Reeker (15)
Dir. Dave Payne
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
Air pollution warning: This week, just as the bitter stench of our World Cup defeat begins to clear, along comes something even fouler to replace it… “Evil is in the air” reads the poster line for Reeker and they’re really not kidding.
The idea of a ‘bad smell’ as a horror film villain is surely a curious one, but in a genre where we’ve been subjected to such vast and eclectic mix of psychos, monsters and general unpleasant types, I wasn’t immediately convinced that it would work. Somehow though Reeker manages to do a fairly decent scare job and turns out not to be the complete stinker that the title might imply.
The plot is the old tried and tested teens break down in the middle of nowhere and are preyed upon one by one classic – straight off the shelf of ‘horror movies for idiots’. The cast are your average bunch of good looking up and coming actors – looking to get noticed by dying in spectacular ways on screen. In fact the whole feel is of a B-Movie homage just with better than average special effects and some seriously diabolic convention mangling in-jokes. This time last year I was ripping House of Wax to pieces for relying on the same recycled ideas, so why aren’t I tearing Reeker to pieces too? The fact is that this movie tries really hard to please its audience, rather than looking to just make a quick buck from suckers who like a mid summer horror thrill. The characters are developed to the point where you almost care what happens to them, an effective eerie atmosphere is achieved through small ‘blink and you’ll miss them’ moments and the special effects used to show the ‘killer stink’ on screen work well. The tension is built up nicely right from the full on start, which boasts the dubious honour of having the best roadkill scene ever committed to film… If you’re a Bambi fan you’d be well advised to keep you eyes tight shut until the openings credit roll or you might be traumatized for weeks.
It is obvious that director Dave Payne reveres classic horror films and is keen to make Reeker in their image, whilst also adding some fun new elements of his own. So if you’re in the mood for some grizzly carnage rather than swashbuckling pirates or dull code conspiracies – follow your nose and check out Reeker.
Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):
Action ööö – Nicely paced
Laughs ööö – Very dark humour at work here
Horror öööö – Inventive deaths and real tension
Babes öööö – Arielle Kebbel, in tiny briefs... ouch!
Overall ööö1/2 (grim n stinky but not in a bad way)
"beautiful scenery masks some unpleasant, and smelly, dangers..."
"Arielle Kebbel... yes she struts around in her underware in Reeker in case you were wondering..."
Darkmatters: H O M E
4 comments:
I really enjoyed your Reeker review, thanks. One small thing though, if you're going to have a blog with a lot of text content, i'd suggest you change your template - white text on a black background is very hard to read, and it was awfully distracting whilst reading. I'm not just being picky, try googling the subject and you'll see a lot of people agree. Thanks.
As a colour blind blogger and frequent internet user (for work purposes) I felt that I had to post to express me delight that I have finally found a website that has a black background and white text!! Thank goodness!! After years of looking at colour clashes and not being able to read some red text on a green background on exciting topics such as whether my Dunlop trainers are soooooo last year, it is a pleasure to see someone catering for my people and having simply back and white.
Mr Adcock whoever you are, the colour blind communtiy salutes you as a pioneer of the black back ground and white writing blog webpage.
At least you haven't gone for a white background and black writing - now THAT would be off putting, eh kesah? Long live mentors!!
Lots of Love
The Matt Adcock fan club (est 2006)
Thanks!! As this is my personal film blog I picked the template because I like white out of black text... If you like it too - that's great... If you don't, sorry but you can always read a different blog...
Wow, it's funny what the power of suggestion can do to you. I didn't have a problem reading that white text on black background...until I read the above comment about it, then went back, and damn if it didn't look a bit blurry! Still, probably depends on individual eyesight more than anything else. A pale gray or blue might be a bit easier to read, but oh well...there are bigger problems in the world!
Anyway, I just saw this movie last nite. Or tried to. My roommate Tivo'ed it as it sounded interesting, and we started watching it kinda late last nite. I slept sporadically through it, but what I saw of it intrigued me enough to want to give it a re-watch! That whole opening sequence with the family in the minivan freaked me out! Just the right combination of suspense, gore, and creepiness. If that makes sense!
Anyway, glad to see that this movie seems to be getting good reviews. Sure, it's not totally original, but is anything, these days?
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