kannibalcorpsegrinder

Trying to raise awareness for the cause, a group of activists decide to sneak into a shopping mall after hours to spread awareness for their cause, but when they realize that they're being hunted by a deranged security guard looking to eliminate trespassers putting them in his path and must get away.

This was a fairly fun and enjoyable enough genre effort. One of the better aspects here is a strongly topical political commentary throughout the storyline that makes for an intriguing time. The idea of the kids as radical as they are taking to outright vandalism for their protests which works well at explaining their take on the radicalized march for action they think they're taking that emboldens them to go through the act of breaking into the store after hours and begin spray-painting slogans and symbols all over the place. Even getting the conversation points about why they're there to help protect animals and using their anger at the corporate greed to allow it to continue helps to spur their reaction further. Realizing that the deranged hunter has a similar setup involving the background given to him about his trying mental state and desire for fulfilling that aspect he has, there's a fun storyline in play for this one. That gives the film a strong background for the series of strong and overall effective stalking scenes within the building, featuring some impressive moments of the killer guard stalking after the group. Using the hunting skills he claims he has, the ability to set traps for the group, make them feel off and unbalanced while stuck inside the darkened building, and get taken out with ruthless force and intensity makes for a generally fun time. The kills are generally kept to a more simplified nature, yet make up for it with a more brutal execution, making for a fun time here and enough to overcome the few lacking elements on display. The simple characterization drawn up for everyone barely makes much of an impression on who they are, which causes the group to get muddled quite easily, so the effective build-up of their protests starts to lose weight the longer they're stuck inside. Likewise, the continuing irritation of characters popping back up after what should've been death blows for the sake of a surprise grows tiresome when it's repeated constantly, making for enough to hold this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Heading out to a remote cabin, a group of friends looking to help their newly sober friend keep his drug-free streak going end up realizing that their numbers slowly disappearing over the weekend might not be their imagination but the work of a spectral boogeyman and must try to stop it.

This was a severely disappointing effort without much to enjoy. Among its only positive aspects is the rather intriguing sense of uncertainty that builds up over whether the hallucinations or visions about the spirit haunting the trip. With his drug-fueled past and reckless abandon, there's a genuine ability here to be quite hard to tell what's going on with the confrontations and encounters with the spirit around the cabin attacking his friends, being quite difficult to tell if it's real or if there's something in his head. That soon turns into a strong rampage where the figure proves its true nature and sets about slaughtering the group in fine form as everything features some intriguing setpieces with some fine gore to help move the film along. Since it played off the mistrust trying to figure everything out, the excess strength makes the gags far more enjoyable, and with some fine nudity along the way, make for some fun elements here. There are some big problems here that hold this down. One of the biggest issues with this one is a cast of utterly unlikable and irritating characters that we're supposed to sympathize with but never come close to. The group that we spend time with are just flat out uninteresting, with the recovering drug addict a squirrely, whiny sleazebag more interested in getting high in secret or spying on the girls around him to build any interest, the couple who are leading the retreat spend more time having sex than trying to help him, and with stoners or flaky, untrustworthy figures around him trying to do their own thing that leads to him engaging in his vices rather than get help nothing here goes to plan. It's just not interesting how we're spending time doing these unproductive means that are far more selfish than anything else that his constant relapses are more their fault than anything else. The other outstanding flaw that emerges, with this setup being the main culprit, is that hardly anything remotely scary, chilling, or even funny arises for long durations of the running time. With the film trying to paint the idea of these instances where he acts shifty and squirrely, hiding his drug-induced state from those trying to help him, it's all bland and stupid due to how these scenes are played out. Their selfish and reckless behavior causes everything to happen, only to have it blow up in their face when he becomes maniac and on edge, which is simply not funny in the slightest. Moreso, the fact that he's constantly screaming out and yelling or seemingly unable to trust what's going on in front of him doesn't inspire laughs either, so everything is rather awkward and disjointed. Combined with the obvious low-budget limitations, these lower this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, sex scenes, and drug use.

After disappearing in the woods, a film crew looks into a case involving a couple's disappearance while out hiking in the woods for a special honeymoon celebration which eventually reveals that they were attacked by deranged mountain men and were forced to take drastic measures to survive.

This was a pretty troubling feature that has a few decent aspects to it. The main element this one has going for it is a rather strong final half where the action picks up with the involvement of the psychotic woods people getting involved. The initial attack is quite strong with it coming out of nowhere and featuring the one lunging out of the woods to try to attack them forcing a brutal beatdown to finally stop it only for the other member to seek revenge for the attack on their mate. This leads to a solid series of chases and encounters throughout the woods as vicious and brutal confrontations take place. With these featuring some genuinely graphic and uncomfortable sequences of torture letting into the bloodletting on display, it manages to generate a few positive aspects of this. There are some pretty big factors holding it back. It's all about the story structure here where this one tends to feature unnecessary and useless mockumentary-style setup involving the series of interviews and talking-head news pieces that try to paint the picture of the two having gone missing with no sign of what's going on. However, it ruins the surprise of what's going on at the very end by injecting these momentum-sapping sequences that just do nothing to move this one along into any kind of interest. It also causes the first half to feel immensely sluggish and bland waiting around for something to happen as not only do we have the rather fun relationship aspect but also the interjecting news bits that drag it out for no reason. It's the main aspect that ends up holding this down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, and Brief Nudity.