PURGE 2: ANARCHY – Creditable sequel. Whereas the first was more of a house invasion, this one follows what goes down in the streets on the night of The Purge, future America's annual demographic cull-in-disguise. It's nothing if not predictable – Carpenter style tense build-up, stock characters like the cop-out-for-revenge, masked biker gangs, an underground resistance movement. But it is surprisingly direct in pushing a seemingly anti-capitalist standpoint, although whether this is more about opportunism in a time of economic uncertainty I'm not sure. Scenes depicting the decadent rich rounding up hostages and going in for a bit of 'the most dangerous game' work quite well, as do those which portray a murderous, cynical government complete with death squads in sinister vans. It's as slickly made as you would expect, and, although we might have seen it all before, it goes about filling its time with real tension and unease. Solid.
PATRICK: EVIL AWAKENS – I've never seen the original, but I do have very fond memories of that sleazy scuzz-bucket 'Patrick Viva Ancora'. This remake once again features a comatose young man with telekinetic powers and murderous intent. It's a slow burn, but there's a lot of good stuff going on – atmospheric (if overused) visuals, a gloomy vibe broken up a bit by snatches of black comedy, moments of high weirdness (“Patrick wants his hand-job” etc etc. Will make sense if you see it), a modicum of OK gore and some oedipal sleaze but, best of all, Charles Dance eating a frog! Yes, Charles Dance, he really should do more low rent horror titles because he's great in this as an obnoxious neurologist who basically just goes around telling people to f*ck off. Well, it worked for me. 'Patrick...' does take a little time to warm up and could've been a bit more full on, but then, couldn't anything? As it stands, I enjoyed it and I think it's worth watching.
METAMORPHOSIS: THE ALIEN FACTOR – Thanks once again to Trebor for inspiring me to check this one out. It's a brainless delight, and pretty much captures the essence of the charm of early nineties direct to video sci-fi horror. I read somewhere that it started out as a 'Deadly Spawn' sequel, and it certainly features a toothy monster which looks like an oversized knob. Being what it is, ie. D grade schlock in a post-'Alien' world, there's lots of running up and down corridors and long conversations laden with flash-backs. But for some reason it never gets boring. Partly this is because the gloop factor is pretty high, with heartwarmingly home-spun looking effects often winking at 'The Thing', and also because the bad dialogue, rubbish performances and fake nineties sheen somehow come together in a way which is never less than entertaining, and is occasionally quite mesmerising. 'Metamorphosis' is so 1990 that it felt like a memory before I even finished watching it... that's a compliment.
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