Inhuman Kiss

"Inhuman Kiss" aka "Sang Krasue" (Sitisiri Mongkolsiri, 2019, Nakid, CJ Major Entertainment, M Pictures, Transformation Films) is a Thai horror romance centred around the Southeast Asian myth of the female Krasue spirit (aka Kasu or Ahp); the flesh eating floating head of a beautiful woman trailing entrails and tentacles, and the male Krahang; a ferocious male spirit.

We meet four children, Sai, Noi, Jerd and Ting, who are playing in the forest near an abandoned house. Jerd tells the group that the house is haunted by the spirit of a woman and then the children play hide and seek in the house. 

Years later Ting (Darina Boonchu) is married with a baby, Sai (Phantira Pipityakorn) is training to be a nurse, Jerd (Sapol Assawamunkong) is working with Sai as well as falling in love with her and Noi (Oabnithi Wiwattanawarang) has moved away from the village to live in Bangkok, much to the despair of Sai, who is in love with him. Everyone seems to be getting on with their lives when suddenly Noi returns to the village with a band of hunters on the trail of a Krasue spirit who is killing and eating the livestock. But Sai discovers to her horror that the Krasue is actually a curse and she is the one they are hunting...

Having just appeared on Netflix, and seeing a clip of the insane Krasue transformation online, I knew this would be my kind of film. But I was pleasantly surprised to find it was much more than I had expected. The film delivers a full and interesting plot as well as the gore and effects and manages to strike a balance between the cheesiness of the action and the rather straight-faced character development of our main three characters; Sai, Jerd and Noi. With a run time of just over 2 hours, I had expected to feel things were dragging a little, but the film's action is quite evenly spaced and the run time wasn't really a factor.  The effects are excellently achieved, and I felt the fact it wasn't trying to be funny really worked in its favour. Definitely worth checking out.

[Image: Nakid, et al]

Hani

The Ritual

"The Ritual" (2017, David Bruckner, Entertainment One, Imaginarium Productions) is the film adaptation of the novel by Adam Nevill.

A group of friends go on a hiking trip in the Swedish Wilderness to honour the tragic death of their friend. However, the trip goes from melancholy to menacing when they become lost and begin to realise that they are being chased by a dark and powerful presence in the forest.

"The Ritual" is good for a number of reasons and I'm going to try and get these down with as few spoilers as possible. But, as ever, if you'd rather not know any details before watching I recommend you click away now because there's lots of things I want to say about this film.

Firstly, the film (and I also assume the book, but I'm yet to read it, having only learned of its existence through researching this film) explores a lot of deep stuff. Our main protagonist is Luke (Rafe Spall) who witnessed the murder of his friend, Robert (Paul Reid), first hand and was spared a similar fate only by hiding. Throughout the film we see that Luke is haunted even before the forest with his deep guilt over not doing more to save Robert. He's a broken man who hasn't yet started to deal with what's happened. We also get to learn, as the group's friendships unravel in the stress of survival, that he's not alone in blaming himself for Robert's demise. The main journey of the film becomes not just survival of the forest, but of being a survivor ultimately and pushing past guilt to move forward in life. It's a strong message and "The Ritual" handles it well and with care. Luke is no hero. He's not even a particularly charming or likeable character. He's just a guy trying to live with what's happening. And I found that to be very effective and kind of refreshing.

Our other college buddies consist of; charismatic leader, Hutch (Robert James-Collier); quiet but funny Phil (Arsher Ali) and; the guy who doesn't really want to be there at all, Dom (Sam Troughton). The group dynamic is good and the team come across as genuine old college pals all moving on in their lives. We get a hint of everyone's fears in the movie and the characters are rounded enough to care about. Although personally I feel Phil was a bit short changed in the end.

Now to tackle what I really liked about the film; The scares. It's not a huge dialogue driven piece and the strong visuals make this a good thing. There's been a lot of 'thoughtful' 'quiet' horror recently that's more boring than artfully chilling, but "The Ritual" delivers its scares with style. The setting (actually Romania) goes from beautiful and picturesque to menacing and dark very nicely. We have some horror tropes in the form of spooky signs and abandoned cabins that don't feel overdone and are plot-relevant. We even have a skilful build up of our main antagonist from glimpses through the trees to a full on reveal that is both still scary and wonderfully designed. There are jumps and gore, freaky dream sequences, perilous situations and mythology.

The plot moves along at a good pace and the story actually develops as we go without just repeating the same style of scares over and over again. There are, of course, weaker points but they're all pretty arbitrary. Really, in my view, this film deserves lots of praise.

[Image: Entertainment One, Netflix, et al]

Hani

Nymph

"Nymph" aka "Killer Mermaid" aka "Mamula" aka "Dark Sea" (2014, Viktorija Film, Talking Wolf Productions) is a film from Serbia about, you guessed it - a killer mermaid!

Many thanks to fellow Blogger, Christopher Zisi who drew my attention to this film with his glorious review (which can be found here: http://zisiemporium.blogspot.cz/2014/12/killer-mermaid-montenegro-nights.html) <- Check it out!

Not a film to disappoint, our first scenes are of a very beautiful couple having a road trip; smooching here, there and everywhere and then getting a bit frisky by the sea. Beautiful people, toplessness and bikinis are consistent themes in this film.

Then we meet our villains: a *sometimes beautiful* man-eating mermaid and her accomplice... with his fishhook.

The actual plot follows two women, Kelly (Kristina Klebe) and Lucy (Natalie Burn) who are old college mates on holiday in Montenegro to meet up with old flame and college mate, Alex (Slobodan Stefanovic) and his (much to their disappointment) fiance, Yasmin (Sofija Rajovic).

While out and about they also happen upon Yasmin's hot pal, Boban (Dragan Micanovic), who convinces the crowd to check out an old abandoned prison, located on its own island just out of distance of the mainland. Despite being warned to steer clear of the place by a local the crew head on out there anyway, intent on taking photos and having a good time.

Much to their horror, they find that they are not the only ones visiting the island that day and are dismayed and intrigued to find a man emptying buckets filled with human remains into a well that appears to house a beautiful young girl. The gang decide to save her.... Big mistake.

A very beautiful film, the scenery is glorious and the actors are all very pretty as well as being actually able to act - which is unusual in a straight to DVD film.

The special effects are surprisingly impressive. Despite being clearly CGI, the mermaid's tail is very sleekly done and the movement of her in the water is enough to rival some much bigger budget films.

While the plot is pretty standard B-movie fayre, the story keeps going and has a few gory bits to keep you intrigued. I also enjoyed the mermaid's 'true face' and her siren-abilities to sing and draw only the menfolk to their grisly deaths.

A good ol' bitch fight at the end also acts as a good pay off.

Giving you exactly what it says on the box "Nymph" is just what I wanted out of a killer mermaid flick!

[Image: Viktorija Film]

 

Hani