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The Place (2017)
Absolutely stunning, a masterpiece in my opinion
The sheer fact that the whole movie is shot in a couple square meters in an anonymous diner while still keeping you engaged is alone worth a thousand stars. Top it with a subtle, emotional soundtrack and great acting and you have this wonderful piece. The plot is simple yet intriguing and smart, and the fact that a lot of details are easily predictable don't take anything away from it. The protagonist, our mysterious man, is a difficult character, lacking a name and apparently human emotion. The ending was well made, leaving just enough to the immagination.
I recommend this movie to anyone.
Død snø (2009)
A huge surprise.
A Norwegian movie. What? Norvegian? A zombie movie. Oh wow so original. Guess what? If you, like me, thought this, you were so wrong. The acting was good, special effects were simple yet functional, and great considering the low budget, and the whole atmosphere is well- done. We've seen funny horror movies before (The cabin in the woods, to mention one of the best, if not the best, of this sub-genre) and i found this to achieve the objective this kind of movie, which is mixing horror with fun. Some scenes were,horror wise, well done, but then a funny sentence or a funny happening cracked the tension. The balance is great, even though the first part of the movie is more scary and the second one more funny. And when i say funny, i mean that i really laughed out loud! In particular, the scene when they fight the Nazi zombies and someones shows them a sickle and a hammer almost had me in tears. Really nice to watch! Only one thing: it's a bit gross in some parts, but i promise you it's for a good cause! 9/10 just because i'm expecting the sequel to be a better version of it!
Contracted: Phase II (2015)
The disease gets worse and grows in scale
I gave 6 to the first movie too,and even if my personal enjoyment was the same, i think the the are totally different: while Contracted was a "body horror" where we only see the protagonist getting worse and worse, Contracted:phase II's plot mixes a zombie/disease movie with the body horror, turning into something different from the first chapter. While the first movie was beautifully made in terms of makeup and symptoms, this is one is just...gross (not in a totally bad way though) . It's still well- made, but a couple scenes made me feel a little uncomfortable (and i'm a med student), so if you don't really appreciate the splatter stuff, this movie is not for you. The plot, by the way, is the clear continuation of the first movie (even with some scenes flash backed from it.) and i surely expect a sequel. What didn't really work is character development. There are way too many characters, all getting infected at some point of the movie, that are basically useless. That wouldn't be a problem if the main character, Riley, had a meaning. He just goes around stupidly, infecting everyone. He knows what's happening, so why does he decide to basically help BJ (who he obviously hates) spreading the disease? I'll never know. The only character with a meaning here is BJ himself, who is interesting, mostly because we know so little about him.
I'll watch the third movie, since i see the potential to make a nice trilogy, but this movie remains a slightly above average movie, not more, not less.
Mama (2013)
I haven't been thrilled this way for a long time
As all the others Guillermo del Toro's movies i've so far, i really liked this. The "monsters" he creates are always super creepy, and even the "pan's labyrinth" had a couple super-scary characters, even though it wasn't meant to be a horror (at least, not completely). "mama" has a lot of great things, and a few bad things. I loved how mama's appearance is not shown until the half of the movie. I found brilliant the scenes where the girls play with mama, and you only see the girls. Some scenes were simply terrifying: when Annabel see something in a corner and thinks it's lily hiding under a blanket, but then she hears the girls downstairs; when Victoria looks at something really tall behind the doctor during the interrogatory; when the hunters find the girls in the old house; when Annabel is about to open the closet in the girls room; and many others. All those scenes sends shivers down my spine when thinking about them, and that's what makes the movie great. I would give it a strong 9, but i lowered to 8 because the final scene could have been handled better and also because some scenes had a couple clichés i didn't like (everyone is going around at night, alone, every time. Why would the doctor be so stupid, since he knows what's hiding there?
Apart from those minor things i didn't like, i really enjoyed the movie, and i think it's strongly underrated (mostly because i've seen the same rating on way worse horror movies.)
Gwoemul (2006)
Definitely a surprise
I was really curious about this movie since it was the first Korean movie i saw, and i gotta say: what a surprise. The plot is complicated, but is well-built. I gotta be honest by saying that some sequences were pretty much useless. I watched this in original language (obviously with subtitles), and some dialogs were just... weird. That surely didn't ruin the movie, and it's also explainable by the fact that translating Korean's figure of speech must be nearly impossible. The characters are kind of weird, especially the blonde one (which can be regarded as the protagonist, maybe) which is clearly a mix of paternal love, bravery and pure retardation. (yes, pure retardation.) I'm sincerely amazed by the special effects (even though i found out they were US-made) since the monster was beautifully done. Some scenes were simply smart, the movie was also hilarious at certain points.
Surely worth a watch, in my opinion, also because it's something totally different
Contracted (2013)
Some good ideas and a few fails
The base idea is interesting, and the message too. Basically this says "don't have unprotected sex with strangers". And with "stranger" i mean that we don't know anything about the bald man who infected Samantha. That's a great idea. I also gotta say that for a low budget film the makeup was amazing, and the plot was simple yet right, with no missing holes. Weak points... maybe a not-so-good ending, which can clearly lead to a sequel (which came in 2015, actually) and a few fails. 1 How the hell can Riley be so blind? I mean, even if that was the love of his life... there was clearly something wrong with her appearance. 2 Some people tell Samantha she "looks like sh!t" when she actually is still pretty OK, but they almost react less surprised when she has a white eye and a bloody one, with teeth and nails falling apart. 3. Nikki's death scene was awfully acted by Nikki.
Overall a good movie, considering the low budget. Worth a watch, but probably not worth spending money.
Fight Club (1999)
Simply awesome.
The message contained is pretty much the same of Trainspotting. It's a strong critic to today's society. What makes it different is the answer that the protagonists gives to the problem. While Trainspotting's druggies escape the problem by... doing drugs, Fight Club's protagonist handle it in a totally different manners. This movie made me think a lot, but it also made me laugh a couple of times. The fight are way better than the ones we see nowadays, and even if the movie have been criticized for being violent, we must admit that this may have been a violent film in 1999, but now, in 2016, it's pretty much normal. Maybe the only thing i didn't like was how the movie ended, and with that i mean how Tyler was killed.