(1990)
Dir - Nicolas Roeg
Overall: GOOD
This adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel The Witches was the only children's film that director Nicolas Roeg ever made and also doubles as the last one that Jim Henson worked on before his death which occurred just a week before its release. Shot on location in both Norway and at England's Headland Hotel, the extensive budget gives way to some of the best practical effects of the era including an outrageously grotesque makeup design for Angelica Huston's Grand High Witch. The mythology present in Dahl's source material is quite inventive which includes witches being naturally bald, square-footed, having a purple tint to their eyes, and being able to smell children who they of course have an overwhelming disdain for. While there is certainly some macabre elements to the story, Henson and Roeg's tone is kept predominantly light, going far enough as to chirp up the ending against Dahl's wishes. On top of the many memorable set pieces, (the best of which include young Jasen Fisher's transformation into an adorable, animatronic mouse and his proceeding escapades in such a form), Huston's camped-up performance is delightful and hers is easily one of the best overall screen villains in any such movie.
(1997)
Dir - Julian Richards
Overall: MEH
Overall: MEH
Julian Richards, (a filmmaker associated with the Cool Cymru art movement in Wales), made his first of a career's worth of thriller/horror full-lengths with Darklands, an acceptable if unremarkable, contemporary pagan mystery. The usual hallmarks of blasphemous church desecration, gypsies being unfriendly, a dubious femme fatale, plus cult rituals involving child conception, human sacrifices, resurrection, and the usual lot of mumbo jumbo are all more or less perfectly in place. Visually though, Richards is not the most flashy of storytellers as the movie has a flat presentation with unexciting camera work that is unfortunately fitting to the flimsy budget. The attempts at Gothy, on-fire, freakshow aesthetics come off more dated than hip, but the story does rev up appropriately to an intense, conspiratorial tension in the finale. For an updated, urban Wicker Man tale, there is definitely an all around better movie lurking in here somewhere, but the performances are sufficient, the premise nifty, and the ambition is admirable at least.
(1998)
Dir - Geneviève Jolliffe
Overall: GOOD
The lone directorial effort from English screenwriter Geneviève Jolliffe, Urban Ghost Story is essentially what the title would suggest; a contemporary haunted house movie except one that takes place in a low-rent apartment complex. While there is some diabolical poltergeist activity present, it is largely underplayed in order to focus primarily on the story of struggling, poverty stricken single mothers whose desperate motives are regularly exploited. When an already troubled teenager survives a car accident after being clinically dead for several minutes, the unexplained supernatural activity only causes a further wedge within her family, with phony psychics, paranormal investigators, gang thugs, and social workers piling on the not good times. Jolliffe captures the less-than-ideal setting quite well, with unassuming, intimate cinematography that forgoes cinematic flashiness in a way that is certainly beneficial to the gruff, often heavy material. It is definitely low on spookiness and even with some of the aforementioned horror movie tropes in place, genre fans looking for a by-the-books cliche fest may feel a bit mislead by the title and basic premise. The differentiating, more grounded approach is somewhat refreshing though, even if the social commentary is as on the nose as it gets.
No comments:
Post a Comment