Kain Kafan Perawan (2010): A bunch of pretty and stupid young people tries to film a documentary in a haunted railroad coach. Only one of them survives the ensuing meeting with the resident ghost, who proceeds to hitch a ride with her and terrorizes her and her big sister and various other people.
Ghost! Scream! Ghost! Run! Ghost! Ghost! Run! Scream! Ghost! Whimper!
That's about all of this Indonesian teen horror movie's content. There's no theme, no characterization, no mood and no plot, instead one unoriginal shock after the other, with nary a pause for breath. It's too bad, really, because director Nayato (Fio Nuala) manages to make his probably ultra-cheap movie look quite alright through judicious use of fog and blue light, and could probably produce something atmospheric if he put his mind to it. Alas, it's just all running and screaming, all the time.
Gehara (2009): Charming short film that functions as a parodic homage to the kaiju genre, especially the films of Shusuke Kaneko, although there are also a lot of old school kaiju elements to be found. Quite different from a lot of genre parodies, this is short enough not to overstay its welcome and seems driven by actual affection for and knowledge of the genre it is making fun of.
And, you know, it's about a smelly, hairy (hippie?) monster that is conquered with the help of a really big ventilator.
Triangulo de Oro (1983?): For a deeper look at Colombian director of the fantastic Javier Pinilla, I'd recommend you have a look at an excellent article and triple review on Braineater.
Unfortunately, this one, an adventure movie about a chubby, mono-browed shirt-hating guy wearing a leather vest on his naked chest trying to first save his sister from certain death and then steal a magic golden triangle from a very strange island, doesn't even seem worth watching for the lover of the campy and bizarre. On paper, Triangulo is full of the good stuff of crappy adventure movies: bad martial arts, man-eating bushes, teleporting golden triangles, a very dubious looking hero who is named after his own boat (well, or the other way around) and a direction style that looks self-taught in all the good and all the bad meanings of the word. But all that good stuff is buried under so much tediousness: scenes that don't need to be in the film at all, other scenes that run on and on and on without mercy, much annoying running back and forth and an awful lot of repetition. This tendency to tediousness turns what should be a fun sixty minute ride into ninety minutes of boredom that feel like four hours.
It really is quite a shame, because Pinilla's direction and his crazier ideas hint at the potential for something entertaining in the same honestly enthusiastic way Turkish pop cinema is entertaining.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment