Review Category: Movie

BIG HERO 6

MOVIE REVIEW: BIG HERO 6 / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DON HALL, CHRIS WILLIAMS / SCREENPLAY: JORDAN ROBERTS, DANIEL GERSON, ROBERT L. BAIRD / STARRING: RYAN POTTER, SCOTT ADSIT, DANIEL HENNEY, JAMIE CHUNG, T.J. MILLER, DAMON WAYANS JR. GENESIS RODRIGUEZ / RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 30TH, 2015

After conquering Chris Nolan’s Interstellar at the US box office on it’s opening weekend, comparisons are sure to be made between Disney Animation’s latest feature (and first proper collaboration with Marvel Studios), Big Hero 6, and Disney’s previous smash, Frozen. And to be fair, the comparisons aren’t completely unwarranted.

Both feature siblings as the emotional core of the film with their parents tragically absent; Elsa and Anna in this case are replaced with brothers Hiro & Tadashi; both feature the same “Frozen-face” house art style for its characters (or more accurately “Tangled-face”); and both concern certain “wasted” gifts: Anna’s powers over the cold and Hiro’s intellect, having graduated high school at 13 years of age but wasting his time on back street Robot Wars-style fighting competitions with little plans for his future, and both films manage to pack a pretty strong emotional wallop.

After being entrusted with Tadashi’s medical robot prototype Baymax, a soft, inflatable, huggable emergency medical technician, Hiro discovers that one of his own inventions, inch high microbots that can be commanded to work together to form bigger, more complex structures, have been stolen and are being put to nefarious ends. With no help from the authorities, Hiro must rely on his own intelligence and reluctant superhero Baymax to discover who is using his microbots and why, and maybe make a few new friends along the way.

Unlike Frozen, Big Hero 6 avoids the musical route, using only a few songs from Fallout Boy and 30 Seconds to Mars during montages, during which none of the main cast sing along. Instead, Big Hero 6 focuses on action, invention and adventure as Hiro and friends race through San Fransokyo, a striking visual mash-up of Tokyo and San Francisco. While the film shares a title and character names with a Marvel comic from the late 2000s, almost everything else has been changed. Disney only used the comic as a jumping off point for their inspiration, although the film does feature a very loving and very funny homage to Marvel that, of course, continues after the credits have rolled. The hand of executive producer John Lasseter is much more apparent in the patented “Pixar twist” in the third act, where all does not go exactly as expected for the characters or the audience. It may becoming somewhat of a trope for Disney/Pixar, but as an audience it’s still preferable to be kept on one’s toes and pleasantly surprised rather than trudge a well worn, obvious path.

Hiro’s journey is just as emotionally-affecting as Anna and Elsa’s as he deals with loss, puberty, the allure of vengeance, and the acceptance of his place in the world and the friends he has in it. For a kids’ film, it does deal with some relatively weighty issues, mostly the grieving process over the loss of a loved one, but is balanced by the infectious joy from Baymax’s interactions with everything, which could have easily become annoying, overly sentimental or cloying but never do.

It might be too much to expect Big Hero 6 to have the staying power of Frozen without the support of that film’s powerful soundtrack, but it’s still a highly enjoyable adventure in its own right.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

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THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1

MOVIE REVIEW: THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY PART 1 / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: FRANCIS LAWRENCE / SCREENPLAY: DANNY STRONG, PETER CRAIG / STARRING: JENNIFER LAWRENCE, JOSH HUTCHERSON, LIAM HEMSWORTH, WOODY HARRELSON / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 20TH

Taking the young out of Young Adult adaptations in magnificent style, Mockingjay Part 1 continues the Hunger Games franchise’s descent into darkness. It’s a relentlessly bleak film; its heroine frazzled, its male lead brainwashed, the resistance appearing futile in the face of a ruthless dictator and even heartthrob Finnick has become a broken shell of who he once was.

Mockingjay drops the audience straight into the depressing hole beneath the Earth that is home to the resistance: District 13. With Katniss still haunted by her two rounds in the arena and furious about losing Peeta, she’s in no mood for joining the revolution. Plutarch Heavensbee and District 13’s President Coin want to use Katniss as a propaganda tool to fuel the flames of revolt that Katniss has kindled in the Districts. Meanwhile, Peeta is being held in the Capitol by President Snow who’s determined to crush the uprising before his comfy new world order crumbles.

Doing a Twilight and splitting the final book in the trilogy into two films at first seemed like a half-arsed Hobbit-style cash grab. However, the decision to split Mockingjay into Parts 1 and 2 now feels perfectly justified with returning director Francis Lawrence packing the film’s running time with critical scenes and still potentially saving the best for last. Mockingjay Part 1 is very much about setting the scene for the war to come, establishing District 13 as a completely new setting and raising the stakes for the ordinary people of the districts as they begin to really revolt against their oppressors.

Even though the Hunger Games franchise has always been built on a disturbingly adult idea from the start, this film really treats its teen target market as a lot more patient, thoughtful and toughened than any Transformers film would ever dare to. There are few set pieces, little spectacle and not a lot of time fawning over the Twihard-baiting love triangle. Relationships may be a key part of the film, but Katniss has little time for mooning over boys and far less desire for romance. Peeta’s trapped in the Capitol, meaning she is concerned over his safety and just as poor Liam Hemsworth starts getting some decent screen time, Gale is growing increasingly cold as the war starts to take its toll.

But Mockingjay Part 1 is all about Katniss. She’s waking from nightmares screaming and desperate to hide away from what the rebels want her to become. President Coin and Plutarch want her as a propaganda tool; to be manipulated and wheeled out on videos dished out to the Districts on command. Jennifer Lawrence is exceptional as ever, handling both Katniss’ vulnerability and fierceness with ease. Her stirring speech at the site of a recently blown to bits hospital will boil the blood as much as it tugs the heartstrings. Although it’s tempting to forget Katniss’ catnip Gale and Peeta, Josh Hutcherson should also be commended for his performance as Peeta becomes increasingly interesting as the film goes on.

There are problems with Mockingjay though and most of these are transferred across from Suzanne Collins’ weakest book in the series. Even with the expansion allowed by splitting the book into two films, there’s still not enough of the other districts and their burgeoning revolts. Minus a quick detour into District 5 for a daring bombing mission and an even quicker dash up the trees of District 7, there is little sense of the revolution catching fire as everyone keeps saying it is. District 13 lacks any new strong characters and feels like a thousand other hastily written dystopian underground societies (but at least it is mercifully free of any Matrix Zion-style sloppy raves). Its bland uniforms, grey walls and gloomy lighting feel a million miles from the Capitol’s excesses as they should, but still feel a little underdeveloped. Worst of all, the rescue mission that caps this penultimate movie in the franchise is still oddly unconvincing and fails to raise the pulse, particularly as it keeps Katniss out of the action.

On the other hand, what works about Mockingjay is the ever-present themes that Collins originally jammed into her novel. The sense of disillusionment with war and the way calculating leaders fight and win support for their causes is palpable. This is a film completely unafraid to shy away from the horror of conflict, ensuring anyone watching gets a strong sense of what war really costs. Mockingjay Part 1 hurls executions, massacres, mass graves, the firebombed skulls and bones of District 12’s citizens and a hospital full of wounded, bleeding District 7 inhabitants at the screen. The players in this much bigger game taunt each other from giant screens in frequent videos with Snow delivering threats, and shoving the captured Peeta right under Katniss’ nose. District 13 hurl back their own propaganda videos featuring the glorious vision of the defiant Mockingjay (thanks to Beetee’s hacking skills) but the people of the districts get lost somewhere in the middle.

Mockingjay Part 1 isn’t perfect then but it’s still a deeply emotive blockbuster with some decent characters you can really care for. More than simply filler, this film is setting the stage for the huge war to come. Aided immeasurably by Lawrence’s powerful performance, Katniss is still the current queen of science fiction cinema and if Mockingjay is anything to go by, this franchise is building to an explosive and no doubt incredibly emotional conclusion.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10
Actual Rating:

DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD

MOVIE REVIEW: DEAD SNOW 2: RED VS DEAD / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: TOMMY WIRKOLA / SCREENPLAY: TOMMY WIRKOLA, STIG FRODE HENRIKSEN, VEGAR HOEL / STARRING: VEGAR HOEL, ØRJAN GAMS / RELEASE DATE: JANUARY 12TH

Dead Snow was probably the best horror-comedy to come along since the mighty Shaun of the Dead. The cult 2009 film saw a group of Norwegian students holidaying in a remote mountain cabin and getting picked off one-by-one by a particularly unpleasant group of zombified Nazi soldiers. It was by turns scary, gory, and hilarious – its twisted sense of humour reminiscent of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson. What’s more, director Tommy Wirkola snuck in enough geeky film homages to put Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright to shame.

Dead Snow 2 picks up immediately where the first film finished, with sole survivor Martin (Vegar Hoel) still trying to escape the mountain. He succeeds, only to end up in hospital and under arrest for the murder of his friends. Whilst he’s there, a kindly doctor replaces the arm he lost at the end of the first film, which unfortunately doesn’t work out entirely for the best (let’s just mention Evil Dead 2 and leave it at that shall we?).

Needless to say, Martin doesn’t remain in the hospital long. After a hilarious, bloody escape, he takes off in pursuit of the zombies and their commander, Colonel Herzog (Ørjan Gams). Herzog in the meantime has set about resuming his wartime mission of wiping out the local population. And thanks to a handy ability to reanimate the dead, along with some Nazi weaponry – including a tank – procured from a nearby war museum, it looks like he just might succeed.

Martin, on the other hand, picks up a few new allies of his own, including his own faithful zombie (whose repeated, inventive deaths provide the film’s best running gag) and a trio of American amateur zombie killers. The addition of American characters (possibly a result of Wirkloa’s brief, ill-fated Hollywood career, where he directed Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters) works well. And, in making one of them a Star Wars fan, there’s again no shortage of the film referencing that was one of the highlights of the original (and yes, the fact that Norway doubled for Hoth does get mentioned).

The humour is a bit broader than the first movie, and the new characters feel more like caricatures than actual people. These are minor quibbles, though, as for the most part Dead Snow 2 is a huge amount of fun. Like both its predecessor and Shaun of the Dead, it’s half an affectionate send-up of the genre, half cracking zombie movie in its own right. If Dead Snow was the Alien of the Nazi zombie subgenre, this is its Aliens – bolder, more ambitious, and equally likely to cause endless debates amongst fans as to which is superior. Oh, and the ending is an inspired, albeit very, very wrong, moment of genius.

Expected Rating: 7/10

Actual Rating:

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OUIJA

MOVIE REVIEW: OUIJA / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: STILES WHITE / SCREENPLAY: JULIET SNOWDEN, STILES WHITE / STARRING: OLIVIA COOKIE, ANA COTO, DAREN KAGASOFF, BIANCA SANTOS, DOUGLAS SMITH, SHELLEY HENNIG / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Since the termination of the Saw saga, the mantle of Halloween Movie Monarch has once again become a cluttered free-for-all as distributors fire out whatever substandard horror films they have sitting on their shelves in a cynical attempt to cash in on the love of fear and dread that the modern day bastardisation of Samhain brings out in us all.

In the spirit of this slightly contemptuous tradition, Michael Bay’s production house, Platinum Dunes, evidently now having progressed from churning out crap horror remakes to crap horror of all varieties (um… yay for equal rights?), brings us Ouija. If you couldn’t guess the general plot of the film from the title alone, after the mysterious suicide of a pretty blonde teenager her friends attempt to contact her using the titular game board to properly say goodbye (because the funeral and wake were apparently inadequate in this regard). But of course, it’s not a game – or you should “keep telling yourself it’s only a game,” as we are told by the eye-roll-inducing tagline that some marketing gimp actually got paid to come up with – and the gormless young things become tormented by a restless spirit who’s, like, totally trying to warn them about something.

That’s pretty much it in terms of story, and for the rest of the film we’re subjected to a laborious excuse for a plot that stretches even its 89-minute (including the credits) running time. The characters are so thin they’re barely even pale shadows of clichés, and aimless scenes that do nothing to advance what fragments of story are even present punctuate the absence of anything remotely engaging or frightening. The film even commits the cardinal sin of believing that flat-out lies are the same as misdirection when attempting to disguise a rubbish and predictable twist. Things eventually stumble towards the inadequate final confrontation, before which the surviving adolescents become armed with some sage advice from Ethnic Granny, along with the vaguely-offensive associated implication that only less civilised people (i.e. those of descent other than white European) have any notion of the supernatural and how to effectively combat it.

The only presence of any note is from main girl Laine, played by Olivia Cooke (The Quite Ones; Bates Motel) and who is far better than she’s allowed to be by the illiterate script from director Stiles White and Juliet Snowden (yes, it took two people to write this shit), while the doomed Debbie (Shelley Hennig, Teen Wolf’s semi-feral were-coyote Malia) is one of the film’s least boring characters despite checking out 10 minutes into it. Many scenes take place in the deceased girl’s bedroom, and using its lavish adornments to make up stories about her while attempting to suss out her personality is far more interesting than anything actually happening on screen.

Everything in Ouija has been done many times before, and far better, in films that weren’t any good, making the entire experience even more of a futile exercise in frustrated time wasting than usual.

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INTERSTELLAR

MOVIE REVIEW: INTERSTELLAR / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN / SCREENPLAY: JONATHAN NOLAN, CHRISTOPHER NOLAN / STARRING: MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, WES BENTLEY, ANNE HATHAWAY, MICHAEL CAINE / RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 7TH

Never underestimate Christopher Nolan. He made a backwards film about an amnesiac into an original and memorable masterpiece, turned a film about dreams into a dream come true for fans of smart blockbusters and even managed to save Batman from Batman and Robin. With Interstellar, he takes a leap beyond space and time into something truly stunning; an emotional epic that will answer any critics who say Nolan’s films are too cold.

To delve into the story of Interstellar is to open a can of wormholes. At its simplest, it’s a film about a family. Set in a not too distant future where resources have all but run out, leaving a human population on Earth struggling to make enough corn to survive. The first act, set solely on Earth sees Matthew McConaughey’s pilot-turned-farmer moping over the glory days of the space program and disillusioned by the human race’s lack of ambition to reach the stars. Blighted by increasingly dangerous dust storms, Cooper wants a future for his two children, Murph and Tom, that doesn’t seem possible anymore on the spent planet. When a strange occurrence in Murph’s room sends Cooper to an underground NASA base, he is immediately snapped up for the final mission from Earth to find a place in a galaxy far, far away where humans might start a new life.

Unfortunately for Cooper, that mission involves leaving his children back on the dying planet and travelling through a wormhole to a new galaxy. With time and space bending in unforeseeable and unpredictable ways, Cooper cannot be sure that he will ever return. And if he does, how long will it be and how old will his children be?

Needless to say, Cooper accepts the mission as dished out by Nolan’s very own Mr Exposition, Michael Caine. So it’s off to space for a considerable amount of the running time, through mind bending, space warping, time-melting wormholes and then off to explore different planets that may or may not be able to support human life. It’s here where Nolan’s massive technical achievement becomes apparent. Working closely with theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, the vision of space, and more particularly the wormhole that allows interstellar travel, is absolutely magnificent. It’s a centrepiece of the whole film, so powerful that the rest of the film is almost swallowed within it.

But Nolan isn’t just here for special effects and interplanetary fireworks. Interstellar is a film brimming with ideas; some incredibly complex and scientific, and some hokey and clichéd. The story takes in love, loss, sacrifice and survival. It flits between early scenes of what feels like NASA propaganda to later scenes of Anne Hathaway crying over the power of love. All the while there is spectacle that is often almost beyond comprehension, dazzling the eyeballs while Hans Zimmer’s score soars over the visuals.

Some of the science is nigh on incomprehensible, but Nolan never lets you chew on the details for too long. Time is a central concept of the film and like Inception, there are scenes where time moves at different paces for different characters in the film. Zimmer’s score pulses with a frequently ticking refrain while some of the mysteries of the early scenes are very predictably resolved by the end of the film. As tricky and complex as some of the physics aspects are, the central dynamic of father and daughter is all that matters to receive the whopping great emotional punch of the film.

For those critics who have called Nolan cold and his films lacking in emotion, both the script by siblings Jonathan and Christopher, as well as McConaughey’s central performance should quieten down the clamour. Anyone unmoved by the plight of Cooper crossing the universe while his bitter little girl waits back home must have a heart of stone. As time passes and the true extent of Cooper’s sacrifice becomes apparent, McConaughey gives an astounding performance caught in some unflinching close ups as he receives some incredibly poignant messages from his children. OK, so Nolan still doesn’t demonstrate much of a funny bone, but robot TARS delivers some brilliant lines, wittily referencing the history of AI on film that came before him.

Interstellar may at times come across corny and some of its plot contrivances a little barmy, but in the end, it’s a glorious spectacle. With incredible visuals, a colossal score and a huge heart, it’s the kind of film which makes you feel tiny. Nolan dwarfs you in your cinema seat, filling you with awe and wonder and leaving you both wondering about the majesty of the universe and thankful for the loved ones you have around you. Interstellar is destined to be one of those films people will want to see again and again. It was bound to be epic but the surprise is just how intimate it is. It’s a massive achievement, even coming from the guy who saved Batman.

Expected Rating: 8 out of 10
Actual Rating:

THE BABADOOK

MOVIE REVIEW: THE BABADOOK / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: JENNIFER KENT / SCREENPLAY: JENNIFER KENT / STARRING: ESSIE DAVIS, NOAH WISEMAN, DANIEL HENSHALL, TIFFANY LYNDALL-KNIGHT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

After the death of her beloved husband, single mum Amelia (Davis) struggles with her troubled young son Samuel (Wiseman), an odd child plagued with nightmares and a fetish for making his own crude but effective weaponry. After the titular pop-up book The Babadook mysteriously finds its way into Samuel’s bedtime reading list, his bad dreams and strange behaviour intensify, leaving mother and son isolated from their friends and family and skipping both employment and school. As Samuel becomes increasingly convinced that Mister Babadook is coming to get them, Amelia’s nerves shred away, prompting a sinister change to the family dynamic. To reveal more would spoil the slow-burning, tension-ratcheting plot, but suffice to say that the Babadook, for all Amelia’s best intentions, determination and denial, is going nowhere.

From beginning to end, the film’s sense of atmosphere is perfectly maintained; a building dread slowly bubbling away until it’s time to come to the fore. Davis and Wiseman handle their roles well, with the latter managing to hold on to audience sympathy even when his character is acting like a complete brat (which is often). The monster itself is rarely seen, but even then there’s no relief. It’s a horror movie truth universally acknowledged that the more you see of a villain, the less scary they become (hello Darth Maul of Insidious) but writer and director Jennifer Kent shows us just enough of her monster for the Babadook to seem even more terrifying. There’s no let-up.

Of course, this isn’t just the story of a woman and her son fighting an angry Rumpelstiltskin – no, you’d have to be blind and deaf not to recognise the subtext, especially as Kent does tend to beat you around the head with it. Grief is the real horror here, and while the writing is a little too on-the-nose about it at times, anyone who has lost themselves to the grieving process for a while should respond powerfully. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Shauna Macdonald’s character arc in The Descent, only minus the triumphalism and pomp. A counterpoint to the loud but vacuous mainstream of Insidious and Sinister, The Babadook is a wonderful piece of filmmaking. It cherishes character over cheap trailer moments, genuine terror over cheap jump scares and has actual subtext – something sorely absent from many studio pictures these days.

A supernatural fairy tale with real humanity, The Babadook is a resounding success. If you hear him knocking, be sure to let Mister Babadook in.

Expected Rating: 7 out of 10

Actual Rating:

WHEN ANIMALS DREAM

MOVIE REVIEW: WHEN ANIMALS DREAM / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: JONAS ALEXANDER ARNBY / SCREENPLAY: RASMUS BIRCH / STARRING: SONIA SUHL, LARS MIKKELSEN, SONJA RICHTER / RELEASE DATE: TBC

What’s with women and werewolves? Filmmakers are obsessed with the idea that because ladies spill some blood each month (and maybe get a little tetchy), they must be howling at the moon while they do it. Since when did bloodletting equal bloodlust? After all, we all go a little hairy sometimes.

When Animals Dream offers another in a long line of teen girls who is struggling to cope with the fact that she has hair sprouting from her chest and is prone to suddenly fly into a dangerous rage. Marie lives with her parents in a remote fishing village on the coast of Denmark. Her father is protective and secretive and her mother is heavily sedated and wheelchair-bound. When Marie starts work at the local fish factory, the boys seem to have their eyes on her, but it is unclear whether it is out of lust or suspicion. After seeing her doctor about a skin rash, she begins sprouting thick hair on her chest as a transformation slowly begins.

Set in a gloomy, isolated coastal community where very few women even seem to exist, When Animals Dream makes its heroine’s discomfort with her surroundings clear from the start. The men appear like predators, a close knit community that prey on easy target Marie, humiliating and attacking her. However, as she discovers a lust for boys, namely local stud Daniel; it triggers the beast to be unleashed within her. Probed by the local doctor, hidden away by her father and eyed-up by fish factory men, Marie’s transformation cannot be repressed and her declaration ‘I’m transforming into a monster‘ is part chat up line, part empowering admission.

When Animals Dream deals with the shame that young women might feel over their primal urges after puberty. Like Ginger Snaps before it, Marie learns to accept her newfound lust and embrace it, even if the rest of society wants to control and contain it. The problem is, this has all been said before and better.

Despite decent central performances, particularly from Lars Mikkelsen as the worried father and Sonia Suhl in her debut as the monstrous Marie, When Animals Dream fails to transform effectively from chilly drama to full-blooded werewolf movie. It’s certainly not a howler, but with a lack of real originality, it’s hard to sink your teeth into.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10
Actual Rating:

IT FOLLOWS

MOVIE REVIEW: IT FOLLOWS / CERT: TBA / DIRECTOR: DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL / SCREENPLAY: DAVID ROBERT MITCHELL / STARRING: MAIKA MONROE, KEIR GILCHRIST, DANIEL ZOVATTO, OLIVIA LUCCARDI, JAKE WEARY, LILI SEPE / RELEASE DATE: TBA

Sex and horror movies have gone together for decades but writer/director David Robert Mitchell gives us a film where it’s intrinsic to the plot.

Young, attractive Jay (Monroe) goes on a date with the mysterious Hugh (Weary) and they end up having sex. All fairly normal, until he drugs her and she wakes up tied to chair. He explains to her that she’ll be followed by something that will kill her if she doesn’t have sex with someone else. If the infected person doesn’t have sex with someone else, it’ll kill them and move back to the previous person, and so on. The ‘it’ can take the form of any person, living or dead, and doesn’t stop until it finds you. And no-one else can see it. Basically, it’s the worst STD you can hope for – a sexually transmitted demon, if you will.

When Jay inevitably starts to see things, her friends put it down to post-traumatic stress, but one by one they realise it’s real and desperately try to help her escape it.

We’ve had the likes of Scream and Cherry Falls deal with horror clichés like sex in a postmodern way. However, It Follows takes itself much more seriously, and with an effective, simple concept is one of the creepiest films in recent years. The concept might sound amusing at first, but the film is intelligent and ignores many tired factors of horror movies while maintaining a familiar formula. It Follows doesn’t focus on the sexual aspect like many other films would, but more on the moral dilemmas Jay and her friends face, and how she literally has to run away from her problems.

For a horror film, there are very few deaths or even major scares – a downfall given the promising start – but the suspense and tension drive the film. You end up looking over the characters’ shoulders more than they do, wondering if that person walking in the background is the evil force coming to get them, or what form it’s going to take (it can often look quite horrible).

The highlight of the film is the incredible electronic soundtrack, an intentional and wonderfully executed throwback to ‘80s horror films. The atmosphere reminds you of A Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween, albeit more in tune with the dream-like graphic novel Black Hole.

Some ‘rules’ are established in the film, which will no doubt be dissected by many fanboys on the forums, and much of the film’s originality leaves a welcome opening for a sequel. At the London Film Festival, STARBURST asked Mitchell if there’d be one and he said he wasn’t sure yet. He did reveal that the idea for It Follows came from a recurring nightmare he’d had as a child – being constantly followed by something unstoppable, a nightmare many of us can probably relate to.

Expected Rating: 6 out of 10
Actual Rating:

EL GIGANTE

REVIEW: EL GIGANTE / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: GIGI SAUL GUERRERO / SCREENPLAY: SHANE MCKENZIE / STARRING: EDWIN PEREZ, DAVID FORTS, MATHIAS RETAMAL, NISREEN SLIM, ARLIN RODRIGUEZ / RELEASE DATE: TBC

Like thousands of desperate Mexicans, all Armando wants is to start a new life in America. After a coyote fleeces him to take his wife and daughter over the border, he is left with no money to pay for his own passage. Lost in the desolation of the desert borderlands, what appears to be salvation ends up an agonising mauling at the hands of the monstrous luchador El Gigante.

Scripted by pulp horror gore purveyor Shane McKenzie, El Gigante is a short film adapted from the first chapter of his novel Muerte Con Carne. McKenzie’s books are written with the kind of unflinching and self-aware depravity that laughs in the face of Shaun Hutson, and are a perfect match for the grisly grindhouse styling of Gigi Saul Guerrero’s directorial vision.

The film shifts into a POV shot as Armando awakens, making us as disorientated and disconcerted as he is, and we soon almost wish he’d never come to his senses. A crude luchador mask consisting of a patchwork hood of filthy burlap is stitched to his face; human skulls top the wrestling ring’s posts, traces of rotting flesh still clinging to them as they crawl with greasy maggots; patches of blood dried into various states of discolouration stain the canvas; and the grimy backroom stench of the windowless makeshift auditorium practically permeates the screen.

True to his name, El Gigante is a colossal, barrel-chested monstrosity of a man, and with his wide animalistic glare, gnashing rictus and heavy breathing one step short of growling, he barely seems human, while other members of the attendant voyeuristic family, such as an opaque-eyed matriarch and a couple of feral kids laughing with gleeful sadism, provide a balance of sinister menace to the eponymous wrestler’s terrifying brutality.

Unlike many of Guerrero’s other shorts, there’s not any alluring sexiness juxtaposing the gruesome violence, unless you count an inbred-looking young woman playing with herself through her dress while Gigante tosses Armando around like a human sackdoll, the sound of his bones being mashed into splintered pulps resonating with sickening crunches. Gigante’s rudimentary championship belt, crushed with trophies from previous victims, provides an unsettling indicator that the clan of maniacs have been holding these torturous bouts for some time, and one shot even invites a final suckerpunch of despair before it’s all over.

Finally, the credit sequence where we discover exactly what gets done with Gigante’s victims (which the novel title gives a clue towards), while lacking the violence of the rest of the film, is in its own way the most nauseating part of it. El Gigante invites strong comparisons to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but is distinctive enough to transcend any accusations of cheap imitation. Guerrero is without a doubt a name to watch.

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EXTRATERRESTRIAL

MOVIE REVIEW: EXTRATERRESTRIAL / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: COLIN MINIHAN / SCREENPLAY: COLIN MINIHAN, STUART ORTIZ / STARRING: BRITTANY ALLEN, FREDDIE STROMA, MELANIE PAPALIA, JESSE MOSS, GIL BELLOWS, MICHAEL IRONSIDE/ RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 29TH

From Skyline to Skinwalkers to the Slumber Party Alien Abduction segment of V/H/S/2, it seems that modern horror just cannot seem to get aliens quite right. True, there have been reprieves in the likes of The Fourth Kind and Dark Skies, but audiences are yet to see any modern alien horror in the vein of Ridley Scott’s Alien, James Cameron’s Aliens or John Carpenter’s The Thing. Well, all of the above were clearly in mind for Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz (collectively known as The Vicious Brothers) newest sci-fi horror, Extraterrestrial. A film with a whole host of inspirations, and while it doesn’t meet its aspirations, there is an undeniable care in some of the craft.

Extraterrestrial features a bog-standard horror set up (one of many aspects that liken the picture to more of a slasher flick at times). April (Brittany Allen) and Kyle (Freddie Stroma) prepare for a break away to April’s father’s old cabin in the woods (sound familiar?), only for Kyle to drop it on her that his mates are coming along too. All becomes clear though as Kyle has a proposition for her but things are interrupted when a craft crashes nearby. So obviously, these kids must investigate but when they meet the inhabitants of said craft and incur their wrath, they are in for the fight of their lives. From the opening abduction scene, you are sure that The Vicious Brothers are not going to be gunning for originality and that is indeed the case.

Cabin in the woods, drunken, profane mates, mirror jump-scares, shower hiding, weed farms, a sheriff on a mission, there is a galaxy of clichés here for hardened genre fans to see. If you are looking for a brave new voice in this genre, you will leave disappointed. Yet, while Extraterrestrial does not particularly reinvent the wheel, it has to be said that the film looks rather impressive. The special effects are brilliant (aside from some very iffy looking military helicopters in the climax) and the aliens themselves look quite animalistic and imposing. True, it all gets a bit much with the recycled red-lit UFO scenes and overload of effects in the closing part of the film, but we have seen worse effects (and acting for that matter) in films that get a mainstream distribution.

It is a shame that the script did not restrain itself, because you cannot help but somewhat admire the work that has gone into this; but that does not excuse some major issues within. The Vicious Brothers cut their teeth with the effective (if overrated) Grave Encounters, and it’s seriously ill-judged sequel, but Extraterrestrial is more fun; sharing a heck of a lot of surprising similarities with the recent remake of Friday the 13th (which will signify, perhaps, how you will take to it). There is no doubting that the plot treads very familiar and well-worn ground and that modern horror’s infuriating necessity to have a-hole characters is indeed a factor here too. That said, Brittany Allen and Freddie Stroma are likable leads and familiar faces Gil Bellows and Michael Ironside seem to be having fun with some of the cheese.

Extraterrestrial has not picked up especially outstanding feedback on its festival run, but in terms of Saturday night gory thrills it does its job well enough. The aliens actually look great, and while the climax is almost clearly a rip off of H.R. Giger’s Alien backdrops, the grossly-rendered sets are effective. The plot, dialogue, and supporting characters pull the film back from the promise offered by some X-Files-esque opening titles and an actually quite effectively morbid closing act that suggests the dangers of the earth are every bit as great as the dangers surrounding it. Extraterrestrial is an untaxing albeit regularly clichéd watch, but still a fun dose of sci-fi horror, even if the search for a truly great modern alien horror goes on.

Expected Rating: 4 out of 10

Actual Rating: