Dark Summer

Directed by: Paul Solet

Written by: Mike Le

Year Released: 2015

Sub Genre: Ghost / Supernatural

Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Stella maeve, Maestro Harrell

A 17 year old kid is placed under house arrest after being convicted of cyber stalking and hacking into social media accounts owned by a local girl. This prompts him to lose all access to social media up to and including complete loss of the Internet.

After convincing his friends to bury a router in his neighbors yard, he logs online only to find the girl who he has been stalking, sends him a skype request and kills herself in the video.

Soon thereafter, he starts seeing things  happen around the house that start to drive him mad.

It's a very slow film that doesn't fully explain itself very well. The mother of this 17 year old is absent throughout the entire film, even when the police officer is present at the start of the film to place the ankle bracelet. I'm pretty sure some sort of question should have been asked on the officers part.

They had the officer claim that the kids computer was taken away and that his I.P. address had been tagged. He never realized that the kid had a smart phone with him? Something he can easily use to access the outside world via phone call, text messaging and any form of communication through the Internet which is easily accessible over a freaking smart phone.

Another gripe I've had with this was the fact that they constantly called him a hacker. The guy had a damn set of papers with words he could possibly use as a password when attempting to get into someones account. That's not hacking, that's just being annoyingly persistent.

Most of the effect were lame with the exception of the underwater pool kill which looked pretty excellent.

The fact that this guy is being attacked and haunted is perfectly fine with me. The jerk's  incessant attempts at getting into this girls different social media accounts says to me that he deserves ever last bit of it right till the end.

They close with an "Ironic joke scene" which reaches back to the beginning of the film which was pointless and killed what decent ending they did have in place. 

Conclusion:

Maybe use this as background noise or if you're incredibly bored. You may want to use this however as an introduction movie to the genre for someone who's typically too scared to watch a horror film or has been too young to watch them previously.

2 out of 10

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Strange Blood

Directed by: Chad Michael Ward

Written by: Pearry Teo

Year Released: 2015

Sub Genre: Monster / Vampire / Mad Scientist

Cast: Robert Brettenaugh, Alexandra Bard, James Adam Lim

A scientist creates a genetic being that, once matured, will be able to cure any and all diseases. Upon the first attempted testing he is attacked by the being and is soon infected with a strange ailment that starts to change him.

There really is not much more information I can give about this film without fully ruining it.

The story itself, reminiscent of Frankenstein, is your classic mad scientist flick where he has a great idea with good intentions, creates a living being which turns out to have a boat load of repercussions.

With the exception of someone who's squeamish at the site of blood, which in my opinion had been very over used, there is no true horror factor to be found here.

There is however a very good looking practical effects in one scene but is quickly ruined by some very low budget, horrible looking CGI effects.

The level of acting is never consistent and throws you out of the story a quite few times as does the lighting in a few of the scenes. Even in complete darkness, I had a hell of a time making out anything that was on my screen during these specific scenes.

The ending was very predictable even with a plot twist attempting to make you think otherwise but it failed at shifting my thoughts.

Conclusion:

Although enjoyable enough to watch for it's approach towards what a monster movie could look like today using old school principal's, it's lack of lighting, scares and all around good acting really makes it a hard film to want to follow.

So if you have time, patients, focus and a really dark room, you may end up enjoying this one yourself. But I would personally suggest to skip this one.

2 out of 10.

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The Last House On Cemetery Lane

Directed by: Andrew Jones

Written by: Andrew Jones

Year Released: 2015

Sub Genre: Ghost Story / Haunted House

Cast: Vivien Bridson, Lee Bane, Georgina Blackledge

John Davies, a horror film screenwriter, finds a rental ad for a summer home in the country. He is reluctant to take it at first due to a tenant living in the attic, something that was unmentioned in the ad. He eventually decides to take the home and quickly gets to work.

Soon enough, strange things start happening in the house which makes John question his own sanity.

First thing I must make mention too is the profession chosen by the writer for his main protagonist. Being a horror screenwriter and making your lead character the same thing hits a little too close to home if you ask me. But, predictably, it works out in the long run for the story.

I was quickly annoyed with how music is used throughout the film and how loud it was compared to everything else. Best example would be when the stereo in the house starts to play.

There were a lot of unusual camera angles and close ups used which gives the film an art house feel at times but more often than not it will give you a headache or nausea thanks to the continuous shaking of the camera. I did, at one point, believe that the shaking represented something specific but I quickly realized it was just a bad choice made by someone on set.

Now, I'm not a professional videographer by any means but if you're going to do something like this, I believe a stand or tripod would have been an excellent choice while filming.

While creepy and messed up things keep happening over and over in the house, John does not, even once, contemplate leaving the house. I would have been out of there after the second incident occurred.

Conclusion

With the shaky camera work nauseating me, the music being slightly annoying and a fight scene with incredibly poor choreography, you would imagine that my rating would be a zero thanks to this but the story line actually very good as was the dialogue. In fact, it is better than most films I've seen as of late. Had this movie been able to secure a larger budget, I feel as if it would have been a superb film.

If you get the opportunity, I would suggest that you check this one out.

4 out of 10.

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