Hunger

Hunger is, if you ask me, a perfect example of the modern "post Horror" genre. It's not your usual "psycho killer" Slasher sub-genre, nor is it another one of these films with a wanting plot and lots of blood of gore to make up for it. Instead, Hunger proves to be an outstanding and impressive work of art.

Very much like "The Divide", hunger is like a psychological (and in this case biological) study of human nature, and its breaking points. The idea behind it is original enough (though I did notice some aspects that we've seen in the Saw series) and the way it's presented is truly astonishing. There are some gore parts, but such that fit in perfectly with the plot and are not the main feature, not by far.

Screenwriter L.D. Goffigan has truly created a marvelous story which excels in it being gruesome and terrible, yet always in the boundaries of humanity (which might actually be the scariest and most disturbing). Director Steven Hentges has taken this amazing screenplay, and turned it into a fantastic film! The cinematography, the flashes, the excellent use of sound effects, the contrasting classical music used throughout the film - all fit together to make a very worthy product. The acting was also superb in every aspect.

I do have some criticism, though... The film slightly failed in portraying the physical condition of the human body when it is starved. The actors did appear sickly and slightly demented, but looking at them did not give the complete impression of a person during the process of starving to death. I guess there was no way to make them appear skinny and smaller, and still with such an impressive production such a shortcoming really shows. Also, the physical movements some of the characters were able to do were simply illogical, considering they were supposed to be weaken by hunger.

And yet, all in all, Hunger is truly a work of art, and the IMDb rating of 5.1 doesn't do it justice, not by far. It's not a "fun" film to watch, but it unnerves and shocks the viewers just like this type of Horror should. Hunger will appeal to all fans of modern Horror, especially those of psychological Horror (though it does lack any real twists) and even those of "torture porn", though it really isn't.

I was going to rate it 8, hesitated, and came to a decision that it was worthy of 9 (if only to increase its dreadfully unfair rating here). I strongly and highly recommend it to any Horror fan out there!

I watched this movie by accident and while it definitely has some flaws, overall, I walked away finding the whole thing quite interesting. It's an obvious late addition to the torture porn trend in mid to late 2000s horror (a trend I'm not a fan of, but, let's be honest, Saw and Hostel brought back R-rated horror with a vengeance and all horror fans should be forever grateful for that).

There are some profound continuity issues with this movie--the women have impeccable hair well into the experiment (everyone's hair gets greasy and matted after a week, so the makeup department and script supervisor should have raised the point with the director). Someone else has mentioned the men should have had much fuller beards by the third week of the experiment. These are nitpicking issues that, unfortunately, viewers in the age of absolute literalism in entertainment will focus on. Overall, however, the story is interesting and I like the fact that nothing is over-explained. In that way, the movie is a nice throwback to the superior horror movies of the 1970s,

Awakening to find themselves trapped in an underground bunker with no way out, a group of people finds themselves subjected to an experiment in food deprivation to determine the effects of hunger on a person, and begin slowly losing their humanity the longer they stay involved in the situation.

As a pretty dismal and really uneven entry, this one doesn't have all that much going for it. One of the few positive aspects here is the rather appealing setup of the madman who has a legitimate quest in place. The effects of starvation and hunger on a human body serves as a solid enough premise and offers up the kind of disturbing start here that's got the potential for a much creepier film than it really provided in the end. The ability to explore the kind of human psyche probing that goes into this kind of genre effort is a rich and potentially exploitative feature which really could've given this a lot more substance as the long-term effects are quite intriguing work that the film utilizes. While it does have some grisly, realistic violence and gore shown here, the fact that this is more of a human psyche study than an out-and-out carving up of the human body, it's not as suspenseful, chilling or even creepy as it stands and really only serves those looking for the deeper meanings while those looking for more traditional efforts will be utterly bored and disappointed. Beyond the initial appearance and trappings of a torture film, the particular area of study conducted by the madman dictates that hardly anything at all even happens in this one as they sit around talking to each other or attempting escapes while they're being watched over, letting the film seemingly go on forever with absolutely nothing happening or even getting any kinds of answers to questions since the lead psycho never utters a word and all of the notes undertaken don't come off legibly. The other problem here is the fact that the study is never conducted in any kind of realistic manner since the whole affair transpires over the course of a month without anyone looking even slightly encumbered by only consuming water instead of any kind of substance. The attempts to make-up them into looking hideous or malnourished are completely mishandled and manage to cause them to look glamorous instead, quite the opposite of what the purpose is while also missing the point of a realistic manner of human deterioration that usually occurs. By completely failing to understand this basic concept of the film, it's nearly impossible to get into this one on any level which really throws this one away the most on top of the other flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

CUBE the movie, back in 1999 opened the way of a new kind of horror flick, as also SAW did. People locked in together: a cave, a basement, an elevator shaft - a lift if you prefer - that lead to a close in suspense, character depiction.... Many possibilities of stories, details were possible. You had dozens and dozens of those films. This one. Ambition in the screenplay is here, but it is ankwardly done, a bit confused and the result is too smooth for my taste, it could have been far more disturbing, creepy, nasty. The ending is lousy, a French horror fim of this lind would have been different. Forgettable, but not crap either.

I'll admit, I have a thing for low budget horror films. But I don't review all of them, just the ones that impressed me. This one definitely falls in that category.

Here's a few reasons:

1) It's less about gore (although there is some) and more about human behavior. It's an incredibly psychological film that really makes you wonder "what would I do in this situation?" and, possibly, leave you surprised at your answer. Not what I was expecting, but definitely kept me watching.

2) The acting was pretty good. So many of the low-budget movies get stuck with a good story but wooden acting--not this one.

3) The story. They actually give you a solid background for what's going on and it never felt too rushed or too slow.

This isn't the goriest or grossest I've seen, but you still might want to leave your stomach at the door. If you're into dark, scary movies about human depravity, this one's for you. I found it entirely fascinating.