November 5, 2020
Directed by Remi Weekes
Written by Remi Weekes
Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) were refugees who escaped from the civil war in South Sudan and survived a stormy boat ride across the ocean into Britain. Unfortunately, their daughter Nyagak did not survive the trip which caused the couple major grief and guilt. They were eventually granted probational asylum and was given a house on the poor side of London from which they were not allowed to move. However, the couple would soon realize that ghostly creatures, including one who looked like Nyagak, were living behind the walls of their house. While Rial wanted to leave, Boi was adamant that this was his house.
This was a very slow burn film with some very disturbing images which were purposely made to tread the line between reality and nightmares. Bol was trying hard to become a typical British guy, while Rial stuck to her traditional ways and language. But both were still very haunted by painful memories of his past, especially their departed family and friends who died in the wars and on the boat (like Nyagak). So were these ghosts they were seeing inherent in the house, or were these ghosts they brought with them into the house. This tense film built up excellently to reveal a major despicable twist, which ironically gave the film a very satisfying boost. 7/10.
Directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski
Written by Bartosz M. Kowalski, Jan Kwieciński, Mirella Zaradkiewicz
Teenagers were sent by their parents to Camp Adrenaline to supposedly to enjoy nature adventures without their phones or tablets. The group led by Ms. Iza (Gabriela Muskała) was composed of the smart, pragmatic Zosia (Julia Wieniawa), nervous gamer nerd Julek (Michał Lupa), sexy seductive blonde Aniela (Wiktoria Gąsiewska), gay joker Bartek (Stanisław Cywka) and sporty jock Daniel (Sebastian Dela). While camping in the woods, they were suddenly terrorized by an ugly, deformed giant man.
This Polish-language film took more than 30 minutes before the killing spree began, and from there it followed the typical slasher film formula of killing off one victim after another. This definitely had its share of horror film cliches, like remote location, splitting into groups, going down dark basements, car that would not start, increasing gore levels with every kill, etc... The monster was seen clearly in broad daylight a bit too much thus losing the sense of mystery early on. The filmmakers should have known though that a person could not survive if his whole tongue was violently yanked out. 5/10.
Directed by Tatsushi Omori
Written by Tatsushi Omori, Takehiko Minato
Akiko (Masami Nagasawa) was a single mother who lived in very poor conditions with her son Shuhei (Sho Gunji). She was an uncouth, quarrelsome and lazy woman who harassed people to give her money, then waste it all at the pachinko arcade or her drinking binges or cavorting with various men. One particularly boorish boyfriend Ryo (Sadao Abe) even led her into a life of crime, then abandoned her when she got pregnant again. Despite her negligent and downright abusive behaviors, Shuhei remained devotedly loyal to Akiko even as he became a teenager (Daiken Okudaira).
Watching this gut-wrenching Japanese film was such a disturbing and disgusting experience. I could not bear watching its relentless depiction of child abuse continuously, so thankfully I was watching this by streaming which allowed me to pause and take a breath. That was how affecting the performances were, everything felt so real and painful, so you'd really want to step in there and rescue those children away from this horrible excuse of a mother. This was more of a horror film than those about ghosts and monsters, as this involved characters that existed in real life. I hated watching it so much, but I cannot deny that it was done well. 7/10.
At first, I was surprised that you labeled this as a horror film. But after watching. I understood why.
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