OK lets see Shadow - saw this at Frightfest too = overall I found it OK
THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW (PARTICULARLY IN PARA 3 ONWARDS) SO DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW.
"Future of Italian Horror"? - a tag like this floating around before I see the movie always makes me somewhat wary but the plot interested me and I wanted to see how it played out. Love Italian horror so a I'm a bit of a sucker for anything new.
It did seem a bit clichéd in the "man meets pretty girlie, man defends honour of girlie when red-necks (what nationality they were meant to be I still have no clue) bother her, man and girlie hit it off and bond over their shared passion of mountain-biking, man and girlie annoy the red necks they met earlier whilst red-necks are trying to slaughter cute woodland fauna resulting in the inevitable chase through the woods". Didn't really get all the camera-love of mountain biking until another reviewer mentioned it was a passion of the Director's and given that my idea of a fun time time certainly isn't mountain biking in the back end of nowhere I was a little bored with the plot at first. However the discovery of the red-necks snarling gun dog reduced to crispy critter status hiked my attention up to a new level.
Shadow has some very nicely shot creepily effective moments and that was largely down to the strange cadaverous character played by Nuot Arquint. The roasting of red-neck no 1 on the hotplate was very effective and the "peeling" when a brief escape attempt was stage was wince-making.
I was intrigued as to who the heck this tally, bald, skinny frog-licking torturer (Arquint) was and why (other than being a complete nut) he was doing this. The shots of his "lair" gave viewers some clues but was jarred a little by the almost cheap laugh (and it seemed to get a good laugh) of including a portrait of "Dubya" amongst all the other dictators. At this point I was really looking forward to seeing what head Zampaglione would bring this all to - and came down to earth with a real thud at the Jacobs Ladder-like finale - huh??
So kids what did we learn from this movie? 1) Future of Italian Horror - I hope not as I'll switch over to Spanish 2) War is BAD ... but has the interesting side effect of giving you a very vivid strange dream in which you find the Girlie of your Dreams who shares your Mountain Biking passion AND you get to rescue her from red-necks and a very strange frog-licking weirdo who hangs in the creepy woods. 3) Rock Star Directors like their soundtracks REALLY VERY LOUD
Overall a reasonable effort from Zampaglione for his first movie (except its let-down ending ....) atmospheric and well constructed. For me he's one to watch out for in the future.
THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW (PARTICULARLY IN PARA 3 ONWARDS) SO DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW.
"Future of Italian Horror"? - a tag like this floating around before I see the movie always makes me somewhat wary but the plot interested me and I wanted to see how it played out. Love Italian horror so a I'm a bit of a sucker for anything new.
It did seem a bit clichéd in the "man meets pretty girlie, man defends honour of girlie when red-necks (what nationality they were meant to be I still have no clue) bother her, man and girlie hit it off and bond over their shared passion of mountain-biking, man and girlie annoy the red necks they met earlier whilst red-necks are trying to slaughter cute woodland fauna resulting in the inevitable chase through the woods". Didn't really get all the camera-love of mountain biking until another reviewer mentioned it was a passion of the Director's and given that my idea of a fun time time certainly isn't mountain biking in the back end of nowhere I was a little bored with the plot at first. However the discovery of the red-necks snarling gun dog reduced to crispy critter status hiked my attention up to a new level.
Shadow has some very nicely shot creepily effective moments and that was largely down to the strange cadaverous character played by Nuot Arquint. The roasting of red-neck no 1 on the hotplate was very effective and the "peeling" when a brief escape attempt was stage was wince-making.
I was intrigued as to who the heck this tally, bald, skinny frog-licking torturer (Arquint) was and why (other than being a complete nut) he was doing this. The shots of his "lair" gave viewers some clues but was jarred a little by the almost cheap laugh (and it seemed to get a good laugh) of including a portrait of "Dubya" amongst all the other dictators. At this point I was really looking forward to seeing what head Zampaglione would bring this all to - and came down to earth with a real thud at the Jacobs Ladder-like finale - huh??
So kids what did we learn from this movie? 1) Future of Italian Horror - I hope not as I'll switch over to Spanish 2) War is BAD ... but has the interesting side effect of giving you a very vivid strange dream in which you find the Girlie of your Dreams who shares your Mountain Biking passion AND you get to rescue her from red-necks and a very strange frog-licking weirdo who hangs in the creepy woods. 3) Rock Star Directors like their soundtracks REALLY VERY LOUD
Overall a reasonable effort from Zampaglione for his first movie (except its let-down ending ....) atmospheric and well constructed. For me he's one to watch out for in the future.