Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

The story of Cinderella has been adapted countless times, from the iconic Disney animation to Kenneth Branagh’s recent live action take. You may be less familiar with Three Wishes for Cinderella, a Czech-German co-production seen as a Christmas classic in Central Europe; until now, the only home video releases have been of poor image quality and poorly subtitled, but this new restoration will change that.

Václav Vorlícek’s film gives a different take on the Cinderella story to what we’re used to, inspired by the Czech version of the folklore and by twentieth-century feminism. Libuse Safránková’s Cinderella is still an orphan, but she uses her own wits rather than relying on fairy assistance to nab Pavel Trávnícek’s Prince before her step-sister does (OK, she does have three magic hazelnuts, but they merely provide her with the outfits necessary to disguise herself).

This is a Cinderella who, disguised as a huntsman, proves herself the best shot of them all. But she cares for animals and stands up to authority, preventing the Prince from killing a deer. She’s also a Cinderella who plays hard to get, leaving the ball of her own free will because she won’t marry the Prince until he’s worked out her real identity. All the noble girls in the land compete bitterly for his attention, but this Prince is left fawning over the peasant girl with a constant ability to outwit him.

As well as the chemistry brought about by this subversive take on the central figures, there’s a wealth of delightful supporting characters, from the cruel and socially ambitious stepmother to the wagon driver who himself is in love with Cinderella – these performances are carefully balanced to make an impression and entertain us without straying into the excessive.

The other real appeal of this film is its take on the fairy tale landscape, beautifully crafted from the forests and castles of Bohemia and Saxony. Again, this is no gaudy Disney cartoon; rather, Vorlícek presents a very deliberate contrast between the muted whites, greys and browns of the forested landscape and the bright colours worn by the royal family and their associates. The presence of all the region’s fauna – deer, owls, foxes, even a funny dog – is highlighted throughout, building upon the warm atmosphere that gives the film a very festive feel.

And that dichotomy of styles is what makes Three Wishes For Cinderella such an entrancing watch – it’s at once a classic fairy tale movie, with beautiful settings and heartwarming romance, and a subversive, feminist revision of that well-worn tale, with a Cinderella who makes her own rules.  If your family has worn out the Disney DVDs, this may be the perfect Christmas gift to fill their space. 

Special Features: Appreciation by film historian Michael Brooke / 16-page booklet / Trailers

THREE WISHES FOR CINDERELLA (1973) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: VÁCLAV VORLÍCEK / SCREENPLAY: FRANTISEK PAVLÍCEK / STARRING: LIBUSE SAFRÁNKOVÁ, PAVEL TRÁVNÍCEK, CAROLA BRAUNBOCK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

This eight-part Swedish TV series shows that being a serial killer isn’t much fun. At the bidding of his hidden masters, Richard Forrester (Marek Oravec) runs his killing campaign over Christmas and he lives in a small caravan in the middle of a snow blanketed forest. No wonder he is so grumpy.

As the title sequence underlines, Richard is linked to images of angels indicating that he is on a heaven-sent mission to avenge the perceived failings of humanity. Certainly this series reveals a whole web of secrets and lies linked to the victims, their families and to a religious cult in the USA.

Criminal psychologist Inger Johanne Vik (Melinda Kinsman) is the stoney faced mother of two daughters. Her eldest daughter, Stina (Esmewralda Struwe) witnesses the first murder by Richard when they are staying at a hotel, but she is autistic and is unable to tell anyone about what she witnessed. Rather surprisingly, the murderer rushes to help save her from certain death not long after the event.

The murder of a female bishop, on Christmas Eve, draws Inger into the official police investigation but it is only when she discovers her daughter was the only witness to the previous murder that she fully commits to finding the murderer. This is difficult as her estranged husband is a bit useless at keeping an eye on the children when they come under his custody, and her car never wants to start. Fortunately, the handsome police detective Ingvar Nymann (Henrik Norlen) comes to her rescue and they both track down the murderer and his twisted motives.

The series based on Norwiagian Anne Holt’s novel ‘Frukta inte’ (Fear Not), opens out to look at other characters including a highly successful businessman, an Afghan refugee living in the underground railway system, a controversial artist and the secrets of the slaughtered bishop’s life. Could Marcus Stahl (Magnus Roosman) the homosexual businessman be the prime target for the killer? Or is he the killer, when he is caught with a murdered body just outside his office building.

There are plenty of twists and turns in the story, and the full reasons for the murders are enticingly teased out until the last scene. All-in-all a satisfying series that ticks all the boxes but doesn’t quite achieve the above average grade. Nonetheless this writer would watch another sequel series, just to see if Inger gets her car fixed.

MODUS / CERT: 15 / STARRING: MELINDA KINNAMAN, HENRIK NORLEN, MAREK ORAVEK, KRISTER HENRIKSSON, MAGNUS ROOSMANN / RELEASE DATE: 19TH DECEMBER 2016

To put The Man from Laramie down as a simple western, would be a generalisation. The Western, arguably the most prolific genre in the history of cinema, has survived in some form or another for years now. Classic tales from the frontier, on the last boundary between the new age and the old one, have been popular since the 1930’s. Anthony Mann’s 1955 so-called Psychological Western exhibits all the signs of a sub-genre which aimed to tackle deeper thematic issues than its straight-nosed “Cowboys and Indians” counterparts. This wasn’t always as bankable a concept.

For instance, take Charles Laughton’s Night of the Hunter, released the same year as The Man from Laramie, the Robert Mitchum-starring drama steeped itself in classic western imagery with a melodramatic Southern Gothic twist. Sadly, it bombed and Laughton never directed again. Mann didn’t suffer from that problem though since he seems far fonder of the traditional Western style than Laughton did. This is very much a Western of old, hiding a contemporary dialogue, it just plays out like a charming paperback thriller: family business, a wild-card deviant, small-town politics, and the mysterious stranger.

The Man from Laramie is as dour as you’d expect, full of corruption and senseless bouts of violence.  Alex Nicol’s turn as the spoilt sadistic son of a rancher is superb, and deserves a place up there with Mitchum’s pathological preacher in Night of the Hunter. Under all this, Mann orchestrates a tough-talking dialogue on arms dealing and gun violence. Stewart’s character is a reluctant gunslinger out for revenge on the man who sold weapons to the Apache warriors who killed his kid brother. It’s a tough message, that the dealer is as bad as the one who pulls the trigger, and seems disturbing in its depressing poignancy even to this day. Stewart was apparently deeply involved in the film’s conception, and had just returned from the War, so it’s not mad to assume he had a couple ideas about the nature of violence and the mechanics of war.

The Man from Laramie is as gorgeous as any Western, utilising the New Mexico landscape in all its barren beauty. The real treat, though, comes from Stewart’s typically charismatic turn, Nicol’s suitably foul one, and the story’s deep-seated discomfort with the inherent ignorance of arms dealing.

THE MAN FROM LARAMIE / CERT: U / DIRECTOR: ANTHONY MANN / SCREENPLAY: PHILIP YORDAN, FRANK BURT / STARRING: JAMES STEWART, ARTHUR KENNEDY, DONALD CRISP, CATHY O’DONNELL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Back in 2001, Stacey Peralta made the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys about how skateboarding had evolved into its own sport and how he and others came to be part of a professional team during the 1970s whose influence is still felt today. A few years later the biographical film Lords of Dogtown followed, written by Peralta and directed by Catherine Hardwicke (then following up her teen-shocker debut Thirteen and who would later direct the first Twilight film).

Upon its release Lords of Dogtown was considered something of a failure, many people preferring the documentary. As often happens of course, in the time since it has built quite a cult following. This seems to be mainly due to two things: the film’s place in skateboarding culture and the performance by Heath Ledger. So, after over a decade since it first came out, and with some distance from the documentary, do we have an opportunity now to rediscover a lost classic?

Sadly, no. Having said that, there’s many positives throughout. Ledger was undoubtedly a gifted actor (as well as a movie star) and his mercurial, melancholy performance as Skip lifts the film whenever he’s on screen. The main trio of skaters the film focuses on, Victor Rasuk as Tony Alva, Emile Hirsch as Jay Adams, and John Robinson as Peralta himself are convincing as the young men at the forefront of the next big step in the sport. They’re surrounded by an impressive cast made up of character players and famous faces like Johnny Knoxville.

Hardwicke directs the film with a real vigour. Carrying over a documentary feel to the skating set-pieces it really helps to try and understand the adrenalin these skaters got from each new discovery and development. There’s a good sense of time and place, most likely thanks to Peralta’s influence, and as their little subculture starts to become something big, the surreality of advertisers and money men intruding is communicated well.

Still, it’s a biographical sport film and despite the filmmaking creativity on show it’s ruthlessly slavish to that template. Things go well for the trio in different ways, they get bigger, they grow apart but still come back together at least one more time. There are little surprises in the way it gets there. Dogtown is well made and populated by good performances, but there’s nothing massively compelling about it. The pace fluctuates, and it just doesn’t hang together particularly well or draw you in beyond the surface deeper into the characters or what drives them.

Due to this it’s really about how much you’re into skateboarding or the history of the sport as to how much you’re likely to enjoy it. Overall, despite the many good points, we didn’t find it especially interesting in its own right as a film. But if you are a fan of skating, that interest is probably ramped up, so expect to add another point or maybe two to our rating.

LORDS OF DOGTOWN / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: CATHERINE HARDWICKE / SCREENPLAY: STACY PERALTA / STARRING: HEATH LEDGER, EMILE HIRSCH, JOHN ROBINSON / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

If there was an award for the most unnecessarily confusing horror film of the year, it would surely go to Abattoir. An interesting premise is taken to such ridiculously overwrought extremes as to become virtually unwatchable in the final act.

 

The strangest thing, though, is that director Darren Lynn Bousman has previously demonstrated with three of the Saw movies an ability to reign in some of the excess, while retaining a central story that is interesting despite horrific indulgence. Here, the intriguing opening act fails to develop into a worthwhile narrative as more and more exposition and plot are thrown into the bloated mix.

 

When her sister and family are killed by a stranger with no motive, real estate reporter – apparently, it’s a thing – Julia (Lowndes) decides to investigate. Accompanied by her on/off boyfriend Grady (Anderson), looking like a cross between Brad Pitt’s detective in Seven and an extra from Polanski’s Chinatown, she travels to the town of her birth to try and uncover the truth.

 

Without revealing too much in the way of spoilers, although we suspect you won’t care, someone is instigating random acts of murder and then “collecting” the room in which the murder occurs.

 

Through weary complication, this relates in some way to Julia’s past, and the fact she was given up for adoption becomes increasingly relevant. Or it would if the story made even a modicum of sense. Too many elements from too many other horror films serve only to confuse the central theme as the most interesting elements of Abattoir are ignored or simply forgotten about.

 

A faint whiff of film noir fades as Bousman moves towards a story more akin to a crossover of Hot Fuzz and The Stepford Wives, as a variation on a cult is revealed. The central bad guy, who is given what is supposed to be a sympathetic backstory, is more pantomime villain than the true evil he is occasionally portrayed as. And as for the Abattoir itself; the final few scenes become more an assault on the senses than a satisfactory conclusion to a horror film.

 

Sadly, Abattoir is little more than a frustrating disappointment. After the opening, Bousman never appears to have full control as to where his film is heading. The result is more mess than macabre, and while it will likely find a home in the depths of Netflix, it is not a film worth seeking out.

 

ABATTOIR / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: DARREN LYNN BOUSMAN / SCREENPLAY: CHRISTOPHER MONFETTE / STARRING: DAYTON CALLIE, JESSICA LOWNDES, LIN SHAYE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Four years after the demonic clown went to (and then escaped from) Hell, Killjoy (Trent Haaga) is back with his fifth (really!) instalment of murderous adventures!  Having escaped the clutches of Beelzebub at the end of 2012’s imaginatively-named Killjoy Goes To Hell, the eponymous foul-mouthed clown has shacked up on earth with his collection of freakish sidekicks and is now the host of his very own web series, “Killjoy’s Psycho Circus”. However, it’s not all fun and games – he’s slowly turning mortal, his girlfriend has left him, and Beelzebub is scouring the planet in a super-sized spaceship in an attempt to track down Killjoy and take his soul back to Hell with the help of the “Six Psychos”…

 

The incredible tour de force that is Trent Haaga will be a familiar face to fans of this sort of nonsense, not only from his earlier appearances in the previous Killjoy movies (except for the first one) but also from Troma classics Terror Firmer and Tromeo & Juliet. If you don’t know who he is, think of a slightly less rubbery but much more sweary Jim Carrey and you’re half way there. Haaga always puts the effort in no matter how dodgy the material he’s given to work with might be, and he’s pretty much the only thing that makes Psycho Circus watchable.

 

Remember that opening paragraph where we outlined the story for you? That probably takes up about 15-20 minutes of the actual film, with the other 60 minutes spent on scenes that in theory should tie everything together but in reality rarely hit their marks.  Attempts at breaking the fourth wall fall flat (Trent Haaga appearing as a guest on Killjoy’s talk show, effectively therefore interviewing himself), the jokes generally aren’t up to much, and the budget seems to have been so low that any parts of the film that were intended to gross out the audience just aren’t gross enough to get a reaction.

 

As far as trashy movies go, Psycho Circus isn’t exactly bad, despite how we’ve probably made it sound. You wouldn’t go into this sort of thing without knowing what you’re letting yourself in for (chances are you’d only even know this film existed if you were a fan of the genre already), but even those of us with relatively low expectations still have some kind of standards. It would be ridiculous to complain about the bad acting, ropey CGI, and crappy script because that kind of stuff is par for the course, but it would have been nice if there’d been a little more going on here. The battle with the Six Psychos, for instance, lasts about a minute and consists of nothing more than a shootout with some CGI lasers resulting in a few painted-on scorch marks. One of the cast members is clearly on the verge of cracking up with laughter during his death scene, which doesn’t help matters. It’s a shame, but the whole thing all just feels a little bit disappointing.

 

You get the feeling that this would have been amazing as a half-hour short, but there just wasn’t enough content to stretch to a whole feature. In the grand scheme of things, it definitely isn’t the worst of the no-budget disasterpieces out there, but it’s far from one of the best. When a solid performance from one of the genre’s leading men can’t save you, there unfortunately can’t be much else to recommend.

 

KILLJOY’S PSYCHO CIRCUS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JOHN LECHAGO / STARRING: TRENT HAAGA, VICTORIA DEMARE, AL BURKE, TAI CHAN NGO, VICTORIA LEVINE, STEVE CARDWELL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (DVD/VOD)

While watching Ritual, roughly around the hour mark, you’ll feel an overwhelming sense of relief. You’ll believe the worst is over, you’ll think the terror has reached its conclusion, you’ll hope for no more suffering – but you’ll be wrong…there’s at least another 20 minutes left!

When John (Dewanto) wakes half-buried in a shallow grave in some dense woods, his memory gone and his phone devoid of contacts, fear understandably sets in. When he then discovers a cabin where it seems his wife was murdered and his children abducted he panics, only to discover that he himself is now being stalked by a mystery assailant.

As a summary, the above makes the flimsy, lazily elongated plot appear more interesting than it actually is. Instead of what could have been a taught, tense thriller Ritual descends into a weary chase movie where you never really care who is chasing whom, or why. Random scenes of unpleasantness, presumably designed to shock an audience increasingly immune to blood and gore, smack of desperation and an effort to add depth to the narrative, but serve more as oddly implanted cut scenes from different films.

Terrible as the plot is, though, it is a high point when compared with the performances. It is hard to believe any one member of the cast is a professional actor, so horribly and unenthusiastically delivered are the lines of dialogue. Granted there is little to work with, but the impression you get is that everyone is simply going through the motions in order to get off the set and make it home as quickly as possible. It is rumoured Ritual was filmed in just 9 days. Given that, and we’re speculating here, approximately 2 hours was spent on the script (and that includes making copies), and allowing time for sleep, it’s fair to say writer and director Joko Anwar has achieved something in managing to make a film in the first place. True, there are some impressive visuals but in ignoring filmmaking fundamentals, Anwar has wasted a real opportunity.

So back to those final 20 minutes. In order to avoid spoilers, we will not reveal the content of that final act, but it feels like the filmmakers themselves were confused. While most horror-literate viewers will have picked up where things were headed early on, it appears Anwar perhaps did not. Instead, there is an exposition heavy conclusion that seems to go on and on and on…

Indonesian cinema is without doubt on the rise, but as with all things, there will be good and bad. Ritual is one of the latter.

RITUAL / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JOKO ANWAR / STARRING: RIO DEWANTO, HANNAH AL RASHID, MARSHA TIMOTHY / RELEASE DATE: 26TH DECEMBER

James DeMonaco expands his Purge franchise to a trilogy with the timely The Purge: Election Year. Every year in the US, for one twelve-hour period, all crime is legal. This is called The Purge. Senator Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) had her family murdered during a Purge and now runs for presidency to try to stop the national holiday. The current government want to stop her so they attempt to assassinate her at this year’s Purge. However, Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), who spared his son’s killer in The Purge: Anarchy, is now her head of security and is going to put his life on the line to protect the senator.

The Purge series is one of the more high concept current franchises in mainstream horror. The first film disappointed by not capitalising on this idea and was instead a limp and dull home invasion movie. The Purge: Anarchy raised things significantly by being hugely enjoyable with plenty of memorable images and a few interesting ideas thrown in. The Purge: Election Year sits somewhere in the middle. It does show some creativity and invention with a few arresting images that stick in the mind, such as “Purge” written in blood on the pillars of the Lincoln memorial, a middle-aged woman singing to herself sat on a bench while a corpse burns in front of her, or the killer teenage girls riding around in a lit-up car with Miley Cyrus’s Party in the USA blaring. But it’s bigger ideas are brought from Anarchy rather than really creating anything new itself; people prowl the night with guns and creatively decorated masks, and the rich gather up a selection of destitute people to kill for themselves, this time with a religious ceremony involved. Ultimately, Election Year is a chase movie as Roan and Barnes are pursued by militant Neo-Nazis, but it’s entertaining enough.

The characters are fine. Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War) continues his trajectory as the next big Hollywood action star. Joe Dixon (Mykelti Milliamson), Marcos (Joseph Julian Sortia) and Laney Rucker (Betty Garbiel) are the working class element of the film who get to mingle with the rich senator and show that there are good people just trying to get by. They won’t stick with you but you care enough about them to hope they get to hold their own.

Carrying on with the second film’s socio economic message (The Purge is a scheme invented by the rich to kill the working class and migrant community while making themselves more money and allowing them to have a little murderous fun in the process), it really hits the political message hard. Election Year is of course timed to coincide with this year’s US election, but the filmmakers were probably counting their blessings as the Trump frenzy has grown out of control. You can imagine Trump sitting at home watching the film and getting a few ideas with a grin on his handful of old ham face.

The Purge: Election Year is better than The Purge but isn’t as good as The Purge: Anarchy. It lacks as much invention as the central idea can conjure but it is a largely enjoyable action horror with flashes of creativity to keep things interesting. It’s still not as scary as this year’s US election though.

THE PURGE: ELECTION YEAR / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JAMES DEMONACO / STARRING: FRANK GRILLO, ELIZABETH MITCHELL, MYKELTI WILLIAMSON, JOSEPH JULIAN SORIA, BETTY GABRIEL / RELEASE DATE: DECEMBER 26TH