The Elderly, from Spanish co-directors Raul Cerezo and Fernando Gonzalez Gomez, taps into a number of primal, deep-seated fears. Ideas of our bodies aging and betraying us touch on body horror; there’s the dread of losing our autonomy, in both a physical and mental capacity. It has something to say about how society values, or more accurately, doesn’t value the aged, attends to the looming specter of Spain’s fascist past, which may not be as far in the rearview as many believe, and even copes with the threat of climate catastrophe.
From the jump, A Wounded Fawn, the latest from director Travis Stevens (Girl on the Third Floor, Jakob’s Wife), flaunts its Italian influences, from the grainy, shot-on-16mm look, striking color palates, woman-in-peril motif, use of masks, prog-rock score, an owl creature lifted from Stage Fright, even the main car. Josh Ruben (Werewolves Within), balancing charm and menace, plays a serial killer who lures a potential victim, played by Sarah Lind (True Justice), to a remote cabin. Nothing good will come from that. For her anyway, it's a damn fine time for viewers.
A title like All Jacked Up and Full of Worms evokes certain images and anarchic feelings. But I’m here to say that Alex Phillips’ movie by that very accurate name involves all that the moniker promises and so, so much more. Sex, drugs, cannibal Juggalos, an erotic love hotel, sex dolls, disemboweling, and, of course, hallucinatory worms. Among much other lunacy. What else can one hope for from a single 72-minute motion picture?
Is there intelligent alien life out there? It’s a question that’s dogged humanity since we first looked up at the stars. And it’s also the central question in the life of Alexandra Baeza (Andrea Trepat), the protagonist and central character of Luis Tinoco’s sci-fi thriller The Antares Paradox. But the film also digs into the personal costs of the protagonist’s singular fixation as she struggles to make an impossible choice between fulfilling her lifelong dream and confronting a brutal familial loss.
