Machete Maidens Unleashed

From the guy who did NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD comes another documentry about genre and ezplottion filma this time concentrating on the Fillipino made films of Roger Corman's New World Pictures and the hundreds of woman in jepordy films that came out in the 70s.

It is a talking head documentry with Roger Corman, John Landis, Joe Dante, Pam Grier, Jack Hill and many many more ofering insights into a crazy gung-ho era of film making where tita and ass were used to sell tickeys and the Philipines were a cheap sourxe of government sponsered labour.

From the Markos regime stoppimg by at the making of Apocalypse Now and ending up with the short story of Weng Weng the Philipines "biggest" star director Mark Hately once more delves into the thick of it the only crticism that the subject matter is not as deep and varied as that of the history of Australian explotation.

Semi-erect.

I Saw The Devil

The Korean trend for dark and violent drama continues with Kim (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD) Ji Woo bringing the OLD BOY Choi Min Sik himself into a serial killer film with a very different skew.

After the murder of the Police chief daughter her fiancé Kim Soo Yuen, a member of the Chief's protection staff, begins a hunt for her killer narrowing the suspects down to four men who have been involved in or suspected of similar crimes. When he does find his man he engages in an unusual game of cat and mouse or more like catch and release. Without the aid of some nifty GPS and bugging devices he is able to track the sick killer and stop him every time he tries to rape or kill again. Each time leaves the killer injured but let's him go persistently following and interfering with him until can take no more and has to find a way to fight back.

South Korean cinema is a hotbed of talent at the moment and for those seeking dark and intelligent horror and drama this is the place to go. I SAW THE THE DEVIL is violent and brutal which cause it some censorship problems in it's homeland but director Kim Ji Woo uses violence to equally express the ultimate frustration of seeking vengeance against those who have wronged as well as using it as a tool to keep the audience on edge and squirming in their seats. Also present is that dark stream of humour that has been observed in recent South Korean films such as THE HOST or MOTHER. It is not used to spoof or undermine the plot and the darkness at the heart of the movie but it does give I SAW THE DEVIL a disturbing grounding in reality

Glorious cinematography, pitch perfect performances and a smart script mean that I SAW THE DEVIL is a real contender for film of the year and we're only at February.

A full on errection and ejaculation for I SAW THE DEVIL.

Little Deaths

Brit horror (Grit horror?) anthology Little Deaths plays with the subject of sex and sexual practices in three short form narratives from three independant UK film makers.

Conceived by writer/directors Sean (LIE STILL) Hogan, Andrew (I, ZOMBIE) Parkinson and Simon (RED, WHITE AND BLUE) Rumley over a pint or two after knowing each other from the film festival circuit and produced on a low budget the trio of stories, HOUSE & HOME, MUTANT TOOL and BITCH take three different slants on horror and push at boundaries that need to be pushed at. Within the first story we are treated to a woman being jissed on (ejaculated on for those outside the UK), pissed on and nipples beimg severed. following that we get a giant spunk dribbling cock and not to be out down the third tale had a man wearing a dog mask being banged up the arse (ass) by his girlfriemd wearing a strap on. Your usual night out to the pictutres this ain't.

Equal parts intelligent dark drama (Rumley), exploitative Henenlotter (Parkinson) and torture porny (Hogan) LITTLE DEATHS is a slap to the face for the viewer and the best use of the anthology format since THE SIGNAL.

Now i am aware that the scoring system for this blog os a little ironic considering the amount of cock on show in this film but still: a full on hard on.

Husk

There ought to be a good killer scarecrow movie the imagery works so well but unfortunately this corn rowed of horror is sadly lacking. There is the odd SCARECROWS but equally there is Jeff Burr's NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW which I liked as an early teen but no so much as an adult and unfortunately there is that whole back-flipping SCARECROW SLAYER mess. I suppose for full disclosure I must admit to not taking the time to watch any of the three (there's three?) DARK HARVEST films or THE MAZE all sporting scarecrows on their covers to entice me to watch them but I ain't falling for that and watching another CHILDREN OF THE CORN slasher.

This movie should be drivel and i'm sure some folks will find it guilty as such. For myself, even as a die-hard horror fan soaked in blood and despair of my favourite soul wrenching horror films, I found HUSK enjoyable and exploited the cliches of of the teenagers breaking down flick well. As always there are areas of the film found wanting. Where I can applaud the omission of exploring the college kids relationships, there's only a slight hint of the jock/geek co-relation that should not be, I cannot ignore the sudden exposition of the hows, whys and what fors that come as a revelation to the geeky chess playing character. And while I'm enjoying the rapid stuttering movements of the killer scarecrows the plot becomes mired by a strange psychic/flashback scenario.

As the first of the 8 After Dark Originals to see light on the SyFy channel HUSK certainly stands heads above the normal SyFy movies in terms of production, cinematography editing and acting. Perhaps lower your expectations and you will enjoy a feature length CREEPSHOW style story that has a better home on TV than the big screen.

I'm going out of my way to get semi-erect at HUSK.

My Soul To Take

Wes Craven has always been touted as a master of horror and I have always disagreed with that. Most of Cravens output is actually ropey. LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and THE HILLS HAVE EYES are undeniably classic horrors but they are not well made films. Craven got his reputation by creating Freddy Kruger who became a massive money machine for New Line Cinema but look at Cravens other films, DEADLY FRIEND, SHOCKER, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS they are frankly kooky. Craven never really shaped up in terms of putting together a good looking film until VAMPIRE OF BROOKLYN and NEW NIGHTMARE most of his previous efforts were pedestrian in terms of vision and he always had some idiotic plot device like Nancy's talking digital watch in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET or the dog flashback s in THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART II.

Now Craven introduces us to the legend of the Riverton Ripper and the seven children born on the very night of his death. Sixteen after this infamous killer has met his end the seven kids are being stalked by someone dressed as the Ripper maybe even the Ripper himself. Or maybe one of them is posses by the Ripper. Or maybe they all are. Or maybe Craven has finally lost it 'cause I know I have trying to sort out the shambles of a plot that is buried under this movies idiosyncrises.

What we have in MY SOUL TO TAKE is taking what Craven learned in making the SCREAM trilogy and channelling it through one of the most batshit and inconsistent horror films of all time. It should be easy to hate this movie but its incoherent baffling madness seems to be part of its charm. It is simply all over the place with a codex of teen slang that no one has ever heard of and huge pieces of exposition, even from dying characters, that fill in the "action" that clearly the budget and schedule would not allow. How this film got by the scripting stage and into production baffles me though it makes very clear why Craven went running back to the SCREAM franchise.

A kinda semi-floppy.

Outcast

I like to see indie horror succeed and I like it even more when its a British indie horror I'm touting. This Scottish/Irish co-production offers something a little different from the glossy sheen of Hollywood as it was filmed in the grim and grotty Sighthill area of Glasgow.

And urban horror that leans on Celtic mythology and belongs in the same ilk as HEARTLESS or Neil Gaima
n's NEVERWHERE Colm McCarthy's debut carries a few recognisable faces such as TVs James Nesbitt, the Irish guy who has turned up in S4 of PRIMEVAL and the lovely ginger sidekick to Doctor Who. There's a beast loose on the streets of a Lothian council scheme and it is being hunted by Irish gypsies and could be linked to unlucky loner Fergel and his severe and witchy mother.

Its never going to have a happy outcome but this grim little Scottish shocker has a lot going for it in terms of performance, story an accomplished low budget film making.

A semi-erection.

Monsters

Purporting to be a sci-fi alien invasion movie thanks to the marketeers who have launched an ad campaign that seeks to deceive you into expecting the next DISTRICT 9 Gareth Edwards MONSTERS is more likely to play your local arthouse than multiplex.

A vast area of South America has become a quarantined zone after an alien landing and the invading species are kept there in a sort of extra terrestrial game reserve. Scoot McNairy (Skeet Ulrich lookalike) plays a photo journalist who is tasked with getting his bosses daughter, played by the lovely Whitney (ALL THE GIRLS LOVE MANDY LANE) Able, home to America and the only choice left for them is to travel across the forbidden area through an underground immigration system. What follows is a road movie largely improvised but utterly absorbing and ultimately (sshhh don't tell anyone) a love story.

MONSTERS is a remarkable achievement on all levels, technically brilliant, perfectly performed, mesmerising and if Edwards can top this on subsequent endevours we are all in for a hell of treat.

Full on hard on.

Red Hill

Being featured in the Film 4 Frightfest back in August was enough recommendation to bring me to the Greg (WOLF CREEK) McLean produced neo-Western RED HILL.

Set in the titular town, an out of the way backwater perched on the edge of an Aboriginal heritage site, Ryan Kwantan plays the new police constable who is quickly thrown into the unusual day to day life of the remote outpost dealing with the rumpled of a prowling panther feeding on livestock and the escape of the towns most famous criminal an Aborigine wife killer who is hellbent on avenging himself against the towns overbearing Inspector and his posse of gun wielding yokels.

RED HILL is more a revenge thriller than a horror and it's darker tone is mired at some points by the likely unintentional levity brought about by the western inspired sequences and some occasional squirm worthy dialogue delivery ("I know the law"). It also lacks character development pinning all hopes on rooting for the lead and plays its cards too early leaving no suspicion regarding the killers motivation. Overall it just falls a footstep short of being a cool revisionist western and what is with that panther sub plot?

So a bit of a semi but mostly floppy for RED HILL.