By Keri O’Shea
So long then, 2012. As we come to the end of another year, a few of us here at Brutal As Hell have already taken time out to reflect on the year in genre film. If you haven’t already done so, check out Nia’s end-of-year review here and Ben’s low-down on the good, the bad and the ugly here. One thing is apparent from reading through both of my co-writers’ articles, though, and that’s what a hectic year it’s been for film fans. All in all, it’s been a bloody good year too. Whilst I wasn’t able to get out to as many festivals as I’d have hoped and thus sadly missed out on a lot of the most hotly-debated films of the year while they were being hotly-debated, much of that which I have seen has given me hope that indie cinema in particular still has the ideas and still has the enthusiasm – it’s not all found footage and sexual assault after all. Hallelujah. Still, as with any year, you’re never going to be pleased all the time. In fact, sometimes, you’re going to be downright appalled, bored or pissed off. Such is the gamut of emotions we get as film fans, which is why I’m going to approach my own review of the year from the perspective of some of those emotional states – positive and negative – which I’ve been through in 2012. This will mean at times I discuss elements of the plot which could contain mild spoilers. So, without further ado…
Most enthralling – The Cabin in the Woods
This is a film I simply did not expect to like. Although, by some miracle considering I am an internet user, I managed to go into the screening of The Cabin in the Woods without really knowing anything about what I was about to see, I had heard one slightly ominous prefix being bandied around, and that prefix was ‘meta-‘. If ever a small word could fill you with dread…I had a horrible feeling I was about to see another Scream, a film which wrongly thought it could look down its nose at the horror genre from a vantage point of smug superiority. I wondered if Joss Whedon was going to attempt to do the same thing. In actuality, The Cabin in the Woods showed that you can be genre-aware and self-referential without ever coming across as sneering, and crafted an original story out of a whole host of recognisable elements. Loaded with fine detail, but working perfectly as an overarching story, this film had me hooked. If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t seen it yet, I recommend it. You can also check out Britt Hayes’ review here and Steph’s rather-less glowing review here. Hey, let it never be said that we all sing from the same hymn sheet here…
Most confusing – Prometheus
Regardless of whether a film is set in space, or on another planet, or has robots, or monsters, or any combination of same, it should still have a convincing internal logic. It needn’t answer every question it raises, of course not, but you still want to believe that the writers themselves could answer them – that there exists some cogency somewhere in the proceedings. Prometheus, whether by a process of re-writes or by sheer oversight, has so many plot holes that all of its many dazzling features were laid completely flat for me. Now, I hear that there’s another film on the way, and perhaps this film will help to clear up some of the questions raised in Prometheus, but it will not be able to fix everything. Personally, I could have taken less of the glorious alien vistas and a bit more of a workable narrative: I just wasn’t suitably blinded by science fiction, and came out of the cinema with an array of questions which I really don’t think anyone involved with the film could answer. If you don’t mind the spoilers, this discussion of the film is essentially all of the things I wanted to know, too.
Most convincing – Antiviral
My film of the year (check out my full-length review here), Antiviral is a massively impressive début feature from Brandon Cronenberg, bringing us a world made eerie by its toxic familiarity. To create this effective and chilling horror story, all Cronenberg has had to do is create a vision of celebrity culture which is, perhaps, just one notch up on what we currently have. The notion of ‘biological communion’ with the stars and the sickness which pervades through the film literally as well as figuratively makes this a grim, depressing but ultimately engaging watch, and its closing line of dialogue is unsurpassed this year. If this is the level of expertise we can expect from Brandon Cronenberg than I would not be at all surprised if he becomes one of my favourite working directors. Let’s hope we see more from him soon, and that this brilliant film gets seen by enough people.
Most irritating – American Mary
Why yes, not only do we not sing from the same hymn sheet at this site, we have at times thought of changing the site name from Brutal As Hell to Contrary As Fuck. Being completely honest though, ‘irritation’ is the emotion I chiefly associate with American Mary at this stage, as much for the levels of adoration being expressed everywhere towards the film and its directors (which wouldn’t go amiss in the dystopian world of Antiviral) as for the film’s own flaws. The more I’ve thought about these flaws, the more disappointed I am that so few fans and/or reviewers have discussed them at all. Whilst I can see some value in American (or rather Hungarian-Canadian) Mary, I simply cannot get past its huge hurdles: the sheer inconceivability of the student-teacher relationship, the speed date rape, the clumsy use of rape as a plot device full stop, the wilful or otherwise misunderstanding of the subject matter and its ‘shock value’, but most of all, that protracted and egotistical Soskas cameo. Someone needed to say that no, appearing in the film for such a long period of time to no plot purpose would not be ‘rad’, it would derail any momentum and believability which the film might have built up – such as how it had attempted to humanise people in the body modification scene and then, for instance, shows one of the people who supposedly belong to this culture attacking and biting a dancer. So much for consenting adults, eh?
Most mind-blowing – Bobby Yeah
Bobby Yeah is an experience that I cannot liken to anything else. Using the medium of stop-motion animation is a smart move for filmmakers who want to bring their peculiarly batshit insane vision to audiences, and director Robert Morgan has let his imagination run absolute riot in this unique short film. What’s it about? Bloody hell, it’s not easy to explain. Essentially, a little ne’er-do-well can’t resist literally pressing buttons. And, when he does, his curiosity is rewarded with a series of run-ins with increasingly weird creatures. To be honest, this film was one of those foremost in my mind when we decided to really resurrect the Horror in Short section here on the site, because it is absolutely criminal that a film of this calibre should not be more widely seen. Fans of the surreal should track it down, and then do what is the almost inevitable next step – get someone else to see it. It’s like the video tape in Ring only without the ill-effects, as long as you’re not in a mentally-altered state when you see it of course…
Most disappointing – The Innkeepers
As a proviso, I am horribly, horribly picky about supernatural horror. Where I can forgive or at least overlook flaws in other horror genres, provided I think the intentions are earnest, when it comes to good old-fashioned ghost stories I immediately turn into Statler and Waldorf. This is only because I love a good scare so much. Promise me this and fail to live up to it, and I take great umbrage. Promise me a ghost story, then weigh me down with irritating characters (Claire was beyond punchable), acres of inane conversation and a weak script, and I will lose interest long before any of the interesting attempts at fright occur. Throwing clichés in there for good measure, like the contrived appearance of the female ghost? Please don’t. I had similar problems with Sinister: for me, when up against dross like the Paranormal Activity movies, good supernatural horror needs to be great. It needs to show the world how it’s done. For me, The Innkeepers just didn’t. So, so frustrating.
Most amusing – John Dies At The End
If anyone could bring the hilarious, complex world of David Wong’s novel of the same name to the screen then it’s Don Coscarelli. We know he has form: one of his best and best-loved films, Bubba Ho Tep, owes its inception to the writing of Joe R. Lansdale, an author who has a fair few things in common with Wong, not least the mordant and savvy way he writes about strange things happening to ordinary guys. Well, John and David are definitely ordinary guys and strange things are definitely happening to them…it’s all linked to this mind-altering, dimension-scrambling drug they encounter, see. They call it ‘the sauce’, and it means things will never be the same again. I adored the novel, but I was anxious about how its multi-layered wit and complex subject matter would work in a movie. I needn’t have worried: it works brilliantly, and better still, it’s just as funny as I’d hoped it would be. John and David deserve to take their place amongst the best slacker heroes cinema has to offer, and this is a film which deserves a cult following, not least because it’s entirely in earnest and doesn’t seem to have set out to get one. But don’t just take my word for it – have a look at Ben’s glowing review here.
Most disturbing – Resolution
I hope that my full review here will adequately explain just why Resolution was so effective and innovative. It’s rare that a film can move so easily from what seems at first to be a comedic premise to something altogether more sinister, and so the fact that it does shows great skill on behalf of the writers/directors and the actors involved. To put it another way; it’s very unusual that I can bear with a film which incorporates ‘found footage’, so overused and tedious has this motif become. Resolution not only uses it as an interesting framework rather than a cost-effective cop-out, but makes it absolutely integral to the plot and – get this – makes it scary again. The more I’ve thought about the film’s ending over the past few months – an ending which I wasn’t wholly satisfied with at the time – the more I can accept it as a deft, still-questioning moment of anxious closure. Definitely one of the high points of the cinematic calendar, it’s a film which has made its mark on me, and I really hope it gets the attention it rightly deserves.