The Devil to Pay

After the disappearance of her husband, a struggling mother fights to save her son from the cold-hearted matriarch of a family.
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Initial release: 7 April 2019
Director: Ruckus Skye
Distributed by: Dark Star Pictures

A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

I’ve long felt that pre-film text-on-screen quotes are a cinematic crutch, often pretentious musings that rarely capture the essence of the film about to unspool.
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Then, over a colorful vista of misty Appalachian mountaintops and plaintive banjo strings I read about the hardy folk populating those peaks, the descendants of criminals and oppressed alike who sought refuge in this inhospitable place.
As shadow creeps across the landscape, the quote:

“They want nothing from you and God help you if you try to interfere.” – 2010 census worker

Welcome to The Devil to Pay, Lane and Ruckus Skye’s lyrical backwoods epic, grounded in a lived-in world most of us never knew existed.

The tale is anchored with a quietly ferocious turn by Danielle Deadwyler (who also produces) as Lemon, a hardscrabble farmer trying to keep things up and wondering where her husband has been these past days.

Deadwyler’s clear-eyed efficiency is matched with the hillbilly condescension of one Tommy Runion (Catherine Dyer, flawless), whose homespun advice and cheer mask a dead-eyed, sadistic sense of right, wrong and entitlement.

One of the most tightly written thrillers in recent memory, The Devil to Pay peoples those hills with true characters, not a forgettable villain or cliched rube among them. The sense of danger is palpable and Deadwyler’s commitment to communicating Lemon’s low-key tenacity is a thing of beauty.

Hell, the whole film is beautiful, Sherman Johnson’s camera catching not just the forbidding nature of Appalachia, but also its lush glory.

Yes, the cult that lives just outside the county line does feel a tad convenient, but again, the Skyes and their outstanding cast carve out memorable, realistic and terrifying characters.

The Devil to Pay remains true to these fascinating souls, reveling in the well-worn but idiosyncratic nature of their individual relationships—a tone matched by sly performances across the board. And just when you think you’ve settled into a scene or a relationship, The Devil to Pay shocks you with a turn of events that is equal parts surprising and inevitable.

It’s a stunning film and a rare gem that treats Appalachians, not as clichés, but certainly not as people to be messed with.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

Alive (2022)

Helen navigates a ravaged world with her boyfriend Kevin and her little brother Barney. Desperate to find help after Barney's infection slowly turns him into a zombie, they come upon a house where lives Dan, a man harboring a heavy secret. (IMDB)
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Written and directed by David Marantz

Beware, some minor spoilers ahead.


Okay, so let’s address the elephant in the room before we get stuck in to ALIVE. Was this the best Zombie film I have ever seen?

No.

Was it the worst?

Definitely not.

But it is very much a low budget effort and this shows in the quality of the finished product. It doesn’t quite have the same sheen as a higher budget production and the acting and dialogue can sometimes feel a little stilted. The action scenes aren’t as dynamic as others I have seen and there is a definite lack of gore for a zombie flick.


However, ALIVE’s strength lies in knowing all this already. It doesn’t need me to tell you that, it knows it is low budget and the editing and direction, while having a few fumbles, works really well to make the most out of the low budget and the constraints that these impose on the finished product.

ALIVE is another low-budget horror from a team that promises a lot more to come and, while I may have wavered a little at the start of the film, I was soon invested in the story and drawn through to the end and had fun along the way.


The story won’t be anything new to anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Zombie films.

Helen (Ellen Hillman) and Kevin (Kian Pritchard) are travelling through a Zombie-infested countryside with their teacher Miss Horton (Simone McIntyre) and Helen’s brother, Barney (Daniel May-Gohrey). Barney is infected but has not yet turned full Zombie, and the group are following a GPS to get them to an island where there is no infestation and a hope for a cure.

Separated from Miss Horton, the trio break into a cottage for shelter, only to find it inhabited by Dan (Neil Sheffield) a lone man surviving with a secret hidden in his attic.


A trip to the local school to find power for their GPS puts them all in the path of a crazy priest and his congregation who are also searching for as sanctuary, but one with slightly more sinister intentions for Helen.

So follows a cat and mouse chase and fight for survival between our heroes, the crazy church people and the Zombies.

So far, so 28 Days Later.

ALIVE covers a lot of the tropes we would expect in a Zombie movie, with disparate groups of people fighting for survival, infected people hoping to be saved, mysterious radio broadcasts promising sanctuary, crazy religious fanatics, and zombie-bitten limbs being severed by their desperate owners.
It’s all there.

Take Back the Night

A woman finds herself the victim of a violent monster attack, and launches a campaign to track down the beast. However, her past history of drug abuse and mental illness causes everyone to question her story.
Director: Gia Elliot
Executive producers: Marcus Dunstan, Tony Sgro
Producers: Emma Fitzpatrick, Gia Elliot, Kwanza Gooden

A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

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It’s a story we all know too well, some of us better than others.

With their monster movie/social justice thriller Take Back the Night, co-writer/director Gia Elliot and co-writer/star Emma Fitzpatrick spin a pointed tale about a specific character. But the universality of this monstrous situation is never in question. There is only one character with a name, and that name is Jane Doe.
This could be anybody.

Jane has a lot to drink because she is celebrating. This is a big day. But something horrific is about to squeeze out any memory of the joy of this day as she finds herself alone in an alley with a malignant force.

What sets Take Back the Night apart from other similar films is that the attack itself is not the point. Neither is the attacker. Rather, Elliot and Fitzpatrick smack you with the trauma of surviving what comes next.

Jane submits to tests and procedures, swabs and scrapes, photos and questions — all of it tough to witness — with the resigned belief that this humiliation and pain will be followed by justice. Or at least a little sympathy.

Instead, of course, she finds judgment, harassment, disbelief and the threat of prosecution.

Interesting as well that men are mainly a non-presence in the film. There’s a brief interlude in the first act, although we barely glimpse the man’s face. Jane is later interviewed by a male police officer, although he’s never seen at all, only heard in voice-over. And then there is the attacker.

What we do see are the women involved: Jane’s sister, the detective on the case, the news reporter. There are friends and fans, a woman at the party. Not one of these women does the right thing.

That’s the focus of Take Back the Night. The actions of men are irrelevant in this world of overcoming the trauma of an attack, the filmmakers seem to say. What will kill you is being abandoned by the people who should know better, who should be able to empathize.

Fitzpatrick’s fiery performance gives the metaphor its heartbeat. Flawed and hostile, her Jane challenges status-quo thinking about how victims should behave, or what makes a woman a victim in the first place. Fitzpatrick delivers something raw and believable, anchoring the fable with realism.

Not every performance is as strong and the film’s microbudget rears its head on more than one occasion. But Take Back the Night and its filmmakers deliver thrills and realizations in equal measure in a memorable feature debut.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

Legions

A powerful warlock must save his daughter from an evil entity that wants to sacrifice her.
Initial release: 2022
Director: Fabián Forte

​A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

I watch a lot of movies. More than anything, I watch horror movies. Once in a long while, you uncover a little treasure, something that sneaks up on you with a distinct voice and magical storytelling. Such is the case with Fabián Forte’s Legions.

Antonio (Germán de Silva) recounts his life stories to the other residents in the hospital where he’s being held instead of prison. Some people call him a shaman. He prefers to be called a mediator between worlds. It’s that mediation that landed him in the hospital and caused a likely irreparable rift between him and his daughter, Helena (Lorena Vega).

But the blood moon is coming and with it a demon that will use Helena to bring about the apocalypse. To save his daughter, Argentina, and the world, Antonio has to make his daughter believe in him again.

Forte’s film traverses three different time periods and three distinct tones but the filmmaker masterfully blends them one to the next. Each new era has a different color palette and score to emphasize the change in tone, as Antonio’s stature and the respect he receives from those around him and from his daughter diminish. Finally, with a fully comedic tenor, Antonio finds himself quarantined in his old age.

In this way, Legions bears a passing resemblance to Don Coscarelli’s amazing Bubba Ho-Tep, though the humor at the expense of residents is sometimes patronizing. Still, by having patients mount a stage production of Antonio’s tales strengthens the thread connecting truth and fiction, real-life horror and entertainment, and day-to-day cynicism with faith.

Forte channels not just Coscarelli but, and far more obviously, Sam Raimi. Still, the film feels entirely its own, partly because it glides through different sub-genres so smoothly, and partly because it wears its heart on its sleeve.
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At its core, Legions is a fantasy about regaining the respect of your adult children, and because of that, it’s both relatable and touching.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

There’s Something Wrong with the Children

​Margaret and Ben take a weekend trip with two longtime friends and their two young children. Ben soon suspects something sinister is afoot when the kids start behaving strangely after disappearing into the woods overnight.
Initial release: 17 January 2023
Director: Roxanne Benjamin
Distributed by: Paramount Home Entertainment

A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

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There are things about There’s Something Wrong with the Children that feel familiar. It’s a cabin-in-the-woods horror film, sure, but director Roxanne Benjamin complicates those tiresome tropes because the forest partiers are a little older than your typical co-eds.

The film drops us somewhere near the end of the first night of vacation. Ben (Zach Gilford) and Margo (Alisha Wainwright) are spending the weekend in adjoining cabins with Margo’s best friend, Ellie (Amanda Crew), and her husband and two kids.

There’s a camaraderie as well as a distance among all partiers that feels authentic. Ellie drinks a great deal for a parent whose kids are on-hand. Ben seems more comfortable playing nerdy forest games with the kids than he does hanging out with the adults. Ellie’s husband Thomas (Carlos Santos) is clearly upset with his wife about something.

The kids seem fine.

And then Ben drags everyone on a forest hike that requires a machete to complete. They stumble upon a ruin with a deep, deep well. Everybody gets a little weird, the children’s noses spontaneously bleed, and the campers decide to retire to their cabins.

The kids – as you might predict from the title – are no longer fine.

The entire cast is solid. Even when the film wades into too-familiar territory, the actors elevate the material with realistic and reasonable performances. Both David Mattie and Briella Guiza as the children in question evolve beautifully from precocious youngsters to something terrifying yet still playful.

I appreciate the way Benjamin dwells in that fun-and-games space where adults do childish things, where dangerous behavior can masquerade as playfulness. She draws you into a supernatural world that feels whisper close to reality.

The most intriguing thing about this film is its stance on motherhood. As much as I enjoyed M3GAN, its mom-shaming got to me. Horror (and not only horror) has a terrible habit of developing storylines meant to prove to women that they do, indeed, have a maternal instinct. And woe be to those women who simply do not.

Benjamin, focusing a script by T.J. Cimfel and David White, instead explores the tension involved in simply owning your own decision not to become a mother. Indeed, There’s Something Wrong with the Children wholly approves of this choice. Makes a great case for it, even.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

A couple escape their urban nightmare to the tranquility of rural Ireland, only to hear stories of mysterious creatures who live in the gnarled, ancient woods at the foot of their garden. As warned by their new neighbors, the creatures come when called to help souls in dire need of rescue, but it's crucial to remember that there's always a dear price to pay for their aid.

Release date: 27 January 2023 (UK)
Director: Jon Wright
Written by Mark Stay 

#UnwelcomeMovie

Candy Land

A seemingly naïve and devout young woman finds her way in the underground world of truck stop sex workers.
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Release date: 6 January 2023 
Director: John Swab
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A Horror Movie Review by Hope Madden

Candy Land is a surprise, and it’s not for everyone. This is grim stuff, but writer/director John Swab’s truck stop horror also delivers an unusual story hiding inside some same old, same old.

Remy (Olivia Luccardi) catches the eye of Sadie (Sam Quartin), one of the “lot lizards” selling their carnal wares at a bible belt truck stop. Remy’s part of a religious group here to help Sadie, Riley (Eden Brolin), Liv (Virginia Rand) and Levi (Owen Campbell) find salvation. Instead, Remy – cast out from the cult – finds Sadie, eventually deciding to learn the trade in exchange for a place to live.

Hard-right evangelicals rarely make a positive impression in a horror movie, and sex workers tend to become either heart-tugging martyrs or naked corpses (often both). To his credit, Swab has something else in mind, and while you would not call it pleasant, it’s almost refreshing.

Candy Land avoids preachiness, finding depth and humanity without condescension, both for the evangelicals and the lot lizards. There’s a sense of camaraderie among those on the job, and the naturalistic, terribly human performances sell that.

Campbell (X, My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To), in particular, shines with a turn so full of tenderness, playfulness and optimism that you hold your breath every time he’s onscreen- lest something awful happens to him.

It does. In fact, at the risk of spoiling anything but in favor of helping viewers avoid triggers, Campbell’s Levi is subjected to an especially brutal and troubling rape sequence that’s part and parcel of a film loaded with graphic sexuality and violence, often side by side. But never once is the victimization filmed to titillate, if that helps.

For its many successes, the film often feels like a rather superficial exercise in brutality if only because none of the characters have real arcs. Things end for each character essentially where they began. A provocative but undercooked B-story involving a perversely paternal police officer (William Baldwin, with his most interesting performance in years) doesn’t help.
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Candy Land is a tough film to recommend for a number of reasons, but it’s worthwhile viewing if only because Swab upends every expectation, instead taking us inside a horror grounded in something surprisingly human.

Hope Madden is a writer and award-winning filmmaker living with her husband George and cat Velma in Columbus, Ohio. She writes what scares her, which worked out fine until she became a filmmaker and had to live what scared her for the duration of a shoot. Terrible decision. Her novella, Roost, was published in 2022 by Off Limits Press and her first feature film releases in late 2022.

Skinamarink

Two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing, and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished.

Initial release: 25 July 2022
Directors: Kyle Edward Ball, Kyle Ball
Cast: Jaime Hill, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul, Lucas Paul
Distributed by: IFC Films

A Horror Movie Review by George Wolf

(Tom Hanks SNL voice) “My name is Kyle Edward Ball…and I’m going to scare the HELL out of YOU!”

And you know what? He just might do it.

Be extra prepared if the title Skinamarink reminds you of those fun singalongs from Sharon, Lois & Bram. Because Ball’s brand of nightmare fuel taps into the very essence of childhood fears, exploiting those exposed nerves with a committed resolve we haven’t seen since Laurence Olivier in Marathon Man.

Is it safe? It is not.

Ball’s premise is brilliant simplicity. It’s 1995, and two young children, Kaylee (Dali Rose Tetreault) and Kevin (Lucas Paul), wake in the night to find they are alone, with the windows and doors in their house suddenly gone. In an instant, the stakes are familiar – but not because you’ve seen this before.

It’s because there’s probably some version of this nightmare in your past. You were just a kid, separated from your parents and trying in vain to reach them or call out for help, or maybe just escape.

Remember how scared you were? Ball and cinematographer Jamie McRae do, and they twist that knife again and again for 100 slightly bloated minutes of dark, disorienting dread.

Cinematography and sound design are intertwined in an analog, cathode-ray aesthetic that recalls vintage, grainy VHS. The children whisper to each other (“Where do you think Dad is? I don’t know.”) as they wander from room to room, with Ball’s camera never allowing you one second of relief.

All through this fright night, familiar sources of comfort such as toys and cartoons turn eerily sinister, accentuating the feeling that it’s not just these kids that are in peril, it is childhood itself. POV is often at floor level, and then tight into a corner of the ceiling or high above the room and rising. You squint in the direction of the children’s flashlight, trying in vain to decipher anything about the house that will give you some sense of its layout, and you strain to separate the cracks of white noise from that deeper voice speaking to the children.

Come upstairs. Look under the bed. Close your eyes.

Ball started down this harrowing hallway by filming 3-4 minute short films of the actual dreams described by viewers of his YouTube channel. Some two years ago, his 29-minute short Heck emerged as the wonder of primal fear that inspired Skinamarink. And though it is a bit disappointing that the single most bone-chilling (and to be fair, most explanatory) moment of the short didn’t make it in the feature, Ball’s $15,000 budget buys much more killer than filler.

More than just nightmarish, this is a literal nightmare onscreen. And the intimate nature of nightmares means that the film’s patient, psychological assault is likely to bring out the “nothing happens!” barbs from those seeking more universally visceral thrills. But for others, the whispers of Skinamarink will hit like a sonic boom.
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And they will be hard to shake.

George “Screen” Wolf is co-founder and writer for maddwolf.com. He’s also  film critic for Saga Communications radio (25 markets across the US), Columbus Underground and UK Film Review.

In Columbus, Ohio, you can catch George on TV every Friday morning on ABC6/Fox28’s Good Day Columbus.

George is a member of the Columbus Film Critics Association, and lives in Grandview Heights with his wife, Hope Madden. Their son Donovan lives in L.A. George enjoys music, politics, his Harley, sports, travelling, and, oh yeah, movies!

Contact George at maddwolf95@gmail.com.

Follow George on Facebook and Instagram @maddwolfcolumbus and on Twitter @maddwolf

Shooting a vampire movie in an old abandoned house should have worked like a dream. However, with the full moon, the nightmare begins. The body count rises as the cast and crew encounter the mansion's resident werewolf.

Director Dominic Brunt
Writers Joel Ferrari Pete Wild
Stars James Fleet John Henshaw Nicky Evans

A Horror Movie Review by Jim Mcleod ​

In terms of tonality, Wolf Manor sits right in the middle of Dominic Brunt's film catalogue. Mixing horror with comedy, it never hits the sheer brutal nihilistic tones of Bait nor the overtly comic overtones of Attack of the Adult Babies, which might confound some viewers who are going in with preconceived ideas about this film. But don't be concerned, for despite this slight lack of tonal focus, there is still a lot to love about this movie. Think classic Hammer Horror with a few sight and snark gags thrown into the mix. The writer and the director of Wolf Manor never overegg the jokes, which thankfully prevents Wolf Manor from tipping into farce territory. There are still plenty of laughs, particularly about the hunt for a fake hand and the chaos associated with trying to film a low-budget horror movie. And like all great horror comedies, the humour never overshadows the horror on the screen. And for you gorehounds out there, Wolf Manor has plenty to whet your wolf whistle. The special effects on show here are top notch. Considering the budget, the filmmakers were obviously working with the team achieved a hell of a lot with them.  


The creature design is terrific, and apart from one scene where the wolf's ears appear to be just that little bit too much like a rabbit's floppy ears (which truthfully made me smile and love this film that little bit more for the charm of it), the werewolf stands up to close inspection and remains powerful and effective monster for the film.  


The cast, led by James Fleet, does an admiral job in maintaining the gothic Hammer Horror quality of the film. Fleet, in particular, excels at playing the washed-up actor. Still, the real star of "both movies" is Thaila Zucchi, who plays the massively put upon production assistant Fiona. Her strong performance anchors the movie perfectly, providing a tangible link between the movie's real and meta horror.  


I would be remiss if I didn't mention Morgan Rees-Davies as the werewolf. With a solid and confident performance, Davies ensures that the budget spent on the creature's costume is utilised thoroughly to provide not only a convincing monster but one that manages to elicit that primal fear in the viewer that is paramount to a successful creature feature. 


Viewers will also relish picking out all of the nods to other classic horror films while having a great time with this fun and heart filled indie horror movie.  


Wolf Manor is a strong if ever so slightly flawed, horror film. The pacing of the film's first half could have been tightened up slightly. Some of the jokes did fall flat, but overall I had a fantastic time with the movie, and I look forward with glee to Dominic Brunt's next film Soulless.  


If 2023 is indeed the year of the werewolf, then we are off to a wolf worthy start with Wolf Manor.  ​