HELL
IS WHERE THE HOME IS
Orson
Oblowitz, 2018, USA
Beneath
the clunky title is a reasonable minor thriller with enough suspense and
slickness to keep interest. The programme says, “Two dysfunctional couples rent
a modern luxury desert home for the weekend hoping to sort out their messed-up
lives.” You see, that’s your problem right there: “a modern luxury desert home”,
remotely located, plus you’re “dysfunctional” – that’s just asking for trouble.
The film takes its time setting up its inner threat, laying out the domestic
strife and prioritising characterisation so more context is given before the
trouble starts. Then potential trouble knocks on the door in the shape of a woman
who has broken down and just needs to use the phone. This gets their paranoia
going and this is the film’s best sequence. Then there’s the external threat
breaking in – the home invasion – and this is swift and, refreshingly, doesn’t
linger to let bad dialogue rise to the surface. On the down side, the bad guys
here are quite intriguing but this is never really satisfied; but maybe they
are inriguing because they are given
minimal time. It’s a crime thriller more than a slasher, which makes it a
little different in current company. It’s decent and well executed with enough
twists to keep things on edge, but it’s unlikely to greatly trouble you much
afterwards.
THE
MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIG FOOT
Robert
D Krzykowski, 2018, USA
With
a title like that like that, I was expecting something more along the lines of
‘Puppet Master’ or ‘Frankenstein’s Army’, but then in the
introduction the cast and crew started namedropping John Sayles and composer
Joe Kraemer started citing John Willaims as an idol, which meant I quickly
reassessed my expectations. Someone said this was like an episode of
Spielberg’s ‘Amazing Stories’ and
that’s certainly a fair comparison.
Sam Elliot is the eponymous Calvin Barr,
trying to live humbly as real American heroes who have killed the poster boy
for fascism are prone to do. This part of the film is all about old age and
that Elliot is great goes without saying. Aiden Turner plays Barr as a younger
man, killing Hitler: a touch of spy gadgetry is fun and the romantic subplot is
the kind that harks to bubblegum romance. We're American myth-making again. The film has a big streak of
nostalgia, the kind that starts to coagulate early as this is all about former
peaks in life and waning in old age.
Then, as an old man, Barr is approached to
kill The Big Foot as it’s causing an illness that might spread throughout
mankind, or at least America. As a fabulation, it’s an agreeably oddball
conceit that swaps potential fun for earnestness. By the end, you may be moved
or feel smothered with Kraemer’s score and the soft hues for its insistence on
being emotional.
HE’S
OUT THERE
Quinn
Lasher, 2018, USA
A
somewhat by-the-numbers slasher when a family go to their secluded holiday home
– you see, there’s your problem… - unaware
that they have been watched there over the years by someone in the woods who is
now ready to unleash his craziness. There are fairy-tale trimmings all the way
through with a read thread guiding protagonists through the trees and whatnot,
but this is just the kind of window-dressing that isn’t half as poignant as it
thinks: that fairy-tales are kindred spirits to horror is old, old news. Its
most risqué feature is putting two young girls in constant threat, but only in
a TV Movie thriller way. It’s fluid and nicely filmed, but with only bland
characters to root for against a mask-wearing maniac, there isn’t so much to
get to grips with.
TERRIFIED
Demian
Rugna, 2018, Argentina
You
see, the thing I do like about ‘The
Grudge’ series is that its premise is just an excuse for a series of scary
set-pieces; it’s not so concerned with causes and resolution. There’s some of
that to Rugna’s ‘Terrified’ with an
entire neighbourhood suddenly suffering from malicious supernatural phenomena.
Two paranormal investigators come to sort things out, but really they do
nothing except get frightened – and that’s all good. In the paranormal
investigation arena, it isn’t insultingly po-faced or obsessed with itself as ‘The Conjuring’ but just gets on with its
scares. In the face of true supernatural force, what good would investigators
actually do when there is no plot-convenience and a deux ex machina to resolve
things? No, more importantly ‘Terrified’
concentrates on the scares. Oh, and there are plenty. And if you’re not
unnerved, there’s plenty of creepiness.
TIGERS
ARE NOT AFRAID
Issa
López,
2017, Mexico
It’s
hard to think that this film, which has been so warmly received and whose worth
and skill are obvious, had such trouble getting accepted, but that’s the story López tells. No one wanted it. But it was apparently
taken under FrightFest’s wing and now it’s blooming. It came frontloaded with
such a reputation that I dashed from ‘Terrified’
to the Predator statue at the top of The Empire’s stairs to queue for
passholder tickets (I was second in line and got the very last ticket for the
screening at The Prince Charles cinema). It’s easy to see where its emotional
clout comes from as it’s based in the truth of street orphans in Mexico. There
is a long history of coming-of-age cinema crossing over with horror – ‘The Secret of the Beehive’, ‘Celia’, ‘Class Trip’… oh, too many to mention – but the obvious reference is
Guillermo del Toro in its particular mix of brutal realism and escapist
fantasy, harsh truths mitigated with magic realism. Murder and dead kids mix
with ghosts, animated toy bears and graffiti coming alive, for example. When
her mother goes missing, abducted by the ruthless Huascas, a trail of blood
follows Estrella (Paola Lara) everywhere – and indeed, she does seem to get
people killed – and she falls in with a street gang for survival. The
ostensible leader of this gang is the diminutive but determined Shine (Juan
Ramón López) who is both threatened and fascinated by Estrella. When he
pickpockets a mobile phone and a gun from one of the Huascas, a fatal run-in
with the gang seems assured.
The kids are hunted and ignored and not even acknowledged
except as victims by this underworld. There will be no adult help or
protection. Despite this merciless context, the kids still find time to believe
in wishes and find moments of fun. It’s so good that you won’t really won’t
really care that the phone seems to stay charged by the power of narrative, or
why the Huascas are so worried about it when the police really don’t want to
anything to do with it. Or why the kids don’t just turn it off at important
moments. Yet it’s only in the last act that the balance seems to tilt to
insistence on magic realism at the expense of some obvious character motivation
and behaviour; like Del Toro, ‘Tigers are
not Afraid’ uses horror for sentiment that eventually forgoes reflection
for escapism. Nevertheless, there is no doubt López has produced something
affecting and unforgettable.
Issa López
No comments:
Post a Comment