WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
As many of you may be aware, I have already covered a few countries of Central and Western Europe individually – Austria, France and the Netherlands to name a few. Unfortunately, it is a lot harder to find enough films for each of the remaining countries so I felt it would be better to put them all together. Especially it become confusing figuring out which countries are in which area as places like Hungary overlap the two. Some of you will find all this a little bit of a cheat in places just don’t look too much into it OK? This wasn’t easy…
Eye in the Labyrinth
OK, so for those of you who may look this up, I know the countries of origin are both Italy and Monaco! I did say this article wasn’t easy didn’t I? I love the fact that the film doesn’t actually wait around to get into the violence! You definitely feel the Italian influence on this film as it very easily could have been made by Dario Argento. I understand why it is described as mystery/horror but I feel like they only use the word ‘horror’ because of the blood. The way it opened, I expected something with a little more of a psychological feeling. With what came across as such an intense opening, I really hoped for much more than what was given. I’m also a little confused by the ending. Is Frank trying to make Julie believe she killed Luca, or did she genuinely kill him? Judging by Frank’s demise – I’d say she killed Luca!
Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight
Of all the films in this article, this one definitely has the best opening scene! I was expecting some sort of slasher film, seeing as they are trapped in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phones and the fact that the group we follow for the majority of the film almost seem to fit that typical slasher film trope that I’ve explained before. I guess this means that the rules of a slasher film transcend all languages. Even down to the gratuitous tit shot. I’m not sure if this is supposed to be a comedy horror but it definitely had its funny moments, for me anyway, like when Julek explains the plot of An American Werewolf in London or when the mother of our antagonist falls into the basement. On second thought, I don’t think that last one was supposed to be funny! I started to think following the first death that they were all going to be homages to known horror films but it seems only Daniel’s and the priest’s reminded me of others.
11:23-09:59: Projekt Angst
So, originally I was going to use a film called Frost to represent Swiss horror but I’m glad I changed it for 2 reasons. One, it felt more like a mystery than a horror film and two, this is of the found footage subgenre and you can never go wrong with those. It’s also a great start when you’re told from the outside that your lead characters won’t survive. It’s rare that I’m unnerved by the simplest of things but there was something creepy about the fact that their guide, who seems unable to speak AT ALL let alone Swiss German, locks them in the bunker overnight. Which is made worse when Manu doesn’t seem to know who they’re talking about! Everything starts off really jovial and genuinely nothing seems to happen for a long time – so it’s like a paranormal event or anything, which just makes the final 10 minutes super strange! There’s no explanation to the characters’ deaths except for Esther’s, the rest of them just climb further into the mountain via the death chamber and that is all.
The Basement
I’m going to throw it out there straight away, the opening to this film gave me Doctor Who vibes and I didn’t like it! Making the mannequins move when no one’s looking, very stone angels and they have always creeped me out! We all know, I can’t resist a found-footage film and this definitely starts off feeling like one. If I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again – don’t mess with the afterlife! This film is proof of that. I’ll be honest, the acting isn’t great but all in all it is actually a pretty decent film. It seems that they conjure whatever is living in the basement by messing up a séance. However, I have a feeling from the beginning that this evil is always awake. What’s really disturbing for me is how realistic the deaths look.
Yummy
There’s always two main stays in these articles – found footage or zombie horror. This is the latter. It actually reminds me a little bit of Rabid – zombie film set in a cosmetic surgery hospital. I’m not going to lie, I was suspicious of the lead surgeon from the very beginning! However it was obvious that this film doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It’s more in the realms of Shaun of the Dead than Night of the Living Dead on the zombie film scale (if one existed that is). A guy explodes from being filled up with too much of his own fat for God’s sake – if that’s not comedy horror then I don’t know what is. That is only the start of the comedy that ensues. Weirdly, I like the fact that it seemed as if Michael had been killed off early – you know, moving away from the unlikely hero cliché but that turned out not to be the case. That being said, this definitely ends the way I love a horror film to end…and that is with everybody dead! And my, my, do they do it in a spectacular fashion!
Noonday Witch
I started to wonder two things at the beginning of the film. 1) whether mum or daughter were going to end up being the titular witch and 2) why Eliska was lying to her daughter, Anetka, about the fact that her father was clearly dead. It seems I was wrong when it comes to the first part, as the Noonday Witch seems to be more like some sort of bogeyman that takes children away. For a long time, I thought that she was going to end up being just an underlying part of the story and the death of Anetka’s father was going to be at the forefront. But then came the creepy image of a woman with long fingers while Eliska was in the bathroom…and I mean creepy! However this doesn’t happen until 25 minutes from the end of the film. Because everything happened so late in the film I genuinely didn’t expect it to have a happy ending.
