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Reviews
The First Omen (2024)
Respectful, stylish, largely creditable prequel
'The Omen' has suffered many a ham-fisted, disposable approach to keeping the story alive. After a much maligned, but in reality, quite worthy sequel in 'Damien: Omen II', the story seemingly concluded with the dismal 'The Final Conflict'. But then it rose from the ashes briefly by way of a very cheap and shoddy telemovie, followed years later by a glossy, but poorly approached remake and then a misguided tv series.
What a relief, then, that this prequel is made with such reverence and understanding of the themes, atmosphere, tone and subject-matter of the now truly iconic first film.
Just as diplomat, Robert Thorn (Gergory Peck) in the first film, and the teenaged Damien (Jonathan Scott-Taylor) in the second must assess unbelievable claims put to them, and come to a conclusion about The Antichrist, so must Bride-of-Christ-to-be, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) when she touches down in Rome in 1971.
Her arrival, against student uprisings, urban decay and evident declines in public safety, also takes place in the midst of a Church-acknowledged withdrawal of modern people from it and its teachings. Beginning work at the convent, Margaret not only notices a strange girl treated badly by the other Sisters, but is told by Father Brennan (Ralph Ineson) - in a preface of what he will later say to Robert Thorn in 'The Omen' - that bad things will happen and - incredibly - what they will mean. Thus begins her own personal journey to assess his claims.
Directed with care, restraint and evident respect by Arkasha Stevenson in her feature debut, 'The First Omen' unfolds gradually, visually steeped in the archaeological and religious history of Rome and the Catholic Church - so palpable you can almost smell it. Aerial vistas, rapid zooms, grainy visuals and astonishing use of locations and costuming, as well as character scripting and acting, add to the carefully calibrated cinematic experience and incredible sense of its time. As mystery and tension slowly mount, it often brings to mind Luca Guadagnino's version of 'Suspiria' and Roman Polanski's 'Rosemary's Baby'.
The original and its initial sequel were very much set in the real world - thrillers more than horror films. And for a long time (save an opening sequence with a wobbly leadlight window being installed) this film takes the same approach, though it is punctuated by occasional horror movie 'visions' that would only have been described, rather than shown, in its cinematic precursors. Certainly effective, they - coupled with a series of 'Omen' killings that are virtually reruns of the first film - give the sense of cheapening proceedings, if only slightly. (We do, after all, indisputably know what we are dealing with now.) Then there is the touch of narrative revisionism built into the script, with which purists may take umbridge (other film franchises have done far far worse) and a closing sequence that is perhaps too spelled out.
Nevertheless, 'The First Omen' is refreshing - a very cinematic, lovingly made, well acted reboot that takes itself and its famous source material very seriously - and to the greatest extent, pulls it off.
001LithiumX (2020)
A good film is buried somewhere in here
It's hard to believe that 1) this script got funding and 2) that someone didn't say they wanted to develop it further so that the great ideas drowned in it's interminable expository dialogue could be surfaced and brought dramatically to visual life. There are so many fascinating ideas in this film, but they never get the chance to live as cinema. It's like watching pages of an amaturely written novel being read to you.
It seems like a result of budget constraints and a script that hasn't gone through enough editing. It also looks a bit like a project put together by someone studying special visual effects - because they are quite impressive at times.
Film is a visual medium - we are supposed to see the story, not be told it. That is the exhausting error here. Great waffling rafts of conversation reveal plot points we should be seeing. It's a great tragedy because with more money and attention to structure and script, this could have been something quite fascinating and rivetting.
Instead, the small budget means we watch stacks of people with VR goggles on, experiencing things we mostly can't see. We are in the future (2048) but the lead character drives a mid 2010s car and the technology mostly hadn't moved on from 2020. These are things that are just too clunky in sci fi if they aren't justified in the story. The set design and costuming often looks like a university student's assessment project. Though the actors are clearly very competent, they are either poorly directed or not given enough takes because of budget, the result being that a lot of the performances come off like exercises in acting classes. On top of all this, the meaning of the title is key to the story, but only referenced and revealed in passing in a protracted conversation about halfway through.
It all ends up being risibly boring. But you are, sadly, always aware that more money and attention to structure and script could have produced a truly fantastic science fiction movie. Therein, like the over-long chunk from 'Hamlet' the lead character inventively (and cringely) recites near the end, lies the conundrum and tragedy.
Pearl (2022)
Striking production that falls short
The film and television productions Ti West has directed provide ample evidence he is a visual stylist. 'Pearl' is no different.
This is a sumptuously styled film, with a visual flourish in the vein of 'The Wizard of Oz' or a Doris Day movie - perhaps intended to provide, from the beginning, a clue that the world the title character sees herself in is not quite reality. Despite the sunniest atmosphere of fairytale bucolic bliss, threat lies in the air from the opening frames, ready to strike like a rearing venemous snake (or alligator, as the case may be!).
'Pearl' is also superbly acted by all, particularly by Mia Goth in the title role, and tautly directed. As co screen-writer, Goth clearly crafted herself some showcase moments. As director, West is firmly in charge of his world, balancing the tone expertly between rural drama with an infusion of farcical camp and - particularly is the first act - impending horror.
Disappointingly, the problem is that, despite all this rich bedrock, it doesn't end up going anywhere very surprising. In being a prequel to 'X', setting out to explain the origins of that film's murderous old lady, it doesn't use the fantastic and tantalising world it creates to provide a very interesting or illuminating psychological journey for the young Pearl. It squanders moments where we might see what motivates her - a deeper glimpse into the collision between her Disney-esque imaginings and expectations and her grim lonely option-less reality. This sumptuous world could have been used to enormous effect in illustrating the gradual erosion of sanity. Instead, Pearl is suddenly a multiple axe (or pitchfork) murderer. True - she does deliver a brilliantly performed explanatory monologue - but it is not enought. We need to see this, not be told.
With so much scene setting, and allusions to our own world (including the pandemic and the lure of stardom and fairytale escape for the mundane), as well as evident talent on all fronts, it is such a shame that this degenerates into such a wasted opportunity - sacrificing sophisticated psychological horror to become another tiresome slasher flick with a blunt ending stolen, yet again, from 'Psycho'.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Great talent squandered on pointless nihilism
Having not read the source novel by Donald Ray Pollock, it is hard to gauge if there is a central point to 'The Devil All The Time' that failed to transition from page to screen. Whatever the case, this wholly unpleasant (though, admittedly atmospheric) journey through post war 1940s-50s era backwoods USA is, given the talent attached to it, an astonishing and disappointing waste of an arduous and painful two and a half hours.
A seemingly decent southern rural young man named Willard (Bill Skarsgard) has his young adult life shaped by a horrifying discovery on the battlefield. He has rejected religion, though this event comes to resonate through his extended family over the ensuing years. A hillbilly self-styled preacher (Harry Melling) takes his questionable blind belief that God will protect, no matter what, to head-shaking extremes. A controlling rural cop (Sebastian Stan) misguidedly thinks he can run his own show. A young couple (Jason Clarke and Riley Keough) drive through the landscape on a serial killing spree. And an entitled Reverend (Robert Pattinson), who is not what he seems, comes to town.
This film establishes a sense of place and time - infused with poverty, religious self-righteousness, hypocrisy, insecurity and ignorance - powerfully and quickly. In this dinghy world, people are desperate and unhinged. From the opening frames, threats hang in the air like cloying humidity. Instances of cruelty and violence rapidly begin to mount like couplings in a porn film. Practically no-one is redeemable.
This atmosphere, however, is quickly shattered by the intrusion of an unrelenting fable-like voice-over that continually interrupts the story's flow, and is ultimately completely unresolved. It feels like something the studio inflicted on the film after completion, telling the audience how the characters feel, rather than letting the actors convey it. Whatever the case, it is a thoroughly misguided decision.
Hysterically scenery-chewing performances punctuate proceedings, particularly from Robert Pattinson, Harry Melling and to a lesser extent, Sebastian Stan, while - tellingly - the most affecting scene is provided when Willard's mother (Kristin Griffith) is humiliated at a church gathering for her cooking. Among all this nihilistic unpleasantness, Tom Holland stands out as the belatedly emerging main character, Arvin, along with Eliza Scanlon as his adopted sister, Lenora. Both provide depth and humanity to a film otherwise mostly bereft of it.
As 'The Devil All the Time' grinds to its very welcome end, it wields its final excruciation when it fails to deliver any point - not even a whisper of an observation about the human condition. What are we meant to take from this paean to hate and cruelty? That religion, ignorance, low education and poverty make for a destructive brew when combined? Perhaps director and screenwriter, Antonio Campos, will deliver something more enlightening next time - it is more than clear he has the ability to do so.
The Witch in the Window (2018)
Eerie unusual ghost story - very human
The most memorable ghost stories deal with loss and loneliness. In recent years, we have seen A Ghost Story and The Others as outstanding examples. The Witch in the Window isn't quite in that league, but given its modest budget, it still manages to be a superior addition to the genre.
Great ghost stories very often also include houses. So it is that a middle aged father and his teenage son begin renovating a country house in Vermont, only to start to sense that something isn't quite right - from strange smells to eerie bumps in the walls and fleeting glimpses of someone else - a woman - who seems to have come with the purchase. Then there is the neighbour who imparts the house's uneasy local reputation and the rumours about its previous owner, Lydia...
This is an economical (78 minutes) film from writer-director, Andy Mitton, that is assured enough to let its tale unfold through character and mood, without relying on jump scares and J-horror-style imagery and conventions. In lesser hands, it would fall flat. The camera lingers on naturally-lit aspects of the house and the landscape, tinkling and pensive piano underscores the isolation and quietude of the mist and the raindrops and, most importantly, the nuances of the relationship between father and son provide its backbone.
When we first meen teenage Finn, his mother is handing him over to his estranged father, Simon, listing the aspects in the modern world that make it difficult to parent well and maintain a good relationship with your child. Simon, who has his own battles with isolation, is also doubtful about his relationship with Finn ("I've managed to get you on the wrong side of 12!"), but as conversations and events unfold at the house, his love and commitment to bridging the emotional gulf become clear. This relationship is beautifully drawn in the script, with the very natural performances from both actors providing the emotional investment necessary for us to care about what happens to them. In particular, as a teenage character, Finn is well and unusually honestly written, with a thoroughly believable and moving performance by Charlie Tacker to flesh him out.
This film works so well because the loneliness of the broken son-father-mother relationship is revealed gently in the story, set against our increasing hope that it may heal, while an equally lonely force in the house seems to be setting out to threaten it. The end result is surprising, slightly unusual and often unexpected. Its conclusion is perhaps a bit less well executed than the lead up would have you expect, but it leaves you with a sad, haunting feeling, which is surely what an effective ghost story should do!
Interview with the Vampire (2022)
Sumptuous, superficial and unsubtle.
Adapting The Vampire Chronicles series of books to the screen and starting with Interview with the Vampire presents producers with a difficult choice - should you be faithful to that very literary book, which was written without all its sequels in mind? Or should you recast it in the more pop-culture immortals with superpowers vein of those that follow? It is difficult because when Anne Rice eventually wrote the first sequel, approximately a decade after her ground-breaking original, she changed the main character from the brooding Louis to the flamboyant Lestat. In the process she and he pretty much dismissed the original, grounded as it was in the moral concerns of being achingly human and mourning the loss of mortality in the face of never-ending boredom and loneliness. She replaced it with a fantasy universe in which immortality is celebrated and superhuman powers are unleashed with gleeful and sensuous abandon, though anchored in pop culture philosophy.
Yet, the problem is that, despite the volume of story that followed, Interview with the Vampire remains that book that defined her career and The Vampire Chronicles. The Louis-Lestat-Claudia relationship remains her hauntingly dominant creation.
Therein lies the error of this production and its projected universe of series - It is not Interview with the Vampire - it is The Vampire Chronicles - and this would have been a far more honest way to approach its title. It would solve the problem of telling the story of the first book. Interview with the Vampire sits at odds with The Vampire Chronicles - and being much loved, to try to wedge it into the world of the following books is to appear to misunderstand it and its higher concerns, as well as to inevitably fail and invite hefty criticism.
Thus, instead of having Lestat tell the story as he does in subsequent books, we awkwardly have Louis arranging a meeting with the original interviewer as an older man and correcting the errors, intentional and otherwise, in his original account. Presumably to align with the timeline of the looming Mayfair Witches companion TV series, drawn from Rice's The Witching Hour novel, the original Louis-Lestat meeting is shifted to 1910 from the late 1700s, to no apparent advantage. Louis in now African-American and a bordello-owner which, given the time setting, raises a host of implausibilities and begs a whole new level of suspension of disbelief (as well as some superfluously crass and vulgar scenes). Louis is now an extremely confident (and seemingly quite immoral) man which makes it very difficult to demonstrate the character's emotional vulnerability to the scheming Lestat. Then there is the reimagining of Claudia, an extremely difficult character to bring to the screen in the first place....
But these are almost the least of the problems. Rather than adopting the elegant gothic pace and tone of the source material, this feels told at a hurtling speed. This production is brash and loud and often garish to look at. Its sumptuous visuals - beautiful sets, costumes and cinematography - are wasted on a superficial account of the plot, sparing little time to examine the existential concerns of its characters.
As the interviewer, Eric Bogosian is boorish, and his voice and that of Louis are mixed too loudly into proceedings, interminably interrupting the action (to the point where you want to scream "shut up!!!"), giving little if any time for the gravity of scenes to settle and make their mark. The script commits the high-school-level error of having them both tell you what you are seeing and should be thinking over and over again. Finally, the producers have deeply misunderstood Rice's positioning of intimacy in eternity and immortality as companionship and love, where gender and sexuality is rendered irrelevant by living death. Instead, we are expected to accept that a super-human immortal is still concerned with the petty human obsession with being gay. It's all so off-kilter, unconvincing and too often, silly.
Whether it's due to the tv-drama level direction and/or script, the acting mostly comes across as little better than serviceable, save for a nuanced performance by Sam Reid as Lestat, who seems to be working very hard against the flow to single-handedly elevate proceedings. Jacob Anderson has an uphill battle against a character poorly conceived at screenplay level, which sees him failing to delineate between the 1910 and 2023 version of Louis.
This production might have worked better if it started at 'The Vampire Lestat' and had him look back on the way Louis, he and Claudia met. As it is. AMC+ have delivered a mostly hamfisted comic-book rendition of the source material. Sumptuous, superficial and unsubtle.
Life Like (2019)
Imperfect but strangely satisfying
There's something great struggling to get out if this rather elegant looking film - something quite profound and beautiful. Though stylishly directed, it's hampered by a clumsy script that mixes awkward conversational dialogue with highbrow literary references and ponderances on the human condition and the meaning of and tension between love and lust.
While it echoes the British tv series, 'Humans' and pretty much every other science fiction story about androids created as servants for humanity, it tries admirably to bring something new to the table.
It's interweaving of the story of Henry the android with the straining marriage of his "keepers", Sophie and James, is quite compelling and at times surprisingly tense. But it is repeatedly and jarringly diffused by excrebly unconvincing corporate sequences of James helming a supposedly multi-billion dollar empire, mainly because Drew Van Acker - as handsome and ripped as he is - is simply not up to the job. Though, in these scenes, the script isn't either, which doesn't help him. Thankfully his two co- stars are. They help keep things otherwise believable and interesting, making for an end result that is gently thought-provoking and poetic, if jarring at times.
Definitely not for action fans, but there are far far worse ways to spend 90 minutes if you want an absorbing, good looking science fiction story with mildly erotic undertones.
Sputnik (2020)
High quality, intelligent, tense drama
In English, the Russian word 'sputnik' loosely translates to way-farer, traveller or passenger. So, in this dark brooding sci-fi drama set in the 1983 Soviet Union space program, two cosmonauts return to earth from a mission, one terminally injured seemingly from an attack, the other sick and struck with amnesia about the landing and what befell his colleague. The Soviet military then entices a young female scientist, who is being disciplined for a radical but effective treatment of a patient, to travel to a remote maximum security facility to treat the surviving cosmonaut who has, she is told and shown, not returned and survived alone.
Set among dark shadowy totallitarian architecture, mostly in a rainy, winsdwept, icy Kazakhstan desert, this story unfolds carefully and tautly, relying for most of its running time on investigation rather than action. There are few jump scares or blasting stabs of music to scare the viewer. Rather, tension is built by the sheer concentration of its characters on the mystery at hand and the deliberate pace in the direction and script. The sense of foreboding is ratched by the cacophanous, pounding score. The 'sputnik', when it is revealed, is astonishingly well rendered, and adds to the intensity through the questions it presents in its physical and emotional effect on the investigators - is it sympathetic or horrific?
Similarly, the characters operate with restrained and contained emotions, seemingly suspicious of revealing too much of themselves. The whole thing is suffused with Soviet era suspicion, threat and tension. Performances are uniformly high calibre, as is the cinematography, score and direction.
'Sputnik' initially seems like it will be another 'Alien' knock-off, but it is far from it. Instead it is its own uniquely atmospheric beast, it's high level success only let down by a slightly comic-book third act that detracts from what has come before, though without stealing from the 'heart' at the centre of its story. A very worthy addition to the "it came from outer space" sci-fi horror catalogue.
Dýrið (2021)
Odd and affecting
It's best to know as little as possible about this film before you watch it. A couple living on a remote sheep farm in Iceland are battling the forces of nature. Great rafts of billowing fog roll in from the surrounding mountains daily, the cold is a constant challenge, lambing seasons are becoming successively poorer and, unknown to them, something hulking is visiting the animals during the night. Eventually, after a difficult birth, they take a lamb into their house to care for it, despite the protestations of its mother. Then they begin to treat it like a child,
For a long time, 'Lamb' tells it's story with little dialogue, instead relying on the performances of its two leads and a truly astonishing cast of animals. As it's mystery unfolds, the sense of dread escalates as challenges confront these unlikely parents and curious facts are revealed.
This is a film about loneliness, the sad biological drive to be a parent, and the crisis and stresses off being different. It is stunningly shot and executed and, most importantly, never predictable. It is moving and quite unique.
The Perfect Host: A Southern Gothic Tale (2018)
Mysterious and low key: not for the jump scare/ digital effects set
This is old fashioned (is it set in the 70s? Early 90s?), slow moving, atmospheric and mysterious. A huge crumbling mansion, a funeral, a woman mourning, a warning, mysterious motivations, a lonely child, thunderstorms and pouring rain. There is not a jump scare, thunderous sound effect or digital special effect in sight. So...not to most modern horror tastes. Production standards are high, though there are some sound problems with some of the dialogue. The ending is perhaps not unfamiliar, but the whole thing is well handled and acted. Definitely worth a look for fans of the Gothic.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
Empty approach makes for surprisingly poor film
With such fascinating subject matter, and an ensemble of ordinarily great actors, it is nothing short of shocking to witness this elaborate, bloated mess. No-one stands a chance against a gobsmackingly superficial script that makes zero attempt to scratch beneath the surface of these heightened real-life people. Instead it offers increasingly gaudy costuming, distracting prosthetics and caricatures instead of flesh and blood characters. It seems to want to show Tammy Faye as well meaning, but ends up depicting her as a giggly fool and misguided, manipulated idiot. It is astonishing a project of this stature could be this bad.
Halloween Kills (2021)
Suspenseless: the worst crime of a horror movie
Buried in this yawn-inducing mess is a great mystery - what did Michael Meyers see out the window the night he killed his sister when he was a little boy? Sadly, rather than exploring something this interesting, this sequel turns MM into a slashing machine from an action movie. What it needs is a director & writer that understands horror. Because simple violence and gore does not a successful horror movie make. Suspense is the key. And this film, incredibly, has none! There are some good ideas very poorly and hurriedly explored. The opening 1978 sequence is extremely convincing and holds much promise. But sadly what unfolds after that is a pointless and visually confused exercise in body count, and not much more. The weird 80s & 90s sequels at least knew what horror atmosphere was. This is a sad, empty, marketing exercise. Worse and just as bland as its predecessor.
Sweet River (2020)
Mysterious drama mismarketed as jump scare horror
'Sweet River', like the best ghost stories, is suffused with grief and mystery.
A woman moves to a small Australian riverfront sugarcane town to seek answers about the disappearance of her small son, only to find a community of grieving parents who, having lost their children to a number of tragedies, believe they are still with them. At the same time a mystery haunts the town, echoing across the canefields at night - particularly a field that stands as a memorial for the children lost and has never been harvested.
'Sweet River' is first and foremost a human drama about an outsider probing the secrets of a town - when the townsfolk don't want her to - so that she can find her son and finally allow him, and herself, to rest. The cane towers and shifts as both a backdrop and a character. It is foreboding and visceral - both the town's lifeblood and the keeper of its secrets. A river and a forest full of omens.
Beautifully acted and photographed, this film weaves a tightly knotted plot that it unravels in expertly measured beats as midway, the ghost story hinted in its opening sequence begins to take hold while the frustrations begin to mount upon Hannah as she gets closer to the truth.
Perhaps the resolution is just ever so slightly too neat (this is being very picky) and the emotional wrap-up a touch too swift to be as satisfying as the rest of the story demands. The opening sequence, like the exaggerated trailer, is also a little at odds with the tone of the rest of the film. Nevertheless, this is an accomplished, subtle, slow burn, adult ghost story that should have had the chance to find a bigger audience than it has.
One for viewers looking for something along the lines of 'The Orphanage', 'The Others', 'February (The Balckcoat's Daughter)' and 'The Devil's Backbone' rather than J-Horror and 'Children of the Corn', as the trailer would have you expect.
Monsoon (2019)
Elegaic but slightly obvious
This meditative examination of the impact of the Vietnam war through the eyes of three sons - of a family who left (as refugees), a family who stayed and a father who invaded (US soldier) - and the scars it left on all, has a big heart. But despite its measured (and very slow) approach, it makes these three points a little too awkwardly (via blunt expositiry dialogue) for it to work as a seemless whole. But the visuals and the acting are high calibre.
Eden Lake (2008)
Well made and performed, but pointless
This Wolf Creek meets Deliverance style horror film with teenagers instead of hillbillies is very well made and acted, almost unendurably tense, and too well told to turn away from - you want it to go somewhere that makes it worth the attention it earns from you. But in playing for realism, it is ultimately confused by aligning itself with slasher movie conventions then concluding with an ending that is abjectly sick, misguided and ultimately pointless. Brimming with hate, it is too real to be a horror movie and too heartless to be a meaningful drama. All it manages to leave you with is, "Why?" Why make this? And what possible point is it supposed to be making?
Skyggenes dal (2017)
Haunting & beautiful
A slowly unfolding gothic mood piece about a young rural boy trying to come to grips with the disappearance of his older brother, his mother's despair & struggles, and a series of savage sheep maulings in his farming community. Low on dialogue, but full of mist, towering environmental symbols, mystery and omens, this quietly moving examination of childhood confusion and grief might have been more bluntly entitled, "Is My Brother a Werewolf?"!