Reviews

Pointless. Stupid. A disaster. The list is endless in describing this dumpster fire of a film. The sad part is the lame attempt to connect it to Night of the Living Dead which left me in stitches, because overall, Festival of the Living Dead winds up as yet another lazy, inconsistent crappy "zombie" film, with horrible characters, horrible writing and cringe-worthy dialogue. It's an absolute MESS.

The film just speaks loudly to how the Soska sisters don't even try. How they continue directing is baffling. They've spoken so highly of George A. Romero (and of course Cronenberg, with their awful remake of Rabid), yet fail in making anything good or memorable. Every film they produce just shows us how they're pretty much a one-hit wonder with American Mary. Please stop.

Jen and Sylvia Soska decided that for their fifth feature film, they would attempt to be the first filmmakers to remake a David Cronenberg film. In this particular case, his 1977 film, Rabid.

I sat through the world premiere of the film at the 2019 FrightFest Film Festival, and the result was witnessing one of the worst genre films of the year to hit the big screen, and more proof that often, remakes suck. Rabid was way worse than I expected it to be. I wanted to like it. I was hoping it would be good. But what a perplexing mess of a film! From the odd opening scene, to the smash-cut title card, to the out-of-place drone shot of a city, the red flags were already waving mere minutes in.

Rabid is way too long (one has to sit through about 35 minutes of eye-rolling before it sort of gets going), horribly shot and poorly lit . The tone is all over the map. The confusing narrative shines as the film doesn't know what it wants to be. I doubt Rabid's supposed to come off "funny" either - maybe unintentionally funny? If so, I'm not laughing. But, it does. From silly hospital scenes, to cringe-worthy performances (if only the surgeon had a mustache to twirl on or the laughable bad fashion designer, Gunter) to the cat-walk shoot-out to a pointless third act which feels like there were plans for a substantial/ambitious sequence but it wound up scaled back for various reasons, and winds up feeling like it's tacked on.

I laughed out loud at a couple parts (especially the "hey let's give homage to Dead Ringers" because why not, don't we have to? Pointless). The Soskas are trying so hard to get validation from Cronenberg, that they forgot to focus on the film. Are we supposed to laugh at this? Was there someone responsible for continuity? Details? Editing? Yikes. The Soska sisters should be embarrassed.

If the Soska sisters spent the time on their craft as "filmmakers" as they do with their rabid (excuse the pun) fanbase, they might have had something coherent to write and produce about/with. But with each subsequent film since 2012's American Mary, the Soska sisters are proving they are really are a fluke. A one-hit wonder. Perhaps they should stick to game show hosting because they do have the personalities and a knack for that. All showmanship, no substance.

In the end, RABID winds up a five-million dollar dumpster fire (seriously, where did the money go??) and the first Cronenberg film to be infected with crappy remake labeling. The Soskas certainly achieved that with the film. Perhaps one day, someone else will come along and remake Cronenberg properly, because he's not off to a good start.

A haunting, magnificent, emotional masterpiece. Well worth your time and even over ten years later, still has the same impact.

This by far is one of the WORST films I've seen in quite some time. Congratulations on achieving that goal! Save yourself ninety-minutes of your life. Avoid.

Peppermint's end credits song, Push Me, by Geno Lenardo featuring Ash Costello, was obviously used to remind you that you were watching a bad-ass revenge thriller. But in reality, you were misled. So bland. So paint-by-numbers. So cliche-riddled. Peppermint is about as deep as the "bad guy" paper targets Jennifer Garner pumped hundreds of rounds into

I absolutely love Deus Irae and just can't get enough! You can conclude that it's a genre film made by genre fans - fans that respect the genre and more importantly, it's audience. Director Pedro Cristiani and his impressive cast and crew have brought to the screen an amazing eye for detail on this production. Everything it seems, including the kitchen sink, soaks up the scenery in a rich, warm candle-lit embrace. Kudos on the solid production design, gorgeous cinematography, brilliant editing (all those subtle cuts), visual effects, make-up effects and the music. This is indeed a labour of love. Creepy and brutal. I couldn't help but soak in the horror projected on screen, yet grin and smirk in the under-lining dark sense of humour Pedro unleashed on me - did I mention all those little details? (This requires repeat viewings) Even after seeing this thirteen-minute short about twenty times now, I'm still hungry for more. Deus Irae has played at a couple of film festivals to date (Toronto After Dark, CineFantasy - Brazil) with more to come (Fantastic Film, Stiges). Be sure to check it out...