Bone Face

Let us go back to the summer of 1996 for a moment. It was the month of June and i was hanging out with Pierre who worked at the rental video store known as Videomix. Pierre knew i always wanted to check out new horror releases on VHS so he would show me lists of what films are coming out on rental. I especially remember one specific day in June of 1996 because it was the Swedish VHS premiere week of the slasher horror film Children Of The Corn III - Urban Harvest. I remember as he packed up the VHS copies of this film he also had a poster of this film that he put up on the wall. I had already booked my rental copy of this film since i was a huge fan of the previous films, especially the first film. I actually owned both of the Children Of The Corn movies on VHS so clearly this was my kind of franchise. I remember watching this third film i was feeling that the level of quality had change. There were some fun killing scenes to be found in Children Of The Corn III but compared to the original film i did feel disappointed. Just a couple of years ago i rewatched Children Of The Corn trilogy on the Arrow Video blu ray box just to look at this trilogy again to see if my feelings had changed. I will say i appreciate that they tried a different approach on the third film taking place in Chicago city, that definetely brought something fresh into this genre while keeping some classic ingredients. And the fact that this film also have a adoption story included into the plot is also a nice detail. At the end of the day i can still recommend Children Of The Corn III if you want to watch a descent 90´s slasher, as long as you don´t expect it to be as good as the original film. I try to watch slasher horror films released every year in case i find some interesting titles. One of the horror slasher film posters that caught my attention this year was the poster of the independent horror film Bone Face. It looked like something in my taste and the film title sounded lovely indeed. I decided to rent this film on VOD and give it a chance. Is this the slasher horror film to watch this summer or is Bone Face a lazy attempt to cash in on slasher horror fans?

A masked killer known as Boneface slaughters several campers in a small town. At a local diner Sheriff Cronin ( Jeremy London ) and Deputy McCully ( Elena Sanchez ) enter the diner tellling all the guests that no one is leaving since everyone could be a suspect. As they begin to go through ech suspect over night, it becomes both a challenge and frustrating when some of the diner guests are not always helpful or friendly.

At first i thought this would be a very traditional slasher film but let me tell you, this is not what you might expect. This is actually more a murder mystery thriller a few slasher horror elements in certain scenes. This film feels more like a different version of the Agatha Christy novel Murder On The Orient Express, expect all suspects are kept inside an old diner. I have to say this is actually a nice surprise to see a completely different take in the slasher horror genre, making a different film that goes in a different path. And i have to say i do feel the murder mystery works pretty good as Sheriff Cronin ( played by actor Jeremy London who i remember from the 2009 film Wolvesbayne ) and Deputy McCully ( played by actress Elena Sanchez ) question all the guests at the diner. Since this film have a lot of characters in this diner you might think that we don´t get to know their personalities that good. But i have to say considering the amount of characters we actually get to know some of them. For example actor Artrial Clark ( who you should see in the 2016 war drama Free States Of Jones ) plays the character Ray, a theatre projectionist who loves horror B movies and even read a horror novel at this diner. It was very easy to enjoy Artrial´s performance as Ray because he seems like a good man, plus he loves horror films with a clear passion for low budget films. I do enjoy the performance from actor Jeremy London as Sheriff Cronin, the kind of sheriff you would want in a situation like this. The acting in general is pretty good and i do think this film looks good from a technical perspective. Since this is a PG13 horror film there is not a lot of violence or blood but that´s ok, i still think the film works anyway. Bone Face may not be appreciated by some slasher horror fans for being different in this genre. I appreciate the effort of this film and i do feel we need more films in this genre doing something different like Bone Face does. Director Michael Donovan Horn´s directorial debut full feature film is a fresh breath of air in a genre that was in need of someting different. Bone Face is without a doubt worth renting on VOD this summer.

Rating: DDD

Control Freak

There are several different categories within the genre known as horror. You have categories such as found footage, paranormal, slasher, grindhouse, psychological, zombies, creature feature and much more. That is the beauty of the genre of horror that there is something for everyone to enjoy, no matter what specific category you enjoy within horror films. And then we have a category that may not be mentioned very often but do have some quality classics. I am especially thinking about the category known as body horror. Within this category you find many different kind of body horror classics such as John Carpenter´s The Thing, David Cronenberg´s The Fly, Hellraiser, Re- Animator, Society and many more. Let us talk for a moment about a horror film that belongs within the catgory of boddy horror. And that is the 2021 Taiwanese horror film known as The Sadness from director Rob Jabbaz. Now, if you love lots of gory scenes with bodies being ripped apart, this is the film you have always wanted to see. The Sadness have some extremely brutal scenes so if you are a sensitive person, i would tell you to stay away from this film. The story takes place in Taipei where we meet young couple Jim ( Berant Zhu ) and Kat ( Regina Lei ) when Jim is about to drop off Kat at the trainstation driving their moped. They pass a bloody crime scene but don´t really think much more about it. Jim goes to a café where he witness a blood-soaked old woman assaults other cafe customers, spitting thick mucus on one of them. The man she spat on suddenly turn into a insane killer murdering his own brother. It seems a virus have spread turning humans into brutal killers. The Sadness may be a very gory film but i have to say i do think the story is really effective. The acting is really good from the whole cast and the film looks brilliant on a technical level. I would suggest that you pick up a blu ray copy of The Sadness from distribution company Vinegar Syndrome and you will find some very interesting special features as well inluded. Speaking of body horror there was a horror film released on Hulu and Disney + this spring in this category known as Control Freak. What i especially noticed by the trailer of Control Freak is actress Kelly Marie Tran who plays the character Rose Tico in the Star Wars franchise. Since i am a fan of body horror in general of course i had to see this film on Disney +. Is this a must watch for horror fans this summer or should you skip this one and watch The Sadness on blu ray from Vinegar Syndrome instead?

Valerie "Val" Nguyen ( Kelly Marie Tran ) is a successfull motivational speaker who inspire people worldwide, and she really loves to help people of all ages. But lately she have been acting strange scratching the back of her head more and more for each day. At first it may not look very strange, but as she begin to scratch deeper and deeper into her head, it becomes very clear that Valerie is struggling of a very serious compulsive urge. Her boyfriend Robbie ( Miles Robbins ) who wants to have a family with her is getting worried, while he is also mad that shes trying to hide her behavior from him. While Valerie is struggling more and more she makes contact with her father Sang Nguyen ( Toan Le ), a former drug addicted soldier who lives as a monk. Her father seems to know what is really causing her compulsive urge.

One of the most interesting details about a film such as Contol Freak is that you have to figure out if the main character known as Valerie is suffering from a mental illness, or is she chosen by a parasitic ghost that feeds on human hosts? As we see her scratching her head until she injure yourself, it becomes very clear she can not control her behavior. Actress Kelly Marie Tran as the main character Valerie gives a strong acting performance, and what i especially notice is that she capture the personality struggling with compulsive behavior. I think Valerie show a realistic side of a person who tries to lie about her behavior, as if this is not any problem. The scenes where she really show the problems reveal itself is where Kelly manage to show this behavior with body activities and facial expressions. If i compare this performance with Kelly´s character in Star Wars then i would say her acting performance feels stronger in Control Freak. Actor Miles Robbins ( who is the son of legendary actors Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon ) also gives a solid performance as Valerie´s boyfriend Robbie. I feel he gives this character a realistic approach, how do you handle the situation where your partner is struggling mentally and deal with everything?  Another interesting detail about this film is that Valerie is a famous motivational speaker. It becomes very clear that this inspiational speaker image slowly destroy itself with Valerie´s behavior, and this film manage to balance this very well with effective body horror scenes. The parasitic ghost scenes feel quite effective in the scenes where it seems Valerie conronts this evil spirit. I do appreciate the religious tone of Buddhism is conncted to the story, it matches well with the connection to the ghost. Im actually pleasantly surprised how good this film is in the body horror category, not a future classic in any way but director Shal Ngo ( director of quite a lot short films in the past ) have made a very stylish, well made psychological horror film with Control Freak. Definetely worth a watch on Hulu or Disney+ if you are a horror fan in general.

Rating: DDD