DVD Review: GRAND PIANO (2013)

GRAND PIANO (2013) 

Label: Magnolia Releasing
Rating: R

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Audio: English 5.1 Dolby Digital

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2:.40:1) 

Director: Eugenio Mira

Cast: Elijah Wood, John Cusack, Kerry Bishe

Grand Piano (2013) is exactly the kind of thriller my wife loves and enjoys on a regular basis, the simple premise features a famous concert pianist under the watchful eye of a sniper in front of a sold out audience. The pianists fingers hold the key to a treasure hidden inside the storied piano he performs on, only he can unlock it by flawlessly playing an apparently difficult piece of music. Wood was fantastic in the Maniac remake and he doing fine work here as the neurotic pianist but as mentioned previously this is just not fare suited to my tastes.  I was pleased by the promise of John Cusack as the sniper but truth be told more a voice for about ninety-five percent of the film and and what we do see of him left me not exactly wanting more. 

Not an awful film by any definition of the word, I just found the premise to be a bit on the familiar side and middle of the road for my tastes. I think I was hoping for Argento's Opera meets Phone Booth but it was pretty much Phone Booth with a piano. A decent rental with the wife but not something I would return to again. 3 Outta 5  

DVD Review: BIG BAD WOLVES (2013)

BIG BAD WOLVES (2013)

Label: Magnet Releasing
Region Code: 1 NTSC

Duration: 110 Minutes 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.40:1) 
Audio: Hebrew 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English SDH Subtitles
Directors: Aharon Keshales, Navot Papushado
Cast: Lior Ashkenazi, Rotem Keinan, Tzahi Grad, Dov Glickman, Menashe Noy, Rami, Dvir Bebedek

BIG BAD WOLVES (2013) comes by way of the demented duo of writer/directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado who first popped up on TV with the film RABIES (2010), a nasty slice of cult cinema shaded with a streak of dark humor that's fully intact with their newest endeavor.

This ones a kidnapping thriller that touches on some pretty dark subject matter - a small city is plagues by a child killer who abducts, rapes and decapitates young school girls. The victims bodies are staged minus their heads with their toenails removed, the unthinkable crimes are the stuff of stomach churning nightmares. The prime suspect is a quiet religious studies teacher named Dror (Rotem Keinan) but there's very little evidence against him other than suspicion a desperate Det. Mickey (Lior Ashkenazi) who attempts to beat a confession from the teacher. The incident is captured on video and posted on YouTube and in the aftermath Mickey is suspended from the police department while Dror loses his teaching job when parents protest the employment of a suspected child murderer. 

Enter Gidi (Tzahi Grad) the father of the murderers most recent victims, a young girl found mutilated at the park. When the identity of the teacher is revealed through the YouTube video the vengeful father plots to abduct and torture the suspected murderer until he confesses to the horrific crime. However, the vigilante detective has similar plans and the two uncomfortably join forces, kidnapping the Dror and strapping him to a chair in a basement where they begin to administer a series of gruesome tortures in an effort to squeeze a confession from the teacher. 

They really put the thumb screws to poor Dror, the torture sequences had me squirming - this is some uncomfortable stuff. These sequences are unsettling but are punctuated by some dark humor. One minute were witnessing a gruesome nail-through-the-knee when suddenly we're baking a cake in the kitchen. At one point the young girl's grandfather unexpectedly shows up and at first tries to dissuade his son from carrying out his revenge before taking part in the proceedings with a certain glee. While the scent of Dror's burning wafts through the air h comments that the odor makes him crave the taste of beef. Yup, this comic kidnapping thriller definitely has some very quirky moments of humor peppered throughout, sorta a mash-up of Kim Jee-Woon's I SAW THE DEVIL (2010) by way of the Coen Bros. FARGO (1996), 

The DVD from Magnet Releasing presents the film in it's original scope aspect ratio  with strong color reproduction, accurate skin tones and strong black levels. The Hebrew 5.1 Dolby Digital audio options strong and well-balanced. Extras on the disc include a 16-minute making of doc in Hebrew with English subtitles and the standard issue AXS TV featurette plus selection of trailers from Magnet.

Verdict: BIG BAD WOLVES has a superb cast, the cinematography is quite nice and a great score from composer Moshe Edery. Director/writers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado are definitely a film making duo to watch. This is a razor-sharp kidnapping-thriller with a wicked sense of humor that will have you wondering right up till the end if this guys a child murderer or not. Not sure what their next project might be but they will have a segment on the upcoming ABCs OF DEATH  2 anthology film. 4 Outta 5

DVD Review: HERE COMES THE DEVIL (2012)

HERE COMES THE DEVIL (2012) 

Label: Magnet Releasing 

Region Code: 1 NTSC

Rating: Unrated

Duration: 98 Minutes

Audio: Spanish and English 5.1 Dolby Digital with Optional English SDH Subtitles 

Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) 

Director:  Adrian Garcia Bogliano 

Cast: Francisco Barreiro and Laura Caro, Alan Martinez, Michele Garcia and Barbara Perrin Rivemar, Jessica Iris and Dana Dorel

A young couple are on a day trip in Baja, California when their pre-teen kids Sara (Michele Garcia) and Adofo (Alan Martinez) disappear on what turns out to be a cursed mountain. The parents argue and lay blame on each other but thankfully the kids are found the next day and returned to the parents seemingly unharmed... but there's somethings not quite right about the kids afterward, there's something sinister about them. 

Director Adrian Garcia Bogliano grabbed my attention from the first shot of two attractive young women engaged in a strenuous scissoring-session -  it's hot stuff. Surprisingly there's a strong sexual element to the movie with multiple moments of onscreen sex and sexuality - some of it straight-up and some of it more subtle and darker. Scenes of finger-banging, scissoring and pierced nipples pepper the film as do more disturbing implications of incest.

The mother (Laura Caro) is the first to notice that something is wrong with the children. Concerned for their well-being she takes her daughter to a doctor and a psychologist - the doc tells her that her daughter's hymen is missing and the head-shrink says that the children may have suffered a traumatic sexual encounter on the mountain. Out of their minds with the idea that the children may have been sexually assaulted the parents investigate the involvement of a dim-witted weirdo named Lucio (David Cabezud) who frequents the mountain. When they discover that Lucio has a pair of their daughter's period-stained panties in his possession you can imagine the encounter tuns dark. I will say that the gore throughout is not overwhelming but this scene specifically is tense and very brutal.

Afterward the strange occurrences continue and while the father chooses to ignore it altogether mom discovers that the kids have been skipping school and returning to the mountain, but to what end? As mom sleuths the mystery she discovers the horrifying truth about her children and the dark forces at play. 

There's some decent side characters including the dim-witted Lucio and the creepy gas station attendant who provides a dark mythology about the cursed mountain with his own tragic connections to the events. There's also police officer who assists with the kids recovery but whom also suspects the parents in the  death of Lucio, this cop has one of the most magnificent mustaches of all time, it's quite a soup-strainer. 

The supernatural element become more pronounced as the movie rolls along which includes the babysitter recounting a surreal and trippy nightmare scenario which occurred  while she watched the kids one night. It's a hallucinatory encounter involving lost time, incestuous overtones and the existence of Satan which ends with her revealing two large footprint-shaped bruises across her chest and barbel-pierced breasts - by far my favorite sequence of the movie. 

Verdict: Here Comes the Devil (2012) has an effective creepy kids vibe and unsettling supernatural elements plus shocking moments of sex and carnage. This gets a definite recommend to horror fans who can tolerate a bit of a slow build-up. 3.5 Outta 5