A truly excellent first film. This director understands several concepts essential to success- keep it simple until you have the resources to do something more complex, which he is clearly able to do; satisfy fans of a genre that has turned to rubbish (action-martial arts) by delivering a film that contains the goods (inventive, violent fight scenes); set it in a place we don't see all the time (Jarkarta, Indonesia) with fighting styles and faces that aren't familiar, but should be; and finally, it avoids the need for genre-spliced, twist-ended, or hip meta context. Its just a good, no, great action movie. I can't wait to see more from this director.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Eden Lake
(2008)
Violent and thought provoking class war metaphor
4 October 2008
Refusing to let anything spoil their romantic weekend break, a young couple confront a gang of loutish youths with terrifyingly brutal consequences. This is a dark drama more than a horror film as we know it and where it scores over recent films in this genre is a strong sense of realism, easily identifiable characters, and a totally unexpected ending.
While Eden Lake poses uncomfortable questions about gang culture, it's not just about the adult fear of children. It addresses the taboo subject of middle class fear of chavs. Its taboo because middle class people don't want to admit that they're scared, don't want to appear more smug and pompous by suggesting that this chav element is out of control and because they have no idea what to do about it. I wonder how working class people will feel about the film - the depiction of some of their less appealing aspects is very accurate. Are they hurt by it? Annoyed?
While Eden Lake poses uncomfortable questions about gang culture, it's not just about the adult fear of children. It addresses the taboo subject of middle class fear of chavs. Its taboo because middle class people don't want to admit that they're scared, don't want to appear more smug and pompous by suggesting that this chav element is out of control and because they have no idea what to do about it. I wonder how working class people will feel about the film - the depiction of some of their less appealing aspects is very accurate. Are they hurt by it? Annoyed?
100 Feet
(2008)
Horror meets thriller in new Famke Janssen movie
2 October 2008
Saw this at a film fest in Germany and its really not a bad horror drama. Marnie Watson (Famke Janssen) is released from prison but has to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest. This is the same house in which she killed, in self defense, her Police Officer husband Mike Watson (Michael Paré).
Plot wise this movie falls a little bit flat. There is no explanation to all the events that occur in this film. Shanks seems to take a very strange interest in Marnie. Even to the point of parking outside her house and watching her day and night. But there is no real reason for this, he has a hunch that perhaps Marnie didn't kill Mike. The acting overall was fine, I quite like Janssen and she played this part well. Although I thought she was very calm considering the circumstances.
Directed by Eric Red, who I knew little about. When I checked it appears he has done other films, things like Cohen and Tate, and has quite a few writing credits. There are some nice well done scenes in this film, a few jump type moments but nothing really scary. There is one quite horrific scene in the bedroom when the ghost of Mike takes a dislike to Marnie's new beau. The effects were done well, though a little bit over dramatic at the end.
This is a Horror/Thriller but I would say leans more to the Horror genre than Thriller. It could have gone more down the Thriller route, and there were enough plot lines running through to create a decent Thriller.
All in all it was an enjoyable film that held my interest, but left me asking more questions than it answered.
Plot wise this movie falls a little bit flat. There is no explanation to all the events that occur in this film. Shanks seems to take a very strange interest in Marnie. Even to the point of parking outside her house and watching her day and night. But there is no real reason for this, he has a hunch that perhaps Marnie didn't kill Mike. The acting overall was fine, I quite like Janssen and she played this part well. Although I thought she was very calm considering the circumstances.
Directed by Eric Red, who I knew little about. When I checked it appears he has done other films, things like Cohen and Tate, and has quite a few writing credits. There are some nice well done scenes in this film, a few jump type moments but nothing really scary. There is one quite horrific scene in the bedroom when the ghost of Mike takes a dislike to Marnie's new beau. The effects were done well, though a little bit over dramatic at the end.
This is a Horror/Thriller but I would say leans more to the Horror genre than Thriller. It could have gone more down the Thriller route, and there were enough plot lines running through to create a decent Thriller.
All in all it was an enjoyable film that held my interest, but left me asking more questions than it answered.
Eskalofrío
(2008)
Vampires and Werewolves
2 October 2008
Warning: Spoilers
A teenager with his mother pulls into a shady valley in the Spanish mountains, because the sun is less exposed. Around the same time sheep herders in the area see several sheep killed. The rural community is suspicious. We know, however: There is something in the forest, the animals and then kill people and it is not our enemy sun. Slowly comes a conspiracy, the elements of a "wolf boy" story with motifs of the vampire and werewolf movie combined. The whole thing works together, but so that at the end the overall impression "of a" film will emerge. Even as a rapprochement on the structuralist film phenomenon "Exposure" failed in the reality department. Pity, but even where HG Francis and the Spanish horror film have shown that new takes on the vampire or werewolf genre are possible.
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