Written by Tyrone Bruinsma HORROR FILM RE-APPRAISAL Since the existence of horror films, fans have been re-examining them sometime later to see if they were better than first received. Films like Halloween, The Shining, Event Horizon and even recently The Empty Man were all found to be genuinely great horror films at a later date. But sometimes bad films are bad films regardless of their time period. Age can’t fix bad effects, poor acting and especially not a terrible screenplay. But it is still worthwhile to go back to films that critically (or even on an individual level) received a negative reaction. Sometimes you’ll find something isn’t as bad as you thought and sometimes it will be worse. A filmmaker whose work is primarily seen in a negative light is William Brent Bell. Having been working in film since the 90s, Bell has primarily worked in the horror genre-with at least one of his works considered one of the worst horror films ever made. But-is that case? Considering the how many horror films are released and forgotten due to their frequency, is it possible there’s a diamond in the rough within his filmography? Let’s find out. STAY ALIVE Bell along with his creative partner Matthew Peterman got their start in Hollywood selling a screenplay called Mercury to Universal. That project has not been produced, along with many other projects both have tried to make over the years. However, in 2006-Bell and Peterman released their first feature film with Bell as director and both writing the screenplay-Stay Alive. The concept was very simple-a video game that kills you if you die in the game. It’s very much reminiscent of the techno horror wave happening at the time: The Ring has a killer videotape; One Missed Call had a killer phone call and Chain Letter had a killer email. In 2006, the internet creepypasta surge hadn’t arisen just yet. Ben Drowned, the story about a dead spirit haunting a Zelda game was one of the most popular, alongside Pokémon Black-a bootlegged Pokémon Red cartridge with death. These are of course fabricated stories made as internet campfire tales. The only creepypasta inspired by real life was the rumor that Pokémon Red and Blue’s Lavender Town theme caused pain and insanity in children. This is false, but was inspired by the infamous Pokémon anime Porygon episode that caused seizures in many children. While it’s unknown if Stay Alive inspired any creepypastas like the ones running about online-a haunted killer video game is the frame work for a good spooky story. Unfortunately, the production of Stay Alive was far more nightmarish than the finished product. Stay Alive was produced by Hollywood Pictures, a now defunct subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company that released films like The Rock, Deep Rising, Primeval and The Sixth Sense. It effectively served as Disney’s method of producing mature films outside the company’s family friendly brand. Disney closed Hollywood Pictures in 2007, but is currently using the 20th Century company in a similar capacity. While filming for the project went relatively smooth, it was during post production that Disney began to eviscerate the film. Despite knowingly producing a gory film that was essentially the company’s only slasher, they decided to have the film cut down to remove gore, profanity and a large chunk of the runtime. This resulted in the film making very little sense, being bloodless and being an unappealing film to horror audiences. The film released in March 2006 as a PG-13, 85-Minute-long horror movie. It made only $27 Million against its $20 Million budget, largely due to negative reviews and steep competition. Films like Spike Lee’s Inside Man and V for Vendetta grossed over $100 Million, while horror fans were enjoying the outstanding remake of The Hills Have Eyes. And ultimately, the juggernaut Ice Age: Meltdown at the end of the month guaranteed the film’s lacking returns. Reviews lambasted the film for its cliché execution, lack of scares and overall failed ideas. When the film was released on DVD, it was restored to its 100-Minute Director’s Cut. This version was considered superior, but contained lacking CGI due to Disney’s post-production desire to remove gore. Its DVD sales be the end of 2011 had totaled $13 Million, meaning the film eventually doubled its budget-not counting marketing with $40 Million in box office and DVD sales. But is the film actually any good all these years later? Well, not really. Looking at just the director’s cut (the only way I experienced the film), it’s a pretty mediocre supernatural slasher. The theatrical cut is far worse thanks to garish cuts and the removal of a character that helps explain the story. But, even the progress and explanation of the film in its complete form is somewhat confusing and unsatisfying. The film follows a group who play a multiplayer horror shooter after one of its beta testers dies exactly how his character did in the game. Eventually, they’re gradually killed off by an evil entity in the game and must figure out what is happening. While the direction and cast are solid, it’s the story that ultimately lets it down. It’s eventually revealed that Elizabeth Bathory, the serial killer monarch of Hungary (dubbed the Blood Countess) is haunting the game in order to continue her reign of terror. A cool premise unraveled by a rather lackluster approach to just explaining what’s happening. It feels like a somewhat pointless attempt to elevate the story with a real-life reference. Things break when it’s revealed the Countess’ body is near the characters. While it’s true that the location of Bathory’s grave is unknown; the luck of it being within grasp of the characters to stop her feels like weak writing. One might just find it hard to believe that a 17th Century Hungarian Monarch is buried within driving distance of an American game developer who decides to make a horror game based around her. The plot further devolves when the Countess breaks the rules of the game and story, killing people outside of the game. While this does solve the question of “Why don’t they just not play the game?” It is cheating in a Thermian and storytelling method. In the Ring films, if the 7 Day time limit could just be broken at any time-the sense of dread would lose all meaning. An attempt at raising the stakes ends up cheating the audience out of any real suspense. What’s disappointing is there’s clearly creative passion as it feels like a techno version of a gothic haunting film: like a technological version of Dracula or Sleepy Hollow. And there’s clearly passion for video games in how those sequences are executed and the filmmakers' approach gaming culture. What ended up being the film’s undoing on a base level was that by 2006, the bar for horror films had been raised. Making a slasher in 2006 might not have been wise as Scream had revived and killed the genre between 1996 and 2000. Attempts like Urban Legend, Valentine and Cry Wolf only sank the dying genre more-relegating those plots to criminal horrors. Horror fans expected better of the genre as it had been growing in strength. 2006 saw the release of Korean classics like The Host and Cinderella, British works like Severance and Guillermo Del Toro’s instant masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth. Even in America, horror films were given elevated direction with flicks like Snakes on a Plane, Silent Hill and the aforementioned Hills Have Eyes remake. Stay Alive just didn’t have the story, execution or studio support to make it stand out in the evolving landscape. The premise of players having a more intimate and scary relationship with the game is possible, but it’s better executed in a game like Doki Doki Literature Club. Due to the film’s lack of success William Bell wouldn’t release another film for 6 years. THE DEVIL INSIDE 2010 saw a shift in the focus on horror, leaning into supernatural and exorcist horror. The popularity from hits like Paranormal Activity and Insidious, resulted in films The Rite, The Last Exorcism, The Conjuring, Grave Encounters and dozens more. Paranormal Activity encouraged a quick boom and bust of the found footage genre that had rarely been seen since The Blair Witch Project in 1999. 2012 arguably saw some of the best in the genre including The Bay, V/H/S, End of Watch, Chronicle and minor uses in Sinister. Bell and his partner Peterman had originally conceived the idea of The Devil Inside in 2005, but found the traditional execution difficult. The film’s producer Morris Paulson suggested the film be modified to the found footage format, resulting in the film being produced. It was made for $1 Million and executive producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Producer of the Transformers films) sold the film to be distributed by Paramount. The film opened on the 6th of January 2012 as the first new film of the year and was a surprise hit. In its opening weekend, it was the highest grossing film that week, making over $33 Million at the US box office and displacing Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol after a 3-week run. Due to negative reviews however, the film quickly dropped from the Top 10 at the box office. But the film ended up grossing over $100 Million worldwide against its miniscule $1 Million budget. A 1000% return like this would be the equivalent to Christopher Nolan’s Memento making $900 Million against its $9 Million budget. But reviews were extremely negative as January had been considered a dumping ground for bad horror films and movies the studio has no genuine faith in. January is also when festival films and Oscar contenders become accessible to the general public, so the expectations are not usually high. But the Devil Inside was one of the worst reviewed films of 2012 alongside Piranha 3DD, Alex Cross, Taken 2 and A Thousand Words. Most of the complaints were targeted towards its derivative plot and especially its ending. But, a decade later…is it any good? Much of the negative reception is the continued upholding of William Friedkin’s 1973 cinematic adaptation of The Exorcist. In 2005, The Exorcism of Emily Rose was considered one of the few good Exorcism films outside of the 1973 film, while 2010’s The Rite was considered to be a shameless rip-off of The Exorcist. As one who doesn’t hold to The Exorcist as a classic anymore, the best film in the genre was 2010’s The Last Exorcism. It was a film that explored the ideas of faith, Exorcisms and horror in a nuanced way while maintaining a genuinely scary tone. The Devil Inside is not as strong as The Exorcist, The Last Exorcism or even The Exorcism of Emily Rose. But I don’t hold it as one of the worst films ever made or even of 2012, Piranha 3DD and Jurassic Shark are far worse horror films. I will say the opening of the film is incredibly strong as it follows a police walkthrough of a crime scene with 3 victims before the office and cameraman are attacked by the presumably possessed. It’s rather reminiscent of the opening and closing framing device of the 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake. The plot follows Isabella Rossi and a documentary crew who are investigating if Isabella’s mother Maria was possessed by a demon during an exorcism where she murdered 3 people in 1989. The film bounces between feeling like a genuine documentary and a travel vlog, but occasionally slips into being a traditionalist film. By that, I mean it occasionally has the camera capture dialogue and interactions in a way that a traditional narrative film would. The film essentially focuses on discussing the merits and realistic implications of exorcisms under the Vatican. Through the framing device of an estranged daughter and possibly possessed mother, it allows the documentary crew and a variety of priests to explore their feelings on the subject. It’s at its strongest when the faux documentary acts a documentary in providing information. It’s at its weakest when engaging with character drama that feels incredibly cliché. It follows many beats you’d expect of the film: faithful versus sceptics, the clearly possessed revealing details about characters and rapidly ensuing chaos. Two exorcisms are demonstrated in the film and both have differing degrees of horror and discomfort, though I will praise the film for not relying on terrible CGI effects and favoring practical work. It’s just a shame the plot doesn’t develop into anything truly unique or special. It’s eventually revealed Isabella’s mother has multiple demons inside her and during the exorcism, has passed them on to a priest and Isabella. Soon after is a harrowing sequence of events where a priest attempts to drown a baby during a baptism, that same priest committing suicide and Isabella is taken into the hospital after having a seizure. The climax has a possessed Isabella attacking hospital staff as the director and another priest drive to have her receive an exorcism. But Isabella manages to have a demon possess the driver-leading to a car crash. The movie then ends with text saying to go to a now defunct website for further information…although no new information was ever available. The film has a steady pace in the opening, lags in the middle and then rushes to an unfulfilling climax. The ending is definitely a failure as additional information that can be found online for films like The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield was intended to be optional. You could watch the film and enjoy as is, but those curious could find more beneath it. Having the link at the end is insulting and the lack of any additional info is even worse. There are also several questions just left unanswered like: -How did Isabella’s mother end up with multiple demons inside her? -Does dialogue at the end indicate Isabella is possessed by the Devil? -What are the demons’ motives? And about a dozen more that answering could’ve helped in creating a better film. That being said, I don’t consider the film truly terrible or even creatively insulting aside from the ending. It’s just a mediocre horror film with a bad after taste. I have a feeling if the reviews were positive, the website would’ve been updated as a sequel grew. But despite the excessive profits, the box office drop in the second week and critical failure probably encouraged those to abandon the film with a decent earning. I will say the worst part of the film is the dishonest promotion. The film is quoted as “Inspired by Real Events”, but no real events can be remotely connected aside from the church’s approach to exorcism and exorcisms in general. Some horror films that are labelled as “Inspired by Real Events” often do so as a cheap marketing trick, which diminishes some that try to portrayal the truth of reality. The other is a quote on the box by Naibe Reynoso that reads “This is the film the Vatican doesn’t want you to see”. That quote would indicate some kind of controversy with the church like The Da Vinci Code, but no such dispute exists. This appears to have been an out of context personal opinion by Naibe that the studio used to generate further buzz. Ultimately, The Devil Inside is not a terrible film-but it does have some terribly dishonest marketing. WER Following up with a box office hit, Bell and Peterman made their last collaboration on 2013’s Wer. The premise is a simple: after a family is killed, a man is arrested with his lawyer eventually suspecting he’s a werewolf. Although, problems arise with that as the premise. The problem is despite the film being sold on that premise and it being clearly referenced in the title-the movie plays out like it’s a mystery. This is the equivalent of Jurassic Park trying to pretend the park would have no issues. Ultimately, the film spends 48 minutes of its 90-minute runtime boring the audience. And, it’s partially found footage. I say partially as it mixes found footage perspectives with 3rd person filmmaking that clearly isn’t found footage. I’ve no idea why they didn’t commit to either, it just feels lazy and indecisive. In this day and age, you need some inventiveness to your werewolf film. The genre has classics including: The Wolf Man, An American Werewolf in London, The Howling, Near Dark, Wolf, Dog Soldiers and Late Phases. If you can’t bring something substantial to the table-you’re just going to let horror lovers down. Wer has very little to offer. After 48 dull minutes, it comes to life with our first werewolf transformation scene in what feels like a direct homage to the 2010 Wolf Man breakout scene. The film then rapidly aims to be an epic, action horror experience with the werewolf ripping apart a police force similar to the Venom VS Swat scene from 2018’s Venom. And it ultimately concludes on a Werewolf VS Werewolf scene that reminded me of the final conflict between Bruce Willis and James McAvoy’s characters from Glass. While I enjoyed the violence and well-crafted horror in the initial transformation and follow up police raid fight scene, the film’s ending feels incredibly weak. A major issue is that despite being a werewolf film, the werewolves we see are little more than muscular furry men. The opportunity for creativity was there and utterly wasted. While the practical effects worked, the CGI absolutely failed. 48 minutes of boredom, two somewhat entertaining scenes and then a lackluster ending is a shame. By this point, William Brent Bell should’ve had a stronger vision and voice as a director. I feel this is probably his weakest entry at this point because too much of it is boring. I would watch either of his prior works instead of this. The film debuted in Japan in 2013, not releasing globally until 2014 and only as a Video on Demand release. Reviews appear to be mixed as some responses online say it’s bad and others say it’s good. As I said, I feel it’s a relatively weak werewolf film and horror film that could’ve been far better considering the relatively unique idea they had. THE BOY Moving to January 2016, 4 years after The Devil Inside-Bell released another horror film: The Boy. The movie had extremely steep competition as many audiences were seeing or re-watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens from the prior year, while others were now able to widely see 2015’s The Revenant on its Oscar push campaign. There were also many new release films vying for attention like Dirty Grandpa, 13 Hours, Norm of the North, The Forest, The 5th Wave and Ride Along 2. Most of these films managed to be somewhat successful aside from 13 Hours and Norm of the North which underperformed. Despite that, the film managed to gross over $64 Million against a $10 Million budget worldwide. While many reviews weren’t positive, there was praise from various outlets. In 2017, GQ Magazine even called the film the most underrated horror film from 2016. And honestly, the film is easily Bell’s best work. It’s the best made film, the best-looking film, the best acted, maintains the strongest horror atmosphere out his films and has the best ending of his filmography. The story follows Laura Cohen as Greta, a woman escaping an abusive boyfriend and gaining employment as a nanny. She’s asked by a strange old couple to babysit their porcelain doll Brahms that they claim is their child and have a strict set of rules to follow. Creepy events follow as the doll appears to move on its own, control objects in the house and spooky noises happen at night. It feels very much like a better version of Annabelle from 2 years prior or like Child’s Play without pre-existing knowledge of Charles Lee Ray. You’re not sure if she’s crazy, if the doll is possessed or something else is happening here. And it manages to maintain such a strong atmosphere throughout the until film largely thanks to excellent visual storytelling. That’s thanks to having Texas Chainsaw Massacre cinematographer Daniel Pearl on hand to elevate the camerawork. It feels very much akin to other modern spook house horror films like Insidious, The Woman in Black or The Autopsy of Jane Doe to great effect. The cast does solid work, with Laura Cohen showcasing some great range-having been a main character on The Walking Dead and later that year playing Martha Wayne in Batman V Superman. It’s revealed slowly throughout the story that couple who owned the house used to have a son named Brahms who was an odd child. One day a girl who interacted with Brahms was found dead and before police could question the boy, the original house burned down with him inside. It appears that Brahms’ soul is now within the doll and just needs to be cared for. In the climax, after Greta’s abusive ex arrives and her new love interest both stay in the house-the truth is revealed. Brahms has been alive this whole time, grown into a man who lives in the walls of his house. His parents chose Greta to basically be Brahms’ wife and subsequently killed themselves. Brahms kills the abusive ex who smashed the doll, before he aggressively pursues Greta, who attempts to placate him with seduction and caring. She kills Brahms and rescues the surviving love interest before a final stinger reveals someone has put the doll back together. It’s a solid story, one that’s greatly bolstered by audience’s pre-existing genre expectation and the excellent filmmaking. 2016 would however prove to be one the best years in horror as The Neon Demon, Green Room, The Wailing, Don’t Breathe, The Shallows and The Witch all received wide attention. The Boy was somewhat forgotten, which is a shame as it’s easily Bell’s best work…which is the opposite of his next film. BRAHMS: THE BOY 2 4 years after the first film, Brahms: The Boy 2 was released after 2 delays and just before the Covid 19 pandemic hit. Reviews were worse than the original and it only managed to double its $10 million budget. Released in late February, the film was going up against Birds of Prey and the small juggernaut with Sonic the Hedgehog. But even in its own sphere, Blumhouse’s terrible Fantasy Island out performed it with $48 Million against a $7 Million budget. Why did the film not make money like its predecessor? Well, aside from no one asking for a sequel…it was just terrible. It’s such a surreal experience to watch these films back-to-back as its not only goes from Bell’s best film to his worst film, but this film makes zero sense as a continuation. Despite having the same director and screenwriter as the original, this film fails as a sequel in both logic and continuity. My theory is that this sequel was the only project Bell could get funding for and either he or screenwriter Stacey Menear used a modified original draft of the first film, or were strong armed into making the sequel exactly like this by the 7 producers on the film. I’ll get the good out of the way and say that the production values are solid and the opening sequence with a home invasion is solid enough. Everything after that is complete nonsense. The film follows Katie Holmes and her family moving into the house from the first film after a violent break in at their home in the city. Their traumatized mute son finds the porcelain Brahms doll and spooky shenanigans occur once more. What kills this movie more than anything is that it’s boring. While the first one looked to subvert or elevate the cliché horror movie story-this sequel just plays out the typical notes. It’s like the creativity and attempts at intelligence were sucked out. While the film has a solid look, its atmosphere is nowhere near as strong as the first. I find this strange as while Daniel Pearl did not return as cinematographer, they had the director of photography from Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day, Black Book and Prince Caspian. The only other strong note is Katie Holmes in the lead role as a protective mother. I feel people have forgotten how strong an actor she is from films like Disturbing Behavior, Phone Booth, Batman Begins, Thank You for Smoking, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark and Logan Lucky. I think those few years she was married to Tom Cruise and her appearance in bad films like Jack and Jill or The Giver have tainted people’s image of her. Unfortunately, it’s the story which fails this film. While the first film had a great subversion to the cliché supernatural horror film, this one leans into it. The soul of Brahms or something demonic has possessed the doll, making it effectively a male version of Annabelle. The reason I think this was the producers strong-arming the director and writer to do this is because it feels like an attempt to create something akin to the Conjuring Universe films after those maintained their level of financial success. However, the producers failed to look over the fact that the Conjuring series has been hit and miss, as well as the fact they’re twisting something that subverted those films into just being like them. It would be like if someone tried to take the deconstructive X-Men film Logan and made a direct sequel to it that felt like the rest of the mediocre X-Men films. Aside from one slightly brutal child injury the film, there’s no surprise in here. It completely goes against the original’s goals by adding a supernatural entity and trying to add in Brahms “premonition” of this family’s arrival. There’s also other questions never answered like how many people have moved into this house since the first film or what the goals of the intruders at the beginning of the film were supposed to be. It’s just a bad horror film that will likely be forgotten as do many failed modern horror sequels like The Woman in Black: Angel of Death, Piranha 3DD, Return to House on Haunted Hill or Lake Placid: Legacy. It’s easily one of the worst films of 2020 and the worst film in Bell’s entire filmography. ORPHAN PREQUEL?
Despite that setback, Bell continues to make horror films like Separation that released in 2021 to poor box office returns and a critical mauling. What interests me however is his upcoming film – Orphan: First Kill, a prequel to 2009’s Orphan. Orphan was a psychological thriller from director Jaume Collet Serra, a specialist in thrillers like House of Wax, Unknown, Non-Stop and The Shallows. It was a small financially hit, but received mixed reviews as the film followed a couple who adopt a child Esther that is not all that she seems. It’s ultimately revealed that Esther is actually an adult woman with a condition that makes her appear to be a child and she has a history of psychotic behavior. The film was mostly known for this twist, the amazing horror performance by Isabelle Fuhrman and some genuinely creepy visuals. While I felt the strongest scene was Esther trying to seduce her drunk adoptive father, it’s ultimately a middling thriller that’s neither elevated to Gone Girl levels nor exploitation thrills like Knock Knock. While the prequel has yet to come out, I think it is a failure off the bat like the Don’t Breathe sequel. For one, the original writer David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick has not returned to pen the script despite evolving their work with Red Riding Hood, The Conjuring 2 and Aquaman. Instead, they’ve turned to a less experienced writer. But the main failure is that it’s a prequel to film where the original was based around a twist. Giving a prequel to that, is very much akin to how The Boy 2 failed as a sequel. We don’t need an explanation as to Esther’s first kill as we already got her backstory in the first film. CONCLUSION Is William Brent Bell the worst filmmaker? No, not by a long shot. He’s not made any crimes against cinema like M. Night Shyamalan or intellectually gross works like Kirk Cameron. Bell is a solid enough filmmaker who can shine with the right story and right direction. If I were to rank his films from best to worst: -The Boy -The Devil Inside -Stay Alive -Wer -Brahms: The Boy 2 Really, I only recommend The Boy as it’s a genuinely solid film and hope one day he’ll make something like it again. But I’m not keen to see that Orphan prequel and I’m worried he’ll become a director picked to make series continuations that producers have no real faith in. There’s places for workman like directors such as Bell and they deserve better opportunities.
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