Brand New Cherry Flavor, Aftermath and The Swarm

  THE HORROR OF IT ALL    

Greetings to all my semi-constant readers and fellow horror enthusiasts. I am reading some great horror that will soon be making it to the big and little screen -The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, My Best Friend's Exorcism and The Final Girl's Support Group, all by Grady Hendrix and in pre-production. If they are anywhere as good as the books I will be very happy.

1) Brand New Cherry Flavor a limited series streaming on Netflix has a Twin Peaks vibe to me. Set in LA's 90s A young filmmaker Lisa Nova  (Rosa Salazar) arrives  with a remarkable short film that has garnered interest around Hollywood- namely Lou Burke (Eric Lange). Burke has taken her under his wing and stolen her movie. She decides to get revenge on him with a curse from the witch Boro (The amazing Catherine Keener). Her only payment for this curse is that she keeps regurgitating small mewling kittens that Boro seems to use for her own purposes. Two episodes in and I am really intrigued. Dark and twisty is my favorite kind of story. Keener, Salazar and Lange  have the best chemistry together and I cannot wait to finish this.

2) Aftermath  a new movie streaming on Netflix is based on a true story about a San Diego home in 2011. The movie opens with a young couple -Natalie and Kevin who are trying to piece their life back together after an affair.  She is a clothing designer and he cleans houses after murders and suicides. He discovers a beautiful home after cleaning after a murder/suicide. this house has all the modern technology because it was built by the former owner. They move in and from the very beginning there is something wrong. Is it haunted, are they being stalked by neighbors?  Mysterious noises and objects move around in rooms and there are racist rants posted online under their name and pornography starts arriving under Kevin's name. The leads are good Ashley Greene and Shawn Ashmore and believable in their roles. Lots of  genuine jump scares and I was pretty tense the entire movie. The big twist at the end and the final one in the last shot make us believe there might be sequel which would obviously not be a true story. Some of the acting by supporting roles was not the best but I think for the most part this very watchable.

3)  The Swarm also streaming on Netflix is a French Horror film with a clever concept although not the most original it was pretty well done. Virginie Hébrard is a newly widowed single mother raising a teenage daughter  and small son on her own . She makes a living  breeding and raising locusts for food and selling them to local businesses. Her locusts are not breeding and she is on the brink of bankruptcy. She suddenly discovers that the locusts have a very special appetite that makes them thrive and breed but it soon takes a toll on her mentally and physically. This felt like a decent throwback horror filmwith some good hoorror moments.