Let The Right One In - Lisa's Review

Lets start this review off by saying, if you have yet to watch this movie, remedy that!  Watch it.  It's awesome.  I watched this movie with absolutely NO idea what it was about, purely after hearing wow after wow from horror fans.  It really is the best way to see it, so if you haven't, I urge you not to read any more of this review.

So, you're still here?  Ok then, you want to know a little more.  'Let The Right One In' is a Swedish language movie by Tomas Alfredson.  It is based on the novel of the same name by John Ajvide Lindqvist.  There are of course subtitles available.  I know this puts a lot of people off, but it really shouldn't.  There are some fantastic foreign language movies out there that bring something completely unique to the table.  'Let The Right One In' is most definately in that bracket.

I'll start by saying this movie is a story of friendship, triumph over adversity and love.  Adding that it is a vampire movie may make this difficult to imagine.  So to a premise.

The movie follows 2 individuals - shy, reclusive 12 year old Oskar and a very odd, pale young girl called Eli, also 12, who has just moved in beside him and his mum.  Oskar is different.   Because of this he is very badly bullied at school.  I concluded his general peculiarity and anger are what cause his fascination with murders, blood and knives.   

[REC] - Lisa's Review

It's getting good climbing the Time Out 100 best horrors list... for one thing the movies keep getting better.  It's definately been more positive than negative of late and the same is the case for this weeks movie - [REC].

Weird title I hear you say, and yes, it is.  I'm sure it's something we all recognise as the abbreviation for 'Record'.  The title also has the little red circle which also denotes 'recording'.  As the movie is a 'found footage' movie taken on a video camera by a Spanish TV crew, the title makes sense.  The found footage in question is from the Spanish reality TV show 'While you were sleeping', which tasks itself with following people who make their living while the rest of the world are sleeping.  This movie is taken as the crew follow a Barcelona fire crew; pretty young presenter Ángela (Manuela Velasco) and camera man Pablo (Pablo Rosso).

The Vanishing (1988) - Will's Review

I have very little to say this week, as our movie is so straightforward, but please don't take that as a bad thing; as with last week's Angel Heart, I would not have sought this one out, but perhaps more so than last week, I'm very glad I watched it.

A dutch couple (Saskia and Rex) on holiday in France stop at a service station, Saskia is kidnapped. Three years later, having never given up the search, Rex is approached by the kidnapper, Raymond. Having accepted that his beloved is probably dead, knowing the truth is all that maters to Rex, and he is persuaded to travel with Raymond to learn the truth. 

Not remotely a horror, barely a thriller (only the final scene is designed to build any kind of tension or fear) in truth, The Vanishing is a character study, rather than a story. 

I must mention that the final scene is one that many people will find terrifying, although it is a common theme, and not really the point of the movie, it works well, and serves to give the film an ending (a pure character study could too easily have trailed off). 

I understand that my scant description is unlikely to send you clambering to get hold of a copy, but I would thoroughly recommend this film. 

Virgin Spring - Will's Review

This week, I watched our scheduled move one Sunday (the first 'legal' day) which I thought would give me plenty of time to write a review... But every day I've sat down, determined to put fingers to keys (or thumbs to touch screen) and come up with... Nothing; so here I sit, Friday night, still trying to think of enough to say by Saturday.

It's not that the film was bad, as such; it was certainly well shot, and there's lots here for film students and media studies types to get all chin-stroky about... But that's not my thing.

In its day, I'm sure the matter-of-factness of things like the rape scene and the fathers subsequent revenge were a revelation. I can see that the lingering, thoughtful shots, the way the camera stays behind the father, allowing him to stand in the distance and contemplate what he has done, would have been, in 1960, a revelation to many film makers, and I understand that they have shaped movie making in a way we still see today.

But that's the problem; we see them today. All the time. By being innovative, it's methods have become the norm; 53 year later, they don't seem so impressive.

So the movie has to stand on it's own two feet, in 2013, as a piece of entertainment. And it doesn't.

Like every rape-revenge movie that has followed it, 2/3rds of the film pass before we get to the 'rape / revenge' part; Until that point, it's a fairly run-of the mill medieval set black and white drama about a religious 'Lord of the Land' type, and his household; the type of movie I used to find my gran watching on channel four on a Sunday afternoon (and think 'why?').

Unlike it's more recent copy-cats, the revenge when it comes is swift, and matter of fact; yes it's brutal, but at the same time it's over far too quickly to have any real impact, or (to me at least) satisfactory emotional payoff.

But perhaps that's the point; if we consider the closing scenes of Wes Craven's quasi-remake (last house on the left), we see there too that the 'revenge' chi ever nothing of note - the family remains incomplete and broken. Maybe that's how it should be.

Unlike Last House, The Virgin Spring continues to follow the father for a shot time after his revenge, to show us the emptiness, the realization that he has done things he perhaps should not. As a very religious man, we see him try to reconcile the events of the movie, both his daughters ordeal and his own reaction, with his faith; that's potentially interesting, but was for me too calm and easily resolved (or accepted). There was also a small supernatural element, which to me felt out of place.

So there it is, it's beautiful, but dated and a little dull; I wouldn't mark it 'avoid', as I like to reserve that for films I feel completely wasted my time, but I'm a long way from recommending it.

If I were you, I'd stick to Last House (70s or 2000s versions) or I Spit on Your Grave (again, 70s or 2000s).

As I wrote that last paragraph, it occurred to me that maybe there's a reason that both of those films have a very direct remake; where as there is only one Virgin Spring...