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Blu-Ray Review: Red Scorpion

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Review by Stephanie Scaife

New from Arrow Video and on its first ever outing onto Blu-ray comes Red Scorpion, a quintessential 80s action movie from Joseph Zito, he who brought us such classics as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as well as the exemplary Chuck Norris pictures, Missing in Action and Invasion USA. But here in Red Scorpion we have mighty man-mountain Dolph Lundgren as Nikolai Rachenko, a Russian KGB agent and “human killing machine” who is sent to the fictional African nation of Mombaka to aid Soviet forces fighting against an anti-communist rebel faction.

After a night out on the vodka Nikolai gets thrown into prison for disorderly conduct and finds himself sharing a cell with American journalist and resistance fighter, Dewey Ferguson (M. Emmet Walsh) and the rebel leader’s second-in-command Kintash (Al White). He allies himself with the duo in a bid to infiltrate the rebel splinter group and assassinate their leader. However, after failing his mission Nikolai is tortured by the Cubans and left to die in the harsh African desert. He is taken in by a local bushman who, by burning a giant scorpion onto his chest, shows him the error of his commie ways and the newly discovered promise of freedom soon has our monosyllabic hero leading the rebels to victory, mostly whilst doing a whole lot of grunting and wearing nothing but short shorts.


Although the film looks good, making the most of its African backdrop, and the cast all do a pretty good job of hamming it up, particularly Irish actor T.P. McKenna who plays a Russian General, this is a fairly nonsensical and predictable 80’s Cold War action no-brainer. Red Scorpion is neither particularly good nor particularly bad; in fact, I found it almost entirely forgettable and had to watch it twice (that’ll teach me to leave a couple of days between viewing and writing a review). Its good points are fairly few and far between but there are some decent, although often inexplicable, explosions and a bizarrely upbeat Little Richard soundtrack, but it never fully gets over its major failings, such as the unnecessarily long running time and the dull mid-section where nothing much happens besides Dolph traipsing around the desert doing a whole bunch of soul searching. Cue some hilarious facial expressions and even more grunting. Also, even after watching it twice I still didn’t really know what was going on half the time. This could in part be down to the butchering the film supposedly received at the hands of the producers who weren’t happy with the original cut.

There is a host of special features, as you would expect from an Arrow Video release, including: an introduction to the film by Dolph Lundgren, audio commentary by Zito, “All Out of Bullets: Dolph Lundgren remembers Red Scorpion”, original trailer, HD transfer of the film (1080p), collectors booklet and more. The interview with Dolph Lundgren was surprisingly informative; he discusses the perils of doing all of his own stunts (including jumping from a motorbike to a truck and being bitten by a hyena), spending 6 months shooting in Namibia in the scorching temperatures, not to mention having his water intake rationed so as not to appear “bloated”. It was far more interesting than expected and Lundgren comes across as gracious and often amusingly self-deprecating.

Red Scorpion is released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on 13 February 2012.

Film Review: The Woman In Black

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Review by Keri O’Shea

Good ghost stories are hard to find on film these days – and directors, I would argue, know as much. Of course, there are myriad reasons for the glut of endurance horrors we have had in recent years, but at least part of that must stem from the fact that it is far more difficult to scare than to repel. If in doubt, excruciating attention to grisly detail will win the day. This is a shame, because it is becoming tedious and it is a hell of a thing, as an audience member, to find something as vile as torture tedious.

As much as some very good films have utilised this type of horror, I am always intrigued by new films which break away from this approach and get back to what got me into horror in the first place – the thrill of fear. And so, when Hammer announced a new adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story The Woman in Black, I was quietly optimistic. Having attended an early screening of the film last night, I am pleased to say that my optimism was not unfounded. This is what I think of when I think of Hammer: style, well-realised period detail and a pervasive atmosphere. But, where director James Watkins really breaks away from the tradition of Hammer films which preceded his is by offering something else: the overarching feel of this film is of the malignancy of grief and loss, which lends something altogether more unsettling here than was ever realised in the gloriously lurid Hammers of years gone by. If any one word summed up this film, it would be ‘dread’.


In an early sequence which shows just how Jane Goldman’s screenplay differs from the structure of the novella, we meet young lawyer Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) and see the happiness of a marriage and the arrival of a young son immediately conflated with death; since the death of his wife in childbirth, Mr. Kipps has been struggling to support his young son, now four years old, and as such takes a job settling the estate of a widow in a remote village in the north east of England. Everyone he meets in the village there shows great reluctance to help him; the widow’s former home, Eel Marsh House, he gathers, has a chequered history and the village itself has mourned the loss of a disproportionate number of children – even by the standards of a remote community around the turn of the twentieth century.

Determined to complete the work he has been assigned, though, Kipps defies the villagers in order to go to the house itself. As he sifts through the many papers and letters there, he begins to piece together the unwholesome story of the house’s former inmates. But who is the woman dressed in high mourning he sees outside, when he happens to glance through the window? Kipps finds his rationality – already pushed to breaking point by his own bereavement, and his wish to believe that his wife is still near him – increasingly squeezed, both by the evidence of his own senses and by stories from the village. Eel Marsh House has not given up all of its secrets yet.

Firstly, it was a real pleasure to see something so quintessentially British on screen. We Brits have a strong tradition of ghostly storytelling, and the tale told here really did feel like part of that tradition. The locations – actually, four separate locations were used, in different parts of England – work extremely well, although to me, with the yellow stone and wuthered hillsides, this film is Yorkshire through and through. The period detail is well-realised and beautiful, too. The aesthetics of late Victorian England work so well as a backdrop for horror; the veiled women, the heady interiors, the mix of harsh utilitarianism and macabre décor…it just chimes. The children’s toys in this film could have their own genre of horror, in all honesty.

However, aesthetics on their own would never be enough. Nor do they have to be. Goldman and Watkins have sensibly avoided remaking the first, excellent adaptation of the story by Nigel Kneale, which holds a place in the hearts of many people terrified by it in the 1980s, instead crafting a ghost story with a strongly-realised central protagonist whose back story gives an impetus to all of his later actions. Daniel Radcliffe does a very good job here, and evidently wants to carve a non-Harry Potter acting career for himself by taking on drastically different roles. He’s talented; not many actors could communicate so much in such a dialogue-lite film, where looks have to tell all about the internal state of mind. If I was going to quibble at all about his casting, it would be to say that he is only just believable as a bereaved husband and father of a four year old son; course, life was shorter then, and people did marry at a younger age, but as Radcliffe is a young-looking person of his age anyway, he only just gets away with it. He’s an interesting casting choice, all told. Certainly, a lot of people who are fans because of the Harry Potter films may well find themselves going to see a genre of film they might not usually see, so this is one horror which will have a more varied audience than usual. How this will pan out, I do not know. We’ll either get a clutch of new genre film fans or people disappointed because they are madly in love with his earlier incarnation. The important thing is that his performance as Kipps holds an ambitious spin on a well-known story together.

And this is an ambitious spin on the story, make no doubt about that; as mentioned above, The Woman in Black has reworked the structure of the novella, but also, this new film shows the evidence of influences by other, recent ghost story films. These influences may divide audiences to a degree, because something which shines through here is the impact of J-horror. Now, this is in many ways unsurprising: although we have become jaded by the formulaic nature of many Far Eastern ghost stories in recent years, there’s no doubt that the best of these have offered us some truly evocative, creepy horror. Ring, in particular, has obviously had an influence on The Woman in Black – but not in the most obvious way which you might expect: here are no crawling, long-haired spectres. You will also see shades of The Orphanage here, evident, again, in the difference between this film and the original story. How you feel about this will depend on your dedication to the novella, if you have it, how much you enjoyed those other movies, and how well you feel the new influences sit together. For me, I was by and large pleased with how it all worked, although – although – the one thing which stopped The Orphanage being as brilliant as it might have been is repeated in The Woman in Black.

Where I would criticise the film is in its sometime-usage of rather ‘jumpy’ scares. It’s not minute-to-minute by any means but there are some…now, a little goes a very long way with this type of effect, and there are more than I thought the film needed. The scenes which really made my skin crawl, and it’s worth reiterating that yes, this film achieved that on several occasions, were the quieter moments. A figure glimpsed out of the corner of the eye…a child peering through a half-open door…half light and uncertainty really establish the scares here, and while a few louder scares up the ante, too many of these risk that palpable sense of dread.

Overall, however, this is a fine piece of storytelling. While I have seen the film criticised for Radcliffe’s emotionally-barren performance, I thought that it was exactly what you might expect from a very young man in such circumstances. Some slight flashiness does not detract from the pleasing English Gothic vibe of this film, nor does it take anything away from the dank, heavy sadness which casts its spell over the story and its characters. The Woman in Black is another score for Hammer, and proof positive that you do not need gallons of blood to make an impact in modern horror.

 

DVD Review: Bizarre Bulgarian Thriller ‘Zift’

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Review by Keri O’Shea

When editor Ben asked if there were any takers to review a Bulgarian neo-noir entitled Zift, I’ll admit it – I jumped at the chance. My knowledge of Bulgaria is limited, but I find Eastern Europe fascinating and the cinema I have seen from that part of the world doubly so, so I was looking forward to a familiar-yet-different crime thriller. The blurb which accompanied the screener seemed to promise as much; nefarious deeds, a jewel theft and hard jail time all gave me the impression of a slick, vigorous drama to come.

Well, whatever I was expecting, Zift was immensely different to that. In its favour, this was not one of those films I could just sit straight down after viewing and review – but if I was going to try to sum it up at all, I’d say it was David Lynch does The Shawshank Redemption. Yep, that’s what I said. This is a quiet but effective film which meanders along a strange path peopled with grotesques, using the premise of a crime largely in order to look at what happens to a man who has spun off his axis, and what causes him to do so in the first place. As such, and due to its visual style too, this movie is as much art house as thriller, but it splices together elements from several genres.

Based on the novel by Vladislav Todorov (who also scripted the film), Zift – using an ambitious time structure which spans twenty years between the 1940s and 60s – introduces us to ‘Moth’ (Zahari Baharov), a man about to be released from the austere confines of the prison where he has been incarcerated, wrongly, for murder. I was immediately intrigued by such an intimidating figure, covered in jailhouse tattoos and ostensibly supportive of the then-new Communist regime in Bulgaria yet with a copy of Voltaire’s Candide and a foreign dictionary. Whatever Moth’s ambitions, they seem to be to get the hell away from the Socialist utopia he espouses. As he prepares for new life on the outside, we find out more about his twenty year old story: his love for Ada, or ‘Mantis’, and his subsequent involvement with an attempted diamond theft with accomplices Mantis and the charmingly-nicknamed ‘Slug’, an underworld character with connections. Moth took the rap to protect Ada, but his ordeal is not over yet. Slug has risen through the ranks of the new regime, and believes that Moth knows the whereabouts of the (still missing) diamond: he has the clout to test his former accomplice on that score. Slug is a powerful man. Moth has nothing but the clothes he stands up in and a lump of chewing bitumen (the ‘zift’ of the title).

The interceding twenty years have just frozen a tragic course of events, and Moth’s freedom sets them in motion again. He still loves Ada, but wants only to see the grave of their young son (born while he was in prison) before he leaves forever. Perhaps it’s not as easy as that, though. Perhaps nothing is. Dazzled and perturbed by the new appearance of Sofia, where he grew up, Moth wanders from place to place, beset on all sides by nonsense anecdotes from groups of people who seem anything but his ‘comrades’ and by a feeling that nothing is as it seems.

There is a satisfying thread of culture shock running throughout this film, and a strong sense of place, from the Cyrillic text on the prison walls declaring, ‘No Work, No Food’ to the eating of ‘white jam’ in the first anecdote we hear, through to the names of new structures and the notion of chewing bitumen in the first place. Culture shock is not enough to sustain an entire film, of course, so how does the rest of the narrative here match up? Well, at first it was difficult to grasp the tone of the film; this is at least partially because I was expecting something other than what I actually got. The time structure moves backwards and forwards, going from severity to black humour, sometimes seeming pure noir and sometimes close to farce. After a while, though, I settled into the mode: Moth is detached from things going on around him, and by having him as the key character, we are made to be just like him. The use of a voiceover to give insight into his mental processes adds some clarity, but then Moth spends as much time noticing scents as he does rationalising his condition or understanding what to do next. He’s lost, and we’re lost too.

This is far from a pleasant trip, either. Shot completely in black and white, the noir stylings are done well, but even more than noir the pervading atmosphere of gloom, corruption, perverse hidden agendas and subterfuge does not make for an easy watch. The dark humour here does nothing to lighten this, either; you’ll notice one common theme throughout. That theme is, literally, shit. You can’t get too lofty when you’re made to listen to shit-themed stories all the way through the film. The term ‘zift’ itself is also slang for shit; perhaps you can make something simple or complex out of that and not be wrong. Whatever – as remote and addled as Moth often is, you do end up feeling for him, and even though the one ‘variable’ responsible for what happens to him is rendered a little too simply for my liking, the end sequences of this film are immensely gratifying.

This is not a movie for everyone. If you are anticipating anything ‘high octane’ from this, forget it. If you are looking for a Hollywood-style movie underlining of all the key themes, forget that as well. This is a quietly bizarre film, a mood piece, with a backdrop of politics which Westerners only know from the outside and a range of deeper significances which are handled obliquely. Zift is understated, then, but ambitious and absorbing, and certainly gave me pause for thought. That in itself makes me want to recommend it – but I do so with caution.

Isis/Euerka Entertainment release Zift to Region 2 DVD on 20th February 2012.

 

DVD Review: Inkubus

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Review by Ben Bussey

Ambition; perhaps both the most vital, yet also most hazardous attribute a filmmaker can have. If you aim high and deliver, you will vindicate yourself and by all rights should be applauded for it. However, if you fall short of the mark you may well end up the subject of a hundred thousand derogatory tweets, talk-back comments and message board posts. On the evidence of his debut film Inkubus, Glen Ciano is clearly an ambitious filmmaker. He’s hired Robert Englund as his titular villain, an apparently immortal demon who has been merrily murdering his way through history, and William Forsythe as a grizzled old cop whose first encounter with the demon many years earlier left him traumatised. So, with two genre heavyweights headlining the cast and nods toward a potentially epic mythology, Inkubus is clearly intended as something more than your average direct-to-DVD horror movie; a field in which most filmmakers seem content to aim low. Unfortunately, when pretty much everything else betrays the low-rent nature of the production, and the whole endeavour is executed with such a lack of invention or atmosphere, there’s no escaping the sense that Ciano and co have set themselves up for a fall.


True to form for a low budget debut film, the action takes place largely in a single location over a single evening, with a hint of Tarantino-ish jumping back and forth in time. Things kick off with a hospital-set birth sequence; given that this is a horror movie, you can make an educated guess as to how things turn out. Next thing we know the bereaved father, Detective Tom Caretti (Joey Fatone, who I can happily say I did not recognise as a former member of N-Sync), is sitting in a rubber room in a straightjacket, recounting the events that led him there: the night his police station was visited by Inkubus. From then on, we stay for the most part in the police station, where they’re operating on a skeleton crew in the process of shutting down (echoes of Assault On Precinct 13), and are subsequently unprepared for a guy to show up holding a dead girl’s head, claiming responsibility for hundreds of notorious murders going back centuries. Knowing his rights, Inkubus makes his phone call to retired Detective Gil Diamante (Forsythe), the one cop who ever came close to taking him down. Diamante readily agrees to come to the station, warning Caretti to expect the unexpected; and so begins a game of psychological cat-and-mouse which, naturally, will wind up killing most of the people involved.

It’s not a bad premise by any means, and it’s helped significantly by the presence of Englund and Forsythe. As a talkative demon with the ability to alter reality, Inkubus clearly isn’t a million miles away from Freddy, but Englund’s performance here is considerably more understated; he’s more of a quiet, refined, world-weary psycho killer, which feels appropriate given Englund’s obviously not as young as he was. Equally world-weary and even more grizzled is Forsythe, delivering every line as though he’d just sucked a hundred Marlboros a second earlier. I can’t imagine either actor would rank this amongst their best work, but like the best old professionals they give it their all regardless.

Unfortunately, barely anything else in Inkubus works at all. The supporting cast are bland, the story does not grip, and the aesthetics leave a great deal to be desired (insert yet another rant about how shitty DV looks). Less discerning gore fans may be satisfied, as there are a few enjoyably bloody moments; see the picture above. However, those hoping for respite in the form of T&A will be sorely disappointed, as while there are a couple of sex scenes – one of which features the very attractive though not especially compelling Michelle Ray Smith – it’s all strictly clothes-on. This, I think, indicates how Ciano is trying to avoid the usual pitfalls of direct-to-DVD; hoping to de-emphasise titilation in favour of real drama and chills.

Sad to say, he’s fighting a losing battle. Not unlike Noboru Iguchi’s latest, Tomie Unlimited, Inkubus is neither sophisticated enough to satisfy the erudite genre aficionado, nor is it enough fun for Friday night beer and pizza viewing. It is of course commendable that Ciano and his team have made efforts to go above and beyond the confines of their price range to make something that stands apart, but Inkubus simply isn’t strong enough in concept or execution for this to be the case. Were it not for the presence of Englund and Forsythe it’s hard to see many people being interested in the film at all, and even with them, the end results are frankly less than memorable.

Trinity X release Inkubus to Region 2 DVD on February 13th.

 

Blu-Ray Review: Punishment Park (1971)

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Review by Stephanie Scaife

Eureka Entertainment brings us the next instalment from their Masters of Cinema series in the form of the little known pseudo-documentary called Punishment Park, directed by cult British director Peter Watkins (The War Game, Culloden). After a poor critical response and with its tough, political subject matter ensuring distribution near impossible, Punishment Park received a limited release in 1971 before all but disappearing, only surfacing occasionally in academic film papers and on worn out VHS copies passed amongst those in the know. Now we finally have this excellent Blu-ray edition that has been lovingly transferred from a brand new 35mm print of a rare restored, negative kept in Paris, meaning that it looks and sounds fantastic despite having been shot on handheld 16mm on a shoestring budget with a cast of unprofessional actors.

Set in a near future dystopian US in the wake of Kent State and with the backdrop of Nixon and the escalating war in Vietnam; hippies, left-wing radicals, draft dodgers and all those considered to be an “internal threat” are arrested and put in front of an impossible tribunal. Led by right-wing government officials and the likes of an uptight and self-righteous housewife from an organisation called The Silent Majority for a Unified America (think The AFA), who when asked what she’d do if one of her own children were to be brought before the tribunal curtly states, “My kids wouldn’t do that, they’ve been trained differently”, which says it all really. This is an American future where you do as you’re told or face the consequences. In this instance the consequences are the choice between 20 years imprisonment in a maximum security facility or opting to spend 3 days in Bear Mountain Punishment Park in the Californian desert. Of course, the majority opt for the latter choice, thus unwittingly throwing themselves into a law enforcement training exercise that involves being pursued across 53 miles of blistering 100 degree desert with no water by a gang of trigger happy cops and National Guardsmen in what can only be described as an extreme version of capture the flag.

The film follows and intercuts between two groups of detainees who are being filmed by a BBC camera crew (narrated by Watkins himself). The first group, 637, are shown at the start of their 3 days in Punishment Park, whilst group 638 begin their civilian court hearings. As tensions rise in the tribunals and the reality of their fate dawns on both the detainees and the documentary crew filming them, Punishment Park quickly escalates to its shockingly inevitable and violent conclusion.

Despite its flaws, Punishment Park makes for compelling viewing. We’re never really given any insight into exactly how the documentary crew received such unrestricted access or how they survive when their subjects are seen at the brink of death due to dehydration; whilst the tribunal scenes, however impassioned, offer no real answers from either side of the argument, instead often descending into shouting matches that offer little in the way of variation and merely result in insults being slung from both directions. Even so, Punishment Park is still a remarkable film that really stands up over 40 years since its original release, remaining relevant in the post 9/11 world of secret prisons, Guantanamo Bay and leaked torture footage that we live in today. The pursuing group of law enforcement officers are led by the chillingly apathetic Sheriff Edwards (Jim Bohan) whose reaction of sheer indifference to being caught on film murdering the detainees in cold blood couldn’t be more relevant to what’s being seen in the media today.

If Punishment Park shocked viewers upon its initial release then it should outright terrify them today, due primarily to its continued relevance and ability to confront the contemporary viewer with the undeniable fact that things really haven’t gotten much better over the past 40 years and we still live in a pervasive society ruled by the 1%. Although it certainly does not make for easy viewing I’d recommend Punishment Park as a cult curiosity. It will always struggle to find an audience, but it is admirable in its intentions and Watkins is nothing if not a unique and innovative filmmaker.

As well as this being an excellent transfer of the film Eureka has provided a whole host of brilliant special features, including a 30 minute introduction to the film by Watkins, an audio commentary by Dr. Joseph Gomez (who wrote a book on Watkins) and a 40 page booklet with 2 essays and reprints.   

Punishment Park is released on dual format DVD/Blu-ray on 23 January 2012.

DVD Review: Tomie Unlimited

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Review by Ben Bussey

In another fortuitous turn of events, our Japanese Exploitation month sees a new release from one of the most eminent contemporary J-sploitation directors, Noboru Iguchi. Now, it’s a bit strange to sit down to watch the ninth film of a film franchise – itself adapted from a long-running manga series – when you have no prior knowledge of the property whatsoever. Such is my position approaching Tomie Unlimited, though as I’m given to understand it’s a reboot perhaps it doesn’t put me at too great a disadvantage. All I can say with any degree of certainty is what a departure this seems for Iguchi. Far from the Looney Tunes-ish excess of The Machine Girl and RoboGeisha, this is for the most part a comparatively sombre examination of how the bereaved family and friends of a dead teenage girl cope when she seemingly reappears alive and well. Of course, much nightmarish insanity ensues, and with it the kind of deranged gore we’ve come to expect from Iguchi and his frequent collaborator Yoshihiro Nishimura, here notching up yet another SFX credit on an already massive CV. However, as the overall intent of this film seems so far removed from the simpler shits-and-giggles approach of old, things don’t gel in quite the same way here.

Tomie (Miu Nakamura) is seventeen, beautiful, and well-loved by all, not least her younger sister, photography enthusiast and shrinking violet Tsukiko (Moe Arai). Naturally, it comes as a bit of a shock when, as Tsukiko snaps her beloved sibling, a loose rail comes hurtling from a nearby rooftop and impales Tomie, Patrick Troughton in The Omen style. Months later on the day that Tomie would have turned 18, Tsukiko sits with her parents at the dining table throwing the most uncomfortable birthday party imaginable (yes, we’ve all experienced plenty of those, but I daresay few so awful as this). Singing happy birthday and presenting a cake to that final photograph, her clearly shell-shocked parents invite Tsukiko to blow out the candles in her sister’s absence; and moments later comes a knock at the door. Yes, it’s Tomie, looking no different than the day she died, but without a scratch on her. I’d say she’s not what she seems, but then what does a dead person who suddenly turns up alive generally seem like…?

The influence of David Cronenberg has long been apparent in modern J-sploitation, but to date this has come across more in the gooey details of body horror than in the psychological breakdowns of the characters. Tomie Unlimited feels like an attempt to redress this balance, as for the first act at least the focus is primarily on how the characters react emotionally to the return of Tomie. This is at its most effective in the early scenes at home, where Tomie and Tsukiko’s mother and father are so overwhelmed with joy at their daughter’s return that they try to act as if everything is normal again. However, it’s fair to say this isn’t handled in the most interesting or unique way. As this new, dark Tomie bullies and manipulates her parents and sister, hinting toward incestuous desire, there’s no escaping the sense that Iguchi and co are – like so very many of their peers worldwide – on a mission to shock and disturb the audience.  Sure, Iguchi has handled sibling rivalry and grief before, but there was always a hefty side order of irreverent humour to wash the heavy themes down. Tomie Unlimited certainly has its bizarre excesses, as the seemingly unkillable title character repeatedly resurrects in progressively stranger forms, from the miniature to the gargantuan (CGI haters, ye be warned); and yet the overall tone is dour by comparison with Iguchi’s earlier works, and indeed that of most of his homeland contemporaries. No one was ever expected to take RoboGeisha at all seriously, but it would seem the opposite is true here, and the film simply isn’t intelligent or effective enough for this to be the case.

Again, given my unfamiliarity with the Tomie series, I may not be in the best place to really judge Tomie Unlimited. The temptation is there to say that Iguchi should simply stick to what he knows best, but I realise that’s not the best attitude to take; filmmakers can and should try different things, to challenge both themselves and their audiences. In this instance, however, the director fell between two stools, trying to deliver something darker and more emotionally intense than he is used to, whilst still delivering the kind of gory spectacle his audience expects, and the result is a half-hearted effort which does not satisfy in either capacity. Given that Iguchi has directly followed it up with Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead, I think we can safely say he’s gone straight back to the well.

Tomie Unlimited comes to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 23rd January, from Bounty Films.

 

DVD Review: Rogue River

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Review by Nia Edwards-Behi

If I may, before I begin to review this film properly, get a complaint out of the way. Whoever designed the cover of this DVD needs a pat on the back for having seen the cover for the I Spit on Your Grave remake and a big fat medal for thinking ‘oh hey I can rip that off for that DVD cover commission I got even though the image has got shit all to do with the film!’ Seriously, watch the film, and see how the woman on the cover actually looks more like Camille Keaton – never mind Sarah Butler – than poor Michelle Page, who actually stars in Rogue River, the film supposedly on the disc. I’d applaud them if I thought this was a genuinely exploitative attempt to cash in with the similarity; however, this just plain stinks of laziness.

Okay, and breathe. I could go on, but hey, it’s just a DVD cover, and luckily, Rogue River is not the junky rip-off the cover would have you believe. It’s nothing like I Spit on Your Grave, anyway, and while it’s not without several major flaws, it’s certainly an enjoyable enough film, in so much as a nasty little offering such as this can be enjoyed.

Rogue River begins with Mara (Michelle Page) hoping to scatter her father’s ashes at a riverside he would take her to as a child. There she meets Jon (Bill Moseley) who advises her that regulations state she can’t scatter remains in the river. Jon seems helpful enough, and when Mara discovers her car has been towed away, he offers to drive her to his house before taking her back into town. At Jon’s home, we meet Lea (Lucinda Jenney), Jon’s wife, busily preparing dinner. She instructs Mara to stay, and, as I’m sure every single person watching the film will gather… things can only go downhill from here. Jon and Lea are certainly not who they seem, and Mara faces great suffering at their hands.

The main issue for me, with Rogue River, is that it simply tries to do too much. By cramming in every single ‘ew, gross!’ revelation about Jon and Lea, the films risks becoming a little bit too pantomimic, and the monstrous acts they subject Mara to lose a little of their edge. Similarly, by subjecting Mara to such a variety of ordeals without fully establishing her as a particularly sympathetic character, it’s hard to be fully emotionally involved in the film. Kudos to the film for its inclusion of, y’know, an actual story, but it is sadly under-developed, which, given the film’s slender 78 minute running time, seems like an issue that could have been addressed. The pacing’s not quite right either, the narrative’s apparent second half seemingly slotted into fifteen minutes. Instead, we get kidnap! Torture! Incest? Torture! Sexual assault! Argh, incest! in a manner that’s not quite as punchy as those exclamation points might imply.

It’s certainly a film that ticks boxes, and, overall, it’s a watchable film. Michelle Page makes for a decent enough heroine (except for when she screams…that is one annoying scream), and Moseley and Jenney making a suitably sinister duo. Moseley in particular stands out, his more underplayed moments as striking as his more signature rant-mode. A few key moments fall a little flat, thanks to some not-quite-right-direction and, er, that scream, and unfortunately that includes the film’s bloody climax.  There are several plot holes and questionable character motivations in the film, too, but, all in all, these flaws merit an eye roll rather than a reach for the off-switch.

Rogue River is worth a watch, and won’t take up much of your time. It is released to DVD and Blu-Ray on 16th January from G2 Pictures; at the time of writing, the special features for this disc are to be confirmed.

DVD Review: Troll Hunter

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Review by Ben Bussey

There is a particular potency to films (or stories told in any medium, for that matter) which go to lengths to establish a naturalistic context, then introduce a supernatural element. When we are presented with a story world which we can swallow as real, it gives that bit more power to the presence of the fantastic, making the audience that bit more open to the idea that magic and monsters could truly exist amidst the mundane. The pursuit of this effect has arguably been the principle drive behind the found footage subgenre – well, that and the fact that they’re relatively cheap to make and easy to sell – but just how successful the films have been is, of course, open to debate. As I said in my FrightFest 2011 report, “So often the model seems little more than an excuse for filmmaking on the cheap, and it feels as though for every [REC] there are half a dozen Zombie Diaries. It was a pleasant surprise, then, that a couple of this year’s entries (the other being A Night In The Woods) demonstrated there may well be life in found footage yet. Troll Hunter to my mind more than lived up to the hype, proving not only one of the most entertaining first-person-camcorder films in recent memory, but also quite possibly the best monster movie since The Host.” Over four months and a couple of viewings later, I can happily say Troll Hunter more than stands up to this assessment.

For those who came in late: a trio of media students with a documentary to make have chosen an alleged illegal bear hunter known only as Hans (Otto Jesperson) to be the unwitting subject of their project. Mystery abounds wherever this man goes; he sleeps all day in a mobile home (or RV as y’all Americans call them) that is strangely decorated with odious herbs, whilst by night he ventures out in a heavily armoured jeep garnished with strange slime and what look like giant claw marks. Yet no matter how dangerous the man and his business may be, our young heroes are not about to be deterred. They follow him across rural Norway until at last they get a chance to sneak a peek at him in action, and the truth comes out in a moment which, convieniently, requires no subtitles: with strange lights and noises behind him, an anxious Hans dashes through the dark woods directly towards the young camera crew and roars, “TROLL!”

As great as the temptation might be to compare and contrast Troll Hunter with The Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity and the like, in a sense these are not especially relevant points of reference. Where the aforementioned found footage films and so many of their imitators would seem intended as cinematic endurance tests, promising (if not always delivering) suspense and scares of the most intense and realistic kind, Troll Hunter is more interested in provoking a sense of wonder. Witness the climax of the first troll confrontation; once the great beast is defeated, the terror of the students gives way to an almost hysterical joy. Learning that fairy-tale creatures are real gives them a whole new outlook on the world, and from that point on they can’t be dragged from Hans’ side. It’s easy to see why. Deep down, who wouldn’t like to believe that magical monsters actually exist somewhere in the real world? The armchair cryptozoologists, parapsychologists and/or Fortean Times readers among us will certainly find much to relate to. And, given how gorgeous the snowy woodland and mountain range settings are, I wouldn’t be surprised if the film does wonders for Norway’s tourist industry, and troll hunter friendly hostels pop up in abundance.

And yes, those trolls really are the ace up the sleeve. Found footage has long been open to criticism for how much it leaves unseen; yes, we can nod to Val Lewton, argue for the power of the imagination and the importance of making the audience do some work, but just as easily we can complain of a lack of imagination and invention, and an easy excuse for technical incompetence. Troll Hunter avoids this beautifully as, while the titular monsters are not onscreen all that often, when they are they are clearly visible and – no word of exaggeration – absolutely breathtaking to behold. It is here that District 9 and Monsters seem considerably more appropriate reference points than Blair Witch or the PAs; the astonishing believability of the creatures is only enhanced by how clearly low-budget the production is overall, by comparison with major Hollywood productions at least. Comparisons with Cloverfield are also easy to make, but happily the camerawork here is considerably less wobbly and nausea-inducing than in Matt Reeves’ New York monster movie, and indeed so many other found footage films. (I doubt I’m alone in saying the inevitability of motion sickness plays a large part in putting me off the subgenre. What can I say, I have a delicate disposition.)

There are of course sociological speculations aplenty to be made from this film, and how enthusiastically it has been received internationally. The notion of mythical creatures existing and religious beliefs having a real, quantifiable power is certainly an attractive one to many in these theologically turbulent times, and we always have an appetite for films that tell us our governments are lying to us, concealing secrets so huge they could change the world. But I hardly imagine writer/director André Øvredal or co-writer Håvard S. Johansen are overly concerned with such matters, preoccupied as they are with simply giving us something to smile about. That’s the key thing that makes this film such a breath of fresh air in this day and age, when near enough every new horror film of note is on a mission to shock and appal. When all is said and done, Troll Hunter is a light-hearted, even family friendly fantasy (a bit of bone-crunching aside, the 15 certificate is scarcely warranted) which is exciting, funny and captivating in a manner that harks back to the good old days of Harryhausen. To my mind, we don’t get nearly enough films of this kind; or, at least, not ones that are actually good. (I’m looking in your direction, Clash of the Titans remake.)

Troll Hunter is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 9th January, from Momentum Pictures. The disc boasts plenty of deleted/extended/alternate scenes, visual effects features, and the option to watch it dubbed into English for those of us who are too lazy to read subtitles and/or impatient for the inevitable US remake. Our friends at Cult Labs would also like you to know there’s a nice Fanhub site and a fun little Facebook game out there for your online entertainment.

End of Year Review: Ben Vs 2011

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by Ben Bussey

Right then… 2011. Okay. Man, these end of year reviews don’t half do my head in. There’s always a degree of assumption about them; an implication that the one writing the list has impeccable taste and saw everything of note that was released in the twelve months previous. This year more than ever, I know that really isn’t the case for me. Pretty much every end of year list I’ve seen online the last few days, including Marc’s, are filled with films I haven’t actually seen. The Bunny Game, Stake Land, Cold Fish, Kidnapped, I Saw The Devil, Some Guy Who Kills People, Harold’s Going Stiff, We Need To Talk ABout Kevin, Attack The Block; the list goes on. Why have I missed so many notable films? Well, as much as I hate to admit it, mine is not a life of traversing the globe gaining free entry to premieres and festivals, whilst at the same time getting free copies of every new DVD under the sun. Constraints on time and finances take their toll, I’m afraid. So while I can’t give you a definitive assessment of the very best horrific, ultraviolent and/or exploitation cinema of 2011, I can tell you about the films that stick out in my memory; my favourites, my least-favourites, and some in-between.

Cream of the Crop

Black Swan and 127 Hours

A couple of 2011’s best came to British cinemas in January just in time for the awards season. Both are fairly glossy mainstream fare, but in their own ways unusually extreme by studio standards, and bearing the identity of their respective directors like a badge of honour. Both films also boast powerhouse performances from their lead actors. Natalie Portman fully deserved the acclaim and awards that were falling on her like rain; under Aronofsky’s direction she gives an intense and layered performance, by turns moving, disturbing, and of course sexy as all heck, and she’s more than ably supported by Vincent Cassell, Mila Kunis and Barbara Hershey. Black Swan certainly isn’t the most subtle film you’ll ever see, but it sure is compelling viewing. Read Britt’s review here.

As for 127 Hours, it takes the isolationist despair of Buried and Frozen, but makes a redemptive, optimistic fable out of it. James Franco cements himself as a far more flexible and charismatic actor than I had previously given him credit for, Danny Boyle really getting the best out of him. Oh, and that scene: the skillfull use of editing and sound combine in an almost Psycho-like fashion, convincing us we have seen something considerably more graphic and horrible than we have in truth been shown, and damn is it effective. True story: my local cinema at the time had enough patrons passing out and/or being sick that they went so far as to caution everyone buying a ticket. My review is here.

13 Assassins

No, it’s not really a horror film, but it’s savage, visceral, bloody; come on, it’s Miike! What else needs to be said? The best men on a mission movie there has been for many a year, with all the requisite themes of honour and self-sacrifice present and correct, and truly one of the most exhilirating final battle sequences ever put to film. Read my review here.

Drive Angry

One of 2011’s most underrated, this deliriously overloaded shoot-’em up/road trip/Satanic panic movie was one of the best times I had in a cinema all year. Maybe it was 3D-phobia, or maybe it’s because we habitually expect every new Nicolas Cage movie to be crap, but I just don’t think people gave Drive Angry enough of a chance. Like Neil Marshall’s Doomsday before it (another one I consider hugely underrated), Patrick Lussier and Todd Farmer’s film does a great job evoking the spirit of grindhouse/exploitation without getting all nudge-nudge wink-wink about it the way most of them do nowadays. Cage is at his most droll, Amber Heard is at her most alluring, Billy Burke more than brushes off the shame of being in Twilight, and William Fichtner completely steals the show. It’s no profound groundbreaker, but it’s a great ride, and well worth giving a second shot. See my review at Ka-Boomski, and Kayley’s rather less enthusiastic take.

Troll Hunter

I’ve just written a DVD review of this so I won’t say too much about it here, suffice to say it’s easily my favourite found footage film ever, and the best monster movie in ages. Love it.

Tucker & Dale Versus Evil

Don’t think there’s much I can say here that Marc hasn’t already: it’s the most well-concieved, well-crafted, well-executed blend of comedy and horror since… I’m not going to say it. You know the film I mean. Let the comparison end there, as this is a film which really stands apart. Quite simply, it’s funny as fuck. Indeed, even disregarding the horror element, it’s almost certainly the best comedy of the year. Though I must also give an honourable mention to Deadheads.

Biggest storm in a teacup

Kill List

I don’t like playing the me against the world game, but this is one instance where I really did feel like a lone voice of reason in an avalanche of relentless gushing praise. As such, when Nia recently gave it an even less glowing assessment, I won’t deny I felt vindicated. Once again: yes, Kill List is a well made and well acted film, but the idea that it is some game-changing masterwork is absolute nonsense. It’s one thing to start out kitchen-sink realistic and slowly introduce elements of the bizarre; that’s a potentially powerful move, and for a while Kill List handles it well. But once the batshit finale arrives, it feels less like the natural conclusion than a misjudged attempt to shock. The result is a film which simply reeks of its own self-importance, and in spite of its many obvious strengths I just can’t bring myself to enjoy it. See my review from FrightFest, and Nia’s take.

One I’ve pondered most since writing it up

The Woman

Okay. I’m not saying I retract my review of The Woman. At the time of writing I have yet to see it a second time, so it may be that when I do I will be just as enthusiastic as I was when seeing it at FrightFest. However, no other review I’ve written this year has troubled me so much since. Now, I’m not saying we must automatically revise our opinion simply because others don’t agree, but when enough people that you know and respect take a radically different view on a matter to yourself it should at least give pause for thought. Such is the case here. The Woman has been widely derided as a deliberate attempt to court controversy, a film that seeks shock value for its own sake (much in the manner I criticised Kill List for just a paragraph ago); and honestly, I can’t say I disagree with that assessment. I was, I will readily admit, predisposed to enjoy the film, being that I am a huge admirer of writer-director Lucky McKee, writer Jack Ketchum and actress Angela Bettis, and in the excitement of seeing the film at its UK premiere I wonder if I may have been blinded to the truth. Looking back, while I recall a film that is beautifully shot boasting very effective central performances and strong writing (the utterly pointless teacher subplot aside), I’m at a bit of a loss as to just what the film is really trying to say, and whether or not it is really of particular value. But again, at this moment I have yet to watch The Woman a second time, so I am not disowning my original assessment just yet. Here’s my review, and for the flipside, Keri’s take.

Biggest turds

I’ve seen some horrendous direct-to-DVD tripe in my tenure at this site, but Bane and Curio have to be among the worst. That’s all the energy I’ll waste on the subject.

Biggest Trouser Strainer

The film overall is supremely depressing, but the physical presence of Megumi Kagurazaka in Guilty of Romance… mmmmmama. Fire at will, feminists.

 Golden Oldies

If I’m honest, I feel more qualified to talk about older movies newly released to DVD than I do new releases in general. I get considerably more time in front of my television than I do in a cinema these days, and in truth I tend to take more enjoyment from discovering some lost gem from the past than trying to sort the wheat from the chaff of today. Bad mix of metaphors, I know. Anyway, here’s a few of my personal favourite oldies released to DVD this year:

Savage Streets

Forget Bitch Slap, Hobo With A Shotgun, Nude Nuns With Big Guns and the like. All these contemporary attempts to recreate grindhouse are simply doomed to fail, filtered as they are through almost three decades worth of post-modern irony and the popularisation of media and cultural theory. If you want the real deal you have to go back to the source, and while Savage Streets came at the tail end of the real grindhouse era, there can be no doubt it’s the genuine article. Watch Linda Blair’s performance and it’s clear she isn’t playing it for laughs; she’s out to make a serious tale of female empowerment and revenge. But in the midst of so much hairspray, spandex, cock-rock and boobage, there’s simply no way to take this film entirely seriously, even with the harsh and unpleasant rape scene. 80s sleaze at its finest, and my favourite release from Arrow Video all year. Here’s my review.

The Fiend 

Though I can’t understand why Odeon Entertainment didn’t release this under the considerably better title Beware My Brethren, this has to be one of the best British horror films of the 70s that barely anyone has ever heard of. It also gives considerable weight to the argument that Britain invented the slasher genre, given Peeping Tom, Hammer’s Hands of the Ripper, and this film, in which a hen-pecked son raised fundamentalist Christian takes it upon himself to dish out God’s own justice on the sinners of London, the pretty young women in particular. While it’s not without its camp appeal (witness the inclusion of its trailer in the recent Grindhouse Trailer Classics 3), on the whole The Fiend really does hold up well. Check it out if you get the chance. Here’s my review.

Virgin Witch and The Cheerleaders/Revenge of the Cheerleaders

 Yes, it’s been a pretty good year for 70s sexploitation on DVD, and I’m not ashamed to say I greeted them with open arms, not to mention an open fly… ahem. Odeon Entertainment’s release Virgin Witch is probably the most appropriate for this site, what with it having a horror element and all; an enjoyably camp and corny bit of Pagan-flavoured porn, about a young model initiated into a coven. The early 70s were, after all, a boom time for interest in all things occult, and given that it’s full of gratuitous nudity by torchlight in woodland clearings Virgin Witch is a pretty good reflection of witchcraft’s popular appeal. My full review is here. Dismissing all pretence of relevance to horror, Arrowdrome’s double bill DVD of The Cheerleaders and Revenge of the Cheerleaders is wonderfully unpretentious entertainment, bulging with innuendo-ridden dialogue, guitar-driven funk, soft focus camerawork and of course bare flesh aplenty. Yes, they’re sillier than a silly thing swimming in a sea of silliness, but they’re great fun. Here’s my review.

I think that’ll do. No, this is certainly not an exhaustive appraisal of brutal cinema in 2011, but these are the films that made the biggest impact on me, for better or worse. Make of it what you will. Happy New Year.

 

DVD Review: DeadHeads

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Review by Keri O’Shea

2011 has been a bumper year for horror comedies, it seems. At least, I’ve had the benefit of a pretty clear run of horror-comedies this year that have worked very well  – which is a nice surprise, as it can be rough terrain at times – neither horror nor comedy, fish nor fowl. So how does DeadHeads hold up? I went into this viewing wondering if my clear run was about to draw to a close, but knowing that Ben reviewed it after this year’s Frightfest and thought it was great, as did Kayley at Toronto After Dark. I have to say, I think that the ‘when’ and ‘where’ in this case goes some way to explain this very favourable verdict. Watching it alone, in December, hunched in front of a heater at home, I daresay I got something rather different from my viewing of the film.

Before I rattle on about this, here’s the basic plot. Mike (Michael McKiddy) has a problem: he’s just woken up alone, disorientated and amnesic in some sort of pod. Oh, and he’s also a zombie, although in this case this essentially amounts to a nasty skin condition because, unlike most zombies, he’s lucid, smart and not too interested in chowing down on the other white meat, not to mention the fact that he’s been shot in the head and is still going strong. After he escapes, he rambles around, trying to get a sense of where he is, and runs into another lucid zombie by the name of Brent (Ross Kidder). Gradually, they piece together a few things. Mike has been dead for three years, they’re in Colorado, and before his little accident he was about to propose to his girlfriend Ellie. As Brent opines, he evidently dodged that bullet and caught another. Still, they decide that Mike ought to track down the young lady in question because if love sees no colour, then it sure as shit isn’t going to turn a hair at a bit of putrefaction. Thing is, though, two zombies aren’t going to be able to road trip across to Michigan just like that; there’s a group of bounty hunters on their tails, and some sinister reasons why they ended up in their unfortunate postmortem state.

My first thought here was that DeadHeads was going to end up as some sort of post-Japanese body horror, which itself owes a fair amount to US 80s body horror, like Re-Animator, or else have a lot in common with interpretations of grindhouse classics like Hobo with a Shotgun; the bright colouration, stylised gore and cartoonish credits certainly put me in mind of some of these, but the movie didn’t really stick with this opening impression, settling into more standard road movie/buddy style humour before too long – zombies notwithstanding, of course. Not that directors/writers The Pierce Brothers neglect to pay homage to horror along the way; as proudly declared on the press release which accompanied my screener, the guys are the sons of Evil Dead SFX photographer Bart Pierce, and no opportunity is missed to nod towards that cult classic, including a bordering-on-nepotistic amount of footage from the film itself during a drive-in scene. It’s not the only movie reference, either; you might also note a mention of Dawn of the Dead, copious Shaun of the Dead scenealikes (although if anyone dares trot out the jaded suggestion that ‘this is this year’s Shaun of the Dead’ I’ll strangle them) and even a mention of The Goonies. Essentially, this is a film almost tailor-made to generate crowd-wide approbation at horror movie festivals. We all know the kind. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s a thing, and unless you’re prone to whooping at the screen in your living room, some of the in-jokes might be lost on home audiences. 

One more issue, though – it may well be that the film was at a disadvantage with me because of its similarities to another horror-comedy I saw and reviewed very recently, namely Wasting Away (2007), alternatively known as ‘Aaah! Zombies!!’ in all its badly-punctuated glory. (Read that review at Sex Gore Mutants.) In that horror-comedy too we had lucid, sympathetic zombies for protagonists, struggling to understand their plights and get to grips with the subject of love whilst dealing with, you know, being the living dead, most notably the fact that the corrupt living wanted to dispose of them. I realise that this is just poor luck on my part, but when you see two very similar movies in a short space of time I’m afraid it inevitably affects the experience of viewing the more recent one. The whole zombie motif is also so overused these days that unless absolutely everything else in the film is amazing, then there’s a serious risk of the film being less than welcome.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom for DeadHeads at all. The slapstick elements and gags here are often fun, to be fair, the pace of the movie is about right, and the characterisation is pleasantly overblown to a degree that the more folk you could get watching this, the more enjoyable it would doubtless be. It’s decently and earnestly acted throughout, too, and although it takes on the theme of romance in amongst all that zombie action, it handles that plot element just fine, neither too trite nor too involved in tone. This film didn’t rock my world, but it was okay, and the fact that the movie is endorsed by none other than Bruce Campbell will see it a long way, I’m sure.

DeadHeads is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 2nd January from G2 Pictures.

 

DVD Review: Kill List

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Review by Nia Edwards-Behi

Editor’s note: be warned that this review contains substantial spoilers. For a less spoilery (though not much more postive) appraisal, see Ben’s review from FrightFest. Alternatively, stop reading once you reach the picture of the person in the funny-looking mask…

It’s always pleasing to witness a British genre film gain some real attention and acclaim, not only from genre fans and critics, but from the mainstream presses too. Kill List’s many festival screenings and theatrical release brought with it a healthy dose of hype, which, somehow, I managed to avoid looking at in any great detail. I like to try not to taint my film experience too much beforehand with other people’s hyperbole, particularly when cries of ‘originality!’ and ‘shocking!’ are being made. Of course, despite my pretentions of avoiding all hype, that’s never possible, and I still watched Kill List expecting something great. Great, though, is not really what I got.

Kill List has many, many strengths. Its core performances are incredibly involving, lead duo Neil Maskell (Jay) and Michael Smiley (Gal) managing to make their monstrous characters compelling, though not likeable, which was key to sustaining my interest in the film, to the end at least. MyAnna Buring fares less well, for me, effective though her performance is as the shrill, irrational Shel. The film looks beautiful to boot, both in its cinematography and its editing. I would have preferred a more judicious use of slow motion, though, and the far more effective use of mismatched sound and visuals is a more impressive, albeit slightly over-used, conspicuous stylistic trick.

Up to a point, the film’s narrative sustains itself too, at least as an interesting thriller. However, from the outset the narrative’s over-riding similarity to another recent horror-thriller is absolutely, fundamentally distracting. Although certainly not plagiarising the earlier film, it hits so many similar beats, offers such similar scenarios that it’s difficult not to draw comparison. Where the film truly falls apart, for me, is in its ending. Now, to contextualise, I really enjoy a bat-shit insane ending, or a good twist, or a lack of closure, or a combination of these things. However, Kill List does not achieve any of these things effectively; its much lauded climax is less of a twist and more of a messy change in pace and tone that raises more questions than it answers. That the film’s climax is infuriatingly similar to the film it’s mimicked for 85 minutes adds insult to injury, and left me scratching my head as to what all the fuss has been about.

SPOILER ALERT!

It’s difficult to describe my problems with the film without explicitly comparing it to A Serbian Film. No, Kill List is not a controversy-baiting questionable political metaphor, yet it bears countless similarities to 2010’s enfant terrible of genre cinema. Change the professions from ‘porn star’ to ‘hit man’ and the basic narrative of both films is the same: traumatised family man who has come upon hard times is encouraged by a former colleague to take on one last job with a mysterious employer. The job spirals out of control, leading to chaos and tragedy.

Okay, so basic narrative similarity is an unfair criticism – such is the nature of genre anyway. But take moments from both films – touching moments between father and son, the sardonic former partner, the mysterious female double agent, the devoted wife, the dark underbelly of a respectable veneer (art/exploitation; politics/cultism) – and the generic narrative similarities start to stand out. But, as I’ve said, it is with the film’s climax that this similarity comes to a head, so to speak – in A Serbian Film, Milos, in his drug-riddled state, rapes his son. Sex has been his profession, his libido his tool, and here at the film’s climax it is put to its most horrifying use. The same, unfortunately, goes for Kill List: Jay, in his final hit, is forced, blinded, to a fight to the death with the Hunchback. Jay is triumphant, his years of experience as a hit man reaching their crescendo as he relentlessly stabs his opponent in the back. The leering, cultish crowd cheers, and the hunchback is revealed to be nothing of the sort, but rather his wife, who had been carrying their son on her back. Jay, using the tools of his trade, has used them in the most horrifying way imaginable, in the murder of his son.

It’s fairly evident that there’s a twist on its way with the ‘hunchback,’ but this jarring similarity makes for a particularly unsatisfying ending. There is no shock value left when it’s been done so recently and so infamously. It’s a damn shame, given as the film is otherwise incredibly promising as a thriller. It’s a film worth watching, and I don’t doubt that without the comparison point of A Serbian Film, it becomes incredibly stronger. However, personally, those similarities were overwhelmingly distracting and detracting. Regardless, Ben Wheatley’s certainly a name to keep an eye on, his stylish eye evident throughout the film.

Along with a couple of film commentaries, the DVD comes with a few interviews with filmmakers and stars, and a brief but interesting ‘making of’ comprised of behind the scenes footage, camera tests and FX details.

Kill List is released to Region 2 DVD and Blu-Ray on 26th December from Studiocanal.