Apoclyapse, Horror and Revenge
This week’s Netflix haul includes Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf, and a double-dose of Asian horror - Ab-Normal Beauty and The Neighbor No. 13.
Time of the Wolf is French depreso-director Michael Haneke’s post-apolyaptic nightmare starring Isabelle Huppert (officially the oldest woman I’d still hook up with). It’s not a Sci-Fi or Action pic, despite its genre. We never see or learn what exactly caused the apoclyapse. Instead, we follow a mother and her two traumatized children as they search for shelter and safety in the French countryside. The three, along with Huppert’s husband, arrive at their country house at the start of the film. There, Huppert’s husband is immediately killed by a man whose family has taken over the house and doesn’t intend on giving it up.
The rest of the film is a harrowing portrayal of the end of the world. Haneke’s ultimate message may be that the worst parts of the apoclyapse are the people that survive. Imagine the riot scene in last year’s War of the Worlds spread out over 2 hours. The broken family finds an abandoned warehouse to live in, which is eventually overrun by more refugees from the Paris. The most painful moment of the film comes when Huppert and her daughter find their husband/father’s killer among the bunch, the leaders of which have no intention of doing anything about the crime. Haneke offers no real glimmer of hope, unlike some directors would (*cough*Spielberg). It’s the fucking apoclyapse after all. 4 out of 5.
Ab-Normal Beauty is Oxide Pang’s attempt to further milk the J-Horror setup of pretty girls seeing strange things. After two sequels to his and his twin brother Danny’s hit The Eye, Oxide goes solo in this story of a lesbian photographer who begins an obsession with death. The film is part The Eye, part Hostel, part Shutter (a VASTLY underseen Thai horror film from last year’s Tribeca Film Festival). None of these disperate parts really fit together. The Hostel-videotaped-torture third act seems thrown in, and the photographer’s obsession with death seems about as scary as a Hot Topic employee’s obsession with The Nightmare Before Christmas.
The most discomforting thing about the movie is actually the casting. Our lead, Jiney, is played by Race Wong. Her girlfriend is played by Rosanne Wong…her sister! They don’t just share a common name, I checked. Of course there’s no romantic contact between the two, which isn’t surprising since this was a HK production. Still, it’s weird. Unfortunately this may be the only thing memorable about the movie. 2.5 out of 5.
The Neighbor No. 13 feels like a trashy J-Horror version of Chan-Wook Park’s revenge trilogy. A young kid name Murasaki is abused and disfigured by a school bully. He grows up to be an extremely tortured, yet normal looking 20-something. When his former bully moves in upstairs and ends up being Murasaki’s boss, his alternate personality appears to take revenge. This alter ego sports all the scars and the bleached eyeball that the bully caused all those years ago.
Honestly, I got distracted while this was on…been watching too many Asian horror flicks recently. I don’t blame the movie though. I want one of those orange vests. 3 out of 5.
