A new group of recently-released genre films, most (if not all) direct to DVD or having no theatrical appearance here in the states other than maybe smaller film festivals. As with the After Dark Film Festival sets, and the Ghost House sets, these films are a mixed bag in terms of quality, place of origin, and original release date. That they're just making their way into the US market is testament, I suppose, to the continuing proliferation of genre films outside our country.
I heard/read about this particular group via Blackbiped's reviews of on-topic films located in the General Horror and SF folder. Like myself, he tends to be somewhat less critical of films in general, finding something to enjoy in most of what otherwise would be castigated as dreck by the more critical members of this board. Another board member, Gef the Talking Mongoose, has started a thread on one of these films -- The Haunting -- in this folder, so when I watch that one, I'll comment there. Otherwise, I'm going to group the rest of my viewing within this particular thread. I've watched two so far (out of eight, I think) and have three more waiting in the wings.
Road Kill (Australian; 2010). A germ of a good (albeit derivative) idea goes awry in this tediously-scripted thriller that at least lives up to the expectation of serious gore when saddled with a Fangoria label. Four extremely under-developed and unlikeable young people on an ill-described holiday in the "Outback" mess with a "road train," a very large, dual-trailer semi whose driver is supposed to be unseen, but can be seen briefly even though he disappears once the vehicle is stopped. Through a series of highly stupid and unlikely actions, the young people take control of the vehicle... or do they?... and serious shite occurs immediately. Then the shite drags on for 85 tedious minutes while the young people remain with the truck when they should be running for their lives. The germ of the good idea is a variant on The Car, with some very vague-but-heavily-repetitive suggestions of an even Greater Evil. The finale, after a series of false finales, is predictable. Good things to say? Some of the photography is decent. Whether or not the acting is good or bad depends on personal opinion. I thought it was uniformly bad. Not recommended, at least by me.
Fragile (Spain/UK; 2005). I wonder why this took so long to get a distributor. It apparently was released in Spain five years ago, but hasn't found any other distributor until now. Written and directed by Jaume Balgueros (Darkness, 2002; REC, 2007; REC 2, 2009), this is both head and shoulders above Road Kill, as well as being a decent ghost story. I like it better than Darkness, but somewhat less than REC. This film also features some decent acting (Callista Flockhart; Richard Roxburgh; Gemma Jones), very good photography when action isn't confined to dark areas, and a fine, morose, piano-based score by Roque Banos. A new night nurse (Flockhart) arrives at an old children's hospital that's in the process of closing down. There have been mysterious injuries to some of the children -- broken bones, mostly -- and the former night nurse quit in fear of an unknown entity one of the children calls "the mechanical girl." Flockhart immediately senses, then experiences her own metaphysical events, and tries to convince the doctor and administrator that something exists on the closed-down second floor of the institution. The mystery and resolution roll out somewhat erratically, and Flockhart's backstory doesn't come into play until the end of the film, so there is some uneven-ness to the story. But the biggest problem is that the best parts of the film were shot in the darkness, and "the mechanical girl" is sufficiently scary to be given a little more light. As for the conclusion, for me it went too far, should have ended a few minutes before it actually did. But my wife thought the finale was just fine. I guess it's up to the individual viewer. Fragile is a pretty good ghost story. I'm hoping this isn't the high point in the entire Fangoria group, but I fear it might be. Recommended, with some reservations.
Comments on other films will be added herein as they are viewed.
edit: It's now almost 10pm CST. Pig Hunt (apparently released in the UK in 2008) has come and gone. For the life of me, I can't figure out how some reviewers (imdb and the Netflix sleeve) are calling this a horror-comedy. I found none of the latter whatsoever. When the film jumps the shark at around 75 minutes, it's more WTF than funny. Very simple story -- five city folk from San Francisco go off to the California wilderness to hunt anything that moves, but also the occasional wild pig, at the protagonist's (Travis Aaron Wade, most notable for single TV series episodes) property recently inherited from his deceased, alcoholic uncle who I think was supposed to be the opening death. Said wilderness is home to two sets of unevolved humans -- a redneck, Bible-thumping white trash family that the protagonist knows from earlier visits, and a hippie commune that apparently no one knows anything about other than their very attractive Maryjane fields (which is both a literal and metaphorical description). Oh, there's also a legendary, 3,000-pound wild boar named The Ripper that is strangely invisible to residents. Most of the film is given to the deteriorating relationship between the city folk and the white trash. When one of the latter is killed, war is declared, and the hippie commune is part of the action. There was an obvious, though minimal, Razorback vibe in this, and the photography is fairly decent. But the pacing is turgid, the "monster" is never really seen, and what could have been a tight little backwoods bloodbath turns into something much less. I'm not sure I can recommend this, other than to say it's better than Road Kill.
I have two more of these Fangoria films sitting on my stack. Maybe tomorrow.
... Reed
I heard/read about this particular group via Blackbiped's reviews of on-topic films located in the General Horror and SF folder. Like myself, he tends to be somewhat less critical of films in general, finding something to enjoy in most of what otherwise would be castigated as dreck by the more critical members of this board. Another board member, Gef the Talking Mongoose, has started a thread on one of these films -- The Haunting -- in this folder, so when I watch that one, I'll comment there. Otherwise, I'm going to group the rest of my viewing within this particular thread. I've watched two so far (out of eight, I think) and have three more waiting in the wings.
Road Kill (Australian; 2010). A germ of a good (albeit derivative) idea goes awry in this tediously-scripted thriller that at least lives up to the expectation of serious gore when saddled with a Fangoria label. Four extremely under-developed and unlikeable young people on an ill-described holiday in the "Outback" mess with a "road train," a very large, dual-trailer semi whose driver is supposed to be unseen, but can be seen briefly even though he disappears once the vehicle is stopped. Through a series of highly stupid and unlikely actions, the young people take control of the vehicle... or do they?... and serious shite occurs immediately. Then the shite drags on for 85 tedious minutes while the young people remain with the truck when they should be running for their lives. The germ of the good idea is a variant on The Car, with some very vague-but-heavily-repetitive suggestions of an even Greater Evil. The finale, after a series of false finales, is predictable. Good things to say? Some of the photography is decent. Whether or not the acting is good or bad depends on personal opinion. I thought it was uniformly bad. Not recommended, at least by me.
Fragile (Spain/UK; 2005). I wonder why this took so long to get a distributor. It apparently was released in Spain five years ago, but hasn't found any other distributor until now. Written and directed by Jaume Balgueros (Darkness, 2002; REC, 2007; REC 2, 2009), this is both head and shoulders above Road Kill, as well as being a decent ghost story. I like it better than Darkness, but somewhat less than REC. This film also features some decent acting (Callista Flockhart; Richard Roxburgh; Gemma Jones), very good photography when action isn't confined to dark areas, and a fine, morose, piano-based score by Roque Banos. A new night nurse (Flockhart) arrives at an old children's hospital that's in the process of closing down. There have been mysterious injuries to some of the children -- broken bones, mostly -- and the former night nurse quit in fear of an unknown entity one of the children calls "the mechanical girl." Flockhart immediately senses, then experiences her own metaphysical events, and tries to convince the doctor and administrator that something exists on the closed-down second floor of the institution. The mystery and resolution roll out somewhat erratically, and Flockhart's backstory doesn't come into play until the end of the film, so there is some uneven-ness to the story. But the biggest problem is that the best parts of the film were shot in the darkness, and "the mechanical girl" is sufficiently scary to be given a little more light. As for the conclusion, for me it went too far, should have ended a few minutes before it actually did. But my wife thought the finale was just fine. I guess it's up to the individual viewer. Fragile is a pretty good ghost story. I'm hoping this isn't the high point in the entire Fangoria group, but I fear it might be. Recommended, with some reservations.
Comments on other films will be added herein as they are viewed.
edit: It's now almost 10pm CST. Pig Hunt (apparently released in the UK in 2008) has come and gone. For the life of me, I can't figure out how some reviewers (imdb and the Netflix sleeve) are calling this a horror-comedy. I found none of the latter whatsoever. When the film jumps the shark at around 75 minutes, it's more WTF than funny. Very simple story -- five city folk from San Francisco go off to the California wilderness to hunt anything that moves, but also the occasional wild pig, at the protagonist's (Travis Aaron Wade, most notable for single TV series episodes) property recently inherited from his deceased, alcoholic uncle who I think was supposed to be the opening death. Said wilderness is home to two sets of unevolved humans -- a redneck, Bible-thumping white trash family that the protagonist knows from earlier visits, and a hippie commune that apparently no one knows anything about other than their very attractive Maryjane fields (which is both a literal and metaphorical description). Oh, there's also a legendary, 3,000-pound wild boar named The Ripper that is strangely invisible to residents. Most of the film is given to the deteriorating relationship between the city folk and the white trash. When one of the latter is killed, war is declared, and the hippie commune is part of the action. There was an obvious, though minimal, Razorback vibe in this, and the photography is fairly decent. But the pacing is turgid, the "monster" is never really seen, and what could have been a tight little backwoods bloodbath turns into something much less. I'm not sure I can recommend this, other than to say it's better than Road Kill.
I have two more of these Fangoria films sitting on my stack. Maybe tomorrow.
... Reed
