Hellbender (2022) - Movie Review

 

Now this is a family picture right here!

I mean, yeah, it’s a story about the relationship between a mother and daughter, but this is one of the more holistically family-oriented films I think I’ve ever looked on here. Pretty much every aspect of the production here (directing, writing, producing, acting, camera work, editing, soundtrack) is shared among the four members of the Adams family: Father John, mother Toby Poser, and daughters Zelda and Lulu. I’ve said a few times before that I think women who love horror are awesome people, but it’s another level when an entire family bonds over that kind of subversive material.

Use Me (2020) - Movie Review

We’re stepping into the Aussie indie files once again, and you know that things are gonna get surreal when I see the guy who gave me the screener for this film within the first five minutes. A mockumentary-style thriller set within the underbelly of online humiliation fetishism, the film follows director Julian Shaw in his efforts to make a documentary about Ceara Lynch, a professional ‘humiliatrix’, and the finer details of her line of work. However, as he finds himself deeper and deeper in her world, what begins as an expose on fetishes turns into a much darker voyage into the unknown.

Tangerine (2015) - Movie Review

By next year, approximately 2 billion people will have access to a smartphone; a little more than a quarter of the world. This means that more than 1/4^th of Earth’s population can become amateur filmmakers. With the continuing advances being made in mobile phone technology, including the cameras attached to them, as well as the advents of services like YouTube and Vine, it is now easier than ever for Joe Bloggs to call himself a director. Of course, that same notion also makes standing out in the industry even tougher: Yeah, it’s easier to do, but that also means that you have to compete with everyone else who can do the same thing. Still, all of this information kind of makes the weirdly high budgets most found footage films get ($3 million and up) look especially wasteful by comparison. So, in the hands of true-blue American independents, a budget of approximately US$100,000 and only three iPhones to serve as the cameras, how does today’s film fare?

Lead Me Astray (2015) - Movie Review

In another dual example of "Australian indie production" and "I didn’t know what I was getting myself into", we have today’s film. Now, between its one-night-only screening in my area and its local production, I knew that I had to check it out. What I didn’t realise was that it was an official red carpet premiere. Almost everyone is in black tie, and there I am in my green pocket-T, hoodie and jeans. I’ve always felt out of place in film circles, but this is the first time that I’ve had that fact hit me square in the face; this is the kind of situation that separates the hobbyists from the professionals (or, in my case, the fanatics). So, when faced with the crowd of people who came to see this movie, I just shuffled into the cinema as soon as the doors opened and found my seat, doing as best I could not to draw attention to myself. With how similar this situation has started out, was this going to result in another Quarantine Hauntings bout of shame, or am I in for another beast altogether?