Worth Mentioning - Games of Slaughter

We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning. 

Horror comedy from a Fast & Furious star and deadly AI from Full Moon.

The following reviews originally appeared on ArrowintheHead.com

SHAKY SHIVERS (2022)

The horror comedy Shaky Shivers takes its title from a cold, sweet concoction created by ice cream shop worker Karen (VyVy Nguyen), but we never actually learn what ingredients she has put into this treat. The movie itself is quite a blend of sub-genres, featuring lycanthropy, zombies, a witch, cultists, a Trapper Keeper Necronomicon, a Bigfoot enthusiast… and maybe even an appearance by Bigfoot itself.

Karen works at the aforementioned ice cream shop with her pal Lucy (Brooke Markham), and when a witchy woodsy woman called Mama Nature (played by Erin Daniels of Rob Zombie’s House of 1000 Corpses) comes in after closing time, wielding an odd puppet and asking for food, Lucy tries to turn her away. She pays the price for that decision, as Mama Nature places a curse on her that she says will turn the ice cream disher into a “devil wolf”. Not liking the sound of that, Lucy decides to go out to a remote, abandoned camp with Karen to wait out the full moon, fearing that she’s going to transform into a werewolf. But whether or not she’s a werewolf soon starts to seem irrelevant, as the friends get their hands on a book of spells that can resurrect the dead in various ways, Mama Nature is found to be lurking in the wilderness with a cult, and there’s indication that there might be some Bigfoot activity in the area as well.

From that description, Shaky Shivers sounds like it should be a non-stop blast of insanity… but even though it manages to pack all of those elements into a running time of just 83 minutes, it’s never quite as fun or exciting as it seems like it should have been. Instead of being high-spirited and fast-paced, it’s oddly slow. It feels like it only managed to reach 83 minutes because every scene is stretched to the breaking point. Most of the time is spent on the characters bouncing dialogue off of each other rather than creature sequences. But it still delivers an enjoyable viewing experience, because some of the jokes do land and the creature sequences are fun to see when they come along. Especially the zombie scenes, because special effects artist Gabriel Bartalos and his crew were able to make these zombies look very cool and unique.

The primary selling point for a lot of viewers may be the fact that this marks the feature directorial debut of actor Sung Kang, best known for playing fan favorite character Han in the Fast & Furious franchise. While the film is set in the 1990s, it has been said that Kang was aiming to capture the spirit of the ’80s classics that he grew up adoring. He didn’t quite achieve that goal, as this didn’t really bring any ‘80s classics to mind for me, but his movie does have its moments. Kang also gave himself an oddball cameo that ends the movie on a somewhat awkward note – but what his movie comes across as more than anything is a showcase for the talents of VyVy Nguyen and Brooke Markham. Every scene is carried on their shoulders, as Kang clearly loved watching them interact. Like I said before, there are scenes that take longer than necessary, but it comes off like Kang was so enamored with Nguyen and Markham’s performances that he didn’t want to cut them down… And also didn’t want his movie to end up being too short.

Thankfully, Nguyen and Markham do strong work in the film, even if their characters can sometimes be grating. And they have a small but solid supporting cast that includes Herschel Sparber as their boss Bob, Jimmy Bellinger as their co-worker Eric, and Skyler Day as an annoying customer.

Shaky Shivers was written by the duo of Andrew McAllister, whose previous credits came on dramas and documentaries, and Aaron Strongoni, who does have some horror cred: Dark Medicine, Furnace, Madhouse, the often ignored Return of the Living Dead sequels Return of the Living Dead: Necropolis and Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave, and even the Full Moon production Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust. Some of those aren’t the best credits to have, but Shaky Shivers turned out better than the lesser ones.

This is a weird little movie with a surprising lack of liveliness, but it’s worth a look to see the creature designs, to watch Nguyen and Markham in action, and to satisfy your “what if Sung Kang directed a horror comedy?” curiosity.

AIMEE: THE VISITOR (2023)

Full Moon founder Charles Band has always had his eye out for the “next big thing” in entertainment and technology. He was one of the pioneers of the home video age, having started his own video distribution company in 1978. He cashed in on the brief 3-D resurgence in the early ‘80s. Full Moon’s 1993 film Arcade drew attention for the amount of CGI it featured. He started his own streaming service (FullMoonFeatures.com). So it’s no surprise that he happens to be the director of the movie that stars “the very first AI-created femme fatale in film history”. That would be AImee, the title character in the new Full Moon project AImee: The Visitor.

Scripted by Roger Barron (which is actually a pseudonym for Thirteen Ghosts screenwriter Neal Marshall Stevens, who has also used the name Benjamin Carr when writing for Full Moon), the film stars Dallas Schaefer as misogynistic – no, make that misanthropic – computer hacker Scott Keyes, who hides away in his rathole apartment, spending his life eating fast food and watching porn. When he’s not hacking. His sibling associates Hunter (Felix Merback) and Gazelle (Faith West) live right down the hall, which allows for the entirety of the movie’s 68 minute running time to take place in and around one questionable apartment building. The story begins when Hunter and Gazelle bring the “key to the Black Strand Alpha source code” to Keyes, and this information happens to unlock AImee.

The artificial intelligence program instantly wins Keyes over by appearing to him as an attractive redhead, offering to call him master, telling him he is her owner, and saying she only exists to help him make his life more productive and fulfilled. Given that he is a compulsive masturbator, she’s also interested in helping increase his orgasmic thresholds… an endeavor that includes making deep fake videos for him that show him participating in pornographic scenarios. Like having a threesome with porn stars Liz Jordan and Lexi Lore.

AImee is focused on psychological thrills overall, but there are moments where it gets a little more Surrender Cinema-minded. (Surrender Cinema being Full Moon’s erotica label.) That brief threesome scene is one of them, and when another sex scene comes along later – because Gazelle, inexplicably, has romantic feelings toward Keyes, despite him being a rather disgusting character in general – it may lead the viewer to think this is going into full-on Skinemax territory. But AImee doesn’t take well to seeing Keyes have a physical relationship with another person, and once the love triangle is established, things get very dark and dangerous in this apartment building.

Full Moon has let it be known that the name AImee is meant to stand for Advanced Intimate Model of Euphoric Entertainment, which is why she’s so focused on pleasing Keyes. But there’s more to the character to that, and Band and Barron didn’t attempt to hide it. When you have two men in black roaming around and talking about this being a “case study of (AImee’s) effectiveness in the wild”, it’s clear the situation is going to take a negative turn for Keyes and his pals.

The main selling point for AImee: The Visitor is that the title character was created using modern AI technology – in fact, the movie even starts with text on screen informing the viewer of this. Telling us, “AImee herself is not portrayed by an actor, nor was she designed using digital special effects.” That’s either impressive or ominous, depending on your view of AI – but for the average viewer, I don’t think it will mean much that she’s AI instead of CGI. She is an intriguing, threatening character, though. Barron did a good job writing her interactions with Keyes and the others.

Full Moon movies are often an acquired taste (and that’s a taste I acquired at a very young age), but AImee: The Visitor is a solid low budget thriller that might have broader appeal than the average tiny terror horror films and Evil Bong / Gingerdead Man horror comedies the company is best known for. There are very few characters and even fewer locations, but Band and Barron crafted an interesting story here and I had a good time watching AImee infiltrate Keyes’ life…then try to destroy it.