October 31st, All Hallows Eve, or as it’s better known Halloween. Thanks to a certain film by John Carpenter it’s become one of the most popular settings for horror films. From masked killers to supernatural entities everyone wants to get in on the fun. Now writer/director Bryan Coyne (INFERNAL) lets the masked killers of BAD APPLES go trick or treating.
BAD APPLES certainly opens with a bang, a pregnant woman has her baby cut out by a man who promptly cuts his own throat. The story then jumps forward to the present day as a couple played by Brea Grant (AFTER MIDNIGHT, BEYOND THE GATES) and Graham Skipper (SEQUENCE BREAK, BLISS) are moving into a new home right in time for Halloween. As they’re getting unpacked and settling in a pair of masked adolescents are beginning a spree that starts with vandalism and escalates to murder. A spree that brings them to a certain house…
The film certainly has the feel of an 80’s era slasher with its intense opening kill and the main plot’s silent, masked killers. BAD APPLES also has a couple of impressive gore scenes and manages to avoid using CGI which adds to the old school feel. On the other hand, the film’s rather disjointed structure, moving from one seemingly unrelated killing to another with no rhyme or reason recalls the genre’s less enjoyable aspects.
The plot actually has to be explained by a tacked-on coda, (it’s even identified with a title card reading “CODA”). While it also sets up a sequel it shouldn’t have been necessary to use it to give us this information, that should have been handled in the main film.
On the whole, though, BAD APPLES is an acceptable way to kill some time for slasher fans. It has the blood and the kills to hold your attention and you may well guess the missing plot points before the coda.
Uncork’d Entertainment will be unleashing BAD APPLES on VOD February 6th, 2018