The X-Files: Shadows

The intro to this episode revolves around a secretary, whose boss recently died of an apparent suicide. She is attacked by two men while standing by the ATM machine but comes away unharmed. The two men are found dead above a dumpster in a backstreet.

Mulder and Scully are called in by an unnamed agency, represented by two agents that do not move a muscle, to consult in the autopsy of the two bodies. The corpses do not cool off as they should and the men appear to have been strangled from the inside. As the two mysterious agency are not very forthcoming, neither is Mulder, who clearly has an idea about what's going on (as he always does) and steals away with a fingerprint on his glasses to start his own investigation.

When he suggests the possibility of psychokinesis to Scully, she responds with, "Psychokinesis? You mean how Carrie got even at the prom?" And I love her for it.

The fingerprint belongs to a suspected member of a middle eastern group with terrorist tendencies and the agents head off to Philadelphia to further investigate. There, they discover the ATM security video that shows the aforementioned secretary being attacked and a blurry figure in the background, that may or may not be an accomplice to the secretary.

The secretary (I think her name is Lauren) has a vision of her boss' death, realizing that he was murdered by his partner because he was upset about their dealings with that terrorist group and ready to blow the whistle on his own company (hence the involvement of the mysterious agency figures).

Now here is the part worthy of an X file: the blurry figure and apparent protector of the secretary is the ghost of her former boss. In the end the entity is the one to help with the FBI investigation by leading them to the prove that was about to escape the FBI team searching the company office. It is a disk (old school!) hidden behind the tapestry.

The running gag of Scully always missing the supernatural stuff comes into play twice in this episode. The first time a culprit is suspended in the air while being choked by an invisible perpetrator, the second a letter opener, led by an - again - invisible hand, hurled towards the wall. Also, the creators of the show put another nod to supernatural films in Scully's mouth. They have her sing-song, "There he-ere!"

6/10

You're Next

The film begins with sex. Of course. Afterwards, while the young woman walks through the house wearing next to nothing and puts on some music, she feels like she is being watched. But, cool as she is, she does not panic, has a drink and...gets killed. The man, getting out of the shower and - you guessed it - wearing next to nothing picks up the half finished drink before noticing that across his wide windows someone wrote 'You're Next' in his girlfriends blood with the girlfriend lying dead on the porch.

The story, however, is about this guy's neighbors, if you want to call them that. These are weekend homes and there are stretches of wood in between them. Anyway, Paul and Abrey are celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. They are joined by their four grown children with their significant others in the massive house. Obviously, this is a very well-off couple. Over dinner, the kids start arguing and while they go at each other, the daughter's boyfriend gets up and walks to the window to have a closer look at something he say outside and gets shot in the head with an arrow. Then more arrows keep flying through the window and eveyone panics (cue very shaky camera work, which I am not a fan of).

Most of what follows is a group of culprits wearing animals masks trying to kill the family members off one by one, using seemingly every possible weapon other than fire arms (crossbow, axe, machete). As the family is trying to gather their collective marbles, one of the son's girlfriend - an Australian girl named Erin - takes matters into her own hands and puts measures of self preservation into action. Apparently, she grew up in a sort of survivalist camp in the Outbacks and knows how to put a cleaver to good use.

The resentments within the family lead to some hilarious conversations (and the laughs produced are planed for and not accidental) and at some point one gets the feeling someone inside the house must have some involvement in what is perspiring. And one is right.

Amidst all the carnage, Crispian (the son who brought the Australian girlfriend) runs off to 'get help' and after Erin has finished off each and every attacker (and son Felix and girlfriend Zee, after overhearing them talking about an inheritance and how this all should have gone down way easier than it is happening), Felix' phone rings and Erin picks it up without saying anything. The caller is Crispian asking whether it is all finished and it is ok for him to come back in. When he does he realizes that he has been talking to Erin and explains to her that the idea was that she would be the innocent bystander attesting to a group of lunatics randomly killing off the rest of the family (and - to make the story more sound - kill off a couple of neighbors, as well) and Felix and Crispian would split the inheritance. He apologizes and notes that nobody expected her to be so good at killing people and promises her vacations and money, money, money. She is having none of it, of course.

The ending of the film is hilarious.

8/10

Who's Watching Who

WHO'S WATCHING WHO from Sebastian Solberg on Vimeo.

Livide (Livid)

Huh?

I don't get it.

Are they vampires? And why can Anna fly?

Why are the French trying so hard to confuse the rest of the world?

2/10  

The Descent: Part 2

Sarah, the lone survivor of part 1, is forced to join a group of three rescue climbers and two police officers to recover her three missing friends. Sarah has forgotten pretty much everything of the last two days she spent in the exhaustive cave system beneath the Appalachian mountains and the general idea is that maybe the familiar surroundings trigger her memory.

All psychologically sound, I'm sure.

Soon enough, the first body is recovered and as the group ventures deeper into the caves, they soon end up splitting up and one not-so-well-thought-out gunshot sends stones falling and cutting them off and spreading them out even more.

The creatures in the systems - ugly, deaf things - are still on the hunt for food throughout the caves and the group is fair game. Predictably, they all fall victim one by one until they encounter June, previously presumed dead but very much alive. The last survivors are June, Sarah and the local police woman. The can see the light coming from an exit not so far ahead but full off those hideous creatures. June dies first (finally) and Sarah yells to attract the creatures to give the policewoman a head start.

She does make it out into the woods but meets a very frustrating end, nonetheless, hit in the face by a shovel (courtesy of a helpful local from early on in the film who looked suspicious right away) and dragged back to the cave opening.

5/10

The Purge

The year is 2013 and the New Founding Fathers have instituted something called The Purge - a 12 hour window in which all crimes (including murder) are legal. This keeps the population relatively peaceful and the country crime free during the rest of the year.

The Sandin family lives in a well off community and their impressive house came courtesy of the security systems Mr. Sandin has sold to everyone and their grandmother. Some animosity about this is hinted at when one of the Stepford-esque neighbors brings over a plate of cookies for Mrs. Sandin for the upcoming lock down.

The couple just wants to sit out the next 12 hours in peace and quiet, not having any bottled up anger strong enough to make them go out an join in the killings. Their kids, however, make a few very bad decisions throughout the night. Daughter Zoey, who is your typical annoyed teenager, is seeing a young man who is referred to as considerably older than her (he doesn't look it, though), that her father forbade her to continue seeing. He tells her that he will state his case to Mr. Sandin and because of the lock down he will have no other choice but to listen. What he really is there to do is to shoot the man. Sandin, of course, is armed (just in case) and apparently the better shot. The shootout coincides with the family's son Charlie letting in a homeless man who is being hunted by participants in the purge and crying for help outside the house.

Soon a group of young people wearing masks is at the Sandin's front door and demands they release the homeless guy because it is their right to kill him and homelessness is not a desired state of being in this new reality. When the Sandin's fail to deliver the would be victim by the deadline given, the group rip off they main security door with a truck and proceed to hunt everybody within the house. Mr. Sandin falls victim to them in the battle spread out over the house. The last of the purgers still standing is killed by the helpful neighbors before he can do any more harm.

The neighbors, however, are not as friendly and helpful as they appear to be. Rather, they saw that the security system had been breached and smelled a chance to cleanse themselves of their hatred towards the Sandin family. Luckily, the thankful homeless stranger comes to their rescue and they Sandin family, together with four surviving neighbors and the homeless man sit out the rest of the night before everyone goes their merry way.

Interesting. Could have been better.

6/10

The X Files: The Jersey Devil

A body found in the woods near Atlantic City has Mulder taking off to New Jersey with Scully in tow. There is an old myth about a savage (nearly) human living in the area.

When they arrive in town, however, local law enforcement is less than thrilled and asks the agents to leave. When Mulder finds out that a few homeless people have seen the mythical beast digging through the trash cans, Mulder spends the night in the outskirts of town, hoping for a sighting. And he does see a creature, but before he can get too close, he is taken into custody and thrown in the drunk tank for the night.

Meanwhile, Scully - in an attempt to have anything resembling a life - is back in DC on a date but returns to Atlantic City to spring Mulder loose. A park ranger Mulder has previously met with in New Jersey calls to inform the agents of the discovery of a male body. The agents, the ranger and an anthropologist go back to where Mulder initially saw the creature and he encounters it again, seeing that it is a woman.

Local law enforcement, well aware of a wood creature threatening the thriving tourism business is roaming a little close to town, hunt her down and shoot her, much to Mulders disappointment, who saw an opportunity to study her.

The last scene shows a small child pocking a head out of a cave in the woods.

7/10

The Howling

News anchorwoman Karen White nearly gets murdered by a serial killer while trying to get a juicy story. In the aftermath she has nightmares and is in therapy.

After the incident, she also takes some time of that she spends in a small community called The Colony. After getting a warm but weird welcome from the locals it soon turns out that things are not what they seem. First cows get killed by 'wolves' and the thought dead serial killer has also found a home near Karen. He, like everybody else in the community turns out to be a werewolf.

The transformation we witness is very similar (and no less gory) than the one in An American Werewolf in London. With help from a male colleague she escapes the claws of the locals and they all die in a flurry of silver bullets.

Back in the television studio she intends to warn the public of the dangers lurking, much to the annoyance of her producer. In the middle of her announcement, she turns into a werewolf herself in front of the entire live audience. Most of the people watching, however, believe it to be special effects. Karen also dies from a silver bullet, while still on live TV.

The film ends in a diner with the guests discussing the news announcement and one of the Colony's members, that did get away in the end, sitting at the end of the bar asking for a rare burger.

6/10