Inferno – Film Review

Posted on August 15, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Dario Argento

Starring: Eleonora Giorgi, Gabriele Lavia, Veronica Lazar, Leopoldo Mastelloni, Irene Miracle and Dario Nicolodi

Rating: ★★★½

After Suspiria became a surprise hit at the box office (despite a critical panning) Dario Argento and his then-wife Daria Nicolodi pitched the idea that Suspiria was the first part of a trilogy, dubbed ‘The Three Mothers’. The second film in the trilogy was Inferno and was released in 1980 to similar reception from critics and a much small box office return. Inferno for the most part feels like a stand-alone horror film. Apart from the opening scene which contextualising it against Suspiria, there isn’t that much cross-over. Despite this there are still points where Inferno feels like a poorer imitation of the masterpiece it followed.

Unlike Suspiria, Inferno doesn’t have one setting. It moves from New York to Rome and then settles back in New York for the final act. Because of the shifting in settings the film never drags and the nearly 2 hour run time flies by. Another way this film feels short is because it doesn’t settle on one main character. Every time you think you are following the story of the main character it moves to someone else. It keeps the tension high because no one is safe.

It is evident how Suspiria’s shadow is cast over Inferno. The same type of horror is attempted, with someone being entered into a world without knowing what’s happening behind the scenes. It never achieves the same high sense of terror that it’s predecessor does. The use of lighting and bright and bold colours is still here, but it doesn’t work in the same way. It feels more like an imitation of the original.

If Inferno wasn’t a forced sequel to a film that didn’t really need one, then it could have been a good film in it’s own right. There is a sense that everyone is in danger, the story works nicely and gives enough to keep you fascinated. The opening sequence where Rose (Irene Miracle, Midnight Express) reads the book detailing the Three Mothers is chilling and you’ll be holding your breath with her when she had to dive underwater to fetch the key that she’s dropped. It’s full of tension, and when that’s over we switch to Rose’s brother in Rome with just as an unsettling series of events.

Argento is a master of horror and it’s all on show here. There is a strange and unsettling tone throughout with the mysteries at the hotel that Rose is staying at and in Rome. Rose sends a letter to her brother, which kickstarts the events in Rome and bring the horror there. The effects are passable, but they are dated. It’s worth noting that this is a fourty-one year old film.

Inferno is a perfectly fine film, it just pales in the comparison to the masterpiece that is Suspiria. If there wasn’t so much expectation hanging over this one and it was completely stand-alone then it would be a much better film. The horror is there, it’s just not as masterfully done as Suspiria.

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Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins – Film Review

Posted on August 15, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Robert Schwentke

Starring: Henry Golding, Andrew Koji, Úrsula Corberó, Samara Weaving

Rating: ★★★ 

G.I Joe dates back to the early 1960s as a series of toys. The term ‘action figure’ was coined to avoid using the word doll when marketing the toys. For almost sixty years the toy-line has been rebranded and refreshed in every way possible. In the 1980s, to tackle the huge popularity of the smaller Star Wars toys, G.I. Joe was rebranded as ‘A Real American Hero’, with a line of toys the same size as the Star Wars ones from Kenner. It was during this period that the most well-known characters associated with G.I. Joe were created, including Snake Eyes.

After two reasonably successful films in 2009 and 2013 it’s been a long time since G.I. Joe has been shown on the big screen. Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins is intended as a reboot of the franchise to bring the characters to a new generation and kick-start a new series of films. Since the last G.I. Joe film, Marvel has run supreme at the box-office, taking several spots of the highest grossing films of all time list. Snake Eyes at time feels like a Marvel-lite film, showing everything that a Marvel film would usually show, just without the insane budget.

Snake Eyes gives us the origin story of the title character before he joins G.I. Joe. As a child he witnessed the murder of his dad and vows to spend the rest of his life tracking down the murderer. That journey leads him to join the Yakuza before leaving to join a Ninja clan known as the Arashikage clan. To join them, Snake Eyes must complete 3 challenges.

There is no doubt that Snake Eyes is a family action/superhero film. It feels like a Marvel film from the opening scene and keeps that tone throughout. Even so, there are some moments where the film feels like it wants to go darker. There is a lot of death in this film, from Snake Eye’s father to the countless henchmen that the good guys mow down during the journey. The nameless people die quickly and with little blood, but it’s still a little shocking and refreshing to see the good guys cutting people down with swords (especially after the recent Marvel films where they go out of the way to show that no one got too badly hurt). There is one scene, towards the end, where it feels like this was meant to be darker. Snake Eyes is given a choice and everything leading to that point feels like it should go one way, but it doesn’t. The darker choice is avoided.  It would have been interesting to see a darker version of this film.

Likewise with the action, it’s not graphic in the slightest. People don’t seem to bleed when being impaled on swords – everything is very clean. The action is nicely choreographed, but to avoid showing anything too brutal, the camera is a little messy. At points it can be hard to actually see what’s happening on screen.

The plot has some nice twists and turns that keep it interesting, even if the film does outstay it’s welcome slightly. Most of the plot is predictable with lots of moments that feel familiar, but it’s still entertaining while it lasts. The characters are all interesting and work well together. Sadly, Snake Eyes is the least interesting of the lot. Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) just isn’t that great in the role. He’s lacking the screen presence needed to carry a superhero film as the lead.  

Snake Eyes is a pretty decent film, with some nice characters and action sequences. It does feel a little restrained by its age rating and the lead isn’t that great in the role. Thankfully the story is entertaining and the side characters more than make up for what is lacking from Snake Eyes himself. Hopefully any possible sequels will build upon the solid groundwork and be even better.

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Beckett – Film Review

Posted on August 14, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Ferdinando Cito Filomarino

Written by: Kevin A. Rice

Starring: John David Washington, Boyd Holbrook, Vicky Krieps and Alicia Vikander

Rating: ★★★

Every week there is at least one new Netflix film, either one of their own productions or from the endless number of films they’ve bought the rights to. This week’s offering is Beckett, a standard thriller that does a lot of things right, but not much more.

Beckett, played by John David Washington (Tenet), is travelling through Greece with his girlfriend. After falling asleep at the wheel, he crashes his car through a building, killing his girlfriend on impact. A couple of days later her re-visits the scene only to be shot at by the same policeman who had spoken to him after the crash. Beckett then must get to the American embassy, a short 5-hour drive away.

First things first, the title – Beckett. Yes, it’s the name of the protagonist, but it feels like a working title. It doesn’t tell you anything about the film and kind of feels like they gave up hope before release. Before they landed on Beckett, the original title was Born to be Murdered, which is worse, but at least kind of tells you what the film is about. Maybe Washington wanted his character to have a name so badly, after the unnamed protagonist in Tenet that it was Beckett or nothing.

Like the name, the film doesn’t really tell you what it is for the first twenty or so minutes. It feels like a drama, a romance and even a horror at points before settling down to be a thriller. It’s during this period that the film feels most engaging. It’s not clear what could happen, so anything could happen. It does take quite a while for the tone to really settle into place. It feels like the lack of distinction in the name, reflects the lack of direction for the early part of the film.

Despite that, as the film is slowly unravelling this is when it is at its most suspenseful. The first hour of Beckett is great. From the moment he is shot at by the police, the film is moving quickly. Before that you’re given enough time to care about Beckett so you want him to survive. It helps that Washington is one of the more charming actors around and he is completely believable as an action hero. The stunts are tense and well directed and it’s easy to believe that Washington is capable of them. It’s also good that he doesn’t seem invincible. The wounds he suffers stick around for the rest of the film. They’re not forgotten about, which is refreshing.

It’s the later half of the film that lets everything down. The events start to spiral into the realm of crazy. Beckett isn’t a world-travelling spy, he’s a salesman, but like so many action stars before him, he takes the responsibility on his shoulders and somehow manages to save the day. If the film was slightly shorter it wouldn’t be too much of a problem, it just feels very loose towards the end and starts to drag a fair bit.

Beckett may not be an exceptional film, but it’s still an enjoyable and suspenseful thriller. John David Washington is great and the absolute highlight. There are a lot of tense moments and some good action sequences. The film is well directed with a downbeat tone. It just starts to fall apart at the seams, slipping into clichés towards the end.  

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Don’t Breathe 2 – Film Review

Posted on August 14, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Rodo Sayagues

Written by: Fede Álvarez & Rodo Sayagues

Starring: Stephen Lang, Brendan Sexton III, Madelyn Grace and

Rating: ★★½

The first Don’t Breathe was created around the idea of making a horror film that was grounded and believable. At the time it received acclaim from critics and audiences, even if there weren’t many likable characters and it was unclear who we were supposed to be rooting for. Set eight years after the events of the first one Don’t Breathe 2 finds Norman (Stephen Lang, Manhunter) with an adopted daughter living in what feels like a dystopian nightmare.

Everything about this film looks run down and falling apart. The main settings are Norman’s house, the town centre near-by and a hotel where the bad guys are staying. They all look decrepit and like something out of The Last of Us. No matter how many gunshots are fired, or a house set on fire, there is no police in sight. A woman early on is killed violently in a van and left there and that doesn’t alarm anyone.

The biggest thing that the second one has over the first one is Norman’s daughter Phoenix, played by Madelyn Grace. Finally, there is someone to root for. Phoenix doesn’t know that Norman isn’t her real father – being told that he was since her house burned down and Norman found her on the street. Her entire life has been training to survive. She’s given tests by her adoptive father that will come in handy once a group of thugs break into their house one evening. There’s no way you can root for Norman after the turkey baster incident in the first film, but you can hope for Phoenix’s survival. Having a likable character in this one makes the entire film so much more tense and engaging.

The events of the film, especially in the later half once we get to the hotel, go beyond believable and enter a realm of stupidity. Without going into spoilers, the motive for the bad guys is just insane. It makes very little sense, other than to be shocking. It’s almost laughable. Combine that with the amount of moments that will leave you wondering why? Why doesn’t he just kill him, they killed the woman in the van? Why doesn’t he kill the dog? Why can he open that while the other man couldn’t? These questions and others are all answered by ‘the plot wouldn’t happen otherwise’. A lot of moments in a lot of films can be scrutinised in this way, but in Don’t Breathe 2 the moments are so quick and often that the whole plot is contrived to such an extent that it becomes dull. There’s no natural or grounded feeling like in the first one, it’s just plot points that must happen to continue the story.

Don’t Breathe 2 is very much like the first one in tone and style, it just goes a bit too far over the top. There are still tense moments and good scares, it’s just not going to become a modern classic.

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Psycho – Film Review

Posted on August 13, 2021 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Written by: Joseph Stefano

Starring: Anthony Perkins, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam, John McIntire and Janet Leigh

Rating: ★★★★★

Psycho is one of those films that everyone seems to know about. It’s impossible to start this one without knowing the twist or the ending and that is such a shame because when this first came out 61 years ago, it must have been one of the biggest shocks in cinema history. In the time since then, Psycho has been parodied countless times, received sequels, a prequel TV series and a remake. It’s one of the most well-known films by one of the most well-known director’s of all time, Alfred Hitchcock. Does it stand up to the test of time?

The answer is a most astounding yes. It’s a perfectly paced film, that gives time for the set up and lets you get to know the main characters before the plot starts to really unfold. The horror is still spine-tingling and chilling. The twist and its reveal towards the end are just perfect and it’s still a haunting scene even in the context of the hordes of horror films that have come since then. Apart from one moment, where someone falls down the stairs, the whole thing looks great.

The set design is beyond iconic at this point. The Bates Motel and the house on top of the hill is an image etched into every horror fan’s mind and it doesn’t disappoint when you watch the film. There is something unsettling about the house standing above on the hill, which is heightened by the film being shot in black and white. The framing of certain scenes is also excellent, especially in the scene in Norman’s office, when he has given Marion a sandwich, with all the taxidermized birds hanging in the background. Giving you just enough to know that bad things are about to happen.

The most famous part of Psycho is the shower scene. When it happens, it’s completely out of the blue and if it wasn’t such an iconic scene of cinema, it would be truly shocking and disturbing. It’s so frantic and brutal. The score by Bernard Herrmann is arguably the most recognisable part of the scene – screeching and shrieking throughout. Originally the scene was supposed to be silent to allow for pure shock, but Herrmann made the piece, known as ‘The Murder’ and Hitchcock liked it enough to change his mind. In silence the scene would still be shocking, but the loud and abrasive music make it so much more effective.

Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates is one of the best performances in any horror film, ever. There is something so innocent about the majority of his performance and then so insidious at the same time. The way he skips up the steps to the main house, is filled with child-like joy but once someone asks him something he doesn’t like, the mood switches.

As a side note, there are a couple of links to another classic horror film, John Carpenter’s Halloween. Janet Leigh’s (who play’s Marion in Psycho) daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis plays Laurie Strode, the main character in Halloween. Donald Pleasance’s character from Halloween, Sam Loomis is also named after Marion’s boyfriend from Psycho.

Hitchcock’s Psycho is as close to a perfect film as you can get. It’s suspenseful and full of tension. Right from the opening scene the characters are great and believable. The only downside to it is purely down to the film being so well known that you know the major plot points and twists, without ever having to see it. There has been a lot of criticism about the final scene that explains everything that happened. It is heavy-handed but doesn’t detract from anything that came before. With or without the final scene, it’s still a masterpiece of terror.

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