TIN CAN MAN - I have yet to see 'The Canal', but found its reviews interesting enough to track down one of the director's other films, 'Tin Can Man'. It's not without flaws, but is certainly one of the most interesting and arresting works I've seen recently, one which is bound to linger in the minds of many, including myself. The plot kicks off when a loser-esque guy is visited by a sinister neighbour who quickly turns out to be some kind of serial killer... sound a bit ho-hum? Not for one minute. Even if the film didn't rapidly descend into florid nightmaresville, the noir-expressionist, perma fish-eyed photography which bobs nauseatingly from the get go would be notice enough that we're in for something a bit weird here. 'A bit weird' is putting it mildly... 'Tin Can Man' is a monochrome trawl through epic bad dream territory, and must've drunk thirstily from the wellspring that spewed the likes of 'Carnival Of Souls', 'Daughter Of Horror', 'Eraserhead', etc. But whereas those hypnagogic horrors often used silence and stillness in a bid to slip within the viewer's subconscious, 'Tin Can Man' is frenetic and dialogue heavy. In fact, much of the horror, the weirdness, comes from the talk, which is crazily hysterical in some scenes. Some kind of fever pitch is reached when the 'killer family' sit around and force the passive lead dweeb to eat cake... as reality-challenged and disturbing as the climactic dinner party in TCM, only more so. Slight imperfections dip in now and again with superfluous evil clowns and bits which to be honest try just a little bit too hard to be 'darkly surreal', but for the most part this piece of shoestring strangeness is suffocating, entrancing and just pretty messed up. I thought it was great, and totally recommend it.
CEMETERY GATES - As derivative as they come, 'Cemetery Gates' is a no-nonsense monster movie which spills loads of gore and is a lot of stupid fun. A mutant Tasmanian devil is sprung from a bio-lab by some activists and then there are some kids who smoke a lot of weed and go and make a zombie film in a graveyard by the woods where... oh who cares, it's basically about a monster who goes around killing people. Some of the 'comedy' is a bit wince inducing, but there isn't enough of it to offend, thankfully. In fact, when people aren't wandering around having conversations or explaining the non-existent plot, there's a barrage of flying limbs and guts courtesy of random onlookers dragged on-screen for the sole purpose of getting mauled. The creature doesn't look bad, either. Virtually all old school practical effects, too. From 2004, but sort of reminded me of a nineties direct to video flick, but with more gore. My fave bit was when the middle aged ponytail scientist father guy took time out from escaping from the monster to turn round to stab it in the eye with a plastic crucifix in slow motion. Sheer class. 'Cemetery Gates' is gleefully disposable schlock. Very entertaining.
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