Devil (2010)

Director: John Erick Dowdle
Writers: Brian Nelson (screenplay), M. Night Shyamalan (story)
Stars: Chris Messina, Caroline Dhavernas, Bokeem Woodbine
Genres: Horror | Mystery | Thriller
Country: USA
Language: English | Ukrainian | Spanish
Release Date: 17 September 2010 (USA)
Also Known As: Devil
Filming Locations: Pennsylvania, USA

In Philadelphia, Detective Bowden is still grieving for his wife and son, killed in a hit-and-run five years ago. When someone jumps from a skyscraper onto a truck, Bowden is sent to investigate. Meanwhile, five strangers are trapped in an elevator in the building where the jumper committed suicide. The communication radio in the elevator is broken but the guards, Lustig and Ramirez, observe the individuals via CCTV as events unfold. Tensions run high among those trapped, so Lustig calls the police and Detective Bowden assumes the case. Without being able to contact the individuals, he tries to work out who they are, but he can only account for four of them. Time is running out for the occupants of the elevator, as Bowden realizes he has to get them out quickly.

Produced by M. Night Shyamalan, Devil is an intense supernatural thriller. The story follows five strangers who get stuck in an elevator and begin to turn on each other after one of them is attacked and killed during a power outage, meanwhile some unknown force seemingly prevents rescue from the outside. The script is especially well-written, and really brings dramatic tension to the situation. The storytelling too is quite engrossing; drawing the audience into the mystery of who the characters are and what is happening. A riveting and well-crafted film, Devil does an extraordinary job at exploring the themes of paranoia and fear.

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2010, Horror, Mystery, Thriller,

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Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943)

Director: Roy William Neill

Genres: Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 17 September 1943 (USA) 

During WWII several murders occur at a convalescent home where Dr. Watson has volunteered his services. He summons Holmes for help and the master detective proceeds to solve the crime from a long list of suspects including the owners of the home, the staff and the patients recovering there.

This is one of a good number of solid, interesting mysteries in the series of Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone & Nigel Bruce. This one takes the basic idea from the Doyle story "The Musgrave Ritual", and combines it rather freely with several other plot elements to create an essentially new mystery. Some of the additions are rather imaginative in themselves, and overall the mystery has the kind of intriguingly offbeat tone that fits well with the famous characters.

The setting has Watson staying in the Musgrave house, which is being used as a convalescent home for army officers, when a series of violent crimes breaks out. The mystery that arises combines suspense with an interesting puzzle that must be solved. The villain in many of the movies in the Universal series is known from the beginning, but this is one of the exceptions, allowing the viewer to try to deduce what is happening from the same clues that Holmes has available.

Rathbone and Bruce always work well together, and Dennis Hoey always adds some good moments whenever he appears as Inspectator Lestrade. Some of the secondary characters, especially some of the recovering officers, are also interesting. Although this, like the rest of the Universal Holmes features, is set in the (then) present, the setting in the old mansion gives it an atmosphere more like the earlier era of the Doyle originals. Anyone who enjoys the other features in the series should not be disappointed by this one.

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Crime, Film-Noir, Films, Mystery, Reviews,

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Tales of Terror (1962)

Director: Roger Corman

Genres: Comedy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 17 January 1964 (West Germany)

Three stories adapted from the work of Edgar Allen Poe. A man and his daughter are reunited, but the blame for the death of his wife hangs over them, unresolved. A derelict challenges the local wine-tasting champion to a competition, but finds the man's attention to his wife worthy of more dramatic action. A man dying and in great pain agrees to be hypnotized at the moment of death, with unexpected consequences.

Tales of Terror is a classic anthology of Edgar Allen Poe stories brought to life by Richard Matheson's writing and Roger Corman's directing. It's loaded with genre favorites and Vincent Price stars in all three tales (that right there is enough to make me watch). All three stories are indeed dark or humorous, or both, with The Black Cat being the strongest simply because of the interaction between Price and Peter Lorre. Price really hams it up in the wine tasting scene and I crack up every time. And Lorre is incomparable. This yarn does feature a black cat, but it's more like The Cask of Amontillado actually. The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar is something else that needs to be seen. Basil Rathbone stars in this one and looks remarkably like a beardless Wes Craven. It's uncanny. Let us not forget the first story, Morella. This one is a dark drama and doesn't offer any humor. It's still great though and Price's character here reminds me quite a bit of the one he played in The Pit and the Pendulum (another Corman/Poe production). If you like the other Corman adaptations of Poe, don't miss this one.

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Films, Horror, Mystery, Reviews,

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Parents (1989)

Parents did not fare well when landed in theaters back in 1989, receiving so-so reviews and bombing at the box office. Thankfully, time has been kinder to Bob Balaban‘s dark cannibal comedy. For years, the film was shuffled around on DVD double features and horror collections, but in the meantime, it became a cult classic and finally got a Blu-ray release early this year. Hopefully, that means Parents will get a boost in popularity because the twisted satire juxtaposes suburban 1950s Americana and macabre flesh-eating violence to distinctly delightful results.

Parents stars Bryan Madorsky as Michael Laemle, a young boy terrorized by nightmares of blood and meat who suspects his idyllic suburban parents — played with delirious menace by Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt —  are serving him unsavory sustenance; his daily sweetbreads, if you will. And he’s right, because his parents are a pair of stone-cold psychos with a hunger for human flesh and a regular supply of fres flesh.

Balaban directs Parents with a meat cleaver, carving out a mean slice of comedy in the midst of dark and deranged horrors. When concerned school officials interfere, Parents swells into a symphony of clashing tones. It’s a fucked in the head horror comedy that turns the domestic realm of safety upside down to equally hilarious and heinous results.

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Comedy, Horror, Mystery,

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Jaguares contra el Invasor Misterio (1973)

Director: Juan Manuel Herrera
Country: Mexico | Colombia
Language: Spanish
Release Date: 4 September 1975 (Mexico)
rush into a remote region of Central America. Is this a meteorite, how do you most tend to believe it? No. It's a spaceship driven by a group of aliens who want to subjugate humanity by destroying the economy. After knocking down the will of distinguished scientists and a host of soldiers to ensure coverage and protection, the invaders launch gold and diamonds with sophisticated machines aimed at causing the collapse of world markets. Luckily for us, a masked hero, "El Jaguar", and his comrades, find in an cave the refuge of extraterrestrials and with the help of the police they engage in a tough battle to overthrow them.
Colombia also has a small science fiction movie production. The model that is recalled is the Mexican one that builds tailored adventures for popular ring champions and free fight. The film is made with small media, the story is weak and development is naive (... alien perfumes have the usual avvenistic weapons that work with disintegrating rays and deadly gases; heroes in turn can overcome them with muscular strength biceps ..), but this strange space invader that identifies the economy of the structure of our society is interesting and the inspiration might (perhaps beyond the intentions of the script) to some socio-political reflection. Of the same director: Karla contra los Jaguares.

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Mystery, Sci-Fi,

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Demonia (1990)

In southeast Sicily, a team of archaeologists investigate the ruins of a crypt where heretic nuns had been stoned and crucified by the village people in the 16th century. Soon strange things begin to happen, and Liza, one of the team members, starts to have surreal dreams about the nuns. Then the graphic violence begins, starting with a decapitation! The answers lie in the ancient crypt of the nuns.
he first impression this film gave me when it first came on was that it was a lot older than its 1990 release date. The picture quality just was off as if I were to pick which Fulci film was the oldest between "The Beyond", "City of the Living Dead", "House By the Cemetery" and "Zombie" I would say this one was the oldest. There was also something very weird about the bedroom the one character was in when she was taken there by her professor. The story has said professor with said student going to Sicily to do an archaeological dig to try and uncover some Greek relics. Unfortunately, there is a monastery nearby that the female student is drawn too, and it turns out it is the site of a nun crucifixion. You will follow the woman as she tries to unravel its mysteries as she is very much drawn to the place. Along the way we have some good kills and some rather pointless subplots such as the professor being questioned about the murder of one of the people killed. You will also see a very strange death as a man chases after his son in one scene, boy gets away and dad is somehow staked in the ground his legs in the air and let me just say good death that may have had a bit more impact if said character had been established. I did not even know until then he was the boy's father. The ending makes me wonder what the point the film was trying to get across too. Just not up there with earlier Fulci horrors, it is nice that he did not focus on the eyes every five seconds, but that still does not make up for the general mayhem at the end. He was actually putting forth a good plot, then it kind of falls apart. Better than "Manhattan Baby", a film I saw by him a couple of days earlier, but this one too suffers from this need of the man to just shoot random things at times. This one also did not have the atmosphere of earlier films by him. Had its moments, but just not as fun as some of his other work.

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1990, Horror, Italy, Mystery, nunsploitation,

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