The Apparition
Directed by: Todd Lincoln
Starring: Ashley Greene, Sebastian Stan, Tom Felton, Julianna Guill
An experiment by three college kids unleashes a supernatural presence which follows one (Stan) to the new home he's moved into with his girlfriend (Greene).
There's been a wave of haunted house flicks lately and they've all been bad but this is by far the worst of the bunch. Like 'The Possession', it's setting is a ghost estate but as with that movie it does nothing to exploit this backdrop. The terrifying supernatural force in this case takes the form of a patch of damp. Even the characters involved don't seem too scared by events and the viewer certainly won't be. It's very easy to make a bad horror movie but it's quite an achievement to make one as dull as this turkey. Were it not for the presence of actors associated with 'Harry Potter' and 'Twilight', I doubt this would have seen the light of day.
1/10
Citadel
Directed by: Ciaran Foy
Starring: James Cosmo, Aneurin Barnard, Amy Shiels, Wunmi Mosaku
The U.K media have a history of creating social panics and the demonizing of teenage "hoodies" is one of the current fads. This is the latest in a spate of U.K horror films to cash in on the bad press. Writer/director Foy goes one step further with his demonizing; his hooded villains are actually demons.
Barnard witnesses the brutal murder of his pregnant wife and lives as a shut in with his new-born daughter. The demons are after the child and Cosmo teams up with crazy priest Cosmo to defeat them. The location, an abandoned Glasgow tower block, lends the film a sinister vibe which it probably doesn't deserve. What starts off as an interesting take on social horror quickly develops into a second rate scare-fest.
Foy wrote this after suffering a violent attack by teens in Dublin so has a legitimate gripe but I feel this sort of ostracizing of young males does nobody any good.
3/10
Gut
Directed by: Elias
Starring: Jason Vail, Nicholas Wilder, Sarah Schoofs, Kirstianna Mueller
'Gut' starts off interestingly as a bored husband becomes obsessed with a series of DVDs featuring killings which may or may not be real. Unfortunately the film is incredibly amateurish, featuring some of the worst acting I've seen all year. The cheap digital aesthetic makes it hard to watch, particularly when combined with such poor lighting and framing.
Director Elias seems intent on copying the glacial style of Cronenberg and Haneke but needs to learn a lot about the basics of film-making first.
1/10
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