Review Roundup - Skux Life

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE (2016)

I'm the first to admit it but the kind of stories that really push my buttons usually involve a lot of horrifying technofear spectacle and gruesome blood letting. My all time favourite ends with a Gestapo agent's face melting on screen after all. But sometimes the best movies come from unexpected places, and real warmth and humanity also work their magic on my black heart when done effectively. This New Zealand production from the makers of quirky mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows offers a similar amount of oddball characters and offbeat laughs, but also allows for a huge amount of surprisingly excellent character drama that goes well beyond silly gags. While still including plenty of them of course.

Scorecard

JANUARY 

FILM OF THE MONTH: Hunt for the Wilderpeople ☆☆☆☆
Hot Fuzz ☆☆☆☆
I Live in Fear ☆☆☆☆
Captain America: Civil War ☆☆☆☆
Red Beard ☆☆☆☆
Star Wars ☆☆☆☆
Team America ☆☆☆☆
The Bad Sleep Well ☆☆☆☆
Thief ☆☆☆☆
Under the Shadow ☆☆☆☆
Up ☆☆☆☆

Review Roundup - Disco Nightmare

THE GREASY STRANGLER (2016)

There's no way to avoid saying it, this is a pretty weird release. Everything about it has been purposely chosen to feel odd or off the wall in some way, whether it's the gaudy pink outfits or the spoken rhythm of almost every character. Mixing comedy, horror and high levels of strange and grotesque imagery, the story of a father and son love triangle is surrounded by all kinds of slimy, disgusting moments. Of course this all takes place during the reign of a serial killer, the eponymous strangler. Is Brayden's dad Ronnie covering his naked body with grease before going out to murder people that have mildly annoyed him? The answer of course is yes. Does this joke have enough to sustain a feature length running time? Well, we'll see.

Review Roundup - The Cellar

10 CLOVERFIELD LANE (2016)

There are some things here that shouldn't really work on the surface. A script repurposed to form a quasi-sequel to a found footage movie from 8 years ago is one of those things. So getting past the idea the name was slapped on to something to get people in cinemas is tricky, but the film we actually get is surprisingly entertaining in its own right. Instead of shaky infra red camera work and mysterious creatures, the story here is centred on far more human problems as a trio of people are trapped in a custom built shelter that may or may not be protecting them from a disaster above ground. It's more akin to Misery than you might be expecting, and personally a focus on people and small surroundings instead of visual effects is a far more interesting prospect than simply more destruction mayhem.

Review Roundup - Take Shelter

UNDER THE SHADOW (2016)

An Iranian take on The Exorcist might not sound like the most obvious idea for yet another '80s period horror feature, but somehow it all comes together in Babak Anvari's story of both man made and otherworldly disturbances. While the setting and some of the mythology take some getting used to, there is something slightly familiar about a potentially supernatural problem surrounding a young child as her parents have domestic problems which, at first, seem to be the real cause of the problem. This joint venture between UK-Qatar-Jordan production companies to make a Persian language chiller is a solid mixture of established ideas and intriguing new ones which adds a few added layers of war time subtext to make it complete.