MOVIES THAT SUCK! “Murder at Hollow Creek.” / “Custom.” / “Stockade.” / "No Escape.” / “A Serbian Film.” / “The Last Seven.”

“Murder at Hollow Creek” (2024, Fawesome) action-comedy thriller. A disbarred lawyer and his eccentric brother attempt a massive robbery to pay off medical bills for their dying sister. The plan goes wrong, trapping them in a dangerous game with a Serbian mobster. 

       In most cases, these veterans are fine performers: Mickey Rourke, Jason Patric, and Penelope Ann Miller. Mr Rourke as the crime boss Terry Petrovic also wears eyeliner, I think. Day job? And Mickey needed rent money. And these supposedly two leads, Keli Price and Jack Kesy, as brothers Gavin and Nick, where did they come from? 🎥💻📽

“Custom” (2024, Amazon Prime) psychological horror. A couple producing custom erotic films get caught up in a mysterious, ritualistic conspiracy. 

       The grim, morbid visuals should appeal to some, plus the unsettling vibe and provocative weirdness have followers for sure. The mood is set. But the supposed story is left hanging in favor of the eerie atmosphere. Like a death metal MTV video. That's all. 🎥💻📽

“Stockade” (2023, Tubi)) independent neo-noir mystery-thriller. A struggling Lebanese artist in New York City gets unwittingly drawn into an illegal international antiquities trafficking ring after taking a mysterious delivery job in the Hudson Valley. 

       The premise is quite interesting, at first. But director Eric McGinty lost the handle of his own promising script as the movie approached midstream. 

       Sarah Bitar as Ahlam, an abstract painter caught between her art and survival, I think, is a fine actress. But maybe she wasn't either motivated enough or simply lost in this scatterbrain project. 🎥💻📽

"No Escape" (2015, Fawesome) action-thriller. An American family is trapped in an unnamed Southeast Asian country during a violent and sudden political coup. 

       The movie was filmed in Thailand in the Chiang Mai and Lampang tourist-friendly North regions, and while the country's name was not explicitly stated, they used the Khmer script as well as a mention to Kampuchea Krom, implying that the film might take place in a fictionalized version of Cambodia, although the script was written upside down, in order to avoid implying that Cambodia was possibly the country in question. The only country mentioned in the film, as a safe haven, is Vietnam.

       It doesn't really matter. The movie's worldview is scandalously bankrupt of cultural sensitivity or human deduction. The performances by Owen Wilson, Lake Bell and Pierce Brosnan are not so bad but still one-dimensional, bereft of depth.

       I managed to “finish” this movie because I was also minding 3 other internet-based matters at the time. Director John Erick Dowdle's other movies were horror flicks, none of which rings a bell. 🎥💻📽

“A Serbian Film” (2010, Fandango) Serbian exploitation psychological horror thriller. A financially struggling pornstar agrees to participate in an "art film,” only to discover that he has been drafted into a snuff film with pedophilic and necrophilic themes. 

       The reason why I watched this so-called “art film,” uh huh? Hey, graphic violence and sexual content are no biggies to me. But this: This Serbian film has been banned in numerous countries including the Philippines, Ireland, China, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, and Norway, and was temporarily banned from screening in Brazil and Spain. It also required compulsory cuts in order to be released in the United Kingdom, and despite being shortened by 6 minutes, it received an NC-17 rating in the U.S., though it was later released uncut by Unearthed Films. (I am not sure if the version that I saw in Fandango is uncut.)

        Pointlessly eerie, structured stupidity, and 

sheer self-aggrandizing silliness. I won’t even mention the name of the director and writer. 🎥💻📽

“The Last Seven” (2010, Amazon Prime) British science fiction thriller. Set in an eerie post-apocalyptic London, the film tells the story of seven people who are the only remaining survivors after an unspecified cataclysmic event has wiped out the Earth's entire population. 

       These seven personages struggle to understand what has happened to them, while being hunted down one by one by a mysterious demonic power. Hey, I also struggled to understand what was going on. Seems like a religious movie? I think. I don’t know. 🎭👎🎬