(2002)
Dir - Guy Maddin
Overall: MEH
For those possessing an absolute lack of knowledge about the art form of ballet, you will most likely be lost during Guy Maddin's Bram Stoker singular interpetation Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary. Maddin has long worked well outside normal filmmaking trends and techniques, and in this respect, the deliberate, bygone era, silent film approach here is nothing new to him. It is certainly something new for a Dracula adaptation released this century though. Coupled with literally being a thematic version of a dance production by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, it is refreshing amongst the horde of other Dracula movies out there, even if the resulting viewing experience is not entirely well-suited to the cinematic medium. Evocatively photographed and given an appropriate, romantic sheen by cinematographer Paul Suderman, watching everyone elegantly bounce and dance back, forth, and into each other's arms in three or four different large rooms is hardly compelling enough for everyone's tastes, but those familiar with the bare bones plot logistics of the often-filmed source material may at least have an easier time following along.
(2006)
Dir - Johnathan King
Overall: GOOD
The amusing debut Black Sheep from New Zealand filmmaker Johnathan King works its absurd premise in a user friendly, strictly B-movie way that is persistently in on its own gag. King's script successfully takes the piss out of both animal cruelty and extreme environmentalism, two typically serious, real life concerns that are skewed cleverly where genetic experiments transform docile, vegetarian sheep into carnivorous beasts that also have the ability to infect humans. This hilariously makes the movie the only weresheep/zombie hybrid in cinema history. Though it is played for comedic effect exclusively, (how could it not be?), the movie wisely lets loose with the gore and the practical effects have a throwback charm to them that gives it an exploitative splatter quality to delight fans of such nastiness. Even with juvenile flatulence jokes, the villain getting his wiener bitten off, and a sheep trying to hump our hero, it is just over the top enough as to not try too obnoxiously hard, with straight-faced performances counterbalancing all of the good, messy camp.
(2007)
Dir - J.A. Bayona
Overall: MEH
For a haunted house movie, The Orphanage, (El orfanato), has a slightly better story than most and one or two effectively chilling moments that skew the formula, but those moments are dwarfed by an otherwise relentless stream of cliches. A family moving into a creepy old colonial house, a kid with imaginary friends, a grieving, "I'm not crazy" woman not being taken seriously by her stubborn husband, pointlessly cryptic dialog, creepy masks, creepy dolls, paranormal specialists investigating with Ghost Hunters equipment, a psychic medium, troubled spirits who play endless games instead of just coming out and saying what they want, the "something was just in my bed" scene; the list just never lets up. A solid lead performance from Belén Rueda certainly helps and the movie works far better as a look into the desperation and turmoil that a parent faces after losing a child than it does as a wheel-inventing horror film. Despite its sincerity, there is very, very little unique about the presentation which just makes the bombardment of over-played tropes that much more unfortunate.
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