‘Killing Gunther’ is the feature film directorial debut from SNL cast member Taran Killam. He also wrote this film which is a mockumentary about a group of quirky assassins who come together to accomplish their most ambitious goal; to kill the best, most elusive hitman out there known as Gunther. I watched this film without looking in to it first and that made it all the more enjoyable – especially when Gunther was revealed, and I had no idea who to expect to play him. Killam also stars as Blake, one of the hitmen, and does prove to be quite cool and charming protagonist. There are also some other names from SNL involved in the film and a lot of the comedy comes from their reactions to each other rather than individual talent.

This film has seemed to have a lot of negative reviews but personally I think some critics have been a bit harsh. Maybe the comedy won’t work for everyone, and it has been criticised for being lazy by using the mockumentary format, but it does work for the film. I imagine Killam didn’t have a huge budget to work with and it should be okay for filmmakers to be able to use this format if it’s less of a strain on the budget. Maybe it’s overdone, but ‘Killing Gunther’ had great style that I knew I liked from the opening scene, which felt like first person perspective. And as I mentioned, it probably didn’t have a huge budget, but the special effects were convincing for the most part despite that, with one scene in particular that had tons of explosions standing out.

My main gripe about the film is that Cobie Smulders, Killam’s real-life spouse, should have been in it more as Blake’s ex-girlfriend Lisa. It would have been interesting to see them in more scenes together or at least had more of their backstory. Most of the film is dedicated to seeing the group of assassins come together and their plans to kill Gunther, so it could have been padded out a bit by adding more to this subplot.

Overall, I had a great time watching ‘Killing Gunther’ – it’s ridiculous and that works in its favour. It has a fun style and uses the mockumentary format quite well. There’s a lot of things in this that makes it incredibly impressive that this is Killam’s first time directing; the ensemble of actors, as well as the action scenes, and I hope he goes on to write/direct more productions in the future. 

The Insidious franchise has improved a lot over the year, with the first film being near the bottom half of the supernatural horror list for me, however from chapter 2 onwards I have been very much excited to see the adventures of Lin Shaye’s Elise and her sidekicks Specs (Leigh Whannell – Saw, Cooties) and Tucker (Angus Sampson – Mad Max Fury Road, Fargo Tv Series), but does this latest installment improve on her story or does it repeat the same mistakes the second half of the original Insidious made?

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS…….. BE WARNED!


The film itself starts of well as we are shown a bit more of Elise as a child who is just starting to realise her gift of seeing spirits. While her mother thinks it is a gift her father decides she is making it all up and proceeds to beat it out of her. In current day, and this time not set before the first film, Elise and her boys are contacted my a man plagued by the spirits in his new home. The new home in question being Elise’s family home, and the place where all the shit the messed her up in her younger years are still residing. Agreeing to go back to the ghosts (literally) of her past Elise is dragged into a dark world, where a demon with keys for fingers wants her to return to open the red doors hidden inside the further. We get to see the full back story of Elise’s childhood, the death of her Mother, the ghosts that haunt her home and the moment she ran away from the abusive father leaving her little brother alone to fend for himself. The Last Key throws a few Twists and turns into the mix but alas the film takes a downward spiral as we are introduced to Elise’s nieces Melissa (Spencer Locke – Cougar Town, Resident Evil: Extinction) Imogen (Caitlin Gerard – Magic Mike, The Social Network) and her now much older brother, which leads to Melissa being taken into the Further and Imogen revealing she can also see spirits.

This is the point where the film dips for me. Fine Imogen having psychic powers does make sense, it gives the franchise room to branch out with a new character in the obviously set up sequel, but it is the way the film handles it that annoys me. This whole second half of the film feels very rushed, we go from ‘I See Them Too!’ to everyone just accepting it. No scene between Elise and Imogen where they can bond, no words of warning for the poor girl just okay lets throw you right in to middle of it all with no words of advice. The film continues on its faster motion with jump scare after jump scare to an odd final showdown with ol’ Key Fingers and then all is resolved apparently.

Maybe I shouldn’t be too picky, I mean The Last Key is much better than a lot of the supernatural horror we have been getting as of late, but I just found it a huge shame to rush the final half. Extend it my 20 minutes and you would have had enough time to put in what was needed. What I did enjoy though was the twist reveals throughout the film, I didn’t expect a lot of what happened and the jump scare in the pipe where Elise was finding the suitcases, one you knew was coming, honestly made me jump. The ending of the film is an obvious sequel set up as we will be going back to the family of the first film, with a worse looking Darth Maul looking spirit from the looks of it.

Overall The Last Key is a worth while watch. This is in no way the best film the franchise has put out there and is more ofa back story / sequel set up film than anything, however it is not as bad as the final half of the first film. Lin Shayne makes the franchise what it is, her portrayal of Elise is the reason I keep going back to the series. Her role makes it worth watching as a whole. The jump scares are all over this film, some awfully set up but some genuinely fun set ups. This is worth your time so go catch it now.  

Ghost Stories is a huge deal within the horror community her in the UK. If like myself you are a regular Frightfester you will remember a few years back that the stage show was being advertised a hell of a lot and even Andy Nyman made an appearance at the event. Now in 2018 the hit show has made it to the big screen with some big name British actors also on board, but does the stage show transition well to the big screen?

Ghost Stories follows Professor Goodman, a man who has made it his life work to prove the psychics wrong and debunk the existence of the supernatural. This is brought together nicely at the start of the film with a brilliant little documentary style moment which sees Goodman showing us how the psychics really know your deepest secrets before running on the stage and crushing the dreams of one poor lady in the audience by outing the man live on stage mid reading. When Goodman receives a Package from his idol and fellow sceptic Charles Cameron he is beyond excited, especially as Cameron had been missing for years. Cameron however is a changed man, he has seen things and these supernatural events has left him doubting all the anti supernatural feelings he had all his career.

Cameron sets Goodman a challenge to debunk three cases, all different and all unexplainable by Cameron’s investigations. The first case, starring Paul Whitehouse, follows the haunting tale of a night watchman who is being haunted by a spirit in the form of a little girl. The second a tale of the devil starring The End Of The Fucking World star Alex Lawther and the third, lead by Sherlock and Hobbit star Martin Freeman, of a man haunted by what is to come. His mind is played with and the ending of the film is shockingly good, which I will not share as It will spoil the ending for you.

The film is so very cleverly done, and personally I think you will need you watch this a few time to really pick up on the hints and the mental trickery that is on display. It was like a Derren Brown show that just seriously fucks with your mind! And this is a wondrous thing. The film also has some brilliant performances from all the cast involved with Andy Nyman being the V.I.P of the film, but of course he would be as the man created this! but the other standout performance has to be from Freeman who takes on a rare darker role which funnily enough works pretty well and is a welcome change from his lighter good guy roles.

Looking back at the film as whole it is very well put together with all the stories finding a way to weave into the films final act. The only real problem I found is story one and story three were, in some ways very similar. Story two had a very different tone, going more on the slightly humorous side yet still being creepy all the same.

If you love horror then you will love Ghost Stories. It is a great example of British acting and British horror as a whole.  

The Dark Knight returns in another action packed animated adventure, but in a strange turn of events Bruce Wayne finds himself in Feudal Japan in a....different take on  Batman lore in the form of Anime.

The story follows our favourite caped crusader as he is dragged through space and time when he tries to stop Gorilla Grodd from unleashing the power of his time machine on Gotham City. When Grodd's machine malfunctions it shoots Bruce Wayne, his foes and his friends in to the past and into Feudal Japan where, after two years have already past, Batman finds himself in a land ruled by clans. The Joker is at the center of this all, which leads to an epic battle between the two arch enemies, but however elsewhere Grood has other plans.

What ever you say about Batman Ninja, it is defiantly INTERESTING. The animated movie takes the anime style all the way. It feels like a modern anime but while this may sound like a good mix what we really get is an odd looking animated feature with a story that is, at points all over the place with no real sense, which is a real shame.

When it comes to character designs The Joker reminds me a little of the Final Fantasy villain Kefka, while the other villains just look like your basic anime or JRPG characters with little to really do with the plot apart from Grodd. It is odd seeing ninja versions of Robin and Nightwing but as I am not a follower of either the animated shorts or the Batman comics I am not sure about a few of the other characters, which can be a little confusing at times.

Overall Batman Ninja is just a run of the mill anime with a storyline that doesn't really mess with the canon of the series but gives you a re-imagining of the characters DC fans will love. Personally This wasn't really my cup of tea. While is am a huge anime fan I wasn't really into the style of the animation used, but it is one of those animated features you really should check out just so you can experience it.

‘Breaking In’ is a home invasion movie starring Gabrielle Union as Shaun, the mother of two children who goes to her father’s holiday home to sell it after he dies. However, after they arrive it becomes clear that they’re not alone there, with a group of criminals taking the kids hostage as they attempt get what they came for. It does deserve some credit for slightly subverting the circumstances of the usual home invasion narrative by having Shaun being the one actually trying to break into the house to save her children for some of the film rather than the bad guys. However, that’s where the originality ends as it doesn’t really do anything special to separate itself from any other film of the genre.

Unfortunately, the film misses a huge opportunity with its characters in favour of attempting to stretch out the action over the hour and a half that it runs for. The set-up of Shaun’s father’s death and the implication that her relationship with him wasn’t great when he was alive could have provided at least some development for the character over the film, but it’s not used to its full potential. Instead, the characters are very plain – and Glover, the son, is mostly there just to give some exposition at the start before he’s taken hostage. His dialogue has no subtlety at all; he talks like an adult to the point where it’s kind of ridiculous and takes you out of the movie. Especially when he’s explaining how the house’s security system works. Billy Burke gives one of the better performances of the movie besides Union, as he plays the rather menacing leader of the gang of intruders and does give the impression that he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants. Again, this would have been a good opportunity for some character background, by giving him a motivation besides money.

By the last act, the characters going back and forth from the house gets so exhausting it’s ridiculous – it actually got a few laughs from the audience in the end but that probably wasn’t intentional. Despite having all these things going against it, the film does at least have some entertainment value to it even if it’s not in the way it intended. The story just seems so half done, and it’s easy to see where it could have been improved that it’s infuriating. It’s a film you can kill some time with, but it’s probably not something many people will watch more than once.

THE STORY:
Alex (Gabrielle Haugh) and Miles (Grayson Gabriel) perform an ancient Pagan ritual, bringing forth The Midnight Man, who tortures the game’s players with their worst fears if they don’t follow the rules.

Like most half-decent horror movies The Midnight Man gives us an intriguing blood-soaked introduction. It’s those first promising minutes of limbo before the warning signs start to show that we have wasted the better part of a tenner, yet…again…

With the tone set by the opening, the film needs at least four players of The Midnight Game – and its needlessly long list of rules – to make its hour and a half of running time worth the ride. 25 minutes have elapsed and we only have a head count of 2. Worry starts to set in.

Yes, there is an old woman, played by Lin Shaye – who is always welcome – but her character is a nuisance and the villain doesn’t seem bothered by her. A third player appears out of nowhere just after the halfway point, but it’s much too little too late. She’s not interesting. We have no time to know her character. Why should we care?

Robert Englund we know, so he’s cool. His reintroduction to the storyline along with all the extra backstory that comes with him feels sort of tacked on. All these things, plus the inclusion of player no.3 make you feel like you can sense the writers were thinking: Where the hell do we go from here?

We are treated to some very gruesome imagery, which is cool but I felt we lose the connection to what the villain is actually trying to achieve, particularly in regards to Miles. I’m all for a horror show, but there’s got to be a point.

LAST WORDS:
Can’t say I was expecting much from the guy who directed what might possibly be the most pointless remake in horror history. Obviously, this movie was a better effort. Trouble is that stories like The Midnight Man are only scary to children.  ​

Dark Forest’ is an independent slasher horror about a group of girls who go on a camping trip. However, one of them (Emily, played by Laurel McArthur) goes as a way to rebel against her abusive boyfriend Peter (Dennis Scullard). This makes him pretty angry and he decides to make his friend accompany him on a killing spree on his way to find Emily.

Firstly, the acting in this film isn’t great. The main girls do just fine and a couple in particular could probably become quite good in the future, but everyone else is quite boring and flat. Scullard isn’t helped with the fact that his character is written as such a stereotype that it’s not that interesting. It feels like this movie was written by a man trying to write a story about female empowerment but just went about it in the least subtle way possible by going with the stereotypical woman-beater who would probably punch his girlfriend for not having the dinner done on time. Peter doesn’t even hide his horrible nature from Emily’s friends at the beginning, and might as well have “I’m the worst” tattooed on his forehead. On the other hand, Peter’s attempt at emotional manipulation is one detail that redeems the writing for his character. However, there is also the problem that in the parts of the film that don’t focus on Emily and her friends or Peter, it puts too much time into characters that have no relevance the main plot or characters. They’re literally just there to get killed, which would be fine if there wasn’t as much screen time put into showing what they’re doing (which isn’t anything particularly exciting). If the idea behind this was to have more of an impact when they’re killed, then it didn’t quite succeed.

At times the sound mixing could have been better, but in terms of the score some of the music was enjoyable. There were some scenes where the music was distracting and seemed a little out of place. This issue could also have been because of the contrast between modern pop style music being used in contrast with synth tracks reminiscent of the 80s, very similar to what’s used in ‘It Follows’ (2014). It might have been better if it stuck with one style or the other, especially if it had just gone full on 80s since that’s where the film’s influences clearly come from (‘Friday the 13th’ being the most obvious one).

Overall, it seems like ‘Dark Forest’ was made because of a passion for 80s slasher movies, but it doesn’t feel like it fully commits to what it’s trying to do. The writing could have been more subtle, but it still manages to be an entertaining watch despite its issues.