Territories (checkpoint) 2010

Territories, known as checkpoint in the uk, is a mental little film from canada. a group of twenty somethings are driving back fom a wedding at their friends house in canada. they get stopped on a backroad as they cross he usa border by a border patrol. everything goes tits up. the border patrol are really a couple of fanatical american ex soldiers who have taken it upon themselves to protect their country. so before you can say guantamano the group are dressed in orange jumpsuits having bright lights shined in their eyes and being forced to listlen to really loud gabba. nothing really improves for them and there is no light at the end of the tunnel. great ending, great acting and great subversion of traditional script writing. top shit all round.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 3/5 - a few nasty bits, some 'ouch' tooth surgery.
SEX/NUDITY - 2/5 - they are sometimes stripped before torture time
SCARES - 4/5 - really puts you off driving from canada to the usa

FILM - 4/5 - sustained horrible goings on, def worth a watch

FOUND FOOTAGE TRIPLE BILL

Having recently sat through ' a night in the woods' i needed a dose of found footage films to wipe that painful 80 mins out of my memory, first up.

TROLLHUNTER 2010

A group of documentary makers are trying to film what they think is an illegal hunter, they soon realise he is a goverment sanctioned trollhunter, paid to hunt down and kill trolls that have escaped from their designated area. the film goes through all the major troll groups, which get gradually bigger as the film rolls on. trolls are attracted to christian blood so the camerman doesnt last long. followed by the amusing hiring of the replacement cameraman. 'so are you sure your a muslim?'. the troll fx are great, the actors take it all seriously and it ends the same way as all found footage films end, abrubtly.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 2/5 - troll attacks, a couple of goats get it
SEX/NUDITY - 1/5 - the trolls are naked
SCARES - 2/5 - Trolls!!!!

FILM - 4/5 - excellant stuff, trolls are great

Next up was the latest hollywood offering.

APOLLO 18 2011

Its the lost footage of the apollo 18 mission, which never officially happened but all the conspiracy nutters out there have known from the start that it was aliens all along etc etc. so, 3 astronauts investigate the dark side of the moon, they find a crashed russian moon lander and a dead russian, the moon rocks are also really living spider things that crawl in your suit and cover your face up as you scream. theres only so much you can do with this sort of film but the change of setting keeps it interesting enough to see it through to the 'aaaaaah' equipment shorts out>>> end.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 3/5 - the rock spider things are pretty gross
SEX/NUDITY - 0/5 - three blokes in space, i should hope not
SCARES - 2/5 - a couple of 'boo' moments that work quite well

FILM - 3/5 - the fact that its on the moon is all thats different, but that'll do.

and last on the evenings list. from spain.


ATROCIOUS 2010

For some reason the spanish rock when it comes to found footage films, rec, rec 2 and now atrocious, a film that starts the same way as all the rest. heres a happy normal enviroment, heres what goes wrong etc. but instead of the usual 'no answers'abrubt ending, it delivers a proper ending, with proper views of bloody corpses and an explanation of what you just saw. which incidently is a couple of teenagers who film ghost stories to eleviate boredom on a trip to where there mum grew up who end up getting violently done over by a nutter with an axe. ill say no more but definatly check this one out.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 4/5 - kids getting burnt and chopped, not happy
SEX/NUDITY - 0/5 - nothing that i remember
SCARES - 4/5 - it delivers the required chills once it gets going

FILM - 4/5 - a top notch, slightly different, found footage film

A Horrible Way To Die 2010

And another frightfest film. this one is all about a woman who finds out her husband is a serial killer, she calls the police and he goes to prison. some time later she is a recovering alcoholic and her husband has escaped from prison and is murdering his way across america towards her. she meets a nice friendly chap at an AA meeting and, foolishly, lets him into her secret past. as her husband closes in and the new man in her life starts being a bit weird it becomes clear its all going to end in a brutal stabby mess. you might spot a few of the many twists and turns coming a mile off but its still entertaining watching it all play out. and i honestly didnt know which way it was all going to go at the bloody climax in the 'kill room' set up in the woods.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 3/5 - stabbings,  shootings, slicing of throats
SEX/NUDITY - 2/5 - a brief sex scene, couple of naked corpses
SCARES - 3/5 - lots of impending doom

FILM - 3/5 - entertaining, twisty, bloody thriller

THE CALLER 2011

Another film shown at frightfest on the little screen. a woman going through a divorce moves into a flat with her dog, one night the phone rings and a woman on the other end starts asking about stuff that happened 40 years ago. the phone is 'of course' some sort of time portal thing and the two woman communicate for a while until the present woman inadvertanly tells the past woman to kill her husband, which changes the future and present womans life starts to unravel. by killing her husband past woman no longer kills herself and starts controlling present womans life. she hunts down and kills her friends in the past so stop existing in the present. then she sets her sights on the present woman but when she was a little girl. to say more would ruin everything, but it gets pretty messed up.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 2/5 - lots and lots of threat but no proper splashy blood
SEX/NUDITY - 2/5 - a sex scene with magic hair that keeps covering up nipples
SCARES - 4/5 - once it kicks in its creepy as hell

FILM - 4/5 - top atmos, top acting, top film

Laid to Rest 2 : Chromeskull (2011)

Hmmm, the sequal to one of the worst films ive seen in recent memory, i was reluctant to even bother watching it, but i did. alas its the same old shit with a 'twist' . now theres 2 nutters in skull masks chopping, slashing and dismembering passing teens. like the first its gory as hell and the fx are pretty good, but like the first you dont care about anyone, you just sit and wait because you know every 10 minutes theres gonna be some brutal gore. waste of time really.

BLOOD/VIOLENCE - 4/5 constant and bloody but nothing new
SEX/NUDITY - 3/5 - a few pointless shower/getting undressed bits
SCARES - 1/5 - no scares, just blood

FILM - 1/5 - a complete waste of 90 minutes of my life