J*A*S*M

This is one of those films where the plausible psychological evolution of the main character, following a brutal attack and the loss of his beloved wife, is completely brushed aside and subordinated to him being able to joke and be tough, immediately after getting “superpowers”. To be clear, in this particular case it didn’t bother me at all, but it’s worth noting in case someone went to this film expecting some serious technological sci-fi. Upgrade is nothing but a light-weight B-movie. A quality and proud B-movie with a lot of nice ideas, plenty of original tricks and a confident technical aspect. I would compare it a little to the new Dredd, but as an experience, Upgrade is a notch higher. What’s fun is that many of the things that seem silly while watching make a lot more sense when you understand the points. On the other hand, I’m not quite sure whether everything that makes sense while watching, still make sense in hindsight. In any case, I’m happy that, after five years, Whannell has written something interesting again, and happier still that he found a director.

An utterly tragic monstrosity! And I was quite confident: decent preliminary responses in Rotten Tomatoes, Barbara Crampton and AJ Bowen (two of my favourites in indie horror), the attractive setting of an abandoned cabin in the mountains. Even the first scene gave me hope for a well made simple forest slasher flick with some kind of weird mutants, but what follows is incredible. Absolute chaos, where everything is mixed up, and never well. Baruh’s method is limited to the constant use of a leading score (there’s always something playing!) and slow motion shots. Nothing in this films works the way the author intended; I haven’t seen such directorial impotence in a long time. And on top of all that, it is really stupid. I wouldn’t mind that in a slasher flick if it didn’t try to be God knows what. I burst out laughing in the last scene before the end credits, when it appeared that the creators wanted to squeeze some political connotation.

Beautifully nasty, dark, stifling, chilling. Something few people will appreciate as much as the knowledgeable horror fans. In Hereditary you need to be able to enjoy the slow, atmospheric, unsettling and emotionally tense first half (or rather, three quarters) as much as the literal (beautiful, if you can call it that) horror atrocities into which the film dives in the end. Half the people will say that it’s slow and lacking cheap attractions (“where are the jump scares?”), while the other half will lament that it didn’t stick to only hints all the way. I love how this film portrays the broken relationships in that family. I love how the director, with only one sound, is able to generate a deeper awful feeling than a dozen jump scares and gore scenes of other films. I love how the actors (excellent, all of them), with just one look and expression, managed to make me shiver and tremble. I haven’t felt so permanently nervous in film in a long time. And last but not least, the advertising campaign also deserves praise for being able to be attractive without giving almost anything away. I strongly advise potential viewers against reading any random comment about this film, because sooner or later, some idiot will say something that you really don’t want to know; the moment when I knew this the film hooked up, and I realised wasn’t watching your average overrated horror indie flick that’s forgotten after a year. Thanks to Planet Dark for the early preview at Kino pilotů, free of any random teenagers going to the multiplex for the new James Wan movie.

Excellent narrative pirouette and a really intense madhouse! I trusted Laugier, but since the film wasn’t preceded by the hype of a big horror event (like this year’s A Quiet Place or the upcoming Hereditary), I was expecting less. And maybe thanks to that I ended up pleasantly surprised. Ghostland lacks the philosophical layers of Martyrs, which established Laugier, but it certainly delivers more horror satisfaction than The Tall Man. A decade ago we were used to this breed of films, but they stepped into the background in such way that today they can feel like a breath of fresh air again. Finally a horror action film that is unleashed and hurts! The action puts the character through such things that you believe that they are deeply traumatising them, and their hysteria doesn’t surprise you. All this, moreover, wrapped in first-class technical form, taking place in the interiors of a magnificent horror cabin, and made special by a narrative structure that makes sense (though I can imagine that it can be self-evident for some). Applause.

I’d love to know what went wrong during the production of Delirium that resulted in a very interesting looking project, produced by Jason Blum and Leonardo DiCaprio, ending up in development hell and falling out of sight for about four years. The result does look accordingly, though. It is a watchable film that shows potential… but in the end, nothing. Nothing extraordinary, even reluctantly. And Topher Grace is one of the worst casting choices I can think of.

A cute, nonconflicting teenage movie where even the “villain” looks like a pretty fine chap. It’s made to please basically everyone, at the expense of some narrative values, a fairy-tale through and through without a touch of reality, but with a laudable intention to pass on liberal values to the target audience. What pisses me off a little, though, is how hypocritical the creators can be. Showing tolerance and understanding for everyone is a nice thing, but happiness here is accessible only to boys who could be Calvin Klein models standing on their heads. If one of the characters the hero watched with a sneer on the stage while looking for someone who liked Game of Thrones sat next to Simon at the end, I doubt it would have been such a great love story. I’m giving it four stars because it’s very nice to look at, it’s engaging, funny and has a decent pace. At the same time, it’s one of those little mainstream bullshits that falls apart the moment you start thinking about it. If you want a gay film worthy analysis that delivers an artistic experience, go for Call Me by Your Name.

I don’t know the book it’s based on, but from on the synopsis and the name, I was expecting more straightforward horror with loads of Lovecraftian creatures the explorers would have to face. But in the end, it’s an oppressive descent into the dark corners of the human soul, spiced with hopelessness and Inuit mythology. The monster isn’t Lovecraftian, after all, and, to be honest, it probably would have been better without it – that CGI bear wasn’t very scary. The texture was also disappointing, the story doesn’t very feel very much like it’s taking place in the polar circle – the characters didn’t look frozen enough. But despite of these quibbles, I’m glad that a series like this was produced. The four-star quality is surprisingly consistent from beginning to end, without major fluctuations. Two weekend evenings pleasantly unpleasantly spent.

A simple and watchable film that at the same time is pointless, and I can’t understand why it was made after all those years. Since the boom of home invasion movies is behind us, the sequel rather logically expands it scope to the larger setting of an abandoned camp, which turns out to be not entirely for the better. The original The Strangers exploited the tension of mysterious killers breaking into the privacy of the main characters, the sequel, on the other hand, is basically a run of the mill slasher flick. The setting of the camp also raises several questions which, for the sake of common sense, are better left unanswered. The overall impression is also affected by a series of incomprehensible decisions, both by the characters and the creators. Why, for example, Roberts sings an 80s song in almost every other scene, I really can’t tell. I guess he wants to create some sort of mood and he can’t come out with anything smarter. The worst is that this helps him in only about a scene and a half (by the pool and at the end, on the bridge, maybe).

I’m lucky this film matched my mood today, it was a lot of fun. But I can easily imagine how it could have pissed me off any other day. An exceptional pose, or an original generational film? Your choice. For me, probably the former, but as I’ve said, today I was in the mood for it.

A bit of an unconventional anthology. In the great majority of horror anthologies what you remember is the individual tales, while the story that frames them is something extra, but in Ghost Stories it’s actually the opposite. The spooky mini stories are functional, but dull. They are scary and can make you a bit nervous, but they don’t go anywhere because they end quickly (my favourite was the second one about the young guy in the car; it was creepy, especially the circumstances under the which the main character tells it). But the gem is the story of Professor Goodman, who leads the film. It delivers a couple of surprises after which the readings of the mindfuck-meter go higher than you’d expect before the screening. The final outcome is a shame, however. It’s a cowardly way to explain the previous events, even if, in Ghost Stories, the creators take it so literally that it becomes a joke.