The Last Horror Movie (2003)
Director: Julian Richards
review by Paul Higson
At the 2003 Festival of Fantastic Films four new British feature films were previewed, Mitchell Morgan and Jon Kirby's Requiem, Tony Luke's Dominator (which picked up best animated feature film), Julian Richards' The Last Horror Movie and Hadi Hajaig's The Late Twentieth. None of the British features ran longer than 80 minutes and Richards' The Last Horror Movie took the best feature film overall in the competition. Anyone familiar with Richard's shabby first horror feature Darklands may well have approached his third feature with trepidation if not the lowest of expectations. How wrong we gladly were.
The digital medium has most of its practitioners nervous, preferring the painterly of the well-lit 35mm but stuck with the affordable. The plots repeatedly make excuses for the medium, faux documentaries, CCTV, science fiction eye-cam and home movie story formatting, are fast becoming overused and the audience will soon tire of it. Even films shot on 35mm are excitedly exploring the vividness of reality perspective horror in films like the latest in the Halloween series, Sean S. Cunningham's Extreme Close-Up and Raoul Girard's Cortex. The Last Horror Movie is the latest to take up the idea of the snuff documentary as it is chronologically recorded, a theme most notoriously previously served in Benoit Poelvoorde's Man Bites Dog. Indeed, the influences of that earlier film can be felt in this new production, certain tricks like the quick montage of killings serving as a passage of time are blatantly borrowed. The film also carries a feel of Mangled Alive and Fatal Attraction in Jack the Ripper's charming descendant's address of the camera as he commits his atrocities. The Michael Haneke back catalogue may also rest on the author's shelves from Benny's Video to Funny Games. The real surprise is in how much of the short screen-time of 79 minutes is spent exploring new details and thoughts on the sickening theme and it really is incredibly thorough. This is not some hastily put together draft, this is a showcase screenplay, this is a script that has been poured over in detail, the best of it tightly scrunched for maximum effect.
The viewers' complicity is repeatedly put to the question. \"So why are you still watching?\" could yet become one of the great horror movie quotes. This is played like a classic game of chess. There are bluffs, vague action is countered by explicit action, horrors that it has been thought had been escaped are thrown back on us. The home-time collection of the child from outside the school gates, shooting his trademark evil grin at the camera and what follows, is disturbing yet remarkably clever. The selection process for the victims is an insight we could have done without, compelling and direct. The viewer is too often brought too close to the killer's mindset. He is capable of anything. His intelligence makes him seemingly infallible, much to the frustration of the audience. It is an experiment in horror and we are all witting students. Comparing it to other successful recent British horror films The Last Horror Movie becomes sharper still, they all run longer and as entertaining as they all are they dip under the weight of influence. The script of The Last Horror Movie is more inventive than the generic beds of My Little Eye or 28 Days Later. Those films counter for that with a pace, though The Last Horror Movie is only leisurely at its centrepoint, the appallingly calm persona introducing us to his crimes evokes an effective, haunting distaste that goes further than any other recent British horror picture. James Handel has taken Julian Richards' basic premise and built something special up around it, Richards' should keep hold of his telephone number. Handel meanwhile has a second horror script in preparation with \"Four Horsemen\" as part of their much-vaunted initial slate of four new British horror films, his first horror movie should hopefully not be his last.
The only difficulties beyond the BBFC's consideration are the way it sells itself, the fatally ironic poster, a naff video sleeve that requires a closer look, could reduce it to non-rental status, looking too much like a David DeCocteau direct to video title. Then again, that could be the intended quad poster only, with something more eye-catching for the eventual video release. It is also too successful in installing a sense of guilt into the participant viewer.The Last Horror Movie was the title of a British horror script greatly anticipated in the mid-1980s, promised by Marek Kanievska (director of Another Country), but impossible to deliver with the then terrible reaction to the horror genre in Britain. Well the title at least finally arrived and it is sported by a movie that genuinely shocks. It is ridiculous that the industry has not played upon last years successful horror crop, this film should have been one of those instigating a new age for British horror. A gap year so soon after the hit year is not the way to go. May the Festival of Fantastic Films' award be the first of many for this bold exercise! In fact, I expect it will be.
Comprar Last horror movie Review and Opinion
Last horror movie Review and Opinion
The Last Horror Movie (2003) Director: Julian Richardsreview by Paul HigsonAt the 2003 Festival of Fantastic Films four new British feature films were previewe
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2025-01-11
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