Apt Pupil (1998)

3.5 / 5 Apr '10
Tagline: If you don't believe in the existence of evil, you've got a lot to learn.
Directed by: Bryan Singer
Written by: Stephen King, Brandon Boyce
Actors include: Brad Renfro, Ian McKellan, Joshua Jackson
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Length: 112 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Decent enough though admittedly I've never read the book and from what I understand the two are quite different. I like the concept, an evil Nazi in hiding (well acted by Ian McKellen) who seems to be trying to forget his past is blackmailed into giving details about his involvement in the war. Brad Renfro plays youngster Todd Bowden who discovers the Nazi on the bus and seems to enjoy the gory details of the death camps and such. It's a relatively horrific idea, but it seems it was afraid to cross certain lines, most everything that is disturbing is described or hinted at rather than shown. It's sort of a tale about being a sadist, mind games and how far is each willing to go sort of thing to control the other. It's an odd dynamic that all starts to come crashing down when the Nazi's health starts to fail. Pretty interesting character study really though it seems like it didn't need to be as long as it was. Still decent enough for me anyhow but who knows how I would feel if I had read the book.

Availability:  On DVD

Eastern Promises (2007)

3.5 / 5 Jun '10
Tagline: Every sin leaves a mark.
Directed by: David Cronenberg
Written by: Steven Knight
Actors include: Josef Altin, Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortenssen
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Crime
Length: 100 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
This wasn't at all what I had expected as a David Cronenberg fan but then again I've only really watched his older sci-fi stuff. This is very Hollywood big budget and trying to pull at the 'ole heartstrings I think (that didn't really work on me). It's about a kindly Nurse named Anna (Naomi Watts) who delivers a baby from a mother who dies giving child birth. Anna finds the dead young girl's diary which is written in Russian which she doesn't speak. Fortunately for her she has Russian people in her family to translate. Before they can help her a kindly but pushy older Fellow clearly related to some sort of Mafia offers to trade her the diary for the dead girl's address of family so the child could be put in the right place. He grabs the diary and of course doesn't offer Anna any help, though at least one of his henchmen seem to be helpful. Nikolai (Viggo Mortensen) seems to be the kind one in the crime syndicate but will they be able to get the answers they need? I actually thought that this was really easy to follow and a very obvious film really. It didn't offer anything unexpected (except a bit of graphic violence) and it seemed to be more of a drama more than anything. It wasn't intense, it wasn't thrilling, it wasn't even shocking or very creative. I really don't get what the big frickin' deal was about this film although I don't exactly think it's bad either.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

Deadline (1981)

3.5 / 5 July '10
Tagline: His obsession was to create the ultimate horror story... his curse was to live it.
Directed by: Mario Azzopardi
Written by: Mario Azzopardi
Actors include: Stephen Young, Sharon Masters, Marvin Goldhar
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller, Drama
Length: 85 minutes
Banned: Iceland

Review:
Considering this is a rarely mentioned horror film of the '80s it actually rather entertaining. It revolves around a Stephen King-like author named Steven (how clever) who is a rather large jerk. He ignores his family, friends and other obligations in order to write and before long things get confusing. See the line between fantasy and reality are getting blurred for him, visions from his films are becoming real and he's not sure what end is up anymore. The neatest part of this film are the bizarre and sometimes even disgusting and bloody bits from his movies that appear including cannibalistic Nuns, grandma abuse and many other bizarre things. The further he gets wrapped up in this the more his family falls apart and that is a rather disturbing angle actually. It's a shame that the story wasn't a tad more cohesive and explanatory (particularly when it comes to the ending), but I definitely give it credit for ambition and style. It should please most any '80s horror fan, you'll probably see a thing or two.  Oh and be on the look out for the band [Artist5948] who make quite an impression in this film with their insane performance.

Availability:  Not on DVD

American Nightmare (1983)

3 / 5 Sept '10
Tagline: N/A
Directed by: Don McBrearty
Written by: Steven Blake
Actors include: Lawrence Day, Laura Staley, Neil Dainard
Genre: Horror, Giallo, Thriller
Length: 88 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
So oddly this is a Canadian giallo (though why they called it American Nightmare is beyond me) that has a low budget and some lame acting but it's still very watchable. The plot concerns a maniac who is going around slashing strippers with a razor, one of which is from a prominent family. Her brother comes looking for her and poking around the seedy underbelly of Toronto questioning girls who worked and lived with her. There is even a love story thrown in when the brother falls for one of the stripping roommates...seriously. It does have a fair amount of blood in it, and the mystery comes to an amusing resolution (it's a bit more sordid than one might think). It's just very dry and talky in places, and there are way too many strippers doing way too many dances for my liking, now if you are into that sort of thing you might consider it to be a bonus! As far as this style of film goes, it's definitely not one of the greats but it is worth a viewing for fans I'd say.

Availability:  Not on DVD

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

Orphan (2009)

3.5 / 5 Oct '10
Tagline: Can you keep a secret?
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by: David Johnson
Actors include: Vera Farmiga, Peter Sarsgaard, Isabelle Fuhrman
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Length: 123 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
Well, having just seen the wretched film Case 39, I was expecting this to be basically the exact same idea. It was, however this one is far superior, it's not as predictable (though it's not exactly surprising) and they actually bothered to explain what was happening which I appreciated. At any rate, a couple who have a deaf little girl and a little boy are having a hard time after a stillborn comes there way. They decide to adopt, so they go to an Orphanage and find Esther, a particularly unusual and bright 9 year old girl sitting off by herself. They fall for her and take her home and adopt her, and at first everything seems perfect. From there it basically goes into a retread of The Bad Seed only there is something different about this tale. It's not the most horrific film ever, in fact yes it's more of a thriller but I have to give it credit, it's over 2 hours long but it held my attention. That being said, in no way did it need to be that long but just the same probably worth a viewing on a rainy day.

Availability:  On DVD & Blu-Ray

Cold Comfort (1989)

4 / 5
Tagline: It's not always safe to come in from the cold.
Directed by: Vic Sarin
Written by: Richard Beattie, James Garrard
Actors include: Maury Chaykin, Margaret Langrick, Paul Gross
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Length: 111 minutes
Banned: Nope

Review:
I really love how unusual this film is...and it's rather uncommon, when I went to try to find a copy but everyone kept thinking I meant Cold Comfort Farm...sigh. Oh well, this is one lively Canadian picture, weird as all heck but a great cast and it's sheer strangeness make it a must see. The film is about a strange Father Daughter relationship between Floyd (Maury Chaykin) and Dolores. Floyd seems to erm be rather inappropriate with his Daughter and he clearly wants a piece of her. When Floyd comes across Stephen (Paul Gross) a stranded motorist in a ditch during a blizzard he is all to eager to dig him out. He brings him back to the house and gives him as a gift to his Daughter for her birthday. It's really very fascinating, I was very pleased that my friend Craig introduced me to this one because likely I'd have never come across it otherwise. One to keep your eyes out for, particularly if you like sleazy dramas, well worth the hunt.

Availability:  On VHS only unfortunately

Abducted (1986)

3 / 5
Tagline:  Her morning jog became a terrifying run for her life!
Directed by:  Boon Collins
Written by:  Boon Collins, Lindsay Bourne
Actors include:  Dan Haggerty, Roberta Weiss, Lawrence King-Phillips
Genre:  Thriller, Drama
Length:  90 minutes
Banned:  Nope

Review:

Sort of a scenic backdrop of the Canadian Rocky mountains is set for this tale of....abduction (you got it!).  A woman is out jogging when she is taken by some crazy guy named Vern who lives in woods and held captive at his cabin.  She of course tries to escape, but Vern chases her down again and all seems hopeless...or does it?  It's not as sleazy as it needed to be (I hate to say) to make it good for exploitation fans, and it's not interesting enough to be a good thriller for fans of that sort of thing.  It really didn't leave much of any sort of impression really but it's been quite a while since I've seen this one.

Availability:  Not currently on DVD