the lioness

This short film is about a group of bored teens who decide to eat a treat that sends them to a dark realm.

While I've seen some short films that are made on bigger budgets, I commend the film makers for their imagination. The plot is very interesting and I would like to see a longer version of this film. Another thing I found interesting about this short film is the film makers are Lovecraftians and it shows. They understand the concept behind Eldritch beings from another dimension and the terror they can create.

While this short film isn't the best, I still give the film makers kudos on the concept and the story.

I was hoping this film would live up to the image that it presents in the poster and the trailer but it doesn't. It falls flat for me. The scenes on the railway car were scary at times but I felt the film makers didn't take full advantage of the eeriness they created, especially with the pockets of darkness that was in the tunnel. There was too much screaming that just didn't make any sense. I kept wondering why does the female lead scream so much? What was there for her to scream about?

The shots of the scenery were beautiful and the railway cars were awesome but that's all this film had going for it. The ending left me flat and let down.

Black Mountain Side (2014) is what you get when you combine The Shining with Alien and John Carpenter's, The Thing.

We begin at an outpost in Northern Canada after some scientists discover a mound and from there, total madness as each man descends into madness. I must admit I was tempted to see this after a friend of mine asked me about it. It starts off slow in the beginning but the action picks up by the second act. While it does borrow from the other horror films I mentioned earlier, the film does hold its own as we see what happens to the characters.

For those that are Lovecraftians, this film has traces of Lovecraft's, At the Mountains of Madness, in the story. While there's some gore here, the film's violence is gripping to say the least.

There are some downsides to the film. The main issues I have here is what happened to the workers that abandoned the camp? In addition, what happened to the people that originally built the mound the scientists found and who were they?

All and all, this film is worth the watch, despite the downsides to it.