Gangleri – filmreviews

I got this film in the library and there was some confusion with another film called “The Horseman” by Steven Kastrissios. That film is described as a drama that becomes a thriller and eventually a Saw-like cruel horror. I am not interested in these Saw-clones and for “(The) Horsemen” by Åkerlund my expectations were for a nice, Scandinavian thriller. From the first minute it is clear that this film is but another American thriller/horror in the tradition of “Se7en” with moralistic serial murders with a Biblical theme, but updated with some unlikely and cruel torture-killings in the Saw-style. Nothing special in story, nothing special in filming, a boring film in a boring filmgenre of which I do not understand the popularity.

The director of “Dark Man” and “Spiderman” came with a boring, cheesy and way too clean Hollywood horror about a Gypsy curse. The story is thin and predictable, the effects and “well-timed frights” somnolent. A bad film-weekend…

Another good Belgian film! We follow the sportive girl Marie (played by the beautifull Eline Kuppens in one of her first parts) who in a peak in her running carreer is confronted with a strange illness that prevents her from running. The pain of that eases somewhat when she meets Bob (played by ‘veteran’ Matthias Schoenaerts) and a passionate relationship soon develops. Bob lives at “Linkeroever” (‘left bank’), the modern part of the city of Antwerpen at the other side of the river Schelde. Things go downward for Marie though and not only her physical, but also mental health takes a dive. Following this, the film itself slowly grows darker and darker and stranger and stranger. The story is nice, but has a few weak spots. The film as a whole is very convincing with good acting, nice camera work and a descent atmosphere. The story and the way the film evolves reminds quite a bit of “Riget“, by the way. Highly recommended!

From last Thursday to yesterday the Eindhoven film initiative Broet had its fifth festival Duistere Openbaringen. This festival aims for Dutch and Flemish (but not necessarily Dutch spoken) ‘dark films’. Last year there was a lot of cheesy zombie, but also a few other things. Unfortunately we could only see the last block of short films where we saw the following films:
Het Snoepmonster (the candy monster) of Ruwan Heggelman (8 min) about a monster that eats children who do not give hem enough candy with Halloween. Nothing too special.
Oh, Deer! by Arne Toonen and Jean van der Velde (12 min) an amusing (second favourite of the audience) black comedy about an illegal hunting trip.
The Dark Strain by Jan Nanne (30 min), a more pretentious, but not very convincing horror (especially not when the sound is not synchronous) which plays in a remote building in which party-goers turned into zombies and eat the others. A descent soundtrack, but poor acting.
Beyond Legend by Lauren Müller (6 min). The idea was not even that bad, but the result is too short to be worked out well and the acting is not very convincing either. Three grufties walk through a haunted building.
De Camera by Fabian van der Dongen (8 min). It seems that Van der Dongen had something to do with Horizonica and is working on a full-length (or at least longer) film, but his contribution to Duistere Openbaringen was quite boring. Seen through the lens of a young man who wants to film a call-girl we get a short film about an arrogant working girl having discussions with her customer.
Strike by Jonas Klinkenbijl (12 min) was something completely different. In a retirement home cameras are installed in the inhabitents rooms, well… cameras. This high-tech machine follows the inhabitents every step and makes notes of violations of the rules. The film looks flashy and professional. I found it the better.
Vogelvrij (outlawed) by Cindy Jansen (23 min). I was a bit surprised to notice that this film was made by a woman, since it is not all that friendly towards the opposite sex. Nice camera work and beautiful locations bring a story of a man who has strange plans with his call-girl.

It would be nice if such hour and a half blocks of short films would be released on DVD (or the better films of the festival or so). Broet does sell some DVD’s, but in most cases that is a short film on one DVD, which is relatively expensive. I must say that none of the films that I saw in Broet was really good, but I do enjoy the fact that these are independant films with (sometimes) new ideas and of course countrymates who might make a bit of a name lateron.

“Let The Right One In” is presented as a Swedish horror. In fact it is a drama with a horror-theme. The outcast Oskar meets his mysterious neighbour-girl Eli, also an outcast, but for different reasons. The two first become friends, then fall in love and slowly Oskar starts to realise what Eli is. Towards the end, there are some bloody scenes, but as a whole, this is a drama. Not bad either.

My girlfriend bought this all-American thriller/horror about two young couples who enjoy holidays in Mexico but on their last day they decide sniff some culture and visit a Maya temple that is not in the tourists books. They soon discover why and the film gets a nice dense atmosphere and some gruesome scenes. “The Ruins” is a big-audience horror in my eyes, but the story is not all that bad and it appears that it is based on a book, so I guess that explains it. Too bad that the creators could not come up with an ending, but maybe that is just because they might want to make a sequel?
Not bad, nothing too special though.

It had been a while since I saw a Jap-horror. This older film of the praised director of “Ju-On” and “The Grudge” is not really in the popular style of “Ju-On” or “Ringu”, but obviously a Jap-horror. A man wants to know what death-fear is and investigating his subject sinks away in the depths of his own mind. “Marebito” has a thick layer of fantasy, but of a very dark kind. The film has some quite bloody scenes which explains the 16+ rating, but it has another kind of atmosphere than the popular films, more of a mysterious fantasy kind of atmosphere. The film is not a masterpiece, but a nice watch nonetheless.

A young girl is haunted by a demon and to find a sollution, her boyfriend buys a camera to register what happens. He starts to film themselves day and night.
“Paranormal Activity” has more than one thing incommon with “The Blair Witch Project“. Both films are very low budget, but made big bucks after hitting the cinemas (I even read it was released in Europe earlier than planned because of the success in the US, so why is it of 2007?). Both films are formed by the video footage that the subjects recorded themselves. Both films are creepy thriller / horror films in which nothing much is to be seen, but the suggestion and the fact that it looks authentic does the trick. Both films have a lot of out-of-hand filming that makes my stomach ache. “The Blair Witch Project” was hyped more, with fake newsflashes on the internet about lost students and the idea that the film was merely what was on the videotape of the recorder that was found. “Paranormal Activity” has obviously been edited more, but in several cases this really adds to the atmosphere. Most (of course) happens at night, but the periods that nothing happens are shown in fast-foward. There are also two fast-foward scenes in which something does happen, greatly enlarging the ‘creepyness’ of those scenes. Just as in “The Blair Witch Project” it takes a while before things start roling, but after that the film quickly runs to a climax. I personally did not find the film all that scary, not as much as “The Blair Witch Project” for sure. Maybe that is because the novelty is gone. The film still has a magnificent atmosphere though. Taking the reactions from the audience, many people did get the creeps though (such as the three girls next to us discussing if they still dared to leave the room ). I have seldom seen a film with so many outloud reactions from the viewers, screams and yells, “oh my god”s, they were all there. There is nothing much to say about the story of the film, other than that what I started with. Be sure that it is the more frightening kind of film like the one I mentioned several times before. If you liked “The Blair Witch Project”, you want to see “Paranormal Activity”. On the big screen of course.

A rather standard horror thriller in which a group of mercenaries accompany a scientist into Eastern European areas in war. On arriving at the scene it quickly becomes clear that it is not minerals that the scientist is looking for. Where the director attempted to make a dark and gloomy thriller (based on a popular modern myth), he never really manages to bring the tension that he is looking for. Moreover there are a few gory horror scenes that do not really add anything either. The story is not all that bad, but could have been worked out better.

After a rather lengthy intro telling me that this film is based on true events, a pretty damn pressing thriller unfolds. There is little mystery in this film. Two young people go to a remote house and they get visitors with bad intentions. The rather lengthy intro could add to it, but the film is dark and threatening even when you can tell what will happen. This film is the debut of an American director and I have rarely seen such a dense American film. No flashy story, no special effects, no big stages, just in and around a small summer house. Realistic, there is a much bigger chance that this could happen to you than that you would find yourself in a room with a spoon to find that key behind your eyeball. Quite incredible that somebody is capable of doing things like this too. So, I can only say: great atmosphere, good film.