You Can’t Kill Their Spirit

It should come as no surprise to the astute horror fan that Lucky McKee has a knack for creating horrific women. Even a casual glance at his filmography, which includes the underrated The Woods, the shocking The Woman, and the still wonderful May, tells you this is a male filmmaker who is fascinated by “bad” female characters. (Mr. McKee also did a fine film about a man and his dog. It’s called Red, but it’s not pertinent to the “female” angle I’m employing here, so let’s just move on.)
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As per usual when we delve into the realm of direct-to-video horror sequels, a brief history lesson is in order. (Or if not required, then at least halfway amusing.) So let’s begin by reminding everyone thatJoy Ride (known in the UK as Roadkill) was a 2001 horror/thriller/neo-noir that actually holds up pretty darn well if you choose to give in a fresh spin. (Like I just did. Because I’m a pro.)

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‘Found footage’ films are like soufflés: anyone can have a go at making one (the ingredients are widely available), but very few come out the way they’re supposed to. They’re generally considered to be an ‘entry level’ choice for filmmakers, so when you hear of one being made by an established filmmaker – such as Barry Levinson’s The Bay – it tends to make you sit up and take notice. Of course, how you approach the idea of a Bobcat Goldthwait’s own entry into the almost innumerable examples of the subgenre depends on two things: whether or not you’ve been keeping up with his career since he played Zed in the Police Academy sequels; and how you feel about the films he wrote and directed, such as Shakes the Clown, Sleeping Dogs Lie, World’s Greatest Dad and God Bless America. Full disclosure: I’m a huge fan of Bobcat’s films – I gave the scalpel-sharp satire God Bless America five stars – so I figured if he was trying his hand at a found footage film, he would pull it off with a sly, knowing intelligence, and a comprehensive understanding of the conventions of the form. I was right.

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One notable side effect of Hammer Films’ (very welcome) resurgence is that it seems to have inspired some indie filmmakers to consider “old-fashioned” a viable route. It usually takes a hit zombie film to spawn a lot of imitators, for example, and the same certainly holds true for any of the sub-genres found in the horror department. Hammer’s recent success with films like The Woman in Black has illustrated that there’s still a strong audience for old-school, Gothic, bump-in-the night stories, and that seems to be what has inspired the people behind Blackwood. If you’re interested in blood and guts, stalk and slash, or slice and dice, this is not the horror tale for you. But if you enjoy settling into a generally familiar tale that, thankfully, is pretty well told, there are some solid assets to be found here.

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It’s been almost a decade since the rough, tough, and memorably grim Aussie import called Wolf Creek helped to usher in an international wave of graphically intense horror films. (Some people would refer to films like High Tension, Wolf Creek, Hostel, and Saw as “torture porn,” a phrase I find more than a little stupid.) While many of these early ’00s horror movies kick-started franchises and skyrocketed a few careers, Wolf Creek just sort of stood alone.

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It would of course be a massive understatement to say that Sam Raimi’s mid-’80s indie classic horror flick The Evil Dead is a memorable or influential movie. The film inspired a supremely excellent sequel in Evil Dead 2, a widely-adored sorta-sequel in Army of Darkness, and has inspired not only a pretty impressive remake (Evil Dead) but also a wonderfully clever homage (The Cabin in the Woods) that truly struck a chord with the horror film fans.

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What are the “bare essentials” for creating a good thriller? Screenplay, obviously, is priority number one. A few good actors, a decent visual approach, and some editorial skills are essential, but really: the screenplay is the foundation. The low-key and deceptively unassuming indie thriller calledFavor sum my theory up quite nicely. Here we have a nifty, twisty screenplay (one that’s not exactly “Hitchcockian” but does approach “early John Dahl-ian”) that starts out very simple and gradually tightens into a surprisingly suspenseful affair.

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