Review Category: Reviews

THE WAIT [Fantastic Fest 2023]

Javier Gutiérrez (Rings) returns to his Spanish roots with this rural shocker that takes its time to burrow into your head before unleashing a surreal and nightmarish finale.

Set in the ‘70s, Eladio (Victor Clavijo) has taken a job as a groundskeeper that will set him and his family up for the next few years. While planning an annual hunt, he reluctantly takes a bribe to increase the number of shooting stands. When tragedy strikes, his life becomes an increasingly living hell.

The Wait (La espera) is the sort of story that thrives from being in a foreign language. With the rugged expanse of the Spanish countryside as its backdrop, the tale gradually unwinds before us, moving from a heartbreaking family drama in the vein of Jean de Florette to a demented piece of folk horror. Clavijo is captivating as a good man who makes one wrong decision, albeit against his better judgement. The class system is part of the real horror here, too. The landowners and his acolytes visibly have a superiority over the much more moral menial worker, something that’s brought to a head in the shocking climax.

Miguel Ángel Mora’s cinematography makes the most of the rural landscape, and this creates a vivid contrast to Eladio’s grace-and-favour, basic home, which gets more oppressive and claustrophobic as events unfold. The nightmarish scenario he finds himself in is all the more believable, thanks to Clavijo’s impressive, relatable performance.

The Wait is a brooding, potent tale of calamity, loss, revenge, and class divides. It would do it a disservice to call it merely a horror film, as there is so much more here and plenty of food for thought.

THE WAIT screened at Fantastic Fest 2023.

THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON, Season 1, Episode 4, LA DAME DE FER

It’s a truism that all screenwriters telling stories set in the French capital are duty-bound to find a reason to send their characters to the foot of a certain wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars. It’s a requirement that incoming scriptwriter Shannon Goss handles rather well in this fourth episode. Wide-eyed and distracted, Laurent is drawn to the now-damaged landmark as he wanders lost through the city, unaware of all of the different forces closing in on his location.

Picking up on the Episode Three cliffhanger, La Dame De Fer (‘the iron lady’, the Eiffel Tower’s evocative nickname) first tracks the different stories of the members of Daryl’s group who’ve scattered following the Guerriers’ raid on the Demimonde club. These sequences include a startling misdirect about the supposedly messianic Laurent’s real nature, which teases (and then rips away) a wholesale rewrite of the show’s mythology. There’s no time for Daryl to catch his breath before he is rudely awakened from his reverie to find himself underwater and under threat. Walkers-in-water is a recurring motif in The Walking Dead universe, but this brief combat sequence confirms director Tim Southam’s flair in handling the high action quotient required by the episode.

Once again, Daryl’s status as an ‘American abroad’ is given real purchase and impact as he wanders through the suburbs of Paris, with no local knowledge, zero grasp of the language and with no idea of how to find his way back to Isabelle’s old flat. To their credit, the showrunners of Daryl Dixon have resisted the temptation to ‘Americanise’ their depiction of France or to dilute their hero’s status as an ill-equipped outsider. Daryl remains excluded from many of the conversations that impact him (while non-Francophile viewers are required to follow significant parts of the plot on subtitles).

The Parisian setting is again brought hauntingly to life on screen, with a surprisingly large sense of scale and depth. The Eiffel Tower provides an arresting backdrop for a rescue mission, an extended skirmish with a wave of walkers, and a nearly-thwarted kidnapping. It’s the episode’s most cinematic visual moment. But just as effective are those scenes in the city’s dilapidated backstreets and tenements and on the banks of the river Seine, all of which are equally atmospheric.

Pigeon breeder Antoine’s storyline comes to an abrupt end, but other more combative members of Fallou’s underused group are given far more to do here as they join the mission to rescue Laurent from Quinn’s clutches. The different elements of their attack unfold with a great sense of pace. As the Molotov Cocktails fly and the machine guns rattle their fire, parallels with the wartime efforts of the French Resistance are easy to spot – although Southam does not overplay the symbolism, even as the attire of many of the combatants echoes that of the Maquis. It’s just another way in which the Gallic identity of the show is evoked.

The Demimonde owner’s reaction to the revelation of his connection to Laurent has sparked entrepreneurial rather than warm paternal feelings. Quinn is more interested in brokering a deal with Genet and her enforcer Codron, although the full story of their group’s motivations (and their interest in freakish experiments with walker lab rats) still remains unclear. Genet is focused on snuffing out the faith that the followers of the Union of Hope have in their saviour.

When Daryl interrogates one of the kidnappers he detained at knifepoint, Goss’ script turns to explore Isabelle’s reaction to his recourse to violence and torture. Daryl might expect her to blanche in the face of what he considers necessary, but she instead expresses a steely resolve that the ends, in this case, do justify the bloody means. This key character moment connects to something seeded into the show from the start: the development of a complicated connection between Daryl and Isabelle as their mutual respect grows. Clémence Poésy has been excellent from the outset, but the emergence of unseen aspects of Isabelle’s nature over the last two episodes has given her the chance to show the full extent of her character’s determination and resilience. And while she is a very different proposition to Carol Peletier, it’s clear that Daryl has once again found a form of close affinity with an intelligent, articulate and self-assured woman.

Daryl’s own moral compass has been shifted by that connection and by his growing sense of responsibility for Laurent. As he passes the Pont de Grenelle Statue of Liberty on his departure from Paris, it seems like he is now further from home than when he first made landfall in France – although he is no longer a lone refugee. Intelligent, distinctive and unformulaic, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon is already a candidate for the most innovative spin-off show the original series has yet produced.

New episodes of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON premiere on Sundays on AMC and AMC+ in the US

Read our previous reviews of THE WALKING DEAD: DARYL DIXON below:

Season 1, Episode 1, L’ÂME PERDUE
Season 1, Episode 2, ALOUETTE
Season 1, Episode 3, PARIS SERA TOUJOURS PARIS

BEACH OF THE WAR GODS (1973)

Prior to the arrival of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong in 1971, the most popular Asian action star was the mercurial Jimmy Wang Yu, who thrilled Eastern audiences with a series of rousing and violent pseudo-epics set for the most part in China’s brutal past with many of them pitting the hero against Japanese invaders. This is the case with 1973’s Beach of the War Gods, a thrilling and well-made drama that looks better on this Eureka Blu-ray release than it has ever done before to Western audiences.

The movie opens in 1556 when a small coastal village is under constant attack from a vicious army of Japanese pirates led by a particularly nasty individual who happens to be a feared master swordsman. It is at this point that we witness the arrival of a mysterious stranger walking towards the village along the bleak beach of the title; this is Hsia Feng, played by Wang Yu, who also impressively directs this thunderous action opus.

Wang Yu swiftly assesses the situation the meek villagers find themselves in, and when some of them are threatened by seven of the pirates in the village square, he dispatches them all in the blink of an eye, revealing himself to be no slouch with bladed weapons himself. He decides to establish himself as the village’s protector and begins to enlist an impressive bunch of mercenary fighters to join him in his fight against the pirates and also trains the villagers into a formidable fighting force who stand up against their enemy in an impressive and lengthy battle that takes up the second half of the film.

Beach of the War Gods is presented in its Chinese version with English subtitles and also in a dubbed English version – the dialogue is perfunctory at best and never intrudes upon the spectacular martial arts action, which is what the movie is all about when all said and done. There are some pretty strong anti-Japanese sensibilities voiced in this film in common with Chinese cinema of that era that can’t help but feel a little uncomfortable in the 21st century. The trailer for the film makes much of the fact that it has an all-male cast, and it’s true that there are no women seen from beginning to end.

The disc also includes an in-depth appreciation of the work of Jimmy Wang Yu by critic and movie historian Tony Rayns and also a rare and welcome interview with Wang Yu filmed in 2001 in France.

BEACH OF THE WAR GODS is released on Blu-ray by Eureka on October 23rd.

CUTTHROAT ISLAND (1995) 4K

Cutthroat Island, released in 1995, was a catastrophic box office disaster that finally bankrupted the already-struggling independent studio Carolco, derailed the career of its star Geena Davis and sent its director Renny Harlin (Davis’ husband at the time) into a spiral of underachieving long-forgotten B-movies. The film’s brave attempt to resurrect the once-popular ‘pirate movie’ genre sank without trace and turned the genre into a no-go area until Disney scored a surprise hit with the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie eight years later. Pirates is, in many ways, everything Cutthroat Island wanted to be, but it’s clear that Cutthroat was doomed from the outset, scuppered by script rewrites, casting problems and continual disruptions on set caused by Harlin’s dissatisfaction with the sets and the general production design. The dust has long since settled, although the wounds surely run deep. But nearly three decades on, the film arrives on 4K, and if nothing else, it deserves to be reassessed now that there’s some distance between the film itself and the muddled circumstances of its production and release.

In the best traditions of pirate fiction, Cutthroat Island is the story of a quest for hidden treasure. Morgan Adams (Davis) is determined to collect the three pieces of a map leading to a huge stash of treasure on the remote Cutthroat Island. One piece is on her father’s scalp, her brother Mordechai has a second, and the third is in the hands of ruthless rival pirate Dawg Brown (Frank Langella). Teaming up with the roguish William Shaw (Matthew Modine), Morgan and her crew are thrown into conflict with Dawg in a struggle to secure the third piece of the map and claim the treasure. Much swashbuckling and derring-do ensues…

Cutthroat Island isn’t actually a bad film, but it wears its troubled production on its sleeve. The film’s tone is woefully uneven; the first half is characterised by sub-Carry On humour and innuendo, but the second half, more action-fixated, is far more satisfying, delivering genuine spectacle in a number of all-at-sea action set pieces that are stunningly, if hectically, realised. Here, the film manages to overcome its script and plot problems and becomes, in the third act at least, the sort of gung-ho nautical action/adventure film it was always intended to be.

On-screen, Geena Davis never looks particularly comfortable in the role of a sword-wielding action hero despite her desire to take her career in a different direction, but at least there’s some chemistry between her and Modine, drafted in to replace Michael Douglas, who jumped ship well before the film went into production, and Frank Langella is pleasingly ripe as the ruthless Dawg. The cinematography is impressively expansive, and the sparkling and crisp 4K transfer really plays to the film’s visual strengths. John Debney’s score is suitably bombastic, but it becomes a bit overbearing in places to the point it almost becomes a parody in itself, and with a runtime of just over two hours, the film’s eagerness to please and impress becomes a little tiring.

The new 4K release doesn’t gloss over the film’s legendary reputation, and a slew of new documentary features (especially The Adventure of a Lifetime) is refreshingly candid about the film’s endless travails and, ultimately, the fact that it was doomed to fail before even a frame of footage had been shot. The truth is that Cutthroat Island was the wrong film at the wrong time, a film made for all the right reasons but without the full support of its struggling studio and with too much resting on its success. Now, it presents not only as an interesting curio but also as a fitfully enjoyable, if frustratingly uneven and deeply flawed, attempt to create an unpretentious, thrills-and-spill adventure in the classic tradition.

CUTTHROAT ISLAND is available now on 4K SteelBook, 4K, and Blu-ray.

THE ANTICHRIST (1974)

The 1973 possession horror The Exorcist became an international film phenomenon. As its reputation spread around the globe, William Friedkin’s and William Peter Blatty’s landmark terror became the unwitting catalyst for a wave of inferior knock-offs. By the time Italian film director and screenwriter Alberto De Martino turned his hand to The Antichrist, he had acquired a long list of such questionable cash-in credits. Studiocanal’s new Blu-ray release allows horror aficionados a chance to reappraise the status of De Martino’s work as both a cheeky pastiche of The Exorcist and as an exorcism horror in its own right.

The plot of The Antichrist is convoluted. It focuses on the life story of Ippolita Oderisi, the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, paralyzed at the age of 12 in a car accident that killed her mother. It transpires that one of her direct ancestors entered into a covenant with the Devil before being burnt at the stake. When hypnosis reconnects Ippolita to her previous life, she is repossessed. There are many more strands to the film’s operatic storyline, including jealousy, incest, telekinetic and dissociative violence, and lots of intense religious and satanic symbolism. It would be hard to criticise De Martino for holding back.

Studiocanal’s new 4|K restoration presents the original 112-minute cut, reinstating all of the nudity, sex scenes and (simulated) animal abuse that alarmed the censors back in the seventies. The special effects are predictably dated, and the score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai is unexceptional, but the family home where most of the action takes place has a suitably oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere. In the role of Ippolita, there’s no questioning Carla Gravina’s commitment, but her unrestrained performance only adds to the sense that everything in the film has been over-cranked and maxed out. A decent selection of special features round out a strong Blu-ray package, but De Martino’s insistence that ‘more is more’ results in a movie that’s both a pale imitation of the film that ‘inspired’ it and an overwrought standalone horror.

THE ANTICHRIST is available now on Blu-ray from Studiocanal.

THE PRICE WE PAY

The latest from director Ryûhei Kitamura (Versus, The Midnight Meat Train), this grisly picture tracks the fallout from a pawn shop robbery gone awry. When one of their number is shot, and the getaway driver scarpers, Cody (Stephen Dorff), Alex (Emile Hirsch, morphing into Garth Marenghi with age) and Shane (Tanner Zagarino) are stranded. Taking a young woman (Gigi Zumbado) hostage, the gang steal her car and flees to the countryside. There, they hole up in an isolated farm cabin while they wait for extraction.

This, being a Ryûhei Kitamura movie, is the tip of the iceberg. Those who have seen Midnight Meat Train and No One Lives will be waiting on tenterhooks for the inevitable genre shift. Unlike his previous work, the seams are more obvious here – thanks, in part, to glaring similarities to From Dusk Till Dawn – but it is fun trying to predict where exactly all of this is headed.

Until then, it’s all character work and three fine performances from Dorff, Hirsch and Zumbado. While Hirsch’s buggy psychopath routine is a bit Dusk-Till-Dawn-Tarantino, he’s a lot of fun (and a better performer than Tarantino could ever hope to be), and plays nicely against the gruffer, stoic Dorff.

As best-laid plans fall apart and Kitamura goes off the chain, the full picture becomes known. To say more would be to spoil what Kitamura and screenwriter Christopher Jolley have in store. Suffice to say that those tuning in for extreme gore and visceral violence will not be disappointed.

This is a film of two halves – neither one particularly new or original, but both of them directed by the singular talent which is Ryûhei Kitamura.

THE PRICE WE PAY is released digitally in the UK on October 16th, 2023,

END OF TERM

There’s a common expression that you should suffer for your art. That’s the crux of Mat Menony’s debut feature that mixes a whodunit scenario with pseudo-avant-garde theories.

Melissa (Chelsea Edge) is being interrogated by a pair of police detectives (David Bamber and an underused Julie Graham) about the murder of an art critic (Ronald Pickup) at a gallery show. As Melissa tells her side of the story, more murders come to light, and things become even freakier.

Its set-up might mirror The Usual Suspects, but that’s where any comparisons end (particularly when it comes to quality). The setting of Borley (the students stay at ‘The Old Rectory’, but the real-world legend isn’t touched upon, although there may be a spectral presence of a former artist) is a nice touch, but the fact that all the students are so annoying makes us wish they’d get bumped off sooner. There’s a very Saw-esque BDSM torture chair built by one budding ‘artist’ that wouldn’t pass health and safety in any gallery, but the creator is surprised when there’s a casualty when someone sits in it, particularly with its ‘see no evil’ theme! Sadly, End of Term doesn’t delve deep enough into many of the characters’ artist theories beyond being lightly sketched. It’s perhaps a little too pedestrian for the casual horror fan, too.

There are some famous faces amongst the youngsters (as well as the already named stars, there’s a bored-looking Peter Davison, clearly just picking up a paycheck), and this raises the profile of the picture and arguably is the reason it’s getting a general release when better indie films are struggling to be seen.

END OF TERM is out now on digital platforms.

MORTAL KOMBAT 1

PLATFORM: PC, PS5, SWITCH, XBOX SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Continuing the current trend of “not quite a prequel, not quite a reboot” franchise entries that are all the rage in Hollywood and the gaming industry right now, NetherRealm Studios and Warner Bros’ latest Mortal Kombat game has just hit store shelves. With some rather large shoes to fill, can Mortal Kombat 1 live up the lofty expectations put upon it by the previous three, extremely highly rated NetherRealm MK offerings, or is it just a pile of old plop? Only one way to find out!

MK1 is technically the second reboot in the series after 2011’s imaginatively-titled Mortal Kombat (often referred to as MK9), and takes us back to the early origins of many of the franchise’s most recognisable characters in reimagined form. We get 22 of these violent kombatants to choose from in the base roster, with another 6 planned to follow in the form of future DLC. Perhaps the biggest new addition to the game is the Kameo feature, which sees buddy characters being available for on-screen support, similar to what you would see in many of the early Marvel vs… fighting games. Some of these Kameos are redesigns of selectable characters (such as Scorpion and Sub Zero), while others like Kano and Sonya Blade are currently only available as buddy supports. What makes this system even more interesting is the amount of gameplay options it provides, such as team-up throws, double Brutalities and guest Fatalities. Wonderfully gruesome stuff!

The other big innovation, that seems like it may be MK1’s biggest selling point, is the introduction of Invasions mode, which is basically a cross between a fighting game, an RPG and a Mario Party-style board game. That description may sound preposterous and utterly bewildering, but it all sort of somehow makes sense and works well when you actually play the thing. Invasions is likely to be the part of the game that takes up most of your time, unlocking new finishing moves and hundreds of cosmetics for each of the game’s characters. It looks like Invasions will have some serious extra longevity as apparently multiple seasons are planned, which could easily add weeks or even months of fresh gameplay time, making MK1 something of a frugal purchase.

Although we did encounter some very occasional performance issues on Xbox Series X such as sound dropping out during fights and losses of connection, it certainly wasn’t anything egregious or game-breaking, and the visuals are simply stunning. Featuring unbelievably lifelike animations and vibrant backgrounds that are absolutely bursting with life, MK1 is easily one of the prettiest fighting games ever made. Presentation in general is outstanding across the board, which is quite frankly what we’ve come to expect from this series now. Although it could be argued that the core gameplay has altered very little since 2015’s Mortal Kombat X, it could also be argued that it’s best not to try to fix what is in no way broken. The last three Mortal Kombat games have been exceptional, and MK1 is very much in that same category. There’s enough innovation and progression here to keep anything from getting stale, but enough familiarity to keep fans blissfully happy. NetherRealm may be a bit inkonsistent with their use of the letter k, but they sure know how to make a great fighting game.

THE CONTINENTAL: FROM THE WORLD OF JOHN WICK

The world of the John Wick movies is one that works so well because of the way it builds backstory by refusing to explain things. John Wick moves in a world in which one can summon extraordinary assassins with special coins, communicate via archaic telephone systems and gain sanctuary under a set of simple rules. It shows, rather than tells, this arcane world, providing a framework for set pieces featuring incredible violence.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick is the surprising prequel. Ignoring the rather cumbersome title for a moment, this is a three-part TV show (available on Prime Video) set in New York during the 1970s, in which we learn the super secret origins of Winston Scott and Charon, the Manager and Concierge of The Continental New York, the chain of save havens for murderers that feature heavily in the John Wick movies.

The big surprise is that it’s rather fun. Colin Woodell plays the young Winston Scott (the character who will grow up to be played by Ian McShane in the movies), who is both earnest and menacing as a savvy con man and mastermind. Ben Robson is Frankie, Winston’s tougher and John Wick-like brother, and the pair work well, in a classic sort of way. One is brutal, the other cunning. It’s textbook stuff, but it works. Nhung Kate joins them as the character Yen, a skilled and dexterous assassin who brings that touch of heavily choreographed violence that makes the Wick movies so memorable.

The plot itself is okay; we know roughly how it ends, and there are plenty of moments where the weirdness of the franchise shines through – the show’s ending is especially fun. There’s a bit too much set-up in places and some entirely superfluous b-plots, but it’s still quite strong.

Three parts are pretty much the perfect length for this sort of thing, with part two sagging a little bit in the middle as the narrative gorges itself on gritty New York drama and backstory. Some of the scenes do feel a little like place-holders for future action scenes, and then, of course, there’s the entirely pointless Mel Gibson.

Gibson is the show’s principal villain, playing the incompetent and cruel owner of The Continental, a role we know Winston is destined to take over. The former Mad Max is very good at playing an arrogant, talentless, over-the-hill egomaniac; Gibson clearly must have studied very hard to make this work. He is very much the weakest part of the entire series, and the action grinds to a halt every time he comes near the plot. He chews every single bit of scenery, and at some points, it feels like he’s about to declare that Christmas is cancelled. This breaks the flow of the story, which is a pity because the rest of the casting is great.

For example, Ayomide Adegun, who plays the young Charon, brings a touch of class to every scene that he’s in, is delightful throughout and does much to salvage the presence of Gibson. Other characters feel remarkably under-used. Katie McGrath oozes terror as the Adjudicator, and for some reason, they’ve put her in a porcelain half-mask, which means we don’t see the actor’s incredibly expressive and striking face. Despite these weird choices, the look and feel of the show is solid, with a good mix of ”70s-style action movie grime and modern sinister oddness.

The Continental: From the World of John Wick is fun and loud, somehow avoiding turning the entire franchise into yet another katanas and trenchcoats snooze-fest by having a light touch with the backstory. Epic.

EXPEND4BLES

We should preface this review by saying that this writer has really enjoyed all the previous Expendables films and was excited at the prospect of more to come. Look, we can all agree, this stuff has never been in danger of having its scripts dissected in English Literature classes but seeing these impressive casts of action legends back in action, and together, has yielded many throwback joys and knuckle crunching fun. So, what could go wrong in seeing more legends back in action again…well, a lot as it happens.

This fourth outing sees the mercenary team, The Expendables, go on another mission, as they may be the world’s last line of defence in the face of nuclear threat, as a presence from Barney’s (Sylvester Stallone) past wreaks havoc, and one mission gone wrong changes the course of the team forever.

Expend4bles is not good as an action movie but as an addition to The Expendables series is so dispiriting. This new film has the overwhelming feeling of a straight to video/dvd/streaming sequel through the ages. The warning signs should have been evident with the initial confusingly lacklustre cast announcement, certain people’s exits and/or displeasure with the script, and then the iffy trailer, but even so a $100 million action franchise film should not be in such bad shape.

The effects resemble 20-year-old video game cutscenes, the visuals overall often reflect those low-res Facebook clips of a movie you’ve never heard of inexplicably shared on your feed, and the story is so misguided we cannot believe anyone did not call for a complete rethink early on.

Jaa and Uwais are wasted, while Lundgren, Statham and Couture are left to try and save the show (and give it a damn good shot), while Stallone is preposterously relegated to backdrop. The casting is also so weird and ill fitting at best, and bloody stupid at worst, with by far the worst roll call one of these movies has ever had, as the action itself is equally tame by the series’ dream match like standards and even more so compared to other recent action cinema. However, and perhaps worst of all, this just does not feel like an Expendables film.

There are some things here that remind you of one but everyone seemingly focused on added CG blood and swearing to please people who felt the last one was grisly enough, and that is not enough to justify a movie that is ultimately a bootleg Expendables flick, and yet one that apparently cost more than any other instalment. What the hell gives?

This is the barebones of the series, left to try and scramble a whole sequel together. Expend4bles betrays so much of the series’ comforts and pleasures, and the roster of action heavyweights (and their characters) that delivered them, that it was really a project not worth doing in the end. Especially if this was always destined to be the face palming chosen route.

“They’ll die when they’re dead” read the posters. Yes, it is indeed, a franchise killer folks, and that pains this writer to type.