Writing's a fight and this boy needs a battle
Mayhem (2017) is technically competent, but unfortunately it lacks the heavyweight punch of something like The Belko Experiment (2016). While the former is a story told, the latter is a story happening. One lives in the purgatory of exposition, the other does as it must.
The films of Lucio Fulci are an acquired taste. The Beyond (1981) is no exception. Full of non sequiturs, absurd leaps of logic, and patronising stereotypes, the constraints of plot and story acquiesce to the poetry of gory excess. A down on her luck New Yorker inherits a dilapidated hotel in Louisiana, that just happens to be sitting on one of seven gateways to hell. For me this film lacks the rawness you’ll find in Zombie Flesh Eaters (1979) but despite its failings it’s a must see for fans of the genre.
Comedy horror Yummy (2019) is delightfully gory, revelling in the bloody excesses of the genre. A dodgy Eastern European hospital, cashing in on the demand for cheap cosmetic surgery, supplements the usual boob-jobs, face-lifts, and liposuction, with an unethical sideline in experimental treatments that, you guessed it, turn patients into ultra-violent zombies. There’s not much to the story. Shortly after a young woman and her partner arrive at the dystopian looking hospital, infection escapes, and a small band of survivors do everything they must to escape. The fun of the film is surrendering to the gruesome violence and a suitably nihilistic end.
There’s a grim fatalism in Guillaume Nicloux‘s film. Residents of a suburban high-rise are trapped by a powdery blackness that settles over the tower, and consumes anything it touches. Isolated, the rules of society crumbling, floors clan together, and the fight for dwindling resources gets increasingly brutal. In this version of the apocalypse the destruction of humanity is slow, deliberate, inevitable, as survivors surrender to their worst impulses. Not a perfect film, the enigmatic ending borders on lacklustre, but I liked the exposition light storytelling.
If, like me, you have an unhealthy obsession with the zombie genre, you’ll recognise the influence of films like 28 Days Later (2002) and The Horde (2009) on writer and director Gustavo Hernandez. Filmed in an abandoned sports club in Montevideo, Hernandez makes the most of this single location, with some strong visuals, gory outbursts, and long takes that put you right there with troubled night guard Iris, as she tries to escape the teeth of ultra-violent infected and save her young daughter. There are no great innovations here but in a genre that attracts some of the worst film making possible, it’s well above average.
The Medium (2021) is one of those films that gets more unsettling as the story unfolds. While a documentary crew follow a shaman in the Isan region of Thailand, one of the family starts to behave strangely. Think somewhere between Rec (2007) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). Nothing new but well done within the confines of its chosen genre.
Baghead (2023) tries hard, really hard. All involved are competent enough, but overall it lacks a harshness that might’ve been able to make your teeth itch. There’s not enough plot to service the story, and I have no idea why a Scotsman, has an English pub, in Berlin; other than cutting the Gordian Knot of film finance.
Shot Caller (2017) is a dark metaphor of the American dream. When nice guy Josh goes to prison for killing someone in a car accident, he quickly becomes embroiled in gang culture; it’s the only way to survive. The spiral of violence turns two years into ten and follows him when he’s released. On the outside he plays a game of cat and mouse with the authorities, Texas holdum with his gang, as he tries to sell a major cache of stolen weapons. But nothing is as it seems as the plot plays a hand only Josh can see.
Ocean’s Eight (2018) swallows a sanitised version of The Bourne Identity (2002) to try and level the playing field of patriots willing to do what it takes to save the world from “terrorists”. This time determined women replace resolute men, the way misandry replaces misogamy, in the battle to keep us all less unsafe. Yes women are tough, capable, they can take a beating in the line of duty, but is that the lesson we need to be taught?
This has an emotionally brutal understanding of survival. Former Australian special forces sniper grieves the death of his wife and unborn child, killed in a random car accident. Years later, struggling to make it in civilian life and care for his traumatised teenage son, things get worse when his old platoon leader reconnects; he needs help robbing a gang of drug dealers.
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