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Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
This WILL be the next major cult classic in the history of cinema
I was one of the many fortunate souls to catch a screening of "Repo!" at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. The energy in the cinema was high as we all waited to catch a first glimpse of this film. For well over year, I have been watching the progress of this film as it headed towards an unknown release date. I can recall seeing the first teaser trailer that premiered at the 2007 Scream Awards. From that point on I was already sold on what would surely become a cult classic. Alas, release dates would pass by and there would be no Repo in the cinemas. A few reviews popped up here and there from special critic screenings which kept my anticipation in the clouds. Then this past august there was the announcement that Repo! would be playing at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
Now I told you that story to lead you into this part of the story. As you can tell, I was extremely hyped to see this movie at the festival. And generally when I am this hyped for a movie I almost always seem to walk away disappointed in some form or fashion. The lights finally dimmed, a few trailers played here and there... and then the movie started. A year of waiting, watching trailers, reading early reviews, and here it was finally playing before my eyes...
I did not walk away disappointed, at all. I'm very diverse when it comes to my love of cinema, I am fan of several hundred different movies coming from all walks of life. So this review is not coming from someone whose sole focus is on just watching horror films. Repo! The Genetic Opera will be a cult classic that will last for years. If it doesn't end up becoming the next "Rocky Horror Picture Show" I will be very disappointed. The acting was very impressive given the subject matter at hand. Not only that, but 95% of the movie is singing, so the acting had to be conveyed through lyrics and emotion in the songs. Anthony Stewart Head has such a wide range of emotion in his voice when he sings that its hard to believe that he isn't a heavy metal singer. One player in particular deserves special mention, Terrance Zdunich as the Grave Robber (also co-creator and writer). Why haven't we seen this guy before? The man is extremely talented (granted he should have the role down pat after playing it for nearly a decade). Darren Lynn Bousman also deserves a standing ovation for breaking away from the beloved Saw franchise to direct this. He showed amicable talent in the Saw films, but here he really shined. There was no frantic shaky camera work, every shot was well orchestrated and composed. This was directed by somebody who had a deep passion for the material at hand.
It's unfortunate that this movie is not getting a wider release. Terrance Zdunich (during a special Q&A) said that a majority of the success this movie has in the long run depends on the fans. Too be fair, on paper I could see why this film would be a bit of gamble for a movie studio. It's definitely a movie that needs to be seen as a visual experience. However, after seeing the finished product, it's unfortunate that Lions Gate isn't doing more to promote this film. So I can only hope and pray that this movie finds its massive audience and attention it deserves in the long run.
Diary of the Dead (2007)
Great film from Mr. Romero...
Alright, well I'll start right off the bat with, I loved this movie. I will bore you with a synopsis of the movie, cause you can read the plot somewhere else, and I am pretty sure most of you know the plot already. Instead of the movie starting off with saying "George A. Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD", it begins as a fully cut together documentary about what these students went through for the first few days of the outbreak. The movie has narration, and is told through a variety of cameras, security cameras, self phones, news footage
this makes for an already very interesting watch.
The movie starts out with a great opening scene which grabs you right from the get go, and already you can tell that this is not some Blair Witch knock off. Comparisons to Blair Witch will be thrown right out the window. In DIARY the camera acts as a character in the film, a lot of time I forgot I was watching a documentary esquire movie, and thought I was just watching a film. Instead of shaky cameras, off the cuff improv dialogue, we get a full more theatrical sort of experience. We still watch the whole movie through the POV of the cameras, and this never changes
which leads to some terrifying scenes. I have never found zombie movies scary, but this was quite a creepy film in parts. Most notably the "Hospital Scene", talk about a perfect creep fest
great location, great build up
great pay off.
From the get go, I can assume that this will be a movie that either fans or going to love or hate. It's very much the Romero world; there are little nods to Night and Day. But the overall feeling is something new all to itself, obviously one can compare it to Night, but even that would be a very loose comparison. What really makes this movie work is what you don't see. The film is not a zombie gore fest by any means, not by comparison to Land anyways (But don't worry, DIARY still holds a great deal of signature Romero moments that had the audience up and cheering). There are no huge crowds of zombies roaming around, they are here and there and they still very much are a threat, but still not the scariest. Radio reports and peoples actions really up the paranoia level of the movie, and make it a scarier experience. This is by far the scariest Romero Dead film of the series; it holds a great sense of dread with it.
In the negative department, of which I have very few complaints, I think some of delivery of lines where a little camp. And the staging of a couple scenes definitely played cheesy in a few parts where it should have been serious. Also, there were only a couple CGI moments that took me out of the movie (don't worry, there is no priest zombie in the movie, the CGI is very subtle). But all these complaints are few and far between each other.
All together, DIARY was a very impressive achievement for Mr. Romero, and I hope this film sees the light of day soon, cause I know I can't wait to see it again. I think the social commentary in this movie played stronger and better then it did in the other films. This was a nice touch; it really added to the overall experience, it brought a sense of reality to the whole concept
more so then the other films in my opinion. In conclusion, Romero fans won't be disappointed, the film has his dark humor and great zombie moments laced through out the film. And people looking for more then just cheap thrills, should also leave the theater feeling satisfied.
Turistas (2006)
Pretty decent horror thriller
Not as enjoyable as Hostel, but not bad at all in the end. It follows a group of Americans and Brits in Brazil as they are drugged and then lead into horrifying journey. Where this film succeeds, is in its amazing build up of tension. Its nice to see a movie that takes it time to get to the far more horrifying moments of the movie. Another surprising treat was that the acting was pretty top notch for a bunch of twenty somethings, usually movies like this suffer from horrible acting. Another nice touch was the motive of the main guy, usually it is terribly cheesy, but in this movie it really worked.
The film is not to terribly gory, it does however have one scene which is very gruesome. My only complaints where that two underwater scenes dragged on way too long. And some of the editing was so fast and jumpy in violent scenes, that you didn't know what was happening to who.
But in the end, its worth a watch for any dedicated fan of the genre.
Running Scared (2006)
Well...there it is
Alright, so here it is, a two hour mobster movie with lots of violence, in your face nudity...literally, and lots of language. And a long with all of this, lots of movie goers saying about how unique its approach is, and how the level of violence is intense and never seen before. Uhhh, yeah, this movie is a "been there, done that, got the t-shirt" situation. Folks, movies have been far more violent then this, and nudity like this has also been done to death in other flicks. There is nothing new with this movie, the way the film was shot, was awesome, it looks "cool". The movie was directed in a fantastic way, if you are going to see the movie, at least go see it for how good it looks. I've heard of people saying the violence in this movie makes the violence in "History of Violence" look tame...pffft. Obviously these people have not seen any type of violence in movies before, History of violence was pretty tame, but I thought it was more shocking then this. All in all, I guess I could just say that I am a little ticked, I had let the hype for this movie fill my head. On a good note though, there was some very good acting in this movie, some great dialog and an awesome pace. The movie looses a couple points though because of a disturbing middle act involving child molesters. Anywho, it was an alright film, looks nice, sounds nice...does not live up to the hype.
Incident at Loch Ness (2004)
Campy fun yet a little creepy
Folks who are going to watch this movie expecting a documentary gone bad, should stay clear of this movie. Despite its clever advertising, this is pretty much just a "monster in the water" flick. It starts off as a documentary about the work of Werner Herzog, here he tells us briefly about his past films and briefly talks about his new documentary "Enigma Of Loch Ness." We are then introduced to the documentary crew, and we go through about an hour of production problems and the occasional hint that sh*t will hit the fan eventually, helped greatly by the quick sightings of something in the water. And funny enough you would actually believe that this really happened, but then the acting slowly heads off into the cheese ball factor with some over the top acting, yet still entertaining from Zak Penn. And not to mention the fact that a cgi hump keeps popping out of the water. The last 30 minutes of the film drifts from a freaky story about possibly something in the water, to a monster flick. Which granted I have no problem with. Overall the film is still entertaining, and a good watch, it features some moments which are a little creepy, and some of the special effects, though cgi, are still believable. If some of the "People wouldn't act like that in that situation" scenes were cut and the horror movie ending was taken out, I would have easily given this film a 9. But sadly it seemed to suffer from a little Hollywood syndrome, at least Zak Penn was smart in using the less is more technique, which worked to the movies advantage in some scenes.