HCF Review - Going Off the Rails

BACKTRACK (2015)

Backtrack is an Australian mystery movie, part psychological thriller and part horror story. Peter Bower (Adrien Brody) is a troubled man trying to get his back life (and his career as a therapist) together after the tragic death of his daughter in an accident. The unpacked boxes in his new home suggests this plan isn't working out, and it's probably not a good sign for his marriage that his wife looks like she's feeling similar levels of trauma. The location they're in really isn't helping the situation since he seems to have moved them into a part of town where it never stops raining. But Peter has bigger problems which are about to appear on the horizon.

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Synth Cinema's World Tour

PART TWO: CASTLES IN THE SKY

Perhaps it was the way the information age was progressing or perhaps it was the people I knew at the time, but the turn of the Millennium led to an influx of world cinema. Certain kinds of films were being shown on late night television and certain discs were being passed around. Looking back this was a primitive time in terms of technology but a lot has changed in two decades. But like the previous excursion to Hong Kong, this look into Japan will examine a lot of new and exciting features that seemed to arrive all at once because of the changing home video landscape. Some were incredible fantasy epics and some were just incredibly extreme. But I'll try explore a little of this kind of genre variety if it's at all possible.

HCF Review - Tricks and Traps

THE HORDE (2016)

Genre mashups are pretty standard in movies that involve a certain amount of horror clichés but they tend to be a mixture of comedy and violence. Horror and action is perhaps less common, although at times the use of power tools and shotguns can push things in a certain direction. But in this case writer/actor Paul Logan dares to take the slasher film framework and ask a vital question, ‘what if Rambo was on the camping trip?’ He also wanted to cast himself as the muscle bound hero and who am I to argue. It’s certainly a change of tact in comparison to the other First Blood knock-offs out there. But all of those back woods killer tropes still have to be accounted for and so there’s a whole story about his teacher girlfriend and her class of expendable teens. Does this balancing act work out?

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HCF Review - To Catch A Killer

THE BEAST (2019)

A lot of the South Korean thrillers that receive mainstream attention overseas might be considered eccentric or darkly comedic, but there is another side to this coin as Jung Ho-Lee’s crime drama shows. This is a bleak and occasionally brutal tale that offers a slick and stylish experience with little in terms of levity or respite. It’s a relentless story brimming with moments of suspense. But it’s also a film full of side characters and sub plots that aren’t always weaved together so effectively during a weighty running time that is over two hours. It’s a consistently polished affair and tonally it never lets up, but as the story progresses there are still some weaker aspects that should be examined.

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Scorecard

OCTOBER

FILM OF THE MONTH: Stagefright ☆☆☆☆