Shut In

"Shut In" (2016, Farren Blackburn, Transfilm International, Lava Bear Films, Canal+, Ocs, Cine+, Europa Corp) is a psychological thriller.

Mary (Naomi Watts) is a widowed child psychologist who lives and works in her secluded home with her 18 year old stepson, Stephen (Charlie Heaton), who has been left catatonic after the road accident that killed his father. During a snowstorm that renders them trapped in their home, Mary becomes concerned that she's either losing her mind, or that her home is haunted.

A slow burning film. The plot is pretty simple with a couple of twists and turns to try and flesh it out. The setting is effective, but the characters are a little rough and not entirely realistic, with the exception of our protagonist, Mary. Although, I find it difficult to believe a psychologist would miss some of the things that Mary misses...

On the whole, the film is pretty slow to get going and the premise is a little too 'out there' to give the slow build-up much of a payoff. Naomi Watts gives an excellent performance, essentially carrying the movie along, but the film has a hollow feeling that makes it feel a little... off.

[Image: Lava Bear Films, et al]

Hani

The Tall Man

"The Tall Man" (2012, Pascal Laugier, Image Entertainment) is a thriller with a disturbing message masquerading as a horror film. It is not a horror film.

Beware, spoilers below...

A small former mining village called Cold Rock has seen a lot of child disappearances over the years. The villagers have associated these disappearances with an urban legend known as The Tall Man, a figure who is seen taking the children into the woods where they disappear without a trace. Jessica Biel plays Julia, the town's nurse. We see Julia's son, David, being kidnapped and follow her as she fights for his return...

The film starts off as a horror, but quickly boils back to a confusing mystery plot that seemed to be going in a different direction, before quickly jumping in yet another direction and passing into a plot quicksand pit that delivers a garbled message about child abduction being a good thing? Provided, apparently, that the children are taken from the poor and delivered to the rich. Besides this somewhat misguided premise, the film suffers from a jumpy, complex plot which wasn't intriguing enough to make the big twist very forceful.

For me, the only redeeming feature of this film is Biel's character showing injuries throughout the film that didn't miraculously heal themselves in that good ol' fashioned Hollywood manner.

[Image: Image Entertainment]

Hani 

As Above, So Below

"As Above, So Below" (2014, John Erick Dowdle, Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures) is an American jump scare, found footage horror based in the catacombs of Paris.

Scarlett (Perdita Weeks) is a student of alchemy, following her father's works after his death. She is obsessed with finding the Philosopher's stone, which is meant to grant eternal life, healing powers and, of course, the ability to turn base metals into gold. Oh alchemy, you weird 'science', you.

She, her ex, George (Ben Feldman) and their cameraman, Benji (Edwin Hodge), enlist the help of local urban expert, Papillon (François Civil), and his girlfriend, Souxie (Marion Lambert) to guide them into and around the Catacombs of Paris.

As they go deeper in the Catacombs, they come across some freaky sights. They also come across a small door which none of the locals will go through, stating that a friend of theirs had gone through, never to return.

Eventually, they have no choice if they wish to progress, so they go through the door and that's when they begin to question if they have accidentally opened the teensy tiny doorway to hell.

A fun little flick that manages to add a small charm to found footage that found footage hasn't had since Troll Hunter. Jumpy, kind of daft scenes and good timing make for a fun, rollercoaster experience.

While it's not for everyone, I actually found that I enjoyed this film which came as a surprise because I am not usually one for found footage.

There are a lot of horror tropes in there, granted, but I thought that they were used remarkably well and, although the film leaves you a bit disorientated and a little seasick from all that shaky cam, it's certainly not one of the worst I've seen this year.

There is, however, an awful scene that jumps into Lara Croft single player POV for a while and I just found that weird and a little dumb. Surely, if it took them a whole film to reach that point, going back would not take five minutes? Pah!

Regardless, it's not a ground breaking experience but I've seen worse.

[Image: Legendary Pictures]

 

Hani

Maniac (2012)

"Maniac" (2012, Franck Khalfoun, IFC Midnight, La Petite Reine) is a remake of the 1980s slasher of the same name.

Frank (Elijah Wood) is a mentally deranged mannequin restorer. Scarred by his upbringing with his prostitute mother, he suffers terrible desires to kill and targets young women. We see mostly through his eyes in this well shot film. Frank stalks, kills and scalps his victims, taking home their hair to staple to the heads of his chosen mannequins in order to create his own female companions. He soon turns his attentions to Anna (Nora Arnezeder), a beautiful French artist who's looking to use some mannequins for her exhibition, becoming obsessed with her.

A brutal and graphic film with excellent special effects and gore, and a fair amount of tension. As we see mostly all scenes from Frank's perspective, we are privy to his battle with his inner turmoil and his hallucinations. The film is uncomfortable and disturbed, but because we see it from the murderer's perspective, we don't get many surprises.

Wood delivers a horrifyingly real character who we understand, but for whom we feel no pity.

A modern slasher which keeps it simple and brutal with an excellent soundtrack, "Maniac" is one you can't look away from.

[Image: La Petite Reine]

Hani

The Wax Mask

"The Wax Mask" (1997, Sergio Stivaletti, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, Cine 2000, Mediaset, France Film International, Italian International Film) is a wax museum film.

Fulci died making this film and so I'm not 100% sure how true the end result is to his script, but it is indeed a lot of fun to watch.

With a kind of incidental Steampunk style (incidental because, as far as I'm aware, there was no such genre as 'Steampunk' in 1997), The Wax Mask tells a tale set in 1900s Paris. We see a couple brutally (and hilariously) butchered by a man with a clawed metal hand. We also see a young girl, their daughter, cowering under the bed.

Years pass and said young girl is now a costume maker working at a wax museum. The museum has gained some disrepute due to its gory collection of sculptures and, after the death of a young man who was dared to stay the night, the museum becomes more and more creepy.

It's fun, gothic and a little gory. The effects are nice and the props are awesome. The story is a little average as far as wax museum films go, but there's a nice added Frankenstein element which is fun. 

I'm not a huge fan of the ending, however, which seemed a little diverted from the rest of the film's styling, and I think I prefer the Italian version with the subtitles to the dubbed English, which can make the acting seem a little odd.

All in all, worth your while, but not a great representation of Argento, Fulci or Stivaletti.

[Image: Cine 2000]

 

Hani

Silent Hill Revelation

"Silent Hill Revelation" (2012, Michael J. Bassett, Open Road Films, Lionsgate, Universal Pictures) is the sequel to "Silent Hill" (2006) also based on the famous horror game franchise from Konami. This time taking plot from the third game. It was also made for 3D, so be prepared for some obvious jump attempts aimed 'through' the camera...

Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) discovers that she is actually Sharon, the little girl from the first film, on her 18th birthday. She also discovers that she and her dad (Sean Bean) are not actually on the run from the police, but from agents from Silent Hill. 

Her discovery, turning of age and just general unluckiness cause her to be dragged back into the nightmare realm where Silent Hill is located, where she must face off against not only the many monstrous creatures of the darkness, and the backwards townsfolk lead by Claudia Wolf (Carrie-Anne Moss, yes Trinity from The Matrix), but also her darker half (and kind of real mother), Alessa (Erin Pitt).

A visually entertaining film we are introduced to some new as well as reintroduced to old favourite monsters. The props, SFX and sets are good, despite a slightly more meagre budget than the original film. I particularly enjoyed the creepy spider mannequin thing.

Clemens delivers a strong but somewhat dull female lead, not helped by a monumentally weak plot. Basically, Silent Hill stood strong enough on its own, there was no need for a sequel! 

The action is good but not scary and no sense of tension is recaptured from the first film. The scene with my favourite monsters, creepy-blind-ballet-nurses-of-death,  was a bit of a disappointment after the first film where they creeped me out well and good.

All in all, it wasn't a great film and played out more like an afterthought or like a dull fanfic.

[Image: Open Road Films]

 

Hani

 

The Others

"The Others" (2001, Alejandro Amenábar, StudioCanal, Warner Bros., Las Producciones del Escorpion, Cruise/Wagner Productions) is a haunted house movie and a psychological thriller.

Grace (Nicole Kidman), a devout Christian, is raising her young children Anne (Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley) alone in her large country manor home in Jersey while her husband, Charles (Christopher Eccleston), is away fighting in World War One. Both children suffer from an uncommon disease and are photosensitive so the curtains are always closed.

Just as she needs them, three new servants turn up at the house hoping for work: a maid and nanny, Mrs Mills (Fionnula Flanagan), a gardener called Mr. Tuttle (Eric Sykes) and a young mute girl called Lydia (Elaine Cassidy).

The children are determined that the house is haunted by several spirits, especially that of a young boy called Victor, but Grace pooh-poohs this. That is until she begins to suspect something is wrong herself.

A quiet and slow-burning film that has the feeling of an older horror-thriller. Well paced and intriguing enough not to become boring, but it doesn't make use of many jump scares and uses very few effects.

The child actors are terrific and really give an excellent performance. However, perhaps having seen too many twist endings in my time, and regardless of clever suspense building techniques, I guessed what was coming a lot earlier than I would have preferred.

Regardless, it's a good story and has a darker element to it than you might expect.

[Image: StudioCanal & Warner Bros.]

Hani

Rubber

"Rubber" (2010, Quentin Dupieux, UFO Distribution) is a French film. In essence and appearance, the film is about Robert, a car tyre who becomes sentient and begins rolling along destroying things and people in its wake with its psychokinetic powers.

In reality, the film is a clever, but none too subtle, comment on modern film making, modern audiences and the industry as a whole.

Put it this way, everyone who's ever watched this movie, has went in to see a living, lunatic car tyre kill people. And Dupieux has successfully made every single person instead watch his comments on life and film. If that doesn't make you respect the man, nothing will!

It is based in the American desert where a group of strangers are gathered to watch the events of the film in real time. We are meant to just accept that they can see everything as clearly as we, through their binoculars. And you will accept that fact, and that's the point.

A long and dead-pan introduction from Lieutenant Chad (Stephen Spinella) pretty much summarises this film's point. He explains that every film has something happen in it for "no reason" and that life contains infinite elements of "no reason". And for that reason, audiences will accept absurd things happening for "no reason". His very arrival to the scene already proves this fact (watch it, it's weird) as does the binoculars as stated above.

I won't give too much away, but don't be put off by this film's interesting story telling technique. It's very quiet and slow paced, but is not a long movie, so the pace only feels slow. The film is intriguing and there's some good gore.

Also, Robert the tyre finds a love interest in the form of Sheila (Roxane Mesquida), an odd young French woman travelling across America in her snazzy red convertible. Although, being a psychopath, Robert instead decides to stalk her while he kills everyone else.

What I think Dupieux is saying in this film is that modern movies, and especially B-movies, try too hard to be 'out there'. The very end scene of this as we roll towards Hollywood not only sets up a possible sequel (something almost every film does these days) but also gives us the impression that Robert is taking his anger to the home of film.

The entire movie was filmed with digital camera, and all of the special effects were the good old fashioned kind; remote control, puppeteering, fake blood, explosions, clever filming techniques and editing.

I enjoyed the randomness of this film and the sheer WTF moments. This film will intrigue and confuse you and on some basic level you will 'get it'. I think what I like about "Rubber", other than all the exploding heads and random events, is that you can really take out of this film whatever you want! If you want to go away thinking it was a deep message about society accepting whatever's put in front of them, you can. If you want to go away thinking it's about a psychopathic tyre, you can! And if you want to go away thinking it was a meaningful message about men in wheelchairs having some kind of second stomach, then you can indeed do that!

A strange and entertaining film. The actors gave a convincing performance as either confused or confusing characters. The bland and sparse setting also really added to the feel of the film.

I loved the reference to 'pirating films' and also the brilliant scene with the maid finding the tyre in the shower; an excellent homage to every bathroom-centred horror ever.

Also, when Robert is learning how to roll, the bottle of water he crushes is a brand I actually recognise (I feel special because you don't often get things like that happen in movies filmed in America, when you're British).

Not an obvious comedy, this film could be seen as an arty kind of movie. But the sheer volume in which my friend and I errupted into laughter at the clever and random scenes, is a comment on how masterful this seemingly simple, very absurd and extremely deadpan film really is. So many different levels to watch, this film doesn't just knock on the fourth wall, it batters it down and jumps into your livingroom!

A film within a film within a film. Something any Grindhouse fan would enjoy, too. Totally worth £1.50 on Amazon!

[Picture: UFO Distribution]

Hani

Switchblade Romance

"Switchblade Romance" aka "Haute Tension" in French or "High Tension" in the U.S. (2003, Alexandre Aja, Alexandre Films & EuropaCorp) is a French psychological/slasher movie.

I first came to know this movie through an ex-boyfriend and now friend. I have to credit this guy with introducing me to a lot of damn good movies. My current boyfriend also has him to blame for me torturing him with horror movies most weeks!

"Switchblade Romance" is one of those mind-boggling movies. You won't realise how little you understood the plot until the end. It's a good twist, even if it is pretty unbelievable.

The movie begins with two young women, Alex (Maïwenn) and Marie (Cécile De France), driving in the French countryside on the way to visit Alex's parents. It is apparent from the onset that Marie is a lesbian, clearly interested in Alex. You realise quickly that Alex enjoys the attention and is happy to lead the girl on, but really isn't too into dating girls.

I first thought this movie was going to be a "Friday the 13th" in a French "Children of the Corn" setting. I was wrong, although that does sound like a good premise for a movie!

The girls are welcomed into the house and the family settle for the night. Then the big, disgusting, creepy murderer arrives and all hell breaks loose.

There's some unrealistic beheading (unless bookcases are made of wood-style metal and necks are made of butter...) but on the whole this movie's pretty brutal and bloody. The whole overhanging feeling that rape is inevitable really keeps the tension up, too (see what I did there?).

The twist, as I mentioned, is good. But it can't really work, unless we're not experiencing events chronologically and there are a few imagined vehicles. The murderer has a nice Michael-Myers-esque ability to never truly die though.

The end is nicely creepy, too, and links us back to the very beginning.

I always feel that the sound on this film is odd. I can't put my finger on it, but something's definitely going on. If it's intentional I like it. It makes everything seem a bit unreal.

All in all, this is a 'lovely' gore-soaked ride. If you can bear the subtitles, I recommend giving a watch.

 (Picture: Alexandre Films)

Mutants

'Mutants' (2009, D. Morlet,/Louis-Paul Desanges) is a French horror.

This is pretty much a zombie movie by any other name. It starts off well with a gruesome, albeit pretty unrealistic, road accident, and dives straight into setting the scene. We're in France. There's a virus which is spreading quickly through the area. The virus turns you into an angry flesh eating 'mutant'. There. Scene set.

We follow the journey of Marco (Francis Renaud) and his paramedic girlfriend, Sonia (Hélène de Fougerolles) in their dilapidated ambulance, as they flee the mutants in an attempt to find safety. Sonia also reveals that she survived a Mutant attack and appears to be immune. She hopes that someone at a military base called 'Noah' will be able to use her blood to develop a cure for the virus.

They find refuge in an abandoned building when they run out of fuel and Marco becomes ill after being bitten. His rapid and gruesome decline into zombie-dom is enjoyably reminiscent of the film 'District 9'. There's also some good tension attempted with a botched blood transfusion, although I admittedly spent more time waiting on Zombie-Marco falling on  his face with his foot in a basin of blood...

He soon becomes too dangerous to handle and Sonia tearfully locks him up. She also reveals 'typical-horror-movie-shocking-revelation' which is not so shocking. Believe me, you will see it coming.

Their refuge is suddenly taken over by another group of survivors, lead by typical zombie movie jackass, Franck (Nicolas Briancon).

Franck wants everything; the ambulance, the fuel, the radios. Sonia fights him and his gang; there's a lot of squabbling and then suddenly there's a Mutant ambush (It's not a horde.... horde's are bigger. This was definitely an ambush. I'm presuming the number of mutants was limited by budget...).

Some good gore, but I'd say not enough. I did enjoy the Franck character though, even if he was a bit 2D - what a dick! Unfortunately, his death scene is too short and neat for my liking. He deserved a more painful ending.

All in all an enjoyable watch. If you don't like subtitled movies, I'd avoid. Although, in zombie horror is the script really so important?

(Picture: IFC)

Hani