“Whispering Corridors” was not an awful film, as a matter of fact I’ve yet to see a Japanese horror film that I thought was incredibly awful, but “Whispering Corridors” is in fact, boring. It’s aggressively boring. As a matter of fact, if you or anyone you know has insomnia and you’re attempting to cure it, put on “Whispering Corridors” and you’ll find them asleep within a half hour, for sure. Ki-Hyung Park’s direction is quite possibly the saving grace for “Whispering Corridors.”
Tag Archives: Thriller
Stephen King's Desperation (2006)
I mean sure, “The Stand” had many biblical themes to it, and I don’t hold that against it basically because it’s my favorite television movie of all time, and my favorite King mini-series, but that’s because it never used the biblical themes so blatantly before. I have to say “Desperation” is one hell of a disappointment. It’s a cheesy, ridiculous, and utterly un-scary practice in babbling, that actually required a considerable amount of effort to sit through. After weeks of anticipation and excitement, I finally tuned in and basically zoned out by the second hour. If there’s any indication that producers have run out of material for Stephen King min-series, it’s “Desperation”.
Spartan (2004)
Leave it up to David Mamet to write and direct what a true spy film should be and has to be. What starts off as a full procedural evolves in to a film in the spirit of “Three Days in the Condor”. As per usual Mamet, his film rapidly evolves from scene to scene, and what I thought would be a cold procedural film that would usually be a stupid show on CBS, quickly evolved into a very well characterized thriller. And films with Val Kilmer have, of late, left me skittish to enter it, but Kilmer really leads a truly well drawn thriller that I had fun with.
Masters of Horror: Imprint
What—you thought I wouldn’t review this episode? You fool. Showtime, or as I like to call it, HBO-lite created the “Masters of Horror” series more as a Halloween novelty and then in to a full on series. They then invited horror veterans to throw in their own tales in the proverbial cap and really garner ratings and acclaim. And then they took on Takashe Miike. And then they banned his creation. The equivalent of this being that I ask an artist to draw the most disturbing picture he can, and then when he does, I scream “Whoa! Too disturbing!” And then I tear it up. My question is: How can you give an arsonist a match and then not expect him to burn down a whole city? How can you let Takashe Miike direct something for you and then get angry when he actually directs?! Did anyone at Showtime even know who he was?
Maria Full of Grace (2003)
You may not think to look at it, but “Maria Full of Grace” is quite possibly one of the tenset films made in years. Mostly centered on suspense and agonizing tension, “Maria” is a film about the drug trafficking world, the world where desperate people are duped in to becoming mules for Colombian drug lords. Catalina Sandino Moreno gives an excellent performance as the spoiled and head strong Maria who basically lives the mundane life of a teenager in Colombia. Marston’s film about the experience of not only people seeking a better life in what they perceive as a Utopia, but also of drug mules.
When a Stranger Calls (2006)
Do you know how your little brother or cousin would always pop out from a corner with a mask and yell “boo!” and then you’d be scared. And then amused, he’d continue doing so. Again, and again, and again, until you started to get angry. But he continued doing it until you tore the mask off and kicked him in the nuts? Well, that’s what my experience was like with Simon West’s remake of “When a Stranger Calls”. Now, I haven’t seen the original film just yet, but I imagine it won’t make me want to kick the director in the nuts. Imagine this: I took a camera and filmed myself around the house. You would see me drinking water, taking a dump, cleaning my ears, walking around the hallway… I know you’re saying “That’s stupid, I’d never see that”. Well, then you may want to stay away from this.
Spitting Bullets with Director Alex Ferrari
Fuck off Michael Bay, there’s someone better in town who has the potential to be an in-demand director, and his name is Alex Ferrari. I was first introduced to Alex when Cinema Crazed was in the early stages of accepting screeners for independent filmmakers. Alex sent along “Broken,” and we were interested to see what he had in store for us. And much to our surprise, “Broken” was absolutely great. Ferrari went onto acclaim for “Broken,” a film about a young girl kidnapped by a small group of hit men who assure her she’s not who she thinks she is. Later, Ferrari went on to send more of his features to us, and we were hooked. “Cyn” only proved that Ferrari has the bonafide chops to display good old fashioned film entertainment, without any of the clichés, and sheer idiocy big budget directors often drop into.
Ferrari directs films that look shockingly high budget, even though most of his films only have a budget of a little over a thousand bucks, and is one of the many indie directors providing a slow and steady revival of the Grind House genre, and he’s not stopping at mere low budget action fare. The man has big plans, and he’s getting there and bringing his fan base with him.