Into The Abyss

Into The Abyss is Werner Herzog's look at Texas' Death Row prison system, including Michael Perry, imprisoned and put to death for his alleged involvement in a mass-murder case.

The documentary follows Herzog as he attempts a Louis Theroux approach to questioning inmates about serious cases and genuinely life-ending acts they've committed (but they deny), all the time asking himself and professionals involved in the Death Row whether putting inmates to death for murder is indeed a worthy cause, or whether it's an entirely hypocritical act which goes against the philosophy and ethos of the entire criminal system.

However, whilst Into The Abyss seemed to be released to praise and positive reception, it never goes beyond the bounds of simply being 'interesting' and never quite challenges the Louis Theroux school of documentary filmmaking, a technique which involves subtle manipulation through the process of feigning ignorance and naivety towards the subject at hand. Instead, Herzog presents a rather condescending tone towards the inmates featured, and doesn't ever seem particularly interested in anything he talks about. Whether that's simply the language barrier and chosen tone of voice which affects this technique, but it never really works too well.

6/10

Religulous

Religulous

I don't need to say much about this one. Before I watched the film (which I've had lying around for a few years, actually) I thought this would be an insipid straight documentary about the origins of world-wide religion and how it's expanded through the ages.

It's nothing like that. Bill Maher is an atheist, or perhaps just an extreme Agnostic. His core belief is that Religion and Faith are hokey devices/notions which serve not credible or worthwhile purpose in today's society, nor really at any point in history.

Thus, Religulous is a 100-minute documentary based upon facets of Maher's life, explaining why he doesn't believe that any aspect of Religion bears any redeemable features whatsoever. Taking on various representatives of the religious world, he makes smarmy jibs and comedic observations, most of which are delivered with an acute tinge of Jewish brilliance that seems to encompass the stylings and mannerisms of Larry David and Richard Lewis, two fantastic observational comedians in their own right.

Whilst devout Christians (or indeed members of any religion) will take offence to effectively everything on offer in this film, for Atheists like me, it is more of a comedy than a serious documentary, and oddly enough, this was the hardest I've laughed at a film in (perhaps) years.

8/10

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and the subversion of the Horror genre

The Rise of Leslie Vernon is an unusual horror film, perhaps one of a few of its kind. It begins with a pseudo news-report, detailing the murders committed by notorious horror film serial killers, such as Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees, before re-aligning to a more central, modern day setting, as if to suggest that these murders were committed within a real-life universe.

This is not where the strangeness ends. The Rise of Leslie Vernon is a fly on the wall mockumentary, following serial killer (presumed dead) Leslie Vernon as he plots his latest mass killing spree, and gives first-hand insight to the documentary film crew who have given him the spotlight for an amateur film project of their own.

The rest of the film is a mixture of parody, farce and the genuinely bizarre. Whereas Scream tore the horror genre apart, and created what was essentially a horror-comedy hybrid, demonstrating the dos and don'ts of how to be a horror film character, Behind the Mask pulls it apart to an extra degree, pulling back one dimension of this spoof and instead going back in on itself. In the final third of the film, we are shown how the stereotypical characters in a horror film are meant to behave and react to certain life-threatening situations. However, by acknowledging those typical behaviour they're supposed to be replicating, they realise that they need to do the exact opposite in order to survive, given that the tired and predictable nature of the horror genre means the serial killer will know exactly how the potential victims will react, and vice versa.

It's an extremely baffling film, in that it flips the very idea of genre stereotypes on its head, and then flips it again, in an extremely obvious self-referential fashion. For what is in actual fact a rather bland film, it's an interesting glimpse into what is a very tired genre, and has been for decades, as exposed by Scream 4, a film which attempted to mock itself but instead ended up demonstrating just how out of touch even that was.