SCHOOL SPIRITS

school spirits

PLATFORM: NOW TV | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

School Spirits is a light-hearted ‘spooky’ movie aimed firmly at young teenagers. The story sees the character of Zoey move into a sleepy town where she swiftly fails to make friends. A rather rubbish first day at the new school leads to Zoey uncovering the town’s terrible secret; it’s full of ghosts. Teaming up with a couple of other local misfits they find themselves attempting ‘bust’ the local spooks.

The trio of teen girls includes Tera (the quirky one who leans toward the occult) and Morgan (the bossy, practical one). Zoey’s almost magical technical skills completes the trio of ghost hunters and as character dynamics go, it’s quite compelling. The performances are okay, but the script is average and the special effects are so dated and low-budget that at times this feels like something from the 1990s.

School Spirits feels more like a pilot for a fun TV show about a quirky band of high-school misfits who bust ghosts in their spare time than an actual movie. A lot of time is spent establishing the characters’ backstories and not enough on the actual plot. Various characters and story elements are set up in the first act only to not really pay off later.

The tone is doesn’t quite work; as if no one could decide if this was a horror or a comedy. Alas it is neither; it isn’t very funny nor is it scary. So we get a school bully character who appears more sad and unstable than a genuine threat, a love interest who is hardly there and an extraneous ‘nosey neighbour’ comic-relief character that the movie mostly forgets about. Jokes fall flat, the spooky beats fail to land.

Like many low-budget movies, the storytelling is rather compressed and as a result the movie fails to engage its audience. The actors do very well with very little; giving it their all at every moment. School Spirits is a movie that could be so much better if it had decided what it wanted to be, which at very least gives it something in common with the teenage experience.

VAGRANT QUEEN

vagrant

PLATFORM: BLU-RAY + DVD + DIGITAL | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

In this age of easy special effects and complicated, angst-filled arcs, it’s nice to know that they’re still making pulp sci-fi. Vagrant Queen is a low-budget piece of disposable fun which also happens to be almost perfect. From the Chris Foss-inspired spaceships to the funny-faced aliens, the show feels like an artefact from last century, brought up to date just enough to keep it fresh and interesting.

Our titular Vagrant Queen is called Elida (Adriyan Rae), an exiled princess who has spent most of her time on streets as a scavenger, raiding ancient caches of technology for a quick profit. She’s assisted by Isaac, (Tim Rozon) a Human from Earth who is very, very lost, as this entire series is set in a galaxy that is not our own. Rounding out the crew of space adventurers is Amae Rali (Alex McGregor), a horned alien who happens to be a genius engineer. Part of the charm of this show is that none of this requires a lot of thought. It’s a tough-as-nails quirky crew who can’t help but get into trouble.

It’s also nice that each of the characters feels like they’re the stars of their own show, and this is where much of the conflict and humour comes from. Though it isn’t exactly slapstick, there’s a fair bit of understated physical humour throughout and some pretty strong one-liners. The main storyline involves Commander Lazaro (Paul du Toit), an agent of the Republic who has been hunting Eida down for a very long time. He’s a camp and crazy villain, because it’s that sort of TV series. Elida wants nothing to do with her past, but gets sucked into a plot to rescue her mother, whom she long thought dead. However, this is a show that loves to subvert expectations and it takes the tale to some pretty odd places.

Vagrant Queen pulls off the retro-kitsch vibe recently made popular by movies such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok (but with much less cash), treating the audience to gorgeous, comic-inspired cosmic settings. It has a lot of potential, and is closer to the idea of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess in space’ than Andromeda ever was. The actors are having fun, the SFX guys are doing fantastic and creative things with very little, and everything simply gels together. A joy to watch!

THE BEACH HOUSE

beach house

PLATFORM: SHUDDER + DVD | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Randall (Le Gros) and Emily (Liberato) take a trip to Randall’s parent’s beach house for some private time to work on their relationship. However, when they arrive, they find that the house is already occupied by Mitch (Weber) and Jane (Nagel), who are old friends of Randall’s parents.

Jane is clearly suffering from a disease that is going to kill her, and she and Mitch are enjoying the quiet time the breakaway provides. They are more than welcoming of the two youngsters and as the evening meal finishes up, they all partake in some legal marijuana. As they all trip, what appear to be luminous spores float around the house, along with a heavy mist that descends rapidly.

The next morning, Jane appears to be gravely ill, Randall is suffering from stomach pains and Mitch is acting strangely. When Mitch decides to have a swim in the ocean, he just walks into the water in front of Emily and disappears. After this, Emily and Randall make a grim discovery and, as they try to escape from the area, the mist descends once again.

The Beach House is a slow burner, setting up the characters before the spanner is thrown into the works, and the general plotline echoes other films like Cabin Fever – albeit without the excessive gore – or perhaps even The Bay, where biology changes from working with us to being our mortal enemy. The acting is decent and the somewhat suffocating location, especially with the ever invasive fog, looms eerily throughout, transposing the beauty of the shore with the paranoia that escape may not be possible. The way that each character is affected by the events that are unfolding and how this directs their actions are varied, but when put into perspective with their knowledge and experiences, they make sense.

Where The Beach House falls down slightly is that it can’t quite seem to decide if it wants to be arthouse with a nod to Cronenberg, or a horror film focused on the idea of nature fighting back after all we’ve done as human beings to destroy the planet. Nowhere is this better shown than the final shot, where we are told to not be afraid. To say more would spoil the film, and this is better watched knowing as little as possible, but it could have been a stronger production with perhaps a slightly bigger budget. That said, The Beach House should be commended for the effort it makes to stand separate from other horror films out there.

CHILD EATER

child eater

CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ERLINGUR THORODDSEN / CAST: CAIT BLISS, COLIN CRITCHLEY, JASON MARTIN, DAVE KLASKO, JAMES WILCOX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US)

An undead spectre roams the dark woods, hunting for unsuspecting children to devour. New budget indie-flick Child Eater sets out its grim premise in short order. In fact, the opening sequence is the movie’s strongest – as a solitary child wanders through an eerie forest, its discarded doll lying unblinking in the ice-cold water of a stream. The terrible injury that she reveals to a passing motorist suggests that the movie will either be a gruesome, twisted fairy-tale or a stomach-turning horror. But rather disappointingly, Child Eater turns out to be a muddled and quite ordinary chase-flick, albeit one punctuated with some fleeting genuine chills.

Small-town gal Helen (Bliss) reluctantly takes on a babysitting gig at the insistence of her father, the local police chief Sheriff Connolly (Wilcox). When her young charge Lucas (Critchley) disappears from his bed, Helen and boyfriend Tom (Klasko) race into the forest clutching flashlights in the hope of finding him. So begins a long night of running, stumbling and bloodletting as a series of alarming showdowns ensues. The monster of the story is revealed within minutes to be a local man who, many years earlier, had been afflicted with ‘macular degeneration’. Losing his sanity as blindness overtook him, he decided that consuming the eyeballs of children might prevent his total loss of sight. This antagonist eats children’s eyes (for medical reasons). They’re not a cannibal with a preference for young flesh.

But little is done to establish this nonsensical backstory, or to explain the nature of the beast now back on the prowl. Instead, the small ensemble is soon dropped in position ready to run about the woods for a game of catch-me. As characters race from place to place, the story’s geography comes unstuck. Everywhere that a character visits is given a sketchy ‘bad history’ by way of exposition, but no clear sense of the story’s connected locations emerges. The interior and exterior night shoots also rely on the most minimal lighting possible, so it’s quite difficult to follow who’s doing what (and to whom) in the near pitch black.

Along the way, there are a couple of good boo-shocks, and some spirited eye-socket gore. The malevolent Robert Bowery (Martin) also cuts quite an impressive figure in the shadows (imagine Christopher Lloyd’s Doc from Back to the Future had had a makeover in Hell). But there are so many unexplained loose ends left hanging that the narrative starts tripping over them long before the final reckoning kicks in. There’s plenty of filmmaking enthusiasm in evidence here. What’s missing is clarity, coherence and the determination to tell a compelling story that makes good on the terrifying potential of the film’s title.

THE OLD GUARD

the-old-guard-starburst-review-netflix

CERT: 15 / PLATFORMS: NETFLIX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Netflix’s The Old Guard, inspired by the Greg Rucka (who pens the screenplay here) and Leandro Fernández comic book, may be another adaptation to get lost in the many others. However, director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s film is a potential franchise starter that deserves to be met with the utmost enthusiasm and we’re sure it will be.

The story sees a team of secretive mercenaries uneasily take a job that threatens to reveal their huge secret to the world but is there a new hope to be found in a young woman, who also has their “gift”?

Much of the hype has kind of spoiled the film’s early reveal (that fans will be aware of, obviously) but for the sake of upkeeping that revelation, we won’t ruin the surprise for anyone not in the know. The Old Guard has been praised for its action sequences (and they are superbly choreographed and exciting) but what makes the film and its premise really bloom is how the story doesn’t hold back on the toll time can take and the lingering effect of its sometimes cruel choices. Boasting a Highlander-esque quality, the movie’s subject is not a new one but the stakes increasingly introduced are real, and when raised later in the movie, it only adds to the well developed drama accompanying the excellent action.

Charlize Theron – as always – is superb at the head of a really fantastic ensemble – including a brilliant KiKi Layne, Matthias Schoenaerts, Marwan Kenzari, Luca Marinelli and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in a film that has a compelling lore and diverse characters you genuinely care for and about. On this evidence, the anticipation-raising sequel suggestion left at the end is a very welcome prospect indeed. Out with the new, in with The Old Guard!

ALIEN OUTBREAK

Alien-Outbreak

Police Sergeant Zoe Norris (Drake), who has emigrated from Canada to be with her husband’s family, is happy with the sleepy rural beat she has got. That is until a spate of suicides – including several right in front of her eyes – lead her to think something is amiss. There is even more panic in the fells when the village comes under attack by metallic alien craft. Alongside the only member of her team she can find, Patrick (Crane), Norris attempts to figure out what’s happening and save the remaining community.  With large obelisk-style vehicles and seemingly indestructible, dog-like iron critters appearing everywhere, is there any way to escape or survive?

Alien Outbreak, despite the common title and humble budget, is an unexpectedly well-made film. The script is tight, and full of action and tension. It may falter with some unlikely decisions made by characters and some acting wobbles here and there, but these are minor niggles and certainly not enough to spoil the enjoyment.

Low-budget sci-fi films tend to fail because of one thing: the special effects. These cost money, so it’s surprising to see how great they are here. While much of the film is shot in murky, hard-to-see dim light, the aliens are there in broad daylight and look fantastic. No ropey Sharknado-style CGI here. Boasting alien designs and execution that could rival any Hollywood blockbuster, Rowe’s film rises above the pack. The fact the writer/director did the visuals himself makes it even more of an achievement. Rowe’s wife Amanda provides the solid, stirring score that underpins the action perfectly, evoking elements of John Carpenter’s best while not straying into copycat territory.

Independent films have a hard enough time as it is, whether it’s to be seen seriously or even to be made in the first place. Ignore the generic appearance and your preconceived notions and give it a try, you might well be blown away.

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WRINKLES THE CLOWN

wrinkles-the-clown-film-starburst-review

CERT: 15 / PLATFORMS: SKY STORE, AMAZON PRIME VIDEO, ITUNES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Victor Hugo once said, “nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come”. And in 2015 one 65-year-old clown “entertainer” made sadistic (or clever – depending on your view) use of a dark idea. To get paid by parents to come to parties, houses or gardens and scare naughty children. Meet Wrinkles the Clown! A media sensation? A parent’s last resort? Pure nightmare fuel? A future in child therapy waiting to happen? Michael Beach Nichols’ horror documentary looks behind those sinister dark eyes of the Michael Myers-esque mask to ask who – or rather – what is Wrinkles?

Wrinkles The Clown has drawn some criticism for not getting deeper behind the man or the story but this is a horror documentary (tinged with comedy), less about solid answers and more about the human condition and what you can draw from it. And what a fascinating, twisty and shocking watch it is, and very bold in its cryptically misdirecting execution.

A timely documentary about modern folklore, coulrophobia’s origin, viral influence and the dark side of child psychology, Wrinkles The Clown speaks to people who have made the call, kids with an (unhealthy?) fascination and some other talking heads, as it digs into some of its thought provoking themes of ethics, effect and influence. Integrating reality with the allure of dramatic ideas and their roots in human fears, Nichols’ film not only discusses Wrinkles but the societal ripples since, most striking of all the killer clown panic of 2016.

From the Rodney Ascher school of documentary filmmaking, this is a compelling discussion into some funny, dark and actually quite disturbing ideas of perception and how the mind can run wild on a particular idea and make it more horrifying…especially a child’s mind. Go in fresh and enjoy the ride!

HAMILTON

Hamilton

CERT: 12 | PLATFORM: DISNEY+ | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Since Lin-Manuel Miranda’s stage musical Hamilton premiered in 2015, everyone’s heard about it, but due to rare and expensive performances, not many of us have managed to see it. This holy grail seemed even more inaccessible when theatres closed in spring; thankfully, Disney Plus has now released a filmed version.

It follows Alexander Hamilton, one of the USA’s founding fathers: his origins as an orphaned immigrant, his fight alongside George Washington during the American Revolution, and his post-war political career. Plus, plenty of drama in Hamilton’s personal life, including his ill-fated rivalry with Aaron Burr and American politics’ very first sex scandal.

Hamilton teaches us this history through two-and-a-half hours of high-energy music; one number after another taking in hip hop, R&B, jazz and show tunes, with seriously impressive choreography and staging. Miranda’s lead performance is captivating, and there are great supporting turns, including Daveed Diggs as a flamboyant Jefferson and Jonathan Groff as a comically nasty King George.

Two issues could stop this production from being the masterpiece it was to theatre audiences in 2015. The first is that, in these more divisive times when historical narratives are being questioned, some have called out its positive portrayal of slave owners like Jefferson. This criticism has weight, though the show does reference the issue, and it doesn’t cancel out Hamilton’s progressive achievement of bringing many BAME actors to stardom and bringing hip hop and R&B to theatre audiences.

The second issue is that watching a recording of a stage show is never the same as being in the theatre. Nevertheless, director Thomas Kail and his team have done a remarkable job; this version is edited together from three full recordings, plus additional dolly shots filmed without an audience present, and, despite a few scenes that overly rely on wide angles, the camerawork captures the show’s high energy.

CODE 404

code 404

CERT: 15 | FORMAT: DVD (REVIEWED), AMAZON PRIME VIDEO | RELEASE DATE: JULY 6TH

DI John Major (Daniel Mays) is brutally gunned down during an undercover operation with his partner DI Roy Carver (Stephen Graham). Carver is commemorating his partner’s death months later when, much to his understandable surprise, Major suddenly reappears, larger than life and, apparently, brought back from the dead and augmented into some sort of  Artificial Intelligence supercop. Except there’s nothing very super about this cop; he’s clearly “a few quid short of six million dollars” as he’s been resuscitated and turned into a distinctly defective detective. Dim-witted, clumsy and worryingly witless, Major also has little memory of his life just before he was gunned down – which is just as well for his punchy partner whose affair with Major’s wife Kelly (Anna Maxwell Martin) was rumbled by Major just before they set off on their ill-fated operation. Can Major and Carver carry on their successful partnership when one of them is something more (or less) than he was before, will Major be considered a failed experiment and deactivated and, most importantly, will Major find out about his partner and his wife’s little indiscretion?

This is Code 404, Sky One’s latest ambitious six-part comedy series which clearly takes its lead from the Six Million Dollar Man, Randall and Hopkirk (which is even referenced in one episode) and, for those of a particularly decrepit disposition, the short-lived 1976 American sitcom Holmes and Yoyo. A bit like Major, however, Code 404 (computer nerds will recognise the status code which flags up an unfound online page) is every bit the mongrel its random inspirations might suggest. Several problems are immediately evident. Daniel (Not Going Out) Peak’s scripts are nothing like as funny as they need to be and certainly not as funny as they think they are. A handful of good visual gags are shored up by ‘will this do?’ swearing and too much feeble wordplay and there seems to be no reasons why Mays’ character should be called John Major beyond the promise of a wry smile when his partner’s name has no comic connotations whatsoever. It’s fairly typical of a show that seems at best half-written, hoping that the novelty of its situation will be enough to prop up the comedy. Cliches abound in each of the six episodes which largely revolve around the mystery of the mastermind behind Major’s murder and Carver’s desperation to keep his affair with Kelly secret. But the script just isn’t strong enough often enough and it falls to Mays and Graham whose on-screen chemistry speaks for itself, to give things a lift when they frequently sag. The show’s case isn’t helped by the fact that here we have two of the UK’s best heavyweight actors – Graham has recently worked with Scorsese, for God’s sake – floundering slightly in a sitcom setting they’re clearly both unused to but making the best of it anyway.

Despite its faults and its clumsiness though, Code 404 isn’t a total write-off and is actually quite fun. Mays manages to imbue his character with a certain geeky gormless charm and there’s some decent back-up in the always-excellent Anna Maxwell Martin alongside sitcom regulars like Rosie Cavalero and Tracy Ann Oberman. The show sets itself up for a second season but we’d hope for sturdier scripts that manage to do something a little more original with an already over-familiar idea and slightly subtler and more nuanced humour that gives its formidable cast a proper chance to demonstrate its versatility.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST: THE STORY OF FIRE SAGA

Eurovision-starburst-review

CERT: 15 / PLATFORM: NETFLIX / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Sometimes being a fan of something can be likened to being in a cult. It makes the utmost sense to you but to everyone else…less so. And Eurovision is the craziest cult of all. Now, you might be wondering why we here at Starburst are reviewing Netflix’s new Eurovision-centric movie but any flick that features unseen influence from fateful/heavy drinking/murderous folklore creatures, is welcome on these sacred pages…let alone a film as fun as this one.

In the town of Húsavík in Iceland, best buddies since childhood Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) and Lars (Will Ferrell) are Fire Saga, a duo who aspire to sing for their country at the Eurovision song contest, and come 2020, be it fate or luck, they unexpectedly get that opportunity. But will it be all they ever dreamed of?

In a year as cack as this one, director David Dobkin’s (co-written by Will Ferrell and Andrew Steele) Eurovision is just the sort of film we need right now. Not everything works and it runs a tad long at over 2 hours but it’s a film with a great big heart that holds a mirror up to the Eurovision spectacle and gives fans the contest they missed this year. Featuring contestant cameos and some zany set pieces, this Blades of Glory meets Father Ted’s “A Song for Europe” picture captures that wild, boisterous and campy spirit.

Ferrell and McAdams lead an up for it cast (Dan Stevens, Pierce Brosnan, Melissanthi Mahut) with gusto, in a film that values the power of individuality, culture, belief and the unifying power of music and passion. It’s funny, bonkers, campy, high energy and has an absolute ear worm of a soundtrack (“Volcano Man”) that’ll be on your mind for days.

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