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Review: Glenn Danzig’s ‘Verotika’ Is A Madhouse Horror Anthology

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There’s a fine line between horror and comedy. One person’s fear can be another’s joke. Sort of like when Homer Simpson tells Mel Brooks he loved Young Frankenstein. “Scared the hell out of me!” By extension, a movie eliciting the exact opposite response from the intention of the filmmakers can lead to a cult phenomenon. This is already evident in rock icon Glenn Danzig’s feature film debut: Verotika.

While I enjoy Danzig’s music, I never really followed his career and only learned that the film was adapted on a comic book series of the same name that Danzig created, so I went in as blind as possible. And it’s a good thing I did because the film sucker-punched me like a brick from the heavens. Verotika is a horror anthology split into three tales of terror. Before the film, Danzig made a brief introduction, citing inspiration from the likes of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. Which made sense as the film went on with a clearly Euro influence. The story begins with the devilish Morella gouging out the eyes of a beautiful blonde bound in her basement before the titles drop. It’s a strong start that goes immediately downhill.

The three vignettes of Verotika aren’t necessarily stories. Things happen, but story structure, if any, is limited. It could almost be considered arthouse if it wasn’t actually trying to tell these stories. The first, “The Albino Spider of Dajette” follows the titular Dajette in her native France (with every character speaking English with French accents) who after being rejected by another man because of her deformity, namely eyes growing on her breasts, cries. From her breasts. The tears mutate a white spider into a hulking six-armed brute (also with an accent) who becomes obsessed with Dajette and kills people she secretly doesn’t like… or people in general. Under the serial killer moniker of ‘The Neckbreaker.’

Next comes “Change of Face” where a serial killer woman stalks the city of angels, ripping off the faces of beautiful women so she can collect them and wear them at her job as a stripper. The police are baffled and curse frequently. Lastly, there’s “Drukija Contessa of Blood”, a more traditional Euro horror story following the evil contessa, Drukija as she collects ample virgins form the countryside so she may bathe in their blood.

With the exception of the first story, these tales of Verotika have no real endings and very little drive. There’s murders, nudity, sex, and sleaze, but not in a fashion that can be structured. We’re looking into the mind and Id of Danzig and it looks exactly like the comic books. The acting is silly and jumps between over the top ham to dull surprise even in reaction to mutilation. The pacing jumps from frantic cuts to glacier slow focuses on everything from tantalizing women to a handful of grapes. Perhaps one of the most poignant moments in the movie is Contessa Drukija bonding with a wolf over some spare virgin meat.

Verotika is a vision in that it’s exactly the kind of movie the creator wanted to make and it gives us insight into their process. One that is borderline incomprehensible to anyone else. This is a film destined for cult attraction. I all but guarantee Verotika will be populating midnight screenings when it officially comes out in October. This is a crowd movie, one that elicits riffs, laughter, ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’. This will be a movie people bond over. Time will tell how mainstream audiences will react, but if history has taught us anything it’s to never underestimate a weird movie’s resonance with the public.

Image via IMDB

*Jacob Davison originally wrote this review in June 2019. 

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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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