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The Wick: Dispatches from the Isle of Wonder (2013)

Loved this.

Two things that micro-budget films don't do well is that they're normally either boring or unoriginal. This film is neither.

It's interesting, weird and laugh out loud funny.

Some of my favourite bits:

• They spend the whole first part of the film just waiting for it to rain so they can film their first scene. This is communicated almost without dialogue.

• In the flashback they look completely different even though it was only 6 months ago.

• Once it goes going it seems to be a mix of a genuine documentary and a fictionalized version of the them making. At first I thought it was just a fictional story about making a documentary, so this is a lovely twist I haven't seen anywhere else before.

• It's a nice little clip in time that it's set near the London Olympics. I liked the scene where they rent out their house to tourists so have to camp in their garden. Again, love how unexplicit this is cos they trust the audience to know what's going on.

• Recording foley in the garden.

• Hell is empty, and all the devils are /here/?

• The band on it sound amazing. I hope they're real. (I've looked them up! They are!)

Really enjoyed, it was smart without being pretentious and it was funny without falling on usual comedy trope.

Chompy & the Girls (2021)

Great little horror movie

I love indie horror movies, for me the biggest crime they can be is boring, and this one isn't!

Obviously done on a small budget, but have strong enough acting and a nice mix of real and practical fx to not make it too obvious (except maybe in the mouth dimensions/the visualization of the parasite which looked a tad rushed).

Anyway, nice characters, interesting story, great little world in a self contained story, everything I'm looking for.

The main creature itself is a mix between CGI and costume and looks great.

It's the sort of thing where if I had friends, I'd have them over to watch this while we had some beers and chatted.

Paracide (2020)

Love it

So first off, this microbudget film has a lot of the issues that they all do: there's probably little to no money for CGI or high quality gear and some of the acting is a bit ropy.

However, I'm really enjoying this. The characters are charming enough, there's actually entertaining things going on and (this is super rare) it actually made me laugh. The conversation about the goddesses at the pool is hilarious and also really liked 'you wouldn't make fun of a kitten' bit.

There are some moments where what happens kinda gets lost in some action bits (throwing the item at the orgy early on, and when he's blocking a door) but you just have to assume what they're trying to get across happens.

There's also a few really dodgy CGI bits such as the psi-fish and the fact any sign looks like it was designed on paint.

But these are minor points, I really enjoyed it because it's so watchable. It's fun, they go different places, there are interesting characters with great costumes (even if it's just body paint and a wig).

There are also some nice, well thought out shots that go a bit above 'some friends with a camera' that these type of films sometimes fall into.

Slightly let down by the 'cryptotranny' comment, but other than that, I recommend.

Oops! You're A Vampire (2022)

Actually very good.

With a title like 'Oops! You're a Vampire' I was expecting a cheeseball comedy full of silly jokes (which would be fine, that's one of the reasons I watch low budget horror) but it was actually really nicely done exploration of a weird family under weirder circumstances.

The music/sound was great (some metal riffs in weird places but in general ace).

The acting was good. Really so much better than the average horror movie. The mother especially was fantastic.

There were a few dodgy props but in general it looked great and there were some pieces I really enjoyed.

The direction was really good too, not just obvious angles, nothing lingering too long, basically a lot better than a lot of films I watch.

The writing was absolutely fantastic. It was a bit weird and surreal (one of the siblings has a lab in his room), but somehow avoids some obvious tropes. The dialogue was witty without trying to be obnoxiously so and the interaction between the family members was realistic and complex, when it could've been 'they just all bicker all the time.'

Only a couple of things let it down for me. One is the quality. The version I saw on Prime was quite low-res and blurred quite a bit and the sound was often a bit muffled. I was surprised to see this came out in 2022? Was it shot in the 90s/early 2000s and not released for a long time?

Also there's a character who shows up (avoiding detail for spoilers) who looks like he's dressed up from a fancy dress shop that really took me out of the film.

For me this could be a cult classic if it was slightly higher quality and I kinda want to watch it again in the near future.

Lair of the Killer Clowns (2023)

Barely anything happens

I can't stress enough how little happens in this film. It could be cut into a sub 15 minute short and still have the entire story.

A lot of the run time is just two of the characters strolling around random abandoned buildings in a desert.

It's quite near the end that we get to see some evil clowns and they're kinda interesting, and I liked the acting and costume choices. There's definitely some fun ideas dotted in the last 1/4 but they're never fully realised as most of the run time is just wasted dilly dallying about.

At the start of film they use a lot of AI-generated artwork and what looks like tiktok filters to animate them. On their own this could look quite fun and uncanny, but as everyone can immediately recognise these they really stand out as a cheap choice.

At the end I wasn't quite sure what this film was trying to achieve as it wasn't scary, funny or an engaging story and I felt it wasn't worth watching for good-bad movie fun.

The Curse of Humpty Dumpty (2021)

Decent spooky flick

I was expecting a schlocky horror but it was actually quite a bit darker and deeper than I thought it'd be.

There's some nice unreliable narrator stuff, some interesting background that's gradually revealed and some pretty sad stuff about having a parent with dementia and what it's like to lose yourself.

The monster itself is pretty scary, a lot better than the cartoony poster looks. I also appreciated that it looked like they used practical fx for most things (if they did use CGI, nothing stood out like it often does with low budget horrors).

Only slight downside is that I felt like we never understood the 'why' of something happening in the past. We gradually got what they did, but I don't know what the goal was. I get that not everything has to be explained but specifically this would've helped the story for me.

Good stuff though, wouldn't mind watching again.

Trail of the Screaming Forehead (2007)

Remarkably good

I was expecting some low budget so-bad-its-good but actually this is fantastic!

It's a very well thought out parody of 70s films. The script, the casting, the score and even the awkward extras are all PERFECT for getting this vibe right. There was obviously a lot of love gone into this.

I was also expecting it to be super wacky, but the jokes are often a way more subtle than the slapstick I expected.

My favourite bit in the whole movie is the scene where a man lights two cigarettes. Had me in tears.

Anyway, I'd definitely recommend this to people. It's an excellent movie and if you love retro trash, there's a lot of nods to the genre.

Stalled (2013)

Enjoyable contained movie

One day I wanted to have a little festival of bad zombie movies, but instead of being 'so bad they're good' a few ended up just being good. This is one of them.

I really liked the simple, contained idea. It went a little above a lot of quickly hashed out indie films but having a lot tighter plot. It wasn't just 'some guy stuck in the toilet while he made funny attempts to escape,' there were actually decent revelations and some nice character development. Some of the plot points were genuinely unexpected but set up in a way where they were completely deserved and paid off.

Only downside is that the fx could've been a tad tighter. Still really enjoyed the film.

Bong of the Living Dead (2017)

Actually pretty good

I was in the mood for watching some terrible zombie movies so put on this another another couple and 2/3 ended up being surprisingly good.

I really thought with a title like 'bong of the living dead' was going to be an awful amateur film full of in jokes and poor acting but actually it's decently shot, acted and written.

The characters are all pretty likable, there's bits of practical fx that are quite nice and there's some fun observations about zombie films. I laughed a few times and I actually felt something for the characters, partially because it showed how four of them grew up together and in a way were looking forward to the apocalypse. There was some nice, well deserved character development when it wasn't what they'd hoped.

The only negative is that one of the characters seems to very suddenly completely change and then completely change back without any real reason given.

Still, I'd actually recommend and I might watch again.

Well done everyone.

Laundry Day (2016)

Great slice of life

A great little snapshot of a group of barfly's lives. Kinda dark, kinda sad, kinda funny at times. I really enjoyed the fact that there are slight variations when we see overlaps from different people's stories, it really makes it feel like a perspective thing.

Being low budget there's a little bit of jankiness, mostly some of the smaller parts seem a bit stiff and some of the pacing seems a tad off, but in general the direction really suits the story.

I'd definitely recommend this film for people who like stuff that's a tad different and who like seeing a bit of slice of life from the pov of street performers, bar staff and drug dealers.

The Rizen (2017)

Too many missteps to be enjoyable

I really like the concept. If I simply read the synopsis, I would assume this would be a film that I'd love. Unfortunately there's a lot to drag it down.

Firstly, the quality is that of a 2000s Dr Who three part special rather than a feature film. There's a lot of stale acting and the set is awful. They're supposed to be in a bunker/concrete tunnels which you'd think would be easy to create, but the walls look like am-dram stage backing and you can clearly see black and white paint splashed over them to approximate concrete.

Secondly, the monsters seem to be no threat. Even the scientist who is shown to not be a fighter can restrain one easily. They seem to just want to grapple a bit with the characters. There's one point where the main character is being choked by one, and she very casually turns around to receive a weapon from someone else. This seems really minor, but it's just so weirdly unthreatening.

Thirdly, they do the 'oh btw these two are romantically attracted to eachother' in one scene where two of the characters almost kiss. There's nothing before this to suggest they're into each other. I don't know why they put these in films.

Anyway, some good points - I really like the cosmic horror element. The contained story is quite nice too. The ending, while a little unclear, is enjoyable enough. It's just a little boring in between.

Last Shift (2014)

Solid movie

I found this very enjoyable. It's a bit of a hidden gem as I hadn't heard of it before. The acting is great and the direction, costumes etc are fantastic. A lot of the ghosts are way more interesting in design then they need to be, which I really enjoy (a lot of them could just be 'people' but they went further to make them memorable designs).

There's a pretty rich lore behind the creepy goings on and we get just enough to make it interesting without falling into the trap of over-explaining why something is happening.

It's a great use of a quite straight forward premise. I'd definitely recommend this to friends.

Postal (2019)

Very enjoyable

I have to admit, I thought I was watching the famously bad Uwe Boll title when I clicked on this. My first clue that it wasn't was that it was competently acted, written and directed, my second was that it seemed to have no relation to the computer game source material which I was familiar with.

I looked it up and realised I was watching something completely different, seemingly based on actual true events (unless I've been duped by some nicely made fake footage and planted stories).

It's really well done, with small cast and not many locations. The story builds really nicely where you go from rooting for the focus to wanting him to fail as more and more is revealed about his actual motives.

I watch a lot bad, low budget films and this isn't one of them.