TakeTwoReviews

There's a high bar to reach here. No I'm not talking about Bram Stokers Dracula with its all-star cast, although that is good. It's not as good as Nosferatu's 1922 namesake though. That's what this is up against. Gorgeous iconic cinematography and a silky smooth edit crafted with an elegance way beyond its years. This though I feel right from the outset deserves to be viewed with fresh eyes. Forget what's gone before, the myths and controversy. Let yourself go as we meet Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp, yes related) and Thomas (Nicholas Hoult). They're in 1800s Germany where Thomas is in real estate and Ellen is already under the spell of the mysterious count, to whom Thomas is to assist with a new home. He's wary and rightly so. Ellen too warns him, his trip to Transylvania "It portends something awful for us". This of course is the poetic tone of this story and at first Depp seems to overplay it. Hoult fairs better, he feels authentic and he looks good with the muttonchops. Newly wed though and in need of work, off Thomas goes on the adventure that his insanely possessed boss, Knock (Simon McBurney) promises. There's a simple thriftiness in the telling of this tale. It's better paced without the romantic weight of Dracula. Bear with me but it looks better too. It's a fantasy of course, but most of this looks oddly real as Thomas gets lost in the wintery landscape and even when we meet Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgärd), the castle, shrouded in dark shadows, is rich in atmosphere. It's tough to get films this dark looking good, but this pulls it off. Hoult has a lot of heavy lifting to do in the opening act and he keeps it rolling nicely as he finds himself prisoner in the Counts decrepit castle. He's helped by the tactile nature in which this has been made, but it's foolish to say that Orlok doesn't steal the show. He's much more monstrous, a towering moustached rotting beast, that matches the tone. It's bleak, gritty, bloody and violent. The frame is nearly always stripped of colour as the madness spreads and speaking of madness, enter Von Franz (Willem Dafoe). He's the vampire hunter and as often is the case with Dafoe, his character leans heavily into the bizarre narrative in scene chewing style. He's bloody good fun to watch. As is Depp when she's not steeped in lofty dialogue. Once fully possessed she ironically comes to life with an Exorcist worthy performance. It's suffocating stuff that pulls you in as the cast succumb to the evil that curses them. "We're all going to die" screams Ellen, which isn't totally accurate, but quite believable. I said not to compare it to previous versions, but truthfully, that's impossible. So, does it match the 1922 outing. No, I don't think anything could. Murnau's has original charm on its side, but this is very good. A wonderfully cold dark reimagining and a true horror.

This opens with Nicole Kidman pretending to orgasm while having sex with Antonio Banderas, before rushing off to watch porn. Sadly that sets the base tone of what's to come, so to speak. They are Romy and Jacob. Jacob being largely redundant in the story as you might've guessed. This is Romy's world, one in which she runs a warehouse robotics company, juggled with modern day motherhood. She's in charge, but she's hiding something. A secret craving, one that's brought out by new intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson). He's brashly confident and sees through Romy's powerful controlled facade, but he's more of a creepy stalker than eager intern. It's all rather implausible, troubling and feels a bit sterile, but mostly it's just awkward viewing and a little infuriating. Kidman is very good though and I have to admit, Dickinson is pretty magnetic. He was great in Scrapper (2023) and even better here. I still kinda hate this though. Romy wants to be dominated. Samuel wants to dominate her. The affair then should work, but it's difficult to make stuff like this work on screen without being potentially problematic. It's not easy to watch and there's nothing wrong with challenging cinema. If you're going to push buttons though, you'd better be sure you're bloody good at it. This though, although edgy on the surface quickly turns into a run of the mill thriller as Romy's secret life threatens to unravel her personal and professional one. That might sound an exciting narrative, but it's ironically too safe to do anything truly interesting. It does have some good needle drops though, who doesn't love a bit of INXS and George Michael. It's not a bad film, it just feels like more could've been done with it and I'm sure there's an audience for this, but I don't think I'm it.

Tremors films have by this point just become where do we have Burt (Michael Gross) and his monsters pop up next. On the South Pacific Shrieker Island, it's the jungle. A bunch of yeehaw hunters are there, looking to bag some trophies. They of course are the ones destined to be bagged. They're lead by Bill (Richard Brake) who's all southern hick charm. Whilst his more skeptical sidekick Anna (Cassie Clare) has a bad feeling. So do I. They're not alone in the area. On a neighbouring island there's also a team of scientists including Jimmy (Jon Heder) and Jasmin (Caroline Langrishe) doing nature stuff. They're the ones that call for help. They call Burt Gummer. Jasmine and Burt have history you see. Why these films try to tie all these despondent characters together is beyond me, but it's become a thing. I will say, shot in Thailand, it looks rather wonderful. The CGI is pretty good, essentially ripping off Predator. In fact the whole thing borrows liberally from Predator... with a touch of Jurassic Park. Less so when Burt arrives. He really is getting a bit old for this caper, Gross was 73 when filming. Between this film and the last, we had the promise of a reboot with Kevin Bacon that sadly never materialised. Why I'm not sure, but maybe it was thought there's not enough gas left in the tank. It's hard not to watch this and feel like it's one last hurrah. So, set up done, everyone introduced. We've got two teams. Bad guys hunting Graboids for sport. Good scientists hunting Graboids for survival. This dynamic does actually provide a bit of grit and tension. It's still daft, with the usual implausible A-Team shenanigans, but it's pretty good fun. Probably the best since the original, albeit still well short. It's another monster movie, people get eaten, monsters get killed, lots of things explode. Standard Tremors stuff. Nothing has ever reached the bar set by the original, but watching all seven films back to back has been largely enjoyable. No more though now right? I think we're done.