EJECTA: yet another entry in the mini-budget WTF's-happening apocalyptic sci-fi thriller genre

Actor Julian Richings has an amazing face. It is just plain memorable. And strange. You can't look away from it. Mr. Richings, shown below, is quite an asset to the new ultra-mini-budget sci-fi/sort-of-thriller, EJECTA, and thank god he's the star of the film because I think it would be something less were it not for the amazing creep factor this actor, shown below, possesses. As written by Tony Burgess and directed by Chad Archibald and Matt Wiele, and as these mini-budgeted would-be sci-fi movies go -- the last such we covered here was the nearly unwatchable Hangar 10 -- this one is at least an improvement over the usual found-footage or just-point-the-video-camera-and-shoot hogwash. Ejecta is not awful. The movie has its moments.

Most of these involve Mr. Richings, above, who plays some kind of seer who has been gifted/contaminated with knowledge/insight that he would dearly love not to possess. In fact, he is possessed, and this appears to be killing him. Mr. Richings is quite convincing as this poor, used-up schmuck, and so are the actors  Lisa Houle (below) and Mark Gibson, who play the very nasty government doctor and agent bent on torturing this poor soul to learn what he knows. These scenes come awfully close to torture porn, as dispensed by a woman.

You can't watch much of this torture without having Guantanamo and AbuGhraib (and maybe, currently, the exploits of ISIS) cross your mind again and again. And since it is our government doing the nasty stuff, you won't much care what happens to these entitled and insufferable assholes. The plot -- of which there ain't much -- involves possible alien arrival (see below) and adbuction, something known as "mass ejections" (whatever that means), and maybe Armageddon, too. The special effects, when they finally arrive, are at least as effective as most of the stuff in the ridiculous Interstellar -- at probably 1/10,000 the budget.

However, when all is said and done (too many times, at that: the movie is far too repetitive), it comes down to the usual fright tactics of dropping a bunch of "hints," amidst the special effects, torture and noise, and hoping we'll be somehow scared out of our wits. Good luck. Overall, I was finally more annoyed than frightened, but I must admit that Ejecta (not a very good title) occasionally got to me, thanks mostly to the performances of  Mr. Richings and Ms Houle.

The movie -- from IFC Midnight and running a little long, even at only 87 minutes -- opens today as the midnight show at Manhattan's IFC Center. Elsewhere? Don't know, but as it opens simultaneously on VOD, aficionados across the country will have the chance to view it, too.

Joe Raffa's 6 DEGREES OF HELL: What the hell has the hand-held revolution wrought?

What's this? TrustMovies asked himself as the Bu-ray edition of 6 DEGREES OF HELL fell out of the envelope and onto his floor. Had he actually requested this movie to watch and cover?Hmmm... "It's possible," he thought, as he stuck it into his "To Watch" pile. But why? The marketing ploy appeared to be a certain Corey Feldman, that actor who, along with the late Corey Haim, made it medium-big amongst the teen set back in the 1980s. Evidently, this fellow is still with us.

Although Mr. Feldman (above, left) appears in 6 Degrees of Hell, he is in no way paramount to the plot shenanigans. He has a couple of scenes in a police station, giving a little exposition to a cop, and then he's back again at the movie's close. Acting-wise, he's not bad, but his appearance has more to do, I suspect, with getting the movie bankrolled than with anything else.

As a low-budget, hey-kids-let's-make-a-horror-movie, 6DofH isn't bad, either. Director Joe Raffa (at right, who also plays one of the major roles) and writer Harrison Smith do a surprisingly decent job of providing creepy moments and a vibrancy/vitality that comes, I think, from the combination of using hi-def video and performers who throw themselves into things, no matter how bizarre and seemingly disconnected some of those things may seem. Scene by scene, this film is a hell of lot more interesting and creepy than a piece of would-be scare garbage like Paranormal Activity and its offspring.

Involving stories on top of stories, the filmmakers and cast manage to keep things rolling and logical (well, at least as logical as these horror-fantasies usually are): We have Halloween doings (above) at one of these "haunted houses," set up to scare the pants off paying guests; a group of teenagers (below) out for a little fun and maybe some sex; a not-so-nice local cop; and a few more assorted oddballs; and of course one pretty young woman who just night be (or provide) some sort of portal to an alternate world.

Toss all this together and mix relatively well, and you've got yourself a crazy, creepy scare fest with some chilling moments, as well as some that are... well, let's just say they're kind of silly. Overall, though, I'd say the chills outweigh the nonsense.

6 Degrees of Hell, from Breaking Glass Pictures, is available now on both Blu-ray and DVD, and probably via VOD and streaming, as well. If you're looking for an oddball scare-fest, you could do worse.

Ti West's THE INNKEEPERS bows today on VOD, in advance of theatrical opening Feb 3

Filmmaker Ti West is certainly one determined throwback. Of his three full-length films TrustMovies has seen so far (he didn't catch Trigger Man or Cabin Fever 2), it's safe to say that Mr. West loves old-fashioned scare movies. In his energetic but quite tiring and silly "monster movie" The Roost (2007), he had his terrorized cast attacked by bats, while 2009's The House of the Devil (his best film by a long shot) saw a babysitter and her friend become the prey of Satanists with a very disturbing ritual on their agenda. Now, with THE INNKEEPERS, he's back again with a bunch of retro scares, this time involving an old New England inn about to go out of business and full of assorted things that go bump in the night.

West, pictured at right, certainly knows old movies -- and old-time scares. Via a combination of smart, subtle acting, clever build-up, and the just-so placement of suspense and shock throughout the film, The House of the Devil proved West could create an old-fashioned scare fest for modern-day audiences. If only the same were true of The Innkeepers, but, alas, "old-fashioned" is everywhere on display but the scares have mostly disappeared. The few that remain are so over-used, and haggard that they end up DOA. After awhile one's response to things like doors that slam out of nowhere, piano keys that play when no one's there, and even bloody, disgusting ghosts that sneak up (when we're, unfortunately, most expecting them) is one, long, giant yawn and the question, Is that all? My friends: It is.

And it's too bad. Because West has corralled a nice cast to do his tiresome bidding, beginning with the delightfully energetic and youthful lead actress Sara Paxton (above, right), who invests each moment with enough pizazz to keep us alert. Her co-star is the very laid-back Pat Healy (above left), who proves a fine foil for Paxton's energy and verve.

Also on the scene is a woefully under-used Kelly McGillis (above: see her in Stake Land for a real performance and an infinitely better "scare" movie) as an old-time actress who's now doing "crystals" and ESP stuff. There are a few more characters, but none of them add up to much. They're all just vamping, even the silly ghosts -- until, suddenly, they're not. But by then, unfortunately, we don't give a shit.

 
The real trouble here is the screenplay. There very nearly isn't one. It sounds -- and seems -- dashed off overnight. Tiresome from the outset, it circles around and leads nowhere except into the usual clichés of this genre. Everything is second-hand and second-rate, including the reason for its two half-assed ghost-hunters to be doing their thing. The ghosts themselves are also of the most paltry sort (now they're here, now they're not) with a less-than-intriguing back story, to say the least.

Some of the camerawork (above) is good, in a been-there kind of way. Almost all the scares, however -- don't go into that basement! -- are minimal, as well, including the final, lengthy, build-up-the-suspense shot after which -- oh, please -- a door slams. Well, perhaps Mr. West means the joke to be on us. It is, it is.

The Innkeepers, from Magnet Releasing (and way too long at 100 minutes) is available via VOD beginning today, December 30, and will play up until the film's theatrical debut on February 3, 2012. You can click here to locate playdates, cities and theaters for that February bow. Meanwhile, check your local TV reception provider for VOD information. And click here to view other recent and upcoming Magnet/Magnolia movies you can view On-Demand. One of them, perhaps all, will be better than this dim fiasco.

On-Demand: Another Zombie Movie? Yup -- MUTANTS from France via David Morlet

Is it time to call a moratorium on movies featuring any virus that turns its host into a blood-sucking, organ-eating lunatic? I say yes, and I say that on the basis of a seemingly never-ending flow of Zombie movies, the latest of which is MUTANTS, a (relatively) new On-Demand offering purporting to give us something unusual. But, really: other than the setting (here it's an abandoned hospital somewhere in the snowy mountains of France) and the time it takes the virus to go into action, what is really different or even interesting about most of these films?  Not much. They're exist for their guts 'n gore but little more.

Directed and co-written (with Louis-Paul Desanges) by David Morlet, shown at right, Mutants is his first full-length film and in some ways it is impressive.  Initially, it appears a fast-paced, small-cast action/suspense film with -- yet again --  a virus turning all humanity into zombies.  In recent films such as REC (and its American remake Quarantine) or 28 Weeks Later, viral reaction time is fast (in the latter film, so are the zombies), but Mutants takes it slow and easy, giving us time to get to acquainted with our hero and heroine, as well as with a few interlopers who pop up to keep the movie going (plot is not its strong suit). Unfortunately, despite decent acting from the leads, there ain't much here to know.

Some excellent cadaver prosthetics grace the proceedings -- yuuuch! -- and that French actress with the beauty mark Hélène de Fougerolles (above, right) carries much of the performing duties on her slim shoulders as a medical worker. In the role of her boyfriend and co-worker, Francis Renaud (above, left -- who was so good in the still-awaiting-US-theatrical-release Queen to Play) is virile and hunky but is not given the opportunity to do much else (and it must be awfully difficult to "act" under plastic prosthetics).

Far too much dialog is of the "You're going to be OK!" variety (this pops up soon after we know that the character certainly will not be).  "Kill me," he says.  She won't.  Knowing some medicine, she tries various modes of cure, but mostly these are just vamping until the inevitable arrives.  Since, having seen so many zombie movies, we already know all this, the going does get grueling.  And the cinematography, which favors the usual drained-of-most-color palette shown in the stills above and below, quickly begins to bore.

Midway, we get a jolt of fresh interest but almost immediately suspension of disbe-
lief is demanded on a level that is too stupid by half.  At film's end, it's clear that there is nothing new here; Mutants is just anot-
her tiresome zombie movie that is also, given its genre and thin plot, at least 15 minutes too long.

Available from IFC Films as part of its Festival Direct On-Demand series, Mutants is playing via most TV reception-providers' On-Demand services.  Click the link ahead to see if your provider offers IFC On-Demand, and if so, how to connect....