Bloody Bites: The Blue Diamond

Cult leaders make terrible parents, because they think everybody is one of their “children.” Allison could tell you that about her late mom, but she doesn’t have to, because all the cult members keep telling her how Jacqueline Diamond was like a mother to them. As far as she is concerned, they can have her—but maybe they want Allison too in Sam Fox’s 16-minoute short film The Blue Diamond, which premieres this Friday on Screambox’s short film showcase Bloody Bites.

Allison long resented her narcistic mother for abandoning her to found her skiing-themed EST-esque self-help cult. She probably assumes her ragingly inappropriate eulogy would be the last way she could get back at Mother Diamond. It is a doozy. Yet, members of Blue Diamond seem completely tone deaf with respect to her flippant contempt for her mom and the cult.

Obviously, The Blue Diamond takes a horror turn, given its debut on a genre streamer, but the best reason to watch is Desiree Staples’ epic middle-finger-waving meltdown as Allison. Watching her react to cultists’ weirdness is quite a show. In fact, she manages to do the hard-to-imagine: outshining horror’s grand dame, Barbara Crampton, who appears as Diamond in pre-recorded video messages.

Blood Barn, on Screambox

Ironically, Josie’s friends survived working a season as camp counselors, just to die in her barn. Technically, it has been converted into a farmhouse. Honestly, except for Simon, the nice guy, they are all basically animals, who should be sleeping on straw and drinking out of a trough. Regardless, they will probably die like lambs to the slaughter in Gabriel Bernini’s Blood Barn, which premieres tomorrow on Screambox.

This is one of those intentionally grainy-looking, deliberately cheesy, VHS-approximating retro-horror films. For what its worth, Bernini and the design team get the look perfect. Paradoxically, the filmmakers who cranked out the films that inspired Blood Barn would have been thrilled to have the modern techniques available to Bernini for a more polished look. Be that as it may, nostalgia always has a place in horror.

Josie is wildly insecure, so she invites her new “friends” to finish the summer at her family’s old lake house. They should have the place to themselves, because her other relatives never stay there anymore—with good reason. As it happens, Josie’s own memories of the place are rather foggy, in a repressed kind of way. At least the video tape of family home movies her so-called friends start jeering at slowly reawakens bits and pieces buried in her head.

It is hard to really say what the heck is going on, but it seems vaguely Lovecraftian, in a way possibly inspired by Possession. Whatever the heck it is, you do not want to let it get its tentacles into you, in a very literal sense.

Once you get past the look of the film, clearly intended to invoke memories of the original micro-budget Evil Dead, there isn’t much to the film. The only “name” is Chloe Cherry, the former adult performer turned Euphoria co-star, as the sexually forward Rachel, but her charms will elude most mortal viewers unfamiliar with her previous work.

The Draft!, on Screambox

These college kids are sort of like Pirandello’s “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” except they do not want their stories finished. That is because they are living in a horror movie screenplay. The more their screenwriter revises, the longer they live. Fortunately, the knowledge of their [un]reality gives them some power to survive in Yusron Fuadi’s beyond meta horror film, The Draft!, which premieres Tuesday on Screambox.

Five friends came to the spooky old villa owned by popular girl Ani’s parents, for reasons none of them really thought about. In fact, when later asked, nobody can remember much about the trip either. However, everyone immediately recognizes stereotypical elements of Indonesian horror movies, like the Dutch colonial cemetery and the decrepit old well out back.

Amir, the proudly nerdy aspiring filmmaker starts to figure out the meta-ness of their situation, very much in the tradition of Jamie Kennedy in Scream. Unfortunately, his suspicions will be confirmed, when Ami’s meathead boyfriend Budi resurrects from the dead, but with a new face, to satisfy a producer’s casting suggestions.

In a rather mixed blessing, their screenwriter is a talentless hack, who simply regurgitates one cliché after another. Amir and his friends much take care, because their speculations can be used against them. However, their suggestions for survival supplies, like a spectacularly well-stocked armory, will likely come true, because the screenwriter will think he thought of it himself.

The Draft is a wild ride that almost (but not quite) stops being horror as it encroaches into the tonal territory of some of the funnier Twilight Zone episodes. However, there are always fresh horrors lurking for the [mostly] four characters. Fuadi and co-screenwriters Richard James Halstead and B.W. Purba Negara incorporate several Indonesian cultural in-jokes, but genre fans who have kept up with Joko Anwar (whom is name-checked in The Draft) and the explosion of Indonesian horror should catch most of them.

A Mother’s Embrace, on Screambox

Firefighting must be incredibly hard work in Rio. Presumably, favelas are highly combustible. Plus, it just gets hot there in general (trust me on that one). However, Ana and her team of firefighters would have been better of fighting a favela fire on the hottest day of the year, then responding to a call to this decrepit nursing home during a historic deluge. The creaking old building is not structurally sound, but something worse lurks underneath in Cristian Ponce’s A Mother’s Embrace, which premieres today on Screambox.

The final days of Ana’s mother were a little weird—and sinister. There was an impulsive trip to carnival funhouse. She then woke up as flames engulfed their apartment. She survived, but her mother did not—or so she always assumed. Lately, she has been seeing visions of her mother at inopportune times, including during a fire call. This will be her fist night back in thee field. She should have waited one more day.

It is not exactly clear whom, but someone called in a complaint claiming an unregulated old folks’ home was on the verge of collapse. Frankly, the callr was not exaggerating by much, but none of the residents seems to care. In fact, they are downright hostile. They seem to be a cult in thrall to the slithery, vaguely Lovecraftian beneath the house, or something like that.

Frankly, it is not entirely clear what Ponce and co-screenwriters Gabriella Capella and Andre Pereira (who co-wrote The Trace We Leave Behind) think is going on during the course of the film. Is Ana’s mother part of the cult, or not? Just what kind of thing is the tentacle creature? Viewers will be hard pressed to explain, even after watching.  Yet, it is all undeniably creepy. As luck would have it, A Mother’s Embrace was filmed during a real-life gale, so a lot of the wind and precipitation were legit and “free,” courtesy of mother nature.

The Trouble with Tessa, on Screambox

What's the quickest way for a documentarian to sell out for an easy paycheck? True crime, of course. Tessa Fowler needs money to pay for lawyers, so she figures it was a lucky break when she discovers the Upstate house she rented might have been the scene of a murder. However, viewers know better right from the start of director-screenwriters Dennis Cahlo & Bethany Watson’s The Trouble with Tessa, which premieres tomorrow on Screambox.

It sounds like Fowler and her producer, Aaron Slotzsky, exposed a lot dirt on a progressive politician, because they are now taking heat, even from friends and colleagues, because their subject was supposedly “on the right side of history.” He is also suing for defamation. To get away from the constant harassment and process servers, Fowler rented a farm house in the quaint little village of Lowery, because it was the only hideout she could rent on such short notice—for good reason, we soon suspect.

Lowery is a weird place, with more rules and regulations than a Catholic boarding school. It also has an earlier curfew. The locals are also quite odd, in manners that are both intrusive and standoffish. She should be looking to leave fast. Instead, she starts nosing around the town’s buried history after a box of bizarre video and audio tapes practically leaps into her hands during the closing minutes of the pilot episode.

As Fowler starts investigating, she discovers the town is weirder than she originally thought, in profoundly suspicious ways, like the fact that the town newspaper archive in the Lowery library is heavily redacted. However, she finally gets a local to start dishing a little, thanks to the liberal application of booze.

Unfortunately, only two episodes were provided for review. That is a shame because it is really only just getting started. It is especially frustrating, because those two episodes are enormously grabby and intriguing. Frankly, at this point, it isn’t even clear if Trouble s truly horror or more of a Twin Peaks-ish mystery, but either way, Cahlo and Watson solidly establish Lowery as a strange and sinister place.

Project MKHEXE, on Screambox

Most of the conspiracy theories involving the CIA are complete nonsense. Sadly, they have proved so bad at keeping their secrets, most of the crazy stuff they get blamed for would have been exposed long ago by “whistle-blowers” or deep-cover moles. After all, we know all about Project MK Ultra. MKEXE is sort of like that embarrassing project cranked up to eleven. Yet, somehow, the CIA kept this one secret. Apparently, they had a lot of help from a shadowy someone or something in director-screenwriter Gerald Robert Waddell’s Project MKHEXE, which premieres today on Screambox.

“Freelance” photographer-filmmaker Tim Wilson was always the unstable one. That is why he took his younger brother Sean’s suicide so hard. Compounding the guilt, he ignored his brother’s bizarrely unhinged final call the night he died. Hoping to make sense of it all, he unlocks Sean’s fun and steps through the looking glass, into his conspiracy theory obsessions. He seemed to be researching MKEXE, which was apparently another mind-control experiment, but with almost supernatural overtones.

Whatever it is, it covers its tracks. In fact, as soon as the Brother Tim starts cataloging Brother Sean’s evidence, it mysteriously disappears. Even the tormenting voice message deletes itself. It sounds crazy, but Tim’s not-quite girlfriend Nicole saw enough to agree to help his brother investigate further—or maybe she is just prospecting for a good story. Regardless, their resulting “documentary” became a notoriously lost item of internet lore, somehow preserved here for your viewing pleasure, according to Waddell’s found footage gimmick.

In a way, MKHEXE represents an unusually effective found footage film, but not because it is scary. Frankly, this is a profoundly sad film that illustrates the destructive power of the obsessive conspiratorial mindset. It also viscerally shows how tragedy and trauma can poison a family. Waddell presents a highly distinctive vision, but it is not an enjoyable viewing experience. It might just drive you to drink.

Nevertheless, Jennifer Lynn O’Hara and Dwayne Tarver are absolutely devastating as the brothers’ long-suffering parents. They are so believable and realistically down-to-earth, it is painful to watch them. Ignacyo Matynia and Will Jandro have plenty of good freak-outs as the brothers, but they do not connect emotionally the way their on-screen parents do.

#Manhole, on Screambox

It is not simply a question of crumbling infrastructure. Admittedly, alcohol was a contributing factor, but someone might have intentionally “helped” Shunsuke Kawamura fall through a manhole, into a narrow subterranean cavity. However, his strategy of crowd-sourcing his rescue risks igniting the “madness of crowds” in Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s #Manhole, which premieres today on Screambox.

Up until now, Kawamura led a charmed life. Tomorrow, he will marry his boss’s daughter, so the firm took him out to celebrate. The next thing he knew, he fell through this hole. Unfortunately, most of his contacts are not picking up and his GPS seemingly leads the cops to search the wrong areas. Desperate regarding his fast-approaching wedding, Kawamura creates a Twitter (here somewhat unfortunately renamed “Pecker”) handle for #Manholegirl, assuming a trapped woman will better motivate strangers to collaboratively determine his location.

Of course, he must give them accurate details, so he pretends “#Manholegirl” is his sister, a potential victim of those he wronged through his philandering. Ominously, the net weirdos focus on his jealous colleague, Etsuro Kase, as their prime suspect.

Michitaka Okada’s screenplay takes some dark turns, while depicting the lunacy of online mobs. Awkwardly, the cops do not inspire much confidence either. Consequently, Kawamura might just be on his own—and the run-off water from a nearby abandoned industrial building steadily rises.

Lizzie Lazarus, on Screambox

If there is one ironclad law of both horror and science fiction movies, it must be the certain understanding that terrible consequences befall any attempt to infringe on death’s domain. Yet, here are Bethany and Eli, schlepping the dead body of her sister through the woods, hoping to reincarnate her once they reach a “sacred spot” on the night of the Summer Solstice. Maybe, this time it will work out for them, but do not get your hopes up, because director-screenwriter Aviv Rubinstien’s Lizzie Lazarus is a horror film, which premieres today on Screambox.

Technically, Lizzie’s death was ruled an accident, but the circumstances indicate vehicular suicide. For her sister Bethany and now ex-boyfriend Eli, that means a lot of guilt, especially since he probably became her ex right before she fatally drove away. Consequently, he agrees to help Bethany with her longshot scheme to bring Lizzie back using the old folkie magic she discovered in her stoner studies.

However, carrying a corpse through the dark woods is more taxing than either expected. They do not even mention the smell, just the weight. There are also weird noises and several potential witnesses ominously skulking about. Plus, there is the whole business of dabbling in dark magic. Yet, for Eli, Bethany’s constant babble of paranoid conspiracy theories and New Age baloney must constitute the most nightmarish aspect of the evening.

Clearly, Rubinstien holds a wicked twist in reserve to eventually spring on viewers. Even if you guess where it is headed, Lizzie Lazarus takes the audience on quite a macabre trip. This is probably the talkiest horror movie in years—maybe even ever, but all that gab pays off.

In fact, Rubinstien’s script intelligently addresses some pretty serious issues related to grief and mental health, without ever feeling exploitative. A lot of painful truths come out over the course of the night. Fortunately, Rubinstien also takes care of genre business, steadily building a sense of foreboding. The evil vibes are palpable for viewers, even if the characters cannot pick up on them.

Deus Irae, on Screambox

When you constantly submerge yourself in evil and corruption, it is bound to leave a mark. Father Javier is an exorcist. He is not merely damaged. He might be damned. So might his entire band of demon vanquishers, but they intend to scare the hell out of Hell in director-screenwriter Pedro Cristiani’s Deus Irae, which premieres today on Screambox.

Father Javier uses heroin to cope. He might have even killed an innocent possessed vessel just to out maneuver a demon. Frankly, it is a little hard to tell what happens in the opening scenes, due to Crisitani’s intentionally fractured style. Regardless, his mentor Ramon fears the once-good Father has lost his way, but that makes him perfect for the demon-busting trio led by Father Marcos.

Together with Sister Helena, they perform the exorcisms other priests just won’t do. If that results in a bit of collateral damage, so be it. In fact, Father Javier starts to figure that might be a good thing, because it shows the Hellspawn their willingness to go to extreme lengths.

Somehow, Deus Irae is extremely disturbing, even when you are not entirely sure what the heck is happening. It is also very gory and annoyingly dark and murky. This film is basically difficult to watch in every conceivable way, yet it is clearly the work of a provocative genre auteur. In fact, it is hard to think of another film that so directly challenges moral assumptions.

Devon, on Screambox

If you know smart people, you write about smart people. If you are familiar with the associates of Jenni Farley, a.k.a. “JWoww” on The Jersey Shore, it rather follows that her characters make spectacularly bad decisions. To make matters worse, they appear in a horror movie. The found footage sub-genre finds its weakest premise yet in director-screenwriter-executive producer Farley’s Devon, which premieres tomorrow on Screambox.

First of all, Farley earns some credit for playing it straight. There is no big hair or cringy horniness in Devon. However, the internal logic is a mess. Supposedly, the well-heeled parents of the missing Devon (now 34 years of age, if still alive), contacted five desperate people, asking them to investigate and document (with the video cameras recording the footage to be found at a later date) the abandoned asylum where she was once committed.

Savvy viewers might be wondering what the anonymous parents hope to find in the crumbling, graffiti-tarred building and why didn’t they hire professional investigators in the first place? However, the not-so Fab Five never thought to ask. They just need money, for reasons that will mostly be revealed. As a result, Kat Rose, Jared Stevens, and Carly Carmichael are somewhat better delineated as characters than those in your average ultra-low budget found footage movie.

Allison Roberts, who we see struggling to explain herself during her in media res police interview, is kept mysterious for the sake of third acts surprises. That leaves William Edwards, whose shticky over-the-top diva behavior gets to be a lot.

Tales from the Void: Into the Unknown, on Screambox

Sometimes geometric shapes are scary, like spirals in Uzumaki or the Monolith in 2001 (at least if you’re an ape). A mysterious square has much the same effect in the first episode of this series based on stories originally published on r/NoSleep, a popular source for next generation creepypasta horror. An inexplicable square creeps everyone out in “Into the Unknown,” Tales from the Void’s first episode, which starts streaming Sunday on Screambox.

The darned thing just shows up one day in the parking lot of a large, somewhat isolated apartment building. It is like a giant square, non-reflective black flat-screen TV that hovers in the air. It also appears invisible to cameras and film, as Harris discovers. He is the only one exhibiting intellectual curiosity about it, but plenty of his neighbors are obsessed.

Harris’s friend Anton has the night-watch, while Bill (who seems to hold some kind of building captain position) and his hired goons guard it by day. Increasingly paranoid, Bill fears the Square must be some kind of government experiment and/or a threat of unknown origin. He is determined to protect the building, especially Harris, from the Square, no matters how much it hurts.

In the post-episode interview segment, Matthew Dymerski, the author of the original r/NoSleep story, identifies the Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Main Street” as his primary influence, which definitely shows. Frankly, there is considerably more time devoted to the collective madness than the big dumb object itself.

However, director Joe Lynch maintains a moody atmosphere and skillfully builds the mounting paranoia.  The adaptation of Dymerski’s tale lacks the black humor and snappy attitude of many of Lynch’s film, particularly Mayhem and Everly, but it definitely creates a sense of a self-contained community, under extreme stress.

Cube (the Japanese Remake), on Screambox

Vicenzo Natali's 1997 film gave fans some life-and-death math well before Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code—with an emphasis on the death part. Instead of Fibonacci sequences, it was all about Cartesian Coordinates and primes, as well as brutal death traps. The rumored reboot has yet to happen, but it was remade in Japan, with Natali on-board as an executive producer. You still want to avoid prime numbers in Yasuhiko Shimizu’s Cube, which premieres Tuesday on Screambox.

Like in Natali’s original, six people wake up in a mysterious structure of interlocking cubes with no memory of how they got there. When they eventually find each other, it is clear the blue-collar Ide is the one who has had the most time to figure out the cube’s deadly ways. However, it is the emotionally-damaged teen Uno who figures out the significance of the serial number-like digits attached to each of the cube like rooms. If any of the three sets of three numbers constitutes a prime, there is sure to be a trap waiting for them in the corresponding chamber. However, even if there is no prime, there still could be a trap.

Much like the source film, most of the Cube’s prisoners have serious personal issues, like Ando, the obnoxious business man or Ochi, the psychopath. The one who doesn’t seem to have anything going on, actually holds the biggest secret, which represents the greatest departure from the 1997 film.

Frankly, Shimizu’s remake, adapted by Koji Tokuo is even weaker when it comes to characterization than the original. Whereas the first film might have been slightly more tethered to the real world, Tokuo’s version has more science fiction implications, but there is no time to explore them to any substantial extent.