Disturbing

Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear (2013) Review

December 29, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Five short films based on the human senses.

My Quick Review: If you find yourself wanting to quit watching Chilling Visions after the first 2 or 3 stories, DON’T. The last 2 stories alone make Chilling Visions worth investing your time into it.

All the stories in Chilling visions are somehow interconnected, not only through their themes (the human senses) but also through the recurrence of a big corporation doing experiments and products based on the 5 senses.

The first segment, Smell, directed by Nick Everhart is about an elixir that gives attractiveness to the person using it, but has devastated side effects. The story is a bit on the goofy side and feels like an average episode of Tales From the Crypt.

The second one, See, by Miko Hughes follows an ophthalmologist turned vigilante who can capture people’s visions. While the pitch is intriguing the output is too conventional and way too predictable.

The third story, Touch, is directed by Emily Hagins who made headlines a few years back when she directed her first full feature zombie movie when she was only 13. Here, a blind boy is in a car accident with his parents, looking for help in the woods where a serial killer awaits. This short might be the weakest of the bunch mainly because of a pointless script.

Chilling Visions finally delivers with the 4th story, Taste, directed by Eric England (Madison County, Contracted). We are introduced to Aaron, a hacker going in for an interview in the same big corporation that we’ve seen glimpses from in the other stories. Once there, things start to go bonkers and the less said about this segment the better. Fans of Saw will enjoy this one 😉

The last story, Listen, from Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton (Yellowbrickroad) takes the found footage angle and shows us disturbing footage about a song that can kill people listening to it. This story is again strongly connected to the one before and culminates in a great gory scene showing what happens when a guy plays the song in front of other people.

Thanks to the last 2 stories (that deserve the title chilling) and the fact there is an unifying theme connecting them, I can say that Chilling Visions is a must see for horror anthology fans. Since it was shot on a very tight budget and under 4 days for each segment, I can only applaud the whole project and hope for a sequel that could share even more light on the mysterious corporation playing with our senses.

My Rating: 6/10

Origin: US

Click Here to Watch Chilling Visions: 5 Senses of Fear Online Now!

Contracted (2013) Review

December 26, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: A young lesbian is drugged and raped by a stranger at a party and contracts, what she thinks is, a sexually-transmitted disease – but is actually something much worse.

My Quick Review: Contracted is an exhilarating piece of viral horror and one of the best surprise of the end of this year.

Not everybody will enjoy the movie for what it is and there are indeed many negative reviews online for Contracted.

Many people won’t be able to see past some of the incongruence of scenes involving Sam’s doctor and the cluelessness of her mom and friends. If you look at the surface it feels like poor or lazy writing so that the movie does not end up after 10mn with our heroine in the emergency unit.

But I like to think that those scenes were more of an allegory to condemn the current medical system and the social world we are living in, where people tend not to interact or pay attention to one another, as much as they just gravitate around each other.

I might be giving Contracted more credit than it deserves but even with that being said, I enjoyed every minute of this journey into physical decay (similar to the movie The Fly in many aspects). Najarra Townsend is awesome in a very difficult role where the whole movie relies on her overall performance.

I also loved the ending which was quite a surprise to me, an interesting twist that gives everything that happened up to this point, even more sense.

My Rating: 7/10

Director: Eric England

Origin: US

Click Here to Watch Contracted Online Now

Omnivoros (2013) Review

December 23, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Marcos Vela is a prestigious gastronomic journalist who accepts the request of an independent publisher to write an article on the recent emergence of the Clandestine Restaurants. What started as a usual journalistic investigation, will turn into a terrible nightmare where no one is who seems to be and which will end in a surprising and unexpected ending.

My Quick Review: For some reason, I’m not a big fan of movies depicting cannibalism. But the 5mn introduction of Omnivoros just changed my mind.

The scene involving a young Dimos with his dying mon is disturbing in so many ways that I knew I would be in for a wild ride (and enjoying myself along the way).

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie never really holds up to this promising start.

Omnivoros beneficiates from an interesting backgorund story, the clandestine restaurants, where forbidden/dangerous meals are being eaten and I would have loved to see this story developed a bit more. We also never really know what bring this group of people to enjoy human meat (except for the host) and for those reasons, together with a messy script, Omnivoros never really manages to elevate its material.

Another weakness of the movie lies within its actors. Most of the acting feels wooden and nobody seems to have more than one expression on their faces. There are some eye candy for boobs lover but nothing impressive in terms of performance.

Omnivoros has a strong opening and an interesting conclusion, but everything else in between would have beneficiated from more polishing.

My Rating: 6/10

Funny Games (2007) Review

November 14, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: Two psychopathic young men take a family hostage in their cabin.

Quick Review: I can’t believe I actually wasted almost 2 hrs of my time on this patronizing, self-satisfied exercise in style.

Love him or hate him, Michael Haneke’s movies won’t leave you indifferent. So. kudos for him to create a movie that will have many people talk.

Since I haven’t seen the original movie I won’t be commenting on it but apparently the US version does not differ in any ways in terms of script and direction.

While I have to praise the actors for their work (Naomi Watts has found her best role yet and Michael Pitt is just delightfully creepy despite his angelic face) and, to some extent, Haneke’s quite brilliant camera work, I can’t go past the obnoxious 4th wall break and the whole hypocrisy of the proceedings.

Haneke wants us to believe Funny Games has a purpose behind the psychological and physical torture of this family. But it is just your typical torture movie disguised in art.

People can criticize movies such as I Spit on Your Grave or You’re Next all they want, but those movies aren’t pretending to be something they aren’t. They give us what we expect without judging us, the audience.

Funny Games is just an empty shell of a movie who wants to shock its viewers while making them feel guilty for doing so. Shame on you Mr Haneke.

My Rating: 4/10

Director: Michael Haneke

Origin: US

Click Here to Get Funny Games on DVD

Imprint (2006) Review

November 9, 2013 by Eric S. Leave a Comment

Synopsis: In the 1800s, an American returns to Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with, but instead learns of the psychical and existential horror that befell her after he left.

Quick Review: This segment of Masters of Horror was considered so violent that it wasn’t even shown on cable. While I’m not cautioning this decision, I can understand where it’s coming from.

Indeed, as usual, Takashi Miike does its best job at bringing intense shocking imagery on our screens. All of the biggest american taboos are to be found in Imprint: Incest, Child molestation, conjugal violence and extreme abortion.

Miike’s camera does not shy away from all the horror on display and when an intense torture scene that will make you cringe is not the most shocking scene in the movie, you know you’re in it for a wild ride.

It’s just a pity that Billy Drago’s performance is such an horrendous mess (one of the worst I’ve seen in a long while) and that the whole film has been made in english. Had it been in japanese and the main character played by a more competent actor , I believe the impact would have been greater.

Still, with its nightmarish imagery, violent perversions and great practical fx, Imprint will stay in your mind for a long time.

My Rating: 6.5 (would be higher if not for Billy Drago’s inept acting)

Click Here to Get Takashi Miike’s Imprint on DVD