Ruptured Review: The Guard Post

Country of origin- South Korea  
Year of release- 2008  

Director- Su-chang Kong 

Stars - Ho-jin Chun, Hyun-jae Cho, Kyoo-Hwan Choi  

The film follows a team of soldiers who are sent into a guard post on the borderline between North and South Korea. Upon entering Guard Post 506 the team find only two survivors out of the last inhabitants, one of which is soaked in blood and carrying an axe. The government and the military are keen to cover up what actually happened in the guard post to save face, so the investigation team has only a night to uncover what went on and what led to the deaths of 19 of the soldiers formally stationed there, and what caused one of the soldiers to take an axe to his comrades.

The film is told in an immensely unpredictable non-linear narrative, which cuts between the team in the present investigating what happened, and flashbacks of the gradual development of what happened to the previous occupants. This does take some adjustment especially as I was expecting a standard military horror/mystery storyline with a short linear narrative. There are times in which the flashbacks and the present become muddled, which is more due to the increasing similarities they display as the film progresses than poor direction or filmmaking.

The acting is very good throughout the film, and as unit and team dynamics begin to break down as the film moves forward it would have been easy for the cast to go overboard with panic and anger, but everything was kept to a bleak grim pace, with almost no over acting. The cinematography and lighting is without a doubt what gives this film its generally chilling atmosphere, the majority of the film takes place underground within the guard post, and is shot in a very bland, washed out manor reflecting the increasing hopelessness of the both the characters in the present and the characters within the flashbacks.

In terms of gore and bloodshed, this is no slacker. Almost right from the get go there is more than enough practical gore and bloodshed to keep the hounds happy. This is a trend that thankfully continues throughout the film. There is also a considerable amount of well executed gunfights and other similar action scenes that are wonderfully shot and make full use of the practical effects. My only complaint about this film is its 120-minute run time, which does lead to some clock watching and a feeling of the plot dragging somewhat in the middle act.

Overall I really think that once again South Korean cinema shows the West how it should be done. This is a very downbeat, dark military horror/ mystery that doesn’t need tits or CGI to sell itself. I would say that this film will play well to fans of either gore, military horror or tense and mysteries Asian horror, furthermore even the most jaded horror fan (me) will get something out of this one because of the fairly unique plot devices throughout. I’m going to give The Guard Post 7.5/10, well worth seeking out!    

           

Ruptured Review: Lord Of Tears

Country of origin- UK   
Year of release- 2013  

Director- Lawrie Brewster

Stars - David Schofield, Alexandra Nicole Hulme, Euan Douglas 

 

 

The film follows James Findlay, a schoolteacher who inherits a vast Scottish mansion (Ardgour House as it is known in real life) after the death of his mother. After receiving news that he has been bequeathed the mansion James is then given a letter from his mother telling him to never visit said location. If his mother had not wanted him to visit the location, why the hell did she leave it to him in her will?! Of course James travels to the remote mansion and begins having fragmented memories of horrible events from his childhood there, along with nightmares, and visions of The Owlman which is generally interpreted as representing the ancient Canaanite god Moloch, why people have chosen to see The Owlman as Moloch is beyond me however as the origins of Moloch come from the Middle East, and not Gaelic folklore in Northern Scotland which happens to be where this film is set.

The references to Moloch also don’t make sense when you consider that classical representations of Moloch picture him as a Bull like creature, not a fucking Owl. So unless you prefer the internet conspiracy theory version of Moloch this film has got some major symbolism issues. James eventually meets a young woman called Evie who he forms a close friendship with, which begins at times throughout the film to burgeon into a near cringe worthy love interest. The two eventually try and unravel the dark secrets of the mansion leading to poor James going through hell as his past is uncovered.

This film was released as Lord Of Tears in 2013, however it was then re-released as The Owlman in 2016, it is under the latter title that I watched the film. It is also not to be confused with the 2009 Tim Roth TV film Skellig: The Owl Man, which is actually fairly good, and probably worth a watch.  

I will not deny that at certain times in this film there was genuine, taught gothic atmosphere, furthermore the cinematography is generally very good, which helps show off the stunning Scottish landscapes. Sadly, that is all the positive things I have to say about this film. This film really does try to be something more than just another cheap horror film, sadly that never comes to volition. The acting is terribly poor, the audio throughout the film is constantly at a level of student film quality – i.e crap. The film also uses a large amount of royalty free horror soundbites and sound effects that are so over used that they seem cringe worthy in a creepypasta reading let alone a feature film. The scrip is also far from what it should be for a film trying to be so aspirational.

The effects thankfully do not include CGI, so this film gets a pass on my wroth for that one. However, the practical effects that are used are a little strange. At a distance the effects used to create The Owlman are very effective, and the long shots of The Owlman are genuinely a little unsettling. On closer inspection of The Owlman however, the complete lack of articulation and general lack of movement, along with an unmoving glassy stare make this ‘terrifying creature’ look like someone left the Owl mask from Stage Fright (1987) in bad storm then stuffed it with road kill, before trying to cosplay as Slender Man in it. Overall this film deserves something for effort as budget was clearly an issue on this film, however that doesn’t excuse this from being an overly long (100 minutes) boring horror film that would be perfectly respectable as student film, but not a feature length film marketed multiple times in multiples countries. I give Lord of Tears/The Owlman 3.5/10, having good intentions doesn’t stop this film from being rife with problems and boredom.    

         

 

Ruptured Review: Bane

Country of origin- UK   
Year of release- 2008  

Director- James Eaves           

Stars- Sophia Dawnay, Lisa Devlin, Tina Barnes

The film focuses upon four women who wake up in a strange minimalistic looking prison style room, none of them have any memory of their lives before this room, nor do they know who or where they are. We instantly realise that each of the four women are essentially a standard character, we have the emotional one, the tough one, the sensitive one and of course heroine. The women begin to be subjected to various tests, which are conducted by a heartless and rather overly acted scientist, and his assistants who talk like robots and look like they belong in A Cruel Fucking Nightmare. The tests all seems to revolve around lots of poorly acted scenes of the women freaking out about their ordeal, being interviewed with electrodes on their temples and undergoing various experiments that are neither scary or particularly complex.

It isn’t long (although it feels as though it is) before the women start to be picked off one-by-one by a blood soaked surgeon ripped straight off from Hostel, and eventually the utterly bizarre and shockingly nonsensical reason the women have been brought to this facility is reviled. I won’t spoil the ending for you fine people, although I feel I should as it may deter you from subjecting yourself to this film, but let me assure this films climax is a bigger, more misery soaked let down than finding a blowjob voucher that is just one day out of date.

This film is the cinematic equivalent of black treacle, its dense, sticky and hard to move through. The pacing and story are all over the place, the first two thirds of the film dragged like a dead child jammed in bike spokes, and the final third beats you over the head with so much information that you need a flowchart to keep track. This is mainly the result of the film trying very hard to be original and inventive which has in this case resulted in a disorganised, slightly pretentious shamble’s that drags on for a tortuous 113 minutes. The viewer is intentionally kept in the dark about what the fuck is going on to try and ratchet up the tension, but this approach only works when the plot is fun and interesting to watch, so it’s fair to say that this approach doesn’t work here. The film is also let down by the acting, which could be far better even taking into account the low budget. Generally, the acting fluctuates from poor, to a point where the viewer is throwing their wallet at the TV in a desperate attempt to fund the casts acting lesions.

The film does however have two good features, three including the joy I felt when the end credits rolled. Firstly, the gore and splatter is pretty solid, whenever the odd occasion arises for someone to die we are treated to fountain of practical splatter. The film does however also feature one moment of unforgivably bad CGI towards the end. Secondly, Bane does feature some moments of pleasing editing that actually created a few fleeting scenes that gave me sporadic hope that the film was turning a corner so to speak, however these soon ended, giving way to the normal plod. Overall Bane is just a mess. It's not an interesting watch as it tries to incorporate gory, psychological, supernatural and Sci-fi elements all at the same time, and fails miserably at nearly all of them. I cannot recommend Bane to any of you, it simply isn’t worth it, I am giving this one a 2.5/10, and frankly that’s generous.