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horror

Red Dragon * Brett Ratner * 2002

“Manhunter” (1986) has been one of my favourite films since long before “Silence Of The Lambs” struck the worldwide audience with it’s geniocity. I haven’t seen “Hannibal” but I was too curious about “Red Dragon” to let it go unseen. As you probably know “Red Dragon” is a new filming of the first book of Thomas Harris about our lovely Hannibal and friends. Also you can say that it is a remake of “Manhunter” which was probably regarded not good enough or didn’t have the best actors in it or something, I don’t know. “Red Dragon” has a whole line of big actors, of course including Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal. “Red Dragon” is quite like “Manhunter” but put more in a popular horror and especially “Silence Of The Lambs”-manner. Far too much! There are a few differences between the two films. The killer wears his ‘head-cloth’ at home in “Red Dragon” and when he kidnaps Freddy Lounds in “Manhunter”. The killer is better-looking and a body-builder in “Red Dragon”. There is much much more stress on the painter/poet William Blake in “Red Dragon”. The killer is even a Blake-expert in the new version. Worst of all, in “Red Dragon” the killer has a gigantic Blake-tattoo on his back and he is controlled by his red dragon, while this is not the case in “Manhunter”. A smaller detail, the scene in which Will Graham’s wife and child are picked up is a lot better in “Manhunter”.

In general, “Manhunter” is a lot better than this popular new version. The atmosphere is better, the music more original (Iron Butterfly instead of classical music), the actors are a lot better (I can’t help finding the FBI agent played by Edward Norton to be quite wimpy, the killer and the blind woman in “Manhunter” are much more convincing, etc., etc.). And what is really the shittiest thing about “Red Dragon” is that the end is the beginning of “Silence Of The Lambs”.

I suggest: watch the original!.

The Others * Alejandro Amenábar * 2001

When I write this, this film is not yet shown in Europe. As a matter of fact, it just started to play in the USA when I was there, so I guess Europeans will have to wait for another half year or so.
A horror/thriller with Nicole Kidman claimed to be in the vein of “The Sixth Sence” and “Unbreakable”, which is in a way true.
Kidman lives with her two children in a gigantic villa in the middle of nowwhere and her husband has been at war for the past months. Both children are allergic to light and the house is haunted. Since her staff keeps running away, Kidman has to get new gardeners, nannies and cleaning-ladies all the time. All the sudden three are at her door and they seem to have obscure plans with Kidman, her children and the house.
However I found the clue a bit too obvious (I also found this of “The Sixth Sence”), it is a nice movie, especially if you enjoyed the other mentioned titles.

Odishon * Miike Takashi * 1999

audition

Japanese films seem to get some more attention in alternative circles. This film got good critics overall as I remember, but still it took a while before I saw it. “Odishon” (better known by the english title “Audition”) is a film about a man whose wife died 7 years ago and who lives with his son. He is the second man in a film-business and as his son starts to get an interest in girls, the man feels a growing need for a new woman in his life as well. With his companion he sets up an audition for a film which he can also use for picking out a possible wife. Immediately after seeing the photo of Yamazaki Asami, Shigeharu Aoyama feels attracted to her. However Asami doesn’t get the main part in the film, Aoyama tries to keep the contact and eventually things seems to go in a direction that he hoped for. Then this nice drama makes a violent switch…

Asami turns out to be an abused girl with extremely violent fantasies and an equally grim sense of humour. Not knowing whether Aoyama dreams or not the viewer gets exposed to some of the most explicit and gruesome torturers that I have ever seen on a tv-screen. Needles pinned in the most painfull places (chest and face), feet cut of with a wire, images that will deeply disturb many.

So, in the end I don’t even know if I liked this film or not. It is original and it is good, but like the “ear-scene” from “True Romance” I definately think that this is a few steps too far.

Ninth Gate * Roman Polanski * 1999

I saw this Polanski horror with Johnny Depp when it played in the cinemas. I remember not liking it too much, but I still watched it again was it was on TV recently.

Ninth Gate is one of these early ‘horror’ films with an occult theme. This time the story is that Depp is a ‘book-detective’, a collector of old books to sell them with profit. Boris Balkan is a fervent collector of works about the devil and he has one of the three remaining copies of “The Nine Gates To The Kingdom Of Shadows”, a truly magical book from which big powers can be drawn. Balkan hires Dean Corso (Depp) to compare his copy with the other remaining two. Corso discovers that the copies are not identical, the nine engravings are not the same. Six are signed by the author, three by Lucifer. The story goes that the author poured directly from the devilish source. Corso figures that the nine engravings of Lucifer will unravel the secrets of the book, but of course his quest isn’t without problems. Corso’s employer at least tries to gain ultimate power with a childish ritual, but when Corso himself has the real and original nine engravings, he only has to walk through the ninth gate. A mediocre film with a terrible end.

Naboer * Pål Sletaune * 2005

next door

“Naboer” (“neighbour”, but the English title is “Next Door”) is a strange Norwegian horror in which a young man gets manic over the leaving of his girlfriend. Or did she leave because of his mania? Naboer is a claustrophic and slightly Videodrome-like sex-and-violence film with here and there a Japanese atmosphere. The result is not groundbreaking, but alright with some good scenes and a nice atmosphere. -20/12/06-

My Little Eye * Marc Evans * 2002

I had never heard of this film, but decided to rent it after getting curious by the back of the box. The film is not too original or surprising in story, but worked out well. “My Little Eye” shows the last week of three young men and two young women who have lived in a remote mansion for six months. It is some kind of internet Big Brother kind of experiment with cameras all through the house. When they manage to stay six months, each gets a million dollars, but when one person quits, everybody looses. “The organisation” starts to make things difficult by no longer sending food, refering to the participants pasts and bluntly scaring them out. This is done with a very good Blair Witch like atmosphere in which the suggestion makes the tension. Around the end the story starts to twist and turn towards a not too surprising end.

A not too great film, but especially the atmosphere makes this film a suggestion to anyone who likes gloomy thriller/horrors.

Los Sin Nombre * Jaume Balagueró * 1999

I wouldn’t have chosen this film for the title, cover or story on the back, but my girlfriend thought it would be a nice film. “The Nameless” proved to be a very dark and particularly grim and gruesome thriller/horror. If you like Japanese films like “Ringu”, this one is for you. This Spanish film is shot in colour, but there hardly is any. The images are dark, the atmosphere pressing. This last is mostly caused by the constant deep rumbling on the background.
The story is about a women whose daughter was probably found dead six years ago. Back then an extremely mutilated body of a child was found. Yet the woman gets a call from her dead child and a haunting search for her begins. Claudia is lured into the web of a group of extremists who think that by means of pain they can concentrate the ultimate evil and gain evil powers. The atmosphere is fantastic, the story (based on a book by Ramsey Campbell) has details you would never come up with, but unfortunately the last 10 minutes and the conclusion are fairly weak. Especially see it if you like extraordinary dark films.

Kansen * Masayuki Ochiai * 2004

infection

Japanese horror is getting more and more popular. Each and every film is compared to the first and most famous films in the genre that came to the west, “The Ring” (“Ringu”) and “The Grudge” (“Ju-On”). Unfortunately, quite a few of the films are actually nothing much more than copies of these films. Dark and gloomy films without the American horror effects, but a ‘story’ about a curse or some supernatural entity. Of course the same happens with this film and especially when I saw the cover I thought of yet another Jap-film in a popular fashion. But… things are not always what they seem! Actually “Kansen” is quite a relief in the flow of Japanese horror films. Not that it is completely original or totally unlike the popular predecessors, but at least it is somewhat different.
The film begins wonderfully with some kind of “Riget”/”Kingdom” style and story. Weird things happen in a hospital. There are only a few docters, just a handfull of patients and just six rooms. The patients are strange, the docters overworked and on top of all, some strange decease comes creeping in. This results in some gory scenes that we are not used to from Japanese horror, but still “Kansen” didn’t become an American slasher-horror with fright-effects. The atmosphere is built up nicely, (still compare it to Lars von Trier’s “Riget”) and at the end comes a total outburst of crazyness. A bit too much for me, because the end is a bit too typical, but the film in total is an entertaining Japanese horror that is not entirely like other films in the genre.

Kakashi * Norio Tsuruta * 2001

I didn’t know this film, but I was caught by the beautiful cover of a cheap dvd-version that I saw. I have seen other Japanese films recently and was curious about this one. The director proved to be the same as who made “Ringu 0” which I haven’t seen, but the story was interesting enough to see how this would be.

A “Kakashi” is a scarecrow and is the name of a festival in a small village where the film plays. Kaoru goes to find her missing brother and the trace leeds to a small village called Kozukata. Most inhabitents seem not too happy with Kaoru but she persists in her quest to find her brother. The village is preparing the anual scarecrow festival which proves to be a festival to raise the dead. A scarecrow (or any human figure) is suppose to contain a soul and/or the soul of a dead person. With the festival some will try to regain their loved ones by drawin their souls into a scarecrow. The village seems to be full of ‘living’ scarecrows…

Like “Ringu” a moody horror without the splatter, but with a nice dense and dark atmosphere. Not brilliant, but the Japanese horrors do have something nice about them. Especially on dvd by the way, because a lot of the atmosphere comes from constant subsonic frequencies from your speakers!

Ju-On: the grudge 2 * Takashi Shimizu * 2003

Ju-On: the grudge 1 is the better kind of Japanese horror, a Ringu but then scary. Now that there is an American version of this film, but filmeditions of Ju-On (there are also two TV Ju-On’s) are for sale cheaply, so I also got number two. It is alright, but by far no number one. A group of horrormakers goes to shoot a documentary in the house where part one plays and of course they fall under the curse. The boy is more prominent now, but I will not say more. The film is not as surprising as part one, but knowing too much will still spoil the fun. The film is alright when you have seen part one, but maybe it is better to only see that one. <5/1/05><2>