Why So Blu?

Encapsulated Movie Reviews – Three New Indie Titles

Only a trio of indie items cinematically covered this week, but as my movie loving Dad always says some is better than none.  (Even flawed flicks should have their dissection day!)  Family holidays gone awry, what happens after the honeymoon is long over and kidnapping the wrong person all fill the movie void as far as smaller film fare goes. Check out the Encapsulated Movie Reviews of Red Christmas, After Love and House On Willow Street below!

 

RED CHRISTMAS
(Artsploitation Films)

Rare holiday set horror flick involving a family at Christmas that skips the funny and goes right to the slice and dice stuff with some seriously effective results.  Not only are there memorable kills (the umbrella to the head is creative!), thrills (genre icon Dee Wallace brings a motherly angle to her tough woman work here!) and chills (the main black cloaked baddie is one unsettling and demented dude!), but the theme of the flick is a heated subject ripped right from the headlines.  Topical, tense and terrifying too, this is one harrowing holiday flick that will creep the red Santa pants off you.

AFTER LOVE
(Distrib Films US)

While the acting and realistic tone of this one does effectively capture the awkward period of a couple on the verge of divorce, it doesn’t make watching After Love enjoyable.  Steeped in long awkward pauses and tense gut twisting anticipation, the film becomes so uncomfortable that even the few release valve light moments can’t help.  An unfun examination of two people turning on each other where the two leads look like they’re having as much enjoyment as the audience, After Love is arduous at best.

HOUSE ON WILLOW STREET
(IFC Midnight)

Having both a kick ass premise (a gal is kidnapped for ransom but her soul has already been spoken for by a demonic spirit!) and a notable leading lady (You’re Next hidden gem Sharni Vinson here plays the leader of the surly gang!) this film had a lot of brownie points going in.  Problem is even though the film is shot well, the script is flawed (convoluted moments abound!), Vinson is wasted (one-note character alert!) and most of the film takes place in a warehouse far from the proposed Willow house of the title.  A damn disappointment if ever there was one, this is a possession picture with potential gone wrong.  (Good poster though!)