World War Z


Phantoms Review: Far better than I expected. Plenty of fast paced action, a couple of decent BOO scenes and some good acting. Not an "instant classic" but entertaining.

So having shamelessly raided Roshiq's post above for my afternoon's entertainment ...

No One Lives

Still a somewhat confusing film even when watched in English. Not that I have anything against confusing films per se, but this one just didn't work for me - some style, but little or no content to speak of.

I found it a frustrating film to watch - there were openings for some intelligent psychological exploration of the relationship between Driver and Emma (could have been an interesting look at Stockholm/Lima syndrome for example) but this to me was more or less ignored in favour of unconvincing and OTT kills. Nothing against OTT kills either, but I'd far rather have seen some deeper examination of the characters/relationships. It's almost as if the film wants to be a fun gore fest and an intelligent story but doesn't really succeed at either.

I spent half the movie thinking I might be in for some interesting and intelligent story-telling, but although it teases with a few moments/flashbacks it just doesn't develop what could have been an excellent storyline.

**SPOILERS**
Emma/Driver relationship ... I think, that Driver wanted to keep Emma and "create" her, i.e. make her into a killer like himself. But there's no examination of this, i.e. Why her? What did he initially see in her to make him want that? What else did he do with her during this process?

Emma the killer ... she kills (the copper at the motel etc) because she wants to kill Driver herself. It's rubbishy though that in the junkyard he's really pleased that she tried to kill him, while he seemed to completely ignore her shooting of the policeman earlier on.

The tracking device ... total guesswork here but I think it was probably a part of the 'creation process'. I'm thinking that he allowed her to escape several times from captivity but was always certain of recapturing her thanks to the tracker. Something about breaking her spirit, making her resign to being his.

So many silly plot holes ... This gang of apparently hardened robbers, who are about to torture and probably kill their latest victims, are suddenly panicked by somebody wanting to kill them? And are then overpowered by a slight girl who has supposedly been locked up in a car for goodness knows how long?? The suicide is totally unbelievable, and then they astonishingly fail to notice that Ethan has suddenly gained about 12 stone in weight??? Hmmmmmm....

Favourite moment ... the two guys who offer Flynn a ride, and then disappear from the story with no further mention of them or their fate (aside from the credit card). An indication of how good this film could have been.
**WAFFLE OVER**

The Seasoning House

British horror of the bleak and harrowing variety rarely disappoints and this one's no exception, I was absorbed pretty much from start to finish.

Rosie Day as deaf/mute Angel is very watchable, and Sean Pertwee is always enjoyable while Kevin Howarth is quite nicely ambivalent as Viktor. Several tropes (or cliches depending on your point of view I guess) but it goes quite nicely from nasty brutality to revenge flick.

My only real gripes are the setting (some indeterminate part of ex-Yugoslavia... to me that just seemed lazy for a film made last year), and the ending is pretty weak - it's barely an ending even, more like the film just stops.

Saw Gravity over the weekend. Kept expecting a space alien to jump out and kill the astronauts. But the movie made pure oblivion in outer space look far more sinister. Recommended.

Now watching Halloween 4, on AMC's FearFest.

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Bleak, harrowing, fighting survival tale.

Make sure you catch the scene after the end credits.

* * * ½

Innkeepers -

This is a good one. I wanted to see it for a while. It's old school horror and I like how they broke the movie into acts. I think a person's enjoyment of this one depends on how much they like the main character. If they don't then I can see a person disliking this movie. I think it was a stong performance by the actress. The other characters are played well too. I was surprised by how old the actress from Top Gun looks. I almost didn't recognize her. I think the director is saying something about modern versus classic horror movies in Innkeepers. There is a modern reference and without spoiling anything something in the final shot. All horror fans need to see this one.




Monster Squad -

I can't believe I never saw this when I was a kid. It's like The Goonies but with the Classic Horror Monsters. This movie is great.

Saturday Morning Mystery (2012)
 

I had such high hopes for this one. I mean, a live-action "dark parody of Scooby Doo" for adults in which the haunting turns out to be real ... what could possibly go wrong making this film?

Hmm.

To be fair I did go into it with expectations of something funny and witty. Once I'd let go of that the film did improve a bit, also helped by the pace finally starting to pick up about half way through. But it isn't funny, in fact I wouldn't even call it a parody.

Does it work as a straight horror? Well I hate to knock independent film makers, but no I wasn't impressed. It's not a bad plot albeit an unoriginal one ... it's just let down by unconvincing acting and poor production, plus some really silly bits. It lacks atmosphere and didn't scare me or move me.

On the plus side there's some good music, and I would give the makers another chance if/when they try again.

hide and seek (2005)

Night of the Living Dead

In the theater.

With Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett doing "RiffTrax" on it broadcast live from Tennessee.

"That guy's loving the chaos, just going around beating zombies off left and right."

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I admit it - I watched the film purely because of the 2 gentlemen highlighted on the cover. While Cage was his usual restrained self like he's been in recent films and doesn't bring anything new to the table, Cusack did his best with the ill-fitted role which totally goes against his silver-screen character. The makers should have gone for someone like Stanley Tucci, who could have nailed Cusack's role to a T. Cusack at times seems too sweet and unbelievable to pull this off convincingly, which is the film's biggest sore point.

The events are supposedly based on actual stuff (and we get to see plenty of evidence before the end credits), but it's hard to suspend belief by that time. A serial killer who has gone through decades doing his stuff undetected and unnoticed, wouldn't become so careless all of a sudden, would he?

Nevertheless, recommended only to die-hard fans of the above two.

* * ½

Dawn of the Dead - 2004

As far as unnecessary remakes go this isn't dire. I enjoy many of the elements of this film and think it brought some new, genuinely interesting characters to the table and I liked the changes in the third act - I'd rather have a new pretty good ending than a poor imitation of the same wonderful ending. Pretty good for simple, unapologetic fun.

6/10