Tag Archives: Daniel Baldwin

Nightmares Film Festival

Final (Draft) Girl

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The Red Mask

Screens Friday, October 17 at 4pm

by Daniel Baldwin

Attempting to reinvent a film franchise can be an incredibly tricky thing. If things change too much, filmmakers risk incensing fans and making audiences wonder why the new project even bears the same name as the original. If not enough is changed, subsections of fandom might be happy, but everyone else will still be left thinking, “What’s the point?”

That’s the fine line to be walked as a creator when tackling a pre-existing thing, especially when it comes to horror. There’s also a quiet truth: you’re never going to please everyone with your reinvention. Just ask folks like David Gordon Green, Nia DaCosta, Fede Alvarez, and filmmaking team Radio Silence. All tackled recent renewals of long-running slasher series to varying degrees of success, both of the critical and commercial variety. Fans still argue about all of them today and they will continue to do so for decades to come. For better or worse, franchises inspire passion in their fanbases. Sometimes that passion is born of love and acceptance. Other times, it is overflowing with hatred and malice.

This is the core subject of Ritesh Gupta’s satirical slasher, The Red Mask. Together with screenwriters Samantha Gurash and Patrick Robert Young, Gupta has crafted a fiercely critical look at both sides of the coin when it comes to a slasher series being redone for a new generation. The terror tale begins with acclaimed indie screenwriter Allina Green (Helena Howard) kicking off a stay at a secluded cabin with her fiancé, Deetz (Inanna Sarkis). The goal? To write a killer script for a reboot of popular fictional slasher series, The Red Mask.

Things take a turn when Allina & Deetz’s brainstorming sessions are interrupted when a couple (Jake Abel & Kelli Garner) with a clashing Airbnb reservation arrive at the cabin. Also – wouldn’t you know it? – they happen to be big fans of The Red Mask films who have their own very different thoughts on how their beloved saga should be revived. The stage is now set for a battle (both verbal and physical) between filmmakers and fans over the soul of an intellectual property.

It’s the kind of thing one only ever sees play out in comments sections and social media posts, but instead of ALL CAPS WARFARE, the fight becomes decidedly more literal in the hands of Gupta & Co. What results is a very savvy and fun piece of horror filmmaking that is sure to thrill you and make you chuckle in equal measure. Keep an eye out for this one, horror fans. It’s a really good time.

Outtakes

A Mission Not Worth Taking

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Resurrection Road

by Daniel Baldwin

Genre mash-ups are a tricky thing. A consistent tone is hard enough to maintain when one is working in one genre, but once you add any additional genres into the mix, the odds of things going off of the rails increase exponentially. More often than not, they tend to fall apart. After all, for every From Dusk Till Dawn or Sinners, you have a Cowboys & Aliens or an Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

Writer/director Ashley Cahill’s Resurrection Road is a genre mash-up, melding a Civil War men-on-a-mission tale with a heavy dose of supernatural horror. A squad of Black Union soldiers is tasked with a deadly clandestine mission to take out the heavy cannons at a nearby fort so that the army can safely approach it a few days later. It’s effectively a suicide mission and one that the men are blackmailed into accepting. One that would be impossible enough on its own in a standard war actioner but is now made even more impossible with the additional supernatural threat at work.

Malcolm Goodwin (iZombie, Reacher) is our lead and, as always, his presence alone elevates the material. His protagonist, Barrabas, is the most complex and interesting character in the film and Goodwin does everything in his power to carry Resurrection Road across the finish line. It’s not enough.

This isn’t the first time someone has attempted to craft a Civil War-era horror/action hybrid. Alex Turner’s Dead Birds attempted something similar a couple decades back. Making any sort of period piece on a low budget is a tall order, as one has to not only get the dialogue right, but also the production design. Resurrection Road unfortunately comes up short in both areas.

Fans of the ever-underrated Goodwin might still want to check this out, as he gives it his all. Folks who really enjoy period piece horror might also find something of interest here. Otherwise, it is a hard film to recommend. There’s always something to be admired in a project that’s reach exceeds its grasp, but in the end, this film just doesn’t measure up.

Outtakes

MOM 9000

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Renner

by Daniel Baldwin

Artificial Intelligence has been a staple of science fiction cinema for decades. Particularly when it comes to depicting fear of A.I. gone rogue. From 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator to The Matrix and Her, filmmakers have deeply explored numerous ways that A.I. can decide to make our lives miserable once it decides to have a life of its own. Robert Rippberger’s Renner is the latest addition to this subgenre.

The film centers around a man named – you guessed it (no, not Frank Stallone) – Renner, who has invented a sort of A.I. “life coach” for himself to help him navigate social interactions. Renner’s life is the cinematic equivalent of a bottle episode of television: stuck in a single location as he computer genius-es his way through life. He’s lonely, however. Enter Salenus, the aforementioned A.I. device.

Unfortunately for Renner, Salenus not only sounds like his mother, but is also just as overbearing as her. Talk about transporting one’s mommy issues into the digital era! This is not an ideal situation for the guy, but it’s certainly a welcome one for audiences, as Salenus is voiced by none other than the great Marcia Gay Harden.

Were this Renner’s only problem, he might be all right. But it’s not, as he is developing feelings for his neighbor Jamie (Violett Beane), who lives with her sketchy brother (Taylor Gray). Are Jamie’s interactions with Renner genuine or will she only serve to further upend his hermetic existence? Given that this is a thriller, you probably already know the answer.

The best parts of the film are the performances, particularly Frankie Muniz in the titular role and the ever-undervalued Beane as his chief supporting player. The sci-fi elements and themes, while interesting, are a bit too thin and undercooked. As a result, despite Renner only being 90 minutes in length, it might have been better served as a short rather than a feature. Still, if you’re in the mood for a low budget serving of sci-fi, this might just temporarily scratch that itch.

Outtakes

A Gamble Not Worth Taking

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High Rollers

by Daniel Baldwin

Word-class thief Mason (John Travolta) is in a bit of a pickle. His girlfriend Amelia (Gina Gershon) has been kidnapped by his archrival, Salazar (Danny Pardo), as a means to force Mason into robbing a casino. Of course, Salazar has no interest in making good on a trade once the heist is complete and – given Mason’s past and present endeavors – the FBI is biting at the heels of everyone involved. Poor Mason. Can’t a master thief just exist in peace?

If the story sounds super tropey, that’s because it is, although there’s nothing wrong with that. As Roger Ebert used to say, “It’s not what a movie is about but how it’s about it.” That’s a nice way of saying that the execution matters more than the originality of the story. He’s right.

Unfortunately, High Rollers – a sequel to 2024’s Cash Out – comes up incredibly short on the execution front. Between a very thin script and deeply uninspired direction, the only thing that really holds it all together is its cast. Still, even they aren’t enough to save it.

High Rollers is the latest film from producer/director/low budget mogul Randall Emmett. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it is one wrapped in controversy, detailed in the 2023 documentary The Randall Scandal. Long story short, Emmett has an alleged history of fostering an abusive work environment and underpaying his employees. He is also one of the driving forces behind the modern “geezer teaser” movement, where name actors are paid a nice sum for a day or two of work to cameo in an indie genre picture. The film is then be marketed on their (fading) star power, despite them barely being in it.

The good news is that unlike the numerous films Emmett made with Mel Gibson and a deteriorating Bruce Willis, High Rollers is not actually a geezer teaser. John Travolta is very much the lead of this movie, as he was in the equally-disappointing Cash Out.

While the film around him here might be notably lesser in quality than his previous classics, Travolta is still putting forth the effort. His effortless charm remains intact. It is on this front and this front alone that High Rollers can be recommended. If you’re a big Travolta fan and simply want to see your favorite actor in something new, this might give you a temporary fix. Everyone else, however, is better off steering clear.