kannibalcorpsegrinder

After finding a new job, a man working a retail position tries to live a normal life with the woman who works with him, but when his old demons start to resurface, and the voices in his head get too strong, he dons a Santa costume and commits a massacre against those disrespecting him.

Overall, this was a wholly likable and enjoyable genre effort. Among the better elements within here is the central setup that manages to provide a strong foundation for his unraveling mental state for the eventual rampage. Setting up the same backstory and the eventual trauma of the holiday season is a fine touch so that it fills in a lot of the necessary backstory early on which makes the so much of the first half feel like a solid retread involving the quest to be normal and like a valued member of the community with his relationship with his coworker provides a great setup here. Along with the natural attempts at trying to make sure he has a sense of normalcy in his life, the fact that his conscience is always talking to him and spurring along his murderous antics, fueling the sense of inner conflict he has, which brings about the different encounters later on. That comes about in a series of solid and generally enjoyable confrontations that focus on the wholly enjoyable series of slashing encounters featured throughout here. The initial series of setpieces showing him going around the town hacking up those who are rampaging through the community, as it leads up to the great sequence involving the massacre at the racist rally, where the brutal axe slashing and stabbing, which has a ton of bloodshed amongst the carnage. This leads into the solid encounters where his demented inner monologue instills more of a psychological display that is at the center of the film, works to deliver what's necessary here in the holiday cheer, as well as the brutal deaths featuring the axe being used to elicit some solid splatter. These all come together to make for a fun time here, while there are some factors here that bring this down. The main drawback to be had here is the film's jagged sense of pacing, where it's hard to remain invested at points with what's going on. The early dynamics of getting the job at the retail store, getting to meet the co-worker, and starting to develop a relationship with her by being involved in her life set up the sense of normalcy he craves following his traumatic childhood, yet that keeps the slashing to a non-existent point during this period, so that little happens. This leaves the stalking to be a rather brief bit where it's so short and barely a feature in the film that there's stretches where it doesn't matter all that much, only to then be wiped aside when the few scenes of slashing take place to intrude for such a brief time before going back to the drama so the back-and-forth nature is quite distracting. As well, there's also the series of changes made to the structure of the film that aren't all that impactful or worthwhile. The inclusion of the talking voice in his head due to a form of possession that drives the rampage along is a bizarre touch that seems to come about at the worst times and never adds much once the gag has already been worked out. Moreover, the decision to take away the second half of a long-winded rampage and do more of a police investigation on the previous massacre is a strange way of going about this type of story, which lowers the action considerably as it's downgraded in favor of the psychological implications of what he's going through. That's already been established by that point in the film, and it doesn't need it as it needed more action in the proceedings, and will be what ends up holding this down the most.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Traveling around for their wedding, a newlywed couple is stranded in a bizarre, strange small-town community that begins to point to something being decidedly off about the citizens, eventually forcing them to discover the truth about the town and their zombified problems.

Overall, this was a decent enough attempt at the genre. Among the better aspects found here is a solid and far more enjoyable setup than expected, which makes everything feel quite off as time goes on. The innocuous nature of their arrival and the subsequent means of integrating themselves to the other locals there, from the various comments about not wanting technology around, the series of interactions with the car mechanic trying to run them out of town, and the forced separation when they're forced to stay at the one woman's house, paint a solid picture of something strange and eerie going on in the community. The entire thing feels as if a secret nature of some kind is kept, and they're not privy to sharing anything with the out-of-towners, being decidedly vague about what's going on but doing plenty of gesturing or comments about something going on and not outright saying it. Given that this all makes the group quite likable as the dual storyline involves them wandering the streets looking for each other with the locals, there's a lot to like here involving the slow realization of the zombies running wild in the town. The nonchalant nature of everyone aware of the zombies, in addition to the strange energy of the town in general, helps make the burgeoning story all the more engrossing as they discover the history of the town and the experience that slowly becomes apparent, leading into a wholly enjoyable twist reveal which comes about. This does tend to unravel a lot of the horror and tension, but creates a great comedic impression when everything comes out and helps to be quite impactful at helping to establish their relationship with each other as a driving force in the story, where it creates more of a lighthearted tone than anything else, and overall creates enough to like here to hold it up. There are some issues here that keep this one down. The main factor against this one is the wholly slow-going storyline that keeps everything far more low-key than what should be expected. This one manages to keep the zombie threat so hidden that it's somewhat possible to believe there's nothing actually there, with focus on the vagueness of the central setup more in league with keeping this one long on build-up but short on action, with it being nearly forty minutes before the zombie attacks start in earnest. Those looking for more of an over-the-top selection of encounters filled with ravenous scenes of the undead ripping people apart will be disappointed with there not being anything like that anywhere in the film, since the titular creation is designed to stop them without this turning into a gorefest. That might also be another big factor here, where the lack of big, spectacle-inducing content associated with the genre could be seen as off-putting and drag this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Language and Violence.

Searching for their missing friend, a group ventures out to see what happened to her, which brings them to a special house in the countryside where the group is continuously killed over and over again, only to keep reappearing unharmed, forcing them to figure out what's going on.

Overall, this was a decent enough if somewhat challenging genre effort. Among the better features of this one comes from the rather likable setup that provides a solid twist on the concept of the group being continuously targeted and tormented by the beings. This starts off promising enough with the search out into the middle of nowhere, with the series of bizarre supernatural occurrences coming together at the house where they continually get killed over and over, under the guise of a bizarre supernatural curse, which works incredibly well at establishing the need to get the group out into the wilderness and to the chosen location. As they explore the strange town and focus on the seemingly unnatural conditions that arise the longer they stay there, the eeriness and sense of unease that develops involving the mysterious disappearances, the abandoned state of everything, and the general sense of the area around them gradually reveals the work of the doctor holding them captive, providing this with a strong enough setup. Once they realize they're trapped, the series of strange occurrences that build up here brings about an even greater sense of atmospheric fun as the situation becomes somewhat clearer and obvious. The interactions with the strange beings keeping them in the strange center allows for a few solid moments where it's hard to make out what's going on, and once it becomes more obvious with the masked figure hunting them down and killing them in gruesome ways, the film picks up in both intensity and carnage as the solid stalking methods allows for a lot to like. Once they become aware of the repeated nature of the day by waking up in the same place with the memory of the previous night, it starts offering a series of intriguing attacks as the supernatural forces become far more vicious and aggressive with the encounters, focusing on the nature of these forces, creating a series of intense confrontations and supernatural-tinged action with some solid gore. These all come together for some positive points here, while there are some issues here that hold this one down. The main drawback on display is the sense of confusing material surrounding what's going on, as there's a lot of this one that takes a while to work through. The whole concept of why the group is being killed and restarting the night with the direct knowledge of what happened previously and have to go through the process all over again to make sure they can figure out how to stop it, which is the central premise of the film to begin with, is so convoluted and hard to make out that it becomes needlessly complicated to understand. The inclusion of this bizarre set of rules without much explanation, and the only thing resembling a plot is uncovered at the end, making everything until then incredibly difficult to understand what's going on. The complexity of the setup here, involving who the new characters are supposed to be, what's going on with the day restarting, and the rules about being killed, ends up being quite difficult to understand. Combined with the underwhelming and obviously bad CGI for a lot of the creature designs, there are some issues present here.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.