Shadow

Shadow received its world premier screening at the 2009 Frightfest film festival and for me it became “the” movie of the whole festival. It stood out most of all because it was one of the movies that I was seriously debating not watching. From renowned Italian rock star Federico Zampaglione this gritty genre jumping horror is one that is seriously worth looking out for.

When soldier David (Jake Muxworthy) takes a well earned holiday, having just returned from a tour in Iraq; he follows a good friends advice and heads for an area known as The Shadow in Eastern Europe. A keen cyclist David has almost total freedom of the area. Stopping off at a small café he meets fellow traveller Angeline (Karina Testa) who is also visiting The Shadow on her bike.

After a fight with a couple of hunters, the two set off separately only to later be joined together when strong winds cause David to lose his tent. Now travelling together the couple get to truly enjoy there holiday, that is until they run into the hunters again. Just prior to them meeting up again Angeline tells David of a strange part of the valley where all the villagers were slaughtered in a fire, and now nobody dares enter that area. And sure enough, while being chased by the hunters the quartet crosses that boundary.

The prime reason why I love Shadow so much is because you never quite know where its going, part Deliverance, part Blair With Project, then moving sharply on to the likes of the Saw and Hostel movies; Shadow swings you round in so many different directions that you never quite get to catch up before the movies story seems to have morphed into something else.

Shadow has a real ambiance about it Zampaglione really knows how to frame and deliver a story to the audience. From its opening, a scene of real beauty to suck you in, to an airy feeling of vast space, before restricting you and making you feel almost claustrophobic the director takes you on a whirlwind adventure that few other directors would have the guts to take you on.

Shadow is not all perfect please don’t get me wrong, it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but leads you in such a way that perhaps maybe it does not really matter.

What Shadow does most of all is put Italy back on the map when it comes to horror film making. For years the Italian horror industry has been in decline, with Dario Argento seemingly being the only quality force, but even he has past his prime, his movies being very similar. Zampaglione delivers a fantastic new bloodline to the Italian horror legacy, and hopefully will continue to deliver such high quality scares.

The special effects in the movie are just great, there is an amazing scene in which one of the characters has their eyelid removed and you are then forced to look at them eyelid free for the immediate future.

The movies best asset of all however is actor Nuot Arquint, who on first appearances (as the camera pans his hands and legs) you could easily believe to be a woman. This actor is just plain scary to look at, when he’s angry its scary, when he’s smiling its all the more horrific. I predict a bright but scary future for this as yet unknown actor.

The other performers do well Muxworthy a regular US TV actor delivers a convincing lead, while Testa best known from the movie Frontiers gives an edgy, your never quite sure performance as the love interest. While you sympathise with Hunter Buck played by Chris Coppola, you wish his colleague Fred (Ottaviano Blitch) only the worst as he is possibly one of the most unlikeable characters in a movie for some time.

The humour of the movie, while thin on the ground is well timed and appropriate, a walk through a corridor of portraits featuring war criminals gives a proper belly laugh as you reach the final, somewhat surprising "dictator". Nuot's drug addiction delivered in a somewhat unexpected fashion.

It would be very easy to dismiss Shadow as another Saw-alike, if you love Saw you'll love this, if you love horror and hate Saw you'll still love this. It's difficult to put Shadow into the same genre of horror from anything you have seen before. This is a proper "scary" movie, not one states it's scary, but when you see it fails to live up to expectations, from the edgy "disappearances" to the burning of of an animal which despite not happening onscreen creates an depiction of horror in your mind that makes you believe you have seen it.

If you are a fan of Argento movies, and more specifically the musical scores of Goblin, you are in for a roller-coaster of musical excellence, a big ear busting sound, that works terrifically in a cinema. When you are first introduced to the character played by Nuot, the score is like a far advanced version of Goblin's Suspiria soundtrack, who ever thought a movie could take that crown.

Shadow is a beautiful looking movie, it has a very 70’s inspired soundtrack that gives it a heightened edge, but the chief thing is it does what its meant to do, its horrific, enchanting and keeps you firmly pinned to the edge of your seat until the very end. This truly is one to watch when it receives a release in the UK from April 29th.

On a personal side, I not only really loved the movie, but received a wonderful accolade from the producers who used my taglines from a review to promote the movie across the world. From The Shadow website, to posters, trailers and DVD cases. A kind of buzz i'm sure you'll agree, money can't buy.

The Ruins

Sliding along in the wake of Turistas AKA Paradise Lost, The Ruins teaches us the dangers of travelling in unknown locations, and most importantly treating ancient temples and customs with respect.

 

While on holiday in Mexico five friends enjoy some downtime by their hotel swimming pool where they encounter the kindly Mathias (Joe Anderson). He tells the five travellers about his intentions to travel to an ancient temple the following day to meet with his brother. After some debate the five Americans decide to follow Mathias on his adventure being as it is their final days of their holiday, and figure that this would be an ideal way to finish off their holiday.

 

No sooner have our travellers arrived at the ancient temple than they are surrounded by an angry looking mob. Trying to cool the situation down due to the misunderstandings of no knowledge of each other’s language Dimitri (Dimitri Baveas) the groups self appointed leader steps forward to make amends. His five travellers look on as he is cruelly murdered by the mob, causing them to head for the temple. Surrounded at the base of the ancient ruins by a fifty strong army the travellers, the group try to debate their escape, but what lies in and on the temple is far worse than the terror below.

 

The trailer for the Ruins gives a viewer little inspiration to begin watching this movie, looking rather bland and similar to a lot of other movies, however it fails to illustrate the complexities of the plot and what appeared to be familiar horror fare turned out to deliver well beyond believable expectation, and for a movie that comes from Hollywoods Dreamworks studio, it’s surprisingly dark.

 

The Ruins wastes no time getting straight to the heart of the action, having introduced the characters and their foibles, you are then rushed to the ancient ruins; where rather like fireworks you are given a quick succession of shocks. Considering the limited amount of space the cast have to manoeuvre around and the limited cast, there is an awful lot to The Ruins, more than you could ever expect in fact. Initially climbing the ruins filled with hope, the travellers are presented with a series of horrors that cause their hopes to slowly become diminished.

 

The big horror of the movie is the terrible vines that cover the ruins, and nothing is being ruined by this disclosure. Seemingly having a life of their own the vines can move, communicate, and most importantly devour our cast in a matter of seconds. You could call this horror a very tongue in cheek one, let’s face it vines that can communicate and kill? It sounds suspiciously like the plot for a nasty 60’s movie or TV series. But this is nothing to be laughed at, the vines are incredibly dangerous, and sinister; completely relentless in their actions and methods of seducing their prey these are the stuff of nightmares.

 

The special effects are great, and for a horror movie fan this will not fail to entertain with both reasonable scares and gross out horror this is the sort of thing a horror movie fan loves to see. The Ruins does echo back to the very dark horror movie output of the 1970’s where literally anything goes, there is lots of mutilation and limb removal that will have you turning away but desperately wanting to watch.

 

The cast perform well, Black Donnellys star Jonathan Tucker heads up the cast as medical student Jeff, while Jena Malone, and Shawn Ashmore add great support. The heart of the movie goes out to Laura Ramsey as Stacy a character who you are feeling for from the movies offset, she undergoes the greatest transformation of the movie, and some of her scenes will have you on the edge of your seat.

 

What works so well about The Ruins is the unchartered feel of the movie, yes we have seen similar offerings but this really is something genuinely different. Rather like Paradise Lost, Hostel, The Mist and Saw this movie opens up some new doors for horror and focuses as much on the psychological aspects of horror as it does the physical and graphic. It movies along at a rate of knots, one minute calm the next minute intense, while keeping the character development and emotion sharp. It’s movies like this that can give lethargic horror movie fans a little more hope for the future, this is hardly what you would consider normal or run of the mill.

The Ruins is in UK cinemas now.