The fifth season of The Walking Dead has so far been a whirlwind, with consistently solid episodes that keep formidable emotional groundings. It helps that Scott M. Gimple understands the need for a faster pace, and in the process, takes the previous season’s few achievements to great use. Episodes from
Category: Reviews
The Fog
John Carpenter, a known conjurer of fright and respected genre figurehead, refers to his 1980 shocker The Fog as a ‘children’s film.’ The campfire scene early on is perfectly attuned to this notion, so as the number of scare scenes sprawled in the film; yet Carpenter, as ever, exudes a
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
It is from the fest circuits of ’04 and ’05 that Paul Etheredge-Outzs’s film Hellbent is unwarrantedly announced as “the first homoerotic slasher.” However, cultists who are actually familiar with the sub-genre’s history, argue in unison, championing a film more deserving of the title and that has already existed some decades
Nightcrawler
It is interesting that when Rick (Riz Ahmed) nervily assesses his employer—“your problem is you don’t understand people,” he notes—Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), the employer in question, would only feign him a bug-eyed sympathetic look while coating a condescending grin. Rick has not a lick of sense how Bloom, at
Hindi Sila Tatanda
Malay Javier’s Hindi Sila Tatanda is an indulgent play at sonic and visual euphoria. The film has earned that merit. It is technically subversive, too; beginning as an innocuous slice-of-life coming-of-age with scenes that are mistakably Sundance-mold, until it plunges to a more sci-fi/genre film vibe, and finally pulls back.
#TWD 5.6: “Consumed”
Carol’s transit from small to major character is, as is the normality in the series, especially ugly, having to witness the true death of her daughter as a walker. There is a precious moment in this week’s “Consumed,” which resonates that loss deeply but the show is past the naiveté
Red
There is no description for Jay Abello’s Red more apt than a ripple, making circles within circles and telling a story about stories. In the whole it is a well-meaning reminder of the true role of an audience to a story, of the unspoken symbiosis between the teller and the
“Set Me Free” by Dillon Francis & Martin Garrix
The title of the album from which the terrific electro-house banger “Set Me Free” is released could not be any more apt: Money Sucks, Friends Rule. From all far-across corners, I can almost hear snorts lilt and drone: “You listen to that music,” this and that, that and this. Yet,
The Babysitters
Being a film about a pair of swindlers, Paolo O’Hara’s The Babysitters begins with an auspicious prelude in which a caroller drones sarcastic lyrics to those who would not spare him loose change. The scene, whilst not the most striking starter, sets the film thematically well. In the world that
Violator
For an audience as discerning as the “Dodo” Dayao—his film writings, after all, are compiled in his expansive blog titled “Piling-Piling Pelikula“—the expectations for his film are naturally high. The man, known to a large sample of readers a prolific film critic* and ardent enthusiast, operates with a sense of cutting-edge
#TWD 5.5: “Self-Help”
The Riddle of Samson—“out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet”—is cited towards the end of “Self-Help.” It can be a portentous build-up to Eugene Porter’s inexorable reveal, an homage to Stephen King’s third Dark Tower, or both, but the scene in which the riddle
#TWD 5.4: ‘Slabtown’
At last we arrive at Episode Beth (Emily Kinney)—the arc for which you and your meme generators have been in keen anticipation. The episode, titled “Slabtown,” opens in a hospital ward, peeping through a now-desolate Atlanta. Who took her is naturally our first inquiry: The last time we saw of
#SinengPambansa Horror Plus Film Festival is no Oz, all Kansas
Be cautioned of three-quarters of this year’s edition of Sineng Pambansa Film Festival, brazenly subtitled with ‘Horror Plus’ like it had been last year with ‘Master’s Edition.’ Those who saw last year’s lineup of films will hear the vivid sarcasm to this statement. And if that previous fest had lost
T’yanak
Of the plethora of think-pieces that John Carpenter’s Halloween has inspired over the decades, one thought remains most astute of the masked killer Michael Myers. He is not the predator, nature is—because it has allowed his existence, this err. The scene towards the film’s end perfectly illustrates my point: Myers,
The Book of Life
The pleasures of The Book of Life is found both in and outside the brackets. The story [within the story (within its story)] may be easily dismissed derivative—and it is—replete with archetypal tropes and often unreliable characterization. Yet it remains characteristic, not strictly in its distinct visual identity but as
#TWD 5.3: ‘Four Walls and a Roof’
“Four Rooms and a Roof,” the stirring third episode of fifth-season The Walking Dead, marks what looks to be a dramatic swerve for the series. First: events are building up rapidly—as with the easy disposal of Gareth (Andrew J. West) and his cannibal crew—a welcome change of pace, given last
V/H/S: Viral
The V/H/S films, as ever true in horror anthologies, are met with timid reception; they are at best uneven compilations of short feature-works by up-and-coming horror filmmakers. It seems a safe presumption that such a franchise can only be the brainchild of genre liberals and bored experimentalists who, by extension,
The Trial
Chino S. Roño’s The Trial is a welcome enlightenment to our native mainstream cinema—the kind that pushes boundaries and rediscovers for its audience elements other than what they have long since grown accustomed to; the kind that tries to push through somewhat fresher material; the kind that will not conform
Whiplash
Every frame of Whiplash is about rushing head-on past the fringe. It is about insanity. That is why the title could not be more apt. Whether it is the tragedy of mediocrity, the Great American Opium or one’s deceitful narcissism, filmmaker Damien Chazelle never settles by one conclusive end. And he
#TWD 5.2: ‘Strangers’
The Walking Dead tends to grow laborious at times and it often does when its principal characters are gathered in a group. So it is rather delightful to see the show picking up pace and going on-point with its tense second episode ‘Strangers.’ The whole lot is compact (if talky), bringing
#TWD 5.1: ‘No Sanctuary’
The human race commit atrocities it eventually forgets. For whatever reason the thought lingers as I watch the fifth season premiere of The Walking Dead which plays as if it is set to lure its audience back. The episode is the hell of red, riddled with maimed Walkers, gnawed faces
Gone Girl
Amy Elliott Dunne is many different things. The woman is of relentless nature whether in filling the epitomized role brought about by her parents’ well-meant perfectionism and their children quiz-books called ‘Amazing Amy;’ in relishing her dominion over personal relations when she has it and insisting on it when she has not;
The Boxtrolls
Like its titular tinkerers, The Boxtrolls is drawn to a familiar patchwork of a story, collecting ‘scraps’ from other works of animation that are attuned to the subliminal works of its animation house, Laika Studios. Yet, this should not stand as discouragement for the viewer who seeks the political in
Annabelle
James Wan’s filmography did not begin with the most idealistic debut: Saw, to date, is recipient to the larger sample in the collective dismissal against the modest filmmaker. However, none of this should imply that Wan’s inauspicious debut is plainly schlock—a plot(?) surrounding a mysterious killer that entraps the morally-fractured
Dementia
Dementia is a thing of curious alchemy. There is a scene nearing its end that simultaneously affirms and overturns its ideological confusions: Heavily influenced by New Asian horror, Percival M. Intalan’s debut feature as director is not a story strictly about hateful ghouls, but it is about hurt and betrayal
