The Lighthouse (2019)

Director: Robert Eggers Starring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson .USA/Canada. 1h 49m.

An uncategorizable and slightly experimental frolic through unfinished literature and art. Rober Eggers and his brother Max attempt to finish a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe with a gusty and challenging drama that borders on fantasy.

Two Wickies (Lighthouse Keepers) are stranded on their isolated island for an extended time due to a prolonged storm and they begin to trip down a psycho sexual rabbit hole during some intense alone time that draws in cabin fever.

13 Eerie (2013)

Director: Lowell Dean
Starring: Katharine Isabelle, Michael Shanks, Brendan Fehr, Brendan Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jesse Moss .Canada. 1h 27m

For a debut feature, there are a lot of pluses for this well written movie from director Lowell Dean, as he explores the almost burnt out zombie horror wave but despite falling back on a few cliches it’s a fairly good horror that sees a few members of Ginger Snaps reunite for a toxic zombie horror adventure in the woods.

Six forensic undergraduates have to ace a scientific field exam if they want their dream job of body hacking in the name of science. They are taken to a remote deserted island in an area known as Eerie Strait, island 13 has been set up as a Body Farm, their tutor Tomkins (Shanks) is overconfident and seems bored and often put off from the outset. He has prepared the island with surveillance cameras and walkie talkies and had the task of monitoring the students throughout their tests of finding corpses and identifying cause of death and length of time left to the elements.

The Wildling (2018)

Director: Fritz Böhm.
Starring: Bel Powley ,Brad Dourif, Collin Kelly-Sordelet, James LeGros, Liv Tyler. USA. 1h 32m.

Strangely this movie reminds me of Teen Wolf (1985), in a roundabout way it’s very much a coming of age Werewolf movie and yet speaks poetic volumes for a reawakening of feminity for anyone who feels a call for the wild.

Anna (Powley) grows up confined in a room in a remote house in the woods, looked after by her Daddy (Dourif) who is keeping her safe from the Wildlings, strange creatures with folklorish natures who stalk the woods. As Anna matures she starts noticing differences, as many girls do, although a dreaded fear sets in to her Daddy and he starts injecting her in the stomach with an unknown substance (although if I learnt anything from Ginger Snaps (2000) then this is a Wolfsbane concoction). This only slows down her development but doesn’t stop it, eventually it leads to Daddy attempting to commit suicide but it goes drastically wrong and Anna is rescued by mild and ever caring Sheriff Ellen Cooper (Tyler) while the authorities are trying to work out what do to Ellen adopts the girl temporarily and tries to give her a normal life. Ellen’s younger brother Ray (Kelly-Sordelet) is a similar age to Anna and tried to help out, but by the time the pair are ready to go to Anna’s first house party, the teen, without her miracle drug is starting to transform again, her human teeth are being pushed out by something much sharper but the only person who has some insight and who is willing to help her comes in the guise of a one eyed man wearing a wolf skin who lives in the forests surrounding the town played by the multi talented James LeGros .

El castillo de la pureza / Castle of Purity (1972)

Director: Arturo Ripstein.
Starring: Claudio Brook, Rita Macedo, Diana Bracho, Arturo Beristáin, Gladys Bermejo, David Silva, María Rojo. Mexico. 1h 41m

After seeing the epic Dogtooth (2009) by the cult director Lanthimos, I was mystified by the circumstances, the basis of the story is a man raising his family in such isolation,  their offbeat lifestyle seems so extraordinary to the eye of any outsider, the whys were never really answered the film just happens. But after a little digging i discovered that the film isn’t a remake but has a similar storyline to El castillo de la pureza, an excellent Mexican drama where a man isolates his family to protect them from “the evils of human beings”. While I thoroughly enjoy Dogtooth everytime I see it, there’s something deeper in this retro classic as it digs under the skin of the abnormal situation.

Gabriel Lima (Brook) and his gorgeous wife Beatriz (Macedo) have invented a brilliant homemade rat poison, their children all have roles in helping them manufacture this brilliant powder. Each day they get up and get to work, always in silence when working, then their father gets dressed in formal clothes and goes out to sell the rat poison to local shops and businesses, meanwhile the children have to exercise, learn and for a while they play.
Things start to breakdown, slowly at first, but as the movie builds pace it becomes a waves of crushing emotions for the disciplined and sexually driven father and more jail time for the children. Leaving their poor mother looking on at the madness.

Here Alone (2016)

Director : Rod Blackhurst
Starring : Lucy Walters, Gina Piersanti, Adan David Thompson, Shane West  . USA 1h 38m.

Here alone is one of those modern Zombie/Infection films that steers away from showing thousands of scenes of people being attacked and eaten, meelie kills and explosions and focuses on the aftermath of  such a devastating event. Ann (Walters) struggled to survive in the forest after a virus has infected and decimated most of the human population, but her reasoning for forging an existence on the edge of the forest is unusual. it’s not totally unique, there are other films that deal with life in a post apocalyptic future, at all stages, from The Road (2009) Carriers (2009) and to an extent even Mad Max 3 (1985), but the film which has more similarities is The Survivalist (2015) at times in both of these movies it’s hard to believe that the rest of the population had been killed or are roaming around as a mindless body, as they are set in lush edens.

Last nights movies 26-06-13

Another night of rest of me and I managed to fit in 3 movies!! I was so chuffed with meself!

I did start early and while prepping dinner I watched a bit of a gore fest. It’s a great thing that I have a fairly strong stomach.

• Isolation (2005)
• Broderskab/Brotherhood (2009)
• Curse of the Demon (1957)

So I started the evening with Isolation (2005) this was a dark and brooding genertically modified bovine horror with lots of goo and gore. Definatly a hot flick for me!

Followed by.. Broderskab/Brotherhood (2009) now I wasn’t sure what to expect for this, I saw the cover and thought I’d give it a go, usually Danish films are hard hitting and gritty, this is a melodrama, best way to describe it, is Brokeback Mountain (2005) VS American History X (1998), I’m still unsure what kind of message it was trying to convey..

Then finally a favourite horror before bed. Curse of the Demon (1957) one of my all time favourite 1950’s movies. The monster (which is a bastard child between King Kong (1933), Alf (1986)and the rabbit from Donnie Darko (2001)) is so well created for the time, the film is full of mysticism, the occult and the first haunted piece of paper.. I think this heavily influenced Yogen/Premonition (2004).