The Neon Dead was first up. it's a 2015 horror film about a haunted house. The woman in the poster inherits the house, after she moves in supernatural beings start appearing. She calls in a couple of paranormal exterminators who work at the local supermarket and it's connected video store. One a nerdy guy the other is a knob with too much confidence. The single monster leads to more monsters and a backstory about an evil sorcerer. They battle him, and his gang of zombies, until the end of the movie. You can get a taste of it by watching the trailer in the link above.
Writer-director Torey Haas is mostly a special effects guy and this is his only feature film. Most of his effects work seems to be on shorts and a TV episode. I guess a guy needs to get some credits to get more jobs. It's a horror comedy but the jokes didn't generate anything like laughs in me. The script gets you to the end of the movie and there's some character development but it's very familiar to much any horror fan would have seen. The video images have been tweaked with and some of that is bothersome. The monster make up is goofy looking. Much of the problems are from the $17,000 budget. Still, they made a 80 minute movie and it's out on Amazon Prime. It's watchable but you might feel you've wasted your time and money. It's certainly not that little independent gem that I'm always looking for.
Today I found one. Blood Punch is a 2014 horror movie about a trio of people caught in a curse. Milton, Skyler and Russell are going to cook some meth and make millions. One big batch, created in a hunting lodge, off season of course. Milton meets Skyler in rehab and she convinces him to get involved with her and her boyfriend Russell. He's cop and he's stolen the ingredients to make meth. He just needs a cook and that's where Milton comes in. At the hunting lodge they all get high and take meth laced with peyote. When Milton wakes up he finds the video recorder and monitor from Russell's police car by the toilet. It's a message from himself and there's a lot to tell. The hunting lodge is on cursed Indian land and as you can imagine that causes some problems.
I read on the IMDb that director Madellaine Paxson and writer Eddie Guzelian developed the story together. Madellaine has written a whole pile of animation, much of it for Disney, shows like Hercules, The Legend of Tarzan, Kim Possible and many others. I haven't seem most of it. Eddie has written a lot of animation and often for the same programs as Madellaine. It's a first feature for both of them and Madellaine's first shot in the director's chair. They have come up with a nice twisty story and entertaining characters. The script is good, there's a nice sense of humor, and the actors have the ability to carry it off. Well worth a look.
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