October Hacks: The Ranger (dir by Jenn Wexler)

Posted on October 3, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 2018’s The Ranger, Chloe Levine gives a strong performance as Chelsea, a young woman who grew up visiting a remote cabin that was owned by her uncle, a reclusive writer. Chelsea has never recovered from the mysterious death of her uncle. (She says he was attacked by a wolf.) Now, she’s a 20-something with pink hair. She’s dating a wannabe punk rocker named Garth (Grant Lahu) and hanging out with Garth’s friends and bandmates, Abe (Bubba Weiler), Jerk (Jeremy Pope), and Amber (Amanda Grace Benitez).

Garth makes most of his money by dealing a drug called echo. When the cops attempt to bust the group at a punk club, Garth reacts by stabbing a policeman. Garth, Chelsea, Abe, Jerk, and Amber pile into their van and go on the run. Their plan is to lay low until the heat dies down. I don’t know how they’re planning on doing that in a van that is covered with graffiti and which has the word “ECHO” written on the side of it.

The group decides to hide out at Chelsea’s old cabin, which happens to be in the middle of a national park. At the park, they run into a stern-faced park ranger (Jeremy Holm). The Ranger tells them that, if they break any of the state park rules, he’ll have to come after them. Everyone except for Chelsea laughs at the Ranger and they basically dare him to come arrest them. The Rangers warns them that it’s hunting season and they need to wear bright clothing so they don’t get accidentally get mistaken for wildlife and shot. Amber points at her blue hair and says that’s bright enough. Jerk gives the Ranger the finger. Garth smirks. Uhmm …. aren’t these people supposed to be trying to hide from the law? If you’re trying to lay low and not draw attention to yourself, why would you needlessly antagonize the first authority figure that you meet? For that matter, why doesn’t anyone in this film change they’re very identifiable clothes? Why doesn’t anyone cut their hair or do anything else that people do when they’re on the run? Chelsea is fairly likable and I sympathized with her frustration over the way everyone in the movie treated her family’s cabin. But Chelsea’s friends? They’re not only obnoxious but they’re stupid as well.

Upon reaching Chelsea’s cabin, Garth immediately lights a cigarette in the living room. Chelsea asks him not to smoke in the cabin. Garth replies that nobody’s around who is going to care. (Uhmm…. Chelsea cares, you idiot.) Later, Garth and Amber decide to start a bonfire in the middle of the woods. Again, these people are just amazingly stupid. Fortunately, just when you feel that you can’t take much more of them, the Ranger starts killing them off.

The Ranger starts out strong. Both Chloe Levine and Jeremy Holm give strong performances and many of the kills scenes are genuinely creative. That said, I ended up getting a little bored once the focus shifted from the Ranger stalking Chelsea’s friends to the Ranger holding Chelsea prisoner. Once the Ranger starts talking (and talking and talking) about his motives, he becomes a far less interesting and menacing character. The Ranger is at its best when it focuses on being a wilderness slasher.

In the end, this film reminded me of why I don’t go camping. You never know what might be in the woods.

Horror Film Review: Ten Minutes to Midnight (dir by Erik Bloomquist)

Posted on October 31, 2021 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Ten to midnight. That’s when Amy Marlowe (Caroline Williams) starts her late night radio talk show. Most hosts like to start at the top of the hour but Amy wants the extra ten minutes so that she can experience one day changing to the next while on the air. That was the way that she explained it years ago when Bob (William Youmans) first hired her.

Now, 30 years later, Amy is about to have the worst night of her life. When she arrives at the station, Bob asks to see her. He introduces her to Sienna (Nicole Kang), who is just out of college and who has basically been hired to replace Amy. Bob expects Amy to train her.

If that wasn’t bad enough, Amy was also bitten by a vampire bat while on her way to the station. She slapped a bandage over the bite and she headed to her job like a true professional. But now, she’s seeing things. She’s not sure what’s real and what isn’t. When she catches her usually supportive producer, Aaron (Adam Weppler), giving Seinna a pep talk, Amy isn’t sure if she’s really hearing his words or if she’s just imagining them. When she attacks and bites Seinna in the studio, is she really doing it or is it all in her mind? The night deskman (Nicholas Tucci) tells her that she might have rabies but that he also can’t allow her to leave the station to see a doctor because a storm is approaching and he has to keep her safe. Soon, Amy is on the floor of the bathroom, sucking blood off a used tampon. (Ewwwwww!) When Amy starts to kill people, is she really killing them or is she just imagining it? If she really is killing them, why do they keep showing up and acting as if nothing strange has happened. Soon, Amy is skipping back and forth in time. Sometimes, the people at the station seem to worship her. Other times, they all seem to hate her. But regardless of how they feel, there’s no way they’re going to let Amy leave without throwing her a retirement party….

“What the Hell is going on!?” seemed to be the general response of many of the people at last night’s Scary Social watch party as Ten Minutes to Midnight came to a close and, indeed, it’s not always an easy film to follow. At things progress, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep track of who is dead and who is still alive. Is Amy in the present or the past? Is Amy in the real world or is she trapped in her mind? Was she even bitten by a bat in the first place or is it that just another part of her delusion? It’s hard to say but then again, I think it can be argued that it doesn’t really matter. The plot is deliberately confusing, just as reality often tends to be. After 30 years, Amy is being pushed out because she’s over 50 and she won’t sleep with the boss. She is someone who loves to witness the changing of the day and now, she’s changing into being forgotten, overlooked, and abandoned by everyone she works with and eventually by everyone whoever called her show for advice. If she seems to be struggling with her perception of reality, that’s perhaps because reality doesn’t seem to be worth all of the outrage, heartache, and trouble. It plays out like a particularly dark episode of The Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. Was any of the effort worth it? the film seems to ask as Amy prepares to be forgotten by a world that is always relentless in its demands for something new.

It’s a good film, one that will challenge the audience perhaps more than they’re used to being challenged. Ten Minutes to Midnight often threatens to get lost in its own narrative complexity but Caroline Williams gives a strong performance that manages to keep the movie from sinking. The film’s currently available on Prime. It’s intriguingly weird.

Netflix Halloween 2014 : “You’re Next”

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Ryan C. (fourcolorapocalypse)

Okay, so here’s the deal : over at my “main” site — http://trashfilmguru.wordpress.com , for those up you not aware — I’m spending the month of October looking at various horror flicks currently available in Netflix’s instant streaming queue. So far there have been some semi-winners, some semi-losers, and some real clunkers, but I promised myself that if I ever found one that was an absolute, indisputable home run, I’d write about here on TTSL and thereby hopefully spread the word about it a bit father and wider than a post on my blog alone would accomplish. I’m pleased to say I’ve found just such a film.

I’m not sure why or how I missed “splat back”/”mumblegore” director Adam Wingard’s 2011 offering, You’re Next, when it hit theaters — I certainly found the ads for it intriguing and meant to go check it out, but I never did. My loss — but not anymore, since I finally caught it the other night and damn, was I impressed.

Seriously, this has everything you want in a horror movie : an involving premise, a few characters you want to see live, even more you’d love to see die, plenty of first-rate gore, suspense, intrigue, and all kinds of ass-kicking. You might ask for more, I suppose, if you’re picky, but come on — how often do you get it?

Anyway, friends, you know how it goes — you’re gathered together for a family reunion full of not-so-subtle tension and disdain (think the kind of situation where everyone would be stabbing each other in the back, except for the fact that they’re doing it out in the open), when suddenly assailants in animal masks armed with crossbows start firing away and, presto! Next thing you know, you’re all under siege and fighting for your lives.

What? That’s never happened to you? Well, it’s what happens to the family here (who, curiously enough, are never given a last name), a very well-heeled clan who have gathered at their family’s palatial “summer estate” to celebrate their mother and father’s 35th wedding anniversary. Roll call : there’s struggling- academic brother Crispian (AJ Bowen) and his Aussie girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vison); douchebag brother Drake (Joe Swanberg) and his wife, Kelly (Sarah Myers); younger douchebag brother Felix (Nicholas Tucci) and his emo/goth “squeeze,” Zee (Wendy Glenn); darling baby sister Aimee (Amy Seimetz); and presiding over the whole houseful of ungrateful, self-centered whelps we have dad Paul (Rob Moran) and mom Aubrey (the still-drop-dead-gorgeous Barbara Crampton). We get to know each of these characters just enough to give the first half-hour or so a strong dose of Woody Allen-esque upper-class dysfunction when the shit starts hitting the fan.

And when it hits, boy does it ever. Aside from the mere fact that it’s gleeful fun (well, at least for me) to see members of the 1% finally get what’s coming to them, Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett are to be commended for not taking their collective foot off the gas pedal until the end credits are rolling, and while we quickly learn that only Erin has the smarts and guts to survive the situation thanks to her weird survivalist upbringing in the Outback, the other character revelations along the way come in measured steps and and at just the right points (usually as a means of breaking up what would otherwise be a non-stop series of creatively brutal slayings). Still, you probably won’t see the end coming, simply because you’ll figure you’ve got the whole thing sussed out already — even though, trust me, you don’t.

To be completely fair, I do have some relatively minor gripes with said ending — I think there was a way Wingard could have made it even more shocking, but shit, I’m not gonna complain. The conclusion he serves up is still a doozy even if it’s not exactly the one I would have gone for. If I think I’m so fucking good at this kind of thing, then maybe I should just go and direct my own movie, right?

Add in fun little cameos from the likes of fellow “new horror” icon Ti West and some wink-and-nudge homages to other genre classics, throw in a throbbing musical score that’s more than just a bit reminiscent of Goblin (hold your horses, I’m not saying it’s as good as Goblin, only that it’s stylistically similar to their justly- legendary efforts), keep the blood flowing, and you’ve got a recipe for a sure winner. Whatever you’re doing right now can wait — if you’ve got a Netflix subscription, You’re Next deserves your immediate attention.

Film Review: You’re Next (dir by Adam Wingard)

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If Luis Buñuel had ever made a slasher film, it would probably have been a lot like You’re Next.

You’re Next tells the story of the ill-fated Davison clan. Paul (Rob Moran) has recently retired from his job as a defense contractor and now, he and his wife, Aubrey (Barbara Crampton) are looking forward to celebrating their anniversary at their isolated vacation home. Soon after they arrive at the house, Aubrey is convinced that she can hear someone else in the house. However, since the frail Aubrey is obviously emotionally unstable, Paul dismisses her concerns.

Over the course of the day, Paul and Aubrey’s children arrive at the house. Though, in the best tradition of all troubled families, the Davisons attempt to maintain a facade of peace and harmony, it quickly becomes clear that each member of the family is dealing with his or her own issues and petty jealousies.

For instance, oldest son Drake (Joe Swanberg) obviously feels that he’s superior to his siblings. His wife, Kelly (Margaret Laney), is just as obviously unhappy with their marriage.

Crispian (A.J. Bowen) is a neurotic academic who is struggling financially and is viewed as being a weakling by the rest of his family. His girlfriend, Erin (Sharni Vinson) has a secret in her past that will become unexpectedly important as the day progresses.

Daughter Aimee (played by Amy Seimetz, who was so good earlier this year in Upstream Color) tries so hard to be cheerful that you know that she has to be secretly be on the verge of having a nervous breakdown. Her boyfriend, Tariq (Ti West), is a struggling filmmaker who is scandalized to discover that Drake prefers to watch commercials as opposed to documentaries.

Finally, there’s the youngest son, Felix (Nicholas Tucci). Felix appears to be the most well-adjusted of all of the Davison children but his quiet girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn) is a different story.

Once the family has gathered together for the anniversary dinner, the bickering begins. What the family don’t realize is that a group of men (all of whom wear animal masks) have previously slaughtered the neighbors and have now surrounded the Davison house. The bickering is interrupted by a brutal attack that leaves one dead, one seriously injured, and the rest of the family fighting for their lives.

You’re Next starts out as an effective but rather standard home invasion film (think of The Strangers or even Michael Haneke’s Funny Games) but the film features two twists which set it apart.

The first twist is that Erin turns out to be as effective and determined a killer as the men laying siege to the house. I’ve sat through a lot of horror movies and I love movies where women get to kick ass and I can tell you, without fear of contradiction, that there’s probably no other horror heroine who kicks as much ass as Erin. As played by Sharni Vinson, Erin is destined to become an iconic character in the history of horror.

The other twist is one that I can’t tell you about because it’s this twist that literally turns the entire film upside down. What I can tell you is that this twist forces you to reconsider everything that you’ve seen up until that point. Most impressively, director Adam Wingard reveals this twist to us long before he reveals it to the film’s characters. As such, just when the viewer is getting used to the idea of You’re Next being just another home invasion film, a whole new element of suspense is added to the story.

Some reviewers have referred to You’re Next as being a comedy. I disagree, if just because the film’s violence is too brutal and the gore is too graphic for this film to be considered anything other than primarily a horror film. That said, there is a strain of dark humor that runs through the film and occasionally provides a much needed relief from the nonstop tension onscreen. A good deal of the film’s humor comes from just how incredibly screwed-up the Davison family is, even before they find themselves under attack. This is a family of people who, even while they’re trying to plot their escape from the house, can not resist getting into argument about who can run the fastest.

Ultimately, You’re Next works as both a brutally effective horror film and as a satirical portrait of an All-American family that’s secretly so dysfunctional that — even if they weren’t being attacked by masked men with crossbows — they probably would have eventually ended up killing each other anyway. It’s a genre film that manages to transcend the rules of genre even while embracing them. In a year that, so far, has been dominated by surprisingly intelligent and effective horror films, You’re Next is one of the best.