laurencecarpenter90 Reviews

Absentia (I) (2011)

Brilliant Film

[9/10 · 25 October 2012]

Two sisters, Trish the eldest and Callie the youngest, are reunited after Callie finishes the 'extended trip' she later described as 'chasing a man and many dragons'. Heavily pregnant Trish is in preparation of declaring her missing husband, Daniel (Danny), dead, after seven years. Callie comes to support her and the unborn baby through what is an emotionally difficult and somewhat disturbing journey to closure, not without it's surprises.

The film is haunting throughout and as the film goes on, you, with Callie, learn the extent of eerie disappearances in the neighbourhood, possible patterns between them and mysterious happenings to its characters.

The film was made on a very small budget and the directing, camera work, editing, acting and soundtrack are all impeccable, in fact, it could be argued that it could be considered even more impressive, after you find out what the budget was.

Like all good films/ stories, this one is open to interpretation and requires the audience to think. Don't be surprised or upset for that matter, when there is no knife welding maniac to answer all the questions in the film. It's not typical, it's not cliché, it is nothing less than brilliant.

I highly recommend this film and look forward to seeing more from Mike Flanagan in the future.

Silent House (2011)

People are far too critical of this film

[7/10 · 19 October 2012]

This is a good film. People have complained heavily about the lack of character explanation, which I do realise is conventionally the basis to any decent story, BUT I feel this film is due credit for its unconventional approach in editing, filming and character placement.

I watch a lot of horrors, searching for anything that doesn't hit upon cliché after cliché and I thoroughly enjoyed this film. It wasn't a typical 'in your face' horror, but was tense, creepy and unpredictable until the twist. Despite not being completely original in overall plot, I can easily imagine its approach to film making leaving a legacy for future filmmakers.

The camera work was clever, the acting good and overall experience was enjoyable. It was a complete mind f*ck of a film until the twist. That's how I like my films. So thumbs up all round.

Definitely would recommend this to anyone that can appreciate the fact that a film can be scary without ridiculous amount of blood, gore and stereotypical characters.

Anyway, Enjoy fellow film lovers!

Grave Encounters (2011)

All in all a good watch but... (SPOILER)

[4/10 · 18 October 2012]

The first 45 minutes - hour of the film were brilliant, I really thought this was a new approach to the genre and wasn't hitting on too many clichés. The Introduction was promising and as far as I am aware not overly used. The plot showed real strength and appeared unpredictable. This combined with the hand held 'rough edit' feel, kept me on the edge of my seat and I jumped every time, right on cue.

Then the inevitable happened, MASSIVE hole in the plot so large it sucked in all the initial positive feelings that I originally had about it. Like it's predecessors in the field, it became a 'guess who was next to go' film, thus painfully predictable and more distant from the introduction than I could have ever imagined.

If a film starts with a style, I expect it to stick with it. The documentary idea was nice but proved unrealistic, unless of course there was some magical way all the 'footage' achieved, unaided, what the characters ultimately failed to do, which would have been collect itself together and get itself out of the building. Although this could have been the same magical way the managed 72 hours +(?) of night vision recording. Cameras with that battery life could be capable of anything though.

What I like about films that touch on the paranormal, is exploring the idea of the unknown, the realism of being terrified by something you can't explain. I realise I would not be able to explain a building changing itself, building corridors and blocking off exits willy nilly nor, I'm sure, would I ever have to, because it's unrealistic and quite frankly a bullshit now overused idea.

As I said the beginning was great, but sadly the ending was awful and far from the brilliant twist that was promised at the beginning.

If you want to watch a similar film, with some continuity and a far superior twist, (not that Grave Encounters even had one), I would recommend a film called Session 9.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0261983/