RED CHRISTMAS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/17/17

 

We reviewed a barebones advance screener for RED CHRISTMAS back in August (see below) but today (October 17) it comes out on Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films and we've gotten the opportunity to take a gander at it. 

This seasonal slash-em-up is about a highly dysfunctional family (with America's sweetheart, Dee Wallace, as the harried matriarch) getting together like oil and water for an unconventional Christmas celebration with a surprise guest--Cletus, Mom's aborted fetus that survived, grew up, got real crazy, and is now out for either familial love or ruthless revenge, whichever comes first.

Needless to say, it's a raucous affair that serves to bring the disparate family members together at last, even as they're getting picked off one by one.

As for the Blu-ray--not only does it look and sound good enough to put you right in the Christmas spirit, but there are some lovely extras as well.  First up is director Craig Anderson's informal interview with a charming Dee Wallace, who manages to melt our hearts all over again as she speaks of working not only on this film but her previous classics (E.T., THE HOWLING, 10, etc.) as well. 

Next, Anderson and actor Sam Campbell ("Cletus") pop over to Gerald Odwyer's house to chat with him about his experiences playing "Gerry."  Again, it's all pleasantly casual and amusing, as well as informative.

Lastly comes a blooper reel, deleted scene, and brief clip of Odwyer and Anderson goofing around.  The latter two also handle the film's commentary, which is very scene-specific and enlightening.

The Blu-ray is in 2.25:1 widescreen with 5.1 surround sound.  English subtitles and closed-captions are available.

And now, here's our original review of the film itself:

A movie that might also have been called "When Abortions Attack!", RED CHRISTMAS (Artsploitation Films, 2016) is a pretty effective cautionary tale about what can happen if your viable aborted fetus is rescued by the guy who's about to blow up the abortion clinic, grows up into a twisted, deformed freak, and then returns as an adult on Christmas Day to wreak bloody revenge on his erstwhile mother and her comically dysfunctional family. 

Of course, any such film must star beloved genre queen Dee Wallace as the mom, who so desperately wants a traditional, happy family get-together despite having a woefully untraditional, unhappy family with absolutely no intention of getting together.  Her only solace is son Jerry (Gerard Odwyer), whose Downs Syndrome only makes him more special in Mommy's heart.

The rest of the clan includes the rebellious teen girl, her witheringly cynical and very, very pregnant older sister, the ultra-religious sister whose husband is a pious man of the cloth, and Mom's old-hippie brother who is forever puffing away on his medicinal marijuana. 

The prickly interactions amongst this motley bunch, spurred by various family issues and clashing personalities, would be sufficient for a twisted "Big Chill" sort of ensemble dramedy were it not for the fact that their ritual of exchanging gifts around the Christmas tree is interrupted by the entrance of one Cletus, an extremely creepy figure robed in black and wrapped from head to toe like a leper. 

Anyone who watches the abortion clinic prologue and then gets a load of Cletus should have very little trouble putting two and two together as well as mentally mapping out pretty much what territory the rest of RED CHRISTMAS is going to cover. 

All that's left to discover is who's gonna die in what order, how (and how bad) it's going to be, and whether or not first-time writer-director Craig Anderson will be able to make it entertaining for us jaded old slasher-flick junkies. 

Of course, the movie has already proven itself absorbing and fun thanks to good dialogue and performances and a pleasing overall look which includes nicely creative use of color and camera movement. 

Once the axe hits the skull and Cletus starts racking up his body count, the story goes into high gear and keeps us on our toes even though most of the plot's twists and turns cover pretty familiar ground. 
Granted, things start to lag a bit in the second half, but remain generally engaging enough to keep us wanting to see what happens next.  The kills range from teasing glimpses to graphic gore (although this isn't really a gorehound's dream) while our fleeting glimpse of Cletus sans facial bandages drives home the pleasingly retro nature of the film's practical effects. 

The tone is mock serious, with any humor that's inherent in the script kept utterly deadpan and never overt, which I like.  I also like the fact that the premise is so refreshingly different from the usual teens-in-a-cabin or campers-in-the-woods slasher fare while retaining the better elements of such films.

Mainly, though, RED CHRISTMAS lets us enjoy watching the wonderful Dee Wallace giving her all in a great role while fun and entertaining murder, mayhem, and carnage ensue all around her.  It's enough to give horror fans a little taste of Christmas right here in the middle of August.
 


Red Christmas (Official Trailer)

RED CHRISTMAS -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

THE LAST CIRCUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/12/11

 

You don't watch Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia's THE LAST CIRCUS (2010) as much as you're propelled through it.  Frenetic, intensely melodramatic, and way off-the-wall, it's like a Jackson Pollock painting with broad splashes of humor, tragedy, beauty, and violence. 

After a cool main titles montage, we find ourselves in a circus in Spain circa 1937.  The clowns' performance is interrupted by militia pressing men into service to fight in the Spanish Civil War.  Next thing we know, there's a clown in drag wading into a platoon of National soldiers with a machete, in the midst of a spectacular battle in the streets.  Already we know that this isn't going to be your average movie.

His son, Javier, grows up to be a sad clown in a circus dominated by Sergio (Antonio de la Torre), a "happy" clown who is the children's favorite despite his savagely violent nature.  Javier (Carlos Areces) falls in love with Sergio's gorgeous acrobat girlfriend Natalia (Carolina Bang), who is fond of Javier but perversely excited by Sergio's abuse.  When the clowns finally clash, all hell breaks loose.

A visual feast, THE LAST CIRCUS takes us on a dizzying tour of baroque circuses, blazing battles, and off-kilter urban tableaux where mad clowns with machine guns terrorize the citizenry.  Javier's attack on Sergio leaves him with a face that would make the Joker wince--thus ending his career performing for children--while the increasingly psychotic Javier's gleeful self-mutilation gives him a grotesque, permanent clown face meant to strike fear as he goes on a ramapage of revenge against the world. 

Areces, a portly, plain-looking actor, deftly takes his character to this drastic stage after first appearing as a normal and deceptively meek-looking man gradually driven to violence to protect his Natalia.  After his attack on Sergio, he becomes a wild man in the forest and ends up actually biting an elderly General Franco in one of the film's most weirdly comical moments, after which he transforms himself into the homicidal clown monster. 

As Sergio, de la Torre gives a raw performance that takes on added richness once his facial disfigurement makes his character even more volatile and unpredictable.  Most exhilarating for me, however, is the statuesque Carolina Bang as Natalia.  Whether performing her circus acrobatic act, dancing in a Kojak-themed nightclub in front of a giant portrait of Telly Savalas, or making love with passionate abandon to her beastly boyfriend Sergio, she's utterly captivating.  You can't blame Javier for being obsessed with her to the point of having heated delusions in which she appears as a shimmering religious icon.

The film is technically dazzling from the direction and photography all the way to a heart-pounding score by Roque Baños.  The great SPFX include lots of well-done CGI and green screen culminating in a thrilling cliffhanger climax atop a towering monument with Javier and Sergio doing battle over their mutual love Natalia.  The sequence owes quite a bit to films such as THE CROW, BATMAN, and a few others that may come to mind while watching it, with one sweeping camera move after another producing vertigo-inducing thrills as the story builds to its peak. 

The DVD from Magnolia's Magnet label is in 2.35:1 widescreen with English and Spanish 5.1 soundtracks.  Subtitles are in English.  Extras consist of international and U.S. trailers and the featurettes "Making of The Last Circus", "Behind the Scenes Segments", and "Visual Effects."  The latter reveals an extent of green-screen usage throughout the film that I was unaware of while watching it. 

One of the most welcome surprises of my recent viewing experience, THE LAST CIRCUS is a mad rush through a thoroughly skewed adventure bursting with goodies for the eyes and the mind.  You may not like it as much as I did, but I can't imagine anyone being bored by it.

THE LAST CIRCUS -- DVD Review by Porfle

JULIA -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 8/17/09

 

It doesn't take long to figure out that it's going to be a lot of fun watching Tilda Swinton stumble, blunder, and bluff her way through the title role of Erick Zonca's nail-biting thriller JULIA (2008). Julia is a sloppy drunk who screws strangers in back seats and wakes up wondering where she is and who she's with, and petulantly spews profanities even as she's trying to sweet-talk her boss out of firing her or a blazing-eyed killer out of blowing her brains out.

Her friend Mitch (Saul Rubinek), who puts up with her because he loves her and recognizes in her the same self-destructive behavior that once caused him to lose his family, warns Julia that she is an "out-of-control, suicidal, blind alcoholic." This doesn't help, though, because being exactly that is the only thing she knows how to do. And Tilda Swinton, with rarely-seen abandon, grabs the role by the horns and rides it like a mechanical bull.

Julia heckles and jeers her way through A.A. meetings before fleeing toward her next drink. It's during her brief time at one of these meetings that she meets Elena (Kate del Castillo), a bright-faced young Mexican woman who comes to her with a proposition--if Julia will help Elena kidnap her son Tommy away from his grandfather, a wealthy electronics tycoon, Elena will pay her $50,000. Why doesn't Elena have custody of Tommy? Because she's crazy as a loon, that's why, and so is her plan, but the desperate Julia's brain is so booze-addled that she actually imagines it might work. It's right about here that I begin to get this sickly feeling because I know what happens next isn't going to turn out well.

It doesn't, and there's a fatality, and before you know it Julia is a fugitive holding a kidnapped kid at gunpoint in a motel room. She ties him up and feeds him pills to keep him knocked out, and ends up demanding a ransom from the old man. What started as a portrait of a pathetic alcoholic is now the increasingly disturbing story of a crazy woman who either has no moral compass or simply can't comprehend the monstrousness of her actions. But even as bad turns to worse, she continues to barrel headlong through each hopeless situation just to keep from getting pinned down, no matter what it takes.

Things get even worse--I mean, really, really worse--when Julia ends up in Tijuana and Tommy gets kidnapped again, only this time by guys who won't hesitate to kill him if she doesn't fork over the cash that she's trying to squeeze out of the old man. Here's where her status as an "out-of-control, suicidal, blind alcoholic" comes in handy. In one of the most harrowing descents into inner-city hell that I've seen in quite some time, Julia plunges into one nightmarish scenario after another with two things driving her on--the money and the kid. They're like scales bobbing up and down in her mind.

I don't know if she's fully responsible for her own horribleness or not, but we know that she's in need of one hell of a huge redemption after the way she's treated Tommy and what she's gotten him into. At any rate, it's thrilling to watch her deal with these ultra-bad guys by the seat of her pants and dodge certain death with nothing but her wits and a wild-eyed cunning that she seems to draw out of thin air. And despite a keen sense of self-preservation, Julia improvises her way through each step of her perilous ordeal with a "screw you" recklessness that's exhilarating.

The DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment is 2.35:1 widescreen with 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound and Spanish subtitles. Extras consist of about twenty minutes of deleted scenes and a trailer.

The final minutes of JULIA are so suspenseful and intense that the experience left me feeling as though I'd been punched in the gut. There's no catharsis at the end--only a sense that something nerve-wracking has just happened, like almost getting broadsided by a semi at an intersection and having to pull over until you stop shaking. I don't particularly enjoy feeling that way, but I'm still glad I watched this movie. And I now have a whole new appreciation for Tilda Swinton as an actress. She's awesome.

JULIA -- DVD Review by Porfle

FEED THE LIGHT -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 6/30/17

 

It's a real pleasure to see directors and cinematographers these days who not only work in black and white but seem to revel in the unique qualities and possibilities of the medium.

Swedish director Henrik Möller's nightmarishly dark FEED THE LIGHT, aka "Lokalvårdaren" (2015) has been described as "Lovecraftian", which it most definitely is, but visually it's also very "Lynchian" in its bleak and exquisitely evocative use of disturbingly surreal black and white imagery a la ERASERHEAD, with only a few splashes of color for emphasis. 

As Möller himself describes the plot, "In brief you can say that it's about a warehouse in the harbor where mysterious things happen to the cleaning personnel.  There is something wrong with the light."  (That's putting it mildly.)

 

To clarify that a bit, distraught mother Sara (Lina Sundén) has lost custody of her daughter Jenny to her abusive husband Jon (Patrik Karlson), and in order to try and steal her back, she seeks custodial employment in the same mysterious building where he works. 

Things seem "off" immediately.  The only managerial personnel consists of a stiff, cruel woman (Jenny Lampa) named Chefen but known in hushed tones as "The Boss."  The only other people roaming the dim, dreary hallways are a surly cleaning crew to which Sara is assigned, with the special instruction, "Always keep the silver dust swept up." 

It isn't long before Sara realizes that there's something strange and malevolent about the light inside the building--the silver dust, in fact, seems to fall from the light fixtures themselves.  Before the story's done, a bizarre source of light within the bowels of the lowest basement level will hold the horrible secret of the building's seemingly impenetrable mystery.

 

Until then, Sara engages in a furtive search for Jenny that keeps us in bewildered suspense from the very start, encountering both hostile coworkers and the increasingly intimidating Boss (who keeps in her office, seemingly as a pet, an unkempt naked man who seems to think he's a dog). 

Her only allies are an outwardly sympathetic crew foreman (Martin Jirhamn), who may or may not be on her side, and, surprisingly, her ex-husband Jon, whom she finds in decidedly decrepit condition after having spent some non-quality time in the lower level trying to get to the bottom of the mystery himself.

With their help and advice, and despite their warnings, Sara's quest to venture into the first basement (and eventually, of course, into the lowest, creepiest sub-basement) becomes a horrific journey into the paranormal in which nothing is as it seems.

Doors and entire hallways appear out of nowhere, while an unseen force seems to guide her along through the dark, mazelike corridors.  She encounters what appears to be Jenny, but is it?  Most disturbingly, there's a fleeting shadow creature reminiscent of those sleep-paralysis phantoms, only this one is more aggressively hostile.

It reminds me of the creature in the "Outer Limits" episode, "It Crawled Out of the Woodwork", of which I still have shuddery childhood memories.  Other chilling images bring to mind the scarier episodes of "The X-Files" (mainly the ones about the black oil).  

Moreover, the use of extremely limited resources in an imaginatively cinematic way reminds me of HARD REVENGE MILLY, a futuristic action-revenge thriller that also takes place mainly in one empty building and works wonders with very little.

Mainly, though, it's a unique film experience that will nourish the morbid-leaning genre fan's hunger for both the Lovecraftian and the Lynchian, whose subtle twists of reality suddenly give way to jarring images of horror.

The Blu-ray from Intervision is in 1080p full HD resolution with 2.0 audio (Swedish with English subtitles).  Extras include a making-of featurette, a director interview entitled "The Lovecraft Influence", and the film's trailer.

Brilliantly told, with excellent performances, the mood and atmosphere of FEED THE LIGHT surround the viewer like a dense fog, as we feel our way uncertainly toward an ending that is both disorienting and truly haunting.


Buy it at Severin Films

FEED THE LIGHT -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

BLOOD PARADISE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Who'd have thunk it? It turns out Texas doesn't have a monopoly on clans of tightly-wound yokels suffering from too much isolation and a surfeit of plain old down-home "coo-coo."  Which is what novelist Robin Richards discovers when she travels to Sweden for a quiet, secluded farm getaway and ends up right in the middle of BLOOD PARADISE (Artsploitation Films, 2018).

And if you thought that sentence was tortured, just wait'll you see what's in store for Robin (co-writer and co-producer Andréa Winter) after her latest twisted-sex novels drive readers away and her agent suggests she head for the Swedish hills to get her head back together. 

It seems farmers are opening their doors to guests who want to escape the city for the pastoral experience and surround themselves with cows, chickens, and, in this particular case, some vaguely not-all-there people like farmer Rolf (Rolf Brunnström), his creepy mute sister, his surly son who likes to carry a sniper rifle around, and Rolf's dead wife who's buried in the garden...or is she?

 

Even the driver (Christer Cavallius) who picks Robin up at the train station and takes her to Rolf's farm is a weird fellow who's a big, big fan of Robin's books and has "stalker" written all over him.

His name is Hans Bubi (a "Die Hard" reference perhaps?) and he's my favorite character because he's just such a manic oddball (I love his frantic arguments with his jealous, plant-obsessed wife) who I hoped would turn out to be a good guy and not just another member of the creep crowd.

Anyway, with all of that established, BLOOD PARADISE is all set to start keeping us in a state of tense suspense for the rest of its running time. Director Patrick von Barkenberg takes his sweet time letting the story unfold just quickly enough for us to savor every moment of growing unease and mystery as Robin warily observes the actions of her hosts as they grow more suspicious and unsettling.

 

The film itself is a visual treat, each shot nicely composed with lots of little directorial touches that are oddly satisfying.  Performances never go over the top, and the film is refreshingly devoid of the usual jump scares and musical stings. It isn't even all that gory.

Indeed, what happens to Robin (and some other unfortunate people around her) might've been turned into the same tired old torture porn working itself into a lather trying to "scare" us, but instead we're drawn into an increasingly engrossing scenario that carries us along on a wave of pure, skin-crawling suspense.

The low-key, non-sensationalistic nature of BLOOD PARADISE is one of its most pleasing qualities, along with a bone-dry sense of humor.  We're able to identify with Robin and thus slowly get up inside the story and experience each and every disturbing little pastoral perversion along with her.  And the film itself is so finely-wrought that despite its potent capacity for horror, it's a pleasure to watch.

More info and where to buy


Product Details

    Format: DVD (also available in Blu-ray)
    Catalog: ART67
    UPC: 851597006773
    Country: Sweden
    Language: English (with optional subtitles)
    Rating: NR
    Year: 2018
    Length: 84 min.
    Audio: 5.1 Dolby Digital, 2.0 Stereo
    Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
    Bonus material: Four deleted scenes, 2 Music Videos: "Dreamer" by Baby Yoga, "You and Me" by Baby Yoga

BLOOD PARADISE -- DVD Review by Porfle

MOLLY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 9/22/18

 

One thing zombie flicks and post-apocalyptic dystopia movies have in common is that, thanks to templates such as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and MAD MAX, there's very little need for exposition. We're just suddenly there in these established worlds, and all that's required is to learn the specifics of the individual storyline being presented for us to follow.

This is true for the post-apocalyptic dystopia action-thriller MOLLY (Artsploitation Films, 2017), which comes to us by way of the Netherlands and brashly shoulders its way into the ranks of the best, or at least most brashly entertaining, films of that genre. 

An earlier trailer might've gone like this: "In a world...where society has been replaced by anarchy...and the innocent are injected with a drug that turns them into savage beasts pit-fighting to the death as gamblers cheer them on...one girl...with special powers and a fierce will to survive...fights to bring down an evil dictator while protecting an orphaned child she found alone in the wasteland...etc...etc..."

The girl with "special powers" (which I won't spoil here) is Molly (Julia Batelaan), who's like a cross between a myopic valley girl and Velma from "Scooby-Doo" (complete with glasses).  She looks like a normal teenaged nerd-girl all weighed down by a huge backpack and other gear, but circumstances have forced her to become a wandering warrior who must keep her guard up 24/7 against those who wish to either rob, kill, or capture her.

Local big-wig Deacon (Joost Bolt) wields the aforementioned drug and runs the pit fights, turning captives into vicious drug-fueled maniacs called "supplicants" and staging death battles during which he cleans up on the gambling front (with bullets as the main currency).  With Molly having become something of a legend in those parts, he orders his warriors to hunt her down and capture her for his fighting pit.

It took a while for me to settle in and "get" this movie.  At first, it looks like it's just going to be another mildly entertaining genre offering at best, albeit one with an intriguing main character.  The fight choreography seems a bit off at times, and the story seems a bit lean.

Gradually, however, the imagination and skill behind this above-average effort began make themselves more and more apparent until, by the second half, I was getting swept up in what was fast becoming a dazzling feat of modestly-budgeted filmmaking.

As soon as Molly befriends the little orphan girl Bailey (Emma de Paauw), who is then kidnapped as bait to lure Molly into the clutches of Deacon and his band of rough boys, our heroine's rescue mission in the bad guys' rusted-metal offshore lair becomes a dizzying non-stop assault of blazing action and breathtaking filmmaking.

Earlier fight scenes had a choppily edited shaky-cam look to them in order to convey Molly's fear and disorientation during sudden surprise attacks that came out of nowhere.  But during the extended finale, which takes place on several levels of iron walkways in a harsh industrial setting, the direction and cinematography suddenly shift into sort of a cinematic overdrive that had me goggle-eyed with amazement.

Fights still lack finesse, but this gives them the dirty, messy, awkward feel of real life-or-death battle. And when this mass of sweaty humanity starts plunging into fierce conflict in close quarters, directors Colinda Bongers and Thijs Meuwese shoot it all in amazing long takes with disguised edits that give the illusion of one unbroken action scene lasting a good 20-30 minutes or so.

(Molly's set-to with Deacon's main assassin Kimmy, played by Annelies Appelhof, is a real highlight, as is her final showdown with the Deacon himself.)

It's especially impressive in that the filmmakers don't have quick edits and jerky camerawork to use as a visual crutch.  The sequence boasts beautiful photography and camera moves (no shaky-cam, lens flares, etc.) and precision choreography that must've required both exhaustive practice and multiple retakes.

This is, to be honest, some of the best action filmmaking I've ever seen.  I was constantly reminded of a previous fave, HARD REVENGE MILLY, which this actually surpasses in my estimation.  Which, for me, is no small thing.  The hallway fight scene from OLDBOY also comes to mind.

Through it all, the character of freckled, bespectacled Molly is enigmatic but likable, and human enough to panic when she loses her glasses during a fight.  Where the heck did she come from, we wonder, and how did she become this fabled bow-wielding warrior who defeats opponents twice her size and ferociousness, with nothing more than a sort of frantically puckish resolve to survive? (Plus those special powers, of course, but I won't go into that.)

The Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English 5.1 surround sound and optional English subtitles.  Bonus features consist of a directors' commentary, a half-hour "making of" featurette, and a trailer. 

I had a great time watching MOLLY, especially since so many films of this genre have been both blatantly derivative and inescapably dull.  Okay, this movie is sorta blatantly derivative too--but dull it ain't.  Following the satisfying resolution, there's an epilogue which promises a possible sequel, and, for once, I'm actually looking forward to it.

Artsploitation.com

MOLLY -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

RONDO -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/27/19

 

"Sex. Murder. Revenge." is the tagline for the colorfully noirish RONDO (Artsploitation Films, 2018), and it's as good a summary of the action as you could ask for.  Even better if you preface it with the words "Really, Really Twisted" and then add a few expletives such as "Yikes!" and "Holy squibs, Batman!"

Indy filmmaker Drew Barnhardt has written a doozy of a weird-but-fun script and directed the heck out of it by spinning his low budget into cinematic gold that looks as sharp and visually interesting as most movies you'll see on the big or small screen. And he has the kind of cast to work with in which there is no weak link.

Paul (Luke Sorge) is a PTSD-plagued war vet living with his sister Jill (Brenna Otts), who sends him to a therapist for help. Her diagnosis is odd--she not only suggests Paul keep drinking, but recommends he get a "good lay" and turns him on to a local fetish group that meets in a high-rise apartment where the password is (you guessed it) "Rondo."

The narrative up till then seems pretty straightforward, albeit with some distinct tongue-in-cheek touches like an overly arch narrator dispensing exposition and a bone dry, deadpan sense of humor that really comes into play after the "therapist prescribes drunken fetish orgy to disturbed war vet" moment.

What to reveal without spoiling it...?  Suffice it to say that once Paul says the magic word "Rondo" he enters into a world of illicit sex of the extremely weird kind.  And since RONDO is a horror-thriller with the tagline "Sex. Murder. Revenge.", things don't go well. In fact, Paul finds himself hunted by very bad people and his sister Jill gets sucked into the whole very sordid and very, very bloody affair.

It's sexy but in a "I feel so dirty" kind of way, and then comes the violence and extreme gore and nail-biting suspense which Barnhardt stages like a seasoned pro, pulling off several whiplash-inducing plot twists that yank the rug right out from under us. 

This is especially true during the scene where a couple of ruthlessly efficient killers invade Jill's home late at night while she and Paul are asleep, and in another sequence later on which finds Jill foolishly offering herself up as a sexual submissive in hopes of infiltrating the "Rondo" collective. 

Hitchcock fans may recognize a couple of plot elements that are very similar to PSYCHO and darn near as effective, including the introduction of a strong, take-charge character halfway through the story who we feel is going to really get to the bottom of this whole demented business and kick a few bad guy butts.

I also kept thinking that the oddball dialogue, quirky characters (especially the irredeemably vile villains), and off-kilter situations which quickly escalate into nerve-wracking peril for the protagonists were a lot like what might happen if Quentin Tarantino and Dean Koontz got peanut butter on each other's chocolate and vice versa.

Anyway, you got your prolifically-homicidal bad guys, your good guys drawn into a (seemingly) inescapable death trap of horror, graphic violence and gore, that irresistible Tarantino/Koontz sort of zing, and a director who makes it all look good. What's left? Ah, yes...revenge. 

That's where we find out that the tagline isn't just three separate words, but the ingredients which blend together into one of the most satisfying "revenge porn" endings you'll ever see.  As good as RONDO has been up till then--and it's been very, very good--it's during the last five or ten minutes when several dozen well-placed squibs give us that warm, fuzzy feeling that all's right with the world.


Official webpage

Watch the trailer



    Format: DVD
    Catalog: ART65
    UPC: 851597006759
    Number of discs: 1
    Country: USA
    Language: English (captions available)
    Rating: NR
    Year: 2018
    Length: 88
    Audio: Dolby 5.1
    Aspect ratio: 1.77:1    
    Bonus features: Director's commentary,
                    music commentary,
                    deleted scenes (with and without commentary),
                    art featurette,
                    two trailers

RONDO -- DVD Review by Porfle

SNOWFLAKE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/20/18

 

While some of the blurbs describe the 2017 German film SNOWFLAKE (aka "Schneeflöckchen") as being Tarantino-esque, a modern Grimm's fairytale, and other such colorful phrases, don't let that put you off (if it does) or mislead you. 

This is really an enjoyably offbeat tale that manages to deconstruct the usual narrative and throw the viewer a few wicked curves, but it isn't a mind trip of LSD proportions that will leave you strung out in the middle of a surrealistic wasteland.

The Tarantino comparison is mainly due to the fact that two of the protagonists, Javid (Reza Brojerdi) and Tan (Erkan Acar), trade some quirky "Royale with cheese"-type dialogue while casually killing people during their nocturnal prowl through the streets and fast food joints of a violently dystopian near-future Germany. 

There's also the somewhat fractured storyline, due mainly to the fact that they find, in the backseat of their stolen car, a screenplay in progress which features them as the main characters and has the exact dialogue that they've just spoken moments before. The screenplay, it seems, has recorded their exact words and deeds in the past, present, and, to their greatest shock, the future.

Meanwhile, an emotionally-damaged young woman named Eliana (Xenia Assenza) and her devoted bodyguard Carson (David Masterson) are seeking hired killers to avenge the deaths of Eliana's parents at the hands of none other than Javid and Tan.  Carson's father Caleb (David Gant), who thinks he's God, gives them a list of killers to approach with their proposal.

Eliana wants to hire them all, setting off a series of encounters that include a deadly clash with two insane brothers (one thinks he's a pig, both are bloodthirsty cannibals), another pair of assassins who keep a human robot as their slave and engage in playful roleplaying games with their prey, and, finally, a fascist paramilitary leader with an underground army who, as we discover, may have touched off the entire convoluted storyline himself years before.

Director Adolfo J. Kolmerer brings all this to life without trying to overly dazzle us with style, while the script by Arend Remmers (who named the film's writer character after himself) avoids unnecessary pretensions or profundities while still keeping us mentally on our toes. 

Javid and Tan are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of their written destinies, even seeking out scriptwriter Arend--a dentist with dreams of breaking into movies--and torturing him into writing a happy ending for them. 

This gives their scenes a pleasant brain-teaser aspect often found in time-travel stories, tossing in an interesting paradox or two along the way.  We also ponder the signficance of their meeting with the angelic Snowflake (Judith Hoersch), whose beatific innocence borders on the simpleminded. 

Fans of horror and violence won't be disappointed when the story swings into "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" territory a time or two (especially when the cannibal brothers are busy processing their victims for future consumption) and the frequent gunplay leaves plenty of bullet-riddled bodies in its wake.  Even superhero fans will thrill to the exploits of Hydro Electric Man, a vigilante zapping the bad guys on the mean streets.

The Artsploitation Films Blu-ray is in 5.1 Dolby stero with German and English soundtrack and English subtitles.  Bonus features consist of a making-of featurette and a trailer.

As all the various story threads come to a head, SNOWFLAKE finds Arend furiously bent over his laptop with fingers flying, writing and rewriting until the killers he's imagined into existence are satisfied with the outcome.  The result isn't enough to blow you away or leave your mind frazzled with phantasmagoria, but it's a delightfully disorienting and mentally stimulating tale nonetheless. 


Official website

SNOWFLAKE -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

TRAUMA -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 10/21/18

 

When it comes to horror movies, how extreme do you want to go?  With TRAUMA (2017, Artsploitation Films), Chilean writer-director Lucio A. Rojas (ZOMBIE DAWN, PERFIDY) answers that question for us in ways that will have some viewers gasping with perverse thrill and others scrambling to put as much distance between them and this movie as humanly possible.

Even the first few minutes had me feeling nasty and kind of disgusted with myself for even watching it.  The film opens with a scene of the most vile torture porn imaginable, easily earning its original NC-17 rating (and this is the unrated director's cut).

It will get, if not worse, then just as bad in different but equally horrific ways.  The first home invasion sequence, in which four young women vacationing in a secluded cabin find the world's sickest psycho (Daniel Antivilo as "Juan") and his son at their front door, almost makes I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE seem like a rom-com.

Other atrocities, including a tour of psycho dad's hellish chamber of horrors and its woefully unfortunate captives, take everything that was vile and repellant about TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and turn the dial to eleven.

And I'm saying this as someone who has been watching extreme horror movies for several decades.  This wallow in utter depravity and degradation is the kind of stuff that movie theater walkouts are made of.

Okay, there's that.  In addition to the almost invasive nature of TRAUMA's horrific images is something else that director Rojas is really good at, which is building suspense.  This is one of those movies that manages to keep us painfully on edge, not just during the torture scenes but in other ways as well.

The survivors of the initial attack must decide whether or not to make their way to Juan's secluded torture chamber in the woods to help a little girl who has been kidnapped by him.  With a near-useless young local cop as their only help, Andrea (Catalina Martin) and the others embark on a rescue attempt that will lead to prolonged, stomach-churning suspense.

Through it all, there's an underlying message about how violence and hatred are passed down from generation to generation, sickness breeds sickness, etc. which we see in flashbacks to Juan's boyhood.  The dead seriousness of the film adds to its effectiveness--there's no distancing humor or satire to make the horror more palatable.

Nor does it have any amusing technical deficiencies.  Rojas' direction is entirely effective, his script literate.  The cast, especially Catalina Martin and Daniel Antivilo, are fine.  Photography (including some sweeping aerial shots) and other technical elements are above-average.

The Blu-ray from Artsploitation Films is in 2.35:1 widescreen with 5.1 surround sound.  Spanish soundtrack with English subtitles.  A trailer is the sole extra.

Gorehounds who like to get as down, dirty, and just plain twisted as possible with their horror movies should definitely check out TRAUMA as soon as possible. Everyone else--you've been warned.  As for me, I'm a notorious "re-watcher", happily viewing my favorite films time and again over the years, but for this one, once is way more than enough.

TRAUMA -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle