TIFF 2013 Review - Horns

Rating:
15
TIFF Release Date:
6th & 8th September
Director:
Alexandre Aja
Cast:
Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Heather Graham, David Morse
Based on the bestselling novel by Joe Hill (that’s horror maestro Stephen King’s son), Horns is a spellbinding gothic fairy tale that tackles lost love and the pits of human nature to deliver one of the most enjoyable horror flicks in some time. This was one of the highlights of this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Ig Perrish (Daniel Radcliffe) wakes up one day to find he has grown a set of horns that grant him strange abilities. Haunted by the brutal murder of his girlfriend (Juno temple) and hounded by the people of his town who blame him, he decides to use those abilities to help exact his brtal revenge on the true killer.

As Ig quickly unravels the conspiracy, people can’t help confiding in him- and more often than not acting out- their most primal desires. So matter where he goes he leaves a trail of destruction, at times shamelessly depraved (see Heather Graham’s role as a sadistic waitress) at others touching. The humour is transferred seamlessly from book to screen, encapsulating the most realistic aspects of Ig’s condition and wrapping them with such charm and glee that there are more than just a few laugh-out-loud moments.

It’s not all black comedy though; Alexandre Aja (Switchblade Romance, The Hills Have Eyes 2006) understands the most important aspect of this story: at its heart, under the sharp, devilish humour and zany plot points, Horns is a romance. His attentions towards Ig and Merrin’s relationship, the heart-breaking fate of it and the superb casting of Radcliffe-Temple provides a believable base from which all other facets of the plot can grow from. Radcliffe has here stepped into full fruition as an actor, removing doubts of his post-Potter significance by seizing the down-and-out lover and relaying him with such torment and tenderness that the film often pulls at heartstrings whilst making you laugh and cower at the brutality of its more visceral scenes.

One of the few gripes with the film would be its bombastic and- at points -choppy music choice and editing which shake you out of Aja’s near-masterpiece. When the rest of the film has such a unity of vision, it’s a shame some of those soundtrack choices hit a gimmicky note, but it’s a small gripe in the face of such an enjoyable film. Similarly, the finale gets a bit stretched, but it’s difficult to talk realism on the subject of the Devil.

Consistently brilliant, horrific, and hilarious, Horns flaunts Radcliffe’s best performance to date and the claim to be one of the most touching horror films of recent years. This is a fantastic piece of filmmaking and a great addition to Aja’s repertoire.

★★★★☆

Scott Clark

TIFF 2013 Review - All Cheerleaders Die

Rating:
18
Release Date:
15th Sept (TIFF), 12th &14th October(LIFF)
Director:
Lucky McKee
Cast:
Caitlin Stasey, Sianoa Smit-McPhee, Brooke Butler, Tom Williamson,

Lucky Mckee has always had a bizarre sense of style I’ve never quite come to terms with. Some of his films are cult crackers (May) and others are more laid back (Red). His new film All Cheerleaders Die, co-directed with Chris Sivertson, is his most shameless step into black comedy and madcap yet.

                The film follows a rebel teen (Caitlan Stasey) as she attempts to infiltrate a group of cheerleaders in order to exact revenge on the captain of the high school football team. A supernatural occurrence throws the group of cheerleaders into a whole mess of occult violence and bitchy high school drama where cheerleading is the least of their worries.

                The film is not the self-aware horror that the title harks it might be, neither is it a particularly easy film to watch. It starts out in a fairly solid and amusing way, doing what it says on the tin. A black comedy revenge film is set in motion but very quickly unravelled with the alienating supernatural overtones. Even then its not the supernatural that causes the problem, it is the way in which its executed.

                The film slips from one genre to another in an uncomfortable and disappointing way. Perhaps it’s my fault for enjoying the grounded revenge concept too much and not wanting to follow the film into Jennifer’s Body territory. But then again if the film had managed to look less like a crap episode of Goosebumps, things could have been a whole lot better. Magic stones and swapped bodies throw the film off course, rendering it a Frankenstein feature that fires in different directions until it loses sight of its original narrative, a narrative that once regained is less cared for.

                Sure there’s fun to be had here, a group of hot cheerleaders getting pulled into a revenge scheme against the football guys who scorned them is always going to give ample opportunity for laughs and thrills. Mckee and Silverston even pull off some pretty gruelling violence that can’t be dulled by the campiest moments at work here. Even if there’s a fiendish comedy element and a good idea of how to shock audiences, it all feels - like most of its characters - dull and superficial. On that note, Stasey and Sianoa Smit-McPhee are knock-outs, as is Tom Williamson’s turn as super Jock and villain Terry. There’s ample talent and good individual components but the film is frankly grating as a whole.

Commendation is deserved for being unrelentingly mad, bad, and corny and there is a keen and consistent sense of humour at work here. However, awful effects and plain ridiculous concepts squash what might have been a solid stand-alone picture into a weird extended episode of your least favourite kiddy horror series.

★★☆☆☆

Scott Clark

Win uwantme2killhim? on DVD

To celebrate the release of uwantme2killhim? (eOne) on DVD, we have a copy to give away!

From Producer Bryan Singer (X-Men, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Usual Suspects) comes
uwantme2killhim?, a British thriller based on a true story. A fascinating and disturbing examination of the impact that the emerging online culture had on the lives of a generation, uwantme2killhim? brings together award-winning talent to tell a story more unbelievable than any fiction.

uwantme2killhim? is available to own on DVD from Monday 16th September.

When 16-year-old Mark, a handsome boy, popular with girls, meets local girl Rachel on the Internet, he quickly finds himself in an intense online relationship. Besotted, he will do anything for her – even befriend and defend – her awkward, loner brother, John, the perpetual target of school bullies. When Rachel, who is trapped in the grips of an abusive relationship, is murdered, Mark and John are determined to avenge her death. Their actions draw the attention of a female MI5 agent as they unwittingly stumble into an on-going operation. Soon, Mark is recruited to commit a devastating crime, one that made British legal history.

Based on true events in the UK in 2003, uwantme2killhim? is the story of a friendship of opposites and the hidden evils that lurk deep within the Internet.

To Win uwantme2killhim? on DVD please answer the following question:

Q.What Downton Abbey cast member stars in uwantme2killhim?

Email your answer, name, address including Postcode (subject is uwantme2killhim?)winatcinehouseuk@gmail.com You must be 15 years or older to enter.
Deadline for this competition is Sunday 6th October 2013 (23:59pm)(anyone who includes telephone number entry will be deleted automatically for security reasons)

If you haven’t done already Like us and stay with us at our Facebook page (if you are already liking us just share this post)

Terms&Conditions: You Must be a UK or Irish resident aged 15 or older to enter. If your successful and win the competition then you will be asked for Postal address to arrange deliver of the prize.The competition is not opened to employees, family, friends of The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse, eOne employees who have the right to alter, change or offer alternative prize without any notice. The Peoples Movies, Cinehouse takes no responsibility for delayed, lost, stolen prizes.Prizes may take from days to a few months for delivery which is out of our control so please do not complain, we will tell you when prizes are sent to us, mostly all cops prizes come directly from the PR company representing the film distributor. Deadline Sunday 6th October 2013(23:59pm)..

UK Competitions and Prize Draws at UKwins
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Is Frodo Stalking Girls Again? Watch the Trailer For Nacho Vigalondo's Open Windows

Elijah Wood's not had the best times with the female population ever since he destroyed the one ring to rule them all. If you go by his last film he loved scalps of pretty females in Maniac but in Nacho Vigalondo's Open Windows is he the enemy or simply a superfan dragged into something sinister? Watch trailer and find out!

Open Windows stars Wood as superfan Nick obsessed with actress Jill (Sasha Grey) the most exciting actress of the moment and the webmaster of a website dedicated to her. After winning a chance to meet his idol in person Nick is contacted by Chord (Neil Maskell)who says he's captured Jill and Nick can watch her every move on his webcam. Nick now finds himself intertwined in a situation if he doesn't comply Jill will die.

The gimmick of Open Windows is a tricky one especially as a lot of the film is played out on computer screens as well as real time which makes the film a little generic. This is Vigalondo's first English language and he is a talented director so we have faith he can pull this one off in a entertainment way. What will drive the curiousity is the fact after the directors two previous films Time Crimes (time travelling) and Extraterrestrial (rom-sci-fi, Open Windows feet are firmly grounded in reality.



No date has been confirmed for release UK or USA, expect possibly 2014.

source: The Filmstage

uwantme2KILLhim? DVD Review

Rating:
15
DVD/BD Release Date:
16th September 2013 (UK)
Stars:
Jamie Blackley, Toby Regbo, Jaime Winstone
Director:
Andrew Douglas
Buy uwantme2killhim?:
On DVD
Viewers may initially be taken aback when seeing the credits of upcoming British feature uwantme2killhim? What appears as a low-key thriller actually has some big Hollywood names behind it - including Bryan Singer and Bob and Harvey Weinstein. This should serve an indicator as to the promise that Andrew Douglas' (2005's The Amityville Horror) feature shows.

Based on a true story, the film details teenager Mark's (Jamie Blackley) growing obsession with the world of internet chatrooms and the dark, tragic consequences this ultimately builds up to.

The early stages of the film feature Mark on a chat-room speaking to cyber-girlfriend Rachel (Jaime Winston) who asks the teenager to look out for her "weird" brother John (Toby Regbo) who is bullied at school. Mike Walden's narrative may seem somewhat predictable from this description, and ultimately it is not difficult for viewers to work out which direction uwantme2killhim? is heading in. Yet despite this, Walden's screenplay is packed full of turns and erratic twists which makes getting to this outcome all the more fascinating and tragic.

uwantme2killhim? showcases the danger of chatrooms whilst also capturing the psychology of a sixteen year old, with the combination of the two resulting in shocking effects. We view the events from the perspective of teenage Jamie and see him be gradually manipulated on these chatrooms - making him all the more of a tragic hero.  However, as the narrative takes continuous twists at points uwantme2killhim? grows somewhat outlandish - best captured when Jamie begins conversations with Janet, 'a government agent.' I personally do not know of any sixteen year olds who would be so easily duped into thinking they were chatting to an MI6 agent on a web chat-room. However, there is ultimately some truth in this - with Douglas' feature being based on a true story, making the feature seem even more extraordinary.

Douglas crafts the feature with a sense of unease and suspense by reflecting Jamie's chatroom world with a variety of actors playing those he chats with  - from Liz White's Agent Janet to Jaime Winstone's troubled Rachel. We see all through Jamie's perspective with this style perfectly reflecting the somewhat vulnerable psychological mindset of teenagers - especially when manipulated in an online environment. This makes uwantme2killhim? feel like more than simply a British thriller but a tragic study into the teenage psyche and the dangers of the online world.

Jamie Blackley (who also impressed in EIFF's We Are the Freaks) is an outstanding lead, bringing a youthful innocence and likeability to the role of Jamie. The role - alongside Toby Regbo's brilliantly dark performance as John, won the festival's Best Performance in a British Feature Film award.

uwantme2killhim? is a darkly unnerving look at the online world and the dangers that come with it. It may be clear which trajectory the narrative is following, yet this ultimately works in the film's favour adding a sense of tragedy to this thriller.

★★★½☆

Andrew McArthur

[This is a repost of Edinburgh Film Festival review]

The Future Of Film is Smart, Its Personal Most Of it's LED

[image source  Sony]

You may have noticed many people constantly saying 'the world is getting  smaller' and  let's be honest that is a true statement. 10, 20 years ago the talk of travelling from UK to the other side of the world was talk of the wealthy but now that is reality. As the world becomes smaller, more cosmopolitan technology is evolving, as are the demand of the film fan, and Sony are in the forefront of  how we get the the ultimate movie experience.

Let's go back 20 plus years to the 1990's- the demise of the local small cinema and the rise of the multiplex cinemas, to many it was the death of film but now 20 years on you could say this is a godsend. As many people don't have access or refuse to pay the expensive cinema ticket prices, The Laptops, the Tablets and Television we sit in front of everyday are the key to how we get out film experience. When you look back 30 years when James Cameron released Terminator you wonder did he know something we didn't know? Technology is getting smaller and smarter, as Sony's Smart TV proves, they are a film fans best friend.

Since the Internet was created it is common knowledge that watching or even downloading a film legally, the buffering and the time a film takes to download, you could do a shopping come back 2 hours later and we wouldn't be much further. Internet has evolved Broadband makes sure things can run smoothly, with technology such as mobiles, tablets, laptops and even TV's  you can enjoy that film or television programme in the comfort of your own surroundings. Now that we can enjoy and get access to  our favourite films or TV Shows on our Smart TVs we want to enjoy those films in the highest quality  and definition, the best way to do that is on an LED TV. 

Now Cinehouse been a blog dedicated to the best in independent, World Cinema and Arthouse movies, fans of these genres may have to travel for hours to get to the nearest cinema. The leading figures amongst the genres such as Curzon, Picturehouse (even some independent cinemas) now know using internet onto smart Tvs is the future.

There’s nothing that smart about trying to watch a film on your smartphone—you know what you really want is a proper big-screen experience, like what you can get with Sony’s new range of TVs and Smart TVs. These tvs can provide the same visual and sound experience as if you where sitting in your local cinema, even the popcorn you have will be cheaper too! The design of these TVs are elegant but what they will do is provide a clearer, crisper and smoother. If your are interacting with the on demand  services for films, you pay the premium you expect these premium quality TVs will provide.

These TVs also give you access to the film and TV fanatic’s friend, Sony’s TV SideView app. Another feature that can link up your gorgeous new TV interactively with an app-equipped phone or tablet. TV SideView lets you pull up all the key details while you watch: cast, episode info and more. You could say they are the equivalent of the extras you get from the Blu-ray's or DVDs. We will ask you, do you really need to buy Blu-rays whilst the slick, smart Led TV can provide the same?

Put this alongside the rest of the innovations Sony has rolled out his time, including 4K Ultra HD and super-sharp 3D, and you’ve got a lot of great reasons to check out Sony’s new TVs and Smart TVs.The future of film is smart, personal, the future is LED TV.       

Sponsored Post

Ikarie XB-1 DVD Review

Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Rating:
15
Distributor:
Second Run
Director:
Jindrich Polák
Cast:
Zdenek Stepánek, Frantisek Smolík, Dana Medrická
Buy:
Ikarie XB-1 [DVD]
Ikarie XB-1 is a fascinating piece of pre-2001: a Space Odyssey science fiction filmmaking. It was made 5 years before in 1963 and it’s from Czechoslovakia, which is not known for it’s science fiction with the possible exception of the writer Karel Ćapek. Ikarie XB-1 has never been released on these shores until now with Second Run’s (a label who specialises in Czech cinema) release. The film however has it admirers including esteemed directors like Joe Dante and Alex Cox. It has also been suggested its one of many space films Stanley Kubrick watched before he embarked on the task of making 2001.

The film’s source comes from one of the most world-renowned science fiction writers Stanislaw Lem, he also wrote the book Solaris is based on. Stanislaw like most great sci-fi writers dealt with philosophical themes and his work also at times were very satiric. He is also considered one of the most difficult writers to translate because of his elaborate word formulations. The book Ikarie XB-1 is based on The Mangellanic Cloud that has not yet been translated into English.

Ikarie XB-1 is not that dissimilarly to the better-known Solaris as both films are set almost entirety on a space ship. It is equally a journey though space to discover new worlds (in Ikarie XB-1 they are trying to find alien life on star near Alpha Centauri) and a mental one. Solaris is definitely a more artistically successful film but that’s part of the mastery of its director Andrei Tarkovsky.

Ikarie XB-1 has fantastic production design that at times is almost hallucinatory with its shapes and patterns of the interior of the ship. The cinematography throughout is really stunning with lots of strange disorienting angles that get the viewer into the mind-set of the crew. The outer space sequences are surprisingly effect and don’t seem too cheesy.

It’s overall a really surprising piece of early intelligent science fiction in cinema (they’re was already lots in the fiction world) that will really surprise a lot of people. The film was cut down by the US distributor and retitled Voyage to the end of the universe. The twist ending was cut and was replaced with a much happier ending but of course Second Run has released the original cut. The DVD is under £10 and it’s certainly worth you investment.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Plein Soleil (1960) Blu Ray Review

BD/DVD Release Date:
9th September 2013 (UK)
Rating:
PG
Distributor:
Studiocanal UK
Director:
René Clément
Cast:
Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Laforêt
Buy Plein Soleil:
Plein Soleil Special Edition Blu-ray [Amazon]
As I was introduced to French cinema through my interest in the Nouvelle Vague films of Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, and Éric Rohmer, and consequently their critical writing for the influential film journal Cahiers du Cinéma (in particular Truffaut’s Une Certaine Tendance du Cinéma Français), it may come as no surprise that René Clément has never ranked high on my list of filmmakers to further explore. Couple this with already seeing Patricia Highsmith’s best-selling novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, adapted to film by Anthony Minghella and the prospect of sitting through Plein Soleil becomes less intriguing.

First of all – for those of you who have neither read Highsmith’s novel nor watched Minghella’s adaptation – a brief outline of the story is in order. The Talented Mr. Ripley is a thriller that, in all its versions including Clément’s Plein Soleil, follows Tom Ripley, an intelligent career criminal, as he cons his way into the life of a rich playboy, Philippe, by feigning his acquaintance to the man’s father. Ripley is hired by the father to travel to Italy, find Philippe, and bring him back to San Francisco. Now, without wanting to give away any of the film’s plot, Plein Soleil begins with Ripley (Alain Delon) already in Italy and already ingratiated with Philippe (Maurice Ronet) and his circle of friends.

For many, including myself, Clément’s version is the most rewarding. Not only is it the most tense and entertaining of the two adaptations, it also boasts some glorious cinematography by Henri Decaë, the noted cinematographer of such films as Lift to the Scaffold, Bob le Flambeur, Le Beau Serge, and The 400 Blows by directors Louis Malle, Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut. The film is also noteworthy for its fatalistic point of view. But it is also these two points that mark the film out as an imitation.

As the featurette René Clément at the heart of the New Wave, included with Studiocanal’s restored release, attests, Clément felt unfairly treated by the Nouvelle Vague directors and thought himself a more avant-garde artist than the “Tradition of Quality” directors he had been lumped with. Perhaps this is why he made Plein Soleil with Decaë and also why the film as a fatalistic aesthetic reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Melville, a director admired by the Nouvelle Vague. Nonetheless, Plein Soleil is an entertaining and gorgeously photographed film well worthy of anyone’s time.

★★★☆☆

Shane James

What Doesn't Kill You DVD Review

DVD/BD Release Date:
2nd September 2013 (UK)
Rating:
15
Director:
Brian Goodman
Cast:
Mark ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Amanda Peet, Donnie Wahlberg
Buy What Doesn't Kill You:
[Blu-ray] or [DVD]

The DVD cover for Brian Goodman’s Boston-based crime drama flaunts a dull collection of action stances: Ethan Hawke reloading a gun, a car on fire, and a swat team closing in on some kind of truck mid-explosion. All of this accumulates to present, what will surely be, a gripping slice of action thriller, a rollercoaster of cloak and dagger with cops and robbers. However, whoever put the packaging together deserves some severe words. It’s misleading marketing no matter what. At no point in the film does a car explode or swat team mobilise. This film is not an action thriller.

What Doesn’t Kill You is –however- an enjoyable, well-constructed, crime drama with a keen focus on story and character. If it is approached in that way then any viewer is likely to have a positive reaction. Goodman’s own experiences, as well as those of co-writer and star Donnie Wahlberg, provide the inspiration for a heartfelt and sombre exploration of the lives of two bottom-rung criminals desperate to climb the ladder.

Mark Ruffalo gives a fantastic performance here as a man stuck in a vicious loop: his neglect towards his family is enforced by his constant need to venture out and earn money to pay bills. As the pressure reaches an all-time high, Brian stumbles into drug addiction and gets closer and closer to hitting rock bottom. All the while Ethan Hawke seems to live it up as Jack-the lad type Paulie; womaniser and hot-head. Though Hawke is great and has an obvious chemistry with Ruffalo, his character can’t help feeling skimpy in comparison to Brian who’s near-ridiculous dependency on drugs and slowly slipping control make for striking viewing.

Beyond character study, it’s difficult to stay entirely engrossed at many points in the film, so you can’t help but wish there had been just a little more of the action promised by the posters. This is a film focused on showing the behind the scenes of crime and very rarely the actual act. It’s a film about the people involved in crime and its impact on their lives, rather than a glorified mess of bullets and chaos.

What Doesn’t Kill You plays out like Goodfellas crossed with Boondock Saints minus the action and humour.  Goodman does a great job of incepting a mood for Boston that carries on throughout, ensuring this is a crime film very much tied to its locale. Overall its shot in a formulaic manner, but there’s a few good moments that show an ability with image construction that should have been put to more use: one particular scene showing a night-time assassination is gruelling in its realistic apathy, but gorgeous in all its snow blown shadowy splendour. Still a lack of startling shots isn’t exactly a huge issue, Goodman is to be commended on an entirely grounded, unpretentious portrayal of crime.

Not a show stopping piece of film, but definitely a good one marred only by the false expectations riled up thanks to bad marketing. What Doesn't Kill You is a character film, driven by great writing and great performances; it’s realistic and feels like a confession of sorts, a man’s life story in all its sordid, unfortunate, but eventually hopeful sentiment.

★★★½☆

Scott Clark

FF2013 Review - No One Lives

Rating:
18
Release Date:
24th August 2013 (FF) 23rd September 2013 (UK DVD)
Director:
Ryuhei Kitamura
Cast:
Luke Evans, Gary Grubbs, Adelaide Clemens
Buy:
No One Lives [DVD]
Ryuhei Kitamura’s second American film (his first was the Vinnie Jones starrer The Midnight Meat Train), No One Lives harks back to his early work – the Super 8 short Down to Hell and his most famous flick Versus – putting strangers together in a pitched battle against a common enemy.

The film starts out very much along the typical backwoods/hillbilly slant, as a gang of robbers screw up their latest mansion heist and, to make up for their loses, kidnap a couple in a car instead. It looks as though we’re seemingly headed down the torture route, with our villains set to get the information they need from the couple by any means necessary. However Kitamura flips the script and what the robbers, and the audience, don’t realise is that driver is not exactly the shy retiring type – he’s actually a complete psychopath having, months earlier, killed fourteen students and kidnapped another, his victim locked up in the trunk of the very car the robbers have stolen! What comes next is a taut, gore-laden game of cat-and-mouse as psycho takes on psycho(s)…

No One Lives definitely marks a return to form for Ryuhei Kitamura. Right from the get-go there’s a strange air about the film, an edge if you will, that is at the same time both unsettling and intriguing. It’s this atmosphere which hooks the audience in – that is until a stunning scene in which Evans’ psycho climbs out from inside the body of one of the gang. From then on you know this is not going to be anything but a complete bloodbath and the film jumps from intriguing to balls-to-the-wall exciting!

If Kitamura is a director on form, then Evans is most certainly an actor on form. Having only seen Evans in good-guy roles in films such as The Three Musketeers, Immortals and Clash of the Titans, it was a revelation to see him channel his dark side as the quiet and unassuming serial killer. Evans is in fact key to the films success, foregoing your typical “crazed psycho” OTT performance for a restrained characterisation that reminded me a lot of the quiet mania Anthony Perkins brought to his role as Norman Bates in Hitchcock’s Psycho. Besides Evans, it’s America Olivio – probably best remembered by horror fans as the dick snapping killer of Neighbor – who shines, bringing a strength to her character that’s more typically found in the heroic final girl of horror, not a “villain” (though given Evans’ character no one in the film can really be called hero or villain – Kitamura self-assuredly paints this film with many shades of grey).

Blurring the line between action film and horror, No One Lives is very much of the B-movie mold, blending elements of exploitation movie and action film to perfection (and I do mean perfection). It is also that very rare breed of horror film, in so much as it successfully captures all that is great about the genre in a fast-moving, well-paced films that reminds me of the great works of Eric Red – in particular his classic The Hitcher, with Evans’ unnamed psycho very much in the mold of Rutger Hauer’s; and his dark, twisted relationship with his victim Emma (Clemens) recalling that between Hauer and C. Thomas Howell. And I don’t think there’s any greater praise I can give Kitamura’s film than that.

★★★★★

Review by Phil Wheat of Nerdly.co.uk