Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Everyone has heard of Charles Manson and his dysfunctional extended family, so it is to the credit of writer and director Brandon Slagle that his new film feels so fresh and interesting. Instead of focussing on the more seedy or tabloid-filling antics of one of America’s most notorious characters, House of Manson instead explores the psychology behind The Family; the influence Charles had over his followers and how that manifested itself so destructively.

Following Manson from childhood delinquency through to the orchestrated murders of Sharon Tate and others that resulted in his incarceration, Slagle’s film quietly observes the unfolding events with resigned trepidation. The strength of the film truly lies in the portrayal of Manson himself; Ryan Kiser’s performance is laced with menacing charisma, and as the viewer you find yourself drawn into his overwrought urban sermons that enraptured his followers. Under Slagle’s direction, the character is also unpleasantly sympathetic at times, presenting the irrational with heartfelt rationality and displaying a softness not often seen in other versions. That said, the brooding malevolence is never far from the surface and Kiser carries a psychopathic glint in his eye throughout.

The murders themselves do feel slightly separate from what has gone before, but this does add to the shocking nature of them. They are committed with a cold calculation that belies The Family’s initial sense of love, and the brutality is unflinching, explicit and much more in keeping with the outright horror this could have been. The film may not fully succeed in finding a balance but if nothing else is true to the source.

House of Manson also doesn’t become weighed down with procedure or protracted courtroom exposition. Slagle has chosen to use flashbacks to advance the narrative, with Manson discussing the case with a defence attorney as the framing device but this never becomes tedious or threatens to overpower the film itself. Instead, the story is allowed to develop through the characters. Alongside Kiser the supporting cast all inhabit their roles with conviction, with Devanny Pinn outstanding as the chilling Susan Atkins, whose involvement in the murders is both crucial and deeply upsetting.

For those familiar with the story, House of Manson won’t offer any new insights or conclusions but it does present a different slant on a character whose infamy shows no sign of abating. Slagle’s film is of interest though, built on excellent performances and subtle, almost documentary-like direction that draws the viewer in. For those not so familiar, this film is a worthy introduction to a character that warrants further investigation.

HOUSE OF MANSON / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BRANDON SLAGLE / STARRING: RYAN KISER, DEVANN PINN, TRISTAN RISK, ERIN MARIE HOGAN, SUZI LORRAINE / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 26TH

Julia (Jessica Cook) runs a business organising parties (because, you know, she likes to party so…) and her next job is to provide the catering and entertainment for a fancy soirée in the garden of a country estate. Her unenthusiastic assistant/lackey Paul (Matt O’Leary), who has barely concealed romantic ideals on Julia, is soon the least of her worries as killer wasps begin emerging from a hole in the ground and proceed to parasitically impregnate all the guests.

Most of the enjoyment to be found in Stung stems from the use of practical effects. Apart from some necessary CGI – for instance, when the winged baddies take to the air – the majority of the encounters involve animatronic heads and appendages, with plenty of blood thrown in for colour. While effective in creating a sense of realism (yes, we know it’s still giant wasps) and avoiding unconvincing CGI that frequents so many low budget films, it does give the confrontations a languid feel and lessens the tension somewhat. The wasps also look distinctly alien rather than terrestrial, with more than a passing resemblance to H. R. Giger’s most famous creation. These are harsh criticisms, though, and ones that the film generally overcomes through a likeable cheesy sensibility and a refusal to take itself too seriously. The fact that some of the beasties that emerge from the guests still have their host’s torn faces adorning their bodies is both a gory and humorous touch.

So far as the performances go, they are as you would expect from a film of this type. O’Leary is fun as the slacker Paul who discovers his inner hero and (hardly a spoiler) “gets the girl” in the end; quite literally. Lance Henriksen adds some genre weight as the local mayor more interested in the wine vintage and re-election than the bug problem at hand, and Clifton Collins Jr. has great fun as the weird son of the homeowner who was always going to come to a sticky end.

Stung is nothing more, nothing less than you would hope it to be. It is a fun monster movie that hits all the most familiar genre beats and, while being thoroughly enjoyable throughout its fairly short running time, will not live too long in the memory. This is a film that will quickly find a home on some late night channel as a suitable double-bill companion to another giant insect instalment. Enjoy with beer and friends.

 

Subdued shut-in Jun Sakarada wakes up one day to find a note at his bedside, reading ‘Wind or do not wind’. Strangely unsurprised, he circles the first option without more than a cursory thought, and it isn’t long before an ominous box is delivered to his house. When Jun turns the key of the wind-up doll inside, she awakens, alive, and orders him to make tea. Over a cuppa, the doll has just enough time to reveal that she, Shinku, is one of seven Rozen Maidens, before her Gothic loli sister Suiginto appears and attacks. After a short, ineffectual scuffle, scattering red rose petals and raven-down feathers across Jun’s bedroom, the two explain that this is their fate, to fight until one doll remains and becomes their creator’s perfect daughter.

By choosing to wind the key, Jun also opens a new reality where he chose the second option, and the N-Field which forms the eerie bridge between the two. Though the first episode has some beautiful detail centred on the dolls and the ritual of tea-making, for the most part it serves as a forced and bland preface to the second. It’s here the series takes off as we meet the alternate Jun, tied up in a dead-end job at a bookshop, a college course where he feels alienated, and the social anxiety that holds him back in both. One evening, in the back room at work, he stumbles upon the first book in a series on how to make a Rozen Maiden doll. When he takes the book home to find another, with a box and a collection of doll parts, he’s contacted by his younger self who asks him to remake Shinku, as in his reality she, along with many of her sisters, have been defeated by Kirakishou, the seventh doll.

Although the mystery of the dolls keeps the story ticking over, it’s far less intriguing than how the alternate Jun develops after making contact with his parallel self. Even taking into account that Jun is older in this reality, the depth of personality that’s on display almost straight away makes him feel like a different character altogether. His dedication to rebuilding Shinku echoes the kind of hero we’re used to, but as the talents he’s kept repressed  and the reasons why are unveiled, he stands apart as a ground-breaking lead who inspires a deeper sympathy. The partnership between him and the revived Shinku is also an unusual one, with her impertinent teasing, intentionally or not, encouraging him to pursue a friendship with his crush and colleague, Saito, at last.

Given the time, this fairytale about a sinister sibling rivalry set up by a twisted dollmaker blooms into something surprising. Underneath the vivid sweetness, it’s a story about inner conflicts, and the unexpected means we find to overcome them.

ROZEN MAIDEN ZURÜCKSPULEN COLLECTION / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: SHINICHI OMATA / STARRING: NATSUKO KUWATANI, MIYUKI SAWASHIRO, YUMI SHIMURA, RIE TANAKA / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 26TH

After being accused of treason, Ming imperial guard Ying is frozen in an avalanche along with two of his former comrades. 300 years later he is awoken in 21st century Hong Kong where he attempts to live a normal life, aided by opportunistic young woman May. However, unbeknownst to him, his enemies have also awoken.

A remake of 1989 Hong Kong actioner The Iceman Cometh, Iceman takes the basic concept of its source material but little else, instead creating a story with numerous disconnected strands, none of which seem to go anywhere. Most prominent is the romance between Ying and May, although little enough actually happens to even call it that, while Ying’s ex-brothers in arms Sao and Niehu spend their time rising in the criminal underworld. That the imperial warriors remain largely oblivious to each other’s presence gets a little frustrating at times and often feels like things are merely meandering without direction.

Despite Donnie Yen’s fame and prowess as a martial arts actor, there is very little in the way of action, although it’s fairly safe to say this will be the first time you’ll have ever seen him take out a squad of SWAT guys with an exploding toilet and then scuttle up a cliff face like a demented spider monkey. There’s not even much of a man-out-of-time story as Ying quickly acclimates to the modern day, even if he has a habit of getting around the city by sitting on the roofs of buses and occasionally leaping from one to the other.

When hero and villains eventually meet on a bridge for a climactic showdown, it almost makes up for the rest of the film. The battle is fast-paced, lengthy and elaborate, and it again showcases Yen’s talent as a skilled and imaginative action choreographer, although a few shots clearly intended to be 3D-in-your-face make the effects seams falter.

While things end on a final revelation that shows what the film believes its story to be, it’s at no point clear this was supposed to be the mystery driving the plot. Even more frustratingly, things don’t even end with an actual resolution, but merely set up for an already made sequel.

ICEMAN / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: WING-CHEONG LAW / SCREENPLAY: FUNG LAM, MARK WU / STARRING: DONNIE YEN, SHENGYI HUANG, BAOQIANG WANG, KANG YU, SIMON YAM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

After becoming increasingly unhinged following the death of his daughter and the abduction of his wife, vigilante cop Ronan Pierce embarks on a rampage through the seedy underworld of Harbour City, venting his rage on organ harvesters, rapists, drug dealers, murderers, human traffickers and child molesters as he hunts down those responsible for tearing his family apart.

The main problem with Fury is that it seems to think that all of the above constitutes a genuine story. What it actually gives us is a series of violent vignettes dripping with hypermasculinity, which given the right tone and atmosphere can admittedly be fun for a while. However, once you realise that the overblown intensity is all that the film has to offer, any sense of anticipation is soon replaced by repetitive tedium as it swiftly descends into an incoherent mess that manages to stretch a run time barely topping 80 minutes.

Ronan is supposed to come off like Batman or The Punisher, except he is so consumed by his lust for vengeance that any recognisable vestiges of personality have been burned away in the furnace of his wrath. Or it could just be really bad writing that plays out like an adolescent wet dream of vigilante justice as this lone cop on the edge snarls and growls his way through every moment he’s on screen. There is a lot more to portraying characters with unresolved rage issues than constant profanity and EVERYBODY SHOUTING ALL THE TIME.

When the action isn’t focused on Ronan’s exploits, we get numerous unnecessary scenes of the sweaty and greasy dregs of humanity he hunts unleashing their sadism on anonymous innocents just to needlessly emphasise their loathsome evil, taking up time that would have been better spent developing the few characters still alive after their introductory scene.

The film aims for the ‘80s DTV action vibe that was so recently and utterly owned by Kung Fury, while being heavily influenced by the likes of Sin City. Sadly, in attempting to ape Frank Miller’s exaggerated machismo all the McCarthy brothers have done is create an implausible world of hateful misogyny. While tinting every shot with faded ochre might aid in crafting the desired comic book aesthetic, it also serves to emphasise the completely lack of anything resembling realism, thus making it impossible to take seriously. Overall, Fury: The Tales of Ronan Pierce is malicious, spiteful, obnoxious and worst of all for a film like this, absolutely no fun.

FURY: THE TALES OF RONAN PIERCE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: KEVIN A. MCCARTHY / SCREENPLAY: KEVIN A. MCCARTHY, MICHAEL MCCARTHY / STARRING: MICHAEL MCCARTHY, JORDAN ELIZABETH, WADE GALLAGHER, BRAD POTTS, HARRY ASPINWALL / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 12TH

 

Monster Hunter (also known as Dark Was the Night) is the second feature from indie producer turned director Jack Heller. The film draws inspiration from a real-life phenomenon referred to as the ‘Devil’s Footprints’, where inexplicable hoof-shaped footprints scared the bejesus out of Devon locals in 1855. Building on this folktale, Monster Hunter utilises the fictional provincial town setting of ‘Maiden Woods’ to spin its monster-mystery yarn.

The prologue opens as all ambitious monster flicks should, with a bloody introduction to the beastly subject of the film. We then head to the rural and quaint Maiden Woods where Sherriff Paul Shields (Kevin Durand) and his deputy Donny (Lukas Haas) are mulling over a missing horse situation, the first of what transpires to be many incidents caused by the mischievous beast. For a low-budget horror film, there is actually a welcome attentiveness to characterisation as we learn that both Paul and Donny are battling inner demons. Paul is dealing with the loss of his infant child that he blames upon himself, and similarly Donny has moved from upstate New York after feeling responsible for the death of his partner. There is somewhat of a redemptive feel to the narrative as both men slowly come to terms with the fact that it is their responsibility to protect the small town community from the surreptitious threat.

Despite its best attempts though, Monster Hunter still ultimately feels like a generic horror film. An isolated small town community ends up reliant on a stoic hero to banish the threat. This isn’t exactly unique stuff. Kevin Durand ends up playing a hybrid cross between Batman and Gary Cooper in High Noon. The clichés don’t stop there either; there are countless ‘glimpse and you’ll miss it’ shots of the beast (no doubt due to budget limitations) and there is even an ‘it’s in the house’ scene thrown in for good measure.

Despite adhering to many genre conventions, the movie isn’t without its merits. One interesting, thematic aspect of the narrative (whether intentional or not) is the presence of a pervading religious subtext. Sherriff Paul Shields at first seems disillusioned with the concept of religion as he talks with the town’s pastor early in the film, but by the stories climax the whole town is taking literal and symbolic refuge in the church. There is no mistaking the satanic iconography of the beast with its biped hoofs. Perhaps the film is an allegorical statement on the threat of atheism in small town America? Perhaps not. Monster Hunter also executes a foreboding suspense in an effectual manner, as lingering takes are complimented by a jarring, cumbersome score.

Taking all things into account, Monster Hunter doesn’t quite do enough innovative to break free from its budgetary and generic constraints. The whole plot is pretty tight though, and it may just warrant a watch for the slightly unconventional finale.

MONSTER HUNTER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JACK HELLER / SCREENPLAY: TYLER HISEL / STARRING: KEVIN DURAND, LUKAS HAAS, STEVE AGEE, NICK DAMICI / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 12TH

 

“If you’ve got assblasters, you’ve got graboids,” intones Michael Gross’ indefatigable survivalist Bert Gummer. We haven’t, thankfully, wandered into an episode of Casualty; we’re in the world of Tremors and Bert is back in this fun – if entirely unexpected and probably quite unnecessary new entry in a franchise mined to exhaustion courtesy of three previous straight-to-DVD releases and a short-lived TV series.

Rewind to 1990 and Tremors – starring Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward and with Gross in an eccentric supporting role – is a wonderful and refreshing throwback to the classic age of giant monster movies. It wasn’t a huge box office hit but it gained a big enough cult audience to spawn a couple of low-budget sequels and even a prequel. Why the title has been resurrected now, over a decade after The Legend Begins and Syfy’s thirteen-week TV series, is anybody’s business – a general paucity of original ideas in Movieland and a tendency to play safe and ‘stick with what the audience knows’ probably figures highly in an equation which brings back Bert and assorted shriekers and assblasters, this time in a new South African setting.

Our Bert is eking out a living – still in Perfection, Nevada, location of the first movie – uploading survivalist video clips onto t’interweb. Bert is joined out in the wilderness in short order by a cocky stranger from Florida who promises to help him improve his online profile and become a ‘global brand’ and then a South African businessman seeking the help of the famous ‘monster hunter’ in tackling an outbreak of assblasters (let’s not go there) in and around a small village in the Cradle of Mankind. What follows is ninety-odd minutes of that vintage Tremors concoction of tongue-in-cheek wit, icky slapstick gore and an assortment of outlandish monsters including the giant subterranean carnivorous graboid worms which started the whole thing off in the first place. As the series has developed new creatures as it’s grown, Bloodlines does the same with the introduction of snake-like tentacles which can now thrive and survive independently of the graboids. Elsewhere the film revisits familiar beats from the first film – graboids attack the village and its (few) inhabitants  and, trapped out in the wild Bert and co take to high ground to avoid sound-sensitive graboids which have set up a colony in nearby caves. Fortunately, Bert has access to a helicopter full of deadly missiles…

Bloodlines is great fun and the new location at least adds a dash of something different to what’s essentially a remake of the film which started it all. But it’s hard to shake off the feeling that this has been done before – several times – and there’s no real reason to do it all again other than to rake in a bit more cash from a tried-and-tested franchise which really had its day ten years or more ago. You’ll enjoy Tremors 5 – Bloodlines for what it is –just don’t expect the earth to  move for you.

Extras: Behind the Bloodlines, deleted and extended scenes, out-takes

TREMORS 5 – BLOODLINES / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DON MICHAEL PAUL / SCREENPLAY: BRENT MADDOCK, JOHN WHELPLEY, SS WILSON / STARRING: MICHAEL GROSS, JAMIE KENNEDY, LAWRENCE JOFFE, NATALIE BECKER / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 12TH