Being Human returns

If somehow you've managed to miss the fair amount of publicity material surrounding the return of Being Human to BBC3 I just wanted to give a heads up that the new series starts tomorrow at 9.30. Whilst not a show that my co-author particularly rates I highly recommend checking it out, it was a highlight of british horror tv for me last year and I personally think one of the best written shows of it's type to come from these shores. Can't wait to see what new trials await Mitchell, George and Annie following last years dramatic finale and the continued attempts to find humanity in a harsh world whilst, as the newest promo suggests, facing their demons.

MM

Knowing - Some Commentary

Warning - spoilers all the way throughout this commentary.

I'd heard much about Knowing, but didn't have a chance to catch it at the cinema. So, it was with some trepidation that I got the film 'on demand' from the cable provider. I was not at this stage 'Knowing' (ha ha) what to expect so approached it with a fairly open mind. What followed was worth watching, save for the final 20 minutes or so. Argh.

Knowing tells the story of a time capsule created fifty years ago, that's opened in 'modern day'. Nicholas Cage is a father and an MIT worker, who manages to get hold of a paper from the time capsule with numbers on it. He decodes the number sequences, realising that they relate to disasters and incidents that are going to happen. Unfortunately, the final sequence (discovered close to the end of the film) is the end of the world.

Angels or aliens - probably depends on your own belief system - become involved and it is apparent that these beings are responsible for the code produced and that they effectively spirit children away to a new 'eden'. This of course leaves the end of the world to occur as a solar flare blasts the planet. A most pessimistic (and unusual) Hollywood ending.

Whatever these beings are meant to be in the film, their presence is uniquely sinister, unhelpful and generally disturbing. Cage goes from a religio-sceptic through to a believer by the film, though I'm still not sure I understand his journey from the first watch. He's also blasted off the planet along with everyone else.

So, aliens or angels or whatever knew the world was coming, but did little or nothing to help, electing instead to send a bunch of kids out to pasture on a new world with what looked like a tree of life and a garden of eden? Oh please. Exactly how will they survive? A few posts on the IMDB message boards suggested they could be vegetarian and eat fruit etc - well, just how many kids know which berries are toxic for example? Oh how to manage agrocultural land to produce crops? Give me a break. Might be a step too far, but maybe those sinister alien chaps will help out?

End of the world films aren't usually my bag, as quite often they are stuffed to the gills with huge special effects, little story and dodgy acting. This film started out differently but was so high concept by the end that I was left utterly annoyed. If the aliens were so powerful, why didn't they help out with some solar shielding technology? Or, was that not possible? I might be wrong of course, but I also read that on a science journal a solar flare wouldn't have the effect shown here. Whatever. Either way, this film started out very interestingly and was in the end ruined by a high concept idea that seemed ill-thought through. Like the worst kind of haute cuisine, it failed to satisfy on any kind of meaningful level, yet promised so much at the start.

More preview info

Hi guys, just learned courtesy of a usual source at AICN that John Carpenter is returing with a new movie next year, in the horror genre that holds some of his greatest hits (Halloween, Christine,) and biggest disasters (Vampires, Ghosts of Mars). Whilst initially not as exciting to me as some of the man's more rabid die hard fans the premise did cause me to sit up and take a bit of notice. The film is entitled The Ward and supposedly the plot is a trippy little tale of an institutionalised young woman, played by the luscious but career-unwise Amber Heard, terrorised by a ghost. Not much is out there but Quint from the aforementioned site did unearth a brief behind the scenes clip, more of a slight mood setting appetite whetter than any real meat but hey it's worth a couple seconds of your day.

Something apt

Hi guys. Long time, no see. Many apologies for lack of posting but obviously the holiday season was totally crazy, more so than usual for me. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't be writing this today if it wasn't for the fact that I'm snowed in, unable to get to work and stuck in the house. How about that crazy weather huh? On the subject of that, and related to Mr B's article on things (particularly smaller scale stuff) to look out for in 2010 I thought I'd share a trailer for a little, dramatic, somewhat high-concept horror piece that I found. I'm told that it doesn't convey the genius of the dramatic touches, writing or character work but the concept sure got me interested, and suitably chilled (pun not intended). In any case sorry about the fitting nature but see what you think...



MM

Is There A Horror Film In 2010 You're Looking Forward To?

Yes, of course there is! Probably plenty, but I'm only just catching up with the news so there'll be a lot of them I don't yet know about. However, The Wolfman is coming soon though (Feb 12th US?) and Daybreakers (maybe a decent vampire film) could be worth a watch.

As you all know, I'm not always the most mainstream of horror film viewer so I'm looking for something a little more interesting to scare the nights away with. Tony looks like a decent British indie slasher, whilst from last year I'm still keen to see The Box, if not keen enough to have went to the cinema in the first place.

An interesting trend to notice is that there's two similar horror/fantasy pieces due in 2010, Black Death (Sean Bean - looks like Boromir is out again) and Season Of The Witch (Nicholas Cage). Both include a witch, some sorcery and some fantasy sword play. Should be excellent!

Apparition - Dark Castle Entertainment - is being talked up for 2010 and sounds like it could be worth a watch, though whether you believe the 'based on a true story' thing is up to you.

My own personal massive recommendation is to, if you can, get hold of The Christmas Tale. I've probably mentioned it before, but it's one of the strangest, most disturbing things you'll see. The film stars Ivana Baquero of Pan's Labyrinth fame. To say more would be an injustice. Go see! In the meantime, I'm off to see if there's anything scary on demand.

Paranormal Activity - Some Commentary

Yes, yes, I know. Of course I've bloody seen it (nice of my co-author to check back with me I must say!). Is it a shameless rip off? Well, you could say that about any film genre ever that's represented - in fact you could say that slasher films have many times more 'rip off' films than the 'found footage subgenre, but that's another argument for another time. I am after all providing some commentary to one film, rather than debating it's existence within the sub-genre in which it sits.

One thing that Marvel Man hit the nail on the head with is the implication that this is a marmite film. It most certainly is. Let's set the scene:

Story - there's a spoiler in here, but only one
A couple, one a well off male named Micah and the other, Katie (a student who apparently only studies once in the whole film) live in a big, nice house. Katie claims she's been haunted at various periods of her life, so Micah suggests they use a video camera to record it. This provides the 'found footage' that the film entirely comprises of. So, what is shown? Well, a variety of scenes unfold including a ouija board setting alight, doors opening and closing by themselves, lights going on and off, strange noises etc. Eventually rolling into a possession story (sorry if you didn't expect that).

Positives
It's a great film for the horror fan who prefers to leave much to the imagination when it comes to scenes. It's not all background music, swelling scores, blood all over the place. Quite the opposite. It's naturalistic almost in style. To top this, a fan of the genre who is familiar with apparent 'real life' cases of hauntings will spot the poltergeist build up and will get a thrill from the way in which the action ratchets up a notch every night. Finally, Paranormal Activity keeps the action claustraphobic and places the protagonist in danger in the place we are meant to feel most safe/secure - our own bedroom.

Negatives
The film is over long. Some may disagree, but I felt it just strayed into the slightly too long territory, with a little much exposition for my taste. This brings me to another criticism - Micah. It's almost as though the two things are tied togther. I find that some of his actions were completely inexplicable to me - the thing with the flour was sensible enough, but he offered up no alternative when they couldn't reach the demonologist - when everyone who has seen any single haunting type horror would have been shouting 'go and see a priest!'. Micah also repeatedly goads the demon or whatever it is, despite seeing evidence literally in front of his eyes that supernatural activity is taking place - yet not denying it is happening.

The ending
Perhaps the biggest let-down for me was the ending. I've no doubt that getting the ending of a 'found footage' film is a tricky thing, but man... I heard that Steven Spielberg had something to do with it. How do you say no to a guy like that? In this case, I think they should have done. I'm not offering an alternative, I'm just saying that the ending didn't resonate with me. It wasn't terrible, but it did feel awfully 'Hollywood' for my taste.

Should I see it?
The question really is, why haven't you seen it yet? You'll either love it (flaws and all) or are possessive of no imagination and hate it. Entirely up to you, but it's a worthy addition to the genre. One can only hope that, if there is a sequel, it takes a more standard narrative progression for a possession tale.

Paranormal Activity

Has anyone out there actually been to see this film. It has really caught my attention, even though I feel it would be very polarising and I could either love or despise it. According to the various reviews and conversations I've been having it's either terrifying and original, taking the Blair Witch themes and plot one step further or quite tame and a total rip-off, nowhere near as good as it or other people think. If I ever do get round to catching it somehow I'd be intrigued to see what I make of it, and will post my thoughts. Likewise let me know yours if you're out there and have an opinion, I'm very interested.

MM