little acorns do mighty oaks grow, and so I say well done Mr Elliott, cast and crew (what there is of them) and let's see some more.

Witches of Amityville (UK 2020: Dir Rebecca Matthews) Another prolific director in the field is Ms Matthews, this being her third feature in 2020 after The Candy Witch and Bad Nun: Deadly Vows which is reviewed below.

In a prologue, set at at some imprecise point in history, three witches are strung up and hanged. Cut to the present day, and two burglars target a house where three women live alone - but they've bitten off more than they can chew. The three women are witches (the same witches we saw in the prologue); Lucy (Donna Spengler), Sam (Kira Reed Lorsch) and Elena (Brittan Taylor). They use their powers on the burglars, wiping their memories by the power of suggestion to avoid being discovered. "Can I keep him?" one of them asks playfully.

Meanwhile young Jessica (Sarah T. Cohen) has been offered a place at the local academy, studying drama and the arts, which is nearby to the witches' house. She meets the head of the school, the indomitable Dominique Markham (Amanda-Jade Tyler) who asks Jessica to sign a rather ancient looking contract in order to be enrolled: "Sign, and belong to something," Miss Markham urges. One of the other students spies on Jessica in the shower and confirms to the Head that she has a tattoo of three horns on her back. Later that night Jessica is snatched from her bed and brought in front of the coven, headed up by Dominique, who we just knew was bad. Things don't look so good for Jessica, but she's rescued by the three witches we met earlier; it seems that they are white witches whose powers are used for good or defence, whereas Dominique represents the dark side, and her plan involves getting hold of Jessica, who is also a witch with incredible powers, as a means of bargaining with a demon called Botis (Toby Wynn-Davis). 

Matthews is known for making rather chaste horror movies, and this is definitely PG friendly; no swearing, little violence and definitely no nudity (something which other filmmakers would definitely have introduced bearing in mind the setup, and the fact that one of the witches (Reed Lorsch) has a porn past). But the fact that all three of them are American women of a certain age gives their characters much more gravitas than English actors trying on fake US accents. Their presence does, however, show up the prosaic nature of the film's locations; having lots of talk from seasoned actors while sitting in the living room of a suburban English semi does rather cool the mood, no matter how many candles the set dresser lights (and it's a lot); more gothic would have been better. 

Matthews' film is a bit of The Craft, a bit of the remade Suspiria (one scene is a direct steal) and a little American Horror Story: Coven. It's ambitious, competent and moves at a reasonable pace, but I'm still not convinced that Matthews knows what to do with her actors. The presence of professionals Spengler, Reed Lorsch and Taylor slightly transcend this problem, but Cohen is left to do a lot of standing around and the movie still has points where it almost grinds to a halt. But I liked the imagination on display; and a final scene which hints at a possible Stateside sequel will be interesting.

The House of Shadows (UK 2020: Dir Nicholas Winter) Not 'House of Shadows' as it states on the DVD cover, nor 'The House Beyond Time' as the end credits suggest (although that title is probably more accurate), this is Nicholas Winter's third film for 2020 after Bone Breaker and A Dark Path. Sarah (Romanian actress Elena Delia sporting a pretty good American accent) inherits a house after the death of her thought to be penniless mother, to whom Sarah has a strong resemblance. She takes up residence with her boyfriend Jared (Luke Bailey) in her newly inherited gaff. Oddly the house's location is Spain (something not referred to in the script) which tonally jars.

Sorting through her mother's things, she finds a notebook filled with crude drawings and messages like "What have I unleashed?" Good question. One evening Sarah receives a phone message from her sister Megan (Yvonne Mai) which sends her into a bit of a tizz; understandably as Megan died five years previously. The property's housekeeper, the rather odd Anna Sofia (Harriet Madeley), tells Sarah that Megan is in great pain and that something has control over the house, a spirit who preys on the weak and collects souls. Determined to remain, Sarah and Jared realise that a presence has indeed invaded their lives, and it has the power not only to mess with people but indeed time itself.

For most of The House of Shadows' running time very little happens; much of the drama is derived from the tense relationship between Sarah, Jared and Anna Sofia, and Delia, Bailey and Madeley are all effective in their roles. The last third of the movie is where it gets tricksy and, sadly, more than a little confusing. But it's an ambitious attempt to make a haunted house movie that's a little different to the endless walking along corridors/jump scares outings, even if I could have done with a little more pep in the thing. 

Harvest of the Dead: Halloween Night (UK 2020: Dir Peter Goddard, Terence Elliott) It's helpful, but not essential, for you to have seen Goddard and Sam Mason-Bell's first 'Harvest of the Dead' movie, 2015's, er, Harvest of the Dead, which introduces the viewer to some of the more out there plot points in Goddard and Elliott's sequel.

This is a movie that starts with one of the cast topless and ends with, well, the end of the human race. Sally (Dani Thompson) is preparing for a Halloween party. Meanwhile nearby out on the moors a blood covered woman crawls away from danger. She's assisted by a passer by who takes her back to her car, but before she can drive off, a masked man - The Plague Doctor (Elliott himself) and a woman in a hospital gown with horrible facial scars attack and kill both women, one of whom is beheaded in a rather impressive bit of latex work. When the police discover their bodies they think that the murders may be the work of one Trent Hodder, who was tried for his crimes but got off on a technicality. The policemen, porn addict Detective Bava (Dean Jovi) and Detective Faust (Kevin Hallett) are managed by the ball busting Wes Mason (Lee Macdonald, who older readers will remember as Zammo from Grange Hill, and who was also in the first film.)

The party slowly gets going but is frankly a little lame. Sally's nice friend Laurie Pleasence (Rebecca Jean) comes round to help and her awful friend Tia (Abby Wareham) turns up without costume or booze - her ex Ben (Matt Brackstone) is also due, but he doesn't know he's an ex yet: Tia's that kind of girl, and she makes immediate moves on another party guest, Josh (Nicholas Pearce), who's waiting for his girlfriend Melissa (Hannah Coley) who was in the 2015 movie.

The Plague Doctor makes it to Sally's house and hides upstairs, gradually despatching the party guests who want to use the loo or indulge in some seasonal rumpy pumpy.

But behind this all is a mad doctor, Henry Moore, struck off because of his insistence on messing with body parts, who has a grand plan involving transforming humans into zombies and summoning a race of ancient beings, 'The Old Ones.' Sally's party house becomes a house of horror as the zombies also arrive, and no-one is safe.

Whew, it's all in this one! Halloween Night is terrific fun, quite a step up from the already rather bonkers 2015 original. The vaguely Lovecraft-esque story arc with the mad Moore is nuts, sitting awkwardly with the soap style drama of the partygoers' various tiffs and romances. I get the feeling that this was a lot of fun to make. One of the zombies is filmed laughing and several keep looking at the camera (their numbers swell the cast list); the gore scenes are impressive and properly old school splattery, and the script offers up some nice 'story within a story' moments. 

While the events are set at Halloween (although the house's internal decorations only seem to comprise a couple of signs and a cobweb), the night street scenes clearly show Christmas decorations on some of the houses, and there's a few script gaffes along the way (notably Macdonald, who says 'parameters' instead of 'perimeters' at one point); also using names like 'Bava', 'Hodder' and 'Pleasance' is a bit old hat these days.

But you know what? It does not matter; in fact this stuff endeared me to the film even more. And the good news is that the final scene suggests there might be a sequel, and I am so up for that. Well done people - very entertaining.

Awakening the Nun aka The Watcher 2 aka Bad Nun: Deadly Vows (UK 2020: Dir Scott Jeffrey, Rebecca Matthews) Matthews' second movie in this round up is the sequel to last year's Satanic Nun aka The Watcher aka The Bad Nun, directed by Jeffrey. 

Becca Hirani (aka director Matthews using her 'actor' name) returns (briefly) as Aesha Wadia from the first instalment. For those who haven't seen it, Wadia is a University student who encountered the titular nun while on a getaway in a B&B. Wadia learns that the nun has a more prosaic identity than first thought; it's Dan, ostensible owner of the B&B, who was abused by people of the cloth as a child and now dresses as a nun. Wadia escapes with her life, but as the sequel opens she's trying to make a new life, before being cruelly despatched by the returning nun in the first ten minutes.

A new group of victims, the Seers family, move into a house in the countryside (Norfolk doubling for the Cotswolds): gran Pam (Nicola Wright), mum Mandy, who has separated from her husband following his repeated infidelity (Stephanie Lodge), and her daughter, university student Cathy (Sarah T. Cohen ); oh and their Pomeranian, Julie. Things begin quickly: while Mandy's out getting a takeaway, the nun turns up announcing that she's Sister Cindy Lamb (voiced by genre regular Kate Milner-Evans) and that she's brought them a moving in gift. They wisely refuse to open the door but the nun leaves her present; a basket of maggot infected biscuits.

The arrival of Sister Cindy gives Pam the wim wams, and no wonder; her past is directly linked to the nun and to the events of the first film. 

Mandy meets the neighbours, Ted (Ricardo Freitas) and his daughter Nancy (Chelsea Greenwood), who Pam thinks would make a nice partner for the sapphically inclined Cathy - progressive grandparent! Meanwhile Pam tries to find out what's going on. She visits the local church and asks about the nun, but the local vicar, who's a bit shifty himself, thinks Pam looks familiar, and that she might be....Cindy Lamb!

Meanwhile the phantom nun proceeds to 'haunt' the Seers family as Pam gradually falls apart and plucky Cathy starts to put the facts together, after she receives a phone call telling her that her family aren't wanted in the area. Events escalate, with the entire family under threat from forces that may either be supernatural...or very real.

By the end of the movie the plot has rather cleverly merged the stories of the two 'Nun' films, but it does leave the question as to why Pam should have allowed her family to have moved to the area in the first place, knowing what she knew and what we find out. Nevertheless I enjoyed the peeling away of the 'onion skin' layers of the story, and the cast do a good job of ratcheting up the tension. Production wise Awakening the Nun avoids the 'flatness' of many similar low budget productions by concentrating on the actors rather than the English Country Cottage rental in which they are acting; good use is made of the countryside too, but I'm afraid that the 'ghost' nun, whose look is clearly borrowed from the infamous Armchair Thriller figure, is way too athletic to be spooky. Good fun though.

Dead (New Zealand 2020: Dir Hayden J.Weal)

Weal's second feature mines the 'I see dead people' shtick of 1999's The Sixth Sense and the supernatural cop buddy antics of movies like 1988's Dead Heat and R.I.P.D. from 2013.

Marbles (Thomas Sainsbury), a seemingly hopeless stoner, peddles an unusual service; he can see and talk to the recently departed when they are in a limbo state prior to arriving at their final destination, as it were. This means that loved ones of the newly deceased can have one last conversation with them, mediated via Marbles. The gift is actually chemically generated; he discovered the ability after combining a dose of his late father's prescription drugs and marijuana, which by practice he has distilled into a serum with which he injects himself, giving roughly one hour of veil lifting per hit.

Two events occur that set him on his future course: one, his mother decides to sell the family farm and move on, much to Marbles' distress. He's given a chance to buy it but has to come up with $150,000 pronto; second, the spirit of a murdered policeman, Officer Jason Tagg (Weal) contacts Marbles to ask his help to track down Tagg's killer. Marbles is initially reluctant but the ghost's offer to cut him in on his life assurance payout would provide the cash he now needs, to, pardon the pun, buy the farm.

Marbles is aided in his task by Tagg's still alive foster sister Yana (Tomai Ihaia), who was assisting Tagg prior to his death with the tracking of a serial killer in the city. Yana, an alcoholic lawyer, is housebound with a tracking device after a drink drive conviction. The killer's previous victims have all been gay and Tagg, who was gay himself, remains convinced that, although murdered in the line of duty, he was targeted. 

Dead has a good heart. It's an occasionally sweet, amiable film and while its plot may meander, it takes us to some good places. The team of Tagg and Marbles does what all good cinematic partnerships should do; underscore mutual affection with a load of bickering. The humour is often hit and miss, and the gay scenes are played for laughs but none of this is cruelly intended. And there's some interesting little bits of supernatural lore, like the rot that sets into ghostly bodies if they spend too much time in limbo. 

Weal, on director, co-writer and actor duties has arguably stretched himself a bit thin here, but the strength of his cast bring it to the finish line, and one or two scenes are so funny and well observed that they bode well for the guy's next film.


Dead will be available on Digital Download from 27th October. 

Report from the 2020 Mayhem Festival (Skeleton Edition)

Guest reviewer Satu Sarkas-Bosman gave us the lowdown on Nottingham's Mayhem Film Festival back in 2018, and I'm pleased to include her roundup of the slimmed down 2020 Festival, which was founded in 2005 by film makers Steven Sheil and Chris Cooke, and has evolved into a marvellous mixture of horror, science fiction and cult cinema.

What a strange year this has been so far, our usual horror gatherings and festivals are all on hold or reach us online, therefore it was a pleasant surprise that Chris Cooke and Steven Sheil decided to go ahead with a much pared down version of the usual four day feast. Three feature films and one short film showcase over 4 evenings; it was sold out, suitably distanced and even our facemasks did not dampen the atmosphere.

The first Festival offering was Boys from County Hell directed by Chris Baugh (The Captors, Bad Day for the Cut) and his tale of an ancient Irish vampire. This horror comedy introduces us Eugene (Jack Rowan) and his father (Nigel O'Neill) and their fractious relationship. Eugene, together with his friends Claire (Louisa Harland) and William (Fra Fee), portray brilliantly the utter boredom of being stuck in a small village.

Eugene's father's freeway construction project causes plenty of bad feeling in the village, especially since it will destroy the cairn where the legendary Abhartach, a vampire like creature, allegedly sleeps.

Tragedy ensues resulting in blood being spilled and the creature waking from its slumber. There is plenty of bloody kills, humour and a particularly satisfying looking creature. Refreshingly there is no stake through the heart, crosses or any of the usual armoury when battling bloodsucking creatures.

The cast is excellent, the story moves on in a satisfying pace and gives you a fun way to spend an October evening.

Unfortunately I missed Psycho Goreman the latest offering from Steven Kostanski, former Astron-6 member and the director of The Void and Manborg. I heard, from a reliable source, that if you are a fan of his work this will not disappoint you.

The third evening gave us Mayhem's 'Shorts Showcase' which is always close to my heart. Troll (Dan Lord) and Heat (Thessa Meijer) gave us truly short and delightful bites. Behind the Door (Andres Borghi) is a familiar story of the consequences of a desire to speak to the dead. As for the rest:

Dead End (Jack Shillingford) gives you a shiny Landrover, foggy atmosphere and a werewolf: enough said.

Peter the Penguin (Andrew Rutter) appealed to my sense of the surreal, especially if you like penguins...

Changeling (Faye Jackson) dealt with motherhood, transformation with an intriguing atmosphere but part of the soundtrack was so high-pitched that you wished for it to be all over.

There Will Be Monsters (Carlota Pereda) was a clear statement of what should happen to those who attempt to take advantage of a very drunk woman.

Ferine (Andrea Corsini) unfortunately was my least favourite of the night, a very predictable take on a feral existence.

No one is Coming (Matthew and Nathaniel Barber) had that 80's feel to it, a lone woman (or is she..?) in a remote cottage.

Muse (Azhur Saleem) was a very well put together mix of sci-fi and decay: I would gladly have the paintings featured on my own wall. What indeed happened to those visiting the artist's home?

Abracitos (Tony Morales) had a feel of a Spanish ghost story; a phone call in the middle of the night shakes the world of the two sisters.

Farce (Robin Jensen) had a lot say about greed, decadence, large penises and true love. Sami man is determined to save his reindeer herd and have the woman his heart desires.

Live Forever (Gustav Egerstedt) was a musical number where the victims of horror films can tell you in a song the reason for their demise. This is great if you ever want a sing-a-long at a horror festival.

And finally...

This was the absolute highlight for me, The Oak Room (Cody Calahan) is adapted from Peter Genoway's stage play and beautifully written. The atmosphere from the outset draws you in.

There is a snow storm outside and when Steve (RJ Mitte) walks in to the bar, Paul the bartender (Peter Outerbridge) is not happy to see him. There are two distinct storylines here, happening in two separate bars and the finale links these tales together. I am not going to reveal the story here at all since all of it is interlinking and significant in its own way. 

This film is driven by a dialogue, the kind of storytelling you can expect when someone can really spin a yarn. It is evocative, engrossing and yet the characters feel very human. The acting is excellent; Peter Outerbridge, RJ Mitte, Ari Millen, Nicholas Campbell and Martin Roach all provide strong performances. 

The soundtrack is extremely effective and parts of it reminded me of the powerful tunes of Sicario. This film also made me think of Pontypool; it has the same feeling of a dark tones, suspense and uncertainty of the outcome.

NEW WAVE OF THE BRITISH FANTASTIC FILM 2020 #9: Reviews of Ravenstein (UK 2020), A Werewolf in England (UK 2020), Saint Maud (UK 2019), Markham (UK 2020), A Dark Path (UK 2020) and Rose: A Love Story (UK 2020)

Ravenstein (UK 2020: Dir Eveshka Ghost) One look at Ghost's 'how to make films on a budget' videos confirms a director who knows the limitations of low cost movies and how to work within constraints. Ravenstein, made for less than £400, is certainly not without its problems, but it's also a very impressive scare movie.

Two friends, David (James McClusky) and image obsessed Marky (Nik Kaneti-Dimmer), trespass onto a yard containing an abandoned glazing factory. While investigating the ruins of the facility and thinking that they're on their own, they come across mead swilling Jack (Chris Wilson), a homeless guy who sees the ruined factory as home, and who, for reasons we'll find out later, is unable to leave.

Marky goes off exploring on his own and encounters, first a flurry of dark feathers and then a life sized terrifying bird man: the 'Ravenstein' of the title (the feather thing is a nifty side effect of the creature's ability to move very quickly). An incoherent Marky struggles to communicate the source of his fear to David.

Meanwhile two stoners, Andy (Thomas Walters) and Charlie (Seth Easterbrook) stumble across the same abandoned factory, and after a lot of drunken farting about, get slain by Ravenstein. Soon David, Marky and David's dad Ray (Martyn Eade) who comes looking for his son, end up cornered by the birdman. But where has Jack gone?

Don't look for oodles of plot in Ravenstein, and what there is - about the birdman slowly killing off the factory employees, and a powerplay between Ray, who used to own the factory (and right hand man Jack; yes, the same homeless Jack) - is a tad confusing. It's also way overlong and many scenes outstay their welcome (often a problem with one writer/producer/director gigs). But oh goodness there's also so much to love about it.  

First off, the whole movie is shot at night. Now the odd night scene can be a challenge to a low budget director without the means to really carry the footage off, but Ravenstein is spectacularly lit and framed, making the junkyard setting way more spooky that it would have been in daylight. Second, the birdman is genuinely freaky, looking like a lifesize satanic version of that thing whose arse was regularly penetrated by Rod Hull, and with some genuinely eerie sounds emanating from it. And on the subject of sounds, particular mention should be made of Chris Wilson's diverse and hugely atmospheric soundtrack. From symphonic grumbles through stabs of shock synths and then cacophonous metal pieces signifying the arrival of Ravenstein; it's no wonder that the whole thing will shortly be available on the Rusalka Records website. So yes, this is a very good film. Shorter and tighter edits would have made it a great one, but it's a movie Ghost should be proud of.

A Werewolf in England (UK 2020: Dir Charlie Steeds) The prolific Charlie Steeds is back with his third feature this year, after the creepy An English Haunting and the rabble rousing Death Ranch. This time the director turns his attentions to a period horror piece, evoking memories of classic Hammer films, but also injecting an element of comedy hitherto missing from Steeds’ output (and doesn’t that title reference another rather famous lycanthropic shocks and yocks movie?).

Archie Whittock (Reece Connolly) is being transported for trial, almost certainly likely to hang following his murder of a man: except Whittock maintains that the person he killed was a werewolf. Whittock is handcuffed to his protector, Parish Councillor Horace Raycraft (Tim Cartwright), and the pair are travelling by coach. They’re forced to stay overnight at a coaching inn, appropriately named ‘The Three Claws’ and run by blowsy Martha Hogwood (Emma Spurgin Hussey). The area, Grittleton Marsh, is steeped in local legend, including being home to wolves.

But the inn they’ve happened on has its own secrets; not only do the Innkeepers have their own sideline in chopping up bodies, but it looks like the stories about lycanthropy are true, and worse, these two facts are connected. So Whittock is vindicated, but as the werewolves gather to attack the inn, will he last long enough to protest his innocence?

Steeds’ skills here – of creating something out of not much at all – are in abundance. Most of the movie takes place in a two room set (the inn is a real location in Cornwall but I’m guessing the owners feared for the soft furnishings) but so inventive is the camerawork and the interplay between the quirky cast that you barely get time to acknowledge and limitations of the interiors.

And let’s hear it for the werewolves, courtesy of the US SFX company Midnight Studios! There may not be enough money for a full on transformation scene, but with nary a CGI moment visible, A Werewolf in England’s ketchup and grue is authentically grisly; although I’m not entirely sure about the ingredients that went into the wolfman diarrhoea which features in a scene worthy of Peter Jackson’s early movies.

You can tell that Steeds is having fun here: the The Evil Dead visual references fall over each other, and the cast look like they’re enjoying themselves too: Barrington de la Roche, a fixture of all of Steeds’ movies, in particular turns in a super ripe performance as one of The Three Claws’ shadier staff. The director once again shows his versatility at turning out quality product which doesn’t break the bank but looks a million dollars. I do not know how he does it, but I’m damn glad he does.

Saint Maud (UK 2019: Dir Rose Glass) Maud (an astonishing performance from Morfydd Clark), a carer for the sick, has been appointed by her agency to provide palliative care to Amanda Kohl (Jennifer Ehle), a former dancer, who lives in a large but rundown house on the edge of a coastal town.

Maud is recently religiously converted and her passion to help is divinely inspired: the conversion was triggered by an earlier incident, briefly glimpsed at the beginning of the film, when she was responsible for a serious medical error with fatal consequences. Her religious conviction and seriousness of intent amuses Kohl, a figure who was once famous but is now ill, lonely and craving better company than the crowd of sycophants who regularly flock to her home to share her drugs and booze. In return Maud increasingly sees Amanda as a project for salvation. She  refuses to be publicly shocked at her client's substance use or lesbian lifestyle: but her attempts to assert control, ostensibly to protect her charge, backfire when she tries to dissuade Kohl's companion and lover Carol (Lily Frazer) from visiting, resulting in Carol ratting on her; now out of favour, a further incident leads to Amanda dispensing with her services. Maud freefalls, briefly lapsing into promiscuous behaviour, before regathering herself into something stronger and more lethal, inspired in part by the images from a book on William Blake given to her by Kohl, but equally to answer her inner calling.

Glass's extraordinary film is made even more so by virtue of it being her debut feature: there's an assuredness of tone, look and feel that recalls early Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay and Peter Strickland. Taut, economical and beautifully controlled, Saint Maud contains an almost constant threat of violence on the part of the title character, undercut with a painful vulnerability. 

We can never know exactly what Maud's motivations are, and Glass gives us precious little to play with here. While it's obvious that she's fundamentally damaged, and arguably channels this into a created religious fervour (we learn that after the incident referred to earlier she changed her name from the more prosaic Kate to 'Maud'), her moments of self harm might be dressed up as something more devotionally profound; but they could also be cries for help. 

Glass wisely holds back on the more upfront horror, adding to the tension of the piece; when strange things - well stranger than the rest of the film - happen they are more shocking as a result of the restraint. Much of the power of Saint Maud is down to Clark, who has already established an unusual acting CV of which Tilda Swinton would be proud. She's in every scene of this film, and her otherworldliness - which can never be accused of feyness or pretension - hits all the right notes. Ehle too is so good as the dying ex-dancer, amused and bored with life and finding true fascination in Maud's company. This is an exceptional film, and Rose Glass is clearly a director to watch.

Markham (UK 2020: Dir Matthew Cooper) This is the second time today I've seen a film which re-uses uses the old 1990s VHS classification public warning footage, the first being South African weird fest Fried Barry. And while both movies are mind fucks, Cooper's film, supposedly 'A tale told in four tides', is a beast entirely its own.

Cooper mentioned to me that "Markham was... improvised in a manner which was very labour intensive and then the plot was built in the edit over 18 months (we'd then go back and shoot other scenes to connect the narrative up)." That sounds like an insane way to shoot a film, and the results are understandably bewildering.

From what I can understand of the plot, filmmaker Rob (Ashe Russell) is putting together a unique feature within the horror genre; while all of the action will have been worked out beforehand, using a cast of actors, the protagonist will be an unsuspecting member of the public, and their reactions to the events around them will be the substance of the movie. Rob sends his unnamed accomplice (played by Cooper) location scouting, to the same are scoped out by two previous filmmakers who have mysteriously disappeared. One of this pair, Matt (Gareth Parry) had written a Lovecraft influenced script involving a race of sea dwelling beings related to the infamous Cthulhu (Lovecraft's infamous interstellar beings). While scoping out the locations, Rob's assistant is approached by Tony (Tony Coughlan) who tells him about the missing men and the humanoid fish creatures that emerge from the sea onto the land. Later at his digs, the assistant finds film equipment left by the previous pair, and settles down for a night's sleep.

What he doesn't know is that Rob has decided that his assistant is to be the first test of the previously described setup. It appears that Tony is an actor and the meeting has been pre-arranged. Rob has also ensured that the tea bags are laced with LSD, and when that takes effect, co-ordinates various sound effects and all round orchestrated eeriness to provoke a reaction. Unfortunately this goes wrong; the assistant, now crazed, leaves the room and heads off to the coast, where he lays his hands on the village monolith. This action, 2001: A Space Odyssey style, alerts a race of interstellar beings on Star Spawn base: the Sekurig Cthulhu Watch Station. This then seems to cause a number of the creatures to rise out of the water.

Writes Cooper "It was a mad thing to try, as was shooting portions of the film on Super 8mm - we often waited three months or more for the footage to come back from the process people. It was a very real learning experience."

Markham is an extraordinarily bold mess; it has about thirty different ideas all fighting for prominence, and no one concept ever claims primacy. It's amusing, baffling, often incomprehensible, and inventive as hell, with masks, animation and some effective CGI. You can keep your multiplex blockbusters or your costume dramas, this is inventive, nuts guerilla filmmaking, which fractures its own narrative on several occasions and challenges the concepts of cinematic storytelling. There's a great doomy score by Mariella Nelson Renaud which works well with the often sumptuous photography of northern coastal locations; again Cooper adds that "we shot in places which are dangerous and are well known for fatal rock falls," which is no more or less bonkers as an idea than the rest of the film. Brilliant. 

A Dark Path (UK 2020: Dir Nicholas Winter) Uptight Abi (Makenna Guyler) is in Eastern Europe with her rather more carefree sister Lilly (Mari Beasley) at a hen night for friend jess (Annabelle Mackinnon-Austin). But she's not having a lot of fun, being the designated driver and everything, and having to deal with a hungover Lilly the morning after. They have to make an evening return flight, whiling away the time on the long road back and bickering, as sisters do. But as evening falls they're still a long way from the airport, and worry that they might miss the flight; a flat tyre on a lonely country road, with no mobile phone signal, about sums up the whole excursion for Abi. But it gets worse; the hire car spare tyre is flat, so they decide to walk to find help. 

Abi's uptightness in the face of a party stems from an experience at Uni where she and a friend were attacked; when locked in she freaked, escaped and hadn't talked about it since: there's a sense that this story might be preparing us for something. Lilly goes for a wee and gets lost, and Abi finds another English girl in the woods. She's Hanna (Thomasin Lockwood) and she has a serious injury to her leg, but is unable to articulate how she sustained it. Abi and Hanna find shelter in a woodlands hut, but their place of safety is interrupted by the arrival of a something...they must fight to stay alive.

In the grand tradition of creature feature B movies, A Dark Path is 80% conversation, 10% beginning and end credits and 10% monster action. Winter builds the characters of Abi and Lilly well but to little effect as the peril element of the movie is so brief. There's some great night-time photography going on - the films looks far better than it plays - and the director opts for a less straightforward ending than the viewer is expecting, but A Dark Path is a very slight film with some real pacing issues. Winter's previous movie, Bone Breaker, had its problems but was better than this. His latest released work, House of Shadows, will be reviewed in NWotBFF #10 coming soon. 

Rose: A Love Story (UK 2020: Dir Jennifer Sheridan) Sheridan's debut feature is arguably a horror film that doesn't want to be called a horror film, leaving its ultimate story reveal almost until its closing moments. 

Rose (Sophie Rundle) and her husband Sam (Matt Stokoe, the film's writer) live, as it were, off the grid. Rose is ill; the specifics are withheld but what appears at first to be a self sufficient lifestyle (Like a Survivors version of Tom and Barbara Good) is in fact a need to remains secluded. She's writing a book, suggesting another reason for their remote life, while Sam sets traps and hunts dinner.

The film charts their day to day existence; as such by its nature the movie is a slow burner, charting the cycles of day to day living; the snowy Welsh landscape provides a diverting backdrop to the carefully shot but patience testing scenes of rural domestic life. Hints are offered regarding Rose's condition (which genre fans will pick up) - she eats odd looking, bloody food, which turns out to be mashed up leeches, of which there are a number of jars around the cottage - and it's clear that Sam's temper is barely in check.

When a young girl, Amber (Olive Gray), gets caught in one of Sam's traps, the two hander becomes three. Amber's arrival, which threatens exposure, changes the dynamic, and Rose's secret stands to be exposed.

Rose: A Love Story is a bold, almost Tarkovsky like attempt to integrate nature and surroundings into a story about human dilemmas. Stunningly shot, and with subtle but powerful performances from real life husband and wife Rundle and Stokoe, the final reel reveal almost felt unnecessary; this is a film that deals with abstractions and nuances, and I personally didn't need anything spelled out. I was reminded of Dominic Brunt's 2013 movie Before Dawn (also about physical breakdown and featuring a husband a wife team on screen) but Sheridan's movie is more careful, narratively occluded, and possibly too polite.

Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made (USA 1979/2018: Dir David Amito, Michael Laicini)

Well I'm still here. The mystery surrounding Antrum - 'The Deadliest Film Ever Made' according to the strapline - is an all too rare example of a movie surrounded by hype these days. The comparison with the fuss surrounding The Blair Witch Project (in concept if not execution), the last big release with similar pre-release mystery attached, is apt because that movie is 21 years old now.

Taken at face value 'Antrum', the movie within the movie here, is even older. Supposedly filmed back in 1979, the documentary segments that bookend the thing give an account of the troubled history of 'the film that kills': the death of film programmers after they watched it following its submission to film festivals in 1983; the first screening in Budapest in 1988, resulting in a fire that emanated from the auditorium, killing all of the 56 people in the audience; and the only other showing, in San Francisco in 1993, resulting in a riot triggered by the audience eating acid spiked popcorn; and the tracking down of the sole copy of the film at an auction, which seems to have been doctored with added subliminal sounds and images. 

"You don't jump out of your seat with scares," assesses one talking head after having watched a segment of the movie: "it just gets under your skin." And that's a pretty fair assessment of the film, which starts with that good old publicity stunt, the on screen disclaimer: Mr Castle would have been proud.

Oralee (Nicole Tompkins), her mother Amber (Kristel Elling) and her younger brother Nathan (Rowan Smyth) have just witnessed their dog Maxine being put down. On the way back in the car, Nathan asks whether the dog has gone to heaven? "No," mum replies, "Maxine isn't in heaven because she was bad." This information leads to Oralee and Nathan hiking out into the woods to an area where, according to Oralee - who seems to know a lot about this stuff - "the devil landed when he was cast out of heaven, and at that very spot, we'll find an entrance to hell; the antrum."

When the pair hit upon the location, they begin to dig, and as they get deeper, the screen flashes up with the levels that they've achieved; the intention being to re-connect with hell bound Maxine. It's not clear whether Oralee really believes any of this or whether the whole thing is for Nathan's benefit, although she has a book with her - a grimoire - which she seems to treasure, containing a lot of details about the realms of hell. But what they do eventually find is satanic, but ultimately far more prosaic than they were expecting.

'Antrum' the movie within the movie runs for some 78 minutes, after which a brief end section attempts to understand the nature of the manipulation of the print and offer an explanation for the backmasking, audio disturbances and additional images - sigil - printed onto the 35mm copy. 

The story of 'Antrum' is pretty thin, and it's really only the subliminal sequences that make it of interest. It feels authentically like a 1970s movie - the colour palette looks convincing, and the overall feel of the piece is very much of its time; it even convinces that it's a US movie when it was actually filmed in Canada. And there are some odd little tics in the movie - like the inclusion of a puppet squirrel - that suggest some fun is being had here.

Less convincing is the po faced narration - too mannered and stilted to be convincing - and the cod satanic explanations, which, when offered up with re-runs of certain sequences in the film, just expose the hokey and rather clumsy concept behind it all.

I admire Amito and Laicini for what they tried to do, and I'm a sucker for a gimmick as much as the next film fan, but there was something about Antrum that, and this seems to be stating the obvious, slightly fell apart when deconstructed. Cool squirrel though.

Danse Macabre will release Antrum in UK Cinemas on 23rd October and on DVD & Digital from 26th October, 'over forty years after its original release' (states the publicity).

Films from Grimmfest 2020 Part 2: Reviews of The Unhealer (USA 2020), An Ideal Host (Australia 2020), I Am Ren (Poland 2019), Rent-A-Pal (USA 2020), Monstrous (USA 2020), Urubú (Spain 2019) and Fried Barry (South Africa 2020)

So here's the last seven of my coverage of the majority of the features at Grimmfest. Part 1 is here:

The Unhealer (USA 2020: Dir Martin Guigui) While some movies fetishise the style of the 1980s, Argentinian director Martin Guigui continues to his rather eclectic career CV with this strange throwback movie whose story is straight from an 80s video rental.

Lance Henriksen is Pflueger, a faith healer doing the rounds of the mid west, looking like Dr Emmett Brown from Back to the Future (1985). He's stolen some magic from an Indian burial site, which gives its possessor special powers, much to the annoyance of first Nation chief Red Elk (Branscombe Richmond). Meanwhile young Kelly (Elijah Nelson) is the kind of kid that gets kicked around at school, in part because he has a tendency to eat the packaging of food rather than the food itself. Mum Bernice (Natasha Henstridge) is understandably concerned. She's seen Pflueger in action and invites him to their house to treat Kelly. But what happens instead is that the power transfers from the healer to the boy. And as a result Kelly works out that he's become immortal, with the ability to recover from any injury; any harm done to him is immediately felt by the harmer. Time to show those bullies who's who, and also reacquaint himself with class cutie Dominique (Kayla Carlson). But the bullies get their revenge, and set about messing with the trailer home Kelly shares with mum. The prank backfires however, causing the home to explode (with Bernice inside); and when Kelly finds out what they've done, he gets really mad.

The Unhealer is a strange mix of PG style wish fulfilment movie, with added gore (it's actually rated 18 and with good reason). The joint morals of 'be careful what you wish for' and 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' thread through the film, and the old native burial site plot device is brought out of retirement. That's not to say that this isn't hugely enjoyable, because it is; hey who doesn't like watching movies where the little guy gets all buff and beats on the class gits? The Unhealer is aided by some great turns, particularly Henriksen, albeit he isn't in it for long, and Henstridge as Kelly's worried mum; Elijah Nelson is also convincing as the weakling turned superboy Kelly. This is an enjoyable old school movie which plays like one of those shiny mid career Wes Craven movies like Deadly Friend (1986). Recommended.

An Ideal Host (Australia 2020: Dir Robert Woods) Squeaky clean couple Liz (Nadia Collins) and Jackson (Evan Williams) have just moved into their new home in a remote part of Australia and are about to hold a dinner party for a group of friends, with the whole evening timed to the last second. Among the group who arrive is Daisy (Naomi Brockwell), who has a history of upsetting such gatherings with a loose mouth and a penchant for booze. 

Predictably as the wine is opened Daisy acts true to form, and Liz's plans for the perfect evening are ruined. But when Daisy steps outside for some fresh air with Brett (St John Cowcher), who lives on a neighbouring farm, Brett comes on to her; she also sees something weird coming out of his mouth. Back at the house Daisy's story is seen as mere attention seeking, but the reality is far stranger than most of the guests were expecting.

This micro budget horror comedy gets its thematic inspiration from films like Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Carpenter's 1982 re-boot of The Thing and Jack Sholder's Hidden (1987). It may take a while to get going, but the last third is both gore soaked and inventive. The movie also benefits from a very smart script and in the case of Liz, a character who makes the highly enjoyable transition from domestic goddess to indefatigable heroine (and back again), at one point cauterising a wound using the blow torch normally deployed for browning creme brulees. 

I Am Ren aka Panacea aka Jestem Ren (Poland 2019: Dir Piotr Ryczko) Renata (Marta Król) is wife to Jan (Marcin Sztabinski) and mother to son Kamil (Olaf Marchwicki). She also believes that she's an android purchased for the family; not named Renanta but Ren, an acronym for Regenerative Emotive Neuro-being, and she has a barcode on the bottom of her foot to prove it. When we first meet her, Renata has undergone an unspecified traumatic event which may have involved being violent to Kamil, although her version of events was that she had suffered from a critical systems failure. Is this true, or is Renata just a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

Jan persuades the household to stay with a family psychologist. When there Renata meets a woman called Ela (Marieta Zukowska), who introduces herself as a supervisor, but who also has a barcode on her foot and confesses that she too is an android. Or is she just another patient, and has obtained her information by eavesdropping on Renanta's counselling sessions? Ela also thinks the bruises on Kamil's body, attributed to Renata, were actually caused by Jan. Renata also comes to believe that the clinic they're attending is some kind of de-programming centre for faulty androids. Is she there to get better, or to be dismantled?

Ren's story is consistent, but often contradicted by events: in one scene she tells teenage Kamil that she's only been with him for three years, but he shows her footage of the two of them together when he was a baby. As the movie progresses the narrative doesn't become any less occluded, but the viewer is increasingly left to choose in which version of the truth they are prepared to invest.

"My only task is to provide them happiness. And security...I am here on special terms." This is Ren's assessment of her worth, and Ryczko's strange film, full of unreliable narrators, can be seen as a visual essay on poor mental health, a dissection of a woman's identity in relation to mother and wife roles (the director dedicates the film to his own, presumably deceased, mother), or a disturbing and downbeat sci fi movie. It's visually cool, almost like a fictional lab experiment. But Król's performance as Renata makes the film; it may be hard to care for her, but it's impossible not to feel sympathetic.

Rent-A-Pal (USA 2020: Dir Jon Stevenson) Set in 1984, David (Brian Landis Perkins) lives in the basement of his mother Lucille's house in Denver. She has dementia and he is her sole carer, a position made tricky because of her historic violence towards him which, now, because of her age, manifests itself in stream of angry put downs. David is 40 years old and very lonely. He subscribes to a rather mercenary VHS based dating service called 'Video    Rendezvous' and, when he's not looking after mum, spends his time viewing tapes of dating hopefuls. While recording an updated video at the VR office he picks up a videotape called 'Rent A Pal.' The tape features a character called Andy (Will Wheaton), an unemployed guy from Davenport, who acts as a video companion to the person watching. Andy asks questions, allows for the viewer's response, and a relationship of sorts is formed. David is initially sceptical but gradually Andy's 'winning' personality leads to him considering his on tape chum as a true friend.

Meanwhile at the VR office, a match has been found for David: Lisa (Amy Rutledge) is a carer herself and likes that he is a carer too. They arrange to meet and seem to get on. But David's grip on reality is beginning to loosen as his 'friendship' with Andy deepens, achieved by constant playing of the 'Rent a Pal' video. "You are entitled to the things you want" Andy urges. and David comes to believe his teachings.

As an anxiety trigger, Rent-A-Pal is one hour and fifty minutes of sweaty palms, shallow breaths and borderline dissociation; and that could equally describe David or the viewer. This is a very uncomfortable watch, shot through with mordant humour and waves of sadness, whether it's the plight of Lucille (a terrific performance from Kathleen Brady), unable to distinguish between David or his late father Frank, or David's near chance at true love with Lisa. It is perhaps inevitable where the film will end up - the whole thing feels like an exercise in ratcheting up tension - but it's to the credit of the actors that nothing is overplayed. The star of the show is Perkins, who plays David not as a pathetic weakling but as a man trapped by duty, whose only requirement is to love and be loved. But Rent-A-Pal demonstrates how difficult that can be.

Monstrous (USA 2020: Dir Bruce Wemple) The Adirondacks are, apparently, alive with the sounds of...well, bigfoot. The area has been the source of local legends since 1970s, particularly focused around the village of Whitehall, NY (a real place which has its own statue of a bigfoot in the centre of town). In Lansing, Michigan, Sylvia (Anna Shields, who wrote the film) is with her friend Jamie (Grant Shumacher), a guy who does the whole 'X Files' thing (he even has an 'I Want to Believe' poster on the wall) and has been doing his homework on disappearances in the Adirondacks, an area where their friend Dana also went missing. Jamie's convinced there's a sasquatch behind the disappearances, and arranges to follow Dana's trail, hooking up with Alex (Rachel Finninger) the girl who Dana gave a lift to and who has a house near Whitehall. Jamie bails on the morning of departure so Sylvia decides to do it alone. Turns out Alex is a girl. Turns out they're both not into boys, and when they arrive at Alex's house, turns out they're into each other.

But Alex is secretive; she carries a hunting knife, and there's a weird humming sound coming from inside her home. Looks like Alex knows more than she's letting on, but things get more difficult when Jamie follows them, and finds out that his first hunch about the reasons behind the disappearances was dead on.

The poster for Monstrous advertises itself as a monster movie, but it's clear that there's more than one type of monster in this flick. And it's to be congratulated for attempting to do something different with the standard 'bigfoot' movie, which to be honest is pretty limited as a concept to start with.

But this is rather scrappily put together, particularly towards the end of the movie. The narrative is disjointed (and there's a prologue which kind of gives the game away) and to be honest apart from a few practical effects there's little to recommend it. Sorry.

Urubú (Spain 2019: Dir Alejandro Ibáñez) Ibáñez is the son of Narciso Ibañez Serrador, the Spanish film director responsible for, among other movies, the chilling Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), which posited that very question when two English tourists confront a gang of murderous children on an island.

Ibáñez Jr frames his 'reimagining' of dad's work with end credits that list the frightening statistics on children born into poverty and war, and infant mortality rates in developing countries; as a documentary maker it is perhaps unsurprising that he was inspired by his father's film and sought to contextualise his remake in this way.

Tomás (Carlos Arrutia), a nature photographer, is about to embark on a two week trip to the Rio Negro area of the Amazon with his wife Eva (Clarice Alves) and their young daughter Andrea (Jullie D'Arrigo). His aim is to photograph the rare Albino Urubú bird. It's clear from the opening scenes that Tomás is neglectful of both wife and daughter; his only concerns seem to be his camera equipment and the quest for the perfect photograph, so much so that Andrea spends all her time plugged into her tablet, and Eva, starved of attention, becomes attracted to Captain Nauta, in charge of the boat that will take them to their jungle accommodation. 

When they reach their destination the isolation of their location starts to get to Eva, and Laura begins to be more truculent and difficult. It's a region which has seen a number of fisherman mysteriously go missing, and locals are superstitious (one even gives Andrea a necklace for good luck). Tensions between Tomás and Eva escalate when Andrea goes missing. Distraught, they head out into unknown terrain in search of her, but while they thought they were almost alone, they are surprised to come across a small village, seemingly mostly occupied by children.

Ibáñez's documentary background is very much in evidence through lush jungle photography and some stunning wildlife footage (don't worry, there's no animal cruelty). Narratively the movie is as meandering as the Amazon itself, and most of the film is more or less a three hander of Tomás, Eva and Andrea. The soundtrack, by Arturo Díez Boscovich, does most of the dramatic heavy lifting, occasionally coming across like outtakes from a James Bond score. It's very difficult to make children appear murderous and scary. Dad may have managed it but there's little menace in Urubú. Nevertheless the sentiment behind it is sound, and the movie had a great sense of place about it. 

Fried Barry (South Africa 2020: Dir Ryan Kruger) Barry's not having a great day. His wife Suz (Chanelle de Jager) hates him for not providing, his son seemingly doesn't recognise him, and his creditors are giving him trouble. He's also a heroin addict, and on his way back from a bender with a fellow junkie he's abducted by aliens who carry out various, er, intrusive experiments on him. 

When he's released back to terra firma, Barry seems odd; this is because he's now being controlled by an alien, who's keen to see how they do things on earth. It probably wasn't the alien's best idea to form their experience of the third rock from the sun by hitting the sleazy back streets of a South African township: on his first night the alien, via Barry, experiences drugs, discos and sex with a prostitute (Bianka Hartenstein) that results in a 60 second pregnancy, producing a baby who very soon grows up to be a replica of Barry and who insists on mum's breast milk.

One positive side effect of the alien occupation is that Barry becomes more loving to his family. But the good times aren't bound to last: when Barry experiences violent withdrawal symptoms, a trip to hospital kicks off an episodic journey through the streets and hospitals of Cape Town as the alien within gradually melts down.

Or something. Fried Barry feels a bit like a Paul Verhoeven re-boot of Bad Boy Bubby with a bit of Enter the Void, crossed with The Man Who Fell to Earth and elements of The Greasy Strangler. A short film extended to feature length, its humour is fairly blunt and it quickly outstays its welcome: many scenes go on way too long, and the shaggy dog nature of the narrative makes it pretty uninvolving. It's also a really 'male' movie: women are either harridans or submissive sex objects, homosexuality is treated as reprehensible and poor mental health is played for laughs. I'm sure it's all very ironic and doubtless I need to lighten up, but I just felt I wasn't the target audience for this one.

Films from Grimmfest 2020 Part 1: Reviews of Anonymous Animals (France 2020), Stray (Russia 2019) , Alone (USA 2020), The Special (USA 2020), Unearth (USA 2020), They Reach (USA 2020), Ropes (Spain 2019) and H P Lovecraft's The Deep Ones (USA 2020)

Over the course of two epic posts, I'll be bringing you 15 films from this year's Grimmfest film festival, all the way from sunny Manchester. Except of course like most fests Grimmfest have gone online this year, giving us landlocked southern types a taste of how they do things up north. So here's the first eight: 

Anonymous Animals (France 2020: Dir Baptiste Rouvere) At its heart Rouvere's extraordinary debut feature uses the 'Planet of the Apes' movies as its jumping off point, reverse evolving humans and animals so that people are the hunted and farmed, and animals are in control.

In a forest in rural France a man, shirtless and with his back covered in welts, is chained to a tree, before a passing van collects him, to be taken back to a holding area in the middle of an otherwise abandoned farm. Elsewhere a group of people are rounded up while in the wild, and taken back to another part of the same farm where they are held in cattle pens. In each case the 'farmers' are human in form but with the heads of stags, dogs and bulls.

The lone man is fed like an animal, clearly being trained up for some forthcoming event (the reveal of that event is the awful climax of the film). The others wait in their pens, docile and frightened; one attempts escape which does not end well. 

There is of course no happy end to this movie, mercifully short at just over an hour. Scenes are short and abruptly cut, and the contrast between the cruelty meted out to the humans and the film's beautiful and mournful French countryside setting, as well as its dialogue free approach (the 'manimals' grunt but the humans remain silent throughout) further unseats the viewer; Damien Maurel's soundtrack, a mixture of drones and sympathetic strings, is also superbly eerie. Anonymous Animals's point is made pretty bluntly and relentlessly (like if PETA were to make a feature film) and although modestly budgeted it's one of the most uncomfortable movies I've seen this year.

Stray aka Tvar (Russia 2019: Dir Olga Gorodetskaya) Gorodetskaya's debut feature nods in the direction of 'moppet from hell' movies like 'The Omen' (1976) and the previous year's 'Demon Witch Child' but this tale of grief and loss has a bigger emotional heft than both. 

Polina (Elena Lyadova) and her husband Igor (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) are a broken couple; their eight year old son Vanya went missing, presumed dead, and Igor blames himself. Traumatised by the loss in their lives, made worse by the apparent lack of a body, the pair make the rather hasty decision of attempting to adopt a child at the local orphanage. Once there Polina finds the selection process too upsetting; but wandering in the grounds she spies an almost feral kid, whose keeper has just shot himself. Polina has taught traumatised children in the past and Igor is a doctor, so between them they have the coping skills. Their initial request to adopt is refused, but later they see the child walking alone along a road and take him home; they’re aware that they are breaking the law, but the need to care is too strong for them to resist.

But despite his feral ways - eating meat raw from the fridge, growling at his protectors - Polina develops affection for him, and through her grief comes to believe that this is in fact her returned child; she even names him Vanya, after her little boy, and they seem to be about the same ages. Igor is less impressed and feels that the replacement Vanya is actually trying to copy their son to fit in (which is odd as the two boys have never met).

But when Polina discovers she's pregnant (something she was sure would never happen again), her interest in Vanya wanes; in return Vanya becomes jealous; and that jealousy turns his mind to murder and revenge.

I really liked this rather convoluted and atmospheric film: it offered up way more than the standard evil child setup I was expecting, although its glacial pace won't be for everyone. I won't give the game away but the explanation behind the child's behaviour is both tragic and intriguing. As 'Vanya' Sevastian Bugaev turns in a performance of incredible ferocity for one so young, his nightmarish outrages only marred by a couple of scenes of ropey CGI. Lyadova and Vdovichenkov are also superb as parents consumed by grief who have lost the art of consoling each other, and the Russian winter, which provides the backdrop to the events, is impressively chilly, reflecting the strange twists and turns of the narrative.

Alone (USA 2020: Dir John Hyams) Whoa, nelly! Hyams's precise, unwavering exercise in haute tension thrills is the story of Jessica (Jules Willcox), a woman recovering from the shock of her husband's suicide, still deeply in grief, and who decides to get the jump on her parents' offer of assistance with moving, packing all her stuff into a rented trailer. She's heading north, final destination unknown, although her long trip takes her from the city to the beautiful Oregon forests. Clearly raw and vulnerable, she's in no state to deal with a bit of white line fever action, one of those intentionally slowpoke drivers who only speed up when you try and overtake them. What she isn't expecting, the following morning, is that the driver of that car would track her down to the motel she stayed in overnight and try and apologise for his behaviour. Later on she runs into him again when he asks for roadside assistance for his supposedly broken down car. She wisely swerves the option to offer help, which results in him catching up with her again that night in a trucking lot; she drives away, runs her vehicle into a ditch, after which he finds her again, breaks into her car, assaults and sedates her.

What follows, when she wakes up alone in a room, realises his (initial) sexual intentions and finally effects an escape, is a sustained chase movie utilising the anonymity and isolation of the dense Oregon forest to enhance the seemingly impossible task of outrunning her pursuer.

A remake of the 2011 Swedish film Försvunnen aka Gone, with a script provided by Mattias Olsson, one of the directors of the original movie, Alone breaks its narrative into five 'acts': The Road, The River, The Rain, The Night and The Clearing, but the division of scenes is for our benefit only: Jessica's ordeal is relentless.

Jessica's unnamed attacker (Marc Menchaca) defies the normal backwoods killer stereotype; he looks pretty harmless, but his ability to get under her skin shows the level of his accomplishment, clearly realised through practice: "Do you think this is the first time someone has asked that?" he questions when Jessica pleads for release. He's a family man too: a fact that will eventually lead to his undoing.

For the most part this is a formulaic thriller which ticks all the genre boxes: mobile phones that offer faint hope; Jessica sustaining 'first blood' (a branch embedded in her foot) thus giving her an immediate disadvantage; a passing hunter, who we know will either be an accomplice or an early victim, appears too early in the movie to be her salvation. But Jessica's backstory makes her interesting, and as the film progresses we see not so much a 'final girl' figure but a woman reconciling her emotional grief laden ennui with the need to stay alive.

Alone is tightly shot and edited, and the tension is at times agonising, assisted by a very organic sounding score by Nima Fakhara. I'm not sure whether in 2020 I wanted to see a vulnerable woman being stalked for 90 plus minutes but there's no denying the quality of the film, and Hyams's ability to make the Oregon countryside look both beautiful and hostile is to be applauded.

The Special (USA 2020: Dir B. Harrison Smith) Smith's rather clever movie takes a fairly preosterous central conceit and makes a very watchable movie around it.

Jerry (Davy Raphaely) is persuaded by his friend and work colleague Mike (Dave Sheridan) into going to a brothel as revenge for Jerry's wife Lisa (Sarah French) cheating on him. Mike has clearly used the place before and makes Jerry put a bag over his head to keep the location secret. A sign outside the joint reads 'psychic': the place is run by Madame Zhora (Susan Moses). Mike suggests that Jerry should ask for 'the special' and Jerry is surprised that when he's alone in the room 'the special' turns out to be a large box with a glory hole and a written instruction 'stick it in here' (we've already seen the box lovingly constructed by unknown hands in the credits sequence). Jerry obliges and the experience causes such ecstasy that he immediately wants more, despite Mike telling him that "once is enough." 

Jerry's guilt in finding out a) that Lisa was not unfaithful, she was organising a surprise present with a local salesman and b) that she's pregnant does not stop him wanting more of 'the special.' His desire for experience leads to murder and increasing deception as he gives himself over to pleasure at any cost.

The Special feels like early Henenlotter (specifically 1988's Brain Damage and to some extent his 2008 sleaze fest Bad Biology) and it's good to see a return to 1980s style body horror and practical effects. Raphaely gives a great and very physical performance as the increasingly unhinged Jerry. You can probably work out the ending, but it's fun (and more than a little wince inducing) getting there; Smith should be congratulated for pulling off (ahem) a film as potentially silly as this but doing it totally straight faced. Excellent work!

Unearth (USA 2020: Dir John C. Lyons, Dorota Swies) Films depicting blue collar communities in the USA cannot help but be refracted through the joint prisms of US politics and its attendant economic policies. The two families at the centre of Unearth both own farms which have seen better days (the movie was filmed in north-western Pennsylvania, giving it a great sense of place). George Lomack (Marc Blucas) has parcelled some of his for sale and also diversified into the auto repair business, his economic situation worsened by a recent divorce; one of his daughters, Kim (Brooke Sorenson) has had a baby while still a student, and the extra mouth to feed is an additional burden, while Kim's elder sister Heather (Rachel McKeon) dreams of leaving, and her self harming shows her levels of anguish. George has a tendency to drink and also to ramp up the costs of his auto services, which unsurprisingly loses him customers.

Across the way the Dolan family don't have it any easier, having recently sold off their dairy business. Presided over by Kathryn (Adrienne Barbeau getting a rare opportunity to sink her teeth into a dramatic role) whose husband recently passed, and who lives with son Tom (P.J.Marshall), wife Aubrey (Monica Wyche) and Tom's sister Christina (Allison McAttee) who has designs on arts school, and is also having a fling with George.

It's a white working class community with options closed off, so when a company called Patriot Exploration turn up on their doorsteps with an offer of money in return for fracking rights, the Lomacks seem to have found the answer to their problems.

One year later, and the fracking process has destroyed what little dignity the families had, rendering their homesteads filthy and with incessant drilling shredding their nerves. George has apparently sobered up and has a job in a cafe, but there's no apparent increase in wealth. To add insult to injury the company have been less than honest about how much money will be seen by the family and the fracking has triggered an unspecified environmental disturbance. It seems a breaking point has been reached.

The eco horror of the piece, which waits patiently until almost the last reel, therefore feels less like an attack and more like the delivery of some kind of divine judgment. Be warned, there are some shocking moments here, made more so by the fact that the characters have been so well - if subtly - rendered: their fate feels doubly tragic. Unearth is by no means a perfect film; it feels like two movies grafted onto one at times. But it's an angry piece; and if it fails to offer any easy answers, it's politically powerful as well.

  

They Reach (USA 2020: Dir Sylas Dall) The inspiration of Stranger Things, which fetishised a period of time - the 1980s - before most of its target audience were born, is all over Dall's debut feature. But the director, born in 1986, has decided to set his film even further back. 

It's 1979 (although a brief prologue covers events ten years earlier) and the Daniels family are recovering from the shock of the death of their teenage son. While mum and dad are separately traumatised, daughter Jessica (Mary Madaline Roe) is left to cope on her own, her only friends being social outcasts overweight Sam (Morgan Chandler) who - of course - has a crush on Jess, and food obsessed Cheddar (Eden Campbell). When Jess visits a local junk shop, she comes away with a load of rubbish which she hopes will aid her school science project. Among the stuff is an old reel to reel tape recorder, which we've already seen in the 1969 prologue where it was involved in the exorcism of a young boy. Fiddling around with the machine, Jess cuts her hand, and her blood drips on to the recorder. This sets off a train of events including a resurrected demon, a series of deaths and the need for a sacrificial victim.

Dall's film is almost entirely centred on the trio of young people; any adults present are mainly two dimensional authority figures, with the exception of stern librarian by day and white witch by night Marybeth Moonstar (a superb turn from Steffanie Foster Gustafson) who aids the trio in understanding what they're dealing with. The problem is that I'm not really the target audience for this kind of thing, where the thrill is less about the story - it's pretty paper thin - than identifying with the geeky friends. Although as a teen movie the F-bombs are let off with surprising frequency and the gore is occasionally a little on the heavy side.

But where the movie scores is its look: Dall chucks everything into the mix to get that 70s vibe. Chopper-style bikes, gas guzzling autos, Polaroid cameras; they're all present and correct, and the time stands still town of Enumclaw, Washington is used as a location. Even the soundtrack is pastiche; instead of using original sounds from the period (for which rights would probably have been cost prohibitive) the director has used faux retro 70s bands like 'Smokey Brights', 'Hobosexual' and 'Prom Queen.' Don't get me wrong, it works, but I could have done with more horror and less attention to detail. 

Ropes aka Prey (Spain 2019: Dir José Luis Montesinos) It's been a festival of debut features this year; and here's another one. Elena (Paula del Rio) is a young woman, disabled following a car accident in which her sister Vera, a promising gymnast, died, with Elena at the wheel. As a result she is in a world of emotional pain, even going so far as to try to end her own life. Her suicide attempt was prevented by her father Miguel (Miguel Angel Jenner) whom Elena despises, citing his drunkenness and failure to prevent the death of her mother.

Miguel, not a well man himself, has brought quadriplegic Elena home to live with him, and is in the process of modifying the house for her needs. He's also acquired a dog, Athos, to assist her. But when Miguel collapses and dies of a heart attack in the grounds, with Athos outside too, Elena is left trapped within. But it gets worse: before you can say 'Cujo' the dog turns rabid as the result of a bite from an infected bat, and tries to break into the house. Without the use of hands or feet, wheelchair bound Elena must summon what resources she can to ward off the frothy hound, while all the time battling with the guilt over her sister's death.

There is no doubt that Ropes (the title refers both to the aids that her father has attached to the house's drawer handles, and the emotional ties that hold Elena down) is a well mounted feature. Obviously low budget, and with a small cast dominated by an impressive turn from del Rio as Elena and, in some scenes, her sister Vera, it manages to do quite a lot within its fairly basic setup. Sadly its soap opera elements gradually drown out the tension established by the initial beast vs human setup, to the point where the second half of the movie largely concentrates on Elena dealing with her own demons. Ropes is just a little too neatly obvious in its placing of elements within the story that will be returned to later on, and the mechanical feel of the narrative robs the movie of the atmosphere it initially establishes. What a shame.

H P Lovecraft's The Deep Ones (USA 2020: Dir Chad Ferrin) Ferrin's movie - and note the inclusion of the author in the title, just so you know - finds a middle aged couple, Alex (Gina La Piana) and Finnish Petri (Johann Urb) travelling to the California coast for a week in a beachside Airbnb; the couple are getting over Alex's recent miscarriage, and are here to get re-connected again. Apartment owners Russel (Robert Miano) and pregnant Ingrid (Silvia Spross) welcome the pair and explain about the Solar Beach community that grow their own food and make their own wine. When they're left on their own Alex and Petri do a little re-connecting, but their lovemaking is spied on courtesy of a hidden camera. 

The following day, with Alex feeling unwell, Russel and Ingrid invite Petri onto their boat, and after plying him with marijuana and hypnotising him, Alex participates in a weird ritual that involves sucking on a tentacle that appears from Ingrid's lady parts. After this a more docile Petri becomes 'one of them': a rift gradually opens up between Alex and her husband, and the arrival of Alex's sarcastic friend Deb (Jackie Debatin) only serves to highlight the weirdness of the community, who they encounter at a party. But the Solar Beach residents answer to a higher fishy power, and Alex begins to fear for her life.

In Lovecraft lore, the 'Deep Ones' are an ocean-dwelling race, with an affinity for mating with humans. Sounds familiar? Well readers may have seen the 1980 movie Humanoids from the Deep, which covered pretty much the same ground, although without the Lovecraft context. And honestly, despite the credit of Hengi Hawk as the 'R'Lyehian Dialogue Coach' - which does at least show commitment to the cause - throwing in random references to Dagon and Cthulhu don't really make this one a major contribution to the writer's cinematic canon.

The Deep Ones scores higher in its quirky cast of characters. Russel has an oily, slightly creepy quality (like a more over the top Terence Stamp) and visiting doctor, the trans Dr Gene Rayburn (Timothy Muskatell) has an overbearing bedside manner which is the opposite of comforting. I liked Alex's friend Deb too, although her withering assessment of the community ensures that she's bound to be an early showers character. "I've been to Burning Man twice, but these people go way beyond.." she concludes.

Ultimately, The Deep Ones sets itself up well but then doesn't really know where to go with it. The threat from the community is pretty much announced in the first twenty minutes, and with a small budget there was never going to be a final reel set piece. It's a watchable enough film, but not much more.