The Eyes of My Mother (USA, 2016)
Dir: Nicholas Pesce
Starring: Kika Magalhaes, Will Brill, Diana Agostini
In UK Cinemas early 2017
Plot: As a young girl, Francisca witnesses the murder of her mother (Agostini) at the hands of a home invader, Charlie (Brill). Her father beats Charlie but Francisca secretly cares for him in the barn. Now a woman, Francisca (Magalhaes) lives in fear of the isolation her rural upbringing has left her in as her father dies. Praying to her mother for guidance leads her down a trail of murder, corpse defilement and surgical alterations.
The directorial debut for writer/director, Nicholas Pesce, The Eyes of My Mother shows that Pesce is a name to remember. A moody and often brutal tale of loneliness. It’s a story that reminds me of the famous killer, Ed Gein, a man who has inspired his fair share of films including Psycho, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The murderous, corpse-bothering ways of Francisca definitely draw a comparison to the Wisconsinite killer. Both also share a deep attachment to their mothers and an isolated upbringing. However while they may share similar begins, Francisca takes things much further in pursuit of her deranged happiness.
Francisca is a bit of a deranged killer but under the direction of Pesce, the film eases into it. We see where her reasoning lies even if it is massively flawed. We learn where her skills come from and why she uses them on her victims. The use of cinematography captures Francisca’s loneliness. Extreme long shots show her standing almost as a tiny speck amongst the towering trees that surround her home. The choice to make this film black and white instead of colour fills the screen with shadows, both beautiful and terrifying.
The Eyes of My Mother is not just a beautiful looking film, it is also incredibly well acted. The cast do a fantastic job, particularly Kika Magalhaes as Francisca. She shows all the complexity of the character, a girl stunted by trauma as a child and terrified of being alone. She is tender and loving but also desperate and brutal. She knows just what things she needs to do to get what she wants but doesn’t seem to understand the pain she’s inflicting on others. Her interactions with Charlie would be quite sweet if she hadn’t surgically cut his vocal chords. Will Brill’s screentime as Charlie may be short but he’s memorable for the time he’s there. His introduction as a murderous home invader is unnerving. His sweetness falls away quickly and his evilness becomes apparent, not only in his words but in his physical acting too.
While stories that mimic the killings of Ed Gein are nothing too original now, The Eyes of my Mother still manages to have a freshness about it. It’s more artistic and stylish than other necrophilic gore fests that have taken similar inspirations. This film seems to take a much more psychological route, focusing on the why rather than the what. Francisca’s fears are what drives her, and her memories of her mother is what justifies her actions.
8/10
Cannibal Messiah aka Der König der Kannibalen (Germany, 2016)
If you’re a fan of low budget gore films, the likes of Troma, you’re probably going to love this. You’ll definitely love it if you like cheesy films with obvious mistakes that give you a giggle. There’s continuity errors, with Master W’s hair length fluctuating wildly, a scene where a train blatantly speeds by in the secluded cannibal village, and an impaling spear that is just in someone’s arm pit. Gore flows freely and usually nonsensically, bursting forth in ridiculous quantity. All these things are selling points if this is your kind of movie.
The second problem I have with this film is the pacing of the story. It doesn’t really flow well. The film starts awkwardly with Cris and W getting threatened by Pathfinder until they take him to find the Hermit. That’s followed by a long torture scene with flash backs and lots of exposition. It takes so long and I found myself getting bored. Then they finally set off to the woods and the film still manages to drag it’s feet. There’s plenty of gross out splatter moments but none of them really ticked my boxes.
This is the second film by P.S.Y.C.H.O Productions, and they’re making the films that they want to make, with themselves as characters. It feels like a kind of Jay and Silent Bob move, but Crippler Cris and Master W aren’t nearly as iconic. Maybe all they need is to keep making it, to build their lore. I just hope the next one is a little more exciting.
The Hours Till Daylight (USA, 2015)
Garcia uses childhood fears and religious demons, and builds up the fear slowly. The choice of score keeps the atmosphere tense as he establishes his characters, setting the stakes that Marco is fighting for. The film also uses a lot of flashbacks to Marco’s childhood, and you can feel in these scenes that it’s not just a literal demon that Marco is combating. His fear of the dark as a child is met with the frustration of his parents. They just want him to grow out of it.
While there are some moments in the film that I felt were a little dull, it’s something a little different. It feels a lot more personal than the usual blockbuster horror in the cinema. It’s not full of jump scares and there’s no franchise-able monster. It’s just a creepy haunting story. That’s what will make The Hours Till Daylight stand out from the rest.
Worry Dolls (2016, USA)
Talking about Worry Dolls lack of trope subversion, it does suffer from quite a few clichés that can be a bit frustrating. If you suffer from screaming fits when horror characters act painfully stupid, the appearance of the police officer at the start of the film might hurt your vocal chords. The main characters are also a little pedestrian and boring, the usual divorced couple who put aside their differences because of the supernatural force affecting their child. This is a little forgiving because it makes for good motivation in the divorced wife’s fiancé.
Worry Dolls does run with an interesting premise but the delivery isn’t perfect. It has a good look, nice cinematography and plenty of gore but that isn’t enough to make it rate any higher than average. It’s just doesn’t stray far enough from the path to be memorable. I felt like I had seen these characters too many times before to really care about them. There was also three different blonde white actresses that at times it was difficult to tell which character was in the scene. Worry Dolls is worth a watch once but I can’t see myself rushing back anytime soon.
Hell Town (USA, 2016)
Moving away from the framing device, Hell Town focuses on a Who Dunnit plotline as many characters are killed off by a mysterious killer. There is plenty of subplots thrown in too to help give motivation to the potential killers. Romances, jealousy, an inheritance up for grabs, there’s plenty to play for and plenty characters to stab through on the way. While the film offers up many characters to be the killer, some are pushed harder than others. Sometimes it results in a good red herring, but where it counts it ends up with a killer that feels a little tacked on.
Hell Town takes a risk, making a movie that’s supposed to be a TV show and in some respects it works. It’s a quirky little film but it’s a bit too goofy for my tastes. If you love horror parody TV shows like Garth Mereghi’s Dark Place, this is in a similar vein. If you like cheesy soap operas and gore, this is definitely for you.
Feed The Devil (USA, 2015)
While the film is well shot with decent cinematography, the film often drags with slow pacing. Marcus and his friends wander around the woods for too long without explanation of the danger they’re in for so long before the audience gets a scrap of exposition, all the while enduring Marcus.
The Native American folklore feels like an after thought, that it could have been any kind of evil in those woods, but this felt like something a little different than the usual Catholic demons, or feral Big Foot. A lot of people might watch this and see it for what is on the screen and not read anything into it what so ever. Sadly I watched it and saw White American culture exerting dominance over Native American culture and I’m not cool with that.
Model Hunger (USA, 2016)
Model Hunger features a television show called Suzi’s Secret, a shopping network channel that preaches for plus-size women. Ginny’s obsessed with the show, despite not being a plus-sized woman. The host Suzi (Lorraine) goes on about the hardships, that she wants to feel sexy but still eat, and how she makes clothes for “real women with real curves.” Suzi spreads hate about skinny women and continues the cycle of women hating women. In an abrupt change of character, Suzi delivers the line that confirms that this is what the whole film is about, that women hating women is as toxic as the men who police women’s bodies, and that it needs to stop. It’s a little out of character for Suzi as she has been going on about how all the skinny women are not real women but it’s good clarification of the film’s message.
Despite the lack of realism, the message of the film is important. However the delivery of that message was hard to draw out under all the gore and sometimes feels secondary to the gore. I can’t help but feel that this might be due to the writer, James Mogart having not live with the constant body shaming that women go through. Rochon has been able to guide the message with her directing but it still lacks the focus that could have made this a gruesome social commentary.
Killer Friends (2015, USA)
Apart from minor disagreements on the gore, Killer Friends is a very enjoyable short film and I think that Zach Noe Towers knocked it out of the park, both as a first time writer/director, but also as an actor. I can only hope that this does well around the festivals and that we might see more of Towers’ work, maybe even a feature horror/comedy.
Tall Men (USA, 2016)
