Anyone that works it out first time watching gets a prize!

A sometimes rather confusing film focusing around the MK Ultra mind control experiments of the CIA.

Two journalists end up taking an experimental drug used in these mind control experiments to locate another friend who took it and disappeared. It appears that the drug opens the ingest-er up to another dimension Ala Pulse. Strange things start happening but nobody is quite sure whether they are hallucinations or not.

All in all a rather interesting film, which probably needs a few watches to fully glean what is going on. The ending of the film really asks more questions than it answers, but if like me you think that is cool (i.e. it leaves you wondering) you will like it.

Just as screamy as the original!

Essentially a continuation of the original Insidious film with a lot of back story and extra hints about where it all came from from the master horror director James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring).

The ending of the first film left us kind of guessing, but in the sequel all our questions are answered and the final battle between the family and an army of nasty demons is won.

I was rather intrigued at how well this movie matched the original and I suspect that a lot of the footage was shot with the original. Footage cut out to the reduce the length of the finished film was brought back into play. Either that or they had the best continuity people in Hollywood History.

All things considered I think this sequel was almost as good as the original!

Dpn’t watch this one too late at night..

This is a very scary film in the finest traditions of horror, despite being something of a photocopy of Poltergeist,

After some horrible disturbances and spooky faces in the dark a young boy lapses into a coma for no reason. His parents soon realize, with a help of a psychic, that a battle beyond life itself is going on for control of his body.

Some very good special effects and lots of screamy frights make this a great horror night in. The ending is a real kicker.

Yes more grossness to come…

This is a very disturbing film which rather than being exactly a horror flick is more gross than anything else.

Certainly there are many elements of Gothic horror in it which leave you feeling even more unsettled, but in essence once you work out whats really going on its just a stomach churner!

Having said that We Are What We Are is beautifully filmed and well acted with very good performances from some of its younger stars. It has an overall atmosphere and creepiness that heralds something deep and dark throughout.

Normally I don’t do reviews on mini-series but Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter was so good and so filmic that I decided it qualifies.

The German series focuses on the war time experiences of five friends and how it changes them forever. Two are brothers and members of the Wehrmacht (Regular Germany Army). They are set to go on their first posting which is to the ill-fated Russian campaign. One is a nurse who is also going to Russia to work in hospitals behind the front lines. Another is an entertainer who wants to be bigger than Marlene Dietrich, the final is a Jewish man who works in his fathers tailoring business. All five have been friends since they were children.

The story is very complex over three episodes and to explain much of it here would be to spoil it for you. What I can say is that the production values are first rate with film values that stand up beside some of the best such as Band of Brothers.

I believe this series is about to be shown on SBS so I would not miss it when you see it airing.

A publicity photo for the film. It didn’t get quite this debauched.

A very interesting film from Chile about a young girl with evangelistic religious manic parents who do every thing they can to repress her sexuality.

This of course has precisely the opposite affect and the girls sets about various interludes with both her boyfriend and another girl, which she chronicles in her online blog “Young and Wild”.

My only criticism of a quite entertaining film was that it was unnecessarily graphic in part. Whilst I don’t see a major problem with pornography as such, having it spliced through this movie constantly for dramatic affect only degraded the film somewhat. The story could have been told just as effectively without having to get quite so vernacular.

Having said that a close argument could be made that it was directly related to the turmoil inside the young girl Daniella and the rebellion she showed to the puritanical life in which she is placed. I guess its just a matter of taste,

Yes I think she finally got the seduction bit right…

Otherwise known as Young and Beautiful, Jeune et Jolie is yet another French film about a young girl becoming a prostitute.

One has to wonder i guess why there are quite so many films of this ilk coming out at the moment in World Cinema, it seems to be a topic that is both titillating and fascinating to audiences the world over.

I don’t think its all men in their forties that are driving a market for this type of film either, as they are doing the job and winning awards at Cannes (Although you might find some link as they invariably contain lots of nude scenes of beautiful young actresses with decrepit old men!).

This films perhaps stands out as an exploration of a young girls journey to understanding seduction. Through her work she slowly realizes that their is more to sex than just the act itself.

A very interesting film which for some reason I missed last year and after seeing it recently realize I was very remiss in doing so….

A special mission heads off to Europa (which is a moon of Jupiter) in search of life below its surface which is supposedly filled with liquid water. They land and send probes out and then things start going horribly wrong. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but lets just say they find something (little point in the movie otherwise I suppose).

A lot of the film was presented in the “found footage” style with most of the action coming from on-board cameras, helmet cams and various other pokey little cameras which add a lot of realism and help to make it all that more terrifying.

I read recently that Gravity is up for an academy award (then again if the Hurt Locker can win it..), this film blows Gravity out of the sky with its tense film work, closed narrative and tension filled plot line.

Mischa Barton looking a bit scary around the edges

Apart from looking to have very high B-grade potential from the offset, Apartment 1303 was an interesting little horror film with some definitely spooky moments.

I wouldn’t say it was exactly terrifying and the amateurish film work and production values didn’t help much, but all in all it was a vaguely interesting late night screamer. This is probably because it is a hollywood remake of a very good japanese horror film of the same name.

A girl moves into an apartment and realizes she is not alone. People keep telling her to leave and its really very very unpleasant for her. In the end the ghosts attack her and..well the rest you can guess. Mischa Barton starred as the older sister and seems to have moved on from her earlier teen-soap career with some very convincing acting.

To be frank see the original it was far scarier.

Why oh Why didn’t they just stop at Airport ’77?

Back when the Concorde was big news the last in the Airport series of films The Concorde… Airport ’79 (1979) came out.

I think perhaps guessing that the franchise had run its course there was a surprise attachment to the cast in the form of Sylvia Kristel as a stewardess. Of course we all know the film (Emannuelle) that Sylvia was most famous for and what she did on a plane in that particular film…I can’t help but feel her inclusion was designed to attract another type of audience. Sadly she didn’t live up to expectations of course and she just mumbled her way through a few lines instead.

The film pretty much follows the story of the first film, with a nasty man (Robert Wagner) basically trying to destroy a whole plane just to snuff out his ex-girlfriend. Panned by critics and a mega-flop at the box office, the last in the Airport series of films pretty much destroyed the franchise for ever.