Dir - Xan Cassavetes
Overall: GOOD
The full-length debut Kiss of the Damned from writer/director Xan Cassavetes is a quasi-throwback to 70s, exploitative Euro-horror and one that is heavy on elegant, erotic style. A musical motif occurs several times that is right out of Italian giallos, plus the ADRed line-readings and thick foreign accents would sit right at home with any number of exports from such an era. Still, this is contemporary-set and besides one or two slow camera zooms and a Gothic abode that could be a stand-in for the house in José Ramón Larraz's Vampyres, it has a contemporary look and feel. That said, the dialog is often weak and the plotting thin when it comes to Roxane Mesquida's villainess who is the only character to behave like a smirking asshole for reasons that are never explained. It offers up a sophisticated angle on vampire mythos though, where most of the undead detest feasting on human blood and pride themselves on their refined tastes and bourgeois lifestyles. Cassavetes has an eye for striking visuals and suave atmosphere, even if some of the budgetary constraints and old school genre pandering dip their toes into unintentional, (or intentional), camp here or there.
Dir - Craig Zobel
Overall: WOOF
One of the most unwatchable thrillers in recent times, Compliance brings a true, documented strip search call scam that was conducted over a ten year period, all to disturbing life in a manner that is fitting yet relentlessly miserable. Even without the proper historical context at one's disposal, the audience will have no problem being able to pick up exactly what is going on which is well over an hour before anyone on screen wises up to it. As is the case with any "based on a true story" movie, certain liberties were taken with the specifics of course, but the effort to rev up the tension by writer/director Craig Zobel goes to absurdly unnecessary lengths, even if said lengths are factual. While this is not to diminish the trauma that was suffered by the actual victims of the real world ordeal, (the result of over seventy such scam calls made by a single perpetrator), it does not translate to the screen where person after person goes along with increasingly, clearly suspect acts. The movie raises questions of victimization, brainwashing, and, (as the title obviously alludes to), compliance under pressure, but watching a poor woman get humiliated and sexually harassed by unwilling parties for ninety minutes is just an inexcusable premise for a film.
Dir - Jung Bum-shik/Kim Gok/Kim Sun/Min Kyu-dong/Hong Ji-young/Im Dae-woong
Overall: MEH
This unimpressive horror anthology from South Korea brings together six different directors, none of which manage to pull off anything memorable in such a framework. Simplistically titled Horror Stories, (Museoun Iyagi), and the first in a to-date three-deep franchise, it has a framing narrative with a quirky serial killer/kidnapper who instructs his victim to put him to sleep with any frightening tales that she can come up with. Coincidentally, the audience may find themselves dozing off themselves by the time that the nearly two-hour ordeal has run its course. The first segment "Don't Answer the Door" has some initial, spooky potential as two kids who are left alone have their imaginations run wild with supernatural forces trying to get them, but it gets confused before wrapping up. "Endless Flight" has some convenient/illogical horror movie plotting, "Secret Recipe" is a weird, cannibalistic folk tale re-working, and "Ambulance on the Death Zone" ends up being more of a monotonous, paranoia-fueled zombie scenario than a suspenseful one. Oodles of jump scares and rapid editing muddle things up further and the entire ordeal overstays its popcorn-friendly welcome with its exhaustively cliched presentation.
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