The Rite (2011)

Director: Mikael Håfström
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Ciaran Hinds, Alice Braga, Toby Jones, Ruther Hauer, Colin o’Donoghue. USA. 1h 54m

Loosely based on a book that centres around a real life priest Father Grey Thomas, this choppy and sentimental possession movie attempted to enlighten viewers with real possibilities of demonic possession and gives a more relaxed approach to exorcism process, sometimes it takes times to battle a demon but in the ending showdown the movie reverts back to the classic trope of a priest vs demon verbal slagging match.

Basement (2011)

Director: Thomas Grieser Starring: Thomas Grieser, Ursula Grieser, Wolfgang Grieser, Timo Homburg Germany. 1h 09m

There’s something about Griesers career as a movie director that has hints of Don Dohler, not necessarily, subject and quality but determination and drive, it’s a similar energy. For those who aren’t aware, Dohler had a run of trashy sci fi movies in early 80’s including Fiend, Galaxy Invader, The Alien Factor and Nightbeast which have recently started gaining a small cult following.

The Tunnel (2011)

Director: Carlo Ledesma
Starring: Bel Delia, Luike Arnold, Andy Rodoreda, Goran D Kleut . Australia. 1h 34m

One of the popular and more believable sub genres within the found footage style is the bold and daring mockumentary, a no brainer really as there’s a perfect set up for a found footage project, but one which can really push the boundaries of faking scary adventures, after all there’s a dedicated team of professionals filming, usually with a decent budget and scope for a story and their drive to tell the truth is pretty powerful, almost forcing them to push beyond normal boundaries, but what makes The Tunnel such a winner is it’s connection with real life concerns, ie tackling homeless people driven into underground networks, and how it keeps its feet firmly on the ground without going into the extreme bizarre in order to scare the audience.

Filmed after the event, the movie cuts between timelines before, during and after the underground expedition, and the recordings quite seamlessly blend with each other, various CCTV footage and one chilling phone call.

The Warrior (2011)

Director: Gavin O’Connor
Starring:Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Morrison. .USA. 2h 20m

Back in 2011 the warrior was quite a breakthrough movie for the time. While it remains an emotive glance into the lives behind the men in the ring, as does for MMA what the Wrestler did for.. wrestling I do wonder what the movie would be like if made today after the UFC explosion of talent and headline grabbing antics.

Snowtown Murders (2011)

Director: Justin Kurzel
Starring: Lucak Pittaway, Daniel Henshallm Lousie Harris, Frank Ćwiertniak, Anthony Groves .Australia. 1h 59m

This brutal Australian serial killer movie is a slightly overbearing,  a nearly unwatchable portrait of a gruesome man and a blighted community with his smug smile and ability to sweet talk a community into assisting his plot to torture and kill.

Justin Kurzel’s cold nightmarish story based on the timeline of killing of Australia’s most notorious serial killer focuses more on the town and folk surrounding him, in particular a young teenage boy forced into his grisly covert operations. The title reflects the wintry name of the south Australian Townsend in which all the murders were carried out. Kurzel’s camera hovers around the dated dinner tables and community halls sneaking a social eye over these events where a cunning jackal like predator twists and turns the perceptions of “innocent” folk to help him track and pin down people who he doesn’t believe should exit anymore.

The Haunting of Fox Hollow Farm (2011)

Director: Dan T. Hall
Starring: Tracy Bacon, Myrna Cooke, Alex Hall .USA. 1h 7m

It wasn’t really clear if this was a documentary or some kind of found footage mash up of footage melded together like a music video detailing a surreal investigation into the home of a serial killer.
The director Dan T Hall has a range of spooky titles under his belt including Ghost stories, faces of Darkness, Ghost Stories: Unmasking the dead. But this, for me, really tipped the scale into absurdity. There’s no real clear direction into what’s trying to be achieved, no real detail of Herb and his antics, and flicking between women clapping their hands in the woods to imaginary tracing the steps of a killer every 40 seconds just doesn’t work for me.

Asylum blackout (2011)

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Director: Alexandre Courtes
Starring: Rupert Evans, Dave Legeno, Anna Skellern, Richard Brake .USA. 1h 25m

No matter how crazy you can get in one lifetime; there’s one thing that is certain, that’s the fact that you’re going to need nourishment, this simple fact of life seems to be the driving point of this punk rock hop through body horror hell.

Alexandra Courtes has a long history in making music videos including that iconic monochrome dream that is Seven Nation Army by White Stripes, so he can create very stark and stunning aesthetics which he does in two different ways in Asylum blackout. Initially the world is a bleak white world of aesthetically clean halls but once the lights go out it’s an insipid black nightmare. But aesthetics aside there’s a lot of crazy people doing some fucked up shit in the later half of the movie which takes some sudden psychological turns and keeps it’s audience on their toes.

This must be the place (2011)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Sean Penn, Frances McDormand, Judd Hirsch .UK/Ireland/USA. 1h 58m

Italian director Paolo Sorrentino emerges with some triumph as one of the masters of modern cinema with this English Language film This Must be the Place, starring Sean Penn as a Robert Smith inspired aged rock star Cheyenne. Retirement doesn’t bring as much action as the rocker passes his time living a non existent life in Dublin spending his days alone in his mansion or with his best friend Mary (Hewson) while his American wife (McDormand) is content with her job as a firefighter.

The approach is superbly elegant and has a mix of looming camera movements and bursts of dynamic action mixed with Penns dry humor that sinks into a hallucinatory landscape, which at points is so massive swallows up the characters.

The Bunny Game (2011)

Director: Adam Rehmeier
Starring: Rodleen Getsic, Jeff F Renfro, USA. 1h  16m

Bunny Game is one of those movies I kept seeing when asking for a list of Disturbing movies but not one that anyone really rated. Supposedly based on a true story experienced by the leading lady Rodleen Getsic, who co wrote the story, there’s a harrowing experience laid out that I feel deserves a lot of credit.
The broad stroke of the  movie details a terrible event for a young prostitute looking for her next date and a hot meal. Bunny, as she’s later known, opens the film with a blowjob, it’s an actual blowjob which is probably the reason why this film is so unliked, there’s some real sex involved, something you’d expect from a movie about a prostitute right? But obviously not something film goers actually want to see?

Bunny is doing ok, scoring some dates and drugs, she take a break, has a snack and gets back to work, later on in the day she does a bit too much oh the ole white and is robbed, coming around she realises her last date took all her cash and stash. Devastated she sobers up a little and heads out to start all over again. But her luck has run out and she end up climbing into a van with Hog. At first he appears to be a an old trucker who might be interested in a bit of old relish but soon he’s huffing gas, and chasing Bunny through the desert wearing his leather pig mask.

Howls (2011)

Director: Jamie Tracey.
Starring. J.J Gallo, Nick Smyth, Jamie  Traey. Canada. 1h 15m.

A muted drama with a dark undercurrent.  A group of guys are spending time together chilling in a cabin located in the Canadian wilderness, when the dog gets lose, all three guys head out to track her down but while the roam around the the forest they soon realise that they are being stalked.

For the most part of the film Paul (Gallo) and George (Smyth) search for the dog, there is a third friend who’s with them for a short while but he returns to the cabin early on and from what I understand this character is the Director Jamie Tracey?  The two guys have many a heart to heart while getting lost in the woods. With their friendship in question they pull apart and soon club together for safety, finally realising how much they mean to each other, but this bromance is in question when they notice something is tracking them, a dark figure looming vaguely in the background, “was that a bear?”. With limited ammunition and only the one rifle between them they do their best to make it back to the cabin alive.