We’ve got an eclectic mix this week. We’ll start off with the Korean ghost-curse tale, “Exhuma,” and follow that up with the ghostly “Chateau.” Then we’ll drop the ghosts and meet some serial killers in “The Mouse Trap” and “#AMFAD All My Friends Are Dead.” We’ll then go all retro and see what might have happened back in the year 2000 with “Y2K.”
And, of course, we have more excellent short films for you!
The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link:
https://horrormonthly.com
Get all our reviews once a week: https://www.horrorweekly.com
Mainstream Films:
2024 Exhuma
· Directed by Jang Jae-hyun
· Written by Jang Jae-hyun
· Stars Choi Min-sik, Kim Go-eun, Lee Do-hyun
· Run Time: 2 Hours, 14 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is long, but it didn’t seem like it. At several points, it seems like things are going to wrap up, then something else happens. It’s set in a world where everyone, at least everyone in this movie, just accepts that the rituals, ghosts, demons, and so forth are real. So we’re pulled along with them easily as all this stuff happens. We liked it quite a bit.
Spoilery Synopsis
Lee and her male colleague arrive in America to talk to an extremely rich real-estate investor. They stop at the hospital and she whistles at a baby. The baby was born with some kind of illness, and these two have come to do a Korean folk remedy to cure the child. She says the baby’s father and grandfather probably suffer from the same affliction.
Lee explains that she’s a shaman. Park, her client, explains his family situation; his brother killed himself. She senses that the shadow of Park’s grandfather is hanging around the estate. One of his ancestors is complaining about the discomfort he’s experiencing in the grave.
They dig up the recently-deceased grandmother’s coffin. It’s still dry, and the bones look fine. There are some metal objects inside, and that causes discomfort for the dead. They lay the skeleton out on a white cloth, and the older man says she’s missing her dentures. Who has them? One of the little boys fessed up that he took them.
The old man, Kim, explains that he’s a geomancer, who is a feng shui expert. Lee and her assistant stop by to talk. She explains about the family’s spiritual affliction. All of them laugh about the client’s money and how much he’s paying.
Mr. Park wants to dig up his grandfather’s grave, as it’s been nearly a hundred years. He doesn’t want the coffin opened before the cremation, and Kim doesn’t like that. The whole group drives way up into the mountains and walks through the woods to the unmarked gravesite. There are foxes everywhere.
Kim tastes the dirt and looks out at the view from the mountaintop. The site was recommended by a famous monk of the time, Gisune. Kim quits and walks away; he wants nothing to do with this. This is a grave that shouldn’t be meddled with. “If we mess with a grave like this, everyone, from the Geomancer on down to the laborers, will die one by one!”
Back in the city, Park talks about his sick son. Kim thinks Park is hiding something, but he begs Kim to save his son. Kim says that crazy old monk has some kind of secret purpose in choosing that site. Lee suggests doing a purification ritual simultaneously with moving the grave.
The ritual is quite involved, with five workers and five dead pigs; it’s all very scientific. There are drums, knives, and dancing. It goes on and on as the workers dig up the grave.
The coffin is made of Juniper wood, something usually only used by Royals. They load it into the Hearse and head for the crematorium. One of the workers kills a snake, which screams. Suddenly, the weather changes, and it starts to rain; the grave has been disrespected. Kim tells Park that they can’t cremate the body on a rainy day, cause that would be bad.
Park and his mother talk, and it’s clear that they haven’t told Kim the whole truth. They put the coffin in the hospital’s morgue to wait for the rain to end.
Kim goes to a temple near the gravesite, and it’s been there for more than a hundred years. It was founded by Gisune, and there are rumors about him; there might be a treasure buried in that grave. People have tried to rob the grave in the past, and all have failed.
Meanwhile, back at the hospital, the mortician’s assistant tries to open the coffin, and something gets out. Lee walks in and passes out as the spirit passes her. She’s admitted to the hospital; she knows what happened.
At the Park house, Park's father opens up the door to let the spirit inside. The spirit wants some revenge, and kills the old man. Lee and Kim talk about possible ways to banish the spirit. She starts the ritual and summons the spirit. He wants to take his family with him to the grave.
Kim tells Park that the coffin has been opened. It’s too late, as the spirit is already there and possesses him. When Kim and Lee arrive, Park vomits blood and talks about being an old-time Japanese soldier. He then breaks his own neck.
Kim warns that the baby, way over in the USA, is the next one in danger. Kim gets Grandma Park to approve an immediate cremation of the coffin. The spirit stands over the baby, ready to kill, but as the coffin burns, he fades away.
Crisis averted/problem solved. Right?
Kim goes to see the worker who killed that snake, and he’s in bad shape. He cries tears of blood. He goes back to the gravesite and finds… another coffin that was under the first one, this time, standing up vertically. Mr. Go, the mortician, arrives with Lee and her helper to dig it up. This one is wrapped with barbed wire. Lee wants to leave it alone, but Kim insists they do something with it. When they exhume it completely, all the foxes run away.
They drive the coffin to the nearby temple and surround it with rice. Grandma Park arrives and says she doesn’t know a thing about a second coffin. Her father was famous for selling out the country; he was a traitor, not even Korean. They all go inside for some noodles, leaving the coffin alone; they’ll burn it when the sun rises.
Weird things happen, and then they go out to find the coffin has burst open. A giant creature talks to Lee, and she convinces him that she’s his subordinate. This one isn’t a spirit, it’s some kind of nine-foot tall undead warrior. As the sun comes up, it bursts into flames. Afterwards, everyone goes to the hospital.
Lee’s helper, Bong-gil, is badly injured. She says that thing had a shadow and left footprints. “It’s something that should never have existed in this country.” Lee finds out that Bong-gil is possessed by the bad thing. “My Master killed 10,000 people and became a divine entity.”
Meanwhile, Old Mr. is back digging at the gravesite again. He finds… another body, this time without a coffin. There was a terrible war criminal general buried there, and the local monks buried Mr. Park on top of him to throw off grave robbers. The “demon” is only there to protect an iron stake.
Lee says they cannot get rid of a Japanese ghost. Kim, Lee, and Go return to the grave and spread out live fish to lure in the spirit. As night falls, a hand reaches up and takes the fish. In the hospital Bong-gil starts chewing.
As Lee talks to the monster in Japanese, Go and Kin find the hole it crawled out of. They dig desperately, but they can’t find the iron stake that binds the creature to this area. The demon says he’s been there for more than five hundred years, and now he wants Kim’s liver. Lee pours horses’ blood on the demon, and that burns him.
They all figure out that there is no iron stake. He’s bound to all five elements of that area. They use the five elements against the creature and defeat him. They rush Kim to the hospital, but he’s in very bad shape.
Back in the hospital, Bong-gil wakes up. So does Kim. Everyone goes back to their normal lives– but nothing is going to be normal for them now.
Kim’s granddaughter gets married, and all the characters attend.
Brian’s Commentary
Korean folk rituals are even weirder than ours! Who knew feng shui was more than choosing the right style of furniture?
The interesting thing about this one is all the (supposedly authentic) Korean rituals that accompany the plot. None of the characters ever doubt that the ghosts are real which speeds along the plot, not that it’s a short film.
Due to the weird alienness of the plot, we had no idea what was going to happen, which was fun. It looked like it was wrapping up three different times, but no, it just kept piling on the trouble.
It’s really long, but it’s got lots of interesting bits.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was surprisingly complex and multi-layered. I kept thinking it was about done, then something else would happen. It’s one that you have to pay attention to, to interpret the foreign aspects and read the subtitles. I really enjoyed it.
2024 Chateau
· Directed by Luke Genton
· Written by Luke Genton
· Stars Cathy Marks, Colton Tran, Rachel Alig
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an influencer/found footage kind of movie that takes quite a while to get to the horror. Once it does, it’s just okay. A ghost story in an ancient place mixed with modern technology. Not a bad story, but not a lot of surprises.
Spoilery Synopsis
James records an audition, but has too many interruptions as credits roll. Lila calls about the funeral, hoping that James would come, but she can’t. They talk about her “trying to be an influencer.” They’re sisters, and their mother just died. James hated her mother.
James gets a booking and goes to Paris for a few months. She lives with a guy named Dash. Her video gets 62 views, so she’s not much of an influencer. Her new job is cleaning up a “murder castle,” which might be her ticket to more views. Dash gives her a pointy, dangerous-looking keychain that we know we’re going to see again later.
We cut to video clips from elsewhere that describe the castle. We see Vincent Price in “House on Haunted Hill” as well as a documentary and a true-crime podcast. The police have never found any bodies but everyone knows the place is haunted.
James goes to interview the former gardener, Fleur, and she’s eager to talk. Fleur tells about her ghostly encounter with a murder victim there. She seems a little unhinged and warns James not to become a lost soul.
As she goes in the gate to the chateau, the creepiest homeless guy ever begs for change. The chateau is huge. The woman who shows her around asks if she has any local friends or family. The woman mentions that there’s a landline in the attic if she needs it.
James records her show, and she explains her camera and all the equipment that she’s using. She goes outside and sees a treehouse and a greenhouse; we get an idea of the place. She also sees a strange shadow.
Next, she tries to contact the spirits (anything other than doing her cleaning job). She definitely hears someone else inside the house, and the front door is wide open. Then she sees terrifying feet and runs out to her car without the keys. She runs through the woods Blair-Witch-Style. Oh, no, this is all fake. She got Dash to wear a mask and help fake the spooks. We see that he’s been with her all along.
The two laugh about what they’ve been up to, but then Dash sees something else, and it’s absolutely not James. They continue to conspire about how to make their video even better. They walk around the house talking to the house and then play back the recording– nothing.
It’s late, and Dash leaves to go home with the car. She’s a little freaked out about staying overnight there alone, but she pretends otherwise.
James hears the phone up in the attic ringing. She goes up and answers the antique phone. It’s James’s dead mother calling. Outside, someone kills Dash.
We flash back to James and Lila dealing with their impatient, annoying mother.
Morning comes, and James sees a strange dog in the house, but only for a moment. She actually starts doing some cleaning. She finishes, goes out for a walk, and finds Dash’s abandoned car with no keys. She assumes Dash is playing a prank.
She meets a woman who says she’s looking for her dog and they go inside to look for it. James sees some weirdness as they look. The woman and the dog are ghosts, and they disappear.
The owner doesn’t return, and Ash is still AWOL, so James is essentially stuck there. She gets another scare, and then a guy named Reggie comes to the door to talk about the ghosts; he’s one of them. James thinks he’s pranking her, but he’s not.
Slowly, James starts to think the ghosts are real, but she’s afraid to go back to the attic to use the phone. She sees several more ghosts, including her dead mother, in the act of killing herself.
She finally runs into Dash’s ghost, who warns her that the house is trying to trick her.
Suddenly, the door opens, and the owner comes in. James needs to stay for her paycheck and to do an interview for James. The woman knows all about the ghosts, “I put some of them here. I killed them.” The coffee that James drank is drugged.
“The house demands human sacrifices. We don’t know why, it just does.” She goes through the list of ghosts we’ve seen, and she’s got a story for each of them. The woman ties up James’s hands and then chases her around the house.
James finds Dash’s keys with the ultraviolet Eiffel Tower and uses it to cut the woman’s throat. The ghosts wanted the woman to confess, the ghost of Dash explains before he vanishes. James plays the final voicemail from her dead mother, and the old woman apologizes and says goodbye.
James calls the police and goes back downstairs to find the dead woman’s body gone. “The house swallowed them all.”
Brian’s Commentary
We watched forty minutes of fake YouTubers being fake and manipulative before anything actually happened. I assume we’re supposed to care about James, but after all the fakeness of the first bit, it’s hard to like her or take her at all seriously.
There are lots of jump scares; some are good and some are cheap tricks. The ending does tie everything up, although there really wasn’t much of a twist or surprise.
It’s fine if you like ghost stories set in the modern day. Nothing special, but decent if you’re into these.
Kevin’s Commentary
It took a long time to get to the horror stuff, and when it did it was just okay. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t feel too invested with James. It was middling, a 6 out of 10, but I was entertained overall.
2024 #AMFAD: All My Friends Are Dead
· Directed by Marcus Dunstan
· Written by Josh Sims, Jessica Sarah Flaum, John Baldecchi
· Stars Jade Pettyjohn, JoJo Siwa, Jenniger Ends
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The seven deadly sins are very deadly in this set up where we wonder who the killer is and gradually figure out why. It’s got some mystery elements, a little dark humor, and plenty of gore. It had enough different things going on to be quite interesting. We were entertained.
Spoilery Synopsis
We see news reports about seven college students being murdered at a music festival. They’re arranged as the Seven Deadly Sins. The crime leads to a popular podcast series, horror film, and even a TV series. Twenty years later, the music festival returns– but the killer is still at large.
Colette narrates the trauma of being betrayed by a friend who then kills herself.
Two years later, Karmapalooza is the big thing on social media. We see various stereotypical horror movie characters in flashes. Sarah is one of them, and she’s Colette’s friend. Liv shows up, and the pair plan to go to the festival. They pick up Will, Guy, and L.B.. Aaron works at the food store, so he has to work, but he might come later. Mona shows up, and she’s a self-absorbed influencer.
Rick, Mona’s agent, calls, and he likes Liv and Sarah. Suddenly, the tire blows and they stop the van. A cop stops, and everyone scrambles to hide their drugs. L.B. hides his coke up his butt, but Guy is fine with his huge bag of weed. The cop explains that they’ll need a place to stay tonight, since the repair might take some time. The whole group piles into the police car and heads to the only B&B available in the area.
Inside, they find Seven Deadly Sins shot glasses, and there’s something on TV about the Sins as well. They all discuss which character gets which sin-glass. Sarah gets the last glass, Wrath. Someone is watching the whole thing on their camera. Credits FINALLY roll (20 minutes in) as we hear a voiceover about the Seven Deadly Sins… again.
Mona and Sarah talk about old friends, and Sarah is evasive about her high school social life. The group live streams themselves doing coke, pills, and more, filming filming the whole time. Mona tries to teach Liv how to trend on the socials.
Guy decides to go to a music show on his own tonight and leaves. He’s extremely high and hallucinates a talking squirrel. Then someone Tases him from behind and he wakes up, wearing a pig nose, to see the word “Gluttony” in the mirror. The bad guy plugs in a hose, and Guy’s stomach gets bigger and bigger until it explodes. The villain fills the Gluttony shot glass with his blood.
Back at the house, Mona and L.B. go upstairs for sex, with the camera on, of course. The killer comes into the room, sees the camera, and backs off. Mona senses someone in the room and calls the others. They get a group chat from…. Colette. “You’ll all pay for that.” Will explains that Collette knew most of them back in college. She got between Mona and L.B. and after a fight Colette killed herself. They all argue over whether or not it was really a suicide.
Liv gets angry and storms out. Liv tells Sarah that Mona was playing with Colette and turned on her at the last minute. Liv leaves to go meet a guy online, and she gets grabbed. She wakes chained up in a bathtub with a big bucket marked “Greed” over her head. Sarah and L.B. watch the whole thing on the phone. The bucket dumps acid all over Liv and she quickly dies. Sarah calls Aaron for a ride to the concert, and he says he’ll come.
Everyone seems to forget that there was actual video of a stalker being inside the house, and whatever they saw of Liv’s death is all instantly forgotten. L.B. goes upstairs for sex, and he gets thoroughly slashed.
Aaron shows up and finds L.B.'s blood everywhere, but no body. The group hears laughing in the previously-locked basement and go down to investigate. It’s a re-creation of “The Shack” the place they all used to hang out and where Colette died. There’s video playing of six people standing in front of the fire that burned the place down.
Sarah, who wasn’t there, wants to know the whole story. Mona admits they found Colette’s body, and then they burned the place down to cover it up. They all blame each other. They find the seven shot glasses again, this time, along with photos of all of them.
Then they find a big room with elaborate displays of the remains of the previous victims. Suddenly, Will gets an axe in the back and becomes “Sloth.”
Sarah, Mona, and Aaron run from the killer through the neon-lit basement maze, but the killer is really well prepared. The girls end up using Aaron as a human shield, which goes badly for him. Mona pulls the knife out of Aaron and stabs the killer, but it barely slows him down. The killer is unmasked, and it’s Officer Shaw, the cop who brought them there.
Mona and Shaw fight until Sarah cuts Mona’s throat. She lives long enough to see the whole explanation. Shaw saw Sarah and stopped her from killing herself over depression about Colette. Shaw says the Seven Deadly Sins thing was inspired by an old case that’s still unsolved. Sarah and Colette were lovers until Mona wrecked that. Mona dies as we see how this was all set up.
Sarah takes one last look at her “museum” and then calls 911 in a panic. Soon, the police are everywhere, including Shaw, in uniform. Detective Daniels says it looks just like that old case from 2003. It could be the same guy or maybe a copycat.
Shaw asks Sarah about who took that video of the six friends years ago. Sarah went to the cabin expecting to kill Mona and killed Colette accidentally.
Inside, the detective finds L.B.’s video, and he recognizes Shaw’s tattoo on the murderer. He runs outside and shoots Shaw.
We then watch news footage that there have been seven dead students, and that it’s all happened again.
Sarah sits in the back of an ambulance and gets a call from Mona’s agent, Rick. “You’re a survivor! Do you realize you already have a million followers?” Then she gets a call from someone– the original SDSK serial killer. “Everyone you know is dead.”
Brian’s Commentary
The film subtly mentions the Seven Deadly Sins about nineteen times before the credits even roll, so we made a wild guess that they would affect the plot somehow. The seven characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes anyway, so it’s not a stretch. The killer’s lair has a whole bunch of very elaborate death traps
JoJo Siwa, who played Colette, got second-billing for less than a minute of screen time. Good contract! In the very first scene, we see Colette with Sarah, so there’s really no surprise later. As we expected the “original” serial killer to show up at some point, but that never materialized– until the end credit sequence.
The killer’s digital mask is a neat prop. Some of the deaths are excessive, and there is pretty good gore here.
Kevin’s Commentary
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The seven deadly sins are certainly made loud and clear. The mystery element made it more interesting, the effects are good, and the story is clever.
2024 The Mouse Trap
· Directed by Jamie Bailey
· Written by Simon Phillips
· Stars Simon Phillips, Sophie McIntosh, Madeline Kelman
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Once again, something has become public domain, so they thought they had to make a horror movie out of it. It’s got some humor, and some slasher action. It’s a masked killer with powers of teleportation, which makes them mighty hard to fight, but they do drag it out. Until a cut off ending that’s so abrupt and unfinished that it looks like a mistake. Brian appreciated it somewhat, and Kevin pretty much hated it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open with a “Star Wars”-like scroller telling us all about Disney, how wonderful Disney is, and that this film has nothing to do with that at all. Nothing to do with Mickey Mouse, cause that would be BAD. Very bad. Oh, and this scroll is NOTHING like Star Wars, because that would be bad too.
We cut to Detectives Cole and Marsh preparing to interview a suspect, Rebecca. She warns them that telling her story will be bad. Credits roll as we watch the original “Steamboat Willie” play, NOT Mickey Mouse.
We cut to the Funhaven arcade. Alex works there, and she seems like more of a babysitter than an employee. Mickey, the boss, comes over and tells her and her friend Jayna they need to work late. Mickey then goes into the back room and watches “Steamboat Willie” on his old projector. He’s even got a latex mask of the character in a display case. He hears laughing as the image on screen behaves oddly. He walks over and reaches for the mask…
Jayna talks Alex into covering the late shift alone and leaves. Not long after, she sees The Mouse roaming around inside the arcade and runs… right into eight of her friends, who have rented the arcade for Alex’s Birthday Party. Jackie, Paul, Ryan, Danny, Marcus, and Rebecca are all there. The Mouse watches from afar.
We cut back and forth between all this and Rebecca and the cops talking. Rebecca explains that not all the party guests liked each or got along. No one likes Ryan and Marcus “has serial killer vibes.” Ryan calls the hockey team to beat up Marcus. Shortly after, everyone loses their phones.
Paul and Jackie sneak off into a back room to make out. The group decides to go to a real bar to drink but find that the door is chained shut– and their phones are gone. The fire exit is locked too, this is what Alex saw The Mouse doing earlier.
We see The Mouse standing behind people and menacing various characters with a big knife. He can apparently teleport, so there’s more going on here than just a slasher in a mask.
Marcus gives Alex her birthday gift, and it’s clear that he’s put a lot of thought into it. She wants him to ask her out, but he’s interrupted when Maria runs up saying that Ryan has killed someone. Alex picks up the landline to call the police, but she only gets The Mouse. Now she knows there’s something actually wrong.
The hockey team is at the bar next door, and they all watch as The Mouse comes in, wearing a full mask. They soon all die.
Ryan passes out on the roller coaster, but then the Mouse turns it on. Alex, Marcus, and Marie find Jackie and Paul’s corpses. Danny and Rebecca hide from the killer as everyone else sees a need to split up.
Danny and Gemma soon die, and now everyone knows what’s going on. Jayna finally returns to work and dies before even getting inside.
Alex, Marcus, and Marie find Ryan and tell him what’s been going on. Ryan admits that he’s got the hockey team involved, not realizing they are already dead. They soon come to the conclusion that Ryan’s too dumb to be behind all this. They trap the mouse, but he teleports away. They figure out that he’s afraid of a strobing flashlight; it breaks his teleport.
The group decides to fight back. The guys attack the mouse while Alex flashes the light at him. Somehow, he teleports away anyway. Alex says, “He’s not coming back” just as the Mouse appears behind her and cuts her head off.
The film then abruptly ends.
Brian’s Commentary
When “Steamboat Willie” entered the public domain last year, it was only a matter of time before it got the Pooh-and-Popeye treatment. Oddly enough, they do call him “Mickey” and “Mickey Mouse” several times during the film. The working title for the film was originally “Mickey’s Mouse Trap,” but they changed it.
Why would ANYONE want Ryan around? How did the mouse even know about the hockey team’s plan? The back-and-forth with the detectives really slows down the story. Why would she be so hostile to the cops who are just trying to figure out what happened?
There are no on-screen deaths until almost fifty minutes into the film. The Mouse can clearly teleport, so he’s not just a guy in a mask, but this is never really explained.
What happened to the ending? It just cuts off after Alex loses her head. We get no real closure with the cops. We get no explanation at all. We don’t get much resolution at all.
It was fine, but it needed ten more minutes of closure. There is an after-credit scene, but it’s just sequel-bait.
Kevin’s Commentary
Just because these things become public domain and they can turn them into horror movies doesn’t mean they have to. It’s another bunch-of-people-trapped-getting-picked-off-by-a-killer movie. This baddie can teleport so he is impossible to fight in any meaningful way, because reasons, but also has just enough of a weakness to flashing light to give the victims a little bit of a chance. And apparently they ran out of ideas at the end or something so they just abruptly ended it without a wrap up. I wasn’t impressed.
2024 Y2K
· Directed by Kyle Mooney
· Written by Kyle Mooney, Evan Winter
· Stars Jaeden Martell, Rachel Zegler, Julian Dennison
· Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
· Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Oh look, it’s “Cringe: The Movie.” We don’t remember 1999 being that cringe, but maybe it was for some. Anyway, this is an alternate timeline where the Y2K bug was not only not fixed, but the machines turn deadly and take over. While violating the laws of physics and generally not acting like computers really act. It was a little too heavy on parody, but it was okay.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on AOL, a CD burner, RealPlayer, Bill Clinton, and flying toasters. Yep, it’s the 90s. Clinton talks about there being no great problems for Y2K due to all the work people have put in. Eli cuts on his iMac, and a CD pops out. Credits roll.
Eli’s parents talk to him about dating and kissing as he goes off to the New Year’s Eve party. He goes over to Danny’s house as Danny’s mother does Jazzercise. The two boys talk about the girls at schools. Eli likes Laura, who’s dating a community college student.
The two guys stop at a video store and look around. The guy working the counter is Garret, a weird stoner type, who lets them smoke pot in the back room. They find Laura at the convenience store, and they joke about the lack of flying cars. She mentions that she broke up with Jonas. Laura’s friends then rob the store. Eli and Danny decide to go to the party at Chris’s house– Laura will be there too.
They go to the party and all the stereotypes are represented, only in 90’s clothing. They put on Danny’s favorite song, and he makes a fool of himself right away– No, the whole group sings along. Danny is clearly way more popular than Eli is, and they argue about it.
Suddenly, the power goes crazy and the dishwasher goes berserk. “Y2K is real,” jokes some bozo in the crowd. Upstairs, they find a dead body, killed by a ceiling fan blade. As the crowd argues about what to do, a toy car with a laptop on board drives in. It sets one of the guests on fire in the most hilarious way possible. There’s a sudden mass stampede as ejecting videotapes, microwave ovens, and blenders kill people. All the technology in the house goes berserk.
Laura thinks it’s some kind of computer virus. Eli says she’s a “coding wiz,” which is unheard of for a girl. She wants to go to the old factory, there’s no technology there. Before they leave, the machine monster in the next room breaks through the door and kills Danny, much to our relief.
The group makes it out to the street and sees two jetliners crash in mid-air. It’s not just at Chris’s house. The murder robot follows them out of the house and down the street.
They stop at a local park, CJ and Ash, the two stoners, talk cringe to each other (they’d have been cringe in the 90s too). As they get a look at the town from up on the mountain, it’s looking pretty uninhabitable down there.
When they arrive at the factory, Garret, the video store guy, is already there with his own party. Jonas, Laura’s ex, is there as well.
The robot walks in, and it’s got Eli’s iMac for a head. Eli thinks Laura can hack it. It stands there looking confused as the humans argue about what to do with it. They tie it to a pole and try cutting off the modem. The computer explains the whole evil plan of the computers to replace humanity. Eli pours water into the thing’s head and shorts it out.
Eli and Laura have a quiet talking moment that feels awfully whiny. Eli leaves with CJ and Ash and Laura continues to work on the computer. They all soon encounter another robot, and Garret loses his head. The group all hides in a porta potty, and that gets messy fast.
The four head to the video store but find it trashed. Inside, they run into Fred Durst, who looks way older than he should. He talks about the deaths of his other bandmates and friends. Ash gives him a pep talk, and now, maybe he’ll help fight back.
Laura says she’s got a Trojan Horse on her flash drive that’ll shut down the whole network. The five go to the high school, which is the robots’ main base since that’s where they can get the fast DSL Internet. The people inside all have glowing eyes since they’re possessed by technology. CJ is killed by flying CDs.
To distract everyone, Eli gives a big “we’re all just human” speech to the assembled crowd. Fred then sings to the group, and the robots don’t like it. In the back room, Laura can’t get through the security system, so we get a 90s-style hacking montage, with 3D digital buildings and all.
Eli and Laura have to plug in the flash drive, but it shoots electricity at them, so Eli uses the old condom that Danny kept trying to get him to use. It’s a good insulator, and they get through, destroying the robots and the whole Internet. Suddenly, the robots all fall to pieces.
Outside, Eli and Laura kiss.
Five years later, Fred Durst is a senator. Eli, Laura, and Ash visit Danny’s grave. We see that Ash’s iPod is still infected, and it laughs evilly.
Brian’s Commentary
The year 2000 as a “retro” story? Egad. I am officially old. There are so many jokes about Enron, AOL, and other cringy, dated stuff. There’s a lot of it, and it’s maybe a little over the top. I was there in the 90s, it wasn’t this cringey, really. It’s all more comedic than horrific.
Where did the giant murder-robot come from in the first place? The wires and such were moving on their own; wires don’t do that.
The casting here is pretty weak. Jaeden Martell, as Eli, is way too wishy-washy to be an interesting leading character and looks like he’s about to cry in every scene. Julian Dennison, as Danny, is annoying in every scene, but that’s probably intentional, since all the characters are obnoxious in their own ways.
It’s a silly film that could have been great with a better cast and maybe just a little less parody.
Kevin’s Commentary
A computer virus is one thing, but wires and machines that move by themselves is too much of a stretch. Even turning off my brain wasn’t enough for this one. It wasn’t awful, but it was middling for me in pretty much every way. Okay, a little better than middling. I was entertained.
Short Films:
2023 Short Film: The Little Girl Eater
· Directed by Tizian Herzberger
· Written by Tizian Herzberger, Septimus Dale
· Stars Siegbert Pacher, Jacob King, Maja Bloom, Penelope Kettle
· Run Time: 12:03
· Watch it:
What Happens
Mom and her boyfriend want to have some alone playtime in the car, so they let eight-year-old Miranda out to play alone on the cold, isolated beach. What could go wrong? Well, we soon see. Miranda finds an injured man in need of help– or is he?
Commentary
This is beautifully shot and paced extremely well. The real villains here are obviously the parents; you have to be careful what you say to kids!
2024 Short Film: Behind You
· Directed by Bryan Hancock, Brodie Scott
· Stars Brooks Hoffman, Delaney Hoffman
· Run Time: 7:08
· Watch it:
What Happens
A brother and sister sit in bed and watch TV as friends gather outside, wanting inside. When the friends come inside, they see something terrible.
We then flash back a few minutes and see what happened.
Commentary
Don’t blink!
The budget for this had to be mostly non-existent, but the shadow creatures were well-executed and effective. The music and audio are very well done, and even though it’s dark, you can see everything that you’re supposed to see. Nice!
2024 Short Film: Flesh and Blood
· Directed by Paul Vo Le
· Written by Paul Vo Le, Joshua Rodriguez
· Stars Tyler Webster, Bo Roche, Jill Anderson, Drew Patterson
· Run Time: 16:21
· Watch it:
What Happens:
The police have taken a young man into custody, and as the story progresses, we learn what he’s done and why. Terence recounts his day and what led to him murdering his well-known and respected parents. Maybe there was more going on here than the results would imply…
Commentary:
The scariest part of all this is Dad’s milk mustache. People with alliterative names are evil so that much is true.
We know from the beginning what Terence did, but not why or how. As we get into the details of his family life, it all becomes clear. As the story unfolds, it’s all very interesting and looks good!
2024 Short Film: Little Devil Peak
· Directed by Jef Faulkner
· Written by Jef Faulkner
· Stars Natalie Sampson, Anita Cannon, Sahil Kini, Chris Will
· Run Time: 8:40
· Watch it:
What Happens
A woman goes out camping alone, and we quickly learn that she’s a morning radio personality. There’s a couple out camping who cross her path a few times, and they are wildly incompetent campers. Their inability to pack may turn out to be the least of their problems, however, since they are being stalked.
Commentary
Little Devil Peak was created for the 2024 Seattle 48-Hour Film Horror Project. Teams in Seattle had 48 hours to write, shoot, edit, score, and turn in a 7-minute short film with the required elements:
· Character Ellie Parker - radio station employee
· Prop - Frying Pan
· Line of Dialogue - 'You are not going to like this'
· Genre: Monster/Creature or Found Footage
And they did quite a job with it. It’s funny, concise, and shows us everything we need. Excellent!
2024 Short Film: Zit
· Directed by Amber Neukum
· Written by Amber Neukum
· Stars Hannah Alline, Daniel Annone, Regina Ting Chen
· Run Time: 10:45
· Watch it:
What Happens
Gertrude is the office manager, and she wants a promotion. She’s prepared a paper listing her benefits and talents, and she’s ready to talk to the boss. Just as she’s finally ready, she spots a zit right in the middle of her forehead. What can she do about it?
Commentary:
Anyone who’s ever prepared or worried over a talk with the boss knows this feeling. Gertrude just takes it a little farther than most of us. The special effects and gore are fine, but not really the main draw of this short film. It is just laugh-filled from start to end, at least for me.
Contact Info:
Email:
Websites:
Share this post