BLOOD RAGE – I remember seeing a black market version of this a few years ago and not thinking all that much of it. Whether it's the fullness of time or Arrow's refurbishment skills I don't know, but watching the re-release left me feeling I'd uncovered a minor masterpiece of low budget freakiness. 'Blood Rage', a second wave slasher flick with a pulsating synth soundtrack and a terminal case of the eighties, follows a killer twin who dupes his 'other half' into picking up the tab for a vicious axe murder at a seventies drive-in. When latter escapes from a psyche ward, ruthless killer twin goes on a murderous rampage resulting in some pleasing gore and period slasher madness. Although not an outstandingly competent horror film by any means (quite the reverse, in fact), 'Blood Rage' marks out its own territory just by being bit strange. It's hard to say how exactly, but there's a plastic, unreal tinge to much of it which is wrought by the bad performances and brow furrowing scenes like the one which shows the mother character (played by Louise Lasser, a credible actor) slumped on her kitchen floor, unaccountably guzzling stuff from the fridge as loads of murder is happening around her... I guess to ask “why?” is to miss the point. It's also interesting to me how structural and editing flaws can create a sense of unintentional weirdness – there aren't many establishing shots, and often the bits where we go from one indoor scene to another lack context, giving the impression of a hazy, uncertain dream-like setting where you never know where you really are. That ending's pretty crazy, too. Maybe all this oddness isn't accidental after all – the director had a hand in 'The House That Cried Murder', a weird little flick from the seventies. Whatever, 'Blood Rage' will probably float your boat whether you're into eighties slashers or just general strangeness.
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE PART 3 – Pretty enjoyable second sequel to the remake. It seemed to me to play more like a conventional thriller than the other entries in the series, for reasons I'm not really sure of. It's less erm 'rapey' than those first two – by which I mean, the emphasis is less on relatively explicit voyeurism and more on just thematics – and as such, comes across as maybe less leeringly sadistic, whether this is a good thing or not for a horror film. That said, there is a fairly satisfying moment of agonising penis ripping, not to mention a scene where a metal pipe is brutally shunted in the most anal of manners. So, a little bit leeringly sadistic, then. Anyway, the plot follows Sarah Butler from the first one, now undercover as a wage slave in the city. She joins a rape survivors group and gets embroiled in the extra curricular maneuvers of one the others there ie she aids and abets some brutal payback. This all gathers its own momentum, and pretty soon we witness the not entirely realistic transformation of office temp into killing machine. It's been criticised as being a bit anaemic and slow, whereas I found it absorbing, quite fast paced and entertainingly ridiculous. Putting aside any caution about the representation of whatever issues are at stake here, 'I Spit On Your Grave 3' is a slick bit of exploitation which lacks the alluring sickliness of its predecessors but still packs a punch.
THE GIFT – From actor turned director Joel Edgerton comes this highly praised thriller about a man's dark past and a couple's need for secrets and lies (no, it's not a Mike Leigh rip off). Jason Bateman is approached by a guy from his high school days (played by Edgerton himself), who seems to want to reacquaint himself with his old buddy and get to know his wife (soz about the grammar in that last sentence, but I frankly can't be arsed to re-type it). Anyway, rich, slightly narcissistic Bateman is a bit put off by gauche loser Edgerton and wants to distance himself and his other half from his former friend's overtures, but things get tangled when Bateman's wife, played by the lovely Rebecca Hall , starts looking into what might really lie between the two men. 'The Gift' is a slow burn, and, as a thriller, sometimes doesn't come across as all that thrilling, especially early on. If at first it plays more like a relationships drama, it's an ever darkening one, and boils up to a nightmarish and pulse bothering conclusion. I got really into it, and was quite compelled. It's certainly a manipulative film, in the tradition of most 'revenge' type cinema, and plays on the theme of humiliation, from the kind of brute trauma which changes destiny to the subtle social snags which can govern a person's lot in life. Definitely recommend it.
FINAL GIRL – Abigail Breslin has been trained to be really hard from a young age by this dude (Wes Bentley) who seems to want her to play a role in some mission or other. 'Some mission or other' is revealed to be an assassination binge targeting a bunch of young guys who are into 'the most dangerous game' (young blond female variant). So, she goes after them. And she gets 'em. End. It does have its flaws, but I actually really liked 'Final Girl'. There an off-handedness to its set up which seems designed to baffle – who is the girl? Who is her boss? Is it all to do with some kind of secret government agency? Or is this maybe a freelance but equally psychopathic enterprise? Lots of questions, no answers – good, that's how I like it, I hate exposition which makes a thing less mysterious. And mysterious 'Final Girl' certainly is, for going beyond its cryptic scenario lies an equally stylised aesthetic – part hip fifties, part fairy tale, part breeze-block noir, part David Lynch. It's contrived, but it's mesmerising. It's a good job 'Final Girl' is so gorgeous to look at, because dramatically it really fumbles. When we get to the whole 'hunted becomes the hunter' bit, there's no tension, just a fairly sedate, matter of fact meander. Ditto for the pay-off – it all feels like a foregone conclusion. Maybe there's a clue in all this, because the logical thing to do for an ostensible thriller telling the same story would be to introduce the nasty psycho hunter boy's club thing first, then gradually drop in the 'girl-trained-to-be-assassin backstory bit by bit, after a few pivotal plot transitions. But 'Final Girl' opts for exactly the opposite of this approach, and seems so deliberately adrenalin-free it actually feels more like an attempt to recast action tropes in the form of an art-house movie. I'm not sure 'Final Girl' is entirely successful in this respect either, but, aside from a few slightly cringeworthy bits like the falsely rendered DMT hallucinations, I found it pretty intoxicating. Recommended, but might be a bit of a head scratch for anyone expecting another 'Columbiana'.
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