By: Trevor Chartrand Helmed by Finnish filmmaker Teemu Nikki, Euthanizer is one moody, atmospheric and, frankly, zany thriller. Between overlapping tones and strategic musical cues, this movie blends genres in a way that just shouldn’t work, but somehow does – it’s like combining the sweetest strawberries with jalapenos and raw sewage. Euthanizer somehow creates a sweet, yet spicy, story that will leave a bad taste in your mouth (in a good way).
Face of Evil, the feature-length debut from writer/director Vito Dinatolo, is a poorly paced and unremarkable horror-thriller that is more frustrating than frightening.
Our House graduates from the “Paranormal Activity Institute of Small and Effectual Scares”. Actually, if we’re rating this supernatural horror against the Paranormal Activity series, it’s on par with the first two films, and ranks higher than the franchise’s final two chapters. For what it’s worth, that’s a decent sweet spot for Anthony Scott Burns and his feature-length debut.
For as rambunctious as Future World is, it’s awfully dull. This disappointing joint effort comes from directors Bruce Thierry Cheung and James Franco, although considering how successful Franco has been as a director, I wonder if he was hired to guide Cheung. Nonetheless, both filmmakers fail at establishing this tattered reality, which falls somewhere between a hellscape and a subsisting rebirth. The survivors also seem to be an uneven mix of copied characters from other movies.
The central character in Dave Schwep’s Broken Star is a young actress fallen from grace: a drug-addicted, manipulative monster. Markey Marlowe (Crazy, Stupid, Love’s Analeigh Tipton) – a character and name that sounds like it’s come right out of a 1940s film noir – is placed on house arrest, with her only company being reclusive landlord Daryl (Tyler Labine of Mountain Men), whose grandmother has recently passed away. Over time, Marlowe manipulates Daryl into attacking those…
7 Splinters in Time advances from a well-timed reveal. It’s a wordy spiel of exposition delivered by the dependable and always admirable character actor Austin Pendleton, but it’s a scene that justifies the film’s frenetic style and narrative; turning incomprehensible details into awesome creativity.
I understand why people would be frightened by Who’s Watching Oliver (especially young women), but how come the production felt the need to squander their potential on such junky thrills?
With 22 Chaser, director Rafal Sokolowski gives Toronto a vibrancy and grit usually associated with big American cities. This edgy vision efficiently (and stylistically) projects the aggressive nature between the film’s competitive characters, who are trying hard to earn their keep.
By: Leah Kuperman In Darkness stars a blind protagonist who gets caught in the violent crimes of the London underground. Writer/director Anthony Byrne (BBC’s Peaky Blinders) offers viewers a gripping film with ample twists and turns but most interesting, however, was the way his movie portrayed the life and disability of its protagonist.
