J*A*S*M

A straightforward family survival spiced up with one interesting variation (the motif of silence, even if it’s not exploited to the its fullest) that is tense rather than scary. The first half is held up by that one idea and great craftsmanship, but the second half is brought down by silliness and breaking the rules the film has laid down. It’s a bit of a problem when at the beginning we are told the monsters are sensitive to the tiniest crack, but during the chase at the end, their sensitivity works in any way that is convenient to the script. Why, for example, in a key moment the boy runs into a corn field is something I can’t make any sense of (I’ve never run into a corn field, but I guess it would be pretty noisy). And the second half is full of moments like this. The monsters are unfortunately shown way too often and they look disappointing, like run of the mill creatures that seem to have fallen out of a Marvel movie (the typical alien minions of the main villain that are there so the super heroes will have something to fight). Although I sound critical, A Quiet Place is an above average film, thanks mainly to the quality of its craftsmanship and the performances. With regards to the horror, at the time of release (April) it will hardly reach this year’s TOP 3 and the comments of it being the best horror film in the last years are totally unwarranted.

Up until now, Ornella and Monika Štiková were “some celebrities” whose names I knew from the headlines of tabloids, but I didn’t know why they were famous or what they did. I thought they were second-rate actresses, singers or hosts that appear in shows I’m not interested in. The wave of comments about this show captivated me so much that I read some basic info and watched the first episode; and I can’t believe my eyes. Is there anyone sincerely interested in the fate of a woman whose only qualification is that she managed to have a child with the husband of Gábina Partyšová? And the fate of another, even crazier woman whose only qualification is having given birth the former? Fuck me, no. That the world is fulll of morons it’s a known fact, but to make celebrities out of such useless people is something else. And Prima also making a series out of that!

I didn’t realise I was going to the prequel of The Immortal Aunt. Otherwise, it was fun.

The thing that works at the beginning is that the viewer has no idea how this little blond girl has ended up home alone and why she behaves so weird. I was fascinated, though ricci.s is right, that kid is exceptionally annoying. Unfortunately, the fascination doesn’t last long. When the parents show up the film becomes very linear and predictable. Horror-wise is weak, and also story-wise, though at least at the beginning, the premise does have some potential, and that’s probably why Blumhouse went for it. The execution, on the other hand, is terrible.

Well, that was really kitsch! It’s fine to look at; in terms of craftsmanship it’s very good – the cameraman knows how to produce nice shots – but other than that, Wilding is so sterile that I’m surprised at the positive reviews from abroad. It’s shallow where it pretends to be deep and cold as hell where it wants to show emotion. There’s absolutely no tension or fear because nobody has tried to generate any. If you fancy a horror/thriller genre film, go somewhere else. Wilding wants to be something more, but it fails to deliver anything “more”; and the last third can be laughable at times.

The less sense there is, the stronger the fate, or how not even a mutated extraterrestrial ecosystem isn’t enough for someone to act with some sense with their protozoan intelligence, isn’t it, Marceloo? But on the other hand, I wouldn’t take Annihilation as a deeply philosophical work, either – the fact that anyone can get frustrated because of that is funny. Portman and four more scientists, about whom a lot can be written (though certainly not that the director has made them likeable) go to investigate a Zone… and they find pretty much what the trailer promised, although there is less survival and mutated creatures than expected. Then it nicely goes to a highly atmospheric and wordless mind-fuck, but there’s nothing unpredictable about it, either. In a Nolan film, Nataly would have spoken a lot in the end and that would be it. I really enjoyed Annihilation, it’s visually excellent, the special effects are engaging and here and there it pushes the mind into a nicely dark direction. But I have a soft spot for sci-fi premises like this, in any media, and I’m really interested in the book version now. But I don’t think this film is that awesome, really; my expectations were perhaps a little higher.

Technically, a first class horror film with beautiful, blood-thirsty humanoid monsters that are great fun to watch when they go on a rampage (the bus scene is truly AWESOME). Unfortunately, it’s two hours long and for much its run there isn’t any monster mayhem, but rather a teenage mayhem – besides a horror film, it’s also a social drama about bullying and horrible high-school kids and their relationships in modern Taiwan. As a result, the main characters are disgustingly evil individuals, to the point that you can trace a parallel about who the real monsters are… That works so well that sometimes it’s hard to watch. In any case, the film manages to hold the illusion and I somehow stayed till the end, which I certainly don’t regret.

I sincerely hope that this theme won’t become a trend, because if this year I have to watch another film about a crazy, hysterical mother with post-partum depression, I will also go bonkers. This premise was addressed ten years ago by the excellent Baby Blues, and should have been left at that.

When you see in IMDB a 8.1/10 rating from more than two thousand viewers for a new horror film, which also happens to have a very atmospheric trailer, the expectations go a notch higher. Pengabdi Setan may not be the ultimate horror miracle, but it’s still a superbly executed film and probably the best by Joko Anwar so far. He’s a master of the horror craft and capable to scare very effectively. His two previous genre films were based on overly messy scripts, which isn’t the case here, fortunately. His latest work is basically a traditional ghost story. What was missing to make me fully happy? Anwar can put together atmospheric, creepy scenes standing on his head, but when it comes to a bit more action (for instance, the motorcycle and van accident or the kid unnaturally fluttering in the wind), you can see his limitations, which make clear that this isn’t Hollywood, but Indonesia. I don’t think it’s anything important, but it does affect the experience a little. In a fairly generous run of 107 minutes, there are a couple of redundant passages that should have been left out, while at the same time, I would extend the ending a bit, and also make it a little more tense.

The perfect film to “celebrate” the Victorious February. It’s very funny and dark, but also chilling when you realise that some of the events portrayed are not that far from the realities of a totalitarian regime. So, let’s hope that the gradual stupidisation of this country won’t make us go through something like this again. Otherwise, when compared to this film, the Czech satire President Blanik looks pretty sad. It’s on another level.