Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Love Live is about a group of girls who find out that their school is due to close. The school can be saved if attendance numbers raise enough to justify its existence. The girls plan to cash in on a recent trend of popular school based girl bands in Japan to bring attention to the school and drive up applications. The group (known as “Muse”) starts off with only three members but as the series progresses; more characters are introduced until Muse has nine members.

The characters are fun and energetic as a group but sadly not all of the characters really get the time they need in order to be fleshed out. All the girls to join, past the first episode, do get an episode on why they want to join but afterwards a couple of the characters more or less fade into the background. This is a shame because the characters that do receive the attention in terms of episode time and plot are all the better for it. We see the motivations behind their actions as the series proceeds and we get a sense of who they are as people, and what it is that they hope to get out of the group. These characters are strong enough that we find ourselves really rooting for Muse to succeed.

To its credit, the show doesn’t shy away from depicting what they have to go through in order to succeed. The characters are all shown to work very hard for their success, to the extent that we see the toll it is having on one of them, and none of their victories ever feel like they have been handed to them for the sake of a happy ending. This means that when the characters do succeed, we know that they have earned it and we know what we took to get there. The mood of the show never feels forced, so we are able to enjoy the few sad moments just as much as the more frequent, uplifting moments. Love Live is never sickly sweet; it is touching in its sincerity. Equally Love Live has moments of genuine sadness, not cheap melodrama. Love Live is the anime equivalent of a really good piece of chocolate cake. It is sweet, fun to consume and while it is still just cake, it does have more substance to it than other desserts.

It doesn’t manage to work on all of its characters as it should but they are all entertaining, be it individually or as a group, and the plot never fails to find them interesting stuff to do. Viewers will find themselves glad that they watched it. On a side note; if you are looking for a lot of DVD extras you will be disappointed. If you aren’t worried however, you will find a lot to like in the series itself.

LOVE LIVE SEASON 1 / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: KIRA BUCKLAND, CAITLIN GLASS, ERICA HARLACHER, MARIEVE HERINGTON, XANTHE HUYNH, ERICA LINDBECK, FAYE MATA, ERICA MENDEZ, LAURA POST  / RELEASE DATE:  OUT NOW

Goro the Assassin (Tetsuya Watari) is a yakuza hitman haunted by his past. He is a charismatic loner, wandering the rain-swept streets in his black leather jacket, his knife never far from his hand. Over the course of the six movies in this collection, Goro uses that knife frequently and with convincing effect. Neon streetlights glinting off ludicrously long steel blades have rarely looked this good.

As we discover in the first film – Outlaw: Gangster VIP – Goro is a product of his damaged childhood. He is a small boy when his mother dies, and when his baby sister becomes ill shortly afterwards, none of the townsfolk will help. His sister’s death coupled with his neighbour’s cruelty sets young Goro on a course that will make him a legendarily feared gangster but no matter where he goes, he cannot hide. His reputation precedes him. His life is one brutal knife fight after another and Goro knows that death can never be far away. Still, despite receiving some horrific wounds, Goro always seems to survive until tomorrow.

The Outlaw Gangster series was notable for its gritty social realism, and for daring to portray a violent criminal as a heroic protagonist. These are remarkable movies. Yes, there is a formula that can become repetitive and the quality of the films does – very slowly – decline over the course of the series, but this was a fascinating period in Japanese cinema when directors and screenwriters were paying attention to what was happening in the West and layering those elements into their projects, while still staying true to their own culture. Goro is an almost Shakespearean character with an intense Marlon Brando quality. The women who love him (and that hardly ever turns out well) are either demure bystanders to the Yakuza lifestyle or gangster’s molls, but they still have a valuable part to play in the stories. And the gangsters are colourful – the elderly bosses swagger about in kimonos, puffing cigars and casually watching while their rivals beg for forgiveness and chop off their own fingers, and the snappily dressed goons are determined to look their best, even when smashing up a rival gang’s bar. In many ways, it’s all quite cartoonish, except there is nothing cartoon-like about the violence – the street fights are brutal, faces are slashed and limbs are broken and the blood flows brightly. Check out the opening of Outlaw: Black Dagger when Goro impressively lays waste to an entire street-full of Yakuza, while barely seeming to break a sweat. True, the killings aren’t as visceral as we’re used to (these films were made at the tail-end of the 1960s) but that hardly matters when the fight choreography is so dazzlingly effective.

This is the first time the Outlaw: Gangster VIP movies have been available in the West and they look and sound absolutely terrific. The extras aren’t vast (although Jasper Sharp’s audio commentary on the first film and Kevin Gilvear’s impressive visual essay more than make up for that short-fall) but, with a series as good as this, special features aren’t important. These are wonderful films and very highly recommended.

OUTLAW: GANGSTER VIP COLLECTION / CERT: 18 / DIRECTORS: TOSHIO MASUDA, KEIICHI OZAWA, MIO EZAKI / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: TETSUYA WATARI, CHEIKO MATSUBARA, IZUMI ASHIKAWA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Following their mother’s death, three sons are summoned back to the small country village they left behind many years earlier. Each of the sons is battling his own demons – the eldest, Raffaele (Philippe Noiret), is a Judge living in Rome. He is currently investigating a terrorism case and has received death threats. The second son, Nicola (Michele Placido), is a factory worker with a young daughter whose marriage has recently collapsed. He is also involved in an industrial dispute that is threatening to become violent. The third son is Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno), a frustrated idealist who works as a counsellor at a correctional institute for young boys.

Returning to their parent’s farmhouse forces the three men to confront their past, as well as their futures. In very different ways, they have each become disconnected from the simpler people they used to be – Raffaele dreams about (or maybe has a premonition of) his own assassination, and Nicola imagines reconciling with his estranged wife. In the most striking sequence, Rocco fantasies about rescuing the children of Naples from violence and corruption. This is one moment of jarring surrealism in a story which is, at its heart, a gently paced, gorgeously photographed meditation on life, love and loss.

Meanwhile, the son’s elderly father (Charles Vanel) is quietly coming to terms with his wife’s death, recalling the memories of when they were first married, and – together with his young granddaughter Marta (Marta Zoffoli) – he finally allows himself to grieve.

In many ways, Francesco Rosi’s Three Brothers is an anti-film. Nothing much seems to happen and yet, at the same time, everything happens. There is no real story and no real resolution, except maybe for the father’s character, in a final freeze-frame that is as heart-warming as it is heartbreaking, whereas for his three sons the future remains unknown. But there isn’t a single frame of Three Brothers that isn’t scintillating, and intellectually, as well as visually, rewarding. Rosi’s deceptively sparse screenplay (co-written with Tonino Guerra) has a lot to say about the nature of violence, our loss of innocence, the complexity of love, and how – once we leave home – we are forever changed, and can never really come back again.

It is a beautiful cinematic experience, a genuine work of art, and this new Blu-ray presentation (which also includes an archival interview with Rosi) is stunning. Movies like Three Brothers should be cherished and celebrated. Don’t miss the opportunity to see it, looking and sounding better than ever before.

THREE BROTHERS (1981) / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: FRANCESCO ROSI / SCREENPLAY: FRANCESCO ROSI, TONINO GUERRA / STARRING: PHILIPPE NOIRET, MICHELE PLACIDO, MEZZOGIORNO, CHARLES VANEL, MARTA ZOFFOLI / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Despite supporting roles in films such as Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and 21 Jump Street, Brie Larson wasn’t a big name in Hollywood until early this year, when she beat strong competition to win the Best Actress Oscar for Room. With the amount of films out around awards season, however, it’s possible you missed this indie drama from Frank director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Emma Donoghue – thankfully, it’s now available on DVD.

Based on Donoghue’s novel, itself inspired by the Josef Fritzl case, Room doesn’t have the most cheery of concepts – Larson plays Joy “Ma” Newsome, who was abducted at seventeen and now lives in a squalid shed as a sex slave to Old Nick (Bridgers). But the film rightfully doesn’t linger too long on Nick’s abuse of Joy, rightfully refusing to give reasons for the captor’s actions or even to show his face for longer than is necessary. Instead it’s told from the perspective of Jack (Tremblay), Joy’s son – and Nick’s too, though she refuses to let the five-year-old see Nick as a father. Jack believes that their home, ‘Room’, is all there is. The people on TV are magic, and the blue through the skylight is Space. Jack and his Ma do daily exercises, bake birthday cakes, and get on with life in Room. Sometimes they scream to the aliens together, but none have ever responded. It’s all routine. And then one day, Joy decides it’s time to tell Jack the truth about ‘The World’.

It’s not too much of a spoiler (hey, it’s on the poster) to reveal that, at some point in the film, Joy and Jack escape Room – and the sequence in which they do is knuckle-chewingly tense. Life in The World isn’t easy, though – having never known anywhere but Room, Jack finds himself overwhelmed by the onslaught of new people and places, while the pressure of helping him adjust takes its toll on Joy, as do awkward family reunions and the prying media.

Yes, Room can be a tough watch. But it’s never grim for long, balancing the horrors of Joy’s ordeal with the, well, joy of Jack’s curiosity and readjustment. The emotional ups and downs are numerous, yet perfectly handled by Donoghue’s touching script and Abrahamson’s sensitive direction. The performances are flawless, too; while Larson’s Oscar was well deserved, Room is Jack’s story, and Jacob Tremblay is that rare thing – a child actor who convinces with a full range of emotions and hits all the right notes. He was eight when this was shot. Eight! 

Room isn’t easy teatime viewing, but it is a stunning film that takes a horrific yet all-too-believable crime and gives the victims a voice. It’s tough but ultimately uplifting. If you missed it in cinemas, pick up the DVD. 

Extras: Featurettes / Commentary

ROOM / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: LENNY ABRAHAMSON / SCREENPLAY: EMMA DONOGHUE / STARRING: BRIE LARSON, JACOB TREMBLAY, JOAN ALLEN, SEAN BRIDGERS, WILLIAM H. MACY / RELEASE DATE: MAY 9TH

Just as a large ferry comes to dock at the port of Seyðisfjörður, Iceland, the torso of a body is recovered from the sea by local fishermen. Who’s body is it, and was the person killed and dismembered on the ship? Mixed with this murder mystery, the ten-part series begins with a flashback to seven years earlier when a fire destroys an abandoned factory and kills a young woman. Her boyfriend, Hjörtur, who briefly left her alone there, has since been regarded as the perpetrator of the fire even though he was badly burnt in his attempt to rescue her.

Making things more complex, a storm blows in trapping the ferry and the township from physical contact with the outside world. A crime investigation team can’t fly in from Reykjavik, so the local chief of police, Andri Olafsson, and two junior officers attempt to track down the murderer. Their task isn’t made any easier when the torso is stolen, and their prime suspect proves to be a handful when he is locked in the small local jail.

In the ever-increasing storm that encases these characters, the plot slithers around like a python at a pole dancing competition. There is the storyline about the port being expanded to become a stopping off point for Chinese cruise ships, making the local politicians and businessmen giddy with the prospect of fat profits. Their greedy plans are being scuppered by Guðmundur a local man who doesn’t want to sell his land for this development, and not surprisingly this leads to fatal consequences.

Rögnvaldur a wheelchair-bound man, watches many of the events in the township through his telescope, which is suggestive of Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Then there is the ferry captain, Soren Carlsen, who isn’t very helpful with the murder investigation because he is involved with a Lithuanian people smuggling gang, and, of course, Andri’s home life is nearly as complicated as the murder investigation.

The town trapped by storms and secrets is a marvellous setting for a killer on the loose story. Andri (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) is a great bear of a man who strides through the frozen landscape using all his physical and mental strength to cope with this living nightmare. As a viewer, you have to be equally up to the task of following all the plotlines, made more difficult for those of us who have to read the sub-titles, but it’s well worth it.

TRAPPED / CERT: 15 / STARRING: ÓLAFUR DARRI ÓLAFSSON, IIMUR KRISTJANSDOTTIR, INGVAR EGGERT SIGUROSSON, NINA DOGG FILIPPUSDOTTIR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

It’s over 30 years since the fiendishly enjoyable Gremlins, one of the best-loved creature features of all time, was unleashed on the cinema-going public. As directed by Joe Dante, it took a fortune at the box office, spawning an ever-decreasing return of imitations and rip offs. Dante himself hit the big time with his Jaws rip off, Piranha, so fair dos.

Ghoulies was actually in production at the same time as Gremlins but only got the money to complete the film from its backers once Gizmo and pals turned into a massive hit, with the consequence that this low budget horror comedy made an unexpected small fortune, even spawning several sequels. But with a new release on Blu-ray, is it actually any good all these years on? 

When a Satanic ritual in which the occult leader tries to sacrifice his own baby son goes wrong, baby Jonathan is rescued by Wolfgang (Erasherhead‘s Jack Nance) and raised knowing nothing of his late father and his supernatural leanings. But when he inherits the very mansion this all happened in, and uncovers his late father’s box of occult belongings, he gets more and more obsessed with demonic activity, until he not only summons the beastly little ghoulies of the title, but the corpse of Dad too… All of this on the night you throw your housewarming party! Can his girlfriend and sundry young stoned and horny teen guests get through the night without getting grabbed by the ghoulies, and save their friend?

It wasn’t until the director of Ghoulies, Luca Bercovici, first laid eyes on the puppets that would be his monsters a few weeks before the start of the shoot that he realised they’d never get away with the original intention of making this a full on terror fest, so decided to inject the whole enterprise with some comedy. Good job too, as the best thing about the film is the sometimes intended, sometimes not, laughs. However, such changes so close to the shoot also means that the film feels unbalanced, with tonal shifts in plot and performances. The cast do a decent job, some hamming it up gloriously, (there’s a massively camp fight scene between burly bearded Jack Nance and mincing corpse Michael Des Barres, which looks like a gay bear and drag queen brawl in a revue show gone wrong), whilst others take things more seriously. The script sticks to its central premise quite tightly but fails to provide the kind of filler content which allows the plot and characters to feel real and, therefore, empathetic.

The creatures themselves are of the ‘so bad it’s good’ variety, clearly hand puppet creations but nicely animated, with quirky design and enjoyable mischievousness. Lovely also to see the late Tamara De Treaux getting some on screen time just a few years after having worked on, or more accurately inside, E.T.

The film gathered much of its cult following via VHS sales in the mid 80s, but what was fun as a teen then doesn’t necessarily make for great viewing now. There’s a reason we still enjoy watching Gremlins, and that’s a quality script and great direction amongst other things, whereas Ghoulies only just avoids being bollocks.

GHOULIES (1984) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: LUCA BERCOVICI / SCREENPLAY: LUCA BERCOVICI, JEFERY LEVY / STARRING: LISA PELIKAN, PETER LIAPIS, MICHAEL DES BARRES, JACK NANCE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Nothing we like more than a Pam Grier Blaxploitation movie with a well-funky soundtrack. But this soundtrack isn’t that funky. It’s a bit dull actually. Now we think about it, Ms. Grier is practically the only black actor here and we’re in the Philippines rather than a New York ghetto. So not actually Blaxploitation at all then? Ah, we’re in a women’s prison with extended shower scenes. “Women in prison film” it is then. Oh, they’ve escaped at the 20-minute mark. Must be Sexploitation then. Not enough nudity? OK, this is definitely some kind of exploitation flick, even if we’re not sure what it is. It matters not.

The feisty Lee (Grier) and statuesque Karen (Markov) are the titular women prisoners, who arrive at a nameless tropical all-women jail run by sadistic Densmore (Borden) and much more sensible Logan (Burton). Lee is in for some kind of drug dealing and Karen is a somewhat unlikely revolutionary. Densmore spies on the inmates in the showers while she masturbates; Logan tells her off and it turns out the two jailers are having a lesbian relationship themselves. Densmore tries it on with both Lee and Karen and manages to smack Lee in the face while doing so (and anyone who does that to Pam Grier is almost certainly not going to make it to the closing credits). So with all this set up, they get transferred to another prison but make a break for it when Karen’s revolutionary chums attack the bus and both Densmore and Logan get killed in the fight. So much for the very-nearly-intriguing set-up.

Lee and Karen then challenge the continuity editor by making their escape across the island chained together while fighting, arguing and occasionally disguising themselves as implausible nuns. Meanwhile, Lee’s old boss is after her (as she’s got forty grand of his cash) and Karen’s rebels want her back so she can do whatever it was she used to do for them. The police chief gets a cowboy criminal involved (Sid Haig – Hooray!) and at some point Pam Grier gets to deliver the immortal line: “Some jive-ass revolution don’t mean shit to me.” We love you Pam.

Without any spoilers, that’s about it. Total nonsense and politically incorrect nonsense at that. However, there is something compellingly entertaining about it all, largely thanks to the charisma of Grier and the always-watchable Haig, even if they don’t share any scenes. In fact, Grier and Markov don’t really share many scenes with the other main players at all after the prison opening. There is definitely a sense that they started to make one film and then it sort of accidentally blundered into several others but who cares? This is long before Pam started appearing in award nominated fare. You already know if this one’s your cup of tea.

Incidentally, does anyone know how tall Margaret Markov is? We like to research these things but we drew a blank. We’re plumping for “very”.

Special Features:  Audio commentary with filmmaker Andrew Leavold / White Mama Unchained: An interview with star Margaret Markov / Sid Haig’s Filipino Adventure: An interview with star Sid Haig / The Mad Director of Blood Island: A previously unseen archive interview with director Eddie Romero / trailer / gallery featuring promotional images and the original press book

BLACK MAMA WHITE MAMA (1973) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: EDDIE ROMERO / SCREENPLAY: H. R. CHRISTIAN / STARRING: PAM GRIER, MARGARET MARKOV, SID HAIG, LYNN BORDEN, LAURIE BURTON, ZALDY ZSCHORNACK, EDDIE GARCIA, ALONA ALGRE, DONDO FERNANCO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

While Universal studios’ classic horror cycle is often said to have ended in 1945, when Count Dracula, the Wolfman, Invisible Man and Frankenstein’s Monster all teamed up in Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, the studio did add one more classic monster to their roster in 1951 in the form of the aquatic Creature From The Blacklagoon. Originally released in 3D, five decades before Avatar revived the Fifties cinema gimmick, the Creature also paved the way for many of today’s most popular man-in-a-rubber-suit beasts, most obviously Ridley Scott’s Xenomorph and later the Predator.

While the premise of a missing link between man and sea animals living in the Amazon is absurd, and the film’s Creature theme is done to death, the stylish horror film still has the power to entertain despite the rubber suit, which has dated better than most science fiction films from the era of giant insects and alien blobs. The fossilised hand of a half human-aquatic creature, found at the beginning of the film, echoes Universal’s Mummy series from the ‘40s, and the story of unrequested love between the Creature and Kay Lawrence (Juie Adams) strongly echoes that of Karloff’s Adath Bay and reincarnated Egyptian princess Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann).

Accompanying the classic film, that spawned two sequels as well as an abandoned remake written by Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale, is an excellent making of documentary that also covers the sequels, Revenge of The Creature and The Creature Walks Among Us. There is also an informative DVD commentary provided by film historian Tom Weaver. Unfortunately, these extras despite being excellent have been available for years on older DVD sets. If you have never owned any of the previous releases, however, this DVD is a must watch for classic monster fans.

THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JACK ARNOLD / SCREENPLAY: HARRY ESSEX, ARTHUR A. ROSS / STARRING: RICHARD CARLSON, JULIE ADAMS, RICHARD DENNING, BEN CHAPMAN, RICOU BROWNING / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Aired back in a time when classic sci-fi shows were constantly getting reimagined, Bionic Woman was intended to the perfect reimagining for today’s modern audiences, plus it had one of the producers of the revived Battlestar Galactica series helming it in David Eick. However, this series ended up getting swamped with many problems behind the scenes due to low ratings and the 2007-08 Writer’s Strike halting the series’ production, all of which resulted in the reboot being cancelled and scrapped after only eight episodes (ouch!). But was it really deserved? To be honest, yes.

The main issue this series suffers from the most is that it’s all incoherent as hell with the storytelling, writing and characterisation being rather poorly done. There are so many plot strands involving certain characters, it’s almost as if the series doesn’t quite know how to do all of them justice, and as a result, those plotlines went absolutely nowhere and that only made it more frustrating than it needed to be. Nothing happened at all in the series, with no real plot or character development, although some stuff does happen, yet you would have to have your expectations set so low in order to be surprised and appreciate it. You do have the concept of bionic enhancement here and having an ordinary woman placed in an extraordinary circumstance, yet you never really buy into any of it because none of the characters are interesting or compelling, none of the dialogue is any good, and a lot of the actors involved look like as if they were just phoning it in. 

When you compare this to other shows like Battlestar Galactica, or even the short-lived Sarah Conner Chronicles, those sci-fi shows had characters to care about with storylines that were dense and gripping. Both The Six Million Dollar Man and the original Bionic Woman series also featured characters you could sympathise with, whilst having great storytelling, plus they were fun and adventurous, mainly because of the time period they were released. This revamp is much, much darker, almost trying to capture the same tone as both 24 and Alias, but the makers of this show seem to confuse murkiness with darkness, and that makes the show ultimately joyless as a result. Plus, each episode that deals with Jaime’s relationship with her kid sister began and ended in the exact same way, which makes it incredibly repetitive and it went nowhere, and those sections almost felt like watching another episode of The Hills.  This felt like a soap opera switching back and forth, as it mostly deals with Jaime’s dating life, working duties and family problems, which felt completely irrelevant. 

As the Bionic Woman herself, Michelle Ryan simply cannot hold the series as she delivers a performance that’s ultimately inert to say the least. Having been decent in both 4.3.2.1. and Cockneys vs. Zombies, here she just looks as though she has fallen flat on her face, failing to convince as an action hero, being all pouty and adopting a wonky American accent, but the question of whether this is down to Ryan’s performance or the writing and characterisation in general is debatable. The rest of the cast look bored out of their brains with both Miguel Ferrer and Will Yun Lee looking as though they’re there to pick up a cheque. The only one who stands out from the crowd is obviously Katee Sackhoff as bad-girl Sarah Corvus, who manages to ride that perfect balance of wickedness and vulnerability. Actually, why couldn’t the whole series be about her, as that would have made a far more interesting and compelling series than what’s on display here. 

Overall, this is a mostly failed attempt at relaunching a much-beloved franchise, being completely joyless, lacking in any real depth, resulting in many contrived and convoluted storylines that go nowhere, and suffers from having a bland leading actress. The action sequences are performed in solid fashion and it’s always fun watching Katee Sackhoff, but it’s easy to see why this never caught on with audiences. It looks like a project that was pulled in so many different directions, and it ends up being both disappointing and boring as a result. In fact, the short-lived and flawed rebooted V series had more going for it than this did. 

BIONIC WOMAN- THE COMPLETE SERIES (2007) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTORS: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: MICHELLE RYAN, MIGUEL FERRER, WILL YUN LEE, KATEE SACKHOFF / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW 

What happens when a hacker gains access to a young woman’s laptop and all the programmes and cameras associated with her online presence? Not a great deal to be honest, according to Branden Kramer’s debut feature – a virtual remake of his video short Webcam of three years prior. 

Emma (Pretty Little Liars’ Ashley Benson) has just relocated to New York after a breakup with her boyfriend Alex. Funded by her parents, she moves into a Brooklyn apartment and catches up with friend Nicole (Jones), before meeting potential boyfriend Mike (McGrory). So far so Friends – except that everything we see, we witness from the perspective of Emma’s laptop and mobile cameras. As such, we are being invited to identify with the stalker who has somehow got hold of Emma’s online persona – which might not be a major problem (Michael Powell infamously made the audience the perpetrator in Peeping Tom), but for Kramer’s insistence on verisimilitude at the expense of drama.

In order to make Ratter as “real” as possible, Kramer has sacrificed any attempt to make his film cinematic, not just forsaking the use of conventional camerawork in favour of pseudo found footage, but also forgoing much in the way of character development. By making Benson’s character a loner, ostensibly to have her on her own in her apartment throughout most of the film, Kramer has necessitated thinning out the personalities of the rest of the cast. When Emma describes her new man to Nicole as “funny”, you have to wonder if there was a take of their meeting that wasn’t used, as nobody in Ratter exhibits much in the way of either humour or individuality at any point, bar a short glimpse of Emma singing pop songs into her broom handle.

The issue is that it quickly becomes impossible to care whether Emma resolves her problem, whether Mike will make it safely to the end credits, or even whether the stalker himself gets caught or goes free. Indeed, without resorting to implicating the tutor, the ex-boyfriend, or even Mike or Nicole to any great degree, much of Ratter passes by without any kind of tension at all; there are a number of sequences of Emma baring flesh, almost always with a deal less salaciousness than you’d need to really start to think like the stalker is presumably supposed to be doing, so the last few minutes – as the film realises at last it needs to bring things to a head – come pretty much entirely out of nowhere.

Ratter is considerably more professionally made than many other films with similar plots, but much like its lead character, other than being rather pretty to look at, it’s basically an empty vessel.

Special Feature: deleted scenes

RATTER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: BRANDEN KRAMER / SCREENPLAY: BRANDEN KRAMER / STARRING: ASHLEY BENSON, MATT McGORRY, REBECCA NAOMI JONES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW