Thursday 22 September 2016

DON'T BREATHE

REVIEWS NO-ONE ASKED FOR
by Ashton Brown



Image result for don't breathe

DON'T BREATHE

dir Fede Alvarez


THRILLINGLY OK

It's been a pretty exciting few years for horror movies. The genre is becoming more and more popular with mainstream audiences and thus more and more sub-genres are being created. I think a downside to this is that although the quality of horror films are steadily improving, the hype around films is also increasing and the expectations a lot of us have for films before we see them is at times unrealistic and as a result it is having an impact on the amount we enjoy said films. I went into Don't Breathe hearing that it was going to be one of the scariest films of the decade and was extremely pumped to be crapping my pants for its 88 minute run time. Director Fede Alvarez did a solid job of the Evil Dead remake a few years back so it's fair to say my expectations were extremely high.

Now I wouldn't go as far to say that I was disappointed by Don't Breathe - it's a pretty solid thriller. It has elements of horror for sure but I think its marketing focusing solely on it being a horror film is a little bit misleading. The storyline is pretty typical - 3 young criminals (the hot one, the douche-bag and the nerdy awkward one - nothing new here) decide to rob a blind war veteran in an empty street to start a new and better life with the settlement money that he obtained when his daughter was killed by vehicular manslaughter. Needless to say it goes wrong. Very wrong. The films "twists" are ok - I don't think they are amazing, although once or twice I did find myself being pleasantly suprised with the direction the story took. However overall it was fairly standard to the genre.

The jump scares are plenty and very enjoyable and effective but I would say that other than jump scares I wasn't overly frightened. There's tension but not tension that I felt transferred from the onscreen characters to me as an audience member. I think this is mainly because I struggled to feel any real empathy for any of them characters. The film IS very unrelenting. It is scene after scene of chase, gunshots and darkness which was very fun. Not so much frightening but certainly thrilling and action packed.

The sound is absolutely exceptional. I have said it before - music can make or break a horror movie - and the music in Don't Breathe is fantastic at creating a never easing sense of dread. It accompanies the jump scares very well to create an environment of never really being able to catch your breath. Don't Breathe is also a very well shot film with some gorgeous cinematography. The opening scene in particular, is absolutely stunning and the use of aerial footage is very well utilised to create a sense of isolation and dread.

The acting is good for the most part - with 3 out of the 4 characters not annoying me with crappy performances and overall the dialogue isn't too cringe worthy (although the spoken exposition felt very forced at times. Sometimes showing is better than telling). Special mention to Stephen Lang (Avatar) for his pitch perfect performance of a broken, blind war veteran.

Overall Don't Breathe is a good movie. It's a solid thriller with some interesting twists, beautiful camera work and gorgeous sound design. I would highly recommend seeing this at a cinema with solid sound facilities for full effect - I saw it in a cinema with 360 degree sound and it truly added to the experience.

For me personally, it's not the 2016 horror movie I've been waiting for. Let's hope that's still on its way.

3 out of 5  

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Friday 16 September 2016

BLAIR WITCH

REVIEWS NO-ONE ASKED FOR
by Ashton Brown

Image result for blair witch


BLAIR WITCH

dir Adam Wingard



HAVEN'T I SEEN THIS BEFORE?

When I was 13 a mate and I watched The Blair Witch Project and we were terrified. I remember watching it in a rumpus room in Whitford and spending the rest of the night prank calling infomercial phone lines to take our minds off what we had just witnessed. It was harrowing. It was one of those films that at the time was new and original and as such I wasn't yet desensitised to the way it presented its scares and the found footage genre was brand spanking new. It was hard to shake the expectations that the original film had created as I headed to the cinema to see Blair Witch.

Director Adam Wingard had once again teamed up with screenwriter Simon Barrett. Their previous collaborations include The Guest and You're Next - neither are terrible horror films - in fact both were above average, which for a horror movie means better than most. The biggest problem with Blair Witch is that it not only fails to shake the success of it's older and more unique predecessor but it also fails to create something different. This almost felt like a remastering of the original - The Blair Witch Project 2016 - if you will. There is only a certain amount of time that you can watch people walking around the woods screaming before you kind of just want the witch to show up and put them out of their annoying misery. Whilst the acting is decent the film is absolutely smothered in horror movie stereotypes to the point where we pretty much correctly numbered the order the characters would disappear.

Having said all that there are some things that Blair Witch does very well. I found the use of the drone camera fascinating as it provided a visual depth that we aren't used to in the found footage genre. It gave us this true feeling of isolation that was almost claustrophobic. Speaking of claustrophobia - the third act is where the film finally becomes it's own entity and really becomes something more than average. The third act is tense, terrifying (and not just because of jump scares) and the film manages to actually make you physically uncomfortable with the atmosphere it creates. This third act literally saves and makes this film and prevents it from being forever remembered as a less attractive and less original younger brother of the source material. Blair Witch also uses diegetic sound very well. Since the found footage genre takes away a directors ability to use non-diagetic sound (music etc) and because so much of horror is sound - I was impressed with the films ability to use "real world" sounds to create the suspense and assist with the scares.

All in all it's still a pretty decent horror - despite a slow first half and a less than inspiring story - horror fans will get a pretty enjoyable buzz out of the third act which actually does manage to get your heart pounding. Although I was overall disappointed with it's lack of originality, fans of the genre will still leave feeling that they got at least a little bit of what they came for.

2.5 out of 5  

Don't forget to subscribe if you like what you read here. Or publicly argue with me if you don't. Seriously tell me what you think. I'm so lonely.