RAW REVIEW: BLACKBURN

Not a film about the horrors of living in Lancashire, Blackburn is a flick I've been looking forward to for some time.

First brought to my attention when mentioned by the wonderful twisted twins, Jen and Sylvia Soska (who both appear in the movie), it was the sisters' genre credentials that convinced me to check out the movie.

Now, after months of waiting, the film has finally received a UK DVD release.

So is it too hot to handle?

Or just a big burn-out?

Read on...

BLACKBURN (2016)

Dir: Lauro Chartrand

Stars: Sarah Lind, Emilie Ullerup, Calum Worthy, Alexander Calvert, Zach Peladeau, Ken Kirzinger, Lochlyn Munro, Brandi Alexander, Brad Loree, Maja Aro, Jacqueline Robbins, Joyce Robbins

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I'll try not to spoil too much here, but continue at your own risk.

The film opens with Rob (the most recognisable face in the movie, Munro) checking out a closed mine that his company intends to reopen. Rather irresponsibly, he's also brought his wife Barb (Alexander) and their infant along.

Needless to say, this family outing does NOT go well.

From here we meet Jade (Lind); her dishonest boyfriend Ryan (Worthy); her spoilt friend Chelsea (Ullerup); Chelsea's dogsbody boyfriend and Ryan's bestfriend Luke (Calvert); and Jade's serious teacher's assistant Shaun (Peladeau).

The youngsters are on a road trip to a remote cabin in Alaska to party.

However, the wild frontier soon provides dual obstacles: a rockslide on one side and a raging forest fire a little further down the highway.

When night falls, the stranded group decide to check out the aforementioned abandoned gold mine for shelter. What they don't realise is that the mine has since become a home for several lunatics, the badly burned survivors of a terrible fire that razed the nearby Blackburn Insane Asylum to the ground.

As the group are forced to run and fight for their lives, a whole team of deranged slashers stalks their every move...

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): I'm a sucker for a good horror movie monster and Blackburn certainly delivers on this front. 
The two henchmen, Digits (played by genre stalwart Kirzinger, who portrayed the titular Voorhees in Freddy vs Jason) and 3Eyes (who boasts an equally impressive horror pedigree, having played Michael Myers in Halloween: Resurrection) are both pretty cool, bringing a nice intensity to the roles.

However, it is the chief villain, Mary (seasoned stuntwoman Aro) who really steals the spotlight. This is a very cool female slasher villain with a unique look that takes that old genre trope (the woman in white or creepy bride) and gives it a fresh spin, adding in some truly great burn make-up effects. Aro understands how subtle movements can really ratchet up the scare factor, and uses this to great effect. I can only assume she got some pointers from her experienced fellow monsters!

The make-up effects throughout the film are pretty damn good, and although, for the most part, the villains are usually shot in darkness, when we are afforded better glimpses at their faces the work done by the Blackburn team truly impresses. It seems pretty apparent that Blackburn didn't have the largest production budget so it's a real testament to these guys that they achieved such great looking effects. Bravo!

The villains are also given a very cool flashback to flesh out their characters and motivation. I usually hate an exposition dump by a cliched wise man/woman, but the manner in which this one is done is SO good it may even have been my favourite scene in the whole movie! It looked great, it played out fantastically and gave the audience a brilliant look at the dangers ahead for our protagonists without ever derailing the flow of the film. Excellent.
It certainly helped that the expo-dump was coming from the tremendously entertaining Robbins sisters. As oddball hermits Ivy and Iris, they may well be favourite crazy locals since Old Ralph in Friday the 13th.
The rest of the cast vary in terms of experience, so the performances are something of a mixed bag. The always reliable Lochlyn Munro delivers during his (limited) screen time, while of our leads I was most impressed with the versatile Peladeau. He's a likeable guy, and he has the looks and acting chops to suggest he could well be one to watch in the future. Elsewhere very pretty, rising-star Ullerup does enough to suggest she could make for quite the scream queen should she choose to stick with our beloved genre. Here's hoping.
Of course the actors can only work with what the script gives them and here I think writer Natasha Baron does a decent enough job of giving our characters convincing motivation to put themselves in exactly the kind of stupid situations that we expect from slasher fodder. It's a simple story that doesn't really bring much new to the table, but I think it's safe to say that the bulk of slasher fans don't watch for originality, just a neat enough way to tie the assorted gore sequences together. Consider that job done in Blackburn.
And what of those gore sequences? Well, once again the effects department deliver. With some suitably gruesome eyeball removal, a nicely done blowtorch to the face scene and lots of glistening, gory, maggoty flesh on display, there are some suitably grim tidbits for splatterfans.

THE WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): As I said earlier, I don't think it's unfair to say that Blackburn had a pretty modest production budget. Most of the time is succeeds despite this, but there are a couple of points in the film at which its humble means become apparent.

As is often the case, these mostly involve CG, such as during the wholly unconvincing rockfall sequence. Sadly, these moments did take me out of the film somewhat. Thankfully there aren't TOO many of these.

This comparative lack of finance is also evident in the visuals — the film does feel a little 'TV movie'-ish at times and is decidedly less polished than slick, Hollywood genre flicks such as this summer's The Conjuring 2.

There were also times at which the cast's lack of experience shone through. Sometimes wooden line delivery and less convincing reactions almost gave some of the leads an oddly disinterested air. Sadly, lead heroine Lind was the most guilty of this which really affected my sympathy towards her character. I can't help but feel that the time constraints that so often accompany budgetary limitations probably worked against the cast and crew here.

The cast were also certainly hindered by some decidedly dodgy dialogue. The  'bad ass' line during the climactic showdown is especially disappointing and doesn't even make sense. Oh well.

Finally, after their cool intro Digits and 3Eyes aren't really given much to do other than be generic goonish bad guys. Some nastiness that more closely mirrored their pre-asylum M.O.s would have been nice. The same can also be said of the always very welcome Soska sisters, whose actual screen time amounts to little more than a cameo. Very disappointing.

THE VERDICT: Blackburn is an entertaining little film, but it doesn't really deliver much more than some cool bad guys. Sadly, the low budget, inconsistent cast and a general lack of originality mean it almost certainly won't be topping many end of year polls, instead merely hitting a grade of 'kind of okay, I suppose'.

Nevertheless, if you want a no-thrills slasher where you can enjoy a beer and pizza while you put your brain in neutral, and for the bargain price of just £7.99, you could do a lot worse than Blackburn. Set your expectations low and there's plenty here to keep you happy.

Blackburn was released on DVD here in the UK this Monday (5 September). You can buy it from Amazon here. Check out the film's Facebook page here.

If you haven’t already, do please check out and Like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House @HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.

RAW REVIEW: SEE NO EVIL 2

 February is Women in Horror Month. There are some fantastic female filmmakers in the genre right now — just recently I’ve reviewed the likes of Audrey Cummings’ awesome Berkshire County, Shannon Lark and Lori Bowen’s delightfully deranged I Am Monster and Jill Sixx Gevargizian’s award winning Call Girl.
But today I’m turning to the queens of the new wave of horror, the biggest names to hit the scene in some time — Jen and Sylvia Soska, the twisted twins. Their debut feature, Dead Hooker In A Trunk made some big waves, while their follow-up effort, American Mary, has quite rightly been lauded as one of the best and most original genre flicks of the last five years. With a segment filmed in ABCs Of Death 2, plus a list of upcoming movies including Painkiller Jane, Vendetta and a segment in the all-femaled directed horror anthology XX, these extremely talented ladies meteoric rise shows no signs of slowing.
Last year I wrote a list of underrated horror villains and my inclusion of Jacob Goodnight from the slasher flick See No Evil was met with some derision by readers. Hey, you guys are entitled to your opinions here, but it seems that that the Soska sisters may have seen some potential in the big guy as they signed up to direct the sequel.
Could the twisted twins continue their run of hits? Or is it time to say goodbye to Goodnight?
Read on…

SEE NO EVIL 2 (2014)

Dir: Jen Soska and Sylvia Soska
Starring: Glenn Jacobs, Danielle Harris, Katharine Isabelle, Kaj Erik Eriksen, Greyston Holt, Chelan Simmons, Lee Majdoub, Michael Eklund

SPEEDY SYNOPSIS: I’ll try not to spoil too much here but read on at your own risk. 

Amy (the ultimate scream queen, Harris) works long shifts at the city morgue and as a result (excuse the pun) both her career and love life seem pretty dead. She seems to have a burgeoning relationship with likeable co-worker Seth (Eriksen) and as their colleague, wheelchair-bound Holden (Eklund) teases Seth, we see that he is trying to pluck up the courage to ask her out on a date.

When the movie opens, Amy is set to go off shift and out to celebrate her birthday with friends — plans which are soon scuppered when the massacre at the Blackwell Hotel is discovered (see the first See No Evil for details)

As the morgue braces itself for an influx of corpses, including hulking mass murderer Jacob Goodnight (WWE's Kane, Glenn Jacobs), Amy cancels her night out to help.

However Amy's friends do not give up so easily and as she cannot go to the party, they decide to bring the party to her. Led by outrageous wild child Tamara (the always wonderful Isabelle), the gang are comprised of Tamara's punky boyfriend Carter (Majdoub), Amy's moody brother Will (Holt) and cute Kayla (Simmons), who just so happens to have a huge crush on Will.

The group descend on the morgue with a plentiful supply of booze, and soon Amy, Seth and Holden join them in partying away.

However, when the intoxicated and serial-killer obsessed Tamara and Carter decide to sneak off for a peek at the monster on the slab in the basement, they soon realise that the deranged Goodnight is not as deceased as they had been led to believe.

Soon the one-eyed maniac (donning a cool new mask) picks up where he left off and begins carving a bloody swathe through his terrified victims. Trapped deep in the bowels of the building, the group are soon involved in a desperate fight for survival. Who, if anyone, will escape the murderous Goodnight's clutches and live to see the morning?

THE BEST BITS (mild spoiler warning): This horror flick unites two of the biggest female leads in the genre today. Quite simply, this is a horror fan's dream. Harris is as brilliant as ever, giving her character some extra depth and her trademark inner-toughness that makes her a lead you can't help but root for. In the past I've poured plenty of praise on Ms Harris for her continued great work in the genre, See No Evil 2 is yet another fine example of how much she can contribute to a movie.

Isabelle also impresses (as always). Hers is the fun character, a lot like her role as Gibb in Freddy vs Jason. She’s rowdy, drunk, outrageous and hilarious — a character who, in the hands of a lesser actress, could have been a one-note annoyance but as portrayed by Isabelle is one of the most likeable and sympathetic in the film. She has a number of laugh out loud moments in the film and is a delight to watch.
Yet these two big names aren’t the only ones to impress on screen, the entire cast of this film are fantastic. The impressive Simmons has a couple of top 'scream queen'-worthy moments and I hope to see her do a lot more work in the genre, she could become a very, very big star. The duelling male leads of Eriksen and Holt are both superb — each one nailing their role. Eriksen is immensely charismatic and his character really does get put through the wringer. He has the most drastic and clearest arc of all the characters and he is totally up to the task. Bravo, sir.
Meanwhile Holt’s Will could have been an unsympathetic (or even downright unlikeable) character, but Holt knows how to shade the performance, instead making Will’s concern for his sister all too apparent as his main motivation. Obviously he’s a good-looking guy too, so I imagine we’ll see plenty more of him in the future.
Some of the best work came from the always reliable Eklund. Eklund is one of those familiar faces who you recognise without necessarily knowing from where, yet you know he’s going to get the job done and get it done well. His great performance as the fun, spiky Holden is no different. Another excellent job from a very talented actor.
Finally we have Glenn Jacobs. I’ve said this before, but at 7ft tall and built like a grizzly bear, Jacobs is a walking special effect. He exudes menace and is as imposing a figure as they come. I was impressed by Jacob’s acting in the first movie, as a horror lead the character had surprising depth and complexity, and once again, when called upon to emote rather than eviscerate, Jacobs impressed. His physicality during some of the kills and attacks was breath-taking at times, especially during the moments where he displays his freakish strength as he mauls his victims.
So the cast all hit the spot, but that isn’t always enough to save a film. Luckily, See No Evil 2 is much more than a collection of great acting talent. The Soskas bring their trademark dark energy to the flick, with lots of continuing motifs present — especially the clinical and sterile inhumanity of medical tools and specimens. Jen and Sylvia have gained a reputation for cool and edgy film-making, packed with dark, disturbing visuals and a frenetic, unnerving energy. This is all on display in See No Evil 2, with some truly shocking moments. This is not just limited to the visuals either, with one particular point in the plot that totally caught me unawares. I'm not often surprised by the events of a slasher flick, so I doff my cap to writers Nathan Brooks and Bobby Lee Darby.

Back to the look of the film, and I particularly liked the way in which the sisters' expert camerawork transformed the morgue into a hellish dungeon, eerily sterile at some moments and a  grim, grimy hole in the earth at others.

By cranking up the atmosphere these very talented ladies are able to cause more chills in the movie's quiet moments than a lot of brash goreapaloozas pack into their entire run time. 

This is a movie that looks fantastic, it moves at a brisk and bristling pace and it includes some brilliantly shot set-pieces. Fans of the Soskas will not be disappointed and, if you aren't yet familiar with their work, this serves as a great introduction to the things they do so well.

WORST BITS (mild spoiler warning): If I had one real complaint about See No Evil 2, it would be that Jacobs was given fewer complex acting scenes this time round. Don't get me wrong, he gets lots of neck-snapping, gizzard-ripping moments, but one of the things I liked most about the first movie was the complexity of the character. As much a victim as a villain, Goodnight was fighting an internal struggle against his cracked morality and the abuses of his puritanical mother. In this, after being reunited with his mother's corpse, he totally accepts her diabolical doctrine. I understand this was done for a legitimate story reason, making Goodnight a more focused, lethal threat,  but dang it, Jacobs is a fine actor and I got a kick out of seeing his range before!

Also, while the movie had some great shocks and cool splatter scenes (particularly towards the icky finale) gorehounds may be a little disappointed in the amount of blood and guts on display. Personally, I liked the way the movie built to its visceral highlights, but fans of the likes of Hostel and Saw should be warned that this is decidedly less bloody than those efforts.

Finally, as a big fan of the acting talents of Sylvia and Jen, I was disappointed with their cameo this time around. They rocked in Dead Hooker In A Trunk and were every bit as awesome as the Demon Twins of Berlin in American Mary, so I would have loved to see them do more in See No Evil 2. Oh well, I'll just have to take what I can get!

VERDICT: In your face, Goodnight-haters! This is a great modern slasher flick. The Soska sisters are now 3-0, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us in ABC's of Death 2 and Vendetta. I thoroughly recommend you check out See No Evil 2. Not only does it have a horror cast to die for, it is smart, sexy and scary, and the newly en-masked (it's my blog, I can make up words if I like!) Jacob Goodnight is a brilliantly creepy and downright menacing movie maniac. Hey action-figure makers, get me a Goodnight to sit on the shelf with my Movie Maniacs and Cult Classics here at Hickey's House of Horrors. While you're at it, I'll take a Papa Corn too!
If you want to see what Jen and Sylvia have in store for us, head over to the Twisted Twins Productions Facebook page. Give them a big old like while you’re there too, they deserve it! 

If you haven’t already, do please check out and like the Hickey’s House of Horrors Facebook page, which you can find here. It gives you a nice quick link to any new posts on this blog, plus regular news updates from around the web. I check the Internet so you don’t have to! Alternatively, follow me on twitter: The House@HickeysHorrors

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed your stay.