Review: Killer Weekend (2018)

Cast: Mark Heap, Danny Kirrane

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Ben Kent

Made for frightfest by Ben Kent I'm suspecting on a reasonably low budget as the only person I really recognised in the ensemble was Mark Heap, from Spaced, Big Train and a few other UK comedy programs. It has another working name FUBAR too. I enjoyed Mark in this though his part is relatively small.

I went into this knowing nothing about too, which I think is the best way to watch this film. So if you haven't seen it I suggest you don't read the lower half of the review. Mainly because I started watching this film thinking something else was going to happen that never did, which I actually liked. I'll expand on that later. 

So on with the movie. We join a group of lads going on a stag weekend. They've planned a zombie paintballing weekend for the groom. The friends are your usual group the one who's grown up has a family kid, the rich stuck up asshole, the still immature idiot who never grew up. Also on the trip is the groom, the father in law to be who doesn't really like the groom, a guy he knew in a job who is delusional that the groom is his best friend. Also his sister's boyfriend who doesn't really him either. Finally the friend who is a massive drug head.

They meet up with the other half if the group in a small cafe off the motorway. In there the ass is loud and obnoxious.  They get the ire of the waitress, then notice a large gentleman staring blankly at them who they also bad mouth.  When they get to the retreat the people running it are ex military (there's also a running joke the father in law was some kind of specail agent, though not disproven its highly hinted hes lying).

Anyway it seems one of the 'zombies' is the large blank faced man. This shits up the groom whose told to attack him with a soft baton. It doesn't go well.  Out in the forest they are attacked by the zombies the large man goes for the groom knocking his baton away then knocking him on his ass. Reaching for the baton the groom accidentally pick up a stick as he leaps on him impaling himself on it. Accidentally killing the man, though when he's not dead (just severely hurt) the idiot friend mistakes him for a zombie and finishes him off with a knife to the head.

They come to the conclusion to hide the body, they get him but take his phone. When the leader of the retreat texts him the idiot friend replies with a phrase that later he recognises when he says it. Anyway they go about and accidentally kill a few more people in the process. The other ex soldiers find the (poorly hidden) corpses then proceed to hunt the rest of the group.

I'll leave it there as the rest is a pretty decent watch, comedic but also quite gory in places, also the ending is pretty realistic in they pretty much say about the killings and consequences. Now I went into this thinking maybe the people really turn into zombies, there's a few flags through the film that suggest this is the case too, the way the initial guy is staring all blank and weirdly, they find nuclear warning signs in a building too. But it isn't, hope your haven't read this before watching it as I'm sure it'll trick you too.

It's nothing special unless you don't know what's going on. It's a decent film to pass the time too. THN awards this film 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Werewolves Within (2021)

Stars: Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub

Budget: $6.5 million

Directed By: Josh Ruben

A gleefully fun film that is apparently based on a video game of the same name. I've never played it but the premise is pretty much you have to guess who the werewolf is.

This was unfortunately released at a time that movies weren't doing to well in the cinemas still so did not make it's budget back.

Whether this was truly to blame or that it just wasn't that great I'll get to a bit later in my review.

One thing I really did enjoy a lot though was the clue/cluedo vibe it gave me especially when they are all together in the hotel.

Though as always I did kind of guess who was what about halfway through, though it did throw me a few curve balls up until then which I enjoyed.

Was nice seeing Harvey Guillen in here from what we do in the shadows too. All the roles are pretty well acted and Milana exudes backwater sexiness despite being covered up a lot in this movie. All in all everyone is very believable in their given roles.

There's a few story lines going on in the film which i'm guessing is to throw you off who is what, but can some times bog down the pacing making the film a little all over the place from time to time. So lets get on with the main plot and a few tidbits from the story.

We join Sam Richardson playing Finn Wheeler a forest ranger travelling to a new area he's been assigned too. From the off we see Finn has confidence problems as he's listening to self help tapes about being more assertive. He's clearly had some relationship troubles too.

We are quickly introduced to the whole town as Milana's character Cecily, a mail delivery woman shows him around town. We see there's a dispute about with folks as a local businessman Sam Parker wants to set up a pipeline We have lots variety in the townsfolk a gay couple, the angry wife with cheating husband and your typical loudmouth hicks, lastly they go see Emerson Flint a crazy out of town loner hunter.

There's also the hotel owner Jeanine who thinks her husband ran off with someone, though we know from an earlier (that he was indeed going to cheat) scene that he was killed by, something.

There's also a environmentalist Dr Ellis staying at the hotel advising about the pipeline. When the one couple with the cheating husband dog is killed they go searching for who done it.

As more bodies appear and the electric gets knocked out seemingly by a blizzard then we later find out the generators were also slashed with giant claws.

This is where the film for me did pick up a bit as up until now I had guessed what was what but in a shocking twist the film makes you even question the existence of a possible werewolf and is it all just a set up?

So yeah really appreciated that, so as not to spoil anything I'll say no more other than, after a slow start I really did enjoy this film.

THN awards Werewolves Within a strong 3 out 5 stars

Review: Sanitarium (2013)

Stars: John Glover, Robert England, Lou Diamond Phillips

Budget: not found

Directed By: Bryan Ortiz, Brian Ramirez 

An anthology film featuring some actors you haven't seen for a while and some that become staple in these B-movie affairs.

It's based in a sanitarium where we have Malcom McDowell as a kind of narrator introducing us to the patients that the segments are based on.

I couldn't find any budget info anywhere but it's probably not a major amount. I'm always amazed by the people you see turn up in things like this these days. Always nice to see John Glover show up in things he's a good emoting actor in my books.

So we have 3 stories in this anthology 

1. John Glover is an artist who's a little delusional over his models. It's clear he's a big thing but he's paranoid everyone wants his models. Roberts also in this one as the curator to the gallery. When an offer for him to get bigger crowds in for $6 million but he refuses, his friend/aide doesn't seem to like this but says he says he trusts his judgement.  We have some shenanigans as Johns character seemingly loses the plot is it real or all in his head?

2. A bullied kid stars in this one I recognised some of the actors but none I really knew in this segment. He's not bullied at school but by his abusive single father, I'm not sure if he's supposedly sexually abused too or it's just his father taking of his belt to beat him. I suspect it's the former though, Malcolm introduces him as a multiple personalities schizophrenic. He's also adult by the time we see him in the asylum. One thing I did wonder while watching this if the other kids were real or not, the ones he was in a group with. Anyway a strange dark shadow that scares him throughout pops up in the end!

3. Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this one, u haven't seen him in anything significant since labamba or young guns this was a paranormal snoozefest, that's the best I can say about this one.

So overall it was nice to see some familiar faces in these, the film does have another title if you can't find it under this, in the US as monsters are real, which is one of the segments names. It's also on Pluto Tv at the moment too.

It wasn't anything special but worth a time wasting 90 minutes or so if you're bored. THN awards this 2 out 5 stars.