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The Films of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

I am loving these guys films. Something in the Dirt was my first encounter, a completely bizarre film about paranoia, disinformation, “buddies” experiencing the paranormal together and trying to document it.

It made me want to watch all of their movies and I have really enjoyed every one of them.

Resolution (2012), the first film by the duo. Not as outright crazy as Something in the Dirt, but lots of strange happenings around a relatively normal center story about a guy who wants to get his friend off crack so he chains him to the wall of the shack hes living in and stays with him until hes sober. While staying safe from drug dealers and exploring the surroundings it seems someone or some thing is recording them. This is definitely my favorite, though its hard to separate from The Endless.

Spring (2014) is heaps different to Resolution and Something in the Dirt. Its a body horror love story.
Completely different to what I was expecting. Its basically a “normal” horror film. Has make up effects and such. Its pretty good, its weird still and definitely interesting, has serious moments spliced with humor, particularly after the reveal happens to the main character, and has some of the quirky personality I really love in their Resolution and Something in the Dirt. And, like Resolution, an ending that leaves you guessing. But yeah its a professional looking supernatural horror about two lovers.

The Endless (2017) is in the same universe as Resolution and can be “interpreted” as a sequel, sharing some of the same characters. Two brothers who escaped a UFO cult as children are drawn back to it when they receive a video recording in the mail. One brother, Justin, thinks its a death cult, the other, Aaron, thinks its benign. They both have extremely different experiences at the camp – Justin’s one of horror, and Aaron’s one of an escape from reality. There are quite a few cross-over moments between this film and Resolution: A drug the owner of Sandy the dog smokes in Resolution (a red plant) reappears being smoked by a cultist. A cult member draws a picture of a “gun nut tweaker” – Chris, the drug addict main character from Resolution. Chris is also mentioned by a person trapped in the time loop to Justin when hes being told how to escape, and Justin visits the cabin and speaks with Mike and Chris, who is chained to the wall. Mike shows Justin a video of possibly the entity killing them and talks about how they are stuck in a loop. After Justin leaves we see Mike light fire to the cabin in what is possibly an alternative ending to Resolution. Justin encounters Aaron and they visit the trailer where the owner of Sandy the dog lives but he is away, they see the red drug plant again. Earlier while fishing Justin finds a tape and on it are the 3 religious people by the river in Resolution, two of them are Justin and Aaron. There is also a moment where they watch a TV and see they have been filmed by some”entity”. Another really great, bizarre and supernatural film by these guys.

Synchronic (2019) Two paramedics encounter bizarre deaths linked to a designer drug called Synchronic, its legal and I guess like K2 or bath salts, someone in the film calls it “fake Ayahuasca”. There’s a fair bit of story about the lives of the two guys and their personal issues, which is interspersed with the fucked up effects of the drug on the people they encounter during their job. Steve who has been diagnosed with a cancer on his pineal encounters the inventor of Synchronic who tells him the drug will be able to make him travel through time. He decides to experiment with it to find his partners daughter who had done the drug at a party and disappeared. And its gets weird. Like Spring, this is a more polished and “normal” film. It is mentioned the drug is made from a red flower, which is the drug we see in both Resolution and The Endless.

After Midnight (2019) and She Dies Tomorrow (2020), both films they were only producers on, I will watch at another time.

Rustic Films
Justin Benson @ Instagram
Aaron Moorhead @ Instagram

Rustic Films
Wikipedia
IMDB

Something In The Dirt (2022)

Bizarre, excellent film.

Does it even have an explanation beyond a character study of I guess a rather gullible person and a person who is already more invested both wanting to find answers. And I guess the dis/information overload of modern society. I liked it, a lot, watching it was confusing but thinking about it after I think is the only way to pull it together, which felt impossible while watching. Neither of them were right, but John was an asshole, convicted to something more already. And Levi was just looking for answers, troubled, and they both just got wrapped up in ultimately destructive bullshit. I don’t think the “behind the scenes” footage in the credits was in film, or showing the characters faking anything. I think we have to assume the supernatural things were their delusions, an expression of the characters investment in their endeavor, their want to see or understand more, hence why it created conflict when one or the other did or didn’t see or believe in each others things.

Honestly. I have no idea. I loved it.

Horrortober 2022 #30 & #31

Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998)

Also known as The McPherson Tape. Haven’t seen this fully in a while. I love this film. An early found footage type film, I’ve heard people have problems with it but they are obviously morons. Its fantastic. 3.5

★★★★

Biotherapy (1985)

A really fucked up Japanese gore film. IMDB says this is “about a group of Japanese scientists getting stalked and viciously butchered by a creepy-looking alien who’s wearing a trench-coat.” and I’m just going to agree with that as the subtitles sucked and its a very confusing and rather B-grade film. But its only 35mins so its fast at least. The gore is where the budget went and is really effective and gross. A 2 is kind of stretching it but then I’m also adding a .5 for the gore. 2.5

★★★

Horrortober 2022 #28 & #29

The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

“A reporter who has had an affair with the daughter of the U.S. President is sent to Hungary. There he is bitten by a werewolf, and then gets transferred back to Washington, where he gets a job as press assistant to the President. Then bodies start turning up in D.C. . . .” – IMDB

The wolf costume is funny. Its all weird and over the top in a very 70’s kind of way. Its kind of grating.

★

Jaws of Satan (1981)

“A preacher whose ancestors were Druids battles Satan, who has taken the form of a huge snake.”

The “huge snake” is a large cobra, maybe 3 meters long. It is possessed by Satan and can control and influence near by cobras to do its bidding. There’s a lot of snakes.

★

Horrortober 2022 #26 & #27

Murder in Space (1985)

Staring Wilford Brimley and Michael Ironside. Its another TV movie. Originally broadcast without the ending to let the viewers try and solve the mystery of who the killer was. The ending was then shown at a later date.

The crew of a international space station are about to return to earth when an explosion happens and then someone starts murdering the crew. Its very much a standard who-done-it TV murder mystery with some Cold War anti Russian sentiment thrown in. The sets and costumes remind me of the TV series V. Oh, and Michael Ironside the American captain is the murderer. 1.5

★★

Mutilations (1986)

Theres some very interesting but also poorly used effects, stop motion video and miniatures, the superimposing of claymation creatures directly onto other footage, lots of smoke and coloured lights to hide elements. Its an interesting watch for all that alone, there is some real strange stuff going on. The actual story is drawn out and I’m not sure if it is meant to be a comedy or not. For how terrible it is at some points, its a 2/5 because you’re just wondering the whole time about the choices made in this films creation. A real strange one.

★★

Horrortober 2022 #24 & #25

Hotline (1982)

“A beautiful telephone operator is stalked by a murderous madman.” – IMDB

Wonder Woman, Lynda Carter. A classic telephone based horror? (I hope).

Lynda Carter lives in the early 80’s which is infested with sex pests. She works at a bar that looks like Cheers, and also gets a volunteer job doing some kind of crisis hotline work. A serial killer starts calling her and admitting to murders and she needs to find out who it is. There’s a few men in her friends circle and it ends up being an associate of one of them? Its really convoluted and I just got bored and unfocused too often. Oh, it’s also a TV drama. Lynda puts in a great effort, though, plus .5 for that.
1.5/5.

★★

Horrortober 2022 #22 & #23

The Deadly Spawn (1983)

The version I watched was just called The Deadly Spawn, but it seems to be also called Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn to try and cash in on the film Alien, which is just bizarre.

A meteor crashes and some young people go to inspect it. They are killed by something that was inside the meteor? Whatever it is then moves into the basement of a near by house and kills anyone who ventures down into it. A electrician who arrives to fix some fault discovers the basement is full of slug-like creatures. More people turn up, more people are killed. Some teens who I guess are the main characters turn up. Eventually they try and blow up the main large creature with a fake severed head stuffed with explosives, and succeed. People arrive to hunt the creatures. At night there is a rumbling noise near the house and huge super massive creature bursts from the earth. The end.

Really not much at all happens, people run around a house and are killed by cool looking monsters. But some of the gore effects are great and the thousands of teeth filled monsters looks fantastic. It rather sparse but enjoyable. 2.5/5.

Nigel the Psychopath (1994)

“Nigel the Psychopath was shot on super 8 film and VHS video as an amateur production between the years of 1986 and 1989”

Super B-grade. Super low budget. IMDB says “A psychotic maniac with a gas mask lurks the local playgrounds and kills all the children in his path” and yep, that’s about it. There’s some dialogue, maybe attempts at character development and maybe a story? Its generally just footage of kids and teens hanging around and then Nigel turns up they run away or he kills some/all of them. Difficult to really call this a film in some ways. A low budget oddity from the late 80’s. Its terrible but strangely enjoyable. 2/5.

Horrortober 2022 #18 & #19

Frogs (1972)

“That night, now alone in his mansion, Jason witnesses hundreds of frogs breaking into the house
and staring at him”

Its called frogs but all of the attacks and killings are by other creatures like alligators, snakes and leaches. Normal frogs are seen though out the film, and during the big finale frog scene they are just normal sized frogs as well. They mention giant frogs, but you never see any.

A wildlife photographer canoeing through a swamp encounters a wealthy family who he stays with for a while, and then as people go about their business they are attacked by the swamps wildlife. Its hinted at that the “giant” frogs are caused by pollution. I think all the frogs they show are actually toads. 2/5

★★

Heavy Metal Massacre (1989)

“This location was torn down in the early 1990s, when the current owners were made aware
this film had been shot there.”

This is super b-grade. Shot on video, with shitty in-camera effects and fades. Produced and written by I assume the main character, and I’m also going to assume its their shitty music all through the film. I guess this is what you call a vanity project. Despite the warning at the start there’s no gore or horror, and many of the scenes are really dark and out of focus. Not great, not even really fun in a dumb way. 1/5

★