Bedlam - Some Thoughts

For our British readers, I thought I'd very quickly offer my thoughts on Bedlam (the new so-called 'psychological horror' featuring Will Young. Here are my observations (after watching two episodes):

• It features some extremely poor cliches of the genre
• Will Young is trying hard to pass himself off as a straight guy, which appears slightly implausible despite going for the 'hottie' in the first episode
• Will Young is probably the best actor in the show
• Theo James is an ok actor but the amount of times he appears without clothing is starting to really grate
• There's a large amount of scenes that appear cringeworthy and 'cheap'
• Hugo Speer has an extremely bizzare part in the programme and I can't work out what he's meant to be doing in it, apart from being the sinister 'father figure' of Kate
  

I don't know why or how British supernatural drama keeps going so wrong. Such programmes as the seminal Ghostwatch, the well written Sea of Souls and the deeply disturbing Chillers all hit the nail dead on. Yet we've recently had a spate of less than average programming.

If you're interested, Wikipedia has quite a good page of collected UK supernatural drama.

Shock Labyrinth 3D

Outline
It's another scary Japanese movie with a female ghost/monster stalking a group of attractive teens/young adults. It is however still worth watching because of the slightly mind bending storyline and the fact that it's filmed in 3D.

Yet again, Takashi Shimizu is making scary movies, and this is no exception. Throughout the atmosphere continues to ratchet up notch by notch, until you realise that it is telling a story of some sort of bizzare time travel. Then this concept gets totally turned on the head until you're not quite sure of exactly what you've seen or who is meant to be mad (or not). Trust me, it's one to see.

As is commonplace in non-westernised horror, the Aristotelean narrative form is frequently let by the wayside in order to pursue more complex concepts or just plain scary visual images. Shock Labyrinth 3D lives up to this by putting a bunch of protagonists in a real-life location - Fuji-q High Land, an amusement park near Mt. Fuji. This amusement park really does have a haunted house that you can walk through and after this film I'd think twice about doing so! The protagonists actually explore this location twice. Their first foray being as children and they later return as young adults after seeing an unexpected face from the past (yes the girl from the box art).

A film in 3D
Of course I couldn't finish the review without talking about the 3D element. At times it works extremely well, with a true depth of field for some shots. However, it does no favours for the film when the subtitles come on. These can appear blurred and may irritate the eyes when watching. For the record, I watched both the 3D and 2D versions of the film and personally found the 3D version the superior. However, my other half felt that the opposite was the case, with the 2D DVD providing richer colours and far greater clarity.

Should I watch it?
If you're a fan of Asian horror films, you should probably watch Shock Labyrinth 3D. There's nothing wrong with it per se, but it doesn't light up the genre as The Grudge did. 3D brings another element to the film and makes it slightly more interesting and there are far worse ways to spend an evening (probably with an average Hollywood horror).

Final score
7/10

Let The Right One In

This is only a short commentary regarding the film and the book - but I feel an important one.

I'm talking here about the original movie, not the Hollywood remake named Let Me In.

I can confirm that in some respects, Let The Right One In is very close to the original material, but unfortunately it falls short in many ways. Not least by missing out some of the far more interesting subtexts that take place in the novel. It even cuts out exactly what happens to Eli's older protector following a fall from the hospital window. This element of the storyline serves as one of the most sinister chapters of any book I have ever read. It may not have given me night terrors but the concept left me with images in my mind that took a long while to leave.

Let The Right One In is ultimately served far better as a novel as it is nuanced, subtle, terrifying and detailed. The film misses out so much that frequently you're asking 'eh?' or 'what?' with relationships in the film, which is what the book is about.

Back In Business...

Sorry for the delay guys, but we're going to be back in business, albeit sporadically. Naturally, this means more horror news, views and reviews.