Carnifex (2022) Movie Review

Trailer here.

Carnifex is a 2022 Australian horror movie directed by Sean Lahiff and starring Alexandra Park, Harry Greenwood, Sisi Stringer and Darren Gilshenan.

There are bushfires in the outback. Something is frightening the animals in the area. It is some sort of creature. There are cameras there. Three people are making a documentary on the wildlife and the effects of the bushfire. Ben(Greenwood) is a biologist. He has Bailey(Park) who is a filmmaker and Grace(Stringer) who is also a biologist with him.They meet Matt(Gilshenan) who is a park ranger. The three head off into the wilderness. They are putting camers around to keep an eye on the animals. There is a hunter out at night shooting kangaroo. He hears something moving around in the trees. He goes to investigate and gets killed. 

The group retrieve their cameras. They decide to walk in the forest . Ben calls birds but there are none which is unusual. They discover one of the cameras which has been knocked down. They also find animal remains. They look at the camera footage. Something weird is on it. They think it might be some kind of feral animal. They call the park ranger and tell him. He goes to meet them. Bailey finds scratches on a tree. It looks like claw marks. Ben and Grace set trps to lure the creatuee out. Matt finds the hunters camp and looks around. Ben thinks that it might be a carnifex which is an extinct creature. Grace doesn't believe it. Matt ends up meeting it and he dies. The others wonder where he went. The carnifex shows up and the group see it. Grace and Ben are delighted.

Their delight doesn't last long as they both get attacked by the creature. Bailey is alone and gets to the car. She tries to hide from the creature. Ben finds himself in a tree. He is injured, as is Grace. Ben gets eaten by it. It wants Grace next. She manages to find Bailey and the two go to find Ben but it is too late. They get back to the car and try and escape. The car gets stuck and they can't go. Bailey shines a light and she hits it. It drags her off. They have a shotgun with one shot left in it. Grace shoots it and it runs off. The survivors head off. 

This is a fun creature feature. There is lots of action and it is good overall. The ending is a little flat but it is an interesting tale. I will give it a 5/10.

Twisted Nightmare(1987) Movie Review

Twisted Nightmare is a 1987 horror movie directed by Paul Hunt and starring Rhonda Gray, Cleve Hall and Natalie Main.

A girl called Laura(Gray) wins a weekend away  to Camp Paradise. She went there as a child and she wants to bring her boyfriend, Shawn(Brad Bartram) and some old friends-Jennifer(Main), Tak, Nicole,Jerome,Gus, Sylvia,Ken, Julie, Dean and Cheri. There is a caretaker called Kane(Robert Padilla) working there. He lets them in and locks the gate after them. We discover that Laura had a disabled brother called Matthew(Hall) who had an accident at the camp years before and died. It isn't long before people start to get killed. Sylvia and Gus are the first.

Some of the group go hiking.Dean and Cheri are leaving because they think something is weird at the camp and they are suspicious of the free weekend.Ken and Julie don't go hiking and Ken goes looking for Kane. Julie finds Sylvia and Gus dead in the barn and goes to ring the Sheriff but she gets cut off before she can explain. She runs to the truck but gets pulled out and killed. Dean tells the others someone put sugar in his gas tank so he can't leave. Tak and Shawn are hunting . Shawn asks Tak about Matthew.Tak says people were teasing him and somehow Matthew was on fire. His body was never found.

Kane warns them to leave before it's too late. Others get killed. The Sheriff comes up to talk to them. He finds Laura but she knows nothing. Kane tells Shawn that the land belonged to his tribe. He tells him his people were killed by the white man. There is a curse on the land. He warns them to leave or die. Nicole and Jerome die. Shawn and Tak see the killer. They make it back to the cabin and find Laura. The Sheriff meets Dean and Cheri. He gives them a lift to the cabin. He tells all of them to stick together. He goes for a look around.Most of the gang meet their deaths. The Sheriff also gets attacked. Laura gets attacked by Kane but Shawn saves her. He shoots Kane. Laura tells him that they are all dead. Shawn shoots at the killer. Matthew kills him. Jennifer spots them and sees Laura sending Matthew to kill her. Kane isn't dead and he decides to burn down the barn with Laura, Matthew and himself inside. It goes up in flames and Jennifer survives.

This was a decent slasher movie with some fun scenes. The acting wasn't very good but I suppose that's normal with these lower budget movies. It is entertaining though and I recommend it to fans of 80's slashers. I give it a 5/10.

Tarot(2024)Movie Review

Trailer here.

Tarot is a 2024 horror movie directed by Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg and starring Harriet Slater, Jacob Batalon, Avantika, Humberly Gonzalez, Wolfgang Novogratz.

A group of friends are on holiday together. It is Elise's(Larsen Thompson) birthday. Along for the celebration is Haley(Slater), Lucas(Novogratz), Grant, Paige(Avantika), Madeline (Gonzalez) and Paxton(Batalon). They find a basement and there is strange stuff in there. Paxton finds tarot cards. Haley knows how to read them. The cards are not ordinary tarot cards.Haley reads their fortunes. Paxton thinks that he sees something outside. The cards seem to come alive.

The group leave and their fortunes start to come true.Elise hears a bang at her door. She hears someone is playing tricks on her. It is no trick when the figure from her tarot card is waiting for her and kills her.Each of the group start to find their tarot figures coming to life. The cops talk to them about what's going on. They think they are accidents. Haley thinks the readings influenced the deaths. Grant doesn't believe it. Haley finds an expert, Alma(Olwen Fouere) and tells her what is going on. She doesn't want to know. When she hears about the deaths, she tells them about the haunted tarot cards.

She knows of others who died from using the cards but she survived it. She has been searching for the cards to destroy them. The cards are cursed. They need to destroy them. More of the gang die as they try to get the cards and destroy them. They burn them and call Alma. Alma calls an astrologer who reads Alma's fortune. She kills her. Haley and Grant are left. Haley meets the astrologer and does a reading. Haley faces off with her.There's some silly story about grief and the astrologer ends up disappearing along with the cards. Grant, Haley and Paxton survive.

I liked the premise of this one. It sounded good but the execution was not so good. There wasn't anything in this that was great. It felt long and dull in parts. It's one of those ok films but not great. I will give it a 4/10.