Author: Ben Gummery

Written by Ben Gummery & Lewis Mainwaring

Chastity Bites is a 2013 black comedy/teen horror film written by Lotti Pharriss Knowles and directed by John V. Knowles.

Notorious serial killer Elizabeth Bathory (Louise Griffiths) believed that bathing in virgin blood would keep her young and beautiful forever. Still alive in present day America she’s found a perfect hunting ground promoting celibacy in the young girls at San Griento High School under the banner of the V.A.G. society.

She soon has numerous ‘pure’ teens under her command; except for bold young blogger Leah (Allison Scagliotti – who is also an executive producer) who is the natural opposite of ‘popular’ girls Kelly (Chloë Crampton), Ashley (Amy Okuda), Britney (Sarah Stouffer) and Noemi (Lindsey Morgan); a clique that is worthy of Mean Girls status. Leah is assisted by friend Katherine (Francia Raisa) and love interest Paul (Eduardo Rioseco).

Griffiths performance as glamorous and malevolent vampire Liz Bathos is flawless and is well matched by Scagliotti’s performance as fearless & rebellious outsider Leah.

Visually the film shows its low-budget credentials and action/horror is used sparingly but this does not hinder the story and performances.

The Blood Countess’s origins are not that of Hollywood fiction but that of Hungarian history. Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed (7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614) was a countess of nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary.

She has been labelled as the most prolific female serial killer in history, though the precise number of her victims is debated. Báthory and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls between 1585 and 1610. The highest number of victims cited during Báthory’s trial was 650.

She is often compared with Vlad III the Impaler (from which the fictional Count Dracula is partly based), and has been nicknamed The Blood Countess and Countess Dracula as is mentioned in the film.

This film keeps some ‘classic elements’ of the horror genre whilst ‘flipping’ some of the key concepts.

The ‘final girl’ is a trope in horror films. It refers to the last woman alive to confront the killer. The final girl has been observed in dozens of films, including Halloween (Laurie Strode), Friday the 13th (Alice Hardy), A Nightmare on Elm Street (Nancy Thompson)  and Scream (Sidney Prescott). This film sees elements of the ‘final girl’ concept.

Another key ideal of horror films for decades is basically Sex = death. As referenced in Scream there are rules that must be adhered to to survive a horror movie:-

1) You must not have sex.

2) You must not do illegal drugs or drink alcohol

3) Never say “I’ll be right back”

In the same vein as the 2000 film Cherry Falls the killer isn’t slaying the sexually promiscuous but is actively killing virgins, which is a really fresh look on the horror dynamic.

5/5 – A teen horror/comedy with an interesting twist.

The film was finally released in the UK on Amazon VOD on 2nd February and DVD release is on 2oth April (pre order on Amazon Now)

Dolphin Tale 2 is the sequel to the 2011 Dolphin Tale which was loosely based on the true story of bottlenose dolphin ‘Winter‘ that was rescued from the Florida coast and taken to the Clearwater Marine Park (which is also used in the film) who sadly lost her tail and had to be fitted on a prosthetic. This film centred on the friendship between Winter and 11-year-old Sawyer Nelson (Nathan Gamble).

The film stars Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Nathan Gamble, Kris Kristofferson, Cozi Zuehlsdorff & Morgan Freeman; all of whom returned from Dolphin Tale. Writer/Director Charles Martin Smith also returns.

 This sequel continues the search for Winter; who is desperately in need of a female companion dolphin. The film also focusses on Sawyer who is torn between taking up a scholarship or continuing to look after Winter. It also focuses on the father/daughter relationship between Clay (Harry Connick Jr.) & Hazel (Cozi Zuehlsdorff) as well as the interactions between Hazel & Sawyer.

What I really appreciated about this film was that it avoids the trap of some other ‘animal-centric’ films in that as much attention is paid to the human story as it is to the animals and the human characters in this film are well developed. Real life footage is also shown at end of the film which is a nice touch. Visually the film lives up to the first instalment and the Clearwater Marine park obviously provides excellent production value for the producers.

Morgan Freeman gives his usual delightful performance as the wise & cumbersome Dr. Cameron McCarthy…….however his presence here does seem like obligatory star casting.

Special Features
-A short featurette about the real life stories behind the film.
This is a nice addition but it would have been good to see more special features offered.

The film is available on DVD & Blu-Ray 14th February, pre-order available now.
3/5 – Standard ‘feel-good’ mainstream fare with an all star cast.

The 1991 thriller Toy Soldiers is being released for the first time on Blu-Ray on the 2nd June by 101 Films as part of their ‘Cult Film Collection’. It is probably arguable however whether this film deserves cult status. It fits in with the typical action/military films of the late 80s/early 90’s; but this is no WarGames.  This was the directorial debut of Writer/Director Daniel Petire Jr.  who is better known for his comedic writing on films such as Beverly Hills Cop an Turner & Hooch. Some of that humour is also seen here but is not nearly as effective as his other works. The cast includes Sean Astin(The Goonies, Lord of the Rings), Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me), Louis Gossett, Jr. (An Officer and a Gentlemen), Andrew Divoff (Air Force One), Mason Adams (Lou Grant) and Denholm Elliott (Indiana Jones).

Regis High School, an exclusive prep school for delinquent teens becomes the target of a terrorist hostage-taking when Columbian drug lord and terrorist Luis Cali (Divoff) travels to the US to negotiate the release of his father and it is left to a group of student pranksters (Astin, Wheaton etc.) to outsmart the terrorists.

The films action segments are given a certain sense of grandeur by Robert Folk(Police Academy)’s stirring score; but this is perhaps undeserved and marks the occasional moments of excitement that lead this formulaic plot to it’s inevitable conclusion. There are some good performances here; I particularly enjoyed Denholm Elliot as the wide old Headteacher and Louis Gossett, Jr as tough and wily Dean Parker as well as the kids ensemble but this is not enough to redeem the film. The result is neither gripping tense thriller or laugh-out-loud action comedy with little visual excitement.
The transfer to Blu-Ray from the original is reasonable but not exceptional and it doesn’t appear as if much restoration work has been done to the film; leaving it looking quite dated. There are also no special features included however the disk is at-least reasonably priced for a first release. 2.5/5 -This is one of those films which despite having a strong cast and writer fails to live up to expectations. You can pre-order the blu-ray here now.

The Turning is based on the best-selling book of short stories by Australian author Tim Winton.This big-screen adaptation is a collaboration between many writers and directors; each working on one the books segments.  The film stars Cate Blanchett (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Hugo Weaving (The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies) and Rose Byrne (X-Men First Class).

Compilations like this run the risk of feeling disjointed however this film seems mostly to avoid that as the various tales intertwine and cover the whole range of the human experience from relationships to death.

The film employs some of the best tricks in low budget drama which is to focus on the human stories and performances and using some of the great natural landscapes available in Australia rather than expensive sets.

The film is held by a together reflective, haunting and ethereal score that holds the piece together. with some common themes

Visually the piece is surprisingly consistently shot however it does use some interesting and abstract shots and moving camera at times for effect. Some of the stories employ voice-over and narration to tell the tales.

4/5

Overall, this short-story format may feel like a lot to take in when adapted for film but the common threads, human stories, performance and score are enough to keep your interest through the piece.

The film is out in UK cinemas 6th February from distributor Soda Pictures.

This documentary (a joint venture between Fuel Entertainment and Xbox Presents) explores one of the great urban myths in video gaming, the dumping of around 700,000 copies of the Atari game ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,’ for the classic Atari 2600 console at a dumping site in Alamogordo, New Mexico. This game has often been referred to as one of the worst games in history and blamed for the ultimate financial failure of Atari.  This propels the stereotype we still have today that video games based on films are invariably terrible.

Typically at the time Atari would spend many months developing a game but after making a multi-million dollar deal with Steven Spielberg (who approved the game himself) for the E.T. game gave the company just 12 weeks to get the game to market in time for Christmas. Following the games release the companies finances took a turn for the worst and it went on to lose $536 million.

In this documentary we see a brief but fascinating history of Atari and the culture at the time from people and programmers who were there as well as hearing from game creator Howard Scott Warshaw about his early success at Atari and the subsequent end of his career in gaming following the release and his life since. We also hear from ardent Atari fans such as Ernest Cline (Fanboys, Ready Player One).

In 2014 a team of fans, archaeologists and historians got permission to dig at the famed site in Alamogordo to discover the truth of this urban legend and the entire journey is documented here. Large crowds attended what many in fan circles considered a historic event.

Director Zak Penn (story writer on such films as The Avengers & X-men: Last Stand) as a well known ‘gamer/geek’ himself gives us a look ‘outside from the inside’ style documentary. This film avoids the trick used by some similar films of using game soundtracks and the score here is subtle; and graphics and game footage are used sparingly so it’s not too ‘in-your-face’.

Although coming from a non-gamer perspective and with no knowledge of the subject matter I found this perfectly watch-able and interesting for a wider audience throughout with a good balance of intense gamer and outsider perspective with genuine interest.

4/5 – An insightful uncovering of the greatest urban myth in gaming whilst also exploring the companies history.

It is released digitally, available to view-on-demand on a variety of platforms from 2nd February.

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