Monthly Archives: March 2018

Movie review: Long Weekend

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Australian Horror, Movie review

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Celebrating 40 years this year is this little known gem of a movie.
Scribed by Everett De Roche, who produced some cracking screenplays for classic ozploitation flicks such as Patrick (which also celebrates 40 years this year), RoadGames, Razorback, and Snapshot. (The latter of which is due for a DVD release in April)

The film centres on a couple who are going on a camping trip for one last attempt to reconnect. As the story unfolds though, the couples marriage problems are the least of their concerns as director Colin Eggleston crafts an intricate tale of ecology.

At first it would appear that we are facing a typical story of a couple forced to unite against some strange, psychopathic local, which has been predominant in recent Australian movies like Wolf Creek or Killing Ground.

Instead we see Peter (John Hargreaves) and Marcia’s (Briony Behets) blatant neglect and destructive behaviour towards animals and the environment become so paramount that Nature fights back.

Now, we’re not talking about some trumped up science fiction narrative like M.Night Shyalaman’s The Happening, but a well structured slow-burner of a movie that eats away at the core of what is left of the lead characters humanity.

Some may feel that the characters grate too much and admittedly their flaws as people can find it difficult to connect with them, but it only makes their plight when things turn dire all the more pleasurable as you seriously hope that they receive their comeuppance.
They are so caught up in their own lives that they fail to see the bigger picture around them and the tangled web of paranormal and paranoia that surrounds them with every fateful action they take.

The Diagnosis:
The pace may turn you off as well as wishing that Nature acts more swiftly in dispatching the characters, but stick with it as the labyrinth of despair unfolds.
It’s a cracker of a movie which has as much relevance today as it did back in 1978 about the world and humanities destructiveness.

 – Saul Muerte

Movie review: Annihilation

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Movie review

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Annihilation is an all female-led science fiction film about guilt, biology, and the human tendency for self-destruction. So I guess its no wonder Paramount dumped it on Netflix after loosing sleep over its box-office appeal.

It copped some controversy after being caught up in a battle between the studio and director Alex Garland (Ex Machina) for being “too intellectual.” While financially the studio’s fears were confirmed, visually its damn lucky they didn’t water it down. This is a film with a cool plot and some downright lush visuals.

Natalie Portman is Lena, a cellular biology professor who is recruited along with four others to study a quarantine zone in a swampy corner of America called The Shimmer. Lena’s reasons for accepting the mission are more personal than scientific: her military husband is the only person to enter The Shimmer and come out alive. You just know this is going to be a twofold journey: a trek through an alien landscape, and the dark emotional landscape of the protagonist.

The first scene we’re given after entering The Shimmer is the inside of a tent which feels like an odd and underwhelming decision by the director. But when Lena emerges from the tent and announces she remembers nothing since passing through the shimmery wall, it feels like the perfect way to introduce this strange new world.

Without giving too much away, something is seriously not right within The Shimmer. As the scientists begin to join the dots, the film shifts gears into “thriller” mode. But don’t get too excited; while there are some excellent tension-filled scenes – one in particular involving a bear-creature that echoes screams of agony from its latest victim – Annihilation never crosses fully into the horror genre. It’s an enjoyable ride, but nothing to write home about.

It’s the ending that’s the kicker. Garland tackles some complex conceptual territory (at least for this High School Science flunker) that will probably require a debrief with a mate, or at the very least a quick Google. Up until this point Annihilation was lingering dangerously close to being mediocre, but the last few scenes cement it as a Sci-Fi classic.

The Diagnosis:
So is it as amazing as you’ve heard? Probably not. Should you see it? Absolutely.

 
– Ellin Williams

Movie review: Veronica

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in Spanish horror

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Veronica. Went into this film after reading articles about people who couldn’t sit through the whole thing.
Too scary. Too terrifying. Based on a true story. Too real. Mummy hold my hand… that kind of thing.

So, maybe I’m the exception. Maybe I watch too many horror films and I’ve become immune to the horrors of a Ouija bored (slightly concerning).
However, I was no where near having to switch it off. Far from it. Veronica had me glued to the screen from start to finish. It’s what horror film dreams are made of.
I’d run off into the sunset with this film if I could. Finally, a horror to arrest the recent run of iffy films on Netflix. Your horror film prayers have been answered.

The Spanish horror directed by Paco Plaza ([rec])is set in 1991 Madrid. Sandra Escacena gives an eerily intense performance as Veronica, a 15-year-old schoolgirl who cares for her siblings while her mother works round the clock at a local café.
Veronica rounds up a few pals for a Ouja board sesh during a solar eclipse in hope of contacting her late father. Then, things go haywire. DUN DUN DUNN.

It’s not an original story. It’s conjuring-ish, exorcism-esque you get the idea.
However, Veronica is a thematic patchwork. An exploration of the inner landscape of a teenager who has lost her father and has had to grow up all too quickly.
She is pulled and pushed by different forces throughout the film, not only by the spirit haunting her but also the fatigue and parental solitude forced upon her by her mother.
The demon acts as a specter for unwanted maturity. Her innocence and stunted growth are highlighted when we discover that Veronica is yet to have her first period. This symbolism is carried throughout in various scare-rific ways.

In one of the most chilling scenes in the film, Veronica imagines herself being eaten alive by her brothers and sisters.
A terrifying metaphor for how working class families had to disassemble in order to function.
Good luck getting that creepy image out your head for the next three days. Opt for vegetarian snacks.

The cinematography in Veronica is beautiful. Plaza and his team stay away from the stark, realist lighting of most modern horror films.
The lighting gives us a phantasmal mix of the surreal and reality. I find films are more chilling when they feel real. Veronica feels real.
Its in Spanish too, how real can you get? Plaza has hit the nail on the head with highlighting that Veronica is a true story.

The Diagnosis:
See? Horror films aren’t always small budgets and cheap scares. Veronica is certainly not profound or ground breaking but its nice to know that some good old fashioned metaphors lurk beneath. Veronica has meat on its bones.


– Breana Garratt

Movie review: The Strangers 2: Prey at Night

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in MonsterFest

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It seems like there’s never a perfect recipe for a decent sequel, but ask The Surgeons team and we can tell you that an essential ingredient is that it needs to create the look and feel of the original whilst expanding on the universe with enough of something new that doesn’t take too drastically away from its predecessor.

The Strangers entered the horror genre to mixed reactions. Some either loved it or were unmoved.
I for one fell into the former character and loved the protagonists played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as less than idealised version of a ‘perfect’ couple.
The isolation and intimacy helped add to the angst that these characters were faced with when 3 masked figures broke creating an anarchy through a ‘house invasion’ style horror simply because “You were home”.

10 years later, Director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) would bring back Doll Face, Pin Up Girl, and the Man in the Mask to a whole new audience and hoping to find that magic recipe for this feature to stand head and shoulders alongside the first film.

Does he succeed?
Well let’s look at the offering.
The family unit has expanded from broken couple to broken family of 2.4 children. Christina Hendricks notably pulls off a fine performance as the matriarch with little effort needed on her part, such is the strength of her acting.
It is the kids though that blossom in this movie as they are forced to use their own wits and methods of survival in order to overcome the ordeal.

Exchange the isolated house setting from the first film with near-abandoned trailer park for the second, which allows our protagonists various methods of ‘safe haven’ only to produce more invasions from our antagonists to wreak havoc upon, including a car invasion at one stage.

Roberts certainly knows his stuff when it comes to horror with knowing nods to the slasher genre embedded throughout this film, most notably Halloween and Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
And there are elements one of his early films, F is also on display here too.
So you’d think that this would be a walk in the park for Roberts to rekindle the mayhem of The Strangers, but too often he falls foul of typical horror tropes and repeats said formula throughout the movie.

Pop music from the 80s is used to heighten the sense of nostalgia whilst juxtaposing the sweet, candy style rhythms against the harsh horrors on the screen, which is either hit (Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart during a swimming pool scene, which also hangs on the screen for a measure amount of time while one of the characters’ life also hangs in the balance)or miss (Kim Wilde’s Kids In America).

In addition, there are moments where he stretches the realms of believability a bit too far that it breaks the moment and thrusts you out of the picture.
And in doing so renders the antagonists as less of a threat, which is a shame.

The Diagnosis:
It’s cheese on toast, with the the tones of the original dialled up.
Some might like the palate that is served up, happy to languish in a paint by numbers horror.
Others may grimace at how formulaic it becomes as you are forced through the ‘twee zone’ until the films conclusion.
It’s enjoyable enough, with strong performances from its cast but the impact is not as effective as its predecessor.

– Saul Muerte