bruce_nawrocki

A masked serial killer known as "The Pill" is hunting high-school students in the small town of Page Hollow (but actually filmed in Pomona, CA). The killings are brutal, although if you've watched Friday the 13th films, maybe they aren't any worse than those.

What sets the film apart is the care taken to spend time with these characters. At the heart of the story is Cameron (Jan Luis Castellanos), a nebbish and loner teen whose father has recently died, and is struggling to find a path forward. He lives with his more self-assured sister Kathryn (Tiana Le) and mother (Vanessa Rubio, of "Cobra Kai" fame). Another strong performance is from Elizabeth Yu, who plays his best friend Shawn.

Cameron isn't handling high school well - without much of a social life and no real friends, he is mercilessly bullied by the school jocks, the main gang leader is coincidentally another "Cobra Kai" alumni - Gianni DeCenzo.

After a short prologue sequence involving the first killing of the film, it surprisingly jumps backward one week to fill in the action and killings referred to in the prologue. That's a refreshing twist.

"Black Spines" relies perhaps a bit too much on high school tropes - dumb jocks, bullies, etc. But maybe that's expected and necessary in a film like this. Plus, the killer has an almost supernatural ability to be in the exactly right place and time when a potential victim is alone. And no one, including the police, spends much time trying to determine the identity of "The Pill".

Despite these drawbacks, the entire cast is assured and likeable. Although the plot is in some ways derivative of other teen slasher films, there are enough twists and unique family dynamics to keep your interest.

Saw this at Nevermore Film Festival in Durham, NC. This film nails the true-crime documentary format, with two hard-boiled detectives relating the story of how they worked to track down a serial killer in San Bernardino County, CA. It's like an extended edition of Dateline crossed with horror, and that's a grand compliment.

There are a lot of killings for the detectives to describe, but leads Peter Zizzo (Det. Joe Kirby) and Terri Apple (Det. Alexis 'Lexi' Taylor) keep it intensely interesting. Their sincere performance helps ground the film, which has a lot of pretty horrifying details to relate.

Although their testimony are mostly filmed seated (separately) in a studio, there are plenty of on-site details of the murders, and insightful and realistic interviews with the people who knew the victims.

The identity of the killer, who calls himself Mr. Shiny, and his reason for his killing spree is kept partially unknown to us until late in the film, which helps slowly ratchet up the suspense from beginning to end.

The film is quite gory, as it doesn't shy away from showing us the aftermath of the murders, each grisly in its own warped way.

When you realize the real reason for the murders (which you might guess sooner than I), the film takes on another dimension of fright.

To finish, if you like police procedurals, but find them too tame, this fictional account is a remarkable likeness of the format, as long as you're ready for some disturbing images.

Saw this at 2020 Nevermore Horror Film Festival. Although a low budget film, its great orchestral score helped accentuate the suspense. I preferred to know as little as possible about the plot going in, and it certainly kept me guessing about what was going to happen next, and who set this into motion until the finale, which is difficult to do well. So, I won't spoil any of it here either.