wakezakzak-89190 Reviews

The Lost Footage of Leah Sullivan (2018)

A Well Paced Slow Burn To Some Creepy Moments

[6/10 · 29 June 2023]

**Plot**

In 1986, the town of Lutton, MA was rocked with the grizzly murder of the Mulcahy Family; consisting of the schizophrenic doomsday prepping father Joseph, mother Rebecca, teenaged daughter Jessica and the troublemaking 12 year old son Edward. The family were tied up in various areas in and outside of the house, and chopped up with what police reckoned was a hatchet. Certain limbs that were hacked were missing, including Joseph's legs, Rebecca's left arm, and Jessica's head. Edward's left arm was left tied to his bed, separated from his now missing body. The perpetrator of this crime was never apprehended, remaining a cold case for decades.

On the 30th anniversary of the murders in 2016, Seattle college student Leah Sullivan returns to her hometown of Lutton to shoot a documentary about the cold case for a class project due by the end of January. She meets local police officer Patrick Rooke, who aids her in filming her documentary. Over the course of her and Patrick filming, they begin to not only discover more about the Mulcahy family, but also begin to piece together supposed unrelated missing people reports that occurred over a decade after the house was abandoned. This 30 year old case file might just be solved by Leah and Patrick, but as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. Or in this case, Leah's curiosity nearly killed a dog while she was driving her car. But it led to a funny exchange with the dog's owner, so it's fine.

**Review**

The writing and the performances by all of the leading and supporting actors were very good. I can't tell if some lines were improvised or were scripted, but regardless, all of the actors felt natural while simultaneously being awkward as they should be.

Some of the genuine awkward humor from Leah interviewing people without properly informing them what it's for led to some moments of laughter from me. Even the brief scene of the woman walking her dog scolding a driving Leah for nearly hitting the dog was hilarious.

Sound and Image Quality were fine, outside of moments where you get the usual shakiness from when a jumpscare happens or Patrick messes up the tripod or when scary things start to happen in the final act.

I think the film's detractors would be the last act, where Leah has been smart up until this point, but greed corrupts her thinking, for she now wants to forget the class project and make this her meal ticket to fame and enter the world of journalism. She wants to properly investigate the supposed condemned house, not considering the risk of getting injured or attacked by looking in the house. Even Patrick, the voice of reason, gets dragged into helping her because he wants to have a clean conscious if something happens to her. At the cost of your life, though, Patrick?

The lack of straight forward answers to the mystery will upset some people. Some may think the interviews leading up to the last act are pointless exposition, but they're actually clues that hint towards what to expect in the last act. To really understand what was going on, the film isn't going to give it to you on a spoon like a parent feeding a baby. You'd have to sit down, recollect the information the characters have gathered, jump to some conclusions, and roll with it. I had to look up what others who watched the film thought happened to see if I was close to solving it. I kind of was, but I missed some details to make it more clearer.

The big thing people want to see in found footage films is the big scary thing that's stalking or haunting in crystal clear images or video...which if you think about it, kind of destroys the ambiguous nature of found footage, so I'm glad this film opted to not go the Blair Witch 2016 route of being in your face with everything.

You or others might be disappointed just by the source of light in the last act, and not being able to see what the end credits call the Creature. I think it sells the realism of the found footage aspect a bit better when you're actually in pitch black, for it puts you right in Leah and Patrick's shoes.

Overall, the film is 84 minutes long, and it goes by quick. It's a decent watch for a Thursday night off from work if you have no plans that day. Or at all for life in general, so I'd say give it a shot, so long as your aim isn't like Patrick's.

Camp Blood 666 Part 2: Exorcism of the Clown (2023)

TOO ambitious for it's $10,000 budget, and 4 Day Filming Schedule

[3/10 · 12 June 2023]

I got this film from Makeflix on Blu-Ray. Included on the Blu-ray that's worth mentioning is a commentary track that is not synced with what the commentators are viewing at all. What's on screen for the viewer is about 5 seconds behind what the commentators are commenting on. Is this a nitpick? Yes, but it's distracting when you realize they're talking about stuff that hasn't happened yet on your end.

Also included on the Blu-ray is an alternate version of the film, a Rough Cut. I kind of wish they had a DVD version of the film instead of the Blu-ray, just so I could rip the film and the Rough Cut onto my PC. Why? Because the amateur editor that I am craves to trim this film, rearrange scenes, and simultaneously include some of the scenes that were deleted and left in the Rough Cut. I don't think I could do the film any justice, but I feel like I should at least give it a shot.

Before I dive into this film anymore than I already have, I want to make it clear that despite my gripes with the film, this is one of the better made entries of the franchise. It's sad for me to say that, considering it's still nowhere near the levels of entertainingly bad of the original two films and Within The Woods. It's unique that this franchise's entries are all bad, but almost all of them are bad for unique different reasons.

This film does not tediously try to cross the 60 minute mark like in 3, 4, 5, 666 or Ghost of Camp Blood, with numerous padding techniques and flashbacks to previous films, or flashbacks to its own scenes earlier in the film. Albeit it does have some flashbacks to 666 and 7, but not excessively like other films would.

It's not using someone's garage as a cabin like in 7. Nor is it using someone's house as a Rehabilitation Center like in Children of Camp Blood. Nor is it using a Community College building as a TV Studio like in Ghost of Camp Blood. This film had access to actual cabins at an actual campground, and what appears to be a real bar, albeit a closed real bar. If this were other films, the bar would just be someone's kitchen, or a bar that they have in their basement or garage.

All of the actors did their best with the material that they were given, although at times it seems like some of them were either camera shy or didn't fully grasp what was supposed to be happening in a scene; maybe they weren't given proper direction to fully understand how to perform certain sequences.

Lead Actor David Perry seemed to be the most camera shy at the beginning, but you can see throughout he becomes more comfortable on camera, and has quite a few good moments with actors Jamie Morgan and Tim Hatch. These three together not only bring good performances, but also help enhance the performances of one another.

Best performances, outside of those three, have to go to Erica Dyer, Jen Elyse Feldman, and the film's writer Julie Anne Prescott. Especially with Erica Dyer's yelling during one scene, although it clearly caused the audio in that scene to clip and distort briefly.

The film's main issue is similar to the issues I have with a Friday the 13th fan film titled Vengeance. Both films have too many characters and too much going on that the plot feels TOO stuffed, the editing feels and IS choppy, and it kills the overall pacing. And above all that, it feels like not enough development was given in certain areas to make the film feel complete.

It took the film 18 minutes to finally introduce the main characters with Stu and his church group. In other films that are feature length or above the 90 minute mark or even close to the 120 minute mark, its not that big of a deal. But we are 53 minutes before the credits come to an end at this point, and the main characters JUST arrived. If some scenes were rearranged, the main characters would arrive a little bit earlier.

It took me two viewings of the film to finally kind of grasp what was happening, the second viewing being the Rough Cut. I still don't even think I grasped what was happening in the film entirely. So much happens in this film with almost 20 characters that once you stop and try piecing everything together, you realize how not so well the story comes together.

**Wrap Up**

The Final Cut of the film is 1 Hour, 11 Minutes, 14 Seconds, with opening logos, opening and closing credits, and a few title cards.

The Rough Cut of the film is 1 Hour, 19 Minutes, 44 Seconds. Just the one Title Card, no opening credits or logos or ending credits.

With this information, you would think that the film just trimmed down a few scenes, and maybe took out a scene or two to remove 8 minutes and 30 seconds of film, but no.

The final cut has about 6 Minutes and 43 Seconds of additional material that was not in the Rough Cut, including the opening logos, opening and closing credits, and title cards. Some of it is videos fans/indiegogo backers sent in to be a part of the film, but other segments that were removed in their place gave context to certain scenes, characters and plot developments.

So overall, this is a film that probably should've been at least 1 Hour 25 or 26 Minutes. Hell, I'd argue it should be even longer to flesh scenes and story out. This film had 15 overall minutes chopped off just to keep the runtime low at just above 1 hour and 11 Minutes.

And because so, as mentioned before, it feels like a film that is choppy, filled with TOO many characters and storylines going on at the same time. It feels like an incomplete film. And that is supposedly the case.

Unless the director misspoke on the commentary track, or unless I'm misremembering, the film was shot over the course of 4 days, and that the completed script was 111 to 112 pages long.

Going by the logic of 1 minute per page, that's 1 Hour 52 Minutes. These people tried to film an almost 2 hour film in the span of 4 days. And I'm going to assume, based on the final cut and the rough cut feeling like scenes are missing from both, they only managed to shoot 3/4ths of the script by the time production ended.

I'm also going to assume, based off of what is mentioned in the commentary, certain scenes were either deleted or not filmed not just because they ran out of time to film it, but because certain actors had to leave the shoot earlier than expected, so they had to film scenes of them being abruptly killed off just to explain why someone like Jeff who barely had any development or lines even is now missing.

Yet despite all of this, they had to trim it all down because of runtime concerns? Aren't feature films supposed to be above 80 to 82 minutes to be classified as feature length? Why is 71 minutes the cut off or the average for all of these films in this franchise? I'm sure there were at least a couple of these films that went over that 71 Minute limit.

And yet despite trimming the film down to a mere 1 Hour and 11 Minutes, some of the stuff they left in felt like it needed to be removed while other stuff they removed felt like they needed to be placed back in. And overall, the film lacks context in certain parts as to what exactly is happening.

Is it the worst film ever made? No, I'd say the worst FILM is still A Haunting on Gabriel Street. Is it the worst Camp Blood film? No, that title would go to Camp Blood 3, 4 and 5 collectively; I'm hesitant to even call those FILMS as I type this. Is it the best Camp Blood film? No, the original three films remain at the top of the crap barrel, on the rim, while everything else in this franchise is in the barrel.

Similarly to 7, Ghost and Children, this film tried to tell a story and have it connect to a previous film. But this film is marginally better than 7, Ghost, and Children for having actual locations to shoot at. It's on the surface of the crap in the barrel, just slightly poking out trying to reach the brim to join the original two films and Within the Woods.

Children of Camp Blood (2020)

Not Good, But Better Than Everything After The First Two Films

[3/10 · 22 January 2021]

If you're reading this review, and you've seen the previous dozen or so films in this franchise, you should already know what you're getting into with these films. That being said, I can say there's a little more effort put in this film than some of the previous ones. It may not be much, but it's a step in the right direction.

If you haven't seen a film like this, or the previous dozen or so that came before it, let me catch you up to what you're missing. Films like this are z grade horror; they look like something you and your friends would've shot in high school because it's made cheap and quick, with acting from some people who aren't trying, and the plot overall makes no sense. The difference is this gets distributed on DVD, Blu Ray, Vimeo, and even Amazon Prime. You're probably asking who would pay to watch films like this, and why. You just got to be the type of person who enjoys watching indie filmmakers try to make something, even when its bad. And sometimes you get gems where they're so bad it's entertaining.

The Camp Blood series has been going on for about 20 years. If you ask me, the best entries in this franchise were the first and second film in 2000, along with a film titled Within the Woods in 2005. This series remained dormant for 9 years until we got Camp Blood 3: First Slaughter. From 3 onwards, the franchise detaches from the first two films, and the continuity goes haywire. Almost each subsequent film tries to go in a different direction, with little continuity to connect some of the films. Even when films are supposed to connect, the continuity is that messed up that it's not worth trying to make sense of anymore.

With this film, however, it's nice to see a writer make an attempt to connect to events and characters from previous films, even when some of the names are wrong. There is a moment where a girl recounts the story of her stepmom and her Stepmom's boyfriend Chucky were killed, yet the flashbacks from that previous film reminds us that it was Tommy, not Chucky.

To summarize what the plot of this movie is, it's basically Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning with a little bit of The Forgotten, aka Don't Look in the Basement, thrown in there. A rehabilitation center for the surviving friends and family members of victims from previous films is set in place within the Camp Blackwood area to accommodate those in need. Unfortunately for them, it looks like the supposed dead clown mask wearing killer has returned.

As mentioned before, z grade horror with little to no money to fund it. But I have to give the writer credit for trying to connect to previous films, especially with trying to make sense of a random moment from one of the previous movies that occurred that had no context whatsoever. Now with this film, that scene actually has a purpose and a reason to exist. It was just placed in the wrong film, basically.

You also have actors Samantha Coolidge and Ryan Dalton as Judy and Doctor Spanner, respectively, who go all in with their performances. In previous films, and even in this film, we've had actors who either just can't act, or are simply not even trying, like lightly jogging away from the killer, or gripping someone's shoulders as opposed to their neck. But these two actors stood out for trying to take the material as seriously as they can, given the conditions of the low production. They put energy and effort into their roles, which is something this series needs a little bit more of.

If you've seen previous entries in this franchise, you know what you're getting into, but I would say out of all of the films that have been made since this franchise's resurgence in 2014, this is probably the best one of the bunch, but that is through simple process of elimination. If you haven't seen this film and are curious to watch it, I wouldn't recommend it. But it you are into z grade horror films, and you want to check this franchise out, start from the beginning and work your way up to this. If you can't make it past the first film, you're not going to enjoy this one.

Camp Blood Kills (2019)

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY - PLEASE DONT!

[9 May 2019]

So, this is advertised as a compilation of all the death scenes from this z-grade horror film franchise, as well as supposedly all of the nude scenes. This is not one of those clip show films like Sleepaway Camp 4: The Survivor or Puppet Master: The Legacy where there is about 10 to 20 minutes of an actual plot while we watch flashbacks from the franchise. This is just a compilation where inno order whatsoever, you're just presented clips from entries from this franchise, going back and forth instead of presenting one film at a time, with no plot to guide you from clip to clip. This is done supposedly due to the fact that this franchise is about 20 years old now in 2019.

For anyone who has heard or seen entries of this franchise, you know that these films cost almost nothing to make, and are downright awful. But they can be viewed in their own little so bad its good way, depending if you're the type of person or not to watch this. So out of curiosity, I checked this out to see if they could even live up to the promises of EVERY KILL and EVERY NUDE SCENE from EVERY film in the franchise. And low and behold, it fails to deliver on these.

For starters, this compilation can't even be called a complete compilation of the franchise. It's missing the death/nude scenes from Camp Bloods 1, 2 and the supposed unofficial sequel Within the Woods. This compilation only has footage from entries 3 up to 8. Side-note, the footage of the 6th entry is missing some kills. And then the rest is padded out by footage from other films from Sterling Productions, namely Axe Grinder (2006) and The Occultist (2009). I kind of get why Axe Grinder is on here, because supposedly there's talks of having Axe Grinder and Camp Blood crossover with one another. But The Occultist is about a group of doctors murdering their patients as sacrifices for the Devil or something like that. What does this have to do with psychos wearing clown masks, and stalking people in the woods? Is Camp Blood going to crossover with this too? Another side note, there's kill scenes missing from Axe Grinder as well.

There's nothing to confirm this, but I am assuming that Brad Sykes, the writer/director of the first two films and Within the Woods, owns the rights to the footage of those films, but the copyright of the franchise name belongs to the producer, David S. Sterling, who has produced every film in this franchise except for Within the Woods. In short, Brad can make a sequel just so long he doesn't title it Camp Blood. And as for David, he can continue producing one film after the next, but can't borrow any footage from any of the films Brad shot. So, if you get this expecting footage from the first two films and Within the Woods, think again.

David S. Sterling posted on Facebook to have fans of the franchise help fund this film and the upcoming Camp Blood 9. My only question is where did the money go? This entire compilation feels like its rushed with little to no care. I don't know if this is a problem that Axe Grinder had, or if this is a mistake by this movie's editor, but the footage from Axe Grinder is in 4:3 Aspect Ratio, while EVERYTHING ELSE is in 16:9. This means that black bars are present when the footage of Axe Grinder is being presented. So the film will shift from standard 16:9 to 4:3 back to 16:9, and its distracting to say the least.

If the people who are helping to fund these films are legit friends or family of Sterling, then I can understand why they'd help and support him, and more power to you if you did. But if fans literally put money their money into this, to get their name attached as a producer to a supposed quality film and expecting a good Return on Investment, I'm sorry to say you do not get your moneys worth, and possibly not even your name attached as a producer. Now I'm curious where the money to Camp Blood 9 is going to go when that eventually begins filming.

The last thing I want to close on is this: this 90 minute compilation is pointless. You can go on YouTube, type in Camp Blood Kill Count, and you can find the kills from every film in this franchise minus the 5th one for some reason. Even the kill count for Within the Woods can be found. And as for the nudity, do you really want to rent/purchase a compilation of underpaid/unpaid female actresses naked? I understand slasher films need T & A, but to have a compilation of just that alone makes you feel sleazy in a sense. It's literally almost 1 to 2 nude scenes per film, and one legit sex scene from 4. You're not missing much. It's not like pornstars like Alexis Texas or Lisa Ann are in these movies showing everything off, it's just a group of normal women ranging between the ages of 30 to possibly 45 showing off their goods for the camera.

Overall, this is a waste of time and money. Watch at your own risk if you consider yourself a hardcore fan of this franchise, but trust me, you either have these films already or you can find them online for free to watch. You don't got to waste your money on this.

Killjoy's Psycho Circus (2016)

Full Moon knows how to keep you coming back (SPOILERS)

[6/10 · 16 December 2016]

The overall plot takes place a few years after the events of Killjoy Goes to Hell. Killjoy (Trent Haaga) and his posse, consisting of Batty Boop (Victoria De Mare), Freakshow (Tai Chan Ngo) and Punchy (Al Burke), have been living on Earth. But instead of raising hell like they intended, they have been struggling to make it big, namely by producing two Killjoy films, and hosting a show called Psycho Circus. As Killjoy struggles to maintain his life on Earth, Beelzebub (Steve Cardwell) seeks to bring Killjoy back to Hell where he belongs.

For a franchise that started off with two bad films, I'm honestly surprised that they keep getting better and better, for this franchise is 3-2 now; three good ones and two bad ones. If you're new and haven't seen any film from this franchise, start with Killjoy 3. You don't have to watch the first two to understand the plot. It's not needed to see the first two, considering that our characters in this film makes those films fictional within their universe. You following me so far?

This film has the same type of Monty Python self-aware type humor that Evil Bong High 5 had going for it, as well as a lack of care for continuity, considering this film series takes place within the same universe as the Evil Bong franchise, and the Gingerdead Man franchise. Some things don't make sense, and some chunks of the movie is just advertising to other Full Moon products. But the difference between this and Evil Bong High 5 is the humor in this film is ACTUALLY funny, and because its funny AND intentionally bad in some areas, I can forgive it for not making sense at points. I can forgive some of the lack of continuity between these franchises now because having them in the same universe is actually more fun to watch, but at the same time, can be distracting if you take these franchises too seriously like I do sometimes. And the Full Moon promotion in this film, while there, is less in your face than Evil Bong High 5 was. This film takes more time in promoting Adam and Eve, Shivers and Quivers, Tommy Pistol, and Sony.

This film was a blast to watch, and its nice to see that the Kickstarters for this movie paid off well in the end. I hope to see more films like this in the future. Not just Killjoy, but other Full Moon films, except the Evil Bong movies, unless they get a boost like this series did. I can only hope Puppet Master XI: Axis Termination is as good as I'm hoping it to be.

Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival (2015)

Budget is Everything (SPOILERS)

[2/10 · 11 September 2016]

On Christmas Eve, months after the supposed suicide of their missing older brother Max Zacherly, (Jeff Dylan Graham), siblings Angelica and James Zacherly (Julia Farrell and Luc Bernier) reunite to trace their brother's tracks back to a bed and breakfast run by Carol and Humphrey Brickmann (Jennifer Runyon Corman and Pete Lipins), where they retrieve a VHS tape of their brother's final moments, telling them they have to uncover the secrets of the town and the residents if they want to know why he is dead. As Angelica and James begin uncovering secrets, a legend known as Black Peter begins stalking the siblings and the residents of the Bed and Breakfast.

This film suffers from bad special effects, bad audio quality, and some bad acting. Some bad acting, though, not complete bad acting. It's noticeable that the actors are trying their best, but their delivery is off for certain lines, and comes off as awkward. All of this is throughout the entire 90 minute running time, but was bearable for the first 25 to 30 minutes. Had the film been given a higher budget, these negatives could have been positive. But then this film began trying to connect to the original film from 1974, and it lost me. If you haven't seen or read about the original film, skip to where it says SPOILERS END.

SPOILERS BEGIN

Angelica begins reading the diary of Jeffrey Butler, who survived his fatal gunshot wound from the first movie thanks to the plot of this movie. The voice actor for the voice of Jeffrey Butler is awful, as he sounds WAY too young to be the middle aged Jeffrey from the original, and FAR too young to sound like the 80 year old Jeffrey Butler that is in this movie. Jeffrey's character is retconned by the writer of this film to have not only survived the events of the first film by becoming temporarily supernatural, but was also assisting his grandfather/daddy, Wilfred Butler (the killer from the original), in his murder spree by keeping the lead girl, Diane Adams, distracted, as if she would put a hinge in Wilfred's murder spree...even though she never would have gotten involved in the film had Jeffrey never came to her doorstep.

This film took the story of the original, the story of Jeffrey Butler, an odd, psychotic, yet charming middle aged man seeking $50,000 to sell his family home, only to stumble upon his true heritage INSIDE the house itself...and flipped it 180 so he was involved with the killing spree the entire time...and acted clueless to his heritage the entire time, even when Diane wasn't around...just so this film can have a connection to it...when it really didn't need to. But if it didn't, the running time of this movie would have only been 56 to 57 minutes, so connecting to the first one via flashbacks allow a good half hour plus to increase the running time of this movie.

SPOILERS END

Had this film sever the connection to the first one, it could have possibly stood on its own, and mercilessly be shorter by a half hour. It would have gotten one or two more stars out of me had it done that, but unfortunately, it had to tie itself with the original, and lower the rating with it. Do not rent or buy, UNLESS you are a hardcore completionist and absolutely need to see it.

Evil Bong: High 5 (2016)

THIS close to quitting Full Moon

[3/10 · 24 April 2016]

Remember when there were things other than Puppet Master to look forward to, like Demonic Toys or Subspecies? The only thing worth staying to watch is Killjoy Psycho Circus, which apparently is mentioned to be a part of this franchise's universe.

The film barely clocks in at 70 minutes, including opening and closing credits. This film franchise has reverted to Monty Python self-aware type of humor, clearly not caring about continuity, what makes sense, or whether if they're being racist or sexist. A big chunk of the film is promoting crap from BadAssDolls.com or promoting Ooga Booga and Zombies vs. Strippers with Hambo. This movie is just a big advertisement vehicle for other Full Moon toy related products while barely trying to make a halfway decent, entertaining movie.

Do not buy this movie. If anything rent it on Amazon Instant for a very cheap price, or find a way to watch it for free if it's a must see for you. Also, Evil Bong 666 is supposedly coming soon, and yet I am still waiting for Evil Bong vs. The Killa Crack Pipe.