Review by Sean Boelman

After becoming an under-the-radar hit last year, Amazon and Blumhouse’s anthology Welcome to the Blumhouse returns with four new films from underrepresented creators. Bingo Hell, co-written and directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero, is a fun and nasty horror-comedy that will definitely satisfy fans of the horror company.

The movie follows a tight-knit community whose beloved bingo hall is purchased by an outsider whose intentions are less than pure. And although the idea of a community fighting back against a malicious external force is nothing new, it’s refreshing to see this story done with an older protagonist as the lead.

What really makes this film stand out as more than a schlocky B-movie is the level of investment there is in the characters. The main group of older heroes are all very endearing and go beyond the common archetypes of the genre when it comes to the elderly. And the movie’s antagonist is enjoyably exaggerated and wacky.

Academy Award-nominated actress Adriana Barraza brings a lot of energy to her role. It’s not a film that is meant to be taken seriously, and she approaches her performance that way, which allows the movie to work as well as it does. And the iconic character actor Richard Brake brings another memorable villain to the screen.

Like a lot of Blumhouse horror flicks, there’s some clear social commentary to be found here. In this case, the film is tackling the ideas of gentrification and greed. The things that the movie has to say aren’t particularly profound, nor are they very original, but they are delivered in a way that feels earned, even if it is direct.

If there is one thing missing from the film, it is consistent pacing. There are only two or three really horrifying scenes, and while they are extremely disturbing, they are also quite brief. It has a very low body count, perhaps a constraint of the budget of the movie, and it ultimately leaves a little bit to be desired on the carnage front.

That said, Guerrero brings an interesting enough visual style to the film that it almost makes up for the lack of excitement in the story. The bingo hall setting for much of the movie obviously lends itself to a lot of color, and that works well. Even more interesting, though, is how Guerrero blends elements of fantasy and nightmare, especially during the death scenes.

Bingo Hell is an enjoyable little horror-comedy, and while it’s not quite as glorious as it could have been, its gruesome moments are enough to make it worth the watch. Gigi Saul Guerrero is clearly a talented filmmaker, and it’s nice to see opportunities like this given to voices like hers.

Bingo Hell streams on Amazon beginning October 1.

Rating: 3.5/5

Review by Dan Skip Allen

Documentaries about various subject matter need to give a lot of information and show the viewer a side of the subject that is interesting and or fascinating. The Most Beautiful Boy in the World does just that. It focuses on a gentleman by the name of Björn Andresen, a celebrity in his own time  

Director Luchino Visconti is looking for a very specific boy, not a girl, to star in his latest feature film back in the late '60s early '70s called Death in Venice. It eventually came out in 1971 in theaters. A Swedish boy, Björn Andresen, who's the narrator of the film, catches the eye of Visconti. He was dubbed the most beautiful boy in the world by the press and media at the time. He was just what Visconti was looking for. So Visconti started work on Death in Venice based on the Thomas Mann story of the same name., 

Visconti filmed most of the scenes at the Lido Hotel Des Bains. Dirk Bogarde played the crippled composer who admired Tadzio, Andresen's character in the film. Andresen also had a governess on set, Miriam Sambol. Born didn't get a lot of direction from Visconti except go, stop, turn around and smile. Visconti finished the film relatively quickly and it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that summer. This was the beginning of the craziness for Andresen in his career.

Andresen and his girlfriend Jessica travel around and visit various people from his past: a manga artist from Japan, a musician, an old friend of his mother's, and his daughter. The talking heads bring a lot of context to the story, along with archival footage of old childhood videos inner spliced throughout the film. This all helped delve deeper into his life. These interviews and super 8 videos explained a lot about his life which help break up the story of the film from earlier.

This doc had a lot going for it. From the aspect of Andresen being discovered and put into a movie which helped him develop acting and singing careers to the talking heads that provided context on his life past and present, this man was a very complex individual. As a result of his stardom and tragedies in his life, he would never be that innocent young teenager again. I am going to watch Death in Venice as a result of seeing this film. That's for sure.

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World hits theaters on September 24.

Rating: 4.5/5

Review by Camden Ferrell 

​Surge is a British film that had its premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It marks the feature debut of short film and television director Aneil Karia. The film is led by British actor and Emmy-winner Ben Whishaw. While the film has a great leading performance and some great stylistic choices, it’s weighed down by a meandering first half that is too stripped back for its own good.
 
Joseph is an adult who lives a meaningless life. He works in airport security, passing his days patting down flyers and manning the same station. However, over the course of 24 hours, he goes on a journey of self-liberation. After an impulsive act, he is set on a reckless path that tries to put some excitement and meaning into his bland life. This idea isn’t too complex, so there’s a lot of room for exploration of these familiar themes and premises.
 
The script was written by Karia, Rupert Jones, and Rita Kalnejais. The writing isn’t anything outstanding, and it’s intentional minimal. There is very little dialogue from start to finish, and this both works and doesn’t. Their approach doesn’t make for the most compelling story, but it does allow a lot of wiggle room for Whishaw to act and make his own creative decisions. It feels like the script could have done more the flesh out eithers its lead character or their themes. 

The best part of this movie is the leading performance from Whishaw. Even when the movie is lacking, Whishaw is reliable and quite often captivating. He saves a lot of the weaker moments of the film, and he plays into the sporadic chaos of the film very well. He does a great job of entering this role of a man trying to escape mundanity, and he gives a performance that is manic and quite uncomfortable to watch at times.
 
The outstanding problem with this movie is how much it meanders in its first half. While it’s intentionally executed this way to make the audience experience the protagonist’s own mundanity, it doesn’t help create a compelling narrative. It dooms the movie before it can even begin. Luckily, once the movie raises the stakes, it becomes more interesting and erratic with its camerawork and acting. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to make up for the disappointment of what comes before it.
 
Surge features an impressive leading performance from Ben Whishaw, but its slow opening half prevent it from being transcendent in its narrative and themes. It shows promise for Karia as a director, and there are a couple of great moments throughout.
 
Surge is in theaters and on demand September 24.
 
Rating: 3/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Greg Nicotero’s Creepshow series has been a hit among horror fans, so it will be to the delight of Shudder subscribers that the new season is debuting in the heart of their spooky season celebration. Offering more of the same campy, morbid stories for which the property is known, viewers that know what they are getting into will certainly have a great deal of fun with this new batch of episodes.

For those unaware of what Creepshow is, it’s an anthology horror series with episodes consisting of two independent shorts. Yet even though each segment is pretty self-contained, this third season probably isn’t the best starting point for novices, as this isn’t the most accessible batch of episodes for non-fans.

The first episode features two stories which feel more like classic Creepshow tales. The first, “Mums”, features a sinister garden in a segment that recalls the original film’s “Father’s Day”. However, perhaps the most frustrating thing about this bit is that the message is lost in an attempt to emphasize thrills.

The other half of the episode, “Queen Bee”, is much more fun but even more ridiculous. Here, the message is clear and timely, and the effects work is astounding. The set piece that makes up most of this segment is one of the best in all the series, and features one shot in particular that audiences won’t soon forget.

On the other hand, the second episode of the season is much more consistent in quality. “Skeletons in the Closet”, much like season two’s “Public Television of the Dead”, is made with horror fans in mind. Cinephiles will have a smile on their face the whole time and may even shout in glee at a few of the visual references that are made.

The second story, “Familiar”, is the first one of the season that feels like it should be expanded into a longer form. A twenty-minute runtime doesn’t really give the story enough time to breathe or really dive into its world, but the implications that this segment has are truly haunting, as is the lead performance by Andrew Bachelor.

Something else that stands out about this new season is that it also feels more stylistically distinctive. Although the episodes are still made by Nicotero and his usual band of collaborators, and the horror comic influence is still obvious, there’s a bit more visual flair to each of these four bits. And this only works in the series’s favor.

Creepshow is back, and those worried that it would be experiencing a slump for its third season will be proven wrong. These new episodes are a ton of fun, and one of the many highlights of Shudder’s always impressive September/October slate.

Creepshow streams on Shudder beginning September 23, with new episodes streaming subsequent Thursdays. Two out of six episodes reviewed.

Rating: 4/5

Review by Sean Boelman

Bill Morrison has made some interesting films exploring the relationship between cinema and the past, and his newest movie, The Village Detective: A Song Cycle, is a strong addition to his filmography. Although the appeal of the film is largely going to be reserved for cinephiles, it’s an interesting experimental documentary.

The film is about a lost Soviet movie from 1969 that was found in an Icelandic fisherman’s net, causing Morrison to set out on an exploration of its lead actor’s legacy. While a more traditional filmmaker would have used talking heads extensively, a majority of the runtime consists of restored footage from the lost film, with subtitles overlaid to tell the story.

Without a doubt, the most impressive thing about this movie is that it features so much of this exceptionally restored footage. A few brief clips show the poor condition of the print and the extensive process that had to be done to restore it really put into context what it means to see this film even with its imperfections.

That said, the use of subtitles isn’t always the most effective. The font that is used to deliver information to the audience and the font used to communicate the dialogue from the film are the same, and it can sometimes become a bit confusing to distinguish what is what. And furthermore, the font itself isn’t aesthetically pleasing.

There’s a monotonous feeling to the movie in that much of it feels the same. Obviously, since the film had been lost for so long and was in such a neglected condition, the restoration was far from complete. There are multiple portions of the footage that are so damaged that one can’t even make out the image in it, and while showing this is an interesting exercise in aestheticism, it isn’t the most captivating.

Morrison uses this footage to explore the idea of legacy. The connection between watching this unearthed film and the preservation of the past is obvious, but Morrison doesn’t really say anything about it. Instead, the movie offers a lot of ideas without the commentary to go along with it.

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming with the documentary is that it does not go into much depth regarding the greater implications of finding this lost film. There is a lot that isn’t known about Soviet film history because of political and historical reasons that have posed an obvious challenge, and this discovery fills an interesting gap that Morrison should have explored.

The Village Detective: A Song Cycle is an interesting watch, even if it is nowhere near as profound as it could have been. For cinephiles looking for a brief glimpse into an obscure bit of film history, this is definitely worth a watch.

The Village Detective: A Song Cycle is now in theaters.

​Rating: 3.5/5