MonsterZeroNJ

Mystery thriller finds home care nurse Dale (Madelyn Dundon) being sent to the house of ailing orchestra conductor Olivia (Veronica Cartwright) when her current caregiver disappears. Dale herself has just come off a suspension stemming from the accidental death of her last patient. It's a challenge. Not only is Olivia immobile and suffering from dementia and OCD, but the house is rumored to be haunted by her late husband Albert. Soon strange things start occurring and Dale is finding there are some questions as to what really happened to her predecessor. As she begins to try and piece things together the mystery deepens, and Dale starts to believe she might be in danger...but the question is, from who?

Old fashioned style mystery is written and directed by Stevan Mena going in a different direction after his cult classic Malevolence slasher trilogy. He delivers a film that delightfully evokes some of those old school haunted house mysteries of yesteryear but with a contemporary enough edge to not come across as nostalgia. There are some spooky sequences, some nice tension and atmosphere and a few moments of impacting violence, especially in the last act when we start to get some answers ...or do we? Mena does keep us guessing and for the first two thirds The Ruse is a chilling and intense slow burn till the third act reveals and even then, not everything is as it seems. Whodunnit? What is actually going on? You will find out all the answers eventually and if the film has any flaw, it's that it doesn't quite let us enjoy some of the red herrings long enough till moving on to the next one. It changes possible suspects a little too quickly when we should have been left to believe the suspicions a little longer before the next revelation. It's still an entertaining homage to not only old-fashioned mysteries but the type of thrillers that were prolific in the 80s and 90s. A solid thriller that that makes good use of its not only the Maine locations but Mena's horror film background when things get intense or spooky. The cinematography from Cory Geryak is excellent, especially the drone shots, and Mena himself provides an atmospheric score.

The cast here is good. Veronica Cartwright is strong as the ailing but still proud Olivia. She can be tough and yet fragile, sometimes in the same scene, and having had personal experience with someone with dementia, she nails the unpredictability and anguish perfectly. Madelyn Dundon is a very likable heroine as Dale. Some of her delivery in the earlier scenes seemed a little stiff at times but she rises to the occasion when it counts most, especially in the intense last act. Michael Steger is good as neighbor Tom. He gives his single dad next door an air of mystery which suits the material as Mena obviously doesn't want us to trust anyone. T. C. Carter is efficient as the pervy grocery delivery boy Jacob, Nicola Jeanette Silber is good as Tom's daughter Penny, and Michael Bakkensen is solid as Detective Burke who gets to be our Maine version of Columbo in the last act's fun final reveal.

Overall, the film was very entertaining, and it was good to see Mena back in the writing/directing/editing chairs once again after a six-year break. It's a bit of old school mystery, mixed with some 80/90s thriller with a pinch of haunted house movie thrown in. There is tension, atmosphere and a deliberately slow burn pace till the plot starts to thicken in the last third. The only flaw is that it moves through some of the red herrings a little too fast for us to really appreciate/believe them before moving on to the next. Its final big reveal may not have been a complete shock, but the scene is clever fun, and it was an entertaining and sometimes spooky ride getting there.

Italian 70/80s retro horror finds art restorer Lisa (Lauren LaVera) following in her father's footsteps as she travels to Italy, hired by a woman named Emma (Claudia Gerini). She is given two weeks to restore an old painting blackened with soot from a fire. As Lisa works, she suffers strange nightmares and Emma's daughter Gulia (Linda Zampaglione) keeps telling her the painting is cursed and contains an evil that will be released if the painting is restored by the coming red moon. Unknown to the American girl there is a horrible truth to these folktales, and she has already entered a nightmare from which she may not escape.

Homage filled flick is directed by Federico Zampaglioneire from his script with Stefano Masi and might be what it would have been like if Dario Argento made a movie with Lucio Fulci. Zampaglioneire knows his influences and the film's opening sequences resemble Argento's works quite well with LaVera evoking Suspiria actress Jessica Harper from that classic. It's no surprise Emma is a witch and Gulia's tales of ancient evil are more than a child's morbid imagination. While Lisa works, some young researchers she met on arrival are captured and tormented in the catacombs beneath the castle where the title well and its occupant lurk. This is where the film evokes Fulci with twisted and grotesque creatures doing horrible and gruesome things to these helpless victims. The practical gore and creature effects are quite effective here, though this part of the film is more straight up torture and slaughter and doesn't quite have the charm and spookiness of the parallel story of Lisa and the painting. These segments seem simply mean spirited and don't really serve the story other than to be cruel and gory, until the last act when things go literally to hell and the two stories collide. The segments set above with an increasingly fearful Lisa have more style and purpose, with Terrifier 2's LaVera proving she is a solid actress and heroine, beyond "Art" and retro Italian horror seems to suit her quite well. There is a very Goblin-esque score by Oran Loyfert and it all comes to a very Argento conclusion. Overall, The Well is an entertaining, nostalgic, spooky, and sometimes very gruesome tribute to Italian horror at its 70s/80s finest.

-MonsterZero NJ.

Flick from the makers of the The Witching Season web anthology takes one of those tales and expands it to feature length. The story is simple. Writer Jake (James Morris) is looking for inspiration, so he and his daughter Dani (Emily Broschinsky) stay in a haunted house on Halloween. The Booth House has a past filled with witches, madmen and murder and Jake may get more inspiration than he bargained for.

They Live Inside Us is written and directed by Michael Ballif and acts as both stand alone film and an anthology film in itself, as we visualize Jake's various story ideas as he writes them. These segments are filled with Halloween imagery and many of the popular tropes, such as masked killers, living scarecrows and killer clowns (each played by lead Morris) all chasing a pretty woman (Hailey Nebeker). In between the segments, we see writer Jake slowly feeling and seeing the effects of staying in an allegedly cursed house with a terrible past. It's not quite as fun as the bits born of his writing ideas, but it certainly has it's spooky moments as the house brings Jake's tales and it's own story to life. A Halloween horror would not be complete without some spooky reveals and Baliff provides them in a chilling last act. It's moderately paced, but that suits the type of story it is. On a production level, the film looks good. Ballif has a really strong visual eye, especially for the All Hallow's Eve inspired stuff and his cinematography gives this some nice atmosphere and Halloween spirit. There is also a really cool house location and a very atmospheric score by the aptly named Randin Graves.

The cast is solid. James Morris is good as Jake. He could have been livelier in a few scenes, but nails it when it counts, such as his scenes with dead wife Cynthia (Stevie Dutson). He also has fun playing all the film's Halloween creepers. Emily Broschinsky is good as Jake's precocious, paraplegic daughter Dani. The two actors have a nice chemistry together and sell being father and daughter well. Hailey Nebeker gets to show various degrees of fear as the "Woman in White" in Jake's stories. The actress does however, get to do a bit more once Jake's stories and the house's history collide.

This movie shows a lot of love for the spooky season and of horror films in general from Michael Baliff. It's not perfect, but one can really see the labor of love put into it and Baliff's passion for all things Halloween and horror, show through. Baliff knows the tropes well and knows how to use them effectively. It's certainly worth a look and has enough spooky moments to make it a nice new flick for watching during The Witching Season. Available to rent on streaming networks such as Amazon Prime and on blu-ray.