THE BLACK CRYSTAL – I have massive soft spot for eighties / nineties SOV and that demimonde of horror movies made by fans in their backyards – ‘The Black Crystal’ was shot on 8mm, stock choice of the true auteur. It’s about a guy who enlists the help of a witch after a backroad run-in with a cult. You can see a degree of professionalism in the camerawork and the composition, something usually absent from this level of cinema; the downside is a consequent lack of gonzoid charisma, but we can’t all be Nathan Schiff. ‘The Black Crystal’ is not without its charms, and does rather well with the atmospheres that flow from woodland scenes and arid roads. Some of the dialogue is quite amusing, intentionally and otherwise. Director Mike Conway went on to make several sci-fi genre flicks in the noughties.
PROJECT: WOLF HUNTING – Korean action horror set aboard a makeshift prison ship, where the cons have staged a full-scale breakout. Unfortunately for them, also travelling is some kind of genetically enhanced zombie ‘super-prisoner’, who basically spends a good hour of ‘Project: Wolf Hunting’ murdering the living crap out of all in his path. Slick and brimming with ultra-violence, though it does well to stretch it past the two-hour mark; I groaned when I saw the run time, but in the end I have to say that it keeps afloat without hitting any doldrums, mostly by falling back on some nicely engineered tension. Looks set up for a sequel. Recommended if you’re in it for the gore, or just want to see a well-made South Korean sci-fi action horror film.
THE SIGNAL – Society collapses when a strange television signal transforms its audience into a violent horde – three people give their perspectives. I remember watching ‘The Signal’, a lively mid noughties portmanteau effort, on a really cheap DVD back in the day and feeling quite impressed. Its three overlapping tales are essentially based on the age-old theme of zombie apocalypse, but it’s pulled off with an indie brio that plays with quite severe tonal swerves (i.e., from the kind of brutal scrabble we’re used to seeing to borderline sketch show stuff about a dinner party going wrong) and makes them work, so the effect is quite original. Worth a watch; my previous impressions were confirmed by this latest viewing, this time of a really cheap blu-ray.
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