Nocturne

Some kids throw a graduation party at a house. One of them does card tricks and talks about religion and falsifiability. He suggests they play an alternate Ouija game using labelled cards. They start asking questions mostly about sex. There are some unresolved romantic issues among the group. They fail to end the session with "good bye" and something breaks the glass they've been using.

They spend time in the jacuzzi playing "Never Have I Ever" which reveals some more about the characters. Afterward, finally, one hour into the movie, one of the character shows some strange signs. She displays some magic tricks of her own, starts talking in unison while someone else is speaking and can even say ahead of time what the other person is about to say. Things eventually turn deadly as the weird girl starts looking sick and recites biblical passages about the devil. Things turn strange as she seems to have some control over time as well. The innocent girl, who has some dark secrets of her own, will have to figure out a way to survive all this.

Nocturne managed to surprise me. It's smart, has a good story with some surprises, attractive actresses, some nudity, and a bit of gore. I have such low expectations of lower-budget horror movies these days but this movie is better than most. That said, it takes too long for things to get going, once the action begins it had my full attention, but the character are stuck acting nonsensically. I'm also not crazy about the dark sepia look of the movie. Nocturne represents a strong effort by a small production team.

Arriving at a friends' house, a disturbed teen joins in with others to play with an ouija board only for a series of secrets to emerge from the group which leads to a somewhat sinister supernatural presence to start in killing them off and forces them to fight it off to get away alive.

This was an incredibly disappointing and banal supernatural effort. Among the few noteworthy parts here is the fact that the film really lets loose with some solid supernatural tricks when it decides to play with them. While completely predictable, the seance sequence where they get wind of all the different secrets amongst everyone and the first signs of the possession taking place gives this one the type of setup that nicely leads into the antics later on which really push this one along. Admittedly clever tactics, from the repeating of the entire conversation as it's happening between multiple people to the convulsing and fake deaths all letting this one go even crazier in the final half with not only the full extent of the secrets being revealed but also the supernatural action coming into play. This one certainly gets crazier the longer it goes on as the film offers up some rather chilling scenes that show the demonic influence at work with the numerous self-inflicted situations that come up to torment everyone, from encounters with ghostly figures from their past to being forced to mutilate themselves and all the more chilling as it plays out. These here are what manages to really hold this one up as it does have a few massive flaws. The main issue with the film is the sheer boringness of the film as a whole since barely anything happens at all here. Since so much of the film is based on them partying in the house and hanging out together, barely anything horror-related happens for until the midway point and it's not until even later that anyone even catches onto the ploy. This here really takes so long to get going by featuring this uninteresting group of people that it never really generates much interest with them simply playing around with each other around the house which never works all that much here. As well, there's no reason for the possession to come about here as it's rather curious as to why this one goes in that fashion. Nothing ever really comes about due to her getting that way, this never does offer a reason why it happens or why it's the specific individual and the whole concept here does have some big credibility issues. The other issue here comes from the circular ending, which is a complete cop-out and signifies that there was no real idea how to end this as the tactic is confusing and completely underscores what had happened before. It has its moments, but overall this one has some big flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, drug use and mild violence-against-animals.

This one wasn't too bad. Some High School / College kids meet for a 'party' which turns out to be not so much of a party, more like a gathering. They decide to entertain themselves with a deck of cards to use it like a tarot deck. Then the fun really starts!!! You get some demonic love, some interdimensional / planar travel, and a prime example of what kind of parties to avoid in the future!!!

I found Nocturne because it had some of the actors from Mythica in it. Based on the tag line, and my good experiences watching the Mythica films, I had high hopes that Nocture would be quite good. I was expecting a story involving a relationship with a demon that inevitably turned bad. Unfortunately, that wasn't really what the film was about. Having watched the film a couple of times now, I still don't really know what the motives of the demon were. The whole thing just doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and I certainly didn't get to see the film I was hoping for.

The set up; A group of friends have an impromptu seance and invoke a dangerous and vengeful entity. Sounds simple, right? Well, for a micro-budget film, it did everything it set out to do, and succeeded in more ways than it failed. First, the acting; most of the cast was really, exceptionally talented. You believed them when they spoke, and it felt like watching a group of friends interact as if you were a fly on the wall.

Secondly, the story doesn't take too long to get going, and once it does, it doesn't let up, even for a minute. The special effects were really nicely implemented, and the levitating objects and gore-effects were really top-tier. (That bathroom scene will forever be etched in my mind). The star of the show is the girl who is possessed. She really took her role and ran with it, and the movie grew better because of it. She made the movie, and I am so happy to see that the rest of the cast pulled their weight.

So, I went in with zero professional cinematography and directorial finesse, is more than made up for by strong performances and some neat SFX. Overall, one of the best surprises of the year. Highly recommended.