Midsummer Nightmares 2: Summers End – 2014 – There’s a lot of cleavage!

Director: Ryan Stacy

Horror

I write this without the benefit of having watched the first one. The reason for this is that I want to treat this as an individual movie rather than a sequel. This might also be the cause for why I don’t totally get it. It seems to me that there’s way to much talk about stuff I don’t really connect to the movies main plot. Correction: of course it’s connected to the main plot, just not in a way that makes a lot on sense.

I can’t really say that it works as slasher. It’s not suspenseful enough, it’s not bloody enough. As a thriller? Well, there’s that thing about suspense again. A thriller more than anything revolves around suspense. The actors are quite bad most of the time but the thing the flick lack is suspense sounds and music. These things can do wondrous things with a mediocre plot.

To be honest, I don’t get this plot. There’s way to much talk about what happened before that’s unknown if you haven’t watched the first movie. I will watch it later though and see if I can connect the dots. The things I get are that some crazy killer from the past returns to kill off a bunch of friends. I don’t know why, there isn’t much motivation to anything in the movie. Why, why, why? That’s always the thing we should get to know one way or another. Except if you’re David Lynch, then you can get away with a totally confusing movie.

It’s hard to separate the acting from the direction. Who’s really to blame? I can’t say for sure but there is at least one saving grace – Christy Faulkner, who does the part of this hot ginger head Amber. She’s by far the most skilled actor in this production. That’s my opinion anyway! Many of the others, not all of them of course, seem to be in the production just to add cleavage values! That’s not necessarily a bad thing saying so makes me feel like a dirty old man. But perhaps that’s just what I am. The thing is that there’s a lot of cleavage but not enough boobs for it to be really sleazy. The attempt is fine to begin with but it does not work all the way.

All in all this is a little to amateurish for me to get off on. It’s a pretty short movie, about 70 minutes – luckily! It feels much longer than that since the pacing is so slow. Why don’t the killer come out and kill some of the characters already. There’s a decent teaser in the beginning of the film, but then there’s all that cleavage… In the end there’s an obvious attempt to surprise us which only add to the confusion. Just make it simple next time!

But did I regret seeing this? Do I want my time back? Not really. It was still worth my time and it should be worth your time too. It may not be top notch but very few movies are and there are after all some intriguing things about it. Did I mention Christy Faulkner?

4/10

Ps. having watched the first instalment of this I can now say I get it! At least I get it more than I did before. My views above haven’t changed, it’s still a confusing movie but if you have seen the first film you much better off. It would facilitate your understanding for this! Ds.

Wakey Wakey – 2012 – Don’t blink, you might miss something!

Director: Adrian Goodman

Art-house

First off, I think this is the first time I got a screener sent to me from Australia. Not that it really matters where the movie is from for still, its half way around the world and that is kind of cool. That’s a reminder to never ever say that the internet hasn’t got a worldwide impact – because it has! My friends over at filmbizzaro.com have a quote on the front of the cover which says that Wakey Wakey is one of the best films of the year. I’m intrigued!

It’s basically not a very easy film to follow. It’s a bit art-house and it’s certainly not a film for everyone to enjoy. It’s shot in beautiful black and white and the main characters are odd to say the least. At first I couldn’t figure out if they were sister or lovers (or both). One of them wears a helmet at all times, well almost all times. It gives a bizarre impression but also creates an interest. Why? Does this have something significant to do with the plot or is it just to make things strange? After a while it’s clear that there’s a logical explanation for it as the woman suffers from narcolepsy. It still looks very strange when she walks around with it on but it makes sense, really!

So, one of them suffers from narcolepsy, what about the other one? She is far more difficult to figure out. But it seems like she gets off on seeing her sister(?) passing out so that she can create photo shots out of the events. It’s a very odd fetish to be sure. The imagery is designed to make us more interested as the movie goes along. I for one feel an urge to figure out what the heck is going on. It’s not obvious I can tell you. The thing is that you need to pay attention to what’s happening at all times. If you blink you might miss something; some important part of the puzzle.

So we can establish that it’s a very odd movie shot in beautiful black and white. The women, the two main characters which are almost the only thing in front of the camera for the whole movie, are wearing heavy makeup and looks a bit Goth to me. I don’t know if this is a metaphor for something erotic but I guess it could be. The whole atmosphere of it is kind of arousing I think. But speaking of metaphors, these may very well be elements that aren’t really there. Some things that’s just present in the minds of the women or in one of their minds. I’m not even sure both of them exist. However, both Laura Wheelwright and Fabiana Weiner are excellent in their parts!

But that’s the fun part. I really like it when you can’t be absolutely sure on what you see; when the movie ends and you’re not certain what you saw. There are a lot of interpretation possibilities here and once the film is over you aren’t much closer to the answers than you were in the beginning.

8/10