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Review by Dustin Hall

This past week, I had an opportunity to watch the long-delayed comedy/horror film Detention with the Director, Joseph Kahn (Torque) and some of the cast in attendance. I can’t say the movie was exactly a roaring success, but the discussion that followed was interesting, and I can say that Detention is a unique film that I have a certain appreciation for.

Detention is a film that is, more or less, just about High School, and through the course of the film, the school and its student body are tossed about between numerous different filmic plot points from many different genres. The core story focuses on Riley (Shanley Caswell), a young, dorky, vegan student with her leg stuck in a cast and her social life stuck in park. After a failed suicide attempt, she is stalked by a copy-cat killer who, much like in Scream, models their attacks after horror movies, in this case the in-movie franchise Cinderhella. While trying to discover the identity of Cinderhella, she also crosses paths with a genetically altered football player, a girl with a Parent Trap case of identity theft, a boy who has spent the last two decades in detention, extraterrestrials, and a time-traveler of the Ursidae persuasion.

Admidst all of this chaos, the jokes come fast and furious, many of them perhaps too quick to track without re-watching the film. There’s plenty of blood, zany characters galore, and enough 90’s gags to fill a VH1 special. Oh, and Dane Cook is in there too.

I took a friend, and their response? “I can’t leave the theater fast enough.”

So, while that particular viewer actually left wanting to deal the film, were it possible, bodily harm, and I myself wasn’t really satisfied by it, the following discussion with some of the creators was very illuminating.

You see, and I say this often on this site, I tend to try to look at movies objectively as taste is subjective, and see if the creators were able to accomplish what they wanted to with the movie. If it turned out according to the vision, then I have a hard time really bashing the film, as someone out there will like it. Many times, films are a soulless, slap-dash thing given to the money-churning machine. Not so with Detention. Khan set out to make a very specific movie that was dear to his heart and, at great personal expense, did so.

So, in one regard the film is a rousing success. Khan himself came out to say that he wanted to make a horror movie ‘for the kids.’ And indeed he did. All of the kids in their early 20’s in the theater were generally laughing non-stop and seemed to really dig everything. Much like Edgar Wright did with Scott Pilgrim, he’s kept in mind the quick minds and tastes of the current generation, packing every shot with incredible amounts of sight-gags, text, and visual data. He’s done so hoping to continually amuse the fast-thinking, iphone toting generation, as well as give reason for film-goers to rewatch the film at home on blu-ray, trying to catch it all. Because of this, and because of how many jokes there are and how rapidly they come, you can imagine there are quite a few stinkers in there. For every line that soars (everything delivered by the ‘roid rage Football coach) there’s another one that just seems to tank (movie-buff cops debunking the cinema qualities of the case. Good idea, falls flat).

The rapid and bizarre nature of a lot of the jokes makes the movie feel very random. There’s a lot of them just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. It takes a long time for anything in the film to make connections, and because of that a lot of viewers will see the movie as a disjointed pile of nonsense, like an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode stretched over ninety minutes.

But, listening to Khan, you can tell that he knew exactly where his film was going and who it was made for. He is painfully aware of the differences in audience tastes that is developing between generations, and also the differences in viewing habits between the theater age and the digital age, as well as the cyclical nature of fads. The 90’s seem old and retro and like a totally different world to today’s youth, and as such there are plenty of 90’s gags, many of them dealing with not only pop, but also the lack of cellphones and ‘net technology in those days, and how strange it makes that world seem to people who didn’t live in it.

So, again, in entertaining a very young audience, it succeeds. I do feel like, though the taste factor isn’t determined by age alone, there will be a niche audience that really loves Detention, and they will skew very young. However, despite efforts to the contrary, the film fails to establish its characters as much more than the butts of an endless torrent of jokes. Even with flashes of added back-story, they seem hollow, and this will keep audiences from finding a lasting endearment with the film. Khan had some very bold character ideas in mind here, and they are on the film, but they only come across after listening to him or his DVD commentary, and so in that regard Detention fails.

According to Khan, Detention was inspired by the shootings at Columbine, and the fascinating notion that those shooters had stable families, were economically sound, had friends and girlfriends; so why did they snap? His belief is that it was because of a lack of empathy on the behalf of the shooters, the failure to see the world from any bubble other than their own and so, as such, it seemed like every obstacle to them was a personal slight, and that the world was against them. His villain very much fits this mindset, while all the rest of the characters begin by fitting one of many High School stereotypes and then eventually breaking their mold, their lives being more complex than initially believed, and often of an unpredictable genre.

This is a respectable idea, but any gravity it would have carried is really drowned by just how extraordinarily silly everything else is. Though Khan had some lofty ambitions here, really they aren’t adequately met, and so the whole film just has to play for laughs. The actors do well in their roles, be it Josh Hutcherson’s (Hunger Games) hipster skateboarder, Spencer Locke’s (Resident Evil franchise) cheerleader, or, yes, even Dane Cook, but they can’t propel forth themes that are just a little too subtle.

It’s a mixed bag of a film, one I would rate 50/50. It will certainly find a small niche of fans who will love it to death and watch it all the time. Also, it has a great 90’s soundtrack, which Khan gathered at tremendous cost. But, it will certainly never gather a wide audience, and it has ideas that are bigger than their britches, so to speak. I imagine it goes over as well with most audiences as something like Heathers would have to audiences from the 50’s.

Still, props to Khan and crew for getting something so unusual and close to the vest created. Respect.

Detention is currently on a very limited release, touring select US cities. A Region 2 DVD release is set for August 27th, from Sony Home Entertainment.

Review by Ben Bussey

We’ve all seen our share of nightmarish visions of a post-apocalyptic future in which the world is overrun by zombies. How about a post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled period piece? That is the fairly promising hook for Exit Humanity, the new film from writer/director John Geddes. In the alternate timeline he cooks up for us, the end of the American Civil War gave way to a whole new conflict with the walking dead. Caught on the front lines is Edward Young (Mark Gibson), a former soldier whose family promptly perishes in the zombie plague. With nothing left to lose, Young heads out with the ashes of his child, intent on leaving them at a place he had promised to take the boy during his life. Of course, it should come as little surprise that Young will encounter some substantial obstacles along the way; some human, some not so much.

No, it’s not the first period zombie film of its kind; for one there was 2010’s The Dead and the Damned, released to Region 2 last year as Cowboys and Zombies (though we needn’t dwell on that one). Still, there was definitely the chance of something special here with Exit Humanity. John Geddes and his team have put together a good-looking film with a strong cast (including narration from Brian Cox, doing his best southern gentleman drawl) all on a fairly low budget. Sad to say, Exit Humanity doesn’t come close to living up to its potential, and despite the period setting there’s very little to make it stand apart in the deluge of zombie and/or survivalist horror movies of recent years.

To the film’s credit, it has a couple of seasoned genre veterans taking their most interesting roles for some time. Bill Moseley, who’s had a frankly rotten run in recent years (I’ll spare him the indignity of naming and shaming his turkeys), gets a plum role as a Confederate general who sees the outbreak as an opportunity to seize control of the land. Yep, like Day of the Dead and 28 Days Later before it, the true villains are not the dead/infected but power-hungry military men. Moseley doesn’t rewrite the rule book for post-apocalyptic megalomania, and perhaps sensibly he doesn’t reach Joe Pilato levels of histrionics, but he makes for a compelling big bad guy, giving his best performance for some time and probably the best in the film. Then we have Dee Wallace as a mysterious hermit (is there a feminised term for that one? Hermitress? Hermitrix?) However, she’s not given much more to do than act a bit enigmatic, and the character comes off a bit by-the-numbers.

Of course, neither of these old hands takes the lead here. That responsibility goes to newcomer Mark Gibson (also in the upcoming Monster Brawl). As the bereaved, taciturn Edward Young, his principle duty is to look moody and sport an impressive beard. While he’s certainly a leading man of some potential, his efforts here wind up falling a little flat. The fault is not so much with his performance as with the overall vision of writer/director Geddes. Playing things as straight as can be, Geddes’ intent would seem to be an amalgamation of old school slow-burn western and contemporary über-bleak horror. Subsequently, it’s all very slow and humourless, taking itself just a bit too seriously for my liking. Handling big themes seriously need not necessitate being utterly devoid of levity, and I really feel Exit Humanity would have benefited from being just a smidgen more light-hearted, with a bit more action. Still, it’s not 100% doom and gloom; the zombie scenes, though few and far between, are well realised, and there’s even room found for a spot of good old-fashioned gun-fighting, which should raise a smile.

Points to John Geddes for ambition and grit; Exit Humanity is a laudable effort even if it shoots a bit wide of the target. Nonetheless, he may well be a filmmaker to keep an eye on in the future.

Exit Humanity hits Region 1 DVD and VOD on June 19th from Bloody Disgusting Selects, and Region 2 DVD on 2nd July from Metrodome.

Review by Ben Bussey

First things first: given that this film was made in 2010, I’m sure we’ll all agree it’s a wee bit silly for it to be sold in the west as A Better Tomorrow 2012 – or worse, A Better Tomorrow 2K12 (yeesh, has anyone said ‘2K’ in the last twelve years, outside of when Strange Days is on TV?) On top of which, it’s rather misleading how prominently John Woo’s name and credits are plastered all over the cover art (see below), given he only holds the always-dubious credit of executive producer here. Then again, a great many will undoubtedly feel that it’s an inherently dumb move to remake A Better Tomorrow at all. Woo’s 1986 film with Ti Lung, Leslie Cheung and Chow Yun-Fat (itself a remake of 1967 film Ying xiong ben se, which I must admit I was unaware of until researching this review) was the film that started Woo off to becoming arguably the greatest action director of the era, establishing many of his trademarks: massive shoot-outs with an operatic/balletic quality; themes of honour, rivalry, and the unspoken kinship of cop and criminal; and, of course, Chow Yun-Fat wearing a trenchcoat, chewing a matchstick and firing two Beretta 9mms at the same time. Even so, while the film got the ball rolling for Woo, there’s plenty about it that leaves room for improvement. There’s an almost childish simplicity to the exposition, and – a common problem with Woo, and HK action in general – overbearing sentimentality souring proceedings.

If Hae-sung Song’s remake addressed these problems with Woo’s film whilst retaining its strengths, then beyond a bit of the old been-there/done-that we’d surely have very little to complain about. Unfortunately, all the remake of A Better Tomorrow manages to do is exacerbate the problems of the original, overcomplicating the narrative and under-emphasising the action, resulting in a slow, tedious film in which the adrenaline-fuelled appeal of the original is almost entirely absent.

Things start interestingly enough, as for the bulk of the first thirty minutes you’d be forgiven for not realising it was a remake at all. For starters, the action is uprooted from Hong Kong to South Korea; bear in mind the original was made before the handover of Hong Kong to China, and as we all know nowadays absolutely nothing bad has ever or can ever happen under Chinese rule EVER. (Aaaaand with that one sentence Brutal As Hell is now banned in China, assuming we weren’t already.) Rather than kicking off with a young rookie cop unaware of his big brother’s life of crime, we have two brothers separated trying to flee across the border from North Korea; as big bro Hyuk (Jin-mo Ju) makes it big in the criminal underworld with best buddy Lee Young-chun (Seung-heon Song) – they’re arms dealers, rather than money counterfeiters as in the original – little bro Chul (Kang-woo Kim) languishes in a border prison. But Hyuk certainly hasn’t forgotten his kid brother, is guilt-ridden over the shame of leaving him and their mother behind, and has spent years trying to track Chul down. Alas, when he finally manages to do so it’s far from a tender reunion. Chul hates his brother, holding him accountable for their mother’s death. No matter, for their reconciliation won’t last long; betrayed by inexperienced gangster Jung (Han-sun Jo), Hyuk soon has no choice but to surrender to the cops. Three years later, he’s a free man and keen to go straight, and Chul is rising through the ranks as a police officer, investigating the very criminal underworld which Hyuk and Young-chun used to be at the forefront of.

To give Hae-sung’s film its dues, many of its deviations from the original are entirely sensible. I can’t imagine anyone will mourn the absence of the young cop’s girlfriend, who provided nothing more than lame comic relief. It’s also fair to say that Woo’s dialogue scenes tended to leave a bit to be desired (assuming we can’t blame that on the subtitles). Alas, where the original peppered outstanding action sequences with laboured melodrama, here we have almost nothing but talk, all delivered at a painfully slow pace in an overbearingly solemn fashion. The comparatively few action scenes, while by no means bad, only serve to remind how ground-breaking Woo’s action was, especially in the key moments that are recreated from the original. Yes, as with so many remakes, in the moments that directly mirror its predecessor it only serves to remind of the original, and when it doesn’t, it makes you wonder why they didn’t just make a stand-alone film. It’s less The Departed, more Rob Zombie’s Halloween. Dour, banal and overlong, this is one instance in which it was most definitely a better yesterday.

A Better Tomorrow is out on Region 2 DVD, Blu-Ray and 3D Blu-Ray now from Kaleidoscope.

Review by Stephanie Scaife

Mild spoilers ahead.

I was fairly reluctant to get on board with Prometheus when I first read that Ridley Scott was returning to the world of Alien, because – let’s face it – the franchise had long run out of steam and Scott hasn’t made a decent film since, well, Blade Runner, and that was 30 years ago (I guess Thelma & Louise and Gladiator were okay, but still…) Also, what would it be about? A prequel? A sequel? Then news of the casting came to light, and the trailers and viral marketing campaign were all very appealing, meaning that very quickly I became very excited. Alien after all, is in my top ten of all time and for a moment there was a glimmer of hope that Scott could actually be on to something amazing. However, when I finally sat down to watch Prometheus it wasn’t what I had been expecting at all. It wasn’t necessarily bad per se, but it really didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.

Noomi Rapace stars as Elizabeth Shaw, an archaeologist with inexplicable religious faith who, along with her boyfriend Holloway (Logan Marshall-Smith), discovers a series of ancient cave paintings depicting the same constellation of stars. They interpret this as being a key to discovering the origins of life on earth, which if the opening scene is anything to go by started when some muscley bald dude drank some wriggling black goop and fell off a cliff into some water… Darwin who, eh? This is clearly much more feasible to Shaw and indeed the corporation willing to spend a trillion dollars on a space programme to find the constellation, some two years away from earth.

The crew of Prometheus slumber whilst android David (Michael Fassbender) maintains the ship. In what is perhaps the best scene of the film we see David as he monitors the crew, learns foreign languages, dyes his hair (not sure why an android would need to do this…) and watches his favourite film, Lawrence of Arabia whilst mimicking and basing his mannerisms on Peter O’Toole. Fassbender and his portrayal of David is perhaps solely responsible for about 90% of what is good about Prometheus. With echoes of Scott’s Blade Runner, David is very much like a replicant and he provides a reminder to the crew and the audience that we are human but he is not, and would it be possible for an android to be a sentient being with a soul and free will. David also provides increasing amounts of comic relief in an otherwise dour film; he is somewhat like a child in that his observations are often truthful but his delivery of them is not always tactful or welcome. In one pivotal scene David asks Holloway why humans had created androids such as himself, to which Holloway replies, “we made you because we could.” David responds with “imagine how disappointing it would be for you to hear the same thing from your creator.” Considering their entire mission hinges on the pursuit to find the origins of human life, to both Holloway and Shaw there has to be a more valid answer than that. But what David is saying is essentially the crux of the plot: where did we come from and why? But of course the truth of the matter is never going to be one that agrees with having faith in a creator or divine being; it will only ever serve to be a disappointment.

Part of the problem with the film is that there never really is any insight into why these so-called engineers may have created human life on earth or even if it was entirely intentional. Shaw’s unwavering faith is also irksome, especially as she’s supposed to be a credible scientist. Or even worse, was her quest to find the root of human existence motivated by her own inability to conceive and create life? You know, because all women desperately want to spawn and become slightly hysterical when they can’t.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t good things about Prometheus; it is a highly watchable but flawed spectacle. Visually it’s fantastic, and with a lesser cast the clunky dialogue would have completely overwhelmed the entire picture but they all do their best, even those there to provide little more than a body count. There are also a few great squishy slimy moments that did genuinely make my skin crawl, even if it isn’t as outright scary as Alien. Ultimately the success of Alien was that it was claustrophobic and it very much centred on the here and now, whereas Prometheus gets bogged down by asking too many big questions that ultimately never really get answered due to the lack of narrative focus and a muddled script.

Perhaps without such high expectations and the shadow of one of the best sci-fi horror films ever made looming over it Prometheus would have been a more enjoyable experience for me, but after a first viewing I was left disappointed. Even for a piece of genre filmmaking where it is often easy to let things go unexplained there were just too many monstrously gigantic plot holes and inexplicable character motivations to satisfy me. Undoubtedly it’s still one of the best big budget studio pictures of the summer, it’s just not what I was expecting or particularly wanted. Who knows, maybe it will improve over time with multiple viewings; after all, Blade Runner didn’t do so well commercially and critically upon release, and we all love that now…

Prometheus is currently on general release in the UK and arrives in US cinemas on 8 June.

Review by Ben Bussey

Learn that The House is a Thai horror movie from 2007 that’s only just getting a Region 2 DVD release now, and you’d be forgiven for coming in with low expectations. Finding out it’s a ghost story may well inspire even less confidence; J-horror and the many far eastern imitations that have come in its wake have long since grown painfully overfamiliar. All things considered, it’s no surprise that The House doesn’t exactly raise the roof. Still, it’s by no means the worst film of its kind, and it does manage to add a few relative twists to the tried-and-tested formula. 

Workaholic roving reporter Shalinee (Inthira Chaloenpura) specialises in TV news stories on drug addicts, child prostitution; all those kind of cheery ‘and finally’ items. Her latest commission at first seems typically gloomy enough, digging up the case of a doctor put away for murdering his wife six years earlier. However, her research uncovers some eerie parallels between that murder and two others from decades earlier, all of which occurred in the same house. Of course the locals warn her against investigating the abandoned abode – don’t recall an old straw-chewing man grumbling “it’s got a death curse,” but I’m sure there was some Thai equivalent of that – but of course this doesn’t keep her from taking a peek. Big mistake, naturally. Would it surprise you if I said a dark-haired, white skinned phantom woman soon pops up? And innumerable instances of Shalinee experiencing horrifying visions, only to wake suddenly in an empty room? (Truly, I lost count of the number of times they pulled that trick…)

To be fair, The House isn’t a completely by-the-numbers J-horror replica. Instead, it goes more into Shining/Amityville territory, insomuch as the haunting manifests itself as much psychologically as physically; it’s less a haunted house than a haunted people film. The relationship between Shalinee and her husband is already under strain, as her career focus runs contrary to his more old-fashioned feelings that the menfolk should provide whilst womenfolk should stay home and have babies. Once the presence that haunts the titular house takes hold of our protagonists, it isn’t only in the shape of big black spectres, but in emotions, as the husband’s anxieties grow into an obsessive, violent jealousy. Perhaps there’s some comment being made there on contemporary gender relations in Thailand; either way it’s a theme that can certainly resonate with international audiences. It’s just a shame the film doesn’t really show us anything we haven’t seen before. Also rather overfamiliar are the prison scenes, Shalinee’s visits to the murderer being more than a little reminiscent of The Silence of the Lambs.   

There is a sense that The House is trying to be all things to all horror audiences. Whilst there are strong echoes of J-horror, there’s also a fair bit of splatter, hints of erotic thriller, and a liberal sprinkling of oh-so 21st century torture. Perhaps if the film took one of those threads and used it for all it was worth, the resulting film might have been more noteworthy. Unfortunately, it’s just another middle of the road mid-budget chiller which, while not exactly bad, just isn’t enough to warrant a recommendation.  

The House is out on Region 2 DVD on 4th June, from MVM.

Review by Ben Bussey

Certain key things may come to mind when we mention Cuba: missile crisis, cigars, Buena Vista Social Club… but, to date, zombie movies probably wouldn’t pop up on that list. Well, they do now, thanks to writer/director Alejandro Brugués, who brings us what is said to be the first ever Cuban horror film (a statement I can neither confirm nor refute, owing to my previously hinted-at ignorance of most things Cuban). Now, as JC DeLeon said in his review from last year’s Fantastic Fest, there may be a gut impulse on hearing the title to dismiss Juan of the Dead as yet another run-of-the-mill copycat of that certain other zombie comedy whose name we need not mention (not out of any disdain for the film itself, but simply because it gets mentioned in reference to every bloody comedy horror film that comes along these days; and anyway, in the case of Juan of the Dead it’s particularly obvious given there’s only about two letters difference in the title). We might also be put off by a sense of zombie exhaustion; the living dead have been painfully ubiquitous this past decade, on screens both big and small, in gaming and in print. It feels as though one in every three new horror films of late has had a title ending ‘- of the Dead,’ and the bulk of them have been considerably less than stellar (Diary, anyone…?) In this climate, and given that it’s reputedly the first film of its kind to be produced in its country, it would be easy indeed to view Juan of the Dead as nothing more than a novelty.

Well folks, you can cast those anxieties aside. Juan of the Dead is a truly masterful comedy horror, almost certainly the finest there has been since… that other one. It’s charming, witty, engaging, and dependent on your temperament it may very well have you barking with laughter from start to finish. Sure, the film may be self-consciously designed to play to international audiences with its plentiful nods to pop culture – it’s very self-aware of its zombie movie heritage, nodding to many of the greats without lapsing into Scream-esque smugness – but it also wears its unique national identity on its sleeve. As Keri remarked after the screening at York City Screen, it tells us more about modern life in Cuba than the news ever does, in Britain at least.

Right, synopsis time: our hero Juan (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) and his best mate Lazaro (Jorge Molina) are fortysomething layabouts who live their lives a bottle at a time, scraping a living by petty crime with the aid of drag queen China (Jazz Vilá), gentle giant Primo (Eliecer Ramírez) and Lazaro’s son California (Andros Perugorría). They’ve got the sun, the sea, the sauce, and even the odd bit of illicit sex, but anyone can tell Juan is less than content. For starters, his wife has long since left him, and his daughter Camila (Andrea Duro) wants nothing to do with him. However, opportunity sometimes presents itself in unexpected ways, such as when the town – and, it seems, the whole of Cuba – gets overrun by what the media call ‘dissidents,’ who seem to bear all the hallmarks of being dead, aside from the fact that they still move and they try to eat the living. Ever the entrepreneur, Juan spots a gap in the market, and puts his crew in business as zombie killers for hire. But despite their best efforts, it soon becomes clear that the ‘dissidents’ are in the majority, and the only option may be to escape.

As with most modern zombie movies, no efforts are made here to re-invent the wheel narrative-wise. The classic set-up is used as the jumping off point, and the film lives or dies on its performances, gags and set-pieces. Happily, all of these are of a very high standard indeed. No, it’s never remotely scary, but that isn’t necessarily the point in a film of this nature; the emphasis instead is squarely on having fun. And boy, is it fun. The confrontations between Juan and co. and the walking dead get progressively more ridiculous, the gang revelling in their new line of work, honing their zombie-killing skills until they border on the superhuman; which, in the case of Juan and Lazaro, is just hilarious due to how completely unlike action heroes they look, with de Villegas’s gangly, skinny frame and Molina’s proudly framed middle-aged spread. Even in the case of the younger and more physically impressive members of the team, there’s plenty of humour in the little character quirks, like the imposing Primo going faint at the sight of blood, and California being so vain he changes shirts mid-battle scene. There’s a wonderful chemistry between the cast that really ties the film together, and I suspect this above all else will feed the cult status the film is sure to attain; they’re people you feel better for being around, and following their exploits makes the viewer feel part of the gang for 90 minutes or so.

Juan of the Dead doesn’t lack for emotional content either. The strained relationship between Juan and Camila, and to a lesser extent that of Lazaro and California, gives the film real heart; these are two fathers who want the best for their kids and know they have never really provided it. The beacon of hope on the horizon always seems to be Miami, and the film plays heavily on the internal conflict of whether to stay close to one’s roots, or seek a fresh start on fresh soil; that’s a theme that should resonate with many, Cuban or not. There’s also an underlying melancholy to Juan and Lazaro’s friendship; these men know their best years are behind them, and have doubts as to whether they’ve made the best use of the time. Happily, this side of things is never overemphasised, and there’s always a suitably ribald gag and/or a gory confrontation around the corner to ward off any burgeoning sentimentality.

It really is a near-perfect balance of the elements that make a great popcorn movie: thrills, laughs, action, gore, character, emotion, and even a dash of social commentary, all measured out perfectly. It’s even got a bit of sex appeal in its arsenal, with the odd moment of lad-pleasing nudity, and in particular the presence of Andrea Duro’s Camila. Shapely young Latina, vest, cut-down jeans, edged weapons… yes please. And I daresay those who prefer the menfolk will not be displeased by the sight of Andros Perugorría either. However, their presence does rather beg the question of what the mothers of these characters looked like, as we can be damn sure these kids didn’t get their sex appeal from their fathers…

Once again: ignore your zombie fatigue. No, Juan of the Dead doesn’t rewrite the rule book, but it does prove that there’s life in the old genre yet, so long as the filmmakers put in the right amount of heart, imagination and elbow grease. Alejandro Brugués and co have done just that, and their film greatly deserves the international attention it has gathered, not simply for the curiosity value of being the first Cuban movie of its kind, but for being a world-class comedy horror in its own right. Simply put: not to be missed.

Juan of the Dead is on limited release in UK cinemas now, and then comes to DVD on 4th June, from Metrodome.

Review by Stephanie Scaife

I was surprised when the screener for Catch .44 showed up in the mail, a flashy looking thriller sporting a relatively decent cast (Bruce Willis, Forest Whitaker, Brad Dourif) and I hadn’t heard of it. A little digging showed that Catch .44 was filmed in the summer of 2010 and had a limited US release in December 2011, followed by a straight-to-DVD release just about everywhere else. It’s described in the press release as a violent crime thriller with a bad-ass attitude and a killer twist. I’m actually still not sure what the twist is and I’ve just had to sit through it. Not a good sign.

Written and directed by Aaron Harvey, Catch .44 desperately wants to be cool and clever and ultimately it is neither of these things. It’s an odd little film that on the surface could be a reasonable way to spend 90 minutes of your time. Bruce Willis stars as Mel, a greasy drug baron who sends three of his girls to intercept a drug deal: here we have Tes (Malin Akerman), Kara (Nikki Reed) and Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll). Throw in Forest Whitaker as Ronny the psychotic hit-man, Brad Dourif as the local sheriff and Shea Whigham as Billy, another local hired hand of Mel’s, then you add a bunch of double-crossing and what you should have is a by the numbers heist movie. What we get instead is a substandard Tarantino rip-off that is almost entirely incoherent and pretty much just plain bad. I’m not the biggest fan of Tarantino to begin with, so when faced with a piss poor emulation of his work I could do little more than deep sigh and roll my eyes throughout the duration of the film.

The plot (I’m using this term in the loosest possible sense) is told in a non-linear narrative and the opening scene shows us a pivotal moment before revealing the events that led to it. The main body of the story centres around Tes, who we learn works as a waitress in a strip club owned by Mel. Upon learning of her unique pick pocketing skills he has upped her (and seemingly two of her friends) through the ranks to where they are expected to pull off a drug heist. They are given a time to be at a truck stop diner in the middle of nowhere, but when Mel doesn’t arrive on time the girls take things into their own hands and royally fuck things up.

Where Forest Whitaker fits into this is still somewhat of a mystery to me. Initially he’s a nerdy guy with a stutter, then he kills a cop steals his uniform and starts talking with a southern drawl, before later adopting a bizarre sort of Scarface Cuban accent and finally what seems like his regular talking voice towards the end. Now, why he does this was never entirely clear to me this could be because a) I’d lost the will to live and was no longer paying attention or b) the story was so incoherent that there was no obvious explanation other than he’s supposed to be wacky and insane. Either option is entirely feasible.

This really was a bizarre viewing experience for me. There were so many elements that just didn’t sit right, from the stilted dialogue full swearing that sounded awkward coming out of the characters mouths to Deborah Ann Woll’s lesson in how not to smoke. Seriously, has this girl never seen anyone smoke a cigarette before? She clung onto it like a 13 year old behind the bike shed at school trying to impress their friends. Not to mention that there is little or no explanation as to why anyone was anywhere or why they were doing what they were doing, which wasn’t aided in the slightest by the non-linear narrative that repeated certain scenes (shot for shot) up to three times throughout the film.

Catch .44 is a puzzling and entirely unrewarding film. One can only assume that either the end result nowhere resembles the original script or that Aaron Harvey has some serious connections in Hollywood, all of whom must have owed him a massive favour, because I cannot explain how this film ever came to see the light of day. It’s dull, derivative and really one to avoid at all costs.

Catch .44 is out now on Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray from Anchor Bay.

Review by Ben Bussey

There is the potential for something uniquely powerful when a horror film centres on the military. In a sense, these films get to the crux of what horror is really about: order versus chaos. The military – with its strictly regimented chains of command, codes of conduct and threat of force – embodies the controlling impulse, and when the shit hits the fan and chaos takes over we see just how little control we really have. This is particularly true here in The Squad (AKA El páramo), the debut feature from director Jaime Osorio Marquez. Far from the popcorn pleasures of such soldiers-versus-monsters flicks as Predator or Dog Soldiers, this is a sombre, enigmatic and often very tense piece of work that plays heavily on superstition, confusion and the horror of the unseen.

The Squad (which is not in any way related to The Monster Squad, in case you were on the brink of a nerd rage attack like I was) follows the misadventures of, funnily enough, a squad of Colombian commandos sent to investigate a remote military outpost with which communication has been lost. Things are too quiet, too little is known about what’s going on, and there’s a new Lieutenant in tow whom nobody knows. But while the external situation is tense, there’s no shortage of tension within the group either, with old grudges and personality clashes never far from the surface. It goes without saying that things are going to go bad, and when they do, those tensions will most certainly come bubbling up. But are there actual supernatural forces at work, or is it all just in their heads?

I’m in a curious situation with The Squad. If I’m being objective, I can find very little fault in the film, and yet somehow it never quite grabbed me. It’s not the direction, which is slick but not too showy, with a good eye for atmosphere and tension; many sequences reminded me of The Descent, given how the soldiers head into pitch black, claustrophobic spaces in which the only light is the one they carry and the only sound is their laboured breathing. It’s not the performances, which are of a high standard all around, with particular credit due to Alejandro Aguilar’s profoundly intense turn as Cortez, and Juan Pablo Barragan as the sympathetic Ponce (a name sure to gain a few unintended sniggers from immature British viewers like myself). The camerawork, editing, soundtrack – they’re all great, nothing to complain about. But perhaps in a way that is part of the problem; perhaps mid-budget contemporary horror is getting a little too neat and tidy, not to mention overfamiliar. We’ve seen this same aesthetic countless times in recent years, in pretty much every French genre effort and a fair portion of those to come out of the US. Perhaps horror needs to be a bit rougher around the edges to really pack a punch; perhaps, for me, that’s what’s missing from The Squad.

Or maybe it’s in the writing. Trim the fat and the core premise is – once again – essentially the same as innumerable other horrors of recent years: a bunch of people stuck in one location, with danger both outside and in. The Squad does indeed do a very good job with this premise, with some really suspenseful sequences and a few instances of fairly shocking viscera (I am a little surprised this got past the BBFC with only a 15), but it doesn’t stop the overwhelming feeling of been-there done-that. The good news, though, is that The Squad should serve as a great calling card for Jaime Osorio Marquez. While this particular film may be lacking that certain something to make it really great, there’s no doubt in my mind that this is a director from whom we can expect great things. There’s an intensity and sophistication here to rival that of Neil Marshall or Alexandre Aja on their best days. Let’s just hope Marquez doesn’t get sucked into the Hollywood remake game.

On which note – woah, pull me up a chair – there’s already an English language remake of The Squad in the works.

The Squad is released to Region 2 DVD on 18th June, from Momentum Pictures.

Review by Ben Bussey

Don’t you just love it when the hype proves true?

To an extent, reviewing The Raid seems a bit arbitrary right now. There are already countless reviews out there, and while I’ve tried not to read too many I get the impression that what I say here will not diverge greatly from what most are saying elsewhere. Even so, I saw The Raid in a screen where the number of audience members didn’t even reach double figures. On its recent US cinema release (where for some reason the title was accentuated with a colon and the word ‘Redemption’), it only made a little over $4 million. Sure, a lot of that audience disinterest can most likely be attributed to subtitle-phobia, but historically a strong enough critical reaction and word of mouth can overcome this; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for instance, which made more in its opening weekend than The Raid has to date. So, while the converted may well be preaching, the chorus is clearly not yet loud enough. One more voice certainly can’t hurt. So here goes…

The Raid is every bit as good as they say.

Assault on Precinct 13, Die Hard, and the innumerable imitators of both have long since demonstrated that the action movie – a model typically defined by scale and spectacle – is actually at its most effective when pared down to a simple premise and sparse, or indeed singular locations. By keeping things intimate, you feel the impact that much more. Every punch, every kick, every bullet wound: it matters, and it hurts. And all the more so if the audience has forged a bond with those in the line of fire. Now, this bond doesn’t require the kind of overwritten, overacted monologues Stallone was so keen on dropping into his movies to convey the illusion of depth. It doesn’t require the sugary sentimentality that renders laughable the quieter scenes of many a John Woo movie. It needn’t rely on a gimmick, like the wire-fu that dominated early 2000s action. Once again; keep it simple, keep it tight, tell the audience all they need to know. The Raid does all this to damn near perfection.

Now, I wouldn’t for a second claim authority on the subject of martial arts (I enjoy watching them, and that’s about the extent of my expertise), but it strikes me that – just as Bruce Lee’s movies ushered in the kung fu era of the 70s, and the likes of Van Damme did the same for kickboxing in the 80s – The Raid is the perfect film for this age of Mixed Martial Arts. Now, before anyone corrects me I realise this is not in the strictest sense an MMA film – the principal fighting style here is the Indonesian martial art silat – but what I’m really talking about is a concurrence of philosophies. Just as MMA borrows extensively from in theory all the major fighting styles of the world, keeping what works and discarding what does not, The Raid takes much the same approach to action film history. All those little things that can sour a great action movie – those sappy Stallone speeches, or those horrendous John Woo love songs – are notable by their absence. All those moments that usually occur in action movies, when you think, “no way, they wouldn’t do that;” gone. Watching The Raid, you believe these guys would react the way they do. Some may criticise the violence as excessive, but it comes off as an entirely believable portrayal of how things would go down in a genuine kill-or-be-killed situation, and if that means gaining an unfair advantage by means of whatever weapons are to hand, then that’s the way it goes. Sometimes that’s awe-inspiring, sometimes it’s truly quite horrific; indeed, there’s little distinction between the two.

However, The Raid isn’t just the work of people in love with martial arts and gunplay; it is the work of people in love with cinema. Contrary to what some may think, lovers of violent spectacle are not all complete morons. They do not require everything spelled out in black and white, with clear-cut goodies and baddies and nothing in between. Gareth Evans and co clearly understand this, and they do not underestimate the audience. We are presented with protagonists who are often hard to sympathise with; supposedly good people who do some unforgivable things. Both sides, cop and criminal, are imbued with humanity; two-dimensional stereotypes are never settled for, even when it would have been easy (and perhaps even excusable) to do so. While the violent scenes are indeed abundant and relentless, the moments of silence between are equally oppressive. These people with whom we have just been thrown into the arena can, and invariably will, be cut down at any moment. In its own way, The Raid is close to a feature-length rendition of the opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan.

Even so, while The Raid makes a point of emphasising the true nature of violence, it still does so from a highly cinematic perspective. This is no fly-on-the-wall documentary; it’s high class filmmaking, slick without being overly glossy, expertly paced without getting showy. Much the same can be said of leading man, and surely star in the making Iko Uwais. While the man clearly has what I believe the kids these days call ‘mad skills,’ he still manages to have a certain everyman quality about him. In between throwing killer blows, he quietly exudes emotion, again without ever lapsing into showboating or sentimentality.

I could go on but I think you get the point. This is one instance when you really can believe the hype. The Raid entirely warrants the praise that has been heaped upon it, and if Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais do not swiftly become major players in action cinema as a result of this, it will be a great injustice.

The Raid is in UK cinemas now from Momentum.

Review by Nia Edwards-Behi

I wanted to like War of the Dead. I really did. The film even got me on its side right from the off-set, where the historical(ish) basis for the film is written on the screen, followed by the words ‘this much is true.’ How droll, I thought. How knowing! Alas that the film did not live up to this brief shining moment of promise.

Basically, the film is about Nazi zombies. Sold! The film even places these Nazi zombies in a very specific historical and cultural moment – an elite squad of American and Finnish soldiers attack a Nazi bunker in Soviet territory, and the men they kill come back to life. These zombies are the result of Nazi genetic experimentation, and as a result they’re also those fast, modern buggers that everyone argues about. Zombie pendantry aside, the film attempts to be somewhat serious in its depiction of the conflict and the, er, zombies, and really, that’s where its biggest flaw lies.

The film just doesn’t convince, either in its historicity or its horror. A great deal of the film’s run time is taken up with small-scale battles between the American and Finnish group of soldiers and the Soviet forces. Unfortunately, they just don’t make me believe in what I’m seeing on screen. Although the location shooting in Lithuania offers some wonderful landscapes, the battle sequences never really feel like they fit in with this naturalistic environment, and always therefore come across as blokes playing war in a field. This isn’t helped at all by the incredibly weak acting, which I can only attribute to the various cast members either acting in a second language, or putting on terrible accents, compounded by painfully on the nose dialogue. This probably shouldn’t really matter in a Nazi zombie film, but because the film seems to strive for such a serious tone, it’s quite jarring.

That the film also features three of my biggest pet peeves probably didn’t help, the first being CGI blood. It looks stupid. It’s not impressive. It doesn’t even look like gore, it looks like pixels. It achieves nothing. At this stage I actually feel that the most effective way of enunciating my feelings about CGI blood misuse would be to smash my face against the keyboard in a futile fit of rage, but I fear I may break my glasses. Second pet peeve is the god awful, incessant music used throughout. Think bland, movie-score strings, and that is the soundtrack to every single second of this film. There are moments in the film when the strings swell in some sort of emotional high-point, and all it did was confuse me because I wasn’t aware I was supposed to be feeling anything at that point of the film, which smacks of lazy scoring and lazy plotting. Perhaps my biggest personal annoyance with the film was the tokenest of all token girls. Introduced half way through the film, as the girlfriend of a friendly Soviet, her sole purpose is to be a bit scared for a while, before dying at the hands of her boyfriend after being attacked by a zombie, presumably in a bid to add ‘emotional’ ‘depth’ to the film. You know what? No. Just…stop that. Don’t randomly put a girl in the film if that’s all you’re going to do with her.

I’d say more about how the film progressed, but the film completely lost me two thirds in, to the point that when it ended, I literally have no idea what happened. As far as I can tell it didn’t really even have an ending, but I suspect that it might just have seemed that way because my mind had wondered. Poor form, I realise, but there was not a single thread to hold on to that would sustain my interest in the film – not humour, not talent, not plotline, not even Nazi zombies.

War of the Dead is released to Region 2 DVD on 28th May, from Momentum Pictures.