Anyone Home

Hey folks. Sorry for the lapsed writing. Long rounds of working and a few freelance gigs. We won't go into it. Instead I got a written review request of Rotten Reelz's old friend, Joe Williamson from the Williamson Management Co. Today's movie is a hybrid mystery thriller horror film. Already I am intrigued. As many of you know, I don't get garbage to view from this man. With first time director/writer Patrick Cunningham and starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner Kathy Baker and Nolly Hollywood winner Jasper Cole, this is Anyone Home? a.k.a. Model Home.

Yes happy pills are a bonus!

Again, I get another alternative titled film. Thankfully it isn't Bruno Mattei's Hell of the Living Dead and its 15 alternative titles.

Our movie opens with an infomercial describing a no rent or mortgage down place to live with slight eerie musical intro as we cut back and forth to title credits. This to me, says we are setting the tone and it promises to be all evil. What sounds like a Faustian pact, Brenda (Kathy Baker of Street Smart, Mister Frost, Edward Scissorhands, Picket Fences,Chicago Hope, Boston Public, Cold Mountain, Fathers and Sons, All the King's Men and Medium) is showing off the new potential home that Camila (Monique Gabriela Curnen of Lie to Me, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation The Mentalist, Dystopia, Hawaii Five-0, The Following and Matters of the Heart) signs on this contract to live her new home as a sort of caretaker position. Three houses are complete, street lights are there and the roads are finished. Several empty plots are to be found but overall a modern day ghost town. BRING THE KIDS!

Being a single mother to young Jaime (Luke Ganalon of Bless Me, Ultima, Grey's Anatomy, Shake It Up, Out of the Blue, King John and Doc McStuffins), I have to say Camila there's got to be a better place to start. I'm getting Poltergeist vibes off this cul-de-sac of a community. Not even kids around his age in this place, a lot of construction equipment, supplies and regions a kid will explore and probably end up hurting himself on or with. Jaime finds his remote control spider caught in an inhumane coyote or small game trap (yes sadly I know what they look like). Again all these tools, equipment and building supplies just screams mangled boy!

Leatherface's cousin, Ceramic Head.

Jaime finds he and his mother's clothes strewn on the ground when he was away, proving there is someone else around these premises. An ill omen, perhaps? Camila is still been knocked over of the sheer size of this house. That being said, I think the plumbing, electrical and foundation need checking. Also might want to see if any ancient Native American burial grounds have been disturbed, Satanic rites have happened and the odd human sacrifice or two. Again, just precautions.

That being said, the highway is a quick turn up and go back into the areas of strip malls, fast food and probably the near amounts of grocery stores, possibly a good vet hospital. You know these in-fills can be like. Camila has a pill regiment of an 80 year old woman, looks like some are anti-psychotics and given how "normal" people think of any medicine for depression to dementia she is trying to keep it under wraps.

Jaime is making sure she adheres to her pill intake and boy that can't be stressful. Camila clearly suffers from bi-polar mental issues as the flashbacks indicate and I think they portrayed it well.

With that, the night belongs to scumbags. They would look at an single mother and her impressionable young son as open season. Would it also be bad to point out they don't seem to so much as have a patrol car doing a drive-by to see the neighborhood?

Such isolation the lovely home wouldn't matter as there are no real neighbors about. Just open desert, vacant houses and too much silence.

Thank God for the craft store. The one refuge from pure unadulterated boredom. Ran by Mr( Jon Jon Briones of Moonlight, Sons of Anarchy, Proud American, Brown Soup Thing, Southland, The Mentalist, American Horror Story and Ratched) and Mrs Fan (Cici Lau of Torchwood, Whitney, Breaking In, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Mantervention, Love Arcadia and Fear the Walking Dead).

Enter Walker (Jasper Cole of Alien Nation, Friday the 13^th: The Series, Pride & Joy, Once and Again, What Should You Do?, Prom Queen and Nothing But the Truth), a guy living in an RV and looks as stable as nitroglycerine. He has also laid claim to several of Camila's personal effects. Surprised he isn't rubbing them all over himself.

I liked the premise, the pacing of the movie and the general vibe of the sinister element hidden in the shadows. Nothing is what it appears to be.

Monique's performance was nothing short of astonishing, the cinematography is impressive and this cast and crew had passion for this project.

This film gives a decent view into history of mental illness, what it is to be a single mother and how awful it is to recover from a recession. Proof if proof was needed, that there is no such thing as secure. Whether it is a job or a home, there will always be something or someone lurking out there if they really want to.

Oh Johnny Depp?  Mmm girl I have stories.

Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eyes

Okay Rotten Readers, Readers of the Rotten.  After the copious amount of Indie, A list and B-grade films, I decided I need a change. Yeah this week I am just diving into Italian movies, ranging from Giallo to action films.  An Italian Infusion if you will. With that in mind I am checking out a Giallo directed by Antonio Margheriti (Hercules, Prisoner of Evil, Giants of Rome, Dynamite Joe, The Unnaturals, Death Rage Yor, Hunter of the Future and Jungle Raiders) this is Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye a.k.a. Cat's Murdering Eye a.k.a. Seven Dead in the Cat's Eye.

Dinner party of the Damned!!!

Yeah you have to take in account for foreign distribution and redistribution happening over the years. And re-redistribution for DVD and Blu-Ray naturally. Um anyone else feel the title might be a giant spoiler? Well at any rate, we are moving on.

In a remote Scottish village (because of course it happens in an isolated little town!) a serious brutal murder of a man happening in...well it either dungeon of torment or possibly old timey BDSM. The safety word is pumpkin. Our man of the moment is being worked over with a straight razor while a pudgy and irritable yellow tabby looks on. Maybe this murder is for Fluffy's amusement or the rats to dine on him. The rats that make squeaky toy noises. I normally use a stuffed toy mouse on a string or laser pointer. I guess my cat is less demanding.

A carriage makes its way to Dragonstone Castle, deep in the highlands of Scotland where the Scottish sound nothing like Christopher Lambert or Adrian Paul. A young schoolgirl Corringa (Jane Birkin of Blow-Up, Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun, La pirate, Dust, The Woman in My Life, This Is My Body and A Hell of a Day) is visiting her mother, Lady Alicia (Dana Ghia of Burn!, The Bloodstained Butterfly, My Dear Killer, Peccati di gioventu, Together Forever and California) as she has many summers at this very castle.

Thankfully she driven up by the sweaty creeper Angus (Luciano Pigozzi of The Devil's Man, King of Africa, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, The Case of the Bloody Iris, Escape from Hell, The Last Hunter and Yor, the Hunter from the Future) from Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory. A guy so ennerving around young women if he was an action figure he would come with a hypodermic needle or a bottle of ether and wet rag.

Starve your rats at least two days of optimum flesh devouring.

As they make their way through the courtyard, we get a piano chord of ominous dread and see what looks to be a gorilla peering though a window. The significance? Yeah no idea. Damn dirty ape! Given its numerous rooms, the castle seems to be turned into a boarding house or just jam packed with guests of the area. Mouseketeers! Sign off!

Father Robertson (Venantino Venantini of Warriors of the Wasteland, The Exterminators of the Year 3000, The Adventures of Hercules, Final Justice, The Erotic Dreams of Cleopatra, The Flying Devils, Ocean, The King's Whore and Tango Bar), Corringa's aunt, Lady Mary MacGrieff (Francoise Christophe of The Three Musketeers, Vengeance of the Three Musketeers, Les Thibault, L'affaire Saint-Romans, Marie Love, The Free Frenchman and Fiesta), Dr. Franz (Anton Diffring of The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Where Eagles Dare, The Blue Max and Victory), French teacher Suzanne (Doris Kunstmann of And Jimmy Went to the Rainbow Foot, Hitler: The Last Ten Days, Vienna Crime Squad, The Peppercorns and For Heaven's Sake) and her cousin and heir to the MacGrieff title, Lord James MacGrieff (Hiram Keller of Fellini Satyricon, Orestes, Strogoff, Noa Noa, Rome Wants Another Caesar and Lifespan).

Alicia and Mary are in deep conversation about the cost of the castle and Alicia simply cannot use the inheritance from her late husband other than for Coringa's scholastic and well being. Methinks hubby really didn't love Alicia much but that's just one reviewer's theory.

With the dinner party in full swing, seems an apt time to discuss family legends and curses, right?

Bit awkward to work into small talk. "So I understand when a cat walks over a casket, the deceased can end up being a vampire and plague the living members. Pass the potatoes please."

Mother, your roots are showing.

After the less than successful dinner party, Lady Alicia retires for the night...dun dun dun!!! in that she is suffocated by a pillow via a gloved hand as that creepy orange tabby watches on. Perhaps the cat controls the murderer. Slay more of the HOOMANS and then clean up my poops! Obey! OBEY!

FYI, the local law enforcement as are useful as any of the state troopers during a Friday the 13^th flick. I was surprised they were given firearms and live ammo. I wouldn't trust these collective heads of knuckle to open a can of beans that was previously opened.

With a death toll slowly building up, one is left to wonder who is the killer, why these deaths are happening and who is next?

The Techniscope is giving a great pan around, some solid zooms and really give depth into what is being filmed. Lot of hand held work, 45 degree slant shots and the editing giving the daylight shots an eerie vibe is impressive.

The castle itself is amazing but clearly not Scottish architecture as we are in Italy at Castello Massimo where all $600 sunglasses are made. See what I did there?

The musical score is excellent for setting the tone and you almost get a vibe of Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians as a underlined theme. Jane Birkin was quite good in it and well let's face it, lovely may not cover her well enough. It was creepy, good set pace and I enjoyed it.

James' smoking hot French teacher.