Dir - Álex de la Iglesia
Overall: GOOD
An over the top, tour de force for Spanish filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia, (possibly his most over the top), Witching & Burning, (Las brujas de Zugarramurdi), piles on the ridiculous for a rather enjoyable end result. The script by he and frequent collaborator Jorge Guerricaechevarría tosses even the most minimal amount of plausibility to the wind, but who needs believable characters or the laws of physics to be upheld when it is so much more fun to have them survive body-breaking damage or randomly fall in love with each other instead? This is not even taking into account the wild witch mythology which climaxes with a hundred plus strong, break out in song and dance, human sacrificing, cannibalistic sabbat and a giant, naked ogre mama who stops around like King Kong. Routinely hilarious, de la Iglesia has great delight in making all of his characters prattle on about how much of a pain in the ass the opposite sex is, a battle that fuels everything from a botched pawn shop heist to the aforementioned, unholy finale. The film may be a bit too arbitrarily silly for some, but its goofy and gruesome indulgence is certainly intentional and expertly delivered.
Dir - Ben Wheatley
Overall: MEH
Overwrought with a disregard for coherence that borders on irritation, Ben Wheatley's A Field in England is a very pretentious and ultimately vacant experiment. Scripted by Amy Jump, (who also edited the film with Wheatley), it bares many surface level hallmarks of black and white arthouse cinema including hallucinatory editing, slow motion shots that go on too long, people posing as paintings or something for no reason, and dialog that is barely comprehensible. It does not help that the actor's accents are routinely too think for most people to probably discern, but the period-accurate words they are saying further baffles the experience, an experience that is surely meant to be baffling. Wheatley seems to be ecstatic with the mystifying ideas that he is working with, hellbent on presenting them in as complex and surreal a fashion as possible. Yet it lacks any emotional weight due to this presentation, making it a tiring chore to sit through. It is just scene after scene of weird stuff and a perpetual, one-note feeling of confusion. The film may look superb, but it also goes too far off the rails with nothing to say.
Dir - Alejandro Hidalgo
Overall: GOOD
The debut and to date only effort from writer/director Alejandro Hidalgo, (who also edited the movie), The House at the End of Time is an impressive offering, so much so that it has become the highest grossing horror film in Venezuelan history. Admittingly, it is not without its faults as it regrettably succumbs to a large amount of incredibly obnoxious jump scares, each one derailing the engrossing story more than the last. Besides this unfortunate, genre-pandering faux pas, the movie presents an ambitious narrative that fantastically delivers its twists in the most emotionally impactful way. The performances could not be better from former Miss Venenzuala World Ruddy Rodriguez on down. Hidalgo manages to both tie up every last loose end he introduces while at the same time letting his script work at its own challenging pace, bouncing between time frames effortlessly without any audience spoonfeeding. It is actually all the more remarkable though in that the attempts at mounting, ghost movie terror are too derivative to be up to par yes, but it still ends up being a unique enough work to warrant recommendation.
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