HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: HOWL (2015)

HOWL (2015)

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Okay British horror has a young train guard (Ed Speleers) presiding over a late night passenger train heading out of London on a stormy night. While traveling through some dense woodland, a minor accident strands the train and it’s small group of passengers and crew, in the middle of nowhere. Being stuck in the woods is the least of their problems, as they soon find themselves stalked by some kind of vicious and hungry predator, one only heard of in fairy tales…and horror movies.

Despite the simple premise, this werewolf flick has four writers attached, including Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday, Game Of Thrones). But, it’s veteran special make-up effects man turned director, Paul Hyett that lets us down somewhat, as he fails to give the film any real intensity or suspense. The film does have some atmosphere, but with a savage beast lurking just outside the train cars, you’d think we’d be feeling a lot more dread or tension. The film is directed very by-the-numbers and is a bit too slow paced for it’s own good. The cast of stereotypical characters are all very bland, too, so we never really get endeared to anyone and our strongest reaction is to the wolves themselves and in hating selfish douchebag, Adrian (Eliot Cowan), who is the standard ‘sacrifice others to save himself’ character. Not to mention commonsense things like, don’t they keep track of their trains in England and so, therefor, why doesn’t anyone at HQ notice one of it’s trains has stopped in the middle of nowhere. The good points are that the werewolves are not only interestingly designed but well-rendered and look pretty cool onscreen. They make an impression and Hyett does give their attack sequences some ferociousness and there is plentiful, top-notch gore to represent their carnage. It’s a shame Hyett couldn’t keep the intensity going as the werewolf scenes succeed in what they set out to, but then the film settles back down into it’s less impressive motions until the next one, or till the moderately involving but predictable climax. There is some moody cinematography by Adam Biddle and an appropriate score by Paul E. Francis, but it doesn’t elevate this film above the mediocre flick it is.

In conclusion, the movie wasn’t terrible, just not nearly as involving as it should have been considering the setting of isolation and what’s lurking about. The werewolf scenes worked very well and had a viciousness to them, yet the scenes in-between were flat and concerned un-involving, common stereotype characters. The make-up and gore effects were top notch and the scenario itself was suitable for a fright flick had director Paul Hyett been better at managing the scares and intensity. Worth a look if you like werewolf flicks, but don’t expect another Dog Soldiers or Late Phases. Also stars Shauna Macdonald from The Descent and Sean Pertwee from Doomsday and ironically, the far superior Dog Soldiers.

-MonsterZero NJ

2 and 1/2 full moons.

 

 

 

 

HORROR YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (2011)

A LONELY PLACE TO DIE (2011)

A Lonely Place To Die is more thriller then horror movie but, it is a suspenseful and sometimes nasty little thriller at that and does have the violence, tone and body count one might expect from a horror flick. The film tells the tale of a group of friends… Alison (Melissa George), Rob (Alec Newman), Jenny (Kate Magowan), Ed (Ed Speleers) and Alex (Garry Sweeney)… who are mountain climbing in the Scottish Highlands and find a young Croatian girl, Anna (Holly Boyd), buried in a box in the middle of nowhere. They obviously release her and take her with them but, to say that some very unsavory and very lethal individuals want her back, is an understatement and the vacation turns into a fight for survival against two ruthless and armed thugs. What makes this thriller especially effective though, is it’s ability to smoothly change gears. What starts out as a wilderness survival flick becomes something else about halfway through and without missing a beat. It actually draws us in further, as we didn’t expect the movie to take this direction. The less you know the better, so, I’ll say no more. Director and co-writer Julian Gilbey (along with co-writer Will Gilbey) evolves the story without loosing our attention or breaking the tension he creates early on, giving us something more then we expected, so, we are glued to the screen until the film’s bloody and very intense conclusion. He gives us a few surprises along the way and keeps us from ever getting comfortable in our expectations of where this is all going to lead. Performances all around are good with Melissa George playing a strong yet vulnerable heroine and Sean Harris and Gary Sweeney are brutally effective as the pair of cold and vicious kidnappers. The Scottish locations give the film a nice look under the guidance of Julian Gilbey’s lens and he gives the film a nice no-frills yet visually striking style while providing us with some intense action and suspense. A very entertaining action/thriller and a sign of hopefully more good things to come from Julian Gilbey. Also stars Hellboy’s Karel Roden.

3 and 1/2 bullets!