Autumn (2009)

A zombiemovie without gore? What the hell were they thinking? Well, it isnt half as bad as it sounds because the filmmakers actually has a story to tell, one of the more interesting ones in the genre so far. The only problem is, willy ou have the patience for it?

Autumn is an adaption of David Moodys horror novel with the same name where a plague of some sorts very quickly kills off 99.9 percent of the earths population. The few survivors try to decide what to do and we follow five people as they head into the lesser populated areas where the corpses arent as many, to set up a living of sorts. They soon realize that the dead arent actually dead, as they soon rise up as decaying walking corpses. But they work only on some sort of instinct, walking about as drones, bumping into anything in their paths. As time goes by they start to be susceptible to light and sounds, turning more and more agressive.

And that is what this movie is about, the survivors trying to set up an existence while coping with the loss of their loved ones as the walking corpses slowly starts to rise. This is not a gore movie, barely even a horror movie and the pace is really slow. Instead we are treated to lots and lots of dialogue about life after death and whatever. The first instance of violence doesnt appear until about 50 minutes into the movie and then its a little dog that makes too much noise and is torn to bits by the corpses. Actually, that is about the only violence this movie has. But then again, this is a movie with a story to tell and the major issue is: does it tell its story well? Yes and no. The script isnt half bad, telling its story at a deliberately slow pace and I really like the whole thing about the walking corpses slowly awakening to some sort of new existence based entirely upon showing some sort of recognition towards light and sound. But, the movie is let down by its meager production values. The zombiemakeup is fairly good on a low budget as the zombies turn more and more rotten and disgusting throughout the movie. Everything is shot on digital video with a decent look, but the audio seems to have been recorded on location and is somewhat tinny at times and hard to follow when the proceedings are drenched with a rather mediocre ambient soundtrack. They actually manage to pull off a few decent scenes of an abandoned world but for the most time the movie is set in a room where the characters just talk. The dialogue is decent but the acting is very uneven. The movie gains a hell of a lot from the presence of Dexter Fletcher who is an excellent actor but the rest of the cast ranges from dull to just ok.

I havent read the book the movie is based on so I cant really tell if its a good adaption but the story is interesting enough for me to be wanting to go out and get me some reading. The movie isnt really I would recommend that easily, it has a good story but is excruciatingly slow at times and there isnt really any gore. A good effort but not for everyone.

Alien hunter (2003)

Worst. Title. Ever.

I assume it was chosen for a purely commercial reason, but this doesnt do the movie any favours. It makes a fairly serious scifimovie sound like Alienclone of the week, which is too bad since this is a well made, fairly serious scifimovie. Especially since we count in the fact that it was made by then infamous Nu Image who had produced a schlocky movie or two by the time this was released. James Spader plays a former SETI-employee who nowadays works at a California university when he is called to the Antarctica for a mysterious reason. It seems they found an alien object frozen in the ice and since he is an expert in cryptology he is wanted on the scene to interpret any alien languages. The object is thawed but releases some sort of disease that kills about half of the crew instantly. The survivors realize that they are immune but still carriers and the army isnt too pleased with this. Then there is the fact that the alien in the object is still alive...

No, this isnt an alienclone at all and I imagine a lot of people have been turned of by the fact that they either thought it was one, or saw the movie in hopes of it being one. Alien hunter is instead a somewhat serious movie about the first encounter with alien life and the fact that it isnt really compatible with our earth. The budget seems to have been decent, even though there are a couple of scenes of stockfootage and the cg is barely average but the setdesigns of the arctic base are excellent and there are some really fun flesheating sfx where the victims are reduced to a gory goop. Which is always fun. James Spader and John Lynch lends the production a bit of class and the movie is well shot and paced, which means that Alien hunter is much better than expected. Unexpected bonus: Footage from the original The Thing from another world, the exact same footage that appeared in John Carpenters remake as footage of the dead norwegians. All in all, a movie better than expected and a fun watch.

The Package (1989)

The Package is:

A thriller with Gene Hackman discovering a conspiracy within the army.

The Package isnt:

Particulary exciting.

Wolfman (2010)

This should have been so good, and for the first 15-20 minutes I really thought that it would be. But then everything peters out into a jumbled mess of a movie, the epitome of a bad Hollywoodproduct. And part of me cant really tell what's really wrong with it. For starters, it is one hell of a good looking movie. The environements are superbly realized, the photography good enough to eat and the special effects good enough to make it hard to tell the difference between cgi and practical. The actors are doing an ok job, hamming it up a bit (especially Anthony Hopkins) but it suits the movie. The problem is that the story is just too predictable and uninteresting. There are really no characters to root for and once you see the plot coming together you already know how it is going to end. You can do worse but as werewolfmovies go, this one doesnt have much of a bite.

Horror rises from the tomb (1973)

I've started to notice a pattern in my reviews - mostly the fact that I tend to judge a movie by the amounts of gratitious nudity and violence they contain. Since this might be a bad thing based on someone elses morals I thought I would do a review where I am not focusing on just that. What movie would be better to practice this than with the Paul Naschy vehicle Horror rises from the tomb?

Back in the old days the black magician Alaric De Marnac (Played by Naschy)and his mistress Mabille De Lancre were executed for their horrible deeds, with De Marnacs head separated from his body so that he never would return to have revenge. A couple of hundred years later his descendant Hugo De Marnac (Naschy again) and a couple of friends travel to his old estate where Alaric used to rumble. Yes, before we can say Exploitation, Alaric De Marnac is reunited with his mistress (The lovely Helga Line) and since they are evil, they roam the countryside to kill nude people for their blood while Hugo and his friends succumb to their powers one by one.

What Naschy and his fellow filmmakers are trying to say with this piece of celluloid is that you should stay away from the powers of darkness, and let Christ into your hearts. Only your devotion to him can stop the... Ok,. who am I kidding? Horror rises from the tomb is a slapdash horrormovie with great amounts of nudity and gore. Just about every woman in the movie has several nudescenes which in this case is a very good thing since we are talking about women like Helga Line and Emma Cohen, two of european exploitations finest females. The gorescenes come at regular intervals and are graphic and very satisfying. The problem with the movie is the script with basically jumps from scene to scene, without a particularily strong narrative. The scenes in between are mostly well shot and fun to watch, especially the sequence with the zombies and all the attacks on innocent people by the villains. Lots of sex and violence. As a bonus we get a weird organscore which seems highly inappropriate but works just fine in that odd Eurogore way.

And that is what movie is about. Paul Naschy and his fellow actors do a decent job with the patchwork story and the gore/sex quota is high. Any movie with Emma Cohens boobs is a good movie. Not the best Naschymovie out there but Carlos Aured did a good job shooting it and it is one of the most entertaining.


The lovely Emma Cohen. I want one of those warningpages that the cool people have.

Species 4 - The Awakening (2007)

The Species series is series of movies that has gotten a pretty bad rep. Most of the reviews I've read have been negative and I must say that I do not agree with them whatsoever. All of them are fun little scifihorrors with a lot of violence, a lot of nudity and a very interesting creature (designed by Giger to add to the entertainment). Species 4 is no exception. This time its swedish damsel Helena Mattsson who is part human - part gigeresque alien, although she has been brought up as a human. But when she goes out on a date her libido starts to take over, resulting in a lot of deaths and a flight to Mexico as her "uncle/creator" tries to find an estranged colleague who may be the only hope to stop the transformation into deadly alien. But when they arrive in Mexico it doesnt take long before tey are attacked by alien hybrids and find out that the former colleague is performing some rather unorthodox experiments for money.

This is the worst Species movie so far, but that only means that this is just an ok movie, it is entertaining throughout but suffers a bit from being made for tv. I did watch the unrated version that has a bit of nudity and violence but it is a bit toned down generally. Helena Mattsson is an ok actress, looks very good in the nude but her swedish accent shines through fairly often which on the other hand might be easier for me to hear, being swedish and all. Ben Cross, on the other hand, is a great actor who makes the sometimes fairly silly dialogue sound ok. The story is ok, is greatly helped that it actually is shot in Mexico instead of a redressed Bulgaria but the low budget unfortunately keeps the monsterbits somewhat low scale. But these flaws are only minor really. We get a decently shot monstermovie with a bit of digital violence and good makeupeffects. If you liked the other Speciesmovies you will probably like this one too.

Skjult (2009)

Once again the Norwegians prove that they are a force to reckon with when it comes to horrormovies. Skjult, it's english title Hidden, is an excellent horrormovie that takes influences from all over the place and mixes them into a little movie full of shocks, dread and atmosphere thicker than a lot of other movies in the same genre.

When the movie starts we follow a young boy running through the forest, obviously fleeing from someone/something. He runs out onto a road and causes a truck to slam right into a car, causing it to burst into flames, killing the people in it and making another young boy orphan. Now we jump forward 18 years where the little boy, now grown up and all moody, returns to his little hometown in the middle of nowhere after his mother has passed away. He returns to his old home, a suitably dark and foreboding rundown house in the woods to settle his affairs and we slowly get to realize that his mother wasnt really a very nice person which means there are some pretty nasty skeletons in his closet. Add to all of this the fact that there seems to be someone or something that remains in the house...

Pål Øie truly shows great potential as a director, handling the suspense expertly. He even manages to reuse the old balltrick from the movie The Changeling, without it ever feeling like a cliché. The cinematography by Sjur Aarthun is another one of the movies assets, capturing the dark woods perfectly and turning into an amusementpark of constant dread. Add to this some excellent acting, especially Kristoffer Joner in the lead, and a fine script by the director. The best thing about the script is that not only is it about the strange events that is going on in the present day, there is also the (actually faarly obvious but still compelling) mystery of what happened 19 years earlier and it opens up several options about what is happening. Is there a supernatural cause for all of this, or is it just in the lead characters mind or is there a completely different explanation? In short, one of the best movies to come out of Scandinavia in the last few years and the best thing about it, like last years masterpiece Sauna, it feels genuinely Scandinavian without being overwelmingly dreary and depressing. A must see.