MOVIE REVIEW
Grace (2009)
Seattle International Film Festival
Not all short works of fiction need to be stretched into full-lengths. Imagine an entire movie based upon the plot of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” — 90 minutes of a depressed guy locked in his bedroom, succumbing to eerie sounds and claustrophobic paranoia. If handled properly, the set-up could make for the greatest Roman Polanski creepshow of all time; more than likely, though, it’d becomes the horror equivalent of a film based on a “Saturday Night Live” sketch — intentionally scary, that is.
Continue reading “Baby Got Bite” »
Focus Features
A priest in a vampire movie usually has one of two functions: to explain the cursed origins of the subhuman creatures or to eventually help dispatch them via a cross, holy water and a wooden stake. But what if the priest is the vampire? In “Thirst” – winner of the Prix du Jury in Cannes – commercially and critically acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook uses this narrative twist to put his own unique and visceral spin on the vampire film’s familiar themes of contagion, morality and eroticism.
Continue reading “Priest Takes Unholy Communion” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Twilight (2008)
Deana Newcomb/Summit Entertainment
For those knowing close to nothing about the “Twilight” phenomenon, it's tempting to approach this heavily promoted adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novel with extreme trepidation. Oft-circulated clips of thousands of teenage girls descending upon star Robert Pattinson in a possessed frenzy further reinforced the notion that this is probably not something made for another demographic. Indeed, the film lives up to your expectation – for better or worse.
Continue reading “Let the Right One Bite” »
MOVIE REVIEW
Let the Right One In (2008)
Magnet Releasing
Leave it to the Swedes to revive the now predictable conventions of the vampire genre with their unique brand of existential depth and stark aestheticism. To say that “Let the Right One In” is a modern horror classic may be true but understates the magnitude of its success as an unflinching take on the sometimes harrowing rites of passage of adolescence and a touching tale of first love.
Continue reading “My Blood-Thirsty Valentine” »
