Shudder Saturday: Torment (2013)

If you go into Torment expecting something wildly exciting and tense, and maybe even twisty and turny, then you are going to end up quite disappointed. It's all put together well enough, but seems to constantly be about to deliver something it then swerves away from. It's not intense enough, it's not interesting enough, and it ends up not changing things up enough to distract from the obvious influences (numerous home invasion horrors).

Sarah (Katharine Isabelle) and Cory Morgan (Robin Dunne) are moving into their home, along with young Liam (Peter DaCunha). Unfortunately, other people view the home as their home. A whole other family unit, and they view the interlopers as prey to be toyed with. They've struck in this area before, and will do so again.

Directed competently by Jordan Barker, and with a script written by Michael Foster and Thomas Pound, Torment is essentially a flipped around version of something like The Strangers. The home invaders are already lying in wait, but the M.O. remains very similar, with sadistic torture and a strange need to integrate others into their small and select group. The way in which this is familiar to genre fans, yet also subtly different, is interesting. Unfortunately, like every interesting aspect of the movie, it's not developed into anything that rewards those wanting to give it more than a passing thought. Family relationships and tensions are given surface-level lip service, and there are a couple of unsurprising twists that will either make you roll your eyes or simply shrug.

At least the central casting helps to make everything a bit better. Isabelle has been a welcome presence in horror movies for many years, and once again ends up a highlight, while Dunne does just fine as the less interesting family member. DaCunha is small enough, and suitably imperiled, Stephen McHattie brings his particular brand of charm and charisma to a small supporting role, and Amy Forsyth does her best in a role that really should have allowed her to shine, but doesn't.

As you may have gathered from my distinctly middling response to everything, nothing here is actually bad. Some moments, some of the plot elements, are actually quite good. It's just a shame that nothing is given enough time and space to make it as interesting as it could be, whether it's the initial interactions between Isabelle, Dunne, and DaCunha, or the minor revelations that are teased out throughout most of the second half. If you're a fan of Isabelle then it's far from the worst thing she's done, but it would have benefited from giving her even more screentime.

5/10

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Twelve Trees Of Christmas (2013)

Twelve Trees Of Christmas is exactly what you expect from a Christmas TV movie. That's not to say that it's bad. If you don't want to watch something that's safe and sweet then you'll hate it, of course, but it's actually not a painful viewing experience if you've sat through as many Christmas-centric movies as I have.

Lindy Booth plays a young woman who wants to save the library that she works in. The man responsible for it being due to close (Robin Dunne) initially thinks that she is just out to save her job, but it soon becomes clear that the library is more than just a place of employment. It's a hub for the community. A competition is organised, with people competing to design the best Christmas tree. Who will win, and will the endeavour actually change anything?

Directed by Michael DeCarlo, and written by Kevin Commins, this is flat, predictable and doesn't even build up to any hugely satisfying finale. Yet, somehow, it's just easy to watch and almost enjoy. I say almost because I can't, in all honesty, rate this as anything but completely average, but it wouldn't have taken much to push it up into the realm of the good. A sharper script and some better editing, because it never seems to live up, would have done it.

A better cast might have helped, but those onscreen don't do too bad. Okay, I have to admit that Lindy Booth isn't the strongest female lead, but I like her well enough. Dunne is enjoyable, and it's good to watch the two main characters butt heads without Dunne being painted as a big meanie from start to finish. In fact, his character comes over as quite a nice guy who has made a bad decision that he felt was necessary. Shauna MacDonald lends some nice support, and Melanie Brown plays a ruthless designer enlisted by Dunne to design HIS entry for the competition. Uneven accent aside, Brown is amusing enough. And Casper Van Dien may only be in the film for about a minute, but I like him enough to still mention him in this review. So there.

If you don't like any of the cast, or the title, or Christmas movies, in general, then just give this one a miss. But if you're wasting some time with yuletide viewings at this time of year, this isn't the worst that you could choose.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Christmas-Chesler-Perlmutter-Productions/dp/B00GOFA6FY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386859973&sr=8-1&keywords=twelve+trees+of+christmas

American Psycho II: All American Girl (2002)

American Psycho wasn't ever a movie that I thought needed a sequel. It was a self-contained slice of cinema gold. But such a thought has never occurred to film executives before so why should it occur now?

After an opening sequence that pretty much pisses all over the greatness of the ending of the first movie, this film then moves on to establish its own identity as we follow the latest psycho on the block (played by Mila Kunis), a young woman determined to be the best in her class so that she gets to follow the path she has chosen for herself all the way to the FBI training facility at Quantico. If she can't achieve her goals simply by being the best in her class and working hard then she has no qualms about getting rid of anything (or, more specifically, anyone) in her way.

Directed by Morgan J. Freeman, this is an example in many ways of how to create a bad sequel. It creates a tenuous connection to the first movie that feels quite disrespectful, for want of a better word, and it simply moves from one ridiculous moment to the next after that.

Luckily, the cast help make this rubbish entertaining. Mila Kunis isn't all that believable in the lead role but she's always a welcome presence onscreen and has fun delivering some of the dialogue. William Shatner is also good fun to watch (when is "The Shat" never entertaining?), Lindy Booth and Kim Poirier lift things with their small roles and Geraint Wyn Davies is amusingly perplexed as the psychiatrist who doesn't make much professional headway with the leading lady. Robin Dunne and Keith Lawson also do fine with their roles.

While it's far removed from the sly, dark humour of the first film, American Psycho 2 does bring along a camp, over the top tone that makes things fitfully amusing. The script by Alex Sanger and Karen Craig seems to know from the very beginning that the very idea of a sequel following on from the first movie is a ridiculous notion and so it starts piling on the absurdities one after the other until we get to a grand finale that is as laughable (both intentionally and unintentionally) as it is unbelievable.

You could certainly wring some entertainment from this movie, as I did, but it's not one I'd recommend and it's certainly not one that you're likely to be won over by if you were as big a fan of the first film as I was.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/American-Psycho-II-All-Girl/dp/B00005UWP4

The Skulls II (2002)

A sequel to the teen movie that revolved around a secret society that seemed to be the world’s worst secret, The Skulls II almost slavishly follows all of the rules governing how to make a lesser sequel. No stars but a leading man who looks a bit like the leading man in the first movie? Robin Dunne looks enough like Joshua Jackson in a certain light to tick that box. A plot that covers similar ground to the first movie, and includes a number of scenes that feel like carbon copies, while missing any tension and excitement this time around? Yep, that box is ticked. A further lack of care for anything resembling consistency and/or plausibility? Ohhhhh yes.

Robin Dunne plays Ryan Sommers, a young man who gets received into The Skulls but who doesn’t really care for their traditions and rites. He’s only there because his older brother (played by James Gallanders) was there. When Ryan spots what he thinks is a fatal accident it isn’t long before The Skulls are doing what they seem to do best – covering up mischief, ruining lives and blackmailing everyone that they have to.

There’s just nothing of interest here for those, like myself, who didn’t think that the first movie was more than one or two steps above average. We get one gratuitous bit of T & A but nothing more to make the film as “sexy” as it seems to want to be, the twisted situation spiralling out of control isn’t as well handled here and the actors just aren’t as good. Dunne doesn’t really have the charm for the lead role, though he tries admirably, but Lindy Booth brightens up the screen whenever she’s on it and Nathan West and Aaron Ashmore portray their characters with satisfying smugness and more than a hint of menace. 

 

A couple of people wrote the lacklustre script before Joe Chappelle decided to direct the thing without any hint of enthusiasm for the material. In fact, as unbelievable and stretched as the central concept is I’d have to say that I was most disappointed with a second half that piled conspiracy theory cliché upon cliché before turning its back on many of the rigid rules set out from the opening of the first movie. 

4/10 

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