Both of these films came out in 2010…yet the music genre around which each centers feels about twenty years too late. But that alone doesn’t make them bad movies…
NEOWOLF (2010)
This cheesy film, which is like The Lost Boys or Near Dark meets the Twilight werewolves, stars a couple of cuties, including Agim Kaba, who was just coming from a near decade stint on As The World Turns.
Two deliciously gory werewolf attack scenes in the first fifteen minutes totally had me anticipating more thrills to come.
But then shit gets all fantasy horror, shifting focus to a college girl, her hot emo rocker ex, and his initiation into a werewolf pack that travels around in a tour bus. The girlfriend must do whatever she can to rescue him from his hairy fate.
Neowolf is basically about groupies having sex with werewolf rockers in the desert.
Some of the werewolf makeup is cool, and it’s fun to see Veronica Cartwright as a witchy type (and hard to comprehend why she even ended up in this film).
There’s even a scene in which a bi guy is about to get a BJ from a dude.
But the movie is boring! Way too many faux emo band performances, and the quick edits and slow mo clips are way too late in the game to cash in on the MTV music generation.
Despite some good gore and genuine monster effects, this story just feels like it’s targeting a starry-eyed female tween audience.
TRANCE (2010)
Seeing little Gracie from The Nanny, scream queen Dominique Swain, and Jeremy London in the cast of this flick, I didn’t expect to roll film and feel like I was watching a washed out camcorder video from back in the VHS days.
In fact, a majority of this film looks like someone went to a rave in 1993 with a camcorder and recorded people just dancing or making out in private rooms. NOTHING HAPPENS.
It’s supposed to be Halloween, but other than an opening scene visiting a pop-up Halloween store (it’s becoming a bigger tradition than trick or treating), don’t expect any holiday festivities. And although none of the costumes the kids wear are horror related, I do think the girl dressed as I Dream of Jeannie should have won a prize for best costume.
The point of the film? Girls at the rave are slipped a drug that causes them to eventually start seducing and killing boys. It’s just an infected film in which the infected aren’t even vaguely menacing. The first attack doesn’t start until 50 minutes in, and with 20 minutes left, Jeremy London appears as a cop.
His minuscule role could have been played by anyone, but I guess someone got the impression that having a London brother in your cast is going to attract a horror crowd.
Only one scene delivers what this movie should have delivered nonstop. Two girls dressed as an angel and a devil get sexually aggressive with a guy, leading to a vicious attack that actually has a cool vibe the rest of this film totally lacks.
Other than that one moment, there is nothing scary or gory here at all, and there’s a disappointing lack of nudity. With kids getting high and having sex at a rave, there should be nudity. Trust me, I know. I was there. Not to mention, where are all the gay dudes? Not one guy-on-guy face suck in the whole film…at a rave where kids are getting high and having sex?
If there’s one…um…saving grace, it’s that Gracie gets the last scream.
