OCTANE (2003) - a caffeine-fuelled, nightmare road trip

OCTANE

U.S. title: PULSE

(2003, UK/Luxembourg)

 Norman Reedus doing horror ten years ago!

A rain-drenched motorway, an upturned car, an ambulance nearby. But when the paramedics check out the two crash victims, they gag the survivor and take him away before the police arrive...

Senga (Madeleine Stowe) drives past another similar crash. The same ambulance is there. She's taking her teenage daughter (Mischa Barton) home, though it's tough for them to even share a car. They disagree on music, piercings, life... When Mom nearly crashes, trying to avoid a baby in the road, they take a rest stop to argue in comfort.

Strangers in the diner, a young hitchhiker (Bijou Phillips) they pick up, everyone they meet... all are a little weird. And like the crash victim, some of them suddenly disappear into the night. Is Mom paranoid? Are her meds too strong? Is she seeing the same vehicles at every diner? Who will disappear next?

First saw this ten years ago and it's stayed with me. It's not a must-see but it's certainly got something. The premise is full of possibilities that make you work hard to work out what's going on. But your imagination might well trump what happens here. But full marks for a huge dose of intrigue and suspense generated by the an unwelcome, unfamiliar road trip, travelling through darkness.

The soundtrack by Orbital helps the film 100 percent. Good to hear them used for the Pusher remake. (I still haven't dared see that, having been so impressed with the original movie - Nicolas Winding Refn's debut). Here, Orbital perfectly complements Octane, and vice versa.

Madeleine Stowe (Twelve Monkeys) carries the film, balancing on the edge of being a fairly unlikeable character. 

Jonathan Rhys-Meyers (Shelter, The Tudors) is supposed to be strong and sexy, which he normally does very well, but here he looks pretty ordinary, and not as turned on as many of the minor characters, like the truck driver, the daughter, the hitcher, the punk, or even the car mechanic (Norman Reedus).

Norman? Is that you?

It's fun to see that Reedus hasn't changed over the past ten years, with the same facial hair and haircut as his cult character, Daryl, in The Walking Dead. Most of the rest of the cast of this European production succeed at sounding American, but Rhys-Meyers hasn't at this point. The diner chain (cheekily called Benny's) looks authentic, but the cars, police uniforms and road signs all scream of Europe. Which maybe helps further the feeling of disorientation.

The paranoia, the increasing nightmare, and Stowe's face are all a little scary. The story starts well, builds well, but then drops a gear by losing the gloriously dark, rain-drenched atmosphere. But there are enough sleazy, druggy, bloody moments to compensate.

Some of the DVD cover art online show this as a PG certificate, but it's definitely a 15.

In the USA, this was retitled Pulse, which sort of makes sense to the story, but confuses it with half a dozen other recent horror films.

GRABBERS (2012) - creepy, slimy fun from Ireland

GRABBERS

(2012, UK/Ireland)

A new monster movie... that's good!

We watched this completely cold and it's already a favourite.

I prefer monster movies played for real, which this does. But its balanced with a healthy amount of humour while remaining respectful of the genre. Tremors and Lake Placid are two that got it right and Grabbers holds up in comparison, despite a lower budget.

From the beautifully subtle opening shot, which confirms that the special effects were in good hands, as well as a gentle echo of John Carpenter's The Thing, that also meant that the director knows his stuff...

A fishing trawler runs into trouble in the middle of the night. Already, we know that something inhuman and deadly is at large.

                          
There's a slow build that gives time to establish the characters and the setting of a remote Irish island. Richard Coyle (Pusher, Franklyn) plays an alcoholic policeman, who's saddled with an overly keen sidekick from the city (Ruth Bradley, recently seen in Primeval). The local islanders are all a little eccentric, but no worse than a English marine biologist twit (Russell Tovey working very hard to breathe fresh life into a sci-fi cliche).

As clues start washing up onshore, in fishing baskets and on the beaches, the two police officers know trouble is brewing, but have no idea how big a problem they're facing...

What I really love is that there's a new kind of monster and it looks fantastic. Well-realised, well-designed and disgustingly biological. Like Jaws it's not overused, and saved up for special occasions. It always gave me the creeps and would look good in a Cthulhu movie. But it's just a good old alien thingy from inner/outer space. The only way to beat it is to go down the pub and figure out what makes it tick...

In the extras, director Jon Wright admits that his homages are to 1980s monsters, rather than the pub-siege genre of the 1960s (as in Night of the Big Heat) which I feel is a missed opportunity, but there's plenty of fun 'quotes' to watch out for.

Well thought out, with likeable characters that you care about, Grabbers is rich, funny and suitably monstrous. It's out on DVD in the UK, but the blu-ray shows off the scenery, cinematography and special effects even better.

Most of the poster art I've seen only plays on the comedy angle and would have steered me away if I'd seen them beforehand. Worse still, the DVD cover (at the top) looks like a cheap, generic Asylum or Sy-Fy offering. This is more of a monster/horror film with a comedy element, so don't let it all put you off.

LES REVENANTS - THEY CAME BACK again and again

LES REVENANTS

(2004 movie, France)

Low-key zombie movie rises again and again as several TV series...

(Updated June 10th, 2013)

Nine years ago, there was an unusual zombie movie made in France. More sci-fi than horror, more arthouse than mainstream, it didn't cause much of a stir. But Les Revenants (2004) won't stay dead.

The film portrays a quiet resurrection day, realistically portrayed except for the fact that the recent dead have inexplicably returned to life. They parade quietly out of the cemetery and want to return to their old lives. No flesh-eating, no scratching, no biting... they just want their old jobs back. Most of them are past retirement age and want to return home.

Local government move (extremely) quickly to the sudden crisis with emergency housing and rounding up the new citizens to be identified and reintegrated back into society. Their living relatives are treated carefully, to help them gradually overcome the shock. The reactions of the living characters are very touching, their mourning suddenly has to be reversed.

But all of the 'returned' start displaying similar behaviour. They have trouble sleeping and wander about, night and day. They're distracted, quiet, perhaps like Haitian zombies. But then it appears that some of them are gathering in secretive meetings...

While their body temperatures are slightly low (allowing the authorities to track them with thermal cameras), they display no signs of decay. Director Robin Campillo (in this his only film) uses a wide variety of subtle techniques to make them stand out. Lit and made-up slightly differently, keeping them still, they gently stand out in every scene. The actors had to feel their way into a new kind of undead behaviour.

A very different addition to the genre, it remains a welcome change from the Romero blueprint. Knowing these characters were dead remains constantly gently eerie. It's never played as horror, but as mystery, an exercise in pure 'what if', beautifully judged and photographed.

There's no scientific or religious explanation for the phenomenon, though it could possibly be read as commenting about mental health, with the returned being carefully herded, watched and even drugged to make them more manageable.

Besides the central mystery itself, there's no other strong storyline, just a set of relationships. The phenomenon and its implications are presented in a relaxed but fascinating way. I enjoyed it as a zombie chill-out movie and also welcome further diverse approaches to the undead. Zombie drama, zombie comedy (Fido), whatever next?

But I didn't expect to hear of Les Revenants again...

LES REVENANTS

(2012, French TV series)

Just before Christmas, I learnt from Belgium-based writer Anne Billson (on Twitter) that there was a new TV series called Les Revenants (2012), based on a similar premise to the movie, on French TV. Eight one-hour episodes set in a small French village in the mountains.

This time it's a remote location, the mountains and a huge dam make for impressive visuals. The phenomenon of the dead rising isn't shown, just accepted. The performances make it believable. A young girl wanders home, back from the place she died. She's been missing for four years. Her memory is hazy and she doesn't realise that she's been dead. Her family are very, very shocked - in a brilliant scene when they first meet her.

Here, 'the returned' are less easy to tell apart from the living, so the news takes longer to circulate. Along with the reappearance of the dead, there's a murderer back in town...

A more violent variation on the film, the first episode teases interlocking mysteries and a townful of characters. I can't wait to see it all. The series has proved to be Canal Plus 'most watched' ever, meaning that there'll be a second season in 2014. The soundtrack by Mogwai makes it even more interesting.

We'll get a chance to see this creepy series on TV in the UK in June, the first foreign-language drama for Channel 4 in twenty years. Also, like many non-English-language TV imports, such as The Killing and Wallander, a remake is also on the way.

The rights to produce Les Revenants as an English TV series are now in the hands of Paul Abbott, the creator of Shameless, now in its eleventh and final season in the UK, with a third season in its US incarnation. This news reported here in The Hollywood Reporter in January.

BABYLON FIELDS

(2007, USA, TV pilot)

But there's already been an attempt at a series with a similar concept to Les Revenants made for American TV. In 2007, an impressive pilot episode called Babylon Fields narrowly failed to be turned into a series. It's worth seeing as an hour of powerful, edgy television, re-imagining the premise for a gun-toting, zombie-literate society. That is, some people are quick to shoot them in the head. But the Romero rules don't apply here...

The accent is very cop-centric. There's even a dead cop character, which could easily stray into the previously explored realm of Dead Heat (1988). The scene where the crowds of dead start leaving the graveyard are impressively and widely staged, The slightly-rotted look of the dead uses extensive make-up and slightly opaque contact lenses.

From the opening point-of-view scene of someone clawing their way out of the ground, to the shock of the first family to meet a living corpse is horrifying, panicky and suitably realistic. But it's less successful when it later adds a little comedy, when zombie neighbours try to pick up where they left off. It's good as long as it takes itself seriously.

Interesting that this didn't become a series considering the success of The Walking Dead soon afterwards. Not sure where the story could have gone, but it's a powerful opening episode. Maybe it could have become The Talking Dead...

Les Revenants - the movie (2004) is available in North America as They Came Back on DVD with English subtitles. It includes an interesting 'making of' featurette. I felt that the trailer really undersold the film. Arrow Films are due to finally release the film on DVD in the UK in July.

Les Revenants - first season of the French TV series (2012, 8 x 50mins) is on DVD in France, but I doubt that the set has English subtitles. Channel 4 have announced that it will be aired in the UK in June, 2013 under the title The Returned. Amazon have ear-marked a page for a DVD release from Universal UK, but no firm details yet.

Babylon Fields - the US pilot episode (2007) is online to view here (42 mins).

They Came Back is the working title for Paul Abbott's new TV project to remake the French series...

ABSENTIA (2011) - the tunnel of horror!

ABSENTIA

(2011, USA)

With an underpass, you can be scared of the dark any hour of the day

Horror fans were twittering about this at a parade of film festivals, so I took a look when it hit the UK, watching it completely cold. This hazardous method of finding recommendations normally means that I regularly fall for orchestrated hype, often ending up with very average or predictable horror, mainstream or otherwise. But this time it paid off - I knew nothing about Absentia, but as a result it was full of surprises, as a story and as a production.

Tricia is young and pregnant, still posting 'have you seen?' flyers seven years after her husband disappeared. There are many similar posters around, but mostly for pets. Her younger sister, Callie, comes to stay just as the missing husband is legally declared dead. Callie takes up jogging near the house, cutting through a pedestrian tunnel as part of her circuit. On one run, she encounters a barely alive guy lying across the floor of the underpass. She can't understand what he's saying. When she returns with the police, he's gone. Things also start getting weird around their house. Soon, it'll be them calling the police for help...

Besides piling on the scares, Absentia is refreshing in trying hard to 'do different'. Tricia is pregnant, but that's not central to the plot. In the same way Duane Jones was picked as the lead for Night of the Living Dead but just happened to be black. Courtney Bell plays Tricia, but just happened to be (very) pregnant. (Can't wait to see how the kid turns out...).

The central mystery keeps you guessing and even character details are dramatically revealed rather than telegraphed. Also, the same way The Descent unnerves you with claustrophobia before hitting you with the supernatural, Absentia starts with the agonising limbo when someone you know disappears without a trace. Shocks and scares quickly kick in, but without immediately revealing the cause...

We've only recently watched the first Paranormal Activity (2007), which was as high in suspense as it was in bad acting and lame-brained character motivation. For all the build-up, I expected more than one decent scare. The franchise also does a disservice to other films shot on video. They expect the audience to agree that you can still 'tell' whether you're looking at video or not and that video still looks slightly rubbish. Absentia used video for budgetary reasons, but made it look as good as possible. I honestly thought I was watching a mainstream movie. It's therefore irksome that Absentia is less well known, was made for far less money, but scared me a hundred times more.

In fact it was made on a ridiculously small budget. IMDB lists it as $70,000! What? I had no idea. Usually I can spot ultra-low-budget horror because it looks shit, the acting's shit, and the story is... too. Which is why I avoid the zero-budget projects - because they're not even technically proficient. Absentia disproves my rule-of-thumb, demonstrating that a good script, careful camerawork and good acting can cost very little.

This is out on DVD in the US and UK, but hasn't yet hit blu-ray. I'm hoping that when Mike Flanagan's next film Oculus hits, Absentia will get an upgraded release.

Intrigued by the location, an opportunity to visit it came two weeks later. Here are our location photos.

MY AMITYVILLE HORROR (2012) - a documentary about Daniel Lutz

The legend continues...

The London Film Festival screened this smartly-produced new documentary at NFT3 last night. I went in almost completely 'cold', knowing only that one of the Lutz family children was interviewed. Hoping that it would expose the original Amityville horror as a hoax, once and for all, I was in for a few surprises.

If you haven't seen the The Amityville Horror (1979) or remake (2005), here's the story so far... In 1974, Ronald DeFeo Jr. murdered the six members of his family that he lived with. The following year, George and Kathy Lutz and their three children moved into the same house in Amityville, Long Island. There, loud noises, swarms of flies, eerie figures (and much, much more) disrupted their lives. They only stayed a few weeks, before fleeing in the middle of the night, leaving all their belongings behind. Their short stay became national news, selling magazines, books and then a series of films - all of which blurred the real events with constant retellings. Throughout it all, George and Kathy Lutz stood behind their original story until they both passed away.

Daniel (left), George and Kathy Lutz

With interviews old and new, relevant video and audio archives interviews and carefully chosen photographs, we now hear the story from the perspective of the eldest of the three children.

Daniel Lutz, now in his forties, confirmed many of the famous supernatural events from the original book. He'd the seen the swarms of flies, he'd been thrown up a flight of stairs, he'd seen the fanged pig with glowing eyes, his bed had levitated... I was immediately confused. I'd assumed the parents had concocted the stories to get out of debt, and kept the children away from the press to leave the story-telling to the adults.

Once again, we're presented with an enigma. Someone deadly convincing that they're telling the truth. This time, with seemingly nothing to gain, no movie rights, no book to sell. Living a life where the continuing attention has only made his life harder.

With no hard evidence, we only have the witnesses. The other two children wouldn't be interviewed for this film. Every supernatural event in the house left no useful trace and no convincing photographs. As he tells it, even the dead flies conveniently, immediately disappeared.

But Daniel also has further twists and revelations to add to the tale - events from before and after he moved into the house with the spooky eyes...

Eric Walter - writer, director and courageous interviewer

Young filmmaker Eric Walter was at the screening, telling us how he'd always been fascinated by the Amityville horror story, and extensively studying the evidence of it as a genuine paranormal event, particularly in online forums. He talked about the huge divide between the believers and disbelievers that still exists today. An insightful parallel is the divide between Christians and atheists - and this viewpoint is particularly relevant in one scene in the documentary.

Walter, describes himself as an agnostic with regards to religion and takes the same stance with his approach to the Amityville house. I don't think Daniel, who contacted him through the website, would have agreed to be interviewed and filmed if Walter was a firm disbeliever. But who in their right mind would tell Daniel to his face that they didn't believe him? He's very intense and intimidating, to say the least.

Daniel Lutz as he appears in My Amityville Horror

From the moment that George Lutz entered his life as a stepfather and forced his surname on the whole family, Daniel disliked him. Arguing with and antagonising him, even running away from home. If half the things in the book are true about George's behaviour in 'that' house, being possessed and acting erratically, forcing the family to march around, ten-year old Daniel would have reason to be scared as well as angry.

My own take can only be based on intuition - Daniel may have been thrown up the stairs, smacked across the hands and knocked around his bedroom, but by George, not by demons...

I think it would be in Daniel's greater interest to expose it all as a hoax. To finally unveil the mysteries of the Amityville horror. That would be a better, more saleable story than supporting the same events over again. The mystery here is as strong as ever. He's a very convincing spokesman. But that makes no sense to me.

He's interviewed by a psychologist, a reporter who has followed the story since the beginning, and by the director (Daniel looking straight to camera), an approach that made me feel quite uncomfortable, like I'd been locked in a room with him for two hours.

After over thirty years of Amityville horror books and films, the documentary assumes that the audience knows a little about the basis for the story. It doesn't waste time telling it all over again, but may confuse newcomers a little. 

Currently appearing in festivals - it's too early to know what kind of wider release this will get in cinemas or on video. So keep following their updates...

http://www.amityvillemovie.com/

I'll talk more about my own take on The Amityville Horror phenomenon, starting back when I first saw it in the cinema in 1980, and looking at how it's been sold as "a true story"...

LUCKY LUKE (2009) - Jean DuJardin, hero of the wild west

LUCKY LUKE

(2009, France/Argentina)

Cowboy spoof, action comedy, more fun than The Artist

Lucky Luke, cowboy, sharpshooter, drifter, do-gooder... Renowned for his heroics across the wild west, Luke is summoned by the President of the United States to help unite the country by clearing the last obstacle to the trans-American railroad - the lawless Daisy Town. But this may prove too big a job for just one cowboy...

Like Tintin, Lucky Luke started as a Belgian comic strip. First appearing in 1946, the character became hugely popular across Europe, but not so much in the UK or US. It spawned cartoon series, two live-action movies (1991) and a TV series (1992) aptly starring spaghetti western veteran Terence Hill (They Call Me Trinity).

Also like Tintin, the cartoon character has had to move with the times. But the movie playfully references many of his earlier traits, like the cigarette that used to hang from his mouth... Writer/director James Huth also humorously turns many movie western cliches on their heads.

At times, he uses brash colour schemes, like early comic books, for certain scenes and even single shots, making it look almost experimental at times. Comic book humour extends to visual gags as wild as the silent movies. I loved the President's train carriage with it's thick, static ceiling of smoke, and the population of terrified townspeople hiding and moving around in upturned water barrels.

The range of bizarre characters and offbeat approach to the cowboy genre, where half the population (somehow) have hearts of gold, reminded me of Gore Verbinski's similarly enjoyable Rango. Calamity Jane looks more cowboy than cowgirl, Billy The Kid is a childish adult and Jesse James is a failed actor, with a magnificently overlong longcoat. Even Luke's horse is a character.

The desert location work (shot in Argentina) and impressive scale of the film makes this one very overlooked movie. For me it was a far more rewarding experience than The Artist, perhaps because that was overhyped and this was underhyped. This is funner, but not Jean DuJardin at his funniest. You need the two OSS 117 films, Cairo - Nest of Spies (2006) and Lost In Rio (2009) to see his full comic range.

The cover art for the UK DVD sneakily presents DuJardin in black and white, alluding to The Artist, but this movie is totally drenched in colour. It's presented in French with English subtitles and no extras. If Amazon.fr is to be trusted, the Blu-ray sold in France also has English subtitles on it.

Lucky Luke comics website (in  French).

BLOOD-C (2011) - Saya returns in a bloody new anime

BLOOD-C

(2011, Japan, TV)

You want monsters and bloody mayhem?

(UPDATED - June 2013 - on DVD and blu-ray in the UK and USA)


A twelve-part anime series continues the saga of Saya, the vampire slayer, first seen in the extraordinary short film, Blood The Last Vampire (2000), set during WWII.

Animation house Production I.G eventually followed it up with an epic fifty-part anime series Blood+ in 2005. Then there was a disappointing 2009 live-action adaption of the original short, made in Hong Kong. But with Production I.G again on the case, I was keen for more...

Here, Saya is a girl leading a normal school-life by day, but fighting demons by night. Her father, a priest, has prepared her for daily battles against a ghastly evil that manifests itself as a series of incredible strong and vicious creatures. Young Saya appears to have superhuman strength and amazing sword skills, but still struggles to protect the innocents that the blood-thirsty monsters prey on. As the attacks increase, Saya punishes herself because she can't even protect those she loves...

Blood-C cleverly doesn't immediately reveal its links with the previous stories. Another spin is that the monsters aren't huge vampire bat demons any more. Instead there are an outrageously inventive menagerie of loathsome creatures, each with their own ghastly methods of attack.

The early episodes waste time with her bizarrely traditional and cute school life, with a cast of familiar characters. At school, Saya is indecisive, shy and accident-prone. A very uninteresting alter-ego compared to similar heroines of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Bleach. It's also mind-boggling how monolithically female anime characters are portrayed. Saya is a young schoolgirl, yet she has unfeasibly large breasts and is shown almost completely naked in the title sequence.

The nudity and bloody mayhem seem to demonstrate that the producers stepped up to new extremes, at odds with the simple set-up and childish humour. The amount of blood and gore is so excessive that TV stations have fogged out sections in a large number of scenes.

Thankfully, the story gets more serious and complex past the first few episodes and the creative blood-letting and imaginative monsters warrant seeing it through to the bloody end. 

The dynamic animation and artistic layouts are up to Production I.G's usual high standards. Like previous series, the music is lush and orchestral.

The entire series of Blood-C is now available on DVD and blu-ray in the UK, and as a combo blu-ray and DVD boxset in the US.

An animated movie has spun off the series and is just about to hit Japanese cinemas in June, Blood-C: the Last Dark.

 

Here's the movie trailer