directed by:
Mark Cantu written by: Mark Cantu, Brian Ceponis, Brian Bell, Lance Reedinger genre: Horror |
This movie has FOUR writers? I can’t even watch a movie with four people for simple entertainment, let alone try to work with four people on anything of importance. Congrats to you all – Brian Ceponis, Brian Bell, Lance Reedinger, and Mark Cantu, the latter of whom also went on to direct “Grind” as well. It’s amazing to me that so many folks can write together in this day & age where compromise is seemingly impossible.
Anyhow, “Grind” takes you into the heart of cinematic Horror with a heavy helping of Sci-Fi to go along with it. It seems that a bunch of kids decided to inadvertently open up a can of demons by watching a cursed film, and one of the students becomes “possessed by demons from across the cosmos.” Whether or not it’s the main feature you’re watching, or the many previews that are threaded into “Grind,” you can quickly get an understanding that the team involved in creating this movie is more than proud to embrace all the cheese that tends to come with the kind of films you’d see in an “ultimate grind house film festival.” Personally, I like that they’re as upfront about all that as they are – not because that’s something that I enjoy in movies…I usually don’t – but because it saves me the trouble of pointing it out when it’s this obvious. For what it’s worth, if “Grind” became too over-the-top cheesy, I’d tell ya. It undoubtedly has its moments when it comes to the fromage-factor, but it actually keeps this element fairly in check. If you’ve ever been to an exhibit of some kind, or a large-scale production with so many bells & whistles and flashing lights that your eyes don’t even know where to look, that’s kind of how I felt about “Grind” as it began. I think we all naturally search for that character or two that we know is going to be the main star of the show, and “Grind” instantly makes that connection really tough by introducing not only a larger cast than you tend to find in lower budget movies, but also all the previews added in too, which gives the beginning an inception-esque movie-within-a-movie-within-a-movie type feel at the very start. All that being said, it IS a Horror movie at the end of the day, and getting attached to any character is never usually what you wanna do anyway, although it does tend to make things easier to grasp overall. The deaths begin pretty damn quick, even if that first one is technically somewhat outside of the main plot, or at least occurs before we’d even know what that would be. As a person who is very much into Horror movies and usually not into anything Sci-Fi related, I was pleased to see the way that Cantu went about filming things right from the get-go. We don’t really see what causes that first death, so much as we see a flurry of tentacles and a clever use of lighting that induces a serious dose of fear. All I’m looking for in either of the main genres you might put something like “Grind” into, is a little bit of realism…something that I can connect to – and there’s always a fine line between showing us too much and the snapping of the suspension of disbelief. In my opinion, the more you can keep that suspension intact, the more scared we have the opportunity to become…because it feels real, and who knows, what we see happening to the main characters might somehow just be something that might happen to US. While we don’t run into a whole lot of tentacles, typically, I’m sure, Cantu made the right call from the very start by not showing us too much, so that our minds fill in the blanks with our own projections and insecurities. Using the quick cuts and lights to his film’s advantage, Cantu demonstrates solid technique as “Grind” gets underway, but I think it’s fair to say that he doesn’t quite stick to the analogue stuff as it carries on, and the film starts to incorporate some of those cheesy effects you were probably expecting - maybe even hoping for?
“It’s grind house – the trashier the better.” I’d say these words from Connie (Lynn Lowry) are ones to live by, but let’s be real here – so many of the people you’re gonna see onscreen are likely going to die in a series of truly terrible ways. Hutch (Daniel Thomas Ebeling) and Cory (Ginger Lynn) will give you a little bit to hold onto as a viewer, at least for a while, but make no mistake, the plotline isn’t going to be the main draw in a film such as this. You’re here for basically the exact same reasons that the audience for the film festival is – you’re looking for grotesque scenes, lots of blood, and those aforementioned cheesy effects. Cue the ancient evils and a whole lot of lightning flashes and pink/purple eye lasers. If that’s your jam, I’ve got some absolutely fantastic news for you – there is plenty of that stuff in this film. Lots of lit-up eyeballs & such to indicate possession and convey the seriousness of the situation at hand. Personally, as the effects creep in to become a dominant force in what we see, the more that I start to feel restless as that suspension of disbelief doesn’t just break, but shatters into a million pieces. Having said that, “Grind” is absolutely true to the style that it’s aiming for, and with respect to that, you have to give Cantu his due credit for having a specific vision and executing to its well-known standards. You will find the occasional plot twist here and there that is satisfying to watch. Like what you’ll see between AJ (Molly Souza) & Matty (Anthony Babeaux) at one point – there’s some cool stuff happening there between them before the hallway gets flooded with a bunch more characters and cast members. The more ain’t necessarily the merrier when it comes to “Grind” – in fact, I’d tell ya that it’s the scenes with less happening that tended to be the most impactful. As for the purple goo & whatnot, again, I think Cantu has a solid grip on what he wanted to show us, and he’s essentially giving the people what they wanna see. Might not be for me, but whatever – I’m not completely the intended demographic. To be even more fair to this film, the acting is pretty damn even - straight across the board. That can be a good thing and a bad thing in the sense that there are so many characters that quickly come and go that you might not even notice who might have more promise as an actor than others, but by that very same token, nobody stands out as out of place or in over their head either. It’s all pretty decent, more or less. Will they be able to use the amulet to close the portal and stop the madness and evil from invading the earth? It’s lookin’ doubtful, but at the same time, I think it’s fair to ask how much worse it can get than the valley of malls we created to keep us distracted from pondering the meaning of life too deeply. At this point, seeing where society has been heading…I dunno…maybe an evil omnipotent entity might be the way to go! How much more evil could it be compared to the current folks in charge of this planet? Where films like “Grind” struggle is that there is so precious little we can attach ourselves to. Without fully fleshed out characters we can identify with, or sympathize with as needed, we’re really watching a whole bunch of flashing lights and a ton of slicing & dicing. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for that, or an audience for it – we all know there is – but it’s really a tough style of film to truly make memorable. “Grind” is basically as cohesive as it needs to be, and it really has no problem catering to its intended audience. If you’re into your grindhouse films for all the kinds of reasons I’ve outlined, you’ll enjoy it. If you’re outside of that stuff, even just slightly like I am, chances are you’ll feel “Grind” can be a struggle to stick with. I’m willing to meet this one in the middle and split the difference, so we’ll say a solid two and a half stars out of five – it might not be my thing, but I know that “Grind” is giving its audience what they want and proudly embraces the insanity of the genre without a care in the world about what anyone like me would think. |
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