Strix

If you want to hear the same "sloppy tacos" one of their Mum's made "jokes" over, and over. Then this film might be for you. I watch a lot of independent horror, so I can forgive things not being perfect if they're fun to watch. But it just doesn't land for me.

Like there's even a bit were some people are murdering some people, and it had the potential to be funny, but it just didn't land. Like a lot of the conversations are too unnatural, and so awkward that it just really snaps you out of what's going on. It feels like a chore to watch.

The idea, and set up could have worked, but the script really needed working on.

In October 1978 children that visited the Rio Skating Rink are being abducted from the old Sheol Woods and grown ups are being killed by the STRIX witch cult whose women bathe in the blood of their victims. Roller Rink employee has a psychic connection to the murders and when the child she babysat gets abducted she tries to track her down. Also on the trail are a relentless bounty hunter named Thief and his goofy partner Royce as well as the way out of their element fuzz.

Strix had a great '70s feel about it but there were too many characters and they tried to cram too much into the run time. The goofy male cult members were kind of funny at times and our hero Thief was a genuine badass but I just couldn't get into this one.

So far ratings have been one or ten. Both seem a little too polarised.

Stumbled over this one on Amazon and have to say, I loved it. Totally silly, cheesy, really funny, and seemingly determined to not give one, about whether anyone likes it or not.

Basically, if you want earnest art cinema, you may not last long on this one, but if you want no-apologies ridiculous trash cinema, this is definitely worth a watch. The characters are cardboard, yet likeable. The bounty hunter is preposterous, the villains veer between camp bloodbathers and absurdly trivial conversations. The attempt at a 1970s vibe is surprisinmgly effective. Turn off brain and have fun.

I really enjoyed it.

Stoneberry hasn't made a bad film yet but that these films could be so much better screams that more budget is needed in the right places, namely sound and editing and perhaps a few more days of production time. I mention production time because 80% of their films are stylized where the cinematography thrives, but 20% always seems rushed where cinematography wasn't given enough space.

Each of their films are plagued with bad acting sporadically. Two of their standouts are Paula Marcenaro Solinger and Billy Blair who are in each of the three films. They both act their asses off for Stoneberry. Abel and Jennifer themselves are solid performers as well and appear in their own work. Beyond them almost all of the rest of their casts are amateurs and that's where s great deal of their films fall apart. Supporting actors, very poor sound mixing, and edits that desperately need to be strictly tightened to make many of the line exchanges feel natural and work, would benefit Stoneberry highly. Some of the comedy in their films would be much funnier if the edit was cut for comedic timing.

I'm a fan of Stoneberry and know what to expect when I watch their work but I desperately want to see a film they make not plagued with these issues. Ultra low budget can work without having these issues.

Following a rash of strange murders, the parents of a missing victim hire an unconventional bounty hunter and his friend to recapture her and bring her back, but when they find out they've been captured by a crazed cult looking to offer them as sacrifices for a powerful deity race to save them from the cult's clutches.

Overall, this was pretty enjoyable for what it is. Among the film's better factors is a rather solid setup that serves to introduce everything quite well. By introducing the main girl as the kind of stereotypical good student looking to do the right thing, the family searching for their missing daughter being contacted by the renegade hunter to look into everything, and the exploits of his friend taking them into contact with the cult doing the kidnapping, this all offers a solid starting point here. The various storylines that intermingle due to this setup offer some great grindhouse-style scenes as they search through the community finding what they can against the cult. That setup generates some fun once the threat turns to where the film gets to operate as a rescue mission. As the bounty hunter and his friend move through the community which takes them into the woods, the concurrent scenes featuring the two meeting up and playing around with the locals on their quest to get to the heart of the cult's operations make it all fun enough until the final confrontation. Those scenes are where the film serves this best where the race to infiltrate their underground lair to save the kidnapped girls which adds some fun action-packed brawling going through the members and some brutal gore for the over-the-top kills. These manage to have a lot to like while there are some issues with this one. One of the main issues in this one is a rather unnecessary addition of comedy attached to the cult scenes which don't need to be there. This is mostly from the neurotic motormouth member who goes on and on with his spiel that some might find funny but does this at the wrong moments for those kinds of antics which renders a lot of the fear of the cult feel less imposing. That goes alongside the somewhat underwhelming lack of motivation for their rampage who are going through the motions but don't have the chance to spell everything out with all the extra time spent on those other issues which all end up dragging it down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, and Brief Nudity.