HORROR FILM ROUND UP

Over the last few months, I've watched a lot of horror films that I haven't had time to review in full on Ginger Nuts. Some great, some bad, some a mixture, here I'll give a brief overview of a few that I don't believe have been reviewed on the site before.

Soulmate  (2013)    Dir: Axelle Carolyn.

Soulmate stars Anna Walton as Audrey, in what at first seems an all too familiar tale of a woman with a recent tragic past - husband dead in an accident, her own attempted suicide - who fetches up at a lonely old farmhouse in a quiet village to recuperate. And for the first 30 or 40 minutes, we have what is a very competent and extremely creepy haunted house film, with a great atmosphere and truly wonderful moments of sheer dread. No jump scares, really. But then, something very interesting happens - and this may be a mild spoiler, but it's in the interests of knowing what you're getting here - she actually makes contact with the ghost and what then follows is a very well-made psychological and emotional drama. It still has moments of eeriness, but it's clear that the film is as much about the mental and emotional path of Audrey as she finds possible hope and healing in interacting with this spirit. It's subtle, sombre and leans to the dark, but it's carried with aplomb by one of the strongest acting performances I've seen in a long time. Anna Walton is pitch perfect and gives a truly natural performance. No idea why she's not in more. Greta little film; surprising and moving, with a little bit of mystery as well.

Across The River (Oltre il Guado)  (2013)  Dir: Lorenzo Bianchini.

Low budget Italian horror film and quite possibly one of the most competently sustained horror films I've ever seen. Minimal dialogue, essentially only one character, it concerns a wildlife researcher who is out in the woods cataloguing the local animals. After strapping a night vision camera to a fox, he is led to an abandoned village in the forest and subsequently gets trapped due to rising waters. Forced to set up camp, he is beset night after night with increasingly disturbing noises and half-seen - mostly through his various camera set-ups in some of the best use of 'found footage' I've ever seen - shadows. He finds mutilated animals and the remnants of the absent villagers' lives, in some truly bleak surroundings. It is a film with perfect camera shots, an almost constant sense of dread and a reliance on your expectations that never quite plays out how you predict. Like most of the best horror films - Lovely Molly, Lake Mungo, The Babadook - it plays on the watcher's imagination as opposed to what is actually on screen. Although it nearly unravels towards the end, I found it to be extremely terrifying and almost hallucinogenic in places. Highly recommended if you like slow burn, atmospheric films that don't spoon feed you the story.

Lake Mungo    (2008)   Dir: Joel Anderson.

Filmed as an almost fully convincing documentary, Lake Mungo is the story of a young teenage girl who drowns while the family is picnicking at a dam in Australia. As the family comes to terms with their loss, it's clear something is not quite done with them. Strange noises are heard in the house and when the son sets up a camera at night, well... With mostly authentic performances - there are a few occasions where it's clear this is acting - the story unfolds slowly, adding twist after twist as it goes. What I found most compelling about this film was how matter of fact it was. If it had been presented as a genuine documentary, I might actually have been fooled despite the odd acted scene. And it is beyond creepy. This is one of those films that exudes horror, the director causing skin crawl with the merest suggestion of a shadow. I've watched this twice and it never fails to get me. And that near-end scene; if it doesn't make you jump, you're a corpse. Again, another film which is all about the story and atmosphere, as opposed to cheap 'jump' scares.

The Lost Coast Tapes  (2012)  Dir: Corey Grant.

Another documentary, this time American and about bigfoot. There seems to be a lot of bigfoot films about at the moment, though I think this is the first one I've seen. I don't know, guess I'm not really into the legend all that much. Anyway, this mock-doc is more along the lines of Grave Encounters, a film I thought was truly awful despite its solid potential. TLCT actually starts off reasonably well and, despite its actors being typical obnoxious 'go-getters', feels professionally made. They go off into the woods because some crazy old hunter/trapper reckons he's got a bigfoot corpse. Cue a couple of eerie scenes filmed in the forest at night before it all starts to unravel with absolutely stupid actions and choices by the characters, and some truly horrendous 'special' effects. By the time the utterly nonsensical ending rolls around, you'll wonder why the fuck you sat through this whole thing. It's actually a shame because it could have been a really good film if it weren't for the increasingly incompetent and ludicrous story (and this in a bigfoot film, it's bad if the viewer is poking holes in this) and exponentially annoying people. A downward spiral of a movie then.

YellowBrickRoad  (2010)   Dir: Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton.

Yet another found footage film, though if I remember correctly this one mixes standard filming techniques too. This time, the film-makers are tapping into the legend of a vanishing town who all upped and walked off into the wilderness of New England with no explanation. An army search team eventually finds the remains of a few hundred of the townsfolk, some frozen to death, some mutilated and slaughtered but with no sign of the rest. It all gets hushed up and it's not until years later that the location co-ordinates are released. Our documentary crew will attempt to follow in their footsteps. Again, this film starts off promisingly; good premise, likeable enough characters/actors and a few mildly creepy early scenes. But it quickly devolves into a confused mess that fails to capitalise on its potential, fluffing scares and utilising some horrendously bad effects. It's not difficult to see what the makers were intending; a kind of allegory on such events in America's past where groups got stranded crossing its vast wilderness and went mad and killed each other. There's also a bit of almost cosmic horror in the form of a piece of music only some of the crew can hear and which appears to be responsible for some or all of the events. This one felt like a real shame, because it's a sold and somewhat original idea, but the directors eschew atmosphere and subtlety in favour of failed attempts at being metaphysical and badly staged scenes of violence. For me, another disappointment.

PAUL M. FEENEY