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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.
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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!
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(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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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Director: Vincenzo Natali
Release Date: 25 September 1998
Tagline: Fear… Paranoia… Suspicion… Desperation.
Main Cast:
Nicole de Boer … Joan Leaven
Nicky Guadagni … Helen Holloway
David Hewlet … David Worth
Andrew Miller … Kazan
Wayne Robson … Rennes
Maurice Dean Wint … Quentin
This is one of those rare films that I stumbled upon by accident and found myself absolutely loving it. Seven complete strangers of widely varying personality characteristics are involuntarily placed in a seemingly endless maze of cubes, some of which contain deadly traps. We know only as much as the protagonisits do and as the film progresses we learn why all the different characters have been placed there. They have to work as a team but as the fear and desperation builds, the basic human survival instinct begins to take hold. It’s simple yet brilliantly clever, and you get a real sense of building tension and claustrophobia throughout.
Cube will leave you thinking about it for a long time after,and you’ll find yourself with a lasting feeling that you have watched something so unusual and clever that you will want to see it again.
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Director: David Fincher
Release Date: 18 May 2007
Tagline: There’s more than one way to lose your life to a killer.
Main Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal … Robert Graysmith
Mark Ruffalo … Inspector David Toschi
Anthony Edwards … Inspector William Armstrong
Robert Downey Jr … Paul Avery
This is a rather interesting film that is based on Robert Graysmith’s books on the Zodiac serial killer of the 1960s & 1970s. It’s a very atmospheric film that, due to the fact that the case remains unsolved, focuses mainly on the investigation. The murders are treated with respect and are not sensationalised in any way. I wasn’t overly familiar with the case before watching the film, and so I had no preconceived ideas as to who the killer might be, and how he managed to evade arrest and conviction.
The acting, on the whole, was good and Jake Gyllenhaal was, as always, excellent. My biggest gripe with the whole film though was the largely incoherent dialogue; the worst offender being Robert Downey Jr, who mumbled his way through the whole film and also delivered half of his lines through a cigarette. Fortunately though, his role is mostly in the first half of the film, and things do improve somewhat later on. There were also many times that the background noise and score were too loud, which resulted in difficulty in hearing the actors and made following the story very difficult. In a way, I shouldn’t be surprised at this, as I thought that the dialogue at the start of Se7en was incoherent too.
Overall, Zodiac is a well handled film that has left me wanting to know more about the case, and, despite the mumbling, I enjoyed it.
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Director: John Stockwell
Release Date: 21 October 2005
Tagline: Temptation is bliss.
Main Cast:
Paul Walker … Jared
Jessica Alba … Sam
Scott Caan … Bryce
Ashley Scott … Amanda
There are times when I like to watch a film with little or no substance, so I decided to give this a go. I liked Jessica Alba in Dark Angel, so that drew me to it as well. To be honest, I was expecting a pretty bad film, so I was pleasantly surprised when I actually found myself enjoying it! The plot is fairly basic and uncomplicated, yet with a bit of a twist, which is what you want out of a film like this.
It’s beautifully shot and, of course, Walker and Alba are very easy on the eye, so it’s a visual treat!
Into The Blue may not be an intellectually challenging film, but it is a very good popcorn movie.
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