If revenge is a dish best served cold, Kim Ji-woon’s latest movie depicts a retribution so agonisingly prolonged that it’s covered in a veneer of mould by the time it’s doled out.

Upon hearing that his fiancé has become the latest victim of a serial killer, formidable secret agent Soo-hyun (A Bittersweet Life‘s Lee Byung-hun) soon tracks him down and takes his bloody vengeance. Rather than kill the vicious Kyung-chul (Old Boy‘s Choi Min-sik), however, Soo-hyun forces a tracking device down his throat and releases him.

Lee Byung-hun in I Saw the Devil

Thus begins a bizarre game of cat and mouse, in which Soo-hyun episodically interrupts Kyung-chul mid-kill, and beats him to the brink of death before releasing him once more. But the aged Kyung-chul, a psychopath seemingly lacking a modus operandi, is not one to be backed into a corner, and inevitably begins to turn the tables on his pursuer.

This visceral Korean horror/thriller was recut for its native theatrical release, and it’s easy to see why. Kim Ji-woon showed a devotion to the crimson in A Tale of Two Sisters and an adept handling of graphic violence in A Bittersweet Life, but Devil is more visceral than any of his previous efforts. As Kyung-chul continues his intermittent killing spree Ji-woon leaves nothing to the imagination, meticulously chronicling the remorseless psychopath with a pornographer’s confidence. This intimacy works to almost beautiful effect in a slo-motion knife fight containing within a speeding car, but the movie stalls at several rape scenes that not only leave a bad taste in the mouth but detract from Soo-hyun’s indirect route of revenge.

Choi Min-sik in I Saw the Devil

Yet despite my reservations concerning the level of on-screen violence, I Saw the Devil achieved something few recent genre movies have; it kept me second guessing. Even the film’s most repugnant torture scenes – several of which will have the Saw crowd wishing they’d stayed with the ironic, comic book gore of Western horror – do not fully diminish Park Hoon-jung’s emotionally-charged script and Ji-woon’s energetic direction. This hunter-prey revenge thriller is compulsive viewing throughout, if best avoided by the faint of heart.

7/10

Extras: Interviews with the director and cast, a Making Of doc and the obligatory TV spot and teaser trailer.

I Saw the Devil is available now in the UK, from Optimum Home Releasing.

A bespectacled man stands by a dozen or so wooden chairs on a desolate highway. A police car approaches, knocking down the chairs as though they formed a driving course, and halts. A lawman climbs from out of the car’s boot, and asks the audience a series of movie-related questions, answering each one in turn with “no reason.” The police leave, and the bespectacled man turns to said audience, now part of the picture, providing them with binoculars through which to view the scene of a tire rising from the sand…

Thus begins Rubber, Quentin Dupieux’s bizarre tale of Robert, a sentient car tire with the ability to make organic matter (in particular, human heads) explode. It soon becomes apparent that what was suggested by the trailer as a straightforward horror parody – think Tobe Hooper’s The Mangler, only watchable – is a clever, if somewhat smug, commentary on viewer anticipation. Probably.

Michael Haneke did a similar thing, twice, with Funny Games, though that film at least succeeded in being an effective horror despite its metafictional leanings. French music producer Quentin Dupieux, best known for creating that infectious tune for the Flat Eric Levi’s commercials under the pseudonym Mr Oizo, isn’t interested in scaring his audience. I’m not entirely sure he’s interested in making his audience think, either, despite the film’s prevailing “no reason” philosophy. Yet Rubber‘s on-screen spectators, in turn being observed by us, just about provide enough food for thought to stretch what should have been a 10 minute short into a feature length movie. And even then, it’s only 80 minutes long.

Rubber is essentially an experiment, then, but Dupieux’s second feature has marked him out as an outstanding director, if an equally pretentious filmmaker. This may well be the first movie I’ve ever watched and wished for something just a little less artsy and a bit more trashy; Rubber‘s narrative so frequently breaks the fourth wall that, while I was never bored, I was unremittingly prevented from being engrossed.

Those expecting the next Human Centipede (i.e.: a novelty-based horror movie) will hit the eject button within 15 minutes (though the exploding heads are pretty impressive), but to the movie buff who thinks they’ve seen everything cinema could possibly conjure, Rubber says think again. In this respect Rubber may evoke the old “be careful what you wish for” idiom, but I appreciated this middle finger to genre convention for what it was – stylishly shot creative masturbation. An acquired taste, for sure.

6/10

Extras: Numerous interviews with Dupieux and the cast, first camera tests, and a trailer.

Rubber will be available in the UK on 11th April, from Optimum Home Releasing.

Following on from such curiosities as The Box and The Bothersome Man, German thriller The Door fits into a science fiction subgenre perhaps best described as “could have been a Twilight Zone episode.” It’s a dark and inventive “what if?” fantasy tale, based the novel Die Damalstuer, by German writer Akif Pirincci, whom I’m informed is considered the nation’s answer to Stephen King.

Crazy-eyed Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Valhalla Rising) plays David Andernach, an artist whose life is in ruins after his daughter drowned in the swimming pool while he was cheating with a neighbour. David is given a chance at redemption when he, quite literally, stumbles upon a magic portal which sends him back to that fateful day, allowing him to save his daughter. However, when an encounter with his past self leads to his death, future David is forced (albeit gladly) to relive the last five years of his life all over again.

Mads Mikkelsen in The Door

Completely implausible, The Door is a movie about ideas, one in which it pays to consciously suspend one’s disbelief. Quite why David is a) able to afford the perfect suburban home from his average paintings alone and b) would cheat on his wife when she’s played by the stunning Jessica Schwarz are both factors beyond my comprehension. But, as this is a film in which the protagonist travels through time via a Narnia-esque tunnel conveniently located five minutes down the road from his house, I recommend taking The Door as a modern parable. Why let science get in the way of a good idea?

These high concept ideas generally falter at the thrid act, and The Door is no exception, upping the ante with a sudden plot development that doesn’t sit comfortably with the rest of the film. But director Anno Saul remedies this with a beautiful parting shot that defines the film’s central premise of killing one’s past self and starting anew with the advantage of hindsight, transforming what looked to be a generic horror into something unique and beautiful.

Original, thought-provoking, and sporting a compelling turn from the unusual Mikkelson, it’s baffling why this imaginative little movie has taken so long to get a UK release.

8/10

Extras: Interviews with the cast and crew, deleted/alternate scenes and a trailer.

The Door will be released in the UK by Optimum Home Entertainment on April 4^th 2011.

Organ trafficking gets the Texas Chainsaw treatment in this Gallic horror, which sees a group of humanitarians captured in Eastern Europe and kindly alleviated of their burdensome components.

While this premise may sound like the set up for another torture-porn endurance test, director Yann Gozlan keeps the majority of the film’s brutality off-screen behind closed doors. Caged’s press material compares it to the recent Martyrs, though the only things the two films have is in common is that they’re French and of the horror genre. Caged may lack the clout (and, arguably, depth) of Martyrs, but I didn’t feel like I needed counselling as the end credits rolls.

Zoe Felix in Caged (Captifs)

Zoé Felix plays Carole, an aid worker perpetually haunted by a childhood experience in which her best friend was mauled to death by a dog. Conveniently, Carole’s abductors also use dogs to hunt escapees… yes, Caged is a film which marks out its plot in the first five minutes. Anyone who’s seen a dozen-or-so such movies will be able to predict the order in which are lead characters die with startling accuracy.

Not that predictability is really an issue; the cast are all convincing, and while the French horror scene may be running on automatic, directors such as Gozlan know how to sustain tension. Never does the plot extend beyond the chillingly plausible.

Caged is every film reviewer’s nightmare; a genre effort that does nothing to stand out from the (now virtual) rental store shelf, but isn’t bad enough to maliciously dismantle. Horror buffs wanting to add another tick to their ‘seen list’ can be assured that Caged is stylishly shot, compellingly acted, reasonably atmospheric and, despite its derivative nature, an enjoyable enough evening’s entertainment.

6/10

Extras: A trailer.

Caged will be released in the UK by Optimum Home Entertainment on April 18^th 2011.

Nicholas Roeg’s deceptively elaborate tale of an extraterrestrial striving to bring water to his drought-inflicted homeworld is by far his most ponderous. A film as imaginative as it is indulgent, The Man Who Fell to Earth presents Roeg’s visual poetry at its most chronologically disarranged, randomly hurtling viewers through time as Newton rises to power through advanced patents and uses his vast wealth to build a space craft, with only brief (and low budget) glimpses of the family and planet he’s left behind.

David Bowie stars as the alien in question, travelling under the name Thomas Jerome Newton, whose efforts are thwarted by his vulnerability to human manipulation. As the alien visitor his emaciated features are more valuable than his acting ability; Newton is little more than the natural extension of the Ziggy Stardust stage persona.

Newton soon falls fouls of human vices (namely alcohol, sex and television) and the film’s lack of sympathetic character’s becomes apparent. Candy Clark, as the capricious maid who acts as Newton’s guide to humanity, overacts to unintentionally hilarious effect, while Rip Torn’s Dr Bryce is terribly underdeveloped.

But this is Roeg’s movie, and his trademark fractured narrative, used more effectively in the superior Walkabout, captures Newton’s frailty with a beauty that outshines his ambiguous and frustratingly disjointed nature. Those around Newton grey and shrivel while he remains intact, yet despite decades passing the film remains firmly placed in the 1970s. Much like John Huston’s Wiseblood, this is an adaptation which presumes viewers will be familiar with the work its based on; if you’ve not read Walter Tevis’s novel, prepare to spend much of the first hour in a state of confusion.

David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth is a movie that, had I seen it at a more impressionable age, would likely sit amongst my favourites. It hasn’t aged particularly well, with Roeg’s 70s pop stylings encompassing every high and low of seventies filmmaking, but Bowie’s presence is enough to ensure that the movie still remains a curiosity for music aficionados. It’s a bona fide cult film then, a glorious mess that’s simultaneously mesmerising and preposterous, and ultimately pretty damn poignant.

Open-minded cinephiles will find a lot to appreciate here; despite the movie’s abundant imperfections, 35 years on there’s been nothing even remotely like it.

8/10

Extras: The review copy I watched was barebones, but the upcoming Blu-ray retail release will include an interview with Nic Roeg, documentary feature ‘Watching the Alien’, clips from a Walter Tevis audio interview, new interviews with Tony Richmond, Paul Mayersberg and Candy Clark, and a theatrical trailer.

A digitally restored The Man Who Fell to Earth will be released on Blu-ray in the UK on March 4^th by Optimum Releasing.

Extraterrestrial invaders battle for the quaint town of Ballymoran in this low budget Irish comedy. Only, Zonad and his archnemesis Bonad aren’t aliens but two escaped lunatics – unlike “prot” in K-Pax, there’s no question as to whether these unlikely champions are anything but shysters.

Zonad - poster

Zonad exists in its own tiny universe, a town constructed out of tropes taken from Irish comedy, 50s Americana and Carry On movies. A fugitive effortlessly convinces the residents of Ballymoran that he’s a superior life form, exploiting townfolk gullibility to enjoy Ballymoran’s ale and insatiable women. That is, until his fellow escapee rolls into town, taking up the role of his replacement Bonad, who proves equally popular with women and unsuspecting husbands alike. Oddly, the dozens of schoolgirls Zonad and Bonad both seduce are clearly played by women in their twenties – presumably as both a playful sight gag and to avoid more serious paedophilia accusations.

Zonad’s TV-level budget only further accentuates its charm, though the script often feels sloppy, and at times no more than a feature-length afternoon play. I wouldn’t be surprised if the film was originally conceived as a television series. The usual serial staples are present, such as the curmudgeonly barman and comical  local drunk, complementing a gentle humour that’s somewhere between Ballykissangel and Father Ted. But the cast, an assortment of “where have I seen him/her before?” faces clearly had a ball making Zonad; all ham it up with tongues planted firmly in cheeks, and it’s difficult not to get lured in by the film’s cumbersome quirkiness.

Simon Delaney as Zonad

It’s far from a great film, or even a particularly good one, but Zonad gets by on its earnest charm. Low budget sci-fi movies generally either fall victim to lofty ambitions or provide little beyond mainstream knock-offs, but writers/directors John Carney and Kieran Carney have made a film that revels in its crappiness, and somehow comes out all the better for it.

6/10

Extras: There’s a big bag of extras for this little film, including a directors’ commentary, numerous deleted scenes and outtakes, love songs by Zonad, and the winning short from a promotional competition, in which filmmakers were asked to shoot something around the concept of an alien landing in an Irish village.

Richard Attenborough became a cinema icon with his portrayal of small time gangster Pinkie, the baby-faced psychopath forced to marry naive waitress Rose (Carol Marsh) when she becomes a potential witness to his murder of a journalist.

In perhaps the film’s standout scene (though there are several contenders), the doomed journalist Dallow (William Hartnell) darts through the streets of 30’s Brighton with Pinkie and his goons in pursuit. Dallow attaches himself to numerous groups, including two sunbathing women on Brighton Pier. But his interest in these young ladies is out of survival; a futile effort to protect himself from Pinkie by surrounding himself with witnesses. It’s a tense, claustrophobic opening, one which defines Brighton Rock’s protagonist as a persistent, uncompassionate monster.

Richard Attenborough and Carol Marsh in Brighton Rock

Brighton Rock doesn’t quite need the reintroduction that Peeping Tom recently enjoyed; we don’t need reminding that it’s a great film. But John Boulting’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel (Greene also worked on the script) remains so unremittingly bleak that it’s a movie that’s easy to appreciate on a critical level but unlikely to make anyone’s personal top 10. On reflection, Rock’s infamously optimistic ending, which differs from the book and shines a ray of hopefulness upon the ill-treated Rose – and ending Greene opposed, too – feels almost compulsory. There’s only so much abuse an audience can take.

It’s an “interesting” film, then, and Greene’s trademark Catholic morality is implemented in a detached manner; Pinkie is already a man beyond redemption, an animal backed into a corner with no escape plan beyond bearing his teeth. Attenborough’s performance as the psychotic Pinkie owes as much to casting as his acting; Attenborough was approaching his mid-twenties during shooting, yet his adolescent features combined with a comically menacing demeanour results in a villain who would be a parody were the movie’s austere backdrop not so unsettling. Pinkie is a force of hatred, one whose past is undisclosed and whose squalid existence is defined by the people he hurts.

With Rowan Joffe’s new take on Brighton Rock currently circulating, Optimum Classics have digitally restored this classic and released it with a few interviews; most notably a talk with Attenborough and Boulting, 7 years after the film’s release. Whether or not the 2011 iteration of Brighton Rock will stand the test of time as well as Boulting’s classic remains to be seen, but it’s unlikely.

9/10

You always love the ones you hurt in this intimateFrench horror, which sees a bereaved mother bond with a troubled teenager after nearly running him down on an unlit country lane. Covered in blood and near-hysterical, Arthur claims that he has been attacked by a burglar caught in the act, and that his assailant will stop at nothing to kill him.

By calling Arthur troubled I’m already veering dangerously into spoiler territory, but from the moment Sarah spots him on the highway, it’s apparent that Arthur is as dangerous as he is endangered. We also know, from a rather gory prologue, that Sarah recently lost her 18 year-old son. His death resulted in Sarah’s separation from her husband, and she is vulnerable; both physically, living a reclusive existence in an isolated cottage, and mentally.

In Their Sleep

As their flight from the deranged killer brings them together, Sarah and Arthur embark on a bizarre oedipal relationship, and we begin to question which potential victim is the more insane. Much like another recent Gallic horror offering, Martyrs, the plot here is dispensed in a non-linear fashion, routinely flipping our understanding of its character’s motivations upside down, and keeping viewer perception in a state of flux.

In Their Sleep is far from original, but it’s another example of the superior French slasher pic, coming from the producers of Frontier(s) and Inside. It’s adroitly shot, exhibits a credible performance from Anne Parillaud, and has a smart, anticlimactic ending that falls somewhere between the pointlessly bleak and eerily poignant.

7/10

Extras: A trailer

In Their Sleep will be available on DVD in the UK from 14^th February, from Optimum Home Entertainment.

Not to be confused with Woody Allen’s 1982 comedy A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy is an amiable enough little movie that sees three couples (and Luke Perry) gather for the annual Swedish celebration.  I’m not sure if the title is a direct reference to Allen’s movie, but it’s a bit of a deceptive label; this movie has little in the way of laughs, nor much in the way of on-screen sex.

In fact, the Swedish title for this movie, released in its homeland in 2009, is Äntligen Midsommar! which translates as ‘Finally Midsummer!’ But this naughty marketing ploy pretty much sums up A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy. It’s a gentle, light-hearted character study with an identity crisis; a Swedish language film from an American director, that can’t quite make up its mind whether it wants to be quirky or astute.

A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy (Äntligen Midsommar!)

Each of the couples neatly fits a different tint of the relationship spectrum. Anders and Maria want a child, though Anders is hoping to get around the discovery of his low sperm count with a donation from a best friend. Perfect couple Susanne and Emil’s relationship is tormented by Emil’s love for old flame Eva. There’s also the stereotypically smug couple expecting a child. Amongst the Swedish cast sits Luke Perry, as conceited, womanising gambler Sam, an old friend of Emil and our English-speaking anchor in this bilingual movie. The craggier and further distanced be becomes from his heartthrob era, the more I like Perry, and its fun to see him take on a role that shines a cynical light on the Beverly Hills 90210 existence.

Luke Perry in A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy

I think it’s safe to divulge that over the course of the film these couples argue, split, reunite and even switch partners, and that the movie works its way with a reassuring “life goes on” epilogue. Audiences wouldn’t have it any other way. A Swedish Midsummer Sex Comedy is a sweet, inoffensive – unless you find brief shots of full frontal nudity offensive, in which case grow up – romp that almost feels like it was designed with couples in mind. She’ll enjoy the chick flick premise, he’ll ponder which of the Swedish lasses he’d opt for, and they’ll both appreciate the occasionally perceptive commentary on the fickleness of human coupling.

7/10

Extras: An interview with director Ian McRudden.

11 months after a violent altercation with a pupil lead to his suspensions, Robert Anderson is burnt-out, separated from his family and drinking on the job. He’s also the only teacher at his comprehensive prepared for an attack from murderous youths in this horror movie that, following in the wake of Eden Lake and Harry Brown, plays on Britain’s fear of faceless, blood-thirsty hoodies.

The identities or motives of our hooded hoodlums, portrayed by a team of parkour artists and seemingly capable of scaling any surface, are never disclosed. Writer/director Johannes Roberts takes great care to keep his monsters in the background; like Halloween’s Michael Myers they’re most effective when out of focus and briefly spotted darting past their unsuspecting victims.

David Schofield in F

Bar a few dodgy supporting characters, F is lifted by a decent cast. David Schofield, a distinctive character actor who has appeared in everything from The Bill to Gladiator (but in the eyes of film buffs will forever remain the distracted dart player in the Slaughtered Lamb) so successfully portrays Anderson as a worthless, shattered husk that it’s difficult to root for him even when his colleagues are systematically battered to death.

Inkheart’s Eliza Bennet plays Anderson’s whiny daughter – who also, quite conveniently, happens to be in his class, while true to horror convention, Hollyoaks beauty Roxanne McKee gets to prance about in skimpy gym gear – a pithy scene that I’m sure will still adorn the DVD’s back cover – before going the way of the slasher pic slut.

Eliza bennett in F

Inventively shot and ending upon a moral quandary far more harrowing than its anonymous phantoms, F also marks a considerable step forward for director Johannes Roberts, whose body of work has until now failed to escape straight-to-DVD hell. F offers nothing we’ve not before, but that almost goes without saying; genre fans will still find a lot to appreciate in this above average Brit horror.

7/10

Extras: A close and candid ‘making of’ doc, an interview with Roxanne McKee (which is odd given how little screen time she has) and a trailer.

F will be released in the UK on 10^th January by Optimum Home Entertainment.

Roxanne McKee in F