Tag: 2007

Gabriel (2007)

Posted on by fenrisfil

Tonight’s movie is another low budget Australian film, but this time from 2007. This is directed by Shane Abbess and I’ve seen his movies before so know exactly what to expect. A good idea, good world building, but not much else. For the record “Infini” is probably his best work, but it’s only average. Why do I keep watching his films you may ask? Well, I do really appreciate someone coming up with good ideas, even if they tend to fail in the execution (and let’s be honest, a good part of that is done to budget limitations). I can’t help but feel Abbess is going to pull something great out one day and I want to see it when he does. Anyway, this is a movie about Angels fighting Demons in purgatory and stars Andy Whitfield (a.k.a. Spartacus from the TV series) in the title role.

October Review Challenge – Day 17

Our film begins with a brief explanation of the world in which it is set. This is purgatory, a giant city that is inhabited by the souls of those deemed not evil enough for hell or righteous enough for heaven. Here the inhabitants remain until they earn the chance to move up or down. Unlike on Earth though the forces of good and evil take a direct approach to their recruitment. Seven Angels and seven Fallen Angels fight for control of the city and to lead it’s inhabitants one way or the other. It seems these entities join the fight one at a time and apparently not synchronised. Basically this is WCW War Games but with Angels and Demons. Just like War Games, it seems the “heels” enter first so always get the numerical advantage with the final “face” being the hero that has to clean house.

Gabriel is that hero and our story follows him. The demons (Well fallen angels, but I’m just going to call them demons) have the upper hand and all the Angels have gone into hiding and are generally washed up and run down. Gabriel sets out to find them so that together they can restore the balance, not an easy task as most of them have given up. The strongest previous Angel, Michael has gone completely missing, presumed killed by Samuel, the head Demon. Getting this group together those seems to be exactly what Samuel wants as only when they use their powers can the demons sense where they are and move in for the kill.

City of Angels, City of Devils.

This is a movie with some good ideas and a mind towards style, but a lot of it doesn’t work. The Angels fight using guns, which is a little goofy and seems entirely a style choice. The purgatory city is interesting but the humans don’t have a whole lot of an involvement in the plot, so it’s basically Team X Vs Team Y in a setting that is basically “Dark City” and trying to do it with a bit of Matrix flair. This is definitely a movie that wants to be in the 90’s. I can respect that though, 90’s gothic was cool.

The acting here is not great, with the exception of Andy Whitfield who largely has to hold the film up by himself. Andy made a name for himself after this in the TV series Spartacus but sadly his life and career was cut short by cancer so we’ll never know how far his career could have gone. The rest of the cast is filled with various “Home and Away” Alumni that weren’t quite able to break Hollywood. This lot have varying degrees of talent but some of them, especially most of the villains were just awful.

Lacking Soul.

While the concepts and world building is pretty reasonable, the actual plot and the characters leave a lot to be desired. There really isn’t much to the story and the characters don’t really get to show their depth. All the Angels aside from Gabriel are worn down and depressed, while all the demons are basically psychopaths other than their leader. Gabriel himself despite having a good actor, is not exactly complex. The only character with complexity is “Sammael” (played just about passably by Dwaine Stevenson) but his complexity is built into the fact he is part of a painfully obvious twist.

The plot itself is really an exercise in time wasting. We all know Gabriel will end up fighting Sammael, but first he must get his team together and act that turns out completely pointless because in the end he has to kill all the villains himself anyway. It is a plot that probably would be fine stretched out in a TV series or compacted down in a shorter movie, but this was the wrong length for that plot. The music and the effects meanwhile both scream “low budget”, but are actually both okay. None of it took me out of the moment and for a $200k (Australian dollars) movie from the late 2000’s it’s not bad really.

Conclusion

After my Halloween Ends review I actually don’t mind watching a regular old bad movie. At least the people behind this had their own ideas and had them stand on their own feet. Admittedly they then fell over a little drunk, but I still respect the intention. The world building here is actually pretty good and the basic concept is one I approve of. It’s only really the execution that lets it down. I’m going to be generous and give it a 4.5/10 for the concept (goofy as it is), setting and a few nice visuals. Like all of Shane Abbess’ movies it’s painfully close to good, but not quite there.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

Vacancy (2007)

Posted on by fenrisfil

For today’s movie I’m watching Screen Gem’s motel horror “Vacancy” from 2007. Helmed by “Predators” director Nimbrod Antal and penned by “Overlord” writer Mark L. Smith. The film stars Kate Beckinsale and Luke Wilson as married couple on the verge of divorce “Amy” & “David Fox”, with support from Frank Whaley as “Mason” the creepy Motel landlord. This is a short horror clocking in at only one hour and twenty five minutes.

October Review Challenge – Day 10

The story begins with David and Amy somewhat lost travelling back from a family event. The pair are not on good terms and it seems a divorce is likely in their future. They end up a bit lost and seek assistance from a mechanic who points them in the supposed right direction and takes care of a problem with the car. However, the car then breaks down fully and the couple are forced to take shelter in a nearby motel.

Once in the motel they soon discover something is up. The video players in the room they are in seems to be full of horror films, but on closer examination these footage is from the hotel room they are in and they are snuff films. The movie then becomes a cat and mouse story as the couple try and survive the night.

A to B

That’s possibly the shortest synopsis I’ve written for a while and for good reason. This is one of the most straight forward horrors I’ve seen for a while. Motel/Hotel horrors are pretty much a horror sub genre these days with films such as Psycho, The Shining, 1408, Identity, Hostel, The Innkeepers, Motel Hell, Devils Rejects, Eaten Alive, and Bad Times at the El Royale (Which isn’t really a horror but does involve torture and bloodshed so close enough). Indeed just in this October Challenge it’s my second motel based horror after Psycho II (My 1st of October review).

Likewise there is just as long a list of movies about snuff films stretching from the more thriller based “Cold in July” to the outright nope of “A Serbian Film” (If you know, you know). So it was probably long overdue for these concepts to be combined into one (I had a brief hunt to see if there were any other examples but I couldn’t find any).

Regardless of if it’s the first time a horror has been made about a Motel that secretly makes snuff films, the concept certainly doesn’t feel original or even like an interesting novelty. The angle of camera footage isn’t really put to good use of outside of one scene where the snuff film playing on the TV cuts in and out with the rooms power to a decently scary effect. Nor does the motel provide for a particularly interesting backdrop aside from being in the middle of nowhere and largely abandoned.

The Characters

The film has a very small cast and only three of them feel like real characters and even then only barely. There is more of a backstory woven into the couples dispute but it’s not really done in a way that it matters. It’s just there to let us know the pair aren’t on good terms and so when forced to fight for their lives start to realise how much they mean to each other. It’s reasonable character development but it’s also pretty generic and not enough to make the film interesting. Mason however is basically just a creepy dude. That is all we ever really get to know about him. He’s a bad person. Also somewhat stupid considering his gaffs in dealing with the couple (and one in particular when fighting Amy at the end).

Plot Holes

The movie is actually full of horrendous plot holes. When a cop is called out to the area and then killed, none of the psycho’s seem to acknowledge that they can’t possible continue with their motel snuff show scheme after this. I mean a cop goes to investigate the motel and then disappears, that will be logged, the police will thoroughly check the place out.

The motel is full to the brim of hidden surveillance cameras, snuff movies filmed in the motel in every room, a room full of camera equipment and monitors of those cameras and a huge library of snuff movies. Not to mention the secret tunnels and the damage and blood stains. There’s simply no way they can cover it up and keep working but no one acknowledges this. They should be making plans to evacuate and go on the run while still trying to kill the couple.

It’s also odd the police never send out someone else to investigate after their first officer doesn’t check in. Bad enough they sent a lone cop to deal with a “They’re going to kill us” call, but then when they are phoned a second time they respond to news that the cop was killed by saying “We’ll send another officer out”. Like they are just going to keep sending one officer out at a time to the motel until they are all dead.

Conclusion

The actors performances are pretty good however. But then Beckinsale, Wislon and Whaley are all good actors. They also are quite clever in pushing the terror without really showing anything that hardcore. Those positives don’t unfortunately outweigh the fact that the script is weak and the premise is generic. Ultimately the movie is all packaging and no content. Well made, but really a nothing of a movie. As such I don’t recommend this one and so I’m giving it the highest rating I can for a movie that isn’t worth your time, that is a 4.5/10.

Rating: 4.5 out of 10.

The Signal (2007)

Posted on by fenrisfil

October Challenge – Day 6

For tonight’s movie I’m hitting another independent movie, this time “The Signal” from 2007. This is an everyone-goes-psycho movie, but presented in an interesting fashion through three segments from three different characters perspectives and set in the fictional city of “Terminus” on what appears to be New Years Eve. Each section (or “Transmission” as the film refers to it) has it’s own director and with that it’s own style. David Bruckner (V//H//S, The Night House) directs the first section “Crazy in Love”, Jacob Gentry (Synchronicity) directs the second “The Jealousy Monster” and Dan Bush (The Vault) directs the final piece “Escape from Terminus”.

We interrupt this transmission to make you batshit insane.

After a brief swerve of 70’s style horror (that was just on TV) we start with the trigger for everyone going nuts, which is a signal breaking through to peoples TV sets and radios. Coming across like some garbled interference but it was pretty clear what it was going to do. The film wastes no time starting up and doesn’t get bogged down in explaining the why’s of the situation. Things are kept vague enough that you can bet there are a lot of theories on this one. That works for me.

The intro sets up the two key characters Mya (Anessa Ramsey) and Ben (Justin Welborn) who are a pair of lovers that are considering eloping. Mya is married to Lewis (AJ Bowen) and the marriage is clearly not happy, though since we don’t get to to see them together pre-signal we don’t get to find out why.

Crazy in Love

The first section “Crazy in Love” follows Mya’s journey. After leaving Ben’s place she comes across a man (possibly homeless) asking for help and covered in blood. The man claims to have been attacked. Another man starts approaching them menacingly and so Mya get’s in her car and drives off. She returns to her own apartment building to find people the hallway fighting and acting generally crazy. Disturbed she quickly heads to her apartment.

As she enters, her husband and two of his friends are trying to watch the big game, but because the TV is getting the crazy signal they are mostly standing around being angry. Lewis obviously suspects Mya of her affair and questions her with an accusation tone. I can’t really judge if Lewis is a bad person normally since Mya is having an affair and Lewis has been affected by the crazy signal, but here he is aggressive and domineering.

That Escalated Quickly!

One of his friends is waving around his baseball bat and out of nowhere Lewis starts to get mad about it, after the argument gets heated he ends up bludgeoning his friend to death. As the other friend wrestles with Ben, Mya flees only to come across another murder in the hallway. This leads to a series of violent attacks and fleeing that eventually sees Mya crash a car and shout at some guy that offers help to stay away and she’s going to terminal 13 to meet her boyfriend and get out of Terminus and don’t follow her. That leads into our second segment which switches gears.

The Jealousy Monster

Transmission two: “The Jealousy Monster” is probably the most fun section of the movie, changing into a black comedy horror, but maintaining the brutality so it doesn’t feel like a section from a different film. This follows a character named Clark (Played by Scott Poythress), the good Samaritan that Mya refused to let help him. He is sheltering around a neighbours house, a woman called Anna who was going to host a New Years Eve party.

Both of them have managed to kill someone in self defence and it remains questionable if either of them are affected by the transmission. Into this mix comes Lewis (Mya’s husband), looking for Mya and clearly with a very loose grip on reality. The trio tries to keep their sense of reality but for Lewis and Anna this seems to be a losing battle. Anna is mostly harmless, Mya’s jealous and possessive husband though, much less so

Escape From Terminus

The Final section: “Escape from Terminus” finally follows Ben’s journey. I don’t want to give away too many details here as it is the final section but suffice to say it involves him having a stand off with Lewis and finally discovering Mya’s fate.

There was a lot of positives to this movie. The three directors different styles and the change in pacing and character focus kept things feeling fresh for the duration. The actors all did their job well and I quite liked the score. The plot is pretty straight forward but it didn’t really need to be more complicated and it contains in it the big mystery of why this is happening. Is the signal an attack? Is Terminus purgatory or hell? None of this gets answered, but ambiguity and mystery isn’t a bad thing for this kind of horror.

Confusion, Mysteries, Balance and Madness.

That said, they probably should have examined the situation a little more that they did. The movie reminds me a bit of Pontypool, which came out a year after this in 2008, but Pontypool actually did dig into the mystery of what was happening a little more and they did it so well the movie became a real classic. They didn’t need to dig in much here, just enough to give the mystery a bit more meat, but they opted not to. It’s not a big issue, but I think if done right it could have added to the overall mystery.

The film has a good balance between the brutality, character moments and comedy. The later is used sparingly and mostly in the middle section, but seeps out a little bit after through one of the characters from that section and it’s just enough to make the transition smooth. The brutality is fast and effective and just graphic enough for it to feel brutal without just trying to gross you out. It’s also spaced out enough that nothing is wasted. They do a good job of blurring the line between those that have gone psycho due to the signal and those pushed to their limit psychologically by the world around them.

Conclusion

On the whole I’ve got to say I liked this movie. It’s the second movie close to opening up my 7/10 spot for films this year (Hatching being the first). It’s worth mentioning (If you haven’t figured it out already) I rarely give 7 stars or higher. The decision factor for that is basically “Do I like this enough to buy the physical media”, Signal isn’t quite there but I definitely recommend giving it a watch.

UPDATE: Having the benefit of a few extra days to reflect and a few more movies to compare it to, I have decided, this is actually one I want to own. So I’m bumping it up to a 7/10. It does absolutely deserve it. Now it’s up to the other films this month to try and reach towards an 8.

Rating: 7 out of 10.