Category Archives: Nightmares Film Festival

Reviews of features playing Nightmares Film Festival 2023

New In Theaters, Nightmares Film Festival

Life in a Northern Town

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The Soul Eater

by Hope Madden

There’s a handful of filmmakers who raise anticipation with each new film. For horror fans, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury have perched gruesomely within that prized group since their 2007 feature debut, Inside.

2021’s Kandisha was another highlight in a slew of genre films, all boundary pushers, all gorgeously shot, all benefitting from flawed characters in the grimmest of circumstances making tough, often unusual decisions.

Like Elisabeth (Virginie Ledoyen) and Franck (Paul Hamy), both working the same case—unwillingly paired as it seems a murder/suicide connects two separate cases—in a remote mountain village in France.

A married couple potentially implicated in the disappearance of a dozen children has brutally killed each other, each cannibalizing the other and reaching sexual climax before finally expiring. It’s a weird case, grisly, and for each investigator it triggers a painful past.

What the filmmakers conjure—working from a script by first time screenwriters Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre and Alexis Laipsker—is a pervasive paranoia that allows superstitious nonsense to look like logic. It’s a bit of a magic trick, and they pull it off by developing a sense of place that never condescends but uses outsiders’ eyes to see the creepy that’s accepted as natural by locals.

This atmosphere feeds a childlike logic that colors the film, appropriate because so many of the primary characters are children. These bruised souls give the thriller a melancholy darkness that’s hard to shake.

And The Soul Eater is more twisty thriller than the outright horror of the pair’s previous films. Though there’s carnage, blood, and a dark and thrilling finale, the true horror of the story echoes around every sad face and suspicious glance. The imagery is haunting, allowing the film to transcend its police procedural structure to become something more mysterious and troubling.

Nightmares Film Festival

A Deal with the Devil

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BA

by Adam Barney

I’m a sucker for Faustian bargain films, so I knew I was likely in the bag for writer/director Benjamin Wong’s debut feature film, BA. I wasn’t expecting a movie that would also be so touching and endearing.

What would you do to ensure a good life for your child? That is the question facing Daniel (Lawrence Kao, Walker: Independence), a single dad struggling to raise his daughter, Collette (Kai Cech). Daniel tries to hustle with side gigs and other menial jobs, but the pair faces eviction and family doesn’t seem willing to take them in. This is where the Faustian deal comes into play. Daniel finds a bag of money with a simple note – take the money and you will receive an eternal occupation.

That turns out to be a heavy price. Daniel is transformed into a reaper and must take souls for his end of the bargain. He was also unfortunately transformed, now burdened with a skull for a face and the power to kill anything and everything he touches. Collette doesn’t understand why her dad suddenly hides from her and keeps his distance. To make matters worse, social services are coming around to investigate. Money really doesn’t solve everything.

BA may not be an original tale. However, the film truly excels at delivering a heart-breaking and ultimately human story. Kao and Cech have excellent chemistry, which really drives us to root for them.

BA thoughtfully deals with the Asian American experience of existing on the fringe of society. As it opens, Daniel is one of many unseen workers taking unwanted night jobs and any other work that he can find. After his transformation, he must remain unseen so he can continue to provide for and protect Collette. In interviews, Wong has discussed wanting to blur reality and fantasy in his film but still deal with the real issues of single parenthood, social invisibility, and poverty.

BA also happens to look fantastic. The nightlife of Los Angeles pops, the dark alleys and basements are dreary, and the supernatural elements seamlessly fit right in. If you like a good devil’s tale, you will find a lot to love in BA.

Nightmares Film Festival

Reality Bites

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My Imaginary Life for Someone

by Adam Barney

I hope this isn’t viewed as a cop out, but it is hard to explain My Imaginary Life for Someone. It must be experienced. It’s a film that is clearly not for everyone. For those who can match its wavelength, they will find a lot to like. Everyone else will walk out and be perplexed by what they just witnessed. This is precisely the type of film that we are always searching for to showcase in our Midnight programming branch of Nightmares Film Festival.

My Imaginary Life for Someone takes aim at Real Housewives or any of the other similar reality shows and does its best to take down the whole genre and the people in front of the cameras. It’s clear that writers / directors Molly Wurwand and Ryan McGlade have a real disdain for reality television and if you are of the same mindset, you are going to enjoy this broadside assault.

Filmed in a mockumentary style, the film dumps you right into a “labyrinth” of Los Angeles McMansions where the denizens get stranger and stranger. The reality stars are living in excess but probably aren’t fully sure how they got to where they are in life. They have nothing to worry about financially, but they also aren’t sure what they should be doing with their lives, so they spend their time collecting Princess Diana memorabilia, getting extreme plastic surgery, or listening to their own voices on tape.

There’s a lot of dream-like logic at play as the various homeowners show you around, tell you odd stories, or otherwise fill the silence of the void by endlessly talking. If you have ever caught the late-night programming of Adult Swim on Cartoon Network, you will quickly adapt to the vibe. It feels like a dry mix of Christopher Guest (Best in Show) and Jim Hosking (The Greasy Strangler, although this film is not gross).

My Imaginary Life for Someone will make you cringe, hate the characters, and wish for it to be over. And that is the whole point. It wants to show you that reality television is vapid, vacuous, and ultimately pointless and it does so by holding up a mirror to the genre.

Nightmares Film Festival

Club Creepy

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Dooba Dooba

by Brooklyn Ewing

Dooba Dooba feels like something special — like a movie from the 70s or 80s that you borrowed on bootleg VHS from a new kid in your town. 

The movie opens as Amna (Amna Vegha) shows up for a night of babysitting and learns that her ward —a sheltered sixteen year old girl named Monroe (Betsy Sligh) — is being watched at all times by in-home security cameras.

Vegha makes it all work. She brings together the absurdity of Monroe’s parents with the reality of this cringy babysitting job.

There are only four characters in the film and each one makes me feel some type of way. The parents generate equal levels of unease, and their interactions with Amna make me want to run out of the room. Monroe is wildly odd, at one point critiquing Amna’s musical endeavors, making me want to climb out the window because I’m so embarrassed for her. 

Dooba Dooba’s vintage vibes make it deeply creepy. You feel like you’re watching something secretly, and you want to warn Amna that something doesn’t feel right. If you are a fan of The House of The Devil or The Loved Ones, this will pull you right in. I loved the creative cinematography.

Director Ehrland Hollingsworth is new to horror, but I think he has a new home in the horror community, and I cannot wait to see how audiences respond to this movie. I feel like part of a secret club after being able to see Dooba Dooba and I’m ready to talk about it with the world. 

Nightmares Film Festival

Spooky Fun for Halloween

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Carved

by Brooklyn Ewing

Each Halloween season, horror fans go looking for new seasonal movies. This year, director Justin Harding (Making Monsters)brings his fun, spooky splatter-fest, Carved to Nightmares Film Festival and Hulu’s Huluween. 

A group of survivors — including comedy favorites DJ Qualls and Chris Elliott — find themselves trapped in a historical reenactment village on Halloween. There they must unite to battle an evil and vengeful pumpkin. 

This is not your typical killer food movie. Carved delivers inspired kills that almost made me root for the pumpkin. The special fx are a blast and the cinematography is gorgeous. They make this one a do not miss addition to your yearly 31 Day of Halloween watchlist. 

The standout in the cast is newcomer Peyton Elizabeth Lee. I loved the rocky relationship between Lee and Corey Fogelmanis. Lee brings the Halloween final girl baddie to the forefront again, and I couldn’t get enough of it. 

Some of my favorite scenes featured Stranger Things alum Matty Cardarople as a corn truck employee.  And Carved rounds out the fun ensemble with a comedy heavy hitter from the 2000s. DJ Qualls plays the perfect uptight jerk, and has some of the most memorable one liners. He brings the polish and snark to the screen and I couldn’t help but love his character.

If you love killer food movies, autumn ambiance, creative kills, and a delightfully talented cast, then add Carved to your Spooky Season watchlist.  

Nightmares Film Festival

A Deal with the Digital Devil

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Decibel

by Daniel Baldwin

At what point does an artist lose themselves in technology? Sure, tech is now an important part of art. It can help achieve quicker completion of a project. It can also add layers of depth and resonance to it that would not have been possible a decade earlier. But at what point can one’s art actually be undermined by technological advancements? It’s a conversation at the forefront of all forms of art these days, especially in the wake of A.I. It is also one of the questions that lie at the core of Decibel.

The film centers on a young, talented musician named Scout (Aleyse Shannon) who plies her trade in local bars. The crowds that she performs for might be small, but her musical freedom in those spaces is immense. There’s not much money to be had in small gigs, however, so she’s on the verge of becoming a starving artist. Perhaps even a homeless one too. Enter tech mogul turned music producer Donna (Stefanie Estes). A rising, powerful name in the industry, Donna offers Scout a chance to record her music at a state-of-the-art studio in the desert, away from all of the distractions of life.

Scout – apprehensive about losing some control over her art, but also needing some money and a big break – accepts the offer. After all, who can pass up such a chance of a lifetime? Being a thriller, you can see where this is going. And you would be correct. It’s a tale as old as time: if any offer sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

With his third feature, director Zac Locke ups the ante. From a technical perspective, this is his most accomplished work to date. From a narrative perspective, while he did not write this particular film, you can still see thematic continuations of his previous works.

Locke has managed to combine the notion of “fame comes with a cost” (#Float) and “don’t ignore your instincts when things feel wrong” (Santa Isn’t Real) into an intriguing cautionary tale on the dangers of allowing your art to be overtaken by others and weaponized against you. Add in two great lead performances and some striking visuals and you have what is his best film to date. Decibel is worth tuning into and Locke remains a filmmaker to keep an eye on.

Nightmares Film Festival

Driven

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Trunk

by George Wolf

You get the sense early on that the German thriller Trunk may have some pleasant surprises in store.

Malina (Sina Martens, terrific in a physically demanding role) wakes up to find herself badly injured and confined to the trunk of a car. The trunk is ajar, and before the driver returns to shut her inside, Malina is able to retrieve her cell phone.

And lemme guess, the phone’s almost dead, right?

FULL POWER.

Okay, then, here we go! Dialing a series of well-chosen contacts, Malina has to 1) stay alive, and 2) piece together what’s happening while she looks for an escape route.

Writer/director Marc Schießer proves a solid triple threat here, also handling the editing duties with a deft hand and solid instincts for pacing and tension.

The cinematography is on point, as well. And while this particular trunk seems unusually roomy, Scheiber consistently lands precisely the type of claustrophobic camera angles and POV shots that Liam Nesson’s recent car-centric thriller Retribution tried in vain to achieve.

You may end up sniffing out some the mystery at play, but even so, Schießer’s finale will be no less satisfying. Trunk is a tense, crowd-pleasing thriller, one that adds enough detours to a well-traveled road until it’s fun again.

So climb in, and enjoy the ride.

Nightmares Film Festival

The Beast of Walton St.

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by Brandon Thomas

A good creature feature is hard to do on an indie budget. Many filmmakers have tried – and failed spectacularly – to bring monsters to life with little money and even worse, little imagination. The Beast of Walton Street bucks that trend by delivering thrilling monster mayhem and a steady supply of wit and heart. 

In a nameless Ohio town, a beast is roaming the Christmas decorated streets and picking off the most vulnerable: the unhoused. Friends Constance (Athena Murzda) and Sketch (Mia Jones) live on the fringes of society – barely scraping by and living in an abandoned auto repair shop. As the two notice more and more of the city’s at-risk residents disappearing, they decide to take matters into their own hands and defend their town from the ravenous beast. 

There’s a palpable level of energy that flows through the entirety of The Beast of Walton Street. Director Dusty Austen’s competency behind the camera is evident and admirable. The level of care and skill shown toward the craft of filmmaking is immediately recognizable in the editing, blocking, lighting, and shot composition. Craft is something that unfortunately falls to the wayside in many indie films, but in The Beast of Walton Street it’s on full display.

Austen is wisely economical when it comes to showing the titular beast (which is actually a werewolf). How Austen chose to shoot and edit around the beast is truly impressive. This reviewer was reminded of Ridley Scott’s Alien on more than one occasion. The ferocity of the werewolf is never lost on the viewer and so much of that is due to Austen’s confident handling of craft.

On the flip-side, the human element of Beast of Walton Street is just as impressive. While Murzda carries the film as the lead, both she and Jones have a delightfully charming chemistry that makes the beast-less scenes just as fun. While neither actor has a long resume (yet!), their comfort and flexibility in front of the camera is evident. 

The Beast of Walton Street doesn’t reinvent the werewolf wheel, but what it does is offer up an Amblin-esque punk rock creature feature, and that is more than enough for me.

Nightmares Film Festival

The Choice

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The Choice

by George Wolf

Writer/director Igor Federov crafts a terrific debut with The Choice, a tense, taut and well-executed mystery thriller.

Taking inspiration from both the societal impact and creative restrictions of the pandemic, Federov is able to mine impressive payoffs from an almost one-man show in a nearly one-room setting.

The one man is Matvey (Elijah Khodyrev), and the room is where he is set up as a nighttime call center operator for Russia’s Frount Bank. It is the near future, when massive unemployment and numerous bank failures have spawned a new government via coup, but little relief for the struggling.

Matvey is accustomed to angry and irate callers, but the calmly menacing Daniel (Vladislav Demchenko) is a different animal. Daniel is watching Matvey at work, he’s watching Matvey’s family at home, and he has a laser target pointed squarely at Matvey’s head.

The demand? Right old wrongs by transferring money from the account of a V.I.P client.

The setup doesn’t exactly blaze new trails, but the ways Federov consistently rises to its inherent challenges make the film an engaging and satisfying treat. The action here is all tech and talk, but through creative shot selection, crisp editing and precise sound design, Federov builds palpable tension around headsets, computer screens, digital switchboards, and voices on the line.

And, as Matvey tries to buy time and seek help, Federov’s script reveals secrets that slyly shift the balance of power while deepening our investment in predator as well as prey.

At just 77 minutes, The Choice might seem a bit brisk, but the story never feels slight. Federov resists the urge for padding he doesn’t need, cementing a debut feature that reaps plenty of benefits from the instincts of a smart new talent.

Nightmares Film Festival

Hundreds of Beavers

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by Daniel Baldwin

Earlier this year, quirky auteur Wes Anderson gifted us Asteroid City, which is probably best described as “What if Looney Tunes did its own take on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and then poured it through a theatre kid filter?” Some folks found that off-putting, as though Wes Anderson had gone a bit too Wes Anderson for them. Others, like me, found it to be an utter delight. Such a movie was one I never pictured myself needing, yet when it was finally presented to me, I could no longer picture myself living without it.

What does this have to do with Mike Cheslik’s Hundreds of Beavers? Nothing, and yet also everything. This is not Asteroid City, nor should it be. What it is, however, is the answer to the question “What if Looney Tunes did its own take on Jeremiah Johnson and then poured it through a silent movie filter?” I’m not sure who – outside of those who made it – asked for this movie. But I’m glad they did, because for the second time this year, I have been gifted an absolutely lunatic slice of cinema that I never knew I desperately needed.

Not everyone is built to appreciate a movie where a buffoon wanders around a cartoonish wilderness landscape full of animals that are portrayed either by people in mascot suits or puppets. Similarly, not everyone is built to appreciate such lunacy when it feels like it was made by mad scientists who Frankenstein’d together a plushy beast composed of parts from Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Buster Keaton, Terry Gilliam, and the Keystone Cops. This is darkly violent, yet deeply comedic work that blends a love for classic cartoons and early cinema history together into an inspired near-masterpiece of a film. I say near only because it becomes a bit too indulgent during some of its lengthier set pieces, causing the pace to sag a bit at times. Well, that and maybe utilizing an anvil at some point would have also been nice!

Hundreds of Beavers is a gift. It’s one that some might want to return, but by God Bugs Bunny, it’s one that just as many are bound to cherish for the rest of their lives. This lunatic included.