With “The Utah Cabin Murders”, “Poltergeist Activity” and “The Curse Of Halloween Jack” Netflix is expanding its horror program by three titles at once. But the supposed gift is no reason for joy, even for hardcore genre fans…
There are always titles in the Netflix program where you immediately feel that the streaming giant only included them because they were included in some larger package purchases or because they are necessary to meet legal requirements. That doesn’t have to be a bad thing per se either: Netflix, for example, has bought up entire studio archives from various European countries in order to meet the prescribed quota for domestic productions – and there is a whole range of real gems that have hardly been available for ages or not at all were not to be seen.
But at least as often the titles to fill up the catalog are just rubbish – and that’s exactly how it is today: Three horror films new in the program – three times badly produced trash that (almost) nobody wants to watch voluntarily anyway! Coincidence? No, the three films are all from the same cheap film director…
Horror Trash #1: The Scarecrow!
With an average IMDb user rating of 3.2 out of 10 possible stars, it was released in 2019 “The Curse Of Halloween Jack” is still the “best” of the three Andrew Jones horror films released on Netflix today – a dubious distinction! The sect awakens in the cheapest shocker The Lords Of Samhain the long-dead serial killer Halloween Jack comes back to life – and in his scarecrow outfit, he goes on the hunt for the sect members and the local party teenagers…
Horror Trash #2: The Poltergeist!
First published in 2015 “Poltergeist Activity” (IMDb user rating: 2.8 stars out of 10) is nothing more than a typical mockbuster – that is, a cheaply produced knock-off of a much more popular film or franchise (in this case “Paranormal Activity”). The plan: Either ride the wave of success or even more perfidiously hope that one or the other will simply mix up the films with one another and therefore miss the mark on the video store shelf…
Horror trash #3: The killer with the clown mask
In Andrew Jones’ “The Utah Cabin Murders” (IMDb user rating: 3.0 out of 10 stars) a family wants to spend a relaxing weekend in a remote cabin in Utah. But then two burglars (one of them with a clown mask) suddenly appear. The violence escalates and the parents are killed. By nightfall, only teenage sisters Linnea (Tiffany Ceri) and Tina (Jennifer Sims) are left to fight back against the sadistic killers…
2019’s The Utah Cabin Murders, which actually looks like someone shot it with a conventional home camera, is based on a true crime — and maybe that’s the problem. Because instead of suspense, there is mostly only boring, monotonous drivel here, without anyone really having anything to say.
