Roman Prygunov's Solitude of Blood (2002)

Maria is beginning a serious depression. Her husband, Victor, has been gone for three weeks, and Maria is really feeling his loss ("I thought I didn't need friends with Victor around, and now that he's gone, my friends have decided the same thing."). Maria is neglecting her work--she is the inventor of an experimental female fertility drug, and her colleague, Vladimir, is picking up the slack. Vladimir is also willing to replace any other missing facets of her life, if Maria will let him in. Maria lives day by day, slowly floating away from reality. As Maria's drama unfolds, a black-gloved killer is roaming around the city, targeting young women.Roman Prygunov's Solitude of Blood (2002) is a thriller which has as its main protagonist a beautiful, intelligent, and obsessive female character at the helm. Ingeborga Dapkunaite, as Maria, joins fellow actresses, Nanako Matsushima in Hideo Nakata's Ring (1998); Lorenza Indovina in Alex Infascelli's Almost Blue (2000); Naomi Watts in Gore Verbinski's The Ring (2002); and Stefania Rocca in Dario Argento's The Card Player (2004). While the quality of those films varies, all of the films, Solitude included, have strong performances from the female leads. Often the lead performance is the saving grace of the film. Prygunov's film has quite a few additional strong points. However, Dapukunaite's performance is the highlight. In Solitude, the viewer accompanies Maria as she wanders the streets or spends time in her apartment, doing the day-to-day things of life. Prygunov shoots all the scenes with harsh light, giving the surroundings an air of artificiality. Nothing looks real any more, not even at her workplace, where Maria's work involves the creation of life. The use of green hue is a perfect touch. Green is a color synonymous with sickness and its judicious use works. In one of the film's best green scenes, Maria awakens to enter the bathroom. She removes bandages from previous wounds (from a car accident earlier in the film) and begins to cut open her stitches with a straight razor. Maria pulls tape from all of her wounds and completely soaked in blood, she makes a makeshift cassette with an eerie message.The murders in the film and the would-be subplot involving a conspiracy at the lab take a backseat to Maria's decline into depression and madness. Maria eventually uncovers the identity of the killer, but by that time, she has fallen away. The murder scenes are filmed in a very giallo-esque fashion and quite stylish. Although the film is around a hundred minutes, Solitude moves at a leisurely pace, to say the least. At times, this is a strength of the film and at others, a serious weakness. The screenwriter, Pavel Ruminov, pens a very interesting but uneven story. He would go on to write and direct Dead Daughters (2007) to some acclaim. Prygunov constructs some terrific visuals with some simple haunting audio. Above all, this film is worth seeing for Ingeborga Dapkunaite's performance. The closeness that the viewer gets to this character is refreshing, even though it is a descent into madness

Pascal Laugier's Martyrs (2008)

A very big thank you goes out to Large William, co-host of the podcast, The Gentlemen's Guide to Midnite Cinema, for sending me a copy of the Canadian DVD release of Martyrs. William and Rick the Samurai host a spectacular and addictive podcast--check them out. I attempted to keep this review as vague and spoiler-free as possible.

Pascal Laugier's Martyrs (2008) is the story of Lucie (Mylène Jampanoï), a child survivor of horrendous abuse, who comes into the arms of maternal Anna (Morjana Alaoui). Traumatized Lucie bonds with Anna, and when the two become adults, they embark on an act of revenge against Lucie's captors.

Meticulously-crafted Martyrs comes off as a fable for the modern age. Laugier's imagery is quite beautiful, and the performances by Jampanoi and Alaoui are something else. Jampanoi bears a strong resemblance to Isabelle Adjani, and like Adjani, she has wonderfully haunting eyes which convey strong emotions. The eyes are a powerful symbol in Martyrs, as Alaoui's Anna reveals by the end of the film. Alaoui gives a powerful performance, like Jampanoi, and both performances rely heavily on the facial expressions of both actresses. Laugier's film flows from Lucie and Anna's emotions.

The first hour of Martyrs reflects the impulsive actions of Lucie and Anna. Overcome with anger and revenge, Lucie make a series of actions with unforeseen consequences, as they also encounter unforeseen characters and events. The film is quite kinetic and fast-moving; however, I never forgot while watching that there was an undercurrent of something premeditated and calculated relating to the why Lucie and Anna were reacting and acting the way that they were. The film is rife with dark material and themes. The subject of child abuse is shown as it is, completely reprehensible. However, Laugier's imagery is shown with very bright and clinical light--almost nothing is hidden in shadows. If something is hidden, it's usually revealed as quite hideous. Also, the plot feels totally alien and unreal, but the brutal violence is shown with a visceral realism. Victims are shown emaciated, like mutated monsters, while the perpetrators, the true monsters, look like everyone else.

As such, the first two-thirds of Martyrs are nearly perfect. There is minimal exposition and the film has nearly no substantive dialogue. Laugier is able to tell his story with the images and the juxtapositions which he creates. However, when the first real dialogue appears after the first hour, Martyrs loses momentum and takes another thematic shift, which left me cold. The film becomes slower and more methodical, and it comes off as manipulative. The lesson or the essence of the film, tied into the title, seems contrived and forced. I think it would have been a stronger film if Laugier would have kept the captors' intentions ambiguous and allowed the viewer to speculate as to their philosophy.

I was also fortunate to have avoided reading any reviews or learning really anything of the plot before viewing Martyrs. The biggest killer of horror movies is hype, and Martyrs received some high praise which produced undoubtedly some high expectations. The violence of this film is exceedingly brutal and nasty, and those with weak stomachs should be forewarned. Martyrs is an imperfect film but an interesting one for the modern age.

Lorenzo Bianchini's The Square Root of Three (2001)

Lorenzo Bianchini's debut feature The Square Root of Three (2001) is a little yet spectacular and spooky film spoken in the Friulian dialect from northeastern Italy. The film's unique location gave it some prominence and I was glad to have stumbled across this film a few years ago. Square Root is also the most impressive shot-on-video horror debut that I have seen since Takashi Shimizu's orginal Ju-on (2000). Like Ju-on, Square Root handles its budgetary limitations very well, as talented Bianchini had many tools with which to work. The Square Root of Three is about three students, Max (Massimiliano Pividore), Nico (Alex Nazzi), and Asma (Tomas Marcuzzi), who are at risk of flunking. Deciding that they have nothing to lose, the trio decides to break into school after hours, redo their exams, and pop out quietly. After a successful break-in, Max and Nico lose Asma somewhere in the school. Unable to complete their task, the duo leaves before the janitor catches them in the act. The following day at school, Asma doesn't appear nor did he go home. The computer password that Max found isn't an access to the school database for grade entry, rather it's an access to a cryptic group of emails, from teacher to teacher. Realizing that something's amiss and seriously creepy, Max and Nico search for Asma and return for a final (?) evening trip to the school. Square Root's plot is quite simple, but Bianchini's execution is quite unique and creative. The film begins with a frame narrative, introducing detectives who are scouring the school looking for clues to the missing students. The storyline actually involving the trio flows from that one. Bianchini is able to heighten the suspense and manipulate the creepiness of the students' story with the set-ups and plot points from the frame narrative. Ruggero Deodato is a master of this technique as shown in his notorious Cannibal Holocaust (1980). One of the best scenes involves a detective's trip to a Catholic Church to ask some inquiry questions. The film lingers in the church after the detective leaves to allow the viewer into the confessional, where the priest hears a sinister confession.Also, Bianchini is able to take what would be repetitive shots of Max and Nico running around the same halls, shooting in tunnels of a modern university, and transform the shots, by manipulating the lights, shadows, and colors (with an effective use of red), into modern-looking catacombs. Likewise, through Nico's character, who is always blacking out and waking up from bizarre dreams, Bianchini plays with the time and space elements of the duo's journey. The two are asking each other, "Was there a door there before?" or "How did my flashlight get here?" The central mystery involves the existence of a Satanic cult at the school, and Bianchini sets up the story so the viewer is asking whether Max and Nico are flipping out or is the cult effing around with their surroundings? The Satanic imagery is rarely used and its rare use has quite an impact when shown.
The Square Root of Three shows what a talented and creative person can do with a low-budget film. While Bianchini is never able to hide the low-budget roots in Square Root, he doesn't need to--the simple story is totally loaded and for a hundred minutes or so, I was both intrigued and thrilled (and jumped a few times, too). Even more impressive, Bianchini would top the success of Square Root with his next low-budget horror film, Keepers of the Beast (2006).

Aleksi Mäkelä's Vares: Private Eye (2004)

An interesting trend appeared in both films made and in film criticism after Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994): Troy Duffy (Boondock Saints (1999)) and Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)), for example, probably had an easier time getting his respective film green-lit; and respectable film critics and super-geeky film people, such as myself, were quick to note how Tarantino-esque those films were. Tarantino is undeniably talented and his films are influential, but I'm not one to call a film derivative if it is reminiscent of a Tarantino work. That type of criticism is in a lot of ways unfair and it also ignores the fact that there was a whole lot of cinema before Tarantino that was influential upon filmmakers. So what does a filmmaker do when he wants to make a film he most certainly knows will be judged against and labeled as similar to Tarantino? Aleksi Mäkelä answers this question in his film, Vares: Private Eye (2004).Based upon Reijo Mäki's novel, Keltainen leski (1999), Aleksi Mäkelä's Vares: Private Eye is about the titular detective, Jussi Valtteri Vares (Juha Veijonen). Vares is fond of drinking and doesn't have a whole lot of luck with the ladies, as shown in the film's splendid beginning. Vares, during military war games, attempts to rescue damsel-in-distress, Eeva (Laura Malmivaara), who quickly gains the upper hand. The two characters and the two actors have an immediate chemistry. Sadly, the film would separate the two for the first half to introduce the plethora of characters to this crime tale: the crooked cop, the gangster boss, the venomous gangster moll, and two gangster stooges. Eeva won't involve herself with Vares--she is getting married to a convict inside the penitentiary. The wedding is a front for a prison break. Here's the point in the film for the insertion of quirky characters and furious double crosses and plot twists. Vares swears off drinking until he can get his love life in order, so he has got to move quickly.A lot of the humor is delivered by the two gangster stooges, and it's mostly poking fun at Tarantino's films. The two attempt to have a pop-culture conversation in a car about Elton John's one bad song (he doesn't have one) or they shoot their television and want to watch a video (the Travolta one but the film is shot out of sequence). Eeva even dons a wig reminiscent of Mia Wallace's short black-do from Pulp Fiction, and there's a scene where characters are having dinner while the camera circles around them. Truth be told, I would have never brought up Tarantino in this review, but Mäkelä goes out of his way, seemingly, to bring him up in Vares.Vares, save the Tarantino bits, is really inspired by clever Shane Black films, such as Tony Scott's The Last Boy Scout (1991), fellow countrymen Renny Harlin's The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), and Shane Black's golden Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005). No doubt that Mäkelä had the ingredients to make a film of the same caliber, but for whatever reason, Vares never dodges the Tarantino chip on its shoulder. Vares is as glossy and slick as any Hollwood production with some frenetic and impressive shots. Minna Turunen delivers an incredibly sexy performance as Ifigenia Multanen, the gangster's moll, but unfortunately, her character is hardly explored. The real interest is Vares and Eeva, but even after their reunion later in the film, the chemistry has seriously dwindled. Vares labors until the end that is reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs (1992), True Romance (1993), and even Jackie Brown (1997). Mäkelä had all the ingredients to make his own film.I also realize that reviewing a film from another country through ethnocentric eyes is also completely unfair, as are the Tarantino comparisons. Vares is based from a popular Finnish novel with performances by native actors. Vares even spawned a sequel, V2: Dead Angel (2007). I found these comments and have no reason to believe that they are not genuine. I can say, however, that Mäkelä is very talented and am looking forward to his next film. Here's to hoping that it is his film.

Teruo Ishii's Screwed (1998)

Feelings check: how is everyone doing today? Chances are that most people are doing better than Tadanobu Asano in Teruo Ishii's wonderful Screwed (1998). Asano, Tsube, with his shaggy hair, turtleneck, and his head always down, is the low self-esteem version of Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat. Tsube is a cartoonist, and the opening surreal montage of painted bodies writhing on a blood-red beach are images from his work ("lots of ideas but can't bring any of them together"). Tsube doesn't make any money, so he and his girlfriend Kuniko (Miki Fujitani) get kicked out of their apartment. Kuniko goes to work in a dormitory and Tsube begins his wandering journey. Tsube has many sordid encounters, often with females, but almost all of Tsube's encounters reveal one thing--he is a loser, a lovable one, but a loser, nonetheless. Screwed is a film that reeks of tragedy, but the end result is a comedy. Asano's Tsube is a character to whom I can totally relate and with whom I feel a strong kinship. Two of Tsube's greatest assets are also his two of his biggest flaws: an overactive imagination and a fatalistic view of the world. As attributes, the holder of these two can produce great art; as character flaws, these two can be killers for most folks. So, let's start with Tsube's suicide attempt. Tsube finds four condoms in Kuniko's purse when she comes to visit him one day from the dormitory. Tsube can't determine if the condoms were for Kuniko's use with him, so his mind begins to hearken back in time to Kuniko's old boyfriends. A particularly shameful episode pops into Tsube's mind when one of Kuniko's suitors comes for a visit at their home. The suitor treats the couple to a nice meal and even shares their bed with them. Tsube doesn't make any wages and Kuniko lives away from him, so in Tsube's mind, he's determined that she's sleeping with someone else. It turns out that she is pregnant with someone else's child, but it's not the scenario Tsube envisioned: Tsube realizes that Kuniko made a serious mistake by having a one-night stand. He also realizes that he doesn't own her and is able to see her as the lonely person that she is. Feeling a failure, he attempts suicide and is hospitalized. His stay in the hospital is hilariously embarrassing. On a day trip to the country, Tsube meets Chiyoji (Tsugumi), a young woman who works at a bar. Tsube thinks she's just a hick and doesn't really know anything. As he speaks with her as she serves him sake, Chiyoji reveals that she was sold by her father to her foster mother, who forces her to host at the bar. Tsube doesn't believe her, and the two make small talk. Chiyoji reveals that she wants more than anything, a pair of red shoes from the city. Tsube doesn't take her seriously, again, and soon passes out from about four sips of sake. He awakens later to witness Chiyoji being molested by two bar patrons. Tsube watches as she's degraded, and Chiyoji reveals that she'll put up with the degradation if the patrons promise to buy her the red shoes from the city. Tsube realizes that Chiyoji is quite genuine and seeing the reflective harshness of her life, Tsube leaves. The country isn't as idyllic as the city, and for Tsube it's sometimes a lot closer to home than he realizes.Ishii films Screwed with a seeming soft-focus lens and a fondness for red hue. Screwed takes overt turns into the surreal, especially the final episode, but for the most part, the film is surreally realistic. That is to say, life is shown as unreal through realistic encounters. Asano is a perfect actor to portray Tsube. Some of my favorite performances from Tadanobu Asano are in Sogo Ishii's Electric Dragon 80000 V (2001), Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer (2001), and Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in the Universe (2003). A lot of Tsube's dialogue is delivered with his soft voice in voice-over, and I really enjoy watching Asano walk down the street with his head down, hearing the thoughts in his mind, and looking around the next corner for something bizarre to pop up. Screwed was one of Ishii's final films. After a very prolific film career in the 60s and 70s, Teruo Ishii disappeared for the entire decade of the 80s, only to appear in the early-90s with a new production. Younger generations of viewers and younger filmmakers brought a new appreciation to his work, and Ishii flourished again. Screwed and Japanese Hell (1999) are two of my favorites from Ishii. Whenever I watch Screwed, it always makes me laugh and puts a smile on my face. It's not because I can feel better that I don't have it as bad as Tsube, but because Tsube plays out a little bit of the human condition which gives a glance at how often we make mistakes with unforeseen consequences. I highly recommend picking up the region-one DVD from Panik House Entertainment.

Tonino Ricci's The Shark's Cave (1978)

Tonino Ricci's cinema and I are simpatico. Ricci never made a truly great genre picture, in my opinion, but his entire directorial filmography reveals many an enjoyable one. For eighty to ninety minutes, Ricci crafts pure entertainment with pure craftsmanship. His best film is The Big Family (1973), a focused crime flick, which is as much a series of exciting mafia hits as it is a story about a corrupt crime family. I hope to revisit all of his films that I've seen for this blog, but let's start with Ricci's tale of tiburones and a mysterious triangle in The Shark's Cave (1978).Andres (Andres Garcia) washes up on shore after a six-month absence. Andres does not remember anything about his trip and does not even remember his girlfriend, Angelica (Janet Agren), who has a burgeoning relationship with Andres's brother, Ricardo (Maximo Valverde). Andres decides to take it easy and relax (which includes a date to a cockfight with Angelica) until his memory comes back. However, Arthur Kennedy's Jackson knows who Andres is and he wants something from him. There's little need for concern--The Shark Cave's plot is completely perfunctory, as are the performances. So if you have selachophobia or hate spoilers, then stop reading now.

Handsome Andres Garcia has numerous acting credits and apparently lives a very interesting life. The only memorable film that I remember seeing with him is Rene Cardona Jr.'s truly mediocre The Bermuda Triangle (1978), where Garcia is lost amongst quite a cast, including John Huston, Gloria Guida, Hugo Stiglitz, and Claudine Auger. Beautiful Janet Agren has appearances in a number of noteworthy genre films with my favorite being the pretty lady who runs the lonely truck stop in Sergio Martino's Hands of Steel (1986). Likewise, Arthur Kennedy is no stranger to genre cinema with standout performances, for example, in Jorge Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (1974) and Tulio Demicheli's Ricco the Mean Machine (1973). Garcia and Agren are eye-candy: while they are not smiling or grimacing, they are swimming in their bikini briefs. Both have nice legs, but I would give the edge to Agren. Kennedy is a wonderful, old school American actor and plays gangsters perfectly; but other than chomping a cigar and pointing a pistol, there is no real character development.With a title like The Shark's Cave, there has got be some sharks in a cave, right? Definitely. The film's strong points are its underwater scenes. Andres's past is revealed in a flashback: Jackson hires Andres and his friend to investigate a downed airplane at the bottom of the ocean. While scuba-diving, Andres and his companion notice a large shiver of sharks apparently sleeping at the ocean floor. The sharks appear to be guarding something. Whatever it is, it is not of this earth, and it's also the cause for the plane crashing into the ocean. Andres notices a bright light during his investigation and his memory disappears. The finale of the film is amazing: it involves a massive shark frenzy. It's in these scenes where the viewer gets to see some excitement from Ricci: they are photographed in a very claustrophobic way; the jump scares work; the lighting is terrific; and the shots of the sharks are menacing.Interestingly, the best sequences of the film involve collateral characters. In one, an unknown group of friends are relaxing on their boat, singing a few songs, and one of them has a tarot deck. A little girl notices a deadly card in the deck and walks, with tattered doll in hand, off the edge of the boat. The group immediately dives in to save her, but in the darkness, the sharks come. Stelvio Cipriani, one of Italy's greatest film composers, delivers the film's score, and it's during this sequence where the music stands out: eerie accompanying wailing sounds and horrifying dissonant notes and chords. The scene is also literally very dark, so when the light gleams off the shark's shiny skin, it's something else.In another scene, an unknown ship captain tells his tale to Angelica about his ship sinking. The sequence could involve a ship model, because I have no idea. As hokey as the scene plays out, it is very effective.The scene doesn't further the plot: it just serves to heighten the supernatural aspect about the mystery at the ocean floor and the guarding sharks. A mystery to which the answer is never truly revealed by the end of the film. Really no matter, I was having too much fun while the story was underwater, and by the time any of the characters came up for air or survived a shark attack, the film was over. I think that was Ricci was going for when he delivered his hidden jewel in The Shark's Cave.

Marcello Avallone's Specters (1987)

If I had a calling in a former life or had I followed a childhood aspiration, then I would have become an archaeologist. That is, I would have become a movie archaeologist. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) planted the seed within me. I wanted to grab a whip and don a fedora and get into adventures. My goal was to discover treasures and hope to have them robbed, so I would have an excuse to get into more adventures. Even cooler adventures would involve the supernatural. Really, I wanted to be like El Santo in Santo and the Vengeance of the Mummy (1971). Now, El Santo wasn't an archaeologist but had a job as a wrestler and the world's greatest superhero (who also had the greatest superhero vehicle: a Jaguar convertible). The lessons of Santo and the Vengeance of the Mummy, and many archaeologically-themed genre movies, are crypts and tombs are destined to be disturbed, the dead will eventually rise, and if your fortunate, El Santo is around to body slam them for you. Shinya Tsukamoto's phenomenally cool, Hiruko the Goblin (1991) involved ancient burial mounds under a high school, in which the reluctant archaeologist had to come with his homemade gadgets and stop the demons. Armando Crispino's giallo spin on the archaeological dig (with supernatural overtones), The Etruscan Kills Again (1972), is without equal in the giallo genre for its setting and atmosphere. I really never wanted to heed the words of Indiana Jones in Raiders: archaeologists are lovers of history, spend most of their time in libraries, and have, most importantly, Ph.Ds. I, however, wanted to do what he did. In the movie. Movie archaeologists are always the most fun, and if there is an archaeological genre in cinema, then consider me a huge fan. Marcello Avallone's Specters (1987) is about the vast catacombs under Rome in which archaeologist, Donald Pleasence is making some unpleasant discoveries. The tomb, which he and his assistants eventually uncover, had a number of tenants, some of whom liked to engage in human sacrifices. As the team digs deeper, more and more unpleasantries are revealed.Avallone has less than ten directorial credits with Specters being the only that I have seen. However, I am eager to see Maya (1989) and The Last Cut (1997), and from what I have read, they are two that appear to be interesting. Specters isn't a particularly strong film. It suffers from a complete lack of focus. The script appears to be written daily and the film, overall, edited clumsily to create a coherent film. Legendary Italian FX artist Sergio Stivaletti provided, when they actually appear, some great special effects.
It is a miracle that beautiful Katrine Michelsen appears in this film, as the actress/singer girlfriend of one of the archaeological team. Michelsen appeared previously in Lamberto Bava's Delirium (1987). Her addition to the film seems to want to place Specters among other Italian genre films involving beautiful models, such as Delirium, Nothing Underneath (1985), Fashion Crimes (1989), and Too Beautiful to Die (1988). Michelson's performance is a highlight and a saving grace for Specters, making it a guilty pleasure. Donald Pleasence is a very fine actor and gives a competent performance in a regrettably small role. Pleasence would appear in a number of Italian films after his famous role of Dr. Loomis in Halloween (1978), one of the standouts being Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985).

Even with Specters lack of focus, there are a lot of fun scenes to make it worth seeing. In a great scene, influenced by Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), one of Pleasence's team ventures under the catacombs to discover its parameters. The glorious technology reveals a circular tomb leading to a pit. There's a hideous discovery at the bottom. If Specters comes your way, take a peek. It's not that hideous.