Pulpmovies Reviews

With her relationship on the verge of becoming serious, Victoria (Giovanna Galdi) comes home to find an unexpected gift in the form of a black box containing a skull. Not surprisingly, she is less than thrilled at receiving such a gift and wants nothing to do with it. But this is no ordinary skull.

After experiencing some indications of the skull’s unnatural nature, however, Victoria finally gives in and takes the skull from its box. The skull is, of course, the Eye of Menw and it will grant knowledge of the future to the pure hearted. So Victoria asks about her own future…

With The Eye of Menw writer/director, Charles A. Christman III has set out to make a film that harks back to the horror films of the 1930s and 40s. And he has succeeded spectacularly.

Although the setting is clearly modern, the film is shot in black and white and the beautifully crisp cinematography on display really does capture a very classic feel. This is a film that relies on glimpses of the things that might lurk in the shadows and hints of horrors unseen.

It’s also a film that manages to generate a genuinely chilling atmosphere that thoroughly permeates every aspect of the steadily unfolding events.

The film is very centred around the character of Victoria – indeed, for much of the film she is the only person on the screen. Obviously, this means that a lot depends on Giovanna Galdi’s performance, and she acquits herself superbly.

You really do get a sense of who Victoria is and, not only does she manage to remain utterly believable throughout but Galdi also manages to bring a real sense of empathy to her character. And it’s this outstanding performance that really does carry the film.

Far too often these days filmmakers can rely far too heavily on gore and special effects for their, so it’s nice to encounter someone with the confidence to depend instead on a strong script and a convincing lead performance. And when the result is as spine-tinglingly good as The Eye of Menw, I really can’t recommend it strongly enough.

Here’s an interesting idea – an art film that takes a long and hard look at the art world, and doesn’t really like what it finds.

Souvenir centres around an art gallery owned by Ivy (Rita Obermeyer) whose recently deceased father has left her a collection of African funerary posts. These posts are worth a fortune, but they are also a reminder of a hidden past that Ivy is unable to leave behind. While Ivy would like nothing more than to bury her past, the discovery of these posts – and their value – encourages the greed of those around her. So while everyone starts chasing the money, Ivy’s life slowly begins to unravel.

This is a film in which the atmosphere surrounding the events portrayed is as important – if not more so – than the events themselves. It it has to be said that director, Natasa Prosenc does do an excellent job of conveying the mood of the film.

This approach, however, does mean that the film gets off to a relatively slow start. But, as the story builds, it becomes both increasingly powerful, and increasingly engaging. This is down not only to the writing, in which the characters’ personalities, their relationships and their jealousies are allowed to emerge in a very natural fashion, but also the acting.

All of the cast put in very strong performances here and really bring their characters to life. But special mention has to go to Joel Bryant who, as the manipulative Balthazar really does dominate his scenes and drag things along marvellously.

Although there are plenty of art-house touches in here, as well as a couple of surreal nods, the visual stylings do not detract from the essentially human nature of the film. Indeed, the visual style does much to accentuate the fact that Souvenir is ultimately a film about people, the relationships between them, the effect that keeping secrets has on these and the importance of laying old ghosts to rest.

It’s a well written, beautifully shot and excellently acted film and one that is well worth seeing.

Taking its inspiration from Animal Farm, Hookers in Revolt is the story of a group of street prostitutes who finally decide that they’ve had enough mistreatment at the hands of their pimps. Adopting the slogan “all women are equal to men,” they band together, pool their resources and start to look out for each other.

Success, however, breeds corruption and as the manipulative Cleopatra (Olivia Lopez) takes control of the collective, the rest of the prostitutes find that they were no better off than before. Indeed, for many of them, things take a distinct turn for the worse.

Hookers in Revolt is certainly an ambitious film, and writer/director Sean Weathers does have a lot to say. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite come together and I think that this is largely down to the fact that more time has been spent developing the films message and its themes than has been spent developing the characters and the plot.

The plot has a very jumpy feel. Scene follows scene and stuff happens, but there is no real sense of cohesion to hold it all together. No plot is perfect, of course, and I may have been willing to overlook the weaknesses here if there had been a strong central character to hold my interest. Unfortunately, the characters tended to feel more like stereotypes than people making it very difficult to care about any of them.

There is a lot in here and the film, quite bravely, aims to be both an intelligent social satire and an out and out exploitation romp. However, by trying to do so much, the film ends up falling short on both counts.

There are a fair few fun moments in here, as well as plenty of skin and no shortage of soft-core sex scenes. Unfortunately, the parts are better than the whole which doesn’t quite live up to its title.

The wonderfully descriptively named Mutant Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood opens with a police stakeout and a gangland double-cross in downtown Los Angeles. Things look bad until a special effect strikes the Earth and everything changes. Now everything looks a whole lot worse.

Mutant Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood isn’t a comedy, but it is – as its title suggests – a very self-aware film. The writing team of Thunder Levin (who also directs) and George Saunders are clearly familiar with the stereotypes, audience expectations and range of approaches that have developed within the zombie genre and play around with these to great effect.

There is plenty in here to keep the exploitation fan happy and lashings of gore, all of which is remarkably well executed. The zombies are all suitably revolting and are blown away in a consistently spectacular fashion. There’s also a lot of fun to be had with the constant ranting about Nosferatu from Larson (KeiKabou Holland), one of the gang members who goes to pieces both believably and entertainingly. The Old Man (Maxie J. Santillan Jr.) who takes on the role of enlightening the gang members as to what has happened, and who has managed to tune in to the only broadcast still being transmitted, is also a great deal of fun.

In fact, the characterisation is very strong throughout. Not only are these people believable, but they are a very likeable bunch as well. This applies not just to the leads, but to the minor characters as well, all of which makes it very easy to become caught up in their plight. This is a striking achievement given the diversity of characters forced to throw their lot in with each other. It also allows the filmmakers to successfully and seamlessly introduce some social commentary into the film.

Our survivors are made up from two gangs – one black, one Chinese – and one of the policemen that was looking to break the deal and make some arrests. Faced with the larger threat of walking dead, they quickly recognise that old enmities will need to be pushed aside, but they are not forgotten and these tensions remain.

The groups do, however, work reasonably well together and the film’s willingness to poke fun at both our differences and our prejudices makes for a refreshing change in a genre where the the order of victims is often painfully predictable.

Mutant Vampire Zombies from the ‘Hood is a well written, well acted, and well executed zombie film that understands the limitations of the genre and its tropes and is willing to play around with these in order to come up with an original and very entertaining twist on the genre. It probably isn’t for everyone, but if the title raised a smile for you, then this is a film that you should definitely take a look at.

What goes around comes around. A jogger helps a motorist avoid a parking fine, the motorist helps an elderly woman, and so it turns. One act of kindness leads to another as each person passes their good karma along the chain.

The film has no dialogue and writer/director Owen Thomas demonstrates a real flair for visual storytelling. We know what is happening and what the characters are thinking because we can see it and the plot really does need no explanation.

It helps, of course, that the cast is so strong throughout and able to consistently bring enough personality to their characters to generate some real empathy. The mood of the film is also hugely helped by the soundtrack – a single piece of music that really does set the tone.

It’s not just the music though. Everything here, from the cinematography and the editing to the characterisation, comes together perfectly to to tell a straightforward story that is threaded through with a really positive mood throughout.

The Road is a film about life, good intentions and random acts of kindness and one that creates such a genuinely uplifting tone that, when the punchline comes, it is both unexpected and laugh out loud funny.