mortiis25 Reviews

Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)

A Brilliant Film

[21 December 2002]

As a kid, of about the age of 10-12, I had a perverse desire to see this film, because of the gold logo on the front of the box : THE FILM THEY DID NOT WANT YOU TO SEE.

Now, I have been brought up with horror and slasher films all my life, they're what I know best. Now I make my own films, in this genre.

I consider Silent Night Deadly Night to be a milestone of slasher history, a film which many people just don't seem to 'get', so to speak.

The main reason I don't think people get this film is this:

Americans are brain washed by the films that are produced every year and succeed at the box office - soft, clean ideas for their feeble minds, force-feeding their brains with an alternative reality that they all wish they had.

If these people who watch these films would just sit back, relax and let their minds wander for just a couple of hours while watching a film like Silent Night Deadly Night, I believe that this film would belong to the same category as films such as The Evil Dead, Return of the Living Dead, etc.

This film is a classic example of a slasher film done right - without the stuck-up teen American actors and actresses from Friends and Party of Five trying to act their way through it.

Enjoy.

Luna (1979)

Ultimate Beauty in it's Purest Form.

[19 August 2002]

Well well well, what do we have here? Another one of Bertolucci's earlier films? Yes and No. This is one of Bernardo Bertolucci's earlier films (1979), but it is unlike anything that he had done before or ever did again.

La Luna is something that is a gem of film-making history, even though it is virtually impossible to get on video (and it will most probably never be shown on Television again).

It tells the sad, depressing (yet beautiful) tale of a young boy's growth into adolescence , while experimenting with drugs and eventually (as they always do) ends up becoming addicted to Heroin.

His Mother(played ever so beautifully by Jill Clayburge), in an effort to try and 'wean him' off the drugs develops an incestuous relationship with her son.

Shocking as the description above may sound at first, please do not let it put you off seeing this fantastic film, as it is only a small slice of the cinematically glorious outing that this film is!

The photography portrayed in this film is the best that bertolucci has ever achieved (Yes, even the fantastic The Last Emperor and Little Buddah). When I say a film is utterly breath-taking (I am a hard person to please when it comes to films, just read my other reviews here!), then you know you're in for a treat and a half.

But, what is the point of this review unless people have a chance to witness the sheer beauty for themselves?

I saw this film when I was 15 years of age. I am now 26 and have never forgotten a single FRAME of La Luna. Every word, every scene sticks in my mind like a vivid memory, and I in some ways feel that I was in the film somehow and was able to feel all the anger, all the pain and all the love that surrounded it.

For a film to make this much of an impression on someone and for that impression to still be fresh in the person's mind eleven years later, you also know this film has to be a good thing.

You people, I am very sad to say, will probably never have the chance to see this film (as it has not been released on Video - I have tried nearly every day for eleven years to find a copy!!!).

But let what I have said stick in your mind, just as La Luna hopefully will some day...

The Evil Dead (1981)

A Classic of it's Kind

[16 August 2002]

Evil Dead is perhaps the horror film which spawned a decade of take-offs and look-alikes. From a storyline point of view there is not much to look forward to, but this film (like most 80's horrors) was not about storyline at all.

What this film lacks in storyline it superbly makes up for in it's gore and fright factor!

I remember seeing this film at the age of nine, and being completely scared out of my mind for weeks, I would go to bed and think that I had one of the Dead underneath my bed. It took me so long to get over it, and I don't think I truly appreciated what the film had to offer at the time.

When I was older, at about the age of 14, I rented the film with a friend of mine in Darwin, Australia where we were living at the time. Watching it late one night at his house, the film had his older sister running out of the room within 30 minutes of it's running time, but both my friend and I were salivating for more gore, more horror, more THRILLS! (which undoubtly is what this film does deliver).

If you have never seen a horror film(!) before, please see The Evil Dead, and discard it's two awful comedy-horror sequals.

The problem with the film's two sequals is that they were released at the wrong time really. They were released in the midst of the whole 90's horror-fest thing that America seemed to be going through, where every second movie released from the vaults just happened to be a horror film, trying to better Evil Dead.

If the two sequals had stood up to the gore and chill factor that this film did, perhaps they would have succeeded also and become landmark films as this film did.

Nowdays, there are no good major horror films released (especially not from America). Nowdays, everything that comes out of America (not just horrors either, sadly), either has to have someone from Friends or Party of Five in it to even make it past the godforsaken box-office.

Back in the 80's, films were released not for popularity, but for fun and enjoyment of others.

Now, people have to contend with the fucking censorship side of things, then all America sees in it's glazed eyes is $$$$$$$$$.

"If the film ain't gonna make the $$$$$$$$$ then f*** it!"

Before the 90's, America's attitude towards releasing a film was : "F*** the Censors, lets give the people what they want! Who cares if these actors can't act, we'll throw in a couple of boob-shots and nobody will care!"

What a shame America evolved into such a shambles...

The Idiots (1998)

A Masterpiece of cinema.

[30 March 2002]

One of the best independent films I have seen in years(and probably the best idea in film history) is The Idiots.

Everything about this film shined - from the brilliant(and underrated) acting done by all who took part, right down to it's use of minimalistic sound.

Sure, the film does have some shocking scenes(if you're shocked by actors pretending to be retarded), but all of this is nessecary in order to process the film through your mind at the end.

All in all - A Masterpeice, something which should NOT be missed.