J*A*S*M

(BE2CAN, Evald) In the end I gave up and fell asleep, incredibly empty.

(BE2CAN, Evald) The last scene doesn’t belong there, it must have been a dream. Right? Right, right? Please!

(BE2CAN, Atlas) My first Panahi, which might have been a mistake given the meta level of Taxi Teheran, I’m sure I missed many references. But I’m still very satisfied, it’s a very stimulating (and surprisingly funny sometimes) ride through the capital of a questionable country that throws spokes at the wheels of (not only) its most valuable artists and makes their lives hell. It didn’t need much, a camera and a car, but actually needed a lot of courage. I believe I have an obligation to appreciate that courage, though it’s not an unpleasant obligation. Film fans should be dependable :)

(BE2CAN, Lucerna) A very intensive experience, likeable characters, a high degree of credibility and form that leaves you flabbergasted. For me, by far the best of this year’s Be2Can: it wasn’t too brooding, didn’t have any snobbish answer to existential questions, it even had a plot! And it got an applause, wow!

Pretty good meta comedy that makes fun of the old, silly camp slasher movies, where the most effective aspect is, surprisingly, the emotional bond between Max and “Nancy”. The jokes are fifty-fifty, sometimes they land, sometimes they don’t. Naturally, you won’t find any horror or gore. Overall, The Final Girls is very watchable, but I feel that for 2015 it doesn’t have enough of “it” to be memorable in any way, no matter the angle you look at it. This is a wilder alternative.

Given the phobia I have towards barking creatures, this is an almost ideal horror premise for me. And therefore it’s a bigger fail that the creators were unable to arouse even a hint of an unpleasant feeling. Your average animal attack horror on video, just that.

This film was a big question mark for me before the première. The premise looked uninteresting, ordinary, and utterly unattractive, and I couldn’t figure out why Eli Roth had picked a project like this. But it wasn’t bad after all, quite the contrary, thanks to the ending, I think it’s more entertaining and subversive than I could have ever expected. The worst is actually Keanu Reeves, who is really unfitting for the role of a desperate and helpless father, and his performance is almost funny.

I don’t want to be too harsh on The Diabolical. Sure, it starts like the typical ghost story in a haunted house of the kind we’ve seen a lot in recent years, some of the special effects sequences are almost funny and the performances are nothing to write home about. But at the same time, the director, Alistair Legrand, proves that he’s able to create a fairly scary atmosphere in the night scenes, and when one of the unwelcome aliens show up, the film manages to have a personality of its own among the numerous competition. In addition, the climax is quite originally bizarre, but I’m sorry that that one idea wasn’t exploited much better, because it’s got more potential. I had a surprisingly positive impression from the film, though the ending brings it down a little. Overall, The Diabolical deserves a chance, I don’t think it should be written off.

A similar case as with the recent Deathgasm: surprisingly good reviews in Rotten Tomatoes, but I’m not into wannabe funny bollocks like this. In the first story I said “OK, it’s B quality, but well shot and atmospheric, average so far and I’m curious about what’s next”. And what was next was unfortunately worse. When someone by pure chance comes up with an idea that is at least a little interesting (Friday the 31st), they have to fuck it up with a stupid alien. I wanted to kill myself. Overall, I’m pretty sure that after a couple of weeks I will not remember a single one of all those Halloween tales.

The rookie directors Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione have found a good way to put together a minimalistic sci-fi film; they’ve set off on a good path, but unfortunately didn’t fully reach their destination. Circle has a fine idea – we’ve already seen different versions of a similar thing, but I don’t remember anything set up like this as a dialogue. Circle says a lot about human nature, sometimes it pokes nicely at certain prejudices and thoughts, or at least tries. But I have a little problem with its credibility. From the very beginning the film feels like watching characters in a theatre play that the creators move according to their whim, rather than real living people. Basically, they speak the way the plot demands, at the expense of being convincing. It’s a pity, the premise has more potential.