Horror Film Review: It Stains The Sands Red (dir by Colin Minihan)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

So, imagine this scenario.

The world’s ending, again. The city that you once called home — in this case, Las Vegas — is on fire. Hordes of zombies are attacking the living and it seems like even the people who have, up until now, survived the undead have still allowed their worst instincts to take over. The military is opening fire on anyone that they come across and scavengers, both living and not, are all over the place.

Your boyfriend, Nick, has a way to escape. His lowlife buddies have a plane ready to go. They’re just waiting for him to show up, mostly because he’s bringing the drugs. His friends, of course, could hardly care less about you but, as long as you show up with Nick, you know that you’ll be able to escape with them. Unfortunately, Nick is now dead. His throat was ripped open by a zombie.

So, now, you’re walking across the Nevada desert and you’re just trying to make it to the airfield without getting killed. It’s over a 100 degrees out. You’re not sure where you’re going. You’re not dressed for a desert journey. You’re haunted by memories of your son. Though you’re smarter than people give you credit for being, you have no desert survival skills. Meanwhile, the same zombie that killed Nick is staggering along behind you, hoping to get a chance to do the same to you.

And, just in case this week wasn’t bad enough, you’re also on your period and you have exactly one tampon.

That’s the situation in which Molly (played by Brittany Allen) finds herself in the 2017 zombie film, It Stains The Sands Red. As Molly makes her way through the desert, she finds herself becoming cautiously attached to the zombie pursuing her, a zombie that she nicknames Smalls (and who is played by Juan Reidinger). It makes sense, really. For most (though not all) of the movie, Smalls is the only other creature around. Who else is Molly going to talk to? It also helps that, being a walking corpse, Smalls can’t interrupt her while she’s speaking or dismiss her concerns out-of-hand. When you compare him to the living people that Molly meets, a group that includes two redneck rapists and a few trigger-happy soldiers, it’s easy to view Smalls as being harmless.

Or, at least, it’s easy to view him that way until he gets too close and tries to bite off your finger.

I had mixed feelings about It Stains The Sands Red. It’s an extremely uneven film, one that is sometimes quite clever and even empowering and sometimes rather forgettable. Molly’s monologues bring a welcome feminist sensibility to the zombie genre and there’s a clever scene in which she uses a bloody tampon to distract her zombie stalker. And yet, it’s indicative of both the film’s strengths and its weaknesses that the scene with the tampon is played as much for shock value than as an example of Molly’s resourcefulness. The film is full of scenes in which we see that Molly has somehow managed to slow down or subdue Smalls but we’re always left wondering how she managed to get close enough to him without getting attacked. Smalls’s effectiveness as a zombie seems to change from scene-to-scene, depending on the needs of the narrative.

And yet, there’s one thing that I greatly appreciated about It Stains The Sands Red and that was the character of Molly. As soon as you see her snorting cocaine while wearing her leopard-print leggings, her pleather halter top, and her fake fur, you know that Molly is the type of character who usually dies within the first 15 minutes of a film like this. Instead, Molly not only survives the first 15 minutes but she goes on to repeatedly show that she’s far more determined and intelligent than anyone in the viewing audience originally gave her credit for being. She emerges as a compelling and determined survivor, one who refuses to surrender to either the desert or its predators. Molly is the type of strong female character that horror fans like me have always wanted to see in a film like this. She elevates It Stains The Sands Red above its flaws and makes the film worth watching. In the role of Molly, Brittany Allen brings life to this film about the dead.

Horror on the Lens: Raiders of the Living Dead (dir by Samuel M. Sherman and Brett Piper)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi there and welcome to October! This is our favorite time of the year here at the Shattered Lens because October is horror month. For the past three years, we have celebrated every October by reviewing and showing some of our favorite horror movies, shows, books, and music. That’s a tradition that I’m looking forward to helping to continue this year.

Let’s start things off with the 1986 epic, Raiders of the Living Dead!

I reviewed this film last year but to recap, it’s the story of a creepy boy, a laser gun, a reporter, and a bunch of zombies. There’s a mad scientist involved, too. There always is. The movie opens with a truck being hijacked and then the action shifts to a power plant and, honestly, I have no idea what any of it means. Technically, Raiders of the Living Dead is not exactly a good film but it is a film unlike any other that you’ve seen. If nothing else, it’s a film that you watch and you can’t help but admire the fact that it somehow got made and went on to find a small but kind of appreciative cult audience. It’s just a very strange film and a good one to start October with, no?

Plus, it has got the greatest zombie-centric theme song ever! The opening credits alone are worth the price of admission (which, incidentally, is free because those of us at the Shattered Lens love you!)

So, here is Raiders of the Living Dead.

Enjoy!

The Things You Find On Netflix: Deadly Detention (dir by Blair Hayes)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you’re in high school and you have to do Saturday detention in an abandoned, but perhaps haunted, prison, there’s a good chance that you’re gong to die.

That’s the main lesson that can picked up from the 2017 film Deadly Detention, which I watched via Netflix a few nights ago. Old prison. Sex. Detention. It all leads to death. Of course, you really shouldn’t need a movie to teach you that lesson. I mean, it’s just common sense. STAY OUT OF THE OLD PRISONS, PEOPLE! Especially if it’s got a death row because you just know there’s going to be a lot of pissed off ghosts floating around there….

The good thing about Deadly Detention is that it realizes that abandoned prison=death should be common sense as well. It’s an extremely self-aware movie, fully indulging in all of the slasher movie cliches while, at the same time, poking cheerful fun at them. Deadly Detention may start out as a horror film but, after about 15 minutes or so, it turns into a full-blown comedy and it’s actually pretty fun to watch.

Why are our students attending detention? Well, it turns out that the majority of them have been framed, which explains why even the popular school athlete is being punished. Why are they attending detention in a prison? Well, it seems that a pack of rabid possums were somehow released into the school. Now, of course, being the former country girl that I am, I immediately knew something strange was happening because possums are actually immune to rabies. So, seriously, if you see a possum in your back yard, don’t panic! They’re harmless.

Among those spending their Saturday in detention:

Officer Pete (Kevin Blake), the quiet hall cop,

Miss Presley (Gillian Vigman), the principal who brings her very big and very pointed principal-of-the-year trophy with her,

Lexie (Alex Frnka), the rebellious school tramp who turns out to be a lot more smarter than anyone gave her credit for,

Jessica (Sarah Davenport), the school athlete who has always been driven to be the best,

Barrett (Henry Zaga), the hilariously vain and shallow rich kid whose main hope is that, if he dies, he’ll still look good,

Kevin (Coy Stewart), the gay religious kid who turns out to actually have a lot more depth than anyone originally suspected,

and Taylor (Jennifer Robyn Jacobs), the cheerfully strange girl who knows all the stories about all the ghosts.

Now, you may be thinking that this cast of characters sounds familiar and it’s true that they’re all deliberately meant to invoke various slasher movie tropes. At the same time, I suspect that they’re also meant to remind us of the members of The Breakfast Club as well. However, each character is so well-cast and each actor seems to be having so much fun that they all soon develop their own individual identities. In fact, this cast is so fun to watch that it’s kind of sad once the blood starts to spill.

But spill, it does. Soon, the detainees find themselves having to figure out how to escape the prison while an unseen stalker taunts them over the intercom. What sets this film apart from many other Netflix slasher films is that the students all seem to know that they’re in a horror film and they tend to comment on the action accordingly. When it comes to a horror-comedy, a film always has to decide if it’s going to be more of a horror or a comedy and, early on, Deadly Detention embraces the comedy label and it turns out that the film made the right choice. Thanks to a likable cast and some clever dialogue, Deadly Detention is an entertaining 90 minutes.

As I said, the entire cast is good but Alex Frnka, Coy Stewart, and Jennifer Robyn Jacobs especially deserve a lot of credit for taking characters who could have been cliches and instead turning them into fairly compelling human beings. Alex Frnka not only gets all the best lines but she makes them even better with a delivery that’s perfectly perched between sincerity and snarkiness. The same can be said of the film as a whole.

Cleaning Out The DVR: Boy of the Streets (dir by William Nigh)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to New York City, circa 1937!

It’s a place where the extremely wealthy carefully avoid the districts dominated by the extremely poor, like the Bowery. In the Bowery, families live in tenements and worried mothers can only cry as they watch their sons join street gangs and their daughters settle for a life of abuse and loss. Sure, there’s a few do-gooders. Occasionally, there’s a cop who is convinced that no boy is a lost cause. Sometimes, you’ll run into a doctor who is determined to provide adequate medical care to the inhabitants of the Bowery. In fact, you might even see a rich person who is determined to spread about some charity. But, for the most pat, life in the Bowery is just one hopeless day after another.

14 year-old Chuck Brennan (Jackie Cooper) lives in the Bowery. He’s got a gang of boys who will do anything that he tells them to do and, despite the fact that Chuck is obviously smarter than almost everyone else around him, he has no interest in being a role model or decent citizen or anything else of that matter. Chuck lives in a shabby apartment with his mother (Marjorie Main) and his father (Guy Usher). Chuck looks up to his father who apparently knows important people and is often out of town on “business.” However, when Chuck discovers that his father is actually a low-level hood who works for the local political machine, Chuck is not only disillusioned but also inspired to go find some gangsters to team up with himself.

The system says that Chuck is a hopeless case but not everyone agree. Officer Rourke (Robert Emmett O’Connor) thinks that there’s hope for Chuck, he just needs something or someone to straighten him out. (Like maybe a stint in the Navy….) And then there’s Nora (Maureen O’Connor), the sweet Irish girl who lives in Chuck’s building and who is often heard singing to her deathly ill mother.

In the end, it’s all up to Chuck. Will he pursue a life of crime or the life of an honest man? Will he be a man like his father or will he end the cycle of crime and desperation?

Boy of the Streets is a low-budget, black-and-white film from 1937. It was produced by Monogram Pictures and, much like Dead End (which came out the same year and featured a superficially similar storyline), it’s a film that mixes social commentary with a bit of gangster action. The film’s low-budget doesn’t do it any favors and there’s nothing particularly surprising to be found in the film’s plot but child actor Jackie Cooper is convincingly cocky as the swaggering Chuck and Marjorie Main does a good job as his anguished mother. (Interestingly, Main also played Humphrey Bogart’s mother in Dead End.)

Boy of the Streets is a good example of a film that I never would have seen if not for TCM. (I recorded it off of TCM way back in June.) That’s one reason why I’ll always be thankful for TCM. At a time when so many people seem to be determined to destroy history, TCM is celebrating it.

A Blast From The Past: The Good Loser (dir by Herk Harvey)

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Director Herk Harvey

What’s more important? Being a good winner or a good loser?

Does being a good winner make it more difficult to be a good loser?

Should an individual loss matter if it contributes to a team victory?

When your child loses, is it a good idea to relentlessly taunt them about it?

These questions and more are explored in the 1953 short film, The Good Loser. This is one of those films that they used to show in schools in order to teach students how to …. well I’m not sure what anyone learns in The Good Loser. It tells the story of Ray, who is the best public speaker in all of Kansas or, at least, he is until he makes the mistake of agreeing to mentor Marilyn. After Marilyn beats him at the speech and debate tournament, Ray throws a little hissy fit. It doesn’t help that everyone — from his classmates to his own father — is making fun of him for losing to his protegee.

“What do you think?” the narrator asks and I’ll tell you. I’ve never been a good loser so I totally think that Ray has every right to drop out of school and spend the rest of his life wandering around the country, drifting from job-to-job and refusing to trust anyone. “Second place just means you’re the best loser.” A teacher said that to me once and the end result was …. well, actually, I think I was kinda like, “Really? The best?” Anyway….

Now, if you’re wondering why I’m sharing this video in October, it’s because this film was directed by Herk Harvey. Harvey made a career out of directing short educational films but, to horror audiences, he’s best known for directing a classic horror film called Carnival of Souls. Carnival of Souls is a film that I’ll be sharing on later in the month. On the surface, The Good Loser may not appear to have much in common with Carnival of Souls. However, I think you can compare Ray’s insensitive classmates to the insensitive ghosts who haunted Candace Hilligoss in Carnival. If nothing, they’re all similarly relentless. They’re also all jerks, if you ask me.

What do you think?

Film Review: The Wedding Chapel (dir by Vanessa Parise)

Posted on September 30, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Sarah (Emmanuelle Vaughier) is a painter who is frustrated because, despite her obvious technical skills, her work still lacks the spark of passion and imagination that it needs to be truly special. Not only is her first show panned by a snooty art critic but her boyfriend dumps her on the same night!

Jeanie (Shelley Long) is a widow who is still adjusting to life as a single woman.

They are mother and daughter and together …. THEY SOLVE CRIMES!

No, actually, they don’t. (Though I will say that I think a film or a show or a series of books about a mother/daughter crime solving team would be great and I’m a bit shocked that there aren’t more of them out there.) Instead, what Sarah and Jeanie do is they return to the small town where they once lived. It turns out that greedy developers want to tear down the family home. It’s all about eminent domain, which is a totally evil thing that should be condemned more frequently in the movies.

Anyway, it turns out that it’s not just the family home that’s due to be demolished. The developers are also planning on tearing down the nearby chapel. While Jeanie’s busy having flashbacks to her teenage years, Sarah’s getting involved in trying to save both the chapel and the house! Helping out Sarah is a local politician and lawyer with the unfortunate name of Roger Waters (Mark Deklin). Not helping Sarah is the local sheriff, who keeps arresting Sarah, tossing her in jail, and forcing her to wear one of those really unflattering orange jumpsuits. Roger bails Sarah out so many times that he soon finds himself falling in love with her. Sarah, however, doesn’t want to get tied down in a small town. She has an artistic career to pursue, assuming that she can get in touch with her emotions.

Speaking of love, Jeanie is haunted by memories of her ex-boyfriend, Larry. As far as Jeanie knows, Larry left for Vietnam and never returned. She’s always assumed that he must have died during the war but what if …. well, let’s say that he didn’t die in the war. And what if Larry (Barclay Hope) just happens to be living in that small town?

Oh my God, love’s all around!

First released in 2013, The Wedding Chapel is an exceedingly pleasant film. Seriously, almost everyone in the film is extremely considerate and nice. Even the oafish sheriff doesn’t mean to be a jerk. He’s just doing his job. Sarah attempts an act of civil disobedience but it’s literally the most mild protest that you could imagine. This is the type of movie where everyone lives in a nice house and every lawn is perfectly manicured. Even the abandoned buildings are surrounded by freshly cut grass. The chapel may be deserted but you’d never know it from looking at it.

It’s a thoroughly predictable movie but, at the same time, it’s too good-natured to be disliked. No one curses. No one makes any racy jokes. This is the type of movie that you could safely recommend to your great-grandmother without having to worry about her getting mad at you afterwards. Emmanuelle Vaughier gives a pretty good performance as Sarah and director Vanessa Parise does what she can to keep the film from drowning in sentiment.

Since the Halloween season is upon us and this site is going to be 90% horror for the rest of October, I decided that the final movie I would watch in September would be the least terrifying film I could find. The Wedding Chapel filled that role well.

Lisa’s Oscar Predictions For September

Posted on September 28, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

With the help of the festivals, the Oscar picture became a bit clearer this month. Perhaps the biggest news is that the initial response to Harriet, which many people expected to be this year’s front runner, was decidedly lukewarm. The other big news? The Irishman, according to those who have seen it, may be Scorsese’s best yet.

Below, you’ll find my Oscar predictions for September. If you want to see how my thinking has evolved over the course of this year, be sure to check out my predictions for January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and August!

Now, admittedly, there’s still an element of wishful thinking in some of the predictions below. For instance, it would be an interesting narrative development if Adam Sandler and Eddie Murphy were both nominated for best actor. That doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen but both of them have received a lot of early acclaim for their yet-to-be released films this year. They’re contenders, even if their reputations may make them long shots. What’s the point of making predictions if you can’t have a little fun?

Joker is going to get big Oscar punch. I do think it’s going to probably be a bit too controversial to pick up a Best Picture nomination but I’m still going to go ahead and put down Joaquin Phoenix as a best actor nominee.

Bombshell is the new title of Jay Roach’s Fox News film. To me, it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be that good and, quite frankly, Jay Roach’s films usually prove that just being obsessed with politics doesn’t necessarily mean that you have anything interesting to say about the topic. That said, if Vice (a film that even leftist film critics criticized as being heavy handed and cartoonish) could pick up a best picture nomination last year, then I’m going to assume Bombshell could do the same. With both the presidential election and possible impeachment trial looming, it’s reasonable assume that certain Academy members will be even more obsessed with politics than usual.

Meryl Streep for The Laundromat? Why not? They’ll nominate Meryl for anything, regardless of how bad the movie is.

Here are the predictions for this month!

Best Picture

1917

Bombshell

The Farewell

A Hidden Life

The Irishman

JoJo Rabbit

Marriage Story

Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Parasite

Waves

Best Director

Bong Joon-ho for Parasite

Terrence Malick for A Hidden Life

Martin Scorsese for The Irishman

Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Taika Waititi for JoJo Rabbit

Best Actor

Antonio Banderas in Pain & Glory

Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name

Joaquin Phoenix in Joker

Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems

Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo in Harriet

Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story

Charlize Theron in Bombshell

Alfre Woodard in Clemency

Renee Zellweger in Judy

Best Supporting Actor

Sterling K. Brown in Waves

Jamie Foxx in Just Mercy

Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes

Al Pacino in The Irishman

Brad Pitt in Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Best Supporting Actress

Annette Bening in The Report

Scarlett Johansson in JoJo Rabbit

Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers

Zhao Shuzhen in The Farewell

Meryl Streep in The Laundromat

Here’s The Trailer For Uncut Gems!

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m a few days late in sharing this but no matter! Here’s the trailer for Uncut Gems!

I’ve said this in the past but it bears repeating. If you only knew Adam Sandler from his dramatic performances (in films like The Meyerowitz Stories, Punch Drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Men Women & Children, The Cobbler, and Funny People), you would be totally justified in thinking that he was one of our most acclaimed performers. I mean, as strange as it may seem to say about the star of Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy, Adam Sandler is a surprisingly cable and versatile actor.

(In fact, I think one reason why we tend to get more annoyed with Sandler’s dumb films — as opposed to the dumb films of so many other comedic actors — is because we actually have evidence that Sandler’s capable of a lot more. I mean, if you’ve just seen Sandler in Punch Drunk Love, it makes total sense that then seeing Sandler in commercials for Grown Ups 2 is going to piss you off just a little.)

Anyway, Adam Sandler deserved an Oscar nomination for The Meyerowitz Stories. The early buzz is that he deserves one for Uncut Gems. Standing in his way, of course, is the fact that he’s Adam Sandler. But, we’ll see what happens. The trailer looks intense and the film, which has already gotten some early acclaim, is directed by the up-and-coming Safdie Brothers.

Uncut Gems will be released on December 13th.

Here’s The New Trailer For The Irishman!

Posted on September 26, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

The second trailer for Martin Scorsese’s upcoming gangster epic, The Irishman, dropped today and …. wow.

Now, admittedly, the reaction online has been kind of mixed. Some people are a little bit concerned that the de-aging technology is just going to be too distracting, especially considering that this is a four-hour movie. I will admit that both Al Pacino and Joe Pesci looked a bit …. well, off. I mean, all the CGI in the world can’t change the fact that this is a film that will feature elderly actors playing youngish gangsters.

Still, the story that The Irishman is telling is a fascinating one and, since Robert De Niro’s character claimed to be both a hitman and a participant in the JFK assassination, the film seems like it will appeal to both mafia afficianadoes and conspiracy theorists.

Add to that, is a Scorsese film and how can you not be excited about that?

That said, the main reaction to this latest trailer seems to be shock that Ray Romano is apparently holding his own opposite actors like De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, and Harvey Keitel. But, believe it or not, Romano actually has developed into a pretty dependable character actor. Anyone who has seen The Big Sick can attest to that.

Anyway, The Irishman is expected to be a major Oscar contender. Of course, they said the same thing about Silence. We’ll see what happens!

The Irishman will be released on November 1st in select theaters and will then drop on Netflix on November 27th.

Here’s the trailer!

Lifetime Film Review: Escaping the NXIVM Cult (dir by Lisa Robinson)

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I have to admit that cults have always fascinated me, largely because I can never really comprehend what would lead to someone joining one.

Seriously, how is it that otherwise intelligent people end up in a position where they not only become brainwashed but they also voluntarily give up their own individual personality, all so that they can belong to something that doesn’t make much sense. Myself, I’ve always been fortunate in that not only am I very confident in my talents and my beliefs but I’ve also never felt the need to have a mentor or any other type of life guide. Fortunately, I value my independence above all else. I’m also lucky enough to have ADD so severe that there’s no way I could actually spend more than 5 minutes listening to a lecture designed to brainwash me. I did go to one self-help seminar in college that seemed to be kind of a cultish but I was so bored that I left about halfway through. (Add to that, I was also annoyed by how much everyone else seemed to be enjoying it.) I’m immune to brainwashing, or at least I would like to think that I am.

Unfortunately, that’s not true for everyone. We tend to think of a cult as being a group of weird people living in a compound but the truth of the matter is that there are cults all around us. Basically, any organization that demands that its members sacrifice their own individual thoughts in order to “serve a greater cause” or please a certain being is a cult. Go on Twitter right now and you’ll undoubtedly be able to find several different cults fighting with each other. Cults appeal to people who, otherwise, feel empty. They provide a home and a group of ready-made friends but, of course, they also demand complete obedience and punish any hint of individuality. There’s no room for dissent. You see that a lot today and it’s a shame. People no longer think for themselves and instead, they believe whatever they’re told to believe. People have lost their damn minds over the past few years, both figuratively and literally. Sadly, it seems that once someone loses the ability to think for themselves, it’s gone forever.

I found myself thinking about this last night and this morning as I watched the latest “ripped from the headlines” Lifetime film, Escape From The NXIVM Cult: A Mother’s Fight To Save Her Daughter. NXIVM, which was founded and controlled by Keith Raniere (played, in a wonderfully creepy performance, by Peter Facinelli), presented itself as being a “personal development company” but, as everyone now knows, all of the self-help seminars and corporate doublespeak was actually a cover for a pyramid scheme that also served as a recruiting tool to supply Raniere with sex slaves. Among those who worked with Raniere was former Smallville actress, Allison Mack (played by Sara Fletcher in the film).

The film focuses on the true story of actress and minor royal Catherine Oxenberg (Andrea Roth), who spent a year helplessly watching as the NXIVM cult brainwashed her daughter, India (Jasper Polish). The film shows how the cult (and, more specifically, Allison Mack) preyed on and manipulated India’s own insecurities and used them to take her away from her family and her friends. In perhaps the film’s most disturbing scene, India returns home on her birthday and spends the majority of her own birthday party trying to recruit people to join NXIVM. It’s disturbing because we all know someone like India, someone who has become so obsessed with politics or religion or fandom that they view every occasion as just being another recruiting opportunity.

The film follows Catherine as she uncovers the truth about NXIVM, which is that it’s essentially a large-scale criminal racket that, because it’s targeted the children of the rich and famous, has also become immune to prosecution. When Keith is informed that Catherine has been publicly denouncing NXIVM and threatening to expose them, Keith smugly just says that they’ll sue her until she’s silent, just “like the others.” All of the sordid details are presented here — from the branding of Keith’s and Allison’s initials on their slaves to NXIVM’s casual and infuriating misogyny to the way that Keith used blackmail to manipulate both his followers and those who he considered to be a threat. But what makes the film ultimately memorable is not just the portrait of how NXIVM operated but also the film’s celebration of Catherine Oxenberg’s refusal to give up when it came to rescuing her daughter.

All in all, it’s a well-done movie and certainly one that has an important message. Be vigilant and beware any organization that claims that the key to happiness is sacrificing your own individual spirit.