thriller movie review – Horror Ghouls

Trap (2024)

Posted on November 19, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

Cooper and his daughter Riley is going to Lady Raven’s concert, which is Riley’s reward for getting good grades. Cooper notices something strange about the place, though…there’s police everywhere, and when chatting up a guy selling merchandise he learns that the FBI is out to catch a serial killer known as “The Butcher“, because they have for some reason become aware that he will be at this concert. And this serial killer is none other than Cooper himself, of course. While trying to pretend everything is alright while his daughter is having the time of her life, Cooper manipulates and tricks his way into what he hopes will be an escape from the concert without getting caught.

Trap is a psychological thriller by M. Night Shyamalan, starring his own daughter Saleka as Lady Raven. Saleka is a singer-songwriter, and the idea for the film came when father and daughter one day had a conversation about combining a concert and a theatrical experience similar to Prince’s musical film Purple Rain (1984). The script was inspired by the Washington D.C. “Operation Flagship“ sting operation in 1985, where fugitives were lured to the Washington Convention Center under the pretense of free tickets, which resulted in 101 arrests. The songs in this film were also performed on stage as if in a real concert, and the shoot thus involved thousands of extras.

The concept of Trap is interesting enough, and when it became available on streaming we just decided to check it out. None of us had high expectations, but found ourselves to be entertained throughout the entire film, and sometimes that’s simply enough. It’s a somewhat simple cat ‘n mouse story where we witness the scenes unfold through the serial killer’s perspective, and it’s suspenseful enough while also having a slightly goofy vibe throughout. It’s definitely one of Shyamalan’s more carefree narratives, focusing more on pure thrills and fun instead of his usual cerebral and serious fare.

This being an M. Night Shyamalan movie you’re bound to wait for that plot twist to come which will turn everything on its head…but here’s pretty much a plot-twist in itself: there isn’t any. In a Shyamalan movie! Who would’ve thought. The movie does offer some twists and turns throughout the ride though, and some reveals and such, but none of what Shyamalan’s movies have become known (and often ridiculed) for. Not saying that his twists are always bad, because they really aren’t (just take his first horror movie The Sixth Sense for example), but this movie didn’t need any of that and is all the better for it.

Overall, Trap is one of those dumbly fun movies which is offering just enough thrills and suspense. Nothing groundbreaking and by no means a masterpiece, but all in all just an easy-going and fun thriller.

Writer and director: M. Night Shyamalan
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Mark Bacolcol, Marnie McPhail, Kid Cudi, Russ, Marcia Bennett, Vanessa Smythe
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt26753003/

The Door (2009)

Posted on September 20, 2024September 20, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

David Andernach (Mads Mikkelsen) is a painter who’s cheating on his wife with the neighbor lady. One day, while busy with his affair when his wife is at work, he leaves his daughter unsupervised and she ends up drowning in the garden pool. His entire life falls apart: his wife understandably leaves him, he ends up with an alcohol problem, and five years later he’s still desperate for forgiveness. When he realizes none can be given, especially not from himself, he leaves his ex-wife a final message on the answering machine telling her he won’t bother her anymore. Then he tries to commit suicide by drowning himself in the same pool his daughter died in, but of course his ex-wife called for his best friend to go check on him after the not exactly subtle message. Later, when walking home, he suddenly sees a blue butterfly. Nothing really strange about that, except it’s wintertime. He decides to follow it (because, who wouldn’t follow after a blue butterfly in the middle of winter, right?), and is taken through a mystical corridor hidden behind some shrubs. He gets to a door, and on the other side exists in a world very much like his own, a parallel universe of sorts. Except for one thing: it’s five years earlier, and here his daughter is still alive. Knowing what’s about to happen, he manages to save his daughter from drowning in the pool while his other self is busy banging the neighbor. This means that in this world everything is the way he wants, but there’s only one problem: there’s now two of himself there. In order to live the life he desperately wants, being able to erase the hell he’s been living through for the last five years, he ends up killing his other self and buries him in the garden. Who could possibly suspect a murder when no one is missing, right? Except…things will not be that easy, of course.

The Door (original title: Die Tür) is a German science fiction thriller from 2009, directed by Anno Saul, based on a book by Akif Pirinçci (writer of the animated cat thriller Felidae). The story told here have the clear structure of an old-fashioned moralistic fairytale, told in a way where you will inevitably question what your own decision would have been in a similar situation. We all have things we regret, we all have our moments of “oh, if I could just turn back time…“ and believing everything would have been so much better. And maybe it would have been… or maybe not. Maybe everything would be even worse. There is no doubt in Hell, however, that someone would not have wanted to go back in time to save their own child’s life, despite the risks of things taking a different turn than hoped for or expected. Thus, The Door takes a common “what if I could have done it over again“ setting and turns it into something horrific, a dark fable playing on the darkness of the human psyche.

There are a few issues with the plot where some of it doesn’t make all too much sense. I haven’t read the book, so cannot make comparisons, and I can easily see how some of it may not have translated as well into film. Still, The Door is a nice sci-fi thriller that keeps you guessing with its many twists and turns.

Director: Anno Saul
Writer: Jan Berger
Originaltitle: Die Tür
Country & year: Germany, 2009
Actors: Mads Mikkelsen, Jessica Schwarz, Valeria Eisenbart, Thomas Thieme, Tim Seyfi, Stefan Gebelhoff, Suzan Anbeh, Heike Makatsch, Nele Trebs, Thomas Arnold, Karsten Dahlem, René Lay
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1223934/

Fortress (1985)

Posted on December 22, 2023November 1, 2024 by HorrorGhouls

You better run, You better take cover, as some Men at Work once said. Because it’s not everyday a whole class of children gets the thrilling adventure of being kidnapped by Dabby Duck, Pussy Cat, Mac The Mouse and even Father Christmas himself.

This little and pretty much forgotten gem from Down Under is based on the book by the same name by Gabrielle Lord – a story that’s loosely based on the Faraday School kidnapping which took place in Victoria, Australia. The year was 1972 in the rural town of Faraday when the two men, John Eastwood and Robert Clyde Boland, kidnapped those from a one-teacher school with six female pupils and the teacher and demanded a $1,000,000 ransom. To cut the story short, the victims managed to escape and the kidnappers were eventually caught, which got a prison sentence of 17 years.

The story should have ended here, but there’s a part 2. One of the two the kidnappers, Eastwood, escaped prison in 1976, and since old habits die hard, he kidnapped another teacher with nine pupils in Wooreen State School in Gippsland, Victoria. The whole incident went in full GTA mode with five wanted stars already when he crashed his stolen van into a long truck and held the driver and his partner hostage. Another truck came where Eastwood waved and made it stop. He took the driver and the passenger hostage. But it doesn’t stop here: he made a campervan with two females pull over.

He now had sixteen (!) hostages. Not bad, mate! He demanded a ransom of US$7 million, guns, 100 kilograms of heroin and cocaine, and the release of seventeen inmates from Pentridge Prison. Surprised that he didn’t demand a pack of hookers while he was at it. Like in the first incident, one of the victims escaped and contacted the police. As Eastwood tried to flee with the rest of his hostages, the police managed to disable his hijacked campervan with gunfire. He got a wound-shot and was brought back to his orange jumpsuit. None of the victims was hurt or killed during these incidents. Eastwood was in-and-out of prison until he was a free man in 1992 and got a job as a truckdriver.

Now back to Dabby Duck, Pussy Cat, Mac The Mouse and Father Christmas.

Sally Jones is a teacher in the middle of nowhere in a small, primitive community in Australia, also called The Outback. It’s a regular hot sunny day and Sally gets herself ready for another day in the one-room school with her nine pupils. The youngest is six, while the oldest is sixteen and we have both boys and girls. A regular day gets suddenly interrupted when four armed men wearing furry masks, led by the one wearing the classic and creepy santa mask (Father Christmas), the perfect nightmare fuel for toddlers with santaphobia.

We’re going on a PICNIC, Father Christmas says, before they toss the kids and Sally back in a rusty van like they were pigs taken to the slaughterhouse. The six-year old seems to get the roughest experience as they treat him like a ragdoll, and the poor kid seems traumatized from the start as he has eyes like a shell-shocked WW1 veteran.

After some bumps in the road, and a toilet break that almost went catastrophic, they take them farther into rural wilderness where they force our captives to jump into a hole in the ground that leads to an underwater cave. And yes, we learn that they are taken for ransom and not doing this just for the hell of it. And today’s lesson from teacher Sally, who seems to have a far stronger psyche than the four kidnappers combined and a spine of iron, is to survive. In other words, Father Christmas and company will eventually learn that they fucked with the wrong teacher.

Fortress takes this hostage journey on a whole other path than the true story it’s based on, to put that mildly. It’s Lord of the Flies meets Far Cry Primal with some flavors of The Goonies. A pretty simple movie with a simple premise that was suitable enough for a television production made for American HBO. That being said, Fortress couldn’t look more cinematic. The cinematography here is pretty remarkable, already from the opening night scene with the tracking shot and the heavy 80s synth score, which sets the sinister and foreboding tone.

The gimmick with the masks gives the film a more unique distinctiveness rather than having four random dudes. Replace their saw-off shotguns with electric guitars and they’d look like a bizarre KISS coverband. However, as their main goal is to keep the teacher and her class as ransom, their demented and unhinged sociopathy oozes through their masks. They also plan to gang rape Sally. Because why not.

The acting is solid all the way, even from the child actors. Although Fortress may be predictable, the film is fast-paced with first-class tension with lots of adrenaline and no dull moments. It’s also a grim ride into the darker corners of the human psyche where the survival-mode instincts get pushed to the most extreme, primitive and barbaric red-zone level. The climax was originally longer and more graphic but was cut down before the film’s release, and it shows. Regardless, this is pure thrilling entertainment from start to finish.

Fortress was released on DVD by HBO Archives in 2006, which is still available at Amazon. No Blu-ray for the time being.

Director: Arch Nicholson
Writer: Everett De Roche
Country & year: Australia, 1985
Actors: Sean Garlick, Rachel Ward, Elaine Cusick, Laurie Moran, Marc Aden Gray, Ray Chubb, Bradley Meehan, Rebecca Rigg, Beth Buchanan, Asher Keddie, Anna Crawford, Richard Terrill, Vernon Wells, Peter Hehir, David Bradshaw, Roger Stephen
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0091069/