Story

Creed family has relocated to quiet, small town of Ludlow, Maine. They have grown tired of busy life in Boston and also new job at local college clinic promises that Louis can spend more time with his family. And while he is at work, his wife Rachel will look after their children – eight-year-old Ellie and two-year-old Gage. Family immediately falls in love with lush forests of Maine. But, they soon find out that their huge house lot also includes a pet cemetery (actually, spelled as Pet Sematary). Neighbor of Creed’s, old timer Jud explains that it has been a local tradition of Ludlow children to bury their beloved animals in that area. And soon Ellie’s cat, Church is killed by a car. Jud takes Louis to Pet Sematary to bury his cat. But noting that Louis doesn’t want to make her daughter sad, Jud instead asks Louis to follow him deeper into the woods. Because there the ground is sour…

Writing

Burial ground

I would really like to commend the screenwriter Jeff Buhler for doing an awesome job adapting the source material, which Stephen King has admitted is his most scariest book. Story tries to stay as close to the book as possible, while offering new elements and different ending. I expected this, as I knew that there were a lot of things in the book that were either not-filmable or would make little sense to concentrate on. Buhler masterfully evades these scenes, giving the film something new. And this new is what makes this film stand out, all while maintaining same nail-biting creepiness and overall darkness.

My only critique is that I wished they have included or elaborated on the character motivations. While it was all brilliantly described in the book, I predict some viewers would find some things annoyingly unexplained. Things like why exactly Jud did tell Louis about the burial grounds. Or why exactly Louis then did what he had to do. A little elaboration on the actions and motivations I think would have made “Pet Sematary” much more grounded.

Children burying beloved pets in Pet Sematary

Directing

“Pet Sematary” is genuinely pure horror. And we have to thank directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer for that. They masterfully build tension by using long shots, slow tracking cameras and extremely scary imagery. There are, of course, mandatory jump scares, but they are well spaced and used only in first section of the film. I really enjoyed the way directors handled the tension aspect of the film. While it is nowhere close to “Hereditary“, it still manages to deliver thrills by not only building it, but also delivering explosive action.

Another thing that I also noticed how directors managed to keep the dark tone. There are no cheesy dialogues, no campy weirdness or funny violence. It is not “Us” in any sense. “Pet Sematary” starts dark and it gets darker and darker with each minute.

Acting

Louis (Clarke) doesn’t believe his eyes

Interestingly, the best acting of last year came from horror films. Who knew that by making characters believable horror films can be taken to other level? But exactly this was proven by Toni Collette in “Hereditary“, Tilda Swinton in “Suspiria“, Emily Blunt in “A Quiet Place” and even last week’s Lupita Nyong’o in “Us“. And now “Pet Sematary” joins this list of horror films with exceptional cast. On one hand we have Jason Clarke play Louis. He surprised me a lot with his last year performance in “Chappaquiddick” and “First Man” and he continues to do so again. I am expecting big things from him. On the other hand we have veteran actor John Lithgow as neighbor Jud. While the genre is a little new for him, he brings all his craft to the table.

Supporting cast is awesome addition of young and brave Jeté Laurence and grieving Amy Seimetz. Both play their parts perfectly, especially young Laurence, without whom this film would have been a disaster.

Summary

“Pet Sematary” is a masterfully made “pure horror” film. It stays loyal to the source material, all while offering new and fresh ideas. Well written, directed and acted, this film will satisfy any horror fan and more.

The post Pet Sematary appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

You are Adelaide, you have a loving man-child husband, rebellious teenage daughter, and curious young son. You are going to vacation in your grandmother’s old cottage next to the beach. Except you are not excited about it. Especially about the beach. Because some thirty years ago, you briefly wondered off from you parents in the beach and ended up going into carnival mirror house where you “met” a girl in there. Experience shakes you up to the core, which you hide inside you for all this years. But when suddenly four people clad in red show up in front of your doors, all memories come back. Oh, yes, and this people are messed up version of you and your family.

Young Adelaide sees something she will want to forget

Directing

For a weird step out from my review formula, I have decided to write about directing first. “Us” proves that success that Jordan Peele had as a director of “Get Out” is not a mere surprise. He employs an arsenal of an established horror director, all while keeping the film entertained and somewhat away from regular horror clichés. He uses minimal jump scares, blood and violence. Instead he ramps up psychological intensity to create and nourish terror in us.

I really enjoyed the camera work and lighting. Peele masterfully uses the fact that dark skin reacts differently to lighting than light skin. This opens up a whole new avenue to create masterfully staged and lit scenes that elevate the experience further. So instead of usual yellow/orange palette that most horror films utilize, “Us” heavily uses blue/purple lights to create stunning response.

Red family is ready

Peele also uses backlighting to further affect the images. Red family is constantly in shadow. Their appearance doesn’t contrast the background, but gradually melts into it. Thus the only thing that stands out is whites of eyes and teeth. This had a tremendous effect on me in a way I didn’t actually expect.

At 116 minutes, film is unusually long for a horror film (though still shorter than “Suspiria”). But time is not of a concern, as Peele manages pacing beautifully with masterful editing. Editing is subtle and spot on. There are very minimal jump scares, and even they don’t feel like Peele is pushing them on us.

Writing

Wilsons are not ready at all

The problem I had with “Us” is the writing. And not really the plot progression, but the explanation and ending. Film starts with a promising setup. There is whole “is she or is she not mad” moment which then diverges into something completely different (not spoiling it). It is all nice and cool and somewhat believable until we get to the middle when film has to explain us what is happening.

And then film turns into another episode of “Black Mirror”. Except not a good episode, but weird, illogical and borderline boring “Black Mirror” episode. To the extent that I pretty much lost all suspense of disbelief in the end. I had so many questions starting with why, how and what for, that it almost killed the whole experience and satisfaction I was having from the film. And I am not even talking that storyline went from being fresh, to complete derivative of sci-fi clichés.

Another thing that was a killer for me was comic undertone. While it worked perfectly in “Get Out”, Jordan Peele has a lot of problems with it in “Us”. He tries to keep it all serious and “pure” horror, but he just can’t not diverge from making film funny. As such, some horror scenes become slapstick. I really wish Peele didn’t go there as it just downgrades the whole experience and destroys all built up tension of horror.

What is secret of Red?

Acting

Pretty much every actor played two roles as themselves and their “red” version. Lupita Nyong’o just kills it with her performance. She is extremely believable as troubled Adelaide and her psychotic counterpart. Winston Duke was a revelation in “Black Panther”, but in “Us” I didn’t like him much. He plays stereotypical American dad, who is still a child inside. I am not sure if he was written like that, but I think Duke failed to deliver a believable performance.

I enjoyed Shahadi Wright Joseph as a teenage daughter of Adelaide. She was very intense and spot on in her scenes. Evan Alex plays Adelaide’s younger son. He delivers the job, but unfortunately couldn’t convince me to be invested into his character as it was intended.

Elisabeth Moss and Tim Heidecker play supporting parts and I just hated them. They were extremely poorly written to begin with, but their performance was weird and ridiculous. Especially to see Moss, who is a very talented actress, to perform this way felt as a huge waste of talent.

Summary

In all, “Us” is a very well made film with mediocre screenplay. Peele masterfully creates and sustains tension for the whole film, supported by amazing cinematography, editing and acting, but effect is loss due to storyline diverging into weird clichés and comedy elements that ruin intensity with a slapstick.

The post Us appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

The night before D-day a paratrooper squad is sent behind enemy lines. Their object is to disable a radio transmitter set in a church in a village close to the beach so that troops can have support from air. Among them is private Boyce. He is not cut off to be a soldier, for that he doesn’t need constant reminders from his mates. Last thing he wants to do is to kill someone, but he understands that he needs to do his job. But German forces on the ground greeted with heavy artillery fire. Their landing is a nightmare and only five of them survive, including Boyce. They make their way to the village to finish their mission and run into local girl Chloe. Village is swarming with Nazis and Chloe hides Boyce and his mates in her house. Soldiers start planning the upcoming mission, but soon they realize that Nazis are doing something more than just patrolling. And from Chloe they find out that some weird things are happening in the church.

Boyce (Adepo) tries to see what is making noises behind the wall

Writing

If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. This whole premise has been explored hundreds of times in video games, in fact multiple franchises exist that deal with Nazis trying to create superhuman. There is a reason for that. Nazi soldiers are go-to antagonists of video games. You can just kill them right and left without any ethical questions. What else is bigger than them? Zombies, that’s what. They are dead already, so why worry about spraying bullets at them. Then you take both of these and add together and you have Nazi-Zombies – swarm of deadly enemies who a person is not only OK killing with, but kind of is obliged to do so.

What Nazi soldiers are using flamethrowers for?

And in all this, “Overlord” seems like a very decent film version of “Return to Castle Wolfenstein”. And while it is very alluring at the same time film can’t escape pitfalls being a video game movie. Just like “Tomb Raider“, for the most amount of time, “Overlord” seems like one level of game after another. Jump out of burning plane, land, find friends, go to village, locate friendly NPC who will explain everything, go on a mission to enter church, etc. This level-based approach works like a magic in a video game but doesn’t work that well in film.

“Overlord”, however, also includes moral story. We have an unlikely hero in face of quiet and romantic Boyce, who just never wanted any of this. His character evolution is logical and rational. While in the first of the film he does everything just to survive, he finally gets to situation where he needs to face his inner self and finally show determination and bravery. Which is nice, because rest of the characters are mostly cliche. We have a corporal who is all business, soldier who yaps non-stop and hates everything, Nazi colonel who loves taking advantage of French girls, a kid who is there to push plot forward. Good old horror films cliche character that are one dimensional, plain and convenient.

Ford (Russell) wants to know what the red serum does

Directing

Overall I did enjoy the directing by Julius Avery, albeit there were some issues with pacing. “Overlord” takes its time to get to much promised zombies. It is not a bad filmmaking, but we all know where it is going. We didn’t come to watch WWII movie, we all came to see the dead come to life. “Overlord” unfortunately takes all these fun action sequences and pushes all the way to final quarter of the film. Shame, because these scenes are really adrenaline-inducing and fun to watch. Instead of this, Avery gives us redundant jump shots, that are neither scary nor jumpy, when it comes to that.

Acting

I have to commend the whole cast, they did a very solid job. Jovan Adepo stars as romantic Boyse and he delivers a very good performance. It would be very easy to overact in this role, but Adepo handles himself masterfully. Wyatt Russell plays corporal Ford with strong personality and some secrets. Pilou Asbæk in his usual devious manner plays Nazi officer Wafner.

Summary

With a clear video game structure, “Overlord” takes time to get to actual action, but when it finally gets there it is extremely engaging and entertaining.

The post Overlord appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Seemingly delusional Patricia makes her way to office of psychologist Dr. Kemperer in West Berlin, 1977. She is dancer in Markos Dance Academy, but she claims that world famous company is actually a witch coven. In the meantime, amateur dancer Susie arrives to academy. She convinces academy teachers to allow her an audition and completely blows their minds away with her raw technique. She specifically attracts attention of lead choreographer, Madam Blanc, who senses mysterious force while Susie dances. Susie is immediately admitted to academy, to actually replace Patricia, who has just disappeared. But while Susie celebrates her immediate success with her new friends, all teachers of the academy discuss in private whether they have finally found that ONE girl they have been looking for all these years.

Writing

For the most part “Suspiria” is a very well written film. It has multiple characters that story centers on and screenwriters give each of them a proper time to develop and evolve. There are several narratives mostly concentrating on the events happening in the academy and a side story of Dr. Kemperer, who tries to find Patricia and reminiscences his past. However, there are minor things that have been added to the plot that didn’t honestly make much sense. I am talking about some random events that are happening in parallel to the main plot, like the whole story about terrorists or not so subtle feminist attributes, for example.

Despite having very long time (152 minutes), film never bores you. This is because the setup and story are really interesting and intriguing. Weird events that happen on screen very successfully induce suspense and dread through the first couple of hours. This I can not say at all about the resolution and ending of the film. Film wastes all suspense on a random solution that is neither satisfying nor interesting. As such, ending seems very out of place. Even cartoonish at some point. It overall managed to degrade my whole experience of watching “Suspiria” tremendously.

Directing

I was very adamant actually watching this film. Firstly, because of the 152 minutes of runtime. This is incredible amount of time for any film, let alone a horror film. I can’t honestly remember any horror film being this long. Secondly, director is Luca Guadagnino, best known for romantic drama films. I was really unsure how would he be able to handle psychological horror film. But what I found that my second concern actually solved my first one. Luca Guadagnino takes the film on another level, not letting you anyhow zone out of the film during its very long runtime. He masterfully builds, sustains and evolves tension throughout the whole film. Not a single time I was concerned about time while watching “Suspiria”.

Guadagnino uses several visual techniques through “Susperia” to further increase uneasiness. Some, like extremely quick cuts akin action movies, I did enjoy, though found kind of weird. He builds up West Berlin atmosphere masterfully, using washed out tones and colors. I didn’t see any bright or main colors throughout the whole duration of film. It’s a very known technique and horror directors usually use it with conjunction of very bright red color for blood to attenuate the visual horror. However, this is not the case with “Suspiria”. Color is toned down (very toned down) through the whole film without any cheap tricks with regard to visual clues.

Acting

“Suspiria” has an impressive cast of young actresses like Dakota Johnson, Mia Goth and Chloë Grace Moretz, but the one and only star in this film is undeniably Tilda Swinton. She is amazing actress in general, but “Suspiria” is just beyond any other work she has done. Her level of acting pushes envelope in all sense. Just like her character, who owes the dancefloor and dancers, she owes every scene she is in. She emanates force through the screen and this adds a very chilling effect to her already mystical character of Madam Blanc. This is by far the best performance by an actress I have seen in whole year.

Summary

Despite a long runtime, “Suspiria” never bores with masterfully built tension and truly fantastic work by Tilda Swinton, but has an ending that makes little sense and is cartoonish.

The post Suspiria appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

An alien spaceship is pursuing another one through space. A brief ripple of time-space continuum and runaway spaceship gets thrown into vicinity of Earth. It has to crash land. Unfortunately, it crashes in the forest of Mexico, right where U.S. Special Forces are conducting an operation. Army sniper Quinn McKenna is first to discover the spaceship and also what seems to be body armor of alien creature. McKenna knows something is happening as soon as he sees US helicopter flying over. So, he grabs alien’s helmet and runs away. In the meantime, alien creature is captured and brought to secret government facility in U.S.A. So is biologist Casey Bracket who is escorted to facility to help investigate alien creature genome. She is very surprised to find out that this is not the first time aliens made landing, that they are extremely dangerous and kill for sport. And also, they are called Predators.

Writing

Problems with “The Predator” start very early. Not that I did expect extreme sophistication of plot and structure, but there are a lot of issues with writing. There is just not enough room to fit all what has been written on the paper to the screen! Unlike other movies of this genre, “The Predator” boasts a huge amount of supporting cast members. When usually these characters would get bottled in and left to die one by one, there is not enough time to get them all killed. And screenplay doesn’t even offer us a bottle situation. There are good guys, bad guys, semi-good guys, semi-bad guys, neutral guys. All kind of guys. Film dives deep to analyze intricate details between the characters and just gets lost in it.

Aliens do exist

No, I am probably wrong. Screenplay probably had it all clear – the interactions, the logic and all. How one scene ties into another, how one dialogue leads to new information. But since film is just couple minutes shy of two hours I am sure there was a lot of things left on the editing floor. As such film seems very chaotic at times. Characters make some weird choices that we have to take for granted. Literally at one point I was wondering where RV came from (no spoilers). You will see what I am talking about. And I am sure there was a scene or two explaining all that but was just deleted from final picture.

Is it problem of editing though? Was so much cut that screenplay became incoherent and ineffective? I highly doubt that. Because editor did leave several unneeded scenes and jokes. I am more and more sure that this is really screenplay problem. And I want to believe that this film could have been way better if it would have been made into two movies. Or if the screenplay was butchered properly to have less things happening in one single film.

On the other hand, film has characteristic to Shane Black style dialogues and character interactions. When film wants to get funny it does so very well. There are a lot of self-satirical references, running gags, you know, simple stuff that can make film from being a stupid mess to somewhat tolerable B-rated, grindhouse film. I have to admit that film achieves that very well.

Yeap, that is him!

Directing

Problems with editing and script aside, Shane Black does a decent job with directing. This especially shows itself during action sequences, which are adequately made and satisfyingly violent. Packing enough punch to make previous film jealous, “The Predator” delivers a very potent image of alien creature going berserk. Isn’t that all why we came to see “The Predator”? To see ridiculously ugly creature from outer space that enjoys killing other creatures for a sake of it, rip a hole in man’s guts and pull out his spine? We don’t need a proper script for that! We just want gore, guts and gurgling sounds!

As a result, “The Predator” turns into an action film. Unlike the rest of the series which had some kind of balance of action, horror, science fiction and thriller elements, “The Predator” is pure action film. Nothing more and nothing less. Whether you like it or not depends on what you actually expect of it.

When supporting characters are better than main ones

Acting

“The Predator” is one of the rare films that has supporting characters much better than the main one. How weird is that? And yet we have extremely shallow and one-dimensional main characters in face of Boyd Holbrook, who plays sniper Quinn McKenna and completely not interesting Olivia Munn playing biologist Casey Brackett. Oh, and also Sterling K. Brown, who is extremely talented dramatic actor playing extremely uncharacteristic bad guy. Even in mediocre “Hotel Artemis” he had a better role.

Supporting cast on the other hand shines through always fun to watch Thomas Jane, “Game of Thrones” alum Alfie Allen, comic star Keegan-Michael Key, charismatic Trevante Rhodes, talented young actor Jacob Tremblay, and, hell, even full of fight Yvonne Strahovski. Every single on of them are more defined and developed than the main characters. Again, this might be just the same issue of screenplay.

Summary

“The Predator” gives what fans wanted to see – alien creature wrecking havoc. Nothing more, nothing less. Shane Black does very well during action sequences, but anything else drags into incoherent mess, with supporting characters more interesting that main heroes. If you like the kind of movies where you get drunk and just enjoy the spectacle, “The Predator” is definitely for you. You will find it fun and entertaining. Otherwise, it will seem like a freaking train-wreck to you.

The post The Predator appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Billionaire Jack Morris arrives to groundbreaking research facility he paid for to meet scientist Dr. Minway Zhang. Morris has arrived right in the midst of lab’s biggest mission. Crew is diving into deepest section of Marianas trench to prove the theory that cloud of gases is masking real ocean floor. To everyone’s amusement that turns out to be true. But celebrations are short. Research vessel is almost immediately attacked by a gigantic creature. Damages of vessel prohibits it from raising and on surface everyone is scrambling for rescue operations. But there is only one person who can attempt such a daring act: ex-rescue diver Jonas Taylor. Despite his objections, Jonas is forced to join the mission when he learns that his ex-wife is one of the members of stranded crew. But his biggest fears will turn to be right when they will discover that the mystery creature is a megalodon!

Yes, they are trying to kill a giant shark with little cage…

Writing

There is literally nothing unique about the script of “The Meg”. It is riddled with cliché storylines, plot elements, character drivers and motivations, resolutions and outcome. From hero who no one believes to and his ex-wife being one of the victims, to main female hero in desperate need of a man in her life and father who never trusted his daughter. List is so big I can just spend whole night writing about it. In fact, the scrip it so unimaginative that characters themselves start making fun of sheer stupidity of some of the points. This self-irony somewhat saves the day, giving audience something to laugh at. That being said, film is not on the “Snake on the Plane” level of ridiculousness, so that’s somehow saves it.

Jonas (Statham) is expertly sizing up new opponent – a megalodon!

Directing

And what gives “The Meg” somehow good rap is directorial work of Jon Turtletaub. To my big relief, he didn’t make movie as a freaking big monster disaster movie (though the ending might seem like that), but as a horror/thriller. To that extent, “The Meg” tried to give more of “Jurassic Park” feeling than “Godzilla”. Side note – horror/thriller is a bit of a stretch, as a film is plagued by a financial decision to keep it PG-13 rated. Thus, violence is muted, however it was still pretty wild in some instances.

That pays off well. He uses subtle tension moments, combining with sudden jump scares and timely reveals. In that Turtletaub makes film at least enjoyable to watch. To the point that you might momentarily forget the shortcomings of the script. “The Meg” probably achieves same results as Dwayne Johnson’s “Rampage“. In both films, you just manage to shut down all logic and reason and just enjoy the spectacle.

Diversity rules!

Acting

Über-diverse cast of “The Meg” did actually surprise me. In fact, the only minority groups not represented were Hispanics and Arabs. Not because it is inconceivable to have so much diversity in a group of people, but the fact there was so much variation of nationality, race, age, sexual orientation, hair style, hell, even tattoo choices that it was quiet shocking. Not two members of characters carried same trait. And this diversity was so in your face, combined with stereotypical traits for each character, me, biggest proponent of realistic representation of diversity, was just appalled by how much “The Meg” overdid it.

However, I have to admit, cast did more than adequate job. Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor is very effective both as grumpy savior and funny romantic. Li Bingbing, though written cliché, proves she can stand her own ground. I did enjoy also Rainn Wilson‘s performance, who very nicely plays moneybag with ulterior motives.

Summary

“The Meg” may have a horribly cliché script, but combined with Turtletaub’s direction it actually turns out to be fun to watch. And while Jason Statham trying to kill monster shark will not go into history as a memorable film, at least it is enjoyable. Until next killer shark film arrives.

The post The Meg appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Ellen Graham has died. In her bed, from old age and dementia. Her last several years she spent with her daughter Annie and her family, though they never were really close to each other prior to that. In eulogy to her mother Annie mentions that Ellen was a very private person with her private friends. Death of Ellen affects all family members differently. While Annie is lethargic on surface, her son Peter couldn’t care less about death of her Grandma. In contrast, Annie’s young daughter Charlie, who has always been weirdly close to Ellen, is visibly distressed. Annie’s caring husband Steve just tries to keep everyone sane and peaceful. That same night though Ellen’s grave is vandalized and body is stolen. And immediately strange occurrences start happening in the house. But is it for real or is Annie getting mad?

Annie (Collette) tries to comfort Charlie (Shapiro) after funeral

Writing

“Hereditary” is written and directed by newcomer Ari Aster. His screenplay is full with long silences and expository dialogues. In fact, there is so much exposition packed into one specific scene, that despite incredible acting by Toni Collette, the words she was saying felt so uncharacteristic, so fake, so out of place. They were there just to let viewers know the backstory and not the emotional state of the character, as director originally intended.

Story itself is revolving around supernatural and occult. It is nothing new, in fact it seems as another rehash or remix of films you have seen before. And like in most cases, instead of taking only the good parts, “Hereditary” also borrows a lot of mediocrity from other films. In that sense, even “Veronica” had a much better story. Resolution of film felt inconsistent and to be honest quite unsatisfying by all means. The explanation and revelations are mundane at best and never give anything worthy.

Steve (Byrne) doesn’t want to believe Annie (Collette)

Directing

Unlike other genres of horror, supernatural horror films don’t necessarily invoke horror. The main drive is slow tension that builds up the dread. It is the uneasy feeling that audience gets waiting to find out what slow pan of the camera will show behind the corner or where is the weird clicking noise coming from or who is hiding in the shadow. These sequences are usually supported by unnerving soundtrack of somebody playing violin with a chainsaw. In cheap films they usually end with a random jump scare. Good films tend to not resolve to that. “Sixth Sense” had dread involving dead people trying to hurt the boy. In “Rosemary’s Baby” we had a pregnant mother wanting to protect her unborn child. “Veronica” shows that danger to main hero meant danger to all her family.

“Hereditary” tries it’s best to stay away from jump scares. But I can’t say if there was a truly scary moment in the film. Film instead concentrates in building a very serious feeling of dread. And partially succeeds in that – first half of the film builds up a truly unnerving and sometimes goosebumps inducing tension. Unfortunately, this tension doesn’t resolve into anything proper or substantial and the second part of film felt like a complete let down. I thought for a moment that it was just me, but audience in the cinema unanimously agreed by laughing at scariest moments instead of screaming in terror. This especially showed itself in the ending, which seemed ridiculous and unsatisfying.

Toni Collette as Annie is phenominal!

Acting

Where “Hereditary” truly excels is acting. Pretty much all main cast shows exceptional acting skills. Something you tend not to see in a horror film. Toni Collette delivers one of the most genuine and amazing performances of not only her career, but possibly by actress in a horror film since Kathy Bates in “Misery”. I will be very disappointed if she will not earn an Oscar nomination for her role. Her delivery is not something of “Oh my God believe me!” kind, but is an emotional, touching and shaken performance. Gabriel Byrne returns to horror films, genre that suits him the best. He, of course, matured since last time he was in a horror film and his performance has matured with him. Also, would like to mention Alex Wolff as Peter, whom you might remember as a nerd from “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle“. Unlike that film, where he plays a goof, here he gets a chance to show his dramatic abilities of acting spectrum and uses this opportunity surprisingly well.

Summary

Despite being well-made and out-of-worldly performance by Toni Collette, “Hereditary” struggles with mundane plot and unsatisfying ending. Inability to provide enough scare, albeit craftily building tension and dread, seriously maims the enjoyment of the film. That paired with 127 minutes long runtime just ruins everything.

The post Hereditary appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

We don’t know why or when creatures came. They are just here. All we need to know is that they are a) blind, b) hunt by sound, and c) have no apparent weakness. Under these conditions, all you can do to survive is to be ABSOLUTELY quiet. You communicate with sign language, apply chalk/ash to the walking grounds so that no noise is made when you walk, always be barefoot, step only on marked areas (no hardwood cracking!), use corn leaves as plates to absorb sound, eat with your hands and under NO circumstances put batteries in a toy. Lee Abbott’s family lives just like this in farm. With his wife, Evelyn, they raise their children, teenage deaf girl Regan and ten-year-old boy Marcus. They are expecting addition to their family – Evelyn is due soon. But how can you be quiet, when all you want to do is SCREAM?

Mother (Blunt) tells deaf daughter (Simmonds) to stay quiet

Writing

Film is written by John Krasinski, Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, based on Woods’ and Beck’s story. First of all, let me tell you the script of “A Quiet Place” should be thought in film school. This is one of very unique films that successfully avoids so many cliches. Let me tell how it would have looked if done by your regular screenwriter. First, you start with a text on the screen. Very small font. Then the voiceover of some veteran actor, Anthony Hopkins maybe, will read you what you can read yourself. “They appeared out of blue on day bla bla bla.”

Then there would be existential Day 0 montage, people waking up early in the morning, going to work, drinking coffee. Then, of course, there are news reports of “unspecified weird activity” and “military has taken over the city to contain damage”, which literally no one cares to notice. Creature breaks into the house. Girl is taking shower. She doesn’t know there is a creature lurking and it grabs her. She screams and we cut to the title screen. Which slowly rolls out under funky old rock-n-roll ballad, that has nothing to do with the weird stuff film is about. Matter of contrast. If that sounds familiar, welcome to the club. Scene I described is literally how Zach Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” begins. Which, don’t get me wrong, I think is one of the finest horror films of recent. All I am saying it is full of cliches.

“A Quiet Place” is not. Who cares where the creatures came from or what they want or why? All we need to know they are here and they hunt by sound. Film is not about them, it is about being a parent and about taking care of your family under this circumstances. About teenage girl who thinks her parents hate her. Of young boy who is afraid of growing up and accepting responsibility. Mother who knows all the pain she will have to endure to give birth to a child in a world, where baby can not make a single sound. And about father who secretly lives in terror knowing that one single mistake and everyone will be dead.

We don’t even know their names! Since 95% of time characters communicate through sign language, they don’t call each other out. I found out they actually had names from Wiki. There is no expositional BS, like “oh, it is your last day at job today bla bla” or “I wish I was getting married to your sexy marine scientist fiancee”. All information we get is from the screen. Makes you think and wonder. And to that I announce “A Quiet Place” deserving an Oscar nomination next year.

Just to be fair, there are also inconsistencies. It is not perfect. I had several questions like “well, if creatures did XXX, then why not they YYY?” or “why didn’t they think about using ZZZ or just ƏƏƏ them with ÜÜÜ?” But despite this the script pushes you to ignore these minor details and put your disbelief aside. It’s what we came to love M. Night Shyamalan’s works for. Very few films of present can claim that they achieved this.

Mother (Blunt) tries to hide from creatures when she is in labor

Directing

Speaking of Shyamalan, Krasinski’s directorial work reminded me of him a lot. He deliberately avoids jump scares (at least, as long as film can afford that) and masterfully builds suspense. There is literally one scene (no spoilers, I will try) that made me grab the armrest and my heart almost sunk. It is the scene where Evelyn wakes up. There are no jumps scares in it. She just looks around and we look around and then Evelyn and the audience, AT THE SAME TIME notice “something”. It is done so masterfully that half of the audience went “Holy F$%$!” In execution, I can compare it to same feeling I got from Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” photo moment, Hitchcock’s “Birds” walk to the car scene, Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” T-Rex appearance, Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense” ring drop, Ridley Scott’s “Alien” ending with sleeping xenomorph, James Cameron’s “The Terminator” locating Sarah Connor in club. This is how big it is.

What I also enjoyed was despite the fact that Krasinski is coming from indie background, he keeps “indie” to the minimum. There are no weird angles, long shots, extreme close-ups or superwide establishing shots, no shaky footage, no film grain, shadow plays or anything else you expect from an indie horror film. He plays it safe, thus avoiding building artificial tension through cinematography, instead concentrating on the story and edits to do their job. His twists appear to be twists to the characters, not the audience. It’s Chekov’s Gun principle all over. “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired.” Film foreshadows the whole plot. Film builds tension by letting us know EXACTLY what is going to happen and we just sit and watch and anticipate when that will happen. Nail scene, for example.

I also enjoyed how the design and execution of creatures. Just like in the “Alien”, we don’t get to see the full creature until almost the end. For the most part, creatures are just silent killers in the night. We don’t see them, we mostly just hear them or catch a glimpse of teeth and claws. Again it all comes to the point of why exactly do we need to see them if the film is not about them? At the same time, film avoids ridiculousness of “Cloverfield”, a film which is about a monster, but without a full shot of said creature. “A Quiet Place” balances it’s monsters. They are shown when they are needed to be shown, not a second early, not a second later.

Father (Krasinski) wants us to stay quiet, no matter what!

Acting

“A Quiet Place” literally is a silent film with subtitles. This by itself is an enormous undertaking for a director, since he needs to always show who is talking. On the other hand it is tremendous strain on the actors who need to play with their facial expressions, not mouth. They have to be believable and convey exact reactions. John Krasinski plays father and his real life wife, Emily Blunt, plays mother. Their screen chemistry is natural (no surprise here), at the same time they both are able to deliver heartfelt, pure emotions. Emily Blunt is obviously a much greater actor, and Krasinski understands that, both as an actor and director. For the biggest emotional scenes, he gets behind camera and let’s her wife deliver amazing performances all on her own.

Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress, plays teenage girl who is going through abandonment issues, gives another edge to the character. Unlike others, she doesn’t need to pretend to be silent. She IS silent. Noah Jupe plays her younger brother who doesn’t want to grow up and face real world. He wants to forget all that happened and stay child for as long as possible. He is also very believable and relatable character.

Summary

Innovative, masterfully crafted, heartfelt, engaging, and at the same time, disturbing, bone-chilling, frightening, and suspenseful, “A Quiet Place” shows that horror film doesn’t need nauseating inducing violence, cheap jump scares and cliche elements to be successful. John Krasinski, despite admitting not be grown up on horror films, delivers an instant horror classic. Supported with strong performances of the cast this film deserves recognition. And that ending. That is the most satisfying (I am not saying good or bad) ending I have seen since “Inception”.

The post A Quiet Place appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Sawyer Valentini feels like she is getting mad. She has relocated to a new city, found a new house, job. All because she had issues with a man stalking her. Despite moving on, she lives in constant fear for her life. To cope with that she decides to visit a psychiatrist. She talks about insecurities and difficulties she is having and how she feels depressed. When psychiatrist asks her about possible suicidal tendencies, Sawyer confirms that she sometimes has them. When their session completes Sawyer wants to leave, but nursing staff stops her. They tell her to surrender all her possessions and follow her. Sawyer is dumbfounded, but they explain to her that among other things she was signing during “discharge” was an agreement to voluntarily stay in the mental institution. Psychiatrist made a conclusion that she might be danger to herself and others. And now she just can’t leave anymore.

Writing

Films of this genre like to play with the viewer. Usually for the entirety of such film we are left clueless. Is our hero really mad? Or is everyone playing the game to make person believe she is mad? Or maybe it’s all some kind of dream? “Unsane” starts just like that and film does toy with the viewers. The uneasiness of the situation being placed into mental institution voluntarily/involuntarily and immediate consequences of that do drag you emotionally down. But instead of keeping this intrigue, film gives it all somewhere right in the middle of second act.

Sawyer (Foy) doesn’t want to take pills

That first section of the film is truly well written. By limiting what is shown and what is said, film manages to create uneasiness and discomfort to viewer. We root for our hero, Sawyer. And this is despite the fact that she truly never shows anything worthy of a hero. Yes, she is apparently good at her job. But she is very rude to her clients and to her co-workers. And she has weird sexual fantasies in regards to her social life. She is manipulative, explosive, controlling and narcissistic. Whole first section of the film I was asking myself that maybe she indeed was just all mad. Or maybe every one was against her. This invoked a lot of sympathy, despite all negative aspects to Sawyer’s personality.

And then film shifts into another territory. No longer we have to worry if Sawyer is sane or “unsane”, film has a clear answer to that. And because there is still half of the film to go, we are no longer guessing what is going on. There is no reason to sit on the edge, at least from “sanity” perspective. Second half of the film instead ventures more into a “survival” territory. And suddenly we get to see more of Sawyer. There is a big shift in her personality. Since there is no pity aspect anymore, film needs to make hero sympathetic and it doesn’t do a good job at it. It just doesn’t feel natural.

Directing

Steven Soderbergh is a true master of his craft. You can see exactly why he chose the iPhone. Not because they are awesome, or good way to keep budget down. But to be able to give a true indie look to the film. From first shot this doesn’t feel like Hollywood movie at all. Or any other Soderbergh’s films (“Haywire“, “Logan Lucky“). Weird framing, unnecessary cuts, ultra-wide angles, or ridiculous close-ups. It feels like the film was actually done by a student filmmaker who tries to prove to the World that he is new Tarkovsky. Soderbergh gives us a look that you can see more on the screen of some D-rated independent film festival.

And this is where his genius comes in. The first half of the film, where we are not sure what is going on is full with these shots. Just because indie films like so much to toy with emotions of viewers. And in the second half of the movie, these weird shots are all gone and it feels like Hollywood production again. There is no need for them anymore. Regardless, Soderbergh manages to create and hold tension for the majority of the film. The ending seemed a little rushed and I think could have used a bigger resolution. Not sure what was the reasoning to end the film like that.

Violet (Temple) taunts sedated Sawyer (Foy)

Acting

Overall acting was enjoyable. Claire Foy plays our hero, Sawyer Valentini. She is extremely believable in all aspects. She is spot on with emotional roller-coaster her character experiences and we doubt Sawyer’s emotions very little during the film, both in first and second part. Juno Temple and Jay Pharoah play fellow patients. Both of them deliver solid performances. Pharoah plays Nate, the only person who (maybe) believes Sawyer and Temple unstable Violet.

Summary

Steven Soderbergh manages to make “Unsane” a very captivating thriller. Film juggles with viewers emotions, but never pushes them to the limit. From one point it is good, instead of having cliche endings and multiple twists, film sorts everything in the middle and leaves us guessing what will happen. On the other hand it reduced the whole engagement and investment into the movie and forced a transformation into main character to make her more sympathetic.

The post Unsane appeared first on Kino-AZ.

Story

Three days prior to that 15-year-old Veronica wakes up in the morning. Her mother is asleep; she has been putting long hours at the bar to provide for the family, especially since the father of the family has died several years ago. So it is up to Veronica to take care of children – twins Irene and Lucia, and little Antonito. She drops them at the school. It is supposed to be a special day – after all, Solar Eclpise will happen in the afternoon. And while everyone is getting ready to watch Moon’s shadow cover Earth, Veronica and her two friends instead will sneak into the basement of the school to conduct a spiritual seance. Veronica hopes to talk to her father. And while they are not even sure if the Ouija Board will ever work, girls set up candles and sit in the circle in hopes of someone to answer their call. To their surprise someone does answer Veronica. And suddenly she is in danger.

Writing

Veronica (Escacena) tries to protect her siblings

It is very hard to judge writing for a horror film for several reasons. When most of the horror is happening on the visual (jump scares) and auditory levels (eerie music) the writing might look blank. In that essence, the writing will play more in terms of backstory, plot progression and resolution. With that “Veronica” achieves several things. Firstly, the setting is very unnerving, since Veronica is in charge of her smaller siblings. Suddenly, it is not only her who is in grave danger by the supernatural forces. Her mother doesn’t believe (why should she?) mumbling teenager. And despite the protests she has to leave children with Veronica. Film forces us to worry not only for the well being of one girl (who, let’s face it, brought everything on her head), but also the being of three innocent children. Secondly, the plot progression is also well done. Film opens with the police arriving into the action scene. We know how the film ends. And we watch and try to anticipate what will happen.

There all the praise for writing will end. There is literally nothing innovative in using Ouija Board (or some instrument) to gather spirits and then fail miserably. “Veronica” is far from best example of this genre. Also the emotional resolution of the movie feels very weak and pointless. While it leaves some things to interpretation, there is nothing that will make you scratch your head or even feel bad about it. Which is shame, because I was expecting something in the line of similar Spanish horror movies “The Others” by Alejandro Amenabar and “The Orphanage” by J.A. Bayone.

Veronica (Escacena) not sure where the marks came from

Directing

There are mandatory jump scares and cheap thrills. Nothing too crazy, thankfully. There are couple slow scary buildups and overall “Veronica” does achieve some leve

l of creepiness and uneasiness. There are some long shots of camera moving in seemingly weird direction, with clear anticipation of that something scary will happen. Overall, directing was not bad for a horror movie, but it doesn’t necessarily stand out. I feel there could have been more done to make the film even scarier. Surprisingly the biggest achievement of director Paco Plaza was a perfect casting of Sandra Escacena as titular Veronica and also young child actors as her siblings. They deliver everything they are asked for.

Summary

This film turned out to be a mediocre horror film. While trying to stay in between of jump scares and slow progression, it walks the line very carefully. The overall setting is unnerving, but resolution of the film makes you ask for more.

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