Dead Silence (2007) Dir: James Wan

Undeservedly maligned 'proper' horror from Saw director James Wan and, yes, Saw writer, Leigh Whannell. (Oh and the score is provided by the same guy as Saw, too!)

The plot:
A nauseatingly happy young couple's lives are ruined when a mysterious package turns up on the doorstep. Large and unlabelled, they open the parcel and, within, discover a ventriloquist's mannequin, bedecked in a tuxedo and looking for all the world like something really fucking terrifying. Foolishly, they chose not to burn the blasted thing at once, as most rational people would have done and, instead, the guy goes out to get Chinese and, when he returns, his woman is dead, her tongue ripped clean from her throat.
So begins a sinister chain of events that will have ties back to his own family, will involve an unnecessarily wacky detective, and will feature the odd interlude of unfortunate CGI effects.

You know, I really like James Wan.
He's suffered, you see, from the massive success of Saw.
Unjustifiably.
He was only directly involved in the first installment - he exec. produced the rest, which basically means turned up one morning and drank some coffee - and a mighty fine 'tricks and traps' horror movie it is, too. He's not to be blamed for the annual derivation, the yearly drop in standards.
Give him a break, motherfuckers.
Take last years Insidious. Really creepy, really menacing, right up until the last twenty minutes, sure, but the first hour was just great.
So here we have some genuine scares, some real genre-literate horror movie-making that should make the piss-pricks responsible for atrocious Freddy/Jason/Leatherface remakes deeply, deeply ashamed.
It's not perfect: it'll be too old school for some, whilst occasionally killing the atmosphere for the old school fans through some desperately unwanted CGI shots, but this is still decent horror and, frankly, that is more than can be said for most of the pap that is out there nowadays.
Quite liked this one.

4 out of 5

The House of the Devil (2009) Dir: Ti West

Skillful and intelligent throwback to prime late seventies and early eighties horror, this is almost perfect.

The plot:
A student at college is desperately sort of money, and worried she will not be able to pay her next rent. In sheer desperation, she applies for a babysitting position but, when she arrives at the house, is told that she will not be babysitting a child, but an old woman. Dubious, her need for cash over-rides her understandable reluctance. Left alone with the old woman on the night of an eclipse, things begin to take a turn for the sinister as the lunar eclipse approaches....

Beautifully shot, with strong performances from lead Jocelin Donahue and, in particular, the always creepy Tom 'Cain' Noonan, this is retro to the point of plagiarism, and that's no bad thing at all.
The atmosphere right from the off is eerie, and this only builds as the movie progresses, though one criticism is it takes a hell of a long time to reach the pay-off but, when it arrives, it is more than worth the wait.
One point taken off for a spoiler within the opening credits of the film itself - the write-up that appears on screen at the start kind of gives the game away about what is actually happening in the house and erodes some of the mystery, which is a shame - this is nevertheless a fine example, in this era of bland Hollywood horror that is about as frightening as candy floss, of how to make a solid, edgy, damned scary film.
Liked it.

4 out of 5

The Devils (1971) Dir: Ken Russell

Ken Russell's censor baiting tale of fornicating nuns and demonic possession is a challenging affair.

The plot:
It's 17th century France, and a powerful Cardinal seeks to take ultimate control of his dominion. All have fallen before his sword save for one enclave, governed over by a decidedly dubious Priest, who refuses to bow to orders. Demanding a proclamation before he will yield authority, a ruse is plotted to topple his authority: accuse the priest of demonic possession, and all who follow him.

Ken Russell is a filmmaker who, intentionally or otherwise, courts controversy. Whether it's challenging relationship and gender boundaries in Women in Love or baffling audiences with his interpretation of Lair of the White Worm, his is a style that is most definitely unique.
The term auteur seems to have been coined for him alone.
With images designed to shock, especially when the nuns cast off their chaste and innocent shackles and set about masturbating and fornicating with some gusto, this is a movie with one clear intent: to challenge the viewer at every turn.
And it's a tough watch.
I'm not one easily offended and, truthfully, at no point was I shocked by this, but I was fatigued by the experience. As the movie progresses, so Russell cranks up the intensity to levels that Oliver Stone circa Natural Born Killers could only ever dream of.
An important movie, and one that has only recently been reinstated to it's original form and, to the best of my knowledge, one that remains banned in the UK in it's uncut state.
A film that every movie lover should see, though I suspect only a select few will find much to enjoy.

4 out of 5

Absurd (1981 aka Rosso Sangue & Horrible) Dir: Joe D'Amato

Sequel to D'Amato's own infamous gore-fest Antropophagus, this is a film made infamous in it's own right as one of the 72 movies labelled with the term 'Video nasty' (as was Antropophagus) by that guardian of moral integrity, Mary Whitehouse, and successfully prosecuted by the DPP (Department of Public Prosecution) in the early 80's in the UK.
The law itself was the Video Recordings Act 1984, designed to protect the public (!) from obscene and gratuitous content on the newly available home video format, ultimately served only to garner notoriety for the titles listed.
The fucking idiots.

The plot:
A Greek Orthodox priest arrives in a small community and attracts the attention of the local police. Initially reluctant to reveal the nature of his visit, the priest is forced to show his hand when a series of grisly murders commences, the priest revealing that the culprit is a man who has the power of incredible strength and recovery, facilitated by a super-charged metabolism and the fact that his blood coagulates at an extraordinarily rapid rate so, even if shot, his wounds barely affect him.

In true slasher style, the focus here is on the chase, with the plot centreing by turns on the killer stalking his victims, dispatching them in amusingly violent and imaginative means, as well as on the police hunt for him.
Possessing a down and dirty, gritty atmosphere, this is elevated by the sumptuous score which is a perfect blend of Italian giallo stylings laced with the stripped down, terror-inducing monotony of John Carpenter's best musical offerings.
The controversy regarding the gore lies chiefly with the killers' chosen methods of slaying, primarily power tools - an electric screwdriver, an industrial scale jigsaw - as well as, less conventionally (pun intended), an oven used to roast someone's head like a jacket potato whilst they are still alive before plunging a pair of scissors into their neck.
Yum-yum.
Featuring a jaw-droppingly good final scene to pack a killer punch to match the insanely gory preceding 90 minutes or so, this is Italian schlock and then some.
Great horror.

4 out of 5

Goldilocks and the Three Bares (1963) Dir: Herschell Gordon Lewis

Possibly the worst film I've ever seen.

The plot:
There isn’t one.
Well, two spectacularly arrogant and objectionable men, one a nightclub singer, the other a stand-up comedian, begin to date women who spend their spare time at a nudist colony.
We then follow their time at said colony.

Let me be clear about this:
The only reason I even glanced at this was because director Herschell Gordon Lewis was the man that brought the world The Gore Gore Girls, Blood Feast and The Wizard of Gore, films that redefined what was acceptable visually, and movies that any self respecting horror fan must see.
As exploitation credentials go, that's pretty hard to beat.
Here, again pioneering, he attempted to add an element of credibility to the 'nudie-cutie' genre which blossomed in the 60's and, whilst he may have achieved just that, as a viewer nearly 50 years hence, it is barely watchable.
Important only for Gordon Lewis completists, this is one of the very few films I wish I hadn't even bothered hitting the play button for.
Woefully awful, avoid this at all costs.

1 out of 5

Brazil (1985) Dir: Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam's most revered movie.

The plot:
A low-level worker, Sam Lowry, is assigned to correct a bureaucratic error caused when an errant fly becomes caught up in the mechanisms of a printer, causing an innocent man to be incarcerated.
Lowry, in his efforts to correct the mistake, becomes ever more entangled in a world of red tape and bureaucracy that, ultimately, may cost him his very sanity.

Mixing fantasy with arch black comedy, Gilliam’s style is one that is not for every palate.
Set in a dystopian, grim vision of the world, this bears many of the hallmarks of Michael Radford’s interpretation of Orwell’s 1984, though here the tone is more slapstick, less bleak. With a heritage that encompasses the paranoid grime of 1970’s sci-fi, as well as the obvious link to the farcical humour of Monty Python, it’s an odd mix and, frankly, not one that works for me.
Gilliam, though clearly a proper film-maker – he has a vision all his own, which he effectively renders on screen and absolutely refuses to compromise with a view to gaining mainstream acceptance, two facets that must be applauded – at the same time manages to confuse and alienate many that otherwise consider themselves ‘cult’ aficionados.
With a veritable clutch of powerhouse British acting talent among the assembled participants – Jonathan Pryce, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin and Jim Broadbent, as well as the very much Italian American Robert De Niro – there is no denying the credibility of this work, though I can’t for one second say I enjoyed it.
A cult classic, in every conceivable sense of the phrase, this is one that didn’t float the boat here at Smell the Cult HQ, though I am still very, very glad it exists.

2 out of 5

The Wrestler (2008) Dir: Darren Aronofsky

Director Darren Aronofsky is rapidly becoming a firm favourite here at Smell the Cult HQ. Helmsman of the utterly brilliant Requiem for a Dream and the stupendously good Black Swan, here he is slightly less intense, but I'd still like to smother him in cheese and pop him under the grill for five minutes, all the same.
The plot:
Mickey Rourke, looking more like Hellboy with each passing year, plays Randy 'The Ram' Robinson, a fading Pro-Wrestler whose best years are way behind him. Working part time in a supermarket, he still plies his real trade at weekends, though at small town halls rather than capacity stadia. When a heart attack sees his wrestling career brought to an abrupt end, Randy tries to patch up his life outside the ring; he wants a stripper to become his long term partner, he wants to work full time behind the deli counter at the supermarket, and he wants to make amends with his estranged daughter.
Inevitably, after years living hard and playing hard, Randy finds it difficult to re-enter the real world, and it's only a matter of time before the call of the ring lures him back, no matter the fact that it will probably kill him.
And it's a really touching affair.
Rourke is superbly cast and, I suspect, the role was written with him very much in mind.
With Marisa Tomei providing excellent support as stripper Cassidy - a remarkably brave role to take on for such an established actress, and one she was duly rewarded with an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, along with Rourke's Best Actor nomination - and some real pathos, this is a drama that is powerful and provocative, though it never quite reaches the stirring heights of intensity of some of Aronofsky's other works.
Great film, though.
Very good indeed.

4 out of 5

Bad Taste (1987) Dir: Peter Jackson

Peter Jackson is now world renowned as the Oscar winning director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy but, way before his rise to multiplex filling prominence, he was just a splatter fiend from NZ.
The plot:
Somewhere in rural New Zealand, an entire town, population around 75, has disappeared. A team of pretty inept investigators are on scene and discover that the citizens have been chopped up and boxed up by some form of intergalactic alien race to replenish their own version of MacDonald's, and only they can stop the menace from spreading.
Very silly, very gory and quite, quite nasty, this is gonzo, guerrilla film-making with bags of energy.
Jackson himself stars as the clumsy Derek who foolishly falls off a cliff whilst battling some alien nasties, and smashes his skull open, spending the rest of the movie having to pop bits of his own brain back in to keep him functioning properly.
With lashings of gore, and I mean really, really icky gore, this is a genuine cult classic that Jackson would go on to better with 1992's Braindead.
An amateur New Zealand gore movie that manages to be more engaging than most Hollywood horror?
Now there's a surprise.....

4 out of 5

Face/Off (1997) Dir: John Woo

Very silly, very noisy action sci-fi guff from Hong Kong's Sultan of Stunts John Woo.
The plot.
Nicolas Cage is Castor Troy, supercriminal, one of the most wanted men on the planet, involved in arms, drugs and terrorism.
John Travolta is Sean Archer, a cop haunted by the death of his son at the hands of Troy, his sole focus catching the child-killing son of a bitch, to the exclusion of all else, including the love of his wife.
We join the action as Archer finally manages to take down Troy, almost killing him, which wouldn't normally be a problem but, thing is, Troy has planted a bomb somewhere in L.A. and only he and his brother know the exact location, and his brother won't cooperate.
Using a new scientific procedure, Archer is able to take the face of Troy - literally take the face right off and stitch it to his own - to infiltrate the prison gang of Troy's brother
All goes well until Troy kills everyone who knows about the swap, leaving Archer in prison with another man's face, and Troy on the outside world, acting as husband to Archer's wife......
It's totally ridiculous, of course, but there is no denying the entertainment factor.
Cage and Travolta seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves, effectively playing each other, attempting to affect the mannerisms of the other man.
Sure, the plot creaks like an old walrus, but the leads are engaging enough, Cage perfectly suited to the mania driven performance and Travolta is just plain fucking weird anyway, so seems well cast.
The action set pieces are efficiently crafted, as you would expect from Woo, but the movie does suffer from unnecessary length and, had twenty minutes been shaved off in the editing room this would be a genuine action classic.
As it is, damn good fun, but flags towards the conclusion.
Good, though.

3 out of 5

Doomsday (2008) Dir: Neil Marshall

What an odd movie.
The plot:
It's 2007, and Scotland is ravaged by a deadly infection that sees the flesh slew off the bones of all infected. Unable to contain the outbreak, the authorities quarantine the entire northern area of the British Isles, effectively cutting the country in two, building a wall in the same spot as Hadrian some two millennia previously to isolate the spreading disease.
Skip forward thirty years, and a fresh outbreak occurs, this time in London. With news revealed to the desperate British Prime Minster that an apparent cure is evident in Scotland, a crack squad of military types are despatched.
Their mission:
Find the scientist known as Kane who, when last known alive, had been working on such a cure and bring him back to England.
The price for failure in the mission?
Banishment to the infected wastelands of Scotland....
A tried and tested plot, really, with echoes of Escape From New York, 28 Days Later, Lifeforce and more besides.
Stylistically, this is pretty confused.
The initial scenes recall the aforementioned Lifeforce but, when the military enter Scotland, we are treated to a quarter of an hour or so of full on Aliens style action, replete with lines lifted straight from the sci-fi horror classic, as well as design that also borrows heavily - the guns, the vehicle etc.
Then things take an altogether bizarre turn, as we focus on the surviving residents of the infected zone, a rowdy band of bloodthirsty cyberpunk types that could have been lifted right off the set of Mad Max.
With an undeniable energy, lashings of gore and a black, black heart, this is a melting pot of genre cliches, all fused together to create something new, something a bit different, and something that is most definitely enjoyable, without being altogether convincing.
The OTT costume designs and wonderfully overplayed performance by Craig Conway as Sol, leader of the Scottish maniacs are a little difficult to swallow but, forget all that and just go along for the ride.
Marshall is an undeniable talent in the genre field, yet to truly put a foot wrong. With Dog Soldiers, The Descent and Centurion also under his belt, he is clearly a director to look out for if visceral, genre-literate cinema sets your fluids in motion.
Flawed, then, but highly entertaining all the same.

4 out of 5

Sleepless (2001) Dir: Dario Argento

Dario Argento remains on familiar territory for this Turin based serial killer thriller.
The plot:
When a serial killer begins operating in Turin, an ageing detective believes that it is the work of a killer who has lain dormant for some 17 years. With the help of a technologically savvy rookie, the sleep deprived detective must solve the case before any more victims surface.
And it's all pretty much as you were.
Argento is the undisputed master of Giallo, at least as far as Smell the Cult HQ is concerned, but this does feel a little like treading water. Everything you would expect to be in place is present and correct: fairly savage death-scenes, primarily of women; lip-synching that is just off by a fraction; a sinister, faceless killer; plenty of knives, lovingly shot.
Though never reaching the heights of his late-seventies, early eighties Giallo masterpieces (Tenebre, Phenomena et al) this is still a masterclass in directorial flair, evidence of the fact that, really, Argento hates horror and does everything in his power to distance himself from the crowd.
I said it felt like treading water?
Well, Argento on auto-pilot is still better than most of what's out there.
Solid Giallo.

4 out of 5

Showgirls (1995) Dir: Paul Verhoeven

Reckoned by many to be the worst movie ever made, it can't be as bad as all that can it?
The plot:
The improbably named Nomi (Elizabeth Berkley) arrives in Las Vegas to become a dancer. She gets an opportunity to see The Most Glamorous Show in Town - lots of twirling and cavorting wearing sequined dresses, splayed legs, feather boas and crushingly awful show tunes - is bowled over, and sets out on her quest to become top dog in the world of the show girls.
And what a steaming pile of dung it is.
I mean, laughably poor.
Berkley couldn't act her way out of a Nativity play, the rest of the cast are as bad, the script is so shocking I'd be surprised if Joe 'Basic Instinct' Eszterhás even got paid and the sex scenes are less arousing, more ludicrous, with Berkley throwing herself hither and thither as though having some kind of convulsion.
Director Verhoeven (and let's face it, the only reason this movie is even being discussed here is because of the Dutchman's pedigree) blotted his copy book with this one, having previously been responsible for, you know, proper movies like Robocop and Total Recall, even Basic instinct, but he would go a long way towards recompense two years hence with the simply stunning Starship Troopers.
As for this?
Worst film ever?
No.
But it would probably make the top 1000.

1 out of 5

Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) Dir: Dario Argento

Argento's understated stalker thriller is just a tad dull.
The plot: A musician living in Rome is a troubled man. Having killed a stalker a short while ago, now he finds himself the target of yet another stalker.
What a pisser.
Unable to go to the police for fear of criminal recriminations for the death at his own hands, he must attempt to deal with the mysterious menace alone.
And it's all a touch dreary.
The lead character of Robert is played in spectacularly drab manner by one Michael Brandon, never really engaging the viewer.
The plot, though standard giallo fare, feels tired and half-baked and never really convinces.
Coupled with the air of menace Argento is attempting to convey, he also chooses the odd moment of misplaced, misfiring comedy - a stereotypical homosexual character, played for laughs, weird one-liners lost in translation and the like - which doesn't work on any level, given that it simply drains away any tension and fails to amuse.
Though there are brief flashes of the brilliance to come from this director, with some lovely directorial flourishes - the lovingly shot knife blades, the head bouncing down the stairs, the close up of the eyes - this fails to deliver either in terms of intrigue or terror.
Still, Argento was merely developing his craft here and would later go on to produce some of the finest movies in horror's rich history.
A misfire, but a forgivable one.

3 out of 5

Miami Vice (2006) Dir: Michael Mann

Updating of the smash 80's TV series - one that never interested us here at Smell the Cult HQ, incidentally - is a fairly turgid affair.
The plot:
Colin Farrell and the always magnificent Jamie Foxx play the lead roles of Crockett and Tubbs, Vice Detectives in, ahem, Miami, who become embroiled in a rather silly, rather incoherent plot involving trafficking of both weapons and drugs.
Along the way there is some guff about White Supremacists, a romantic intermingling of goodies and baddies and the requisite glamour shots of Miami and it's night life.
And it really is a mess.
Farrell and Foxx mumble their way through the script, seeming semi-comatose at times, barely even looking at each other throughout the near two and a half hour run time. Seriously, halfway through I began to suspect this may be a Brechtian reinvention of the detective movie, with Mann implementing the requisite alienation techniques but, alas no, it was simply a little bit dull.
Sure, the speed boats look great.
Sure, the location work is stylishly executed and, yes, Jamie Foxx only really has to be on screen and there is a glimmer of interest.
But there is little else here to hold the attention, save perhaps Farrell's ludicrous moustache and mullet combo which seems to morph into different preposterous combinations with each passing shot.
A desperately dull movie, certainly by Mann's standards, and one that only M.V. purists should bother with.

2 out of 5

Warlock: The Armageddon (1993) Dir: Anthony Hickox

Cult director Anthony 'Waxwork' Hickox serves up a silly, spooky sequel to a cult classic.
The plot:
Julian Sands returns in his role as the campest Warlock this side of Devildom, son of Satan himself and, in a quest to allow his father to walk on the face of the Earth, he must collect a series of gemstones which, once acquired, will allow him to open up a portal to Hell at the precise moment of a solar eclipse.
In his way, a family of druids and the white witch sensibilities of the delectable Paula Marshall.
And what a load of old nonsense it is, but very definitely in a good way.
Sands hams it up with some gusto as the evil one and, one for the ladies, we get a fleeting flash of his little pecker.
The special effects are trademark Hickox, with much used made of object overlay as well as some rudimentary digital effects.
With the odd moment of gore - proper physical gore, mind, not this CGI crap we have to put up with these days, and quite gruelly it is too - and a good visual style, this is entertaining schlock horror and the kind of movie which, sadly, they just don't make anymore.
Liked it quite a lot.

4 out of 5

Insidious (2010) Dir: James Wan

Schizophrenic horror that is by turns terrifying and ludicrous.
The plot:
A normal family move into a new house and, not long after, their youngest son has an accident leaving him apparently comatose.
Soon, the mother begins to believe the house is haunted; terrifying apparitions at windows, bloodied handprints on bedsheets, the sense of being watched.
That sort of thing.
After some convincing, the husband agrees to move and, wouldn't you know it, the haunting seems to have followed them. Step forward an aged medium who claims to be able to help but, in order to do so, she must send the husband out of this realm and into The Further, to save themselves and their coma-stricken son.
So let's start with the good.
The first 45 minutes or so is great. Tense, claustrophobic and genuinely frightening in places. Sure, it uses every cliched trick in the book, but it uses them well and with enough skill to send a chill up even the hardiest of horror fan's spines.
Then we get to the bad.
Once we get the big reveal, the reason behind all of the happenings and the protaganists begin to work towards a resolution, it really does veer into the absurd. No longer frightening, this seems as if the director has tapped into the thought processes of an eight year old and put them on screen. Commendably accurate given the premise of the movie, but no fun to watch at all, which is a real shame as everything started off so promisingly.
Whilst I would have given a straight 5 for the first half, I can only give a 1 for the second, so that levels out at a middle of the road 3 out of 5, I guess.

Yeah, 3 out of 5

Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009) Dir: Ti West

Surprisingly entertaining sequel to Eli Roth's smash hit gorefest.
The plot:
When a shipment of disease contaminated water arrives at a school just before the school prom, you can bet your annual earnings on the fact that gory mayhem will ensue.
With a sense of black comedy coursing through it's infected veins, this is very, very entertaining, even laugh out loud funny at times.
The set up takes a little while, as we get to know the characters that are about to be savaged by a mutated strain of necrotizing fasciitis - the flesh-eating bug that came as a blessing to terror-inflicting tabloid writer's during the nineties - but it's no big deal as, unusually for high school based horror, the characters are actually likeable and humourous.
Come prom night, when the disease strikes, primarily through contaminated punch, all hell is wrought, and one can't help but be put in mind of the climax of Carrie, as well as the chaos of Argento and Bava's Demons.
High praise, indeed.
With lashings of gore, a witty script and engaging main characters, this is a top notch sequel that surprised the hell out of me.
Well worth tracking down.

4 out of 5

Burn After Reading (2008) Dir: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

The Coen's Burn After Reading took a bit of a critical mauling upon first release, and probably deservedly so.
Just about.
The plot:
John Malkovich plays Osbourne Cox, soon to be retired CIA agent whose assistant frequents a local gymnasium. Whilst there, she inadvertently leaves her gym bag, in which is a disk containing a working copy of Cox's memoirs. Two gym employees discover the bag and decide that, instead of handing it in, they should attempt to extort as much money as possible from 'interested parties'. Trouble is, they have no idea what they are looking at, nor who would be interested.
So begins a cat and mouse game of espionage bumbling of epic proportions.
A bit of a knockabout comedy, the humour here is broader than usual for the Coen's, Raising Arizona and The Hudsucker Proxy notwithstanding.
Malkovich is excellent as the visibly enraged agent, as are Coen stalwarts Clooney and McDormand, but special mention must be made of Pitt's performance which is just....odd. Wacky and irritating is about the best fit, to the extent that I began to suspect he had discovered Scientology.
Whilst not a patch on the Coen's more weighty works, this was never meant to be viewed as such and, as a bit of throwaway fluff, it passed an hour and a half.
I'll never watch it again, though, and I don't say that about many of their films.
Average.

3 out of 5.
But only just.

Sucker Punch (2011) Dir: Zack Snyder

Simply dreadful.
The plot: A young woman, known only as Baby Doll, is sent to an institution by her wicked stepfather soon after the passing of her mother.
Once there, she retreats into a lavish world of fantasy as she plots her escape…
It near beggars belief that a movie with so much action, so much on screen mayhem, so much movement and chaos and momentum could be so utterly, crushingly, mind-bogglingly, stupefyingly, absurdly dull, dull, dull.
This is a movie that features Nazi zombies.
This is a movie that features relentless, emotionless cybernetic killbots.
This is a movie that features a fire breathing dragon.
That features samurai swords, a city's destruction, machine guns, biplanes and blimps. Not to mention an assortment of sexy young things wearing the kind of fetish gear with the power to make grown men weep.
And yet.
Aaaaand yet....it is so fucking boring you'll want to eat your own fingers whilst it's on.
A laser beam here, a hold-up stocking there, a slit throat here, a flash of knickers there.
Yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn, yawn.
It's like Snyder delved into every male fantasy and attempted to spunk it all onto the screen, only to find his lustful outpourings watery and weak.
Noisy, nonsensical - honestly, this makes not one jot of sense - and eye stabbingly tedious.
Sure, the girls were smokin' hot, but the movie was fucking awful.

1 out of 5

Requiem for a Dream (2000) Dir: Darren Aronofsky

Ten years before the stunning Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky's sophomore outing is just as challenging, just as demanding and just as draining.
The plot:
Four residents of Brooklyn Beach see their lives shift into an unstoppable downward spiral due to their various drug addictions.
We watch on as lives that, though tainted by addiction, are mainly in control descend into a maelstrom of chaos, delusion, paranoia and outright horror.
Aronofsky's directorial style renders each scene captivating, a dense barrage of sensory overload that would make Oliver Stone proud, though he is no copyist, imbuing a clear personality to his movies.
To invoke a cliche, at times it is hard to tear your eyes from the screen, so immersive is the experience.
By turns harrowing, bewildering, horrifying, dizzying and awe-inspiring, the skill here is in building such a riotous crescendo, depicting scenes that may seem absurd in less skillful hands in a manner which never once breaks down that fourth wall.
The movie builds and builds, each humiliation or horror endured by our despairing addicts more awful than the last, lending a sense of the morbid fascination: what on Earth will happen next?
Truly exhausting as a viewing experience, Aronofsky is quickly becoming a firm favourite here at Smell the Cult HQ.
Special mention must be made of Ellen Burstyn, veteran actress who here plays a Jewish widow addicted to diet pills that may or may not be amphetamines. Hers is as accomplished a performance I have seen in quite some time.
A truly remarkable movie in every single regard, this is must watch stuff.
Brilliant.

5 out of 5