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 A mightily creepy yet relatively restrained first half, complete with one of the best ever “look behind you!” moments erupts into a frenzy of genuinely jarring violence that will leave you reeling. Dalle’s astonishing performance instantly ranks her as one of the genre’s most formidable female “monsters”, while the unflinching brutality of the finale (capped by an eerie downer of an ending) will upset many. Balls-to-the-wall ordeal horror doesn’t come any more visceral and skillfully assembled than this.
 

The sublime GRINDHOUSE package was filled out by a delightful quartet of mock-trailers; you will have your own favourite, but this reviewer adores MACHETE, with its dead-on Voice-over Guy intoning “They just fucked with the wrong Mexican” and Cheech Marin as an ass-kicking priest.

   Following Chris Severtson’s bold, riveting adaptation of THE LOST last year, this cinematic translation of Ketchum’s punishing story of abuse succeeds in capturing the novel’s raw power in spite of the fact that (inevitably) some of its harshest atrocities have been excised or kept off-camera. A based-on-fact descent into humanity’s darkest depths, the movie’s depiction of child abuse is non-exploitative but so harrowing that many viewers, even hardened horror fans, will prefer to turn away. Blanche Baker’s powerhouse performance as the embittered, unremittingly cruel “Aunt Ruth” and an ambiguous emotional resolution are just two reasons why this movie is among the year’s most powerfully affecting pictures.

   Belen Rueda is outstanding in this remarkable modern ghost story, which never loses sight of the story’s strong emotional undercurrent, but also racks up the kind of spooky ambience and big-time seat-ejecting frights that most Hollywood horrors can only dream of. The sinister sack-masked “Tomas” is a figure you wont easily forget, a game of “Knock On Wood” turns into a master class of shiver-inducing sustained tension, and a sudden death moment provides a jolt almost immediately topped by a reviving-corpse shock that had a packed Leicester Square festival audience in London collectively shitting their pants and gasping aloud. It probably wont win the Oscar for Best foreign language movie, but it deserves to.

   Fessenden’s beautifully crafted companion piece to his distinctive WENDIGO is this quietly devastating, doom-laden eco-horror movie that riffs on THE LAST WAVE and John Carpenter’s THE THING but captures its own sense of slow-burning dread. A microcosm of the apocalypse for a world unnerved by the revelations of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, this uncommonly understated 21^st century horror film follows the gradual realisation of an oil-drilling team in the Arctic circle that Mother Nature is slowly rallying against them. Extraordinarily eerie, the movie makes haunting use of music, sound and the beautiful wilderness locations, while the subtly shattering final shot ranks among the movie year’s most haunting moments.

  Confirming, along with INSIDE, the growing reputation of France as a producer of skilful, hardcore horror movies, FRONTIERE(S) owes a lot to many movies you will have seen countless times…but it also comes closer than most to matching the unrelenting intensity of Tobe Hooper’s TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. As Paris spirals out of control in the wake of the election of a Bush-like right-wing candidate, a bunch of young folks suffer inordinately at the hands of an extended family of in-bred neo-Nazi lunatics. Directed with force and style by a gifted filmmaker whose talents were callously thrown away on his US studio debut HITMAN, this assault on the senses delivers the kind of startling grue and breathless suspense we’ve come to expect from post-HAUTE TENSION Gallic horror.

More penis-severing could be found in the bloody climax of a sequel that, like 28 WEEKS LATER, proved a worthy successor despite mixed reviews. Dividing the audience empathy between fresh victims and their potential executioners, Roth matures as both writer and director with his third film, incorporating darkly funny incidental details as he condemns society’s sickness. Terrific performances by Roger Bart and Richard Burgi put human faces and emotions on the shadowy dungeon keepers of HOSTEL. Roth cannily combines potent off-camera violence with some of the most extreme carnage ever seen in a mainstream wide-release American movie, notably the Hammer-esque demise of geeky Heather Matarazzo.

   Broadly played sight gags, graphic castration scenes and a perceptive insight into the growing pains of a teenage girl combine to disarming effect in this, the ultimate “vagina dentata” movie. Jess Weixler portrays one of the genre’s most unlikely “monsters”, a pretty Christian teenager who just happens to have a pussy laced with dick-biting teeth and the film deftly juggles emotional drama, physical horror and jet black comedy.
 

The official “solution” to the epidemic first seen in the apocalyptic 28 DAYS LATER proves as terrifying as the Rage virus in this largely underrated and harrowing sequel. Drenched in Romero-esque anti-authority cynicism and punctuated by visceral outbursts of shocking gore, Fresnadillo’s intense movie ups the pace and horror content of its predecessor and boasts a deliciously grim punch line.

  The predictably careless shenanigans of the Weinstein brothers mean that this notably smart and cynical post-Columbine high school slasher flick remains unseen in major territories despite strong festival feedback. A breakout performance from uber-hot Amber Heard in the title role and a refreshing avoidance of stalk n slash clichés make this a substantial achievement.