Tarot (2024)

"Interesting Premise Badly Lacking in Execution"

Who doesn't love a good body count movie with a fun premise and creative deaths? You know, like the FINAL DESTINATION or SAW series. Sometimes it takes a film that takes all the elements of those successful franchises and makes such a fumbling mess of everything to get you to appreciate the talent needed to make this sort of thing actually work. 

So step forward TAROT, a film that probably doesn't even realise its initial setup has already been superbly satirised in the (now more than ten years old) CABIN IN THE WOODS. In fact one potential way to enjoy TAROT is to watch it with a friend and pretend you're the two blokes in the office from Drew Goddard's film and scrumple up your betting slips when the kids eventually pick a tarot deck from all the weird stuff they find in a locked room in the creepy old house in which they're staying for the weekend.

They have their fortunes told, return to the normal life good-looking rich college kids always seem to have in these films, and then start to die in ways mirroring their fortune. Can the curse be stopped? Is there a lengthy and unnecessary explanation for why they're dying that as always renders the whole concept a lot less scary? Are there terrible lines of dialogue bad film fans may be quoting in the future?

Yes. Yes to all of it.

On the plus side the production design and photography are great, and James Swanton's turn as 'The Magician' is way too good for this film. On the negative and extremely frustrating side, TAROT could have been a lot of franchise kick-starting fun, but the execution of the central idea is just terrible. The fault for this can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the writer and the director. It seems Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg were responsible for both, and on the basis of this we should be wary if we see their names on anything else. TAROT is bland, tired, and perfunctory when it's not being preposterous. It feels as if was directed by someone who couldn't stop yawning and wishing they were onto their next project. One for your friends who are very easily scared but not at all easily bored. 

TAROT is out on Digital from Sony now and available to rent or buy via the usual platforms

Withnail and I (1987)

Bruce Robinson's eccentric, semi-autobiographical, melancholic comedy classic gets a 4K UHD release from Arrow Films.

Camden Town in the late 1960s. Two unemployed actors - Withnail (Richard E Grant) and Marwood (Paul McGann) share a disgusting flat. Their days revolve around boozing, visits from a drug dealer called Danny (Ralph Brown) and increasing despondency about their lack of job offers.

They decide a holiday is needed and con Withnail's Uncle Monty (Rochard Griffiths) into letting them use his holiday cottage in Penrith. It turns out to be even more horrible than their London flat and pretty soon they realise they've come on holiday 'by mistake'. Only a visit from Uncle Monty could possibly make things worse, so of course that's what happens. 

One of the extras on Arrow's excellent 4K disc is a piece from Peepshow co-creator Sam Bain who sums up well what it is that makes WITHNAIL AND I such an enduring classic. It helps if you see it at the right age of course, but the mixture of eccentric characters and situations, a vast amount of eminently quotable dialogue, and likely the fact the film was based on part of writer-director Bruce Robinson's life of twenty years prior to the film being made (he's McGann's character whereas Withnail was inspired by actor Vivian MacKerrell who died aged 50. Readers of this site will know him for Stephen Weeks' 1974 GHOST STORY) gives the film an integrity and uniqueness that makes it feel almost timeless. It's a little bit like the TV series THE YOUNG ONES for the late 1960s and you can see characters like Danny and Presuming Ed returning in future episodes if this had been commissioned for television. 

As well as the Bain piece Arrow's disc has two commentary tracks, one from Robinson and another from Withnail expert (he wrote the BFI guide) Kevin Jackson. There's a new interview with production designer Michael Pickwoad and an archival interview withe Robinson, as well as four 'Withnail Weekend' documentaries that Channel 4 screened in the late 1990s - The Peculiar Memories of Bruce Robinson (39 minutes), Withnail and Us (25 minutes), I Demand to Have Some Booze (6 Minutes) and Withnail on the Pier (4 minutes). 

Finally, the set comes with a perfect bound book with a bunch of essays on the film from Vic Pratt, Anthony Nield, Martin Jones, Neil Mitchell and Mike Sutton. 

Bruce Robinson's WITHNAIL AND I is out on 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 24th June 2024

Mute Witness (1995)

Writer-director Anthony Waller's remarkable Hitchcockian debut gets a 4K UHD release from Arrow Films.

Billy (Marina Zudina) is a mute makeup artist working on a zero budget slasher movie being filmed by Americans in Moscow. One night she's accidentally locked in the studio and witnesses a snuff film being made. The police don't believe her, but the killers do, and as she spends the rest of the night avoiding them it soon turns out that the murder she witnessed is part of a much larger conspiracy.

Stylish, well-plotted and quite the achievement for something filmed on such a low budget and under less than ideal conditions (Waller's commentary on this disc is filled with anecdotes and well worth a listen), MUTE WITNESS manages some stylish set pieces in amongst the twisty-turny plot. Zudina is fine in the lead (she spoke no English at the time but it doesn't matter) and there's a surprise turn from Alec Guinness, who had filmed his scene ten years earlier, and for free. The film also features an early role for Fay Ripley who would later become well known to UK TV audiences for appearing in 52 episodes of Cold Feet.

As well as the Waller commentary, Arrow's disc gives us another with Wilbert Hirsch and production designer Matthias Kammermeier, moderated by the late Lee Gambin. Alexandra Heller-Nichols provides an 11 minute visual essay on movies that feature snuff films while Chris Alexander gives us 23 minutes on 'films within films' in a piece which has finally convinced me to catch up with Ulli Lommel's BOOGEYMAN 2. There's a trailer, a teaser, an image gallery, seven minutes of location scouting and all three minutes of the Alec Guinness footage.

Finally, Arrow's limited edition set comes with a reversible sleeve, foldout poster and a booklet with new writing on the film.

Anthony Waller's MUTE WITNESS is out on Limited Edition 4K UHD from Arrow Films on Monday 24th June 2024

Sorcery (2024)

"Art House Folk Horror From Chile"

After its UK premiere at this year's Glasgow Film Festival, Christopher Murray's 19th century tale of witchcraft and persecution in Chile (and based on actual witchcraft trials according to the press release) gets a cinema release.

Rosa (Valentina Véliz Caileo) works as a serving girl at the farm of a German colonialist. When all his sheep die, the farmer blames Rosa's father, and kills him by getting the farmer's two pet dogs to tear him apart. Finding no justice by appealing to the mayor of the town, Rosa first visits the community's Christian church for guidance before embarking on a quest for revenge.

She eventually travels to the remote house of a man rumoured to be the king of the sorcerers. Through him and his group, the two young sons of the German farmer are turned into dogs. The witches are caught and put on trial but presiding over it is the unhelpful mayor who happens to have a wife undergoing a difficult pregnancy that only the witches may be able to help her with.

SORCERY is a measures, languidly-paced piece of work that, as you might expect from the above, is on one level about the persecution of natives by colonisers and on the other about whether or not the powers Rosa comes into contact with are actually real. The opening half of the film develops nicely with the gloomily sombre landscape of Rosa's travels photographed nicely and some good character development.

Unfortunately, as the film goes on its starts to meander and lose focus, such that by the end you wonder exactly what the intentions of the film-makers are. It's an interesting piece of work and if you're an art house folk horror fan it's certainly not one to miss. Just don't expect too much. Here's the trailer:

SORCERY is out in UK cinemas  from Sovereign Releasing on Friday 14th June 2024

Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

"Tries Just a Bit Too Hard"

The latest from screenwriter Diablo Cody (JUNO and JENNIFER'S BODY) gets a disc release from Mediumrare Entertainment.

It's 1989 and Goth girl Lisa Swallows (Kathryn Newton from the worst ANT MAN film and the much better ABIGAIL) spends her days pining amongst the tombstones of a long-neglected cemetery. A chance collision of events results in the reanimation of a handsome Byronic corpse. But he's missing a few parts and so together they set out to remedy that, with plenty of murders and laughs along the way.

Well, that's how it should play out. Unfortunately there aren't that many laughs to be had and by the halfway mark LISA FRANKENSTEIN starts to feel like very hard work indeed. Part of the problem is in the static TV sitcom-like direction of Zelda Williams. Whereas Karyn Kusama brought dollops of style to the far superior JENNIFER'S BODY, here the least is made of the comedy potential of Diablo Cody's script.

It's a shame because the acting and the production design here are very good, and there's an excellent music score from Isabella Summers. Sadly the pacing and execution let this one down. It all feels too much like a sub-Tim Burton wannabe, but if you're an undemanding fan of 1980s tribute comedies in this vein it may help pass a quiet evening.

Mediumrare's disc comes with a commentary track from Zelda Williams. There's also a two minute gag reel that's about as funny as the film, three minutes of deleted scenes, and three short (four minutes each) making of featurettes.

LISA FRANKENSTEIN is out on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 3rd June 2024