Greetings & Salutations Fellow Movie Fanatics!
It’s been a while since I’ve personally seen a fairly decent horror film. As of late, the really ‘top notch’ horror films don’t seem to be the the big budget Hollywood scary movies but the low budget underground or ‘crowd funded’ films that forgo the superstar casts. Today’s film is one of these movies made outside the Hollywood norm and the folks in front and behind the camera seem to know a hell of a lot more about how to make a scary movie than most.
‘Lilin’s Brood’ is written and directed by Artii Smith and P.W. Simon from Some Sirius Ship Productions and stars Maxine Goynes, Martin Sensmeier, Brent King, Melinda Milton, Alberto Barros Jr., James Wellington, Artii Smith, Detra Jackson, Catherine Paiz, Sandra Hinojosa, and Grace Demarco. The film centers on a ‘New Media’ news coverage team (W.H.I.S.T.L.E.) after they become stranded in the Oregon wilderness en route to a mysterious brothel to investigate the disappearances of a group of men whose only connection seems to be the fact that they visited this particular brothel which apparently has some connection to illegal organ harvesting. Once there however, they encounter a group of women who are not what they seem and are the keepers of a dark secret. The movie is presented in the lost/found footage format and although that genre has been played out in recent years, the film’s unique storyline gives it a fresh look.
Like most found footage films, there’s an immediate sense of ‘inevitability’ once things get rolling.
The writers took inspiration from the story of Lilith. Adam’s first and later discarded wife and the children born of her union with the Archangel Samuel. These beings took the form of beautiful women who turned out to be succubae who were sometimes captured or sold into prostitution. The ones who evaded capture would only mate with certain males who became gravely ill, went insane, or died shortly thereafter.
After interviewing family members of the missing men the investigators Vanessa, Wolf, Thomas, Danny, and Art set out in their RV equipped with an array of digital cameras. En route to the supposed brothel their RV hits something and they stop to investigate. They find blood and hair on the grill but they cannot locate a body and their vehicle is still functional. Regardless, they set out on foot with a mysterious hitchhiker who appears at the very moment they stopped and informs them they can find access to a land line phone as cell reception is dead at a nearby estate run by Madame Plu (anyone else think this is a red flag?). As it turns out, the estate is the brothel they’ve been searching for and Madame Plu runs it. Once they arrive, Madame Plu welcomes them and invites them to make themselves at home since help will not arrive until morning. As the investigators poke around and discretely install hidden cameras, things start to unravel and the previously mentioned ‘inevitability factor’ kicks in. Everything from an evil female cult, zombie-like creatures, and a demonic birth present themselves in steady succession. The film definitely plays on male fears as far as women. Beware a woman’s scorn and all that. Another factor that sets this film apart from recent horror films is that the directors didn’t feel the need to include any graphic sex scenes or nudity in them film. I mean, it’s definitely a rated R film and quite bloody but the gore factor is kept at a minimum for this genre of movie and beyond a few scantily clad females … That’s it.
I’m going to give this film 3 out of 5 stars. The run time in this one is about 80 minutes and there are one or two pivotal plot holes I thought were way to obvious and could’ve been covered up. But that would also take away any reason to keep the film going beyond the first 20 minutes. The acting was a bit over the top in the last 20 minutes but it didn’t run the film. The film will be available on Amazon Video and iTunes Feb 12th. Have a scary/horror movie night and include this one between other films. It’s an original film with some classic elements and it deserves a view.
