(2002)
Dir - Olivier Assayas
Overall: GOOD
By its very construction, Olivier Assayas' Demonlover treads murky waters in its examination of matter-of-fact business negotiations as they pertain to dubious enterprises. Shot in both Japan and Assayas' native France, (with an international cast bouncing between three different languages), it unloads frequent surprises that seem to shift the subject matter if not the entire genre as it goes on. Being examined more closely though, Assayas fuses the erotic thriller, spy film, and dark web content into something with a singular agenda. The characters here are all just doing their jobs, which generally revolve around eliminating competing obstacles by the most efficient and non-emotional means. In this way, when things go awry and then venture into full-on disturbing territory, it maintains a chillingly calm demeanor which heightens the theme of desensitized morals in a corporate landscape. Connie Nelson, Charles Berling, and Chloë Sevigny, (the latter speaking phonetic French as convincingly as has ever been done), are ideally suited for the material, but Assayas' challenging script and its presentation which includes endlessly flowing, often hand-held camera work is what best keeps the material interesting, if not altogether decipherable at first glance.
(2005)
Dir - Jan Švankmajer
Overall: GOOD
An engaging, ghastly at times social commentary on mental instability and probably some other things, Czech animator/filmmaker Jan Švankmajer's Lunacy takes many a familiar ingredient and boils them quite well into its own stew. It borrows sporadic elements from Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade, (both of whom have been the subject and basis of many a horror film), with Švankmajer himself introducing the movie directly to the audience in an opening scene that calls all the way back to Universal's 1931 Frankenstein. The weird, stop motion animation that the director is primarily known for is used multiple times with slabs of meat getting into all kinds of bizarre tomfoolery that is supposed to mean whatever you think it means. Time periods are excellently molded together, (one early scene has characters in period costumes ridding a horse and cart across a busy highway full of modern cars per example), and the lunatic asylum set up provides the perfect scenario for strange, diabolical set pieces. Though actually the best of these takes place earlier and is bound to bring a chuckle to anyone's face who is a fan of overt blasphemy.
(2009)
Dir - Tommy Wirkola
Overall: MEH
What would be a fun, moronic zombie comedy here ends up being overshadowed by its own lazy screenwriting and many an obnoxious horror genre faux pas. Director Tommy Wirkola and actor Stig Frode Henriksen cannot keep the details of their story straight, which randomly does whatever it thinks is the coolest or funniest thing at that particular time instead of sticking to it's own rules. Cell phones do not work until they do, zombies lay dormant but then all wake up when it is dramatically "badass", they are zombies so they chase people and eat them until they want shiny gold trinkets instead, they are also soldier zombies so you would think they would not get wildly chopped up and incapacitated by a bunch of medical students, etc. There is also stupid hack elements like characters miraculously surviving numerous things that would have absolutely killed them and so, so many jump scares that get increasingly aggravating. Though the basic set up of young people in an isolated location with no cell phones needs to permanently be retired and the premise of Nazi zombies is something a twelve-year old would come up with and think is swell, they should still allow you to turn your brain off and enjoy yourself. Zombie burn-out is way too undeniable now though and dumb horror movie tropes halt the gory schlock of Dead Snow from hitting as hard and as funny as it should.
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