Goldbeater

Vincent Must Die is the story of a middle-aged man in hiding who suddenly begins to fall victim to random brutal attacks by his friends or passers-by. And what begins as a rather comical premise gradually escalates to new and new levels. To reveal more would be a disservice to the story, as it's very entertaining to watch the film take new directions as the minutes pass.

What I appreciate about Lake Michigan Monster is the creative passion and ability to make something this compact and stylish on a tiny budget. However, writers Ryland Brickson Cole Tews and Mike Cheslik rely more on verbal gags than visual ones, which doesn't quite work out in the end, and the film isn't as funny as it tries to be. They fix this problem perfectly in their follow-up, Hundreds of Beavers, which relies 99% on imaginative visual humor and is absolutely bombastic in doing so.

After a devastating earthquake hits South Korea, a single building that serves as a middle-class housing complex remains standing in the rubble of a devastated Seoul. Survivors from all over the area must soon fight over who will and who will not make it to this last refuge. It’s a recipe for social satire that could represent South Korea in the Oscar race next year. But the elements of satire here are at times escalated into such absurd realms that it practically makes the film a comedy, whose contrivances about the characters' behavior in a crisis situation feel more forced and artificial than resembling real human motivations. And this tonal and genre straddling, which is often inherent in Korean films, unfortunately does it a disservice. With this premise, I would have much more appreciated a more serious disaster survival film that dealt with the real logistics of survival in a post-apocalyptic world, and that I, as a viewer, could take seriously. I couldn't really take this one seriously.

Have you ever been interested in delving deeper into the the connection between horror films and metal, or rock music? Then this documentary is for you. It's a bit punk and vaguely structured, but given the chosen subject matter and the interviewees, it kind of fits the film and doesn't really matter. It's quite admirable how prominent figures from the film and music scene Mike Schiff managed to lure into this documentary, and listening to some of them even just talk about, say, their favorite horror movies is simply engaging and entertaining. I've seen the shorter 100-minute version, but with the fertility of the subject matter and the fun of its presentation, I'd like to watch the two-and-a-half-hour version sometime.

A low-key relationship comedy about vampires that doesn't try to tackle any deeper ideas and themes like other, earlier similarly-themed films, but is still inherently fine.

A brilliantly paced and imaginative mystery horror film about the horrors of sleepwalking. Although Sleep contains a great deal of humour, it gradually builds up a very strong atmosphere of uncertainty and unease, leading to a very impressive finale that also offers more than one denouement.

Sharksploitation is a very accomplished and unexpectedly multi-layered documentary, in which the theme of shark exploitation is dealt with on multiple levels, be it cinematic, mythological or real. It's also a very entertaining compilation of excerpts from all sorts of shark films, whether relatively good or objectively awful, that can give you many tips on rightly or wrongly forgotten cinematic works that you'll want to watch after this documentary.

The Sacrifice Game is a very artificial attempt at wannabe cool horror set in 1971. The whole thing feels so studio clean and slick that you don't believe for a moment that you're watching real settings, real characters and real terror. Add to that the tragic overacting of most of the actors involved and it feels like an amateur performance converted into film form. It's a film that's only fit to be stuffed into the video library of some second-rate streaming service, which is where it will end up. Seeing this in a genre film festival alongside works that can do wonders with a comparable or much lower budget and can look realistic with their retro setting is a death sentence for this mechanical and annoying crap.

Dead people all over the world are starting to turn into zombies. It would be a motif we've seen hundreds of times before, but the reanimated corpses in this film don't crave human flesh and killing, they just peacefully remain in this world and begin to be a nuisance to society by their presence. It's a hearty idea that almost begs for some type of social satire, but that's not what they were going for here at all, and so they serve up a simple comedy with stodgy characters trying to make the best of the situation. Out of the two films by the RKSS creative team this year, We Are Zombies is the lesser quality, less substantial and probably hastily spliced film, but as an over-the-top, unpretentious comedy it probably won't offend anyone.

Why on earth do they have to stretch this dilettante crap to 100 minutes? All You Need Is Blood is the story of a 16 year old boy who is determined to make an amateur film, taking advantage of the fact that his father has just turned into a zombie. Nothing in the film makes sense, the events happen completely randomly and the behaviour of the characters lacks any grounding in reality (plus the main character is an extremely insufferable idiot). It's a bit of fun about five minutes before the end, when there's a tiny gorefest, but that's really not enough after the previous hour and a half of meandering misery.