Review Category: Movie

When a member of a drug cartel is planning on quitting and leaving the country, he’s naturally on edge. As he prepares to do a bunk, a young girl runs into his house, soon followed by a heavily armed group. Setting the house’s defence system to fortress, he assumes they have been sent by the drug lord. The real answer is much more terrifying. The assassins are looking for the girl and will do everything in their power to get her. Meanwhile, inside the house, the young son and the girl are developing a strange bond.

This Mexican action-packed shocker from Rigoberto Castañeda doesn’t pull punches with the violence, as it opens with a decapitated head rolling across the floor. This opening also gives us an inkling that there’s something about this young girl. It’s no surprise, then, when she’s revealed to be a vampire (the film’s poster makes that clear). The scenes between the two youngsters (Paulina Gil and Matías del Castillo, who are both excellent) do have a Let the Right One In quality, without being derivative. There’s also tension inside the barricade as the only bodyguard left after the initial onslaught has a beef with his boss too.

There’s an interesting story that could be continued involving the cult-like assassins that clearly have made it their life’s mission to rid the world of a vampire scourge (it would make a great comic book series). Lina, the bloodthirsty girl, is a terrifying character, particularly when in action, and is played wonderfully low key when not. Even though the surprises are telegraphed too early, Origin Unknown (Sin Origen) is an entertaining, gory action thriller that’s well worth your time.

For most people, funeral parlours are uneasy places that we only go to when we need to pay our respects to a loved one. Imagine having to live in one. Here, undertaker Bernardo (Luis Machin) and his wife Estella (Celeste Gerez) and stepdaughter Irina (Camila Vacarini) share their home with many, rather passive but annoying, entities. However, one of them is causing more trouble than the others and family shaman, Ramona (Susana Varela), is convinced it’s a demonic presence. As tensions are frayed all-round, she attempts to exorcise the malevolent spirit so the family can live in peace.

Argentinian film The Funeral Home is an interesting concept from writer/director Mauro Iván Ojeda, and there are plenty of eerie, creepy moments before we get to the full-on action of Ramona trying get the demon to evacuate the house. There’s also a lot of family conflict, particularly between obstinate young Irina and stepdad Bernardo, but also between neglected Estella and Bernardo, who may be having a spectral affair. This human drama is more important at times than the terror that’s brought by the ghosts.

Where The Funeral Home really succeeds is in the cinematography. Lucas Timerman’s glides around the set like a stalking vampire and there are brooding shots from across the grounds of the house that are stunning. The score – by Jeremías Smith – is particularly effective, providing gentle comfort and discordant terror. The ghost aspect is admirably restrained, Ojeda choosing to subtly introduce the spooky elements with a less-is-more approach.

Although it gets a little too over-the-top – but fortunately not too much – in the final act, there’s plenty to recommend here.

Tisha (Nayla Churruarin) harvests organs in exchange for narcotics and undertakes hits for money. It’s a post-apocalyptic world; food is scarce and no one can be trusted. When she’s hired by an old woman to take down a local Mr Big, she finds herself strapped to a bed in a grimy world of whores and drugged-up gangsters.

This Argentinian film is directed by Eric Fleitas and Luciana Garraza, who deliver a Road Warrior-style world filtered through the grubbiest lens possible. The camera is constantly moving and changing style, making the viewer often feel disorientated. It’s the perfect feeling for the scenario we’re watching as Tisha attempts to achieve her objective. Where oil was the main trade in the Mad Max world, here it’s intestines and viscera. The directors manage to fit a lot into the relatively short running time and some of the situations (involving rape and abuse) will be hard to watch for some viewers, but rest assured, the payoff is worth it. Nayla Churruarin is strangely mesmerising as the main character, a true fighter whose story gets a bittersweet conclusion. The rest of the cast are portrayed as either doped-up oddballs or strong but obnoxious thugs but Tisha is shown to have at least some conscience.

The story, like almost everything in the movie, is raw and ragged but delivers a powerful sucker-punch ending and plenty of bloody thrills on the way.

This Chilean sci-fi horror takes place in the Snowdevil Mountains, a place purported to be rife with extra-terrestrial activity. Kevin (Domingo Guzmán) and Evelyn (Romina Perazzo) are out camping, but during the night, Evelyn is abducted by aliens (well, a bright light). Kevin finds her naked and covered in slime. While the doctor is checking her over, there is movement in her stomach and her eyes turn black. When Kevin comes in to see how things are going, she is hunched over the doc chewing away and covered in blood.

This is just the first of three separate occurrences that make up the film. The (mis)adventures of Evelyn and Kevin are interspersed throughout and get bloodier and bloodier as her lust for blood to feed whatever’s inside her increases.

Mostly shot amongst some spectacular scenery, Embryo’s structure moves between camcorder footage and the slicker main segments, which has flashes of gore and at times reminds us of Cronenberg’s Shivers and Rabid. There are several moments that are impactful during the ‘found footage’-style sections, in particular a youngster who draws aliens and calls her mother ‘Martian Mummy’, while she’s trying to keep out something with tentacles. Even though it’s not really needed, everything’s brought together in a TV news report coda.

According to co-writer/director Patricio Valladares (Hidden in the Woods), he couldn’t raise the budget for the original idea for the feature, so he improvised by adding the found footage elements to create a discordant but always interesting patchwork.

Marc Price (who famously made the zombie film Colin on £50) has used his thrifty skills once more to write and direct this ambitious but effective sci-fi thriller.

Marooned on an alien planet after crash-landing during a mission to attack the enemy, Alder (Phoebe Sparrow) has only a finite amount of life support left. Everything looks hopeless, unless she can fix the damaged ship. Another crashed ship might hold the answer but could also be a danger.

Punching way above its weight, Dune Drifter does a great job of transporting us to a different world. The first third – set during an epic space battle is fabulously claustrophobic and tense. The CGI is more than adequate and has a Star Wars/Battlestar Gallactica (the original one) feel. Once on the planet, it’s a fight for survival of a different kind. The introduction of the foe doesn’t lead to a recreation of Enemy Mine, fortunately as there are a number of well-choreographed fights and added trauma.

While it won’t compete with the likes of The Martian for awards, but Price has crafted an exciting, always watchable, and visually impressive piece of sci-fi that is more than worthy of your attention.

For more information about the making of Dune Drifter, check out our set visit in STARBURST #473

Directed and co-written (with Andy Silverman) by Tyler Russell, Cyst is a throwback to the splattertastic films of the ‘80s and ‘90s and stars one of the ‘heroes’ of that time, George Hardy (Troll 2). Not one to piss on hospitality, he plays Dr Guy, who specialises in treating boils. He’s invented a machine (the Git-Gone) that will painlessly get rid of the problem. He just needs to get the patent agreed. As the patent team come in – it’s their second visit as the first demonstration went wrong, with Nurse Patricia (Eva Habermann) having the scar to prove it – things go even worse and a gloopy puss-filled monster is soon on the rampage in his clinic.

The creature and other effects are sickeningly great, and we’re sure the pimple-popping fetishists will get their rocks off but the gross-out purulence could be a little too much even for die-hard horror freaks, with one gag repeated a little too often. It’s a shame that once the discharge monster arrives and goes on the rampage (it looks like a cross between The Green Slime aliens and Peter Gabriel’s Slipperman costume from during his Genesis years), the film becomes more of an ‘escape the creature’ flick and some of the humorous banter takes a backseat. It’s all filmed incredibly well, though, with Nick Gardner getting the most from the limited location.

As a pastiche, Cyst works well, but even at just under 70mins, there’s not much substance. It would have made a killer short film, but Russell attempts to squeeze out too much and the result is generally fun, but could be punchier. That said, there’s certainly a cult market for this, and no doubt it will find its fans. Make sure you stick around for the post-credit scene, as it’s one of the best gags of the film.

You might recall the story a year or so ago about a US high school putting on a stage production of Ridley Scott’s Alien. Pretty audacious, eh? How about the amateur dramatics society from Dorset who did the same with a panto budget? Now that’s ballsy! Alien on Stage is the story of that troupe – formed of mainly bus workers – who had the guts to adapt the film, making do with flimsy props and store-bought space suits. The result took them to the West End.

Putting the stage show together was indeed a brave endeavour; the genius, though, was to have the process documented on film. This documentary, directed by Lucy Harvey and Danielle Kummer, follows the rehearsals of the show, the disappointment of the turnout for their hometown village hall production, the shock of being offered a chance to play at the Leicester Square theatre, and the subsequent euphoria brilliantly. It’s a little rough around the edges, just as the stage play is, but in this case, it just adds to the charm.

The enthusiasm – and anxiety – of all involved is laid bare and is completely infectious. While some films have taken us backstage to the highly-strung am-dram world, this is the real deal and just as funny and heart-warming.  We defy anyone not to have a smile on their face by the time the curtain drops on the London production.

A popular but obnoxious comedian, Ray Kelly (Steve Guttenberg), was killed in his home in the early ‘90s, now, years later, an equally nauseous stand-up, Joe Johnson (Guy Combes) is set to play him in a movie biopic. Unfortunately, Joe is heckled during one of his shows and goes too far with his response and the ‘fan’ is now following him and posing a risk to his life.

Martyn Pick’s film is an uneven beast. While it builds up some paranoia working on the concept of a heckler wanting to do bad things to a comedian, it doesn’t help when, in the back of your mind, you want a whole lot of nastiness to head Johnson’s way. Similarly with Guttenberg’s character. Only seen in flashback, he’s such an odious person that you’re pleased that he’s been blown away. The peripheral parties don’t fare much better. Cameos from ‘famous’ faces such as Dani Dyer and Clark Gable III (who sadly died after filming) don’t bring much to the table kudos-wise – although Hellraiser’s Nicholas Vince stands out in his role – and Guy Combes’ beard looks as fake as Guttenberg’s wig. On the plus side, once we get into stalk-and-slice territory, there are a few fun kills and the resolution is so preposterous, it’s genius.

While Heckle won’t win any awards, it’s a fun distraction if you can overlook the shortcomings.

Six armed gangsters are holed up at their safe house in the country. A sprawling, decaying place but out of the sight of the law. One is lay dying with a gunshot wound to the gut, the others have discussions about who might be the rat who tipped off the cops. No, this is not a UK version of Reservoir Dogs, despite the similar beats, this is a different beast.

As the night draws in the tension between the group rises. They are a motley bunch. Carpenter (Finbar Lynch) is the ring leader and tough as a nut. Barker (Struan Rodger) is the wise old hand who dispenses knowledge in guff, hushed tones. Stoker (Kirk Lake), the quietest of the group, runs a club for the crime boss and wants to use his cut to get his own. HP (Simon Rhodes) is the thug bleeding out upstairs. Eddie Poe (Alexander Wells) is a new kid, the son of old hand but unsure about the life he’s been thrust into – he also is the only one who killed a policeman during their raid. Loudest and most reckless of the crew is Gordon (Johann Myers), a former boxer who as the night goes on becomes a coke-fuelled psycho. No prizes for guessing the connection between the characters’ names.

The house, however, has a life of its own, with their regretted kills appearing to each of the gangsters. It’s less of a boo-scare ghost story, more a haunted character study.

The atmosphere is bolstered by a stunning score from French outfit The Limiñanas (Russian Doll), which adds considerably to aesthetic the house brings. It’s shot and lit perfectly by Laurens Scott, someone more used to working on small-screen reality fodder. Co-directors Matthew Benjamin Jones and Luke Skinner work wonders, getting the pensive, volatile elements to sit together effortlessly. The screenplay – by Jones and actor Kirk Lake – focuses on character rather than horror and in doing so creates an utterly engaging old-school chiller. It would work as play, but at no point does this feel stagy. It’s films like this that give you hope for the British film industry.