THE RESORT (directed by Taylor Chien)***

Four friends want to enter an abandoned resort on an obscure Hawaiian Island that’s rumoured to be haunted by a half-faced girl. This is a really clever, brilliantly edited film that cooks up the scary moments at just the right moments heightened with superb climactic timing.

The outcome is unpredictable and that’s what makes The Resort a unique film for the genre. The seventy-five minutes fly by.

There’s a reason to investigate this resort – it’s Alexander’s birthday and she’s obsessed with the paranormal, so what better way to celebrate than to dash off to this deserted island via a piloted helicopter who claims a small group of people still inhabit the island, but the band of four never run into them.

There is no reason really why the bad happens; none of them deserved what they got, but isn’t that a part of life – or in this case death.

AFTER THE MURDER, directed by Aengus James ***

Paul Lima a true hero, like his father, Albert

A documentary that follows Paul Lima and the two bounty hunters he hired to Roatán, Honduras, to find and capture his father's (Albert)  killer. But nothing seems to happen with the capture until he hires Ray, whose connections with the government is second to none with his job of capturing killers on the island. In fact, the year, Paul goes down there, there have been Americans murdered. It takes 13 years and absolute determination not to give up as Paul searches for his father’s killer. He knows who he is because the murderer was not happy about being taken to court over a bakery purchase that the Honduran family once owned. Bit by bit everyone is getting killed and it’s clear that Paul is in a dangerous situation. The bad guy is eventually caught and ends up in jail, but not for life – only for sixteen years.

This is not a documentary made after the fact of Paul going down to Honduras. The camera is with him and the people he hires and meets to ensure true actions.

Pauls’ devotion to his father and his widowed mother are remarkable. 

COME TRUE, directed by Anthony Scott Burns ***

 Julia Sarah Stone plays a disturbed teenager who is a run-away – a very tired one. She innocently enters a sleep study, only to find out her dreams and her waking life are one big horror play-out. What’s real and what’s a dream? The camera pans  down a school corridor lined with lockers.  In another scene, a door opens like Pandora's box. The camera pans and all merges so fluidly the real and unreal are captivating, bodies morph into scary creatures. The film plays out in titled sections as if each is a part of a dream. Suspense builds certainly with the help of the eerie music that the director himself composed. The pat silly ending was in complete contrast to the mood  film's. But the weird stuff prevails. You know all is not good when Sarah asks lying all hooked up in a strange body suit – “What are you studying?” She isn’t allowed to know; nor why there are 4 males and only two females in the study. But the ending is a real let- -down Stalking takes on a whole new meaning, as does peeping Tom. I don’t advise anyone to see this film suffering from sleep disorders

VIOLATION, directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli ***

Two sisters - Miriam and Greta meet up in the country cabin owned by Dylan, Greta’s husband. Miriam is deeply disturbed, and the extent of her aberration manifests when she seeks revenge on Dylan who raped her when the two were sharing past school stories by the fire they made. Camp side chatter adds a lighthearted throw-in to the intense mood that erupts into climatic horror as the characters clash.

The gruesomely gory climatic scene hauntingly juxtaposes against the expressionistic cinematography of the lush nature that surrounds them. The two directors were the two sisters in the film, and their chemistry was electric, seen most vividly when the sisters’ love-hate conflicts mount.  Without giving away the spoiler, you would be wrong to like the ice cream cones the family gathering gobbles up at the end.

The movie is confusing; the flashback scenes interrupt the flow and cause plot distortion. The film could do with more precise editing. There is too much talking and not enough action. Nonetheless, it’s highly successful in showing the inner rage that engulfs every rape victim – Miriam in this case. Never was a rape scene so quiet - even docile in tone, yet wildly fierce in the outcome. There’s a consequence to pay; suffice it to say that Dylan met a terrifying doom. I was very much pulled into this compelling film. Madeleine Sims-Fewer was brilliant as Miriam. The Call of the Wild, by author Jack London has wolves in it. This film had one, That -- combined with Miriam's rage could have led to a more apt title: The Cry of the Wild.

Dear Comrades! Directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy ****

This intense black-and-white film redramatizes the horrific 1962 massacre in Novocherkassk, in the southeastern corner of Russia, at which between 26 and 80 persons were killed for peacefully protesting hikes in food costs.

Wages were lowered. Hunger was killing people.

A staunch defender of Stalin, protagonist passionate totes the party line, but knows socialism is a disaster. Yuliya Vysotskaya  stars as this Lyuda who actually has a high-up position in the party. She feels all instigators against the regime must be killed, but it all comes back to backfire on her and when her daughter who marched in the protest goes missing, she sets out to find her. However, she seems to be a little less naive about the goodness of the party. A really great film about a dark moment - largely forgotten and those implied swore to secrecy. Though people thought it was the army that shot upon the crowd, it was in fact the KGB. The tragic event comes to live again in this film - a town massacre in Russia’s brutal past that is largely forgotten.

 

 

MAX CLOUD, directed by Martin Owen **

In this crazy film, reality collides with science fiction space ship fun. It’s s a throw-back to the era of video game mania.  Is this film a spoof or number to put on a kids’ must-have list? I would say both. The futuristic pink set is scene -stealer because the characters are corny and childish. The story is about a video game being played by rebellions Sarah who is catapulted into the game itself. Now she joins the macho captain with some of his crew – all stuck inside their pretty-in-pink space ship on the planet Heinous. The young man in the film becomes Sarah. Confusing yet entertaining, this light-hearted film will be laughed at by Star Trek fans, while novices will watch it in wonder. We aren’t exactly biting our nails in fear during the fight scenes; rather biting into popcorn is more fitting for this absurdly spacey film.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                    

PREPARATIONS TO BE TOGETHER FOR AN UNKNOWN PERIOD OF TIME

Lili Horvat

Set in Budapest, this slow love reveal is both intriguing and confounding for viewer and protagonists. The romance features Marta (Natasa Stork) and Janos (Viktor Bodo) two neurosurgeons who can’t find one another literally and figuratively - even though a place to meet has been set. Marta is obsessively in love with Janos; she even stalks him - but he is as elusive as she is quietly persistent.  Obsessive love is the root here. Even Marta has an obsessive suitor. The plot plays out like a sensuous dance of catch me if you can in ever the most subtle and beguiling way. Never has the understated spoken so loudly in a film. The effect is ethereal, seeming to echo the hearts of both of these adults in search of themselves and one another. Is Marta’s pursuit of Janos all imaginary or is it really happening.  Did they really arrange during a conference in New jersey to meet again in the future on the bridge in Budapest?

This is the most original love story I have ever seen in a film, and it’s beautifully crafted. Cinematically resonating the inner turmoil of both protagonists, darkness weaves its own feelings where suspense hangs in the obscurely lit air, like the big loud speaker does dangling on a wire high up in the sky as it is being moved into an apartment – a dwelling where (I won’t give away the spoiler).