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Movie Review: ‘Out of the Shadows’

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A pregnant mother confronts a nightmare in Out of the Shadows, the new supernatural horror film from Australian director/co-writer Dee McLachlan.

Eric and Katrina Hughes (Blake Northfield, Kendal Rae) have found their dream home in an old, abandoned midwifery until Katrina begins to suspect both she and her baby are being targeted by something evil from the building’s past.

Eric, of course, is unconvinced and begins to suspect her sanity is slipping as her behavior becomes more erratic, but after a while even he can’t deny the activity in the home and they soon find themselves in a battle for all their lives to protect their unborn child.

If you’re thinking you’ve seen this movie before, you’re partially right. Out of the Shadows follows a pretty standard pattern, but that certainly doesn’t mean it isn’t worth watching. The film is a taut horror/thriller with plenty of tension to keep its audience on the edge of its seat.

Blake Northfield and Kendal Rae as Eric and Katrina in Out of the Shadows (Photo by Michaela Johnson-Carroll-Blue Fox Enter)

Much of its success falls upon the shoulders of her substantially talented cast.

Rae plays Katrina with raw emotional depth; you can palpably feel each emotional shift as the film progresses while Northfield’s Eric is equally convincing and it was interesting to watch him slowly shift from disbelief to confusion to belief to fear.

The film’s real standout, by far, is Lisa Chappell as Linda Dee, a motorcycle-riding, leather wearing, badass demonologist enlisted by the Hughes to help them when they are turned away by the church.

It isn’t often that we see a woman in this type of role and it was not only refreshing, but highly entertaining as she prepared for spiritual battle with the forces inside the old widwifery. Chappell’s performance heightens what we’ve come to expect in this type of role, and it was a much needed breath of fresh air.

And then there’s Goran Kleut…I can’t say much about Kleut’s character, Mr. Augusta, without spoilers so I’ll just say that he is both menacing and terrifying onscreen, and deserving of the attention that he will no doubt receive from this role.

The action of the film is perfectly complemented in its score by Christopher Gordon, who previous work can be on heard on film such as Daybreakers and the 2004 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. Gordon’s work here is starkly beautiful and haunting with a classic style that creates an audio landscape as enigmatic and breathtaking as the film’s setting.

As I said before, Out of the Shadows has not re-invented the wheel, here. Many of the tropes we’ve come to expect from this type of film are present and accounted for throughout this story of menacing spirits/demons, but they have certainly created an entertaining and scary film with a few tweaks to the norm here and there.

My one complaint comes at the end. It was rather like seeing a gymnast performing a complicated, successful routine beautifully and then failing to stick the landing.

The last ten minutes or so of the film are a bit of a mess as the plot unravels in a sudden and intense rush of over-the-top special effects, and while they managed to quickly knit some of it back together for the final scene, I’m afraid it wasn’t enough to save them completely from the damage that had been done.

Still, if you’re a fan of things that go bump in the night, of restless spirits and disembodied voices, and of stories of families who stand together and fight the unseen evils menacing their homes, then Out of the Shadows is a journey that is totally worth taking.

You can see Out of the Shadows on Amazon Streaming and other VOD services right now with a physical release set on September 11, 2018. Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think in the comments!

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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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