2022 Horror Part One

STUDIO 666

Dir - BJ McDonnell

Overall: MEH

 

Things are about what one would expect in Studio 666; a heavy metal horror comedy revolving around the Foo Fighters that is hit or miss yet consistently ridiculous.  Filmed in secret at the same house that the band recorded their tenth record Medicine at Midnight at, it is also loaded with cameos from the likes of Whitney Cummings, Kerry King, John Carpenter, Will Forte, Lionel Richie, and Jeff Garland.  Elsewhere, Dave Grohl and company play themselves with about the same acting calibur that Jerry Seinfeld did on his own sitcom.  The script by Jeff Buhler and Rebecca Hughes allows for a few humorous moments and oodles of over the top gore, yet the gags fall flat a tad more often than they land.  Being technically sort of a rock musical, the songs are pretty tight, not just from the staring band, yet also from Carpenter and his synthwave outfit which includes his son Cody and Daniel Davies.  Even though it is cliche by nature in a satirical sense, thankfully the movie avoids the usual pratfalls of obnoxiously stupid metalhead genre movies at least.  It mostly gets by on the simple likability of the Foo Fighters, yet take that element away and it is probably forgettable.

MEN

Dir - Alex Garland

Overall: GOOD

English filmmaker Alex Garland delivers another gnarly, surreal genre movie with Men, a provocative mood piece that fuses the seemingly desperate components of English mythology and toxic masculinity.  While one does not have to be scholarly in such folklore or psychology to pick up on numerous unsettling details, there seems to be a grande scheme to Garland's symbolism here that is wisely never explicitly stated.  This gives the film its disturbing, otherworldly atmosphere that stacks up far more questions than it does provide any answers for them.  That said, it works quite viscerally as we experience Jessie Buckley's guilt-ridden protagonist struggle with the increasingly strange chain of events that brings her inner turmoil more to the forefront.  Both Buckley and Rory Kinnear are almost the only actors on screen and their performances are flawless, with the latter taking on quite an ambitious string of roles.  Even if the outlandish finale and heavy emotional explorations are not to one's taste, the music is rather haunting and Garland and his cinematographer collaborator Rob Hardy once again have created something that is visually very lush and breathtaking.

WINDFALL

Dir - Charlie McDowell

Overall: GOOD

The darkly comedic thriller Windfall utilizes its rudimentary premise to deconstruct some rather effective relationship, wealth, and class dynamics.  No less than four people were credited with the story, two of which penned the actual screenplay, and all three lead actors served as producers along with director Charlie McDowell.  Certainly Coen brothers inspired in that it has what is usually a glamorized criminal scenario that instead persistently and humorously goes wrong, great efforts seem to be maintained in basing the plot in some semblance of realism.  Along the way, several dramatic tropes are subverted in an intentionally frustrating manner; we never do learn the exact motive or hardly any details about Jason Segel's character, no matter how many opportunities the script presents to have such details revealed.  Cleverly though, we learn what matters which is just enough.  The tension is wracked up systematically, throwing more chaos on top of things just when it seems that some sort of "happy ending" is within grasp.  Along with Segel, Lilly Collins and Jesse Plemons are also in top form and overall the movie is a juicy bit of material to engage with.

The Death Note Series Part Two

DEATH NOTE: NEW GENERATION

(2016)

Dir - Shinsuke Sato

Overall: MEH

Essentially serving as an elongated trailer for Death Note: Light Up the New World, the companion piece webseries Death Note: New Generation debuted about a month earlier.  Co-existing in the same universe set up in the following decade's trilogy of films that were based off of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga, a new crop of characters are introduced, spread out over three twenty-two minute episodes.  These include a combination of those who are following in either the footsteps of the anti-hero Death Note wielder Kira or his eccentric, super genius nemesis L since once again the title notebook of doom is in another's hands and a fresh crop of criminals are dropping dead across the globe.  If it all seems too similar to what has already been delivered in the series, that is because it is.  The final episode "Shien's Chapter: Fanaticism" though is easily the most refreshing as it is the first proper glimpse we have been given into one of the aforementioned doomed criminal's psyches; a now reformed, deeply remorseful janitor who is trying to justify his own happiness with a fiance and baby on the way.  There really is not enough here to garnish a heavily level of enthusiasm as to what the cinematic franchise will offer up next, but the already initiated will probably enjoy the familiarity.

DEATH NOTE: LIGHT UP THE NEW WORLD

(2016)

Dir - Shinsuke Sato

Overall: MEH

 

To date the final cinematic chapter in the Japanese franchise of Death Note films, Death Note: Light Up the New World continues from the groundwork laid out with the joint webseries Death Note: New Generation.  This serves as a direct sequel to the second movie from ten years prior, with the stakes properly raised and continual references to characters past and events that have already transpired.  Several of the actors return in either cameos or in Erika Toda and Shidō Nakamura II's case, more fleshed out roles as Miss Amane and the voice of Ryuk, respectively.  For better or worse, the story here hits several identical beats as before.  Considering that one of the selling points for these movies in the first place are the clever plot reveals, this might be a problem in that fans will likely be able to spot them before they happen.  Juggling an abundance of characters might also make things a bit too convoluted and unintentionally silly since by comparison, the first two films did a better job taking their time to establish everyone properly.  From a production standpoint though, this is a slick affair with a pretty serious, dark tone and vastly improved digital effects.  It is certainly still enjoyable, just less memorable due to its retreaded nature.

DEATH NOTE

(2017)

Dir - Adam Wingard
Overall: WOOF

In an attempt to re-calibrate Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga and subsequent, Japanese film series Death Note into its inevitable, American remake, nearly everything that made the initial source material compelling is wrecked with some of the worst choices possible.  Director Adam Wingard creates an unintentionally hilarious, awful mess that is likely to come off as preposterously stupid to the uninitiated while also coming off as preposterously stupid to both diehards or just anyone casually familiar with the earlier films.  Only the bare bones premise of a teenager named Light coming in contact with the title book of doom, him having a police detective for a dad, the apple-eating death god named Ryuk boasting the same look, and super detective L eating lots of candies are kept, as the entire plot and virtually every character's personality, motivations, and mannerisms are changed for the worse.  Light is a mopey wuss who is more hung-up on his cohort girlfriend than concerned with his twisted, anti-hero agenda, and the film only dances around the morally challenging questions that the initial series endlessly explored.  L gets it the worst though, going from his original form of an eccentric, emotionless, and painstakingly careful strategist to an impulsive, screaming, ranting and raving psycho that comes to only the most obvious conclusions while solving virtually nothing of importance.  It is unfortunately necessary to compare this to all of the other properties in the franchise in order to justify its existence as a fresh take, but it only ends up being a rotten one instead.

The Death Note Series Part One

DEATH NOTE

(2006)

Dir - Shusuke Kaneko

Overall: GOOD

The first live action adaptation of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga series Death Note, (Desu Nōto), establishes the rules and sets up the coming interplay between its main characters with a pretty cleverly scripted first duel between them.  Tatsuya Fujiwara and Kenichi Matsuyama play the mostly villainous anti-hero Light and his mysterious arch nemesis L respectively, with Shidō Nakamura providing the voice of the punk rock hair-cutted, apple loving shinigami Ryuk whose utterly awful CGI rendition is the only glaring visual flaw in the movie.  As the source material also did, the story itself deals with the temptation and seemingly inescapable corruption with wielding the power to "kill from afar" which Light justifies in a classic, gray area super villain sense to rid the world of all criminals and thus providing a utopia made possible through his own god-like judgement.  Meanwhile, much of Japan's youth seems him as a commendable savoir while L and the by the books justice seeking police force do everything in their power to keep such morally questionable, ultimate solution philosophizes at bay.  Wisely, director Kaneko and screenwriter Tetsuya Oishi structure everything to a memorable finale which pulls off some entertaining twists to virtually guarantee that the audience will return for the next installment which thankfully arrived less than four months later.

DEATH NOTE 2: THE LAST NAME

(2006)

Dir - Shusuke Kaneko

Overall: GOOD

Serving as a proper continuation of the same year's previous movie Death Note with all of the personnel both behind and in front of the screen returning, Death Note 2: The Last Name, (Desu Nōto Za Rasuto Neimu),starts off right from the aforementioned film's satisfying conclusion.  Though a spin-off sequel involving L was still on the way, this essentially wraps up the saga of the manga source material's crop of characters and provides more out-smarting narrative twists than should legally be allowed.  Tatsuya Fujiwara's Light Yagami finds a new cohort in Erika Toda's Misa Amane, (who was briefly introduced in the proceeding film), and another God of Death shows up as well which all ups the stakes in typical sequel fashion where the formula stays the same with just more ingredients making up the whole.  Also more Red Hot Chili Peppers songs show up as "Snow, Hey Oh" joins "Dani California" which was inexplicable chosen to be the series' theme song for heaven knows what reason.  Tonally, this is a campier effort with some genuine humor thrown in and several intentionally silly beats that are hit, but it still has an emotionally impactful conclusion that emphasizes the uncompromising, morally dubious methods that Fujiwara's anti-hero adheres to.

L: CHANGE THE WORLD

(2008)

Dir - Hideo Nakata

Overall: GOOD

 

Squeezing a little more juice out of the Death Note franchise while the iron was still relatively hot, L: change the WorLd, is the first in the series to be an original story that was not a direct adaptation of the Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga source material, though the two creators did provide the screenplay along with Hirotoshi Kobayashi.  Director Hideo Nakata had already made a name for himself as a contemporary J-horror statesmen with Dark Water and the initial Ring films, but the story line that he works with here is completely removed from supernatural elements and is instead a viral outbreak thriller.  That said, the central, morally questionable tension of the first two Death Note movies is still in place.  Instead of an anti-hero trying to rid the world of criminals, here it is a rogue scientist and a manic, corporation that want to unleash a deadly disease upon the populous for an environmentally balanced end game.  Marking his final appearance on screen as the title character, Kenichi Matsuyama explores a slightly bigger range of humanizing emotions though his numerous, idiosyncratic mannerisms stay on point and even get pointed out by the younger actors that he acts as guardian to.  For fans of the super genius, Mr. Burns-postured, candy-munching mastermind, this will serve as a satisfying if not altogether remarkable send-off, but it is also adequately structured all around to appease everyone else.

2000s Asian Horror Part Seventeen

BATTLE ROYALE
(2000)
Dir - Kinji Fukasaku
Overall: GOOD

The final film to be completed before its director Kinji Fukasaku's death three years later, Battle Royale, (Batoru Rowaiaru), proved to have a lingering influence, ushering in a wave of "last man/woman/teen standing" properties.  Fukasaku's son Kenta adapted Koushun Takami's sensationalized, youth outrage novel of the same name which depicts a dystopian scenario where Japan allows for teenagers to engage in mass murder against each other on an island that is monitored by armed military personnel and Takeshi Kitano's unfeeling ringleader.  Featuring an ensemble cast of young adults plus a few grownups, Fukasaku pits everyone against each other with disturbing glee, often leaning into dark, absurdist humor that both sweetens the character's brutal situation and enhances the intended "fable" tone.  The film can be looked at as a cruel examination of the uncertainty of what may or may not await middle school youths, throwing them into a survival of the fittest nightmare that still finds room for them to contemplate and act upon their comparatively petty social dramas while being brutally gunned-down at a moment's notice.  Either that or it is just a fun, boundary-pushing action movie done on an impressive and relentlessly compelling scale.

 

AB-NORMAL BEAUTY

(2004)

Dir - Oxide Pang

Overall: MEH

 

Still a collaborative effort between the Pang Brothers Thomas and Oxide as they both penned the screenplay, Ab-normal Beauty, (Photos of Death, Sei mong se jun), is the first solo directorial effort to fall exclusively into the horror genre from the latter.  A mostly unsuccessful pairing of conventional thriller, harrowing drama, and quasi-torture porn, the narrative takes an abrupt, random turn in the third act that results in a convoluted, hilariously bad twist that changes the landscape into brutalized ridiculousness.  While Race and Rosanne Wong, (both sisters and both members of the cantopop duo 2R), deliver solid performances, they are also oddly cast as an all but blatantly lesbian couple.  Even though the full romantic extent of their relationship thankfully remains unconsummated on screen, it is still unavoidably eye-brow raising in perhaps an unintended manner.  More problematic though is the underwritten nature of their characters and the aforementioned about-face plot shift that muddles up the already complicated emotional psyche of Race's troubled protagonist.  In the end, it merely addresses such issues as voyeurism, death fetishes, repressed trauma, and closeted sexuality without having a convincing enough through-line for any of them.

ALONE
(2007)
Dir - Banjong Pisanthanakun/Parkpoom Wongpoom
Overall: MEH

An unremarkable follow-up to their 2004 debut Shutter, Thai writer/director team Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom's Alone, (Fad), sticks to contemporary scare tactics and atmosphere as much as it does previously established motifs that are associated with "one bad twin, one evil twin" movies.  Returning to the screen for the first time in fifteen years, Marsha Vadhanapanich plays a woman who is haunted by the vengeful spirit of her dead conjoined sister, which of course means that every other character that she encounters insists that such a haunting is all in her imagination, in typical hacky horror screenplay fashion.  Aside from such lazy gaslighting, we also have easily foreseeable jump scares, pitch black cinematography, spooky images in reflective surfaces, and a twist ending that should be easy enough to spot long before it is delivered.  Performance wise, Vadhanapanich and everyone else involved give it their all and the film has a slick production that may not be well-suited for effective and sinister surprises, but it at least looks decent when some of the lights are on and the camera stays focused enough so that we can tell what we are looking at.  Also just to slam home the redundant ideas here, the film has to-date been remade five times, most in rapid succession and in the Bollywood circuit.

2000s Asian Horror Part Sixteen

VERSUS
(2000)
Dir - Ryuhei Kitamura
Overall: WOOF

Easily one of the most aggressively boring movies in any genre, Ryuhei Kitamura's independent debut Versus, (Vāsasu), shows an absolute disregard for compelling storytelling on top of already amateur production values.  Shot over the course of seven months and initially serving as a sequel to his also low-budget short film Down to Hell, one would think that a yakuza/samurai/end of days/zombie movie loaded with action sequences would be idiot-proof, yet Kitamura is here to prove otherwise.  It is no exaggeration to state that eighty percent of the movie is nothing more than characters mugging at the camera while trying to pose like badasses, only to launch into either gun-toting, sword-slicing, knife-wielding, or hand-to-hand combat with each other.  The plot moves so sluggishly that it is practically indecipherable and this is further hindered by dreadful performances that are staggeringly wooden despite all of the grimacing, except for one of them who seems to be doing his best impression of a cartoon character bad guy.  When all you have to offer is violent action sequences repeated ad nauseum, (all of which are about as cinematically gripping as a bag of stale oatmeal), then any audience member impressed by such nonsense must not have seen any of the actually good movies that this one is lazily trying to emulate.

 

THE RED SHOES
(2005)
Dir - Kim Yong-gyun
Overall: MEH

 

Another forgettable bit of K-horror with a vengeful spirit motif that is played as derivative as can be, The Red Shoes, (Bunhongshin), further puzzles by having the title footwear be purple on the poster and pink in the actual film.  Being a modern day adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fable of the same name, changing the title to the appropriate color that was available must have written off as a bad marketing move.  The second full-length from director Kim Yong-gyum and his first in the horror camp, its unoriginality falls shy of being offensive, with agreeable performances and cinematography, plus a consistently dour atmosphere that slams home the character's cursed situation.  We are made to sympathize with Kim Hye-soo's protagonist who is the villain in her young daughter's eyes after leaving her cheating, scumbag husband who said daughter regrettably thinks the world of.  This gives the story some grounded gravitas and makes for an interesting juxtaposition when our feelings may begin to shift once it becomes all too clear that the behavior of Hye-soo's troubled mom has also not been on the up and up.  The plot twist is widely broadcasted from the rooftops long before it happens and the ambiguous finale tag seems more silly than effective, but at least those red, (pink), shoes seem to cast a creepy aura.

 

PHOBIA 2
(2009)
Dir - Paween Purijitpanya/Visute Poolvoralaks/Songyos Sugmakanan/Parkpoom Wongpoom/Banjong Pisanthanakun
Overall: MEH

 

For the second anthology collection Phobia 2, (Ha Phraeng), filmmakers Banjong Pisanthanakun, Parkpoom Wongpoom, and Paween Purijitpanya return with series newcomers Songyos Sugmakanan and Vistute Poolvoralaks joining up as well.  This bumps the total of individual segments to five from the four in the previous year's 4bia, yet unfortunately the quality drops overall as none of them are particularly remarkable.  Pisanthanakun's closing "In the End" brings back the same character's from the aforementioned first movie's "The Man in the Middle" and goes for a similar comedic, meta, movie-within-a-movie premise that provides one or two chuckles while still being poorly conceived.  Elsewhere, three of the stories involve the usual supernatural shenanigans with a haunted, troubled teenager-turned monk, (Purijitpanya's "Novice"), a haunted hospital room, (Poolvoralaks' "Ward"), and then a haunted car lot, (Wongpoom's "Salvage").  This just leaves "Backpackers" from Sugmakanan which throws zombies into the mix for the first time; maybe the only ones ever who are spawned from having ingested smuggled narcotics.  Some of the overall atmosphere is acceptable, but there is an overabundance of predictable jump scares and the entire collection ultimately overstays its welcome.

2000s Asian Horror Part Fifteen- (Sion Sono Edition)

NORIKO'S DINNER TABLE
(2005)
Overall: MEH
 

For the sequel follow-up to his exceptionally disturbed debut Suicide Club, filmmaker Sion Sono went a rather unorthodox route that recalls very little of the bizarre tone previous established.  Noriko's Dinner Table, (Noriko no Shokutaku), takes place before, during, and after the events of Suicide Club and alludes to equally mysterious, clandestine cult activities that are shown from a different angle that only makes them more impenetrable to comprehend.  The focus here is on the title character who along with her sister, eventually run away from home, join a family rental service organization, and persistently struggle with their identity while crafting a new form of life for themselves after becoming disenchanted with their simplified family upbringing.  What exactly Sono is trying to say about generation gaps between Japan's youth and their parents is never made remotely clear and at nearly three hours in length, it is asking quite a lot to be led in so many strange directions with no semblance of a payoff.  Certainly challenging by nature, it is rather a pretentious, psychological character study that could benefit from a more streamlined approach to make its serious subject matter gain the proper footing that it desperately needs.

 

STRANGE CIRCUS
(2005)
Overall: MEH

Sion Sono's next work in the horror genre outside of his two Suicide Club installments was the deliberately demented Strange Circus, (Kimyō na sākasu), a psychological thriller basking in its tabboo subject matter.  The twisty plotting may not be as shocking as intended since the framework recalls many a story where an author's written work blurs the lines between reality and fiction.  By the time the inevitable rug-pull is revealed, the audience may have put the pieces together much sooner which is probably why Sono goes for more of a viscerally appalling finish to jolt the viewer into having a jaw-dropping reaction all the same.  The material itself which deals with incestual rape is anything but tasteful, yet the most nasty moments are dealt with in an arthouse manner where classical music, flashy editing, and surreal visuals create a symbolic atmosphere to make it at least watchable if not still boundary pushing in its disturbingness.  Both Masumi Miyazaki, (fresh out of a decade long retirement), and a sexual ambiguous Issei Ishida deliver impressively outlandish performances, with Hiroshi Ohguchi making a slitheringly vile villain for those that can stomach his character's atrocities.  Too campy to be outright torture porn, (mercifully), it is still not for the faint of heart in any capacity, but fans of over-the-top, midnight movie madness may champion it for its grandiose style and willingness to challenge people's tolerance for unpleasantness.

EXTE
(2007)
Overall: GOOD

 

Though once again dealing with abused children as his previous entry Strange Circus more prominently did, Sion Sono's follow-up Exte, (Ekusute, Exte: Hair Extensions), has such a ridiculous premise that it can only be played for laughs, at least in a significant fashion.  Here, human hair itself becomes a badly CGIed vengeance monster after the jet-black mane of a woman who was tortured and killed by organ traffickers supernaturally animates to devour, (from the inside out), those that are unfortunate enough to cross its path.  Considering that one of the common motifs in J-horror is ghosts with long hair hanging down in front of their twitchy, bowed heads, this can be seen as a spoof in some respects that exaggerates such a trope to unforeseen territory.  Sono still has an agenda to make his audience uncomfortable, whether it is from numerous, close-up moments of hair pouring out of peoples mouths, eyeballs, and fingernails or just plain ole horrible people being incredibly horrible to kids, but his trademark, midnight movie bizarreness is more dominant and quite fun in such a setting.  The fact that this is also genuinely surprising and even occasionally creepy in a few instances is an appreciated plus as well.

2000s Asian Horror Part Fourteen

KAKASHI

(2001)

Dir - Norio Tsuruta

Overall: MEH

The second full-length from Norio Tsuruta continues his career streak of supernatural horror, being an adaptation of Junji Ito's manga story Kakashi, (Scarecrow) which was originally published in 1998.  Ito's work has likewise been nearly exclusive to the horror genre and while the story here definitely adheres to several such cliches, (namely the "outsider arrives in a weird, remote village where everyone is cryptic and tells her to leave before it is too late" one), it has a freaky premise of the dead being brought back to life as straw-stuffed, farmer's field decorations.  Tsuruta strictly maintains a down-played atmosphere, often to the point of becoming a bit too slow to hold onto.  This allows for the film's best, most chilling moments though where otherworldly activity is shown with minimal to no campy panache, though a few such cornball moments due eventually rear their hackneyed head.  While the ghostly mood is appreciated, the plotting is largely stagnant as the bulk of the movie spins its wheels with characters refusing to divulge information for no other reason than to stretch out the running time to get it within the ninety-minute ballpark.  The ending also sacrifices unearned sentimentality for logic and does not quite hit the emotional payoff it was likely intending to.

RE-CYCLE

(2006)

Dir - The Pang Brothers
Overall: MEH

The Pan Brothers Danny and Oxie lock horns again on another horror vehicle, this time with the highly ambitious, psychological fairy tale Re-Cycle, (Gwai Wik).  Reunited with Angelica Lee who was likewise the lead in The Eye, this Hong Kong/Thailand co-production was the filmmaking brother's most special effects-laden work yet.  Unfortunately though, the movie starts to lose its momentum just as the CGI takes center stage in the second act.  The opening sets up that a mysterious, supernatural presence is haunting Lee's successful yet clearly bitter novelist and this could have easily turned out to be a standard, "things that go bump in the night" story that gradually revealed its cards.  Quite interestingly though, the movie turns what seems like a mere detour into the rest of its trajectory, sending us into a world that is literally littered with anything that Lee's character has discarded.  Though a handful of shots are distractingly cartoony, visually this is mostly impressive, yet the issue is more in the monotonous nature of the plot which stagnates the story in its tracks.  There is a "twist" of sorts that is immediately foreseeable long before it is revealed, but virtually the same set piece plays out over and over again which only sluggishly leads things to such an inevitable conclusion.  The Brothers Pang certainly deserve props for their grandiose aspirations here, but that alone is ultimately all that is has to offer.

4BIA

(2008)

Dir - Youngyooth Thongkonthun/Banjong Pisanthanakun/Parkpoom Wongpoom/Paween Purijitpanya

Overall: MEH

 

Like most anthology horror films, Thailand's 4bia, (Phobia, Si Phraeng), is uneven, this one being split right down the middle with two of the four tales delivering some effective chills while the other half collapse under their own goofiness.  The movie is bookended by the better ones; Youngyooth Thongkonthun's "Loneliness" and Parkpoom Wongpoom's "Flight 244" each boasting simple, supernatural premises involving mysterious cell-phone messages and an isolated airliner.  Women are the victims in each segment, though neither say anything profound about such a trope and are simply good old fashion ghost stories that are creepy in spite of some of their predictability.  Paween Purijitpanya's "Deadly Charm" and Banjong Pisanthanakun's "The Man in the Middle" are more ambitious, yet the former has some of the most cartoonish CGI known to man, as well as an annoying and ADD-ridden editing style.  The latter is sort of a self-referential Deliverance meets Scream hybrid that delivers a few chuckles, (like the character's referencing Pisanthanakun's own film Shutter multiple times), yet nothing remotely spooky in atmosphere.  Thongkonthun would respectfully drop out of the following year's sequel which would add two more director's as well as an extra story for those clamoring to get more of the same.