It’s October, and I just need more and more marathons of fun fright features. That is mostly what I got from this trio of films, which even includes some gay horror!
GODS OF THE DEEP (2024)
I often cover Charlie Steed’s indie horror flicks on my site, and this one is like his throwback to the days of Leviathan, Deep Star Six, Deep Rising, and Aliens.
A scientific team is assembled for an aquatic expedition in a uniquely structured submarine that can go lower than any oceanic vessel ever has before. Their goal is to enter an opening in the seabed.
It’s all fairly basic, with the team trapped in the sub after they encounter a giant sea monster. It’s a cool, Cthulhu looking monster, even if the budget leads to it looking like someone wearing a costume who is not actually underwater.
More disappointing to me is that after the team gets a sample of the monster to take back with them, it’s totally forgotten. Like…isn’t the giant monster outside the sub you’re stuck in underwater the biggest threat?
Apparently not. They become focused on the sample and the tentacles that pop out of it. Very slowly, the tentacles seem to become parasites in people, but this movie really glosses over most of the horror elements, leaving us with a very underwhelming horror/sci-fi flick. However, the main guy is a cutie.
LORD OF WOLVES (2024)
Bohemian, sleazy, gay, trippy…this Charlie Steeds flick is like Rent on werewolf speed. It earns an honorary spot on the homo horror movies page, and although it’s hard to follow, I will definitely add it to my gay horror collection if it’s released on physical media.
There are four different stories going on here, and they don’t really merge until the last few minutes of the movie. We have a woman who learns she’s pregnant, and not by the man she’s with. There’s a gay guy who indulges in club life and sex. There’s his sister, who is somewhat of a junkie. And there’s a young photographer dude who has a close relationship with one of his teachers.
Slowly but surely, each main character gets drawn to a weird werewolf cult—actually, a wolfman who keeps two other wolfmen on chains like slaves and appears to reside in an abandoned church.
I’m honestly not sure if this underground werewolf clan is supposed to be real, but their presence seems to be triggered by people shooting up a drug with a syringe.
Seriously, I did not understand this movie at all aside from it being a commentary on people hitting rock bottom and then being led down the wrong path.
However, I really liked the grit of it, and I applaud Steeds for going hard with the gay sexuality stuff, from the main gay guy posing in skimpy undies (he gets a whole montage) to him having sex with other guys.
MR. CROCKET (2024)
This fun flick is a throwback not only to the supernatural specter movies of the early 2000s, like The Ring, Darkness Falls, and The Boogeyman, but it also reminds me of older flicks like Brainscan and Trick or Treat, in which a demonic entity comes out of a media format to prey on vulnerable kids.
While it’s loaded with campy horror, scares, and gore, the film is also a commentary on absentee fathers, single parenting, and the effects abuse has on children.
After the death of her husband, a mother struggles with her tween son acting out as he copes with his loss. The movie takes place in 1993, so it’s a little weird that she finds a VHS tape of a children’s show in a lending library—I’m pretty sure lending libraries were a product of the 21st century.
Anyway, the son becomes hooked on the show, hosted by “Mr. Crocket”, who, it turns out, is a supernatural being that escapes the television to take troubled kids back with him.
The mother’s acting when she is pushed too far by her rebelling son is fantastic, as is the writing of the scene. This outburst leads to Mr. Crocket coming for her son.
Now the mom has to track down other parents that have lost their children as well, and they all have to figure out a way to find their kids and vanquish Mr. Crocket. Their journey into his show is filled with over-the-top, cartoonish kids’ show monsters, which just adds to the fun.
There are also evil children, Mr. Crocket’s backstory is a goodie, and there’s even a good twist. I could see picking this one up for my collection if it ever hits physical media.
