Movie Review: The Sacrament (2013)

AKA the first horror film in years that had me on the brink of tears
4/5 screams

SPOILERS AHEAD

Where to even begin with this movie? I mean, blimey…just…damn. I finished it feeling like i’d just witnessed something horrifying and this is a rare feeling for me as I watch so many horrors and disturbing blah that I’m more or less entirely desensitised to gore and guts. So it says great things that this film managed to actually make me feel shocked, tense and very bleary eyed. I also think something so important about this movie is that it doesn’t over-rely on blood and violence, the actual horror of it is the eerie calmness of the destruction.

First of all, I had no idea that it was based on the 1978 Jonestown massacre until after watching, this fact makes it just that much more emotional and painful. But that aside, this film is brilliantly executed. I have to say that found footage horrors are my most hated type of movie – besides, perhaps, teen screams – and yet this film utilised the genre with such elegance. It really adds to the intimacy of the story which, when the mass suicide begins, means you are utterly embroiled in it. Children sipping cyanide from party cups, babies being given poison in syringes, people dying oh so slowly, foaming at the mouth like animals. The two particular moments that truly got to me were Josh comforting Andre as he convulses and begs not to die alone in a close-up, shaky cam. The second was in the cabin, Josh hides as Savannah’s mother rocks her mute child and slits her throat – you hear it too, not a sound you’ll forget in a hurry – whilst telling her to ‘just sleep baby’. Bloody hell, I was on the verge of tears. The raw, gritty camera work and stellar acting makes it just so real. I felt so emotionally connected to the characters that it was purely heart breaking. The writing is just so unafraid, it goes places most mainstream pictures wouldn’t dare to breach – a very bold and effective decision.

Honestly, I can’t quite decide whether I’m glad I watched this or not. I’ve left it with a feeling of unease, which I suppose demonstrates the power of it. Personally, this is now going to be in my top 5 Eli Roth films (even if he was only the producer in this one). Speaking of Roth, watch out for my Top 10 Eli Roth Movies list which i’ll be publishing soon.

Looking through the criticisms of this dense, hair-raising film I notice that a fair few critics thought it was too slow. I have to disagree with this, I have a terrible concentration span and so usually avoid slow-burners but this kept my attention throughout, it instilled such a tense and claustrophobic atmosphere which made it hard to not be all-encompassed by its mood.

Final thoughts: it’s definitely worth a watch but you’ve been warned that it really is disturbing, not visually but emotionally. And, unlike me, don’t make the mistake of then researching the Jonestown massacre and listen to the original, real ‘death tape’. Really, just don’t. Curiosity killed my Wednesday instead of the cat. But both dramatically, thematically and poignantly this is a great watch. Ti West, Eli Roth and the entire production team deserve a teary pat on the back.

Movie Review: The Perfection (2019)

AKA ‘Well that came out of nowhere, didn’t it?’
4/5 screams.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I thought i’d get this review out of my system whilst I can still remember my natural reactions to this latest release of Netflix’s homegrown horrors. Funnily enough this was one of the films that made me realise how much I wanted to start this blog. So, manners remembered, thank you Richard Shepherd for your inspiration. After ‘The Babysitter’, ‘Annihilation’, ‘The Open House’, ‘Before I Wake’ amongst others which compile the very mixed bag I had my doubts but tried to go in with an open mind anyhow.

Despite initial concerns about the ambiguous premise and trailer, on one Sunday morning I wrestled in bed with a delightful hangover. Downing orange juice like there was no tomorrow and cuddling into a fort made of pillows, I saw this film pop up on Netflix. I looked the trailer up in my fugue and, in hindsight, I now have very mixed feelings about the scene they chose for the promotional video. I think it was a very clever hook and certainly gripping but it was also such an important crux of the whole twisted journey that I think it may have been worth keeping it back in the arsenal. But maybe that’s just me.

One thing I loved about this movie was how multilayered its sub-genre identification is. Half of it was this shadowy, psychological thriller yet there were elements of body horror in there. The latter part of this artistic, paranoid tapestry even morphs into a revenge film. Instead of, as discussed in my review of ‘The Shrine’, getting lost in the chaos of different tropes it instead picks and chooses very certain and deliberate themes from each sub-genre without muddying the tone.

Honestly the atmosphere of this film is superb. Erotic, tense, bloody, twisted and oh so moody. The reds and beauty of the colour scheme transforms it into something elegant and wrong, something you know you shouldn’t be loving but you really are.

We can’t talk about ‘The Perfection’ without talking about the acting. There wasn’t one character I didn’t believe and didn’t have some sort of relationship with, even if it was revulsion or fear. The sexual connection in the beginning between the two female protagonists is beautiful and sensual and perfectly delicate. Now that is a sign of fantastic writing and production. The cherry on the cake was the music, these stunning eerie violins and cellos, you can almost taste the anxiety of being perfect in each piece.

Then, before I stop gushing over this film, the ending was an absolute grenade to the guts. I didn’t see it coming in the slightest, it was messy and perfectly balanced between shocking visuals, disgust and sympathy yet distracted by how stunning the music is.

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this film go and watch it now – it’s this darkly witty, sharp, sexy and stunningly captured expression of desire, abuse, self-esteem and even, somehow, morality. So clever. I plan on watching it again over the coming weeks and possibly doing a video review.

So what did you guys think about ‘The Perfection’? Do you agree with me or do you think it was trying too hard to be different, trying to be a piece of art rather than a film? Let me know in the comments.

Otherwise, don’t scream, see you next time.

A Little About This Blog

Now that we’ve got a horror film watched and under our belts, let’s have a cuppa and a chat about what on earth i’m up to on this page.

Well, if you’ve wandered in off of the dusty streets of the internet then welcome! I’m Liv and i’m a writer, performer, singer, freelance journalist and (if you can’t tell) a gigantic horror film nut. Anything with a few machetes and a few gallons of red corn syrup, sign me up, pal.

What You Can Expect:
$ Movie reviews
$ TV reviews
$ Top 10’s
$ Opinion pieces
$ Games/comics (I’m not particularly well versed in this side of the horror kingdom but if it’s something that peaks interest let me know in the comments).
$ Hopefully some video-blogs and some collaborations with fellow horror fans

My aim is to post at least one review per week as well as a weekly special entitled, somewhat self-consciously, ‘Fright Night Fridays’. Which, you guessed it, will hopefully get released every Friday.

I think that’s everything folks, if you have any recommendations please leave me a message in the comments or head on over to the contact page.

Movie Review: The Shrine (2010)

AKA Make your bleeding mind up:
2/5 screams

SPOILERS AHEAD:

Really I only have myself to blame for this film being my first review as I went off of YouTube comments for the recommendation *sighs*. Basically the trailer for this 2010 Canadian horror is just as bad as the film itself, that should have been my first hint.

The trailer aside, I realised I was going in with zero expectations and, as I research horror most days purely for pleasure, this is rare for me – I usually know the ending or the spec’s or subjective reviews at the very least. I initially noticed how the tone seemed to shift from medieval to modern within a few seconds which was a little disconcerting but I let it slide, instead pondering on whether the low budget camerawork was intentional thematically or not…turns out it really was made on a shoestring so at least the editors managed to leave some doubt about that. Secondly, the introductory dialogue is beyond lazy; the so called ‘row’ between the couple, Carmen and Marcus, seems only to exist as a vehicle for what limited exposition there is and this dusts the conversations with an unrealistic cadence. So, not off to the best of starts with our protagonists. This skirmish is essentially trying to conveyor-belt-rush us into the first jump-scare which I, sadly, admit really did get me so, maybe, it was well designed but if it was it was the only one. The others, though few and far between, also felt rushed and like a second thought – not to mention they were cheesy and hammy without even attempting to have some meta-self-conscious edge or something else that indie-horrors like to promote.

The first scene that I started making any meaningful notes on was the car journey leading up to the fog scene. I enjoyed that the sub-genre of the film kept you guessing in the beginning – I found my mind wondering whether we were dealing with a Blair Witch type of suspense piece or a low budget ‘Hostel’ knock-off or even a follow on to King’s ‘The Mist’. After Carmen and Sarah come tet-a-tet with the worst garden gnome on the planet (can we please also remind Marcus how important the double tap is?) they all get kidnapped fairly successfully. Next we have the “I’m so sorry” scene which, oddly, did actually remind me of Heather’s BWP monologue I randomly used to audition for a theatre group once. In this flick I do think it came out of nowhere and far too early on, not to mention barely heartbeats before Sarah becomes a human pinboard message. I did like her bloodletting scene even if the gore seemed so out of place all of a sudden, purely because of the visuals – the white nightgowns against the deep reds and pales of skin. The gruesome images juxtaposed against the idyllic, if eerie, aesthetic of the outside village. The stripping scene was done well too, actually, it was gritty enough to not be overdone. However, side note: what the actual f**k were those Doctor Who revival-esc monsters with some serious gum disease? The prosthetic work almost had a ‘Hellraiser’, 80’s cult feel to it which did, surprisingly, fit perfectly with the cringey atmosphere.

One of my main issues with this film is that there’s no character development and they’re scarcely even particularly likeable. Nothing is done to make the audience connect with the three leads and the acting is mediocre at best. So this means that you don’t actually care whether they get sacrificed or enucleated which is a mahoosive issue when you think about impact. Moreover it means that the status of the movie itself never rises any higher than the low-budget, half-hearted slasher but without the adrenaline or a ‘Hostel’ rip-off but without the grotesque indulgence of the torture-porn. Back to the one-dimensional characters for a sec, they don’t even seem to have common sense. I felt myself rolling my eyes consistently throughout, “Oh, we should go!” no shit Sherlock! The decisions in this flick are just stupid, if Carmen had listened to Marcus and not followed Lydia – the suspiciously innocent child – then the whole disaster could of being avoided.

Furthermore, I accept that Carmen is meant to be a strong career gal but that is all she is, which kind of endorses the idea that these independent representations of women on screen means they either have to be annoying or hot. Or both. Seriously, i’m not going too deep into this – these characters, besides maybe Marcus, are dumb as paper.

Finally, my last realisation was that this film just could not make it’s bloody mind up about what it wanted to be. Moving from the strange hallucinations of the late-mid-section to the possession scene you suddenly feel like you’re watching ‘The Evil Dead’. So I reckon it’d be more enjoyable for non-horror-buffs because I was just half expecting the cenobites to rock up and half expecting Ash to follow with his chainsaw hand. Then the end comes and BOOM, tubular bells eat your heart out – now it’s ‘The Exorcist’. Seriously, what was this film trying to even be?

Last thoughts: I, sadistically, liked the fact that they weren’t afraid to kill of the kid. So, it may have been a terrible film but it had some guts…get it…*drum beat*. Otherwise it felt dull, uninspired, forgettable and nobody involved – the creation staff or actors – seemed to actually have given a crap about it.