Category: REVIEWS

Harpoon: BRWC FrightFest Review – So, full disclosure, I’ve always been a sucker for movies set in one location. And while Rob Grant’s 2019 black comedy/horror does begin on land, it isn’t long before it’s lead trio of despicable twenty-somethings make their way onto the yacht that will serve as the setting for the remainder of the movie. What follows is like a sinister, unpredictable little movie that’s as much Reservoir Dogs as it is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

The movie zips along at pace that’s both quick and well-pitched, moving swiftly and with precision from quirky teen-comedy to 90s style Cruel Intentions deception and even, during the later moments of the film, pure horror and gross-out humor. The fact that not a single one of the protagonists is in the slightest bit sympathetic or nice doesn’t harm the film either, as so much of the enjoyment comes more from watching the central trio tear themselves apart through their own petty squabbles and pointless backstabbing.

To give away much of the plot would be to spoil most of the fun, but suffice it to say that the film follows best friends Jonah, a miserable would-be loner who has lost his parents and squandered what little money they had left him, and Richard, the wannabe playboy son of a wealthy businessman (and maybe gangster), and Richard’s long-time girlfriend Sasha, as they embark on a day-trip out to sea on Richard’s yacht.

When dark secrets and rivalries begin to rear their ugly heads, things begin to take a turn for the worse… and then some. Soon the trio find themselves stranded in the ocean with no means of escape, and paranoia quickly becomes the main course.

Beyond that I can’t say much more, because the film twists and turns, reveling in each sudden new direction and unexpected piece of information. The fact that it manages to balance the shifts in tone as well as the shift in narrative is a testament to the quality of the filmmaking on display, and it never forgets to keep the audience entertained. The entire movie is presented to us through the use of a narrator (a voice-over provided by Strange Things’ Brett Gelman) who chimes in occasionally to give the audience context and backstory we may not otherwise be privy too. He’s also central to the movies best recurring gag, which involves listing of the many superstitions of sailors.

The cast are all on top form too. And, while the film goes a little overboard toward the end, with Munro Chambers perhaps needing to pull back a little in the films final moments, the fact that I remained intrigued to see what would happen and how this would all play out despite just how terrible they all are says a lot. The stand-out, however, is undoubtedly Emily Tyra as Sasha, who manages to somehow find the sympathetic side to an otherwise unsympathetic character, and as a result (in a specific scene that to say anything about beyond this would spoil far too much of the fun), manages to turn in a pretty emotionally charges performance as well.

Visually the film is beautiful, with the crisp, clear blue water of the ocean captured in all its glory, and the slow descent into madness perfectly presented and visualized through the film’s ever increasing spiral into darkness.

The music in Harpoon too, manages to expertly balance the tone of the piece, even during the sudden tonal shifts, and much like the visual style it compliments, as the film progresses so too does the music reflect the more sinister and more unsettling space the characters find themselves in.

Taking in references and influence from as varied a source as Edgar Allen Poe to The Life of Pie, Harpoon is almost gleeful in the way in which it continuously sets us up to expect something only to pull the rug out from under us at the last moment. That this practice not only doesn’t get, but actually becomes more intriguing and unexpected with each subsequent turn just goes to show how much fun it really is.

Even though our leads aren’t a particularly likeable bunch, and despite the movie’s willingness to go to some pretty dark places (I consider myself a horror fan and, as a result, have a pretty strong stomach, but there was one moment here that really did make me feel a little woozy), Harpoon remains an ever engaging and ever enjoyable experience. It has a dark, and oftentimes mean-spirited sense of humor, but when you’re having this much it’s hard not to get caught up in the madness of it all.

Dark Encounter: BRWC FrightFest Review

On the anniversary of a young girl’s disappearance, her grieving family return from a memorial service and struggle to heal. Over the course of the evening, each are drawn to a strange phenomenon in the skies above a nearby forest. Before long, the group are plagued by disappearances, disturbing visitations and painful revelations that shake the foundations of everything they know.

Trying to evoke Stephen Spielberg’s Close Encounters is a ballsy move for any filmmaker. Attempting to juggle Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar at the same time is where the entire concept falls apart. There are elements to Dark Encounter that one can truly appreciate.

The visual effects are fantastic, David Stone Hamilton’s score is luscious and stirring (if occasionally overcooked) and the use of light and colour within the fantastical parts (sidestepping spoilers) is jaw dropping. Unfortunately, Dark Encounter constantly plays a game of two steps forward, one steps back.

I’ve no doubt director Carl Strathie has an excellent film in him. Dark Encounter is a well-crafted Science Fiction flick with a round table of decent actors. It attempts to deal with themes of loss, blame and fractured families but trips over itself with its clever conclusion. Spending time within the fantastical wonder of the final reel is creatively rich and visually stimulating but there’s a darkness broiling beneath the surface that I wanted to see more of.

The cast are all solid with standout performances from Laura Fraser and Sid Phoenix. The heart-wrenching motivations being juggled by the ensemble are commendable, but the dialogue is often stilted and cliched. It all leads to a finale that is emotionally overwrought and entirely unearned. A mishmash of ill-fitting concepts that would have been more than enough if individually implemented. The ambition is admirable, but the leftfield turn doesn’t have the potency the filmmakers clearly intended.

Overall, Dark Encounter is worth a watch for the individual elements even if the movie isn’t quite worth the sum of its parts. That being said, I’m more than happy to settle down in a darkened theatre for Strathie’s next film project.

Dark Encounter is released on DVD & Digital on 21st October. 

There’s a moment in Ant Timpson’s 2019 black comedy/thriller Come to Daddy where a character stabs another character with a pen smeared in their own shit. It’s as disgusting as it is hilarious, and as the scene plays out, reveling in the full-on blackly comedic absurdity of it, I finally felt like I’d got a grip on just what type of movie it was I was watching.

At its best when it’s getting sidetracked by its characters petty squabbles (I think my favorite moment involves what amounts to nothing more than a pissing contest about Elton John), Come to Daddy is a strange movie, but it somehow manages to balance its oddball concept, quirky characters and somewhat disappointing finale, and pieces them all together into something far more enjoyable and original than I was expecting.

Telling the story of Norval – an awkwardly unsure of himself hipster, played brilliantly by Elijah Wood (who has been busy reinventing himself as a genre-mainstay) – who heads out to a remote house overlooking the ocean in some Oregon town at the behest of his estranged father, who sent him a letter asking him to come after years of no contact whatsoever, Come to Daddy is a bizarrely humorous, blood-splattered comedy that feels both fresh and yet oddly old school at the same time.

To say much more about the plot would be to spoil the fun of it. And I recommend going in as blind as possible. Starting out as a quiet, yet mysterious, drama about a father and a son struggling to reconnect before morphing into something that’s as much Tarantino as it is The Coen Brother’s Blood Simple, Come to Daddy struggles to maintain the quirky weirdness of its initial “twist”, but remains thoroughly entertaining throughout thanks to some great performances (most notably Michael Smiley, who is having as much fun here as a deranged, unapologetically villainous bad-guy as he has in any other role I’ve had the pleasure of watching him in).

And seriously, what movie isn’t vastly improved by the presence of Michael Smiley?

Visually the film looks great, at first capturing the mood of a dramady, all sunny seaside shots and night-times by the fire, and later spinning on itself and going full-tilt thriller, complete with a seedy Motel with a neon sign and roads bathed in yellow streetlamps. Cinematographer Dan Katz manages to capture both moods with aplomb, and as a result the movie has the appearance of a much more high-end production.

Unfortunately, the script isn’t quite as sharp as its central premise would suggest, and as the movie twists and twists again the jazzy dialogue and enjoyably petty games of one-upmanship that made the first 30 minutes so enjoyable begin to disappear in favor of something a little more predictable and a little less oddball. The movie still manages to keep our attention, but the finally can’t help but feel a little lackluster when it’s placed up against such a spectacular set-up.

The eerie score that composer Karl Steven’s threads throughout builds just the right amount of tension, and perfectly complements Katz’s visuals, while the choice of songs included on the soundtrack range from obscure to chuckle inducing – and every movie should feature a bit of Aphex Twin somewhere.

Perhaps I should have been more prepared for the movie I was about to watch, after all, Timpson and co. do warn us of the oddness of what is about to come when the film opens with two quotes about fatherhood, one from William Shakespeare and the other from… Beyoncé. It’s a moment that made me chuckle, and perfectly foreshadows the kind of weird and hard to pin down peculiarity that it about to follow.

What’s more impressive is that despite its constant twisting and turning, the film never looses sight of its central theme of fatherhood and the relationship between a father and a son. It plays in part like a coming-of-age story, and in that way its strangely satisfying.

Overall, Come to Daddy is a lot of fun. A mystery that plays its card close to its chest, and is happy to lead you along into the unknown, its shaggy dog story style narrative never content to go where you’d expect. While the finale can’t quite live-up to the promise of the previous hour or so, it doesn’t fall enough to spoil the time spent getting there. In this case the journey is very much the point. And while the individual pieces may not be as unique or original as the movie seems to hope they are, much like the aforementioned pen covered in poop, Come to Daddy is like a traditional narrative smeared with gross-out comedy, sudden bursts of gore and a strangely assured sense of off-kilter fun.

Come to Daddy will hit the UK in early 2020 via Signature Entertainment.