The Haunting in Connecticut

One of the more telling aspects of a horror film is when one of its taglines is 'based on a true story'. Whilst many may squeal at the prospect of what they are about to see having actually happened, it doesn't fill me with intrigue.

The Haunting in Connecticut is based on the story of a family who move into a suburban house in Connecticut in the later 1980s, wherein a burial ground had been closed up. Naturally this should make for a great story; ghouls appearing from the ceilings and/or walls, hauntings driving the residents to despair, a few gory deaths here and there. That's how you would it would play out if this were a typical horror film. Sadly, it is indeed 'based on a true story', bringing to the forefront an array of limitations.

Unlike The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, loosely based on the infamous Ed Gein's exploits, this is an uninteresting horror film. Not only that, but the acting is also sub-par. Horrifically sub-par. You have your typical 'one minute there's a dark ghoul standing in a doorway, the next he's gone' moments. A fair few of these, I might add. To reinforce the craziness, the film's protagonists is mentally deficicient and suffers from twisted hallucinations. A bonus, you might think. But the constant use of these visions does nothing but create a stale and tiresome story thread.

When the piece de resistance finally comes together in the film's final scenes, the special effects on offer reiterate the b-movie feel of the piece. The film just doesn't ever find itself convincing anyone of its dark undertones, or ever provide enough scares to make the trip to the cinema (or price of DVD rental) anywhere near worth it.


The trailers looked promising, but the end result is a mish-mash of uninspired special effects, tired use of hallucinations as a means of scaring a no-doubt unthrilled audience, and a group of actors who deliver an incredibly underwhelming collective performance.

In short: avoid.

3/10

Buried

Effectively a one-man show, Buried takes us on a psychological and emotional journey as Ryan Reynolds fills out the role of Paul Conroy, a supplies driver in Iraq who is ambushed and buried in a makeshift coffin.

Throughout the film Conroy is subjected to emotional heartache as he watches his wife die via a video message, finds himself stuck with a dangerous snake, and struggles to deal with the intense claustrophobia and constant fear of impending death.

As much as the film may be criticised for featuring Conroy's Blackberry mobile phone too much, it acts as the only vehicle for communication and really provides a vital yet restricted link to the outside world. The standard features of phone are surprisingly effective in reinforcing the idea of losing hope and his grasp of the outside world slowly fading, as seen with the fading battery life, and him losing signal at various points. These small details can be seen as tongue in cheek but actually become incredibly indicative of the torment and lack of control Conroy has on his own future.

For a film consisting of a man trapped in a box for 90 minutes, Buried delivers an effective and engaging look into the human psyche and of the physical confines of entrapment. The ending is also wonderfully realised.

8/10

Dinner for Schmucks

Featuring Paul Rudd (I Love You, Man/ Friends) and Steve Carrell (Despicable Me, The Office), Dinner For Schmucks is essentially a film which explores the human condition in an extremely strange manner.

A remake of the 1988 film ' Le Diner des Cons', the premise is that a group of colleagues organise a dinner to which they each have to bring the biggest idiot they can find. The colleague who brings the biggest idiot is the winner.

When he accidentally almost runs over diorama creator Barry (Carrell), who nearly ruins his relationship with art designer Julie (Stephanie Szostak), and his business meeting with impressive Swiss tycoon (David Walliams), he decides to take him to the dinner as his idiot. Hilarity (or not) ensues as the idiots inadvertently outbid each other in their stupidity and nonsensical abilities.

The moral of the story, however, is that people are all special in one way or another, and to mock them for being 'abnormal' makes us as inhumane. Whilst the sentiments are mostly well articulated, the inclusion of Saturday Night Live-style non-humour and banal slapstick reduces the film to a low level, and almost ruins any real credence.

6/10

Devil

Written by M.Night Shymalan, Devil follows a story theme also chosen by Stephen King in a Creepshow short-story film. In that case, a group of people were selected and presented with their individual reasons for going to hell.

With each person, the audience was offered a glimpse into their lives to see why didn't deserve to ascend into heaven, and were subsequently thrown into hell, conveniently located in the next room.

In Devil, a group of presumably normal people all find themselves in the lift of a lavishly built corporate office block. When the lift breaks down, the individuals inside slowly but surely reveal themselves to be flawed. As the film goes on, the characters are all revealed to be criminals in some way, shape or form.

As the characters are killed one by one, the blame and suspicion baffles both the security guards watching on, in their CCTV buncker, and the individuals within the lift itself. As tensions reach the surface, the twist befalls the tragic criminals, and the moral of the story is played out, much to the audience's disappointment.

Whilst the film is the first in this genre I've seen emulating the devil in such a way, and choosing to stick so closely to that influence, and the latter stages of the film are fairly well acted, it never leaves b-movie territory and suffers for that. Featuring Christina Hendrick's incredibly lucky fiancé and The OC's Logan Marshall-Green (Ryan's brother), the film was always destined to be bargain-bin fodder but at least it's entertaining fodder.

Unless you're a fan of any of the actors involved, which seems highly unlikely, Devil is not exactly going to light your world. However, it is short and contains a fair few thrills and the odd moderate scare so it's not all bad.

6/10