The Sacrament (2014)

The Sacrament is the third feature from Ti West, and is basically his take on the Jonestown massacre. The film follows two journalists shooting a documentary about a man's attempt to locate his missing sister. They  find her in a rural cult preparing for a mass suicide.

The two journalists are airlifted to a remote area in the forest and then driven by truck to the cult's camp. When reach the gate, they are greeted by three angry African men armed with machine guns (which doesn't put them off entering the camp). They are greeting by the man's missing sister, who is happy, a little too happy...to see them.

Soon after their arrival the journalists are invited to a town meeting by the leader of the camp, a man the cult members call "father". At the camp meeting the journalists interview the charismatic cult leader, where he tell them about his belief in the rejection of western values, capitalism and modern technology, and warns the journalists not to give the group a bad write-up in the paper or divulge any info on the camps location. Much like all cult leaders, "father" makes out that the camp is a utopia of sorts where the people are truly free. It turns out, however, that all is not well in utopia. 

The one thing that irritated me was the stupidity of the journalists: even after his friend is abducted and killed by the cult leader, one of them remains - trying to find the groups photographer and the man's missing sister. A one point he tries to escape on a chopper, only to be fired upon by the armed guards. So where does he flee to..? the woods, to a find a road maybe, the sky, anywhere but back to the dam camp! But that's where he goes. 

The acting is pretty good and film was pretty well paced. As powerful as the subject matter is, the found-footage style added to the authenticity. However, the film loose its way and becomes a little predictable towards the end. After the cult members drink their the magic orange juice, it's just a loan survivor left roaming around aimlessly - hunted by the guards for twenty minutes before getting on the chopper.

The characters may have been infuriating at times and the ending all too predictable, but the The Sacrament is a well-made and disturbing edition the Ti West filmography.

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Wolf Creek 2 (2014)

We head back into the outback with serial killer madman Mick Taylor. After the first installment, Mick has moved south towards a more populated area in which to find his victims. The dark, unsettling atmosphere of the original film isn't really present here and there is very little build up before the killing begins.

The first death of the film is ridiculously over the top and very unlikely. I don't to give too much away, but it involves a rifle shot that any army sniper would struggle to make. Mick inevitably has a run-in with some tourists again - German tourists this time. I almost felt glad the tourists were killed, they were truly stupid. They got a lift out into the he middle of nowhere with few supplies and then start shouting at each other and asking how they were going to get back...eventually Mick turns up and offers the couple a lift back into town, needless to say, they don't make it.

In a way the film reminded me of I Spit On Your Grave 2 - basically the same film set somewhere else. Fare enough, the killings are gory and the killer is his usual charismatic, funny self, but there's nothing original in the film; if it weren't for the 2 in the title, there wouldn't be any difference in the story compared with the first film. The film has with the same basic elements - two stupid tourists, a dungeon, and a madman. The ending is exactly the same as well.

The only difference in this film is that Mick begins stalking an Englishmen who witnessed the killing of the tourists, he toys with him (Hitcher style) in a game of cat and mouse.

*SPOILER ALERT* The films ends the same as the first, with a single survivor escaping. At the end of the film a caption come on saying the police didn't believe is story of a madman roaming the outback killing tourists, and they suspect he killed the tourists himself. The final scene shows Mick Taylor walking away in the dessert with his rifle over his shoulder.

Like many horror sequels of the last ten years, Wolf Creek 2 failed to live up to its predecessor's success. It's not a terrible film by any means, and is a refreshing change from all the found-footage films that are saturating the genre.

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Devil's Due (2014)

When I watched Devil's Pass last year, I thought that I wouldn't see a found-footage film as bad - Devil's Due has proven me wrong.

The film starts with a couple, Zach and Samantha McCall, getting married and then going on honeymoon to some south American country. They document their journey through the back streets of some this dive with their conveniently handy camera. They party through the night - dancing in the streets at the local festival and drinking. They end up in some seedy backstreet club with a taxi driver they just met.... What happens to the couple after that is a mystery and upon their return home they discover that Samantha is pregnant..?

For the next sixty completely tiresome minutes, you are submitted to the most disjointed and boring drivel ever to be put on film - easily one of the most boring films I have ever seen - culminating in a bloodbath and a 10 minute CGI exhibition.

Devil's Due takes the top spot as the worst found-footage film I have seen so far, stay well clear.

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Alien Abduction (2014)

Alien Abduction starts off like The Blair Witch Project, with documentary style clips of interviews with local people recounting their tales of the strange lights seen in the area and mysterious disappearances on the woods.

The rest of the film consists of footage filmed by a family of campers as they venture up into the hills. The filming is done by the youngest boy (who is autistic). The family soon become lost and run out of gas. Stranded in a tunnel, they find abandoned cars with no drivers to be found... then the aliens arrive.

The CGI and sound effects during the abduction scenes are chilling and scary, and the quick, flickering filming style all adds to the unsettling atmosphere. The film is perfectly paced, maintaining the tension throughout, and a mixture of great lighting effects and editing make the film genuinely scary, cover-your-eyes viewing.

Eventually the family take refuge in home of a local redneck. The young autistic boy uses the camera as a kind of alien detector (with picture distortions being the telltale signs of an alien presence).  The aliens terrorize the group in the small log cabin, forcing them out into the woods; this is were the film takes on the 'Blair Witch' style. The scenes when the kids are running around in the dark woods with a dimly lit camera were very suspenseful; I was waiting for one of the aliens to jump out at any moment.

After years of those crappy Paranormal Activity films, Alien Abduction is refreshing change; the best found-footage film I've seen in years, and is a must see.

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Snowpiercer (2014)

Snowpiercer is a cross between Elysium and The Raid on a train, and is basically an allegorical reflection of modern society. Everything takes place on a huge train that circles a frozen wasteland earth. Years earlier scientists released a chemical into the atmosphere in an attempt to stop global warming and inadvertently started a new ice-age. Seeing the impending doom of mankind, a genius called Wilford (Ed Harris) designed the huge train, which uses the earths magnetic field for propulsion..

The train has a class system, with the lowest toward the back of the train and highest toward the front. The people in the tail section live in squaller, packed together on cramped, filthy shelves, with the only food available being black blocks of jelly called "protein blocks". Curtis (Chris Evans) is one of peasants from the tail section - sick of the living conditions, constant killings and lack of food, Curtis plans a uprising.

The population of the train is kept under control by periodical sacrifices in honor of the demigod "Wilford". The sacrifices always come from the tail section of course, and the people are often told to be grateful by their rich, well fed oppressors. The revolutionaries are shocked to discover the way that people live towards the front of the train - with a constant supply of meat, fresh fish, vegetables and eggs. They also discover, to their horror, what those "protein bars" are made of.

On there their way through the train, Curtis, and his friends encounter a carriage full of henchmen armed with machetes and axes - this is a brilliant fight scene. With around 100 men cutting each other to ribbons in a tight train carriage with blood spraying on the windows and some nice slow motion edits.

I'm kind of surprised the film has not been criticized the way Elysium was, because it's subtle critique of society is almost identical. Anyway, Snowpiercer is a descent Sci-Fi drama, with great editing throughout, and some solid performances from the main characters.

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The Invoking (2013)

Well, what can I say...quite possibly the worst horror film that I have ever seen! The acting (if you can call it that) was absolutely horrendous. The story was stupid and made no sense,  it wasn't scary at all! The props and special effects were shit!. I just can't believe I wasted 90 minutes of my life watching this shit; the only thing it 'Invoked' in me was boredom.

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Open Grave (2014)

Open Grave starts confusingly and pretty much maintains the confusion throughout. This mystery/survival flick, kicks off with a man waking up in an pit full of dead bodies in the middle on nowhere. He soon finds his way into a nearby house, where he meets a group who say they have just woken as well.

The next hour basically consists of the group aimlessly roaming around trying to figure out what has happened. The story unfolds arduously slow, as the members of the group claim to recognize each other and suffer strange flashbacks, they also begin to display symptoms of some kind of psychosis, and start turning on one another.

The story is predictable as hell, a textbook shock-reveal story, which is as poorly executed as it is boring to watch. After an hour of pointless flashbacks and screaming at each other, the group finally discovers the truth.

I don't want to give too much away, but the plot twist basically involves a deadly virus and a military conspiracy. The acting was a bit ropey at times, the only exception being  Sharlto Copley's performance. The last fifteen minutes are the best of the film, as everything starts to fall apart, and Copleys character fights for survival.

Open Grave could have been so much better if it had a bigger budget and a better script, its a classic case of a good idea, poorly executed.

 

 

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