Summer's Moon

I swear, I honestly don't know how these Twilight kids are going to survive in Hollywood if they lose their looks.

Next to Robert Pattinson's the Haunted Airman, this movie comes in 2nd as the worst movie with a Twilight cast in it. I know this because my friends decided to torture me by making me watch all the Twilight actors (pre-Twilight) after I had lost a bet.

This is a movie about a girl who seeks her long lost father (aw, sweet) but then ends up having a one night stand with a weird, but hot guy named Tom who saves her from the big bad sheriff after she's caught stealing (how romantic). When she attempts to leave the next morning, things get awkward as Tom basically kidnaps/keeps her hostage (not so romantic).

Of course, her capture eventually reveals just a whole bunch of traumatic stuff to watch and listen to as the viewer witnesses bad acting, more sex, daddy issues, and a garden of women in the basement. Yet none of that compares to the horrendous acting by Greene and everyone else. This is so B rated and belongs more to the "teenagers attempting to make a horror sexy flick during their free time" genre.

So basically, unless you have this intense desire to see Greene's back (she does no nudity. You'll have to go on a different website for that), skip this and save room in your memory for something that won't make you say, "WTF did I just watch?" or more importantly, "Why did I just watch that?"

How weird it can go, I had never heard of Stephen McHattie before. But a few weeks ago I popped into "pontypool" and now I see him playing again in this flick, and he did well and believable again. But I must say that Ashley Greene best known for the Twilight saga did well too. And by hereby the best is said of this flick. The acting is well but it's all so low on gore or the red stuff. I guess that Lee Demarbre (the director) did better with the black comedy "smash cut" then with this here. It could have been so much messier but sadly, most of the killings are off-screen. I even saw the steady-cam reflecting in a car. Just a flick to watch and unfortunately to forget.

The rebellious teenager Summer Matthews (Ashley Greene) finds that her mother has hidden that her unknown father is alive and she decides to seek him out. She hitchhikes to the small village called Massey with an old picture of her daddy expecting that someone might identify him. When she arrives in the community, she shoplifts a store but the local sheriff sees and chases her. However the handsome Tom Hoxey (Peter Mooney) helps her to flee and they date during the night. Then Tom brings her home, where he lives with his mother Gaia (Barbara Niven), and they have one night stand. On the next morning, when Summer is ready to go, she is abducted by Tom that discloses that he is not Mr. Nice Guy but the deranged son of a dysfunctional family. Summer is chained in Tom's garden with another "angel", Amber (Dani Kind), whose father Darwin (Peter Michael Dillon) has just left prison and believes that his daughter is missing. When Tom's father Gant (Stephen McNatty) learns about Summer, he heads back home.

"Summer's Blood" is an underrated low-budget slash-movie with a predictable story that has some bold scenes of incest and an unexpected conclusion. I liked the story of a girl that decides to look for her missing father and finds a dysfunctional family of serial-killer. I am impressed how Ms. Barbara Niven is still a very beautiful and charming woman. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Maníacos" ("Maniacs")

Some unadapted teen girl travels to some small town in search for her dad after she fought with her mom who told him that she had aborted the girl. Soon she meets what seems to be a normal young man. But the morning after she finds herself chained in the basement on a bed of dirt. Another half dead girl is sitting nearby and a bunch of skulls. He talks to her kindly, explaining that she's key to his garden and that loves his garden. Meanwhile the father of the other girl is just out of jail and looking for his daughter. As more people disappear things get complicated. But the highlight of the movie purports to be the return of the father of the young man, who isn't a whole lot better than his son.

Note that this is not a horror movie really. It's all about the psychological torture of the girls. The guy spends what seems like hours chatting with the girl trying to make her feel at home. Yet, it's never horrific let alone entertaining to watch a villain talk non-stop with his victims. There is a bit of violence, a tiny bit of blood. What's mostly of a more out-there nature is the theme of this movie, the family relationships, it's all very adult stuff. The language is very filthy throughout the movie. But there's little violence, no gore, no nudity, nothing. It's all very dull.

If you want to know why Ashley Greene never went on to bigger things after "Twilight", this film gives you a pretty good idea. In a film peppered with mediocre performances (apart from Peter Mooney & Steven McHattie), she registers pretty low. It's hard to tell sometimes if an actor is limited by their script, but most of the time you'll find signs of promise by actors even then. It's a shame, because she brought quite a charm to the "Twilight" series that is clearly absent here. This film's strongest attributes are its use of music and cinematography. The story is nothing new either.