Cult Films

https://popcult.blog/2024/04/25/movie-review-mulholland-drive/

Also even though I'm not usually an Ebert fan, I believe his review and analysis is worth noting as well:

https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/lost-on-mulholland-drive

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mulholland-drive-2001

I'm not affiliated with it in any way, just found it while searching for Cyber Tracker 2.

Non-stop ultra violent splatter gore. I was going to say this is really similar in tone to 2013's Hotel Inferno but when I looked it up I saw it was the same director, so there you go. The concept is kind of cool, an authoritarian cannibalistic society where criminals are slaughtered for meat to feed the citizens. It's like something right out of a Dark Horse comic. A few things I enjoyed, the lead has very unique facial features, but it's not fx, it's like a birth defect or something. But he's not treated as some kind of freak because of that, instead he's just a regular character. The ideas themselves are unique, and differentiate it from something like guinea pig or a beelzebub "movie". The green video color grading gets very old very quick, it's a cheap and lazy technique that makes everything look bad. Green lighting would have actually looked 10x better if you wanted a green cast and all you need is a light and a gel. The most obnoxious thing about this film though is that 99% of the entire movie is made up of extreme closeups. I understand the budgetary constraints with a project like this but come on, you cannot tell WTF is going on when you are zoomed in ALL THE TIME. There's not much of a story to speak of by I have a feeling that's not really the point so it gets a pass on that.

⭐ ⭐ 1/2 out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Wild and wonderful lo-fi insanity with shades of Deadbeat At Dawn meets The Ghoulies. Tough guys, whores, junkies, and just regular Joes duke it out with an aborted fetus that turns into a brutal monster inside an abortion clinic/whore house. What a premise. Pretty much all non actors but what they lack in talent they make up for in enthusiasm. The monster itself is pretty awesome for the budget and the fx are bright and bloody.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2 out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

It’s the 50th anniversary year of the folk horror

Don't really see anything that looks that impressive here, but we'll see I guess.

If you've been watching b (z) movies for any length of time you're probably familiar with David A. Pryor's work even if you don't recognize the name. Deadly Prey, Killer Workout (AKA Aerobicide, great OST btw), Future Force (David Carradine's flying hand), etc. His first full length, Sledgehammer, is what happens when you get your friends together during a weekend by the lake, give your real life bodybuilding brother the lead role, forget about a plot, have a hundred dollar budget, are obsessed with slo-mo, wipes, fade-outs, and bad synths, do your own fx work, have one VHS camera, and somehow against all odds manage to get your efforts on video store shelves in the 80's. If this sounds compelling to you then you are probably a psychopath.

I will say that even though there are a million things this movie is not, what it is is sincere. There's not a hint of wink wink look at how shitty I can be, tongue-in-cheek irony here that I abhor when watching modern films that purposely strive to be quirky and so-bad-it's-good. Every non-actor here is doing their best, every weird angled shot, bad synth note, and unbelievable line of dialogue are the efforts of a man who is clearly creating a labor of love. I have to admire at least that even if the results are absolute dogshit.

⭐ 1/2 out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I had zero expectations going in, maybe for the best, but ended up having fun with this one. Cage was ridiculous as always but it worked here. The cartoonish gore was great and over the top, the humor fit the theme which was reminiscent of the horror comedies of the 80s along with Airplane-like sight gags, and Awkwafina's sarcasm combined with Hoult's (Renfield) self-help awakening made a likeable duo. Maybe a negative would be the unnecessary police family drama of Awkwafina's character but outside of that I found it to be a campy and violent good time.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 1/2 out of ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐