Review Category: Movie

In contemporary cinema, the concept of cults has become an enticing trend, especially in recent years thanks to films like Martha Marcy May Marlene and Sound of My Voice, which all examined the disturbing concept of brainwashing and how some people let themselves be used and dominated with apparent ease by mesmerising leaders who promises them salvation, only to fuel their own personal benefit. In the case of Faults, Riley Stearns presents us a unique perspective by distancing away from the traditional concepts and details of the cult and instead takes us through the regenerative process of lost identity and reconstructing one’s own personality into something else. It’s through this we get in-depth character studies with both the apparent victim and the analyst each gradually revealing their own particular psychologies, their personal inner demons and the internal struggle of reclaiming one’s own freewill. The roles of victim and redeemer get turned in on its head, and Fearns’ screenplay and direction makes Faults stand out with its complexity and precision.

The film also boasts solid performances, starting with Leland Orser who brilliantly blurs the line of likeable and slimy. He brilliantly captures the portrait of a “pathetic loser” stuck in limbo and is seeking redemption, and hopefully Orser gets to be the lead in many more films in the future. However, this film really belongs to Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who completely shines as the victim/manipulator. Having impressed with films like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Smashed, Winstead delivers her best performance yet, masterfully switching simultaneously from fragile, conflicted, manipulative and seductive in the blink of an eye, putting the casual viewer through a tidalwave of emotions. Through her captivating presence and the enigmatic darkness lurking behind her eyes, she hooks you in and it’s impossible to look away from her. There’s one particular scene where Claire is attempting to seduce Ansel, which is creepy as ever. Claire is a unique and complex character, and Winstead deserves recognition for her towering portrayal.

Psychologically thrilling, yet oddly and darkly comic at times, Faults is an intense character study that gets under your skin and sends chills up your spine. Arguably, Martha Marcy May Marlene (which famously launched the career of Elizabeth Olsen) is the superior film in terms of originality and execution, but with its seedy and dirty undercurrent, Faults slithers along in fine form and perfectly raises questions to which no one really knows the answer to, and it’s with this that we can expect great things for Riley Stearns.

FAULTS / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: RILEY STEARNS / STARRING: LELAND ORSER, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, CHRIS ELLIS, JON GRIES / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10

  

Hollywood has been spewing out multi-million dollar blockbusters again this summer – generally, it has to be said, with agreeable results – and yet here’s a presumably super low-budget British effort wandering in unheralded out of nowhere to blow many of them right out of the water. Containment is another of those glorious unexpected triumphs that the British film industry is still able to pull out of its hat every now and again. Vaguely reminiscent of previous tower block thrillers such as….um…Tower Block and Comedown this debut feature from Neil Mcenery-West is practically a textbook example of how to create a tense, claustrophobic, edgy trust-no-one modern urban thriller.

Survivalist films are nothing new, of course, and on paper the whole premise of Containment has an undeniable whiff of seen-all-this-before. But Mcenery-West’s deft handling of the bleak, drab location (much of the film is set in the block itself with some atmospheric outside filming in the last act) and his small cast of core characters, powered by Lemon’s lean no-nonsense script, puts a brave new spin on an initially familiar and derivative story. Mark is quickly joined by a small and disparate group of neighbours and together – and sometimes not together – they struggle to make sense of their situation  and try to work together to find a way to stay alive.

The ‘reveal‘ of exactly what’s going on might not be a huge surprise yet the film’s pace never slackens and even when it drifts perilously close to zombie movie territory at points – the rampaging, enraged neighbours escaped from the adjacent block determined to get their hands on the Hazmat guard Mark and his group have captured – it still manages to feel fresh, vibrant and original. Characterisation is sharp despite (or more probably because of) the film’s taut 75-minute running time and the cast – Lee Ross (EastEnders, Catherine Tate Show) and Sheila Reid (Benidorm, Doctor Who) being the best-known names – are utterly convincing in their portrayal of terrified, bewildered and yet doggedly-determined ordinary folk who find themselves in an extraordinary and desperate situation.

It’s hard to find significant fault with Containment so we won’t even try. Stark, brittle, disquieting and with an ending to rival The Mist for bleakness, Containment is British genre cinema to champion and one to shout about from the nearest rooftop. Just maybe not a tower block…

CONTAINMENT / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: NEIL MCENERY-WEST / SCREENPLAY: DAVID LEMON / STARRING: LEE ROSS, SHEILA REED, GABRIEL SENIOR, ANDREW LEUNG / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 11TH (LIMITED CINEMA RELEASE), OCTOBER 5TH (DVD)

 

One thing FrightFest has been known to deliver on in the past is a good, old fashioned scary film and Demonic is no exception. The Will Cannon-directed movie is a whodunit come haunted house caper come satanic stormer and despite these being familiar themes, the actors and editing ensure that it’s a scream.

The film follows the forensic investigation one Detective Mark Lewis (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier), the typical cop married to the job, much to the annoyance of his date, psychologist Elizabeth Kline (Maria Bello, A History of Violence). Both have been called to the Livingston house, which has a reputation for being haunted and in which there is a chance that further strange or possibly murderous happenings may have taken place. This is, probably expectedly, down to the meddling group of pesky kids who have decided to give the place a rattle to see if anything comes out to play.

Demonic combines Scooby-Doo style mystery solving with some rather well-timed jump scares and tension leaps. This is primarily a result of good editing which ensures focus is kept on key parts of the sequence to help with the murder mystery narrative. In addition, the set dressing is interesting, with sections of the house laid out in a suitably cheesy style while other rooms are functionally decorated, giving a sense of modern mundanity.

What really helps, however, is the acting from the young lead, Dustin Milligan (as John). He may not be as nuanced or known as Bello, but he retains a presence throughout that grounds the story in a sense of reality that is vital to the overall arc. He is ably abetted by Scott Mechlowiczas as the dastardly Bryan (the ex-boyfriend from Hell), and both actually have rather difficult jobs in terms of the roles they must play when scenes switch back and forth between the haunted house and the recognisable, neon lit world. This changes over the course of the film, because intentionally or not, the drama becomes more important as the overt scares increase. Indeed, while the frisson remains, more clichéd horror effects are gradually introduced and have the effect of making it less nerve-wracking to actually watch the screen. It becomes vital for the visual clues that are gradually given away and it can be fun to go through and play spot the pop occult imagery. The only thing that disturbs this slightly is the character of Jules (Megan Park), who comes across as a little too airheaded to be believable as someone who would know ritual magick rather than play with a bit of palm reading. It’s a small point, but it does undermine the supposed authenticity. 

Demonic is a frightening haunted house film that has as many twists and turns as malevolent music box. Because it is also slightly campy fun at times, it just about gets away with its less realistic excesses. That said, the devil’s in the detail and a little less might have been more.

DEMONIC / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: WILL CANON / SCREENPLAY: WILL CANON, DOUG SIMON, MAX LA BELLA / STARRING: MARIA BELLO, FRANK GRILLO, CODY HORN, DUSTIN MILLIGAN / RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 7TH (DVD)

Bless its heart, every so often there’s a film that is trying desperately hard to be a serious, dramatic, ‘issue’ piece and instead comes across so off-kilter as to be wildly peculiar.
Director Jon Knautz’ and writing partner Alexis Kendra’s Goddess of Love is one such film. The story follows Venus (also Kendra), a mentally unstable hopeless romantic ex-ballet dancer turned manic pixie dream stripper (yes…), as she strives to create what she sees her life should be in the world around her.

Venus is obviously ‘not right’ from the start. Her house is filled with boudoir kitsch (fantastic production design thanks again to Kendra), she dresses like a brothel-bouncing ballerina and smokes crack in a heap in her undies like it’s going out of fashion. She’s a phenomenally outlandish character whose painted-on eyebrows twitch when the outer world doesn’t mirror her plans and who works in a strip club yet has no understanding of economic basis of the sex industry. Even the visions she has from time show her as a fish out of water and there’s a lot of screen time devoted to them. In fairness, this is the high point of the narrative owing to Kendra’s performance. The character may not achieve what the story seems to want in terms of a harrowing depiction of mental distress, but she is oddly and utterly compelling. She has a winning vulnerability tripping over screaming to herself while out for a morning jog (which comes across as cute), louche squalidness on a desert with her legs akimbo and yet utter, girlish determination to get her sparkly eyeshadow just right for her date. She seems to assume that by gifting herself to someone – the caddish, bruised Brian (Woody Naismith) – she will be made whole through appreciation.

What makes the plot work is that half of the people she stays around are as broken as she is and the film becomes maliciously funny as the characters treat each other spectacularly badly; it almost Showgirls-esque. Nevertheless, the lighting (which goes from gently kissing her thighs as she crawls across a stage, to hard light to show the strain in her face), suggests Kendra is actually a brave and rather accomplished actress. She is doing a lot more than mere face pulling here.  

The silent star is the editing. Because of the way Venus is shot, we see her vulnerability seeming to bleed out of her like lipgloss away from the lines of her mouth. The more determined she gets to prove love can work, the further her vision is edited to precision and the final sequences actually do make sense.

Goddess of Love is a soapy title for a film that desperately tries to be a serious study of mental illness. Instead, because its central character is so singularly eccentric, it casts her instead as a frenzied, often funny female Maniac. That said, the later denouement leaves a strangely unsettling taste in the mouth.

GODDESS OF LOVE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JON KNAUTZ / SCREENPLAY: ALEXIS KENDRA, JON KNAUTZ / STARRING: ALEXIS KENDRA, WOODY NAISMITH, ELIZABETH SANDY / RELEASE DATE: TBC

What if you were told that one of the most heartfelt films at FrightFest begins with footage from what the filmmakers have confirmed is an actual beheading? Jeruzalem is an incredibly intelligent apocalypse saga by the Paz brothers (Doron and Yoav, of Phobidilia). It combines realism with fantasy and audacious sci-fi as we follow three party pilgrimagers into a land where hatred (we are told) poisons the very ground.

We see the film through the lenses of Sarah (Danielle Jadelyn). She’s a pensive young lady who, following a bereavement, is yoinked on holiday by her vivacious friend Rachel. Rachel (Yael Groblas) is a pot smoking, squeeing, feet on the chairs and dancing on the ceiling kinda chick, so it is entirely natural that they amend their destination to Jerusalem on picking up a fellow traveller in the shape of a gawky young adventurer nicknamed Indy (but actually called Kevin). Yet this is actually filmed in Jerusalem; a city holy to Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. It’s built on layers and layers of civilisations where the bones of all its dead clatter beneath and between the dusty streets.

What fascinates is the contrast between Jeruzalem’s characters and their settings. Groblas imbues Rachel with care despite her seriously dizzy nature while Kevin (Yon Tumarkin) has a puppydogishness that explains the character excesses that might otherwise seem too excitable. Sarah takes a backseat, making us feel all the more vulnerable as she reacts rather than controls her situations. This allows the real stars to come forward – characters so eccentric as to make the history of the city come alive. We have David the raving wanderer (the superbly convincing Itsko Yampulski), the hotel good-time boys and security services who (also in reality) must serve as they try to trust their governments and wrestle the possibility that their faiths may not offer salvation. The direction, particularly towards the latter half of the film, gets this dynamism across beautifully and the imagery is striking: we veer from actual churches to Gothic caverns and from festival robes through to niqabs scuttling through the backstreets. They are all variations of the same thing. All of this is lit superbly, giving the piece a documentary style. This echoes one of the pivotal points of the narrative – the interpretation of morality, as the script states “If you are talking to God, is good, but if God is talking to you, is problem”.

There are shooting sequences featuring monsters that are utterly terrifying while at the same time everything is undercut with dry humour that hisses from this place and its battle of wills. Most cleverly, all of the narratives intertwine to provide a superb visual payoff – the film feels real because it’s based on folk traditions.

The Paz Brothers mix worlds, with Yoav focusing on attention to detail and Doron taking the world view. With their tale of petrified friends, governmental gods and roaming murder, Jeruzalem is a terrific and terrible vision of what, for all we know, may well be.

JERUZALEM / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: DORON PAZ, YOAV PAZ / STARRING: YAEL GROBGLAS, YON TUMARKIN, DANIELLE JADELYN / RELEASE DATE: TBC

 

The script and direction clearly show Platt’s background as an Oxford University educated Classics scholar, director and actress in her own right. The writing itself has nuance, but this is teased out through the performance of Robert Hands as Mr. Gale. It is not quite true to say that he is a great actor throughout, as some of the louder segments lose their intensity partly due to his delivery and the camera framing, but what he does beautifully is convey the gloomy irony of one used to banging his head against the wall, and he is particularly effective in the more comic moments when abstract threat is realised. From his full introduction onwards, the camera’s frontal yet often slightly cropped perspective invites the audience to assess his performance (with all that that implies) as well as lending the narrative a sense of the paradoxical claustrophobia caused by his ideals. What’s more, Hands’ speech on the imagination is beautiful (and terrible) in its own right.

Hands is ably abetted by Evan Bendall, Michaela Prchalova and Tom Cox. As the first half (perhaps consciously) initially mires them in stereotype, their characters only emerge towards the latter half of the piece. Their representations become almost archetypal, with Prchalova almost impossibly distant, Bendall with hidden lightening wits and Cox as a malleable joker figure. One section shot against a sunset is superb for conveying the complex impetuousness of youth. They in turn are supported by others who background colours merely build intensity into the central narrative.

The film is not without its problems. One of the early bit parts contains some horrendous acting, slightly disrupting the tone, and the violent sequences are at times predictable. It is also the case that while the models of ethics are discussed without jargon (is it ever appropriate to nail gun someone to a table?), this film isn’t one for the casual cider swiller unless they have a degree or at least a healthy interest in literature. Indeed, at one point Gale addresses a character/the camera to ask if they’re still following the argument. If you know even half the references in here, the film finishes with a haunting and complex clarity. Only the truly educated are free, as Platt’s thoughtful and oddly poignant torture porn attests.

THE LESSON / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: RUTH PLATT / STARRING: ROBERT HANDS, EVAN BENDALL, MICHAELA PRCHALOVA, TOM COX, DOLYA GAVANSKI / RELEASE DATE: TBC

 

Hard sells don’t come much harder than that of Curtain, a horror film about, yep, a shower curtain. Or, if you want to be specific about it, the absence of a shower curtain. Tired of the nursing life, world-weary Danni starts over again, taking a job as a chugger (charity mugger; you know the type) and relocates to a poky flat with a mattress on the floor and persistently disappearing shower curtains. Ooh, spooky.

As horror movie set-ups go, it’s not exactly the Necronomicon Ex Mortis or haunted videotapes, but it’s from these innocuous beginnings that one of the smartest and most likeable films of the year emerges. To say much more would be to spoil some great surprises, but suffice to say that Curtain packs in an Evil Dead-esque sense of energy (complete with visual flourishes) and a story that should have viewers hooked until the end. As a character work, it’s second to none, with Danni and Tim (Danni Smith and Tim Lueke) keenly drawn, likeable and flawed in all the right places. Smith does particularly well as Danni; her blunt, slightly withdrawn and distant character isn’t the most personable (certainly not when we describe her like that) but the actress really sells her vulnerability and softer side. Lueke, in a role that could have turned out awfully annoying is a fun, vaguely adorable sidekick. It’s refreshing that Curtain doesn’t try to shoehorn a romance into the pair’s relationship, instead depicting a sweet, tentative friendship that gives the film its sizeable, beating heart.

There’s humour too. We’re not in full-on comedy horror territory, but it certainly skews more in that direction than it does elsewhere (although its Hellraiser type cult is particularly creepy). Well, it is a film about disappearing shower curtains, after all. With a title and concept like that, Curtain was always going to be one of the year’s most original horror films. Thankfully, it also turns out to be one of the best.

CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JARON HENRIE-MCCREA / SCREENPLAY: CARYS EDWARDS, JARON HENRIE-MCCREA / STARRING; DANNI SMITH, TIM LUEKE, MARTIN MONAHAN / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Howl is a horror film that perfectly captures the terror of travelling on public transport, working on public transport and being murdered by werewolves on public transport. Train guard Joe (Speleers) is glum and disenfranchised, passed over for promotion and ignored by the trolley dolly he fancies. The last thing he needs, then, is to be covering for a sick colleague and trapped on a train full of bickering passengers under attack from a vicious beast of the lycanthropic variety.

Confined to its singular location for almost the entirety of the film, Howl is a fast-paced and surprisingly brutal horror actioner; like Dog Soldiers crossed with the more recent (and similarly excellent) Brit flick Tower Block. The brief presence of Sean Pertwee strengthens the Dog Soldiers link while Elliot Cowan plays the sort of malevolent asshole that would put Aliens’ Carter Burke to shame. The cast is rounded out by Shauna Macdonald, Amit Shah, Emmerdale’s Duncan Preston (surprisingly good as the pensioner of the piece) and a number of other likeable, believable faces. The character work isn’t exactly rounded, but it’s good enough that you’ll feel something whenever a character bites the dust.

If you’re getting a Neil Marshall vibe from all of this, that’s because director Paul Hyett has worked as a special effects technician on The Descent and Doomsday (plus, um Centurion) in addition to many other British cult favourites. Now that he’s gotten the repulsive The Seasoning House out of his system, Howl marks him as a director to watch, particularly for his fantastically shot action sequences. While a little rough around the edges, the werewolf effects do the job, especially during one big action set-piece. If there’s anyone who doesn’t come out of it so well, it’s love interest Holly Weston, who feels less like a character than a reward for Joe’s emergent masculinity. She’s the only one of the bunch who doesn’t feel like a person in her own right – several times you’ll forget she’s even there – and it really hurts the film. When you remember, that is.

Such niggles aside, Howl is one of the best werewolf movies we’ve had in years. Action packed and full of fun, this gruesome creature feature shows that there’s life in the old dog yet.

CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: PAUL HYETT / SCREENPLAY: MARK HUCKERBY, NICK OSTLER / STARRING: ED SPELEERS, HOLLY WESTON, ELLIOT COWAN / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 26TH (DVD)

 

The plot lead-in is pretty simple and starts with the pinched face of Ms. Thompson in a fit of pique as she berates her boggled beau, Peltzer (James Hamer-Morton), while apparently having sex with him. In truth, it’s a little hard to know as it certainly looks more like assault, and herein lies half of the appeal of the picture. Peltzer genuinely looks terrified, all shambolic floppy fringe, lying on the bed beneath those boobs (hell, this is Tromaesque, after all). While the story follows Peltzer as he tries to grow a pair and assert himself over his bitch of a girlfriend, bullying co-workers and absolute asshat of a boss with the help of the mysterious friend, Ronnie, it does so via the best excesses imaginable. The cast play shotgun hopscotch over the line between bad acting for the cheek of it, gallant overstatement and, at times, actual emotion. Thompson generally looks furious, Vito Trigo cold hearted and Stiles Rembrandt (Clay von Carlowitz) the confident stud who doesn’t realise he actually isn’t quite.

However, the two main stars are Hamer-Morton and Damian Morter as Peltzer and Ronnie. Hamer-Morton actually manages to both mug and relate his way through emotions ranging from wedgied distress through to ‘dick out’ victory dancing. Ronnie, on the other hand, is a force of nature itself, combining actual believability with a hella snazzy waistcoat so that even the most OTT Troma humour seems really oddly appropriate. The sections these two have together are a genuine joy to watch and incredibly funny not for the daft, scuzzy humour but because the comic timing and commitment of the actors actually sells the bond of the situation they’re presenting. This is also partly due to the film’s editing and camera work, which is impressively slick and rather adventurous. This in turn is aided and abetted by little touches such as the corny music, which feel oddly appropriate in context. It emphasizes the cast’s strengths, allowing you to live it vicariously with them.

The film isn’t entirely without issues. A few of the more emotional sequences from other players fall surprisingly flat, it could do with a little clarification on what Ronnie is, and it must be said that the actual ending feels a little limp after what has gone before. That said, this is quite a minor quibble for a film that has genuinely hugely enjoyable segments. If Troma is an acquired taste, Liam Regan is a fucking connoisseur. Drop Dead Fred grabbed a Banjo and got balls.

 

The story works as a weird ”what’s what” of the horror genre, with seemingly as many tropes packed in as humanly possible, thought it is clever with them. We have corridor-clad, kohl-eyed demonic urchins, Satanic scribblings on walls, tremulous tarot sessions and enough jump scares to destroy the sofa springs of the more sensitive. The pastiche is unoriginal, but at the same time Ambrosioni knows enough about timing to be able to preserve the intensity of some of the starker moments despite their regularity and (often) obviousness. A particularly nicely done segment sees some violence committed in a realistic, low-fi way (thanks to a good camera setup) that nevertheless spares the graphic detail so as to trick the audience; what could be a punter-placating set piece instead becomes a clever little character study that is infinitely more satisfactory and shocking as a result. Indeed, part of the appeal of the film is its tonal changes, and early standout sequences show little more than shadowy people in deep contemplation, suggesting that the unpredictability of mental illness is far more frightening than something that might pull a silly face and go ‘boo’. Nathan and Fabrice Ambrosioni deserve particular praise for this work and the editing which highlights the psychological processes that underpin the narrative.

Key to the piece’s success is the acting. Luna Belan and Julie Venturelli as Anna and Emilie Langston manage to be convincing both as sweet, loving siblings and for the half of the film where they basically scream, flail and dangle their hair in their eyes. It must be said that Belan in particular has a strong but ultimately gentle presence that helps to maintain interest in the narrative itself, particularly as the found footage style becomes more and more prevalent. Supporting characters are handled somewhat differently, with some early structural sleight of hand with Meredith’s (Shelley Ward) character seeming a little too farfetched for its own good and there is some slightly hollow hysteria from Magali Gouyon (as Jessica) that undermines the gravity of the situation somewhat.

Hostile does repeat tried and tested formulas, but it does so with a level of knowing, almost playful ingenuity that most of the time encourages buy in, rather than boredom, from audiences. It won’t shake the world, but it may give you a devil of a good natured scream for your money. Nathan Ambrosioni has a wonderful eye for little quirks of fear which make him one to watch in future.