LONG LIVE THE 70s! (2)



SUSPIRIA (1977)

During a night of rain and thunder, a young American ballet student, Suzy Bannion (Jessica Harper), lands in Munich to attend a prestigious dance academy in Freiburg. When she reaches the school, she witnesses another student, Pat Hingle (Eva Axén), fleeing the building in a panic. Unable to gain access herself, Suzy stays in town for the night. Pat arrives at a friend's apartment where she is attacked and murdered...

Soundtrack
The Italian rock music band Goblin composed most of the film's musical score. Goblin also composed music for several other films by Dario Argento. In the film's opening credits, they are incorrectly referred to as "The Goblins". The score for Suspiria is considered a unique masterpiece. Like Ennio Morricone's compositions for Sergio Leone, Goblin's score for Suspiria was created before the film was shot.
Goblin frontman Claudio Simonetti later formed a heavy metal band, Daemonia, and the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD release contains a video of the band playing a reworking of the Suspiria theme song. This DVD edition also contains the entire original soundtrack as a bonus CD, long out of print in North America.
Goblin's main title theme for Suspiria was named as one of the best songs released between 1977 and 1979 in The Pitchfork 500: Our Guide to the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present.

Director: Dario Argento
Producer: Claudio Argento
Writter: Dario Argento, Daria Nicolodi
Starring: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini
Running Time: 92 min(Rated), 98 minutes(Unrated)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8zbV_fFkYs&feature=fvw

Rating: 9/10


THE LEGEND OF THE HELL HOUSE (1973)

Physicist Lionel Barrett is enlisted by an eccentric millionaire, Mr Deutsch, to make an investigation into "survival after death" in "the one place where it has yet to be refuted". This is the Belasco House: the "Mount Everest of haunted houses," originally owned by the notorious "Roaring Giant" Emeric Belasco, a six-foot-five perverted millionaire and supposed murderer, who disappeared soon after a massacre at his home. The house is believed to be haunted by numerous spirits; the victims of Belasco's twisted and sadistic desires. Accompanying Barrett are his wife, Ann, as well as two mediums: a mental medium and Spiritualist minister, Florence Tanner, and a physical medium, Ben Fischer, who is also the sole survivor of an earlier investigation. The rationalist Barrett is rudely skeptical of Tanner's Christian faith and spiritual beliefs, asserting that there is nothing but unfocused electromagnetic energy in the house...

Dialogue from the film has been sampled in popular songs by the bands Anaal Nathrakh, Skinny Puppy and Orbital.

Director: John Hough
Producer: Albert Fennell, Norman T. Herman, James H. Nicholson(executive), Susan Hart (executive)
Writter: Novel & screenplay: Richard Matheson
Starring: Pamela Franklin, Roddy McDowall, Clive Revill, Gayle Hunnicutt, Roland Culver
Running Time: 95min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MDF9vZVd_s

Rating: 7,5/10


THE WICKER MAN (1973)

Police Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) is sent an anonymous letter recommending that he investigate the disappearance of a young girl, Rowan Morrison, on the remote Hebridean island of Summerisle (a fictional island apparently inspired by the real-life Summer Isles of the Inner Hebrides).
He flies to the island and during his investigations discovers that the entire population participates in a Celtic neopaganism cult, believing in re-incarnation, worshipping the sun and engaging in fertility rituals and sexual magic in order to appease immanent natural forces.

Director: Robin Hardy
Producer: Peter Snell
Writter: Anthony Shaffer
Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Britt Ekland
Running Time: 88min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FdV-O8o7ok

Rating: 8,5/10


THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972)

Mari Collingwood (Sandra Peabody) plans to celebrate her seventeenth birthday by attending a concert with her friend, Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham). Her parents (Gaylord St James and Cynthia Carr) express concern both at the band and Mari's friendship with Phyllis. They let her go, giving her a peace symbol necklace as a gift before she leaves. Phyllis and Mari go to the city for the concert. On the way, they hear a news report on the car radio of a recent prison escape, involving violent criminals by the names of Krug Stillo(David Hess), a rapist and serial killer, his son Junior (Marc Sheffler), Sadie (Jeramie Rain), a psychopath and Fred "Weasel" Podowski (Fred J. Lincoln) a child molester, peeping tom and murderer. After the concert, Mari and Phyllis stroll the streets, seeking someone who might sell marijuana. They find Junior, who leads them back to an apartment, where they are immediately trapped by the criminals. Phyllis tries to escape, then tries to reason with the criminals to let her go and is punched in the stomach and raped...

The story is based on the 13th century Swedish ballad "Töres dotter i Wänge", which was also adapted into the 1960 Swedish film The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman.

Director: Wes Craven
Producer: Sean S. Cunningham
Writter: Wes Craven
Starring: Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain
Running Time: 91min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9KPhmYYtg

Rating: 7,5/10

LONG LIVE THE 70's! (1)



DON'T LOOK NOW (1973)

Don't Look Now tells the story of a couple, Laura (Julie Christie) and John Baxter (Donald Sutherland) whose young daughter has recently drowned in a tragic accident at home. Their grief puts a sudden pressure on their marriage.
Seeking a change of scenery and an opportunity to work through their loss, they take a "working vacation" to Venice, where John has been contracted to restore an ancient church. While John attends to this project Laura is befriended by two strange elderly sisters, one of whom is blind and claims to be in psychic contact with the Baxters' dead daughter. Laura is drawn to the sisters, but John finds their influence on her unsettling and suspects them of deceit. The ensuing drama is set against a subplot involving a serial killer who has eluded the police. John catches glimpses of a child-like figure in red raingear who resembles his dead daughter, although the figure vanishes whenever John pursues it. He begins to question his own sanity and that of his wife as Laura appears to be completely under the command of the sisters, who in turn suggest that John shares their gift of a "second sight"...

Director: Nicolas Roeg
Producer: Peter Katz
Writter: Screenplay:Allan Scott, Chris Bryant, Story: Daphne du Maurier
Starring: Julie Christie, Donald Sutherland
Running Time: 110min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYICwstBwnM

Rating: 10/10


THE TENANT (1976)
(French: Le Locataire)

Trelkowski (Polanski), a quiet and inconspicuous man, rents an apartment in France where the previous tenant, Simone Choule, attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself out of the window and through a pane of glass. He goes to visit her in the hospital, but finds her all bandaged up and unable to talk; she instead lets out a disturbing cry upon seeing him before she dies afterwards. Trelkowski meets Simone's friend, Stella (Adjani), at the hospital. He tries to comfort her but dares not say that he never knew Simone, pretending instead to be another friend of hers. They leave together and go out for a drink and a Bruce Lee movie Enter The Dragon, where they fondle each other. However outside the theater they part ways.
As Trelkowski occupies the apartment he is soon unreasonably chastised by his neighbors and his landowner Monsieur Zy (Douglas) for hosting a party with his friends, making too much noise in general, not joining in on a petition against another neighbor, etc. Trelkowski attempts to adapt, but is himself disturbed by the frequent sight of his neighbors standing blankly in the toilet room (which he can see from his own window) and the discovery of a hole in his apartment with a human tooth stashed inside...

Director: Roman Polanski
Producer: Hercules Bellville
Writter: Gérard Brach, Roman Polanski, Novel: Roland Topor
Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas, Jo Van Fleet
Running Time: 125min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmhIMbdecEU

Rating: 10/10


THE CHANGELING (1980)

The story is based upon events experienced by writer Russell Hunter while he was living in the Henry Treat Rogers Mansion of Denver, Colorado.

Scott stars as Dr. John Russell, a composer living in New York City, who moves cross-country to Washington state following the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburbanSeattle, Russell rents a large, old, and eerie-looking Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together. However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home when a poltergeist, the ghost of a murdered child, haunts the house...

Director: Peter Medak
Producer: Chessman Park Productions, Tiberius Film Productions
Writter: Russell Hunter, William Gray, Diana Maddox
Starring: George C. Scott, Trish VanDevere, Melvyn Douglas, John Colicos
Running Time: 115min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jZDq8sK6a8

Rating: 9,5/10



THE BROOD (1979)

The Brood was named 88th on the "Chicago Film Critics Association's 100 Scariest Movies of All-Time". The film was Cronenberg's first major success.
A novelization was written by Richard Starks.

An unconventional psychotherapist (Oliver Reed) has created a technique called "psychoplasmics." He encourages his patients to "go all the way through it" and allow their negative emotions (rage, fear, etc.) to cause their bodies to undergo (usually radical) physical change. A man who was verbally abused by his father develops welts over his body as a way of expressing his pain. Another patient develops lymphatic cancer, supposedly a manifestation of his self-hatred. In the case of the principal characters, it causes a woman, Nola Carveth (Samantha Eggar), to parthenogenetically birth strange, mutated children and, via a telepathic bond, have them act out whatever negative emotions the mother is feeling at the time...

Director: David Cronenberg
Producer: Claude Heroux
Writter: David Cronenberg
Starring: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle
Running Time: 92min
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSfZunKpRVM

Rating: 9/10

TANGERINE DREAM'S MUSIC


NEAR DARK (1987)

One night, Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), a young man in a small Oklahoma town, meets Mae (Jenny Wright), an attractive young drifter. Just before sunrise, she bites him on the neck then runs off. The rising sun causes Caleb's flesh to begin to burn. Mae comes with a group of roaming vampires and takes him away...

Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Producer: Steven-Charles Jaffe
Writter: Eric Red, Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Bill Paxton
Running Time: 95min

Music by Tangerine Dream

Rating: 9/10


THE KEEP (1983)

The film focuses on a deserted citadel (the “Keep” of the title) in WWII Romania within which lies entrapped a dangerous and malevolent entity named Radu Molasar. When the humble German Wehrmacht occupies the castle to control the Dinu Mountain Pass, Molasar is unwittingly unleashed from deep within the innermost recesses of the citadel by a pair of treasure-seeking soldiers and he consumes their life energy...

Director: Michael Mann
Producer: Gene Kirkwood, Howard W. Koch Jr.
Writter: Michael Mann, Novel: F. Paul Wilson
Starring: Scott Glenn, Gabriel Byrne, Jürgen Prochnow, Ian McKellen, Alberta Watson, Bruce Payne
Running Time: 96min

Music by Tangerine Dream

Rating: 7,5/10


FIRESTARTER (1984)

Andrew and Vicky McGee met while earning money as guinea pigs for an experiment at college. The experiment was shrouded in suspicion and mystery, and seemed to be related to psychic abilities. The two were married and had a daughter Charile, who has the ability to start fires by merely thinking about it. Naturally, the government takes a great interest in Charlie, and operatives from the secret department known as "The Shop" want to quarrantine and study her...

Director: Mark L. Lester
Producer: Frank Capra Jr., Martha De Laurentiis
Writter: Stanley Mann, Novel: Stephen King
Starring: Drew Barrymore, David Keith, George C. Scott, Freddie Jones, Heather Locklear, Martin Sheen
Running Time: 114min

Music by Tangerine Dream

Rating: 6/10

LYCANTHROPES a.k.a WEREWOLVES (2)


AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

Two American college students, David Kessler (David Naughton) and Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne), are backpacking across the Yorkshire moors. As darkness falls, and they decide to stop for the night at a pub called "The Slaughtered Lamb". Jack notices a five-pointed star on the wall. When he asks about it, the pub becomes very quiet. The pub-goers start acting very strangely. The pair decide to leave, but not before the others offer them pieces of advice such as "Beware the moon, lads" and "Keep to the road." Whilst conversing with each other and wondering what they meant, they wander off the road, onto the moors. Back at the pub, the owner gets very distressed and suggests that they go after the pair. As she says this, a sinister howling is heard. The rest of the pub-goers, having barricaded the door, decline. Back out on the moors, Jack and David have also heard the howls, and they seem to be steadily getting closer. They start back to the Slaughtered Lamb when they realize they are disorientated and lost on the moors. A full moon comes out from behind the clouds, and they remember the advice they were given earlier. The noises get steadily closer until they are stopped by a supernaturally large animal. The animal attacks both of them, and kills Jack. The animal is then shot and killed by the pub-goers, who have now emerged. David survives the mauling and is taken to a hospital in London. When he wakes up three weeks later, he does not remember what happened and is told of his friend's death. David is questioned by an arrogant inspector, and more understanding sergeant and learns that he and Jack were supposedly attacked by an escaped lunatic. David insists that they were actually attacked by a large wolf. But the inspector had already been told there were witnesses and an autopsy report of the maniac, so they deduce that David is suffering from shock...

The film was followed by a 1997 sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris, which featured a completely different cast and none of the original crew.

Director: John Landis
Producer: George Folsey Jr., Jon Peters, Peter Guber
Writter: John Landis
Starring: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter
Running Time: 97min

Rating: 9,5/10

 
THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (1961)

The story is set in 18th Century Spain. A beggar (Richard Wordsworth) arrives in the village of Santa Vera to find the streets deserted and the church bell tolling... and it is not a Sunday. He enquires at a bar and the locals explain that today is the wedding day of the Marques Siniestro and, by order, a public holiday. The villagers are unhappy because their taxes are paying for the wedding feast, but they are not invited. One man suggests that the beggar try his luck at the castle for "that’s where all our charity is!" The unfortunate beggar decides to take him at his word. The Marques Siniestro (Anthony Dawson) is a cruel man. When the new Marquesa (Josephine Llewellyn) is spooked by the sight of a roast goose, he humiliates the chef (Charles Lamb) in front of his guests. When a servant (Desmond Llewellyn) opens the door to the beggar, he warns him to leave. But it is too late: the Marques has already seen the beggar and invites him in. When Siniestro teases the man, his bride protests. So he offers to buy the beggar for her as a pet and gives the man ten pesetas. He then gets the beggar drunk and makes him dance for food. Finally, Siniestro makes him beg like a dog while his guests bark. Tiring of the joke, the Marques and his bride proceed to bed. But when the beggar wishes them a good night, Siniestro has him tossed into the dungeon for his 'insolence'. The imprisoned beggar is forgotten but manages to survive another fifteen years. His only human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful mute daughter (child: Loraine Carvana; adult: Yvonne Romain). Time has not been kind to the Marques either: his wife died and his friends deserted him, so that he has become a recluse in his room. When the jailer's daughter, while cleaning in the Marques' room, refuses the old man's advances, he has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies...

Director: Terence Fisher
Producer: Michael Carreras, Anthony Hinds
Writter: Anthony Hinds (aka John Elder)
Starring: Clifford Evans, Oliver Reed, Yvonne Romain, Catherine Feller, Anthony Dawson
Running Time: 91min

Rating: 8/10

THE WOLFMAN (2010)

In 1891 in the Blackmoor woods, Ben Talbot (Simon Merrells) is confronted by a superhuman wolf-like creature. He tries to escape, but is followed and subsequently mauled and killed by the creature. Renowned Shakespearean actor Lawrence Talbot (Benicio del Toro) is touring London in a stage production of Hamlet when he receives word of his brother's disappearance from Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), Ben's fiancé. Lawrence travels by locomotive to his family estate in Blackmoor. While sharing the train compartment with an elderly man (Max von Sydow), he is given a silver, wolf-headed cane, a piece which the man remarks he acquired in Gévaudan, France, a town renowned during the mid-eighteenth century for a string of over one hundred murders attributed to a werewolf known as the Beast of Gévaudan. Upon arriving in Blackmoor, Lawrence reunites with his estranged father, Sir John (Anthony Hopkins). It is revealed that when Lawrence was young, his mother Solana (Christina Contes) committed suicide. It was afterwards that Sir John sent Lawrence to an insane asylum in London. Lawrence then learns that Ben's mauled body had been found the day before. Lawrence goes into town to see the body, which is kept at the local slaughterhouse. He recoils from the sight of his brother; who has been viciously mauled to death by something that cannot be human. The butcher gives Ben's personal effects to Lawrence. Later, in the local tavern, Lawrence overhears the locals debate about who was responsible. Many blame a band of gypsies who are camped outside of town. Another claims that several decades earlier a similar murder had happened and that his father suspected a werewolf. Among Ben's belongings was a medallion that had been purchased from the gypsies...

Director: Joe Johnston
Producer: Scott Stuber, Benicio del Toro, Rick Yorn, Sean Daniel
Writter: Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self, Curt Siodmak (Original screenplay)
Starring: Benicio del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving
Running Time: 103min

Rating: 8/10

VOODOO HORROR

THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW (1988)

The film is very loosely based on the non-fiction book of the same name by ethnobotanist Wade Davis.
Davis' book recounted his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse. Narcisse was allegedly poisoned and buried alive. When he was released from the grave, he was given an herbal brew whose effects produced what was called a zombie.

Dennis Alan, an ethnobotanist/anthropologist from Harvard University, narrowly escapes the Amazon Jungle and returns to Boston. Word of his exploits gets around, and he is approached by a large pharmaceutical corporation looking to investigate a drug used in Voodoo religion in Haiti. They want to acquire it for mass production. They send him to Haiti to find out about the drug. He learns more about the process of making zombies instead. He discovers the drug is an alternate and less dangerous method of anesthesia. When Alan arrives in Haiti, the country is in the middle of a revolution. The government is imprisoning and killing all opponents. Alan meets another doctor, who helps him research and investigate the so-called zombies. Alan finds the negative side of Vodou religion, which can destroy the mind. Alan's exploration in Haiti to find the "zombie drug" draws the attention of the authorities. As they have used the zombie legends to create fear in the population, they do not want the secrets revealed. The commander of the Tonton Macoute, Captain Dargent Peytraud, threatens Alan to get him to leave Haiti.

Director: Wes Craven
Producer: Doug Claybourne, David Ladd, Robert Engelman
Writter: Wade Davis (book), Richard Maxwell, Adam Rodman
Starring: Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae, Paul Winfield, Brent Jennings, Conrad Roberts
Running Time: 98min

Rating: 9/10


ANGEL HEART (1987)

The film is adapted from the novel Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and is generally faithful to the novel with the exceptions being the introduction of a child of Epiphany Proudfoot conceived at a voodoo ceremony by "a devil", and that the novel never leaves New York City, whereas much of the action of the film occurs inNew Orleans.

The movie opens in January 1955. Mickey Rourke plays Harry Angel, a seedy private investigator in New York City. Louis Cyphre (De Niro) hires Angel to locate Johnny Favorite, a popular big band crooner who was severely injured in World War IIand hospitalized with profound neurological trauma. Cyphre has discovered that the hospital may have falsified Favorite's records and wants Angel to find out what happened, as Favorite owed a debt to Cyphre. But there's more to the case than initially appears, as the doctor who treated Johnny at the hospital (Michael Higgins) is soon found dead after Harry questions him. The detective also has some serious reservations about the enigmatic Mr. Cyphre, who is vague about the "debt" that Favorite owes to him. At the same time Angel begins to detect hints of bizarre religious underpinnings to the case. Despite his misgivings, Harry accepts Cyphre's offer of $5,000 to continue with his investigations. Angel travels to New Orleans as he digs deeper into the case, delving into a world of voodoo and Satanism and growing increasingly worried for his own safety. One informant after another that he speaks to turns up dead. Angel fears becoming a suspect in their murders and he begins experiencing terrifying dreams. One contact, Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful 17-year-old daughter of a deceased voodoo priestess and, as she eventually admits, Favorite's daughter, becomes his lover...

Director: Alan Parker
Producer: Alan Marshall, Elliott Kastner
Writter: Screenplay: Alan Parker, Novel: William Hjortsberg
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet
Running Time: 113min

Rating: 9.5/10


I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)

Betsy Connell (Frances Dee), a Canadian nurse, relates in a voiceover narration how she "walked with a zombie." Betsy is hired to care for Jessica Holland (Christine Gordon), the wife of Paul Holland (Tom Conway), who is the owner of a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of Saint Sebastian. She arrives on Saint Sebastian, which is populated by the descendants of African slaves and a small white community of doctors and officials. Betsy is taken to Fort Holland, where she is told the story of how the Hollands brought the slaves to the island, learning that the statue of "Ti-Misery" in the Hollands' courtyard comes from the figurehead of a slave ship - it is an effigy of Saint Sebastian with arrows in it. That night at dinner, Betsy is joined by Paul’s half-brother Wesley Rand (James Ellison) and told about their mutual mother, Mrs Rand (Edith Barrett). While getting ready for bed, Betsy hears a woman crying from across the courtyard. She goes to investigate and ends up in the tower stairwell. She begins to ascend the stairs when she is cornered by Jessica Holland, who walks towards her like a ghost in a light robe, her eyes staring. Betsy screams for help, waking most of the household...

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Val Lewton
Writter: nez Wallace (story), Curt Siodmak, Ardel Wray
Starring:  James Ellison, Frances Dee, Tom Conway
Running Time: 69min

Rating: 9/10

LYCANTHROPES a.k.a WEREWOLVES (1)

SILVER BULLET (1985)

Silver Bullet is based on the Stephen King novella Cycle of the Werewolf.
The film is set (in 1976) in the small rural town of Tarker's Mills, Maine, and opens with the death of a railroad worker, Arnie Westrum (Gammon). Although he was murdered by a werewolf, the county coroner believes that Arnie passed out on the railroad tracks and was run over by a train. Later on, a local woman, Stella Randolph (Wendy Walker), is slaughtered in her bedroom. This murder goes unsolved and the townsfolk become worried. Jane Costlaw (Follows), the narrator of the film, is the oldest sister in a family of four. Her narration centers on her relationship with her younger, paraplegic brother Marty (Haim). The story develops around the rocky relationship between the handicapped little brother and the over-burdened older sister; a relationship that is strained from the start. The next victim, Milt Sturmfuller (James A. Baffico), is a drunken redneck, whose daughter is Marty's girlfriend, who hears someone destroying his flower pots in a shed not far from his house. Believing it is a gang of mischievous teenagers, Sturmfuller plans to scare them off with a shotgun. Instead, he encounters the werewolf and is killed, which sends his family away. It is not until the brutal slaying of a teenager, Brady Kincaid (Joe Wright), who was Marty's best friend, that the townsfolk are on the verge of abandoning local authority and seeking their own kind of private justice...

Director: Daniel Attias
Producer: Dino De Laurentiis
Writter: Stephen King, Narrated by Tovah Feldshuh
Starring: Corey Haim, Gary Busey, Megan Follows, Everett McGill, Robin Groves
Running Time: 95min

Rating: 8/10



THE HOWLING (1981)

The Howling is a 1981 based on the novel of the same name by Gary Brandner.
Karen White (Dee Wallace-Stone) is a Los Angeles television news anchor who is being stalked by a serial murderer named Eddie Quist (Robert Picardo). In cooperation with the police, she takes part in a scheme to capture Eddie by agreeing to meet him in a sleazy porno theater. Eddie forces Karen to watch a video of a young woman being raped, and when Karen turns around to see Eddie she screams. The police enter and shoot Eddie, and although Karen is safe, she suffers amnesia. Her therapist, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee), decides to send her and her husband, Bill Neill (Christopher Stone), to "The Colony", a secluded resort in the countryside where he sends patients for treatment. The colony is filled with strange characters, and one, a sultry nymphomaniac named Marsha Quist (Elisabeth Brooks), tries to seduce Bill. When he resists her less-than-subtle sexual overtures, he is attacked and bitten by a wolf-like creature while returning to his cabin...

Director: Joe Dante
Producer: Jack Conrad, Michael Finnell
Writter: Novel: Gary Brandner, Screenplay: John Sayles, Terence H. Winkless
Starring: Dee Wallace-Stone, Patrick Macnee, Dennis Dugan, Christopher Stone, Belinda Balaski
Running Time: 91min

Rating: 9/10

DOG SOLDIERS (2002)

The story begins with a couple camping in the Scottish Highlands. The woman gives the man a silver letter opener as a present, shortly before they are attacked in their tent. Meanwhile, Private Cooper is seen running through a forest in North Wales. He attacks his pursuers, but is overwhelmed and wrestled to the ground. It turns out Cooper was trying to join the special forces, but fails when he refuses to obey Captain Richard Ryan's command to shoot a dog. He is returned to unit. Four weeks later, a squad of six British Army soldiers, including Cooper, is dropped into the Scottish Highlands, missing a football match that makes into their conversation. Expecting to carry out a routine training mission, they find the savaged remains of a special forces squad who were part of the same training exercise. The single survivor, Captain Ryan, makes cryptic references to what attacked them. It is noticed that he has been wounded. Unseen antagonists make their presence known as they attack the troops. Whilst retreating, Bruce is impaled on a tree branch and Sergeant Wells is attacked. He is rescued by Cooper and carried to the roadside where the group encounter Megan, a zoologist who takes them to a lonely house owned by what she describes as a very kind people. The house is empty, save a dog named Sam, though it appears someone had just previously been preparing supper.

Director: Neil Marshall
Producer: Christopher Figg, Tom Reeve, David E. Allen
Writter: Neil Marshall
Starring: Sean Pertwee, Kevin McKidd, Liam Cunningham
Running Time: 105min

Rating: 7.5/10

PELICULAS PARA NO DORMIR ____________ (Films to Keep You Awake)
















1. La habitación del niño (Alex de la Iglesia)
eng. title: The baby's room

2. Adivina quién soy (Enrique Urbizu)
eng. title: A real friend

3. Regreso a Moira (Mateo Gil)
eng. title: Spectre

4. Cuento de Navidad (Paco Plaza)
eng. title: Xmas tale

5. La Culpa (Chicho Ibañez Serrador)
eng. title: Blame

6. Para entrar a vivir (Jaume Balagueró)
eng. title: To let











LATEST OBSSESSIONS (5)


The Baby's Room (spanish: La habitación del niño) (2006)

In Spain, the sports journalist Juan has a perfect life with his wife Sonia: they have just had a baby and moved to an old house that needs to be repaired in a fancy neighborhood. When Juan's sister and her husband visit the couple, they give them an electronic nanny to monitor the baby's room. During the night, Juan and Sonia hear voices in the room but they do not find anybody. On the next day, Juan hires an alarm system for the house and a monitor to observe the baby's room. When Juan sees a man in the room, he gets a knife to protect his son. However, Sonia believes her husband is insane and moves to her mother's house. Juan investigates the happening with the former journalist Domingo, who explains him the paradoxical experiment Schrodinger's Cat and the existence of parallel worlds...

Director: Álex de la Iglesia
Producer: Estudios Picasso, Filmax, Telecinco, Castelao Producciones
Writter: Jorge Guerricaechevarría, Álex de la Iglesia
Starring: Javier Gutiérrez, Leonor Watling, Sancho Gracia, María Asquerino,
Running Time: 77min

Rating: 9/10

CALVAIRE (2004)

Marc Stevens is a suave but arrogant up-and-coming pop singer, who makes his living performing light pop ballads and easy listening tunes at retirement homes and other small venues around Belgium. En route to perform on a Christmas special, he wrecks his van-- which doubles as his home-during a thunderstorm and is stranded deep in the woods. Lost, cold, and succumbing to the elements, Marc is rescued by a local, an emaciated young man named Boris, who takes Marc to a nearby abandoned inn and then deserts him there.
Marc quickly discovers that the sole occupant of the inn is its former proprietor, Mr. Bartel, an amiable old man who now lives there as a hermit of sorts. Claiming to be a retired standup comedian, Mr. Bartel welcomes Marc to stay as long as he likes, even offering to tow and repair Marc's van as a sign of brotherhood between professional entertainers. Marc accepts the offer, but retains his arrogant demeanor, refusing to speak with Mr. Bartel about his own career or personal life. The next morning, Mr. Bartel tows Marc's van into the front yard of the inn. Marc informs Mr. Bartel that he is going for a walk, at which point Mr. Bartel suddenly becomes paranoid and aggressive, warning Marc not to travel into the nearby village. Marc agrees, but nevertheless pays a visit to a nearby farm, where he witnesses a family voyeuristically watching a teenage boy have intercourse with a calf, calling the experience "so tender". Meanwhile, rather than repairing Marc's van, Mr. Bartel begins snooping through the portion of it in which Marc lives, stealing an envelope of amateur pornography presented to Marc by one of his fans.
That night, Mr. Bartel becomes even more aggressive, working himself into a frenzy while recalling his adulterous wife who abandoned him years before...

Director: Fabrice Du Welz
Producer: Michael Gentile, Eddy Géradon-Luyckx,. Vincent Tavier
Writter: Fabrice Du Welz, Romain Protat
Starring: Laurent Lucas, Jackie Berroyer, Philippe Nahon
Running Time: 88min

Rating: 7/10

REC II (2007)

Dr. Owen, an official from the Ministry of Health and a Grupo Especial de Operaciones (GEO) team, equipped with helmet-mounted video cameras, are sent into a quarantined apartment building to control the situation. After encountering some of the infected, Owen uses religious mantra and rosary to fight them off. It turns out that Owen is actually a priest sent by the church to get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl and aid the other priest in charge of her. When they get to the penthouse, they find out that the infected can travel all around the building through the air ducts. The Medeiros girl is nowhere to be found. Larra, one of the GEO officers goes into the air duct and finds a sample of her blood – the only one that the original priest took from her. Owen then performs a religious rite, and the blood spontaneously combusts, confirming that it is the blood he's looking for; however, the rest of the blood also sets on fire and Larra drops it, rendering it useless. They must then get a blood sample from the Medeiros girl. Jennifer's father, who was outside getting medicine for his daughter (the infected girl from REC), manages to convince a firefighter to take him into the building. Moments before the building is quarantined, three teenagers named Tito, Mire and Ori are messing around on a roof. When the police quarantine the building, they find them and escort them out to the street. The teenagers gain access to the sealed building through the sewage system; however, police have seen them and seal their exit...

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Producer: Julio Fernández
Writter: Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Jonathan Mellor, Óscar Sánchez Zafra, Ariel Casas, Alejandro Casaseca, Pablo Rosso
Running Time: 85min

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (4)

SESSION 9 (2001)

The Danvers State Hospital has been closed since 1992. Gordon Fleming (Peter Mullan) is the owner of The Hazmat Elimination Company, a small asbestos removal company. When he hears that the hospital needs asbestos removal, he makes a bid to remove them, ambitiously claiming he can finish the job in just two weeks in order to get the contract; as he is in desperate need of money. He is also a new father, and the stress of work and parenthood have been causing problems between Gordon and his wife, Wendy. As Gordon initially tours the asylum, he comes across a dark hallway with an eerily illuminatedrestraint chair in the middle. He hears a ghostly voice say, "Hello.... Gordon."
Gordon's team is small, but eclectic. Mike (Stephen Gevedon, also the film's screenwriter) is a law school drop-out, who knows the most about the asylum in the group. Phil (David Caruso), Gordon's second in command, is filled with bitterness after losing his long-time girlfriend to Hank (Josh Lucas), another team member who likes to rub that fact in Phil's face. Because of this, Phil has taken up smoking Marijuana. Hank dreams of leaving his job to run a casino. Jeff, Gordon's nephew (Brendan Sexton III), is the youngest member of the crew, and suffers from severe nyctophobia.
The job affects each of the men in different ways. While checking on an electrical problem, Mike discovers a box marked "evidence" in a file room in a tunnel. Inside, Mike finds a collection of nine tapedsessions with former patient number 444, a thirty-seven year old named Mary Hobbes from 1974. In between working, he listens and becomes increasingly engrossed in the interviews, which detail her multiple personality disorder. Two of Hobbes' personalities are harmless and child-like...

Director: Brad Anderson
Producer: John Sloss, Dorothy Aufiero, David Collins, Michael Williams
Writter: Brad Anderson, Stephen Gevedon
Starring: David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon, Paul Guilfoyle, Josh Lucas, Brendan Sexton III
Running Time: 102min

Rating: 9/10


NIGHT OF THE DEMON (1957)

In England, Professor Harrington approaches Dr. Julian Karswell, the leader of a satanic cult, promising to call off an investigation of the cult if Karswell would call off "what he has started". Karswell agrees. After learning that a parchment given to Harrington has disintegrated, he ushers Harrington out. After Harrington arrives at his home, a demon materializes in the woods and approaches Harrington. Fleeing in his car, Harrington crashes into a telegraph pole which causes falling power lines to electrocute him.
Dr. John Holden arrives in England to attend a convention where Harrington had intended to expose Karswell's cult. Holden is informed of Harrington's death and that the only link between it and Karswell's cult is an accused murderer, Rand Hobart, who has fallen into a catatonic stupor. While Harrington's collaborators consider the possibility of supernatural forces, Holden rejects the idea as superstition.
Following Harrington's notes, Holden visits the British Museum's library to examine books on witchcraft. A book Harrington requests is discovered to be missing. He is approached by Karswell, who offers to show Holden his own copy at his mansion. At Harrington's funeral, Holden meets the dead man's niece, Joanna, who provides him with Harrington's diary. The diary reveals Harrington's increasing fear of Karswell's power. Holden remains skeptical, but goes with Joanna to Karswell's mansion the next day...

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Hal E. Chester
Writter: Charles Bennett, Hal E. Chester, based on a story by M.R. James
Starring: Dana Andrews, Peggy Cummins, Niall MacGinnis, Athene Seyler
Running Time: 95min

Rating: 8/10


RAVENOUS (1999)

In an opening prologue during the Mexican-American War (1846 – 1848), a United States Army officer, Lieutenant Boyd, freezes in battle while his unit is massacred. Playing dead, he is transported along with the other dead, with his commanding officer's blood dripping into his mouth, back to the Mexican headquarters. In a moment of sudden bravery, he captures the Mexican command. He is promoted to Captain for his heroism, but his commanding officer realizes he is a coward and transfers him to the remote Fort Spencer in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
After Boyd joins the seven other inhabitants of Fort Spencer, a stranger named Colqhoun arrives...

Director: Antonia Bird
Producer: Adam Fields, David Heyman, Tim Van Rellim
Writter: Ted Griffin
Starring: Guy Pearce, Robert Carlyle, Jeremy Davies, Jeffrey Jones, David Arquette, Neal McDonough
Running Time: 100min

Rating: 8.5/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (3)

GROTESQUE (Jap.: Gurotesuku) (2009)

A young couple Aki and Kazuo (Tsugumi Nagasawa and Hiroaki Kawatsure) are snatched off the street while having their first date as a romantic couple after a few years working in the same office, and wake up shackled in a scary basement, which has all its walls covered with plastic. With no further explanation, a sadistic madman (Shigeo Ōsako) degrades, tortures and mutilates them. Initially, he punctures Kazuo's belly with a screwdriver and slices his tongue, then rapes both, one at a time, forcing the other to watch. Sometimes he stops the torture to provide medical assistance and cure the couple's wounds, so they can continue alive for a long period of time. This way he cuts off all their fingers, makes collars with them, pops out Kazuo's right eye, removes the girl's nipples and cuts off her right arm.
As the torture progresses, it is revealed he is simply doing it for sexual stimulation, and tells the couple he wants the two to survive...

Director: Kôji Shiraishi
Producer: Kazue Udagawa, Kyôsuke Ueno
Writter: Kôji Shiraishi
Starring: Hiroaki Kawatsure, Tsugumi Nagasawa, Shigeo Ōsako
Running Time: 73min, Japan: 69min (censored version)

Rating: 7/10

HELLRAISER: BLOODLINE (1996)

The film begins at Space Station Minos in the year 2127. Paul Merchant, the man who built the station, has a robot solve the Lament Configuration (the robot is subsequently destroyed). However, several guards led by Rimmer capture Paul. Paul tells Rimmer the story of his bloodline.
A flashback is shown to around 400 years ago. Philip Lemarchand, a French toymaker, makes the Lament Configuration for a wealthy aristrocrat named Duc de L'Isle, who is obsessed with dark magic. He and his apprentice, Jacques, kill a woman and remove her insides from her skin, and L'Isle uses dark magic with the Lament Configuration to summon a demon princess named Angelique in the woman's skin. She is theirs to command unless they stand in Hell's way. However, Angelique and Jacques betray and kill de L'Isle. Lemarchand, in the process of inventing a design (the Elysium Configuration) to destroy the demons, attempts to steal back the box but is discovered. Jacques callously informs the toymaker that he and his bloodline are cursed until the end of time because of the box he created, before ordering Angelique to kill him. However, his wife survives...

Director: Kevin Yagher, Joe Chappelle
Producer: Clive Barker, Anna C. Miller, Paul Rich
Writter: Peter Atkins
Starring: Bruce Ramsay, Valentina Vargas, Kim Myers, Charlotte Chatton, Paul Perri, Doug Bradley
Running Time: 86min

Rating: 8/10

AUDITION (1999)

Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), a middle-aged widower who lost his wife to an illness seven years prior, is urged by his 17-year-old son, Shigehiko (Tetsu Sawaki), to begin dating women again. Shigehiko is somewhat doubtful of his father's love life, but plans to move out when he finishes school and does not want his father to be alone. Aoyama's friend and colleague, Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), a film producer, devises a plan to hold a mock-audition, in which young, beautiful women would audition for the "part" of Aoyama's new wife, under the impression that they are auditioning for a new film, but actually so Aoyama can marry one of the finalist contestants.
Aoyama is immediately enchanted by Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina), a 24-year-old woman with a soft voice and reserved, yet confident, mannerisms. In her audition, Asami says that she was once a ballerina headed for greatness, but had to give up dancing after an injury. Aoyama, still reeling from the death of his wife, is attracted to her apparent emotional depth.
Yoshikawa warns him about Asami, saying that he has a bad feeling about her. None of the references on her résumé were able to be reached and her job history is shaky. The music producer she claimed to work for had gone missing. Aoyama is so enthralled by her inner and outer beauty that he is blinded by his feelings for her.
She lives in an empty apartment, furnished only with a sack and a telephone. Four days following the audition, she sits perfectly still in the middle of the floor next to the telephone, waiting for it to ring. When it finally does, the sack lurches across the room and makes gurgling sounds. She ignores it as she waits a few rings before answering.
When Asami answers the phone, she confesses to Aoyama that she never expected him to call. After several dates, she agrees to accompany him to a seaside hotel...

Director: Takashi Miike
Producer: Satoshi Fukushima
Writter: Ryu Murakami (Novel), Daisuke Tengan
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina
Running Time: 115min

Rating: 9/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (2)

DRAG ME TO HELL (2009)

In 1969 Pasadena, California, a young couple seek aid of the medium Shaun San Dena (Flor de Maria Chahua) as their son claims to see and hear monsters. San Dena aids the family with a seance, but they are attacked by an unseen force which pulls the boy into a fiery pit.

In 2009 Los Angeles, California, bank loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) hopes to be promoted to assistant manager over her co-worker Stu Rubin (Reggie Lee). Her boss, Jim Jacks (David Paymer), advises her to demonstrate that she can make tough decisions to get a promotion. Christine is visited by an elderly woman, Sylvia Ganush (Lorna Raver), who asks for an extension on her mortgage payment. Christine decides to deny Ganush an extension to prove herself to Mr. Jacks. Jacks compliments Christine on how she handled the situation.

In the bank parking lot, Christine is attacked in her car by Ganush. After a violent struggle, Ganush removes a button from Christine's coat and uses it to place a curse on Christine. Later, with her boyfriend Clay Dalton (Justin Long), they meet the fortune teller Rham Jas (Dileep Rao), who tells Christine that she is being haunted by a spirit. At her home, Christine is attacked by the spirit and has nightmares about Ganush. At work the next day, Christine has a projectile nosebleed that soaks a horrified Mr. Jacks in blood. Christine then tries to meet Ganush at her granddaughter's home and finds that Ganush died the previous night and a memorial service is being held. Christine returns to Rham Jas, who explains that she is being haunted by a powerful demon called the Lamia that will torment her for three days before taking her to Hell. Rham Jas suggests a sacrifice to appease the demon. The next day, the Lamia returns and thrashes Christine around her bedroom. Desperate to stop the attacks, Christine sacrifices her pet kitten. At a dinner party with Clay and his parents, Christine is still tormented by the Lamia, which frightens the Daltons.

Director: Sam Raimi
Producer: Grant Curtis, Sam Raimi, Robert G. Tapert
Writter: Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
Starring: Alison Lohman, Justin Long, Lorna Raver, David Paymer, Dileep Rao
Running Time: 108min

Rating: 9/10


THEM (french:ILS) (2006)

The film opens with a mother and daughter driving along a deserted country road at night. During an argument the mother swerves to avoid a figure in the road and crashes into a wooden post. She gets out to check the engine, as the car will not start, while her daughter waits in the car. After a period of silence the daughter calls to her mother. Receiving no reply, she gets out. Her mother is gone. She calls for her mother and her call is repeated from the surrounding woods by a whispery voice. Scared, she gets back into the car. Suddenly, noises come from the woods around her and mud is thrown against the windows. The young girl tries desperately to contact the police using a cell phone but she is strangled to death from behind.

The next day, Clementine, driving home from work, passes the crashed car, unaware of the previous night's events. She is greeted at home by her lover, Lucas. The two settle in for the night, enjoying dinner and watching television. After the two go to bed, Clementine is awakened by music from downstairs. Lucas goes down to investigate. He finds the TV back on. He reactively swings a poker at a sudden movement and shatters the glass in a French door. The door is then pushed from behind, causing a large fragment of glass to bury itself in his leg. Frantically, he escapes back up to Clementine in the bedroom above, and the two lock the door and try to formulate an escape plan. Clementine then climbs into the attic to find an escape route. As Clementine searches the attic, one of the intruders grabs her from behind, she fights him off and pushes him off her third story balcony. The intruder's body is soon surrounded by several other people. The couple find themselves surrounded and make a desperate attempt to escape the house.

Director: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Producer: Richard Grandpierre
Writter: David Moreau, Xavier Palud
Starring: Olivia Bonamy, Michael Cohen
Running Time: 74min

Rating: 8/10


JACOB'S LADDER (1990)

Jacob Singer (Robbins) is a U.S. soldier deployed in the Mekong Delta during the Vietnam War. When the story begins, helicopters are passing overhead, carrying supplies for what seems to be preparations for a big Viet Cong offensive. Without any warning, Jacob's unit comes under heavy fire. The soldiers try to take cover but begin to exhibit strange behavior for no apparent reason. Jacob attempts to escape the unexplained insanity, only to be stabbed with a bayonet by an unseen person.

The film then shifts back and forth from Vietnam to Jacob's memories (and hallucinations) of his son Gabe (Culkin, uncredited) and former wife Sarah (Kalember), and to his present (set in 1975 Brooklyn) relationship with a woman named Jezebel (Peña) in New York City. During this latter period, Jacob faces several threats to his life and has severe hallucinatory experiences. It is subsequently revealed that his son Gabe was hit by a car and killed before Jacob went to Vietnam.

As the hallucinations become increasingly bizarre, one of his old army buddies contacts Jacob to tell him about his hallucinations and is killed in a car ignition explosion. At the funeral, his surviving platoon-mates confess to Jacob they too have been seeing horrible hallucinations.

Director: Adrian Lyne
Producer: Mario Kassar, Alan Marshall, Bruce Joel Rubin, Andrew G. Vajna
Writter: Bruce Joel Rubin
Starring: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello, Jason Alexander, Ving Rhames
Running Time: 115min

Rating: 9.5/10

LATEST OBSSESSIONS (1)


LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)
(Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in)

Oskar is a 12-year-old-boy who is being bullied at school. He lives with his mother, who is loving and with whom he initially seems to have a good connection. His father is an alcoholic who lives out in the countryside. Oskar seems intelligent, has morbid interests including crime and forensics and keeps a scrap book filled with newspaper cuttings about murders. He befriends who he thinks is a new girl who moved in next door - Eli. Eli lives with an older man Håkan, a former teacher who was fired and became a homeless vagrant when he was discovered to be a paedophile. Eli is revealed to be a vampire, but the two children develop a close relationship and Eli helps Oskar fight back against his tormentors. Throughout the book their relationship gradually becomes closer and they reveal more of themselves and in particular Eli's lengthy history.

Håkan serves Eli, whom he loves, by procuring blood from the living, fighting against his conscience and choosing victims who he can physically trap, but who are not too young. Eli gives him money for doing this, though Håkan makes it clear he would do it for nothing if Eli allowed them to be physically intimate. Eli keeps the money in several boxes, along with a variety of different puzzles. These, apart from a few items of clothing and food, are all that fill the apartment. After several failures to acquire enough blood for Eli, Håkan offers to go out one last time if they can spend the night together. With the caveat that he may only touch Eli, they agree, but it is stipulated that Håkan must get the blood first.

Håkan's attempt to get blood from the last victim fails, and he disfigures himself on purpose with acid to avoid the police tracing Eli through him. When Eli finds Håkan in the hospital, he offers his own blood and is drunk dry while sitting on the window ledge. A guard interrupts them and Eli fails to kill him (so that he will not end up becoming a vampire such as Eli) before Håkan throws himself out of the window, bursting upon the ground below. The fall kills him, but he is later resurrected as a vampire himself, though one that is mindless and seeks only to find Eli. Eli is trapped briefly in a basement, but manages to escape. Håkan is later beaten to death. Meanwhile Lacke suspects a child is responsible for the murder of his best friend, Jocke (whom Eli murdered for blood before snapping his neck). Later, he sees Eli as a small, shapeless creature who lunges from the trees at his sometimes girlfriend, Virginia. Eli attempts to drink her blood, but is interrupted by Lacke's interference. Virginia succumbs to vampirism, but does not realize her "infection" until after she attempts to prolong her life by drinking her own blood and avoiding the sun, which turns her skin into boils upon exposure. In the hospital Virginia deliberately exposes herself to daylight and bursts into flames...

Let Me In (2010). An English language film adaptation is scheduled to be released on October 1, 2010. The main characters names have been changed to Owen and Abby in order to make the film more American.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Producer: Carl Molinder, John Nordling
Writter: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
Running Time: 114min

Rating: 9/10
REC (2007)

REC follows a television reporter, Ángela Vidal, and her cameraman, Pablo, who cover the night shift in one of Barcelona's local fire stations for the fictional documentary television series While You're Asleep. The firehouse receives a call about a woman who is trapped in her apartment. When they arrive, Ángela and Pablo film the police breaking down the door. The woman becomes extraordinarily aggressive and bites one of the policemen. Meanwhile, the terrified residents gather in the entrance hall and look on as the police and military seal off the building. A firefighter who remained in the old woman's apartment is bitten and plummets through the stairwell to the lobby floor. The camera crew, remaining police officer and the second firefighter go up again and are attacked. The officer shoots the old woman. The camera crew remains trapped inside the building with the residents and continue recording in spite of police pressure. Ángela interviews a little girl named Jennifer who lives in the building. Jennifer is ill with what her mother claims is tonsillitis. She says her dog, Max, is at the veterinarian because he appeared to be sick as well.

A health inspector wearing a hazmat suit arrives and attempts to treat the injured, who become suddenly and fiercely violent despite their critical injuries. The health inspector explains that the time frame in which the disease takes effect varies by blood type. The health inspector also reveals that sometime during the previous day, a dog with the illness was taken to the veterinarian; the dog became violent and attacked and killed other pets at the clinic. The dog was euthanized, and was traced back to the apartment building. Jennifer, the girl who owned the dog, then suddenly attacks her mother. The inspector tells the distraught residents that this unknown but virulent disease is infecting people, causing them to turn into bloodthirsty savages. More and more people in the building become infected, and Ángela and Pablo are forced to fight them off. Eventually they learn that there is a key to a door in the apartment building workshop, which leads to an exit via the sewer system. However, the key is located on the third floor in the manager's apartment.

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Producer:  Julio Fernández
Writter:  Jaume Balagueró, Luis A. Berdejo, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Javier Botet, Manuel Bronchud, Martha Carbonell, Claudia Font, Vicente Gil
Running Time: 75min.

Rating: 8/10
MARTYRS (2008)

The film begins with a young girl, Lucie, as she escapes from a disused abattoir where she has been imprisoned and physically abused for a lengthy period of time. She is then placed in an orphanage, where she is befriended by a young girl named Anna. Anna soon discovers that Lucie is constantly being attacked by a ghoulish "creature."

Fifteen years later, Lucie bursts into a seemingly normal family's home and kills them all, claiming that the two adults of the family were the ones responsible for her childhood trauma. She is periodically attacked by the "creature."

Lucie calls Anna, who comes to the house to help her bury the bodies. Anna discovers the mother is still alive and tries to help her escape, but is discovered by Lucie who kills the woman. Having realized her vengeance, the "creature" - in actuality, a psychological manifestation of Lucie's guilt over not being able to save another girl who was also imprisoned and tortured with her all those years ago - drives Lucie to kill herself. As Anna is cleaning up the house, she discovers a secret underground chamber and imprisoned within is a horribly tortured woman. While Anna attempts to care for her, strangers arrive and shoot the woman dead.

Director: Pascal Laugier
Writter: Pascal Laugier
Starring: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï
Running Time: 100min.

Rating: 8.5/10