Ghostly encounters

It's the 2012 remake of the1989 film which is an adaptation of the book by Susan Hill and starring Daniel Radcliffe. And breathe. Yes, it's The Woman in Black. Can I please have a show of hands of people who are wary of seeing Daniel Radcliffe in any non-Harry Potter related role? I thought so. I felt the same way when the trailer for this film came out last year. But let me just say that I was spellbound non the less.  

So he plays a mourning widower and father - bleak, yes, and if that's anything to go by, which it is, I think it's safe to say that this film does have a *spoiler alert* bleak outcome. Despite this, his son provides a bit of comic relief or us in the beginning with a drawing of his dad with an unhappy expression on his face. Accompanied by "that's what your face looks like daddy". Well I thought that was pretty hilar.

The first scene hits the spot. It's dramatic, tense, and leaves us wanting to know more. You know what you're getting with this film: creepy 19th century gothic thrills, and thrills there are a-plenty. 

Establishing character scenes are good. There is a substantial amount of information given to the audience without a lengthy voiceover or too many flashbacks. And I don't know how you feel about flashbacks but I love them. I just find them a bit confusing in a film which is already set in the past. Because the film itself acts as a flashback, therefore we essentially get flashbacks within a flashback and now we're just losing all sense of time.  That being said, the flashbacks used in this film were not confusing and were placed at very relevant points making the scene transitions very fluid and graceful.

So the basic plot is that Radcliffe's character is a lawyer and Is sent to this village to sort out the papers of a dead widow who lived, or shall we say still lives, in the house. Cue the creepy incidents which are to follow. That's not really a spoiler guys, we all saw that coming. But what we didn't see coming is anything else. I'm not going to lie to you all, this film will make you jump. 

So with that in mind, emotion of the scenes is good, the character building is great. Acting - I mean the spellbound comment really says is all. I was captivated, not just by Radcliffe's performance, but by those actors playing more minor roles. The pain reflected in their eyes was tangible. As I said, the emotion was spot on. What was important was the ability to portray the misery of the whole village, and James Watkins did this faultlessly. From the dodgy unapproachable villagers, to the dark clothing worn by all the characters, to the misty weather and the crows cawing in the background, a real sense of foreboding and isolation is created. This is what helps the film to attain its thriller status: the sense that Radcliffe's character is trapped from the moment he steps into the village.

Another important element of the thriller genre is the protagonist's inability to follow the signs or to see reason. The film is filled with warnings - from the villagers, the environment, even from the ghost, for God's sake. And like all protagonists, he fails to heed these warnings. But you know, where would we be without the irrational thinking of the Hollywood protagonist? Well I certainly wouldn't be here writing this blog, that's fo' dayum sho'.

The other thing I was impressed with was the music. I felt that it fitted in with the theme perfectly and the sounds used throughout really made the film that extra bit creepy. Flapping, creaking doors, howling winds, blood curdling screams- and there were a lot of those- we're all perfectly placed, in my opinion. 

So all in all, a great film: flawless in its creation of suspense and tension right until the very last scene. This film was great in the cinema and still great at home with the lights off and a solitary candle burning on the mantelpiece, creating ambivalent shadows on the walls.

A solid 7/10

Starship Troopers

Its a Friday night, I'm home alone and I'm bored. I'm not trying to get your sympathy but I'm sure you will feel some for me after the end of this review. So I went on Netflix and, for those of you who live in the States, I've got to tell you how lucky you are because your Netflix has a way bigger selection of films. Our one in the UK has about 20 films on it. Not really but you know, we have limited choices. So I searched the thriller section as I usually do and came across this film called Starship Troopers. The name sounded familiar, it was under the "action thrillers" genre so I went onto the IMDB website and looked it up. It got 7 stars; I was sold.

So I got myself all cosied up, lights down low, iPad propped against a cushion, hot water bottle; the whole shebang. The first thing that struck me was that it was not going to be a serious film. It starts with an advert to join what they call the "Federal Service" which is, in essence, a space army. It's completely spoofy. The music was over the top while a reporter stood in front of a backdrop of disembodied limbs, encouraging viewers to join. Then suddenly we get thrown back a year to a high school classroom full of stock jock characters, bimbos and over-eager teachers. Then it slowly dawns on me that it was essentially going to be a teen-sci-fi-action-spoof-thriller and I'm thinking "how the hell is that going to work?" *spoiler alert* It didn't. 

"Kill them! Kill them all!" really does a great job of summing up the whole plot. And by them, I mean the giant alien bugs and by "kill" I do mean kill. Netflix wasn't lying when they said it was an action film. There were plenty of people getting blown up, ripped apart and having their brains sucked out, but what it did lack entirely, was suspense. The main criteria for a thriller is suspense which is why I felt cheated by Netflix and it is also why I feel as though, by putting this on my thriller review blog, I am, in a way, cheating you. I'm sorry. I just had to make those hours I wasted watching this film count.  

One positive thing I can say about this film is that the makers played around with the voyeuristic nature of us humans. There was another advert at one point for a live execution that evening. There was also live coverage of soldiers being killed. I was shocked at this, but then I thought, hey, isn't that what we're doing by watching this film? People do die in wars and, by watching war films, in a way, we want to see a reenactment of those deaths. We are sick, people! 

But back to the criticism: I remember thinking to myself, at various points: "interesting things are happening, but I'm not interested." I didn't care if any of the characters died. And that's because the characters were completely two dimensional. For me, there were no interesting character traits portrayed in any of them. They were all just basically killing machines. The above quote somewhat proves this.

And killing the bugs was very necessary. They, like most extra-terrestrial beings, were hostile creatures, and there was one bug in particular that I found very alarming. It kind of looked like a giant brain and, coincidently, it's favourite past-time seemed to be eating brains. So the one thing I can say I've learnt from watching this film is you are what you eat.

A fair 5/10. Watch it if you want to see lots of people dying in terrifyingly horrific ways.