Freaks of Nature (2015)

I found another new horror movie that I really dig. Seriously this might go into my already crowded October rotation! It is a unique take on the monster genre with some well-placed humor tossed into the mix for fun. The fact that it also pokes just a bit of fun at the recent love affair with angst ridden teenage vampires is an added bonus. I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m sure many of you would agree with me that High School sucked. Popular kids’ vs the rest of us was hard enough. Now imagine if your town and school also had the added issues of vampires and zombies. Petra is a pretty girl that gets bitten by a snotty vampire jerk. He says he loves her but you know how that ends. Dag is human, but his parents are an embarrassment. Plus, they keep wanting to talk about the changes that he should expect his body to go thru at this point in his life. That is a discussion that no teenage boy wants to have with his Mom! Ned is a very smart kid that is completely ignored by his father in favor of an athletic older brother. It gets so bad for him that he purposely gets bitten by a zombie so he can feel no pain and ignore the world. So yeah High School Drama.

Things go completely sideways when an Aliens show up and slap a force field around the town. Why are they in town? Well the vampires think it is a conspiracy against them and the humans think the same. The zombies… well they missed their shipment of brains. All hell breaks loose as we get zombies vs humans vs vampires! This pits Ned, Dag, and Petra against one another, though that doesn’t last. A few twists and turns later and the three have bonded over fighting the alien menace.

I don’t want to give anything away so I’m stopping there. Many movies try to walk that tightrope between horror and comedy, mostly failing. Freaks of Nature is that rare movie that manages it nicely. Vampires explode, zombies lose their heads, humans get drained, and brains get eaten. All on screen and in some cases very funny. The neighbor that won’t die and gives a play by play of the zombies eating him is a great touch. But it isn’t all laughs. The vampire jerk that bites and then dumps Petra is kind of scary. I mean he blithely tosses her around and holds a grudge. After what he did when she disses him later he kind of goes overboard when given the chance. Though that doesn’t end well for him!

The special effects work is CGI heavy, especially with the aliens. But we get some nice looking practical work on the zombies and vampires. Plus, some of the kills are on screen and clearly latex. That made me very happy. I can forgive the occasional digital assist with blood splatter and vampire explosions since the rest of the work is so good. The CGI on the aliens didn’t bother me as much either. They are aliens so the fact they look a bit strange sort of fits.

I could keep going on but that would be pointless. This is a great movie that you should check out. I’ve watched it a couple times now and it holds up well on repeated viewings. I recommend Freaks of Nature. New Horror Rules! Well not really… but all of it doesn’t suck.

© Copyright 2017 John Shatzer

Prophecy (1979)

There were two popular subjects in movies during the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Animals running wild killing people and the dangers of pollution. Prophecy is a little bit of both! Seems like a perfect choice to review here at the blog.

Before we meet our main characters, things get rolling with a group of men and dogs in the woods tracking someone or something. We later find out that they are a search and rescue team looking for some missing loggers. The dogs catch scent of something and almost pull them off a cliff. When they go to investigate all we hear is a roar and a horrible scream. That didn’t go well for them at all.

We then meet our main characters, Rob and his wife Maggie. Rob is sent to Maine to conduct an environmental study of a lumber mill operation. There is a dispute between a logging company and the local Indian population, though it has nothing to do with the environment. The loggers have an agreement with the government to work some land that the Indians claim to own. No one wants to make a decision on that argument so the powers that be hope the study can give a reason to decide one way or the other. What no one expected was that the mercury being dumped into the water supply would cause all sorts of mutations in both the human and animal population. This includes one very angry and aggressive bear! It’s about to get real.

Prophecy is a fun watch. The story plays out in a very predictable but comfortably enjoyable way. Company does something bad in the pursuit of wealth, locals pay the price, nature is corrupted and fights back, and finally those responsible get their comeuppance. If you have seen a ’70s or ‘80s monster movie you should recognize the plot. What I didn’t expect was the amount of innocent people that get killed. The bear wipes an entire family out, including a couple of kids! It also kills the kindly Indian Grandfather, which I did not expect at all. The movie isn’t pulling any punches in an effort to get the audience’s attention. I appreciate that. 

That is one pissed off mutant bear!

I’ve talked about all these kills but I must warn you that the movie is only rated PG. This isn’t the gory bloodbath that it could be. The kills are all tame and you don’t see that much blood. As a frame of reference, I’d say that Jaws has way more gore in it than Prophecy does. The design of the creature is decent, but they clearly have an issue when it has to move. Much of this is covered up with long distance shots and quick cuts when the bear is attacking or running after them. If you notice though the bear runs on two legs… I guess that could be a mutation from the mercury.

Finally, I have to ask the one big question that the movie never answers. Rob doesn’t know it but Maggie is pregnant and has been eating the fish contaminated by the mercury. They never deal with that after she tells him. So, is her baby a mutant? Not in an X-Men kind of way but like a CHUD. I need to know! I doubt we will ever find out. Prophecy is a fun and easy to find. Check it out if you get the chance.

© Copyright 2017 John Shatzer

The Babysitter (2017)

This is a Netflix original that popped up in my recommendations the other day. Honestly, I sort of ignored it because for the most part new horror isn’t something that thrills me. But I kept hearing good things so I figured what the hell and gave it a chance. Holy crap this thing is fun!

Cole is probably too old for a babysitter. But when that babysitter is a super-hot girl that thinks you are cool and likes hanging out with you, exceptions can be made. His friends, specifically the girl next door named Melanie, convinces him to stay up late and see what happens after he goes to bed. They keep teasing him that she probably has a boyfriend over for an orgy or something. So, he stays up only to see Bee, the babysitter, and some friends playing spin the bottle. Things take a turn when she kills the nerdy guy she was making out with and they start to collect his blood for a ritual. Yep Bee and the other party guests are Satanists. To make matters worse they have been using Cole’s blood as part of the ritual.

The rest of the movie is Cole trying to get away from Bee’s friends as they end up killing themselves trying to get to him. When he eventually gets next door and Bee comes after him and Melanie he gets brave. Up until then Cole is portrayed as nervous and a bit cowardly, but that all changes when he finally decides to fight Bee. Not sure if he was made she betrayed him or if it was her coming after Melanie. But the ending is awesome!

I’m not sure where to start with The Babysitter because there is so much to like. The dialogue is clever and the establishing of Bee and Cole’s relationship is very well done. I get that she turns out to be a crazy killer that doesn’t value human life, but she does seem to actually like Cole. I mean they bond over Billy Jack! No kidding they have a bit in front of a projector where they reenact a scene from one of the movies. It is incredibly random and very cool to see. Samara Weaving, the actress playing Bee, conveys an actual affection for Cole and makes Bee kind of a sympathetic character. Again, until she starts killing the hell out of everyone! The dynamic between these two characters gives the movie its heart and it payed off at the end with another oddly sweet scene that harkens back to an earlier conversation between the characters.

This is why High School nerds have trust issues!

The kills are fun, but get a CGI assist. Throats get cut, people hung, another explodes, and knives get jammed thru a noggin’. To be clear most of this isn’t practical effects work, but for digital it doesn’t look bad. There is a rather impressive stunt for the big finale that was very cool. But I did feel bad about the sweet ride… Watch the movie you will understand. There is some humor in the movie as well. Not so much wisecracks as it is funny dialogue. One of the Satanists is a cheerleader who gets shot in the boob. She keeps complaining about it because you know her boobs are important. When she is fighting Cole, he does the “stick your thumb in the wound” move, but then realizes where he is grabbing. An awkward moment that calls for an apology I suppose…

If you have Netflix you have to check out The Babysitter. If you don’t sign up for it right now. Between this and Stranger Things your October will be made. I highly recommend The Babysitter.

© Copyright 2017 John Shatzer