Movies
Tales of Halloween
One of those films you need to see in pitch black darkness. It's been a while since I last watched The Descent, and while it stood the test of time pretty well, it has lost some of its shine since its original release. The second half in particular isn't quite as tight as it needed to be. Back then that was a bit easier to forgive, as it stood at the very start of a horror renaissance. Nowadays, it makes the difference between a bona fide genre masterwork and mere prime genre filler. The setup is moody and uneasy, the first half of the film does a great job of building up the tension. The reveal of the monsters is also great, but then things start to crumble a bit. Too much monster exposure takes away from the dread and some of the scenes are a little silly when you're not 100% invested in the escape. Still, there are some moments of greatness here, and it remains a tense and claustrophobic horror flick. A rightful horror classic, just not a personal favorite anymore.Read all
Neil Marshall has been looking for the best version of himself for a while now. Duchess is his take on the British crime (comedy) film, and there are parts of it that work well. It's just that there are much better films out there doing the same thing (think early Ritchie, or something like Layer Cake). Kirk is a bit hit-and-miss (though she has a formidable accent, her strongest asset for sure), and the rest of the cast isn't quite the badasses they need to be either. Marshall's visual trickery is also a bit limited, but if you're looking for a slick action flick with some smirks along the way, I don't think it'll disappoint.Read all
Neil Marshall's latest looked as if he would hark back to his earliest successes, but instead of a moody and dark horror film, we get an action flick with some creatures running amok. That still could've been a lot of fun, if only Mashall had been a half-decent action director. Sadly, he is not. The action scenes are loud but uninteresting, most of the actors are pretty terrible and too often the creatures look like men in cheap rubber suits. The film has its moments though. The sequences below the ground are moody and the horror gets quite graphic. It's not enough to save the film, but at least it's something.Read all
Neil Marshall doing Hellboy sounded like a lot of fun. It's clear the film was supposed to be a lot of fun too, with some very gratuitous gore, plenty of juicy bad guys and in-your-face comedy. But none of it really sticks, and the result is a badly shot action flick with terrible performances and cringy comedy. The CG looks shoddy, which is a shame as the monster designs are actually pretty cool. The action choreography is poor, the comedic timing is completely off and the soundtrack is cheesy as hell. And when the ending tries to go completely over-the-top, it still feels like a poor Devilman rip-off. This should've been fun, but it wasn't.Read all