Gravehopping (2005, Jan Cvitkovic)
As if this isn't relevant for all of the things I've written about all of these films, there are spoilers ahead, so if anyone reading this wants the full effect, don't read the spoilers (indicated by ++).
Pero is a man paid to speak at funerals. He takes his craft seriously and spends much time considering exactly what to say at each one. He lives with, presumably, his sister, nephew, father, and deaf niece (or sister, I'm not sure which). His sister has an unhealthy relationship with her husband ++(at one point he's abusing her, and Pero hits him with a chair before kicking him while he's unconscious on the floor)++. His would-be girlfriend, Renata, turns out to have some fairly significant psychological problems ++(turned on by s&m because her father beats her?)++. ++His best friend dies in a car wreck after taking vengeance for the, very, brutal rape of his lover, Pero's niece.++
This is all rather heavy, but there is a bit of levity. Pero's best friend watches cheesy old Italian sword and sandal epics, Pero ends up hanging from a flag pole while being asked questions about Independence Day by his nephew, his father is continually trying to kill himself and never seems to get it right, and the film is followed throughout by an polka-style rendition of Donna Summer's "I Will Survive."
The cinematography is also standout. There is a vertical tilt that Joseph Losey would have loved, ++and the scene where Pero's niece chooses to be buried alive with his best friend/her lover and avenger is both tragically moving and visually stunning (soil gradually covering the windows, shutting out the light, as she lovingly holds him, wrapping his arms around her as the light fades++.
The Descent (2005, Neil Marshall)
Think one part Pitch Black, a bit of Tomb Raider, and a touch of Resident Evil.
Six 'extreme sports' enthusiast women go on a girls-only adventure in a cave system. Sarah is still haunted by the memory of the car accident that killed her husband and daughter. We know bad things are about to happen every time we hear the girl's laughter, as Sarah's hallucination in the cave (very DOOM 3).
The cave has a collapse, and we find out that they aren't in the cave system they'd planned to enter. Juno has taken them to a recently discovered system, unmapped, and they have to find their way out. After a good bit of arguing, they find some old cave paintings and climbing gear, discovering there is another way out. As they search for the other opening, a couple of accidents occur that leads to their discovery of a subterranean, carnivorous, humanoid creature that kills the injured member of the party. It, in turn, is killed by Juno, as is a second creature and, accidentally, another of the women in the party. The remaining living women are scattered.
Sarah, after having to finish off her friend that wasn't quite dead when Juno left her, becomes creature killing machine number two, striking many a pose similar to the ones we saw Mila Jovovich or Summer Glau take in the Resident Evil series or Serenity respectively.
We discover that the creatures hunt by sound like bats, and this is exploited by both killing machines. Eventually, only Juno and Sarah are left. Sarah was previously shown that Juno had been sleeping with her husband before he'd died, and wounds her, leaving her to die. But Sarah, too, ends up trapped in the cave hallucinating her dead daughter.
I don't see how this film got so much critical praise. Sure it features an entirely female case, none of whom end up unclothed, and everyone dies in the end, but other than these things, it's pretty standard horror stuff. There are, however, some very good shots (especially Sarah's escape from the cave).
A number of us went out to the Agincourt to watch the Australia vs. Croatia World Cup match...
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