Story: Why not let Odd tell you himself? “I may see dead people, but then by God I do something about it.”  He’ll come to rue the day he decided on that tag line when high-octane otherworldly killers infest his quaint little town.  What’s a lone clairvoyant to do when all hell is about to literally rain down?

Scares: So-so.  The evil spirits, called bodachs, are truly frightening.  Think of a ghostly version of 1981’s The Thing in it’s ability to warp and woof.  Lots of arms, legs and big big big teeth.

Splat factor: Hmm. Not too much, but when there’s a body it’s on darlin’. Especially when it comes to Fungus Man, a guy I’d bet dollars to donuts is related to Men In Black‘s Edgar the bug guy.  For the most part though blood spilled here is Red On Clothes.

Closing scene “shocker”?: No “gotcha”, but it’s not exactly tied up with a bow either. Spoiler: there are currently novels, graphic novel prequels, and a short story in the Odd series.

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: First film made from the “Odd Thomas” series by Dean Koontz.

Trick or Treat?: An actually interesting and fun horror mystery with a few cool twists.  A little The Sixth Sense (seeing dead people), a little The Frighteners (Big Bad is coming to a nice guy who sees ghosts). 

The dialogue has some seriously clunky bits, like a warped guitar twang that quickly snapped me out of the feels. But letting myself sail over those bumps wasn’t difficult, just bothersome.  And Stormy the girlfriend was a bit too cool. Practically walking into Mary Sue territory.

The good?  I don’t often say this, but that’s some Grade A car-stunt work & onscreen FX at the climax.  Well done.

Anton Yelchin (Star Trek, the new franchise) plays Odd, and he’s just quirky/cute enough to carry off the character.  Willem Dafoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle) jump in as Odd’s surrogate dad/police chief, and best-friend at the diner where Odd works.  Both deliver the goods in their supporting roles.  Director Stephen Sommers has a stable full of crazy blockbusters, including Van Helsing, The Mummy and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  So you can probably guess that this film is more hoot than horror.  Still, if you had fun watching The Frighteners or The Mummy and their mix of camp, mystery and horror, you’ll have fun with this one.  Extra pumpkiness for the prominent placement of a scooter. Apparently this film was stuck in turnaround for years while studios hashed it out, leaving it to direct-to-stream territory.  Pity.  Seek this one out.

Score:   
4 out of 5 pumpkins.

Story:  Ahh, the Eastern Shore of Mur-land.  Home to crabbing, Natty Boh, boatin’ on the water hon, and isopods that have gotten a serious dose of steroids from the local chicken farm runoff (eew, poop.)  A newbie reporter is covering a small bay town’s 4th of July festivities, when all isopod breaks loose.  Tip: don’t drink the water.  Or swim in it.  Or wash your hands.  Y’know, just stick with the Boh.

Scares:  Isopod infestation really, truly, creeps me out, because giant isopods are a real thing.  Levinson himself has sad “Eighty five percent of the story is based on facts”, thanks to agricultural runoff and those steroids that chickens get pumped up with (and end up pooping out a good deal of.)  *shudders*  Outside of that, most of the blood and gore comes at you straight-on, so it’s chilling but not in a jump-in-your-seat kinda way.

Splat factor: Trigger warning — puke-a-palooza really gets going once everyone’s nice and infected.  Infested?  Bugged up.  And of course there are a few pukers once bodies — found torn up, as if something ate their way out — start cropping up.  The makeup and gore FX are top-notch though.  Great blisters, and ooky-cool isopod casualties.

Closing scene “shocker”?:  Nup.  This is eco-horror though, so you’ll think about how creepy this could be if we don’t Do Something IRL.

Remake, Sequel or OG (Original Ghoul)?: It’s an original.

Trick or Treat?: yet another “found footage/shakycam fakeumentary.  Barry “I love me some Maryland” Levinson brings his lens to the Shore, and instead of the beauty and regular-life-in-sharp-focus of Diner or Avalon.  In his attempt to draw attention to the very real problem of the Chesapeake Bay (hint: it really is 40% dead), he created this horror film.  Damn if the narrator looks like a young Juliette Binoche (she’s really Kether Donohue, Pitch Perfect.)  Bonus for the MD setting, but points from Griffindor for actually filming in NC.  Claridge, MD?. Don’t worry, it’s a fictional town. (The maps look a bit like the inlets of Somerset County, though they’re probably manufactured.)

Though I’m sick and tired of the found footage genre, The Bay gets past a lot of those films’ stumbling blocks by also tapping boat-cams, CCTV, and a video diary of the young reporter that survived.  You’ll get a Jaws vibe wen local politicos try to keep a lid on things before it all goes to sheisse.  The Bay is definitely suffering, and is definitely a no-swim zone. (especially in Baltimore, where swimming is verboten.)

Score: 

2.5 out of 5 pumpkins. Would have gotten more, but Levinson’s “found footage” vibe just doesn’t hit all the high notes.  Well, not enough to seem like anything more than a senior’s film thesis.  Pity, because with a few nips & tweaks, this could have been a truly awesome horror show.