mizhelenuk

Text: Sun, sea, sand, bad guys and dedicated policemen, and an ex-DEA agent with health issues who ends up helping the police with their work. Christian Kane, a Dean Devlin regular, finally is the lead in this fun ride, and boy does he get to show off his acting chops. He's funny, heart-breaking, tough as hell and struggling emotionally and physically.

I was delighted to see that most of the crew and all of the cast - apart from Kane - are Philipino, and are just wonderful. The quality of the production is second to none, and Philipino veteran actors such as Nonie Buencamino and the quiet, gentle but deadly Art Acuna lend gravitas, with newcomer Samantha Richelle as tough cop Kai Mendoza doing a stirling job. I have no doubt she will continue to grow in experience as the series continues.

Almost Paradise is an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned dramedy, something we haven't seen since the original Magnum PI, and is just perfect viewing for a Monday night. Love it!

Usually when you hear the phrase 'indie horror film' you automatically think 'Oh, crap – another low-budget slasher movie.' Well, at least I do, but that's just me. But when I saw Mike Flanagan's intelligent, well-scripted and very scary film ABSENTIA I was willing to forget everything I had anticipated and more.

This tale of two sisters, one of whom is about to declare her 7-years-missing husband 'dead in absentia', is a real find – a film that genuinely scares without the addition of oodles of gore and screaming.

Flanagan's script is tight, well-controlled and multi-layered, and with the addition of crisp editing and a very talented cast creates an atmosphere of dread. It's a slow, creeping sort of dread … the kind of dread you get when your gut tells you something is there even though your head is telling you it isn't, and you can't bring yourself to turn around and look. The less you see, the more frightening it is, and Flanagan, both as writer and director, allows the storyline and his cast to take you slowly and inexorably towards … well, something insidiously evil.

He also sensibly refuses to litter the storyline with constant pointless explanations, something of which the bigger studios and established scriptwriters should take heed. Audiences aren't generally stupid, and when an intelligent storyline hits the screen most eat it up with a spoon. With ABSENTIA, the audience is allowed to feel, to think and to react without anyone else telling them how to do so.

The cast is uniformly terrific, especially the two leads, Katie Parker and Courtney Bell as the sisters, who add great humanity and chemistry to the film. It also doesn't hurt any that there is an appearance from the great Doug Jones, whose heart-breaking scene is the one that really sets the 'creepy' quotient to a higher level.

ABSENTIA is notching up wins at film festivals all over the place (Quite rightly so), and has been snapped up by Phase 4 Films for DVD distribution later on in 2011 after a video-on-demand premiere from July 1st.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect a horror film to be one of my 'must sees' for 2011, but ABSENTIA ran right over me and established itself firmly at the top of my list. It's one helluva movie.