20131020: Horror Review--Higanjima

Higanjima

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2009, NR, 122 minutes, horror, action-adventure.  Spoken word is Japanese; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 5.5./10.0 from 443 users.  Aspect 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 82% liked it from 101 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 15,489 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Tae-gyun Kim.
6. Starring: Hideo Ishiguro as Akira, Dai Watanabe as Atsushi, Terry Doty as Ryoko, Asami Mizukawa as Rei, Mirori Takemoto as Yuki, Koji Yamamoto as Miyabi.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The opening sequence shows a lone vampire killer successfully plying his hobby.  This is on some island where there are many vampires.  The VK does in several, then talks to a man who is in the process of turning to a vampire.  Before they meet, the defenseless man spoke of a woman who 'tricked' him into coming to the island.


2. Next sequence is at a high school.  Akira the tall and confident talks to his friend Pon who can't defend himself against his brother.  Akira gets challenged by some local bully (and his gang of eight or so) whose sister claims Akira ditched her.  Great.  High school nonsense that has brutal consequences.  Akira wisely runs for it, and manages to get off campus.


3. Rei saves him from the chase, and offers him a challenge of sorts.  Also, Rei assures Akira that his brother is alive and well.


4. Akira's parents tell him that the family fortunes are not going well.  Akira volunteers to work instead of save for college.  They ignore him, wishing only that the older brother Atsushi had not gone missing, wailing and moaning.


5. Akira and his friends try to find Rei.  They find vampires instead, and do not do well against them.  His older friend Ken gets changed, Yuki gets roughed up, and Akira takes one huge sequence of beatings.  Rei appears and turns the tide.  She starts explaining Higanjima Island and the vampires there.


6. Akira decides to go to the island; the others are not in favor of it.  There are some changes of heart overnight.  So a team of gawky teens goes to fight a horde of vampires on an island.


7. They find a village, which seems deserted.  The lights come on, soon they are surrounded by vampires, and Rei has vanished on them.  This is reminiscent of the opening sequence.  Rei has an earnest discussion with Master Miyabi, the leader of the vampires.  He is not particularly happy with her, but she is his plaything, and he wants to taste the hate and fear in her blood.  The vampires outside start to eat the teenaged group.  The first is Ken, who will be lab rat.  The teens get free after one of the vampires drops a key.


8. Yuki, Ken, and Akira find Atsushi, who is not that pleased to see them.  Soon they meet up with two other escapees; Pon is not with them.  The larger group goes to a safe place to sleep that Atsushi shows them.  He does recon; they sleep, mostly.  Pon finds them, and starts venting.  He has plenty to vent as an omega male.  Plus, now he's a vampire.  More vampires show up; Atsushi leads them away.


9. Hm, the teens did not find the weapons that they brought, and have not re-equipped themselves.  Fighting and fleeing goes on. One of the flying vampires abducts Yuki.  Akira handles that stupidly, but Atsushi comes up with a plan for rescuing her.  First though, there is a long flashback to where Atsushi first came to the island (pre-vampires); he and his fiancee Ryoko implore her family to bless their union.  At a local shrine, Atsushi unwittingly releases Miyabi, who proceeds to kill Ryoko.  After that, the small group meets with the local resistance fighters.  Meanwhile, Miyabi is concentrating on creating the 'perfect being,' whatever that might be.


10. Nice, we have the setup for a more major battle to come.  Atsushi, then Akira, set off alone to rescue Yuki.  Rei joins them after a while.  The odd vampire 'creations' get dispatched.


11. Most of our heroes go home, but is it really over?  (Sequel alert.)


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Teen helps brother overthrow vampires on isolated Japanese island.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 The camera work here reminds me of how stunningly beautiful visuals can be. The aspect is 2.35, which I like a lot, and the quality of the filming is high to go along with this.  During rapid motion sequences, jerky camera movements are common.  There was a high proportion of dark, low contrast footage toward the last third of the film.


2. Sound: 9/10 On Netflix, this film comes in either Japanese or dubbed in English. One can switch back and forth on the fly.  The Japanese sounds a lot better to my ear; the young men sound like young men.  In the English dub, they sound like screeching chimps.  Also the English dub is fairly poor for lip sync.  The incidental music is incredibly loud; have your finger near the volume adjustment.  Much of the incidental music is is lush and fine, even if loud.  The sounds of the rain are nicely captured.


3. Acting: 6/10 An adventure movie starring teenagers.  Oi.  The resistance group just seemed to be extras standing around for the most part.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 Which vampire rules were in place?  The vampires seemed to go about in sunlight with some impunity, and what it took to kill one (destroy one?) seemed unclear.  Rei's character was puzzling.  It seemed that Miyabi, the teenagers, and the resistance all had sufficient reason to kill her on sight, yet that did not seem to be the case.  Interesting juggling, there.


5. SFX: 7/10 The winged vampires were very nicely done.  Some of the later appearing monstrous creations were not nearly as impressive.

20131020: Horror Review---Visible Secret

Visible Secret (Youling Renjian)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Hong Kong live action feature length film, 2001, NR, 101 minutes, horror, mystery, fantasy.  Spoken word is in Cantonese; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 6.0/10.0 from 265 users.  Aspect 1.78
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No Reviews Yet...', 42% liked it from 204 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 14,028 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Ann Hui, written by Kwang Abe.
6. Starring: Eason Chan as Peter Wong Choi, Qui Chu as June/Wong Siu-Kam, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as Wong-Lin, Sam Lee as Simon.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Poor start.  A girl, 15 years ago, follows a man from a pier to a bus stop.  He tells her she will see her parents again once he gets paid.  The girl nods.  Apparently this (being kidnapped) is ordinary.  A man is moving rather forcibly through the waiting crowd.  Then he's beheaded.  The girl looks at the head beneath the bus.  Apparently that (massive mutilation of a living human being) is ordinary too.  She stares at it for seconds with no affect.


2. In the present we start in a rave.  Minus points for that.  Conversation in a rave.  Sure, nothing but bellowing or screaming.  June meets Peter, and uses Peter to get away from some other young man.  They go here and there, and end up at his place.  Peter looks like he needs a shower, a shampoo, and directions on using a comb.  June could use a flamethrower to get all the layers of badly applied cosmetics crap off her face.


3. The lead characters seem repellant and useless.  Peter asks her why she was in such a hurry to leave every place they went to.


4. Ah, the movie starts.  Well, no it doesn't.  It seemed she was about to speak some truth, but she did not.


5. June is a useless self-centered pest.  She and Peter have at each other, then she leaves in the morning after emptying his wallet.


6. Peter's Dad shows up the next morning, claiming to be possessed by a ghost.  They take him to the hospital.  The children assemble and bond over bad times; they trade veiled insults.  Nice.  Peter's about to leave but his father needs more talking.  Peter thinks he sees June as he leaves but perhaps not.


7. Peter gets fired from his job.  He goes to a beach marshmallow roast with ghost stories.  He meets June again on this trip.  The reputed ghost shows up in the body of a friend of June's.  Peter sees some ghost lore in June, and starts to wonder.  The next day she confides that she can see ghosts with her left eye, and there is always one following Peter.


8. After that, they spend a lot of time together; Peter eventually gives her a ring he had hoped to give a previous girl friend who left him.  Peter has trouble finding a new job.


9. Peter has a dream of his father visiting him at midnight; the next morning the hospital calls to tell him that his father hung himself.   His relative tells him that June was with his dad, sharing a long stare, the night before he died.  Sigh.


10. Peter tries to find out more about June, and encounters some strange experiences.  Also, he digs up the newspaper story about the beheaded man, and sees a little girl there with the same distinctive birthmark as June.  The description of the beheaded man ties up some threads for Peter.


11. Peter tries to get a job with good prospects.  June tries to involve him in some ghostly business.  He tells her to go.  He wakes to find his apartment painted in red, and he tries to get clear of all this for his job interview. At his friend Simon's place, the red paint shows up again.  After he talks with Simon, he tries to connect with June, but she's hard to find.


12. After resolving the problem that the headless man was obsessed with, he is released.


13. Peter and June visit his dad's grave.  Then Peter is drawn to a woman at another grave site, which turns out to be June's.  As opposed to the Sixth Sense, the ending was a huge let down.


3. Conclusions
1. Skip this one. 
2. One line summary: Hong Kong ghost story; see the Sixth Sense instead.
3. Three stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 OK, even with challenging lighting situations.


2. Sound: 5/10 Both relentless and boring.  I was ready to quit before the opening credits were over.  One needs to be near the volume controls at all times to save your ears (too loud by far) or catch any words of the conversation.


3. Acting: 7/10 OK for the story.  I liked the supporting cast, but the two leads were obnoxious.


4. Screenplay: 5/10 After 75 minutes, I wished I had never started this mess.  When I was done, I had the same feeling.  If June is a ghost, why did everyone see her?  If Peter is the psychic, why can he only see June? 

20131020: Horror Review--Missing

Missing (Sil Jong)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Korean live action feature length film, 2009, NR, 98 minutes, horror.
2. IMDB: 6.3/10.0 from 263 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 0% from 11 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 52,358 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Sung-Hong Kim
6. Starring: Ja-Hyaeon Chu, Min-he Ha, Gi-ho Heo.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The lead in the film is on a weekend trip with her married boss.  The place they are to stay is next to the property of an old farmer.  The farmer kills her boss, then imprisons her.


2. The farmer is a want-to-be songwriter, and he regales her with a song that he wrote using a karyoke machine while feeding her cake and coca cola.  He uses frosting as a lubricant.


3. After ten days, the protagonist's sister follows the small number of leads she has to the correct area.  The police tell the sister to get lost; there was not enough evidence for them to devote police resources to mount a search.


4. The protagonist's health starts its slide, but the kidnapper insists on oral sex.  That does not go well.  The sister finds the farmer, but does not find the confined protagonist.


5. After more digging, the sister gets more of an investigation, but the farmer was prepared for it.  The police dismiss the sister's interest.  Later the sister runs the farmer down by accident; he lures her to his place, and imprisons her.


6. One of the locals finally figures it out, and tries to extort some of the farmer's land from him.  The farmer is a bit careless in disposing of the sister's van; this gets the cops involved again.  So, that turns out to be enough to turn the tide of fortune against the farmer.


7. What are the final consequences of the actions of the principals?


3. Conclusions
1. Not for those with a weak stomach.  If you could stand Blood Simple this movie might be OK for you.
2. One line summary: Korean kidnap/rape/murder tale; not for the faint of stomach.
3. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 A bit jerky with frame jumping at times, but often sharp and well-done.  In most streaming delivery I watch, I see none of this.


2. Sound: 8/10 Fine.  Few problems.


3. Acting: 5/10 What was the character of the farmer's mother for?  She could have been just mentioned, or actually have something substantial to say. The size of her presence was just awkward.  The lady of negotiable virtue who served as supplier of just the right piece of information could have been done by an actor with a bit more experience.  The performance by the actor who played the farmer was the biggest negative.  I did not believe any of that performance.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The story was not too improbable, but it could have been better executed.

20131019: Horror Review--Sadako

Sadako

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 96 minutes.  Spoken word is in Japanese; subtitles in English.
2. IMDB: 3.5/10.0 from 460 users; aspect 1.85.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet,' and 22% liked it from 77 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 13,838 users.
5. Directed by: Tsutomo Hanabusa.
6. Starring: Satomi Ishihara as Akane Ayukawa, Koji Seto as Takanori Ando, Yusuke Yamamoto as Kiyoshi Kashiwada, Ai Hashimoto as Sadako.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Like The Ring, but with cell phones, laptops, and cursed videos online.


2. Teacher Akane becomes involved when one of her students, Noriko, commits suicide, the evening after Akane caught her in class trying to see the cursed video.  Her video designer boy friend, Takanori, had been looking for the cursed video the same evening.  Takanori was disappointed when he thought he had found the clip, only to receive the message that it had been taken down from the server (404 error).  Unfortunately, Noriko had the same experience at first.


3. The police are looking into the suicides (not just Noriko), and question Akane about it. Akane does not tell the older detective, Koiso, about it directly.  He overhears one of Noriko's classmates, Lisa, discuss it with Akane.  He orders his junior detective, Nakamura, to track down this clip, just to tie up loose ends.  He finds that of the first 10 to view the clip (from Internet download records) all 10 committed suicide.


4. Takanori's boss thinks the clip had some strong subliminal messages in it.


5. An abnormally large moth keeps recurring in the film.


6. Det. Nakamura narrows things down to the online suicide of Kiyoshi Kashiwada in the recent past.  Det Koiso notes that Kashiwada is likely still alive.


7. Det. Nakamura tries to find the video clip, and gets the 404 message; Lisa looks for it, and gets the 404 error, as did Noriko earlier in the film.  Then the video is played, followed by Sadako reaching through the screen to grab Lisa with the long hair.  Akane comes in and tries to save Lisa.  Sadako's hands come for Akane, and Sadako's voice says 'you are the one.'  Akane screams and shatters the computer screen, breaking the spell.


8. The detectives are quite interested in Akane in their second interview with her.  Akane claims not to know anything.  At home, the Takanori is attacked; Akane again screams to break the monitor screen.  They try to run away, but Takanori is absorbed.


9. The third round with the detectives gets more intense.  Akane tries construct a working theory: Kashiwada is killing people in an effort to find the 'proper' body for Sadako to inhabit.  Detective Koiso is not impressed.  Next morning, Detective Nakamura appears before Koiso, but looking like a very tall Sadako.  Nakamura refers to Kashimada, then commits suicide.


10. Takanori's boss appears to Akane and tries to explain what she needs to do to get Takanori back.  It's not the boss, however; Akane runs screaming.  Koiso discovers some huge clues at Kashimada's flat.  The whole story seems to be written on the walls, which were formerly covered with abnormally large moths.  Koiso is convinced.  He meets Akane, and they share intelligence about Sadako.  They find the well together.


11. Kashiwada's says, "It's show time."


12. For every one of Kashimada's sacrifices, there's a Sadako replicant emerging from the well.  A dying Koiso implores Akane to run.


13. The chase goes on and on.  Akane kills (well, disperses) several of the replicants, but not all.  She is herded into a room where a cell phone shows a picture of Takanori.   She's surrounded by replicants, a couple of dozen perhaps.  Her scream disperses most of them.  She tries to contact Takanori, but this is Sadako's illusionary bait for the final capture.


14. Does Akane succeed in saving Takanori?  What is the cost?  That moth, hm.


3. Conclusions
1. I have yet to see Ringu 1 through Ringu 4.  This film is sometimes called Ringu 5; those who enjoyed one through four seem to object to this.  I have seen the American films The Ring and The Ring 2.  Except perhaps for the cell phones and Internet server messages, I do not see much that this film adds to all the Ring films.
2. One line summary: Well filmed and acted, but Ringu 5 is a bit too derivative.
3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Good looking, competent.


2. Sound: 10/10 Quite good.


3. Acting: 9/10 Good.


4. Screenplay: 6/10 The story has been run too many times.  Several motivations for events seemed to be missing.

20131018: Horror Review--White

White: the Melody of the Curse

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. South Korean live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 106 minutes, horror, music, mystery.  Spoken word is Korean; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 6.1/10.0 from 517 users.  Aspect: 2.35
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 53% liked it from 70 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.5/5.0 from 60,492 users.
5. Directed by: Kim Sun and Kim Gok.  Screenplay by: Kim Gok, Kim Sun.
6. Starring: Eun-jeong as Eun-joo, Woo-seul-hye Wang as Soon-ye, Maydoni as Sin-ji.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The all girl group "Pink Dolls" has never quite come to the forefront in the Korean music scene.  Other groups are always ahead of them in the rankings.


2. They move to new digs that their agents got cheap because it was damaged in a fire.  One of the group discovers an old VHS tape where another group performs 'White.'  This song turns out to be free for the taking (no rights to buy).  When they start performing the song 'White,' they rocket to the top.


3. Unfortunately for them, members of the band start having mental problems.  One thinks she's being strangled.  Another starts having problems with her eyes.  Both end up in hospital with some actual injuries.  How the real injuries occur is not explained all that much in the film.


4. The agency attempts to fill in the injured parties to reconstitute the group.  The remaining members investigate the old band and agency to see what went wrong the first time through.  One of the replacements is injured in a freak accident (well, perhaps) while filming a side reality show segment.


5. Eun-joo, the girl who is to be the next lead singer makes some progress after sleeping with the sponsor of the group.  She has a vision of her predecessor being wounded and committing suicide, then is able to find what's left of the suicide note.  The two remaining hold a religious ceremony to soothe the dead lead singer, and they hope things will be better this time around.


6. Eun-joo dies her hair white and makes a solo recording.  All seems to go well.  The three injured girls wake up simultaneously in the hospital and make rapid recoveries.  They blame Eun-joo, but she is not having it.


7. Meanwhile, the remaining girl from the original Pink Dolls and the sound engineer continue the fine examination of the VHS tape content from the first filming of 'White.'


8. The three girls injured previously make a date to perform.  Instead of performing, they drink poison to commit suicide.  Live.


9. The research with the sound engineer continues.  Will new information save Eun-joo?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Well-made modern ghost story from Korea.
2. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Sharp focus, lush color saturation, good framing, just lovely.


2. Sound: 10/10  Good!


3. Acting: 7/10 Meh.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 I rate it high on coherence, but low on resolution.

20131018: Horror Review--Strange Circus

Strange Circus

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2005, 108 minutes, NR.  Spoken word is in Japanese with English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 6.9/10.0 from 2,339 users.  Aspect: 1.85
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 80% liked it from 1,627 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.8/5.0 from 33,245 users.
5. Written and directed by: Shion Sono.
6. Starring: Masumi Miyazaki as Mitsuko / Sayuri / Taeko; Issel Ishida as Yuji, Rie Kuwane and Mai Takehashi as Young Mitsuko (at slightly different ages).


2. Setup and Plot
1. This film reminds me most of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998.  Strange Circus has about as much cohesion and steady reference to a timeline.


2. The whole of the film seems to be the musings and ravings of a successful author who is also certifiably nuts.


3. During the film, the author fills in her story, or what she wants to present as her story. The back story is thrown at the viewer in broken pieces, rather like the piles of junk present in so many rooms recurrently visited.


4. The mythology starts around when the protagonist, Mitsuko, is twelve.  She unintentionally sees her parents having sex. Then her father forces her to watch from inside a cello case.  After several sessions of this, her father lets his wife know that Mitsuko has been watching.  Then he forces the mother and the daughter to switch places.  The mother grows to resent this; when the father is out, the mother abuses Mitsuko.  Not much later, Mitsuko 'accidentally' pushes her mother down the stairs, resulting in the mother's death.  Later Mitsuko attempts suicide and fails.  The cello case follows her around in the movie as she continues life from a wheelchair.


5. Those events are referred to again and again.  The resulting length of time in a wheelchair seems a bit variable.  Perhaps she's permanently there; perhaps not. 


6. As the film advances toward the end, the rate of scenario switching increases.  Did the mother fall down the stairs, or was it the father?  Was the child's suicide attempt just a part of the plot in a novel?  Was the father the mastermind who triumphs at the end, or did the mother and daughter stump him (cut off all limbs) and chain him for additional sport?


7. The subtitle of the film is 'Reality is the mystery,' and the film does a bang-up job of conveying that.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Matricide child grows down to be a delusional author, or did she?
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Soft, grainy focus is all too common; the filters in the circus scenes are at least as detrimental. Add in a dash of jerky camera movement.  To make things for interesting, the movie has scenes where walls are covered in blood (revolting and ugly), and rooms with very little furniture, but plenty of unorganized dross on the floors.  This is ugly for the sake of ugly.


2. Sound: 8/10 No particular problems.


3. Acting: 7/10 Tough call.  As with the actors in the films of Cronenberg (Existenz, Crash, Videodrome) or Lynch (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks), one has to figure the actors in Strange Circus are doing what the detail-oriented director wants.  On the other hand, several performances seem wooden or amateurish.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Watching this film is like watching someone do a finger painting.  The painting is done when the canvas is covered or the painter just quits.  Also like a finger painting, one can gaze at it at length, trying to figure out what it means, even though no fixed meaning was intended.
   

20131017: Horror Review--Dumplings

Dumplings (Gaau Ji)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Hong Kong live action feature length film, 2004, NR, 90 minutes, horror.  Spoken language is Cantonese; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 5,209 users. Aspect 1.85.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 70% liked it from 5,878 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 73,115 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Fruit Chan.
6. Starring: Bai Ling as Mei (the cook), Tony Leung Ka Fai as Li Sije, Pauline Lau as Masseuse (Li's maid), Meme Tian as Connie, Miriam Yeung Chin Wah as Mrs. Li.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Aunt Mei cooks special dumplings that taste bad, but supposedly help women keep their health and good looks.  Mrs. Li is a former TV star who has more or less aged out of stardom.  She tries Aunt Mei's dumplings, and spits out the first one.  Mei talks her into resuming, after burying the rejected dumpling in the pot of one of her plants.


2. Mr. Li, a late midde-aged man, is having an affair with the masseuse, who looks to be early twenties in age.  Mrs. Li is discouraged by his excuses to leave town, but does not scratch very deep about it.


3. As the film continues, it becomes clear what the 'secret ingredient' is.  Aunt Mei used to be a surgeon in China.  In obstetrics.  In Hong Kong, abortion is against the law, and Aunt Mei has to keep a low profile.


4. Mrs. Li decides to visit her husband at his hotel near his work...only to find he's not alone.  Oh, goodness.  She visits their house, which is being renovated.  She discovers her husband's egg fetish.  He eats the eggs when the young bird is fairly close to coming out.


5. When Mrs. Li finds out what the extra strong secret ingredient is (by direct sight), she freaks out.  Then she returns.  Aunt Mei talks about how the much better the first born is, and how important it is to do the abortion without the usual drugs, which would damage the nervous system of the diner.


6. Does it work?  For a while her husband is very interested in her physically.  Does it have side effects?  Yes, she gets skin rashes that give her a decidedly fishy smell.  


7. While talking to Aunt Mei, Mr. Li overhears everything on another phone extension.  He seeks out Aunt Mei and starts taking the 'cure' himself.  It would seem that is what his eating bird embryos was about, so this is probably a natural extension for him.


8. Aunt Mei convinces him that he could do quite well with the dumplings.  She's 64, and he finds her quite desirable.


9. The extra strong dumplings continue to have bad effects on Mrs. Li, who consults a physician.  He tells her she's allergic to something in the hotel she's staying at, recommends she return home, and prescribes some medicine for her.


10. Mrs. Li counter-attacks by directing the police to the home of the 15 year old, whose fetus she ate, and to Aunt Mei's apartments.  Her husband returns to her, and she convinces (via currency) the masseuse to have her husband's baby aborted.


11. Yikes.  Mrs. Li listened to Aunt Mei's recipe preparation talks.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: The desire for youth meets cannibalism in Hong Kong.
2. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 On streaming Netflix, at least, the aspect looks more like 1.33 than 1.85.  Go figure. Still, the visuals look good for the most part, with framing, lighting, and focus all fine.


2. Sound: 8/10 Good, but I've heard better.


3. Acting: 9/10 Quite nice by the main players.


4. Screenplay: 10/10 Quite a study in human degradation made possible by abundant money.

20131017: Horror Review--Dream Home

Dream Home

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Hong Kong live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 96 minutes. Spoken language Cantonese; subtitles in English.  Aspect: 2.35
2. IMDB: 6.5/10.0 from 2,610 users. 
3. Rotten Tomatoes:  74% on the meter; 64% from 886 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.1/5.0 from 38,776 audience members.
5. Directed by: Ho-Cheung Pang
6. Starring: Josie Ho as Cheung Lai-Sheung, Eason Chan as Siu To, Norman Chu as Sheung's father, Lawrence Chou as On Jai, Juno Mak as Cop Fat, Michelle Ye as 8A female owner.


2. Setup and Plot
1. There are two main threads.  In flashbacks, we follow Sheung's growing up in Hong Kong, from 1991 to the present, 2008 in this case.  We see why, ten times over, she wants a nice flat to live in with what's left of her family.  In the 'current' thread, we see to what lengths she goes to get to that difficult goal.


2. In the current thread, she's on a mission to kill certain people.  The murders that she has planned for she executes well, and seldom gets hurt in the process.  It's the extra killings she does out of irritation that get her into trouble.  Loud music sets her off, as explained in the flashbacks.  While finishing up her planned murders, she's annoyed by music from a nearby flat.  She ends up killing five people to make it stop.  Then the cops show up.


3. A running commentary is made through many characters: infidelity is rampant, as is the brutality of humans toward one another.  Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the infidelity, it still engenders hard feelings that sometimes have very bad results.  Her married lover is not all that great a choice for her.


4. Her father's illness due to persistent aspiration of asbestos fibres (he was in construction) was set against the coldness of the insurance company. Again, money limits caused large, painful problems in her life.


5. Sheung comes to quite a decision point when her father is in a crisis with his breathing.  She lets him die.  He was bankrupting her, after all, and he had insurance.  Through working a couple of jobs, plus collecting the insurance money, she scrapes together enough money to get the flat she wants.  Unfortunately, the seller made other arrangements while she was getting ready.


6. This is the spark for the killings mentioned above.  By a set of favorable outcomes (dumb luck, that is) the cops die as she's being handcuffed.  The seller of her target flat not only is willing to sell to her, but drops the asking price from 6.5 million USD to 4.9 million.  She demands 3.9 million.


7. Will her exceptional luck continue?


3. Conclusions
1. Like Caterpillar, Dream Home is much scarier than most fake gore films with supernatural themes.
2. In terms of visuals and sound, this is one of the most gorgeous movies I've seen in years.
3. One line summary: Obsession with lost family life destroys many others.
4. Five stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.


2. Sound: 10/10 Amazingly good, rich, evocative for this tale of obsession.


3. Acting: 9/10 Steady and good.


4. Screenplay: 9/10 The well-crafted story was about a difficult subject.  The director and actors did well together executing the script.

20131016: Horror Review--Nightmare Detective 2

Nightmare Detective 2

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2008, NR, 103 minutes, horror, drama.  Spoken word: Japanese; English subtitles.
2. IMDB:6.5/10.0 from 375 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 59% from 105 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.6/5.0 from 3,712 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Shin'ya Tsukamoto; written by Shin'ya Tsukamoto and Hisakatsu Kuroki.
6. Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda as Kyoichi Kagenuma, Yui Miura as Yukie Mashiro.


2. Setup and Plot
1. 'Damn, who will save me, then?'   This is my favourite quote from the film, spoken by the protagonist, Kyoichi, who can enter the dreams of others, and sometimes dispel the the bad ones.


2. Kyoichi is the nightmare detective.  Way too much of this film consists of short segments from his childhood: his mother's many fears including her fear of his telepathy, her suicide, his father's leaving her when Kyoichi was very young, Kyoichi trying in vain to find his mother after her death.


3. The other thread concerns a group of girls who were nasty to another girl, Kikukawa.  They suffer bad dreams for having done this.  One of the guilty, Yuki, consults Kyoichi, who tells her to seek out the victim and sincerely apologise to her.


4. The bullying girls decide, more or less by omission, not to apologise.  Then two of them die.  Yukie consults Kyoichi again; he gives the same response.


5. At Kyoichi's request, Yukie meets Kikukawa in a dream.  Yuki apologises to no avail.  Kyoichi intercedes, but Kikukawa does not settle into any kind of peace.  He starts strangling Kikukawa to resolve the matter.  In a parallel dream, Kyoichi's mother strangles him as repentance for bringing him into the world.  This breaks the impasse, and all the stranglings cease.  Like Kyoichi's mother, Kikukawa is afraid to live in this waking world.


6. In various dream levels, Kyoichi holds and comforts Yuki, Kikukawa, and his mother all at the same time.  Since he has nothing to lose in the waking world, he says he will stay as long as they need.


7. Unfortunately for Yukie, the curse of telepathy surfaces in her.  She and Kyoichi can communicate fluently without speaking.


8. The resolution at the end seems only partial; is there a sequel in the works?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Telepath deals with psychological dramas.
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 5/10 Dark, grainy, soft focus.  Add in the habit of jerky camera movements, and some odd framing choices.


2. Sound: 7/10 Some of the incidental music is decidedly tinny.


3. Acting: 7/10 Good.  I think.


4. Screenplay: 7/10 Both simple (not much happens in the real world) and multi-layered (dreams within dreams and the like), the story has a lot to capture the attention.  As with many psychological dramas, there is a lot of sound and fury that signifies very little.  Kyoichi has not learned to live with his mother's inability to deal with his telepathy.  Got it.  Yukie has a hard time the fact that her father is absent and her mother is distant and too devoted to work. Got it. Kikukawa has other fear issues.  Got it.

20131016: Horror Review--Caterpillar

Caterpillar

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Japanese live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 84 minutes, horror, drama.  Spoken word is in Japanese; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 6.8/10.0 from 621 users;  estimated budget, 120,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 91% on the meter; 47% liked it from 1,703 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 27,504 users.
5. Directed by: Koji Wakamatsu.  Written by: Hisako Kurosawa and Masao Adachi.
6. Starring: Shinobu Terajima as Shigeko Kurokawa, Keigo Tasuya as Tadashi ('Kyuzo') Kurokawa, Emi Masuda as Chiyo Kurokawa.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The film is full of flashbacks, and one of the early ones was of Kyuzo and all the village dressing up for his departure from the village into the military.


2. Most of the film takes place after Kyuzo is a veteran of the war between China and Japan around the time of World War II.  He lost both legs and both arms in combat, his head is about 40% burned, and he is deaf.  His speech is adversely affected by the lack of hearing.


3. His wife Shigeko is horrified with this from the start.  She tries to strangle him, but does not have the strength. The villagers honor Kyuzo and his achievements, such as they were, in China.  They encourage Shigeko strongly to take care of the hero, the War God.


4. Shigeko learns to deal with his eating, waste, bathing, and sexual functions.  She takes care of him, which is an large daily effort, an enormous effort over an interval of years. She also works in the rice fields with the other villagers during the day.


5. He tries to learn to write/draw with his mouth and pencil, starting with 'I want to do it.'


6. She parades him around the village dress in uniform and medals.  Sometimes she leaves him in the cart to watch her work in the rice fields.


7. About half way through the film, she really gets into being the put-upon wife, and insists on his performing his responsibilities as well.  She gets lots of attention for this, and he gets a taste of all the work (done by others) that he generates.  Also, she becomes very conscious of the fact that he can no longer beat her.  After some time in this steady state, Kyuzo starts having bad memories of what he did in China.  Plus his obligations as War God never seem to go away.


8. By 1945, the war started to come to Japanese soil.  The radio in Japan reports something entirely different.  Shigeko starts getting inwardly discouraged with the horrible things that have happened.  Kyuzo has more flashbacks of his bad deeds in China.


9. Toward the end of the war, she needs satisfaction, but he has trouble even being aroused, since he's too obsessed with the bad memories.  She slings back in his face the horrible things he said to her before he left for war.  At one point, just seeing the flame in their evening lantern brings back the memories of rotten things he did, and how he lost his limbs.  This is when she sings a song about a caterpillar, which is what her husband reminds her of.




3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Traditional horror with zero supernatural elements; war is more terrible than fake gore.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Archival footage was in out of focus sepia; in other words, it sucked rocks.


2. Sound: 8/10 OK, but not great.


3. Acting: 9/10 Fine.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 The story hangs together well.  More cohesion about the flashbacks would have been nice.

20131016: Horror Review--We are the night

We Are the Night (Wir Sind die Nacht)

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. German live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 99 minutes, horror, fantasy, drama; aspect
2. IMDB: 6.1/10.0 from 4,342 users. Spoken language is German; dubbed English.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 62% on the meter; 51% liked it of 6,591 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.2/5.0 from 154,783 users.
5. Directed by: Dennis Gansel.  Written by Jan Berger and Dennis Gansel.
6. Starring: Karoline Herfurth as Lena Bach, Nina Hoss as Louise, Jennifer Ulrich as Charlotte, Anna Fischer as Nora, Max Riemelt as Tom, Arved Birnbaum as Lummer, Steffi Kuhnert as Lena's mother, Mrs Bach.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Louise, Charlotte, and Nora kill and drink the blood of every one on a small exclusive jet. Then they jump out before the crash; nice touch.


2. Next we get a look at Lena, a teen delinquent: pickpocketing, credit card theft and fraud, assault and battery on a policeman, evading arrest, underage drinking, vandalism.  She evades policeman Tom after stealing the credit card of a Russian mobster whom Tom was chasing.  Tom catches Lena, but she gets away from him again.  Lena's mother seems to be intimate with Lena's current parole officer, which might keep the number of arrests down.


3. The vampire women host raves to meet people who will not be missed, plus drinking and dancing.  Louise is always looking for just the right pair of eyes; she likes Lena's, and lets her into a rave. Louise bites her in the ladies' room and Lena starts to change quickly, as in sunlight sensitivity the next morning, plus hunger for blood.  She returns to Louise the next night. In passing they mention that there are only 100 vampires in the world, and all of them are female.


4. After some enjoyment with the three older vampires, Lena makes the mistake of going home.  Tom meets her when she departs from her mother.  He promises not to rat her out about stealing from the Russian pimp.  They go for a coffee date, and start getting to know each other.  Tom can tell that something big has changed in her life, and it's not the new boyfriend that Lena claims.


5. Tom starts investigating; Lena keeps learning more about the other three vampires. 


6. Tom and his boss set up an assault on the hotel where the vampires live.  Nora is lost to sunlight, but the other three escape.  Lena prevents Louise from killing Tom, which complicates things considerably.


7. Charlotte says good-bye to her almost ninety year old daughter, who recognizes Charlotte before she dies.  Then Charlotte traps Louise and Lena in order to die from the sunlight of dawn.


8. So only the triangle (Lena, Louise, Tom) remains.  How might that end?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Girl power among German vampires suffers from love triangle.
2. Four stars of five


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Excellent.  Some of the better vampire healing FX I've seen.


2. Sound: 9/10 Excellent save the dubbing, which is merely good.


3. Acting: z/10 Karoline Herfurth was fine, basically playing three roles.  I liked the performances of Nina Hoss and and Jennifer Ulrich as well.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 A foot chase starts in complete darkness, but continues in full light.  No, thank you.  One strike on continuity.  The rest of the story hung together rather well.

20131016: Horror Review---Deadheads

Deadheads

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, NR, 95 minutes, horror, comedy, aspect 1.78
2. IMDB: 5.2/10.0 from 3,464 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 44% liked it from 302 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.4/5.0 from 104,073 users.
5. Written and directed by: Brett Pierce and Drew T. Pierce.
6. Starring: Michael McKiddy as Mike Kellerman, Ross Kidder as Brent Guthrie, Markus Taylor as Cheese, Thomas Galasso as Thomas Jeremiah, Natalie Victoria as Ellie Masterson, Eden Malyn as Emily, Harry Burkey as Cliff.


2. Setup and Plot
1. This zombie film starts after zombies are present in large numbers.  The two lead characters, Mike and Brent, are somehow intermediate: they show signs of death and decay, but they can speak, think, enjoy beer, enjoy food, and make plans about the future.  Mike finds an engagement ring in his pocket.  He remembers Ellie, his fiance.  Brent proclaims they should go find her; nothing is stronger than love, after all.


2. Mike and Brent are about to head off for Michigan from Colorado when the full-blown zombies attack the bar where they were having dinner. They pick up Cheese along the way.  Cliff (zero percent zombie) gives them a ride; he's intending to go to Lake Michigan to spread his wife's ashes.


3. The cause of the zombie problem is a chemical spill.  Someone or another decides to quarantine the area.  The quarantine team consists entirely of idiots and incompetents.  Cliff blows past the quarantine, but sleep is a problem; they let Cheese drive, and they run out of gas.  The subsequent 'camping' in the woods is a ghost story fest, aided by weed.  Mike works on his speech to Ellie, and Cheese kills a cop who shot Brent twice.


4. They use the cop's gas to continue.  The vignette with the horror films at the drive-in was an interesting touch.  The quarantine group recruits an escaped convict, Thomas, who likes to kill zombies.  They get captured, but Cheese breaks them out.  The scene with Mike being dragged for a few football fields was not all that funny.  Cliff makes it to the shore of Lake Michigan, but he has already run out of his heart medicine, and dies watching the waves.


5. They make it to Mike's house, and Mike remembers that Ellie's father killed him in that same house. The reality of meeting Ellie comes to pass; their ten year reunion is that night, so he goes to it, so he can tell her how he feels.


6. He puts on a mascot costume, and talks to Ellie.  The authorities drag him off; the next day, Ellie's father has a few more laughs at Michael's expense.


7. Thomas changes his mind, and decides to help Michael.  Michael makes it to Ellie's house, but the chief idiot of the quarantine squad catches up.


8. What could possibly go wrong?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Butch and Sundance as funny, smart zombies.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 9/10 Nice.


2. Sound: 10/10 Excellent.


3. Acting: 7/10 Could have been better.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 There were several funny moments, which is more than I can say for most films labelled comedy.  The story hung together, once one suspends disbelief about smart zombies.

20131015: Horror Review--Vampires out for Blood

Vampires: Out for Blood

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2004, rated R, 95 minutes, horror, action, fantasy, thriller, psychological drama, aspect 1.85.
2. IMDB:  4.0/10.0 from 1,020 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 36% liked it from 507 audience ratings.
4. Netflix:  3.0/5.0 from 82,512 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Richard Brandes.
6. Starring: Kevin Dillon as Hank Holten, Vanessa Angel as Susan Hastings, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe as Layla Simmons, Lance Henriksen as Captain John Billings, Kenneth Colom as Alex, Sam Kanater as 'Vampire Leader.'


2. Setup and Plot
1. Hank is an LA detective, and his wife Susan has left him.  He follows her. A fool tries to rob him at gun point; Hank disarms him, then proceeds to beat the crap out of him.  His captain reads him the riot act, then gives him a new assignment: find out about young women who go into raves, then go missing.


2. Meanwhile, Susan is on TV on the book circuit, selling her latest book on vampires, and dating an actor. 


3. Hank starts his assignment, and meets vampires the first night.  He gets close to a female vampire, Layla. They saunter through a den where an orgy is going on.  Then Hank starts to see the vampires feeding on their human partners.  He shoots several of them; the leader claims him and bites him on the neck.  He wakes up in an abandoned office floor.


4. He has a lot to answer for, and he tries to be honest about his experience.  'Vampires did it' was not well-received.


5. Hank reconnects with Layla.  Two officers intervene, but Layla kills them both.  He awakes the next morning, and the evidence is gone.


6. Hank starts to turn to being a vampire.  He seeks the help of his ex, but she is the opposite of helpful.  When she starts to recognize his change, she goes for another plan: use him to get a story for another book or three.  Susan convinces him to help her get to the leader, so she can know so much more, and, as a collateral matter, perhaps keep Hank from becoming a vampire.


7. Layla and friend break in; the vampires are about to eat Susan when Susan's new friend and his private detective burst in.  The vampires kill them and eat them, then leave with the rising morning sun.  Before leaving, they tell Hank that he has 24 hours before he turns.


8. Hank and Susan find the nest.  Hank handcuffs Susan to a railing, then goes in alone after giving her his cell phone.  What could possibly go wrong?


3. Conclusions
1. One sentence summary: Which is worse, fighting vampires or the ex?
2. Three stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Good, but not great.


2. Sound: 8/10 OK.


3. Acting: 5/10 Lance Henriksen was competent as usual.  Kevin Dillon was better than I expected, but Vanessa Angel was worse.  The side actors were unimpressive.


4. Screenplay: 5/10  The plot meanders somewhat aimlessly at times, but at least there is a plot.  Too many times, a large chunk of vampire rules gets introduced suddenly from left field.  That seemed to be one of the purposes of the Susan character.  Hank wears one shirt (that I could see) during the film.  Yet the blood stains on it change remarkably more than once.

20131015: Horror Review--Slices of Life

Slices of Life

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2010, NR, 107 minutes, horror, slasher, aspect 1.78
2. IMDB: 4.6/10.0 from 466 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 100% want to see it from 56 users.
4. Netflix: 2.1/5.0 from 42,539 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Anthony G. Sumner.  Written by Anthony G. Sumner and Eric Richter.
6. Starring (Sketcher): Kaylee Williams as Mira, Marv Blauvelt as Tiny, Helene Alter-Dyche as Irma.
7. Starring (WORM): Jack Guasta as William Robert Moss, Alan Rowe Kelly as Web Cam Vamp.
8. Starring (Amber Alert): Toya Turner as Vonda, Thurston Hill as Lamont, Jamia Vinci as Ally.
9. Starring (Pink Snapper): Deneen Melody as Susan Ballard, Galen Schloming as Eric Ballard, Mike Tracy as Jack Ballard, Judith Lesser as Elizabeth Nadasdy, Bruce Varner as Edgar Nadasdy.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The Cycle Segment: Sketcher---Mira, Tiny, Irma


2. Sketcher is the overview segment.  Mira wakes up low on contextual memories.  The people near her advise her to read the sketch books that Mira herself supposedly authored.  Oi, there's a rotary telephone receiver.


3. The first book was about WORM; the protagonist is an office drone named William, who works at Nimrod Enterprises.


4. After completing the WORM section, Mira talks to Tiny and Irma, then starts reading again.  This time, it is the Amber Alert section of the picture book.


5. Vonda and Ally visit Mira, then Mira starts reading the Pink Snapper segment.


6. After Mira finishes Pink Snapper, a drunk comes in followed by Susan.  Yes, the same Susan as in Pink Snapper.  Susan makes it clear she's going to kill the guy.


7. Mira finds a second book.  The voices in her head tell her to read the book and to remember.  She goes to a suite where Irma and Tiny are.  Irma speaks of regeneration.  She had drawn Mira, who is a young version of herself.  Mira kills Irma, and Irma's spirit (or whatever) passes to Irma as low energy lightning.


8. Work Life Segment: W.O.R.M---William


9. One meaning of WORM is the derisive nickname that a lazy co-worker gives William.  His office is in the basement, and he circulates through the offices above doing computer waste pickup work.  The other meaning, W.O.R.M., concerns controlling people remotely using nano-technology.


10. William has just gotten his online 'degree' (whatever that means) in computer programming.  He tries to interest the people in the offices of Nimrod Enterprises about his fake accomplishment.  The people around him are self-involved and delusional, as is William. William thinks he will get a promotion into R&D.  Then he tries to join an online porn/companionship site.  Not surprisingly, this does not go well for the inexperienced young man.


11. To get on top of things, William gets the 'Nano Idea' disk, loads it, and figures out how to use it.  Right.  In terms of motivation, William's aim is to make (literally, as in to force) other people to like him.  What could possibly go wrong?  Quite a bit.  Everyone wants to see him since he unintentionally e-mailed the nano virus (nonsense, of course) to everyone in the offices above.


12. Unfortunately, the virus causes people to become zombies.  The authorities contain this, and lock up William because he started it, because he did not turn into a zombie, and they don't understand why not.


13. Home Life Segment: Amber Alert--Vonda, Lamont, Ally


14. Vonda is quite pregnant.  When she is alone for a short spell, the TV won't stay turned off, and she hears of several abductions of girls ages 7 to 10, including Ally.  She sees Ally in her back yard.  Ally acts strangely, and shows demonic transformations.  Vonda goes back into the house, locks her doors, and tries to hold up while familiar things in her house change shape.  She calls her husband Lamont to come home, then faints.  When she wakes up, he is there.  They discuss the missing girls; Lamont had not heard of Ally.  She rewinds the TV, but cannot find what she had seen before.


15. Vonda has odd sightings at the grocery store. People seem to change before her eyes.  She walks home, and finds a poster for Ally on the way.  She telephones, in but the other end has never heard of Ally; the poster for Ally reads Amber when Vonda goes to quote from it. Vonda and Lamont get in an argument when he gets home.  Lamont experiences the horror after that, seeing the abducted girls transformed into monsters.  He gets a ride in his car, with the car under control of someone else.  This does not end well for him.


16. Back at the house, Vonda has more visitations from the abducted girls/monsters.  She gets to find out some of Lamont's secrets. The monsters come for Lamont (you will know why) as he's about to do in Vonda.  The baby decides to show up about then as well.


17. This segment has a happy ending, except for Lamont.


18. Sex Life Segment: Pink Snapper---Susan, Eric


19. Susan gets a call from her brother Eric while her drunken cop uncle Jack sleeps.  When she gets off the phone, he molests her again.  Eric shows up soon, and engages the uncle, even though the uncle is heavier, trained, and stronger.  Susan slams the uncle in the head with a skillet, very hard.  They take the uncle's car keys.  They take the car and put some distance between them and the dead uncle.


20. Eric wonders what to do. Good question. They go to a house where they have a connection. Eric starts screwing Elizabeth, which is a really bad idea.  Elizabeth's father Edgar recognizes that Elizabeth had killed Eric using the sexual parasite in her private parts.  Edgar shoots Elizabeth in the head, killing her.  Susan is upset by the yelling.  She races upstairs, misinterprets the scene, and uses a hammer to kill Edgar.  Great stuff.  Three dead and quarts of blood strewn all over.


21. She gets too close to Eric.  Elizabeth wakes up just long enough to mark Susan with blood.  The parasite leaves Elizabeth and enters Susan.  That was quite a penetration.


22. Susan survives this, and heads home to the recuperating Uncle Jack.


23. Poor Uncle Jack.  Sort of.


3. Conclusions
1. Long, odd, and out of date; not well executed.  Some problems might have been fixed in post, but were not.


2. One line summary: Horror anthology low on scares and humor, terrible on acting and cinematography.


3. One star of five; two blackholes for cinematography and acting.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 0/10 Jerky, grainy, low-res, low contrast, stupid camera angle choices.  Sound is half a step out of phase with visuals, such as speech.  There is a rotary telephone.  This suggests the date of the screenplay is pre-1980, roughly.  Some of this film looks like mediocre to poor 1970s work. In the second and third segments, the out-of-sync between sound and visuals was pronounced.


2. Sound: 8/10 Nicely ominous.  The sound was almost as good as the visuals were bad.


3. Acting: 0/10 Hire some actors next time.


4. Screenplay: 4/10 Not executed well, but there were story ideas in each segment, and the ending made sense, given the nonsense that preceded it.  The editing was bad, the continuity was bad, and better direction might have gotten more out of the non-actors.

20131014: Horror Review---Absence

Absence

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2013, NR, 81 minutes, horror, thriller.
2. IMDB: 3.7/10.0 from 242 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 25% on the meter; 44% from 192 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.6/5.0 stars from 18,509 user ratings.
5. Directed by: Jimmy Loweree.
6. Starring: Erin Way as Liz, Eric Matheny as Rick (Liz's husband), Ryan Smale as Evan (Liz's brother), Stephanie Schmolz as Megan, Michael Angelo Covino as Randy Kessler, Tamra Meskimen as Dr. Young.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Liz was seven months pregnant.  She wakes up one morning not pregnant.  Doctors had no explanation for this other than 'you killed it.'  The police interrogate them, check their plumbing for signs of disposal of the fetus, have them watched, but found no sufficient evidence early on.


2. Evan documents Liz's recovery during a trip taken after the 'abduction.'  They stay at Rick's aunt's house, where he used to visit as a boy.  Evan is incredibly obnoxious, and his camera work is poor.  Rick and Evan are always about that close to a fist fight.  Evan even goes out of his way to tick off strangers.


3. One evening while irritating Rick and Liz, Evan's attention wanders to a light in the sky with accompanying hum.  Shortly thereafter, Liz gets another nosebleed.  Rick and Evan talk about the progress of the investigation while Liz rests.  Rick talks about how he built a crib for the baby, filled it with toys and the like.  He's deeply discouraged that anyone would think that the baby was unwanted.


4. Evan meets Meg, and the four of them spend time together.  When Meg and Evan go driving, they see an odd light in the distance; the car loses some functions.  Rick returns some of Evan's nonsense by referring to this as Sasquatch and the like.


5. The childhood story about Liz letting the younger Evan take the blame for burning the house was possibly a clue.  Their parents died about five years later when Evan was 12, and Liz helped raising him.  During the subsequent night, the odd light appears in the room where Liz and Rick were sleeping.  Evan tries to get in but could not.


6. The next morning, Meg comes by.  The funny light episode seems to be completely lost.


7. Then Liz has a moving lump in her right arm.  The symptom subsides, so they decide to go to urgent care in the morning.  Later that night, the odd light comes again.  Liz is gone in the morning.  Evan evidently has the camera on, but neither frames nor focuses it nor even points it.


8. Rick and Evan go to the nearby town.  Evan talks to Meg, who has little interest in helping find Liz.  Of course, Evan's needy, demanding approach did not help things along.  They look in the woods near the lake where they had recently spent time with Liz.  Still nothing.


9. They find her after a short car ride.  She's not in good shape, and coughs up some blood.  They try going back to Rick's aunt's house, but Liz coughs up more blood and they take her to urgent care.


10. They don't get there.  It's completely clear that this is yet another 'found film' fake out, not a directed, edited, and scripted movie.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Blair Witch meets alien abduction, done badly.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 2/10 Shaky camera, focus problems, bad framing.  There are stretches where the camera is just pointed at car upholstery.


2. Sound: 7/10 Better than the visuals.


3. Acting: 3/10 Ryan Smale is just terrible.  Erin Way, Eric Matheny, and Stephanie Schmolz were better.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 Lots of filler in this one.  Watching Evan drink beer or voiding his bladder or doing bad impressions?  Who cares?  Is there ever a resolution, or are we just supposed to rely on movie cliches to fill in the voids?

20131013: Horror Review--State of Emergency

State of Emergency

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2011, 89 minutes, SciFi, thriller.
2. IMDB: 5.0/10.0 from 1,079 users.  Estimated budget, 1.3 million USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 27% liked it of 198 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.3/5.0 from 265,761 user ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Turner Clay.
6. Starring: Jay Hayden as Jim, Andy Stahl as Pivens, Tori White as Ix, Scott Lilly as Scott, Kathryn Todd Norman as Julie.


2. Setup and Plot
1. There is a zombie outbreak near a source of chemicals.  A red zone is declared and enforced by military personnel.


2. Jim, Scott, Julie, and Ix end up (various stories) at a basically empty warehouse within the red zone.  After some scrounging, they get electricity, fans, television, weapons.  They keep up with official newscasts.


3. They have time on their hands, at least in the first half of the film, and they get to know each other.  The men pick off occasional zombies coming near the warehouse, and a woman who was in the process of changing.


4. Ix runs out of insulin.  Jim goes to find one of the airdrops, which may contain medicine. Jim finds the drop.  He kills another human who was turning to zombie, and recovers the medicine and as much food as he could carry.  Ix recovers.


5. A zombie gets in through the sewer pipes.  This returns us to the opening scene.  Jim and Scott again successfully defend.


6. The military come.  They tranquilize all of them, and conduct extensive blood tests and the like, before releasing them.  Jim, Scott, Julie, and Ix all survive in physically good shape.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Nice low-budget survival thriller with zombies.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Endless filters.


2. Sound: 6/10 Two levels, quiet conversation and loud zombie encounters.


3. Acting: 10/10 Much better than I expected.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 No waves of crazed zombies, but a fair amount of thinking and courage.  This is more of a straight survival tale.

20131013: Horror Review--Rise of the Zombies

Rise of the Zombies

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2012, NR, 89 minutes, horror, action, thriller, aspect 1.78
2. IMDB: 3.6/10.0 from 1,358 users; Asylum Films budget estimated at under 500,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 16% liked it from 142 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.9/5.0 stars from 146,637 users.
5. Directed by: Nick Lyon.  Screenplay by: Keith Allan and Delondra Williams.
6. Starring: Marial Hemingway as Dr. Lynn Snyder, Ethan Suplee as Marshall, LeVar Burton as Dr. Dan Halpern, Danny Trejo as Captain Caspian, Heather Hemmons as Ashley, French Stewart as Dr. Barney Arnold, Chad Lindberg as Kyle, Madonna Magee (11/11/11) as Vivian.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The zombie apocalypse has already occurred at the beginning of the film. 


2. The zombie phenomenon is treated as if it were a disease.  One of the major plot threads is the search for a vaccine.


3. Supposedly one has been found by Barney Arnold.  There's a refuge on Alcatraz, where Lynn and cohorts reside.  Lynn makes contact with Barney, and hopes to get the vaccine.  Alcatraz gets a major zombie invasion.


4. Lynn leads a small group to get the vaccine.  Caspian leads a second group looking for a new refuge in Petaluma.  Dan stays on Alcatraz to learn more about the disease and hopefully heal his infected daughter.


5. While stopping at an upscale house to get food and rest, Caspian's group gets taken out (except for Kyle) by one zombie.  Dan makes some progress.  Lynn's team has better luck staying alive, but are slow to get to the vaccine.  Kyle perseveres.


6. Dan makes some progress on his research, but his daughter infects him so he takes them both out with a grenade at zero paces.  Lynn's group barely escapes another zombie attack; they reunite with Kyle.


7. How could this turn out well?  We've got four survivors in Lynn's group.  The amount of (unproven) vaccine that Barney has is probably very small, and hence unlikely to turn the tide, even if there were enough people to disperse it.


8. Ashley decides to commit suicide out of desperation.  We celebrate with another bad couple of SFX.  Down to three now.  They are attacked again at a police station where they were stocking up on weapons.


9. At last!  The three survivors meet Barney.  Is it too late?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Despite 4 real actors, still a bad zombie film.
2. One star of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 7/10 Variable.  The daylight work is crisp and good.  The night scenes tend to be useless on visual to the point where sound is the only guide.


2. Sound: 7/10 Just OK.


3. Acting: 4/10 My history with Marial Hemingway, LeVar Burton, Danny Trejo, and French Stewart is through much better properties.  Given the screenplay, I still like them.  The rest of the cast might as well have been cardboard cutouts with speakers. On the other hand, the onscreen presence of Ethan Suplee is worse than the zombies.


4. Screenplay: 0/10  Logic problems aplenty.  The vaccine pursued through the whole film is unproven, and how much is there?  The answer is next to none, with no fabrication equipment.  The whole enterprise is pointless.  The zombies cannot climb much of anything early on, then later they can scale the Golden Gate Bridge?  In several scenes, two or three zombies can break open locked prison doors, but later 20 of them have a hard time with a chain link fence door.  What was the point of Dan's efforts?  All of it seemed to have been lost.  Those are hardly the only problems.  Barney says he needs a proper lab so he can replicate the vaccine.  Where might that be?


5. SFX: 2/10 Cheap, bad-looking.  The splatter shots were especially bad, the micro-organism shots were laughable, the delivery of the baby (by Lynn, who killed the mother) was just ridiculous.  The grenade explosion was really bad.  The electrocution FX near the end were cheesy.

20131013: Horror Review--The Dead Undead

The Dead Undead

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, released 2010, rated R, 93 minutes, horror, action, SciFi.
2. IMDB:  3.1/10.0 from 613 users; estimated budget, 1.1 million USD; aspect, 1.85
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 13% from 325 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.6/5.0 from 95,582 users.
5. Directed by: Edward Conna and Matthew R. Anderson.  Written by: Edward Conna.
6. Starring: Edward Conna as Doc, Luke Goss as Jack, Cameron Goodman as Summer, Johnny Pacar as Travis, Matthew R. Anderson as Viper, Spice Williams-Crosby as Gabrielle, Josh Alba as Curtis, Laura Kenley (Chinn) as Megan, America Young as Shelley, Luke Lafontaine as Aries, Lance Frank as Lance, Billie Profitt as Lance's wife, Vernon Wells as Raleigh.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Curtis, Travis, Summer, Megan, and Shelley arrive at a motel after a long warm drive in crappy truck.  They all want to check in and takes showers.  Trouble is, there is no management present.  After a bit of a wait, they pick out rooms.  A child vampire almost lunches on Megan, but the others intervene.  Megan freaks out, but a shower and clean clothes fix it.  Shelley freaks out over a mouse in her room.


2. Summer watches (peep hole in the door) two vampires duke it out.  Travis shoots some zombies.  Megan turns after a couple of hours, and Curtis gets mauled by a zombie.


3. A van runs over one of the zombies, then people (perhaps) with guns come out of the van: Jack, Gabriella, Aries, Doc, Viper, and a couple more.  They proceed to mow down a couple of dozen zombies.  They encounter Lance, who manages to convince them he's not infected.


4. "Relax honey, we're the good guys."  Comforting words.


5. Zombie-Vampires (ZVs) are explained.  They are hard to kill at night, but die in the daylight.  The zv are fast, as opposed to traditional zombies.


6. Aries gets a scratch; they let him tag along a while before he turns zombie and they kill him.


7. He and Gabrielle discuss Valhalla.  Great, very old vampires.  The extended flashback to the meeting of Aries and Gabrielle was amateurish, bloated, stupid.  Also, the yellow filter did not make it more interesting, just more repellant.


8. Soon after Gabrielle detonates Aries, the team shoots her until she dies.  Who knows when she got infected.  Lance finally gets it that the commandos are vampires who are not also zombies.  The zombie problem came from vampires switching to cows blood; unfortunately, someone ate a cow with mad cow disease.  The flashback to Viper becoming a vampire was also not interesting. The flashback for Doc was just as stupid as well as repulsive.  They used the ugly yellow filters again.


9. It was good to see the Doc character die horribly, but not heroically.  Vanity films usually suck rocks, and Eddie Conna's effort here is no exception.


10. The ending does not help with any of the film's shortcomings, but it does hint at a sequel.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Wretched as a vanity flick, repellant as horror hybrid, bad SFX.
2. One star of five.  Two blackholes for acting and screenplay.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Fairly good for film mostly shot at night.  The weakest point would be the SFX.


2. Sound: 2/10 Beyond boring and repetitive.


3. Acting: 0/10 Next time, hire some actors.


4. Screenplay: 0/10 Bad dialog.  Ridiculous exposition of motivation.  Zero characters to care about.  Excessive flashbacks to cover the lack of top level plot. Useless cameo by Forrest J. Ackerman.

20131012: Horror Review--Strigoi

Strigoi

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. British live action feature length film released in 2009, NR, 105 minutes, horror, comedy, drama.
2. IMDB: 5.7/10.0 from 763 users.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and 65% want to see from 194 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 51,173 users.
5. Written and directed by: Faye Jackson.
6. Starring: Catalin Paraschiv as Vlad Cozma, Rudy Rosenfeld as Nicolae Cozma (Vlad's grandfather), Roxanna Guttman as Ileana Tirescu, Camelia Maxim as Mara Tomsa, Vlad Jipa as Octav.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Vlad Cozma is almost a doctor, but he's queasy around blood.  He's an omega male, and is ignored and shown disrespect regularly, often in vulgar fashion.  He's the protagonist since he wants certain mysteries solved.


2. After World War II, the Communists stole a huge amount of land in Romania, sending a modern nation back into feudalism.  The landowners could get their land back after the fall of communism.  However, the rising capitalist/carpetbagger class finagled laws requiring that original land deeds be produced to successfully conduct such claims.


3. One of Vlad's mysteries was, "where is grandfather Nicholae's land deed?"  That takes up a large chunk of the film.


4. Early on, Vlad signs a death certificate, which he should not have done.  He never quite got those medical credentials.  The police ferret this out, and one of the detectives, Octav, uses this fact to force Vlad to assist him in the investigation of the death.


5. The third major thread is the matter of who is a strigoi (vampire) and who was not, along with whether the strigoi exist or not.  The strigoi make Vlad's other two investigations that much more difficult.


6. By the end of the film, Vlad is no longer the omega male.


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary:  Class warfare plus vampire issues in Romania.
2. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 Occasionally dark, but mostly competent.


2. Sound: 8/10 A little low at times.


3. Acting: 10/10 Just right for the screenplay.


4. Screenplay: 7/10  The plot was murky, but moves along. The conclusion was difficult but also satisfying.

20131012: Horror Review--23:59

23:59

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. Singapore live action feature length film, 2011, rated R, 78 minutes, horror.  Spoken word, Mandarin with some English; English subtitles.
2. IMDB: 4.8/10.0 from 223 users.  Estimated budget: 600,000 USD.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No reviews yet,' and no audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 2.7/5.0 from 7,497 audience ratings.
5. Written and directed by: Gilbert Chan.
6. Starring: Tedd Chan as Tan, Stella Chung as Shirley, Philip Hersh as Boss (voice only), Henley Hill as Jeremy, Lawrence Koh as Dragon, Tommy Kuan as Lim, Josh Lai as Chester, Mark Lee as Sergeant Kuah, Benjamin Lim as Captain Hong.


2. Setup and Plot
1. Young soldiers who speak Chinese share ghost stories about the minute before midnight.


2. Tan is the designated weak member in the group and receives a lot of static for it.  He gets tied up and stuffed into a locker in the middle of the night.  Bullying in Asia.  No surprises.


3. Jeremy tries to help Tan through the military training course.  The endless references to ghosts and past suicides keeps Tan on a downward mood. Jeremy tries to steer him away from this thought pattern, since Jeremy's early childhood included some fakery in the profession of mediums. This is the setting when the last, worst, road march through the jungle is undertaken.


4. Tan gets lost.  His pack is found, and the sargeant tells the recruits to go look for him.  It starts raining.  They find his body; Jeremy thinks he sees a woman watching.


5. The sergeant tries to blame the supernatural for the loss of Tan.  This captain will not have it.


6. The recruits are uneasy the following night in the barracks.  Jeremy thinks he sees Tan's ghost, for instance.  Making matters worse, the next morning Jeremy receives word that his father passed away.  The next day, while out walking, Jeremy sees an old woman gesturing to him silently; Lim and Dragon do not.  That evening Chester starts banging his head against the lockers, then speaking in a weird voice.


7. They bring in a priest for Chester; the rites seem to help a bit.  Chester shows Jeremy where he and Tan had a strange experience.  Something had grabbed Tan's leg and Chester had beaten it off with his rifle butt.


8. Jeremy's dream about Chester dying comes true soon enough.  Jeremy meets the two principal characters from a couple of the ghost stories told early in the film.  Dragon, Lim, and the sergeant find Jeremy, but do not see the ghosts themselves.


9. Jeremy returns home, and the gift he thought he never had lets him see his dead father.


10. The movie jump shifts forward in time, and the ghost story cycle starts again.


3. Conclusions
1. The Chinese ouija board was interesting to see.
2. One line summary: A thoughtful Asian ghost story.
3. Four stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 8/10 A bit bland, but always competent.


2. Sound: 8/10 A bit bland, but always competent. It was loud enough for a Chinese speaker to understand, and perhaps a quarter of the conversation is in English.  The subtitles were fine.


3. Acting: 10/10 Wonderful.


4. Screenplay: 8/10 Moves along well.