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UK DVD Review: Bane

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Bane (2009)
Distributor: Saefcracker Pictures
DVD Release Date (UK): 18th July 2011
Directed by: James Eaves
Starring: Sophia Dawnay, Tina Barnes, Lisa Devlin, Sylvia Robson
Review by: Ben Bussey

Picture the scene I am about to describe; it shouldn’t be too hard to do so, as it’s a scene that’s been played out a great deal in the past decade. Four young women awaken in a blank cage. Each of them is in a basic bunk, clad in basic fatigues and T-shirts (but with mysteriously bust-enhancing bras; guess that’s standard prison issue nowadays). Most dauntingly for them, and predictably for us, not one of them knows why they are there, or what is happening; they have all lost their memories, and wouldn’t even know their own names were they not written on their wristbands. Soon enough, men in masks and white coats emerge, seemingly doctors of some description, and it becomes apparent the women are subjects of an experiment of some sort; an experiment which – yes, you guessed it – somehow revolves around the endurance of mental and physical torture. Can they escape before it’s too late? And just what could such a heinous experiment seek to achieve…?

You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I am seriously restraining myself from making this review one long spoiler fest, as the resolution of Bane is – to put it kindly – less than predictable. Suffice to say at this point, it has nothing to do with that big bloke who broke Batman’s back. Although if he were to show up at the climax, it would most likely seem more natural and plausible than the way James Eaves ends his story.

Let me put this to you: where did you stand on Martyrs? Pascal Laugier’s film was arguably one of the most polarizing entries in the recent torture cycle, with many (our own Marc Patterson and Britt Hayes among them) declaring it a masterpiece, whilst others (such as myself) remain less than convinced. I think it’s fair to say that where the film really split the audience was when it revealed the motivation behind the torture. I won’t launch into a debate on that subject here, but I will say this: if, like me, you had a hard time swallowing the Raison d’être of Martyrs, you will positively spray your beverage once Bane reveals what’s really going on. Seriously, it is an absolute howler, made all the more preposterous by the stony-faced seriousness with which the whole endeavour is handled.

Okay, okay, I’ll try to be nice for a paragraph or so… it is certainly commendable to see a microbudget horror film making efforts to subvert convention and expectation. Clearly a great deal of care and attention to detail has gone into the film, and subsequently Bane is without doubt aesthetically superior to many films made at this level, with effective music and cinematography. The cast, too, are giving every effort. The intent is clearly there to make a film that is powerful, moving and memorable, and the risks taken with the narrative are I suppose part of that.

But there’s a reason we call them risks; the reason being, if it doesn’t work you may well wind up looking very silly indeed. Eaves and co have certainly succeeded in making Bane memorable, but probably not for the reasons intended.

Yes, the writer/director is taking it seriously, the cast are taking it seriously, all and sundry are taking it seriously. There is not an ounce of intended levity in this film. And when you’ve got a narrative that hinges on a twist this ridiculous, you are setting yourself up for a major fall by taking such an approach. Michael Bay was serious when he had William Fichtner request to shake the hand of the daughter of the bravest man he ever met. Ed Wood was serious when he had the alien declare “your stupid minds, stupid, stupid!”

In case any of this is at all ambiguous – Bane is a terrible, terrible, terrible film. It’s so overlong, self-important, and (as I think we’ve established by now) so inherently silly that it winds up being the most laugh-out-loud bad horror film I’ve seen all year. Even so, it’s faintly heartbreaking at the same time as it is so clear that all involved were anxious to do a good job. Indeed, in the extras and behind the scenes footage, the director, cast and crew alike all come off as really nice people, which does make it hard to have to speak so harshly of their work. (Yes, believe it or not, we anonymous reviewers do have feelings too.) That it has taken over two years for the film to get a DVD release in its home country, and has been packaged with an utterly unwarranted caution label for its violent content (see the DVD cover above), leads me to suspect distributor Safecracker Pictures realises what a turkey they’ve got on their hands.

Still, all this considered, I can’t help but recommend Bane in a way. I can see it sitting alongside the likes of Troll 2 and Plan 9 From Outer Space as one of those so-bad-it’s-good classics. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a touch curious about seeing more of James Eaves’ filmography, just to see if it plumbs the same depths as this one. In short, if you’re looking for the next British horror masterpiece, look elsewhere; but if you want to indulge a passion for paracinema, you need look no further.

DVD Review: F.W. Murnau’s The Haunted Castle AKA Schloß Vogeloed

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The Haunted Castle AKA Schloß Vogeloed (1921)
Distributor: Eureka Video
DVD Release Date: 22nd August 2011
Directed by: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Olga Tschechowa, Arnold Korff, Lulu Kyser-Korff
Review by: Keri O’Shea

 An incredible ninety years old, The Haunted Castle predates what is arguably director and auteur F. W. Murnau’s best-known work, Nosferatu (1922) and also diverges from it in style in several ways. Originally adapted from a semi-successful Rudolf Stratz novel, it does have its share of feminine histrionics and a few great early horror sequences, but by and large it is a lot more sedate than Nosferatu or the also well-known Faust (1926). What we have here is an early ‘old dark house’ movie; it’s very watchable, but it’s perhaps more interesting for the glimpse it gives of film as a new medium.

As with all the ‘old dark house’ movies which appeared in its wake, The Haunted Castle sees a gathering of people who have secrets – secrets which will be revealed before the folk concerned can leave. Chez Vogeloed, a hunting party kept indoors by the bad weather are surprised by the arrival of one Count Oetsch; this isn’t just because no one invited him but because he was suspected, though not convicted, of the murder of his brother some years before. And guess who else is due at the castle? – The murdered brother’s widow, Baronness Safferstätt (The fantastically-overblown Olga Tschechowa) and her new husband. The Countess is understandably not all that keen to hang around once she finds out who’s there, but she agrees to stay when she finds out that a priest (and relative of her first husband) is coming from Rome especially to see her: she has one or two things she would like to speak to him about, after all. The rather put-upon Oetsch meanwhile professes to have learned powers of prophecy during his travels, and – as you might expect – he predicts trouble, in the form of ‘two gunshots’ which will occur while everyone is together. So, a nice relaxing weekend, all told…

 Would horror fans enjoy this? Well, they might, although The Haunted Castle is rather slower and not as quirkily engaging as other movies along similar lines – such as The Cat and the Canary (1927) with its more horror-attuned excess. This Masters of Cinema presentation certainly plays down any links between The Haunted Castle and the horror genre: in the accompanying booklet, there are two influential scholarly essays, one of which explicitly states that to identify The Haunted Castle with horror is a mistake. Compared to Nosferatu – also an adaptation of a novel, and one which got Murnau into hot water with the widow of author Bram Stoker – The Haunted Castle is much less ghastly, with hardly any of the Expressionist style sets used in the later film, and with the exception of Frau Tschechowa, the performances here are rather lower-key too. That’s not to say this is a naturalistic film but compared to some of Murnau’s best-known films, it’s positively staid. It’s just that film fans might find this more fascinating as a document in its own right than as a piece of entertainment – certainly as a piece of horror entertainment. This is high drama, but the horrible is kept to a minimum here.

 As a document, though, you get a glimpse of a relatively new artistic medium and how it is handled by an incredibly talented early director. So, for example, we have a film still divided into 5 acts as per a theatrical production, with actors closely choreographed and obviously unused to the concept of appearing on screen. We also have an array of interior/exterior shots and long and close shots which would put a lot of modern directors to shame. Here’s evidence of someone with distinct, ambitious ideas of what he wants to achieve with his cinema and, all thing considered, Murnau does an incredible job. This all comes across so clearly thanks to the staggeringly high quality of this version of the film, which must have been a real labour of love for the team responsible. With no fug of damage to intercede between us and it, this remaster appears crisp, vibrant and…very modern somehow, despite its great age. What we have here is a very proximate-feeling piece of history.

 The Haunted Castle doesn’t affect to be horror and has rather little in common with the famous vampire horror which followed on its heels, but it’s interesting in its own right in terms of what it does, rather than what it is: the excellent quality of this version alone makes it worth a look.

UK Blu-Ray Review: Brian De Palma’s ‘Obsession’

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Obsession (1976)
Distributor: Arrow Video
Blu-Ray release date: 11th July 2011
Directed by: Brian De Palma
Starring: Cliff Robertson, John Lithgow, Geneviève Bujold
Review by: Stephanie Scaife

Yet again we are treated to another fine Blu-Ray release from the ever expanding Arrow Video label. This time it is the turn of Brian De Palma’s Obsession, a lesser known film that sits comfortably within De Palma’s varied oeuvre, which ranges from the highs of Scarface to the lows of Mission to Mars. Ostensibly a reworking of Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Obsession is an overly melodramatic psycho-thriller that remains highly enjoyable and even a little surprising as it twists and turns to its completely bonkers conclusion.

The film starts in 1959 at the 10-year wedding anniversary of blissfully happy couple; Michael (Cliff Robertson) and Elizabeth Courtland (Geneviève Bujold). Disaster strikes however and on that same night Michael’s wife and young daughter are kidnapped and held to ransom for $500,000. A botched scheme cooked up by the police to foil the criminals ends in a car wreck and the bodies of Elizabeth and her daughter are never found. Fast-forward fifteen years and Michael is still blaming himself for accident and regularly visits the elaborate monument he has constructed in the honour of his beloved wife and daughter, endlessly obsessing over the events that happened all those years before. Michael’s long time business partner Robert LaSalle (John Lithgow, who gives a fine performance) convinces him to tag along on a trip to Florence, where he had originally met Elizabeth, hoping that by revisiting the city Michael may finally be able to find some peace and let sleeping dogs lie. Once in Italy Michael takes a trip to visit the church where he first laid eyes on Elizabeth and is shocked to encounter an restoration artist named Sandra (Geneviève Bujold, again) who is the spitting image his late wife. After a whirlwind romance the pair return to America intent on getting married, much to the dismay of Michael’s friends who think, unsurprisingly, that what he is doing is decidedly creepy.

Of course nothing is as it seems in this film and with one unexpected twist after another we are led to a scandalous finale, that admittedly I didn’t entirely see coming despite it being fairly derivative. So credit is due to De Palma who manages to keep the audience guessing all the way to the end. To give you an idea of what to expect try imagining if Dynasty and Don’t Look Now had a love child that grew up to be a massive Hitchcock fan – that’s pretty much Obsession.

Written by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull) but apparently toned down considerably by De Palma and the studio to remove the more controversial and salacious aspects of the story, interestingly Schrader’s original script is included as one of the bonus features on the disc, and if anything even with Schrader’s script subdued, Obsession remains a wholly ridiculous and hysterical film. Also contributing to the almost constant sense of frenzy is the score, composed by Bernard Herrmann, which although very good is about as subtle as a slap in the face. However, the excesses only aided in my enjoyment of this film, albeit it as a guilty pleasure.

Special features on the Blu-Ray include a brand new High Definition transfer of the film, reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork, a two sided fold out poster, an exclusive collector s booklet featuring an essay on the film by critic and author Brad Stevens, an interesting doc “Obsession Revisited” which includes interviews with director Brian De Palma, stars Cliff Robertson and Genevieve Bujold, early Brian De Palma short films Woton’s Wake (1962) and The Responsive Eye (1966) and more.

UK DVD Review: Strigoi

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Strigoi (2009)
Distributor: Eurkea Video/Bounty Films
DVD Release Date (UK): 22 August 2011
Directed by: Faye Jackson
Starring: Catalin Paraschiv, Constantin Barbulescu
Review by: Aaron Williams

Having been involved in film making myself, I know only all too well how much of a battle it is bringing your precious vision to the screen, especially when you lack the fundamental basics needed such as a budget. This is probably the reason why whenever I sit down to give one of these independent horror films a shot, I want to like them. How maddening it must be to pour everything you have into a production, maybe even mortgaging your mother’s house, just to have some stranger sat behind a keyboard critically rape your little opus. I like to think I’m way more forgiving than a lot of horror fans.

I approached Strigoi with a wide open mind and I’m sad to say this was one huge disappointment.

Nearly every recent vampire movie claims to have subverted the sub genre, promising us that if we spend the cash to see their movie, we’ll see something we’ve never seen before, only to let us down spectacularly. Now we have Strigoi. A vampire film set in a small Romanian village. Sounds promising, right? Wrong. Dead wrong. The vampire film has come full circle, returning to its homeland.

Vlad Cozma (Catalin Paraschiv) heads home from his studies in Italy, greeted by the strange sudden death of one of the villagers. Convinced something rotten is going on he begins to investigate, discovering disputes of land ownership with Constantin Tirescu (Constantin Barbulescu) and his wife. He confronts them and realises some horrifying truths, that will not only rock Vlad’s existence but those of the entire village too.

The Strigoi myth is an interesting superstition of the unmarried dead returning to life with magical abilites, able to change form at will and cursed with the thirst for human blood. I mean, if you’re trying to cook up a decent little horror tale from this, where can you go wrong?

The problem here is not only are all the old genre clichés gone, there are barely any signs of a vampire flick here at all. When you forget the film you’re watching is supposed to be a vampire film, you’re in trouble. Maybe this film shouldn’t have been called a vampire flick in the first place. Then again, how else are you supposed to market a film concerning Romanian superstitions of the undead returning to life with a thirst for blood?Perhaps the attention should have not been so set on the villagers but the Strigoi myth itself. The villagers lead pretty uneventful lives, the story seems almost starved of drama. This is pretty much a whodunit set in a backwards post communist Romanian village, seemingly convinced of it’s ‘kooky’ charm and understated humour.

There are pretty much zero scares and zero laughs, failing as both a horror and a comedy, leaving the majority of the film without a leg to stand on and me confused as to why it was awarded the Toronto After Dark festival best independent feature award. Did you actually watch the film guys?
I found myself wondering if this were just a overblown postcard from the Romanian tourist board.

It’s not very often I watch a horror film and end up this uninterested so early on in its running time. For me that’s the one sin all horror films should stay away from: boring their audiences. Just writing this review is a struggle as I found myself forgetting it way before the final credits roll. Strigoi’s pacing is so deathly dull I found it nearly impossible to focus and it will more than likely test the patience of even the most forgiving horror lover.

Strigoi is out on DVD on August 22 (and August 2nd in the US through Vicious Circle Films). If Romania or its folklore is your bag, give it a shot. If it’s anything remotely fun or scary, go do something else. Like watch paint dry.

UK DVD Review: Boris Karloff in ‘The Body Snatcher’

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The Body Snatcher (1945)
Distributor: Odeon Entertainment
DVD Release Date (UK): 11th July 2011
Directed by: Robert Wise
Starring: Boris Karloff, Henry Daniell, Russell Wade, Bela Lugosi
Review by: Ben Bussey

Here at Brutal As Hell, we do tend to focus largely on post-1970s horror. Indeed, I’d argue that contemporary horror fandom in general is most interested in that late 20th century era. Fair enough, as it’s the era that many of us were born into, and it’s also the era that saw the radical redefinition not only of our beloved genre but of filmmaking in general, where considerably less constraints apply. But as we need to remind ourselves from time to time, horror movies did exist before Romero and co, and a great many tremendous filmmakers worked within the confines of that more restrictive earlier period; and to an extent, those restrictions were made a virtue rather than an obstacle. And if we’re talking classic horror of the black and white era, few things sound more like a winning combination than producer Val Lewton, director Robert Wise, and stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. The Body Snatcher is by no means the best film that any of these men ever made, but even so it’s a very well crafted, gripping and atmospheric potboiler in its own right.

Adapted from a Robert Louis Stevenson short story, the action takes place in Edinburgh in the 1800s. The Burke and Hare murders are still fresh in the memory and cast a shadow over life in the city, particularly for the staff and students of the medical school. An ambitious but perhaps somewhat naive student named Donald Fettes (Russell Wade) finds himself awarded the accolade of serving as personal assistant to the renowned Dr MacFarlane (Henry Daniell). This position soon forces Fettes to confront an ugly truth about his chosen field; that while Burke and Hare may be dead and buried, their profession most definitely is not. Which brings us to the Body Snatcher of the title, a cabman named Gray (Karloff, naturally), who keeps MacFarlane in fresh corpses. Fettes can just about live with it when he thinks they’ve only been stolen from graves; but naturally that isn’t always the case. But as a complex power struggle plays out between the respectable physician and the lowly commoner, it’s not always clear who has the upper hand. After all, Gray knows where all the bodies are buried, both figuratively and literally.

It’s not the most unique or gripping plot, nor is the film stylistically anything too special. As a period piece, it doesn’t feel all that different from the old Universal classics, as opposed to the more distinct contemporary setting of Lewton’s more celebrated productions Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie. For director Robert Wise, it was only his fourth sitting in the big chair, and as such lacks the flair and confidence of his later work. But the key thing this film has that a lot of 21st century horror (particularly studio output) does not have is an emphasis on character, and great parts for great actors. Henry Daniell does brilliant work as the outwardly emotionless but inwardly tormented Dr MacFarlane, but unsurprisingly he is left totally in the shadow of Karloff. While his vague hint of a working class accent may seem a bit corny by modern standards, Karloff here is every inch the icon of understated menace that we know and love. Nor does it ever feel like he’s going by the numbers; this is one of the more mannered, sadistic performances I’ve seen from him, his grubby face consistently wreathed with a sinister leer, loaded with the promise of the horrible things he’s done, and the horrible things he may yet do.

One thing The Body Snatcher clearly isn’t, however, is another great Karloff/Lugosi collaboration. Ever since Ed Wood, it’s been hard to look at any of their collaborations without hearing Martin Landau roar, “Karloff does not deserve to smell my shit! That limey cocksucker can rot in hell!” On this evidence, it’s not hard to see why Lugosi might have wound up feeling that way. Karloff is in most scenes and has all the best lines, whilst Lugosi is lumbered with an utterly thankless role as MacFarlane’s handyman, popping up only a few times with very little of consequence to say or do (don’t believe the trailer below, which suggests Lugosi has a major role). That this wound up being their last collaboration makes it all the more bittersweet. Given that today we tend to hold both men on an equal pedestal, it’s pretty sad to see that Hollywood at the time did not treat them with equivilant respect. Even if Karloff was clearly the better actor; sorry Lugosi fans, it’s true. And Christopher Lee was a better Dracula, but that’s for another time.

This edition from Odeon Entertainment is a totally bare bones DVD: it’s Play Movie or Scene Access, and that’s all. But hey, for a film this old we shouldn’t anticipate all new director’s commentaries and cast and crew interviews. The key players are already dead, after all. No, The Body Snatcher is not on a par with Karloff’s Frankenstein, Lewton’s Cat People or Wise’s The Haunting, but even when they weren’t at the top of their game these guys were still far better than most. As such, this is well worth a look.

UK Blu-Ray Review: Tobe Hooper’s ‘The Funhouse’

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The Funhouse (1981)
Distributor: Arrow Video
Blu-Ray release date (UK): 18th July 2011
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Elizabeth Berridge, Shawn Carson, Sylvia Miles
Review by: Stephanie Scaife

Tobe Hooper is an incredibly inconsistent filmmaker; when he is good he is very, very good (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Poltergeist) but when he is bad he is horrid (The Mangler, Mortuary etc.) So I entered into The Funhouse with some trepidation, only to find myself pleasantly surprised.

Released in 1981 during the heyday of the slasher film, The Funhouse could so easily have been a forgettable paint-by-numbers affair, but right from the very first scene Hooper plays with our expectations of the genre. In an opening scene that borrows heavily from Psycho and Halloween we see a beautiful young woman preyed upon by a knife wielding masked killer whilst she takes a shower. It is revealed to be a fake knife wielded by her younger brother Joey (Shawn Carson) as part of an elaborate practical joke. Traditionally the opening scene of a slasher film would end with a horrific murder and provide a set up for the rest of the film, but here it transpires to be the film’s main protagonist, Amy (Elizabeth Berridge). This initial unexpected twist is the first of many, meaning that even the most jaded horror connoisseur will find much to enjoy here.  

Amy is about to go on her first date with Buzz (Cooper Huckabee) along with her best friend Liz (Largo Woodruff) and Liz’s boyfriend, the irresponsible Richie (Miles Chapin). They decide to go to the carnival, against the wishes of Amy’s parents. Once at the carnival they smoke pot, eat cotton candy, ride on the Ferris wheel and visit the fortune teller, Madame Zena (Sylvia Miles). All of these scenes work very well in setting up the film, there is something deeply unsettling and uncanny about the whole concept of the carnival in general and it is used to optimum effect here. Particularly in and early scene where they go into the freak show which the barker enthusiastically tells us contains “all live exhibits” including genuinely deformed animals.

Richie decides that it would be fun if they were all to sneak into The Funhouse to spend the night. Meanwhile Joey has crept out of the family home and has pursued his sister to the carnival. Whilst inside the teens are quick to get down and dirty in The Funhouse, taking advantage of their dark and atmospheric surroundings. Soon they are disturbed by voices coming from below; they peer through the cracks in the floor to witness the ride attendant, who is dressed as Frankenstein’s monster, paying Madame Zena for sex. However, after climaxing prematurely and demanding his money back, which Zena refuses, he flies into a blind rage and murders her. Shocked by what they have witnessed the teens decide to call it a night and make a run for it.

 Unfortunately for our horny teens, the only way out of The Funhouse would take them right into the path of the crazed Frankenstein’s monster – whose father, the carnival manager, has now returned and discovered what his son has done. Angered that the monster has killed one of their own he begins to beat him, during the altercation Frankenstein’s mask is torn off to reveal that underneath he is hideously deformed. Echoing the mask that he wears; a monstrous creature through no fault of his own with emotions that he cannot understand who ultimately, is a tragic figure almost warranting sympathy from the viewer.  

It doesn’t take long before the teens are discovered and they enter into a fatal game of cat-and-mouse with the monster and his creepy carnie father. Although not outwardly as gory as you may expect there are some creative death scenes that optimise the funhouse location as well as some great creature effects from the always fantastic Rick Baker. There is something of the carnivalesque about the horror genre as a whole, but rarely is it so literally exemplified as it is in The Funhouse.

 Our preconceived notions of the slasher film are subverted and questioned throughout – where else can we see our Final Girl smoke pot, fuck on a first date and still reign supreme at the end of the movie?

 Being an Arrow Video release the film looks great on Blu-Ray and is jam packed with special features including three different audio commentaries, interviews, Tobe Hooper Q&A, numerous featurettes as well as reversible sleeves and a collector’s booklet written by Kim Newman. The Funhouse is a welcome addition to the ever expanding Arrow Video Collection and I highly recommend picking up a copy.

DVD Review: After Dark Originals present ‘The Task’

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The Task (2010)
Distributor: After Dark Originals
DVD/Blu-Ray Release Date (UK): 11th July 2011
Directed by: Alex Orwell
Starring: Texas Battle, Alexandra Staden, Adam Raynor, Marc Pickering
Review by: Ben Bussey

See the picture above? That’s Texas Battle, the man whose stage name makes Vin Diesel seem down to earth, best known to the likes of us for his role in Wrong Turn 2 in which he defied convention by being a black man in a slasher who survives. (Apparently he was in Final Destination 3 as well, but I’m damned if I can remember; all the films in that series just blur, don’t you find?) Anyway, the above photo is him in The Task, trapped in a metal coffin filled with human waste. So why, you might ask, did I feel it was appropriate to open this review with an image of a man up to his ears in shit? Hmmm…

First off, I suppose I should give you the basic synopsis. A bunch of young wannabes – a glamour girl, a swishy gay guy, an intellectual, a tough girl, her pretty boy brother, and, uh, Texas Battle – find themselves forcibly escorted to an abandoned prison. But what we are at first lead to believe is an abduction turns out to be the set-up to the reality TV show that all concerned had earlier auditioned for. The titular task is simple; this 21st century Breakfast Club must spend the night in the spooky old house of correction, performing various challenges. It’s all being captured on camera, and behind the scenes the crew are rubbing their hands at the surefire hit in the making. But – pull yourself up a chair – things might not be quite what they seem…

Now, as the venacular goes, let’s cut to the chase. The Task is painful. Really. Every frame of it aches with the clear desire to break the mould, subvert expectation and revitalise the genre, and every frame of it fails miserably. The cleverer it tries to be, the dumber it comes across, and every attempt at a new idea it throws out has been done before, many times in most instances. Reality TV horror? Come on. The presence of Texas Battle (I just can’t keep from repeating that glorious name) underlines the fact that Wrong Turn 2 was four years ago, and certainly wasn’t the only horror to use a reality show as its backdrop: My Little Eye, Halloween Resurrection, and later Dead Set… I’m sure there are more besides if I had the willpower to wrack my brains on the subject. I could go into more specifics regarding the films from which The Task borrows devices – not least the pathetic twist ending, which makes no sense, and is shortly followed by another twist that makes even less sense – but I’ll have the courtesy and clemency to leave such things for the viewer to discover. Heaven forbid I rid you the pure experience of disappointment.

The other big issue with The Task – the other thing it tries and fails to do – is its attempt to conceal its transatlantic origins. So far as I can gather it’s a US/UK co-production, shot in Bulgaria and (the all-American Texas Battle notwithstanding) cast largely with Brits, most of whom attempt American accents; emphasis on the word ‘attempt.’ Among them is Marc Pickering. He’s a young actor I’ve hitherto felt twangs of envy toward; he got to share his every scene with Johnny Depp in Sleepy Hollow, and was nearby when Helen Mirren popped them out in Calendar Girls. No such envious feelings here, as he gets bogged down with a truly pathetic stereotypical gay character replete with predictable innuendos; note his complaints that their directions in the prison (“go straight, take a left, go straight” etc) contain “too many straights,” and when the contestants are required to randomly select a chess piece to designate their role in the game he winds up with the white queen. Nor do the rest of the cast fare much better in the cliched characterisation/lazy writing department.

Creepy clown faces pop up in abundance, so if you’re a real coulrophobe (thank you Wikipedia) I suppose The Task might take a strain on your nerves. For the rest of us, the only strain will be on your patience. Unless you take a perverse pleasure in enduring mediocrity (which, it must be said, is something the After Dark brand is coming to be synonymous with), this is one to miss.

And just because I can’t end this review without typing it at least once more… Texas Battle. What an awesome rockin’ name. Too bad the film stinks.

Review: New Hammer Horror ‘Wake Wood’

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Wake Wood (2011)
Distributor: Dark Sky Films
DVD Release Date: July 5, 201
Directed by: David Keating
Starring: Aidan Gillen, Eva Birthistle, Timothy Spall, Ella Connolly
Review by: Keri O’Shea

Ah, Hammer. I must admit that seeing that Hammer logo appear on the big screen – replete with a brief montage of classic Hammer poster art – was something special. It also brought back feelings of trepidation: in its most recent incarnation, Hammer has (in my opinion) made a series of bad calls. So, what would they have to offer with Wake Wood? Well, here we have a film which, although quite unlike Hammer’s classic horror, still heralds a return of sorts to some familiar themes: isolated communities, the occult and the impermanence of death are all explored here, though by no means in a way which is intended to be instantly recognisable as classic Hammer fare. Wake Wood is very much its own film: it’s understated rather than overblown Gothic, and quietly threatening, not lurid.

One year after the loss of their six year old daughter, Alice, Louise (Eva Birthistle) and husband Patrick (Aiden Gillen) elect to make a clean break, moving to the village of Wake Wood, deep in rural Ireland. They try to get on with their lives, but – particularly for Louise, who cannot have any more children – Alice’s death still casts a very long shadow over the couple. When Louise decides she has to leave the village, the chain of ensuing events introduces Louise and Patrick to the dark, secret life of the Wake Wood community. Yet within that secret life lurks possibility: Louise and Patrick are offered an opportunity to bid a proper goodbye to their dead daughter…

The phenomenon of occult rites in an isolated community, all taking place under the watchful eye of patriarch Arthur (Timothy Spall) suggests obvious similarities to The Wicker Man; there is the same sense of warped functionality within the village, a functionality which can be destructive to outsiders. However, Wake Wood differs from The Wicker Man in many ways: here, the outsiders are willing participants in the village’s rituals – rituals which are altogether more grisly, and presented in much greater detail than in the film’s 1973 forebear.

It is this level of detail, though, which provides the Achilles heel of the film. The intricacies of the rites themselves beg a lot of questions which go unanswered; some additional exposition would have helped to thrash out some of the inconsistencies in the film’s plot, many of which occur due to the unexplained nature of the village’s occult practices. A little explanation would have sufficed to contextualise these rituals and their interesting-looking accoutrements (maybe even just a few lines of dialogue from ringleader Spall would have done) without sacrificing the palpable atmosphere of unease which pervades the film. Again, in places I found myself drawing comparisons with other horror films – Dead and Buried, perhaps, and Pet Sematary to a point – but the atmosphere and tone within Wake Wood is quite novel. I never felt I was simply watching a derivative piece of film. At its heart, Wake Wood is an examination of family trauma, and this theme is pulled apart and examined in an intriguing – deeply ambiguous – way here, one which never delivers moral absolutes or ultimately passes judgement on a fantastical turn of events. 

The Hammer brand carries with it many expectations and also, I maintain, due to its pedigree, certain responsibilities. Happily, Wake Wood manages to combine a requisite sense of continuity with a sense of exploration, as it develops upon some horror staples in a muted, yet still complex way. As much as I adore the Technicolor style of Hammer horror – and I maintain that there is still an audience for period Gothic – I can understand that Hammer does not wish to be limited by past successes, and that it wishes to strike out into modern film. Wake Wood is exactly the type of project, then, that Hammer should be promoting – something which can be promoted on its own terms as an interesting project, rather than defended as a bad idea, or as a reason to get mired in suggesting that ‘all Hammer’s great horrors were remakes’ (which they weren’t). Although there are flaws in the plot of Wake Wood, it’s still a great, gripping horror film, and I now feel enthused and encouraged about future projects like The Woman in Black. More fascinating, enigmatic horror stories such as this would be most welcome…

DVD Review: Slaughter High

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Slaughter High AKA The Jolly Killer (1986)
Distributor: Arrow Video
DVD Release Date: 11 July 2011
Directed by: George Dugdale, Mark Ezra, Peter Litten
Starring: Caroline Munro, Simon Scuddamore, Carmine Iannaconne, Donna Yeager
Review by: Ben Bussey

Good afternoon class. Can I have your attention please? Don’t give me that look, I’m just as anxious for the day to end as you are, but let’s push through it shall we? Now I’m going to start you off with an easy question. Who here has ever seen Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace? By show of hands. Come on, don’t be shy about it. Okay, quite a few of you. So, those of you who did see it; who among you felt, as I did, that it would have been considerably more effective as a recurring element of a sketch show rather than as a full half-hour comedy programme in its own right? Did any of you feel, as I did, that its recreation of the badly dated production values, limp writing and weak performances found in the genre-based television of the late 70s/early 80s was only fitfully amusing, and that it didn’t take long to grow tiresome?

If you answered yes, chances are that your reaction to Slaughter High may well be similar to mine.

Now, it’s no secret that I like me some slashers. They’re that rare breed of film where innovation of any kind is irrelevant, so long as the requisite quota of absurd gory deaths, cheesy dialogue and gratuitous nudity is met. However,  this might just be me, but I don’t think it hurts if the material is approached with at least a degree of sincerity. The bad writing and bad performances should not be self-consciously so. They needn’t be trying to make Citizen Kane with a machete, but the viewer should at least get a sense that all those involved really want to make a good, solid movie. As you may have surmised by now, I did not get that impression from Slaughter High.

As it was made at the tail end of the first wave of slasher movies, it’s more or less a given that Slaughter High would feel a bit stale. Typically, it’s an adolescent revenge story that can be summed up in a sentence: a nerd who was humiliated and accidentally disfigured in an April Fool’s prank that went too far seeks revenge on those that wronged him by staging a bogus five-year high school reunion. (It may come as little surprise that the film was written and shot as April Fool’s Day – curiously, it even carries that title in the opening credits – until Paramount paid off the producers for the rights to the title before releasing their better known April 1st slasher the same year.) Taken on its own the overfamiliarity of the premise is no great problem, but add it to the other little niggles and it all gets a bit trickier to swallow. The real elephant in the room is the age and nationality of the actors. It’s again pretty much accepted that the bulk of the ‘teenagers’ in these movies are in reality a bit older, but this one really takes the biscuit. Caroline Munro, lovely as she is, was 37 when this film was made, and she looks it. That’s not a slur, by the way. Any straight man of flexible morals would still happily accept an invitation to visit the girl’s showers with her, but as Penthouse Forum fantasy archetypes go you’d buy her more as the sexually frustrated gym teacher than the promiscuous cheerleader.

But here’s the real kicker; though it tries to pass itself off as an all-American slasher, Slaughter High is actually a British production. This fact is abundantly clear almost immediately, as there is not a single convincing American accent to be found. Nor does much of the dialogue ring true-blue USA. Subsequently the whole endeavour feels like some half-arsed British amateur dramatics production of an American play. It doesn’t help that school setting and the surrounding countryside (brief though its appearance may be) also look about as convincingly American as Dick Van Dyke is convincingly cockney. You can dress it up as Mom’s apple pie, but it still smells like spotted dick with custard to me. (Yes, Americans, that’s the actual name of a British pudding.) And perhaps it’s inevitable that a film with three directors would feel a tad disjointed; just because it worked for Airplane!, don’t expect similar results.

Of course, none of this need be a negative. This enhanced absurdity may well boost the entertainment value for some, particularly given the death scenes which, even for the time, are notably lurid; take the mid-coitus electrocution, and the exploding stomach (both of which are briefly shown in the trailer below). Fans of the ridiculous should be happy as Larry, then. But, to bring it back to my Garth Marenghi analogy, to me it just feels a bit too knowing, too clever-clever nudge-nudge wink-wink. While it wears its 80s origins on its sleeve, in many respects Slaughter High feels spiritually closer to the (considerably inferior) 90s second-wave slashers, in all their ‘post-modern/ironic’ self-importance. It’s doesn’t skimp on the gore and nudity like most of those did, though, which I’ll admit does go some way to making amends.

The disc itself is another winner from Arrow, with commentaries, interviews and other such supplemental material in abundance, and the digital transfer of the film looks great. But still, were I to compile a list of the great forgotten entries in the first wave of the slasher genre, I rather doubt there’d be a place for this one. Check it out by all means, but don’t anticipate a lost classic.

UK DVD Review: Siren

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Siren (2010)
Distributor: Matchbox Films
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date (UK): 27th June 2011
Directed by: Andrew Hull
Starring: Eoin Macken, Anna Skellern, Tereza Srbova, Anthony Jabre
Review by: Nia Edwards-Behi

To say that the cover for this DVD is a little misleading might be a bit of an understatement. To say that it’s got absolutely sod-all to do with the film would be more accurate. Obviously aiming for a certain audience, Siren is a film that actually deserves better than pigeon-holing into a ‘cor, this has got sexy ladies in it!’ slot.

Rachel (Anna Skellern), our beautiful, somewhat coy leading lady, and her boyfriend Ken (Eoin Macken) meet up with old friend Marco (Anthony Jabre) for a weekend away on a borrowed boat in the Mediterranean off Tunisia. Their ideas for a paradisiacal break together are thwarted when they take on board a castaway who promptly dies on the deck of their yacht. In the middle of nowhere, they take his body to nearby island to discover a second castaway, the enchanting Silka (Tereza Srbova). Stuck on the island, the four hot-blooded companions find themselves in an increasingly paranoid, tense and deadly situation, as rivalries and insecurities come to the fore.

Siren is certainly an attractive film, both in its good-looking cast and its exotic location. Impressively, what could become something of a sleaze-fest avoids such trappings, and mercifully the cast put in some solid performances. The women come off best, perhaps with more to work with. Skellern ensures Anna just about stays on the right side of annoyingly earnest and sensible, while Srbova brings some impressive subtlety to a role that could easily have simply required her to look pretty (which she certainly does). The sadly late Andrew Hull directs the film with some flair, providing much of the film’s sinister atmosphere even in its ostensibly blissful setting.

I’ve seen the film a couple of times now, and I actually preferred it on the second watch. Some of the moments that made me roll my eyes the first time round – it’s not a film until some girls start kissing! – aren’t nearly so irritating upon rewatch. The reason being, quite simply, that Siren has a decently strong plot. Feeling a little like a horror film from the 1940s – but with a lot of added sex – Siren plays on a fairly universal sense of paranoia regarding relationships and self-worth. It’s refreshing to see a relatively low-budget film that relies on its story rather than elaborate or gory set-pieces. It’s evident that those making Siren weren’t willing to treat its audience like idiots, which makes for a very nice change. The film might not do anything too thrillingly new or original, but at least it does what it does with respect for its audience. One of the film’s highlights is the film’s most violent, some nifty editing and sound design making for a nice, understated moment of monstrosity. It’s a shame that some later scenes employ some very obvious CGI blood, presumably just to up the requisite gore tally. It’s worth mentioning the film’s excellent opening sequence as one that very effectively sets the tone for the rest of the film, the nuances of which become increasingly apparent on the second view.

The one extra feature on this DVD is some deleted scenes – mostly variations on what’s in the end product – which serve to emphasise the mythological aspect of the film, which I imagine was cut simply to make it less talky. A shame, but the film doesn’t really lose out for being less on the nose. As it is, it’s an interesting thriller that’s worth picking up – and not just for the half-naked woman on the cover.

UK DVD Review: The Pack

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The Pack (La Meute) (2010)
Distributor: Icon Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date (UK): 4th July 2011
Directed by: Franck Richard
Starring: Yolande Moreau, Émilie Dequenne, Benjamin Biolay, Philippe Nahon
Review by: Ben Bussey

It began like any other day on a bleak/remote/desolate country road in deepest darkest France. A moody emo girl burned down the road in her dirty old car, blasting metal on the CD player and ruminating on how miserable she is. Along the way she attracts the attention of some randy bikers. And then, for whatever reason, she stops to pick up a hitchhiker. Ah, what am I saying, he’s a pretty long-haired Frenchman, I know why she stopped to pick him up. Soon they stop off at a bleak/remote/desolate roadside bar named La Spack. Those same bikers show up, and confrontation ensues, but this is quickly dissapated by the landlady of the establishment, apparently also named La Spack. But just when things seem to be looking up for our moody emo girl heroine, it suddenly transpires that – shock horror – things are not quite what they seem…

Yep. It begins like any other day on a bleak/remote/desolate country road, and it ends that way too. It should subsequently come as no surprise that incarceration, torture and the consumption of human flesh follow in no short order. I would have opted to keep it a secret that in this particular instance the old hillbilly horror format is tweaked ever so slightly with the inclusion of monsters, but as this is made abundantly clear by the very nice Graham Humphreys cover art there doesn’t seem much point keeping it under wraps. And indeed, now that I’ve told you that there seems very little left to say on the subject of The Pack. It takes an existing formula that has been put to film innumerable times, gives it a few minor twists, but ultimately fails to take the audience on a journey that it hasn’t been on a thousand times before.

It must be tricky these days to be a first time writer/director working in the horror genre in France. Franck Richard has quite the standard to live up to. And while his film may look and sound very nice, and have some strong central performances, his efforts can’t help but look a bit pedestrian by comparison with those of his fellow countrymen Aja, Maury and Bustillo, and Laugier (and I say that as one who didn’t even like Martyrs very much). Not only that, but The Pack has the whole survivalist/hillbilly horror tradition to live up to, and again it just doesn’t stand up well by comparison.

There’s plenty that works. As previously stated, it’s all very pleasing aesthetically, and well-acted. Yolande Moreau makes for a good villianess, thanks to the way she approaches feeding people to the creatures that live in the earth with the same emotionless, workmanlike manner in which she runs her establishment. Also, for those like myself who know Philippe Nahon only for his turn as the nightmarish killer of Aja’s Haute Tension, it’s curiously entertaining to see him take on such a different role as the seemingly incompetent local policeman who might be more than meets the eye; definite shades of Colombo there. As for Émilie Dequenne and Benjamin Biolay; well, they’re young, good looking and French, so they clearly don’t have anything to worry about. Their characters are less endearing, and as such their performances are of somewhat less interest.

I missed The Pack when it played at FrightFest last year, and I can’t say I’m sorry. Subsequently I don’t think it’s one you should begrudge missing on DVD. Much as with such other recent French horrors like Mutants and The Horde, it’s not exactly a bad film; it’s just that I personally just can’t shake a feeling of overfamiliarity. Who knows, you may well feel otherwise. Stranger things have happened.