Review Category: Movie

The punch-in the-eye colour of the characters’ hair dye might suggest something similar to Turbo Kid, but Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger is an entirely different beastie. Set in a sort of parallel 1980s, a group of friends get out of their depth and go for a hiding holiday on a mountain. The pity is they’re not sure what they’re hiding from.

The Ranger is a great film to watch if you really want to hate the teen fodder before they are inevitably mowed down. This is, almost paradoxically, because their characterisations are confusing. The film is the first FrightFest festival opener to be directed by a woman (klaxon!) and in a time where we’re increasingly aware of the value of social diversity, it is notable that the cast includes gay actors playing a mixed-race gay couple (double klaxon!!).

You can’t really just ignore this because identity politics have become so much a crux of how horror films are discussed and valued owing to Carol Clover’s final girl theory and the like. That The Ranger’s characters then hurt someone who’s just doing their job, vandalise a forest to show how cool they are and are frankly horrible to each other certainly upends expectations. If, as the soundtrack and lovingly pastiched wardrobes suggest, this is because punk rawks, you’ll want to side with the bad guys, and therein lies the neat little trick of the film: we don’t know who the bad guys are, especially when a weird maybe-cult is mentioned.

While the young cast are serviceable and manage not to be wooden despite their “stalker in the woods” setting, Chloe Levine (as Chelsea) is the standout. Veteran of The Defenders, she combines bile with brittleness that while not always likely even in the context of the trippy plot, does make her interesting to watch. This is particularly the case considering flashback sequences with genre favourite Larry Fessenden (I Sell the Dead) because there is less reliance on signposting and more on naturalistic acting here. Jeta Laurence does an almost superior job in this regard with her limited screen-time as Chelsea’s free-willed younger self. Mr Robot’s Jerry Holm gives a lip-smacking performance as an unhinged guardian of the wood.

The real star of the show is Jenn Wexler. While the script she co-wrote with Giaco Furino has believability issues, the film’s overall tone is ambitious. This is her first feature as director, and nifty shots (and things you don’t see) as well as knowing when to pull focus mean that this slight story on a tight budget actually looks quite expansive, and the gore effects are suitably cringe-inducing. That world-building and cinematography is important, as the central questions of what happened are left very much unanswered while the film retains a classic feminist tone. That said, it feels slightly incongruous to place punk against a raison d’etre about challenging reality in the way the characters repeatedly sloganeer about. The final shot, however, will have you pondering for moons to come.

THE RANGER / DIRECTOR: JENNIFER WEXLER / SCREENPLAY: JENNIFER WEXLER, GIACO FURINO / STARRING: CHLOE LEVINE, LARRY FESSENDEN, JETE LAURNCE, JEREMY S.HOLM / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (USA)

The curl of the lip whispers Shakespearean glower… until The Purple Man’s American accent skids into an estuary somewhere in the UK and David Tennant (Dr Who, Jessica Jones) just glories in the insanity of the moment. Dean Devlin’s Bad Samaritan may actually be the perfect Friday night film if you want something silly but are still trying to make out that you’re in a Silence of the Lambs mood. The plot swings a million ways from Sunday, but the basis of Bad Samaritan centres around a couple of crooks who mess with the wrong punter and find themselves in a race to save some treasure.

The centrepiece is not Tennant, but the interplay between him (as Cale), Sean (Robert Sheehan, Misfits) and Katie (Kerry Condon, Better Call Saul). Dear David could do this role tied up and gagged with a feather up his nethers, but the fun comes from seeing him switch between serious moments (and there are a few genuinely nasty bites) and sections so tropey that all he can do is show us his teeth and chew the scenery. This would get cloying were it not for Sean, a waifish photographer and choirboy-gone-bad type whose determination makes you root for him no matter what. Condon actually manages to underscore the horrors and add a bit of relief by delivering lines that have no right to work like a cross between Turbo Kid’s Apple and a Soska Sisters character.

There is some terrific attention to detail on set, including wonderfully leery design and digital gizmos by Nate Jones, Michelle Jones and Benjamin Hayden, but the plot holes are cavernous (with a welcoming committee literally beaming just inside) and there’s a tension-breaking score that really does sound like they just plonked a Dictaphone in a run-of-the-mill rock gig and got the soundcheck. With talent such as Tennant on board, it does also make you wonder just how much directing the normally writing/producing Devlin (Independence Day) actually did, especially considering some of the characterisation of other cast members switches periodically from perfectly appropriate shock and awe to artsy connection-making. There’s even a daft segment where two folks are exchanging soulful glances through a window and you actually want to yell “boo” because what’s coming is so utterly inevitable. It’s a sleazy torture-porn flick, a heist, a psychological thriller, a family drama and farce, and has a subplot involving the FBI that certainly won’t help you sleep any better. The police are very much Clouseau despite apparently trying to give a Falk.

Bad Samaritan is not technically a fantastic film. It seems to somewhat inadvertently swing its multicoloured serial killer pants and go for it. Bouncing its cast all over the place as it tries to outwit the viewer, it remains bogglingly entertaining.

BAD SAMARITAN / DIRECTOR: DEAN DEVLIN / SCREENPLAY: / STARRING: DAVID TENNANT, ROBERT SHEEHAN, KERRY CONDON, LISA BRENNER / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

When an indie film crew reassemble for a night shoot to complete the pickups on their low-budget zombie flick Dawn of the Deadly, things do not go entirely to plan. Relations between members of the group are fractious, resources are stretched, and it looks like being a long shift in the condemned office block (rigged for demolition the following morning) that the production is using as a set. But when members of the unit unwittingly witness a brutal gangland execution in the neighbouring block, the risks they face suddenly become more serious than cold coffee, arrogant actors and dodgy equipment.

The premise of Nightshooters may not be that original – it was a familiar enough trope even by the time Emilio Estevez’s fateful wrong turn flick Judgment Night (a movie Nightshooters shares some plot beats with) was released back in 1993 – but it’s the inventiveness and the audacious mash-up of different genres that makes this upstart movie stand out.

Things get off to a great start with the opening movie-within-a-movie battle with a zombie gang, full of some impressively choreographed fight sequences, camera lens blood splatter and moments that hint at the dark humour to come. With the bona fides of the criminal ganglord and his merciless crew, and the life-and-death peril now facing the filmmakers both quickly established, the pace shifts up a gear.

Blending elements of the crime caper, the chase flick, gore-horror and the revenge movie, Nightshooters then moves through a series of set pieces as the thugs from the gang discover the ‘film students’ make for far tougher opponents than they had anticipated. There are brutal deaths, gallows humour and a great deal of extremely well executed Kung-fu fighting. Amidst the bloodletting and mayhem, there’s an emotional texture too. While much of the violence is played for laughs, the brutality is shown to have real and painful consequences.

For a low-budget movie there’s a large ensemble cast. Richard Sandling makes a big impression as gang leader Tarker (at times he appears to be channelling Nick Frost), while Adam McNab delivers a very effective performance as out of his depth director Marshall, who struggles to keep his spiralling panic in check as their predicament worsens. Jean-Paul Ly is pretty clearly a better martial artist than he is an actor, but he’s brilliant as the tenacious and fearless Donnie.

Marc Price’s muscular script takes the narrative through numerous unexpected turns, and in the director’s chair he ensures the momentum rarely flags whilst still giving his fight coordinators sufficient room to showcase their talents.

There are some less successful elements. The recourse to expletives in the script is so remorseless from the get-go that it dilutes the words’ impact. Less would most definitely be more in this case. The wild tonal shifts that occur unexpectedly as the story moves between action, violence, humour and emotion also risk confusing some viewers as to where the movie’s heart resides. The film’s brilliant final scene confirms that this is a psychologically literate group of filmmakers, but that sensibility can sometimes feel obscured elsewhere.

That does not detract from the fact that this is a thoroughly entertaining, accomplished and unusual Brit crime-thriller, bursting with confidence (and blood, gunplay and gruesome deaths) and not afraid to break with the conventions of each of the genres it references.

NIGHTSHOOTERS / WRITER: MARC PRICE / DIRECTOR: MARC PRICE / CAST: JEAN-PAUL LY, DOUG ALLEN, ROSANNA HOULT, NICHOLAS AARON, BEN SHAFIK / CERT: 18 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (VOD)

 

Dean Devlin, just off last year’s stinker Geostorm (a big budget version of an Asylum movie if there ever was one) directs Doctor Who star David Tennant in a film that should have been titled Doctor Who Cares?

Two restaurant valets (Sheehan and Olivero) decide to be the Einstein’s of crime by having one watch the unobservant patron as he or she eats their meal while the other drives off in the victim’s car using GPS as the other breaks into their home to steal their valuables.

But when Cale Erendreich (Tennant) shows up in his Maserati thinking they have a major cash cow on their hands, they get more than they bargained for after finding a tied up, bloodied Kate (Condon) in Erendreich’s house. Now, their thieving morale code is flipped on its head as they decide to call the cops and get arrested or intervene and get arrested.

However, it turns out that Erendreich is a serial killer and now the hunters become his prey.

Tennant shines as the evil Erendreich especially in his physical features with his snake-like, hypnotic eyes and sinister delivery of dialogue playing a deadly cat and mouse game of wits with his new victims.

Bad Samaritan is a well-photographed movie with the majority of it shot at night in Portland, Oregon with its impressive vistas, but the story by Brandon Boyce is pedestrian at best in its pacing, unbelievable moments and delivery. There is no one to root for as the hero, as all the characters have un-redeeming values. It’s like Ray Dennis Steckler’s obscure 1979 film The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher and the best part of that film was the movie poster.

It’s always great to see Tennant on screen, though. This is an actor who could read the phone book and he make it interesting. He is a true entertainer. His role in Hamlet is equal to Sir Laurence Olivier’s performance and we’re sure his future roles will deliver just as much in quality.

Of course, if you’re a glutton for punishment, you’d be better off watching the remake of the Quatermass Experiment than this road accident with Tennant as Dr. Briscoe, the best actor in that train derailment. We’re sure Nigel Kneale and Val Guest were spinning in their graves when that low-brow missing link aired.

Devlin’s directing takes the paint-by-numbers approach with nothing new to offer.

For Tennant aficionados only, otherwise avoid.

BAD SAMARITAN / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DEAN DEVLIN / SCREENPLAY: BRANDON BOYCE / STARRING: DAVID TENNANT, ROBERT SHEEHAN, CARLITO OLIVERO, KERRY CONDON / RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 24TH (UK), OUT NOW (US)

Expected Rating 6 out of 10

Tricky business, making a post-apocalyptic genre movie when you’re not blessed with a Roland Emmerich / Michael Bay-sized Hollywood mega-budget. Fortunately our more inspired and creative visionaries are willing and able to rise to the challenge and cut their cinematic suit according to their financial cloth. The end of the world needn’t always be about massive explosions, crowds of screaming extras and general scenes of terror and devastation. Mike P Nelson’s gripping, grounded and quietly impressive debut feature The Domestics is commensurately light on spectacle (for a change) and high on concept, delivering a grim and gritty world-gone-mad tale whose roots are buried deep in the strange socio-political landscape of contemporary America. Geostorm this ain’t…

Society has been brought to its knees – for reasons never fully explained – thanks to the world’s governments culling vast swathes of the planet’s population by sending fleets of jet planes to dump a poisonous lethal black gas which kills almost immediately. There are survivors, of course, those who are immune to the gas – but the new world order is a vicious, dog-eat-dog place and America has disintegrated into a country divided into self-serving gangs with names like the Sheets (they wear… well… white sheets), metal-clad Nailers, Mad Max-like Plowboys and the chance-crazed Gamblers. Ordinary folk who demonstrate no allegiance to any particular tribe are referred to dismissively as “domestics”. Troubled young couple Mark and Nina (Hoechlin and Bosworth) are classic domestics on the verge of splitting up at the time of the collapse but who grudgingly stay together to travel from Minneapolis to Milwaukee where Nina’s parents have also survived, living a life of relative normality in a community largely untouched by the disaster. Inevitably it’s far from an uneventful road trip as the couple discover the true horrors of humanity in times of crisis, and their often-brutal encounters with the disparate groups form the backbone of a movie that paints an uncomfortable picture of a fractured world not entirely dissimilar to the one we’re living in right here, right now.

The Domestics doesn’t really take us anywhere we haven’t gone before, but Nelson tells his lean and blunt story with some style. His often-ugly characters (and, it has to be said, the rather bland lead pair) populate a bruised, lawless landscape where life is cheap and meaningless, and the only common currency is violence – and be warned, the violence is pretty unflinching and uncompromising.

Visually arresting and commendably downbeat, The Domestics could perhaps have benefited from sharpening its satirical edge rather than losing its way in the last reel as it stumbles into a rather generic Walking Dead style shoot-out, but it remains a haunting and uncomfortable parable for our times. You’ll have to make an effort to find it in amongst the impossible missions and miniature marvels currently crowding out the multiplex, but it’s an effort that will reward you with a film which at least tries to do something a little bit different.

THE DOMESTICS / DIRECTOR: MIKE P NELSON / SCREENPLAY: MIKE P NELSON / STARRING: TYLER HOECHLIN, KATE BOSWORTH, DAVID DASTMASCHIAN, LANCE REDDICK, DANA GOURRIER / CERT: 18 / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Whimsy. It’s a word that is so easily attached to any Disney release. They have a tried and tested formula for family entertainment that has seen them evolve to the multimedia behemoth that they are today. With any other studio, this might become tiresome and repetitive but, with the House of Mouse, that’s just not the case.

We are reintroduced to the titular character as the boy that we all know from the stories by A.A. Milne as he prepares to go off to boarding school and has to leave all his friends behind. We see Christopher grow up into a man (McGregor) and find that he has all the trappings of a grown-up – a family and a job.

Things come to a head when Christopher has to cancel a weekend family trip back to his childhood cottage in Hartfield because of work, leaving his wife Evelyn (Atwell) and daughter Madeline (Carmichael) to make the trip alone. As Christopher sits on a park bench trying to work out a work dilemma, Pooh pops up, making Christopher think he’s lost his marbles.

Pooh is hoping that Christopher can help him find all their other childhood buddies – Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga and Roo, who appear to have got lost. So Christopher goes back to Hundred Acre Wood to discover it shrouded in mist and everyone missing.

Once he has successfully found them all, he returns to London for an important business meeting, only to discover that Tigger has mistakenly removed some vital papers from his briefcase and replaced them with some twigs and leaves. Suddenly the race is on for the furry friends to join forces with Madeline and get the papers back to Christopher before it’s too late.

The main subplot about a father losing touch with what’s important in life is always relevant. Kids always want to grow up and parents always reminisce about their childhoods. While it’s great to see the characters where we know they should be, it’s clear that the film is at its strongest when they are out of their comfort zone, parading around London and getting involved with all kinds of high-jinks and car chases.

The main actors are all perfect for their roles, and Gatiss shines as the villainous boss, Giles Winslow, who would much rather play golf than spend his weekend working. The colours are muted to tie in with the time period, and although the characters are like those in the original books rather than the exuberantly coloured cartoon versions, the warmth you feel from them all is nothing short of delightful.

A guaranteed treat for the whole family.

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN / DIRECTOR: MARC FOSTER / SCREENPLAY: ALEX ROSS PERRY, TOM MCCARTHY, ALLISON SCHROEDER / STARRING: EWAN MCGREGOR, HAYLEY ATWELL, BRONTE CARMICHAEL, MARK GATISS / CERT: PG / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Far Eastern horror films tend to be divisive affairs for Western Cinema audiences, given that there can seem to be about fifteen ideas present when a mere couple would suffice. Getting its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Yudai Yamaguchi’s Rokuroku: The Promise Of The Witch is a surrealist horror fantasy that appears to focus on a series of unrelated stories, but these are merely a backdrop and set-up to the overall story that is unfolding.

It is the tale of two old school friends, Izumi and Mika, who decide to meet up after years apart, having been close during their childhood. As their long-belated meeting is taking place, a series of seemingly unrelated incidents is taking place – unbeknownst to the two girls, frightening ghostly and spiritual apparitions are beginning to manifest themselves. However, a revelation from Mika, which stems from a shared childhood experience, could well be the key to the girls’ respective destinies.

Rokuroku: The Promise Of The Witch will appeal to fans of The Ring and The Grudge in both their American and Japanese versions, and there is some additional attraction for fans of Don Cosarelli’s classic 1979 horror fantasy Phantasm, with which Rokuroku shares quite a lot in both look and style. The latter film’s surrealist worlds-within-worlds (coupled with the unforgettable introductions of the flying spheres that drill into any unfortunate human who cross the lair of The Tall Man) more than compensated for any understanding of the plot.

Be advised, though, that this is a bit of a slow-burner and the multiple stories of unrelated individuals will confuse a little bit. You sometimes feel you might be watching six or seven separate stories which would benefit from those EC-style comic strip segues between the quintet of tales in Creepshow, and they might throw the narrative of the female friends off guard.

If you buy into the cross-cutting of the various tales, then this is quite an effectively creepy yarn. It does suffer somewhat from the familiarity of the Japanese horror hits mentioned, but there are some admirable horror and technical effects.

ROKUROKU: THE PROMISE OF THE WITCH / DIRECTOR: YUDAI YAMAGUCHI / SCREENPLAY: YUKI KAMAGAI / STARRING: MIHO NAKANISHI, SHIHO, KARIA NOMOTO, MOSO CALIBRATION, MICKEY CURTIS / CERT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Getting a VOD release in August 2018, Josh Mendoza’s post-apocalyptic drama What Still Remains taps into the same dystopian elements that helped to heighten the likes of The Hunger Games franchise and The Road.

Anna (Lula Antariksa) is trying to cope with the recent loss of both her mother and her brother in the aftermath of a worldwide plague, and still takes pride in the homestead that her family has created. Twenty five years on from the terrible events that brought the world seemingly to its knees, there are rumours of undesirable elements in the world who have been transformed into scarred and mysterious beings called “Berserkers”.

One day, a stranger by the name of Peter (Colin O’Donoghue) arrives at Anna’s place and strikes up a bond with her, talking of a nearby village community where sanctuary and hope can be offered.. The journey through the local woodland brings human hazards, but eventually they reach the fenced and secluded community, led by Judith (Mimi Rogers, from Ridley Scott’s 1987 thriller Someone To Watch Over Me). Before long, the community reveals themselves to be a highly religious group, offering Anna some hope and solace,as well as a way forward amidst all the desperation. However, one of the captured Berserkers has got a different plan in mind for the woodland-wise Anna.

What Still Remains retains the classic template of a future-gone-bad storyline in the tradition of the George Miller Mad Max films, The Road Warrior and Fury Road, and there is also a touch of The Outlaw Josey Wales in this as a story of someone who has lost key family members and has to evolve and grow within a new group of people in order to survive. Compared to The Road, which at times was perhaps a little too downbeat and depressing, What Still Remains has more energy and activity, and is more enjoyable for that across its hour and a half running time. As with the best futuristic sci-fi films, there are layers of subtext and character revelation that allow the audience to absorb the intention and vision of the director, coupled with some brilliant cinematography from Matthew Edwards, which is in turns both atmospheric and beautifully haunting.

Although aimed at a VOD release, this is a movie that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible. Hopefully some rep screenings and festival opportunities will beckon, but most importantly it is a great showcase for both the acting and technical teams.

WHAT STILL REMAINS / DIRECTOR: JOSH MENDOZA / SCREENPLAY: JOSH MENDOZA / STARRING: LULU ANTARIKSA, COLIN O’DONOGHUE, MIMI ROGERS / CERDT: TBC / RELEASE DATE: 14T AUGUST 2018 (VOD)