Hello All,
Firstly I must apologise for how long it has been since my last blog. I have been very busy and a little under the weather, plus I have given up smoking which is my current excuse for everything.
However, I am back now. I am still hard at work on my new novel ‘The Wilds’ and was amazed to see an item about big cats in the English countryside in one of the national news papers this week, so the book is quite topical. I am hoping that the book will be ready for release around Halloween, which i thought was perfect timing. More on ‘The Wilds’ in the coming weeks.
Today though I would like to share some recommendations for horror films I have seen recently.
James Wan’s latest horror film is a tour de force of tension. The film is based on the true story of the events that happened in the home of the Perron family in the 1970’s and was investigated by world renowned demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The film is really well made, the cast are all superb. Wan uses the same slow build up he used in his previous film ‘INSIDIOUS’, but where as that film veered off into the surreal towards the middle, the conjuring remains a straight, fairly conventional, haunted house movie through out.
The film shows Wan’s skill at building tension, and restraint in revealing the payoff. Some of the build ups go on for an uncomfortably long time. The only thing that lets the film down is the over the top exorcism at the end. Here restraint is replaced with slightly heavy handed scares that jar a little with the rest of the film.
On the whole a thoroughly enjoyable film 8/10
I missed seeing this film at the cinema, and caught it recently on the SKY STORE. The set up of the film is all to familiar. A family experiencing strange happenings and noises in their home at night. In this respect it fits in well with the PARANORMAL ACTIVITY type films (in fact the setting up of security cameras through the house to capture what is happening, and the father reluctant to believe could actually have been ripped straight from PA2). Things then take a turn into more original territory, when the nightly intruders turn out to be aliens as opposed to ghosts.
What follows is a family trying to protect themselves from abduction by a superior alien race. Despite its relatively low budget, and some of its cliches the film is paced nicely and builds up to a tense climax. Also considering that this film is directed by the man who made the CGI heavy ‘LEGION’ and ‘PRIEST’, this film never shows the aliens all that clearly.
Yes it rips off some other films, and if you added in Mulder and Scully could have been an old X-FILES episode, but it is none the less an entertaining way to waste an hour and half. 7/10
This film got its premiere at Frightfest last year, and does contain some horrific scenes and themes, but it more of a brutal thriller in reality.
Set shortly after the Bosnian war, the film tells the story of a deaf mute girl who, along with many others, is captured by soldiers and sold to a brothel. Believing that her disability, and birthmark, will reduce the price he can get for her, the owner of the brothel keeps her as his own. She works cleaning the house, and preparing the girls by pumping them full of heroin.
So far so incredibly bleak. When the soldiers who kidnapped her, and killed her mother, arrive at the brothel one of them brutally rapes one of the girls who is our heroines only friend. She tries to save her friend in one of the most realistic and vicious knife attacks I have ever seen on film.
What follows is a deadly game of cat and mouse through the house and the surrounding woods, where the villains rapidly turn on each other as well as the girl.
Rosie Day, who plays our heroine known only as ‘Angel’, is superb in this role that is both physically and emotionally demanding. The fact that she portrays so much emotion and thought in this film without ever speaking is a credit to this young actress. Though this is her debut feature I think we will see a lot more of Miss Day in the years to come.
Sean Pertwee and Kevin Howarth are also both alarmingly menacing in their respective roles as the leader of the soldiers and the owner of the brothel.
The film is incredibly realistic, and graphic in its depiction of violence and the treatment of the girls in the house. It is not an easy watch in that sense, but it is powerful and thrilling. Despite the realism, I couldn’t help but notice that the film at times seems to play with fairytale themes and imagery, which surprisingly sits very well with the brutal and bleak nature of the film.
Seriously I cannot praise this film enough. If your looking for something horrific, bleak, brutal and intelligent just watch it 10/10
