Hush (2008)

Dir: Mark Tonderai

Failed writer Zakes Abbot (William Ash) is motoring along the M1 heading north and wrapping up his job of replacing the advert posters in rest stop bathrooms. Besides him on this rainy night is his girlfriend Beth (Christine Bottomley) taking a nap with a sleep mask on. Thirsty, but not wanting to disturb Beth, Zakes leans over trying to reach a Thermos of coffee on the floor of the passenger compartment. Inadvertently cutting off a truck while distracted, the truck driver (Andreas DIE HARD Wisniewski) swerves and speeds past the car. In doing so the rear sliding door rolls up revealing a horrible site. The cargo area of the truck is a large cage that imprisons a naked woman who is screaming for help. Zakes is shocked by the image but before he can react the truck door slides down to a slightly open position. Questioning the now awake Beth as to if she saw anything, she didn't, Zakes is unsure what to do. Beth, believing that he did indeed see a captive woman, tells him to phone the police. On the phone with 999 he is able to report that a truck driver has kidnapped a woman but due to mud covering the license plate he isn't able to give police the number.

Their already rocky relationship comes to a head under the stress with Beth loudly chastising Zakes for not doing more to help the kidnapped woman (and not remembering more of a holiday they took together or being able to commit to the relationship... nag, nag, nag). Zakes, thinking he has done enough, pulls into a motorway service area to complete his job. While he changes out posters, Beth sits in a restaurant drinking coffee and making up her mind to leave Zakes. After arranging for a lift from a friend Beth is no where to be found. Frantic that he can't find Beth any where in the service area it becomes clear that the truck driver has kidnapped another woman, Beth.

First time feature film director and writer Mark Tonderai (who went on to helm the mediocre Jennifer Lawrence starer HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET), creates a taut, tension filled film. Yes, all the expected tropes such as jump scares, the public bathroom scene where the hooded killer checks the stalls, the police who think our hero is the killer and the odd old couple living in the middle of nowhere are here but many of them are twisted in unexpected ways. The film is comfortable on one hand with its shop worn cliches so we know we are being driven to the expected destination but the sites and landmarks along the way are new. HUSH is a well acted, directed, written and just unbelievable enough to make for a thrill ride worth taking.

*** out of ****

The Uninvited (1944)

Dir: Lewis Allen

London based music critic Rick (Ray Milland) and his sister Pamela (Ruth Hussey) are on holiday in the English coastal town of Biddlecombe (a made up town that reminded me of Cornwall) on a hike along the sea facing cliffs. When their dog runs off into an abandoned house chasing after a squirrel the pair follow to retrieve the pooch. Once inside Pamela is enthralled by the beautiful house, in surprisingly good shape for being uninhabited. As the pair continue to explore the house Pamela falls in love with it and persuades her brother that pooling their money together to buy the house and leave their London flat will make for a bright future. Never mind about that one upstairs room with the locked door.

Back in town they track down the owner, Commander Beech (Donald Crisp) and call on him. Invited in by Beech's lovely grand daughter Stella Meredith (Gail Russell) to await Beech's return home, the three chat. Stella insists the house is not for sale but is contradicted by her grand father when he arrives. Not only is the house for sale, it is offered up at a bargain price. Beech does mention that the locals say it is haunted but he'll have none of that nonsense.

After purchasing the house Pamela stays on to fix it up and make it presentable while Rick returns to London to deal with the flat, send on the furniture and pick up their Irish house keeper Lizzie (O! that Oirish brogue of hers). Returning to Biddlecombe a few weeks later, Rick finds that Pamela has done a marvelous job of getting the house ready. That night Rick is awoken by the cries of a woman. Entering the hallway from his bedroom to check on his sister and Lizzie to see what is wrong, he's joined by Pamela who relates that she has heard the crying woman since staying at the house and investigated it but was never able to pin down the source of the ghostly noise. Rick and Pamela delve into the mystery which leads them to meet with the local doctor (Alan 'Alfred' Napier) who shares Rick's skepticism of ghosts, Miss Holloway who has unorthodox methods of curing the mentally ill and a fascination with Stella's deceased mother and finally the unsavory truth.

Exalted by many, The Uninvited has received the Criterion treatment, it has all the familiar haunted house tropes; the locked door that leads to a gloomy room, cold chills manifesting out of nowhere, spectral apparitions (nicely done optical effects), pets who refuse to enter certain parts of the house and a mystery to be solved. I was never scared by the film, perhaps due to its age and old dark house conventions that are now worn thin, but it does build tension in a few scenes as the plot comes to a boil. Ignoring that the two leads have more of a Mid Atlantic accent and the film was shot on sound stages in California (which is understandable seeing how dangerous a trip to the U.K. at the time would have been) I do have an issue with the film's usage of comedy. Ray Milland cracks wise throughout the entire film, including during the climax. Tension would have been far more enveloping without the jokes. But perhaps the film makers thought it necessary for the cinema audience of the day.

Overall it's a good looking B&W film with solid direction, engaging performances and a nicely done ghost tale.

*** out of ****

Raze (2013)

Dir: Josh C. Waller

A young woman awakens to find herself in a room lying on a cold concrete floor. She does not know where she is. There is only one exit and she follows it into a corridor of concrete and stone lined with steel doors. There she meets Sabrina (Zoe Bell), dressed similarly in sweats and a white shirt, looking as bewildered as the young woman. Wary of Sabrina the woman hesitatingly follows her into a small circular room at the end of the corridor. A steel door slams shut behind her and Sabrina pounces on the woman. Sabrina will not stop until the woman lies dead.

The premise of this low budget film is very simple. Wealthy couple Elizabeth and Joseph (Sherilyn Fenn and Doug Jones) kidnap women with hand to hand fighting skills (bare knuckles brawling, ju jitsu) and force them to fight to the death in a competition staged for the ultra wealthy. If the women refuse to fight then their loved ones will be murdered. There's a bit of back story, lead character Sabrina's being the most fleshed out, but the main focus is two women in an enclosed space brutally attacking one another with fists, elbows, knees and feet. And it is brutal. The fight scenes are well staged and varied enough that they never grow repetitive or boring. Zoe Bell (who is also a producer) puts in a solid performance that goes a long way to making her character likeable. The other characters are just there to be pummeled.

Despite the lack of plot the film kept me interested and I wanted to know what happens to Sabrina.

**1/2 out of ****

Patrick (2013)

Dir: Mark Hartley

A young nurse, Kathy Jacquard (Sharn Vinson from YOU'RE NEXT), applies and is accepted to work with brilliant doctor Roget (GAME OF THRONES' Charles Dance) after a staff nurse goes missing. The good Doc performs cutting edge treatment on comatose patients in a remote, dilapidated nunnery turned psychiatric clinic. Suffering from an acute case of what have you done for me lately, the Doc's  financial backers are pressuring him to produce the next big breakthrough or they'll pull the plug on his operation.

Kathy works alongside nurse Williams (Peta Sergeant from IRON SKY) under the supervision of the Doc's cold as ice daughter Matron Cassidy (Rachel Griffiths). Kathy quickly takes to coma patient Patrick who communicates with her alone by spitting to answer yes / no questions. She tries to convince the Doc and the Matron that Patrick isn't brain dead but they are having none of it and seem to be more interested in guarding secrets. Slowly, Kathy unravels the secrets of the clinic as Patrick reveals more of his power and twisted love.

There's a romantic subplot involving Kathy, her ex and a new potential beau but what was going on confused me to the point where I was left wondering if large chunks of it were hacked away to shorten the run time. And that may have been done because at 96 minutes not much happens until the finale. The film is closer to a no burn rather than a slow burn. Which is odd considering that director Mark Hartley created the wonderful documentary NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF OZPLOITATION, and pays homage to Richard Franklin's original film of which this is a remake. He should know better than to make such a pedestrian film. Director Mario Landi at least sleazed up his PATRICK rip-off, PATRICK STILL LIVES.

** out of ****

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006)

Dir: Jonathan Levine

Mandy Lane (Amber Heard) blossomed over the summer and all the high schools boys have noticed. One of the 'cool kids', a jock, invites Mandy Lane to a pool party he is throwing. She agrees to go and brings along her best friend Emmet (Michael Welch) who is an outsider and seen as weird or creepy by the in clique. Later in the night, after Emmett is picked on by the jock, he manages to coerce the jock into jumping from the roof of the house into the in ground pool in order to impress the chaste yet sought after Mandy Lane. The jock's drunken stunt fails spectacularly with the jock smashing his head into the concrete.

The film picks up nine months later as Mandy Lane is now part of the cool kid clique and growing distant from her childhood friendship with Emmet. The pot head of the clique invites a number of the in crowd, including Mandy Lane, to his father's ranch for an alcohol soaked, drug fueled weekend where the males of the group vie to deflower Mandy Lane. Unbeknownst to them there is a deranged stalker also on the ranch who picks off the partying teens one by one.

Though the film was completed in 2006 it has had a scatter shot release history and finally arrived on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. in 2013. This is director Jonathan Levine's first film and he shows a solid hand when it comes to propelling the story (what little there is of it) forward and getting the actors to be where they need to be.The performances are good especially considering the low budget and youthfulness of the cast, and I liked the grainy cinematography. There are plenty of the expected false jump scares but I found it odd that the bloodthirsty killer is revealed early in the film. Perhaps it was set up that way to give greater impact to the 'big reveal'.

Overall the film is an above average slasher. Competently directed, acted and shot but other than Amber Heard there is little to make it stand out.

** 1/2 out of ****