evil bill
Posts: 6557
Joined: 19/7/2006
From: mordor/ uk
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DEF
I've not seen Sleepless. Is it quite a Slasher/Giallo? I know that a Blu-ray of its just come out in Germany so I may have to import it to give it a go. I loved Terror Train only saw it for the first time a few months ago. It's very low on the gore side of things and the deaths aren't very interesting but it makes up for it by being a solid straight forward slasher. There's a bit of stupidity towards the end but otherwise I thought it was tremendous.
I've had quite had quite a festive time of it recently. Got the Blu-rays of the Silent Night Deadly Night remake Silent Night and Santa's Slay. Silent Night is worth a watch. Not a patch on the original but a fun slasher with some fun and gory kills. Not every single character was unlikeable which makes a change for modern Slashers. Some of the dialogue is heavy handed to say the least but Malcolm Mcdowell does a cracking job of hamming it up. Made me laugh more than once. Don't expect a classic though its really just a fun 5.5 out of 10
Santa's Slay on the other hand is utterly perplexing. Don't get me wrong I liked it but I have a felling I'm the only one as its a daft as a brush mess and frankly I have no idea how it got made or how it got such an unbelievably high profile cast. It plays much like action/comedy with strange supernatural slasher low budget gore. In the cannon of slasher oddities it lies somewhere between Jack Frost 2 and Uncle Sam. The German Blu-ray I imported has the title changed on the packaging for no apparent reason to Very Bad Santa.
If all goes to plan I should have a very slashery Christmas. My bro has kindly bought me the Orphan Killer Blu-ray which I've heard a fair bit about in this thread at one time and kept meaning to get hold of. Any of you guys watched anything interesting?
I think for Christmas i'll be watching Black Christmas and Silent Night Deadly Night the originals not the remakes.
Watched this at the weekend, and am surprised you have yet to see it, anyway I recommend the two disc DVD which this review is based on,for it's second disc alone is worth the money, if it's still about.
SLEEPLESS (Nonhosonno) 2001
After three women are brutally murdered in Turin,a retired detective Ulisse Moretti(Max Von Sydow)recently widowed and suffering sleep problems,is brought back to help solve the case.He had 17 years earlier tracked down a dwarf writer,who he believed was a serial killer using his own book 'Death Farm'as a blue print for a series of killings.But before they could arrest him,his own mother shot him dead,but at least the killings had stopped,but now the detective is not so sure he got the right man?Now Ulisse is joined by a young man called Giacomo(Stefano Dionisi),who's mother had been the final victim 17 years earlier,murdered before his own eyes.So they both seek to unravel the mystery
behind the killings, and find the psycho killer who leaves pages from the book'Death Farm' cut into animal shapes on his victims.
This is by far Argento's best giallo movie since Deep Red or Opera,it is in the movie style he is king of,brought into the 21st century with a bang.It tells the story of a serial killer, the "Dwarf Murderer", who's murders begin again, either by him or a copycat?.From the very opening shot of the prostitute leaving a a punter asleep,tripping over a black bag,which empties it's contents of knives and a pair of black gloves,it's off and running,a taste of what is to come.And we are not left wanting as like in Suspiria a trio of murders in just twenty minutes,the prostitute is slain first,while escaping from a dark stranger on a train,another women get's her head bashed against a wall teeth first, a young lady is viciously decapitated, fingers are lopped off, heads explode.We also get to see a child witness it's mother being orally mutilated with a flute in flashback,and a beheading in great Dario style.This is Argento back on form,with brilliant camera work from start to a Tenebre/Opera style bravura moment near the end.Dario Argento is famous for the great way that he uses the camera, and this film is a fine example of that,and also manages to build up massive levels of tension,with the way he directs our attention through numerous things, and his camera work throughout the movie is as inventive as ever.Max Von Sydow adds some real acting talent to this fine movie,as usual stealing the show every time he is on screen. Most of the young actors perform solidly, although there are a few performance that are just wooden, and Giacomo's friend Lorenzo, played by Roberto Zibetti, is just annoying.
This film is giallo at it's best,and Argento creates one of the best atmospheres in any of his movies for a long time. Some of the set pieces are absolutely fantastic, breath taking in fact,and there is a air of malice for it's full duration. Sleepless is full of surprises, and through this, Argento is able to make us believe that literally anything can happen,and it often does to great effect. This is an excellent thing for a thriller to do,as nobody wants to know what's going to happen next,we like to be kept guessing,put on the edge of are seats.And Sleepless is most certainly a film that has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat, as Argento manages to submerge the viewer into the film, and this is one of the movie's most pleasing aspects.It also has a modern feel to some of the lighting,yet you are in no doubt this is not a Micheal Mann movie,it's full of his trade mark use of colour and dark,following Argento's traditional style. In an era when most movies are undistinguished in their style, Argento stands out head and shoulders above the rest, with his touches of Hitchcock-like visuals and plot themes. Another thing about this movie that will please all fans of Italian horror is the absolutely excellent score by the brilliant 'Goblin'. Argento and his house band have had some memorable collaborations, and this one most certainly is one of them. I would even call it the best once since Suspiria,it's that good in fact it's just the icing on the cake.
Most of the murder scenes are incredibly gory, but i did not feel at any point they were overdone,even though the violence sudden and brutal,with no real let up,and the gore is believable,but you just can't help but keep your eye's firmly on the screen.The only bad point is the script could have been a lot tighter,but it still holds up well to say Deep Red,story wise it's full of red herring's and nice twist's, a solid story,that wraps itself up with a good ending.The real genius in the writing department for me in this movie is the nursery rhyme,that is the backbone of the film,and the rhyme was written by Argento's beautiful daughter, Asia. It's deliciously bleak and twisted especially considering it's supposed to be a children's rhyme!,saying that if you look deep enough into most nursery rhyme's you'll find a darker truth. The part in which Von Sydow reads out the final verse over the closing credits is incredible; Von Sydow's voice and the rhyme itself combine to lend the movie a dark horror vibe like no other.Overall as far as i'm concerned this is classic Argento not to be missed,and even those not that keen on the great man will enjoy the visual treat. 8/10
< Message edited by evil bill -- 18/12/2012 6:45:55 PM >
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