
Greetings, all. Ambush Bug here with another AICN HORROR: ZOMBIES & SHARKS column. Below are some of the best horror films at this year’s Fantasia Fest 2015 which is wrapping up this week in Montreal. Those of you who can’t get up there to the Great White North to see these films can at least put them on your list as ones to look out for. But have no fear, when they get released in theaters, On Demand, digital, or on BluRay/DVD, I’ll be sure to remind you of how awesome they are!
On with the horror reviews!
(Click title to go directly to the feature)
SLUMLORD (2015)
NINA FOREVER (2015)
LUDO (2015)
WE ARE STILL HERE (2015)
BITE (2015)
BUNNY THE KILLER THING (2015)
EXTINCTION (2015)
THE EDITOR (2014)

SLUMLORD (2015)
Directed by Victor ZarcoffWritten by Victor Zarcoff
Starring Neville Archambault, Brianne Moncrief, PJ McCabe, Sarah Baldwin, Jim Cummings, Heidi Niedermeyer
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
One of the most uncomfortable and fascinating films I’ve seen in a long time is SLUMLORD, a unrelentingly dark comedy of sorts with horrors that will keep you awake at night because they are so real and play on paranoias we’ve all experienced from time to time.

Everything about Gerald (Neville Archambault) is going to creep you out. From the kind of staggered way Gerald walks around to the heavy mouth-breathing and gravelly mutterings that escape his lips, Gerald is a character who made every inch of my skin squirm every time he was on screen. Director/writer Victor Zarcoff knows this quite well as the camera often just lingers on his wrinkled, sweaty face staring at the wall of TV monitors in his secret lair. Like the lost cousin of Laurence R. Harvey from THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE II, Archambault commands every scene he is in with a sort of ultimate pathetic power that is absolutely overwhelming; fascinating to watch, yet disgusting all the same. Seeing Gerald attempt a normal interaction with Clair is as uncomfortable as jumping into a bathtub full of earthworms. Archambault’s performance is what makes this film a horror movie of the highest caliber and he creates one of the more memorable movie bad guys you’re likely to see this year.

I stated this film is a comedy as it is quite ludicrous the lengths Gerald takes in worming his way into the lives of Clair and Ryan. Sneaking in when they are gone, feeding the dog McDonalds, fixing cameras that get broken, and finding out just where some of these cameras have been placed throughout the house; all of which reach a level of horror that if you don’t laugh at it, you’ll crack at how uncomfortable it makes you feel. The fact that this sort of thing occurs in the real world is what makes it all the more effective as SLUMLORD informs us in the opening moments. SLUMLORD is not a film for those who can’t take real life horror. And while it does go to an absurd level of horror by the end, the way Zarcoff expertly inches up the tension and complexity of Gerald’s involvement in the couple’s lives makes this a thriller that is on par with few others you’ll see this year. SLUMLORD is filled to the brim with fantastic suspense and scares that will needle their way into paranoid spaces you didn’t think you had. Highly recommended.
Slumlord Trailer (2015) Fantasia Film Festival from McManus on Vimeo.
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NINA FOREVER (2015)
Directed by Ben Blaine, Chris BlaineWritten by Ben Blaine, Chris Blaine
Starring Abigail Hardingham, Cian Barry, Fiona O'Shaughnessy, David Troughton, Elizabeth Elvin, Sean Verey, Javan Hirst, Richard Sandling, Phelim Kelly, Lee Nicholas Harris, Bill Holland, Katharine Bennett-Fox, Tamar Karabetyan
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Chock full with the type of quirk and sickness that I haven’t seen in a horror film since Lucky McKee’s MAY, NINA FOREVER turned out to be the right type of wrong for me.

As gory as this film is, it is quite heartfelt and sensitive to feelings of loss and guilt, as well as potent in capturing that magic that happens when two people meet and hit it off for the first time. This is a film that has powerful feelings as its backbone driving the story forward and all three actors (Hardingham, Barry, and O’Shaughnessy) convey this grab bag of emotions extremely well. The fact that Holly decides to roll with the fact that the ghost of Rob’s ex hanging around is a testament to the power of their love, but the film doesn’t really stop there in that these ghostly interruptions push Holly to the breaking point. Sure there’s a bit of comedy at the fact that everywhere Nina shows up is smeared with blood and gore, so the couple have to keep throwing out their sheets and cleaning the walls every time they have sex because Nina’s gory intrusions, but the film plays with the metaphor of how death affects a relationship and how one looks at relationships after one has experienced loss in a way that elevates it past mere comedy to a deeper and more soulful level.

Often wickedly funny, often sweetly sexual, but just when you find yourself laughing or falling for these characters, things flip to being potently poignant and then downright morose, NINA FOREVER is a film for folks who like unconventional love stories with endings that aren’t so happy. The lead three stars are going to be big someday if their performances here are any indication, especially the uniquely gorgeous Hardingham who is equal parts sexy and twisted all at once as Holly. If you’re the type who love stories that stray from the norm, NINA FOREVER may be the right kind of fucked up for you too.

LUDO (2015)
Directed by Qaushiq Mukherjee, NikonWritten by Qaushiq Mukherjee (story & screenplay), Nikon (story)
Starring Subholina Sen, Soumendra Bhattacharya, Ananya Biswas, Ranodeep Bose, Rii, Kamalika Banerjee, Joyraj Bhattacharya, Murari Mukherjee, Tillotama Shome
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
There’s a lot to like about LUDO, though I’m sure there are some that will disagree with me. The film takes what is expected in these types of films where a quartet of kids disobey their parents and go out for a night of drinking, drugging, and sexing only to find themselves so bored that they end up playing a game in an abandoned mall that turns out to be for life or death. It’s the way this film wraps up and chooses to dole out the scares that makes things so effective or possibly to some, ineffective.

For a large part of the film; I’d say 40 minutes or so, you wouldn’t know this was a horror movie as the film most resembles an Indian version of Larry Clarke’s KIDS. There’s a bunch of youngsters saying and doing things that are way too adult for their age and getting sucked into adult situations before they are really prepared to deal with them, doing so in a reckless manner that makes you both feel sorry for them and angry at them for not enjoying their youth a bit longer. This opening portion of the film is entertaining in terms of a horror movie because it really does establish, pretty blatantly, that these kids deserve whatever hell is coming their way. So in that sense (in terms of conventional horror movie standards), the film really does an effective job of making us hate these kids who pick fights for no reason, get angry for no real reason, and only hang around one another because of what the other ones can to for them.

Personally, I found this extended slideshow of horror images and sounds to be pretty terrifying and soaked it all in, but I know modern moviegoers might get bored with it. The ending itself promises more horrors to come, but honestly by that time, even though I found the imagery to be transfixing, I was ready for things to end too. There’s a ballsyness to LUDO which can’t be denied, though it is a bit brazen about itself suggesting that the horrors you’ve witnessed are unparalleled. It’s not quite that, as anyone who has seen a Trent Reznor video will have seen a lot of these images before. Still LUDO is effective and unconventional and worth a look if you enjoy films that stray from the norm.

WE ARE STILL HERE (2015)
Directed by Ted GeogheganWritten by Ted Geoghegan
Starring Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Lisa Marie, Larry Fessenden, Monte Markham, Susan Gibney, Michael Patrick Nicholson, Kelsea Dakota, Guy Gane, Elissa Dowling, Zorah Burress, Marvin Patterson, Connie Neer
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
WE ARE STILL HERE is the type of film they just don’t make anymore, and that’s a shame because it’s the type of film that I love. It’s a lived in film--one that feels like the world in which the film exists is well thought out and fully realized, so you don’t so much as watch the film as you experience it, as writer/director Ted Geoghegan patiently immerses you in this house and this horrifying situation to make a film that utterly transfixing.

The most prevalent aspect of this film is the pacing. While this might be a film that infuriates the ADHD masses, I found the long shots of the exteriors of the household interspersed with close up shots of the seemingly banal details of the house to set a mood that you can almost touch. One scene in particular focuses on the tendril-like trees with the bare limbs free of leaves due to the winter weather with the house in the background, then cuts to a close-up of a rusty hook on the side of the house. Little moments like this may seem throwaway, but they are crucial in ratcheting up the tension. Geoghegan channels his inner Kubrick here by patiently letting the scene envelop the viewer and pull them in to dangerous places. The long shots of the car driving at the reader down the snowy roads as well as the 80s style clothing reminded me so much of THE SHINING; though the story and content was vastly different, the tone is definitely the same type of creeping unease that permeates that classic film.

There are a few blips in the delivery of information that feel a bit info-dumpy, as when a neighboring couple stop by to educate the Sacchettis about the history of the house and again when the couple appear later in the film in a restaurant. Still, this exposition is necessary in filling in some of the gaps in the story. For the most part, WE ARE STILL HERE is proof positive that Geoghegan has not only done his homework on what causes effective scares, but is fully capable of delivering retro frights while making them feel fresh and new. All four of the main leads (Crampton, Sensing, Fessenden, and Marie) deliver rock solid and splendidly believable performances, with Crampton once again proving that her best acting years are ahead of her and not behind her in FROM BEYOND and RE-ANIMATOR. More horror films should take note of the patience used in this film. The need for a jump scare every two minutes is an insult and often leaves me feeling hollow upon leaving the theater. It’s almost impossible to leave this film unsatisfied as it is chock full of scares, thrills, and absolute horror. Highly recommended.

BITE (2015)
Directed by Chad ArchibaldWritten by Chad Archibald, Jayme Laforest
Starring Elma Begovic, Annette Wozniak, Jordan Gray, Lawrene Denkers, Denise Yuen, Tianna Nori, Barry Birnberg
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
The structure of BITE is a familiar one, reminding me of body horror films of note over the last few years (CONTRACTED and THANATOMORPHOSE, to be precise), but the insectoid lens in which this film is cast through makes it feel more akin with Cronenberg’s THE FLY than anything else. This is good company to be in as all of these films made me squiggle and squirm. BITE will make you feel that way too, I guarantee it.

As with THANATOMORPHOSE and CONTRACTED, the message here is, quite plainly, unprotected and reckless sex will kill you. All three films play with the metaphor of the horror of picking up an STD from a one night stand and what that does to a woman, her relationships, and her life. Not only is there a physical transformation, but there’s also the shame in receiving this disease that hurts and looks horrible, making you feel like a monster. It’s a metaphor that is ripe with potential and just as THE FLY did this with cancer, BITE does the same for STD’s as Casey is guilt-ridden first at what she did behind Jared’s back, but instead of telling him, she decides to keep it a secret. Later, the inner guilt evolves into Casey literally turning into a monster and makes her adulterous behavior impossible to hide for long. While the metaphor isn’t subtle, it speaks volumes and makes for some fantastic moments throughout the film that end up being very real, despite the fact that Casey is turning into a giant bug monster.

Begovic does a fantastic job of convincingly turning from a beautiful guilt-ridden girl who made a mistake to a cold-blooded monster by the final act. Every step of the way she straddles the line of being both sympathetic and menacing. Director Chad Archibald continues to evolve in a positive direction as a filmmaker. While I found flaws in his last two films (THE DROWNSMAN and EJECTA), there is an undeniable talent to both films and I feel it has come together much more successfully in BITE by telling a simple allegory focusing on a common predicament and taking it to monstrous proportions. BITE is disgusting, depraved, disturbing, and diabolical…in a way that will please gore-appreciative horror fans in the fullest!

BUNNY THE KILLER THING (2015)
Directed by Joonas MakkonenWritten by Joonas Makkonen (screenplay & story), Miika J. Norvanto(story)
Starring Enni Ojutkangas, Veera W. Vilo, Gareth Lawrence, Roope Olenius, Joonas Makkonen, Marcus Massey, Katja Jaskari, Jari Manninen, Olli Saarenpää, Ari Savonen, Miika J. Norvanto, Maria Kunnari, Henry Saari, Marika Pekkarinen, Juho Jaakkonen, Marko Moilanen, Vincent Tsang, Juha-Matti Halonen, Orwi Imanuel Ameh, Ari Karhunen, Erno Michelsson, Harri Korkiakoski, Hiski Hämäläinen, Harri Marttinen, Alisa Kyllönen, Simo Räsänen, Orwi Manny Ameh, Simo Räsänen, & Matti Kiviniemi as Bunny the Killer Thing!
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
Art snobs beware, BUNNY THE KILLER THING will take that upturned nose of yours and fuck it raw. But if you don’t mind guttural, potty humor to the maximum, this is going to be one hell of an experience you’re going to want to seek out asap.

Don’t take a minute of this film seriously and you’re bound to have a blast. If you’re the type who is going to cringe, be offended, and point of how politically incorrect this film is, please just move on to the next film and keep your accusatory digit to yourself. The film is masochistic. It is horrifying. It involves a giant rabbit man raping and killing everything in his path be it man, woman, or beast. And while films set to a serious tone deeply disturb me when it deals with subjects like rape, torture, animal cruelty, and death, when these subjects are dealt with such a level of cartoonish and manic lunacy as it does here, I can’t help but be impressed at the no fucks given attitude on display. Playing on stereotypes, clichés, and many other non-PC tropes, this movie will offend and if it does, then it seems like it is doing just what it set out to do. BUNNY THE KILLER THING seems proud of being inappropriate and dammit if it isn’t refreshing to see this type of brazen wrong-ness displayed for all to see whether they like it or not.

Again, this is not a film to be taken seriously. From start to finish, this is a whirlwind of a gore and wrong that’ll leave you gasping for breath by the time the credits roll. So wrong. So much fun. I loved every minute of it, but if you don’t mind an excessive amount of bodily fluids, double and triple entendre, and a healthy amount of slapstick violence that makes EVIL DEAD II look like GHANDI, BUNNY THE KILLER THING is going to entertain your freaking taint off!
BEWARE: There’s nothing in this trailer that is appropriate enough to be watched at work!

EXTINCTION (2015)
aka WELCOME TO HARMONYDirected by Miguel Ángel Vivas
Written by Juan de Dios Garduño (novel), Alberto Marini, Miguel Ángel Vivas
Starring Matthew Fox, Jeffrey Donovan, Quinn McColgan, Valeria Vereau, Clara Lago, Eduardo Fedriani, Matt Devere, Alex Hafner, Jeremy Wheeler, Katharine Bubbear
Find out more about this film here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
While zombie movies have become passé these days, I really think folks are just sick of uninspired zombie films retreading material we’ve seen a thousand times before. Add a new element or give it a new spin and zombies can be just as terrifying as any old monster. This is the case for the excellent new zombie flick EXTINCTION, which may have a somewhat uninspired name (I kind of like the original name of the film WELCOME TO HARMONY myself), but it delivers on just about every level a good zombie movie should.

Skipping ahead nine years, the situation has changed dramatically with Patrick and Jack not talking to one another and the baby who was born in the first moments of the film, which happens to be Patrick’s, is now being raised by Jack. This nine year old child named Lu (Quinn McColgan) is full of energy, questions, and a streak of rebelliousness that strikes the fear of god in Jack, whose rigid and controlled lifestyle has been crucial in surviving in this post-apocalyptic world. Though something has happened in between the opener and this new time in which the story takes place, the viewer isn’t let in on the secret until much later. The relationship between Patrick, Jack, and Lu is the driving force for the film and it’s a strong one as Patrick and Jack seem to have a bitter hatred towards one another, but not so much that Patrick has moved any further than the house across the street from where Jack and Lu live. Drinking the nights away and reaching out on a ham radio to find survivors, Patrick is a shell of a man in an arctic northern tundra seemingly far away from the threat of the infected. But when a naked and pale monster in the shape of a man crawls around outside in the snow sniffing for prey, it looks as if the infected have evolved into something even more menacing and adapted to the cold weather, posing a new threat that might be just the thing to repair the three’s strained relationship.

The zombies themselves have evolved into something much more threatening in EXTINCTION. Reminiscent of the underground monsters from THE DESCENT with their noses and lips frost burnt off, these creatures make this much more threatening than your usual zombie fodder. The way the creatures move, interact, and attack are all unique, which also makes this zombie film so good and unlike the rest.

Director Miguel Ángel Vivas has delivered a gorgeous movie which soaks in the golden sun, the twinkling and stark snowdrifts, and simple settings within the homes. Vivas also delivers all the right emotional beats that made me fall in love with these characters and root for all of them to survive. The climax of the film is jaw-droppingly good as Vivas splits the action into three locales, moving the camera through walls and across spaces vertically and horizontally to take in all of the action. It’s the type of sophisticated storytelling through camera movement you don’t normally see in films and a true indication that Vivas has many amazing films ahead of him.
So don’t be scared away thinking EXTINCTION is just another zombie movie. It’s filled with amazing action, drama that will make your heart swell and burst, and monsters that have evolved past your typical zombie fodder. If more films evolved the zombie concept like this, much of the stigma attached to zombie films would be dispersed. As is, EXTINCTION is an amazing little slice of cinema that thrills on all levels.

THE EDITOR (2014)
Directed by Adam Brooks, Matthew KennedyWritten by Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney
Starring Adam Brooks, Conor Sweeney, Matthew Kennedy, Paz de la Huerta, Udo Kier, Laurence R. Harvey, Tristan Risk, Sheila Campbell, Jerry Wasserman, Samantha Hill, Brent Neale, Lance 'The Snake' Cartwright, Jasmine Mae, John Paizs, William O'Donnell, Mackenzie Murdock
Find out more about this film here and on Facebook here
Reviewed by Ambush Bug
After dazzling me with the off kilter awesomeness of MANBORG and FATHER’S DAY, I was afraid the talented writers/directors/actors at Astron-6 were hanging up their funny and going a more serious route from what I saw of their newest feature THE EDITOR’s trailers. But this love song to all things Giallo is a tune set to a wonky beat as the film doesn’t so much as make fun of those Italian gore/mystery noir films of the 70’s as much as it just tells a goofy tale surrounded by what made those films so distinct in the first place.

The beauty of THE EDITOR is how is straddles the line between being a serious film set in the Italian Giallo 70’s and a farce of those same films. Those films were melodramatic to the nth degree with ultra-machismo sensibilities, dubbed voices, and reactions that are way over the top and beyond. So the antics that go in on THE EDITOR aren’t really that far off from the way those “so bad they’re good” Italian movies from the 70’s actually played as. Most likely and obviously given the authenticity of the film, the folks behind this film feel like super fans of this genre of filmmaking as they are spot on with the gritty and Grindhousey way things were filmed, the overly-complicated plot twists, the obvious red herrings, and clichéd actions and dialog. While this film is absolutely outrageous at times, for a good long time, this film could play off as an unearthed gem from the seventies if no one were the wiser it was a farce. It’s this authentic method with which Astron-6 tells this story with attention to deep focus, layered action in the foreground and background, the color palette of deep crimsons and blues, stiff acting, bad dubbing, and the gratuitous gore and nudity that makes it all the more entertaining and fun.

Loaded with gratuitous nudity, raunchy and ridiculous sex, uncoordinated action sequences, and sopping wet gore, THE EDITOR is a film you watch with your horror-appreciative friends with massive amounts of beer and a bellyful of laughs just waiting to escape. If you’re not familiar with Italian Giallo films THE EDITOR is paying homage to, first, I recommend you go out and check out as many of those films as you can as they are most definitely awesome. You can start with Argento and Bava and then move on from there. I could see this film falling flat for a lot of folks who have not experienced this type of cinema before. But if you’ve seen even a few Italian Giallo films from the 70’s and 80’s, you’re going to get a lot of the jokes and send ups here. I laughed out loud almost the entire way through THE EDITOR, a film that is equal parts gory farce and authentic Giallo. Astron-6 are a cadre of creative souls that I can’t get enough of and having conquered the world of Giallo here, it’ll be interesting to see what they will come up with next.
Ambush Bug is Mark L. Miller, original @$$Hole/wordslinger/writer of wrongs/reviewer/interviewer/editor of AICN COMICS for over 14 years & AICN HORROR for 5. Follow Ambush Bug on the Twitters @Mark_L_Miller.
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