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Reviews
Outpost (2008)
Science meets Voodoo
Reading a review of this film on the BBC it was interesting to see that the movie's producers Arabella Croft and Kieran Parker risk £200,000 of their own cash on the film by re-mortgaging their home. In film terms this is a "low budget" film, shot mainly in Scotland. Outpost pretends to be set somewhere in Eastern Europe where a group of mercenaries are hired to escort a scientist to a remove military base. All that is known about the mission is that the scientist needs to find something. What is meant to be a 48 hour operation becomes an un-living nightmare. I found Outpost an intriguing film. The acting is good and more importantly the causation of the terrifying secret has a nice slant to it. There are some good gore scenes which see our mercenaries get a slow painful taste of 1940's science. Overall,an enjoyable film which is worth a view.
Balkanska braca (2005)
War what is it good for?
The film brings together three Yugoslavs who after the civil war arrive in Paris as a Montenegro Serb, Bosnia and Herzegovina Turk and a Croatian. War has apparently dissolved the unified title of Yugoslavian. However, ironically civil war has created a common bond regardless of religion, that is, their land, home and work have been destroyed. All they have is their labour to sell. The three Yugoslavs find themselves working in a cellar sowing fake labels onto jeans which conceal drugs.
Balkanska Brace's, I feel, focal point is the irony of war and an attempt to remind the viewer of the forgotten bond all Slavs had i.e. that they are Yugoslavs. These three workers begin to realise this as they spend their days imprisoned sowing labels in a cellar with no windows; their shoes and passport taken form theme.
I found the story very poignant and well acted. Whether you have Yugoslavian links or not I think you will find the film funny, sad and ironic.
Zombie Planet (2004)
Please no more orange green hair
Set in the near future a dark stranger walks into some southern American city plagued by zombies. Settling with a group of friendly face inhabitants our stranger learns the harsh realities of city life. There are two groups of people; the upper classes who dwell safely behind the concrete walls of the city being provided by, at the right price, the state police. Then there are our friendly face inhabitants. These lower class folks live along side the zombies. There only means of survival is to trade goods, which they forage for during the day, with the police in exchange for tins of food. Our stranger discovers why his world is plague by zombies. A new dietary pill that suppressed the craving for carbohydrates was the foundation. The human race's desire to shed fat caused the down fall of society as we know it. These pills increased the desire for protein i.e. meat, even the pet poodle. However, there was one more grave side affect, after death people became reanimated with an even stronger craving for protein namely human flesh.
With what I feel is an imaginative introduction I felt that this film many realise some inventive material. What better way could explain the cause of the zombie race than by a contemporary idea of people's desire to make any sacrifice to change their body without the hard work of the gym? However, the imagination of this film soon stopped after this exposition. This film falls into the old trap of 'I can not imagine what the world will be like when society collapses'. When you watch this film you do not escape to a different world as you do when you watch Planet of the Apes (original), Alien, Mad Max or Texas Chain Saw (original). In this film the alternate society is define by people with hair dyed orange and green. Face paint and charity shop leather jackets. There is no harshness about life in this alternate society, just healthy faces and over made-up zombies. Films should allow you to escape not remind you that you need to clear out your wardrobe and take your old cloths to the charity shop.
Forget about some of the pitiful acting, or the over made-up zombies. This film fails because it is too polished, too congenial and too predictable. I have watch films like this since the early eighties. If you are going the make a film of this nature I suggest you need to watch again such films as Dawn of The Dead (original and remake), Threads or Fulci's Zombie to see and experience that feeling of desperation in a devastate society.
Le lac des morts vivants (1981)
All our pasts will come to haunt us.
Zombie Lake has a story line that could have realised a dark sinister atmosphere. A small French village plagued by its war torn past, namely the brutal execution of a band of fleeing German soldiers. The past hauntingly returns to the village in the form of zombie German soldiers who rest beneath the waters of the village lake, their bodies being cast there during the Second World War by the villagers. With beautiful scenery and a background of an idyllic life style this contrast with zombie revenge could of lead to an enjoyable film, the same quality of Fulci's Zombie. However, Zombie Lake fails to fulfil any of the above qualities. First, the makeup for the zombies consists of green paint; green paint not even fully applied to the backs of heads. Second, there is a musical score that drove me mad. Third, yes the acting was pitiable. Putting these three elements together results in a film with no tension, no atmosphere and a strong desire by the viewer to get to the end of the film. What a shame.
Soft for Digging (2001)
Are all old people loosing their mind?
The plot is straightforward an old man living off a main road in woodland one day witnesses a man murdering a child in the woods. Soft For Digging follows the old man's attempts to try and convince the police that what he saw was not a figment of his imagination. However, there is a problem each time the old man guides the police to where the murder happen no corpse can be found. Soft For Digging has a diminutive dialogue which reflects the majority of the scenes of the film, an old man living by himself in a house. During the film I found that I was scared twice namely when the murdered child abruptly appears before the old man. The rest of the film I have to admit did not engage me; I found the tempo of the film a little too slow. The limited dialogue was not a problem. However, the development of the story and its conclusions, after watching the film, took too long. I feel more could have been made of the relationship, ghostly encounters, with the child and the old man. Alone in the woods at night unsure of your own mind can lead to some eerie situations, children are always scary as ghosts, see Dark Water.