15th April 2012, 06:06 PM
|
 | Cultist on the Rampage | | Join Date: May 2011 Location: Leeds, UK | |
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - Recommended. Disturbing and depressing. L Ramsay's take on the aftermath of a high school massacre, although it's possibly more about a woman's alienation from her socially prescribed role. T Swinton is great and invites connection despite the emotional constriction of self and environment on display.
7 DAYS - Father takes it all out on murderer of daughter. Chilly, clinical, again, something of a downer - although for me it lacked intensity somehow and I felt uninvolved. Perhaps this was intentional in a Haneke-esque sort of way - I like movies based around the theme of revenge, but their emotional dynamics are often dodgy, similar to those manipulated by certain sections of the media during wartime.
DEVIATION - It's alright, but nothing new. Nurse is kidnapped by escaped psychopath, and the pair begin a twilight journey through big uncaring London. Dyer is OK. The whole thing sustains enough interest, mostly, without ever tipping over into anything more intimidating or intense than the usual captor-captive schtick. But it does succeed in generating the foreboding sense of the city at night - foreboding to the extent that, whatever the threat, no-one really gives a shit if it's not happening to them. Also the evocative sense of endless empty streets. Shame though, the title makes me think of some lost 70s Brit grot with the potential to be quite perverse.
PONTYPOOL - Virus spreads through smalltown Canadia, leaving hordes of violent plague carriers in its wake as reported on from within the confines of a radio studio. This time, the virus is transmitted through speech patterns. '28 Days' does Burroughs? Conceptually ambitious, all the more so for trying to realise its aspirations in the context of a genre flick. Partially successful, I really liked the first half, which managed to sustain a really grim atmosphere of looming horror - after the halfway mark, it all became just a bit too 'similar'.
SWEATSHOP - Annoying clubbers decide to put on a show in an abandoned warehouse, forgetting that they look like extras from an early eighties Italian post-apocalypse rip off rather than actual ravers. Or, having not bored the shit out of some random stranger with a gyratingly jaw-lined and chemically treated appraisal of how great they are for a while, it may be that I'm out of touch with today's Yoot. In any case, this a standard trap 'em and slash 'em by numbers effort, elevated slightly by the oppressive environment, the high level of gore and the fact that the killers, for no apparent reason whatsoever, are a ghoul in a tattered wedding dress and a fur 'n' hides clad behemoth wielding an anvil-like killing device. How 'elevated' that actually gets you will depend on individual response and tolerence - I wasn't exactly floating, but I was probably grinning like a dickhead at points.
|
181890Likes
Linear Mode
