(1982)
Dir - Jean-Claude Lord
Overall: MEH
Some of the lazy slasher tropes are thankfully dismissed in Jean-Claude Lord's Visiting Hours, but it is still a movie that manages to underwhelm quite heavily in the end. There is a quite solid performance from Michael Ironside, looking like Canada's answer to Jack Nicholson yet delivering a comparatively more low-key performance as a knife-wielding sociopath with daddy issues. Revealing the killer within the first scene and periodically giving us flashback answers as to his psychotic nature, Visiting Hours has no mystery which while refreshing to not routinely mislead us with red herrings, leaves very little else for the movie to do besides plod along until Ironside's Colt Hawker is ultimately done-in by his targeted victim. This happens after one-hundred and five minutes and the route to get there is anything but heart-racing. The story simply backs itself into a corner where if it blindly pandered to the slasher framework and was another umpteenth example of insulting the viewer in such a manner, it would have to be over-the-top ridiculous to have any hope of sticking with its audience long after the credits rolled. Instead, it is played very straight and virtually humorless. Even with its feminist themes in tow, the story ultimately has no momentum to make it that compelling.
(1983)
Dir - N.G. Mount
Overall: WOOF
If there is a positive to be found in N.G. Mount's face-slappingly absurd Mad Mutilator, (aka Ogroff), it is that it takes all of the "Oh, no..." expectations you get within the first few frames and manages to get even more terrible than you could have predicted. As soon as the "movie" starts, you could do the logical, sane thing and cut your losses immediately and move on. Yet if you are a glutton for punishment, you can instead proceed with an unhealthy amount of self-loathing. This particular example from France is the sort that fiercely makes anyone watching it question why they are bothering. As far as the actual, (not), film goes, what can you really say? There is actually no plot, the guy who made it was a video store owner and fanzine publisher who lacks every ability there is when it comes to movie making, there are zombies for no reason, a vampire for even more no reason, and it is powerfully boring. There is nothing to complain about when it comes to the gore which is relentless and unconvincing, the performances which are non-existent, or the completely random way it throws anything it wants into frame with a daring disregard for purpose or coherency. Yet at just shy of ninety-minutes, it is way too long to waste one's time with and why such a thing exists at all is a mystery best left to time and space.
(1989)
Dir - Ann Turner
Overall: MEH
Too impenetrable for its own good, Ann Turner's debut Celia, (aka Celia: Child of Terror), is a Cold War drama with some bizarre, occasionally horror-esque sprinklings here or there. Taking place during the 1950's Red Scare and rabbit plague in suburban Melbourne, the film follows around its weird, nine-year old title character who cannot get a break in her home life while continuing to behave more and more morbidly, gradually losing the audience's sympathy for her along the way. It is not to the film's benefit that the screenplay, (also by Turner), is frequently difficult to follow. A number of adults and different kids come and go at such a rate that it is a bit tricky to keep track of even whose parents are whose. In addition, we are dropped right in a backdrop of middle class citizens caught up in the communism scare without any user-friendly context and it honestly becomes difficult to understand what exactly all the hubbub is about. The spooky moments are reduced to a few brief hallucinations which are infrequent enough to not really carry that much weight. It mostly just becomes a chore to get invested in what is going on while trying to discern your feelings for the main character whose life stays steady on the traumatic side. There are some interesting ideas here about a child's confusion and over active imagination getting the better of them, but again, the film itself is just too murky to connect with.
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