Late Phases (2014) NR

 Late Phases (2014) NR

 

Nick Damici (Stake Land), Ethan Embry (Pizza), and Tom Noonan (Last Action Hero) star in this tale of aging parents, fathers and sons, and werewolves.

Blind Vietnam war veteran Ambrose McKinley (Damici) moves into the retirement community of Crescent Bay.  When he's attacked his first night there, and realizes he's dealing with the supernatural, he knows he has a month to get ready.

I didn't really expect to like this film as much as I did.  While I love a good werewolf tale, they seem to be thin on the ground in recent years.   But if Grumpy Old Men and Silver Bullet had a baby, this would be it.  The one bad thing about this movie was the overall appearance of the creature... they looked like giant furry Gremlins.  However, they are not on the screen for very long, and the story is centered more around the human dynamic.

As a movie for makers, it's solid.  You can work your knitting needles while still following the story.  Three laugh out loud moments, and one Holy Crap moment in this film.  It's understated, but the tension is there.  I think if they'd paid a little less attention to the bitchy old women of the community and spent a little more time polishing the parts with his son and the priest, this would have been a five-star film.  As it is I give it a four out of five stars, and a hearty recommendation for your next Halloween or horror film night.

Apartment 143 (2011) R

Apartment 143 (2011) R 

 

A recently widowed father invites ghost experts into his apartment to explain the strange occurrences in his home.

Another movie about the paranormal told exclusively through the lenses of hand-held video cameras, this movie is basically long, long, LONG, stretches of exposition punctuated by wind machines, flying objects, and screaming.

While some of the characters are interesting, the final explanation of the haunting, and the twist at the end was off-putting.  The use of mental illness as a scapegoat, even if later disproved, is not appealing.

There is a long camera shot with a strobe light, so if flashing lights are a problem, you will want to avoid this film.  Heck, you want to avoid this film anyway.  It's terrible.  I have no problem with films like "Paranormal Activity" and the like, but you have to create a story that is believable and consistent.  If you mish-mash a bunch of jargon together, say that's the reason, then disprove it with the last few seconds, you're basically cheating the audience, not blowing their minds.  I don't want to walk away from a film going "What the heck just happened?".

Two laugh out loud moments, deserved ones, when people were funny or clever.  Not a single count anywhere else, unless you want to count an eye roll at the very end.  The excuse for leaving the final camera was flimsy and transparent, and the jump scare expected.

I gave this a generous two out of five stars.  While it's good for background noise while crafting, because the long boring stretches are perfect for that, the story is terrible, muddy, and not resolved well.  I'm not even sure why this has an R rating, unless it was for language, which seems unlikely.  Unless all you watch is "found footage" style filming, and your collection feels very sparse, give this thing a pass.