Review Category: Movie

Italian thriller In fondo al bosco (Deep in the Wood) opens during the annual Krampus festival in the Fassa Valley in the Dolomites; a time when adults dress up in costume honouring the “half-goat, half-demon” creature of ancient European folklore and cavort through the woods. Bored and frightened by the proceedings, four-year-old Tommi Consi cannot persuade his father, too preoccupied with drinking, to take him home. With no-one looking after him, Tommi runs off into the forest, and disappears. Five years later, after a young boy is found sleeping rough on a building site, police DNA tests prove that the missing Tommi has been found. Yet the lost child’s safe return is far from a triumphant homecoming, and questions are soon being asked about the true identity of this disturbed youngster.

 

The boy’s disappearance had led to the disintegration of his parents’ already-fragile marriage. They are both flawed individuals, and have created a far from perfect family home. Their looming separation had been put on hold when Tommi vanished. Tommi’s father Manuel, who was arrested and charged during the investigation, is beset with guilt and a sense of impotence, while the child’s mother Linda is emotionally shut-down and numb, having survived a suicide attempt. Before Tommi’s return, the pair have become locked into a dysfunctional state of co-dependency from which neither can escape. Nigro (Manuel) and Filippi (Linda) are both excellent in their roles as the broken and bereft husband and wife, particularly as they experience the wrenching emotional turmoil of trying to socialise their sociopathic and hostile son. Their dilemmas are made worse as family, friends and neighbours all begin to question who Tommi really is, and as secrets and deceits hidden for five years are revealed with shattering consequences for all concerned.

 

The cinematography of Deep in the Wood makes good use of the impressive Dolomites landscape to give a palpable sense of place, and the framing of the story emphasises the isolation and insularity of the small and conflicted community of which the Consis are a part. More could have been made of the bizarre (and frankly unsettling) Krampus festival. The sight of nightmarish oversized animals crashing through the night-time woods carrying flaming torches is a gift to any film director looking for a strong opening sequence. The film’s folklore context could have been established more convincingly had such sights been better used. But together with the haunting choral tones of an understated soundtrack, the movie’s visuals effectively evoke the kind of atmospheric and slightly out-of-kilter tone that this sort of psychological storytelling requires.

 

As buried truths come to the surface, director Lodovichi confidently steers the story through some of the blunter contrivances in the plot – in particular, some of the hinted-at explanations for Tommi’s bad behaviour. Lodovichi also does not oversell the script’s deliberate attempts at misdirection, even as events spiral towards a tense (if stretched) finale. The on-screen statistics which appear ahead of the closing credits imply that this might be a movie with something to say about the global phenomenon of child disappearance. It isn’t. But Deep in the Woods is an emotionally literate exploration of the impact of the loss of a child on one set of struggling parents who barely survive such a personal tragedy. It also a film that suggests that it is not only the fabled creatures lurking in the woods that are capable of acting like monsters.

 

DEEP IN THE WOOD / CERT: TBC / WRITERS: ISABELLA AGUILAR, STEFANO LODOVICHI, DAVIDE ORSINI / DIRECTOR: STEFANO LODOVICHI / CAST: FILIPPO NIGRO, CAMILLA FILIPPI, GIOVANNI VETTORAZZO, TEO ACHILLE CAPRIO, STEFANO PIETRO DETASSIS / UK RELEASE: TBC 

Based on the short story The Store of the Worlds, written by American fantasy author Robert Sheckley and first published in 1959, writer-director Paul Franklin’s new short film The Escape (18mins) is a stylish and restrained filmic reworking of Sheckley’s premise that retains the core conceit of its literary source material.

 

With the support of Creative England and the British Film Institute behind him, Franklin is able to assemble an impressive cast. Julian Sands exudes skittish uncertainty as Lambert, a man apparently unhappy and trapped in an unsatisfying professional and personal life, who longs for the sense of freedom and fulfilment as he feels time ebbing away. Art Malik effortlessly convinces as the mysterious and mercantile Kellan, an entrepreneur come inventor, who promises to transport Lambert (albeit briefly) to any kind of perfect alternate world he can imagine.

 

Olivia Williams offers a warm performance as Lambert’s wife Sarah, saddened at the departure of her daughter Megan to university; evidence that the years are passing and that family life will never to be the same again. Ben Miller breezes through the role of businessman Mike, downplaying growing market and climate worries to talk-up his excitement about his upcoming divorce and rediscovering his independent self. Both these characters highlight for Lambert the sense that, in an unfulfilled life, opportunities will disappear if not seized.

 

In the background, radio news (voiced by Angela Rippon, no less) dwells on the worsening rain storms increasingly dominating weather systems across the planet, but a preoccupied Lambert’s attention is focused elsewhere, as he must decide whether to sacrifice everything of value he owns in return for a fleeting experience of his ideal existence.

 

Finishing with a genuinely clever twist, The Escape delivers a well-crafted genre short which, like the story that inspired it, genuinely has something to say about the nature of longing, contentment and human aspiration. The short film is never the easiest format to distribute, and The Escape is most likely to build a reputation, and find an audience, through the film festival circuit. It deserves to do well. Let’s hope a positive reception encourages its funders to back the production of more intelligent, idea-driven fantasy shorts.

 

THE ESCAPE / CERT: TBC / WRITER: PAUL FRANKLIN / DIRECTOR: PAUL FRANKLIN / CAST: JULIAN SANDS, ART MALIK, OLIVIA WILLIAMS, BEN MILLER, MIMI KEENE, IVO BURTON-FRANKLIN / UK RELEASE: TBC

Given the likes of Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars amongst their collateral, Disney might well now perceive the Pirates Of The Caribbean series as small-change. Like Guardians Of The Galaxy the original film, The Curse Of The Black Pearl, was seen as a high-risk venture on it’s original release in 2003, but defied the odds to become an award-winning artistic and financial blockbuster, as well as unleashing Keira Knightley (coming off Bend It Like Beckham at the time) and helping to build Orlando Bloom’s post-Legolas endeavours.

 

Four sequels later, the films and world have been firmly established, thanks in no short order to the ever-reliable lead performance of Johnny Depp as the now-irreplaceable Captain Jack Sparrow, prat-falling and sweet-talking his way out of any number of jams on the high-seas. The new film, Salazar’s Revenge (aka Dead Men Tell No Tales) continues the swashbuckling jinx.

 

It could also be subtitled The Next Generation, as Sparrow is now called upon by young Henry Turner, the offspring of Will and Elizabeth, to try and free his father from a curse affecting the ship The Flying Dutchman. Together with new cohort Carina Smyth (Kaya Scoderlario), the quest in the new film is for the Trident of Poseidon, a new artefact which holds to key to great power in the seas.

 

Sparrow has his own problems to deal with, not least in the evil ghostly spirit of Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem) who has escaped from the mysterious ‘Devil’s Triangle’ and is out to kill every pirate on the high seas, with one caveat of leaving one of the crew alive….

 

Salazar’s Revenge is pretty much what you would expect in a Pirates experience and as expected, Depp is the main focus for watching the film, as well as the glue that holds the cast together. The action sequences are as consistent as the others in previous sequels and remain spectacular and epic in their scale. Bardem offers a deliciously evil subtlety as Salazar.

 

If there is one criticism of this new film, it may well be that the swordplay and physical battles may have been sacrificed in favour of the CGI element, but there are still some really neat visual touches here and there. The opening sequences set the tone for the rest of the film perfectly.

 

Disney are clearly – and certainly – not giving up on this franchise in favour of Rey and Co. (with The Last Jedi and Han Solo imminent in the next couple of years).A new Pirates is clearly on the cards (mark our words, you will certainly not be disappointed if you stay to the very end of Salazar’s Revenge for the trademark coda that we seem to hold out for in many a Marvel offering)

 

Salazar’s Revenge is a solid couple of hours escapism and – whilst there might be the law of diminishing returns to some after seeing this – don’t bet on Sparrow and Co. sailing off into the sunset just yet.

 

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN – SALAZAR’S REVENGE / CERT: PG / DIRECTORS: JOACHIM RØNNING, ESPEN SANDBERG / SCREENPLAY: JEFF NATHANSON / STARRING: JOHNNY DEPP, JAVIER BARDEM, BRENTON THWAITES, KAYA SCODELARIO, GEOFFREY RUSH / RELEASE DATE: 25TH MAY

The new night watchmen at a newspaper office begins his first shift, expecting nothing more than monitor-viewing boredom and mild hazing from his co-workers. Unfortunately, a delivery mix-up lumbers them with the corpse of a beloved clown whose troupe died of a mysterious illness, and before long the dead rise and carnage ensues. After the guards team up with the only other survivor, a suitably foxy journalist, the quintet tool up and try to survive the night.

 

The wave of ‘80s nostalgia is still bringing in loving homages thick and fast, and it’s going to be some time before they begin to dissipate. Fortunately, this latest throwback to the decade’s horror comedies is as gloriously demented as it is meticulously reconstructed. And with an undead horde of vampire zombie clowns running amok, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

 

The Night Watchmen is one of the sub-genre that remains gloriously self-aware of just how daft it is, and refuses to apologise for it. Despite this, the characters play it completely straight, never once allowing the splattered histrionics to creep into their own performances, thus preventing the film from descending into self-parody while also making the mounting chaos all the more fun. The practical effects both emphasise the film’s throwback stylings and sidestep the problem with CGI blood never seeming to look quite right, and also allows everyone to end up drenched in body fluids, be it their own and other people’s blood or the black bile vomited up by impaled vampires.

 

The brutal action maintains the frenetic pace it sets for itself, while the anarchic humour keeps things from becoming too grim. The body count is kept high by some stock characters such as a skeevy boss, uptight office workers, and sexy ladies in tight blouses and short skirts destined to be ripped away for some gratuitous shots of boobs and butts. Between the bloody messes, running jokes about the characters abound, such as ex-marine Ken’s fixation on proper protocol, cultural illiterate Jiggetts being the most un-street black guy ever, and nobody bothering to ask the new guy’s name, instead referring to him by the tag on his inherited uniform. As a final grace note, every vampire lets out a colossal fart at the moment of death, because if you’re aiming for lowbrow humour you might as well go all the way.

 

Although the set-up and tone of the film is very familiar, it never stops feeling like something new. The story heavily plays up to genre conventions in some regards while completely ignoring them in others, and so manages to throw a few surprises at you when some encounters don’t play out in quite the manner you predict.

 

The Night Watchmen is a raucous riot that starts fast and never relents right up until its closing moments. It asks only your indulgence and delivers utterly, remaining a gory and hilarious ride every step of the way.

 

THE NIGHT WATCHMEN / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: MITCHELL ALTIERI / SCREENPLAY: DAN DELUCA, JAMIE NASH, KEN ARNOLD / STARRING: KEN ARNOLD, KEVIN JIGGETTS, MAX GRAY WILBUR, KARA LUIZ, DAN DELUCA / RELEASE DATE: TBA

Land surveyor Eric is hired to chart some woodland in the Irish countryside for a housing development. Assisted only by student Olivia, the work proceeds slowly amidst some cryptic murmurings from locals about leaving the area alone. He soon discovers that there are powers in the wood, and they have been there long before the coming of man and will not relinquish the land easily.

 

Unlike many stories inspired by Celtic folklore, where mysterious forests often house malevolent fae or act as a gateway to a mystical purgatorial realm, in Without Name it’s the woods themselves that are the supernatural presence. The otherworldly antagonist is not some mere physical entity operating within a subset of established behavioural rules that can ultimately be used against it, but rather the indomitable might of nature, which endures the intrusion but remains safe under the protection of ineffable powers far more ancient than those presented by the physical imposition of these petty mortals. Indeed, the title is a literal translation of what the woods are referred to, defying man’s attempts to even designate them, let alone claim then as his own.

 

Similar in set-up and themes to Corin Hardy’s The Hallow, the film is less an outright horror and more a psychological study of one man’s deteriorating sanity as he becomes lost in the overwhelming power of nature. Eric finds himself trapped in a woodland prison formed of near-identical slim and branchless trunks acting as the bars of a disorienting wooden cage where direction and distance seem ever shifting, spinning in a vortex of rural phantasmagoria. The ethereal majesty of the untouched woodland evokes the same kind of beguiling hypnosis as the misty beauty of Welsh art-genre movie Yr Ymadawiad, the mystical power of the landscape pulling you in as much as it does its lost characters.

 

Appropriate for a film about fragmenting perceptions, the dreamlike visuals leave you unsure of what is truly going on and what is merely a nightmarish hallucination. It’s a testament to the imagination of the camerawork that a scene of three characters getting stoned on mushrooms is amongst the least psychedelic moments of the film, the trippiness instead coming from the unleashed force of the nature, realised in an earthy psychedelic blaze of muted tones and disorienting camera shots.

 

Without Name is less a story and more an experience, and while its unfocused style of reality warping may make a little difficult to focus on, it also allows you to just sit back and experience the ride.

 

WITHOUT NAME / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: LORCAN FINNEGAN / SCREENPLAY: GARRET SHANLEY / STARRING: ALAN MCKENNA, NIAMH ALGAR, JAMES BROWNE / RELEASE DATE: TBA

Getting on in life isn’t easy, particularly if you’re in the entertainment industry. Auditions and castings are fraught with rejection and ‘who-you-know’ scenarios. This short film takes the premise of what you have to give to get a part in a film to the extreme.

We follow a young actor who is overly keen to get a job in a highly competitive industry. He’s turned away from an audition when he asks too many questions about the ‘character’ he’s reading for. As it’s just a commercial, the producers are not interested. Stressing more than perhaps he should, he goes to his agent to who tells him that she might have some scripts for him. But it’ll cost him…

In just under five minutes, first time director gives us an atmospheric look at the downside of showbiz. Beautifully shot, the film earned Khalid the Young Filmmaker Award at the STARBURST International Film Festival last August. It’s fully deserved as this is a wonderfully accomplished short. It’s simple, yet powerful.

The punchline is delivered with perfection and even if you can see it coming (the original promo poster pretty much telegraphed it), it still packs a punch.

PARTS (SHORT FILM) / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: NAQQASH KHALID / STARRING: DYLAN DIGEL, CHANCE GABRIEL, PATRICIA MCGUINN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

 

Actress friends Beth and Anna head away for a countryside weekend together to rekindle their flagging friendship. Unfortunately, the remote cabin becomes a psychological battleground of jealously, recrimination and frustrated ambition, where their relationship will come to an intense and irrevocable head.

 

After its initial pair of close-up monologues establishing the characters of its protagonists, Always Shine soon reveals itself as an engrossing study of the two women. Through their interactions, the story offers a subtle commentary on the way the film industry treats women: pretty faces to be used up and spat out, with their presence tolerated so long as they comport themselves in a pre-approved manner.

 

Beth is timid and introverted, and the more successful actress due to a willingness to perform regular nude scenes rather than any particular amount of natural talent. So conditioned to what is required of her, she disrobes without thinking during the opening scene’s casting session, with the sleazy producers only interested in ensuring she won’t argue with how long the part will require she spend naked. “You’re no use to us with your clothes on,” is the unspoken but abundantly clear implication.

 

Anna, meanwhile, is acerbic, outspoken and refuses to accept shit from anyone, which for an actress equates to a reputation for being ‘difficult,’ in turn corresponding to a lack of opportunities and a stagnating career, despite Beth freely acknowledging her as the more talented of them. Her abrasive personality often leads to her being ignored and discarded as soon as her lack of malleability becomes clear, these dismissals also extending to people beyond the film industry.

 

Dialogue repetition and image reflection suggest a duality between the pair, each embodying one of the extremes by which a woman’s personality is perceived, with her outward temperament being all that distinguishes her. With both women being young, blonde and attractive, the suggestion is that their looks are interchangeable and their dispositions are all that differentiate them, the implication furthered by several shots constructed to be purposefully unclear which of them you’re currently looking at.

 

However, what might sound more like a melodrama eventually morphs into a twisty psychological thriller. As the strain between the two continues to escalate, it becomes clear that whatever friendship they once had has long since decayed through mutual resentment. Punctuated by too-brief flashes of an intense altercation, the mounting tension culminates in a Lynchian third act of shifting identities and deteriorating sanity, where exactly what is going on remains ambiguous up until the final moments.

 

Always Shine takes a while to make its points fully clear, but the friction and tacit hostility simmering all the way makes for a slow-burning but engrossing watch.

 

ALWAYS SHINE / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: SOPHIA TAKAL / SCREENPLAY: LAWRENCE MICHAEL LEVINE / STARRING: MACKENZIE DAVIS, CAITLIN FITZGERALD, LAWRENCE MICHAEL LEVINE / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Soon after teenager Jake loses her brother in a tragic accident, she encounters a sinister trio of woodland moonshiners who claim they can bring him back, but at a high price. The choices she makes will test the limits of what she is willing to do to have her brother returned to her, and reignite an old feud festering at the heart of the secluded town.

 

Dig Two Graves refers to a Confucian proverb, stating the preparation that one should make before pursuing revenge, suggesting that the undertaking will in one way or another destroy its pursuer. It takes a while to reveal exactly how such a reference in any way relates to the plot, but as the story unfolds across two points in time – the ‘present’ of 1977 and the instigating circumstances of thirty years previously – it becomes apparent that it’s unlikely to end in anything but heartbreak as a cycle of vengeance mercilessly plays out through younger generations.

 

Appropriately for a story combining magical realism with gothic tragedy, the insulated community evokes a purgatorial emptiness to match its lonely isolation. Although the sun often shines bright in the sky, its warmth never reaches the earth, the harsh light instead sapping life from the wintry desolation and leaving the woods a faded imitation of nature’s vitality. It feels like a place lost in time and adrift from reality, simultaneously existing in the real world while also unshackled from its rules. It’s never explicitly stated that anything supernatural is actually occurring, but the creeping otherworldliness of the bleak surroundings creates a self-contained dominion where backwoods magic and makeshift rituals could conceivably operate alongside everyday small town life.

 

In the main role, the 13-year-old Samantha Isler delivers a truly revelatory performance. Jake has reached the point where the innocence of youth begins to gradually make way for the responsibility of adulthood, and her moral dilemma is one that her young age excuses her serious contemplation of, but her emotional growth requires she also accept accountability for its repercussions. Her resilience in the face of emotional hardships and unfriendly locals in an isolated rural community evokes Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout role in Winter’s Bone, while she exudes a maturity well beyond her tender years that calls to mind Natalie Portman in Léon or more recently Dafne Keen in Logan. Similarly, Ted Levine playing a rare leading character as the town sheriff and Jake’s grandfather, is as interesting as he’s been in years. A grizzled old warrior with a soul worn by the weight of his regrets, he is now further burdened with the consequences of his decisions long ago that have come back to threaten his family.

 

Dig Two Graves is a sinister yet serene tale whose every moment warrants your full attention. It burns slow but strong, and while the story ultimately reveals itself to be a relatively straightforward one, the mesmerising icy precision with which it develops, along with a spellbinding performance from its young lead, leaves you almost afraid to blink lest you miss a moment.

 

DIG TWO GRAVES / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: HUNTER ADAMS / SCREENPLAY: HUNTER ADAMS , JEREMY PHILLIPS / STARRING: SAMANTHA ISLER, TED LEVINE, TROY RUPTASH, DANNY GOLDRING, BRADLEY GRANT SMITH / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

Few films have as bizarre a gestation process as The Evil Within. The brainchild of first-time writer/director Andrew Getty – scion of a billionaire oil dynasty – the story was inspired by the lurid nightmares that blighted him as a child. Production on the film took over 15 years as Getty obsessed over every tiny detail, creating elaborate sets, concocting bizarre camera setups and buying expensive equipment as he strove to make his creation as close to his original vision as possible. Cast and crew came and went throughout the laboured production, and Getty ultimately sank $6 million of his own money into this cinematic exorcism of the monsters plaguing him. Dying tragically as his vision was nearing realisation, producer Michael Luceri took on the duty to see the film through to completion, which is now released as close as possible to how Getty himself would have envisioned it.

 

A title like The Evil Within might make you write off the film as just another DTV supernatural horror, and even an overview of its plot – Danny, a man with learning difficulties living with his brother John, is urged to kill by his reflection in the large antique mirror John brings home one day – sounds almost purposefully generic. However, rest assured it’s something far more special than that.

 

In much the same way that the ropy production values of low budget films can be overlooked when they’re creative enough, in this case enough money has been pumped into it that its journeyman vision is afforded the aesthetics of a major production. Getty throws in all the visual techniques you can think of, but instead of becoming the anarchic mess you would expect, they somehow coalesce into something not exactly coherent, but indisputably compelling.

 

As the film progresses it becomes impossible to tell what is and isn’t intended to be real, and that’s kind of the point. Although this is Danny’s story several scenes occur without him, during which they take on a surreal spin as John and his girlfriend Lydia begin to realise that something isn’t right with the world around them, developing into self-aware constructs of this pocket reality. It’s as though Danny’s sole viewpoint is the only thing holding the Lynchian nightmare together, and the cohesion of reality itself begins to fall apart when denied the preservation of his perspective, the logic of the plot distorting into a mutable dreamscape as it twists and warps through the filtration of a madman’s visual alchemy.

 

The film does have noticeable faults, such as sub-plots of dubious purpose drifting in and out of the narrative and some stilted dialogue with no purpose other than expository contrivance. It’s a cinematic chimera of pieces hacked apart and stitched together, its inspirations and influences write large across every moment. It’s clear Getty was figuring out his craft as he went, but unlike, say, Ed Wood’s enthusiastic incompetence or Tommy Wiseau’s oblivious narcissism, Getty displays flashes of genuine talent, and we can only try (and probably fail) to imagine what he would have gone on to make.

 

The Evil Within will not be for everyone, and as the years pass it’s likely that the story of its prolonged production and tortured creator will become better known than the film itself, but one thing you can say for sure is that Andrew Getty has left his mark upon the world.

 

THE EVIL WITHIN / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ANDREW GETTY / STARRING: FREDERICK KOEHLER, SEAN PATRICK FLANERY, DINA MEYER, MICHAEL BERRYMAN, BRIANNA BROWN / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE TBA

On 4th June 1960 four Finnish teenagers were camping at Lake Bodom, just outside the town of Espoo. Sometime between 4am and 6am they were attacked; three were brutally murdered while one was badly injured but survived. To this day, the crimes remain unsolved and writer/director Taneli Mustonen has chosen the bloody murders as the basis for his new film Lake Bodom.

 

If you’re expecting a version of the familiar teenagers-go-into-the-woods-and-get-murdered storyline you’re partially correct, but Mustonen has played around with the generic tropes of the standard premise to create a film that is constantly surprising, and stylishly shot. The first act remains largely true to type, but around the mid-point the film begins to deviate in interesting and unexpected ways that keep you intrigued as to where the narrative is going.

 

Initially with the intention of recreating the crimes to test a theory – without the murders – Atte (Mäntylä) and Elias (Gabriel) take two schoolfriends Nora (Willamo) and Ida (Hirst-Gee) camping to the titular lake. Initially failing to mention their real intention, when the boys reveal their true intentions the girls reluctantly accept the situation and the group seem to make the best of it before things inevitably begin to go bump in the night.

 

To reveal any more would do Lake Bodom, and Mustonen, a disservice as this is a well-constructed, thoughtfully planned slasher film that flirts with convention without fully giving over to it. In places, Lake Bodom has more in common with a thriller than an outright horror, and this lends the film an air of mystery that Mustonen’s visuals further endorse. Foreboding, mist filled woods pierced by shards of moonlight may not be wholly original to the genre, but here the setting takes on a physicality, given weight by a history that serves as the inspiration for the film.

 

The performances also stand out from the usual fare, often typified by mindless teens simply running and screaming for much of the runtime. With Lake Bodom you are never certain of each character’s motives, and while you may think you have a handle on proceedings, each revelation changes the direction of the narrative in interesting ways.

 

Without doubt Lake Bodom is one of the best entries from recent years into the canon. It could easily have become yet another slasher-by-numbers but strong performances, thoughtful direction and above all, a genuine narrative, elevate this film above initial expectations.

 

LAKE BODOM / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TANELI MUSTONEN / STARRING: MIMOSA WILLAMO, NELLY HIRST-GEE, SANTERI HELINHEIMO / RELEASE DATE: UK RELEASE DATE TBA