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“House on Willow Street” is a Diabolical Good Time

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Fresh this week from IFC Midnight in association with The Darkside and Fat Cigar Productions brings us House on Willow Street, a solid horror thriller written by Catherine Blackman, Jonathan Jordaan, and Alistair Orr.  Orr, who also directed the 2014 indie film Indigenousonce again steps into the director’s chair and it’s easy to see from frame one that he’s grown much more comfortable and self assured in the role.

As the film opens, Hazel (Sharni Vinson), Ade (Steven John Ward), Mark (Zino Ventura), and James (Gustav Gerdener) are finalizing plans to kidnap the daughter of a wealthy man whom they all believe has wronged them in some way.  They zero in on Katherine (Carlyn Burchell) and the planned kidnapping seemingly goes off without a hitch despite the strange symbols carved into the home’s walls and the fact that Katherine looks like she might have been finishing a week long bender when they show up to take her.

The crew takes Katherine back to their hideout and records a video demanding a ransom in priceless diamonds from the girl’s parents.  Up until this point, everything seems fit to fall into your average kidnap film and one could almost anticipate Liam Neeson’s voice answering Hazel as she makes the ransom call.  But this isn’t your typical kidnapping film, and Neeson is not about to kick ass and save the day.

On the contrary, the crew begins to notice there is something very strange about Katherine.  She stares just a little too long at her captors; she has an almost feral quality to her, and knows just a little too much about her kidnappers.  In fact, it isn’t long before they realize that Katherine’s a woman with a ton of demonic baggage she’s about to unpack all over them.

No spoilers here, but what follows is a masterful attempt at melding two sub-genres (kidnapping/crime and possession) into something altogether unique.  And I have to tell you, under Orr’s direction and with solid performances by the actors, they almost universally succeed.  In fact, Orr, Blackman, and Jordaan, managed to tell a story about the heavy toll that grief and loss take on the body and spirit of those in their clutches.

The remarkably small cast (only five actors are credited on IMDb) works as a solid unit throughout.  Ventura and Gerdener attack their roles with sadistic gusto.  These guys have no problem kidnapping this girl and they don’t mind hurting her if necessary to get what they want.  Meanwhile, Vinson and particularly Ward play out their character’s humanity.  They didn’t want to do this, but they saw no other way to make Katherine’s father pay for what he’d done.  It gives the crew a nicely balanced effect without giving over to the cliche’s their characters could have been.

Steven John Ward and Sharni Vinson

But there’s no denying that in a possession film, the person possessed always takes the lead and Burchell’s Katherine is the center of every scene.  Possessed Katherine radiates menace and power in stark contrast with the vulnerable Katherine we see in videos leading up to her possession.  Burchell plays both with a steady hand and never lets her performance become less than real.

Overall, House on Willow Street, is a fun and genuinely scary film that, like the best horror, pushes the audience to look deeper into themselves.  As the lines blur between villain and victim, captor and captured, I found myself asking who was the real bad guy here? Who should I be rooting for?  Those answers, as in real life, aren’t clear cut, and Orr and his cast do their level best to remind us that when the chips are down, black and white are rarely present and it’s all too often in the shades of grey that we find ourselves.

House on Willow Creek releases on VOD and select streaming services this Friday, March 24, 2017.  Make sure to check it out!

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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