Author: BRWC

Travel: Films That Make It Terrifying

1. THE HOST (2020) – AVAILABLE FRIDAY 17 APRIL ON DEMAND AND DIGITAL IN THE UK 

Director: Andy Newbury 

Cast: Maryam Hassouni, Mike Beckingham, Dougie Poynter, Derek Jacobi, Nigel Barber, Ruby Turner, Suan-Li Ong, Togo Igawa, Daniel Boissevain 

https://youtu.be/dTCRD6Pquh8

Synopsis: For fans of good old fashioned thrillers and twisted mysteries, a trip into a world of intrigue is possible as THE HOST comes to Amazon Prime, Google Play and iTunes. The Host follows the deadly paths that corrupt criminals, un-suspecting detectives and secretive heroes take when all roads lead to Amsterdam. The European city is shown off with Oona Menges’ stylish cinematography, but the darkness beneath the pleasant exteriors is mined for tense shootouts, hostile dinners and terrifying cellars. The Host is compelling viewing for Hitchcock fans, promising a journey alongside troubled London Baker Robert Atkinson, who is caught in the affairs of international travel parties as he tries to pay his debts. A daring trip, that starts at home. 

2. Berlin Syndrome (2017)

Director: Cate Shortland

Cast: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt and Lucie Aron 

Synopsis: Berlin Syndrome is less nightmarishly surreal that Roth’s backpacker bloodbath. Cate Shortland’s take on one girls date gone wrong with a stranger in the city of her solo gap year travels has chilling real-life parallels for young female film fans. The grounded camerawork and claustrophobic dialogue between an unhinged bachelor and his new, “live-in” guest keeps hearts racing even as the film grinds to an excruciatingly sharp standstill. A psychological trip as lengthy as our plucky heroines route in and out of Berlin, Berlin Syndrome examines the way one young girl can get out of any scenario with imagination and courage. 

3. Sully (2016)

Director: Clint Eastwood 

Cast: Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Laura Linney 

Synopsis: Nothing inspires more fear than true stories captured well. The first of two Tom Hanks performances on this list, Sully references the heroic real act of a an American pilot achieving an emergency landing that saved the lives of his passengers and crew. The Hudson may save the day but the episode of turbulence and panic beforehand is a brilliantly acted moment of the high stakes of commercial travel. A film that hits home – thankfully – with grace and style. 

4. The Lobster (2015) 

Director: Yorgos Lanthimos 

Cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Coleman 

Synopsis: Did Yorgos Lanthimos envision the most terrifying holiday resort of all time? Maybe so. A grim holiday hotel on the barren edge of the countryside is the destination. But it offers little relaxation or recuperation for a series of emotionally constipated guests, who must partner up into stale, forced marriages or be turned into an animal and have to hop, fly, or crawl back home through the woodland. With a pre-Oscar appearance by the great Olivia Coleman as the hotel manager – before she reunited with Lanthimos for The Favourite years later – The Lobster puts a desperate, gut-churning spin on the idea of the whirlwind holiday romance. 

5. Wild (2014) 

Director: Jean Marc Vallee 

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski 

Synopsis: Sometimes the unknown parts of the world beckon, sometimes they threaten. The outback did both for solo hiker Cheryl, portrayed by Reese Witherspoon in the screen account of her long journey. Cheryl encounters wild animals, untamed landscapes and powerful storms – but the scariest thing the Witherspoon captures all too well is the fear of really seeing all your weakness when you’re left far from home, all alone. In the end, Wild is an unnerving, but ultimately rewarding travel journey through one women’s psyche – proving you have to go far away to, one way or another, to find yourself. 

6. Flight (2012)

Director: Robert Zemeckis 

Cast: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Kelly Reilly 

Synopsis: Keeping with the theme of airborne fear – Denzel Washington’s smash hit pilot blockbuster redefined the meaning of an actor’s’ “vehicle” picture. When a the pilot of an airliner must turn his passenger’s worlds, quite literally, upside down, fans of air-travel will find their hearts in their mouth. Screen smashing visuals and ingenious use of perspective puts audiences in the mouth of a flight falling out of the sky: a trip from the clouds to the ground has never been more painful, or more visceral. 

7. Hick (2011) 

Director: Derick Martini 

Cast: Chloe Grace Moretz, Eddie Redmayne, Blake Lively 

Synopsis: Derek Martini left a mark on the Hitchhiking story with a sordid tale of increasingly worse rides for Nebraskan runaway Luli. Grabbing a ride from a stranger has gone out of fashion, for good reason, but care-free travellers will be starkly reminded of a bullet, a cage or another type of monster that might be waiting along the road to freedom. Chloe Grace Moretz is convincingly fierce and afraid at the wheel of untrustworthy journeymen: audiences will be glad when she finally reaches home. 

8. Hostel (2005) 

Director: Eli Roth 

Cast: Jay Hernandez, Derek Richardson, Eythor Gudjonsson 

Synopsis: Eli Roth booked a space in the audience subconscious with a devastating display of every backpackers worst nightmare. 3 guests head to Eastern Europe with a promise of a luxury, adventure and hedonism. Instead, they’d be hard pressed to leave with all their limbs. Last minute trips have never lead to trickier traps. 

9.  Red Eye (2005) 

Director: Wes Craven 

Cast: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox 

Synopsis: Flights can be challenging at the best of times. Cramped seating, extreme altitudes, and limited snack choice. Throw in a threat upon your family’s life and an intense Cillian Murphy stare targeting you from the aisle over and we’d all be as uncomfortable as Rachel Mcadam’s character Lisa gets on what would otherwise be her routine flight. Red Eye makes a stunning use of transport as setting, weapon and part of an antagonist’s plan all in one. 

10.  The Terminal (2004)

Director: Steven Spielberg  

Cast: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta Jones, Stanley Tucci 

https://youtu.be/BTVIMh4dqZA

Synopsis: Coming in to land with a classic Tom Hanks heart-breaker, The Terminal broke the mould with an introspective, fully felt portrait of people in transit. Stuck in an airport with an unusable VISA, Tom Hanks’ sweet-natured Viktor (based on the real life 2 decade stay of Mehran Karmini Nasseri) has his travel immigration halted indefinitely by the world in unrest. The Terminal explores the ways characters, friendships and curiosity can thrive in stasis, and as much as it is about every restless traveler’s worst scenario (becoming a prisoner of the migratory system) it also proves one of Steven Spielberg’s greatest adventures, teaching us how to appreciate the worlds to discover in the people and surroundings closest. 

How Courtrooms in Movies and on TV Compare to Reality. By Franke Wallace.

Crime shows have always been big hits in Hollywood, with everything from shows like Suits and Rizzoli and Isles, to movies like A Few Good Men, and even documentaries like Abducted in Plain Sight and The Ted Bundy Tapes streaming to audiences worldwide. It’s no secret that courtroom movies and TV shows are some of our guiltiest pleasures. Give us cheesy detective stories, poorly done re-enactments, and raging judges and we’ll happily spend hours in front of our TVs. 

But are these movies and TV shows actually showing what a real courtroom is like? Does the judge really bang his gavel and call for “order in the court!” on a regular basis? Do the lawyers regularly scream out, “I object!”? We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but courtrooms are rarely as exciting as Hollywood would like us to believe. Let’s take a look at some of the differences between courtrooms in reality versus what the movies and TV shows depict them to be.

Right Into the Action

As exciting as TV and movie producers want courtroom dramas to be, there’s actually quite a bit that happens before we get to an actual trial in a court of law. But those parts of the process wouldn’t exactly make for the most exciting TV, now would they? In reality, before we get to those heated moments with Jack Nicholson screaming, “You can’t handle the truth!” and Joe Pesci stringing measuring tape across the courtroom to prove a point, you have something called an arraignment.

An arraignment is the first step in any type of criminal proceeding. This is when the judge reads the defendant their rights and gives them all of the information they need to decide how they want to plead. It happens relatively soon after the criminal files are charged, and sometimes the arraignment date is determined by the judge for those who are already in custody.

Don’t expect to see very many arraignment scenes in crime thrillers, though. It’s a pretty basic run-through, and other than the defendant pleading guilty or not guilty, that’s about all the action you’ll see. For entertainment value, arraignments aren’t worth much and it seems like filmmakers got it right when deciding to leave this particular step out of their movies.

Attorneys Crossing the Line

Monk, starring Tony Shaloub, was a long-running TV show in the early 2000s that focused on a brilliant detective struggling with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. His ailment, which included several phobias — one of which was constantly washing his hands or using hand sanitizer, often got in the way of him solving crimes. However, in one particular episode, Monk himself was on the stand and the defense attorney began using his many phobias against him. It was enough to get him rattled and it’s enough to almost completely undermine the entire murder case Monk has been working on.

Whether it’s a murder trial or a child custody case, it’s no surprise that in almost every movie or TV show set in a courtroom an attorney is often either the hero or the villain. They make grand gestures to save their client or punish someone who’s wrongfully accused. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), if you’ve ever had the pleasure of heeding the call of jury duty, this almost never happens in real life. Before any questioning ever got to the point of badgering the witness like in Monk, the witness’s attorney would immediately object. There are rules and guidelines about behavior that all attorneys are expected to follow and while it might be exciting to see on our TVs, it isn’t going to happen the next time you’re stuck on jury duty.

Surprise Evidence? No Surprise Here

Any courtroom drama worth its weight in gold knows that one of the keys to an exciting courtroom scene is the tried-and-true surprise evidence. What’s more exciting than blindsiding a lying criminal on the witness stand with a secret stash of evidence in order to serve justice to the main character? Not much. 

Truthfully though, this isn’t allowed in any courtroom. All evidence that is to be used in a trial has to be presented to the opposing side before the trial even begins. This means that all the attorneys involved know what the opposing side is going to use and this helps them build their case more. Unfortunately, starting a scene by saying, “And here’s some evidence you approved last week” just doesn’t have nearly as much dramatic effect.

While real-life courtrooms might not be as exciting as the ones we see on our screens, it’s comforting to know that there are rules and regulations everyone has to follow. We’ll keep the drama in our movies and TV shows and pass on it in real life for the time being.