Cheap Thrills (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: E.L. Katz
	Actors: Pat Healy (The Innkeepers), Ethan Embry, Sara Paxton (Shark Night 3D), David Koechner (Thank you for smoking)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 05.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013 and 12.09.2013, Sao Jorge Theater, MotelX2013
Synopsis: Craig (Healy) has money problems. In a bar he meets up with old friend Vince (Embry) he hadn't seen in five years. They will befriend a couple and start a dangerous game of money and dare.
Review: Viewing this movie was another example of how it is better to be surprised than to know all about the story after viewing the trailer or reading too much about it. I only read in the magazine Mad Movies that Cheap Thrills was "simple but efficient", I chose to see it based on this only and this is indeed the best way to describe the movie. The two actors I liked in The Innkeepers are reunited here and with the two others they form a good quatuor. The story progresses slowly while you learn to know the characters, and you don't get bored for one minute. You keep on discovering new faces of the characters as they encounter new challenges. It is difficult to say more without revealing too much of the story, but take my word that you can go watch it (and it is not as bloody and disgusting as the poster suggests...only a little).
Rating: 8 /10

Tulpa (2012)

	Also Known As: Perdizioni mortali
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Federico Zampaglione
	Actors: Claudia Gerini (The Passion of the Christ), Michele Placido
	Country: I
	Genre: Thriller, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 05.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: Gruesome murders follow one another, revolving around a private club called Tulpa, of which Lisa (Claudia) is a regular costumer.
Review: In a few words: Tulpa is a giallo of the 70's. At least it has all the characteristics: very limited story and dialogs, relatively low budget, succession of pervert murders perpetrated by an unknown figure dressed in leather, investigation by the character which is at the center of the murders, primal colors, some jazzy or classical or experimental music and several sex scenes, preferably SM or lesbian. What is there not to be loved? The movie doesn't have the cinematographic perfection of Amer and the director is evidently less master of his art, but I enjoyed this straight-forward thriller/giallo for its atmosphere and 70's look. Some ideas are very well found, like the mysterious owner of the Tulpa club (although it made some people laugh in the cinema), the background story of the Tulpa (a kind of mystic energy that you have to free to be yourself, several books actually exist on the topic), or the hint that rattle-snake poison is used by the club owner on his customers. I feared that the end could spoil the atmosphere but it didn't, leaving us reflecting on the final image at the sound of the music that accompanied the whole movie (I will probably buy that soudtrack).
Rating: 7 /10

Cottage Country (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Peter Wellington
	Actors: Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Tyler Labine, Lucy Punch
	Country: CDN
	Genre: Comedy, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 05.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: While on a week-long holiday in a cottage during which he intends to propose, Todd (Labine) is disturbed in his plans by the arrival of his unreliable brother.
Review: I was not planning to see this movie at first at the Fantasy Filmfest, but decided to go at the last minute, hoping for a good comedy. Unfortunately everything was already shown in the trailer and I got bored after a while, in spite of a few funny moments and the good acting by Labine. Interestingly, the quest of the main character is in the end the same as the one of Welcome to the Jungle that I saw two hours before: taking his life into his own hands.
Rating: 5 /10

Welcome to the Jungle (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Rob Meltzer
	Actors: Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, JCVD, The Expendables 2), Kristen Schaal, Adam Brody (Jennifer's Body)
	Country: GB, USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 04.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: A team of package designers is sent to a remote island on a team-building training, led by Storm Roughchild (Van Damme).
Review: I thought this could be a cheap movie, not very funny and using the name of Van Damme to attract audience, but I was wrong. Five minutes of the movie may remind of TropicThunder but no more. Adam Brody plays very well the young and shy but ressourceful man, in love with one of his colleagues but abused by the others because he is too nice. In the end the movie is about him becoming more overbearing and discovering what he really wants from his life. Meanwhile, we laugh at some funny and sometime dumb situations, when the movie takes an unexpected and completely unrealistic turn. There are some lengths in the middle of the movie due to a lack of ideas but this is quickly passed. Van Damme is there for his muscles of course but we also see another side of him, light and self-mocking. Note that his son Kristopher Van Varenberg plays a small role here, like in a few other movies starring his father (Universal Soldier 4 & 5).
Rating: 7 /10

Odd Thomas (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Stephen Sommers (The Mummy 1-2, G.I. Joe)
	Actors: Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman), Addison Timlin
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 03.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: In a small town, Odd (Yelchin) is gifted with the power to see dead people, and he chosed to use this gift for justice.
Review: The highlights in the director career of Stephen Sommers were undoubtedly The Mummy and its sequel, introducing a renewal of the classic Monsters movie genre. Then he tried with his Van Helsing to repeat the performance, making another historical action movie with retro-futuristic elements but something looked wrong: music, story, acting... it was not as satisfying as The Mummy. However, when I think of it, I think he was a precursor to a wave of this kind of movies that flourish nowadays: Sherlock Holmes, Hansel & Gretel... In Odd Thomas there is not much new: the teenager fighting evil in a small town like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the quick dialogs and colorful sets like in Kaboom!, the hero narrating his story between the action scenes. Only the design of the "monsters" is original and I liked it. Pleasant to watch but not revolutionary.
Rating: 6 /10

Haunter (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Vincenzo Natali (Cube, Splice)
	Actors: Abigail Breslin, Sarah Manninen, David Hewlett, Stephen McHattie (A History of Violence, Watchmen, 300), David Hewlett (Cube, Nothing)
	Country: CDN
	Genre: Horror, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 03.09.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: A girl (Breslin) is stuck in a temporal toop with her family, in their house surrounded by fog, but she is the only one to realize it.
Review: I liked the previous work from Natali: his debut with Cube, the comedy Nothing, the monster/love movie Splice (I haven't seen Cypher). He manages once more to deliver an original story and it is perfectly realized in all its details. Even if the strating point immediately reminds of other movies (spoiler, highlight to read: The Others and Groundhog Day), the following of the story / investigation is told from a new point of view. Besides, Stephen McHattie is a good actor and his apparitions are always highlights. However this was not enough to fully captivate my attention and even if a good movie, it is a bit long and spends a lot of time framing its main actress.
Rating: 6 /10

Poltergeist (1982)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1982
	Director: Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eaten Alive, Salem's Lot)
	Actors: JoBeth Williams (Wyatt Earp), Heather O'Rourke, Craig T. Nelson (Scream Blacula Scream, The Devil's Advocate, The Incredibles)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 02.09.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: Paranormal events occur in a suburb house of the Midwest, and the little girl of the family (O'Rourke) is particularly sensitive to them.
Review: As I will probably soon meet Tobe Hooper at the MotelX festival in Lisbon, I wanted to watch some of his movies. Poltergeist was written and produced by Steven Spielberg who was at that time shooting E.T. He wanted Hooper to direct the movie because he had been scared by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but he was very present on set and in post-production and his trademark is clearly visible in the movie: suburb houses, nice family with plenty of kids, bicycles, filming people from the back or off-screen, several conversations taking place at the same time... I read spielberg and Hooper wanted to revisit the haunted house genre and I think they succeeded: the movie is unique and it is what made is successful, very different from the old gothic haunted house stories (still told this way nowadays in some movies) or from the house of horror film for teenagers filled with jump-scares and bloody deaths (most common). It is actually closer to possession movies like The Exorcist and has this 80's style that I love for telling a story. The construction of some scenes is excellent, like the whole family relationships in the first half-hour, the 15-minutes whispered scene in the middle (I had never seen that in a movie!) and the ending that totally surprised me. The quality of the Blu-ray edition is good but not excellent. I was startled by two very abrupt cuts in the editing (looking like censorship but has no reason to be) and three scenes in which you get a glimpse of a stuntman in a corner of the screen! According to some websites, the movie is one that contains the most revealing or continuity mistakes! Is this due to the tiredness of Spielberg when post-producing it at the same time as E.T.?
Rating: 7 /10

Star Trek VII: Generations (1994)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1994
	Director: David Carson (several episodes from two Star Trek TV-series)
	Actors: Patrick Stewart (X-men 1-3), Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, William Shatner (Loaded Weapon 1, Airplane 2), Malcolm McDowell (Doomsday, Halloween)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 30.08.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: We witness the last days of the original crew of the starship Enterprise led by Kirk (Shatner) and the new team 80 years later led by Picard (Stewart).
Review: Generations is clearly making the transition between the old and new Star Trek cast, thus the title. After watching the first six movies, I started to know the old cast and I have now discovered the new one. It is funny to see how they tried to keep the receipes that made the success of the original: a captain filled with doubts, a second with less charisma, a cold-blooded scientific officer (an artificial being replaces a Vulcan), the doctor (now a woman) and the chief of engineering. The story is quite in line with the traditionnal spirit of Star Trek (some Villain searching for an electromagnetic wave crossing the universe, with the help of rebel Klingons) and actually looks like a mix of all the first six movies! But this story also manages to incorporate the more personnal relationship between the characters in the Enterprise, and to bridge between the generations, which is quite an achievement I would say. The special effects from 1994 start to be decent and the overall experience of watching this movie is good.
Rating: 6 /10

Dark Touch (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Marina de Van (In my Skin)
	Actors: Missy Keating, Padraic Delaney, Robert Donnelly, Charlotte Flyvholm
	Country: F, S, IRL
	Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2013, GABRIEL cinema, MFFF2013
Synopsis: A little girl (Keating) sees objects moving in her house.
Review: I went to see this movie with no more information than the fact that it won the Mad Movies price at the NIFFF2013. It turned out to be focussed on the thoughts and fears of the little girl, brillantly played by first-time actress Missy Keating. The movie is not really scary and there are only a few horror scenes, but the most interesting is the meaning behind the movie. The director was present after the projection and I was not surprised to learn that she studied philosophy at La Sorbonne in Paris, because her movie gives you a lot of thoughts afterwards. The rythm is slow and not much happens, sometimes we spend a lot of time just watching the face of the main character, but when the movie is over you realize that it illustrates well the main topic: child abuse.
Rating: 7 /10

In the Name of the Son (2012)

	Also Known As: Au Nom du Fils (original)
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Vincent Lannoo
	Actors: Astrid Whettnall, Philippe Nahon (Haute Tension), Achille Ridolfi
	Country: B, F
	Genre: Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 31.08.2013, CINEMA theater, MFFF2013
Synopsis: The mother of an ultra-christian famility will be shaken in her belief after tragic events.
Review: Blacker comedy than this one is hard to find. The humor is very special and maybe not to the taste of all, but perfect for the crowd of the Fantasy Filmfest. The director was here to explain that he didn't intend to criticize religion or Christianism with this movie. To me he just wanted to make fun of the religious extremists. The situations are delightful and the dialogs are particularly crunchy especially if you understand the original French version. I love when the mother reads the magazine "God and Science" to her child, explaining what are asteroids, meteroites, that one could anihilate life on Earth... but only if God wants it! It is hilarious to see the men of the Church provide good explanations to justify Creation, Faith or... pedophily. The movie could shock you if you are not ready to laugh about that topic. The only things I can criticize is that sometimes it feels too easy to make people laugh by having the characters tell outrageous things, and that the structure of the movie is too sliced.
Rating: 7 /10