V/H/S/85 (2023)

 

 

Streaming Service: Shudder

Movie Name/Year: V/H/S/85 (2023) 

Genre: Horror, Thriller 

Length:  110min 

Rating: TV-MA

Directors: David Bruckner, Scott Derrickson, Natasha Kermani, Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero 

Writers: C. Robert Cargill, Zoe Cooper, Scott Derrickson, Evan Dickson, Mike P. Nelson, Gigi Saul Guerrero 

Actors: Freddy Rodríguez, Kelli Garner, James Ransone, Jordan Belfi, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Dani Deetté, Mark Sipka, Andrew Ghai, Anna Sundberg, Shelby Steel, Chelsey Grant, Tyler Noble, Gabriela Roel, Chivonne Michelle, Justen Jones, Florencia Ríos, Dashiell Derrickson, Toussaint Morrison, Marcio Moreno, Alex Galick, Ari Gallegos, Eric Pierson, Gerardo Oñate, Forrest Hartl, Dana DeRuyck, Evie Bair, Duffy McManus, Felipe de Lara, Tom Reed, Brent Picha, Renee Werbowski, José María Higareda, Bryan McDonald, Christopher Gasser, Murray Nelson, Anna Hashizume, Nicholas Krekeler 

 

IMDb Blurb: Unveiled through a made-for-TV documentary, five tales of found footage horror emerge to take viewers on a terrifying journey into the grim underbelly of the 1980s. 

 

 

Cat’s Point of View: 

While I haven’t always jived with every segment featured in the anthology franchise, the V/H/S (2012) movies have been a fun experience, over all. It’s like unpacking a “blind box” of film shorts. Sometimes there are things in the box that you don’t necessarily care for, but the rest is an enjoyable surprise. V/H/S/85 was the latest installment in this cinematic series, and I was enthusiastic to open up this mystery bundle.

 

I have mentioned before (and probably will again) that I absolutely love to watch productions set in the 1980s. I’m an 80s baby and so the decade is full of warm fuzzy nostalgia. Of course, we’re talking about a horror anthology here with V/H/S/85 so there really isn’t anything ‘warm and fuzzy’ about it. The little details that placed it within the 80s, however, not only helped me immerse myself within the collected found footage features, but it also gave me a little comfort touchstone – like wrapping up in a blanket while watching the scary movie.

 

 

Speaking of scary, I can’t say that I was chilled to the bone by any of these stories, but they were all interesting and well executed for the most part.

 

Gigi Saul Guerrero’s (Mistress of Bones, Bingo Hell, Satanic Hispanics) "God of Death" segment felt right at home as footage from a TV studio in the 80s and it captured the essence of the real event it was loosely framed around… with a twist. Scott Derrickson’s (Sinister, Doctor Strange, The Black Phone) "Dreamkill" segment was one of my favorites. Not only did this short distill the essence of the 80s well, it was also disturbing beyond the blood and gore. Natasha Kermani (The Samaritan, Imitation Girl, Lucky) "TKNOGD" segment gave all the right early computer graphics feels while incorporating a horror element into performance art. Mike P. Nelson’s (The Domestics, Studio Luma, Wrong Turn) "No Wake" & "Ambrosia" segments probably were the ‘winners’ for me. These 2 segments resonated in a different way than the others and held more subtle horror in addition to the overt elements involved.

 

 

I don’t know that the over-arching story the individual short films were sprinkled throughout connected as well to the segments as in some prior V/H/S offerings. I understood what David Bruckner’s (Southbound, The Night House, Hellraiser) "Total Copy" segment was going for, but couldn’t help have a bit of a disconnect with it. It was perhaps a combination of my own internal question of ‘but why, though?’ in regards to each of these ‘discovered’ home-videos watched within that narrative and some of the visual choices that just didn’t resonate with me. It wasn’t “bad,” per se… it just wasn’t as effective over-all for me.

 

That being said, V/H/S/85 was still absolutely worth the watch. This was, in fact, my second time watching this anthology as I’d tuned in as soon as it had released on Shudder last year. If you like horror anthologies, this franchise still remains a decided go-to. 

 

 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 74% 

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 70% 

Metascore – 53%

Metacritic User Score – 5.8/10 

IMDB Score – 5.6/10 

 

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5 

 

Movie Trailer:

 

Ominous October - V/H/S/99 (2022)

 

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: V/H/S/99 (2022)
Genre: Horror, Anthology
Length: 1h 49min
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Shudder, Studio 71, Red Arrow Studios, Bloody Disgusting, Soapbox Films, CinePocalypse
Directors: Flying Lotus, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Johannes Roberts, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
Writers: Zoe Cooper, Flying Lotus, Chris Lee Hill, Maggie Levin, Tyler MacIntyre, Johannes Roberts, Joseph Winter, Vanessa Winter
Actors: Various
 
IMDb Blurb: Witness a hellish vision of 1999, as social isolation, analog technology and disturbing home videos fuse into a nightmare of found footage savagery.

 

Cat’s Point of View:
We’re halfway through our Ominous October lineup, and I was excited to explore Shudder’s new V/H/S anthology offering for this midway milestone. Both Selina and I loved the last installment helmed by the horror streamer – albeit, some of the earlier sequels not so much. For that reason, I had V/H/S/99 listed as my #10 entry on my personal Top 20 List for October, while Selina had this as her #6 pick.
 
While I’m a bit of an eternal optimist, this is at least the 5^th movie in the franchise. I felt at this point that I should be realistic with my expectations. It’s been clear in the past that these can really be hit or miss. The hits land really hard, however, and I was sincerely hoping that V/H/S/99 would follow in the successful footsteps of V/H/S/94 (2021).
 
I have mixed emotions about V/H/S/99.

 
One thing that this new installment got right was the general grungy punk feel of the ‘90s. I was instantly transported back to the peak of the Blockbuster Video era and mix-tape cassettes on the shelf alongside CD collections. 1999 was a good year for me. I was off on my own doing the adulting thing, and I got married that year. The majority of V/H/S/99 fit right in with the vibe of that time period.
 
As another positive, I was glad that the shaky cam wasn’t too horrendous for an anthology of found-footage shorts. Sometimes these segments can get really out of hand with whipping the camera around as hapless victims panic and scramble from the villain du jour.
 
Beyond that, this latest incarnation of the V/H/S (2012) franchise fell a bit into the hit-or-miss category.

 
Overall, I enjoyed the experience. It just lacked the cohesiveness that V/H/S/94 gave us. The transition sequences did offer a little levity while underscoring the overall horror, but they were only loosely connected to the individual segments. When I say it connected at all, I’m being generous, to be honest. I have my own theory about what it represented and how it all tied together. It was something you could have expected from a lost and found VHS tape that had been recorded-over multiple times, in theory.
 
The individual entries in the anthology were decent. One shouldn’t expect anything flashy in these, since they’re meant to represent amateur home videos. The production value was great for all of its low-budget glory. I got some decent and satisfying spooks out of the experience, though I don’t know that there was anything truly terrifying among the offerings. If the over-arching transitions between each of them had tied them together somehow aside from fitting in the general timeline, it would have elevated everything just that much more.

 
I was also a little disappointed that they didn’t lean harder into the Y2K paranoia that gripped the world in ’99. So many thought it was practically going to be a doomsday with planes falling out of the sky and grids shutting down. I remember watching a live telecast of the transition to January 1, 2000, as the date crossed the globe. I had a knot in my stomach, worrying that lunatics were going to cause a self-fulfilling prophecy of anarchy whether computers went wonky or not. I think this particular anthology entry would have benefited from more of that than a single mention off-hand in one of the segments.
 
When stacked up to the prior V/H/S installments, V/H/S/99 wasn’t the worst, by far. It wasn’t, however, the best, either. I still have hope for this franchise, though. Perhaps they were a bit too fast to rush to production after the success of V/H/S/94. Hopefully, they won’t repeat these mistakes with the next announced installment of V/H/S/85, which is due out in 2023 sometime.
 
You can catch V/H/S/99 on Shudder starting Thursday, October 20^th.

  
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 69%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – 53%
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 6.7/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5

Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating – R

P.S. - There is a brief scene following the credits.
 
Movie Trailer:

Carter (2022)

Streaming Service: Netflix
Movie Name/Year: Carter (2022)
Genre: Action, Thriller
Length: 2h 12min
Rating: TV-MA
Production/Distribution: Apeitda, Netflix
Director: Byung-gil Jung    
Writer:  Byeong-sik Jung, Byung-gil Jung       
Actors: Joo Won, Kim Bo-Min, Sung-Jae Lee, Camilla Belle, Mike Colter
 
Blurb from IMDb: Thrown straight into a dangerous mission with none of his memories intact, a man must escape death while trying to figure out who he is, how he ended up here, and who is the mysterious voice in his ear calling him "Carter"?
 

Selina’s Point of View:
I was in my glory when I saw the trailer for Carter.
 
Korean cinema has a special place in my heart and, as an 80s baby, so do brainless action flicks. When I saw the trailer for Carter, then followed it up with the realization that a Korean director I know and like was behind it, I was excited.
 
After sitting down to watch, I’m just angry.
 
When you hear people talking about movies that are style over substance, Carter is exactly the kind of thing they’re talking about. Every shot seemed to have mountains of thought put into it, but nothing else did.
 
Now, keep in mind, I have enjoyed style over substance films before. I really enjoyed Sucker Punch (2011). But, in this case, the thought put into the cinematography for Carter was exceptionally misguided. It’s like the director decided before filming that he had to use shaky cam, and then ignored when it didn’t work.
 

Cat gets motion sickness when watching badly made shaky cam movies. About 10-minutes into Carter, I texted her to let her know I’d handle this one myself. I don’t have motion sickness from anything, but in this case the effect was nausea inducing. Even for me. I had to take regular breaks – just about every 15-minutes or so – because it was costing me my equilibrium.
 
I could have forgiven the stylistic choices if there had been any pay off. Unfortunately, there really wasn’t.
 
There were a few cool visuals, if you could focus on them long enough, but there was nothing else going for Carter. The script was bad, so was most of the acting. Even the fight choreography didn’t stand out. In fact, the final fight scene feels like it’s 20-minutes long and involves the main character doing the same thing over and over again.
 
I couldn’t figure out if I needed to vomit or go take a nap.
 
Don’t waste your time on Carter. If you’re curious about the director, Confession of Murder (2012) is streaming on Tubi, Pluto TV, and Plex.  
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 30%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 50%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score –5.1/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 1.5/5
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - The Medium (2021)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: The Medium (2021)
Genre: Horror
Length: 130 minutes
Rating: Not Rated
Production/Distribution: GDH 559, Showbox Entertainment, Northern Cross, Golden Village Pictures, Finecut, Shudder
Director: Banjong Pisanthanakun         
Writers: Cha-won Choi, Chantavit Dhanasevi, Na Hong-jin, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Siwawut Sewatanon
Actors: Akkaradech Rattanawong, Arunee Wattana, Boonsong Nakphoo, Chatchawat Sanveang, Narilya Gulmongkolpech, Pakapol Srirongmuang, Sawanee Utoomma, Sirani Yankittikan, Thanutphon Boonsang, Yasaka Chaisorn
 
Blurb from Shudder:  A documentary team follows Nim, a shaman based in Northern Thai, the Isan area, and encounters her niece Mink showing strange symptoms that seem to be of inheritance of shamanism. The team decides to follow Mink, hoping to capture the shaman lineage passing on to the next generation, but her bizarre behavior becomes more extreme.

 
Cat’s Point of View:
The Medium’s trailer seems to promise supernatural chaos with a side of Thai cultural flair. I’d have to say that it wasn’t misleading. The proverbial wheels come off the bus at The Medium’s climax, but it’s a bit of a meandering march to get there.

 
If I had to give a quick summary of what The Medium entails, I would have to say it’s as if there was a mash-up of Paranormal Activity (2007) and The Wailing (2016) but from the point of view of someone making a documentary of the experience.

Even though things get off to an extremely slow start, I did appreciate the time taken to give some cultural background to the characters and the region of Thailand featured in The Medium. It makes sense that a documentary crew would be getting some B-roll footage of landscape and the like. There probably could have been a little less, though. 

The Medium’s plot was engaging. There were points that I forgot I was reading subtitles and even didn’t mind the passage of time. However, there were other moments that I felt every second tick by.

 
The story behind The Medium is a tragic tale of a family unraveling amidst supernatural mayhem. There were points I really felt dread, and quite appreciated that the production skillfully induced fear without the need for jump scares and the like. Of course, there are some towards the end, but I get it.
 
I am not the biggest fan of found-footage films. Shaky cam is the bane of my existence. It’s probably my biggest pet peeve in movies. Unfortunately, because of The Medium’s framework using the point-of-view of the documentary crew, there is quite a bit of it here. It does, however, put you in the shoes of the person holding the camera. As such, it is effective in situations like this where the danger seems to be more imminent to the viewer.

 
Overall, the acting was on point, the visuals were interesting as well as horrifying, and the story was eerie. The Medium may not be for everyone, but it is a solid offering for this time of year. 
 
The Medium is releasing as a Shudder exclusive premiering Thursday, October 14th.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score –None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score –62%
Metascore –None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 6.6/10
 
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Trust the Dice: Parental Advisory Rating – R
 
Movie Trailer:

Ominous October - V/H/S/94 (2021)

Streaming Service: Shudder
Movie Name/Year: V/H/S/94 (2021)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 100 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Bloody Disgusting, Cinepocalypse Productions, Raven Banner Entertainment, Studio71, Shudder
Director: Simon Barrett, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows, Jennifer Reeder, Timo Tjahjanto
Writer: Simon Barrett, David Bruckner, Chloe Okuno, Ryan Prows, Jennifer Reeder, Timo Tjahjanto
Actors: Anna Hopkins, Steven McCarthy, Sean Patrick Dolan, Tim Campbell, Dru Viergever, Dax Ravina, Kimmy Choi, Christian Lloyd, Conor Sweeney, Slavic Rogozine, Thiago Dos Santos, Kevin P. Gabel, Daniel Williston
 
Blurb from IMDb: A police S.W.A.T. team investigates about a mysterious VHS tape and discovers a sinister cult that has pre-recorded material which uncovers a nightmarish conspiracy.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
Welcome to our Ominous October!
 
Every year we do a whole month of nothing but horror films for October, and this year is no different. You may remember us calling it our Shudder Spree, but we’ve opted to branch out to various sources for our spooks, hence the name change.
 
Never-the-less, we had to start off the month with our favorite horror streaming platform.
 
Although you can find horror flicks on all the streaming services, there’s no digging through other genres to get there if you’re using Shudder. With it, you can streamline your journey to finding the terror you’re looking for to complete your day – especially during the Halloween season. If you’re a horror lover like we are, it just makes sense to go for the subscription, especially since it’s one of the cheapest there is out there.
 
With that out of the way, let’s talk about V/H/S/94.
 
I’ll admit that I don’t remember a whole lot about the framing devices used in the first 3. I do think I’ll remember this one, though.
 
The extra-staticky feel of it threw me off at first. It’s found footage, so I expected shaky-cam. The worn-out, snowy, VHS quality of the framing device still caught me off guard because it added a whole other layer to the period immersion. It was a bit distracting at first – but I really liked it by the end. It fit the over-arching theme and the final twist was completely unexpected.
 
There was a secondary theme seen throughout the segments in V/H/S/94. That was: supernatural creatures.
 

Revealing any of the actual creatures would be considered spoilers. Some of the segments really rely on that unknown/surprise factor. I expected the trailer to give away some of those surprises, but that never happened.
 
I did have a least, and most, favorite of the parts.
 
I’d say the second segment really didn’t thrill me. A lot of it was about the main character sitting around in near-silence with the occasional loud sound meant to shock. Now, I don’t mind jump scares. I’ve loved some films that relied solely on them. In this case, I just don’t think it worked. It was a short film, under 20-minutes long, and most of it was silence. The same 15-minutes in a basic-length film would have been fine. Here, I wanted more.
 
My favorite segment was the one right after that.
 
It started with a Frankenstein (as in the plot of the book) meets The Human Centipede (2009) feel. Some risks were taken in that segment that could have failed spectacularly. Instead, I was truly invested. If anything, I want that whole thing in a video game. Someone get on that. I’d pay $60 for a full-length shooter based around the characters and plot involved in that 3rd chapter.
 
In the end, V/H/S/94 was the best of the series. I didn’t feel the runtime, but I did feel the fear here and there. It’s suitable creepy for a Halloween mood.
 
If you want to see this one for yourself, V/H/S/94 will be available on Shudder this Wednesday, October 6.
 

Cat’s Point of View:

What better way to kick off an Ominous October, than to revisit a well-known horror franchise by way of its latest installment. V/H/S/94 brings us back to the found-footage horror anthology, and I’ve been anticipating it with both dread and excitement since we first learned of this new installment.
 
I’ll be honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about the first few V/H/S (2012) films. I do, however, recall that they were sufficiently creepy and hit-or-miss on quality. That’s generally what you expect from a collection of projects such as this, however. Each writer/director team is going to give a different feel to their work. Some things play out better than others. V/H/S/94 is definitely ahead of the pack, as the most successful so far.
 
The S.W.A.T. raid framework tied everything together nicely without having to stretch our suspension of disbelief beyond what we were experiencing with each of the short film segments. The exploration of the crazy compound they find themselves in adds to the overall unease of the collective experience.
 
I’m not the biggest fan of found-footage – mostly because of its inherent shaky-cam. I don’t get motion sickness as a rule, but good grief there have been some jolting productions out there that have made me disoriented and queasy. I’m happy to say that V/H/S/94 wasn’t one of those. You can’t avoid some bobbing and weaving with this sort of project, but this was just enough without going nuts with it.

The grainy and streaky look of a well-watched VHS tape was only mildly irritating at the beginning. It was easy to get past and ultimately brought a slight sense of nostalgia for me. There’s definitely quite a bit of homage to the antiquated titular video medium laced within the segments. Those that lived through the era of ‘be kind and rewind’ may get a little kick out of it. 
 
V/H/S/94 is unapologetically grisly and brutal throughout all of its segments. Audiences should certainly brace themselves for violence and gore. The chaos in the trailer really only scratches the surface. Each short plays to a different set of fears – from the subterranean unknown to mad science and from the unease of a dark and stormy night alone in a funeral home to militia extremists. These short films bridge the gap from unnatural and supernatural to some very real causes of concern.
 
V/H/S/94 is certainly a spectacular way to kick off the spooky season. I dare say it’s worth the subscription cost for Shudder if you don’t already have the streaming service. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 100%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – None
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 8.1/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 4.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
P.S. We’re not sponsored by Shudder, we’re just big fans.
 
Movie Trailer:

The Call (2020)

Streaming Services: Shudder

Movie Name/Year: The Call (2020)
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 97 minutes 
Rating: Unrated
Production/Distribution: Single Malt Productions, Appreciated Films, BondIt Media Capital, Kalispel Tribal Holdings, Buffalo 8 Productions, Cinedigm Entertainment Group, EuroVideo, Front Row Filmed Entertainment, Première TV Distribution
Director: Timothy Woodward Jr.
Writer:  Patrick Stibbs
Actors: Lin Shaye, Tobin Bell, Chester Rushing, Erin Sanders, Mike Manning, Sloane Morgan Siegel, Judd Lormand, Randy J. Goodwin
 
Blurb from IMDb: In the fall of 1987, a group of small-town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple after a tragic accident brings them to the couple's door.

Selina’s Point of View:
The Call was not nearly as good as I hoped it would be.
 
When you see names like Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell starring in a horror flick together, it’s easy to expect magic. They’re both well-known for their horror careers. Putting them together should have been a winning combination.
 
Don’t get me wrong, they were both incredible. Shaye and Bell were just way too good for this movie. Any scene they were in, was heightened. When it was just the teens, though… it fell apart.
 
I had absolutely no sympathy for any of the protagonists. That’s a problem, because they experience some serious torture. It was essential to give a fuck. I didn’t.
 

If the entire story had been shown from Shaye’s character’s perspective – it would have been amazing. I would have loved to experience everything with her at the front. It would have put her and Bell right in the heart of every scene, and the other characters would be the set dressing they already were – but it would have been acceptable.
 
I will say, there were a few good scares. Nothing really blew me out of the water, and there were more plot holes than I can possibly sum up in a single article – but it wasn’t painful to watch. It was what it was – which was mediocre.
 
If you want to watch The Call, and see for yourself, it will arrive on Shudder, July 15.
 

Cat’s Point of View:

For those wanting to watch The Call, I have two initial suggestions for you. First, don’t sit too close to the screen if you have an issue with motion sickness. There’s a bit of shaky-cam going on periodically. It wasn’t the jolting found-footage variety, but everything bobbed and weaved a lot. Secondly, I would recommend not listening to The Call through headphones – so much screaming. I had to double-check that my ears weren’t bleeding by the time the credits rolled. Maybe I’m exaggerating a little but yikes all the same.
 
What it all boils down to is that I honestly don’t know if I liked The Call or not.
 
There were many spooky and mind-bending elements to appreciate within the movie. Several of the jump-scares got me for sure. I appreciated the late ‘80s nostalgia, and I was getting the vibe that there was some sort of homage to A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) put in a blender with Saw (2004). I’m a fan of both franchises and respected the attempt. I’m just not sure it worked.
 

When you have horror powerhouses such as Lin Shaye (Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gothic Harvest, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels) and Tobin Bell (The Flash, The Sandman, Gates of Darkness) involved with a production, it sets certain expectations. It might be a bit unrealistic and somewhat akin to judging a book by its cover, but I can’t help it. I was excited to see The Call based on their involvement and the trailer.
 
Unfortunately, the story felt a bit disjointed. The Call had a strange and slow start that felt awkward at times. When the supernatural shenanigans began, things were definitely picking up steam in the thrills department. I still managed to be a bit underwhelmed. There was a moment in one of the carnival scenes that an extra walking through took me completely out of the story for a moment. Their over-acting was so cloying that I sat surprised for a moment that the segment hadn’t hit the cutting room floor during editing.

Not to be punny by making a Jigsaw (2017) reference – but it felt like some of the pieces of this particular puzzle that made up The Call were missing when someone put it together. It seemed like a few pieces snuck in that belonged to a different picture and were crammed in anyway.
 
I will admit that I’ve been running on fumes in the energy department lately. Maybe that became a factor in my enjoyment – or lack thereof – here. I’d be interested in hearing what others think about The Call. Check it out on Shudder and let us know.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 53%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 72%
Metascore – None
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 4.1/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2.5/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 2.5/5
 
Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating: R
 
Movie Trailer:

Safer at Home (2021)

Streaming Services: Hulu
Movie Name/Year: Safer at Home (2021)
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 82 minutes
Rating: R
Production/Distribution: 7930 Entertainment, Showdown Productions, Voltage Pictures, Vertical Entertainment, The Searchers, Front Row Filmed Entertainment
Director: Will Wernick
Writer: Will Wernick, Lia Bozonelis, John Ierardi
Actors: Alisa Allapach, Lia Bozonelis, Adwin Brown, Katie L. Hall, Jocelyn Hudon, Mark Irvingsen, Dan J. Johnson, Michael Kupisk, Emma Lahana, Brandon Morales, Daniel Robaire
 
Blurb from IMDb: Two years into the pandemic, a group of friends throw a wild online party. After taking ecstasy, things go terribly wrong and the safety of their homes becomes more terrifying than the raging chaos outside.
 

Selina’s Point of View:
Safer at Home was not an easy watch. There was absolutely no escapism involved. Instead, it gave a look at a possible future based on what is actually happening.
 
Safer at Home opened with a montage of real news footage. It then seamlessly shifted into fictional news from that possible future – one where COVID-19 mutates and keeps us in a full quarantine until well into 2022. It also pulled from the BLM movement to show how that kind of police state lock-down would look.
 
Horror flicks are always much more terrifying when they could really happen.
 
I am not surprised by this movie’s reception. Critics got their hands on it in early 2021. Vaccines for COVID-19 had been developed and were rolling out at a steady pace in many countries. It was looking like the pandemic was coming to a close.
 
And we were all sick of hear about the coronavirus. None of us wanted to sit down in our free time, when we could finally be out among friends, and watch a movie about what we endured.
 
I don’t think any critic could possibly have imagined that this little horror was predicting the delta variant.
 

Watching Safer at Home now, is not the same thing as seeing it then. It hits harder.
 
It’s not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination. 

A huge portion of the cast had nothing to do but stare at a screen for the majority of their part. It was also an extreme social commentary, which is not for everyone. Especially not for anyone who is looking to escape current events for a little while.
 
It was also difficult to not compare it to Host (2020) – which was the first film to take place during the pandemic through use of webcams. They’re very different movies, of course. One is supernatural, the other is based completely in realism. Still, when you compare them – Safer at Home does not hold a candle to Host. Not only that, but even though Host is set during the pandemic, it still offers some manner of removal from our situation.
 
Safer at Home is less a project of entertainment and more like a creative warning of what we should be trying to avoid. That’s not what a lot of people are going to be looking for right now.
 
That said, I do predict that people are going to have a very different take on this film when they watch it in the future. Once COVID-19 is over and we’ve stepped into the light of whatever the world looks like then, people are going to be more open to movies set in this time. When they start coming across this one, it going to get better reviews. I don’t think I can say it will be a cult film, but I do believe it has the potential to become bigger than it currently is.

Cat’s Point of View:
When you watch movies on a regular basis, you never know when one is going to reach out and rattle you. I certainly didn’t anticipate feeling shook in the wake of the credits for Safer at Home…and yet here we are.
 
The critics are tearing into this movie and ripping it to shreds as if someone chummed shark-infested waters. I don’t get all the hate. Sure, Safer at Home wasn’t the most amazing thing ever, but it was solid. It just goes to show that you can’t always go by what all the critics say.
 
There have been a few films so far that have embraced this new pandemic world and run with the concept to bring us a whole new genre of horror and thrills. This follows along those lines but doesn’t dip into the supernatural the way others have.
 
The opening of Safer At Home actually gave me chills.
 

I absolutely believed in the setup here. It felt like current events rather than a piece of fiction. With variant strains of the coronavirus popping up, it feels like this will never end sometimes. I want to avoid a political soapbox, though, so I’ll summarize by saying that the police-state big brother-esque Los Angeles that was shown in the film felt frighteningly plausible.
 
You can do a lot with a simple framework. So many of us have experienced the little Zoom meeting boxes in the last year or so, that it only seems natural that more productions are going to borrow from this shared experience. I think this treatment was successful. I felt like I was sitting in on someone’s Zoom feed and watching a get-together of real friends. The drama was believable. I didn’t care if some parts were predictable or not. Safer at Home had a solid cast and they did a great job.
 
The ending rattled me hard.
 
Screw the critics, Safer at Home is absolutely worth the watch.
 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 7%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 61%
Metascore – 35/100
Metacritic User Score – None
IMDB Score – 4.6/10
 
Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3/5
Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3.5/5
 
Movie Trailer:

V/H/S: Viral (2014)

Number Rolled: 45

Movie Name/Year: V/H/S: Viral (2014)

Tagline: Mayhem goes viral.

Genre: Horror, Thriller

Length: 81 minutes

Rating: R

Production Companies: The Collective Studios, Bloody Disgusting, 8383 Productions, Crafty Apes, Bishop Studios LLC, Sayaka Producciones Audiovisuales, AM Films, Studio71

Producer: Roxanne Benjamin, Justin Benson, Gary Binkow, Gregg Bishop, Theo Brooks, Dan Caudill, Vince Cupone, Beck Engle, Adam Hendricks, Nahikari Ipina, John H. Lang, David Lawson Jr., Brad Miska, Aaron Moorhead, Nils Onsager, Tom Owen, Morgan Patterson, Andrew Reyes, Sten Saluveer, Marcel Sarmiento, Manuel Sanchez, Christopher White, Zak Zeman, Matt Daneri

Director: Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, Todd Lincoln, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo

Writer: T.J. Cimfel, David White, Marcel Sarmiento, Gregg Bishop, Nacho Vigalondo, Justin Benson, Brad Miska, Todd Lincoln, Aaron Moorhead, Ed Dougherty

Actors: Patrick Lawrie, Emilia Ares Zoryan, Stephanie Silver, Val Vega, Angela Garcia, Chad Guerrero, Jorge Marquez, Steve Robles, Gary Sugarman, Noelle Ann Mabry, Justin Welborn, Emmy Argo, Dan Caudill, Michael Aaron Milligan, John Curran, Susan Williams, Randy McDowell, Carrie Keegan, Cory Rouse, Marian Alvarez, Gustavo Salmeron, Nick Blanco, Chase Newton, Shane Brady, Peter Villalba, Jessica Landon, Kelly Misek Jr.

Stunt Doubles: Nabuco Donosor, Alissa Valente Feucht

Languages

Speech Available: English

Subtitles Available: English

Blurb from Netflix: During a police chase, amateurs rush to shoot videos they hope will go viral, unwittingly casting themselves as victims in cyber story.

Selina’s Point of View:

I still hate shaky-cam. It’s always been necessary for the V/H/S series, though. Up until now, that hatred didn’t boil over onto the series.

The problem is that the V/H/S series greatly relies on the framing device to tie its stories together and, because of that framing device, the found footage aspect is necessary. It becomes an actual part of the stories and elevates them to new heights.

This film was different.

It’s like the creators of V/H/S: Viral completely forgot about a framing device and just stitches something together at the last minute to throw in-between the segments. I’m sorry, but that’s not how something like that works; especially if you’re trying to tie together stories in an anthology. There needs to be that definite, solid story that makes the rest of it fall into place like puzzle pieces.

This was just a hot mess.

Even the theme got muddled. There was a supernatural aspect, but then it was about social media, but then it was supposed to be a punishment kind of thing… really? Make up your damn mind. It’s like they took all the stories that weren’t good enough for the first two and said, “eh, this works. Print it.”

It pains me to say how lazy and awful this film was because I rather enjoyed the first two.

This is just another case of people going too far with sequels and fucking up the whole brand.

Cat’s Point of View:

I was fervently hoping that this third movie would improve on the series and would avoid some of the pitfalls that the prior V/H/S movies fell into. Alas, I do not have good news to report here.

I enjoyed this the least out of the three. However, even with that said, there were two segments that I found tolerable and semi-interesting – ‘Dante the Great’ and ‘Parallel Monsters.’

Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes, Extraterrestrial, Open Windows), director of the ‘Parallel Monsters’ segment, is no stranger to anthologies. He was the director of the ‘A is for Apocalypse’ segment of The ABCs of Death (2012). If you’ve followed our blog for a while, you might recall that I absolutely loathed that film experience. As a strange yin to that yang, though, he is also the writer and director for the recently released Colossal (2016), which is a movie I really want to watch.

The story that tied all the anthology shorts together was disappointing. There was too much craziness with showing the compromised video effects, the shaky cam was bananas, and it didn’t even make sense. I got the general gist of it but it just wasn’t clear how the different segments tied into that story.

I sincerely hope they don’t make another of these. I’d feel compelled to watch it in spite of the fact I hold little hope for improvement. As it stands, I have no intention of watching this one again.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 39%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 14%

Selina’s Rating – 1/5

Cat’s Rating – 1.5/5

Trust-the-Dice’s Parental Advisory Rating:

P.S. During part of the credits the movie plays in rewind behind the colors.

Movie Trailer: