The Shout (1978)

4 / 5 Jan '10
Tagline: A film of intense perversity - the madness of the mind.
Directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
Written by: Robert Graves, Michael Austin
Actors include: Alan Bates, Susannah York, John Hurt
Genre: Thriller, Horror, Drama
Length: 86 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Imagine if Robert Altman directed What About Bob?, only instead of a pesty Bill Murray insert some sort of intense demon like fellow who practices Aborigine magic. Like an Altman film this has absolutely beautiful scenery amidst the unusual psychological sort of horror. The evil fellow shows up in the lives of married couple Anthony (William Hurt) and Rachel (Susannah York) Fielding. Anthony plays the organ for church services and is obsessed with recording sound effects. Rachel is the devoted wife who seems drawn to this evil guy (or rather possessed by). When this new evil pest offers to show him a sound effect he'll never forget things are never the same. It really kept me guessing and the whole mood of the film is very uneasy, which I did like and the style was quite something too. I guess I wish it had a touch more clarity as id did leave several questions in my head anyhow. Still one of the more creative and strange thrillers one is likely to come across, definitely interesting. Thanks to cosmicnoiree for recommending it to me!

Availability:  On DVD in PAL format only

Case 39 (2009)

1.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Some cases should never be opened.
Directed by: Christian Alvart
Written by: Ray Wright
Actors include: Renée Zellweger, Jodelle Ferland, Ian McShane
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Length: 109 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Yikes, well there aren't too many nice things to start out with here, I made it to the end of the movie and it had a budget. There, I'm done. The story revolves around child abuse case worker Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger looking rather shoddy) who is overworked, and then her boss dumps Case 39 on her. It involves a little girl who won't eat and looks gaunt and terribly abused. Emily is concerned enough that she gives the little girl her cell phone number, so when she receives a desperate call for help from the girl she rushes to her aid and saves her. Then the little girl convinces her that she should stay at Emily's until she has a new family found for her. While I won't tell you what the rest is about I will tell you that immediately it's obvious what is going on so if they are trying to play "mystery" it's a huge failure. It also fails entirely to scare in any possible way, it fails on a psychological level, heck it fails all around in big ways. At least it was laughably stupid so I got a slight bit of entertainment out of how cliche it was, but I can't find much of anything to recommend here.

Availability:  On Blu-Ray & DVD