Dreams of a Life (2011)

Director: Carole Morley Starring: Zawe Ashton, Everyone else as themselves. UK/England. 1h 35m

What started off as a shocking headline, ending up depressing and confusing many who sparked up a conversation about the unknown woman involved. The woman was found dead in her apartment, having died 3 years earlier and had gone totally undetected for so long. The crime scene investigators turned up after bailiffs to a striking scene, with Christmas present covered in dust and the television still on, she had passed on her sofa.. but for 3 years went totally unmissed? It was always very concerning that someone would just fall between the cracks. Many couldn’t fathom how the utility or council hadn’t come for payment much earlier but what really got under the skin of the nation was that no friends or family had reported her missing or called on her in all that time.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

Director: Bryan Singer Writer Christopher McQuarrie.

Starring. Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri, Kevin Pollak, Pete Postlethwaite, Sizy Amis, Benicio Del Toro. USA. 1h 44m.

First time I saw the Usual Suspects I was lucky enough to see it alongside a piece by Mark Kermode and the film finished with a short from writer Christopher McQuarrie about how he brainstormed the story, not that I needed any more convincing that the film is totally awesome the extra depth really cemented the film as being one of my all-time greatest and one I find myself returning to from time and time again.

Starting with a dark film noir style introduction which is slightly confusing, two silhouetted men talk, light a cigarette, one is injured and the other walks away as an explosion engulfs a ship and the wounded man..  the dark undertones shift to something more gangster as the film opens and builds in two timelines, Verbal (Spacey) has been pulled into a police office to be questioned by the sly agent Kujan (Palminteri), the shifty club footed criminal is forced to give up valuable information before he’s set free, reluctantly he begins to talk but once he gets started he lives up to his name sake and the verbal diarrhea  starts to flow. After some threats from Kujan, the past is unlocked up in audacious little chapters, almost like a 50’s crime comic, it’s slick and witty, and at times it’s on a higher level of brainy than the average movie.

Char Man (2019)

Director:Kurt Ela, Kipp Tribble, .
Starring. Kurt Ela, Kipp Tribble, Nick Greco. USA. 1h 25m

I really tried for this found footage film, not only was it released on my birthday but it sounded like it might be fun. I turned off all the lights and waited for the creepy guy who stands outside my house to assume his position.. I was poised to be scared and for a while it really did work, then all the fear faded away..

So a trio of guys are out filming a documentary of a local vampire legend, but while stumbling around trying to make things believable and scary they learn about the legend of the Char Man from a local history buff. Now the whole idea of filming a documentary isn’t all that new *cough* Blair Witch *cough* but finding out about one on the way adds an extra edge as the group were not prepared in any way for what they might unleash, this did add a bit of spice but pretty soon the film collapsed on itself and succumbed to all the typical found footage nonsense.

Lake Mungo (2008)

Director: Joel Anderson
Starring: Rosie Traynor, David Pledger, Martin  Sharpe, Talia Zucker. Australia. 1h 27m

Lake Mungo takes a slightly different approach to the world of Mockumentaries/Found footage films, there’s a gentler hand involved in this deeply personal and sentimental story of a missing teen. Often the film shocks and attempts to scare it’s audience but these are often long drawn out tension filed scenarios more than faux jump scares which is a credit to some brilliant film making, although in the attempts to make everything so very real these scenes are often displayed as terrible quality home video recordings showing phenomena in a “bigfoot” blur and the scare is often lost in the quality.

Alice Palmer (Zucker) is just like any other team girl, but one fateful day on a trip to a local camping site at Lake Mungo she goes missing. Her distraught family and emergency services  go to the limit to find her, unfortunately all this is pulled form the lake is her body.

3 Short DON’T Horror films

Often in horror movies there is some kind of  instruction, like Don’t go into the house (1979) and in the case of Nightmare of Elm Street (1984) Don’t ever sleep again..

So here are 3 short horror films with some more rules on what you shouldn’t do.

DON’T LOOK AWAY

This is quite a compelling short movie which captured my imagination, a teenage girl is being teased by her brother, when she noticed a man standing outside her house, he’s in a disheveled suit with a bag and chains over his head, her father warns her not to look away and that he’s on his way to help her. Not really taking the advice she asks her brother to watch the creature while she locks the doors, as her brother is a massive douche but on returning she can no longer see the man but her brother still can, where has HER spectre gone? What’s going on?? Hopefully daddy is on his way to rescue these lovelies soon.

For a short movie it’s made well and the acting is fairly natural, the concept of this ghoul like character who reminded me of something that could have cropped up in Thirteen Ghosts (1960/2001). It has a great urban legend feel to it and with some working I reckon this could make a decent horror.. I think I just want to know how this creature came about really..

La Weekend July 2017 – 3

Oh dear it was a bit of a crappy movie weekend, I had a lot of new stuff to see but I panned most it all for crappy stuff as I spent most of the weekend painting and being a general douchbag. So after watching hours of rubbish on YouTube I eventually got around to some TV movies.. yeah I know I say I don’t watch it and I don’t, unless there is a movie on..

Passenger 57 (1992) – I used adore this movie when I was a teen, mostly due to the hot 90’s hair action going on, but it was one of the more talked about action films (on the playground)..  John Cutter (Westley Snipes) is a former police officer and now has the pleasure of escorting a terrorist Charles Rane (Bruce Payne) on his flight to the FBI, somehow, he takes over the plane and the two men have to physically and mentally psych each other out. It’s a bit laughable now but I think it will always hold a special place in my heart, but it’s nowhere near as awesome as New Jack City.. It was possibly one of the last films Rane did while he was still semi hot. and Tom Sizemore was on his verge of slipping into a drug coma. All said and done I think I found Con Air more re watchable and that’s saying a lot… 5/10

Ringu / Ring / リング (1998)

Day 19 of 31

Director: Hideo Nakata
Starring.  Nanako Matsushima Hiroyuki Sanada Rikiya Ōtaka Yoichi Numata. Japan.  1h 35m

Oh this movie started some shit back in the day, literally it had started so many cults and urban legends and gave the west the now uber iconic Sadako that we honestly can’t escape from Does this mean we are literally cursed by Sadako? The movie came onto my radar years ago but so long after it’s release, I often thought back and wished that I had a copy on VHS just to keep the mysticism alive, Emma film is Fairley heavily submerged in mysticism,  the basis of the original book was on Japanese folk tale Banchō Sarayashiki. I’m long before the play which has sent us into raging his cereal the ringer have managed to capture the dark imagination of Japanese youth,  stories about haunted video tapes accepting other media became more than just a playground chatter.

In this deeply disturbing psychological horror, which creeps from the screen and into the mind, everything revolves around the legend of a cursed video tape, a legend that circulates among some teenagers. After watching the film at a certain time of night the telephone will ring right after and one week later you will die.