J*A*S*M

“Deep into the Amazon jungle…” I’ve never been in the Amazon, but judging by this film, I’m not missing anything, Moravský kras looks more exotic. It was clearly shot in an utterly normal European location and in a couple of places they included second-long images of real South American locations and fauna. But this is only the first problem of many that this film has, but it says a lot about it. The rubber dinosaur chasing the protagonist through a birch forest is ridiculous. Terribly ridiculous. If the creators had at least committed to intentional humour and winked at the viewer like saying “we also know that this is bullshit, that we are only pretending to make an adventure film,” I would have been more forgiving. But here there is no reason why anyone should dedicate 103 minutes of their time to this.

Eden Lake meets You're Next. After moving to Scotland, a nice married couple from England has to defend themselves from unfriendly attackers, first in their home and then in the adjacent woods. In recent years we have seen many blends of home invasion and hixploitation, and the script in this one checks all the mandatory boxes. It’s nicely made, most of the action takes place at night, and there’s plenty of tension and atmosphere, even if the viewer can’t avoid the feeling of déjà vu. What puts it slightly above the forgettable average is the climax in the last scene and the funny context of last year’s referendum about the independence of Scotland.

A refreshing, dynamic and fun zombie ride from Australia. A lot of nice ideas plus fierce action and editing. In the “low-budget splatter” category it’s basically perfect. For me it has only two (and not totally unimportant) problems: the incredibly annoying aboriginal guy and the climax that, compared to the events thus far, is a drop in quality rather than an improvement. I simply didn’t care about that last fight in the forest.

For me, probably the guilty pleasure of the year. The film is aesthetically unattractive, with a leading villain that takes it all the way to 11 and a very incompetent casting. When Mila Kunis tries to look serious, it simply doesn’t work… but when she tries to drop one-liners, it’s almost painful. Only the core premise of planets as people factory-farms or fuel to keep the vitality of the galactic rulers had some potential, but this time the Wachowskis were unable to exploit it. On the other hand, I must confess that, in its own way, this crap was actually fun.

Ex Machina doesn’t bring anything groundbreaking, untraditional or shocking to the table, but the way it gets to its (non-revolutionary) outcome is so convincing that I was enchanted by Garland and I even considered giving him five stars. The script is very smart, it confuses the viewer with a variety of frantic possibilities for the plot to move forward (that they have to figure out together with, Caleb, the protagonist), only to take the less crazy and more logical path. The viewer is basically in the skin of Caleb and the ending feels like a devastating revelation. Whenever I thought that the script was getting stupid, after a couple of minutes it became clear that what was stupid was the behaviour of one of the characters, and the script was very well aware of that stupidity. Ex Machina is sci-fi in the tradition of the best representatives of the film and literary genre. The soundtrack and the design of the interiors and exteriors also deserve special praise.

Average. At its most basic, is pretty similar to A Nightmare in Elm Street, but with a villain that is not a burned up murderer, but a drowned murderer. And he doesn’t get to the victims through their dreams, but with the help of any random large body of water. Plot-wise is a big cliché where everything happens exactly the way the viewer expects. From at least the moment the protagonist googles the origin of the curse, it is very clear what we are into. But it’s quite nicely shot, the characters are likeable, given the circumstances, and the make-up of the villain is fine. The rating is between two and three stars.

Montse doesn’t want to be alone. Montse is a sad case, nobody likes her and she doesn’t get any joy in life. She sacrificed her youth raising her little sister, who, after the death of her mother (while giving birth) and the disappearance of her father (in the war), didn’t have anyone who would look after her. She’s God fearing and prissy. And on top of all that, she suffers from agoraphobia, she’s not even able to leave her flat. The film relies on the superb performance of Macarena Gómez, who plays the character in an incredibly nervous way. You feel how she loses control of the unseen, and her helplessness and anger. But you also understand and sympathise with her in a way – she doesn’t want to be evil, but the circumstances of her life, which have denied her of even a shred of happiness, have turned her into a stuck-up person who makes life unpleasant for others. A very impressive film, only the ending is perhaps a bit too grandiloquent for me. I haven’t felt sorry for a “villain” in a long time. After a relatively long break, I’m again satisfied with a Spanish horror thriller.

What makes this film interesting is the way the viewer’s impression worsens with every minute. The opening sequence before the credits is a beautifully shot and effective introduction to a group of nasty, charismatic and merciless villains. The credits then awkwardly point to a twist that will happen 45 minutes later or so, but whatever. The first half is still a pretty decent home invasion exploitation flick, but then comes the twist and everything falls apart. It’s not only that all of a sudden the behaviour of the characters becomes utterly ridiculous, or that the sun is shining in the middle of the night, but the film also begins to feel surprisingly amateurish, not because of the make-up (which is quite good), but the overall quality of the craftsmanship. Honestly, I got the impression that the second half of the movie was made by someone else.

This is quite a hard film to rate. Two years ago, indie horror fans were captivated by Scott Shirmer’s début Found, a film that was very cheap, but even with that ridiculously low budget, it did more than many other creators can do with a much bigger budget. In Found, the character is affected after watching an old trashy horror film called Headless, and now we have a chance to finally see this “lost horror movie from the 1970s” as some sort of sibling to Found – a film inspired by images of a film within a film. So it will greatly depend on the individual approach of each viewer. The film itself, without its context, can not be considered very good by any modern standards. The visuals, the edition, the camera, everything feels like and old VHS bootleg – but that’s exactly the way it wants to feel. And it’s also worth mentioning that the creators do not spare in obscenity, violence and brutality. Actually, I think that in this regard they go further than the great majority of the “video nasties” that have a cult following in certain circles, I mean those that due to their brutality and inappropriateness have been at times banned in certain countries. Here, the perverted murderous psychopath sets on a spiral of violence where gouging out eyes and their subsequent eating (with white and red liquid dripping from the mouth included) is not at the top of the imaginary ranking of nastiness, but rather at the bottom. In other words: it’s not my horror cup of tea, but considering what the film wants to be, it’s good. Some of the images and scenes (especially the murder scenes, which blend reality, imagination and the memories of the murderer) are very strong, a rather weird mix of trash and art. The rating can be anything, basically, I’m between three and four. PS: Someone give this people good money so they can show what they do in big!

To begin with, Moorhead and Benson aren’t horror directors/fans, but smart and distinctive filmmakers able to come up with an interesting and original concept, and, although they use elements of the genre, they can’t be relied on or considered its saviours. Spring is less “horror” than their previous film, Resolution. Actually, it’s not horror at all, but a good film nonetheless (and, unlike the previous one, you can see some production values). Captivating atmosphere, nice cinematography, good performances and an interesting mythology. But what’s important is that I really cared about the fate of the protagonists.