As we head into the foul depths of the seasonal recess, part one of a pre-xmas splurge -
THE NEST – I always wondered about this one whenever I clocked the VHS case during my late-eighties trips to the local Video Library. Now I have my answers. Notable for elegantly shoehorning the dynamics of a smalltown melodrama about property development into splattery bug horror; also in its favour are its rad, bad scientist and the gloopy Thing-esque mutant bug-human hybrid totem entity at the end. Light but schlocky, it is what it is. Whaddya want? If Fellini did a film about killer roaches you could watch that instead.
HIGHWAY TO HELL – A trip across the desert of some parallel underworld, featuring a satanic highway cop, bikers, encounters with the devil and some other stuff. I enjoyed it because I found it hard to place – somewhere between horror, black comedy and fantasy, left-field for the early nineties but not avant or anything, at its heart a romance. Are those ‘zombies’ in floppy wigs at the rubbish dump meant to resemble Andy Warhol? The ever-expanding list of questions we need answers to NOW.
SWALLOW – Pica. I learned about it back in the day, when I worked with people with mental health issues. The person at the centre of ‘Swallow’ has a bad case of it. Chilly and distant, ‘Swallow’ feels a little like Cronenberg with the schlocky marrow sucked out, a psychosomatic take-down of familial oppression and control dynamics. I liked it, but its psychological landscape is a little on the neat side, especially when it all boils up to something that smacks too much of a conventional resolution. I thought it might be more twisted… but f*ck it, here’s xmas around the corner, who needs bad vibes?
DON’T BREATHE 2 – That blind ex-marine guy from the first one is back, this time alongside a kidnap victim he’s raised as his own. Some nefarious types have contrived to bust into his house (again), and a similar scenario to part one unfolds… until it takes a clumsily telegraphed turn into slightly hysterical territory which I won’t spoil, but which elevates a very standard B-movie into something more nastily hilarious. Along the way are the expected bits of gore and ill-will. Quite good, but if you’re going to charitably donate this xmas, make sure it’s not to any shifty-looking medics…
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