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Film: The Ordeal
Release date: 27th March 2006
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon, Jean-Luc Couchard, Brigitte Lahaie
Genre: Drama/Horror
Studio: Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Belgium/France/Luxembourg
The Ordeal is a film which lives up to its title to the most disturbing degrees. We have seen violent locals in the English countryside in Straw Dogs, Hillbilly cannibals in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and house invaders in rural Austria with Haneke’s Funny Games. Set in the deep French countryside, we are presented here with some country folk the likes of which we have never seen before.
Marc Stevens is a young cabaret singer who travels and performs in rural Belgium. Following a show at an elderly peoples’ home, Marc turns down the advances of two women - the first of which is one of the home’s residents - but Marc is set to attract the affections of much stranger suitors.
On the move through the wilderness of the Ardennes, Marc’s van breaks down on a country road. An oddball stranger guides him to the home of recluse Mr. Bartel in search of a place to stay for the night. Bartel is more than happy to have Marc stay, and offers his home until Marc’s van is fixed. The two connect over their love of entertainment; Bartel claims to have once been a comic. However, Marc soon notices some oddities in Bartel.
The man begins looking through Marc’s belongings, opposes him leaving to go to the nearby village, and becomes more and more distressed as he tells Marc of his estranged wife. Marc awakes one morning to discover his van being destroyed before he is knocked unconscious.
Marc awakes later bound to a chair, he has been dressed in a ladies summer dress and Bartel is shaving his head to make him unattractive to the other villagers. Bartel is convinced that Marc has more than just a passing resemblance to his wife, and gives a chilling warning: “Try to leave me again and I’ll split you like a log…”
Du Welz’s psychotic horror presents some deeply affecting images, but the comic tone is undeniable - were this not the case, it would make the film very hard to watch. The influences are clear, and we are treated to an ensemble of snarling farmers, perverted villagers and leering pub regulars - it is like watching an extreme version of the locals from Straw Dogs.
Fans of extreme cinema are in for a treat as Du Welz is not shy to push the boundaries - the sustained tone of weird is set about early on as we see a desperate seventy-something lady reaching for Marc’s groin. This doesn’t quite serve to prepare us for the bestiality, sodomy and various other tortures to come, but is a definite signifier to get out while you still can!
Viewers less used to this sort of darker than night comedy may struggle to see the fun in it, but this is material the league of gents would find rife for parody. Whether it’s the perverted captor giving himself a cheeky eyebrow raise and wink bed getting into bed with Marc, or an elderly lady branding herself a “silly whore,” you will more often find yourself tutting and hiding a grin, as opposed to reaching for the sick bucket.
As controversial as the subject matter may be, some of the direction is undeniably sound, and we are treated to two unforgettable scenes. Fans of Irreversible will know cinematographer Benoit Dobie for his captivating stylistics, and he showcases them again here: a scene at Christmas dinner breaks into an insane mix of laughter and desperate crying as the camera circles the table. The panic and claustrophobia are portrayed with pace as the camera moves as frantically as the action it is capturing.
Viewers will remember also the pub scene for which this film will always be associated. As Bartel threatens and leaves a pub load of curiously sized, slack jawed yokels, the barroom breaks out into an almost ritualistic dance of the disturbed. The high-pitched piano is haunting and will stay in your head long after the film’s climax, but it is the image of the freaks on show bopping and stamping that really stays with you.
As the film’s protagonist Marc is more victim than hero, Laurent Lukas plays the part as dumbfounded as the audience - and it really is a strong performance. He is the most believable thing in the film, and his suffocating tears and cries of anxiety are heartfelt.
This is cinema at its most bizarre. Du Welz contributes a truly out of the ordinary addition to a sub-genre that rarely strays away from Hillbilly America. It is hard to watch but harder to turn away from. This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for fans of the excessive, this is a must see. LW
Film: Opstandelsen
Running time: 50 mins
Director: Casper Haugegaard
Starring: Marie Frohmé Vanglund, Mads Althoff, Jonas Bjørn-Andersen, Roxanne Tirkov, Hans Maaløe
Genre: Action/Drama/Horror
Country: Denmark
This film was screened at the Grimm Up North Film Festival in October 2010.
Not many people these days will say ‘no’ to a zombie movie. This is partly because they are now so popularised and watered down that anyone can handle them. It would seem everyone is jumping on the zombie bandwagon, as Hollywood studios churn out countless identical zombie films, a cinematic parody of zombies themselves: vacant husks of films that never truly live, but still continue to play and spread like a disease through video stores and cinemas everywhere. Opstandelsen (or The Resurrection) is different. It is a new breed of fast paced, purebred modern zombie film that has much to offer the jaded viewer. So, no surprise to discover that it won the award for Best Low Budget Film at the Grimm Up North Festival this Halloween.
The story starts with a family who have gathered in church for the funeral of Simon. However, it isn't long before the dead are rising from their graves - and feasting upon the mourners.
Simon’s two brothers, Peter and Johannes, fight for survival, trying to escape the horde of living dead that chase them through the churches catacombs, whilst, at the same time, facing up to the issues they have with each other…
Only a country as liberal as Denmark could produce a zombie film that’s shot on location in a real church - and have the real life church’s vicar play himself! This film, being set in a church, features tons of religious symbolism, which will no doubt anger church groups around the world. For some, the very idea that such evil could penetrate holy ground is blasphemy. However, there is a bit where a cross is picked up and used, axe fashion, to fight off zombies. Surely this holy weapon’s effectiveness is a testament if anything to the power of divinity and faith?
Although I think any such discussion is a moot point, since this is very much a postmodern movie, which isn’t trying to be clever beyond the point of its face value and aesthetics. It simply presents genre fans with a great premise, which they are usually denied: ZOMBIES IN A CHURCH!
As you can imagine, this leads on to lots of gory moments which are pulled off brilliantly. The initial kick off during the funeral is very intense and nothing less than a bloodbath. One particular gory highlight is when a man gets trapped under a door that is barged down by a crowd of the undead. This is perhaps a reference to Romero’s original Day Of The Dead, where a very similar scenario arises, although, impressively, this particular sequence manages to top even Romero by conjuring a horrific yet prolonged death.
Being only fifty minutes in duration and full of action, there is little time for a complex plot in Opstandelsen. However, characterisation is still present, and develops through the back story of the two brothers. One is a drug addict, who has caused the family much grief in the past, and being thrust into this heavily confining situation forces them to settle their feud, which proves to be too great to be put aside. Mads Althoff and Jonas Bjørn-Andersen both manage the action and the family drama capably, with some truly touching moments of fraternal bonding.
When asked why the film was only fifty minutes in length, director Casper Haugegaard explained, “We didn’t plan it that way, we just had a script to shoot and we shot it. Fifty minutes is what came out.” This unusual running time has caused the film some issues when being shown at festivals, since it is neither a short nor a feature. However, the relentless pace of the movie would be difficult to maintain for a full feature without it becoming tedious, and there is too much to cover to fit in to a shorter movie. Fifty minutes really is the happy medium in this case.
The film achieves the rapid pace and claustrophobic atmosphere by several means. Some may compare Opstandelsen to The Blair Witch Project, due to its heavy use of hand-held camera. In fact, the camera is constantly in motion throughout the film. As much a stylistic choice as a result of shooting entirely on location, there are few long shots. Most of the footage is very close and restrictive, giving rise to a rational fear of that which is off camera. Every sound makes us want to look around and check for danger - we feel we are watching from our own POV as the suspension of disbelief takes hold.
Unlike most zombie films, the editing style is almost entirely montage. At times, the edits fly thick and fast, particularly when the action warrants it. When our heroes are at rest (as much as they can be given the situation), the edits are more sparse, leaving us with lingering ‘calm before the storm’ moments. The editing almost replicates the heartbeats of the characters on screen, drawing us in to share their state of mind.
The other element at play is the lighting, which varies greatly from brightly lit white walled rooms to dark dingy tunnels with very minimal lighting. The terror is either perfectly illuminated, or left to our imaginations to fill in the gaps. With these two, approaches working in tandem, as well as the rapid editing and tight, claustrophobic camerawork, there is little rest for the viewer.
If you like your zombie films to be true horror films that scare, excite, thrill and disgust then this is the film for you. If you feel that mainstream horror lets you down time and time again, always falling short of the adventure you sat down for, and sitting on the fence instead of getting in your face and challenging you, then Opstandelsen is your saviour. If you’re not that bothered about such things, then it’s pretty cool because it has zombies in a church! DOB
A satirical film about the ‘cut-throat’ property market in Hong Kong.
Josie Ho stars as thirty-something Cheng Lai-sheung, the daughter of a dying builder. She sells home loans by phone in the day and works at a sales assistant in a fashion store in the evenings in the hope of one day being able to buy her dream home in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. But when she finally has enough money for the deposit, the owners decide to raise the price. This sends her over the edge, and she embarks on a serial-killing rampage using only household and construction items to slay her prey.
Told through an intricate series of flashbacks, Dream Home will appeal to gore lovers and art house move-goers alike, with many elaborate killings. A chilling satire on the housing and economic crisis affecting Asians, the subject matter will also resonate with people slaving away in the hope of getting on the property ladder in the UK.
They wouldn’t slash the price, so she slashed them up!
Film: Dream Home
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 96 mins
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Starring: Josie Ho, Anthony Wong Chau-sang, Michelle Ye, Eason Chan, Norman Chu
Genre: Horror
Studio: Network
Format: Cinema
Country: Hong Kong
A middle-aged man dies in the street, leaving his widow and three children destitute. The devastated family is confronted not only with his loss but with a terrible challenge - how to survive. For they are cannibals…
They have always existed on a diet of human flesh consumed in bloody ritual ceremonies - and the victims have always been provided by the father. Now that he is gone, who will hunt? Who will lead them? How will they sate their horrific hunger?
The task falls to the eldest son, Alfredo, a teenage misfit who seems far from ready to accept the challenge... But without human meat the family will die.
Shocking, bloody and deeply moving, We Are What We Are is a remarkable reinvention of the horror genre - a visceral and powerfully emotional portrait of a family bound by a terrible secret and driven by monstrous appetites.
Film: We Are What We Are
Release date: 12th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Jorge Michel Grau
Starring: Francisco Barreiro, Alan Chávez, Paulina Gaitán, Carmen Beato, Jorge Zárate
Genre: Drama/Horror
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: Cinema
Country: Mexico
Film: Cronos
Release date: 6th February 2006
Certificate: 18
Running time: 88 mins
Director: Guillermo Del Toro
Starring: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Mexico
As the first feature of Guillermo Del Toro, Cronos has gained notoriety due to the Mexican writer and director’s more successful later films, including Pan’s Labyrinth and Hollywood blockbusters such as Hellboy.
In 1536, alchemist Humberto Oganelli creates the Cronos device, a small golden casing containing an intricate mechanism and an immortal parasite. The device, designed to bestow eternal life on its owner, is merely the stuff of legend until it is discovered by antiques dealer, Jesus Gris, in the base of a wooden statue. Gris accidentally triggers the mechanism within the device, which clamps to his hand and draws blood.
Agreeing with his young granddaughter Aurora to keep the Cronos device a secret, Jesus develops a desperate thirst, and later allows the device to feed on his blood. Jesus becomes noticeably rejuvenated but has develops a craving for blood.
The existence of the device is also known by the dying Dieter de la Guardia, who assigns his nephew, Angel, the task of locating the statue and its priceless cargo. Angel fails to recover the Cronos device, and later appears to kill Jesus in an attempt to beat him into submission. Jesus lies unconscious during his own funeral, narrowly avoids being cremated and escapes, although his body is rotting. He finds his way to his granddaughter’s rooftop den, where he avoids sunlight by sleeping in her toy box.
Jesus and Aurora search de la Guardia’s quarters for the manuscript explaining how to safely use the Cronos device. They are confronted by de la Guardia and Angel and become involved in a battle to escape…
From unquenchable thirst to slow realisation that he hungers for raw meat and then blood, Jesus’ descent into vampirism is gradual, affecting and, in context, forgivable. As the device rejuvenates the old antiques dealer, Federico Luppi (in a role originally written for Max Von Sydow) gives a portrayal of a man with a new lease of life that is heart-warming, yet tinged with sadness, as Jesus acknowledges the high price of this reinvigoration. The sexual nature of Jesus’ sessions with the Cronos device adds an uncomfortable element far removed from other vampire stories’ rape metaphors – Jesus’ lust for blood rarely involves other people, as he seeks to assuage his bloodlust in a non-violent manner. Scenes showing Jesus distressed over whether to lick spilt blood from the floor of a bathroom are upsetting and wonderfully staged.
Cronos has terrific production standards for a first time feature. Interiors are well-worn and grimy, Jesus’ shop is filled with authentic-looking antiques, and de la Guardia’s quarters above an industrial complex are sinister and sterile. Moreover, Del Toro draws horrific scenes from innocuous events and objects: in particular, the deadly Cronos device itself, with its intricate, syringe-like mechanism, produces some effective chills.
The film is notable for being dual-language – Ron Perlman switches between Spanish and English, and the opening narration is also in English. Del Toro’s disregard for filmic conventions in spoken language pervades other parts of the film, which is filled with pleasingly specific quirks, such as Aurora’s rooftop den, the grandfather’s miniature tea party with his granddaughter, and the grimy crematorium with its nonchalant worker.
Compared to many vampire films, Cronos is concise – thematically, as well as in terms of setting. There is a neat circularity to its features: for example, it is Angel who searches for the archangel, and the image of beetles recur throughout – first crawling out of the statue’s face, then mirrored in the appearance and piercing ‘attack’ of the Cronos device.
While Luppi appears in almost every scene, the supporting cast is equally dependable. Ron Perlman’s Angel De la Guardia is callous and self-centred, providing many of the comic moments in the film, as well as being the most repellent character. His grunting horseplay with Aurora at the beginning of the film is both humorous and deeply sinister, as is his bizarre preoccupation with cosmetic surgery. Jesus’ wife Mercedes is played by Margarita Isabel with sad-eyed humanity, providing naïve warmth to balance the coldness of the film’s villains.
Cronos include many themes that Del Toro would explore in his later films The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth, particularly the inclusion of a wise but innocent child. However, this film is notable (in Del Toro’s oeuvre - and horror cinema in general) for viewing events through the eyes of an elderly man, thus relegating the child to bystander.
Cronos doesn’t entirely break the mould of horror cinema, however. In particular, the exaggerated, slurping sounds of flowing blood are oddly conventional in a film that appears brave in many other respects, and Javier Álvarez’s score is effective but again adds little to the atmosphere.
It’s clear to see why Cronos secured Guillermo Del Toro’s reputation as an imaginative and resourceful director. It is easily one of the most effective horror chillers of the 1990s, and its casual disregard for cinematic conventions is welcome in a genre that too often veers close to pastiche. It’s visceral, affecting and unusual – and, in its small way, Cronos is a triumph of truly international cinema. TM
Film: Dagon
Release date: 2nd February 2004
Certificate: 18
Running time: 94 mins
Director: Stuart Gordon
Starring: Ezra Godden, Francisco Rabal, Raquel Meroño, Macarena Gómez, Brendan Price
Genre: Fantasy/Horror/Mystery/Thriller
Studio: Prism Leisure
Format: DVD
Country: Spain
Even at its peak, Dagon was the sort of movie one could only get in bargain bins. There is little risk when buying a DVD for £1 that it won’t provide at least that amount’s worth of entertainment. It is one of a rare breed of horror film that really goes for it; cashing in on shock value and mixing it up with big themes and ideas, despite being made on an impossibly tight budget. Dagon is hard to ignore, because not only is it from the makers of the acclaimed Reanimator series, and based on a cult H.P. Lovecraft story, but, most importantly, it’s about evil fish-men.
The Story follows Paul and Barbara, a recently wealthy couple who have gone sailing to Spain with some friends in their yacht. After a freak storm causes them to hit a rock, they are forced to seek help in a nearby village.
The couple are separated and Paul finds himself running for his life from the mysterious fish-men that inhabit the village. As his flight for survival takes him from one terror to another, he unravels the secret of the Cult of Dagon…
The most notable thing about Dagon is that it whizzes by with a really kinetic pace to it. After a short introduction, we panic through the film with Paul, scrambling to get to the next scene and, at times, left quite short for breath.
Despite being a primarily action based film, there is still a coherent and involving story. From the film’s inception, there is a strong foregrounding of dreams and nightmares. This is both expressed through visuals and dialogue. The central theme of Dagon is the idea that dreams and nightmares are one and the same, a vision of our deepest primal desires. The things we truly desire can be something we fear on the surface. This is explored throughout, and echoes of the short stories that the film is based on.
Dagon is a very loose adaptation of both Dagon and The Call of Cthulu by H.P. Lovecraft. The details of the plot have changed, although the themes and atmosphere are still intact. The works of Lovecraft are notoriously difficult to adapt to film, however Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna are brave enough to try time and time again, playing with Yuzna’s own concept of a plastic reality. As with Reanimator and Necronomicon, Dagon is littered with Lovecraft references, such as Paul’s ‘Miskatonic University’ sweater (the university from Reanimator and many other Lovecraft stories).
The main role of Paul is played by Ezra Godden, who has also appeared in numerous TV shows, and recently lent his voice to the computer game Dragon Ages: Origins. His performance in Dagon could be said to be a little wobbly. Nevertheless, overall he conveys a believable character in an impossible situation, and draws the viewer to root for his survival. Paul is a relatively everyday man, with little in the way of heroics and easily overwhelmed. We see him frequently retreat within his own mind, leaving the viewer faced with a trembling shell, adding gravity to the moments where poor effects would otherwise make us laugh.
The supporting cast also play a valuable role. Raquel Morono’s performance as Barbara contributes to Paul’s character by highlighting just how passive and spineless he is with her Hispanic fire. The late Francisco Rabal, to whom the film is dedicated, plays a drunken tramp. His awkward incoherence, and the way he wanders aimlessly between Spanish and broken English presents us with an impeccably accurate portrayal of a chronic alcoholic hobo.
The scenery of the village conjures an outstanding atmosphere of unseen peril. Once the rain begins to pour down, every surface becomes ominously dark and reflective. Shadows constantly flicker and move. The entire village transforms from the sundrenched drenched idyll in to a large scale haunted house, but the horrors in this haunted house are real.
The fish-men make for great monstrous villains, sometimes appearing like an aquatic zombie horde there are so many of them. More than zombies, the fish-men are a diverse bunch of monsters that come in many forms. Some are mostly human, others are mostly fish. Some talk, some walk and some are muscle-bound titans. They talk in their own crazy language, which sounds like dolphins shouting abuse at each other with its eerie clicks and squeaks. The makeup and effects used for the fish-men are really effective at instilling both fear and disgust, far surpassing anything you might have seen in old Dr Who episodes.
Since it’s a true diehard horror film, there are numerous gory set pieces, and there are a lot of special effects in play throughout Dagon. These special effects achieve mixed success, with much of it laughable, and some of it truly impressive. For the most part, Dagon features gore that is done with prosthetics and fake blood; however, there are some creature effects that have been added by some embarrassing CGI. The pinnacle of the gore involves a man’s skin being peeled from his face whilst he is still alive and screaming, so do be prepared if you are squeamish!
Dagon really is a film that puts the ‘bargain’ in ‘bargain bin’, but it will give you more than a pound’s worth of fun. It may not change your life, and it does have some failings, but it certainly has an interesting story, and thrills that will not be easy to forget. DOB
Film: The Haunting
Release date: 25th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 120 mins
Director: Elio Quiroga
Starring: Ana Torrent, Francisco Boira, Hector Colome, Rocio Munoz, Francisco Casares
Genre: Horror/Mystery
Studio: Scanbox
Format: DVD
Country: Spain
Elio Quiroga’s The Haunting, also known as No-Do and as The Beckoning, represents another drop in the torrent of Spanish supernatural horror that’s burst through the riverbank of international cinema awareness. Arriving on the heels of higher profile releases such as fellow haunted house romp The Orphanage (2007), straight up Spanish shocker [Rec] (2007) and this year’s similarly styled Hierro, does The Haunting have what it takes to make an impact in a rapidly overcrowded market?
When paediatrician Francesca (Ana Torrent) starts to suffer from postpartum depression after the birth of her new son, her friend and hospital psychiatrist Jean (Rocío Muñoz) recommends a change of scenery. Francesca and her husband Pedro (Francisco Boira) are shown around a spacious country house that was formerly a school owned by the priesthood. They fall in love with it and move in straight away.
After experiencing nightmarish visions of ghostly apparitions, Francesca starts to get more and more obsessed with the safety of her baby, prompting further concern from her husband and Jean as she seemingly slips deeper and deeper into madness.
Meanwhile, Miguel (Héctor Colomé) a psychiatrist priest, discharges a patient whose spent the last fifty years in a catholic institution as he tries to come to terms with the secrets of No-Do; a religious experiment that occurred in Francesca and Pedro’s home decades ago…
If the storyline of The Haunting sounds familiar to you, that’s because it pretty much follows almost every standard plot point synonymous with its genre: a young family move into a big empty house (usually out in the sticks) where, unbeknownst to them, evil things occurred many years ago but still resonate in the form of noises, ghosts and so on. Due to a past personal trauma, one of the family – almost always the wife – has the unexplained ability to see and interact with said spectres, and feels some form of duty to put the spirits to rest. Naturally, no-one believes her except for some old hermit or religious type, ostracised from everyone due to crackpot supernatural theories of cults and evil goings on. The ensuing investigation is fleshed out with some obligatory searching around dark spaces with a flashlight and a research montage involving old newspaper articles where the hellish past of the property is slowly revealed. Unfortunately, The Haunting is the kind of film where you can guess the outcome and the intervening twists and turns simply by watching the trailer.
The cast do what they can with Quiroga’s formulaic script, but performances all round never really catch light. Torrent’s psychological journey from depressed mother to haunted and borderline insane person is not very compelling, and pales in comparison to many other similarly structured performances. Her conversations with her 10-year-daughter Rosa while Pedro’s out of the house feel very contrived. From their first scene together, it’s painfully obvious that Rosa isn’t alive and only Francesca can see her. To the film’s credit, this isn’t kept a secret for too long, but it’s uneventful nonetheless and ultimately annoying, as Francesca frantically searches the house for someone that everyone – including herself – knows does not exist.
Francisco Boira’s Pedro is severely underwritten, and is limited to the role of concerned husband. Héctor Colomé’s Priest Miguel offers more intrigue, but is again repressed by a rather flat and unimaginative script – finding a huge piece of the No-Do puzzle by easily letting himself into a special room within the catholic inner-sanctum, even though this is deemed forbidden with penalty of excommunication. The evidence itself – a reel of old film footage – is neither destroyed nor particularly well hidden as you might expect; the filmmakers choosing to leave it lying around on a dusty shelf for anyone with access to the room to see.
Camerawork is slick but not especially creative. The film adds some inventive touches by using seemingly old newsreels and other weathered footage to provide pieces of the puzzle, as well as flashbacks that try to maintain a similar aesthetic by incorporating faux print damage. Sometimes, these flecks and scratches appear over shots of the main storyline to segway into the flashback, which looks a little amateurish and kills any attempts of immersion. The ghost effects are equally suspect; crude now-you-see-them-now-you-don’t computer generated zephyrs that do little more than float about and pull scary faces - not to mention showing up the limitations of the film’s budget.
The film does little in terms of generating tension of scares, coming to a hilt when Francesca wanders around the house by herself with a torch; a tour which naturally takes her to the building’s darkest recesses, such as the basement, where the evil things happened.
The Haunting, then, is a film that hinges on creating a thick and creepy atmosphere as opposed to using shock tactics. Unfortunately said atmosphere, whilst present, is rather stale overly familiar. The musical score does little to elevate this, and the occasional presence of blatant filler shots – presumably used to stitch together the remnants of what was originally a much longer cut – cries made-for-TV, as do the clichéd fireworks of the film’s ending.
The Haunting is what it is: just another haunted house flick, and is totally forgettable as a result. It’s predictable, unoriginal, bland and a chore to watch. Although it’s commendable that writer/director Elio Quiroga is more interested in classic horror design than copious gore, this enthusiasm simply does not translate to the screen, rendering The Haunting a stuffy and tedious saga that offers nothing that hasn’t been seen or done before. MP
Film: Higanjima - Escape From Vampire Island
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 120 mins
Director: Kim Tae-gyun
Starring: Hideo Ishiguro, Dai Watanabe, Asami Mizukawa, Kôji Yamamoto, Miori Takimoto
Genre: Action/Horror/Martial Arts
Studio: Manga
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: South Korea/Japan
Adapted from Koji Matsumoto's anime of the same name, Higanjima marks another manga-oriented instalment in the career of director Kim Tae-gyun (Volcanoe High). With less voice-overs from rappers and far more vampires this time around, it's time to escape from Vampire Island.
Akira (Hideo Ishiguro) is ostensibly a normal high school kid complete with all the personal neurosis and romantic hang-ups that entails. However, beneath his smiling exterior is a deep sadness - his older brother Atsushi (Dai Watanabe) disappeared while on holiday with his fiancé two years ago, and this still weighs heavily on his mind.
So when a mysterious woman calling herself Rei (Asami Mizukawa) comes to him suggesting his brother is alive and – more importantly – that she knows where he can be found, Akira has little choice but to follow.
With his friends in tow, and Rei as their guide, Akira sets off for the distant island of Higanjima in the hope of rescuing Atsushi and restoring some semblance of normality to his life. Upon their arrival, however, it becomes clear that neither Rei, Higanjima nor Atsushi are quite what they were appeared.
Will our plucky young heroes make it through the horrors of Higanjima in one piece?
This is not a Japanese answer to Twilight. The domination of teenagers in the list of protagonists is used to establish an innocent and affable group of good guys rather than pave the way for incomprehensible angsting. Kim Tae-gyun clearly likes to use youthful characters to support the energy and dynamism his films have become known for, and for the most part it works.
Higanjima is a fast-paced story filmed in an all-action style, and for the first thirty minutes the story rockets forward with little thought to character development beyond stereotypes, almost to the point of fault. However, Tae-gyun's vision hits a sticky patch shortly after the group arrives on the island, struggling to pull itself clear for long enough that it becomes noticeable. So much so that upon completion, a quick glance at the 122 minute run time makes you wonder whether they couldn't have left a sizeable chunk of it out.
This is a vampire film which opens with a masked man dicing up blood-suckers with a samurai sword and reducing their heads to pulpy messes with a log. Such a bold initial gambit deserves greater adherence from the scenes that follow it, but, unfortunately, this is not the case. The film sags badly in the middle because Tae-gyun made the perhaps misguided decision to focus on the human impact of this predicament rather than just deliver on the ultra-cool violence of the opening encounter. The characters are not well-established or likeable enough for this to be a good idea, with even the hero, Akira, occasionally seeming more likely to run off and cry than do something heroic.
To its credit, Higanjima picks itself up (or rather, is dragged up by the awesome Atsushi) and delivers consistent high quality fight scenes, with impressive gore, good choreography and a unique design for the vampires, which is somewhere between zombies and goblins. Disappointingly, however, it seems for all the world like they ran out of money towards the end of filming, leading to some truly awful CGI effects, which makes the climactic battle distinctly uninspiring.
Ultimately, it is hard to escape the feeling that the mark was missed with this one. Despite enjoyable moments of violence and action that remain true to the genre, it takes the film too long to reach them, and they are gone all too quickly once it does. The youthful dynamic that director Tae-gyun favours has worked against him here.
An ambitious attempt to mix the Brat Pack with Hammer Horror that falls some way short of its potential and, unfortunately, leaves the audience wondering whether they can escape from Vampire Island, too. JD
F.W. Murnau's silent vampire classic.
Count Orlok (Max Schreck) decides to move from his ruined castle to the city of Bremen and hires real estate agent Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to make the arrangements for him. But Orlok is also the vampire Nosferatu, and when he takes a shine to Hutter's young wife Ellen (Greta Schroder), it seems that the worst is indeed possible.
Adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula (though with character names changed for legal reasons), Murnau's film also features some of the most famous sequences in cinema, including the count's climb up the stairs to Ellen's room, his claw-hand outstretched and his crooked shadow on the wall.
Film: Nosferatu
Release date: 18th October 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 89 mins
Director: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schroder, Gustav Botz, John Gottowt
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Studio: Elstree Hill
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
Film: Rubber’s Lover
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Shozin Fukui
Starring: Yota Kawase, Sosuke Saito, Norimizu Ameya, Mika Kunihiro, Nao
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Country: Japan
Region 1 release.
Cult Japanese director Shozin Fukui’s Rubber’s Lover (1996) is perhaps the most extreme example of underground Japanese cyberpunk filmmaking, featuring all kinds of violent and psychosexual depravity. Largely unknown outside of Tokyo’s underground art-cinema sphere for many years, it has since been made available to wider, foreign audiences courtesy of US based, specialist and rarities distributor Unearthed Films.
Beneath an industrial compound, a clandestine group of scientists are researching the possibilities of triggering and developing psychic powers within human subjects, with a combination of ether and an experimental practice called D.D.D (Direct Digital Drive) involving computer interfaces and sensory deprivation. The project so far has been unsuccessful with all their test subjects – homeless people pulled from the street – dying gruesomely as a result of the experiments. Appalled by the team’s failure and sloppy work ethic, the project’s benefactor cuts their funding and sends his secretary Kiku (Nao) to oversee the shutdown.
Convinced that they are close to a breakthrough, scientists Motomiya (Sosuke Saito) and Hitotsubashi (Norimizu Ameya) take Kiku hostage and decide to conduct one last psychic experiment on their fellow colleague Shimika (Yôta Kawase), who has become addicted to ether thanks to Motomiya. The results are astounding, as psychic powers awaken in Shimika with devastating consequences…
Seen as a loose prequel to his first feature film 964 Pinnochio (1991), Fukui’s Rubber’s Lover, along with its predecessor, is frequently compared to the work of Japanese cyberpunk overlord Shinya Tsukamoto and his Tetsuo movies. And while Rubber’s Lover shares a similar industrial aesthetic and spirituality to Tetsuo – the creation of a new world order through technologically altered symbiosis; immeasurable psychic power and the fusion of flesh and metal respectively – Fukui’s style is divergent enough for his work to be more than merely copying what’s gone before, and offers an unnerving, brutal and claustrophobic experience unlike anything you’ve experienced before.
For a start, while Rubber’s Lover is atmospherically intense, its pacing for the most part is eerily subdued and curiously detached. Choosing not to imitate Tsukamoto’s innovative, hand-held camerawork and lightning quick cuts, Fukui favours interestingly framed, locked off shots with some scenes being covered in their entirety from a single angle. This approach allows events to unfurl organically, and feels more absorbing than other Japanese cyberpunk offerings that usually forego this in favour of a barraging, hyperkinetic, sensory assault. It’s all the more interesting considering that his first feature, 964 Pinocchio, was one such assault, lending this effort a more confident, yet still crazy and borderline unfathomable execution.
Rubber’s Lover is still all about visuals and atmosphere, as the film’s relatively meagre plot, although more full-bodied than Fukui’s previous feature, is frequently put to one side to make room for its more avant-garde pretensions. Fukui coaxes some emotively primal performances from his small cast, which could be misinterpreted as being merely amateurish. The results are mixed: female characters come across as being emotionally vacant; Nao’s Kiku seems strangely aloof, even when she’s being raped; and Mika Kunihiro’s PVC clad nurse Akari appears desensitised to all that she sees - unfazed even when witnessing a test subject explode in a shower of black pus due to an ether overdose.
On the other hand, the male performances are wild, hammed up and overly hysterical. Hitotsubashi deteriorates into a squealing, nervous wreck whilst Motomiya is content to experience a fair chunk of the ensuing mayhem in nothing but his pants. Shimika’s mental breakdown seems most justified; he is after all continually fighting to control his newfound powers, as well as his ether addiction. However, this collective decent into madness compliments the film’s overall tone, as does the frequent screaming and writhing, which, though unwelcome, feels strangely necessary considering the subject matter.
As indicated by the film’s title, there is a strange inclusion of S&M and fetishist imagery further perverted by bolted on makeshift, scientific hardware. The suit that Shimika is forced to wear for the experiment – a black rubber outfit with a variety of consoles, wires and other gismos attached – is particularly iconic, and not only echoes the BDSM antics hinted in Tsukamoto’s Testuo: The Iron Man (although its much more obvious here), but the deranged and secretive wartime experiments performed by the Japanese military on Chinese POWs in the ‘30s and ‘40s. Akari’s oversized, rotating ether injector is incredibly phallic, especially when it’s used rectally for “instant effect,” and extends the notion of perversion past the usual touchstones of sex and violence and into the realms of science and technology.
The film is shot in grainy yet beautiful black-and-white, giving the starkly lit, underground locations a haunting, industrial nightmare quality that can only be realised in lo-fi monochrome. The choice to do this stemmed from the director’s dislike of the rubber suit when it appeared on colour film stock. It’s a decision that works in the film’s favour, giving the ridiculous S&M paraphernalia, out-dated laboratory equipment, and the huge, thrown together D.D.D contraption an air of surreal believability - and undeniable menace. It also helps mask the limitations of the film’s many gory practical effects, which require a strong stomach for the most part.
Although seldom used, the film’s use of music is particularly effective, lending further eeriness to an already unsettling piece of filmmaking, stressing its allegiance to niche audience appeal. In keeping with the film’s ethos – “psychic power is realised when mental anguish exceeds physical pain” – the violence is staggering, and certainly not for the faint of heart. Fukui’s decision to use black coloured blood only makes the proceedings appear even more macabre, as evidenced in a surreal sex scene where a bloodied character starts tearing the flesh off his partner with his bare hands, while a corporate executive laughs maniacally in the corner.
Best viewed on a small screen in a room solely lit by the shimmering glow of a CRT monitor, Rubber’s Lover is a unique and seriously twisted, nightmarish trip of a film that’s a testament to what can be achieved with little resources. Its violent and experimental nature will scare off all but the sturdiest of cinephiles – those intrigued by Tetsuo will find much to enjoy here, although it lacks the thematic depth and sledgehammer immediacy of that piece. Nevertheless, Rubber’s Lover is Japanese cinema at its most hardcore. MP
Film: The Horde
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
Starring: Claude Perron, Eriq Ebouaney, Aurelien Recoing, Doudou Masta, Jean-Pierre Martins
Genre: Action/Crime/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Momentum
Format: DVD
Country: France
They’ve had nights, dawns and days, plagues in cities, lakes and lands from London to outer space - zombies have been resurrected so many times over the years it’s difficult to get all that excited about The Horde, the debut feature by Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher. However, having picked up awards for Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography at the 2010 Fantasporto Film Festival, plus a pretty cool trailer, you’ll be forgiven for thinking this latest effort shows promise. But will it live up to its Assault On Precinct 13 meets Dawn Of The Dead billing – or is it another Flight Of The Living Dead?
When a police detective is found murdered by a gang of barbaric thugs, four rogue cops take it upon themselves to exact revenge. But holed up in a tower-block, the gang sees it coming, overcoming the vigilantes and taking them prisoner.
Torturing their victims, they are unaware about the breakdown of society happening quite literally on their doorstep. As sirens and the sound of explosions fill the air outside, it isn’t long before those inside are introduced to the doom-laden din of terror - that of the zombie apocalypse.
Trapped, and each with a score to settle, those that still have a pulse must somehow join forces if they are to survive the onslaught…
Although the opening is bleak and gritty, first timers Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher lack the originality to make The Horde truly stand out – so much so, we are made aware of something dangerous lurking in the shadows only when the guard dog gets slaughtered, out of shot - its whimper echoing the viewers’, as we yearn for something fresh to chew on.
And it continues: a metal bar is conveniently left and found to wedge a door shut, two of the hunted decide to have fun with a corpse in a scene lacking humour, while another decides enough is enough and takes them all on by himself. For all the good on offer here (and there is plenty), soon enough, something will come along and ruin what went before it.
A shame then that the first zombie to appear is the toughest of the bunch. It’s also a shame that the dilapidated building, hinted at early on, is underused. The biggest gripe, though, is that our female protagonist lacks the personality of even the lowest ranking zombie witnessed during The Horde’s duration (the one that gets taken out by a fridge). Her only good moment arrives when she makes it abundantly clear that she trusts nobody, not even the guys she’s worked with for so long.
This is a huge problem, because during the opening ten minutes, it’s hard to feel sorry for the four vigilantes as their fragile false sense of togetherness is tested time and time again, before finally being shattered by the gathering hordes of the living dead. Not only are the apparent villains of the piece, the gang, given more screen time, they’re also much more endearing.
Still, the script is loads of fun without being remotely original, and The Horde manages to escape joining the masses of zombie dross with a plot that never fails to ignite every so often. Loner ‘watchman’ Rene (Yves Pignot) really steals the day, his unpredictable personality topping anything the zombies manage to pull off, bringing with it some of the best scenes: an amputation stand-off and the well-scripted truce that follows.
Another satisfying performance is that of Aurelien Recoing, playing Jimenez – even if his one major fling, taking on two stiffs without the need of a weapon, sums up The Horde’s problem. As a zombie piece it lacks originality or the chills to warrant interest, yet as an action movie it supplies just as many thrills and surprises as many of those before it.
The two-on-one fight in a dingy corridor, although at first disorientating, soon becomes the greatest moment this film has to offer. Which, considering the trailer, is disappointing - the stand-off between Tony and a thousand zombies never works because, although the living dead aren’t exactly credible in the real world, this scene takes it further still and just isn’t believable, no matter how easy-going we are. Seriously, just bite his ankle!
The ending is pleasantly downbeat, even if one of the more appealing characters meets the worst fate. It would’ve worked better, and a lot more satisfying to boot, if the roles were reversed here, but then it’s probably in keeping with the slightly disappointing movie as a whole. Negativity aside, there’s enough good stuff going on that help disguise the fissures, but if you’re looking for scares or something fresh then you won’t find it here.
The grim visuals and giddy sense of claustrophobia compensate for a score drowned out by gunfire (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), and, as genuine entertainment, it will easily hold your interest until after its finale thanks to neat twists and conflict by the bucket load.
Fast-paced and filled with friction, The Horde is definitely a cut above most standard zombie movies, yet it lacks the freshness and originality to challenge the cream of the crop. As an action movie it works better - think Red Dawn rather than Dawn Of The Dead. DW
Film: The Human Centipede [First Sequence]
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Tom Six
Starring: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold
Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Bounty
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Netherlands
The toe curling surgical horror from Dutch director Tom Six takes high concept body horror to new heights of imagination, and new lows of plot development.
Two young American women travelling across Europe get lost when their car breaks down in the woods. They then happen across the isolated home of Doctor Heiter, a surgeon specialising in the separation of Siamese twins. After inviting the two ladies inside, Heiter drugs their drinks and traps them in his basement, which has been turned into a makeshift surgical ward.
After capturing a male Japanese tourist as his third victim, the doctor then goes on to explain that his ambition is to create the titular ‘human centipede’, a creature with one gastric system made up of three surgically attached people positioned anus to mouth.
After a failed attempt to escape by one of the women, the ‘centipede’ is created. However, the centipede begins to rebel against Heiter’s commands, and the police (investigating the disappearances) begin to grow suspicious of the increasingly erratic doctor…
A film like this relies heavily on its high concept premise, but beyond that there is not much to The Human Centipede [First Sequence]. The film stands proudly beside the fact that the portrayal is one hundred per cent surgically accurate, as if to suggest that something this nasty could actually happen and, to be fair, the thought of that is undeniably scary. Unfortunately, once you get over that initial scare, the cack-handed nature of the filmmaking becomes too jarring.
The film has attracted criticism from some quarters, dismissing it as mere torture porn, and there is not much to refute this claim, especially due to the fact that two parts of the centipede are played by young, attractive, helpless (not to mention gormless) women - who’s top halves are also gratuitously naked for much of the film. More disturbingly, the film leads the audience to believe that being attached to the centipede is like a form of punishment to the victims for not living in the right way; especially considering that the inception of human centipede began when Six joked about performing this kind of mutilation to sex offenders. This is as good as confirmed when Katsuro (the front part of the centipede) admits that he deserves his fate for mistreating his family.
The plot plods along as slowly as the human centipede itself, with the usual bit of establishment, a bit of exposition, and then a hilariously poorly attempted escape that fails to capture any sense of suspense; copying about every slasher film chase cliché ever seen. After that, we are then forced to watch the doctor marvelling at his odd creation, as the two women are left to eat excrement. The biggest problem is that after the centipede is created, the plot loses all momentum.
The acting, for the most part, is pretty awful, too. The female victims seem to spend the first part of the film rambling through hammy dialogue, and then have no other option but to make muffled screams into the anus’ they are attached to - substituting for the lack of screams from the audience. The only honourable mention goes to Dieter Laser, who plays the demented surgeon behind the shocking misdeed - he really does play the part to chilling perfection. Unfortunately, his character is so overbearingly unhinged and suspect that it’s surprising the police hadn’t put him under some kind of surveillance beforehand. This isn’t necessarily Laser's fault – the writing is just so poor.
This film is clearly marketed as a visceral body horror, but it fails to even do that very well, as much of the horror is communicated through over exuberant implication - often to the point of looking silly. At its best, The Human Centipede [First Sequence] raises some genuine chills, but, at its worst, it drags on, and makes a mockery of better realised horror movies. DJ
Film: The Horde
Release date: 20th September 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Yannick Dahan & Benjamin Rocher
Starring: Claude Perron, Eriq Ebouaney, Aurelien Recoing, Doudou Masta, Jean-Pierre Martins
Genre: Action/Crime/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Momentum
Format: DVD
Country: France
Writer/director Yannick Dahan adds some hyper stylised action to the traditional zombie apocalypse movie with The Horde, a perfect marriage of brawn and splattered brains.
In the desolate northern slums of Paris, a rogue police unit, headed up by Jimenez, execute an unsanctioned attack on local drug lord Adewal, to take revenge for the death of one of their own.
On arriving at the apartment building, events soon lead to a bloody shootout and the police are captured and held at the mercy of the drug cartel. Yet, when the casualties of the bloodshed begin to rise from the dead and attack them, the group soon realises that they have more than each other to worry about.
Caught in the middle of an outbreak of bloodthirsty undead cannibals, Jimenez and Adewal form a shaky partnership in order to survive and escape the apartment building, much to the chagrin of their companions…
Once a niche sub genre of horror, the zombie film has gained ubiquity in the past decade, largely thanks to filmmakers who wish to pay homage to its ‘70s heyday. Popularised by George A. Romero, who liked to attach allegory and biting satire to the undead apocalypse, Z-horror has now become a shadow of its former self. Fast zombies, Nazi zombies, zombies with social issues - the zombie iconography has been endlessly recycled and run into the ground. For every success, (Shaun Of The Dead, [REC], Romero’s continuing Dead Saga) there is an army of soulless barrel scrapers (Zombie Diaries, Zombie Highway, the Resident Evil franchise).
What makes Yannick Dahan’s B-Movie different from the norm is that he doesn’t seek to over complicate his undead maguffins. There is no attempt at humanising the horde, nor are they presented as a metaphor for the dead eyed masses of the status quo. They are simply a plot device, a catalyst that exists merely to perpetuate some Hollywood style action beats.
The pacing of the film is furious throughout, from a bloody botched sting in the opening act to a series of brutal zombie attacks. The film only slows for a short breather as the disparate group meet a loony resident (the film’s only weak link, who wears his welcome out way before the final act), and hideout while going through the usual “what’s going on?” paces.
Dahan and co-director Benjamin Rocher pile on set piece after set piece, and it becomes hard to focus on such frivolities as ‘plot’ and ‘substance’ - who needs them when there’s an army of zombies being cut to pieces by an antique WWII machine gun. The films showpiece sees hero Jimenez, perched atop a car, taking on the horde with a pair of pistols a machete and a dirty vest. Its OTT, it’s iconic, and it encapsulates everything that makes this film so appealing.
The cast is deliciously expendable, no character spends much time on screen before being made into lunch, it is left to Perron and Ebouaney to keep the audience invested in the films flimsy human element. Jimenez and Adewal make for a strong hero/anti-hero pairing; the former an honest cop forced into an unlikely situation, the latter an honourable criminal with trust issues and a strict moral code. It’s a testament to these central performances that we actually care about the fate of these genre staples.
Overall, The Horde is an action movie that just happens to have zombies in it, its cops Vs criminals Vs the living dead. Not particularly original, and lacking any real substance, it still crams enough energy and enthusiasm into its running time to keep gore hounds hooked.
Blood, guts, zombies and octane; Yannick Dahan throws an army of undead into a generic action plot to create an interesting and fun hybrid. One dimensional characters and wafer thin plotting aside, The Horde is a thoroughly enjoyable popcorn horror. KT
