What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Ridley Scott's epic of Biblical proportions about Moses and how he rises up against the Pharaoh Ramses and leads his people out of an Egypt desecrated by plagues.

Spectacular stuff and a world away from Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments, Christian Bale's Moses is all action hero in true Gladiator mode but the film never hits home like that film did.

It's fluff but enjoyable fluff all the same.

[J Harker]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The Presence (2010)

Mira Sorvino is brilliant as a woman who returns to her isolated childhood home to write. She finds herself stalked by an apparition who has come to inhabit her space as his own. With the unexpected arrival of the woman's boyfriend, she soon begins to exhibit unstable and irrational behaviour as something or someone starts to take control of her.

This was one odd film and I enjoyed it. It's a brave film that strays from the typical conventions of supernatural thrillers, indeed the final third might have you wondering what. No. I'll leave it at that and just say leave you wondering. As come the final act there's a lot to wonder about.

The Presence takes the unusual step of showing you it's supernatural entity in the first scenes and never keeps it hidden after that. At first i felt this idea couldn't possibly be sustained throughout a whole movie. I mean where would the scares come from? There can't be any cheap jump moments if you can see the damn ghost all the time. True enough, there aren't any jump scares and the music is kept to a minimum. As the film plays out the fact the ghost is always about makes you slowly feel that little bit twitchy, what started out as a laughable concept turned bizarrely eerie.

Just in case anyone decides to give this film a go i won't say anymore regarding what happens as it would definitely spoil the experience. I will say come the end i was gripped.

I doubt this is a film for everyone but anyone wanting to see a supernatural film which is very different to the norm then this could be for you.

Sold.

[Nosferatu@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

I didn't think about the surprising number of white people in Egypt, didn't try to engage my brain too much and, as such, enjoyed it quite a bit. If I was to think about what was happening while watching the film, it would likely disappoint, but I did like the way it dealt with the seven plagues in a rational way rather than something that can only be explained by divine intervention.

There are pros and cons to Ridley Scott going by the biblical timeline, which is completely out of whack, because there were no Hebrews in Egypt's at the time of Seti I or Ramses II for most historians believe the pyramids were built by skilled labourers, not slaves. However, without the slavery debate in Moses' story, it and, by extension the film, wouldn't be as interesting!

Originally Posted by J Harker

Sold.

Same here. I put it on my Lovefilm list straight after reading the review.

[keirarts]

Cop car

Two kids come across a cop car in the middle of nowhere, discovering the keys are still in it they decide to nick it and go on an adventure. The cop car belongs to a corrupt sheriff played by Kevin Bacon who has been out in the middle of nowhere disposing of corpses and has a nasty secret in the boot. After a concerned citizen reports sighting two kids driving the cop car down a highway Bacon realises he's got to get the car back quickly and begins pursuing the kids to get the car back.
I don't want to say too much about this as its one worth watching without knowing too much. I do however highly recommend the film to anyone curious. The 'precocious kids' element of the plot was slightly off putting to me but the young actors really sell their roles. Bacon is magnificent, his character avoids becoming a caricature villain and actually comes across as pathetically desperate and destructive. We don't get much in the way of exposition but we get to know enough about this guy through Bacons performance and some terrific writing. Tonally it feels like a dark hybrid of stand by me meets Blue Ruin and really held my attention for its running time. Overall I can't really recommend this minor classic enough.

[keirarts]

Sicario

Reviewed this initially on its release so won't go into it too deeply. Have to say it still holds up on the small screen. It's a blistering, surprisingly dark thriller with both great visuals and terrific storytelling. Benicio Del Toro quietly steals every scene he's in and the finale still feels nasty as hell.

The dead hate the living.

Liberally homaging Fulci's The Beyond, this low budgeter has a film crew making a horror movie in an abandoned hospital discover a portal to hell and a bunch of Zombies in the basement. Not a major classic, the film is fun with competent direction and some decent gore effects.

Blood Moon

Another cheapie, expect this to turn up in poundland when October draws near. When it does, pick it up because its pretty decent. I think I really like it as its a weird western and there's not enough horror-westerns out there given the rich possibilities of the idea. As a werewolf movie its pretty fun in its own right with some fairly decent effects. It plays as a siege film, with the survivors holed up in a ghost town saloon. It could use a little tightening up in places but overall its a solid little horror.

[Frankie Teardrop]

HUSH – If the 'home invasion' sub-genre hasn't reached saturation point by now, it soon will. Unlike the bloated monarch of all overpopulated film specialisms, the zombie movie, it has to rely on good filmmaking to sustain itself. How else are you going to make a fundamentally fairly bland set-up work if not by investing it with tension and thrills, cinematic commodities far more difficult to manufacture than the simple gross-out? I'm surprised there aren't more lousy home invasion flicks out there, so maybe I'm wrong and perhaps there is just something intrinsically captivating about a household being ravaged by strangers – it's a theme that chimes with our overly suspicious and inward looking times, as politicians and right wing tabloids know only too well. 'Hush' is something of a surprise as it comes from Mark Flanagan, who made 'Absentia' and 'Oculus', two interesting and slightly left field indie horrors. Whereas 'Absentia' in particular was quite original in its off hand strangeness, 'Hush' is in some ways about as by-the-numbers as it gets. Kate Siegel, who co-wrote it, plays a deaf writer who lives in relative isolation out by some woods, with neighbours presumably a few miles down the road. I mention the neighbours because one of them, running for their life, ends up leading a masked, cross-bow wielding killer to her door – so begins the inevitable game of cat and mouse. It's pretty much a checklist of cliches and unlikely moments – but it's great. I haven't seen a film in quite some time which has affected me so much in terms of sheer fist pumping adrenalin. In a way it brings 'Hallowe'en' to mind, not for any thematic or stylistic reason, but simply because it's so linear, pared down and finely honed, and also for the fact that it's relentless. It's certainly no game-changer, but there is not an ounce of flab about it. It sets things up, introduces the lead character, then gets straight into the suspense and just doesn't flag. There are numerous stock-in-trades and 'erm, hang on a minute' moments at work – how could there not be? But the film is so well pitched that clunky sequences like the one where Siegel takes advice from her 'inner voice' about how best to deal with her assailant don't get a chance to stick. A lot of the tension obviously comes from the main character's deafness, and the excruciating conflict between what the viewer knows and what Siegel can't sense is exploited well - in some ways it reminded me of 'Wait Until Dark', although without that film's endless head games. I often judge the merits of a movie by how often I find myself gancing at my watch – in this case, never once. That's really no mean feat for what's essentially a two hander. I suspect more quibbles than I clocked on first viewing would emerge a second time around, and Siegel's enigmatic smile at the end there irked me a little – what was it saying? Anyway, 'Hush' is just a great example of genre filmmaking at its most concentrated. It's really worth watching, and seems to have debuted on Netflix – if you subscribe to the latter, what are you waiting for?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Frankie Teardrop

HUSH –

Sounds good Frankie. I'll keep an eye out for it.

When i saw the title Hush, i thought 'Oh good he's reviewing the excellent British film that i saw again the other night' but i was wrong.

[Frankie Teardrop]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Sounds good Frankie. I'll keep an eye out for it.

When i saw the title Hush, i thought 'Oh good he's reviewing the excellent British film that i saw again the other night' but i was wrong.

Different film, but the one you mention is very good too.

[Buboven]

Some more recent watches

[6566329]

Really dug Killer Joe. Haven't watched it since the cinema, but between that, Bug and The Hunted I reckon Friedkin's been on a bit of a roll. Wouldn't call any of them classics, but they've all got a lot going on. (The knife fights in The Hunted are great.)

Recently seen:

The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes: incredible stuff. Wasn't familiar with Brakhage before and a lot of it goes over my head, but this one was magic.

Pieta: Korean crime thriller(ish). Had heard good things, but wasn't feeling it. Some great little scenarios, but none of it added up to it being particularly engaging. Weakened by a bad ending, too. Heard the director's great, so I'll try another one of his anyway.