Western viewers, such as myself, recognize Ronny Yu from his most recent Western works, like Bride of Chucky (1998), Formula 51 (2001), and Freddy v. Jason (2003). If you're a little more super-geeky, such as myself, then you noticed Ronny Yu made one of the greatest films of Hong Kong's last golden era (before the hand over in 1997): The Bride With White Hair (1993), starring two of the period's greatest stars, Brigitte Lin and Leslie Cheung. All of the mentioned films share Yu's unique visual style. Yu is an artist with a command of camera and special effects techniques, who also is extremely experimental in his use of camera motion, colors and lights, and frame composition. His ambitions, visually, were met by larger-budget films, and each film becomes exciting to watch not only for its narrative but its unique way of being told. In addition, Yu's use of film's audio techniques exceed most of his contemporaries. However, a more in-depth discussion of Yu's later films and later techniques are for another day, while I take a look at an early HK horror/comedy film of his entitled Bless This House (1988). 
Mr. Chang stays up for three days finishing his architectural designs for work. His wife receives a new pool as a gift for their baby girl, Yin Yin, and she wants to plunk it down right in the middle of the bedroom of their small apartment. Meanwhile, Mr. Chang's teenage daughter, Jane, has a new geeky boyfriend named Biggie. Biggie's a big suck-up to Jane's parents, but he'd rather be...anyhoo, Mr. Chang's designs are a big hit at the office. A promotion and new house awaits the Chang family and even Biggie's excited about it. The Changs arrive and notice the house is a little odd, a little dusty, and a little weird. A one-eyed crazy man hangs around outside and tells everyone in the family to leave. Biggie starts breaking everything around the house. Jane begins fixing, and while working on the wallpaper, she uncovers a bizarre child-like mural hidden underneath (like Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975)). After Biggie's molested on the couch, it's time to call in the exorcist. 
Bless This House is all over the place, both its plot and its visual style. Watching the exorcist getting his ass whipped (literally and figuratively) by a vacuum cleaner is worth the price of admission alone. Bless This House's combination of slapstick humor and scares is evocative of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead (1981), Stuart Gordon's Reanimator (1985), Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (1987), and Jim Munro's Street Trash (1987). There's barely a lick of gore, however, in Bless This House, but it's not shy on the cheesy make-up effects and mayhem. The jokes are of the supernatural and atmospheric variety: spooky dark nights, ghostly mirrors, objects moving, and the scariest and most humorous, demonic possession. The final fifteen minutes are standout in the scare department. 
The plot of Bless This House is a mixed bag, but Yu's visuals are something else. The most notable is Yu's use of the wide-angle lens combined with sweeping camera movement. The camera moves closely into characters' faces and with the wide-angle lens the characters' expressions become polarized and bigger-than-life. Raimi used this technique in Evil Dead and Jackson used it well in the The Frighteners (1994). Alternatively, Yu uses a wide-angle lens combined with a still shot and has his characters fall into the camera. Just by keeping the camera still and moving the actors, Yu creates a different, yet still disorienting, effect. Like Robert Rodriguez in El Mariachi (1992), Yu will shoot sequences with three to four camera angles, then edit them together, instead of one long camera shot. This technique hides a lower-budget, but it also makes innocuous and mundane actions seem interesting. Quick cuts are also employed when the camera is sped up, so the characters are looking as if they are flying across the room. This technique also hides the lower budget of the film, but it also adds to its kinetic nature. Like Tsui Hark in The Butterfly Murders (1979), Yu is not content with traditional close-ups and medium shots: faces and characters are framed arbitrarily and normally, characters walk into the still frame from the right or left, rise from the bottom into the frame, or fall from the top. To top it off, Bless This House also has wire work and animation and some seriously cheesy make-up effects.
The plot of Bless This House is a mixed bag, but Yu's visuals are something else. The most notable is Yu's use of the wide-angle lens combined with sweeping camera movement. The camera moves closely into characters' faces and with the wide-angle lens the characters' expressions become polarized and bigger-than-life. Raimi used this technique in Evil Dead and Jackson used it well in the The Frighteners (1994). Alternatively, Yu uses a wide-angle lens combined with a still shot and has his characters fall into the camera. Just by keeping the camera still and moving the actors, Yu creates a different, yet still disorienting, effect. Like Robert Rodriguez in El Mariachi (1992), Yu will shoot sequences with three to four camera angles, then edit them together, instead of one long camera shot. This technique hides a lower-budget, but it also makes innocuous and mundane actions seem interesting. Quick cuts are also employed when the camera is sped up, so the characters are looking as if they are flying across the room. This technique also hides the lower budget of the film, but it also adds to its kinetic nature. Like Tsui Hark in The Butterfly Murders (1979), Yu is not content with traditional close-ups and medium shots: faces and characters are framed arbitrarily and normally, characters walk into the still frame from the right or left, rise from the bottom into the frame, or fall from the top. To top it off, Bless This House also has wire work and animation and some seriously cheesy make-up effects.
All of the filmmakers mentioned in this entry went on to become successful directors and all have in common their exhaustive use of creative visual tricks. Bless This House is certainly dated and weak in a lot of spots, but it also shows an extremely talented director near the beginning of his career. Recent low-budget filmmakers could take lessons from Bless this House, and viewers looking for excitement in the CGI age can discover this small treasure.
As such and as I always do, the majority of the plot should remain hidden and also the choices the characters make in the film, which will undoubtedly divide viewers. F. Javier Gutierrez's Before the Fall's (2008) rendering of the character Ale composes the majority of the film's interest beyond the fantastic story of impending doom. Following Ale's spiritual journey lays the heart of Before the Fall. Ale feels like a victim his whole life (a feeling both merited and exaggerated), stemming from the shadow of the cement factory. Over the course of the final days, Ale finds value in life. Whether its a definite three days or an indeterminate amount of time, the actions which humans make reflect their essential values. Before the Fall shows the negative side of life: what's the point of anything, if it's all just going to be over soon. Ale quickly abandons his friend, in one scene, shouted from a window. His friend needs protection from a group of thugs, but any protection would mean nothing. Protection from what? Ale walks away from his window and lays in his bed in his shadowed room. Ale over the course of Before the Fall abandons this position and eventually learns what he values in life. Before the Fall also speaks to the notions of one's past, present, and future. Ale's past is what makes up his character, and when he learns that the future is limited, the present and the ones that he loves become important.
Set in 1974 with a somewhat foreshadowing song on the radio, four friends have got their van on the road for a trip to the country. Pretty and sweet Camilla (Henriette Bruusgaard) rides shotgun, while her dominating and possessive boyfriend, Roger (Lasse Valdal) drives. Mia (Nini Bull Robsahm, also co-writer) sits in the back and doesn't like the way Roger treats Camilla as shy Jorgen (Jorn-Bjorn Fuller-Gee) sits quietly. Stopping for gas and getting a bite to eat becomes a bad idea: an old bum in a toilet stall gives Camilla a nasty scratch, while the locals in the cafe bark at the city kids. Roger doesn't ignore them and gets in their face. Mia has had it: she cannot stand Roger's treatment of Camilla and his domineering attitude. A young woman, Renate (Janne Beate Bones), squirms in a nearby booth, scared of someone coming or someone already there. Roger offers her a ride, while Mia opposes, but the remaining three reluctantly agree. A short time later on the road, the five try to make a quick stop which becomes a permanent one.
With imagery evocative of Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust (1980), Manhunt's visuals are quite nasty and quite compelling. The film moves frenetically and flies under eighty minutes. Sick still shots punctuate the drama, while quick cuts show some brutal gore. While the gore appears quite disturbing, Syversen can disturb without it. One scene which I wish I wouldn't have seen involves Camilla, her captor, and a shotgun. When the film moves beyond its exposition and into the action, the substantive dialogue ceases: just the characters and their actions. The central location of a forest and its composition of fall colors, such as brown, gold, and light yellow, are soothing alone; but with the images of blood, Camilla running through the forest, and the tense confrontations, the forest imagery gives away. The viewer wants to be lulled peacefully, but Syversen doesn't allow it. Manhunt is a great-looking film. 
The actresses really standout in this one: Henriette Bruusgaard, as Camilla, is terrific. She creates the sweetest and most lovable character, which Syversen has no problem dragging through hell and back. Janne Beate Bones's role is also quite good, which relies primarily upon her fearful facial expressions and her body language. She conveys everything that her character embodies with her physical actions. Nini Bull Robsahm's Mia is a strong character and well-portrayed. Finally, the director, Patrik Syversen creates quite the creative flick. Manhunt is full of subversive material and ironic twists. Some of his compositions are haunting and his pacing is flawless.
However, Manhunt, overall, overwhelmed me: far too brutal to be enjoyable and not one for a revisit anytime soon. I, however, do quite admire it, as I do Martyrs. However, I think that I learned the essence of the whole torture/kidnapping genre with the first film that I saw. All subsequent ones, some admirable and some terrible, usually leave me cold. I guess that this genre is not supposed to be entertaining, but to be experienced. But yeah, thanks, I'll experience something else.
Roar Uthaug's Fritt Vilt (Cold Prey) (2006) is an excellent horror film. The story of five young snowboarders, stranded in a hotel during a blizzard with a stalking madman, didn't change the face of horror cinema but certainly re-energized it. Its classic and traditional plot was evocative of earlier slashers, specifically John Carpenter's Halloween (1978) and Sean Cunningham's Friday the 13th (1980). While still violent, Cold Prey was a hidden treasure for horror fans sifting through the recent kidnapping/torture craze. All of its characters were likable, its script didn't sound utterly daft and ridiculous, and its execution was exciting, scary, and tension-filled.
Mats Stenberg's Cold Prey 2 (2008) begins shortly after the events of the original. The film opens at a remote hospital, which is about to close, in the same vicinity of the hotel in the original. Camilla (Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik) is one of two doctors attending. She's kind-hearted and caring. Her boyfriend, Ole (Kim Wifladt), is the hospital's paramedic and gets called out to investigate a snowed-in automobile. It's abandoned, but while driving back to the hospital, Ole nearly hits a figure standing in the road holding a pick axe. The figure is revealed to be Jannicke (Ingrid Bolso Berdal), the sole survivor from the original film. Jannicke is taken back to the hospital and treated. The police hear her tale about the murders of her friends. The Sheriff and his crew investigate the hotel and its surroundings. The corpses of Jannicke's friends and their killer are brought to the hospital morgue, shortly after.
The relationship to Cold Prey and its sequel is comparable to Halloween and its sequel, Rick Rosenthal's Halloween 2 (1981). In fact, Cold Prey 2, beyond the similar hospital setting and the temporal closeness, owes a visual and atmospheric debt to Carpenter's classic and Rosenthal's excellent sequel. For some reason, hospitals always give me the willies, especially at night, when there is not much commotion. I've never been one to consider them "happy" places. The hospital location is used well in the film. The morgue scenes give the opportunity to introduce sweeter-than-candy, nurse Audhild (Johanna Morck) who reluctantly must bag and tag Jannicke's friends and their killer. One of the film's best scenes occurs in the morgue when Jannicke comes to investigate a commotion going on with the doctors. Like Halloween 2, Cold Prey 2 is shot wide with long looks down empty corridors filled with shadows. Light is minimal and its judicious use is nearly perfect. The killings are quick and relentless with no shortage of blood spilled. Cold Prey 2 tops the sequel in violence.
Ingrid Bolso Berdal, as Jannicke, outdoes her performance in the original, where she was kind, caring, intelligent, and resourceful. She brings those same qualities with her character here, but this time, Berdal also reflects the post-trauma fear and desperate nature of one who was nearly a victim but won't be put in that position again. Marthe Snorresdotter Rovik as Camilla accompanies Jannicke's character very well: she's the true main character of the film, who experiences the horror for the first time. Mats Stenberg's direction is assured and shows a tremendous amount of talent. I hope Stenberg and Uthaug become the next John Carpenters of their generation. 
Like the overwhelming majority of cinema, Cold Prey 2 can make no claim to originality; however, within the extremely small minority of excellent recent horror cinema, Cold Prey 2 fits perfectly.
The film's screenplay, penned by 
Body Jumper's plot is a thin framework for an absurd group of set pieces. The film's humor goes for the gross-out jokes, seemingly inspired by teen-comedies such as Bob Clark's Porky's (1981) and Jeff Kanew's Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and Troma efforts, like Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz's The Toxic Avenger (1984). In one scene, possessed Gir with her fist attempts to score a liver from the back entrance of a victim, and the camera accompanies her fist to his innards, as she grabs organs and gives each a squeeze. In another, Gir is treated to a literal liver dinner at a posh restaurant. The wonderfully awful visual effects show her tongue swing to lick her plate clean, while her date keeps dropping his fork to look under the table at her underwear. There's even an in-joke from famous and excellent, Bangkok Dangerous (1999), that is also ridiculous and outlandish. However, all of the jokes work, even when the transvestite member of the group tells a story about a student and a snail. 
Superficially, nothing is done very well in Body Jumper. The acting, the visual effects, the script, etc. are all poor. However, the film plays like a symphony of bad notes in perfect harmony. The film doesn't take itself seriously, so neither does the viewer. It's perfect B-cinema, and I cannot imagine my cinematic life without it. I have a fondness for cinematic cheese and usually give it a lot of critical slack, quite possibly because there are so many recent horror and comedy films that shoot for mediocre as its goal and fall short of the mark. I love it when directors like Haeman Chatemee make a film as if it is going to be his last and just let it all hang out with gusto.
So what about the films that shoot for a serious horrific tone and completely miss the mark? Nasorn Panungkasiri's Six is one of that caliber. Six friends meet for two of its members' birthday. One is pretty Fah (
