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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The Mechanic (2011)

Director: Simon West

Genres: Action | Crime | Thriller

Country: USA

Language: English

Release Date: 28 January 2011 (USA)

Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a 'mechanic' - an elite assassin with a strict code and unique talent for cleanly eliminating targets. It's a job that requires professional perfection and total detachment, and Bishop is the best in the business. But when his mentor and close friend Harry (Donald Sutherland) is murdered, Bishop is anything but detached. His next assignment is self-imposed - he wants those responsible dead. His mission grows complicated when Harry's son Steve (Ben Foster) approaches him with the same vengeful goal and a determination to learn Bishop's trade. Bishop has always acted alone but he can't turn his back on Harry's son. A methodical hit man takes an impulsive student deep into his world and a deadly partnership is born. But while in pursuit of their ultimate mark, deceptions threaten to surface and those hired to fix problems become problems themselves.

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Action, Crime, Thriller,

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The Crazies (2010)

Director: Breck Eisner
Writers: Scott Kosar (screenplay), Ray Wright (screenplay)
Stars: Radha Mitchell, Timothy Olyphant, Danielle Panabaker
Genres: Horror | Thriller
Country: USA | United Arab Emirates
Language: English
Release Date: 26 February 2010 (USA)
Also Known As: The Crazies
Filming Locations: Cordele, Georgia, USA

As a toxin begins to turn the residents of Ogden Marsh, Iowa into violent psychopaths, sheriff David Dutton tries to make sense of the situation while he, his wife, and two other unaffected townspeople band together in a fight for survival.

A transport plane crashes into the water supply of a small Iowa town. Some of the townfolks become infected and turn crazed killers. Sheriff (Timothy Olyphant), his wife (Radha Mitchell), his deputy (Joe Anderson), and a girl from town (Danielle Panabaker) need to escape not only the crazies, but also the military sent to contain the population.

This is remake of a George A. Romero movie. It's not that complicated. It is a horror movie done classically without the jokey references or overt sexualization. There are no gross out jokes or T&A. It is just simple tense horror done right. The scariest scene has to be the women tied down on the gurneys, and a crazy walks in. If you want simple horror, this is all you need.

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2010, Horror, Thriller,

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Enigma Rosso (Blu-Ray)

When the brutally violated body of a young woman is found wrapped in plastic, Inspector Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi, Contraband, The Four of the Apocalypse) is drawn to dark deeds at an exclusive girls' school where the beautiful members of a group called The Inseparables are being targeted with sinister letters and murder attempts. Following a clue in the dead girl's diary, he soon learns that anyone could be harboring deadly secrets as he untangles this web of sex and homicide. A prime slice of sordid shocks from the golden age of the Italian giallo, this is the final film in the cycle of schoolgirl thrillers following What Have You Done to Solange? and What Have They Done to Your Daughters? with enough delirious twists and turns to keep you guessing all the way to the startling final revelation. Also starring Christine Kaufmann (Town Without Pity, Murders in the Rue Morgue), Ivan Desny (The Marriage of Maria Braun, Who?), Jack Taylor (Pieces, Succubus), and Helga Liné (Horror Express, Nightmare Castle), this wicked chiller is now presented in HD and full widescreen for the very first time.

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Blu-Ray, Reviews, Thriller,

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Wake in Fright (1971)

Wake in Fright is my personal nightmare: being surrounded by a horde of degenerate men who drink, gamble, fight, dismiss women, and shoot animals for sport, with no ability to leave them behind. It’s under-seen because it includes footage from an actual kangaroo hunt, and though this movie assisted with making kangaroo hunting illegal in Australia, it should be warned that it’s real and it’s disturbing. But if you can stomach knowing that’s coming, Wake in Fright is a massively recommendable film if you’ve ever thought that The Hangover could be pretty interested as a horror concept instead of a comedic set-up. This one follows a schoolteacher (Gary Bond) who takes a rural post in Australia and immediately regrets it. After gambling away all his earnings in an attempt to get back to Sydney, he shacks up with the alpha male (Donald Pleasence) for a weekend of non-stop boozing, fighting, and fucking.

Though having some similar ruralism views, Wake in Fright is more frightening than Deliverance because these outback men are more identifiable to a larger population. They raise hell because there don’t seem to be any repercussions for boys behind badly. It’s also quite lovely to look at, most of the time. The orange desert expanse is lensed beautifully and the kangaroo hunt is vomitus. Pleasaence is quite horrifying as an educated brute that’s chosen nihilism and chaos and pushes the teacher to the brink. Wake in Fright is about men entrapping other men through heightened masculinity.

Wake in Fright premiered at Cannes but the print was lost for 30 years. And the negative traits of men in groups making the worst choices over and over are timeless. Director Ted Kotcheff made his debut with Fright and he went on to make hulkier anthems with Sylvester Stallone (First Blood) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (Commando), but this is his masterpiece of identifiable and horrific masculinity that likely everyone has encountered on some scale. The main character here can’t seem to leave it, even though he tries. It’s like he’s in a sand globe.

Kotcheff later made Weekend at Bernie’s. And even though they’re hanging out with a dead guy, I’d rather kick it with those dudes than these.

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Drama, Reviews, Thriller,

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Grotesque (2009)

Director: Kôji Shiraishi
Writer: Kôji Shiraishi (screenplay)

Genres: Horror | Thriller

Country: Japan

Language: Japanese

Release Date: 16 July 2010 (USA)

An unnamed doctor has always had everything he's ever wanted, but that has only made him develop more extreme and depraved needs. He kidnaps a young couple in the prime of their life together and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival

This to me is what Hostel, Saw, and the myriad of other torture porn flicks over the years tried to do. I saw this film back in 2009 and I can remember the entire film vividly. The plot although tenuous is so disturbing and nihilistic that I felt I had to take a shower after the film. We have 3 characters in this film and almost the entire running length takes place in a dark dank underlit torture room reminiscent to a nazi-experiment chamber. I give this film a 7/10 for the sheer nastiness and how relentless the film is in depicting the pain and suffering of the two young youths abducted. This film has guts and guts is what you will see. I am not surprised the Nick Cage thought this was a snuff film because for the life of me this felt so bloody real. After the film I was so disturbed and depressed that I couldn't walk home alone. This hasn't happened since the original Halloween for me but I was just a kid than. If you couldn't handle Human Centipede, Serbian film or the Antichrist than stay far away from this one. You have been warned!!!!!

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Horror, Japan, Thriller,

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The Batwoman (1968)

A mad scientist is wanting to create a race of super gill men. He uses the glands of wrestlers because they are "perfect". Wrestlers are winding up dead all over Acapulco so the call goes out for that mysterious crime fighter BATWOMAN!
Absolutely silly late 60's Spanish-language, Mexican-made masked heroine flick. A masked heroine (with no particular super-powers other than some wrestling skills) takes on a mad scientist (are there any other kind) when he decides to conquer the world by creating fish men. His secret recipe? Toss in a Ken or G.I. Joe doll with an orange fish, mix in some whirlpool action, and voila. His henchmen look like, as my son put it, a bunch of guys that just finished a dominos game. Our heroine fights crime or whatever in a bikini. Isn't she afraid it will shift when she is throwing kicks and punches. She also has two, count them, two boyfriends helping her save the world for Mexican republicanism. Wait till you see the fish-man. A worthy contender for the worst monster costume ever. Not to be missed. The VCI DVD is excellent quality. The picture and color are sharp and clear. Unfortunately no subtitles. Worth getting for the camp value alone. Recommended for fans of the genre.

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1968, Action, Adventure, Mexico, Thriller,

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Las Luchadoras Contra El Robot Asesino

A lady wrestler and her boyfriend, a policeman, battle a mad scientist who has developed a murderous killer robot and uses it to kidnap wealthy people.
I saw an undubbed/non-subtitled version of this René Cardona wrestling flick, so naturally my judgment is kind of clouded. It's very similiar to the director's former Night Of The Bloody Apes, although there is very little gore and nudity. The sets, story, style have the same feel and the rapist man/monkey monster has a small part. A mad doctor is using a super-strong robot to kidnap various people (probably politcians or rich industrialists, as usual). Somehow a female wrestler and her cop boyfriend finds out about the doctors diabolic plans and runs to the rescue. The robot itself is just a big Mexican with silver color sprayed on his face. His whole act concists of walking through cardboard walls and sink people with one fatal blow. I lost track of how many cardboard doors and walls he must have walked through during the film's brief 90 minutes, but it must have exceeded 20+. Although I loved the robot and the wrestling, amongst other things, the movie has far too much dialouge for its own good, making it pretty dull for non-Spanish talking people like me. Thus, I cannot really recommend this film to others than Hispanic viewers or fans of Mexican wrestling.

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1969, Action, Mexico, Thriller,

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