Takashi Miike's newest film 13 Assassins is of two parts; the first, the calm before the storm with measured bits of horror and insanity peeking though; the second, as one of the characters phrases it - "TOTAL MASSACRE". In some ways built like a heist film, the first part deals with the recruitment of the 13 assassins as well as showcasing the horror of the villain's deeds, investing the audience with a reason to root for the title assassins in the second half. The film opens with a samurai committing hara-kiri in a gruesomely extended take focusing on the samurai's face. This perfectly sets the tone for this harsh world, ruled by codes of honor and face, in which one man, a Lord Nagasawa, dares to break every code of honor without punishment due to his standing with the Shogun, leaving the samurai, bound by their honor, in a difficult position. The horrors of this first section are classic Miike but the film as a whole is surprisingly restrained in its gruesome effects in comparison to his other work. Instead, the film lets us get to know the characters before sending them on an all out, 45-minute bloodbath of a war; 13 assassins against 230 men in the most epic action sequence in a year. For such an extended bit of action, one never loses interest as Miike jumps from one assassin to the next, varying things up but also showing just how brave these men are. Miike lets completely loose and the result is glorious - a masterful sequence of traps, bombs, sword-fighting, bows and arrows, rock-throwing, and everything else you can think of, always underlined with the samurai idea of honor.
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Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale feels like the first draft of a funny and dark concept - a team of excavators dig up an ancient evil in the north that escapes and causes havoc on a small town, an evil known across the world as Santa Claus. The problem in this film lies in its unwillingness to push the concept as far as it can go. There is a bit of a Spielberg vibe here but with a few hints of more twisted humor in the mix (a blood red countdown, dozens of slaughtered reindeer, Santa biting a man's ear, the father of the lead character being a butcher), Rare Exports makes a promise that it doesn't deliver. The villains are strangely passive and do almost nothing frightening so the viewer never really cares whether the characters succeed in stemming them off. The story is developed at a slow simmer that never changes. Frankly, this is a film tamer than anything from the '80s Amblin period, a significant problem for a film that is making its reputation on its supposedly twisted story.
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Saw-haters can rest easy - James Wan and Leigh Whannell's Insidious is nothing like that series of films and is surprisingly good. Playing to a receptive Midnight Madness audience and only finished one or two days prior, Insidious is a prime example of the nice surprises the Midnight Madness program occasionally has up its sleeve. The film revolves around a couple (Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne) whose son falls into a mysterious coma and who find their house haunted by some malevolent spirits. Frankly, the film does have a lot of rough edges. No one's going to accuse the film of looking good, the dialogue is clunky on several occasions, the character motivations don't always feel realistic and even a solid actor like Patrick Wilson doesn't come off fully believable under Wan's handling. But shot in 22 days, it has the low-tech vibe of recent thrillers like Paranormal Activity coupled with a strong commitment to the kind of scares that don't cheat (i.e. just using sudden music to generate a jump). There's an unpredictability in the way each scene and shot plays - the film keeps you tense and on your toes, sometimes following through on a scare and sometimes just letting the tension build to no climax. Don't get me wrong - this film is no slow, elegant ghost story - the scares, when they come, come fast and furious and are more of an ilk with Poltergeist, a film Wan and Whannell referenced in their introduction. There's also an acknowledgment of the camp potential with some humorous sequences thrown in the mix. It's not high art but Insidious is proof that Wan and Whannell have a genuine understanding of horror. Frankly, they out-Carpentered Carpenter this year, delivering where The Ward did not.
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