The Artifice Girl, Co-Starring Lance Henriksen

Beyond the supposed jobs “Americans just won’t do” there are some jobs no human being should ever do. “Cherry” has one of those. She lures in and gathers evidence against pedophiles. Fortunately, she is not a real little girl. She is a groundbreaking artificial intelligence. Yet, as she smashes the Turing Test and skips across the Uncanny Valley, her growing self-awareness raises all sorts of ethical questions in screenwriter-director Franklin Ritch’s The Artifice Girl, which releases Thursday on-demand and in theaters.

Initially, it looks like Gareth is big trouble with Deena Helms and Amos McCollough, two agents working for an investigative agency specializing in child exploitation. They have directly benefited from the information he and Cherry have gathered, but they still fear he is abusing a child, by forcing her to conduct undercover work in internet chatrooms. Reluctantly, he reveals the truth about her.

Technically, she has no feelings, but as she learns to simulate feelings based on outside stimuli, her synthesized emotions become more and more like the real thing. In fact, as Cherry’s behavior secretly grows more human-like, Agent McCollough experiences a crisis of conscience regarding the agency’s long-term plans for her in the film’s second act. Her development will continue, leading to all sorts of third act guilt for Gareth, as he faces up to his obligations to his creation, in the twilight of his life.

Artifice Girl might be the best science fiction film since Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes and the best non-time-travel sf film since Little Joe. It is highly provocative on many levels, including its unique take, focusing on humanity’s responsibilities towards AI, rather than AI’s duties and dangers towards humanity.

Ritch takes a risky gambit by so forthrightly addressing issues of abuse. For long stretches of the film, the themes regarding the nature of awareness and the narrowing of the Uncanny Valley are much more prominent. However, the traumatic effects of past abuse are a critical factor, influencing everything that unfolds.

Stylistically, Ritch’s screenplay could have just as easily been produced as a stage play. That is a really a reflection of its intelligence, because it is all about characters and ideas rather than sound and fury. In fact, he and the small ensemble make viewers care for these characters, despite their extremes and the rapid passage of time (Cherry the AI most definitely included).

Alpha Rift, Co-Starring Lance Henriksen

It's like Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons, except its real. You would think someone whose life revolves around role-playing games would jump at the chance to fulfill his fantasy “destiny,” but Nolan Parthmore is a whiny millennial, so he’d rather walk away from responsibility, despite the potentially dire consequences. Fortunately, Lance Henriksen is there to explain things in Dan Lantz’s Alpha Rift, which releases Friday in theaters and on-demand.

Parthmore’s dad wasn’t around long, but he still managed to pass down a love of the Alpha Rift franchise to his son. That is because he was a descendant of one of the original four noblemen, who battled the Devil’s Apostles into temporary containment. That means Parthmore is also an heir to the bloodline, but he has no idea, until the modern-day Knights deliver his ancestor’s magic helmet.

They are hoping to draw out Lord Dragsmere, his bloodline’s old nemesis. Unfortunately, he has recently freed himself from their mystical prison and has been wreaking havoc in the body of a hardened criminal. Unfortunately, it works a little too well, freaking out the self-centered Parthmore. Corbin, the stern-talking leader of the knights tries to train him to fight evil, but he is a poor student.

The good news is Henriksen has a great deal of screentime as Corbin (whereas in a lot of his recent films, he’s basically been a “special guest star”) and his voice makes even the silliest dialogue sound cool. Unfortunately, Aaron Dalla Villa is even more prominent as the gratingly annoying Parthmore. Rachel Nielsen has more charisma as his torch-carrying platonic pal Gabby, but they never really click.

Big Legend: Tracking the Shaggy Monster

He looks like Chewbacca, so how bad can Sasquatch really be? Bad. Really bad. The hairy beast will make off with Tyler Laird’s fiancée and gets the former Special Forces soldier packed off to the sanitarium for observation. A year later, Laird heads back into the woods for some payback in Justin Lee’s Big Legend (trailer here), which releases today on DVD.

For a while, the camping trip was perfect. He proposed. Natalie said yes, but then a weird noise woke them at night. He stumbles out of the tent, notices some strange rock pilings, and then Big Foot swoops in for Laird’s would-be wife.

Apparently, this led to some sort of PTSD in Laird, which, coupled with his rather incredible memories of the incident in question, got him admitted to a mental health facility. However, Mother Laird never thought he was crazy, so she encourages him to go back and find out what really happened to Natalie.

Frankly, the first act is interminably slow. Fiancé looking for answers—seriously how long does it take to set up that premise? Things perk up a little when Laird eventually teams up with Eli Verunde, another hunter tracking Sasquatch, but in his case, purely out of curiosity. Still, the film completely lacks the charm of Stomping Ground, the colorful supporting characters of Primal Rage, and the intensity of Bobcat Goldthwait’s Willow Creek.

It is all very much by the numbers, until the promised Lance Henriksen finally shows up late in the eleventh hour to explain how Big Legend is really the start of a franchise. The frustrating thing is the concept he teases is much more interesting than the movie we have to sit through to get there. This leads to an odd situation, where we can’t recommend Big Legend at all, but we’d like to see the more ambitious sequel get made. This is like an entire proof-of-concept film, but it doesn’t make its case very well.

Kevin Makely is a decently rugged lead and Todd A. Robinson labors mightily to get something going as Verunde. You can’t blame either of them for the film’s underwhelming blahness. The great Adrienne Barbeau is also criminally wasted as Laird’s mom. Of course, Henriksen is totally cool as Jackson Wells, which is why we want to see more of him. There is just way too much hiking and camping in this movie and not enough intelligent behavior. Not recommended (but good luck with more Jackson Wells), Big Legend releases today on DVD and digital HD.

Gehenna: Doug Jones Haunts a Bunker on Saipan

Saipan is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, an American commonwealth, but it has a history of Spanish colonialism, so there has to be plenty of superstition there. It was also occupied by the Imperial Japanese military, for extra bad karma. Alas, the evil mojo will encompass an honest real estate develop when she insists on investigating an undisclosed WWII bunker (always a bad idea) in Hiroshi Katagiri’s Gehenna: Where Death Lives (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Paulina works for Lance Henriksen (known as “Morgan” in this drive-by cameo), so you know she has to take her job seriously. They are looking to develop a nice track of unspoiled beach-front real estate, but something about the area makes the locals skittish. Alan, the title-holder, is also a complete sleazebag, so she insists on doing a personal inspection with her team. Lo and behold, they find a vast network of Japanese bunkers that were previously undisclosed. Of course, they promptly get locked in down there.

Initially, they suspect troublemaking activists, but it quickly becomes apparent something uncanny is afoot. Everyone starts having guilt trippy hallucinations. Plus, the bunker has changed in ways that makes Tyler, the sensitive surveyor, suspect they are in some sort of time warp. Bad things are down there, including Doug Jones in characteristically heavy make-up, but their own mounting derangement could be a more pressing danger, especially the already sociopathic Alan.

Despite Doug Jones doing his modern Lon Chaney thing, Gehenna is a pretty low rent affair. There is a lot of racing around corridors that obviously isn’t going to get anyone anywhere. However, Katagiri manages to keep the energy up and he incorporates some nice touches that are supposedly inspired by island folklore.

Believe it or not, Eva Swan and Justin Gordon are not bad as Paulina and Tyler, the colleagues who would be lovers, were it not for their separate tragic histories. Simon Phillips definitely came to chew the scenery as obnoxious Alan, but Sean Sprawling is a bit shticky as his reluctant flunky, Pepe.

Gehenna is not exactly an actor’s showcase (big surprise), but there are some suitably macabre practical effects and creepy make-up. Katagiri is a special effects artist who has worked on some big Hollywood productions, so he clearly wanted a vehicle that would serve his talents. Plus, the exotic Saipan setting is a bit of a new wrinkle. The resulting film is hardly a classic, but it will be weirdly appealing to real genre fans (who should note there is a somewhat amusing stinger). Recommended as a time-filler for horror fans, Gehenna opens this Friday (5/4) in LA at the Laemmle Monica Film Center and simultaneously releases on VOD, where its real life will be.

Mom and Dad: Filicide with Nic Cage

This film is like a poisoned slice of apple pie. Somehow, motherhood has been corrupted, as has fatherhood, right along with it. The how’s and why’s are a mystery, but for whatever reason, parents are caught up in a psychotic urge to murder their children. It is probably Trump’s fault, or maybe Brexit is to blame. Regardless, if you see your parents, run like mad in screenwriter-director Brian Taylor’s Mom and Dad (trailer here) which opens this Friday in New York.

We can infer that staticky white noise infecting broadcast signals is to blame, but whether it is supernatural or terrorism—whose to say? It started while most kids were at school or sitting for their SATs, but it eventually exploded into a full-scale crisis. It only applies to parents and their direct spawn, so teachers and emergency personnel will do their best to protect the future generations, but it is hard to convince all those dumb kids to avoid the very people who have nurtured them all their lives.

The Ryans’ teen daughter Carly has been a bit of a pill lately, so she stands a good chance of being the final girl. Seeing the phenomenon affecting her friends’ parents, she scrambles home to protect her little brother Josh. Presumably, their dad Brent is still at work and their mother Kendall (man, are these ever some white names) is at the hospital with her mega-pregnant sister (that situation gets extremely messed up), but both will come racing home with murderous intentions.

Probably the evilest and most effective aspect of M&D is the way Taylor slyly hints that the sinister whatsit only amplifies dark urges that were already buried deep within every over-worked, under-appreciated parent. He doesn’t spend any time on the mayhem device, because he doesn’t need to. It is just the push the Ryans have been waiting for.

Finally, M&D is the film that fully and necessarily capitalizes on Nic Cage’s bat-scat crazy acting style. He shows Brent Ryan’s dark side, in all its twitchy, seething fury. While Cage goes up, over, and out, Selma Blair is severely restrained, repressed, and resentfully self-denying as Ms. Ryan. When they get together and go crazy, they make quite a pair. However, all bets are off when the great Lance Henriksen shows up as Grandpa Ryan.

M&D is unrepentantly violent and subversive, to its unending credit. Frustratingly, Taylor leaves a few obvious avenues unexplored, like what happens to parents who adopted? Maybe that will be grist for a sequel. Regardless, the film is way more psychologically believable and compelling than a lot of folks will want to admit. Highly recommended for fans of horror films and Nic Cage tantrums, Mom and Dad opens this Friday (1/19) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Cut to the Chase: Shreveport Noir

It is a really bad idea to run up gambling debts with a gangster simply known as “The Man.” It is a particularly bad idea to do so in Louisiana, where a lot of the rules do not apply so much. Of course, a lowlife like Max Chase specializes in really bad decisions. He assumed his sister, an assistant district attorney would protect him from consequences, but he will have to save her instead when she disappears under mysterious circumstances in Blayne Weaver’s Cut to the Chase (trailer here), which screens tomorrow in New York and next Monday in Los Angeles.

After an ill-advised double-or-nothing bet, Chase now has a week to pay The Man $3,000—or else. Yet, he is not even trying to raise the money or get out of town. He just carries on with his degenerate life style. Unfortunately, he misses the frantic calls from his frantic sister Isobel during his drunken debauchery.

It turns out Izzy Chase had an abusive ex-boyfriend in her private life and had just been assigned to lead the DA’s case against The Man in her professional life, so there is no shortage of people Chase can get mad at. Thanks to the spooked DA (who was also seeing Isobel on the side), Chase tracks down Nola Barnes, the star witness against The Man to forge an alliance of convenience. Unfortunately, Chase is getting played left and right, but he is still dangerous in a bull in a china shop kind of way.

The most important thing to take into consideration regarding Cut is Lance Henriksen, The Man himself, plays The Man. Knowing Henriksen is on-board guarantees the film a solid baseline of genre entertainment. As his own lead, Weaver is certainly willing to act sad and disreputable, perhaps succeeding too well. Lyndie Greenwood also shows some impressive fierceness as Barnes. Frankly, the entire film is well cast. The problem is the narrative often feels very small time.

When watching Cut, it is hard not to think of the recent tragic death of Bill Paxton, who made a specialty of playing colorfully flawed characters in Southern noirs like this. Weaver is no Paxton, but he is not bad, while Henriksen reliably does his thing, being The Man. Darkly diverting but not exactly essential, Cut to the Chase screens tomorrow (2/28) in New York, at the AMC Loews 19thStreet.

Harbinger Down: Slime from Space, Courtesy of the Soviets

The term “practical effects” could soon become the equivalent of “shade-grown organic” for genre film connoisseurs. It denotes authenticity in an era of CGI fakeness. It usually also means a few cast-members got slimed for real. That certainly seems to be the case in special effects artist Alec Gillis’s Harbinger Down (trailer here), which opens today in Westchester.

To stretch her pompous professor’s research budget, Sadie has booked their whale tracking expedition passage on her grandfather’s crab trawler, the Harbinger. Old Graff runs a tight ship, but Sadie comes from a long line of seafarers, including her late parents. Therefore, the crew immediately takes a liking to her and resents her prima donna professor. When she finds an old, hitherto unreported Soviet space capsule through her whale scans, her prof. swoops in hoping to claim the glory for himself.

Of course, dredging the long frozen pod may not be the best of ideas. It is immediately suspicious since it was apparently shot up at a time when the Soviets were supposedly not launching Moon missions. It is also clear the Cosmonaut did not burn up. It turns out he was killed by a lethal parasite that is now fully thawed and mutating like mad. At least the Professor will be the first one infected.

When the slimy extraterrestrial entity starts wreaking havoc on the icebound ship (which happens quickly), you can see the delight Gillis and his special effects partner-producer Tom Woodruff, Jr take in creating nasty, slithering things. Harbinger is definitely an old school throwback to the 1980s creature horror of The Thing, Gremlins, and Aliens, with Lance Henriksen giving it extra added legitimacy as salty old Graff. His genre movie authority remains undiminished. If you were stranded on a rusted crabber with an alien parasite running amok, you would want a skipper like him.

In fact, the supporting characters are unusual well-drawn for a set-up-the-pins-and-knock-them-down horror film. Naturally, Henriksen does his thing, but Winston James Francis and Milla Bjorn are terrific playing off each other as the mismatched crew members, Big G and Svet, respectively. As the professor, Matt Winston (son of special effects legend Stan Winston) also makes a satisfying detestable villain, so his cosmic payback is rather enjoyable to watch, even though it means big trouble for the rest of the Harbinger crew.

The space parasite is the central monster in Harbinger, but the Soviets of the 1980s and the neo-Soviet Russian government of right now are also part of the problem, which makes the film more geopolitically astute than ninety-nine percent of recent genre releases. It is also decidedly slime-obsessed. It understands what creature feature patrons want and can’t wait to give it to them. Recommended for fans of Henriksen and practical effects, Harbinger Down opens today (8/7) at the Picturehouse in Pelham.

Tribeca ’15: Stung

These are wasps, not bees, so the stakes are already higher than in Irwin Allen’s The Swarm. A plucky caterer and her slacker assistant are about to lay a spread for the worst garden party ever. It was totally dead, until the mutant wasps crashed the soiree. Laughter and gore go together like white wine and canapés in Benni Diez’s Stung (trailer here), which screens during the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

After inheriting her father’s catering business, Julia is struggling to keep it afloat. She employees the obviously besotted Paul, who struggles to keep himself together. They will cater the annual shindig hosted by Mr. Perch and her socially stunted son Sydney. By the way, the mutated wasps are all his fault, because he foolishly spiked the fertilizer with his late researcher father’s molecular juice. Unfortunately, these killer wasps are not just big and angry. They also lay their larva inside their victims, creating mutant-hybrid, with some Alien-style chest cavity explosions thrown in for good measure. Of course, that is nothing Lance Henriksen hasn’t seen before. This time he turns up as Mayor Carruthers, a flinty Korean War veteran, who appreciates a nice bottle of wine.

Seriously, how money in the bank is Henriksen? In this case, he is no mere “guest star.” He has significant screen-time as the Mayor (you know you’d vote for him) and he never wastes a second of it. Frankly, it is darned difficult sharing the film with a rampaging swarm of evil wasps and a cult favorite like Henriksen. Nevertheless, Matt O’Leary and Jessica Cook are admirably good sports dealing with all the spurting blood and spewing goo, as Julia and Paul, respectively. They seem just real enough to be worth rooting for and tough enough to not try our patience as experienced genre movie fans.

Nevertheless, the mutant insects are always the most important thing in a bugs-gone-wild movie, but happily Stung delivers the goods. Frankly, Diez gets the balance just right with creatures realized well-enough to facilitate all kinds of gruesome gags, but not so realistic it can’t poke fun at itself and its genre. Not to be spoilery, but normally the “it’s still out there” ending is predictably lame, yet Stung’s finale is truly a spectacle to behold.

Stung is not quite as gleefully nuts as last year’s Tribeca-selected Zombeavers, but it is not for a lack of trying. An inspired exercise in gross-out humor and big creepy bug effects, Stung is one of the first 2015 Tribeca film to get picked up for distribution (by IFC Midnight), which suggests we might live in a just world after all. Highly recommended, Stung screens again this Thursday (4/23), as part of Tribeca ’15.

Hollows Grove: More Found Footage for Halloween

Reality TV show crews make convenient grist for found footage horror films, because nobody will be terribly distraught when they are dispatched in supernatural fashion. That is particularly true of the on-air “talent” comprising S.P.I.T., the Spirit Paranormal Investigation Team. They will pick the wrong haunted orphanage for their ghost chasing in Craig Efros’ Hollows Grove (trailer here), now available on VOD.

Grove starts out with a canned introduction from an FBI Agent thanking us for cooperating with their investigation by reviewing the footage to follow, which doesn’t make sense. Clearly, it is an attempt to shake up the found footage format, so whatever. What we will see is supposedly edited from the cameras of a S.P.I.T. crewmember and Harold Maxwell, a down-on-his-luck would-be filmmaker trying to produce a documentary on his old college buddies who made good in “reality” TV. Of course, Maxwell is quickly disillusioned when he meets retired Hollywood special effects artist Bill O’Neal, who stages all the spooky mayhem seen on the show.

To maintain spontaneity, they never know what surprises O’Neal has in store for them. This will be important to keep in mind when they start taping in Hollows Grove, an orphanage that became a dumping ground for special needs children. Residents were routinely abused, physically and sexually. At least two nurse committed suicide, in the same room, naturally enough. All that’s missing is a Nazi staff director performing black masses in the basement, but for all we know that happened too.

If the studio could successfully sue the distributors of Abby for infringing on The Exorcist, the Vicious Brothers ought to have a cast iron case to make against Grove for “paying homage” to Grave Encounters. However, Efros has a nice wrinkle with O’Neal’s presumed trickery. Since the lads assume all the weird stuff in the early stages is his handiwork, they mug for the cameras, while viewers realize they are majorly in for it. The crusty veteran FX hand also happens to be played by Lance Henriksen, who is as cool as ever in what is essentially a long cameo appearance.

So yes, we have seen this before—and seen it better in the recent Taking of Deborah Logan and the original Encounters. Nonetheless, the bickering and bantering of Matt Doherty and Sunkrish Bala as the show’s co-hosts helps keep it fresh. Bresha Webb also adds some style and attitude as their somewhat bemused segment producer, Julie Mercade.

Frankly, the entire ensemble sells the madness relatively well, but the stakes have definitely been raised in the found footage game. There are several creepy sequences in Grove, but the aforementioned films are more consistently scary. It is a passably diverting haunted institution movie, but fans should have better options during Halloween. Those who order it up anyway should be warned there is a stinger, so don’t log off when the credits start to roll. For diehard Henriksen fans (and we know you’re out there), Hollows Grove is now available via VOD platforms.

The Visitor, Because Life Wasn’t Weird Enough Without It

Atlanta is a sinful city, where every damn street is called Peachtree.  A cosmic warrior has come to straighten things out here.  He will do battle with the pre-pubescent girl who has made the world such a crummy place in the ever-so strange 1979 Italian-produced sci-fi knock-off, The Visitor (trailer here), directed by Giulio Paradisi as Michael J. Paradise, which has been re-mastered and re-released by Drafthouse Films.

In a dimension “beyond imagination,” a mysterious old man seeks out the remnants of the evil Sateen, a demonic entity he vanquished eons ago.  Evidently, some of his old foe’s essence ended up on earth, specifically within Barbara Collins’s ancestors.  She is one of the rare carriers who can give birth to his malevolent offspring.  Unfortunately, she already has one child, the dreadful little Katy.  Her boyfriend Raymond Armstead is pressuring her to get married and have more children, because he is part of an apocalyptic secret society that frequently holds awkward board meetings devoted to promoting evil.  Collins resists, ostensibly for the sake of her freedom.  However, she is also instinctively against anything Katy is for.

You might think the bad guys would do anything to protect the birthing abilities of the only woman who can deliver Sateen’s bad seeds.  Well, obviously you are not part of an international satanic cult.  Poor Collins is shot, partially paralyzed, run off the road, and attacked by a falcon.  Yet, despite all the stress, her skin remains remarkably clean and radiant.  As Armstead and Katy plot against her, the gaunt Jerzy Colsowicz arrives to do battle with Sateen’s spawn.  That’s right, it’s a frail septuagenarian versus an eight year-old, so get ready to rumble.

It goes without saying The Visitor is a strange film.  Everyone compares it to The Omen and Close Encounters, but Paradisi/Paradise probably rips-off The Birds more than anything else. For whatever reason, bird attacks seem to be the weapon of choice for good guys and bad guys alike. It is just plain baffling anyone thought this film could cash in on the late 1970’s sci-fi craze, but it boasts a truly once-in-a-lifetime cast, including John Huston (the John Huston), Lance Henriksen, Glenn Ford, Franco Nero (uncredited as the Christ-like figure), Shelley Winters, Switchblade Sisters’ Joanne Nail, Mel Ferrer, Sam Peckinpah (the Sam Peckinpah), and future Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz.  Get your head around that ensemble.

Frankly, Huston looks rather bemused in each of his scenes as Colsowicz and it is a good bet he never saw bothered to watch the finished product.  Ford and Winters soldier through like the old pros they are, playing the cop and the nanny, respectively.  Eventual fan favorite Henriksen also shows an early affinity for scenery chewing as Armstead.  In truth, aside from maybe Huston and Nero, nobody really phoned The Visitor in, but it is anyone’s guess what they thought they were doing in this convoluted, New Agey plot.  There are times the film appears to be conceived as a showcase for Atlanta’s modernist architecture, which makes as much sense as any other explanation.

Visitor’s special effects are crude and confusing, even by 1970’s standards, but in its straight-forward dramatic scenes, the picture looks surprisingly slick.  Naturally, even the music “borrows” from another film, but it must be conceded Franco Micallizzi’s riff on Strauss’ “Zarathustra” is oddly catchy, in a funky (arranger) David Matthews-Kudu Records kind of way.

If you don’t get The Visitor by now, you’re on your own.  If you enjoy completely cracked cult cinema, this is your catnip.  Impressive in its way, it demands to be seen to be believed.  Recommended for those who can appreciate the sheer defiant spectacle of it all, The Visitor screens this weekend (11/8 & 11/9) at the IFC Center in New York.