Foreign DVD Review - Ils (UK title Them) 2006
February 16, 2008
Ils as it is originally called is probably better known in the UK as ‘Them‘ a foreign horror movie spoken in French and partially Romanian.Major Spoilers ahead …
This is fantastic little film that has not received the exposure it truly deserved in my opinion. Starring Michaël Cohen as Lucas and Olivia Bonamy as Clémentine it is based on a true story of a couple who become victims in their own home, at the hands of an unknown outside force.
Lucas and Clementine live in a huge old house in the middle of Romania but are blissfully unaware that when they come home from work that night a horrible murder has occurred just down the road from where they live. They go about their usual business, and we have lots of brilliant shots of the couple running around the house giving us a real feel for its vast amount of space which you just know is going to play a part in the movie later down the line.
During that night is when the real action begins; Clementine wakes after hearing a strange noise coming from outside, a kind of loud eerie creaking which soon becomes the attacker’s trademark sound. She wakes Lucas and the two go downstairs to check things out. They notice that their car has been moved and as they venture outside it is driven away but we can’t see who is behind the wheel. They go back inside to phone the police who are less than helpful (as usual) and before they know what has happened the house is plunged into darkness. Clementine and Lucas rush to the top of the house where there are more locks on the doors and try to keep themselves safe, but it is soon apparent that there is more than just one attacker and they will stop at nothing to get their hands on the terrified couple.
Our first glance of the attackers shows that they appear to be wearing hoodies, and after a very tense scene involving Clementine in the attic, she and Lucas realise that their only chance of escape is to get outside and try to run for safety. With Lucas injured it’s not quite as easy as it sounds and they are chased through woodland and over fences until the final scene which is a brilliant realisation that their attackers are nothing more than teenagers and young children (albeit very dangerous, murderous ones) the eerie noise they are hearing is the sound of one of their toys and the final shot shows the children getting on board a bus and the writing comes up on screen telling us that when the children were finally caught, the reason they gave for the murders and attacks they had committed was simply “Because they did not want to play with us” chilling and an all to realistic example of the way our society could head if we’re not careful!
The whole film had this utterly realistic feel to it and plays on a fear which everyone and anyone can relate to: An intruder in your own home. It’s the scariest thing I can imagine, and the lack of control and helplessness that the main characters felt was portrayed brilliantly and with every emotion you would expect. I loved the fact that ‘Ils’ doesn’t rely on blood, gore or even that much violence to scare you, it’s scary because of the cinematography and the fact that it plays on a real fear that it truly works. At 77 minutes running time, it’s by no means long but it never once drops the pace, tension or drama that makes it so good.
I actually forgot about 10 mins into the movie that it was a foreign film, and although you are reading subtitles it never once feels like a chore. I highly recommend you see this movie for yourself to experience what I mean, and if you have seen it feel free to leave your comments here and let us know what you thought!
The People Under The Stairs Classic Wes Craven Movie
February 16, 2008
I’ve always been a fan of Wes Craven, and come to think of it ‘The people under the stairs’ was probably the first film of his that I ever saw. A cross between comedy and horror it’s the kind of movie that reminds me of films such as The Goonies but with a much darker twist.
The story has a disturbing underlying tone of incest and sadomasochism which although isn’t fully explored we are always aware of its presence as viewers and it is often touched upon in places but never fully explored. This in itself is a large part of what makes the film work as we don’t NEED to see any of this to understand how completely messed up the main characters are. Read more
Eli Roth Hostel Part II Review
February 11, 2008
I watched the first Hostel film and was impressed so was quite looking forward to seeing part 2. As is usually the case though I shouldn’t have built up my hopes too much as this film really isn’t a patch on the original in my opinion.
We pretty much leap straight into the story upon watching the film, taking up where Hostel left off. The last survivor from the first movie winds up in a hospital and is trying to tell the police what happened to him, before he can get to the heart of his story it becomes apparent that these doctors are actually part of the organization and bear the elite hunting tattoo’s which are required for entry. After this turns out just to be a dream sequence we’ve just witnessed we quickly move on to the deeper part of this sequels story. This time around it’s not a group of guys who get lured to the Hostel it’s a group of American girls. Now it just so happens that American girls are one of the highest priced targets and are furiously bidded on by the rich, sick and twisted people who pay obscene amounts of money to torture and kill victims in an old abandoned factory. We watch as bidding for the girls escalates and is eventually won by several business men (and women) from around the world.
As with the first movie, one by one the girls are kidnapped from the Hostel and taken to the abandoned factory to face their death in a number of sick and disturbing ways. These include everything from being hacked up, to chainsaws and a girl bound and hung upside down so that a deranged woman can bathe in her blood. Yuck.
Desperate Housewives stars Roger Bart and Richard Burgi (George and Karl on DH) star as two of the businessmen who hand over their cash to the exclusive club in return for the chance to torture and kill a woman each. During the process there is a really sick scene involving Roger Bart and an incident to a VERY sensitive part of his body (yes guys THAT part) if you watch the uncut version it’s very gross and very graphic!
That is just one in a number of gruesome scenes which in my opinion just seem to be trying to milk the violence and gore for all they are worth. Now that we know how the Hostel works and the ins and outs of everything it has lost an aspect of its scariness and becomes a little, dare I say tedious?! I read in an interview with Eli Roth recently that he actually had no intention of making a follow up to Hostel so maybe that’s why it didn’t turn out anywhere near as good as I would have liked. One of my main problems with the film was with the characters themselves, they were so underdeveloped that you really didn’t care who lived or who died. There actually wasn’t one character that I was rooting for to make it out alive; I just didn’t care at all.
Shocking and downright disgusting as the violence was, it just wasn’t SCARY so came across as kind of pointless and uncalled for! However, the main thing that let Hostel 2 down was its ending. It was awful, and I mean awful. I understand that the message we were supposed to ‘get’ was that the only way the main character was ever going to stand a chance of getting out alive was by appealing to the one thing that these people understand; Money. But how boring is that for an ending?! Wow, she buys her way out … scary! The final scene was pretty much just as bad, the only good point was when the kids played football with the woman’s head (that was only good because it was SO bad if you catch my drift) yet it appealed to my warped sense of humour.
Sadly at the end of the day Hostel 2 showed promise, but bad scripting and under developed characters meant that it was just a big letdown that left me wishing I had never seen it!
Skins Series 2 Coming to TV – Watch episode 1 Free on Myspace
February 7, 2008
I never managed to get into ‘Skins’ when it first aired on Channel 4 a while back, but after having several friends recommend it to me and nag me to watch it I finally caught up with the series online on C4’s 4OD service (You sign up and can watch the complete series for free either by download or streaming it). Read more
P2 Review - Horror Movie Starring Rachel Nichols and Wes Bentley
February 3, 2008
I watched this movie over the weekend, along with a string of other horror films I had stacked up on my desk. For some reason I seem to be watching horrors non stop right now both for work and in my spare time but that’s fine with me as they are definitely one of my favourite genres of film. Read more
Britney Spears Finally Hospitalized
February 3, 2008
Its been a long time coming but finally Britney is in hospital where she belongs. After a string of bizarre events and crazy behaviour the star has been committed to UCLA Medical Centre’s psych ward. Britney’s parents Jamie & Lynne Spears went to court a few days ago and managed to get legal control of their daughter’s treatment, I believe that this also entitles them to take control of her finances which may be a good thing given the state she’s in at the moment!Osama Lutfi one of the many weirdo’s who have been hanging around with Spears has now has a restraining order slapped on his ass after Jamie and Lynne took legal action against him preventing him getting anywhere near Britney. This surely must also be a good thing mustn’t it? She hasn’t exactly been the best judge of character recently and it seems like all of the people she ‘picks’ to hang out with are trying to manipulate and prey on her fragile state of mind. Read more
Dark Ride DVD Review
January 29, 2008
Predictable, Dull and Cheesy are just a couple of the words that pop into my head when I sit down to try and sum up this movie. I bought Dark Ride the other day on DVD thinking that it was going to be a ‘cool’ homage to the 80’s slasher movies that I grew up watching when I was younger. Whilst in a couple of places it did just that, for the main part Dark Ride was just a dull, thoughtless and overly predictable film that relied on a couple of brutal murder scenes and gratuitous shots to keep viewers entertained. This coupled with more than a few similarities to Tobe Hooper’s 1981 slasher flic ‘The Funhouse’ meant that it was all just beginning to feel like one big letdown.The film begins (as these movies so often do) with a group of teenagers off on a road trip. Along the way they stop at a gas station and spot a flyer for the planned reopening of an old abandoned carnival which houses the infamous ‘Dark Ride’ a ghost train in which several murders took place years ago. Of course after much drug taking and ‘wild’ ‘crazy’ behaviour *yawn* the kids decide to pay a visit and explore the ride for themselves… cos that would be like So totally fun!
Little do they know that Jonah, the strange, crazed psychopath (who oddly also seems to have some kind of superhuman strength) behind the previous murders has just escaped from the mental institution and is lurking in the midst of the ride to resume his old pastimes. Armed with a mighty big knife and a silly little mask that looks more ‘cute’ than creepy he waits for his next victims…
The main lead of the movie is Jamie-Lynn Sigler who is probably best known for her role in The Sopranos which I loved her in. I even thought that she was reasonable in this film but lets face it, she wasn’t exactly given the best dialogue in the world to work with was she? The rest of the cast is made up of various unknowns and a couple of people who looked vaguely familiar to me but in all honesty I just couldn’t be bothered to go and look them up properly, maybe I’m missing out on some great up and coming talent but I’ll take my chances thanks!
So, after much running around inside the Dark Ride and lots of murders and screaming amidst the dry ice and cheesy props from the ride we are treated to what is supposed to be some big shock ‘Saw’ like ending. In actual fact it was blatantly obvious ALL the way through exactly what was going on and so when all was revealed I almost let out a sigh of relief that the film was actually nearly over!
Needless to say that if you are looking for a complex dark and twisted horror movie then this definitely isn’t what you get with Dark Ride. What you do end up with however is a rehash of various slasher movies with no plotline and some really genuinely annoying characters. It might be worth a look if you are stuck for something to watch for a couple of hours one night but don’t make the same mistake as me and go out and buy the movie, at least rent it and save yourself some money for when something better is released!
Actor Heath Ledger Found Dead
January 23, 2008
I am still in shock from yesterday evenings tragic news that aussie actor Heath Ledger was found dead last night in his apartment.
Apparently he was naked and surrounded by pills. His masseuse knocked on the door and after no reply they were let in by the housekeeper. Heath had recently spoken of how he had been left tormeted and sleepless after playing the role of ‘The Joker’ in the new Batman movie. He had also recently split from wife Michelle Williams (Dawsons Creek) and the couple have a young daughter together called Matilda.
As yet it is not clear if this was suicide or a tragic accident but my thoughts are with Heaths family, Michelle and their daughter Matilda at this hard time.
I hope we find out exactly what happened soon. Please feel free to leave your comments or tributes to Heath here, as I’m sure some of you are just as shocked as me this morning.
The Best and Worst of this weeks Celebrity Gossip Including Britney Spears Lily Allen and Gossip Girl
January 20, 2008
There’s always loads of bizarre happenings in the wonderful world of celebrities so I thought it was about time I did a bit of a round up of the most talked about this past week.
Britney Spears is never out of the headlines, so its not surprise that she has once again dominated them with reports of her fleeing the country, missing her court hearing and being carted off in an ambulance looking confused, distressed and disorientated (a look which she seems to have perfected) I’m not going to waste much time talking about her right now though as I can only keep saying the same thing over and over. Sort yourself out Brit!! It’s gone on way too long now.
Sad news came this week for British singer Lily Allen and her boyfriend Ed Simons when they suffered a miscarriage shortly after returning from a romantic holiday. The usually rowdy and party loving pop star had previously stated how she could not wait for motherhood and toned down her lifestyle in preparation for what lay ahead. The couple were obviously both distraught and in shock this week and have asked press to respect their privacy at this hard time. My thoughts go out to Lily and her family; I hope she gets the support she needs to get through this.
As ‘Gossip Girl’ is one of my favourite shows on TV at the moment how could I go without mentioning a piece on Blake Lively who plays Serena on the show?! She recently confessed how difficult she sometimes finds the media attention she gets and said “Everybody always tries to dig into your personal life or create things that aren’t there. . . It’s silly. Any male friend is obviously a ‘romance alert’ [for the media], but I’ve always been friends with boys my whole life.” She is constantly linked to co star Penn Badgley but the two are just friends. If you get chance to check out Gossip Girl it’s well worth a look and maybe I’ll do a little piece on it next week.
Tom Cruise has been in the media’s firing line this week after a few videos of him heavily promoting his religion scientology were leaked onto various sites. If you didn’t catch them for yourself on youtube or elsewhere (I believe they have now been removed) Tom was featured talking openly about his views on the religion and often laughing manically at his own little ‘in jokes’ which all just seemed a little bit too freaky for my liking. Its one thing to have a religion and believe in it, but shoving it down other people’s throats is another ballgame. Katie Holmes looks good right now though, it’s a shame she is taking a few too many style tips from Victoria Beckham but hopefully she’s come into her own soon. Suri just seems to get cuter with every photo I see of her and I must admit they do all look like one big happy family when you see them out together; I’d love to be a fly on the wall behind closed doors sometimes though.
So, that was some of the main news this week I’ll try and do a quick roundup on a regular basis, feel free to chip in and leave your own comments and thoughts below!
DVD Review Wrong Turn 2 : Dead End
January 19, 2008
Like the rest of the country I was expecting this film to be completely rubbish, lets face it sequels are very rarely as good as the original movie and given that the first Wrong Turn film was action packed and starred the gorgeous Eliza Dushku (who sadly doesn’t return for wrong turn 2) it was always going to be quite hard for anyone to take this new version seriously.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End is a surprising film, not surprising as in ‘filled with shocks’ but surprising mainly because it actually DIDN’T suck. Granted, it’s not as good as Wrong Turn but it isn’t as awful as I originally thought, in actual fact I can honestly say I quite enjoyed it! … Read more
