J*A*S*M

A festival of idiocy, both in the terrible characters, as well as in the terrible creators. Enough said.

A very, very good concept and the most original use of the found footage format in a long time. Here, the security cameras were not put by a family being haunted by a demon. No, they were put by a pervert who gets off on watching unsuspecting victims. And if that wasn’t enough, he hides in their attic. Brrr! Unsettling and realistic, but I feel that the concept itself was stronger than the experience from the resulting film. What exactly could have been done differently and better, I don’t know.

An anthology of short stories that is not an anthology of short stories. Rather, it’s a frantic ride through a western small town and its surroundings where strange things happen. This eliminates the problem of the short story anthology films, where mostly the “to each their own” rule applies. Southbound, in contrast, gives a rather holistic impression, with an atmosphere that stays within marked boundaries. And there’s always something happening. It’s a very gratifying film that doesn’t keep you waiting, and the authors try to please the viewer with a substantial number of horror properties and you almost don’t have time to catch your breath. I was reminded of In the Mouth of Madness, the atmosphere of that hellish small town is very similar. Even the main score is a bit “Carpenterish”. 8/10

Excellent ghost story with a plot that doesn’t really surprise, but it’s dark, incredibly atmospheric, terrifying and also comes with a humanistic message. Laranas never got even close this level again. Almost 5*.

Finally a proper monster of the week horror episode? Partially. It’s beginning to be clear what the biggest problem of revivals is, that the creators want to do too much. They want to reminisce all the tones of the original series, but six episodes is not enough to achieve it. And that’s why this terrifying thriller with a potentially cult monster is watered down with the family drama of Agent Scully, which itself is quite effective in the end, of course, but the case is pushed to the sides and takes place as if by the way, and that’s definitely a mistake. In the end, both storylines are tied with a common motif, so it sort of works out, but I can’t get rid of the impression that this could have been two five stars episodes, instead of one worthy of four stars.

Black Mountain Side is certainly no horror game-changer, nor is it a film that would be inducted in the Hall of Fame, but it’s the first genre film of the year that’s worth recommending. The hit is its premise: a group of researchers encountering an ancient evil in an uninhabited area; I love that. In the first half, BMS is a bit too slow, perhaps, and doesn’t bring anything interesting, but after the first (and given the development story thus far, pretty unexpected) gore scene, the atmosphere visibly thickens, everything gets significantly darker and more paranoid, leading to a fairly bizarre and transcendental climax, which I really didn’t expect at the beginning. 7/10, but I’m rounding up because it’s very likeable.

A bad film, very bad, perhaps, but I still don’t fully regret the hour and a half I dedicated to it. If you take it as an underfunded, enthusiastic début, it has some actual creative potential. The plot is not fully predictable, sometimes you get a competently put together atmospheric scene and some likeable comedy. Unfortunately, it gradually takes a very questionable path, where the stupidity of the characters can’t be excused, even by the aforementioned comedy, the motivations of everyone involved get lost and I, as a viewer, can no longer turn a blind eye for the review. Half way through the film, I was still willing to give it a generous three stars.

Well, I was 100% sure that I would be delighted and I was already formulating enthusiastic compliments in my head. And then nothing. Revenant is a great ninety-minute survival movie that unfortunately last 150 minutes. The rest is filled with ambition supported with shallow Indian mysticism. The attempts at transcendental ideas unfortunately lead to nowhere, they are just Iñarritu confidently scratching the surface. It’s not only that they don’t work, but they also end up utterly harming the core story and its characters. I didn’t see Hug Glass on the screen even for a moment. It’s always Leonardo DiCaprio performing art under Iñarritu’s direction. Disappointed as hell and the current 83% in view of the 66% for Birdman is a bad joke.

During the cold opening I told myself “oh, oh! this is not for me”. The funny episodes of The X-Files never were my favourite and I had the creeping feeling that this one would be a disappointment, that it was taking valuable space in the limited scope of a six-episode revival. But after a while, it started to work on me and I had a lot of fun. The entire climax that begins with the meeting in the graveyard was hilarious and exceeded my expectations.

I laughed a lot. It’s carried by the performances of the kids and the script is full of verbal and situational gags that sometimes made my sides hurt (high-five!). Available on Vimeo.