I watched so many movies at the Fantasia film festival this year that I just didn’t have enough room to post them all here. Over at Bloody Disgusting you can find my review for the cinema verite serial killer flick 39: A Film By Carroll McKane. And now, using the power of the internet, I will quote my own words in bold!

It would have been easier to accept Jim Carrey as Carroll McKane for all the mugging that takes place for the camera. And while I realize that this excessive egotism is probably evident in real-life killers, without a firm foundation for all of Carroll’s grisly exploits his tiresome monologues come off as fabrications.

Ouch. That Steve guy is a jerk. If you can’t get enough of my rambling here at The Horror Blog, may I suggest you check it out.

This is what horror blogging does to me. I spend so much time writing that I have far less time to watch, read or listen. My movie consumption has decreased to the point that my purchases are at a 2-to-1 ratio with what I actually sit down and watch. My beloved reading hammock swings lonely on my balcony. And I haven’t listened to a soundtrack album in ages.

I’m hoping other bloggers can relate to the above. I also hope that they can relate to those glorious moments when something stops the downward spiral and demands your attention, pushing self-imposed deadlines out of your head if only for a moment. This was the case when I stumbled across Rick Trembles’ Motion Picture Purgatory Radio Show while looking for information on the film Neighbourhood Watch. Maybe stumbled isn’t the right word. I’ve been reading Trembles’ comic strip for years, and I’ve been aware of his podcast for months. It wasn’t until I was forced to sit down and listen to an episode for the sake of research that I realized what I was missing.

The most recent episode was particularly engaging as Trembles sits down with FAB Press owner Harvey Fenton and Fangoria associate editor Michael Gingold to discuss the golden age of horror ‘zines. If you’re like me, and you can’t shake that nostalgic feeling for the days when horror fandom required blood, sweat and staples, be sure to check it out.

The third in a series of reviews of films shown at this year’s Fantasia international film festival in Montreal.

The cast and crew of a sleazy investigative reporting show are making their way toward their next victim when a truck t-bones their van. When the group steps out of the van, they discover that they may in fact have been killed and sent to Hell, and it will take everything they’ve got to travel the world of the damned and get back to the land of the living.

Hell plays out like a fundamentalist horror show, warning the viewer as to what awaits them on the other side and scaring them into changing their ways before it’s too late. At first the characters’ journey toward the pit doesn’t seem particularly brutal. In fact, it’s a little cheesy, like a Barry Prima version of purgatory. The guards are made up like warriors from Conan The Barbarian, and they start chucking fireballs when the recently damned get out of line. Them, just when you think that this is a piss take version of the afterlife, the detainees are carted into a dusty, blood-encrusted enclosure filled with all manner of primitive torture devices and half-naked souls writhing. When one of the main characters begins her punishment and calls out for her mother, her voice is joined by a chorus of people screaming for the same distant comfort.

Even the relatively innocent aren’t spared. Perhaps the most novel twist in the film, the guardians in this version of Hell are either unaware of the moral worth of their prisoners, or they simply don’t care to distinguish anymore. In one of the more striking scenes, the guards callously mow down people who have paid their penance and are about to enter their rebirth just to get at their target, the escaped wicked.

Unfortunately, there are too many characters and not enough characterization to be spread among them, with the result that while you may feel sympathy with a few of the damned, the majority remain cyphers, a huge mistake in a film where most of the scares come from relating to the vicitms. The overlay of cheap CGI is distracting and takes away from whatever charm the natural landscape evokes. And while there are a number of interesting set pieces, including a torturous orgy for the adulterers and the lost and forgotten children of the damned seeking out and killing absent parental figures, the majority of the film is a mess of pacing, with redundant exposition thrown in at the oddest places.

I’ll admit it could be the cultural barrier, but Hell seems to be a great idea railroaded by a weak script and too much ambition for its meagre resources.

The second in a series of reviews of films shown at this year’s Fantasia international film festival in Montreal.

A group of women gather together one year after a tragic loss to explore a network of caves and try to buddy up and try to put the past behind them. Once below ground everything that can go wrong does, and the group discovers that they aren’t the only ones roaming the darkness.

Many movie pundits decry the lack of originality in modern cinema. Personally, I’m less interested in how original an idea is than I am in its execution. Most of the films that are considered horror classics have simple storylines which have been told dozens, hundreds, thousands of times before. In every case it’s not a matter of what is shown but how. The Descent is one of those films, and I have very little doubt that it will rank right up there with those stripped-down classic films as time goes on.

Over half of The Descent is a slow burn, with some subtle interpersonal drama, a few well-executed jump scares and a perfect setting for people with claustrophobia. It’s slow, but not quite plodding, and sustains just enough interest to keep your attention. And just when you begin to wonder why everyone’s hyping this movie, everything goes straight to Hell and keeps up the pace right through to the end in a tour de force of carnage and blood.

Neil Marshall’s previous film was the sleeper hit Dog Soldiers, and despite the surface differences there are numerous similarities between that film and The Descent. The protagonists, a group composed entirely of the same gender, must battle their way through an unknown enemy in unfamiliar territory. Perhaps the most refreshing aspect shared between both films, aside from the lack of a romantic subplot, is Marshall’s insistence in making the threat strong instead of turning the characters weak. The women in The Descent aren’t trained warriors as in Dog Soldiers, but they are athletic, smart and definitely capable of swinging a pick axe in a pinch. Like the men in Dog Soldiers, the characters in The Descent use every resource available to them without the need to tout their ingenuity or blather on about it.

Special mention has to be made for the incredible performances of the creatures. Their agility is remarkable. Marshall uses every trick in the book to lend them feral grace and a violent gravity to their every move. I’m not at all sure how much, if any, CGI was used in The Descent, but the simple yet strongly effective make-up could make The Descent the poster boy for the practical effects set.

So far as straight-up nailbiters go, you won’t do any better than The Descent this year. If you get a chance to catch it in its upcoming theatrical run, don’t hesitate.

The first in a series of reviews of films shown at the Fantasia international film festival in Montreal.

A woman is murdering people in downtown Seoul, seemingly at random. The only clue she leaves behind at the scene of each crime is a sticker of an anime character, Princess Aurora. As the police try to track her down, one of the officers discovers that not only might there be a method to the killer’s madness, but he may be involved personally.

Princess Aurora starts off with incredible promise which the rest of the film sidesteps completely. The opening scene is one of the most surprising, brutal little vignettes I have seen in a long time. From that first blood-soaked scene, the impression one gets is that this is going to be like a Korean Falling Down, as the petty behaviour of the people around her drive the killer toward deranged retribution. It’s truly unfortunate when the red herring is more interesting than the actual reveal.

Most all of the killer’s victims are introduced as they’re causing grief for people weaker than them. It’s this aspect of the film that really pissed me off. This bullying is the only aspect of their personalities we’re allowed to see, giving us reason to believe that this is how they are 24/7. If the film were an allegory, this flimsy characterization would make some sense. As it stands, the reason we’re shown the victims in this light is to emphasize that they truly deserved it even before we discover why they are being chosen by the killer. The filmmaker has completely stacked the deck here, making it impossible to feel any empathy for the victims, and completely discarding any attempt at creating moral conflict over the killer’s actions. I don’t mind being manipulated, but this is so ham-fisted it’s insulting.

This absence of complexity seeps through to the rest of the film, making all but the end sequences nothing more than a bland police procedural. Princess Aurora has not one but two codas, both of which, like the very beginning, promise a great movie experience that could have been. Here we not only get another visually stunning kill, but the film also delves into issues of personal responsibility, no matter how depraved. It poses some interesting questions, but it would have been nice if those themes had been explored throughout its running time instead of tacked onto the end.

What could have been great, given a little more thought, bypasses good and settles for mediocre.