argento6

After Texas Chainsaw 3d, which was another pretty bad addition to the franchise, another film has the claim (Or fans and medias claim it?) to be the true canon sequel to Tobe Hooper's 1974 masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw massacre.

No matter how many sequels have been made, none has managed to top the original 3 films franchise: Texas1, 2 and 3 which was also titled Leatherface. The 2 sequels to the original, although a little silly were also mindless fun and that's something that's been lacking to these films since the 2003 remake in my opinion. Now we are stuck on repeat, always trying to find a way to reboot the series but with more of the same at each turn. Only the fans of gore alone, this is a film for you. Don't get me wrong, i love my films extreme and filled with it. Horror and violence deserves to be rated R and be worthy of that mention, and even the Unrated version that avoiding the wide theater release can provide. Hell yes, i'm all for it.

But this time, yet another time for this franchise turns into a wasted opportunity. Or in a waste of film since their might be no more ways to explore and better this once fun and outrageous name. To sum the film up in a short story: Cops are bad and we still try to make the Sawyer family and especially Leatherface sympathetic characters. Trying to find some redeeming traits to this particular monster or justify it after everyone, every fan at least is aware since the 1970s what he is and what he's capable of? I'm bore out of my skull once again.

Try Cult of Chucky. For lack of better films in theaters, it easily tops Leatherface in terms of style, cinematography, silly humor and fun overall.

I heard, and read that the sex scenes between Charlize and Sofia were hot in this film, helping a marvelous movie, yet i was rather disappointed with everything but the cast and acting.

For a little fun it was an action flick, so watching the stunning Charlize fight ridiculous amount of men, way taller than her was charming. But considering that John Wick is such a good and accomplished effort, this Atomic Blonde didn't have much to offer in terms of script and plot was in fact a total letdown. I did enjoy the soundtrack and yes, i'm not a woman, i'm a guy and loved the sex scenes between the 2 actresses (Dear god! Toxic macho man!) But those who almost lost their socks due, in part to these scenes and found them extra-hot have not seen many R rated and Unrated movies that came before, in the 80s and 90s decades! Overall, atomic blonde is a charming attempt at having yet another female bad ass but the team of Stahelski and Leitch were way too lousy with the photography and cinematography, yet the pace to make this a gender contender to a film like John Wick and its sequel.

Leaving aside the fact that this Anthology is a women driven horror film, directed and written by 4 women, in which, the men, fathers of the story are depicted as bad, unfit to raise their kids with a mother's love, leaving aside the tackling of racism in a one way matter: The white educator and principal are the evil and the Black woman is the poor victim in the last segment...

Considering the talents involved, i'm really surprised that this Anthology turned out to be a disappointment on many levels. But the thing that struck me the most as the worse part, during the 2 firsts segments at least, is the use of music. Tense music deserves to be used to announce a threat, therefore, putting an emphasis on the drama of a scene and what's coming next. But in this film's case, the directors poorly use tense music, while failing at making the atmosphere of the scene dramatic in any way. The disappointment when the music stops, with no escalade in the horror, without a threat upcoming screams total fail. They should have taken notes from Rebecca Miller's Personal Velocity featuring Kyra Sedwyck, Fairuza Balk and Parker Posey: A beautiful drama about 3 separated women and their own stories. The tension in this film, for example, easily surpasses any tension you may feel watching the first 2 segments of XX, and this without using music and without being a horror film of course. The music, doesn't add up to anything or even act as a savior in the case of XX, it turns to waste.

That being said, my favorite episode, Don't Fall comes to create a bit of tension and terror and is a welcome relief after 2 poorly executed segments. It's just a shame that this episode ends as quickly as it started since despite starting on a slasher cliché: Young adults in a deserted area... I would have liked this particular segment to be exploited into a feature length film. Perhaps, make it more about a fight between good and evil. In a short 15-20 mins, Don't Fall sadly ends predictable and lazy. Leaving us hanging and hungry for more.

Brief, if you can find Horror Anthologies such as Creepshow, Bodybags, The first season of The Master of Horror series and The splendid The Theater Bizarre, you can sit and watch many great stories compiled into these horror gems. Horror, as the visual and stories are considered, tend to lean towards women. Strong women often become heroes of horror films but in this case, even trying to depict the drama of motherhood and serious problems women face everyday, the makers of XX failed miserably, both at depicting tension, horror and getting a point across. There is the comical element, a sense of satire in the first episode but yet again, nothing over the top, which would have been welcome also screams that any sense of daring is missing.:(

3/10