Double Feature: Dog Soldiers (2002) & Hell House LLC (2015)

Welcome to the next double feature! Something of a horror double feature as we start bouncing between Shudder and Netflix more (so more horror in the horizon..a lot more). The first to appear is a pairing of one movie that I’ve been wanting to watch the finally go on Shudder, Dog Soldiers and the second is a random choice by my husband, the first of three movies called Hell House LLC. Let’s check it out!

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Director (and writer): Neil Marshall

Cast: Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Emma Cleasby, Liam Cunningham, Thomas Lockyer, Darren Morfitt, Chris Robson, Leslie Simpson

A routine military exercise turns into a nightmare in the Scotland wilderness. – IMDB

Werewolf movies are rather hard to come by and its nice to see that here and there they do come up even if a lot of times, it sometimes still feels a bit lacking. Dog Soldiers has my praise for tackling this subgenre in horror films but at the same time, the movie itself is something of a slow-burn. It plays up on the unknown of who is hunting them and why this military team is at the location at the time and that takes a lot of time to build, probably longer than I’d have wanted.

There are some decent scenes and yet, while the script tries to give all the characters something more, its main players do dial down to 4 of the characters especially when they end up trapped in the house. The two military exercise leaders of sorts is Sean Pertwee’s character Sergeant Wells and Kevin McKidd’s character Private Cooper who takes over when Wells ends up injured rather seriously. The next two is a woman who lives in the area and knows of these odd events happening played by Emma Cleasby as a character of Megan who gives them a lot of the information as she saves them from the wilderness  while the last is a Captain who won’t talk about what happened but was involved in the last attack that killed his team pretty much.

Dog Soldiers itself has a decent premise. The story its trying to tell and the way they want to add in the twists and answer all those mysteries. Even some of the attack scenes and werewolf designs, despite its budget, still works alright. The biggest issue here dials down to execution where the first half seems to lag a little and when the reveal happens and things get serious (even though there were attack scenes and other scenes before that), it seems a little late in the game making the second half definitely stronger than the first.

Hell House LLC (2015)

Director (and writer): Stephen Cognetti

Cast: Gore Abrams, Alice Bahlke, Danny Bellini, Theodore Bouloukos, Jared Hacker, Ryan Jennifer Jones

Five years after an unexplained malfunction causes the death of 15 tour-goers and staff on the opening night of a Halloween haunted house tour, a documentary crew travels back to the scene of the tragedy to find out what really happened. – IMDB

Found footage films are always a somewhat interesting horror genre to see. They usually all reliant on the execution and finding how to create the right atmosphere. With Hell House LLC, its the first in what is now a 3 movie franchise. We’ll be looking at the other 2 later on as a double feature. This is an independent movie and yet somehow, found footage films are usually still very good with a smaller budget. This first movie does a great job in its execution and especially in using its cameras and background to have this lurking horror atmosphere. There are a few little jumpscares here and there but they are also very effective.

What does shine here is in the premise of looking back at this documentary that five crew members have joined together for their next haunted house tour in this abandoned hotel called Abaddon Hotel located in a small town . It shows the entire lead-up through the surveillance cameras and other filming cameras that document the whole making-of up to the night of the malfunction. It uses its lighting and darkness pretty well and also builds a decent lore with the story of the hotel and its previous hotel owner. It all makes sense but lacks enough information to keep it a mystery and how these characters one by one change in their own ways and it becomes a question of whether its because of the hotel and whatever seems to be haunting it or just the haunted house weighing down on them for other reasons. 

Overall, Hell House LLC is a strong found footage film. It has enough of a creepy factor and helps itself by having all these mysterious stories and how it brings in different horror elements in the background. There’s a change in the characters as well as the entire haunted house deal making it have a lot of opportunities to play with these suitable horror elements to appear amidst the haunted house props that also play well with the whole premise. Its one location makes Abaddon Hotel a worthy horror setting. Its definitely worth a watch if you  haven’t seen it yet!

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen these two films?

BITS 2019: Hunter’s Moon (World Premiere 2019)

Hunter’s Moon (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Matthew Campagna

Cast: Steven Morana, Holly Deveaux, Ari Millen, Colm Feore, Katie Boland, Art Hindle, Marco Timpano, Bobbie Philips, Melissa D’Agostino, Jon Cor

A creature-feature twist on the Agatha Christie Whodunit thriller-genre, that turns into an action-packed race for survival when the killer is revealed. – IMDB

I always say that werewolf movies are really not done enough. In fact, if you look back at the last while, there really hasn’t been too many without them having to pair with the vampires world or some other world. Its why Hunter’s Moon is a movie that hits a lot of elements that become very intriguing and one that breaks through overused topics especially as it hits a clever style of whodunnit (which is a fairly challenging mystery to tackle) and action-paced survival.

Hunter’s Moon is about a video game launch party that has to be hosted by their introvert and anti-social lead designer, August (Steven Morana) who reluctantly takes the reins when the game development company’s owner Brian (Art Hindle) is under scrutiny for some questionable practices. While August would prefer to be anywhere else but the party, he is motivated to be there to meet an online friend, Cheyenne (Holly Deveaux) that he has been interested in furthering their relationship. Unfortunately, the party takes a turn when the guests start falling dead in different ways and its seeming that the game is somehow coming to life in its way. As they try to survive while deciphering who is behind all this, its a rather wild ride.

There’s this very cheesy satisfaction to Hunter’s Moon. Its not that the effects aren’t done well or that there are any technical elements that aren’t done on point. Actually, the scenes itself including the cinematography and the atmosphere matches with the style here, whether its in the first part of the whole who-dunnit mystery investigation or the second part where its a game of survival. The story here feels like a fun little ride. Its never really that intense but its an entertaining fun time, which feels like what its partially trying to achieve. The oddest part of the film is some weird change in tones with its background music especially one specific scene that gets some sudden action happens and then switches to some sexy music. Its a bit odd in the beginning but then its also something has this very satisfying moment to it all in the most awkward way. Plus, the whole werewolf transformation (which is a key element in werewolf films) as well as the whole blood and gore is executed pretty good.

If there were any little things that may have fell a little short, it might be that some of the characters weren’t written well or there was some overacting for some of the supporting cast. There are quite a few smaller roles here and its a question of whether they were intended to have this bit of over the top elements to give them a sort of more comedic element to the film. I can’t quite decide the intention yet. Other than that, there is a certain level of deliberateness to how some items come into play like Cheyenne having a gun in her purse for example. Coincidences sometimes gives the film a level of being on rails but yet, there are quite a bit of unpredictable turns here and transitions that do take it off guard mostly in a good way.

The main cast was very fun to watch including Steve Morana as the male lead here who has this subtle intensity to this character behind his introvert personality paired up with Holly Deveaux as Cheyenne who is a rather bad-ass female character. There are some comedic reliefs  as well as some other more intense characters like Remy (Ari Millen) and even a supporting role from Colm Feore (who honestly seems to appear in some of the less expected films).

Overall, Hunter’s Moon has some little things that fall short here and there but its a fun little experience. Its always great to see these lesser used film story telling themes/genre get used and in one film, they hit werewolves and whodunnit all in one shot along with the backdrop of a video game launch party turned into a night of survival which somehow all fits together rather well. Its shot well and the atmosphere is done well and between all this supposedly more suspenseful environment, there still a good balance of fun entertaining elements. Its a satisfying film overall to watch and so much to appreciate.

As an ending thought, the ending does leave me wondering whether there is space for a sequel because that could be fun.