Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a horrific report from the Fantasy Film Festival... There's nothing terribly new here, but it's a great example of a horror geek in hog heaven... I've seen all three films this review wrote up and agree with what the below reviewer says about SAW the most out of the films reviewed. It is that good, but it does have a couple minor flaws... Think it'll kick your ass, but don't expect it to be flawless. I can't say I agree with his take on DEAD & BREAKFAST... I barely made it through the SXSW showing of it... Suffers from a case of trying way too hard and ends up just being a series of rip-offs of better movies instead of something of its own. That may just be me, though, 'cause the below reviewer seemed to dig it... But then again he saw it in Germany which is the country that spawned Uwe Boll, so maybe his mind was influenced by unholy forces! Hehehe. Anyway, on with the horror geekasms!
Hi Harry,
right now here in Germany we have the Fanasty Film Fest going on and I was
able to see HIGH TENSION (aka HAUTE TENSION), DEAD AND BREAKFAST and SAW
there. Thought you might like some short reviews of those:
D & B:
Very funny, original Splatterfest about some Zombie-infested small town. It is similar to THERE's SOMETHING ABOUT MARY with the country singer popping
up from time to time and singing about what just happened or is going to
happen. Never seen something like that in a horror movie, so I thought it is
a hilarious idea and with the songs being really great this worked very
well. The actors/actresses were very likable and did a good job, though in a
silly premise like this there is hardly any oscar material in it. The story
itself is quite senseless, too, but hey, this movie isn't about story. It is
about having fun and that's where it delivers: Hilarious situations, Zombies
everywhere (which for a change were quite intelligent and didn't really want
to get "killed"), blood and guts flying, a Square-Dance number and just a
jolly good time with a chainsaw. It is bloody, but like BRAINDEAD the
violence is so over the top and funny, that it is always fun to watch. Leave
your brain at the door, get some beer and watch it with as many friends as
you can. Note B-
HIGH TENSION:
French Thriller which gets high ratings everywhere (Joblo...), but to be honest, this movie is well done, no question about it, but its amazing violence is working against it. This movie features so much violence, that it is for many surely hard to take. I appreciate a movie which takes its killings serious and shows that dying isn't fun, but it really dwells in it and often the violence just gets downright silly. The story is just about a madman butchering a family, kidnapping the 20something year old daughter. Her friend (girlfriend? nice lesbian touch in it) could hide in the house from him and then follows the killer to save her. A cat and mouse game ensues and ends in a surprise ending, which didn't do it for me honestly. That didn't make much sense and was just "there". Also, the bloodflow didn't end there, but got into overdrive, with a chainsaw coming into play and unsuspecting car drivers getting ripped to shreds. The pacing was good, the tension was constantly there, but the hide and seek games got a little repetitive after a while and again, because of the violence it was kind of hard to take serious after a while. The killer always has suddenly an Axe in his hands, or decapitates people with a cupboard (I doubt that a head falls off so easily!). The biggest reaction from the audience was (not surprisingly) to a glass splinter in a feet... there suddenly you could connect to a pain like that, the rest is so beyond anything you've seen or will ever encounter (hopefully) that a simple thing like this really hits you. And the violence was just not necessary, if the killer just shot everybody, it would have been equally scary.
But my biggest complain is, that besides the twist enidng, this movie is exactly the same as the TV 2-part-movie INTENSITY (which is based on a book by Dean Koontz), even the title is more or less the same! So, if you are not interested in the violence, go and rather try to find INTENSITY on DVD or on TV, that movie is much better (though it is only a TV movie). That movie had a suprise ending, too, though a really evil one and not such a silly one as in this movie.
Still, enjoyable time, well acted, well made, so I give it a C.
SAW:
This movie is unbelievable. Man, were we scared. This is the new SEVEN. I thought they really put the serial-killer-genre to death with the countless thrillers about the police trying to catch an evil serial killer.
Then there comes SAW. The trailers were cool, really evil, though not gave much away what it is about. It could be again about some detectives trying to catch a killer and only his killings are new in this story. So, well, yes... the story is in part about a detective trying to catch a killer called Jigsaw, who doesn't really kill anyone, but makes several people kill themselves or each other in hope to survive an evil deathtrap. Jigsaw's traps are really really evil, but he always gives you a choice :-) The movie opens with 2 guys waking up in a room, both chained to the walls . The family guy now has 6 hours time to kill the other one - otherwise his family will get killed and he will be left in that room to rot... Now the movie unfolds like a jigsaw puzzle.. it jumps back and forth in time and gives you more and more background about the two guys, but also about the killer and a detective who tries to catch the killer and kinda lost his mind because of that (no wonder with all the other sick killings Jigsaw caused).
This may already put you off and believe me this movie is sick.. the violence is amazing, though not really shown and that is was sets this movie apart again from other serial-killer-movies again. It lets it happen in your imagination and that makes it almost impossible to watch, believe me, but don't worry, I won't give anything away! Man, we were shitting our pants...
Also, for the first time since years I was totally captivated by the question: Who is the killer?! Really everbody could be it... is it one of the guys in the room, just fucking with the other one? Is it the Cop? Is it just some weirdo? Is it a friend of the victims? Who the fuck is it? This question alone keeps you glued to the screen and the solution to that is amazing. The revelation scene was truly a revelation, the camerawork, the acting, the music in that sequence blows you away... man, my skin crawls now again now as I think of this scene.
The movie has great style, fantastic music and good acting, really scary setpieces, deals with all kinds of fear (even the monster-in-the-closet-fear, which is a great tense moment) and has really good characters, which you care for. After an hour you may think it gets into a typical detective will figure the killer's pattern out-storyline and in fact it does, only to whip your ass and put everything on its head for the last 15 minutes and just almost kills you. The ending was so f***ing great and leaves you breathless with tears and sweat in your seat.
Go see it! Can't wait to watch it again! Note: A+
call me ronin75
