The Shape of Water

"The Shape of Water" (2017, Guillermo del Toro, Double Dare You Productions, Fox Searchlight Pictures) is a dark fantasy about love.... and vivisection.

Elisa (Sally Hawkins) has been mute since infancy and speaks in sign language. She works as a cleaner at a large research facility with her friend, Zelda (Octavia Spencer), -who chats enough for both of them- and spends her free time with her friend and neighbour, an artist called Giles (Richard Jenkins).

During her time cleaning up the suspiciously bloody messes at the facility, Elisa comes to know one of the research specimens; a humanoid aquatic creature (Doug Jones) with whom she shares a bond of boiled eggs, sign language lessons and music. Unfortunately, the scientists and military personnel at the facility, particularly the fairly unstable Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon), do not have nice plans for the amphibious man and Elisa becomes determined to save her unusual friend.

An unusual love story between a creature worthy of the Black Lagoon and an imaginative and adorable, but lonely woman. The film begins fairly slow-burning and took its time to introduce the set up and characters, but enjoys some more outlandish scenes within the imagination of Elisa. The film explores the nature of the loneliness of being different and touches on some prevalent topics from '60s America, including race and sexuality and the lingering distrust from various global tensions (most notably, of course, the Cold War). Hey, guess not much has changed, really.

The effects are, as ever with the works of del Toro and with the characters of Doug Jones, exceptional and both very realistic and fantastic in their strangeness.

A film that manages to be peculiar, haunting and, at times, humorous, as well as delivering a thoughtful and entertaining piece of cinema. And a nice, cerebral (and oh, so weird) link to the Hellboy universe. It deserves all the awards it can hoover up, in my view.

[Image: Double Dare You Productions, et al]

Hani

Julia's Eyes

"Julia's Eyes" aka "Los ojos de Julia" (2010, Guillem Morales, Rodar y Rodar Cine y Televisión, Double Dare You, Universal Pictures) is a Spanish thriller about blindness. 

Julia (Belén Rueda) is a twin, whose sister, Sara, has committed suicide shortly after becoming blind. Sara's blindness was caused by a hereditary condition from which Julia is also suffering, and she and her husband, Isaac (Lluís Homar), are already preparing for her own inevitable fate. 

Julia becomes convinced that Sara's death was not a straightforward suicide, and she begins to investigate herself, as her own sight begins to slowly diminish. Alas, time is running out and she is assigned a care worker, Iván (Pablo Delqui). Can she avoid the fate of her sister?

A fun thriller with some good effects and some chilling scenes dotted throughout what is otherwise a slow-burning mystery, more than a horror. Julia’s slow, but steady march towards blindness is effectively portrayed through lighting and skilfully keeping other characters just out of sight.

An effective thriller that packs possibly too many twists, but delivers with a fun, but straight-faced style that makes our heroine’s sense of loss and hopelessness palpable. 

Hani 

Crimson Peak

"Crimson Peak" (2015, Guillermo del Toro, Legendary Pictures, DDY, Universal Pictures) is a gothic romance film set in the late 1800s.


Edith Cushing knows that ghosts exist She knows this because when her mother died when she was a child she came back to cryptically warn Edith to "beware of Crimson Peak".


Years later, Edith (Mia Wasikowska) is a young, aspiring author struggling to have anyone take her seriously because she is a woman and writes ghost stories instead of love stories.She meets a dashing young inventor called Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston) and falls in love with him, but her father, Carter (Jim Beaver), intervenes, suspecting that Sharpe has dark, ulterior motives.


When tragedy strikes Edith's life again, she and Sir Thomas marry and she moves to England to live in his rundown stately home with he and his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain). Edith slowly begins to notice that things are not as they appear and sees several disturbing spectres. She begins to dig into the Sharpe family history, and doesn't like what she finds...


Meanwhile, Edith's childhood friend and family physician, Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam) seeks Edith out...


This film is beautiful. Its colours, setting, costumes and styling are done with class and elegance. The ghosts are all menacing and eerily beautiful as well. And the fight scenes are violent and satisfying.
The plot had a lot going on and I wasn't overly engaged in it, but on the whole the beauty of the production made up for it. This film is not scary by any means and comes across as form over function.

Visually pleasing but not ground-breaking.

[Image: Legendary Pictures]

I LOVE this poster. It feels like an old Fulci poster. Stunning!

Hani

Mama

"Mama" (2013, Andrés Muschietti, Guillermo del Toro, Toma 78, De Milo Productions) is a supernatural horror based on a 2008 short called "Mamá".

Jeffery D'Asange has lost everything financially in the banking crisis and, in a fit of despair, he kills his business partners and his wife and runs off with his two young daughters to a cabin out in the woods where he plans to kill them and himself too. Unbeknownst to him, the cabin is already occupied by something otherworldly, and this otherworldly thing (which calls itself Mama) is all about the crazy maternal instinct, so you can bet your boots that old Jeff doesn't get to off his kids.

The kids are still missing five years on and Jeff's twin brother, Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), has been looking for them with the help of a search party. They're eventually found still residing in the cabin, but are now completely feral.

After a battle over rights with his sister in law's mother, Lucas and his rock chick girlfriend, Annabel (Jessica Chastain), bring little Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly (Isabelle Nélisse) to live with them. The only thing is, Mama also tagged along with the girls and she doesn't like to share....

I'm going to jump in first and say that I enjoyed this film, but I wasn't scared by it. It's nicely shot. Annabel and Lucas were relatable and were rounded enough characters. Although, speaking as a rock chick myself, I was a bit disappointed that Annabel was painted as non-maternal quite so much at the start with her 'rock 'n' roll lifestyle' being blamed primarily for this. Thanks for playing to the stereotype, guys, but I don't see anything wrong with enjoying Slipknot and being a mother!

Some of the scenes with Mama are great. She is hidden most of the time and I enjoyed her sneaking about in the background. There are scenes where she quickly crawls about and it is very effective. However, the end scenes showed too much of her and she comes to the same fate as the monster in Jeepers Creepers; less scary. Although there is a hella dark end to this film.

The kids nailed it. They were great. Victoria made a realistic and sympathetic character and Lilly was very convincing and freaky as the feral child. Child centred horror is almost always effective, but the scenes with the kids playing with Mama are haunting in their creepy, creepy innocence.

So yes, it didn't make me wet my pants and it didn't make me check under the bed for creepy, skinny monster mothers, but it was an engaging hour and forty-odd minutes, and I would happily watch it again in the future.

[Image: De Milo Productions, et al]

Hani