Capsule film reviews: Four horror movies from 2016

‘The Invitation’
Release Date: April 8, 2016
Director: Karyn Kusama
Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard and Michiel Huisman
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: B+

Photo courtesy of Drafthouse Films.

In “The Invitation,” Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) drive deep into the Hollywood Hills to attend a dinner party hosted by Will’s ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman) at the house Will and Eden used to share. The party is the first time any of their friends have seen them in two years — Will and Eden divorced following the accidental death of their son, and Eden left to join a grief support group in Mexico, where she met David. Throughout the course of the evening, Will becomes increasingly disturbed being back in the house he once shared with a happy family that is no more, and he also begins to grow suspicious of Eden and David, who try to share with the group their new spiritual philosophies that have helped them overcome grief. I like how “The Invitation” slowly turns up the suspense and leaves the audience unsure if there is really something sinister behind Eden’s cultish white dress and David’s calm demeanor, or if it’s just Will suffering from a mental breakdown when confronted with his past. It’s sufficiently creepy and even a bit thoughtful. All-in-all, “The Invitation” is a pretty good thriller.

‘The Neon Demon’
Release Date: June 24, 2016
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone and Bella Heathcote
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R for disturbing violent content, bloody images, graphic nudity, a scene of aberrant sexuality, and language.
Grade: B

Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios, Broad Green Pictures, Scanbox Entertainment and The Jokers.

“The Neon Demon” is the most talked-about and most polarizing horror movie of the year. For the most part, I really liked it. Kind of a tired story: Jesse (Elle Fanning) is a young girl from a small town hoping to make it big as a model in Hollywood, but Hollywood is, unfortunately, full of Illuminati and lesbian necrophiliacs. It’s a higher budget version of 2014’s “Starry Eyes,” which is a much better film, plot-wise. But don’t come to “The Neon Demon” for the plot: come for the artistic visuals, evil female leads and the always excellent Jena Malone who steals the show as Jesse’s eerily too nice, there’s-gotta-be-something-wrong-with-her mentor Ruby. My main issue with “The Neon Demon” is the weird casting of Elle Fanning as the lead — she’s not charismatic enough to propel the movie on her own, and she’s cute, but the very embodiment of natural beauty? Eh. At least the costumes are fabulous.

‘Train to Busan’
Release Date: July 20, 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Starring: Gong Yoo, Kim Su-an and Jung Yu-mi
Genre: Action, Drama, Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: A+

Photo courtesy of Next Entertainment World.

“Train to Busan” is one of the best zombie movies I’ve seen in a long while. The Korean horror film expertly showcases comedic moments, high tension, family drama, romance and truly frightening zombie shots. It’s an excellent movie and one of the best horror films of the year. The story follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo), an absentee father whose focus on his business has crippled his relationship with his 9-year-old daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an). For her birthday, all Su-an wants is to be reunited with her estranged mother, so Seok-woo begrudgingly agrees to accompany her on the high-speed KTX ride from Seoul to Busan. Unfortunately, the train departs just as the country begins to deteriorate into a zombie apocalypse. Only Busan, the country’s southern port city, is safe, and the survivors must fight to get the train to its final destination. The intense zombie action scenes are top tier (my favorite is a stop in Daejeon where the passengers are faced with a horde of zombie soldiers in military uniform charging up the stairs), but where “Train to Busan” really got me is with its heart. The evolving father-daughter dynamic will suck you in, and the supporting characters are all so compelling. “Train to Busan” is not to be missed.

‘31’
Release Date: Sept. 16, 2016
Director: Rob Zombie
Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Malcolm McDowell and Meg Foster
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Rating: R for strong bloody horror violence, pervasive language, sexual content and drug use.
Grade: B-

Photo courtesy of Saban Films.

As a diehard Rob Zombie fan, I enjoyed “31” and was pleased to find it more straightforward and accessible than Zombie’s last release, 2012’s “The Lords of Salem.” “31” follows a group of carnival workers who are kidnapped on Halloween 1976 and told by three strangers that they will be entered into a game called 31. During the game, they will have 12 hours to escape from a maze-like warehouse of rooms while various clowns will be sent to torture and kill them. The plot isn’t necessarily anything groundbreaking, but Zombie’s characterizations are always the most entertaining. His villains are excellent, particularly Malcolm McDowell as Father Murder, an aristocrat in a powdered wig who oversees the proceedings and announces the carnies’ odds for survival over a loudspeaker, and Richard Brake as Doom-Head, the final and most effective obstacle in the gang’s way of survival. As always, Sheri Moon Zombie is a badass and a delight, and I love that she’s still the ultimate scream queen, wielding chainsaws in barely-there crop tops at 46.

Capsule film reviews: Four horror anthologies

‘V/H/S’
Release Date: Oct. 5, 2012
Director: Glenn McQuaid, Ti West, Joe Swanberg, David Bruckner and Adam Wingard
Starring: Sophia Takal, Joe Swanberg and Kate Lyn Sheil
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: R for pervasive language, graphic nudity, bloody violence, some drug use and strong sexuality.
Grade: A

Ti West’s “Second Honeymoon.” Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

The thing that is particularly great about “V/H/S” is the short story format: it is comprised of five completely unrelated horror vignettes of all styles ranging from the supernatural to typical slasher killers. Each individual story is interesting in its own way, and the time frame is just enough to make them captivating and creepy without going overboard and ruining it. I have a difficult time choosing a favorite, but I love the title of Joe Swanberg’s offering, “The Sick Thing That Happened to Emily When She Was Younger.” The worst part of the film is the attempt at an overarching narrative to tie all of the stories together. The continuing storyline is uninteresting, distracting and unnecessary.

‘The Theatre Bizarre’
Release Date: Jan. 27, 2012
Director: Buddy Giovinazzo, Tom Savini, Jeremy Kasten, Richard Stanley and David Gregory
Starring: Udo Kier, Virginia Newcomb and Amanda Marquardt
Genre: Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: F

Photo courtesy of Severin Films.

“The Theatre Bizarre” was a big disappointment. The film is an anthology of six short stories tied together with a semi-interesting, somewhat-creepy overarching narrative. Only two of the six are at all tolerable: “I Love You” and “The Accident,” although neither of which could be considered at all scary, and “The Accident” is certainly not horror. The rest of the poorly-written, poorly-acted stories seem to fight incredibly hard to be considered the worst of the bunch. In “Mother of Toads,” a guy goes to an old French woman’s house to read The Necronomicon because why not and then proceeds to have sex with a giant toad monster. What the fuck. “Vision Stains” is too preachy; “Sweets” tries way too hard to be esoteric; “Wet Dreams” is awfully boring, and considering there’s a shot of a giant insect’s pinchers protruding from a vagina, that’s quite a feat.

‘V/H/S 2’
Release Date: July 12, 2013
Director: Gregg Hale, Eduardo Sanchez, Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard and Jason Eisener
Starring: Kelsy Abbott, Lawrence Levine and Adam Wingard
Genre: Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: D

Gareth Huw Evans and Timo Tjahjanto’s “Safe Haven.” Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Since I enjoyed the first “V/H/S” movie and love the horror anthology format, I was excited to give this sequel a try. However, it turned out to be a letdown. Seemed promising at first: the overarching narrative this time follows a private investigator and his girlfriend who find a collection of creepy VHS tapes in a college student’s apartment while on the job. This narrative is a lot stronger and more compelling than that of the first “V/H/S” movie. Where this one goes wrong, however, is with the ensuing short stories. More supernatural than the stories in the first film, these come off hokey and aren’t scary. “Safe Haven,” about an Indonesian cult, would have been a great story had it stuck to one idea, but it instead devolves into silliness when it reveals a demonic creature that just looks like a puppet on a stick. The only good story was “A Ride in the Park,” which employs innovative filming techniques to tell of a zombie apocalypse from a unique perspective.

‘Little Deaths’
Release Date: March 11, 2011
Director: Simon Rumley, Andrew Parkinson and Sean Hogan
Starring: Holly Lucas, Jodie Jameson and Kate Braithwaite
Genre: Horror
Rating: Not Rated
Grade: B

Simon Rumley’s “Bitch.” Photo courtesy of Imagination Worldwide/Image Entertainment.

“Little Deaths,” a UK horror anthology, immediately starts off on the right foot by not attempting to tie its three unrelated stories together with an overall narrative. The pièce de résistance of the set is the third offering, “Bitch,” because it features a sadistic woman with a pushover boyfriend, kinky sexual deviancy and some mysterious, creeping fear. I wasn’t crazy about the ending, but I really appreciate the depravity. The other two stories are less impressive but pretty good nonetheless. The first, “House and Home,” begins effectively menacingly, but it allows for a rather goofy twist ending. The second, “Mutant Tool,” is quite interesting and if not a bit convoluted. Altogether, “Little Deaths” is a pretty solid anthology, and I wish there had been room for a few more stories.