The Fly - Review

David Cronenberg's 1986 gore filled horror film, The Fly, has gained cult status among movie fans throughout the years. With its comic book violence and graphic make up, the film embodies everything good about '80s horror. The plot is simple, a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) working on a teleportation device decides one drunken night to test it on himself, everything seemingly goes to plan until strange changes start to appear on the scientists body. It is revealed that a fly had got into the machine with the scientist and the computer responsible for teleporting the object fused the two, the man and the fly, together.

Choosing to look primarily on how the deformation of Brundle, the scientist, affects his once blossoming relationship with Veronica (Geena Davis), Cronenberg focuses heavily on characters in the film, ignoring the cheap scares and pointless horror that is featured in many other films of the same genre. Cronenberg uses the transformation of Brundle's physical appearance, from handsome man in a suit to a beast that the audience struggles to look at without wincing, as a representation of his connection with Veronica. The interest thereby comes in two forms, one, in the repulsive features of the changed Brundle, a physical display of horror, and two, the lack of humanity that is evident in the way he speaks, walks and thinks. We do not question Veronica's fear of the new Brundle as we have the exact same fear within ourselves when he comes on screen, Cronenberg masterfully puts viewers in the shoes of the female character, forcing them to forget the passionate, human, scientist we once watched and focusing on what can only be described as an animal. Using horror as a form of telling the story and allowing the audience to understand characters more, the film chooses narrative as a priority over scares, something that relates directly to the success of the film, in my opinion.

The script is written, with many quotable phrases featured, "Be afraid. Be very afraid.", and perfectly combining science fiction and horror, showing off the new technology of the '80s and also the advancements of prosthetics. This film attempts to hammer the final nail into the coffin of horror films made previously to The Fly, screaming "Welcome to the '80s" at the top of it's lungs, we see a huge contrast in this film to the popular horrors of the '70s, with The Exorsist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween appearing to be worlds away from a film such as this. Aside from the advancements in technology shown both in the film and through the camerawork, the lack of discretion regarding the graphicness of the attacks shown in the film also proves Cronenberg wanted to set this film apart from the rest. In mainstream cinema, people would have been, and perhaps still are, discomforted by bones sticking out of wrists and baboons being blown to bits, but Cronenberg was aware of the advancements of cinema and the new features that were available in regards to special effects and camera tricks. No rating was going to stop him from displaying the possibilities of the developing film form, and with the film going straight to an 18 rating in the UK and an R rating in the US, no rating did stop him. 'If we could now show bones breaking and baboons exploding, the people should be able to watch bones breaking and baboons exploding' seems to be the mentality he went for in regards to the more graphic side of the film.

This film is really, really important in regards to the development of the horror film as we know it. With a strong plot and a clever mind behind the whole project, the film is a lot of fun to watch, featuring 'cover your eye' moments and laugh out loud moments, the film is a staple in any horror fan's collection.

The Conjuring - Review

It appears that James Wan took every single cliche feature of every horror film of the past 20 years, put them in a large mixing bowl, added a shitty script and some half-assed acting and put it in the oven to bake for 112 minutes. The cake we receive at the end of the running time is burnt, bland and tasteless. Excuse the metaphor, but it's the only thing that I felt could liven up this review that is quite frankly going to slate the entire film.

Directing such great horror films as Insidious and Saw, James Wan should have the genre completely sussed out. With these two films, I felt genuine respect for the director, they were ground breaking plot wise and really, really scary, with The Conjuring, however, I don't think I've ever been so disappointed whilst watching a film- perhaps an overstatement but anyway, lets continue. With a sold out cinema on a tuesday night several weeks into the film's release, everybody in the theatre was giddy when the opening titles played, awkwardly laughing in order to hide their nerves from their friends or their dates. The awkward laughter quickly turned to full fledged hilarity before the film had even hit half of the running time. The predictable 'scares' (if they can be called that), attempts at creating dramatic tension along with the plot taking itself far too seriously meant that the once nervous crowd had to remind themselves that this film wasn't a joke throughout. I, myself, felt like checking my phone half way through the feature just to clarify that this wasn't a parody of every shitty horror film ever made. Sadly, it wasn't.

Disregarding the fact that it was based on a true story, the character's were too many for the audience to even try and feel a connection to any one of them during the 1 hour 50 minutes of the film, meaning the connection, or lack thereof, we were meant to share with these characters, only identifiable through the fact we are of the same species, rendered the psychological horror aspects of the film useless. I did not care about a single character in this film, in fact, I was hoping a few of them would die off in order for me to possibly remember the names of some of them, sadly my wishes weren't granted. Without psychological scares, we are left with jump scares, and jump scares only to scare us, and giving them the credit they deserve, there were a few shouts from unsuspecting audience members who had quite clearly never seen a horror film before and were not aware of the lack of originality in the build up to these events, but for the most part, there were no surprises in the hands, faces and slamming doors meant to shock viewers.

Following another of the popular features of horror at the moment, The Conjuring uses home video cameras in order to give us a more edgy view of the events occurring. Whether the effect of these clips was to make us feel more intimate with the characters and closer to the events occurring, or whether they were used in order to give the audience a genuine headache (only one of which was effective), I don't know, however the only thing displayed to me through this feature was once again the unoriginality of the whole project.

I understand the one sided-ness of this review, but I honestly cannot remember any redeeming qualities the film offered besides the ending, which I thought was shot so poignantly and was moving, it's a shame that I had no interest in any of the character's well beings after I had just sat through almost two hours of garbage. The film is full of cheap thrills and is no different from any of the other bad horror films being produced at the moment, therefore it is not to say that people who enjoyed films such as The Purge or Texas Chainsaw 3D will not be mind blown by this feature, but for me, it didn't really cut it. Perhaps my expectations were too high from the director's previous works and the circulating reviews I happened to read before watching it, or perhaps I am missing something that most other bloggers and critics are picking up on, the fact of the matter is that I gained nothing from watching this film except a whole lot of laughter.

(I do really, really, dislike writing bad reviews and will rarely post on a film that I saw no good in, but before I went and watched The Conjuring I was dead set on writing something about it because I was expecting something so brilliant, but go and see the film, watch it and make your own mind up, prove me wrong, tell me about all the ways in which the film excited you, scared you and was original, I am such an open minded person that I enjoy listening and reading other people's views on the film).

My letterbox'd review summarises this post for those who did not read it all:

Nosferatu Review

Nosferatu is a must watch for fans of horror and/or vampires. Released in 1922, we see Count Orlok showing his interest in purchasing a residence in the city of Wisborg, and Thomas Hutter, and estate agent, having to leave his wife to go and confirm Orlok's request. Orlok, who is soon found out by Hutter to be a Nosferatu (a vampire), sets his sights on Hutter's wife, who is having nightmares and fever-ish conditions caused by Orlok. When Orlok disappears from his home in the 'Land of the Phantoms', Hutter realises that his hometown may be at risk, and what follows is the journey of both men back to Wisborg.

Modern Horror films have shown us that fear can be created through violent murder scenes and that gore is essential in any attack, Nosferatu, an example of a classic horror film, uses nothing of the kind. The horror element of the film comes from what we don't see. When there has been an attack, we are only given a glimpse into the aftermath of the event, seeing the bite marks on the neck of the victim and using our imagination to figure out the ways in which Orlok would have attacked these innocent people, which can be much more gore-filled than any of the modern horror films in theatres today. The appearance and characteristics of Count Orlok, his dark eyes and the fact he is constantly emerging from the darkness, also add to the fear element of the film. The extended shadows of Orlok's eyes combined with his gaunt face add an undead-like appearance to the character, his long, thin body seems almost inhumanely giant when next to the average sized Hutter, and the power in which he holds is evident even when the focus is not on him.

Cross cutting is effectively used in this film to create tension in the audience, we will be set up with a scenario that is going to be horrifying and then the film will cut away to something less dramatic, but with the dramatic scene still lodged in the forefront of our mind, it is as if we had never cut away. A factor that I have always enjoyed and felt added to my fear of Orlok, and one that may not be intentional by director FW Murnau, is the lack of clarity of shots. As the film form had only been around for just over 25 years at the time this film was released, the camera for motion picture was obviously not highly developed, leading to some of the shots being too dark to make out much else than one or two things, this lack of knowing the location being shown puts the audience in an alien environment and therefore an uncomfortable situation, mirroring the trapped position of those being targeted by Orlock.

As the film fits in to the German Expressionist movement, the use of lighting and shadows is key in the film. Elongated shadows of Orlok, with his claw-like hands and his long nose, are key shots in which viewers remember and associate with the film. The moment where Orlok is ascending the stairs in order to reach Hutter's wife, where we only see him by his shadow, is an iconic moment not only in the German Expressionist movement, but in film history as a whole. The constant playful techniques that directors of this movement used make the films so much more fun to watch than modern ones focusing on jump scares and CGI gore.
The film is a delight to watch and comparing Nosferatu to horror films from the past few years such as the remake of Evil Dead and the likes of Saw shows just how much change and development has happened in both audience expectations of horror films and also in the way they are produced. The film is a well-rounded, tense horror film, with a few problems regarding pacing along the way, however the interesting style makes up for what it lacks in the weaker parts of the script and the overall outcome of the film is one that is most definitely a classic in every sense of the word.