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Red Lines (2002)
Review of Red Lines by MJ Simpson
From Robber Baron Productions, the team that brought us the highly acclaimed, award-winning short On Edge, comes a new six-minute horror short. Once again it stars Doug Bradley, he of Pinhead fame, who shot this in London just before jetting off to shoot - Lord help us - Hellraiser VII.
Bradley is a teacher, newcomer Kirsty Levett his miscreant pupil, caught running in the hallways and sentenced to detention: lines. `I want to see that pad half-full by the time I come back,' says Sir. `The sooner you start, the sooner you finish.' Which is sort of contradictory, but if you think about it is the sort of inconsistency that characterises creepy, control-freak teachers.
With such a short film, it wouldn't be fair to describe the story, so I'll just say that it's bleak, creepy, nasty and supernatural. Levett is very good in a role without dialogue, looking genuinely frightened. Bradley underplays his role to excellent effect. It's simple but original and tightly written and directed by Frazer Lee. Though shot on digital video - - the cinematography by Alan Stewart (Band of Brothers) is top notch and adds to the atmosphere.
While it doesn't hurt to have an actor as good and as well-known as Bradley in a film like this, this is much more than just a star vehicle. It's an excellent slice of British horror, well-crafted and genuinely unsettling.
Rating: A
On Edge (1999)
review from Roxane Hentz
I laughed the hell out of me....and today I just went to the dentist so it was perfect! I was disappointed as we could not really see the face of the guy on the net...I hope we can see it perfectly on a real cinema screen.
I like the doctor guy (Doug 'Pinhead from Hellraiser' Bradley)... The fact that the 12 first minutes are really slow in the scenario, that we could never see the face of the patient once the dentist took over with his monologue, the weird logic of his speech and the end gives a real Hitckock atmosphere added with violence & humour. This is totally (Frazer) as a creator. Hard Core!
Concerning the construction of the movie/scenario: Intro: the disco and the music: Great- dark!2 minutes- metal- hard core (Frazer's band Self Destructive Nature) : announce the corpus of the movie without explaining why. The fear is not there yet. * Introduction of personnages: (2 minutes)- Total new environment-
whiter & slower- Introduction of the general individual fear (uncomfortable- doubt) of the audience: a dentist office!!!!but balanced by the apparent kindness of dentist and the relaxing stated of the patient.
* Monologue & dentist actions: (6 minutes) Intimist- rhythm given by the voice of the dentist & his excitement: it grows minutes after minutes. At the opposite side: Passive intervention of the patient. Almost absent of the crazzyness of the dentist. Maybe the speech could have been shorter (I think you could have used one or two minutes of that to something else as describing better at the end the disco). The laser tool is too funny!!!
Then, the patient awakes- The dentist leaves- end of the intimity:
Dentist-patient
* The result (2 minutes): Discovery-the audience now see what really happened like the secretary who succeed in entering in the room (her play is not really convincing and does not entirely satisfy his role of being an intermediary-bridge between the movie and the audience)and the patient itself; (the result of the dentist actions was expected- the poster of the movie & the laser utilisation...That kills your face, man!
* Chute ((2 last minutes- End): the disco place, the music, and the dentist which finally links the Disco (intro) and the story. The dentist sitting at the bar, watching around... Very American Standard..... In your movie he is only an observer in the disco. He does not act at all. I would have like to see him in the same situation than the patient...(parabole situation); That would have been a scary psychopat! I would have love to see something different as a devil girl with piercing nastly moving around the dentist.... and see a Sado-Maso relationship installing between the 2 of them (this time: Maso is the dentist acting passively - he undergoes the situation this time / sado is the girl), or something like that.
The goal would be anyway to see the dentist's behaviour (action) in his inspirational environement......but I believe you have only 15 minutes...
General: finally not scary, but upsetting.