kaylin

The American action film The Jurassic Games is a B-movie that is very enjoyable, relatively well made and can please fans. Sure, there are no great one-liners, but the characters - at least some of them - manage to win you over. Which is good, because they're not simply annoying characters. The special effects are really good and don't hurt the film in any way. Pleasant, not very intelligent, but still a slightly above-average B-movie.

The American film Ben is a pretty good sequel to the horror film Willard. It has a slightly different atmosphere and a different concept, but it's a concept that suited me in its retro feel, its almost panicky fear, which can come across as caricature, and its excellent main child protagonist. You probably won't be scared, but you might get freak out when you see a rat running around outside. Or several rats. And if it's black...

In the American film The Remains we get another haunted house, a family that is quite strongly affected by it, and yet the building of the atmosphere is not specific or oppressive. The characters are not distinctive, thankfully not in a negative way. It's as if the film tries to be average at all costs until it ends up not even reaching that average. Unfortunately, there's nothing about it that makes it stand out.

The American horror comedy Wasting Away definitely has potential, which was not fully taken advantage of. They could have done more with it, although it has to be admitted that the film definitely has ideas and there are some good comic situations here and there but they are few, which is a pity. If this was a more energetic comedy, then it would have been able to appeal to a wider audience. This way it remains a film that maybe someone discovers now and then.

The Italian film Arcana is a very specific contribution to the horror genre, where the horror is not a plot element, but rather a certain abstraction of the surreality of the individual situations that unfold before the viewer's eyes. It is not always a spectacle that amazes, but it is a special spectacle that can mesmerize, because we simply don't see many films like this. It has its own specific tension.

The American horror film Primal Rage, which was originally supposed to be called Primal Rage: The Legend of Oh-Mah stands out for its absolutely brilliant masks, where you really get the feeling that the gore here is happening to real people. And there are no digital special effects. It makes everything all the more beautiful. And the monster looks great, too. This is Big Foot the way you want to see him. In this respect, the film cannot be faulted.

The American horror film The Evil is a nice example of what you can imagine under the “haunted house" genre. It doesn't sound silly at all, it really makes you think it's a horror film, and there's none of that gratuitous humor that can creep into similar films. The actors were well-chosen, but it's the individual frightening episodes that are worth watching. Those and the finale.

The American film When the Bough Breaks is a classic poser thriller that isn't afraid to bore us with long scenes where nothing happens, but when it comes to action, it's cliché after cliché. There are no surprising developments, everything follows a certain template that these sorts of TV thrillers have established. The actors are fine, but it's simply routine. It’s a film without atmosphere and without anything that could hold your attention for an hour and three quarters.

The American horror film Are You Scared? is simply a variation on Saw and nothing else. Moreover, it’s a bad variation without ideas, where the filmmakers thought that simply a few gross scenes would be enough to make the film work, whereas Saw had the advantage of a clever script and characters that weren't bad at all, though not always pleasant. Are You Scared? has got none of that and thus easily falls into oblivion.

The French film Requiem for a Vampire does not particularly stand out in Jean Rollin's work. It's exactly what you expect from him, but it’s not as colorful as his other films. Even so, there are some great shots, be it of human bodies or landscape elements. Jean Rollin knew how to play with the camera and he proves it with every film he makes, especially from the late 60s and 70s.