Shudder delivered three “movie night with the hubby” flicks, and it was all about men vs. monsters. So what did my sofa sidekick and I think of The Head Hunter, Cold Skin, and Nekrotronic? Let’s find out.
THE HEAD HUNTER (2018)
I was shocked to discover this serious, medieval, beautifully shot, 72-minute creature feature is from the director of the absolutely absurd Thankskilling movies.
The only reason the hubby and I really knew what was going on is because we read the description of the movie on Shudder before we began watching. Essentially, a warrior living in a cabin by himself during medieval times collects heads of various creatures while hoping to snag the head of a monster that killed his daughter. We think.
For 40 minutes he barely speaks at all and interacts with no one as he just keeps collecting heads. The concept that virtually gets lost here if you don’t pay careful attention to the dialogue-free situations is that healing potions he concocts for his battle wounds accidentally bring the monster back to life. However, it isn’t fully brought back…it begins to slowly regenerate from its existence as a severed head.
It’s a pretty dang cool and horror-ific final act, and the conclusion is devilishly good, but it left us with quite a few questions. Argh.
COLD SKIN (2018)
The director of Frontier(s) gives us a creature feature based on a novel—which makes sense, because as I was watching this period piece with the hubba hubba, I kept saying it felt like an excellent adaptation of an historical novel even if it wasn’t my type of horror.
Mostly a character study with a horde of humanoid creatures as the distraction that brings out the best and worst of the protagonists, this is a story of the clash between a younger man and an older man. They end up trapped in a watchtower on a deserted island together with swarms of the creatures outside.
The bond remains on shaky ground as the two men work together to fight off nightly onslaughts. Aside from the film feeling a bit long and repetitive, my biggest gripe is that there’s no explanation as to why the creatures only come out at night—especially since there’s one creature that proves they can be out in daylight. Unless they did and it was one of those moments when my hubby was like, “look at this funny meme.”
After the initial terrifying introduction of the monsters (they remind me of the I Am Legend creatures), their nightly attacks make them less and less scary, and the battles with the men become more action-oriented. The real focus is on the moral messages the movie conveys as these two men begin to show their true colors.
NEKROTRONIC (2018)
The director of Wyrmwood brings us another action-packed monster flick, and it’s like Buffy meets Ghostbusters.
A handsome man gets shirtless in the first five minutes while cleaning septic tanks with his buddy, who is a fan of Shaggy’s hit Angel” and obsessed with a ghost hunting phone game.
When playing the game on the job unleashes some hellish spirit, the pair finds themselves being chased by a possessed human! The guys are saved from a demon attack by two sisters, and suddenly our main man is thrust into demon-hunting training.
It seems his sorceress mother is searching for him and has unleashed demons through the internet. So this small band of demon hunters never even has to leave their lair…they just WiFi the damn things into their private space to take them down!
Funny, quirky, and loaded with great demons and action sequences, Nekrotronic is the perfect movie for a horror viewing party.
