Malum (2023)

A remake of 2014's "Last Shift" that takes a rookie cop's night shift hell in a more elaborate and gory direction than the original, "Malum" improves on that film's effects and production values but underlines the problem of excess in service of a one-note story. As with the original, there's no real mystery to protagonist Jessica's (Jessica Sula) encounter with the cult linked to her father's death and led by an appropriately sinister leader. We know it's going to turn out that the leader was onto something and we know the wool's gonna be pulled over Jessica's eyes more than a few times during a night of supernatural mindfucking. And because we've seen "Last Shift", we also more-or-less know how it's all going to end. The difference is in the new gags director Anthony DiBlasi staples onto his re-used idea, and the result is a tonal mess with moments of relief brought by explosive violence and a couple of memorable lines of dialogue ("Well I'm right here cunt, come and get me!"). Sadly, the movie isn't scary, just confusing, and the performances don't quite sell it either. Good creature design and gore, of course, but it's not enough to save it.

Mary Had a Little Lamb (2023)

If "Lamb" were directed by a British film crew with a shoot now, ask questions later kind of approach who can't get "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" out of their heads, it might have turned out something like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" -- a low-budget horror that takes its name from the nursery rhyme but is really just bog-standard budget fare that just so happens to have a sheep-headed killer in it. Following podcaster Carla (May Kelly) and her crew as they head out into rural England in search of a true crime story that might save their podcast, the movie sends them into the home of hag-like Mary (Christine Ann Nyland), where they soon discover that she and her deformed son have a passion for killing and consuming visitors. There's potential for a good time in this plot (and for a while that looks to be on the cards), but Jason Arber's first feature film is ultimately defeated by its issues. The lighting is bad, the plot fizzles out and the kills are not nearly as graphic and gory as they need to be in this kind of off-the-beaten-path horror. It's not nearly as bad as you'd expect it to be, but it's not quite good, either. May Kelly is great as final girl Carla, though, and I'd like to see her in a higher tier of horror movie in the future.