Televangelists

Blu Review: [REC]²
18 – 81mins – 2009
Written by: Juame Balageuró, Manu Díez and Paco Plaza
Directed by: Juame Balageuró and Paco Plaza
Starring: Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso, Pep Molina, Andrea Ros, Ális Batllori, Pau Poch, Juli Fábregas, Nico Baixas, Javier Botet, Carlos Olalla, Manuela Velasco
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[SPOILERS] I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I laud 2007 Spanish zombie horror [REC] as a modern day genre masterpiece. Tense, claustrophobic and pant-wettingly terrifying, the “found footage” method made for such an immersive experience that you became completely oblivious to the fact you were reading subtitles (which kinda makes the quick fire Hollywood cash-in – sorry: shot-for-shot remake, Quarantine, a wholly unnecessary experience).

Written and directed by the same team of filmmakers (always a good start), and following immediately on from the bleak and abrupt events which closed the shutter on the original, [REC]² delivers a similarly apprehensive atmosphere by returning to the quarantined apartment building in downtown Barcelona to once more face the dead-eyed hordes of rabid inhabitants.

We’re again in shaky-cam point of view mode as an unsuspecting team of SWAT-like GEO’s equipped with helmet-mounted cameras are led into the seemingly deserted hellhole by Ministry of Health official Dr. Owen (Mellor), who isn’t entirely honest about his intentions… It is here that [REC]² makes a daring departure from traditional zombie flicks – and you’ll either love its ingenuity or consider it a leap of faith too far; either way, the film loses none of its intensity or fury as the source of the epidemic is revealed.

There’s not a crashed space probe or leaking vat of nuclear waste in sight – these zombies (if, indeed, that classification even applies?) are possessed by demonic spawn, and “Dr.” Owen is in actuality a priest on a mission from the church to purge the Anti-Christ through the recitation of religious mantra and locating a vile of restorative blood from the original source; namely, the gangling Medeiros girl who dragged reporter Angela (Velasco, who returns here) into the darkness in the penthouse loft in [REC]’s unnerving final reel.

Swapping perspective between the dwindling team of GEO’s and a trio of dangerously curious teen pranksters (Ros, Batllori, Poch) who sneak into the building moments prior to quarantine via the sewer system, [REC]² pulls no punches in its unrestrained carnage as even small rage-infected children are not safe from a shotgun to the head. The speed with which the possessed attack may not be in keeping with George A. Romero’s shuffling corpses, but the heart-racing panic which grips you when the raging beasts surge is undeniably chilling. Watch out, also, for a ceiling-crawler who moves against gravity with spider-like agility.

From Exorcist-like conversations with the tricksy and deceptive devil to night vision-aided hunts in the dark for answers the light “blinds you from seeing”, this kinetic sequel is certainly not afraid to stalk new ground, which is a remarkable achievement when the cameras barely leave the confines of the tower block.


In a CR@B Shell: A fearlessly courageous diversion from subgenre tradition and inventive expansion of concepts only glimpsed in the first film, [REC]² also doesn’t disappoint on delivering yet another frantic and fraught first-person fright fest of frenzied flesh-feasters. Highly [REC]ommended.
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The Devil Rides Elevata

DVD Review: DEVIL
15 – 77mins – 2010
Story by: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenplay by: Brian Nelson
Directed by: John Erick Dowdle
Starring: Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O'Hara, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Geoffrey Arend, Jacob Vargas, Matt Craven, Joshua Peace
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In the first in a proposed collection of “Night Chronicles”, five strangers – each with a less than honest past – are stranded together in a broken-down elevator cart within a Philadelphia skyscraper. But as the lights flicker and time creeps by without rescue, inexplicable injuries befall the restless quintet as the possibility dawns on them that one of them may be hiding their true identity… One of them may well be the devil in disguise.

From swooping and dizzying topsy-turvy sweeps of the Philadelphia cityscape to the claustrophobic confinement of the impromptu judgement, Devil is a tight and stylish little horror mystery-come-twisted morality tale. I say little not because I’m demeaning the scope of the film, but because with the credits rolling at a brusque 72 minutes, there is little room for filler in this minimalist yarn.

Not that audiences should necessarily feel short-changed, because the karmic element of the story is competently concluded and knits the various characters storylines together expertly: “Everything happens for a reason” as Ramirez (Jacob Vargas), the deeply religious security guard-come-narrator sermonizes. However, the desire for concision does at times cut short any exploration of the paranormal activity, and more could have been made of the inexhaustible concept.

With a ghostly image of a shrieking face appearing momentarily on the building’s CCTV monitor, a bandaged figure flickering fleetingly in the match-light, and one of the imprisoned (Bojana Novakovic) being inflicted with what appears to be a bite mark, it is a shame that writer Brian Nelson didn’t aspire to explore these intriguing phenomena, beyond the obvious (but hardly lucid) explanation that the devil is among us and teasing us with his power.

Furthermore, the Prince of Darkness is often frequently referred to as a shape-shifter, but we never witness this ostentatious ability, while there is no satisfying justification to Ramirez’s inclusion in the story, other than to advocate his (occasionally derisory) superstitious myth from the sideline. But then we were already aware of his beliefs from his recurrent voiceovers… Everything happens for a reason, hey?

Despite these grumbles, Devil still provides an adequately tense hour-and-a-bit, and with the writer of the fantastic 30 Days of Night adap and the director of Hollywood rehash Quarantine, there’s certainly a good genre pedigree behind the camera, even if they have previously worked from other people’s properties.

But then the same is also true here, with Devil’s idea hatched from the mind of the once untouchable M. Night Shyamalan (yep Night Chronicles, geddit?), himself inspired by the South American folktale of “The Devil’s Meeting”. So, hardly an original background to the scares then, but thank the Antichrist there’s not a mood-dampening killer plant in sight.


In a CR@B Shell: With a story as tight as the lift in which the central characters find themselves cocooned, Devil is a short, sharp, supernatural thrill ride which reaches its destination before you’ve scarcely had time to acclimatise to your surroundings.
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Deliverance from Evil

DVD Review: THE LAST EXORCISM
15 – 87mins – 2010
Written by: Huck Botko and Andrew Gurland
Directed by: Daniel Stamm
Starring: Patrick Fabien, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Laundry Jones, Tony Bentley
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[SPOILERS] From banjo-strumming yokels (Deliverance) to deranged hillbillies (The Hills Have Eyes) and incestuous cannibalistic mountain men (Wrong Turn), Hollywood has certainly strained a lot of servings out of the “backward folk off the beaten track" these last 30-odd years. Likewise, bandwagon-jumping has seen the mockumentary-style of shaky-cam horrors comprising “found footage” recently pillaged after The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, [REC] and Paranormal Activity put the gimmick to such imaginative use.

The laws of equations tell us that two tired tropes an original movie do not make, but remarkably Daniel Stamm’s creepy low-budget possession flick The Last Exorcism has managed to revitalise both over-saturated clichés into a tight and effective horror which benefits from realistic characterisation, a slow-burn build-up which grips and twists, and scares which never overstay their welcome or give too much away (at least not until the final scene).

Despite a lifetime devoted to the church, popular Christian minister and exorcist-for-hire Cotton Marcus (Fabien) is having a hard time holding on to his faith, so he agrees to let a camera crew trail his every move on what he deems his last ever paycheque. Truth is, he doesn’t really believe in demonic possession, he simply delivers what the customer wants to see: smoke, mirrors and pre-recorded sound effects.

But Marcus might have to reconsider his beliefs after arriving at the Louisiana farmhouse of Louis Sweetzer (Hertbum), a man who believes his teenage daughter, Nell ( Bell ), is possessed and nightly slaughtering his livestock. Following an ostentatious “exorcism”, Nell unexplainably appears in her "saviour's" hotel room in a catatonic trance, leading Marcus and the documentary crew to believe that her possession may actually be a psychological illness. Her father, however, is having none of it and insists upon another purging of her demonic possessor.

The Last Exorcism is by no means an all-out in-your-face horror. If you’re expecting a jump n’ scare every two minutes you are watching the wrong film. The first half an hour is spent quietly asserting that the main character definitely does not believe in paranormal spirits, before we witness his prop-reliant fraud in action. But even as events take a supernatural slant and your belief blossoms, writers Botko and Gurland still offer up opposing possibilities which could explain away the unexplainable…

Is Nell repressing a trauma? Has she been brainwashed by her reality-shielded upbringing? Is she pregnant? Why is her brother (Lasundry Jones) initially so intent on the film crew’s departure? Is her dad hiding a horrific family secret? The largely unknown cast are spectacular at breathing life into their motive-driven characters; they feel like real people who are taking us along on this unorthodox journey.

The last third in particular is a cavalcade of spook-tacular shocks and reveals, forever progressing the serpentine script, and even when you think all is clarified and reason has finally returned to the world, yet another stone wall obstruction makes you do a further u-turn and head back to the Sweetzer’s farm for one more evaluation into their old school values.

The abrupt and all-too-definitive conclusion does blow the lid off of all the film’s previous subtleties in spectacular fashion, and some viewers will be unimpressed by how the mystery is yanked out of our hands, but there is something to be said for the brave and unexpected direction the film takes, and a second viewing will highlight clear pointers throughout which may otherwise have spirited past.


In a CR@B Shell: The final reveal may give too much away, but that doesn’t divest all that precedes it of delivering smart shocks in a tight script which bends and twists like a girl possessed. Whatever you believe, The Last Exorcism is a devilishly effective genre flick.
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