Certificate:

Director: David Slade

Release Date: 16 June 2006

Tagline: Strangers shouldn’t talk to little girls.

Main Cast:

Patrick Wilson … Jeff Kohlver

Ellen Page … Hayley Stark

I can suspend disbelief, and I can just about cope with a plot hole (as long as it’s not a major one).  But these conditions apply only to otherwise great films. Hard Candy, however, is not a great film.

It’s totally unbelievable and ridiculous. If you couldn’t give a monkey’s toss about realism, then you might enjoy this. It feels like it wants to be intelligent torture porn, but the reality is that it is neither. Having said that though, I felt a bit tortured watching it.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Christian Alvart

Release Date: 17 November 2006

Tagline: The Good is the Evil in it.

Main Cast:

Norman Reedus … Polizist Schmitz

Christian von Aster … Polizist Wagner

André Hennicke … Gabriel Engel

Antibodies is the thinking man’s Silence of the Lambs. It’s a quiet paced drama that gets slowly murkier and the lines between good and evil get somewhat blurred. It’s a far darker story than the above, and is, in my opinion, better. Don’t get me wrong – I really liked Lambs, but it was undoubtedly ‘Hollywood’. Antibodies is a far more disturbing experience. I like disturbing films. They really get under your skin and make you question not only life in general, but also aspects of yourself.

Can’t say much else really, as to do so would spoil the film.

It’s not perfect, but it’s a very good film and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Joby Harold

Release Date: 4 April 2008

Tagline: Every year, one in 700 people wake up during surgery. When they planned her husband’s murder, they never thought he’d be the one.

Main Cast:

Hayden Christensen … Clay Beresford

Jessica Alba … Sam Lockwood

Terrence Howard … Dr. Jack Harper

Lena Olin … Lilith Beresford

I really enjoyed this. I can’t tell you anything about it though as I don’t want to reveal anything.  Another pretty good solid performance from Hayden Christensen, and Jessica Alba is in reasonable form too.  I find Christensen brings a certain charm and warmth to his roles, and whilst he’s probably never going to win any Oscars, he’s one of my favourite actors.

Worth watching, definitely.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Frank LaLoggia

Release Date: 16 June 1989

Tagline: The year is 1962. The place is Willowpoint Falls. Nobody talks about what happened in the school cloakroom 10 years ago. Now, in the dead of night, Frankie Scarlatti is going to find out why.

Main Cast:

Lukas Haas  …  Frankie Scarlatti

Len Cariou … Phil Terragarossa

Alex Rocco … Angelo ‘Al’ Scarlatti

It’s hard to pigeonhole this film. It’s mostly a thriller, but the ghost story part of it gives it an element of horror, which I really liked. Lukas Haas gives a very good performance and easily carries the film. It’s a very good story and is at times genuinely creepy (I like creepy films – they’re always the best horrors).

It starts off a bit slow, and you’re not quite sure if you are watching the film that was described, but stay with it as it picks up the pace and quickly becomes very engaging.

Lady in White is not a brilliant film as far as thrillers and horrors go, but it is well worth a look.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Release Date: 21 March 2008

Tagline: A tale of love. A story of horror.

Main Cast:

Belén Ruader … Laura

Fernando Cayo … Carlos

Roger Príncep … Simón

What a masterpiece! I was totally blown away by it. I was expecting it to be good, but it surpassed all expectations. I am going to give absolutely nothing away other than it’s the finest ghost story I’ve ever seen (closely follwed by The Others) and you owe it to yourself to see it. Whist I’ve included it in the ‘horror’ category, if you don’t like horror films then don’t let that put you off. There’s a lot of unease and it’s very creepy, but it’s such a thrill!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Certificate: (Originally rated X)

Director: Roy Boulting

Release Date: December 1968

Tagline: Cleaver. Cleaver. Chop. Chop. First the mom and then the pop. Then we’ll get the pretty girl. We’ll get her right between the curl.

Main Cast:

Hayley Mills … Susan Harper

Hywel Bennett … Martin Durnley

Billie Whitelaw … Joan Harper

Whilst not gripping, Twisted Nerve is an enjoyable thriller with a strong performance form Hywel Bennett. It’s certainly a product of it’s time though, as it is now rather politically incorrect!

I’m not really sure how to review it as it’s fairly unremarkable. It’s just a solid British film that is certainly worth a look.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Matt Reeves

Release Date: 1 February 2008

Tagline: Some thing has found us.

Main Cast:

T.J. Miller … Hud

Michael Stahl-David … Rob Hawkins

Jessica Lucas … Lily

The tagline for this film should have been “The Chewits Monster is alive and well and trashing New York” (apologies if you are too young to remember the advert for the rather tasty sweets!). Actually, it’s more of a cross between Godzilla, Alien and the Rancor from Return of the Jedi.

This is a very messy film. It tries to be edgy, scary and full of suspense but fails on all counts. It’s also very unoriginal. It ‘borrows’ elements from many other films that are much better, such as the rats fleeing the danger (seen in 28 Days Later if memory serves), the Alien like creatures, the bridge scene (from War of the Worlds) and, most obvious of all, The Blair Witch Project.

Cloverfield tries to emulate TBWP, but where that film succeeded and this one fails is in the complete lack of growing suspense and tension. In Cloverfield we go from normal to ‘terror’ in about 30 seconds. I wasn’t really a fan of TBWP, but I appreciated its originality. Sadly, there is none to be seen here.

Another of it’s major problems was the fact that none of the characters were engaging or likeable. If you don’t care about the characters then a film is soulless. Personally, I’d have been very happy if they’d all had their heads ripped off.

Also, is it just me or does anyone else think that the collapsing building and subsequent dust cloud is rather tasteless? If I had either been in or lost someone in the 9/11 attack then I wouldn’t be deriving much entertainment from that scene. Don’t tell me that the film is an allegory for 9/11 – it’s not that clever.

What was this creature? Where did it come from? What were the little creatures? Why was this pile of crap commissioned? So many questions, and no answers.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: Brad Anderson

Release Date: 18 March 2005

Tagline: How do you wake up from a nightmare when you’re not asleep?

Main Cast:

Christian Bale … Trevor Resnik

Jennifer Jason Leigh … Stevie

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón … Marie

John Sharian … Ivan

I rented this from LoveFilm and by the time it came up on the list for dispatch I’d forgotten what is was about. Having known that I wouldn’t have picked it if It didn’t look good, I decided to just put it in the player and see what happened. What a great decision that was! Don’t read anything about it beforehand – just watch it!

Christian Bale is absolutely fantastic. The fact that he managed to turn himself in to a living skeleton for the role is a thing to behold in itself. The film is intriguing and engaging from the get go, and slowly starts to turn into one of those ‘headf**k’ films that you find yourself totally immersed in. Despite that though, you don’t at any point start thinking “huh?”; instead you feel sure that there *will* be a satisfactory resolution to it. And indeed there is. As you slowly start to understand what’s happening you get a great sense of enjoyment from the cleverly crafted script.

I shall say no more than this – watch it!

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Director: John Polson

Release Date: 25 February 2005

Tagline: Come out come out whatever you are.

Main Cast:

Robert de Niro … Dvid Callaway

Dakota Fanning … Emily Callaway

Famke Janssen … Katherine

I started out really enjoying this. It seemed to promise a lot and, indeed, it did until the climax. What could have been a well thought out film descended into a bit of a farce. If you totally ignore all of the plot holes that the ending brings about, then you’ll be pretty pleased with this.

As excellent as de Niro has been throughout his entire career, he has been totally outclassed here by Dakota Fanning. She is the undoubted star of the film even though de Niro’s name features (in true ’superstar’ fashion) before the title.

If you are familiar with my reviews, you will know that I don’t give away plot twists or endings and I am not about to start doing that now.

If you are looking for a finely crafted thriller, then Hide and Seek does not really deliver. However, if you are looking for a decent film, then this will more than suffice and it is all down to the superb performance by Dakota Fanning.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Certificate:

Directors: Oxide Pang Chun & Danny Pang

Release Date: 27 September 2002

Main Cast:

Angelica Lee … Wong Kar Mun

Lawrence Chou … Dr. Wah

I’ve removed the tagline for the film from this review, because it’s a spoiler for one of the most powerful ‘reveals’ of the film, and I don’t want to ruin things for you!

I won’t go into too much detail, because it’s the kind of film that you just need to watch without reading too much about it first (as is the way with so many Asian horror films).

It is a story of a blind woman who has a cornea transplant, and ends up seeing more than she bargained for. As it goes along, it gets creepier and the tension builds very well. Then it switches from being a traditional horror/ghost story into a story of personal tragedy and is very moving. The ending is fantastic and, I have to say, I never saw it coming!

Gin Gwai is a very well made and atmospheric film that will have more than enough little twists, turns and frights to keep you watching.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars