Mystery

Dead Body (2017)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

A bunch of recent high school grads get together for an outing in a cabin in the woods. Later that evening, someone suggests the game “Dead Body,” a party game where one player is assigned to be the murderer, and one the first victim. The rest of the players have to figure out who the killer is before they become victims themselves. You can guess what happens next. Wait! Let me try that again in my horror trailer voice-over voice: “The kids decide to play ‘Dead Body,’ but what they don’t know is that someone’s already playing it…for real!”

Continue reading →

Summer of 84 (2018)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

Summer of 84, directed by the team of François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, has many of the elements of an ‘80s teen movie: a Tangerine Dream-like score, a clubhouse where the guys hang out, the archetypal group of friends including the troubled friend with the shitty home life, who puts up a tough exterior (Judah Lewis), the idyllic façade of suburban life, even the fantasy blonde girl next door (Tiera Skovbye), who always seems to be changing in front of her bedroom window. This is much darker than films from that era, though. It’s Stand By Me meets Rear Window.

Continue reading →

The Girl on the Train (2016)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmjewndu4ntqwml5bml5banbnxkftztgwmzq2mjiwmdi-_v1_sy1000_cr006311000_al_

I guess I should start by saying that I didn’t care for the novel the film is based on. But it’s still a damn sight better than the film. The internal monologues present in the book at least give some measure of breath (and breadth) to the lives of these characters. Those who have read it will, no doubt, recognize the wisps of backstory left intact that made the novel readable, if somewhat predictable. They also should be able to follow the convoluted plot a lot better. The compression from novel to screenplay didn’t do this story any favors. Continue reading →

Enemy (2013)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmtq2nza5nje4n15bml5banbnxkftztgwmjq4nzmxmte-_v1_sy1000_cr006791000_al_

Wow. This is my favorite movie of the year so far, which is really surprising because—and I say this in all seriousness—I’m not sure I understand it. It’s like a Hitchcockian thriller, if Hitch was a huge fan of Kafka. It is a marvelous, mysterious, psychological thriller, and it really did remind me of Hitchcock’s psychological thrillers. The one thing that really sealed the comparison for me was the score. Continue reading →

The Treatment (2014)

/ Shawn / Leave a comment

mv5bmjm2otexmjexmv5bml5banbnxkftztgwodi3njy5mde-_v1_sy1000_cr007061000_al_

A really solid police thriller from Belgium that borders on horror. It doesn’t quite have the atmosphere of a Se7en or Prisoners, but it reminds me a little of those films (especially the latter).  I won’t lie to you—the subject matter is dark, which makes it hard to watch, but it’s not overly gory. Think of it as something along the lines of some of the British three-episode dramas out there.

The story seems fairly simple: a detective investigates the abduction of a young boy, but there are a number of twists and turns along the way to keep it interesting, and to keep you guessing. And to complicate matters, the detective himself watched his brother abducted before his eyes as a child, so his judgment is questionable.

Geert Van Rampelberg does a decent job as the haunted investigator, and the villain—the “Troll”—is one of the most unhinged since John Doe. You may think you know where this one is going, but it will spin you a couple of times before you get there.

IMDB gives it a 7.5, but I’m inclined to bump it up to an 8.0, as I could see this one being a contender for my “best of” list. (running time 2:11)