Extraterrestrial

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Extraterrestrial

A few years ago, whilst working freelance for a magazine called FilmInk, I was called upon to interview the horror writing/directing team, The Vicious Brothers –  FilmInk interview

During our discussion they mentioned they were working on a new horror movie about aliens, so when Extraterrestrial was released, I was eager to see it, despite the various negative reviews I had read.

The plot line basically concerns itself with group of young adults on a weekend trip to a cabin in the woods who run into a little alien trouble. It stars the little known actress Brittany Allen and Freddie Stroma (that cocky love interest of Hermione’s in Harry Potter’s Half blood Prince) as the main couple in peril. It also stars actors Gil Bellows and Micheal Ironside as the slowly-believeing-those-kids and older-stoner roles respectively. It also features Vicious Brothers favourite Sean Rogerson of Grave Encounters fame.

The Vicious Brothers have previously proved their ruthlessness with characters in Grave Encounters and followed it up by showing their inventiveness with the sequel to that film. Here they show both those characteristics in the one film. This runs the gamut of genres and emotions, it has shades of talky and ponderous, knowing and funny, creepy and intriguing, follows the sic fi tropes and the horror tropes with similar panache as ‘Cabin in the Woods’; and like that film also features a killer ending.

The ending of this film is key, until then I was moderately happy with the film and pleased to put it in my ‘enjoyable but nothing too special’ brain file.. but when that ending began to unfold I gladly included it in my ‘horrors to recommend’ file.

Every thing about the last half hour was perfectly pitched, the horror was butt clenching (literally!), the sci fi was austere and haunting, the music hipster cool interrupted by a shocking game-changer.

The effects were very good especially considering the low budget, the actors believable, and some of the cinematography was just sublime. Was it scary? not really no, but it was disturbing and had some good jumps, the small moments of violence were unexpected and raw.

I liked this a lot in the end, it may not be perfect but any film that makes me want to rewind and watch again is something worth getting happy about in my book!

7.75/10

It Follows

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small_b6a3975fecd0aa27e5f287f3fcaccc0e-itfollowsThis was the film that all the horror fans were talking about – ‘a hark back to the glory days 80’s horror’ they said; ‘a truly terrifying film’ they said.

So after much searching I managed to track it down and started watching prepared for a treat.

 

Two things to know –

  1. It is terribly over rated and
  2. Only the first half is scary.

 

Directed by David Robert Mitchell, this is the story of Jay, who we first meet at the start of a blossoming romance with Hugh. They go on a date, have a nice night, have sex in his car.. and then it all goes wrong. He tells her he’s passed on to her the mother of all STD’s with a strange presence that will now ‘follow’ her everywhere she goes, it can take the form of anyone, and though it is slow moving it is relentless and will not give up until it catches and kills her, at which point it will return to the person it came from, in this case – Hugh.

He explains the only way to escape it is to have sex with someone else and pass it on.

The film is then about Jay and her friends trying to find a way to beat the ‘entity’.

With a cast of unknowns (Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Olivia Luccardi) and the bleached look of old school horrors, this movie is unique amongst the scary movies of today with their star casts, bold splashes of colour and extreme gore. In fact, I don’t remember much ‘gore’ at all though there is one scene of violence at the beginning that was fairly memorable. This is a movie that relies on atmosphere and that creepy factor of being followed to get its scares, which is all well and good when it works.

The acting is reasonably good across the board but the script feels somewhat lazy and trying too hard to be hipster, so the scares fall away as we get further into the story and what was an initially chilling idea becomes a tad farcical and stretched as the movie presses on towards a fairly anti-climactic finale. Its a movie that looks like ‘The Virgin Suicides’ but has none of the emotional pay-off, feels like old school horror but takes itself way too seriously; and the intent is muddled – is this a film about the dangers of casual sex? An allegory for sexually transmitted diseases? (no one discusses condom use here.. is that purposeful? Would it have prevented the ‘entity’ passing?)

I’m not sure if the film-makers had an ultimate goal in this film other than to creep you out but unfortunately this feels a little too much like a missed opportunity and an after-school special fom hell.

 

Sex is bad kids, m’kay!

 

6/10

Poltergeist 2015

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So some studio executive thought that even though the original Poltergeist was directed by horror royalty Tobe Hooper, produced by hollywood royalty Steven Speilberg and still considered as perfectly effective, creepy and great today as it was in 1982, it was due for a remake. Wheels were put in motion, script reboot completed, cast sought and hired, and a slightly nostalgic trailer released to the public – I was pretty excited. As much as I love the original, I was open to the idea of a new version and eagerly lined up last weekend to view it on opening night.

I purposely had not sought out much information before the viewing – I didn’t want any pre-conceived ideas to cloud my judgement of the film before I’d had a chance to see it.

For those that don’t know – this is a good old fashioned haunted house story – family moves to new home, home already has ‘residents’, horror ensues. Thats the very basic plot premise and it is intact in both versions of this film.

The first happy surprise was the quality of the cast, Sam Rockwell is a pleasure in everything he does and is well cast as the father of this tormented family, Rosemarie DeWitt also adds a nice indie vibe to the proceedings as the mother of this clan. The kids are a good choice particularly in looks, you can believe they are the genetic offspring of Rockwell and DeWitt. The pivotal role of the daughter (not Carolanne in this version but the more modernly named Madison) is played by Kennedi Clements who does an adequate job in a part that will always belong in our minds to the late Heather O’Rourke.

The direction by Gil Kenan is serviceable if unremarkable. The main issue is the script, but we can get back to that.

First the positives – the aforementioned Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt are wonderful and believable as the parents, slightly cool and with some humour intact, they are parents you wouldn’t mind having yourself. Jane Adams as Dr Powell (the paranormal investigator role) is also a good choice even though nowhere near as memorable or soulful as Beatrice Straight in the same role in the original. Jared Hess is an inspired choice as the ‘this house is clean’ character – he is a welcome and successful change. They kept a lot of the same set pieces that worked so well in the original such as the tree, the clown doll, the closet etc, but these are watered down versions of events that had real impact in the original, and therefore do not punctuate the film so much as blend in with the slight blandness that casts a pall over the film like a dulling effect. Nowhere does this seem more evident than in the ‘big reveal’ – the ‘why’ of the happenings. In the first film its a shocking moment of exposition, but in this it is dinner party conversation and supposition.

As I said earlier, the problem is the script, in the original there are scenes of tenderness for the family, and some pity for the poor trapped souls in the house, there is terror in the fear of ordinary things such as toys and closets, there is a sense of the terrible toll and almost madness this horrific situation causes the parents, humour and joy at the beginning that slowly turns to discomfort and finally fear; all of these elements are gone. It feels rushed to scare you and thus loses the context and place that makes those scares resonate in the first place.

I didn’t hate this film, it was a perfectly reasonable PG-13 horror, and without the inevitable comparison to the 1982 version I may have scored it higher; but comparisons ARE inevitable, and when you take on a movie that already did it so well in the first place, theres no way to win. 

Watch the original – its brilliant; this just has Sam Rockwell.

5.5/10

Sons of Horror

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With Sons of Anarchy finally hitting its inevitable end (please keep the sobbing to a minimum folks) and the lack of any new decent horrors on the shelves (and it being Friday the 13th and all!) it seemed a good time to feature a ‘special’ – this one’s subject matter combining my two great loves, SOA and horror.
Let the show begin.
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The Horror Before The Anarchy

All great actors work their way up tot the ladder, plugging away at lesser roles until they eventually hit their ‘role of a lifetime’ at some stage and thus becoming the rounded and celebrated actor they were born to be. This is true of every actor who has graced our screens as motorcycle rebels in the brilliant and under-awarded Sons of Anarchy. This article will touch on the actors whose previous work included horror, we will review the movie and their work in it; I will do my best to be unbiased but I must warn you now – Theo Rossi is my favorite actor…. period, so a completely unwavering cold hard look at any horror featuring him may be a little kinder then usual..

Charlie Hunnam

Unfortunately the main man of SOA has no horror in his back catalogue. Pacific Rim featured horror elements mostly due to the fine and fantastically dark aesthetics of director Guillermo Del Toro but I put this film firmly in the sci fi realm.

Ron Perlman

Well wow Ron! Now this guy has done some horror! As a way to narrow the field a little I have decided to dis-count any made-for-tv movies or tv shows. This cuts the list down to 12. I removed any movies in which he was not amongst the first five names listed in the cast which narrowed it down to 7, I then deleted any that were not first and foremost a horror, rather than a action/horror hybrid. This left us with 4 – Cronos, 13 Sins, The Last Winter and 5ive Girls.

13 Sins
This is one of those films that when it starts you’re not entirely sure if what you’re watching is a horror. It is essentially a ‘how far would you go for money’ plot that escalates until the ‘fun’ is in seeing what atrocious act may be requested next and will the protagonist go through with it?! Its entertaining throughout and the episodic nature helps you count down the movie but the ending is ludicrously neat and undermines any previous good work. Ron plays the dogged cop hot on the trail of our troubled anti-hero in what is a fairly routine role for him and not one that requires him to flex any of his formidable acting chops – better luck next time Mr Perlman! 6.5/10

Cronos
Old man finds a gold scarab that gives him eternal life at a price. Ron Perlman plays the oppressed son of a man who’ll stop at nothing to possess it too. Well made Guillermo Del Toro flick with a nice twist on the vampire legend that unfortunately suffers from a severe lack of scares. Good performances and direction only take you so far.. 6/10

5ive Girls
So I started to watch this story of witchcraft and devil possession, decided it was too badly acted and scripted and turned it off after 15 minutes only to read some positive stuff on IMDB message boards that made me turn it back on. I was pleased I did, while hardly and Oscar contender, the characters were clearly drawn, the story unpredictable and the relationship between the girls was solid and natural. The easy dialogue between them a nice touch and the gore pretty well done considering the limited budget and audience. Ron Perlman is the only name here and he carries his character of the priest well. Like an old fashioned 80’s horror in many ways. 6.5/10

The Last Winter
This felt like a major throw back to 1981’s classic The Thing (and the original Thing from 1949). An oil drilling expedition in the Arctic, small group of intrepid explorers, things go awry, madness ensues. I actually enjoyed both the physical and emotional bleakness of this movie; and it was also clever to include the environmental elements of the story. Ron Perlman turned in a toned down, quietly-seething-with-untold-rage kind of performance that worked for the subdued setting and the undercurrent of tension throughout. There were some nicely creepy touches, some unexpected plot developments and well acted by all players. A minor movie but a pretty good one for that.
6.5/10

Kim Coates
Another horror man, I used the same elimination process with Kim and came up with the following – Resident Evil: Afterlife, Blood: A Butchers Tale and The Club. I could not find copies of The Club or Blood anywhere I am afraid so had to settle for just watching and reviewing Resident Evil: Afterlife. However anyone who has seen Milla Jovovich’s acting recently will understand what a sacrifice that truly is.

Resident Evil: Afterlife
Cheap CGI, poor simplistic direction and some dismal acting do not help elevate this series above the D grade schlock it is. An utter dearth of actual horror is another nail in the coffin as well as the squandering of Kim Coates’ considerable acting chops. Featuring tv actors Wentworth Miller and Ali Lauder this is just another episode in the continuing saga of the Resident Evil films. As someone who has not seen the others I can say with certainly that it does not stand on its own as a complete movie. A pointless exercise.
3/10

Dayton Callie

Halloween II
I was one of the few horror fans who enjoyed Rob Zombies remake/reboot of Halloween. I thought it was a fresh take and not in any way disrespecting or downplaying the earlier films impact, just fleshing out the story a little more and ‘humanising’ Michale Myers in an unexpectedly un-condoning way. Halloween II was when the studios said to Rob “Ok you did good, we’ll just let you go on this one”. Big mistake, this film is drowning in nonsensical imagery and sick little oedipal touches that undermines the previous films good work not to mention derailing any interest the industry had bestowed on Rob Zombie – he had to fight to get that back. Dayton Callies work here is solid as always. He is rarely less than utterly believable and relatable in everything he does. Kudos!
4/10

Katey Segal

Only TV horrors for Miss Katey – nothing to review here but she is of course, a queen.

Mark Boone Jnr

MBJ has been solid, usually sleazy, character support in 9 horrors but is not listed in the first five actors for any of them, so here is a quick review of the best he has appeared in.
Se7en – a perfect movie in many ways; horrific, shocking, haunting, sad, boundary-pushing with brilliant acting/writing and directing. 9/10.
30 days of night – darkly atmospheric with good characterization and an intriguing vampires in alaskan-constant-night premise. A thousand times better than Twilight (naturally lol) 7.5/10
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer – trashy good fun sequel with a creepy ending and a hilariously stoned Jack Black! 7.5/10

Maggie Siff

No horrors for Maggie I’m afraid.

Drea De Matteo

And continuing the ladies letting us down there are no horrors for Miss De Matteo either.

Theo Rossi

Mr Awesome himself. Theo has actually been in two horrors which I, being the hardcore Theo/horror fan that I am, obviously own.

Red Sands – A group of US soldiers destroy a statue and something eeevvviill is released. Pretty standard fare but the direction is interesting and Theo is ,of course, great in his role, particularly once he is infected by the ‘evil’. Not a masterpiece by any stretch but not as bad as expected either. 5/10

Kill Theory – You know the drill, a group of nubile young things (also featuring Taryn Manning, representing the SOA ladies in a horror at last!) a secluded vacation home, a killer on the loose and bodies start to drop. The twist here being that the killer makes it a kill or be killed game to see how far each will go to survive. Theo dies over a very looooong period of time here but his chipper sex-mad character is a welcome refreshement from the sometimes perpetually troubled Juice he played on SOA and I have to admit, it was so so nice to see that beaming smile again. 7/10

At The Devil’s Door

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We all are afraid of something; and sometimes those can be very different things. Some of those fears come from deep seated experiences perhaps even from back in our infancy, some are influenced by what movies we have watched lately or books we’ve read or even from glancing at the news occasionally and seing how badly we treat each other and the world we inhabit. Some fears however, appear to be almost universal – spiders, clowns, sharks, ghosts and the devil (whatever you perceive that to be).

This, the latest film written and directed by Nicholas McCarthy (after the low-budget but highly effective ‘The Pact’ in 2011), seems to have a direct pipeline into the collective unconscious fears a lot of us share – that there IS evil in the world, and one day it just may come looking for you.

It starts with a story of a young girl selling her soul, segues into a tale of two sisters who are strongly drawn individuals with their own lives (shock horror!) and touches on the depressed US economy as well as looking at the impact of our choices and their consequences, before doubling back and showing us what really happened to that soul-selling girl. This is a unique narrative in that it is almost a passing of the leading-lady torch throughout the film, each character clearly defined and not in any way a cliche or cypher – rare!
The horror itself is never gratuitous, the fear very very real and there is a palpable dark power felt throughout the film that reminded me of The Exorcist or Rosemarys Baby and how difficult that is to create.

Perfomances (Naya Rivera of ‘Glee’ fame, Catalina Sandino Moreno from ‘Maria Full of Grace’ and Ashley Rickards from TV’s ‘Awkward – playing wildly against type) were uniformly all above expected, with a super taut script that still allows for the true nature of terror and how it lives and breeds in the silences as much as in the screams.
The insidious nature of the things that scare us and the one-two punch of strong characters plus that tense script shows the surety of McCarthys direction and screenplay.

This is a film that frightens you with stares and barely glimpsed horrors that lurk just in frame, something you squint to see then recoil in fear, a creepiness under the skin thats not easy to shake.

I don’t know why this film wasn’t better received, I thought it was a pretty perfect horror treat.
It definitely scared me.

9/10

As Above, So Below

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When you are a connoisseur of horror films you are acutely aware of the patterns that emerge in certain sub-genres such as ‘psycho killer stalker’, ‘backwoods hillbilly killers’, ‘haunted house’, ‘devil possession’ etc. – they have formulas and if you’ve seen enough of them, you can tick those cues off like blowing out candles; the horrors that truly scare you and stay with you are generally the ones that either wildly or subtly veer from these expected patterns.
‘As Above, So Below’ is a ‘found footage’ sub genre horror movie, as such it has certain marks to hit and it does hit them – to varying degrees of success. Where it differs is in it’s kindness to its leads, the refusal to debase itself in pursuit of cheap scares or the need to make its characters cyphers merely representing the idea of real people rather than taking the risk and giving us characters that are all shades of grey.
These people say petty things, have less-than-noble motivations sometimes, have foibles and secrets that exist to make the characters richer rather than to merely move the story along.
Its leads are intelligent people who use their intellect to find solutions to the many dangers they encounter.
The story concerns itself with a small group of intrepid explorers ranging from enthusiastic and passionate Scarlet (Perdita Weeks in a perfectly honest performance) , her ‘underground hero’ friend Papillion (François Civil)) and VERY reluctant tag along George (the immensely likeable Ben Feldman) searching for the fabled ‘Philosophers Stone’ in the underground catacombs of Paris.
What happens in the catacombs forces them to each come to terms with their own personal demons, indeed the film could be seen as a metaphor for the benefits of facing those things we’d rather forget, battling them and defeating them – an old idea but still powerful.
There is no excessive exposition, the film makers (John Erick Dowdle) trust you to put the pieces together and don’t feel the need to labour a point, this light touch serves the film well.
Another thing to celebrate in this film – when characters perish, the others are genuinely shocked and saddened, they do not just go on as if nothing happened (a malady of many horrors), the camaraderie feels natural and you get a palpable sense of history between Scarlet and George as they reconnect.
This is a horror that should be proud of itself, its disturbing enough to be somewhat scary, humane enough to feel real, makes good use of the unusual and exotic locale and allows it’s characters room to breath.
Not to mention – none of those pesky cliché-ridden endings in sight!

7.5/10

The Town That Dreaded Sundown

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The much maligned slasher genre, once so strong in it’s heyday (70’s – 80’s) has been limping along in misshapen almost-parodies of itself for sometime now. a shadow of its former self and a huge disappointment for fans of it’s unique charms.
with the possible exceptions of my bloody valentine 3d (a remake so arguably not a recent slasher), I know what you did last summer, haute tension, wolf creek and valentine there has not been a good ‘slasher’ since it’s glory days; and the aforementioned movies share tenuous connections to the genre at best and none have the unique feel of those 70’s and 80’a classics.
until now…

TTTDS is a meta self-referencing horror bonanza for those who take their scary movies seriously and have made it their mission to watch the classics and get their best horror history education. 

Based on the work of a real life serial killer who stalked small-town Texarkana back in 1946, killing 8 people while he did so and evading capture; and then made into a raw, barely-remmebred horror classic in 1976 which led to scores of ‘killer stalks nubile youngsters whilst wearing a creepy mask’ type movies, with friday the thirteenth’s gunny sack mask being the most obvious homage to this cult classic. 

This new version, produced by Ryan Murphy and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, both of American Horror Story fame, is unique as far as remakes/sequels go as its really both these things – a remake and a sequel in one. It has found a smart way to reference the original movie and recreate it at the same time – very clever and very cool.

With a cast of familiar faces, but a relative newbie as the star (Addison Timlin, best known for Californication, and less forceful than we’ve come to expect from the plucky heroine – I found her vulnerability to be utterly refreshing) the acting is consistently good. The direction and editing are much more artful and beautiful then we would expect from a horror film, (particularly in the slasher genre) and I found the artistic liberties and confidence in the audience to be admirable.

Creepy when it needed to be, nasty in all the right places, stunning to look at, unpredictable, fresh and intriguing, this is a movie I will be recommending to anyone who misses how good horror used to be.

A movie I will be recommending it to everyone.

Bravo!

9/10

Deliver Us From Evil

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A horror movie with big name stars used to be a rare thing, most higher profile actors seemed to think the horror genre was beneath them and so there was a stable of ‘horror actors’ willing to get their hands dirty so to speak.. that does not seem to be the case anymore. Just this year we had Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne in Insidious 2, and Vera Farmigia and Lili Taylor in The Conjuring.

Deliver Us From Evil stars Eric Bana (not an A-lister but a pretty big name, particularly in my country of Australia where he originated) and Joel McHale, an actor who’s face you know from..somewhere.. (I’ll give you a hint – The Soup and Community just to name two) who gives a star-making turn here.

DUFE is a horror film with a twist I havent seen done as well since 1990’s First Power – it combines police crime drama with horror and effectively honours both genres.

This is the story of over-worked New York police officer Ralph Sarchie (Bana) with his own troubled past, investigating a series of bizarre crimes that are somehow related to an unconventional priest.

The tale unfolds like a typical police procedural with Sarchie’s wise-cracking action-seeking partner, Butler (McHale – hilariously likeable) a pregnant in-danger wife, and the information trickling in for you to piece together at your leisure.

When the horror element kicks in it blends seamlessly with the existing framework, not an easy feat and one for which director Scott Derrickson (Sinister, The Excorcism of Emily Rose) should be commended.

This film also features a smoking cool soundtrack with The Doors snake-like, creepy music haunting the edges of this atmospheric movie.

Its well acted, nicely directed, intriguing and a nice, confident strike in respectable horror, the kind people don’t mind telling others they enjoyed.

The issue is that its really not that scary. The opening title card declared this as based on a true story and apparently this is correct as it is based on a book the real Sarchie authored; but being true does not always mean the horror translates to the screen and apart from a few gross-out moments (twisted jumper and neck extension guy – eek) and a few jumpy scenes that feel a bit cheap to me anyway, this doesn’t really bode well for sleepless nights.

Derrickson’s horror pedigree is impressive – Sinister was wildly original and very creepy, Emily Rose is one of the scariest films ever made, but this, while a very good film and one I recommend, does not stand up to those comparisons.

Nevermind, with The Doors ‘Riders on the Storm’ echoing through my mind as I write this, I’m not complaining..

7.5/10

Wolf Creek 2

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Something occurred to me while I watched this, the second instalment of director Greg Mclean’s juggernaut that was the original Wolf Creek – I Love Australian horror and the reason is the characterisation. Unlike American horrors (and to a far lesser extent, British and European horrors) Australian horrors are inhabited by real people who you actually like and therefore once the horror arrives, it brings with it a healthy dose of sadness and dread.

This is the most effective weapon in the horror film’s arsenal in my opinion – the horror has a far deeper impact and more resounding after effects when you genuinely want the protagonists to survive.

This trend in Australian horror continues here but is not to the same extent as the original film and is just one of the many ways this sequel pales in comparison, quality film though it is.

The first scene is an exercise in upping the stakes and a complete and immediate departure from the first film’s slow build. We are instantly plunged into the world of Mick Taylor (John Jarrett) – in this film given a clearer motivation for his psychopathic tendencies. After this initial electrifying scene we are introduced to a nubile, fresh-faced German couple so in love and carefree that you know things cant end well for them. To the film’s credit they are lovely people for whom you wish a future, futile as that wish clearly is.

Shortly after we hop into a jeep with British traveller Paul (Ryan Corr, sporting an exceptionally believable accent) and his is the story we follow from then on. How his interactions happen with Mick are one of the film’s strengths, the bantering and manipulations in the extended final sequence (not a spoiler btw) are the best and most agonising scenes of the entire movie. Mick is still an intriguingly vile character now given a racist angle to hone his motivations (though in the first film he ‘captured’ and Aussie???), with John Jarratt perfecting the cocked-head, blank-eyed stare that tells you he’s unhappy with something you just did/said and is considering separating your spine with his ever present hunting knife.

The first film (in my list of favourite horror films of all time) had many strengths – it toyed with horror genre conventions with the survivor not being who you had thought, with that wonderful slow studied beginning to strongly establish characters you could champion and identify with,  the exceptional acting by all concerned, its hard gritty edge and almost documentary feel, its masterclass in the building of dread and anticipation to the point where you are squirming in your chair, and how it played with sound and things implied to elevate fear mixed in with sharp bursts of extreme cruel violence.

Most of these admirable qualities were not in the sequel – the acting is still well above par with Corr an obvious stand out, but the dread is gone until the final act, the grittiness replaced with slick chase scenes, an amping of the number of victims, things implied are now obvious, Mick almost a caricature of his former terrifying self; and the most regrettable change for me is the loss of the atmospheric sound from the first film replaced with almost humorous music choices that mock the suffering of the victims in a way that was bordering on offensive.

Having said that I did actually like this film – the numerous set pieces were effective, the end sequence hand-wringingly tense, the direction and cinematography truly capturing the desolation and beauty of Australia and the racist angle an inspired choice considering our seeming national obsession with ‘introduced’ vs ‘native’ – an interesting comment on how far that attitude could take us.

If this was a stand alone film it would have scored higher for me and maybe its unfair to compare it to a film that I think of so highly, but the sequel situation invites such comparisons.

And next to the original, this is not a knife.

7/10

Paranormal Activity 5 : The Marked Ones

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PA5TMO as i shall now call it, was always going to happen. The last four have made an extremely large amount of money for their creators, in fact, PA1 holds the title of the most profitable film ever made.

I have to admit to having a very soft spot for this particular series of horrors – part two and three scared the absolute bejeesus out of me and gave me legitimate nightmares. Part one frightened me into sleeping with the lights on for three nights – something i haven’t done since i was a little girl!

PA5TMO is not precisely a sequel to part four but a spin off from the franchise. It has a different production team behind it including a director who is only on his second feature (though he wrote all three of the previous sequels) and a mainly latino cast of unknowns fill the screen.

The story is now taking place in Oxnard, Cali with a newly graduated Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and his friend Hector (Jorge Diaz) snooping around in the apartment of their neighbour Ana, who lives downstairs and is rumoured to be a witch. After a strange bite on Jesse’s arm he develops what appears to be superpowers, but after the excitement of this wears off and things seem to turn bad, Jesse realises he has been ‘marked’ for something far more sinister. With Hector and Jesse’s friend Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh) calling on the help of Ali Rey (the stepdaughter of Kristi from part 2) they learn exactly what the evil coven of demon worshipping witches (!!!) want with Jesse, and then the action is ramped up as they battle to find and save him.

As ridiculous as all that sounds it is actually filmed with a firm hand and a strong sense of place which lends the outlandishness a welcome dose of reality;  grounding the slightly less believable elements and making you feel far less foolish for buying into them.

Its well performed by all concerned with no-one particularly elevating proceedings but no-one letting the team down either.

There was enough humour and gravitas to keep you entertained in the ‘downtime’, enough mystery to keep the story interesting, and i loved the use of the ‘Simon’ toy from the 80’s – having played with one when i was young it was uber cool to see it given a new chilling twist..

The problem is the horror.. it really wasn’t there. Featuring three or four good jump scares and an effectively breathless final act, this was not a bad movie just unable to maintain the sense of dread the other four had managed (i love a good ending though and this one, while feeling a tad rushed, was pretty effective).

I liked the relocation of action to a tight knit Hispanic community, i liked how neatly it tied in the mythology of the other movies in the series – expanding and adding to it in unexpectedly engrossing ways, but this is the weakest of the five when it comes to pure fear.

Ironically it may be the best made movie of the series, but its the worst horror movie of the lot.

2.5/5