Thursday, February 24, 2011

Kill Theory (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Kill Theory

Kill Theory is brilliant. It sounds like just another boring slasher picture, but it manages to be better than that. And while it uses concepts that we've seen elsewhere, in my personal opinion, I think it weaves them together in a way that is unique, and effective. This is a slasher where the victims are also the killers! Stepping aside from the brilliant premise only for a moment, the execution of the film is well-done, which just cements it as a good picture. It's easy to make a crappy slasher, especially nowadays that the format is so overdone, but I'll say this film was a whole lot more effective than the Friday The 13th remake, just to throw that out there.

So here's the premise. A man is out mountain-climbing with three of his best friends. In an instant, he's faced with a decision - cut the rope killing his three friends to save himself, or all of them die. He cuts the rope. Years later, after a conviction (plea bargain) and lots of therapy, he's released into the public. But his therapist is a bit of an ass, and insists on making this guy feel bad for saving himself at the cost of his friends' lives - even though he was convinced they all would have died (himself included) if he had not sacrificed them to save himself. One of the great things about this film, is that this - which is the central theme - is not clear-cut. Was what he did right? Is he justified? What would you do in that situation?

So anyway, this guy is now obsessed with proving that anyone else would make the same decision were they in his shoes, so - and this is where it becomes clear that he's not exactly sane - he hunts down a group of soon-to-be-graduating college students vacationing in a house out in the woods, and gives them an ultimatum. Kill your friends to save yourself. At dawn, if only one person is alive, that person walks free. If more than one person is alive, they all will be killed. And thus it begins.

What would you do in that situation? Would you kill your friends to save yourself? Do you have it in you to become a murderer? Of course, you would try to spoil this psycho's plans, and find another way out of the situation, rather than succumb to his rules straight out - and the characters do spend a lot of time considering that - but eventually, it becomes clear that this psycho is not going to let you escape, and that you will either have to kill your friends, or be killed by the time the sun is up. Again I ask, what would you do?

I don't think I could kill my friends in that situation. I think, personally, it would be better for us all to die. That would be taking the moral high ground. But is it really better to die a martyr than survive as a murderer? It's a legitimate question that deserves discussion. And either way, do you have it in you to become a murderer? Perhaps you don't. But maybe one of your friends does. How well do you trust your friends? Do you think they are as morally strict as you are? Or are they of the more self-serving variety? Would it not be better to strike against them before they inevitably decide to strike against you? Or do they deserve to be the one to survive because they have that will to survive, even faced with the condition of having to kill others? What would you do? More importantly, what will your friends do?

Fascinating premise. Truly fascinating. Perhaps one of the most brilliant (not necessarily best, but most brilliant) and original slashers I've ever seen. (Original not in the sense of being unlike anything to come before it, like Halloween and its ilk, but original in the sense of taking a tired formula, whipping up various elements we've seen before, and giving it a very unique and intriguing spin).

Hidden (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Hidden

Now Hidden I liked a lot. It's the foreign film of the batch. (Note: British/Australian etc. films don't count as foreign only because their language is still English). Every Horrorfest has one film that's not in English. But unlike past years, this one is not Asian, but Norwegian. It's kind of convoluted (which I actually tend to like), but that means it reminds me of films like Crazy Eights, and The Abandoned - also because it's about a man who returns to the house of his childhood to uncover secrets from the past. There also tends to be at least one doppelganger film in every Horrorfest, and this year I think I'd have to split that honor between this film and Lake Mungo. Here, it's not really clear whether the doppelganger is really that, or something else, but then, a lot of doppelganger stories tend to be subtle and suggestive, and not easily pinned down, don't they?

This film has a very intriguing plot. It all revolves around an abusive mother. Her son escapes one night, and while running through the woods, causes a truck to crash into a car by the side of the road, killing another little boy's parents. The son apparently escapes, only to return decades later when his mother has finally died, and he inherits the house. The house appears to be haunted - or is someone still living there? What happened to the little boy whose parents were killed is a bit of a mystery. The cops were convinced that he fell off a cliff into a huge (and very beautiful) waterfall in those woods, after wandering around the night of the crash that killed his parents. Yet there's also some speculation that -

I might be spoiling a little bit here, but I think it helps to talk this stuff out, since the film is less than completely clear - but if you don't want to be spoiled, you might want to skip ahead to the next film.

There's also some speculation that the boy may have been captured by the abusive mother and taken in place of the son who escaped. Is he still alive, after all these years, living in that house? But whether or not there really is a second individual, is under suspicion. And the true identity of the man who returns to the house is also unclear. What really happened that night of the crash? I'm not even sure myself, after seeing the movie. It's one of those films where the credits roll and you're still left guessing at this and that. Which is good fun, if you ask me, but I hate when there's not really an answer key. I like to be given clues and have time to work theories out and such, but when the right answer is left open-ended, it leaves me feeling like, "well, if there's no 'right' answer, then why bother trying to find it?" And if there are clues leading to alternate conclusions, and neither one is necessarily correct, well... Interpretation is a great thing, but I think it would be interesting to know what the director/writer intended.

Great film, though. Good atmosphere. Captivating characters. Beautiful (and also creepy) environment. I like the mood and the tone of the film. And it makes you think, which is always a plus in my book. It would probably frustrate a lot of people (even me, to some extent), but I really liked it.

Zombies of Mass Destruction (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Zombies Of Mass Destruction

ZMD was more or less a dud. Honestly, I don't know if it was better or worse than The Graves. As a movie, it's a bit better, but then, The Graves had two hot goth chicks in the lead. I think ZMD might be the first true zombie movie in a Horrorfest. Correct me if I've forgotten something. But, unfortunately for me, it's a zomcom. I'm not a big fan of comedies in general, and I've yet to find a zombie comedy that particularly appeals to me. Shaun of the Dead was good, but still not really my cup of tea. But ZMD doesn't even have that. It's pretty bad. It tries to be funny and a political satire. A few of the jokes are humorous, and some of the satire hits, but in large part it's a misfire.

For example, one of the main characters is an American of direct Iranian descent. When the zombie outbreak hits, and is immediately blamed on terrorists, a hyper-patriotic former-Canadian (for the sake of irony) captures and tortures this young woman - because she looks like a terrorist - and insists that she "prove" her patriotism. Admittedly, some of the extremes he goes to are pretty humorous, but I don't think we really need a satire to show us how stupid it is to discriminate against certain types of people for wholly superficial reasons, because of what other people in other parts of the world may be doing that's bad. I don't know. It could just be a matter of taste, or maybe that this film's tongue is planted a little too firmly in cheek. Like all things, I prefer my satire with less humor and more bite.

(I'm not even gonna bother trying to turn that into a zombie-related pun, because this movie doesn't really deserve it.)

Lake Mungo (2008)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Lake Mungo

Lake Mungo may perhaps be the highlight of this Horrorfest. Rather than a straight up horror film, it's more of a subtle drama about grief, and how people deal with the unexpected passing of a loved one. The story takes the form of a documentary, like an extended episode of Unsolved Mysteries, as others have compared it to. And it's really very convincing. You get to hear testimonies, accompanying dramatizations and file footage, from people who were close to this teenage girl who tragically drowned. The film works great as a mystery, as the various pieces of the puzzle gradually fall into place, and you try to put things together, and figure out what's behind everything that's going on, and what really happened and why. And there's a supernatural element to the story. The girl's ghost appears to hang around the house, and a lot of time is spent exploring that, how it manifests, and whether it's real or a hoax.

The film uses the approach of Paranormal Activity, but instead of making it the centerpiece, with its goal to scare the audience, it uses that device more as a tool to tell the story. So it's like a more sophisticated evolution of Paranormal Activity and its ilk. As a result, it's not as scary (also since there are no demons involved, just a ghost), but it is scary in the same way that a movie like Paranormal Activity is. And ultimately, it's a bit richer story, and it's very sentimental - as I said, dealing with the mechanics of grief, and how people come to terms with tragedy and eventually learn to move on.

It may be a bit boring to some, especially if you crave action, and dull if you're among those who think Paranormal Activity wasn't scary, but as for me, I enjoyed it very much.

The Graves (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

The Graves

So, in every Horrorfest, there's at least one (possibly more) movie that's just a total dud from start to finish. Like Unearthed, from two Horrorfests ago, which was just terrible. Horrorfest films aren't necessarily the top of the barrel (although you do get a few diamonds in the rough) - in fact, the contrary is widely regarded to be true - and sometimes a film misses its mark, or it has a good premise but too many flaws, or is just too intelligent or convoluted for the general public, or is just simply foreign, but then there are films like The Graves which just scream cheap and silly and poorly made.

And yet I'm willing to believe this is still more or less a subjective thing, as I'll bet there are others with much different taste than mine who might like this movie. But to me, it was pretty horrible. And compounding that was the fact that it tried to act like it was cool. I don't even feel like going into all the reasons it was so terrible, it just wasn't very good. The only redeeming feature, and it does deserve mentioning, is that the two leads were hot goth chicks that were nice to look at. It's almost enough to warrant sitting through the film. Almost.

As for the premise, these two chicks are sisters, one of them about to move cross country, for college or a job or something. For no reason whatsoever, they decide to drive out to the desert alone to see the world's biggest thermometer. Of course, they get lost, and end up in a middle of nowhere town of religious fanatics who have confused Beelzebub (which manifests as lots of flies and an almost exclusively off-camera "soul reaving" presence every time someone dies - terrible CGI, by the way), inexplicably living in an old abandoned mine; I say, they mistake this demonic force for Jesus, the savior.

Like most films, whether it's good or bad doesn't depend entirely on the premise. Good premises have been wasted, and terrible premises have been turned into gold. Whatever you think of the premise, the execution is just bad. I didn't even bother watching any of the special features included on the DVD, I was eager to move on to the next film...

Dread (2009)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Dread

My expectations for Dread were probably a little high, being that it's an adaptation of a Clive Barker story. Not to give the wrong idea, it's a really good movie, and a faithful adaptation of the source material. But it's the one movie I was looking forward to the most out of Horrorfest 4, and yet I'm not sure it's the best movie in the set. It's a really well-made film, but it didn't affect me the way the original story did, and I'm not sure if that's because it works better as a short story, or if it's because I read the story first, and so the concepts weren't as fresh for me while watching the movie.

In any case, it's a great story about fear. A philosophy major and a budding cinematographer get together to do a thesis project on examining people's fears, starting with on-camera interviews with volunteering subjects. But the one guy is a little too obsessed, and he insists on taking the project to inhumane, even downright sadistic, extremes for the sake of his research. It's a great study of people's fears, and the dread that people experience when those fears are looming over their head, or staring them right in the face.

And to me, the concept of facing one's fears, and the prospect of overcoming one's fears, is of deep personal interest. I'm not sure I want to spoil the highlight of the story, but it makes a really strong point about something that I, and most people who are intimately acquainted with their fears, understand on a visceral level. And that's the concept that when you're forced to face your fears, the longer you wait, the worse it gets. And so, by succumbing to your fear, and allowing yourself to be afraid, you are responsible for making it that much worse. And yet you do it anyway, because you're afraid. It's a terrifying truth that torments me unendingly.

There's also a very interesting special feature on the DVD - an interview with the director and Clive Barker, as they talk about the film, the short story, and the concepts involved. As another aside, the actor who plays the main protagonist just has this look and mannerisms that remind me of Johnny Depp. It's eerie.

The Reeds (2010)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

The Reeds

The Reeds was a good place to start Horrorfest. It's an effective horror film that's neither the best of the crop, nor the worst. A group of twenty-somethings take a vacation in the boondocks (not exactly an original setup, I know), that takes the form of a river basin. They go boating and get lost, and inevitably get caught up with some vengeful ghosts trapped in the reeds. In some strange way, the past and the future are all woven together in this place.

Near the end of the film, there's a nice twist that leaves you questioning who is really the bad guy, but at the very end of the film there's another twist that, while poetic, doesn't seem to follow from previous events very well. To me it felt a bit forced. But the movie creates the convincing atmosphere of a vacation gone horribly wrong, and the river basin environment really contributes to the mood of the piece.

The characters were mostly likable, though there was that one idiot moron that you can hardly avoid in a horror film. If you ask me, if you're going vacationing somewhere away from modern civilization, leave the guy who's a jerk at home.

I was hoping for a monster in this movie, instead of just ghosts - some of the scary effects seemed to suggest something more beastly than ghostly, but it never panned out. Anyway those kids definitely seemed to be into some black magic shit, if you ask me. But I guess pursuing that would have taken the movie in a bit of a different direction than it was committed to going.

A Much Belated Horrorfest

For the previous four years, After Dark Films has presented Horrorfest: 8 Films To Die For. Each year, Horrorfest has seen eight independent horror films destined for limited release, chosen for theatrical screening in a festival atmosphere over one or two weekends in selected theaters across the country. Last year's Horrorfest was the last, with After Dark Films now replacing it with their Originals, in an even more limited screening. Last year was also the first Horrorfest I couldn't see in theaters, because none of the theaters within an hour's drive of my house were showing it. Now, I finally have my hands on the DVD Box Set of Horrorfest 4, so I can sit down and watch what I missed. And though I took my time finding the time to sit down and watch them, here are my impressions of the final 8 Films To Die For (in the order that I viewed them):

The Reeds
The Final
Dread
The Graves
Lake Mungo
Zombies of Mass Destruction
Hidden
Kill Theory

Conclusion: And that concludes Horrorfest. It was fun while it lasted. I had a good 4+ years. I suppose my last order of business would be to rank this (er, last) year's films, from best to worst - a task that I have been both looking forward to, and dreading...

Lake Mungo
Hidden
The Final
Dread
Kill Theory
The Reeds
Zombies of Mass Destruction
The Graves

Although this year, unlike last year, when there were a couple films that stood as being clearly the best, the ones that stand out were the couple that were clearly the worst. So there's a pretty big gap between The Reeds and ZMD, and I would recommend any of the films above that gap, and I would caution you to avoid those two below the gap.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Final (2010)

Note: This review is part of my coverage of Horrorfest IV.

Preface: I really liked The Final a lot. It's not a flawless film, but I really enjoyed the premise, and how it was dealt with. Basically you have a group of outcasts exacting revenge (inspired from watching lots of horror films) on the popular kids that bully them mercilessly. So there's definitely a "revenge fantasy" feeling to the film. Although, it's not totally glorified, because it's apparent that what these outcasts are doing is merely perpetuating the cycle of violence. Yet, while you can't condone it, you feel they deserve it. But where the real beauty of the film comes in is in offering the solution - which does not come in the form of cute platitudes about "forgiving and forgetting", but in reaching out and asking people to examine their own behavior, to determine whether they are similarly contributing to this cycle of violence, or if they are like the one character in the film who stands up to the bullies, befriends the bullied, and offers the only hope for salvation - not for those already afflicted, but for those potential victims and victimizers of the future.

The Final

The plot of The Final is pretty straightforward - a group of high school outcasts lure the popular kids into a trap where they then exact torturous revenge on their lifelong bullies. I wondered if there was going to be some kind of twist, or if the suspense would come just from seeing whether or not the outcasts get to pull off their revenge and how they do it. As it turns out, the film is a great, if dramatized, study of the dynamics that lead to Columbine-style massacres. The characters and situations are a bit exaggerated from reality, but I can accept that it enhances the dramatic nature of the story, being that this is a horror film and not a documentary.

What the movie does is, it lets you sympathize with the plight of the outcasts, even as they exact their revenge. Violence doesn't justify violence, and what the outcasts do in retribution is at least as bad, if not worse, than what the bullies did to start with. Except that the main difference is where the bullies' torture was mostly psychological (though certainly not entirely), the outcasts' revenge is a lot more focused on physical torture (though again, not without psychology factoring in). And while you can't really condone the outcasts' sadistic revenge, you can't blame them for it either.

And where does that leave us, as viewers and as a society? There is one character in the film that bridges the gap between the outcasts and the bullies. He's friends with both groups, hanging out with the popular kids, yet sticking up for the bullied. And he gets caught up in the middle of the outcasts' revenge scheme (they didn't want to hurt him). He's the only student that's really innocent of the violence and torture (whether as bullying or retribution), and he's really the only one that's in a position to demand a stop to it. And in a perfect world, that's what would happen. But this isn't a perfect world, and the damage that has already been done cannot be undone - not by any amount of honor and sacrifice and empathy.

But what the leader of the outcast group says to this character, is that in a better world, there would be more like him. And that's exactly what the film is asking - it's asking more of us to be like this guy. To stand up to bullies, and not give in to the cowardly impulses we have that encourage us to prey on others. The bullies are responsible for the outcasts' vengeance, yet that vengeance still cannot be justified. We can't change what's past, but we can look ahead to the future, and try to reduce bullying, and its disastrous results, one act at a time. And I think that's the central theme of the film, as embodied in this line:

"Think of this as The Final. And there's only one question: what did I do to deserve this?"

Break the cycle of bullying - don't be a party to it, and don't let it happen around you.

Superficial comments: The fact that thirty year old teenagers is a common casting theme doesn't excuse it; however, this film is good enough (and not totally dependent on the characters being actual teenagers) that it doesn't significantly distract from the impact of the film. One of the torture sequences was definitely an homage to Audition, which I appreciated greatly. I wonder how much of the rest of the movie payed specific homage to horror classics (there is a scene where the outcasts are discussing their plan, and they mention how they're going to put to practical use all that time spent watching horror movies).