film reviews, interviews, features | BRWC

Author: Joel Fisher

  • Hoodman: Review

    Hoodman: Review

    Ariana Chandler (Madison Spear) has recently lost her husband and is left to look after their six-month-old son. Unfortunately, when Ariana gets involved in a car crash, the police tell her that her son died in the crash. However, Ariana believes that just before the crash occurred, a hooded man appeared in front of the car and that in fact her son is still alive and was taken by the hooded man.

    Ariana goes back to her parent’s house to stay while she tries to pick up the pieces of her life once again, but when she starts dreaming about the hooded man and having visions of him, she starts to believe that her sister, Missy (Skye Roberts) may be in danger.

    The only person that believes Ariana is Frank Hackman (Jack James) who has been investigating the disappearances of children all over the world after his daughter went missing and he believes that Hoodman is responsible.

    There’s also Detective Lenny Briggs (Brock Morse) a rather insensitive detective who’s trying to ensure that Ariana forgets the nonsense of the urban legend of Hoodman so that she can move on with her life.

    Hoodman is a supernatural horror written and directed by Mark W. Curran which takes inspiration from other films that have inspired urban legends and tries to create a new one. The problem is that Hoodman as a character isn’t well enough thought out, so the lore of the character is never really fully explained.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnxzsrJQIw

    For most of the movie, the audience is told that Hoodman takes children and that’s just about it. However, it seems that everybody Ariana meets seems to know the legend and some are very afraid. There’s also an aspect that runs through most of the movie where Ariana is plagued by dreams and visions although Hoodman is said to only take children. Although this is eventually explained, a lot of the audience may consider it to be a plot hole, because there seems to be no reason as to why Ariana is in direct danger.

    The movie isn’t of the highest budget and the cast do their best with a bad script, but even then, the acting isn’t all that great either. Maybe a horror movie to watch just to tick off the list of failed villains.

  • Pipeline: Review

    Pipeline: Review

    Shay (Ashley Ballard) and her friends have rented a house for the weekend from a kindly old man called, Merlin (Marc Goodman). They settle in and the couple all go to their separate rooms and look forward to having a relaxing time.

    Little do they realise that a monster is lurking in the pipes and it’s waiting to kill them just at the right time. However, the longer they stay at the house, the more they realise that there’s something they’re not being told and just when it’s too late, the survivors of the monster attack are in even worse danger than they imagined.

    Pipeline is a horror movie written and directed by Emily Aguilar which has a somewhat generic, but intriguing premise. The idea that something or someone is in the house with a group of people has been seen time and time again through horror, but every so often an idea comes that makes it more interesting.

    At least it sounds more interesting at the time. In this case, a monster or spirit that dwells in the plumbing of the house sounds so simplistic and yet has the potential to work. It could be a tongue in cheek horror comedy, or there could be some underlying social commentary. However, as much of the premise sounds a little different, the movie itself doesn’t seem to know what it wants to be.

    The set up for the movie is very typical and the first death which leads the audience into what kind of movie this may be does set the tone perfectly. It’s just unfortunate that it decides about halfway through to change tack entirely and the twist ruins any tension and potential for excitement completely.

    Also, for a horror movie with such an absurd premise, a bit of humour wouldn’t have gone amiss, because the first death is probably the best and the funniest, whether the humour was intentional or not.

    The cast and the budget are both of the lowest quality, however sometimes in situations like this it’s the premise and script that can carry a movie. Unfortunately it seems like another example of a good idea gone to waste.

  • Charlatan: Review

    Charlatan: Review

    Jan Mikosálek (Ivan Trojan) was a unique physician during his life where he treated many people throughout World War Two in Czechoslovakia when the population were under Nazi occupation, with many parts of the country being divided between Germany, Hungary and Poland. His alternative medicines and his keen observational eye helped to diagnose and treat his patients, saving many lives.

    However, after World War Two, Mikosálek continued his practice well into the fifties and this is where Charlatan picks up his story, going back and forth through his life as he awaits trial after being accused of murder.

    Whatever you believe in what we now know as homeopathy, the filmmakers make it very clear from the start that Mikosálek is an innocent man and that his treatments and diagnosis were truly a special gift.

    Although, as the film goes back through his life, from when the young Jan (Josef Trojan) started to learn his trade to the fictionalised affair that he had, it seems that Charlatan doesn’t seem to know what kind of biopic that it wants to be.

    There are three routes the story could go in; it could have been a story where a young man fascinated with healing learns to treat people in a way most modern audiences wouldn’t consider. It could have been solely about the murder trial where an older Jan strives to prove his innocence whilst looking back at his life and all the good that he had done. It could have even been about a later relationship in his life that enriched his character and made him truly understand who he was.

    The problem is that the combination of all three feels uneven and the latter perhaps serving to pad out a story that the filmmakers may have had enough confidence in telling.

    Both Ivan and Josef Trojan play their parts well, with the younger perhaps not having as much to do as his father. The production is also perhaps worthy of Oscar attention as it transports its audience to a part of the world that history has long forgotten. It’s just a shame that when one intriguing part of the story starts, it’s overtaken by another.

  • Stowaway: The BRWC Review

    Stowaway: The BRWC Review

    Marina Barnett (Toni Collette), David Kim (Daniel Dae Kim) and Zoe Levensen (Anna Kendrick) are on a mission to Mars. Marina is the commander on the mission while this is Zoe’s first trip and she’s rather excited. A Q&A with mission control tells the audience that these are the best of the best and that Commander Barnett couldn’t be prouder of them. However, time passes and soon they discover something is wrong and on further inspection they find a stowaway, a man called Michael Adams (Shamier Anderson) has hidden away on the ship.

    Realising their predicament, the crew all take to Adams rather well and welcome him aboard as he’s given the gravity (no pun intended) of his situation. Although, once they weigh up their options, they realise that with four on board when there should have been three, their oxygen is going to run out before they get home.

    Stowaway is the latest Netflix sci-fi original and with an all-star cast, it promises an intriguing story, a good script and an exciting plot. Unfortunately, it doesn’t manage to deliver on any of these promises.

    What starts out as a mystery as to how Michael got on board, attention is soon diverted to the bigger moral dilemma of how they’re going to survive and the lengths that they may have to go to in order to ensure it. However, the many avenues that the plot promises go undiscovered.

    Stowaway looks great and visually there’s nothing else like watching a small crew on board a space craft. It also opens up many opportunities for a close-knit cast to bounce off of each other as they delve into the depths of their situation.

    Sadly though, it seems that director Joe Penna may have had a great concept, but didn’t know how to pull it off. For science nerds and even those with a passing interest in space there are also a lot of troubling decisions that distract from the plot and even the tenser moments are purely because ‘they’re in space’.

    This means that the tension never really feels real, especially when the characters are all so inept. Stowaway is a good concept, but it falls apart easily and frustratingly wastes so much of its potential.

  • Cerebrum: Review

    Cerebrum: Review

    Tom Davis (Christian James) returns to his home after years of being estranged from his father, Kirk (James Russo). Tom’s mother died when he was young after she had early onset dementia and father and son have never seen eye to eye since.

    However, Kirk has made it his lifelong plan to ensure that nobody goes through what they went through again. He’s devised a system where he can upload human memories onto a digital disc and have them transferred back into the subject if they were to lose their memory.

    Despite their differences and the animosity Tom has towards his father, he agrees to be a test subject so that Kirk can finally realise his dream. So, Tom gets his brain uploaded into the computer, although he still remains who he was before. However, the grievances are still there, so despite this miracle breakthrough, there is still air that needs to be cleared.

    Unfortunately, when Kirk unexpectedly dies, Tom has to save his father’s memories in his own brain so that they can be uploaded and stored. The problem is that Tom becomes a wanted man after footage emerges of him killing his father. Tom also doesn’t remember doing it, so he has to go on the run to clear his name while quite literally preserving his father’s memory.

    Cerebrum is a science fiction drama directed by Arvi Ragu and co-written by Gary D. Houk. Unfortunately, besides its lofty ambitions, Cerebrum becomes something of a head scratcher as it tries to do too much at once.

    There’s also the issue that isn’t explained that when a person’s memories are uploaded, so are their personalities and accents. Whereas this may help with James’ performance when recounting his father’s memories as his father, it does become rather distracting.

    Not to mention that the wrongfully accused murder plot and Reinhard Kindler’s (John Ruby) plans to steal Kirk’s research makes the plot slightly confusing. The premise of Cerebrum may be interesting, and the way in which it’s executed may certainly make the audience think. However, they may be thinking why the movie could not have been done more simply.