Howl - Review

****
Certificate TBC

Directed by Paul Hyett

Tickets please!

Helming his second full length feature, Paul Hyett’s Howl is a movie whose title along with the poster’s full moon, give a clear hint at the story's lycanthropic pitch and proves to be one of the year’s best horror pictures so far.

Some of the best werewolf movies have been made in Britain and in one of the most imaginative takes on the genre since John Landis' groundbreaking An American Werewolf In London, Hyett's yarn (penned by Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler) kicks off in the comfortingly familiar surroundings of Waterloo Station.

Train based terror has long fuelled the romance of ghost and horror tales and in a summer that has rail strikes gripping the nation, it’s refreshing to watch Alpha Trains' (a fictional company whose livery is only loosely based on South West Trains) evening express pull out of the London terminus, with its dozen or so souls on board heading towards far more than their usual Waterloo sunset.

There is an ever-so British budgetary constraint to the movie that suggests an air of Hammer Horror. The cast are far from household names, (though in a neat touch, Rosie Day and Sean Pertwee, both carryovers from Hyett's The Seasoning House make short-lived cameos) the purpose built railway carriage set wouldn't withstand the scrutiny of even a mildly obsessive train-geek and some of the matte work is cringeworthy. But no matter, for as a deer on the line brings driver Pertwee's train to a shuddering and unscheduled halt, it is only a matter of time before (nearly) all of the onboard souls succumb in turn to beautifully brutal slaughter.

In a sometimes creaking story, the director’s skill lies as much in the suspense he’s woven into the film as it does in the gruesomeness of his imagery. Having cut his teeth (sorry) designing special make up and effects for creature features such as The Descent movies, Hyett has a keen eye for what shocks. To be fair there's nothing here that quite matches Rick Baker's award winning genius in American Werewolf, but Hyett knows his craft.  

Also impressive is that amidst a script of occasional corniness, (The Seasoning House had a far superior text) Hyett coaxes performances from his cast that convince throughout. Ed Speleers leads as a bumbling train guard searching for the hero inside himself, whilst Elliot Cowan is Adrian, a handsomely chiselled bounder and a womanising cad who in a neat post-modern touch reveals that he won’t employ women at his City finance house because of their annoying tendency to fall pregnant. Back in the day it used to be that just being a bastard marked a character out to deserve a spectacular death - turns out in 2015 he has to be a sexist bastard too. 

For the cinephiles playing werewolf bingo, Howl trots out most of the tropes, (but not all mind, there are no silver bullets in this picture) with the occasional twist. We’ve been brought up to know that those bitten by the beast have to become werewolves themselves. Hyett however offers up a nod to the zombie genre by having his victims spew that particularly dark red blood, only ever found in those transitioning to the world of the un-dead. There is also a lovely touch as Ania Marson, Jenny an elderly female victim, finds herself vomiting out her dentures, only to then develop a far more useful set of incisors, infinitely superior to anything available on the NHS.

As Ellen the train's trolley stewardess, Holly Weston gives an assured performance that suggests a hint of sexual frisson and rivalry amongst the characters, whilst Calvin Dean’s Paul provides occasional moments of drunken slob comedy (and classy suspense) before his number's up.

Whilst Hyett's best may yet await us, Howl remains a ripping yarn, cleverly realised and yet again, only enhanced by Paul E. Francis’ intelligent score. Not just worth the ticket and popcorn, it's a great date-movie too.

The Seasoning House

****

Written by Paul Hyett & Conal Palmer
and Adrian Riglesford
from an original idea by Helen Solomon

Directed by Paul Hyett



Rosie Day



The Seasoning House marks Paul Hyett's debut as director and its an impressive calling card. To date Hyett as plied his trade as a Special Make Up Effects Designer, but with this bleak tale of Balkan butchery he has fashioned a movie that's as believable as it is horrific and with a thrilling action twist too.

The story follows Angel, a young pretty girl, deaf and mute, who we meet as she has been rounded up amongst a bunch of her pretty peers, by a gang of violent pimps. The seasoning house, or brothel, to which the girls are taken is a remote, bleak, run down building where thugs keep the girls imprisoned. Violence is the norm in this fractured society with one of the girls being horrifically slaughtered on arrival, in front of her friends, to terrify them into obedience. The men who frequent the brothel are either militia or corrupt officialdom and with the girls routinely drugged to ensure compliance, the abuse to which they are subject is harrowing. Notwithstanding the tale's sexual backdrop, female nudity is almost completely avoided, as the brutal storytelling avoids gratuitous sensationalism or exploitation. Sadly however, the background to the story is all too authentic. Hyett has commented with the benefit of well researched authority that in conflicts, epecially civil wars, the rape of women alongside their being corralled and sold/trafficked to pimps and brothel keepers is a practice that is as old as lawlessness itself.

The role of Angel is an astonishing performance from newcomer Rosie Day. With her character’s disablilites she is a "flawed" girl who is not sent to work alongside her peers. Her task within the house is to prepare the girls for their work, cleaning them and ensuring that the filthy heroin injections she is forced to administer keeps them stupefied. There is not one good man in the movie. Kevin Howarth is Viktor, the brothel owner, in a performance of thinly veiled charm that masks his cynical brutality. Sean Pertwee plays Goran, a local militia leader, who combines the swagger and bombast of modest officialdom, supported by ruthless barbarity. An emaciated waif of a girl, Angel has learned her way around the labyrinth of ventilation shafts of the dilapidated building and following a thrilling David v Goliath moment in which she avenges the murder of one of the girls, the plot develops from a violent morality tale into an innovative chase story, as the slender heroine avoids retribution, hiding amongst the buildings cavities.



Kevin Howarth



With such an accomplished background in horrific effects, (it was Hyett who spawned the crawlers in Neil Marshall’s The Descent) well photographed violence is to be expected. The movie's backdrop of broken Europe echoes the harsh continent of Eli Roth's first two Hostel pictures, showing a world where human life is a cheap consumable commodity and where quite literally anything goes, for a price. To the director's credit however, he has put story first, seeking to place the  effects on the back burner.  Where gore is required the use of prosthetics is shocking and innovative with some seamless finishing touches of CGI that perfect the imagery. And as much as the visceral visuals are stomach churning, excellent technical attention is also paid to the film’s sound effects, which combined with Paul E. Francis' haunting soundtrack, complete the realism of the on-screen horror.

If ever there was a film that defines the phrase "power corrupts", this is it.  Hyett's helming debut makes for a troubling, watchable, well told story with the true horror of his tale being not the well-crafted special effects, but rather the chilling realisation that places like the seasoning house actually exist. The movie is an almost perfect combination of action thriller and credible violent psychological horror. It is a must see for genre fans and if you can catch it on the big screen, even better.

 

In selected cinemas from June 21st

My feature article on Paul Hyett - Directing The Seasoning House can be found here