Unrest:

The movie follows the story of Alison (Corri English), a vivacious young woman, aspiring to become a medical surgeon who also splits her time between dating a fellow medical student and solving the mystery of a partially decaying corps of an archeologist possessed by a Brazilian god of death. The movie has solid acting and a lead actress that can stop a man’s heart like a deer about to be hit by a minivan going 80 miles per hour, but is hampered by a storyline that drags more than a three-legged horse nursing a gunshot wound.In some instances the slow moving heap of molasses, formerly known as the movie’s storyline is remedied by a creepy hospital hallway, amazingly realistic dead bodies or the lead actress taking her shirt off. The revelation of the plot to the audience also had as much impact as a pillow fight between two stuffed animals because of the unnecessarily prolonged nothingness of a romantic subplot. Another critique of the film is that the characters who are supposedly pre-meds, are written as though they were bumbling high school kids. With ignorance of characters an unreal tension in the audience occurs, not because they are afraid but because they think the characters are stupid. The movie is too unbelievable to become scary. Even with all the blood, gore, realistic corpses and an attractive topless woman constantly diving into a huge vat of formaldehyde filled with severed human heads and limbs, it will not surprise nor impress a veteran of horror flicks.

Penny Dreadful:

“Penny Dreadful” is the story of a road trip gone haywire because of a frostbitten hitchhiking homicidal maniac. Penny (Rachel Miner), a girl suffering from a fear of automobiles is brought along by her psychotherapist Orleana, (Mimi Rogers) in the attempt to cure her. Through their long drive they encounter a hooded man who shoots out from the darkness of a blind corner and gets hit by their car. They give him a ride in return for not suing them. The proverbial piece of poop hits the fan after this event. This movie starts out with remarkable screenplay. The scenes of Penny being haunted by the memories of the hooded man combined with her fear of being in a car are truly horrific. The way bits and pieces, images of the zombie like man begin flashing before your eyes in rapid succession coupled with the sound of a heart beating and pounding like an AK-47, effectively put you in the manic shoes of Penny. Without a single drop of blood being shed or even an appearance of the antagonist, it was awe-inspiring how chilling it was. At the mid-point of the film a funny thing happened. Penny was caught in the serial killer’s trap; she was stuck in her car for the rest of the film. It seemed like the horror writers went on a smoke break and never came back. When the hitchhiker became more proactive in antagonizing poor little Penny, the movie lost its luster faster than my fleeting hopes for this movie. The movie had the makings of a great horror/thriller but somehow just turned into a movie I resent with a passion. I loathe it, not because of what it is but because of the loss of what it could have become. “Penny Dreadful” only reinforces the idea that “hit and run” is a good thing and should always be observed by motorists, and serial killers are immune to everything but young and good looking women.

The Abandoned:

Marie (Anastasia Hille), a woman obsessed with the search of her birth parents, follows her last lead into rural Russia. In the middle of a vast forest a tour guide drops her off at a derelict home in the middle of nowhere. A house she now owns, according to Russia’s Notary department. The first night she spends in her home is horrific. She meets her own ghost in a dark corner of a room in the house. With milky white eyes, her mirror image stares her down. Marie ran in fear of the specter. The faster she ran, the more the maze-like the house becomes, in every dark corner she turns to, her doppelganger reappears. She ran out of the house as fast as she could, she slipped and fell into a river. The next morning she found herself inside the house with her twin brother, Nicolai (Karel Roden). He tells her that he too has a doppelganger roaming within the house. Their ghosts proclaim their impending doom, but can they change their fate? The Abandoned is dark, well directed, original and most of all it will scare you. Though it does not have the capability to make a grown man leap from his seat, it will surely creep him out of it. It is the best that I had seen in the film fest. It is a gem hidden amidst the haystack of cliché horror films plaguing theaters.