Isleen Pines (2024) by Matthew Festle and Alexys Paonessa

Director: Matthew Festle, Alexys Paonessa

Year: 2024

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Creature Feature

Plot:

Getting together for a Halloween party, a group of friends looking forward to hanging out together and enjoying the festivities present grow increasingly more concerned as their friends disappear over time and eventually find the connection between a weird neighbor and a mysterious alien beast around the house.

Review:

This was a generally fun genre effort. The fun premise, resulting in the type of party at the start that shows a group of friends coming together to hand out and enjoy the holiday season with the various group members at the party being shown undertaking the games or other general festivities has quite a lot to like here. The friend group that emerges here is quite enjoyable with the various costumes and other festivities that provide for a great time overall. The lighthearted atmosphere that comes about from the setup carries over incredibly well to the general sense of the festivities setup here which has an impeccable Halloween feel established.

That provides the kind of framework needed for the strong action on display with the alien beast coming into play and attacking the guests. These are full of impressive effects-work that has quite a lot to like with the series of attacks taking place throughout the house where the bodies are ripped to pieces in grand style even though this does seem to be quite random with no real idea why it's there. That may not matter as the action itself is incredibly fun showing the activities around the house trying to keep the party going while finding ways to combat and confront the creature as there are some really enjoyable aspects involved here.

Overview: ***.5/5

A really fun and likable Halloween-themed genre effort, this was a generally fun time as there are just a few small barely detrimental factors that show up as a flaw compared to the positives that are featured here. Indie fans of this particular style or who are curious about it will have the most to like here while most others out there who aren’t into these factors should heed caution.