REVENGE - This is a slight anomaly in the world of low budget horror in that it's a shot-on-film sequel to a shot-on-video original, 'Blood Cult'. Whilst I've seen 'Blood Cult' I remember jack all about it, a state of affairs that didn't seem to bode well when sitting down with the film in question. Well, they say revenge is a dish best served cold, but I'd say 'Revenge' is a distinctly lukewarm affair. It sounds pretty good - a small town harbours a dog worshipping cult that doubles as its rotary committee, leaving a shotgun wielding farmer and an out-of-towner to sort it all out - and it wrings some atmosphere from a few windswept locations and a handful of effective scenes (including a bizarre hot-tub slaying). But it can't quite shake the torpor that creeps in between the perky bits. Guarantor of B movie bad John Carradine adds a senescent sizzle here and there to a film that can only really get by on creaky mid-eighties charm.
REVENGE - Richard is a hubby, a dad and, as evinced by the presence of young Jen (Matilda Lutz) at his plush desert pied-a-terre, a bit of a philanderer. He's also a rapist and would-be murderer. 'Revenge' is about Jen's forty days in the wilderness, during which time she tends to her spiritual growth by grabbing herself some firearms and wreaking gory havoc on Richard and his cringey pals. 'Revenge' was originally going to be called '(Yet Another Rape) Revenge (Movie)', but they thought it might seem a bit more enigmatic if they stuck with just the one word. If I jest, it's only in part - whilst 'Revenge' is coded to read as a more overtly feminist text than, say, ISOYG and its remakes (curiously, its opening, close and to an extent its overall theme mirror 'Ex Machina', a feminist sci-fi horror film with way more depth), there's really not that much distance between this and the more downmarket exploitation stuff. Conceptually, I mean; aesthetically it's a different story. Look at the wonderful photography and director Coralie Fargeat's visual command, both of which elevate the scuzz factor into something near-rhapsodic in places - blood spatter on cool wallpaper has never looked as swish. 'Revenge' is a bit shallow, but that's not an issue really - it works, pulls you in, makes you feel, repulses, invigourates, just really motors along like the nasty horror flick it basically is. Can't wait to see Fargeat's 'The Substance', and I hope she applies the same mix of brutality, looks and slightly vacant charm.
MASSACRE IN DINOSAUR VALLEY - Michael Sopkiw isn't an archaeologist, he's a 'bone hunter'. That means he can tell you interesting facts about tyrannosaurus skulls whilst ripping leeches from your arm with his bare teeth. He doesn't spit them out, he just swallows 'em! MIDV is pure mid eighties Italian tack. It looks as cheap as hell but throws everything it has at the screen. Contradictions abound - a Moroder-style synth number, sad, sweet and lush, gallops by whilst the world's shittest miniature aeroplane crash lands in a puddle that looks like it was filmed in a pub car park. Sopkiw is a way-off brand Indiana Jones / 'Romancing The Stone' adventurer who must shepherd Suzane Carvalho through a jungle full of hostile tribes and vile slavers. Politically stunted? What I can't defend I simply observe, and MIDV is fascinating to behold. Grubby discord reigns in nearly every other sequence - sweaty Milton Rodriguez leers at crotch after crotch. At the same time, in a way it strives to be a good natured goof; Sopkiw gets distracted from some hot action by a groovy dinosaur footprint! Hilarious. The combination of sleaze and nice scenery wouldn't come easily to the filmmakers of today.
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