Review Category: Movie

A man gurns at himself in the mirror. He brushes his teeth, spits toothpaste down the toilet he’s sitting on and then walks out in truly ridiculous clothing to screw someone over. Director Dominic Bridges’ Freehold is one of the strangest films at this year’s FrightFest.

Alternatively titled Two Pigeons, Freehold concerns an estate agent whose home is invaded by a guy who is naked but for his (heavily stained) underpants. This intruder proceeds to play merry havoc while periodically intoning to pigeons on the window ledge how vital home security is to health and happiness. Yes, this film wears its artiness on its sleeve.

 

Javier Botet (of Mama and the film adaptation of Stephen King’s It this year) has the brooding manner and elongated limbs caused by Marfan Syndrome to make the frankly disgusting things he does appear deeply deliberated and philosophical, especially when captured in a Dutch angle. Indeed, it is his difference that makes this film feel profound because it highlights the gaping chasm between how we picture the ‘realtor’ ready view of living in our little boxes versus how gooey, gassy and viscous our activities actually are. Sections in which the naturally handsome Botet recalibrates from his torment and croons plaintive foreign songs into an unassuming guitar further enhances the contrast. At the same time, however, you are left with the feeling that if another actor were playing the role, the plot itself would appear (wall)paper thin.

 

Mim Shaikh does well as the wideboy who is nonetheless a kinetic and likeable character, suspect tastes in home furnishing aside. He is believable if you have lived in less than kind economic circumstances, which it seems is half the point the film is trying to make. It is however absurd (rather than absurdist) to accept that his relationships are disrupted so quickly without any attempt from the characters involved to get help when the rug is pulled from under them. Quite frankly, their ability to function at the level of social success that leads to buying expensive shampoo and flats in the south east at such a young age suggests they are not daft and Mandeep Dhillon (as Mel) simply exudes a streetwise sweetness. The film also has more than a slightly jagged edge in a strange little section that trips between Shakespearean-style poetry and rap and back again to hammer home the idea that we need to reconsider what we think of as peculiar or unethical behaviour. It gets away with it only because of Shaikh’s self-assured swagger, though even that feels a little under stress here.

Freehold deserves mention for its strong central performances and defiant artistry. It teeters on the edge of camp pretension before whipping out its raison d’etre and being unapologetically political. That said, the sheer amount of bodily fluids displayed before it forecloses means it slightly outstays its welcome.

 

FREEHOLD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DOMINIC BRIDGES / SCREENPLAY: DOMINIC BRIDGES, RAE BRUNTON / STARRING: JAVIER BOTET, MANDEEP DHILLON, MIM SHAIKH, MICHAEL MCKELL / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Take Daredevil, her from One Foot in the Grave and Dexter Fletcher, chuck in some fangs and what do you get? A comedy vampire caper that has no right to work but provides a chuckle-worthy two hours of good-hearted cod-danger.

 

Eat Locals is the new title from Evolution / Hereford Films. Directed by Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ Jason Flemyng in his first time behind the camera, Eat Locals carries all the hallmarks of Hereford’s gangstersploitation – We Still Kill The Old Way etc. The setup sees East End geezer Sebastian (played by the beautifully-named first timer, Billy Crook) as he is driven for what he thinks is a dirty weekend with a lady friend. Upon arrival, he is treated to the sight of Charlie Cox (Daredevil), Annette Crosbie (One Foot in the Grave), Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and ramshackle others who turn out to be vampire lords hell bent on divvying up prey from their particular regions. Realising they’re unlikely to see eye to eye with him (with or without a mirror), Sebastian tries to leg it. The whole thing then descends into a very British farce between the vamps, the bad boy and the services sent to keep the whole thing in check.  

There are some crimes against script writing here (random references to Tolkien that are duly delivered with lead. Really?). That said, there is a certain charm about many of the performances. Charlie Cox is great value and brings his Marvellous pained morals back to his very English accent and Annette Crosbie yanks her other foot out of the grave and goes great guns in a way that outdoes Honour Blackman’s turn in Cockneys vs. Zombies a few years ago. Doctor Who’s Freema Agyeman would benefit from remembering a glottal stop does not a stroppy character make, but at least she’s trying. The show is practically stolen by Billy Crook (sorry) whose utter lack of guile (and oddly hipster haircut) make you root for him regardless. He is every gutsy whippersnapper from Oliver! onwards. The rest of the roles are basically both directed and scripted as a kind of UK-character Minstrel show, with Fletcher bug-eyeing his way through a farmer and Gavin and Stacey’s Ruth Jones being cuddly and Very Welsh. It honestly feels like a panto in a good way after you get past the rather slow intro.

 

Parallels with everything from Shaun of the Dead to What We Do In the Shadows go down a treat. There’s even a nice little bit of social class dialogue bubbling under the surface that results in a final and very wry political money shot. The cinematography and effects are nothing to write home about, though they are perfectly serviceable. How ‘Danny Dire’ can a load of gangsta vampires be? Answer’s in the dodgy rhyme, but despite a lack of bite, Eat Locals is an enjoyable little morsel.

 

EAT LOCALS / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JASON FLEMYNG / SCREENPLAY: DANNY KING / STARRING: BILLY CROOK, CHARLIE COX, MACKENZIE CROOK, DEXTER FLETCHER, ANNETTE CROSBIE, FREEMA AGYEMAN / RELEASE DATE: 1ST SEPTEMBER (OFFICIAL UK RELEASE DATE)

There is a strange, quiet beauty in the minimalism of the medical environment in this most anticipated feature concerning one of the icons of horror cinema…until that little ginger fucker adds a bloodbath of colour, that is! Writer/director Don Mancini is back with a few friends for the 7th instalment of the Child’s Play ‘killer doll’ series. It has enough backstory to satisfy hardcore fans and posts a perfect warning to the curious as well.

The action starts a few years after Curse of Chucky. Serial killer Charles Lee Ray (voiced by The Lord of the Rings’ Brad Dourif) is still trapped inside the infamous Good Guy “Chucky” doll and Nica, the daughter of his former love-interest (and Brad’s real-life daughter, Fiona) is in a sanitorium on account of being framed for multiple murders. The plot sees the little monster run merrily amok in the ‘loonybin’ with characters who can’t make up their minds just how mad they actually are (or indeed, would like to be). Confused yet? You will be, but that’s part of the joy of this caper. The deaths are as daft and gory as you’d hope (and, sssh – Chuckies are rather sweet-tempered sometimes), but filming actually gives an icy blast that makes you marvel at the magic of even ‘schlock’ cinema to switch mood on a dime. We waft from mourning via some really gorgeous cinematography to split-screen, realism-out-the-window madness in a moment.

Director Don Mancini even does a nifty job of splicing utter fan-friendliness with the occasional social comment. No – really – Seed of Chucky was about self-acceptance (with a lot of murder chucked in). Here, it becomes impossible to just ignore the plight of the asylum patients Nica meets, with Elizabeth Rosen’s ‘Madeline’ a particular standout. She is complemented by Michael Therriault as a manipulative, squicky shrink in the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest mould. Some of the minor characters’ acting is a little too hammy to work fully, but that does stop the action from becoming too serious because the real star isn’t, well, real.

The Dourifs make this look so easy. Brad’s ventriloquism of Chucky’s inability to decide whether he wants to up his game or just sit and watch seems pleasantly genuine in a cynical serial-killer type of way, but the real revelation is Fiona as Nica. We know from Curse that she can do doe-eyed n’ desperate, but a nifty little plot point allows her to get her ‘dom’ on…just in time for scene-stealing appearances by the one and only Jennifer Tilly as Chucky’s lover, Tiffany. Tilly remains as delightfully subversive as she ever has been and she’s got it licked.

Cult of Chucky takes the franchise to its (psycho!)logical conclusion. There is daffy, orange Easter eggs aplenty and enough blood to entertain the (as yet) uninitiated. Is Chucky still fucking with us? Oh yes, he is!

CULT OF CHUCKY / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DON MANCINI / STARRING: BRAD DOURIF, FIONA DOURIF, ALEX VINCENT, GRACE LYNN KUNG / RELEASE DATE: 23RD OCTOBER (UK DVD/BLU-RAY RELEASE)

Ever fantasised about having a female amalgamation of James Bond and John Wick? Well, look no further as Atomic Blonde delivers what you want and maybe a little more. Having first made his mark through the John Wick movies, rising director David Leitch joins forces with producer/leading star and all-round badass Charlize Theron to deliver an adrenaline-fuelled thrill ride, albeit with a few stumbles along the way. Set during the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall, MI6 agent Lorraine Broughton is sent into the heart of Berlin to retrieve a priceless dossier and take down a ruthless rogue agent known as “Satchel”. Once there, she teams up with anarchic fellow agent David Percival to navigate her way through a deadly widening web of lies and deceit. 

But more importantly, this movie is one relentless bloody ballet of gunfire and fistfights, and you do feel the pain and batterings that are unleashed throughout. It’s just as visceral and edgy as the John Wick movies, if only a tad rougher and bloodier than those movies that felt more precise and clean in their balletic fight sequences. One particular standout sequence comes towards the end of the film where our main anti-heroine takes on a gang of hitmen in a hotel as she attempts to get out of East Berlin, and it is shot and choreographed in a way that’s very physical and visceral. Whenever filmmakers attempt to create a world set within a specific time period, they occasionally drop the ball by assuming that all you need to create an authentic setting is by just throwing in some retro songs and some goofy clothes, but here, the ‘80s setting is created to perfection. 

Everything from the costume and set design to the neon-soaked colour palette (kudos to expert cinematographer Jonathan Sela) is nailed, even right down to the simplest of touches like Pan Am planes at Berlin Tempelhof Airport. The soundtrack is utilised well with terrific uses of songs ranging from ‘Blue Monday ’88’ and ‘99 Luftballons’ to ‘London Calling’ and ‘Under Pressure’, which all compliments the ‘80s surroundings. The environment looked and felt right, they managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly, and in a way, this succeeded where films like the recent X-Men: Apocalypse failed. 

Building upon the success of Mad Max: Fury Road, Charlize Theron proves herself to be one of the most unique and talented action stars of this generation, just like Keanu Reeves did before her in John Wick. She manages to convey an array of emotions seamlessly throughout, ranging from vulnerable to alluring to dangerously vicious in the blink of an eye. Theron handles the physicality with ease, and she throws herself into those action sequences with a believable dedication and tenacity, which further solidifies her as one of the most convincing action heroines in recent cinema. The supporting cast are also terrific with James McAvoy bringing out the crazy and unhinged as the seemingly corrupt agent, while Sofia Boutella is simply phenomenal as the undercover French agent who gets involved with Theron in more ways than one, which totally redeems her after the terrible reboot of The Mummy.

However, while the film is relentless in its action and manages to maintain its sense of pace for the most part, it does go off the rails towards the end, which starts right after that significant action sequence, and once we get past that, the movie completely hinges on the last fourth act that attempts to fill in the gaps and missing pieces of the puzzle, but only ends up raising more questions than answers. This is the kind of film that won’t appeal to everyone’s tastes, especially since the film never truly reveals why some characters act in certain ways or whose side they were on at certain points throughout, which would either fascinate of frustrate the most casual of viewers.

For the most part, Atomic Blonde is an atomic blast, delivering on the action and allure with style and panache. Theron is one cool action badass, and David Leitch proves that he’s the right guy to handle the upcoming Deadpool 2. True, it may not be as smart as it thinks it is, and the direction the story ultimately takes at the end is sorely underwhelming, which just evidently makes it ten minutes too long, but if you want to experience a visceral action flick that’ll leave you breathless, then this may be the movie for you. 

ATOMIC BLONDE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: DAVID LEITCH / SCREENPLAY: KURT JOHNSTAD / STARRING: CHARLIZE THERON, JAMES MCAVOY, SOFIA BOUTELLA, JOHN GOODMAN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW 

Expected Rating: 7/10

Final Rating:

For any movie in today’s cynical climate, there are certain expectations to meet or overcome. Some have no optimistic buzz and end up being something great (this year’s Life), others have similarly low opinions pre-release and end up being as bad as (or worse than) expected (oh hi there Emoji Movie). Then on the flipside, some are sunk – either critically or financially – by expectations that are near impossible to meet (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). Every movie lives or dies by what you, as a discerning movie lover, want from it, and when it comes to a film like The Hitman’s Bodyguard you get exactly what you pay for.

This buddy action/comedy focuses on protection agent Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) who is hired to protect dangerous hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) as he makes the perilous journey to The Hague to testify in the much-publicised trial of ruthless Belarus dictator Vladislav Dukhovich (Gary Oldman). The plot is undoubtedly silly…hell you can clearly see that. As such, if you are expecting a film that subverts the tropes of its intermingled genres and refreshingly rewrites the rulebook, you may well leave disappointed. However, should you be going in expecting a movie that doffs its cap to the buddy action comedy capers of the late ‘80s/early-mid ‘90s (the Lethal Weapon series, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Long Kiss Goodnight) then you will be as entertained as this reviewer was.

From the posters staging a Jackson/Reynolds parody of Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner 1992 Romantic Thriller The Bodyguard, to the film’s big name cast having a ball (akin to RED) and being allowed to do their thing in a Midnight Run fashion, this is all played for fun. Whatever the plot lacks in originality or tonal jumps (the finale goes rather serious and the opening feels a touch too spoofy) director Patrick Hughes makes up for in entertaining action sequences (the film has a great car chase), constant enjoyment and the camaraderie of the leading double act and supporting players. 

Unlike Hughes’ last film – The Expendables 3 – that was not terrible but did somewhat betray that series’ modus operandi, The Hitman’s Bodyguard delivers what it is expected to. The script is full of more profanity than a late night, boozy, XBOX Live session (the mothaf***er count is high) and the jokes hit more than they miss (appropriately enough), as the film savors its own folly and delivers Deadpool-esque moments of violence (a particularly nasty torture scene) alongside some big name tomfoolery (Reynolds & Jackson meet Nuns). 

The film really sails on the charismatic pairing of Jackson and Reynolds, who have a top banterous (is that a word?) energy together and are consistently entertaining to watch. They both create a memorable bromance across a few scenes, where Jackson in particular is clearly having a blast. Meanwhile it is great to see Salma Hayek get given the green light to be the badass she can be, as opposed to the scantily clad eye candy she has become a touch stereotyped as. Her sweary, aggressive and ‘it’s good to be bad’ turn as Kincaid’s wife Sonia recalls the joyously invested, against typecast, performance that Jennifer Aniston gave as the nymphomaniac dentist Julia in Horrible Bosses (forget the sequel). Then there is Gary Oldman who sinks his teeth into the film’s villain role (and accent) – a character that wouldn’t be too out of place in a serious Bond or Bourne caper actually – and again shows he is one of the most underappreciated actors in the business. 

Overall, with its fun soundtrack, joyride-like action and plenty of bang for buck entertainment, not to mention the cast visibly having a hoot, this is precisely what it is meant to be. The Hitman’s Bodyguard is ridiculous, enjoyable and very well cast…with Reynolds and Jackson especially taking you on a helluva ride to The Hague. 

THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: PATRICK HUGHES / SCREENPLAY: TOM O’CONNOR / STARRING: SAMUEL L. JACKSON, RYAN REYNOLDS, GARY OLDMAN, SALMA HAYEK / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Expected Rating: 8/10

Actual Rating:

Volumes of Blood impressed a lot of genre-loving folks in 2015 with a low-budget underdog approach to anthology filmmaking. The sequel, Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories, delivers another round of stodgy straight-to-DVD horror that won best anthology at Kentucky’s Fright Night Film Fest.

The two-hour collection is low on common sense, high on amateur charm. But that only goes so far. Two-hours of woeful dialogue, dodgy acting, and plain old stupidity make it tough to bear even for the most die-hard of underdog fans. Festival audiences are far more responsive to this kind of thing; the community spirit of a booze-fuelled cinema can do wonders for dopey horror. But on home viewing it just doesn’t make the mark and there’s a plethora of reasons why.

As an anthology film it takes a while to find its structure, not breaking out its wraparound narrative until two segments have passed. The overarching plot, ‘A Killer House’ directed by James Treakle, follows a young couple as they are led room to room by an odd solicitor, with each new room we flashback to its horrible history. It’s a nice idea and actually delivers a few chills, but time and time again bad dialogue, and ropey acting get in the way of any mood building.

Nathan Thomas Milliner’s ‘Murder, Death Killer’, is a daft slasher hark-back, eventually revealed to be the umpteenth sequel in a long-running franchise. Nicely self-aware, it opens up a literal dialogue between two horror fans about sequelitis, nostalgia, and fans that hate “new horror”, (It Follows? More like It Swallows!) but there’s not enough ambition to take it further than a simple scuzzy slasher. Milliner’s other short ‘Fear, Sinners Here’ is a way more accomplished Christmas home invasion film with a great wee twist, and some of the better performances in the anthology.

In its half a dozen segments Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories frequently falls back on psychos and stabbings. In a modern genre saturated with new approaches, it’s too “old school” for its own good. The best segments are the few that throw caution to the wind and tackle more outlandish concepts. Jon Maynard’s ‘Blood Bath’ turns a killer bath into one of the most gruesome entries via excessive splatter and a dollop of surprise. Justin M. Seaman’s ‘The Deathday Party’ follows a terribly acted but adorably murderous elderly couple as they descend into gruesome celebrations. It’s dumb as rocks, but pulls off some surprisingly nasty slapstick comedy bound to make you wince and chuckle.

Volumes of Blood: Horror Stories won’t be for everyone, especially not those who enjoy the higher production value of anthologies like V/H/S and Trick ‘r’ Treat, but it does have its moments. None of the shorts are particularly memorable, but some can be entertaining.

VOLUMES OF BLOOD: HORROR STORIES / CERT: TBC / DIRECTORS: SEAN BLEVINS, JOHN WILLIAM HOLT, JON MAYNARD, NATHAN THOMAS MILLINER, JUSTIN SEAMAN, JAMES TREAKLE / SCREENPLAY: SEAN BLEVINS, NATHAN THOMAS MILLINER, P. J. STARKS, JASON TURNER / STARRING: BARBIE CLARK, THOMAS DUNBAR, ARIC STANISH, NATHAN THOMAS MILLINER / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Expected Rating: 5/10

Actual Rating:

Dawn Of The Deaf is an engaging, horrifying, mystifying and, due to its brief length, tantalising take on the zombie genre unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Directed by Rob Savage and starring members of London’s deaf community, Dawn Of The Deaf is an “apocalyptic horror short” which aims to drum up support for a feature length version of the film. After playing at festivals around the world including Sundance, Fright Fest and the BFI Film Festival and winning awards seemingly wherever it goes, DotD is now available to watch online (scroll down, hopefully the internet magicians will embed the video for us) and we honestly can’t recommend it highly enough.

We join proceedings “one hour before the pulse”, where we’re introduced to several characters going about their daily lives. It’s kind of difficult to talk about these characters without spoiling things, but it’s enough for us to say that every single one of them is interesting in their own way. When a sudden sonic blast strikes down anyone who hears it, only the deaf characters are unaffected, leaving them to pick up the pieces. Then all hell threatens to break loose when the dead start coming back to life…

Viewers are brought into these characters lives in such a fast and skilful way that it’s impossible to not feel connected to each of their individual situations. Abuse, discrimination, isolation, acceptance, love, hope, fear and joy are all touched upon, but never in a heavy-handed or overly preachy sort of way. While all of the main characters are deaf, there are speaking characters and plenty of audio cues making the film accessible to every audience. Deafness is seen as a survival tool rather than a disability, turning people’s preconceptions upside down and using it as a unique premise for what could well turn into a true cult movie in the making.

As a self-contained short, DotD does its job tremendously well, and raises a few questions and possibilities for the future. The cliffhanger ending – fading to black just as the dead have begun to rise again – leaves us wondering what might happen next. How does the deaf community survive in a world full of bloodthirsty zombies? Keeping this spoiler-free, will a certain someone be able to get their revenge? Given the ridiculous amount of character development and thought-provoking ideas it manages to cover within its 11-minute running time, we can only imagine what the team might be able to achieve with a bigger budget and an extra 80 minutes or so. Fingers crossed DotD gets the attention it deserves, and our questions might be answered in the coming months and years. 

DAWN OF THE DEAF / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ROB SAVAGE / STARRING: CAROLINE WARD, STEPHEN COLLINS, HALEY BISHOP, RADINA DRANDOVA / RELEASE DATE: AVAILABLE NOW (VIMEO)

Ordinarily, explaining the concept of a short would be bad form to even consider, but Rites of Vengeance’s simple setup of a trio of nuns taking matters into their own hands after discovering the actions of a perverted priest, along with its very title declaring what kind of tale it is, it can’t be considered that much of a spoiler to simply confirm the conclusion it’s pretty safe to assume you’ve already leapt to.

Abject contempt is seared into the faces of the three women, juxtaposing the self-deific serenity possessed by their target (someone who eminently deserves what’s coming to them can’t really be called a victim) before they confront him, his face then contorting into mute pleas for mercy that is not forthcoming. The item each nun carries and used in the attack is in its own way representative of a child’s shattered innocence, and through them they channel back on the priest, the hurt he has inflicted on innocents. These are women who have taken an oath to devote themselves to God, and with their decision to hold a criminal accountable for his actions; they assume the role of holy avengers on behalf of the young lives ruined by the callous actions of a filthy old man. 

Despite a legacy of cover ups, everyone is well aware of the sickening atrocities committed by paedophile priests, and with this one being forced to face up to his actions by nuns, the film suggests that as the church is accountable for creating an atmosphere in which such abuse can be perpetuated, it thus has the responsibility to do something about it, something far more lasting than shielding child molesters from true justice and simply moving them to a new location where their abuse can and will continue.

It’s a testament to the clarity of the storytelling that the film neither uses nor requires a single word of dialogue to relate it, but is also a sad testimony to just how pervasive are the crimes against which the nuns are retaliating. The seething vitriol is silently screamed from every frame, and with countless others out there guilty of similar crimes, you can easily imagine the nuns continuing their cleansing of the House of God. 

Even by the standards of shorts films Rites of Vengeance is a brief one, but is nevertheless equally grim and atmospheric, made all the more impacting from its unflinching portrayal of an emotional subject. 

RITES OF VENGEANCE / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: IZZY LEE / STARRING: SILVIA GRAZIANO, MICHAEL THURBER, STEE MCMORRIS, HEATHER BUCKLEY / RELEASE DATE: TBA 

With For a Good Time, Call… horror short heroine Izzy Lee (whose gender-flipped Lovecraft tale Innsmouth screened at last year’s inaugural Starburst International Film Festival) brings us another swift blast of sinister storytelling, in which oily womaniser Alex beds Alice and uploads a surreptitiously filmed sex tape, but afterwards soon comes to regret his actions upon encountering the mysterious Sylvia, who takes a specific kind of exception to such behaviour. 

A contemptible and unrepentant sleaze, Alex is representative of everything objectionable about men’s behaviour towards women. In the opening scene he wrenches Alice around on the bed several times to position her at a better angle for the hidden camera, and when he presses her after she changes her mind it’s ambiguous over whether she feels able to reassert her withdrawal of consent. Afterwards, he attempts to justify what he did to her as being “a stupid thing that guys do,” and upon seeing the kind of message to which the title refers scrawled onto a toilet wall, actually saves it for future use. 

Lee excels in crafting an atmosphere of tension from very little, here charging the innocuous setting of a public bathroom with an oppressive ambiance of ineffable menace. The tension mounts as you remain unsure of exactly what’s going on, although with a slight variance since in these situations you’re usually anxious of the fate about to befall the featured character, but as Alex is someone you utterly despise, you find yourself hoping, as Alice declares she does, “something very bad happens to you.” 

There is little that can be said about Sylvia herself or Alex’s encounter with her without spoiling the film, but her presence comments on the attitudes of serial philanderers towards their conquests. Just as Alex’s tryst with Alice was meaningless to him from being one in a likely long line of similar hook ups, so Sylvia’s encounter with him is one on which she will look back as being just as throwaway and insignificant. An encounter, by the way, that features a revoltingly compelling piece of body horror imagery that, while not having quite as intense an impact as the NSFW-extreme shot from Innsmouth, nevertheless spears itself into your brain as you try to figure out if you’re actually seeing what your eyes claim you are.

Powerfully feminist, tacitly accusatory and hypnotically repulsive, For a Good Time, Call… is a masterstroke of damning condemnation, of misogyny in general but in particular the repugnant practice of revenge porn and the bottom feeders who perpetrate it, holding up a dark mirror in which is reflected the helplessness and humiliation they put others through. Like all good short films, it explains nothing directly and lets you fill in the gaps for yourself, the efficiency of the plotting allowing a wealth of backstory to be inferred from mere moments. The tale could easily be expanded into a full feature, and you’re torn between wanting to know more and simply revelling in the snapshot mystery.

FOR A GOOD TIME, CALL… / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: IZZY LEE / SCREENPLAY: CHRISTOPHER HALLOCK / STARRING: SEAN CARMICHAEL, TRISTAN RISK, DIANA PORTER / RELEASE DATE: TBA 

The spiritual world and the afterlife continue to provide food for thought and fascination to any number of filmmakers out there who would like to express a specific feeling or idea to the audience and, indeed, the new film by Pete’s Dragon director David Lowery taps into this concept.

 

We must stress at this point, before we go any further, that A Ghost Story is not a remake of the 1981 John Irvin adaptation of the Peter Straub novel Ghost Story (in case older readers think it might be that). It is a quickly-shot (a nineteen-day shooting schedule in old-style 1.33:1 ‘Academy’ ratio), rural supernatural drama. In terms of look and style, it is exactly the sort of thing one might expect Terrence Malick to do – if he ever had the inclination to make a ghost story.

 

The focus is on a young couple, simply named C (Casey Affleck) and M (Rooney Mara), who share a house in Texas and have increasingly contrasting needs in their lives and relationship. All of a sudden, C is killed in a car accident just outside their door and a grieving M has to come to terms with her loss. In turn, C has to suddenly confront his new ghostly existence wearing a white sheet from his time in the morgue, as his partner begins the long and arduous process of grieving and moving on in her life…

 

A Ghost Story is an atmospheric and thoughtful contribution to the ghost story genre and at first glance, it will have more appeal to the art-house crowd who might not otherwise take in a supernatural ghost story, because of pre-conceived notions of what that might entail.

 

The image of Affleck walking around in a bedsheet with eye holes is a clear nod to John Carpenter’s original Halloween and traditional horror fans will be thrown because of the distinct lack of on-the-nose scares which should be on offer – not to mention feeling some disappointment because A Ghost Story doesn’t follow the traditional template. However, this is a different kind of genre film and it should be saluted for attempting a different idea and perspective overall.

 

One flaw of the film does lie in it’s quick, guerrilla filmmaking spontaneity (as we understand, this is what the director was intending to do, having just filmed Pete’s Dragon in a much bigger context and budget).

 

A Ghost Story is exactly the sort of story that would benefit from a studio budget, as there are some intriguing ideas and concepts at the heart of this film, which is a shame. Perhaps Lowery will get the chance to expand on this, like Michael Mann did when he remade L.A. Takedown as Heat.

Another key flaw is that the relationships are not played out as effectively as the relationship between Sam and Molly in the classic 1990s blockbuster Ghost, or earlier films like Blithe Spirit. It doesn’t detract from the performances too much of Affleck and Mara, who remain eminently watchable as befits their talent and presence.

 

A GHOST STORY / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DAVID LOWERY / STARRING: CASEY AFFLECK, ROONEY MARA, WILL OLDHAM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW