Review: ‘Monsters Of California
Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge’s Directorial Debut Brings Conspiracy Theories To Life

By
Jake Sokolsky
-

Dallas (Jack Samson) has had anything but a smooth teenage upbringing in Monsters Of California. His dad, a pilot working for the military, disappeared years ago. Dallas is still trying to cope and not give up hope that he’ll figure out what really happened. It doesn’t help that his mom Leah (Arianne Zucker) is trying to move on, dating someone else. On top of that, his sister Meg (Camille Kostek) consistently judges the hijinks Dallas and his friends get in to. Arguably with good reason.

Dallas and his two best friends Toe (Jack Lancaster) and Riley (Jared Scott) have an interesting idea of a good time. The three of them, mostly led by Dallas’ passion, are constantly trying to explain the unknown. Whether that be ghosts or UFOs, they will be there attempting to get video evidence. Their three person Wolfpack grows by 1 when Kelly (Gabrielle Haugh) moves to town and Dallas immediately falls for her. Dallas & co stumble on to some of his father’s old files, leading them to Dr. Walker (Richard Kind) for more answers. As they get closer to the truth, more obstacles and dangers present themselves – but Dallas is determined to not let anything stop him.

Tom DeLonge directed Monsters of California as well as cowrote the film with Ian Miller. This was Miller’s debut as well as DeLonge’s feature length writing and directing debut. DeLonge had written and directed prior projects, but they were shorts. DeLonge is best known for his time spent as the guitarist and one of the signers of Blink 182. Him leaving the band, twice, to pursue his passion for space and UFOs shook the band’s fan base. DeLonge co-founded To the Stars…Academy of Arts & Sciences, an organization to help further those passions. Now turning to film, Monsters Of California is a natural outlet for DeLonge.

Monsters Of California does not reinvent the wheel or add anything revolutionary to the sci-fi genre. However, the film is enjoyable and paces itself well. The acting is nothing to write home about, but DeLonge and Miller’s script keeps the audience committed and entertained. They provide a good blend of humor and action throughout. Not only does one need to suspend their disbelief with the subject matter, but with how certain aspects of the film unwind. Some instances are so nonsensical, they detract from the film. The potential was there and DeLonge and Miller certainly push many of the right buttons. Yet when the dust settles, there are ultimately too many missteps throughout the film that really hold it back.

31 Days of Horror: Day 7 ‘Stagefright’ (1987)
Directed by: Michele Soavi

By
Ronny Sharpes
-

Synopsis: When a cast of actors rehearse their new musical about a serial killer, an actual psychopath breaks into the theater and torments them.

For tonight’s film, I’ve decided to delve into one of my favorite sub-genres of horror and that’s some good old fashioned Italian horror. Over the top acting, questionable dubbing, extreme death gags and buckets of frighteningly bright red blood. Nothing beats it. With me being a casual fan of Dario Argento, I’m actually kind of surprised I’ve never stumbled across Michele Soavi’s work before considering he was Argento’s protege but here we are.

This flick is 1980’s horror cinema through and through. With a creative, yet simple plot things don’t take very long to get to the payoff and just when you think the fun is coming to an end, boom, there’s still 20 more minutes left.

The story begins with our actors rehearsing their serial killer musical under the direction of a tyrannical director. When one of the actors, Alicia (Barbara Cupisti) injures herself, she sneaks away with a set dresser friend in an attempt to get medical care and sneak back before the director notices. In true horror fashion, they end up at a mental asylum seeking assistance where we are introduced to real life serial killer, Irving Wallace (Clain Parker). Somehow Wallace escapes and hitches a ride back to the theater, unseen in the back of the car. Once he gets locked in with the rest of the cast all Hell breaks loose and the actors are picked off one after another in grisly fashion.

This movie was everything I wanted it to be and more. I just love that schlocky feel of it and being coupled with everything Italian horror offers just pushes this one over the top for me. This is quintessential 1980’s horror. The kills were all accomplished using practical effects (big plus for me) and fairly creative. Example, one scene sees an actress get pulled through the floor and subsequently torn in half, with her top half landing on the guy trying to save her. Absolute perfection! I know I’m not alone when it comes to this type of genre film and the ones that understand that love should be and probably are all over this director’s work. I’m honestly not sure why it took me so long myself. This one was a ton of fun and reminds me why I love this genre. This one will be added into my usual rotation from now on and I’m actively seeking out more of Soavi’s work as we speak.

This one needs to be experienced at least once, so head on over to Tubi and you can find it as of this writing.

Review: ‘Totally Killer’
Kiernan Shipka Turns Back Time To Find Her Mother's Killer In Blumhouse's Horror Comedy

By
Cortland Jacoby
-

If Back to the Future and Scream had a baby, horror studio Blumhouse’s latest venture Totally Killer would be the evil comedic spawn. And the film knows it. Now out on Amazon Prime, the comedy slasher is packed with pop culture references, genuinely thrilling twists and turns, and so many plot holes, that it would make your head spin.

Kiernan Shipka plays Jamie, a 17-year-old high school student living in 2023 with her mother and father. They lived through a serial killer who targeted their friend group when they were her age. The town is still marked by the killings and every year trick or treaters dress up as the masked killer. Her mother, Pam (played as an adult by Julie Bowen and as a teen by Olivia Holt) is overprotective and doesn’t want her daughter to go to a concert on Halloween Night.

While Jamie and her dad, Blake (Lochlyn Munro as an adult, Charlie Gillespie) are out, Pam is attacked by the masked killer, this time 35 years after the original string of murders, leading to her own death. Devastated, Jamie helps her best friend Amelia, whose mother went to school with Jamie’s parents, finish up a time machine science project. When the killer shows up to their location, Jamie is sent back to 1987 where she encounters the adolescent versions of the many adults in her life, including her own mother.

While Totally Killer’s synopsis might seem convoluted or hokey, Nahnatchka Khan’s direction and David Matalon, Sasha Perl–Raver, Jen D’Angelo’s script are smart and self-aware. They play into the generational differences between the socially lawless ‘80s and the PC culture of today without overdoing the joke. Halloween is one of the first visual references Khan makes in the film, which makes sense as her last film Always Be My Maybe played off of beloved rom-coms. She knows when to turn off the comedy though and give the audience moments of genuine suspense.

The dialogue may be well-written with surprising twists and turns, but Totally Killer plays fast and loose with the perimeters of time travel. Time travel movies often live and die by the rules set up in the script and there aren’t really any in this film. If you give any thought to the scientific logic, the premise would fall over, luckily Keirnan Shipka is there to ground the film.

The movie wouldn’t be as successful if Shipka’s performance lacked in any way. She gives Jamie just the right amount of skeptical sass that any teenager going back to 1987 would have. From pointing out the causal racism and sexism of the era with a quick-witted joke to cleverly out-maneuvering the killer at every turn, she dominates this horror comedy. Her performance is reminiscent of Taissa Farmiga’s in The Final Girls but she puts her own spin on it, propelling the story forward at every turn.

Ultimately, Totally Killer is a fresh, suspensefully fun watch, perfect for this time of year. While the logic of the film doesn’t always make sense, there’s enough here to overlook that. Like a masked killer lurking in the background, this Blumhouse production sneaks up on you.

Review: ‘V/H/S/85’
The Latest Entry In The Found Footage Anthology Series Sits Among Its Best

By
John Nolan
-

I have always had a real soft spot for horror anthology films. I’m sure it goes back to my intro to the sub-genre, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie which was a favorite “home sick from school” movie for me growing up. Yes, I know most point to The Twilight Zone: The Movie, but ‘Darkside’ had an amazing framing device that was just as much a film as it’s inter-woven segments. Honestly, even if only for Rae Dawn Chong’s gargoyle segment it would still be my go-to. Fast forward 20 or so years and V/H/S hits the scene and plucks all of the right notes for someone with a taste for these films and adding a found footage twist. Now that I think of it, this series is literally found footage since all of the stories come from video tapes found by an unsuspecting viewer.

We are now six films in, with the results being largely hit or miss. V/H/S/85 is the latest installment, and honestly the most apt as far as timeline is concerned with 1985 being the absolute pinnacle of the, then fresh, home video format. The film, which consists of four segments and the wrap-around, opens with an A Current Affair or Hard Copy knock-off called Total Copy in which they conduct a story about a group of scientists observing a little “boy” who seems obsessed with his TV, I’ll keep this vague so as not to give anything away. This is where the anthology film lives or dies, in my mind. So many of these films use the framing story as nothing more then a way to burn time between segments or, in some cases, they forgo it all together. V/H/S/85 gets the importance of this ingredient and delivers one of the best wrap-arounds thus far.

Getting to the full segments I was fully expecting to see one I really liked, one that was good and two that I could have done without. This has been the case for all of the installments which came before so why would this be any different? Well, I’m not sure why, but it definitely was different. The V/H/S series has always done a good job of mixing horror genres within it’s stories and V/H/S/85, whether by design or chance, had the perfect mix. Starting with “No Wake”, which starts like a textbook “teens go to a lake, cabin, old house for the weekend” film but brings in more then one twist. Then it’s on to my favorite segment, ‘God of Death’ which uses the very real 1985 Mexico City Earthquake as it’s setting and follows a news crew into a sink hole. The moment you start seeing Aztec artifacts you know this isn’t going to end well. A perfect mix of disaster cinema and supernatural horror the segment highlights a very underappreciated subject for horror, pre-Colombian gods and culture.

TKNOGD is next, and was probably the only segment I would mark as “throw away” but only if I was forced to choose a segment to mark as such. Hints of pre-internet VR films like Lawnmower Man or Brainscan give a retro-future feel that really hits the nostalgia notes for an oldschool computer nerd like myself. Lastly we get to Scott Derrickson’s (The Black Phone, Sinister) second contribution (he also directs the wrap-around) ‘Dreamchild’ which features quite possibly the scariest two words to feature together in all of horror, demon child.

I hesitate to say V/H/S/85 is the best film of the series, I think that accolade still lies with V/H/S/2 (I mean c’mon, that cult segment? Amazing) but ’85’ is a close runner up. While they do a great job with connecting all of the stories in some way I would have preferred a more logical, real-world framing device. All I could think of watching this was being a kid and finding a box of unmarked video tapes…which was always an event to remember. It’s that feeling that V/H/S/85 leans into recreating and, for the most part, succeeds.

‘Furiosa’: George Miller Reportedly Eyes Cannes 2024 Premiere For ‘Fury Road’ Prequel

By

Travis Hopson

-

October 6, 2023

The road to movie Valhalla and the world premiere of Furiosa, George Miller’s anticipated Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, could lead all the way to Cannes 2024. According to Variety, Miller has his sights set on the festival to be the first place where eager viewers can die happy, shiny and chrome, taking in the follow-up to what many believe is the best blockbuster action movie ever.

This is far from confirmed, though, even if Miller has pretty good recent history with Cannes. It was there in 2022 that he premiered his most recent film, Three Thousand Years of Longing. Nine years ago in 2015 it was where he debuted Fury Road, as well.

That fact hasn’t escaped Cannes festival chief Thierry Fremaux, who really wants Furiosa there, too…

“We kept an extraordinary memory of the world premiere of ‘Fury Road’ at Cannes,” Fremaux said. “It would be wonderful to welcome them again with ‘Furiosa,’ especially since George Miller was a marvelous jury president in 2016. I know he’s working on the film and I hope it will be at Cannes.”

Furiosa stars Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger Imperator Furiosa, taking over the role from Charlize Theron. Chris Hemsworth joins her as a young Immortan Joe. Ex-WWE superstar Nathan Jones returns as Rictus Erectus, and so does Angus Sampson as The Organic Mechanic. Tom Burke joins the cast as Warlord Dementus, leader of the biker gang that snatched Furiosa from the Green Place of Many Mothers.

Currently, Furiosa is set to open on May 24th 2024. Cannes’s Opening Night is May 17th, so the timing definitely fits.

‘Nowhere’: Gregg Araki’s Iconic, Surreal Teen Comedy Is Getting An Uncut 4K Restoration

By

Travis Hopson

-

October 6, 2023

When I first really got into gathering my DVD collection, one of the first films I sought out was Gregg Araki’s Nowhere. The final chapter in his “Teenage Apocalypse” trilogy of really fucked-up, star-studded queer comedies, it wasn’t an easy movie to find. But I got my hands on a region-free one and have cherished it ever since. I’ve always had a soft spot for the filmmaker’s trippy Gen-X take on Hollywood and celebrity.

And now Nowhere is finally getting a proper uncut 4K restoration that is touring the country now courtesy of Strand Releasing, ahead of the film’s home release. Uh, yes please! This is the first time the full uncut edition will have been seen since the Sundance world premiere.

If you’re interested in seeing if Araki is bringing Nowhere to your town, you can check the listings here. Unfortunately, it’s not coming anywhere near DC which, I have to admit, is a real kick in the gut. I’m betting we could pack the house if Araki were to bring it here.

Released in 1997, Nowhere starred James Duval as Dark, who is coping with his cheating bisexual girlfriend Mel, played by Rachel True, and his own confused feelings for a classmate, Montgomery, played by Nathan Bexton. Dark, Mel, and their colorful group of friends have a wild night trying to get to a huge party at Jujyfruit’s place, but face alien abductions, suicide, gun-toting vigilantes, washed-up celebrities, and a fateful game of Kick the Can.

Described by Araki as “Beverly Hills 90210 on acid”, the film had a killer cast of red-hot rising stars including Shannon Doherty, Christina Applegate, Ryan Phillippe, Heather Graham, Jordan Ladd, Guillermo Diaz, Scott Caan, Mena Suvari, Denise Richards, Rose McGowan, and many more.

And of course, the soundtrack was just as timely, featuring Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Hole, Sonic Youth, and more.

“Due to circumstances beyond my control, “Nowhere” was never properly distributed on DVD in the U.S. — just VHS (!) and I guess, laserdisc (?!),” Araki told Indiewire. “So, for the past 20 or so years, every time I appeared for a panel or Q&A, fans have been asking if/when “Nowhere” will get a proper release. Well, I’m thrilled to say that day is finally here!”

Strand has yet to give Nowhere‘s 4K restoration a hard release date, but a new trailer is sure to whet fans’ appetites. You can bet I’ll be getting my hands on this one.

31 Days Of Horror: Day 6 ‘Baskin’ (2016)
Directed by: Can Evrenol

By
Ronny Sharpes
-

Synopsis: Five cops stumble upon the blood-spattered bowels of Hell, where dark rituals and unspeakable horrors await in this head-spinning freakout.

Baskin begins in a diner, where 4 hardened officers and a rookie are beginning their night, gathered around a table trading war stories. Soon after, they get a call requesting backup in a small town on the outskirts of the city. While en route they encounter some strange occurrences on the road that cause them to wreck, stranding them in the middle of nowhere. Somehow they just so happen to arrive at their intended destination by wandering down the road. After being greeted by the strange locals they stumble upon a desiccated police station where the call for help originated. This is where things start going off the rails. Talismans, blood-soaked bundles of viscera and orgy-like piles of filthy writhing bodies. They’ve managed to find themselves in the midst of a Black Mass at the gates of Hell. For real, this film feels like Hellraiser and Eyes Wide Shut’s aborted lovechild. It’s a strange acid trip of a flick that throws everything at you and expects you to sort out the pieces.

The director’s choice of telling the story while shifting back and forth between the diner and smack dab in the middle of a ritual kept me completely disoriented. Let me preface by saying, I’m no expert in Turkish horror but I’m pretty sure that was the intention. I’m honestly not entirely sure what I watched. It seemed like they had a bunch of creative scenes filled with extreme visuals and gore but haphazardly threw them together in an attempt to make something out of a very flimsy narrative. It did that well but having great practical effects and attention-grabbing scenes does not make a great movie.

I vaguely remember when the trailer was released for this and I wanted to see it, but it fell through the cracks. I’m always interested in horror from outside the US. I enjoy digging into folklore from other countries. This one, although creative, was one that missed the mark for me. Like I said, the practical effects were well done and some of the scenes worked great as standalone vignettes but strung together it was just a confusing 97 minute ride.

I can’t really recommend Baskin in good faith but I’m fairly certain it has its audience out there. It honestly might be worth the watch just for the visuals and strange imagery alone. I can tell you with certainty though that once was enough for me.

Join me again tomorrow as we continue this strange little trip down the horror rabbit hole.

Review: ‘Clerk’
Kevin Smith's Life And Career Are Explored In Malcolm Ingram's Documentary

By
Khalil Johnson
-

Let me start by upfront by saying I’m a huge fan of Kevin Smith! Sometime in college I accidentally discovered his Smodcast podcast and found him to be funny, insightful, and an overall super geek. A customary Google search later, I discovered he was a filmmaker with an extensive resume who was a part of the indie boom of the 90s. There was no streaming, so either through Netflix DVD rentals (remember that?), or just flat out buying the DVDs of his movies, I got hooked and became a Kevin Smith fan. I ran through his entire library rather quickly and fell in love with his “Jersey films.” Now not all of his films are my cup of tea (looking at you Cop Out, Tusk, and Yoga Hosers), but overall, his films are fun, silly, and almost all of them have heart. Hell, I still listen to/watch his Fatman on Batman/Fatman Beyond podcast whenever a new episode drops.

So, when I learned that his friend/protégé Malcolm Ingram was making a documentary about his life and career, I was more than interested in watching Clerk and learn a little bit more about the writer/director/podcaster/public speaker/whatever other hat he wears nowadays.

Clerk examines the life of Kevin Smith from him leaving his smalltown Jersey suburb of Highlands in search of going to film school after seeing Richard Linklater’s (who was interviewed in Clerk among countless others) comedy Slacker and deciding THAT’S what he wanted to do with his life. He ended up dropping out of film school, but learned enough to pursue his dreams and he ended up making the Sundance darling Clerks and establishing himself as an upcoming filmmaker. The documentary covers pretty much every facet of his life up until 2019’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot film, so it explores thirteen of his fifteen films as well as every other part of his life, including him being a comic book writer (Joe Quesada and Stan Lee both say he helped Marvel out when they were going almost bankrupt with his writing creativity for Daredevil and other comics), public speaker, podcaster, and even his near-fatal heart attack and life-changing weight loss.

Now if you’re a Kevin Smith superfan fan (which most people who would watch this documentary presumably already are) Clerk doesn’t give you too many new details you don’t already know. After all, through Smith’s public speaking events, podcasts, and social media he has already personally shared in great detail already about his life and career. His friend Scott Mosier even says when he heard about Smith having his “widowmaker” heart attack, he first checked Instagram instead of calling Smith because that would be the easiest way to know Smith’s status. That doesn’t mean that Clerk isn’t a great documentary. Hearing from Smith, friends Jason Mewes (the Jay of “Jay and Silent Bob”), his wife, daughter, producer Scott Mosier, Marc Bernardin, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and countless others discussing their relationships with Smith provides a little me insight into him from the people he’s most connected to and helps the audience learn a little bit about him and what makes him tick, his successes, and his failures like Mallrats, Zach and Miri Make a Porno, and Yoga Hosers. Smith even recalls his heart attack and after being told it was near-fatal he tells the doctor “I can’t die with Yoga Hosers being my last film” jokingly.

Clerk is a celebration of Smith, so don’t expect to learn about any “dark side” of Smith, because it really doesn’t seem there is one, he’s genuinely a nice person who just likes to “have fun making movies with his friends.” It celebrates the “brand” of Kevin Smith not just as a person, but as an institution who simply just wants to entertain people in any way he possibly can. Clerk also shows the impact that Smith had on entertainment, from his first film Clerks, to his endlessly hiring his friends and people he meets along the way to be a part of his business and even influencing other filmmakers who grew up watching his films. If you are a fan of Kevin Smith, Clerk is worth a watch as it’s a love letter to the filmmaker.

Clerk is currently available on Blu-Ray (exclusively at Mercantile Instinct) and VOD.

Clerk

1 of 22

‘Cat Person’ Interview: Director Susanna Fogel On StoryBoarding The Most Awkward Sex Scene In Recent Memory

By

Cortland Jacoby

-

October 6, 2023

The internet was aflutter when a short story called Cat Person was published by The New Yorker in 2017. In it, Kristen Roupenian chronicles the doomed and brief relationship of college student Margot and thirty-something Robert. It was uncomfortable and highly relatable to a younger audience. Online forums at the time broke down every awkward interaction between the two and debated about consent and a woman’s tendency to try to be polite and spare men’s feelings, sacrificing their own in the process.

When I sat down with Cat Person director Susanna Fogel to talk about the adaptation, it was clear that just as much thought and discussion went into making it. Packed with pop culture references and beloved songs detailing toxic masculinity, the film plays off of the idea that men like Robert feel like they are owed something from our most cherished pieces of media. “It’s music that if you actually pick apart the lyrics, it’s incredibly homophobic and sexist.” She told me, before using the Beach Boys as an example. “It’s about 15-year-old girls on a beach and how hot they are. That’s like not a thing that we want to be admitting adult men are thinking about. But at the same time, I still listen to those songs.”

Fogel recognizes that film and TV also gave Margot unrealistic romantic expectations. “She’s figuring out what movie she is in.” In one scene, she has an out-of-body experience during sex where she debates whether or not she wants to be in that position. For Fogel, this required meticulous planning to the point she brought in the action storyboard artist she used in The Spy Who Dumped Me.

We also chatted about her 2014 film Life Partners and how Adam Brody’s Tim is very similar to Nicholas Braun’s Robert. Watch my interview below. Cat Person is in theaters this Friday, October 6.

31 Days of Horror: Day 5 ‘Exists’ (2014)
Directed by: Eduardo Sanchez

By
Ronny Sharpes
-

Synopsis: A group of friends who venture into the remote Texas woods for a weekend of partying and carefree fun find themselves stalked by Bigfoot.

It’s really that simple, five friends (two couples and an odd man out) head to the woods for a weekend away at an abandoned cabin owned by one of the friend’s uncles. The fifth wheel in this group is documenting everything on camera under the auspices of making a YouTube video showcasing his friends mountain biking. Which explains why the whole thing is shot completely “found footage” style. On the drive in, they hit something that is vaguely humanoid but it scampers off before they can examine it. This kicks off a series of sightings surrounding the cabin they’re in and whispers of Bigfoot among the group.

Anyone that knows me or has read my previous reviews, knows that I’m not a huge fan of “found footage” style horror with very few exceptions. One of those being the original Blair Witch Project. That flick came out around the time I was living in a fairly rural area not too far from the place it was set. It really seemed like a plausible scenario given the way it was presented and marketed. It literally scared the hell out of me and made the drives/walks home a terrifying ordeal. I bring this up because Eduardo Sanchez was one of the men responsible for that film as well. So of course, when another “found footage” style flick with his name on it popped up, I had to watch it.

This one doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is. It’s a story about being stranded in the woods, with no way to contact the outside world while being stalked by a flash of fur on the periphery that is screaming a primal, blood curdling scream. Although the premise is flimsy for the reason they’re filming to begin with, the movie itself is a terrifying rush of adrenaline. With the over-abundance of shitty Bigfoot/Sasquatch films out there, this one is done fairly well. I’m not sure why it took me so long to watch it. The acting is mediocre but that doesn’t really matter because the effects are well done and the creature itself is a menacing presence that draws attention away from the other flaws.

Listen, this isn’t a blockbuster hit that collected a ton of awards but it’s a solid creature based horror movie that will get your heart pumping and keep it elevated for the tight 81 minute runtime. It’s not the best, but it’s not terrible either. Perfectly average run of the mill genre flick that will entertain you on that dark, spooky October night.

If you’re interested in checking this one out for yourself, I was able to find it streaming on Prime as of this writing.

Join me again tomorrow as we continue our journey down the horror rabbit hole.