Session 9

Session 9
Starring: David Caruso, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Peter Mullan.
Directed by: Brad Anderson

Style: Psychological Thriller
Blood and Guts: 2
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 0
Weapons of choice: Everyday items
Overall rating: 5 out of 5

When kids talk about what they want to do when they grow up, tearing down old wards for the mentally insane is not usually near the top of the list, much like being a junkie. However, there are always hard working people who are willing to take those jobs. Unfortunately, these people also have to deal with whatever happens to currently be inhabiting these old insane asylums. In this case, Gordon (Mullan) and his team find that a former patient at the asylum, Mary, had multiple personality disorder, and her other personality Simon was both murderous and sinister. Soon after this discovery, members of the team start disappearing. Everyone's a suspect, including the distinct possibility Simon has not vacated the premises.

One of the biggest strengths of this film is the atmosphere it creates. Part of tearing down such a large building involves having the crew operating various machines alone for long periods of time. This feeling of isolation is then tainted by the sheer creepiness of the building. Old chairs with straps, gurneys, and other medical bric-a-brac is everywhere. The entire building is in a state of decay and plays out like a place of nightmares. There is also little music, and the tapes of the little girl talking about the crazed personality Simon is haunting. Finally, the movie never really shows too much of what happens to those people that disappear. Up until the end, when the killer is revealed, they just turn to see someone approaching and then are never heard from again. It adds to the paranoia, and soon the audience is wondering if they are seeing things as shadows scuttle around corners.

All of the actors do an excellent job of not playing up the disappearances too much. Because of the isolated nature of the job, there is never a sense that something happened to the people, only that they went missing. Everything plays out very realistically, and the final moments of the film hits with a force rare for horror movies made in a time of jaded audiences. The entire movie plays out as a horror film that isn't trying to be a horror film, and its success leads to the audience being dragged along for the ride.

In the end, this film shows just how flexible the horror genre can be in finding ways to give the audience shivers while still telling an excellent story. It is differnet than most horror films you will see, and rather than being the same crap that comes out of "independant" horror, this film is a worthy addition to the genre.

Event Horizon

Event Horizon
Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson
Directed by: Paul W. S. Anderson

Style: Haunted Ship
Blood and Guts: 4
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 1
Weapons of choice: One's Own Sanity
Overall rating: 4 out of 5

The worst part of space exploration, besides the fact that the smallest of errors can result in horrific deaths for you and your crew in the frigid void, is that it is far larger than we can even comprehend. The most horrific thing ever thought by the most twisted minds ever to exist is mild compared to what mathematically is probably out there waiting for us. Sanity would dictate that the easiest way to avoid that is to not visit these places. Instead, the ship Event Horizon is sent out to see what it can find. With the ability to bend space, it can visit anywhere instantaneously. In 2040 it disappears without a trace. In 2047, it returns, seemingly empty. You know, the type of seeming of a demon that is dreaming. Logically, we send a crew to investigate what happened. What they find will haunt them forever, and their only hope is to escape and live to tell about it.

At its core, Event Horizon is the classic haunted house story placed in an environment where there is no escape. Everyone always wonders why nobody just walk out of a house where the walls bleed. Here, there is nowhere to go. Predictably, the rescue ship is damaged, leaving only the haunted ship as inhabitable while repairs are made. This is a prime example of how Event Horizon operates. It will takes the horror conventions, things any horror fan has come to expect, and still injects enough surprises into that framework that the audience will be white knuckled. There are some distinctly creepy moments, such as the discovery of the old crew's video and the suicide attempt, each designed to ratchet up the tension. With haunted house movies, one's own sanity is in danger, so anything could conceivably happen at any time.

All of the actors, particularly Neill and Fishburne, do an excellent job of portraying people whose concept of reality has just been changed. They feel like people who don't believe in monsters and ghosts and yet now have to face real ones, and that acting draws in the audience. A horror audience doesn't really believe in what it is watching, and so when the characters convincingly don't either, it makes the situations more engaging because they are like us, the audience. Both Fishburne and Neill also capture the slow erosion of sanity excellently, something that is never easy in horror. Without such strong characters, Event Horizon and all of the tension it has would never have worked.

It should be said that if you really do not get into supernatual horror, this movie may not really get under your skin. The twist that comes in the last third of the movie about what has really happened to the ship is borderline ridiculous if you haven't bought in to what came before it. Also, because the film's structure is built like other horror films, some of the occurances are predictable, though the way in which they happen still has an underlying intensity.

In the end, this film is a solid thrill ride best watched in dark places. Before the studio made Anderson cut it down, it was apparently much more dark and violent. One has to wonder what would have happened if they trusted that vision.

Midnight Meat Train

Mirrors
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Roger Bart, and Vinnie Jones
Directed by: Ryuhei Kitamura

Style: Psycho killer thriller
Blood and Guts: 4
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 0
Weapons of choice: Butcher's Mallet, Knives
Overall rating: 4 out of 5

Trying to get ahead in the world of artistic photography is tough. Everyone is always looking for the newest thing, but nobody ever knows what that new thing is going to be. That is the problem facing Leon (Cooper). He takes great photographs, but they are not cutting-edge great. That is, until he foils an assault on a woman in the subway, only to have her go missing the next day. Doing a bit of investigation leads him to discover there is a butcher (Jones) who boards late trains and butchers the passengers. The trouble is, the police don't believe him, and now the butcher has taken an interest in Leon.

Midnight Meat Train is not the type of film that will win over its audience with subtlety. Every moment in the film follows a predictable trajectory that many killer movies have followed before it. Instead, this film will win its audience based around the sheer unnerving situations that occur. People on the trains get killed. There is no surprises there, but putting characters in the line of danger and then just letting the scene run for minutes at a time causes these great moments of being on the edge of your seat even though you can see the killer coming a mile away. Combine that with a few decidedly strange goings on and a performance from Vinnie Jones that feels as if he can see the audience as he stares right out at you and you have a really taut thrill ride.

There are a few moments in the story that don;'t make sense. There is a growth on the butcher that they never fully explain, nor really a sickness he has for one scene, and Leon's psyche crumbling away happens far too quickly. As a subplot, the idea of having difficulty separating oneself from one's art is interesting, and approached with gusto by the script before being thrown into overdrive. However, the pace of the movie is what the director was clearly aiming for, so those oversights can be forgiven at the end of the day. The ending feels a bit tacked on but is true to the themes the movie plays with. Really, the focus of this film is Vinne Jones as the butcher, and every scene he is in is practically dripping with menace despite only having one line in the entire film.

This is the type of film that thrives on being a midnight showing at the local theater. It's short, hard hitting, and will give the audience a thrill. And, at the end of the night, some of us still have to take a train home.

Mirrors

Mirrors
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton, Amy Smart
Directed by: Alexandre Aja

Style: Supernatural Haunting
Blood and Guts: 4
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 0
Weapons of choice: Sharp objects
Overall rating: 4 out of 5

In New York City, the historic Mayflower department store remains as just a husk of its former glory. After a horrible fire, years go by as the building sits idle under the hopes that it will be renovated. However, no horrific incident slips by without horrific aftermath. Ben Carson (Sutherland) , on leave from the police force after accidentally shooting another officer, takes a job as the nighttime security officer while trying to regain control of his life and the trust of his wife with whom he is separated. On the job, he discovers the mirrors show him people burned alive from the fire. What's worse, the images have the power to alter reality, making what seems to be happening actually happen. Now Ben must find how to make the mirrors stop and save his family before it is too late.

As with Aja's previous movie High Tension, the power of the story comes from excellent sound work. A lot of tension is provided by distant wails, atmospheric background sounds such as doves and grit on the ground at the Mayflower, and subtle scoring. There is much less of the cheap jump scares and more of a sense of impending doom. Having mirrors stare back at people as they leave the room is creepy, yet Aja does not overuse the technique so that we become accustomed to it. Also, there are only a few moments of violence, which are harrowing and quite brutal, which means the audience never becomes overly sensitized to the gore.

A lot of criticism of the film has revolved around Kiefer Sutherland's acting. While he doesn't offer anything new other than his standard repetoire of muttered lines and cold-eyed stares, he does fit the need of a recovering alcoholic whose life has fallen to pieces. Paula Patton is excellent as his wife and mother of his children who slowly realizes that the madness her husband is talking about is real.

I also credit the story for how well it is crafted. All of the moments lead into each other, so that everything comes into focus piece by piece, and while the audience may be ahead of the characters by a few steps, it still manages to lead the audience places rather than having everything guessed out beforehand. I personally would have liked to have more made of the fact that the mirror world is backwards, especially when it comes to the key word that the entity in the mirror seeks. However, that is not anything major that detracts from the film.

Overall, this a solid horror film that should keep most of the audience on the edge of their seats and maybe even inspire a nightmare or two. A few more movies like this and High Tension and Aja may make a run at being one of the better horror film directors of all time.

The Mother of Tears

Mother of Tears
Starring: Asia Argento, Daria Nicolodi, Moran Atias, Udo Kier
Directed by: Dario Argento

Style: Pandora's Box
Blood and Guts: 5
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 2
Weapons of choice: Knives
Overall rating: 5 out of 5

An ancient urn is discovered during a dig outside a Rome graveyard. The priest examines its contents and decides to send it along to an expert in the occult at the Rome Museum of Ancient Art. As expected, one of the expert's assistants manages to accidentally summon the evil within, a terrible witch named The Mother of Tears. The Mother sets about stirring up chaos in the world, leading people to fight in the streets and commit horrendous acts merely because she is now loose. The only one who may be able to stop the Mother's rampage of chaos and evil is Sarah (Argento), daughter of a now deceased white witch. Sarah must discover her own power before finding the secret lair of the Mother of Tears and end her reign of terror.

Dario Argento is considered by many to be one of the greatest horror directors ever. His ability to blend surreal imagery with horrific sequences is a talent not seen elsewhere. There is an artistic quality to his approach. This film has suffered much criticism for being less than his normal artistic venture, yet the film perfectly blends horror and the surreal, leaving the audience unable to guess from moment to moment what might happen, and there lies the strength of this film.

The story does wander a bit, but the experience is much more of a ride that the audience is dragged along with. From the opening murder of the museum assistant to the abrupt ending, the entire film functions in a nightmarish dream, with moments so visceral that even hardened audiences might find themselves shocked, yet many things also left the audience giggling and the oddity of it all. For example, Sarah has a few sequences where she is being pursued by a howler monkey. It is funny, yet there is a sinister undercurrent to it, as we don't know what will happen if she is caught. Everywhere Sarah goes, people who assist her are brutally murdered, frequently with a overtone of disbelief from the audience. Did she just lick her tears of fear? Oh, and now she's horribly murdered! The direction is so masterful that even when a scare is telegraphed during one sequence, the entire audience still leapt from their scenes and screamed.

Overall, there are very few films like this one. It creates an entire world that is so surreal it makes the audience both laugh and scream, and by the end, you cannot believe what you just saw. It's a rare treat to get that from a horror film.

The Orphanage

The Orphanage
Starring: Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Príncep
Directed by: Juan Antonio Bayona

Style: Supernatural Suspense
Blood and Guts: 1
Fright Factor: 4
Laugh Factor: 0
Weapons of choice: No weaponry used
Overall rating: 5 out of 5

All Laura (Rueda) wants to do is run a home for mentally disabled children with her husband Carlos (Cayo) and son Simón (Príncep). However, her son has never really been around other children and so has imaginary friends as his play mates. Perhaps the orphanage Laura lived at as a child was not the best choice of places to live. On an outing to the beach, Simón meets another imaginary friend in a cave and invites him home. It isn't long before Simón has disappeared and Laura believes that Simón's friend from the cave is instead a ghost who has spirited away her child to be an eternal playmate.

The atmosphere of this movie is unbelievably haunting. There is little music, so all of the creaks and groans of the old house are allowed to work their magic. All of the actors are top notch, which allows the story to be seamlessly told to us. Combine that with some excellent cinematography and you have an excellent backdrop for a supernatural story. Herein lies the strength of the movie: it doesn't resort to hackneyed techniques and cheap scares to thrill the audience. All they do is tell the story and let the natural dread and ominous nature of the film seep into the audience's bones. It is perfectly natural for Laura not to see that Simón's friends may be ghosts, especially when they reveal to him a secret his parents have not told him, and yet the way in which Simón describes everything immediately sets off the spook alarm. This is a great example of how to unnerve your audience without jumping out and yelling "Boo" like so many lesser movies do.

Much like other Spanish ghost stories like The Others and The Devil's Backbone, there are very few moments of horror. Instead, things that happen cause people to shiver for the shear fact that we are afraid of what might happen. That isn't to say there aren't terrifying moments in the film. When the imaginary child first appears to Laura and a sequence involving an ambulance both sent a strong shiver down my spine. All of the pieces slowly fall into place, along with a few red herrings that become sub-plots, and so there is never a sense of expecting what will happen next. Some people may take issue with the ending, but I think it is true to both the characters and the story they are presenting.

Overall, I would say this is a film everyone should see regardless of whether they call themselves horror movie people. It is much more of a supernatural story, and while there are frightening moments, it is nothing that will terrify people for nights on end. The masterful storytelling and the beauty of the film far outweigh any negative aspects.