S Thriller Movies

SYMPATHY, SAID THE SHARK – When a young couple reluctantly answers their door during a storm, in rushes their estranged friend, soaked, bloodied and insistent that someone is trying to kill him. The night is soon set off the rails, as all three must confront their own darkest secrets – and each other – in the face of a powerful threat that comes knocking. The story is told with innovative camera work, shifting from the explicit first-person point-of-view of each of its three protagonists. Each time the POV shifts, there is an overlap of time when where see or hear something that the previously character missed, forcing the viewer (and the characters) to reconsider who’s good, who’s bad, and what’s really going on.

SWORD OF VENGEANCE – From the creator of Hammer of the Gods, starring Stanley Weber and Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle) comes the story of a Norman Prince, freed from slavery, who seeks revenge on his father’s murderer and ruthless uncle, Earl Durant (Karel Roden). Gaining the trust of a band of exiled farmers, he leads them into battle against Durant, exploiting them in his quest to satisfy his code of honor. Will the Prince sacrifice everything and everyone to quench his thirst for bloody retribution? After years of being in slavery, a Prince returns to his homeland to seek revenge against his father’s murderer. The target for revenge is his ruthless uncle, who has controlled his farmers with impunity.
SWOON – Was it a crime of passion? Or a passion for crime? The true story of gay lovers, Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr. who kidnapped and murdered a child in the early 1920s for kicks. The plot covers the months before the crime, the investigation, trial and final fate of the two men. Tom Kalin directed this cool and aloof black-and-white study of the infamous Leopold and Loeb case, a case told before in two previous films – Rope and Compulsion. In 1924, in Chicago, Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, two 18-year-olds, kidnapped and murdered the 13-year-old Bobby Franks, immediately killing him and then stuffing his naked body up a culvert. The motive for the crime was simply that they wanted to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. The previous film versions downplayed Leopold and Loeb’s homosexuality, but Kalin’s version plays it up into a psychosexual motif. Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) is the calculating intellectual, while Leopold (Craig Chester), the amateur ornithologist, is the emotional and weak one. In love with Loeb, Leopold is willing to do anything for him and when Loeb uses the withholding of sex as a prompt, Leopold is even willing to commit murder to have his sexual desires satisfied by Loeb.
SWEET, SWEET LONELY GIRL – Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl is a gothic horror film that chronicles the experience of Adele as she goes to live as a caregiver for her aging Aunt Dora. Soon after moving in, Adele meets Beth, seductive and mysterious who tests the limits of Adele’s moral ground and sends her spiraling down a psychologically unstable and phantasmagoric path. Set against the social security crisis of the 1980 Reagan-Carter election, Sweet, Sweet Lonely Girl is an innovative play on genre, striking a bold intersection between the apparitions of a ghost story and the moralist of the after school special. Soon after moving in with her aging Aunt Dora, Adele meets Beth, seductive and mysterious, who tests the limits of Adele’s moral ground and sends her spiraling down a psychologically unstable and phantasmagoric path.
SWIMFAN – His biggest fan has just become his worst nightmare. Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford) has everything going for him: He is the school’s star swimmer, he has just earned a swimming scholarship to Stanford, and he has a beautiful girlfriend, Amy (Roswell’s Shiri Appleby). One slipup with Madison, the new girl in town, sends his life into a downward spiral. In the same vein as Fatal Attraction, Swimfan is a cautionary tale about deadly obsession. A high school senior with a promising swimming career has a one-night stand with consequences. Ben Cronin has it all: The admiration of his many friends, a terrific girlfriend, and an appointment with swim scouts from Stanford. It’s not easy; Ben must train for countless hours in the pool for a critical swim meet, work at the local hospital and find quality time with high school sweetheart, Amy. His wonderful life is disrupted by the arrival of Madison Bell. The new girl in town quickly sets her sights on the impressionable Ben. While their first few meetings are innocent enough, the seductive Madison wants more. New Jersey high school senior Ben Cronin is a former juvenile delinquent, whose past criminal behavior was fueled by and for drug use. He credits the support of his now long-time girlfriend Amy Miller and getting into competitive swimming as the primary reasons for turning his life around, which includes working part-time at the hospital where his single mother works. He has become the star swimmer of his high school team, so much so that scouts from Stanford University are coming in a week’s time to watch Ben swim. Ben has a new swim fan in Madison Bell, a recent transfer student to Ben’s high school. Despite Ben making it clear that he is in a committed relationship, Madison seduces him, the seduction to which he succumbs. They agree afterward that their encounter was a onetime only event, but Ben slowly comes to the realization that despite Madison’s assertions to the contrary, she has more in mind with him. He feels her constant unspoken threats to expose their tryst and ultimately when he rebuffs her totally, unspoken threats to ruin his life in whatever means possible. Ben quickly learns to what extremes Madison is willing to go, especially when he finds out about her past. He has to figure out how to regain his life back from his known stalker, which is aided by the reason Madison is New Jersey in the first place.
SWIFT CURRENT – This riveting documentary exploring former NHLer Sheldon Kennedy’s journey from a young hockey player sexually abused by his junior hockey coach, Graham James, to Kennedy’s work today as a crusader for victims of abuse in Canada and worldwide. During a speaking engagement in Ontario, Canada Shelton meets two university students who disclose the sexual abuse they suffered and ask him for help. The film tells the story of these three victims of child sexual abuse and challenges they face while attempting to recover from the horrific trauma they suffered as children. Swift Current tells the story of former NHL Hockey Player Sheldon Kennedy who was sexually abused by his junior hockey coach and has gone on to become one of the world’s leading advocates for victims of child abuse. During a speaking engagement at a University in Ontario, Canada, Sheldon met two students, a young woman and a young man, who disclosed the sexual abuse they had suffered as children to Sheldon and 200 members of the student body and faculty. In addition to Sheldon’s journey, the film follows the early recovery of two students, Mikki and Graham, ultimately providing a never before seen look at the long-lasting effects of trauma from sexual abuse.
SWEET SIXTEEN (2016) – Based on an extremely popular Chinese Internet novel, Sweet Sixteen (Xia You Qiao Mu) stars Kris Wu, Han Geng and Joo Won as three men troubled by their own pasts; intertwined among the men is each’s specific relationship with Shu Yawang. She is a rock in their past, present and future and her life is influenced by the trials and tribulations of these three wandering souls. Xia Mu is a troubled child whose salvation comes in the form of Shu Yawang. When something terrible happens to her, he seeks revenge. Nothing is the same in their lives after that. Three young men looking for their place in life and are forever changed after meeting Shu Ya Wang. When a terrible fate befalls her, one of her admirers seeks revenge on her tormenters. Based on the popular Internet novel Xia You Qiao Mu Wang Tian Tang by Yue Xi.
SWEET SIXTEEN (1983) – What terrors are released when a girl turns sweet sixteen. Big city girl Melissa Morgan (Aleisa Shirley) tries to make new friends in the small Texas town she just moved to. The only problem is, each of the boys that she spends time with ends up brutally murdered. Her sixteenth birthday is on the way, but Melissa turns out to be a suspect when it seems she’s the last person who has seen her boyfriend’s alive. Teenager Melissa moves into a small town filled with racial prejudice and bullying and each time she meets up with one of the boys in town, they end up murdered – but who is the killer? A beautiful lonely girl named Melissa tries to make new friends from a town she’s currently living in. The only problem is, each of the boys that she spends time with end up brutally murdered. Her sixteenth birthday is on the way, but Melissa turns out to be a suspect when it seems she’s the last person who has seen her boy friends alive. This standard slasher film from director Dimitri Sotirakis (using the pseudonym “Jom Sotos”) is notable only for its fascinating cast. The story is a rather predictable affair as young Melissa (Aleisa Shirley) sees all of her friends being murdered after their 16^th birthdays. Her mother (Susan Strasberg) worries, and Sheriff Dan (Bo Hopkins) is convinced that the local Indians led by Greyfeather (Henry Wilcoxon) are to blame, but when the “shock” ending finally comes, it is no surprise, Patrick Macnee, Don Stroud, Larry Storch and Sharon Farrell lead the familiar cast, which also includes such genre favorites as Michael Pataki, Steve Antin and Dana Kimmell, who starred in Friday the 13^th: Part III the same year.
SEPTIMO – In this suspenseful thriller, Ricardo Darin and Belen Rueda star as a troubled couple who find themselves in a desperate search to track down their children after they vanish racing down the stairs of their 7^th floor apartment building. No one knows anything. No one’s seem anything. From there they instigate their own frantic investigation, where everything and everyone they know is a suspect. When a man’s children suddenly disappear, he begins to suspect his wife, from whom he’s separated, may be behind it. A father gets into a desperate search to find his children who disappeared while going down stairs from their apartment in the seventh floor. Secrets about Mammy Sebastian is a successful lawyer in Buenos Aires and is in the middle of an important case. He is divorced from Delia and they have two children, Luca and Luna. Delia wants to move to Spain to live with her father and wants full custody of the children, but Sebastian is reluctant. Sebastian goes to Delia’s apartment on the seventh floor of an old building to take Luca and Luna to school and Delia leaves the place. The siblings ask to go down playing on the stairs while Sebastian takes the elevator. When he arrives in the lobby, he realizes that the children have vanished. Sebastian needs to be in court for an important case but he seeks them out with the janitor and his neighbor Rosales, who is a police detective. He calls Delia who returns to the building and suspects everyone until a woman calls him asking for a one hundred thousand-dollar ransom in two hours. How can the desperate Sebastian raise this amount in a short time period and who might have kidnapped his children?
SWIMMING POOL – Dive into the mind-bending thriller that’s soaked with raw sensuality! A murder-mystery author’s search for inspiration takes a wicked turn when she meets a sexy and provocative young woman with an explosive past, in the movie Interview calls “A thrilling film! Charlotte Rampling and Ludivine Sagnier sizzle!” Francois Ozon’s psychological thriller Swimming Pool stars Charlotte Rampling as a mystery writer. When Sarah (Rampling) is offered the use of her publisher’s vacation home, she accepts the offer. The conservative, repressed Sarah clashes with the house’s other inhabitant, Julie (Ludivine Sagnier), the uninhibited daughter of the publisher. Julie’s promiscuous sex life intrigues Sarah and starts to lead to the thawing of the emotional deep-freeze between the two. The death of one of Julie’s nightly assignations complicates their lives. Swimming Pool was screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Sarah Morton is a famous British mystery author. Tired of London and seeking inspiration for her new novel, she accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload to stay at his home in Luberon, in the South of France. It is the off season and Sarah finds that the beautiful country locale and unhurried pace is just the tonic for her – until late one night, when John’s indolent and insouciant French daughter Julie unexpectedly arrives. Sarah’s prim and steely English reserve is jarred by Julie’s reckless, sexually charged lifestyle. Their interactions set off an increasingly unsettling series of events, as Sarah’s creative process and a possible real-life murder begin to blend dangerously together. A British mystery author visits her publisher’s home in the South of France, where her interaction with his unusual daughter sets off some touchy dynamics. Sarah Morton is a famous British mystery author. Tired of London and seeking inspiration for her new novel, she accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload to stay at his home in Luberon, in the South of France. It is the off-season and Sarah finds that the beautiful country locale and unhurried pace is just the tonic for her – until late one night, when John’s indolent and insouciant French daughter Julie unexpectedly arrives. Sarah’s prim and steely English reserve is jarred by Julie’s, sexually charged lifestyle. Their interactions set off an increasingly unsettling series of events as Sarah’s creative process and a possible real-life murder begin to blend dangerously together. Sarah Morton, a middle-aged English mystery author, who has written a successful series of novels featuring a single detective, is having writer’s block that is impeding her next book. Sarah’s publisher, John Bosload, offers her his country house near Lacoste, France for some rest and relaxation. After becoming comfortable with the run of the house, Sarah’s quietude is disrupted by a young woman claiming to be the publisher’s daughter, Julie. She shows up one night claiming to be taking time off from work herself. She also claims that her mother used to be Bosload’s mistress, but that he would not leave his family. Julie’s sex life consists of one-night stands with various oafish men, and a competition of personalities develops between the two women. At first Sarah regards Julie as a distraction from her writing. She uses earplugs to allow her to sleep during Julie’s noisy nighttime adventures, although she nonetheless has a voyeuristic fascination with them. Later she abandons the earplugs during one of Julie’s trysts, beginning to envy Julie’s lifestyle. The competition comes to the fore when a local waiter, Franck is involved. Julie wants him but he appears to prefer the more mature Sarah, having struck up a relationship with her during her frequent lunches at the bistro. An unexpected tragedy occurs after a night of flirting among the three. After swimming together in the pool, Franck refuses to allow Julie to continue performing oral sex on him, once Sarah, who watches them from the balcony, throws a rock into the water. Franck feels frightened and tells Julie he is leaving. The next day, Franck is missing. While investigating Franck’s disappearance, Sarah learns that Julie’s mother has been dead for some time, though Julie had claimed that she was still alive. She returns to the villa, where a confused Julie thinks that Sarah is her mother and has a breakdown. She eventually recovers and confesses that Franck is dead because Julie repeatedly hit him over the head with a rock as he tried to leave her at the pool. His body is in one of the sheds. When Marcel becomes suspicious of the mound of fresh soil where the body is buried, Sarah seduces the elderly gardener to distract him. Julie leaves, thanking Sarah for her help and leaving her the manuscript of an unpublished novel written by her late mother, which she had previously claimed that John made her burn. Sarah returns to England and visits her publisher’s office with her new novel. His daughter also shows up just as Sarah is leaving, but is revealed to be a completely different girl than the one Sarah spent the weekend with.

Symptoms through Madhouse

SYMPTOMS – A young woman is invited by her girlfriend, who lives in an English country mansion, to stay there with her. The estate, however, isn’t quite what it seems – and neither is the friend who issues the invitation. The reclusive Helen invites her friend Anne, a writer, to stay the weekend with her at her family’s estate. The large manor, located near a lake in the forest, is overgrown with foliage and has mostly been untouched for an extended period of time. Helen, a translator, has recently returned to her native England after working abroad, and had lost touch with Anne. The two have dinner, start a fire in the hearth, and talk over tea before going to bed. The next morning, Helen stops by a drugstore in town, where the clerk Mr. Burke asks about her friend, Cora Porter, she tells him she is not with her. Back at the manor, Helen and Anne go for a walk through the woods. At the lake, Helen tells Anne that someone drowned themselves there. The two women take a boat out onto the water, which unnerves Helen. En route home, they encounter Brady, a handyman who lives in the stables on the property; Anne comments that he was staring at Helen, and Helen responds by saying he disgusts her. Later, Helen spies on him with binoculars from the house. Helen has continuous trouble sleeping at the house, and hears voices emanating from the attic one night. The following morning, Anne borrows Helen’s car to drive to town. One the way home, she stops by the lake and smokes a cigarette, where she is confronted by Brady, who introduces himself. He mentions Helen’s friend Cora, whose photograph Anne recalls seeing in the house. Anne returns to the house where she finds Helen distraught over her absence. She confides in Anne that she is ill, and Anne suggests they return to London, but Helen refuses, and then kisses her. That night, Anne is awoken by moaning noises. She asks Helen if someone else could be living in the house, but Helen dismisses the idea. John arrives at the house to pick up Anne, but Anne insists on staying a few days longer due to Helen’s fragile emotional state. That night, Helen’s attention is drawn to an attic door in her bedroom, and she begins to masturbate furiously; simultaneously, Anne goes to investigate a noise coming from the attic and is startled by figure who stabs her to death. Hannah, the house keeper, arrives in the morning, and find Helen asleep on the couch. Helen asks her not to return for several days, saying she needs solitude. Later at the drugstore, Hannah tells Mr. Burke about the interaction and recalls that she once saw Cora having sex with Brady in the stables and has not seen her since. While walking through the woods, Helen is confronted by Brady, who asks her about Anne’s whereabouts; when he intimates that she murdered Anne and Cora, Helen runs away in a panic. At the house, Ann’s dead body sits in a chair in Helen’s bedroom, and Helen is plagued by disembodied voices and other phenomenon. During a rainstorm, John arrives looking for Anne and enters through an unlocked door. Upstairs, Helen stabs him in the head and neck numerous times, killing him. That night Brady stops by Helen’s house to confront her about Cora, whose decomposing body he found in the lake. He tells Helen he witnessed her push Cora in, but she cooly denies it. When he threatens to blackmail her, she stabs him repeatedly in the face and the back of the head, killing him. The next morning, Hannah, Burke and his protégé Nick arrive at the house. In the living room, they find Brady’s corpse. While searching upstairs, they find John’s body in the hallway and Helen staring blankly through the window. In the yard, she watches as Brady and Cora embrace.

SEE NO EVIL – This riff on Wait Until Dark is a mixed bag but still manages to offer a few surprises. Brian Clemens’ script starts with a clover premise and offers some solid moments of suspense. Unfortunately, See No Evil begins to drift in its final third, when it introduces one too many plot complications to keep the identity of the killer a mystery. As a result, it loses track of its heroine (the viewer will lose track of how many scenes Mia Farrow spends stumbling around and shouting for help during the latter part of the film)). That said, Farrow makes a likeable heroine and is surrounded by a professional cast turning in solid performances. Better yet, director Richard Fleischer gets plenty of opportunities to show off his directorial skills during the many set pieces and he’s definitely up to the task: The scenes where Farrow faces off with the killer in her deserted house are staged effectively and make great use of sound as a tool for suspense. Ultimately, See No Evil is a second-tier thriller material but is made with enough skill to make a decent time-killer for anyone in the mood for a few thrills. After being blinded

After being blinded in a horse-riding accident, Sarah (Mia Farrow) visits her uncle’s home. Out on a date with her boyfriend Steve (Norman Eshley), she escapes the fate of her relatives (Dorothy Alison, Robin Bailey, and Diane Grayson), who are murdered at their home by a psychotic killer. Sarah returns from her date and spends the night in the house, unaware that three of her family members’ corpses are strewn about the house. She eventually discovers the bodies, as well as a bracelet containing the engraved name of the killer. The killer returns, searching for the lost bracelet and discovers Sarah, who manages to flee on horseback. Sarah encounters a family of gypsies and shows them the bracelet with the name “Jacko” inscribed. One the gypsies concludes that his brother, Jack must be responsible. In an effort to save Jack, the brother pretends to take Sarah to the police, but, instead, locks her in a secluded shed. Sarah eventually escapes from the shed and reunites with Steve. Steve and his stable boys leave Sarah at his house and begin a search for the killer. They come across the two gypsy brothers and are about to kill them, when Jack reveals that he wants a bracelet with the name “Jack” and not “Jacko” inscribed. Steve, upon learning that the real killer’s name is “Jacko” doubles back to the house where it is revealed that one of the groomsmen, Jacko (Paul Nicholas) had been left behind to tend to Sarah. Back at the house, Jacko attempts to drown Sarah in a bathtub, but Steve returns just in time to rescue her.

MADHOUSE – Many people visit… No one ever leaves. Julia (Trish Everly in her only film role0, a young teacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. Julia has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary (Allison Biggers). At the urging of her uncle, Father James, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meeting does not go well, and Mary vows to make Julia “suffer as she had suffered,” As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia’s friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths, some of which committed by a mysterious Rottweiler dog that has some sort of connection to Mary. But is Mary really the killer? Julia thinks she’s lives alone. She doesn’t! In this routine slasher film, a young woman’s twin sister shows up to ruin her birthday party, and mayhem results. Before her birthday party, Julia starts dreaming about a twin sister she has never seen or met – meanwhile, Mary, the actual twin who is the subject of her dreams, has just escaped from a mental institution and is horribly disfigured. Mary is bent on vengeance and after she escapes, a series of murders begins – but is Mary really the killer?

Julia is a young schoolteacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. She has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary. At the urging of her uncle, James, a local Catholic priest, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meeting does not go well and Mary vows to make Julia “suffer as she had suffered.” As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia’s friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths in the house she lives in, some involving a mysterious Rottweiler dog who attacks its victims, mauling them to death. One of Julia’s students, Sasha, is killed in a park by the Rottweiler one afternoon. Meanwhile, Julia becomes increasing unnerved that someone—possibly Mary—is hiding inside the large house she lives in. One evening, when being dropped off by her psychologist boyfriend Sam, she witnesses a light come on the second floor of the house but finds no one there. Helen, Julia’s friend, offers to spend the night with her. In the middle of the night, she is attacked by the Rottweiler on the staircase; the dog attacks and kills her, tearing open her throat. Julia awakes the next morning and finds Helen gone. Given there is no evidence of the attack, Julia assumes she went home early. Sam visits her and tells her he is forced to take a business trip to San Francisco over Julia’s upcoming birthday. Later the same day, Julia’s uncle, Father James is carrying things into the basement of Julia’s home. A local parishioner, Amanda Beauregard, passes by and offers to help him carry a large bag, he tells her he is throwing Julia a surprise birthday party. Once in the basement, Amanda realizes she has just helped James carry a corpse, he then chases her through the house and stabs her to death in the attic. The next day, on Julia’s birthday, James meets her after work and takes her to her house, blindfolding her for a surprise. In the basement, he removes the blindfold, revealing a table seated with corpses. When she attempts to escape, Julia is confronted by Mary, who James murders shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Sam’s taxi to the airport is stalled by a flat tire and he returns to the house, where he is attacked by the Rottweiler. The dog attempts to break through the door and Sam kills it by driving a power drill into its head. In the basement, Sam is able to free Julia, who then murders her uncle James by repeated blows with a hatchet. The film ends as Julia sits on the basement stairs next to her dead sister.

 

Martyrs

MARTYRS

In 1971, a young girl, Lucie Jurin, escapes from a disused abattoir where she has been imprisoned and physically abused for more than a year. The perpetrators and their motivations remain a mystery. Lucie is placed in an orphanage, where she is befriended by a young girl named Anna Assaoui, who quickly discovers that Lucie believes that she is constantly being terrorized by a ghoulish creature – a disfigured, emaciated woman. Even so, Anna comforts Lucie every time she has a nightmare. Fifteen years later, Lucia bursts into the home of an apparently normal family, the Belfonds – Gabrielle, her husband, and their children Antoine and Marie – and kills them all with a shotgun. Elsewhere, Anna waits for Lucie. Although Anna knows that Lucie believes the Belfonds are the people responsible for her childhood abuse, she is horrified when Lucie tells her that she has killed them. Upon arriving at the house, Anna discovers that Gabrielle is still alive and tries to help her escape, but Lucie bludgeons Gabrielle to death. Lucie is again attacked by the scarred creature, but Anna only sees Lucie hurting herself, the “creature” is nothing more than a psychological manifestation of Lucie’s guilt for leaving behind another girl who was also tortured with her as a child. Lucie, realizing that her insanity will never leave her, commits suicide.
The next day, Anna, still at the family’s house, telephones her mother, from whom she has been estranged, their conversation implies that Anna suffered abuse from her parents as a child. Suddenly, Anna hears some noises and discovers a secret underground chamber in the living room. Imprisoned within is a horribly tortured young woman named Sarah, who proves that Lucie was right about the family. Anna helps Sarah escape, but a group of strangers arrive and gun Sarah down. Captured, Anna meets their leader, an elderly lady referred to as Mademoiselle. Mademoiselle explains that she belongs to a secret philosophical society seeking to discover the secrets of the afterlife through the creation of “martyrs.” Their experiments inflict systematic acts of torture upon young women in the belief that their suffering will result in a transcendental insight into the world beyond this one. Mademoiselle also believes the world is divided into victims (people who can’t hold tortures and fall into madness), like Lucie and Sarah), and martyrs (people who “accept” tortures and transcend). Anna becomes the group’s latest subject.t After a period of being beaten and degraded, Anna hallucinates a conversation with Lucie, and is later told she has progressed further than any other test subject and has reached the “final stage.” She is flayed alive and survives the procedure, entering a state that is “euphoric” and likened to achieving transcendence. Mademoiselle arrives eagerly and Anna whispers into her ar. Members of the society gather at the house to learn the insights Anna shared with Mademoiselle. As he waits, Mademoiselle’s assistant asks her if what Anna said was clear. Mademoiselle says yes, then asks him if he could imagine what comes after death. When he says no, she tells him to “keep doubting” before producing a handgun and committing suicide. The film ends with a shot of Anna on the table, in a catatonic state.
Director Pascal Lauguier follows his 2004 thriller House of Voices with this relentlessly brutal tale of a girl who suffered unimaginable abuse as a young child, and the unspeakable horrors that unfold when she arrives at an isolated cab in the woods fifteen years later. The story begins as the young badly battered Lucie – obviously the victim of inhuman abuse – is hospitalized after somehow managing to escape her sadistic captors. Nearly catatonic after her life-altering ordeal, Lucie only manages to become functional again as a result of her friendship with Anna, a fellow abuse victim who selflessly reaches out to the badly damaged girl. Fifteen years later, Lucie guns down an entire family in cold blood. Is Lucie seeking belated vengeance against the people who tortured her as a young girl, or has her fragile psyche finally snapped, resulting in the bloody demise of an innocent family? Later, when Lucie calls on her old friend Anna, the truth about Lucie’s traumatic early life experience slowly comes into focus.

Lucie (Jessie Pham), who has been missing for over a year, is found hysterical by the side of the road. She leads police to the derelict slaughterhouse where evidence suggests she was held captive. Although there is no evidence of sexual abuse, Lucie bears the signs of repeated injury and neglect. Traumatized and uncommunicative, Lucie is unable to tell the authorities anything further about her time in captivity or the people who kept her there. Over time, Lucie make friends with Anna (Erika Scott), another girl in the youth home where she lives. Anna looks after Lucie and eventually gains her trust. Lucie appears to be haunted by something or someone – a shadowy, rasping female figure (Isabelle Chasse) who apparently mutilates Lucie. After one such episode, Lucie makes Anna promise not to tell anyone about the creature haunting Lucie. Meanwhile, with the help of the doctor (Tony Robinow), the police even questions Anna, so as to know whether Lucie has communicated something to her. Anna says that Lucie cannot usually remember anything about her captivity period.

At this point, the film moves ahead fifteen years, and shifts its attention to the Belfond family. Mom (Patricia Tulasne) is fixing a sewer line in the yard, Dad (Robert Toupin) is making breakfast, and son Antoine (Xavier Dolan) and daughter Marie (Juliette Gosselin) are wrestling over a love note Antoine received. As everyone sits down to breakfast, the doorbell rings – it’s Lucie (Mylene Jampanoi), who shoots the father to death with a shotgun. The mother follows in short order, and then Lucie hesitates, asking Antoine how old he is and if he knew what his parents have done. When she doesn’t get an answer, she kills Antoine. Marie hides upstairs, but Lucie finds her and kills her as well. Panicked, Lucie calls Anna (Morjana Alaoui) at a public phone to come and help her. Lucie claims she has “done it”. Anna is shocked at hearing what Lucie says asks if she’s sure these are the people who kidnapped her. Lucie confirms and they complete their phone call. Lucie’s creature appears and tries to attack Lucie some more. Lucie explains that she’s “killed them”, and so the creature can leave her alone now. The creature continues to attack her. Lucie escapes the creature and runs out of the house and runs straight into Anna,
Lucie frightened tells Anna not to go into the house as “she’s” still in there. Anna says he has to and heads inside. She is horrified at the sight of what Lucie has done to the Belfond family. After nearly throwing up she starts working on moving the bodies. Lucie falls asleep in the daughter’s bedroom and wakes to strange noises in the house. She sees Anna burying the bodies outside. Anna returns inside to collect another body and takes a break in the room they have moved the bodies to. She then discovers the mother is still alive. The mother yells awaking Lucie again. Lucie heads downstairs to check on Anna. Anna attempts to hide the fact that the mother is still alive and takes the daughter’s body outside. She then hears Lucie screaming from inside as the creature resumes its assault. After escaping the creature again flashbacks reveal that it is a woman was being torture in the same building as Lucie.
Anna then attempts to smuggle the living mother out of the house. Lucie hears this as the mother screams in pain and escapes from the room Anna has locked her in. As Anna is getting the mother near to the exit Lucie arrives and beats the mother to death with a hammer. This is followed by one more attempt to placate the creature, as Lucie shows the creature that the mother is dead. The creature embraces her gently and begins to cut into her arms. Anna sees Lucie cutting herself – the creature is something Lucie is hallucinating. Lucie runs from the creature crashing through the glass entry way to the Belfond house. When Lucie was able to escape, she had an opportunity to take the woman with her but did not and has been haunted by it ever since. In a fit of rage and sadness, Lucie cuts her own throat. Anna brings Lucie’s body into the house, cleans it and wraps it in cloth. In cleaning up the house, she notices a hole in the wall behind a cabinet. Anna opens the cabinet and discovers a hidden staircase leading down. Anna discovers an underground complex decorated with pictures of people in extreme suffering. Exploring further, Anna discovers another woman, naked and chained to a wall with a metal blindfold riveted to her head. She frees the woman and takes her upstairs. Anna attempts to bathe the woman and she resists and after Anna removes the blindfold, the woman runs off, finds a knife and begins to mutilate herself, attempting to cut off her arm. As Anna tries to stop the woman, the woman is killed by a shotgun blast. A group of people have entered the house and they take Anna down into the hidden complex. An older woman – referred to only as “Mademoiselle” (Catherine Begin) – explains to Anna that they are not interested in victims, but martyrs – the act of martyrdom brings about transcendence and the possibility of seeing into the afterlife. They are, in essence, creating martyrs through systematic abuse in the hopes of learning what lies after death from their accounts as they achieve transcendence. They kidnap young women because young women seem to be especially likely to achieve a transcendent state. Anna is then rendered unconscious.
Anna wakes up chained to a chair similar to the one discovered in the building where Lucie was kept. She is fed some sort of unpleasant gruel and methodically beaten. This goes on for several days until a badly battered Anna loses the will to resist. She hears Lucie’s voice in her head, telling her that it is going to be okay, that she won’t suffer much longer. Anna is then brought to an operating theater, where she is strapped into a rotating rack and flayed. A now-skinless Anna is hung by a rack under hot lights. The people attending her remark on her considerable resilience, noting that she is still alive. The woman feeding Anna notices something about her has changed, and she calls Mademoiselle to tell her that Anna is close to transcendence. Mademoiselle hurries over and arrives in time for Anna to give her an account of the world beyond life and Mademoiselle was present to hear her account and would be sharing it with the assembled people shortly.
Mademoiselle appears to be getting ready as Etienne speaks to her through the door, asking if the announcement means that Anna saw something, and Mademoiselle says that she did, and it was clear and precise. Mademoiselle asks Etienne if he could imagine life after death. Etienne says he could not. Inside, Mademoiselle is sitting on the edge of a bathtub, where she takes a gun out of her purse. She calls to Etienne and tells him to continue doubting before shooting herself in the head. The movie ends with Anna, lying in some sort of medicated bath in the underground complex, looking at something very far away, fading to black and a definition of ‘martyr” which indicates the derivation from the Greek word for “witness.”

The Loved Ones

THE LOVED ONES – In order to avoid a ghostly figure in the road, high school senior Brent Mitchell wraps his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by his mother’s emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana fueled world of loud metal music to block the pain and guilt. Dejected and out of sorts, he has a shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring girl with drop dead good looks, a dream date for the high school prom. But his plans are thwarted by a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and a secret admirer. Brent has become the prom king at a macabre, sadistic event where he is the entertainment.

On a bright and sunny day, one high school senior’s happy life soon changes in a flash. Attempting to avoid a bloody figure in the road, Brent Mitchell swerves his car around a tree, killing his father. Constantly confronted by the guilt of his father’s death and his mother’s emotional collapse after the accident, Brent escapes into a marijuana-fueled world of loud metal music to block out the pain and guilt from within. Dejected and out of sorts, he has one shot at happiness with his girlfriend Holly, a grounded, caring, and loving girl with good looks that can drop people dead; a perfect dream date for his high school prom. However, his plans are thwarted by an untimely kidnapping leading up to a disturbing series of events that take place under a mirrored disco ball, involving pink satin, glitter, syringes, nails, power drills and an obsessed secret admirer assisted by her father. Brent has become the prom king at a twisted, sadistic event where he is the entertainment. Will he be able to escape, or will he be trapped forever by his deathly admirer’s hand?

Brent is driving with his father in the passenger seat, when a bloodied man appears in the middle of the road. Swerving to avoid hitting the man, Brent’s vehicle collides with a tree. Six months later, Brent is planning to attend a high school dance with girlfriend Holly, having refused an offer by Lola Stone. Holly drives the pair on account of the car crash: It is revealed that Brent’s father, died in the accident. Wracked with guilt, Brent has turned to drug abuse and self-mutilation with a razor blade he keeps on a necklace. While listening to music, Brent is attacked from behind. Bound to a chair, he wakes up at Lola’s house sitting at a table with Lola, her father and a lobotomized woman they call Bright Eyes. Lola’s father has turned his house into a dance for his daughter. Lola takes a syringe and fills it with bleach and injects it into Brent’s voice box making him unable to scream or talk. She begins torturing Brent by forcing him to suck on her finger and threatening to nail his penis to the chair when he can’t urinate. When she makes a threatening comment about Holly, Brent kicks Lola and manages to escape. Lola’s father chases Brent up a tree, where he and Lola hurl rocks at Brent, knocking him down. The two bring Brent back inside and fix his feet to the floor with knives. Lola reveals via a scrap book that she had been abducting many boys throughout her life, including the bloody man Brent saw which made him swerve and kill his father. Lola then “draws” on Brent by carving a heart with “L.S.” in the middle on his chest, which she liberally throws salt on. After being crowned Queen of her dance, Lola admits to Brent that she is looking for her prince, which isn’t Brent as he is “just another frog.” However, Lola confides in her father that he himself is her prince. Afterward, Daddy lifts the carpet to reveal a secret trapdoor with the previous abductees still inside. Lola drills a hole through Brent’s skull as they intend to lobotomize him, like their other captives. But when Lola complains that the hole is too small for her to pour boiling water into, Brent slashes her father with his pendant necklace. Brent then attacks Daddy, stabbing him repeatedly in the neck with the knives Brent pulled out of his feet. Lola jumps on Brent and tries to hit him, but Brent knocks her out. Brent then pushes Lola’s dad into the pit, where he watches in horror as the near-starved captives eat Daddy. Lola gets up and throws Brent in, throwing nearby objects at him in anger. Brent finds a flashlight and hammer that Lola had thrown down and kills abductees as they advance on him. Lola then goes and smothers Bright Eyes with a pillow, revealing that the woman is her mother. On a hunch, Holly calls a policeman in the neighborhood. When he gets to Lola’s house, he sees through a window the bloody floor and chair and breaks in. Brent in an attempt to attract the policeman’s attention makes noises by throwing objects at the doors, alerting the policeman of his presence. But when he opens the doors, Lola appears behind the policeman and Brent can’t say anything to warn him. Lola drives a meat cleaver into his face and the policeman falls down, dropping the gun. Brent attempts to shoot Lola, but she quickly moves out of the way where she finds Brent’s necklace. She then informs Brent that she is going to go to his house and kill his mother and Holly for what he did. Brent notices a large pile of bones in the pit. Using them, as well as the bodies, he manages to climb out. Lola begins walking on the road with a knife and her scrapbook when she sees a car advance. It’s shown to be Holly, so Lola hides and throws her book at the windshield, distracting Holly so she stops. She then attempts to kill Holly, but Holly evades Lola and a chase ensues. Brent is seen driving the police car fast attempting to catch up with Lola. He sees Holly and nearly hits her but swerves and hits Lola instead. Holly clambers into the police car and is shocked to see Brent. The two embraces tearfully as Lola, severely injured but still not dead, crawls to kill the pair. They hear the noise of Lola’s knife as she drags herself and Brent reverses the car, striking Lola in the head.

Kristy, Killer Party and Just Before Dawn

Kristy

When a college girl who is alone on campus over the Thanksgiving break is targeted by a group of outcasts, she must conquer her deepest fears to outwit them and fight back. College girl Justine works hard to support herself at Bryce College, where she studies. During Thanksgiving, her boyfriend Aaron goes home and Justine plans to stay on campus with her roommate, Nicole. Out of the blue, Nicole’s father invites her to Aspen, while Justine remains the dorm. One night, Justine drives to a convenience store to buy supplies and meets Violet, who threatens her. Shaken, Justine returns to campus, where she soon finds herself being hunted down by Violet and three hoodlums from a cult. Justine has to fight to survive.

The film opens with a hooded figure photographing a young woman’s corpse in an empty field, followed by a montage of Internet screenshots and video of women being killed in what appears to be ritual murders by a cybercult, and footage of the murders being uploaded on an anonymous underground website, where members are encouraged to “kill Kristy”, “Kristy” coming from a Latin name meaning “follower of God.” College student Justine is attending a private university in the Northeast on scholarship and financial aid, and is unable to fly home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Her boyfriend Aaron and wealthy roommate Nicole both leave for the holiday, leaving Justine to spend the holiday in solitude on a nearly empty campus, aside from the security guard, Wayne, and groundskeeper, Scott.

On Thanksgiving night, Justine uses Nicole’s BMW to drive to a nearby convenience store off campus. Inside the store, a hooded girl, Violet, approaches Justine, complimenting her car. At the counter, the girl asks for a student discount on a pair of sunglasses, but has no ID. Justine offers to pay for them, but the girl refuses and calls her “Kristy”. On the drive home, Justine nearly rear ends a mysterious car parked in the middle of the road. Upon returning to the campus, Justine calls Aaron and informs him of the strange occurrence, and though he offers to come stay the night with her, she declines. After falling asleep on a couch in the common room, she hears odd noises coming from the direction of her dorm. Inside her dorm, Justine finds that someone has accessed her laptop, as a snuff film plays on the screen. Violet appears in the room with a box cutter in hand, and Justine flees to the entryway. Outside, Wayne, who had been investigating a noise, is murdered in front of her by a masked man.

The four cult killers assemble, and Violet begins recording Justine, telling her that they will hunt her and that she should “run to God”. Justine flees to Scott’s house on the edge of the campus for help. Scott goes outside to confront the assailants, but the killers murder his dog before hanging him from a swing set in the yard. Justine attempts to call 911 from Scott’s cell phone, but the gang has hacked into it. They begin sending Justine video clips of her self on the phone and menacing text messages. Justine attempts to hide in the library, but is chased to the roof of the building; cornered by the four assailants, she leaps from the roof, falling through the branches of a tree help break her fall.

Aaron arrives at the campus, and Justine struggles to run toward his car, but he is killed by one of the men in front of her. She uses Aaron’s car to pin the man against a concrete wall, crushing him to death. She then retreats to the gymnasium where she hides in the swimming pool. She stabs one of the men in the throat with her car keys before drowning him, and beats the other man to death with a baseball bat inside the locker room. She hears a cell phone alert from the dead man’s jacket, and reads a text message from Violet asking if he’s “killed Kristy yet”. Justine responds “yes”. While accessing the killer’s phone, Justine finds photos of the cult’s numerous victims, and their declaration to kill the “Kristy’s” of the world – pure, beautiful, and privileged women who they believe follow God.

Justine uses pool chemicals from a storage closet to make a flammable powder. She then dresses herself in the dead man’s mask and jacket and approaches the car where Violet is, dousing it in the powder. Violet attempts to lash at her with a box cutter, but Justine ignites the powder, and Violet is engulfed in the flames; Justine watches as she is burned alive. She then photographs Violet’s corpse with the cell phone, and uploads it to the website, entitled /the foldl. A montage at the end of the film narrated by news footage reveals a series of similar cult murders had occurred in New York City, Denver, Portland, Oregon, Kansas City, Dallas, Minneapolis and Atlanta, but with Justine’s testimony and access to the phone, many of the cult’s members have been arrested. A post-credits scene shows a young woman being attacked by another cult killer outside her home.

Killer Party

In order to join a sorority, three friends go to a hazing party in an old house where a sadistic bloodthirsty demonic spirit is lying in wait. Three gorgeous babes decide to join a sorority and a whole bunch of horny guys dump bees in the sorority’s back yard where a bunch of girls are naked in the outside hot tub so when the girls jump out the boys use a video camera to take shots of them. Their house mother gets talked into letting the girls have a hazing party in a forbidden frat house, and when she goes there to make sure the place is safe, she first stops at a handy grave in the front yard to explain to “Allan” why she’s letting the girls use the house, and tells him it was all an accident and it’s time for him to just let it go. Allan doesn’t answer her, since he’s dead. Or is he? As she is nailing down a loose banister on the stairway, a mysterious figure appears before her, brandishing what looks like a tire iron, she turns, asks “What are you doing here?” and this person does answer her by striking her dead. Well, the three pledges go through a hazing (and there are some very nice set pieces here, watch for ‘em) and are accepted into the sorority. One of the pledges is really good at special effects, horror stuff, and she is told that the only reason that she was accepted was that skill – they want her to gimmick up a traditional April Fools party that the sorority is hosting for a fraternity. Twenty-two years ago, the boy in the grave was killed at one of those parties by what everyone carefully refers to as an “accident.” The girls talk about strange disappearances while they begin to set up the old house for the party, and more strange things happen. Vivian, the special effects girl, starts to pull off her stunts, but then really menacing things begin to happen. Will the youngsters figure out what’s going on and who is doing it before they are all horribly killed? Is it still safe for us to go out to parties, or should we all be hiding under our computer desks?

Three friends, Vivia, Jennifer and Phoebe, decide to pledge a sorority. The night of the initiation, Vivia (Sherry Willis-Burch) plays an elaborate prank on the sorority sisters as the three girls are being initiated through a hazing ritual. Subsequently, all three girls are chosen to join the sorority, and Vivia learns that her prank was the only reason for her acceptance. Now she must gimmick up a traditional April Fools party that the sorority is hosting for a fraternity. The party is to be held at an old abandoned frat house where a young man named Allen was killed 22 years prior. Jennifer (Johnson) is bothered by this house, but Phoebe (Wilkes) and the guy she is interested in (Hewitt) convince her to go along with the party plans. Unfortunately for the friends and everyone else at the party, someone or something else does not want anyone in the abandoned house.

Near the end, it’s revealed that Jennifer, who happens to be possessed by the demon, tries to kill Phoebe and Viva with a trident, but they escape upstairs and through a blocked window to the roof. Jennifer then appears on the roof and attacks Vivia outside of the house, causing her to fall from the roof. Phoebe saves Vivia by impaling the possessed Jennifer with a sharp piece of wood through her chest, apparently killing both the girl and the demon. However, the demon possesses Phoebe just before the police and ambulance arrive. As the bodies are removed from the house, Vivia is placed on a stretcher and taken to the ambulance where Phoebe is waiting, still under the demon’s control. Vivia begs not to be put in the ambulance with Phoebe, but her screams are ignored and the vehicle drives away.

Just Before Dawn

Five campers arrive in the mountains to examine some property they have bought, but are warned by the Forest Ranger Roy McLean that a huge machete-wielding maniac has been terrorizing the area. Ignoring the warnings, they set up camp, and start disappearing one by one. If that sounds too run-of-the-mill, there’s a genuinely shocking plot twist halfway through.

Two men are hunting in a forest and come across an abandoned church. They go in to explore, and one of them receives a machete to the groin by a laughing man wearing a checkered jacket, while the other, Ty, runs away screaming. Next, we see park Ranger Roy McLean at his home, followed by a van of five teenagers going camping, but becoming lost. McLean warns them not to keep going the way they’re headed, but they ignore him. The five are: Warren, the blonde, body builder; his girlfriend Constance, blonde girl; Jonathan, the goofy, horny partygoer, his provocative girlfriend, Megan; and the nerdy camera operator, Daniel. On their way to the campsite, they almost hit a frantic, dirty Ty who tells them to drive away, but they do not listen and he runs into the woods.

They finally find a campsite and begin to set up, drinking beer, eating, and listening to music, not paying attention to anything around them. When night falls they go to sleep, all the while being watched by something in the woods. The next morning, they eat breakfast and go to the waterfall, where they see a young girl named Merry Logan who runs off into the woods. Meanwhile, Megan and Jonathan have gone skinny dipping in the lake, not knowing someone is under the water with them. Megan does not realize that Jonathan has got out of the water and feels hands touching her. She assumes it’s Jonathan, until she sees him on shore, upon which she panics and swims to safety.

When the group splits up to go exploring, Jonathan spots Merry and chases her, asking what her name is and telling her he will not hurt her. She thinks this is a game and runs out into a clearing where she sees something horrible, backing up towards the trees. Jonathan figures it’s the roped passageway over the river ahead, and begins to go across, but Merry runs and gives chase, only to be hit in the hand with a machete by a deformed giggling man in a checkered shirt. Jonathan runs to the other side, only to have the rope break, almost plunging him to his death and the rapids below. As he begins to climb up, he is greeted by the same man, who shoves him off to his death with his boot.

Megan and Daniel have gone off to take pictures of the woods and come across the church and a graveyard. Daniel breaks his glasses and sees a figure coming through the woods, and thinks it’s Jonathan and tells Megan, who decides to make it look like they’re making out. Daniel sees the figure approach, and upon realizing it’s not Jonathan, pushes Megan out of the way and is stabbed through the stomach with the machete. Megan sees the checkered shirt killer and runs into the church, where she sees him outside picking up Daniel’s camera. She turns around and is greeted by the same man and realizes that they’re identical twins. He begins to chop her with the machete as the other takes pictures through the window.

Meanwhile, Warren and Constance have met back at camp, but cannot find anyone else, until they see spot Jonathan’s body floating in the river and pull him out. They go to find the others but cannot find any trace of them as night approaches, so they go back to get the keys from Jonathan’s body which has disappeared.

Ty finally meets Roy and tells him all about the killer twins at the church, and Roy goes out on his horse to find the teens, and comes across Merry’s family, who consist of a crazy father and silent sister/mother. They tell him that the twins were actually theirs and that their mother died after having them, so he mated with his daughter and had Merry. Warren goes to find Jonathan’s body to get the car keys and leaves Constance at the campfire, where she is attacked by one of the twins who chases her up a tree. Warren finds Jonathan’s body along with Daniel’s who is wearing sunglasses and gets the keys, running back to camp with the Ranger. The twin cuts down the tree Constance is in, and is about to kill her when Roy shoots him in the chest, killing him and he tells the couple to go pack their things. They go back to camp, as Merry runs through the woods to find them.

At camp, the other twin stabs Warren and tries to kill Constance, who instead rams her fist down his throat, choking and killing him. Then she stands up, and makes the same noises as them, noting that she may have gone insane, as Warren questions her and Merry watches from the trees .The final shot shows the sunset view of the forest from the beginning.

Two men Ty (Mike Kellin) and Vachel (Charles Bartlett) are hunting in a forest and come across an abandoned church, which they go in to explore. After Ty sees their truck being crashed into a tree, Vachel is stabbed with a serrated machete by a chuckling assailant who dons Vachel’s hat and jacket. Ty, seeing the murderer come out of the church, quietly flees off into the forest. Meanwhile, Forest Ranger Roy McLean (George Kennedy) is at his home, where he encounters a van of five college-aged adults heading to rural property which one of them is has inherited. Despite his insistence that they not venture up the mountain, the five continue along. Among them are Warren (Gregg Henry); his girlfriend Constance (Deborah Benson); Jonathan (Chris Lemmon) and his girlfriend, Megan (Jamie Rose); and Daniel, Jonathan’s brother (Ralph Seymour).

On their way up the mountain, they hit a deer and encounter Ty stumbling through the woods on his way down the mountain; they dismiss the warnings of “demons” as he is visibly drunk. After reaching a point where the van cannot drive any further, the group set out on foot and make a campsite; at night, while around the fire, Constance, Megan and Daniel hear noises around them and become frightened, only to find that Jonathan and Warren are playing a joke on them. The next morning, they hike along Silver Creek to a waterfall, where they see a young girl named Merry Cat Logan (Kati Powell) singing before noticing their presence and running into the woods. Megan and Jonathan go skinny dipping at the bottom of the falls, unaware that someone else has entered the water. Megan feels hands touching her and assumes it’s Jonathan, until she sees him on shore, whereupon she panics and swims to safety.

When the group splits up to go exploring, Jonathan spots Merry and chases after her. She runs to a clearing but sees something that frightens her and hides behind some trees. Jonathan assumes it’s the rope bridge over the waterfall ahead and begins to go across, only to be confronted by the killer, who cuts his hand with his machete. The killer severs the bridge and Jonathan plummets into the water below. Unable to swim, he attempts to climb back up over the ledge using the rope. When he reaches the ledge, the killer kicks him in the face, and he falls to his demise. Meanwhile, Megan and Daniel are taking photographs in the woods, and come across the church and a graveyard. Daniel, who has lost his glasses, sees a figure coming through the woods, and thinks it’s Jonathan. He and Megan pretend to kiss as a joke, but as the figure comes closer, Daniel realizes it is not his brother. The figure stabs Daniel and Megan flees into the church, where she watches through the window as the killer investigates Daniel’s camera. Suddenly, another identical man emerges behind her inside the church, realizing that the two are identical twins, she is murdered in the church while the other twin photographs her death from outside the window.

The Woods

The Woods

Set in 1965 New England, a troubled girl encounters mysterious happenings in the woods surrounding an isolated girls’ school that she was sent to by her estranged parents. In 1965, after provoking a fire in a forest, the rebel teenager Heather Fasulo is sent to the boarding school Falburn Academy in the middle of the woods by her estranged mother Alice Fasulo and her neglected father Joe Fasulo. The Dean Ms. Traverse accepts Heather in spite of the bad financial condition of her father. The displaced Heather becomes close friends with weird Mary Turner, while they are mistreated by the abusive Samantha Wise. During the nights, Heather has nightmares and listens to voices from the woods, and during the days she believes that the school is a coven of witches. When some students, including Mary, simply vanish, Heather believes she will be the next one.

In 1965, after burning down a tree in her yard, rebel teenager Heather Fasulo (Agnes Bruckner) is sent to the boarding school Falburn Academy in the middle of the woods by her estranged mother Alice Fasulo (Emma Campbell) and negligent father Joe Fasulo (Bruce Campbell). The Headmistress, Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson), accepts Heather in spite of her father’s bad financial condition. The displaced Heather becomes close friends with Marcy Turner (Lauren Birkell), while they are maltreated by their abusive classmate Samantha Wise (Rachel Nichols). During the night, Heather has a nightmare of a student named Ann, covered in blood, and hears voices that seem to be coming from the woods. The next day, Marcy tells Heather that Ann was taken to a mental institution after attempting to commit suicide, and that she’d been covered in blood.

With the help of Marcy, Heather eventually learns to adjust to her new school, even having fun at times and making more friends. Ms. Traverse subjects Heather to special tests to see if she is “gifted,” telling her that it is all part of her scholarship to the academy. The girls tell Heather a spooky story about the history of Falburn, which includes three young redheaded sisters who arrived at the school and turned out to be witches, killing the Headmistress before leaving the woods. Meanwhile, Samantha continues to torment Heather, who comes to despise her and fights back. Ann returns from the mental institution, and Heather finds her one day, rocking in her bed. Ann reveals that she is afraid she will be taken by the witches. She says she is cold, so Heather climbs on a trunk to try and close the open window over Ann’s bed. A low fog rushes into the room and knocks Heather down, twisting her ankle, and she is taken to the infirmary. The next day, Heather finds Anne’s bed empty, her place filled with dead leaves. She witnesses the Headmistress lying to the police about Ann’s disappearance, remarking that she is being taken care of.

This leads her to become suspicious and she tries to talk to Marcy about it. But Marcy acts strangely, and is shadowed by one of the teachers. Soon after, Heather finds Marcy’s bed empty and covered in leaves. Later, she is confronted in the woods by Samantha, who reveals that she has actually been trying to protect Heather with her antics. She tells Heather that the school is led by a coven of witches who want to take all of the girls away. Samantha explains that she has called Heather’s father to help her escape and that milk is poisoned. The girls are both caught by a school mistress, who promptly takes Samantha away. Samantha is later found hanging from a long noose in the cafeteria. When a police officer comes to investigate, Heather tells him of the missing students.  The officer confronts the Headmistress, but she claims that the girls ran away. Another mistress “leads” the officer into the woods to find the girls, where he is killed by the living vines of a tree.

Heather’s parents show up to take her home, though the Headmistress tries to persuade them otherwise. On the way home, their car is mysteriously flipped and Heather is knocked unconscious. Alice is dragged out of the car by a living vine and kicks Joe in the head, knocking him out. Heather and Joe wake up in a nearby hospital. Before they can reach each other, Ms. Traverse has Heather dragged away, then slits her own hand and forces her black blood down Joe’s throat, which puts him into a catatonic state. Heather returns to the school in despair. She drinks the milk that evening, but later vomits it back up, finding tree bark in it. Back at the hospital, Joe wakes up and vomits Ms. Traverse’s black blood, which also has tree bark in it. He quickly escapes and goes to find Heather. That night, Heather begins to hear voices again, and when she attempts to leave, a living vine captures her.

When she awakens, she is wrapped in vines in a large room, next to Ann and Marcy, who are also held captive. All of the teachers appear and reveal themselves to be witches. Ms. Traverse is their leader, and she explains that their spirits have been trapped in the woods all these years, and they need to inhabit the bodies of young women to escape their imprisonment. Heather appears to be the centerpiece of her plan because she has the strongest powers among the gifted students. Heather is coerced into completing the ritual, and the vines being to mummify all of the girls in the school. Before it can complete itself, Joe breaks into the room with an ax and begins to kill the witches. Heather breaks free from the vines and grabs the axe, proceeding to chop all of the witches into pieces. Heather and Joe then leave with all of the girls, walking down the road into the daylight as the school burns in the distance behind them. The end of the movie states that Falburn Academy burned to the ground in 1965, while the surrounding woods were strangely left untouched.

A teenage girl is drawn into the path of the unknown in this tale of terror. Heather (Agnes Bruckner) is a teenage girl whose father (Bruce Campbell) and mother take little interest in her. Heather’s parents enroll her in a private boarding school for girls located deep in a remote forest. Heather isn’t happy with this turn of events, and she doesn’t get along well with her classmates or the Headmistress, Ms. Traverse (Patricia Clarkson). As she struggles to make the best of her situation, Heather notices that slowly but surely the other students at the school have been vanishing, and there seems to be a mysterious force in the nearby woods which has been claiming the lives of the younger women – and will soon be coming after Heather. The Woods was the first major-studio feature from director Lucky McKee, who earned enthusiastic notices for his independent film May.

Quotes

Samantha: [Walks up to the table] Heard you been saying stuff behind my back, fire-crotch.

Heather: Now, Samantha, all I said was your breath smells like you’ve been drinking out of Ms. Mackinaw’s douche bag, that’s all.

[Samantha leans in threateningly]

Heather: I don’t wanna kiss you, Samantha, so please, don’t ask.

Samantha: No, you listen very closely, fire-crotch. We have a certain way of doing things around here and you better figure out what that way is or there are going to be serious consequences.

Ms. Traverse: [Ms. Mackinaw brings Heather into the office] What is this?

Ms. Mackinaw: Miss Fasulo attacked Miss Wise in the dining hall. [Her head twitches]

Ms. Traverse: Is that so?

Heather: I didn’t… [She twitches intentionally]

Heather: … attack anyone. I was just trying to defend myself. [Ms. Mackinaw looks embarrassed and upset that Heather made fun of her twitch]

Heather: I’m sorry. I didn’t man to… [Ms. Mackinaw twitches again and leaves angrily]

Ms. Traverse: [Slaps Heather] Now listen: We have a certain way of doing things around here and you better figure out what that way is or there are going to be serious consequences.

Samantha: [Heather kicks bathroom stall door to try and get out. Samantha has her pinned inside] Say it.

Samantha: [Heather kicks stall door again] Say it.

Samantha: “I’m a fire-crotch.”

Heather: What?

Samantha: “I am a fire-crotch.”

Heather: How many football players put it in you before your mom get sick of having another tramp around the house?

Girl #1: [Samantha pulls open the stall door angrily, then proceeds to punch Heather in the stomach] Nice one.

Samantha: [Heather is keeled over in pain] If you know what’s good for you, you’ll run away and never, ever come back.

Samantha: Got it, fire-crotch?

Title Card: In the fall of 1965, the Falburn Academy burned to the ground. It remains a mystery why the trees surrounding the academy were untouched by the fire.

[First lines] Alice: Fasulo: [to Heather in the backseat] Feet off the seat.

Heather: Apparently, my father isn’t as well off as he presents himself.

Marcy Turner: Who is?

Heather: [On the phone] Mom, I just wanna come home. I miss my friends.

Alice Fasulo: Heather, sweetheart, you don’t have any friends.

Ms. Traverse: A loving mother never abandons her child. To be separated from her is like an amputation. It doesn’t matter what a child looks like –if she’s smart, if she’s stupid, if she has no friends. So why would your mother leave you here?

Alice Fasulo: I don’t know what I have to do, to get you under control, Heather.

Heather: Then stop trying.

Ms. Traverse: You don’t know what it’s like to be trapped. To be tied to the same place, for hundreds of years. They’re here to help you, Heather. Don’t be sad. By leaving this world, you’re giving others the opportunity to fully enter it.

Welcome to the Doll House

Welcome to the Doll House

Eleven-and-a-half-year-old Dawn Wiener is a shy, unattractive, unpopular seventh grader living in a middle-class suburban community in New Jersey. Her seventeen-year-old brother Mark is a nerdy high school student who plays clarinet in a garage band and shuns girls to prepare for college. Dawn’s younger sister, eight-year-old Missy, is a spoiled, manipulative little girl who pesters Dawn and dances around the house in a tutu. Their mother dotes on Missy and sides with her in disputes with Dawn. Their father is a meek, immature, selfish man who sides with Dawn’s mother in arguments with Dawn. Dawn’s only friend is an effeminate sixth-grade boy named Ralphy, with whom she shares a dilapidated clubhouse in her backyard. At school, Dawn is ridiculed and her locker is covered in graffiti. After her teacher unfairly keeps her after school, she is threatened with rape by a bully named Brandon McCarthy, who also has trouble socializing. At home Dawn’s mother punishes her for calling Missy a lesbian and refusing to be nice to her. Dawn gets in trouble at school after she accidentally hits a teacher in the eye with a spitball. Brandon’s first attempt to rape Dawn after school fails, but he orders her to meet him again. After she complies, he takes her to an abandoned field. He starts an earnest conversation with her and kisses her.

Mark’s band is joined by Steve Rodgers, a charismatic and handsome aspiring teenage rock musician who agrees to play in the band in exchange for Mark’s help in school. Dawn decides to pursue him romantically after he spends time with her, though one of Steve’s former girlfriends tells Dawn she has no chance of being with him. Dawn and Brandon form an innocent romance, but Brandon is arrested and expelled for suspected drug dealing. Dawn visits his home and meets his father and mentally challenged brother who requires constant supervision. After kissing Dawn, Brandon runs away to avoid being sent to military school. After angrily rejecting Ralphy, Dawn is left with no friends. When she refuses to tear down her clubhouse to make room for her parents; 20^th wedding anniversary party, her mother has Mark and Missy destroy it and gives them her share of a cake. At the party, Dawn intends to proposition Steve, but gets cold feet and is contemptuously rebuffed. Steve plays with Missy, who pushes Dawn into a kiddie pool. That evening, the family watches a videotape of the party, laughing when Dawn falls into the water. That night, Dawn smashes the tape and briefly brandishes her hammer over Missy as she sleeps.

A few weeks later, Dawn’s father’s car breaks down and her mother has to pick him up from work. Dawn is supposed to tell Missy to find a ride home from ballet class but chooses not to do so after arguing with her. Missy is kidnapped while walking home. When Missy’s tutu is found in Times Square, Dawn goes to New York City to find her. After a full day searching for Missy, Dawn phones home and Mark tells her that Missy was found by police after being abducted by a pedophile neighbor who lives on their street. Dawn returns home. Later, Dawn’s classmates ridicule her as she presents a thank you speech. After the principal tells the unruly students to be quiet, Dawn musters the emotional strength to finish her speech and makes a quick exit. Summer arrives and Dawn is relieved that school is over for the time-being. Mark tells Dawn that she cannot expect school life to get any better until she starts high school. As Dawn’s parents continue mistreating and ignoring her, Dawn signs herself up to attend a summer camp in Florida. On a school trip to Walt Disney World, Dawn sits among other girls from her school and joins them in singing the school anthem. Unnoticed, her voice slowly trails off as she sits looking out a bus window.