The Presence (2010)

Negative vibes

A woman (Mira Sorvino) arrives at an isolated cabin in the woods that at first brings back a sense of nostalgia. Without the filmmakers beating around the bush, there's a grumpy ghost (Shane West) already there who she can't see with bags under his eyes and a I'm-two-steps-from-murdering-you posture. She's using the time to be in peace and left alone while she writes something that's never divulged. The two make a team of perfect loners as the presence stands and sits about doing repetitive routines but starts to get curious about this woman who is now invading his solitude. She finds a newspaper clipping laying about that states that someone had died in that area with a criminal background, but likewise that's not gone into as the story concentrates on them primarily in the now without muddling it up with flashbacks.


"The Presence" is divided with the two main characters, with the woman taking a share of the story for the beginning half, the ghost joining up after that for his story and then both threads being combined into one similar interest by the time it closes. The movie is incredibly basic, to the point of not always carrying an identifiable genre template that would stick out at you. Neither does it come with a definite style--it's unpretentious to a fault, in that it's not always capable of penetrating through or giving more than a minor tug to reel you in. Some of the mentioned might not always be an issue, but the problem is it feels like a story teller that doesn't care if people walk off or stay, in that it's going to tell it in its own unhurried, one-moment-at-a-time way. Even some of the camera setups are still shots with the characters doing the moving and without always pulling away or panning around--it's up to the audience for what they want to see and where one's eyes want to rove. The film has an incredible amount of breathing room. No one wants a picture to scream at them and be obvious or to force emotions out of you. But this doesn't always even try and be persuasive to what it's showing you. The problem is with the beginning half, neither the drama nor the ghost element seems exceptional--only being built up to make sense later. There's a small mystery element and there's some shots to project an isolated mood but there's not a whole lot to ponder on at this point unless it's coming from your behalf, which can make a first time viewer lost to its subtext at first.

Her boyfriend (Justin Kirk) makes an unannounced visit against his girlfriend's wishes and neither does the ghost like the extra attention and competition from the third wheel. She gives in momentarily, making this go from loving vacation time to melodramatic fights that show her true colors. She has random fits: from nice and reasonable to cold and spiteful. She needs her alone time and pushes away from men getting too close from a past event that her boyfriend makes every attempt to understand. Somewhere around the half way mark interest sparks when this moves away from every day activities and squabbles when a second apparition (Tony Curran) appears with an amoral outlook and a certain sly charm that makes him seem more a counterpart of the devil than a lost spirit looking for his way.


"The Presence" is a movie that deals with trusting others after someone else manipulated or used you in the past. There's a supernatural element used--only for the sake of moving the narrative along in a unique way rather than to fright--but this still has dual meaning in that it's also about letting bad choices into your life when you feel sorry for yourself or letting negative thoughts ferment and get the best of you. The movie isn't overly complicated if one manages to focus on the words and what's shown, or even overly ambitious and doesn't seem forced--the characters represent specific elements to the story with the most range coming from the woman. There's some potential here that some can relate to possibly on a spiritual level, just the film misses out on attempting to draw in its audience--as if by selling the story to someone else it would dumb it down to a salable product instead of an art form; I'm not sure the reasoning behind it but that's my guess--though I can guarantee it's going to cause a share of people to shut this off before giving it a chance.

I personally like the latter half, but it loses replay value working up to that point again. It feels like a two hour run time when it clocks in at only an hour and twenty minutes. Even the music seems to hang back at times by coming in with loud volume as if someone's playing with the mute button or has a form of narcolepsy the way it bursts into action and then is silent. I don't think this film's intention was to be overly scary or creepy, for one by shooting their ghost in excess, to the point of getting used to him being there. Not to mention this uses real people as ghosts instead of CGI, which I only counted for a single effect. On the other hand, the issue is he's shown too much and without much to do at first, causing him to become predictable to the point of poking fun every time you can count on him appearing with the same face and pose. "Hey, who killed the Abercrombie model and turned him into furniture," or the most obvious, "This guy'll beat out anyone in a staring contest...probably because he doesn't have to eat, sleep...." Only recommended for the patient of the patient.

Rating: 4.5/10

Director: Tom Provost
Stars: Mira Sorvino, Shane West, Justin Kirk, Tony Curran
Link: IMDB

Altitude (2010)

Giving more reasons to stay out of the clouds

Five are about to embark on a short plane trip in a twin engine to a concert in Montreal. There's a share of joking at first--which acts something like foreshadowing for what's to come--about their departure and how some have pasts related to traveling in planes. Their confident pilot--Sara: the daughter of a Colonel--bands the rowdy group together and off they go. In the air the resident party animal/jock along with the neighborhood musician chides everyone on, while the beer-in-one-hand jock's girlfriend films with her camera and the new shy guy named Bruce--who's friends with Sara and has got a special comic he just bought--gets the brunt of it. Some rough weather is up ahead and Sara decides to climb over top since the small plane isn't equipped for the turbulence. The elevator switch becomes jammed, along with the instruments and communications, and they're headed right for terrible storm clouds with their prior jokes turning over to grave matters. All that loss of control and feeling of being trapped is capitalized here, along with other dark elements--some uncanny, some human--thrown out of left field to make flying in the skies even more nerve wrecking.

These aren't exactly the people you'd want to go through a mounting disaster with, with the exception of the pilot who holds her senses together with reason and rationale despite getting emotional at times as well. The others are trouble before they even set off, which makes the tension a little exaggerated and possibly annoying at times but still mostly effective at driving interaction between the players in the claustrophobic space and without the ground in sight. They all get disoriented and tempers start to flair, along with some hidden revelations come out about their relationships with one another due to the stressful circumstances. They have to come up with game plans if they want to survive. Some can't be trusted that they have the best interests of the group in mind. Some either hallucinate, are intoxicated or affected by an oxygen depravation. This is definitely a varied movie as the tone of the picture transitions from thriller and survival in the air to mystery, science fiction and dark fantasy genres--and then if that wasn't enough potentially romance--when some of the controls and their location can't be explained by logic or rational reasons. Some theories arise as to what it all means but then is put to rest when a final culmination wraps up drastically different from the way it started out, though refreshingly so. It might leave a dividing point between some viewers who expected one thing and got another, and is possibly more catered to the lover of films in general than a specific genre freak.

This was a surprise. The effects were decent enough for the budget with a blend of models and CGI--helped by the dark shadows and storming clouds to cover up any sharp contrasts. "Altitude" is not just a straight forward situation-gone-wrong type of movie but one that also deals with overcoming fear, rejection, insecurities and the dangers of the world on the ground and in the air. There's some reward for watching this instead of going for an entirely bleak conclusion that many horror films do--which I can't say this belongs with two feet in the genre. This is left somewhat open to interpretation of its fantasy mechanics--think along the lines of old EC comics or "Twilight Zone"--which also includes areas of inconsistences, though it still causes the imagination to open up to the possibilities, and like those fill in some of the blanks for yourself. The pacing of its revelations helps it to stay on track by progressing and growing from the outset to eventually make this an exceptional story to be told than a rehash or just going for the tried and true.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Kaare Andrews
Stars: Jessica Lowndes, Julianna Guill, Ryan Donowho, Landon Liboiron, Jake Weary
Link: IMDB

The Task (2010)

Your 15 minutes are up...

"The Task" is about an extreme of the extreme reality TV show in the US--despite the filming location being Bulgaria and the majority of the actors being from the UK with mostly North American accents--that goes so far as to kidnap its participants and bring them to the filming location without telling them first, of course, to make it more over-the-top for the hungry audiences that will be watching. The name of the game is for 6 participants--3 gals, 3 guys--to spend the night in an abandoned prison that has a haunted past with a sadistic, power hungry warden from the '30s and complete tasks that will put them to the test all for the sake of money and potential fame.

They walk around with their personality types on their foreheads: the brazen gal, flamboyant guy, pretty gal, cool guy, smart aleck and sister's keeper. The perspective is shown through the task takers as well as in the producer's trailer that runs the controls, such as spooky effects and cameras. As it turns out they're part of the game too and don't have as much use of manipulation as they think. Participants are shown in prerecorded segments stating their biggest fears and some of them have to relive them for the sake of entertainment.


The movie doesn't always keep a steady enough first person angle to make this more effectively spooky or scary to show what the person has to endure. The sets are catered to their fears but not always given a chance to truly get inside their sadistic mechanisms, and the effects are usually tricks of light to make it look as if something was there one moment, gone the next; the film is habitually dark as a result. It frequently changes up camera angles with a bit of style and switches over to the control trailer to show the behind-the-scenes people laughing and joking about, which takes one out the potential atmosphere even more so. This tries to be a share of aspects at once: fun/humorous, horrific, supernatural, thriller like and to project that reality TV flair while at it. It does the last well enough but the rest it only touches on for brief periods as it strings you along to see its culmination and tasks along the way that are bordering more on chore than challenge--not helped that the participants are just doing it to do it, rather than needing to do it for a personal goal. A share of it doesn't always cross over to be more than just a concept and go for a cinematic experience with a sense for engaging interaction between its characters. The acting is all over the place since this is a reality show and those notoriously go for forced emotions. In that regard it does feel spot on. Though for the theatrical experience it ranges from decent to atrocious depending on the moment and person or what tone they're trying to portray. For simple amusement, everyone keeps up, though for the dramatic and suspenseful, it holds up like a cardboard coffin.

I have to admit despite the premise being over-the-top and superficial, not to mention done similarly before--on real TV and usually with a haunted house in movies--I actually wanted to see how it would unfold initially. I mean, it's so ridiculous that you might think it has to be nothing but entertaining and hopefully competitive and sportsmanlike with the game angle. Not to mention for the participation mode to see people do unusual things that the audience would only guess if they'd have the courage to do themselves. Unfortunately there wasn't enough material to keep it intriguing and its is-it-real, is-it-not shtick actually took away from the film, which could have definitely been a solid angle to enhance it and give it a charging focus. Except it went from not taking itself seriously to actually taking itself seriously and then back again, but to only end up forming an extreme divide with the two mentioned and not always clenching the foundation in between to maintain gravitating mystery and suspense. This is a film that had potential even in a basic, one-off sense but the execution didn't give itself enough time to concentrate on all of the various angles it threw into the mix.

Rating: 3.5/10

Director: Alex Orwell
Link: IMDB

The Final (2010)

A matter of perspective and consequences for actions

Five friends are going through a kind of Hell on Earth in high school where day to day they get bullied mentally and physically by the socially elite with no end or escape in sight. The bullies are the absolute caricatures of their type: the callous jocks and pretty things that have nothing better to do than to torment those that they feel are beneath them. The parents either don't understand or are impassive to what they're going through. They take matters into their own hands by planning and pumping themselves up for the courage to secure back their name and gain the upper hand. They all have their own little justifications for why they are going through with it but with the same end result in mind. The trap is a Saturday night invitation only costume party in an isolated area, with spiked punch inside and shackles so that their former bullies can be tortured one by one and have to endure volatile speeches about what grief they've caused. This isn't a culminating outburst that shows the years that follow like "Carrie," but a film that concentrates on returning the hurt and sending a much more blatant message.

This goes from giving a little sympathy for the originally bullied's impossible situation, then moves on over to absolute hate and revenge that doesn't just get even but goes over the mark, making the viewer question if they're any longer justified or if anyone here is actually good or bad, victim or villain on either side of the fence. This starts out with everyday high school life, moves on to a kind of exploitation where the captives get it in drawn out torture scenes, then runs on over to embrace social commentary on the subject by using an exceptional case with exaggeration to make a point about everything that comes before it as there isn't anything general or normal about the characters or their situation here. One interpretation of the events that sticks out like a sore thumb is: those who bully deserve not just an eye for an eye, but an eye for a finger...and a face...and a spine. Though since these guys, like Columbine, don't represent the normal teen all the way through I'd say the message is more: how we chose to treat others is at most times fairly simple in execution but what follows sometimes comes with irreversible consequences for our actions. That can be said about bullies in the halls of school, or returning the favor outside of school with worse tactics, until someone steps up to stop the downward spiral

The fear in this film is produced by how far it can be taken from someone who is so over the edge that they don't care about the consequences since they have nothing to lose during school and at home. There are some general relating points, though it's up to you if you should be rooting for the plan to succeed or hope they get away or maybe an option C. Then again this has two-wrongs-don't-make-a-right type of scenarios where the bad guys in the film are just badder than the last, making this carry a somewhat bleaker tone because this isn't entirely resolved in its running time but instead the major resolution is supposed to come with the audience watching.

The personalities of the captures seem to partly mirror Columbine in that the leader displays a form of psychosis or be it psychotic behavior and the others carry a form of extreme depression that would make them more susceptible to follow. It's also true that they bounced back and forth detached plans and ideas from a normal reality--Columbine with tapes made in their basement--off only each other without outside influences who might have interjected by saying what they're doing isn't right. It's obvious to an outsider looking in but not to someone neck deep in delusional thoughts. There are inconsistencies amongst their personalities, but it does show that they're being human and that they can't handle the situation that came about by a kind of luck of the draw.

The issue with "The Final" is the general tone of the picture is hard to grasp at points, as it often missteps on blending together entertainment and a message without its seams showing. It wants to be a horror movie but also a heavy satire. It indeed does both, but not equally well at the same time. In the story, the master plan doesn't go as smoothly when someone steps out of line, another lets it go to his head, as well as an outside character tries to intervene. Though there's often little real anticipation, tension or sense of the dramatic here, especially once the torture begins. Take the easy and well known example of Jason in "Friday the 13th" in that he chases pretty looking young people around a wooded area only to kill them in different and grisly ways. Yeah, it's going completely for titillation but the time in between adds to the impact when it happens. "The Final," on the other hand, feels gratuitous in that the sadism is level across the board with tied up captives who are easily taken on one by one with those with the upper hand not always giving more leeway to the game they're playing. If they were trying to desensitize for whatever reason, then they did a decent job of it. It makes the time in between feel overlong and like it could have been edited down somewhat. The picture doesn't seem to always steadily or progressively build and it starts to bog down from going anywhere substantial enough to reel in your wandering attention despite people being hurt.

The is a daring movie that doesn't just open up the obvious can of worms with bullying and school life, but also violence and pacification, the right to bear arms and easy accessibility to high powered fire arms, some religious justifications and a little politics on war with a veteran. If they threw in how much money everyone makes, this film would be up there with one of the worst conversation starters at your job. It's gotta be on HR blacklists everywhere. The movie isn't subtle about what it's trying to say by its close, to the point of feeling like the scriptwriter speaking directly through the characters with well-defined realizations that cross the line for the likelihood of actually being said by someone on the spot. It starts out by taking a somewhat reserved standing for the audience to decide where they are and then by its wrap-up it's delivering the messages home for the viewer who might not have had their thinking caps on. I'm guessing they wanted to make it known that they weren't just making "Hostel" and "Saw" part whatever, but only using the format for other means, which makes sense, but still leaves those sentiments dangling in your face.

Overall, what brings "The Final" down, despite its possible good intentions and ability to start debates and conversations from it, which can't always be said about some other films once the credits roll, is it still feels like more of a concept than a fully realized or fleshed out story. The actors are hit and miss with attempting to make this ambitious film come together, whether it's going from a black comedic tone--ala "Heathers"--to not believably performing dramatically compared to their regular selves or be it generating suspense and scares, and that can take one out of the experience that they are actually watching a film. It's something that reads much better on paper than how it pans out for a full length cinematic experience. I can't say I'd recommend this for the overall experience unless you're able to have an easier time compensating for its setbacks.

Rating: 4/10

From Black to Red recommends instead: "Battle Royale": this Japanese film has some social commentary about high school life, among other aspects such as downsizing of the population. It's capable of blending messages in its story while still maintaining a certain amount of entertainment for the duration.

Director: Joey Stewart
Link: IMDB

The Last Exorcism (2010)

A film crew, a Reverend and a troubled girl

"The Blair Witch Project" wasn't the first of its kind, but it did spawn a share of pseudo documentary films in the last decade. More recently "Diary of the Dead," "Quarantine" and "District 9" have embraced the style to give a level of in-the-now reporting, as well as to show how modern times have evolved with our obsession with recording anything and everything. "The Last Exorcism" has significance for the events that unfold with a special case that takes a different spin on the possession genre. It uses the format to put the audience in the moment by moment with some poetic license to make it less stiff and more entertaining than the usual documentary feature.

A Reverend named Cotton Marcus in Louisiana serves up his stimulating gospels at a small town church. Instead of getting his audience to pay attention with studious words and fine lessons, he's more gifted with a knack for enthusiasm and energy. He's a showman who loves attention and does everything from novelty magician's tricks to yelling and rapidly moving about to achieve that. He's full of tricks up his sleeves and isn't shy about that fact on camera. His honesty leads to coming right out by stating that he doesn't actually believe in demons--or possibly God--but provides a service to people to heal their mind regardless. He's still a people person despite what looks to be manipulation. Besides being good at it, one of the other justifications is money to provide for his family and to maintain the establishment of the church. Not only have preachers been in his family for generations but exorcists as well. The goal for doing the documentary is to expose exorcisms for what they really are from a little boy who suffocated in a past case from another practitioner who took things too seriously. There's a sort of self-made philosophy to his lifestyle but at times he still comes off like a too-smart-for-his-own good joker that mocks what he does.

Until he meets his match...

He goes out on a job with the usual antics and spiffy attire. On a small farm, he encounters the belligerent and unpredictable brother, Caleb, then a nice and somewhat naive teenage girl named Nell in question, and also their straight-shooting, meat-and-potatoes father. Their livestock is being indiscriminately killed in unusual ways and despite the girl's bloody clothing, they can't say for sure if it's her or not. Caleb is pushing away from a strong Christian upbringing from a previous family death, even though the rest are trying to keep their spiritual ties strong. Rev. Marcus plays right into the hands of what they want to believe anyway and declares that an exorcism is the only answer at this point to save the girl's life. Even after using his well-timed tricks, more truths come out after all the slick, prearranged smoke and mirrors clear about what's going on under the surface. Some of the characters are more dangerous than they originally let on and the film crew sticks around despite the new challenges ahead of the severely dysfunctional family.

For a story with interesting drama and charismatic characters, this movie definitely nails it to entice a viewer to want to see the rest of the story unfold. Patrick Fabian puts on an engaging performance as the Reverend and makes you believe he actually could be this guy due to there being a number of layers to his background story. Ashley Bell does both the nice and tormented transitions by being believably friendly or expressing hostility. For scares and atmosphere, this is the portion that has areas of feeling more scripted since it's more chaotic than the moderate pacing beforehand and you can notice some of the transitions don't always feel lined up as convincingly. For the latter portion this plays on a panicky cam that's usually accompanied by nails-against-the-chalkboard music to carry the state of confusion further. It's a transitional storyline that evolves at the same time as it escalates with more and more to show and tell.

Since this goes from a documentary/drama storyline to a horror, the fear portion behind "The Last Exorcism" was to catch the skeptics off guard rather than starting out by stating its intentions. Yet at times it went over its mark to not make a defensive viewer completely uncross their arms. Its beginning was often gradual and controlled but still intriguing, and then its conclusion was explosive, making it feel like it came out of no where and less grounded than it intended. The idea in itself is shocking, but where it came from or how it came to be was skipped over and it made this feel more fictional rather than going with the realistic perspective it wanted to originally achieve. It made the faux-documentary style feel a gimmick when it carried the same amount of suspension of disbelief as a conventional film. The ending tries to simultaneously wrap up the biggest questions it posed beforehand, show where the documentary takes the Reverend--since he's kind of riding between places--and then it attempts to make the experience shocking by being abrupt all at the same time. It does the last two somewhat effectively, if riding a little too much on its punchline, but it makes the first come with more riddling questions than when it began. I can imagine some might like that direct approach, as it gives the opportunity to get in and out and move onto the next film without lingering about, though it made the picture more distant to others that get a little more latched onto a concept.

The limitations of the documentary style come out after it's able to unfold the background of the characters with one on one interviews, but it doesn't always get a chance to evolve the inner workings of the background of the town's people or even the surroundings, which at first makes it seem like some random area, instead of something tainted or unique, until it's too late to get under your skin. They mention it in passing, but that's as far as that goes. I can't say it was a total cop out because it uses the same ingredients as some other horror features, just the timing and amount of foreshadowing beforehand is what makes that kind of picture truly come together and feel like one solid, culminating piece. It's like a magician who performs his magic act by setting the stage, gaining your attention and then wowing its audience with the final slight of hand trick. The timing has to be precise as it's a culmination of everything before it to a single, highly devised revelation of its total parts. This was a little more elusive about its actions and didn't give its audience enough time to truly take it in. It can catch people off guard but I can't say it sustains that effect for very long. This is definitely worth the rental but not necessarily the purchase price for that reason.

It looks that "The Last Exorcism 2" is announced for 2012 and might clear up some answers.

Rating: 6.5/10

Director: Daniel Stamm (A Necessary Death)
Stars: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones
Link: IMDB

Camp Hell (2010)

Doesn't the Devil have anything better to do?

A young man named Thomas/Tommy is going to summer camp in New Jersey, not just any summer camp, but a religious one in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are enough rules in place to almost make the campers temporary nuns and monks for what's supposed to be their carefree, once-in-a-lifetime vacation that everyone else at that age usually partakes. It's the time of raging hormones and rebellious tendencies, so temptations are going to come up in the youngster's minds. Instead of the adults leading by example, they use harsh scare tactics. That place is Camp Hope, but to the attendees it's more like "Camp Hell."

This is a mess when it comes to exposition, foreshadowing, mystery, pacing--you name it. Its idea of atmosphere seems inconclusive with outlining its plot, and also intrusive either with abrupt music or visions tacked on almost as if it was an after thought. Who knows? Maybe it was, because this must have been hell to market--hence the presently popular actor in a cameo only on the cover and their camp shirts stating 2006/2007 despite the release date of 2010. After awhile it makes you wonder what and where the focal point is. Are they bracing me to be fearful? Scared? Worried? Intrigued? Looking for relating points at the time of teenage angst? If it wasn't for the preview I saw earlier, I would have thought I picked up a different movie than intended. Eventually it gets around to Thomas explaining about his demonic dreams. Their camp leader, Father Phineas, tells of another that experienced visions before and ended up in a mental institution. This is Jesse Einsenberg's small bit part in the beginning, and then "poof."

Before that they go through spiritual exercises and give learning lessons. It's hard to say if there is a kind of tongue-in-cheek humor at first since the people are the epitome of dedicated to their cause. You have different characters among the boys: the blind followers, the smart alecks, the believers, and Tommy: a shaper--someone who everyone around him wants to mold like putty without always asking him what he feels first, or lambaste him when he actually expresses himself. Being absent of the things they normally do for fun leads to pranks and scary story telling to bide their extracurricular time, apart from the evil-less sports, spiritual singing (down with rock music!) and dancing they do on their own. Forbidden love is on the rise between Tommy and childhood friend Melissa. When you finally think things have kicked into gear or turned for the worst, it becomes a little teaser. Though at least you know that some kind of bad guy is laying in wait. To what purpose? They still don't give that up till later, with more waiting in the process.

For what it's worth, the acting was adequate and was able to get itself across without being distracting, though it still doesn't overcome its other setbacks or put this into a better light. As a horror movie or a film going for atmosphere, or even a drama or whatever it was trying to be, it falls short on defining and unraveling itself, leaving the viewer to frustratingly guess, speculate and reach. I'm not a gambler, but I'd be willing to put money down that this was written with the ending first and gone backwards from there. Somewhat shocking depending on which side of the fence you stand, or possibly an eye opener or a statement no one is willing to say, though everything before it wasn't worth the wait and tedium of getting there. It felt like a hyped up amusement ride with too much clutter (people in front of you), and then an actual experience that doesn't live up to its climax. This attempts to build up to a "something"-lurking-in-the-shadows type of movie, except it leaves the audience in the dark half the time that there is something even there or even why it's there for that matter. Scared? Well...of what? They might as well have dropped the background horror fodder and made this a drama because it might have made the experience less frustrating trying to figure out its "mystery" element or message in the mean time.

Rating: 2.5/10

Director: George VanBuskirk
Stars: Will Denton, Bruce Davison, Valentina de Angelis
Link: IMDB

Rubber (2010)

One tire to rule them all!

This is an ambitious project that could have been one thing but decided to be multiple. It's a film that balances theory and entertainment. The former is going to put some viewer's off, but in both respects it's going to still produce some debate in whether someone thinks it's warranted or too basic and unoriginal. It starts out as a movie within a movie with the "audience" represented by spectators with binoculars and a member of the cast explaining that things in cinema often imitate life by happening for no reason. The irony is that part of what he's saying happened for a reason--yet that's all a matter of perspective, which is supposed to be the film's sublime message since so many other movies spoon feed their viewers. Truth is stranger than fiction, right? Well, maybe not so much here.

"Rubber" isn't a health conscious XXX film but rather a picture about a possessed tire that plays out like a dryly humorous horror tale with a slice of adventure. It's almost as if it was penned by another pseudonym of Stephen King with inanimate objects that move about and have psychic powers. Like King, the mundane is taken with a bit of refined thought with its own rules and special powers. The funniest aspect is it has actual character development before it sees the world despite being a basic, ordinary tire in look. It rises from the sand strewn landscape and rolls about with a curious mind of its own. Like a serial killer, it graduates up to greater threats, such as a crushed water bottle, leading to a dead scorpion, leading to a beer bottle destroyed by supernatural powers. It roams about and gets tired just like the rest of us. Our stock spectators are periodically shown with comments and complaints about what's going on as well as puns to other films.

If anything can be learned about what not to do in possession films, it's "Maximum Overdrive," with some lame excuse for what's going on and the laziest scientific reasoning behind it as if its research dodged the library and went on pure speculation. "Rubber" doesn't explain how or where it came from, but it still has plenty of basic motivations and behaviors outlined, such as forming a love interest with a young brunette, watching TV, strolling about and indiscriminately exploding peoples' heads like "Scanners" gone wild. It's such an odd premise that any context it finds itself in seems to be humorous. It's almost cartoonish at points, which makes me believe this could have been a hit series on Cartoon Network for adults with short episodes to keep the novelty going. That's probably another reason for including other aspects here since its gimmick might have worn thin otherwise. The film spends a share of time on its aesthetics with style and mood. Its lead, even though it's supposed to be an inanimate object, ends up being this oddly cool antihero with his certain ways, a distinctive roll (gait) and hip music to follow.

There are a share of shots of the surroundings to development an atmosphere. The camera angles are often very explicit about what they want you to focus on, and if you don't you'll often see a blurry background like taking off your glasses in a 3D film. It takes awhile to get used to as something can be framed up in the center yet what's around it is clear instead. It plays on some horror jokes with close-up creeping shots almost out of "Jaws," as well as a young kid that no adult believes. This is a little too unhurried at points with not much in the way of significance going on at points but it does leave some room to think about what you're viewing and also to maintain a level of intrigue to see what happens next. It plays around a little too long with its concept by showing misadventures rather than a narrative story. That seems to simultaneously help it and hold it back when not much is going on but just giving a presence or aura. Like you're just hangin' loose with it.

"Rubber" has a lot of potential and produces some fun times. The biggest let down is how its replay value becomes diminished when it tries to move from being an odd genre mesh that's off on its own, to giving a message heavy satire on Hollywood films while using an absurd plot and easy time to make you go along with that notion. It's riding a fine line between poking fun and having an ulterior motive. It's odd considering that if you caught it, you're already capable of thinking on your own anyway. So why the reminder and pat on the back? Not to mention each time you put this on you might be reminded and if something miraculously does a turn around over there in Tinseltown, this will look short sighted. If you didn't, then hopefully you at least had an amusing time and were able to interpret it in your own way. It's a film that doesn't worry about its critiques. That prior mentioned aspect might have bothered myself. Though others might be put off by its areas of contradictions in plot or ideology, slowness or lack of hitting your particular funny bone. And guess what? All of those people would be right in a way, because it's a certain type of film that takes a certain type of person to appreciate it. Then on the other hand, it takes a certain type of person to hate it as well. What's interesting here is that they equally balanced both their adorers and disqualifiers in the same film. Most movies do that by accident, though this is going to be a lot more self-aware, which even that itself can make one put up crossed arms.

One could say the film does the same things that it points out other movies as not doing, which makes it okay, right? I guess that will be up to you. "Rubber" often plays both sides of the fence and you can't always tell what side it's really on. Possibly neither; possibly both equally; possibly one side and using the other as a guise. It exercises with contradiction and its diet consists of irony. It can have both a reason and not a reason for doing something. It can be both artful and fluff. Exciting and dull. Original and unoriginal. Pretentious and simple. I have to say it was a neat idea with its share of ambitions with a goal in mind to set up a kind of ambiguity. To do that it often spoke its limitations through its mock spectators, even if that self-degradation doesn't exactly excuse everything, but it still leaves enough lingering about to have an amusing time during and then a productive discussion/debate afterwards.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Quentin Dupieux (Steak)
Stars: Stephen Spinella, Wings Hauser, Roxane Mesquida
Link: IMDB

Death Tube (2010)

Make way You Tube!

Other films from Japan such as "Suicide Club" and "Battle Royale" dealt with questions about death and how social pressure can come into play about how we view the end-all. "Death Tube" doesn't carry such an ulterior motive as, say, the western made anti-thriller "Funny Games" because in one sense it can still be viewed as a cinematic snuff/torture film that delivers human suffering on a tasty platter. Then on the other, there's a certain kind of fear with a message or a warning, if you will, buried underneath for the person who has a little more hope for the human race. Since it's straddling the line, it neither delivers in an overly gory manner (even though this has some the same makers as "Grotesque") nor in an intellectually profound way. It's a low-budget film with its shortcomings, stretched scenes and overly dramatic performances with characters that have little relating points, which limits either side from being truly effective as its predecessors with a proclamation.

Enter "Death Tube": an Internet show that broadcasts murders a few times a year for only a week to select audiences. On this particular episode a man named Inoue is sent a link to the site from a friend, not believing it's real since the video quality looks at times sketchy and the acting questionable, until he wakes up in the same room that he watched a man pleading for his life in earlier. If it's not happening to you at first, then there's no reason to care, right? Reminded me of a 2008 case in Florida with a live suicide involving a late teen. If you already guessed that this is a Japanese offshoot of "Saw," you wouldn't be too far off the mark. Instead of a doll with a tricycle that speaks, you get a yellow bear with a top hat and mustache called Ponkichi. It turns out there are seven others in the same dire straits as Inoue in different rooms that can speak to each other through a laptop. The victims have to go through a series of random objectives or simply they die. The viewers can help if they want to but just type messages egging everything on.

This first challenge is to put together a Rubik's Cube with a phrase they must abide by. Seven are left when Ponkichi gives them seven tasks that one person has to complete in each hour. If one fails at a task they might die at the end. Though if they collectively complete a total of four tasks then they are all safe. Soon enough they find that this was just one game among many that involve different inescapable rooms, puzzles and trivial objectives to get through to the end that pits each person against one another but at the same time has positive mottos hanging on banners that they should stick together. It essentially plays on their emotions as if they're going to make it or not or force them into decisions for the audience's entertainment. Ponkichi goes from being displayed on a small television to being a person dressed in a bear suit like a mascot with little signature moves and dances but in one hand a deadly gun to take out anyone who loses or doesn't follow the rules.

"Death Tube" has a fairly low budget, so there's going to be less on picture quality and production costs, such as poor lighting set-ups and effects, and there's often misplaced music in the background to what's actually going on. Those production pitfalls aren't the main issues as it's not always so distracting to keep one from following what's going on. The tone itself feels all over the place when trying to take the story into different routes over the course of an extended two hour run time that should have been shortened up. At one point it tries to be horrific, then a spoof, then fun as well as dramatic and heartfelt. The issue is it doesn't properly connect all of them together since it frequently misses on its timing with anticipation, suspense and even an attempt at black humor. It's like they had some of the right ideas in the direct moment of filming a scene, but when putting it all together it doesn't always flow as one centrally driving piece where the subtext gives you something more to contemplate on as it goes.

Even with all of the desperation and violence (more on blood spray and suggestion than gore) that ensues, it's not able to maintain a steady amount of intrigue as a result despite what looks like an original idea. The motivations of the actors and their emotions are often over-emphasized to nail the point home. In one sense there's no miscommunication of what feelings are projected, but it can also make a lackluster scene more dressed up when the character goes well over what was called for. It makes a share of this feel unnatural and forced rather than more involved. After throwing all of the characters through the wash so to speak, not to mention the perplexed audience along with them for what's actually going on, you eventually get to the long overdue end result and see the message of the exercise that by that point lost its impact.

Rating: 3.5/10

Link: IMDB ?

I Am Alive (2010)

Like ants placed in the middle of an ice box

Since two motion pictures, A & E, PBS and National Geographic have jumped in after the newspapers and best selling books, The History Channel gives it their turn surprisingly with a formative take even after all of the documentation before it. This time around the main perspective comes from Fernando "Nando" Parrado who played a key role in the Andes plane crash of 1972. The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 involved 45 passengers, including a team of rugby players called The Old Christians and other family and crew, who were on their way to Chile with no danger in sight until the pilot makes a grave error that caused everyone involved to make impossible decisions to hang on for survival in a weather stricken region with no wildlife or vegetation in sight.

A share of the tone of this documentary is somewhat calm and relaxed and more text book at first than other mediums that have concentrated on putting the audience in the now from a dramatic side. Towards the latter half with Nando and Roberto going through the mountains, they can't help but tell the story with straight feelings, as that's all they had to back them, apart from their skin and bones which nearly gave out. Both of the segments from A & E's "Minute by Minute" from 2002 and National Geographic's "Trapped" from 2007 tried to do the subject in under an hour by concentrating on the main portions of action, but still didn't give a completely thorough approach or show exactly how they got to each one of their motivations apart from jumping dot to dot. Those served more as introduction pieces to further the ambitions of upstarting TV shows and point to another medium. Though "I Am Alive" stands on its own by being thoroughly researched, even if you've seen the other documentaries on the subject. It doesn't seem forced with distracting poetic license or snazzy filmmaking. While they still give some brief reenactments, this focuses on getting a clear perspective from facts and fine details with passionate interviews from the survivors and related experts who still find the experience endearing and engrossing this many years later. This includes mostly spoken English with some overdubbed Spanish.

"I Am Alive" unfolds like a picture book with a share of information and visual representations of the accident and the 72 days that followed. While moving "Stranded" documentary from 2007 focused on the spiritual bonding of friends and how they viewed their situation from an emotional context, this is by far out of the documentaries that I've seen the one that gives the most clear and concise technical understanding. For instance, precisely how and why the plane crashed. There are even diagrams with historians telling their track record. "Of the 78 Fairchild FH-227s built, 23 crashed, and there were a total of 393 fatalities." There are real life pictures of where they hit the mountains, and then CGI graphics to show how lucky they were to land just so to have not made a sudden impact and disintegrated. The surrounding area is shown of exactly where they ended up on the side of Argentina, not in Chile like the pilots anticipated.

As the events come up, the experts give facts about head injuries, starvation, avalanches, inventing devices from supplies, traveling through the Andes and mountaineering. A climber and a team went back to cover some of the same distances Nando and Roberto did, which took them 10 days and 37 long and hard miles till they seen green. Photos were taken of the road that Roberto saw from the top of the first summit that they argued about at the time if they should head that way, but at that point being lost, unsure and hungry and then making the wrong move could have been life or death. I found it interesting that they discussed if they went east towards Argentina instead of west towards Chile if their chances would have improved. In the after author Piers Paul Read talks about his book "Alive" and the fear from the survivors of how it would be written after all of the sensationalist press around the globe.

What's mostly effective about "I Am Alive" is they weren't frequently making justifications for their actions after the fact. Nando carries the bulk and speaks somewhat unscripted as if he knows the story like the back of his hand. At times they still speak their piece, such as Nando calling what they did "anthropophagy" rather than cannibalism, since it didn't follow murder. At other times he speaks rather candidly, such as explaining that the avalanche saved the remaining people's lives due to it covering them from further storms, and then incidentally taking 8 more bodies that they used for food for the remaining days till they could trek out when weather conditions improved. It says a lot for him and the 15 others, but not so much for those that didn't make it out. It does state some facts a little directly and somewhat coldly as a result, though, on the other hand, it leaves room for the viewer to decide their stance. What makes this work is it's capable of uncovering more answers from stepping back somewhat and not making this completely a heavy hitter that "Stranded" already did so well.

Rating: 9/10

Director: Brad Osborne
Link: IMDB

Devil (2010)

Coming to an elevator nearest you

A lot has already been said about M. Night Shyamalan falling off track. Though I won't go into that because this review isn't going to be about ulterior motives or posturing as I like to view films in case by case if possible. This time around M. Night steps away from the director's chair and is only here as a producer and for the story, while leaving the rest up to another scriptwriter and the director of "Quarantine." Point being: whatever combination is here of who does what, it turned out to be an effective PG-13 thriller/horror/mystery like "The Skeleton Key" and "Drag Me to Hell" in the last decade as the pacing is snappy and the attention grabbing mysteriousness of it all--despite the premise being told outright in the synopsis--is maintained throughout.

"Devil" plays out something like "Clue" mixed with "The Devil's Advocate" on an elevator with shots outside to give a breather that deal with crimes and the supernatural. I was wondering how they would do a plot where the Devil is in an enclosed space with only so many others and then keep the viewer from being able to figure it out till the end. Now, that's a challenge! This is my third viewing and part of that surprise is lessened but the rest of the experience works notwithstanding as there's a certain unfolding atmosphere along with intriguing and suspenseful scenarios in the meantime. They tweaked what you'd anticipate with the right casting and came up with some interesting ways to pass the time, such as the detective reading into the clues as well as the horror angle where the lights flick off each time someone gets it till they can be possibly saved and get out. This is an 80 minute feature that doesn't dive into a lot of back story that stretches outside of what it presents, but it gives enough to understand the rules and feel for the interaction. What helps at first is this was narrated over top in select areas by a religious security guard experiencing the events with a theory to it all that alludes to the Devil hiding amongst us like a wolf in sheep's clothing to torment a set of humans from time to time. Some lines of narration seemed a little intrusive when what you're seeing is descriptive enough, and the fact that this is an in-the-now thriller and shouldn't have to look back instead of progress forward is reason enough to halt the obvious after a certain point.

A person falls to their death in Philadelphia and a detective who's having breakfast with a sponsor from still getting over his family getting killed years earlier, is called in to investigate. Something doesn't add up about where the victim landed and it leads him to a much taller building. Meanwhile five people enter elevator 6 on building 333 and it suddenly stops on its own in inspection mode. There's some humor at first and idle talk like this is just another day with only momentary problems to fix. The maintenance man tries to get things back on track as the security officers use a loudspeaker but the elevator passengers can't be heard back in the control room. The doors won't pry open and they're in an awkward spot to climb. After the lights flicker and go out someone gets injured but no one knows who did it. The detective investigating the death outside is called up by the security officers as they now have a real situation on their hands. It plays on a certain claustrophobia with used air, people you don't know and somewhere you don't want to be, then with only four walls and no place to go up or down, the film amps up the intensity as more suspicious accidents happen with nasty sound effects to hear for it. It's best to watch this one without the lights for that effect.

Even an elevator full of people with a shady past can't stand up to the Devil. The King of Lies is going to be manipulative, tricky, sneaky and without compassion. That also includes innocent people that get caught in the way when attempting to hinder the Prince of Darkness' plans. Something seems too coincidental to the check-everything-twice detective at the same time of juggling to save their lives. From the control room's perspective, it could be interpreted both ways, as crimes being committed with motivations from each of the passengers having skeletons in their closet, as well as something possibly supernatural. For a story about the Devil there's some redemption, which is so unlike Old Nick not to jive. Though I'm sure there are rules to follow and an order to maintain on Earth. Chris Messina did a believable job as the confident cop and Logan Marshall-Green showed some adaptive range for both sides of possibly being innocent and guilty, though the others can go from hit to miss. In another sense they're mostly effective to the story in that you aren't meant to share a closer connection to these people with a shady past, but watch it for the unfolding experience. I guess there's a moralistic message here with that sentiment and I can imagine that might turn off some depraved horror enthusiasts who want Satan to be as cruel as possible and the picture not to come with a message.

The cinematography was definitely sharp. The opening shot with the city upside down was a nice sinister touch on what seems to be a normal place. What's a refreshing change with this picture is it doesn't have a time stamp in your face. This feels like it was made like an old style thriller: not overly advanced in technology, includes traditional music that adds an ominous tone and moderate filmmaking techniques, instead of making this hip or a promotional stepping stone for a certain actor or filmmaker. "Devil" has a tight script, consistent pacing and direction that makes this a steady and mysterious experience that I'd recommend with a bowl of popcorn and possibly the Holy book handy for those with jitters.

Rating: 7.5/10

Director: John Erick Dowdle (The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Quarantine)
Stars: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend
Link: IMDB

Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

Saving on monthly light bills since 2010

This has what's usually either a straight horror, thriller or action/sci-fi premise with the world at large gone missing and where the survivors have to piece together what's left to save their own skin and move on. Though it plays out more as a drama/mystery with some scattered suspense and scary moments in a thriller/horror variation. It could have been the perfect cinematic experience as the audience is presented with a unique idea, however it lacks on the developmental side of its own concept and ends up feeling like a mini series that got abruptly canceled before the pay off. "Vanishing on 7th Street" creates a dividing point: some are going to love the stark ambiguity, while others are going to desire more from its outset.

The film concentrates on four random individuals in Detroit when a sudden power outage occurs and almost everyone instantly vanishes. They find not only the people that are normally walking about instantly missing with only their clothing left as a reminder, but also their friends and loved ones. Seventy two hours later and Luke (Hayden Christensen)--a field reporter who woke late and discovered everyone gone with empty vehicles in the streets to show for it--is now in a routine by scavenging batteries and flashlights from cars that you think is only used to walk around in the dark with. Soon enough screeching shadows that swallow up light take out a man who's lighter ran out of fluid. The sun is setting and rising in less intervals according to him, so any source of light is a survival tool. A share of the film is incredibly dark as a result, though it often plays with shadows, such as encroaching hands and looming silhouettes on the walls. It's hinted that humans get turned into incorporeal beings, though it's not alluded to if the shadows are there to harm, help or just take over everyone's individualism to their ways. For all we know, a mad scientist did an experiment for the world's ultimate solution of going green: we lose our physical form that has been draining the Earth's resources and eroding the ozone layer. Jokes aside, the film is that open ended and it takes away from its lasting impact without some kind of richer outline in place.

Luke spots a bar on 7th street that has all of its lights on. Inside he meets James (Jacob Latimore), a boy of 12 who's got a loaded weapon, booze and a working gasoline run generator to give massive amounts of illumination. A woman eventually named Rosemary (Thandie Newton) bursts through the door in a desperate panic after experiencing the first day in a hospital looking for her son. Luke is on his way out, James wants to stay in case his mother comes back and the Rosemary doesn't want to give up on her baby boy. They hear the cries of a man named Paul (John Leguizamo) outside, who was previously a projectionist at a bustling movie theater. Paul is found with a head injury and a story to tell. Back in the bar the whys and emotional turmoil of moving on from their former loved ones takes hold. There's a share of talk between the characters as to what it all potentially means. Though it's left at: it is what it is, and the characters move on.

After setting up its premise, this concentrates more on the emotional impact of the situation rather than the survivalist aspect like seen in many of these films. So the characters being clouded by feelings end up making mistakes that a clear headed person most likely wouldn't, such as lighting anything around them on fire or conserving energy. The performers grab up a deal of focal point but they don't always hold their own, partly because they're given limited range. Hayden Christensen stands and moves about handsomely, though delivers some forced lines when attempting to get sentimental; John Leguizamo goes from the information guy to acting hurt; the others are mostly on about their family members. They try to beat out the clock of the generator with half their focus and hope for some kind of luck. The film is somewhat inevitable with its title, as it centered more on the characters losing their chance of making it when trying to bring back what they had before with normal human interaction after a bout of loneliness and turmoil for several days. That portion makes it a hopeless situation and hard to relate to, as the closer they get to other humans their chances are lessened of all getting away.

The film's minimalism leaves your mind to roam for other aspects to cling onto. Granted there are some momentary scares and added amounts of creepiness here and there. However this also doesn't give reasons or even motivations towards what's happening and literally leaves you hanging in the dark. In life, shadows are a common occurrence in that they follow you everywhere. That's an intriguing concept to turn around because you can't escape them. But the relating factor of instilling danger by giving them the power to make us vanish, while making it big enough to be a global crisis seems too made up without some kind of ground work or motivation. This isn't just a haunted house with strange happenings or a recognizable risk waiting to happen. In "The Birds" we thought to understand these animals that innocently fly and chirp everywhere we go. The mind is familiar with birds, but what strikes fear is when they suddenly attack us without warning when we're unprepared. You can see what they're doing with their razor sharp beaks and claws, even though it's not understood exactly what's causing their disarray. This film has people vanish, never to show how their physical form disappears, why they're needed or where they go. It seems too broad and abstract an idea to get inside the movie because there's no central driving point besides darkness, which us humans are capable of adapting to anyway.

Some films can go too far with an explanation such as "The Happening" by leaving the audience with a dumbfounded expression. Though movies that also concentrated on the emotional human element of interacting with each other after or during a crisis, such as "The Road" and even "Night of the Living Dead," didn't state exactly why it was happening either but were still effective in that you got something from observation. They didn't need a thorough explanation laid out for the audience. Though enough was there to think about in the afterwards, such as "The Road" dealing with sacrifice and our loss of humanity, and then "Night of the Living Dead" dealing with governmental control and humans including themselves in their own food chain. Both films were able to lock you into their world by establishing more ground work behind what's mainly going on in the foreground.

To its credit, "Vanishing on 7th Street" was shot well with a dedication towards atmosphere. Director Brad Anderson's "Session 9" and "The Machinist" had a flair for mood. He has that part handled, except he didn't write this and that's the major down turn here. This had some inventive setups and some cool dreamlike scenes that gave it a different mode to teleport yourself into. Unlike other films in horror, you don't get that pay off of seeing a cruel way to go out, nor a perspective from the other side, whether it's hellish or not. They're essentially just shadow beings that moan and will bathe you in eternal darkness for no sustaining reason. What you see is what you get. I guess that's evil to some, but we still don't know their story. I mean "King Kong" looked to be just a beast that terrorized a city of helpless people, though he was also ripped from his home and taken there by humans. A distracting intermittent musical string effect is used at points that starts low and ends high for a few seconds and ends up becoming an overused norm that you can count on.

I usually love these type of films that deal with empty streets and apocalyptic overtones, and this had some feeling put into it instead of flying right through. Though it played down its concept and it felt like the film left itself at a sketch but then expected the audience to do more of the leg work to fill in the rest of picture and make it more interesting beyond what it was.

Rating: 4.5/10

Director: Brad Anderson (Session 9, The Machinist)
Stars: Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandie Newton, Jacob Latimore
Link: IMDB

Primal (2010)

What great teeth you have!

Many, many years ago, 12, 000 years ago to be exact, a primitive man is painting on a rock face until he gets attacked from behind by something unexplained. Fast forward to the present day Australia with six individuals trekking some ways out for those same rock paintings for one of their studies. The first sign of trouble hits when they park and take a shortcut. "There's something wrong with that tunnel, we shouldn't go through it," says Anja before she blackouts from a claustrophobic panic attack...or something else. "Some point, you got to get over this," says Mel as the rest still walk through and have her drive around alone. Hey, what are friends there for?

This begins somewhat innocently with random jokes and pokes of fun. It's obvious from the beginning which character has tenacity when the gears of horror start to grind, but the filmmakers still gave surprises as to who gets it apart from their originally perceived character archetypes. They ignore a strange animal attack, and then live it up with some love making, substance abuse and acoustic guitar playing around a fire--a bunch of hippies they are! Mel goes skinny dipping, only to come out of the water covered in leeches and eventually show signs of fever and bloody gums. Soon enough tensions flare about who should have done what or if they should leave or not, and in the process find out what they really mean to each other as friends and companions.

They discover more odd organisms when microscopic insects eat through objects. They can't get help till morning, except by then Mel gets transformed with superhuman strength and a long set of chompers. Survival mode kicks in for the rest of the film with a bunch of in-fighting, denials, ruthlessness and haphazard plans to make it out alive from their former friend Mel who now wants to eat them without mercy. It's hard to feel sorry for nearly all of the characters because most range from either being too general to just plain unlikable. Though there are a few setups with irony to give grin to their folly. And, of course, there's going to be blood and some gore when they get it to keep the lynch mob satisfied.

The beginning has a decent exposition that unfolds the events in a forward motion, though when it comes time for the survival aspect it jumps back and forth, causing the element of suspense to reinvent its own wheel. The monstrous woman randomly appearing and disappearing comes with some effective pop outs when she shrieks her head off, but starts to lose its impact when she's not given more to do beyond a few modes for awhile till someone else turns. The terrain isn't always used to their advantage rather than staying in a general, unmemorable area, which makes it rely on the characters to carry the events. This is going for the tried and true and it unabashedly knows it with a few scenarios of the tongue-and-cheek kind, as well as a few jabs at their own devices and storyline.

This requires you to keep bending your imagination the further it goes as potential explanations are only alluded to. Especially by its finale when a random, choppy looking CGI entity appears but feels physically misplaced despite being loosely hinted at earlier. That ambiguity might have been fine to leave room for mystery, but there aren't always enough substantial or diverting scenes in the meantime to make you forget about the technicalities when they're just running around to save their own skin or deciding if they should kill or not. It's not really ponderous or completely emotionally driven stuff to get you fully locked in because most of the characters by that point are showing less and less strength that you could possibly relate to and are pushing more and more away by being selfish, indecisive or whiny. Not really the most cinematic of times even with the humor and bloodshed, which carries it only so far. In "The Descent," for instance, they're working with and against each other but have a goal to get out to the other side, which you know they're not going to all make it but it creates more tension for its duration with their friends, the creatures, the terrain and the light at the end of the tunnel all competing at once.

There's some potential with "Primal" and it has some fun in the meantime. The dialogue doesn't make you want to slap your forehead like other pictures and the performers give out some serious effort for what they're working with, even if they don't always put everything they've got into it. And the picture quality looks pretty sharp and consistent with some inventive modes, if not always capturing the best vantage points.

Rating: 5/10

Director: Josh Reed
Stars: Krew Boylan, Zoe Tuckwell-Smith, Wil Travel, Rebekah Foord, Damien Freeleagus, Lindsay Farris
Link: IMDB

Black Swan (2010)

She's a maniac...dancing like she never danced before

Like the "The Wrestler," this is a deeply woven character study that paces as a dark drama with a young woman named Nina (Natalie Portman) at the center attempting to push herself at the expense of personal relationships and her own physicalities when a once and a life time role comes her way. You get an intimate look at the behind the scenes of a ballet dancer, from routine stretches, make-up, feet taping, auditions, music rehearsals, to the make-it-or-break-it competitive inner circle that surrounds it. The bigger the role, it's stress and then some. Some have the strength of character to make it happen, while others let the make-believe character take over too much of their personal lives.

Nina's self-conscious and emotionally fragile when confrontation and criticisms come speeding at her. She ducks, hides and is afraid to express how she really feels in front of others with the exception of her live-at-home mother who is a shoulder to cry on but is overprotective of her to the world at large. To Nina, the world is Ballet and nothing more. It's on her mind when waking in the morning to conversations on the phone and when meeting outsiders. She's a woman who's partly still a little girl due to her tunnel vision and this causes her to cower away and misinterpret actual meanings as something else. She was riding on a thin slope to begin with and now with the role of Swan Queen--where she has to pull off both of the opposites of White Swan and Black Swan on the same stage when it's normally just one--being presented to her she loses all perspective and starts to slowly dream up and hallucinate.

Mila Kunis plays Lily, which represents a wild card amongst the conformity that usually comes from the traditional background of stage dancing. She's the rebellious, spontaneous one that's able to rebound from the unexpected. Nina is a perfectionist who practiced exclusively for the role of the delicate White Swan and now that she has to learn how to also play the dark and seductive Black Swan without a hitch in between characters, she starts to look at Lily's temperamental personality as both an inspiration and a threat due to the Black Swan coming to her naturally instead. Winona Ryder's character Beth--who was a former lead who stepped down--was impressionable to Nina but now can see the after effects of how much it takes a toll. Though at that point she might have traveled too deep on a downward spiral to turn around.

"Black Swan" takes an artful, niche subject and etches a darker shade onto it. There's no glamor here and you have to wonder if anybody is having fun or they're just doing it compulsively due to losing the spark but still having the talent left over. It uses ballet as a backdrop for a character expose and how something can be taken so far without seeing the forest through the trees. With the exception of a few exaggerated hallucinations that nail the point home, the film was subtle and not so direct, though without being vague either due to its progressive nature. A balance was struck without analyzing the character like a garden variety lay-down-on-the-couch shrink session, but rather an unhealthy breakdown that a viewer can see unfolding before their worrying eyes. The flow is gradual, the cinematography only comes with so many effects compared to other modern pictures, and the traditional stage music is frequently used to get the feel and atmosphere of the world they've encapsulated you in. This eventually builds up to a thrilling finale to show the final act of lost innocence during the big opening night that everyone's been anticipating.

Rating: 9/10

Director: Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain)
Stars: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
Link: IMDB

Hatchet II (2010)

The return of blood and honey

"Hatchet II" should instead be called "1.5" as it's a direct continuation right after the events from the last scene in part one with Marybeth face-to-face with the muscular and deformed maniac Victor Crowley. After getting away, a deal is struck between Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) and Marybeth (Danielle Harris) to go back into Crowley's lair and take him out and retrieve her father and brother's remains along with a group of hunters as their backup posse. Little do the shady, redneck looking locals know what they're really getting into apart from being blinded by the prospect of money but unaware of the bloody massacre last night on Honey Island Swamp.

The survival horror aspects are handled better than the first. Marybeth is still searching for resolution as well as the newly met twin is looking for his brother, while there are others returning that originally slighted Victor Crowley, and then there's the handsome reward on the line that people need despite the danger. It gives the story some more layers and certain deaths more meaning, while others, of course, are just included for pure entertainment fodder. The killings are still ridiculously gory, though the tone slightly shifted from less of the over-the-top cartoon side to a more darker and dramatic side with some twisted humor still intact that is more tongue-in-cheek than laugh out loud. Some characters are solely here to inject feeling, while others simply a token comedic angle. There's a little more suspense concentrated on with some wailing cries and build up before Crowley comes stepping out from a bush or tree to cruelly reign in his buckets of blood terror.

"Hatchet II" is a short and mostly direct experience that keeps the traction forward once it starts moving past the gradually paced introduction phase. Danielle Harris is new to the role but picks right back up and effectively plays a traumatized and tormented young woman looking for resolve. This still plays on horror conventions and doesn't provide anything substantially new, though you get a little more back-story--with "Tales from the Crypt" cheese written all over it with an ill wife, infidelity and supernatural curses--and some of the death scenes are inventive in their maliciousness. The exact rules to the game are never fully outlined apart from echoing that he's a "repeater," which takes away from the challenge and makes him indestructible. After watching the characters go through trial and error in the first, this time around it feels partly like a formula and that you're being strung along till there's another movie. Compared to the first, part two concentrated on more atmosphere with the settings getting darker but while still balancing a somewhat fun experience in between that fairs a little better.

Rating: 6/10

Director: Adam Green (Frozen)
Stars: Danielle Harris, Kane Hodder, Tony Todd
Link: IMDB

My Soul to Take (2010)

A lot of blood spilled over a soulless killer

A homicidal man with schizophrenia named Abel Plenkov speaks to himself and tries to fight the demanding voices in his head. Though the evil personality of him takes over and several people end up dead. He gets injured when the police show up and he's placed into an ambulance, but on the way escapes and is never captured. Seven were born on that day 16 years ago and remember the anniversary each year called "Ripper Day" due to Plenkov's weapon of choice: a curved pocket knife with the inscription of "vengeanace." This creates an urban legend along the lines of "Candyman" meets superstitious rules of psychology like "Mirrors" that's all fun and games at first until someone crops up dead again.

The first ten minutes hooks you in as it's highly cinematic and ludicrously exaggerated. The slasher element, instead of being omnipresent, comes and goes as the rest of the movie switches around flow and tone. This dodges a fore-fronting investigative route with the detectives who are still around from the original incident as well as the town isn't sent into a panicky fright, but this instead concentrates on the Riverton Seven through their daily activities and struggles as teens. This has sarcasm along the lines of "Mean Girls" and the "Heathers" as there is a hierarchy system with elite young ladies running the social circle at the neighborhood high school.

This has an element of mystery and some revelations are unveiled to carry you along. Could it still be Plenkov? What about that person due to that suspicious action or sentence? Taking the template from "Scream," it's going to keep you guessing till its close, that is if you didn't guess it right away. The picture is unsympathetic--so there's hardly a care if anyone gets killed--with the exception of the unexceptional guy named "Bug," who plays an innocent along the lines of "Forrest Gump" who's slow on the upkeep and gets the brunt of every joke and beating. He's afraid of most situations and gets taken advantage of, though his character is slowly but surely gaining strength to protect himself from the cruel world around him that he doesn't quite grasp. Though the get-to-know-him angle seems like a lost cause and a major distracter because it's hard to really step in with both feet and feel sorry for him as the mysterious killer could be just about anyone without exclusion.

During the course of watching the tone jump in and out of supernatural visions spliced with teen sitcom, the darkly dressed killer appears and hardly seems like a menacing presence. He's the run-of-the-mill slasher archetype where he can literally be anywhere to jump out out with cheap, short lived, shock theatrics; think of some of illogical physicalities done in "Jason Takes Manhattan" and you wouldn't be too far off. He intuitively knows what the victim's next moves are before they do, so what's the point and where are the building thrills? It also doesn't help that this has some of the cheesiest one-liners spoken from a killer in an attempt to personalize him when he does show up. Freddy Krueger could be both funny and condescending, though the guy here should have kept his mouth shut as it threw all fright factor out the window and made the laughs directed at him.

Rating: 4/10

Director: Wes Craven (The Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream)
Stars: Max Thieriot, John Magaro, Emily Meade, Denzel Whitaker
Link: IMDB

Road Kill (2010)

Stranded and no way out except a road train

Two gals and two guys in the middle of the remote, dusty, sweltering outback in Australia get at first taunted and then hit by a "road train": a large semi-truck pulling two double long trailers. Their own car is wrecked and one of them is injured. The only mode of transport back anywhere is the road train up ahead that hit them just prior but now stopped. They approach, but no one is inside. A man appears out of nowhere and starts to shoot at them. They take off in the gigantic vehicle to get away.

The four soon find themselves in another bind as they mysteriously pass out and are parked off to the side of the road and the engine won't restart. Two head off to find help but then part ways to a supposed shack that was seen despite being passed out, and the other awaits a car to miraculously drive through. Tensions start to flare with the stress of the situation about two of them cheating in the past and the new girl being the third wheel. They soon find out something strange is going on as they start to feel off, the truck's running on who knows what and the back of the trailers enclose some more odd items.

This was professionally shot but could have gotten some more closeups for tension, and the acting was for the most part adequate if not award winning. Though it's hard to take the character Craig (Bob Morley) seriously as he does the suave and charming remarks on point but forces the tortured and dramatic scenes with facial expressions that don't line up or believably translate. Some portions feel like "eerie" filler by luring you along with ambiguous hints as to what's really going on and how it all functions. Things sometimes work, sometimes don't and are passed off on either being all so "weird" or as an in-joke and blamed on dingos; seems too convenient for the writer to not have to fill too much backstory to either keep it completely mysterious or some of the mechanics just plain don't work. It mainly concentrates on the horror of it by showing how they got trapped by a revolving door, as well as it goes to show that if you were stranded in the middle of nowhere that the people you thought of as closest to you are now your biggest competition like the underlying theme present in "The Descent."

This isn't new stuff going on here, as this was a play on "Christine" and "Maximum Overdrive" where your disbelief is suspended to ignore the facts and leave room towards the supernatural. Though there were too many plot holes and unexplained occurrences going on. The biggest mistake the filmmakers did here was to leave enough down time between significant scenarios happening to be able to pull it apart as a viewer with nothing else to do in the meantime. Keep us busy and our imaginative minds will open, otherwise it's going to be crossed arms and side-to-side head nods. If they closed the gaps in their story, made the flow constant and more thrilling, and explained a little more backstory, this actually had the potential to be a better experience.

Rating: 3/10

From Black to Red recommends instead: "Christine." This is a film that involves some commentary about the geek turning into the cool guy when his new car gives him the power to do so.

Director: Dean Francis
Stars: Bob Morley, Sophie Lowe, Georgina Haig
Link: IMDB