Despite taking place largely in a single location, Fabio Guaglione and Fabio Resinaro’s film, Mine, manages to tell a varied story of life experiences, a story that touches on family history, personal regrets and misunderstandings, and even a subtle political critique of US militarism. Playing like a cross between “The Hurt Locker” and “127 Hours,”…
This mediocre captivity-and-ordeal thriller, Valley of Ditches, is bound up in some atmospheric visuals and moody dark ambient music, but it’s too vague and too shallow to make a real impact. Its initially bold premise soon gives way to repetition — and frankly the simple hope that none of the characters will utter any more…
From the premise that all extra-terrestrial life is harmful comes Life, a combination of “Alien,” “The Thing,” “Gravity,” “The Mummy” and a few other trapped-in-space or alien-assimilation movies that we all know and love (or tolerate in some cases). Life is the story of the six-member crew of the International Space Station who, while orbiting…
The Belko Experiment begins in Bogotá, Colombia, as a man drives slowly down a street clogged with traffic and pedestrians, looking calmly around at his surroundings, taking in the sights. Eventually, he and a number of other employees arrive at the Belko Industries building which requires an intense security sweep of each car. Security cameras…
Social media giant Instagram receives some light ribbing in Martin Sofiedal’s four minute short, Instapocalypse, which suggests that a world-ruining zombie apocalypse was actually caused by the public’s unhealthy obsession with their smartphones. This is all a comical setup, established in a clunky piece of expository dialogue, on which to hang a single scene where…
I just finished watching the hilarious Slasher.com (or “S/ash.er,” as it’s expressed in the credits), which is a, um, slasher movie. Those aren’t usually funny, and this one probably didn’t set out to be comical in nature, but it is what it is: One of those elusive so-bad-it’s-good movies. Slasher.com begins with some faux news…
The first rule of a frightening film, as outlined in meta masterpieces like “The Cabin in the Woods” and “Scream,” is that in order to be punished, our protagonists must first transgress. Going somewhere they shouldn’t, engaging in nefarious activities, hurting another person (whether they meant to or not) . . . one or all…
