Radio Silence’s Abigail

This kidnapping will be a lot like “The Ransom of Red Chief,” but with lots more blood. The gang has no idea who they are kidnapping until it is way too late. Instead of paying to return her, these criminals will pay with their lives in Abigail, the latest horror movie from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett, the filmmaking tandem known as Radio Silence, which opens tomorrow nationwide.

Most of the crew did not know they were abducting a “child” and none of them knew the identity of her father. They did not know each other, either. Lambert, their boss, is against giving them code-names, but he reluctantly assigns them Rat Pack handles. Amusingly, but all too believably, the significance is lost on most of the lowlifes.

“Joey” has military medical training, so she will be Abigail’s babysitter. The “young girl” will definitely not need medical treatment from her. The gang soon freaks out when “Frank,” their swaggering team leader, figures out Abigail’s father is a notorious Keyser Soze-like crime-lord. However, he is the least of their worries. It turns out the Rat Pack was intentionally trapped inside Lambert’s haunted mansion-like hideout, with the predatory Abigail.

The exact nature of Abigail’s lethalness is basically an open secret, but reviews are still supposed to refrain from spelling it out. Regardless, it is pretty clear she is more than a “Bad Seed.” She is an entire bad farm.

The fake Rat Pack also gets a good deal of laughs for their sociopathic snark and moronic meatheadedness. Dan Stevens (Cousin Matthew in Downton Abbey) delivers a lot of the former, dipping back into his psycho trick bag from The Guest. Kevin Durand supplies most of the latter as the hulking “Peter.” William Catlett is appropriately hardnosed as the ex-military sniper, misnamed “Rickles.” The late Angus Cloud does another Eminem impersonation as “Dean,” but his obvious personality-dysfunction helps further complicate the poisonous group dynamic. The same is true of Kathryn Newton’s impressive freakouts as high-strung hacker “Sammy.”

Unfortunately, Melissa Barrera is supposed to slow-burn as the guilt-wracked Joey, but she is definitely the weakest, least defined member of the Rat Pack. She looks credible in the blood-drenched fight scenes, but that is about all she brings to the table. Frankly, the producers of the Scream franchise really did not give up much when they fired her from their next film, because of what they justifiably described as her antisemitic “hate speech.” There are monsters in real life too.

Radio Silence’s Scream 2022

You can tell the Scream franchise must be mainstream, because it is the only horror movie streaming on American Airlines’ Latin American flights. The latest still isn’t a reboot, but it openly toys with the recent practice of sequels that give the series a fresh start, while still maintaining the established world and continuity, like Candyman 2021. (It even returns to the simple, numeral-free title of the original film.) Yet, in a way the meta-franchise Wes Craven launched always did that. Once again, it is a new killer (or more likely killers, since the film reminds us “it is never just one”) that dons the Ghostface mask. Yet, like always, it (or they) are obsessed with Sidney Prescott and her friends in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett’s Scream 2022 (or Panico in Brazil), which you can watch on American.

In Scream movies, no matter who it is underneath the Ghostface, they aren’t infallible. An intended victim can actually escape, which leads to genuine suspense. In this case, it happens in the latest cold kill opening. Tara Carpenter survives, but that turns out to be by design. The latest Ghostface hoped to lure her semi-estranged sister Sam back to Woodsboro, because she happened to be the secret love child of the original serial killer, Billy Loomis.

Of course, our mystery Ghostface also wants to pull Prescott, Gale Weathers, and Dewey Riley back into the game, because it wouldn’t be the same without them. In the meantime, the new copycat bumps off the obnoxious teens in Tara’s social circle.

Bettinelli-Olpin & Gillett, of the filmmaking collective Radio Silence, do a nice recapturing the knowing vibe of the original films. If anything, the characters are a little too cognizant of “following the rules.” Presumably, at some point panic would probably set in, if you suddenly found yourself in a slasher movie, unless it was your fifth go-round, like it is for Prescott and her fellow survivors.

Phobias, Executive Produced by Radio Silence

Hoplophobia is an irrational fear of guns that afflicts far too many politicians. Ephebiphobia is the fear of teenagers, which is hard to ever dismiss as irrational. A good case of ephebiphobia ought to be enough to overcome anyone’s hoplophobia, but the sinister conspiracy in this braided anthology film is not seeking to cure anybody’s fears. Instead, they seek to weaponize fear in Phobias, executive produced by the Radio Silence filmmaking team, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on VOD.

Poor Johnny is the sole support of his ailing father in Joe Sill’s “Robophobia” (the fear of robots), but the bigoted lowlifes of his skid row neighborhood still pick on him mercilessly. Then one day, he is “befriended” by a rogue AI that downloads itself into his ear and starts to fight back for him. Unfortunately, it doesn’t know when to stop.

We next see Johnny after he has been whisked away to some kind of black-site research facility in Jess Varley’s interstitial “Outpost 37” segments. There he will meet some very damaged people, who have done some terrible things out of fear (and some whose fears were well justified).

Sami is one of them. She should have been more frightened of driving, before she committed vehicular violence in Maritte Lee Go’s “Vehophobia.” Granted, it is sort of quick riff on Christine, but it is creepy, thanks to some clever use of music and sound. Hana Mae Lee (of the Pitch Perfect franchise) is also terrific as the EC Comics-style protag.

Chris von Hoffman’s student-teacher home invasion horror story, “Ephebiphobia” is probably the darkest and tensest of the fearful tales. Yet, in some ways, it really doesn’t fit with the rest. The unfortunate teacher has made some mistakes in her life, but she is victim, not the aggressor. She deserves to wind up in Outpost 37 even less than woeful Johnny.

The single-mother cop in Camille Belle’s “Hoplophobia” is not wholly unsympathetic either, but her guilt and paranoia have terrible consequences, especially for her. Frankly, there is nothing entertaining about this fearful tale. It is just sort of sad.

Radio Silence’s Ready or Not

Downton Abbey fans definitely remember how difficult the entail inheritance scheme made life for the Crawley family (who only had daughters instead of sons). However, it seems happily progressive compared to the circumstances of the Le Domas family legacy. Their fortune is tied up in a Faustian bargain that is truly Faustian. Grace learns the shocking truth when she marries into the wealthy clan, but she might not live long enough to enjoy her honeymoon in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not, executive produced Chad Villella, the third member of their Radio Silence filmmaking combo, which opens today in New York.

Dirt-poor Grace grew up in foster-care, so she is thrilled to finally have a family—even one as intimidatingly dysfunctional as Alex Le Domas’s clan. Their fabulous fortune does not hurt either. They made their money through games, like a sinister Parker Brothers, so it is a mandatory tradition for brides or grooms joining the family to play a randomly chosen game on their wedding night. It is usually just an eccentric quirk, unless Hide-and-Seek comes up through the luck of the draw. They play that game by a decidedly nontraditional set of rules.

The last time there was a nuptial game of Hide-and-Seek was played, Alex was child. He has been semi-estranged from the estranged from the family ever since. However, he still has to play—because there are fatal penalties for elopement. Of course, he is horrified at the prospect of his family hunting Grace Most Dangerous Game-style. He tries to help her, even though the Le Domases believe they will face serious karmic consequences if they do not hunt her down by dawn. Right, the game’s afoot.

The film’s basic premise is pretty clear from trailers and promo material, but the details of the full backstory are devilishly gothic. The entire creepy mansion setting is a triumph of art direction worthy of vintage Hammer Horror. There are plenty of subversive class-conscious implications, but fortunately Radio Silence does not let that get in the way of the bloody lunacy that erupts.

It hardly seems like a coincidence that Henry Czerny and Andie McDowell somewhat resemble Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern from Downton. Regardless, they are both terrific as the witheringly snobby patriarch Tony, and Becky, the matriarch, who is deceptively warm and welcoming on the outside, but ruthlessly steely at her core.

However, it is Samara Weaving who is destined to become famous for her work as Grace. It might not happen immediately, but the scenes of her wielding a shotgun while wearing a blood-stained wedding gown are just too perfect not get absorbed into the pop culture consciousness. The same could be true for Nicky Guadagni, who is spectacularly unhinged as battle-axe-wielding Aunt Helene. In fact, it is quite a colorful supporting cast, with Kristian Bruun scoring big laughs as “Fitch,” the pompous son-in-law and John Ralston handily taking care of horror movie business as Stevens, the Lurch-from-Hell butler.

Ready or Not represents a gruesome shot of paranoia, but it is also quite a jolly bit of fun. Come for the undermining of traditional family and marital structures, but stay for the social Darwinism. Enthusiastically recommended for horror fans, Ready or Not opens today (8/21) in theaters throughout the City, including the AMC Empire.

Southbound: Where the Twilight Zone and V/H/S Intersect

Get your kicks on Route 666. Cellular and GPS service never seem to work along this lonely stretch of interstate, but there will be plenty of locals coming around. Unfortunately, they are not so helpful. All road trips take macabre detours in the wickedly creepy horror anthology Southbound (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Many of the filmmakers who contributed to the V/H/S franchise, including the Radio Silence guys who capped off the original film, tag-teamed on Southbound. Fortunately, their styles mesh easily, because the constituent story arcs deliberately run together. All five are decidedly scary, starting with Radio Silence’s The Way Out. Two bloody and bleary-eyed rough necks appear to be caught in a sort of loop, much like Isaac Ezban’s The Incident, except the weary duo are also being chased by spectral skeleton monsters that have been summoned to punish them for some profoundly transgressive sin. Just what did they do? Hold your horses, because more will be revealed when they reappear later.

The Way Out ends in the roadside motel where Roxanne Benjamin’s Siren begins. A hipster-punk version of The Runaways is checking out and hitting the road for their next gig. When a flat tire leaves them stranded by the side of the road, a rather mysterious family offers them shelter. Most of the band foolishly trusts them but not Sadie, their lead singer. In fact, she is quite confused and alarmed by how much they know about the recent death of a fellow band member.

The third story rather brusquely cuts off the second in an out-of-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire kind of way. David Bruckner’s aptly titled Accident also happens to be the creepiest, most intense arc of the consistently strong film. Poor Lucas did indeed run someone over due to his own negligence. However, he tries to do the right thing, but the malevolent 911 operator has different ideas. This works particularly well because of the spot-on writing. Several times Lucas is sufficiently alert to question the sinister voice’s dubious statements, but his desperation makes him accept each explanation. It turns into a real mind-reeler, yet it is believable enough to be deeply unsettling.

Again, we follow one of the hitherto unseen principals of Accident into Patrick Horvath’s Jailbreak. A man walks into a bar. Complications ensue. It would be spoilery to reveal anymore, but Horvath’s segment establishes some of the evil nature of this localized zone of supernatural and psychological mayhem.

Radio Silence comes back for more with The Way In, which eventually loops back into The Way Out again. How they get there is a twisted trip. Let’s just say it ends well, at least from the genre fans’ perspective (but for the characters, not so much).

There is no dead weight in Southbound and hardly any slack. Although Benjamin has primarily been active in producer roles, Southbound announces her arrival as a major directorial talent. In some respects, Siren is the most conventional of the five (or four, depending on how you count them) component arcs, but she really kicks it up several notches.

Even though there are not a lot of familiar faces in the cast, the performances are all rock solid. Mather Zickel is a particular standout as Lucas, the tormented driver. For genre fans, the voice of Larry Fessenden as the local DJ is also instantly reassuring. Frankly, by horror standards, there is not a great deal of blood or gore in the film, but there are plenty of scares. Highly recommended for those who appreciate franchises like V/H/S and the original Twilight Zone, Southbound opens this Friday (2/5) in New York, at the Village East.