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Reviews
Nightmare (1981)
Very, very, very grim grind-house slasher flick
OK i'm a little rusty right now when it comes to reviews as I haven't written one in years.
I won't bother explaining the plot, courtesy of the IMDb plot profile and other users you should be able to get a rough idea about it yourself.
So lets get down to the nitty gritty. Nightmare(s) (in a damaged brain) is kind of like the horror film you watch through the eyes of a child. Remember when you were a kid and horrors weren't so much entertaining as they were (mildly) traumatising? That would give you sleepless nights for quite some time? Well nightmare is one of those films that can have that effect on you AS AN ADULT.
Imagine the original 'texas chain saw massacre' but a lot more psychological and involving children, and A lot more gore, and you get the rough idea of what this film is all about.
Now I'm a big fan of horror, I can sit through (almost) anything but I've seen this film one and a half times (the uncut version) and have had it for quite some time. And thats NOT because the film is bad, its cause its so frigging' creepy. First time was a curiosity as I'd heard so much about it and was desperate to see why it had been banned, the second (half) time was because I hadn't seen it in a while and fancied giving it a second go. I couldn't do it! It really is one of those type of horrors thats hard to sit through, its tone is so sinister and you feel almost perverted and sick and evil for just watching it, even though there are no real animal killings or anything like cannibal holocaust/ferox and it's only a movie and nothing more.
Anyways, if you like genuine, creepy, under the skin horror then this one is for you. If, however, your not a fan of the whole 'grind-house' scene, don't like films with low production values and risible acting and prefer your horror to be modern, over produced and polished, then avoid this one.
In either case its very underrated as being 'one of the scariest horror films of all time'.
Possession (1981)
Like nothing you have EVER seen before
I'm not very good at plot synopsis, and I very rarely write reviews, but this film could quite possibly be a distant cousin to David Lynchs 'Eraserhead', in that it involves a marriage gone wrong, a (perhaps) mutant baby, infidelity, and so much more that is felt emotionally rather than explained and read into.
It contains the most OTT, eccentric, and brilliant performances I've ever seen, and you can't say that about many films, where the performances are unique and different. There's serious acting, hammy acting, B movie acting, serious/Oscar winning acting, comical acting, silent film acting, but never any acting like you have seen in this film. And I guess you could include David Lynch acting, as thats pretty unique too. And of course method acting.
Its like watching a theatrical play in cinematic form on acid. A lot of acid.
I showed this to my friend who has the darkest possible taste in films I've ever known, owns over a thousand dvds, and even he was blown away by the sheer chaos, resonant imagery, beautifully swift camera work and photography, and of course, the performances. Most notably Isabella Adjani who manages to be sexy and scary as hell at the same time. Her performance in this is monumental, especially the often noted 'underground menstruation' scene which could induce some viewers to a panic attack. I certainly nearly had one when I watched the film for the first time.
When a character has a breakdown in this film (both of the leads) its a REAL breakdown. And boy, do you ever feel it. Its realistic yet surreal. God knows how the director managed to coax these types of performances out of his actors. He must of drugged them or hypnotized them or something. He certainly didn't just yell 'action'.
The way the scenes are cut together is highly unusual and unconventional but it makes absolute perfect sense. I don't know how, it just does. I'm unfamiliar with the directors other work but if its even half as good as this I'll order everything I can get of his.
Recommended to any open minded individual who likes films that draw attention to themselves with an utter sense of uniqueness.
Batman Begins (2005)
batman begins- based on a true story
The problem with many, many superhero films in this day and age is that with each and every single one, the fantasy element seems to decrease. there is a worrying amount of realism applied to these films. lotr, the star wars trilogy, the matrix, even sin city, were all excellent because the film makers crafted a thoroughly believable fantasy world that absorbed us. batman begins sucks because it is based entirely within the real world (gotham city could just as well be new york, LA, even London or Paris).
when in reality, if a guy dresses up in a rubber suit, as a 'bat', and starts to fight crime, he'd be arrested for being a pervert/ vigilante or both, and would get sent down to the loony bin for life.
many fans of comic books, or 'geeks', as i like to call them, have got to understand that comic books exist as pure fantasy and nothing else. I have noticed, esp. since harry Knowles aicn, that a lot of emphasis has come into making super hero films real and dramatic. Could you imagine if the lotr or star wars trilogy were treated as gritty dramas rather than the outstanding piece of genre film making that they are? Theyd be terrible.
There is one scene in batman begins that seems especially ludicrous. commissioner Gordon (played by a wasted Gary oldman) is seen having a dead pan conversation with a guy dressed as a giant rubber bat, and doesn't seem to batter an eyelid. The scene is played out for real, and like the rest of the film we are expected to believe, without any clever twists, that this could really happen. When without all the explosions, action and SFX, the film would be nothing.
If these 'geeks' want their fantasy films and nothing else, then so be it. If they want human drama, realism, plausibility mixed with the surreal, watch either classic 70s films such as taxi driver, clockwork orange, apocalypse now, day of the locust, David lynch films, or Japanese horrors such as uzumaki. a gritty drama about a giant rubber bat is kinda pushing things a bit too far.
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
this film is SICK!
this film is sick! sick i tell you! apart from the animal cruelty, the worst being when they dissect a tortoise and pull out its intestines and crap bag, and start to eat it, and numerous other things too sick to mention, it IS work of art. for the first half, we follow a group of journalists who investigate, and successfully, blend in with the natives, who treat them with respect, do things (very gross things) to become part of there culture, including eating raw meat covered in blood and eating a tribes womans' white puke which looks like marshmallow fluff (but I'm sure doesn't taste like it).
when he gets back, we see the footage of the other journalists who got separated from him, (who are basically a bunch of pyschos), and who actually got deeper into the tribes peoples culture. The film then essentially becomes blair witch but with some truly horrible moments of gore, all filmed with realism, and we then become the voyeurs of violence the same way as the investigators do as they view the footage, and try to make a sensational tabloid story out of.
this is a genius structure for a horror film of this sort, works much better than blair witch, comments on many themes such as violence, voyeurism, disrupting ones territory, trying to re-sculpture those in society who have there own lifestyle (the tribes), the arrogance of white middle class society's desire to change those who are happy with their lifestyle and don't need it changing (the journalists).
very gross and hard to stomach, but if you can, and can get hold of the uncut version, do so, the violence in this actually makes sense, unlike mels passion of the Christ.