anthrofredd's Reviews

Dead Shadows (2012)

8/10

29 April 2013

Over the past couple of years we've come to expect mainly gory survival horror from France - and while I do love some of them (Haute Tension, Vertige etc) some have just been horrible (Martyrs) so I was pleasantly surprised when Dead Shadows turned out to be something very different.

Dead Shadows takes a lot of inspiration from 80s horror movies and has a Lovecraftian vibe to it. Horror movies these days tend to have a lot of pacing issues but I didn't find myself bored at any point during the movie. If you're looking for something entertaining that's not the standard gore-fest but still has lots of aliens, tentacles and action in it, I strongly recommend you check this out.

Screened at Dead By Dawn Festival.

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Histeria (2008)

10/10

Sharp, gory and highly entertaining!

30 December 2010

Malaysia doesn't have a very rich history in horror movies and it wasn't until in 2007 when the generic ghost movie "Jangan Pandang Belakang" was released that they started to realize that this could be a very lucrative business. This spawned a wave of atrocious horror movies in Malaysia - and then came Hysteria.

This movie is gory, the production looks very expensive and it's definitely up-to-par with western standards. Asian horror flicks in general tend to focus on local legends and myths but Hysteria is on a much more international level. No kuntilanaks, no pocongs, no hantus, just a kick-ass monster that looks like the creature from the black lagoon. The characters are built up nicely and it only took me a couple of minutes to like every single one of them. Don't get me wrong, the girls really aren't all that nice to each other - but they're real, they feel genuine.

Hysteria is proof of how quickly Malaysia is evolving in terms of movies. It definitely lives up to its title as the death scenes are brilliant, there are a few good scares, the atmosphere is perfect. What can I tell ya? It's just a whole lot of fun.

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Cold Prey III (2010)

3/10

More prey - less cold.

14 October 2010

Four years ago I gave a glowing review to the first real Norwegian horror movie ever (unless you count Villmark which was more of a thriller or the DTV crap "22" which was more like a bad nightmare). Cold Prey blew my mind. Sure, to most of you it's probably a mediocre slasher flick but to me it raised the bar for Norwegian movies.

Maybe this is why the first one was a success. The second one was okay-ish. A bit too much action and not enough horror if you ask me but still a solid entry. Now we have the third, supposedly (and hopefully) final entry in this franchise and I have to say with a heavy heart that this was a disappointment to the extreme.

What is supposed to be a prequel comes off as a sloppy dtv-remake of the first one - without the snow - or the hotel. The dialogues seem to be copied and pasted from the first movie and even the characters are similar (only this time we have a bunch of REALLY bad actors without any real characteristics). These actors were so bad that I cringed in the seat as it was so uncomfortable watching them deliver their basic dialogues. The first 5 minutes or so are prequel-ish but the movie really doesn't explain anything. It felt as if the crew wasn't allowed to shoot inside the hotel this time so instead it took place in the woods and in two small houses near the hotel (??????).

This is less Friday the 13th and more Wrong Turn - but without the actual excitement. Imagine Cold Prey meets Wrong Turn meets Manhunt (yes, this could indeed very well have been the sequel to Manhunt aka Rovdyr, that might actually have made more sense as this felt nothing like the first two Cold Prey movies).

I won't go on about it but if you want a very standard DTV slasher from the 80s that somehow was forgotten and crawled onto the big screen 25 years later - here you have it. The mediocre slasher flick that everyone will forget within a year. Too bad, this franchise had so much potential.

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Bear (I) (2010)

5/10

A missed opportunity?

27 July 2010

Warning: Spoilers

Let me begin by saying that this movie was obviously shot on a limited budget but this still could have been a cult classic. Let's start with the plot shall we: Two young couples get stranded in the middle of nowhere after having decided to take a shortcut (yes yes, very original). They quickly learn that they have just entered bear territory and soon they find themselves surrounded by hungry grizzly bears.

Simple story indeed but just like I thought "Five Across The Eyes" succeeded in many ways, I really thought this would succeed in the exact same ways since it's shot in a similar style. Now the movie kicks off quite fast and keeps going at a rapid pace. The actors are surprisingly great and the panic feels real. You know what else is real? The bears! Not CGI-crap, these are actual bears... well for most of the time anyway. Every now and then we see a VERY fake-looking snout and the occasional friendly-looking cotton-paw with - what looks like - soft claws. Indeed they seem to have been using an over-sized teddy bear in quite a few scenes but the shots are so quick that it doesn't really do any harm to the movie.

However, the thing that does harm the movie are all the obvious goofs in it. The movie takes place at night-time, yet some scenes are so OBVIOUSLY shot in the middle of the day that it doesn't even look as if they tried to cover this up. What's even worse is that we see the "fence" surrounding the area in several frames. There's even one point where we can see the boom operator clear as day (trust me, you can't miss it). What started off as a potentially awesome movie was soon dragged down by an amateurish crew and increasingly ridiculous dialogues. Still, if you're a fan of killer bears, I think it's worth checking out, it should've been a cult classic but will most likely end up in the bargain bin unless they do some serious changes and re-shoots for the American release (the DVD reviewed is the UK DVD - which by the way was bare-bones - no extras except for some trailers).

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Bratz (2007)

3/10

This didn't get sent DTV why?

5 August 2007

If you missed the ridiculously shallow ego-trip of Hilary Duff "Material Girls" last year, don't worry, here's another shallow teen movie for you that steals so much from Mean Girls that it hurts. The movie is based on the ugly dolls with the same name with perfect bodies and lots of money - only in the movie, the blond girl doesn't have any money at all. But don't worry, when she really needs it (for a dress), her friends have gift certificates.

Sure enough, no one would like to see a movie with a bunch of fat teens running around acting silly but did the movie have to star four slender girls with attitude problems? Because let's face it, these girls think that appearance is the most important thing in the world. They're seriously not much better than their enemy - Meredith. And by the way - how did the word 'brat' become a positive word? For me it's still a very negative word meaning that your parents have spoiled you.

Bratz doesn't want to give its core audience (small girls) a good message. It wants them to realize how important fashion and appearance is - and if you have an ugly outfit on - always make sure to keep a fashion emergency kit with you. Ugh.

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