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pluk69
Reviews
Halloween (2007)
Suffers from the same flaws as his first two outings
Such a shame. I really wanted to like this and although I like the way that the original story is expanded upon it's unfortunate that Zombie seems to have a complete inability to allow anyone to associate or feel for any of his characters.
This is a horror film in it's most basic of terms - it's horrific. It contains little in the way of tension, suspense and shocks and just a lot of death to loud music.
It's unfortunate really because for the first fifteen minutes or so I actually thought he was going to surprise me and come up with a fresh and interesting take on the franchise.
Ultimately this film falls down in exactly the same way as 1000 Corpses and Devils Rejects did; they're all fantastic ideas that are flawed by containing not a single character you actually care about. You need to either like someone or hate someone to care either way about what happens to them and in his films everyone is just simply there.
Straightheads (2007)
Such a shame.....
I'd been following this films progress for quite some time so perhaps expected a little too much. I consider both Gillian Anderson and Danny Dyer to be good at what they do and was interested to see what Dan Reed could come up with but unfortunately it just didn't work for me.
The problem lies in the fact that the film doesn't really seem to understand which genre it's falling into and as such it fails to impress on drama, horror and thriller elements because rather than focusing on one of them and doing it well it's a bit of a jack of all trades and master of none.
The premise (as with most revenge films) is simple, couple meet and go out, something bad happens and they get their revenge it's a simple formula and one that many directors have handled expertly over the years. Unfotunately in this case it's as if Dan Reed thought, "It'd be great to do one of those revenge films that goes a little deeper by showing a more human side to all the characters and delving into their mental state in more detail...." Wrong! There are also a few key elements missing, in this type of movie there's generally some kind of warning. A don't do this or this might happen element which adds to the tension but there's nothing of the sort here. It just simply happens, then nothing happens for an hour, then something interesting happens and then it ends.
There's a lot of really stiff competition in this genre and hats of to Dan Reed for trying, I have no issue with his directing abilities but in term of writing... I'd say next time he should stick to the formula for the type of film he's making instead of trying to be too clever and he'll have a quality movie on his hands.
The Descent (2005)
Try not to read any other reviews! They all give too much away!
Absolutely breathtaking. Try not to find anything out about the plot it'll ruin it for you, just go and see it. Don't download it, it'll be not be half as good on a small screen, get yourself to the cinema and prepare for a two hour roller coaster ride.
This film is a masterclass in horror, within the first ten minutes you'll have gasped for breath and jumped out of your skin. Then following this for the next hour or so the director creates a feeling of claustrophobia and an overwhelming sense of foreboding, priming your body, putting you just on edge enough to react with terror when the action happens.
And happen it does, your treated to fright after fright, thick and fast until the ending (which is actually good). Once the credits roll you won't want to move, just sit for a while getting your breath back. And then go watch it again.