WatchSeeLookView - Film Style Vol 03

Yes, you’re right, it has been quiet around here. This is largely due to excessive heat shutting down all mental faculties other than those required to keep me gainfully employed. Still, no real excuse so let’s try and hand crank the heat-addled mass of spongy grey slurry back into action again by channeling some words out of my head through the fingers and into your head via the screen. Here are some things that my hot eyes have blearily stared at:-

Ghost Stories (2017)
Dir. Andy Nyman & Jeremy Dyson

It feels like I have been watching more horror-related films recently but they have been somewhat more inventive than just your standard jump-scare or slasher-stalker fare (The Babadook and A Quiet Place both spring to mind on that). I had high hopes for this one - it’s co-written and directed by the non-acting member of the League Of Gentlemen (who have a well-documented for 70s British horror films) and is an adaptation of the very successful stage version which the pair previously penned. The format follows that of many a 70s British horror film in that you get three separate tales linked by a framing narrative. It’s got a suitably dour, 70s feel to it with some nice stylistic touches and a strong cast including Paul Whitehouse and Martin Freeman. Ultimately, though, I’m not quite sure that the payoff worked for me. I see where it all comes from, being seeded throughout, but I’m not sure it fully worked - it left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied, I have to admit. 

They Came Back (Les Revenants) (2004)
Dir. Robin Campillo

The original film which spawned a French series of the same name (although translated as The Returned instead) and an American remake series. (Must admit, I haven’t watched the second series of the French TV version - must do so.) From the off, other than the basic premise of the dead suddenly and inexplicably returning to life, it’s a very different beast to the series. The film focuses on a small town’s attempts to deal with the huge influx of dead from the local cemetery and how it impacts both the living and the recently returned. Despite some interesting notions and concepts, I have to say that I found the whole thing somewhat dull and ponderous. The TV version was a vast improvement on this. Intriguing as a compare and contrast exercise but not a film I particularly enjoyed in its own right.

There you go, just a couple to get the old brain working again (or brian as my heat-addled sausage fingers originally typed…)