POMO

In terms of its technical execution, Old People offers a decent level of craftsmanship. The beginning, which culminates with the scene in which the main character figures out what's going on, is a great horror treat. But the bizarre idea of angry, murderous pensioners on which the whole film is based comes across as silly. The filmmakers failed to elevate the subject to the level of social allegory and remained with the mental optics of a pure zombie horror flick, which made Old People embarrassing to the point of being ridiculous.

Funny Games turned on its head and made more conventionally, without formalistic filmmaking gimmicks. Nocturnal Animals without the artistic multilayering. However, Speak No Evil is still a great psychological escalation of insecurity and the feeling of “something is wrong here”, with its cards held close to the vest and a surprising climax. This is a powerful yet cruel and evil film that I can recommend to only a few people.

Better than the previous, superfluous Halloween Kills. Though Michael Myers is sidelined here, the storyline with the new Corey character interestingly relativizes the causes of the origin of absolute evil (the responsibility of the society around us) and functionally parallels Myers himself. When have we ever seen a mainstream Hollywood movie in which the main character, whom we understand and support, develops in this way? It’s a unique and bold approach. That, however, is not to say that I wouldn’t have preferred to see the conclusion of this cult franchise in different hands and conceived differently...

Forests and meadows shrouded in fog are a great setting for a werewolf horror movie. The historical period with costumes to match give the film the mark of a solid drama. However, the viewer pretty much checks out by the time the horror scenes start to work at least a little. Those scenes are unusually badly directed at first and later evoke emotions only because we already know the characters better and we are experiencing the drama with them. I’m giving this a weak third star for the drama, not for the horror.

Screenwriting futility, directorial blackouts. The sole purpose of this film is to continuously serve us extreme gore that we won’t see anywhere else. And with a straight face. In the first half, the directing kind of attempts to use the social ills of contemporary society to make a point, but the second half is just drawn-out nothingness pulled out of the filmmaker’s ass. But the film’s splatter brutality and punk degeneracy are truly unique. For example, the sexual assault of the eye socket of a woman whose eye has been poked out with an umbrella, in a wheelchair, while she’s hooked up to a drip. And so on…

An overweight girl suffers ridicule at the hands of the people in her small town. The only person in whom she finds support is a rampaging killer, whose identity and whereabouts are known only to her. Piggy has an interesting subject and starts off very promisingly, but the screenplay starts to stray from what’s interesting and becomes annoying due to unnecessary dialogue with the girl's mother and the police trying to figure out why the protagonist is concealing the events that she has witnessed, as if the viewer doesn’t already know. The bloody climax mitigates the viewer’s disappointment, but the impression of wasted potential remains.

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser is a difficult subject for adaptations. It requires more than just traditional “horror talent” to film it so that it makes sense in the motivations of all of the characters and the intertwining of reality with the hellish dimension, to be gripping in terms of the plot and pleasing with more than just fantasy scenes of suffering and gore. David Bruckner and the screenwriters have done a decent job of developing the revelation of the world of the Cenobites, while adding new, almost mythological dimensions to the famous puzzle box. However, they got a bit lost in the climax with respect to the meaningfulness of the twists and the conclusion of the characters’ stories. One of the surviving characters summed it up nicely: “What just happened there?”

The whole acting ensemble has strong potential. Ben Foster is perfect as Jan Žižka; each of his looks and statements has spirit and balls. The emotions and the simple yet sufficiently dramatic and action-packed story also work well. The film’s harshness and high level of testosterone are surprising, and the high-quality instrumental soundtrack is pleasing. However, the film is dragged down to the level of mediocrity by its directing, which in some scenes is reminiscent of cheap TV trash. For example, in the scene involving the kidnapping of the fiancée, utter cluelessness is on display in terms editing and clarity of what is happening and how. And there are several similar moments in the film. I applaud Petr Jákl for having the balls and ambition to fulfil his boyish dreams, but even he must see that sticking with producing and entrusting the directing to, say, Ron Howard would have had a different result.

In screenwriting terms, Smile is a lesser variation on It Follows, but only where innovativeness is concerned. Psychologically, it is carefully constructed, almost in the manner of a procedural, without a single weakness. It is also excellently filmed and very intense in its suspense and scares, with brilliant sound design. And the newcomer Sosie Bacon is great in the lead role. Director Parker Finn surprises us again.

A dreamy 98 minutes that are not in any way logically connected to one another, despite the fact that the same characters appear in the same or related places, mainly the castle and its rooms, catacombs, cellars and interiors with a nice mountain backdrop (Black Magic Rites was filmed at Castello Piccolomini in Italy). The burning of women, lesbian sex, a lot of zooming in on both the main and supporting characters’ eyes widened for no apparent reason. This is atmospheric, colorful nonsense in which everyone experiences an awful lot without the viewer having any idea why. Watching it all the way to the end deserves respect. And a stiff drink.