Each of these films had its moments, but this was mostly an underwhelming marathon for me. Let’s find out why.
DEATH PH.D (2024)
Swisyzinna of The Ouija Experiment movies directs, writes, and appears in this Black themed indie horror flick. She plays a professor who assigns her students to spend the night in a haunted house.
There’s no reason for this film to run an hour and forty-seven minutes, because the excessive dialogue doesn’t add anything to the story and kills the pacing. It’s 30 minutes before the students even get to the haunted house.
Once they arrive, they are greeted by a sexy, bearded butler dude and then fill more time getting comfortable in the house.
There’s no slow burn here. Nothing happens until something finally happens big time, and it’s kind of hilarious—a couple freaks out when they encounter three ghost girls.
In fact, the reactions of all the characters to being terrorized by these ghosts are a hoot, and this becomes a fun, campy little supernatural flick finally.
In terms of quality, it often feels like the actors are simply going through a haunted attraction, and the ghostly girl makeup isn’t exactly professional level, but it gets the point across.
Eventually, a back story about slavery is introduced to add some interest to the otherwise simple plot. I really just wish the film had been edited down by at least 20 minutes.
HORROR IN THE FOREST (2023)
Nothing new to see here at all. This 80-minute found footage film sees a paranormal research team head to the woods where numerous people have disappeared.
They first interview locals about the missing people. They then explore the woods and run into a couple of people, including a redneck with a gun who wants them off his property, as well as a sobbing woman so distraught with grief that she continues to roam the woods looking for her lost daughter. Kind of haunting.
A hot ex-park ranger eventually hooks them up with a dude who believes a witch took his daughter and that he has the ability to summon the witch to get her back.
Soooooo…they head into the woods again to do a ritual. They also find stick formations hanging in a tree. Of all the clichés to fall back on. Sigh.
And just like Blair Witch, there’s no witch. There are a few roaming bloody people, but that is about it. I guess if you’re really looking for something found footage and familiar this fits the bill.
THE UNKIND (2021)
Starting in the past with an awesome scene of a witch terrifying and killing two little girls in their bedroom, this one gave me high hopes for a horror-packed witch movie. I love me some witch movies.
In the present day, a group of friends goes to stay at a mansion in Italy. I think the film was partially dubbed into English, so I was getting classic 80s Euro horror vibes. Yay!
The movie is overly long at 105 minutes, and we are bombarded by cheap scares, faux music stinger scares, and bogus nightmare sequences for a majority of the run time as the group explores the house. We also, on the other hand, get some sex scenes with the girl tits countered by some man pecs. Scrumptious.
Eventually the group finds an old book that leads them to underground tunnels, and the witch begins to take them out one by one.
The witch is cool and creepy, and the mansion is dark and shadowy, but it’s all cutaway kills! Bummer. And speaking of bummers, the finale is one as well. The movie didn’t quite live up to its potential, but I really liked the feel of it.
