05.07.08
Downhill
2 fillums watched again with the usual crowd of masochists.
But before them may I just take a moment to decry the trend of declining quality in the fillums we have. They seem to have gone right downhill since the giddy heights of Ring, The Grudge and Ghost Watch.
Anyways.
First we had Versus. Lent to us by the lovely Philipp.
Starts with 2 prisoners escaping and reaching somewhere to be picked up by the associates of one of them. But odd stuff happens and you end up with zombies. Not just zombies but kung-fu lesbian zombies with guns. Sounds like it could be a riot. Sadly it was a mess. Appalling acting, gurning to out-do Eccleston’s Dr Who and atrocious dialogue. From about 15 mins in it was clear here was a fillum that would have lots of set pieces (all fights) and the only narrative progression would be that the baddies would be harder and more fun fights would ensue. A shame that the fun was missing then.
Another one we switched off before the end.
Second up was Tesis. Some woman at the local university is doing a thesis on violence on screen. She claims she’s horrified by violence but you know she loves it really. Well her prof dies and she nicks the fillum wot he was watching at the time. Ooh is it like “Ring”? Nope the vid doesn’t kill her 7 days later but does lead her into the world of snuff movies. Then the thing becomes a bit of a mess. She has one friend in her quest to find out what’s happening. He’s a nerd who’s into mondo fillums (stuff like “Faces of Death” - google it if you’re desperate). He figures out that the camera used is one particular model. So they trace sales of that model and bingo; it’s someone at the uni. Is it the handsome and slightly scary fillum maker? Has the nerd got something to do with it? Who’s the new professor? What about the handsome lad’s slightly psycho girlfriend? Fair to say that twists galore happen which frankly left me thinking the thing would have better simpler. Too many “oh good grief, so he is involved” moments for me. But the whole fillum was a sub-Funny Games rant against people professing horror at violence but lapping it up on screen. The movie closed with the news station playing the footage obtained and everyone around was watching avidly. As the scary professor says “Film is a business. Give them what they want.”
And that was that. Tesis was spectacularly better than Versus but not v scary and not anywhere close to some of the better fillums seen so far.
We need better ones!