J*A*S*M

As soon as Evans goes into full horror mode, there’s hardly anything to complain about. Some of the scenes (the preparation of the brain, the meat grinder, the underground tunnels) are among the strongest that the genre has produced this year (and the competition is well above-average). It drags a little, however, when it tries to be more than just straightforward horror, especially with the relationships between the characters and their development. Paradoxically, although the film is a bit too long, I felt that those relationships were insufficiently drawn and their transformations rushed. For instance, in the second half there’s obviously an emotional bond between Thomas and Malcolm's daughter, but I have absolutely no idea where it came from. Nevertheless, Apostle is overall a good period horror film that in an interesting fashion blends the atmosphere of The Witch, Wicker Man the tales of Lovecraft, spicing it up with a pinch of gore. The main character of Dan Stevens also provides a very bizarre atmosphere. Throughout the film he appears to be on drugs, at the edge of madness, or as if someone had hit him on the head and he was about pass out. Dan can add another remarkable genre performance after The Guest.

The sequel that the original Halloween deserved. If we assume that making a sequel four decades later is a good idea, I can’t imagine how it could have been done better. On the other hand, I also have no idea what would have to happen for a thoroughbred slasher to truly excite me in 2018. In an era when prime horror films are not only scary and superbly crafted, but also try to go a bit further, the simple slasher movie is inevitably a step lower. Proof that Halloween, and the sub-genre as a whole, is a relic from the past can be seen when the creators, in a surprising twist, attempt to deviate a little and address the unhealthy obsession of the public with horror icons, which in a slasher movie is a bit too much. Though it does make sense conceptually and fits into the logic of the plot, I cringed at the screen because I was watching something that had no business doing in a slasher flick. Other than that, it’s really brilliant. A masked killing machine immune to psychological analysis, American suburbia and scared teenagers. The moment when Alysson sees her friend skewered on the fence and runs hysterically down the street is the closest to the sheer terror of the original film.

The tragic death of the star during filming and the fact that Stevan Mena was forced to finish the film on its own and with zero budget are a sad thing for which I’d love to give a better rating, but there should be something to hold on to. I don’t remember much about the first Malevolence, nor about Bereavement, but judging by the comments, I was overall happy with them. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the final part of the trilogy. Giving it more than one star, especially now with David Gordon Green’s Halloween in cinemas (a direct competitor in the sub-genre), would have been a sign of insanity.

I’m giving it four stars for its relative originality. It convinced me for most of the run and I will turn a blind eye to the ending, which I feel goes way too deep into B-movie waters. By this I mean, it has a B-movie feel, but without being stupid. The attractive premise that reminds of an almost forgotten kids game from the 1980s serves a catalyst for the very tense relationships between relatively well-drawn characters. And that’s where the main tension is, for most the time, the mysterious sci-fi element is just an ornament. Thematically, Kevorkian focuses on the struggle between critical thinking and blindly following orders from authorities and the passive acceptance of information, conservative prejudices and liberal open-mindedness, generational conflict, consumerism, and patriarchy. And he does it in a quite amusing and gratifying way.

Well, not everything that A24 touches turns into gold. Unfortunately, Slice turned out to be an unbearable “horror” “comedy” that I didn’t like at all. IMHO, this is the antithesis of good taste, it feels a bit like Kevin Smith’s latest film (Yoga Hosers). I give it that one star for the opening credits, but not a single bit more.

A new comic-book toilet flush from Marvel, or maybe even worse, DC, who coincidentally feature the Predators. You piss me off, Hollywood. Why is it that there are almost no good adult films produced anymore? Why is it that when studios pour a lot money, what comes out is uniform, sterile infantility? There is plenty of blood and it does fuck things up all the way to 11, but it has the mental level of a six year-old kid. The characters must utter stupid one-liners and jump 10 metres up in the air, even is nothing is happening, and fearlessly balance on a moving bus and a flying spaceship (!!!). Plus a cute clever boy and a domesticated predator dog. Did we fucking need any of that, really? In a Predator film? In the first half, at least the humour works sometimes, but in the second half, absolutely nothing. It falls apart to such extent that you can even see massive editing mistakes, when there isn’t a fundamental continuity between two consecutive scenes. It is as if parts of it were missing (I got scared at the transition from the barn to the helicopter, I thought I had fallen asleep for a moment). Shane Black deserves nothing but hell from this. And maybe people will start retroactively appreciating Antal’s well executed Predators.

Three stars, grudgingly. The screenplay must have been written by an automatic horror generator and it’s surprising that Warners can’t manage their dark universe better on this aspect, but for the consumers it’s enough, I guess. What scared me the most about The Nun is that the same person is credited with the screenplay of the second part of It. I hope they do a better job there. If there’s anything that deserves praise in The Nun is the choice of location and the setting in an old castle as a whole (the Hunedoara castle in Romania); the ancient corridors, cellars, chapels and graveyards do create atmosphere. Unfortunately, the creators were incapable of doing much more with it. Which quite surprised me, Hardy’s previous film, The Hallow, was brilliant. Overall, it’s just fat and salt-free, with a plot that fails to be engaging (not that there is much of it anyway: the characters come, then hang around for while and walk in circles, then one of them literally explains what’s going on, which is followed by a chase with the evil nun, the end), the characters are uninteresting; a scary movie for kids. In a year when we’ve already seen a fairly above-average number of well-made horror films of various sub-genres, these mainstream flicks need to be better. If you’re looking for a good tribute to the old Hammer films, better go for A Cure for Wellness or The Woman in Black.

It’s frustrating that nobody has tried to develop this seriously, because it’s core concept, the nature of which isn’t revealed until the end, is superb. Boarding School could’ve been a new horror classic, crushing and socially relevant, but for that it needed to have been conceived a little differently. Yakin’s film ends up being nothing but a cheesy B-movie drowning in many rich motifs (many of which come out empty; there are lots absolutely pointless scenes – there are even Nazis and the Holocaust, I’m not kidding!), a shallow screenplay and flat performances. There are also a couple of truly awful things, like the make-up of the burnt boy, for instance. Fortunately, it’s bizarre and WTF enough to keep me interested in how things turn out (sometimes it’s so bizarre that I felt the creators were taking the piss). The resolution, as I’ve already mentioned, gets another point. But still, the feeling of a wasted opportunity.

Just like all the previous films by Chris Sun: a cheap imitation of a more famous model without a single contribution or style of its own. The pig looks stupid, it can appear out of nowhere in the middle of a meadow without anyone noticing, but it does know how to make a mess.

Zahler’s name attached to the screenplay teased, the names of two clumsy Swedes in the direction scared. In the end, the film neither satisfied nor did it disgust me. It works quite well in the gore scenes, but after some of the foreign reviews, I was expecting something crazier. The jokes here and there are fun, but the incompetent directing duo are unfortunately unable to sell those moments and the film breaks down into single funny microsequences and cotton wool filling, which the viewer always has to endure. I don’t have a fully positive experience from this.