THE FACILITY - Medical trial goes wrong with "infected-maniac-siege" - type consequences. I liked it. It's not very original, but it works. There's tension in the build up and a weirdly forlorn atmosphere prevails, reinforced by the grimly impersonal clinical environment. I believe it's based on an infamous UK trial from a few years back which inspired tabloid headlines about test subject's head's swelling to monstrous and life threatening proportions... that happens here, with latter day Brit-exploitation embellishment, obviously.
SUMMER SCARS - Some kids in the woods are befriended, then terrorised, by an odd man. Touted as a kind of 'Stand By Me' / 'Deliverance' combo, this probably owes more to films like 'A Room For Romeo Brass', at least in terms of its portrayal of a vulnerable but dangerous central character and the dynamics of teen friendship. As Hoodie Horrors go, it doesn't take the more exploitative route of 'Eden Lake', and lacks that film's violence and drive - but the last half hour of 'Summer Scars' is much more intense than anything in EL and contains moments which really made me want to look away. Definitely worth a look.
THE ALIENATOR - From that Shout Factory four pack. One from the days of direct to VHS, this Fred Olen Ray product gleefully rips off 'The Terminator' and anything else it can lay its hands on in delivering a well-worn tale of alien prisoner pursued by cyborg lady. I'm a sucker for eighties badness so obviously I'm into this, although in truth there's probably as much padding as there is entertainment. Said padding is too inane to be boring however and the ghost of awful late eighties sci-fi is too alluring to pass on.
LAST CARRESS - French neo-Giallo, kind of. Actually, like 'Amer', it's more an attempted distillation of the style of Argento (and in this case Fulci), although there is an archetypal black gloved killer at the beginning. A bunch of random people are murdered one by one in a castle where there's a portrait of a witch which seems linked to a load of supernatural stuff. It looks well put together, but something of the stylistic excess exploited so well by 'Amer' doesn't translate here - it looks too SOV. In fact, it's kind of like a direct-to-video rip of 'Amer' in some ways. It's senseless, gory and a little sleazy - actually, I thought the sleaze angle would be played up a little bit more, but who needs another 'Fantom Killer'? I liked it, but there's something a bit irritating about it.
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