Hollow Man

"Hollow Man" (2000, Paul Verhoeven, Columbia Pictures) is a modern day retelling of H.G. Wells' famous story, The Invisible Man (a fantastic book!).

Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is a ego-maniacal scientist, who along with his team (including his ex-girlfriend and her new lover), is working on an injection that can render a living creature invisible.

Finding success with animals, albeit with a nasty side effect of insanity, Caine decides the next logical step is to try it out on a human. Getting the support from his team, he steps up as human guinea pig and becomes invisible.

For a while he enjoys his new found freedom, but when the attempts to bring him back to the visible realm fail, he begins to lose it and things turn nasty.

Soon, he decides he likes being invisible better anyway, as he can do whatever he wants... to whomever he wants....

The effects are still pretty top notch to this day, which is impressive for CGI-centred work. But I'm still a bigger fan of physical effects.

The acting is good, the effects are good and there's certainly a lot of blood, but on the whole it's a pretty unremarkable 2000's misadventure, and besides updating the scenery, doesn't really do anything that the original tale and subsequent films haven't done already.

[Image: Columbia Pictures]

Hani

Friday the 13th (1980)

"Friday the 13th" (1980, Sean S. Cunningham, Georgetown Productions inc., Sean S. Cunningham Films, Warner Bros. & Paramount Pictures) is a slasher film I usually keep for watching on an actual Friday the 13th, but you know, I was just in the mood to watch some teen camp leaders get butchered... Wow, that makes me sound like a bit of a psycho, doesn't it?

I first watched this film as a 12 year old, alone, having snuck back out of bed once my parents had begun snoring.... At least, that better have been snoring! This was film 3 of a marathon which included "Halloween", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Night of the Living Dead". My mum definitely knew I was awake, and I suspect left me to it so I'd learn my own lesson when I was too scared to go back upstairs to the bedroom in the dark myself...

Camp Crystal Lake had been closed for some time, ever since some kids were killed on the premises. But after a few years have gone by the owners decide it's time to bury the past and reopen the camp for the summer. They hire a bunch of teens to clean the camp up and get it ready to receive the young guests. The teens will also act as the camp counsellors once the children arrive. I have a good friend who's flown over to America a few times to work in camps like this. She'd never watch this film with me.... I wonder why?

Everything seems to be going to plan; cleaning, cooking, pre-brutal-death horror movie sex scenes... But it isn't long before people start to go missing...

A lively 80s B-movie slasher with a fair amount of gore that doesn't feel the need to get too OTT, there are some scenes which are very tense and a good, cheesey enveloping back-story to boot. Although, like everyone, I enjoy this film for the 'body reveal aspect' and chase, which is particularly good and very reminiscent of 'Halloween', a film which creator Cunningham was inspired by according to the internet.

In a franchise known to quickly 'jump the shark' with many increasingly outrageous (and frequently hilarious) sequels, the first film is a classic for 80s slashers, with an ending that gave me the serious creeps as a kid and can still catch me to this day!

It doesn't need to be Friday the 13th to enjoy!

[Image: Georgetown Productions inc., Sean S. Cunningham Films, Warner Bros. & Paramount Pictures]

Hani