After Dark Horrorfest: 8 Films to Die For (2008/Lionsgate DVD)

 

Average Picture: C     Average Sound: C+     Extras: D     Features: (see below)

 

 

I’ll just put it right out there, I have never been too crazy about the After Dark Horrorfest.  When it began back in 2006, it was advertised as the films that were too scary and too extreme to be given a regular theatrical release and when I saw the trailer three years ago, I nearly crapped my pants simultaneously from fright and excitement.  I waited anxiously for it to arrive, and when it did I skipped classes to go see it.  At the end of the first day, I was already disappointed.

 

It isn’t even so much that the films are bad (though some of them really are), it’s that, like so many other things, they just don’t live up to the hype.  Notably, after the first run, the claim of being too extreme for regular theatrical distribution is no longer part of the ad campaign.

 

This past January, Horrorfest 2008 hit theaters for its usual weeklong run and now these “8 Films to Die For” are out on DVD.  Descriptions and ratings for each film are as follows:

 

The Butterfly Effect 3 Revelations: I begin with this film because when I received the discs, I saw its inclusion as a sign of the Horrorfest’s fall into debasement and self-parody.  The first Butterfly Effect film with Ashton Kutcher was bad and the second was god-awful.  Surely, according to the laws of physics and filmmaking, the third must be a bane on humanity itself.  And yet somehow, The Butterfly Effect 3 is actually a half-decent movie.  The plot progresses nicely, the dialogue is decent, and the acting isn’t terrible.  The film even has a decent twist at the end.  The basic concept is the same as the previous films: Dude goes back in time to change his past but only ends up making things worse.  I’m not saying it’s a great movie, but it’s certainly not the crap you’d expect it to be.  Final Grade: C

 

From Within: One of the other halfway decent films to be included this year, From Within involves a curse, a family of witches, and a small town.  Despite the supernatural aspects of the plot, this film paints a very real portrait of small town life in the south and almost no one escapes without blame and/or punishment.  The film boasts a fun performance by Adam Goldberg and stars Rumer Willis who we’ll see later this year in Sorority Row.  Final Grade: C-

 

Autopsy: On the scale of horror films, Autopsy is on the complete other end from The Butterfly Effect 3 and From Within.  Where the previous two films were at least a tad more thoughtful and psychological in their approach, Autopsy is all gore gore gore.  The plot is negligible and irrelevant and visually the film has a very trite creepy hospital aesthetic bathed in green light.  Almost every aspect of this film is disappointing and even the gore (with one magnificent exception) lacks impact and imagination, though it does earn props for using old-school practical effects.  There is maybe one clip of this film worth seeing, but it’s not worth sitting through the rest to get to it.  Final Grade: D

 

Dying Breed: This film is a bit of a quandary.  It follows the much worn Texas Chainsaw Massacre formula (cannibal inbred hicks pick off tourists), and yet the characters are actually decently written.  They’re not stereotypes, and while they do seem to have sex in inappropriate places, this is not a cautionary tale film.  Most surprisingly at all, the dialogue is actually bearable, even if it does go in circles every once in a while.  Gore’s a big factor in this film, but it’s not stretched out or over-the-top.  One suspects that had they had a more original concept, this could have been a legitimately good horror movie.  Final Grade: D+

 

The Broken: People have always been creeped-out by mirrors.  The notion of a doppelganger staring back at you from the other side of the glass consistently hits a chord within the human psyche.  Unfortunately The Broken doesn’t really go anywhere with it.  There’s no plot to speak of, just a succession of deaths for which no explanation or rationale is provided.  Of the eight films, this one features by far the best cast featuring Richard Jenkins (who unfortunately filmed this directly after his amazing performance in The Visitor) and starring Lena Headey whom you might recognized from her titular role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.  Sadly this film is far beneath both these actors.  Final Grade: D

 

Slaughter: This film actually puts a nice twist on the Texas Chainsaw Massacre formula with a similar setup, but not the outcome you might expect.  A young girl escaping an abusive relationship flees to the big city.  But when her ex tracks her down, she moves in with a new friend at her family’s farm.  Things are going great until people start to disappear and all signs are pointing to the creepy old barn.  Unfortunately, despite putting a slight twist on an old tune, Slaughter still comes up short with pacing issues, bad acting, and characters that simply aren’t compelling.  Final Grade: D

 

Perkins’ 14: A meditation on loss, grief, and the possibility of redemption all mixed in with fourteen psychotic flesh-eating maniacs, Perkins’ 14 isn’t as good as it should be.  The film tries to make a statement and it does, but it just takes too damn long to get there.  After a cop loses his son to a serial kidnapper, he never gives up hope that he may find his boy.  But ten years later, when he finally captures the kidnapper, what escapes from the basement is no longer his son.  Of the film’s 95 minute run time, too much is taken up by mopey dad time, and not enough given to crazy cannibal psycho son.  Final Grade: D+

 

Voices: The South Koreans have been putting out some great movies recently such as The Host, and anything by Chan-wook Park.  Unfortunately Voices doesn’t hold up to the same standards.  It’s decent, but it is slow (as Asian films of any genre have a tendency to be) and the end is incredibly predictable.  To the film’s credit though, it does contain what is probably my favorite wedding scene of all time.  Voices follows a young girl whose friends and family suddenly begin attacking her for no apparent reason.  Is she cursed, crazy, or is something else going on?  Final Grade: C-

 

The discs are fairly uniform across the board with a 16:9 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio (1.78 X 1) and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.  The picture and sound quality are adequate, though a couple of the films suffer from poor color.

 

As for extras, three of the discs have making-of or “behind the scenes” featurettes and each disc has the same hour-long feature on the Miss Horrorfest selection process with video submissions from the potential scream queens.  These submissions range from bad to unwatchable and with the same repetitive title cards between each submission, this feature is just not worth the hour.  Ironically, one of the worst films of the eight, Autopsy, has the most extra features boasting not only one of the three making-of featurettes, but also a commentary track and alternate ending.

 

The 2008 After Dark Horrorfest continues on at about the same level of quality as it has the two years previous, which honestly is not that good.  But, the fest acts as a rallying point for horror fans and even if they aren’t that great, it’s nice to know that there’s an organization that will distribute the films no one else will.  The fest itself is a great place to go meet other horror fans and if you saw a film there that you liked, go ahead and pick it up.  The After Dark label though, is by no means a testament to quality and I wouldn’t recommend picking up one of these films on that criterion alone.

 

 

-   Matthew Carrick