3615 code Père Noël aka: Deadly Games

Title: 3615 code Père Noël aka: Deadly Games

Director: Rene Manzor

Released: 1989

Starring: Brigitte Fossey, Louis Ducreux, Patrick Floersheim, Alain Lalanne, Francois-Eric Gendron, Stephane Legros

Plot: When Thomas is left alone with his frail Grandfather on Christmas Eve it is down to him to save them both from the psycho Santa who breaks into their mansion.

Review: Since hearing about this film on the “Cinema Sewer” podcast it has become something of an obsession to track it down as every copy I found was without subtitles or for some reason if it did have subs they where in Spanish, but finally the internet came though and I was able to get hold of a copy of this film which honestly was worth every bit of hassle in getting to see it.

Playing in many ways like a precursor to “Home Alone” we are introduced to the action movie and technology savy Thomas while a song which sounds strangely like “Eye of the Tiger” yet at the same time appears to be Christmas themed blasts away in the background. Thomas right from the start is quickly established especially when his introduced sporting a Patrick Swayze mullet and dressed up like his action heroes as he runs around his family mansion which we also find out he has wired up with all kinds of security devices and traps as demonstrated in the opening by him capturing his pet dog using a secret trapdoor.

Bizarrely his single mother Julie (Fossey) doesn’t seem to have any qualms about her son’s action movie obsessions or even more the fact that he is cutting holes in the floor for trapdoors which she happily jokes about over breakfast which I can pretty much tell you wouldn’t have happened with my own parents. Perhaps its because he looks after his frail and almost blind grandfather (Ducreux) that she gives him more leeway, but its an adorably close relationship that Thomas has with his Papy who is equally supportive of his Grandson’s hobbies while no doubt for adding a couple of questionable activities to his list of hobbies as he is in one scene shown having Thomas drive him around.

After his best friend Roland (Gendron) tells Thomas that Santa Claus doesn’t exists he puts together a plan to catch the jolly fat man on video using a surveillance system he’s wired up in the mansion which also means getting to see some wonderfully retro computer screen of his supposedly hi-tech system. Unfortunately the creepy and as it also turns out psychotic Santa (Floersheim) who Thomas’s mother just fired from her store after he got a little too handsy let alone violent with a young girl and now finding out that Thomas is home alone makes his way there to get his revenge.

Floersheim is unquestionably one of the creepiest killer Santa’s that I have seen as he spray paints his hair white with manic delight to his arrival in the mansion where he straight away kills in front of Thomas his pet dog while showing zero hesitation about such actions. From this point on we enter into that same territory which proved such a selling point for “Home Alone” as Thomas sets out to engage in Guerilla warfare with this killer while at the same time trying to ensure the safety of his grandfather. Unlike “Home Alone” or any of his 80’s cinema kid counterparts Thomas doesn’t turn into a wise cracking and fearless smart ass but instead remains a believable in his actions as he is frequently shown as being scared for both himself and his grandfather, to the point where he is shown during one low point calling out for his mum. Thanks also to the opening 30 mins it is believable that he would be able to construct the traps and gadgets he uses to battle the unnamed psycho

It should also be noted that unlike “Home Alone” the violence here isn’t slapstick nor is the intruding Santa some bumbling / near invincible buffoon but instead a dangerous and genuinely scary psychopath and to that end there is a real sense of realism I wasn’t expecting with this film. Still we do get some fun traps and gadgets being put together by Thomas such as a home-made crossbow which fires darts and a tracker he attaches via slingshot to the psycho’s back so that he is able to track his movements throughout the mansion while also providing a fun nod to “Alien” as the killer is constantly shown on the home-made scanner getting closer. The real standout moment though involves a booby trapped toy train which fails to go off when rolled towards the psycho who unwittingly rolls it back towards Thomas giving us this incredibly tense moment where we don’t know if he’s going to forced to abandon his hiding spot or not.

There is however one random moment where when cornered by the psycho, Thomas is randomly invited to partake in a game of hide and seek with the psycho going off to hide. I’m not sure if he thought this was the game they’d been playing all this time, or if its another of his attempts to play with children like we see at the start of the film when he attempts to join in a snowball fight with a group of kids on the street.

While the film being grounded in realism might seem that it might take away from the film, but instead it really brings a sense of tension to the film much like the sprawling mansion which the film is set in. It also means that by the end of the film we can see that Thomas much like his psycho tormentor have really been changed both mentally and physically by the events which have taken place over the course of the night and there was something in those final scenes of Thomas being reunited with his mother only to be shown on the inside that he has been deeply haunted by what he has to be endured and like his action heroes now forced to deal with the mental aftermath of surviving a situation like this compared to the Hollywood version where a hug from your mom makes things all better.

Unquestionably a film worth the hassle of hunting down as this breezy yet surprisingly tense thriller is an alt. Christmas classic sorely in need of an audience.

Your're Next

Title: You’re Next

Director: Adam Wingard

Released: 2011

Starring: Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn, A.J. Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Barbara Crampton, Rob Moran, Margaret Laney, Amy Seimetz, Ti West

Plot: The assorted members of the Davidson family brought together for the wedding anniversary of their parents Aubrey (Crampton) and Paul (Moran). A reunion which is soon cut short when the family come under attack from a group of animal masked killers.

Review: Despite being unleashed on the festival circuit in 2011, it took another two years for this film to finally get a proper release, which since then has only seen it further the growing influence of the “Mumblegore” genre. An offshoot of the New York mumblecore productions, this Los Angeles based style of film making is currently shaking up the honestly overworked Horror genre, with a style based around micro budgets, cerebral plotting and minimal studio interference. It is also a sub-genre which so far has produced the likes of Ti West’s “House of the Devil” and E.L. Katz’s “Cheap Thrills”.

Despite being part of a genre so closely linked to mumblecore, any concerns about yuppie kids trying to remake "Clerks" and instead rambling away on random topics while the film appears to have been made up on the fly, should fear not as despite the fancy  sub-genre title this film still fits into the standard slasher format, with the main difference being that the budget its being shot with is well below what your standard horror film has to play with, which is unquestionably the case here as director Wingard made the film for a paltry  One million dollars.

Despite the limited budget this film is certainly not lacking in style or creativity, with the setting kept to the manor house location for the most part, with only a brief diversion to a neighbouring property to keep the action fresh aswell as to enforce the sense of isolation, which is only furthered by the pitch black rural setting. At the same time Wingard is clearly not trying to reinvent the wheel as the film soon drops into the standard stalk and slash blueprint. However it is at the moment that the film kicks into this gear with a surprise crossbow attack by our animal masked killers that the Wingard pulls the rug from under our feet, as he unleashes his surprise as rather than let the process of elimination slowly reveal who will be the final girl here Wingard reveals her straight away, as mere minuites after the killers have claimed their first victim Erin (Vinson) leaps into action and proving that she has no intentions to waiting until she forfills the needed criteria of the final girl.

Erin really is a major selling point here outside of the cool look the animal masked killers have and who manage to break the worrying trend of cool masks = awful film (see: The Purge, The Strangers). Thankfully Erin’s quick reactions to the situation are explained away by the reveal that she grew up with a survivalist father who taught her skills which she certainly puts to good use here, along with a real knack for improvising on the fly as she frequently proves over the course of the film.

The rest of the family though it has to be said are pretty much there to add to the healthy body count, as they spend the film running around aimlessly and find ever more unique ways to fall victim to the killers, who like Erin equally don’t lack creativity as they set up several ingenious traps which caught even an established genre fan like myself by surprise. The fact that they don’t talk for the most part of the film equally adds to the tension which surrounds them while bringing to mind memories of the finale of “The Wicker Man”. At the same time it is their single minded determination which really makes them quite chilling to watch for the first half of the film while perhaps losing their edge once their plans begin to fall apart and they start begin talking amongst themselves more.

Sadly the rest of the cast are largely forgettable with no real difference between any of them, which makes it hard to care about losing any of them, especially when they are so interchangeable from each other and really only there to add to the body count which honestly is the sole advantage of having some of them around. Ultimately it’s hard to feel anything for most of the characters when we lose one of them with perhaps a couple of exceptions, which provoke a reaction more than joy at another slain yuppie.

Thankfully though the kills make up for the disposable nature of the these characters and here we certainly get to a lot of creativity from the opening crossbow attack on the family dinner party things steadily escalate with the killers soon proving themselves to a resourceful bunch as they frequently pull out some great surprise kills while many are delivered with sense of automation as the killers go about their work with the animal masks only adding to the chills. Thanks to Erin’s unique skill set the kill streak also goes both ways as she shows herself not only handy in a fight, but with her own cunning line of booby traps, from window spikes through to the much talked about blender to the head she soon makes it a very bad day to be a killer.

Perhaps one of the fresher horror movies of recent times, if perhaps down to the fact that its not distracting itself with the paranormal, zombies or one of the other overwork sub-genres and instead gives us a back to basics slasher with a few new twists. If this means that the future of horror lies in the Mumblegore genre, it is hard to say from this sole example but certainly more promising than anything currently in the mainstream.

 

The Purge

Title: The Purge

Director: James DeMonaco
Released: 2013
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder, Adelaide Kane, Edwin Hodge, Tony Oller, Rhys Wakefield, Arija Bareikis, Chris Mulkey

Plot: In the year 2022, America has become a nation reborn under the New Founding Fathers of America and while the country enjoys an all-time low for crime and unemployment rates, this new government has also instituted an annual 12-hour period called “The Purge”. During this period all criminal activity is legal and a period which security salesmen James (Hawke) and his family choose to hide out in their heavily fortified home. However when James son Charlie (Burkholder) lets a bloodied stranger (Hodge) into the house, the family soon find themselves the target of a group of masked killers eager to claim the stranger for Purging.  

Review: Once again I find myself throwing my hands up in despair as I’m faced once again with the conundrum over if it is truly possible to have a horror film which perfectly balances style and substance, especially as I’m now in the same position I was after I watched “The Strangers”. A film much like this one in that both are essentially stylised but ultimately hollow home invasion thrillers, let alone the fact that both featured being killers in memorable masks.

Taking a break from remaking classic horror films this film is one of the rarer original projects to come out of Michael Bay’s “Platinum Dunes” production company let alone one with an intriguing premise, one perfectly outlined in the government broadcast announcing the start of the 12-hour purging period, were crime from murder and theft through to more shockingly rape is all legal. Despite the illusion of a crime free for all this projects, the government brief is equally keen to stress that Government officials cannot be targeted much like the usage of weapons above class 4 which I guess is to ensure that you don’t get some looney with a nuclear device running around. Much like the “Battle Royale Act” which was used to control the out of control youth. The Purge is used by the government as a way for society to resolve its overwhelming issues, which in this case is the need to vent frustrations and deviant behaviours, with the belief being that by providing this release only helps this new society grow stronger, though at the same time it is hinted that it is also a way of weeding out the poor and those who could be seen as causing a burden on the economy and resources, especially when unlike the rich they are not able to hide out this period.

Meanwhile on the other end of the scale James and his wife Mary (Headey) might not have to worry about the Purge as they hide away behind the illusion of security provided by the steel covers and security cameras, they are instead left to ponder over the moralistic questions their children pose them over their choice of choosing not to Purge, let alone the wealth which their father has amassed selling security systems to the rich to protect them from being potentially purged. Needless to say these questions being posed by the children are the least of their worries seeing how both of these irritating kids mange to spearhead most of the major issues the family have to face, with the eldest child Zoey (Kane) smuggling her boyfriend into the house before lockdown, while their son Henry (Oller) is easily the most irritating character in the film, while easily to blame for causing most of the families issues, seeing how he is also responsible for letting the stranger into the house.

This terrible twosome are easily the biggest frustration about this film and frequently had me wondering what the law was concerning purging your own family members? So with this never being a possibility, we are left instead with the increasingly moronic decision that their actions frequently lead to, much more when they frequently have a habit of disappearing at the worse possible moments. Needless to say this film would certainly have been greatly improved without these characters or perhaps by getting better child actors.

The main threat the family have to contend with though is the group of masked purger’s whose masks have already become an iconic image of the film, which is especially true of their nominated leader, known solely as Polite Leader (Wakefield). As per his name this leader remains calm and polite throughout, even shooting one of his followers when they suffer an outburst. Needless to say despite his insistence that the family won’t be harmed if they give up the stranger seeking refuge in their house, Wakefiled plays the role with such a sinister edge your never sure how true his promises are, let alone the fact that he manages to come off even more creepy without his mask. One of the stronger parts of the film, Wakefield’s character is sadly underused and left to mainly threaten the family through the shutters and never really gets chance to really do much beyond this.

While the costuming is unquestionably memorable, especially with the Polite Leader’s group with their almost uniform styling, this ultimately is all surface gloss as the film plays out like a less tense version of the far superior “Panic Room” combined with a few scattered moments of home invasion horror throughout, though none played with any kind of tension or horror, even though getting to see Hawke finally going postal on the home invaders is fun if frustratingly cut too short when it just gets going. Despite its setup promising unbridled chaos and anarchy these home invasion moments and the selection of CCTV footage which makes up the opening credits, though honestly this wouldn’t matter much if there was any kind of real suspense to hold your attention, which sadly there really isn’t and what scattered moments you do get are essentially stomped over by the antics of one of the kids.

Despite a great concept it sadly is never used to full potential, but seeing how movie goers are attracted to cool visuals it has meant that a sequel is already heading our way soon, while baring more of a wiff of similarity to the plot of “The Warriors” it would seem. Could this be Bay’s way of secretly pushing through his ideas for his long mooted remake of the cult classic…I guess we will have to wait and see, though hopefully it will learn from the mistakes of this film and give us something alittle more substantial than a fancy shell.