observation notes: 12/12/12

Out this Tuesday from The Asylum, the supernatural thriller 12/12/12, from writer/director and Committed-fave Jared Cohn (Born Bad, Bikini Spring Break, Hold Your Breath). The film stars Sara Malakul Lane (the lovely lady scientist in Sharktopus), Jesus Guevara (Santiago, upcoming 40 Sundays), Carl Donelson (Born Bad), and Steve Hanks (Hold Your Breath, Super Cyclone), as well as Asylum regulars Jon Kondelik (Amityville Haunting, American Warships, 40 Days and Nights, Haunting of Whaley House, Nazis at the Center of the Earth etc.), Samantha Stewart (Bikini Spring Break), Erin O'Brien (Bikini Spring Break), Samuel Fisher (Nazis at the Center of the Earth), and even Cohn himself (Halloween Night, Legion of the Dead, Way of the Vampire, Alien Abduction) as, appropriately, "Jared."

The film - not a sequel to last year's supernatural thriller 11/11/11 - concerns a not-so-innocent baby boy, Sebastian, who after his birth on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of the twenty-first century, begins affecting those around him in a pretty lethal way. Soon enough, mom Veronica (Lane) comes to the only conclusion she can: lil Sebastian is a bona fide hellspawn, and the shit hasn't even begun to hit the fan.

In the interest of keeping this spoiler-free - the point's to get you to see it, after all - I'll spare you the various twists and turns of this fast-paced, thrill-a-minute fright-fest, but to say that this one holds nothing back, starting from frame one: there's gore, nudity, enough swearing to make a sailor blush, and rampant violence to keep you watching through your fingers.

Ms. Lane was my favorite part of Sharktopus - which overall I thought was weighed down by too much scientific mumbo jumbo - and the love affair continues. Girl's got mad scream-queen potential, as her work here affirms. It was my first time seeing Mr. Donelson as husband Carlos, and he brought the requisite macho concern as a father WAY out of his league.

Cohn has once again delivered a taut, twisting, barrage of thrills sure to hack at Asylum fans' horror bones. His direction adds darkness to an already pitch-black story, and his intimacy with the acts of violence throughout submerge viewers into the Hell he is unleashing on-screen. The film has a very urban-gothic feel, a sinister, ironic claustrophobia that really elevates the tension and suspense.

A little bit Omen, a little bit Rosemary's Baby, a tad of The Beast Within, and a whole lot of nail-biting originality makes 12/12/12 a post-Halloween horror treat genre fans should enjoy. It's out this Tuesday, December 4th, on DVD, Blu-Ray, and VOD.