It’s two supernatural/demon themed flicks and one slasher…and I had fun with two of the three.
THE HOLY TRINITY (2023)
This low budget attempt at an Evil Dead setup is cheesy with hokey 80s style and lightning bolt magic effects (not even SyFy original level), but I was totally charmed by the two cute male leads. And what’s great about them is that they are two completely different types—one lean and muscular, the other thick and beefy.
So the two guys and their girls go to a cabin in the woods with a medium friend and immediately have a séance. In doing so, they unleash a holy trinity of evil—three ancient women that plan to bring on the apocalypse. Lofty plot goals for a low budget flick.
Of course a variety of cheap demons—one of which is quite freaky looking in a Halloween costume shop way—terrorizes the group at the cabin. The highlight for me was a demon face in a toilet bowl, but overall this is just silly and amateurish. But damn, the boys have charisma and kept me watching thanks to their dry delivery.
If you ask me, the film should have focused on the freaky Halloween mask demon and just exploited the fuck out of it to give us some genuine scares. Instead, we end up with a goofy battle in the woods during the day with three babes that look like Xena The Princess Warrior rejects.
What’s really odd is that there’s a “music video” at the end performed by the beefy guy, and it is a visual horror treat that is way more stimulating than anything that occurs in the movie.
THE NEW HANDS (2023)
Perhaps it’s because I’m in the midst of binge watching the entire Tales from the Crypt series for a “best episodes” post, but I feel like the almost tongue-in-cheek vibe of this movie would have made this a perfect 30-minute installment of an anthology series like that.
After a dude loses use of his hands in a tragic situation at a lab, he begins to believe he can get them back if he takes the hands of others.
He wraps himself up in bandages and goes on a killing spree at the lab, taking all the hands he can get his hands on (literally the type of puns used in the movie).
The death and chase scenes are pretty damn good, with some bloody moments. The main dude looks cool as a killer, but it’s not your standard slasher scenario since the movie is from his perspective, not that of his victims. The story of him spiraling out of control is okay, but nothing spectacular. And finally, Felissa Rose has a small role as his doctor.
THE DEVIL’S LEFT HAND (2023)
With a plot that takes place predominantly in one house, this 98-minute movie desperately needed to be trimmed by at least twenty minutes to save us from endless slow, dialogue-heavy scenes. For instance, the same exact backstory of how one main character saved his mother from his homicidal father by killing the father is retold no less than three times. Argh.
Anyway, a straight couple has a psychic medium at their party. Pretty soon they, their friends, the husband’s mother (who is in a mental institution), and the medium are all being haunted by bumps in the night.
For no apparent reason, a psychic partner is written into the story to help the medium try to cleanse the couple’s family of the demon that was unleashed by the séance. I guess his messed up eye was meant to add some horror intrigue…?
First, the entity appears as the husband’s dead father. It soon becomes clear that it can morph, for it shows up at the house as the mental mother. Eventually it takes on the form of a good old ghost girl. Cliché as it is, at least she starts killing people.
When all else fails, the medium whips out a Ouija board for the final battle. If you can still stick with this movie after that, more power to you. And if you do, I can guarantee the lackluster denouement will have you kicking yourself for watching all the way through.
