The Devil Lives Here: Evil Never Dies in Brazil

If Simon Legree were obsessed with The Hellstrom Chronicle, he would be about as much fun as the notorious “Honey Baron.” The cruel Brazilian honey plantation owner loved to talk smack about insect behavior and theories of racial superiority. Eventually, he was killed by an indigenous shaman during a slave uprising, but his downfall was only possible through a painful sacrifice. It also requires constant maintenance to keep the nasty old sod down. Unfortunately, four entitled millennials will interfere with the true believers tasked with keeping the evil entity at bay in Rodrigo Gasparini & Dante Vescio’s The Devil Lives Here (trailer here), which releases today on DVD, from Artsploitation.

“Control the queen and you control the hive,” the Baron often tells his much-abused slave, Bento. The sadist beekeeper took the advice to heart, enslaving and impregnating Bento’s mother, the high priestess-queen of her people. However, the old woman uses her dark powers to turn the tables on the Baron, at the cost of her unborn son.

Apolo grew up hearing stories about Bento and the Baron, but he always believed the poor baby got a raw deal. He still does. Somehow, the former caretaker convinced his parents to leave the house vacant one night, every nine months, so he could safely perform the booster ritual. After his death, the caretaker’s sons assume the agreement is still in force, but Apolo intends to free the unborn infant’s spirit, with the help of his girlfriend Magu (Maria Augusta), her cousin Jorge, and his girlfriend Alé, whose anti-psychotic meds will not be much help when the Baron’s malevolent spirit starts messing with her head.

The way Vescio, Gasparini, and screenwriter Rafael Baliú incorporate Brazilian folklore, tragic history, and old wives’ tales into its fabric makes Devil eerily potent even when the narrative is a little murky. Frankly, it is pretty gutsy just for dealing with the subject of Brazilian slavery as well as the racism that went with it and still lingers (all those old National Socialists didn’t hide out in Brazil to dance the Samba).

The entire ensemble is at least sufficiently competent, while Mariana Cortines makes quite the impression as Alé the headcase. The manor house and plantation grounds are also terrifically cinematic and massively suggestive of sinister forces at work. Cinematographer Kaue Zilli has a knack for capturing the dark side of sunny, which further reinforces the foreboding. On the downside, the speed at which the righteous brothers turn into the home invaders from Funny Games is problematic.

Usually, Catholics make the best horror movies, because they believe satanic evil is a real and present danger, but also understand the power of ritual and sacrament. However, there is something downright pagan at the heart of Devil that is deeply unsettling. Despite cratering at the end, The Devil Lives Here is recommended pretty highly for horror fans, now that it is available on DVD, from Artsploitation.

Be My Cat: A Film for Anne—Romanian Found Footage

It is nice to see press photos of this particular cast at their film’s premiere, because this is one exercise in found footage that could easily spawn it-was-real urban legends. Partly it is the film’s Romanian origins, but the way its creepy protagonist uses the horror-movie-in-production excuse to get away with murder most deviant is just unsettlingly believable. Plus, there are pronounced echoes of John Hinckley reborn in the unhinged filmmaker desperately trying to impress Hollywood movie-star Anne Hathaway with the proof-of-concept footage that makes up Adrian Ţofei’s Be My Cat: A Film for Anne (trailer here), releasing tonight on Vimeo VOD, from Artsploitation.

It is hard to imagine anyone getting obsessed with Hathaway based on her most recent releases (seriously, any partisans for The Intern, Alice through the Looking Glass, or Don Peyote?), but Adrian the filmmaker has a thing about cats—and she played Cat Woman in The Dark Knight Rises. His script seems to be about a psycho who abducts a woman for the sake of making her his cat-suited sex slave—exactly the sort of role Anne Hathaway is surely eager to play.

Needless to say, Adrian will need one or two replacement actresses as his grubby shoot continues, but frankly the mental games he plays with the unwitting women are arguably more disturbing than the inevitable bloodshed. Frankly, most of the first two acts we have seen before, except Ţofei’s scenes are maybe even crueler. However, the cat-and-mouse give-and-take of the third act is an electric sequence that pretty much redeems the entire film.

Alexandra Stroe is terrific as her namesake actress, who is utterly believable and compelling stalling for time and winning Adrian’s trust. Ţofei too is eerily credible playing a psychotic version of himself, who loses sight of the boundaries between his own persona and his on-camera character. We slowly discover just how he became so damaged, but we never really empathize with him.

So, the obvious question is just what does Anne Hathaway have to say for herself after inspiring all this mayhem? Ţofei would also like to know, so he’s started this online petition to have Be My Cat delivered to her manager. Good luck with that. If she does start watching it, Hathaway (or anyone else for that matter), should keep in mind there is a lot of rough stuff to plow through, but it pays off at the end. Recommended for hardcore found footage horror fans only, Be My Cat: A Film for Anne launches tonight (12/5) on Vimeo with a DVD and wider VOD release to follow in January, from Artsploitation.

The Anatomy of Monsters: Cruising for Serial Killers

Sarah Chambers and Andrew Costello make the singles scene in Looking for Mr. Goodbar look safe and healthy. When they leave a bar together they only have one thing on their minds and it is not very nice. Their shared compulsion for random killing will either bring them together or set them at each other’s throats in Byron C. Miller’s The Anatomy of Monsters (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD, from Artsploitation.

There was not much for Chambers to do in Seattle except DJ techno-whatever and kill people, until she met Nick Jones. He is the kind of hip, culinarily-skilled dude, who could make legit settling-down material. However, Chambers has that secret about being a serial killer. She thinks the squirrely, uptight Costello will find some lessons in her story, so she continues to tell it, even though he would seem to have the drop on her. On the other hand, Chambers is vastly more experienced, which clearly counts for a lot.

The distributor of the anthology film Holiday is fortunate it released before Artsploitation brought the Seattle-produced Anatomy to a wider audience, because the “New Year” story is built around a similar premise, but it does far less with it. Miller and co-screenwriter Paul Morgan also have crafted some dialogue as sharp as the psychopaths’ hunting knives. Tabitha Bastien just chews up monologuish lines like she is an old hand at Tarantino and Stillman indies. Her screen presence is absolutely electric.

Connor Marx neatly counterbalances Bastien as the low key, funny in a non-threatening kind of way Jones. Keiko Green is also terrific as Chambers’ snarky frienemy, Amy Simmons. However, Jesse Lee Keeter’s Costello is such a sniveling tool, it is hard to maintain much suspense regarding his ultimate fate.

Anatomy looks very much like the micro-indie it is, if not even less so. However, its course, garish look aptly suits its hard-edged attitude. Surprisingly effective at straddling the crossroads of horror and dark psychological thrillers, The Anatomy of Monsters is recommended pretty enthusiastically for genre fans who are not overly sensitive hot house orchids, now that it is available for home viewing, from Artsploitation.

Killbilles: Hicksploitation in Slovenia

Sure, NATO and EU membership were important milestones for Slovenia, but the production of its first homegrown hillbilly horror film is just as significant, if not more so. If there is one thing that inevitably comes with socio-economic development, it is an embarrassed discomfort at the sight of the country’s backwoods folk and a casual willingness to equate them with inbreeding, sadism, and hard liquor. So congratulations to Slovenia for becoming a fully-fledged member of the community of nations thanks to screenwriter-director Tomaz Gorkic’s Killbillies (trailer here), which releases today on DVD and VOD, from Artsploitation.

Zina is getting too “old” and far too self-aware to continue her modeling career, but she always enjoyed working on aging hipster Blitcz’s shoots, so she takes another fateful assignment with him. They will be shooting in the countryside, so we pretty much know where this is going. Zina definitely looks and sounds like “Final Girl” material, whereas her younger, shallower colleague Mia should be an easy kill. As it happens, the deformed hill people who capture them brew the mysterious moonshine that has become so popular in trendy Ljubljana night clubs. What’s in their potent potable? Ever seen Soylent Green?

Gorkic largely plays the exploitative material straight, which is both a blessing and a curse. At least, the Julian Alps (or whatever mountainous tax-credit extending region it was filmed in) certainly look cinematic and Zina is an appealingly assertive hero. However, we have been down this lonesome country road before—and Gorkic never really adds any distinctly Slovenian flourishes.

Still, the novelty of Slovenia’s first native horror film speaks for itself. It also boasts a surprisingly recognizable cast, including Nina Ivanisin (probably best known for A Call Girl) going Ellen Ripley on the inbred freaks and Sebastian Cavazza (Halima’s Path) as the tall, dark, and intense Blitcz, both of whom acquit themselves quite well, all things considered.

It is strangely encouraging to know this exists, but whether you should spend any time with it is a question only you can answer for yourself. Recommended for fans of grisly cannibal exploitation, Killbillies is now available on DVD and VOD platforms (including Vimeo), from Artsploitation.