Friday 22 August 2008
Time Crimes
A trip back in time, from present to crime. Hector and his wife are spending a routine afternoon unpacking furniture at their new house in the Spanish countryside. Strange things start to happen. He receives an odd phone call. Then as he lounges in the backyard with binoculars, he catches a glimpse of a topless woman in the woods. Deciding to explore, hoping for more salacious peeks, everything starts to go wrong. A man with a pink-bandaged face starts attacking him and he escapes to a very strange facility manned by a lone and suspicious scientist. Tightly and intricately precision scripted by writer, director and star Nacho Vigalondo, pay close attention because everything you see is a referential jigsaw image as Hector travels back in time and meets the last person he expected – himself. David Cronenberg is down to direct the American remake so time to take note of Time Crimes.
88 minutes
Director: Nacho Vigalondo
Starring
Karra Elejalde
Barbara Goenaga
Nacho Vigalondo
Spain 2007
Distributor: Optimum Releasing
The Substitute
(UK premiere)
Say goodbye to your last day on Earth. From Ole Bornedal, director of both Danish and American Nightwatch thrillers, comes prized science-fiction horror. Sixth grade has a new substitute teacher. Ulla Harms is ambitious and wants to take the class to Paris for an international competition. But the schoolchildren only see her as a sadistic mistress who has the ability to read their minds. None of the parents believe their offspring when they say she's an evil outer-space creature from another planet. Except student Carl has witnessed her strange powers of robotic transformation. Will the Faculty ever discover Ulla's true identity or unmask her diabolical body-snatching plan? Paprika Steen's wicked performance as the lovelorn alien and Dan Lausten's award-winning cinematography push this fun and fearsome existential shocker into an altogether unique stratosphere. A terrific story, wonderfully executed and proof positive Europe can match the Americans at great sci-fi pulp fiction.
93 minutes
Director: Ole Bornedal
Starring
Paprika Steen
Jonas Wandschneider
Ulrich Thomsen
Sonja Richter
Henrik Prip
Denmark 2007
Distributor: Tartan
Trailer Park Of Terror
(UK Premiere)
Based on the cult Imperium Comics series, and wearing it's 'Tales from the Crypt' bleeding heart on its sleeve, Trailer Park of Terror meshes tongue-in-cheek satire with nerve-shredding gory horror. Six troubled teens and their Pastor chaperone, on a character-building weekend in the mountains, crash their bus during a raging storm. Seeking shelter for the night in a seemingly abandoned mobile home park they become victims of redneck zombies, sexpot demons and undead trailer trash. Paying exuberant tribute to Southern-fried 70s exploitation fare, director Steven Goldman keeps things creepy, vicious and nasty with human spit roasting and a massage parlour from hell on the Dixie menu. Superlative production values, grisly makeup effects by Christopher Hampton (Apocalypto) and composer Alan Brewer's down-and-dirty mix of rock and country music make the over-the-top menace and mayhem standout like Dolly Parton's cleavage. And, yes, that is chart-topping C&W singer Trace Adkins as the Devil.
97 minutes
Director Steven Goldman
Starring Nichole Hiltz
Trace Adkins
Priscilla Barnes
Stephanie Black
Matthew Del Negro
USA 2008
Distributor: Trailer Park Partners
Mum & Dad
(English Premiere)
You don't have to go to Texas for a deranged cannibal family. Try Heathrow Airport. That's where cleaner Lena is stranded after her night shift. She accepts help from perky colleague Birdie who lives nearby with her parents. But her home turns out to be the worst House of Horrors. For Mum and Dad abduct lone immigrants, torturing and debasing them into becoming part of their murderously dysfunctional kin. And Lena is their latest victim to find out that a family who sexually plays together also slays together. A genuinely shocking, darkly witty and tense little terror, newcomer Steven Sheil pushes all the boundaries in his brilliantly executed directing debut. Part Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly, part Frightmare all infused with matter-of-fact violence and nerve-wracking disgust. Think Tobe Hooper meets Mike Leigh for the horrendously unique delights on offer in this very British nightmare.
90 minutes
Director: Steven Sheil
Dido Miles
Perry Benson
Olga Fedori
Ainsley Howard
Toby Alexander
UK 2008
Distributor: BBC Films
The Strangers
(UK premiere)
A spare, creepily atmospheric ominous thriller with a death grip on the psychological aspects, Bryan Bertino's brilliantly suspenseful directorial debut is enormously unsettling. Returning late from a wedding reception, Kristen and James pull into his family's South Carolina lake house for what was supposed to be a romantic night. But she's just turned down his marriage proposal. Their fragile relationship in the light of her refusal heightens their vulnerability later when a strange girl pounds on the door at 4 o'clock in the morning asking for someone who clearly doesn't live there. Slowly and steadily, the situation escalates: a few more knocks on the door, some disturbances from inside, and finally, the appearance of masked figures emerging from the shadows. The couple's worst nightmare has just begun… An all-too effective nerve-jangler, with stars Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler credibly registering every nuance of panic, intense horror doesn't get much scarier.
85 minutes
Director: Bryan Bertino
Starring
Scott Speedman
Liv Tyler
Gemma Ward
Kip Weeks
Laura Margolis
USA 2008
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Freakdog
(World Premiere)
From Paddy Breathnach, director of Shrooms, comes a supernatural shocker with a deadly difference. Hospital janitor Kenneth Chisholm gets caught with voyeuristic photos on his mobile phone by a group of trainee medical students. When they confront him over his sleazy actions in a local bar, he has an epileptic fit putting him into a deep coma. But when remorseful Catherine Thomas administers an untested cocktail of wonder drugs to hopefully help ease his condition, the perverted patient is jolted into a startling 'out-of-body' state. Those heightened powers allow his spirit to enter the medics in turn so they will carry out his bloody brand of murderous justice vengefully on each other. Everyone's a possible killer and nobody knows at which stage they might be possessed. How do you go from being a doctor committed to saving life to one taking it in the most violent way imaginable?
90 minutes
Director Paddy Breathnach
Starring
Arielle Kebbell
Sarah Carter
Andrew Lee Potts
MyAnna Buring
Martin Compston
UK 2008
Distributor: Generator Entertainment
Bad Biology
(UK premiere)
Acclaimed Basket Case, Brain Damage and Frankenhooker director Frank Henenlotter makes a marvelous return to twisted sleaze with his latest perverse tale of warped love and sexual weirdness. Driven by biological excess a woman with seven clitorises, and a habit of giving birth to mutant babies two hours after sex, meets a man who has been feeding his penis with growth steroids. The hilarious result is a tour-de-force of surreal bad taste, extended orgasms, pussy-cam shots, naked models wearing vagina masks, 24-inch member points-of-view, endearingly bizarre special effects and feminist issue raising. Shot in superb 35 mm and featuring a surprisingly strong performance from Charlee Danielson, plus a Prince Paul hip-hop soundtrack, Bad Biology is guaranteed to shock even the most desensitized horror lover. A gloriously unapologetic throwback to crazed midnight movie pleasures in the grand John Waters manner. Welcome back, Frank, we've really missed your brand of sickness.
85 minutes
Director: Frank Henenlotter
Starring
Charlee Danielson
Anthony Sneed
Tom Kohut
James Glickenhaus
Eleonore Hendricks
USA 2008
Distributor: Cine Sales Inc