Shudder Saturday: Other (2025)

The last time I watched a horror movie written and directed by David Moreau it was the very surprising and excellent MadS. I had forgotten that he did that though, and was drawn to watch Other because of the lead role for Olga Kurylenko. That may have been a mistake.

Kurylenko plays Alice, a woman who has to head back to check things are in order after the death of her mother. Exploring her childhood home, she soon finds out that there's maybe something a bit wrong about the place. While revisiting a number of memories, Alice starts to process parts of her past that her mind once refused to accept.

Not only is Other bad, it's irritating. Moreau, "helped" in the dialogue department by Jon Goldman, seems to think that he's delivering a wonderful puzzle box to viewers. It's actually just an ugly paperweight, making use of familiar tropes and random inserted scare attempts until a final sequence that is quite laughable in how much Moreau seems to believe in it as a bit of a "gotcha" moment.

There are others in the cast, minor characters here and there, but it mainly rests on the slim shoulders of Kurylenko. As much as I often like her onscreen, she's not right for this role, often unable to give viewers a real insight into her character whenever she's not speaking to others about the situation. Part of the problem is due to the screenplay, admittedly, but someone stronger in the main role could have distracted viewers from some of that main weakness with a strong and mesmerising central performance.

I don't have anything good to say about this, although that's not to say that others may find something to like here. My opinion is affected by how much I disliked the film from the very earliest scenes, which meant that even potentially better moments in the second half didn't do enough to "move the needle" for me. It lost me from the start, and had no major moment that was able to ever regain my interest or goodwill.

If you're as tempted to watch this as I was then I implore you to watch almost any other David Moreau film instead. He can direct good movies. This just isn't one of them. As for Kurylenko, it's clear that she either needs strong enough material or a decent supporting cast to help her along.  She also generally does a bit better in action movies, which is maybe something I should keep in mind the next time I see her name used to promote any horror fare.

Pick any other movie to watch this weekend. Just don't pick Other. 

3/10

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Shudder Saturday: MadS (2024)

Writer-director David Moreau may not be the most prolific person working in the movie business nowadays, but he certainly isn't afraid of trying different things. Whatever you think of it, Them AKA Ils (2006) impressed many horror movie fans when it was released. The Eye (2008) didn't impress anyone, to my knowledge, but Moreau was brave enough to even tackle it. He has since tackled comedy, a fantastical teen movie, and a heart-warming adventure drama about some people trying to return a trafficked lion cub to Africa. MadS sees him firmly back in the horror genre though, and it's almost as if he has something to prove. 

Milton Riche is Romain, a young man who takes some drugs before having his chilled evening plans ruined by an encounter with a sick and bloody young woman. What Romain doesn't understand is that he's about to be an important link in a chain that will lead to a zombie-like virus spreading. Romain inadvertently infects many other people, but the main one we then start to observe for a while is his girlfriend, Anais (Laurie Pavy). 

Presented as if everything is being shown in a single take, although some cuts are hidden away here and there, MadS is a bold and intriguing spin on the infection/zombie movie. Moreau builds up a head of steam in the opening scenes and then somehow manages to keep control of a rolling snowball of energy right up until the very last moment. While the style of the thing is a gimmick, it's done well enough to make it worthwhile, yet it's also done without seeming to stop every few minutes to point out how audacious it is being.

Things are helped along by the lead performances, particularly that of Pavy. Riche is good enough to make his potentially irritating character bearable for his section, and a third important character played (and played very well) by Lucille Guillaume gets to carry us to the end credits, but Pavy is the shining centrepiece here. Whether in carefree party mode or showing the changes within her via some great physical work, Pavy is consistently mesmerising.

I was wary when this started, worrying that I had started some kind of drug-fuelled horror movie that would compare to the divisive work of Gaspar Noé, but Moreau put my mind at ease within the first few minutes. A great title card gives way to a sudden dose of added tension, which then gives way to a narrative that creeps along as steadily and surely as the malady about to spread through the population. I said near the start of this review that it's almost as if Moreau has something to prove. Well . . . he certainly proves it.

8/10

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Prime Time: The Eye (2008)

Although not from Japan, The Eye (2002) was one of many horror movies to be lumped in with the hits that were coming thick and fast in the J-horror boom at the start of the 21st century. It holds up as a superb horror movie, and it's a shame that the makers of it, the Pang brothers, didn't do anything else that came close to it.

The remake was probably inevitable, but that doesn't make it any easier to accept, especially with so many things wrong.

Jessica Alba stars as Sydney Wells, which is the first major error (more on that later). Sydney is a talented violinist, and she's blind. After undergoing a cornea transplant, Sidney has to get used to seeing the world around her, but it takes her a while to realise that she's not seeing the world the way that everyone else sees it. Much like a young Haley Joel Osment, she sees dead people. She sees so many of them, at times, that it's almost as if she's receiving an important message.

Okay, I may as well address my first complaint right here. I don't hate Jessica Alba, and I've enjoyed her in a number of roles, but she's not always the best choice for some of the lead roles that she's been given over the years, and I think her inclusion here just feels wrong. She's not convincing, whether playing the violin or reacting to the environment around her. Sadly, the rest of the cast don't do much better, which is more surprising when it comes to the likes of Alessandro Nivola (playing Dr. Paul Faulkner), Parker Posey (playing Sydney's sister, Helen), and Chloë Grace Moretz (playing a young hospital patient named Alicia).

The cast aren't helped by either the script, by Sebastian Gutierrez, or the direction, from David Moreau and Xavier Palud. None of these people manage to stick close to the atmosphere and style of the original, despite sometimes trying, which is a massive disappointment for those familiar with the 2002 film. Those seeing this story being told onscreen for the first time might be a bit easier to please, but even the most casual horror fan may start to feel that something is lacking. You get a number of jump scares, a load of messy CGI, and a third act that takes things in a direction that was not only done better the first time around, it was also done better in another fantastic 2002 horror movie (that I won't name, in order to avoid spoiling things for anyone).

It would be easy to go on and on about more of the things in this remake that irk me so much, and I do like a rant every now and again, but it's not really worth the time or energy. The Eye is simply a typical example of the laziest kind of remake. It's the kind of film we can all point to as an argument against remakes, despite the fact that there have been (thankfully) a number of modern remakes that have managed to get things very right.

3/10

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