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Haunted Projector

Tag: review

  • Immaculate (2024)

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    I really wanted to like “Immaculate”, but even with it’s strong ending the film didn’t do much to impress me.

    “Immaculate” concerns an American nun who travels to Italy to join a convent there. While there she learns she’s pregnant from seemingly immaculate conception, but there’s more to this convent than meets the eye.

    *spoilers in below paragraph*

    Overall I found the story to be very basic and one note. No real surprises and nothing engaging, the plot just kind of happens. The scene where the villain reveals his scheme was good and I thought the movie was gonna pick up after that, but it just kept threading water until it got to its admittedly great finale. If the enitre movie was as good as the last 10 minutes with Sweeney being stalked in dark ancient catacombs while in labor this probably would of been one of my favorites of the year. Unfortunately I don’t think anything else in the movie matches up to the finale. It feels like it’s trying to be like a 70s Italian horror movie as far as bare plots go, but those are usually way more interesting than what Immaculate offers.

    Sweeney does a decent job in the main role, but like with the story she only really shines in the finale. Which is also the only thing ads online are highlighting. I wonder why?!? Otherwise there aren’t any other particularly interesting performances to be found.

    I was hoping since this is taking a lot of inspiration from classic Italian horror movies it would at least be pretty to look at. Unfortunately that’s not the case. Most of the movie is dark and the colors are muted. There’s a few good shots here and there but most of the movie just isn’t visual interesting. They did try to trick me into being interested by using some music from the classic Gialli “The Red Queen Kills Seven Times”, but all that did was remind me of a better movie.

    A lot of people in horror circles seemed to like “Immaculate”, unfortunately I couldn’t find much to like about. Except for the blood soaked crazy finale it was entirely forgetable. Which is unfortunate because I did really wanna like it and I think there was a good movie in it. Which is honestly more disappointing than a bad movie that was bad from the start.

  • The Grapes of Death (1978)

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    Jean Rollin’s 1978 film “The Grapes of Death” is one of the French directors most well known films. It concerns a French vineyard town where the population is turned into zombies after consuming wine made with grapes that were sprayed with experimental pesticides. We follow a woman who after being attacked on a train by one of the zombies, attempts to get to safety. The plot is simple, but there’s enough of Rollin’s signature imagery and twists on horror to keep things interesting the entire runtime.

    Although it’s considered a zombie film, “The Grapes of Death” like Rollins’ vampire pictures gives the creatures their own twist, in which the zombies almost drift from knowing what their doing is wrong back to being bloodthirsty killers and then back again to realization. This creates horrifying situations where zombies realize they’ve just killed someone they love. I almost feel the best comparison is Romero’s “The Crazies” as far as zombie movies go. You just have to replace small town Pennsylvania with the French countryside!

    Thinking of stunning visuals “Grapes” doesn’t have my favorite Rollin visuals, but still the misty landscape of the french countryside and the zombies wandering through it and crumbling villages is a treat to watch for fans of the kind of atmosphere you can find in Rollin’s films. In a couple of reviews I’ve read people seem to be critical of the zombie makeup in the film, but I find the unrealistic appearance of it to heighten its effectiveness. Seeing the blood and pus ooze out of peoples pulsating heads as they lose their mind to the pesticide is truly pretty gross.

    My only real criticism of the film is that there’s some very choppy editing moments scattered throughout the film, but even then I think some of them contribute to the nightmarish mood of the film.

    With its slightly more traditional plot I think “Grapes” would be a good introduction to the works of Rollin. There’s nothing confusing about it and at its heart it’s a zombie movie just done differently than most American and European ones at the time. If you’re into 70s eurohorror this is definitely one to check out.