Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

From the sounds of French horror/thriller Dead Shadows you might think something special lies within. From the colourful galaxy-set opening credits to the agreeable concept, it seems like there could be a good dose of fun here. However, as we well know, the greatest of ideas need substance to thrive, and it is here where first time director David Cholewa’s vision melts like a baked Alaska in the summer sun. The film sees troubled young man Chris (Fabian Wolfrom) and his neighbours preparing for the phenomena of a comet passing overhead in Paris. However, 11 years ago this happened and Chris lost his parents, and this time it appears as though there could be even greater consequences behind what is being called a comet but could be much more devastating. As a film, it unquestionably has some ideas but lets itself down at every turn with a lack of logic in the story, characters and concept.

Dead Shadows is a spin on John Carpenter’s The Thing (Carpenter is actually referenced by a poster on the wall too) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with added elements of the video game Prototype. Now, it would be cruel to chastise a film like this for certain budgetary setbacks but that isn’t the biggest problem. In fact, some practical work is fine but the film’s over reliance on CGI and going bigger in scale is what trips it up, in the process this shows up some obvious effects at one minute (Asylum level at times) and constantly the film feels like a lesser brother to Skyline – and Skyline was not exactly a masterclass, although its effects were excellent. However, the biggest problem here is really the story, which cannot decide which route it wants to take, leaving the film a jumble of assorted genre conventions, with little time (opening and end credits excluded, it runs little over 60 minutes) to evaluate on its characters. 

Nothing really hangs together neatly and occasionally the film feels unfinished and like a series of random scenes with no connective narrative running through. For instance, the backstory by the end gets dropped and a central twist is abandoned and not to mention given away almost instantly anyway. The vagueness of the apocalyptic plot is at times effective, as are some gruesome scenes but the film needed honing and developing more before being released. Case in point, the poster shows phases of infection but this is never even mentioned in the plot; in fact, a lot of things are introduced and dropped almost immediately. It makes you wonder just whether people were so excited with their ideas that they never worked off the script and instead just made everything up as they went along.

The acting shows the expected shortfalls, although Wolfrom is fine in the lead, but you are never quite sure where you are with any of the characters and that is before the paranoia is meant to set in with the invasion angle of the plot. It is a shame really, because as the closing credits concept art (think a street-set Dead Space) shows, this could have made an excellent comic, graphic novel or adult animation. In fact there is an idea here for a fantastic B-movie throwback or a paranoid ’70s/’80s style alien horror. Unfortunately, Dead Shadows never expands on this glimmer of promise and ends up instead as an incomprehensible mish-mash of ideas that are not particularly well connected or developed. Cholewa could very well be a filmmaker with ideas (lest we forget James Cameron started out with Piranha 2: The Spawning) but needs to get the fundamentals in check next time round if he is to do justice to any film he makes because Dead Shadows is overshadowed by its messy script, story and uncontrolled direction.

Special Features: None

DEAD SHADOWS/ CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DAVID CHOLEWA / SCREENPLAY: VINCENT JULÉ / STARRING: FABIAN WOLFROM, GILLES BARRET, JOHN FALLON, LAURIE CHOLEWA, DAVID CHOLEWA / RELEASE DATE: JULY 27TH

In the world of cinema, emotion counts for a lot. Disney made their greatest works based off of the emotions of the cinemagoer, as have some of the most peerless works of fiction ever unleashed upon the masses. As human beings our emotions dictate how we feel, act and behave from day to day. So it is in a strange turn of events that one of the most heart-grasping cinematic tour de forces of the year is a Hungarian film about oppressed canines and their vengeance. From the very opening, White God (Fehér isten) makes no bones about aiming for your soul. Opening with the line “Everything terrible is something that needs our love”, a quote from Czech-born poet/novelist Rainer Maria Rilke, director Kornél Mundruczó makes his intentions visible from the start. White God is (and this is an overused line nowadays) awesome, both as a film experience and as a social commentary on class prejudice and animal welfare.

The film sees young girl Lili (Zsófia Psotta) and her dog Hagen (played by two dogs in the film – Luke and Body) forced to stay with her father (Sándor Zsótér) while her mother and partner are away. When Hagen’s place at the home comes into question and Lili fights to keep him, her irate father consequently sets him loose on the streets. A devastated Lili attempts to recover, as Hagen discovers the true nature of street life, which leads to rebellion. The plot sounds like a cross between Homeward Bound and Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and in a way that is quite an apt summary. This Hungarian drama starts as a human family drama before coming to be a two-tier story of a young girl trying her best to hold on to love among heartless adults and a kind dog being twisted into a monster by cruelty. Lashed with elements of Cujo and 28 Days Later, the plot eventually comes to take influence from horror but never loses its intimate and brutally honest connection with your feelings.

Lili’s tale is well constructed and believable, but as strong as it is it pales in comparison to the film’s central story of Hagen. Taking the much-dismissed issue of animal performance to whole new levels, this realistic (but rest easy, it is safely staged) story of systematic animal abuse is powerfully conveyed through the performances of the film’s four-legged stars. Some will be horrified by what occupies this tragic tale, but those in the know will be stunned by the upfront honesty of this film in its presentation of the dog fighting industry and all its shameful practices. As will many at the film’s comment on devastating animal rights abuse and preposterous modern day laws that victimize animals. White God is a film that twists the notion of mans best friend and shows the true face of street life for dogs… and in fact other animals too. As well as layering its ideology even more by likening its canine cast to the lower classes that have been prejudiced by those in a higher standing throughout the years. This would work just as well as a silent film, with Asher Goldschmidt’s elegant and appropriate score, Marcell Rév’s socially realistic cinematography, and these beautiful animal’s tremendous performances being all the dialogue that is necessary.

The performances of the animals are constantly astonishing, as are the well-constructed and original scenes that occupy the fist-in-the-air final quarter of the film. This is realistic to the point of documentary, minus the odd moment of clear staging (which actually come as a relief considering the content) and the more cinematic final quarter (think a revenge flick version of Lassie). Hagen emerges, in a year of Iron and Ant Men, as the greatest hero of 2015, one that liberates his race and the film (while breaking your heart and educating those unaware of the brutal reality of street animals) entertains, enthrals and upsets in equal measure. Psotta is wonderful as Lili, giving an emotive and naturalistic performance and her final act of embracing love over violence as two races go to war is touching and beautiful. Zsótér likewise is excellent, being punchable for most of the films duration, before delving into emotion later on. This is a film built inside a world of hate, violence and abuse, but one which is filled with so much goodwill by all involved. The expansive canine (a world record 274 dogs starred) cast is all credited alongside their human counterparts and a small credits note states that the dogs were all adopted and given a home as part of the film’s welfare initiative, which is further proof of why this is a film to admire.

Contrary to making a purely barking mad genre mash of a film (ridiculously not nominated for best foreign feature at the Oscars), Kornél Mundrucó has crafted an intimate, heartbreaking, brutal but effective parable of man’s inhumanity to those that rely on and often defend us. This is a keen, no holds barred, social commentary wrapped inside an ambitious film that is masterfully directed, written and performed. Expect to be moved, entertained and even angered by this Un Certain Regard Award and Palm Dog Award-winner. White God features loss (the death of a scene-stealing side character will have you wishing death upon the human race), pain and aggression but ends, like Hitchcock’s The Birds, with a gentle and quiet final image, leaving us to hope that perhaps one day man will learn that there is more to be said for beauty than brutality. A masterful experience from start to finish, with a tale we can all draw something from.

Special Features: Making of / Deleted scenes

WHITE GOD/ CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: KORNÉL MUNDRUCZÓ / SCREENPLAY: KORNÉL MUNDRUCZÓ / STARRING: ZSÓFIA PSOTTA, SÁNDOR ZSÓTÉR, LILI HORVÁTH / RELEASE DATE: 3RD AUGUST

 

Zombie movies are two-a-penny these days, but Dead Rising is at least one step ahead of the pack, being based upon the popular Xbox game series – especially important if you aren’t being backed by Hollywood dollars. But this first instalment in what is already confirmed as a franchise is at the very least a slick entertainment that more than fulfils its brief.

Given the limitations involved in adapting a video game for the big screen, Dead Rising: Watchtower is understandably light on innovation. Online journalist Chase Carter (Jesse Metcalfe) is reporting from a new zombie outbreak in Oregon, and it isn’t long before the authorities have walled the city in and effectively set us up for a remake of Escape from New York – even down to the crazed underground warlord and his gasoline-fuelled gang. In spite of its clichéd nature, featuring as it does army officials with hidden agendas involving drugs that don’t work, the plot that plays out under the zombie mayhem is just about involving enough to make the ride worth taking, and the addition of a Robocop-esque Greek chorus – in the form of the central character from the first Xbox game – makes up for the fact that the film itself eschews some of the console games’ eccentricity in favour of full-bodied action and some surprisingly effective character moments. Fans of the Dead Rising games needn’t worry, though, for despite being a mostly original episode (set between the second and third games), the central plank of off-the-cuff, made-to-order weaponry is all present and correct. The “broom-chete” is possibly the most original thing in the film.

Director Zach Lipovsky applies just about every existing technique in the book in order to make Dead Rising an entertaining experience, and while more seasoned viewers will sigh in recognition of most of Lipovsky’s tricks, those less hard to please will find themselves satisfied with the results – the biggest revelation possibly being the pacing, which lets up surprisingly often in order to focus more on the living cast than the dead. This isn’t going to win any awards for either acting or scripting, but it’s good to see it at least trying not to be as two-dimensional as it might have settled for being. Virginia Madsen has one particularly excellent scene that demonstrates the film’s dedication to building a more rounded entertainment than might have been anticipated.

The rest of the cast is attractive and generally likeable, if occasionally a little superficial, but this is a minor complaint given the nature of a film that is never quite as insightful nor as accomplished as it might like to be, but has a damned good go at emulating a much more expensive kind of movie.

Extras: three short featurettes

DEAD RISING: WATCHTOWER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: ZACH LIPOVSKY / SCREENPLAY: TIM CARTER / STARRING: JESSE METCALFE, MEGHAN ORY, VIRGINIA MADSEN, KEEGAN CONNOR TRACY, ALEKS PAUNOVIC, DENNIS HAYSBERT, ROB RIGGLE / RELEASE DATE: JULY 27TH
 

One of the most notorious video nasties, censored for years and banned for even more, Joe D’Amato’s Anthropophagus (known by various names over the years, and presented here as The Savage Island) is a cause célèbre even among the other controversial titles. Now, thirty-five years after it was made, it’s been given an official UK release, fully uncut and in high definition, to boot!

The plot is incredibly simple: a group of friends (and a hanger-on played by Zombie Flesh Eater’s Farrow) are stranded on a deserted Greek island with a man-eating psychopath on the loose.

Although that sounds routine, the execution is wonderful. Although D’Amato’s reputation as a sleazy, knock ‘em out quick merchant is valid for the most part, he did know how to set up some gripping set pieces. Although the film’s legacy has always been with the graphic gore, there are actually quite a few effective jump-scares here too. Eastman’s stumbling cannibal (for that, essentially, is what the tongue-twisting title means) is suitably menacing, despite looking like someone has poured porridge on his head. The infamous foetus-eating scene is still as sickening today, even when you know how it was done. But bravo to the BBFC for finally allowing the film – and there are more on the way – to be released as it was meant to be experienced.

It’s not perfect, far from it, but once you get through the rather pedestrian sections between the action, it’s rollicking good fun. The HD transfer is fine, showing plenty of detail, and a healthy amount of grain to maintain the cinematic mood of the original presentation. Thinking back to those VHS days, when copies of the film used to exchange hands in umpteenth-generation form, it’s a revelation to finally be able to own a damn near perfect version.

Supplementing the film on 88 Films’ Blu-ray release (available only from their website, DVD is widespread) is a brilliant documentary looking at the glory days (albeit soaked in urine and spunk) of New York’s grindhouse district. 42nd Street Memories: the Rise and Fall of America’s Most Notorious Block is a feature-length interview-led piece from High Rising Productions and features a host of cult directors and stars waxing lyrical on what made the most famous sleazy street in the world so wonderful. While thin on the ground with movie clips (one has to realise how much the licencing costs!), it’s an entertaining and informative documentary, which manages to cover a lot of ground. Elsewhere, there are various trailers for D’Amato’s film (under different titles) and an option of watching the film in Italian with subtitles.
A fantastic addition to horror fans’ collection,

ANTHROPOPHAGUS (1980) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: JOE D’AMATO / SCREENPLAY: ARISTIDE MASSACCESI (D’AMATO), LOUIS MONTEFIORI (EASTMAN) / STARRING: TISA FARROW, GEORGE EASTMAN, SAVERIO VALLONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 
 

Age does strange things to a movie; features that were shocking and relevant when new tend to lose their impact over time. The Yellow Balloon is a black and white thriller of the sort that you would never see now but still as powerful today as it was back in 1953. It was the second movie to receive an X certificate and it’s easy to see why.

The Yellow Balloon is the story of innocence destroyed, produced in a time when cinema was still the principle source of dramatic entertainment. The movie begins in a light-hearted sort of way, with a young boy called Frankie wanting to go out and buy a yellow balloon. He loses his pocket money down a drain and this leads to him teasing another boy who happens to have a brightly coloured balloon. The movie takes a darker turn when an accident kills the other boy, leaving Frankie in a desperate panic.

Len, a sinister older man, see’s these events and convinces Frankie that the police will imprison him for his involvement. Len proceeds to blackmail and exploit the child for his own criminal schemes.  The events are played out across a war torn London, the urban decay highlighting the morality of the piece. 

It is a perfectly preserved example of Britain’s post-World War II cynicism. The tone is one of exhaustion and the realisation that the terrors of the everyday can hurt anyone, even the innocent.  The score is atmospheric and appropriately dark; the crashing orchestral sound highlights the simple yet horrid drama of the piece, making it all the more poignant. The performances are remarkable and well developed, though there is a surprise cameo from Sid James.

The DVD comes with a short introduction by film historian Charles Barr who helpfully explains the context of the feature and also discusses the biographies of the principle cast.

Despite its leisurely pace and rather quaint language, The Yellow Balloon is a marvellous example of movie history and worth your time.

Special Features: Introduction / Gallery

THE YELLOW BALLOON / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: J. LEE THOMPSON / SCREENPLAY: J. LEE THOMPSON, ANNE BURNABY / STARRING: ANDREW RAY, WILLIAM SYLVESTER, KATHLEEN RYAN, KENNETH MORE, BERNARD LEE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
 

The aptly-titled The Bloody Indulgent is a rare thing: a horror musical that stars a former boyband member. Rarer still, the pop starlet in question has had a strong career after quitting the teen idol business. Kevin Richardson, a former member of The Backstreet Boys, plays Burt, a vampire master with a fondness for singing.

As mash-ups go, combining horror movies with musicals tends to make for a surprisingly pleasing combination. The Little Shop of Horrors and Repo! The Genetic Opera are both standout examples of this unusual sub-genre. They’ve even turned the Evil Dead into a musical in the past and it worked very well because the songs are so good. What makes this remarkable is that both musicals and horror stories are very easy to get wrong; make one element too gross or too long and the entire production can be ruined. It’s a fine balance which is hard to achieve. The aptly titled Bloody Indulgent is an example of how not to do it.

The plot, such as it is, involves Burt the vampire over stepping the boundaries of his power and making another vampire on a whim. This new blood swiftly sets out to make his own mistakes as Burt capers off to indulge in his own vices; having sex with and then devouring pretty young women.  Burt’s nest of monsters are mostly dissatisfied with their boss and want him dead. He’s also upset some local strippers, who have a ‘stripper-thon’ in order to raise the money to pay for a vampire hunter. It’s that sort of feature.

The movie consists of set pieces strung together with over-acting and a bit of plot. We get a song here and then a bit of burlesque there, followed by some special effect or other. The burlesque is nice enough though it’s nothing special and there’s not enough of it. It also feels tacked on, as if someone in the production is indulging a friend. The effects are also okay, especially for a low budget movie. The plot is crap and doesn’t make sense toward the end, but that’s all right, many cheap horror movies suffer from the same issue. The biggest problem is the songs.

They are badly put together, crude in entirely the wrong places, ridiculously ill thought-out and boring. There is a not a single earworm amongst them and the lyrics are so idiotic and trite that you actively try to forget them. This is quite sad because the performers are mostly giving their best.

For example, Richardson’s performance is superb. His acting and singing skills are very good and he has a lot of presence and power throughout the movie. Sadly, the material he is working with is bloody awful. The music highlights every weakness in the script and the production.

The Bloody Indulgent looked like it was a lot of fun to make, and perhaps the clue is in the title.  Others have done much more with much less; this is simply a waste of time, talent and money.

THE BLOODY INDULGENT / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: KEN ROHT / STARRING: KEVIN SCOTT RICHARDSON, BRANDON HEITKAMP, BRIAN GASKILL, DIVA ZAPPA, DANIELE WATTS / RELEASE DATE: TBC (UK), SEPTEMBER 29TH (US)
 

Nailed was to be David O. Russell’s similarly-toned follow-up to his existential 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees, but following financial disruptions to its 2008 shoot (shutting the production down four times), Russell eventually walked from the project in 2010, his reputation already suffering after videos of tension on the Huckabees set had been leaked to YouTube. Five years later, with a name change and a marketing rebranding shifting the emphasis from political satire to romantic comedy, Accidental Love is finally being released.

Co-written with Al Gore’s daughter Kristin and based upon her novel Sammy’s Hill, Accidental Love takes the post-Charlie Kaufman-esque premise of a waitress who has a nail accidentally lodged in her head during a surprise dinner proposal and turns it into a treatise on the American healthcare system, as Alice (Jessica Biel) becomes an unintentional poster girl for socialist politics having fallen in with Jake Gyllenhaal’s inept Congressman Howard Birdman. Russell fills what follows with as many eccentric diversions and arch performances as we might expect given the rest of his oeuvre, creating what looks like a Hollywood movie but behaves like an independent, oozing cynicism from every frame. And in spite of having had his name removed from the film, there is no disguising its provenance as David O. Russell’s work, with the short bonus feature filled with testimony to his genius. The film is as riddled with rapid one-liners, overlapping dialogue and free-associative performances as earlier hits like Flirting With Disaster and even Three Kings, and although the comedy includes as many misses as it does hits, Accidental Love is firmly of a standard with Russell’s previous films.

As to whether it’s any good, your mileage will inevitable vary. Accidental Love is not for those who value political correctness, nor for anyone who feels alienated when presented with ostensible digressions, the tightness of the plotting and characterisation being quite heavily disguised amid a welter of unconventionality. Russell’s apparent penchant for 1950s cinema gives it a strangely ornate, almost Douglas Sirkian ambience that belies the modernity of the way it treats its subject matter, again a theme of his career.

The cast is certainly giving it their everything, however, with Jessica Biel creating an uncomplicated and yet transfixing presence in Alice, caught between the extremes of Gyllenhaal’s ingénue and James Marsden’s redneck jock. Even the peripheral characters are solid and distinctive, a further signature of Russell’s work, and the resolutions are a mark of testimony to a script which inconspicuously lays out all the groundwork for a surprisingly conventional ending.

Ultimately hampered by an unavoidably inconsistent production, it’s a shame that Accidental Love has crawled out probably only to be forgotten, as it’s an unexpectedly engaging and entertaining film.

Special Features: Behind the scenes

ACCIDENTAL LOVE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DAVID O. RUSSELL (AS STEPHEN GREENE) / SCREENPLAY: DAVID O. RUSSELL, KRISTIN GORE, MATTHEW SILVERSTEIN, DAVE JESER / STARRING: JESSICA BIEL, JAKE GYLLENHAAL, CATHERINE KEENER, JAMES MARSDEN, TRACY MORGAN, KURT FULLER, KIRSTIE ALLEY, JAMES BROLIN / RELEASE DATE: JULY 20TH

Werewolves! With a few honourable exceptions, the humble lycanthrope is a figure less seen on the screen than some of his more famous counterparts. Last year’s arresting WolfCop and the wonderful Late Phases did their part, but we’re still a long way away from the redemption of the werewolf.

Enter Justin Price’s Dark Moon Rising, a horror film which skews (much) younger than Late Phases and towards the more conventional than Wolfcop, but packs in plenty of werewolf action nevertheless. “At least grab a titty or something,” pleads one of the idiot young characters, setting the tone early for what is essentially a much shorter, more tolerable Hemlock Grove. With its dyed-black fingerless-glove-wearing (bright pink lemonade drinking) emo hero and mysterious curly smouldering heroine, it’s only a little gore that separates it from being at the same end of the horror spectrum as Twilight.

Which isn’t to say that there’s not some enjoyment to be had with it. In spite of its obvious lack of funds, the film looks great for what it is, splashing about a comic-book esque colour palette and making the most of its cartoon-like CGI. The special effects rarely convince, but always entertain. The whole film looks like the front cover of a no-name YA novel – probably also about werewolves.

Brightening up matters even more is the presence of Eric Roberts, his bad haircut and alcoholism channelling The Hunger Games’ Haymitch, only with a much worse script. No doubt his name will be plastered all over the DVD case, but he’s in it for all of five minutes. If you really must get your Straight-to-DVD Eric Roberts fix, you can do far worse than Dark Moon Rising.

Too gory for kids but too silly for adults, this purple fever dream will likely struggle to find its audience. With its batty visuals, Eurotrash dance music and dippy spirituality, Dark Moon Rising is one of the more interesting misfires of recent years. It’s barking mad.

Special Features: TBC

DARK MOON RISING / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENLPAY: JUSTIN PRICE / STARRING: STASI ESPER, CAMERON WHITE, KHU, JUSTIN PRICE / RELEASE DATE: TBC
 

For persons of a certain age, Hawk the Slayer will need no introduction. Released at a time when cinema was just warming up to the elaborate special effects of Star Wars and the like, Hawk’s simple visuals appear somewhat quaint now. Despite that, it’s still a fun romp worth revisiting.

The story follows the age-old struggle between good and evil, personified here by siblings Hawk (Terry) and Voltan (Palance). No prizes for guessing which is which, and it’s made perfectly clear in the opening moments as the latter kills their own father in an attempt to gain ultimate power. Vowing revenge, Hawk takes a moral path, and is the natural person to help out when a nun (TV regular Annette Crosbie) is taken hostage by his nasty brother.
Banding together a group, consisting of a giant (Carry On star Bresslaw), dwarf (Peter O’Farrell), an elf (Charleson) and a crusader whose hand was maimed by Voltan and subsequently removed to save his life by the nuns (William Morgan Sheppard). They are guided by a blind sorceress, played by Rocky Horror’s Patricia Quinn and cross many perils on their quest to save the nun and vanquish Voltan.

Sword and sorcery films never really took off the way they should have, and following the adaptations of Tolkien’s works that have come since, one would be expecting this slice of ‘80s fantasy to be a wooden bore, but there’s so much to enjoy in Hawk that it’s actually hard to knock it. Sure, it’s certainly ‘of the time’ and those who were young when it was released and saw it the first time around will certainly get a blast of nostalgia, but its timeless story ensures even the most demanding of viewers will be entertained. If not for that, then it can easily be viewed as a work of high camp, much in the same way Flash Gordon (1980) is revered today.

As scarred baddie Voltan, Palance hisses his way through every scene he’s in; he’s a truly compelling presence, his face half-hidden behind a medieval helmet not dissimilar to Mr Vader’s and twice as nasty. It’s also fun playing ‘spot the famous face’ throughout the rather star-studded cast.

If there’s anything that feels out of place when viewed today, it’s the techno-score by co-writer Harry Robertson (billed as Robinson, fact checkers!). Having been an accomplished musician and composer for several latter Hammer films, he certainly had good pedigree, but often the motifs here sound like outtakes from Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds and, while still exhilarating, are at odds with the visuals at times. It does, though add to the campness for those who wish to enjoy it that way.

Network’s Blu-ray release presents the film well, far from the old VHS releases we grew up with, and not betraying the inventive special effects to any detrimental degree. The film is supplemented by an array of vintage footage. Mostly interview rushes from contemporary TV shows, the highlight is surely an on-set report from ITV kid’s show Clapperboard, in which Chris Kelly chats to cast and crew, and shows modern TV film programmes how it should be done (we’re looking at you, Ms Winkleman!) What does come across from this footage is how wry Palance was; he clearly enjoyed being there, but certainly didn’t enjoy being interviewed!

A brilliant release of a piece of British film history, with a sequel in the works, there’s no better time to catch up with Hawk and have a rollicking fun time.

HAWK THE SLAYER / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: TERRY MARCEL / SCREENPLAY: TERRY MARCEL, HARRY ROBERTSON / STARRING: JOHN TERRY, JACK PALANCE, BERNARD BRESSLAW, RAY CHARLESON, SHANE BRIANT, HARRY ANDREWS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The well-worn Frankenstein tale is given a modern twist for the digital age in Billy Senese’s debut feature Closer to God. Desperate to clone a human, for reasons never fully explained, Victor (Jeremy Childs) ignores the lessons of previous experiments in the pursuit of his goal. Inevitably the past catches up with him.

Senese’s film is bleak; very, very bleak. From the washed out grey hues of the colour palette to the disingenuous motives of the protagonists, this is not a film with even a hint of light and joy. There are few if any characters that emerge with any hope of redemption as each one hides a secret of some description, some less clear than others perhaps, but every performance comes with a troubled, haunted look permanently etched across the brow.

The central premise of genetic control is certainly an interesting one, but Senese doesn’t really offer anything new on the subject. At times, mainly due to the amount of faux news footage used to add exposition and advance the narrative, the whole thing feels too much like a documentary or dramatic reconstruction. The dialogue, which is as clinical as the surgeon’s scrubs, adds to this notion as nothing feels at all natural, with an air of stunted discomfort present in many of the exchanges.

Where Senese does impress, without being entirely successful, is in his Lynchian ambitions with regard to atmosphere. There is a heady weight of portent as Victor tries to ignore the growing menace that is his previous experiment; a boy called Ethan who suffers from serious deformity and uncontrollable bouts of rage. The return and subsequent revenge of the “monster” is predictable but you still feel the oppressiveness of the growing tension, and the violence when it comes is both shocking and brutal.

Whether intentional or not, the anti-cloning message in Closer to God is clear but it is secondary to what is an intense thriller with some genuinely horrific and creepy moments. That it is too close to the Frankenstein story is somewhat to its detriment (irate villagers brandishing iPhones instead of pitchforks anyone?) as there is enough chilling menace in the story to have avoided the unnecessary and unhelpful comparison. Closer to God is an impressive debut that promises much from the writer and director if you can get past that bleakness. After watching you will certainly crave something distinctly fluffier… or perhaps a stiff drink or two.

Special Features: TBC

CLOSER TO GOD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: BILLY SENESE / STARRING: JEREMY CHILDS, SHELEAN NEWMAN, SHANNON HOPPE, DAVID ALFORD / RELEASE DATE: VOD OUT NOW