As days get shorter, nights get longer and All Hallow’s Eve beckons, I can say that I won’t be wandering the streets dressed as Chewbacca begging for candy. What I can’t say is whether or not at my age, horror movies still have any surprises left in them. In the search for originality, it’d be a good idea to start anywhere but Hollywood. For the month of October, I take a trip around the globe to see what’s scaring some of my favorite countries these days.
Requiem (2006)
Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid
Written by Bernd Lange
Produced by Hans-Christian Schmid
93 minutes
Grounded with strong performances and anchored in restraint worthy of a parish priest, Requiem is a horror film on a spiritual fast. Hans-Christian Schmid grew up in a small town in Bavaria and had heard of Anneliese Michel, a college student who died in 1976 after the Catholic Church resorted to exorcism rites to treat her demonic visions. Schmid began sketching treatments in 1997 and partnering with screenwriter Bernd Lange, they finished a script in 2004. Their project secured financing from German public television companies BR (Bavarian Broadcasting), SWR (Southwest Broadcasting), WDR (West German Broadcasting) as well as the Franco-German TV network Arte. In her film debut, Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival, while critics awarded Requiem the FIPRESCI Prize.
A U.S. production titled The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005) starring Laura Linney and Tom Wilkinson was loosely based on the court case surrounding the Anneliese Michel story. While that version beat Requiem into theaters, the German production rejects special effects and the supernatural, focusing on mental illness and religious dogma and what would lead a normal college girl to an exorcism. Whether this approach was taken for prestige or for lack of money — most of the film is shot handheld by Polish cinematographer Bogumil Godfrejow — the tension in this “horror movie without any horror” is palpable. In her film debut, Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival for conveying something as raw and intense as any team of makeup effects technicians could.
In a small West German town in the 1970s, a 21-year-old devout Catholic named Michaela Klingler (Sandra Hüller) is elated by news that she’s been accepted into university at Tübingen. Her strict mother (Imogen Kogge) uses Michaela’s epilepsy to argue against her leaving home, but appealing to her sympathetic father (Burghart Klaußner) that the pills she’s been prescribed have enabled her to go six months without a spell, Michaela is moved in to her dorm by her father himself. In pedagogy class, she makes friends with a high school acquaintance, Hanna (Anna Blomeier). Michaela takes a parish pilgrimage with her family to the Italian shrine of St. Katherine, where her mother gives her a rosary. Sitting alone in a cafeteria, Michaela’s rosary falls to the floor. Trying to pick it up, she becomes paralyzed with fright and goes into a seizure.
With Michaela’s father covering for his daughter by keeping the spell a secret, Michaela begins to blossom at school, sporting a new hairstyle, new fashions and even finding a boyfriend in a chemistry major (Nicholas Reinke). But when Hanna finds Michaela collapsed on the floor of her dorm room one morning, she insists that her friend visit a doctor. When X-rays prove inconclusive, Michaela visits her parish priest (Walter Schmidinger) and reveals that whenever she tries to pray, hideous faces and voices torment her. The priest refuses to accept this, but is concerned enough to visit Michaela at school with Father Borchert (Jens Harzer), a young vicar who is more open minded to Michaela’s story. As Michaela’s spells grow more intense, Borchert contends that the best way to rid the girl of her demons is through an exorcism.
Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer” average among 1,578 users: 64% for Requiem
Metacritic “Metascore” average among leading critics: 82 for Requiem
As days get shorter, nights get longer and All Hallow’s Eve beckons, I can say that I won’t be wandering the streets dressed as Chewbacca begging for candy. What I can’t say is whether or not at my age, horror movies still have any surprises left in them. In the search for originality, it’d be a good idea to start anywhere but Hollywood. For the month of October, I take a trip around the globe to see what’s scaring some of my favorite countries these days.
The Strangers (2008)
Directed by Bryan Bertino
Written by Bryan Bertino
Produced by Doug Davison, Roy Lee, Nathan Kahane
86 minutes (theatrical version)/ 88 minutes (unrated DVD version)
Freaks, psychos and a leprechaun have launched horror franchises, but The Strangers includes three of the best villains to come along in a while with a kitchen sink thriller that among other things actually offers a point of view. Bryan Bertino had written four scripts in his life and was working as a grip on a low budget movie. Bertino had read Helter Skelter as a kid after his father actually gave him a copy and he was inspired to write a thriller that focused not so much on killers, but the victims who never knew who was targeting them or why. In the fall of 2004, Bertino’s script The Strangers landed him a manager, who found buyers in Doug Davison and Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment. The producers partnered with Nathan Kahane, president of Mandate Pictures, who had a distribution deal with Rogue Pictures.
After other directors were considered, Bertino was offered the chance to make his feature film debut on a budget of roughly $9 million. The exterior of the ‘70s era ranch house was found in Timmonsville, South Carolina. Interiors were filmed in a warehouse in nearby Florence, where the production constructed a collapsible house they could shoot inside. While the couple in Bertino’s script is never really engaging, Liv Tyler gives a gutsy performance that’s in another league from the dead teenagers of the horror genre. When it comes to terror, the rookie filmmaker delivers with the aid of a sensational sound mix. The Strangers is not a movie to be watched alone in the dark. Finally, the masked boogeymen are a gift of imagination, conjured out of darkness with identities and motives left mysteries for the viewer to interpret.
On February 11, 2005, Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and her boyfriend James Hoyt (Scott Speedman) return from a wedding reception in the wee hours to the rustic summer home of the Hoyt family. With their relationship on the rocks after Kristen turned down James’s marriage proposal, the couple are in the throes of making up when they’re interrupted by a knock on the door. Obscured in shadow, a blonde asks: “Is Tamara home?” Turning the stranger away, James offers to pick up some cigarettes for his soon to be ex-girlfriend. Left alone, Kristen hears another knock from the same woman asking the same question. Kristen calls James on the house phone and urges him to come back, but the line goes dead. Surrounded by frightening noises, she looks out a window to find Man In the Mask (Kip Weeks) staring back at her.
Convinced that someone has been in the house, Kristen retreats to a bedroom until her boyfriend returns. From the garage, the couple observes Dollface (Gemma Ward), the strange blonde, standing in the street with a mask covering her face. James leaves the house to retrieve his cell phone out of the car, but is spooked by a third masked stranger, Pin-Up Girl (Laura Margolis). Attempting to flee in their car, Kristen & James are rear ended by a pickup truck in the driveway. James manages to locate and load the family shotgun and when Man in the Mask takes apart the door with an axe, James repels the home invasion. A friend (Glenn Howerton) drops by to check on the couple but does not live long enough to render assistance. Without knowing who their attackers are or what they want, Kristen & James try to survive the night.
As days get shorter, nights get longer and All Hallow’s Eve beckons, I can say that I won’t be wandering the streets dressed as Chewbacca begging for candy. What I can’t say is whether or not at my age, horror movies still have any surprises left in them. In the search for originality, it’d be a good idea to start anywhere but Hollywood. For the month of October, I take a trip around the globe to see what’s scaring some of my favorite countries these days.
Eden Lake (2008)
Directed by James Watkins
Written by James Watkins
Produced by Christian Colson, Richard Holmes
91 minutes
Eden Lake leads up to a potent and brutally uncompromising ending with 80 minutes of willful disregard for even a dribble of intelligence. Screenwriter James Watkins was disheartened seeing his name on junk and renegotiated his contract with Working Title Flilms to include an opt-out. Titled Little Terrors, that script was an update on morally ambiguous thrillers of the ‘70s like Straw Dogs or Deliverance. Taking the project to Christian Colson, the producer was interested enough to finance two short films — one based on the idea, the second on 10 pages of a torture scene — for Watkins to show what he could do behind the camera. Retitled Eden Lake, Colson & Richard Holmes raised a budget of £2 million (roughly $4 million USD) and a six-week shooting schedule commenced at locations in Buckinghamshire County, as well as Pinewood Studios.
By the time Eden Lake was ready for release in late summer of 2008, recent teenage gang killings and violence against adults had become an obsession for the British media. Dimension Films had bought U.S. distribution rights, but gave the film a very limited stateside release in October 2008. Thanks to composer David Julyan and editor Jon Harris, Eden Lake is scored just like The Descent and paced like it too, making for a familiar yet highly watchable B-movie. Watkins has some good ideas on mood and style, but they can’t overcome a Yuppie couple put through the paces of a slasher movie, where one logical decision would have ended the whole ordeal. It’s hard to tell whether the film is entertaining because it’s good or entertaining because its idiocy provokes such a visceral response. Casting director Julie Harkin deserves credit for helping assemble a mean pack of kids.
Schoolteacher Jenny (Kelly Reilly) is picked up from work by boyfriend Steve (Michael Fassbender), who secretly plans on proposing to his girlfriend during a weekend camping trip. Their destination is a flooded quarry soon to be restricted by a new housing development called Eden Lake. Hiking through dense forest, the first soul the couple encounters is a skittish boy (James Gandhi) drawing a picture. Jenny & Steve settle on the lakeshore only to have their relaxation rudely interrupted by the appearance of six rowdy 12-year-olds and their Rottweiler. Steve attempts to parlay with the hooded hellions, whose ringleader Brett (Jack O’Connell) refuses to turn down their boom box or rein in his beloved dog. The busters eventually move on, but as night falls, Jenny gets the feeling someone is in the woods.
The next morning, Steve punctures a tire backing over a trap. Venturing into town with Jenny for breakfast, he spots bikes belonging to the mouse pack dumped outside a house. Snooping around, he has to slip out a window when Brett’s dad comes home in an even hotter rage than his son. Attempting to salvage the weekend back at the lake, Jenny & Steve have their car keys, phone and wallet nicked. Wandering the woods until they find the brats, Steve confronts them. In the scuffle that ensues, Brett’s dog is accidentally stabbed. Trying to make a getaway, Steve crashes the 4×4. Trapped inside, he tells Jenny to run for it. Steve is bound with barbed wire and cut up by each of the boys, most of them under pressure from Brett. When they discover Jenny still lurking around, the chase is on to remove all evidence of their rampage.
Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer” average among 6,109 users: 65% for Eden Lake
Metacritic “Metascore” average among leading critics: Not available
As days get shorter, nights get longer and All Hallow’s Eve beckons, I can say that I won’t be wandering the streets dressed as Chewbacca begging for candy. What I can’t say is whether or not at my age, horror movies still have any surprises left in them. In the search for originality, it’d be a good idea to start anywhere but Hollywood. For the month of October, I take a trip around the globe to see what’s scaring some of my favorite countries these days.
Rogue (2007)
Directed by Greg Mclean
Written by Greg Mclean
Produced by Greg Mclean, Matt Hearn, David Lightfoot
99 minutes
As a sum of its parts, Rogue is kind of okay, but saying that movie about a giant croc is kind of okay is the same as calling it a failure. Greg Mclean had three inspirations for what became his sophomore feature film: the hero myth, the 1956 Australian documentary Northern Safari and the monster movies of his youth, particularly Jaws and Alien. He was unable to set up financing for this vision, but that changed when Mclean’s debut feature film — a lurid serial killer thriller titled Wolf Creek — screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Making the rounds in Hollywood with his script for Rogue, Mclean had three conditions: to cast whoever he wanted, to shoot in Australia and to retain final cut. Agreeing to those terms was Dimension Films, which put up a $25 million budget. Melbourne based co-producer and co-financier Village Roadshow Pictures bought a 50% stake in the film.
Exterior shooting took place both in Nitmiluk National Park and at a manmade lake in Warburton, where the crew built an island and shot nights for five weeks. The croc’s lair was constructed at Melbourne Central City Studios. Not lacking in ambition, Rogue aims for more targets — epic adventure, creature feature, nature film — than Mclean has learned to hit. As if sensitive to complaints that Wolf Creek was exploitative junk, he bleeds virtually all the cheap thrill out of what could have been a fun B-movie. The result is an even less enjoyable ride than Wolf Creek was for the opposite reason: it goes under-the-top. Michael Vartan — who has no real business acting in movies — is bland in the lead role, but an Aussie cast led by Radha Mitchell, Sam Worthington and John Jarratt (the psycho bushman from Wolf Creek) acquit themselves wonderfully.
Somewhere in the Northern Territory, American travel writer Pete McKell (Michael Vartan) arrives to take a river cruise wearing a suit because the airline lost his luggage. After visiting a bar where a wall is dedicated to press clipping of crocodile attacks, Pete boards Ryan’s Wildlife River Cruise. Also on the tour are skipper Kate Ryan (Radha Mitchell), a contentious American couple (Caroline Brazier, Robert Taylor), photography nerd (Stephen Curry), family (Geoff Morrell, Heather Mitchell, Mia Wasikowska), tourist (Celia Ireland), widower (John Jarratt) and a border collie. In addition to crocs, the tourists meet Kate’s ex-boyfriend Neil (Sam Worthington), a hot shot who briefly intercepts the cruise to make an ass of himself. Before Kate decides to head back to port, her passengers observe a flare being fired into the horizon. The captain investigates.
Arriving in a remote lagoon, their vessel is attacked by a giant crocodile. Taking on water, Kate runs her boat onto an island. Her radios are dead and her flares are floating in the lagoon, but a bigger problem is that they’re stranded on a tidal river slowly rising over the ground of their safe haven. One of the tourists gets too close to the water and disappears. Rescue appears imminent when Neil and his buddy arrive, but their boat is capsized by the croc, stranding Neil with the others. He volunteers to swim quietly to shore and rig a line high enough for the others to pull themselves across by. When that plan fails and two more victims are snapped up by the croc, Pete proposes using a hook to snare the animal long enough for them to swim to safety. Kate doesn’t make it. Led to the croc’s lair by the skipper’s dog, Peter finds Kate alive, but the croc soon joins them.
Rotten Tomatoes “Tomatometer” average among 3,993 users: 52% for Rogue
Metacritic “Metascore” average among leading critics: Not available
