Check out a final roundup of films seen at this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.
Erie
Alison-Eve Hammersley’s Erie takes several tricks out of The Blair Witch Project playbook. Everything, right down to the abrasive, constantly bickering characters heading out to the woods, feels tired and cliched. We’ve seen this before a million times over. There’s a trend, particularly in the indie horror scene, to save the best for the very last 15-20 minutes. That structure makes for a very long trek to get to the good stuff. If you last that long, the third act is killer. Too bad you have to wade chest-deep into the sludge.
Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story
Sarah Appleton’s Full Moon Rising: The Charles Band Story details B-movie giant Charles Band and his meteoric rise to becoming the King of Low Budget Horror in the vein of Roger Corman. You’ll find familiar faces like John Carpenter and Barbara Crampton among the talking heads, regaling stories about knowing him from his very first film and starring in Castle Freak, respectively. While the documentary could have dug even deeper and unearthed more complex layers to the man, the myth, and the legend, it does offer an exciting glimpse into his career, from every dizzying high to the bottom of the barrel. And everywhere in between is also celebrated. It’s a must-see for any horror fan.
ÒPI
Marta Giec’s ÒPI emerges as your textbook slow burn. Sometimes, that approach works as a character study with horrifying elements sprinkled throughout the story. But here, it comes across as lazy and boring. A young girl feels trapped with her toxic mother and plans to escape with a friend, but a series of unfortunate events and poor decisions lead her to stay. As a result, she’s forced to confront terribly grim secrets. She has ever single opportunity to leave, but she chooses to stay. Perhaps, it’s Stockholm Syndrome, or it’s simply a bad character choices. Either way, ÒPI is so middle of the road without anything interesting to say.
Mountain King
Gabrielle Christensen’s Mountain King sets up an intriguing premise, but the goodwill is wasted on a frustrating lead and a sluggish unraveling. A young woman broke up with her boyfriend three weeks prior and decides to surprise him in Sweden. Her party crash doesn’t go over so well, as her beau stayed away from the family for 10 very long years for some very wicked reasons. His parents are what you’d call truly disturbed. Despite every single warning, she decides to stay and immediately regrets her decision. Perhaps with a few character tweaks Mountain King could have been a banger, but as it stands, it barely crosses the finish line.
Godhead
Mark H. Rapaport’s Godhead surprises with thoughtful visual storytelling that crawls under the fingernails and up into the bloodstream. Two twins declare that they are prophets and visit a priest, offering up quite a deadly proposal in order to save the world from the apocalypse. Their descent into the priest’s past reveals some harrowing, brutally disgusting secrets and a much grander puzzle that will knock you off the floor. The final scene might be tough to stomach for most viewers, but it’s commentary about complicity and religious contamination feels eerily timely.
