Below is the original draft of our film review. We wrote this review based on our interpretations of the way in which film reviews had been written in film magazines such as Empire. It was our intention to make this review as authentic and convincing as possible, trying to maintain a high standard of vocabulary and always attempting to adhere to journalistic devices and disciplines.
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Horror films. There’s millions of ‘em! Some (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Halloween) are truly brilliant. Others (Prom Night, the Saw Franchise) are downright dreadful! In a day and age when good horror films are excruciatingly hard to come by, it’s refreshing to see that new talent can blow away all of the Hollywood competition, and create a film which is disturbing, shocking, and, most importantly of all, scary.
This ‘new talent,’ comes in the shape of Ahmed Honeini (‘Time Out of Mind,’) and Dammy Laoye (‘Beyond Reflection,’) and their new movie ‘Hell is Around the Corner,’ due for theatrical release next week. With ‘Hell is Round the Corner,’ Honeini and Laoye have, with their wonderful script, their excellent cinematography and score, and their brilliant performances by both Laoye (who gives an Oscar-worthy performance as a naive, inexperienced and doomed youth) and Steven Williams (who, second only to Javier Bardem in ‘No Country for Old Men,’ gives one of the most frighteningly fantastic performances that this reviewer has ever had the opportunity to see), have mastered reality horror, a genre of horror which many have tried their hand at in the past, and in turn, have failed to deliver the goods in terms of scares.
The film begins with a pair of bloody black hands pointed directly at camera, a shot which not only sucks the audience in and intrigues and mystifies them, but is also a shot that, in years to come, will be considered iconographic for its bizarrely brutal edge. Following this comes the formal introduction to our main character, Dammy, who is seen rising up out of one last sleep to answer a phone-call which will, ultimately, lead to his demise. Honeini’s cinematography and extremely low-level lighting, Laoye’s happy-go-lucky performance, and the use of locations (a single bedroom, very warm and homely, as opposed long, seemingly unending streets with maniacally scary, giggling children and gates which look like they have been dragged up from the very depths of hell - both strokes of absolute genius on the part of the filmmakers) and interior monologues (which offer us a rewarding insight into Dammy’s thought process and a distressing look into his terrified and perversely paranoid state of mind as the film unfolds) creates a very realistic and grounded atmosphere.
It is here where the beauty of the film lies – the film is, at times, so utterly realistic, that it feels as if we are watching a documentary of today’s youth, albeit a disconcerting one. It is only when the weirdness of the film’s subject matter takes over (through the use of bloodied wallets and coats and murderers with cold, hard stares that’d make even the meanest of souls crap in their pants!) that we begin to realise the level of ingenuity, creativity, time and effort that has gone into making this film. Every shot, every edit, every facet of both of the leading performances feels so impeccably placed, so considered, that when the leading character’s fate finally occurs, we not only cannot believe it, it almost feels as if it is happening to us.
The film’s references to such classic films as The Godfather and The Seventh Seal and the clear musical references to such hits as The Jackson’s Blame It On the Boogie and Dizzee Rascal’s Fix Up, Look Sharp’ give Hell is Round the Corner not only a very classy and literate feel, but also a raw energy which makes it a film most definitely worth seeing, and a film which not only demonstrates the talent that both up and coming filmmakers have within them, but also a sign of the good things to come.
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