"A Serbian Film" (2010)

Directed by Srdan Spasojevic

Review based upon an unrated preview screening in 2010

Reviewing horror films can be a tricky and difficult experience at the best of times. Not only is it harder in this increasingly controlled society to obtain certain material, but when you do there is usually either the bitter sting of disappointment or in rare cases revulsion, depending on the content. This perhaps perfectly sums up my viewing experience of “A Serbian Film”; one which has left a genuinely indelible and bitter mark behind.

The movie is due to be released theatrically this month in a heavily censored form, and “A Serbian Film” has already obtained unenviable notoriety for becoming the most heavily censored flick in the UK for 10 years. To comply with current BBFC guidelines, almost 5 minutes of material has been removed in a grand total of 49 cuts. Whilst this may seem a little extreme even for our supposedly western liberal society, it is worth taking into account the fact that in its own country of origin the piece was subject to a legal investigation for crimes against sexual morals and the protection of minors. To say therefore that “A Serbian Film” arrives amidst controversy would be something of an understatement.

However, hiding in the grimy background of this feature debut from director Srdan Spasojevic is a narrative message linked to the truly horrifying legacy of Slobodan Milosevic and his effect on parts of the Eastern block. Is it here where the true horror of the piece lies, bleeding like a severed artery beneath the carnage onscreen?

The plot of “A Serbian Film” focuses on Milos, a semi-retired porn star who lives with his wife and young son. Facing both horrendous financial difficulties as well as jealousy from his brother Marko, a corrupt policeman, Milos is offered a fortune by a film director called Vukmir to make one last porn film. The only catch is that Milos will have to make the movie without a script, simply reacting naturally to everything that unfolds around him as everything is filmed. After a discussion with his wife, Milos accepts the offer only to discover something even more sinister than he could have ever imagined is about to take place…

On watching the full and uncut version of this film (no easy task in itself), it is easy to see why the BBFC were so appalled by the content. This feature combines and mixes all the cinematic hot buttons into one 99-minute taboo, containing elements of snuff, necrophilia, paedophilia, sex, violence and gore. It also made my blood run cold in one scene (bearing in mind that this is coming from a hardened horror veteran and gore fiend) which I will say nothing about, except quote the sadistic Vukmir who refers to the moment as “Newborn Porn”. In so many respects “A Serbian Film” plays out like “Hostel” remixed by Spinal Tap; it’s Eli Roth’s vision of torture turned up to 11.

The obvious standouts throughout the constant onslaught are mostly technical. Director Srdan Spasojevic has made the whole piece look gritty and brutally realistic, yet at some points surrealistically beautiful. The sequences where Milos is filming in a room with a black and white chequered floor are visually outstanding, and in his first film Spasojevic demonstrates a great deal of maturity and talent. In addition, the gore effects are horrifyingly realistic, except perhaps at one key point.

With “A Serbian Film” the plot is frequently nothing more than a vehicle to move characters from one grisly set up to the next, but at the same time it manages to retain its focus as a character piece. In this respect director Spasojevic wrings some impressive performances from Srdan Todorovic as Milos, and Sergej Trifunovic as Vukmir. All the leads come across as real people throughout, and as a result you do become genuinely concerned about their fates.
As a political statement (which Spasojevic as both director and co-writer has said was his main intent), “A Serbian Film” is arguably a useful account of Serbian sentiments at this time. Ironically though the movie focuses a lot on control and manipulation by those in charge, while the grisly on-screen events do at times feel a little hypocritical and unnecessary. When these images are combined with rather obvious and predictable statements presented as dialogue however, it tends to come across as a message being rammed home with an 18 tonne sledgehammer. Perhaps with a little more subtlety and a little less anger, “A Serbian Film” would have been a more convincing allegory.

Nevertheless, perhaps that isn’t the point. After all, the one thing that is more obvious than anything throughout the whole running time is just how angry this movie is. It is perhaps here where my biggest issue with the flick lies. At points I couldn’t help but think that the political undertone was just an excuse to show us increasingly sadistic and nasty imagery. Personally I couldn’t watch this in one sitting; I had to break it into chunks and then go off to do something immersive and distracting in-between.

For good or bad this is a film that really does get under your skin, but arguably for the wrong reasons. “A Serbian Film” is as far removed from entertainment as you can possibly get, and I certainly do not want to see it again anytime soon. In that regard it is perhaps comparable to Gaspar Noe’s “Irreversible”, which was a very important piece for many reasons. However, where Noe’s movie was filled with an impressive and strong narrative told in reverse to keep the audience hooked, Spasojevic has a hollow script that relies on increasing shock value to leave the audience numb and sickened in equal measure.

Of course “A Serbian Film” does make a valid point about Milosevic and his brutal war crimes, but I couldn’t help but think that if the whole piece had been a little less fuelled by rage it would have been a considerably more effective film. As it stands, there are some impressive things about this feature, but unlike “Irreversible” and countless other horror movies I will never be adding this to my collection. I’m glad I saw it so that I can speak with authority on the matter, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone without giving him or her a stern warning first. That, I think, says a great deal.

5 out of 10
A very angry film with a key message that simply gets lost within some quite repulsive imagery... if Spasojevic supplants anger with subtlety in his next film then it has the potential to be outstanding

"The Last House on the Left" (2009)

Directed by Dennis Illiadis
Review based upon the US Universal DVD release

I took a break from reviewing movies to work on my own set of horror stories over the last six weeks, in part because I was sick and tired of watching the endless slew of genre remakes that the studios keep turning out these days. Most of the horror flicks I’ve seen this year have been unoriginal retreads of the same old formulas, with any originality coming from well outside Hollywood. Ironically, when deciding which new review to write first, I decided on the 2009 reimagining (we all know how much they love that phrase) of Wes Craven’s 1972 revenge-horror of the same name. But what could a remake bring to this gruelling original film? And is a modern version even necessary?

Directed by Dennis Illiadis, “The Last House on the Left” focuses around the story of Mari Collingwood (Sara Paxton) along with her father John (Tony Goldwyn) and mother Emma (Monica Potter). After taking a family break to their remote cabin near a lake, Mari leaves her parents to meet with Paige (Martha McIsaac), a friend that she hasn’t seen since before the premature death of her brother. After chatting to Justin (Spencer Treat Clark) at the shop where Paige works, the two girls go back to his hotel to smoke some weed, only to find their solitude interrupted by Justin’s father Krug (Garret Dillahunt) along with his brother Francis (Aaron Paul) and girlfriend Sadie (Riki Lindhome). Krug is an escaped murderer who immediately kidnaps the two girls, driving them out into the forest with evidently twisted intentions. Attempting to escape near to her parent’s cabin, the car crashes and Mari is forced to watch as her friend is brutally killed in revenge. Assaulted and shot, Mari is eventually left for dead in the river as Krug and his gang seek refuge at the house of the Collingwood family, unaware that these are the parents of the girl they just tortured. But when Mari manages to make her way back to the lake house barely alive, John and Emma learn the truth and have to make a decision; will they exact revenge on the three criminals that attacked their daughter? And will such actions make them as depraved as Krug himself?

The original Wes Craven version of “The Last House on the Left” was in many ways a typical 70’s exploitation flick. Shot with a very low budget and containing some quite nasty moments, the movie also had some major tonal issues, largely as a result of the bizarre humour from the police characters that could be said to undermine several key moments. The 1972 film also contained a very strong social commentary relating to the Vietnam War, and I was curious to know how Illiadis would deal with this in his new interpretation.

At its core, the remake of “The Last House on the Left” is a taught and brilliantly executed piece of cinema. Screenwriters Adam Alleca and Carl Ellsworth along with Director Illiadis have stripped the story down to the basics, choosing to focus on the character dynamics and removing the previously grating humour. In addition, while the Vietnam references are now clearly redundant, the gap is filled by a relatively complex analysis of parental and child dynamics as well a thoughtful examination of morality. Illiadis spends a great deal of time inspecting whether the Collingwoods are just in their actions, comparing them to Krug’s band of thugs with a clarity lacking in the original.

The shot technique employed within this movie is arguably more sophisticated than anything directed by his contemporary Marcus Nispel (the man responsible for both the “Friday the 13th” and “Texas Chainsaw” updates), focussing on objects out of focus and obscure items in the foreground to really heighten tension in a manner of which Hitchcock would be proud. Illiadis is a great find; bizarrely with only one previous directorial credit, the obscure crime thriller “Hardcore” in 2004. Here he plays with the audience’s nerves like an auteur, wringing every drop of tension and dread from an already uncomfortably all-too-believable screenplay.

Performances are consistent and strong, with Sara Paxton especially sympathetic and empathetic as Mari, and Garret Dillahunt as Krug easily gives David Hess from the Craven version a run for his money in the sicko stakes. Putting in a truly repulsive portrayal that interestingly mirrors the parental dynamics between John and Mari Collingwood, Dillahunt’s interplay with other characters is nothing but convincing.

Unfortunately, while this review has been very positive until this point, it should be noted that the final 5 minutes of “The Last House on the Left” almost completely sabotages the brilliance of what came before. In what is perhaps the most frustrating experience of the year so far, the studio (I sincerely hope this wasn’t a decision made by Illiadis himself) has left the film with TWO distinct endings tagged onto the same print. The first works thanks to delivering a suitably downbeat ending, and the film should have ended at that point. Instead of taking such a brave leap however, the 2009 “Last House” takes a wide swerve into the ridiculous, tagging on an additional punchline ending that provides the audience with a gory money shot involving a malfunctioning microwave and someone’s head.

Why have I made such a clear spoiler reference without a warning? Simply because I urge everyone to stay away from the last section of this otherwise note-perfect work. As soon as you see the boat cruising into the distance, walk out of the cinema or turn off your DVD player and don’t look back. To quote the 1973 tagline; keep repeating, it’s only the last 5 minutes, it’s only the last 5 minutes… and it’s a needless example of shitty studio interference. This movie is light on gore for a reason; it’s subtle, minimalist and therefore disturbing as a result. But studios think that horror fans simply bay for blood, insisting on shoving a violent moment that serves no narrative purpose into the last few minutes. My message to the executives is this: we’re smarter than you and so are the people behind the camera, so have more faith in them and your sophisticated audience and less in your insulting assumptions. Please don’t sabotage something this good again, ever.

So, all in all, the 2009 reimagining of “The Last House on the Left” is a tense horror flick that’s an unsettling and harrowing piece of cinema. Like the Wes Craven movie before it, Director lliadis is a talent to watch for the future of the genre. Whilst the final moments are the most enraging I’ve endured in recent memory, the excellence of the preceding 105 minutes is more than enough to recommend it to anyone. The remake may still lead us to question the entertainment value of such a grim story, but this film is one of the most interesting and complex remakes in recent memory. Very highly recommended… if you can avoid the second ending!

7.5 out of 10
This is a technically excellent genre flick that plays with the audience brilliantly until the ending, which is a complete cop-out… It could have been a modern masterpiece

"Mimic" (1993)

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro
Review based upon the Dimension DVD release

After the massive success of Guillermo Del Toro’s directorial debut “Chronos” in 1993, the Mexican-born auteur was invited to Hollywood for his next movie. Assembling an unusual cast including rising stars Mira Sorvino and Jeremy Northam, Del Toro’s American debut is based on a short story by Donald A. Wollheim. Produced by Weinstein’s Dimension films, “Mimic” is a very different picture to his previous work, but does the director sell out or does he manage to retain the artistic integrity that was so prevalent in his first feature?

An epidemic breaks out in Manhattan, threatening to kill every child in the city. Discovering the virus is transmitted by cockroaches, CDC advisor Dr Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) calls in entomologist Dr Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) to release a biologically altered strain of roach called the Judas breed into the sewers in an attempt to wipe out the disease. The solution seems to work, but three years later the two are called back to the city when people start to go missing under mysterious circumstances. As Tyler investigates she becomes convinced that the Judas breed has somehow mutated into something deadly; something that’s threatening to fight back. Enlisting the help of reluctant police officer Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), the team begin to search the sewers for evidence, only to be confronted with something that no one ever expected. But how has the Judas breed remained undetected for so long? And what exactly has it evolved into?

Guillermo Del Toro manages to bring the unique visual style he demonstrated in “Chronos” to the table with this flick, one that’s essentially a big-budget monster movie. It stands out in the Del Toro canon as probably his most obvious attempt at a blockbuster (“Hellboy” was more focussed on the character dynamics and humour than is present here), and while the screenplay he wrote with Matthew Robbins contains more Americanisms than in his other movies, there is still plenty of lush imagery to enjoy. “Mimic” looks great, thanks to some incredible sequences where Del Toro uses the ominous darkness of the sewer network to maximum effect, making the whole piece both unsettling and unnerving. The creature created by Rob Bottin (the man behind John Carpenter’s “The Thing”) looks suitably hideous and the preference given to animatronics over CGI means that the bug effects haven’t lost their impact over the 12 years since this flick was first released.

The violence is suitably understated, most of it taking place in half-shadow, but is nonetheless chilling. Del Toro makes gleeful use of SFX to emphasise the monster attacks, having the foresight to give the audience a chance to think for themselves rather than being given clear visual reference points. This works well with some of the characters too, as in several cases the viewer is left in the dark about the fate of certain individuals, adding solid aspects of tension to the events unfolding on screen.

The obvious problem with “Mimic” when comparing it to the rest of Del Toro’s work is that with a few momentary exceptions it simply doesn’t feel like one of his movies. It arguably lacks the subtlety and finesse that shines through pieces like “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”, and this is primarily down to the fact that “Mimic” is a monster flick where stock characters have a tendency to be wheeled out to play their standard roles in the narrative flow. However, if taking into account the conventions of this particular horror sub-genre, “Mimic” is a vastly superior entry and one which does still manage to have several aces up its sleeve in spite of the constraints present when working with this kind of story arc. A great example of this is the sequence with Leonard on the train tracks in the final few moments, as the audience expectation is so far removed from what actually unfolds on screen.

The cast perform well, Mira Sorvino being a particular standout as she wrangles with the morality of her decision to unleash the Judas breed without full testing, something which Del Toro explores carefully to give her character something of an anti-hero flavour. As usual, Charles S. Dutton is great here, filling his lines with pathos and humour and almost stealing every scene in which he appears. The rest tend to deliver performances you might expect from this kind of material, but they do make the best of their contribution to the overall impact.

When watched over ten years later, “Mimic” still holds up well and delivers an interesting premise with a unique visual style and some very tense moments. It might be a little predictable and lack the intellectual challenge of the other flicks in Del Toro’s directorial oeuvre, but it nevertheless offers up something that entertains solidly for 90 minutes. It might not be up to the standard of “Alien” or “The Thing”, but this picture has aged well and the parallels between this and the two “Hellboy” films are interesting to note. Considering this is only his second feature, “Mimic” shows conclusively what a unique vision Del Toro possesses; one which would take him from strength to strength for the rest of his career. This is a great horror movie which has plenty to recommend it. After all, how can you go wrong with big scary bugs?

7 out of 10
A monster movie which looks stunning even today... Del Toro manages to take his style to Hollywood and produces something that is incredibly enjoyable, if a little obvious in places

"Timecrimes" (2007)

Directed by Nacho Vigalondo
Review based upon the Optimum DVD release

Directed by Spanish first-timer Nacho Vigalondo from his own screenplay (which he also stars in), “Timecrimes” has been given a great deal of critical acclaim in addition to recently being picked up for a Hollywood remake. A hybrid of horror and science fiction, laying multiple timelines across what’s essentially a relationship story, does “Timecrimes” work as a viewing experience or is it an unintelligible mess?

Hector (Karra Elejalde) has just moved into a rundown new home with his wife Clara (Candela Fernandez). Whilst taking a break from rebuilding the property, Hector spies a mysterious girl in the forest (Barbara Goenaga) who seems to be in distress. Fighting his way through the trees to find her, Hector is attacked with a pair of scissors by a mysterious man wearing bandages. Being pursued by the figure, the terrified Hector runs onto a nearby property only to find a strange science experiment taking place. He meets the mysterious young man (Nacho Vigalondo) who instructs him to get into a tank of cloudy water to hide from his attacker. Upon being released from the chamber, Hector discovers that he’s been transported back in time to earlier the same day, putting into motion a chain of events that threaten to lead to a tragic end. Will Hector manage to return to his own time? And who is the bandaged man?

Similar in some narrative respects to Christopher Nolan’s “Memento”, Vigalondo’s flick is a superb example of the cinematic originality that seems to pour out of Europe these days. “Timecrimes” is an intelligent movie that treats its audience with a great deal of respect. At one point the character of Hector has crossed over his timeline several times over, and yet the film never over explains it, as you might expect if you were watching a Hollywood version. Instead Vigalondo allows the audience to figure it out, and the satisfaction given to the viewer by piecing together this jigsaw puzzle is very high indeed.

In addition to the intelligent concept and screenplay, “Timecrimes” has a lot of unsettling tension and horror, with some superb jumpy moments. These are generated as a result of the powerful slow burn this movie has; it really gets under your skin because the characters are so believable in the way they react and behave. Karra Elejalde as Hector strikes a perfect balance between fear and realisation, as his everyman character is catapulted into chaos with his only driver being the woman he loves. Barbara Goenaga also puts in a good performance, her role pivotal to the success or failure of the story on screen.

The horror within “Timecrimes” is quite subtle, but better for it. Prior to his feature debut here, Vigalondo directed a number of short films, and his visual style is very unnerving and evidently modelled on several key genre directors. The most obvious example is the beautiful closing shot, one that’s clearly modelled on the key panaglide sequence in Dario Argento’s “Tenebrae”. In both flicks the shot was used to travel from one side of a house, up over the roof and down to the other side, shot in one take to emphasise a key plot point. In “Timecrimes” this final shot establishes perfectly the implications of Hector’s actions, and Viglondo uses it to pitch-perfect effect. This is a very visual piece of work, and in combination with the grainy and washed-out colour scheme, the film looks stunning.

The effects are very minimal but used well, the focus at all times being on the characters and their predicament. Anything else is used purely to enhance the situations, making the key cast even more believable.

In short, “Timecrimes” is a wonderful European film that combines key horror and science fiction elements to create a wonderfully cohesive whole. Here is a film that delivers sharp twists and turns whilst always remaining one firm step ahead of the audience, demonstrating Vigalondo’s evident mastery of narrative in addition to the visual aspects. This story is already being developed for a remake, but “Timecrimes” is a very European film that’s unlikely to work as well in translation. It’s certain that unless Vigalondo is involved it’ll lack the beauty and brilliance of the original. From the evidence on offer here, Europe is at the heart of the cinematic revolution, and long may it continue. “Timecrimes” is a truly original picture, and one that should be seen by any discerning horror or movie fan.

9 out of 10
An understated gem… truly and quite simply brilliant

"Friday the 13th" (2009)

Directed by Marcus Nispel
Review based upon the US Warner Bros DVD release

After successful reboots of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Halloween” (certainly in terms of cash, anyway) it was really only a matter of time before someone decided to repeat the same formula for one of the key horror icons of the 1980’s: Jason Vorhees. Produced by Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes studio and directed by Marcus Nispel (the same team behind the “Texas” remake), how does this version of “Friday the 13th” fare compared to the original franchise?

The flick starts with five young friends taking a weekend break, ending up hiking to the outskirts of the notorious Camp Crystal Lake. Wade (Jonathan Sadowski) tells his friends about the urban legend of Jason Vorhees; a little boy who drowned while the counsellors were drinking and having sex instead of supervising the children. He explains that Mrs Vorhees was killed after she exacted her revenge on the camp staff, but that Jason came back and the body was never found. As the group sleep they’re picked off one by one until only Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti) remains. Six weeks later, a gang of college pals are staying with spoilt rich kid Trent (Travis Van Winkle) in his father’s cabin for a few days. On the way to their final destination they bump into Clay (Jared Padalecki), who’s Whitney’s brother and is searching the area desperately for his missing sibling. As strange sightings and disappearances occur all around them, Clay and Jenna (Danielle Panabaker) begin to realize who might be responsible for the terrors being unleashed… But what does Jason really want, and can he be stopped?

This is effectively the twelfth entry in the “Friday the 13th” franchise, and in rebooting the series screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have chosen to put the iconic character of Jason at the forefront of the narrative. Without giving too much away, the plot of the original Sean S. Cunningham version (who returns here to executive produce) is covered in the first three minutes, and instead this 2009 reimagining opts to increase the gore quotient massively instead. Before the credits roll (which takes an impressive twenty minutes) there are already numerous victims lying in Jason’s wake. The reality is that such an approach could be said to have one major disadvantage. Whilst this “Friday the 13th” starts off at a killer pace (no pun intended) and rarely pauses for breath as it moves from one innovative slaying to another, it lacks the suspense and mystery elements of the 1980 original which added a great deal of tension and boosted the final impact. It’s pretty clear that Shannon and Swift were inspired more by the sequels, as after 40 minutes Jason has already picked up his iconographic hockey mask; something he didn’t wear until part three in the original series.

Nevertheless this is a movie that does exactly what it sets out to do, which is to give Jason Vorhees the chance to exact his revenge on a group of nubile and sexually active teenagers who drink too much, smoke too much, and generally need to be taught the kind of lesson that only a machete can deliver. This modern take on the premise is well directed by Marcus Nispel, and contains enough killing sequences to keep every gore-fiend happy. None of these are as fresh as the arrow-through-the-neck sequence from the original “Friday”, but the effects are nevertheless top-notch. Axes, knives, screwdrivers and wood-chipping machines are all utilised to maximum effect, and there’s even a few jump shocks to be had here as well. Director of photography Daniel Pearl (who shot the original “Texas Chainsaw”) gives the whole piece a grimy and gritty feel whilst using light discerningly, especially during the scenes at Camp Crystal Lake.

Perhaps the biggest weakness of the 2009 “Friday” is the characterisation, which is rather unconvincing at times. A classic example is Trent, whose whiny brat antics evoke an interesting reaction when he finally meets Jason face-to-face. When examining the ensemble cast it’s really quite difficult to feel sympathy for any of them, as they behave in such a stereotypical manner. Nevertheless, this is indicative of most of the flicks within the series, so it’s rather difficult to blame the writers when they’re working to such a tried and tested formula. On the plus side there’s the dispatch of a key character towards the end, which comes so out of the blue that it adds substantially to the shock value. The performances from Jared Padalecki as Clay and Danielle Panabaker as Jenna are perhaps the best on offer here, and they manage to turn their one-dimensional characters into reasonably believable protagonists.

Overall, “Friday the 13th” is a solid and enjoyable reinvention of the classic franchise. It might not be challenging or original in its method and execution, but it gives the audience exactly what it aims to in terms of body count and sheer dumb fun. Most interestingly, here is a reboot that retains what most fans loved about the series, and as such is guaranteed to appeal to those who remember the original as well as those uninitiated to the antics of young Jason. One of the better remakes, which is interestingly directed and shot, “Friday the 13th” comes recommended to all genre fans wishing to take a trip down memory lane to the heady days of the 1980’s. It’s great to see that good genre icons never die, and based on the ways this ends a sequel is highly likely. Personally, I’m looking forward to going down to Camp Crystal Lake again in the not too distant future.

7 out of 10
A solid reimagining that gives Jason fans exactly what they want… let’s hope that the impending remake of “A Nightmare On Elm Street” delivers similar results

"A Nightmare On Elm Street" (1984)

Directed by Wes Craven
Review based upon the Entertainment DVD release

The success that transformed a pizza-faced child molester into the cult anti-hero of the 1980's is a wild unlikelihood that could've only happened in the horror genre. “A Nightmare on Elm Street” may well have been the single most influential horror film of the decade. The film spun a whole series of sequels (seven at current count with a remake in production), and created a unique new bogeyman in the character of Freddy Krueger, who appeared on T-shirts, lunchboxes, model kits, and even became a poster pin-up figure. Furthermore, it inspired a whole genre of horror films that rested in either blurring the dividing line between dream and reality, or featured a bogeyman returned from the grave to slice people up. It also served to make Robert Englund into a cult star. The movie also transformed the career of Wes Craven, who was until then a director who'd made a couple of strong ultra-violent independent horror films like “The Last House on the Left” and “The Hills Have Eyes”, and was constantly trying to break into the mainstream to become a major name in horror. The spawning of the “Elm Street” films into a franchise gave New Line Cinema the financial clout to move from a minor studio into a major frontline player, culminating in the massive success of “The Lord Of The Rings” trilogy.

Teenager Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) finds that she and a group of friends are all experiencing identical nightmares, where they're pursued by a burn-scarred figure in a hat who wields a razor-tipped glove. However, when the figure starts to mutilate them in their nightmares, they wake up to find cuts and burns on their skin in reality too. Nancy’s friend Tina (Amanda Wyss) is killed in the waking world, savagely dismembered by the figure in her dreams. Haunted by the same figure, Nancy discovers that he is Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), a child molester who was acquitted on a technicality. Their parents dragged away and burnt Krueger alive, and now he's returned to exact revenge on their children. Nancy desperately tries to stay awake with the help of boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp) to find a means of combating Krueger before it's too late...

Wes Craven’s films all resonate with a sense of the tenuousness of reality and the importance of dreams. “The Last House on the Left”, “Deadly Blessing”, and “Deadly Friend” all have striking dream sequences. Subsequent Craven films such as “The Serpent and the Rainbow” and “Shocker” feature villains who inhabit dreams and places of the imagination more so than the real world, while “The People Under the Stairs” features a couple who've transformed an ordinary house into a twisted reality that pops up with trapdoors and slides when least expected. Craven movies of the 1990's such as “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” and “Scream” have become preoccupied with meta-fiction; films where the dividing line between movie fiction and the audience watching the film is constantly being broken down and blurred. But Craven’s neurological horrors, and the blurring of reality and imagination, receive their most striking and most undiluted airing here in “Elm Street”.

At the time, rather than any grandly metaphysical grappling with the nature of dream and reality, Craven was only drawing upon the 1980's bogeyman figure that had been popularized through the success of “Halloween” and “Friday the 13th”, along with numerous sequels and imitations of either. For all that, Craven received a surprising number of problems in trying to find financing for “Elm Street”, with the idea being rejected by all the major studios. It was eventually made on a surprisingly low $1.8 million budget, where it was construed as no more than just another variant on “Halloween”.

The sequels diluted the character of Freddy Krueger until he was no more than an almost comic figure, popping up and dispatching teenage victims with campy one-liners. The sequels seem less directed than they are stage-managed by the effects and makeup people. “Elm Street” by contrast maintains Krueger as an effectively threatening presence, largely by keeping him almost entirely silent throughout. There's almost nothing in the way of novelty effects set pieces here, and those that do turn up tend to be chilling in comparison to those in the sequels. Quite simply, “Elm Street” is a dozen times more effective than almost all of the sequels put together. Craven evinces a genuine wildness to the visions he unleashes; the shadowy figure of Krueger pursuing victims with huge extended six-foot long clawed arms, soon-to-be teen idol Johnny Depp being sucked down into his bed and spat out in a gusher of blood, the wall above Heather Lagenkamp’s head that bulges out with a pair of hands as she sleeps, or the clawed hand that surfaces between her legs as she doses off in the bath only to try and drag her down into a gaping black hole. Special mention must go to the dispatch of Amanda Wyss, who in a moment of sheer terror is slashed to pieces while being dragged around the walls and ceiling of her bedroom.

However, considering the reputation the film holds, it also has an irritating crudeness at times. The dialogue and characters never rise above being the random victims of the average slasher film. Heather Lagenkamp gives an awfully vain and snooty performance, which is a major factor in working against the film’s sympathy. Craven also demonstrates the irritating willingness to throw away the self-created rules of the game he has set up for the purpose of a twist ending which reveals the nightmare isn’t over (although he did later insist that the ending wasn’t his but was forced on him by the studio).

The film makes an interesting comparison with “Dreamscape” released only a few months before this, which played the same idea with a Science Fiction angle but to far more banal ends. Two other interesting progenitors are Don Coscarelli’s “Phantasm”, a film which exists in a confidently surreal blurring line between dream and reality, and the little seen “The Sender” about a psychic psychiatric patient who has the ability to insert himself into people’s dreams.

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" is a classic of the 1980's, and one that single handedly created both an icon and a franchise that'll be forever associated with the genre. Containing some brilliant shocks and thrills which arguably look a little dated now but have still lost none of their impact, "Elm Street" is a great example of Wes Craven's talent for horror. Superbly written and directed, this is a picture that will always stand the test of time, and is one of the best horror flicks of the era. A must-see genre movie.

9 out of 10
Despite a few performance issues and some dated effects, this "Elm Street" really is a nightmare worth seeing... one of Wes Craven's best, with a terrifying central concept

"The Evil Dead" (1982)

Directed by Sam Raimi Review based upon the US Anchor Bay DVD release

Every few years a film comes along made on a non-existent budget that has either a ferocious determination to out and out scare an audience, or goes so over the top it becomes a comic book of the absurd, succeeding in maintaining itself with a level of energy and inventiveness that mainstream efforts lack. There are many examples of these sort of films; George Romero did it with “Night of the Living Dead” and “Dawn of the Dead”, Wes Craven managed it with “The Last House on the Left”, Tobe Hooper with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, John Carpenter with “Halloween”, Stuart Gordon with “Re-Animator”, and Peter Jackson with “Bad Taste”. Here, in his directorial debut, Sam Raimi did it too.

The picture opens as Ash (Bruce Campbell), Scott (Hal Delrich), Shelly (Theresa Tilly), Linda (Betsy Baker) and Cheryl (Ellen Sandweiss) go up to a mountain cabin for the weekend. In the cellar they find a book bound in human skin, and a tape-recording left by a professor who once lived there, intoning rites that raise the dead. Soon after the tape is played, one of the girls is raped by the trees in the forest and returns possessed by demonic forces. She attacks the others with insane ferocity and strength before she is subdued and locked in the cellar. But her bite infects others, and the remaining friends are forced to fight off the possessed who will not die even when hacked up and dismembered...

“The Evil Dead” emerged out of nowhere in 1982. It was made on a budget of only $50,000, shot by a group of friends over several years. Thanks in no small part to a judicious Stephen King quote in the promotion, it was propelled to considerable success. Raimi happily borrows from “Night of the Living Dead”, “The Exorcist”, and a good deal of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, and throws them all together with huge success. Indeed, the film bears many resemblances to a small Lovecraft influenced film “Equinox”, but Raimi fires up his version with an extraordinary energy all of its own.

“The Evil Dead” hits in with enormous vigour and an immense degree of directorial assurance on Raimi’s part. The dead spurt, splatter, snarl, bite their own hands off and use them as weapons, get hacked up by axes, get shot in the face, staked, have their eyeballs gouged out, and finally spend several minutes deliquescing into a psychedelic goo. One set piece follows another in quick unrelenting succession, and there isn’t a dull moment. It’s frankly best described as an entirely kinetic film. It's quite a remarkable achievement to be able to pack a film as wall-to-wall as this using only a cast of five, and without concern for any of the usual romantic subplots that can bog such movies down. In fact, the scenes of dialogue that intersperse the carnage in some ways only detract from the action that either precedes or follows them.

What you can't deny about it all is the enormous confidence Raimi brings as a director. Even though he was only shooting in 16mm, Raimi and his crew built home made dollies and cranes, and his camera as it moves from the point of view of the demonic forces prowling through the forest, circling the house and creeping up on cast members, has an assurance that besets many better-budgeted films.

If Herschell Gordon Lewis with his various grotty splatter films such as “Blood Feast”, and George Romero with his splatter epic “Dawn of the Dead”, had put an end to the old horror chestnut about the scariest things being those that remain unseen, then “The Evil Dead” surely nailed the lid on that coffin once and for all. Where Romero in “Dawn of the Dead” created an extraordinary epic fascinated with the ways that zombies could be dismembered and splattered, “The Evil Dead” could be like the same sort of film directed by a hyper-caffeinated speed freak. Both “The Evil Dead” and “Re-Animator” a few years later, created the late 80's/early 90's popcorn splatter film, all centred around wildly over the top gore effects and frequently gratuitous nudity. While the commercial end of these films were the "Elm Street" sequels, the undisputed genius in the field was Peter Jackson.

It is hard to believe that all of this, ludicrously unserious as it is, caused a storm of controversy in some places. In Germany the film was banned, in the UK the tree rape sequence was cut with the film later becoming one of the most notorious Video Nasties. Of course, by the time of the sequels Raimi had tamed the ferocity down somewhat - each of the sequels becomes progressively lighter and more slapstick in tone, until by the time of “Army of Darkness” it's a stretch to even really call it horror at all.

The most iconographic member of the "Evil Dead" cast is Ash played by Bruce Campbell. The only actor to reprise his role in the two sequels, Campbell has gone on to become something of a B-Movie horror icon, even writing his own autobiography called “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor”. It's worth bearing in mind though that those who come to “The Evil Dead” after seeing Campbell’s other work or even the other “Evil Dead” films are usually a little disappointed, as Ash the comic hero is not a character that was really refined until the first sequel, and he's played relatively more straight-faced here in the original film.

Sam Raimi's "The Evil Dead" is a splatter filled delight. Frantic and fast, the whole thing never lets up or gives the audience a chance to draw breath. Similar to "Bad Taste" in many ways, "The Evil Dead" is a brilliant directorial debut, and an exercise in how to mix humour with gore and horror to the ultimate effect. A genre work that will always stand the test of time.

10 out of 10
It's "The Evil Dead"... what other recommendation do you need?

"Feed" (2005)

Directed by Brett Leonard
Review based upon the Showbox DVD release

“Feed” is a strange and rather uncomfortable film to watch. A film the blatantly mixes obesity and force-feeding with sexual gratification is always going to be a tough flick. Very much in the mould of David Fincher’s “Seven”, this Australian film directed by Brett Leonard (who all but disappeared after “The Lawnmower Man”) is an interesting piece of work, but is it one to gorge or spit out?

Phillip Jackson (Patrick Thompson) works for the Australian police in the cyber-crimes unit, tracking down illegal activity on the Web and reporting it to the various authorities to investigate. Concerned that his work isn’t being acted upon quickly enough, when he stumbles across a strange website called ‘Feeder-X’ he decides to take matters into his own hands. The clues lead to Ohio in the USA, where Michael Carter (Alex O’Loughlin) seems to be the man behind ‘Feeder-X’. But as Phillip’s sanity frays and his relationships crumble, will he find out the true intention of the website? And will he be too late to save himself…?

“Feed” is a serial killer movie with a very interesting concept; if a woman truly wants to eat herself into life-threatening obesity, is it murder if they’re aided? The problem here is that the premise is explored rather clumsily. At points “Feed” is very dialogue heavy, and feels almost like a stage play two-hander. It’s all very interesting and well written by Kieran Galvin, but it highlights another problem; that Brett Leonard can’t really direct action scenes or create tension very well. In fact, he directs the actors themselves better than sequences or moments. This is probably why a lot of the movie seems quite slow, even when it should be fast paced. “Feed” seems to lack a sense of urgency.

Nevertheless, Leonard and his cast really do wring every last drop of revulsion from the obesity and sex correlation that the screenplay highlights. The film opens by making a bold statement: that the story is fiction but based on actual behaviours, and it’s the accuracy of this statement that adds to the disturbing feel of the piece. In addition, Leonard doesn’t skimp on the gratuitous nudity or gross-out factor, which does give the picture a welcome sense of black humour. “Feed” at times feels very much like an exploitation movie such as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, where the audience is subjected to watching someone being effectively tortured for the whole running time.

The performances are perhaps where the film loses some of its integrity. Patrick Thompson is a little unbelievable in the role; his performance a little stilted. It feels almost like you’re watching Aussie-soap “Neighbours” at points, which isn’t a recommendation. The main villain played by Alex O’Loughlin fares much better, coming across as a real sociopath even if it’s a little stereotypical sometimes. The supporting cast are solid, if a little flat (no pun intended).

From a technical standpoint, there is little gore here but a great deal of visual focus on the force-feeding which looks repulsive. The whole movie is shot on digital, giving the piece a rough and realistic look that enhances the overall impact. Brett Leonard delivers some well-shot segments with contrasting colours and lighting, but the overuse of layering and jump cuts to add tension just tends to fall a little flat, as it’s overused.

Unfortunately “Feed” has one major Achilles heel, which is the ending. After setting up an interesting premise and concept, the final 3 minutes almost undermine all the character dynamics, something that isn’t helped by the sudden appearance of a dead-ringer for Robinson Crusoe. There’s an alternative ending on the DVD that simply adds more length to a closing sequence that already makes little narrative sense and feels tagged on.

Overall, “Feed” is an average serial killer horror movie which has a good idea but is let down by a dialogue-heavy script and a silly ending. Brett Leonard clearly has some talent but needs to rely less on technical tricks to cover the cracks, and work on developing tension through mise-en-scène. A worthwhile watch for the atmosphere it develops, “Feed” has some good moments and the performance of Alex O’Loughlin to save it from mediocrity. Nowhere near as good as “Seven”, this is worth a watch, but due to the theme this is one to be approached with caution.

5.5 out of 10
Nicely shot and containing some shocks, “Feed” is a reasonable movie… but certainly not for everyone

"Day of the Dead" (2008)

Directed by Steve Miner
Review based upon the Optimum DVD release

In 2004, Zak Snyder directed the remake of George A. Romero’s “Dawn of the Dead”, which despite outcries initially from many fans has gone on to become widely regarded as a great horror film in its own right. Snyder updated zombie lore by making the undead fast, gory and vicious, helped massively by a great screenplay from James Gunn. It was only a matter of time before the same thing was attempted with “Day of the Dead”, the direct sequel to “Dawn” in the Romero canon. The original “Day of the Dead” took place almost entirely in a military bunker, with the world outside overrun with zombies. Romero agonised over the validity and futility of life, and again creating a brilliant allegory to life and military control in the mid 1980’s. But how does the remake of this flick compare to the original vision as well as the Zak Snyder reboot of “Dawn of the Dead”?

Sarah Bowman (Mena Suvari) lives in a small town in Colorado, where she joins the armed forces. Called in to enforce the quarantine for a mysterious outbreak, her commanding officer Captain Rhodes (Ving Rhames) partners her with new recruits Bud Crain (Stark Sands) and Salazar (Nick Cannon) to keep the local public in order. But as the virus turns all the infected into ravenous zombies, the three are forced to fight for their lives while Sarah is desperate to rescue her brother Trevor (Michael Welch) from the other side of town…

Unlike Snyder’s “Dawn” remake, “Day of the Dead” bears almost no resemblance to the original source material, and is all the worse for it. Directed by old hand Steve Miner, who seems to have spent his whole career drumming up sequels that are nowhere near as good as the original (the first two “Friday the 13th” follow-ups and the dreadful “Halloween: H20” for instance), he applies the same law of diminishing returns here. Miner clearly has talent but doesn’t use it enough, choosing instead to saddle himself with some truly awful scripts like this one by Jeffrey Reddick. His screenplay for “Day of the Dead” is filled with clichés and non-existent scares, and Reddick obviously twists the lore to suit his own agenda just because he thinks it’ll look cool. A classic example here is the way that badly rendered CGI zombies can for no apparent reason run along walls and ceilings. Not only is it insulting to the genre fan, but it also looks dreadful when completed on such a low budget. Some of Reddick’s dialogue is laugh-lout-loud funny at the most unintentional moments, characters spouting drivel like “the virus… I can feel its malevolence spreading”, and talking about killing zombies as “kinda gangster”. Romero wrote with such pinpoint accuracy in the original, but dialogue like this undermines the characters and tensions completely. Reddick even throws a creepy scientist into the mix as well, just to be even more predictable.

Unfortunately, the problems don’t just start and end with the printed word. The cast is a very strange mixture that doesn’t gel, with Mena Suvari totally out of her depth as Sarah Bowman, never convincing as an army officer even when she spits orders at people. Ving Rhames seems cast just to create a tenuous link with Zak Snyder’s remake, as his character serves no real purpose and isn’t even the same as it was in “Dawn”. Overall the acting is almost as shoddy as the zombie makeup, which when combined with cringe-inducing dialogue results in characters that no one cares about.

The most obvious similarity between this version of “Day of the Dead” and Romero’s original is the concept of a zombie evolving to retain memories and links to the human survivors. In the original, the medical team within the bunker used the character of Bub to try and find a cure while attempting to understand his need to feed on flesh. In Miner’s remake, the friendly zombie serves no other purpose but to conveniently save the cast at a key moment, and his reluctance to eat living flesh is supposedly addressed through the original character’s vegetarian tendencies before he became infected. This is perhaps the most disappointing moment of all, and where I felt my intelligence was so insulted that I was on the verge of stopping the flick and going to watch the original instead. In Romero’s “Day of the Dead” the character of Bub was sympathetic, but in Miner’s hands the whole concept simply becomes pathetic instead.

This version of “Day of the Dead” is at best insulting, and at worst a travesty. Building to a ridiculous A-Team / McGuyver conclusion where they conveniently manage to get locked into a room with all the tools needed to wipe out the zombies, the whole picture is predictable and by the numbers. Miner’s overuse of dutch angles and jump cuts between scenes is still evident and becomes rapidly irritating, and the cast are wasted on a dumb script that could’ve been written on the back of a napkin (and probably was). Some of the production values are solid, especially the moments where the hospital is besieged by the undead, but even that sequence can’t save a film that’s so badly executed.

“Day of the Dead” is one of the worst remakes I’ve seen, and should have the title stripped from it, as it bears no similarity to the seminal 1985 classic. Somehow Steve Miner still manages to keep working in Hollywood, but hopefully this’ll be the last script we see from Jeffrey Reddick who is the worst culprit here. It might look nice in parts, but this is a horror film without the horror, and that makes the whole exercise futile and misguided. Avoid at all costs, and see the original instead.

1.5 out of 10
Apart from one or two scenes this all goes spectacularly wrong… funny when it should be scary, this is a terrible film and exhibit number one for those who want to stop Hollywood’s incessant need to remake classic horror

"Plague Town" (2008)

Directed by David Gregory
Review based upon the US Dark Sky DVD release

David Gregory has been working forever in the horror industry, owning a two video labels and directing a multitude of impressive documentaries for Anchor Bay DVD releases. Gregory has always had a strong affiliation for 70’s and 80’s independent horror; he used to organise festivals showing shockers like “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, “The Last House on the Left”, and “I Spit on your Grave”. It comes as no great surprise then to learn that Gregory’s feature debut (it’s been some 15 years coming) harks back to those glory days. From a creative force who should theoretically know the genre better than most, has “Plague Town” been worth the wait?

The film opens with American tourists Jerry (David Lombard) and Annette (Lindsay Goranson) accompanied by his two daughters Molly (Josslyn DeCrosta) and Jessica (Erica Rhodes) travelling to a remote Irish location by bus to seek out their family roots. Jessica’s English boyfriend Robin (James Warke) comes along for the ride, creating tensions within the group for what was intended to be a uniting family getaway. Teenager Molly sees strange child-like figures in the woods, and becomes increasingly unnerved until they get lost and miss the last bus back to civilisation. Stranded in a strange location as night falls around them, the family are seemingly under assault from a strange group… one that appears to originate from the nearby village where time has stood still…

“Plague Town” is a very interesting and unusual movie for a variety of reasons. Released by his own Dark Sky production company, David Gregory’s film is the absolute antithesis of the glossy mainstream fare released with such regularity. Here is a dark, grainy, grubby and rough picture that’s wholly intended to look and feel that way. Most low budget horror flicks aspire to higher production values but simply don’t have the resources to deliver, opting instead to cut back in certain key places that can be quite jarring. Gregory clearly intended “Plague Town” to be exactly as it appears; his vision being the creation of a modern day “Texas Chainsaw” movie. Therefore, what begins as something of a shock to the system (the opening actually possessing all the hallmarks of an amateur first-time effort like Peter Jackson’s “Bad Taste”) soon becomes wholly immersive as this is a fascinating experiment in audience manipulation, being genuinely filled with dread and unease. The writer and director has already shown he can do glossy and professional with his documentaries, but he’s made decisions here based around not only the kind of movie he loves but also the reactions he wants to generate.

The first thirty minutes is very reminiscent of “Texas Chainsaw”, presenting characters with inner conflict (Jerry is planning to marry Annette, who isn’t the mother of his two daughters), and these dynamics are used within the narrative to enable the splintering process which separates them, ultimately leading to violence and gut-wrenching chaos. However, “Chainsaw” arguably lacked the sense of reality so embedded into “Plague Town”; Hooper’s characters were largely unsympathetic whereas Gregory’s are far more engaging. As the group splits up some nasty fates await them, and there are some quite shocking moments here (the effects work looks largely realistic, enhanced by the overall style) that are enhanced via tense editing and a noisy SFX led soundtrack.

Despite the low budget, “Plague Town” has a lot of gore and a myriad of original set pieces. It also contains probably one of the longest death scenes in recent memory, where one character is shot, stabbed in the neck and then hung in a truly unique way. Gregory even has the courage to add black comedy to the mix here by having the antagonists pelt the unfortunate soul with pinecones as a final insult! Supplementary to the violence is a familiar current theme of children as pure evil, and although flicks like “Eden Lake”, “The Children” and “Them” have tackled this in a conventional fashion, “Plague Town” adds a genetic twist which manages to give the conceit a very different spin.

Perhaps the biggest issue with this picture are the performances, which are a little shaky at points, and something a more seasoned director could’ve addressed. Ironically though, this actually adds to the 70’s feel and the viewer quickly adjusts. It’s also worth bearing in mind that Josslyn DeCrosta as Molly undoubtedly becomes more assured as the film progresses. She is certainly the most capable actress here and portrays the character with a wholly appropriate sense of strength and realism.

From a technical perspective the flick maximises the use of Irish scenery, utilising the remote locations to great effect. In addition, the editing and pacing serve to wring every last drop of tension from the piece, an obvious example being the two scenes in a remote farmhouse. These combine the sense of isolation with dark visuals, inspire use of editing and shadows to give serious weight to the sting that ensues.

“Plague Town” is clearly a labour of love, and has been constructed intelligently to mimic the underground horror hits of the 1970’s and 80’s by utilising modern concerns and themes. Building slowly to a reign of violence against the protagonists, Gregory’s flick is filled with interesting imagery and genuinely unnerving moments. For those who enjoy their terror raw and brutal, this entry will be something to talk about for months. Sure it’s not glossy or glamorous, but it foes exactly what it sets out to. David Gregory has more than graduated from documentaries, taking his love of the genre and painting it in almost every frame. A film that really makes the most of its production values, “Plague Town” is a twisted piece that deserves to be seen and lauded in the UK where its vision will be greatly appreciated. Very highly recommended indeed… but you might not want to see some remote Irish scenery for some time afterwards!

8.5 out of 10
Gregory proves to be a visionary with this powerful homage… don’t miss it

"Babysitter Wanted" (2008)

Directed by Jonas Barnes & Michael Manasseri
Review based upon the Lionsgate DVD release

A very low budget direct to DVD genre entry, “Babysitter Wanted” has been praised in many quarters for offering a story that leads the audience in one direction before moving into a wholly different viewing experience. Borrowing aspects from “Halloween”, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Omen”, does this movie really manage to pull of this interesting and rather diverse hybrid of ideas?

Angie Albright (Sarah Thompson) is a god-fearing eighteen year-old who leaves her hometown to study art history at college. Upon arrival things are not quite as she’d hoped, as she lives with a rather difficult roommate and inexplicably feels an anonymous stranger is stalking her. Befriending fellow student Rick (Matt Dallas), Angie takes a job as a babysitter for the Stanton’s: a couple who live out in the middle of nowhere with their young son Sam. During her first night looking after the boy, Angie receives several disturbing phone calls that lead to the house being besieged by her stalker. But is everything as it appears to be, and what does the mysterious figure want with her?

Directed by first-timers Jonas Barnes and Michael Manasseri, “Babysitter Wanted” falls into an emerging trend of horror films where the plot seems to be leading the audience in one direction, only to pull the rug out from under the viewer during the second half and completely shift the focus in another direction. “[REC]” achieved this feat for the zombie movie and “Martyrs” did the same for religious horror. “Babysitter Wanted” attempts to do the same thing for the slasher flick, opening as a “Halloween” wannabe and then throwing everything up in the air some forty-five minutes in. Whilst there’s always a danger that such a massive narrative gamble might make things fall apart, the major twist works here and as such takes the picture in a direction that is altogether more interesting.

The movie also contains a great deal of genuinely suspenseful moments, especially at the beginning where a lot of emphasis is place upon the supernatural and religious art history Angie is studying. The moment in the lecture theatre where someone appears from the shadows is particularly effective, and such a key sequence to watch for.

In addition to the tension created by the directors, the bloody effects are also rather good and although underplayed (most likely due to financial issues) they’re well executed and edited to allow maximum use of limited resources. Several sections in the final thirty minutes or so are very reminiscent of Tobe Hooper’s “Texas Chainsaw”, and this is no doubt intentional. However, whereas Hooper chose to leave the most vicious moments to the imagination of the audience, Barnes and Manasseri prefer to attempt a full reveal, which arguably could’ve been achieved more successfully with fewer shots of carcasses being carved up (they look too much like animals anyway) and more focus on the reaction of the victims instead.

Performances are generally more than adequate for the material, with Sarah Thompson as Angie being particularly strong. She carries the movie, appearing in almost every frame, creating the character that’s both realistic and engaging. It’s also great to see genre favourite Bill Moseley appear as Chief Dinelli, a brief role that still gives the actor a chance to deliver a performance that adds to the overall mystery of the first half.

The pacing and editing is very polished, with the grating and screeching SFX soundtrack again reminiscent of Hooper’s masterwork. It adds great depth to some of the jump scares (of which there are several), but could also be said to saddle the film with an unwanted comparison that it simply cannot live up to.

“Babysitter Wanted” is an interesting hybrid of a film that ultimately works as a cohesive whole. Building up to a shocking twist and a brutal close that’s reminiscent of “Them” and “The Omen”, this picture contains enough horror staples and themes to warrant close attention. Entertaining and surprising, “Babysitter Wanted” is a solid genre entry that’s well putting up an ad for on your local college noticeboard…

7 out of 10
An impressive debut that’s a movie of two halves… a film that houses scares and shocks alike