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Saw reshaped the landscape of modern horror. and you can relive it all wrth
The Saw Goreology (Lionsgate) 000 . The first two are refreshingly brutal, but parts IV and V (pictured) become bogged down in their own mythology. However. you can always rely on some slick. sick inventive kills and a decent dose of viscera.
Fans of trash cinema rejoice. Repo: The Genetic Opera (Lionsgate) 000 is the frankly insane bastard offspring of Rocky Horror and Blade Runner. a full on musical about organ repossession set in a dark future directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw l/-/V). The diverse cast (including Sarah Brightman, Anthony Head, Paris Hilton and Paul Sorvrno) give game performances but none of the songs are particularly memorable.
Some absolutely cracking horror films break on the direct-to-DVD market. Splinter (Icon) .000 is a prime example. First time feature director Toby Wilkins offers a classic monster movie with a very modern twist as a gas station is besieged by the infectious ‘splinter parasite‘ that rapidly takes over its host. creating a mutated. ravenous creature. The Rage (Anchor Bay) 0.. is a blood-drenched. tongue in cheek cheapo bringing to mind forgotten 803 splatter classrcs Street Trash and Cannibal Apocalypse. In The Signal (Optimum) .000 three directors (David Bruckner. Dan Bush and Jacob Gentry) join forces for a unique collaboration. Each directs a third of the movie, filming their segment then 'passing along' the finished product for the next director to take up the reins. It's a thought provoking and brutal scrfi horror with an underlying comment on media saturation,
The Tattoolst (Icon) 00 delves into Samoan culture and Cursed tattoos; it almost works but takes itself far too seriously. It's all Se7en's fault that we get dull, pseudo—intellectual copycats like Anamorph (Contender) O. as Willem Dafoe chases a serial killer who arranges his victims as works of art. Finally some 705 giallo with Watch Me When I Kill (Shameless) m . director Antonio Bido might ape Dario Argento's style. but he does so with considerable style. (Henry Northmore)
I For interviews with Toby Wilkins (director of Splinter) and Darren Lynn Bousman, Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich (director, writer and star of Repo: The Genetic Opera) log on to www. list. co. uk
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.‘AMH r/ ”MANIA QUIET CHAOS (15) 107min (Nitl'.'.((;'i\ [)Vi .I It'létlli ...
V‘lhen Iris .'./ll(: collapses and dies on their lawn surrounded b1. chopped melon and a traumatised ,oung daughter. Pietro (Nanni Morettii s saying an ungrateful \.'.(oman from droWning. It's Just one of several delicious ironies during a movre in which VON, little happens, but does so both sweetly and sourly.
Deciding to put his glittering career as a film exec on the backburner to park himself all day outside his ten year old girls school, Pietro's lite actually gets into gear with a promotion heading his way and a string of guasieligible females dropping in his lap. Concentrate on
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I Q ihfi “(litil‘v DIVORCE IRANIAN STYLE/ RUNAWAY (E) 76min/85min
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Kim Longinotto and lit» Mir-Honolni
DVD set featuring tWo films by Kim l onglnotto and /iba Mir Hosserni. longinotto is a d(x;umentarist. often (:o directing wrth someone from the country in which she’s filming. who explores the nature of power in a loosely observational style. (Though Divorce Iranian Sty/e uses voiceover). In her relatively recent films -» Sisters in law. A Day I Will Never Forget and these two dr)cumentaries. she shows power not as a blunt. patriarchal tool. though this (soften how it has been practised in the countries in which her films are set (Kenya. Cameroon. Iran). but as a mode of negotiation. Frequently she shows men who assume rights over women haVing that assumption questioned. and there are great scenes here where a woman's negotiating skills ‘.'/|fl out; or scenes where men find themselves taking positions more complex than we might expect. In one moment in Runaway a brother and father are taken to task by the woman in charge of a woman's refuge for the way they have treated their daughter. In Divorce Iranian Style. a Judge proves less hard-line than perplexed by the intricaCies of certain cases. Longinotto may not always live up to her own dictum for
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THE ANTICHRIST (18) 101 min (Optimum DVD retaili
lhe Italians wasted no time ripping off the enormoi s success ,7 The lxonyst. knocking out this dreadful demonic possession horror :ss than a year after linda Blair blew green chunks all over Max von Sydow back in 19/31 llie Antichrist (aka lire leinpter) ups the misogynistic fear and loathing of Woman by haying its devrl's plaything (Carla (jravrna) possessed by an ugly, reincarnated. burned wrtch. shagged by Lucifer and then fellate a goat. Ewe? Or should that be 'bah'?
More icky The Antichrist might be. but it tirieis)ts; Il()fl(: ()i tlir: horrible brilliance of William Friedkin's classic. Shame on ageing American star Mel Ferrer (who made War and Peace for chrissakes!) for taking a paycheck and a free holiday in Rome to play the distraught father of the possessed girl in this derivative, badly dubbed nonsense. And his fellow ex-pat Arthur Kennedy, here playing a Bishop. should know better. too. Even the evil-groovy soundtrack by Ennio Morricone can't save it. No extras. (Miles Fielder)