Arrow in the Head reviews Bring Her to Me, a new erotic horror film from Charles Band’s Full Moon that will be streaming for Halloween

PLOT: A woman plagued by nightmares of a demon tries to rid herself of these bad dreams with the help of a friend and a dream interpreter.

REVIEW: Back in the early days of his company Full Moon, Charles Band produced and directed a film called Meridian, which was basically an erotic horror take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. Band’s son Alex (you might know him from the hit songs he made with his band The Calling) has said that one of his earliest memories is of being on the set of one of his dad’s movies and seeing “a woman having sex with a giant rat”. That had to be Meridian… and there are more problematic elements to that film than just the idea that little Alex Band was running around on set and seeing things he shouldn’t have seen. Thirty-plus years later, the latest Full Moon production is another erotic horror film called Bring Her to Me – and while the story and setting of this one is very different from Meridian, I couldn’t help thinking of that earlier production while watching this movie. And in some ways, Bring Her to Me comes off like an attempt to make up for questionable decisions made during the crafting of Meridian.

Bring Her to Me stars Bec Doyle as Mara, who is plagued by nightmares that see her drifting into a dark void where someone is waiting for her… something that appears to be a man, but also transforms into a demon. These nightmares are terrifying for Mara and she wakes up from them feeling completely drained, like the dream is feeding on her energy. When she tells her coffee shop pal Raz (Kalond Irlanda) about this problem, he reveals that he has sought help for nightmares himself, and a woman named Abagail (Ros Gentle) – a dream interpreter who is “admittedly eccentric” – solved the problem for him. Mara agrees to give Abagail’s services a try… and the advice she receives is to see the dream through to its conclusion.

So the bulk of Bring Her to Me’s short (under 60 minutes) running time consists of scenes where Abagail and Raz come over to Mara’s apartment to watch her sleep while her subconscious takes her to that dark void to meet with the man who’s waiting for her. Played by Emerson Niemchick, this man is willing to give Mara anything she might desire, whether that might be fruit, drinks, or a pile of cocaine. Yet she still finds him too terrifying to give into, especially when he shows off his demon look. While Mara dreams of this man, the film cuts away to Abagail and Raz looking like they’re not as trustworthy as they initially seem, but we can’t be sure if that’s reality or an extension of Mara’s nightmares.

As mentioned, there is an erotic element to this film, so chances are that many viewers are going to put it on primarily in hopes of getting to see Bec Doyle in various states of undress – and those viewers will be rewarded, because there is plenty of bare skin on display, despite there being less sex scenes than some might expect. But Mara isn’t just there to be ogled. As the story goes on, she gets to show off an inner strength that isn’t apparent at first. I was impressed by Doyle’s performance, and left wanting to see a movie where she gets to play a badass, in-control character for the duration. While Doyle gets to play both terrified and strong, her co-stars get to have over-the-top moments and chew the scenery in a fun way.

Bring Her to Me comes to us from the same creative team that was behind the goofball Full Moon movie The Gingerweed Man, director Brooks Davis and screenwriter Kent Roudebush, and is just the second feature directorial credit for Davis. Having proven he could bring silliness to the screen with his first movie, Davis proves here that he’s also capable of taking a bit more of a serious approach and delivering a good erotic horror movie. If Bring Her to Me were slightly shorter than its already short runtime, it would have been a strong segment of an anthology, and that’s kind of what it still feels like. But instead of a segment in an anthology, it’s another chapter in the ongoing Full Moon saga, and it’s an enjoyable addition to the company’s massive library.

I just have one question: what is up with the locations in this movie? Every place is a rundown mess. The walls are falling apart in the coffee shop, and even the walls of Mara’s apartment look disgusting. It’s no wonder she’s having nightmares, living in a place that looks like that.

Bring Her to Me will be streaming on FullMoonFeatures.com as of October 27th.

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The 1986 rock ‘n roll horror classic Trick or Treat will be streaming on SCREAMBOX just in time for Halloween

The 1986 rock ‘n roll horror film Trick or Treat, one of my all-time favorite movies, is getting a Blu-ray and 4K UHD release (and possibly a new DVD release) from Synapse Films. We’re still waiting to hear a release date for that, as obviously the company wasn’t able to meet the hoped-for October release window – but while we wait for the special physical media release, Trick or Treat is set to making its streaming debut on the SCREAMBOX service this Friday, October 27th! Just in time for Halloween viewing!

Directed by Charles Martin Smith from a screenplay by Rhet Topham, Joel Soisson, and Michael S. Murphey (with an uncredited polish from the Final Destination duo of James Wong and Glen Morgan), Trick or Treat has the following synopsis: This mesmerizing horror adventure takes you into the terrifying dark side of rock’n’roll. Marc Price (Family Ties) stars as Eddie Weinbauer, a teenage outcast who idolizes Sammi Curr, a heavy metal rock superstar. After Sammi dies a violent death, his spirit returns to help Eddie get even with his high school tormentors. In doing so, Sammi begins to gain control over Eddie’s life and brings him deeper into the world of the occult. When Eddie realizes that he has become the tool of Sammi’s evil revenge, he attempts to stop him. The horrifying events that follow leave no one unscathed.

Marc Price is joined in the cast by Lisa Orgolini, Doug Savant, Elaine Joyce, and Glen Morgan, with Tony Fields as Sammi Curr and special appearances by Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons.

SCREAMBOX acquired the Trick or Treat streaming rights from Red Shirt Pictures/Synapse Films, so the film’s streaming debut will also be the first time fans will be able to watch the new restoration from Synapse Films.

SCREAMBOX is powered by our friends at Bloody Disgusting, and Brad Miska, the Managing Director of Bloody Disgusting/Cineverse, provided the following statement: “Heavy metal, horror and raising Hell, does it get more 80s than that? Often forgotten among the Freddys and Jasons of the decade, Trick or Treat broke new ground by tapping into the varied interests of their viewers. The keen understanding these filmmakers had would allow for the expanse of the genre for years to come. Releasing titles like this is the best part of running a service like SCREAMBOX, because we are able to find these gems and share them with a new generation.“

Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures added, “Trick or Treat has been my ‘white whale’ so-to-speak for more years than I can count. This movie had fallen through the cracks for years, and now it’s coming back in a big, big way.  Getting to work with Synapse Films to restore and re-release this criminally underrated rock ‘n’ shock rollercoaster ride has been a dream come true!  Red Shirt Pictures is thrilled to work with SCREAMBOX to help expose the legend of Sammi Curr to a whole new audience!“

Are you a fan of Trick or Treat, and are you glad to hear the movie will be streaming on SCREAMBOX? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The episode of Revisited covering Crimson Peak was Written by Emilie Black, Edited by Ric Solomon, Narrated by Niki Minter, Produced by Tyler Nichols and John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

As of now, I think my love for Guillermo Del Toro as a filmmaker is well established. I adore the man and his work. He plays in my favorite sandboxes, with monsters, vampires, kaiju, giant robots, and in the gothic world whenever he feels like it. The man is after my heart with every single movie he makes. In 2015, he went ahead and asked himself, what does this girl love that she hasn’t gotten a whole lot of lately? And he answered with a gothic love story with ghosts in a Hammer-esque setting in a mansion with walls that bleed and memories imbedded in its construction. So, if you didn’t guess from all that, this is a love letter to Crimson Peak (watch it HERE), a film that cannot be judged logically even after years as a film reviewer. And years is an understatement as that’s over 20 years of film reviewing for me and well, this film hit all the right notes, except for one, but we’ll get to that later. Let’s start with the overall rating I’d give this film. In my totally, completely unbiased opinion, Crimson Peak is a solid 9.5/10. There is only one thing that bugs me about it and well, yeah, of course it does.

So, how does a film get this close to a perfect grade? Well, the story here is that perfect mix of gothic period piece, about love, jealousy, romance, murder, and ghosts. Yeah, ghosts and that’s where it’s at really. The film here is about a writer, a young woman who isn’t taken seriously in the world of publication because, well, she’s a woman and a young one at that. Her father also doesn’t take her ambitions of becoming a writer seriously and wants her to get married to a good husband. Enters a mysterious man who seems too good to be true, encourages her writing, and wants her. He’s of course also interested in selling his invention to her father, a machine that extracts red clay. Blood red clay. This doesn’t go as he’d like, skipping a few details, he father ends up getting killed, she ends up marrying the mysterious charmer, moves into his dilapidated mansion, ends up living with him and his sister, we discover that the brother and sister are way closer than they should be, but he loves her, making his sister angry, things get weird, ghosts show up, she’s poisoned, old flame comes back, people die, more ghosts, happy ending. Or something. It’s way more complicated than this but we don’t want to spend this whole video to be all about the details of the story as we could very well be if you get me going on this movie.

The story here is well written by Guillermo Del Toro, who needs no introduction I hope, and Mathew Robbins whose other credits include *batteries not included, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, Mimic and its sequel, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, and a bunch more before Crimson Peak. He’s got some cred, but no gothic romances with ghosts and bleeding blood. So, we can easily assume that some of that was from Del Toro who loves the creepy stuff and the monsters and the ghosts. The pairing here works great. The one “ick” from this story is when it comes to the incestual relationship between two of the leads. Yeah, it’s kind of period appropriate, it’s something that adds tension and creates weirdness, but could we have gone with childhood friends or orphanage roommates or something else. Yeah, it’s something that happens, but do we really need it here? Personally, I think the film would have little to no change had Lucille and Thomas been childhood friends or orphanage companions. There was a way around the incest, but it’s there, so we shall live with it. In terms of rating, it does affect my rating, hence the 0.5 out of 10 removed from the film being perfect. Call me a prude over this, I don’t care. I am pretty open to things; this is something that didn’t need to be. So that’s why the film doesn’t get a perfect grade.

Now, let’s check out the cast. Some folks had issues with some of it, but I didn’t. I went in there just hoping for good performances and good is what I got. Actually, some of them are great. In terms of the cast, that is where I want to start, with two smaller parts that are so good, they are chilling. Technically, there are 5 parts, but 2 actors. In the parts of Edith’s Mother and Lady Sharpe we get Doug Jones and in the parts of Enola, Margaret, Pamela, we get Javier Botet. Two master monster actors. Just the top best. Yes, the parts probably could have gone to ladies, but these two work great with Del Toro and they are amazing at doing those creepy moves, the subtle variations that are present in the dead, in monsters, in ghosts. They do so great here, they are the top best performances in the film. We barely get to see them, but they push the creepy factor to eleven and they are so great and unexpected here. Having gone in not knowing this was a ghost story, their presence was so very much welcomed, and their performances are beloved. Now, back to the living, or at least the living characters in the film. The lead here is Edith Cushing, whose last name cannot be an accident. This lead is played by Mia Wasikowska who is perfect in the part. She’s great at having that wide-eyed hopefulness about her, then see it turn into love, then see this evolved into a sort of fear, then despair. Her work here is lovely. It would fit in any period piece and in any gothic film, so it’s just right here. Playing her father, Carter Cushing is Jim Beaver and there’s not one “idjit” anywhere in his dialog. Of course, I’ve loved him on Supernatural, but here is part is rather different. He gets only a few scenes, but he has an impact. Playing the mystery man who soon turns new husband to Edith, Thomas Sharpe, is Tom Hiddleston. I mean come on, probably one of the best possible choices for a mysterious gentleman to sweep a girl off her feet. I mean, a different girl, not my type, but he’s so charming here, he plays the part just right. Charming and creepy. Playing his sister Lucille Sharpe is Jessica Chastain is just about perfectly evil here. Her work is so on point, she steals all the scenes she’s in. She’s amazing. Then we get Charlie Hunnam as Dr. Alan McMichael, a man in love with Edith who ends playing a very important part in her salvation. Hunnam is good here but leaves us wishing he had more to work with. There is a whole supporting cast, and everyone is good here, no one sticks out like a sore thumb which says a lot about the script and direction.

Now, as a person with a background in fashion history and photography with a passion for horror, this film is something else from a visual standpoint. Just look at it. Look! At! It! The cinematography by Dan Laustsen is just stunning. It’s so beautiful. The film is framed and shot carefully, giving each scene a chance to be seen, to end up looking like a painting at times. The film is given the right attention from Laustsen and the editing by Bernat Vilaplana gives each scene the time it needs to develop, especially the creepy moments, edited just right, giving them the right balance to be creepy and to instill fear. There is a dread that happens here in how the film is edited from the images given, getting perfect moments for the viewer. In these images, we get to see the careful décor, the use of use of color to create a world that is just right, one that is also just the right amount of off. The costumes by Kate Hawley need to be noted here. They are beautiful and period appropriate with a touch of daring. The design, choice of fabrics and colors, the way it all comes together with the hair and makeup creates dreamy looks and helps with the character creation.

Of course, we cannot skip the love for the special effects. They are awesome! Like nerdtastically amazing. Horror at its best. The characters played by Doug Jones and Javier Botet are so well done, they are so creepy, they prove that with the right mix of practical effects and CGI effects and with the right teams, almost anything is possible these days. Or for a few years really. The film has aged beautifully on that front. It’s from 2015 and rewatching recently, it looks like it could have been released this year. The effects play a huge part in this. They are so good. This is how you make ghosts that look like they could touch you, that look like they have a tortured soul, and that look like maybe, just maybe, they don’t just want bad things for our lead. These are some of the best effects the team under makeup effects key artist Xavi Bastida brings together on the screen for us. Of course, there are other effects, like the murder of Carter Cushing, that are ooey, gooey, bloody, violent, and gross. That comes early in the film and it’s easy for this to be overshadowed by the later parts of the film, but it is very well done and done with not just talent, but a flare for good gore. Between that murder and the ghosts, there could have been nothing else in terms of effects, but there is more of course, most of it looking great. One bit that may not have aged as well is the showdown between Edith, Lucille, and Thomas. It looks decent, but these days it looks like it could be just a touch better.

That being said, it’s not the worst seen in the last few years and given the rest of the film, it’s easy to overlook. Also, that ending is fitting. It’s overly dramatic, it’s gothic, it’s sad romance. It’s the kind of ending that is perfect here, kind of happy, kind of sad, like a good old tale of love and ghosts in a long bygone era, filled with beautiful people, a decrepit yet beautiful location, where a writer of ghost novels could get her fill of inspiration while attempting to survive a diabolical plan. This ending is the only ending this film could have had. Spoiler, yes both Lucille and Thomas who had turned against his sister, needed to die here. There is a romance to it. There is a heroic death for a man who started off evil. There is a complete release for the poor woman victimize by the siblings, there is a clear closure for her. A sad, yet perfect closure. Yeah, the effects on those last two ghosts are not perfect and distract from the scene a little bit, but once used to them, it’s easy to rewatch the movie and ignore that little issue.

Crimson Peak is one of those films that is made with care at every single level, each and every team and person on this film gave their best under the guidance of Guillermo Del Toro, thus showing that he knows how to get the best people together, how to get them to work together just right, and how to get his vision to come to life on the screen. This is one of the best Del Toro to this gothic nerd who went to prom in a spider web dress. The teen girl in me loves this probably even more than adult me does and it’s good to feed your soul with art that just works for you and makes you happy. This is a goth horror movie that is reminiscent of Hammer and other old timey studios, it’s goth horror that knows how to build a few scares, but mainly how to build attachments to the characters to make you feel their plight. It’s the kind of gothic horror we do not get enough of and when we get some, it feels like it’s lesser-than, like it’s not hitting the mark. Crimson Peak hits the mark, it hits all the marks, even one that I wish it didn’t, but it’s so good that it’s easy to have it on regular rotation, to have play as you work and get sidetracked because it’s too good to pass up even on the 200th viewing.

Two previous episodes of Revisited can be seen below. To see more of our shows, head over to the JoBlo Horror Originals channel – and subscribe while you’re at it!

Five Nights at Freddy’s get a new promotional featurette while director Emma Tammi discusses aiming for a PG-13 rating

The long-awaited horror video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s will be receiving a theatrical and Peacock streaming service release this Friday, October 27th – and to help promote the release, a new featurette has arrived online to give fans a peek behind the scenes. You can check it out in the embed above. The film’s director Emma Tammi talks about the film in that featurette, and also recently sat down for an interview with the folks at Inverse, where she discussed how it was to work with homicidal animatronics while also going for a PG-13 rating.

Tammi told Inverse, “We were trying to push it as far as we could while still retaining that PG-13 rating. That meant the kills needed to be executed in a certain way. And while it is so fun in many slasher films to see all the guts and the gore, it is also really fun to figure out creative ways to show these moments without showing all the details. In some cases, we leaned into shadows and silhouettes and sound design to really feel the moment in an impactful way without showing any gore. So that is something that I had a lot of fun doing, and actually really appreciated that we were taking the PG-13 approach for this because there’s such a younger audience for FNAF, and we didn’t want to exclude them.“

Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Matthew Lillard (Scream), Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Game), Mary Stuart Masterson (Benny & Joon), Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Holly & Ivy), and Kat Conner Sterling (A Week Away). The film follows a troubled security guard as he begins working at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. While spending his first night on the job, he realizes the night shift at Freddy’s won’t be so easy to make it through.

Stunt performers Kevin Foster (WandaVision), Jade Kindar-Martin (Interview with the Vampire), and Jess Weiss (Mayfair Witches) play the animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, and Chica.

The video game takes place in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck-E-Cheese, where an animatronic animal band performs kiddy songs by day, and goes on murderous rampages by night. The goal of the game is survive a night locked inside, knowing that a furry death machine might jump out of the dark at any moment.

This adaptation was originally set up at Warner Bros., where Gil Kenan (Monster House) was going to direct the film from a screenplay he was writing with Tyler Burton Smith (the Child’s Play remake). Then the project moved over to Blumhouse, where Chris Columbus (Home Alone) was attached to direct it for several years. But now it has gone into production with Emma Tammi – director of The Wind, Into the Dark: Delivered, and Into the Dark: Blood Moon – at the helm, working from a screenplay she wrote with Seth Cuddeback (Mateo) and video game creator Scott Cawthon. Tragedy Girls writers Tyler MacIntyre and Chris Lee Hill share story credit with Cawthon.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is being produced by Blumhouse, in association with Striker Entertainment. Cawthon is a producer alongside Blumhouse founder Jason Blum. Russell Binder is executive producing. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop is handling the special effects that help bring the homicidal animatronic animals to life on the screen.

The film has been rated PG-13 for “strong violent content, bloody images and language.”

Are you looking forward to Five Nights at Freddy’s? What did you think of the featurette, and the decision to go for a PG-13 rating? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.