Horror - Cinema Voyage

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I was very keen to see Drag Me To Hell as I am a huge fan of the horror genre and had heard some pretty good feedback overall about the film. Starring Justin Long, Alison Lohman and David Paymer, Drag Me To Hell is surprisingly rated a PG-13 in the States, although seemed to warrant a MA 15 in Australia. Still for me, the movie worked and I had a fun time sitting back and watching Sam Raimi do his stuff.

Opening in 1969 and then moving to the current day, Christine Brown seems to be luckier than most. Having been raised in the country, she has managed to reinvent herself as a big city girl, owns a gorgeous house, has a successful Psychology Professor boyfriend and a steady job as a Loans Officer. She has her eye on a promotion to Assistant Manager although Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee) is also keen on the position and will do anything to enable himself to get the job.

Mrs Ganush, an old gypsy woman who is having trouble keeping up with her loan repayments, requests Christine to help her out in order that she does not lose her home. She is torn. Her good self would like her to help out Mrs Ganush, however in order to prove to her boss that she can make tough decisions, she has to go against her better judgement and deny any further extensions on the loan. Mrs Ganush begs for Christine to help however slightly overwhelmed by the odd behaviour, Christine calls for security which shames Mrs Ganush even further.

Leaving work alone and entering a dimly lit carpark, Christine notices Mrs Ganush's car directly across from her own. As all good horrors go, there is a struggle of life and death proportions between the two characters and Mrs Ganush snatches a button, curses it and returns it to Christine. If she thought she had been experiencing a bad day up until now, then she hasn't seen anything yet.

The premise of the curse put on her by Mrs Ganush is that in three days a demon known as the Lamia will come to collect her and drag her to hell but Christine is insistent that she will not go down without a fight. Turning to a mystic named Rham Jas (played by Dileep Rao), to help save her soul, they soon find that they are way out of their league. Requiring extra assistance to face the Lamia, Rham contacts spiritual medium Shaun San Dena who has previously faced the Lamia in another battle. Unfortunately for all of them, she lost that battle and the soul she was fighting for was dragged to the firey depths of hell.

The movie will provide enough bumps and scares to keep your horror interest nurtured and the story line provides enough impetus to keep the movie and the characters developing at a nice pace. There is some fun humour to be found within the movie as the morality tale plays out. The balance between the well developed characters and the ridiculousness of the situations put on them really worked for me and I for one was thinking to myself - Sam - what took you so long?

Voyage Review: 3.5/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Horror

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Review - Walled In

April 12th 2009 06:12

Walled In is one of those films where the initial premise could have been good, but unfortunately due to bad acting, casting, directing or poor script (or a combination of these), it all goes horribly wrong.

Based on a French novel entitled Les Emmures written by Serge Brussolo, the film is directed by fellow Frenchman Gillies Paquet-Brenner. This may be a case of "lost in translation" but regardless of the reasons, it is watchable at best.

Walled In stars OC's Mischa Barton and while I confess to never having seen an episode of OC, she does seem to be a little out of her depth here. This may be due to the flawed storyline as Sam is 25 and following in her father's footsteps as a demolition expert. The constant reference to the fact that a young pretty girl seems out of place on a demolition site seems to cement my point and I felt it would've been far more plausible had she been portrayed by someone slightly older and/or wiser.

The movie opens creatively with an introduction to a horrific murder involving a young child followed by newspaper headlines and articles showing the enormity of the killing spree. As the reports show, the man responsible for burying people alive within the walls of the building, constructed by famous architect Joseph Malestrazza (French actor Pascal Greggory), is still at large. Sam is ignorant to the history of the building or of the deaths which occurred there. A reference is made by Sam connecting the building to the Bates Motel as it has an eerieness, an isolated location and an assortment of strange tenants located within, and the connection is certainly valid, given the storyline.

The building which was supposedly meant to have already been emptied of tenants is managed by Mary (Deborah Kara Unger - Silent Hill, Crash) who lives there with her 15 year old son, Jimmy (Cameron Bright). Oddly characterised and portrayed - unfortunately both their acting comes off as slightly wooden rather than strange, which I presume was the effect the director was trying to capture.

The Shining is a great example of how eerie a movie can be, housed in one location, and while the movie starts heading down the a ghostly path, it switches gears and becomes more of an obsessive tale involving Jimmy and Sam.

Many of the scenes are beatifully captured as is the isolated location and the maze of a building with its secret passageways. But unfortunately for me the acting just didn't cut it and I lost interest with the convoluted plot partway through.

Fans of Mischa Barton and horror fans will, I am sure get a bite or two out of it, but there wasn't enough suspense, horror or gore to really please me on the horror scale.

Voyage Review: 2.5/5

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Posted By: Michelle Sweeney - Category: Horror

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Review - The Strangers

January 1st 2009 03:45

Watching this movie alone at night, I must admit that I stopped the film as soon as the eeriness appeared and waited until my partner came home. Not just because it was horror film - I am a fan of the genre and am not easily frightened - but because it is something that could so easily happen to anyone.

The film announces that this movie is inspired by true events and images of Helter Skelter came flooding to me in the initial scenes of the movie as well as reminders of Wes Craven's The Last House On The Left and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs.

We are introduced to Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) as they return from a friend's wedding, unfortunately not under the best of the circumstances. As the story unfolds we realise that James had proposed to Kristen and created a romantic environment for them to return to after their friend's wedding and his proposal. All did not go according to James' plan and Kristen refused the proposal claiming "she was not ready" creating an already tense situation under which the characters are operating.

A knock at the door at 4am introduces a third character into the equation searching for someone named Tamara. The movie relies on a quiet build up of tension and Kristen finds herself alone when James heads out into the night to pick up some cigarettes. Another knock on the door reveals that the strange girl is still outside and it is not long before Kristen realises that things are going to turn ugly.

My annoyance with the film was not with the action but more with the characterisation of James. When he returns he questions Kristen's belief that there is indeed a stranger in the house which prompted me to remind me partner that if I ever mentioned that there was a stranger in the house that a) I am not crazy and b) we are to run! The cat and mouse game is played out as the three masked strangers quite effectively tease James and Kristen into heart pounding situations.

The enjoyment of the film for me was in it's simplicity harking back to the horror films of the 70's. There were no surprises or tricks up the director's sleeves in terms of characterisation or situations. We knew ultimately what was going to happen and our task as viewer was just to sit back and watch.

Kristen asks the girl in the Dollface mask "why are you doing this to us" and the response "because you were home" just highlighted for me the many motiveless crimes that occur every day.

Bryan Bertino the writer and first time director managed to create a film worthy of the horror genre. His fine cinematography and score created tension and while there were some slow and pointless moments in the movie, overall I enjoyed the experience.

Voyage Review: 3/5