The Canal (2014)

With the likes of Calvary and Patrick's Day delivering the goods for discerning movie viewers, it would seem that the state of cinematic output from the Emerald Isle is in very good health. The Canal, a psychological horror movie written and directed by Ivan Kavanagh, does nothing to spoil that image.

Rupert Evans stars as David, a film archivist who starts to suspect that his beautiful wife (Hannah Hoekstra), and mother of his child, is cheating on him. Things culminate in a night full of dark imagery and David passing out, only for him to awake the next day and eventually discover that his wife has not returned home. He believes that something very bad has happened to her, something caused by an entity that may also be after his young son (Calum Heath). But the main police officer (Steve Oram) who ends up investigating the disappearance keeps David in his sights as the main suspect, especially as his behaviour starts to deteriorate.

Kavanagh takes a number of familiar genre elements here and blends them together into a masterful display of what modern horror can do to creep out viewers. Almost every scene is an audio and visual selection of unnerving details, with the grand finale an all-out barrage to the senses that may well make even the hardiest horror fan experience a goosebump or two. And the very last scene is . . . . . . . . . . . . well, it was as inevitable and yet shocking as the final scene in Kill List, for my money.

Evans is fantastic in the lead role, a performance that sees him going through the wringer for almost 90% of the runtime. He's always sympathetic, even as his sanity is called into question, and it's hard not to keep hoping that there's some light at the end of the tunnel for him. Heath is a very sweet young lad, and does well to keep running along with his father as things start to get scarier and scarier. Kelly Byrne is likable enough, playing a young nanny who tries to help for as long as she can, and Antonia Campbell-Hughes isn't bad, despite her speaking so breathlessly at times that I thought she was about to expire mid-sentence. Oram puts in yet another great turn, he's certainly been racking them up in recent years, and Hoekstra does alright, although she's not onscreen for all that long, obviously.

The main problems I had with the film stem from the editing/structure that removed the element of surprise on a number of occasions. Oh, there are a couple of cracking moments that could well make your jaw drop, but it's a shame that there couldn't have been more of those. It is, however, understandable that Kavanagh decided to forgo more shocks and surprises in favour of genuine tension and scares, and I have to end up, paradoxically, also giving him credit for not trying to be too clever in a way that would have undermined the third act.

All in all, this is absolutely the kind of film that horror fans should seek out, support, and hope to see more of. Like the titular waterway, it's dark, it's chilling, and it's got depth.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Canal-Rupert-Evans/dp/B00OCDSQLG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413581983&sr=8-1&keywords=the+canal

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The Task (2010)

I'm not sure exactly why it irritated me so much but The Task is a bad horror movie, a lame duck full of fake scares and a bunch of characters that it's hard to care for.

"The Task" is a yet-to-be-broadcast show that kidnaps and terrifies half a dozen youthful types (three gals and three guys to, y'know, keep things totally even) and then deposits them near an infamous, derelict prison. The prison used to be run by a warden who defined the word sadistic as a starting point for his rules of governance. The six contestants have to spend a whole night in the building and complete a number of set tasks to each be in with a chance of winning a share of a large cash prize. Of course, as you might expect from a horror movie, the empty prison isn't quite empty as everyone thinks. But are ghosts roaming the cell blocks or has the TV show laid on a number of audience-pleasing surprises?

Bloodless, lazy and reliant on numerous moments when a sudden INCREASE IN VOLUME makes you jump, The Task embodies many of the worst aspects of modern, mainstream horror. Don't let the fact that this isn't a sequel or a remake cloud the issue, this is just as unoriginal as 101 other releases from the past year or so and adds to the problem by creating a scenario in which you never take any of the perceived threats all that seriously anyway, knowing that many of the main set-pieces (and I use that term in the very loosest sense as there is nothing here to get excited about or even to bother remembering) could be programmer-controlled japery.

The casting doesn't help. British actors are all well and good but why cast mostly good old UK folk in a movie depicting a bunch of Americans in America? Texas Battle is a familiar face after his so-so turn in Final Destination 2 but the other actor most recognisable to UK viewers will probably be Victor McGuire, a likeable guy but not the best actor to ever attempt an American accent. The girls fare slightly better, for some reason, with Alexandra Staden, Antonia Campbell-Huges, Amara Karan and Ashley Mulheron a little more convincing than Tom Payne and Marc Pickering.

It's director Alex Orwell's first time in the director's chair and that shows as he fails to do anything to impress horror fans and simply limps from one page of Kenny Yakkel's trite script to the next. There are numerous movies along similiar lines that you could choose ahead of this one. Session 9 makes much better use of an abandoned building (even the prison setting itself is never utilised to create anything close to actual spooky atmosphere), My Little Eye is a far superior horror riff on the reality show concept and even the flawed Death Tube has more entertainment value.

Just don't waste your time.

3/10.

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