Harrowed Souls

Robert Altman's 1972 film Images, is a twisted little chiller about madness and sanity that has more atmosphere than a dozen contemporary features. A children's author, plagued by mysterious phone calls, flees with her hubby to their country cottage only for her troubles to deepen and as she scrabbles about furiously for her missing marbles she decides to conquer her visions violently. There's a nebulous ambiguity to the film with momentary doppelgangers, missing time and jumbled identities all confidently sewn together by a stunning performance from Susannah York whose descent into madness throbs incessantly at the centre of the film.

Madness and paranoia plague another beautiful woman, Lena Hedley, in low budget chiller The Broken. After spotting her doppelganger in the streets of London our protagonist is involved in a car accident and finds herself questioning her own her sanity when other family members begin to seem a little 'different'. Though it lacks the subtlety and ambiguity of Images this is a nice little horror whose effectiveness lies on the measured yet tremulous central performance from Hedley rather than it's script which stumbles in the final third, over exerting itself explaining away it's mysteries.

Cinema Succulents

Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive is a stunning, dreamlike thriller about a movie stuntman with a nice sideline as a getaway driver. His modest, quiet life is overturned once he befriends his attractive neighbour & young son but after her husband is released from prison things get complicated and startlingly violent. Beautifully shot, with excellent performances and some brilliant retro styling this is probably my favourite film of the year so far. Refn's meditative Valhalla Rising showed the director could generate plenty of atmosphere on a tiny budget but this feature is a much more complete effort and should deservedly catapult him into the big league.

Given most prequels are usually a pile of crap I was pleasantly surprised by the competence of Rise of the Planet of Apes. James Franco stars as a scientist tampering with simian intelligence in an effort to cure Alzheimers but after his project is shut down he continues his research at home with an infant chimp and his Pa, John Lithgow as test subject. With plenty of nods to the Heston original this romps along as the chimp's intelligence grows and along with some chums from local sanctuary he incites sedition and it all barrels along to a climatic battle for freedom. Sure it's fairly ridiculous but with jaw dropping SFX and some tight pacing I was gripped - let's hope The Thing prequel is as faithful to the original material.

Dumbed Dick & Argy Agro

Poor PKD, he must be spinning in his orbital satellite as Hollywood mauls yet another adaptation, The Adjustment Bureau is a rom/scifi/adventure thingy with all the crazy invention flattened out leaving a bland anodyne shell behind. Matt Damon stars as a rising politico who bumps into the luminous Emily Blunt in the gents and is cock blocked by the dark forces of the titular organisation who mind wipe, cajole and redirect everyone according to some Master's plan. It's watchable I suppose and doesn't drag it's feet but it's an awkward mishmash of romcom and scifi which never really works and without Blunt I'd have just switched off. Another example of Hollywood ho-hum.

Like The Lives of Others, The Secret In Their Eyes depicts life under a totalitarian regime and the murky antics of life under a police state. This Argentinian thriller boasts some fine performances and a decent script as a retired cop decides to write a novel about one of his unsolved murder cases which continues to haunt him. Split between flashbacks to the original case and his present efforts to uncover the truth a complex, tragic tale unfurls towards a genuinely shocking ending. A brilliant mystery thriller that will no doubt get remade sooner or later.

Euro Thriller Duo

Kings Game is a solid political thriller from Denmark about an ambitious journo drawn into some murky intrigue when a political candidate has an unfortunate car accident and there's plenty of tension as the hack decides he's not the usual lobby pawn and starts playing for keeps. Though not in the same league as say Lives of Others this is a well acted political fable that will definitely keep your attention.

Profondo Rosso is a psychological thriller about a pianist who witnesses his neighbours savage murder and decides to investigate it himself, classic mistake. Directed by Dario Argento and apparently inspired by Antonioni's Blow Up it's a tense melodrama, Hitchcock-esque with a loads of style and a decent performance from David Hemmings. It's good but I dunno the plot is pretty hackneyed and the culprit wasn't too difficult to spot.

Australia & The Moon

Roadgames staring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis is a decent Oz thriller with a strong Hitchcocky flavour. Keach plays a lonely truck driver whose curiosity draws him into cat and mouse game with a lady strangler & puts sexy hitchhiker Curtis at risk. It rolls along quite nicely with a good script, some stunning outback landscapes and an excellent performance as the stressed, overworked driver.



Mark Gatiss' adaptation of HG Wells' The First Men in The Moon was pretty good. An eccentric polymath cobbles together a spaceship and along with a chum ventures to discover the secrets of our silvery moon. Gatiss pulls the story forward in time a little and adds a contemporary-ish frame around the main adventure which worked surprisingly well and ensures there's plenty of comedic touches throughout. My one small complaint was I couldn't understand what the boss Selenite was saying and had to pop the subs up but otherwise a fine adaptation and I hope success cause I'd love to see Gatiss tackle some other classics.

Pediophobic Offerings

Ghost Story aka Madhouse Mansion is more tvmovie than feature film and even Marianne Faithfull's appearance adds little to proceedings. Some old Uni chums reunite at a rundown mansion one of the group has just inherited and instead of a relaxing week in the country one guest finds themselves troubled by some pesky ghostly visions and a haunted Victorian doll. There's little to recommend here, it's dull and not remotely scary, the only part worth seeing is the highly amusing killer doll scenes towards the end.



Magic, from 1978, has a slightly more convincing killer doll in it but that's probably cause it has Sir Anthony Hopkins' hand up it's arse and it's directed by Dicky Attenborough. Hopkins plays Corky a ventriloquist who has some serious issues with his doll, he almost makes it to the Big Time but flakes out and seeks solace in the arms of a childhood crush only for things to go awry. It's a touch hammy especially the final wigout but nonetheless it's quite an effective psychological thriller.