House of the Devil - A Most Accurate Title

Having heard a little about this young American upstart Ti West and his well-reviewed forays into the world of horror, I decided to bend this bad puppy over a barrel and show it the 49 states. It's an extended homage to the horror of the 1970s and 1980s, almost to a fault, but 'almost' is the key word there because it really cannot be poked with a stick of heavy criticism. To date, this is the scariest film I have tackled in that it provided the most mounting sense of dread that really just peaked for 20 minutes straight. And all the lads who hit the town with yours truly know I love peaking. It's truly fantastically retro.

Samantha (the incredibly, stunningly good looking Jocelin Donahue) needs a bit of dough to move out of her college accommodation (loose...), so agrees to take on a mysterious babysitting job. Her friend (Greta Gerwig, who I love as a comedic actress) drops her off, then stuff starts to get weird. It turns out the couple that hired her actually need her to look after the dude's elderly mother. Samantha is understandably about to leave, but he persistently offers her more and more money until she accepts ($400? That's, like, over $1000 in today's dollars! That's more than 100 sacks of goon! Don't even pretend you wouldn't accept...). Yeah, shit gets real. But it takes a while to do so. And the couple - and indeed the house too - aren't what they seemed to be...

I just have a strong desire to talk about the stylishness of this number - the 80s are back and they're as fresh as they've ever been. From the opening credits (yellow text over freeze frames of our heroine dancing) to the preference of zooming in on characters as opposed to dollying in, there are so many touches that you appreciate. West even shot this on 16mm film as a throwback to the technical heyday (of the day...classic). The Fixx's awesome track One Thing Leads To Another makes a special appearance and is so perfectly matched to the period displayed on screen that I just had to download it and blast it out of my speakers (200W of dedicated bass - St. Joooohn's College) to calm myself down before bedtime. You can enjoy it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHYIGy1dyd8, and I recommend it highly. The production design is really kitschy, from the interior of the titular house which looks like your grandparents' place where you're not allowed to touch anything and it's all been sitting there since the War, to the pizzeria they visit early in the film that makes you want to go somewhere that they sell large single slices of margherita and go to town on those golden wedges of dairy... The period is recreated nicely, and West's love letter to those films that peaked in the Satanic panic of the 80s brings the swagger to what it sets out to do. Right down to the closing credits, which play again in yellow text over a dramatic freeze frame, The House of the Devil nails this goal of flattery via imitation.

The acting is uniformly fine - I was especially surprised (though not unpleasantly so) to note that Donahue is usually a model, as she acquits herself wonderfully, and you can absolutely sympathise with everything she does. Gerwig is the epitome of 80s movies best friends, all hip and filled with concern for her mate that is exuded with a kind of sassiness. But the movie is stolen by Tom Noonan, who may be familiar from bit roles in Manhunter, Heat and Synechdoche, New York. He plays the man who hires Samantha, and he just exudes creepiness. His voice is soothing to the extreme, and it feels so out of place in a horror movie that you want to knock him out - you know he's suss, and watching Sam get pulled into his web is all the more terrifying for it. He's also a giant, and at 2 metres tall he just looks so damn out of place. His performance is subtle in the extreme and that gentle giant vibe gets so messed up in the denouement that you get frightened purely by his presence, even though (SPOILER ALERT), he's not even the devil (nor even a distant relative of the devil).

One last note - West is brilliantly uncompromising. The ending is one of the most crushing I've yet encountered, the editing (which he tackled himself) is bold and effective, and there are some seriously 'pow' moments where you as the viewer gets floored. The final 20 minutes are just balls to the wall horror. The paranoia and atmosphere just ride out the last act with absolute dominance. Two stand-out moments for me were (DON'T READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU PLAN ON WATCHING) the discovery of the hair in the bathtub and the ensuing hysteria (I was literally laughing because I was that shitscared), and also Samantha's return to consciousness after the drugged pizza. The partnership of slow flashes of vision building up to a cacophony of strings and kinetic scene revelation is masterful. Bravo.
My main men Esteban and Albert von Hammerschmidt Esquire (making his virgin post), will now enlighten you as to their respective takes on Ti West's 2009 opus...

Esteban's input:

Boy oh boy, guys and ladies, is there something special that I have lined up for you this day!

House of the Devil? Dear me, indeed. Not for ones that are scary, this is a real adults film, such is the horror! The movie begins with a pretty girl, which was very pleasing, but soon a twist is made, for the worse in actual fact! Soon, this pretty girl is made to babysit a house not suitable for babysitting, oh no. you will be white on the knuckles, the momentum of fear is so. When watching, I had to cover the majority of my eyes hahahahaha. It will reduce the most muscular and adventurous man to a whiny heap of a girl. Applause given to the director for piecing together such a great video which will keep you on your toes!

My favourite suggestion by my awesome mate Callie so far, I will award the movie a rating of most likely.

Albert von Hammerschmidt's input (transcribed by Eastern European Butler # 4):
Let me be completely clear from the beginning. I have no desire to write for this blog, however after  illegally exposing myself to an ice-cream truck, the judge deemed that I had to write for this blog as community service. I first saw this film in my Spanish villa and thought to myself: I really must buy another yacht. Ti West is a serious pleb (I mean his name's Ti) and I would only ever consider using him as an Asian chauffeur (obviously after race re-assignment in a surgery in Switzerland). This was a low-budget film which automatically makes it shit, as anything low budget is shit, just like Mercedes and Grey Goose. The most disturbing part of the film for me was the fact that the main female protagonist was okay with doing a night's worth of work for only $400. I've calculated that taking inflation into account this amounted to about $1000. This to me shows that she was already under some form of demonic possession, as I cannot fathom any other reason for agreeing to this Somalian-esque scale of pay.
I give this film a 2 Blue Labels out of 5 (please note that a 5 King George II JW out of five is the highest awardable score, just on a higher scale of overall excellence).
One post done, 16 mentally scarred minors worth of posts to go.

All in all, I'm super glad I caught this. I really want to see West's other work, and I hope to catch his debut The Roost in the next couple of weeks. He is technically very solid and his sense of timing and place are impeccable. Just good stuff all round. I'm awarding this 2850 fathoms out of a league, and I am supremely hopeful for his upcoming contribution to the anthology V/H/S.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SOur3WwZvM

Dog Soldiers - Their Bite Is Worse Than Their Bark

I've hit my first werewolf movie, a true cornerstone of the genre (I'd also like to nominate vampires, ghosts and slashers assuming that there are four cornerstones in this rectangular structure... any suggestions?). It's an occasion worth celebrating, possibly on the full moon and definitely with a nice bottle of red to set the mood. And what a way it is to start with generating an acquaintance with our furry friends indeed - Dog Soldiers is yes, 'a bitch of a werewolf movie' (cheers Loaded). It can be summed up very succinctly as a rip-roaring boys' own thriller. Top stuff.

When a group of Scottish soldiers are dropped off in their picturesque highlands for a war games type exercise against a squad of their special ops blokes, you pump up for some cool, underdog fighters tale. Then they locate the special ops lads - or what's left of them anyway. You guessed it, lycanthropes abound, and it happens to be a full moon. And they happen to have just broken their radio. And they happen to not have much live ammo (it is a training exercise after all...). And there happens to be one special ops survivor to tell them all what happened in a mysteriously cryptic manner. And they happen to be in serious fucking trouble. They have to band together to defeat this supernatural threat, and without any silver bullets, they have a hell of a time doing it.



This comes from Neil Marshall, who really backed himself in this one, writing, directing and editing his feature-length debut, but it's almost the total opposite of his follow-up The Descent (reviewed here at http://terrorbites.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/descent-is-there-anyone-there.html). Most obviously, there's the all male cast in direct contrast to the girl power of his earlier effort. Then there's the fundamental difference of the scare provision: evolved cave creepers vs. werewolves. And finally, the pace of the flick - this ramps up quick and holds the accelerator down as opposed to his underground gradual build up through the gears (car metaphors increase my sense of manliness).

All the members of the squadron are effectively fleshed out, though they tend to blur into each other with similar accents and uniforms. There are nice touches that endear them to the viewers, like the one bloke who just wants to watch the footy - I can totally empathise - or the back story of our protagonist Private Cooper who's too good a bloke to follow orders for orders' sake. You care when they die (and believe me, die they do). And on that note there are some nice deaths. If you're in the zone for a little gore and a cheeky slashing or two, you will not be disappointed here.

The creature design is very cool. The wolves are mean, really tall and kinda lean and just plain angry looking. It's a low budget production, but Marshall and his crew stretch it effectively (filming in Luxembourg may have helped), so you get to see enough of the creatures to keep you satisfied. Their design is phenomenally smart in that they're effectively just big guys wearing a bit of body paint, some extra hair and a fake lupine head. Hence it's not too much of a stretch to show them off, which is always nice in a creature flick. Marshall holds a full reveal off long enough to maintain tension and generate viewer excitement for the big moment, and as I've made clear, it's not a disappointment. The transformation from man to wolf that you are privy to is effective (though doesn't really hold a match to any Rick Baker stuff - not really a concern though, few make-up artists could these days) and intense enough to get you a little wet behind the ears.

The music is well suited to the action/thrills that the film-makers are going for, and there is some pretty funky lensing going down. Like the poster suggests, there seems to be an abundance of blue in the palette which sets the night nicely and looks properly spooky when playing across a swathe of blood. The use of what can only be described as 'wolf cam' is also cool, and just allows a bit of chill out time while listening to an amplified heartbeat whilst stalking victims - always a great way to cool down after some explosions and whatnot. You may think I'm overusing the word 'cool', but I disagree - it's just a cool movie.

One minor problem - it's not really scary. It's cool as hell (I said it again), and who doesn't love a bit of cheeky gore, but there's never really a feeling of terror. It's also a tad predictable in parts, though as the central twist develops you enjoy watching it coming. However these are only minor flaws in what is a great debut. It's just not a great horror debut. But just enjoy the ride and you won't go far wrong.

Esteban will now fill you in with his slightly challenged view of the film:
Hey mates!

The Dog Soldier: What the film! A big one for all you boys out there, yeah! I can make big bets many people will exclaim when they see this movie. In terms of a blurb, the story goes about a guy and his friends who are thrust into a bad environment, with human cats! Of course the beasts are fake, because these creatures don't exist in the world, but the costumist must have used a lot of thinking. Some of the fights are super, with some critical martial arts performances and fast shooting. What was a surprising feature was the really pleasant music, which was relaxing in certain aspects.

Watch this movie with your Dad BUT NOT WITH YOUR MUM. I don't think girls will enjoy this movie.

So guys, my final rate of it. I will give it 8 points out of 11. I don't know why i robbed it of 3, I just feel it's not as good as my favourites which tends towards 11's out of 11.

So to wrap up this shiznit, the epic conclusion. It's a fun one, and I can really recommend it, especially if you've enjoyed Neil Marshall's later works. It illustrates the nuanced understanding of the genre explored in The Descent, and the breakneck pace of Centurion. All in all, I award this piece of cinema 52 squares out of a chessboard - a worthy adversary indeed. Huzzah!

Catch the trailer at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_0Ej5N-hFQ (okay, pretty shitty trailer, but for a respectable flick)

The Descent Part 2 - How's This For A Good Idea...

Really? You're going back down? With the one survivor from the first film whom you very logically suspect is a psychotic slasher? And without telling anyone where you're headed except the creepy country bumpkin? I'll admit it from the outset that there are major plot holes to open this movie and get the camera back into the cave system that it loves so very much, but you have to expect that. To replicate the terror of the original, some excuse had to be generated to get Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) back into the place where she had experienced so much damn trauma. With this in mind, you can accept the gaping plot holes simply as a rudimentary plot mechanism access the setting that made the first one so great.

With that said, this is undoubtedly not a classic like the first film. Yeah, it's scary and intense and gutting and painful, but it's almost an imitation of the first but lacking some of its credibility and characteristics that set The Descent apart from other films. The all female cast is replaced with a more conventional coed sacrificial offering. The true human motivations are lost and replaced with some people doing really, really stupid things (I know what I'll do! I'll fire my gun in a creaking, unstable mineshaft structure! Hurrah!). Even our old friend Sarah - rather than explain to her new spelunking group the danger of their situation as her memory slowly recovers the events of the first film - simply runs off into the darkness. She'll later regret her choice. Who'd have thunk it?

The plot sees Sarah popping out of the first movie covered in the blood of all the other girls. She gets picked up and dropped in hospital with total memory loss/suppression, then taken out again to accompany a secret search group when a sniffer dog tracks the girls' scents to an abandoned mineshaft some distance away from the cave they registered themselves as visiting. Once helped down by a mysterious local farmer archetype, her memories slowly start returning and their already stupid plan gets really stupidly out of control. The creatures are still there and they're gonna need a fair dig to get out alive. Some unexpected plot turns pop up, and some cameos of other girls from the original abound.

Neil Marshall stood aside for this instalment and let Jon Harris (the editor on The Descent) take the reigns. While Harris ultimately does a respectable job and manages to generate his own take on the material, the story just isn't as strong. However, the scares are still there, and still scary. The very first reveal looks set up to be a cut-copy moment from the first, but the actual 'jump' puts a neat twist on it that those familiar with the  first will appreciate (damn heat-sensing camera technology to hell...). Two other key factors he really makes his own are the creature design and the display of violence. The 'crawlers' in The Descent were kind of slimy and organic looking, whereas here they're just downright fucking mean. Their faces have a kind of scarring probably from years of inbreeding and look more adept when it comes to vicious bar fights (which ensue with great regularity). They're imbued a sort of ferociousness, more like wild animals than the weird cavemen of the original. This last point leads me ever onwards - the violence in the sequel is more explicit. You see some gratuitous shots of mayhem and gore which is almost justified considering how much more antagonistic this flick makes the crawlers, but it provides a contrast with the original's preference for suspense and taut thrills. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, when you get a full frontal of a head getting smushed in a rockfall, you feel almost like it takes less skill to generate this kind of movie. It's not just the gore, it's the gross-out content too. There's one moment where you just wonder how far the film-makers were going just to elicit a few reactions from their audience. I'm not going to spoil it, but it is just seriously yukky, and that the characters involved in the scene have to stay silent during their particular realisation... it's unfathomably filthy.

There is still an emotional core that pulses strong here. The relationship between the young cave searching couple is nicely constructed and the mother-daughter bond that drives the deputy's desire to survive is a thematic powerhouse when aligned with Sarah's loss. The scene in which they're forced to leave one of their party behind trapped in a rock choke is ruthless - the lack of mucking about with the necessary decision makes their loss all the more keenly felt, like you're experiencing it with them in real time. The cinematography dominated by the palette afforded the crew by the dark is still intense and claustrophobic and the score still does its job well.

The ending is very well played. DON'T READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU'RE NOT A HUGE FAN OF SPOILERS. Are you kidding me? Are you serious? For the love of Hugh Jackman, I mean come on. Is it really so bad to give a viewer hope at the end of a horror film these days? The ending is so phenomenally crushing it hurts to relive it. Sarah, in the ultimate act of sacrifice, gives up her own life to save the deputy (so she can see her daughter again... nawwww) who escapes into the open and runs away. Before being knocked the fuck out by the creepy country fella who you've totally forgotten by now and it turns out is in cahoots with the crawlers, and who then drags her unconscious body back to the opening of their dingy dungeon-cave hybrid. It hurts so bad you want to cry. I finished this movie at midnight on a Saturday with absolutely no plans to go out, then found myself in Iguana Bar an hour later simply because I needed to suppress that pain. This elevates the film somewhat. You walk out feeling like you've been sucker punched, and you  remember the movie as being more intelligent than it actually was.

DJ Cheeky Wingz - who has apparently proven to be a crowd favourite - will now alert you all as to his take on this horrific piece of the horror puzzle:
Once again Ridley Scott has shown he is more than capable of making something really quite good. The movie draws from the logic shown by Russian commanders at the battle of Versailles and begins on a ship and ends on a ship as is customary for people in horror films and yet it is this form of camaraderie that makes The Descent Part 2 really quite funny in some instances because the characters aren't aware that they are in fact giant seagulls in disguise and are part of the bigger picture. But I'll let you decide for yourselves. If you're known for your ability to eat as much as you can or you are perhaps quite funny sometimes then this movie is sadly not for you. I would give this movie a young unbridled almond for its effort in making life hard for viewers.

I feel like I've talked it down to much. It's very passable, and probably a whole lot better than most horror sequels through the virtue of the strength of the first - that's to say it has a strong central scare tactic to build on. I still highly recommend seeing it, but not as much as the first. I bequeath The Descent Part 2 a score of 8 inches out of a foot and a special warning  - don't watch it if you're feeling quasi-suicidal, as despair is a dish best served without a predilection for self-harm.

Check out the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ1ev18g0CU

The Descent - Is There Anyone There?

Spoiler alert: yes, there is someone there. In fact there are quite a few of them. And they've evolved separately from humans, so I'm not even sure I can call them 'someone' as opposed to 'something'... All I can really be certain about with this claustrophobic explosion is that you will not want to go exploring any uncharted cave systems any time soon (say goodbye to your weekend plans then).

I know the words gritty and real are bandied about far too often when it comes to movies, but The Descent earns them like honour badges. There is plenty of grit and also a fair amount of dust too. The killing cave is littered with an impressive emporium of animal pieces and the pool scene is downright filthy (you can't miss it). A seriously yukky injury is seen in gory realism and sees the audience clutching plaintitively at their own limbs. Very cool. Yeah, you see blood and other assorted bits of human/creature that are normally kept inside, but they're the condiments to the terror, not the main course like too many modern thrillers.

The pace of the film is a masterpiece - writer-director Neil Marshall absolutely nailed the slow-burn, punctuating the build up with enough satisfying jumps to justify staying for the absolute clusterfuck of the final act. I chose this film knowing that a) it had been well-reviewed b) Marshall's Dog Soldiers was another on the list for my portfolio and c) the poster (seen left) always freaked me out on my visits to the video store as a primary school age kid - like, totally freaked me out. It's a brilliant homage to Dali and totally evokes the raw feel of the movie.

When Shauna McDonald's Sarah loses her husband and young child in a freak 'pipe through the head combined with vehicular accident' accident, her and her thrill-seeking friends kind of drift away from each other socially. However Natalie Mendoza's Juno organises a get together in the glorious Appalachian Mountains and they begin the descent (see what I did there?) into a cave system. But shock horror - it's a different system... Silly Juno. When they get trapped and no one knows that they're there, they have to go deeper into the dark to have any chance of escape. But then they're not alone... who'd have seen that coming? Shit gets real. Quickly.

The sets are fantastic. Having recently seen that the production reused a limited number of caves sets with various added trimmings and angles to develop differences, I have developed the utmost respect for production designer Simon Bowles. The rock walls (actually a special polyurethane) glisten and seem to close in around our all female cast with ferocious intensity. Jagged edges and kind of phallic imagery abound with stalagmites and razor ridges around every corner. The cave is itself another character, and its arguably the scariest villain in this movie.

While on the subject of characters, this film is set apart from most others by its cast - a horror flick populated purely by women? What would the 1800's say? In a genre dominated by mixed sex teenage casts getting sliced up, Marshall's bold vision is brilliantly realised. They're all very different characters, and while their assorted accents seem like tacky differentiation, they are helpful in telling them apart (who invited the Swede?). Their motives are very genuine, their emotions are real and the tension that develops between them is catalysed by what we see and know - there's no need to suspend disbelief on that front. WARNING: SPOILERS IN THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH - SKIP IF YOU WANT TO CATCH THIS MOVIE LATER. The catharsis that occurs when - having found out Juno was slutting it up with her hubby before his untimely demise - Sarah severely wounds her and leaves her behind to appease the creatures' appetites is fucking amazing. A lesser film would have let Juno 'sacrifice' herself in recognition of the wrongs she has perpetrated against Sarah, but Marshall has none of it. He flips off any sense of honour and decency in favour for true human nature, the petty, primitive urge of self-preservation, revenge and fury. It's a mind-blowing cocktail, and the absolute mindfuck of an ending is a continuation of this take no prisoners approach to horror: when the lights come up, there is no hope left (make sure you get the UK version, not the edited US release).

The creature design (that's not a spoiler, you already guessed that there were cave beasts down there...) is an exercise in minimalism that works - you don't see much of them but when you do, their movement, look and sounds are super spooky. The first reveal with the light of a torch beam is 'blink and you'll miss it' but sends cascades of shivers up and down and around your back. The first full frontal shot is simply breathtaking - the green of a night vision camera layered with the plaintive pleas for help from one of the girls combine to produce possibly the must explosive expletives I've yet uttered e.g. 'holy fuck...' Carrying on from this point, the lighting is superb. The cinematographer does justice to the caves' design, and the inky blacks cloud the vision of the viewer almost constantly - you're in there with our protagonists and the reliance on the natural on-screen lighting induces so many suppressed emotions you haven't felt since you were a kid, primarily a consuming phobia of darkness.

The score surprised me. I expected a reliance on silence like Blair Witch, but I was gifted a classic orchestral backing that enhanced the thrills served up. But don't get me wrong, silence is used often and to great effect once a particular plot point concerning the creatures' evolution comes to light. The sweeping efforts of David Julyan add grandeur to the beautiful vistas lensed before heading underground, and continued to strike up awe in the impressive cave system.

My good friend and fellow horror viewer Esteban (an international student from Peru at my college...loose) will now be delivering his two cents, and DJ Cheeky Wingz will also be making his return.

Esteban's input:
Hello internet population!
My name is Esteban and I am at the same colleges as Callie! Excuse my not very good English, for I am still learning the language somewhat!
Now, whenever I am not drinking beers and hanging out with my cool friends, I like to join my new pal for some movie watching. Even though I like all types of film, Callie, that fun guy, always likes the scary films! I sometimes scare a lot! But, it’s all fun, hey guys?
When my friend started his B-LOG, I thought I’d give him helps, to improve my English and make some new fellows, why not? So here we go it!
The Descent
I was extremely scared in this film! It was very harrowing for the first part of the movie, and just got even better scary following. My favourite bit happened when the seedy man-figure stood behind the girl and made a face. I made much of a reaction, in fear. I also thought the caves were really life-like and dark. The men who built them should have been great at arts and crafts. My favourite character was the girl who climbed across the gap because she was very plucky and intrepid. It was not a mediocre movie.
I give it 4/5 thumbs up! Very good job guys at the studio!

DJ Cheeky Wingz's input:
This movie was really quite good. I had an urge to make love to this movie but my good friends did not let me, however sometimes in my dreams i still think about it. This movie would be really quite funny in places. Don't let the title scare you away. I would recommend this film to anyone who has recently been on holidays or if you have never kissed the lips of a dead animal. All in all, it's quite a good film but it does have the tendency to stray away from the main plot and in turn the palms of the directors hands consume the whole screen but for me I loved this part of the film. xo.

All up, this is a very effective production. To get this kind of product out of a relatively small budget is a job well done, and with its fresh take on the horror genre with the all-female cast and overwhelming darkness it's no surprise that it ended up well ahead at the box office. The Descent has earned itself a pretty solid $57,051,053 at the box office, and in from me it has earned a phenomenal 15 out of 17. While Marshall's recent two productions have left many disappointed, I firmly hope that the announced upcoming film Burst 3D (under Sam friggin' Raimi's production no less!) can pull his talents for horror back into the frame.

Drag Me To Hell - Mission Accomplished

Having started this journey with Raimi's Evil Dead films, I opted to kick this shit off with his most recent foray into the genre, 2009's Drag Me To Hell. It was a good choice, tinged with his trademark dark humour and chockers with jumpy moments of inspired shock.

The plot in a nutshell - Alison Lohman's Christine works at a bank, and in competition for a promotion, opts to deny an ageing gypsy an extension on her loan. The curse placed on Christine by the old lady in retaliation for her actions essentially sees her haunted by a powerful goat shaped devil intent on relegating her to Satan's clutches in 3 days time. Her boyfriend (Justin Long), her scheming co-worker (Reggie Lee) and her friendly neighbourhood mystic (Dileep Rao) provide complications and/or assistance to punctuate her descent into paranoia and fear.

It's very good. It's surprisingly traditional despite its outlandish and highly creative premise - the film seems to operate in cycles, in which Raimi builds up the audience to a scare, crests the precipice, drops a moment sure to remove viewers from their seats then cools it off with a laugh or two only to begin this process again. The characterisation of Christine as character to root for is pronounced and highly effective, from her past as a fat country kid (I've been there - people can be so cruel...) to her need to suppress her sympathy for customers to impress her boss by making the 'tough calls'. You want her to survive badly, and the roller-coaster of her three day saga contains effective emotional tugs. The acting was impressive, with all members of the cast holding their ends of the deal with respectable effort. Lorna Raver as the stereotypically named gypsy Mrs. Ganush (we can only hope and pray that her first name was Baba) was particularly impressive.

The development of Christine into a Ripley type chick bent on being empowered and beating the curse is a treat to watch, and a scene almost ripped straight from a schlocky B-movie played out in a graveyard is pitch perfect. Though almost constantly tensed for scares when they were building up, I did manage a cheeky leap away from the action once, and it felt so damn right.

Raimi has a knack for digging laughs out of unbelievable moments - myself and my viewing partner were creepily enamoured with the brutal beating of an old woman and the gut-wrenching use of embalming fluid and the accompanying cadaver as rich ore seams mined for humour. It's a welcome reprieve in this film, and gives you license to hope. While there's a sense of foreboding, the ending is a twist true to form and totally a tonal complement to the rest of the action. I cannot bring myself to spoil it, so just watch it for the ending alone - both Lohman and Long's faces at the reveal is wonderful acting and that's all I'll say.

The music was dense and filled with kind of supernatural undertones, the lighting heightened the mood and the achievement of a super intense moment in a fully lit daytime scene (wait for old goat-demon to find her bedroom) was testament to that. Gore was present though quite minimal, so it's absolutely a piece of film for the whole family to enjoy (please note the sarcasm there before treating your kiddies to a viewing). The special effects were very passable. All in all, a technically superior production.

Now a quick word from my very first viewing buddy, who from here on in will be known by his stage name, DJ Cheeky Wingz (the kids got a natural prowess - 'eck his shit out online at http://www.youtube.com/user/namoop21/videos)

DJ Cheeky Wingz's input:
Drag Me To Hell was really quite good. Sometimes I thought I was sitting in a comedy movie but it turned out it was just my friend tickling my feet with his tongue so I laughed quite a lot in this movie.Overall I would not recommend this movie to anyone with a history of epilepsy or with an African background. I must have to warn you though that there is an elderly gypsy woman who acts really quite well, but in some instances she takes the shape of a small lizard. Apart from this spoiler the movie is good if you have nothing much on on on on a Thursday - mid morning and you have just rang your parents to tell them that all the pictures of them in your house are coated in milk and love and that you lick their faces each day.
Friendship.

Raimi set out to drag his viewers along with Christine in her hellish nightmare, and he succeeded absolutely. A well deserved 44 out of 50 pillies. We hope Raimi can return from his upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful to grace horror with another of his deliciously wicked pieces.

Watch the trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUZTybLlWKI

No Post on Sundays...?

Having never dipped my toe in the world of interweb blogs before, I'm not entirely sure how one goes about starting one up. I figured that a logical place to start would be a sort of walk-through as to what I'm doing here and where this is going.

Okay, so my plan over the next extended period or so is to become acquainted with the horror genre - a corner of the filmic universe to which I have never really ventured before. I'm a big fan of movies in general, but I'm a pretty normal guy and will be writing these reviews in a very accessible way for anyone who might stumble upon them. I don't know whether it's a positive or a negative, but I will not be censoring myself, hence the coming warning - There will be rude language. Fuck yeah.

My inspiration for this undertaking was recently watching The Evil Dead and its superior sequel, and being overcome by the realisation that a) I can now actually handle watching horror and b) there's an unbelievable scope for low budget innovation in opening entries to the style. Knowing what Raimi has gone on to do and being able to easily feel his horror roots in flicks like Spiderman, I decided I could no longer afford to stay ignorant. I wanted to feel scared. I wanted to get the hype. I wanted in on this community. To clarify, when I say I can now handle horror, it's because the earliest memory I have of watching a horror was Nakata's The Ring Two when I was 13. I proceeded to then literally cry myself to sleep, and I'm not proud of it. I was scared shitless, and having other boys from my dorm at boarding school jumping off my cupboard and hiding under my bed didn't help.

So to the mechanics of this arrangement. At a minimum of 1 per week, I will be working my way through a solid portfolio of horror pieces. My posts will feature guest inputs from whomever I happen to watch that particular movie with, and with my current status as a college student (loose...), there will be a number of these ducking in and out at irregular intervals. I'll wax lyrical about whatever grabbed me about that particular film - music, cinematography, editing, design, direction. Just whatever. It will receive a rating, though from whatever system I feel like utilising at that particular time - I feel no need for uniformity as creating some kind of ranked list is not really a concern of mine, simply appreciation for the craft. Those following my adventures are welcome to contribute in the comments as often as they like, though witty or constructive posts are preferred to spam.

So please place your seats in the upright position and stow away your tray tables. Shit's gonna get real. To quote the great Ash (tooling up in gloriously campy fashion), 'groovy'.