It Follows

"It Follows" (2015, David Robert Mitchell, Animal Kingdom, Northern Lights Films, Two Flints) is a smart horror that teaches us a lesson about having sex with people we barely know...

We open with a pretty brutal scene and it is just perfect and really grabs viewer attention.

The hue of the film and the way that scenes are lit is very 70s and early 80s horror retro, the styling and camera work are captivating and the score is an awesome concoction of Halloween-style nostalgia mixed with suspense. Stylistically this film is really attention grabbing and I enjoyed watching it, not due to plot, but for the experience. It was like finding an old film reel in your attic and watching it alone.

The plot is pretty simple. Jay (Maika Monroe) is a college student in Michigan. She enjoys paddling in her outdoor pool and hanging out with her sister and her friends. She's seeing a new guy called Hugh and she doesn't know much, if anything, about him. Jay, of course, doesn't care about that and the two wind up going at it like bunnies in his car on a very strange date.

As it happens, 'Hugh', has actually just given Jay a spooky sexually transmitted disease and now the creepy thing that always follows him is now following her. It's slow moving, can look like anyone and it just wants to kill her. And, in an almost Ring like fashion, the only way to get rid of it is to pass it on to someone else... via sexy, naked fun.

The film is well made and spooky as hell. While there is some quality gore now and again, the main fear comes from the haunting itself, and the feeling of dread is perfectly captured and built upon through the 'demon' as it unhaltingly stalks its prey. It's also a nod to the old horror trope: have sex, get dead.

My only flaw with this film is that the last act takes a while to come to a head. I suppose that this is done purposefully, but I did feel like a lot of running in circles was going on.

But, I have to take my hat off for this film, it is truly a work of horror art and has certainly made its mark in the genre!

[Image: Animal Kingdom, et al]

Hani

Julia

"Julia" (2014, Matthew A. Brown, Farraj Factory, Kinetic Arts, Tycor International Film Company) is an artsy rape revenge film.

Julia (Ashley C. Williams) is a quiet, mousey nurse who is drugged and gang raped by some monstrous men. Sure, there's a guy who wasn't too into it, but he's still detestable for being there, and he's eventually coerced into taking part, so.... Yeah...

They leave her for dead but she manages to get home and survive. Seeking a way to cope with the horrific ordeal, Julia comes across an unusual therapist who tells her to follow his teachings to the letter and she will have her revenge. She also becomes entwined with one of the therapist's many tough female vigilantes (ex-patients, I assume), a lesbian woman called Sadie (Tahyna Tozzi). Unfortunately, Julia takes matters into her own hands, exacting terrible revenge on her tormentors without the help of her therapist, resultantly pissing him off.

This film is very stylised. It's like an alternate reality where all men are mysogynistic rapists and all women are emotionless and stabby. The plot takes a while to get going and we are shown the full story in flashbacks, which left me confused for a while until more was revealed. The colours are very strange and muted and the lighting is very red and green. Stylised is fine, but when it's aesthetics over entertainment I begin to lose interest.

I get that Julia is meant to be caught in an emotional vortex after what was done to her, but the complete lack of emotion in, not just her but all the characters, made it somewhat difficult for me to empathise with anyone and thus care too much about them.

I'm not sure what message this movie was trying to purvey. At first I thought it was going to be about female empowerment, but even when Julia becomes a badass in leather pants, cutting dicks off and gouging eyeballs here, there and everywhere, she's still not a very empowered character. So, I'm stumped as to whether there is a message to be honest.

I'm also not clear on the therapist's rules. He seems to be essentially telling her to honeypot entrap men in random bars and then kill them for finding her attractive, rather than actually to get back at the idiots who hurt her? What is his agenda? I just don't get it.

Essentially, it's a visually pretty film and has some commendable gore. The rape scenes are very, very difficult to watch (but then, what rape scene isn't?) and some of the revenge is pretty squirmy too. However, the characters are unlikable, blank and uninteresting and the long artsy pauses where we watch Julia stand on an escalator and such may be striking, but essentially lose their shine after a second and I found myself thinking about making a cup of tea whilst she finished ascending this apparently endless staircase...

I just don't get what all the fuss is about, really.

[Image: Tycor International Film company, et al]

 

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

The Village

"The Village" (2004, M. Night Shyamalan, Blinding Edge Pictures, Touchstone Pictures) is about the inhabitants of a small, secluded village in Pennsylvania who believe that, after many years of peace, the creatures in the surrounding forest are beginning to venture into their homes to feed...


I'll admit my main interests in this movie are the awesome Sigourney Weaver (who I have much respect for as an actress) and also Fran Kranz (who I have a crush on!).


A quiet film with a lot of ye olde conversation and I'll admit to becoming a little bored at points. The so-called scary scenes are not much in comparison to some of my old favourites and it's hardly a gore fest.


But I liked it for the intrigue and if you can let yourself fall into the shoes of our blind protagonist, Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard), some of scenes really have an excellent creep factor to them!

There's also some nice, down-to-earth family and friends moments that manage not to be too soppy.

In true M. Night Shyamalan fashion there are of course twists and turns in the plot. Nothing quite as shocking as "The Sixth Sense", but really good fun nonetheless.

My main issue with the film is that it's just not scary and they show way too much for the suspense to be properly built. But I'd watch it again, so that's something!

[Image: Blinding Edge Pictures]

 

Hani

The Silent House (2010)

"The Silent House" or "La Casa Muda" (2010, Gustavo Hernández, Tokio Films Ltd) is an Uruguayan film (in Spanish) which was inspired by 'real events'. Whether the events were truly real or not, I can't say. But somehow, I doubt it.

Laura (Florencia Colucci) and her father, Wilson (Gustavo Alonso) plan to spend the night in an empty farmhouse owned by a man called Nestor (Abel Tripaldi). They have been asked to clean and fix up the place as Nestor intends to sell it. Nestor warns Laura and Wilson not to go upstairs as it is unsafe. He then leaves, and the two settle for a snooze before they get up early to begin on the house.

Laura wakes her father upon hearing a noise from upstairs and he goes to investigate. He doesn't make it back....

The film is meant to be shot in one long scene, although truthfully it only appears this way and is actually just extremely well edited. Naturally, the creators like to sell the fact that it is 'one long take'. Whether it is or not is really not important, it feels like it is, which is truly the point, no?

Florencia Colucci gives an excellent performance throughout the film as she makes her way through the house in sheer terror. Her gruesome discovery is effectively played out in manic girlish panic, and as she starts to slowly edge over from fear to lunacy, she begins to see things...

The film makes effective and torturous use of mirrors, constantly filming into them, giving the viewer the idea that something may appear there, behind her. (Seriously, it was almost worse than "Don't Be Afraid of The Dark" and all the knife-y-McStabby-ear/eye scenes!)When the spooky background stuff starts for real, it actually loses some effect, though, as you're more relieved to finally be seeing what you've been waiting for all along.

The film is quiet, slow and tense. People who can't let themselves be dragged into what's happening on screen may find this style of film boring, and people who don't like subtitles might not be able to get past the start of the film. But the main body of the film has very little dialogue, and is quite engaging without need for language.

Very tense and atmospheric, the film keeps you guessing as to whether it's a straightforward slasher or a straightforward haunted house story. Laura is convincingly scared and confused, and the scenes are spooky. The gore is minimal and not the main point of the film.

Unfortunately, it's not a straightforward anything. My main problem with the film? Lack of real plot. A nonsensical twist, and a sloppy, rushed ending with the unhelpful 'written explanation' slide at the end. For a film that had played so much on the simple, atmospheric spookiness and some very effective camera work and lighting, it felt unnatural for it to about-face so quickly and go into 'unneeded complicated plot' mode....

However, as a low-budget indie film, it has a feeling of accomplishment to it and keeps you watching the background in anticipation.There are some truly freak jumpy bits, too.

Not a film I'd sing hundreds of praises over, but I think the above fairly positive drabble does it justice.

 [Picture: Tokio Films Ltd.]

Hani