A young girl is scared that a monster she has just drawn will eat her and her grandfather in their sleep. The grandfather does not disagree, but claims this just can't happen, because he's the chief of all monsters. "Ultimomostro" starts this way, with a few words exchanged minutes before turning off the lights. Only, the little girl and the old man are seemingly very serious about this, this is obviously not just a joke to exorcise the nephew's fears before she goes to sleep. You know that something in what they just said must be real, only you don't know which part - yet. It mustn't be easy to condense in ten minutes of film a complete, organic idea that also has some interesting idea as its basis. Sometimes ideas hang halfway in a short movie, although you sense the concept in it could have really turned out great given more time and resources. This is what made me like this little movie. It's simple, and draws from the well known concept of childhood fears with a new angle on their claim that monsters do exist, only adults can't see them. I wish the authors had developed that concept further and let the young girl somehow have a bigger role in the second half of the short, while you somehow lose part of the atmosphere and chemistry built in the beginning when the focus shifts on the grandfather only. It would have been fun watching the two of them together in the ultimate face off.
Reviews
6 Reviews
Jurassic World
(2015)
Worse than Sharknado
28 June 2015
After the excellent third installment of Jurassic Park back in 2001, it took many years for a fourth installment of the franchise to finally be produced. But who could imagine that it would be in the form of a nonsensical, predictable and poorly structured TV movie for the big screen worth of the worst Syfy spoofs. Yes, you see dinosaurs. Yes, the special effects are good. But the acting is so bad (a completely expressionless Bryce Dallas Howard walks though the events in an immaculate white dress and in high heels) and the story so utterly absurd and obvious (a genetically modified and seemingly very smart breed of tyrannosaur to accommodate the corporate requirements to keep up attendance at a theme park) that halfway through it one begins to wonder if it is actually all made on purpose. Perhaps I got it completely wrong, and this WAS meant to be a cinematic equivalent to Sharknado (which I enjoyed much more, by the way). Some moments are absolutely unforgettable (such as when, after re-emerging from swimming in a river, one of the two brothers starts a fire using the matches he had in his pocket and drive a jeep abandoned for more than twenty years) and they would probably make sense in a John Landis movie, but from a Steven Spielberg franchise one would expect more than just (already seen) special effects to justify bringing back such a powerful franchise. I wish I could give this less than one star.
Tuning Oscar
(2014)
Brilliantly revisiting the classic ghost story
26 June 2015
"Oscar Desafinado" is a short Spanish movie that revisits in a very original way the traditional theme of ghost story. In the case at issue, the ghost is that of the protagonist's deceased wife with whom he has a deal whereas for two years after her departure he won't make love to another woman. Enter a new girl, who is totally in love with him - yet must wait for the two years to pass before she can even kiss the men she loves. Will the protagonist's previous wife let him finally make love to the new girl? Delicate, well structured, brilliantly acted by Julian Lopez and Barbara Goenaga, the short film manages to achieve originality notwithstanding the cliché and is greatly entertaining in telling the story of this supernatural "menage a trois".
The Peripheral
(III) (2014)
Promising, but predictable ending
26 June 2015
No spoilers here, of course, but I saw this very interesting short at Rome's 2015 Fantafestival and, since it is one of the few I really liked, I thought of dropping a review. Let me first say that the short is obviously very well done, both dramatically and technically. The central idea of a patient with an allegedly supernatural issue to resolve and who is not believed by his psychiatrist (who will pay dearly for her skepticism) is clearly not new (as a matter of fact there were two or three shorts at the festival that told the same story in different ways, proving this is quite a well established, effective clichè). However, JT Seaton has added something new to bring this beyond the otherwise inevitable deja vu. And this is what I liked the first part of the short for: you actually see nothing scary! No special effects, no cheesy horror references, nothing: just a great, building atmosphere. The interaction between the two actors (Lynn Lowry is particularly effective as Dr. Redding) is what everything is about. The director used a very interesting style in the editing (with some shots remind me of Dario Argento's Deep Red) and the build up was great. That's my whole point: I would have kept it that way and, without spoiling the ending, it would have been great if the short had remained in the realm of suggestion, rather than visual exploitation. 6 out of 10, then, rather than the 8 I would have otherwise given. Still, a very nice short standing out in the crowd.
Noct
(2014)
What an atmosphere!
26 June 2015
It was really fun watching Vincent Toujas' Noct at this year's Fantafestival in Rome. Wow, what an atmosphere. Already a winner of the Macabre Faire Film and in the official selection of many genre festivals, Noct starts from the predicament of an insomniac where the borderline between what is real and what is part of the protagonist's hallucination gets more blurred at every minute. Powerfully directed, and starring the versatile and convincing Thomas Barraud, Noct was one of the best shorts I've seen at the Fantafestival and one of the few that really scared me. Perhaps it's the effective premise based on the devastating effect of sleep deprivation, but the story just unfolds very persuasively throughout in a very unpredictable and sophisticated way. I also liked very much the photography, capable of emphasizing so many subtle details, and the great music by the director. One to watch!
Lightless
(2015 TV Short)
Powerful intro to a possible series
26 June 2015
Seen yesterday at the 2015 Fantafestival, Lightless is clearly intended as a a sort of teaser for something longer, perhaps a TV series, and therefore doesn't care so much about telling a story, but rather focuses on building up a suspenseful, at times chilling, atmosphere. Which it does quickly and, at least in part, quite convincingly. There's a psychiatrist who's treating a young woman affected by a fear for dark places. She is convinced something horrible will occur if they turned off the lights in the room. And until here, Lightless is not particularly original as we have seen a therapist treating someone for similar phobias many times in movies before. But past this initial premise (there was at least another short at the Fantafestival who had a similar underlying theme), Lightless takes off (obviously, only once the lights in the therapy room are indeed turned off) in an unpredictable direction where we can't really figure out what is really happening anymore. Is the young woman alone in her predicament, or is this the beginning of some sort of epidemic? All of this, without one single special effect. Just atmosphere (and good actor's chemistry) leading to a disturbing finale that I honestly didn't quite understand, but that leaves many possibilities open for the story to continue.
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