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Countdown (2012) Review

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countdown thai reviewSynopsis: (from IMDb) Three Thai teens in New York City are planning the New Year’s Party of their lives. They called Jesus, a drug dealer, to drop off some stuff at their apartment so they can celebrate and countdown the end of the year in style. Little did they know that Jesus’ visit that night will change their lives forever

My Quick Review: I stumbled upon this movie on dvd without any kind of expectation. I was just looking forward another Thai Horror entry by GTH, the production company behind most of the biggest Thai hits.

Right off the bat, I liked the idea to base the action in New York but the movie never really takes advantage of this if not for what is supposed to be some kind of surprise twist.

The whole movie relies on David Asavanond’s performance as Jesus the drug dealer and, while not bad, his effort is slightly unconvincing. He is also not being helped by the other actors who are not given much and just represent stereotypical rich kids living abroad.

I did like the pitch and there are a couple of scenes with real tension, but as a whole Countdown is a bust that drags for too long (especially during the introductory scenes) and relies too much on the (average) performance of its actors.

My Rating: 5/10

Director: 

Origin: Thailand

Modus Anomali (2012) Review

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modus-anomali-reviewSynopsis: A guy wakes up in a shallow grave in the woods with amnesia and has to work out what’s going on. He finds a cabin and the mystery begins to unfold. (from IMDb)

My Review: Modus Anomali is a strong entry into Indonesian horror cinema. Joko Anwar’s (The Forbidden Door, Dead Time:Kala) 4th movie has a simple but efficient pitch that maintains the tension high throughout the whole movie.

By keeping the camera very close to him, Anwar creates a suffocating feeling making us as lost and wary of the surroundings as his main character. While some of the scenes in the forest tend to be a bit on the lengthy side, as soon as something is happening, we are right back in the middle of the action.

On the negative side of things, I wasn’t a  big fan of the use of english throughout the film since this is not the actors first language. Why make such a decision, especially since there aren’t that many lines in the film anyway.

The violence in Modus Anomali is raw and sometimes unexpected with the right amount of gory effects while the mystery surrounding the killer(s) in the woods offers a satisfying conclusion. The last reel actually kept me on the edge of my feet.

Once again Joko Anwar is proving that he is a director to definitively keep an eye on and, together with the Mo Brothers (Macabre, Killers) and Gareth Evans (The Raid:Redemption) belongs to an exciting new wave of young directors out of Indonesia..

My Rating: 6.5/10

Director: 

Origin: Indonesia

 

Pee Mak Phrakanong Review

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pee mak phrakanong reviewSynopsis: Mak served in the war during the beginning of the Rattanakosin Dynasty. At war he became friends with Ter, Puak, Shin, and Aey, whose lives he saved. Once the war was over, Mak invited his four friends into his home in Phra Khanong town and introduced them to his beautiful wife Nak and his newborn baby boy Dang. But A rumor is going around in the village that Nak had died giving birth to her stillborn baby, Dang  and lingered as haunting ghosts .

My Quick Review: From famed director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Alone, Shutter) Pee Mak is the first film that I have watched in 4D. I have to say that past the first minutes of surprise when your seat is moving and you receive small splash of water in your face, it is really gimmicky and brings nothing to the movie (it’s actually quite distracting).

Nevertheless, I had a blast. Pee Mak is the Highest Grossing Thai Movie of all time and when walking in the streets of Bangkok, you  can’t miss all the billboards full of advertisement starring the actors of the movie.

For fans of asian horror comedies with a touch of romance, Pee Mak brings a sense of nostalgia and evokes the golden days of HK ghost movies such as “A Chinese Ghost Story”. There are brillant comeedy scenes (mostly physical but also plenty of wordplay jokes that might be a bit difficult to catch if you don’t understand Thai).

But don’t fret, you do not need to be familiar with the Thai culture or language to get all the jokes and laugh at the situations and the awesomess of the main characters. It does help that there is a very strong chemistry between all of them, already estabished in the best segments of 4Bia and Phobia 2.

If there is one reproach we can make towards Pee Mak, is that there is not much in terms of scares and the movie definitively pushes towards a full out comedy/parody. So if you are looking for another Thai Scary movie, you will be disappointed, but if you just want to spedn a good time at the movies, you will have a blast watching Pee Mak again and again.

My Rating: 8/10

Director: 

Origin: Thailand

Pee Mak is now available on DVD Import from HK with english subtitles Here!

Black Sabbath (1963) Review

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black sabbath reviewOriginal Title: I tre volti della paura

Synopsis: A trio of atmospheric horror tales about: A woman terrorized in her apartment by phone calls from an escaped prisoner from her past; a Russian count in the early 1800s who stumbles upon a family in the countryside trying to destroy a particularly vicious line of vampires; and a 1900-era nurse who makes a fateful decision while preparing the corpse of one of her patients – an elderly medium who died during a seance.

My review: Mario Bava’s Classic deserves to be called by its original title translation: “3 faces of fear” because the 3 segments show different genre of horror: The Giallo, a Vampire tale and a Ghost Story.

Black Sabbath starts slowly with a classic revenge story using all the code of the Giallo (leather gloves, pan and zoom shots, a slight touch of eroticism, bright red colors…) but “The Telephone” fails to create much emotion and feels more like a draft for Bava’s next masterpiece, “Blood and Black Lace”. On the other hand, you now know where “When a Stranger calls” got its inspiration from.

The second segment, “The Wurdalak” is the weakest of the bunch. Despite a good use of the sets and great cinematography, the story drags for too long and is not being helped by poor acting and a weak script.

Finally, “The drop of Water” ends this anthology on a very strong note with one of the scariest corpse/ghost ever shown on film. The face of the dead medium had probably haunted generation of moviegoers who watched this movie. For this creepy and really scary segment alone, the movie is worth a watch and deserves a place in the Horror Movies Hall of Fame.

My Rating: 6/10

Director: 

Origin: Italy

Click Here To Buy and Own Black Sabbath on Blu-Ray Now!

Art of the Devil II (2005) Review

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Art of the devil 2 Long Khong reviewOriginal Title: ลองของ (Long Khong)

Synopsis: A group of high school friends reunite after two years when one of their fathers’ committed suicide. They all spend the night at their friend’s place. When darkness falls, strange things begin to happen to them one by one. It is as if someone is using the black arts on them in revenge for an act this group of friends committed together back in high school.

My Quick Review: Long Khong’s english name is misleading as there is absolutely no connection with the first Art of The Devil. Western distributors just named the movie Art of the Devil 2 as it does share common use of Thai Black Magic.

Art of the Devil II is a much more graphic movie than the first one and actually ends with one of the hardest to watch torture scene ever put on film (there are some similarities with Audition since we have the pretty girl inflicting pain here as well).

It is a pity then that the script is completely uninteresting and quite confusing in its plot lines.

What could have indeed been a Torture Porn classic ends up short of greatness because the gory/creepy scenes are surrounded by bland storytelling and poorly defined characters.

My Rating: 4.5/10 (5.5/10 for torture lovers).

Director: Ronin Team

Origin: Thailand