tangent272-88-688605 Reviews

Masters of Horror: The Screwfly Solution (2006) Season 2, Episode 7

Outstanding made for TV horror

[8/10 · 16 August 2011]

This is perhaps the best medium budget horror I've seen. Every part is excellent with no part letting down the whole. The writing is good bordering on great, it's got solid science behind it and that makes it scary. In the original short story, which I read some years back, the scientist was the main point of view character whereas in this case it's his wife but that arrangement is actually more suited to the audiovisual medium where it's harder to represent the internal dialogue that made the written version so effective. It also allows the story to be expanded in ways that would have been impractical in the written version.

The pacing and direction are good and.. who is this Kerry Norton woman and why haven't we seen her before? She's awesome, both as a dramatic actress as well as being just freakin' *hot*; absolutely perfect for the role and she puts in a standout performance here throughout.

And while we're on the subject of performances, this just in, Jason Priestly _can_act_.. I know. I could hardly believe it either but he puts on a really good show here. Admitedly they kept things fairly straightforward for him but nonetheless he carried it off well and brought out some surprising dramatic emotion when it counted.

So overall, a well produced, well acted flawless envisioning of a great and quite frightening short story. I recommend it highly.

Hereafter (2010)

An appropriately thoughtful piece

[15 August 2011]

Clint Eastwood likes to make his films slow paced and this can be annoying at times. In my opinion Sands of Iwo Jima was boring and Grand Torino was overly sentimental but with Hereafter he was the right man for the job. The pacing is perfect with the story unfolding in just the right way, eliciting just the right emotions at just the right time (the opening scene is genuinely terrifying) and giving us enough time to think and absorb without ever boring us.

As for Matt Damon, this is a masterpiece. There are so many depths and subtleties to this role and Mr Damon gets it all. George Lonegan is a creepy haunted loner with poor social skills, not in spite of but *because* he's a big hearted person who cares too much. And Damon *gets* that, and shows it, you can see it in every frame of the movie, even when he's not moving a muscle. I know this movie won't be for everyone but this performance is one of the greats, a real tour de force of subtlety.

Lastly, the writing, the story is something not seen often enough these days, a thoughtful movie about a complex and emotive subject that doesn't treat the audience like idiots. There are a lot of questions unanswered here, and that's alright, there should be. This movie isn't about answers or some kind of payoff, it's about guiding the viewer through the story's of three people with very interesting perspectives so that we can all feel our way though it together. I love that the writers trust us to do that and don't try to force feed us a "message" or a moral.

A great thoughtful film about a difficult subject that will leave you feeling good, as long as you're not expecting to be spoon fed.