ANTRUM (2018, streaming on Amazon Prime) is a terrific horror movie in a terrible package. Let me explain.

The film comes with its own packaged legend. It opens as a mockumentary in which the film is alleged to be cursed and that anybody who watches it dies, complete with a series of stories of strange deaths. The only surviving print was found at an estate sale–which apparently was tampered with by a cult, resulting in grisly frames and overlays inserted in the film allowed to stay in for present release–and is now available for the public to watch. This part of the film feels cynical and just didn’t work for me, though apparently some people are Googling whether the movie is safe to watch (sigh). Just what 2020 needs: a film on a major streaming service that kills people.

Anyway, after this setup, we get to the film proper, which is surprisingly good. The story is this: After being forced to put their dog to sleep, a teenage girl takes her little brother into the woods to dig a hole to Hell to release the dog’s soul. Through sound, music, a grainy 70s feel, and imagery, the filmmakers turn a simple story into one filled with an atmosphere of constant and mounting dread, and without a single cheap jump scare. Thematically, the story touches on a child’s imagination of Hell and a very real hell, and how they may be linked. The artistic direction is very good, very 70s horror, unnerving, and unsettling, and both of the young actors are terrific, particularly Rowan Smyth, who plays the boy Nathan.

So despite finding the mockumentary element too heavy-handed for willing suspension of disbelief, I loved ANTRUM and highly recommend it for horror fans.

Written and directed by Jason Lei Howden, GUNS AKIMBO (2020) is a fast-paced splatterfest, but its forced plot and TRUMAN-style elements dilutes its impact. Daniel Radcliffe proves again he’s acting now for pure fun and is up for anything, and Samara Weaving once again brings a great performance. Overall, the film is fun but kind of mind-numbing.

In the near future, an underground fight club called Skizm live streams real-life death matches between psychotic criminals. When computer programmer Miles Harris (Radcliffe) trolls the trolls on Skizm’s forums, he catches the attention of Skizm’s boss, and after an abduction, wakes to find out two guns have been bolted into his hands and he’s now in the game himself, faced off against the game’s most savage killer, Nix.

What follows is a fun romp as Miles fights to evade Nix until he’s forced to face off against Skizm itself.

The setup is great, the performances are great, and there’s a NATURAL BORN KILLERS flair and vibe to the action and frequent adrenaline plot injections. Overall, I found it kind of fun. But it often feels forced–from the plot to the overbaked villain to the overuse of one-liners–so much so I myself didn’t feel much of anything. Near the end, there are frequent TRUMAN SHOW-style reaction shots from the audience watching the game online, reminding us how we’re supposed to be reacting, but by the end I wasn’t cheering but instead felt kind of numb.

I’m not adverse to good mindless violence on film, in fact sometimes I seek it out. GUNS AKIMBO does the job, but overall it didn’t quite come together for me. So I guessed I like this one but didn’t love it the way I did similar films like MAYHEM.

Based on the short story by H.P. Lovecraft, COLOR OUT OF SPACE starts out as clunky family drama and ends as a nightmarish horror acid trip. I liked it, particularly its crazy final act.

Directed and co-written by Richard Stanley–his first feature film since being fired from THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU in 1996–and counting Elijah Wood among its producers–the story centers on a family that moves out to the country, where a strange meteorite lands and begins to infect and transform the surrounding landscape and the family’s reality. Can they recognize the danger they’re in and escape in time?

The acting is solid (including a bit part for Tommy Chong), while Nicolas Cage, following up great performances in MANDY and MOM AND DAD, again shows off his capability to switch from sleepy amusement to complete manic menace. The pacing and direction are similarly solid, though the writing is a little clunky in the beginning as we’re introduced to the family and the “normal” that is about to be shattered, which made it hard for me to get behind any of the family members as the central protagonist. (There were also a few smacking-my-head moments when the characters made really bad choices.) By the second and especially the third act, though, the movie screams off the rails in a trippy rush of psychedelia and body horror.

The result is a modernization of Lovecraft while staying as true as possible to the original story, offering a load of fun for horror fans.

Stanley says COLOR OUT OF SPACE is the first in a planned trilogy of Lovecraft films. The next is intended to be based on “The Dunwich Horror.”