Deathgasm (2015)

Dir: Jason Lei Howden

When his mum goes mental, teenage metal head Brodie (Milo Cawthorne BLOOD PUNCH) moves in with his seemingly straight laced aunt and uncle and their bully of a son David (Nick Hoskins-Smith). New to town and the school, Brodie settles for hanging out with the Dungeons & Dragons obsessed Dion (Sam Berkley) and his friend Giles (Daniel Cresswell). It's not until he stumbles across an indie record shop that he meets another metal head, Zakk (James Blake). The two hit it off, with Zakk steering them towards petty crime, acts of vandalism and forming a garage band that includes Dion and Giles.

Upon learning that the lead singer, Ricky Daggers (Stephen Ure PERFECT CREATURE), of their favourite old school metal band lives in town, Zakk and Brodie break into his dilapidated home. Among the trash and debris they find a dirty, crazed Ricky and try to steal a limited edition record from him. Curiously, Ricky gives them the album; pleaing that they protect it. Later they discover the record jacket contains sheet music to a song called The Black Hymn and their garage band attempts to play it thinking it is an unrecorded song. Unknown to them, it is a summoning ritual to bring the ancient Aeloth The Blind One unto this plane of existence.

Medina as a Valkyrie

In-between garage sessions with his mates, Brodie develops a crush on class mate Medina (Kimberly Crossman A BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO SNUFF), who is dating this cousin David. Jock David doesn't take kindly to a metal head talking with his woman and puts the beat down on Brodie. The callous act drives Medina closer to Brodie and the relationship is clinched when Medina listens to power metal for the first time (an excellently done orgiastic visual).

After successfully playing The Black Hymn and unleashing chaos and zombie mayhem on the neighbourhood, it is up to the group of misfits + hottie to fight the demonic forces and revert the spell they cast.

Writer / director Jason Lei Howden (visual effects artist on many big budget films including THE HOBBIT) has created a metal up your arse Kiwi horror comedy. There's a lot of love evident for the music and subculture even as it parodies them. I must admit that I didn't recognise any of the bands performing on the original soundtrack as I'm more of a classic metal (Sabbath!) metal head. But all of them were great accompaniments to the gory practical FX on display throughout the film. This film is a blast.

All hail DEATHGASM!

*** out of ****


Official site


Curiously, Walmart is selling a re-titled version of the film with different DVD artwork. Were they scared off by the 'gasm' in the title?

The Laughing Dead (1989)

Dir: Somtow Sucharitkul (S.P. Somtow)

Many years ago at a Fangoria convention I was hanging out at a dealer table with a couple of people with whom I'd traded bootleg films on VHS. They were telling me about a fun film called THE LAUGHING DEAD. The film hadn't been officially released yet but somehow it was leaked and that's how the bootleggers had gotten their hands on it and were now selling it at the convention. Along comes a man to the table with his son and I presumed his son's friend seeing as they looked nothing like one another. The man asks the peddlers of obscurity on VHS about what they have that's new and exciting. The one dealer starts gushing about a gory low budget film called THE LAUGHING DEAD. The other dealer is nudging the first because he has noticed that the man is wearing a jacket with the name S.P. Somtow on it, the same name as the director of the film. The man was indeed the director. Somtow did not seem angry, and as far as I know never reported the bootleggers. As the film was in limbo and no distribution deal on the horizon, Somtow stated that he was just happy to know that someone was able to watch and enjoy the film.

Father O'Sullivan (Tim Sullivan) has been plagued by strange dreams involving Mayan gods and sacrifice. He is haunted as well by an affair he had years ago with a nun, the guilt and stress prompting him to question his faith. But all that isn't going to stop him from leading a party of oddballs on a trip to Oaxaca Mexico to take in the Festival of the Laughing Dead. Along for the bus ride are troubled teen Laurie (played by the director's sister Premika Eaton), a quarreling new age couple who constantly chant and fondle crystals, a loud mouth who enjoys telling terrible jokes at top volume and his stuck up traveling companion. Unknown to the Father, his former forbidden love and her son have signed up for the tour, she thinks it is time to let the boy know who his father is.

Director Somtow looking very Mayan

Once in Mexico, a trip that appears to take two days of driving non-stop on a bus without a bathroom due to messed up day for night shots, the group checks into a hotel on the edge of the village holding the festival. In order to get in some bonding time with his crotch fruit, the Father takes the boy into the village. While buying treats created for the celebration, an old woman approaches the priest begging for his help to save her possessed grand daughter. Reluctantly, he agrees and follows the woman to her home. There he meets the daughter's father, Dr. Um-tzec (Somtow), who is more interested in playing piano than fretting over his demon possessed, screaming daughter. Saying a few words over the Linda Blair like writhing and gnashing daughter, the Father is shocked by her casual response of tearing open her chest cavity, ripping out her heart and offering him the still beating organ. She then proceeds to tear out his heart and in the process curses the Father to start down the road to becoming the next Mayan death god (the current one wants to retire).

Have a heart father!

The good father is always willing to lend a hand, an elbow, an entire arm

Mayan death gods are nothing to sneeze at as they can imbue one with the ability to wretch an arm from the socket, punch a fist through a human's skull and conjure forth a Mayan zombie basketball team. It's up to the holiday makers to save the fallen Father from the prophecy that will change him into a god when he sacrifices his son. Why yes, it does involve a climatic basketball game between zombies and humans.

Sci-fi, horror novelist Somtow wears many hats on his first film, musician, writer, actor and director. He cast family, fellow writers and friends in most roles so don't expect much thespian prowess on display. Instead expect an incoherent  plot that blends comedy and horror, non actors having a blast making a film and outrageous gore. The gore was provided by John Carl Buechler's team and is often inventive. And that's the reason to watch this film, the FX. The film starts out slow, taking its time to build up characters (it doesn't work), then takes off in a demonic, zombied frenzy of blood, gore, rubber monsters and basket ball.

** out of ****

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

Dir: Scott Derrickson

The film opens with a squad of marines in Iraq attacking an enemy position. Over running and killing the enemy, three of the marines discover stairs leading down into the ground. Following the passage carved out underground they stumble across a mysterious room. Their flashlights blink out and something attacks them from out of the darkness.

Jump to New York city some time later where we meet police officers Ralph Sarchie (Eric DEADFALL Bana) and his partner Butler (Joel COMMUNITY McHale). They patrol the Bronx and often are called into more difficult situations due to their special training and equipment. One such situation is to help beat officers at the Bronx zoo during a blackout find a mother who slipped into the crowd after tossing her son into the ravine separating them from the lion's den. Sarchie does find her with the aid of night vision and she appears to be in a drugged state.

The mother is remanded into the car of Mendoza (Edgar Ramirez) a street clothes wearing priest. Mendoza asks strange questions such as did the mother exhibit super human strength that lapsed Catholic Sarchie scoffs at. But after encountering more weird occurrences involving the three marines from the beginning of the film Sarchie starts to believe Mendoza's assertions that the Marines are possessed and spreading their contagion via an ancient spell.

Director Scott Derrickson is no stranger to films about demons as he helmed HELLRAISER: INFERNO, THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE and SINISTER. And DELIVER US FROM EVIL has all the expected genre incantations; jump scares, the possessed speaking in tongues, exorcisms and so forth. However, what struck me as different was the amount of action. Not once, but twice Butler pulls out a knife (he carries at least two) and engages in a knife fight with a suspect he is trying to apprehend. Butler doesn't unholster his sidearm or bring to bare a taser or pepper spray, he prefers to use a knife. There are plenty of foot and car chases, often enough I thought I was watching a run of the mill cop drama instead of a horror film. During the credits I spotted Jerry Bruckheimer's name and it all became clear.

The film neither rises as a cop drama nor a possession film, instead we get what is predictable in both genres. The only missing element was the black police chief yelling at Sarchie and Butler that he'll have their badges. It's not a bad film, the acting and directing are fine, but with a glut of possession films in recent years why bother to see the same film with just a few pieces jumbled about.

The 'Inspired by actual accounts' tag line is as believable as the opening scrawl of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.

** out of ****