Pontypool

"Pontypool" (2009, Bruce McDonald, Maple Pictures) is a psychological thriller but it has a few splashes of gore too. It's also quite low budget, but I wouldn't have guessed!

It's Valentine's Day and ex- 'shock jock' radio DJ turned local radio host, Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), is on his way to the station in the small town of Pontypool, Canada for his shift during the wee hours when he has an encounter with a strange murmuring woman. But that's not the strangest to happen to him that morning, when reports begin to roll in of strange and violent happenings in the town...

A clever film which feels bigger than it is thanks to clever camera work, good sound, nice effects, wit and humour and excellent acting.

Our charismatically grumpy protagonist keeps the plot going forward and I enjoyed his relationship with the station manageress Sydney (Lisa Houle) and technical assistant Laurel-Ann (Georgina Reilly).

The film is surprisingly engaging considering that there is very little to see (they barely leave the station) and a good sense of dread and claustrophobia builds up as the audience learns of the circumstances along with the characters.




Whilst it's not the most realistic thing to ever have a film made about it, it's certainly worthy of a few chills and manages to keep itself clear of the 'just another zombie movie' tag a film like this could so easily have been placed under.

An unsettling film which had me enthralled from the beginning, I found it innovative and intelligently pieced together. I'm not sure about the bit after the credits though...

[Image: Maple Pictures]

Hani

Child's Play 3

"Child's Play 3" (1991, Jack Bender, Universal Pictures) is the third movie starring Chucky the killer doll (again voiced by the talented Brad Dourif).

Set several years after the second film's events (yet only released a year later), teenager Andy (Justin Whalin) has now started military school (it seems to be the thing for young, troubled, disowned or orphaned movie teens - see "The Omen 2"). Although his past has not forgotten him he finds, when Chucky turns up in yet another brand new Good Guys body, thanks again to that pesky manufacturer for continuing to reboot the same disastrous doll over and over again!

However, after engaging his brain this time, it dawns on Chucky that he doesn't have to target only Andy and despite the fact that he's a fully grown man in a doll's body, he seems to have a creepy penchant for child victims, and so instead targets a little kid called Ronald Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers).

A pretty dull film up until the climatic ending, this sequel is really an exercise in bullying in military academies.

A funfair, however, adds a little bit of excitement and a good setting for Chucky's battle against Andy on familiar grounds.

The props & animation are, as usual, excellent.  And the acting is all pretty good, but a dull script and schlocky one-liners (even for a Chucky movie) mar the film.

In my opinion, the weaker of the sequels, and yes that does include "Seed of Chucky"...

[Image: Universal Pictures]

 

Hani

Child's Play 2

"Child's Play 2" (1990, John Lafia, Universal Studios) is the sequel to 1988's murderous doll movie, "Child's Play".

After living through the first film, Andy (Alex Vincent) has been placed into foster care and his mother into mental care. He's been put into the care of foster parents, Phil (Gerrit Graham) and Joanne (Jenny Agutter, known to most horror fans as the nurse and love interest from "American Werewolf in London") Simpson.

The Simpson's appear to be professional foster parents and also have another child in their care, rebellious teenager, Kyle (Christine Elise). Kyle's a girl for the record.

Typically, no one will believe Andy when he begins to explain that Chucky (rebuilt for some unknown reason by the manufacturer) has found him, destroyed and replaced the Simpson's Good Guy Doll, Tommy. I see that Chucky is made from a much more malleable plastic than Tommy was after the face mashing incident...

Chucky is out to steal Andy's body again before his time in this new doll body is out, leaving him trapped as a little ginger dolly freak forever! But, he's also inclined to commit a few murders on the way there. It is, after all, his main hobby.

Maniac as always, Brad Dourif brings the little beggar to life with a murderous glee and a maniacal laugh unparalleled.

Sadly, this film was never going to surpass the original in that it is a rehash of itself. However, the action, props and animation are excellent and there's some interesting kill scenes on the doll Production Line (as an Engineer I have to say the lack of safety devices or any kind of poka yoke on that line was shoddy, even for the early 90s!).

Despite his murderous inclinations, I do kind of feel for old Charles Lee Ray in this film, he doesn't half get tortured! You'd think he would have given up by now...

And, I've never noticed how creepy "The Skye Boat Song" sounds when hummed...

[Image: Universal Studios]

Hani

The Possession

"The Possession" (2012, Ole Bornedal, Sam Raimi, Robert Tapert, Lionsgate, Ghost House Pictures, North Box Productions) is a supernatural horror about a little girl who buys and opens a creepy old dybbuk box and is then possessed by what's inside.

A fun little flick with a creepy and atmospheric build up, slightly ruined by showing too much at the end. Throughout the whole film we never truly see what was in the box and we can never properly hear what it's saying to  young Emily (Natasha Calis), which is brilliantly creepy, unfortunately, they seemed to have a special effects budget and were hell-bent on blowing it all in the end, so...

Reminiscent of "Candyman" for the visual effects and "The Exorcist" for the theming, but with Judaism as the focus religion in place of Catholicism. 

The acting is great, especially that of the young girls Emily and her older sister Hannah (Madison Davenport). Also, as much as I kind of hated the ex-wife character, Stephanie (Kyra Sedgwick), you don't get much history on the relationship problems outside of Clyde (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) working too much away from home and being distant, so maybe Clyde deserved all the hate.

And what's not to love about Jeffrey Dean Morgan? He's a handsome man, plays father to Sam and Dean Winchester in "Supernatural" and leads a happy band of heroic miscreants in "The Losers".

All in all, it's not the scariest thing I've seen recently and it plays too much to the horror-tropes to be anything more than yet another exorcism film, but it's eloquently put together, well-paced and generally a good film.

[Image: Lionsgate]

Hani

Wes Craven's New Nightmare

"Wes Craven's New Nightmare" aka "New Nightmare" (1994, Wes Craven, New Line Cinema) is the 7th Freddy film in the series and is the finale by Wes Craven which aims to put Freddy to bed for good and reclaim the series after some truly abysmal sequels. Of course, we all know that "Freddy vs Jason" happened 9 years later, but that's a different story...

This film enjoys an invisible fourth wall and acts as a nice wink and a nudge to the fans as we follow, instead of Nancy from the first film, Heather Langenkamp (who played Nancy in the first film) as she begins to suffer Freddy nightmares.  This quickly escalates into a much darker story when it becomes apparent that Heather is not the only one.

To make matters worse, she's been asked to appear as Nancy again on Wes Craven's new Freddy film and is surprised on air by an appearance of Robert "Freddy" Englund during an interview.

With 'cameos' from Wes Craven and John Saxon as well as hefty screen time of Robert Englund in both his forms, this film brings the franchise back from the dead while also giving a satisfactory 'out'.

The effects are fun and fit in with the series perfectly and Freddy's stalking is actually more frightening again and less cartoony. There are also question-marks over Englund's disappearance mid-film which has the spooky connotations of him actually transforming into the nightmare man!

The explanation as to how Freddy can get into the real world is good and ties in well, separating this film from the mythos of the previous ones nicely.

More scary but not without the laughs we've come to expect from Mr. Krueger and a wholly fun film. Recommended!

[Image: New Line Cinema]

Hani

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare

"Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare" aka "A Nightmare on Elm Street 6" (1991, Rachel Talalay, New Line Cinema) was intended to be the last Freddy film...

Continuing to butcher their own legend, the series decides it's time to explain how Freddy (Robert Englund) got to be a dream-walking killer in the first place (not just how and why he died, which at least they maintained to!).

Freddy's unhappy to remain in Elm Street now that he has successfully disposed of all the children, so he decides to break into another 'playground' using his long-lost daughter, Maggie (Lisa Zane), and several disposable teens to do so...

An empty plot and hammy acting ruin a film which otherwise enjoys some fun effects. Although I do like Breckin Meyer, he wasn't hamming it up as much as the other teens were and I had a bit of a crush on him when I was a teenager..., although he did go on to become Garfield's owner...

The kill scenes are unimaginative and this is only emphasized further by the rather enjoyable end credits which showcase some of the better and more memorable kills from the previous films.

Some high points include cameos from Roseanne Barr, Alice Cooper who plays Freddy's abusive father and Johnny Depp who gets assaulted by Freddy whilst on dream TV (Depp was in the first film as a doomed teen).

There is also scene which pays a tiny bit of homage to Evil Dead 2 with a "Give me back my hearing!" moment in place of "hand" and a misguided Wizard of Oz visual gag...

All in, it's not the best of the franchise, and that's saying something after sitting through number 5! A film you only own if you're a completist!

 Here's Freddy Lollygagging

[Image: New Line Cinema]

Hani

A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child

"A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child" (1989, Stephen Hopkins, Heron Communications, Smart Egg Pictures, New Line Cinema) is the fifth in the series and follows on from number 4 with characters Alice (Lisa Wilcox) and Dan (Danny Hassel).

It's Graduation, but things aren't looking up for Alice now that Freddy (Robert Englund) has found a way to crawl back into the world... using demon baby power...!

One of the, dare I say it, crazier of the Freddy films, "Dream Child" can boast a lot of fun effects but on the whole over-stretched villain, Krueger, is starting to wear a little thin. The plot is predictable and it seems that Hopkins is just paying lip-service to the legend behind Freddy.

The acting is good and the effects are up to their usual fun, gory, zany cartoon standard. While it's hardly a scary film, it's a good bit of fun but isn't anything innovative and doesn't add much to the franchise.

However, it's only 89mins long and has good pacing, so at least it's short and snappy!

[Image: New Line Cinema]

 

Hani