Review: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo***

So striking and unique was Swedish actress Noomi Rapace’s portrayal of 21st century anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander in the original 2009 film that director David Fincher and screenwriter Steven Zaillian already had their work cut out adapting author Stieg Larsson’s complex first book of his Millennium trilogy as an English-language film. The plot is so complex with its plethora of characters and emotions and deals with so many issues, including Nazism, serial murder, rape, torture and twisted family liaisons that it acts as both a cinematic dream and a hindrance if done incorrectly. Therefore, it’s a relief that Fincher and Zaillian not only appreciated that the central theme to refer everything to is the Salander journey…

Review: The Thing***

John Carpenter may well be the master of horror filmmaking, but that’s not to say that someone else can’t tackle his esteemed previous work. In fact, Dutch filmmaker Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.’s 2011 version of The Thing could be argued as a brave career choice, considering the 1982 film’s cult following. Not to be confused as a remake of the first, but a prequel – both based on John W. Campbell Jr.’s 1938 novella Who Goes There?, whichever way you look at it, van Heijningen Jr’s new film is certain to spark similar debate over its genetics ideas. – Just to confuse matters, this prequel is set in 1982, and sees American paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary…

Review: Snowtown****

Believe the stories of disturbed audience members leaving various screenings – there were a few hurried departures when we saw this film at this year’s London Film Festival. Debut feature writer-director Justin Kurzel has co-penned a gripping, ‘car-crash’ account based on a true Australian crime story from the 1990s. However, it’s not necessarily the crime that is the most shocking, but the slow and systematic abuse of the family involved. Based on the Snowtown murders (August 1992 and May 1999) – also known as the Bodies in Barrels murders – in Snowtown, 145km north of Adelaide, where 11 people lost their lives at the hands of serial killer John Bunting, Kurzel’s story follows the effect Bunting…

Review: The Awakening***

Writer-director Nick Murphy’s first feature film, The Awakening, is a bold step into the well-trodden genre of horror. Thankfully, Murphy has mixed supernatural intrigue with historical fact to bolster his story’s significance, adopting an old-fashioned ghost-hunting theme to its investigative concept, without relying on modern-day effects for big scares. Set in 1921 England, there is an overwhelming sense of loss and grief after World War I, with many people missing, and others succumbing to Spanish Flu. As a result, many tricksters hold hoax séances to appease and fleece the grieving. Sceptic investigator and authoress Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) makes it her mission to expose the hoaxers. She is visited by boarding school teacher Robert Mallory…

Review: Straw Dogs***

The British 1971 original by Sam Peckinpah both appalled and enthralled an unsuspecting audience, like an unwanted mirror held up to reflect some of the most primitive and raw human nature ever captured on screen when the chips are down. There was a distinct difference between the act of rape as one of empowerment, as opposed to sexual. Flash forward 40 years and set in the Deep South of the USA, the main characters are all the same – even the film’s poster image, with writer-director Rod Lurie’s 2011 version merely updating the setting and fashions but sticking close to the original script. David and Amy Sumner (James Marsden and Kate Bosworth), a Hollywood screenwriter and…

Review: We Need To Talk About Kevin****

Tilda Swinton generally never fails to impress audiences in anything she turns her hand to. Indeed, what can honestly be said about Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s riveting and utterly chilling book, We Need To Talk About Kevin, is that the role was written unquestionably for Swinton – or even the book’s character for that matter. Shriver even quotes in the back of her book that the film adaptation is “well cast, beautifully shot and thematically loyal” to her novel. Any anomalies that arise from watching the film are purely subjective as a result of what you’ve already visualise while reading mother Eva’s (Swinton) story – and there are a few, perhaps, minor ones….

Review: Red State ***

“Establishment is flawed. Down with the establishment!” appears to be Kevin Smith‘s defining and sinister mantra in his Tarantino-esque Red State, done with brutal and twisted irony in a hail of righteous bullets. Its cynicism both cultivates and dissipates the bouts of humour in one of Smith’s most radical yet frank pieces of film-making yet that throws out a collection of controversial ideas. Set in Middle America, three teenage boys receive an online invitation for sex with an older woman. But they soon encounter religious fundamentalists headed by disciplinarian Abin Cooper (Michael Parks) with a far more sinister agenda, as well as the law enforcement’s attempt at controlling their ideas. Smith said audiences would ‘tremble…

Review: The Woman****

Lucky McKee’s new horror The Woman is 2011’s very own I Spit on Your Gravefor fuelling post-viewing debate and controversy. It is a love-hate piece of film-making designed to revolt, but also to allow us to reflect. To describe it as a “look into the darkness of human nature” gives it a purpose and an excuse for exercising some of the most raw and depraved acts seen in a long time. What it does deliver though is the much desired shock tactic, just when the genre feels like it has little else to stoop to and horrify us with. Controlling family man Chris discovers a feral woman living wild in the woods and decides to…

Review: Tucker & Dale Vs Evil****

Debut feature director Eli Craig’s take on the comedy-horror genre is a glorious homage to all the townie-meets-country shlock horrors over the years, like an hilarious study of all the gory clichés turned on their heads. It still racks up the body count for genre fans and demonises the local White trash population, but cleverly manipulates the inevitable misunderstandings and miscommunications with expert comic timing and chilling pose. Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) are two country boys planning on spending a break doing up Tucker’s ‘holiday shack’ in the woods. However, their plans are scuppered by the arrival of a bunch of townie college folks who naturally fear the worst after one of…

Review: Troll Hunter****

There’s nothing more appealing than a horror steeped with folklore that manages to question our sanity. This is precisely what foreign-based fantasies like Norwegian writer-director André Øvredal’s Troll Hunter achieve for the non-Nordic audience out there, desperate for mysteries such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster to have a touch of authenticity about them. Students discover that government officials have been less than honest about recent human disappearances and supposed bear killings, and track down the whereabouts of a mysterious troll hunter who has been tasked with keeping the various troll populations in the scenic Norwegian fjords under control and out of public sight. The anxious film crew are allowed to follow trolljegeren Hans…