Cybernatural (directed by Leo Gabriadze, written by Nelson Greaves, and produced by Timur Bekmambetov) made its world premiere at Fantasia 2014, and we were there to screen it. And are we ever glad we did! This is a film that defies conventions and, in the process, redefines a genre. Telling the story of a cyber haunting via one character’s perspective, Blaire (Shelley Hennig), the genre this film redefines is, first and foremost, that of “found-footage.” However, part of that redefinition means that there’s no, or at least very little, shaky-cam footage, and there’s no lost tapes that we’ve suddenly become privy to.

What we are privy to is interactive communication between friends, almost like we’re the spirit doing the haunting in Cybernatural, or as if we’re eavesdropping on the conversation.

What we see via Blaire’s perspective is limited to what she sees on her computer screen… and that’s it. If you were to watch Cybernatural on your computer, you might actually feel like you’re part of the film as you appear to lose control of your computer. But the interactive experience isn’t lost in the theater either, as Gabriadze did a fantastic job of making everything feel familiar to anyone who uses social media. It’s also especially poignant for teenagers, who live in this cyber world. Additionally, the humor used aids in immersing the audience in the experience.

I don’t want to give away too much of the film, so I’ll divert to the synopsis given on IMDB:

While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself exactly one year ago. At first they think it’s a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends’ darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something out of this world, something that wants them dead.

In addition to making a social commentary on our use of social media, Cybernatural also addresses the epidemic of bullying, and more specifically how bullying is conducted in today’s world. The days of the school-yard bully almost feel like a distant memory, though I’m sure they still exist. As Cybernatural makes clear, anyone can be a bully or a victim with the Internet to hide behind.

The cast (which includes Shelley Hennig, Renee Olstead, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson, and Moses Jacob Storm) has incredible chemistry, and given the fact that they basically improvised the script, much of this film’s flawlessness is owed to them. But more than being witness to their chemistry, you will sympathize their plight and feel as though you are one of them.

The Verdict: 4/5 Skulls

Cybernatural is a truly unique film, one that redefines so much of our horror experience. And that’s what this film really is, an experience rather than a third-person observation. If Paranormal Activity was the successor to The Blair Witch Project, then Cybernatural succeeds Paranormal Activity. Cybernatural is a must-see for any genre fan who’s growing tired of the same old tricks, and it’s for anyone looking for something totally awesome.

While there, we had the pleasure of talking to King and Cooper about their film, about their budget, and about casting Danielle Panabaker. As well, we tapped into their childhood memories about the films they couldn’t get enough of as kids.

Note that, since my review I’ve decided that Time Lapse is essentially Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Not literally, but there are overriding similarities. Specifically, in actor Matt O’Leary’s Finn, which is damn near a carbon copy of Alan Ruck’s Cameron Frye, down to the mannerisms and suspenders.

Enjoy the interview in the player above… and see this damn movie.

Rock Hard \m/

While at Fantasia this year, we had the honor of sitting down with the two directors of the alien genre film Ejecta, Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele, as well as the leading man, the legendary Julian Richings (Man of Steel, Cube, Wrong Turn, X-Men: The Last Stand). The film was a fantastic exploration of “what if,” picking up where most alien films finish. Check out our review of Ejecta on Yell! Magazine.

We covered a lot of ground in the interview and dug in deep to uncover the secrets behind Ejecta, including the backstory of its alien being. We also got some news on the future projects of these three gentlemen, some of whom are part of the team that has brought us Septic Man, Monster Brawl, Antisocial, and The Drownsman.

Listening note: Matt speaks first, then Chad, and finally Julian.

Enjoy the interview!

Rock Hard \m/

Housebound does wander into The People Under the Stairs territory, and I suppose that’s the film’s drawback, but that’s not to say that this isn’t an original movie with a great story. And about the story:

Housebound Synopsis:

Kylie Bucknell is forced to return to the house she grew up in when the court places her on home detention. Her punishment is made all the more unbearable by the fact she has to live there with her mother, Miriam – a well-intentioned blabbermouth who’s convinced that the house is haunted. Kylie dismisses Miriam’s superstitions as nothing more than a distraction from a life occupied by boiled vegetables and small-town gossip. However, when she too becomes privy to unsettling whispers and strange bumps in the night, she begins to wonder whether she’s inherited her mother’s overactive imagination, or if the house is in fact possessed by a hostile spirit who’s not particularly thrilled about her return.

Morgana O’Reilly was an absolute pleasure to watch in her Kylie bad-girl role and Rima Te Wiata as her mother, Miriam, was a riot. Those two actors alone could have carried the film, however, the rest of the cast was just as impressive, even the silent stepfather.

The day after screening Cybernatural‘s World Premiere on July 20th at Fantasia 2014, we had the chance to speak with the film’s director, Leo Gabriadze. The interview about the genre-redefining film, written by Nelson Greaves, was enlightening and interesting. Coming away from it, after learning that Leo was initially attracted to the project because of the bullying aspect, we have a sneaking suspicion that the soft-spoken Russian commercial director (who bears a physical similarity to Jean Reno) has a closer relationship to being bullied than he lets on.

Leo raised some good points about why Cybernatrual feels so familiar, despite its supernatural elements. We could tell that he also had some theological opinions that he wanted to express, but we didn’t feel it necessary to pursue that angle.

To set the scene, after having our Fantasia coordinator call Leo’s room and waking him from a siesta, we met up with Leo in his hotel’s courtyard under a blistering sun. As he smoked his slim cigarettes, we had to strain our ears to hear his words and we had to help him with his English in some spots, but in the end we came away with a great interview.

So, see Cybernatural whenever you can get the chance, and enjoy our interview with Leo Gabriadze.

Cybernatural made its World Premiere last night; how did you feel about the audience reaction?
I was surprised. It was very good, I thought. There were a lot of reactions, a lot of laughing, it felt like they were scared. It was good. [The audience] was very young, a lot of students, young professionals, it was closer to our demographic, maybe we could go younger a little bit.

What’s the rating on the movie?
We don’t have a rating. There’s a lot of cursing there, so I guess an R. I don’t know how it’s done in America, but there’s a lot of “fucks.”

The subject matter, it’s very close to what school teenagers go through at this point, so it would be a pity if they don’t get to see it because it is for them I guess because it’s very much what’s hurting them… of this epidemic that’s happening right now.

With cyberbullying?
Yes, cyberbullying. We all, more or less, went through that ourselves. We witnessed it firsthand. It’s scary, it’s ugliness… sometimes bullies themselves become bullied. Anybody can be a bully; it’s so easy to fall into that crack to become a bully. It’s out of control. I said from the stage yesterday, when I was a kid we had in school proper bullies; we knew them, we were scared of them, we lived around them, we knew that the guy could come and be really rough. Now they’re hiding everywhere and I can be one myself, that’s the most dangerous part about it.

When we were kids it was more of physical thing and now it’s psychological…
Yeah, it’s psychological. It used to go away. One week you’d walk around with this pain in your heart, you would wish nobody knew about it, now it never goes away. It’s there. And what happened now with Google being sued by the Spanaird that he had the right to be forgotten. Generally, for humans the ability to forget is a big thing to be happy. So much stuff happens in life with everybody that if we weren’t able to forget about it, we would be really unhappy people. And now with computers, because that thing doesn’t know how to forget, it’s all there and we’ve lost the ability to forget.

Also, the Q&A session after the film was partially held via Skype; was that the first time something like that has been tried?
Yeah, I never participated in anything like that. But it was somehow appropriate (laughs).

Will there be a Cybernatural sequel? Find out after the jump…

Ejecta, written by Tony Burgess and directed by Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele, tells the story of what happens when the government gets involved, after the invasion, after the alien sighting, or after crash landing. It’s the story of interrogation and torture, of what we’ll do to our own to get at the truth, and it ain’t pretty.

Featuring a stellar performance from Julian Richings, Ejecta also tells the story of alien possession and a man’s desire to get it out. I’m assuming that the alien technology allows Julian’s William to be possessed in much the same way that a demon possesses most characters in supernatural horror.

The strength of Ejecta is in its story, which is reason enough to see it, but there are faults. First, while I personally loved the faux sincerity of Dr. Tobin (Lisa Houle), it could be argued that she overacted the part. I did have a problem with the sound effects, which at times made it impossible to hear the dialog. I’m hoping that what we saw at the Fantasia screening wasn’t the final sound cut, or that Fantasia had somehow fucked up the sound levels. I also found it odd that the government already had some “found footage,” when they discover the person shooting it from the interrogation room.

But how far would you go for that elusive pot of gold?

Would you get involved in some illegal activity? Would you push your friends beyond their ethical limits? Would you betray your friends? Would you kill?

Well, that’s pretty much how it’s played out in Bradley King and B.P. Cooper’s Time Lapse, which screened at the Fantasia Film Fest in Montreal.

Basically, the film — starring Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, George Finn — tells a cautionary tale of three struggling friends who discover a machine, looking like something you’d see in Captain America, that takes pictures of the future, 24 hours at a time. They then use the machine for personal gain, and as karma would have it, things take an ugly turn for the worse.

The sci-fi is on the light side in this genre film, as it’s more of a character study that reveals the dark, greedy, and covetous side of humanity. This is beautifully executed in a way that’s not preachy and not over acted. All you want to do is watch, enthralled, to find out what happens in the end. And the end is definitely worth the wait.

Time Lapse definitely proves what you can do with a simple, familiar story and how you can make it feel original. It also proves what you can do with a small set, scope, and cast. In a sense, with the claustrophobic atmosphere created in Time Lapse, it’s a near Hitchcockian film, but with a Rod Serling vision.

The film is Suburban Gothic, the star is Matthew Gray Gubler, and the sub-genre is a light horror/comedy versus the “aggressive, fuck you of a movie” that Excision was.

Come watch our interview with Bates and find out how he came back from a dark place after Excision to create a fun, lighthearted paranormal horror/comedy. It’s honestly a path we’ve all been on and can fully appreciate. If you saw Suburban Gothic, then you know there is a shit ton of racist remarks about Mexicans, and maybe you’d like to know why those are in the movie beyond developing Ray Wise’s character. Well, Bates explains it.

It’s clear that Bates is a relaxed guy, and if you could have been a fly on the wall before and after the interview, you’d have been witness to a lengthy and enlightening conversation between us all. It’s our opinion that Bates is a director to keep an eye on. He’s shown us two extremes that he’s able to take the horror genre in, he’s shown us a dark sense of humor, and he knows how to make it relatable to the audience no matter how unlikely the situation is. The look and tone of his films is wickedly awesome as well.

And that’s enough verbal masturbation on my part. Get yourself into the interview, then go out and watch a Richard Bates Jr. flick.

Rock Hard \m/

Although we screened the classic, genre-defining The Texas Chain Saw Massacre at Fantasia 2014, reviewing it would be a task in “been there, done that.” However, I will say that it is impressive that a 40-year-old movie can still make someone get up to leave the theater so that she can vomit. Also, I was surprised, by myself and others, that despite having seen the movie multiple times that it can still make you jump out of your seat. All of which to say that this is one supremely masterful movie.

The screening was all about the 4K presentation and about honoring Tobe Hooper with the Fantasia Lifetime Achievement award. I think all in all, Hooper received a total of three standing ovations from the audience.

So, first, the 4K looked great, offering a resolution of the film that’s never been seen before. I thought it looked grainy still, but I understand that it’s good grain and not the result of bad filming. Also, the 7.1 surround was amazing, putting you in the action on an auditory level never before experienced… buzz, buzz.

After a small retrospective film showcasing his work, Tobe Hooper was presented with his little Fantasia statuette, and said a few words, mostly indicating that “we’d talk” after the film. Which we did. The evenings MC sat down with Hooper for a Q&A session and afterward the audience was able to field some questions.

Most of the conversation revolved around the trivia and making of the film, and the level of detail that Hooper is able to recall is amazing. A couple of the highlights include the fact that Hooper is still unsure if Pam’s hand was really cut with a real knife for the shot in the van, and his shopping story about where the inspiration for the film came from.

I don’t know if the 4K will be apparent when you view it at home, so if you ever get the chance to screen The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in 4K at a theater, I highly recommend that you do.

Rock Hard \m/

I just stated that The Creep Behind the Camera is high-production, and it might not be, I don’t really know for sure because the budget isn’t listed. However, from what I saw during the screening, I can tell you straight off the bat the team behind this documentary put a lot of effort into telling the story of Vic Savage and the worst movie ever made, The Creeping Terror.

It was extremely well shot and very eye-catching; the director of photography should get an award for this documentary. Director Pete Schuermann also did a superb job in his effort to deviate from the traditional documentary that you typically see on A&E. That’s the most interesting aspect of The Creep Behind the Camera.

It’s filmed just like a movie with good actors and the story flows extremely well, scene after scene, with real interviews. I’ll point out that actress Jodi Lynn Thomas did a fantastic job portraying Vic Savage’s wife; she delivers all the tears in the story. Unfortunately, you feel bad for the real wife because the documentary is funny and absurd for the most part, but doesn’t do a great job at telling the serious parts of her relationship with Vic Savage. Who really is a lunatic around her because he cheats, treats her like crap, and even attempts to kill her at one point.

The part that made the experience frustrating during the North American premiere was the fact that the whole story of Vic Savage gets really boring, real quick, and it just drags by the time you reach the film’s end. It feels even forced at times. In the first half you get all the goodies like how Vic Savage met the producer who financed The Creeping Terror, how the monster came about, how he scammed actors to be in his so called epic movie at the time, and much more. But the nonsense just never seems to end.