Dir - Andy Mitten/Jesse Holland
Overall: MEH
Though clunky in execution, the debut YellowBrickRoad from the writer/director duo of Andy Mitten and Jesse Holland boasts a bizarre premise that breathes some singular life into the ole "lost in the woods" style horror film. In 1940, an entire town full of people randomly head into the wilderness after watching a local screening of The Wizard of Oz, most never to be heard from again. Decades later, a group of curious journalists, a film crew, and some scouts decide to venture the same newly discovered route as the doomed townsfolk did, inevitably running into some nasty psychological torment. Besides retro music and piercing feedback that seems to be blaring from loudspeakers that no one can see, the characters do not run into much that is unwholesome. Instead, they begin to fail their own self-imposed mental checkpoints one by one, splintering apart from one another while exhibiting different kinds of wackadoo behavior. Mitten and Holland's script has the right jumping off point and a disturbing outcome, but there is no overarching theme besides that the woods are dangerous and never trust your hand-written coordinates when you are clearly in the Twilight Zone. Also, the characters are underwritten despite consistently decent performances, which makes the whole thing difficult to invest in.
Dir - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Overall: GREAT
Taking inspiration from the 1983 book A Man Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Buddhist abbot Phra Sripariyattiweti, (who apparently met and interviewed a man that claimed such a thing), Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, (Lung Bunmi Raluek Chat), is a contemplative experience, taking low-key filmmaking to a place where spirits, perceptions, and the subconscious all co-exist. Though it deliberately bounces around, the main narrative is set in modern times and focuses on the last days of its title character; an unassuming farmer who is dying of kidney failure and reflects on both his earlier years and what can happen next as he is visited by a small crop of loved ones. The fact that some of these family members are either ghosts or ape-like woodland creatures with red eyes is treated matter-of-factly, which goes hand-in-hand with an ethereal and folkloric mood, as well as references to such real world events such as a 1965 communist crackdown. There is a permeating theme of everything, (either otherworldly or not), sharing real estate with each other, and writer/director Apichatpong Weerasethakul offers up no spoon-feeding for his audience. Instead, the film plays out slowly and by its own terms, lingering on moments that are both simple and ridiculously strange, yet it all seems warm and inviting instead of challenging, which in and of itself is a rarity for art house cinema.
Dir - Paul Naschy
Overall: WOOF
The final directorial effort Empusa from Paul Naschy is a nobble yet ultimately embarrassing attempt at rekindling his exploitation glory days on as shoestring of a budget as ever. Shot in 2007 yet finished by its producer Angel Mora a year after Nashy's death, the Spanish horror icon that loves his monsters as much as he cannot resist putting female characters in his movies that find him irresistible seems to at least be poking fun at himself here. Nashy was seventy-three when this was filmed, playing a foul-mouth occult writer in a ridiculous jet-black wig and durag who still has the sexual prowess to impress naked flirting females that are young enough to be his granddaughters. Yet he also jokes about his withered age and throws several deliberately funny lines into the mix, plus someone had the horrendous idea to fill almost every second of screen time with goofy keyboard music. While the idea of an elderly ladies man squaring off against Ancient Greek vampire babes while wise-cracking with his rotting corpse best friend should be enough to carry things through, the cheap production aspects leave little room for exciting set pieces or flashy cinematography. Instead, this is painfully boring stuff, only coming alive at irregular intervals and primary being nothing more than actors sitting down and talking to each other, followed by another scene where actors sit down and talk to each other.
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