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Reviews
Redd Inc. (2012)
Funny well-delivered and horrifying
When I was invited to the preview of Redd Inc, I like others was not sure what to expect. Having seen Angst a few years ago on TV I at least knew I'd be getting a witty film, and I wasn't wrong. I'm a fairly picky horror fan, but I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It almost feels like a comic book in a lot of places, due to the colourful way it is shot and executed. It was unexpectedly funny, had characters I related to and I found myself rooting for their survival. The female lead is spunky and has character, she's not a cardboard cut-out. I enjoyed Redd Inc from start to finish, I felt it broke free of many of the flaws and traps that horror films seem to fall into. To go into more detail would be giving too much away. I highly recommend that horror fans see this one for themselves. It's not big Hollywood, it's definitely got that indie feel about it but there's fun to be had here.
Open Water (2003)
Quick, compelling, plays on deepest fears.
Before seeing Open Water, I had read many mixed reviews. Some praise it for its achievement on such a small budget, while others snub it's "minimalist" nature. Made on a mere $130,000 Open Water has no less merit than a movie past the million mark. Filmed with a D.V. camera the movie a lot of the time has a home-movie kind of feeling, and it isn't long enough to become tedious. Susan and Daniel are a couple of workaholics on a spontaneous trip to the islands to escape the stress of their hectic lives. Beginning with some bland (and in parts, cardboard), "couple on holiday" dialogue, some full frontal nudity and some blending with the locals the first ten minutes of the movie leave you desperately hoping that something will happen soon. And of course, something does. The couple take a tour boat out to scuba dive in the deep oceans of the Bahamas. On emerging from the water they find only empty ocean, their boat nowhere to be seen.
A lot of people will tell you to imagine if this happened to you. Imagine if you came up, in the middle of ocean so deep that you cannot see the bottom. You have no idea why your boat is gone, or if they've even noticed you're missing. If anyone will come looking for you. You have no idea which direction land is in and you sure as f*** don't know if the tour guide was joking about those sharks. I found that I didn't have to imagine. (Albeit what happened to those two is my all time biggest fear.) I found that the movie basically spoon-fed me the feeling that I was there, sopping wet, mouth full of salt, scared and bobbing around endless blue abyss. Throughout the entire movie there is the monotonous "slop, slop, slop" of choppy water. Couple that with the fact that the camera keeps dipping below the water with every little wave and it leaves you feeling extremely water-logged. Occasionally shark fins break the surface, and you jump with the characters. It's not the typical horror "OMG LOUD BANG" type of jump either. It's of a much creepier, much more clever type. Sharks. Whether you love them or hate them I've yet to meet the person who has no fear of sharks. For many of us they border on a phobia reined only by the fact that they can't get us on land. And this is where the movie enters another level psychologically. What would it be like to get the eerie feeling that you might die as food? That your lovely body, that you've lived with and been attached to for your whole life, might slip piece by piece down the gullet of a large fish. That you could be picked apart at any time, nibbles made and chunks torn and you could do nothing about it. There is no room for heroism here, no acrobatics, no resourcefulness and no matter how much wisdom or life experience you think you have, the sharks don't give a damn, and the ocean is still just as endless. That is what made this movie for me, an excellent one. It encaptured the complete hopelessness of a situation, the thought of which tugs at my fear-strings at the best of times. It had frightening and beautiful scenes, and one in particular of a storm at night, where they could only see the sharks during flashes of lightning in the pitch black. I sat there the whole time thinking "thank the gods that isn't me".
For everything this movie made me feel, I will forgive it for 10 minutes of wooden acting at the beginning.