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Reviews
Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Hideous footage - Why oh Why!
This musical - and musical it is, from the first key to the last - is like the failed marriage between "Nightmare before Christmas" and "Buffy - Once more with Feeling".
Yes, there are the Gothic blueprints from "Nightmare...", including frail, wasp-waisted women with just enough spark to titillate the (young, male) viewer. And there is Anthony Stewart Head, ever since his part as Giles in "Buffy" and prime minster in "Little Brittain" a joy to watch / listen to.
Paris Hilton displays self-irony and good sense of humour as well as a good singing voice in her role as degenerate brat and Sarah Brightman seems seems to live her dream as the divinely operatic tragedienne.
BUT all originality, humour and drama there might be in this story is drowned in the absurd amounts of vaseline covering the camera lens. Really, all nuance and all talent is effectively covered by the horrible footage. Not one image is crisp; not one face is clearly visible.
It is as if the producers don't trust the actors to actually rely anything - everything must be covered so that the (imagined?) flaws don't show. Which really drags the film down a lot - the insecurity shows and the film reeks of misplaced shame over it's participants.
Too bad, this gory little opera really could have been great!
Black Dahlia (2006)
Not for any kind of audience!
This is, like many of the previous comments point out, a worthless film, a waste of space. It's shot like cheap home video (not like an expensive ditto, like for example Cloverfield). In the intro, the supposedly dead "Black Dahlia" actually flinches when red liquid ("blood") squirts on her face, and everything that follows actually looks like cheap erotica (without actually showing more nudity than a few uncalled for bare breasts): There is no cinematographic feel at all; no love for the medium or genre like many other low budget movies possess. The "story" consists of the repetitive casting of new victims for the leather-masked, never explained butcher and the likewise unintelligible porn-star/anti-heroine egging him on.
This film shows no story, drama, psychology, gore, humor or anything. Even writing this comment is showing it too much attention - don't waste your time and money on it!
House (1985)
Bizarre psychology and musical setting!
***Possibly spoiler for "1408" as well***
Partly well made and well produced, this movie is still decidedly bizarre in one aspect - how it treats women. Main character Roger Cobb is divorced but is at one time given a chance to reconcile with his young, successful, slender and very 80'ish ex-wife, whom he might miss; might hate (we never know for sure). His mind plays him tricks and during their meeting she is suddenly turned into an abomination - i.e fat, wrinkly and aggressive - whereupon he shoots her. And the music starts, a disco anthem chanting "good riddannce, now I know who you are". The body is mutilated and disposed of, and that's about it. Not a really mature way to deal with relationships and memories! The end titles are the same song, which puts this film in the very same category as for example "1408", but with a sprinkle of Vietnam and humour instead of cancer as in the latter.
Unholy (2007)
Not good at all
This is a movie of tired, yet weirdly childish, clichés. There's a Nazi witch master performing sf-related experiments in the basement? Oh please!
Aiming for a creeping sense of horror and fear, the general impression of the film is that of a very immature conception of fright. Not having any expectations beforehand, I am left with: an aged Xander from Buffy and a heroine with ape-like face who doesn't seem to know how to act. Said Adrienne Barbeau have I only only encountered before in the much more enjoyable "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death".
Camera and editing adds to the general impression of lame.