Though he's written and produced other films in the years since (like the already-forgotten CHERNOBYL DIARIES), director Oren Peli is best known for 2009's PARANORMAL ACTIVITY, even though he's handed off the sequels to Christopher Landon and the CATFISH guys. When PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was hitting theaters and becoming a phenomenon (because you "demanded" to see it!), a pleased Paramount was already onboard with Peli's next project, which had just finished shooting. It wasn't supposed to take six years to be released, but that's what happened with AREA 51, which was shot in the fall of 2009 and didn't surface until the summer of 2015. One of the more high-profile shelved projects of the last several years, AREA 51 endured a troubled production that saw Paramount bringing in actor (ARGO, SOUND OF MY VOICE) and writer/director (PRESERVATION) Christopher Denham in 2011 to rewrite the third act at the behest of underwhelmed studio execs and bored test audiences (depending on who's telling the story, Denham may have also directed the 2011 reshoots). Two years went by with no progress when Peli returned in 2013 and did some additional rewrites and reshoots, and spent the next year or so heroically trying to salvage the wreckage. Through their "Insurge" genre label, Paramount very quietly released AREA 51 on VOD and some Alamo Drafthouse locations for a weekend run, grossing $7500 against a $5 million budget. The released version still carries a 2011 copyright, so it's unknown if what's hitting Blu-ray and DVD is an earlier cut or if Paramount simply didn't care enough to update the final credits.
Is AREA 51 that bad? Yeah, pretty much. Sure, the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY movies have gotten increasingly abysmal--no matter how great that "fan-cam" bit was in the third entry--but Peli hasn't had anything to do with them aside from a contractual producer and a superfluous "Based on characters created by" credit since his original film. There was little reason to believe that his own PA follow-up would end up being one of the worst examples of the found-footage genre. Back in 2009, before found-footage became the single most regrettable trend in modern horror cinema (along with the seemingly endless string of terrible demonic possession movies), the notion of such a film tackling the Area 51 conspiracies might've been a good idea, but Peli stumbles at every turn. He does get a few genuinely creepy images in the final ten minutes, but it takes 80 minutes to get there. Most of the time, we follow three dudebros--Reid (Reid Warner), Darrin (Darrin Bragg), and Ben (Ben Rovner) on their way to Nevada as Darrin and Ben indulge Reid's obsession with Area 51. They meet up with Jelena (Jelena Nik), an Area 51 conspiracy theorist Reid met online, and whose father worked at the base and committed suicide--of course, she thinks he was killed for asking too many questions. Once they finally and quite improbably get inside the base--this is after a ludicrous breaking-and-entering into a top security officer's home to steal his ID badge and a swipe a fingerprint off a cologne bottle in a long sequence so idiotic that the film never recovers from it--Reid, Jelena, and Darrin (Ben waits in the SUV) do a lot of walking around long corridors using night vision, which is easy since the only employees seen are occasional maintenance guys driving a cart. The climax basically takes the finale of BLAIR WITCH and adds some fleeting glimpses of the standard-issue extraterrestrials while Reid and Jelena run around and keep incessantly and breathlessly repeating "We gotta get outta here!" Had this played in theaters, there's no doubt the audience would've been right there with them in sharing that sentiment. (R, 91 mins)
WYRMWOOD: ROAD OF THE DEAD (Australia - 2015)
The last thing the world needs is another zombie movie, but this Australian import is a cut above the norm for the prefab cult movie scene. It refreshingly accomplishes a little more than just showing up, making the references and waiting for the blank-check accolades to pour in from the scenesters, even though it drops the ball somewhat when it comes to exploring its more original elements to their full potential. Conceived by the Roache-Turner brothers (Kiah directed, Tristan produced and served as production designer, both scripted), WYRMWOOD unabashedly worships at the altar of old-school Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson, with some bonus George Miller homages to legitimize the Ozploitation elements. They also play with the timeline to an extent, with the story being set up and then circling back to its beginning about 1/3 of the way through, then taking off in a linear fashion from there--it almost ends up like a 30-minute prologue. After a sudden zombie outbreak overnight, Barry (Jay Gallagher) kills his wife and daughter when they turn, and he takes to the road, desperately trying to get to his younger sister Brooke (Bianca Bradey), who's been abducted by some military goons and is being experimented on by a mad doctor (Berynn Schwerdt). Barry ends up forming an unholy alliance of asskickers with gruff Frank (Keith Agius) and affable doofus Benny (Leon Burchill), and they take to the Outback wasteland in a souped-up, fortified, steel-encased pickup truck. They use the enclosed bed to corral zombies after discovering undead blood is both flammable and a fuel source. Most of the time, the Roache-Turners are content to riff on the EVIL DEAD movies, DEAD ALIVE, George Romero's zombie films, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, and THE ROAD WARRIOR with varying degrees of cleverness, but some unexpected--and underutilized--plot developments show that they're at least interested in trying something different with a woefully played-out genre. There's a little too much quick-cut editing and shaky-cam, but there's a nice mix of digital and practical blood, the splatter is spirited and enthusiastic, Bradey might be the next great horror heroine, and even the most briefly-seen characters are well-established enough that you're bummed when they get killed (poor Chalker!). Mostly crowdfunded with a big post-production gift from Screen Australia to make it polished and cinematic, WYRMWOOD was allegedly shot on weekends over a three-year period by the Roache-Turners. It was successful enough in Australia to warrant the already-announced WYRMWOOD 2. (Unrated, 99 mins, also streaming on Netflix Instant)
Imagine what the characters in found-footage horror movies could accomplish if they just had both hands free. Late in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES, a guy is frantically running around a house, trying to find an exit, and he comes across a boarded-up window. He half-heartedly tries to pull the board down with his left hand and it budges just a very little bit. Here's a thought: put the camera down and use both hands. Pitched as a Latino-targeted "cousin" to the PA franchise, THE MARKED ONES actually ties in pretty directly to the increasingly ludicrous spirit-world shenanigans. Oren Peli's effective, out-of-nowhere 2009 original has become a distant memory as the franchise has morphed into the brainchild of DISTURBIA screenwriter Christopher Landon (son of legendary TV icon Michael), despite the guys from CATFISH getting all the attention when they were hired to directed PA3 and PA4. Landon has scripted every entry since the first sequel (except for the 2010 Japan-only spinoff PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: TOKYO NIGHT, still unreleased in the US) and gets promoted to director here. PA3 grossed $104 million, while PA4 had a massive drop-off, bringing in only $53 million. Still not bad considering how cheap these are to produce, but the fact that THE MARKED ONES topped out at $32 million, didn't open at #1 like its predecessors, and that other similar films are suffering from diminished grosses are major red flags that fans are experiencing some found-footage fatigue. A 70% domestic drop between two installments seems like cause for alarm, but since THE MARKED ONES only cost $5 million, it still made a big enough profit that these things will just continue until they stop breaking even. Perhaps audiences are growing tired with the way the PA films are progressing as there appears be no plot twist too ridiculous for Landon to pull out of his ass in a desperate attempt to keep this franchise gasping for one more run. PA4 revealed that a witches' coven has been orchestrating all the paranormal mayhem, and now THE MARKED ONES introduces wormholes and time-travel. No, really.
Set in Oxnard in 2012, the film follows Jesse (Andrew Jacobs), after he buys a video camera with his high school graduation money. He and goofball buddy Hector (Jorge Diaz) start off by filming JACKASS-style pranks but soon get involved in a mystery when Jesse's neighbor is killed by valedictorian Oscar (Carlos Pratts), who then vanishes. After breaking into the victim's apartment, Jesse awakens the next day with a strange mark and begins acting possessed and displaying bizarre powers (for a good chunk of its running time, this seems more like a knockoff of the overrated CHRONICLE) and is eventually abducted by some mysterious women as Hector and their friend Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh) recruit Oscar's gang-leader brother (Richard Cabral, memorable as the drug mule "The Green Hornet" in THE COUNSELOR) to track down Jesse. Of course, other characters from the franchise make token appearances (Molly Ephraim from PA2, and series mainstays Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat), but the direction in which THE MARKED ONES steers things is a pretty clear sign that Landon is just trying to belatedly explain away the inconsistencies and contradictions that have been popping up in all of the sequels. There's no "master plan" here: he's making it up as he goes along. The only interesting element Landon brings to the table--think the camera on the oscilatting fan in PA3--is having Jesse communicate with the spirit via an old Simon. But time travel portals? Enough. (R, 84 mins) NURSE (US - 2014)
Another pre-fab cult film lovingly embraced by horror hipsters before it was even released, the long-delayed (shot in 2011) NURSE thinks it's being edgy and outrageous, but it's just tired and boring. Loaded with numbing CGI splatter, NURSE centers on Abby Russell (Paz de la Huerta), the titular psycho, who spends her off-hours picking up and slaughtering adulterous men with their "cheating cocks." She's fixated on bright-eyed new nurse Danni (Katrina Bowden of 30 ROCK), who she quickly roofies and seduces in a series of selfies that she presumably plans to send to Danni's paramedic boyfriend Steve (Corbin Bleu of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL). When the bodies--including Danni's lecherous, asshole stepdad (Martin Donovan)--start piling up, Danni can't convince irate detective Rogan (Boris Kodjoe) that she's being framed and that Abby's a serial killer. With it being shot in 3D with copious amounts of digital gore and de la Huerta nudity, and no shortage of ironic stunt casting (there's Bleu, Judd Nelson as a sexually-harrassing doc, Niecy Nash as a sassy nurse, and Kathleen Turner as the head nurse), NURSE is one of those fakesploitation films that flaunts the Alexandre Aja/PIRANHA-remake mentality of assuming that it's already a cult movie, blithely and smugly unaware that such status is earned. Director/co-writer Doug Aarniokoski (HIGHLANDER: ENDGAME) tries to go for some John Waters outrageousness (why else would he trot SERIAL MOM's Turner out for one scene?) with some occasional giallo lighting and music cues that echo those of Ennio Morricone in his minimalist percussive phase, but it's not amusing, and it's not scary, and how exploitative can it be when you have a star in Bowden who obviously refused to do nudity? Arms always strategically covering her breasts and two scenes where she's showering in her underwear? No offense, Ms. Bowden, but you know what kind of movie you're in. If you're not gonna play, then don't take the gig. I'm no Corbin Bleu fan, but at least he had the sack to lay his Disney rep on the line and show his thrusting ass in a sex scene with you.
The script (co-written by David Loughery, a regular Joseph Ruben collaborator) requires its characters to be complete idiots. Witness the scene where a bloodied Abby gets away when someone turns their back for two seconds. The guy turns around to see she's gone but has left a trail of bloody footprints down a long hallway. How far could she get in two seconds? And does he go after her? Of course not. More sloppy craftsmanship: it's revealed that Abby's real name is Sarah and that the reasoning behind her actions is that, as a child, she walked in on her doctor father having sex with a nurse and killed him; she ultimately changed her name from "Sarah" and moves from hospital to hospital, changing identities and splitting town when things get out of control, and her current alias is "Abby." OK, fine. Then why, in the flashback to her childhood, is her mother calling her "Abby"? The grating de la Huerta plays Abby in her typical talking-too-slow fashion with a look on her face that's perpetually stuck somewhere between "I'm confused" and "Who farted?" and her voiceover narration is obviously the work of another actress, always a sign of post-production Band-Aiding (as terrible as de la Huerta is, she's at least game for Aarniokoski's hard-R intentions, unlike Bowden). The only real high point of NURSE is provided by Melanie Scrofano as an impossibly, annoyingly chipper HR exec. In just a few scenes, Scrofano nails the out-of-touch idiocy of corporate higher-ups who have no idea what it's like in the trenches. Imagine what she could've done with the Abby role instead of the dazed and dull de la Huerta. Other than Scrofano's performance, NURSE is a complete waste of time. (R, 84 mins)
Directed by Barry Levinson. Written by Michael Wallach. Cast: Will Rogers, Kristen Connolly, Kether Donohue, Christopher Denham, Stephen Kunken, Frank Deal, Nansi Aluka, Kenny Alfonso. (R, 83 mins)
Upon a cursory glance, the very notion of Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson (DINER, GOOD MORNING VIETNAM, RAIN MAN, BUGSY, DISCLOSURE, SLEEPERS, WAG THE DOG) helming a found footage faux-documentary horror film produced by Oren Peli (PARANORMAL ACTIVITY) and the Strause Brothers (SKYLINE) seems absurd and insulting beyond comprehension. Sure, Levinson's not at the pinnacle of his career now but in the '80s and '90s, the guy was practically unstoppable, even with something like 1992's misbegotten TOYS sullying his resume. There were all those hit movies (he also wrote 1979's AND JUSTICE FOR ALL), plus his contributions to television: writing for THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, and producing HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET and OZ. Now here he is, 70 years old and trying to hitch a ride on the found footage bandwagon? With all due respect, Mr. Levinson, there are other coping mechanisms for what you're going through. You could've just bought a sports car and gotten your ear pierced.
But hold on a second. THE BAY is actually good. It's an unsettling and surprisingly solid addition to played-out subgenre that's admittedly on life support. People turn out in droves for these movies whenever they open, but nobody seems to like them anymore. It's too bad THE BAY arrived just in time for the backlash, because it's one of the better found footage flicks to come down the pike. Levinson and screenwriter Michael Wallach approach it as a collage of confiscated footage acquired from a web site called govleaks.org, as part of a film being made by journalist Donna Thompson (Kether Donohue), who was a student reporter and blogger covering the July 4th festivities in the fictional Claridge, MD in 2009. A strange bacterial outbreak spreads throughout the small town of 6200, with residents breaking out on boils and blisters, almost like some sort of flesh-eating virus. What Thompson has pieced together from the assorted footage (from her cameraman, from others' home movies, security cameras, police dashboard cams, cell phones, etc) is that two oceanographers (Christopher Denham, Nansi Aluka) were aware of something odd happening in the Chesapeake Bay in Claridge at least six weeks before the 4th. The mayor (Frank Deal), blew off the information that passed his desk about marine life in the bay being toxic and infested with rapidly-growing parasitic isopods, due in part to a local factory farm disposing steroid-loaded chicken excrement into the bay but also because of toxic materials dumped into the bay by the mayor's baby: a cost-effective, privately-owned, corner-cutting desalination plant that provides Claridge's drinking water...from the bay. Now the residents are infested with these parasites, which are growing at an alarming rate and eating their way out of their human hosts.
As the outbreak worsens and panic spreads over the course of the day, Levinson and Wallach show the paranoia and the frighteningly plausible levels of buck-passing bureaucracy that result. Early townie speculation blames the situation on everything from Satanists to Al-Qaeda. The FBI immediately shuts down Thompson's blog. A frazzled ER doc (Stephen Kunken) Skypes with a CDC official who bluntly tells him "Just leave the hospital." That same CDC official is later shown getting the run-around from a Homeland Security representative, telling him "This whole town has been wiped out in one day!" to which the Homeland Security guy coldly and matter-of-factly replies "It's a small town...let's keep it in perspective."
The cast is largely unknown--Denham can currently be seen in ARGO, and Kristen Connolly was in THE CABIN IN THE WOODS--which helps the sense of realism. Most found footage films are more interested in quick, cheap scares, but Levinson makes THE BAY an eco-horror film with an environmental point to hammer home about everything from privatization to the food we eat to the endless red tape that puts people last if they're in the equation at all. There's politics at play here (it takes place on the most American of holidays) and the filmmakers are unabashedly on the left, so how much you get out of the film or how plausible or serious you find it may depend somewhat on your leanings. THE BAY is an effectively grim B-movie that never offers any outright jolts, but Levinson does a terrific job of establishing a dread-filled sense of conspiratorial doom that escalates throughout. As sick and tired as a lot of us are the found footage fright flicks, THE BAY is one that actually has something to say, which is perhaps what attracted a filmmaker of Levinson's caliber to such an unusual project.
Directed by Brad Parker. Written by Oren Peli, Shane Van Dyke, Carey Van Dyke. Cast: Jesse McCartney, Jonathan Sadowski, Nathan Phillips, Devin Kelley, Ingrid Bolso Berdal, Dimitri Diatchenko, Olivia Taylor Dudley. (R, 88 mins)
Despite appearances and the involvement of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY mastermind Oren Peli as producer and co-writer, CHERNOBYL DIARIES is not another in the endless stream of "found footage" horror outings. It does, however, rely heavily on shaky-cam to tell the story of four Americans--brothers Paul (Jonathan Sadowski of the somehow-lasted-for-an-entire-season TV series $#*! MY DAD SAYS ) and Chris (former teen pop sensation Jesse McCartney), Chris' girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley), and Natalie's friend Amanda (Devin Kelley)--and two Australians, Michael (Nathan Phillips of WOLF CREEK) and Zoe (Ingrid Bolso Berdal of the Norwegian horror film COLD PREY), on an "extreme tour" day trip to Pripyat, the town abandoned after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown in April 1986. Led by gregarious ex-Special Forces tour guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko), who's been supervising these excursions for five years, the tourists are denied entrance at a checkpoint because of a "maintenance issue." Undeterred, Uri tells his customers "There's more than one way into Pripyat," and he takes them in through a roundabout way through a surrounding wooded area. While radiation levels are elevated, a few hours exposure won't do any harm, and the biggest surprise they get is the sudden appearance of a wild bear. But once back at the van, Uri finds the electrical wires torn apart. Then the howling and the wailing start, and they quickly realize they're not alone and Pripyat is not abandoned.
CHERNOBYL DIARIES, directed by veteran visual effects artist Brad Parker, does an admirable job of creating a grimly ominous, dread-filled atmosphere in the early going. Seamlessly integrated stock footage of the real abandoned Pripyat blends with scenes shot in similar-looking locations in Serbia and Hungary (even recreating the Pripyat ferris wheel) and the resulting imagery is often very effective. Great effort was made in the production design, and it shows. It's too bad Peli wasn't as diligent about the script, which he co-wrote with Dick Van Dyke's grandsons Shane and Carey, both behind-the-scenes veterans of numerous Asylum ripoffs for SyFy, including STREET RACER, THE DAY THE EARTH STOPPED, TRANSMORPHERS: FALL OF MAN, TITANIC II, and even the Oren Peli knockoff PARANORMAL ENTITY. Once the menace makes itself apparent, CHERNOBYL DIARIES basically turns into a HILLS HAVE EYES redux, with mutant Pripyat residents stalking the ever-dwindling group of tourists. Most of the film is shot in darkness, illuminated only by flashlights, which make it incredibly easy for the mutants to capture their prey. Also helping them are the numerous instances of convenient stupidity demonstrated by characters who must be killed for the plot to proceed. One such demise is handled in a laughably clumsy fashion, as one of the tourists seems to momentarily forget how to climb a ladder, fumbling about and half-assedly trying to grab a rung, basically waiting for a couple beats until Parker gives some Serbian extras the cue to grab her and take her away. Things just get dumber as the film goes along, culimating in a conclusion that could take US-Russian relations back to the glorious heyday of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
What can you say about a horror movie where the most chilling moments are the quiet ones where nothing's happening and you're just observing the setting and the locations? If you really want to be unsettled, just Google some images of the vacated Pripyat. Those will send more chills down your spine than anything in the watchable but very tired CHERNOBYL DIARIES.
