HORSEBACK is just one of those bands whose music I have trouble with when trying to translate it into words. You really need to listen to the music to get a feel for it, which is why this will be a relatively short review.
Words like drone, ambient, psychedelic, noise-rock are just a few which come to mind when describing HORSEBACK but these terms seem to bring with them a feeling of pretentiousness which in this case is utterly unjustified. HALF BLOOD is possibly my favorite album of the year so far and it perfectly showcases HORSEBACK's unique style of blending sounds which really shouldn't mix but in reality do so in splendid fashion. Soft, groovy, flowing guitar riffs are blended with harsh vocals most people would associate with black metal. The first couple of tracks feel like a welcome return to 2009's THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN while the last few tracks are an absolutely entrancing display of droning ambient noise. HALF BLOOD is definitely one of those albums which seems to get better each time you hear it.
HORSEBACK is definitely not a band for everybody, but I really urge you to give this a listen.
The found footage films just keep coming don't they? I know they've been around for decades, but it's only in recent years that horror cinema has been absolutely saturated with them. Whether this is good or bad depends on personal opinion and personally I'm actually a bit of a fan, although with the lack of quality I've been seeing lately I don't know how much longer I will be. However just like any other subgenre of horror, found footage movies can be really great when done well. I think it's been all the shitty paranormal ones that have really disappointed me, so when I heard about Kerry Bellessa's AMBER ALERT and it's unique take on the subgenre I got a little excited. After checking the trailer I'm definitely looking forward to this one.
Check out the teaser trailer below.
Synopsis: “AMBER ALERT follows friends Nate and Samantha, who stumble upon the car described in an Amber Alert while filming their audition video for a popular reality television show. With police slow to respond, the two friends fight to stop a possible child molester before it’s too late”
Finally somebody got around to making a film which combines dragons with wasps. Just what we've all been waiting for right? Well maybe not. I'm not really a fan of these Syfy-esque creature combos but obviously there are plenty of people out there who are. With sharks, dinosaurs, piranhas, anacondas and octopus already covered, it's time to take to the sky in DRAGON WASPS.
Directed by Joe Knee, the film stars Corin Nemec, Dominika Juillet, Benjamin Easterday, Nikolette Noel and Cosondra Sjostrom.
No release date yet but it's pretty reasonable to assume DRAGON WASPS will be hitting Syfy in the not too distant future.Check out the trailer below.
Synopsis: “When her father mysteriously disappears on an expedition, beautiful entomologist Gina Humphries and her fiery assistant, Rhonda, set out to search the rain forests of Belize. Due to numerous robberies and assaults in the jungle, they are escorted by heavily-armed soldiers. Guerillas, lead by the infamous Jaguar, ambush the convoy and incite a bloody shootout. Just when things can’t get worse, a horde of murderous Dragon Wasps, massive flying bugs that shoot flame from their abdomens, swarms the soldiers. Now the military must defeat Jaguar’s bandits and survive the fearsome insect onslaught as they venture inside the Dragon Wasps’ hive”
A few weeks ago a possible title was uncovered for THE LAST EXORCISM II, and now thanks to Bloody-Disgusting it seems that we have some solid plot details. Not much else is known at this point although Ashley Bell will be returning to play Nell Sweetzer and the film will be directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly. Check the plot details straight from B-D below.
"The sequel follows Nell (Bell) who, six months after the first film’s events, has move to a halfway house only to realize that the demon that has ruined her life is still after her! Without giving anything away, the sequel takes an interesting romantic approach that’s spun around Nell’s new boyfriend, Chris (I’m not sure who’s playing the character). A subplot is that Bell is also targeted by a group of rogue Reverends who mean to kill her. The twist is something never beforeseen in an exorcism film"
After watching APARTMENT 143 recently I thought I was completely over these found footage type films. I had to give this one a chance though because it promised something new, in the form of dinosaurs. Yes, dinosaurs. Could this finally be the movie to restore my faith in the found footage genre? Well it turned out to be a little better than I had expected, but a lot worse than I'd hoped.
Two sisters are boarding a plane from New York to Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. A camera (in this case a Canon DSLR with uncharacteristically good audio quality) is used to introduce them and then the rest of the key characters as they make their way down the aisle to their assigned seats. For some reason all of the passengers (well except for one) seem to be a little too happy. In my experience it seems pretty hard to find a happy passenger on a plane, but whatever. The younger sister Trish (Schrader) who is controlling the camera seems to be hell-bent on annoying as many people as she can, waving the camera around in their faces and asking a barrage of questions. One of the passengers seated directly behind them turns out to be a photojournalist. What a coincidence! So obviously he has a whole bag full of camera equipment and lights etc.
After the passengers count down to midnight (gee this is a long flight) the plane hits turbulence and finally crash lands.
The survivors gather together and try to figure out what to do next. When no rescue crew shows up and they start hearing inhuman noises out in the darkness, they realize that something is very wrong.
I didn't realize this while watching the movie, but according to its IMDb page AREA 407 was filmed in only 5 days and all of the actors' dialogue was ad-libbed. If this is true then I have to give props to the actors because most of the dialogue did seem pretty genuine and realistic even if it wasn't very consistent.
The low budget showed in two big ways. Firstly is the fact that it was shot found footage style, which is fine. But the other way it showed was in the creature effects, even though you didn't really see a lot of them. What you do see though is pretty lame but at least (for the most part) they didn't use any CGI.
Most of the film post-crash is composed of the dwindling survivors running around in the dark, screaming and arguing a lot. The argument scenes where everybody is trying to yell over the top of everybody else got on my nerves a bit, but I guess it's realistic as you would probably find it extremely difficult to remain calm in such a situation.
Thankfully however, there was enough action and tension to help counter these negative aspects at least a little. And the ending was actually really good, if not a little predictable All in all it was a nice movie with a good, original concept but it just came up a little short in most departments. Worth seeing if you're a found footage nut, but otherwise I probably wouldn't bother. I have to give kudos to the film-makers for trying something new within the sub-genre but I don't think I'll be revisiting this one again.
