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Reviews
Everyone Laugh at Leanne (2019)
Visually Stunning Psychodrama
Martin Daniels' "Everyone Laugh At Leanne", tells the story of a day in the life of the protagonist of the title. Despite seeming to have a happy relationship and concerned friends, all is not quite what it seems in Leanne's world. Director Daniels' has gained a reputation for creating visually stunning psychodramas that engage their audience, whilst avoiding simplistic interpretation or explanation. Watching this I was reminded of "Repulsion" (UK,1965), in that both deal with a female protagonist attempting to make sense of her perceptions in a world that seems to feed her paranoia and insecurities. With great sound design, provided by Daniels himself and high quality visuals, this is a film that is big on atmosphere and keeps you unnerved throughout. I look forward to seeing what this director will produce next.
Dr. Balden Cross: Beyond the Void (2018)
Old School Chills
"Dr Balden Cross: Beyond The Void", employs the faux documentary format to tell the story of academic and occultist Dr Balden Cross's career and his excursions into the darker side of human knowledge.
Directed by Tom Lee Rutter, the film evokes those 1970s documentaries about the supernatural and unsolved mysteries, in which the hosts were often more creepy than the subject matter. Like Rutter's previous work, "Bella in the Witch Elm", there is a pervading sense of unease about, "Dr Balden Cross: Beyond The Void", which is difficult to quantify. The film's tone is partly conveyed by the director's highly effective use of visuals and sound but also by what is not spoken of and not shown but hinted at.
Further testament to Rutter's skills are the enjoyably knowing nods that the director makes towards the horror genre of the 1970s, particularly in the form of a fleeting Hammer Horror pastiche, "A Coffin For Lady Dracula", a clip of which the audience are treated to. "Dr Balden Cross: Beyond The Void", also features a number of cameos from Horror and underground filmmakers, such as Norman J Warren and Cassandra Sechler, with director Rutter himself briefly appearing as a hapless cameraman. Actor David Fenn's understated performance as Dr Balden Cross, strikes the right note as the esoteric academic and folklorist, perfectly fitting the world and narrative the director seeks to create.
"Dr Balden-Cross: Beyond The Void" is an accomplished work from director Tom Lee Rutter, that recalls those creepy, elliptical British horror films from the 1970s, such as "The Shout" and "The Asphyx", which eschew jump scares in favour of characterisation and atmosphere.
White Goods (2018)
DIY Film Fun
Bazz Hancher's White Goods is a lean slice of low budget, D.I.Y. filmmaking, that engages and contains more self-deprecating humour that the director's previous works. Familiar faces from the UK underground film scene populate the cast, including Tom Lee Rutter, Lee Mark Jones and the director himself also puts in a cameo. The plot is bonkers, focusing upon a dodgy psychic, various supernatural shenanigans and Hancher's trade mark gore. Not as dark as the Director's previous S.O.V. films, White Goods is a great bit of UK low budget fun, that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Jax in Love (2017)
Love Is A Many Splendid Thing...
Jax in Love is an engaging, creepy tale set on the desert backroads of the US. Not an unfamiliar setting for fans of the horror and crime genre but one of the many strengths of Jax in Love is that it takes its audience to an unexpected destination. Director and Actor Rakefet Abergel has crafted a tale that is both familiar and strange, with an incredible central performance from Abergel herself. Catch this short film if you can. Recommended.
Butterfly Kisses (2018)
A Filmmaker's Vision
Butterfly Kisses is not your average faux documentary/found footage movie, rather it is a film about filmmaking and the real cost of a filmmakers "vision". The premise is straightforward enough; an aspiring documentary filmmaker finds some Hi8 video cassettes in a box. The cassettes purport to show two student filmmakers, who are investigating a local urban legend about a figure called "Peeping Tom". As he investigates further, the filmmaker begins to lose his sense of perspective in terms of what is important to him and his own moral compass.
Like all good movies, Butterfly Kisses is so much more than the sum of its parts. This is a movie about the process of filmmaking, the nature of truth in documentaries and the act of seeing itself. Furthermore, Butterfly Kisses also examines the presence of the director in documentaries and their influence over what the audience sees. The protagonist of Butterfly Kisses, whilst trying to ascertain the truth of the chanced upon footage he is viewing and blinded by a frustrated filmmaker's ambition, fails to "see" what is happening in his own life,
The documentary style of Butterfly Kisses never feels contrived or laboured and the narrative, whilst simple, draws the viewer in and engages throughout. Restores your faith in a much maligned sub genre.
Bella in the Wych Elm (2017)
Häxan in the Midlands
Tom Lee Rutter's Bella in The Wych Elm is a film that combines the dreamlike visuals of the 1922 silent film Häxan, with the facts, as known, of a still unsolved murder mystery that occurred just outside of Birmingham during World War II. Without giving too much away, the body of a woman was found stuffed inside a tree in the early 1940s by a group of young boys. The film then goes on to trace the chain of events from the subsequent investigation to the sporadic emergence of nuggets of information over the years. However, the real power of Bella in the Wych Elm lies not in the telling of the tale but in the film's hypnotic and unsettling black and white imagery. Haunting occult visuals collide with panoramas of a harsh English countryside that recalls the folk Horror tales of films such as Blood On Satan's Claw and Witchfinder General. In common with the visuals, the soundtrack equally, both engages and unsettles the viewer. Check out this vignette of Midlands art horror.
Night of Something Strange (2016)
Evil Dead Meets Porky's
I saw NOSS at London's FrightFest where it was received extremely well by the genre savvy crowd with the director and producer in attendance. The film's premise is simple enough; teens on spring break head for the beach and stop overnight at a backwoods motel. As to be expected, overnight stays at motels never go well in Horror land. Carnage ensues as an STD ravages the local population, rendering those who contract it into demonic, libido driven monsters. Perhaps not unexpectedly NOSS has many gross out moments and the film's use of practical effects really puts you in mind of 80s splatter movies such as Brain Dead and Evil Dead. Fans of such movies from the era of VHS horror will find much to enjoy here, as indeed will any horror fan, as the movie is littered with numerous references to classics of the genre, including an homage to the family dinner scene in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and an "encounter" between Freddy and Jason, which is more disturbing than anything in Elm Street's Nightmares... All of the performances are credible, though for me the show was stolen by the motel proprietor, whose every appearance always raised a laugh. The humour of NOSS is very knowing and doesn't take itself too seriously. Funny and shocking in equal measure this is true Indie horror made by a director and writer who has a real affection and understanding of the genre.