Die Welle – 2008 – Can history repeat itself?

I was trying to do a video review of this for my youtube channel but soon realized that I couldn’t. I couldn’t get my thoughts about it into words that wat without stuttering way too much. I’m that excited to express my opinions about this flick.

First of all I must say that it’s brave for a German movie to take on such subjects that the film revolves around. I’m not sure that Nazism or Hitler is actually mentioned but there are obvious parallels to such a fascist society. The question about if we are so enlightened today with knowledge of the past that we couldn’t fall in that trap again is the most central one. That is even spoken out in plain text in the movie.

But let’s start from the beginning. Rainer Wegner is a popular teacher in school. By the students that is. He’s quite unorthodox and that makes his colleagues suspicions about his methods. But he’s popular by the students and that is a quality more teachers should have in my opinion. Theme week is coming up and Reiner plans of taking on the subject anarchy. He’s really excited about it and equally disappointed when he realizes that this subject has already been taken by another teacher. Unwillingly he is forced to choose autocracy instead. At first he isn’t very interested but once the question about whether this kind of society could emerge again he takes a different approach.

From this point on he conducts an experiment. What would happen if he could fulfill all re requirements for it to work? He needs to prove to his students as to himself that people need to think about their actions and choices in life. Is it possible to manipulate the students into autocracy?

Together with his students he starts to map out what key elements that needs to be fulfilled in such a society. Among other things a strong leader is needed. Also some kind of unifying for the “people”; discontent is agreed on. And that is a strong base to build a group willing to do most anything for a change. To argue that the end justifies the means to such a group will not be hard. They also conclude that they need a common dress code, some kind of uniform. That this doesn’t have to be a military uniform is quickly debated and each and every one gets out getting a white shirt. This and a few other fundamental characteristics is enough for things to start escalating. When a salute and a name for the group – The Wave – is created we take another step further.

In my mind there is also another thing that needs to be fulfilled. That is weak individuals that in being part of a great whole in order to feel strong and even invincible; weak individuals that can blame the entire group for each and every decision that might be too close to home; each and every decision that might be too hard to make on their own. They find the strength in numbers.

The transgression of the experiment goes fast. Mind you, there’s only one theme week and by the end of this week a really strong willed organization has been created. Few of the initial students realize the potential danger of the situation but there are individuals that are very uncomfortable with the concept to say the least. They protest by not participating in the uniform dress code and starts to develop their own counter movement with flyers to inform the masses of the dangerous situation.

Even the conductor of the experiment gets drawn into it and starts to change his personality. Maybe not to the extent of his students but he is changing. No doubt about that. He is also approached by the opposition that things are about to go out of proportion and that he’s losing control of the situation. He needs to fix what has gone wrong.

In my opinion this is a pretty frightening movie. It is very realistic and there’s no doubt in my mind that such a society could be created if a strong leader was manipulative enough. In fact, I think it’s about to happen in several parts of the world already. We may not see Nazism as we once did, the swastika may not be present but if we start to lose our grip it doesn’t matter what symbol that is used. Totalitarian leaders seem to be found in the west and east alike. When people start to oppress other people we have failed.

I found this flick to be very watchable. It made me feel real fear which is an uncommon feeling coming from a movie these days. I think it’s nicely played and wonderfully written. I wish more movies would explore these themes of the darkest parts of human history.

8/10

This just in: I just realized that this is in fact a remake of an earlier short movie. Now I need to get my hands on that as well…

The Blacklist - season 1 - James Spader for president!

Unusual for me get hooked on a series. But this is quite good. See me rambling about it below.

Apt Pupil - 1998 - Is this the best Stephen King Adaption of them all?

Dark – 2015 – An interesting persona

It’s been a while since I wrote anything on this blog. You could say that life has caught up with me lately. Poor excuse, but that’s how it is. Shit happens and we need to focus on what important. That’s something the main character in this movie should learn by the way. It’s obvious already from the start that she has a lot of issues. What kind of issues isn’t clear from the beginning but as the movie goes along we note that she has problems with herself. She lacks self-confidence and doubts herself in each and every way. Unfortunately I don’t think this is very uncommon for you women. Or anyone else for that matter. But let’s start from the beginning…

Kate has a relationship with Leah and we are made aware of the sexual tension already in the opening scene. This is also the first time we see tendencies of Kate’s issues. We just haven’t figured them out yet. At least didn’t I. From this moment on it’s really a one woman show film. That is to say that Whitney Able as the character Kate, does most of the screen time on her own. It takes an actress of great skill to pull it off and I believe that se dis a great job with it. I’m fascinated by her persona.

Anyway. When the lesbian lovers split up for the day we get to follow Kate. She lives in a neighborhood that is far from glamour. It’s kind of the slum actually. I don’t think she likes it at all but the main thing is that there is a power outage that affects the entire city, or at least a large portion of it. There are few occasions when we don’t really know what to do, I know that from personal experience, that are worse than a power outage. We so take power for granted in our daily life.

It’s obvious that she get on her own nerves when she has to keep herself company. Her demons grows stronger with each dark moment. She goes about for a drink and some company but when she gets rejected her world falls further apart. She becomes more and more paranoid in her own mind. She cannot distinguish reality from her own mind. She see enemies all around her and the smallest sound is a threat to her security. It grows darker and darker but the greatest darkness is yet in her own mind and in the nightmare she’s about to wake up from.

This is a fine movie. Great acting and skilled direction. I think it’s thrilling most of the time even if the pace might be a little too slow at times. It’s a flick that is far better than I expected. I kind of love it. Really I do! And it gets even better after a few hours, when what really happened has had a chance to melt in. This is a thoughtful movie with a great script!

8/10

Creeper – 2014 – a dualism, a contradiction, an oxymoron, a paradox

It was a few day since I watched this now. Some movies need that extra time to sink in before thought can be formed into words. I wasn’t sure what to think to begin with. There are parts that are really really gruesome and I wish they had been explored further. This could have been one of the most horrifying experiences all year, but it wasn’t. That doesn’t mean that it’s not good, because it is! It’s just not all horror, which I’d hoped for. There are also some in depth character visualization. We get to see what the main character (the killer) sees from time to time. It’s obvious that he doesn’t view reality in the same way as a “normal” person does. That’s good I think.

I was a bit disappointed with the movies length. It's about 54 minutes long and that means you are not given enough time with the story to really let it get to you. Once the bottom line starts to unravel it just… ends.

The acting in kind of uneven I think. Sometimes it’s just glorious and in the next scene it’s horrible. So my feelings about this are eclectic to say the least. Some parts are really very good and nicely made, whilst some parts are plain boring and badly acted/directed.

What about the main story? Well, it’s about this bloke who kidnaps young girls, keeps them in his cellar and tortures them. Its’ very painful torture by the looks of it too. There are saws and pliers involved, that’s all I can say. The only setback is that we don’t get to see that much. I guess the films budget stopped the development of special makeup effects. If it had the effects of a master or at least dared to show off a little it’d be beautiful.

I guess the story is inspired by real serial killers. I don’t know exactly who the most famous ones pop up in my head. It seems that this killer is based on the likes of Ted Bundy (his charm) and on others that are more gruesome in their killing methods. I like the character created here. It’s kind of a dualism, a contradiction, an oxymoron, a paradox.

The bottom line then? Well, as stated above I find it a bit uneven. It's still very watchable though, despite its short length.

7/10

Infliction – 2013 – not just another found footage flick!

If you thought that this was just another found footage flick, you thought wrong. Sure, it has some flaws, but it certainly has a story to back up the concept. It may not be visible at first but soon you realize that the two brothers, who record they’re killing spree, has a grand motif. They don’t record their bloody deeds just for our amusement. In the description of the movie we’re told that director Jack Thomas Smith just showing us genuine recordings of the two brothers’ tapes. It would be tempting to believe that’s the truth but I don’t but it. At most, this is a story based on real events but I don’t know if even that is true.

Anyway, we get to follow the two brothers when the break in to a victims house after another. At first it seems just random but soon you realize that they have a real agenda and a goal with what they’re doing. I could describe it for you but I don’t think I won’t. It’ll take some of the suspense away from the experience. Let’s just say it has something to do with their upbringing to do. There are clear morals told here and there and what is right and wrong is sometimes somewhat debatable. What about vengeance? Is that excusable if it comes to punish those who did you wrong in the past?

At times it’s a really bloody experience but I think you should look past the blood and focus on the morals that are told. There are doubts among the brothers if what they’re doing is really right. But in the end it’s justifiable by they’re pasts. That’s one way of looking at it anyway. You might find another answer for yourself when you see it. In short, it’s about a tragic upbringing and what lies beneath.

I really like the idea as it’s a subject that lies close to my heart. There may not be the best the actors around, not from the victims anyway. But I can live with that. I would have preferred it if they could show fear on a higher lever for instance. But I’ll settle for less when the story has such a depth.

7/10

The Cohasset Snuff Film – 2012 – Is this the real deal or not?

Director: Edward Payson

Thriller

The story is basically about a seventeen year old kid named Colin Mason. He gets a film camera to use on his schools years book project but he uses it in quite another way. He films himself gruesomely murdering three of his class mates – and publish the films on the internet!

The filmmakers claim this not only to be based on true events – and it looks pretty authentic to be honest, but also to be so called “found footage”! I have a hard time grasping that it could be such a film, which should mean that real murders are included. There’s a thin line between entertainment and a documentary but that would place this movie itself very close to true and genuine snuff! I don’t believe it!

I wasn’t sure if it was based on true events though. I did some fast research on the subject since I didn’t want to rule it out. There are a lot of sick and twisted people out there, why shouldn’t anyone commit murder and film them for their own amusement or to make money from it? I think that one of the questions the film tries to ask its audience! It’s pretty obvious that there’s also a comment in there for those of you (or those of us) that seek out the most gruesome stuff on the internet just to watch it. Remember those Russian guys that killed someone with a screwdriver a few years back and filmed the whole thing? That found its way on to the internet. The film asks you – why do you watch such things? Why do you seek it out? Does that make us monsters?

The film itself isn’t that graphic. I like that it’s kept on a realistic level. Had they gone over-the-top with buckets of blood the whole point would be lost. As it is now the film still is chocking! It makes you think about what going on in the world, starting with the viewers own perspective.

It isn’t your typical run of the mill horror flick. This has something more to offer. I personally like when the flicks try to get under your skin without doing it too much. I don’t know how many times I’ve claimed it but less is more any day of the week when it comes to serious, frightening, realistic movies! So if you think you’re going to see a flick filled with special effects and gruesome murders think again. This might not be for you. But on the other hand, if you’re after something that might challenge your mind, this might just be the right movie for you!

7/10

Review: Gut - 2012

Gut

Director: Elias

2012

Drama/Horror/Thriller

Something is missing in Tom's life. Every day he goes through the motions, becoming increasingly detached from those around him. His best friend Dan thinks he has the answer, a mysterious video he's got to see to believe. What Dan shows him leaves Tom unsettled, flooding his mind with disturbing images and desires, and binding the two friends together with its ugly secret. As he tries desperately to forget what he saw, Tom's mounting feelings of guilt and disillusionment quickly give way to paranoia and fear. One video soon follows another and another, blurring the line between reality and voyeuristic fascination, and threatening to dismantle everything around them. 

I did not write the above description of the film but I found it being so informative that there was really no need to rewrite something original for the sole purpose of this review. Maybe I would have included that the film that might solve Tom’s problems and fascinates Dan is some kind of snuff-porn where a woman gets cut open with a scalpel. There’s really no need to leave this information out as the movies title kind of gives that away anyway.

The whole atmosphere in this movie within the movie is sexual but there’s no actual footage of sex or sexual encounters. Nor is there any real evidence of sexual arousal by the viewers of it. There is insinuated fascination but not really arousal. This means that the film is not there just to shock us but also to frighten us, which it does over time. To begin with Dan tells Tom that he ordered it online somewhere but later confesses that someone just sent it to him after he wrote his postbox number in some forum.

When Dan gets another DVD, and then another and another we realize that this is not sexual at all. At least not for the viewers. Tom and especially Dan can’t let go of it and feel themselves forced to watch. The fascination gets more prominent but we realize more and more that something about this is totally wrong. (when someone sends us DVDs of women being cut open we should feel kind of awkward don’t you think?).

What good about it is that there is a presence of the question what is real and what is not? Soon the DVDs start showing women that they know being cut open. Here stops the fascination and terror begins. Why are they receiving these DVDs? Who is sending them, and why? Are they even real?

The friendship of Tom and Dan are soon in jeopardy. They cannot support each other more than to a certain point. They just want the whole thing to end. In the end it’s all about mental instability and the need to protect ourselves. Looking out for number one and your own family is the prime directive. Your friends are really secondary!

I was surprised how well acted this was. Neither of them will get an Oscar nomination for their work but they portray the characters very satisfactory. The same thing goes for the directing and the visual effects are very good also! It was an exciting experience watching this and I feel that the suspense was there almost all along, which is truly uncommon for a low budget movie like this.

7/10

Photos by Will Serber, © Gut Productions, LLC

Review: A Serbian Film - 2010

A Serbian Film

Aka: Srpski Film

Director: Srdjan Spasojevic

2010

Drama/Thriller

Milos is an former porn actor, the best in the business! He’s even a living legend and if no one else can deliver a hard on, he sure can! He can keep it up forever, or so it seems, but he’s retired now. He has a wife and a son and wants to spend his time with them these days. But he still gets offers from the porn business and one day he gets an offer he can’t refuse. The amount of money he’s offered makes it possible for him and his family to spend the rest of his life in luxury. He’s not given a script and the director claims that the real facial expressions can’t be achieved if he knows too much about the movie in advance. Soon he realizes that he shouldn’t have sign up for the project and want out. Something that’s easier said than done!

I heard very much about this movie before I saw it and my expectations were very high before I viewed it. The rumor about it was that it was the most extreme movie made – ever! And a movie that disturbs it’s viewer with strong emotions is a very good movie in my world. On the other hand isn’t it uncommon that great expectations often lead to even greater disappointments. That’s according to my personal experience of course.

The movie revolves around pornography and that wasn’t too hard to figure out, but that doesn’t make it a porn movie in any way. There is no visual penetration and the nude scenes are fewer than expected. I don’t see anything strange in a movie that covers the porn world but not becoming a porn movie itself. In fact, I think that that’s making the movie better. There’s not just graphical explicit sex just because the hell of it, a lot of the sexual situations are of the kind that you have to create in your own mind. I think that’s preferable in 99% of all cases actually. The imagination of the viewer is usually much more vivid than what filmmakers in general are able to visualize anyway!

But it is a strong and revolting movie? Do I get anxiety when I watch it? Is it as good as the rumor? Well.. No it isn’t! It’s a pretty slow paced movie where the main concerns are Milos fall and decadence. The movie is more about him and his anxiety about what he has to do to the other participants in the porn movie. There are only victims in the movie – no winners, and I think that’s a good way to tell the story. It might be a message to the porn industry but I would have wanted even more helplessness from the participants. They’re all victims, yes, but show us more strong scenes of hopeless decadence and humiliation!

But even if the movie starts out being slow tempo is that certainly not the case when it’s about to end. You get sucked in the movie and there seems to be a point to make the next scene slightly stronger than the one before. You wonder what the final act of humiliation will be and when it comes to ultra perverted sex there’s really no equal to it. The final minutes are some of the most revolting minutes I’ve ever seen and it’s made in a way that keeps the perversions going even after it ends. It glues itself in your mind in a way that shallow but violent movies can’t! You know those kinds of movies that only seek to shock us with its violence.

9/10

Review: 7 Days - 2010

7 Days

Aka: Les 7 Jours Du Talion

Director: Daniel Grau

2010

Thriller/Horror/Drama

Dr. Bruno Hamel and his wife see their 8-year old daughter walking off on her own. That’s the last they see of her, at least while she’s still alive. She’s found a couple of days later raped and murdered! Her parents loose themselves with grief and start to blame each other for the terrible crime. They should have looked after her and they should have done this or that. A few days go by and the police find a person likely to have committed the crime, very likely even. The DNA matches and the trial should be over very quickly. But that’s not enough for Dr. Hamel. He finds a place where he can be undisturbed and hires a couple of thugs to bring him the prime suspect into his little torture chamber…

I’ve heard a few opinions about this French spoken Canadian movie and I decided I’d check it out myself. Most of the comments about it were positive and most of them claimed this to be a very strong movie. It was said to be full of very hard to watch torture scenes and the cover even claims Saw is child’s play in comparison. Well… The theme and context of the movie is truly horrible. I can’t think of anything worse than losing your child and then finding her raped and killed by a crazy pedophile. And the plot emphasizes on the grief and how to get over such a tragedy at first. I felt very strong with the characters and I thought it was very nicely acted and directed.

The movie keeps the dense atmosphere throughout but becomes rather tedious after a while. There’s not enough happening for it to be interesting. Sure, there are a couple of torture scenes that really gets to you but there’s not many and they don’t last but long. Most of the time the pedophile just lay on the blood bleeding without being assaulted at all, in pain of course. But I realize that this film isn’t really about torture and is more or less a portrait of the father, but I would have liked if it was a little stronger torture wise as well. After all it is sort of  a horror movie.

But the descending of the father – Dr. Hamel, into madness is quite interesting but it’s not varies enough. He sits and drinks his beer, or whatever it is he’s drinking all the time, and loses his mind. There’s a lot of philosophy about what’s right and what’s wrong. If killing the perpetrator would bring his daughter back or bring him peace? I don’t think the film brings any answer to the riddle and that it’s up to you and me to find out for ourselves. I like that in a movie. The viewer should be able to make his own mind up about what’s right or wrong.

Of course there’s some classic contrast between rational thinking and emotional feelings. And I think each and every one of us would like to avenge our loved ones emotionally. But most people have blocks preventing this and clichés like “don’t sink down to their lever” or “It’s not worth it” comes to mind. I still wonder if it’s worth it or not. If the satisfaction of vengeance justify having another person’s life on the conscious.

The bottom line is that I found it somewhat entertaining. It was rather nicely portrayed by the actors and the director but it was too slow and not enough variation to it.

Review: I am Number Four - 2011

I Am Number Four

Director: D.J. Caruso

2011

Action/Sci-fi/Thriller

John Does everything he can to blend in, that’s at least what his guardian would like him to do. Because John isn’t an ordinary person, he’s not even from this planet. He has remarkable and powerful gifts and has to move from location to location to avoid being detected by his enemies. They want to destroy him, they’ve already destroyed three like him, and he’s number four…

I like this movie even if the story is kind of weak, the whole thing smells a bit like the Twilight Saga but I don’t consider that a problem. There’s a youthful love story in it but in which American small town aren’t there one? But, on the other hand, this isn’t a story you see for the depth of the plot, you should be happy with what you get really. The story is simple, very black and white; the evil humanoids want to wipe out the good ones. It’s very well made and it good very good; the experience on blu-ray is tremendous!

Obviously you should see a film just for the sake of the effects but in this case I’m almost ready to pronounce an exception from that rule. The story isn’t very complex but the stuff that’s in there makes it interesting anyway. Not because you can’t figure out what’s going to happen in the end but the conflict between John and the most popular guy in school (at least according to himself) drives the plot somewhat forward.

                                                               

It’s hard to get a grip about the background story though. The circumstances on the annihilation of John home planet are dealt with but it's done in a very simple matter. It feels like it’s told just a little beside the point and it’s not at all important and them ignore it and empathizes on action sequences instead. And there’s plenty of action and it look great. There’s quite a few computer generated effects which I normally don’t like very much, here they fit in and looks great though.

But there are too many questions. Why are there nine aliens on our planet, why do they need protection, what’s in the box, why do they have to be annihilated in number sequence? You can choose to ignore these things of course but if the ambition is to create a film with some afterthought you need to put some more focus on the story. I still like the move since it so nice looking, I don’t have anything against movies produced by Michael Bay, but there’s usually not so much afterthought. But it's entertaining and has a lot of brain dead action!

Images: © DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC

Review: Beyond the Grave - 2010

Beyond the Grave

Director: Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro

AKA: Porto dos Mortos, Más Allá de la Tumba

2010        

Drama/Thriller/Horror/Western

Set is another time and another place, the story more or less revolves around a cop of sorts who’s searching for a possessed serial killer. But possession is not all there is, there are also zombies and black magic rituals going on throughout the entire plot. It’s kind of incomprehensible most of the time but I really like the cinematography and the image compositions most of the time. There’s a lot of visual clichés going on but they seem to fit the production and makes it interesting.

The script itself confuses me by being too ambivalent there are so many different things going on that it’s hard to separate them. Perhaps this is even hard as the dialog is spoken in Portuguese, at least most of it is. I mean, it’s subtitled in English and that’s no biggie really but there are still things that tend to get lost in any translation. But it is a Brazilian film and it should be in Portuguese or it would seem wrong anyway.

Actor wise I think it works really well and some of the makeup effect are almost brilliant. But the movie is rather slow-paced and that makes I kind of boring anyway. There are some strange characters which I think is designed to make it look more interesting, but this isn’t a film by Alejandro Jodorowsky and it’s not tense enough to make it work. I like the ambition of trying to make something a little different but in my opinion it gets a little too complicated. There’s not enough western to make it a western, it’s not enough post apocalypse to make it post apocalypse and it’s not enough zombies to make it a zombie flick.

The main problem is the script no doubt and maybe the direction could have been better too. I think it would have needed some more nerve to make it as interesting as the plot deserves. As it is I can’t even tell what the bottom line is supposed to be.

Review: The Gray Man - 2007

The Gray Man

Director: Scott Flynn

2007

Thriller

Albert Fish is a grey old man whose harmless appearance fools a whole society. In fact he’s a bloodthirsty serial killer and cannibal. He finds pleasure in pain both done to himself and to others. In 1928 he takes ten year old Grace Budd to a party. She’s never seen again and Fish disappears into thin air and can’t be found. However a stubborn detective refuses to let go of the case. Several years later he finally able to track down Fish, prove his guilt and have him convicted.

I think most people would refer to Albert Fish as a depraved son of a bitch if they got the chance. But I don’t think that he’s as widely known as some of the other serial killers and wackos out there. There’s a ton of movies about Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy but only one about Albert Fish as far as I know. I think it’s very strange considering this man’s mental state. It might have something to do with his crimes; they are of course taboos since they include killing and eating children. That’s something you can’t exploit in just any way. The fact that his victims were fairly few compared to some of the more widely known serial killers might also have something to do with it.

I think that Patrick Bauchau does a marvelous job in the role as Fish. He’s perfect and keeps it interesting at all times even when the camera wanders off and refuses us to see what’s really happening with the victims. And since there’s not a single scene where there’s any true visualizing of the murders, that’s well needed. He can turn from being a lovable old man to a total bastard in a heartbeat and it’s very nicely portrayed. The other parts a fine to but not in comparison with the title role.

I think it’s too bad that the film is really two films in one. We have the story about Fish, which is fine even if I would have liked a little more excitement and suspense in the story. We also have the other half of the film, told fragmented at the same time, about the detective working with lost persons and ultimately catches Fish in the end. These parts are so noir-esque that they disturb the flow of the movie. It doesn’t quite fit together with the main story I think. I wouldn’t have minded it if it wasn’t so noir all the time.

So as a whole I’m disappointed. I think there should be a more revolting film about Fish and that it wouldn’t be very hard to do considering his crimes. I need denser storytelling and a psychological depth analysis of his mind, but I guess this’ll have to do for now…