The Silent House

Laura and her father are staying at a dilapidated old house, boarded up windows keeping the light out and the darkness in. Without power they use battery powered lamps and flashlights to explore the house as bumping and banging is heard from upstairs . Within minutes Laura's father is dead and she is left to confront whatever dark secret hides between the stone walls.

Horror from Chili does not come along very often and with this one comes a certain amount of hype. Lauded as the new PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and sold amongst a bidding flurry at Cannes THE SILENT HOUSE sells itself as being shot on the prosumer level Digital SLR camera from Canon as well as being shot in one take. Immediately you are taken out of the film and challenging yourself to pick apart the technical aspirations of this low-budget thriller that has potential to scare if it could just straighten out its damn mind what the plot is or ifi it even exists. I assume there is a deleted subplot about a book as the lead character spends a lot of her looking at shelves, in minute detail.

Left with no idea why anyone was in the house, why the lead character was so scared of banging noises she spent the time looking about storage areas or how they explain away the placement of lighting sources in a one take movie nor why the audio suddenly dips like a wireless microphone has come loose in her clothing the hype of A SILENT HOUSE is never lived up to.

NOTE: Adam Mason's PIG has already used the same camera to film a "one-take" improvised horror movie in broad daylight.

Floppy.

Altitude

Look at that artwork posted there. How can this go wrong? It is not an Asylum produced Megacreature leaping at an aircraft. Those are tentacles. Which invoke two things - Lovecraft and THE MIST. Look at that trailer. Touches of CREEPSHOW and THE TWILIGHT ZONE. This is going to be a winner!

And then you meet a girl (Jessica Lowndes) far too pretty to be anyone in reality other than an actress/clothes hanger never mind a trainee pilot rebelling against her military colonel and chasing down the memory of her pilot mother who died in a plane crash. And her plausible boyfriend, a. Omicron book geek who would get nowhere near a girl this hot if it wasn't for the manipulation of their shared past. And their is the bonehead athletic boyfriend of her best friend the blonde film student who cannot work a camera and a fifth guy added in for some early disaster fodder.

And when disaster does strike it could not come fast enough. Such a shame the giant tentacle thing only kills one of the five. Bad acting, poor script but actually not bad CGI do not take horror to any new heights. It should be monsters on a plane but instead it's all hormones on a plane with only the all teeth and tits Lowndes making it palatable to the eye if you do not mind her Michael Bay inspired fake tanned face.

Limp dick for the movie. Lowndes causes some stirring.

Confessions

From Japan comes a tale of revenge filmed as confessions by various characters surrounding a school teacher who has lost her young child, the school pupils who may be involved and fact that the school milk has been infected with HIV.

Gloriously shot and beautifully crafted this is an indulgent movie both for the viewer and the film maker. Visually sparkling through slow motion rain showers, backward explosions and slapstick humour all scored with a constant medley of emotionally downbeat tunes added to startlingly observed performances from young actors underpin a disturbing story on the change of Japanese moral values and youth.

CONFESSIONS could be improved by a sterner hand on the editing shears lending a leaner view on this Eastern revenge tale before it greets a wider western audience and is much subtler than the expected violence of such a film from Oriental climes but shares a place with MOTHER and BEDEVILLED proving the dark side of Asian cinema is not all long hair ghosts and splatter.

Full on hard on.

Saw 3D

There comes a time when every man's mettle must be tested. This film, SAW 3D, is the hardest test for me as film "reviewer". As an impartial cinema watcher this film is utter shit! As a SAW fan this is an OK sequel ranked between II and VI but better served than V. if I'm true to myself as a fan this is a great film.

This is where I would put in a synopsis. It's SAW. There's people in traps. Continue below.

Most of the great horror franchise were played or playing out as I grew up as a film fan. This is truly the first I have lived through and with one entry a year for seven years can I really complain. SAW has gone batshit. Totally and irreversibly. If you're not onboard by now (I'd say IV is your jumping off point) then frankly, fuck off.

There's blood. There's carnage. There's nonsense. There's TV actors. There's a black guy with a "cool" hat. The 3D adds nothing. We all knew the doctor was a bad egg from the game. There's actors having no idea what is going on. It's mental. I slightly love it. I slightly hate it. It's SAW, it's unique, it'd better have a part 8!

Paranormal Activity 2

Last years PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was the little film that could. A $15,000 home made movie racked up nearly $200 million dollars in a repeat of the BLAIR WITCH found footage trick. Quick off the mark the $3 million studio produced sequel is with us less than a year later.

Focusing on a family unit, Dad, Mom, Step-daughter, new baby hunter and dog Abby PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 2 hinges on the believability of its actors. Naturalistic and not Hollywood pretty people the family, despite their affluent surroundings, ingratiate themselves quickly as a normal everyday unit doing things you and I may do. It is not long before strange unnatural occurrences begin to disturb the everyday lives of these people and the father installs six CCTV cameras adding a new angle to the found-footage format of the film. Initially the disturbances are similar in nature to the original film, rattling pots, opening doors and some rte worth a giggle. Once the attacks ramp up a notch in the latter half of the film it is clear that PA2 has more to offer and becomes a fun scare ride. With elements from POLTERGIEST, THE ENTITY and REC it appears that the supernatural presence genre is about to take the horror crown from the torture porn king that has worn it for the last decade.

Creepier, cooler and better made than the original this is a rare occasion where a sequel can build on the premise of the original, expand the story and have us re-evaluating what we think we know already. It is a clever exercise in playing with audience expectations and turning them at the last minute. With PARANORMAL ACTIVITY:
TOKYO NIGHTS being released in Japan in December and no doubt debuting in western climes sooner rather than later with PA2s inevitable box office haul it looks like a new franchise has been born. Does it have the staying power of the mammoth SAW juggernaut? We'll have to wait and see. To next Halloween then.

Semi-erect.

Damned By Dawn

Horror from down under already has a good foundation with the likes of BAD TASTE and BRAINDEAD or Australias own RAZORBACK and ROAD GAMES and in recent years this has been built upon by WOLF CREEK, UNDEAD, BLACK SHEEP and THE LOVED ONES. Acclaimed as Australia's answer to THE EVIL DEAD prepare to be DAMNED BY DAWN in the years first (of two so far) shrieking banshee movies.

The eldest of the O'Neil family is on her last legs and as the family gather around in her final moments she tells the story of the weeping one who must not be disturbed as she calls for the dead to welcome the recently deceased into the next realm. When this does not go to plan a force of the undead is unleashed upon the O'Neil homestead.

What was charming about THE EVIL DEAD was that it was truly amateur hour executed by some talented individuals. The same rings true here for the genre consortium known as The Amazing Krypton Bros who have truly pulled off a labour of love and full on Evil Dead style fan film. Sure the CGI is ropey but that is part of this films charm just like Sam Raimi's slapstick violence and stop motion effects were so beguiling of his. At times I was reminded of what Mike Mendez did with THE GRAVEDANCERS or Ti West's THE ROOST which are great Halloween fun shows rather than outright scarers and i only hope that these guys can continue to deliver the horror goodies in style.

A good happy horror hard on.

The Tortured

After the abduction and murder of their young son a young couple, played by Metcalfe and Christensen, hatch a plan for revenge. They will abduct their sons killer and utilising the fathers skills as a doctor keep the killer alive for as long as possible while inflicting bodily harm and medically aided torture on their prisoner.

When you stamp "from the producers of SAW" on a film you, as the distributor, are hoping to attract an audience who has helped a movie series shot on a low budget into the hundreds of millions in box office receipts. You are also inviting an audience who are trained and looking for your torture porn movies twist. And when that twist telegraphs itself very early on you are dead in the water. Maybe that is why the Twisted Pictures produced THE TORTURED has been sitting about on a shelf since 2007 and I suspect underwent some re-shoots by SAW maestro Darren Lynn Bousman who is thanked in the credits.

Conceit wise THE TORTURED does have a new take on torture porn, the good guys are torturing the bad guy, but the writer, director(s) and producer just couldn't find a way to execute it effectively. Shame as I'd like to see Twisted Pictures get a life outside of the SAW franchise but hopefully they have more horror treats to come.

Floppy and flaccid.