Wilderness (2006)
Directed by Michael J Bassett
Starring Sean Pertwee, Alex Reid, Toby Kebbell
91 mins; MA15+; DVD

Tagline: Don’t go down to the woods today…
Country of Origin: UK


Upon a visit to my local Blockbuster last week, I found a rash of recently-released horror films on the shelf and took out two – the craptastic Dr Chopper and this latest effort from Deathwatch director Michael J Bassett. Wilderness is one of the latest in Brit horrors and, along with its counterparts Dog Soldiers and The Descent, threaten to completely quash the US horror film industry.

Wilderness opens in a juvenile prison where a group of guys (along with newbie Callum) share a room. Some are two-bit thieves while others are in for the long stretch: rape, murder and grievous bodily harm. When the actions of two of the youths cause one of the inmates to suicide, they are taken to a remote, forested island for a week of character building exercises. Much to their supervising warden’s disdain (and the fellas’ delight), they come across a trio of females camping in the wilderness, thus agreeing to divide the island during their stay. However, they are drawn back together by a higher instigator – a Special Forces soldier armed with a crossbow and a pack of German Shepherds, holding an inexplicable and homicidal grudge against the pack of misfits.

Wilderness is sort of a cross between Saw and Lord of the Flies – but we promise it’s not as bad as that sounds. Dario Poloni’s screenplay is surprisingly intelligent and Bassett’s direction conjures up some very intense moments. Needless to say that Wilderness is very, very gory and some of the set-pieces here can only be described as sheer crowd-pleasers (dogs ripping throats! arrow through the head!). To fault it, Wilderness does sport some mediocre performances and is highly derivative – we’ve seen it all before, however Poloni and Bassett somehow make the whole concept seem fresh. Wilderness is one of the best horror films of the 2000s and is a must for the horror intelligentsia and gorehounds alike.

Dr. Chopper (2005)
Directed by Luca Bercovici & Lewis Schoenbrun
Starring Costas Mandylor & Ed Brigadier
86 mins; MA15+; DVD

Tagline: Another slice of life
Country of Origin: USA

One word could be used to describe Dr Chopper – moronic. Moronic and derivative. To describe the plot of a film like Dr Chopper is to repeat oneself, but here goes – five nubile teenagers. One secluded forest cabin on a lake. One psycho killer. Done. However, there are a few interesting twists to the formula that make Dr Chopper perhaps worth a rent, albeit on a heavily discounted day. The psycho killer in question is actually a plastic surgeon who, in his obsessive quest for self-preservation, must kill and capture the souls of young, pretty things. His henchmen, three motorcycle chicks who make possessed-Regan in The Exorcist look the epitome of sexiness, are equally mad, and hunt down Dr Chopper’s (yes, he does ride a Chopper) unfortunate victims.

Probably – possibly – maybe Dr Chopper could have directed by someone who got through grade one. The fact that two (unknown) individuals directed this crapfest may account for its disjointedness and the acting is pure seventies cheese. But in a bad way. Dr Chopper derives from classics like Friday the 13th and Halloween and just one watch of this makes you appreciate the credibility of the former classics. The one thing that could have saved this is its gore and, in the opening minutes, Dr Chopper looked like it had some promise in this respect – but the red-cordial blood and sheer lack of gristle makes this aspect a no-go as well. In my defence, the cover did look pretty cool…

Dead or Alive (1999)
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Show Aikawa & Riki Takeuchi
105 mins; R18+; DVD

Tagline: A daring exercise in ultra-violent extremes
Country of Origin: Japan

Takashi Miike is arguably the sickest man currently operating in cinema – his penchant for filming graphic violence, rape of both genders and deviant sexual dalliances is certainly an, er, acquired taste and the fact that the man brings out almost thirty films a year may be a testament to his skills.

Dead or Alive is perhaps one of Miike’s most accessible films and its opening ten minutes may go down as some of the most eventful ever – suicide, throat stabbings, strippers, a mobster snorting a line of cocaine that spans something like twenty metres in one go and a shotgun blast to the gut in a noodle bar, coating the room with pasta and guts. But these events have an uneasy cool to them and are vaguely humorous – it is executed with such a visceral, kinetic energy that the violence ceases to become believable and adopts a comedic tone ala Braindead and Kill Bill Volume 1. Once we get into it, the story itself follows Detective Jojima who, rather than uphold the law, simply plays mediator between two bloodthirsty gangs – the Japanese Triads and Chinese immigrants. Jojima sides with the highest bidder but eventually this backfires, leading to the demise of all those around him.

Siren Visual have released this for Australia and, while it doesn’t contain the features on other Miike discs like Ichi the Killer, the audio-visual transfer is still better than what we would expect for an Asian exploitation film. Like many movies of its genre, Dead or Alive showcases very wooden acting but we’re not watching this for performances – just kick back and relish the excess. Personally, I’ve never really liked Miike’s work - for one, without the synopsis at the back of the case, I would not have understood what the hell was happening and most of his films are like this. Although, if you persevere and give it a few watches, you shouldn’t be disappointed. Funny and gory; it may be confusing, but it does make for a good night in.

Casino (1995)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci
171 mins; R18+; DVD/VHS

Tagline: Nobody stays at the top forever.
Country of Origin: USA

Call me a geeky fanboy, but I firmly believe Martin Scorsese is incapable of creating a bad film. Casino is considered inferior Scorsese, but believe me when I say this – even average or below for the director is profoundly better than 90% of the other shit that comes out. Generally thought of as a companion piece to Goodfellas, Casino sees the reuniting of Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi as screenwriters (based on Pileggi’s book) and the acting talents of Robert DeNiro and, more notably, Joe Pesci, who won an Oscar for his role in the former. Casino is set in the seventies and follows the exploits of gambling genius Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein (DeNiro), whose connections with organised crime and bookmaking talents sends him to Las Vegas, where he establishes one of the Tangiers casinos. Things go peachy until Ace marries a high-priced hooker Ginger (Stone), who still holds a flame for her lowlife ex-pimp Lester (James Woods). And, if that’s not enough, Ace’s old friend Nicky Santoro (Pesci), a violent mobster, establishes a racket in Vegas. Predictably, the good life comes tumbling down.

Watching Casino for the first time, the sheer epic proportion of the film makes it appear better (or at least more accomplished) than Goodfellas. It’s only once both films are viewed as companion pieces that Casino comes out inferior. However, that’s not to say Casino isn’t brilliant; it has everything that we have come to know and love from a Scorsese film – fantastically assembled shots, a soundtrack filled with seventies pop and Rolling Stones and an accurate portrayal of the seedy, brutal life of a gangster. Interestingly, though, Casino probably showcases the poorest performances (save for DeNiro and Pesci, who are typically fantastic) and is too long, but has some of the best direction by Scorsese, making it a bit of a jumble. Visually and stylistically, though, this sits as one of Scorsese’s best films.

Hot Fuzz (2007)
Directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Timothy Dalton
121 mins; MA15+; Cinema (DVD release late 2007, early 2008)

Tagline: Big cops. Small town. Moderate violence.
Country of Origin: UK

How do you follow up a film as brilliant as Shaun of the Dead? Quite simply, you don’t, unless you've got a considerable amount of talent. It takes a director of profound brilliance to make a cult hit equal to that of the original; a smart, witty satire using an unequivocally British sense of humour. But the Shaun troupe has done it again, with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright on sublime form.

While Shaun joked with the zombie premise, Hot Fuzz is a cop buddy-movie spoof with a bit of slasher thrown in. It introduces PC Nicholas Angel (Pegg) who, after his superiors are afraid his 400%-higher arrest record makes them look bad, is sent from busy, crime-riddled London to a sleepy country hamlet. Needless to say Angel is very, very annoyed and even more so when the straight-laced constable is partnered up with PC Danny Butterman (Frost), who reprises his role as a tubby moron. But, just when the police force’s main callouts are to save lost geese, a hooded, knife-wielding killer starts to stalk the townspeople, killing them in increasingly gruesome ways. It’s up to Angel and Butterman to foil the murderer’s devious future plans and save the town.

The premise of Hot Fuzz works on a number of different levels and both as an action and comedy film, although its blend of horror is not as good as that showcased in Shaun of the Dead. It’s clear that Pegg, Frost and Wright have honed their crafts since their first 2004 effort, but it’s a hard choice to call for which film is superior. There are some moments in Hot Fuzz that are riotously funny and there are some crowd-pleasing scenes of gore, but the film is a bit too slow to get going and only kicks off half an hour into the (long) two hour running time. It is this last point that kicks Shaun to the top, but Hot Fuzz is regardless a brilliant comedy and an above-average action film.