Tag: #horror

The Neon Demon

Cast

Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves

Directed by

Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by

Nicolas Winding Refn

Other Info

Horror, Thriller
Rated R
118min

L.A. looks like a cut-throat place for the fashion profession in this film. Elle Fanning plays a 16-year-old girl trying to break in by any means necessary. She’s willing to lie on documents about her age and hang out with dangerous people if it means a chance as a famous model. There’s some fake blood here and a startling wildcat that jumps by the window in the dark but neither of those things constitutes horror. You may be shocked by the ending but I doubt many would consider that a “scare” either. It’s more disgusting than scary. I’ll acknowledge right here that there may be intended metaphors and alternative interpretation going on here. I’ve chosen to not look into that. Mostly for the reason that the film made no attempt to explain it to me.

Keanu Reeves plays the landlord who appears to exploit kids. I thought he did a great job with his voice and movement. It was like he was a different person. That’s a sign of a studied actor. I think Keanu plays the same character again and again but in this one he is unique. So, if you’re a big Keanu fan, this might be worth your time. The celebrity photographer “Jack” is played by Desmond Harrington and he does a pretty decent job looking resolute and creatively twisted. Unfortunately for me, I binge-watched Dexter years ago and I got used to his character there night after night. I kept expecting him to call Jesse “Deb.” Amazon produced this film. I wonder if we’ll see much more of this from them. This film was a basic let down and bombed at the box office proving that hand over fist. The reviews have been polarized, mine unfortunately is closer to the South.

While this film may not be correctly labeled as horror, it is a neon art-film treat for the rods and cones. I was drawn in early on by the visual artistry of the film. Just when you think you’ve seen the best it has, it brings more. The colors are reminiscent of Tron. I think it’s meant to draw us in that way. The director is a visionary influenced by Kubrick, David Lynch and others who have done similar things with color and space. Unfortunately this story gets caught up in a fashion world and doesn’t explore what’s going on in the head of the protagonist. Beside that, the characters are underdeveloped. Having said that, it’s a pretty simple reason to be ascertained why they do what they do in the end.

It’s nice to see a film with a message against underage modeling and what it can do to women. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough horror here to justify being in the genre. I wonder if I speak for anyone else when I say I don’t care to go into a psychedelic reality of modeling, unless it’s Zoolander (I).

If you have patience and you are really interested in how women can exploit other beautiful women out of jealousy, this may be for you. Or, for those interested in an amazing visual experience (strobes and neons) you too may like it. For everyone else I don’t recommend this one, I was rarely entertained as I watched it and the end was quite disappointing.

A strength of 31 is its gritty kill settings, a weakness is its unrealistic plot. While an enjoyable horror movie as it is, it borrows from several plots like those of Saw, The Hunger Games, and The Purge. I found this distracting and it’s not good to be distracted when you’re trying to take in a horror film. Notwithstanding, this film is a fun, wild, and gory ride. I watched it on VOD and loved it.

31

Cast

Malcolm McDowell, Richard Brake, Jeff Daniel Phillips

Directed by

Rob Zombie

Written by

Rob Zombie

Other Info

Horror, Thriller
Rated R
1h 42min

One thing I really enjoy about Rob Zombie is his ability to recreate an era. He is especially good at creating a flavor of the 1970’s. That’s why I was excited to see this film took place in 1976. People had vans like the one in the film. They did all sorts of things in those vans like smoke pot, have sex, and sometimes, they camped out or took road trips in vans. I think “the van” 1970’s style is a thing of the past now. Yuppies use them to stow their kids on trips but they don’t carry the same connotation. Those chracters alluded to by 1970’s vans are the characters in 31, part and parcel. It feels like we are being taken on a journey. It takes a little while before we start to realize where that journey will take us, and that’s when things get scary. As in so much modern media and literature, we are shown the rift between the rich and poor .

The idea of rich people making bets about what poor people will do under duress is not new. I recall Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy being bet on in the 1980’s film Trading Places. That’s a comedy but the core idea is the same as the more recent Hunger Games. Every camera is on Katniss as she fights and kills. There is an element of that here. Malcolm McDowell is a rich oddball among others and he thrives on the same sort of “game.” All modern horror fans know the premise of Saw so I won’t bother getting into it.

The characters are threatened and it seems they may be picked off and killed one by one but these stoner victims have a few tricks up their sleeves. It’s a fatalistic film in many ways and you’ll have to see if you agree with that in the last 3rd of the film, up to the final credit. This was a bummer. I’m not saying that horror movies are meant to motivate us, far from it. I am saying that a good horror movie operates under some sort over overreaching vision or sense. I really don’t know why these killings occur. It’s never explained. Could it be that these films have already set a precedent for a “death challenge game.” Perhaps it is common background knowledge that certain rich people out there would play murder games with our lives if we were guilty of nothing else than making a wrong turn.

I guess I wanted more explanation of the game in the plot. Rob Zombie’s film expects too much from the audience. We need a little psychology of why certain people laugh as they watch murder. I can accept it is because they are crazy but the lessens the impact of the movie. The homicidal manias are being paid but what about the bosses? Why are they orchestrating such a game? I wish I knew what Rob Zombie’s answer to that is.

To close this up, I’m a fan of Rob Zombie and I fully enjoyed watching this film. It is gore-filled, which is one of Zombie’s main colors he paints with. It tries to be cerebral but I think the owing to so many other film’s plots takes away from that thoughtfulness. It doesn’t feel entirely original at any point. It would have been 5/5 with me if it didn’t have the obvious plot pieces of other films. Having said that, it’s a fun film to see with your friends and family who like gore and the other works of Rob Zombie.

*This review contains spoilers.

I’m fascinated when I watch biographies of serial killers and discover they had some very normal characteristics. It’s in those normal places this film finds its strength. Could a kidnapped victim become like a son to a serial killer? Would that victim choose to follow in the killer’s footsteps?

Chained (2012)

Cast

Vincent D’Onofrio, Eamon Farren, Evan Bird

Directed by

Jennifer Lynch

Written by

Jennifer Lynch

Other Info

Horror, Thriller
Rated R
1h 34min

If there were a book on serial killing and how to do it, Bob (Vincent D’Onofrio) could have written it. He has a perfect routine for killing. Bob goes about as a Taxi driver, picking up women and then taking them back to his secluded home to kill them. It’s an ingenious method because who could track a person to a Taxi? Beyond that, how could you question all the taxi cabbies in a high traffic area? It would be like picking a needle from a haystack. Bob’s domicile is also perfected for his occupation. There is no way out for his victims once they are inside. Only Bob has control of who gets at, and of course, since he’s a serial killer, no one gets out.

So what’s missing for a guy like Bob. Whether he realizes it or not, he needs a helper or a slave to help him clean up after his kills. That’s where Tim comes in. Tim’s father arranges for he and his mother to get a taxi home from the movies one day. There is an element of premeditated evil in this on the part of Tim’s father which is revealed later. Bob picks them up, kills Tim’s mom in the usual way and keeps Tim on a chain, treating him like a slave and animal until he is 17-18 years old, Tim cultivates a deep enmity for Bob and we see it play out toward the end of the film. The end is somewhat satisfying though I would have preferred the sideline of studying books on medicine and anatomy to play a larger role as the vengeance scenes unfurl. I kept wondering how Tim might use his knowledge of medicine from books to take out Bob. It can be argued it does but I expected something more intricate and satisfying.

The psychology of an abducted prisoner is always interesting. In this case, Tim is on a chain, he cannot eat without permission, and what’s more he cannot eat anything other than what Bob leaves on his plate. After years of this, the actor playing an older Tim (Eamon Farren), has dark eyes, an emaciated figure, and deep-seated hatred for Bob. My favorite scene in the film is the featured image above. Tim hovers above a sleeping Bob like a crouching demon. It’s a quite scary scene. Jennifer Lynch did an amazing job as director. She is not a horror director per se but she has a bit on her resume. One of note was an episode of “Damien.” Ha! Scary, symbolic name is it not? 😉 I’ve always liked it.

I liked this film. There isn’t as much gore as the subject matter suggests. I saw it as a psychological thriller with some horror elements, the above described scene being one of the few horror scares. D’Onofrio gives a solid performance. I saw parts of famous serial killers: Ted Bundy, for example, used to pick up girls and lure them back to him home to kill them. It’s an interesting study of confinement and being held for years against ones will. We live in a world where people threaten so much. “I’m going to sue you!” etc. People rarely make good on threats like “I’m going to kill you.” or “I’m going to make you my house slave on a chain and call you rabbit.” I kept thinking Tim would escape but the years went by and alas, he didn’t. The ending is as much exciting as it is good writing. The question is though, after a film like this, can vengeance be exacted when so much abuse and harm has taken place? This film is better classified as a study in human behavior and how it reacts in the face of evil. Because Tim’s study of anatomy and medicine from Bob’s books was not used cleverly enough, it lost a star with me. In conclusion, this subject matter is not for everyone. Having said that, for fans of the horror, thriller, and criminal psychology genres, I highly recommend it.

Hush was made for under $75,000 usd but leaves us with the Hush product which is as scary as any high budget horror film. It’s a “thinking person’s scary” which some may prefer to the pure slice and dice variety, though there is certainly some of that here.
This film was directed by Mike Flannigan (Oculus). He co-write the film with Kate Siegel (plays the main character Maddie) who in real life shares a house with Flannigan. In fact, several sources indicate they wrote the screenplay with their home layout as a blueprint. She starred in Oculus.

“Hush” is a thriller and horror movie that features a deaf writer at her laptop being broken in on and attacked by a masked man. There are few casualties, few actors, and definitely a few gallons of blood spilled on scene. One original component that builds suspense is that the main character/victim is deaf. This is an ingenious idea as it allows for a few really spine tingling scenes requiring no cgi or music for that matter. The killer’s mask looks different from the standard ones we’ve seen in break-and-enter thrillers, for example presidents and Star Trek masks. In this case, it’s very carefully crafted. In some scenes it appears to be part of the attacker’s own face. This serves for another original, simple, scary element that probably didn’t cost much to create.

Another film that comes to mind that created massive scares on a low budget is Insidious. It’s being proven again and again we don’t need million dollar movies to be scared and thereby entertained. Through a series of slashings and “intruder” scenes, the deaf Maddie learns she doesn’t have to be a victim. She fights back. Everything is filmed in a dark setting outside and inside the house. This accentuates the revenge element that weaves throughout and leads us to an ending that is pleasing horror critics all over the internet.

The film screened at SXSW for a panel of industry “buyers.” It did very well there but somehow ended up on Netflix where I was fortunate enough to see it. Netflix needs more quality horror and suspense films like Hush. Frankly the category is small on the service and appears to be shrinking. I had a lot of fun watching this film and highly recommend it if you can catch it on Netflix or elsewhere. Imagine you have earplugs in and can’t hear a thing and you can’t hear anyone sneaking in the window either. This film makes the most of the simple scares. I think it would be great to see it on the big screen.