SPOOPYWEEN DAY 29 MALUM!!!!!

Day 29

MALUM

The most I know about this, is that it’s a remake of The Last Shift. Which. Came out not that long ago. Well okay it WAS a while back but when you get older time flies by you so it doesn’t feel that long ago.

But if it helps, when they were remaking Spiderman and recast the role twice. THAT was confusing and seemed really unneeded as the third film had come out not that long ago at the time.

But sometimes the remakes can be well done and good representations of the original, admittedly I never saw the original of this, so I have no grounds to compare it, and it’ll be a fresh trip for me. So if it sucks on its own well. I can’t say the original was better.

But here’s hoping for a fun one as we get down to the nitty gritty of our final three of the month.

Let’s begin.

The Film

Well this has to be the coolest homemade satanic throne I’ve ever seen. I’ve got a few rakes laying around so, I’m getting some ideas.

Also the film opening with a video evidence cult video makes me feel like I really should do a followup to Found Footage February.

We’ll see…

For now. We just need to wake you all up a little by playing this video and showing off some pretty good slaughters of innocent offerings to whatever devil they’re praying too. Horrific? Sure. A fun weekend? For someone maybe.

For us, it’s the backstory of officer Loren. The man is a hero. He saved 3 women from being sacrificed at the cult whos video we watched.

Everyone is happy for the man. Especially as he gunned down the bag guy and stopped whatever devil from popping up that the group made a reddit for. However he’s pretty numb to it all. He’s haunted by what happened, and doesn’t feel like a hero. He feels a little out of sorts honestly.

And who can blame him, after getting dunked on in basketball by his coworkers. He has to come to the locker room to see a whale of a man walk around butt ass naked, slapping his dick against his fellow officers thighs. It’s enough to drive anyone to question the reality of being alive.

But is it enough to cause someone to go on a shooting spree? Apparently so.

Yes, poor Officer Loren is headed for the departments shooting range, and blows away two if his friends. The look on his face as he does so, instantly reminds me of a man in a sweater holding a revolver shouting “GARBAGE DAY!”

It’s wonderful, but yes also weird. Well he seems content with just emptying out the firing range of anyone who happened to be there, and settles down on a bench for the night. With his shotgun. As his friends and coworkers calmly ask him to surrender himself. He tells them to clear his browser history, and tell his family, all three of them. He did a dab on his way out. Then blows his brains out.

He also might have said he takes his life willingly for his lord and master. So that’s our opening!

We are off to a great start. So who do we follow after that setup? Well we certainly aren’t getting a freeze frame on the former officer and a voice over telling us “I bet you’re wondering, how I ended up here.”

Instead we are progressing through the years into the future! His wife is now an alcoholic, and his daughter became a police officer. Like her dad! Minus the sudden love for Team Satan.

Yep, she wants to be a cop like her dad. As if that’s not weird enough. Officer Jessica Loren asked to work the last shift at her fathers former police station. Which is being closed down and the unit there moved to a new building.

It’s sort of a District 13 but with satanism. I can dig it.

Officer Jessica Loren is pretty cool. She respects the job, and the badge. She doesn’t abuse her power(that we know of), and seems to just want a nice chill night for her first night at the old station.

It just so happens that the cultist from what we learn is known as The followers of The Lower God, or Low God. Basically think Little Nicky when he told people he was from ‘The deep south’. It just so happens those cultist followers did not face jail time. For reasons. So they’re out and being crazy taunting the police. As well as calling in prank calls talking about piggies, slaughtering piggies, and piggies in general, to offend the cops. Which honestly is a dumb move. I mean sure you feel empowered and cool calling a police officer a pig. Until you are choking with a face soaked in mace and you get slammed to the concrete chipping your tooth. Which is all police procedure so. Suck on that.

As the saying goes, don’t fight the police, let your lawyer do the fighting.

At any rate, she is happy to be alone, and in the old stomping grounds of her father. Even if every other cop out there has trashed his name and prays she’s not a nutjob like he was. We also can hope the same.

We are twenties minutes into the film and I’m laughing already. In a good way I assure you.

See our cool considerate officer, aside from keeping watch over the station, answering any calls the receive and helping direct others to the new station should they stop by. She’s also working on another objective. Find anything she can of her fathers that wasn’t taken into evidence or pissed on by fellow officers.

I am fairly sure that when an officer dies. Even if they went murder crazy with devil love. Their belongings are usually cleared out and given to the family. Or filed into evidence.

Well here in this former precinct, Officer Jessica has found her dads police locker still locked up.

So she proceeds to locate and use a lock breaker.

Which she can’t get to work as she doesn’t have enough strength behind it.

Oh well you gave it a good try.

Then she pulls out her sidearm.

I shit you not, and I love it. This woman. Has decided no lock is going to keep her from her dads potential items, or hidden gold coins. Maybe even his cellphone so she can trade all his pokemon onto hers, people still play Pokemon Go. It’s true.

So yeah, officer I can do whatever I want, whips out her 9, takes aim and blows off the lock. Because fuck the system.

Also fuck your hearing. Because firing any caliber of pistol above a .22 is absolutely going to fuck your hearing up for good. So. I guess get used to that ringing in your ears Officer.

Unfortunately she doesn’t find any gold, or jewels. Or Pokemon. What she does find is a picture of herself as a baby beside her dad. Which she pockets. The news article celebrating his killing of the cult leader Malum. And she discovers something the department would’ve really liked getting their hands on if they actually had opened his locker. A hidden case file on the cult along with. What appears to be some evidence. Or he just really liked having a bloody shoe wrapped in plastic in his locker.

Some people collect pipes and flask. I collect pipes and flask.

This guy just. Liked having his work with him, in his private locker.

WELL

I hope it was worth the bullet and tinnitus Jessica. Spoilers. It wasn’t.

Unfortunately the rest of her night isn’t going to be a party where she gets to rummage through the case file or wax her brow. No. It’s going to get real stupid, and real fast.

We will call these Jessica actions “You dumb bitch” actions.

Because that’s what they are in horror. See there are a series of things that need to transpire, for certain events to kick off. Like a trigger for a boss fight, or specific moment to start a cut scene. In horror these are usually “You dumb bitch” moments, where the character does something so stupid, it makes no sense other than the movie needs the plot to happen.

So out side of getting prank calls from people giggling about pigs and killing pigs. Jessica spots a large pig roped up outside one of the station doors. She decides to contact the new station and ask to be advised on this situation and how to handle it.

The officer on the other end actually has a good response. And tells her to leave it alone. Leave it until the morning when someone can come by and take care of it. Otherwise keep the doors locked, and stay inside.

Makes sense right?

She questions this.

So the officer explains for her, and the audience, that. If there are people terrorizing the police tonight, and all of them are doing something pig themed. It’s a good bet to assume, that someone is out there, set up a trap with the pig, to get her to come out. She could be attacked, or worse, someone could sneak in the station. Either way whatever happens, would be bad for her. As they are dealing with all this cult shit right now, they are spread thin and unable to send backup. SHOULD anything happen with her there. So, again makes sense.

So Jessica having been told this, and told to leave it be. Immediately goes to the door, unlocks it, opens it, and takes the pig inside.

You dumb bitch…

Thankfully all she let in, for now. That we know of. Is a huge pig, with a bloody devil mark painted over its back.

Also someone managed to get into the precinct. A delusional and or troubled homeless man that urinates on doorways for reasons, and has a habit of going on about his baby girl being dead.

The question is though. How did he get in. He couldn’t from the pigs door because it was locked. Up until she get out there to pet the pig, comfort the pig, take a selfie with the pig, and then brought the pig inside and gave it water.

BUT there is also a propped open back door to the precinct too. There is a lot going on here, and we can just assume he didn’t appear magically or transform from the pig into Captain Pete the Hobo. We will go with the idea he came in through the backdoor.

Well he found her fathers case file on the Malum cult murders and tosses it all around the room. He doesn’t like reading, it angers his brain. But he does appreciate a nice bloody shoe in an evidence bag.

Jessica is a little perturbed by his being here, and now having made a mess she will have to clean up. So she does one smart thing that police are actually trained to do, and I give pluss points to the filmmakers for including. As she see’s it’s the homeless man and he is unarmed. She saddles her sidearm, and instead pulls out her taser. The hobo goes full rage mode out of nowhere and charges at her. Only to end up tased in the balls. And then arrested by her. Into the holding cell with you Captain Pete!

As she escorts the stations newest resident to his holding cell. The man proclaims he sees ‘her’ in the cell. His daughter. So he refuses to go any further. He ends up dropping to the floor in a fit. Midway through the doorway and does not wish to comply.

So. Jessica. In her infinite wisdom. Decides to get into the cell with him, and drag his body across the floor. Into the room, so she can shut the door.

You. Dumb. Bitch…

For real?!

This is a good idea?

I’m not saying anything bad against police officers. But their job is not to put up with antics or your shit. So if you do dead weight and drop to the floor? They and a partner will lift and drop your ass in the cell. OR.

OR.

In this case, with just one officer. They would use their foot to hook behind your knees and shove your legs into the cell. Shutting the door on your ass. Anything. To avoid being placed in a situation. Where the officer would be on their own. Inside the cell. With the suspect. Detained in restraints or not. You do not want to be caught in any disadvantage. Even handcuffed an arrested person can still pose a threat. Knock you out and either take your gun, or take your keys.

But the movie needs her to get in that cell with him.

So we can watch the heavy door seem on its own to close and lock her in with the man.

Because she did the dumb bitch move.

Granted, she is a rookie. But this is also the same woman who decided shooting her pistol, in an echo chamber, at a lock 2 feet away. Was a safe and sane idea. Just saying.

If you were wondering when the horror would kick in. This is a good indicator. As she is about to get her mind fucked.

Locked in the room she is unable to call for help on her radio. No one is responding. The only thing she hears when trying to contact the other station, is static. And the voice of her father whispering ‘Still here’

It’s actually a good scare setup because the hobo tries bum rushing her again, only to get his face slammed into the door. She drops her flash light and watches the thing roll off to a dark corner of the cell.

To her surprise, and our own. The light gets turned on and shown down into her face. Blinding her. She ask the hobo to please put her light down and give it back to her.

I think the more important thing to do, would be wonder how. A man you put in hand cuffs, is now holding and shining a light in your face. When their hands were cuffed behind them.

Thankfully whoever is holding the light picks up on this, and they decide to shine the light slowly over to the officers right side of the cell. To show us the hobo is whimpering in the corner of the cell on the ground.

Needless to say this freaks out the young rookie, and when the light is turned off, then rolled toward herself. She picks it up and turns the beam on. Finding not surprisingly, no one in the rooms corner. She does however get jump scared by three hanging dead women’s bodies.

Okay WE. We got jump scared. Which doesn’t happen often so. Good on you movie.

But that’s not the end. She gets freaked the fuck out and suddenly finds the cell door was sitting wide open this whole time. She runs out of the room not questioning this, or what the hell just happened. Slams and locks the door. Possibly securing the hobo with a ghost cop, possibly locking up nobody.

Actually I kind of like the sound of that, Ghost Cop. Spectral Detective. There’s a film series in there.

Anyway.

Our officer is not having a fun time, obviously.

So she needs help. She cant contact the other station because they just tell her they’ll deal with whatever it is in the morning. So she decides to call the station captain. Who she thinks is a complete dick. Which I can kinda see. But I also think the guy is just a huge hard ass. I’ve worked with them and yeah. They’re hard to deal with, unless you do your job and wait a year or two for them to treat you semi like a human being.

She calls the man in the middle of the night, disturbing his sleep. So he’s going to be in the best of moods. He answers the phone as you’d expect. Upset and informing her that the building better be on fire to wake him from his beauty sleep. Which. It is not.

Does she tell him about the homeless man? No. Not at first. The first thing she does is ask him if he happened to see anything unusual, or unexplained. This obviously upsets him. The only thing he does, is ask her if she went into the holding cells, which he warned her not to do. She admits yeah she went in there, and she also put a homeless man in there.

He flips his shit hard enough she can feel it through the phone. Not because he knows there are ghost there, or because she called him after he finally got his butthole to unclench. But because she disobeyed a direct order not to go in there. He also informs her, the reason? Is because those holding cells are full to the brim, with black mold.

Which causes hallucinations. It is also highly toxic.

Well that is, certainly good to know. Especially with both a pig in a room, and a hobo in holding. She gets her ass chewed out, and for good reason. He informs her he will call the other station and have someone swing by to pickup the now poisoned hobo, but she declines the offer and insist she can, handle it.

As she hangs up the phone, she decides it’s a good time to clean up the spilt case file on the cult murders. Instead of you know. Moving the hobo out of the black mold infested cell room.

I mean I get it, he’s a hobo. But he’s a human being lady!

Well as she cares more about preserving a case file her father kept hidden, she cleans it all up, and discovers a thumb drive with more evidence. Which drives her to, once again leave the police station. Which she was told not to. But who’s gonna report her?

She goes outside to her patrol car so she can collect her laptop from the car and use it to access the drive. While out though, she encounters a prostitute being tossed out of a car, bloodied and pissed off. She of course being a noob decides to take the prostitute inside and help clean her up and dress her wounds. Which I mean. Good on her but still.

You dumb bitch.

Are you just collecting people to slaughter? Why not unlock the door and turn the welcome sign on. Turn on the laptop, order some pizza and a twelve pack and watch some Pornhub. Fuck it why not at this point.

Also I am serious. If you are in a haunted building, you likely have a slim chance of survival. So why not go out with a hell of a scene? Blast some hardcore porn, eat some pizza, drink a shit ton of soda and beer. Pump out some frustrations and you’ll either scare the ghost and or demons off, or you’ll leave the most bizarre crime scene. Either way, it’s better than the alternative of pissing yourself in fear and letting the ghost demons win.

Of course inviting the lady in turns out to be a bad idea. She goes from a kind prostitute with a heart of gold. To a crazy lady telling Jessica how three officers weren’t shot in the precinct. They hung themselves. Each with hoods over their heads. She even claims she saw it.

Of course some dark entity doesn’t like her disclosing this information. So she freaks out, eyes go large and she apologizes to an unseen figure for saying too much. Begins singing a satanist chant, and Jessica slaps her telling her to get the hell out. So that was an adventure.

Add on top of that her getting a prank call that claims they took hostage one of the original three girls her dad saved, and you can understand that this is going to definitely be filed under “I hate Mondays”

Seriously she can’t catch a break. But at the same time, maybe. Just. Maybe. Consider not. Letting in every vagabond off the street? Maybe save the hobo from black mold while your at it? Maybe stop inviting crazy people into your safety station? MAYBE!!!!

I mean I feel for the woman. But at the same time, holy hell maybe not just keep adding to your night. I mean yeah you are new. There is that green phase you go through of wanting to make a difference, and show some kindness. But you gotta build up some walls before you start letting people blindly in. That’s how you get hookers bleeding period blood on your chairs. That’s how you get hobo jizz on your desk, and this is how you get satanic hippies.

Well naturally the fun isn’t over yet for Jessica. She begins going through the thumb drive, which contains the video clips we sampled bits of in the beginning of the film. Which lead to an actual pretty creepy sequence. As she starts watching these clips, at random moments. The girls in the video turn to look at her. When she tries turning the videos off, they keep playing. The girls keep staring at her and eventually one of them shouts out her name.

Suddenly the clips stop and the next clip we see begin to play, is a live feed. Showing Jessica at her desk watching the laptop.

Again I gotta say, this movie is serving up some good creepiness and I dig it. They’re subtle scares and I like it. But they are also escalating. As is her. We’ll say. Moments.

Like her decision to go down to the shooting range, where her dad killed two officers. When she gets there she finds a few targets still hanging. Some even have cute little satanic symbols on them. One even has the news article about her fathers heroism.

So of course she goes to investigate this. Down range.

You….okay that’s questionable sure. But it’s not a dumb bitch moment. Technically. I mean the place is abandoned. But seriously even when you think a gun range is clear, you shouldn’t go down range. Just basic safety.

But she does. And suddenly targets start making their way down to her, and as she pulls one of the targets off, she is greeted to the bloody masked face of a cultist.

If she hasn’t pissed herself yet. She should damn near well be. I mean this is amping up and it was a good scare.

Thankfully though. Between that shit, the video she watched turning into a live feed, and everything else going on. She decides now is a good time to call it a night. Only she can’t. Because all the doors leading outside the building are now chained shut. So she’s kinda in a tough spot.

She does have a moment of sane clarity though. She calls the main station and informs them that either they get her the fuck out of there right now, or she’s going to shoot out some windows to escape, and burn the building with the hobo still inside.

So the nice dispatcher tells her to cool down, and he’ll get people down there.

Which it seems he did. As soon enough we hear voices calling out to her. Two officers appear, telling her they took down the last of the chains on the doors, and he sends his chubby partner out to collect the hobo. Using this time with her to talk about her dad and how he kinda was cool, up until he decided to blow peoples heads off. This officer also decides why not be really cool and show her something neat in the station.

Oh look at that, he hid the shotgun her father used to kill his fellow officers. Neat!

Or it was until he transforms into a faceless bloody corpse. Then into her father.

This film really loves fake outs and jump scares. But they aren’t done to a point of annoyance, thankfully. And when we do get the scares they are pretty well handled. And interesting. Usually these scares follow up with a bit more story. Which these do as well, thankfully.

We begin to learn through flashbacks Jessica is now experiencing. That also coincide with more clips she watches of her father interrogating the cult leader and two of his female followers. That these people were all certifiable. That her dad did blow them all away himself. But also. Scarily. We learn that Jessica, was baptized by the crazy cultist leader Malum. Yep, Jessica’s mother was a member of the satanic panic cult group, and brought her daughter into the festivities as a baby.

Thankfully this fun memory is interrupted by the hobo screaming for help. Repeatedly screaming to be freed in fact. She goes to check on him and as she peeks in on the hobo in his holding cell. We see what looks like an officer in the cell with the homeless man, pointing a gun at him. Of course she opens the door and the moment she does. Crazy Captain Pete runs out of the cell. No longer wearing his hand cuffs. Somehow. The man is now just running freely though the station. Because why not.

Add to this the fact the hobo ends up finding the room with Mr. Pig. He just wonders on in, says hi, maybe shares some stories.

We don’t know. All we do know. Is that Pig comes out of the room, blood on its snout.

At this point the homeless man could come out naked doing a hand stand with a rubber glove on his balls screaming ‘Look I’m  a squid!’ and I’d believe it was par the course. This movie is weird, but again. I’m digging it. It’s not…overly scary. But its holding a good what the fuck creepiness to it.

It also sets up one of the best homage scares to the original Nightmare on Elm Street I’ve seen. The pig quietly walks….trots. Through the station and finds Jessica at her desk, watching more of the video of her mother holding her. Talking about her father. The pig makes a low little oink up at Jessica. Startling her. When she turns to look down at the pig. We see a hugely deformed blown out bloody face with eyes staring up at Jessica reaching for her.

It just really reminded me of the dog with the human face in Nightmare and this actually was scary where that was just, what the fuck.

Unfortunately for the pig whom she saved and gave water too. She shoots that fucker dead. Because in her mind it was a monstrous shotgunned face lady. Until it turned into the pig when it died.

BUT

AS IF THIS WEREN’T ENOUGH!!

Now Jessica’s mom is showing up at the station. Is it her? Or is it another vision. Who knows anymore!

We got 20 minutes left and this movie is just fucking with us.

Naturally she lets her mom in the station. Unlocking the door, which we see the chains are off of. But also not cut off and collected by cops. Instead they’re just sitting there coiled up by the door.

And of course Jessica doesn’t lock the door after letting mom in.

You dumb biiiiiitch.

So apparently yes. Jessica is done, and doesn’t care if every serial killer off the street comes over for a slaughter party.

Her mom admits Jessica was raised a cult baby. That mom was part of the low god cult, but that her dad did save her and take her out of it. But you know. Cults gonna cult. But before she can get any more information from mom. Jessica hears a woman screaming. So she tells her mom to stay on her own in this office and just chill out while she goes to investigate some random screaming women.

When Jessica finds the source. We are greeted to yet another moment we can’t say for sure is happening, or is happening in her mind. All we know. Is that directly in front of her on the basketball court of the precinct. One of the women that her father saved, and was reported missing. Is on her knees on the court, being held at gun point by a crazy cultist. Demanding she holster her pistol.

Which Jessica does because, of course she would. She’s new, and, it’s a dumb bitch moment.

Especially when you KNOW this cult bitch is gonna blow away this other lady.

AND SHE DOES!

She just had to give a crazy white bitch cultist speech, then shoot the woman. Of course after she does, Jessica whips out her pistol and unloads, taking out cultist Karen.

The moment she does though. Again. Either in her mind, or an actual factual army of crazy pig cult people come charging out of the darkness wearing mask, coming for Jessica. She runs away locking the door behind her and it would appear these people are real as we hear them beating the door.

Jessica returns to her office to talk with mom, but of course you guessed it. Mom is gone. So now its time to find her mom, in the haunted precinct from hell.

This is our final act, and lets hope it’s a good one.

So mom is lost, crazies are in the building. What else could go wrong?

Well for starters as she calls the main precinct again and tells them she needs help. The person on the other line turns out to be Malum. Reminding her that this is her night. The low god will come, and she will apparently serve as the vessel. So she’s even more shit out of luck now.

Oh wait. We DO learn something good at least.

The Hobo is alive!

Yes Captain Pete the crazy irish hobo is alive and well!

I mean mostly well. His leg has been carved down to the bone and he’s missing a foot. Tongue. I mean he’s in rough shape and it appears the cultist fed his foot and flesh to the pig earlier. But at least he’s still with us!

Until Jessica shoots him dead. So long Captain Pete.

With nothing left to lose, and the will to unload her handgun on anything that moves. Jessica is tired of this shit, and she’s gonna take them all with her.

Which I find a bit realistic but also predictable. That at this rate. She’s going to end up out of bullets, and they will take her down. Much like Nic Cage in Wickerman when he began unloading into the crazy honey bee people. But once he ran out of bullets they overwhelmed him.

So I am expecting the same for her. But we will see. Because this movie is relying on a mix of fucked up visions and a messed up reality.

For all we know, this is all just happening in her head. Or she’s super duper unlucky and dealing with both cultist AND visions.

Hell for all we know this could all be from the black mold and this could be a surprise farewell party at the precinct and she’s just blowing away innocent officers.

But no. It’s the combination of bad guys and spirits.

On the pluss side.

Which yes, there is a pluss side. Somehow.

Jessica is carrying full regulated police gear. Which means she is carrying extra clips of ammo.

She’s gonna be alright! This girl is packing fire!

So she is going on a full on kill streak. She’s unlocked her dads shotgun as another firearm. She’s loaded with fire power and ready to send these cultist to their low god.

She also has a bonus objective added to her main mission. Save the two ladies also taken hostage that night.

Now…

In her defense. Those bonus objectives are…kind of a pain, and usually it’s best to take your time and do them after you beat the game the first time. So I can’t entirely fault her for screwing it up. Which she does. Spectacularly.

She finds one of the survivors who was taken hostage that night. The woman is struggling to breath, hung from a rafter. So she lifts the woman, and readies to cut her down. But as she’s unfolding her knife to do so. Someone, or some thing is pulling the rope around the womans neck so tightly. Its breaking and severing several of her fingers the woman had slipped under the rope to try and slip out of the noose. On top of this. That rope is tightening to the point, its cutting into her neck. And pushing one of her eyes right out of its fucking socket.

Eventually her entire head pops off the body. And Jessica is covered in blood from a blood filled human pinata.

Its beautifully horrific and man a good show. Seriously that was brilliant.

But we can’t linger on that. Because Jessica has to keep moving forward, blowing cultist away. Including ones she finds killing her mom and slitting her throat. No one is escaping Jessica.

Eventually she needs to enter a cut scene though. She’s reached the basement. Which is looking rather hellish. In its center is the cool home made Etsy devil throne, and sat on it is a very old demonish looking Malum. All the dead followers and dead cops are present. As they all chant that Jessica’s soul shall feed the demon. The Low God has arrived.

Every point I can think to award these people. I am giving in full now. Because this demon. Which yes. They made a full sized goddamn demon. This thing looks legit.

I mean honestly and this is kinda fucked. But the demon has a very true to description form that fits how Angels are supposed to look. Which is absolutely horrifying if you ever look it up. If you do, you’ll understand why artist painted beautiful people with halos and harps.

This thing is gorgeous and horrifying. She tries blasting it away, and I feel she’s going to have to sacrifice herself to stop this thing from fully coming to earth. But Jessica is committed to crazily unloading her shotgun into this demon. Until its circular stitched dream catcher like face floats off of its skull, and attacks her.

Yes. Its face. Which has a bone circle surrounding it, and flesh twisted around it like a gnarly dream catcher. Flies off the demon and attacks her face.

I was ready for the bad ending of the movie. But no!

Instead the goddamn thing apparently didn’t happen?!!!

Because Jessica is waking from APPARENTLY ANOTHER FUCKING FUTURE VISION, AND IS STILL IN THE GODDAMN HALLWAY BLOWING AWAY CULTIST!!!

WE STILL GOT TEN MINUTES LEFT!!!

Goddamn movie!

Well THIS TIME. Jessica makes it down the hallway. Blowing away cultist. Until she confronts the demon once more. Without its face.

Well why change your game plan the second time, when it worked so well the first time right?

She once again blows a shotgun round into the demon. This time oddly though. The demon drops to its knees. Ready for a facial from Jessica. Which she’s ready to deliver.

Until the demon turns into her mother, and we are given another fake out. Where yes. We see that Jessica was seeing things, and killed her mother.

As she cries over the body of her mother, all the ghost of the dead gather around her and laugh mockingly. An entity whispers to Jessica and she picks up her pistol. Reciting to herself, the same words her father did before his self execution. Blowing out her own brains as well. The dead spirits clap and cheer for her. We see cultist approach her now dead body and drag her off back to the basement of the precinct. And she is sat in the throne beside their demon, as she was meant to be its queen. Moments later. She suddenly moves and screams, brought back to life, and now the bride of Malum.

The End.

Fucking hell movie.

So yeah, this was a good one. That was a wild fucking ride. Seriously that was insane and so good. I can’t compare it to the original, or even imagine if it measured up to it at all. But I’m now curious to check it out and see how it does. Honestly.

That was a shockingly fun film. It was a good slow burn decent into madness, and even though.

EVEN

THOUGH

The visions were getting a wee bit maddening. Which is the point I guess. It just tip toed that line of bordering over into absolute convoluted confusing bullshit. Where you don’t know what is and isn’t real anymore.

Which may be the intent. But they kept it par the course. It would balance itself on that tight rope. Then it would blast you with a soccer ball to the nuts tossing you off that tight rope and into an inferno which they’d then splash out with a fire hose. Setting you back on the rope and tell you to keep going.

It’s bonkers insane and just. So. Damn. Good.

The further along the film got. The more intense the violence grew. From the holy shit real world effects and deaths, to the absolute madness and ultraviolent gore of the visions.

It was a surreal journey and I think they handled it with the precision of an absolute insane psychotic having a moment of profound clarity.

The story definitely went places. It set itself up as a one last night in a haunted house. And delivered. While also giving us a dash of Assault on Precinct 13, with a little drop of Evil Dead, And a taste of The Wickerman.

You could never really nail down the direction this film was going, and that’s a great thing!

Like I said there were many moments in this that you could see bits of a familiar setup and story. Only to have it subvert that and tell you “Oh you thought? Nah, nah. We’re going here now. But don’t get too comfy”

It really makes for a fun rollercoaster that manages to entertain you while you take the twisty, turning, wild ride. You can’t ask for more from a movie than that.

Sometimes it’s not so fun.

Sometimes a film does or tries too much and you get lost in the craziness. It becomes more than the film can support or the story can handle and before you know it. It becomes laughable bad because of its craziness, or worse it loses your interest.

They handled it like it was nothing and still somehow kept bringing more to the table. That’s just showing off.

And they really did too.

Seriously, the demon was so beautifully done. A lot of movie monsters you can sort of tell where the inspiration came from. Especially with Werewolves. Demons are always a mixed bag. Sometimes you get the shadow demons because they can’t do justice to what they’d like to have, or its safer. Other times you get the huge wings, big ass horns, and A skull versus an actual head.

It’s pretty sad honestly. There aren’t many well designed demons.

This thing looked like a love child of Guillermo del Toro and Clive Barkers imagination.

It’s whole unique, and its reflective eyes are absolutely menacing.

The floating face was an odd touch but it worked. It felt like an actual part of the demon. Not something just added for the fuck of it.

It had a cenobite like feel to it, and I love that a lot. You can see stills of this creature and it’s one of those things you can’t really say you’ve seen it anywhere else before. But it has a look of believability to it. You almost feel you could look in a book with old depictions of demons and devils, and you’d see this thing.

It just has -that- look to it, and I t really helps sell the movie.

All of the effects really did.

I mean hell even the sacks the cultist wore. They looked like human flesh woven into wearable sack mask. It reminded me a bit of Silent Hill. All of these references popping in my head are great things. They’re all from things I love, BECAUSE they were so unique at the time. It’s nice to find a movie that shows that level of love and detail. Honestly it reminds me a lot of another film with great monster design and effects, The Void.

The director who also wrote this thing along side Scott Poiley, Anthony DiBlasi? BOTH these mother truckers worked on, wrote and directed Last Shift. The original back in 2014. I am really curious to see how that one plays. Even if it’s beat for beat the same, or toned down. I really want to see what level they had that one at, hell I’ll look into more of his work if it shares even a quarter of the heart this one showed.

They understood the assignment. They made and maybe improved on their original work. Fans seem to feel that way and when a director is able to one up an original that a lot of people hold as being fucked up and acclaimed. That says a lot. In all the right ways.

The acting while limited from most the rest of the cast, was wonderful. The police officers were believable. Minimal in response and vocabulary. And played creepily well. But Jessica Sula really did well with her characters decent into madness. How she handles the escalating scares, one after the other is nice. But once it all begins going right down to hell. She really excels.

The moment the lady she tries saving has her head severed and she’s bathed in blood? The look on her face…like damn.

She is just, gone. Detached. She just saw something incredibly horrifying, and was covered head to toe in a persons blood. Her face. Especially her eyes. Just like the brother in When Evil Lurks, there’s just this specific look, and moment in her eyes. That you see she has just checked out.

Honestly that’s almost a disservice using that as a comparison. I can do more honest a comparison. Especially with how she plays the scene.

Each time she encountered something that really shook her up? She’d begin reciting the policemen’s duty from their handbook. It was like a mantra to calm her. Recenter herself. Each time it works and she exhales. Easing her nerves. But when she is bathed in blood, the detached look in her eyes, as she says those words? It was like one of my favorite scenes from the original Exorcist. Where Father Karras is giving communion after encountering possessed Regan. How he reacts to the words he’s saying. Like it’s the first time he’s heard them. Considering them. It’s a deep moment where he actually does question faith and belief. Jessica Sula nailed that moment. There’s no coming back after that, and she’s just near snapped. It’s beautiful and well played.

Hell when she sees the demon and tries shooting it the first few times. Her reaction is so genuine. She can’t believe that thing exist and is right there, walking toward her. Staring into her. She’s not doing the movie thing of unloading round after round into it. She’s screaming at her body to pull the trigger. To do something. And you get that in her eyes. You really do. Many, many kudos to her on this role. She was great.

Everyone was. Hell even Nate the hobo(Kevin Wayne) and her mom Diane(Candice Coke) all did exceptionally well, as short and quiet as most their roles were. Reserved even.

The script was short on words, but high in reaction, cause and effect. It’s pretty demanding on actors so having a good group paid off well.

There are a lot of subtle scares in this, and I liked that a lot. From phantom figured popping up and vanishing. To doors opening, objects being tossed. All of it just escalating the closer toward the end we got. Jessica and her reciting of those calming words, up until the very end where she goes to recite them after having killed her mother. Only to find her words now changed and mirroring those of her father. In service to her master. Good, good stuff.

Check the film out, I’m glad this was one of the final three for the month. Up until a point I always roll a dice and let fate pick the film. Once we get down to the final 5 or so. That’s when I start shuffling them, and make a choice.

This would’ve made a great end to the month. But oh now I am praying it’ll be saved now that we’ve had this many hits one after the other. It’s a great list and we are now 2 down from finishing. I look forward to it, and wrapping up one of the toughest months in a long. Long time. Thank you again everyone for sticking around, and until tomorrow. If you are offered either watching over a closing precinct on its last night during a whirlwind of fires being set and vandals running wild? Or staying home and playing Baldur’s Gate 3? Grab the pizza and beer. Turn on the Pornhub and show those ghost, demons, and cultist who the real freak is. GOODNIGHT!!