Horror

HERE COMES THE DEVIL ‘Ah Hi Va el Diablo’ (2012)

HERE_COMES_THE_DEVIL_FINAL

In the tradition of Hammer, Grand Guignol and the master of Italian horror Dario Argento,comes this Spanish tale of a family ripped apart by a strange encounter with a hill.

Mood and soundscape is the key to the horror here; the use of sound to provoke fear in the audience is very effective. This is eerie at its best. There are plenty of quick zoom shots that at first seem a little kitsch and outdated but after a while add to the unsettling nature of the story. There is one scene with an excessive use of stage blood (Argento homage) but otherwise this is predominantly an exercise in atmosfear.

A mother and father allow their kids to go up a hill while they stay in the car and what happens next is not for the faint of heart.
The mother and father jump to a conclusion and are consumed by the need for revenge.
Revenge is the best medicine if your preferred medicine of choice is poison.
It’ll get you in the end.
If the stories have taught us anything it’s that it’ll eat you up and you will equally be punished.

Here Come the Devil plays on your fears as the devil is wont to do and takes you on a journey you’re unlikely to forget.

The last shot is so disturbing in its ordinariness.
Evil takes its roots where it can, amongst the weak and easily influenced.

A truly unsettling film.

3.5/5

BUY THE BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE

WOLF CREEK 2 (2014)

9keEb4xYAo732LBvtne2YZYvEnJ

How do you keep the wolf from the creek?

Avoid the creek like the plague.

This film shouldn’t have been made. It really is irredeemable, offensive and unnecessary.

Recently in Australia, Margaret & David, the hosts of ABC’s At The Movies, refused to review it. They totally should have and ripped into it and talked about how racist, misogynistic and downright nasty it was. But then that would have opened them up to criticism and maybe they just didn’t have the bottle. They represent middle Australia (if that phrase even exists). I don’t watch their show, I don’t have a television in my house, but it comes to something when they refuse to review something. Most of their viewers will probably not watch it, fair enough, but if you refuse to review a film, surely we all know that that will give it more publicity.

My fear with a film like this is that it perpetuates a stereotype in the way that Mick Taylor thinks and I have to ask where does his drive come from? I’m not over thinking this, merely asking questions.
Pure xenophobia?
It seems that way.

Especially in this second outing, there were racist undertones in the first one but not dwelled upon. Not against people of colour, against anyone who wasn’t Australian.

He is in the same league as Freddy Krueger (burned to death by the parents), Jason Voorhees (rage at drowning as a child), Norman Bates (mother issues), Michael Myers (pure evil bogeyman)…Mick Taylor (racist/misogynist/death merchant).

We were sat behind a young man and his girlfriend and he was laughing a lot at the quips Mick was coming out with during excessive violent behaviour. It was seriously weird. The tone wasn’t tongue in cheek enough for it to be funny, just disturbing.

Like I said at the beginning-Avoid.

UPDATE-Almost 9 years after seeing this film I may have been far too harsh in this review and overly influenced by the experience of sitting behind the couple in front of us and being offended by their ignorant amusement of racist tropes. The point is that Mick is a nasty bastard and represents all the ignorance and small mindedness that exists not just in Australia but the world over. The 1/5 was too harsh.
The film may not have been as bad as I said…….The 2 television series were both great.

1/5

BUY IT ON BLU-RAY DVD HERE

DOWNLOAD THE FILM ON iTUNES HERE