Shudder Trio (I Blame Society/Lake of Death/Rock, Paper & Scissors)

 I Blame Society (2020) 2.5/5

Gillian can't seem to catch a break in Hollywood. Her latest project about Israel is "too political", her peers (including her editor boyfriend) consider her perhaps "not a right fit" for the industry, and a friend she really cares about seems destined to marry a woman she really, really can't fucking stand. So a lot going on here, but all of that pales in comparison to what she will eventually do when challenged by two guys, seemingly interested in distributing / producing a film of hers after getting a recommendation from Gillian's friend, Diane. However, their pointers (all the Hollywood talking points are covered, such as "strong female lead", "intersectionality", being a "good ally"; all these "inclusive" soundbites that seem woven into every conversation they have with starving artists looking to get their foothold in an industry that can make or break you) provoke Gillian to act on an idea back three years ago: killing someone bad for a good movie.

Gillian's boyfriend is more than a bit disturbed by how she seems to talk about killing someone and filming it for her project so nonchalantly and rationally, as if "no biggie", eventually leaving her out of a clear concern for his own safety. Once Gillian spies on someone she chooses in a neighborhood and commits to monitoring her movements, and eventually killing her (she makes all her murders look like suicides!), she just can't stop at one! The inspiration for murder is a young woman she calls Stalin, someone she knew from high school and had bad experiences with. Gillian really liked Stalin's fiance, Chase, and wanted him to commit to not marrying her...going so far as to deny him an Epi he needed after an allergic reaction to a sesame seed bun! Chase's "accidental death" pushes Gillian to continue down an increasingly unsettling descent where a stream of guys she happens upon or finds through various means (like at cafes, homeless on the streets, etc.) are targets for seduction and death, often poisoned before she slits their wrists, even having sex with several of them. Eventually she presents her "film" to the two guys that wanted her to really deliver them something "authentic", and what we watch throughout "I Blame Society" they find unreal, too far-fetched, incredibly difficult to suspend disbelief! Yes, what they watched was real and they thought it was too fictional!

This Found Footage-adjacent dark comedy has plenty of shock and awe moments as "in real time" recordings by Gillian of this film project include a lot of warped behavior. While later in the project, Gillian is more calculated, with the murders premeditated, the initial impulsive psychosis that emerges builds effectively (at least to me, anyway) towards the final scene where she doesn't exactly appreciate these two producers dressing-down her work...and her reaction falls in line with where Gillian is at that point. While at the beginning, murder is but an idea she flirts with as a project, by the end, Gillian doesn't even pause to pull out her knife and go to stabbing.

This will really come down to, I believe, whether or not you can click with Gillian as the main lead character. We see through her camera, almost exclusively following her from a struggling filmmaker just wanting some way into the industry, despite plenty of setbacks, to a dedicated, revealing ongoing day-to-day vlog of activities charting a course towards an inevitable final act of bloodshed born out of an inability to tolerate a critique about the legitimacy of what she spent a great deal of time and effort putting together for these two Hollywood goons.

I would probably say besides just not giving Chase the Epi he needed out of this obsessive need for him not to marry Stalin, the most shocking kill of the film would be Gillian numbing Stalin's body with a drugged drink in order to take her organs from her body while she was awake and alert in a bathtub! Now that is fucked up.

I personally thought Gillian was a very captivating lead, though I don't think I really wanted to spend 83 minutes with her. I think that was really it in a nutshell. I think this would be a fun little short film...I guess I just felt it was a short film extended a bit too long. But I can see how some would get a kick out of Gillian. And while I can see how she ended up in that bathroom taking out Stalin's organs (giving good people what they need from a bad person), so motivated by her hate for that woman, a lot of victims die unnecessarily. I get that was the point... a certain method to her madness.

Lake of Death (2019) 2/5

This Norwegian horror film updated from "Lake of the Dead" retaining and further emphasizing Bjorn's incestuous desires for Lillian, who returns at the urging of her new boyfriend, Gabriel, to a cabin located by a notorious lake, the idyllic, breathtaking environs infamous for a former occupant named Rudvik, as told by Lillian's former love, Kai, killing his wife out of a jealous rage (affair with a younger man in the woods). The lake itself is said to be haunted. The film has us see through Lillian's possibly tortured psyche hallucinations of a blackness in the water that seems to live and travel in the form of veins. What we later learn is that Bjorn, in a boat with his sister, attempts to rape her in a flashback.

With friends at the lake cabin, they soon encounter possibly either a human or even supernatural intruder...could that intruder be Bjorn?

The film is full of Hollywood loud-noise attempted jump scares (Bernhard sees his own reflection in the mirror, Sonja bumps into Bernhard, Gabriel appears to Lillian while silhouetted in shadowy dark), "evil black water" special effects (Lillian sees herself covered in black scum, and in the bathtub sees herself in dirty water), Lillian's mental state questioned (she sees Gabriel drinking black, oily water while not longer after the water is clear and a-okay), Lillian's odd sleepwalking "fits", and the obvious menace that sets a breakfast table for the group, bewildered by who is responsible for quite a delicious-looking spread.

The predictability of the menace and the water possessing Lillian at the end while her dog reacts with growling are just rather meh to me, though the film is quite attractive as is the cast. I especially liked the scene in the basement, with how the light upstairs peers through the cracks in the floor and the bits of dust that falls while Lillian investigates. My favorite part is the underwater scenes where Lillian is cutting her hands free from rope while Bjorn is trying to hold her down so she drowns (eventually stabbing him)...you could pause at certain moments and paint Lillian in a portrait.

I could see why some might dig this. It is well photographed, but the story is just bland and attempted scares dull. Akerlie's sullen face and sad presence doesn't disguise the overall mood for this one. It was just a slog, if I'm honest. Good-looking film, but it felt like one of those generic Hollywood supernatural thrillers I used to rent from Blockbuster from time to time and immediately forget. Sophia Lie, though, was an addition to the film I appreciated. Munk, Lie's beau in the film, comes off for the most part as an asshole. I think the point of his later grouchy scenes is that when he nearly drowns the lake has caused a change in him. It is all in the eyes, as both Munk's Harald and later Bjorn reveal that black slick filling up their eyes.

Rock, Paper and Scissors (2019)  2/5

Maria is unstable, Jesus is her emasculated patsy brother with a camera recording her outre Wiz Oz variant, and half-sis, Magdalena, an actress visiting, takes a [possibly tripped/pushed] header down a seemingly neverending flight of stairs, leaving her bedridden. Maggie wants to get her share of inheritance from their dead father's estate, while the other two seem to fuck with her head when they aren't crashed on the couch staring at the telly.

Arduous experience for me. Stilted. Solemn. Dour. The trio really seemed to suffer serious familial trauma with their parents in the past. You can feel that offkey undercurrent of mental dross collectively seething until animosity and hostility boil over. Every damn room and wall and floor and piece of furniture in that architecturally off-kilter house wrings of this mildewy, decaying color scheme. I can't imagine what it's like for Maggie, seemingly entombed in that depressing room. Getting out of the damned house would be top priority for most people. But scene to scene, I just waited for some violent outburst, just the right trigger, and the big boil spewing out of that simmering unease. Daddy didn't get out alive...will big sis?

This felt like a 3 hour slog through family discord. Maggie tries to prey on Maria's vulnerability by turning her against Jesus.