after dark horrorfest 3

THE BROKEN: A thinly veiled adaptation of Jack Finney’s Body Snatchers, this one might be more successful than the inept big-budget remake of two summers ago. Lena Heady (The Sarah Connor Chronicles) spots her exact double driving down the street, but after they confront one another a car crash causes complete amnesia. Upon recovery, she realizes others are being replaced as well, including members of her own family. Writer / director Sean Ellis makes nice use of an old horror film standby – the evil twin in the mirror gag – and sucks the color out of his images to nice dramatic effect. Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins adds some authenticity to what is unquestionably the classiest film in this years collection. PERKINS 14: Proud to call itself the first “crowd-sourced” horror movie ever produced (which essentially means internet voters chose the cast and guided the story), Perkins 14 feels like exactly that. The first half-hour is an intimate battle of wills between the local cop whose child was abducted ten years ago and the creepy guy in his holding cell who may have been responsible. From there the story jumps to typical oversexed teens in peril, an X-Files-style search through a spooky basement and finally all out zombie mayhem as medicinally created monsters ravage the town. Each act of the film is a separate entity that never comes together in a satisfying way, as if three goth kids were locked in a room and came up with three different ideas. But the individual parts can be creepy enough unto themselves. There’s also a good chunk of extras devoted to the webisodes chronicling the production. AUTOPSY: Stuffed with half-familiar faces - Robert Patrick and Jenette Goldstein, both James Cameron alums, among them – Autopsy is a classic “bad decision” horror movie, in which every character must be completely devoid of common sense to make the story work. After a car accident, a group of friends tag along with a pair of suspicious ambulance drivers to the local hospital, which just happens to be run by a mad scientist (Patrick) using stolen organs to keep his wife alive. The cast is appealing and there’s just enough gore inherent in the premise to keep you watching; one particular disemboweling would make even Lucio Fulci flinch. Like most of this year’s titles, Autopsy is slick enough to overcome its rather obvious screenplay deficiencies. But you have to have a taste for blood to find it appealing. FROM WITHIN: Again, everything about director Phedon Papamichael’s film is professional. This is no cheesy Sci-Fi Channel production. It even features a cameo by none other than Rumer Willis, the daughter of Hollywood royalty. But the story – an unflattering combination of The Happening and The Ring – simply fails to generate enough scares. A family curse spreads through a small bible-belt community, haunting victims with their own ghostly visages and frightening them into committing suicide. From Within is disconnected from reality, set in the sort of America that just doesn’t exist anymore and dotted with moments of unintentional humor despite its overly serious tone. It’s going for the sort of impending dread made popular by the wave of J-horror films (and their American remakes), but only manages to achieve it during a clever closing credits montage. VOICES: Speaking of J-horror, we come closer to the real thing with this film from South Korea. Even though writer / director Oh Ki-Hwan cannibalizes the clichés that came before him (family curses, spooky wet ghosts and schoolgirl outfits), there are enough bravura scenes in Voices to elevate it above most of this year’s competition. After witnessing the murder of her aunt, a young girl comes under attack from her friends and family who inexplicably try to kill her. It seems a curse (there’s that word again) has been passed that inspires anyone with a grudge (lawsuit pending) against our heroine to fly into a murderous rage. It makes for some incredibly unexpected scares and feeds into inherent teenage paranoia that everyone is out to get them. The only thing holding Voices back from international acclaim (and an assured American remake) is its maddening inconsistency. The curse comes and goes on a whim and Ki-Hwan eventual explanation as to its origins provide more confusion that it does closure. SLAUGHTER: Beware the farmer’s daughter! Featuring some of the worst acting in the collection and a ridiculously boring 45-minute set-up, Slaughter almost redeems itself with nihilistic finale that combines death by swine, shotgun, hanging and the most painful dental procedure since Marathon Man. A parade of unrecognizable pop songs attempt to make this one feel like your typical teenage PG-13 horror flick, but the obviously overage stars and their limited acting abilities reveal the film for what it really is: the worst film in this year’s series. On the run from her abusive boyfriend, Faith moves in with her new BFF, Lola, a slutty farmgirl who sleeps with everyone she sees. But Lola’s partners have a mysterious habit of disappearing. Is it her creepy farmer father to blame or is Lola keeping secrets from her new roommate? Do yourself a favor and skip ahead to the final 15 when the movie finally gets interesting. Extras includes deleted scenes and a Making Of. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT 3: REVELATIONS: Despite having the most name recognition, this is one falls squarely in the middle of the pack. The original Ashton Kutcher film was a brutal B-movie with a great idea (lifted from Ray Bradbury) and a nasty mean streak. I somehow missed the fact that there ever was a sequel produced, so large chunks of this 3rd chapter were spent getting me up to speed. The general concept hasn’t changed, however, with new characters falling into the same moral quandary: should you mess with the past even when you know it will f*** up the future? Of course, the movie would be no fun if folks didn’t make bad choices. Sam jumps back to prevent his ex-girlfriend from being murdered an instead creates a serial killer who racks up 8 victims in very short order. The flick was filmed in our hometown of Detroit and looks authentically grimy. But it could have taken a lesson from Quantum Leap and lightened up a bit. DYING BREED: Pay no attention to the cover art, which suggests some sort of high society satire. This is Australia’s answer to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, with a quartet of tourists lost in the backwoods of Tasmania hunted by a clan of cannibals descended from turn of the century prisoners. The best looking and most exotic film the bunch, this is the sort of quality you would expect to get a major studio release. Yet it’s so...ordinary. Director Jody Dwyer makes good use of the Tasmanian scenery, employing some helicopter shots to great effect and dispensing the gore with a master’s touch. But his story follows a straight line that so many other copycats have traveled before, particularly the classic X-Files episode “Home,” which has inspired just as many rip-offs as Massacre itself. Extras include a Making Of and trailer.