Would You Rather (2012)

Horror films that are based around forcing people to make unpleasant choices have been increasingly popular since the Saw series became a huge hit. We've had some good ones (although I admit that there isn't a title springing to mind right now) and some not so good (Choose being a pretty lacklustre effort). Thankfully, Would You Rather is a good one, helped enormously by a typical performance from Jeffrey Combs that mixes charm with more than just a hint of lunacy.

The plot revolves around a young woman (Iris, played by Brittany Snow) who is desperate to turn her life around. She needs money, and a lot of it. Not for herself, you understand. She has a younger brother who is very ill. Combs is Shepard Lambrick, a very wealthy man who occasionally invites a number of people to dine in his home, before revealing to them the particulars of a game that he likes to play. A game that sees how much people can be bought for, and how quickly they can change the nature of their ways for a large enough reward.

There's a solid cast of supporting players onscreen here, including John Heard and Sasha Grey (not the best actress ever, but she acquits herself just fine), but there's no mistaking that Snow is the leading lady and plenty of time has been set aside for Combs to grandstand as he so easily can. The fact that the likes of Eddie Steeples, Robin Taylor, Enver Gjokaj and Jonny Coyne all still manage to make an impression is testament to the capable script (by Steffen Schlachtenhaufen) and direction (by David Guy Levy) giving everyone at least one memorable moment.

A number of moments made me really wince, so kudos to the warped minds who came up with the increasing pain meted out to everyone involved, but it's a shame that Would You Rather undermines its own premise far too early, making everyone a forced participant in the sadistic game rather than having their conscience eroded gradually by the riches on offer.

Well worth a watch, even if you look away during the harsher moments.

7/10

http://www.amazon.com/Would-Rather-Blu-ray-Brittany-Snow/dp/B00CBFB8WG/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1389209604&sr=1-3&keywords=would+you+rather

Smash Cut (2009)

As Smash Cut played out I knew that I should be rolling my eyes and grimacing at the mix of awful comedy and ridiculous gore I was watching. I knew that, I really did. But I enjoyed myself. The film wasn't good, by conventional standards, but it featured some familiar faces being silly and appearing to enjoy themselves and that was infectious. Of course, many other things are infectious that people don't want passed on to them so I'll forgive you if you decide to avoid this one.

David Hess plays a director who has had enough. He's often shafted by money men, he can never get onscreen what he actually envisions in his mind, audiences laugh at the end results and the critics have a field day as they shred his reputation. When he accidentally kills a young woman (Jennilee Murray) he realises what he needs to make his masterpiece. Real blood and gore. Real death. Reel death. But as he tries to get his film finished he is being watched by an undercover reporter (Sasha Grey) and a private detective (Jesse Buck).

An overt homage to the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis (the man himself has a cameo role and is the source of some choice quotes at the very beginning of the film), this is a cheap and cheerful slice of splattery madness. The script by Ian Driscoll isn't great, by any means, but it does have some amusing lines and references for fans of Lewis. The direction by Lee Demarbre is pretty slapdash, which is, of course, in line with the essence of the whole enterprise.

Hess goes over the top whenever he gets the chance, which is in almost every scene, poor Michael Berryman appears in a few scenes with a wig so horrendous that I started to suspect it may actually be an escaped Tribble and Mr. H. G. Lewis is really the only one of the big horror names to survive his limited screentime with dignity intact. Sasha Grey isn't terrible, but that may be more down to the fact that I've been, ummmmm, a fan of her work for some time as opposed to her acting skills. Jesse Buck basically gets to lark around for the entire movie, and he does okay. I guess. There are other actors, but none giving performances worth highlighting.

If you like the movies being homaged then you should get some pleasure from Smash Cut. If you don't, I encourage you to choose something - anything - else.

5/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share