(2003)
Dir - Julian Richards
Overall: MEH
Utilizing the found footage framework to pose questions about voyeurism and the audience's nature to "not look away" from horrific events that are presented in front of them, writer/director Julian Richards' The Last Horror Movie is hardly the most original work in its field. Obvious comparisons can be made to the 1992 Belgium film Man Bites Dog which sports a nearly identical premise of a charming sociopath who takes it upon himself to document his serial murders, except said killer's provoking of the viewer is more deliberately pronounced here. Both by speaking directly into camera and making said camera operator complicit in the task, Kevin Howarth's antagonist finds various narcissistic means to justify his behavior, offering up the twisted idea that those who are watching his exploits are guilty of their own moral shortcomings and should at least share the blame. Howarth's performance is appropriately pretentious and leans slyly into the comedic, which causes the right amount of discomfort in viewing the juxtaposing, matter-of-fact, and disturbed kill scenes. It makes its point since we are indeed sticking with the movie-within-a-movie conundrum of violence for entertainment's sake, but all of the ideas present have been served more uniquely both before and since.
(2008)
Dir - Steven Sheil
Overall: WOOF
A pointless and low-rent bit of torture porn from writer/director Steven Sheil, Mum & Dad goes for demented sickness while just ending up being a miserable mess. Digitally shot and noticeably on the cheap, it pits Olga Fedori's young, Polish immigrant against a "family" of nutjobs who kidnap people to do various forms of unwholesome actives with. These range from household chores, to getting sewing needles tenderly stuck inside of them, to watching the dad jerk off onto raw meat, to getting beaten with a mallet while being zipped into luggage, to engaging in a Christmas party where mutilated bodies are used for decoration. The tone is persistently daft as if Sheil is going for exploitative black comedy due to the wackadoo behavior of such villainous people who balance violent, disgusting, manipulative, and perverse outbursts with tenderly and still perverse adherence to a strict family dynamic. Unfortunately for the viewer, said acts of depravity are just uncomfortable and nasty, presented in a grimy fashion that never conveniently establishes any actual humor, let alone intrigue. There is more egregious torture porn out there, but the genre is inherently despicable anyway so even if this is comparatively less miserable and insulting than your Haute Tensions or Martyrs, it still sucks.
(2009)
Dir - Lawrence Gough
Overall: MEH
One of three films produced in Liverpool following the city's 2008 status as a EU City of Culture, Salvage is a nasty zombie/home invasion hybrid with solid performances yet an ugly end result. The full-length debut from director Lawrence Gough and the screenwriting team of Alan Pattison and Colin O'Donnell, it has a purposely misleading set-up before abruptly switching protagonists and turning into a suburban nightmare where people are trapped inside their homes on Christmas Eve, with aggressive and armed military personal causing full-blown panic from outside. The sparse amount of characters allows for ample development between them, presenting us with flawed yet well-meaning individuals who are dealing with their own bouts of regret on top of the mysterious, violent developments that are keeping them under lock and key. Gough and cinematographer Simon Tindall chose to shoot everything in intimate, hand-held close-ups or mid-shots, taking a grungy approach on account of the small-scale budget and location setting. This makes the violence more viscerally impactful, but it becomes exhaustive and dour by the finale where nobody wins and only debilitating trauma awaits those who have survived. So in other words, the perfect holiday feel-good movie!
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