Dir - Jang Jae-hyun
Overall: MEH
For his second full-length behind the lens, Jang Jae-hyun goes big with the silly-titled Svaha: The Sixth Finger, (Sabaha); a supernatural yarn that throws numerous religious prophecies and practices into an overstuffed blender. Christian, Buddhist, and other fringe ideologies, (some well researched by Jang and others his own authentically ominous concoction), make for an interesting framing device where three and a half separate arcs are bounced between for roughly ninety minutes before the last act finally has them all converge together. This gives the plot a lot to chew on and makes for a showy finale that while clever in its long-winded trajectory, also causes persistent pacing issues and an air of incoherence. It has too many characters, too many call-backs, and too many detours that ultimately prove unnecessary and only muddle up a story that is already epic in scale. Jang increasingly leaves the more comedic elements behind as things slowly move forward, which creates tonal issues when looked at as a whole. Thankfully the performances are good and cinematographer Kim Tae-soo captures the winter setting in both its rural and urban bleakness, at least making it look and feel like an intense thriller that questions the silence of god, even if the narrative could afford some streamlining.
THE BANANA SPLITS MOVIE
Dir - Danishka Esterhazy
Overall: WOOF
The film that could be credited with jump-starting the animatronic slasher mini-boom, The Banana Splits Movie is a groan-worthy and mostly frustrating horror interpretation of the Hanna-Barbera TV show that ran for two seasons in the late 1960s. Taking an early gen-x property and re-imagining it as an R-rated bloodfest some fifty years later has an air or scrapping the barrel laziness to it that never lets up in the finished product. Gore fans are an inherently desensitized bunch and none of the violence is clever or hilarious enough to impress those who are clamoring for large stuffed-animal monster robot mayhem. Both the plot and the kill scenes are awkwardly staged, like a guy standing and screaming after getting his face blow-torched, two people made to stumble around a slopsticale course, and the man in an obnoxious YouTube influencer couple getting sawed in half in the most yawn-inducing of manners. Speaking of obnoxious, every one-note character here is unlikable and the sensitive moments between them are as hackneyed as they come, which the first half exclusively focuses on before the just as boring, not-at-all-kid-friendly stuff takes center stage later on. Who the audience is for such nonsense is anyone's guess, but it is a poorly-conceived and executed waste of ninety-minutes all the same.
Dir - Emir Ezwan
Overall: MEH
Deliberately minimal on story yet immersed in its supernatural gloom, Roh, (Soul), is a promising full-length debut from Emir Ezwan. Simple, period-set Malaysian folk horror about an Islamic iblis that pics off victims deep within the forest, it features zero comedic elements and a six person cast who wrestle with death omens, mysterious visitors, distrust, and children come back from the bed. Bypassing conventional scare tactics, the majority of the events play out in sweltering broad day light during an undisclosed time period where families were left to their own devices, (as well as the influence of supernatural entities), with no other means of survival to fall back on. It is not just the woodland demons that Farah Ahmad and her two kids have to worry about, but also anyone else who crosses their path that may or may not decide to do unwholesome things to them. While the viewer is more hip as to who is pulling the strings here than the characters are, the primitive backdrop proves ideal for what is just a an old fashioned, ominous fairy tale. Unfortunately, the pacing is arduous and the story is so simple that it becomes too one-note and barren of freaky set pieces, but it still accomplishes a good amount with its minimalist presentation.
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