Tag Archives: Horror

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CAPSULE: PARVULOS (2024)

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Párvulos: Hijos del Apocalipsis; AKA Párvulos: Children of the Apocalypse

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Parvulos is currently available for purchase or rental on video-on-demand.

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DIRECTED BY: Isaac Ezban

FEATURING: Carla Adell, Mateo Ortega Carsillas, Leonardo Cervantes

PLOT: Three brothers struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic world while caring for two zombies caged in their basement.

Still from Parvulos (2024)

COMMENTS: A tale about family in times of extreme change. Isaac Izban, the Mexican auteur of films like the mind-bending and space-bending Incident (2014) or the deeply-layered Similars (2015), known for its political undertones, returns with a slightly more conventional, yet still eccentric combination of family drama and zombie apocalypse. But let’s take things from the start.

We follow three brothers—two kids and their older teen brother—struggling to survive in a world where the rules have changed dramatically. Everything seems typical to post-apocalypse fans, at first. A pandemic has decimated the population, while a not-fully-tested vaccine had serious side effects, creating hordes of zombies. Parallels with the recent Covid pandemic haunt the story, but there is no explicit analogy, just a new take on common tropes of the genre.

The twist brings something new to the table. In their basement the boys are hiding two zombies, scavenging and collecting food for them. Who could they be? When the youngest brother Benjamin discovers they are his parents, the boys begin an effort to tame the dead and remind them who they are.

The film could develop as a parable on toxic family dynamics, with the parents being wild zombies, but it doesn’t want to go there. It remains, even at its grossest moments, a wholesome combination of family drama and post-apocalyptic themes, targeted at a teen audience of the main protagonist’s age. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, but it’s not as deeply layered or rich in allegory as Ezban’s earlier works.

Parvulos is formally inventive. The faded color palette, resembling black-and-white photography, gives an eerie and melancholic tone. Wide shots along with distorted audio underline some of the tensest moments. There soundtrack is rich: composers Edy Lan and Camilla Uboldi, close collaborators of director, creates a wide range of tones, from ominous orchestral music to uplifting beats with lyrics in English.

The story continues through a series of encounters of the boys with other survivors. A picture of the new state of the world gradually emerges, with deadly cults roaming around (another common trope of apocalyptic fiction). But the tale remains fresh by keeping the family dynamic between the kids and their zombie parents at its heart. It is an intriguing premise, and there are even some WTF moments here, as when the zombies have sex or, chained to their seats, attend a festive Christmas dinner.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…an ambitious, eccentric, ultimately memorable tale of juvenile brothers’ survival after civilization’s death by plague.”–Dennis Harvey, Variety (festival screening) 

Capsules

CAPSULE: RETURN TO SILENT HILL (2026)

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DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: Jeremy Irvine, Hannah Emily Anderson

PLOT: A painter’s drunken dreams and a mysterious note lead him to the ghost town of Silent Hill, where he searches for his lost ex-lover amidst the eternally smoldering ruins.

Still from return to silent hill (2026)

COMMENTS: Aficionados will tell you that “Silent Hill 2” is one of the greatest video game stories ever told. I trust them, but this adaptation by Christophe Gans, returning to the Silent Hill series after a highly disappointing middle installment from another director, does nothing to support their claim. (Evidence of it faithfully recapturing the look of the game, on the other hand, is much stronger.) What we get here is a gilded but mediocre psychological horror that never explains why it needs to be set in the rapidly deteriorating “Silent Hill” universe—except for the fact that it’s a spooky locale.

And indeed, the film is at its best when it’s merely prowling about the town, encountering swarms of beetle-like insects, headless zombies squirting acid from a torso orifice, and spider-like corpses. It’s fun just sightseeing: the ashy gray streets and the eerie hallways of the town’s dilapidated tenements have a bleak beauty. But even Silent Hill’s essential hauntedness is starting to have diminishing returns. The series’ signature monster, Pyramid Head, is scary—terrifying, in fact—the first time you see him. Three movies in, he doesn’t have the same impact. Unlike in a game, this lumbering behemoth is never a threat to catch a protagonist.

Irvine and Anderson are competent leads whose main virtue is that they’re easy on the eyes. The supporting cast does not stand out, and it seems that most of their characters have been cut for time (Eddie serves no purpose in this plot, and could have been left out entirely). Akira Yamaoka’s evocative music again features. The star, such as it is, is the production design and visual effects.

The plot is the biggest issue. Yes, the movie will get weird, but only in that tired “the borders between reality and hallucination start to blur” approach that now seems to animate 5-10% of low and mid-budget horrors. The info drops explaining James and Mary’s generic love affair hardly create a strong emotional rooting interest, and the backstory of the mysterious cult isn’t developed enough to create a meaningful plot engine. In a nod to the video game’s multiple possible resolutions, the movie has conflicting, contradictory endings. The technique doesn’t work at all in the context of a movie adaptation, particularly for people who’ve never played the game. Don’t Return to Silent Hill in theaters. If you do, don’t say you weren’t warned.

Walkout note: the only other people in my theater, a couple, walked out with fifteen minutes left to go.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…between unnecessary lore changes and a lack of thematic heft in some of its storytelling, the filmmaker’s return to the franchise is a weird mix of exciting recreations, gorgeous visuals and disappointing execution.”–Grant Hermanns, Screen Rant (contemporaneous)

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CAPSULE: LUTHER THE GEEK (1989)

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DIRECTED BY: Carlton J. Albright

FEATURING: Edward Terry, Joan Roth, Stacy Haiduk

PLOT: Imprisoned as a juvenile for a murder spree, Luther is released on parole and terrorizes a family in a remote Illinois farmhouse.

Still from Luther the Geek (1989)

 

COMMENTS: What is the goal of imprisonment? Some argue deterrence. Others rehabilitation. A few would make the case for vengeance. Or perhaps it’s some combination of these. Carlton J. Albright and his team put these socio-philosophical concerns aside in their chronicle of Luther the Geek: a madman who began as a mad lad, murdering three people after a formative encounter with a circus performer who ripped open the necks of chickens for the amusement of the crowds (and to earn his much-needed liquor).

Amongst that crowd, Young Luther is thrown to the floor in a scuffle—smashing out his front teeth in the process. Fast-forward twenty years (all of them in prison), and his parole is reviewed by five prison officials, among them a “bleeding-heart” female who notes Luther’s commendable behavior prison, his lack of speech notwithstanding. Luther, you see, merely clucks. By a vote of three-to-two, he’s set loose, and the inevitable ensues.

Albright lucked out finding a performer like Edward Terry, since to whatever degree it may be argued that Luther the Geek works, it could not work without Terry’s all-in performance. His Luther is not fit for society, and quickly murders again. An hour or so of this eighty-minute movie takes place in an out of the way farm, during which—through a series of commendably paced, shot, and edited chase, scuffle & violence set-pieces—various victims are bloodily dispatched by the titular geek.

Why are we here, though? The pay-offs will interest slasher fans. Titillation seekers get their thrills from the buxom daughter. The rest of us may find Luther the Geek an oddity (if not a weird-ity) worth checking out. Through much of the dialogue-free performance from Terry, I was reminded of 183’s Angst. Luther the Geek sort of plays out like that German film’s American hick cousin. Indeed, one weakness I found in Angst is not present in Luther: there is no inner monologue. We have no real idea why this nut is doing what he’s doing; and Luther is all the more terrible and, perhaps, sympathetic for this lack of elucidation. As a violence picture that goes for the throat, there’s a strange undercurrent of pathos—and a remarkable finale that doesn’t chicken out.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“What happens when a horror film refuses to dampen its premise with humor, even when the premise itself borders on the absurd? LUTHER THE GEEK answers that question by committing, sometimes uncomfortably, to a nightmare that never pauses to reassure the audience it’s in on the joke. This is not a standard slasher, nor a self-aware cult oddity; it’s a blunt, regional exploitation film that believes in its monster completely, for better and for worse.” — Chris Jones, Overly Honest Reviews

Luther The Geek (Tromatic Special Edition)

Luther The Geek (Tromatic Special Edition)

  • A young country boy is plunged into the depths of homicidal madness after witnessing the strange exploits of a carnival “geek.”

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CAPSULE: THE BLOODY LADY (1980)

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Krvavá pani

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DIRECTED BY: Viktor Kubal

FEATURING: Voice of Jela Lukesová

PLOT: A young maiden transforms into a sadistic lady after a short affair leaves her heartbroken, and the myth of Erzsébet Báthory, the Blood Countess, is born.

Still from The Bloody Lady (1980)

COMMENTS: It starts innocently, with vivid and warm color palettes, visual gags, and a young princess dancing and playing with the forest animals, like something out of a Disney movie. But do not be fooled; this lady is Elizabeth Bathory, and things will suddenly take a turn for the grim, the weird, and the macabre.

When the young girl falls sick while in the forest, a peasant takes her under his protection and care. Something akin to love blossoms. But this love is doomed to remain unrequited, as the princess will have to return to the palace eventually, leaving behind as a memento… her heart.

This slightly grotesque gesture is not  only a symbol of her love and devotion towards the peasant, it underlines the grief their separation brings. With the gift she becomes figuratively and literally heartless. She stops caring about others—people or animals—and her hardened feelings transform her gradually into a cruel beast, finding comfort and joy only in tormenting others.

The drawings, till this point vibrantly recalling 60s and 70s psychedelia, grow darker with and an ominous night color palette emerges.  Like the mythical Snow Queen, our heroine develops cruel instincts as a way to cope with her frustrations. She turns into what we would call “evil”, although she is never just a caricature, retaining her humanity even in the movie’s most WTF moments.

She turns a servant into a pawn for her evil doings. His job will be to seduce young virgins and lure them inside the castle, where the countess awaits ready to turn them into a bloodbath for her own pleasure and self-care. More murders and mayhem follow, climaxing in a suggestive scene combining nudity, seduction, and sharp nipples.

Although dialogue is mostly absent, the soundscape is a major part of the world-building. Orchestral music, often melancholic and with a slow tempo,  introduces us to the darkest moments of our tale. Psalms, resembling satanic calls, accompany the grotesqueries. And everything culminates in a deeply lyrical ending.

This is not a sensationalist portrait of the legend of Bathory, but one that strives to find her humanity. Humans are revealed as deeply flawed creatures, but with a prospect of salvation sometimes—but not always. The story can be considered as a parable, an allegorical commentary on the perpetual fight of good vs evil inside our psyche. The Countess’ young servant, a dirty-looking dark-haired man, is a symbol of impure evil. The blond, angelic peasant Elizabeth fell in love with at the first place is a vessel of light, a messenger of bliss and pure good—even when he fails to make a difference.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“[Kubal’s] trademark style involving very simple lines, shapes, and colors was first put to use in commercials and child-friendly short subjects, but here he lends it to something much stranger and darker that feels like a Saturday morning cartoon splashed with nudity and blood.”–Nathaniel Thompson, Mondo Digital (Blu-ray)

The Bloody Lady [Blu-ray]

The Bloody Lady [Blu-ray]

  • A collection of feature and short films by the influential Slovak animator, Viktor Kubal.

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CAPSULE: THE THING WITH FEATHERS (2025)

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DIRECTED BY: Dylan Southern

FEATURING: , Sam Sprueli,

PLOT: After the loss of his wife, a widowed man comes in contact with a mysterious human-sized crow.

Still from The Thing with Feathers (2025)

COMMENTS: Dimly-lit interiors and catatonic acting clarify from the beginning that this will be a grim watch. And it is, as we follow an unnamed man, dealing with complex emotions after the passing of his wife, struggling with denial while trying to care for his two sons and to find comfort in his work as a comic artist. This is not a realistic tale, but an allegorical and elliptical one, with gothic flourishes as a human-sized crow gradually makes his appearance.

The narrative, based on Max Porter’s novel “Grief is the Thing with Feathers,” is divided into four chapters, each dealing with a different perspective. The first, focusing on Dad, remains close to typical horror conventions, with its slow-burning atmosphere culminating in a series of violent confrontations with the aforementioned crow. The intensity of one of those encounters is underlined by an excellent 360°  shot. The aggressive, grotesque bird mocks our hero for his self-pity, and evens becomes physically violent, while calling him generic names like Sad Dad and English Widower. At the same time jump cuts bring us back into reality to create an ambiguity regarding the nature of the crow, which could just as well be a figment of the protagonist’s imagination.

The next chapters focus on the bird, the kids’ perception of the events, and a new demon plaguing the family’s home, seemingly an enemy of the crow. Events are open to interpretation as different monsters come to symbolize different aspects of the mourning process, drawing, through allegory, a distinction  between grief, as a healthy way of dealing with loss, and total nihilistic despair.

We don’t have the most original and unique premise here. The central metaphor isn’t exactly something we haven’t seen before. However, thanks to a competent main performance by Benedict Cumberbach and an emphasis on dimly-lit interiors, the execution doesn’t completely disappoint. For fans of art-house psychological horror, in the vein of The Babadook  and similar movies distributed by A24, this is an okay recommendation.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…the perfectly cast Cumberbatch effortlessly moves between fever dream, painful reality and apparent hallucination with every cell in his body present in the character… It’s a strangely beautiful, well paced and moving film…”–Annete Basile, Film Inc (contemporaneous)

The Thing With Feathers

The Thing With Feathers

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