After Dark Horrorfest 4 (Lake Mungo/Zombies of Mass Destruction/The Graves/The Final/Hidden/Dread/Kill Theory/The Reeds/Lionsgate/2010)
Average
Picture: C+ Average Audio: C- Average Extras: C- Features:
Lake Mungo: D
Zombies of Mass Destruction: C+
The Graves: D
The Final: C+
Hidden: C+
Dread: C+
Kill Theory: C-
The Reeds: C
Now in
its fourth year, the annual After Dark
Horrorfest has released this year’s eight films on DVD. The idea of the Horrorfest is to release small, independently produced horror films
that otherwise would never have made their way into a theater, or received much
attention on DVD. Unfortunately it seems
that most horror flicks of any worth have already been snatched up. Still, this year’s roundup is better than
last, when indie filmmakers were still working through the tail end of the
“torture porn” phase. Horrorfest 4 introduces a bit more
variety as we have slashers, a zombie flick, faux-documentary style, an
introspective Norwegian film, and an almost Argento-esque look at fear itself.
Lake Mungo is an Australian film about a
family dealing with the loss of their daughter, Alice Palmer. This pseudo-documentary purports to
investigate Alice’s
story, both looking back to before her death and why she’s been seen in the
house months after her death. A trailer
is the only special feature.
Zombies of Mass Destruction, calling itself a “political
zomedy,” takes a satirical look at small town America in the grip of a zombie
apocalypse. As fear runs high in the
community, suspicions and prejudices boil to the surface. Iranian student Frida and businessman Tom,
who’s brought his boyfriend home to meet his mother, find they have more to
fear than zombies. The disc includes a “Making of Zombies of Mass Destruction”
featurette.
Sisters
Megan and Abby Graves lend their name to the title of this next film. Before Megan moves to New York City for work, the sisters take one
last road trip together. When they stop
to check out the Skull City Mine they discover that the community’s been hiding
a secret about their town. The Graves features genre favorites
Tony Todd and Bill Moseley. Special
features include two commentary tracks, several “behind the scenes”
featurettes, a music video, the original script, and a trailer.
The Final is a story of abuse and revenge
as a group of high school rejects fight back after years of bullying and
harassment. Led by the suicidal Dale,
the group gives a horrific lesson to their more popular tormentors who only get
one chance to pass The Final. Extras include a commentary track, “Behind the Scenes,” a trailer, and
deleted scenes.
From Norway
comes Hidden. After the death of his mother, KK is forced to
return to his childhood home, a place he hoped he had left behind him forever. As soon as he shows up at the house, people
start dying and the answer lies in KK’s shrouded and horrifying past. Hidden,
unfortunately does not come with any special features.
Adapted
from a Clive Barker novel, Dread is
about three students making a film investigating the nature of fear. As Quaid delves deeper and deeper into the
subject matter, he performs terrifying psychological and physical experiments
on his subjects hoping to overcome his own fear. By the time his partners find out what he’s
doing, they’re next in line. Extras
include a behind the scenes featurette, “A
Conversation with Clive Barker and Writer/Director Anthony DiBlasi,” and
deleted scenes.
Blending
elements of Saw and Battle Royale with the characters and setting
of the Friday the 13th remake, Kill Theory is an ambitious, if
derivative, slasher. A psychiatric
patient traps a group of twenty-somethings in a deadly experiment as he tries
to prove that deep down, we’re all killers. The disc also contains alternate openings,
deleted scenes, and a behind the scenes featurette.
The Reeds is a British horror film that
takes place in a vast wetland. When six
friends rent a boat for the weekend, they soon find themselves lost in the sea
of reeds. The only places to turn for
help are the group of mysterious teens and the deadly parka-clad old man. Neither are what they seem though, and the
friends are caught in a desperate struggle for survival.
With the
exception of Lake Mungo, which is largely made up of
supposed “found footage,” the picture and audio quality are fairly consistent
across each of the films. Each of these
films were clearly produced with a fair budget. It’s never hard to find distribution for a
horror film, no matter how bad it is. The
picture quality is generally not tremendous, but about what you’d expect from a
professionally produced DVD. If you
really look you can find some extra video noise here and there, but it’s never
terribly noticeable. Each of the films
is presented in a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio. Likewise the audio is generally
pretty good in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround.
Occasionally you’ll find a scene with some irritating echo, especially
in Lake Mungo and Zombies of Mass Destruction, meaning someone messed up the
soundfield or messed up location audio.
Overall,
this year’s roundup of fright flicks isn’t bad. Granted, none of them are particularly good
either. The Final is certainly among this year’s standouts, which takes the
time to really make us sympathize with the film’s main characters, who straddle
the line between antagonists and protagonists. Zombies
of Mass Destruction is also notable in its shift of tone. Horror comedies are new to the After Dark Horrorfest, but it’s a
welcome addition. Dread is both the most intelligent film of the eight and the most
disappointing. The film starts off in a
great self-analyzing direction, almost like Dario Argento’s Opera. But as the plot progresses it gets lost in the
gore and psychosis, and misses the potential it started with. Regardless though, Dread is by far the most affecting film out of the group.
As
always, the After Dark Horrorfest
has fallen short of its original goal of bringing us the most terrifying film
out there, the ones they can’t show in theaters. But that’s expected by now. Rather than being some rogue source of
horrific monstrosities of cinema (look to Severin for that), After Dark films has become a reliable
place to find well-funded B movies. These
are movies made specifically for horror fans who will never tire of a slasher
flick or monster movie. If that’s you,
enjoy!
- Matthew Carrick