31 Nights of Terror 2015 #40 - Goodnight Mommy (2014)

Goodnight Mommy (2014)
Director: Severin Fiala, Veronika Franz
Starring: Susanne Wuest, Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz
Format: AVI

Plot: Twin boys move to a new home with their mother after she has face changing cosmetic surgery, but under her bandages is someone the children don't recognize.

And so the 2015 edition of 31 Nights of Terror comes to an end with the 40th entry, which I'm pretty sure is my best effort yet. I wanted to finish with something good, and I've been wanting to see Goodnight Mommy ever since I first started hearing buzz about it last year.

This German-language Austrian film is pure psychological horror. There's no body count and there's no gore, so if you're after that, look elsewhere. Instead Goodnight Mommy is a beautifully-shot slice of surreal and suspenseful mystery. The idea is that you're kept guessing the whole time as things unfold and the plot takes a bunch of twists and turns.

I say that because unfortunately I picked the plot twist right from the start, as I'm sure a lot of horror fans will. When you watch so many of these types of movies it happens. While I think not guessing the twist would add a lot to the viewing experience here, I did enjoy the movie anyway.

The directors do a fantastic job of capturing the absolute beauty of the remote countryside location, with some simply stunning cinematography. Simultaneously they use this isolation to build a atmosphere of complete and utter dread, without relying on lazy jump scares. Helped by some fantastic acting from the three leads (young twins Lukas and Elias are outstanding), this movie will have your skin crawling and the hairs on the back of your neck standing up for the whole ride. 

To say too much more would be to give too much away, but if you like slow-burning, suspenseful stories that will make you think, you can't go wrong with Goodnight Mommy.

31 Nights of Terror 2015 #33 - Don't Look in the Basement (1973)

Don't Look in the Basement (1973)
Director: SF Brownrigg
Starring: Bill McGhee, Jessie Lee Fulton, Robert Dracup
Format: DVD

Plot: Nurse Charlotte Beale arrives at the isolated Stephens Sanitarium to work, only to learn that Dr. Stephens was murdered by one of the patients and his successor, Dr. Geraldine Masters, is not very eager to take on new staff. Charlotte finds her job maddeningly hard as the patients torment and harass her at every turn, and she soon learns why Dr. Masters is so eager to keep outsiders out.

I picked up this movie as part of a 12-movie DVD set called American Horror Stories, which I bought while visiting the US a couple of years ago. Most of the movies are public domain stuff (House on Haunted Hill, Bucket of Blood, Little Shop of Horrors) or very bad prints of other 60s and 70s horror. While the picture quality of this 70s indie cheapie (apparently it cost $100,000 and was shot in 12 days) isn't great, luckily the movie itself makes up for that in spades.

Also known as The Forgotten, this was the debut for late director SF Brownrigg, who does a great job of building up a tense atmosphere. The acting, all by unknowns, is rough around the edges as you'd expect, but does a great job of conveying the various mental short-comings of the inmates. There are some genuinely chilling moments and a bit of blood is shed here and there.

The setting and opening kill (axe to the head while chopping wood) invoked comparisons with Friday the 13th: The New Blood, while the rest of it kind of reminded me of a low-budget Shutter Island. I won't go too much into the plot since there's a pretty good twist involved (which veteran horror movie fans will probably guess but is good anyway).

I highly recommend Don't Look in the Basement, although fans of more modern and polished horror might not find it to their liking.

As a post-script, I should mention that the director's son has helmed a sequel, the trailer for which you can find online. I'm looking forward to checking that out when it's released.

31 Nights of Terror 2015 #17-23 - Saw series (2004-2010)

Saw series (2004-2010)
Format: DVD

My girlfriend is a big fan of the Saw movies and I hadn't seen all of them (giving up after part 5), so we decided to do a marathon of them as part of this year's 31 Nights of Terror. Rather than give individual reviews of each of the movies (and try to explain the plots, which let's face it get pretty intricate and confusing, and impossible not to post spoilers), I thought I would give a few observations about each entry and then rank them.

Saw (2004)

Director: James Wan

Starring: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell, Danny Glover
- All these years later it's easy to think of the Saw movies as classic "torture porn", but it's also easy to forget that the first movie was more of a psychological thriller. The gratuitous torture scenes would become prevalent later in the series. Instead this one is all about the twists and turns of the plot, feeling like a sequel to SE7EN in some ways. While I'm not a big fan of some of the "music video" editing, I think James Wan did a great job here. The acting is also top notch, minus Danny Glover who seems, well, tired or something.

Saw 2 (2005)

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Donnie Wahlberg, Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith

- Part two is can't really be classed as out-and-out torture porn, even if there are more "traps" in it, some of them truly cringe-worthy. The syringe pit in particular had me squirming in my seat. I like this one better than the first movie mainly because we get more Jigsaw and Donnie Walhberg plays a better protagonist than Glover did.

Saw 3 (2006)

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus McFadyen

- The torture porn aspect is definitely ramped up in part three, which has some really nasty moments (pig shredder is gross-out and the rack is brutal). I do enjoy the fact that the relationship between Jigsaw and Amanda gets explored here - I think their relationship was what made these early movies so great. Thumbs up to the ending twist.

Saw 4 (2007)

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Scott Patterson
- Clearly this was meant to be a three-part series and in hindsight it probably should have been left that way, but you can't blame the studio for wanting to milk the golden goose (I think I screwed up the metaphor there somehow). Unfortunately, while Saw IV is indeed watchable, these movies had become very formulaic by this stage - trap, trap, trap, twist ending. In its favour, this entry has some good background on why Jigsaw became a killer, although the amount of flashbacks does drag down the middle portion. Also, am I the only one who found it damn difficult to tell the difference between Agent Strahm and Detective Hoffman? Couldn't they have chosen two actors that didn't look so similar? It's nice to get some closure on the Eric Matthews story arc.

Saw 5 (2008)

Director: David Hackl

Starring: Scott Patterson, Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell

- By this stage the series was becoming a bit like the Final Destination movies - you keep watching to see what cool kills they can come up with. The biggest fault of Saw V is that it doesn't have enough Jigsaw, as the story revolves around Strahm and Hoffman, neither of which has the charisma to replace John. Points for casting Julie Benz, who is always good, but the ending twist (while involving a great gruesome kill) is pretty weak.

Saw 6 (2009)

Director: Kevin Greutert

Starring: Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell, Mark Rolston

- I really don't have much to say about part 6, as it suffers from mostly the same faults as the last entry - not enough Jigsaw, too much Hoffman. I will say that the ending twist is pretty good and I enjoyed the overall "game". I really dug the merry-go-round trap.

Saw 3D: The Final Chapter (2010)

Director: Kevin Greutert

Starring: Costas Mandylor, Tobin Bell, Betsy Russell

- And so the series comes to an end, and not before time. The formula is very, very tired by now and this entry doesn't even have the benefit of the directing of James Wan or Darren Lynn Bousman. This entry does ramp up the gore, rivalling part three for most gruesome, but that can't make up for its faults. The biggest fault is the acting - the guy who plays the character Gibson is so hammy and annoying I felt like punching the screen at times. And, as the name suggests, this one was filmed in 3D, so we get plenty of hokey "stuff flying at the screen" effects. The final twist is pretty good and it does tie everything together in a satisfying way (even if you can tell it was story writing on the fly).

My ranking of the Saw movies from best to worst:

1- Saw 2

2- Saw 3

3 - Saw

4 - Saw 4

5 - Saw 6

6 - Saw 5

7 - Saw 3D: The Final Chapter