begob's Reviews

You'll Never Find Me (2023)

8/10

9 April 2024

A lonely man keeping company with a bottle of whiskey in his dingy trailer answers the pounding on his door in the middle of a stormy night to find a rain-soaked young woman looking for help. Will he give it to her?

Impressive two-hander from Australia, with strong performances that avoid being stagey. I'm not the best judge of cinematography, but the lighting and framing create the necessary claustrophobia in a tight location with plenty of close-ups, and the editing maintains a good pace. There are fleeting flashbacks, but the tension is kept steady, with only mild relief in a couple of nicely judged scenes - especially the card game - and a subtle vein of irony in the dialogue.

The outstanding element of the production is the sound design, with the storm groaning and creaking and clanking like an angry ghost outside the trailer, while the moaning strings of the score echo the melody of the spooky Sleepwalk song on the tinny radio. And plenty of wheezing and bubbling and tinkling ... like being woken up by a nest of starlings.

The Aussies have taken a seriously good turn in their horror productions: I'm thinking of Talk to Me and the brilliant Run, Rabbit, Run, and this movie starts out with the same promise. However, in the end it's just a morality tale with a touch of preachiness, and while there is a clever perspective shift in the climax it doesn't quite make the grade of the earlier movies. Perhaps it's just me, but I prefer this sub-genre to find its strength in the weirdness of the perpetrator, and not in the pathos of the victim.

Overall: When we come to remember this era of Aussie horror with the same fondness as J-horror, this will deserve an honourable mention.

0 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Double Blind (2023)

7/10

Copable

15 February 2024

A desperate young woman joins a bunch of misfits in a top-secret drugs-trial, but the stakes get raised as the experiment expands.

First 25 minutes is excellent story-telling - pared-down scenes that give just enough information for the imagination to work on, so the pace sets off at a good clip. The altered-reality scenes are stylish and weird, elevating the intrigue and visual enjoyment. And the score is serious synth-doom (by Die Hexen) - well judged even though it never gets a rest. Performances are good, even if some of the characters are a bit sketchy.

Problems with the plot, though. It feels as if the complications are conjured up just to keep getting the characters into trouble, and I was never convinced by the overarching situation with all its implausibilites. One thing that puzzles me is that the title raises the expectation of the disguised placebo, which should have set up a Traitors v. Faithfuls game theory struggle. But that gets chucked out in a single line of dialogue, to be replaced with a ham-fisted evil corporation theme.

While the dynamic of placebo/nocebo was never explored (although that would be kinda high-falutin'), I would have settled for more emphasis on the weird, particularly with sleep deprivation opening up the boundary of reality, and then the plot somersaults wouldn't have mattered so much. The story could have had the chance to do that spooky trick in The Shining, where delusion steps over into reality, which would have been powerful with such desperate and hopeless characters. As it stands, this is more an under-powered zombie-free imitation of the classic Resident Evil.

Overall: Strong opening let down by shambolic motivations.

4 out of 9 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Exhibit A (2007)

7/10

Tears of a clown

18 January 2024

When his family says they've had enough, a prankster dad gets serious. Dead serious.

Shoe-string found footage of a family's descent into the abyss. The camera work is chaotic, and often so poor that I began to sympathize with the critics of this genre who suffer motion sickness just by looking at the screen. And yet the dynamics and the emotion come across as raw and immediate, qualities that might have been lost through competent cinematography.

It does stick to the pure form of FF, with a minimal framing device in the title and notice at the very start; all the music and sound effects are diegetic; and the setting and dialogue are banal. A few passages where the presence of the camera is implausible, but few FFs overcome that problem entirely, and it's nothing some security camera POVs wouldn't have fixed (Dad could have splashed out on them after the intruder at the party).

The only other thing to note is the performance of the father's role - very effective in delivering a character who is odious yet likeable.

Overall: Raw material made interesting by the central character.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

#Alive (2020)

8/10

Don't come back, Walk out the door!

17 January 2024

On waking up home alone a teen finds the world outside has changed into a hell hole. How will he survive?

Enjoyable zombie flick with plenty of action, plus a nice balance of humour and sorrow in what is basically a boy-meets-girl story (not unlike the classic Dead Set). The opening scene is standard - not much compared to the intro of the Dawn of the Dead remake - but then a very cool zombie transformation brings an adrenaline rush, and we're off to the races.

Some minor plot holes, but the survivor-in-the-wilderness action is well done, with hundreds of fine old-style zombie performances, and some neat MacGyver-like just in time equipment bodges to keep hope alive.

Being Asian, it doesn't shy away from the despair of the characters, but the humour sits nicely alongside to vary up the pace and get us engaged with the characters. The performances are spot on, and it's good to see the reserved nature of Korean culture when under pressure. The third act also adds a tasty weirdness, the kind of dark fairytale scenario that you only get in times of breakdown.

The music changes pace throughout, and all the production values are top notch.

Overall: Top of its sub-genre.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

What Josiah Saw (2021)

8/10

Family Fortunes

16 January 2024

Long after the suicide of a mother, her family gravitates back to the homestead for a reckoning.

Superior horror that gave me a good chill. The writing is excellent, with everything falling into place behind it - direction, performances, editing. The Texas landscape looks great, and the camera lingers over period items to cast a spell of time stood still.

The story comes in three chapters plus the climax, with big variations in pace. The second is influenced by Tarantino, as a flawed hero drifts in with menacing characters who barely contain their violence until it all explodes. There's definitely a nod to the hypodermic scene in Pulp Fiction, and maybe to the famous briefcase Maguffin as well. But for all its entertainment, this is where self-indulgence leaves some loose ends - no biggie, since it's just an interlude before the main event.

The first and third chapters give us the most clues down the winding road to a pair of twists (followed by a final final twist). The shape of this main story is like Stephen King's It, or the recent series The Haunting of Hill House, where scattered adults are drawn back together to address their common childhood trauma. And it works well.

The choice of music is interesting, with such titles as Aim to Annihilate and the ole' classic Mom DIed in a Fire She Set. The score is atmospheric and classy, although sometimes a little on the foreboding nose in certain scenes that might have been carried better by leaving the actors to do their thing.

P.s. There is one reference to a character named Paul, who I couldn't place - maybe I missed something.

Overall: Get stuck in.

4 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

7/10

The Tall-Tale Heart

8 November 2023

When a cadet at a military academy is found murdered in weird circumstances, the authorities call in a tortured ex-cop to figure it out.

Institutional murder mystery meets gothic horror in the depth of winter. Lavish production, with icy blue cinematography and moody orchestrals throughout, befitting the lead character. The other performances are excellent - for me the stand-outs were Poe and the doctor's wife, but the list goes on, and I even did a double take on spotting the credit for the old professor. Plus a round of applause for the period hats.

I don't rate it so high since the gothic element is just over the line of absurdity, and the theme of revenge always leaves me cold. Also I'm not a fan of final long-winded expositions. Tis pity, because there are some deep resonances, particularly in the love story and in the irony of the mirrored situations of the two principal characters. And I think there's a nod to The Fall of the House of Usher.

Overall: Impressive but forgettable.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

7/10

Better than most FF

31 October 2023

When an internet sleuth drags her girlfriend along to investigate the scene of a grisly massacre at a deserted mansion in the woods, they get more than they bargained for.

Over-produced found-footage that still manages to be effective. The ideal for this genre is to wind up the story like clockwork in the first ten minutes, then let it unwind through intelligent editing of the footage, allowing the audience to fill in the gaps. Instead this production gives us masses of exposition through the framing device of a mockumentary, with explanatory flashbacks, and inserts foreboding music where appropriate.

So the story has trouble standing on its own feet, with ho-hum plotting and characterisation, and in the end has to fall back into classic Blair Witch mode to reach its climax.

And despite the fussy direction, the in-scene motivations are poorly handled. You know you can run away, right, instead of shuffling? So that the audience might satisfy itself that every means of escape was tried, before this unstoppable evil had its way? Perhaps bolting and chaining the bedroom door might be in order - especially since the chain is hanging limp, in plain sight, in scene after scene? It won't do any good, but y'know ... And if a character is in terror of her life, the best thing to do is put the camera down while still trained on the action, so the audience doesn't have to wonder why she's still filming. If she needs the camera light to flee through the darkness, then that's OK. And of course: don't split up, and don't go toward the threat that just scared the bejebus out of you, etc. And it's not necessary to give a final homily on the nature of evil: we know what we just saw.

As for the figures of evil, I know many are creeped out just by the sight of clowns, but not me - especially when my first thought was, 'Oh, they hired some specialist mime artists for this bit - that's why they're so still. Do their noses get itchy?'

Yet the atmosphere is genuinely creepy, and I was mostly engaged throughout. Plus there is an original and excellent video conference weird-out at 45 mins that got my adrenaline buzzing. For that, and the mounting hysteria (a la BW, including a distant cry for help that sounds like the first victim) I rate it above average.

15 out of 23 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

The Boogeyman (I) (2023)

5/10

Blame it on the boogey

6 October 2023

After the death of the mother, a family of three finds an unwelcome intruder has come to deal with their grief. In its own way.

Colour-by-numbers demon/monster flick. Sigh. Maybe it's just me, but yet another emotional crisis in American suburbia that ends with a punch-up and a group hug? The only note of interest was in the father's assertion that Carl Jung 'said it all', so I was hoping for some fleshing out of that psychiatrist's spookier notions, particularly related to sleep difficulties and fear of the dark. But no - all rejected later on with a stamp of the heroine's foot: 'But it's REAL!' Some may see the demon/monster as a metaphor for grief, but that idea isn't worked through into action, and we end up with escapism. So much for the power of cinema to bring ideas to life.

The performances are fine - nothing memorable, and one awful piece of direction late on in a reaction shot of the young girl as she blankly watches a grisly death: the actor was probably looking at a green screen, with no help in how to create convincing effect. The editing is pretty rapid, yet the story drags. Not sure why - probably too many unnecessary characters, and the ones who are necessary not properly integrated with each other. The music is low key, with lots of groaning strings and piano semitones, but very busy - a couple of times it almost drowned out recorded messages, and otherwise never failed to tell us how to feel. Silence can be golden. The production values are good, with an awesome swivel pan while checking for monsters under the bed, but not enough to save the story from a low rating.

Overall: I checked my phone a couple of times.

0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

All Fun and Games (2023)

5/10

Lost along the way

26 September 2023

When a boy brings home a knife found in an old shack in the woods, his family becomes victim of a curse.

Interesting start. The opening scenes use flashback and voice-over, but the storytelling has a light touch and promises a proper theme in the generational covering up of the source of a present evil. And it is Salem, with kids battling an ancient curse - is that you, Stephen King?

But the direction quickly loses its touch, with naive use of over-the-shoulder shadowy movement and spooky sound design, and a heavy emphasis on the boy's descent into madness - much better to give us small touches of weird amid scenes of normality.

The normality is well delivered, with good performances in a lively family dynamic, and one excellent scene of rapid fire dialogue. But the story quickly collapses into slasher mode; then raises itself up with some clever game play (and a blatant pun), before ending with your average dispelling of ye olde curse. So, suffering from a disjointed screenplay, it adds up to a blood-drenched Scooby Doo mystery.

The real mystery is a rather cool song during the drinking game at the party - Overjoyed by the Dutch Singers. Can't find it anywhere online. Otherwise the music is generic orchestral stuff.

Oh, and the budget - how did all those hundreds of people in the end credits get paid? It's a Canadian production, so lots of grants?

Overall: Lost before it got going.

1 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Talk to Me (I) (2022)

8/10

I let you in

21 September 2023

A teen grieving for her mother volunteers for a spooky prank among her friends, but finds herself drawn in deeper than anyone expected.

Not totally satisfying, but an impressive Australian entry in the high-school dice-with-death genre. The first half is excellent, opening with a busy shocker of a prequel scene, before launching us into a world of adolescent rebellion and angst, where the energetic characters always react with frank humour or touches of sensitivity.

The performances are strong, helped by a script that balances action and dialogue just right, and the editing and direction keep the story unfolding at a good pace, with a couple of reversed plot-points to open up new areas of intrigue. The sound design has clever moments, and the lack of jump scares means it never has to go over the top. Plus the music is full of energy, including that Sia song everyone drunkenly sings along to without realizing its subject is the despair of addiction. Nice.

The second half narrows its focus and, while the tension does build, we lose touch with some of the complex characterization of the group in favour of a personal journey into madness. The balance between the psychological and the supernatural isn't quite right for me, I guess because the necessary weirdness and mystery is sacrificed for the sake of bringing on the climax and resolution. Compared to another recent Australian horror, the brilliant Run, Rabbit Run, it just lacks the sophistication to leave me open-mouthed in horror. But I ain't really complaining - it's still one of the best in the past couple of years.

Overall: Top of its sub-genre.

1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Cabin Girl (2023)

4/10

No one's to blame?

29 August 2023

After a highway accident during a road trip to get over the death of her parents, a travel-vlogger restarts her channel from a cabin she's decided to settle down in. But is the previous resident really gone?

Lively start, ends up a mess. The motivations of the characters are inept, not only at the highest level involving the trauma of the protagonist, but at the mid-level in the way others become involved with her, down to the most basic level of why characters move around in a scene.

What on earth has the death of her parents got to do with the story? Or the death of the previous occupant? Why on earth is there a romance with the mechanic? How on earth does she plot-point-alert bump into the doctor and the bar owner when she's going away from the van that she was just walking toward? It's like things just happen 'for reasons'. To put it another way, the action does not flow from specific motivation; rather, motivation is tacked on to the action so that you feel the director's hand.

The production values are mostly not bad, and I admit that I had a sense that the endless Nancy Drew cliches were a trail of symbols that would lead to a bizarre reveal of the character's psychology. But in the end it feels like a child showing you a colour-by-numbers picture plastered with crazy crayon.

The editing declines in quality, with too much footage of how a character gets from point A to point B, and repetition of shots that don't tell us anything new - particularly of the stalker, and that damn floorboard. The spooky bits ain't all that, with no feel for shadow and the music too obvious. Add in some flabby dialogue, and it's no wonder some of the performances are less than convincing.

I kinda liked the song over the end credits, but ... no - somebody is to blame.

2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Life (I) (2017)

7/10

Red Dwarf

28 August 2023

An abducted Martian fights back against his oppressors.

Well, I thought I'd invert the logline to see if that might bring more insight - sadly, no. This is a well-paced action adventure that hides it's 'sciency stuff' exposition pretty well, and just about qualifies as horror through its monster element. The main mistake is in the sentimental lull before the climax - I actually tuned out to perform some complex engineering on a noisy fan: a rubber washer fixed the whirring sound.

The characterisation is promising, since we're introduced to a scientist released from his wheelchair by zero-gravity and another, a misanthrope, who abhors the ways of mankind - so both have good reason to prefer life away from earth. The latter character's fate does provide irony, but nobody else's life gets flipped or switched or twisted round (apart from dying), so the story is not much more sophisticated than The Thing From Another World or yet another episode of The Twilight Zone.

The production values are quality, with impressive CGI and effective music.

P.s. The crew is multi-national, despite Russia becoming the baddie after 2015 - yet the reference to Syria is pure propaganda. Did the Pentagon get its hands on the script?

1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Cobweb (2023)

8/10

A pinch of spice

23 August 2023

When night time noises start coming from behind his bedroom wall, a young boy seeks help ... but not from his parents. And not for himself.

Well, well, well - I wasn't expecting this: a modern monster movie. Not an old fashioned creature feature, nor sci-fi from the outer reaches, but up-to-date dysfunctional-suburban-family style.

The plot engine is a secret from the past, and our detective is a sensitive young boy who hears things that go bump in the night. There's the standard black artwork noticed by a concerned teacher with a heart of gold (and some nominative determinism), from which the trail leads back to the dark heart of a disturbed house.

The unusual complication is that the story squashes all expectation of virtue in a bloody climax, although it does leave us with an overly complacent resolution - but even then the film makers don't quite let us off the hook.

So it loses its nerve a little right at the end, and for sure the plot isn't water tight (especially the home invasion), but I still rate it high because the director commits to the power of suggestion and allows the intensity of the frights to grow naturally, while we're never sure until the end where the real threat is coming from. The editing keeps excellent pace, and the music fills the neat runtime without overbearing. Plenty of movement in the camera, with the outstanding shot a zooming swivel pan that generates some queasiness at the dinner table. And the performances are solid and convincing, even with the slight vibe of cartoon gothic in a gloomy location that seems to have impossibly large interiors.

The director and writer are American, but I wonder if the Bulgarian influence, evident in the end credits, and Canadian financing made for a darker vision than you'd expect from a Halloween movie.

Overall: Good entertainment, give it a crack.

1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Run Rabbit Run (2023)

9/10

I don't think she's dead

22 August 2023

Warning: Spoilers

A secretive mother struggles to control her defiant young daughter.

Outstanding horror, mostly due to the closing scenes. In the last 7 minutes there are three bedroom episodes - one with the grandmother, one at night with the daughter, and one the next morning with the husband - and I had to watch them again to get the implication of what had happened.

Up to that point the story is one of repressed feelings returning to a shifty character, and there is great skill in how this psychic force manifests in her experience, keeping a balance between what seems real and what fantastical. One example of how well the process is concealed is in the source of the darkness on the back of the child's drawings, which is shown just before the final sequence.

The actor playing the little girl is excellent, but she has the easier task as her character shows total conviction; the mother's character is very difficult, lacking that conviction yet forceful, and the actor conveys every hesitation and over-reaction. When you consider that the child is part of the mother's experience, their dynamic becomes more powerful and disturbing.

I feel there is some comparison with The Babadook, but this is much the better movie, although it does share some of the same viewing frustration, taking us through claustrophobic domesticity at a slow pace. But here the editing of the final sequence, with short scenes that jump forward in time, allows space for the whole thing to come together in the audience's imagination.

Maybe also a comparison with Picnic at Hanging Rock - I haven't watched that movie in ages, but the combination of the Australian landscape with the flowing, ominous music gave me a similar eerie vibe.

A couple of points I didn't quite get - why the figure of a man on the far side of the water, and why the dream figure in the opening shot of the mother lying down among dead trees in the same water - but that's just meat for a return visit.

Horror fans who rated this down need to appreciate what horror movies can give - but they literally have to open their eyes to see what's there!

Overall: Restrained psychic trip that arrives with a subtle shriek.

P.s. Total surprise in the end credits to see the name of the actor playing the grandmother. I thought she looked a little fresh!

2 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Master (I) (2022)

7/10

Alma master

18 August 2023

Three black women test the liberal credentials of their New England college.

Fairly straight fish-out-of-water drama - the only kink is that is uses horror to convey the inner turmoil of the characters, but without integrating the genre into the story. Very difficult to address the conundrum they face, because the characters long to be treated simply as fellow humans, yet there's no denying the need for special sensitivity in that treatment. And the phenomenon of black-on-black antagonism runs throughout.

By the end the message is on the nose: America is irredeemably racist, and the only response is to withdraw consent - some take the easy way out, others gird themselves for the hard road ahead.

The performances are good, and the pace clips along as the camera makes the most of an imposing location. The horror effects are pretty skillful, particularly the writhing dance of a silhouette in a corridor as it thrusts a spear into the ground. The music adds some suspense, but that's beside the point of what is really an issues drama that finds an uneasy resolution on the moral plane.

This theme has been dealt with more powerfully as horror in Peele's Get Out and US, and in Spiral too, where the horror really becomes part of the characters' disintegrating world. I much prefer that approach. And I think in the latter two movies it was recognized that the problem is not so much that racism is a feature of liberalism, but that liberalism itself is a death cult: withdrawing consent is not an option.

Overall: Dangerous subject, but not true horror.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Too Late for Tears (1949)

7/10

Where's my dough?

17 August 2023

When a woman decides to cling on to a windfall of ill-gotten dollars, no man better stand in her way - see?

Murder cover-up thriller. Lizabeth Scott is new to me, and she is mighty impressive, playing a quick-witted, compulsive manipulator with just the right passion and control. It helps that the dialogue early in the movie is worthy of Chandler - concise and full of conflict, rather than self-indulgent speeches that you so often get in Hollywood noir.

The plot gives us a cautionary tale that falls short of full-blooded drama, but it is cleverly worked out with decent concealment of motives and some ironies woven into the outcome. There is one small plot hole in the coincidence of the hero turning up when he did, but that's OK. The writer also has the skill of closing off a lead just when you think you've cracked it. However, the plotting does take over from the earlier character-building, and we end on the melodrama of justice done and dusted, which lacks the bitter sweetness of the best noir.

Pace is good, music standard for this genre, and overall it's a good watch - just lacking some bite for my taste.

Ps. I watched this on youtube, and when I read the title as Killer Bat I thought I'd mistakenly clicked on a cheesy Paramount horror - turns out the release title was Killer Bait.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Somewhere in the Night (1946)

7/10

Tailor finds his Cravat

16 August 2023

On discharge from an army hospital, an amnesiac veteran tries to track down his evil ways before the war, only to find himself plunged into a murky world of Nazi loot, niteclub singers and hatless detectives.

Similar to The Big Sleep, with complex forking paths leading back to the originating event of a murder in the past, and it also shares the same quality of seedy characters in shady joints. The screen adaptation of Chandler's classic suffered from an over-emphasis on the leading actors, Bogart and Bacall, detracting from the mysterious forces behind the plot; whereas in this movie their counterparts are quite bland, and it's the supporting actors who provide the quality.

The detective and the old-world con artist fill their roles superbly, but the stand-out for me is Margo Woode, the snappy, hard-boiled manipulator who finds herself betrayed in the end. Sadly, that aspect of the story gets blown off, so another example (along with Gloria Grahame) of wasting a charismatic actress perfectly suited to the role of noir dame.

The camera work has plenty of shadow, but an opportunity for chiaroscuro close-ups is lost during a wharf-side scene, when multiple matches are lit to penetrate the dark. The editing is pretty slick, but there were many instances of lengthy, overripe dialogue. The music is not overbearing, but quite choppy in switching from romance to suspense and back again.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

The Chalk Line (2022)

5/10

Chalk this down ...

1 August 2023

A childless wife welcomes an abandoned mute girl into her home, but in the effort to get the girl to speak everyone misses her chilling message.

Ouch. Poor writing and directing really detract from this thriller. An early establishing scene in the hospital has the unlikely result of hospital staff letting a stranger handle an emergency, with the motivation for the characters out of joint. The care of the girl is given to two completely untested characters. A later scene with a tweezers is the kind of thing that simply does not happen. The child is overwhelmed with questions from people who are supposed to draw her out with reassurances. An online research scene left me confused over whether the crucial word had been figured out. And the police procedural material is inept.

So many of these mis-steps that I suspected we were in an unannounced alternative world, but in the end it was all played for real. I guess the writer has little experience, and the director didn't know how to bring it round.

However, the story does hit its stride at 60 mins, with a visual reveal that opens up the possibilities, and then a dialogue reveal that fills out the wife's motivation. Then there's a nice retreading of events from a different angle, and we end with a competent thriller, although of the kind that's been done before. And yet they still managed a sloppy climax.

The performances and pace are fine. The music starts with an interesting effect - like a hairbrush being dragged across the bridge of a cello - then goes with eerie strings and synth, which never stop: the mark of a story that can't make it visually. Another irk is that at one point I was reading English subtitles of a conversation in Spanish half-translated from French.

By the way - 'tis not a horror.

1 out of 2 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Hollywood Story (1951)

7/10

That's good advice. Do you mind if I pay no attention to it?

30 July 2023

On arriving in Hollywood a movie producer sniffs out an old showbiz murder for his first project, but not everyone wants the story told.

Satisfying murder mystery that clips along at a good pace. The establishing scenes are efficient, the dialogue doesn't waste time, and the performances are all strong. This director really knew what he was doing, and in one scene there's an unspoken question why the old-timer watchman didn't hear a gunshot, which is simply answered by him raising a hand to his ear when spoken to.

The story is on an Agatha Christie level of complexity, with all the elements of Marlowe thrown in, but none of the lines live up to Chandler. The solution is a bit pat, and the drama of the love-interest's mother and of the mysterious beautiful nun turn out red herrings, when they should have been the real leads to the truth, drawing us into complex emotions. And so we end up with a short run time.

Music is unremarkable. A lot of interest in the shots of contemporary Holywood.

0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Family Dinner (I) (2022)

7/10

You will stay for dinner?

26 July 2023

At the end of the Lenten fast, a plump girl visits her aunt, an expert cook, at her remote farmhouse, where things seem a little ... off.

Grimm's fairy-tale meets mild body-horror. The narrative is kinda plain - if you substitute a wicked witch in a house in the forest, you're most of the way there. But the body-horror aspect is dignified by associations with the sacrifice of Jesus and the notion of cannibalism as a rite of rebirth, plus an unfussy portrait of animal death. Not really my genre, but in this form more 'tasteful' than the lurid stuff that's been a staple of French and Canadian films for decades.

The pace is sedate, the performances reserved, and the music is barely perceptible, just nudging us into a sense of dread. At times the intimacy of the whispered voices is intense, a nice effect. But the standout for me is the character of Simi, who has an intriguing mix of impassive innocence and savage resilience.

This is an Austrian production, and I have to say their Slavic neighbours do this kind of macabre with a greater sense of wonder and mystery - and humour. And a final oddity is that the German word Schei*e is translated into a more forceful word in English.

Overall: Simple story that just about fills its dress.

P.s. I do practice fasting and low-carb, and it's clear the writer didn't think to do his research.

4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Before I Wake (2016)

7/10

How do you spell canker?

21 July 2023

After the death of their boy, a couple bring home an orphan boy - but will the fate of his former foster-parents come back to haunt this new family?

The set up is nicely observed and well thought-out, leaving an expectation that we're in for some spooky working out of the mother's repressed emotion. But even as those plot points are made, the story goes deeper into the boy's repression, allowing a further order of psychology to double down, until the pieces fit and resolution is found for all concerned.

Impressive story, but a few elements tried my patience. The over-precise CGI and heavy-handed horror tricks gave me a bit of uh-oh early on. Then the swelling violin music in the second act came over schmaltzy. Finally, the exposition in the resolution took away from the sense of mystery, so that it felt like a puzzle solved rather than a trauma survived.

The performances are all good, and the direction and editing keep up a pretty good pace.

Overall: Psychic shock to middle-class family life, ending on a Spielbergish note of coziness.

3 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Renfield (2023)

7/10

Bloody simple

20 June 2023

After a change of scene following their latest near-miss, Dracula's familiar begins to have doubts as he rounds up fresh blood for his wounded Master.

Well, it's a romp - and in carbon-copy Edgar Wright style. Anyone with a soft spot for the loon that is Nicolas Cage will lap this up straight from the jugular, as our anti-hero gushes forth his nutzo menace - but then he shows some well-judged restraint in a home-truths scene with his adversary, which gives substance to his character.

For my taste, the humour is too cutesy, too gentle, so it's a relief when Cage delivers some weird sarcasm. The moral of the story is also too plain, especially the silly pop psychology of self-worth. As the endless 'You Can Do It!' slogans piled up, I couldn't help thinking of The Black String (2018), which gives depth to its humour with a darkly ironic dig at self-help books, reversing their life affirming lessons in a survival guide to witchcraft.

The pace finds its level once Cage returns from his slumber, and the gore in the fight scenes is delicious, climaxing in an utter blood fest. The music is always energetic, and the other performers are good in what is basically a cartoon scenario out of Gotham - except it's New Orleans. One reservation is that the crime gang villain has no edge - although his Mom does restore some of the balance.

The final frame of the end credits suggests more to come from Cage - a prequel? - but this time a little darker, please.

0 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Spell (2020)

7/10

Y'all have a good day now

11 June 2023

A man bringing his family to the funeral of his estranged father dismisses the offer of a charm to fend off the evil that lies in them thar hills. He may regret it ... if he lives.

Stylish captivity horror that keeps open the possibilities until close to the end, when it rounds off as a plain revenger in the city folk v hill-billy genre. The opening scenes are slick, the lead establishing the strengths and weaknesses of his character with charisma, and the family dynamic is well drawn as the pace takes us along briskly to the moment everything goes wrong. And then we're introduced to the evil, in the form of a chilling l'il ole lady, performed to perfection.

The cinematography and scene-setting are excellent, and the music is lively but never overbearing - plus a welcome blast of Screaming Jay Hawkins.

Plot-wise, the unknown fate of the family really raises the stakes, but when the time comes it turns out kinda bland. Towards the end the implausibilities start to overwhelm the story, and I got the sense the motivating event of the father's death (along with the flashbacks) was totally irrelevant.

It is a let down. Some of the best innovation in American horror in the past few years has come from the pain of slave descendants in a country that endlessly reforms its means of oppression. Jordan Peele's stuff is well known, but I recommend Spiral (2019) as well, and the first act of Antebellum (2020) is a must-see. But like Antebellum, this story just shunts the black hero into the place of a modern liberal only for him to self-deceptively play by the rules of the primitive antagonist, avoiding all the political and psychic insights that horror can act out.

Overall: Full of promise, but a bit meh.

1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Pearl (2022)

8/10

Wee Wee. Marie

17 May 2023

A war-bride feeling stifled on the family farm dreams of getting out to dancing stardom, but people just stand in her way. Until they don't.

The first thing I noticed is that the opening shot is identical in location and viewpoint to X, but it didn't occur to me that this is a prequel until I read some reviews. Doesn't affect the viewing, and in fact this is much the better film - I suspect Mia Goth's writing added some unusual quality.

The first fifty minutes fly by despite the fact that it's quite a conventional domestic drama, with the overwrought emotions of a claustrophobic family life forcing the viewer to take sides. I was disappointed the story stayed put, rather than take us on the road to stardom, but the touches of the macabre and growing sense of menace kept me hooked. The alligator as Angel of Death was particularly good, and the casual flick-through of war footage in the cinema too.

The story breaks out in the audition scene, where the references to The Wizard of Oz take full flight, leading to a surreally stylish dance number, and then a superb monologue from an actor whose close-ups just fill the screen, helping us to get real nuance out of the mania.

The music starts out conventionally romantic, to fit with the idyllic colour schemes, but gets more dramatic as the trouble mounts. A few spots where the direction doesn't quite nail the motivation - like when the film-still falls out of the pocket and Pearl goes all the way through a cornfield in search of it: show the still flying into the field. But overall it looks gorgeous, and the editing keeps things slipping along.

I enjoyed Goth's performance in Infinity Pool, but that movie kinda stumbled toward the end. Here, she brings the whole thing home with a rictus grin and plonks its maggoty flesh on the dinner table.

2 out of 3 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

8/10

The saw is mightier than the gun

15 May 2023

When the black sheep of the family returns for some life advice, she finds things ain't going so good ... and about to get a lot worse.

The opening scene nails the quality of this movie: the music leaves no doubt there's trouble coming, and we're full on from the start, with a nod to the origin story that gets tied in by the end.

I say black sheep, but the family itself is the opposite of white, all counter-culture dark humour, and the performances get us rooting for an interesting group of outsiders. The vibe of the building reminded me of The Scribbler (2014), with a misfit behind every door.

In a way, this is a reboot of the Evil Dead (2013), with a blood-drenched heroine toting a chainsaw, but I got the sense the writer/director was making a statement: This is how you do it! Certainly a much better experience. Also there are touches of Aliens at certain plot points, and a delightful parody of the elevator scene in The Shining.

The quirkiness of the characters eventually gets crushed by square-jawed heroics, and the dilemmas aren't the most imaginative, although the story does avoid some obvious options. By this stage the music is relentless, but then a moment of silence in the climax to heighten tension.

Apart from that, the editing brings lots of energy, and there's barely a pause throughout the tidy run-time. The sound design is really busy, with the standout in the imaginative use of old vinyl for exposition. And it you want blood ... drink your fill.

Overall: Quality virtue horror.

0 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

begob

Reviews

Tell Your Friends

Recently Viewed