All posts by Rod Lott

Horror

The Death of April (2013)

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Fresh out of college, California girl Meagen Mullen (Katarina Hughes, Pretty Problems) heads for the East Coast for a teaching job. Separated from her friends and family, Meagen starts a video diary, capturing her showing off her apartment, talking on the phone, fucking around with a Ouija board.

Then inexplicable things start to happen … except they are explicable, given the Ouija board and the hence-the-title murder of a woman named April in the place six months prior. With no suspects, the case has gone cold … and straight into a case of possession!

Although no found-footage landmark, The Death of April is better-acted than the horror subgenre is used to. Hughes seems cast from the Katie Holmes mold, with solid support from Adam Lowder as Meagen’s loving brother and Rent-a-Pal’s Amy Rutledge in a small, but pivotal role. As writer and director, Ruben Rodriguez (The Portal) in particular nails the interstitial talking-head interviews, lending these portions a patina of authenticity similar movies struggle to fake. —Rod Lott

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Kitchen Sink

The Party (1988)

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WTFAccording to The Party, the proper marriage proposal requires roses, champagne, breakfast foods “and a king-size floating raft.” Beverly Hills’ heretofore most eligible bachelor, Richard Wells (Mark Derwin), uses those items to pull an “I will” out of his window-dressing girlfriend, Cathy (Kati Chesney).

Before going out of town, Richard quickly sets up her bachelorette party. Although taking place in daytime, the event comes complete with banana-hammocked male models to guide Cathy through a “treasure hunt.” This involves a game of ring toss with an inflatable clown penis.

The party is ambushed by a nosy TV reporter and cameraperson, capturing all these shenanigans and unwrapping of such gifts as anal beads, a rather threatening dildo, one open tube of fruit-flavored oral lube and — thanks, Grandma! — a VHS on sensual massage. As the theme song goes, this love will be extraordinary.

Then Cathy and her friends go for a ride in a limousine, despite the magician performing rudimentary tricks inside. All fun comes to a halt when the limo gets pulled over by a motorcycle cop — oh, never mind, it’s just Richard in disguise! He wasn’t out of town after all! Rich people, such scamps!

The end.

Shot on VHS, this oddity bears no plot, story, stakes or point. At just 60 minutes, it’s literally amateur hour. At no point does The Party not appear to be on the verge of going porno; mind you, for all its sex talk, no sex exists. I’m not even certain its director exists, credited under the assumed pseudonym of C.J. Leverton.

Against all odds on display here, Derwin continues to act steadily, including such big-studio pics as Accepted and Everest. Meanwhile, Chesney and most of her remaining cast members have zero other screen credits, which is clearly for the better.

The Party: Cry if you want to. —Rod Lott

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Documentary

2nd Chance (2022)

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Often, changing the world takes a big idea and a bit of bravado. Nowhere on that path does a sign state narcissism as a toll to be paid, yet it happens. Money corrupts, kids! 99 Homes director Ramin Bahrani illustrates that never-truer concept with the first-rate documentary 2nd Chance, an American excess story about the valiant rise and ignoble fall of Richard Davis.

After a pizza delivery turned gunfight in ’69 Detroit, Davis developed and patented the modern bulletproof vest in the early 1970s. Calling his company Second Chance, his goal was to save the lives of 100 police officers; before long, he cracked 1,000. And wouldn’t you know it, a God complex was born.

To tell this riveting tale of greed and guns, Bahrani interviews family members, ex-wives, ex-employees, ex-friends and, yes, Davis himself. Now nearly an octogenarian, the willing subject is one colorful, ornery character. You’d expect that from a guy who’s shot himself 192 times on camera to demonstrate his product’s effectiveness. Then its efficacy … um, let’s say “is significantly lowered.”

As fascinating as Davis is, it’s infuriating to watch the man live in complete and utter denial of provable facts, show no remorse, fail to accept responsibility, refuse to apologize and, even with evidence literally in front of his face, flat out lie.

At its conclusion, 2nd Chance introduces someone who played an indirect role in the success of Second Chance the business. Unlike Davis, this person does penance and, before our eyes, achieves peace decades in the making. Davis, meanwhile, does not appear to have learned his lesson — any lesson — no matter how many opportunities Bahrani kindly provides: more than are deserved. —Rod Lott

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Horror

The Appointment (1982)

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Lindsey Vickers’ The Appointment is the rare case of a Twilight Zone concept working perfectly well as a movie. Although Vickers’ story all but shouts how his story will end, he manages to tease suspense and turn the inevitable into a bravura sequence that literally turns things on its head.

Family man Ian (Edward Woodward, The Wicker Man) has to go out of town for a work obligation. This means he’ll miss the violin recital of his 14-year-old daughter, Joanne (Samantha Weysom, The Ritz). He and Joanne are bonded like Loctite Super Glue, so the news doesn’t sit well with her. Like, at all. Joanne’s growing petulance eats away at his empathy.

Thanks to a shocking prologue viewers should discover on their own, a discomfiting sense of dread pervades The Appointment. We know something irreversibly awful will happen, leaving us gripped for every bump of the ride. At once influencing Final Destination while recalling the expertise of Duel, Ian is pursued by what the rearview mirror cannot reveal: fate. How something this sure-handed remains Vickers’ lone feature is perhaps the only mystery any larger. —Rod Lott

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Thriller

Emergency Declaration (2021)

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A Sky Korea jet airliner is bound for Hawaii — and doom — in Emergency Declaration, because one of its passengers is a terrorist. Cold, calculated and no doubt crazed, Yim Si-wan’s disgraced biochemist slices open his armpit and sews a container of a deadly virus into it just prior to boarding. Once in flight, he fishes it out and lets ‘er loose, with the intent to kill everyone aboard.

On the ground, a police sergeant (Parasite papa Kang-ho Song) is alerted to a video threat the terrorist uploaded the previous day, and races against time to learn the man’s identity. It’s extra-important considering the sergeant’s wife is on that plane.

Needless to say, Jae-rim Han’s first film since 2017’s award-winning The King is not recommended for anyone with immediate travel plans consisting of a hop over an ocean. To everyone else, however, Emergency Declaration arrives as a slick, mostly satisfactory update on the 1970s airborne disaster film, swapping out the mad bomber for a more modern antisocial scientist.

I only wish it ended around the 1:40 mark, where it felt natural. Instead, the South Korean film continues for almost another hour, as Han throws more problems at the plane’s already fucked-up flight plan. Among this final (over)stretch is a scenario that practically calls for a sweaty, white-knuckled Robert Hays to take the captain’s chair. —Rod Lott

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