Cold In July

Directed by: Jim Mickle

Written by: Nick Damici

Year Released: 2014

Sub Genre: Thriller / Murder

Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sam Sheppard, Don Johnson

During a home robbery,  a father and husband shoots and kills an intruder, who, unbeknownst to him was unarmed.

Shortly thereafter, the father of the intruder comes to town to seek revenge. He stalks the family in order to terrorize them but is quickly apprehended by police.

But after a few days of being able to rest, the father finds out the man he killed is someone completely different than who the police have identified him as leading him to unravel a highly corrupt sheriff's office.

I was feeling in the mood for some Micheal C. Hall and thankfully Netflix delivered with this nice little IFC flick.

Hall delivers a very realistic performance of a man faced with a terrifying situation and hits the roll right on the nose as he always does without error. If you don't believe me, watch a few episodes of six feet under followed by a few episodes of Dexter and try to tell me otherwise.

Most of the remaining cast were very strong in their performances which made this viewing that much more pleasurable.

With that being said, the story line took an exciting turn but unfortunately turned predictable and rushed  by the end of the film.

It's feels like a mix of Walking Tall meets Walker, Texas Ranger with a dash of Dexter to garner people's attention. There is some comedy and the acting is far superior to a lot of what IFC may offer but it sadly falls flat by the end.

The biggest problem I had was that this small town family man who happened to have killed one person by accident instantly turns into some kind of bad ass for about two minutes and then reverts back to a useless tit. It's honestly upsetting and, once again, really aid's in the demise of greatness it had initially started with.

Conclusion:

I would suggest this only for the first 3/4 of the movie as the remainder is predictable and better left to the imagination. And only because of that first 3/4 of the film.

5 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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Book Review: Slasher: A Joshua Matthews Thriller (2014)

A serial killer in Los Angeles. A string of ever more famous victims. A sergeant out of his depth.

After a body is found on his duty, Sergeant Joshua Matthews is handed his first true homicide, one he has no choice but to accept. With no motive, no clues and zero real suspects, the police are getting nowhere, until another body turns up. It’s not in his jurisdiction but there are striking similarities between the two crimes. On his captain’s orders, Joshua finds himself temporarily transferred to LAPD Homicide. It seems he might be dealing with a serial killer, one targeting slasher movie actresses from the infamous horror studio, Hitlist Pictures.

As the evidence starts pointing towards someone connected to the studio, Joshua and his new partner Detective Crawford face a race against time to solve the mystery before Hitlist premieres its brand new and highly anticipated horror thriller, Slasher. The film's lead and Hollywood's newest rising star, Kiralee Martinson, surrounded by police, is adapting quickly to the instant fame and pressure of becoming a film star, but nothing can prepare her for a violent finale to the killers' plans as she finds herself directly in the cross hairs in this tense and brutal thriller.

(Synopsis provided by the books Author, WD Jackson.)

I started out very excited to read Slasher. Not only did it have my obvious favorite genre wrapped up into it, it also involved a murder mystery all mixed into one which really got my excitement levels up.

Although after reading the first couple of chapters I was slightly turned off by it. This was due to the fact that the author was throwing a very large amounts of detail into single sentences as well as paragraphs. It was seemingly annoying but was quickly corrected as you read through.

The story had picked up from there and soon I was hooked!

Another small problem I had was with the main character. He was very annoying to me for the first little while, repeating his issues until he was able to fully the problem he had to face in his past. After this he was much more tolerable but seemed to be much more absent throughout the remainder of the story which helped me enjoy the side characters and their stories much more than that of Joshua's.

Next to the co-characters, one thing that really intrigued me was how well the dialogue between characters was written making it feel like a natural conversation that anybody would have with a friend. Nothing was far fetched or out of context.  

After everything was said and done I loved this book. I do however believe that the book could drop the  "Joshua Matthews Thriller" from it's title, seeing as most of the focus of the book seems to be on the character of Kiralee Martinson. But none the less I give Slasher an 8 out of 10.

I would like to take this time to thank the author, WD Jackson for allowing me to review his work and if you are interested in reading it, you can purchase a copy here.

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Lovely Molly (2011)

Okay, I am going to try and describe this movie for the review as best as possible to have it make sense to some degree and to make an attempt at not ruining it for anyone who wants to watch it.

Molly, (Gretchen Lodge) is a girl who just got married and decided she wanted to move into her childhood home where her father had died in when she was still very young.

Her new husband Tim, (Johnny Lewis) is a truck driver and must leave a lot of the times for work. Once he leave for his first work week as a married man, strange things start happening to Molly that progressively ruins her day to day life.

Directed and written by Eduardo Sanchez, Also written by Jamie Nash and starring the aforementioned Gretchen Lodge and Johnny Lewis.

Now, I hope that was enough to get you through without really killing any of the story if you choose to watch it. Here comes the possible spoiler alert part.

I was kept intrigued to watch what was happening the entire time but was confused as all hell due to the fact that there are several factors that come into play that could have caused what Molly is either doing or going through.

The biggest issue I am having right now is that I don't think I liked it, nor did I hate it by any means. I understood exactly what was going on throughout the film but just could not figure out what was the actual cause of all the random scenario's that were happening, although all the reasonable options were presented to you as  very good possibilities.

The acting was pretty good in it and some of the scenes made you wonder what the hell was going on. All in all I have to give this one a 5 out of 10 and that's only cause I seriously do not know if I liked it or not.

But if you're looking for a head scratch-er directer Edwardo Sanchez serves one up for you in this one.
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