LATE PHASES REVIEW

Adrian Garcia Bogliano stunned me with his last film, Here Comes The Devil, an art house possession flick that dealt head on with a crumbling family unit, sexual abuse and incest. It's a jarring and unforgiving film with one of the best endings I've seen in a horror film. The Spanish director's follow up is an even smaller, more intimate story of a blind war vet being dumped in a retirement community to wait for death, but not the death he expects.
Late Phases wastes little time getting to the horror. Only a few minutes in we get our first glimpse of our werewolf pass by a window and the sight made my wife scream a bit. Like the demons in Here Comes The Devil, the werewolf sets the movie up and then takes a backseat, while Bogliano delivers a moving character drama about fatherhood, death and estrangement. Nick Damici (Stake Land) is perfect as Ambrose, a widowed Vietnam vet who's gone blind along with dealing very poorly with his disintegrating relationship with his son. Ambrose is a course and stand offish man who gets on the wrong side of some of his neighbors while charming others. He finds a sort of friend and confidant in Father Roger, played by the always fun to watch Tom Noonan (House of the Devil, Manhunter).
On the horror side, Late Phases does not let viewers down. It's a scary, gory, and tense film that defies expectations, doesn't dumb things down, and goes for the throat with very cool creature FX and action. It's yet another win for Dark Sky Films and Glass Eye Pix, who will be remembered in film history as fondly, if not more, as Hammer or Universal. Late Phases works, not because its a good werewolf movie, but because it's a good movie with werewolves.

BEST MOVIES OF 2014

No matter how many movies I watch, there are so many more that I get farther and farther behind on! I feel like I spent most of the year trying to catch up on last year's movies, but I do have two strong picks from the year.

Here Comes The Devil (read my review here)

The Sacrament (read my review of all of Ti West's film here) 

LATE PHASES LOOKS AMAZING

From Dark Sky Films' website;
"Crescent Bay is not the best place to live out one’s golden years. Once an idyllic retirement community, the secluded neighborhood has been beset by mysterious and deadly attacks. When grizzled war veteran Ambrose McKinley (Nick Damici, Stake Land) moves in, the residents immediately take offense to his abrasive personality. But his take-no-prisoners attitude is just what he needs to survive as it becomes clear that the increasingly violent and patterned attacks are being caused by beasts that are neither animal nor man, and the tight-knit community of Crescent Bay is harboring something truly sinister in its midst…"

Late Phases stars Nick Damici (Stake Land, We Are What We Are) and looks to be another winner from Dark Sky Films. It feels like its been a while since we've had a really kick ass were wolf film, or maybe I just haven't seen any? This one though was directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano, who delivered the gut punch Here Comes The Devil last year!

Late Phases opens November 21 in theaters and VOD. Check out this trailer!

HERE COMES THE DEVIL...SPOILER FREE REVIEW

It's every parents' nightmare; Tragedy strikes a couple on vacation in Tijauna, Mexico when their two children go missing, but when the kids reappear the real nightmare begins.
Writer/director Adrian Garcia Bogliano's HERE COMES THE DEVIL is a wicked mind fuck of a flick. I saw it this past saturday night at the Nevermore Film Fest, with an audience of willing and enthusiastic horror fans. The film is disarming and bewildering right from the start with wildly humorous zooms and an intense and long sex scene, that (at least with an audience) was almost embarrassingly engrossing. Bogliano constructs a really good roller coaster with DEVIL. He sets us up for a fast drop into despair and fear then keeps us guessing while leveling out for the final drops and loops, driving the audience to a satisfying and disturbing end.
DEVIL's  plot is nuanced and multi-layered, weaving crime noir/murder mystery and the supernatural into a pretty dreadful tapestry. The cast is strong, particularly Laura Caro as Sol, who's the anchor of the film. As a grief stricken mother that evolves into a machine of revenge and later into a mother jaguar willing to take on the Devil himself, Caro is brilliant and mesmerizing. Francisco Barreiro, who plays Felix, the father, is also a win on casting. He's flawed, but like any good father there's no end to what he'll do to protect his

children. Sol and Felix's marriage in and of itself is quite a roller coaster and it's actually the energy that powers the story. Sol and Felix's children, played by Alan Martinez and Michele Garcia don't get much screen time or dialogue considering their disappearance and later behavior is the catalyst for every thing that happens in DEVIL. Of course that may be because Bogliano didn't want to expose the kids to the more gruesome and erotic elements of the film.

It's hard to stay vague about HERE COMES THE DEVIL, because I enjoyed it quite a lot and would like to cut loose with a full dissection of the film and why I think it's worthy of your attention, but I'll save it until after the DVD release. Instead I'll leave you with my mini-tweet review; "A director from Argentina uses Mexico to make a great Italian possession flick." If it plays near you, I recommend you catch it.

TRAILER PARK 12.9.13

Can't say I had incredibly high hopes for Amazing Spiderman 2, but now i feel safe being excited...

Nurse 3D looks...titillating 

Big Bad Wolves will not be the feel good family comedy you're looking for

Niether will Here Comes The Devil

And um, probably not Antisocial either...Oh my God!