News
Review: ‘The Barge People’ Is A Merry Murky Mutant Monster Movie
Due to current events in 2020, many of us sadly had to put the kibosh on our Summer plans. Be it visiting family, attending weddings, or just taking a trip to the country. But if horror movies have taught us anything, Summer sojourns can lead to disaster… or worse. This is the premise of the British back-river horror of The Barge People.
The story follows two sisters, Kat (Kate Davies-Speak) and Sophie (Natalie Martins) as they decided to spend a weekend holiday with their respective boyfriends laid back Mark (Mark McKirdy) and the obnoxious businessman, Ben (Matt Swales) in the British countryside. Deciding to rent a barge and take a slow, romantic ride through the canals of the backwoods, the quartet find themselves in conflict with some irate locals… and even more bloodthirsty inhabitants of the polluted waterways.
The Barge People is a U.K. horror movie from 2018 but finally hitting Stateside. It’s a low-budget affair to be sure, but it’s a fun one. Watching it, the movie does have an aura of direct to video horror movies and slashers of the 1980’s. Even the title cards and credit sequence flaunt the aesthetic without leaning into it too hard. Even more evident in the synth, tense score from composer Sam Benjafield, which is a high point of the production. The story itself is a definitive throwback to movies like The Hills Have Eyes and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre but with a distinctly British twist and featuring some Lovecraftian fish mutants instead of hillbillies and rednecks.
The story is a bit by the numbers and the characters are a bit flat, granted, but The Barge People does deliver in the gore and practical fx departments. Living up to the movies of yesteryear it’s emulating with little to no CGI. Giving an ample amount of sticky red blood plastered across victims and the screen. Then of course are the titular Barge People. Horrifying fish-human hybrids created by toxic and chemical waste polluting the local water routes. Though amphibious, with their trenchcoats and hooks they also give off a bit of a Hellraiser vibe. Unfortunately, none really give off the kind of gravitas or charisma to give us a ‘Pinhead’-esque lead killer, but the FX and designs are fine enough.
The Barge People isn’t the most fleshed out horror and probably could have used a little more depth. Like I said, flat characters, and a formulaic plot. But for the gorehounds and people just wanting a fun, simple, creature feature, mutant horror, this is an enjoyable watch. Also plenty of unconnected but mood setting kills of random and passing by victims just to add some extra bodies and guts here and there. Unfortunately, the home video release is rather bare bones. No special features on the DVD/Blu-Ray. Not even a trailer. Just the movie and subtitles. That is it. There is a decent embossed slipcover, but that’s really as much as you get.
Still, if you’re in the mood for some mindless, old school, beastly slasher fun with a decent amount of charm, have a pint and take a float with The Barge People.
The Barge People hits VOD, DVD, and Blu-Ray on August 18th, 2020.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.
We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.
“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”
That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”
Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
Movies
‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.
Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.
Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.
Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.
Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.
The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
News
Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date
Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.
Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.
These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:
According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”
Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.
Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.
'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?
Follow our new YouTube channel "Mysteries and Movies" here.
-
News5 days ago
Original Blair Witch Cast Ask Lionsgate for Retroactive Residuals in Light of New Film
-
Movies6 days ago
Spider-Man With a Cronenberg Twist in This Fan-Made Short
-
News3 days ago
Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year
-
Movies4 days ago
New F-Bomb Laden ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer: Bloody Buddy Movie
-
News4 days ago
Russell Crowe To Star in Another Exorcism Movie & It’s Not a Sequel
-
Lists3 days ago
Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody
-
Movies4 days ago
‘Founders Day’ Finally Getting a Digital Release
-
Movies4 days ago
New ‘The Watchers’ Trailer Adds More to the Mystery
You must be logged in to post a comment Login