MOVIE: Scare Me (2020)

 

Scare Me 

Directed by Josh Ruben 

Starring Josh Ruben, Aya Cash, Chris Redd, Rebecca Drysdale 

Irony Point/Artists First 2020

 

When writer Fred (Ruben) checks in to a remote cabin in an attempt to break his writer’s block, he meets another writer, Fanny (Cash) who is staying nearby. When a power cut hits the area on a stormy night, Fanny drops-in and the two decide to pass the hours by regaling each other with scary stories… 

So far, it’s the ideal set-up for a horror anthology picture, but Scare Me has a nice twist up its sleeve: Where one would expect the scene to cut away elsewhere for a cast of players to unwind each tale, the action instead unfolds within the cabin as Fred and Fanny act out their tales, at first individually but the process becomes an increasingly collaborative one as the film progresses. 

There’s an interesting undercurrent to the interplay between the two: Fanny is already a success with a bestseller under her belt, while Fred is struggling to reach first base with his premiere effort and it’s interesting that Ruben has made his feature debut as writer/director by casting himself as someone who clearly can’t put his ideas across successfully: Fanny can’t help herself in correcting his grammar, pointing out his plot holes and interjecting with her own improvements. 

A break between tales reveals a message on Fred’s phone that indicates a personal life in disarray, making his attempt at an artistic breakthrough all the more desperate. Any potential tension from that revelation is temporarily dispersed by the arrival of a much needed pizza, delivered by Carlo (Redd), a horror-fan who is awe-struck by the revelation that Fanny is the author of his favourite book. 

Carlo joins in for a stimulant-fuelled run-through of Fanny’s novel but, with his eventual departure to continue his rounds the chasm between Fred and Fanny’s respective lives and achievements becomes all too clear and the storytelling takes a darker turn as dawn approaches… 

Ruben and Cash bounce off each other brilliantly – indeed, the cast dive into things with aplomb and there’s the feeling (in a good way, I assure you) that there was a fair bit of spontaneous wordplay flying around this set. 

Scare Me perhaps carries on too long for its own good (dare I say most of the pizza-delivery-guy section disrupts the flow and could have been dropped?), the disjointed nature makes for an uneven ride and the final gear shift into more chilling territory doesn’t quite have the impact it should, but that’s not to say that the denouement isn’t a satisfactory one by any means. 

Genre fans will enjoy the references to various touchstones (Poltergeist, Halloween, Jaws and many more are namechecked) and regardless of any reservations noted above, for its refreshing take on the horror anthology idiom Scare Me is a fascinating feature debut well worth seeing – I’m certainly intrigued enough to seek out Ruben’s filmic take on video game Werewolves Within (2021).

 

Scare Me is available on UK blu-ray from Acorn Media from August 16^th 2021

MOVIE: We Still Say Grace (2020)

 

We Still Say Grace 

Directed by Brad Helmink and John Rauschelbach 

Starring Bruce Davison, Holly Taylor, Rita Volk, Arianne Zucker, Dallas Hart, Frankie Wolf, Xavier J. Watson 

Dauntless Studios/Lexicon Entertainment 2020

 

When three students on a road trip get a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere, they call in at a farm looking for help. It’s the home of Harold (Davison), a religious zealot who rules his family with a rod of iron and has a take on Christianity which is unorthodox to say the least. 

Unbeknownst to the three, Harold has been doing a dry run for a suicide pact between himself, wife Betty (Zucker) and daughters Maggie and Sarah (Taylor and Volk respectively). Maggie, however seems somewhat resistant to this plan and the visitors  offer a window to a different world… 

There’s a nice wrong-footing of the audience early on, as the opening scenes give the impression of a frontier family in the old west before a white Cadillac appears and the stark contrast between the residents and visitors becomes apparent. 

It’s not long before Harold is revealed to be a hypocrite, and an unsound one at that. Just how dangerous he is becomes clearer as Maggie, somewhat liberated by her contact with the outsiders begins to question and challenge her way of life. 

The “stranded travellers find themselves taken in by fundamentalist nutter” strand is a well worn one, but the script by directors Helmink and Rauschelbach throws some interesting curveballs during its 94-minutes and the pair do a good job of keeping the spiralling situation just the right side of going off-piste. 

There are strong turns all-round from the cast, particularly the female performers making up Harold’s family but it’s Bruce Davison (always a great asset to any production) who provides the perfect vehicle for them to bounce off with a performance which is alternately disturbing and infuriating, such does he get under the skin of this repellent individual. His interaction with Holly Taylor in the latter part of the film, where the two mentally square-off against each other raises We Still Say Grace a very large notch above the usual religious-fanatic chiller.

 

We Still Say Grace is released to UK digital platforms by 101 Films on May 3^rd 2020.

MOVIE: Reunion (2020)

 

Reunion 

Directed by Jake Mahaffy 

Starring Julia Ormond, Emma Draper, John Bach, Cohen Holloway 

Greyshack Films/Miss Conception Films/Overactive Imagination/Water's End Productions/ New Zealand Film Commission 2021 

Ellie (Draper), pregnant and apparently fleeing an abusive relationship returns to the home of her recently deceased grandparents where her estranged mother Ivy (Ormond) is boxing up belongings in preparation for a house sale. 

It seems that a reconciliation between the two might be possible, but there are unresolved matters from the past: The death of a half-sister in the house still hangs heavy in the air, and as the details seem to become clearer to Ellie in increasingly nightmarish flashbacks an even darker family secret reveals itself…

Those in search of a cut-and-thrust horror ride can look away now, for Reunion is a slow burn indeed, driven for the most part by an intense two-hander between Ormond and Draper (who both acquit themselves admirably), gradually revealing the layers of a troubled mother/daughter relationship. Meanwhile, Ellie’s memories of past traumas are slowly revealed through a series of partly repetitive, partly contradictory flashbacks, perhaps fuelled by Ellie’s withdrawal from possibly emotion-numbing medication. 

Ellie and Ivy’s uneasy interaction is interrupted only by Ellie’s incapacitated father Jack (Bach) and local architect (and Ellie’s old flame) Gus (Holloway) who has been hired to spruce the place up before it’s sold on. The stroke-ravaged Jack may initially draw the viewer’s sympathy for his current situation, but as his past misdemeanours are steadily divulged one can’t help feeling that he’s gotten no less than he deserves. 

The most prominent character of all in Reunion may be the house itself, its faded grandeur captured with fantastic camera work (by Adam Luxton) which imbues this seemingly benign structure with a malevolent personality of its own, one which signposts the skeletons hanging in the collective family closet. The air of melancholy manifests itself in the most literal fashion as black bile, be it on Ellie’s person or from the house’s ageing water pipes. 

The pacing won’t be to everyone’s taste, indeed this is one of those films which will likely divide opinion right down the middle but those in the right frame of mind will be rewarded with a big climactic gear change into a conclusion which paradoxically manages to be both revelatory and ambiguous: Ellie, after all has demonstrated herself to be an unreliable witness throughout the film and the viewer’s search for the real facts leaves Reunion lingering in the mind and inviting a second look. 

Reunion is released on digital by 101 Films on March 22^nd 2021