This week, we’ve got two new films, “A Quiet Place: Day One” and also “In a Violent Nature,” both from 2024. Going back a ways, we cover the haunted hotel in “1408” from 2007, and get all beat out of shape at “Eden Lake” from 2008. Lastly, we’ll watch a new LGBT Indie film, “Ganymede” also from 2024. Good stuff!
Then, instead of a single short film, we’ll watch FOUR of them!
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Full-Length Films:
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
Directed by Michael Sarnoski
Written by Michael Sarnoski, John Krasinski, Bryan Woods
Stars Lupita Nyong’o, Joseph Quinn, Alex Wolff
Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was interesting seeing how things started out with the whole alien apocalypse thing, and this was entertaining. Being a prequel, we know how things are going to go overall, but there was enough tension and uncertainty to keep us involved. The budget was big and the effects are good, with a high body count and lots of carnage. We liked it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on New York City, and are told that it gives off the same amount of noise as a typical scream. Samira has a bad attitude in her cancer support group at the hospice center. The group is going to a show in the city, and they invite her along. As the bus crosses the bridge into town, several jet fighters fly over in a hurry.
The “show” turns out to be an old man doing marionettes. It gets a little intense for Samira, so she steps outside and sees police cars going down the road. The guy who runs the group gets a call that he needs to bring everyone home; something is happening in the city. Sam wants her pizza, and she starts getting upset.
She does get on the bus as the air raid sirens go off. Meteors are coming down all over the city, one very near the bus. Sam gets off and walks through the smoke and ash. She watches silently as people are attacked and pulled away by… things. Credits roll.
Sam wakes up with Henri and a bunch of people in the crowded theater; they are all sitting silently, many of the wounded. Reuben, the nurse, is there, and he has her cat. The cat rings a bell, and we soon see one of the monsters indoors– and a whole herd of them outdoors.
They get a radio report that the planes are blowing up bridges to contain the things– and trap them on Manhattan Island. One guy freaks out and yells, “We’re all gonna die!” and then Henri kills him to keep him quiet.
Sam decides she really wants that pizza and jokes with Reuben that she’s going after some anyway. The power goes off, and an automatic generator kicks on. It’s loud, and Reuben is slow to turn it off; one of the monsters gets him.
When she finally goes outside, Sam sees that the city has gotten a lot quieter. She finds a couple of kids hiding inside a fountain; the monsters don’t like the noisy water. She hears helicopters announcing an evacuation plan via boats, since the aliens can’t swim.
Sam and the kids soon meet a huge crowd of people silently walking through the streets of NYC. Sam, however, decides to go the opposite way. Some of them have rattling luggage and squeaky wheelchairs, and it’s just a matter of time. Yep- a monster shows up, and someone screams. It’s a major massacre. Frodo the cat runs away, has a quick adventure, and then returns with a man in tow who follows Sam through the streets.
It starts to rain, and Sam figures out that they can talk quietly. The man’s name is Eric, and she tells him where to go. He insists on following her, though. They go back to Sam’s apartment, and she looks for her meds, but they aren’t there anymore; she took them all to the hospice.
Eric is British and has no friends or family to go to. Sam divulges her plan to get the last pizza on Earth, and he begs to come along. She has him read a poem she wrote about her dying of cancer any day now. In the morning, they continue on.
Naturally, they attract the creatures and get into a chase. They hide out in a flooded subway, and the water is very cold and getting more and more deep. Eric is a loud swimmer, but he’s still better than the monsters.
They get out of the sewer and hide some more in a big, empty church. Eric goes out to see if he can find painkillers for Sam. He has some close calls but eventually returns with what she needs.
Feeling better, Sam insists on resuming the quest for pizza. They get to Patsy’s Pizzeria, and the place has been destroyed. Eric finds another pizza place, and they pretend that it’s the same. It’s pretty awful, since it’s been three days, but it’s also the last pizza in the world, so they deal.
They see one of the ferries leaving to cross the river, and Sam gives Eric her coat; he needs to go, but she’s staying. He wordlessly convinces her to try making the journey to the docks. The beach, however, is swarming with the creatures.
Sam grabs a tire iron and starts setting off car alarms, and all the monsters go after her. Eric and the cat make their way to the docks where there’s no boat. Eric ends up jumping off the dock, but the boat does come back for him.
Henri pulls Eric up onto the boat and tells him he’s safe; he later finds a note from Sam in his pocket thanking him for giving her another slice of life and telling him to take care of her cat. Sam goes back home, alone and plays her music loudly in the street.
From the Publisher:
Bring home #AQuietPlace: Day One, buy on Digital now! Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn star in the film critics say is "packed with nail-biting tension and thrills." Included with over 50 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and deleted scenes! Written and Directed by Michael Sarnoski. Available at participating retailers. Buy @AQuietPlace: Day One on Digital today. Rated PG-13. From #ParamountPictures.
Brian’s Commentary
The first movie basically took place in the woods and on a solitary farm. This one has clearly got a much bigger budget, wiping out New York City, of all places.
That is one well-trained cat. Ours goes missing whenever the doorbell rings, much less hanging out peacefully throughout an alien invasion.
It’s tough to make a movie where there can’t be much dialogue. After the opening credits, the conversations are few and far between. Still, most of the situations are tense enough that we don’t need any explanations.
There wasn’t really much new here, but it was an entertaining way to spend 90 minutes; it’s better than the previous movie in the series.
Kevin’s Commentary
This managed to seem like nothing much new and be very entertaining at the same time. The script, pacing, and direction were excellent, and the two leads did very well through long periods of little to no dialogue. It was interesting starting out knowing that the main character you’re rooting for isn’t going to live long, no matter how things go through the movie. The emotional support cat Frodo was impressively calm and smart, too. One thing I did wonder about is where the corpses disappeared to. It’s got a high death count, but no bodies lying around, and it didn’t look like the aliens were eating them. Overall, I thought this was as good as the first movie and better than the second.
In A Violent Nature (2024)
Directed by Chris Nash
Written by Chris Nash
Stars Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love
Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is totally not about Jason Vorhees at Camp Crystal Lake but imagine the Friday the 13th films made from Jason’s perspective, and you’ve got this movie. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to stomp walk from place, and way too much of the movie consists of that. It’s an interesting premise with some very good moments, but overall, it’s on the tedious side.
Spoilery Synopsis
Colt and Ehren are near a fire tower near a cemetery, and Ehren starts talking about “The White Pine Slaughter,” but the others aren’t interested in hearing the story. They find a necklace and take it with them. We see something disturbing the ground before climbing out of one of the graves. It’s a man, but we don’t get much of a look at him.
The man, Johnny, moves slowly but starts walking out through the woods. We see that there are animal traps. Johnny hears Chuck and the ranger arguing about the animal traps and homes in on the arguing. Chuck runs off the ranger, but Johnny goes inside the house after Chuck.
We get a flashback to Johnny’s father giving him the locket that the men took earlier. It’s very clear that Johnny wants it back. Chuck finds Johnny, and that goes very badly for him.
Night falls, and Johnny hears some campers making a bunch of noise not far away. It’s Colt, Troy, Brodie, Ehren, Evan, Kris and Aurora. They sit around the campfire, and Ehren finally gets to talk about “The White Pine Slaughter,” which all revolves around “A slow kid named Johnny.” Johnny was hated by the locals, who lured him out to the top of a tower and scared him till he fell off and broke his neck. No charges were put against any of the locals, but a week later, everyone in the camp was torn apart.
The young people go back to their cabin, and we’re soon wishing Johnny would kill them a lot quicker. He’s out there stalking the woods around the house, and he finally runs into Ehren, who loses his head. Well, half his head. Johnny drags the body to the ranger station, where he picks up a mask and weapon.
In the morning, Johnny watches Kris and Aurora going swimming. Johnny crosses the lake underwater to get to them. Kris leaves, but Aurora hangs around and Johnny gets her. Johnny goes after Kris next, and she’s doing yoga in the woods. Johnny stabs right through her and then gets really creative with his hooks and chain.
Johnny hears Troy, Colt, and Brodie arguing about going to the cops over Ehren’s disappearance. We finally get a look at Johnny’s face, and it’s really something. Evan and Troy get attacked, but Evan shoots Johnny, which does slow him down for a bit– but not long enough for the two to escape.
Brodie comes back, screaming that the ranger found Ehren dead, and she wants Colt to leave with her right now. Johnny sees the necklace on Brodie’s neck and goes after it. The couple gets away on an ATV and goes straight to the ranger station.
The ranger knows all about Johnny and the necklace. “He’s awake and he’s gonna be coming for all of us now.” Johnny and the ranger remember each other from ten years ago. The ranger’s father survived the very first massacre, twenty years ago.
Johnny gets up after the ranger shoots him and paralyzes the ranger, and then puts him in the mechanical log-splitter. Ow!
Johnny hears Colt yelling for him to come after them. Johnny proves that if you stand still long enough, you’ll win. Soon, only Brodie is left. She watches as Johnny hacks Colt into many, many tiny pieces, and then she quietly takes off the necklace and backs away slowly.
She runs through the woods all night and finally makes it to a road. She flags down a woman in a pickup truck who offers to take her to the hospital. The woman talks about her brother, a forest ranger, who encountered weird “bear attacks” thirty years ago. The story itself seems to take thirty years, and Brodie passes out. The woman pulls over to patch up and stop the bleeding, but Brodie is terrified of the woods.
Meanwhile, Johnny has taken his necklace and gone back to the grave.
Brian’s Commentary
The moral of the story is obviously if you’re in the woods, don’t make unnecessary noise; it attracts the wrong kind of attention.
The camera work is interesting, with lots of long, wide-angled shots that don’t move around a lot as well as just-behind-the-monster point-of-view shots. This is about the only thing that differentiates this movie from the two hundred Friday the 13th films.
Actually, if you ever wondered how those films went from the killer’s perspective, this is the film for you! The killer spends a lot of time roaming around silently in the woods, and it just borders on boring occasionally. We don’t care about any of the characters, and there’s not much story, but we do get the full stalker-cam point of view.
The kills are creative, but that’s about all it’s got going for it. I thought it was a little… boring.
Kevin’s Commentary
Like race car drivers spend a lot of time not racing and astronauts spend a lot of time on Earth, indestructible killers spend a lot of their time not actually killing. It was an interesting idea switching up the point of view, and the killings were well done, but most of the movie was kind of tedious. I thought it should have been better than it was, and I was disappointed.
1408 (2007)
Directed by Mikael Hafstrom
Written by Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski
Stars John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack
Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Cusack does an excellent job here in the lead role, much of which is spent in a room by himself. It merges some recognizable tropes, but it does it well and it’s got some tense moments. This was Brian’s first viewing and Kevin’s second, and they both give it a thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
Mike Enslin drives through the rain and arrives at the inn. The people who run the inn want to talk all about the ghosts in the place. He wants one of the haunted rooms. He goes up to his room and waits for something to happen. He writes books about haunted hotels, and he leaves this one, “Five Skulls.”
The next day, he goes to his book signing, and it’s not a big deal for anyone, especially the four people who attend. He admits that he’s never seen a ghost, and the hotels just use him for publicity. Anna brings him his first book, which has nothing to do with ghosts; it is a standard novel, and he regrets not doing more of them.
Later, he has a surfing accident and nearly dies. He goes through his mail and gets a postcard about a place with room 1408, which he is warned not to stay in. When he calls the place, they insist that the room is unavailable. He does research, and people have died in that room.
Sam, Mike’s publisher, gets lawyers involved so Mike can stay in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel. Sam asks if Mike really wants to come back to New York after all that happened…
When he goes to check in, the front desk has a special note. The manager, Gerald Olin, takes care of him personally. They want to upgrade him to the Presidential Suite, but he’s not having it. Olin says no one has ever spent more than an hour in room 1408; Mike thinks it’s a scam. Olin says he doesn’t “want to have to clean up the mess.” There have been four deaths in that room just since he became the manager. There have been 56 deaths in that room. Olin seems very sincere about Mike not staying in that room. Mike is very persistent. Olin says there’s not a ghost exactly, “It’s an evil fucking room.”
Finally, Mike goes up to 1408. The room looks… like a normal hotel room. There’s nothing at all special about it, and Mike is disappointed. He narrates into his recorder how boring it all is when the radio suddenly turns on by itself. Then, he starts noticing small things. He briefly thinks someone is in the room playing tricks on him.
When the room starts getting hot, he calls the front desk for maintenance. He uses his blacklight and notices just how many blood splatters there are in the room that he can’t see with the naked eye. The maintenance man won’t come into the room but is willing to walk Mike through the repair process. He wastes no time in leaving when the thermostat starts working again.
The clock radio switches to 60:00 and starts counting down. Mike remembers that Olin said no one lasts more than an hour. The window slams on his hand, the water from the bathroom is scalding steam, and he gets a nonsense phone call. He’s had enough and is ready to check out.
He grabs his stuff, but the door won’t open; he’s trapped. He throws things out the window, but they vanish before hitting the ground. He still thinks maybe he’s imagining it; did Olin spike the booze?
The TV comes on and shows a video of his wife and child. He sees a grainy, black-and-white ghost jump out the window, and then a 1950s ghost, in color, do the same. He has a vision of his own father in a nursing home, and he’s very menacing.
Mike decides to go out the window and climb the ledge to the next-door window. The ledge is narrow but also apparently infinite. It’s a struggle, but he makes it back inside. The room now seems to be cut off from the world outside; even the windows have vanished now. He gets a vision of his daughter being diagnosed with cancer.
Mike pries open the air vent and starts crawling through the ducts. All the other rooms seem to show bad parts of Mike’s past. He finds a dead body in there that crawls after him, so he ends up going back to his own room, bad as it is.
Mike argues with an imaginary version of Olin, who accuses him of taking away people’s hopes and breaking their spirits. It gets really cold in the room, to the point where there’s snow and ice on the furniture.
He manages to call Lily, his ex-wife, on the computer, and she calls the police to room 1408. The police say they are in 1408, but Mike doesn’t see them. The computer takes over and invites her to the room as well. Then the room fills with water, Mike passes out, and we cut back to Mike’s surfing accident.
He wakes up in the hospital with Lily. She says he got hit on the head by his own surfboard. He tells her about his experiences in room 1408, which was clearly a fever dream. He’s feeling much better, and he spends a lot of time talking to Lily in a restaurant. She says he ought to write about his experience with Katie’s death. He notices that some of the people there look like the people from 1408.
Mike re-does his research on the Dolphin Hotel, but it’s all different now. No one died there. He finishes his book and sends it off to Sam. He visits his father in the nursing home. He goes to the post office, and the workers there demolish the place, turning it into room 1408. Yes, he’s still there.
He sees Katie, but then she dies again and turns to dust. The clock counts down to zero, and the burnt-out room looks clean and normal again. He gets a phone call that he “can relive this hour over and over or take advantage of our express checkout system.” He now sees a noose in every room. The phone also says his wife will be there in five minutes.
“If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.” He sets up a Molotov cocktail and sets the room on fire. Lily arrives outside, but the hotel is on fire. Mike burns to death.
At Mike’s funeral, Lily and Sam are there. Olin shows up and talks to them. He says Mike did a great thing, but they send him away. Inside the box is Mike’s tape recorder, and there are things on there that disturb Olin. Olin then sees Mike in the back seat; maybe it’s not all over.
Commentary
There are harbingers in movies, and then there’s Samuel L. Jackson. No one makes a haunted room sound as bad as he does. Mike opens the windows and leans way out about a dozen times in this, and it seems that would be the last thing you’d want to do in this situation.
As far as acting, it’s almost exclusively John Cusack in a room alone. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, but it’s all very well done. It gets pretty intense.
Eden Lake (2008)
Directed by James Watkins
Written by James Watkins
Stars Kelly Reilly, Michael Fassbender, Tara Ellis
Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A couple on a romantic getaway have the worst weekend ever, which is also a one-sentence summary. It’s more complicated than that and goes on longer than you expect, but it never drags. The violence is visceral, and the gore is very realistic. This was Kevin’s second viewing, and he liked it just as much this time around.
Spoilery Synopsis
Jenny dismisses her kindergarten class and joins her boyfriend, Steve, after school. They’re going to visit a place he likes that’s about to be built over in the near future. When they get to the BNB, someone snags their parking spot. When they get in, there’s a whole bunch of other annoying people there. The place isn’t exactly what Steve remembers. He swears the quarry will be stunning, though.
They arrive at the quarry, and there’s a big sign up for “Eden Lake Homes” which are going to be built soon. The whole place has been surrounded by metal fences as the construction is ready to commence. Finally, Steve picks a spot and parks. It is very scenic.
They find a boy in the woods, drawing caterpillars. They get to a beach area and relax. Sure enough, a couple of troublemakers show up and start bullying the caterpillar kid. More people show up, and they bring a dog. Steve, annoyed at having his quiet place defiled, asks them to turn the music down. They aren’t cooperative. The young people get more and more obnoxious, but they finally leave.
Or do they? Later, Jenny hears something moving in the woods. They set up a tent and get ready for night to fall. Do they hear screaming, or is it just an animal noise out in the woods? Steve goes out to check, and Jenny hears growling outside the tent.
In the morning, they find their food has gone bad, so they get in the car to leave. As they back out, their tire crunches over a bottle placed there by the teenagers the day before. They change the tire and go out to a diner. Afterward, Steve sees the hooligans’ bicycles and stops at their house.
The owner of the house comes home while Steve is inside. Steve actually crawls out the window to get away. They drive back to the lake and their campsite.
Jenny notices their beach bag has gone missing, and it had the car keys in it. That’s the least of their problems, as the car is gone too. Suddenly, they’re nearly run over by their own car, with the troublesome teens inside.
They walk all day, into night, and finally come upon the evil teens in the woods. Brett seems to be the leader, and he was the one who stole their car. Steve wants his car back. There’s a brief fight, and the dog gets stabbed to death. Steve gets his keys, but the others start to pursue on foot. Can he drive out of the woods in the dark while under pressure? Nope. He soon gets stuck and then crashes.
Steve gets pinned in the car when he hits a tree. He tells Jenny to run and get help, but he’s not going anywhere. The youths soon catch up and break in. Jenny hides until the sun comes up and then goes back, but Steve isn’t in the car anymore. She follows a blood trail and sees that Brett’s group has Steve tied up. Brett makes each one of the gang cut on Steve with a knife and has Paige video it with her phone so they are all forced to be in on it– as Jenny watches from the trees. Cooper, the youngest one, has his turn and cuts up Steve’s tongue.
The gang soon notices that Jenny is nearby and they take after her, leaving Steve to get out of his bonds. She makes it to a construction trailer and tries to get the radio inside, but there isn’t time.
Steve goes back to the car for a first-aid kit, but accidentally sets off his own car alarm, drawing the kids toward him. Jenny finds him first, and they continue on through the woods to an old cabin. He’s got numerous deep cuts, and he’s still bleeding. She finds an engagement ring in his pocket. The bad kids show up, and they end up hiding in the pond under the cabin which puts Steve into shock. He suggests she follow the power lines.
Jenny has no other choice but to leave him and go for help. She makes really good time until she steps on a metal spike that impales her foot. She comes across Adam, the boy who draws caterpillars, and asks him for help. He says he can show her the way to where his mother usually picks him up. He’s lying; he’s led her back to the bad teens who knock her out.
She wakes up tied to a tree next to Steve, who is dead. Brett pours gas all over the pair and then makes Adam light the match. They set Steve’s side on fire first, and it burns the ropes, allowing Jenny to get loose. Brett burns Adam instead.
Jenny finds a “you are here” map and takes it. She has to hide in a dumpster full of rotting stuff when the kids show up again. When she gets out, she’s a real mess, but she finds a piece of glass and makes a knife of it. Cooper, the young one, walks up behind her, and she stabs him in the neck.
It gets dark, and the gang finds Cooper’s body. When one of the kids wants to stop and go home, Brett beats him to death.
Jenny crawls under the metal fence and makes it to the road, where she soon finds a car. The driver of the car calls his brother Ricky, who is one of the gang. She ends up stealing his car and driving off. Paige, another of the kids, jumps out in front of the car, and Jenny doesn’t even slow down.
She doesn’t get too far before a near-collision drives her off the road. She hears loud music and staggers right into a party and collapses.
She wakes up surrounded by civilized-looking people. But it quickly turns out, this is Brett’s family’s house. Jon, Brett’s father, comes in and refuses to call the police. She locks herself in the bathroom; this isn’t looking good. She finds a straight razor and waits.
Brett comes home and tells the adults… something that they believe. “We look after our own around here.” Jon and his friends drag Jenny away and kill her. Brett then deletes all the videos off Paige’s phone and smiles at himself in the mirror.
Commentary
Jenny had a really, really, really bad day.
Kids on bicycles? Really?
Well, yeah. They’re realistic, and the whole situation is completely plausible. It probably happens fairly often, but probably not often to this extreme.
This one is violent, brutal, and completely realistic. None of the good guys survive, and the worst of the bad guys survives to do it all again.
Indie Film:
Ganymede (2024)
Directed by Colby Holt, Sam Probst
Written by Colby Holt
Stars Jordan Dow, Pablo Castelblanco, Joe Chrest, Robyn Lively
Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was very low-key on the horror, without even a hint of it until quite a way into the movie. But it’s very well made, and does have some horror and disturbing elements. We’d both give it a thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open in 1989. A man walks to the end of the dock carrying cinder blocks, ready to jump in. In the present day, a jogger stops and jumps into a pond with a fountain. He sees something scary under the water. Credits roll.
In the morning, the young jogger wakes up next to the fountain. He goes home and has breakfast with his parents. He’s Lee Fletcher, and his parents make him stop and pray before breakfast. Sarah Beth helps around the house, and the mother, Floy, is clearly jealous of the younger woman. Both parents seem particularly strict. Lee is on the wrestling team at school.
Kyle, the obviously-gay kid in school, tells Bree, a girlfriend, that he thinks Lee “has sad eyes.” She says Lee won’t party with them, as he’s got nothing in his life but wrestling and church. He hears that Lee has signed up for the community trash-cleaning group (his dad makes him do it), so he signs up as well to meet Lee.
Lee and Kyle talk as they pick up trash about what they have in common. They’re getting along fine until a couple of homophobes from school drive up to call Kyle names; Lee punches Justin the loudmouth. Afterward, Kyle apologizes for being there. Lee is confused as he jogs home. When his parents hear that he spent the afternoon with Kyle, Floy gets upset. “You show that boy kindness, and he will twist it.” Kyle tells his mother the story, and she’s not so negative about it, but Lee’s father is the county commissioner, so they need to be careful.
We cut to Lee’s family’s church, and they’re a bit extreme. Lee daydreams about what he saw under the water in the pond. Pastor Royer goes on and on about genders and all things that are ruining today’s youth; Lee hallucinates ripping the skin off his arm. When he goes home, Lee sees someone in his closet, but when he looks, there’s no one there.
Kyle tells Bree that he’s sure that Justin is secretly gay himself. He’s not sure if Lee realizes that he is as well. Kyle’s gaydar is working overtime, and Bree is skeptical. As Lee’s mother rants about “what Kyle is,” Lee sees a monster crawling around behind her. Lee goes to his room and chants, “I am a straight heterosexual,” over and over to himself. Later, he hallucinates blood in the sink.
Lee looks up “Psychosis” in the library the next day, but he can’t get through it because Bree keeps flirting with him; it’s a “test” to see if he’s gay. She reports to Kyle later, but he’s not appreciative. Ms. Kimpton at school suspects that there’s something going on between Kyle and Lee. She tells Kyle to be very careful with that.
Lee plays an old audio tape left by his uncle Neal, who was also openly gay. That was who committed suicide in the pre-credit sequence. The tape is hidden in his parents’ bedroom, and he’s not supposed to know about it.
Lee’s father has all the church and political people over for dinner, but Kyle shows up outside Lee’s window. Lee meets him at the back door and lets him inside. Lee admits that he’s been “having reprobate thoughts” about Kyle. Lee clearly knows he has a crush on Kyle, and he says as much. They start kissing, and Lee imagines Kyle turning into a monster and starts screaming which brings his parents into the room. That goes badly.
Pastor Royer has words for Lee after the party. Royer says that a “Ganymede is an unrepentant homosexual. They’re demonic disturbances.” His father asks if that can be inherited, and his mother gets really upset. Floy’s brother killed himself in that pond, and she says “We can fix this. It’s not real. No one can find out.” She doesn’t want all that to start again. She gets so hysterical that even Lee’s father wants to end the conversation. Royer says God won’t let Lee live long like this.
Royer wants to “help” Lee with his affliction, and admits that he, himself, recovered from the disease. Royer says homosexuals aren't real demons and Ganymedes put those thoughts into peoples’ heads. Royer then tells Lee his own story and then suggests shock therapy. The pastor just happens to have an antique shock therapy machine at home, which he uses, along with prayer, ono Lee.
The next day at school, Lee is like a zombie, but he’s still thinking about Kyle. It’s all very nice until someone attacks him in his daydream. He talks to the guidance counselor, and it’s all very awkward.
At the wrestling match, Kyle comes to watch, as he’s waiting for Lee to come to his senses. Lee sees his opponent as a real demon and starts screaming again in front of everyone. Later, Lee’s father breaks down and cries; he blames his wife. “We had a deformed child!”
Lee, however, continues to fantasize and dream about Kyle as the demons sneak into his room and cause trouble. In the middle of the night, he goes to the restrooms where he heard the gay people hang out. Justin, the guy he punched in the nose, is there and kisses him before getting punched again. The next morning, he goes back for more shock treatments, much more excessive this time, and he goes into convulsions.
Kyle and Justin talk the next day, and Justin is less interested in hiding things. Lee’s parents argue about Floys photos and tapes of her dead brother. He wants that stuff out of the house. She sees rotting Neal there, and they have a talk about his death and whether or not Lee can change. She soon catches her husband banging the maid.
It’s Kyle’s musical number in the school auditorium, and his mother is in the audience. He plays the xylophone and keyboard mixed with computer sound effects. Lee watches from the door and listens to his inner demons. He ends up screaming again.
The two guys argue about who they both really are. “You’re going to do this to me; you’re a Ganymede, an unrepentant homosexual.” Kyle’s never heard the term before, but he doesn’t argue. Lee runs away and Kyle chases him.
Lee’s mother, upset about her husband, picks up a big knife and goes for a walk.
Lee goes to the church, alone, and puts on the shock treatment headset. Kyle breaks in, but the convulsions won’t stop, so he calls his mother for help. Lee fights his demon and realizes that the demon is himself. Pastor Royer comes in and beats up Kyle until Lee’s mother stabs him in the back. Both mothers take care of their boys until the police and ambulance arrive.
Lee’s mother apologizes to Kyle’s mother, and they all go to the hospital. When Lee’s father arrives, he sees the situation and just leaves.
We fast forward a while, and everything is different now, mostly happy for everyone.
Brian’s Commentary
I’ve never heard the term “Ganymede” used like this before, but it’s an important plot point here.
The story is common enough; a romance between an openly gay kid and a strictly raised Christian fundamentalist. The conflict is built right in. This one, however, portrays Lee’s internal emotional conflict with real monsters. It’s all metaphorical until it isn’t.
The performances and cinematography are all excellent; everyone does a good job here. It is very low on the “horror” scale, unless you’re a closeted gay teenager. It’s more disturbing than horrific, especially since it’s all so believable and realistic– and common.
Kevin’s Commentary
Who knew that Ganymede was more than just one of the moons of Jupiter?
The basic story didn’t seem like much that I hadn’t seen before, but the inclusion of some monsters around the edges made it interesting. All the aspects, from performance to direction, were really well done.
It’s very low-key in horror, heavy on drama tension, and unfortunately realistic in many places.
Short Films:
Short Film: Mora (2024)
Directed by Sam Evenson
Written by Sam Evenson
Stars Tim Torre, Jamie Taylor Ballesta, Valeska Miller
Run Time: 12:05
What Happens
Cody works at his computer, trying to get an AI to generate a specific image. When Hannah asks him why, he explains that there’s an anomaly that often appears in pictures of bloody, rotten, bleeding corpses, and the anomaly’s name is Mora; a gaunt, tall woman with scars and oddly long arms. He says if he can isolate the anomaly, it’ll make him famous.
It does, in fact, make him famous, but not in the way he intended…
Commentary
This is about as “modern” as a horror short can get, relying on a plot driven by interactions with AI chat prompts and Midjourney-like image processing. It’s fun, it’s creepy, and you know exactly where it’s going to go once Cody explains what he’s doing. It all looks really, really good.
Remember, if you ever doubt your reality, just start counting peoples’ fingers!
Short Film: Erebus (2024)
Directed by Joseph Collyer
Written by Joseph Collyer
Stars Holly Smith, Alexander Slowther, Laryssa Menon
Run Time: 17:36
What Happens
A forensic scientist is awakened in the middle of the night by the chief investigator; there’s something strange going on in an apartment building where radiation has been detected. Not only that, but people have gone missing. The scientist and the investigator seem to have some kind of bad history, and they do nothing but argue until he fires her. That may not be the end of her investigation, though…
Commentary
It’s well-filmed and looks good. The problem here is a little hard to pin down. It seems to be either acting, dialogue, and possibly direction, but more likely a perfect storm of all three. None of the characters’ behavior or dialogue seems even remotely professional or believable, and none of them are likable. Granted, real cops aren’t always as calm and competent as the ones on CSI, but anyone who acted like this wouldn’t get far at all in the real world.
The mystery is interesting, but we don’t get a lot of that. We don’t get any explanation, and we don’t actually even see what happens to the main character at the end.
It’s a student film, so I hope they got a good grade, but I didn’t particularly enjoy it.
Short Film: Autumn Harvest (2024)
Directed by Fredrik S. Hana
Written by Fredrik S. Hana, Marius Lunde
Stars Oliver Hohlbrugger, Eili Harboe, Helga Guren
Run Time: 16:37
What Happens
A grief-stricken sailor walks into the sea with a rock tied around his neck. Before he goes under, he sees a mysterious woman in a black shroud standing above the water line.
He seems to fall in love with the woman, and he does her bidding, no matter how terrible her requests become…
Commentary
It’s not completely without dialogue, but it’s awfully close. It’s done in black-and-white, which only adds to the dread of the dreary, hopeless setting. We don’t really get much of an explanation, but we get most of what we need here.
It’s… bleak, and more than a little Lovecraftian.
Short Film: Death Snot (2024)
Directed by Charlie Schwan
Written by Charlie Schwan
Stars Noé De La Garza
Run Time: 8:40
What Happens
A man has a cold. It gets progressively worse; his doctor calls and says the tests say it’s some kind of allergy. He keeps blowing and blowing, and his nose gets redder and redder. How far will he go to drain his sinuses? The vacuum cleaner hose starts to look really tempting…
Commentary
I think we’ve all felt like this guy once or twice. Maybe not that final bit, though. That might be a little excessive, although a good sinus-clearing blow might feel like that final scene.
It’s a great example of what can be done with almost no budget and only one actor. Excellent!
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A Quiet Place Day One, In a Violent Nature, Eden Lake, 1408, Ganymede + EXTRA Shorts