What’s in a horror name? The hope that the name will get people to watch your indie movie, that’s what. Let’s take a look at three flicks with veteran actors installed to lure us in.
#Unknown (2021)
The director of Halloweed goes serious this time around in a sort of ghost story.
Plot aside, there’s some really bright sides to the casting here. Our leading man is so damn good looking it’s a pleasure watching him.
His woman is played by Maggie from The Nanny, and it’s nice to see her in a juicy horror role. Plus, Tom Sizemore, Judd Nelson, L’il Romeo, And Master P have minor roles, so there’s plenty of face recognition.
The odd aspect of this ghost story is that the couple isn’t just moving into a new house where the man begins getting strange phone calls and seeing shadowy figures in dark corners. They’ve lived there for several years.
However, he is a recovering alcoholic, and he is an author having some challenges writing a follow-up to his first book. On top of that, his woman is pressuring him to have a baby.
As the haunting begins to escalate, he becomes obsessed with serial killings that took place several years before. He indulges in the details of the murders and more and more apparitions appear in his home.
His woman also seems to become possessed. This all causes him to start spiraling out of control.
This isn’t a particularly frightening movie, and personally, I found it to be quite predictable, but it was still entertaining with some spooky if not cliché ghostly figures popping up now and then in the house.
DAMON’S REVENGE (2022)
This is a sequel to Burial Ground Massacre, a cabin in the woods slasher about a killer wearing a hoodie and Native American mask.
Even though it has to do with the mask, the majority of this film feels like a mob movie, focusing on detectives and organized crime dudes.
Michael Madsen is back from the first movie, and Tom Sizemore plays a detective. The main girl and another guy who survived the first film are back as well.
The main girl is helping the detectives, and she also gets invited with some friends to go to a house in the woods. She has nightmares about the first movie…I mean…about what happened in the first movie, yet she still agrees to put herself in the same predicament again.
It’s seriously not until the last 20 minutes that this finally turns into a slasher, with naked girls, lesbian action, shirtless hunks, and the masked killer.
It’s pretty much the only enjoyable part of the film, and if you’re a completist like me and saw the first film, you’ll want to check it out. Otherwise, there are plenty of other options if you’re just looking for a full indie slasher.
ROOM 9 (2021)
Room 9 is an agonizingly long attempt at a revenge flick. Someone made a decision to have constantly changing filters and effects assaulting the film from start to finish, making it even more unbearable.
40 years ago a Black couple staying in a B&B was murdered by the white trash hillbillies that owned it, including horror icon Michael Berryman.
In the present day, some dude is called to the family business. But that is virtually irrelevant.
This is just endless scenes of the hillbillies from the past, now adults, being captured, bound to a table, and killed off screen. Kane Hodder is one of those hillbillies and gets the bulk of “plot” focused on him as he is released from prison then parties with friends. Let’s face it. Hodder chained up is definitely a party…
Scout Taylor-Compton shows up in the last act to be the final girl in a very low key kind of way.
For me, Room 9 just became background noise. There was simply nothing to cling to here.
