Train to Busan

Sang-ho Yeon, 2016

IMDB

4/5

When we saw how fast the zombies were moving in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, we realized that one specific tweak changed the genre drastically. This was a different universe than Romero's where you could quite easily dodge the walking dead. These were frenetic terrors hellbent on attacking you. They jumped through glass. The crowds moved swiftly. So some future films followed suit and these were now placed in the category of fast zombies. Zombies that could run. REC, the remake of Dawn of the Dead, Zombieland. There are zombie purists who discount this change to the genre. They believe that zombies should inherently be slow moving. I am not one of these people.

Jump to 2013's World War Z and we not only have fast zombies but there is another level of intensity to them. Perhaps it's the massive numbers that are moving quickly. Rapid virus transfer. Inhuman biting actions. These things pile on top of each other, go airborne, take down helicopters. Terrifying.

Korean film Train to Busan captures a similar ferocity that World War Z had. The only difference is much of the movie is set inside a train. So the movie itself becomes this hybrid offspring of World War Z meets Snowpiercer. Like Snakes on a Plane, but Zombies on a Train. Complete terror that is unleashed in a tight space.

There are so many memorable moments in this film. The image of when they reanimate and you can hear the bones breaking and they get into these contorted positions, damn its freaky. I don't think i will ever get the image out of my head of the zombie running down the train platform with the broken arm that is sticking straight up the air. Busan is without a doubt one of the best zombie films to come out in the past 10 years. Maybe even the best. Yeon manages to get you invested in the characters with their vastly different personalities. You are really rooting for the couple or so to make it out in one piece. Then there are others that you are begging to receive some comeuppance. One guy in particular, Yeon creates this one character (corporate POS Yong-Suk) that is just so completely selfish that you are eagerly waiting for some karmic balance. The film itself is an interesting concept, the world around you completely falling apart while you are stuck on a high speed train that is also falling apart but on a more micro scale. The special effects are remarkable. These are really rabid-like zombies. There's no 10 minute break from death to reawakening. This virus spreads very rapidly. It's a matter of seconds. Train to Busan is a solid offering to the zombie genre that I believe history will be very kind to. Hopefully now that it's receiving international distribution (currently through streaming services) it will get many more eyes on it.

Don't Breathe

Fede Alvarez, 2016

IMDB

2/5

Don't Breathe has the problems that so many of the horror thrillers have that are churned out these days. Starting off with an unrealistic grouping of people. You have beautiful girl Rocky (Jane Levy) who is supposed to be trailer trash but doesn't look like the product of any trailer park anyone's ever seen before. You have straight clean cut Alex (Dylan Minnette) who it just so happens that his father works at the alarm company so he has the master key to every customers house they rob. Then you have dirtbag kid Money (Daniel Zovatto) with the vulgar mouth who is the romantic interest of the trailer girl. The chemistry on screen matches the believability of the couple. Zovatto was really great in last year's It Follows, but is awfully miscast here. Certainly not his fault. The Money character is just downright annoying and one dimensional.

For a while they are burglarizing homes and staying under a $10K theshold - so that if they get caught they can't be charged with grand larceny. Then they hear about a house owned by a blind man that is rumored to have $300,000 in cash. This money was obtained through a settlement after his daughter was killed in a car accident. They look at this job as their big opportunity, the one that they have been waiting for. The last job. With this money Rocky and Money can go to California together. it's their ticket out of Detroit.

So they descend upon the house. But I had forgotten to mention that the blind man is a decorated army vet. But of course the trio doesn't care. It's not like being in the Army prepares you for any type of combat situation; oh WAIT that's exactly what it does. Oh yeah, and when you are blind all of your other senses are heightened. To the films credit, some of the moments inside the house are tense. Reminiscent of Hitchcock's work. The concept of burglarizing a blind man's home and him putting up a fight is actually quite original and intriguing. Alvarez should get some credit for good direction but some criticism for such a weak script. First off, you are supposed to believe that the only reason Alex is really helping them is because he has a crush on Rocky. Otherwise, there is no single reason he would get involved. He's a normal middle class kid who would have no reason to get mixed up with the other two. This makes Alex less greedy than them, and when things start to turn south he bails on the blind man's house. But he hears gunshots and comes back. How many times are we going to let the hero return to the house in horror movies? It's not much different than running up the stairs. Oh yeah, that happens here too. If you were in a blind man's house and you were trying to disorient him to escape, instead of running couldn't you just throw things all around and confuse him? What also needs to be mentioned is this house is located in a completely abandoned section of Detroit which conveniently creates a situation where there is no police presence. So this takes care of that constant gun shots being fired problem that might draw attention.

Don't Breathe is a disappointment. Last year's It Follows taught us that some creative horror films can come out of nowhere where new things can be done. After seeing all of the positive reviews related to this film I thought this could have been this years It Follows. Boy was I mistaken.



There is a reveal about 3/4 of the way through the film that I have to acknowledge. But this is borderline spoiler material so read on at your own risk.

The Invitation

Karyn Kusama, 2016

IMDB

2/5

Do you know that feeling when you go to a restaurant and you are totally hungry and eager for some food. You sit down and order your food, only to wait another 1 hour and 20 minutes to actually be served? Well, in a sense that's what this film is like. The table is set early, as a group of friends gather for a dinner party. They haven't seen each other in 2 years. You slowly are served little tiny pieces of backstory. There was a divorce between main character Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and Eden (Tammy Blanchard). You soon find out why, and its important to hold back details here because it's an easy film to spoil. But she has changed to say the least. Will doesn't like this change. Because she appears to be numb, to be drugged up somehow or in some kind of trance. So after the figurative table is set, you are now waiting to see why they are there at this party. And you wait, and then there is some more waiting, and then you wait some more. Finally there is a payoff in this film, but it just comes too late. There is clearly not enough story here to create an elaborate film. There's the Hitchcockian method of skillfully building tension and then releasing it masterfully. Then there's this more elementary method of relying too much on that very tension and then not offering up enough when it is released. When the big revelation comes toward the end, there's not a whole lot of shock. Then the film just becomes gratuitous. Frustrating. None of the characters other than Will are really believable characters. Nobody you would encounter in real life. In any real life situation everyone would have walked out and left after they were forced to watch the awkward cult video. Perhaps its the weak script. Perhaps its the inconsistent casting choices. Marshall Green and Michiel Huisman offer good performances but the rest of the cast is just kind of blah. I think the script and inferior direction is to blame here. But there is one redeeming factor in this film.  There is a detail in the end of the film that is quite clever. Clever enough that you could say that this is one of the rare Bad Movies with Good Endings. 

The Shallows

Jaume Collet-Serra, 2016

IMDB

2/5

The shark attack genre is a genre completely saturated with ridiculous premises and generous usage of CGI. Oddly enough at the top of the genre is Jaws, but it's the gold standard. There's a big drop off from there. Nothing has really come close to topping Spielberg's masterpiece that caused an entire generation of kids to be afraid of the ocean. While there is one great Jaws film and three forgettable sequels, there are 4 probably forgettable (wouldn't know, haven't seen them nor do I plan on seeing) Sharknado movies. And then we have Shark Night, Ghost Shark, Shark in Venice, and what feels like a thousand other B-Movies. What separates Jaws from the others is the craftiness of suspense-building, playing with multiple senses and not just throwing visual carnage at your face. Often these movies just take a shark and exaggerate all of the natural behaviors, ultimately making it a bloodthirsty beast that just so happens to look like a shark and live in the water.

The shark in The Shallows is no exception. The shark appears after Nancy (Blake Lively) approaches a dead whale while surfing nearby. This in turn causes the shark to become agitated and eager to defend it's feeding site. Your bullshit detectors should go off here, because one would assume that the shark would just be happy enough with the giant floating meal that is already right there for the taking rather than chase after a much smaller meal that would be more difficult to obtain.

Nancy is able to escape the attack and finds a short term refuge on top of a rock. The film then becomes a limited storytelling piece of Nancy trying to figure out how to get to shore with very little resources and one heck of a shark bite on her leg. She conveniently has a medical school past that helps her in dressing the wound. For what it is, it's not a completely horrible film that wastes 90 minutes of your life. Lively is totally serviceable with her Nancy character and does the best that can probably be done with the character. The cinematography is rather good, along with the editing. The Shallows is not breaking any new ground, but to cut it some slack, it's not really supposed to. Like a slice of decent pizza, it goes down easy enough.

10 Cloverfield Lane

Dan Trachtenberg, 2016

IMDB

4/5

Everyone has probably at some point imagined what their emergency plan would be if some catastrophic event were to occur. Perhaps there's a bomb shelter in town. Or perhaps you have that rural family member that is as close to off the grid as it gets.

There is this whole sub-culture of doomsday preppers. They are meticulously building emergency shelters, often underground. It's part of our whole post 9/11 zombie-obsessed culture. Planning for the worst. Some would say it's overcautious, even paranoid. There's a stigma associated with the prepper type. Far right wing, reclusive, lacking certain social skills. What's interesting is that while we often let our imagination run wild when it comes to what we would do in an emergency situation, we probably don't envision ourselves buddying up to the doomsday prepper in order to survive.

Howard (John Goodman) is exactly this type of person. Building his underground bunker for years leading up to this "chemical attack", his efforts finally feel justified when something finally occurs. A doomsday preppers wet dream. And Howard is exactly the socially awkward type of person that you would picture a prepper type to be. Paranoid, controlling, impatient, unpredictable. When Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) awakens from her state of unconsciousness after a car accident, Howard doesn't exactly help her feel comfortable. She is chained to the wall, so she might as well assume she's being held captive.

It's a limited storytelling movie for sure. Most of the film takes place in Howard's underground bunker. There is impressive production design here too. Every little nook and cranny of the shelter is decorated. The wallpaper makes it feel kind of homey, and the back-lit glass behind the kitchen sink almost makes you feel like you aren't 20' below grade. And although you don't see the threat above ground, you know it's there from the constant loud noises that suddenly erupt.

It's a satisfying film for sure. You spend a good portion of the film wondering yourself if Howard is a good guy or not. You feel locked in there with Michelle, dealing with that same uncomfortable uncertainty. But of course there's all these things going on above you as well, so it makes you wonder even if Howard is a bad guy you have to weight it out. It's probably still better putting up with the bad guy if it means you aren't falling victim to the chemical attack above you or whatever it is.

A lot of people probably go into this movie having seen Cloverfield (2008) and assuming that it's connected to this film. But it's not really. Producer JJ Abrams has said that it exists in the same universe. But it's probably better to just disregard any connection, because they are really just two completely different films. The only similarity is the extra-terrestrial presence. But that's all. And don't worry, that's no spoiler. 

Circle

Aaron Hann / Mario Miscione, 2015

IMDB

3/5

There a handful of films (Buried, The Man from Earth, 12 Angry Men, Pontypool, Rear Window and a lot of Hitchcock's work for that matter) that take place in a single location. With a limited setting, you need to have a good script powering the narrative. Because you are going to be stuck with these characters for 90 minutes or so, they NEED to be interesting.

Circle takes place in a single room. A bunch of strangers awaken from an mysterious daze and find themselves placed upon red circles like human board game pieces. They realize quite quickly that they are part of an odd social experiment. When one of them steps off of the red circle that they stand on, they die. Not long after they realize that it's not the only way to die in the circle room. Seemingly at random, the ominous eye at the center of the room zaps an innocent victim. But then they determine it's not random. Not only is it not random, they are actually in control of who gets exterminated. What transpires is a dark social experiment where everyone in the room makes a stand for their life, and also has to play executioner to the people standing around them. What starts off as superficial judging turns into moral examinations. The numbers dwindle down and the experiment turns into pure Survivor-esque strategy. It's interesting that you really don't spend a whole lot of time with the poor people in the room. But because of their dilemma, you are forced to learn a lot about them rapidly. Like they are making a stand for their lives, and because of that they reveal themselves much faster than they would over a cup of coffee where they have all of the time in the world. The end result is a really inventive and unique movie, one that feels like an indie hybrid of Saw, the aforementioned 12 Angry Men and the not-often-mentioned Cube.

Ex Machina

Alex Garland, 2015

IMDB

4/5

Anyone familiar with Alex Garland's previous work is aware of the fact that he is a great writer. Responsible for writing the novel The Beach (which eventually would become the not-as-good film adaptation directed by Danny Boyle), the still under-rated 28 Days Later, the almost-amazing space-thriller Sunshine, and the also quite good 2012 stylistic action film Dredd. He's sort of gone all over the place, from one side of the planet to the other and then all way to space.

Ex Machina is a thriller, set mostly inside the elaborate contemporary home of Silicon Valley Elon Musk / Tony Stark / Steve Jobs archetype Nathan (Oscar Isaac). Nathan creates a contest where a random employee of his will get the opportunity to stay with him for a week, basically a mentor retreat type of thing. Coder employee Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) wins the competition and the film quickly jumps to him arriving at the estate, which is a seemingly endless island that Nathan owns. Picture someone owning the entire Isla Nublar island from Jurassic Park sans dinosaurs. Caleb soon discovers that Nathan is actually working on an A.I. prototype that he wants to show off. Gleeson is really fit for the Caleb role, serving as sort of a quirky nerdy type that contrasts well with Isaac's eccentric billionaire role. Isaac is able to bring a lot more illustration to his character, and is able to pull off a nice progression going from a friendly beer-drinking health fanatic to a deviously manipulative genius.

The film becomes a blend of elements ranging from Spielberg's AI to Spike Jonze's Her to the genre-spawning Terminator films. It becomes a philosophical experiement, examining what makes us human and challenging the idea of conciousness. The well-paced story builds into a extraordinary climax that will have you playing out scenarios in your head for hours after viewing. The story is unpredictable, the characters are engaging, and the film itself is really nice to look at. The effects are subtle, the electronic score (provided by Portishead's Geoff Barrow and composer Ben Salisbury) is very present. Ex Machina marks his directorial debut, and he certainly proves that he's good controlling the camera as well as creating what's in front of it. It will be interesting to now see what happens with Garland's career, seeing as he is a proven one-stop-shop for great film-making.