Three Films Make A Post: FEAR THE FAMILIAR.

1st Summoning (2018): Your usual troupe of student filmmakers does the POV horror thing. These particular guys and gal are – eventually – visiting an abandoned factory building in the middle of the woods (do Americans really build their factories there?) that’s said to be used in Satanic pact rituals. The whole affair is not terribly involving or exciting, though director Raymond Wood goes for a somewhat cleaner style than most POV horror movies have, and there is at least some interest in characterisation shown.

Alas, the pace is needlessly slow, the horrible happenings aren’t really that interesting to watch, and the little clever twist the film goes for in the end is rather too obvious to work and not actually all that clever. Though, to be fair, the movie plays far fairer with it than is typical.

Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018): Speaking of needlessly slow films, how about this horror comedy by Crispian Mills that only gets around to the horror after fifty minutes or so of not exactly unexpected “British private schools are classist and crap” shenanigans have passed. Now, the “school is hell” trope is a classic for good reasons, but the way the film presents it is terribly bloodless. It doesn’t help that the “comedy” part of the “horror comedy” never really manifests. The script’s just not very funny though it is trying rather hard, and even a cast consisting of perfectly capable young things like Finn Cole, Hermione Corfield and Jamie Blackley can’t do much with comedic writing where about every tenth joke actually hits. Even Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are mostly unfunny in this one, which usually takes some doing, or a terrible Scottish accent.

Crucible of the Vampire (2019): Which curiously enough leaves me with Iain Ross-McNamee’s very indie – and therefore cheap - lesbian vampire movie as the best film in this particular bunch. Oh, don’t get me wrong, the movie is full of problems. The acting’s only ever half on point and especially Florence Cady doesn’t make a very good lesbian vampire at all, I have to say. The direction hits some sweet spots of sleaze and/or mild creepiness only from time to time but just as often looks amateurish and cheap without the sense of goth-y poetry that makes up for much in an amateurish and cheap movie in this particular sub-genre. There’s some pretty cool and interesting vampire lore in here, at least.


Plus, of these three films, Crucible seems to be the only one genuinely trying to be the best film it can be; that this doesn’t necessarily translate into a good movie, especially when resources and time are strained, is just one of the little cruelties in life.