I loved In a Violent Nature. What a clever way to approach the slasher genre. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Prfsnl!
13. Evil Dead Trap
Despite the title, this movie has nothing to do with the Evil Dead franchise, so don't think it does. Instead, it's a Japanese slasher film, but one with a...unique enemy. The plot follows a late night TV host named Nami who receives a snuff film and decides to investigate with her show staff. Unfortunately, that's exactly what the killer wanted, luring them to an abandoned military facility to then begin stalking and killing them one by one. But the killer is intentionally saving Nami for last, so she gets to live and suffer.
The kills in this film are pretty brutal, starting with eyeball trauma in the snuff film and eventually leading to nasty booby traps, a rape scene, garroting, and some bizarre pyrokinesis. The pyrokinesis in particular will require you watch the film to explain, because I don't want to ruin the sheer what-the-fuck nature of it and the killer. And the ending too, because for those of you who have seen it, what the fuck did I just watch? For the rest of you...just go watch it.
Also, there's a sex scene early on that I thought was surprisingly long and well shot...until I realized the actress was Hitomi Kobayashi, one of the first Adult Video stars in Japan. Yeah, they got a porn star in the movie, so they use her and then kill her off in a way that involves, well, a lot of penetration. Points for creativity.
Yeah, I really enjoyed Evil Dead Trap. It's bizarre, but I found it a fun ride.
14. Down
This movie is also known as The Shaft in the US. It's a lesser remake of the 1980s Dutch film De Lift, made by the same director, Dick Maas. I haven't seen the original, but apparently it's beloved in the Netherlands. I had seen his film Sint though, which I enjoyed, and the trailer revealed to me that this movie had both Ron Perlman and Michael Ironside, so I was down to watch it. And, oh boy, this movie feels like a made-for-tv horror film with more swearing and some absurdly terrible timing.
A lightning storm in New York City causes an elevator to start a killing spree. But the elevator is more than it appears, involving military-grade secrets in biotechnology and what might be the cells of a murdered elevator repairman who now wants his revenge. It's up to another elevator employee and a tabloid journalist to figure out what's going on and save the day, but in the meantime, the cops think its a killer manipulating the elevators, and then later, terrorists.
This movie only got a theatrical release in the Netherlands. Why? Probably because there is a scene in this film where the police are loading Stinger missiles into the skyscraper. One asks why, and another responds, "Terrorists have airplanes now." They then joke about saying hi to bin Laden if they see him in the building. The film premiered at Cannes and then got its single theatrical release about four months later...on September 6, 2001. Yeah, I guess terrorists do have airplanes. Down finally got a straight to video release in 2004.
Also not helping it is that it feels like a low budget movie. The film was cut in a way where it has built in commercial breaks, the acting from many characters feels wooden, the sets feel cheap in their attempt at 1920s styling, and everything has a layer of goofiness to it, because, yes, you are watching a movie about killer elevators that makes no damn sense in what they can do. It's not a good movie. I was entertained, but mainly due to how bad it was. Still, I can say I have seen it, and now I want to track down the original, so it does have that going for it.
