NIGHTSTREAM REVIEW: 32 MALASANA STREET

 

A family moving to a new house to live the dream of the big city. A house where dreams turn into nightmares.

Starring: Begona Vargas, Ivan Marcos, and Bea Segura

Directed by: Albert Pinto

Written by: Ramon Campos, Gema R. Neira, David Orea, and Salvador S. Molina

  

   Add “32 Malasana Street” to the long list of places that seemed like a nice place to live, but are far from it. Looking for a new start, Candela (Bea Segura), Manolo (Ivan Marcos), and their family move into a new apartment in the city. It doesn’t take long before the house starts to act up particularly around their kids. Their daughter, Amparo (Begona Vargas) is supposed to be watching the youngest, Rafael (Ivan Renedo), but gets distracted from her grandfather’s odd behavior. It almost leads the boy to his demise before dad comes to the rescue, but soon enough he disappears again. 

  Of course this shocks the family as they search for the boy. Weird things continue to happen to Amparo and others until the Rafael is finally found. Everyone can breathe easy now…wrong! The boy is traumatized, and soon enough the whole family will join him. Whatever is haunting this house is mad, and is about to take out its anger on this family.

  So the first star of this movie has to be the apartment, and followed closely by the entity haunting them. They make the most of this setting to execute the scares, and build up the mystery. The winding halls, dark rooms, and creepy basement definitely work. The atmosphere seems dark even when they first move in, and only gets darker in the end. 

  The scares start off in a typical manner, but move to more creative stuff as the movie unfolds. Probably the scariest stuff comes at the hands of the grandfather’s weird behavior early on, and then later on with what happens when a woman in a wheelchair gets involved in the action. Also, once the scares get going there isn’t too much wasted time. Either the movie is working on setting up a scare, or getting closer to why this is all happening. And the reason behind it all is a pretty unexpected story.

  Horror fans have seen many families over the years move into a place, and need to move out even quicker. Credit this movie for going so far as to have a banker tell them they are stuck with the place financially. There’s no easy escape except for taking on this ghost head on. Visit “32 Malasana Street” if you’re looking for scares with a pretty interesting story behind it all. With that said, I give it 3 pools of blood.

  

  HorrO

LADY USHER REVIEW

 

This motion picture is a suspense/thriller based on the short story; The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe. This updated re-telling is written by award winning filmmaker George Adams and possesses the quintessential features of the Gothic: a large dreary house, strange macabre characters with doubled personalities and a mysterious sickness. A contrast, this standard formula has a plot that is bizarre, unexpected, and full of unforeseen disturbances. Part of the terror in this story is the vagueness of time and place and the haziness sets the tone for a plot that blurs the real and the eccentric.

Starring: Theresa Santiago, Billie D. Merritt, and John Tuby

Directed and written by: George Adams

  

   Being unfamiliar with this Edgar Allen Poe story made watching “Lady Usher” very interesting. Morgan (Billie D. Merritt) has fallen hard for her boyfriend Roderick (John Tupy). When he leaves school to return home to take of his sick father, Morgan must decide whether or not to visit him. She can’t help it, and even with him saying not to she goes to visit him anyway. She has all kinds of expectations, but this doesn’t turn out the way she hoped.

  The house is nothing like she could’ve imagined, as everything seems like she went back a century or two. Before she can even wrap her mind around this she must meet the Lady of the house, Lady Usher (Theresa Santiago). Lady Usher makes her visit more uncomfortable than the house already does. She also makes it weird for Roderick, and now the three must figure a way to get along for the remaining time they’re together. 

  As this story is told there’s obviously something they’re hiding. There’s a lot of strange things happening, and the audience will know Lady Usher has something to do with it. She’s in control of the house, and maybe even people’s feelings. All Morgan wants is to continue her relationship with her boyfriend, but he’s apparently not ready to leave the family.

  While it’s awkward at times, it becomes hard not to be drawn into this triangle of trouble. Particularly, Theresa and Billie’s performances grow as this plays out. They actually turn out to play well off of each other. Interestingly enough, as they fight for Roderick, he almost gets lost in the shuffle. And then there's Mr. Usher (John Ferguson), who is the reason everyone has come home, but never the focus. He does have an important scene that clues Morgan into what may be happening. 

  Overall, “Lady Usher” isn’t going to be a film for everyone. It’s almost a slow burn with a mystery to unfold. Things will be weird at times, and will seem to lead the audience in different possible directions. However, if the audience gets sucked in enough to want to know where the story goes, then they might just enjoy it. It’s a crazy ending that’s certainly unexpected on multiple levels. Again, having no knowledge of the original story, I have no idea how well it compares. I do know it did enough to get 2.5 pools of blood!

  HorrO

CAMPING FUN REVIEW

 

Four friends set out to a remote getaway in Texas, unaware that it is being occupied by a sinister cult.

Starring: Hailey Marmolejo, Bonnie Sturdivant, Thomas Burke, and David Eimer

Directed and written by: Thomas Burke

  

  “Camping Fun” is what this group of four wanted, but it doesn’t turn out to be a lot of fun after all. This is a found footage film showing video that the police have discovered sometime after these young people’s disappearance. It starts as the audience might expect, with the group arriving at a house in the middle of nowhere. There’s a brief introduction to who they are, and the relationship between each other. 

  While they’re supposed to be having fun they show that things aren’t so great between them all. There’s a good argument between some of them, but things turn weird. One of the girls seems to be acting stranger by the second, but the others are slow to catch on to it. Unfortunately for them, their problems are about to get worse because the house wasn’t as unoccupied as they thought.

  So while it didn’t turn out to be much fun for the four characters, this short film should please fans of found footage films. It has a quick setup only giving a glimpse of who these characters are, but that’s alright because they’ll be gone soon enough. It has a little mystery, and creepiness as they investigate the house before revealing what’s truly going on. Of course this doesn’t work without an exciting ending, and it gives the audience just that. And the found footage angle is just as the audience would expect capturing only what is needed to be seen. 

  HorrO

More info about this film at: http://promotehorror.com/2020/09/21/camping-fun/

WHERE THE SCARY THINGS ARE EPISODE 67

 

Where The Scary Things Are Episode 67: HOSTS, DIRECTORS ADAM LEADER AND RICHARD OAKES WITH NEAL WARD, NADIA LAMIN, AND SAMANTHA LOXLEY

We had one of funniest interviews with The Director and Actors from the movie HOSTS. 

ADAM LEADER AND RICHARD OAKES WITH NEAL WARD, NADIA LAMIN, AND SAMANTHA LOXLEY join the show. This was a riot. Please check out the film, HOSTS (with an "S")

Listen here

WhereTheScaryThingsAre.com

Apple apple.co/2HkbCx0

Spotify spoti.fi/37mxRxi

NEVER HIKE IN THE SNOW: A FRIDAY THE 13TH FAN FILM REVIEW

Set three months prior to “Never Hike Alone,” “Never Hike in the Snow” follows the strange disappearance of Mark Hill, a Crystal Lake resident who went for a hike in the dead of winter and never came home.  

Starring: Vinny Guastaferro, Thom Mathews, Courtlan Gordon, and Vincente DiSanti

Directed and written by: Vincente DiSanti

  Apparently Mark (Courtlan Gordon) has been investigating the woods, and taking pictures of the area. Unfortunately for him, he has stumbled into the territory of the most feared predator in the area…Jason (Vincente DiSanti). The cops find the car he was driving, but there’s no sign of Mark. Sheriff Rick Cologne (Vinny Guastaferro) seems like he knows what’s happened, but isn’t ready to tell anyone. Instead he has a fellow cop start an investigation while he goes to break the news to Mark’s mother.

  This short horror film opens right in the middle of the action. Mark is running through the snow with Jason on his tail. Jason does something fans aren’t used to seeing him do much of to stop Mark, but then finishes him off in a much more familiar way. What’s great here is that the film takes its time, and lets the audience enjoy the death. The audience gets a couple of shoots of Mark, and then they get to see what Jason does with the body afterwards.

  From there on out, much of the film follows the sheriff, and the investigation. Vinny is good enough at carrying the load here, as his character deals with Mark’s mom, and yelling at his fellow officer. Not many fan films are able to actually get someone from the franchise to be involved in the film, but this one manages to find a role for Thom Mathews to return as Tommy Jarvis. It looks like Tommy is looking for another shot at taking Jason down.

  Make no mistake, the audience does get some more of Jason. It does what the movies don’t do, and explores Jason after the kill. What he does with the body, and where he goes. They also take a risk and bring back someone from Jason’s past. And even though this is a short film they need more than one kill, and they manage just that. This time there’s a little more of a fight against Jason.

  “Never Hike in the Snow” is a fan film that does plenty of justice to the beloved franchise it’s based on. It’s clear they wanted to start off with a bang, and they did making every shot count. Fans can appreciate that they filled in some gaps that aren’t usually covered in the movies. They also took some risks with what goes on with Jason inside his hideaway that seem to work. Of course the audience can't ignore the snow, which is unusual to see with Jason, but adds something to the look of the film. In the end, it appears like this fan film franchise has something in the works, and it will be interesting to see where all of its films together end up.

  HorrO

Click here to watch the film!