(HORROR) Jug Face - 2013 ***

Obviously with a title like 'Jug Face' it's hard to take the film seriously, and actually it did make me snigger throughout for its ludicrously stupid storyline, but overall it's not too bad. The premise is bizarre - a young teenager Ada, is pregnant with her brother's baby and lives in a disturbing backwoods community, where the local celebrity is a man who carves faces out of jugs which symbolise the people who are to be routinely sacrificed into a large pit in exchange for the community's health and longevity. No one knows from day to day who will be the next to be sacrificed, and when Ada finds her face on the next jug, she becomes scared (understandably) and hides it. This leads to others being sacrificed in her place.
It's a novel idea for a horror film, and I don't think I've ever seen anything like it.
Strange overall.

Some Velvet Morning - 2013 ****

 

Wow, this is immensely clever. And what a bizarre twist which I NEVER saw coming. I love it when films do that. After an affair some time ago, Fred turns up on his former mistress's doorstep claiming out of the blue that he has left his wife to be with her. The only problem is, she hasn't seen him for a long time and has now moved on with her life and started to date other people.

She's also not particularly keen to see him again after all the agro she went through last time when they were seeing each other. Fred doesn't seem to understand or appreciate this and plonks himself down on the sofa poised to stay. He doesn't even take the hint to go when Velvet explains she really has to be somewhere. And then things take a strange and disturbing turn.

There are only two actors in this, and there is minimum movement except walking around two rooms of the house. And still, the two of them manage to keep you gripped for the entire movie. And it's passionate, haunting and utterly surreal, until the end, when it all becomes clear.

I really liked it, and for a film that I imagine to be quite low budget and independent I really think Neil Labute has done exceedingly well in creating this beautiful piece. Sometimes films are all the more creepy when they at first seem so utterly normal, and then descend into something else.

(HORROR) Mischief Night - 2014 **

What the actual hell did I just watch??! *spoilers* Expecting to see a run of the mill intruder movie that would give me a few jumps, I was surprised that I appeared to be watching a film about a sadomasochistic teenager who falls in love with the maniac that breaks into the house she is babysitting. I did for a short time thing it was a clever spoof of the 'typical masked intruder' set up and the teenager was going to be very clever and outsmart him as a sort of parody, but then I realised she was just bonkers. There was a ridiculously long, drawn out scene where the pair drone on and on about their 'feelings' after he's attempted to kill her, resulting in them rushing up to bed and the maniac stabbing the teenager as they have sex because 'she wants it to hurt.' That is the sort of strange, surreal head trip that you should expect.
I have really never understood people who enjoy pain, when it's our body's way of telling us that something isn't right. Why anyone would go looking for pain is beyond me.
It's not what you are expecting at all and I guess it's sort of original, but not enough to be good.

Compulsion - 2013 ***

I don't know what I was expecting with this film, but whatever it was, it didn't happen. In fact nothing happened. The most shocking thing according to film critics was how much padding Heather Graham was wearing to 'big herself up' into a typical 1950s housewife. Apparently the look made her 'a bit overweight' which scared the living daylights out of me, as there is nothing overweight about her and makes you worry about the American size system. 

A woman obsessed with food spends her days cooking amazing meals for her grumpy, parrot obsessed boyfriend who couldn't be less interested in her if he tried. An anorexic, former child star moves in across the hall and doesn't speak to anyone for love nor money. 

Gradually the pair open up to each other and form a bond that proves fatal.

A strange film, very weird and quite surreal, just appeared to move a bit slowly. 

The Moth Diaries - 2011 ****

A surprisingly haunting and eerie film, and Lily Cole is just extraordinary to watch. She has a certain beauty to her that reminds me of a Japanese doll, with huge eyes and a tiny mouth.
She plays Ernessa, a mysterious girl who turns up at an all girls boarding school and gradually integrates herself into the middle of a close friendship between two girls. Ernessa isn't all that she seems however, and before long she is threatening the close bond the two girls already have.
I enjoyed the film a lot, found it tense, and found the Marina and the Diamonds track 'Numb' at the end summed up the whole ethereal quality of the film.

The Ex - 1997 ***

It's quite bizarre that Yancy Butler has actually been in serious trouble with the police in real life. It sort of adds to her downright terrifying character. Here she plays a psychotic ex wife who cannot accept that her husband has moved on and married someone else despite years of being in a mental institution. Its actually quite scary how unhinged she is.

(HORROR) Static - 2012 ***

'Static' is quite a strange film. It's odd really how one minute you can feel a certain way about the characters and then in a blink of an eye that opinion has completely changed and you are siding with the bad side. The tagline on the poster says it all really. I hadn't noticed this before I watched it and so was a bit behind. It doesn't really become clear what is happening until the end, but when it does it's very confusing.

What about Bob? - 1991 ****

'What about Bob' starts off as a rather strange, whimsical film and quickly escalates into almost screwball proportions. Bill Murray plays neurotic Bob, who decides to follow his new shrink (played brilliantly by Richard Dreyfuss) to his holiday home in Maine. Try as Dreyfuss might, he just can't get rid of Bob, even to the extent where his family start including him in everyday plans. Bob meanwhile is spreading his own sort of love around the island, with surprising results.
Worth a watch, I've wanted to see this for ages.

The Men Who Stare at Goats - 2009 **1/2

Oh er, what an odd film. Based on a true story? Really? Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who meets oddball George Clooney in a bar and finds out that he is claiming to be a former member of some sort of Illuminati New Earth Army who use paranormal powers to complete their missions whilst hoping to stop war full stop as well. He drops everything and goes along for the ride without having a clue what he is getting himself in to. So weird. I don't get it, and I didn't really like it either.

Sightseers - 2011 ** 1/2

What a peculiar film. I haven't seen Alice Lowe since she was in the brilliant 'My Life in Film' with Andrew Scott. This wasn't brilliant. It was just very strange and very slow.
Lowe and Oram play an unhinged couple who go off on a caravan holiday but end up compiling a large body count of people who get on their nerves. It's very dark, and cannot possibly be described as a 'black comedy' because its just not funny. Most of the time it's awkward and embarrassing.
Strange and creepy in my opinion.