J*A*S*M

David Jung’s début, The Possession of Michael King, is another addition to the growing family of mockumentaries about possessions, not exactly J*A*S*M’s favourite sub-genre. After the spooky stories of James Wan (the tales of the Warrens), the horrors of Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose), and the activities of Orren Peli, the Community of Horror Fans is saturated with the trend in modern spooky stories. But, overall, The Possession of Michael King, father of Ellie King and husband of Samantha King, is an example of solid horror and also a reminder of the excessive use of that silly attribute in the form of a name that says nothing in the title of a horror film. The Demon of Ferdy the Ant is cool.

A very slow and focused psychological drama about an eco-terrorist attack and the consequences the perpetrators have to face. Don’t expect a lot fun, it will actually require a lot of patience. I don’t agree with the main characters, I don’t even like them, but the film as a whole is fortunately smarter than them and it doesn’t blindly and unilaterally take their side. So, better that than that.

For most of its run this film was surprisingly likeable because it wasn’t the self-serving and cheap emotional blackmail that I feared. And, even though in the end things eventually take the path of emotional blackmail, one it had skilfully crossed up that point, I still liked it. The strongest point is that both of the stars manage to play their roles in a very likeable way. I was actually looking forward to being sarcastically nasty at them, but I can’t.

A solid mindfuck. I didn’t know much about it in advance (just the genre label of comedy/drama, which is quite misleading), so the creators had me exactly where they wanted me and when they wanted me. Definitely an original and remarkable movie that will surprise you. 80 %

It’s nicely shot and atmospheric, but after that “twist” I couldn’t believe anything.

I was expecting an average horror-lite snack, but in the end (rather early, actually) Para Elisa turned out to be a pretty good Spanish style psychopathic exploitation. It’s not that original, though (the inspiration with Misery for instance, can’t be denied), but I won’t lie, there was at least one moment in the story where the film surprised me and made me feel very sorry for the likeable leading female character. It’s a pity how fast it gets to the end, it could have easily lasted another 15 minutes.

There are many things that can be praised in this film: technically and visually is an improvement over the previous and made-for-TV looking The Pact, the performances are solid and some scenes manage to generate a scary atmosphere. But the lack of one main character, stretching the plot to a relatively long time and not trying to be anything other than your typical scary genre flick are a series of tragic decisions that result in a film that works only very problematically, if at all, to the point that I fell asleep watching it the first time. On the other hand, the ending is WTF material, and not in a good sense.

I like home invasion movies, but too many of them have popped up in the last year for me to be in any way excited about the next one (even if this one is a “campus invasion”) that doesn’t try to do anything new. Technically speaking, Random is well made. The only thing that captivated me in any way was the colour palette, it gives the night scenes a pretty interesting atmosphere. Other than that, nothing. Filmmakers should realise that for a hide-and-seek or chase to be tense if it’s taking place in a big area, there are some basic time-space rules that have to be observed, like the villains shouldn’t appear improbably fast in an unlikely place, which is something that here happens all the time. I even had to convince myself to give it that third star.

The nicest indie sci-fi movie since… well, I don’t know since when. This is proof that to deliver a great experience all you need is one house (multiplied X times), several likeable and well written (meaning distinguishable) characters (multiply X times) and a catchy paranoid premise. An evening with old friends is interrupted by a comet that puts the protagonists in a Schrödinger box. I’d rather not reveal any more of the plot, is better to be surprised. In any case, if that’s enough for you, you will have a lot of fun with this cheap mysterious sci-fi movie.

The more space the characters have to move around, the more space they have to behave like morons. If anything, I have to acknowledge that the second Purge at least tries not to copy the first episode and makes better use of its initial premise, though its hollowness hasn’t changed at all since the previous one, but whatever. What bothered me the most were the characters, in particular the mother with her daughter, who were very annoying. In contrast, Frank Grillo was fine and I wouldn’t mind if he was the only protagonist, and the entire second Purge was only about his journey across the chaotic city towards his rightful revenge. Another thing that bothered me were the moments where the creators probably think they are delivering a sharp social satire (the scene of the auction, in particular, is utter nonsense), but they actually don’t say anything at all about society, because their world stands on a very wobbly logic. But overall, I have nothing against this film, it’s an inoffensive and eager B-movie.