Cinehouse: 2012

Showing posts with label 2012. Show all posts

21 July 2013

The ABC's of Death DVD Review

Rating: 18
Home Release Date (UK):
22nd July 2013
Director:
Adam Wingard, Ti West, Ben Wheatey
Cast:
Erik Aude, Iván González, Lee Hardcastle, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal
Buy:[Blu-ray], [DVD]
The ABC’s of Death is probably one of the most ambitious horror spectacles ever conceived: 25 letters of the alphabet, 25 directors from all over the world, and total free reign on the choice of project other than sticking to your letter. Obviously with something this big, spanning numerous countries and cultures, the outcome was always going to be eclectic and, most of all, utterly bizarre.

Directors like Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun), Ben Wheatley (Kill List), and Ti West (House of The Devil) answer the call to add their own short vision of horror, but most important perhaps is that the ABC’s consist of new and upcoming talent. Adam Wingard and Ti West are of course no strangers to anthology horror having been responsible for two segments of last year’s VHS, however while Wingard’s humorous Q is for Quack steps out of the screen to offer a break from excessive gore and disturbia, West’s short M is for Miscarriage is a dull and disappointing attempt from an accomplished new name in horror. This perhaps best encapsulates the spirit of the project, the ABC’s is not a compendium of horror shorts, it’s an exploration of the limits and potential contents of horror. Some of the films are wonderful and leave us wanting more than the little peak we’ve had, whilst others can’t finish quick enough.

One of the most endearing qualities of the ABC’s is the vast array of styles and tones which combine to make it a true variety performance. Marcel Sarmiento’s D is for Dogfight channels Guy Ritchie-esque grit whilst boasting one of the roundest and most accomplished stories. Timo Tjahjanto’s L is for Libido is hands-down the most disturbing of the films achieving genuinely sickening reaction and proving to be the most troubling to watch. In terms of visual impact Bruno Forzani and Helene Cattet’s O is for Orgasm wins top prize, addressing the death/sex relationship in the most experimental, beautiful, and accomplished entry to the film. The ABC’s is far from perfect viewing though, many of the films dwindle into obscurity or punch a little too high, or sometimes even achieve a level of abrasion that surpasses discomfort and goes straight to irritating. F is for Fart and Z is for Zetsumetsu, two of the Japanese entries, are so utterly bonkers and ridiculously anti-narrative that they become tiresome quickly. I could go through the whole lot but it would ruin some wonderful/awful surprises since watching the ABC’s totally blind is perhaps the best way, especially when the titles are often the punch lines to elaborate and unsettling tales.

Horror gets a bad rap as a dead-end genre with little left to say except scream, stab, and torture; there are no more lines to cross, or envelopes to push. Yet here we find a truly interesting cross-section of modern horror from across the globe addressing a varied selection of subjects. The ABC’s of Death are far from perfect, the bad films tend to be the ones that blatantly go for the shock factor, whilst the really bad are the ones that inspire no reaction what so ever. Thankfully there’s not too many of those. Somewhere in there are the makings of something great: many of the entries are unsettling, some are hilarious, others are simply batshit bonkers insane. Key to this film are the constant feelings that things are being examined, mulled over, situations are being addressed whilst the viewer tries to figure out what the hell is going on. The envelope has indeed been pushed.

Scott Clark

24 June 2013

Entity DVD Review

Posted by Unknown at 16:16 No comments:

Rating: 15
DVD Release Date: 24th June 2013
Director: Steve Stone
Cast: Dervla Kirwan, Charlotte Riley, Branko Tomovic
Buy: Entity [DVD]

There was a time when the term 'horror film' meant just that. Admittedly however, it seldom required much more than keeping the landing light on at night to dispel any fears that something might be lurking in the dark once the film ended. Now your home could be plunged into complete darkness as the result of a total power cut after you've just finished watching the latest horror release, and you'd have no more nightmares than if you'd sat through an episode of Scooby Doo! The scariest thing about Entity (2012), the new film from this category by debut director / writer Steve Stone, and starring Dervla Kirwin, Charlotte Riley and Branko Tomovic, is how it managed to win two awards at the recent London Independent Film Festival, both as Best Sci-fi / Horror Feature and Best Low Budget Film. If this was the best it wasn't saying a lot for the other entries.

Three British television documentary makers, Kate Hansen (Riley), Matt Hurst (Rupert Hill) and David Hamilton (Oliver Jackson), along with psychic Ruth Peacock (Kirwin) and their Russian guide Yuri Levkov (Tomovic), venture into the forests in a remote area of Russia in order to investigate the truth behind the deaths of thirty two bodies found in the area twelve years previously. As they head deeper into the area they come upon a disused hospital facility, which houses a dark secret that could threaten all their lives.

Someone should tell filmmakers that lost footage as a basis for horror films has had its day. Any originality the method might have shown when first seen in films like The Blair Witch Project (1999) has long since died. This means that the only point of interest in this new variation is how they fooled someone of the calibre of Kirwin (who once showed some promise as an actress) into getting involved in this dire escapade in the first place. Here she is reduced to wandering round a damp field and then a series of dimly lit corridors pleading with what remains of the rest of the cast to "get me out of here"! By the end of eighty seven minutes (if you make it that far) you'll wish they had taken heed of her entreaties, for your sake as well as hers.

I wish I could say something at least remotely positive about Entity. However, before it finished I was as lost and confused by the film as its characters themselves seemed to be, so I guess we had better leave it there.

★☆☆☆☆

Cleaver Patterson

7 October 2012

Kotoko DVD Review

Posted by Unknown at 22:58 No comments:

Mental Illness is no laughing matter nor should it be something we should ignore either and it comes in all shapes and sizes but most of all it can affect us all. We sometimes think we understand the illness or selfishly think we have all the answers to curing the illness, in Shinya Tsukamoto's Kotoko it never tries to answer but instead shows the illness from the person we sometimes forget about from the perspective of the sufferer.

Kotoko (folk singer Cocco) is a young single mother who lives alone with her young infant son.Suffering from an unknown illness that makes her see things double especially people making things difficult for Kotoko impossible to know which person is really leading her to violently lash out. With things getting harder for her in the daily grind her day to day chores become harder making her a liability not just for herself but also her young son. Her son is taken into care (looked after by her sister) Kotoko is now on her own her frame of mind and broken is fragile her thoughts are dangerously scattered which makes it scary for all who share her life.

From the minute Kotoko starts we're thrown right into the chaos, the anguish of the film's protagonist which sets the tone for the rest of the film. At no point of the film does it attempt to figure out why Kotoko's mental state is what it is but taking us right into her mind giving us a voyeuristic look at the horror from the eyes of the sufferer herself. What really annoyed me with this film was the use of 'horror' not from the film itself but from some of the reviews I read some calling Kotoko a horror or J-Horror which this is the film is not. This is not a film of mythical creatures or found footage malarkey, this one does have demons but the inner demons of psychological proportions.

Kotoko will hit you in the spot that will hurt you the most. It's a visceral, raw intense nightmarish journey which will leave uncomfortable, disorientating but will leave you with an everlasting reminder that people with this illness are human beings and their pain is their cry for help.

One of the success' of the film is the central performance of it's lead actress, Cocco. I've always been a little sceptical of films which have non-actors (sports, musicians) been picked especially in lead roles as sadly majority of the time history has shown it's ended in disappointment. There has always been a few exceptions like Cocco and on the level of her début acting role in Kotoko has been nothing but incredible. Cocco really goes all out with a performance that really connects with you, it's intimate but also very claustrophobic , truly cathartic all thanks her drawing on her own real life personal experience making this one work.

Cocco her self-suffered from mental illness/ self-harm when she was younger though we never really know if it was intentional to use her in the role thanks to that dreadful part of her life it does give Kotoko a real genuine touch. As I said earlier the film never really delves into what triggered her suffering however when you watch the film you do get small glimpses what they might be with a lack of a father figure in her life (her own parents divorced when she was younger) which could be also the reason why there's no father figure in her own son's life either. Could the male population be the main reason, was she raped? Whatever you think the men who have entered her life including that good Samaritans don't get a good ride here. What's really touching about this film as well as being an inaugural part is Cocco's singing within the film which gives Kotoko moments of escapism from her inner demons. As well as providing the film's score (like she did for the directors 2004 film Vital) the music really adapts into film naturally reminding me of Bjork in Lars Von Trier's Dancer Of The Dark giving the film a sense of tranquillity among the madness.

Kotoko is a beautifully well-crafted film which will pull at your heartstrings as well as make it uncomfortable to watch but to appreciate the pain a sufferer has to go through we sometimes have to go to places we don't want to go to. There's a great David Bowie song called Fantastic Voyage which really sums this film up listen to it read the lyrics as it reminds us this illness affects us all, there's no stereotypical profile of a sufferer just a stark reminder when the mind body and soul are fragile the world around us can be the most terrifying place to be in.