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THE
LAST HORROR MOVIE
5/10
UK
2004 : Julian RICHARDS : 80 mins
Cod video-diary
by smarmy middle-class London sociopath-about-town Max (Kevin Howarth).
Looks like cross between P.Brosnan and H.Grant. Claims 50+ kills (plausible
in socially-atomised Blairite UK). Is bunglingly "aided" by
(mostly-unseen) potato-faced Scots homeless "assistant" (Mark
Stevenson). In between somewhat graphic/repetitive kill-footage, preening
ubermensch-ish Max addresses camera in series of monologues questioning
motives of audience: "We're trying to do something that hasn't been
done before - we're trying to make an intelligent movie about murder,
while actually doing the murders!"
Overarticulate
Max strains desperately for originality, as does movie. But subject-matter
of (James Handel's) script more nimbly addressed last decade in Man
Bites Dog, Haneke's Funny
Games, and in book (but emphatically not crap film)
of American Psycho. Even the title has (kind-of) been used before:
1984's Cannes-set Joe Spinell/Caroline Munro vehicle The Last Horror
Film. And this time the title isn't even 100% accurate: picture actually
works much better in black-comedy moments (especially when Max is undercut
by being placed in domestic settings with his own relatives) than when
trying (rather too hard) to give viewer post-modern chills - as in smartarse
epilogue which only makes sense if viewer has rented title from video-store
and is watching at home.
Likewise (nifty)
prologue, in which cheesy generic sub-W.Craven pic is abruptly interrupted,
having been 'recorded over' by the subversive Max. Director Richards
(Darklands) achieves some impressive stripped-down, convincingly
basic (Man-Bites-dogme?) sequences on reported £50,000 budget,
and plays range of tricks/games on and with audience expectations. But
the verbose Mad Max monologues bog the movie down: end result is like
being lectured to and ticked off by an insufferably smug git.
12th June,
2004
(seen on VHS in Sunderland, 10th June)
To read an
interview with director Julian
Richards click here
by Neil
Young
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