Review: Regissören - 2011

Regissören

Director: Ronny Carlsson

2011

Mocumentary

First of all let me tell you what an honor it is to be given the chance to write the first review of this in the entire world! I’ve seen all of Ronny’s previous movies, at least I think I have, and they’re all very special in one way or the other. You can clearly see that he has evolved from making fun shorts to complex thoughtful script where he forces the viewer to think. He has a thing for picking the optimal music for his scenes and there’s usually very little dialog – if any. The title of this movie – Regissören, literally translates into The Director and is in essence a mockumentary.

Its quite different though. But needless to say it works on so many different levels. First of all we have the obvious mockumentary level. I would certainly hope that some of the sequences are a product of Ronnys imagination. But there is also a true documentary side I think. Ronny may have chosen to manifest this in metaphors but have spoken with Ronny many a time I think I know what he means by it. It’s an expression of emotions and not to be taken literally.

It also works as an experimental and surreal film and it’s obvious that Ronny knows what his doing – or not? I say not because there’s so much trial and error in his movie making, at least that’s what he’s expressing here. But I could misinterpret of course, that may be part of the mockumentary. Haha!

The editing is top notch of course, that has always been Ronnys strong side and here he’s playing with it more that usual. The movie is mostly in Swedish but there are subtitles and some are spoken in English too. Dialog in a Ronny Carlsson film is awesome! There’s one sequence with an interview of sorts which is a highlight of the film. It’s so funny! They sit and talk about how to make and how to not make films. The true intentions of them and the need for experimentation. As soon as imaginative editing is mention the film takes a turn as shows just what they’re talking about. Many a true word are spoken here and I believe most of this is true to Ronny as a film maker and as a person.

Further more, the movie also works as a finishing part of Ronny “Shitty Camcorder Trilogy” which started with Video Geisteskrank and My Monster as well as a standalone anthology. I like this very much! Finally I think it kind of works as a promotion for Ronnys Forthcoming film Dustbox which I cannot wait to see!

7/10

Review: Necronos: Tower of Doom - 2010

Recensionen på svenska

Necronos: Tower of Doom

Director: Marc Rohnstock

2010

Horror

The Devil has plans for the earth, to conquer it and to enslave all of mankind. They can’t all be killed since the berserkers need something to eat. His mighty minion – Necronos, comes to earth to find the most precious ingredients to ensure his arrival. Necronos is accompanied by Goran – a blood Golem and a mighty witch that will assist him in identifying the most precious of all – the virgin witch. Her blood ensures the arrival of Satan and Hell will come to earth. Necronos is about to raise an army of demons and rule what’s left side by side with Satan.

First of all we need to establish that this is an independent production with a very low budget. Therefore it cannot be compare to high budget films but I don’t think Marc Rohnstock was aiming for that anyway. Usually when it comes to flicks like this the whole point is to make it very cheap and possible learn something in the process. That is why I commend productions like this; they move the boundaries of what can be done. A small budget forces the filmmakers to innovative solutions which in turn makes the industry richer. There are many high budget films that could never have been done if these productions didn’t pave the way.

Having that said it’s no big surprise that this film has the usual problem independent films have. First of all there’s the acting of course but I actually think that better than usual so I can’t complain about that. The second thing is cinematography, possible because of cheaper equipment. This is the most obvious way to tell if a film have had a shoestring budget or not.

Being a splatter film the effects are our main concern though. Those are what’s important tm us. There are two general points about this I think. It should look believable and over the top at the same time. That’s actually a pretty hard task to accomplish. Most films never come close to this, not even major Hollywood productions. The other thing is inventive use of the gore. Just to pull an arm of without any fun way of doing it isn’t good enough. There need to be a point to it. Why is the arm coming of? Just for the gore of it? Some reason that moves the plot forward? Of course I’m only talking about this as an example here but I think this film pulls it off nicely. The splatter and Gore are quite nice and most of the time there’s a point in having it there.

As it is a German movie its dialog is in German of course. I have a hard time with it. Not because of the language itself but as most of the dialog is spoken through filters to make it feel more demon-ish. It’s slightly better than watching a flick dubbed into German of course but it’s still an ugly language. Fortunately it’s subtitled into English which I understand..

The main plot isn’t very deep. But again, it doesn’t need to be. We are interested in the gore and the nudity of course. There are quite a few full frontal nudity shots and there are boobs throughout the film. I like the way this is done since it’s not only perfect bodies. There are actually real people in it as well, some saggy women and fat men, just like people are. It would be nice to see perfect porn star bodies of course but less realistic. I think it’s done in the right way!

But even if the plot isn’t very deep you get details from the beginning. You are introduced to the characters by several texts and some teaser shots. We start a few hundred years back in time with some fantastic shots. There are some really great torture scenes here. I wish they make a prequel that exploits all this in a more detailed way! Most of the film takes place in the present where the virgin witch is sought for and the torture is kind of lost in the process. I wanted to see more blood running on the women’s naked vaginas rather than intestines in a meat grinder.

Will be released by Swedish Dark Entertainment.

UPDATE:
This just in...
Troma Entertainment will distibute the film for the whole US market within the next month.

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