From Brazil comes a genre bending/busting marvel: Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra's "family" film, GOOD MANNERS

Hugely feted and probably fated to go down in cinema history as one of the great love stories/family films/horror films -- yes, there are not so many of these! -- the Brazilian movie, GOOD MANNERS (As Boas Maneiras), is like nothing you've so far seen.

When TrustMovies was a teenager back in the late 1950s and especially in love with werewolf movies, he always imagined that someone would make a werewolf love story that could bring an audience not simply to fear, but to tears and maybe even a weird kind of joy. The South Koreans managed this to an extent with their lovely A Werewolf Boy back in 2012, and now, finally, the movie-making team of Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra (shown above, left and right, respectively) have gone even deeper and more thoroughly into genre-jumping/mashing to bring us a film that is at once, as the quote on the poster at top makes clear, a fairy tale/horror movie/romance/musical/social parable that works beautifully in every single one of those genres, even as it becomes, at last, something sui generis and quite amazing.

Good Manners is so good, in fact, that it rather sneaks up on you, growing better and stronger as it moves along until its final moment that should leave you as stunned and moved as any genre film you'll have viewed.

Low-budget, independent movies -- let alone genre jumpers -- rarely make for Oscar bait, which is a shame in itself. Even more so when the lead performance in one of those films is as full, rich and deep as is that of Isabél Zuaa (above), who plays the nanny, cook, cleaning woman, friend and finally lover to the pregnant woman (Marjorie Estiano, below) who hires her,

and then becomes the surrogate mother to the shape-shifter at the core of the film, the beautiful and gifted young actor, below, who bears the too-perfect moniker of Miguel Lobo (could that be his actual name?).

Though I hadn't yet realized it as a teenager who would soon identify as gay and eventually bisexual, the strong pull that these movies about "the other (in whatever form)" had on me came from the idea that one could be punished and destroyed for being different, even though one had no control over that difference.

Difference is paramount in Good Manners, whether it is seen via skin color, class, religion, or finally species. How the filmmaking duo brings this to the fore by melding their genres so skillfully is impressive enough; that they also manage to bring the emotional content home so strongly is even more so. Oh -- and did I mention how lovely the songs are?

One of the movie's odd strengths comes from its use of children -- as both aggressor and victims. These scene are as surprising, awful and moving as any I can recall in the genre, and while they do involve some bloodshed, the filmmakers never rub our noses in it. They show what they must and let our mind and heart do the rest. How well they also use some of the genre cliches -- the aroused mob of townspeople on the march to destroy Frankenstein and his monster -- is also admirable.

Good Manners is utterly transgressive in so many ways, and yet it is also one of the sweetest, kindest examples of the horror genre imaginable. The combination proves bracing and the movie -- together with its lead performance from Ms Zuaa (above right) -- unmissable.

From Distrib Films US and running a surprisingly lengthy 135 minutes (not one of which you'd want to part with, post viewing), the film opens theatrically in New York City this Friday, July 27, at the IFC Center and on August 17 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Elsewhere? Sure hope so, but if not, the film will surely reach DVD and digital eventually.

Nicolas Pesce's THE EYES OF MY MOTHER: horror often viewed at a discreet distance

Beginning with a scene on a country road in which the driver of a truck sees something untoward just ahead of him, and then taking us into the lives of one of the strangest families to be found on film, this new pristine, black-and-white movie makes Norman Bates look like a piker and shows up the Austrian oddity, Goodnight Mommy, as the artsy piece of schlock it is. THE EYES OF MY MOTHER will not be to everyone's taste (not even to all horror aficionados) but it ought to quickly take its place in the annals of quietly creepy, one-of-a-kind movies.

Its writer/director, Nicolas Pesce (shown at left), spares us much of the gore quotient possible here but none of the ghastly realizations of exactly what has been, is now, or soon will be going on. Believe me, these are lulus. And because they are often seen at a discreet distance, with music that quietly foments rather than knocks our eardrums silly, the result is often as breathtaking as it is horrifying. This is a film, no matter how "good" it may be, that you will not want to recommend to those who have trouble with the transgressive.

Eyes, surgery, cattle, obsession and a whole lot more make themselves felt in ways major and minor throughout the film, along with the bizarre behavior of not just the three principals in the family -- dad, mom and little girl -- but in the smiling interloper who sets into play the awful plot and then pays for it, bigtime, in a manner that may put you in mind of The Secret in Their Eyes.

You do not need plot details for a movie like this. Best, I think, if you're a horror fan, to simply approach it as tabula rasa as possible. The little girl (above) grows up into a young woman (below) who proves both one of the great horror villains and a characters who, given her fraught history, remains somehow vulnerable and (almost) sympathetic.

The cinematography (Zach Kuperstein) is stunning throughout, and the performances of every cast member on the nose. The logic of the film may leave something to be desired, but because The Eyes of My Mother has the strong, dark feel of a waking nightmare, you will probably forgive this (or not even notice) -- so simple yet propulsive is this relatively short (only 76 minutes) tale.

The behavior of our "leading lady -- the unusual but very fine Kika Magalhaes --  is so keyed to need, parenting (that's dad, being bathed, above), and socialization (the latter achieved, it would seem, via old movies, mostly noir, seen on TV) that whatever happens here seems somehow less over-the-top than the manner in which our "heroine" has most likely been raised.

From Magnolia's Magnet division, in mostly English and a little Portuguese with English subtitles, the movie opened this past weekend, December 2, in five cities and will hit another 14 this coming Friday, December 9, and even more over the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. Simultaneously, The Eyes of My Mother is available via VOD, Amazon Video and iTunes.

SiREN: the nifty new horror/thriller from Gregg Biship and David Bruckner

Stealing (or maybe homaging) from all sorts of earlier efforts in the horror genre -- most noticeably in the lead creature's special effects via Vincenzo Natali's Splice -- the new monster/horror/ Satanist/boys-behaving-badly movie, SiREN (and, yes, that lower case "i" is intentional) turns out to be a very nice example of what can be done in the fantasy genre when you couple a low budget to some free-wheeling and creative minds. We may have seen all these various pieces previously, but the manner in which screenwriter David Bruckner and director Gregg Bishop have assembled them works like gangbusters.

Misters Bishop, shown at left, and Bruckner hand us two very different situations/ scenarios -- the Satanic calling-up of some sort of evil creature (first seen as a frightening little girl, and then as a sexy, scary adult) and the bachelor party of a nice young man (Chase Williamson, below) about to be married to a nice young woman -- and then jam the two together into a fast-paced, frightening 83 minutes in which the now grown SiREN of the title sets her sights on that hunky young man, making his and his mates' lives more than a little miserable in the process.

If that were all, it would be plenty, but the movie offers some other nice treats (well, treats for fans of horror films, at least): subsidiary characters imagined with more than the usual, run-of-the-mill motives and visuals. First there is a fellow named Mr. Nyx, played by Justin Welborn, below, who seems to best understand what is going on here and also to be able to control it. Then there is Nyx's assistant, Ash, played with sly relish by Brittany S. Hall, a looker in a blue wig. (What we get when that wig is removed proves one of the more creative special effects.)

The bachelor party bros are also well cast and characterized, with each registering swiftly and strongly in his role. (That's Michael Aaron Milligan, below, as our hero's extremely stupid-but-caring brother.)

SiREN's special effects, in fact, are surprisingly good, given the film's relatively low budget. These are not offered non-stop -- as in so many of our current Marvel (and other) blockbuster schlock  -- but are dished out quite selectively. They are also well-chosen, often surprising, and done with imagination and skill.

In the title role is an actress -- Hannah Fierman (above and below) -- whom I first saw in the segment of the horror anthology, V/H/S, from which the current film has been expanded. That short segment was impressive, all right, and the full-length movie that has resulted from it is, too. (This is not a case, as often happens, of an expansion outstaying its welcome.) Ms Fierman is as impressive here as she was in short form: weird and weirdly beautiful, she'll sweep you off your feet, just as she does, quite literally, our hero.

For a film that takes you places you've already been, SiREN manages this with unusual flair and even some surprise. Its fast pace seldom lessens, right up to the climax that, while it paves the way for a sequel, offers a perfectly fine and fixating finale all its own.

From Chiller Films, the movie opens in New York (at the Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (and the Arena Cinelounge) this Friday, December 2. For anyone not located in these two cultural capitals, SiREN will hit VOD, DVD and Digital HD this coming Tuesday, December 6th. 

The Paz Brothers' horror, JERUZALEM offers sex, demons and Armageddon in Israel

Hand-held horror has come to the homeland. Oy.

JERUZALEM -- with that "z" replacing the usual "s" because, I suppose, it looks so cool on the poster image and will remind audiences of World War Z -- is the new film from The Paz Brothers, Doran and Yoav (pictured below, with Yoav on the left). In a word, it's a stinker. After a been-there/done-that opening, the movie seems to settle into a family/computer technology vibe. But only briefly, as our two heroines prepare for their trip to Israel, where, that opening has warned us, bad stuff is gonna happen.

In this film, hallelujah, zombies are given a religious/Biblical bent. (And isn't it about time!) Except that -- uh-oh -- wouldn't this mean that Lazarus must have been the original zombie? For Christ's sake, Jesus -- what did you do here? But I digress. What the two brothers have done is conflate horror movies and religious beliefs with technology, sex and a cell-phone call from dad at the most inappropriate moment. The Pazes' single addition to movie history may be their introduc-tion of "face recognition" into the plotline, but even here, you can see the "surprise" outcome a mile away.

Along with some clunky exposition and information about how The Jerusalem Syndrome can hit you once you reach the holy city, we're given the usual tourist stuff, with a little "Monkey's Paw"--Be Careful What You Wish For" tossed in for good measure (and telegraphed well before the film's halfway point).

The movie biggest problem is its build-up, which seems to take for-fucking-ever. The foreshadowing, too (as our junior- and high-school English teachers loved to point out) is happily present but rather too-insistently accounted for.

Once the action begins, things ought to crescendo. Instead, they keep stopping and starting, over and over, with one detour into a mental institution featuring a ridiculous I'm-not-gonna-leave-my-boyfriend development, after which, the film becomes a hysterically overwrought and very tiresome piece of silly horror, with nearly everything stolen from other, better movies. The creatures, too, once we finally see them (as above), are nothing to write home about and finally grow repetitive.

My favorite line of dialog has one of the girls asking the other, "You're OK, right?" when it is more than clear that she is already half-dead (or half zombie). It is probably not this actress' fault, but her character wins the stupidest, most annoying that I've seen on film in maybe a decade. Out of kindness and cordiality, I will not mention her name but will wait to do that if and when I see her again in something better. Fortunately, this actress is relegated to being the hand-held photographer throughout a great deal of the movie, so we see much less of her (though we do, unfortunately, hear her) than we do her friend.

That friend, and the supposed star of the movie, is a pretty blond actress named Yael Grobglas (shown above and at left, further above) and she does indeed steal what tiny "loot" the film possesses. Only the very up-to-the-minute technological look (or maybe it's only up-to-last-year, considering how fast technology changes) seems at all fresh here. The words FATAL ERROR -- which keep periodically appearing on screen after some technological glitch has occurred to the camera -- describes the entire film to a T. You'd think those Paz boys would have realized they were setting themselves up as their own punch line.

Jeruzalem, released via Epic Pictures Group and running 93 minutes (with enough actual content to fill maybe 45 of those minutes), is said on the distributor's web site to be opening theatrically tomorrow, Friday, January 22. In New York City, however, it does not open until January 29 at the Cinema Village. Whoops! Over the past 24 hours, it has even been removed from the Cinema Village's web site, so I guess we won't see it playing there. Elsewhere? Don't know, but as it is also simultaneously available via VOD, if you're curious, I'm sure you can easily find it. (I just checked Comcast's On-Demand list down here in Florida and, sure enough, there it is.)

New horrors on video: GOODNIGHT MOMMY and COOTIES -- exploitation vs "fart" film

It's interesting to have two very different horror movies making their DVD and Blu-ray debut this past week. Neither set the box-office afire, but one, GOODNIGHT MOMMY, comes lauded with critical acclaim and is, in fact, Austria's submission for this coming "Oscar" race for Best Foreign Language Film, while the other, COOTIES, is one of those comic/horror exploitation items that appear with some regularity these days. Oh, yes: And the subject of both films involves some very, very naughty children.

TrustMovies was looking forward to both in his own way but, surprise, it's the silly-but-lots-of-fun exploitation film that brings home the bacon (or, in this case, the chicken) while the gorgeously photographed, ridiculously attenuated arthouse horror item turns out to be, yes, a "fart" film--TrustMovies' special moniker for the failed art film, usually one that's full of hot air. At 100 minutes, Goodnight Mommy is at least 20 minutes longer than its minimal content can bear; it is also so slow that I found myself dozing off at several points along the way.

The film's single surprise is telegraphed so early and so obviously that you will sit there waiting impatiently for the other shoe to drop. And finally it is one of the ugliest movies -- endurance-test torture ending in horrifying death -- I've had to sit through in a long, long time. If this were a good film in all those other ways, I could easily have borne the horror, but it's so bad so often that it ends up seeming simply pretentious -- little more than an excuse for the ugliness it ponderously builds toward. Yes, it's beautifully lensed and provides an object lesson in the hidden dangers of cosmetic surgery, but the fact that Austria would see fit to submit this piece of shit as a BFLF contender rather boggles the brain. Goodness: That country hasn't gifted us with anything this delightful, since, uh, Adolf Hitler.

Cooties, on the other hand, is low-level but rather juicy fun, well-cast and cleverly written and very speedily plotted, as it tells its all-too-possible tale of a bird-flu virus gone haywire. It comes from chickens and attaches itself, in tried-and-true movie style, to humans -- in this case children, turning them into blood-thirsty little demons. The opening scene that details a chicken's route from life in one of those horrible "bins" to death and onward into chicken-nuggetdom is alone worth the price of the movie rental: fast, funny, nasty and capped with a moment that should put you off those nuggets for good. The rest of the film -- featuring Elijah Wood, Alison Pill, Rainn Wilson and directed by a couple of smart guys and written by four more -- keeps the humor, scares, gore and thrills coming fast and furiously, right up to the clever, quick finale that offers a terrific last line paving the way for maybe a sequel. Had this one done better at the box-office. that sequel would have been insured. Still, even a straight-to-video would be acceptable by me.

High-level horror: Corin Hardy/Felipe Marino's scare-your-pants-off thriller, THE HALLOW

On one level, THE HALLOW, a new horror film from co-writer Felipe Marino and writer/director Corin Hardy, is nothing new, dealing as it does with a family -- mom, dad and infant son -- who moves into a new home and is menaced by supernatural powers. Ah, but what the moviemakers and their excellent cast do with this much-told tale is something else. It's all in the specifics and the straight-ahead style that brings those specifics to dread life. It has been awhile since TrustMovies found himself glued to the screen while watching such an old, old story.

Marino (above, left) and Hardy (above, right) get right down to things, as our couple and baby son (along with the family's dog, of course) travel to their new home while listening to the radio and hearing something about a not-so-popular sale of a local forest for clear-cutting. Our hero, Adam (played by Joseph Mawle below) has been hired to do some sort of scientific study regarding that forest, and, as he quickly learns, he is none too popular with the locals, who believe the place to be haunted by evil spirits that delight in stealing children. Oh-oh.

Perhaps the most annoying choice of moviemakers who come to these family-gets-haunted movies is to slowly build up a head of steam by having family members menaced in various ways by one thing after another until the audience is ready to scream, "Just get the fuck out of that place, you idiots!" Hardy and Marino easily and very cleverly side-step this completely by having bad things happen immediately and then escalate enormously before escape is even possible.

Some of the more interesting specifics on view includes a rather special kind of fungus (shades of the recent Creeping Garden!) with spores that do very naughty things to people and their animals (above), and one of the filmmakers' most effective moments comes as the fungus grows in and on an automobile, so that our hero must extricate himself from the trunk of his car in what becomes an odd and new sort of "birth" scene -- and a damned good one, at that.

Mr. Mawle over the years has become one of my favorite supporting actors -- versatile, riveting and sexy as hell. Check out his work in performances and movies as disparate as The Awakening, Heartless (which I think the still, above, is from, unless it's from the Netflix series Sense8) and especially Clapham Junction, and you'll discover an actor with a very special charisma. Up to now he has appeared mostly in supporting roles, so it's good to see him take on a lead and do it more than justice.

Performance-wise, the movie mostly belong to Mr. Mawle, although his wife, played by the beautiful Bojana Novakovic (above, left, and at bottom, doing a top-notch scream-queen job of it), provides terrific back-up in every way. The couple, the kid and their dog are pretty much the entire cast (except a few townspeople and those evil spirits).

The filmmakers make the mistake of showing their demons too soon and then too often. (The critters are much scarier when we can just barely perceive them.) But thanks to Mawle and Novokovic, we're on tenterhooks till the finale -- which proves just about everything you'd want in this kind of scary movie.

From IFC Midnight and running just a tad too long at 97 minutes, The Hallow, a hit at a number of film festivals, opens tomorrow, Friday, November 6, at IFC Center in New York City, and next Friday, November 13, in Los Angeles at Hollywood's Arena Cinema. Simultaneously, it is also available digitally via the usual platforms. Click here and then click on WATCH NOW to see the various digital venues.

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead's SPRING offers some novel, enthralling genre-jumping

Combination love story, horror and sci-fi/fantasy, SPRING proves a most rewarding movie experience. Written and directed by a twosome fairly new to film -- Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead -- their movie makes up in originality and specificity what it sometimes lacks in slickness and pacing. It is first and foremost a tale of genuine love, of a young man toward a woman he is just beginning to know. On her part, this may be something new in her very old existence, but it proves strange and important enough to struggle with.

The filmmakers, shown above, with Moorhead on the left, deliver a movie that makes wonderful use of its two co-stars -- Lou Taylor Pucci (below, right), an actor whose depths we're only beginning to discover, and a German actress new to TrustMovies named Nadia Hilker (below, left), of whom, after her work here, we are sure to be seeing more.

In rather quick succession, Spring bops us with a mother's death, a bar fight, and a sudden get-away to foreign climes -- in this case one of the more picturesque Italian locations imaginable: Polignano a Mare (below), where our hero, Evan (Mr. Pucci) arrives knowing none of the locals and little Italian. This actor has always has a knack for playing vulnerable, sweet guys, and he is using it again here. In Spring, however, he couples it to a strength both physical (he wins that bar fight) and moral. Evan is a decent guy faced with a difficult dilemma. Oh, boy, is it difficult.

The dilemma is all about the woman he meets and falls into love and lust with, played quite strikingly by Ms Hilker. We viewers are given entrance into her secrets long before Evan makes his tardy discovery, and so we can sympathize with her situation, even more so, the more we learn of it -- which is all about genetics, DNA, evolution and history, plus a rather large leap into sci-fi-cum-horror territory.

And yet, of all modern movies I've seen that begin to address this, Spring seems to handle it in by far the most empathetic manner, from the POV of the, well, shall we say, "monster" of sorts. Ms Hilker manages to be at once utterly charming and vivacious and then -- thanks to some excellent make-up and special effects -- everything from ugly to scary to horrific. The filmmakers' wide-screen compositions are alternately gorgeous and shocking (the cinematography is by Moorhead himself).

The moviemakers play their "horror" cards adroitly by showing us bits and pieces and then, at two or three points, what look like completely awful and very different breeds of "manimals" and sea life. All this is both shocking and fascinating, due to the premise on which these evolutionary high-jinx are based.  (There is also a fine little sub-plot dealing with Evan's job helping a local farmer, lovingly played by Francesco Carnelutti.)

Further, as Evan get more deeply involved in his lover's problems, the movie spills out loads of exposition, as she tries to explain to him exactly what is going on. This exposition might stop a lesser movie dead in its tracks, but because we care so much for both these characters, as they try to communicate and understand each other, we're held in place, even at the "talkiest" moments. This process becomes, for them, vital and immediate, and for us, surprisingly invigorating. The ending, as seems right, fills us with both dread and a kind of sublime peace. In its unusual way, this film has as much to say about the iterations of love, as does the just-opened Amour Fou.

Spring, then, is a love story first and sci-fi/horror second. It also marks an auspicious, second-full-length film for Benson and Moorhead. The movie -- released theatrically via Drafthouse Films and on VOD from FilmBuff, unrated and running 109 minutes -- opens this Friday, March 29, in a dozen cities across the country (here in NYC, it plays the Cinema Village; in the L.A. area it's at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas), and the following Friday, March 27, it will hit another nine. Throughout April it will reach most of the country's other major areas. You can see all the currently scheduled playdates by clicking here and scrolling down. However you choose to view it -- in a theater or via VOD -- do view.