Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Certified Copy

Certified Copy is one gorgeous film. It’s filmed in the magnificent, sun drenched Tuscany—that oh so popular tourist destination in the Italian countryside. A British novelist James (played by opera veteran William Schimell) is in Italy on a book tour and just so happens to stumble upon a small shop where he meets a French woman, Elle (the lovely and ageless Juliette Binoche). Elle takes James on private tour of a small Italian town. What begins as a friendly jaunt through the lush vistas of Tuscany soon turns to raw emotion as it becomes clear that the two old souls know each other; but in what way? Are they a long separated couple trying a crack at one last romantic tryst to rekindle something lost? A pair of actors attempting the ultimate stab at method acting? Iranian director Abbas Kiorastami never gets close to answering these questions, nor does he seem remotely interested in doing so. Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Certified Copy isn’t meant to be explored; it’s meant to be experienced. – Watch the trailer

Pain & Gain

Ahhh Michael Bay. Has there ever been a more hated filmmaker in cinema history? Uwe Boll comes close, but the hatred I’ve read that is geared towards the American action auteur (yeah, I’m using that word) seems to reach fever pitch at times. He’s been accused of essentially making the same, loud and obnoxious film over and over again. I seem to be pretty split on him. I think he’s made some horrible films (the Transformers series, Bad Boys) and some great films (The Rock and The Island). Now we have this film, Pain & Gain. I admit it; I love this film. I think its Bay’s best film hands down. Yes, it’s loud. Yes it’s obnoxious. But, as a friend of mine put it so succinctly, “finally Michael Bay makes a film where his characters are as loud and intruding as his films are.”

The film (surprisingly) is based off a true story of some personal trainers in Miami, Florida who decide that, instead of working hard to achieve their dreams, they must steal and kill to get them. The film is typical Bay; bright colors and gorgeous cinematography with over the top caricatures and insane action sequences. Except this time there is a method to his madness. Mark Wahlburg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson have never been better, both delivering career best performances while Ed Harris, Tony Shalub, Anthony Mackie and Rebel Wilson hand in respectable supporting roles. And how about that memorable montage set to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”? Pain & Gain might look like the average Michael Bay fodder, but trust me, it’s not. The divisive action director is back. And this time he’s firing on all cylinders. – Watch the trailer

Muriel’s Wedding

Only the Aussies could make a wild and succulent movie about a woman in her 20’s that spends her dull and lifeless days dreaming about her wedding while she blasts 70s disco royalties ABBA in the background. Toni Collette (in her breakout role), stars as Muriel and because of her it’s easy to see why this film was such a success. She’s fantastic as the quirky girl who seems lost in the sea of love at every corner. Her friend Rhonda, the excellent Rachel Griffiths, is along with her at almost every hilarious situation as Muriel refuses to give up on her dream. Muriel’s Wedding might be predictable fun, but it’s sensationally fun. Also, the film might run a wee bit too long in the end, but that’s about the only downfall. We’ve all heard the disco hit “Dancing Queen”; but you haven’t experienced it with Collette’s big bright smile taking front and center as she leads you on a wild ride that will have you laughing all the way down the aisle. – Watch the trailer

The City of Lost Children

Jean-Pierre Jeunet has made some damn fine films over the years, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement, and Micmacs. Before he hit it big with Amelie, he co-directed two films with Marc Caro. The first was a post-apocalyptic nightmare of a film involving a landlord of an apartment who also killed and cut up his tenants if they happen to be making a ruckus! He followed up that film with this film, The City of Lost Children; another dark and brooding film about a scientist who is dying and decides that kidnapping children and stealing their dreams will help him live longer. Calling the film unique would be an understatement of the highest degree. The film has the production values of Tim Burton’s Batman as if it was designed by H.R. Geiger. One (played by Ron Perlman of all people) is a former whale hunter who is as strong as an ox, whose younger brother is one of the kidnapped. One teams up with young Miette to get back his sibling. The film is funny, unpleasant, sad and unbelievably bleak all at the same time. – Watch the trailer

Goldfinger

Out of all the films that populate the James Bond collection, Goldfinger seems to be the one that everyone can agree on being the best. While it may not be the best film of the 007 canon to recommend for this weekend, it’s possible that this younger generation might forget that Sean Connery once ruled this series as the spy who was a ruthless killer that loved many a woman. In this adventure the mercurial Bond goes after the mysterious Auric Goldfinger, a German gold magnate, who is hell bent on raiding Fort Knox and decimating the world’s economy. The film is of course famous for Goldfinger’s right hand man, Oddjob (the dude who throws his hat to kill people) and of course Pussy Galore; a woman whose name is not at all a pun. And let’s not forget the scene when that bastard Goldfinger covers a beautiful young woman with gold paint. Classic! Goldfinger is an classic action/adventure film that cemented the British spy James Bond in the minds and hearts of action enthusiasts the for decades to come. If you’ve somehow missed this classic film, you owe it to yourself to see it. – Watch the trailer

Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2

Quentin Tarantino waited 6 years after Jackie Brown to release this epic 4 hour revenge film Kill Bill. The film is about a female gun-for-hire (Uma Thurman) who runs out on a assembly of globe-trotting assassins run by her mysterious boss Bill (viciously played David Carradine), after getting knocked up by her fiancé. Bill orders her death by the others in the group and they commence the attack on her wedding day. The Bride survives the shooting and sets out on a bloody path of vengeance after all her loved ones, including her unborn child, are murdered. Tarantino’s film (split in two volumes) has all of his trademarks that film fanatics will love. References to older films of the genre, witty dialogue (including a monologue delivered by Carradine near the end that is probably the best thing Tarantino has ever written), extreme violence, a soundtrack filled with all kinds of extraordinary pop songs; even an entire backstory sequence completely done in Anime. Thurman and Carradine both deliver career best performances while the likes of Michael Madsen, Lucy Lui, Daryl Hannah and Vivica A. Fox give solid supporting roles to back them up. Tarantino has made better films (Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds) but Kill Bill is easily his most entertaining. – Watch the trailer

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

John Carpenter is world renowned for his horror classic Halloween and his (many) other contributions to genre filmmaking. But many overlook this early action cult classic he made before all those other hits. In inner city Los Angeles, rival gangs have decided to unite against the police and somewhere in the city a young girl is murdered while getting a treat from an ice cream truck. The girl’s father kills a couple of the gang members and he flees to a police house which is a day away from closing for good. The gangs close in on the building (Precinct 13) and the police must hold off the mob until reinforcements arrive. The film is great at building a sense of dread throughout and Carpenter, of course, brings his excellent musical score along with his great panache for action. This is a must for genre fans. – Watch the trailer

The American

George Clooney is one of biggest movie star on the planet, so it doesn’t surprise me that a lot of movie goers overlooked Anton Corbijn’s slow burning, icy cold European spy thriller. An American assassin (Clooney) hides out in a small hill side Italian town while he begins his last assignment. It is after all, a far cry from the universally watched Ocean’s series; but this is one of Clooney’s very best films. As hiding out in the stunning Italian countryside, he begins a quiet friendship with a priest and also takes solace with a local prostitute. Clooney is of course great as an aging hit man whose level of trust is tested at every turn. Stunning cinematography, supplied by Martin Ruhe, along with Corbijn’s music video background, make The American a gorgeous film to look at. The film moves at a snail’s pace and will require some patience, but those who stick with it will be rewarded with a film that pays off immensely by the time the credits roll. The American is a severely underrated thriller. – Watch the trailer

Americano

When I planned my trip to TIFF three years ago, I had a list of about 40 films I wanted to see. Americano was very close to making it to my final list of 17 or so films that I would eventually see. I instead chose to see Melancholia; a decision I do not regret. But I was still dying to see Mathieu Demy’s film about a young Frenchman, Martin, who returns to his childhood home (in Los Angeles oddly enough) after his mom dies. She left a specific note in her will for a mysterious younger woman that Martin has never met. Now he must seek her out to deliver the message. Demy pulls triple duty as writer/director/star and succeeds at all three. He is excellent at capturing lost moments of Martin’s childhood and then reintroducing them at key moments in the film to add a little more weight. By the time the film hits its third act, we are in a dirty and rustic Mexican town where Martin meets up with Lola (Salma Hayek looking as vivacious as ever), the mysterious woman in question. Her entrance is a highlight of the film as Moderat’s magical track “A New Error” carries an unbroken tracking shot through a seedy strip club while Lola reveals herself to a crowd of lonely souls. Americano is at times sublime and magical and at others, sometimes in the same moment, melancholy and heartbreaking. While many films are made in Los Angeles, very few are able to capture how beautiful the city truly is like Demy’s film does. – Watch the trailer

Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

We Are What We Are

Jim Mickle has been gaining a lot of fans over the past decade and is being heralded as one of the next big things in horror. He debuted with Mulberry St. and then blew audiences away with Stake Land. Now we have Mickle’s remake of the Mexican hit of the same name. I’m going to tread lightly here with how I describe the plot because watching this moody, dread drenched film unfold is finger-licking fun. Two young sisters are forced to go beyond their normal everyday tasks to help provide for their reclusive family who live by ancient and diabolical means. I know it doesn’t sound inviting, but trust me; Mickle’s film is chilling at times while his relaxed, yet, fixated filmmaking captures the cruel violence that is expunged upon the innocence. We Are What We Are has a good, small following; now it’s your turn to see what all the fuss is about. – Watch the trailer

8 Million Ways to Die

Hal Ashby’s (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Being There) final film before his death has Jeff Bridges as Matt Scudder, an alcoholic detective whose mental state worsens after he shoots someone during a police raid. With his marriage ruined and job lost he turns to Alcoholics Anonymous to turn his life around. Then he meets a mysterious woman who asks for his help in solving a murder. Will the mounting pressure of trying to solve the brutal crime turn Scudder back to alcoholism? Ashby’s film, based off an Oliver Stone screenplay, is ferociously violent but endlessly fascinating to watch. Bridges, who has been one of the best actors for over 40 years, is a delight to watch in one of his most underrated roles. There are 8 million ways to die; chose one. – Watch the trailer

Charley Varrick

While The Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three will always be my favorite Walter Matthau film from the 70’s, I can’t help but throw some love Charley Varrick’s way. Don Siegel (Dirty Harry, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Beguiled) directs this gangster thriller that has Matthau playing the title character; a leader of a trio of bank robbers who knock off a bank owned by the mob. The mob isn’t too happy with this and sends out Molly (Joe Don Baker), a mob enforcer, to unleash vengeance upon Varrick. Baker is, as far as I’m concerned, one of the best character actors that has ever worked in film and is sensational here. The final 30 minutes of Varrick are insanely preposterous, but who cares? The cat and mouse game between Matthau and Baker across the American Southwest is a delight to watch and you’ll have a big grin on your face as the film ends with bang. – Watch the trailer

Poolhall Junkies

Mars Callahan stars (as well as writes and directs) as Johnny, a former pool hall hustling master who gave it up for the girl he loves. Johnny’s younger brother soon starts to follow in his old footsteps by trying to out hustle the other sharks that circle the local halls. But when he gets into trouble with a very dangerous local gangster (the scintillating Chazz Palminteri), Johnny must revert to his old lifestyle to help is brother out. The film is endlessly entertaining from beginning to end as the cast has a blast with the material. Christopher Walken shows up a few times to provide a little bit of weight to the action and even has an epic monologue near the height of the film that’ll send the audience into frenzy. Poolhall Junkies is far from setting the cinema world on fire, but it’ll have you laughing and cheering loudly by the time Callahan throws down the gamut in the final act. – Watch the trailer

All the Boys Love Many Lane

The story behind the film is probably more interesting than the film itself, but All the Boys Love Many Lane is still a rarely seen gem. Completed in 2006 and shown at various film festivals around the world in 2007, the film wasn’t released in the U.S. until 2013! This was due to the complicated ownership of the film, but thankfully it’s out there and available for audiences to finally see. Mandy Lane (Amber Heard, who should be a bigger star than what she is presently) is the good girl at her high school, still a virgin and somehow got extremely hot over the summer. The popular kids invite her to a secluded ranch where they throw a party while many of the young men do their best to be her suitor. As the party rages on, guests at the party start disappearing and film becomes a “who dunnit” with slasher appeal. Mandy Lane is definitely a solid horror movie. – Watch the trailer

Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Milius

John Milius is a name synonymous with a bevy of Hollywood classics, amongst those the biggest being Apocalypse Now, which he co-wrote with Francis Ford Coppola. He would also direct Conan The Barbarian, Red Dawn and Dillinger. But his influence on Hollywood’s elite is much deeper than one would first imagine. This documentary explores the life and times of Milius; a man whose life often came across as a tall tale. Everything about Milius’ life was big. He loved guns, motorcycles, women and he loved to write male characters so rough and tough, they needed to shave twice a day and probably with an axe instead of a razor.

The documentary isn’t anything groundbreaking, but Milius is such a larger than life character that you can’t look away from the screen. In one anecdote someone talks about Milius pulling a pistol on a studio chief to make sure he gets his way. Where I come from, we call that an “equalizer”. Milius probably called that a Tuesday. Milius was eventually ostracized from Hollywood after a couple of his movies (along with his extreme views) rattled the holier than thou Hollywood heavyweights. Milius recently suffered a stroke, but he has made significant strides to recovery. Lord knows cinema goers could use another tough as nails antihero to cheer for. – Watch the trailer

I Am Love

Tilda Swinton had a helluva a few years beginning in 2007. She won an Oscar for Michael Clayton, stared in the criminally under seen Julia (you owe it to yourself to see this great thriller), won plaudits for We Need to Talk About Kevin, and eventually wound up in her first Wes Anderson film (Moonrise Kingdom). Sandwiched in between all these great films is another under seen pearl, I Am Love.

Swinton once again blows the competition away with her portrayal here of a Russian woman who is swooned by an Italian millionaire and is whisked away to Milan to a new life. 20 years on and a little unfulfilled, she meets a young chef who she happens to connect with. A passionate affair begins and soon the empire that envelopes her soon starts to crumble. Swinton is sensational here. She actually learned Russian and Italian for the film and she only learned Russian so her Italian was accented by it. What a gal. The film is utterly gorgeous from frame one to the end and is supported by a delicious orchestral score that will leave you breathless. I Am Love is an astonishingly beautiful film. – Watch the trailer

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky

I can’t believe I’m here recommending this utterly insane and goofy prison/Kung Fu hybrid, but here we are. From the acting to the outrageous fight sequences, this movie is absolutely ridiculous in every facet you can imagine. Ricky, a young man with insurmountable superhuman strength, is sentenced to quite possibly the most corrupt prison in the world after he kills the drug dealer who he feels is responsible for his girlfriend’s overdose. Once inside he is forced to deal with a warden with a thirst for spilt blood and as much gore on the floor as his cleaning crew can handle. Ricky is forced to fight back after being threatened by the warden and at times all hell seems to break loose.

In one scene an inmate is forced to eat long rusty nails while the antagonist looks on with a grin as bright as the sun. In another a man’s intestines are ripped out of his gut and are practically played with like a young girl with a jump rope. The movie is the perfect ailment for a group of guys looking for a silly action flick to lighten up a rainy night. Don’t forget the bag of popcorn either; you might need the empty bag for something to puke in. – Watch the trailer

The Long Goodbye

“Nothing says goodbye like a bullet”, is the tagline for this wonderfully twisty detective noir set in the city of angels. The film has the perfect ounce of sardonic wit to accompany Robert Altman’s updated version of the classic antihero Philip Marlowe. Elliot Gould (in one of my all-time favorite leading performances) is hypnotic as the chain smoking, murmuring, and stumbling private eye Marlowe, whom in this adventure is accused of abetting a friend who is wrongly accused of killing his wife.

The plot is nonsensical at times and can be hard to follow, but the film isn’t really about its plot. No. Instead Altman focuses on Marlowe and his interactions with all the seedy Los Angelinos he comes across. Gould is so good you don’t care that a bewildered look adorns your face. Altman had a lot of hits in the 70’s (California Split, 3 Women, A Wedding, Nashville) but this one seems to get lost amongst the praise for those other classic. The Long Goodbye is a gem. – Watch the trailer

The Constant Gardener

Filmmaker Fernando Meirelles exploded onto the filmmaking landscape back in 2002 with the masterpiece City of God; a film with much energy and pace. He followed City of God up with this international thriller about a British diplomat (Ralph Fiennes) whose wife, Rachel Weisz (who won the Oscar for her role here), a headstrong activist, is found brutally murdered in Africa. When he starts to dig into her death he soon finds a rabbit hole of conspiracies upon conspiracies that might be impossible to get out of.

Fiennes has rarely been better and Meirelles one of the best directors today at tightening up the viewer’s gut with suspense. While the film begins with Fiennes loving his wife, his journey to discover what happened to her ultimately leads him to find out who she really is. With these discoveries, you watch him fall truly in love with her; and that’s where the real power of The Constant Gardener lies. – Watch the trailer

Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Let the Fire Burn

This searing documentary (which nearly made my top films of 2013 list) is the account of a police house raid in 1985 Philadelphia that ended with two pounds of explosives being used. A fire naturally started and instead of putting it out, the police let the fire burn. 6 children and 5 adults, as well as 61 buildings, were lost in the blaze. The film’s brilliance comes with how it’s completely comprised of 100% archival footage that had previously been withheld from the public. Director Jason Osder controls the tension in the beginning, but lets it build to an immense pay off where literally everything around is on fire. – Watch the trailer

The Parallax View

The 1970’s had a bevy of conspiracy films released and this is one of the best. Warren Beatty stars as a reporter whose investigation into a senator’s assassination puts him in the middle of a conspiracy that possibly involves a multinational corporation who is ostensibly behind every world headline. The film exceeds at building atmosphere and is very good at putting you in the thick of things. For me, the highlight of the film is when Warren Beatty realizes there is a bomb onboard his airplane. The way the scene slowly and confidently unfurls is electric. Watching the proverbial noose tighten around Beatty’s neck as the film hurdles along will leave you breathless. – Watch the trailer

Death Wish

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) is a tortured soul. In the first film of the series, his wife and daughter are raped by a group of street thugs and in every subsequent film someone he cares deeply about is murdered. But that doesn’t stop him from dishing out his own form of vengeance. The entire series, sans the 5^th, the last and worst film, is now available on Netflix. The first in the series is a great crime film that shows how far a man is willing to go to fight back against injustices when our system seems to falter. The deeper you go in the series the more exploitative and cheesy they get. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but don’t go in expecting a continuing exploration of a haunted man’s psyche. Instead, the later films focus on gratuitous shootouts and blood and gore. Still, if you’re bored on a Saturday night and looking to get your action fix in; you could do worse. – Watch the trailer

My Bloody Valentine (’81)

The 1980’s were literally littered with slasher films. 99% of them were horrible. My Bloody Valentine is the 1%. You probably know of the very decent remake that came out about 4 or 5 years ago, but I’m here to talk about the original. There are a lot of great scenes in the film where the unidentified masked man (who else, right?) venomously hunts down the people he (or she?) feels wronged by. Using the biggest and sharpest axe since Paul Bunyan, the killer viciously butchers teens. It’s a great atmospheric 80’s slaughterhouse of a film. – Watch the trailer

I’m Not Scared

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of this overlooked gem from 2003. I’m guessing most of you haven’t. This thriller from Italy concerns a boy, Michele, who discovers a deep hole in the ground in which another boy is being held captive. The boys form a friendship before Michele realizes that his own parents are possibly in on the kidnapping. Director Gabriele Salvatores captures the beautiful Italian countryside so well, you wonder how such a horrible occurrence could happen in such a stunning place, all while the film slowly, but powerfully, builds to a gorgeously tragic finale. – Watch the trailer

Welcome to WTI’s Weekend Streaming Recommendations where I recommend 4-5 films that under-watched, under-appreciated, or just plain old personal favorites. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

The Hunt

This Danish melodrama, by Thomas Vinterberg, about a school teacher wrongfully accused of sexual misconduct at the school he teaches at is tense throughout. The acting is considerably strong by all involved, but everyone is outdone by an exceptional lead performance by Mads Mikkelsen. The Hunt will leave you shaken to your core by the time the end credits roll – Watch the trailer

Into the Wild

Sean Penn’s true life story about free spirit Chris McCandless is a love letter to everyone who is fed up with the monotonous daily routines of everyday life. The film is beautifully shot and is backed by a gorgeous soundtrack from Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder. Penn lets his film promenade from one exquisite scene to the next as McCandless meets a whole bevy of people who shape his life. Into the Wild is mesmerizing. – Watch the trailer

From Beyond

Stuart Gordon has made a few movies based on HP Lovecraft source material. The most famous two are Re-Animator and this film, From Beyond. In my opinion, From Beyond is the far better of the two. Scientists are working on a device that will stimulate the pineal gland to access other dimensions. When the experiment works, the scientists are immediately attacked by ungodly life forms that are seemingly around us at all times. The film is fantastically disgusting and revolting. Gordon lets his film revel in its excesses; which are essentially lots of gore and oodles of sticky goo that is brought upon by the otherworldly life forms. Both are bountiful here. Horror fans will love this underappreciated gem. – Watch the trailer

Abre Los Ojos

This Spanish film, which was later remade as Vanilla Sky by Cameron Crowe, is a film whose details I dare not reveal. The film is dazzling from beginning to end. Eduardo Noriega stars as a young, rich man whose life changes when he meets the woman of his dreams and the next morning gets in the wrong car. You never know which way is up or down, or left or right, and you will be on the edge of your seat until the very last shot as the film comes to a sensational climax atop of a skyscraper overlooking the majestic Madrid skyline. ‘Glued to the screen’ is an understatement. – Watch the trailer

Strange Days

Before she conquered the Oscars with The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow made this epic two and a half hour science fiction film about a former cop Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) who buys and sells data discs that contain people’s memories and experiences. People buy them to experience things they might not be able to and are willing to pay top dollar for them. When one of the discs turns out to contain the murder of a controversial music figure by a couple of L.A. police officers, everyone starts gunning for Lenny. All this leads to an intense finale that also happens to coincide with the final hours of the 20th century. Strange Days is criminally overlooked. Do yourself a favor and have your mind blown by this special film. – Watch the trailer

Welcome the feature where I recommend 4-5 under watched, under-appreciated or films that I just personally love. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding on which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which streaming platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Hoop Dreams

If not the best documentary ever made, surely the best sports documentary ever, Hoop Dreams is one of my favorite films, period. Director Steve James follows two inner city basketball prodigies for nearly all of their high school years as we watch the boys, William Gates and Arthur Agee (and their families), struggle through practices, games and everything that life throws at them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll shake your fists in anger and eventually you’ll jump up and cheer. What makes Hoop Dreams so good is how the filmmakers are allowed to get so close to the families and see their day to day struggles. Yes, the film is 3 hours long, but they fly by and you’ll hardly notice. I’ve seen the film 3 times now and I can’t wait to see it again. – Watch the trailer

Oldboy

By now you’ve probably seen this thrilling master class from South Korea about a man who is released after 15 years of imprisonment (for reasons unknown) only to be told he has 3 days to figure out why he was locked up. Chan Wook Park lit the world afire when he released this astonishing thriller back in 2003. But since Spike Lee, in all of his infinite wisdom, decided to remake it, I felt like it was a good time to remind people of the brilliant original. If you haven’t seen Oldboy yet, stop reading anything about the film and watch it now. The final 30 minutes will blow your mind. Rarely am I as devastated after a movie as the time when I finished Oldboy. – Watch the trailer

Mystery Team

I’m not entirely sure I even like Mystery Team. But what I am sure of is that I love the concept the film presents. The film also made me laugh A LOT. We’ve all seen the kid’s movies where a 10 year old has a detective service where he is hired by neighborhood kids to find their lost teddy bears. Ok, how about a movie that takes that same idea but ages the kid detectives to their late teens but they still have the same innocent childish mentality of a 9 year old? That’s Mystery Team. Donald Glover (Community) stars as the leader of the Mystery Team, a trio of completely innocuous “detectives” who are trying to solve a local mystery that is completely over their heads. While the film has a lot of great (and VERY funny) moments, I’m not entirely sure the film works overall. I still think the film is worth seeking out; especially if you’re looking for something slightly different from normal comedic fare. – Watch the trailer

Spring Breakers

Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers about four girls who travel to Florida to take part in America’s annual festival of sex, drugs and dub step is a full on assault on the senses. He takes Spring break to the extreme. Everything that happens during the two week escape for college kids is on full display. Korine shies away from nothing; his film is FILLED with gratuitous female nudity, drug use, drinking and even shootouts. At the core of all this is an unbelievable performance by James Franco as a rapper/gangster who goes by the name, Alien. By far his best performance; he steals every scene he’s in. Another highlight is a montage of Alien and his four new friends as they beat up and rob innocent people in a slow motion montage set to Britney Spears’ “Everytime”. It’s a scene that has to be seen to be believed. Korine pushes all the extremities of Spring break to its limits. And you’ll be watching mouth gaping until the end while Korine sits in the corner smiling as you pick your mouth up off the floor. – Watch the trailer

One could say that Here Comes the Devil opens with a bang. Literally. The opening scene is striking; two women having passionate sex while a loud and unpleasant soundtrack obliterates your ears. The scene is reminiscent of something David Lynch would parade around in front of his audience. Director Adrián García Bogliano seems to be heavily influenced by the surrealist filmmaker. Although Lynch is a great inspiration, he is often hard to replicate and Bogliano can only seem to get some of it right.

The opening sex scene is followed by a brutal attack on one of the women from the opening tryst. A mysterious stranger breaks in to the house and begins to beat her before hacking off some of her fingers with a machete. We never see the face of the assailant as he flees from the house after the other woman runs in to save her.

Cut to present day and we meet Felix, his wife Sol and their children as they are on a small road trip near Tijuana. During a brief stop at a gas station the children ask if they can play in the hills. The kids run off and Felix and Sol stay behind in the car and wait. In what has to be the most extraordinary, and utterly baffling, scene of the film, Felix ferociously seduces Sol in their car. It’s one of those experiences where you chuckle to yourself and ask, “Am I actually witnessing this?” It’s sensationally erotic.

There is a lot to admire in Bogliano’s film. He creates an undeniably strong atmosphere; sometimes it’s suffocating. Bogliano also seems to be heavily inspired by 70s filmmaking, which is not a bad thing. There is a montage midway through the film that is one of the best pieces of filmmaking in the horror genre that I’ve seen in years. An unholy mixture of blood and satanic, sadomasochistic behavior; the montage is a highlight of Bogliano’s film.

Bogliano is also inspired by the who’s who of horror. I couldn’t help but feel that the gas station location and the missing person scenario was inspired by the marvelous Dutch thriller Spoorloos. And of course we cannot forget Peter Weir’s classic, surrealistic Picnic at Hanging Rock, in which a group of girls go missing at a rock formation, which is eerily similar to the one seen in Here Comes the Devil.

The biggest thing that holds Here Comes the Devil back from being a good movie is the overall cheapness that expels from it. In some scenes you can hardly hear any words being spoken by the characters (while in others the soundtrack explodes like a bomb). The film itself looks to be made with low rent cameras and the film’s poor lighting just seems to make it look even worse. In the end, the film’s high aspirations are done in by its low production qualities. Another thing that hurts the film is the pure sporadic nature of the film’s tone. Bogliano builds a great amount of tension in a lot of scenes but ruins them with odd sound cues that take you out of the moment. It’s just too much at times, which is unfortunate since Here Comes the Devil gets a lot right. While I’m not going to recommend the film, I’m very excited to see what director Bogliano cooks up next.

Here Comes the Devil trailer

Welcome the feature where I recommend 4-5 under watched, under-appreciated or films that I just personally love. My goal is to take the hassle out of deciding on which film to stream on the plethora of streaming sites that populate the internet. To make your streaming life easier, I include which streaming platform each film is available on along with a link to the trailer. Now sit back, relax, and click on play!

Only God Forgives

Nicolas Windig Refn lit the world on fire 2 years ago with his flashy, bubble gum bursting, pop music fueled love letter to Westerns and 70s action flicks with Drive. The film launched both Refn and star Ryan Gosling into the stratosphere and the two haven’t looked back since. Well here they are together again with this violent, ugly and downright mean spirited thriller set in Bangkok. Gosling plays the owner of an illegal Maui Thai boxing arena (where he also sells drugs), whose brother (a sadistic and vile rapist) is murdered by a Karaoke worshipping detective who dishes out justice with a finely sharpened sword. Gosling is urged by is unloving and unscrupulous mother (the scene stealing Kristin Scott Thomas) to seek vengeance. Gosling barely says 30 words in the film (literally) and Refn’s tone is unbelievably baroque and nightmarish; the colors are vibrant and assaulting all at once. The film really doesn’t amount to anything in the end, but boy is it a wild ride. Only God Forgives isn’t for the squeamish. – Watch the trailer

Promised Land

Director Gus Van Zant teams up with frequent collaborator Matt Damon once again for this small town drama. Promised Land, the least meaty of their efforts thus far, is about a salesman (Damon) for a huge natural gas company who, along with his partner played by Frances McDormand, is tasked to get the trust of a small town so his company can drill on their land. Things don’t go smoothly as they had hoped as they run into an aging school teacher (Hal Holbrook) who challenges them at every step. Also complicating matters is John Krasinski, a grassroots activist who decides to counter every move Damon and McDormand make. Even though it’s nowhere near the level of Good Will Hunting or even Gerry, Promised Land is very good drama. All the acting is great, especially Holbrook who (like every other film he’s been in) steals nearly every scene. The screenplay, co-written by Damon and Kransinski, is finely tuned and graciously allows the characters room to breathe and the story to fully blossom. An underrated gem. – Watch the trailer

Brick

Long before Rian Johnson knocked out Looper and a few (of the best) episodes of Breaking Bad, he wrote and directed this sizzling high school drama about the murder of a young girl. Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a loner who one day finds his ex-girlfriend murdered in a massive drain near his high school. He decides to investigate. On his own terms, Brendan scours the hallways and classrooms that are populated by the shady characters of his school for clues or any information leading to who might’ve committed the murder. What sets Brick apart from other modern day “who-dunnits” and high school dramas is the way Johnson sets up his story. Brendan is the Bogart-esque detective hot on the trail of the murderer. There are damsels in distress, heavies and then of course there’s the sinister mastermind who is behind everything; all of whom spit out dialogue as if they were Sam Spade. All of the film noir stuff fits in great with the sadness and regret that fills Johnson’s film. My only complaint, which is small, is that the film has some bad pacing issues at times. In my opinion though this is a career high for both Johnson and Levitt. – Watch the trailer

End of Watch

For me, this was one of the very best films of 2012; penetrating on a level I hadn’t experienced in quite some time. Anchored by brilliant performances by both lead actors (Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena) and supported by a screenplay that tip toes a high wire of an outright intense police procedural along with great scenes involving the officers’ personal lives. Gyllenhaal and Pena play cops who roam some of L.A.’s toughest streets. A deadly Mexican drug cartel starts moving into the city in a big way and the officers start making catch after catch. Guns, drugs and human trafficking; they find it all. The cartel puts a bounty on the officers’ heads and soon enough the streets become a warzone. Writer/director David Ayers films nearly the entire film with hand held cameras that are attached to both Pena and Gyllenhaal, so everything you see is from their perspective. This choice, along with the subject matter, makes for one extremely tense cop picture. End of Watch will have you gripping the arm rest while your heart pounds at your rib cage, but the end result is one of the most satisfying cop films that has ever been released. – Watch the trailer

We’ve all been there. We sit on our couch for minutes on end trying to find something to watch. Heck, one time I was on Netflix looking for something to watch and before I knew it, 40 minutes had passed. Well we here at Way Too Indie recognize this issue and are looking to alleviate any future headaches. Welcome to a new feature where I recommend 4-5 under watched, under-appreciated or just films that I personally love. All the films featured in this column will be available on many of the streaming sites that populate the internet.

Immortals

Indian director Tarsem made his debut feature with the psychological thriller The Cell before stunning audiences worldwide with his two hour moving painting of a film, The Fall. Immortals, his third feature, is an effects heavy “swords and sandals” epic that is heavily inspired (aesthetically) by 300. The story of Theseus (Henry Cavill), a mortal man who is plucked by the almighty god Zeus, to take on King Hyperion who is looking to end humanity as we know it. I’ll be completely honest; the film is utter garbage. I’m recommending it strictly on how gorgeous the film is. Tarsem paints in all the corners of the frame. Everywhere you look there is something sensational to look at. The film is also loaded to the brim with excessive blood and guts as well as some cheesy, groan inducing performances. It will be difficult, however, to find more dazzling beauty than this brutal fantasy flick. – Watch the trailer

Graceland

This thriller from the Philippines will take your soul and in 90 minutes completely crush it. When the chauffeur of a corrupt official in Manila has his own daughter kidnapped instead of the official’s (they’re best friends and together when the kidnapping happens), he tries desperately to get her back from a group of thugs who are holding her for ransom. The film is very intense for the final hour as Marlon frantically flies through the Asian capital doing anything in his power to save his daughter’s life. A word of warning, Graceland does feature some questionable material involving underage children. But the film is easily one of the best thrillers of the year and rightfully deserves a wider audience. – Watch the trailer

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

I had heard a lot of good things about David Gelb’s film before watching it. Bored one night I placed my cursor over the film, left-clicked it and threw any doubt under the rug. I think it took me about 10 minutes to fall in love with Gelb’s film. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a mesmerizing documentary about the life of Jiro Ono, a sushi master, whose restaurant is quietly tucked away underneath Tokyo’s massive subway system. What I loved about the film was how beautiful it looked, how delicate the film was handled (the cinematography and slow motion photography combined with the lush classic music are devastating on the eyes and ears) and the tiny details of Jiro’s life that Gelb features. For foodies, it’s a full 90 minutes of food heaven, while film geeks will get the beautiful story of one man’s life dedication to his art exquisitely captured in high definition. – Watch the trailer

Run Lola Run

We all remember this incredibly fun and inventive German film from the late 1990’s about a young red haired Lola, the undeniably cute Franka Potente (in a breakout role), who only has 20 minutes to deliver 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend (who owes some nasty thugs) before he robs a supermarket. Tom Tykwer’s film literally never stops for a second as you try to keep up with Lola. Run Lola Run is told 3 different times each with different outcomes. Aided by an electronic score that will pulsate through you, Tykwer’s film is kinetic from beginning to end. Tykwer and Potente would team up again in the even better (yet completely different) The Princess and the Warrior. This is one of the most entertaining movies I think I’ve ever seen. – Watch the trailer

Goon

Goon, I’ll admit, isn’t a great film. It’s barely a good one. But it’s very rare that I have a grin on my face for the entire duration of a film and Goon managed to do just that. Seann William Scott (in easily his best film role to date) plays Doug, a loner who is going nowhere in life. One night he happens to catch the eye of a coach of a semi pro hockey team in Canada when he is seen kicking the crap out of a guy. Doug is terrible at hockey, but he excels at causing mayhem. Picked up essentially be an enforcer on the ice, Doug ends up leading the team to glory against a former hockey pro (Liev Schreiber) who made a career out of being a mercenary on the ice; he as the missing teeth to prove it too. The film contains a lot of great moments that will please both genders. Girls will get a fuzzy romance subplot as guys will get their sports fix. Goon is an under-appreciated sports comedy that is a must see. – Watch the trailer

Halloween is upon us and there you are stuck in front of TV with a browser window open (shame on you IE users!) with Netflix on it. You’re probably thinking, “Hmmmm, what should we watch tonight? If only I had someone to help me out on this.” Fear not! I am here to help you navigate the plethora of drudgery that populates the popular streaming site’s library of horrific carnage.

It’s the same story every year. You hover your mouse over a few different choices, unsure of which movie to click on. Well, this year you’re in luck. I’ll be up front and admit that some of these are not the greatest films horror has to offer. But what I am willing to bet is that you either haven’t seen, or even heard of, some of these hidden gems. So here are 7 horror films I’ve picked out for you to try on Halloween night (after you’ve put the kids to bed of course). Maybe even sandwich one or two of these picks in between a classic like Halloween or The Shining. Enjoy!

7 Scary Movies To Watch On Netflix This Halloween

The People Under the Stairs

This film, from Horror legend Wes Craven, is an absolutely bizarre tale about a teenager from the ghetto who gets roped into looting a house that supposedly has countless priceless gold coins that liter the basement of the archaic home. What they end up finding out is that the house is owned by a psychotic married couple who keep people locked up without any hope of escape. The film is essentially a fairy-tale masquerading as a nightmarish clash of classes between the wealthy suburbanites of L.A. and the unfortunate souls of the city’s inner quarters. The film is shocking at times and Craven lets the blood flow in a few scenes, but the film is engaging on multiple levels and will appease viewers who not necessarily adore the Horror genre.

Let the Right One In

If you like your Horror with a heavy dose of devastating drama, look no further than this Scandinavian vampire film. While I prefer the American remake (yeah I said it), this Swedish original is heartbreaking in its telling of a lonely young lad who is constantly alone and picked on by kids at his school. Enter Eli; a young vampire who has lived for decades living off the blood of innocent people. Together they form a close bond and must rely on one another to survive their daily plights. Yes, it is bleak (the American remake even more so). And yes, it is sad and hard to watch. But this is one of the best (and overlooked) vampire movies in recent years.

Also streaming on: Amazon Prime, YouTube (paid subscription)

Resolution

Now this is an interesting Horror movie that tries to rise above its genre and for the most part, it succeeds. Michael gets a message from a friend, Chris, who is camped out in an abandoned cabin as he battles a meth addiction. Mike decides to head out there to have one last go at Chris to help him go cold turkey. He gets to the cabin and immediately hand cuffs Chris to the wall. Everything seems to be going fine until the two friends start getting strange messages from the future. In one instance Michael’s laptop turns on by itself and shows the two friends a video from literally a minute into the future and in another they play a CD in a car stereo that involves dialogue from them at a later period. The film naturally builds to a bloody, final conflict that will either have you clapping or throwing the remote at the TV. I personally loved it.

Our review of Resolution

Maniac (2013)

To be completely honest, I’m not necessarily sure this movie is even that good so much as it is something different. Maniac offers up some real treats in terms of visuals and pulsating, vibrant score that oozes dark 80’s synth pop at every corner. The film is primarily told from a first person perspective of a man who is clearly mentally ill. He prowls the city streets for beautiful young women to scalp for his mannequin shop that he inherited from his parents. The movie at times is pretty disgusting and Elijah Wood (as the killer) is pretty unconvincing and non-threatening. But aesthetics and killer (no pun intended) are something to behold.

The Host

About 7 years ago, Asia (particularly South Korea) had a stranglehold on world cinema, churning out all kinds of instant classics. One of those is one of the best monster genre flicks of the past 20 years, The Host. When a shadowy (U.S. based) military outfit dumps a chemical into the drain that leads into Seoul’s main river, it creates a beast that years later comes back to wreak havoc on the city and in particular one family. What The Host does so well is that it focuses on the intimate details of what makes a close knit family tick. In return the viewer is heavily invested in what happens to them. The film runs 20 minutes too long, but there is no denying the insatiable power that director Joon-ho Bong creates along the way.

Also streaming on: Amazon Prime

The Howling III

I will be the first to admit, The Howling III is a terrible movie. But it is so bad that it must be seen to be believed. It takes place in Australia and couldn’t be wackier if it tried. If you are unfamiliar with The Howling series, it’s essentially about werewolves. Most of the films are unrelated with some stories, like this one, taking place in different countries around the world. An odd race of human-like marsupials is discovered in the land down under and things get ugly when they start attacking citizens of the lovely city of Sydney. There are some scary scenes, there are some comedic scenes and then there are scenes that are completely baffling, including one that hilariously breaks the fourth wall.

Also streaming on: YouTube (with ads)

Pontypool

This Canadian Horror film was very much overlooked upon its release more than 4 years ago. Unjust, if you ask me. A former shock jock (the magnificently underrated Stephen McHattie) is sent to the small town of Pontypool to do the morning show of the local radio station. On this particular morning a massive snow storm hits and the residents start going insane. Taking place inside of a basement of a church for literally 99% of the runtime, Pontypool is all claustrophobic horror as everything you hear about the outside world and how its crumbling is experienced through only 2-3 people in a small room. As the walls start to close in on our heroes, we watch, helplessly, as they maneuver the perilous situation and try to figure out how to survive the apocalyptic event. Pontypool is a fun lark away from the usual Horror fodder that populates your usual Halloween viewing.

Our monthly staff features of past have usually been reserved for top ten lists regarding a certain subject, genre or even anticipation lists pertaining to film festivals. With this monthly feature we went through a few ideas before settling on something a little different. The idea was to always have it be horror themed since October is synonymous with Halloween. But instead of having a top ten list of a certain type of horror film or even ranking our favorites, we’ve decided that each of us will share with the reader what actually scares us in horror movies. Whether it’d be actual subject matter or aesthetics applied by the filmmakers, we discuss the various ingredients in horror movies that make us put that pillow over our eyes or make us reach for a loved one’s grasp.

What Scares Us The Most In Movies

Someone Else Is In Control

I thought a lot about what scares me in Horror films and the one thing that I kept coming back to is not being in control. I know it sounds weird, but when I’m watching a movie and if I can’t get a grip on what’s real or not or if I’m watching a living, breathing nightmare where I have no control, I freak. I think that’s why Suspiria is so attractive to me. The film is a master class of sensory overload where viewers are toyed with for 90 minutes. We are paralyzed to cheer for Susie Bannion, because we are so entrenched in this world where colors and sounds could never exist in our reality. Every time I watch the film, I can’t move. I’m transfixed and it scares me that I can’t move while I watch it. David Lynch is the master at creating films where the viewer is essentially his pawn and he attacks their stability with striking images. His final film (so far), Inland Empire, is quite possibly the greatest nightmare that I’ve seen in film. I was too scared to move while watching it. Laura Dern running in slow motion towards the camera that is suddenly sped up to a roaring orchestral cue haunts me to this day. Simply put, when David Lynch is in control, you are not.

I can also bring up that not being in control can also be applied literally as well. When a person in the film is shooting what you’re seeing (think Blair Witch), you experience what they are seeing from their point of view. I think the POV handheld genre has gone overboard, but there are some films that execute this to great extent. [Rec] and Grave Encounters are by no means great horror movies, but both feature great moments where someone else is in control of the camera and I want them to turn away or zoom out. By then it’s too late. [Blake Ginithan]

Trapped With No Way Out

Nothing gets my heart racing more than the idea of being trapped with no way out knowing that impending doom is inevitable. For me the fear is that feeling of being helpless in a situation that is inescapable. This is a rather simple concept that has been used and modified several times over. I suppose the most rudimentary example of this is when characters are trapped inside a room where the walls on both sides begin to close in to the middle of the room. This sort of “Walls Closing In” stunt has been around forever and I likely picked it up as a child while watching cartoons, Star Wars: A New Hope, or even Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom. As I mentioned, that is just the most elementary of an example and it would be easy to confuse my fear of being helplessly trapped with straight-up claustrophobia, so let me explain further.

You probably remember that famous scene in The Shining when Jack Nicholson busts down the door and screams, “Here’s Jonny!” through a hole in the door. That scene is a great example of what terrifies me the most in horror films. In case you haven’t seen it (watch it here), Nicholson slowly walks with a deranged look on his face and an axe in his hands towards his wife who has locked herself in the bathroom from him. She seemingly has nowhere else to go and she knows that she will soon be killed if she cannot escape. Add in Stanley Kubrick’s methodically slow-pacing and ear-piercing score and it is the perfect setup the scare the living hell out of me. The combination of having no control over the situation and knowing that death is soon approaching is what scares me the most. [Dustin Jansick]

Ambiguity

I’m going to be a bit broad with my pick, but what scares me the most is simple: ambiguity. A lot of horror films tend to go in the opposite direction, showing too much or explaining every little thing to the audience, but there’s still plenty of power in deciding not to show or tell. When I watched Ju-On years ago what terrified me wasn’t the jittery ghosts, it was how the curse in the film wasn’t defined in any way whatsoever. It could be weeks, months, or even years before these ghosts would get you, but they will kill you at some point.. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo has one of the most terrifying first acts I’ve seen, as a rash of suicides and hauntings occur without explanation. Films like Insidious and Paranormal Activity also drew on elements of the unknown to scare audiences (to the point where people are now throwing money at them) but their inferior sequels built a mythology explaining every single thing that occurred in the originals. It’s an approach that shows how, the more you know, the less scared you’ll be. [CJ Prince]

Jack Nicholson As Joker

As I get older, I find myself almost impervious to fright at the movie theater, which is more of a curse than a blessing. It’s a sad thing that most scary movies fail to make my skin crawl like they did to my 7-year-old, candy-corn-gobbling self. The upside to my time-hardened nerves is that when a film does manage to creep me out, it’s a delicious rarity that I devour like a starving dog. I relish horror flicks like Eyes Without a Face, Nosferatu, Last House on the Left, and The Descent for employing finely tuned filmmaking techniques–not hackneyed “jump scares” or “false-alarm scares” (as Roger Ebert brilliantly called them)–to create deathly atmosphere and a sense of inescapable dread.

But still, nothing–NOTHING–can compare to the terror I experienced back in the candy-corn-gobbling days when I got my first glimpse at the face of pure evil–Jack Nicholson’s Joker. I remember being so scared of that pale, perpetually grinning motherfucker that I couldn’t even look at my family’s VHS copy of Tim Burton’s Batman. It didn’t even have Nicholson on it, but I knew some form of his lipstick-wearing devil spirit MUST have been lurking inside the cheap card stock packaging and black plastic shell. It had to be that smile–the only way to make any movie monster scarier is to have them bear their grisly grills like a demented clown (fuck clowns). There’s something repulsive, twisted, and deeply unsettling about someone who smiles as they’re about to do something truly sinister. I wonder if my folks ever got rid of that tape…[Bernard Boo]

Everything About Horror Films

So I will admit, I’ve never really been a huge fan of horror films. I’m pretty sure it all stems from watching Signs when I was in my early teens—man that film terrified me—the knife under the door, the creepy Alien sneaking out the hedges at that kids party. I had to keep the volume on 1 the entire time.

Then came my mid-teens when it was the cool thing to watch scary movies on a Friday night sleepover (Gothika, Amityville Horror, The Others – I mean what was up with that kid’s face?!) I think it’s the intense suspense build ups and the loud heavy Dolby Digital bass in the cinema that thumps through chest making you really feel like it’s all happening to you. I also find that the actual “knowing what’s around the corner” scares me more than whatever is there because your mind goes into a frenzy trying to prepare your body for it. [Amy Priest]

Suspense and Psychological Manipulation

I’ve never been one to actively search out horror films primarily for two reasons, the first being a belief (built from years of poor film choices by friends and family) that they all contained the same components, with slight variations on which “spooky” location and in which particular manner the unexplained deaths or disappearances happened. But in the interests of being truthful, the more honest—and embarrassing—reason is simply that I’m easily scared. Nevertheless, the films that really get to me are those that center more around suspense and psychological manipulation. Throw as much blood on the screen as you like, and it won’t bother me half as much as a mere second of something mentally disturbing. A perfect example of this is in 127 Hours (even though it’s not a horror film) when Scooby-Doo appears just for one shot; this one scene affected me far more than watching young Franco saw his arm off.

While finding suspense in films scary is a fairly universal concept, there is a defining line between the type of suspense we find dotted throughout films such as the Saw franchise and The Blair Witch Project, and the type we find in films such as Psycho and more recently, 28 Days Later. This difference stems from the basic intention of these films—are they attempting to provide us with a narrative that is scary in its essence, or are they attempting to thrill us with snippets of suspense loosely held together by some form of plot? I’ll jump (and perhaps even scream a little) at films that do the latter, but Joss Whedon has hit the nail on the head—at some point the majority of horror films devolved “into torture porn and into a long series of sadistic comeuppances.” Perhaps this is why my favourite horror film has to be, in all its meta construction, Whedon and Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods; as much as it scares us, it simultaneously enters new territory, subverting our expectations of the genre. [Pavi Ramani]

Believability And Doubt-Producing Ending

My film genre of choice is horror, but because of that I’m actually quite a fastidious viewer and it takes a lot to impress me. The most obvious element of a scary film is actually the easiest to pull off: surprise. It’s not hard to startle an audience, jump out at them, or spray some blood in their direction, eliciting a few screams. The hard part, and what marks the best horror films from all the others in my opinion, is getting into our heads and keeping the fear alive once we leave the theater. The most memorable horror films have two elements that will get me every time.

First, is an essence of believability. I don’t care if it’s ghosts, aliens, murderers, or demons, if the film can show me that the scenario I’m witnessing could happen to me, than I’m much more likely to feel a sense of anxiety that heightens the fright. A virus that turns a majority of the world into zombies? Seems plausible. Found footage of the family-next-door being haunted? That looks like a house I’ve seen. Those look like people I know. I’m creeped out. Second, is a well-played, doubt-producing ending. At the end of The Silence of the Lambs, Clarice may have caught her serial killer, but Hannibal Lecter’s final phone call reminds her, and us, that evil is never truly contained, just redirected. A hand popping out of a grave, a-la Carrie, just makes me laugh; zooming in on Jack Torrance in an old picture on the wall of the Overlook Hotel at the end of The Shining, reminds me that the evil within that hotel lives on. Because they have these two elements, I can watch my favorite horror films over and over again and still squirm. Because really, I never stopped being scared of them. [Ananda Dillon]

A few weeks ago I had started some serious contemplation on the South Dakota Film Festival. I’ve really only been to one film festival in my lifetime, but it was a big one, the Toronto International Film Festival. For me personally, TIFF is the granddaddy of film festivals (yes, I know there is a festival in the south of France called Cannes and yes, I know it’s massive). But TIFF is in my heart and I consider it a high benchmark for other festivals to follow, so I knew I had to keep my expectations in check.

I knew it wouldn’t be fair to compare the SDFF to TIFF. So I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting to see the same quality of films here. The Monday before the festival I told myself I had to do more research on the films to know which I was going to be looking forward to. Hell, I even convinced myself that I owed it to the filmmakers that I needed to do the research. But I actually think it would’ve been a disservice to have “favorites” going into the festival. So I decided not to revisit any of the films I would be seeing. And I don’t think my festival experience couldn’t have been any better. I was pleasantly surprised and unquestionably satisfied.

By not knowing anything about the films, I was able to sit back and put myself in the moment of each film. Truth be told, I had a blast even if I didn’t enjoy every single movie. But I would say I easily enjoyed 90% of the films I saw. That speaks volumes to a) the talented filmmakers on hand and b) the quality of the eye that the programmers of the SDFF have.

If there’s one thing the SDFF has taught me—or rather, reminded me—it’s that sometimes doesn’t matter how big the festival is, it’s the atmosphere of the theater itself. Every single person at the Capitol Theater this past weekend was there for a sole purpose, to appreciate the art of film. There were no other agendas brought to the table. It was simply a celebration of film.

The producers of the festival need to be commended. They put on a very warm and welcoming festival. I remember when Dustin and I were walking into the theater the for the first time and we weren’t sure what to expect, but immediately we were treated like two long lost family members that hadn’t been seen in years. Looking around over the weekend, it was pretty obvious that every single person attending was being treated the same way.

Sure the festival is tucked away in upstate South Dakota makign it a little out of the way from some areas, but if you’re in the region or if you just happen to be passing through, you will be hard pressed to find a better outlet for film lovers.

Our Top 15 films from SDFF

#1 – Gefallen

#2 – Noah

#3 – Ride with Larry

#4 – Sweet Crude Man Camp

#5 – Mirror

#6 – A Hard Day

#7 – Bring Me A Dream

#8 – The Garage

#9 – Dust of War

#10 – Family Meeting

#11 – Looking Past You

#12 – Storytime

#13 – After the Torment

#14 – Episode 5

#15 – Head Case

Looking Past You

An elderly woman, whose husband has just passed, is getting sick and tired of people ignoring her and her feelings. I kept thinking about that scene at the end of Network where the main character spouts, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” She grabs his old service pistol and decides she’s going to get back the money that is owed to her after a financial advisor heartlessly tells her she’s broke. Well-acted and perfectly paced with a message that doesn’t banging on the heads of the audience, Looking Past You is good drama.

Family Meeting

One day the head of a household is on the family computer when he finds a video that leaves him speechless. He confronts his entire family at once and demands an explanation. It turns out that every one of the family members has made an embarrassing video, but no one know which he is referring to. Family Meeting is simple and more importantly, it made me laugh and as more and more truths start to reveal themselves, it only becomes funnier.

Episode 5

This short horror/comedy is a spoof of handheld POV horror films that had plenty of good laughs and even some creepy moments. An investigative paranormal TV crew is hired by a mattress company to probe their store for any clues of a haunting. What they find instead are plenty of laughs as they have seemingly been set up to show how great the prices are at the store. This is one of the shorts that I saw that I wish was about 20 minutes longer. The mood was perfectly set and the tension (when not relieved by the laughs) was stout.

Mirror

Mirror was far and away my favorite film of the first day. This short narrative never explains what exactly is going on and I was pretty fine with that. The film begins with a movie star flying home from Hollywood to visit family he hasn’t seen for a while. When he arrives home though, things begin to crack immediately. Mirror plays with perception the entire length of its run time. You never know what reality is. Are there really aliens abducting people? Is he just imagining things? There was a great shot of a man walking into a room in complete darkness as lights flickered on and off creating a strobe effect that is still making me blink. Loved the sound design and loved the score. This was easily the most ambitious film that I saw at the festival.

Bring Me a Dream

This nice little film was great amalgamation of a children’s best time story mixed to great effect with the horror genre. A young girl is told by her father to go to bed, but she’d rather stay up coloring in her book. Her father warns her that if she doesn’t go to bed, the Sandman could visit her and that it wouldn’t be a pretty sight. So of course she doesn’t heed his warning and sure enough things get creepy. Things in her room begin to come alive and move with free will, while the Sandman himself shows up to put the young girl to sleep. For how short this was, I was surprised at how much it affected me. It gets really scary really fast. The sound design was very good albeit a little too loud and the costume design for the Sandman himself was well done.

The Garage

This was a fun little horror short that never really makes any sense, but is nonetheless funny and at times even creepy. A young girl (who is a misfit at school) is sent to live with her older brother to clean up her act. The brother doesn’t ask much of her when it comes to chores, but he does want her to take out the trash and recycling to the non-attached garage behind the house. When she does, there seems to be some kind of entity that talks to her. There are shops tools hanging on the wall that only get bloodier and bloodier the more times she enters. While watching The Garage I couldn’t help but think of Sam Raimi and more specifically Drag Me to Hell. Funnily enough, the director of the short cited these two exact references during the Q&A after the film. While The Garage disappointingly ends out of nowhere, everything else that precedes it is worth the time.

A Hard Day

I will keep this review brief as I do not want to ruin any of what this utterly hilarious short shows. A man is looking to spice up his relationship with his girlfriend so he goes off to buy special pills that will enhance their “afternoon delight” He buys two different pills and is warned not to take them at the same time. Of course he doesn’t listen and the results make for easily the funniest film of the festival. A Hard Day doesn’t even try to apologize for being too raunchy, instead throwing in one fantastic gag after another. The lead actor was perfectly cast as a dimwit who seemed to do one wrong thing after another.

Dust of War

Dust of War was one of the headline films of the festival and the screening played to a packed house that ate it up. Dust of War is a post-apocalyptic science fiction film that when really boiled down to it is essentially a 90 minute chase film. That isn’t a complaint either. I’m a big fan of simple action films that don’t try to be anything more than what they are. The film adds in some sci-fi that felt out of place for me, but that is a small quibble. Set on a prairie in a world that has been ravaged by a war with an alien race with nothing left and only a few small groups of people are left to fight. A young girl is seen as the key to survival for the human race and two opposing forces want to use her in their own ways. A young quiet warrior, who lets his sword do his talking, teams up with the old wise cracking has been fighter, who still has some fight left in him, to rescue the young girl from the clutches of an evil general and his gang of marauders.

Dust of War is not trying to break new ground here. It is however, a competent low budget action film. The villain General Chizum, played by Bates Wilder, is of course spewing fantastic lines of poison aimed at his nemeses. His aim (and dialogue) is consistently undermined by Tom’s (Gary Graham) unwillingness to play along. The action scenes are fine and the chase scenes are well executed. And finally a movie that brings back under cranking to a car chase scene.

As I mentioned earlier, my only complaint was that Dust of War added some sci-fi elements in it did not seem to add much to the film. I wish it would have either gone for it all or kept it out altogether. The final reveal at the end leaves the audience begging for more, but considering what came before, it felt out of place. But that is more of a small complaint. As a whole I really dug the film. Screenwriter/Director Andrew Kightlinger made a film that, despite a low budget, shows ambition and enough quality for me to recommend it.

The new film Inside Story, a joint effort from South Africa and Kenya, tells the story of a poor African boy who dreams of making it to the big football (soccer) leagues of Europe’s elite. The film also plays like a Lifetime Channel documentary on the HIV/AIDS virus. This combination of feature narrative/informational documentary sometimes comes off clunky, but the film’s messages along with the surprisingly good performances make for an entertaining film to watch.

Inside Story starts with our hero Kalu as he plays in a match for his local football team. His team wins the game, but their coach isn’t satisfied with the team as they refuse to play as one. He tells them a scout for a bigger club will be watching their next match and warns them that if they do not play well together, the consequences will not be good. During this time we also find out that this story is being told through an interview with a media outlet and what we see is past experiences being told through Kalu’s narration of the story.

The next match comes around and the scout is impressed enough with Kalu’s performance that he offers to represent him. As you might expect, Kalu is overjoyed. Later that night, he meets up with a girl that he frequently hangs out with. They make love and through Kalu’s narration we find out he has contracted the HIV virus from her. At this point the film introduces cut scenes where Kalu narrates computer generated shots of blood cells, veins, internal organs and how the HIV virus affects the human body.

I have to admit these scenes were a little distracting as they took viewers away from the drama of the story. But seeing as how the target audience is future generations of a continent that has parts ravaged by the disease, it’s hard to fault the film for putting in scenes like these for learning purposes. However, these scenes are few and far between. People who love the sport will get plenty of scenes of Kalu and his team playing the beautiful game of football.

As far as the rest of the film goes, it’s a pretty routine sports underdog film. Kalu falls in love with the wrong girl (coach’s daughter), pisses off the owner of the club (who has a crush on her as well) and even finds time to piss of the star of his new team only for them to become great friends. Everything plays out how one expects them to in the end, making the film rather predictable.

But let’s face it; Inside Story isn’t trying to break any new ground here. They take the world’s most popular sport and use it as a backdrop for a story about a young kid who faces a harsh reality and presents it to young teens as a tool to contemplate certain life choices. And for that I certainly not fault it. Inside Story’s messages also resonate well. Work hard, don’t give up. When playing for a team, play as one. While, I don’t think the film works entirely and the whole thing is completely predictable, I’ve certainly seen a lot worse attempts at a sport film. This one at least tries to do something different.

By taking the world’s most popular sport and using it as a backdrop for a story about a young kid who faces a harsh reality, the filmmakers present the film to young teens as a tool to educate them on making certain life choices. And for that I certainly cannot fault them. Inside Story’s life messages resonate well with the obvious sport references; work hard, don’t give up, and play as a team. While I don’t think the film works as a whole and is utterly predictable for the most part, I’ve certainly seen a lot worse sports films. Even though the story itself doesn’t offer anything new, the filmmakers at least try to do something different.

Judging from the new teaser trailer for his new film, Under the Skin, Jonathan Glazer looks to be exercising some serious demons. That or he has been watching David Lynch’s Lost Highway way too much. The trailer is very, very moody indeed and looks like it’s a nightmarish decent into hell. I haven’t read too much into what the film is actually about and nor do I really want to. IMDB’s tagline says enough for me, “An alien in human form is on a journey through Scotland.” Yep. Sold. The film stars Scarlett Johansson and early reviews are saying she’s very good in her role.

Glazer’s earlier work includes the gritty British sun soaked Ray Winstone lead Sexy Beast. You remember that one, don’t you? The one where Gandhi was a raving lunatic gangster hell bent on causing mayhem wherever he went. Glazer also directed the criminally underrated Nicole Kidman drama Birth.

Under the Skin looks to be a complete departure for Glazer from his previous efforts, but one that I welcome. The film is also playing this year’s addition of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Watch the teaser trailer for Under the Skin:

No film released this year has left me more shattered during its end credits than Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. The film has moments of immense power and at times is very hard to watch. The story, co-written by Vinterberg, lives on the heartstrings of its characters, led by a towering performance from Danish leading man Madds Mikkelsen.

Lucas (Mikkelsen) is a divorced man who works at an elementary school. Right away we are shown Lucas loves his job and his fellow teachers as well as the kids at the school love him. At every moment the kids seem to be tackling him, laughing as they do it. He is a modest man who is a little on the quiet side. I remember scenes of him nonchalantly walking to and from school, enjoying his surroundings with every step he takes.

Lucas’ best friend for the past 20 years has been Theo (Thomas Bo Larsen). Theo’s 5 year old daughter, Klara, attends the same school where Lucas teaches at. Klara develops a small innocent crush on Lucas and in one scene approaches him about it. Lucas dismisses her notion, but Klara retaliates by telling the principal that he molested her. The remainder of the film deals with the outcome of the event. Lucas’ life slowly begins to unravel one piece at a time. At first the principal suggests that he should not come to school for a while, but before long he is told he doesn’t have a job anymore. His girlfriend sticks with him until his depression is eventually too much for her to handle.

What impressed me most about Vinterberg’s scintillating film is how real all the events felt, especially the characters and their motivations and reactions to everything that happens. In one scene, Theo, who, remember, has been best friends with Lucas for 20+ years, threatens to kill him if everything his daughter has said turns out to be true. In another scene close friends and family of Lucas rally around him to support him; I feel like in lesser movie he would’ve been alone to drive the isolation theme home.

As mentioned before, The Hunt is a very hard film to watch at times. Much of it is Lucas suffering as people around him ex-communicate him as he tries to prove his innocence. Some of these scenes, however, I felt were taken in the wrong direction by Vinterberg. One scene involving Lucas’ teenage son going to Theo’s home (during a gathering with their friends and family nonetheless) seems completely unnecessary. I understand what the point Vinterberg was trying to make, but I feel like the scene just didn’t need to belong in this film.

Another scene has Lucas being assaulted at a grocery store by the staff who tells him he isn’t welcome. After refusing to leave they beat him up and end up throwing canned goods at him as he lies defenseless on the ground. The result of this scene is Theo watching from his car in the parking lot as Lucas walks away morally deflated at how the community is treating him. In my opinion, this scene was little over the top.

While a couple of scenes felt out of place, there is no denying how great this film is. Vinterberg handles The Hunt with elegance and Mikkelsen is hypnotic in the lead performance (he would get an Oscar nomination if I were voting). The closing scenes of the film suggest that while you may be proven innocent, you will have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life because not everyone will be convinced of your innocence. Vinterberg’s film is not only scary in how proficient it is, but also in how close to reality it is. The Hunt is a mesmerizing film that will haunt you long after it’s over.

The Hunt trailer:

Rob Zombie’s latest expedition into the horror genre, The Lords of Salem, is something to behold. Long gone is his use of brutal violence, his zany, wild and unpredictable characters who spout off colorful dialogue that most would struggle to say in front of their grandma. Uncle Bob dials it back a bit here and it’s by far the best film he’s made yet.

Sherri Moon Zombie (Uncle Bob’s real life wife) plays Heidi Hawthorne, a recovering drug addict who works the night shift on a radio show in Salem, Massachusetts. Heidi happens to live in one of those old, spooky horror movie apartments where there can only be so much light, otherwise it’s just not spooky enough. Heidi has one hell of a mysterious land lord, Lacy Doyle, played by Judy Geeson. Geeson is fantastic in this. Whenever she engages Heidi there always seems to be some kind of ulterior motive. Whether it’s said with her lips or with her eyes, something is never what it seems with her.

One night at work Heidi receives a record from a mysterious band called “The Lords”. Heidi ends up playing the record on the air that night. There exists a great scene in the film where people all over Salem listening to the radio, stop what they are doing because they are so put off by what they are hearing. Something about the collective dread being experienced by people all over town really hit home with me.

Heidi soon slowly falls under a mystifying spell and soon her life descends into hell. Zombie fills his film with some breathtaking set pieces that explode off the screen in vibrant fashion. In one instance, Heidi goes to a church for solace only to find herself being forced to perform oral sex on a priest that has been demonically possessed. In another Heidi happens into the wrong apartment in her building whose sole illumination is a bright neon cross with a massive Yeti-like monster standing behind her breathing portentously. Soon the spell Heidi is under becomes one that enraptures the audience.

I must reiterate how much better Zombie has gotten at filmmaking. He shows a real restraint here that is missing from his previous efforts. The Lords of Salem moves at a snail’s pace, but is never boring. Credit goes to Zombie for filling his film with fantastic sets and interesting characters. The pace of the film is also perfected by Zombie’s flawless atmosphere. Nearly every scene in the film is filled with dread and you never feel comfortable watching this movie.

While I do like The Lords of Salem a lot, the final 20 minutes of the film are insane (and mostly in a bad way). There is imagery in the finale that I will not ruin because you’ll be hard pressed to find a more outrageous ending than the one found here. There are parts of the finale that go a little too far. The pacing of the first hour and twenty minute are measured while everything that follows is escalated to fast cuts, silly animation and outrageous scenes of debauchery. The debauchery stuff doesn’t really bother me; it’s the way it’s presented. It feels more like a music video for White Zombie circa 1992, than an homage to Ken Russell and Alejandro Jodorowsky. This, however, is only a small complaint as most of the film worked for me. Rob Zombie can finally say he’s made the best horror film of the year. Well….so far.

The new horror-thriller Aftershock is not be directed by Eli Roth (Nicolas Lopez is the director), but make no mistake, this is an Eli Roth picture. Roth is credited as writer, producer and star of this Chilean set film about survivors trying to navigate a decimated Santiago after a massive earthquake strikes the capital city. Unfortunately, poor execution ruins the excellent concept behind the film.

Aftershock begins when we meet Gringo (Eli Roth) as he raves the night away at a massive dance party on the outskirts of the city. He’s in town on a getaway from Los Angeles after a nasty divorce leaves his life in shambles. Gringo has some friends in the South American capital where he is staying at and they are intent on distracting him from his issues back home.

The following day Gringo and his friends hit up another nightclub in the city and end up meeting a couple of young women who immediately take to the men. Together they all tour the beautiful sights that populate the city; from the old, majestic graveyards to big mountain bluffs that overlook the immense metropolis. These scenes go on for so long I felt like I accidentally put on an episode of Rick Steves tour episodes from PBS.

The massive earthquake finally hits around the half-way point in the film. When it does the group must decipher their way through the mystifying maze of rubble and debris without having a cell phone signal. And if that was not bad enough, Aftershock adds in an interesting idea, but for me it doesn’t really pan out. A group of bloodthirsty inmates from a local penitentiary break out and begin to wreck even more havoc upon the survivors. What began as a tale of survival has now become a silly chase movie.

All of this is reasonable since Aftershock has made its intentions clear that it has no ambition to be anything more than pure exercise in the thriller genre. What is wrong with the picture is that all of it is undermined by the film’s poor execution. For such a big scale idea, the film looks and feels very cheap. Another thing that was in the wrong was how long the film spent setting up its story and characters. This would have been fine if the film actually got the audience to care about the characters, but sadly Aftershock doesn’t. When a character dies, I just didn’t care. As you can probably tell from this review, Gringo is the only character that you have any concern for, which makes everyone else that appears rather meaningless.

As a whole, the performances in Aftershock are only fine, but I do have to admit that I was rather impressed that Roth has improved on his acting skills from when he first started to act. The other performances in Aftershock are merely serviceable. It’s too bad Roth wasn’t backed up with a better overall production. And don’t even get me started on the ridiculous ending.

The Purge, a new film starring Ethan Hawke, is a great example of taking an interesting idea and dumbing it down. The idea is interesting; one day a year for 12 hours during what is called the Purge, all crime is deemed legal. The problem with The Purge is that the filmmakers take that great idea and turn it into a basic home invasion flick.

Hawke plays James Sandin, an owner of a business that provides security for homes in the L.A. area. It’s a year round business, but it’s obvious he makes most of his money just before the annual Purge. His entire neighborhood is equipped with his product. His wife Mary, Lena Headey, is just a regular suburbanite house wife, however, is surprisingly the best part of the film.

The Sandin’s have two kids, a son named Charlie (Max Burkholder) and a daughter named Zoey (Adelaide Kane). Charlie mostly keeps to himself and as it turns out is the most empathetic person of the family. When we first meet Zoey she is in the middle of a romantic tryst with her boyfriend. The film hints that Zoey’s parents do not approve of this relationship, but unsurprisingly this plot point concerning it goes nowhere. In fact, it leads to an incident that quite literally doesn’t make any sense.

Once the Purge begins, the Sandin’s house (along with every house in the wealthy neighborhood) goes into complete lockdown. Metal bars slam over windows and even their front door is encased in steel. The film gets interesting when Charlie ventures into the security room of the house and sees a man running down the street crying out for help. The man stops in front of the Sandin’s home and Charlie’s heart outplays his brain. He lets down the house’s guard for less than a minute; more than enough time for the stranger to enter their home.

As soon as the stranger thinks he is safe, a mysterious group emerges from darkness. They have been chasing the man all the way to the Sandin’s home. How many of them is never made clear. It seems like once the film kills off one of them, three more appear. They demand the Sandin’s release their target and they will be unharmed. Of course, James doesn’t have the heart to do it, so a siege is laid upon the household and that’s when things get messy.

The film turns into a violent and disgusting home invasion movie. The final 45 minutes of The Purge is essentially one brutal murder after another. I generally don’t have a problem with violence, but this concept deserves better than just mindless violence. Some stuff didn’t make sense to me. One obvious example is that the villains in the film wore masks. Why? I don’t know. Being that murder is legal for 12 hours, hiding your identity is meaningless; except of course if you’re in a horror movie and it’s supposed to be creepy or scary. Another plot point at the end is just ludicrous. I won’t reveal what happens, but let’s just say it adds nothing to the movie except for 10 more minutes of useless screen time.

The Purge isn’t all bad. The direction is fine and the mood established once the actual Purge starts is undeniable. One small thing I liked was that James Sandin wasn’t an idiot. He thinks he’s killed three assailants and instead of walking away, he puts one shot in each of them with his shotgun just to make sure. Small detail I know. But it’s one that I can appreciate. Hawke also has the great ability of looking like a movie star, yet at the same time, pulls off the everyman shtick. But even Hawke can’t save this from being a below standard mess.

Destin Cretton, writer/director of I Am Not a Hipster, is back with his next film, Short Term 12. The film stars Brie Larson (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) as Grace; a girl in her 20’s who works at a facility for at-risk teens. Working at the center with her boyfriend, the film follows her as she navigates her job while doing her best to help the young, fragile minds that populate the facility.

The trailer for the film is quite endearing. Promising the audience to be taken on what looks to be a very emotional ride. The film debuted at SXSW were it was met with rave reviews almost across the board. One reviewer compared Larson’s performance to Ryan Gosling’s from his work in the indie darling Half Nelson from a few years ago. High praise if you ask me. We here at Way Too Indie can’t wait to see the film. The release date for Short Term 12 is August 23rd. You can check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for Short Term 12:

Matteo Garrone’s new film Reality is sensationally exciting; constantly alive in a way that a lot of films these days are not. The film runs just over two hours but is never boring. Spearheaded by a brilliant lead performance and top rate camera work, Reality is one of the most enjoyable films of the year.

Opening with an enthralling aerial shot of Naples, Italy that seems to go on forever, the camera slowly finds its way lower and lower, fixating on a posh carriage being pulled by a white horse. We follow the carriage down the street into a huge estate gated off from the rest of the city into a fantastic mansion where we see many couples getting married. It seemed to be a conveyor belt of weddings, one after another. This is where we first meet Luciano (Aniello Arena), our protagonist.

Luciano runs his own mini fish market, where he and his friend have worked for years. You get a sense that Luciano is not proud of this part of his life, but he does what he must to ensure that his family is taken care of. At the wedding, he runs into a former contestant on the Italian version of the reality show Big Brother. Luciano’s family goes crazy when the “reality star” shows up.

They beg Luciano to try out for the newest season of the hit show to which Luciano seems hesitant at first, but eventually agrees. And when he does, he is an instant hit with the producers. They ask him to go to Rome for final tryouts where he again is a hit with other producers. What at first seems like something he was barely interested in now becomes an obsession.

I shall reveal nothing that follows as I wish to not ruin any of the surprises that Garrone has in store for the remainder of the runtime. What I will comment on is his grand filmmaking style. Garrone’s arrival on the cinema’s world stage with his first film, Gomorrah. In my opinion, Reality is better. Working with cinematographer Marco Onorato, Garrone creates a Naples with bright, vibrant colors mixed with grimy, sweaty archaic locations. Garrone’s extensive use of long takes in the film only enriches the beautiful colors that are on display.

Reality is a film about a lot of things. TV reality vs. actuality, self-reflection, perception and religion are the major themes touched upon here. In one scene, Luciano thinks he is being watched by producers of the show, this causes him to act nicer to people around him hoping he looks good. Other scenes depict Luciano as a celebrity. Every time he would walk into a room the place would light up as if an idol had just arrived. While there are some drawbacks (the film can get heavy handed at times), Reality is a joyous affair anchored by a brilliant lead performance by Aniello Arena and a director who is only getting better and better. Reality put a huge grin on my face.

Well here we are sitting roughly two weeks out from my trip to The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (Weekend 2). This will be my third venture to the land of extreme heat and never ending beats. The past two and a half months have flown by unexpectedly at an exhilarating pace. I’m looking forward to setting up my tent and my canopy, sitting back in my lawn chair and soaking up that devastatingly harsh California sun. I’m probably the only one, but after this cold, cold winter we’ve had here, I’m ready to be charred by the sun.

Being as we’re very close to this festival going down (Weekend 1 of Coachella is begins next Thursday), I thought I’d share the artists that I’m most excited to see. This year is an interesting one for me. I’m not as satisfied with the lineup this year as I have been the two previous years I went. While I think this year has a very strong undercard, this could be the first year I don’t see a single headliner. This all depends on the set times of course, but in years past I’ve planned a lot of my weekends at the Polo Fields around all of the headliners (save for Kings of Leon only because I saw them elsewhere 7 months previously). The one headliner I’ll probably seek out is The Stone Roses. I really dig some of their songs and would love to get a chance to see them.

But alas, I’m complaining too much. As I stated, this year’s undercard is very superior to last year’s. This year I’ll more than likely be running around in the mid-day seeing some of the acts that I’m more interested in, which will leave a lot of my nights open to roam the lush green grass that fills the fantastic ground, grab a nice expensive Heineken and sit back and enjoy that crazy art work that populates the festival.

My original plan was to write a daily blog of each day at the fest, but my laptop’s Wi-Fi doesn’t really work and when it does, it’s horrific. So I’ll have to resort to tweeting from our Way Too Indie account (if you’re not following us, and why aren’t you? @WayTooIndie) and will have to write up an account when I return. But seriously, please follow us to get an up close and very personal glimpse of one of the best music festivals in the U.S. You’ll be getting plenty of sights from us as they happen.

Ok, let’s get onto what I really want to talk about, my list of artists I’m most excited to see. I’ve been thinking a lot about this article lately and how it would probably focus a lot on EDM. And yes, a lot of the artists I’m dying to see are electronic based. So if any of you are not fans of the genre, sorry. But there are some gems at this festival that one can see if dancing with glow sticks is not your thing. But enough babbling, here they are.

List of artists I can’t wait to see at Coachella 2013:

How to Destroy Angels

While I won’t say that I’m the world’s biggest Trent Reznor fan, I would definitely bow down to his feet and kiss his toes if I had the chance. I’m a huge NIN fan and the chance to see his new band on the Polo Fields is a welcomed opportunity. While I don’t dig a lot of the material HtDA has released, I just know (from the previous 7 times I’ve seen NIN) that Reznor and company are going to absolutely kill it.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Not the biggest YYY’s fan, but I’ve been wanting to see them live for some time now. Their newer material has left a cold feeling with me after initial listens, but I couldn’t possibly miss the chance to see them play some of their older hits live.

New Order

I don’t really know what I really need to say about one of the best pop bands of 80’s. They’ve created some of my favorite songs of all time from “Temptation” to “Age of Consent”. I’ve heard that they’re not as good as they used to be, but that isn’t enough to steer me away from their set.

Benny Benassi

One of electro’s best makes his way back to Southern California. I’ve never been the biggest fan of BB but I know what a legend he is in the genre and cannot wait to see him rip apart the Sahara Tent with his pulsating beats, very much looking forward to his set.

Dropkick Murphys

Let me get this out of the way. I know one song by DMs and it’s because it was used (very well) in a very popular movie. But I would be an idiot to miss the exuberance of their set. Whichever tent they play (my guess is the Gobi) they are going to bring it and that crowd will be more than up to the challenge of matching their energy.

Paul Oakenfold

Another legend in the electro genre that I absolutely must see before I die. His Swordfish soundtrack/score was a huge reason I got into electronic music. While he hasn’t been a big player for years now, there is no way I’m missing this set.

Eric Prydz

This guy is going to utterly slay the Polo Fields on Sunday night. I’m sad (and understanding) that he doesn’t play “Call on Me” (a fantastic anthem) anymore, I know he is going to end the weekend with a bang. It’s entirely possible Prydz will be closing down the Sahara for the weekend and you just know he’s going to want to show off that fantastic stage set up he has.

The Faint

I got a chance to see this Omaha based outfit about 5 years ago and they killed it. I’ve listened to all of their albums a couple of times and even though I love some of their songs I’ve never been into any of their albums as a whole. But I keep going back to when I saw them and how much fun I remember having. Seeing them at Coach is something I’m very much looking forward to.

Rodriguez

I (like most of you I’m sure) have heard of this artist mostly because of the (now Oscar winning) documentary, Searching for Sugar Man. I wasn’t planning on seeing him until I finally saw the film, but now I don’t think I can miss him. His voice so soothing and his music so peaceful, laying on the greenest of green grasses in Indio while I’m whisked away is something I can’t wait to happen. While, I’ve heard he talks a little too much during his sets and people have complained that he doesn’t sound as good (how could he in his 70s), I’m going to ignore the negatives and immerse myself in his beautiful harmonies.

Come Out and Play is a vicious and methodical new horror film by a mysterious new film director who only goes by the name of Makinov. This film is an update of Who Can Kill a Child?, the 1976 film that some horror aficionados call one of the best Spanish horror thrillers ever made. While the film isn’t a home run, there is a lot to admire here.

The film starts with a couple, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Vinessa Shaw, who are getting in one last vacation in Mexico before they welcome their first child. While speaking to a local, Francis finds out about a small island that is nearby that is not well traveled among tourists. He runs back to the hotel where his sick (and very pregnant) wife to tell her what he has discovered.

The film spends little time getting the couple to the island. Once there they find out that things are not what they seem. At first the couple seems to be alone. Come Out and Play features plenty of great eerie shots of Francis and Beth walking around in the desolate village. Soon they find out that they are not alone and will end up having to fight for their lives.

The island turns out to be populated with kids that are killing off all the adults. Come Out and Play then turns into a savage tale of survival. While the film doesn’t really explain why the kids are obsessed with killing all of the adults, one scene seems to point to some kind of curse that hangs over the kids.

What Come Out and Play excels at is its setting and mood which ends up being the best part about the film. Makinov nails the mood with a fantastic sound design that is mixed with a great atmospheric score that would leave John Carpenter and a host of other synth led horror maestros from the 70’s more than pleased.

With these two powerful aesthetics underlining Makinov’s overall plot, Come Out and Play just about succeeds with flying colors. There are, however, some issues the film has that almost undercut everything the film works towards. For one, the idea of two grown adults being afraid of a pack of kids seemed a little silly. Second off, some of the plot twists that happen near the end also came off as humorous.

While at first these issues were quite bothersome to me, I let the film digest for a while. It occurred to me that the film comes off as a nice little love letter written to the violent, penetrating horror films of the 1970’s and couldn’t help but think that they were meant to be a little cheesy. While forgiveness is not on the table for some of these setbacks, I can’t completely disregard what does work with the film. And to me, everything that works easily outweighs everything that doesn’t.

There hasn’t been a movie recently that has beaten me down more emotionally than Baran bo Odar’s new film, The Silence. It’s like a bomb counting down to an explosion that never happens. But it’s not about the explosion, it’s about the tension that builds as the time ticks away.

Nearly every character in the film seems to have extreme emotional issues that are only amplified by the terrible crimes that are committed. At times Bo Odar’s film feels like a sledgehammer of anxiety hitting the viewer. While all of this sounds like a detriment to the film, I’m recommending it for its powerful impact and refusal to play nice.

The film begins in the mid 1980’s with two men watching a film in a small apartment. We don’t know who they are or what film they are watching. We then see them driving in a car in the country side until they see a young girl riding her bike alone. They follow her down a road in the middle of two fields. One of the men gets out and brutally rapes and murders her.

Cut to present day where the majority of the story takes place. We first meet Elena who is the mother of the victim in the past scenes. She’s obviously still very affected by the event. We also meet Sinnika, a young teenage girl who, when we meet her, is getting into an argument with her parents. She rides off on her bike, never to be seen again.

Sinnika goes missing in the same exact spot where the previous crime was committed, thus re-opening old wounds as a new investigation is opened. One of the investigators is Krischan, a detective who is about to retire. Feeling like he has a second chance after failing to solve the original case, Krischan fully throws himself into the investigation.

David, the lead detective on the case and one of the film’s more sympathetic characters, is just getting over losing his wife to cancer. While delving further into the case his depression soon takes over, as we watch his mental state slowly deteriorate throughout the film.

I was surprised at how immediate the film’s dread-filled atmosphere is established. A lot of the credit goes to the film’s sound design, feeling straight out of a David Lynch film. Other credit must also go to cinematographer Nickolaus Summerer whose framing of the film is immaculate.

While the story and the procedural are a great backbone for the film, it’s what bo Odar gets across to the audience that is the real story here. He shows, with great effect, how a crime reaches everyone involved in different ways with the same overall effect. All of the main characters have fragile emotions that are amplified by the central crime.

The closing scenes of The Silence don’t offer much hope for anyone involved. As I mentioned before, I felt pretty demoralized when I finished the film. Films like The Silence take courage to make. Rarely does a film come out and display the level of emotions that are found within this film such as grief, sorrow, and misery. bo Odar’s film spends two hours plummeting you to excruciating depths of its characters’ lives, but when it’s all said and done, you’ll feel richer for having watched a film that leaves everything on the table.

A brand spanking new teaser trailer has been released for the upcoming James Wan directed Horror film, The Conjuring. And boy does it look to have some promise. While details are a little foggy at the moment, we do have some information on the plot. Family moves into an old farm house in the New England country side and it seems to be housing some old spirits. Judging from this trailer these spirits like to play games.

While the trailer doesn’t show them, the film stars Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Ron Livingston. Wilson is of course a Wan veteran having starred in his previous effort Insidious. The trailer itself features the greatly under appreciated Lili Taylor and her kids playing a fun little game in the old house that is marred by some devilish fiends.

Wan is probably most famous for directing the first entry in the Saw series. His other gigs have included Dead Silence, Death Sentence and the aforementioned Insidious (which I’m now seeing is getting a sequel). The film was written by twin screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes, who together have written White Out, House of Wax remake and The Reaping.

Watch the official trailer for The Conjuring

The winner of last year’s Academy Award for Best Documentary, Undefeated, tells the story of Bill Courtney and his rag tag group of footballers at Manassas High School in North Memphis, Tennessee and their struggles to come together to complete a winning season. While watching Undefeated I was reminded constantly of my personal favorite documentary, Hoop Dreams, and after finishing this, I believe that this is the best sports documentary I’ve seen since. Like Hoop Dreams, Undefeated is about so much more than just a sport. While the film deals a lot with football, the team and their games; it’s the personal stories of the young men and their struggles that really take ahold of you.

Bill Courtney is in his late 30’s and owns a company who deals with supplying hardwood. He has kids and a loving wife. Because he loves coaching football so much, he does it for free at Manassas High. The team Bill coaches is made up of all African Americans, he is white. I kept watching the film waiting for a race problem to come into play, but surprisingly it didn’t. Instead, the relationship of Bill and his players comes down to respect.

In the history of Manassas, the football program has not won a single playoff game since the late 1800’s, so their goal is to win just one. The documentary follows Bill and the team over the course of a single season through their ups and downs. Bill routinely takes time out of his busy schedule to get these kids to come together to play with each other. He misses so much of his own kids’ activities that he begins to wonder why he does what he does. When he was a kid, his father was never around for his games either. He’s starting to become like his father and that worries him.

His dedication to the team is astonishing. One scene in the film stands out as two kids start to fight with each other at a team meeting because one of them sat too close to the other. One of them walks out and goes home. Bill leaves the team meeting and follows the kid home to tell him what he did was not right and disrespectful to the others. In another scene, he gets a wealthy friend of his to take in a different player who is struggling with academics, so he can be better tutored. The player stays with the family for most of the week and then goes back to his grandma’s on the weekend.

Undefeated wisely sidesteps most of the on-field drama and shoots for more of the human element of the story. These kids are not fighting to win football games so much as there are at trying to have a chance at a better life. The best scene of the film is near the end of the film, when a very wealthy family has come to Bill and tells him that a certain player has caught their heart. They have never met the boy personally or seen him play, they only know his story, but yet they agreed to pay for his college for as long as he needs it. No questions asked.

While the film maybe could’ve concentrated a little more on the stories of some of these young men, it’s never the less an inspiring story of fighting in the face of adversity. The film never acknowledges the matter of race. So it becomes tale about the internal struggle of the human spirit and the will to help others. Undefeated is a phenomenally endearing story about struggle and sacrifice of one man’s mission to make a difference.

Last night saw the release of the lineup of this year’s edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Headliners are The Stone Roses and Blur for Friday night, Phoenix hold their own on Saturday night and the Red Hot Chili Peppers close out the festival on Sunday night. Some of the notable undercard includes: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lou Reed, Modest Mouse, newly reformed Jurassic 5, Grinderman on Friday night. Saturday night’s subheadliners are the XX, The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, New Order, Hot Chip and Grizzly Bear. Helping the Chili Peppers close out the fest are Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Vampire Weekend, Social Distortion and The Wu Tang Clan.

I’ll be sincere, when I first saw the lineup I thought I was being punk’d. First of all, I can deal with The Stone Roses and Blur, but as headliners? I’m not entirely sold. Phoenix is another band that I’m really not that into. I watched part of their set the last time they played Coachella (2010) and it was fine, but again. Headliners? But to be honest, it’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers that bothered me the most. This to me feels like a contingency plan. If the Rolling Stones rumor (that Golden Voice, Coachella promoters, were courting them and failed) is true, then they must’ve called up Kiedis and the boys to fill in. I don’t hate the Chili Peppers, but this is their third time headlining now and let’s face, they’ve become kind of boring.

But this was all last night. All the sadness and anger I had for this lineup needed to be slept on. Ironically, I had a dream that the Chili Peppers were doing sound checks at my house. I woke up this morning and looked at the lineup. I’m becoming more open to this lineup as the time wears on.

Enough crying from this writer, what bands am I excited to see? Being a big Trent Reznor fan, I could never contain my school girl giddiness for the debut performance of his newest group How to Destroy Angels. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bassnectar, Dog Blood, Beach House, New Order, Knife Party, Moby, Benny Benassi, Simian Mobile Disco, Yeasayer, Spiritualized, Ritchie Hawtin, Major Lazer, Dropkick Murphy’s, Bat for Lashes, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pretty Lights, Tame Impala, The Faint, Paul Oakenfold are the artists I’m looking forward to the most.

Over the course of the next couple of months I’ll be dividing my time between Spotify and Youtube, checking out which artists I may want to entertain as well. One of the best parts of Coachella is checking out some random artist in some tent that you’ve never heard of before and they turn out to be one of your favorite sets.

The festival this year runs over the course of two separate weekends in a row. April 12th-14th is the first weekend and April 19th-21st is the second weekend. I’ll be in attendance during weekend two. Expect another article about my “planned” itinerary for the festival a few days before weekend two. I’ll do my best to report from the festival on a daily basis, but odds are leaning towards a full festival wrap up when I get back. If you want immediate updates during the festival, you can always follow me on Twitter @WayTooIndie.

See the full 2013 Coachella lineup poster of bands below.

One of the biggest films of 2012 also happens to be one of the best Bond films ever released. It’s easy to say that Skyfall was a massive success for everyone involved. Not only is it the highest grossing Bond film in history, it also features top work from director Sam Mendes, actor Daniel Craig, and cinematographer Roger Deakins. The film contains many wonderful sequences that will be ingrained into Bond fan’s heads for decades to come. In case you missed your chance to see the film in theaters, or you want to re-live every nail biting sequence over and over again, you’ll get your chance when Skyfall lands on DVD and Blu-ray on February 12th.

With the Blu-ray, go behind-the-scenes of Bond’s latest mission with more than three hours of in-depth special features. Shooting Bond brings adrenaline-hungry fans closer to the heart-stopping action and 007’s world of worthy villains, glamorous women, exotic locations and the coolest gadgets.

Blu-ray Special Features:

• Shooting Bond
• Intro
• Opening Sequence
• The Title Sequence
• 007
• Q
• DB5
• Women
• Villains
• Action
• Locations
• Music
• End Sequence
• M
• The Future
• Skyfall Premiere
• Commentaries
• Director Sam Mendes
• Producers Michael G. Wilson & Barbara Broccoli; Production Designer Dennis
• Gassner
• Theatrical Trailer

DVD Special Features:

• Shooting Bond
• The Title Sequence
• DB5
• Women
• Locations

Skyfall Official trailer:

Having just wrapping up principal photography on the new film, The Last Lonely Place, the Humphrey Bogart Estate backed project, has newly released official photos from the film. The new independent thriller starring Rhys Coiro, Sam Taylor, Carly Pope, Xander Berkeley, Richard Portnow, Michelle Krusiec, Jeananne Goossen, and Erin Matthews was shot over the course of November and December of last year in Los Angeles. In terms of the look of the film, it seems to be heavily influenced by Michael Mann’s L.A. crime thrillers Heat and Collateral, which is never a bad thing.

This Last Lonely Place revolves around an injured war vet cab driver (Coiro) who picks up a wealthy investment banker (Berkeley) late one night in Beverly Hills. On edge, the banker confesses to a shady investment scheme, and after picking up his mistress (Pope), it is revealed that a terrible crime has just been committed. Drawn into a conspiracy gone awry, the cab driver is now at their mercy. As the long dark cab ride progresses – through the lonely streets and back alleys of Los Angeles – dark layers of deceit come to light.

Steve Anderson wrote the original screenplay and is also producing and directing the film. A Peabody Award winner, Anderson previously directed The Big Empty, which starred Jon Favreau, Kelsey Grammar, and Daryl Hannah. In addition, he wrote and directed the free speech documentary F*ck, and recently wrote and produced The River Murders, starring Ray Liotta and Christian Slater. Below are some exclusive first shots of the film.

Xander Berkeley as Frank Devore in This Last Lonely Place

Carly Pope as Faye Gardner in This Last Lonely Place

Rhys Coiro as Sam Taylor in This Last Lonely Place

This Last Lonely Place in Little Tokyo Los Angeles

Carly Pope waits at the Chateau Marmont in This Last Lonely Place

Isolation is the name of the game in Peter Strickland’s new thriller Berberian Sound Studio. The film concerns itself with a British man Gilderoy, played perfectly by Toby Jones, a sound engineer who is asked to come to Rome to work on the sound design of a new Giallo film that is currently in post-production at the Berberian Sound Studio.

The film begins with Gilderoy walking into the Studio for the first time. The first person he runs into is the receptionist who warns Gilderoy, before he can get a sentence out, that she doesn’t speak a lick of English. This is a running idea throughout the film. Gilderoy is the only person in the film who speaks English thus whenever anyone else talks to each other in the film it’s in Italian. There are numerous shots of him looking lost or in wonder of what is being said. A lot of the shots that are framed around Gilderoy are tight close ups on his face.

Adding to the confusion, the film they are working on is never shown. Images reflect on the actor’s faces as they watch the film they are producing. Other than 2 or 3 minutes of a film that consists of shots of landscape, there are no scenes that take place outside the studio. Strickland aims to keep you feeling as alone and secluded as possible. And it works.

From the look of Berberian Sound Studio, making sound for film can be as fun as it is as frustrating. Using everything from fruit, instruments, and different pieces of flooring and ground (dirt, grass etc.), Gilderoy and his team begin to craft the sounds for their new film. For example, when someone is getting hacked to death by a serial killer, cutting up a watermelon is used.

Strickland’s filmmaking works wonders (for a while) for the film. References to some of the great Italian horror directors, like Dario Argento and Mario Bava are thrown in. Even David Lynch, the great surrealist filmmaker, has a hat tipped to him. The tone of the film is quiet and calm. But you can tell something is amiss. You feel like at any time something could go awry. Credit goes to Strickland for keeping the audience on its toes throughout the film.

Jones’ performance as Gilderoy is one of his best. As a man who is slowly losing his mind, Jones keeps his performance in check. He doesn’t go overboard with acting and stays on the right side of the camp. The same cannot be said about Strickland. While roughly 80% of the film is well done and a very good example of claustrophobic filmmaking, the final 20% loses the plot. The film ultimately goes nowhere, which is very unfortunate considering what preceded it.

Rarely do I think films need to be longer but in this case, I think another 20 minutes could have been beneficial to the film. Berberian Sound Studio feels like Strickland ran out of money and had to just release what he had filmed. Because of this the film never becomes what it originally set out to be. While Berberian Sound Studio isn’t a total loss, it has great atmosphere, sense of dread, and some great performances, I can’t quite recommend it since it derails from its plot about 20 minutes before it ends.

After premiering (and receiving a relatively warm reception) at TIFF in September, we really haven’t heard much about Derek Cianfrance’s new film, The Place Beyond the Pines. Some wondered what would come of the film. A couple months back the studio releasing the film, Focus Features, announced that it would see theaters near the end of March.

I personally saw this as a meaning that the film wasn’t as strong as some once thought. Well now we have a full length trailer and boy does it look to be an emotional experience. The film stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stunt man who starts committing robbery’s to support his family. On the other side of the coin is a cop played by Bradley Cooper whose looks to take him down.

Cianfrance was last seen with the emotionally wrought drama Blue Valentine (also starring Gosling). By the end of that film, it felt like my heart had been ripped out and stepped on. This looks to have the same emotional impact. The film also stars Rose Byrne, Eva Mendes, Bruce Greenwood and Ray Liotta. Check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for The Place Beyond the Pines:

Let’s face it, compared to 2011, this year was a relatively boring year for movies. While the year started out great with some fantastic films getting released after June the quantity of quality films dropped significantly. That’s not to say that there are not any great movies to be seen, but compared to 2011 where it was one great film released after another, this year has been very disappointing. Granted I have not seen a few films yet such as Zero Dark Thirty, Cloud Atlas, Lincoln, Skyfall, Django Unchained and The Hobbit. But even if all those movies were great I still don’t think it would’ve come close to last year.

I found that it was much easier this year to make a top ten list then last year. Where last year it took me maybe a week to decide what goes where, this year I probably spent a day overall on my list. Without further ado, here is my list of ten films which I felt were far and away the best of the year. Following my top ten list is my selection of honorable mentions; films I felt were oh so close to making my top ten but ultimately were not as good.

Blake Ginithan’s Top 10 Films of 2012

Honorable Mentions

Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Killer Joe
Cabin in the Woods
The Amazing Spider-Man
Cosmopolis

Ben Affleck’s Argo is a helluva thriller. One of the best Hollywood has released this year. I’ve personally disliked his other directing efforts, not because they were bad, I actually think they are very well made. Gone Baby Gone had me until it’s ridiculous ending and The Town is an engrossing crime melodrama that felt like a blue collar ode to Michael Mann’s much better film Heat. But here Affleck nails it. Everything about Argo is top notch. Roger Ebert has been saying that this is the film to beat for the Best Picture Oscar. While I’m not going to go all in on that bet it’s a safe bet that Argo will nab probably around 6-7 nominations come February.

Ben Affleck stars as Tony Mendez, a CIA agent whose job is to go into risky situations and rescue people. Mendez comes off as a company man. He gives his all to his job, so much so that his wife has left him with their young son. When we meet Mendez he is passed out on his bed after a night of boozing. His phone rings and he is called in to work on an emergency.

His boss played by Bryan Cranston updates him on the situation. The American embassy in Iran has been penetrated by an angry mob and hostages have been taken. But a handful of Americans have escaped and are hiding out at the home of the Canadian representative. The film opens with the embassy siege and Affleck gets his film off to a grueling start. The angry mob chants outside violently, loudly. Everyone inside can feel it coming and you can almost see their hearts beating out of their chests.

So now we have a problem. A few Americans are stuck in a house in the middle of a city with millions of people who would kill them if they were to be found. While a bunch of paper was shredded before everyone evacuated the embassy, the Revolutionary Guard (think the Iranian KGB, kinda) start forcing kids in sweat shops to put together the shredded paper to see information.

Now the Americans have to get out before their pictures are put back together and the RG find out that there are other people missing. You might be wondering why Iranians are mad enough to storm the American embassy. Let me explain. Iran was run by a guy who was not well liked around the globe (especially the U.S.), so they (the U.S.) took him out of power and installed a new leader. He was not well liked in Iran and they basically got rid of him. The ousted leader fled to the U.S. where he was granted asylum. The people of Iran demanded that he be returned so he could stand trial and ultimately be hanged. When their cries went unheard, they protested and eventually stormed the embassy.

The CIA has some emergency meetings on how to get the Americans out. Some of them are straight up laughable. One of them involves the hiding Americans to ride bikes over 300 miles to the Iraqi border. This idea is banking on the idea that they don’t get any flat tires or you know, like dying from exhaustion. Now let’s be honest. Mendez’s idea isn’t exactly great either. Wait, what’s his idea? Well I’m glad you asked. His idea is to make a fake science fiction film that has some exotic location shoots that would require an Iranian backdrop. Each of the hideaways would have a different job whether it’d be the director, screenwriter or camera man. Mendez flies in to Tehran gives them fake identities they are to learn in a day. There is a fantastic sequence where they are touring a crowded market for a location shoot.

Unfortunately, you just can’t fly into Iran with this idea and expect them to buy it. Mendez realizes that he needs some actual Hollywood filmmakers to bankroll this idea and promote this. So he flies off to Los Angeles to talk to filmmakers who would be interested. He happens to know a guy who does make up/fx work for films. He is played by John Goodman and let’s be honest here. This is John fucking Goodman we’re talking about. He is welcome in any movie as far as I’m concerned. He’s great here.

Goodman is essentially a link for Mendez to a producer needed to pass the word around town of this fake movie. That producer is played by Alan Arkin. Arkin is great in the film but seriously, he could do this film in his sleep. Regardless, he and Goodman have some terrific scenes that really let the audience breathe during the really tense sequences in the film. It was only a few years prior that Star Wars set the world aflame and with its success they think a new space epic would be a good film to sell to the Iranian government. After looking for hours they stumble upon the script. That film is Argo.

Argo succeeds for many reasons. First of all, it’s very well made. Affleck nails down the era whether it’d be the clothes, hairstyles and general feeling of the period. Even the old school Warner Brothers logo that the studio rocked in the 1970’s is used and to me that alone put me into the mood the film was trying to get across. Secondly, it’s very well-acted. Other than the aforementioned actors, Affleck casts veteran actors in other supporting roles and all of them are more than up to the challenge. Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Rory Cochrane and Christopher Denham are all terrific as four of the Americans hiding out for their lives. And last but not least, it’s just flat out terrific fun. Argo is a two hour film that flies by. While its main intention is to entertain it also sets out to inform. I went to the film with my mom who obviously knew about the Iranian hostage crisis that last 444 days, but had no idea about this little subplot that was taking place at the same time.

The final 45 minutes of Argo is intense. Affleck easily slides from one tense sequence to another, sprinkling in dashes of humor here and there. This is pure Hollywood entertainment we’re talking about. At moments you’ll want to stand up and cheer. After the film finished my mom looked at me and had to catch her breath while telling me she was glad she didn’t have a heart condition. Affleck seems like one of the genuine good guys in Hollywood. Here he has made his best film so far. It also happens to be one of the best mainstream offerings of the year.

Chernobyl Diaries comes close to succeeding, but in the end it fails to deliver on a promising build up. When I saw the preview months ago I laughed off the idea of tourists getting the chance to tour an area of the Ukraine that had been decimated by radiation about 25 years ago. These tours were a part of something called “Extreme Tourism”. I actually did some research after the film to find out that these tours are in fact real tours one can do.

Jesse McCartney (yes that former child pop star Jesse McCartney) stars as an American tourist, Chris, who is currently trekking across Europe from one exotic city to another with his girlfriend, Natalie and their friend Amanda. They are on their way to meet up with his brother, Paul, who is currently living in the Ukraine. Chris is getting ready to (surprise, surprise) propose to his girlfriend. Something Paul, who loves his bachelor life, doesn’t agree with.

While in the Ukraine, the four of them check out the night life and in one instance almost get into a fight with some locals. Paul then suggests they do something that most people would overlook. That something is a tour of Chernobyl. If you’re not brushed up on your world history, during the mid-80’s a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl had a meltdown that caused a lot of deaths and made the area basically inhabitable. Dense pockets of radiation permeate the area making death inevitable if you stay for a certain amount of time.

Thankfully their tour guide on this journey has a Geiger counter with him at all times. The slightest hint of radiation and it goes off. Now they can venture as far as they want without much risk. Before they leave though a couple who have been backpacking together for a month, walk into the office and decide to join the group. This doesn’t add any other textures to the film in terms of characters, just makes the body count higher.

Chernobyl happens to be about 2 hours outside of the city and once they arrive at the gates, guards usher them in the other direction. No visitors today. But Uri, their tour guide, says he knows another way in. And thus we are off again to find the other way in.

The setting where the film was shot is desolate and depressing. Shot in nearby Hungary and Serbia (I’m guessing shooting on location in Chernobyl would’ve made for a difficult time) in wastelands of crumbled buildings that are so broken down that I thought for sure they could fall at any moment. The locations are great and give the film a note of authenticity.

They walk around the dilapidated city for hours. I can’t imagine walking around a city that is no more. The shots of the group walking the city are astonishingly quiet. This sets up real tension for what’s to come. As it starts to get dark out, the group head back to the van they arrived in to depart and guess what, the van won’t start. This is where the film starts to get good. The group soon finds out that they are not alone. There are things (which I won’t hint at) that are after them and that want them dead.

Unfortunately, this all starts way too late in the film. While I generally have no issues with films taking their time building up their final acts, Chernobyl Diaries is a short film and it takes up the better part of its running time doing so. Running only a mere 80 minutes, the film spends a good 50 to 60 minutes building up to its finale. And to be honest the final 20 minutes do not do any of the prior 50 of the film any justice.

If anything the film should’ve been another 20 minutes longer. Giving the film more time at the end could’ve inflicted more scares on the audience. What is nice about the final half of the film is that there are not a lot of cheap scares that populate the film. Instead the film relies on scary background noises and shadows to perpetrate its damage on the audience. But again, any of this tension the film wanted is ruined by the long build up and short climax.

All of this is unfortunate because rarely do you see a horror film these days take so much time constructing its setting as well as Chernobyl Diaries does. The premise is a good one. The setting is original. Some of the scares are well put together. But man does it a take a long time to really go anywhere. It’s really too bad because that anywhere turns out to be nowhere.

The first thing I did when I finished William Friedkin’s Killer Joe was take a shower. The film is up to its neck in grunge, sweat, dirt and blood. There isn’t a moment where you have time to breathe either because as soon as the film begins you’re plunged into this trailer park soap opera of lies, cheats and blood money. All the credit goes to the veteran Friedkin who takes out any shades of morality and presents some of the stupidest and most vile people you’ll ever see in a film. A friend of mine put it best. There is no emotional core to absolutely anything in the film.

Friedkin is probably one of my favorite directors to ever work in film. Everyone has seen at least one of his films; The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A. (a personal favorite), Sorcerer and Bug, just to name a few. The guy knows how to take an audience on a thrill ride and Killer Joe is no exception.

Joe is played with a frighteningly calm power by Matthew McConaughey who gives easily the performance of his career here. He has never been better in my opinion. He comes off cool and collected, but when pushed in a direction that he doesn’t prefer, McConaughey unleashes a lion’s worth of indignation. In one scene a poor unfortunate soul meets the monster that Joe is forced to become when pushed too hard. Give this guy an Oscar nomination already.

The film involves a family living in a trailer court on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas. The Smith family is poor of course and had no hint of manners present at all. Led by father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) and his wife Sharla (Gina Gershon) they live with his daughter (her step) Dottie (Juno Temple). Both Temple and Gershon are very brave actors for accepting roles like these. They both go to places in this film that takes guts.

One night, Ansel’s son Chris (Emile Hirsch) comes home in the pouring rain to talk to Ansel about a pressing matter. To give you an idea of how much Sharla is aloof too much of anything, she basically laughs off Chris when he complains of her answering the door with no panties on. Ansel didn’t seem to get it either. Friedkin really drives home the point that these people seem to have no moral compass.

Chris and Ansel go to a strip club to talk about the predicament he is in. Chris is a terrible gambler and is in to a local drug dealer for some money he owes. If he doesn’t pay soon they will kill him. A little birdy tells Chris that his mother (not Sharla) has a life insurance policy of $50,000 if anything were to happen to her. Chris was also told about a crooked cop who moonlights as killer for hire if the price is right. This killer is played by McConaughey.

Chris and Ansel then go to a strip club to talk about the predicament he is in. It turns out Chris is terrible with money and owes his scumbag boss a lot of it. If he doesn’t pay soon he will be killed. A little birdy tells Chris that his biological mother has a life insurance policy of $50,000 if anything were to happen to her. Chris was also told about a crooked cop who moonlights as killer for hire if the price is right. This killer is played by McConaughey.

Chris sets up a meeting with Joe about the deal to kill his mother. When Joe says his pay is $25,000 up front no questions, Chris tells him he can’t pay it. Joe starts to walk out but notices young Dottie playing in the street. He inquires about her being his “retainer” in lieu of the $25,000 Chris cannot come up with. They agree. This leads to an extremely tense scene of seduction involving Joe and Dottie in the family’s trailer home that has to be seen to be believed. It’s a very edgy scene that could cause some people to rethink the film they are watching.

The rest of the film I will not reveal as Friedkin builds his entire plot to an utterly outstanding, and very outlandish, final 30 minutes. As I mentioned earlier, do not go searching for a moral center in this film. It does not exist. There is not one redeeming character on display here. Friedkin bathes you in the dirt and filth these people live in on a daily basis.

Make no mistake about Killer Joe. The film is not all serious business. In fact, the film is brutally funny at times. Especially the final 15 minutes of the film which will have some people cheering at Friedkin’s audacity at showing a ferocious McConaughey making a complete meal of the Smith family in their home. The final lines of the film will have you laughing in disbelief and you’ll probably never look at fried chicken the same way again. Killer Joe is one of the best (if not dirtiest) film going experiences I’ve had this year.

If nothing more, Grave Encounters is a fun romp through a couple of different sub genres. On one half you have the ‘found footage’ genre which is all the rage in horror these days (thanks Paranormal Activity) and the other half you have a group of people in way over their heads getting themselves stuck in an old run down mental hospital. Original this movie is not. But who cares, this movie is a lot of fun and more importantly doesn’t take itself seriously at all.

The film is about a ‘reality’ type TV show you’d find on the Sy-Fy channel (why did they change the spelling by the way) about a group of people exploring old houses, hospitals and other buildings, looking for proof of ghosts. The film has some nice intro scenes with this group as they walk the grounds to see where they can get the best shots, interviews with people who work there. There is one funny scene where they ask a gardener if he had seen any weird occurrences and he says, “No.” They cut filming and pay him $50 bucks to say he’s seen something. Roll camera again and sure enough he says he has seen a couple of things.

Back inside, the group gets everything set up for their night. Cameras positioned, lighting where they need it, etc. They give a chain for the owner to put around the doors of the main entrance. He is to come back at 6am sharp to let them out. But at no time sooner is he to return. And with that, their filming begins.

The group decides to split up to get more filming done in less time. What’s great about the film is that it doesn’t rush the scares. There are plenty of scenes where we get POV shots of people walking the dark hallways of this former madhouse. There are no lights that work in the building, so either light comes from the cameras, flash lights or else we are treated to green lit infra-red shots. These shots make up essentially the entirety of the film.

Like I said, there are PLENTY of shots where it’s someone walking the hallways alone as they search for odd activity. I don’t remember a score so a lot of these scenes are treated with an eerie quietness that only permeates the fear in the viewer. Now it may be that I have a very active imagination, but I personally loved all of this.

About a half hour into Grave Encounters the crew starts to see some funky stuff go down. A wheelchair randomly moves by itself. A door slams itself behind someone as they enter a room. Someone actually thinks the wind could’ve done it, but when 3 people try to shut it themselves, they struggle with it and with no wind blowing through the hall, one gets pretty anxious at what the answer must be.

Time seems to move slowly in this hospital. At one point, it’s about 6am. A couple of hours later the sun is still down and other’s watches have stopped. This is where Grave Encounters takes a turn into something else. The hospital seems to exist in another dimension when people are in it. The film crew agonizingly discovers this when exit doors lead to other hallways instead of outdoors and when a climbing staircase leads to a brick wall instead of a door to the roof. Plus their newly wrapped food in the cooler suddenly turns moldy and maggot filled. My over-active imagination and I freaked out at the idea of being put in this situation. One person has the idea to break the windows with something heavy like a hammer or a crow bar. Whoops, they forgot them in the van outside. What the hell where they thinking?

Just over halfway through, the film introduces CGI and it almost ruins everything the filmmakers had been working towards. Some of the set pieces they pull off because of CGI are well done, but could easily have gone the other way if they had been handled differently. Thankfully it’s not over done and is used in some great moments, ones that I will not reveal here. But to say this group goes through some sadistic shit is not overstating anything.

SPOILERS: All of this leads up to the final third of the film which dwindles our group down to only 2 or 3 people and then eventually down to one poor soul. What he ultimately discovers about the hospital is pretty dumb if only because it’s been done before plenty of other times in plenty of other films. But Grave Encounters has plenty of fun getting there and that’s enough for me to recommend it.

Yesterday we presented part one of this two part feature on horror films that have been neglected by the average viewer. Today we bring to you our second and final installment that will include 10 films that we feel are horror films that have been overlooked, skipped over or just plain forgotten about Even though these would be our “10 through 1” we list alphabetically below Way Too Indie’s 10 Great Horror Films You Haven’t Seen (Part 2).

Angel Heart

Alan Parker’s horror film about a sleazy 1950’s New York private detective caught up in a missing persons case is gloriously depraved at times, but never boring. Mickey Rourke plays the said private detective, a man who the more and more he searches for this missing person, the more he slowly begins to lose his mind. And his soul. Robert DeNiro plays a supporting role as a mysterious man who initially hires Rourke for the case. The final 20 minutes of the film are spellbinding. [Blake]

Ghostwatch

While people in North America may not be familiar with Ghostwatch, the film has quite the reputation in the UK. Broadcast on Halloween in 1992, Ghostwatch was presented as a TV special that would investigate a haunted house in greater London. The goal was to record physical evidence of a poltergeist on live television, except viewers didn’t know that the entire program was fake and taped weeks in advance. The program was so believable in its presentation (mostly due to using real-life reporters from the network) that when ghostly apparitions did start appearing some people were legitimately fooled. There was an uproar afterwards, with thousands of phone calls from terrified viewers flooding the network and accusations of the show leading a man to commit suicide. Even if you know it’s all fake, Ghostwatch is still a fun ride with plenty of eerie moments supported by the show’s realistic presentation. Watch this and it’s easy to understand why people were tricked twenty years ago. [C.J.]

Hotel

Jessica Hausner’s criminally underseen Hotel is probably unlike any horror film in existence. Despite its brief 80 minute runtime, Hotel will feel much longer with its snail-like pace. Hotel follows Irene, a new worker at a resort in the Austrian Alps. Even though the girl she’s replacing vanished without a trace, none of the other workers seem to care and treat Irene with hostility. At the same time weird things begin to happen around the area, and the local legend of a witch seems to constantly linger in the background. What makes Hotel so unique and terrifying is that Hausner examines what causes fear along with the irrational nature behind what gives people the creeps. Everything that happens in Hotel can be rationally explained or brushed off, but Hausner infuses each moment with so much dread and atmosphere that a closed door or a broken speaker can create chills. The slow pacing and refusal to conform to any of the horror genre’s standards made Hotel get thrown into obscurity (it hasn’t been released in North America, and a DVD recently put out in the UK was done to capitalize on the success of Hausner’s most recent film) but in a just world Hotel would be recognized as one of the strongest horror films to come out of this century. [C.J.]

The House of the Devil

Ti West’s nostalgic trip to the 1980s is so accurate in its visuals that it wouldn’t be surprising if some people were fooled into thinking it really came out 3 decades ago. Following a poor college student who desperately needs to afford rent for her new apartment, her prayers are answered when she’s offered hundreds of dollars to babysit overnight at a house in the countryside outside of town. While every single thing about the homeowners (Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov, both brilliantly cast) would send anyone running in the opposite direction, the money is too tempting to pass up the offer. West quietly takes his time, slowly building up an uneasy atmosphere while throwing in a few jolts along the way to make sure people know that he knows what he’s doing. Once West pulls back the curtain he pulls no punches with an insane, bloody finale that shows why he’s one of the best horror filmmakers working today. [C.J.]

Inland Empire

David Lynch has made a career out of making surreal imagery aimed at shocking you. Inland Empire, his final film, is his best. A 3 hour mammoth nightmare about a woman trying to navigate a despairing Los Angeles is one shocking image after another. This film also has a slow beginning, but is very rewarding if you stick with it. Shot on low grade DV cameras giving it a very grungy look, but this choice makes Inland Empire frightening in some parts. If you’ve ever seen a David Lynch film you’ll somewhat know what to expect, if you haven’t, please don’t expect a logical film, Lynch doesn’t work that way. He simply means to unsettle you and he succeeds with flying colors. [Blake]

Kairo (Pulse)

Many films have been made that comment on our growing attachment to technology, but the most effective and relevant movie to tackle the subject came out back when dial-up was still the most common way to get online. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kairo is the first horror masterpiece of the 21st century, a downright terrifying ghost story whose message about the death of real social interaction has become more relevant today than it was 11 years ago. The universe where souls go in the afterlife has reached its capacity, and with nowhere else to go the spirits start spilling out through the seemingly infinite world of the internet. The problem is that these ghosts are filled with so much despair and pain that anyone who comes into contact with one is driven to suicide or simply ceases to exist. Kurosawa’s plot is as murky as the film’s visuals, but the themes of loneliness and loss of real-life connections resonate throughout. And there’s no way anyone can mention Kairo without bringing up how frightening it can be. Kurosawa shoots death scenes with a simplicity that makes them all the more horrific, and the hauntings are some of the scariest things ever put on film. But over a decade later, the scariest thing about Kairo is how well it predicted the future. [C.J.]

Santa Sangre

Alejandro Jodorowsky is a name most will probably not recognize unless you were to be a big follower of underground filmmaking. But thanks to films getting the DVD treatment, his films have found a wider audience. Sangre is another film in the horror genre that is a complete original. Santa Sangre is about a man who has been recently released from a mental institution after many years. We find out through flashbacks that he lived with his mother and father, who ran a circus. His father, in a fit of rage after discovering she was cheating on him with a fellow act, cuts off her arms. After being released, the young man decides to become his mother’s ‘arms’ in her quest for bloody vengeance. Santa Sangre has a very intoxicating vibe throughout its 2 hour runtime and will leave you breathless. I guarantee that you have never seen anything like this. And probably never will. This is a must see. [Blake]

Session 9

Someone once dared me to watch Session 9 with the lights off. I made it only about 45 minutes, when I had to pause the film and ran to turn them on. Brad Anderson’s film about an asbestos cleaning crew tasked with cleaning out an old mental institution takes its time, but once it hits its hour mark its one fantastic scare after another. The crew has a huge task with this massive dilapidated hospital and with the pressure mounting to get the job done early members of the crew slowly start to lose their minds. The final 30 minutes is heart pounding. [Blake]

Suicide Club

Riding on the wave of J-horror that swept across America in the early 2000s, Sion Sono made one hell of an entrance with Suicide Club. The film’s opening shows 54 high school girls cheerily holding each other’s hands before leaping in front of an oncoming subway train. Through the limbs and blood (there is a LOT of blood) police find a bag that contains a piece of skin from each of the 54 girls stitched together, and soon one police officer is discovering a secret cult that encourages its members to kill themselves. While Suicide Club lacks in scares, it makes up for it with plenty of laughs. The film is a pitch black comedy/satire that takes the cult of celebrity to a whole new extreme. Sono switches between genres without breaking a sweat, throwing in musical numbers and brooding suspense without losing control of what he wants to say. While Sion Sono has gone on to establish himself as one of the more prominent Japanese filmmakers working today, Suicide Club showed that Sono was definitely someone who couldn’t be lumped in with the pile of J-horror imports coming out around the same time. [C.J.]

Suspiria

The second Dario Argento film on my list. Suspiria is not only the best film Argento has done but also one of the best horror films ever made. Argento relies heavily on atmosphere and its score to create a dreamlike state. Suspiria is about an American ballet dancer transplanted to a dance school in rural Germany that is run by a coven of witches. But forget the film’s flimsy story; it’s just an excuse to showcase the brilliant filmmaking on hand. The cinematography and lighting combined with rock band Goblin’s score create one of the most surreal and hauntingly original pieces the genre has ever seen. Unfortunately when people talk about great horror films, no one seems to have seen this Italian masterpiece. [Blake]

Unless you are a big horror movie fan, you probably have the same set list of films you watch every Halloween. Navigating the horror section of your local video store, Netflix or even Red Box can be like running through a mine field. Chances are you’re going to end up with some duds. The staff at Way Too Indie know this, we’ve ran this field many times.

Fellow writer C.J. and I are pretty big fans of horror films. I don’t know if we would refer ourselves as aficionados of any kind, but we love our horror and we are here to your rescue. We have each come up with lists of horror films that we feel have been overlooked, skipped over or just plain forgotten about.

We’ve decided to present these lists over two articles with each of us have chosen 10 films. 5 films from each of our lists will be shown today in alphabetical order. These 10 films from us would be our “20 through 10” if you will, with each of our Top 5’s being revealed in the same manner in this article. Listed alphabetically below are Way Too Indie’s 10 Great Horror Films You Haven’t Seen (Part 1).

28 Weeks Later

This vastly overlooked sequel to the immediate 2003 horror classic is one of the few films I’ve seen where each scene is better than the one that precedes it. The film takes a little while to get going but once it does its one spectacular set piece after another. The scares come big and quick and will leave you gasping for your breath. The film takes place in a quarantined London with only a few hundred people living in a blocked off area looking to slowly repopulate the city. An outbreak happens again and the survivors are forced to fight for their lives against a mass horde of the infected as well as the military who want everyone dead. [Blake]

Absentia

Mike Flanagan’s Absentia came out earlier this year after a successful festival run in 2011, and it’s easy to understand why it received so much success on the festival circuit. Made on a tiny budget (about $70k), Absentia starts out with a woman finally deciding to declare her husband as dead after he went missing several years ago. As her younger sister arrives to help they begin noticing that some sort of otherworldly force might be responsible for the husband’s disappearance. What separates Absentia from other low-budget horror films is that Mike Flanagan puts his focus on characters and story. There are limitations that come with the budget, but Absentia’s willingness to spend time on creating well-developed characters makes the horror more potent. Luckily the film was enough of a success that Mike Flanagan was able to strike a deal for a new film with a budget that’s much higher than this film. Absentia shows that Flanagan has plenty of potential, and hopefully with a bigger scale he’ll deliver something truly special. [C.J.]

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

What if Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers and all the other big slasher villains actually existed? Behind the Mask takes place in an alternate universe where all the classic horror films are true, and it turns out that the field of killing teens is a competitive one. Posing as a documentary of an up and coming masked killer as he plans his big debut massacre, Behind the Mask pokes fun at genre tropes as its title character (played terrifically by Nathan Baesel, who makes Leslie seem like the nicest guy until he starts killing) lets the camera crew in on his big secrets. Want to know how people like Jason can walk so slow yet travel so quickly? Leslie Vernon demonstrates how in one of the movie’s funnier sequences. What makes Behind the Mask really stand out is the way it will gleefully indulge in the same clichés it skewers. Periodically, the mockumentary video look will switch over to 16mm where key sequences in Leslie’s ‘movie’ will be shown, with the documentary crew eventually becoming a part of the slasher. The final act of Behind the Mask, which permanently switches over to film for its cinematic conclusion, shows that the slasher film isn’t truly dead yet. It may be predictable and easily broken down, but it doesn’t matter as long as people are having fun watching it. [C.J.]

Bug

William Friedkin’s Bug is one of the best ever made about paranoia. Other than the opening scene at a bar that lasts maybe 10-15 minutes, Bug takes place entirely inside a small motel room with only 2 people. Michael Shannon as a man obsessed with bugs and Ashley Judd who falls for him incessantly give mesmerizing performances as two lonely souls who trap themselves into a room in fear that everyone is after them. Friedkin’s directing is mercilessly intense and it never lets go of you the entire running time. There is a point in the film where you actually start to fear for the actor’s safety and that is a scary thing. [Blake]

Deep Red

The first of my two Dario Argento films that are on my list, Deep Red is more of a slasher flick masquerading as a Horror film, but the film has some downright chilling scenes. A killer stalks the streets of Rome and it’s up to a reporter and a pianist to solve the case. Deep Red is overlong by probably a half hour, but Argento’s craft behind the camera is phenomenal. Argento creates fantastic atmosphere and builds tension in his scenes with natural ease. [Blake]

Ils (Them)

The greatest strength that Ils possesses is how economical the whole thing is. Directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud make sure there isn’t a single ounce of fat, letting the film run at a very lean 77 minutes and cutting straight to the point. A French couple living in the countryside are disrupted one night when a group of hooded figures start terrorizing them. It’s evident from the start that whoever (or whatever) is attacking the couple has the upper hand which makes the majority of Ils a brutal escape/survival story as its two main characters try to get out alive. Moreau and Palud construct one sequence after another that’s designed to create as much tension as possible, and for the most part they succeed. Most of the tension in Ils comes from not knowing exactly who or what the villain is, and its presence is so intimidating that it looks like something paranormal has to be at work. The climax will probably cause some people to roll their eyes once the true nature of the villain is revealed, but there’s no denying that Ils is one hell of a nail-biter. [C.J.]

May

Lucky McKee’s film about a psychologically ill young woman was completely overlooked upon its release and since hasn’t had much of a following either. May is about a woman who works at an animal hospital and no matter how hard she tries she just can’t connect with anyone. She meets a mechanic who takes a liking to her until he finds out she’s weird. Very weird. May soon realizes that if she can’t find any friends, why not….make one? Angela Bettis’ lead performance is sublime and McKee takes his time with story to fully grow. Let’s not forget the final shocking scene of the film that made my mouth drop when I first saw it. [Blake]

Noroi (The Curse)

While most found footage films tend to keep their scale as small as possible, Noroi intelligently goes in the opposite direction. While genre staples like Blair Witch Project, [REC] and Paranormal Activity are limited to one location and amateur camerawork, Noroi culls footage from multiple sources and takes the form of a professionally made documentary. It’s framed as an unfinished doc about a curse the director discovers (a director who mysteriously vanished while editing his film) and tries to end. Noroi’s first half, which presents a series of seemingly disconnected paranormal events before joining them together, is as captivating as it is unsettling. The film’s climax and epilogue don’t live up to the amount of dread built up in the first hour, but Noroi still manages to get under the skin. [C.J.]

Spoorloos (The Vanishing)

This Dutch thriller from the late 80’s will emotionally destroy you. A young couple is taking a trip via the highway and pulls off at a gas stop to fill up. While they are stopped the woman suddenly disappears. Three years later, the man (who hasn’t given up hope of finding her) receives letters from the abductor. What happens after they agree to meet will haunt you. Spoorloos will have you clutching your loved ones and never letting go. The film was later remade in America by the same director. Avoid it at all costs. [Blake]

Wolf Creek

If watching Wolf Creek for the first time isn’t hard enough, try watching it a second time. The film’s long first half that slowly introduces its three main characters is harder to watch knowing what’s in store for them. While camping in the wilderness, the three friends find themselves targeted by a serial killer in the area, and at this point of the film Wolf Creek takes a brutal turn for the worse. A cat and mouse game ensues, but what director Greg McLean does so well is get across the feeling of total despair from its main characters. The barren outback setting and McLean’s twisting of genre expectations wipe away any predictability, and the killer’s advantages over his victims, while simple, make him all the more terrifying. Wolf Creek is feel-bad cinema, but it’s all the better for it. [C.J.]

See the next 10 horror films

When the 4th sequel in the Die Hard sequel was announced I (along with millions of others) rolled my eyes. While the first three films are full of fantastic action, Live Free and Die Hard turned out to be a pretty uninspired (not to mention PG-13) mess. First, what the hell is Justin Long doing in the Die Hard series? Second off, as much as I love Timothy Olyphant, he was a terrible villain.

Ok, done ranting. Indiewire threw up the teaser trailer for the 5th film in series, A Good Day to Die Hard. While I was totally getting ready to start hating on the trailer before I started it, I have to admit that this looks like it could be a fun ride. This film looks to take our main squeeze John McClane (Bruce Willis, who else?) up against some Eastern Europeans. Those guys always seem to be trying to take over the world, am I right?

The trailer is loaded with tons of explosions and shootouts. While I’m not completely sold on the film, I feel less worried about how further the series will be ruined. The film is directed by John Moore who has directed such films as Behind Enemy Lines and Max Payne (both terrible). So sit back and enjoy a minute’s worth action porn.

Watch the teaser trailer for A Good Day to Die Hard:

Everyone knows Rob Zombie from his music days with his band White Zombie and of course with his solo career as well. But for the past few years he’s been carving his name in the Horror film echelon. His output has been pretty split in terms of quality. His first two films House of 1,000 Corpses and its sequel The Devil’s Rejects were inspired pieces of work. Corpses being an obvious homage to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, while Rejects was a highly inspired semi road film with spectacularly inspired violence and brutality.

His next two films were the Halloween remakes. I personally didn’t care for the first film, but you cannot deny some of the power its sequel has. The film is hands down one of the most violent I’ve ever seen. My point is that Zombie has a love of anything and everything Horror and actually has talent to showcase. He’s more than capable of putting together frightening images that shock his audiences.

My major grip with Zombie’s films is the persistent casting of his real life wife (the ever so aptly named) Sherry Moon Zombie. She’s a terrible actress. She’s not only terrible, but ghastly annoying. I’m sure she’s a really nice person, but please stop casting her. Please.

All of this leads me to my point. Uncle Bob is back with another tale of American gothic Horror. It’s titled The Lords of Salem and it has a new trailer. The film is about a radio DJ who accidentally summons a coven of witches in the town of (you guessed it) Salem, Massachusetts. Images of the film surfaced almost 2 months ago when the film was announced for the Midnight Madness program at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Reviews were pretty mixed but now we have a trailer and boy is it a good one. I’m not even going to talk about it, I’ll just let you guys watch and decide. I will say however that it looks like it could be a very creepy experience.

Watch the official trailer for The Lords of Salem:

The new horror film Sinister over anything else, asks the serious question of how much supernatural scary shit would one would put up with before relocating their family to safety. The main character, Ellison Oswalt (Ethan Hawke) pushes this theory to the limit. I kept wondering how much terror his family had to endure before he decided it was time to find some new digs. I don’t at all want to sound like this is a negative aspect of the film. I actually enjoyed Sinister quite a bit. It was just silly at times how painfully obvious it was that Hawke’s family was in some serious danger and he just didn’t seem to care.

Sinister is about a true crime novelist, Oswalt, who has just moved into a new house with his family while he writes his latest book about the brutal killing of a family. What Ellison doesn’t tell his wife and kids, is that they moved into the house where the murder took place. The first night at the new home, Ellison finds a box of home movies in the attic. Naturally he takes them out of the attic and into his new office where he will spend a large part of the film researching and writing his new book.

What the home films reveal are gruesome murders of a few different families. Like, GRUESOME. In one of the films a family is tied to pool side chairs and pulled into the pool with ropes and another has a family chained, yes chained, inside of a car and burned alive inside of a garage after being drenched in gasoline.

What’s great about Sinister is that it has a good mean streak to it. No one is safe in the film and that’s a quality I really like. A lot of horror films won’t touch the death of kids. Sinister kills kids without blinking an eye. Don’t read this the wrong way, I don’t get enjoyment out of the killing of kids, but whenever a kid is in danger in a movie 9 times out of 10 you know they’re going to be safe when it’s all said and done, ruining any sense of thrill. Sinister doesn’t care about the safety of any kids at all. They are as expendable as the adults are.

Sinister is aptly titled. The film at times is pure evil. Its subject matter along with its presentation felt unforgiving at times. The film is actually a nice addition to the almost dead ‘found footage’ sub-genre that is (hopefully) on its last legs. When Ellison watches these films we are transported to the events and are shown first-hand how ugly people can be. One of these home films, which also includes one of the best scares I’ve seen in years, is very unsettling to watch.

One of the best aspects of Sinister is the filmmaker’s acquisition of actor Ethan Hawke. Hawke, based on his career, belongs nowhere near this type of movie. What Hawke brings however is credibility to the genre. I don’t know what he saw in the script, but I’m glad he decided to do the film, because he is really good in this.

While it might seem like I’m trying to dissuade you from seeing Sinister, I’m not. The film is hard to handle at times and throws its gruesomeness right smack in your face. The filmmakers are obviously going for a new breed of horror with the film’s constant barrage of terror and unsettling violence. It feels like every 5 minutes Ellison is walking through his house at night, in the dark. Shadows loom around him and scares seemingly come at any moment. These scenes were constant and a huge part of the film.

You could make the argument that Ellison is a complete idiot. Argument number one has been covered. Weird shit happens at night that you can’t explain; you leave. Ellison doesn’t. Argument number two: You don’t walk through your dark house at night after you hear some odd noises in the attic, ESPECIALLY THE ATTIC. Ellison does this night after night after night after night. Ellison seems really dumb for how smart of a person he probably is.

Of course you can probably forgive this given the genre it’s in. Things like this are expected for the genre to work. It’s also forgivable because Sinister works really well at scaring you over and over again. I lost track of how many times I sunk into my seat or how many times my girlfriend clinched my hand tighter.

I don’t know how the film will play to audiences. Horror hounds will probably love it. I’m pretty close myself. But mainstream audiences will probably be split on how terrifyingly violent the film is and how good it is at scaring you. Maybe I’m just getting older but some of the violence I found unsettling. It is just hard to deny how much the film scared me. And in the end, isn’t that why we watch them?

Motorway by Pou-Soi Cheang is ferocious. Full of more testosterone than all 5 of the Fast and Furious films combined, the film never stops for a second. Cheang’s film is filled to the brim with exciting car chases; one after another after another. The film is barely 90 minutes but it does not waste not a single minute. Motorway knows what it wants to accomplish and does it with great style. This is the most fun I’ve had watching a film since Headhunters.

The film is about a secretive unit of cops, known as the Stealth Riders, who are comprised of the best drivers Hong Kong has to offer. Their job is to take down getaway drivers and street gangs or anything involving high speed chases. The newest member of this clique is Cheung. He’s young and very stubborn. We are introduced to Cheung during a routine stop that turns into a pursuit that ultimately ends badly for him. Cheung is ripped apart by his superior after this incident and subsequently partnered with the oldest guy in the squad, Lo. He’s played by Hong Kong film legend Anthony Wong.

Within the first few days of his new job Cheung runs into (literally) Jiang, the most legendary getaway driver Hong Kong has ever seen. Jiang is one of those mystical villains who comes and goes with the fog. Thus begins a big and brilliant chase through the city’s streets. Miraculously, Cheung is able to nab Sun. But was that Jiang’s intentions? As soon as Jiang is thrown into jail he begins an audacious escape with a fellow prisoner in tow. I’ve pretty much described the first 30-40 minutes of the film. What follows is literally one chase scene after another, each subsequent chase outdoing the one previous.

One of the best scenes of the film consists of Lo teaching Cheung the tricks of turning a car through a tight alleyway. He is forced to do this because in an earlier scene Jiang gets away from Cheung in an alley with a 90 degree turn. Cheung tries to figure out himself with some orange cones before Lo throws down his cigarette and shows him how it’s done.

On a technical level, Motorway is outstanding. Cheang is able to show a connection with man and his automobile that I’ve rarely seen before on screen. Granted I’m not a big car guy, so I haven’t seen a ton of these films, but I’ve seen my fair share. Some of my favorite shots are inserts of knuckles getting whiter and tighter around steering wheels, feet hitting pedals as men shift their cars violently.

Cheung shoots some scenes in a series of montages of slow zoom in’s. Whether they are clinched fists around the wheel, tires screeching as clouds of smoke rise from behind the cars or engines revving, the montages raising the ante. All of these shots edited together create insurmountable tension. I see no reason why this film shouldn’t be an action cult classic in a few years’ time. Motor heads especially are going to love this film.

Cheang’s direction never loses the plot. It’s never intrusive or draws attention to itself. Free from the film are ‘shaky cam’ shots that tend to ruin action movies. Cheang’s camera sits back and catches all the action, easily allowing the audience to watch everything clearly. In some shots the camera is fixed onto the cars as they drive, creating a reverse third person view.

Motorway’s sound mix is exquisitely well done. Gone is any annoying rock music or a loud crashing score. Instead the film is replaced with a quiet electronic score that only heightens the film’s tautness. Think of the opening scenes of Nicolas Winding-Refn’s Drive, where he uses The Chromatics’ “Tick of the Clock”, but for 90 minutes. Other than loud engines and screeching tires, the soundtrack is relatively quiet. I loved how Cheang controlled this aspect.

Like Drive, this film has its characters keeping their emotions in check. That’s not to say the acting isn’t good, because it is. What the actors succeed at is getting their emotions across through their faces and blank stares rather than words and exaggerated emotions. Some scenes you can see hesitations from Lo and Cheung and you realize that there is something from their past that makes them so hesitant. Its little things like this that separate films like Drive and Motorway from the rest.

All this brings us to the film’s finale, which is spectacularly ridiculous. Jiang is trying to escape a massive parking ramp with his package and a fleet of cop cars have him trapped. Or so they think. The film turns into a cat and mouse hunt with cars as Jiang vehemently tries to escape Cheung’s grasp from one level of the parking ramp to another. The final 30 minutes are exhilarating. Some parts of the finale almost had me out of my seat cheering.

Overall, Motorway is one hell of an efficient action picture. Expertly directed and very well acted. It creates an ominous atmosphere that never lets go of the audience and shows a deep connection between a man and his automobile that is rarely seen in film. Fans of Fast and Furious, Drive, Heat and Gone in Sixty Seconds will love a picture like this. Like a well-oiled machine, Motorway is one experience action lovers simply cannot pass up.

Alfonso Cuaron’s Science Fiction film Children of Men is devastatingly beautiful. The film is full of ugly greys and a tone that suggests nothing other than failure and yet, it’s the most hopeful film I have ever seen. There are so many things that make the film special but above all the film is a technical marvel. Cuaron should have easily won Best Director the year it was up for Academy Awards but alas, the film only pulled in nominations for Screenplay, Editing and Cinematography. All of which the film lost.

We are plunged into the middle of chaos at the beginning of the film. When the film begins we find out the youngest person on Earth, an Argentine named Diego, has died at the age of 18. 18? How is this possible? Soon we find out that humans have lost the ability to reproduce. We are dying out. As soon as this distinct possibility catches hold of the minds of the world, civilizations everywhere crumble. Governments collapse as there is no hope left in the world. The only bright spot on the globe is Great Britain. I use the term bright lightly as Britain itself is a cesspool.

We are introduced to Theo (Clive Owen) within a minute of the film starting. We follow him for nearly every second of the film. He is our guide to this disgusting world we now inhabit. He works for the government and spends a lot of his time hanging out with his old friend Jasper, played by Michael Caine. Caine’s performance is sensational. Jasper spends pretty much all of his days watching over his wife who is now a mute.

A few days after the news of “Baby” Diego’s death, Theo runs into his ex-wife Julian. She’s played by Julianne Moore. She now runs with a small terrorist group known as The Fishes. Theo’s past with his ex is a troubled one. They seemed to have split after the grieving over the death of their young child got the best of both of them. I guess it’s hard to say he runs into her when in actuality The Fishes kidnap Theo in broad daylight. The Fishes then demand that Theo escorts a mysterious girl out of London.

The girl is an immigrant to Britain. Normally this isn’t a big issue, but with the world in a complete state of disarray, Britain has outlawed anyone from entering the country. Theo hitches a ride with Julian and her cohorts as they take this immigrant (her name is Kee) out of the city to refuge at a cottage in the English country side. What Theo discovers next is the biggest revelation anyone could have made in 20 years. Kee is pregnant.

The rest of Children of Men has Theo taking control of Kee’s destiny into his hands as he guides her to the The Human Project. This project (that may or may not exist) consists of a group of scientists dedicated to finding out why humans cannot conceive anymore and trying to possibly find a cure.

As I mentioned earlier, the filmmaking choices in Children of Men are some of the best any director has made in recent years. Everything on a technical level is brilliant. Most movies would’ve had a narration or an opening crawl explaining the film’s situation. Cuaron instead chooses to explore the plot of the film with information about the collapse of the world being provided in the background. Newspaper clippings, newscasts, protesting marches through the city and massive digital billboards show the audience what kind of world we live in. He trusts his audience to go along with this. All of this works with ease as we unknowingly go along with tons of information being thrown at us.

In terms of the film’s special effects, Cuaron makes the right choice not to distract from the film. Instead he uses them to enhance the world the film occupies. Some shots of London are given a dystopian uplift as tons of huge LCD screens adorn the buildings of the English metropolis. These screens show everything from ads about how to turn in an immigrant to world news. The visual effects also help out with Emmanuel Lubezki’s stunning Cinematography.

Lubezki’s camera work is some of the best this decade, if not the best. In fact, it’s a crime he lost the Oscar for it. Cuaron’s direction and Lubezki’s camera team to put you as close to the action as possible. Using hand held camera work we are thrown alongside Theo as if we were helping him.

Cuaron made a decision to film as much as the film as possible in long takes. This heightens the realism of the film. There are a lot of long takes in the film and if that isn’t enough to keep the actors on their toes, then a couple of exquisitely fine set pieces will. There are two scenes in the film that are downright insane in terms of their difficulty to film.

The first scene involves Theo, Julian, Kee and two members of The Fishes as they are driving through a road in the forest as they are viciously attacked by a marauding gang. The camera is situated in the middle of the car during the attack and basically turns in a 360 degree angle for over 4 minutes showing the carnage being inflicted on the group. The camera work combined with the visual effects creates a realistic nightmare for us as we are situated right in the middle of all the action.

The second shot of brilliance comes at the end of the film and has to be one of the greatest shots ever put forth on the silver screen. Lasting over 6 minutes the camera follows Theo through a hellish warzone as he seeks out to protect Kee from those who mean to do her harm. Following him through bullets, explosions, blown out cars and eventually a dilapidated building; the camera never loses him. Granted the shot is aided by visual effects it’s nonetheless audacious filmmaking.

The production design of the film is top notch. Every scene feels completely authentic to the film’s setting. I can’t imagine the planning of the film or even the shooting of it. The streets of London, even if it’s the last civilized city left, are a complete mess. Trash permeates the streets of the city and makes the city look like a decaying cavity that is Britain’s society.

What makes Children of Men so special is its endearing heart that pushes its characters hope through the most terrible odds. The film is the most violent Valentine ever filmed about the endurance of the human spirit. In a world of absolutely no hope, a man is given the most arduous task of his life. Everything is stacked against him. What do you even do with the only child born in 20 years? Do you trust a group who wants to use the baby as a symbol for a society to overthrow its government? Or do you take it to a one that may not even exist? Children of Men throws Theo head first into these tribulations.

What I love about the film is how it presents hope. Hope is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to describe. Hope is a thing not guaranteed. I first saw the film during a time in my life where I was pretty down and out. When I finished it, I wasn’t given the answers I needed, but instead I was filled with the confidence I needed to make changes.

That’s what makes the film so special. It doesn’t tell you everything but it does supply the idea that anything, no matter how difficult, can be accomplished. The film plays by these rules too. The film ends on a note that doesn’t show you what ends up happening as a result of this pregnant woman. It ends at a pretty abrupt moment. But the point I think most people miss is that this is Theo’s story. Not the pregnant woman’s. When he leaves the story, the film is done. But the idea that something good will come about from all of the hard work is what I think the film is about.

Alfonso Cuaron is a Mexican director of vast talent. He has shown great promise in the past with such films as Y tu Mama Tambien and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (easily the best of the series), but Children of Men is Alfonso on another level. His previous films only hinted at what he accomplishes here. There is no stopping him either. The film he is involved with now (Gravity), looks to see him taking his filmmaking to the next step.

Despite its ugliness and crassness, Children of Men is a film of great beauty. Yes, it is very violent and full of brutality. The film, however, shows great moments of tenderness throughout; enough at least to keep our hearts cheering for a happy outcome to all the suffering endured by Theo and Kee. Never has the human spirit suffered a more perilous task in a film. Come for the brilliant filmmaking, stay for the sounds of children’s laughter as the credits run over your screen. Children of Men is one hell of a film.

Yesterday a new trailer was released for the French film Rust and Bone. The new film, directed by Jacques Audiard, looks to be an emotional stunner. The film had its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it received pretty good reviews. The film stars Matthias Schoenaerts as Alain, a man who (with his young son) moves in with his sister and her husband. Soon he becomes entangled with a young woman (Marion Cotillard) who is a killer whale trainer. His love for her only intensifies after she suffers a tragic accident.

Audiard was last seen with his brilliant crime film A Prophet and before that in his even better The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Both are highly recommended if you haven’t already had the pleasure of seeing them. Cotillard was of course last seen in Christopher Nolan’s final blockbuster of his Batman trilogy The Dark Knight. Rust and Bone had its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival recently and will now go to Toronto next week.

Watch the official trailer for Rust and Bone:

A week ago I ran into a young man from Venezuela. His name was Andres Abraham, a genuinely nice person. He was on his way to college in a city about an hour north where I live. He been in the U.S. for just two days, he knew nobody. I respect that kind of guts. We both had a few minutes and I’m naturally a curious person when it comes to foreign lands, so I asked him questions about his homeland. He brought up Hugo Chavez. Not me. I told him I didn’t know much about the situation, only what I was fed by news channels, so I couldn’t have a valid opinion. He told me whatever I had heard, it was worse. As he talked about his life back home he was fighting back tears. Andres told me he never wants to go back to Venezuela unless he is visiting family.

As fate would have it, I would watch a film from Venezuela this week. That film is Hermano and it tells the struggle of some of the people in that country. I couldn’t help but think of Andres the entire time I watched the film. Hermano tells the story of two young men, Julio and Daniel, who are raised as brothers and have the unfortunate task of growing up in the very dangerous slums of Caracas. They find an escape in football (soccer). Both play for the same local team and both are easily the best players. Julio is the captain of the team as he exudes a natural charisma. Daniel is the younger of the two and is probably the most gifted player on the team. Both are being scouted by a local professional team, but clearly Daniel is the one who wants it more.

Julio himself is involved with a gang that eats up a lot of his ambition. Daniel is set on getting out of the slums. Naturally this causes a rift between the brothers. An act of violence in the middle of the film causes that rift to crack even more. A person close to Julio and Daniel is killed and the brothers both have different ways on solving the issue. Daniel seems more intent on moving on from the death and concentrating on getting signed with the professional team and Julio is destined to find the killer and exact his revenge. This struggle is the primary focus of the film.

There are a lot of things the film does right. It’s the final 10 minutes where the film gets a lot of stuff wrong. For one, Hermano is a very well made film. The director, Marcel Rasquin, is a first timer. He shows a lot of promise. He has a way of showing beauty in some truly ugly places. The way he shoots the film is exquisite. At times the camera seems to be floating over the slums like a cloud. He gets the game scenes right too. This is something that is almost never done right. Hermano has them down pat.

A lot of scenes involving sports seem to happen too fast sometimes. Usually they are edited like a music video with a lot of close ups, so you cannot tell what is actually happening, causing a lot of confusion. Rasquin is smart and pulls back a lot of his shots to allow the audience to get into the games. In terms of sports movies, this was easily one of the easiest to follow.

The tone of the film set by Rasquin and his collaborators is pitch perfect. The film is delicately handled from scene to scene. The film is played off as a watered down, more ethereal version of the great Brazilian film City of God. Except instead of gang violence as the primary focus it’s football.

What really hurts the film is some of the decisions the film makes in its final act. Daniel, a character who was well written and acted for the first hour of the film does two things that are completely idiotic. The first one involves his meeting with the professional team who wants to sign him. Daniel says its either you sign my brother and I or neither of us. Personally, if I was in this situation and knew how much of a loose cannon my brother was and how great of an opportunity I had, I’d be signing that contract on the spot and getting out of barrios.

The second bad decision that happens is literally in the last minute and sinks the whole film. I can’t reveal what actually happens because it would ruin a lot of the story of the film. The decision that Daniel makes at the end of the film goes against who he was the entire time. The act wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t handled so poorly by the filmmakers. This is the only wrong step Rasquin makes the entire time of the film, but it’s enough to ruin the experience. I felt like I was stabbed in the back. Maybe the point of the story was you can be good your whole life and make one mistake that can ruin it all. It’s just in the way it’s handled that makes the whole event clumsy. It’s unfortunate too, because for 100 minutes Hermano was a well told story. It’s just a shame about that ending.

Here is a film I should have seen at last year’s edition of TIFF. I had a ticket for it and was ready to go. It would’ve been something like my 14th or 15th film of my visit. It was to be my fifth movie of that day, premiering at midnight on my second to last day. But after two movies on Friday, four on Saturday, four on Sunday and the two I saw on Monday, I was completely worn out and needed a break. So I decided to stay in that evening and get some rest as I still had three movies on my final day.

After finally seeing the film recently, I’m actually kind of glad I didn’t stick to my itinerary. That’s not to saying the film isn’t worth watching, I’m recommending the film for sure, but it isn’t a must see by any means. Genre fans are probably going to dig the hell out of The Incident, especially John Carpenter fans. This has his name written all over it. Hell, it even takes place in the 80’s, the prime era for Carpenter when he was knocking out cult classics one after another.

The Incident introduces us to a rock group working as cooks at a mental institution. During the day they cook up meals and at night they hit the studio to record. I found some humor in four long haired tattooed covered men taking their cooking seriously. One night, one of the band members forgets to show up for a recording. This causes a rift in the guys the next morning at work. Talk of how committed some members are arises.

The head cook and leader of the band, George (Rupert Evans), is asked by the head of security at the hospital to come in early one morning to get an early start as a special order is arriving bright and early. After his pleas fall to deaf ears, he caves in and agrees to come in. The order that arrives is a messy one. A man pulls a huge pallet in with wet boxes leaking blood. George grabs one of these boxes and what falls out consists of lots and lots of blood and guts. Of what species these belonged to I’m still not sure. Some people seem to think it was that of a human corpse, but I didn’t recognize a human skull in the pile.

Later that night a massive storm floats in and knocks out all the power. No lights. No power to any doors. No way out. Now the cooks have to fight to survive. As soon as the power goes out, security and the cooks band together to put inmates back into their cells. Everything is fine until a few bad hombres start to crack. After brutally murdering pretty much all of security force, the cooks find themselves with their backs against the wall. They now must survive the night until the police arrive which turns out to be longer than they expect.

Where The Incident succeeds is in its execution. The film is only 80 or so minutes long but the filmmakers do not hesitate to spend the first 20-30 setting up its characters and their setting to us. So when everything goes wrong, we are fully invested in the characters. The final hour of the film is filled with some great stuff. A lot of scenes consist of our heroes walking through the ward in complete darkness not knowing what shadows exist just feet away. Gore hounds get a few good kills, but nothing to write home about.

The Incident would work well as maybe a midnight double feature with an old Carpenter flick. Maybe Assault on Precinct 13 or maybe even Escape from New York. The film shares a strange kinship with fellow Midnight Madness film The Raid. Those two films back to back would be a hell of a night. Grab some friends and a 12 pack. Turn out the lights, turn up the volume and sit back and enjoy. The Incident is easily worth your time.

I’ve really enjoyed the [REC] series since they started a few years ago. The first film was a nice little breath of fresh air in the disgustingly smelly cesspool of the modern day Horror genre. The second film, while not as good, was still a worthy follow up and actually took a different and fresh approach to film sequels. Both films used the now boring and over utilized approach to horror films which is most commonly referred to as “found footage” or “POV style” filmmaking. I, however, felt that both films used this stale method quite well, infusing it with great scenes of terror that are built out of a true sense of suspense.

Now we have the third (and unfortunately not final) entry in the series which is subtitled Genesis. The film starts out with the same found footage aesthetics of the first two films, but after an audacious opening 20 minute scene (that is actually really good) that goes from a beautiful wedding all the way to the bloodiest wedding reception I’ve ever seen, the film shows us the title card and ditches its style for the typical American style that includes everything in the book from the dumb clichéd horror characters to the cheap scares and overbearing score on the soundtrack.

The reception is a great scene. One minute we are watching dozens of people dancing and drinking the night away with not a clue what’s to happen next. What does happen next is all out chaos as people are running and screaming for their lives while others are having their throats ripped out and their blood gushing onto the dance floor as strobe lights pulsate over the madness. It’s a very well done scene. Unfortunately the rest of the film is a terrible mess.

After the opening scenes, the main plot basically involves the escapades of the bride and the groom as they hopelessly try to find each other on the massive grounds of a chateau in Spain. There’s really not much more to the film. Whereas the first film had this aura of mystery involving this mysterious disease and where it came from and how it was found in an apartment building in the middle of Madrid, Genesis is just mindless violence.

One of the big reasons I love watching films from other countries is to get a taste of something new. American horror films (other than Ti West) are mostly all the same. Most are overly glossed films with cheap scares and thunderous crashes on the soundtrack designed to make you jump. A lot of foreign horror films seem to emphasis story over cheapness, instead gaining empathy for its characters so that we care for them later making the results all the more frightening. Genesis gets this all wrong.

I don’t think [Rec]3: Genesis is a total loss. There are some inspired visuals and some very well done death scenes. If you’re a gore hound, you’ll find some of the scenes well worth watching. Tons of blood is spilled in Genesis. But otherwise if you’re looking for something of substance, I would highly recommend skipping this. And don’t even get me started on the final scene; my, what a train wreck.

Lockout is full of every action movie cliché in the book. The film involves a lot of gunplay and even more scene chewing word play from lead character Snow, played gloriously by veteran Australian actor Guy Pearce. Practically every line that is spewed out of Snow’s mouth is action movie clichéd dialogue. But Pearce is more than up for the challenge.

As far as the film is concerned, you might as well have called Lockout: Escape from Space. The film is essentially an Escape from New York/L.A. rip off. A convict is given a reprieve if he can rescue the president’s daughter from a massive floating prison that orbits the Earth after being overrun by its own prisoners. Other than the location, that is literally the plot of John Carpenter’s early cult classic. As I previously stated the film borrows HEAVILY from tons of other action films, but the actors and filmmakers take none of this seriously and just go for it. The result is a very entertaining action film.

The film begins on Earth with Snow involved in a deadly shootout in an apartment. He escapes only to be pursued viciously by government agents in a chase scene that can only be described as utterly ridiculous. The FX in this scene are extremely poor. What’s really odd is that in later scenes the FX are outstanding. All this leads the viewer to believe that they were done poorly on purpose, maybe to suggest that the filmmakers know how ridiculous their film is. No one knows for sure.

Snow is captured and interrogated about what happened in the apartment. Literally, every single answer Snow gives is a wisecrack smart ass answer, each of them hilarious. Each of them earns him a right hook to the jaw. When I initially saw the preview for Lockout I had a lot of reservations about Pearce playing this kind of role. I’ve been a big supporter of his ever since he burst onto the scene in Christopher Nolan’s mind bending neo classic Memento. But as the film continued my worries began to ease. A friend suggested to me that Pearce would be perfect as Nathan Drake for the upcoming Uncharted movie and he is right. There is probably no other actor more perfectly suited for the role than Pearce.

Everyone remembers Maggie Grace right? No? Really? She’s the cute blonde girl from Lost and was Liam Neeson’s daughter in Taken. Here she plays the unfortunate role of the President of the United States’ daughter, Emilie Warnock. She arrives at the outer space slammer to investigate any wrong doing by the prison warden and his crew. There are rumors of the warden using prisoners as lab rats for some kind of drug. Well wouldn’t you know, a prisoner escapes and lets all of his friends out to play. They kill a few people and take the rest hostage and demand to be released before they kill more. The U.S. government offers Snow a deal. Fly up there and rescue Warnock. Get her to safety and he can considered himself a free man. Easier said than done right?

What follows is an hour and a half of action cliché after action cliché. The film knows all the right notes to hit and the actors are more than ready to play along with them. Lockout isn’t a great film by any means. Hell, you’ve probably seen this film at least 30 times before. You probably already know how it ends and what the final words of the film will be. I wouldn’t dream of telling you to drop everything and run out to see Lockout. But if you find yourself with nothing to watch and you’re looking for a great escape (no pun intended), Lockout is more than up for the challenge of entertaining you for 90 minutes. And when something is done right, isn’t that something worth appreciating?

With the announcement earlier this week that the new film by directors The Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas was going to have its world premiere at this year’s edition of The Toronto International Film Festival, a trailer was almost immediately released. And boy is it a stunner. With a story that looks to be spanning hundreds of years and an international cast to go along with it, Cloud Atlas will either be a gigantic success or complete mess. The cast is led by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry but also includes Susan Sarandon, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving and Hugh Grant.

The Wachowskis were last seen with the Speed Racer. A film that I felt was one of the most underrated films of the past decade. They of course are famous for directing the uneven Matrix trilogy. Tykwer is the German mastermind behind such ingenious work as Run Lola Run and The Princess and the Warrior. He also directed the mostly unseen The International.

All the talent behind and in front of the camera is here. The only problem is the film’s runtime. Word is that the studio wanted the directors to deliver a film no more than two and a half hours. Judging by this trailer (which itself is 3 times the length of most trailers) this could put a strain on the story of the film. Let’s hope these guys can deliver. But for now, check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for Cloud Atlas: