So...you want a decent horror flick. Well...try this one on
THE BABADOOK
Small budget indie Aussie flick about a single mother whose hyperactive and maladjusted kid is driving her slowly bonkers, as he is bordering on bonkers himself and has a morbid fear of boogeymen. This extends to getting all McGuyver and converting bits of their home into boobytraps and improvised weapons to kill the monsters under his bed. As their life together spirals ever closer to madness a mysterious story book appears on his shelf. Reading it, the mother unleashes the father of all boogeymen...The Babadook. Or does she? Is it all in fact just a symptom of her stress and stressful relationship with her ever maddening child, and her inability to cope with her partners death?
Its creepy rather than gory...that cold clammy hand on your shoulder rather than the usual Hollydud "BOO!" cattle prod horror. It feels much more like a Japanese horror flick than a western one, and the influences and homages to films like Ring and The Curse are apparent. Yes it could have, with a bigger budget, had a better ending segment....but I liked it, and hell fire...that kid is damn scary.
Three cheers for effort and innovation
Too scary....how about a bit of Victorian Gothic horror like those old BBC Ghost Story At Christmas episodes from the 80s?
STONEHEARST ASYLUM
Wonderfully gothic and lacy adaptation of an Edgar Allen Poe story about a Victorian psychiatry student who gets a placement at the asylum of the title. When he arrives he find that the regime in place is...well...unusual to say the least. He also finds that one of the residents is a beautiful young woman who may just be saner than anyone at the asylum, including the doctors and guards who all seem...well....odd. And then there are the strange banging noises from the cellars. That seems a little...well...odd.
Stellar A lister ensemble cast, with the great Ben Kingsley, Michael Kane, and others in sets that have all the lovely mad coloring and frilly detailing from the classic Hammer era. Its a stonking little tale as well, with a proper sting in its twisty tale.
Absolute solid recc for fans of the old MR James style gothic fireside horror tales, and a definite three jibbering loons keeper.
Not enough bite? How about a vampire or two then?
DRACULA UNTOLD
Mid budget "origins" film about how our favorite Ottoman impaling tyrant went from Vlad....good man defending his people... to Dracula....bloodsucking creature of the night.
Faced with demands from the sultan Mehmet for 1000 young boys to induct into his Janissary army, including his own son, Vlad decides to fight back. The only problem is his tiny principality has hardly any men worthy of bearing arms, and definitely not enough to face down the armored might of the Ottoman oppressors. So Vlad strikes a hard bargain with a vampire trapped in a remote mountain cave...3 days of vampiric power, on the condition that if in that time he drinks any blood, he will be damned as a vampire forever, and the original vampire is freed from his cavern prison.
Its a shame as will more moola and a better director this could have been an outstanding film. As it is its a second rate mini blockbuster which relies on its Game Of Thrones borrowed cast and costuming to get it through, and falls a bit flat, even with its spectacular end battles and twisty end.
Two cheers...worth a watch and a keeper if, like me, you are a fan of the genre.
and to top off the first installment of Sandy's Return, a much awaited Marvel super-hero sci-fi epic
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Marvel super hero flicks are getting a tad close to being overly stodgy and preachy. The last Captain America film was good, but I couldnt help wishing he had woken up earlier and we didnt have all that new millenia US centric moms apple pie security state paranoia cackola. Bring back the Nazi baddies and biff bop bubblegum fun you dispshits!
Thank christ this is nothing like that, and returns to the old fun format of biffs, bops, bangs and spectacular sci-fi epic fun and games, with bad baddies and fun goodies duking it out. Think of it as a super hero version of KELLY'S HEROES in space - a misfit team of oddballs have to come together to pull off the heist of the century, only here the future of the universe is at stake rather than just a bank full of gold bars.
Lovely graphics, spot on tone and plot, proper comic book fun and thrills, and a rollercoaster ride that depite its two hour running time just flies by. Three massive hurrahs and a definite keeper.
All out and about in crispy DVDRIP formats all over the shop. Get at em!
chin chin chums
. Viewing on my laptop is not an issue as the player picks up the subtitles - however, my TV does not ( 
). What am I doing wrong/what do I do to get the required subtitles?
