Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark

Secretly, most loath being stuck in the dark, no matter how old or young. Guillermo del Toro takes the audience back to childhood with memories of monsters under the bed in his version of Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark. Children of the past and present will remember those quiet moments spent under duvets trying not to shout for their Ma or Pa. The film is loosely based on a group of crazed tooth fairies, who seek young children’s teeth to satiate their hunger. Toro uses his eccentricity and talent at creating gloom and mysteriousness in a childlike fashion, similar to previous projects such as Pan’s Labyrinth.

Set in a eerie Manor that is under renovation in the country, Sally (Bailee Madison, Brothers, Just Go With It), a young girl, finds herself flown over to her father Alex (Guy Pearce, LA Confidential, Rules of Engagement) and his interior designer girlfriend Kim (Katie Holmes, Batman Begins, Disturbing Behavior). Her high flying mother no longer wanting the responsibility and commitment of a child. Being in a new area with strangers including her father, brings Sally to turn to the house and the voices she begins to hear...new potential friends, or are they?

The setting is perfect for the plot, creating the illusion of loneliness, darkness and isolation. With long winding corridors, and huge heavy curtains blocking out light, the mansion fulfilled the requirements and the vast land creates the seclusion Toro needed to instil fear. The plot however lacked the terror I was certainly looking for. Toro created a storyline that sat middle of the fence of both child’s play and adult horror. Preferably he should have taken it a step further and tormented the audience. In some places the plot dragged, so much of it was based on building the loneliness of Sally that it stepped into the realm of boring, instead of entrancing. It felt like it needed to be taken that extra mile to make it worthwhile, instead it bordered on typically average. Average seems to be Hollywood’s expectation level these days.

Bailee Madison who was casted as Sally, and looks uncannily like Suri Cruise (Katie’s daughter) captivated the audience throughout the production, more so than Katie Holmes and Guy Pearce. She had a certain air and maturity that is unusual in children, maybe not so much in child actors. She made the audience want to reach out to her, protect her as children should be protected against the evils of this world. Her apprehension gave the film authenticity, one of the only reasons I liked it.

However Katie Holmes fell into the trap familiar to some actors, for example Matthew Mcconaughey. The trap being repeating the same style and characterization in every film. There’s no doubting her ability at acting like the confused, tense, and tortured women but surely there should be some adaptability with these skills. Guy Pearce, despite having an attractive look failed to simply act, it felt as though he was just going through the motions. In simple terms, it lacked passion.

Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark failed to live up to my own high expectations. Hollywood no longer produces truly scary films anymore, especially for those of us hardened to the Horror Genre.

I want to be afraid of the dark again, please!

Melancholia

Melancholia, sadness, depression. A perfect word that encompasses Lars von Trier’s film making technique. Melancholia is the oddest disaster movie ever made, with no reference to the impending doom until over half way through, many may seem perplexed with the plot. A new planet has emerged from behind the sun and is on a crash course with Earth minus the special effects.

Similar to Anti-Christ, Lars begins the film in the same fashion, with slow moving, artistic visuals that would not look out of a place as a art installation. The main characters are introduced whilst going about their day, but not in the normal sense, each scene is steeped in gloom and foreboding. Visually the start is eye catching and interesting, but confusion reigns from beginning til end.

Something bad is going to happen, the question is when? Kirsten Dunst (Justine) heads up a cast of heavy weights, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Gainsbourg, John Hurt, Alexander and Stellan Skarsgard in this project. Dunst has moved away from her usual rom com ditzy characters and taken on a role of complete complexity, darkness and seriousness. The film cuts to her wedding day as her and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) head to their reception at her sisters beautiful country manor set back from the ocean.
The first segment of the film focuses on this special day, marrying someone you love more than anything else is meant to be joyfully spent with family and friends. Justine (Dunst) however seems to find the whole performance tiring, with no real excitement at being there. Her family and friends seem to have issues with her, perhaps with the end of the world looming this seemed like the right time to let all problems come to head. Her mother hates the institution of marriage and scornfully offers up her words of wisdom at inappropriate moments (during the Grooms speech). Her sister (Gainsbourg) seems to be the stable rock in her life, but no longer wants to deal with her problems. The brother-in-law (Sutherland) is generally annoyed at his wife’s family at how atrocious their behaviour is. Last but not least Stellan Skarsgard plays the arrogant boss sucking out any life that Justine has left. So far Lars von Trier could happily submit this for the Worst Wedding of The Year Award, as the Groom leaves the bride heading off into the dark with his family.

Half way through and I am thinking when will this end, but am also desperate to find what the elephant in the room is, and why Dunst is so self absorbed and depressed, is she dying? Bored?

The second half of the film focuses on Claire (Gainsbourg) and how her life revolves around Justine and now, the end of the world. Justine, who seems to have manic depression comes to stay seeing as their last moments on earth are hurtling towards them at a rapid pace. The family are now obsessed with catching a glimpse of Melancholia (aptly named) and debating over the chances of it missing and life carrying on. Up until now Dunst has played the crazed and manic sister who seems to care about nothing, but over the last hour the audience see’s the switch between characters. When dealing with the end of her life and her familys' Claire looses it, reality slowly slips and she becomes the unstable sibling, looking at Justine to make sense of things. Sutherland who throughout seemed together and logical also slips off the edge.

The first half of the film highlights the tensions that many families experience, either on important days such as this, or in general. Life is tumultuous and the happy Hollywood formula of making life look peachy definitely got ousted when this was written. The film disjointedly runs through two days in a life of a family who don’t know whether they are coming or going. The scenes are hard to follow and for the cinema goer who likes simplicity and easy plots, I definitely advise to NOT watch this. With half the audience walking out because of sheer boredom Lars von Trier has created a product that you will either love or hate. I still don't know where I stand after much debate.

Strangely Intriguing, yet slow. Maybe Trier just really hates the institution of marriage, your life ends when you say ‘I Do’.

Climate Change Central - The Day After Tomorrow

Hello climate change, 2004 saw the creation of The Day after Tomorrow, another film about natural disasters set to destroy earth and the human race. As far as disaster movies go the usual focus is a type of mass devastation, meteorites, floods, tsunamis, tornados, excess snow, rain and sun courtesy of global warming. The list really could go on, and most of the time audiences end up leaving the cinema feeling less than awed.  

The film stars Dennis Quaid (Any Given Sunday, Vantage Point) and Jake Gyllenhaall (Brokeback Mountain, Love and Other Drugs ) as father and son who end up on opposite sides of the US when Mother Nature goes berserk. Quaid, plays a climatologist Jack Hall, who on discovering that Earth is in some serious danger warns government officials of his research and findings. The predicted date will not be in their life time, however on reconstructing results they find it will occur way sooner than forecasted. The government ignore this leaving citizens of earth (America) to carry on their day to day lives. Blissfully ignorant until D Day, leading with the attitude that it’s too late to undo the damage inflicted on earth , let’s deal with it as it comes….if only they knew.

 

Mean while in Manhattan, catastrophe capital of the world, son Sam Hall (Gyllenhaall)  is going about his business with his friends, attending a college event when calamity ensues.  NYC, one of the most desired cities in the world to visit, begins to get hit by the most violent tsunamis, tornados, snow and ice storms. The beheading the Statue of Liberty doesn’t stop it from toppling, against all odds its left standing in the snow. A nice metaphor on American resilience in times of trouble, completely co-incidental.

As he becomes stranded in the New York Public Library after out running a humungous wall of water which rapidly turned to ice, him and his friends switch to survival mode. Now the fight to outlast the weather begins, and Quaid determined to be reunited with his son decides to do the impossible, cover the extreme conditions to get to New York through rain and snow..literally.

The better parts of the film are watching Manhattan get pummelled by everything Mother Nature can throw at it, the special effects are visually striking and fast paced. Although the acting was not the best, and Quaid and Gyllenhaall have certainly stared in better films, its entertaining and the glimpses of impending doom are daunting. Being someone that recycles, walks when possible and is generally worried about the state of the environment, I was anxious it won’t be too long until winters turn arctic, and sun rays will become unbearable.

It’s the end of the world as we know it.

Red State

"In God We Trust........"

A film encapsulating all that’s wrong with religion, Red State throws together sex, sinners, guns and gore with dark black comedy. Kevin Smith (Clerks, the silent half of Jay and Silent Bob) uses his slightly twisted sense of humour to test the horror boundaries.

A small hick town in the United States and its residents find themselves shamed on a regular basis because of the 5 Point Church, its followers and the founding Father Abin Cooper (Michael Parks, Kill Bill 1 and 2, Death Proof). Demonstrations at funerals of the dead gay community fill up their social calendar, whilst the rest of the time is spent abiding by the strictly ‘Christian’ lifestyle as well as listening to Abin’s absurdly entertaining yet sick spiels. The man talks and his people listen, devout doesn’t begin to describe it, think James Jones. 

Unfortunately for three sex-crazed teens, their skirt chasing ways lead them into a spot of bother, i.e. a trailer park in the middle of nowhere with a ‘lonely’ middle aged women. Praying Mantis eat your heart out. After consuming many illegal alcoholic beverages they wake to find themselves in bible belt hell. 


What ensues is a fight for their lives, the psychotic religious sycophants believe killing homosexuals is the best way to reach the pearly gates. God, in this case will see the cleansing of the sinful population of Hicksville as Christian work, clearly the only logical way to reserve a place in heaven.

Whilst calamity carries on inside their Alcatraz style compound the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division) arrive with John Goodman (Blues Brothers 2000, Roseanne)  leading the small ensemble of men. After being informed of the crazy hypnotic hillbilly preachers’ antics they organise damage control. The Chief of Police however fires a accidental shot, and all hell breaks loose.

Kevin Smith brings in an excellent cast with Michael Parks playing the antagonist, man of God, with sinister charm. He draws in the audience with his smooth southern swagger and absurd ideas. John Goodman, now older and usually casted in less controversial films, suited this role. His immediate presence on screen proved his an old school pro, his years of experience in the acting game shined through. The three young protagonists depict typical small town teens, wishing for bigger and better not glum and insular lives. Billy-Ray, Jarod and Travis sound like the next Kings of Leon yet the actors nail the roles. Tension rolls in waves as the reality of their unlucky situation sinks in.

Terrified, nervous and confused emotions flow from the screen to the audience throughout the hour and a half of insane ramblings, blood splattering death and quirkiness. The cast definitely added credibility to Mr Smith’s latest project as the plot was fairly simple, slightly lacking depth.

Red State = internet dating gone wrong.