The Witch Who Came From The Sea - Will's Review

Wow, that was an odd one - and a tough one to review, as I can't decide which aspects of the plot are spoilers, as everything is slowly drip fed thorough the movie.

Part exploitation movie, part artful insight into a woman's crumbling sanity, The Which Who Came from The Sea is nothing like the title (or box art) would have you believe - it almost sits as a companion piece to Nightmare in a Damaged Brain; sharing much of that films dreamlike quality, and slow reveal of a childhood trauma.

At its heart is a clearly troubled woman, Molly, who lives with her sister, and her sisters 2 boys.

Molly works at a local bar, has a steady relationship with her (married) boss, and idolizes men, particularly stereo-typically masculine men, TV stars and, most especially, her Father, a sailor who she says was lost at sea (her sister claims he is dead, and in the local cemetery); however as much as she idolizes men, she also has a deep seated hatred of them - in an early scene, she watches 3 muscle bound hunks working out on the beach, clearly admiring the budges in their trunks, while also imagining them slain; their bodies strewn around the exercise equipment.

The whole film is also interesting from a gender reversal point of view - here we have a central character, driven (possibly) to do bad things (possibly) due to an event in their past... that's the setup for just about every slasher / serial killer movie (although this is neither) from Psycho onward, but here, for once, the character is a woman! We also have sexual exploitation shots, where the camera lingers on the (admittedly, clothed) sexual organs of one sex, while the other sex's nudity is framed much more casually - only here we get passing shots of topless ladies, and extended shots of penis-filled swimwear. For some reason though, and weather its the gender reversal I don't know, here the movie is much more sympathetic to our lead; While Norman Bates may be the result of a mother's abuse, he is still painted as the "Psycho", whereas Molly is very defiantly a victim; whether or not she is also a killer. (Side Note: "Psycho" gets a shout out at one point, as we are reminded "We all go a little cray sometimes")

It's a very schizophrenic piece, deals with child sexual abuse, but never lingering on, or sensationalizing it, one second, and having a Malabo pool-party (complete with the promise of casual sex with a movie star) the next, but this duality works entirely in it's favor.

Not a horror movie, thriller, drama or even exploitation flick in any traditional sense of the word, if you're mad for only one genre, I'd have to tell you to stay away. If however you consider yourself a general 'film fan' I really do think you should check this one out.

Body Count: 3
Boob Count: 3 pairs
Gratuitous Crotch Shots: 3
Most Memorable Death: Of all the times to have a heart attack...

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The Witch Who Came From The Sea - Lisa's Review

A very different movie this week and an odd one to find itself on the Video Nasty list.

This is a completely different kind of disturbing, but disturbing none-the-less.  I struggle with my viewpoint on this movie.

*****SPOILERS*****

The story involves a young woman called Molly who was abused repeatedly by her father when she was a child.  The movie follows the mental and emotional problems she now has as an adult following this abuse and her rather odd way of dealing with this.

She is shown in the movie as a doting auntie to her young nephews.  She regales the boys regularly with tales of their wonderful, perfect grandfather (her father) and how he was lost at sea as he was too perfect for this world.  She even oddly comments during a conversation with them about tattoos that he never had tattoos as he was too perfect and his body was as god had intended.

Why she holds a notion in her mind as to her fathers perfection and pushes his abuse to the back of her conscious mind is an odd one.  She seems to struggle with the concept of 'perfect' men.  Gazing adoringly at them on the television... the perfect symbol of masculinity, yet at the same time dispising men and that masculinity.  She struggles with this throughout the movie and her abuse as a child is only shown in flashbacks, where the movie adopts a wierd 'spaced-out' style.



Due to her repressed memories and her inability to deal with what has happened and her feelings towards men in general (more-so perfect models of masculinity.. sportsmen, actors) she takes to seducing these men and when she gets them in a vunerable position in the bedroom, she slowly tortures them and kills them, generally culminating in her castrating them... the ultimate demsculinizing.

As the movie progresses, her boyfriend and sister finally have to start admitting what she is doing.  They don't know how to cope with what she is going through and its effects much as they care for her.

As I said, this movie is uncomfortable and hard to watch in places.  I struggle with my viewpoint here.  I can see it has its redeeming features as it has a lot going on and works on several levels.  It is full of imagery which is there if you care to look for it.  I did find it very depressing to watch though.  Maybe aspects of this one felt too real with stories floating around in the media at the moment.  The whole abuse of children thing has always turned my stomach, so it sort of made the killings almost incidental to me.

I leave this one kind of confused.  Most definately not one for horror fans or anyone expecting gore or shocks, but an interesting study of the human condition and its demise.

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The House On The Edge Of The Park - Lisa's Review

*** SPOILERS ***

As I start this review, I don't know what I'm going to write so there may be spoilers.

I struggled with how to review this movie without bias, trying not to let the fact i'm female affect my viewpoint, but sadly its not something I was able to do, so.. if it makes me a feminist whinger, then so be it.

I won't go into serious levels of detail with the plot, but the main male lead (Alex) starts the movie by raping a young woman in the back of a car. I knew by this stage I wan't going to like this one. Ok, so how do I explain this... rape happens, it's nasty, so sure it has a place within 'Video Nasties' but what I have a real problem with is the execution of a rape scene being filmed as a 'love' scene for titilation. A womans body being used to get as many shots of her various parts as possible, rather than concentrate on the vile act that rape actually is. As I watched this first rape and we zoomed in for chest and genital close-ups, my stomach turned over. I don't know whether this is because I am female or whether men would feel similarly.

We move on in the movie and Alex and his slow friend Ricky are invited to a party with a bunch of rich individuals. Its made clear early on they've been invited for kicks for the yuppies to laugh at. They cheat at poker with Ricky cleaning him out of all his money, they make him dance, cheering him on, all while laughing at him and encourage him to strip. Our supposed smart switched on guy is even taken for a fool by one of the women who does everything possible to lead him on and then won't have sex with him.

What follows is similar to 'funny games' I suppose. Alex turns nasty and holds the houses occupants hostage. He beats the 2 men and we get to see every woman in the house completely naked (ok so, 1 woman only goes topless, but we have every other female in the movie to make up for that). Ricky is easilly led, but when it comes down to it, he doesn't want to perform in front of the group at Alex's request by forcing himself on one of the women.

So its a typical bad guy holds a group hostage and does bad things movie. What I found different about it however was the sheer amount of uncomfortable forced female nudity. Women being abused, raped, stripped, having razors held to their throats, even a teenage babysitter (a virgin of course) being stripped, humiliated and cut all over with a razor. The scenes made me squirm and not in the way they should have. As I have said before, I don't like scenes of sexual abuse and i dislike them even more when every angle, shot and movement is to cause excitement to the viewer. As the women are being abused, the director is very careful to make sure their leg is at just the right angle for maximum body exposure and to make the most of what they've got. As with the first rape, we are 'treated' to close-ups of all the females breasts and genitals through-out the movie. I just wanted to give the people responsible a big kick in the nuts from all rape victims who might be unlucky enough to come across this piece of drivel!

We have a 'twist' at the end of the movie which might surprise a retard, but I saw it coming from the initial invite of Alex and Ricky to the house. I won't give it away for anyone who feels compelled to watch this movie from my review, I seriously hope however, most people I know would have the intelligence to avoid!

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