The Ugly Stepsister - Review

****

Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt

105 mins - 2025

Certificate 18

Lea Myren gets her nose fixed in The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister is a charmingly horrific take on Cinderella, largely based on the premise that physical beauty equates to wealth. Beautifully acted, the movie is a Polish/Swedish/Norwegian collaboration that is set in a fairytale world of princes on horseback and castles in the snow.

Written and directed by Emilie Blichfeldt the film cleverly interweaves aspects of the classic story, contrasting the radiant beauty of Agnes, the story’s ultimate Cinderella with the uglier features of her stepsister Elvira, this fable’s key protagonist.  Blichfeldt portrays a bleak world however, where beauty is consistently shown to be a veneer that masks a moral vacuum, while the humble Elvira’s striving for physical perfection, whilst doomed, starts from a position of personal principle. Principles it is fair to say, that she sheds (together with her toes, well how else is a girl gonna fit into that glass slipper?) as the narrative unfolds.

Lea Myren scoops the honours as the uglier of the step-siblings, while the deliciously named Thea Sofie Loch Næss is Agnes. The men are mostly chauvinist pigs, with The Ugly Stepsister proving a fabulous fusion of romance, gore and unashamedly raunchy sex. And when a horror flick goes so far as to include In The Hall Of The Mountain King from Peer Gynt at the Prince’s Ball, what's not to love?

Classy, toe-curling entertainment.

On general release

Photo credit: Marcel Zyskind

Shepherd - Review

***

Written and directed by Russell Owen

Tom Hughes

Eric Black (Tom Hughes) is a man with a troubled past who, in search of inner peace and resolution, accepts a job offer as a shepherd on an otherwise uninhabited Scottish island. The location is a remote wilderness, and if these few words of description hint at Jack Nicholson’s performance for Stanley Kubrick as Jack Torrance, then you won’t be far off the mark. But while there is much about Shepherd (even the opening helicopter shot of a car driving into the remote hills) that hints at Stephen King’s masterpiece, this movie lacks The Shining’s shine.

As Black comes tries to come to terms with his past, he is tormented by scenes with his devoutly Christian mother (passable work from Greta Scacchi) and an enigmatic local fisherwoman (Kate Dickie), whose faith is far more dark. Ultimately the narrative here is too focussed on Black’s self-indulgent introspection, rather than a terrifying psychological horror. If there were less of his soul-searching and more (and better) graphically visual excitement, then the film would have been immeasurably improved.

Wags may spot a brief nod to The Italian Job, while a field full of crucified sheep did little more than amusingly suggest The Slaughtered Lamb inn from An American Werewolf In London.To its credit the film’s aerial and drone photography of the Scottish and Welsh landscapes is gorgeous, easily passing as a promo for those two countries’ tourist boards. But as a worthwhile horror movie, this Shining-lite, lacks polish.

Shepherd will be available on Blu-ray and Digital Download from 21st February

The House On Cold Hill - Review

The Mill at Sonning, Sonning

***

Written by Peter James

Adapted for the stage by Shaun McKenna

Directed by Keith Myers

Debbie McGee works her magic with the company

The House on Cold Hill is a ghost story with all the traditional mcguffins. The doors creak, the pipes creak - hey, even the script creaks as Caro  and Ollie with-their teenage daughter Jade (Madeleine Knight, Matt Milburn and Hannah Boyce respectively) move into Cold Hill House, an ancient mansion with dark and haunting secrets.

There's just a hint of Ghostbusters and The Exorcist in the mix here and for those who prefer some magic with their supernatural thrills and chills there is even Debbie McGee making her acting debut as Annie, the local cleaning lady with a double life as the village medium.

The horror may be more ham than Hammer but this being The Mill At Sonning the ticket price includes a delicious meal to get the evening started. (The salmon was wonderful!) And recognising the senior demographics of Sonning’s typical audience, it is also fair to say that for the most part the mild scares are more corny than gory.

A pleasant evening's entertainment that’s unlikely to give you nightmares.

Runs until 26th March

Photo credit: Andreas Lambis

The Stylist - Review

*****

Story by Jill Gevargizian

Written by Jill Gevargizian, Eric Havens and Eric Stolze

Directed by Jill Gevargizian

Najarra Townsend

The Stylist marks a stunning first full-length feature from Jill Gevargizian. A meticulously written and directed piece that offers not only a finely constructed psycho-drama to propel its narrative, but also some top-notch horror visuals too.

In an equally stunning performance, Najarra Townsend is Claire, the movie’s titular hairdresser. And without pulling any punches, The Stylist sets out its stall before the opening titles have rolled as Claire drugs and scalps an out-of-town walk-in client who simply wanted her roots touched up, rather than removed.

Gevargizian’s effects are wonderful, with the sight and sound of her victim's demise proving almost unbearable to watch - particular credit here to Colleen May’s special make-up. But it is so much more than the ‘hair-raising’ horror of Claire's carnage that makes this movie work, as Gevargizian’s script explores her protagonist’s murderous motives. While Claire’s candlelit lair, complete with rows of mannequin heads sporting previous victims’ locks may be a tad Hollywood kitsch, her deadly-damaged psyche is as credible as that of Joaquin Phoenix’s recent Joker. Claire’s envies, resentments, rejections and neglect are all in plain sight and in one particular killing, where Claire’s craving for the dopamine release that only scalping a victim can deliver, Gevargizian’s understanding of addiction and its associated compulsions is chilling in its accuracy.

Brea Grant plays Olivia, a long-standing client of Claire who is preparing for her wedding amidst a bride’s usual anxieties of making sure that her hair is perfect for the big day. The decline of the women’s relationship is charted through the movie’s 105 minutes, culminating in a devastating and shocking finale. 

Tributes abound within the storyline, in a production lovingly filmed around Gevargizian’s home town of Kansas City, Missouri. Indeed, in a truly Hitchcockian moment, the writer/director herself puts in a pulsating cameo that only adds to Claire’s body count. 

This is undoubtedly one of the finest horror movies of recent years.

Available via Arrow

Certificate 18

105 minutes

Butchers - Review

****

Written by Adrian Langley and Daniel Weissenberger
Directed by Adrian Langley

Simon Phillips as Owen Watson, one of the titular butchers

With a DVD release on March 8, timed to coincide with the UK's National Butchers Week, Adrian Langley's Butchers is a fantastic example of the vision and ingenuity of today’s independent film makers.

In a storyline that sees Wrong Turn meeting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Butchers offers up a string of bright young North Americans who one by one fall victim to a backwards back-woods clan, somewhere out in Canada's mid-west. As might be expected from the title, the formulaic plot sees cleavers, axes and cleverly shot offal featuring heavily amongst the props and effects.

Langley, who not only directs but has co-written, photographed, edited and scored the picture too, throws in some novel twists. There is infidelity amongst our heroes, as well as a number of amusingly unexpected Shakespearean references with Hamlet, King Lear and of course, that greatest butcher of them all, Titus Andronicus getting a nod.

The cast do a fine job of telling this overly familiar nightmare, but notwithstanding their performances, this movie’s standout feature is its attention to technical detail. Not only is the cinematography exciting and well lit, but Langley’s music is brilliantly balanced while throughout Howard Sonnenburg’s sound mixing – be it with the score or the sound effect of metal through flesh  - is equally precise. The story may be corny and predictable, but it is a credit to Langley’s cast and crew that they make it so compelling and suspenseful, exactly what good horror should be. What’s more, there appears to be little if any digital contribution to the story’s visuals with the SFX duo of Jonathan Largy and Alina Suave delivering the gore in its authentic physicality, their gruesome work only enhanced by Sonnenburg’s sound.

Largy himself is rewarded with the corniest of cameos in the finale – but to be honest he’s earned it.

Available on digital download from 22 February and on DVD release from March 8th.

Lock and Key - Review

The Vaults, London


**


Music and orchestrations by Bella Barlow
Book and lyrics by A.C. Smith
Directed by Adam Lenson

Evelyn Hoskins and Tiffany Graves

Lock and Key is a new musical horror story playing at the Vaults Festival, against the ominous rumbling of trains of Waterloo overhead. 

In a tale that attempts to be a modern day nightmare, Jess is ambitious junior working out her probationary period at a publishing company and keen to get on in a media career. She’s hardworking but also bullied and exploited, with the show’s action playing out as she’s working late, at 10pm, on her birthday. Her boss Samantha is a monstrous employer with no care whatsoever for Jess. There’s an office filing cabinet with a dark and grisly secret that Jess is expressly forbidden from opening. Oh, and there’s a talking  teddy bear too.

If that all sounds rather corny that’s because it is. Barlow and Smith have created cardboard clichéd characters, in a musical that’s quite possibly turned out to be more horrific than its creative team might ever have intended. Horror is a tricky genre which this blog has been keen to support over the years. Handled well, it can make us laugh, scream and be moved. Done badly, and it appears as little more than kids playing around with the dressing-up box, or to put it more succintly, like the disgusting brown substance (draw your own conclusions) that Jess discovers in the filing cabinet drawer.  

That being said Tiffany Graves as Samantha (Tiffany is also the bear’s puppeteer ) together with Evelyn Hoskins’ Jess both deliver their usual level of excellence, with performances that are far finer than the script deserves. Likewise, Tamara Saringer puts in a strong shift, ably directing her four piece band through a collection of forgettable melodies.

If a successful future is to be unlocked for Lock and Key then much work is needed on its book. The show is crying out for credible characters who engage in plausible human interaction, and horror that truly suspends our disbelief. And as for the final scene – it’s sensational, implausible and gratuitously violent. Like the contents of that mysterious filing cabinet, Lock and Key is a bloody mess.

Runs until 18th March

Photo credit: Nick Brittain Photography

The Exorcist - Review

Birmingham Rep


****


Written by John Pielmeier
Based on the novel by William Peter Blatty
Directed by Sean Mathias

Adam Garcia, Clare Louise Connolly and Peter Bowles

Unquestionably for over 18s and with John Pielmeier's adaptation retaining both the physical and verbal profanity of Blatty's shocking novel, the tale of 10 year-old Regan’s possession by the devil condenses well into Sean Mathias’ neatly staged two hour yarn. With Hollywood forever having been about make believe and impossible illusions - now more than ever in the age of motion captured CGI – it was always going to be a tall order translating classic horror from screen to stage. So there’s a well-earned hurrah (or should that be scream?) for this evening of hokum that's currently playing in Birmingham over the Halloween fortnight. As the audience take their seats the house lights are gradually built up to a full on brightness before plunging the auditorium into a shriek-filled darkness and we’re off.

If you know the story then it’s all familiar territory. If you don’t, there’ll be no spoilers here. Kicking off with a brief glimpse of Father Merron, the excavating exorcist, digging up a decidedly dodgy amulet somewhere in the Middle East (think Indiana Jones crossed with Lawrence of Arabia) the action shifts to a house in Washington DC’s Georgetown where our pre-teen protagonist has been discovering the delights of the Ouija Board and her apparently imaginary friend, Captain Howdy. It’s hellishly downhill from thereon.

The production could arguably have been called The Possessed, rather than The Exorcist. It's not until the second act that the titular Peter Bowles really starts earning his wage, cassock donned and holy water spurting. Prior to then the story is all about the poor possessed Clare Louise Connolly's Regan becoming increasingly demonized.

Make no mistake - Bowles gives Merron a worthy gravitas. Not easy, given that his character on stage is reduced to a little more than a paper thin caricature with acute angina. Likewise his earnest sidekick Father Karras (fine work from Adam Garcia) eases the narrative along commandingly, whilst Jenny Seagrove's Chris, Regan's despairing film-star mother does a fine job, steering her character just safe of melodrama. Nods too, for Tristram Wymark's head-turning performance as Burke, the drink-soaked film directing family friend and also for Mitch Mullen who's as dependable as ever in the modest role of Dr. Klein.

The acting honours however are all Connolly’s in a performance that is quite simply a tour-de-force. Yes - there are some clever special effects and ingenious projections (which could to be honest be a little tighter, especially that rather clunky projectile vomiting gizmo) with Anna Fleischle's design work and Ben Hart's illusions creating the story's disconcertingly hellish domestic setting. But it is the diminutive Connolly who makes the show. Whether she's either speaking or lip-syncing to Ian McKellen's vocalizing her inner demon, Connolly’s performance suspends disbelief and from a terrifying precipice at that, utterly convincing that she is a girl possessed. 

Forty years ago on screen, director William Friedkin had Linda Blair’s Regan do all sorts of cleverly horrific tricks, assisted by an FX army and days of post-production. Live on stage however it’s all about the acting and Connolly simply becomes a blond haired fiend before our very eyes. One can only hope that the UK Theatre Awards judging team have her performance in their sights. 

Neither for the squeamish nor the pretentiously highbrow, The Exorcist represents Bill Kenwright at his very best, staging wonderfully entertaining theatre. And Clare Louise Connolly's Regan is unmissable!

Runs until 5th November

Photo credit: Robert Day

Carrie - Review

Southwark Playhouse, London 

****

A musical based on the novel by Stephen King
Music by Michael Gore
Lyrics by Dean Pitchford
Book by Lawrence D. Cohen

Kim Criswell and Evelyn Hoskins

Carrie makes its London debut at the Southwark Playhouse. Stephen King's classic horror mixes the recognisably human tale of Carrie White, a schoolgirl teased and shunned by her peers but who discovers, with her late onset of puberty, that she is gifted/cursed with tele-kinetic powers that allow her to make things happen just by willing them. We all know that in life there are few environments more cruel and terrifying than the bully and his gang at school and King's genius was in gifting a young girl with the ability to wreak a murderous revenge upon her wicked tormentors.

The story's horror is gothically graphic and as in any scary tale, our disbelief can only be truly suspended if the trinity of a fine script, excellent stagecraft and perfect acting is achieved. But where Brian de Palma's Oscar nominated 1976 movie succeeded in scaring us witless, the musical treatment falls far short. No one would dare add song and dance to Hitchcock's Psycho or Kubrick's The Shining, so quite what prompted the creative trio (and remember that Lawrence D Cohen wrote the movie's screenplay too) to spawn this show is a mystery in itself. Whilst the songs are immaculately delivered, King's horror has been mercilessly diluted, Pitchford’s lyrics are trite and Gore's tunes quite frankly forgettable.

But...This is a Gary Lloyd show - and with Thriller Live, Lloyd has defined himself as without equal in staging visually stunning (and occasionally spooky) numbers to a rock tempo. It is only a pity that the score does not include more ensemble numbers, for when the Southwark Playhouse floor is packed with his performers the show’s pulse soars, fed by Mark Crossland's powerful 7 piece band.

In the title role, Evelyn Hoskins is simply sensational. Her elfin physique melded with a perfect poise and a haunted demeanour convince us of a girl truly horrified by reaching her menarche at 17. Hoskins convinces us, not only of her pain but also of her supernatural endowments and her voice, especially in the numbers Carrie and Why Not Me is just heavenly (or should that be hellish?).

There is excellence elsewhere too – and were it not for Imelda Staunton’s Momma Rose currently wowing them across the river, then Kim Criswell would steal the award for Most Domineering Mother in a show. Her flame-haired bible bashing creation is a masterpiece of on-stage menace, her acting presence honed to perfection. And oh, what magnificent vocals. Criswell's take on And Eve Was Weak will truly make an audience pray for their salvation, whilst her hymn-like When There’s No-One treated the audience to a voice of cathedral-like magnificence, a quality rarely heard on the Newington Causeway.

Jodie Jacobs puts in a lovely and sympathetic turn as Miss Gardner, the teacher who cares for Carrie, whilst elsewhere quality performers make the best they can of thinly sketched 2-D characters. As the baddy of the piece Gabriella William's blonde and bitchy Chris is all hot pants and hatred, whilst Dex Lee (a newcomer who only recently stunned in The Scottsboro Boys) also sparkles as her schoolboy henchman Billy. Likewise, Sarah McNicholas makes a very decent fist of Sue, the musical's narrator and a role savagely slashed from its movie origins.

Tim McQuillen-Wright's design, all ripped up concrete and Jeremy Chernick's special effects are fun with gimmicks galore, but the company deserve better flying from Foy than was evident on press night. The stage blood flows and if you're sat front row prepare for a light spattering.

The show famously, expensively (and arguably, deservedly) flopped on Broadway nearly 30 years ago and whilst this version is slightly refined, it's still a bleeding piece of meat - albeit one that Paul Taylor-Mills has produced superbly. 

Carrie won't come around very often - and for that reason if you love musicals it's a must see along with being quite possibly the best date-night in town. Unquestionably a period piece, it is perfectly performed and bloody good fun.

Runs until 30th May

Call Girl - Review

****

Written by Eric Havens
Directed by Jill Sixx Gevargizian

Call Girl is a short film with a twist. Its simple structure pitches Laurence R. Harvey, last seen as the obesely inadequate sadist in The Human Centipede 2 reprising his monstrous misogyny as Ed, a man who pays for his carnal satisfaction. Tristan Risk (known to many as the Betty Boop lookalike in American Mary) plays Mitzy, the hooker of the movie’s title.

Jill Sixx Gevargizian directs in another celebration of girl power. Suffice to say that although Ed’s intentions are thoroughly despicable, when he receives his visit from Mitzy, all is not what it seems.

Filmed entirely from Ed’s webcam’s point of view just occasionally the photography frustrates. The tale however is so compact and enhanced by Colin Lacativa’s music, that it flows with a swift wit. Gevargizian is learning her craft and this crowd-funded micro-movie is evidence of a talented young woman with Soska-like potential. A fun cast and a freakish tale make viewing Call Girl to be five minutes very well spent.

The Green Inferno - Review

****

Written by Eli Roth, Guillermo Amoedo and Nicolás López
Directed by Eli Roth 

Antonieta Pari needs to eat more carrots - a scene from Eli Roth's The Green Inferno 

The Green Inferno is Roth’s first helmed movie in seven years. The emergent king of the horror genre has shifted his lens from the torturous ABC1s of Hostels 1 and 2, who set upon convincing naive young American backpackers that all the Grimm fairy tales they've heard about Europe are true, aiming his lens instead upon that other popular held nightmare, that the jungle is full of voracious man-eaters, to whom white (and as we learn, ideally virginal) flesh is a delicacy.

Introducing The Green Inferno at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Roth spoke of how he wanted to reach just that bit further into the Amazonian rain forest than Herzog managed when the German made Aguirre, Wrath Of God. Roth spoke about his production team’s discovery of the Callanayacu tribe who enjoy a lifestyle that hasn't changed for hundreds of years and who were to form the bulk of his cannibal cast. Off camera these people didn't know electricity, had never seen a movie or television and were delighted to be splashed in red paint as required by Roth's make-up crew. The power-free zone meant that refrigerated (or even un-chilled) soda that the unit brought in with them was another treat, with the director revealing that the biggest problem facing the production during the shoot wasn't mosquitoes or other such natural blights, rather that the tribesfolk would frequently wipe them out of Gatorade. Roth is nothing if not a learned movie craftsman and in a neat mark of respect, The Green Inferno's closing credits acknowledge the predominantly Italian film-makers of the 1970's and 80's cannibal genre, led by Ruggero Deodato who inspired the style, and who was to enjoy a briefly carnivorous inclusion in Hostel 2.

Eli Roth on location with Callanayacu tribes-people

The Green Inferno's preamble lacks the crafted credibility that Roth imbued in his Cabin Fever as well as the first two Hostel tales. It's all just a little too pat how our heroine (in a gorgeously measured performance from Lorenza Izzo) winds up as a guerrilla eco-warrior, on a mission to save the rainforest from the rapacious bulldozers of an evil mining company and armed with nothing more than a cellphone. Of course, the nobly intended plan goes horrifically wrong and following a plane crash (that combines a rather splendid pilot decapitation alongside some disappointing CGI) those environmentalists that survive the landing soon find themselves trapped and put on the menu, as their hungry captors set about supplementing their traditional jungle fayre with an un-healthy portion of North American Greens. 

And this is of course where Roth is in his element. The roasting of flesh, hacking of limbs and removal of eyeballs, are all served with (cinematic) relish and, as can be the hallmark of some of the great horror movies, liberally seasoned with humour too. The plot bears Roth’s hallmark swipe at America’s grandiose dream of bringing good to the world, though he also, early on, includes an informative message about the evils of FGM within his narrative. 

To say any more would be to spoil, but if this description whets your appetite for an alternative (human) churrascaria, then go see the movie soon and catch it on a big screen. Roth can command a serious budget for his projects and Antonio Quercia’s photography, stunning in its capture of the rain forest locations has helicopter shots of Amazonia that are as gloriously giddy-making as the cannibalism is nauseating.

Roth is clearly loving the life Latino and as with his last co-production Aftershock (reviewed here), set in a post-earthquake Chilean beach resort, he aligns himself with South American filmmakers Guillermo Amoedo and Nicolás López to pen the story. Retaining a loyalty to actors he knows and trusts, Roth includes Richard Burgi, the corporate client who ended up as dog-food in Hostel 2, in a cameo as Izzo’s lawyer-father. 

Whilst the story may be a little over-cooked, Roth spends his budget wisely and the photography and effects are spectacular. One of the best date/popcorn horror-flicks in ages, The Green Inferno will surely prove a devilishly hot ticket this autumn.

Big Bad Wolves and Rabies - Israeli Cinema Does Horror

Tzahi Grad contemplates revenge in Big Bad Wolves

When Quentin Tarantino proclaims a film as the best of 2013, its time to pay attention. The filmmaker is famously reserved in his praise, so when he shared his opinion of new Israeli horror Big Bad Wolves, interest in the picture skyrocketed. The film had already closed the London Film 4 Frightfest this summer and with co-writers and directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado currently on a global promotion tour before the movie comes back to London’s West End next month, I caught up with Papushado in LA, who told me about the development both of the film and of his creative partnership with Aharon Keshales.

Both in their 30s, they met when Papushado was studying film theory at Tel Aviv University under Professor (in fact only a few years older) Keshales. The two men quickly realised they shared a passion for wanting to create exciting escapist movies, away from the typically worthy docu-drama style of film, long associated with Israeli cinema. In a country whose very existence is continually threatened, that is governed by a parliament that whilst often chaotic is still a rare democracy for the region and whose territorial policies spark fiercely divisive opinions, it has always seemed far more appropriate for Israeli cinema to reflect upon the country's history, or to seek to challenge the country’s current policies or social trends. With so many serious challenges to contemplate, few filmmakers dared venture into seriously frivolous fantasy. No Israeli was making popcorn-style thrill-ride movies that gave an audience a chance to sit back in the dark and enjoy good old fashioned (albeit horrific) fairy tales. Until now that is.

Keshales and Papushado's first picture Rabies made in 2010 and screened in the 2011 Tribeca Festival, was an offbeat horror. A story that is quirky but engaging, reminding one of Arthur Schnitlzler’s 1890’s play La Ronde that follows a sexual chain of relationships between ten individiuals, each sleeping with the next,  Rabies takes a (slightly) similar theme but explores how ten people, from different walks of life, end up in the same woods on the same day and through a circuitous series of events, end up killing or being killed by, each other. The film is profoundly imaginative, unconventional and at times shocking (both in its plotline and in some viscerally gruesome images) yet with an occasional hint of deliciously ironic humour. And all made, as is so often the way with some of the most innovative of modern horror, on a shoestring budget. It's suspense is sublime. When a character wanders off to take a pee in the woods and the camera pulls back to reveal she has strayed into a minefield, the anguished anticipation as she takes each carefree step is almost unbearable. As Rabies neared the end of its post-production, it caught the attention of an Israeli Cultural Ministry official. Liking what she saw, funds were put into the film’s distribution, creating early international recognition for the writer/directors and paving the way for Big Bad Wolves. 

Released in 2013 and reviewed here, the pair's second feature is a bravely made story that tackles the darkest criminal taboos, paedophilia and child murder. Making for uncomfortable yet compelling viewing, Navot and Papushado create moments of the starkest irony, intent on making their audience chuckle at some of the human frailities to which their adult characters are exposed, particularly those traits that bear a particularly Jewish association. Nagging elderly parents forever on the phone, seeking to evoke a reaction of guilt from their children, is one of the many comedic seams that have been gleefully mined since Woody Allen first discovered the comedic potential of the inadequate guilt-burdened "nebbisch" Jew some 50 years ago. Keshales and Papushado rudely exploit that theme, but thrust it squarely into a horror scenario. It is a bold move even to consider mixing comedy with evil and Papushado speaks of the painstaking labour that accompanied their script-writing process as the pair sought to push the parameters of acceptability, whilst remaining within decent conventions. Rabies had also briefly explored the “nagging Jewish parent/guilt” thing and Papushado comments that as writers they wish to explore further the Jewish angle on horror. It’s a brave path to take, as the pair tred carefully, anxious to avoid the double edged swords of cliché and offense. 

Big Bad Wolves comes with a budget considerably in excess of its rabid predecessor, though still modest and Papushado is proud that with one exception, all the movie's visual and special make up effects were physically created and photographed rather created by CGI. He admits that digital imagery was used to portray the effects of someone being blowtorched, but is happy (as are a wincing audience) that the particular sequence only lasts a few seconds! The understanding of the all round finished image of their movies is critical to these film-makers, with sound design and music key to their tales. Papushado praises Frank Ilfman’s scores for both pictures that suggest suspense and darkness that brilliantly complement the on-screen action.

The duo have a busy time ahead. Slated to direct one of the chapters of “The ABCs Of Death 2”, an anthology movie in which respected horror directors from across the globe, are invited to create a 5-minute horror themed around a specific letter of the alphabet (and where Papushado speaks praisingly in particular of the works of Xavier Gens and Lee Harcastle in ABC of D 1), they remain as committed to expanding the Israeli movie industry. Intriguingly and mixing popcorn with politics, their next feature will be a spaghetti western styled movie, Once Upon A Time In Palestine. Theirs will be a story of pre-Israel Palestine, when the territory was ruled by British Mandate and many of those who were to go on to become Israeli statesmen were guerrillas, freedom fighters and in the eyes of some, terrorists. 

Big Bad Wolves opens in London on December 6. It’s a funny, dark and ultimately profoundly troubling tale, brilliantly told. If you like your horror modern and uncompromising, don’t miss it.

Big Bad Wolves screens at the Prince Charles Cinema, London from 6th December

Rabies receives a UK broadcast premiere on The Horror Channel on 28th December

Aftershock

Certificate 18

****

Written by ElI Roth, Nicolas Lopez and Guillermo Amoedo

Drected by Nicolas Lopez

Eli Roth finds the weight of fallen masonry too much to bear in Aftershock

Aftershock,co-created by Eli Roth with Nicolas Lopez and Guillermo Amoedo is a roller-coaster ride of a 1970s style disaster movie brought up to date to meet a modern adult audience's expectations. As with his two Hostel movies, Roth pitches us into a world that is as frighteningly believable as it's horror is monstrous.

The movie is a Chilean production, set in the resort town of Valparaiso. There is a 30 minute lead in before the action kicks off, which has writing that is not Roth's finest, seeing clever humour mixed with cliched corn. The title is a heavy hint that there's an earthquake brewing and sure enough, following possibly the cheesiest mother/daughter argument ever scripted, the earth moves.

The strength of this tale lies in its portrayal of the devastation of the 'quake and of the ghastly human choices and consequences that can arise from such bloody mayhem. The brutality and the gore is shocking, but in a real moment of mass bloody death and injury, what else would one expect? Years ago, Universal Studios gave us Genevieve Bujold and Charlton Heston enduring an earthquake hitting San Francisco and introducing the world to the (extremely short-lived) Sensurround, a low frequency noise that made our cinema seats resonate. Roth is more direct. In an earthquake and one suspects, in the aftermath of a bomb explosion too, horrible things happen to people. Victims are crushed, decapitated, lose limbs and are impaled. Aftershock's tracking of a weary band of survivors exposes them not only to these horrors, but also to the brutal inhumanity of man against man when the fabric of society literally collapses around them

A prison crumbles leading to a mass escape of marauding convicts. Roth's performance as an injured man tortured by the escapees into revealing where his women companions are and thus condemning them to rape, (filmed tastefully, no nudity) is a brilliant micro-study in the guilt of betrayal. Elsewhere vigilante mothers shoot good people, simply because they cannot know for sure if the good can be trusted. Safer to kill than to take risk.

The film-making is masterful, the sets are convincing, the CGI and special make-up effects are virtually flawless and if occasionally a devastated street has the air of a studio back-lot, the dialog and performances soon serve to ensure that disbelief remains suspended. Chilean actor Ariel Levy heads the cast and in a clever move that adds to the story's authenticity, Roth plays one of a handful of English-speaking gringos, with other key roles spoken in Spanish with English subtitles.

Whilst there is a whiff of predictability about the (magnificently photographed) ending and the story's opening chapters have minor flaws, the filling of this movie's sandwich is magnificent. It is classic horror, brutally and brilliantly filmed, made all the more shocking by its perceptive take on the worst of humanity in the worst of times. Albeit with a master by his side, Lopez has helmed the movie well.

Perhaps Roth could go on to consider turning his creative lens towards a Towering Inferno for the 21st century? Aftershock clearly shows that this wunderkind of horror truly has what it takes to set a scene alight.

Frankenstein's Army

Certificate 18, available on Blu-ray and DVD from September 30th 2013

***

Directed by Richard Raaphorst 

( ALERT: Some of this review may not be for the faint-hearted)

Frankenstein’s Army is the best B Movie in ages. It’s a ridiculous plot, serviced by dodgy dialog with a mad scientist straight out of a 1950’s horror classic.

As WWII is coming to an end, a group of Russian soldiers who are mopping up the last stragglers of the Nazi war machine on the Eastern Front, come across an apparently deserted farm. Local graves have been robbed and electric cables strewn everywhere lead to generators and lightning conductors.

The farm is of course a laboratory cum factory and it is where the evil Dr Frankenstein (son/grandson of Mary Shelley’s original, I didn’t quite work out the family tree) has been stitching together corpses. But wait for it, this Dr F. is replacing limbs with weapons. Drill bits, steel claws, spiked helmets for skulls and even the engine and propellor unit of an aeroplane. Get the picture? Its gruesome but very imaginative and as the story pans out as the current gets switched back on, various Russians come to exceedingly gory ends. In a visionary step towards advancing world peace, Dr Frankenstein opens up the skull of a Communist, removes the left half of his brain (the special effects and prosthetics are wonderful) and replaces it with half of a Nazi's brain. Ridiculous but inspired fun.

Funded in part by the Czech Culture Ministry, Richard Raaphorst’s debut has clearly had a few bob to spend on special effects and it shows. If you are seeking a film that bears a nod to the horror of Eli Roth’s Hostel, the grit of Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron and has clearly been inspired by that TV programme favoured by kids and geeks alike, Robot Wars, then look no further. This movie only lacks Jonathan Pearce as narrator. An unmissable 3 star wonder.

Jenny Gayner - Actress and producer

Jenny Gayner

Regular readers to these pages will know that I have particular soft spots for musical theatre on stage and the horror genre on screen. Since my twitter following has modestly grown over the months, I have come to discover that I am not alone in enjoying this eclectic combination and that there are quite a number of folk out there who can adore a full on jazz-hands routine on a Saturday night yet still find time for some popcorn-fuelled slashery and torture on a Sunday.

Of course, the connection between musical theatre and horror is actually nothing new. One of the longest running musicals Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom Of The Opera is at heart nothing more than a very frightening Gothic horror story set to music, yet many (most?) of those who pack out London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre or those numerous other venues where the show plays around the world, would not dream of buying a ticket for, or downloading, an 18-certificate horror tale. In a slightly different vein(!) musical theatre horror and humour have often gone hand in hand with Menken and Ashman’s Little Shop of Horrors being probably the most well known take on that particular pastiche style, though Drewe and Rowe’s Zombie Prom is another example of composers blending horror, humour and music into a quirky cocktail, whilst the same pair’s The Witches of Eastwick, famed as a musical comedy, has at its core a horrifically satanic fable. Thus the bloody fantasies of horror have a long and macabre association with the far frothier fantasy world of musical theatre’s harmonies and dance routines.  

So it was therefore a delight, on attending the press night of Chris Burgess’ Sleeping Arrangements (reviewed here) at London’s Landor Theatre earlier this year, to learn that accomplished musical theatre trouper Jenny Gayner, was not only starring in the soon to be released horror flick The Addicted, but that she’d actually gone and produced the movie too. It made for a pleasant hour as we chatted about these two very different dark and light aspects of the fantasy spectrum.

Prior to the relatively short Landor run, Gayner had already achieved a fine reputation for her work in Chicago (understudying Roxie Hart), as well as appearances in Spamalot, The Rocky Horror Show and a Manchester based production of A Chorus Line. She knows her musicals and her lengthy association with Chicago, both on its UK tour and in the show’s final London months testify to her talents. But she is also a woman who likes her horror. It may have to be bloody if necessary but above all and as with her musical theatre work, it must be built around a strong story. 

There are some films that Gayner finds too difficult to enjoy. She quotes Eli Roth’s Hostel,(based upon a horrific and true reported story, of wealthy men in the Far East who paid huge sums for the “pleasure” of torturing naive young westerners) as a film that was just too real for her liking and, notwithstanding the story’s strength, she found its reality too unpleasant to watch. For Gayner, a story needs to be credible but also fantastic. She speaks praisingly of the 2009 remake of Last House On The Left, a tale that opens with a harrowing rape and by a turn of events delivers the rapists into the hands of the victim’s parents. It’s a thrilling revenge tale, with scenes that are often graphically portrayed, yet it is also well written fantasy and knowing that the story is pure make-believe and with its heart also very much in the right place (suffice to say the villains meet grisly ends) is horror that works for her.

Gayner (l) on set in The Addicted

The Addicted will soon be available on satellite TV distribution, no mean achievement in itself for a first-time independent feature and Gayner has relished the challenge of producing a full length movie and the challenges that go with the process. Securing funding was an initial hurdle, though with independent horror being famed as a low-budget entry to movie-making, the film’s £10,000 cost was not ridiculously out of reach. Managing the sheer logistics of the movie was of course a task in itself and Gayner chuckles as she recalls frantically managing the project both from home and her Chicago dressing room! As for the film, its a gritty gruesome fantasy set around an abandoned drug rehab clinic. Suffice to say it opens with a scarily high body count but to add any more comment would be to spoil.

Its all happening for Jenny right now. The Addicted is available on satellite from September 1st, whilst the end of the month will see her solo cabaret night at London’s Pheasantry, accompanied by some stellar guests. A stylish embodiment of the classic “triple-threatening” performer, of actress singer and dancer, Gayner is all that a musical theatre professional should be, but now as an emerging producer of horror movies, she is defining herself as an innovator, keen to challenge and to explore new methods of entertaining an audience. A woman who at all times combines the professional attributes of excellence and enthusiasm, who knows… her arrival as a movie producer could yet prove addictive!

Jenny Gayner performs at The Pheasantry on September 28th , for details and tickets, click here.

The Addicted is available via satellite broadcast from September 1st

Big Bad Wolves - Film 4 Frightfest Review

*****

Written and directed by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado

Tzahi Grad searches for his daughter's remains

From Hora to Horror, Israel for so long famed for having given the world the Hava Nagila is fast becoming a centre of excellence in the hard and cynical world of horror movie production. Even more impressively, Film 4’s annual festival of scary movies Frightfest, selected the Israeli feature Big Bad Wolves to close the 2013 four day event, a deserved mark of recognition for writer/director duo Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado.

Their’s is a carefully crafted tale that darts between horror, tragedy and wry black comedy. This combination of three micro-genres makes for a delicate tightrope walk of a script, particularly given the paedophilic child killing thread that runs through the movie. Can one really laugh at moments within such a film? Keshales and Papushado, by portraying acts of evil and their impact upon ordinary people, suggest that one can.

The (chilling) opening titles of the movie set the tone with a young girl’s abduction, whom we then learn very early on, has been brutally murdered and beheaded (offscreen). From the outset the cops have Dror, their prime suspect under arrest who when violently beaten during a bungled questioning, is obliged to be released by the police to avoid a complaint of brutality. Gidi, the young girl’s father has done some investigative work of his own and also believes that the released man murdered his daughter. The bungling over-zealous cop is demoted to traffic duties but sets about privately stalking the suspect, as does Gidi. The two men soon trap and imprison their target, with Gidi's motive being to torture Dror until he reveals the location of his daughter's head. With violence that is often graphic though never gratuitous, Big Bad Wolves remains a movie that is strictly for those who like their horror served bloody.

Keshales and Papushado extract fine performances from their cast. Rotem Keinan's Dror whose ambiguity of performance is sustained throughout the movie, leaves the audience never knowing whether he is guilty or not until the final scenes. In a fascinating interview with cinema website Premscene (@Premscene on Twitter), Keinan talked of the challenges of playing such an indeterminate character. He hints that the film merits a second viewing (he is right, it does) to fully appreciate the detail that he puts into playing his complex character.

In Psycho, Hitchcock introduced us to the concept of the dominating mother (albeit in Norman Bate’s case, a delusion of his schizophrenic mind). In Big Bad Wolves, the writers give us the Jewish mother, or more specifically the Jewish grandmother, as Gidi (a convincing performance from Tzahi Grad) is frequently interrupted from his torturous activities by his mother calling his cellphone. He tries to fob her off, eventually feigning illness. Wrong move. When she hears he maybe unwell, she dispatches her elderly husband to deliver their middle-aged son some soup. The old folk aren’t aware of what Gidi is up to and this counterpoint of introducing the stereotypical Jewish mother, fussing whilst Gidi vents his vengeful rage, is a clever cocktail of concepts from the writers. When Yoram, his father, does show up at the remote cabin that Gidi has acquired for his grisly purpose, he quickly understands what his son is up to. Initial shock gives way to a measured anger and the display of emotions that underlie the wreaking of a grandfather’s vengeance upon the man he believes has murdered his granddaughter, is a chilling masterclass from Israeli veteran actor Doval’e Glickman.

Whilst Gidi is away from the cabin the hungry Yoram, left to guard Dror, helps himself to a slice of cake unaware that Gidi has heavily laced it with sedatives. The episode of perceptive, almost slapstick comedy that follows as Dror, with disbelief, witnesses his captor bumble and stumble before falling unconscious, provides a moment of Tarantino’esque hilarity amidst this darkest of stories. Like Hamlet’s gravedigger scene, the funny moments of the tale break up the immense tragedy, almost giving moments of relaxation as the harrowing horror unfolds.

The movie is unquestionably a nightmare, bringing the Brothers Grimm’s philosophies into the 21st century, yet going further as it rakes over the agonising guilt of a parent who survives his child’s murder. Haim Frank Ilfman’s score is majestic yet well balanced, whilst Giora Bejach’s photography, particularly the menacing opening sequence, is similarly excellent.

Keshales and Papushado have crafted a beautifully clever picture that deserves awards. Their story’s final act will leave you devastated.

I Spit On Your Grave 2 - Film 4 Frightfest Review

**

Directed by Steven R. Monroe

Jemma Dallender in a shocking moment from the film

#ISpitOnYourGrave2 @Film4FrightFest must go down as one of the most disappointing sequels, to a remake, ever.

The 2010 remake was a tale of a heroic woman taking her revenge on a gang of rural rednecks (in cahoots with the the local sheriff) who had raped her deep in the remote wilderness somewhere in the USA. The circumstances of that story were believable, mostly and the film (helmed by Monroe) was a well made gruesome revenge story.

#2 opens in NYC - hopeful, one thinks. The heroine is a model who can't afford a professional portfolio so ends up at a dodgy Bulgarian backstreet photographer's studio. Again, plausible, these places exist, one suspects.

When it is clear they are up to no good, an attack scene that is barely believable ends up with her being drugged and flown to Bulgaria as a sex slave.

When the heroine then learns, through being told, that she is in Bulgaria, the audience laughed. Not a good omen for a serious, rather than a deliberately B-movie horror.

The story is beyond credible, and whilst it is well-acted (with a Russell Crowe lookalike thrown in for good measure as a Bulgarian Mr Big) it's a mysogynistic, exploitative vehicle, with little artistic value whatsoever. The script is often laughable.

Pre film, when asked what inspired #2, director Steven R Monroe referred to the studio and distributors believing there was mileage left in the ISOYG franchise. Sadly, the corporates are probably right, as the scenes of ridiculous un-imaginative gratuitous gore will see the DVD sell well.

The film is little more than a shameless piece of corporate exploitation of a franchise and detracts from the quality work that Monroe had put into #1

Kevin Howarth - The Seasoning House star talks of acting evil

Kevin Howarth as Victor

As The Seasoning House movie is released onto DVD/BluRay and download, I caught up with the movie’s star Kevin Howarth for a brief chat about his career and what drew him to Paul Hyett’s troubling story of violent exploitation in the Balkans.

The movie, reviewed here, stems from the true and tragic philosophy, as old as time, that in a lawless world of conflict, invading armies rape the women that they have conquered. History tells that in civil wars, the brutality tends to be even worse. Thus in an unnamed Balkan state, Howarth plays Victor, a callous pimp who places no worth on humanity other than hard cash.

Howarth started out in acting the right way. Trained at Webber Douglas, he places importance upon understanding the man he is portraying. In researching for Victor, he read up on the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, gaining an appreciation of how and why so many nations could hate each other and studying war criminals such as the Serbian Arkan, perpetrator of countless modern-day atrocities. To call Howarth's character atrocious though sounds frightfully British. Rather, Victor is a man who negotiates hard and only on his terms and who has little time for shame or remorse.

When Howarth talks of wanting to explore the human compassionate side of Victor, of understanding the monster’s back-story, I suggest that Victor's actions in the story suggest he lacks a compassionate side and that Hyett has created the pimp as a representation of detached evil. Whilst Howarth concurs that that is indeed the Victor as presented on screen, his purpose had always been to understand what had driven Victor to be so cold and dispassionate. Howarth speculates as to the damaged childhood that Victor would have experienced that would have so detached him from base feelings of humanity.

Howarth

Howarth's hard work has paid off with a character that is far removed from a 2 dimensional baddie. Victor is an understated menacing gangster, always under control even when angered. When early on in the movie he brutally cuts a girls throat to terrorise the newly arrived girls trafficked to work at his brothel, the slaughter is all the more chilling for being so unexpected and so calmly executed and calculated. Howarth is rightly proud of his work.

Above all, Howarth is nothing less than a consummate professional, who seeks to gain as thorough an understanding of his character's back story as is possible. The Seasoning House, by the very nature of its storyline demanded several young actresses, some fresh out of training, to take the roles of Victor’s prostitutes. If there was a consistent theme that emerged from the modest research into this article, it is that all the young actors on set, many of them new to the demands and discipline of shooting a movie, found Kevin to be a supportive, helpful and at times inspirational role model.

The Seasoning House tells of a human evil that is as old as time and of which the pimp is the (in)human face. Whilst Howarth's Victor is simply the 21st century portrayal of this infamous predatory amorality, sadly, away from the glitter of the movie screen, such criminals thrive today. That Howarth's performance is so strong only serves to tragically teach us of the evil that men are capable of.

The Seasoning House is widely available on DVD, BluRay and via download.

To read a review of The Seasoning House, click here

To read an interview with Paul Hyett click here