kannibalcorpsegrinder

Traveling out to the countryside, a group of friends visit a remote villa to enjoy a relaxing weekend together, but when they discover they've stumbled onto a changing horror film layout from a writer stuck with what he wants, the characters must find a way to stay alive against his intentions.

Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable and likable enough effort. Among the better aspects of this one is the enjoyably lighthearted setup that tries to establish more going on than expected. The central idea of the group going out to a remote villa in the countryside for a relaxing weekend and start encountering weird occurrences and events, from the retelling of a haunting past with the house's history and creepy owner to the different intonations about not disturbing anything or having access to any kind of modern convenience, makes for a fun time here. Using this as a great starting point, the idea of the group being a fun and likable group that we have to follow comes across rather well, which is what helps to make the outlandish scenarios all the more realistic later on. The typical elements of a formulaic haunted house film being used in this manner, while also managing to get audience sympathy for the characters, allow this one to get off to a strong start. Once it starts getting serious about something going on inside the villa, there's a lot of fun to be had with the escalating terror the group faces. That's mostly brought about by the meta nature of the screenplay, where they're not just aware of their presence in a horror film but also that it's an evolving story due to the unspecific nature of what's going on. Making comments about each member of the group filing out the necessary character roles and personalities required for the genre to come together with the film following a specific order, and changing on the fly so it becomes a film involving murder, then a curse affecting the group, and finally a zombie survival tale throughout the evening. These changes are shown to mirror the exploits of the off-screen writer who is given a series of tasks and updates to polish off the script, turning the whole thing upside down as the group becomes firmly aware of the events as they play out to signal each of the storyline changes. That each of these storyline changes results in a slew of solid and enjoyable action helps this one tremendously as well. Featuring a series of fun discoveries in the beginning about the strange events happening in the villa or the series of interactions, figuring out that they're in a film, as we get to see the environment change with how they're spelling it out in fine form, this gets a lot to like rather early on. The curse segment of the story is the most fun, featuring the characters randomly being manipulated by unseen forces to pull apart their aces in graphic fashion, and the zombie sequence features all sorts of fun with the ravenous creatures being felled by rapid gunfire and other weaponry left behind in a witty take on the meta-ness of the story. The only real drawback to this one is an unsatisfying and somewhat odd conclusion that doesn't make much sense and seems to set up a potential sequel on the face of things, rather than something that can logically end this one. However, it's all that holds it back.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Supposedly thinking the killer is stopped, the townsfolk are shocked to learn the Skull Mask killer has survived the destruction of his carnival attraction lair and sets out to seek revenge on the rest of the town forcing a teenage couple and the surviving police to stop his rampage.

This was a generally fun and effective follow-up. Among the better elements found here is the strong central setup that provides quite a lot to enjoy within this one. There's some great work here about the return of the killer to the town as the initial setup offering a fire destroying the attraction layout he hid out in, and then going around town on his rampage, knocking off citizens in the outskirts before targeting the main couple that we've been following throughout here, makes everything come together quite nicely. This relationship is another solid point here with the couple being a genuinely fun duo that we follow and feel genuinely for throughout the film, making the killer targeting them feel far more impactful. That brings about some far better than expected stalking scenes here, bringing the killer into the community and taking out victims. The initial scenes out in the countryside, taking out the traveler by the side of the road or the farmer in the farmhouse looking for the source of a strange noise, come off incredibly well with the film nicely employing far more traditional stalking scenes of the killer being in the area and looking for a chance to strike out at others, generating some solid suspense. This carries over into later attacks including the stellar rampage through the police station where he wades through several officers in brisk fashion leading to some great kills as well all leading into the strong finale where the action nicely matches what the storyline motivations of everything, giving this a lot to like. There isn't much to dislike here, but it does have some slight issues. The main detriment is the somewhat underwhelming and lacking pacing that tends to be far more structured on life in the town than anything. It takes up a lot of time here detailing the low-key lifestyle featured here that has some intriguing work on getting to know who the characters are yet that does come off with a slow-tempo that keeps things quite slack while doing this. That comes about as well due to its other issue, where its low-budget origins are pretty front and center with the limited scale and lack of scope that highlights the kind of guerilla production it so obviously is, more of a personal preference issue than anything. These are what end up being a few issues here.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Graphic Violence.

Trying to recharge her batteries, a stressed writer arrives in a small town and starts to look around an abandoned swamp-tour attraction only to fall victim to a serial killer from town haunting the area, and when her father comes looking for her is forced to team with the local sheriff to find her.

Overall, this was a far better indie slasher than expected. Among the better elements here come from the concerted and quite intriguing means of offering characterisations throughout. The whole setup of her needing a break from work for her mental health status and requiring a trip to help refresh and refuel is a nice way to introduce her to the action, as this goes a long way to introduce her through the work as well as home struggles. As well, the different storylines involving the residents of town, either going about their lives or the various inter-office workings that take place at the police station, as we get an in-depth build-up of characters here in a measured, methodical tempo, all create this fun setup as a starting point. On top of that, there's also quite a lot to like here as the film becomes far more of a slasher effort in the finale. As the investigation into the missing daughter causes them to head out and investigate the abandoned attraction where she was last seen, it allows the strong series of ambush sequences of the killer appearing to strike the victims around the attraction, resulting in some fine confrontations and some decent if unspectacular gore. Starting with the initial abduction of the writer in the abandoned attraction that has some immensely impressive suspense scenes that are incredibly enjoyable here to go alongside the opening of the first victim getting brutally sliced and stabbed, there's a nice balance of stalking suspense and brutal action. With a fantastic conclusion that's quite unexpected and pulled off quite well, these are the big aspects of this one here even though there are some minor issues to bring it down. The main factor is more likely to be a personal preference feature, which is the aforementioned methodical pacing here. That this one takes its time getting to know the characters or focusing on suspenseful stalking means that a lot of the film doesn't have a lot of slashing action, as the majority of that is kept for the final twenty minutes or so. On top of that, there's some confusing means of keeping the big brawl at the end that has a highly underwhelming sense of action with the way it's filmed in low-light filtered to neon lighting that makes it hard to see and gives it all a low-budget tone and feel. That also carries on through the rest of the film overall, as this is pretty obvious and doesn't really hide it, making for the overall drawbacks to this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.