Reviews

Carnival Row definitely took me by surprise. When I saw there was a fantasy-show about a world shared between faeries and humans - with a cast led by Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne - I had my doubts.

Still, it was an interesting enough premise, so I gave it a chance. It's a chance I'm glad I took. The story itself is a lot more complex than it seems on the surface. Yes, it can be frightening seeing a steam-punk fantasy try to tackle serious issues such as racism and immigration. To it's credit, Carnival Row tackles said topics reasonably well. It doesn't do so perfectly, nor should it be expected to. But, it does capture the complexity and endless nuances there are to such issues, without becoming simplistic and repetitive.

It's story has enough twists and turns to keep things interesting - even though not every twist benefits the story. It's creature designs are well thought out, and you can tell significant effort has gone in to the detail of it all. Which can't be said for most of the fantasy TV drivel that's hit our screens post Game of Thrones taking-off.

Quite possibly the most surprising aspect was the characters themselves (and the actors portraying them). Bloom himself delivers a compelling - though certainly not flawless - performance. It definetly comes as a surprise after some of his recent work. Delevingne also manages a solid performance. She certainly captures the pain and torment of Vignette Stonemoss better than many would anticipate. Jared Harris steals the show as Chancellor Breakspeare - keeping the political aspect of the story compelling. Whilst David Gyasi and Tamzin Merchant do their part in making their character's chapter of the story worth-while.

Most of all, Carnival Row is genuinely fun to watch. It's one of the rare fantasy shows that genuinely manages to draw you in to the landscape of its fictional world, and even its politics (for better or for worse). It's gorgeously shot and has all the gore, sex and big-budget CGI monsters we've come to expect of a fantasy TV show.

It's far from perfect. Though, I can't imagine anyone sat down to watch the show with the expectations it was going to be. Still, the 8 episodes we've gotten so far have enough genuine care and effort put into them to make this show have the potential to be something special. At the very least, you'll come out of Carnival Row with low expectations exceeded - such as myself. I for one can't wait to see what comes next on Carnival Row.

It is important for any TV show to make its audience feel something central during every episode, whether it be happiness, sadness, intrigue or even anger. When a TV show is truly well put together, it will make its audience, truly, feel several of these emotions over the course of one episode. Throughout most of season seven of The Walking Dead, episodes have failed greatly in making its audience feel anything towards its characters or its story, at all. Alas! now we have an episode that is reminiscent of everything we loved from a bygone age of Walking Dead episodes. Finally, characters portrayed depth again, conflicting emotions, accompanied by a story that kept us on our heels. Though the dialogue at the beginning of the episode was somewhat questionable, the episode quickly progresses into a well paced and intriguing episode featuring a poignant thought on the futility of peace during times of conflict. Without spoiling anything, this episode was an important one, not only for the overall story, but for us, the viewer, to restore faith that the show can continue its powerful, story telling ways.

One thing is for certain after watching The Hallow, Corin Hardy is a great new director. He achieves a dark, creepy and supernatural tone effortlessly. He avoids the mistake horrors commit far to often in modern times, and that is trying to achieve a general mood far to hard, to many films nowadays, especially in the horror genre, try and be something they're not by forcing tones and characters that just seem all to out of place. The Hallow doesn't do this, it doesn't forcefully shove dark tones down your throat, it simply sticks to the story and in due to course you are made fully aware of its existence.

The film itself is enjoyable, starts off slow and gradually builds speed like every other horror movie there ever has been. I tend to avoid the topic of predictability in my reviews, for many horrors it's hard not to avoid it. The Hallow however can't have any excuses, it's a completely unique concept which shouldn't succumb to being predictable, but oh how it does. It's unfortunate, it's one of a few flaws in a far from flawless movie.

The movie does however achieve a great deal of success in a number of areas, it's practical effects are incredible, even though it's CGI is...forgettable, the film overall stills looks tremendous, the cinematography in this film is honestly next to flawless, in fact it reminds me a great deal of the cinematography in 'The Grey' 2011.

The underlying message in The Hallow, I'm led to believe, is that deforestation will only lead to consequences on our selves as humanity. I'd like to think this film is smart enough to portray a metaphor amongst it's story. What I take from its message is that we are unable to control nature, and no matter how hard we try to avoid this fact, one day we will have to come to this realization.

The Hallow is a solid movie, the acting performances are solid, the direction is outstanding and the cinematography is beautiful, this movie is a lot smarter than most of the generic horrors that are forced upon us nowadays, it deserves recognition for this.

7.4/10

Sitting down to watch 'Bone Tomahawk' I was excited, the concept was clever, unique. The opening scene immediately sets the tone for the rest of the film, it's graphic, brutal and relies on realism for its shocks. It is not, however, the only thing that is given to us in this movie. The ironically named small western town of Bright Hope that is presented to us shows us the humanity in the characters we are introduced to, with 3 people on the police force it's clear bright hope doesn't have much trouble makers, which makes what's to follow all the more shocking. The 'troglodytes' are portrayed masterfully, they behave like wild animals, everything they do is so astronomically different from the people of Bright Hope that it makes them seem almost supernatural, those blood curdling howls will stay in your mind for a few nights to come. Bone Tomahawk's real success does come from its realism, it's shocking brutality and managing to avoid the all out killing spree we've become so accustomed to in horror films, this is what leads me to give this film an 8/10. It is definitely worthy of fitting in to the horror genre, some of the deaths will haunt your nightmares, but there is undeniably good character arcs, an entertaining story and great acting performances amongst all the insanity, Bone Tomahawk is definitely worth a watch.