HOOP-TOBER MOVIES 2-4
2. Raze (2013)
To think that if it weren't for Letterboxd this gem might have passed me by.
The story is that a bunch of women have been kidnapped and forced to fight each other to the death. That's pretty much the whole plot right there, but the characters are distinctive enough and the scenario is fleshed out enough that this simple story is extremely engaging.
And guess who is playing the announcer? None other than Doug Jones! (Master of costumes with roles including the creepy guy from that Buffy episode where both one can speak to Hellboy's amphibious sidekick Abe Sapien.
With a nicely twisted premise and some satisfyingly brutal fight scenes, this was a fantastic film far beyond anything I thought that premise could deliver.
A+
3. Slashers (2001)
This is essentially about a reality television show where contestants are trying to avoid being brutally murdered. However, it's not as far ahead of its time as you might think. The show is set up as Japanese because of the popularity of the show "Takeshi's Castle" which long predates Big Brother. It's also somewhat reminiscent of Gladiators, where people would choose to come on the show and compete against the regulars.
So "Slashers" is apeing the 90s competitive reality show (as opposed to the 21st century reality shows where people mostly just talk at one another).
The show actually has quite a 90s feel to it, making the introduction of live murders into the format quite amusing. Also I liked the idea of using shock collars to prevent contestants from moving away when the show stops at climactic moments for commercial breaks.
There's a bit of a cartoonish feel to the film and not just because the murdering regulars on the show have various silly evil personas, including evil priest, evil doctor and evil redneck hillbilly. The contestants also have somewhat cliched backstories or personality types. But these characters in the reality show setting makes for a really fun horror comedy. Even though Slashers has a low budget it just adds to the charm. It's also cool how the setting is very obviously a large tv studio. (Though actually a much larger one than the filmmakers are really using.)
Admittedly the way the lights blink to disguise cuts happens way too often and can be distracting. Also one character's backstory whereby he couldn't carry on boxing because he received a concussion in the army seemed a bit headscratching. (Why would concussion end your boxing career?) However, the film is so much fun and so well paced that I could forgive it all that.
In the end my only major criticism is some issues with the acting. While the performances are all pretty hammy anyway, but some of the crying from some of the female characters comes off a bit unconvincing.
Still Slashers is, though it sounds strange to say it, a delightful horror film.
A-
4. Darkness (2002)
Yet another obscure title from the co-director of Rec, Jaume Balaguero. Stars include Giancarlo Giannini (Casino Royale), Anna Paquin (X-Men, Margaret), Fele Martinez (Open Your Eyes) and Iain Glen (Resident Evil: Extinction).
Sadly this once again fails to live up to the promise of Balaguero's latest effort "Sleep Tight". While I like Balaguero's visual flourishes very much, his use of the supernatural in his stories generally seems to annoy me.
Essentially this turns into yet another ghost story. While there's some clear internal logic I had trouble taking it seriously, particularly when some ridiculous coincidences were required towards the end.
My qualms with the last two Balaguero films I watched are both somewhat present here. There's a kind of ghost story but it's not really as cliched as in "Fragile". There's also an attempt to summon pure evil connected with missing children which I found rather more convincing than in "The Nameless".
Yet strangely, in spite of actors I know are great, I wasn't convinced by the dialogue.
Also Iain Glen's American accent was a bit offputting. In actual fact accents are a real problem here. At the beginning Iain Glen's character, who apparently grew up in Spain, has an English accent. He is also speaking to a man who sounds like Patrick Stewart. So why is he American as an adult? Heck why does this American family.decide to move back to Spain in the middle of nowhere?
Despite hating the last three movies of his that I've seen, I still think Balaguero is a very capable filmmaker. His visuals are the best aspect of the film. The problem is that the story is complete nonsense.
D+