JOHN CARTER

JOHN CARTER (JOHN CARTER ON MARS) (A PRINCESS OF MARS) (2012)
US
Directed by Andrew Stanton

CAST:
Taylor Kitsch - John Carter
Lynn Collins - Dejah Thoris
Willem Dafoe- Tars Tarkas (voice)

PLOT:
     Transplanted to Mars, a Civil War vet discovers a lush planet inhabited by 12-foot tall aliens. Finding himself a prisoner of these creatures, he escapes, only to encounter a princess who is in desperate need of a savior.

REVIEW:
     It was a Saturday afternoon, and I'm just getting over a stomach bug that made me kinda surly for most of the week (sorry JeNee). JeNee and I are wondering what to watch, as we both love movies. JeNee is into comedies a lot more than I am, as I tend to find most of the jokes fall flat in most of the more recent ones. And those that read my blog know that I like horror films, which JeNee has started watching  more of recently. So there was no horror films that opened up this past weekend, except for Silent House, which neither of us wanted to see. So I told JeNee that if she wanted to, we would see the Friends With Kids, which turns out didn't open here. Then JeNee said we should see John Carter instead. I relented, quite easily even though the early buzz for the film has been bad and the trailers for it made it look, well, like shit. So we sit down for the start of the film (in 3D no less) and are bombarded by trailers for upcoming movies in 3D. Prometheus in 3D made my jaw drop (just seeing Giger's work in that format is mind boggling) and Avengers in 3D is a no brainer and looks simply amazing in the format. After about 15 minutes of trailers John Carter starts.

     I admit that the name Taylor Kitsch is only one I heard of in passing, and most recently only in a really underwhelming spin-off of a movie franchise about mutants in which the character he played was completely wrong. Well the good thing is that Kitsch actually fits the role of John Carter here quite well. He does a fairly decent job of man misplaced that has to learn how to walk (literally) again and understand a brand new environment from scratch. There's also a certain wonder Kitsch emotes as Carter at his new setting and the wonders it brings. Lynn Collins, who plays Dejah Thoris, is quite good in this as a princess trying to solve two problems at the same time. Collins brings an aire of dignity to the role, which is what was needed as she is playing royalty. Yet here's something her character does that few do in movies like this, she able to show her weaknesses without being tied down by them. The Tharks are filled out with the voices of well known actors and actresses. The Thark chief Tars Tarkas, is voiced by (one of my favorite actors) Willem Dafoe. He voices the leader of the Tharks and lends that character a sadness for what he has to do while leading his people and also being able to see a way out of his problems if he can get the help of John Carter.

     So what does the film do wrong? To be blunt, the first fifteen minutes is a jumbled mess that jumps around. From a battle from the two main clans on Mars that ends abruptly, to showing a young Edgar Rice Borroughs receiving a letter telling him that his uncle John Carter is dead. So many characters and faces are flashed through this short amount of time that you get lost through all of it. It's only when Borroughs sits down and is told of Carters last will does the pacing of the film becomes stable. The movie could have done without the first fifteen minutes and still not have lost anything. So what does John Carter do right then? Almost everything else. From the story choices made, the main one being John Carter letting go of his past that has haunted and held him down for so long. When we're introduced to Carter finally he is a man that is basically a shell that only wants money and doesn't care for anyone else, just money. The first real glimpse we get of the man he will become is when he goes to help out his jailer after being shot. That man is still hidden through most of the film until the third act when Carter has to make a decision. To either run or fight. Yet the one thing that held him back the most was his sorrow and refusal to truly live again until he realizes that he fell in love and didn't recognize it until it was almost to late. Oh, and did I mention that there's a romance plotline in the film that helps the story, and is in fact integral to the overall plot. And the female interest isn't a girly girl that is afraid of everything. Dejah Thoris in fact wants to be the first one in a fight whenever possible and in fact relishes it. She also holds her own against John Carter whether it be in words or action, and is much more intelligent than her male counterpart.  This was a nice breath of fresh air in the sci-fi genre in recent years.

     I really should mention that the film is beautiful to look at and is wonderfully shot. Unlike recent action movies where different shots are used every three seconds when something is happening on screen, this film lingers on the action and isn't afraid to stay with a single shot. This I think is due to director Andrew Stanton's background in animation at Pixar. He understands that you can still create motion while filming action scenes if you move the camera around rather than to go to a altogether different shots to show the events. This makes the film have a much more fluid feel to it. It's a throwback to the way movies were shot in the 80's. In fact the whole movie is reminiscent of those films. From the storytelling to the pacing. The movie takes it's time to explain the universe and the characters that inhabit it. Which yes, makes the film slow down some, but it draws you in as the world is more understandable due to this and makes you care about what happens. Which is also why I think there is so much backlash to this film as well. Audiences now expect something to happen every five to six minutes. They can not stay still if something doesn't go boom or explodes in quick succession. Well that, and the film was just marketed so poorly as the trailers made it look like a completely different movie than what was actually on screen once the film started. I'll admit that from the trailers I could have passed on it and not really miss it. Which I'm happy to say didn't happen. As this was actually a fun, enjoyable film that I would love to see a sequel to, as I really want to see what happens after the movie ends. Oh, and JeNee, you can have Woola only if I can get a saddle and ride him!
 
BEST DEATH:
     The slaughter of the militant Tharks by John Carter. It was like he was a angle of death he killed so many.

BEST LINE:
     It's not a spoken line, but an action that entails someone slapping someone in the back of the head.

FUN FACTS:
     The film has the distinction of being in "Development Hell" the longest at 79 years.

     "A Princess of Mars" was originally published as "Under the Moons of Mars" by Norman Bean, the pseudonym of Edgar Rice Burroughs, in The All-Story pulp magazine.

     Disney was so disappointed with John Carter's opening weekend that they started pulling the film from theaters the Monday after it opened.

     Edgar Rice Burroughs other famous literature creation is Tarzan.

ABSENTIA

ABSENTIA (2011)
US
Directed by Mike Flanagan

CAST:
Katie Parker - Callie
Courtney Bell - Tricia
Dave Levine - Det. Mallory

PLOT:
     A woman and her sister begin to link a mysterious tunnel to a series of disappearances, including that of her own husband.

REVIEW:
      I love finding movies and films I've heard about that caught my attention for one reason or another. Most of the films I try to find are the films that usually play at film festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Slamdance or Toronto's After Dark Film Festival. These films for the most part are the movies I will completely go out of my way to find to watch and review. Yes, I do like the big summer blockbuster movies, yet most of the time those films are missing something. While the smaller release films and movies usually pack a greater punch due to the actual filmmakers have direct control over the final product most of the time. Whether that punch be emotional or visceral, these films just have a punch that is missing from more mainstream films, which is what is wrong with most mainstream films. I've noticed that a lot of the more smaller independent films I've watched recently just outclass most other films. That's not to say that they are all gems, in fact it's quite the opposite as in the indy film realm you have a lot more dreck than normal cause any person with a camera thinks they can make a film now. Yet it's finding those small gems that leave you either exhilarated or emotional  drained make it worth wading through all of it worthwhile. 

     The two main actresses in the film carry the whole movie. Courtney Bell who plays the older sister Tricia is just wonderful. Bell has the more emotional of the roles due to the fact that her character is finally coming to terms with her husband has been missing for seven years and she has finally decided to declare him dead by absentia. The emotional toll is impacted even more by the fact that she's pregnant and she's seeing her missing husband as a ghostly apparition coming to haunt her for her choices. Katie Parker, who portrays Callie, does just as well as Bell. Parker's character is a little harder to get into at first but later on gives more warmth as she is more open of a character. Parker and Bell play very well off of each other after a awkward reunion at the start of the movie.  Dave Levine who plays Detective Mallory isn't bad in his role either. Even though his character seems pretty common, it's when the movie starts reaching it's climax is when Mallory starts showing his true emotions. Also look for a cameo by Doug Bradley who always does decent in any role he is giving.

     I have to talk about the story now as well as say that there with be a story spoiler here. So if you don't want anything ruined for you now would be the time to skip to the last paragraph.. Though the film starts out a little bit slow, it's necessary  for the story as you get to know the two sisters who meet back up for the first time in years. You can tell there is some awkwardness between them as I mentioned before as Callie who is a recovering drug addict yet her sister Tricia sees past that. I mentioning this as even though both sisters have problems, they act like sisters around each other.  Even though the first third of the film is somewhat slow moving it's done intentionally to allow the bond of the sisters to set in and show that each one has problems. While Callie is battling addiction, her sister Tricia is battling something much more internal and destructive. The story does pick up and once it does there's a certain creepiness to it. I put it that way due as I watching the film that creepy factor just slowly pervaded into the story without me noticing. I loved how this feeling worked it's way into the overall story as toward the end of the movie it comes to the fore-front at what is actually happening. I'm going to go ahead and say that what I thought was going on and what was happening I was completely wrong about. The story took a very nice turn into the Mythos territory and it just opened the whole film up to something completely different and made the story become larger and more expansive.

     Director Mike Flanagan has created a movie out of a mash up of genres and it works wonderfully all together. Part of this is due to the story, the other part is due to how Flanagan directed the film.   The camera work is steady for the most part and when something is happening on screen there is not ten different angles quickly put together in the Mtv style of directing. Instead the camera focuses on the characters reaction to what is transpiring around them and the true horror is just always out of focus either in the foreground or the background. This works amazingly at the end as the mind takes over and tries to fill in the gaps of what is really there. Yet the one scene this works best in is at the end of the film when Callie is asking for a trade. The trade is agreed upon but not in the way she wanted or who she wanted. I'm not going to give the whole thing away but what happens is a gut punch that I didn't see coming. Even before this the film took on a life of its own, but this scene made the movie into something else. Something more monstrous, and much more horrific. For a movie that was made for not even a fraction of what movies are made for in Hollywood, it does what most of those never come close to being, having a story that doesn't take its audience for granted as well as being suspenseful and scary, and a amazing film in general.

BEST DEATH:
     The return of a slightly rearranged missing family member.

BEST LINE:
     It's sleeping?

FUN FACTS:
     Courtney Bell, who plays Tricia, was five months pregnant during the production of the film.

     Mike Flanagan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in just two sittings.

     Absentia was funded with help by over 300 donors on Kickstarter.

REST

REST
Directed by Cole Schreiber

CAST:
Josh Rowe
Caitlin Helms

PLOT:
     A young American soldier who died in WWI unearths himself after 90 years of being buried in the European countryside.

REVIEW:
     Some of the short films I review come from young filmmakers getting in touch with me. Yet I also actively look online for short films to review. Some of the places I check are some more of the bigger horror websites, while I also check some of the more smaller ones as well. I'm also on Facebook, which is where I heard about this short thanks to being friends with Strange Aeons Magazine. As you can tell by that name, yes it deals with the mythos and anything surrounding it. So once I saw that they had link to a short film I decided to give the short a shot.

     There really isn't much to judge acting wise in the short due to the two main characters are in fact zombies. They don't speak or even grunt. Though Chad Rowe does a decent job as the lead in this short film as the lead zombie, that's not to say that there isn't a problem in his acting. Let me explain why I say this.When we first see Rowe's zombie and for most of the short, Rowe stumble and shambles just like you would expect zombies to. Yet it's at the end of the short where all of a sudden Rowe's character starts moving like it isn't dead and start shoveling at his lost love's grave. Yep, not for brains does he salivate for, but for his lost love he lost over fifty years. The other zombie, and only other actor in the short, Caitlin Helms, only shows up for the last twenty plus seconds. Her main role is to lie on her side and embrace the hand of another zombie. For this she does as good a job as one could expect with the limited time she is giving.

     While the story is pretty straight forward with Rest a dead soldier looking to get home to his lost love, I have no problem with it. Nor do I have a problem with the look of the short or the way it was filmed. In fact, it's quite beautiful to look at. And the make-up effects for Rowe and Helm's character are quite amazing. My problem with the short is that how can a zombie just walk around and not be noticed. Rowe's zombie walks through at least two major cities, and in fact he stops by a hardware store to pick up a shovel to dig up a grave, yet no one stopped him. I should also mention that Rowe's character also booked passage on a fishing boat to carry him over the Atlantic Ocean and no one freaked out on the boat, I just have to call bull on that one. In a time where if you look at little out of place people freak out, how can someone that has no lips, dark grey skin and holes in his epidermis not call attention to itself of the unwanted variety. Not to mention how can a  zombie walking down a highway, dragging a shovel to less, while moving at a snails pace, not be target practice? Yet I understand that this is a love story, but at least one person would have smelled Rowe's zombie and gotten sick from that smell. Even though the look and feel of the short film is very professional, the suspension of common sense is to much in this one and ruins what could have been a very interesting take on the zombie genre.

BEST DEATH:
     Does a reunion of past loves count to be able to rest in piece?

BEST LINE:
     There's not one line of dialogue in the short.

FUN FACTS:
     Director Cole Schreiber worked on the special effects for Underworld: Evolution.

     Rest is viewable on Vimeo. Just click the link to view it. REST

THE DEAD HOUR: SEASON 2

THE DEAD HOUR: SEASON 2 (2011/2012)
US
Directed by Daniel Iske

PLOT:
     What scares you? DJ Raven wants to know. She hosts The Dead Hour, a weekly radio program devoted to the shadows just beyond the streetlight's reach, the bumps you hear as you drift off to sleep, the nightmares that wake you up in a cold sweat. She brings these to you, one horrifying tale at a time.

REVIEW:
     The very first director to get in touch with me when I started this blog was Daniel Iske. He had just put out the last episode of The Dead Hour: Season 1 and asked if I would review them.  Well just this past week he sent me an email letting me know that the last episode of season 2 is out. As part of the reason why I'm doing this is to help younger film makers out and letting a wider audience know about their work. I'm actually very happy with how the blog has done as well as evolved over time.

FRIGHTFEST

CAST:
Matt Tatroe - Finch
Stephanie June -  Frankie

PLOT:
     Frankie's first date with Finch is a real snoozer. An all-night horror movie marathon is not her idea of fun. But when the horrors on the screen begin to cross into the real world, Finch may have to be her knight in shining armor after all.

     This was actually a pretty fun way to start the second season. There's plenty of fun references throughout Frightfest to keep fans of the horror genre entertained, from the combination of two werewolf movies to form one title, to the lumbering of a serial killer that is in all reality more funny than scary. Both Lance Buss and Stephanie June play their roles with a certain amount of glee that translates well across the whole short. Plus I have to give director Iske a big thank you for bringing back slow zombies as the best scene in this is when the two main characters have to make their way through a movie auditorium filled with just waking up zombies. Plus the amount of zombies is quite impressive that was gathered for this.

FAME

CAST:
Mark Booker - Sterling
Brandi Facholas - Cara

PLOT:
     If Cara's big break doesn't come soon, it's back to a dead end job, dreaming of what might have been. Then she gets the phone call that changes her life - a job that guarantees her name will go down in history. How much is she willing to give for her fifteen minutes?

     Fame is a departure from the usual as it deals with loss and failure on a much more personnel level than what Iske has done before. The mood is very somber and also a sadness runs throughout the short. Just as you think you have it figured out what is going on, the story takes a wildly unexpected turn to fully bring the whole story to light. Brandi Facholas pulls off a believable performance for most of the short yet wavers a little during the final scene after she pulls off a great reading of her lines earlier that actually had more impact. Facholas' acting through facial expressions as well gives her performance weight that makes it more realistic as well. 

BACKSEAT

CAST:
Matthew Dillon - Jason
Jazmyne Van Houten - Heather

PLOT:
     After curfew on the back-roads, Heather and Jason are getting to know each other better. Heather's mother warned her that guys like Jason only want one thing - but it may be much, much more than Heather bargained for.

     Backseat is my least favorite of the shorts this year. It's not that the acting is bad in it, as both Matthew Dillon, as Jason, and Jazmyne Van Houten, as Heather, both do a decent job in their roles, though Dillon stands out more. The major drawback to Backseat is that it just moves very slowly. The twist in it is also very visible half way through the story. With better pacing and scripting this story could have been one of the better shorts this season, instead it kinda falls flat after the first two episodes. 

INSIDE MAN

CAST:
John Brooks Jr. - Marcus
Andre Davis - Tony

PLOT:
     Forced to move into a new home, agoraphobic Tony finds the security he once relied on no longer exists. When a ghostly visitor comes calling, will Tony face his fears of the outside world or confront the monstrous force residing in his home?

     Inside Man is quite a nice surprise this year as it goes more into psychological horror than physical horror. It's not the horror that is subjected onto Andre Davis' Tony, but one that is deep rooted in his mind. Tony is agrophobic, which means Tony has a fear of open spaces. The real fun starts when Tony's recently received new medication starts having unexpected side effects. Davis gives the best performance in this season of The Dead Hour as the viewer can tell he's in physical pain from his fears, which also makes him unable to function and is so severe it makes him mentally handicapped. John Brooks Jr., who plays Marcus, who is Tony's cousin by marriage, will do anything to ease the burden on his wife that is Tony. For this Marcus is the one true monster in this season.

GROSS ANATOMY

CAST:
Chelsie Hartness - Natalie

PLOT:
     Everyday in the hallowed halls of academia, young men and women devote themselves to the pursuit of knowledge. Tonight, the pursuers become the pursued. Will their book smarts save the day or will this prove to be their final exam?

     Gross Anatomy is a very good way to end this season. The story is a nice traditional piece of horror where it has the classic boogyman antagonist that just keeps coming. One of the reason why this works so well is that there is no explanation for why this is happening. If this had a longer run time the reason might have been needed to be explained, yet with this it doesn't need it. The acting is done very well by all involved and the camera work actually added to the sense of dread that was already present thanks to the environment the short was placed in. The one drawback to this one is that it starts out a little slow but picks up very quickly.

     The second season of The Dead Hour is a nice way to spend some time. The stories are much better paced than the previous season as well look more professional in the way they were shot and the use of angles have also gotten better as there are more tighter shots as well as the camera is much more fluid. The sound design and spoken dialogue audio have been improved over the last season which makes a big difference as there is more atmosphere added to the whole series thanks to this. The series has improved all around and director Daniel Iske has improved with it as it grows.   

BEST DEATH:
     Jason's revelation that comes to late.

 

BEST LINE:
     It's art. Beautiful tragic art.

FUN FACTS:
     Season 3 of The Dead Hour is already in production.

     Melissa Holder is the only actor to appear in all 10 episodes of The Dead Hour as DJ Raven.

THE DEVIL'S PAWN

THE DEVIL'S PAWN (2010)
US
Directed by Chris Heck

CAST:
Adnan Novo - Johann
Greg Bronson - Mephistopheles

PLOT:
     Johann must play a important game for his soul.

REVIEW:

      I don't usually review silent films on here. It's not that I don't like them, it's not that at all. It's just that I haven't gotten around to watching any until now. Some of the most influential films were from the silent era. You have the films by Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplan which made a impact on comedians and helped them with their performances. Then you have silent horror classics such as The Golem, Haxan, and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. If you don't believe me go and check out some of the music videos (for the younger readers, music videos that Rob Zombie has directed, especially Living Dead Girl.)

     Greg Bronson, who plays Mephistopheles in this short, brings back a look that I haven't seen in years. Something sinister is in his eyes in his role as 'Ol Scratch himself. Yet that is what the role required. Not a crazy look as what most actors would play it with, but a cold calculating stare. Johann, who is played by Adnan Novo, is a sickly man on his death bed dieing from a unknown ailment. Johann is giving a chance to save his soul by playing a game of chess with the devil who has enough interest to come and claim Johann's soul in person. Novo for the most part does a decent job of playing cocky in the presence of  Mephistopheles as that's what his character he plays calls for. The interesting thing about silent films is that the actors body language has to tell the story more than anything else. With that comes a bit of over-acting which is very apparent here, but it works instead of hindering the short.

     Director Chris Heck does a pretty good job of bringing a style of film making  that isn't really used much more (The Devil's Pawn predates The Artist by a year) but for some reason I think will be seen more in the future. One of the shots I loved in this film is the use of shadows from Mephistopheles' hands against the wall. There is just a animalistic quality to it as it helps to show that Greg Bronson's character is far from human. The story is very simplistic and the way it plays out is as well, but in this it works as it was set up to be that way. The heavy use of shadows in the short helps lend it a atmosphere of dread and wanting while the use of what little light there is just amplifies this. While there isn't much in the way of substance in the short, it does get it's point across quickly and without any filler. The Devil's Pawn is a quick watch that shows it knows where the roots of film comes from and pays tribute to that.

BEST DEATH:
     Even though it's not a bodily death, the death of hope hits harder for Johann.

BEST LINE:
     Checkmate! This game is lost, and with it your soul. You've had many chances but your greed has been your downfall.

FUN FACTS:
     Greg Bronson has been in over 40 shorts and films in his career.

KILL LIST

KILL LIST (2011)
UK
Directed by Ben Wheatley

CAST:
Neil Maskell - Jay
MyAnna Burning - Shel
Michael Smiley -Gal

PLOT:
     Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.

REVIEW:
      While running this blog I've noticed something about my viewing of films and movies. I mean it's nothing that is noticeable from just someone reading as it seems like I do actually go through a lot of different type of films. The truth is I'm kinda picky for the movies I watch. Whenever a director or someone sends me a film to watch, I watch it with a certain amount of joy because they see what I do as a way to get their work noticed and I'm very happy to do so. Now more than when I started this I'm watching more different genre films than I ever have, while still going back through some older films I watched when I was younger. A film like Kill List I probably wouldn't have watched five years ago. Now today I have no problem watching it.

     Neil Maskell, who portrays Jay, was actually quite compelling in the role. Maskell has to play a father and a parent out of work for an extended period of time. He has the same mounting problems as most people do these days as he has to worry about money and finding a job as it slowly eats away at him. As a parent Jay is very caring and loves his son, yet as a husband the strain of thinning money is causing cracks and rifts on his marriage which forces him to take a job to kill three people with his friend. Maskell for the first half of the movie does a good job, yet it's when his character goes back to work does Maskell truly show his acting ability. Michael Smiley, who play Gal, though is the true star of the film. The reason why I say this is due to that his acting is more subdued yet in a way more powerful. Gal as a character seems like someone who doesn't like his job, yet does it due to he's good at it even though the years of doing it has taken it's toll on him mentally and Smiley shows this openly. The difference between Gal and Maskell is easily visible as Gal is more reserved compared to Maskell who is more of loose cannon which makes watching how the two interact interesting which also keeps the story moving.

     I'm going to talk about the actual story now and there will be spoilers but I will not give away what happens at the end as to do so will ruin it which I don't want to do. I went into a little bit about Jay and Gal before but it's when they both go out the first assassination that we get to see how the two depend on each other more and how their relationship is stronger than with their significant others which drives the story more than anything else. Now I should mention that the first 40 minutes of the film is showing the characters in their everyday life. The ups and downs are shown without making it look like they live glamorous lives, which they don't. It shows that Jay might have a drug problem and his wife is very unhappy but still stays with him for what he was and might still be. It's when the first killing takes place you find out that something isn't quite right with the job they have taken. Though it gets really weird when the second killing happens. You find out that the people Jay and Gal are sent to kill know they are coming yet neither one puts up much of a struggle to prevent theirselves from being killed. Instead they tell Jay "Thank you." This to me is just put me on edge while watching Kill List and it also made the movie take a turn in a completely different direction than it was going in. I won't go any further into the story than that as not to spoil anything. But the one big complaint I do have against the film is the story also as it leaves to much unexplained including what happened in Kiev which sets the whole story in motion. You know things went wrong there, but not what, and that bugged me throughout the whole movie.

     Ben Wheatley does a good job of directing. He keeps the camera tight when it's called for and loose when you least expect it. This gives the film a disjointed feeling that adds to the feel of the movie and how things move. During certain times in the movie it almost feels like a found footage film though it still is in third person which adds a sense of unease to the whole film during the second half. The sound though is another problem I have with the film as the first half it's almost impossible to make out half of what is said when the characters are trying to be established. Also at certain times for no reason at all the background music swells to drown out all other sound which almost kills some scenes in the movie. Thankfully those sound swells die down very quickly. All around Kill List is a tense watch even with it's flaws in story and sound. The feel of the film is built up by the intrigue to find out what exactly is going on which isn't handled very well and the film does lose that momentum due to a major plot hole that comes into effect full force at the end of the movie.

BEST DEATH:
     The vertex bashing of the librarian.

 

BEST LINE:
     Thank you.

FUN FACTS:
     The film is also known as Uma Lista a Abater in Portugal.

     Director Ben Wheatley has a segment in the ABCs Of Death due out later this year.

     Maskell's film career began in 1997 with an appearance as "Schmuddie" in Gary Oldman's writing and directorial debut Nil By Mouth.

     The film cost about £500,000 to make.

CREAK

CREAK (2011)
UK
Directed by Luther Bhogal-Jones

CAST:
Sarah T Douty - Heather
Sheila Stout - Ellen
Toby Lewis-Hammond - The Pioneer

PLOT:
     It's 4 a.m. and somewhere, something has opened.

REVIEW:
     Director Luther Bhogal-Jones sent me a email Sunday about his short film Creak. And as I said in a earlier post that if a director sends me his or her work I'll try to review or post about it as soon as I can. I think with Creak, it will be the fastest turn-around I've had for something to review. So either I'm getting better at writing the reviews or I just know how to manage the time it takes more friendly to myself.

     Sarah T Douty as Heather does a pretty good job as someone that doesn't quite feel safe in her house after she's woken up from her slumber. She plays sleepy very well as her acting is believable as someone who knows something isn't right yet decides to ignore her intuition so where she can fall back asleep. Her partner Ellen, played by Sheila Stout, I can't quite say the same for though. To me, something just seems off in her acting. Yes Stout can do pissed off very well, as I would be if I was woken up to check a house at 4 a.m. in the morning, yet with that there's also a tiredness that isn't present in her acting that is in Douty's though. It's as if Stout really doesn't want to be where she's at. The only time she actually seems alive is when her character Ellen is making fun of Heather for jumping at turned door knob.

     I want to mention two things that bugged me a little bit before I mention what I really like about the short. The first one is the sound editing. For the most part the sound is actually quite good throughout the short, except for in two scenes where the sound from the on camera mic comes through quite loud and then disappears. The second is there a editing jump in the film where it was just a little bit jolting. The story for Creak was actually pretty tight with not a lot of unnecessary dialogue and it moves at a pretty fast pace. The shots are well set and tries to get the best of both actresses. But the one thing that stuck out to me more than anything else in the short is The Pioneer. I loved the design of it as what is a throwback to the creatures of the 70's and 80's as to what I can only describe as a cross between the Tall Man and a Dalek if it had a love affair with a Cyberman from the Doctor Who T.V. series. Even though The Pioneer is mostly in shadows most of the time it shown, it's presence once it appears on screen is ever present even when it's sticking to the shadows and not shown. If you can get a good look at it, it's actually quite staggering as how well a simple design can have a large impact. Creak is a fun five minute short that is easy on the eyes while also ratcheting up the tension with use of classic film build up technique.

BEST DEATH:
     Nope won't find that here this time.

BEST LINE:
     Someone could be in the house.

FUN FACTS:
     Luther Bhogal-Jones has two more shorts in the pipeline for this year. One is Extended and the other is Knock Knock.