Three films last Friday night.
First up was ANOTHER EVIL, an excellently done, clever combination of horror and comedy, in which neither one is sacrificed for the sake of the other. Dan and his family are in their vacation home, when some strange things happen. They bring in a paranormal expert, who concludes there are 2 ghosts in their house, but they're basically harmless. So that's cool. Except the father wants a second opinion. And this second, industrial grade exorcist, concludes that they are actually evil, and determined. So the (the exorcist and Dam) spend a week up there bonding, catching ghosts, getting drunk (puts him in more childlike state to sense ghosts) and basically having a good ol' guys' time up there. But Dan didn't tell his wife and son that he got a second exorcist and if he doesn't finish by the time they come visit for the weekend, things are gonna get awkward. Especially when the exorcist concludes it's not the house that's haunted, it's the family. Just a superb mix of dry comedy and genuinely frightening moments.
And then the found-footage anthology, THE DARK TAPES. A clever mix of styles exploring scientific demon hunting (with a Caltech physics shout-out!) the hunters becoming hunted, cam girls and horny guys, revenge, demons, and crazy time dilations. Of course, I'm partial to the one with the Caltech physicist (which is also the one that sort of frames everything,) but they're all excellently done, effective, scary, and funny. Even if the found-footage sub-genre is kind of played out, THE DARK TAPES shows there's still some life in it.
And finally, a few brave souls stuck around for the late-late screening of ATMO HORRORX. Even fewer made it to the ending. Just weirdness for the sake of weirdness, featuring a guy with a half-dozen long balloons sprouting out of his crotch and who makes people disappear by clapping them on the side of the head with shoes. One of my new fears is that some day director Pat Tremblay will actually make a worthwhile movie. Because then people will look back at this early work and decide it's genius. It's like watching David Cronenberg's early student films (even down to the Canadian-ness.) They're unwatchable messes, but because he later became David Cronenberg, people watch them and decide they're genius. I hope to hell the same doesn't happen here. But I want to end this on a kind note, so I'll just say...it's not STRUGGLED REAGANS.
Total Running Time: 296 minutes
My Total Minutes: 435,891
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