Random Horror

Being fairly new to the reviewing game, I was anxious to see what would be revealed from the first ever screener I had been sent. That screener came in the form of Christopher R. Witherspoon’s Rage. Written and Directed by Witherspoon, it appears to have an impressive level of pedigree. Judging by the numerous accolades attached to this film from various festivals, Rage has definitely impressed!  A bit of background info informed me that Witherspoon has been involved at various levels in some impressive titles including Re-Animator, a personal favourite of mine. Despite having never heard of Witherspoon or of his previous attempt in the Directors chair, 2004’s drama “Middle Man”. After reading a lot of glowing reviews for Rage, I was definitely looking forward to giving it a whirl. Rage tells the story of a seemingly average day in the life of Dennis Twist. He is happily married and appears to have his life sorted. A loving wife, a good job and a nice house in the suburbs of...

This film was released in its native Iceland way back in 2009 under the title The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre, my copy came with the word Harpoon splashed across the cover! After a tiny bit of research, Wikipedia informed me that the original advertisements displayed the tagline, “should only be seen if you have a sense of humour”, this almost put me off wanting to watch it but; on I charged with the knowledge that Iceland must be capable of putting together a decent film, if their number one cultural export, the quirky and brilliant Björk is anything to go by, this should be very Random indeed! The name Gunnar Hansen is proudly displayed above the title. As a result of this I was expecting good things, despite what I had read on Wiki! What I saw, other than Hansen’s lack of overall screen time was quite possibly one of the best Random Horror Films I have ever seen! Let me begin by saying that anyone that is opposed to whaling or finds any kind of cruelty to animals offensiv...

The first thing I will say about The Task is that the DVD case is not so much misleading but it doesn’t really give you the jist of the film. I have to admit, when I picked it up to put it in the player, I was expecting a crazed killer with a clown mask. Not that I was disappointed with the actual film. In fact, I was quite impressed. For the most part, The Task plays with some very interesting concepts. So it can be more than forgiven for its vague and somewhat misleading cover. The Task is billed as an After Dark Original (Production Company) which boasts titles like An American Haunting and Penny Dreadful among others so it is from good stock, Penny Dreadful being an original and highly enjoyable little horror film (Watch this space for review). Well made and for the most part and well acted out. Extremely high production values and good use of effects and camera work. The script is fairly loose and doesn’t really build the level of characterisation it was aiming for but no...