Review Category: Movie

THE ACCURSED

European folklore entwines with family melodrama in Elizabeta Vidovic and Kathryn Michelle’s claustrophobic horror The Accursed, which is absolutely not about gypsies or witchcraft. Except it is, and though neither of these things is referred to directly at any point, they are key elements to the story.

The opening credits refer to sisterly clans in The Balkans, three women who have control over the elements. One such clan, now in America, falls apart when Hana is caught cheating with Aishe’s man. In a struggle, Aishe is killed but not before she can utter a curse intended to wipe out Hana’s bloodline.

Fast forward a decade or two and Hana’s son is getting married. And despite Hana and her sister Naida’s best efforts, the curse is finally close to being fulfilled.

The Accursed is all about mood; a brooding, oppressive atmosphere that ebbs and flows throughout. Strong, yet subdued, performances add realism to character interactions as each slowly become aware of a looming threat, something spiritually malevolent and murderous stalking them.

All crucial, as there is a distinct lack of clarity to the narrative at times. Everything takes place over a couple of days, and the terms of the curse are clear enough, but there are languid moments throughout that while encouraging the viewer to think of witchcraft do little in advancing the plot. This may well be intentional, to develop that aura of murky mysticism, but serves to slow down a tale that is already meandering.

The Accursed is an impressive, at times unsettling watch, but lacks any moments of real terror to elevate it into something memorable.

The Accursed is released on DVD and digital on February 14th.

PETROV’S FLU

Petrov’s Flu takes you on a fever dream journey through a hellish urban landscape in post-Soviet Union Russia. From the start there’s an assault on the senses and it takes you a while to figure out what exactly is going on. The overhanging question is if what you see is really happening or in the imagination of Petrov (Serzin), a sick, persistently coughing comic-book illustrator. Petrov may or may not be helping to gun down the elite, have a serial killer wife (Khamatova), or be on a drinking binge with his mysterious friend Igor (Kolokolnikov) in a hearse. Think of it like a Russian Holy Motors and try to enjoy the ride, one long take at a time.

The film, at two and a half hours, may seem too long, but it is filled with enough randomness and surrealism to make it interesting. There is something of a plot in here too, as the film begins to settle after the chaotic opening, revealing that the characters are all connected somehow. There’s commentary on society, politics, the Soviet Union, nostalgia, immigration, art and literature. Perhaps it all makes more sense in The Petrovs In and Around The Flu, the Alexey Salnikov book that Serebrennikov has adapted this from. Within the chaos, Yurchak’s idea of Hypernormalisation comes to mind; and thus a pretense of a functioning society is presented, a façade of reality that the viewer (and protagonist?) constantly questions but has to experience nonetheless. Original, unique, frantic and delirious – it’ll definitely stick in the mind for a while.

PETROV’S FLU is released in selected UK cinemas on February 11th

BLACK FRIDAY

There’s almost certainly a decent horror-comedy to be made around the bizarre modern retail concept known as ’Black Friday,’ the post-Thanksgiving madness (that has now spread across the Atlantic and seems to last most of December) that compels normally-sane consumers to work themselves into a frenzy at the thought of missing out on saving five quid on some piece of cheap plastic tat for Christmas. Sadly Black Friday, despite its best intentions, isn’t that film.

A meteor of unknown origin crashes through the roof of a big retail department store as it prepares to open for its Black Friday evening shift. A parasitic organism emerges and turns those it infects into rampaging blood-crazed killers. Nasty. Meanwhile, reluctant workers at a We Love Toys outlet (do such places even still exists these days?) are similarly gearing up for the hell of Black Friday; in their number are Ken Bates (Devon Sawa), estranged from his wife and looking after his two young daughters, geeky Chris (Ryan Lee) and a slew of other cannon fodder stereotypes (including genre legend Bruce Campbell as store manager Jonathan Wexler). Shoppers pour into the store (although in truth it seems that the budget couldn’t run to that many of them) but the parasitic mutation is spreading and the shoppers soon become even uglier and more violent than usual. Ken and the survivors of the first attack are forced into hiding before trying to find a way out of the beleaguered store even as something nasty is growing in Santa’s Village.

Black Friday’s not especially big or clever; its targets are easy and obvious we’ve been here before – George Romero was pointing out the similarity between mindless shopping frenzy and zombies decades ago – and the film commits the cardinal sins of so many would-be comedy horrors – it’s not funny enough and it’s not scary enough. The humour is limp and predictable, the gore is either tame or derivative. One sequence in which the characters, trapped in a storeroom, attempt to explain how their lives led them to the retail sector, at least attempts to put flesh on the bones of wafer-thin characters and the climax is pleasantly, if rather stupidly, ambitious and in the best traditions of would-be apocalyptic cinema, is ambiguous and open-ended. But ultimately Black Friday is a bit of a disappointment, despite Bruce Campbell doing his best to inject some life into the proceedings and delivering the best performance here, as it wastes a promising premise because it doesn’t seem to know what to do with it or how to properly exploit it. In the best traditions of the shopping experience, you might well be tempted to take Black Friday back and ask for a refund…

Signature Entertainment presents Black Friday on Digital Platforms February 14th

ALONE WITH YOU

A romantic night with her partner ends in a nightmare of solitude and torment for Charlie (Emily Bennett, who is also the co-writer and co-director along with Justin Brooks). As her photographer girlfriend Simone (Emma Myles) is held up, she begins to prepare for a special night, avoiding appeals from her friend Thea (Dora Madison) to join her at a club and her mother (Barbara Crampton) to leave Simone. She isn’t happy with their relationship and is even more upset by the artfully nude photo that’s framed on the pair’s wall.

Bennett and Brooks have crafted a taut, claustrophobic psychological thriller that is constantly surprising and shocking. Horror stories told in primarily one location are not rare – it’s often a necessity in low budget filmmaking, but Alone With You gives viewers time to acclimatise themselves to the surroundings while ramping up the tension and slowly luring the audience into its secrets. Bennett’s acting is mesmerising, the weight of the movie on her shoulders but handling it masterfully. She’s presented with situations that could be supernatural or all psychological, or perhaps something even worse. There’s a quick deterioration of her mind as things progress and she finds that she’s unable to leave the flat. The door is stuck and there’s something covering the windows. A voice from one of the other apartments adds to her trauma.

It’s an absorbing film that shows what can be done with limited environments and Bennett’s performance is a tour de force. Well worth catching.

ALONE WITH YOU is in US theatres on February 4th, 2022 and On-Demand, Digital and DVD in the US on February 8th, 2022. Read our interview with the directors here.

SHADOW IN THE CLOUD

Shadow in the Cloud puts its viewer straight into its story as Maude Garrett (Chloë Grace Moretz) boards The Fool’s Errand, a B-17 Flying Fortress, in hopes of transporting a confidential package across war-torn waters. However, it doesn’t go to plan for her as she has to earn the trust of a hard-headed, stubborn flight crew that are unaware of this strange assignment.

It quickly makes for a claustrophobic, paranoia-tinged watch as Maude is accidentally confined in the turret section, with her only communication being through a radio link with her fellow crewmates as the men decipher argumentatively between themselves in an effort to uncover her real purpose. After a mysterious – put on trial – first half that sees Chloë carry the movie, a dangerous ‘gremlin’ makes a surprise entrance, pulling the plane to pieces and attacking any passengers that dare to stand in its way. It’s here where the film is flipped on its head, turning into a palm-sweating, gravity-defying, explosive actioner. With the concept of the gremlin having been introduced in the era-appropriate animated training video that opens the movie, this nuisance of legend has been implemented very well, as it clearly holds metaphors of its own.

Director Roseanne Liang delivers a fun, genre-mashing, plot-twisting war film that also honours the fighter pilot heroes of its era.

Shadow in the Cloud is on DVD and digital now.

MOONFALL

Moonfall is exactly the film you think you think it’s going to be – only quite a bit stupider. Starring Patrick Wilson and Halle Berry, the film is directed by Roland Emmerich (who also co-wrote what we might charitably describe as the script) who, of course, has considerable form in wreaking unholy carnage upon the unsuspecting citizens of planet Earth. Over the years, he has variously unleashed upon us alien invasions, a giant lizard, a second Ice Age and even an absolute extinction-level event. One could be forgiven for thinking he doesn’t really rate the human race, a conclusion given additional credence by Moonfall, in which he decides it’s time to knock the moon out of orbit and send it hurtling towards the Earth.

Wilson and Berry are two astronauts whose routine space shuttle mission a decade ago was brought to a catastrophic and tragic conclusion when it was attacked by a strange energy swarm emanating from the moon. NASA institutes a cover-up, however. Wilson’s Brian Harper is discredited – his life and marriage fall apart, his teenage son becomes wayward and wilful – you know the score in this sort of movie – and Berry’s Jo Fowler becomes a NASA bigwig. Comedy relief janitor and part-time megastructuralist (yes, another one!) K. C. Houseman (John Bradley) – he has a cat called Fuzz Aldrin (you might want to hold your sides!) – discovers that the Moon’s orbit is bringing it closer to Earth and when he goes public with his findings on social media, NASA is forced to leap into action and Harper is vindicated. But the Moon is still moving closer to the Earth – cue inevitable but rather soulless shots of worldwide devastation; waves rolling over cities, tsunamis, peculiar gravitational anomalies. A space mission to investigate the lunar abnormality is destroyed by the swarm but luckily there’s a handy EMP device on hand that can kill the storm – but with NASA falling apart and the world in chaos, only Harper and Jo are available to launch a de-mothballed space shuttle in a last-ditch attempt to save us all. Naturally, the utterly inexperienced and untrained KC is brought on board to ‘do the math’ and the trio set off on their suicide mission. Only when they reach the moon do they fully realise they are caught in the middle of a battle for survival between two very different extra-terrestrial intelligences…

Moonfall is, of course, utter twaddle. Frustratingly, though, and despite its own best efforts, it’s shamefully enjoyable twaddle. Emmerich has left no hoary cliché unturned in his attempt to marry witless, implausible spectacle with paper-thin characters and the result is a film 100% more inane than even the likes of the more recent Geostorm or Into the Storm. We’d like to think that Michael Bay himself would turn his nose up at the stereotyped characters and ‘disaster movie A-Z’ dialogue they’re forced to spout. It’s nonsensical on almost every level, from its ludicrous disregard for basic scientific principles to the thunderingly unsubtle determination to defy the laws of physics as the characters on Earth – basically just Wilson’s and Jo’s extended families – are plunged into increasingly-unlikely perilous situations as all around them turns to ash, dust, and snow.

But despite its cosmic levels of banality, Moonfall can’t help but be fun, perhaps because we’ve not had a film of this type in a few years. It’s a movie that demands that you turn off your critical faculties (if not your entire brain) and just roar at the absurdity of all. It delivers some superb FX shots (mainly the space stuff and shots of the moon looming large over the Earth) and some iffy stuff (many of the Earth-devastation scenes that aren’t just seen-it-all-before but also seen-it-done-better-before), and the swerve into harder sci-fi territory in the final third at least provides some relief from the predictability of the original setup. Moonfall is crass and vapid but now and again that’s exactly what we need in a world of genre films that often takes itself too seriously. Moonfall is a film you will laugh at rather than with – and sometimes that’s absolutely fine.

Moonfall is in cinemas now.

FROM BELOW

Person or persons find themselves stranded in shark-infested waters. The Shallows? 47 Metres Down? Great White? Well, continuing down this well-swum channel comes From Below, originally titled The Requin, and it’s pretty much what you’d expect.

So, there’s screaming, sharks and swimming… why mess with the formula?

Jaelyn (Alicia Silverstone) and Kyle (James Tupper) are on an idyllic Vietnam retreat to help them work through a recent family tragedy. When a monsoon hits the resort, their pier-based chalet is swept away, leaving Kyle injured and the couple lost at sea.

For a film originally titled quite literally The Shark – Requin is shark in French – there’s not an awful lot of the toothy predator in Le-Van Kiet’s aquatic adversity. Nearly an hour of recriminations, falling ins and outs, and Silverstone’s increasingly irritating shrieking passes before a threatening fish finally makes an appearance. Cue more shrieking.

The trouble with not deviating from the formula is that things quickly become rather bland. Other filmmakers played around with the sub-genre, creating new if not entirely original scenarios that at least generated some intrigue. Kiet has instead stuck rigidly to the premise. And done so with a heavy reliance on VFX shots – almost 1,000 reportedly – and you can see every single unconvincing one; you’ll encounter more realistic sharks in Finding Nemo.

Sadly, with the scary fish reduced to cameo roles, the primary reason you’re watching is absent for long periods. But if Alicia Silverstone gazing forlornly through CGI smoke and screaming a lot is your thing, then From Below is for you.

Watch From Below on Altitude.film and other digital platforms from February 7th and on DVD from February 21st

RED LIGHT (Short Film)

A detestable social media ‘influencer’ and his friends on a night out get their just deserts in this short from writer/director Alex Kahuam, who impressed us with his feature Forgiveness, which screened at FrightFest in 2021.

After live-streaming himself mocking and being generally horrible to a homeless person (played by co-writer Daniel Kuhlman), Jake (Layne Herrin) and his crew find themselves tied up in a basement by Ian (Ted Raimi), who is particularly appalled at their behaviour. He tells them that there are two rules: no screaming and no begging. When one of them breaks the second of these rules, he’s forced to meter out severe punishment. The fate of the others could even be worse…

Cramming plenty of build-up in ten minutes, Kahuam has made Red Light into a fantastic teaser for a feature-length version. This short is taken from the script of the full-length version and is the reason Raimi got on board. He’s suitably sinister as the measured, assured antagonist, but the younger cast is decent too even if there’s so little time for them to make their presence felt. The influencer culture has been the butt of several films over the past few years, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see how and if this side of the story is developed, but from what we have here, Herrin’s Jake is the sort of arsehole that we see all the time on Instagram and as far as we’re concerned, he deserves everything he gets.

Red Light is wonderfully shot, with moody colours and fluid, involving cinematography from Nick Matthews. There’s a palpable atmosphere of dread, but a relatable philosophy behind the actions of Raimi’s Ian, who isn’t depicted as an out-and-out monster. We can’t wait to see this story expanded into a feature.

SING 2

CERT: U / PLATFORMS: CINEMA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

When Illumination Entertainment released Sing back in 2016, despite its star-laden voice cast, many did not really have many expectations for what appeared to be X-Factor with animals. Yet, director/writer Garth Jennings’ film was a rather delightful musical romp, with a good old classic heart on its sleeve, in its story of a struggling theatre owner fighting to save the old building that meant so much to him as a child, with a singing contest. Now, Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) is back and he’s aiming for the big time!

Sing 2 catches back up with Buster and his loyal performers/friends, as Buster believes with all his heart that their shows deserve to be seen on the grand Redshore City stage. A talent scout says otherwise, but this passionate crew will not be deterred in following their dreams, and as they head to the big city, they get a huge break to create a sci-fi musical show unlike any other but there’s a catch, Buster kind of suggested he had some connections, and the wolf calling the shots Jimmy Crystal (Bobby Cannavale) wants rock star legend Clay Calloway (U2’s Bono) on the card. Problem is, he has not been seen or heard from in years!

While Sing 2 lacks some of the old fashioned magic that the first surprisingly harnessed, it does have a strong statement on how the biggest and best tunes come from the smallest and most passionate places. And in making the leap to the grander stage, it arguably makes that theme stronger. Indeed the story itself takes a little time to get its footing, and does borrow from the formula rulebook but, appropriately enough, when the show itself comes together you are fully won over and rewarded with a lovely time for the entire family.

Sing 2 is unashamedly showy and full of beautifully animated dance numbers that the kids will undeniably love, meanwhile the adults just might feel something a little more come the finale and when show stealing new character Clay Calloway’s story comes full circle. In fact it is really quite poignant, especially for any of us out there who have felt loss and know what it can do to our drive, our passion and our motivation.

The cast is again crammed with stars both returning (Taron Egerton, McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Tori Kelly, Scarlett Johansson) and brand new (Letitia Wright, Pharrell Williams), who really bring to life this roster of colourful, tuneful, animal characters. Though again, it is perhaps Garth Jennings himself as Buster’s faithful lizard assistant Miss Crawley who is the biggest delight.

It may not be quite as well rounded as the first film, and no doubt this follow-up had a tougher task, as it has a level to live up to, where the first one came out of seemingly nowhere with all singing and all dancing success. That being said, Sing 2 still accomplishes its mission of being a splendidly toe-tapping burst of animated fun for all ages. If you loved the debut, you’ll enjoy this second album.

THE MANGLER (1995)

At the Blue Riband laundry, a medieval, animalistic mechanical clothes iron takes centre stage. When an accident occurs, and blood gets into the workings the machine comes to life revealing a macabre history involving the whole community.

Currently, there are around 24 Stephen King novels, novellas and short stories being adapted for film and television. Which probably tells you more about the prolificacy of the author than it does about the quality. Because for every Shawshank Redemption there is The Dark Tower. And for every Carrie, there is The Mangler.

While this is very much a Stephen King story – a small town in Maine has a collective secret involving sacrifice, demons and virgin’s blood – the sparsity of original text meant director Tobe Hooper and his writing partners had to get creative. And what they created doesn’t really work. A minor character in the short story, in Robert Englund’s hands, laundry owner Bill Gartley has grown into a menacing pantomime villain delivering cringe-worthy dialogue and perving uncomfortably over his young female protégé. Although at least Englund appears to be having fun.

No, with every hazy shot full of fake smoke and dim lighting, presumably to replace the missing atmosphere, and containing several scenes awkward by today’s standards, The Mangler is largely a dull, soulless and dated viewing experience.

The included extras, however, do offer some interest as an in-depth interview with Englund and some behind-the-scenes footage of Hooper at work provide an insight into the process.

And the final ten minutes must be seen to be truly believed, as misguided ambition meets technological failings in a hopeless attempt to replicate the source material. Worth watching The Mangler for this alone? Debatable, but at least you’ll have something to remember if you make it this far.

The Mangler is out now on Blu-ray.