DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE - The Shameless version. Glad I gave it a second chance, as a clearly remarkable one of a kind was revealed to me this time round. That's not to say I fell in love with it - but I certainly succumbed more to its unabashedly weird sense of fantastique. Can't think of many other flicks that would make for easy or direct comparison.
THE MIST - A handsome S King adaption that transits with ease from CGI monsterfest to poised and sometimes poignant social critique. Shows us up for the dickheads we are when we give free reign to our irrationality in the face of the unknown. And the ending - what a downer! Not since 'Threads' have I felt so hollowed out and slighlty weepy!
INTRUDER - Let's stay with the 'terror in Tesco' theme. I bought this when, pissed off my rocker, I drunkenly didn't care that I didn't own a blu-ray player... thankfully, the new package from Synapse includes a standard issue DVD for cave dwellers such as myself. Well, I still think this is an excellent flick, a nice, linear slasher with added quirk - it may not be a masterpiece but it hits some whacky notes with its skewed POVs and camera tricks and, call me undemanding but sometimes this is all it takes to transcend mediocre slasherdom. It also has wit, verve and charm - enough to make it a winner in my book.
LUTHER THE GEEK - Only just transcends aforementioned mediocre slasherdom by featuring a villian who clucks... you'll get it if you know what sense 'Geek' is being used in here... anyway, it works in a direct to video kind of way, so for those who think they might appreciate the combo of late eighties 'units to shift' horror vibe with the added twang of circus geekery, by all means give it a go but understand it will not transform your life in any meaningful way (I'm kidding, of course it will).
KIDNAPPED COED - A real gem of a film, a serene glide through the dark landscape of seventies America, where all communication seems broken and humanity a mere flicker. The director guy did 'Axe', another piece of wonderment - if you agree with my sentiment here, you'll appreciate Kidnapped's similar, dreamily fragmented atmosphere... if you don't think 'Axe was any good, you probably shouldn't bother with this one. It's less of a genre piece, more an art film riffing on exploitation tropes, but some themes and images carry over... oblique silences... grim rural types who just kind of stare... loved it.
GRACE - A mother finds her vampiric-seeming baby needs more than milk... I liked this movie's serious, careful approach and its unusual sensitivity to its theme... a quiet, glacial style benefits it enormously. Could so easily have gone for the schlocky jugular and stayed firmly in B-movie territory a la 'Unborn' etc but stays its course until the punchline ending.
HUMAN CENTIPEDE 2 - Could really have done without the hype. I'm sure I'm not the only one here wondering what all the fuss was about - in the transgressive stakes it won't challenge those adapted to the harsher end of the spectrum (yes, I saw the uncut version). At the same time it's plenty grim, tonally more than anything. In fact, the tone would be unbearable if it didn't tip over into carnivalesque grue so readily. I actually really like this film - it works as a mood piece, a silent trawl through a depressing world where everyone's an arsehole (soon to be attached to a mouth). I'm not surprised to find stylistic comparisons to Eraserhead... the monchrome, the blurred, throbbing soundtrack, the 'world full of freaks' etc.
MARTIN - Every time I see it, it simply confirms its position as one of my favourite films. So atmospheric, still enchanting and beguiling.
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