UNEDITED – Alyce
As the resident tramp of AndyErupts, money has been typically tight lately. I’ve not had the money to go out and buy shiny new things to review for the site (or shitey old things for that matter). I’m a law abiding tramp and refuse to download the latest torrents because, well, it’s not very nice I think. Instead I tented myself up outside the editor’s house until he had an advance copy of something worth reviewing. I’d watch truck loads of B-movie tripe shipping out to Harlequin and Zombie D. Knowing it would more than likely be material not worthy of human consumption but jealous nonE the less. The tactic seemed to have paid off as eventually he gave in, unzipped my tent door {I did knock first – Ed} and handed me a copy of Alyce. There have been far worse days at the office.
I mean just look at the titular character here. Working a data entry employee with a jobs worth, dragon-like supervisor who doesn’t seem to let anything pass her by. Always hovering around, looking to get her in trouble…I’d hate a job like that. Alyce seems to think there is some sort of future in it for her. Me and her mate Carol aren’t so sure. Not that Alyce would disagree much. She’s a bit of a recluse. And what was it your mum always said? It’s the quiet ones you need to look out for? I hate to side with your mum, dude, but she was bang on the money.
It’s not hard to tell that Alyce is a very pretty lady, a little thin if you ask me, {no one did, fatty boom boom-ED} though her age is harder to tell as in some scenes she looks about fifteen and others about thirty five. I’m guessing early twenties judging by her chosen lifestyle at the beginning of the movie. Her friend Carol (who it seems Alyce has more than friendship feelings for) seems to be a habitual buzz chaser, taking any drug that she can get her hands on and Alyce just goes along with it, mostly. But one night will change that routine forever and serve as the catalyst of the main character’s slow decent into madness and loneliness.
We’ve all done it.
Anyway…
The two girls get annoyingly drunk and Carol starts searching for better highs, coming across some right dodgy locations and drug dealers along the way (ah, the memories). They end up fooling around the streets, acting in that really stupid, giggly way only drunk women get that really irritates me and it results in Carol pummelling off a roof. Hurray! FUCKINSERVESHERRIGHTANAT!
Sorry.
The roof scene is shot so it’s difficult to say exactly what happened. Panicking, Alyce flees the crime scene and then later lies to the police about her involvement, protecting herself from the law. The police man is glad to report to her that her friend managed to survive the fall…
This is when the paranoia sets in. The anxiety. Alyce starts to freak out and tries to console her emotions with drug use, delving more and more into Carol’s murky world. We’ve all done it.
Anyway…
The lines gets blurry, the boundaries collapse, her world changes…and it won’t be long until this whole new world is punished…
There are some pretty gruesome scenes but nothing that would turn the stomachs or heads of the AndyErupts team but maybe it would gross out their “girlfriends” (yeah, whatever, geeks) and it takes a long time getting there.
At ninety minutes it runs it’s course just fine but I can’t help thinking a good 10-15 mins could have been slashed off the running time and we’d have barely noticed. Sometimes it feels like an over long short film, other times it felt like an under developed script saved by some pretty excellent turns from the relatively unknown cast. Especially Eddie Rouse, who is formidable as low life drug dealer Rex. Jade Dornfeld was given a pretty hard task as the lead role and manages to not only make her descent believable but also lets her cool side warm the screen the further down the rabbit hole Alyce goes.
Director Jay Lee does a very nice job here. At times the film’s low budget does show but mostly the whole thing works. The hand held camera and some pretty grim lighting seem cheap at the start of the film but make sense by the end of it. His cast are well directed and work great but the very few jump scenes in the film don’t work as well.
It’s a decent cross breed of Taxi Driver, Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer and Harry Brown with a young female lead. It’s also no where near as unforgettable or as thought provoking as those three films though. By the end of Alyce I was thinking more about the last time I’d had a mental night on class A’s than I was about what the film was trying to tell me…
It was a long time ago and nobody died. A bit like the sex lives of the entire AndyErupts squad.
UNEDITED – The Woman In Black
I must admit I’m not an expert geek of all things Harry Potter but I really enjoyed the films. So I was delighted to go and see the latest film and tell you all what I thought of Harry Potter and The Woman In Black. I couldn’t wait to see the boy wizard’s latest adventure.
But I was a little confused. A few things have changed since the last outing. Obviously with Voldermort dying in the last film, Harry needed a new baddie. And a new setting. And a new cast. But no eye candy in the shape of Rupert Grint? Presumably it clashed with the filming of that Ed Sheerin music video he featured in. Which is a shame. He missed out because this is definitely the darkest and by far scariest of the Harry Potter movies to date.
Harry, now named Athur Kipps (Daniel Radcliff), is now a young lawyer and single parent (with nanny). He still grieves for his wife who died young during the childbirth of his only son. And it’s taken it’s toll on his work ethic. His bemused boss tells him he must get his arse back in gear and pronto mister or else face being made redundant. He then sends him packing to the outskirts of London to help put the estate of the deceased Alice Drablow and the Eel Marsh Mansion in order. This is his last chance to prove he is worthy of the firm he is represents.
After a short train journey, Harry is welcomed into the nearby town like a paedophile arriving at a child’s tea party. You know the way. Like the Americans at The Slaughtered Lamb or Edward Woodword arriving in Summerisle…There are things here no stranger need know about. Every one of the locals egging him to go, trying to force his hand in leaving but he has to stay to keep his job to feed his baby who has no mummy now. He has to go to the mansion everyone tells him not to go to. It is isolated on a small islet and can only be arrived at during brief intervals when the tide is out and it’s only path is crossable.
Eel Marsh Mansion is an old, run down house with it’s own graveyard, tall iron black fences and often engulfed in thick mist. And it has it’s ghost. The titular woman, who’s story is unravelled as the creepiness intensifies and the startled jumps increase in volume.
And that’s the thing about Harry Potter and The Woman In Black. It’s all…very similar. It never strays from the norm. If you placed The Woman In Black movie poster into the dictionary next to word ‘conventional’, it would sum up the meaning of the word much better than any actual words could. You’ve seen this all before, most recently with the likes of Nicole Kidman’s The Others.
But there is nothing wrong with conventional if every one on the project knows exactly what that is and how to achieve it. There is nothing wrong with conventional coming from the pioneers, Hammer Horror. And there is nothing wrong with conventional if the whole production is carried out with grace, plenty of entertainment value and, most importantly, the scares. And trust me, there are plenty of genuine scares. A few ‘popcorn everywhere’ and young teens yelling ‘OH MY GOD!’ moments.
Most jumps, admittedly, are things appearing in shot with a large BOOMING sound effect. Most of the creeps come from close ups of Victorian doll faces, wind up toys mysteriously going off and slightly ajar doors in the near distance. There is very little blood. There is very little in the way of laughs. This is a traditional Hammer Horror movie and a welcome return to it. The British horror scene is back and taking on the Japanese and yanks with what they do best. This feels like the beginning of a new era by going back to basics and showing the world what we can do.
It’s masterfully done. Director James Watkins delivers the remit with aplomb. His producers will be most happy. And they will be very pleased with their choice of Radcliff who is in almost every shot of the movie and never fails to deliver a genuinely good performance. He’s slowly becoming a very watchable, bankable star. His eyes speak a thousand words where the script has none. I can’t see him getting the nod for best actor gongs just yet but that grimacing face and Churchill dog head wobble which faulted most his Harry Potter performances are gone. Most of the time. His future is looking bright and one can only hope that this Watkins/Radcliff collaboration won’t be their last.
I’m sure a few critics out there will bemoan the cheesey ending but I thought it was perfect. This is a movie that likes being a movie and wants you to remember it for being a great movie experience. This isn’t a hardcore, blood smearing, shotgun driven, American punk rock, zombie exploding haulocaust of a flick. There’s no need for a horrific ending. There’s even less need for it to have that one, final, fatal jump. That’s what the Americans would have done and most their movies suffer because of it. It’s so predictable. This was a welcome change. They try and produce franchises these days. No imminent sequel is always a bonus in this day and age.
So to sum up – it’s conventional, predictable, beautiful looking, well directed, well performed and has a few genuine chills and jumps. Come to think of it, it’s absolutely nothing like the other Harry Potter films. But Harry Potter fans and horror fans won’t really care and will genuinely enjoy it for exactly what it is. A horror film. A ghost story set in the old days. And everything you’d expect from that, it delivers.
NOTE – There is a kinda jump at the end of the film, I just hoped I’d help the surprise. For the filmmakers and ‘at. Know?
