Never Let Me Go (2010)

In the 1960’s scientists discovered that life could be prolonged, through advanced surgical procedures it was now possible that everyone stood a chance of living to be 100. While not true, this is the basis for upcoming release Never Let Me Go. If you have happened to stumble upon the movie trailer you may well be under what appears to be a common misconception, that the story covers a strange love triangle in a past time. What you get however is one of the darkest offerings from British mainstream cinema for a few years; deeply disturbing, depressing, and bleak the movie is however also one of the most moving and memorable films of the new millennium.

Beginning in 1975 we follow the adventures of boarding school kids Kathy, Ruth and Tommy. You realise very quickly that this is not the 1975 that those of us old enough to remember were living in. After the discovery of a way to prolong life, it seems the government has devised a way of shortening the lives of others. The school in question is simply growing human organs, that when they reach a certain age will be worked upon to provide a series of organs for one or possibly multiple recipients in the outside world. You quickly bond with the characters which makes it all the more heartbreaking, well at least two of them anyway. On top of the obviously dark future for our trio, you also have the complication of a love triangle; with one, the one who truly deserves love left on the outside.

Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, the movie is given to the capable hands of Alex Garland (The Beach) to develop the screenplay. The film does most certainly bear all of his traditional hallmarks, and it’s a comfortable home for Garland to create something we are all very familiar with, with something a little bit alien.

The cast is a clever little bunch of performers Carey Mulligan (Doctor Who, Bleak House), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network and the new Spiderman), Keira Knightley (The Jacket, Bend It Like Beckham), Charlotte Rampling (The Night Porter), but its newcomer Izzy Meikle-Small who absolutely steals the movie as the young version of Mulligan’s character Kathy, the two so much alike you would think that the film was literally made over a ten year period. While Mulligan and Garfield will pull at your heartstrings, Knightley sadly has you reaching for the vomit bag, continuously doing that thing she does with her teeth like its going out of style, this being said in some ways her character is the most tragic of the movie; if you’ll cry as the movie plays out its traumatic story, its with the character of Ruth that you’ll shed a tear. Knightley recently claimed that she only took the role because it would giver her the opportunity to work with one of her best friends (Mulligan), but I can imagine that as actress this is a difficult sacrifice to make simply to work with a friend, and while Knightley does of course add yet another string to her bow appearing in her darkest movie since The Jacket, she is certainly not the reason for the movies success.

Much criticism has been made about the movies speed, and I think the problem being is that it feels very “Merchant Ivory” yet has a story line that will actually appeal more to horror movie lovers, who sad to say would ideally prefer a little more haste. If however your one of those people that can settle back and watch just about any movie, then this will be right up your alley. The speed is just perfect for the story, if it were raised a level then the love you have for the characters would undoubtedly be lost.

You have to love the Chinese whispers that fill the movie, things that have happened to characters never seen seem to fill the movie. Like all Chinese whispers there may be an element of truth, but most of it has been lost down the passage of time.

The movie has some flaws, something you cannot escape from, most notably that it never, ever gets anywhere close to the obvious which screams out at you from the minute you understand the characters purpose. Secondly, that certain aspects of the movie are never quite explained, the key one I felt was “are the characters clones?” which it hints its way towards, but never really reveals. There is also the small matter of fate, the fate of a character earlier on in the movie, when remembering this character Tommy (Garfield) says “We all know what happened to her” glad you do, because the audience is completely in the dark.

You might think I’ve said to much, but really I’ve not scratched the surface, in order for this movie to get the full attention it deserves you need to know about the main plotline, its explained early enough in the movie. The danger of Never Let Me Go is that people will see it not really knowing what they are going to see, and with a cast that includes Mulligan and Knightley this really is a movie far distant to the majority expectation.

In cinematic history, this movie really is one of the darkest stories ever told, and this fills me with so much hope, because movies like this show us that Freddy, Jason and Michael are just kittens compared to the darkness of the human soul when out to secure the most precious of things… Life!

Terror Eyes AKA Night School (1981)

Back in the early 1980’s the UK was rocked by fear; fear that the birth of the home video recorder was going to corrupt us all. In came the DPP (Department of Public Prosecutions) to spare us all. In the process of doing so a list of 72 movies was gathered together are referred to even to this day as Video Nasties. Terror Eyes AKA Night School made the list but was later removed from the other prosecuted movies.

Terror Eyes (a play on words) surrounds a school where one of the tutors has a tendency to be a little over familiar with his female students. While he wrestles with his past affairs, a killer is making their way round the neighbourhood dispatching local women by separating their heads from their bodies.

An awful lot of movies on the Video Nasties list do raise questions about the mentality of those making viewing decisions on, but in fairness I believe they had it pretty much right here. While aspects of the movie do seem incredibly tame by today’s standards, there is a significant feeling of menace in this movie that could have the potential to give more than a few scares. There is also a reasonably high body count, and a fair amount of prolonged menace.

I fall on the unusual side of reviewers in respect of this movie in that compared to a lot of other movies of the era I feel (when you can see it, I’ll explain later) that this is a superior offering for an American based movie. I will however concur that I do agree with 90% of other reviewers that the performance of a then unknown Rachel Ward is just diabolical, hard to believe that just two years later she would star in a television show that would eclipse most actresses careers at that time, and turn out a performance that would move the world to tears, this was of course the role of Megan in The Thorn Birds.

The film is technically missing from release across the world, the only way you are likely to see it is to come by an old (and I mean old) video cassette, or to scour the lesser known movie channels across the globe. Sadly absolutely no effort has been given to make the available prints of the movie clear, as a result the movie is incredibly hard to watch. Much of the movie is shot at night, and the lack of definition of the edges in the movie means that the darkness tends to invade more of the picture than you might like. In particular one scene in which Ward’s character is being perused you cannot see who is chasing her, not once.

The movies killings (what you can see of them) are fairly brutal; the movies score well crafted to accompany the murders, giving that touch of menace well in advance and after the killings. There are some really good moments in the film, such as when the diner owner slowly comes to discover what has happened to his waitress, there are so many false starts to this scene that when he finally makes the discovery you feel almost like your ready to explode. While at the time it did infuriate me, thinking back on the scene it’s actually a really clever plot device to build the suspense.

Rather interestingly about the movie as well as having an unexpected leading actress, you also had a rather unexpected director. Ken Hughes may not be a director that automatically flicks on light bulbs in your mind, but his previous movies included Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and James Bond spoof Casino Royale, both movies a million miles away from a video nasty slasher movie. Probably not much of a surprise but after the wrap he received from making this movie, he never worked in the movie industry again.

As I said there are lots of flaws with the movie, but there are also lots of good points too. It’s a predictable movie, but also one notch above similar movies of the time. Despite what you might hear about Terror Eyes, trust me this is one movie you need to check out for yourself, and draw your own conclusions.

And Soon The Darkness (2010)

As dreary as 1970’s And Soon The Darkness’ may have been, one thing you cannot escape is the ability it has to haunt you. It’s a familiar tale of tourists on holiday becoming separated, one of which ends up falling foul of something unpleasant. As human beings missing person’s cases trouble us, so the movie did play heavily on the minds of anyone who saw it. Penned by the creator of the Professionals Brian Clemens, and the inventor of Doctor Who’s Daleks, Terry Nation. Despite its emotional draw, and its uncharacteristic edginess for a British movie of that time, the film felt incredibly hollow, lots of pacing about and lack of substance, so it seems that the movie was perfect for a remake.

Continuing their stream of remakes Anchor Bay Films recent movie takes the story from the French countryside (which back in 1970 seemed alien and a million miles away) to Argentina. The story follows Stephanie (Amber Heard) and Ellie (Odette Yustman) as American tourists preparing to end their cycling holiday in the country. Just one more night separates them from returning to normality, but a night on the town and a rather over enthusiastic Romeo causes them to oversleep and miss their connecting bus. After an argument between the two of them breaks out over sunbathing, Stephanie heads off leaving her friend in a remote location, but when Ellie fails to catch up Stephanie returns to where she last saw Ellie only to find she is gone. While the local police try to convince her that Ellie has just gone off with others for the day, Stephanie is adamant something has happened to Ellie, and the hundreds of missing person’s posters around the town do little to dispel her concerns.

This 2010 remake starts with a lot of promise, there is much more bonding between the two girls, the relationship far stronger than in the original. Add to this we have a much more adapted story, you’re allowed to like Ellie before she disappears, or not if you’re that way inclined. For at least half the movie this feels like a far better product, so much more finished than the original but sadly that is where the improvements end.

No sooner has Ellie disappeared and you can feel the weaknesses’ in the movie. One minute you have this cast iron strong storyline, the next you get all these loose ends that are never ever summed up. Elation turns to disappointment as the movie just continues down a darker path than the previous movie. Whole new plotlines are created but never explained, and as the movie draws to a close you have considerably more questions than answers.

Amber Heard does a reasonable job of keeping most of her clothes on for once, and as leading actress (and Executive Producer) she does a good job of making a like-able heroin, she literally fills the boots of the part she is portraying, and that in any movie is not always an easy task. Yustman also performs well, realistic in her behaviour, endearing as the movies principal victim. The final addition of the principal cast is Karl Urban who acts well, with a hollow character that is up until his final appearance in the movie, when acting school skills seem to have failed him. Indeed of all the cast there are no missing links, these are all good performers, and as a result the movies weaknesses’ certainly cannot land at the door of any of the performers. The direction is also very capable indeed.

No the fault is in the scripting, and that point alone; having not been privy to the original treatment for the 1970 movie, and to be fair not that enamoured by either film to hunt it out, I cannot tell you if either version of the movie is more to the authors vision. What I can say is that a reasonable attempt at correcting failure is dashed here, so many cliché additions, so many open scenarios just waiting for a story to fill them.

After the end of a lengthy action sequence you feel relived, relived that the story is over and that you can at last move on to something far more promising.

While a better version of the movie as a whole, the story still lacks much and on this basis I’d actually rate it lower than the original, because at least the original feature was consistent.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010)

Back in 1987 when I was a little “wet behind the ears” I wanted to be Bud Fox, he was the hero of Wall Street, a few years later and of course I realised that the real money laid at the door of Wall Street’s villain Gordon Gekko, for over 20 years Wall Street has held a unique place in the movie industry, but late in 2009 came the news we all either wanted or dreaded, Wall Street was getting a sequel.

Image via Wikipedia

Jake Moore (Shia LaBeouf) is a young upcoming Wall Street trader, a loyal and conscientious worker who dreams of bigger and better things. The protégé of bank founder Louis Zaber (Frank Langella) Moore has a very bright future. From nowhere the shares of Zaber & Zaber fall through the flew, and Louis struggles to save the bank from the clutches of Bretton James (Josh Brolin), when a last ditch attempt fails Louis commits suicide, leaving the future of thousands of staff in jeopardy, and his protégé scarred from the events that ran up to his death. Moore realises where the fault lies, and desperately wants revenge, the only way he can think of achieving the task is under the mentorship of one time king of Wall Street Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), this relationship must however remain secret, for Moore and Gordon are connected in more than one way, Moore is dating Gekko’s daughter Winnie (Carey Mulligan), and she wants nothing to do with her estranged father.

Before I begin I need to point out that despite some reviews Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is not a bad film, as a sequel to what in my opinion is one of the best movies of the 80’s however this is cut from a much different cloth. It’s a confusing affair watching Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, because despite the return of its star Douglas, cameo performances from Charlie Sheen reprising his role of Bud Fox, and a demented estate agent played by Sylvia Miles; and of course its director Oliver Stone, this movie feels like an imitator and a poor one at that. As the story begins to slowly unravel you cannot help but ask if this is a parody of a great classic, and this is a problem that haunts the entire movie. To engage in this movie you really need to almost erase all memories of 1987’s Wall Street, if you can manage that your fighting a battle you can win, and then, and only then will you be able to embrace the story for what it is.

I’d find it difficult to believe that anyone without prior experience of the stock exchange or high intelligence, would honestly be able to say they got all the aspects of the original Wall Street, no such chance here however the story level and the detail has been dumbed down to a level that anyone can take onboard. Sadly this also takes away some of the charm, it was god to revisit Wall Street and discover that you had figured out new aspects of the story, herein lies a problem, this is a one off movie, not something that will serve you well by repeat viewings, this is a one outing adventure.

For those that have found director Oliver Stone a little hard to tolerate over recent years, you really will find it difficult to feel his trademark on the movie. The grittiness is gone, as is the bitter agenda he seems to have been carrying out over his work, this is a much more clean and polished piece.

Douglas does feel a little out of place in the movie, he should be feeling at home, but this is a much different Gordon Gekko to the one we left behind 23 years ago; he bumbles about unrecognisable as Gekko, weaker less concerned for his image. But this is more than just character change, this feels an awful lot like either Douglas never wanted to return to the role, or budget demanded his return. One time Hollywood heavyweight, in recent years Douglas has been on a sliding slope, and you do tend to feel his performance here (up until the final quarter) is nothing more than an overblown cameo role.

Good screenwriting keeps the story compelling, as does the links with the past (I appreciate a slight contradiction from earlier comments), you wait patiently for the curve-balls to come, you also enjoy the slow unfolding storyline, the character development, the small victories, and the major defeats.

LeBeouf of course shines, he is proving to be a consistently like-able actor , and is joined by Doctor Who actress Carey Mulligan as the female lead, Mulligan is becoming a favourite in the key Hollywood players especially in light of her performance in the acclaimed “An Education”. While Brolin delivers a very capable performance as the arch villain of the piece, almost stealing the role that Douglas played in the original. The reuniting of Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas is an unpleasant addition to the movie, lots of nauseous “Blue Horseshoe loves Annacott Steel” and “Blue Star” references that come out of the actor’s mouth like a thick tarry vomit.

Music wise Stone obviously figured that the Talking Heads tracks worked well in the original movie, and leans heavily on the bands lead singer to deliver the vocal feel to the movie, 23 years on however and it does not work so well, despite the inclusion of the legendary return track from the original.

It’s a sad fact of life that you’ll find it impossible to erase the past, and if you loved the original, you’re not going to be happy here. This is something far different to the original, and you cannot shake that off no matter how hard you try.

City of The Living Dead Aka The Gates of Hell (1980)

In rural Dunwich Father Thomas has made a decision, walking slowly through his graveyard he stops to ponder his thoughts. Then without further thought he throws a rope over the branch of a tree and hangs himself. No sooner has he hung himself than the ground begins to move near his feet.

In New York a séance is going terribly wrong, and for one of the guests it’s a very final gathering. At the crucial point of the séance Mary dies. Reporter Peter Ball is soon on the case and following up on his enquiries he heads to the burial site of Mary, where he rather surprisingly finds her very much alive and lying in a shallow grave.

The death of Father Thomas has opened the gates of Hell, now its down to Mary and Peter to close them.

I first saw City Of The Living Dead at the start of the 1990’s, a decade after it had been banned in the UK. The film, a movie made by Lucio Fulci was one of five of the director’s movies to be banned in the UK in that time period. In the 1990’s after a period of unavailability in the UK suddenly this and three other Fulci movies became available albeit in an edited format. Of all the movies this was the least edited, and at the time to be fair I believed it to be the weakest of the four available movies. The first of Fulci’s movies I had seen was The House By The Cemetery, the next was Zombie Flesh Eaters (Zombi 2), the third The Beyond; these movies all had something about them, a scene that was so shocking it forced you to pay attention. By the time I had got round to watching City Of The Living Dead all those shocks had sunk in, and there was nothing new here except that is for a rather unpleasant vomiting scene. Having glanced on a number of sites on the Internet I have noted that a lot of viewers often saw this movie later on, the more talked about features being more a priority. Why am I telling you this? The reason I feel is an important one, this while still being a powerful movie is one of the films of the pivotal point of Fulci’s career that seems to get the worst press or reviews, I cannot help but think order of play is an important factor. Watching the film for about the sixth time, and with a fresh vision (and a slightly vague memory), I can’t help but think in reflection that this is one of the better movies of that time period.

I do need to backtrack slightly and say that while I believe this to be one of the better movies of that period, I do not understand some aspects of the movie. The acting has certainly moved down a notch, some of the actions seem a little unexplained, and the movies ending that can be interpreted a number of ways I guess, has had people questioning it for years, and despite the claims of some, I do not believe we will ever truly know the answer.

Moving on to the good stuff, one of the key reasons I like City Of The Living Dead is due to the zombies themselves, you get a zombie film and it’s a typical bloodbath some zombies move fast others slow, but generally there are lots of them. Here you have a collection of lone zombies all attacking victims on a solo basis, you only see a congregation of zombies in the final minutes. The zombies here have no reason to be either fast or slow moving, as it seems they literally teleport from destination to destination, you may think that’s silly, but how much more silly is it than the prospect of brain eating zombies in the first place? Fulci’s zombies have generally been on some sort of journey, we have had decayed zombies, the recently dead zombies, here the zombies are a lot of the time looking a little burned, with the odd one that is not too different to how they looked before death, but this condition varies from zombie to zombie.

The story itself is a little shaky granted, however it manages to link together a variety of locations and thanks to a great music score, the suspense builds from the moment the earth starts moving beneath Father Thomas’s feet. The characters are narrowed down fairly quickly and you realise you have your final four, who are dispatched in an unexpected order which keeps that aspect of the story nice and fresh. The inclusion of Bob (Giovanni Lombardo Radice) is pretty much there just to add to the body count, and certainly gets the drill rather nicely.

On a gore factor, well this is pretty good; lots of decomposing bodies scattered around, a new Fulci favourite occurs in brain scrunching, as nearly all of the characters that die and up with a zombie grabbing a characters head from the rear and squeezing so tight that a clump of skull and brain come away in their hand, this is a quite heavily used means of death in the movie.

The performances are variable Catriona MacColl performs well as ever, a good solid leading lady, the late Christopher George seems a little out of his depth at times. Carlo De Mejo almost steps into the leading male role as George struggles to keep the light on his performance. Janet Agren and future director Michele Soavi both have reasonable supporting roles.

City Of The Living Dead has some issues, it also has some really big plus points too, it’s a weaker entry in the Fulci series only if you watch them out of date order, if you’re a first time viewer however watch Fulci’s Zombie series in the correct order (Zombie Flesh Eaters, City Of The Living Dead, The Beyond, The House By The Cemetery) and you’ll find this is part of the journey that leads to the pinnacle of Fulci’s career The Beyond.

There are dozens of releases around the world of the movie on DVD and Blu-Ray, the recent release from Arrow as part of their cult movie collection is one of the best. As well as a crisp and clean print the disc is absolutely loaded to the hilt with special features. Catriona MacColl, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Carlo De Majo, Antonella Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti all feature in exclusive interviews, there are a couple of commentary tracks one of which features MacColl (always great value), as well as trailers. The case has some great artwork, and there is a highly informative booklet too.

The Guardian (1990)

As the 80’s made way for the 90’s the new decade spawned movies about abuse of trust, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, and Deceived being prime examples. From absolutely nowhere came The Guardian a movie directed by William Freidkin the man that bought us The Exorcist. Teaming up with Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch, Gothic) as writer, Friedkin again gives us a no nonsense smack in the face horror movie, with a savage edge.

Moving into their dream home Kate and Phil soon have a new visitor on the way, a guest that will be staying for more than a few days. The pregnancy goes by quickly and without issue, the birth speedy; but finances mean that Kate will soon have to return to work in order to keep their dream home. Selecting a nanny for their child is easy, despite all the nanny’s they see Arlene is head and shoulders above all others, but her sudden death means they turn to second option Camilla (Jenny Seagrove). Camilla tends to baby Jake’s needs well, but despite her polished outlook, she hides something secret, something deadly.

Anyone expecting something along the lines of The Exorcist is surely to be disappointed with The Guardian; The Exorcist is a dark and dirty horror movie, its delivery is rough and sometimes incoherent, its very real, lots of normal conversation and acting that seems like you’ve just walked in on a friends conversation. The Guardian is a much more polished piece of work, far more Hollywood than cutting edge; it’s almost TV quality style acting, with a level of cleanliness and an unlived feel about it. In fact you’d need telling to take a double take, and maybe to be old twice in order to believe that this is the work of the same director, both movies being light years apart. This being said The Guardian is pretty good on a completely different level.

For actress Jenny Seagrove this must have been a dream job, the actress repeatedly pigeonholed into the same sort of acting roles, the servant, the downtrodden, and the woman of substance. Now she had the real power an opportunity to shine, and to deliver a pleasant but terrifying role. Sadly despite her great performance here, the movie was little seen and her chance at fame in America dashed.

The character of Camilla (Seagrove) is far more than just a normal woman with a nasty side; she is a creature of some sort, connected closely to a tree. Her aim is to collect babies before they reach the four-month stage, and effectively sacrifice them to a tree. Anything that tries to stop this is met with ultimate resistance.

When you sit someone down in an almost TV movie style environment and chuck in the kitchen sink when it is completely unexpected you have to take a deep breath. The first thirty minutes of watching The Guardian and you think you’re seeing a movie that will play out in a certain way. Around the forty minute mark suddenly you are thrown this enormous curve-ball, I was completely taken aback by a scene involving Camilla and three thugs, who are disposed of in a fairly graphic manner, the deaths themselves are not unexpected, it’s the sheer brutality that it.

I never read Stephen Volk’s original treatment of the story, but I have to say it does seem that the film is a little hollow in a number of places, it’s not a well thrown together story, it works, but its far from rocket science, it simply just is what it is, a bit of mindless horror to pass the time, enjoyable in a lot of ways; but you’ll not be worrying about it after it ends.

Friedkin has made a number of films that have a cutting edge style about them, this does not by any means equal previous work, nor does it redesign the wheel, but it is an unexpected pleasure to watch, and a movie you’ll remember.

Last Breath

The Internet is a wonderful place, and one of the more wonderful aspects is Facebook. Early one Sunday morning I received a friend request from someone called Ty Jones. I’d not heard of Ty before but looked and realized we had mutual acquaintances. Soon after accepting I became familiar very quickly with a movie called Last Breath. You see Ty is a man who’s out there making films and using the power of the Internet and more notably social networking to spread the word. This is a guy who’s not just sat there waiting for the world to discover his movie, he is out there making sure he tells the world about it. Last Breath is Ty’s labour of love; he’s written the movie, directed it and starred in it, now here he is out there promoting it.

Michael and Tina have been together a while, they have a child and are making their way through life. For Michael there is a whole new future in his business, new premises will mean great opportunities for expansion. For Tina however it’s a different matter, she sees fault in everything and is constantly battling with her doubts, but then maybe she has good reason. This couple are at a crossroads in their life, its time to move forward together or go it alone, well alone for one of them anyway. A visit for the couple to Michael’s new premises throws them the ultimate curve-ball, for deep within the heart of the building lies a cruel sadistic man with a point to make, have the couple walked into their worst nightmare?

If you see the trailer for Last Breath you would be very much persuaded that you are about to see the next “torture porn” and maybe this is what the producers intention was; but there is more to Last Breath than a bit of cheap horror. This is a very strange synergy of two genre types, the afternoon movie aimed squarely at the female audience, and the horror aspect aimed at the male viewer; you think as a fan of horror movies you have seen just about every genre combination but Last Breath is something very different.

While Last Breath is without a doubt very different, I won’t necessarily say it’s new. To be honest I saw the movies message a mile off, but then I watch too many movies for my own good. As soon as the movie enters the torture element, I saw its message loud and clear, but that does not make it a bad thing. The delivery of the movie is clear, there is a strong message of morality, and every single plot element and device is met, no stone left unturned.

For the person seeking morality there are messages here as pure as the less disturbing chapters of the Bible. For the horror film enthusiast there is a torture device on offer that’s pure Saw territory.

It won’t come as a surprise that Last Breath is an independent movie, a film dreamt about with passion but delivered on a tight budget. What is great is that despite the movies low budget it looks bloody good quality for the money. So many of these independent movies look hazy, almost like they have been filmed in a steamy bathroom; this is clear and crisp like any big budget offering.

Both Ty Jones and Aaron Laue deliver very convincing performances, but a quick scan of the credits makes it obvious that these are more than just actors in the movie. And this is where my issue lies, while both the male performers put their heart and soul into this, the female characters seem much less committed. I’m not sure of the relationships of the people involved in the movie, but I felt no commitment from the main female characters. Mandy Bannon reminds me so much of a young Mink Stole, and it strikes me that maybe she still has not grasped the difference between screen and theatre acting, but a newcomer to the screen she’ll have time to rectify that and I look forward to her future roles.

While the movie has good and bad aspects the key thing is here is a group of people making it happen, a low budget movie is seeing film festivals across the United States and getting very good reports. And now the producers are looking at getting the movie seen across the world.

When and however you get to see the movie, and this might not be an easy task for some reading this, I really hope you take the time to see this, for while being a clear moral story, its also a lesson in self belief. Last Breath proves that dreams can come true and if you have a cinematic dream this movie will show you it really can come true.

Suspiria - Blu-ray

There was a time when the ultimate baptism of fire for any future partner would revolve around how they reacted when I showed them Suspiria. If they could stomach Suspiria without the exclamation “you’re really f**ked up!” that the relationship had any chance of surviving. For the uneducated Suspiria is a harsh vivid depiction for horror, for the more educated it was probably one of the tamer movies I had in my collection.

Dario Argento’s 1977 horror movie has always been one of the greatest assaults on the senses of any horror movie. With its lavish sets, vivid ear trembling Goblin soundtrack, and gross out prolonged gore; Suspiria is a sceptical on any level. To look at it is a thing of beauty, even if the story itself suffers some flaws. The 21^st Century has bought something new to visual entertainment, something that Argento’s spectacular movie was made for, the wonder that is high definition viewing.

The movie itself surrounds a young American woman who travels to an acclaimed school of dance in Europe. Susie Banyon (Jessica Harper) is immediately offended by the German manners she encounters, the taxi driver is rude and insensitive and her expected warm greeting at the school is just a locked door. But Susie witnesses something, a strange series of events, these events lead to the death of one of her potential classmates in a highly unusual manner. Susie’s stay is drenched in further unsociable behaviour, and more equally disturbing deaths. In a strange country, and the talk of witchcraft banded about like it’s perfectly acceptable, Susie’s stay slowly gets worse.

In 1977 and for considerable years after, few movies had quite the same effect as Suspiria. The movie clearly put Italian cinema on the map in respect of horror, and gave the very stagnant horror styling’s of American and British horror a much needed wake up call. This was a movie that ticked all the right boxes and gave horror movies across the world something they craved, a really good scare. Its amazing to think but it took over two decades for American cinema to catch up, now the sort of terror you receive in Suspiria is commonplace in cinema, but well ahead of its time.

Suspiria is quite unpleasant in its character depictions, everyone in the movie including the character of Susie is fairly unlikeable, all very blunt and to the point, with appalling attitudes and beliefs. The main negative result of this is that when characters die you are not particularly bothered. Its not all bad it’s the unpleasantness that also gives the movie part of its charm.

For me personally the most impressive aspects of the movie are its style and soundtrack. Argento goes out of his way to deliver some of the most impressive looking architecture you could ever wish to see on film, the colours are so vivid, the structures so over the top and overstated. The décor for the movie is incredibly “loud”, from the bright red exteriors, to the lavish blue velour interiors; you really would be incredibly hard to find something that looks anything like this.

Onto the movies score, performed and composed by Italian Prog. Rock band Goblin. The wonder of their score is that you do not need to see the movie, only hear the music to get a glimpse of exactly how terrifying the movie is. Suspiria is a movie that’s main mechanism is its score, from heavy pounding electric guitars to haunting vocal whispers. Never has a movie been so well served by its soundtrack, take the soundtrack away and you have less than half a movie.

From a special effects perspective Argento delivers something quite spectacular, victims are slowly bleed on razor sharp wire, throats are ripped out, and hearts stabbed in ripped open chest cavities. While the blood effects are over the top, they are representative of the movies other vivid colours. Like the depiction of horror Argento was decades ahead of more popular horror cinema, to the extent that it has taken all this time for English speaking movies to catch up.

I wont lie, the acting needs a little to be desired, and its not even the fault of dubbing. It could however be on the part of Argento’s direction however, trying to take the viewer on a more ghostly experience by making the performances a little less animated than they should. You don’t quite get the impression that a couple of the characters are fighting for their lives, and this is in some ways an inexcusable flaw.

Praise put aside Suspiria does have a bit of a problem, and that is after an initial viewing it never quite lives up to the excitement of the first viewing (unlike a lot of other Argento movies), personally I have found Suspiria quite difficult to watch the whole way through for a few years now. It still impresses with its gore, overwhelms you with its soundtrack but needed something new to take it forward. That “new” is the wonder of Blu-ray, the experience is like a fresh one, the definition of colour has never looked so amazing, the clarity of vision a shining example of why high definition came about, I would go as far as to say that Suspiria on high definition makes a viewing experience that will take a long time for anything to catch up with it or equalled. Imagine taking something that already looked a step ahead of other high definition movies, then ramped the visual feast up a level. Few movies matched up to Suspira on DVD, now I find it hard to believe anything will match up to the movie in its Blu-ray format. Photographs cannot capture what has happened here, neither can text, but believe me when I say you’ll never see anything like this, and even if you are not a fan of the horror genre, you’ll find some redeeming features here.

Special Features:

Fear At 400 Degrees: The Cine-Excess Of Suspiria:- This talking head feature has some quality talking heads, but is head butted full force by the banal ramblings of Xavier Mendik a cult movie specialist. Mendik is the variety of soul who will chuck as many big words as he possibly can into a sentence, whether it’s a because of a severe dictionary beating, or whether its to sound impressive it just spoils what would otherwise be a quality release. Talking like he lives in the world of the tongue twister, (Peter Piper springs to mind) Mendik baffles then mispronounces as many works as he can, leaving a thick dirty taste in my mouth. The documentary is further hindered by the bizarre ratio it’s presented with. After a beautiful crisp clear widescreen movie, you then get this bizarre, poor quality print documentary that sits centre screen surrounded by borders. The legend that is Kim Newman, Patricia McCormack, Norman J. Warren, Claudio Simonetti and last but no means least Dario Argento adds the quality element to this otherwise odd documentary.

A very real audio commentary finds Kim Newman and Alan Jones discussing the movie in a very unscripted manner, some commentaries are put together almost scripted. Here you believe your listening to two great friends discussing a movie that in a number of ways has changed their lives.

Finally Suspiria Perspectives is a series of conversations with the characters outlined in the main documentary, its kind of like watching the edited bits not quite suitable for the documentary, but on the whole is just more elaborate discussion of the wonders of Suspiria.

Suspiria is available only in the UK at present on the Blu-ray format.

Harry Brown

If you followed the career path of Michael Caine you might well wonder what happened, from being crowned the King of Cool in movies such as Get Carter, Alfie, and The Italian Job; Caine almost dropped out of the popular movie genre. During the 80’s and 90’s with the odd exception (Educating Rita, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The forth Protocol) his movies were generally bottom end stuff, most of his output in this time is available on super low budget DVD. For Caine however age made him turn a corner, and as the star tentatively spoke about a cameo in popular soap Eastenders, his movie career took of in ways he possibly never realised. With two Batman movies, Children Of Men, and the highly acclaimed Is Anybody There? Behind him Caine now returns in his intriguing movie yet, Harry Brown.

Harry Brown follows a history of popular vigilante movies like Death Wish, Exterminator, Falling Down, and more recently, and perhaps more similarly Grand Torino. Harry Brown follows a pensioner as he makes the daily slog off his East London council estate past the gangs of violent youths to see his wife (terminally ill in hospital), and best friend Len. In a blink of an eye Harry’s life is torn apart, firstly his wife dies, then in a suspicious incident Len is killed by the gangs that essentially run the estate. An ex marine, Harry’s killer instinct is revived in a late night attack by the banks of a canal, having easily despatched one of these thugs, Harry is determined to take the rest down, regardless of cost.

To use the term gritty would be too tame a word to describe this movie from first feature film helmer Daniel Barber. From the movies incredibly shocking opening to its brutal finale, Barber has carefully depicted the ultimate hell on earth in the form of a London council estate, forget all those dark desolate New York based movies of the 1970’s, Barbers London is a far darker place, more deadly than Afghanistan. What Barber does is shows how these essential ghettos work, some people seeing the trouble some of the time, while others see it all the time. Barber shows Harry Browns eyes widening as he sees the horror of what’s going on in the place he calls home. While Brown always knew it was there, he has always avoided the spots that the bad things happen, giving him a more sheltered view.

I suspect Barber has studied CCTV footage of gang related violence, because in the movies first portion he shows how one incident can quickly go out of control, in an instant you see a man protecting his property, to having his head smashed open more or less on his very front door; this is powerful stuff.

When faced with real menace, you go out of yourself you become a far stronger person, this is the stance of Harry Brown; whom with everything gone suddenly finds that the anger of loss is to much to bear, with one man already dead thanks to his quick reflexes you see Brown move from dwindling seventy year old to a man of unknown age fighting for what is right. Compassion gone Brown moves to man of action, and Caine portrays this fantastically. Its great to see the transformation from man who takes five minutes to make a cuppa, to the man that terminates wrong doers in a heartbeat. There is no reasoning with Brown, no time for regrets, Brown moves sleekly and does what he believes is right in order to create the best outcome for everyone.

Criticism has been given to the movie for being a little too trigger happy, and that’s probably right towards the back end of the feature. At the same time however, you do have to ask what you might do if placed in these circumstances. And if there is any criticism to make really its only towards the end when things develop into total riot, and Brown finds himself in the right place at the right time.

At the time I never considered the issue of race, but thinking on it seems that the casting team are not going to take the easy option of race behind this estates anarchy. These are proper white British gangs, ran indirectly by proper east end gangsters and associates, any minority race involved are there literally by minority. Its very easy in movies to lean heavily on the race aspect, but there are no cheap punches here.

I touched on the final portion of the movie, and it does get a little predictable, and essentially ultra violent, as one woman police crusader Inspector Frampton (Emily Mortimer) closes in on Brown who she has always suspected to be a little too involved in the spurge of criminal deaths. As the estate falls into anarchy, Frampton adds fuel to a fire by Scooby Doo style revealing a secret to Brown about relationships on the estate. While a little bit out of synch with the rest of the film, in fairness its difficult to decide where things would lead from the road the film has taken.

If I have one issue with the film it’s the blasé way that the deaths of the gang members (at the hands of Brown) are almost unmentioned by the police, almost thrown in as an afterthought. But beyond that, I have no issue with Harry Brown, and while it makes itself undoubtedly the best British movie of 2009, it also makes itself the best vigilante movie of all time.

Harry Brown opens in UK cinemas on November 11^th.

The Dying Breed

Once every while a movie comes along that leaves such a punch in its final moments that its final message outweighs any other aspect of the film.

New Aussie horror The Dying Breed opens in a rather lengthy way, delivering an insight into four characters without really giving you a shred of information. Geared firmly at the character of Nina who has lots of meaningful moments, flashbacks and visions of events that occurred to her sister in a rural location sometime earlier. The movies characters all have headed to a strange backwater in search of the site of the mysterious Tasmanian Tiger, something that is as great a myth as Bigfoot. While Nina acts all weird and deep, the others all seem to share a mutual dislike for each other forming two parties. But as they feud, they all miss completely the tensions that surround them.

My opening paragraph may seem a little confused, but to be honest with you it all is pretty much, there are little explanations given as to why people are how they are, or why they behave the way they do; its all done in that way where the movies creators have tried to be on a higher intellectual plain than us mere mortals. The truth of the matter is, despite their best efforts its not very deep at all.

Now saying this, The Dying Breed is not a bad film, because what it does do is gather a couple of menacing factors and sticks them together. First up you have the issue of the Tasmanian Tiger, a creature that lives in isolation and is only rumored to exist, rumour suggests that the only reason its never been seen is because those that see it are eaten, and logic would tell you that such an illusive animal would be a little on the protective side to protect its lifestyle. The second and far more troubling is that back in the days of Australia being a prison one of the convicts known as Alexander The Pieman escaped and somehow managed to survive for a rather long time, well long enough to create some descendants, clue to his habits revolve around his nickname.

What you have in The Dying Breed is a good old-fashioned tale of Deliverance style locals and the wonder of cannibalism. The result of which, despite the producers best efforts to make the characters rather unlikeable; is quite a gross out movie offering filled with blood, gore and sometimes worse. Its all actually quite disturbing territory that harks back to the 1980’s video nasty era.

The punches are the basis of the movies success, because from the moment you enter the second half of the movie your transported into a variety of horrifically unpleasant circumstances, and disturbing visuals. Punch, punch, punch! Once the movie gets going its fairly relentless, characters are dispatched in continuously worse methods as it becomes apparent that the locals are clearly the descendants of The Pieman, and that Nina’s sister undoubtedly had some sort of nasty encounter with these locals.

The clear difference with this movie is that it packs two very big final punches one of which leads you to a false ending. And if that were not enough the text that appears onscreen just before the credits roll lead you on a wild and furious search online, because the story ends in such a way to make you wonder if the film could in fact be based on some true facts. And quite disturbingly, potentially it is.

Its grubby looking, broody, its empty on the character building front, but its actually pretty good entertaining viewing. And the sort of thing that keeps you thinking long after the credits roll. If nothing else it will give you some visuals to haunt your mind.

District 13: Ultimatum

I’m a firm believer that you should not go watching sequels before you have seen the first movie, sadly this was not an option available to me when I watched District 13: Ultimatum (Banlieue 13 – Ultimatum). Luckily for me the movie was so cleverly pieced together that if you had not caught the first its not going to be an issue, no catching up on story, no hidden riddles; Ultimatum sits happily as a stand alone movie.

Rather like Escape From New York, District 13 places the people nobody wants to know or hear about behind a wall were they can’t be a hindrance to normal everyday people. This Paris suburb is home to various races, and clans who all operate their own individual crime waves. When a corrupt government agency plans a despicable act in order to gain wealth and rid Paris of its little problem its down to cop Damien (Cyril Raffaelli) and District 13 freedom fighter Leito (David Belle) to gather the evidence and fight for the people of District 13 before the government raise it to the ground.

D13: Ultimatum mixes the action movie with the wonder of Parkour, creating an enticing visual spectacle that continuously finds you asking, “How the hell did they do that?” The fight scenes and stunts are quite simply some of the best I have seen, working against an alien Parisian background, the film takes what could be viewed as a potentially normal looking action movie to a whole different level. The action is incredibly well choreographed whether jumping from roof to roof, to fighting with an almost priceless Van Gogh painting which turns from being unpleasant looking work of art to the ultimate weapon.

Story wise it’s simplistic story telling, which to someone who does not speak French is possibly not a bad thing. This is not a criticism of the movie but plain straightforward good sense. Thrillers, comedies, and horror movies all work very well in another language with onscreen subtitles, but an action movie does not always have the same effect; lines are often spouted out in quick succession in action movies not always allowing you to enjoy the visual spectacle unfolding on screen. D13 allows you to enjoy the action without bogging you down with unnecessary dialogue. Thankfully the DVD takes care of those that do not like their movies in a pure form, and has a dubbed English version, this allows the movie to be enjoyed by the biggest possible audience, an option not so commonly used now days.

There is a lot of humour in the movie, a little cheesy in places but in a cheeky fashion. Director Patrick Alessandrin (and of course screenwriter Luc Besson) seem keen to show their comic side, when you first meet Damien he is disguised (fairly badly) as a geisha girl, while his head is clearly masculine a lot of time is spent focussing on his waxed feminine flesh; it’s a prime example of one of those situations that is so wrong, but incredibly amusing.

The performances are good David Belle, and Cyril Raffaelli both prove you can be physically well trained and deliver a convincing acting performance. Supporting performers such as Elodie Yung who plays the movies action woman add real sparkle, while MC Jean Gab’1 who plays gang boss Molko offers a real feeling of menace and fairness

You could say the French movie industry is a little overlooked, and to be fair the French are not known for their action movies, however D13: Ultimatum is a rare exception to the rule. It’s easily as addictive as Luc Besson’s Nikita, not quite so deep but incredibly compelling to watch. The inclusion of Parkour means that with the original movie an obvious exception there is nothing that quite looks like this, it’s an instant, identifiable, unique looking movie that while not gaining Blockbuster status will ultimately enjoy a somewhat cult following. One thing is for sure, having seen this I immediately hopped online to order the original movie, and I’m sure countless others will to; for fans of the original this will be the must have purchase of the year. D13 is one of the most interesting action movies of the year, its just a shame that it never got a little more limelight while not being completely perfect it’s a most enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes.

Special Features:-

A 26 minute documentary looks at the creation of the movie, pulling in cast and crew to talk about incidents and their personal take on the movie.

A series of extended and deleted scenes are included, most of which are fight scenes.

There is music video from French rapper Alonzo that combines the movies main musical score with the performers own style, with some interesting cross language dialogue.

Finally there is a teaser and theatrical trailer to promote the movie.

Language options are French and English.

District 13: Ultimatum is released in the UK on DVD by Momentum on the 26^th of October

The House By The Cemetery

There are few movies that have been affected quite as badly as a result of the UK’s video nasty furore than The House By The Cemetery. In 1984 when certification kicked in and movies started to become banned when our government was trying to yurn us into a nanny state House By The Cemetery was one of the first to go. Ironically in 1993 after nearly ten years in the wilderness it was one of the first of the former video nasties to get a release, then by the now defunct S. Gold & Sons sub label Vipco (S. Gold & Sons are also now defunct but were former pioneers in the home entertainment industry). While it secured its release there was a considerable amount of time edited from the movie. As DVD took off and Vipco planned a DVD release of the movie they then presented it before the BBFC (British Board Of Film Classification) again where it was agreed that they could release a slightly lengthened version. But it has taken till 2009, twenty five years since the movie was banned, for the movie to at last be seen in an uncut form in the United Kingdom.

House By The Cemetery is a movie from the infamously titled Godfather Of Gore Lucio Fulci, made during his heyday of 1979-1981 where his “Zombie” horror movies changed the way western culture looked at Zombies. I always feel referring to House By The Cemetery as a zombie movie does it an injustice because the movies killer is not strictly dead, a pretty rudimentary part of being a zombie in my book. None the less this is a movie that has great affection in my eyes, because although I had briefly skated round the genre of the Italian horror/thriller movie, it was after seeing this film that I became a fan of Italian horror forever.

Beginning in New York a young family are on the verge of making a move to Boston where Norman (Paolo Malco) is planning to continue the work of a colleague who seemingly turned insane and killed himself and his family. Wife Lucy (Katherine (or Catriona) MacColl) and son Bob (Giovanni Frezza) in toe, they arrive at Oak Mansion a remote house by a now disused graveyard. While Norman gets straight to work its Lucy’s responsibility to turn this old wreck of a house into a home. While Norman turns up very little Lucy is thrown straight into making discoveries, whilst cleaning the living area she discovers a tombstone with the name Jacob Tess Freudstein on it, a name that’s an essential part of Norman’s investigations. With creepy vocal noises half roaring half child crying, a disturbing looking babysitter, the impression that Norman knows a lot more than he’s letting on, and a bizarre but striking young girl by the name of May; The House By The Cemetery has all the essential factors to make a completely chilling horror movie.

I won’t tell you any lies the acting is not the best, director Fulci believing that the storytelling is more essential than the actors roles, this is in no means helped by the dubbing of all the characters into English; especially when either the dubbing artist or the Italian to English translator cannot identify the difference between a doctor or a baker “You really should be taking those tablets your baker prescribed” states Malco at a moment of high tension. But put aside these two facts and you have potentially the framework of one of the most cleverly crafted horror movies of the 1980’s. Fulci spends a great amount of the movies 85-85 minute running time building the tension, leaking out little snippets of information, or showing you just enough to keep you enthralled. Rather beautifully the movies killer although fairly obvious from the movies offset is not shown to the audience until the final moments of the film, and pretty is not a word you would use to describe it.

The Hostel movies got a lot of acclaim for their rather bloody and in your face gruesomeness; well House By The Cemetery does a similar job, the big difference being that Fulci’s classic was twenty five years earlier in back 1981. As you enter the killer’s lair properly for the first time, you’re treated to the remains of a variety of cannibalised victims, not cannibalised for food however, but for their organs and other essentials that a 200 year old killer might require. YUK!

Many of Lucio Fulci’s movies even through his better times are slightly disjointed leaving you with a “what just went on there?” style thought, City Of The Living Dead (another Fulci movie from the same era) being a classic example, but House By The Cemetery avoids these trappings, your fully aware of what’s just taken place but the burning question as the credits begin to roll is what happens next? If you allow your mind to think about it, there is a good sequel there because all the doors are left open, leaving the viewer with a deep feeling of helplessness. It was exactly this sort of after thought that drew me towards the Italian horror genre.

If you’re not a particularly strong stomached horror movie viewer this is one you might want to slowly wean yourself into. There are some pretty jumpy moments mixed in with the grotesque gore. And while the movies first death might leave you chuckling the combination of gore and tension as it begins to build up can be too much for some to bear.

As well as being presented uncut, this is by far the cleanest print I have seen of the movie. There are some beautiful grainy scenes that give the movie a real texture. Something else that stood out to me from the movies offset was that title font is different from all the other DVD releases that have been seen in the UK, and now bare a pinkish tinge instead of the usual white titles. This combined with the addition of a deleted scene leads me to believe that these titles are the originally intended ones, while this is fairly small fry to the average viewer this is news I’m sure would appeal to the movies hardcore fans. Other special features include a 17 minute documentary that discusses both the movie and the impact Fulci had to the horror movie genre and more interestingly how oblivious he was to the fact that he had fans across the world, and not just in his native Italian homeland. Other features include trailers, tv spots, and a image gallery. The case inlay offers a double sided cover so you can vary your choices slightly.

The House By The Cemetery is due for release on June the 29^th of Arrows Masters Of Giallo label.