Jumat, 20 Februari 2009

Final Destination Death Trip 3D: Preview

The upcoming new installment of the Final Destination supernatural thriller franchise. The film was written and directed by Final Destination 2's Eric Bress and David R. Ellis, respectively, and was shot in HD 3-D. With the story that has no connection to the previous films, "Final Destination: Death Trip 3D" is scheduled to be released on August 21, 2009 in the U.S.A.

Plot summary for the film from Warner Bros:
“On what should have been a fun-filled day at the races, Nick O'Bannon has a horrific premonition in which a bizarre sequence of events causes multiple race cars to crash, sending flaming debris into the stands, brutally killing his friends and causing the upper deck of the stands to collapse on him. When he comes out of this grisly nightmare Nick panics, persuading his girlfriend, Lori, and their friends, Janet and Hunt, to leave...escaping seconds before Nick's frightening vision becomes a terrible reality. Thinking they've cheated death, the group has a new lease on life, but unfortunately for Nick and Lori, it is only the beginning. As his premonitions continue and the crash survivors begin to die one-by-one--in increasingly gruesome ways--Nick must figure out how to cheat death once and for all before he, too, reaches his final destination. The film marks the latest in the highly popular "Final Destination" series, and its first 3D installment, giving horror fans an especially visceral thrill ride."

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Jumat, 13 Februari 2009

Friday the 13th: Review

By Jim Tudor (TwitchFilm)

Complete with all of the unhealthy trappings we’ve come to expect from a “Friday the 13th” film, comes this reasonably pleasing, polished new remake. Despite director Marcus Nispel and producer Michael Bay’s attempts to somehow retain the key qualities of the original “Friday the 13th” series while simultaneously stripping away its primal allure in favor of a false “grungy gloss”, this rebooted, re-imagined, re-done version (call it what you will) is imminently watchable. That’s more than can be said for the previous Nispel/Bay horror remake, 2003’s unevenly grimy “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.

This film effectively compresses key plot qualities (if you want to call it that) of the first four “Friday the 13th” movies, thus proving their repetitive nature (as if there was ever any doubt about that). With its obvious Hollywood production values, the new “Friday” can’t hope to match the (perhaps unintentional) aesthetic savagery of that source material, which results in a mixed bag of good and bad news for fans. It doesn’t bring anything necessarily new to the table, but in its defense, I don’t think it’s trying to. It is better-acted and marginally more clever than the films of the original series, while still falling comfortably into that slasher/bodycount film mold.

Yes, I know that some of the later, more self-aware films featuring Jason Voorhees were also bigger-budgeted, semi-glossy affairs. With that in mind, I’d rank this film after the imminently more creative and fun “Freddy vs. Jason” (no Freddy equals less fun. Sorry Jason fans!), and then just below the head-scratchingly space-based goofball “Jason X”. Don’t worry, it’s infinitely better than “Jason Goes to Hell” – but then again, so is actually being killed by a masked slasher. When it comes to the older Paramount Jason films, I prefer “Part VI: Jason Lives” as the most all-around solid, and “Part 3-D” for the unintentional laughs of the forced, lame 3-D gags (especially when experienced in 2-D). I base these preferences on having seen each of those films once, around fifteen years ago, so I may or may not still agree if I were to revisit them today.

But let’s take an obligatory moment to consider the allure of “Friday the 13th”. Yes, there are plenty of attractive girls who shed their clothes (this film doesn’t skimp in that department), but it’s also a little disturbing that we are in essence going to the movies to see the said girls (and their dopey dope-smoking boyfriends) get axed to death? Clearly, a great many people grew up watching these films, and no, we did not turn out to be death-crazed masochists. But at some point, we must look in the mirror and realize that this is some pretty psychologically unhealthy stuff. My own draw to films like this lies in my appreciation of a well-executed bravura gore effect. That, and the primal fear of unknown, unprovoked, and unstoppable death emerging from the darkness of nature.

The cold iconography of the hockey mask doesn’t hurt, either. I simply doubt that there would’ve been ten-plus movies about Jason Voorhees had he simply continued to wear a cloth sack on his head. For me, and so many others, Jason is almost someone we’re stuck with. We know he’s not really ever going away for good, and like human sin itself, he has a habit of continually re-emerging. We turn the corner, and yikes, he’s back! As the bulk of the cast is inevitably reduced to blood-drenched window-dressing at a certain point, so too are our own moral defenses. So once again, we indulge. We see the next movie. In a very odd way, Jason provides a look into the mirror of fallen humanity, and our own shortcomings. In an unlikely way, the more Jason comes back (and of all the movie slashers, he comes back the most often), the more powerful this metaphor becomes.

Of course, Jason is also the ultimate cinematic momma’s boy, a supernaturally angry repressed preteen boy lashing out at the emerging deviance that comes for many when childhood innocence (and parental need) is left behind. For Jason, that deviance cost him his life, thus pushing his mother over the edge, and that costing her life as well. Hence, we have the overly repeated motif of death by impaling, stabbing, penetrating. That is what Jason does, ad nauseam. So when this film ventures into torture porn territory for a fleeting moment early on with an elaborate (by Jason’s standards) death rig involving a sleeping bag and fire, it is decidedly out of character for him. Thankfully he never tries something like that again for the run of the film, as Jason’s murder style is the only recognizable character trait that we the audience have to know him by.

Being a fan of the series clearly is not necessarily something to be proud of, but at this point in our media-hardened culture, no one feels the need to apologize, either. Political correctness and gender equality has never exactly been on the radar for this series, and that’s still true this time. The closest this movie gets to any such thing is with its transparently racially diverse cast of teen revelers. Stoner Asian guy? Check. Black guy who’s dialogue consists entirely of witty barbs about the fact that he’s black? Check? Uptight selfish white dude? Check. And of course the well-meaning, virginal heroine? Check and check.

The few creative elements that Nispel and company brings to the table, while not altogether fresh, are a welcome infusion of storytelling finesse to the franchise. Again, no one is reinventing the wheel here, but the effective compression of the first three original films is done in a way that is as engaging as one could expect from an effort such as this, which is clearly committed to staying within all the established “Friday the 13th” parameters. Nispel’s limited strengths lie in his no-nonsense, cut-to-the chase framing and pacing. I personally don’t care for the Michael Bay/modern horror aesthetic (the pro lighting sheen and overly dressed sets, etc.) that results from revamping old down-and dirty movies with an obvious Hollywood budget and talent pool. But this was more imminently watchable than your average horror remake. When approaching this film on its own terms, this new “Friday the 13th” is a good time at the movies (and nothing more) for those who go for this sort of thing. It will tide them over until Jason’s inevitable return, anyhow.

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Minggu, 08 Februari 2009

The Collective: First Preview

The Collective is a new indie thriller directed by Judson Pearce Morgan and the main actress is Kelly Overton.

Plot: In New York City it’s never easy to know what to believe. When Tyler Clarke gets a cryptic voicemail from her sister, she is left with no choice but to fly across the country to find out what has happened. But when she arrives, Jessica is nowhere to be found. Alone in an unfamiliar city, surrounded by strangers, Tyler has no choice but to trust these people who call themselves Jessica’s new friends. She slowly figures out that her sister has joined a group that call themselves “The Collective.” Jessica has given up the life she was living to be one of them. And now, in order to discover the truth, Tyler must delve into a world of darkness and lies, the underbelly of this spiritually depraved community living in a deconsecrated cathedral. With a cast of Broadway stars, as well as stars of the big screen, “The Collective” is a film that will keep you wondering, until the final frame, who can you trust?



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Triangle: First Preview

From the Director of "Creep" and "Severance," Christopher Smith, here comes "Triangle," a unique concept psychological thriller that turns the genre on its head. When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realised when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she’s been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone… Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.

Starring Melissa George, Holly Marie Combs, Rachael Carpani, and written and directed by Christopher Smith (”Creep”). There is no release date for the film as yet.


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Kamis, 05 Februari 2009

The Uninvited: Review

By Steven Rea (philly.com)

A teenager's resistance to her father's new girlfriend provides the emotional underpinnings for The Uninvited, a spooky, if narcotic, psychological thriller adapted from a 2003 K-horror suspenser.

Rife with fingernails-on-chalkboard sound effects, scenes shot at disconcerting angles and buckets of blood oozing from keyholes and doors, The Uninvited stars Emily Browning (from Lemony Snicket) as Anna Rydell, a moody adolescent still reeling from the trauma of losing her mom.

Plagued by nightmares and a failed suicide attempt, she's been shunted off to an institution. But as directing siblings Charles and Thomas Guard begin their stylishly creepy film, Anna's psychiatrist suggests that it's finally OK for her to go home.

And home she goes, to a beautiful seven-gabled house perched atop a hill overlooking the Maine coast. Her father (David Strathairn) is a novelist, her older sister, Alex (Arielle Kebbel), is a smartass, and Rachel (Elizabeth Banks) was the caregiver for Anna's ailing, now-dead mom.

Having redecorated the kitchen and sidled into bed with the widower Rydell, Rachel is now very much a part of Anna's home. And Anna, although she tries, can't quite make the adjustment.

Anna's sister, it seems, doesn't care for her either.

"She's like a crack whore, but without the dignity," quips Alex in one of The Uninvited's wittier moments.

With visual nods to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and a fairly faithful adherence to the tenor and tone of the Korean scare genre, The Uninvited doesn't startle and shock so much as it lulls you into a series of unsettling, hallucinogenic set pieces. Even the initally jarring presence of Banks - a mainstay of the Judd Apatow sex comedy machine - begins to become, well, uninteresting.

At a certain key point in the drama, The Sixth Sense might come to mind - but by then your mind could very well be on to other places, other ideas. There's not a whole lot beyond the pretty scenery (not really Maine, but the Pacific Northwest) and Browning's pop-eyed, fragile expression to keep you focused on the matters, and murder, at hand.

The Uninvited **1/2 (out of four stars)

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