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A Good Woman is Hard to Find
UK 2019
Director: Abner Pastoll
Starring: Sarah Bolger, Edward Hogg, Andrew Simpson, Jane Brennan
A struggling single mother finds herself drawn into the criminal underworld against her will, but it may hold the answer to her most burning question.
Living on a run-down council estate in Northern Ireland a single mother struggles with her two children, her money troubles and her strained relationship with her mother as she mourns her murdered husband and copes with her son, rendered mute by that trauma. By chance a local criminal storms into her life and uses her flat to hide his stolen drugs, stolen from the local head of organised crime. As the racketeers hunt for their missing drugs and the man who stole them she is drawn inexorably into danger. Perhaps, however, these criminals can help her understand why her husband was killed and why the police are so reluctant to investigate.
As a film this is social realism with some highly convincing violence and enough shock value to keep any gore-hound amused, but that's not really the point. The film is at heart a gangster movie and a proper one. In Britain we've been subjected to endless waves of dire crime movies, filled with stereotype, stupidity and senselessness. It's too easy to blame Guy Ritchie for that, but what the hell, it's all his fault. There was a time when a British crime movie had a plot that made sense and was properly grounded in the culture of the place and time is was set, it lived in its world. It inhaled the environment and exhaled authenticity with every breath. Eventually someone had to come along and make another one like that and it turns out it was Abner Pastoll, director of the cult 'Road Games'.
It's hard to think of anything that could make this better. The story is wonderful, the characters superb, the performances delightful and the pace, rhythm and transformative finale are so satisfying it just delivers on every level. Bolger delivers a central performance that has to be compelling, so critical is her part, but it isn't just compelling, it might be the best performance I've seen in years. This isn't just the best British Gangster movie of the year, it's the best British movie of the year, maybe for several years and it's the best crime movie, of any type, since the original 'Get Carter'. Breathtaking.
Rabid (2019)
Canada 2019
Director: Jen & Sylvia Soska
Starring: Laura Vandervoort, Greg Bryk, Stephen McHattie, Ted Atherton
A disfigured woman tries an experimental treatment with some wide-reaching side-effects.
A put upon and downtrodden assistant in the fashion industry has an accident that leaves her horribly maimed. She's offered the chance to be part of an experimental stem-cell treatment and, feeling she has nothing to lose, she accepts. The consequences of this decision are extremely disturbing and dangerous, and not just for her. The city is dealing with an outbreak of a new strain of highly virulent rabies and the authorities are searching for their Typhoid Mary. This is, of course, a remake. The Cronenberg original is one of the classics of body horror and any fan of his work would sit down to watch this with more than a little trepidation. If there is, anywhere, a worthy successor to the Cronenberg legacy, however, it surely lies in the creative minds of fellow Canadians the Soska sisters, who brought us 'American Mary'. This is better looking than the original and more developed in its exploration of the themes and scientific imagination of the story. This is also a more morally viable tale, more sympathetic and, because of that, more fightening. It's all too plausible and all too easy to forsee now in a way that it seemed like far-fetched science fiction when the original released.
So much of the core of the tale, and all of its moral ambiguity, rests on the shoulders of Vandervoort and she delivers a performance that meets the needs of the role amply. I haven't seen her deliver a brave performance before this and I find I want to see much more of her stretched this far. In fact all of the cast does extremely well here. The ending is quite different from the original and, for me, better. It offers one last chance to deliver a sense of creeping helpless dread before the credits roll. This film isn't just a remake of the original 'Rabid', though, it's a cinematic love-letter to the entire Cronenberg back catalogue. There are dozens of references to his most iconic scenes, shots and moments throughout. It seems this isn't just made to honour the original, it's made to honour the man.
Ready or Not
USA 2019
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Starring: Samara Weaving, Andie Macdowell, Mark O'Brien, Adam Brody
A bride marries into a wealthy family but her wedding night is not going to go well.
Marrying into a fabulously wealthy family at their huge estate a bride learns of a tradition that happens whenever a new person joins the family. As the family made its money from games she has to play a game at midnight. It seems this game is chosen by an occult machine that was passed to the founder of the dynasty by a creepy investor in exchange for their fabulous success. Whatever game comes out of the machine must be played, it could be chess, it could be bridge, but occasionally it's hide-and-seek. When that game pops out of the machine the rules are a little different. The new member of the family must be hunted through the house by the family and she must be caught and killed before dawn.
Our heroine is not the roll-over-and-die type so cue a gloriously violent, gory, comic slaughter-fest through the dark estate with plenty of death and, if you'll forgive the pun, mayhem. All the time we are wondering whether the rules are actually a pact with the devil or just a stupid and pointless tradition followed by an archaic and cruel branch of the one per cent. Every part of this is utterly satisfying, from the violence to the splatter, to the humour and especially the performances. Weaving does her best work yet in this quirky and dark tale of good and evil, which has one of the best last lines in any movie, ever.
The Drone
USA 2019
Director: Jordan Rubin
Starring: Alex Essoe, John Brotherton, Christopher Matthew Cook, Rex Linn
A couple find and use a drone, not knowing that it is possessed by a serial rapist and murderer.
A serial rapist and murderer manages to transfer his consciousness into the drone he used to select and hunt his victims. The drone, now sentient, finds a young couple in their new home and is adopted by them to hilarious effect. Seriously, this is a new entry in the 'object possessed by evil' sub-genre where we can find 'Child's Play' and 'Christine', but this movie has much more in common with 'The Mangler Reborn'. It is knowingly silly, fun and filled with genre references from 'Peeping Tom' to 'Psycho'. For a genre crowd this plays as pure comedy gold, as the charming and charismatic cast revel in the fun.
When looking at things like this you need actors who can be simultaneously conveying humour and truth, otherwise it descends into self absorbed farce and while the plot is, frankly, very silly, it is treated with exactly the right amount of seriousness by the entire cast. The last time Alex Essoe turned up in a genre film where she carried the lead it was 'Starry Eyes' and this couldn't be a more different challenge, yet she manages to be confident, vulnerable, sexy, winsome, charming and funny all at the same time. You may not like comedy horror, some people see it as an affront, but if you do, pop this one on your shelf next to 'Shaun' and 'Beth'.
Cut Off
Germany 2018
Director: Christian Alvart
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Lars Eidinger, Fahri Yardim
A forensic pathologist follows a gory treasure hunt to find his missing daughter.
A police pathologist finds a capsule in the mutilated skull of a murder victim. In it is the name of his daughter. There follows a dark and complex thriller as he follows clues in and on the bodies of other victims to identify the killer and rescue his missing child. On the island of Heligoland, cut off by storms, a young woman is seeking refuge from an abusive and dangerous boyfriend. It is there that the next body is to be found and, having found it, she reluctantly joins forces with the pathologist to follow the clues.
The plot is intricate and complex, the backstory compelling, but it is the wonderful interplay between the two leads and the growing sense of urgency that realls makes this special. So many moments are exceptional but the woman carrying out her first autopsy in a creepy storm-ravaged abandoned hospital while being told what to do over the phone by the desperate pathologist is a real highlight. While I felt the end was a little too contrived it was so rewarding to uncover the twists of the tale and the taut script and outstanding performances make this a special experience. Alvart is probably best known in the UK for 'Case 39' and 'Pandorum' but seasoned horror fans will look fondly back on 'Antikorper (Antibodies)' as well. He really brings a consistent sensibility to this puzzle of a story.
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
USA / Canada 2019
Director: Andre Ovredal
Starring: Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Dean Norris
An ill advised tempting of a local urban legend leads to an anthology of horrors unleashed on a group of teens.
The books on which this film is based are well known in the US, but not in the UK. A group of teenagers looking for an adventure on halloween enter the local haunted house. In it, allegedly, the spirit of a girl can be called upon to tell scary stories. Of course those stories aren't just told, they're experienced. Pursued into the house by a bully out for revenge all of the trespassers begin to experience personally-tailored horrors. It's not the most gruesome or the most bloody, it is more scare than tear, but there is a menace in the way the house is shot and the linked stories that pursue them from it are also very well handled. Clever devices like the way the book of scary stories begins to write new ones as each transgressor meets their fate add to the sense of expectation and the film is a joy to watch.
Everything here is good, most of it excellent. The mainly young cast is great, especially Colletti, the effects are solid and real and advice on physical effects was sought from EP Guillermo del Toro who clearly knows a lot about making physical monsters. Described as a good entry to the horror genre I agree completely. It's watchable by teenagers while still offering enough interest for the most hardened genre fan. Excellent film.
The Dark
Austria 2018
Director: Justin P Lange
Starring: Nadia Alexander, Toby Nichols, Karl Markovics, Margarete Tiesel, Dylan Trowbridge
A sickening abuser hides in the woods with his blinded victim only to fall prey to a ghoul.
This may be one of the most original films I've ever seen. It's 'Memento' original. A horror film in the classic mould but told backwards and from the opposite side as we follow the monster as she becomes less monster, losing the traits that allowed her to prevail over the villain, who is dealt with at the beginning not the end. Her character undevelops her skills while facing increasingly benign opposition for reducing stakes until we are spat out at the end in act 1. Nothing I can say here will prepare you for how refreshing and revelatory this film is. It's the perfect example of how, if you really understand how to write a perfectly structured screenplay, you can do everything wrong and therefore perfectly. One of the most interesting films I've ever seen.
Terrified
Argentina 2017
Director: Demian Rugna
Starring: Agustin Rittano, Elvira Onetto, George Lewis, Julieta Vallina, Maxi Ghione
A neighbourhood is haunted by dangerous ghosts in this extremely stylish and effective film.
It's a ghost story, and a well made one, atmospheric and creepy, but it contains an original idea that the ghosts visibility is determined by the direction you look at them, which I certainly hadn't seen before. Intersting, sure, but what really makes this stand out is the way that deceptively simple concept is used to stage unsettlingly creepy moments throughout the tale. It also benefits from being grounded in normality, so the distinction between the weird and terrifying elements seems so much more acute. We aren't prepared by entering the ghostly castle first, no, these shocks are in suburban houses and driveways. As fine a ghost story as I've ever seen, deftly handled, gripping, creepy and sometimes just funny enough to help you relax so the next shock can really hit home. Wonderful.
The Man who killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot
USA 2018
Director: Robert D KrzyKowski
Starring: Sam Elliot, Aiden Turner, Ron Livingston, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Larry Miller
A beautiful story of an American mythical hero.
In two eras we follow the same man, played by Turner in WWII and Elliot as an old man. Our hero is too good to be true, soft-spoken, loyal, honest, decent and kind and yet the kind of man the government turns to twice for missions of utter secrecy and absolute importance. This isn't really an action film, certainly not a horror, though there are moments of violence. It's a love letter to the classic American myth, the white-hat hero who seeks no adventure but who will not bend to aggressors or abandon the helpless. Outstanding performances, a slow and loving use of camera and sound, this is the film Jimmy Stewart would have begged to make, both as a young hero and as an old character. He sacrifices everything that matters to him, without complaint, because some things are just too important to be entrusted to anyone else. Magnificent and moving.
Upgrade
USA 2018
Director: Leigh Whannell
Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Richard Anastasios, Melanie Vallejo, Richard Cawthorne, Harrison Gilbertson
A man is crippled in an attack and is offered the chance to walk again if he accepts a secret chip called STEM implanted in him.
Detective story, SF dystopia, thriller and nightmare all at once this is a very classy and thoughtful film with a clever and involving story, some lovely moments and some excellent performances. It's so much fun from moment to moment that it's only as the finale unfolds that you really begin to think deeply about the questions it poses, and pose them it does. It feels oddly realistic, even prescient, though it deals with some extremely unusual ideas. Compelling and enormous fun.
Summer of 84
Canada 2018
Director: Francois Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Starring: Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emory, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Tiera Skovbe
A boy starts to believe that his neighbour is a serial killer as he also navigates the social minefield of growing up in suburban America.
Extremely well made, utterly convincing setting and dialogue with some lovely acting and great technical choices. It places you in this community with aplomb and the story winds charmingly to its stunningly violent and horrifying conclusion. It's filled with knowing references to real serial killers and pop culture recapturing that perfect childhood that we're all really glad we didn't have. Outstanding.
Better Watch Out
Australia / USA 2017
Director: Chris Peckover
Starring: Olivia DeJonge, Levi Miller, Dacre Montgomery, Virginia Madsen, Patrick Warburton
A boy is looking forward to an evening left in the care of his sexy babysitter, but the house may be under attack from unknown people outside.
This is almost the perfect Christmas movie. Filled with twists, and unexpected moments, beautifully played and a fairly uncomfortable watch. The pop-culture references are knowing and clever, the performances wonderful. Olivia DeJonge is beyond perfect in the lead, charming and sexy with enough will and character to assert her place in a film where she could easily be too passive. Splendid.
Still / Born
Canada 2017
Director: Brandon Christensen
Starring: Christie Burke, Jesse Moss, Rebecca Olson, Michael Ironside, Jenn Griffin
A woman coping with the still birth of one of her twins becomes convinced an evil spirit is after her surviving son. Is it postpartem psychosis or is there really a threat to the child?
This is a premise that could have been horribly mishandled, but it is just a superb film. Tense, thrilling and keeps the question in the forefront of the mind throughout the story. It is a truly gripping tale with jumps, scares, slow horrific reveals, amazing performances and Christie Burke, the lead, is an absolute revelation throughout. First rate.
Killing Ground
Australia 2016
Director: Damien Power
Starring: Harriet Dyer, Aaron Pedersen, Tiarnie Coupland, Maya Stange, Aaron Glenane
Bored with Aussie survival horror? No. Not at all. Not as long as it keeps being inventive. Following two sets of victims, encountering the villains at the same place, but different times, flicking back and forth between the two timelines.
Truly imaginative with sympathetic, intelligent victims and dark, imposing villains.
Train to Busan
South Korea 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-Ho
Starring: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-Mi, Ma Dong-Seok, Choi Woo-Sik, An So-Hee, Kim Eui-Sung, Kim Su-An
Zombie survival horror meets classic disaster movie in this exemplary film that was in the official selection at Cannes.
Sure, it's zombies on a train, but the characters, stories, action, all of the parts are so wonderful that it comes together into a fabulous product. The moment with the villain and the cheerleader may be as shocking a twist as I've ever seen in a movie.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot
Italy 2016
Director: Gabriele Mainetti
Starring: Claudio Santamaria, Luca Marinelli, Ilenia Pastorelli, Stefano Amerogi, Aurizio Tesei
A small-time crook develops special powers after exposure to nuclear waste. Aided by a girl who is obsessed with an old manga cartoon he has to become a good guy.
Absolutely superb use of Rome as a setting and a fast, funny, exciting pace are backed up with a bit of social conscience and some great characters. One of the greatest ever superhero films.
Pet
USA / Spain 2016
Director: Carles Torrens
Starring: Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons, Gary J Tunnicliffe
A socially awkward man sees someone he went to school with and ends up stalking and abducting her. If you think the plot from here is going to be predictable then...
This is one of those films that is a constant surprise. From the abduction onwards it seems as if every scene, almost every line even, brings a new twist and a new revelation. Compellingly and brilliantly constructed and performed this is a film I needed to see again and again.
Monolith
Italy / USA 2016
Director: Ivan Silvestrini
Starring: Katrina Bowden, Damon Dayoub, Brandon Jones, Jason Hayden
A woman gets stranded in the desert when she's locked out of her hi-tech car with her child locked inside.
The first half of the film covers all the tiny errors that lead to the predicament while the second half is about her efforts to save the day. Tense, clever, imaginative and with a real and building sense of dread and panic. The film rests entirely on Bowden's performance, if you beleive her panic and her journey then the whole film works. I believed her every second.
Johnny Frank Garret's Last Word
USA 2016
Director: Simon Rumley
Starring: Mike Doyle, Erin Cummings, Sean Patrick Flannery, Devin Bonnee, Dodge Prince
Very loosely derived from a true story. Garret is executed for a crime he didn't commit and as his final words he curses those who convicted and executed him. Soon these people begin to die...
Genuinely unusual tale and beautifully assembled, this stands apart as a special movie. It always looks and feels excellent but it really comes into its own with the deaths which are utterly impressive.
Night Fare
France 2015
Director: Julien Seri
Starring: Fanny Valette, Jonathan Howard, Jess Liaudin
Two men skip out on a taxi at night in Paris without paying for their ride. The driver pursues them through the night in a breathless chase punctuated by murder and violence.
Stylishly made and cleverly plotted, the violence is excellent and the plot slowly reveals a moral centre that eventually gives a satisfying end to the tale. One of the best films of the year made by the director of Scorpion.
Life After Beth
USA 2014
Director: Jeff Baena
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Dane De Haan, John C Reilly, Anna Kendrick, Molly Shannon
Beth comes back to life but she's a little different. Not only that, she's not the only dead person who's up and about.
The only RomZomCom worth seeing that isn't Shaun of the Dead, this is charming, funny and blessed with a tight script and a gorgeous and talented cast. Top marks all around.
Housebound
New Zealand 2014
Director: Gerard Johnstone
Starring: Morgana O'Reilley
Kylie, a young tearaway is ordered by a court to live in her childhood home with
her irritating mother, to keep her away from the bad crowd she's fallen in with in
the city. The mother thinks the house is haunted and it has a dark history but what's
the truth behind the night-
Warm, scary and funny with buckets of charm, great cast and a plot that's unexpectedly
intricate. The story veers from supernatural thriller to family comedy, to neigbourhood
creep-
One of the finest genre films ever made and the best New Zealand film ever.
Dead Snow 2: Red versus Dead
Norway 2014
Director: Tommy Wirkola
This film picks up exactly where the first movie left off, right to the second. It's bigger, better and funnier than the first one and notably more violent.
Our hero now has a zombie-
Curve
USA 2015
Director: Iain Softley
Starring: Julianne Hough, Teddy Sears, Madalyn Horcher, Penelope Mitchell, Drew Rausch
Blumhouse pictures make low budget, high concept films and have carved out a reputation for allowing directors complete creative control. This story concerns a young woman who picks up a psychotic stranger and then crashes her car to try to injure him. He survives, she remains trapped in the wreckage. From this point it becomes a survival story akin to 127 Hours, but with a stronger narrative and a very satisfying ending. Hough, in particular, is magnificent, and as a piece the film is distinctive, clever and involving.
Isn't it nice when the US industry can use its power to make a small, tight, quirky tale like this?
Big Bad Wolves (2013)
The Israeli team that brought you Rabies is back. This is a dark, gory and violent revenge thriller about a man trying to find the location of his late daughter's missing head by torturing the chief suspect in the murder.
Some amazing actors were lined up for this film and their quality shines throughout, but the twists and turns of the plot are even more impressive and the story grips you from the outset.
Given the dark nature of the subject it's particularly interesting how the film is really very funny at times. It's a tough path to tread, making a scary and disturbing thriller that has plenty of funny moments, this film handles the problem admirably.
On an historical note, this screening was the last ever screening in Screen 1 at the Empire in Leicester Square. The huge and magnificent space will be stripped out and replaced with smaller screens. RIP Empire 1.
Cheap Thrills (2013)
For a brief moment let's forget that this site is devoted to genre films. Cheap Thrills is one of the best films, in any genre, that I've seen in years.
A cross between 'Funny Games' and the Milgram experiments, with a knowing nod to
the evils of capitalism. A couple of loser guys are treated to an evening of free
booze and drugs by an arrogant rich man and his, heart-
Not for the faint of heart, which is part of its appeal but also sadly will limit its exposure somewhat and that's a real shame. E.L.Katz, the director, has constructed a masterpiece here.
You're Next (2013)
Home invasion thrillers are so common these days that one might even say there's
been an invasion of them. Most of them are either pointlessly brutal attempts to
replicate Funny Games, but without Haneke's touch, or they're random and weak plots
with cookie-
A family gathering, the first opportunity for a young woman to meet her boyfriend's family en masse. She's warned that they're a bit dysfunctional and as soon as they gather there seem to be some issues to play out; a bit of sibling rivalry, a bit of attention seeking.
Suddenly the house is attacked by masked, armed, angry men. Things go from bad to worse. Oh yes, there will be blood.
Two things make this film an unusually strong example of the genre. Firstly, once the attack begins there's still more actual plot to come, still relationships to explore, still secrets to reveal. Secondly, and this is a huge bonus, we have the glorious Sharni Vinson as the lead actress. Determined to fight back, and equipped with skills learnt as a child in a survivalist community, she levels the playing field and starts to deliver some payback.
Very tightly constructed, and strong as both a thriller and a shocker, this film is a treat.
Tucker and Dale versus Evil
Tucker and Dale are a couple of Southern States American rural folks. Yes. Hillbillies.
They end up buying a holiday home in the most backwater of places, a holiday home that appears to have been formerly owned by a serial killer.
Meanwhile a group of college kids are coming to the local lake to unwind during their holidays. Inevitably the two groups completely misunderstand each other and hilarity ensues.
Actual hilarity. This is a very funny film indeed. Tucker and Dale are utterly charming, the college kids are suitably ignorant and hidden in the middle is a love story that is actually quite touching.
Laughs come thick and fast, but are interspersed with a healthy dose of gore and splatter, but it's the decency and the morality of the tale that actually brings the whole thing home.
Utterly charming, go and see it, even on accident.
Shaun of the Dead
Simon Pegg should need no introduction. He is a leading light of the British comic actor fraternity and he's also a fan of horror films.
Here he turns his wit to the subject of the zombie film, melding it with a typical romantic situation comedy plot and constructing something he refers to as a RomZomCom.
Probably not since the Life of Brian has a film had so many quotable jokes and this
stands as one of the best funny films ever made. It also manages to reward the horror
fan with a great many in-
One of the best British films ever.
Chained
I hope I'm not alone here but I really like Jennifer Lynch movies. Even when they don't quite nail the dismount they are a quirky and interesting view of the world.
Chained is a story about a serial killer. He kills women and one day he abducts a woman with her young son in tow. He kills her but decides to keep the boy as his servant, chaining him in his house and making use of him to clean and help dispose of the bodies that he keeps accumulating through his hobby.
We stay with this unlikely relationship as the boy grows up, as the killer finds him a girl to rape and murder (seriously he thinks that's a kind thought). The killer is played brilliantly by Vincent D'Onofrio and it's a strange and creepy portrayal.
It also works as a thriller and even though the ending feels a little contrived, it does actually make sense, just don't believe people who tell you it doesn't.
Truly excellent.
American Mary
Brought to you by the Soska sisters, this is one of those strange 'lifestyle horrors', like Strangeland.
It's the tale of a medical student who takes a job carrying out illegal surgical
procedures for people who are in to extreme body modification. This isn't your tattoo
parlour stuff, nor getting a piercing or two, this is amputation, implanting, even
cross-
She becomes something of a celebrity in this underground world and most of her subjects are willing and pay very well for her ministrations. Most of her subjects.
As a story it's pretty simple and sparse, relying on the sheer weirdness of the material to carry the story. Having said that it does include a remarkable and impressive revenge sequence and it looks astonishing all the way through. In fact this is the kind of film that reminds us how good digital cinema can look.
Quirky, funny, startling, scary and gory. Worth anyone's while.
The Innkeepers
A hotel in small-
It's a simple premise and it works, almost entirely, because the pacing is perfect and Sara Paxton, playing one of the staff, is so adorable and delightful that you just want her to make it out alive. Honestly I can't remember the last time I cared as much about the survival of a character in a movie.
The story is classic campfire stuff, the script is flawless and engaging, the performances are wonderful, but there's more. The director, Ti West, related that staying in the actual hotel was somewhat creepy and I find that easy to believe, it's just one of those buildings that screams 'danger' somewhere in the human psyche.
More on the pace. A good horror film is like a roller-
One of the best.
Sinister
Sinister is a strange film to write about. It's hard to imagine a more formulaic
set-
There are a few issues. One is that the alleged twist, OK, either of the alleged twists, are so telegraphed that there's surprisingly little suspense left in the tale, however as a haunted house film it does work extremely well indeed. Not merely that, but the truly disturbing plot as it unfolds does lead you to find the ending quite unsettling.
Best of all, though, is the actual production quality of the film. It is a beautifully shot, acted and written piece, and survives through a solid tale and fine attention to detail which makes it very engrossing. There is even enough humour to act as a break from the tension and the Lewton buses are handled competently enough, for people who rate the film as scary only if it makes you jump.
Cabin in the Woods
I so wish I could tell you what this film's about. Of course anything I write here can only be a spoiler.
This is what happens when a group of truly likeable university students end up in
traditional horror film landscapes. Now actually that's perhaps a twentieth of the
plot here, but it begins in well-
I'm reviewing it here, but frankly this is a film that everyone on the planet could
enjoy. It's a mash-
Best of the best of the best.
The Last House On The Left
Any serious horror fan reveres the Wes Craven film upon which this remake is based as a shocking but perfectly placed revenge film spun out of the weirdness and paranoia of the seventies. Because of this it was inevitably going to be a strange experience to see the film remade so out of its original time.
The interesting thing is how quickly this film establishes itself as a different animal from the original and how much more sympathetic we become towards the heroine because of the subtle use of the camera.
There's an even better trick. From the beginning of the film the girl who will prove
the focus is set up as a sexual object. Loving camera moves follow her curves in
swimsuits and hotpants. As she changes we take a slow-
The pace of the film is almost perfect, the tension maintained very well and only some lurches in plot spoil what is an extremely competent film, well worth seeing.
Wolf Creek
A survival horror movie can go about its business in a number of ways. For me the first objective is to introduce the characters with enough skill that we actually care about what happens to them. This is the area in which Wolf Creek excels and stands clearly proud of all its peers. The actors are great, the plot is absorbing and the look of the film is gritty and compelling but the long introduction to the characters is the brave and worthy choice. It is a risk, definitely, to slow down the pace of a horror film, but I think it pays off very comprehensively.
It can sometimes be hard to remember which specific character, which gruesome demise, which sarcastic terminal monologue is part of which horror film; so formulaic can the genre become. In Wolf Creek this simply isn't a problem because the characters are so clear, so real and so interesting that you find yourself invested in their lives and, naturally, their deaths.
An excellent and distinctive entry in the genre, worth taking seriously.
Spiral (2007)
Spiral is a neat little scary story, the kind people tell each other on Halloween.
It reunites Adam Green and Joel David Moore (Hatchet) and tells the story of a seriously
odd man and his friend at work who tries to pull him out of his shell. He slowly
begins a relationship with another co-
The girlfriend is played beautifully by Amber Tamblyn, who many may remember as Joan of Arcadia and who has made a gentle entry into feature films by appearing in the sequels to some pretty good movies.
It's hard to place this one properly, it's certainly creepy, in places very creepy and it does pack the horror punch quite nicely but it doesn't have the gore or splatter that the seasoned horror fan may be looking for. It does build tension very effectively and the performances are excellent throughout, implying that the Razzie that Joel picked up in 2009 was perhaps a little harsh (though in fairness I haven't seen the film for which he won it). I suppose what works best here is simply the compelling story told with a light touch, I genuinely wanted to see what happened next.
El Orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)
Spain has recently been fertile ground for growing quality horror and this is an exceptional entry in the field. The story revolves around a woman and her husband and son who go to reopen an old abandoned orphanage where she spent some of her childhood. Her son, Simon, finds an imaginary friend at the orphanage and this friend likes to play games.
I certainly don't want to spoil the plot as the film is engrossing and thrilling throughout, the performances are wonderful and the look and feel is beautiful, as beautiful as a Del Toro film. I must also point out that it is genuinely creepy and atmospheric with moments that even this seasoned horrorist found deeply tense. There is nothing to dislike here but it does so much more than just tick the right boxes and deliver on expectations.
As the story unfolds we get sucked in to a tale that is both horrifying and oddly loving, it's hard to describe without spoiling the story but as the climax appears there is a building tingle of helpless horror that goes so much further than a simple revelation of a monster at the end of the movie. Forget this being one of the best horror films I've ever seen, this is one of the best films I've ever seen in any genre.
This is an exceptional piece of work and must form part of everybody's collection.
Hatchet
Adam Green is clearly a man who knows what he likes. He wrote and directed this charming effort as a gentle homage to the great slasher movies of the seventies and eighties. The story revolves around a spooky haunted bayou trip taken by a couple of friends and some mismatched companions while they are in New Orleans during the Mardi Gras celebrations.
It turns out that the tour is a dead loss but there is something to be scared of out there, the hideously disfigured and arguably immortal spirit of a tragic former resident, known only as Hatchet Face.
First things first, this is a film that will thoroughly entertain the seasoned horror
fan, filled with in-