The Obsidian Curse (2016)

Well... It doesn't look as cheap comiccon cosplay as some of his movies do, so that's a positive thing I can say about it.

But Perez (and he's done it on a few films) has taken to adding an effect that looks like a light leak form an improperly mounted lens on 35mm film and he uses that effect to an annoying amount in this film.

But then again it could just be that he didn't mount the lens properly or, maybe used a wide angle without a lens hood. Either way you get a lot of it.

And the sound is worse than most of his films in that hollow and awful kind of way.

Honestly not that much happens. You get to see a whole bunch of hands in Halloween rubber gloves and heads in rubber masks. For a while you think it is cosplay... but it's not. At least at one point they actually say "I thought it was a Halloween mask but it's not." So, you know, at least they recognize it.

Movies like this, well, nudity, gore, humor, those are the tropes that get people to watch them, and they are lacking in almost every point...

...however, there is a prerequisite to these films. It has to do with the female lead. Generally they are called SCREAM QUEENS and that is a title that comes with the role for a reason... they have to be able to actually scream.

Not here, oh no, this is a Perez film, I'm guessing that question was never asked in the auditions... "Could we hear you scream?" And it certainly wasn't coached on screen.

So what you have is a Scream Queen that sounds more forced than my wife's encounter with a spider. At least when she sees a Daddy Long-legs, there is a legitimate element of fear that comes with the scream... but not in a Perez film, that would make the rubber masks seem a little too believable.

Jan 12, 2023