lucretius3659 Reviews

Reverb (2008)

Atmospheric horror

[8/10 · 8 July 2007]

Okay, so I love a good horror movie. And I don't mind a few clichés. But what I hate more than death or taxes is goofiness. American horror too often goes for the goofy or the gross-out, and a lot of whatever genuine creepy you might get out of the concept is dissipated by the Beavis & Butthead-level jokes.

Reverb has none of that in it. What it does have is a somewhat standard horror trope--think _Cigarette_Burns_, if you've seen it--played absolutely straight for all the chills it can muster. There's a good performance by the female lead, who I hope to see more of. There's also some fine camera work (the lighting of the studio is a natural) and a nuanced bunch of cheap audio jump-thrills.

Now there are some plot holes. For instance, who might have been holding the camera in a pivotal bit of video (nobody mentioned could). There's also an awful lot of yelling at the screen, 'Just get out! No, dude. Just get out!' But I'll forgive a lot for a genuine chill or two, and I got them.

I don't know what movie the last reviewer saw, but this one's a pretty effective and moderately original bit of Brit-horror. 8/10, because frankly, low-budget horror has a pretty low bar.

The Duellists (1977)

Brilliant, understated, and thoroughly human.

[10/10 · 6 April 2002]

This /is/ one of the best sword-fighting movies ever made, in that the choreography doesn't look like choreography. In the fight sequences, there's that rare sense of reticence, chance, uncertainty: of men thinking while they fight and trying to stay alive (The battle scenes in Kurosawa seem to me to share the same quality).

What sets this film apart (beyond its sheer visual gorgeousness) is its unremitting humanity and realism. Carradine as the protagonist is a decent enough, reasonable enough chap trying to live by an unreasonable and inflexible code. Keitel as Feraud is a cipher: charged with a wholly unreasonable hate the sources of which we never see. The movie steps through the ups and downs of war, fashion, politics. Though the film's structured around a series of violent combats, the struggle is finally a moral one. One man finally transcends the ideal of honor that's kept him a prisoner for fifteen years. The other is unable to.

This is a movie to watch, and to recommend to one's friends. It's lamentably not available yet in DVD, but can be found occasionally as a rental. Watch it for the costumes, the lighting, and the gorgeous camerawork. Watch it again for a movie that takes on The Big Issues. Brilliant.