J*A*S*M

A group of eyeballs crawling on a road are run over by a car. That’s not the beginning of some absurd anecdote, but the first scene of this (well, absurd) Japanese horror movie, which makes clear to everyone that this won’t be a very normal experience. It’s a strange mix of extremely effective and extremely weird scenes (for instance, the one with the fake hand in the rubbish, I have absolutely no idea what that one was supposed to be about), but together they create a remarkably disturbing and astonishing whole that I didn’t quite understand, but I still had a lo of fun. It truly chilled me a couple of times and some of the sequences, like “blackout” after the 40th minute, scared the living shit out of me. Even though I’m not a big fan of this bizarre stuff from Asia, this one deserves thumbs up.

A revelation. In a time when most viewers rate the quality of a horror film on the basis of the number and the effectiveness of the jump-scares, this weirdly told, character-centred spooky story won’t have it easy, but I couldn’t be more satisfied. It’s a about a mirror hiding an evil that gets into the heads of its owners and drives them insane, but in two timelines that Flanagan tells simultaneously and that also overlap in different ways. If I had to choose one word that would best describe Oculus, it would be “oppressive”. The characters are likeable, you really wish them a happy ending, but the evil within in the mirror is the best part. The viewer simply cannot escape the anxiety and despair. Rather than Insidious, The Conjuring and other modern horror flicks, Oculus is closer to Kubrick’s The Shining in its slow but thorough build up of a bleak atmosphere. The performances are superb without exception and the technical aspect is perfect. If you prefer unsettling slow-burns over scary attractions, don’t hesitate it for a minute. Absentia wasn’t a fluke, I’m looking forward to what’s coming next. Oculus is a successfully realised opportunity to get into the horror major leagues.

It’s a pity they screwed up the third act. Up until Neeson’s speech to the nervous passengers, this is a solidly tense thriller and I would have forgiven it anything, but after that scene the decent fun falls apart in such way that it becomes annoying. By the end everything is bad.

So, a couple of days after a methodology exam and a couple of days before a philosophy one, I sit down to watch this film. It must be fate, it was perfectly timed. Frequencies is a hard film to classify with a genre, it could be called a sci-phi (science-philosophy) romance with some dark, mysterious elements. But don’t expect another Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, this one is a lot more philosophical, a lot more scientific and also a lot less romantic; sometimes I felt I was in a lecture – which, to avoid misunderstanding, I don’t mean as a complain. The story takes place in the near future, probably, when it’s possible to measure the frequencies of people. People with low frequencies are less synchronised with the world around (basically, they are unlucky), while at the same time they are gifted with empathy (emotional feeling). In contrast, people with high frequencies are embraced by nature (they are lucky), but at the same time, “they don't care” (they don’t have emotions). At one university for genius children, a boy with extremely low frequency meets a girl with extremely high frequency. If two people like these meet and remain close for longer than a moment, their divergent frequencies will likely cause some kind of catastrophe (the girl with the lucky charge repels the boy with the unlucky charge, “they aren’t compatible”). The boy falls in love with the girl and spends years thinking about how to balance his frequency and establish harmony, so the girl will have feelings and it will also be safe for them to say close to each other longer than a minute. But how is it possible that a boy with such low frequency has got so lucky that he’s able to defy fate? Isn’t there a catch in the form of a dangerous side effect?… And that’s just the beginning. The system, or rather, the mythology the creators have come up with is much deeper and more complicated. If you want to enjoy this film, you can’t turn off your brain. What’s great is how the world gets more complicated with each twist, but it still makes sense somehow. On top of that, the story taking place in that world isn’t told in an ordinary fashion, quite the opposite in fact. It was a big surprise, but there could have been more emotions. But, as the characters say: “Does it matter” – “Not to me.”

A film whose attributes and characteristics can be only described as “uninteresting”. That’s basically all it can be said about it. It’s not downright bad, just not good. It’s nothing but a run-of-the-mill thriller that’s adequate only to be sold by thirty crowns at the newsagent or to watch on TV, in the afternoon.

The chosen concept and format isn’t always 100% convincing, but, since I believe that pure and unbridled formalism is the bane of cultural life, because it reduces art to a machine that is or is not well oiled and assembled, I will turn a blind eye to that and I will rate this as a successful début. It’s a human film that, unlike other Czech “human” oriented films, relies on well written dialogues, realistic characters, good performances and also the wisdom of its young creator, who clearly understands that humour doesn’t necessary have to equal embarrassment, as it’s usual in modern Czech movies. Very nice as an entry, next time I hope it’ll be better! 7/10 on a number scale, and as a proud native of Budějovice, rounding down is out of the question.

Such a predictable thriller with a surprising twist. Smarter readers will have correctly judged the previous sentence as an oxymoron… and that’s exactly where the problem is.

For Marvel, good. I’m usually not a fan of this colourful conglomerate of comic book superheroes, but The Winter Soldier is (unlike its predecessor) a solid action blockbuster that entertained me a lot. The theme is relatively interesting and stimulating, though Marvel’s habit of “not going too deep” can make it frustrating at times with how superficially and simply the political, philosophical and technical aspects of the of the script are presented. But, as a summer blockbuster for the masses, it works fine. So, as I say, for Marvel, good. Next, on the umpteenth episode of your favourite series…

A solidly atmospheric conversational thriller that relies mostly on real-life characters, which is the most important thing in these indie films. The climax feels a little forced and the final chase could have been a bit shorter, and you can also see how underfunded it is. The Poisoning is certainly not a hit like those truly renowned micro-budget horror movies like Resolution or Absentia, I don’t think I’ll remember it in a couple of days, but it’s still a good first step for a new director.

Hammer has resurrected, but taking into account the quality of their new stuff, I wonder if it shouldn’t have remained buried. With the exception of Woman in Black (which, given the director it had available, was actually below expectations), the only films they’ve delivered so far are average and pointless, which is exactly the case of The Quiet Ones. It has a fairly nice set design and style and the director does try to build an atmosphere, but despite all those efforts, it just didn’t make it for me, it was terribly boring. Really, I can’t remember when was the last time that I felt so incredibly bored with a horror film (that didn’t have zero ambitions). And this is not a movie where nothing happens, here “something” is happening all the time, the problem is how blandly it’s delivered: monotonous, unobtrusive, without any rhythm or escalation. And with a very worn out premise and uninteresting characters, to boot, which I don’t care a priori, provided the filmmakers can compensate it with something. But here there’s nothing, just an annoying blend of a classic film with period “found footage” images. An awful drag.