The Droving (2020) Crime Revenge

The Droving (2020) - Small independent films in the age of streaming actually have a fair chance at being seen. If a producer is savvy on social media she / he can get someone like me, who likes to take chances on films to put eyes on a project and get a bit of feedback or in this case a review. NOT that a large audience reads this blog but that does not change my love for films and the desire to write however poorly about them. Since the film is new and the makers Rubicon wants to create a buzz I will do all in my power to NOT spoil the film but talk about the experience in a way that allows for fair viewing without spoiling the plot. Rubicon is a small company (at least right now) and describe themselves as "...Rubicon Films we bring dark fairy tales and folklore to the screen with heart and style.  We produce independent feature films in a number of different genres."
  Martin's (Daniel Oldroyd) sister Megan (Amy Tyger) was murdered and being an ex-military information extractor he is driven to find the person who killed her. In a sort of  Bryan Mills, in Taken (2008) he has a certain set of skills that make him up for the job.  Questioning characters that knew her Tess (Suzie Frances Garton), The Hermit (Jonathan Lawrence Risdon), Simon (Bobby Robertson) he learns about The Merchant (Alexander King) and how that belief lead to Megan's death eventually solving the mystery of who dunit. Much like the film taken one interaction leads to another, then to another with each step getting Martin closer to the killer. On the way we get to see his "skills" and his internal struggle with the things he has done in the name of obtaining information.
The Droving filmed in Northern England, The Lakes Region, Penrith, Cumbria a lovely little town from the looks of it around the time of their winter droving arts festival. A Drover is someone who drive herd animals into town, and the current Winter Droving festival is an arts festival that encourages you to join the herd. This is a film that builds a myth about a supernatural entity called The Merchant, I will say he is a demon or devil who offers those who have lost love ones the chance to get them back. The exchange though is the death of others, which brings us to the story.  
  My impressions on the story and players are that they have a decent main character, with enough back story to fill him out. Oldroyd plays him how I would expect, with a calmness that seethes rage behind his face (mask). Maybe a bit too confident by the last scene we see some real emotion. Although a bit too "this leads to that" in it's approach the story pacing is decent. It's not a long film and I never found myself disengaged. Tess played with a really nice nuance by Garton was an empathetic character. Risdon's portrayal of the hermit was a bit more manic but considering the plot points I wouldn't really fault him for that. I would have liked the mythology of the Merchant to be a bit more hashed out since it was pivotal to the mystery of why. I wonder if I would have criticized it though if we had gotten a bunch of exposition on the myth. I guess it would depend on how organic those scenes felt. With the slight twist of an ending that leads to the continuation maybe more would have been better to fill out the supernatural side of the story. Overall though I liked the movie and was certainly entertained.
  There were a couple of technical things that distract a bit from that enjoyment. The ambient sounds in many scenes were too loud and distracting, birds, wind, fireplaces, and rain at various times interfered with the dialog in a really annoying way. The other criticism has to do with the night scenes and just that those scenes needed to be lit better. In one case there is a fight scene by Martin's parked car and because the scene is too dark it lacks the impact it could have had to show off his prowess. Like I said earlier though overall enjoyable, the Director George Popov keeps the pacing crisp and the cinematography particularly of the landscapes in that part of England makes me want to visit. The place is stunning and captured beautifully by Harry Young. The music was understated and quite lovely. So while you are all spending most of you time at home during this worldwide pandemic watching way too many screens, take a chance on a small independent film, you won't be sorry.

You can see the Trailer on Youtube

Triangle (2009) Thriller Time Loop

Triangle (2009) - The first watching of this horror / thriller time loop is the most compelling, you are on this ride of discovery that is cool and freaky at the same time. Then as you learn more you start to question if the plot actually makes sense. If all the things that are happening would actually happen they way we see them with the knowledge we have learned by the end of the film. This is the area of this film that needs to be explored. There is a dreamy forgetfulness that the film contains that allow for all we see but is it really clear in the end is it all just a riddle? Now I imagine that this movie has been talked about to death, but I try not to read too much before watching a film. I go in cold and then often after writing my first impressions go back and watch again. If I really like the film I will then watch commentary tracks. In the end the film is fully explored and I have an entry for this blog. So not to spoil the film too much I will leave that discussion until I have recapped the plot but this feels like one of those films where it will be really hard to work through without spoiling it. So if you have not viewed this film but want to; you may want to see it before reading on. STOP READING HERE TO AVOID SPOILERS!!!
   The starting about six people who go for a day of sailing. Greg (Michael Dorman) the ship captain, his friends Downey (Henry Nixon) and Sally (Rachael Carpani), Sally's friend Heather (Emma Lung), shipmate Victor (Liam Hemsworth) and Greg's date Jess (Melissa George). The inter workings of the group are there to add depth to the character. Heather brought along as a possible love interest for Greg while he is more interested in the girl that works at the diner Jess. When things go horribly wrong for the group we are in the story with them. There has been a bit of character development and when they are put at risk we can connect with their plight. A sudden storm that come out of no where ends the day of sailing. Heather is lost in the overturning of the boat and the remaining five are adrift sitting on the bottom of the overturned boat waiting for rescue. Jess the mother of an autistic child named Tommy (Joshua McIvor) is feeling the guilt of not being with him, having come out for a day that is for her when normally he has to be the only thing in her world. After a day at see the group sees an ocean liner the Aeolus and make it onto the ship. Surprised to find no one on board they investigate the ship. They are sure they could make someone out on deck before they boarded but the giant ship now seems deserted.
  This is where we pick up the story proper and all its time loopiness. We we from this point on refer to the main character as "Early Jess", she is the single character that we will follow for the rest of the story. There as we will learn are more versions of this character in different parts of the ship but it is easiest to define we know she is the one we saw get on the sailing boat at the start of the film. There will be like I said several versions of her already on the boat is a version I will call "Later Jess" she is the version of Early Jess who is starting to figure out what is happening on the boat but has yet to make a vital commitment on how things have to go. A third version who has committed to the inevitable path is "Killer Jess" these three versions of the same character play out roles, that in time transform Early Jess into Later Jess and then into Killer Jess, but lets not get too far ahead of our selves.

  Early in the exploration of the ship the group comes to a information display that will be helpful in understanding the plot better. The ship is named the Aeolus and the display the name is from Greek mythology, he was the god of wind. His son Sisyphus made a promise to Death that he did not keep, as punishment Sisyphus was made to push a rock up a mountain each day for eternity, but at the end of each day the rock would roll back down and he would have to do it again. Connecting this to the experience of Early Jess helps us understand what is going on with her. Later in the film we learn what promise she made and did not keep and how she came to this strange repeating nightmare.
  As they investigate the ship there are several things seen through Early Jess that are suppose to clue us in to the mystery of the ship and her role in it. First is that she starts believing that things on the ship seem familiar, the sense of deja vu is really strong. Naturally her ship mates are less likely to believe that she has been here before. When the group hears something drop they find keys, keys that belong to Early Jess (dropped by Later Jess) but the group can't believe her. It makes no logical sense. Then when Greg is asked by Downey what time it is, he replies 11:30 but at the same time the shot is of Early Jess looking at her watch and behind her hand the clock on the wall, they both read 8:20 another indication that she is on boat time and not necessarily connected with the reality of the others in her group. Then after seeing herself, at least a glimpse in the mirror of the banquet hall Victor heads off looking for who ever it was while Greg and Early Jess walk into room 237 and we see Early Jess framed in three mirrors again signifying the different versions of her. Is this all in her mind? Good question by Greg and after returning to the banquet hall alone we see that Early Jess now sees the food display that was fresh just moments before is now rotten. A great sense of the supernatural is built in this early part of the film and Early Jess is established as the main character. Then people in her group start dying and Jess fights for her own life as the last survivor. She succeeds in forcing the killer (Killer Jess) off the boat with an axe. This is not before Killer Jess says "You have to kill them. Its the only way to get back home. You have to kill them."
 So this is where the first transition comes in we know that Killer Jess is now off the boat, but "Later Jess" who we don't see, who has been shadowing Early Jess all this time is going to become the new Killer Jess, while Early Jess stands on the deck and is surprised to hear shouting off the ship. Looking out she sees her group back on the overturned sail boat. She sees herself and realizes a lot more about what is happening. There is a symbolic movie making device for this transition where Early Jesse hears music, "Anchors Away" and there is a cut as she turns away from it where there is a double take of her doing it twice like a record skipping back and repeating. Now with a new version of herself on the ship, lets call her 2nd Early Jess, this character we have been following becomes Later Jess, her action that we get to follow are similar but not exactly the same as the original Later Jess and so we the audience get to see another part of the characters development that was hidden from us earlier.
  The significance of this section of the story is to show how much the cycle has been going on and it is done in three cool and interesting ways. First as she goes through the emotional trauma realizing what is happening, that she has just seen a version of herself coming on the boat and walking around she ends up in a locker room with papers strewed across the floor. Each one has the words "If They Board, Kill Them All" She writes those words to demonstrate to the audience that it is in her handwriting. There are about 30 of these papers in that room so we know that this moment has happened many times before. She also finds a version of the locket she wears, it has a picture of her son in it so she knows even more strongly what is going on. Looking down a grate she sees a pile of said lockets before losing the one she is wearing to that pile. We follow her as she has the idea to change what happened from when she went through it. She knows what she experienced and what the 2nd early Jess is about to experience and sets about trying to change the direction. Yet she never really does the one thing that could really make a difference and that is to reveal herself to the group who just came on board. Instead she tries to change things a bit, but soon realizes that she can't so much, particularly because there is a version of Killer Jess going around killing off the latest group.
The third significant thing in her final transformation is the scene with 2nd Sally has watched Killer Jess kill her husband Downey and severely wound her. She crawls looking for an escape while Our Later Jess follows her saying it was not her that did this deed. We get this great scene where she climbs up high in the decks and ends up in an area where there are at least 30 versions of dead Sally's all over the place. Our Jess sees now that in the end they all must die. From that viewpoint she sees the 2nd Killer Jess get forced off the ship by 2rd Early Jess and we know that now she will become the new Killer Jess.

  It's all so confusing I am sure in reading this you are having a WTF moment or seven. The third section in the evolution of our Early Jess to Killer Jess is almost complete. Why did it seem that each Killer Jess almost let themselves be forced over the side of the boat. Since they knew that it was the last of the people in the group thus starting a new arrival? They all must die for her to get back home. So committed to that purpose we get the final sequence where our Early Jess is Killer Jess and ends up forced off the boat herself. She wakes on the shores of home, and there is a strange significance to sleeping in this film we can talk about in a while but for now we follow Jess as she returns to her home. Through the window we see the scenes from the beginning of the film played out again. This time though we see a full picture of the events. She sees herself as a frustrated Mother who never gets a break, who hits her autistic child and is not very nice. Driven by the loss she had on the boat our Early Jess decides to change things at home. She kills her mean self and comforts her boy. Together they will leave and start a better life. With her home Jess' body in the trunk of the car she heads out with Tommy for that new life.
  Unfortunately like Sisyphus her cycle is not complete and a gull hitting the windshield of the car stops her in her tracks. She stops,  picks up the gull, and goes to toss it on the beach only to see a pile of gulls there. That vague look of recognition of something she can't quite put her finger on. We of course recognize that she is still in the loop at this point. The car wreck from the yelling child's distractions leave Jess standing looking at the accident. A cabby offers to drive her somewhere and she chooses the harbor, it is sailing day after all. She again sleeps while in the cab and when she gets out the cabby asks her if she is coming back. She promises but then goes to the dock and we see the start of the film again.

 So what to make of all this, a large cycle that repeats and repeats, like the punishment of Sisyphus Jess is stuck. If you take the cab driver as Death, Jess died in a car wreck after the gull hit the window and the child distracted her. Originally she was going to have Tommy come sailing with them so since he also died in the wreck she arrives without him. She accepts a ride from him to the harbor by the cabby. Death gets a promise from Jess about coming back to pay the fare but she does not return, so her punishment, like the mythical character, for this and probably being a bad mother is this loop we witness. But why doesn't she remember and not join the loop? Well sleep seems to be the thing that stops her. When she arrives at the boat in the beginning of the film she has just slept in the car  and is tired and sleeps the first couple hours on the boat. She forgets the loop that happened before ending in the car, so when she ends up on the Aeolus she feels like she has been there but can't quite remember it. Writer / Director Christopher Smith ( Creep (2004), Severance (2006), Black Death (2010)) brings this tale full circle with only a few minor flaws. One is if there have been so many cycles by the time we joined the tale there would have been a lot more blood about the ship. Even though Killer Jess spends time cleaning up bodies there have been at least 30 of these cycles so I imagine the ship soaked in blood. A very cool tail that is well edited and so much that is in the early scenes is shown to have significance in the later scenes. Certainly a sad tale but one worth seeing. A hardy recommendation from the blog on this film. I am not sure how re-watchable it is but I enjoyed it two times through.

Penumbra (2011) Horror cult

Penumbra (2011) - Well the third installment in the Adrian Garcia Bogliano athon is certainly a clever film. It sets the view up with almost an antihero and then flips the expected plot course on its head and then you realized why she is so unlikable. Using the conflict in the relationship between many Argentinian born residents and Spanish nationals who own and live in the country to draw lines in this film was very smart. Not being from there I am not totally sure how much the two groups do or do not get along but it really worked in how it was presented in this film. It allows the main character Marga (Christina Brondo) not only to be drawn as a rude pushy European but to be seen in the Buenos Aires neighbor in which the story takes place to be a real outsider. This outsider status is essential to the film's final outcome and is really handled well by writers Adrian and Ramiro Garcia Bogliano.
   The story centers around Marga a very busy business woman who is trying to quickly rent an apartment she inherited. The character is built as a too busy and often annoyed, pushy Spaniard who although she needs to deal with this personal chore does not have the time. Pressure from her boss, and backstabbing of her coworker makes the simple task of renting out the apartment a bit more to handle than she wants. Constantly having to make and receive calls she is distracted by her phone regularly in the film. It is a theme that runs through these writers movies. In Rooms for tourists it is the phone that is the focus of salvation for the lead character. In Cold Sweat the internet is used to attract victims to the torture house and also to help the protagonists as they navigate the dangerous conditions there. Here it is a large reason why Marga ends up not seeing the signs that something may not be right with the real estate man Jorge (Berta Muniz) as she interacts with him about the apartment.
  Marga is set up to be a character who is not very likable and this is essential to the story. First we see her being bothered by a homeless man. She is offended but in this tight knit neighborhood the people who live and work there see him as harmless so when she is pushy with the local police officer in talking about the homeless man he sort of takes her side. Her snippy remarks about the locals in front of the cop will never help her get on his good side. Marga talks on the phone to people back in Spain and her disdain for Argentina comes through with sharp tones that anyone overhearing her will make her seem like an asshole. She sees it as a primitive country compared to where she is from and thinks the people are uncultured. (You might compare her to the Ugly American stereotype if this were a US character.) We also see her interacting with a woman who lives in the apartment.  The woman (Mirella Pascual) makes an effort to connect with the Spaniard, a second generation immigrant she still holds some of her parents love for Spain. Their family left during the civil war but she still holds a connection. Marga is a bit dismissive and after being nice to get what she wants rudely ushers herself out of the apartment. (The funny side incident with the fish was really good.) All in all the character is not likable and so as the main plot develops the viewer finds themselves wanting her to notice the danger developing around her and maybe hoping that the plot will give her a story arch where she learns not to be so dislikable.
  That main plot develops in the apartment as it becomes apparent that Jorge is not who he says he is. Obvious to us in the audience it takes a while for the perpetually distracted Marga to catch on. Other associates of Jorge's arrive, Victoria ( former child star Camila Bordonada), Angela (Victoria Witemberg), Alberto (Diego Cremonesi) all with the promise of a lucrative rental contract from their boss Salva (Arnaldo Andre). Marga should have been nervous very early but the idea of having the business taken care of in a day and for a lot more money than she hoped kept her believing even when stories stopped making sense. Finally when the gig is up and our protagonist realizes that things have gone horribly wrong it is too late. She is captured by the group and is witness to the reason they came to the apartment.
 I will not spoil that here because there is definitely a recommendation coming from this blog to see this film. Let me say though the first scene of the film sets up the climax but I was surprised by the direction it took. The epilogue is equally surprising but when you then think back on how it was all set up it makes great sense. I may be short changing Ramiro Garcia Bogliano but it is not intentional. He has been a writer and co-director on this film and writer on "Cold Sweat" and "Rooms for Tourists" so I am sure a lot of the very entertaining writing is his. I really enjoyed this film and will continue my look at this director in my next installment, "Here comes the Devil"

Howling (2012) - Crime Thriller

Howling (2012) - This South Korean crime thriller drew me in with its name, and although it was not the movie I was hoping for it was surprising. It is one part crime thriller and one part police inner office baseball that ultimately delivers. Everything thing does not turn out as you might expect and some of the film situations will push buttons viewers from the west. In its own way though it is a journey that is not looking for a perfect ending.
 Detective Sang-gil (Kang-ho Song) like many in his office is vying for a promotion. The interactions we witness lead us to believe that getting moved to higher ranking jobs is not an easy thing. Since the force works heavily in teams individual accolades are hard to come by and often success means sharing the benefits while failure is often owned individually. So Sang-gil is not happy when investigating a strange murder, where a man burned to death in his car, gets the news that he will be having a new detective starting with him that day. Detective Eun-Young (Na-yeong Lee) has just been moved off patrol and into the office. Sang-gil does not want to be baby sitting a newbie and worst yet she is a woman. This fact will be one of the two prominent features in the film. Eun-Young is one of the few women ever to get into the detective ranks and she wants to stay there. She wants to be accepted and do her job but the way Sang-gil is trying to solve the case without help is only going to hurt her chances. On the other hand she will not go around him and because of her inexperience needs him to help her through the case.

  The sexism by the police officers around Eun-Young is pretty extreme to American liberal sensibilities. She gets it from every guy she interacts with, Sang-gil tells her to go home that there is nothing she will be able to do to help his investigation. She will just get in the way and he does not want her around. The detectives in the office make sexual jokes to Sang-gil about whether he has been fucking her after just the one afternoon of work. Not only that but Eun-Young is right there in the room and they ignore her and speak freely like she does not exist. It must be a cultural thing but the way she just accepted the abuse and then later apologized to Sang-gil for everything was very hard to watch. They assign he busy work, tell her she needs to do whatever they want and suggest that she would make a good bed mate.
  This theme of the story goes all the way through the story. There is some story arc for Sang-gil where he eventually speaks up for her, defending her against the continuous onslaught of the other cops but it is unclear if this is any better. Where it seems she refuses to defend herself, having a male defender only continues the idea that she is not fit to be a cop. She never gets empowered as an individual within the group. Yes she does do some decent detective work which at least in the eyes of Sang-gil improves her standing but she also continues to make rookie mistakes. When it is brought up that she should be transferred back to patrol, Sang-gil defends her but since she never defends herself her fate in inevitable.
  The other track of the film is the case itself, Sang-gil and Eun-Young are lucky in the case falls right into their hands. What at first looks like a simple case of a man accidentally burned to death in his car turns out to be a murder and more. How the script handles this is to have the smallest thing become important. So since the lead cops are assigned the cleanup work that work becomes important. The man in the car for example did not catch fire lighting a cigarette as first thought. No the coroner find that his belt buckle was a little igniting bomb timer with an substance on his belt burned him fast. Not only that but the guy had bite marks on his body, and a drug in his system that is new on the market. So our two main characters have leads to track down from this seemingly simple case. Now it would be proper in this organization to share this new information with the detective team, but Sang-gil wanting that promotion keeps things to himself and delays his final report so he and Eun-Young can investigate themselves.
  This pattern continues with each small thing ending up being more important then initially thought. The pair seek out the drug dealer for this unique drug and in finding his hideout also find a underground prostitution ring focusing in young girls. They do not find the drug dealer though and the audience sees him killed by what appears to be a wolf. The killing connects the drug dealer to his hideout thus allowing the Captain into discovering that the pair has been holding back information. They are scolded harshly for not being team players, then sent to the simplest of tasks while the team investigates the prostitution ring. They are to look for the dog / wolf who killed the drug dealer. This leads to a breeder that shares information about wolf dog half breeds and a photo of the drug dealer, the man in the fire and two other men. This new lead gets Sang-gil and Eun-Young working the case and again Sang-gil wants to go it alone while his partner tries to get him to share information.
  Eventually the plot is fully revealed, and it really takes a wild trail of small clues before we get the entire story. The wolfdog cub was taken by a former police dog trainer, who has trained it to kill. Why do you ask? Well the child sex ring is run by the director of a children's organization. He has decided that since the two death's of his partners he is going to eliminate anyone who knows about his misdeeds. At the same time we learn that the cop had his daughter taken and abused in this sex ring and has trained the wolfdog to get revenge. All of this is really well put together crime thriller with the cops learning the parts one at a time. Then the film unfiortunately goes off the rails.
  In a strange turn Eun-Young feels a connection to the wolfdog, part spiritual and definitely not well done. She shares a moment or two with the beast, so that the climax is based on the wolfdog. In what can only be termed a stretch the police hope to lure the wolfdog out and kill it by hanging some of the little girls clothes in a tree near where the excop trainer and his daughter lived with it. Remarkably the wolfdog shows and Eun-Young saves it from being shot and starts a chase/follow scene as the dog leads the two partners to the hideout of the director bad guy.WTF! There is even slow motion dog running down highway shots that you have to see to believe. Then all that is left to do is have the two cops deal with the remaining bad guys and take another berating for not following procedure.
  The movie which overall was not a bad commentary on sexism in Korea really fails at the end. Unlike what you would expect in a Hollywood film, Eun-Young is not proven to fit in and is sent back to patrol. Sang-gil gets the promotion he wants but then does nothing for the partner that helped him move up. It really takes a bite although maybe a realistic one into the story arc. The strangeness of the wolfdog stuff also really harmed the recommendation I am giving this film. In the end it passes but only because of the social commentary.
Rating (5.1) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more than others.

Haywire (2011)

Haywire (2011) -  QUICK HIT! After hurting my back digging in the garden yesterday I settled onto the couch with an icepack and watched this thriller action film starring MMA fighter Gina Carano. She plays Mallory Kane a secret operative who is set up by her boss/ex? She figures it out and comes for him as one would expect in a film with such a scenario. It is an action film but boy was it missing something? For a while it was hard to put my finger on it. The actions scenes filled with MMA fight moves were well done and Carano is expertly trained to fit the roll. The fight scenes were done without a soundtrack making the grunting and panting the more noticeable and believable. Still something was missing, in the end it is a clear story narrative. Because Carano is not an actor, director Steven Soderbergh could not rely on her to carry the film. Instead he split the story into a collection of disjointed flashbacks told by Carano to a hostage as they drive down a wintery road. This fracturing really took the wind out of the first third of the film and failed to build into a compelling climax later on. Soderbergh also just made the film too quiet, which can work if the actor being focused on is compelling but in this film that is not the case, so instead the quiet was boring. Included in the boredom was reference to foreign locations that were never explored. So if you are in Barcelona or Dublin one would think that a way to make the movie more interesting would be to show some really recognizable locations in those cities. Instead the camera is close and personal the entire time meaning it did not matter where the characters were. Also in an action film it is good to have a very bad Bad Guy but this film had the quiet and coniving Kenneth who just was not threatening in any way. Her showed little emotion as we learn he set Mallory up, and really does nothing to show what a prick he is. There just was not a active evil in him it was more a passive bad.
  As stated Carano was poor at the acting side and I guess because of this limitation had very few lines, the supporting cast Ewan McGregor as her boss and bad guy Kenneth, Michael Angarano as her hostage, who really had little to do except be afraid. Channing Tatum, Michael Douglas, Michael Fassbender, Bill Paxton and Antonio Banderas all were adequate. Still though because the story was so poorly told there had to be a scene in the last quarter of the film that explained what happened in the film we just watched. If there is a sign of a weak story this is it. The writer or director gets to the point that they give up and just tells the story through exposition between a couple character. So needless to say I will not be recommending this film. It may be that I just didn't understand what the film makers were trying to do but it did not work for me.
Rating (4.0) 5.0 and up are recommended, some more recommended than others.

Sombre (1998) Thriller Serial Killer

Sombre (1998) - Writer/Director Philippe Grandrieux bring this quiet emotionally disturbing piece of transgressive cinema. The story of Jean (Marc Barbe) a puppeteer and compulsive serial killer, okay the puppeteer job really plays a small part in the story but is also very interesting. Early in the film before we know anything about Jean we see children in an audience, the faces tense with the nervous interest in what is happening in the show they are watching. They fidget and react to the puppet show we never see totally controlled by the master Jean behind the scenes. It is Jean, the man who needs to be in control who creates that reaction and we see later it is not the only control he is compelled to hold.
Jean is a serial killer, a man with a particular routine, compulsion that he can not control but controls him. The transference of that control onto the prostitutes his picks up and kills is a rigid ritual they and he must follow. Stand, small the midriff and crotch, sit and lay back, spread the legs, he command of the prostitute. The engulfing embrace from behind, the smelling of her hair, her struggles as she is strangled to death. His need to walk away from the body fulfilled and shamed. The Director establishes this three times so we are in tune with the killers need, each time he drives to a remote place to dump the body. Each time he finds a new victim. He seems to be following a bike tour in his driving and we see the people lining the roadways of France. Jean can prey more easily in this way, lots of people on holiday, easy to not be remembered in a crowd.
His third kill has a stunning reveal shot, beautifully framed and executed. We see Jean pick a women up at his hotel. She drives with him most of the day and we know her fate having seen his actions twice to this point. Jean is seen from behind, shimmering water frames his head the camera pulls back and you see at his feet the poor third victim. So well executed that you stick with this rather slow and deliberately scatter film making style. On his way from that experience Jean comes across Claire her car broken on the side of the road. He offers to help and give her a ride which she reluctantly accepts.
The film shifts here and more must happen off screen than we are allowed to see. Claire (Elina Lowensohn) and her sister Christine (Geraldine Voillat) are on holiday following the same bike tour? They seem to now be traveling with Jean although it seems a quick and risky thing to the viewer. There seems to be a connection between Jean and Claire. We learn she is a virgin and the more amorous Christine may be the one at risk with this guy. Late one night Claire unable to sleep notices Jean coming out of the club across the street from the hotel with a couple strippers. She watches from the shadows as his ritual plays out. Then she doesn't say anything? No police?
It plays out like this a scattered artistically interesting film that plods a bit. When the girls realize how crazy this guy is it is too late to flee. He has Christine tied in the hotel room and forces Claire to come out with him. His desire is for her and she for him but she also knows poor Christine will not stand a chance when they get back. So she parties hard and attracts a couple of bisexual men to try to get help, by getting them to take her and Jean back to their place for sex. It is a strange way to go about getting help but I suppose that since this is a world without cops it is a solution. The drunken party that happens as she leads the men on gets out of control and Jean is punched out by one of the men. This gives Claire the opportunity to get the car keys, get back to her sister and escape. Then at the train she puts her sister on it and goes back to find Jean? WTF?
Again with Jean she is offering him a chance at something more than what he has. An intimacy and acceptance he has never known. Her virgin body is his and he does not have to stay on the destructive path his is on. As he makes love to her he begins his ritual, but stops himself and forces her away with a women in a car he flags down. He can not be with her and he knows it she must be sent away before he kills her. It is an act of love that Claire can not comprehend but again she can live.
The woman tells her a story of love missed in her youth and the regret she carried in her life because of it. This make Claire go back to Jean one last time with forcing his final decision to either accept this new form of love or stick to his compulsion.
Like I said earlier this is a tough film to watch in it is a jagged style of filming, with limited dialog. It does have though a serious and formidable emotion heart that beats a steady rhythm throughout. I can recommend it but know you are getting into an artsy slower film that is not for strict pulse racing horror fans.
Rating (5.2) 5.0 and up are recommended

Terror and Black Lace (1985) Horror Thriller

Terror and Black Lace (1985) - "Terror Y Encajes Negros" is what some call a Mexican version of a giallo. It is not quite that but it is a story that is heavy on moral message wrapped in a thriller. Isabel (Maribel Guardia) is a young wife of an older man, she is a kept woman safely ensconced in her penthouse apartment she longs to interact with the world. Her husband Martinez (Gonzalo Vega) likes to know where she is, to know what she is doing, as well as controlling her access to money. It is always great when a scene sets up a character without exposition about that character and there is a great simple one to show how Martinez thinks. He comes home and there is a service truck in front of the entrance, he gets out of his car and rips off the wipers from the van before it can speed away. When upstairs with his wife she is doting on him, calming him with a drink and dinner. She tells him she made him pork chops and rice. He says he already had something like that today and then proceeds to take her in the kitchen and explain how she will make him a "tortuga" totally ignoring the work she did in preparing him a meal. He is bit of a dick but it sets up both her and him. His overbearing behavior is going to drive Isabel to do things she probably not do. Of course the moral lesson is hers to learn and through her the audience gets the message.
Little do the residents of the apartment building know that there is a deviant in their midst. Cesar the instrument maker has a compulsion that will blow up into murder later in the film. The movie does a good job hiding his predilection with a bit of misdirection. The opening scene has the creeper Cesar (Claudio Obregon) in a mall following a woman onto an escalator. He stands really close to her and after he gets off we continue to follow the woman. Suddenly people notice that her dress has been cut up on the back. Did that creeper really just cut pieces off her dress in public? Later we see Cesar in the elevator of the building fighting the urge when women enter. He says to himself, not at home not where he lives. You get the picture from this that his urge is strong and it takes all of his will power to restrain himself. Still though it is surprising when you see what his real deal is. If you pay attention to his interaction with the cleaning girl Coquis (Claudia Guzman) you can figure it out but this viewer was a bit slow. We cut to scenes of Cesar and his mistreatment of women throughout the film. We really get the full picture of his fetish and know that at some point it will come into play with the main story.
That main story about a kept woman romanticizing about a different life is a bit mundane. It is well developed if not particularly interesting. Isabel decides to change her life by getting out more and in so doing she meets another man. The black lace outfit she initially thought would get her husband back to treating her like more than a useful piece of decoration is now a way to break from her boring life. She meets and flirts with Ruben (Jaime Moreno) on a few occasions. So her husband was right all along thinking that if he gave her too much freedom she would soon stray? She decides to meet Ruben at his apartment on a weekend when Martinez is going out of town Ruben for his part is thrill with the idea of finally getting this woman in bed and who wouldn't Maribel Guardia is a former Miss Costa Rica and a beautiful women. Ruben is exactly the reason Martinez is so protective of his wife. He is a single man who thinks nothing of trying seduce another man's wife. His smarmy coolness makes the viewer cringe and thus he is the perfect foil for the moral tale being told here. So when he gets Isabel to agree to join him at his apartment we are set up for the lesson.
Isabel for her part will have to make a decision before the night is out. She sees her husband off and gets ready for her night out at Ruben's. She knows what she is getting into dressing in the black lace outfit she is beautiful and then puts her blue dress over it and heads out. It is sort of a shame really what happens to her. Martinez with a chance to impress his boss and possibly get a promotion has some really bad luck. A flat tire and a bad car jack make him miss the opportunity of a lifetime. He heads home a broken man. His scenes are really played almost for comedy with every one of his reactions a real exaggeration. Isabel has equally bad luck, even after making her decision at Ruben's she is punished for even thinking about cheating on her husband. As she rides the elevator back to her apartment she has the misfortune of coming in contact with Cesar.
He has been having his own bad night and it has spun completely out of control. An argument with Coquis turns fatal and it is poor Isabel's fate to be in the elevator just as Cesar is trying to get rid of the body. This starts the rather good final sequence of the film where Cesar does all he can to get Isabel and make sure no one ever knows about his crime. It is a long sequence and Isabel has several very close calls in and out of the elevator, the roof and her apartment. When finally she manages to reach the apartment of the party and it seems she is safe, the moral lesson smacks her one more time. Her husband arrives home as she is being calmed on the balcony and from his viewpoint it is his wife in a black lace outfit surrounded by men. He is furious and refuses to listen to anyone pulling her out of the party and forcing her back into the elevator, the place of her trauma. As she cries in a ball in the elevator he walks up the stairs to see the door of his apartment hacked open, he realizes something more has happened and cries for forgiveness.
The lesson in this film is a rough one with Isabel even though she ends up making the right decision is a victim for just thinking about cheating on her husband. In a way the film presents her as young and naive and Martinez as her protector. This is a bit of a relic of a pre-feminism world maybe reflecting Mexican society at the time but maybe not even that. Reflecting on it with today's views Martinez comes across as more manipulative and Isabel is responding to his smothering personality. A women though who would cheat on her spouse becomes fair game for any psychopath lurking in the world. It does not matter if she follows through or not, if only she had listened to her husband and accepted her cage nothing bad will ever happen to her. Not the most modern of messages. Still the film was reasonably well constructed and the final sequence well done. So it will get a pass from Soresport movies. Oh and since you are wondering here is the toruga recipe
1. Open a roll and pull out most of the bread leaving a hollowed crust.
2. Refried beans spread on one side, avacado and chilies spread on the other.
3. In the middle Ham, slices of tomato, avacado, cheese, onions, and some chili peppers.
Eat and be merry!
Rating (6.1) 5.0 and up are recommended.

X (2002) Crime Thriller

X (2002) - "Equis" is the story of Javier (Antonio Resines) a cop fighting a alcohol addiction that on this occasion has him waking in a strangers bed without memory of the night before. With a hangover he has to piece together his night which he learns included a gay lover being brutally murdered and the murder weapon in his possession. Unlike the comedy version of a hangover movie this is all very serious for Javier. No Mike Tyson tattoo on his face but with the lack of memory a whole bunch of problems. Was he involved in the murder? Could he have killed the hairdresser? Will his drunken absence to fulfill his sexual needs finally end his marriage? Just who killed the man he was with? Javier struggles through this very competent Noir slowly finding out bits and pieces until he solves the mysteries. The "X" in the side of the building across from where he wakes is something that pulls him to the place. Later when he learns that there was a murder there it puts the bag with the bloody scissors in his car into stark focus. Posing he manages to be on the scene and learn small amounts. Always paying attention to what is going on and noticing details is what this cop does. He manages to stay ahead of the investigation, both keeping his presence at the local guy club out of those details as well as not becoming a suspect himself until he figures the case out.
Several thing about this film are really very well done. The information is dribbled out without it seeming forced. Each time Javier learns something it still does not give him or the audience the full picture.Like the woman he wakes up with who brought his drunk ass up from the streets hoping to get laid, tries to get money from him to be an alibi. She is motivated by a crappy marriage to a spineless dweeb. She is past her prime and dresses to the nines to go out and pick up men for sex. It seems fine that she may want to be helpful to Javier but she and her husband have further ambitions that will most assuredly be there downfall.
The poor victim is a wonderful guy. Everyone liked him and thought he was great. A gay hairdresser living out his dream ends up with Javier and then dead in his own establishment. When Javier talks to his sister he learns how her brother took care of her. He had caused the accident that crippled one of her legs and he pays to get her the operations she needs to function. One as time goes on do we learn the full story. Her resentment that she is this way and the blame she still has towards her sibling. About how his coming out destroyed the conservative parents and split the family asunder.
More slowly turned out information:
We slowly learn of the money that was in the empty bag in Javier car and how it is connected to some local mobsters who want it back.
Javier and his wife Beatrice (Marta Belaustegui) have a relationship that is on the rock. His proclivity for men and excessive drinking is more than she can stand. She has tried, even getting pregnant hoping that would bring him fully into the relationship.
His police friends have always respected him and turned the other way when he expressed his preferences but more and more they look at him with suspicion. He is lucky in many ways to be able to play this story line out before they catch up to him. Javier is a very broken antihero who just manages through his wit and police skills.
In the end this is not a bad movie, I wished that the main character was a bit more likable but he was acceptable. The plot was well written and directed with just the right amount of luck versus skill. The ending is a bit of a downer but not unexpected since the story dictates the ending. The music was a bit too on the nose as far as wanting to elicit an emotion. They could really have toned it down and still been effective. The acting was very good throughout and should get some praise. The image of the ham is for my daughter who still remember her student exchange time in Spain where the family she stayed with continually sliced off the same unrefrigerated ham the whole time she was there. :) So overall I am going to pass this one onto you with a fairly decent recommendation
Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended.

Source Code (2011) - Action Thriller

Source Code (2011) - SPOILER ALERT!!! Through the magic of quantum mechanics scientists have made it possible for a personality (entity, soul, consciousness) to travel from the current time back in time to the body of another person's last eight minutes of life. Really that is the science fiction of this new film by the director Duncan Jones and writer Ben Ripley. In case you are not as into science fiction as I am, Jones made the wonderful and thoughtful Moon (2009) which asked a lot of good question about the meaning of life and what it means to be human. If you have not seen it you may want to find it. Ripley gets his first big gig in this script that has kicked around Hollywood for many years. What they create is a decent science fiction effort with the usual holes left by the time travel theme. You would be hard pressed to find a film involving time travel that has not been picked apart b y the fandom, it is just the nature of the beast and so with that in mind the rating of this film will only slightly reflect the issues around time travel. As the film begins we see sweeping vista as a commuter train rolls towards Chicago. The music in these opening credits is definitely thriller suspense in mood and as the credits end Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) wakes on the train confused. He is greeted by the lovely Christina Warren (Michelle Monaghan) is such a familiar way that he is totally freaked out. Colter is a soldier who has been flying sorties over Afghanistan not some commuter on the C train. WTF is going on! When he gets to the bathroom and see another mans face staring back at him in the mirror his mind is blown, but since right at this time the train also is blown, up that is, it does not get to sink in. He comes alert in the cockpit or some such place and is being spoken to by a firm by kindhearted officer Collen Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) about his mission. Stevens is part of a secret military program, even though he does not remember volunteering that uses the "source code" and quantum equations to place his consciousness into the body of Sean Fentress (only seen in reflection Frederick De Grandpre) at a time eight minutes before Sean bit the big one in the train explosion. That train explosion happen earlier in the day of this film and the military is asking Stevens to try to figure out who the bomber was. They have information that he will strike again later in the day and wish to head off the second attack. So the good soldier begins his quest and through many "Groundhog Day" cycles attempts to track down the bomber while at the same time seeming to fall for the girl across from him on the train. At first there is a lot of adjustment and he does not yet know why he is looking for the bomber, a necessary plot device for the audience but a serious flaw in the script. If Stevens does not know that the bomber is going to attack again later in the day then he can go through several cycles of picking out suspects. Each time the train blows up and he is reset he has a bit more knowledge of those on the train. Problem with this is the awkward excuse making Goodwin has to make while prepping him for another cycle. If they just tell him that the bomber is going to strike again then he would know the bomber has to be someone who got off the train and can narrow his search.

After leading us through several cycles where he gets it wrong he eventually figures out who the killer is but has some failed attempts in getting the name. Then there is the whole thing that he wants to go back in and save the people in the train. Even though he was told that he really is not effecting the outcome of the events, that they are just shadows of a past that will come to pass anyway and nothing will change that. Still the unfocused and confused Colter wastes valuable time personalizing everyone around him instead of concisely seeking the bomber. Unlike Groundhog Day though he is not there enough cycles to learn the piano and memorize entire movements of everyone in the town. No he finds the bomb and gets the name of the bomber and then his mission is over.

Or is it? He begs Goodwin for one more go at it since nothing actually will change he wants the satisfaction of stopping the train bombing even if it is in this memory world. Against the wishes of her boss Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) she allows the final time. During this time you can guess what happens. Yes that's right he saves the day captures the bad guy and gets the girl. Things are not so smooth back in the office as Goodwin has to physically lock herself in the room with the partial body of Stevens to keep the evil Dr. Rutledge from prematurely rebooting him. We get to see at this point the horrible real life condition of Stevens, pretty much he is a torso and a partially active brain. You can see why fellow soldier Goodwin wants to give Stevens his final wish. Just out of shear respect for the service he has performed. So she guards the room while his eight minutes runs.

Then the film give us the ending where we learn that since Stevens has stopped the bomber and gotten the girl that when the eight minutes are up in the memory world the train does not blow up. His personality is still in the teacher and he can spend the rest of his life with the beautiful Christina. Happily ever after. Except for the wonderfully dirty left overs for us in the audience. Stevens has created a new version of the universe, there is this tripe in Science Fiction writing where we pretend there is basically a new universe created every time a decision is made. An infinite number of universes existing all at once through space time allowing everything to be possible. It is a really horrible theory and an easy out for the science fiction writing like in this film to manipulate for a happy Stevens ending. In this case the consciousness of Steven is now in that universe where he saved the day and got to keep the bod of the teacher and now can start a life with the woman he now is getting to know. In this reality the teacher Sean Fentress is dead, not by being blown to bits but by being displaced by Stevens. I am sure when the glow wears off Stevens is going to see the myriad of problems he now has being in Fentresses body. Then the ending also shows up that the memory world was much more, as we learn not only did Stevens change things on the train, back in what supposedly is the real world he contacts Goodwin and we learn that he actually changed reality for her also. In her day the train never blew up and the entire movie from her perspective never happened. She knows about his body in the the tank and can guess that the program they are running has amazing implications for changing the course of human events. BUT it also means there are two versions of Stevens in this reality, one that is in Fentress's body and the torso in the tank. Just not a very clean ending.

Feelings about this film overall are pretty good. It was a fairly tight action thriller that kept the tension twisted up aenough to entertain. Although there are problems with some of the logic in the movie so be it. That is a common sciencefiction time travel issue and I can let it go. In fact I sort of like that it leaves the reality flawed, if everything was solve I may have been more critical. There are many films besides groundhog day that this takes ideas from, 12 Monkeys, Quantum Leap (the TV show) and Deja Vu to name a few. It is certainly most like the last of this list and even could be seen as remaking that idea.

Rating (6.2) 5.0 and up are recommended In the Zombiegrrlz system I would say rent it.

The Nameless (1999) - Horror Cult

The Nameless (1999) - Writer director Jaume Balaguero ( Who directed both excellent [Rec] movies) gives us a story of a secret group creating pain for other in the hope it will be ecstasy for them. A six year old girl's mutilated body is found, the police identify her from a bracelet she found nearby and the fact she birth defect of one shorter leg. They tell the parents and the grieving begins. Five years later the Mother of the girl, Claudia (Emma Vilarasau) is still heartbroken, now divorced from her husband she still lingers in her daughters room(shrine) and is not functioning well in her job as an author/book editor. She receives a phone call from someone claiming to be her daughter asking for her help. What? Her daughter Angela is alive and needs her help? Is someone playing a cruel game with Claudia? Oh you can count on that and the fact that no parent would not act on such a call. Following some pretty vague clues, Claudia with the help of ex policeman Massera (Karra Elejalde) who was on the case when the girl disappeared. They soon start to discover a strange group of cultists called the Nameless. This group studies and wants to experience enlightenment through the pain of others. They seek to create acts of cruelty and agony in there victims and then rejoice in the pain it created. Supposedly this could have been the group that killed the little girl and after seeing in the early scenes the gruesome body of the child you can believe it.
This film takes quite a bit of time to get to anything and the slow pace will turn some people off. Cladia and Messera get one small clue after another and slowly get an understanding of this group, but because it is so secret and anyone could be involved they need a contact from within the group. Also helping is Quiroga (Tristan Ulloa) a reporter for a gossip mag who gets involved in finding the "Nameless" group. They find an abandon hotel that the group may be holding the girl with Quiroga getting there first, but his end is set in stone since he arrives alone. When Claudia and Massera arrive, he enters first and has her wait in the car. Now I am sure you have all watched this scenario before, does the waiting person ever just stay in the vehicle? She follows and ends up face to face with her daughter, but her little girl is changed. The ending is unexpected but makes sense to the idea of creating agony. It took a very long time to get to that point and I am not sure the payoff is there.
The film certainly has some issues. The idea that people getting off of acts of mutilation is disturbing and besides the early scene where the girls body is found shown and described it is not seen in the movie, there is some box cutter slicing of one of the characters but it is mild compared to the horrors this group represents. So if this is a film about the horrors of this group it is really not backed up. All of the clues are small and really not good connections to this secret group but they arrive at the right time. The only reason they get to the final showdown is because they are part of a master pan by the group to do the most harmfully shocking act yet. The final issue is it takes a long time to get there and some viewers may be turned off by the three quarter mark of the movie.
The film does a nice job at looking at the grief process and how it affects those in it. The couple splits after the little girls body is found, Claudia five years later is still not functioning well in the world, adding to the effect is the cinematography using a grayed out slate of colors. Massera connects with Claudia in this after losing his wife and unborn child in childbirth just a year earlier. They know the feelings of loss and sadness each other is feeling and it is well portrayed in the film.
When all is said and done I would still recommend this film. Although it drags a bit and the premise is a bit weak at its core, I think the acting is very good and although at time telegraphing the music is wonderfully effective. So if you can sit through the slow build you can at least be a bit surprised by the ending and come away with a decent film experience.
Rating (5.1) 5.0 and up are Recommended In the Zombiegrrlz rating system Rent It!

The Book of Eli (2010) Post Apocalyptic Thriller

The Book of Eli (2010) - The Hughes brothers (Albert and Allen) direct this religious story about the world after a great war has thrown it into ruin. Taking place in the United States we see Carnegie (Gary Oldman) a ruthless gang leader searching for a bible. He believes the words to move himself to be a great leader is hidden in the book. He is older and remembers the words and knows how people are moved by them. So he sends out his illiterate gang searching for any books they can find hoping to gain the last copy. We also learn why there are not any left. After the great war many people blamed the bible for causing it and sought to burn them from existence. Probably a good move on humanities part. Of course this is a bit of a ridiculous story point because really, in this retardedly overly religious country there is no way that would ever happen. But a plot point is a plot point and next we meet Eli (Denzel Washington) travelling west he stops in Carnegie's town for trade and water. After some bad ass fighting when he is messed with by some thugs, he ends up on the wrong side of Carnegie, but Carnegie seeing something about this guy tries instead of direct hostility to bribe him with the lovely Solara (Mila Kunis). She learns through her night in his room that he indeed has the book that is so sought after. Before he can get it though Eli and Solara get away and hit the road. The rest of the film is now the search for Eli on the desert roads heading west towards San Francisco. So we have the setup that is played out. You know since I don't think I will recommend this There WILL BE A SPOILER COMING!!!!

After Eli is caught and the book taken from him things finish with him continuing westward with Solara while Carnegie gets back to the town he runs. Surprised that when he gets the lock on the book to open, it is all in Braille. The only one that can read it is Solara's mother Claudia (Jennifer Beal) and since Carnegie is such a dick she is not inclined. Back on the West coast Eli reaches Alcatraz prison and find there is a group there collecting and protecting old world knowledge. So now we see the truth about Eli, he is blind. Wait what? No he isn't he walk straight and purposefully down so many roads, he shot guys from rooftops with a handgun from 500 yards. He single handed fought 15 guys in a bar and killed them all without breaking a sweat. How could it be?

Well in paying attention to the film you see how he had an unbreakable faith that he was on a mission from God, and like Eli of the bible this one comes to bring back the word of God. He has memorized the King James version of the good book and he never needed it to deliver the words. His mission was to bring religion back into the world and before his death he does just that. So many things where his non reaction to danger looked like faith could be seen in light of his blindness revelation as handicap. Still I do not think they sold this very well in the film. Too many times he was too sure footed, too agile and just too damn competent to be blind. So it must have been a combination of faith and luck and good hearing? grrrrrr...

I really believe that the Hughes brothers were making a movie about the importance of religion, the light in the darkness to them. They think they were saying that the freedom that come with religion is as important as the control, that Carnegie wanted to wield through it. I think that real message may be that religion will untimately cause conflict becasue it is always an interpretation. What about the other religions of the world? This country is a salad bowl of beliefs yet here it seems the only words that mean anything are Christian? What happened to the other beliefs, were all holy books burned? Would Carnegie settled for a Koran? Oh well it was a nice try.
Rating (4.7) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system Skip It!

Salvage (2006) - Horror Thriller

Salvage (2006) - Claire Parker (Lauren Currie Lewis) works at a local convenience store on the overnights. The morning after a shift her boyfriends truck arrives to pick her up and take her home but it is not her boyfriend driving. This film written and directed by Jeff Crook and Josh Crook begins doing a fine job building dread and tension. Nervous Claire is convinced by Duke (Chris Ferry) that he works with her man, Jimmy (Cody Darbe) and the ride can happen. Not being a complete idiot she calls Jimmy but gets his answering service. The tension of the ride is great and you can feel the mistake just as Claire can. The flash to the back of the truck showing something wrapped in the blue tarp is good. Then the ante ups, Duke talks about how pretty she is. Then he touches her face, she reacts poorly of course and he says "Not going to be a stuck up cunt are you?" Luckily for Claire they arrive at her house right at that moment. The tension can be relieved for a bit. She gets into the house but then Duke is at the door. Suddenly we are tense again with Claire. This is really well done and although her fate is to be dragged into the cellar and have her face cut off they build to it really well. That first scene of course is just a dream for young Claire and she wakes having dozed off at the counter in the store.
This time when she goes out for her ride it is her boyfriend Jimmy who arrives. We get to learn about a bit about their relationship, he is thinking a 3 way with her best friend is a good idea; his shitty truck with a bad starter (Gee is that going to come up later?) and it is an opportunity for Claire to stare out the window and see someone digging in a corn field. A lot of this story is pretty well done scare stuff, "Whose there?" kind of tension. Claire has this really good scene in the store she works when she sees someone on the monitor of the security cam. Later when with the police things are not how she remembered them.
The Duke story is that this sick bastard serial killer ends up being shot by the police, but not before he killed a couple teens. So the film starts feeling a bit "Carnival of Souls" we sort have get an idea of what is going on with Claire and are on the ride of watching her as she discovers the truth about herself. If there is a criticism that needs to be stated is that from here on it takes a long time to get to that conclusion. There is nothing wrong with the tension but it is hard to keep it going and the more the movie does it the more the payoff is going to have to be BIG. Between the effective music and the really creepy killer Duke they do a really good job but the underwhelming ending is such a Twilight Zone type disappointment. I won't give it away because I am going to recommend this film but I felt like it really mean of the film to twist the way it does. Such a nice job was done building the relationship with Claire, to then break that empathetic relationship at the end was a bit mean. Overall if you like a sort of slow moving but reasonably well done thriller this may be the movie for you.
Rating (5.5) 5.0 and up are recommended, in the Zombiegrrlz system I would say Rent it.