Saw II (2005)

In much the same way that The Blair Witch Project capitalised on its unexpected success by immediately rushing out a sequel, fans of the diabolical ‘Jigsaw’ had to wait for less than a year for the follow-up to Saw. In light of this it shouldn’t be too surprising that Saw II offers up very little in the way of fresh ideas, but should we really have expected anything else? After all, the strength of the original was in watching helpless victims being psychologically and physically dissected in fiendishly cruel ways. Is this enough to carry a sequel though? Read more

Nightmares in a Damaged Brain (1982)

One of the films successfully prosecuted by the DPP in their crackdown on so-called ‘video nasties’, Romano Scavolini’s film (originally titled Nightmare - the lurid qualifier was added for the video release) isn’t actually nearly as bad as you might think. It falls just short of actually being a good film, but it’s sufficiently interesting and diverting to raise it above much of the other exploitation schlock that fell foul of the law in the mid 80s. Baird Stafford plays George Tatum, a test subject in an experiment to ‘rebuild’ mental patients with radical new medication. Successfully reformed, George is released, but when he is plagued by flashbacks to a particularly traumatic childhood event, he flips and goes on a killing rampage… Read more

Wolf Creek (2004)

If the opening credits are to be believed, Australian director Greg McLean’s debut feature Wolf Creek is based on a true story. It’s not, but the story of three backpacking friends who fall into the hands of a psychopath in the Australian bush derives much of its impact from echoing on a number of cases that have made the headlines in the past few years - most notably, the murder of British traveller Peter Falconio, along with the high-profile manhunts that have followed the killings of other backpackers and tourists. It’s not entirely clear whether McLean was intentionally riffing on real life events or not, but Wolf Creek feels pretty timely, and this helps overcome the film’s main flaw - the overfamiliarity of the story. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before, and the theme of an innocent’s slow descent into hell at the hands of a maniac has been pretty definitively explored in films such as Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Misery. Wolf Creek is distinguished, however, by McLean’s skilful handling of this material; whether the film still stands up in ten years time remains to be seen, but it feels terrifyingly now, a slasher movie that feels entirely in tune with the age in which it was made. Read more

The Last Man on Earth (1964)

I’ve always wondered why there is always so much litter blowing around in end of the world films. Where does it all come from? Sure, you’d expect a certain amount of societal flotsam to be kicking around the place for the first few months after we’d all gone under, but wouldn’t it all get blown into the sea at some point? Have our geography teachers being deceiving us all along about prevailing winds? Read more