Here goes: three more indie films that have nothing in common. One is an oddball backwoods creature feature, another a throwback slasher. And the third is a short film of magic, love, and death—and possibly a gay crush….
NIGHT OF THE FLESH EATERS (2008)
This is one quirky little indie film. A mobster hires a hit man (huh?) to bring his cheating wife and her side piece to the middle of a secluded forest to kill them while he watches. The hit man happens to be an archaeologist and folklorist who knows all about a bevy of Native American monsters and demons that haunt the woods.
Before long, the hit man and the wife are trying to escape the woods before the mobster can catch up with them.
They spend most of the film bantering—the wife is a hoot—as the oddly adorable hit man describes the various monsters that might come for them. Instead, these very monsters all end up chasing and attacking the funny mobster!
Night of the Flesh Eaters is one bizarre little film, but it does manage to be highly entertaining, thanks to all the dry humor and wacky baddies.
LOST AFTER DARK (2014)
It’s time that new slashers stop touting themselves as throwbacks to 80s films, because more often than not, they completely miss the mark. If you’re a director attempting to grab that spirit, go for it. Just don’t announce it. Let the movie speak for itself.
Lost After Dark, despite taking place in 1984 and having some kids dressed in faux fashions of the day, looks more like a movie from the 1970s. Slashers were not grindhouse, but this movie applies the grindhouse speckle treatment to scenes now and then. And even worse, it actually does the “Reel Missing” trick near the end of the film. It’s a distraction that is totally not in keeping with the rest of the film. Plus, it’s been done before in recent times, so there’s absolutely no sense of “oh, how clever!”
As for the plot, some kids hop in a bus to go party somewhere, and their bus breaks down. They spend a majority of the film in a creepy house they come upon, touring, talking, and being subjected to an excessive number of bogus scares.
Finally, the carnage starts. The killer is pretty much just a Rob Zombie clone with bad teeth and a machete. Some of the kills are okay, but you probably won’t remember anything about this film a month from now. At least there’s a final girl and a chase scene. There’s also a ridiculously out of place girl-on-girl kiss (that was not a staple of 80s slashers), but there’s no nudity and no sex scenes (huge staples of 80s slashers).
Also on hand is Terminator 2 cyborg Robert Patrick. His role is minimal and virtually pointless. He plays a militant vice principal who spouts several anti-gay slurs, including the F word. Whatever.
Finally, although there is absolutely no flesh eating in the film and not much gore, we are informed through a flashback at the end that the killer is extra scary because he’s a cannibal.
THE DEVIL OF KREUZBERG (2015)
The Devil of Kreuzberg is a short film, running about 48 minutes long. It’s a trippy, artsy urban gothic with a major 80s European horror vibe.
Jakob has a doting girlfriend but wants nothing to do with her. Nightmares of her killing him are preventing him from sleeping. So he asks his hit man buddy to get rid of her. Meanwhile, the girlfriend converses with a talking statue in the cemetery. It essentially tells her she comes from a lineage of women that need to kill their men.
Jakob’s violent dreams of his girlfriend are also sexual in nature—sexual with a bad outcome. I seriously question Jakob’s sexuality. He seems to lack a connection with his girl and appears to have an intensely intimate relationship with his hitman buddy. Pretty much everything about Jakob reads as gay, including his fluffy white coat, the flamboyant dancing he does to a hot, 80s-inspired synthpop track, and verbally and physically demonstrated love for his hitman buddy.
Jakob’s girl even appears to him wearing a wedding dress in a cemetery, almost as if signifying the death of traditional marriage. He rejects her advances, so she sets her sights on his hitman buddy!
I could be totally off with my interpretation, but since this is not a “scary” movie with a simple, straightforward plot, it’s just asking to be examined for deeper meaning.
They all sound pretty interesting. I’ll have to check ’em out!