¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 9

THE EXPERIMENT
(July 2010)


“Throw some animals in a cage and you get to find out which one of us is gonna be the lions and which ones are gonna get gut.”
"I like to think we’re slightly higher on the evolutionary chain than monkeys.”
“It don’t matter how evolved you think we are. You lock up any animal long enough and the strong’s gonna eat the weak. That’s just the way it is.”

To make $14,000 in two weeks, Adrien Brody, Forest Whitaker, and Clifton Collins, Jr. (among others) sign up for a behavioural experiment, which places them in pre-assigned roles-- prisoner or guard-- for fourteen days, in a simulation of life within the walls of a penitentiary.
Based on the novel, Black Box, by Mario Giordano (the novel, in turn, based on an actual experiment run at the Stanford University in 1971), and its German film adaptation, Das Experiment,* Paul T. Scheuring’s The Experiment is a largely bleak depiction of humanity that displays how terrifyingly easy it is for us to shirk our morality.
It’s about how power and authority can warp and corrupt, and how the roles society impresses upon us affect the way we act and see ourselves.
With a minimum amount of on-screen violence, Scheuring (who also gave us Prison Break) achieves here what many a “legitimate” horror movie fails to do; affect us on a disconcerting, primal level.

* I once had the opportunity to see Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Das Experiment, but passed on it; I’ve been trying to rectify that ever since…

Parting shot: Interestingly enough, there’s another upcoming take on the subject, The Stanford Prison Experiment, which, as indicated by its title, is based on the actual university experiment.

(The Experiment UK DVD cover art courtesy of amazon.co.uk.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 8

PIG HUNT
(July 2008)


In 1984, Russell Mulcahy, armed with a script by Everett De Roche, regaled us with the giant killer pig hijinx of Razorback.
Now, Jim Isaac, after the flawed Skinwalkers, returns with Pig Hunt, which features a giant killer pig, amongst other assorted narrative elements, to give us a title that does its sordid, lurid job whilst delivering some welcome subtext (underscored by the Animal Farm quote which closes the film).
Isaac ably captures the backwoods tone as a group of friends go on a hunting trip, only to have things go, yes, very wrong. DP Adam Kane (who also shot Skinwalkers, and who’s directed episodes of Pushing Daisies, Heroes, Kings, and most recently, Haven) shoots Pig Hunt down and dirty, highlighting the mud and the blood that streaks the body of this tale where men are, perhaps, really no better than animals. (It’s a telling point that there are precious few likable characters in this.)
For my money, Pig Hunt is: one, a lot better than Isaac’s previous effort, Skinwalkers, and two, a lot better than the recent Korean giant killer pig flick, Chaw.

Parting shot: Reviews of Isaac’s Skinwalkers and past ¡Qué Horror! title Long Weekend (also written by De Roche) can be found lurking in the Archive.

(Pig Hunt OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 7

ALTITUDE
(October 2010)


Like John Cassaday before him, Kaare Andrews is a comic book artist whose work I rather like, that’s chosen to spend some time in the Director’s Chair. And while Cassaday’s debut was on the small screen (an episode of Dollhouse), Andrews tackled some shorts before taking the feature film route with Altitude.
Paul A. Birkett’s script for the film is an interesting and curious throwback, with shades of an ‘80’s creature feature sporting generous helpings of The Twilight Zone. It also operates in the area of experiential horror, as, following an initial set-up, the audience winds up confined on a tiny twin prop with five young, fresh-faced pretty things in peril, among them, alumni of primetime TV shows like The O.C. (Ryan Donowho), Degrassi: The Next Generation (Landon Liboiron), 90210 (Jessica Lowndes), and the daytime soap As The World Turns (Jake Weary).
Andrews and DP Norm Li successfully capture the claustrophobia of the cramped cabin of the plane, as first, mechanical failure, and later on, something decidedly inhuman, threatens the lives of Altitude’s protagonists.
And while the film itself is an effective piece, the most significant aspect of it is Andrews’ achievements; I, for one, am certainly curious to see whether he chooses to follow Altitude up with more feature directing.
If he does, rest assured, I’ll be there to check it out.

(Altitude OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 6

LA HORDE (THE HORDE)
(August 2009)


Guns and drugs, blood and guts, adorn Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher’s La Horde, where the unfolding scenario interrupted by the latest zombie apocalypse is a violent vendetta.
And as the running, ravening undead lay siege to a decrepit, condemned building, enemies must enter an uneasy truce to survive the ordeal.
With Alain Figlarz as stunt coordinator (Figlarz also choreographed the fight scenes in Babylon A.D. and Chrysalis and worked on Aurélien Poitrimoult’s Green Hornet short), this one’s a kick-ass, adrenalized ride. Things move so quickly and decisively, that there’s precious little time afforded to question why the dead are coming back to animated life and why their bites are contagious. Of course, given that the main characters of La Horde are cops and crooks, we really shouldn’t expect any lengthy bouts of circumspection regarding the situation they all find themselves in.
For the record, I had more fun with La Horde than the other zombie apocalypse entry currently vying for a ¡Qué Horror! slot next year, Candidate #4, Mark McQueen’s Devil’s Playground.

Parting shot: A review of Chrysalis can be found lurking in the Archive.

(La Horde OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 5

SRPSKI FILM (A SERBIAN FILM)
(March 2010)


There are certain films that are so singular and potent in their effect that the post-screening haze they leave me in, as I gradually re-adjust to the real world after my first viewing of them, somehow has a different texture from the wake of other movies.
Films like Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre or David Cronenberg’s Videodrome or Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, films that leave an impact and an imprint, both indelible and quite unforgettable.
Well, I can now add Srdan Spasojevic’s Srpski Film (A Serbian Film) to those ranks.

Here, Milos (Srdan Todorovic), noted star of such stellar titles as Milosh the Filthy Stud, is lured back in front of the camera from his current domestic life by mysterious filmmaker Vukmir Vukmir (Sergej Trifunovic), for a production whose plot and script is a secret.
Needless to say, things go, not just terribly awry, but total gonzo batshit insane, in a film I can perhaps best describe as the ultimate Hot Blood movie; Hot Blood being the successful erotic horror anthology series that has had writers like Grant Morrison as contributors.

Srpski Film is, quite pointedly, transgressive cinema (yes, some will use the term “perverse”) and there are moments in this film that are nothing short of evil. I’ve made it a point at the Iguana to stress which reviewed films have particularly strong and graphic content; consider my warning regarding Srpski Film the direst I’ve ever given here.
No joke, this one takes the cake.
It’s also got the single most audacious kill I’ve ever seen captured on film; and that’s saying a lot for a film that has a number of atrocious kills during its running time.
If you’ve ever wondered why a porn film is a brainless series of sexual acts, one after another, well, Srpski Film will show you how potentially dangerous porn with a philosophy can be.

(A Serbian Film OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 4

DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND
(August 2010)


As if Great Britain just couldn’t wait for the next 28 installment, they let themselves in for yet another zombie apocalypse in Mark McQueen’s debut feature, Devil’s Playground.
This time out, the infection stems from the trialists of a new over-the-counter performance boosting drug, RAK 295, courtesy of pharmaceutical company, N-Gen Industries (though the pronunciation appears to be “new gen”).
Among the familiar Brit cinema faces in Devil’s Playground are Danny Dyer (Severance, Doghouse), MyAnna Buring (The Descent, Lesbian Vampire Killers, Red Mist), Colin Salmon (Exam), Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers, Wilderness, Equilibrium), and Jaime Murray (Dexter Season 2).

The script by Bart Ruspoli (who also stars as Matt) is the sort that paints the still human as manipulative and lying schemers that are somehow worse than the infected. Either that, or imperfect individuals looking for a second chance, or just doing their best to get by; there aren’t any cut-and-dried heroes in this one.
It’s also an interesting point of the script that RAK 295 is meant to help those who take it cope better with the hectic and fast-paced modern world, and yet turns the trialists into rabid, ravening creatures intent only on preying on others, as if they somehow represent the necessary evolutionary step required to best deal with the 21st-century world; as if life has careened to the point where normal humans just can’t cut it anymore.

There isn’t necessarily anything groundbreakingly new in Devil’s Playground (it’s not a ZFD-- Zombie Film with a Difference), but it is nonetheless an excellent example of a “traditional” infected piece, done well.
And you really gotta love them Parkour zombies. (They’re actually not as daft as that makes them sounds, and they’re certainly more menacing than the ridiculous Spider-zombies in the Day of the Dead redux.)

(Devil’s Playground OS courtesy of cinemagia.ro.)

PIMP MY STUFF
BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS
Issue 2


A quick round of thanx to everyone who dropped by the table at the Komikon last Saturday, for your enthusiasm and support and questions.
Again, the latest issue of Bathala: Apokalypsis can be found online at davidhontiveros.com, so you can check it out there if you weren’t able to drop by the Kon.
And check out Ian Sta. Maria's kick-ass pin-up here.

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 3

MONSTERS
(June 2010)


Six years ago…
NASA discovered the possibility of alien life within our solar system. A space probe was launched to collect samples but broke up during re-entry over Mexico. Soon after new life forms began to appear and half the country was quarantined as an INFECTED ZONE.
Today…
The Mexican and US military still struggle to contain ‘the creatures’…

When word first began to circulate about Gareth Edwards’ Monsters, the news seemed to carry the implication that Edwards’ film would have human-sized aliens in it, ala District 9, which was in rotation at the time.
So, though the excellent Monsters trailer had already primed me to expect considerably-bigger-than-human-sized extraterrestrials, I was still enthusiastically surprised to see that Edwards’ effort plays rather like a character-driven indie film, which just happens to have giant, tentacled aliens as part of its backdrop.

It should be noted that not only did Edwards write and direct Monsters (his feature debut, by the way), he’s also the DP and production designer, plus he did the visual effects. Clearly, a huge part of the credit for placing its audience smack dab in the middle of this fantastic, yet still believable setting, falls to Edwards, who has created a SF/horror-tinged vision of a country upon whose doorstep war has been placed by foreigners.
Thus, it shares that aspect with District 9, that there is subtext to be found. But said subtext never crowds out the fact that Monsters is really about the main leads, Andrew and Sam (played by Scoot McNairy and Whitney Able); it’s their lives and their relationship we witness in the midst of the giant monster movie trappings. And it’s to McNairy’s and Able’s credit that their performances keep us interested in the narrative’s goings-on.
So Monsters also has that in common with Matt Reeves’ Cloverfield; that the characters really are at centre stage. In fact, if you take Cloverfield, then scale it towards the character-driven indie film end of the cinematic spectrum, you may begin to get an inkling of what Monsters is all about.
Better yet though, just get out there and see it.


Parting shot: Reviews of District 9 and Cloverfield can be found lurking in the Archive.

(Monsters UK quad and components for custom OS courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com.)

PIMP MY STUFF
BATHALA: APOKALYPSIS
Issue 2


For those of you who missed issue 1…

Previously in Bathala:

1999.

Andrew Carreon, reporter, is secretly the mighty superhero, Bathala.

Foremost among his many foes, is Bathala’s arch-enemy, brilliant and wealthy Harold Hernandez, who was friends with Andrew years ago, when they were in high school. Of all those who oppose Bathala in the hero’s crusade for justice, Hernandez is the most dangerous and the most relentless.

Unknowingly, as part of a plot hatched by Hernandez, Andrew’s twin brother, environmentalist Leonardo Carreon, has his entire personality digitally mapped and encoded, turned into an UP, an Uploaded Personality; Leo believes this will help him in his lifelong struggle to protect the planet Earth, a noble intention Andrew understands only too well.

However, during the press conference to announce the historical (and recently completed) procedure-- and while Bathala’s attention is diverted by the violence caused by the hero’s dark, twisted clone, ThaBa’al-- Leo is assassinated by a gunman.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a bizarre humanoid creature is killed by lightning, before it can make an attempt to contact Bathala, who it believes has the power to stop a seemingly impending catastrophe.

A catastrophe that could very well be the Biblical Apocalypse.

Now, the convenient synopsis above comes to you by way of the fact that the second issue of Bathala: Apokalypsis is set to be unleashed at the 6th annual Komikon this coming Saturday, November 13, at the Starmall Trade Hall, on the corner of EDSA and Shaw Blvd.
Ace and I will be there, so drop by if you can.
In the meantime, both issues 1 & 2 are online at davidhontiveros.com, so you can also check them out there.

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 2

THE LOVED ONES
(September 2009)


Aussie horror plants a flag for next year’s ¡Qué Horror! rundown with Sean Byrne’s feature debut, The Loved Ones, a film for all those iconoclasts who ever thought that prom was just some antiquated tradition best left by the cultural wayside.
“Prom is Hell”? In The Loved Ones, that truly is the case, as we bear witness to the Worst Prom Date captured on film since Sissy Spacek got all dolled up just to take a shower in pig’s blood.

Writer/director Byrne triumphs on a number of fronts with The Loved Ones, beginning with the fact that he’s able to counterpoint the blood and brutality with genuine emotional pain and mental anguish (and not just from the film’s main protagonist, played by Xavier Samuel).
Also, The Loved Ones isn’t just about the teen-agers. There’s a significant adult presence in the film, as we’re shown the strained dynamic between parents who no longer seem to understand their rebellious offspring, and children who feel a complex welter of emotion towards these estranged dinosaurs who sired and raised them, when the truth is, that both sides are reeling from the same pain.
There’s also a disturbing parent-child relationship here that, unsettling though it admittedly is, is still grounded in a sick and twisted sort of love.

So Byrne not only delivers the shock and the gore, he also populates the narrative with characters with actual thoughts and feelings, as opposed to the one-dimensional sketches we sometimes see in horror films.
All that, while establishing that not all the “weirdoes” and “losers” we know (regardless of age) share the same sort of scars; some could very well be psychopathic, that’s always a possibility, but some will really be just troubled and traumatized individuals, trying to numb the pain the best way they know how…

(The Loved Ones OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2011
Candidate # 1

FROZEN
(January 2010)


Imagine being stranded on a ski lift, without anyone knowing you were there. Trapped way above the snow, in the dark, and the cold…
That’s the wickedly taut scenario writer-director Adam Green invites us to, not so much view, as actually partake in, in Frozen.
I’ve seen the term “experiential horror” being used to describe Frozen, and a bunch of other recent titles (like Buried and Devil), and that’s about as good a term as any. These are the sort of films that attempt to place the viewer in the situation they’re watching from the normally safe remove of their seats, films that strive to break the fourth wall by putting us alongside the narrative’s protagonists, to share their panic and terror. (All this without tacking on a few extra bits to the ticket price with that new-fangled whatchallit, 3D. Is that right? “Three-dee”?)

Now, if the best horror is meant to unsettle and disturb, then experiential horror ups that ante considerably, making the cinematic experience more horribly intimate by confining us in a circumscribed space, forcing us to undergo the suffering.
In Frozen, we’re on an open, swinging chair on a ski lift; in Devil, we’re in an elevator; in Buried, we’re trapped-- along with Ryan Reynolds-- in a coffin.
Given how intense Frozen is, I’m awfully curious to see how Devil and Buried will compare, particularly Buried, which is getting loads of attention, and took home this year’s Méliès d'Or Award for Best European Fantastic Film, edging out past ¡Qué Horror! titles like Tom Shankland’s The Children and Philip Ridley’s Heartless, to name just a pair of its eight competitors.
Whatever the case may turn out to be with Buried though, Green has a superbly crafted and distressingly disturbing film in Frozen, whose young cast (Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore, and Emma Bell, who we’ll be seeing more of on The Walking Dead) hits all the right beats, from the casual to the tension-filled.
I haven’t seen Hatchet 2 yet, but even if I end up not going crazy for it, between Frozen and Spiral, Green has got some excellent-- and pretty formidable-- pieces on his track record.


(Frozen OS courtesy of impawards.com; design by The Refinery.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2010
The Parting Shot (Part 2)

And here're the rest...

ACOLYTES
(May 2008)


And while I had those “let’s keep it to one slot” quandaries, Australian horror actually grabbed up two slots this year (which only goes to prove that in the wake of Wolf Creek’s box office success, there’s been some noteworthy horror coming from our neighbours in the land Down Under).
Thus, an excellent title that got frozen out of the main list: Jon Hewitt’s Acolytes. With three teen-agers, a convicted child molester out on parole, and a killer, as its main characters, Acolytes may sound more like a thriller, but this is a horror movie; the characters’ paths cross and collide in this disturbing tale that demonstrates how quickly schemes and manipulations can spiral out of control. Secrets lie at the root of Acolytes, secrets that can be traced to both childhood traumas and adolescent hormones, secrets that lie behind the veneer of teen bravado and adult suburbia.

It’s an interesting and pointed note that the only adult characters of consequence in Acolytes are the aforementioned child molester and killer (not once are we shown any of the parents of the three teens). It’s almost as if today’s youth have been cast adrift, without any moral compasses to steer by.
The fact that, on the surface, things seem to be triggered by that awful narrative copout of teens doing patently stupid things, when the truth is so much deeper and far more insidious, makes this one a solid piece that leaves us wrung out by the wayside.
Ultimately, we’re left with a bleak and haunting final shot, and the sound of the Midnight Juggernauts (“Si-yi-yi-yi-rens, sound of the sirens, Hell reigns above…”) guiding us through the end credits roll.
Powerful, twisty, unsettling stuff.
Incidentally, among the cast of Acolytes is Sebastian Gregory, who also appears in another noteworthy Aussie entry, Beautiful. If Acolytes rocks your boat, chances are, Beautiful will too.

SPLICE
(October 2009)


"[The script for Splice] pushed me a little bit. It challenged me and made me feel very uncomfortable at times. I was fascinated by my own response to it, because it really does make you squirm in a deeply uncomfortable, ethical, emotional way that I wasn't necessarily prepared for."
-- Sarah Polley

Though Vincenzo Natali hadn’t really thoroughly rocked my Film Geek boat with Cube, what put Splice on my anticipatory radar were a bunch of other things: I love me some Sarah Polley and Guillermo del Toro. And let’s face it, who can say “No” to some good old fashioned 21st-century Frankenstein horror?
As it is, in a slower year, Splice would most likely have ended up on the main rundown, but this year, it’s got to settle for runner-up status.

Polley and co-star Adrien Brody are superstar geneticists fiddling with DNA for a pharmaceutical company, who end up creating something unnatural, with disastrous results. (Natali displays his love of James Whale’s Frankenstein films by naming both characters after key actors Colin Clive and Elsa Lanchester.)
Past is indeed prologue here, as the largely unseen histories of the characters impact on the narrative flow; in Splice, heredity and environment merge in the most terrible of ways to produce a cautionary tale for our times.
In addition, there’s also a lot of Classic Cronenberg in the celluloid genes of Splice; it can, in fact, be seen as a companion piece to his remake of The Fly. I’ll refrain from saying anything more, other than, if you’re into Cronenberg, you’ll know the themes and the imagery and the conventions when you see them.

(Reviews of some of del Toro’s films, the del Toro-produced-- and ¡Qué Horror! 2008 entry-- El Orfanato, the Polley-written and -directed Away From Her, and Paris Je t’aime, which includes a segment by Natali, can be found in the Archive.)

THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE (FIRST SEQUENCE)
(August 2009)


And, speaking of 21st-century Frankenstein horror with Cronenbergian echoes, there’s Tom Six’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence).
Like Ti West’s The House of the Devil, this one has got that late ‘70’s/early ‘80’s horror aesthetic which makes it play like a forgotten relic from the Betamax era, though it admittedly lacks the assured polish of West’s effort. Also, unlike Cronenberg, writer-director Six doesn’t seem to be interested in exploring the thematic depths beneath his surface assault on the audience’s sensibilities. Still, The Human Centipede has got its fair share of biological and scatological horror, and a mondo disturbo premise that has assured its cinematic infamy for years to come.
If the “mad scientists” of Splice had too much of a modern sheen for you (a little too “we’re so cool, we’re on the cover of Wired”), Dieter Laser’s portrayal of stark raving loony, Herr Doktor Josef Heiter should be just the old school ticket.

And, whilst on the subject, I should point out that Six has his follow-up (the ominously-titled Full Sequence) raring to go, and while the original is purportedly “100% medically accurate,” the Full Sequence teaser proudly proclaims the sequel is “medically inaccurate.”
Which just gives Six all the leeway he needs to take his twisted visions to heights unseen in First Sequence.
Oh, Lordy…

REPO MEN
(March 2010)


And we wrap up with a film originally entitled The Repossession Mambo (after Eric Garcia’s novel, upon which it was based), Miguel Sapochnik’s Repo Men, where we have some excellent and disturbing future dystopia on display.
Though this may initially appear to be a SF-action vehicle, there’s definitely horror in this scenario, a future where The Union is ready to repossess artiforgs (artificial organs) from those unfortunate souls who fall behind on their payments.
There’s horror here; in the shadow of a looming, merciless System; in the foreboding sight of that Final Notice red; in a life dogged by bad debts and the hounds sent out to make the collections; in the proverbial shoe suddenly found on the other foot.
Aside from a killer cast (Jude Law, Forest Whitaker, Liev Schreiber, among others), we also get visual echoes of Oldboy and Videodrome, as well as a narrative echo of a future dystopia classic that shall remain nameless; though that last echo is particularly resounding-- a point some may take against it-- Repo Men is still a noteworthy title that deserves an audience.

So, there we go. ¡Qué Horror! for another year.
Now, as we slide into the next 12 months, I’m going to try a little something in the build-up to 2011’s rundown.
I had the idea when I happened to catch up with Adam Green’s latest, the nastily intense Frozen, about 20 hours after the cut-off date of September 30, 2010. That, in itself, was a bit of a blessing for me, because if I had caught Frozen before the deadline, I’d’ve had a bitch of a time wrestling a slot for it on the main rundown.
So, what I’m going to attempt here is to, every now and then, when I’m able, have short mentions of horror films I feel have a pretty good chance of staking out a slot in next year’s ¡Qué Horror! rundown.
It’s a good way for me to keep a running, online track of the possibles, and it’ll put the spotlight on titles that I feel deserve the attention.
If I can’t do the full-length reviews the way I used to before, I can at least try to do this…
Thus, in a few, you’ll have ¡Qué Horror! 2011 Candidate #1: Frozen.
There you go, Mr. Green. Officially the first title with an eye on a 2011 slot. Truth to tell, Mr. Green, given what a nasty little number Frozen is, it’s your slot to lose at this point…

To everyone, hope your Halloween’s a happy one, and here’s to the next dozen months of horror…

(Splice, The Human Centipede, Repo Men OS’s courtesy of impawards.com; Acolytes French OS courtesy of ecranlarge.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2010
The Parting Shot (Part 1)

So there we are, this year’s rundown.
Now, in any given year, there are always a bunch of titles that didn’t make the final cut, some of which might actually have been on the list for a time, before being bumped off by other films I subsequently viewed and found more worthy of the honour.
The past 365 days have been busier than some other years, and a number of noteworthy films came this close to the final list. Now, since the Iguana isn’t as populated by current reviews as it once was, I figured I should at least make mention of the titles that almost made this year’s cut.
As I said, it was a busy year, a good one for horror. How else to explain the fact that both Christopher Smith’s latest and a Guillermo del Toro-produced title ended up off the main rundown?
At any rate, here are the ones that nearly made it this year…

SPIRAL
(January 2007)


Now, I owe this to Adam Green, whose Hatchet I wasn’t terribly fond of (the review’s lurking in the Archive; go on and hunt it down); I owed Mr. Green the fair shake of mentioning Spiral (which he co-directed with Joel David Moore), even if it got bumped off the main list…
Spiral is a tight, well-constructed and excellently-acted film, that’s, hands down, one of the best psychological horror pieces I’ve seen in a while. It’s also a labour of love, brought to us by Green, Moore, and their other friend, Chuck Bartowski.
Well… actually Zachary Levi, who also appears in (and co-produces!) the film, alongside Joan of Arcadia herself, Amber Tamblyn.
If you haven’t seen this one, make an effort. If you require added incentive, Six herself, Tricia Helfer, is also in this in a small role.
So hop to it, yeah? Psychological horror and Tricia Helfer. How can anyone resist?

LOS CRONOCRIMENES (TIMECRIMES)
(September 2007)


I love this movie-- how could I not when it puts Blondie’s “Picture This” on such prominent display?-- but this was one of those instances where other titles that wound up on the main list were clearly more “horror,” among them, another entry that dealt with pretty much the same themes. That film is one of the 2010 13, thus, Nacho Vigalondo’s Los Cronocrimenes isn’t. Still, if you haven’t checked this one out, please do. It’s been optioned for the English-language remake treatment, so no better time than the present to check the original out.
Heh. “Time.” “Present.”
See what I just did there?

THE FOURTH KIND
(October 2009)


If I could only have one faux documentary in this year’s rundown, it most definitely would be (and is) Lake Mungo.
Still, Olatunde Osunsanmi’s The Fourth Kind deserves some attention. The conceit of bridging purported “actual” video and audio recordings with “dramatizations” featuring the likes of Milla Jovovich and Elias Koteas may not have been 100% effective (some telling bits that betray the fiction can be found in them), but it was certainly interesting, taking the audience one welcome remove from the Hollywood trend du jour of the “found footage” format.

The harrowing events surrounding Dr. Abigail Tyler (played in the “re-enactments” by Jovovich) are ultimately unsettling and involving, and it’s interesting to note that while the more overtly horror movie elements-- the dead language bits, the Exorcist contortions, all a tad too Hollywood compared to your standard documented UFO/abduction cases-- are those that more readily point to the fictional nature of the entire film, they’re also some of the most disturbing aspects of The Fourth Kind.
The distorted recordings (video and audio) succeed in getting under the skin and go a very long way in clothing the proceedings in an air of authentic inexplicability.
In the end, The Fourth Kind may be an elaborate fiction dressed to the nines as a purported “truth”-- in many ways, it’s the anti-Lake Mungo, with all its narrative bells and whistles-- but that really shouldn’t deter you from appreciating it for what it is: an unsettling and effective piece about the unknowable things of our world.

BLACK DEATH
(May 2010)


If Christopher Smith could only have one slot in this year’s rundown, it most definitely would be (and is) occupied by Triangle.
Still, his latest effort, Black Death, deserves some attention. (Have I said this before? This sounds awfully familiar.)
In it, Sean Bean plays a crusading soldier of God tasked with retrieving a necromancer purportedly keeping a village safe from the plague through diabolical practices. It’s a grim little number that puts faith and belief under a harsh spotlight, and features Severance alumni Andy Nyman and Tim McInnerney in roles quite unlike their past work with Smith.

It’s also worth noting that, a) this is the first time Smith has directed a piece that wasn’t written by him as well; Black Death’s screenplay comes to us courtesy of Dario Poloni, who also wrote Wilderness; and b) Black Death took home 4 awards in the recently concluded Screamfest in Los Angeles: Best Director, Best Actor (for Bean), Best Cinematography (for Sebastian Edschmid), and Best Score (for Christian Henson).

(Reviews of Severance and Wilderness can be found in the Archive, while Triangle, is of course, on the ¡Qué Horror! 2010 list.)

(Spiral and Timecrimes OS’s courtesy of shocktillyoudrop.com; The Fourth Kind OS courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com;Black Death German OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[13 of 13]
[REC] 2 (September 2009)


Contrary to the louder, “sound and fury” mentality of Hollywood’s hollower sequels, [REC] 2 targets higher ground in more significant ways. Not only are the shots more ambitious, but so is the narrative structure.

Read the entire review here.

Parting shot: Well, as it turns out, we’re in for two more [REC] films: Paco Plaza will direct [REC] Genesis, a prequel set for a Fall 2011 release, and Jaume Balagueró will helm [REC] Apocalypse, which will reportedly close out the series in Fall 2012, “… with the pandemic spreading to unknown proportions.”
Boo-yah!
Meanwhile, Flatmate, the Balagueró film I mention at the tail end of the original [REC] 2 review, has apparently now been rechristened, Sleep Tight; note the one sheet below.


([REC] 2 OS courtesy of impawards.com; Sleep Tight OS courtesy of jaumebalaguero.blogspot.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[12 of 13]
HEARTLESS (August 2009)


Ever since Philip Ridley made me stand up and pay attention with The Reflecting Skin, I’ve waited for his return to the cinema. Thus, having missed the opportunity to see The Passion of Darkly Noon, it was with a fair amount of excitement that I looked forward to Heartless; I wasn’t disappointed.
Though Ridley’s Faustian Heartless (with Jim Sturgess as the luckless schmuck who falls for the Devil’s siren song) is much closer to the mainstream than The Reflecting Skin was, it’s nonetheless a beautifully constructed piece that allows a smidgen of ambiguity to inform its climax, setting it above the majority of other films that follow its by-now familiar narrative structure.
And Sturgess also sings songs that are on the film’s soundtrack (as he did on Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe), so aside from suffering at the diabolical whims of Old Nick, he also gets to exercise his pipes.
At the very least, it’s an interesting deal he got himself into…

(Heartless OS courtesy of cinematical.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[11 of 13]
TRIANGLE (August 2009)


As I made mention in my Severance review (lurking in the Archive), I wasn’t really taken by Christopher Smith’s feature debut Creep. So while I looked forward to his third effort, Triangle, I approached it with a certain degree of caution.
At a 1-1 score, Smith could still go either way in my books.
I’m glad to report that the score emerged 2-1, in Mr. Smith’s favour.

In Triangle, Melissa George and company encounter strange phenomena and the resultant engendered terror on the high seas; the exact nature of the phenomena and resultant terror should be withheld for maximum audience satisfaction. Suffice it to say that Smith constructs a, ahem, watertight exercise in the horror of inevitability and continues to evolve as a filmmaker in graceful leaps and bounds.
Of course, given my unalloyed joy with Triangle, I went into Smith’s subsequent film, Black Death, with high expectations; again, I’m glad to report that the score is now 3-1, in Mr. Smith’s favour. (To try and spread the ¡Qué Horror! love though, I allowed him only one slot on the rundown, so Black Death ended up on the runners-up list, which I’ll tackle after we get through the main 13.)

(Triangle UK quad courtesy of bloody-disgusting.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[10 of 13]
DREAD (July 2009)


Of the 3 recent Clive Barker film adaptations (the other two being The Midnight Meat Train and Book of Blood; reviews shambling about in the Archive), Anthony DiBlasi’s Dread is the one that can arguably be said to be even better than the source material, and considering the original is a Barker short story, that’s saying quite a lot.
What DiBlasi does here, is to personalize the phobias established in the original Books of Blood short story; fears are grounded in very specific childhood traumas. For example, in the film, we are made privy to the root cause of Cheryl Fromm’s vegetarianism (which, if you’ve read the short story, you’ll know is the crux of the powerful set piece that lies at the diseased heart of “Dread”).

There’re also some trade-offs (protagonist Stephen Grace-- played by Jackson Rathbone-- gets a new fear, while his phobia from the short story is fobbed off to another character), as well as a couple of new characters, setting up the film’s grim third act, which looks vastly different from the short story’s climax. It’s a darker, far more harrowing close that nonetheless still makes perfectly sick sense given the manner in which the narrative unfolds.
It’s also good to know that Rathbone’s sulky, pouty non-presence in the Twilight movies is all on the character and not a reflection of the young man’s acting abilities. He acquits himself well here, as do the other young cast members.

Dread is one of the best Barker adaptations out there and should be seen by any horror aficionado, even those who aren’t familiar with Barker’s work.
It’s powerful, dark stuff, this. The kind of indiscriminate horror that works in an amoral universe, where no one is exempt from dastardly fates.

(Dread OS courtesy of facebook.com.)

A Rundown of the 13 Best Horror Movies I’ve Seen in the Past Year
[9 of 13]
ANTICHRIST (May 2009)


Like Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible, Lars von Trier’s Antichrist has gone down in the annals of cinematic infamy as one of those Cannes films: the ones that detonate like atomic bombs, that repulse and enrage and provoke.
In Antichrist, tragedy befalls Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (who took home the Best Actress prize from Cannes for her troubles), and the couple subsequently retreat to a cabin in the wilderness where things go spectacularly awry.
Von Trier has gone on the record as saying Antichrist was very much therapy, a creative act meant to help his rehabilitation in the wake of a mental breakdown. The result is indeed something potent and difficult. On certain levels, it plays like one of those tests of cinematic endurance the French have bombarded us with in recent years. There is none of the quirky humour evident in von Trier’s previous excursion into horror territory, Riget; here, there is only bleak, arty, and rather carnal nihilism.
Antichrist is a film where sex happens at the indiscriminate drop of some trou, and where the act is either an evasion of psychological pain, or a foretaste of unsettling brutality.
Very. Unsettling.

Does Antichrist deserve its Cannes infamy? It does.
There are, however, other films that are harder to sit through, films like Martyrs or Irreversible, for that matter.
But that’s all really relative in the end.
Antichrist savages and assaults, housing disturbing horror film elements within the cinematic framework of the art film.
Like a wild fox ready to sink its teeth into hot, fleshy meat, it is not to be approached casually.

(Antichrist Australian OS courtesy of impawards.com.)