lukasbaehler Reviews

Bone Tomahawk (2015)

Good Western, Less of a Horror Movie

[7/10 · 14 July 2016]

I, personally, did not enjoy the movie as much as I hoped I would and I think this mainly comes from slightly wrong expectations i had. I went to see the movie because i expected a horror movie mainly but as it turned out for me this is more of a western than anything else.

I think the first part of the movie is its strongest. I very much enjoyed the characters of the four protagonists and i also think the actors gave a strong performance.

I consider the second part from where the protagonists first encounter the cannibals. This was the part that should have made the movie a horror movie but for me it definitely didn't. I was almost surprised by how unscary the cannibals were presented. There are two torture scenes in this movie which i would have found excellent if they just weren't as gory as they were since that did not suit the style of the film at all. I was neither scared nor thrilled at any point of the movie. I was especially annoyed by the emotionless performances of everyone in the second part of the movie. The protagonists don't show any emotion whatsoever and barely seem to care that they are being hunted by cannibals. Also the cannibals seem lazy as hell. For example, during a fighting scene, while his opponent is reloading his revolver, the cannibal casually walks towards his bow and arrow. Also, when cannibals are investigating a suspicious noise it seems more like they are going for a walk than anything else.

In conclusion, i think it comes down to what you want to see. If you want to see a western with more than usual gore, this is definitely a movie I would recommend. If, however, you want to see a horror movie with a creepy and scary atmosphere set in the wild west then I would suggest you don't watch this movie since I would barely consider this movie to be a horror movie.

I rated this movie as a western, hence the high rating.

Southbound (2015)

Creepy Horror Anthology

[7/10 · 13 July 2016]

Southbound is a horror anthology. Specifically, the movie consists of 5 only very loosely connected short segments.

In the beginning, you are put in the middle of the plot (if you want to consider it the middle) and so a lot of questions arise. I will tell you right now that now a lot of these questions will be answered.

All of the five segments are set somewhere in the desert of the USA. In that area, many mystic and horrible things happen. Yes, that's about all the information you're getting from the movie. Now, the segments are loosely connected, e.g. a girl protagonist of one segment who just escaped from a house gets driven over by the protagonist of the next segment. Another example: one segment ends in a hotel room and the main characters then walk out of the room right next to the first one.

Some of the segments are less enjoyable than the others. Since it's an anthology that doesn't matter as much since you can just wait for the next short film to begin.

I personally think that this is a movie that surprises you and leaves a bad taste in your mouth if you watch it with the wrong expectations. What to expect:

• 5 short films which are only loosely connected

• a rather unexplained plot

• an ending which does not explain much

I personally think that V/H/S (the first one) could be compared with this movie. I, personally, found V/H/S creepier and more unsettling than Southbound but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Jeruzalem (2015)

Annoying first person view and lots of questions

[4/10 · 12 July 2016]

The most annoying thing about this movie is that it is filmed through "smart glasses" (they are basically google glasses) of the main character. Now, i personally love well done found-footage horror movies but this is just plain annoying. e.g. voice recognition turns on randomly and starts playing music during an intense scene... yeah, as stupid as is sounds, it happens.

Until a good portion of the movie is over we learn absolutely nothing of interest to the main plot. And even after the movie we know so little about what actually happened.

The plot goes like this: Two girls go on vacation in Jeruzalem. They have fun there and meet two nice guys. One of them starts having a bit of a bad feeling blah blah blah. Suddenly we see fighter jets bombarding the town and the a long long escape follows. All we know is that basically judgment day is about to happen. That's it.

There are only very few monster encounters. All of them except one don't feel creepy one bit, unfortunately.

I think the premise of the movie is decent but badly chosen first person view and a long hysteric escape makes this movie not really worth to watch.