Jennifer Chambers Lynch is indeed the daughter of David Lynch who not only produced this film, but whose music can also be heard in the opening and closing titles. It is not really fair to compare the debut of Lynch junior to her fathers work, but I suppose it might take a few films before that stops, just as with Sophia Coppola. In any case, stylistically Jennifer leans a bit towards her father. Sharp images, an eye for details and a dark soundtrack form the similarities, but for the rest Jennifer associates with the modern Hollywood films: violent and with a story with a changing plot. The first part of the film is really good. Two FBI agents (that is the second time in one weekend that I see Bill Pullman as a policeman) travel to a remote village to investigate a series of brutal murders. Instead of a serial killer manhunt, Lynch focusses on the process of unraveling the story through witness hearings which worked out very well. Then the plot turns 180 degrees, the story loses credibility and the film turns into bloody, but not too functional mayhem supposedly making a surprise blowout. That is too bad, since in the first part of the film Lynch proves herself a descent director able to set a good atmosphere with minimal resources. Too bad she wanted to give the story a surprising twist…





22 February 2010
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A Dutch film of 1988 I must have seen it some time. Indeed some scenes seem familiar. It seems that “Spoorloos” has become a bit of a cult-film, but after (re)watching it, I wonder if that ’status’ goes for the original or the 1993 remake “The Vanishing”. Strangely enough “Spoorloos” already has that English title in the opening titles. In any case, “Spoorloos” is good for a Dutch film, especially of that time, but it is not exactly a cult classic. It is simply too normal for that (in my opinion). The story is good, based on a book by Tim Krabbé. A young couple goes on holidays to France where the girl disappears. Three years later the man has the same dream as the girl the night before she disappeared and he sets out to find her. A nice story develops, but nowadays this would probably have been filmed a bit ‘darker’, “Spoorloos” remains a quite typical 80′ies film, but the ending is indeed one that will stick with you. Not bad, but I expected something different. I guess I will watch “The Vanishing” too some time.





7 February 2010
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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.





29 November 2009
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