Dir - Tommy Wirkola
Overall: GOOD
The refreshing, (and most immediately noticeable), part about Tommy Wirkola's return to his Dead Snow franchise with the second installment Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead is that it goes full comedy. There is no pussyfooting around with obnoxious jump scares or unnecessary "unequipped people holding off in a small building against the undead" cliches. This one is all about being asinine and hilarious. A number of laugh out loud moments are liberally utilized, such as not one but two CPR scenes, a woman getting abandoned in a wheel chair, mid-zombie pursuit, and a very preposterous sex scene. The story understandably tries to one-up that of its predecessor since what is more ridiculous than having a bunch of Nazi zombies in the first place? Having them fight a bunch of Russian zombies of course. The same problems though are present as before, meaning a disregard for easily avoidable be they minor plot malfunctions and physics-defying details. Characters walk around a frozen mountain landscape at night with no winter apparel on, the zombies are equipped with a tank but prefer to stare motionless at their prey for minutes on end without using it, they also surround and then attack two lone characters one at a time, and more dumb shit that is just in there since who cares, it is a stupid zombie movie. Would it kill them, (pun intended), to put on a winter jacket for one scene though?
Dir - John Pogue
Overall: MEH
Following up the wildly unmemorable The Woman in Black remake, resurrected Hammer Film Productions' The Quiet Ones takes a semi-stab at the found footage sub-genre while still utilizing a throw-back approach to its look. These can each be seen as two strikes against it right out of the gate, but surprisingly each element is used to ideal effect and actually make up the most interesting aspects about the movie overall. It is pretty much everywhere else besides how grainy the 1974 setting looks and how plausible the idea of a cameraman capturing such supernatural occurrences on film is that the movie routinely fumbles. First and certainly foremost, the jump scares are so absolutely rampant that the film seems to be intentionally trying to once and for all ruin said cliche. How any audience member could be anything but completely annoyed by how often the soundtrack drops to pure silence if not a whisper, only to blow out your ear drums exactly where you know it will is anybody's guess. The screenplay though which is credited to four people, (not a good sign), is sloppy and lame, once again featuring an old, stubborn asshole of a scientist this time losing his grant to take a bunch of young students with him to cure a possessed schizophrenic. Also, seances, solving mysteries in a library, and who cares.
Dir - Lowell Dean
Overall: MEH
Another shameless, part-throwback horror comedy that goes the practical effects route and might as well be set in the 1980s, Canadian writer/director Lowell Dean's Wolfcop is meant to be loud, dumb, and bloody and that is exactly what it is. The script is formidable and pits Satanic shapeshifters against werewolves, which is a nifty enough tweak to get behind. As always, pretty much any make-up and prosthetic effects at this point look better than cartoony CGI or at the very least fit the B-movie approach here just fine. Unfortunately though, the movie is not funny. The dialog falls flat and is routinely even embarrassing, the over the top set pieces are more obnoxious than cute, and most of the performances are amateurish at best. Dean is clearly trying his hardest to make a schlocky cult movie, but it kind of just goes through the motions of "fuck yeah/bad ass" scenes like pimping a cop car, ripping peoples faces off, starting a werewolf transformation with a dick pissing blood and going hairy, a sex scene that is supposed to be amusing since it crosses into bestiality sort of, and original songs on the soundtrack that reference exactly what the movie is about. It is certainly harmless fun, but just lacking too much of the "fun" part despite its sincere intentions.
No comments:
Post a Comment