I have mixed feelings about this one. Let's call it 3¼ stars.
It has what is surely one of the most visceral, realistic depictions of what it must have been like to reside in a World War I trench. The filthy, mucky, bloody, half-flooded channel filled with every manner of rotted and abandoned equipment, and both fresh and decaying corpses, lends an undeniable immediacy and sense of real world horror to the story. The cast is excellent from top to…
The acting in this movie is far above average for low-budget, and perfectly on par with mainstream non-low budget cinema. It is Well directed and competently edited, has moments of true creepiness and some heart-pounding moments as well.
Its main flaw, which borders on catastrophic, is the soundtrack and the score, both of which show serious lapses in judgment. As a rule, unless you are The Breakfast Club or Moulin Rouge it is probably a mistake to layer vocal tracks…
One of the three or four best and most beautiful ghost story movies ever made, and probably the most complex.
A very general spoiler ahead.
It took three viewings, including two back-to-back on the same night, for me to really understand what was going on across the three interrelated stories which constitute the plot of this movie. I finally figured out that there are three types of ghost stories unfolding within Epitaph. One involves ghosts which are actually nightmares (as…
Empire of Passion is another very good version of the classic Japanese kwaidan, or ghost story, about infidelity and revenge from beyond the grave.
While for me this movie seemed to get off to a shaky start due to some really gratuitous sexual content, once it settles into its story, it's clear this content has served an important purpose. The movie is like that, building slowly and gaining momentum, and joining its different parts (including camera work, editing, scoring, plot,…
