Halloween for me means the biggest horror, cult, exploitation, sleaze, fun movie festival of the year, Night Visions. Was my 10th time in this festival and this year the festival was bigger than ever with tons of great movies. Had really difficult time to choose, but went more for the newer movies and not that much for the golden oldies.
Haeundae: The Deadly Tsunami (2009)
Didn't see this at the festival as I had it on DVD, but as it's in the program, I'll add it here as well. Korean disaster movie on a grand scale sounded promising. Unfortunately it falls into the same old cliches as every Hollywood disaster movie. Was hoping that the new cultural perspective would have brought something new to the genre, but it could have been San Francisco just as well as Haeundae. So it was a huge disapointment with tons of Hollywood influences. Some scenes were good, like the bridge sequence, but not enough to keep the interest up.
35%
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Seen it before on DVD, but again as it was in the program, I'll put it here. When I first saw this I really didn't like it at all, I thought it's just another slasher with nothing to give to the genre and even poorly made. But this gets better with time and it does have some quite thought provoking themes in it. You just have to see past the goofy skin of it. I like the fact that it focuses on the killer and not the victims, though this does bring the problem that you don't care for the victims. But the thing isn't the victims that get cut up, the thing is the killer himself and how he got messed up to be kind of a victim himself. Sure the acting is bad and the direction kinda lost, but it's still one of the better slashers from it's era and definitely worth watching if you're into that genre in any way.
66%
The festival had Frank Henenlotter as a guest this year and 4 of his films were shown. I actually didn't see him or any of his movies at the festival as every time they ran there was something else I wanted to see running or I just couldn't make it due to other activities. Kind of a shame as some of the movies I saw instead were surely not worth skipping him. Anyways I'll put 3 of those 4 movies which I've seen earlier here. Haven't seen Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (2010) but will give it a try when it lands on DVD some day.
Brain Damage (1988)
Well this is pretty much a cult classic already so most people even a bit into the horror genre have probably seen this. Though it's not exactly horror, but more of a twisted, bizarre, gory fun ride to the world of mind expansion. Still today it works surprisingly good. Sure the effects are goofy and the acting could be a bit better at times, but still it's weird enough to work like a charm.
90%
Basket Case 2 (1990)
Basket Case (1982) is actually quite brilliant camp classic, but this sequel is not. It starts where the first one left us, so kind of a destroying the brilliant ending of the first part. This time there's of course more of everything and a bigger budget to boost. The new characters are too goofy and at parts even annoying. The acting is horrible, though it wasn't good on the first part either, but this is just a bit too much. Apart from the freak show host and the freak love scene there's not much worth watching in this one. All in all kind of pointless sequel.
33%
Bad Biology (2008)
A story about a super pussy and a monster dick. So tons of soft core porn, a bit of gore and silly effects. This was quite close to being so bad that it would have been actually good, but not quite. It's stupid, but not stupid enough. It's badly acted, but at least they are trying. The story is ridiculous, but not funny enough. So all in all it's just a bad movie with jokes that don't make you laugh.
17%
Then the movies I actually did see at the festival.
Devil (2010)
M. Night Shyamalan has become almost a synonym for crappy pointless movies nowadays with his last 3 movies being absolute garbage. But then again he did make a few good movies in the beginning of his career so there has to be some talent in there somewhere. So in this one he has written the story and acts as a producer but leaves the film making to other people. And that's a good move as some of his stories are quite ok, but his talents in directing are kind of bad. So the setup is actually good this time, but unfortunately everything is not right. First of all the acting was kind of ok, nothing horrible there but could have been a lot better too. The opening sequence is quite nice, the city looks freaky upside down, props for that. Also the look of the movie is quite nice, so the cinematography works good too. The directing is quite good too, nothing to complain in that department either. But the story, the part I thought would be the strong point of this movie, in a way fails. It has tons of great things about it but in the end it focuses too much on the supernatural god-devil crap and leaves the real juicy stuff behind. It's basicly a rollercoaster with a great point raised just to be followed by an idiotic point. So in the end it's just an average thriller with an average story.
49%
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009)
Uneven is probably the right way to describe this. It had a brilliant start, quite good middle half and not that great ending. So actually kind of a downhill. Though even that it did lose quite a bit of it's momentum towards the end, there still were some nice moments. The cast was quite good and as there were only three characters they had enough space to go a bit deeper too. The direction was quite ok as well, though the dilemma and the emotions could have been used a bit better. The story was quite basic, but still felt fresh enough to avoid the boring simplicity these kind usually end up with. Was worth watching.
64%
The Horde (2009)
This didn't bring anything new to the overly milked world of zombies, but still it wasn't that bad. The look was quite ok, though sure the CGI blood and some of the effects looked bad, but it was still quite enjoyable. As this movie had attitude and somehow reminded me of another movie I saw at Night Visions two years ago, Crime Insiders (2007). Though of course this time with zombies and the setting was just an appartment complex. The biggest problem this movie had was that none of the characters were easy to relate to. So you kind of don't feel anything for them as they go through this massacre. Then again it manages to do enough things right to keep it enjoyable, so it was worth the watch.
60%
Piranha (2010)
Holy shit! Now this is what I call entertainment. By far the best live action 3D movie I've seen. I hate 3D movies, the glasses give me a headache after a while and I really don't see the big deal with all this 3D hype. But for this it really worked, this was short enough to not get annoying, it didn't have a single boring moment so it kept me entertained and it was pure mindless fun. Sure the plot was corny, but all the corny parts were used so brilliantly that it didn't matter as the movie didn't take itself seriously. Tons of blood, guts, body parts, tits and a severed penis floating in a lake full of nasty looking piranhas all in glorious 3D. Add to that beautiful naked ladies, actually funny comedy, nods to some sea horror classics and non stop action. This is just brilliant. I was actually cheering when the credits rolled. Need to calm myself down a bit and see it again some day, but for now can't give it anything else than brilliant score. Maybe because it was friday, I was in a good mood and had a few beers before it, so take the rating with a bit of salt.
95%
Red (2010)
Haven't read the comic so can't comment on that. The movie itself was quite predictable popcorn entertainment with nothing new to offer. Had some nice scenes and some of the characters were somewhat ok, but all in all quite pointless waste of time. Basicly you get the best scenes in the trailer and the rest is just filling in between. Some points for the cast and some of the funny moments.
41%
The Last Exorcism (2010)
Exorcism and people posessed by the devil are subjects that have been drained empty in movies so didn't have my hopes up for this one either. Well it turned out to be a very positive surprise as it really has a fresh take on things. Can't go into the plot much as less you know the better it will work, all I'm going to say is that it's not exactly what you might think after seeing the trailer. At start it actually was more like a comedy than a horror movie. So the idea and plot were quite good. The acting was also decent, especially Ashley Bell did a good job as the troubled girl. The directing was fluent and the shaky handheld look was done in a good way so you could watch it on the big screen without getting a headache. Though it's supposed to be a "documentary" with one cameraman, there are those scenes which couldn't have been done without a second cameraman, so it kind of brought down the mood for me. Maybe not such a big deal for people who are not that much into making movies, but for me it did spoil it a bit as it could have been done better and more "documentary" like. The horror is a mix of suspense and cheap scares, but luckily it's more into the suspense department which is a bit of a rarity nowadays. Sure it has some minor flaws but it's really one of the better suspense movies I've seen in a long while with a good plot that keeps you guessing until the end.
88%
Machete (2010)
Been waiting for this movie since I saw the fake trailer in Grindhouse (2007) so needless to say I was very excited to finally get to see it. And holy crap did it deliver! This movie kicks ass on so many levels it's insane. Stellar cast, over the top violence, beautiful naked ladies, tough guys, more one liners that you can count, ass kicking action, tits, even tougher guys and a take no prisoners attitude all wrapped in a mexploitation burrito of joy. This is what I call entertainment at it's best!
95%
Dog Pound (2010)
Before the movie there was this French fellow from the crew of this movie giving the introduction to it. He warned us that this movie might be disturbing as it's very violent. Well the thing is that everyone in the theatre had just minutes before seen either A Serbian Film (2010) or Machete (2010) which both are ultra-violent, other in a disturbing sick way and the other in an over the top comic way. So when this movie turned out to be a jail drama with couple of fights and nothing compared to the violence of the previous two, it was kind of funny and we had some laughs from it after the movie. Anyways violence aside, this was a drama after all. The drama was quite ok, lots of emotions in it and the young cast did fairly ok. Too bad the movie itself was a predictable recycled cliche of all other jail movies. It didn't bring anything new to the table and just recycled the themes from jail movies seen too many times before. Left me wondering why did they even make this, it's all been done before and so much better. Some points to the no name cast and a plus for the very last scene of the movie.
21%
My next movie would have been Due Date (2010), but I fell asleep before it started and only saw the last 10 minutes or so before the end credits so can't review it here. Like I said, A Serbian Film (2010) was also in the festival and it's review can be found here. All in all a very good festival with many great movies. Too bad I missed some of them as I went home to get some sleep, getting old for this it seems. Hard to choose the best of the festival as there were 2 absolutely brilliant fun mindless violence movies and one very positive surprise so I'll just give the best of the festival to the festival itself as it was quite brilliant this year.
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