{"id":20880,"date":"2023-10-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=20880"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:16:02","slug":"vodepths-what-to-see-and-avoid-on-demand-this-week-74","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/vodepths-what-to-see-and-avoid-on-demand-this-week-74\/","title":{"rendered":"VODepths: What to See (and Avoid) on Demand This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What if childhood chant \u201cMary Had a Little Lamb\u201d and beloved 1980s comedy Caddyshack <\/em>were \u2026 horror movies? This week\u2019s low-profile VOD releases offer the answer to that unwarranted question, along with a giant centipede in a Thai hotel, a serial killer on the streets of Hong Kong, and a disastrous destination wedding in Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plus One<\/em><\/strong> (Select theaters September 29; VOD October 3):<\/strong> The guest from hell that bride-to-be Lizzie (Ashanti) hopes to prevent from attending her wedding is so blatantly obnoxious and destructive that it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone wanting to spend even a moment in her presence. Then again, she\u2019s only slightly more insufferable than everyone else who\u2019s invited to Lizzie\u2019s wedding, including Lizzie herself. That\u2019s the main problem with this tedious comedy about a bunch of self-centered people grinding through sitcom-level misunderstandings at a fancy Florida resort for the wedding of Lizzie and Luke (B.J. Britt). Lizzie\u2019s best friend Marshall (Jonathan Bennett) brings his on-again, off-again girlfriend Marie (Cassandra Scerbo), who sucks up all the attention for herself. The wedding dress gets ruined, Lizzie accidentally gets high on pot brownies, and everyone seems to be constantly shrieking. The scenes are harshly lit and crudely edited, without any comedic rhythm, and even the reliable Cedric the Entertainer (as Lizzie\u2019s dad) can\u2019t find a decent punchline. Grade: D+<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limbo <\/em><\/strong>(VOD and select theaters September 29):<\/strong> There are plenty of stock genre elements in this crime thriller from longtime Hong Kong director Soi Cheang, featuring a volatile veteran police detective (Ka-Tung Lam) teaming with a by-the-book newcomer (Mason Lee) to track a serial killer who leaves gruesome calling cards all over the city. The procedural aspects are basic but effective, and Cheang focuses more on style and characterization than on investigative details. Shooting in crisp black-and-white, he portrays Hong Kong as a dingy, cramped city overrun with garbage, both literally and metaphorically. The killer leaves severed body parts in trash heaps, and the detectives frequently have to sift through refuse to find clues. Lam\u2019s Cham Lau is angry and abusive, terrorizing the recently paroled woman who was responsible for his wife\u2019s death in a DUI accident. At times Limbo <\/em>gets overly grim, especially in a brutal rape scene that goes on far too long, but that bleakness fits with Cheang\u2019s stark, unforgiving aesthetic. Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mary Had a Little Lamb<\/em><\/strong> (VOD and DVD October 3):<\/strong> While Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey<\/em><\/a> <\/em>somehow became a viral sensation, producer Scott Jeffrey has been churning out dozens of other micro-budget horror movies based on various public domain characters and\/or concepts, like this one \u201cinspired\u201d by the children\u2019s nursery rhyme. There\u2019s no real narrative or characters in the source material, so screenwriter Harry Boxley and director Jason Arber throw some rhymes into a generic slasher movie with a lamb-like killer and an antagonist named Mary. Christine Ann Nyland is suitably creepy as Mary, an older woman living in an isolated house in the woods with her \u201clittle lamb,\u201d her hulking, murderous adult son who may be some sort of animal-human hybrid. The protracted, slapdash set-up about true-crime podcasters doesn\u2019t lead anywhere interesting, the victim characters are annoying, and the filmmakers eventually just give up and clumsily copy The Texas Chain Saw Massacre<\/em> for the rote finale. As a horror villain, Mary\u2019s little lamb is no Winnie-the-Pooh. Grade: D<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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