The Deserted House AKA The Haunted House Project (2010)

Click, Light… Inhale and Pufffff…

Reviewed by Cigarette Smoking Man

Found Footage genre, how far have you come. If you are a rabid follower of our reviews, you’d know that we pray the gods for more of these movies and we may start recording ourselves if the world runs out of it. We go now to the beautiful country of Korea and pay homage for the flick known as ‘The Deserted House’ aka ‘The Haunted House Project’.

The plot is very simple and simplicity at its best. A family perished in their home/factory mysteriously with a twist of daddy having an affair with his secretary, she’s missing, ten years earlier. A team of Supernatural investigators with their Network Producer and crew of two get in to the now abandoned property to get proof of the afterlife. Their footage is found with all of them dead. Familiar tone of the genre? So let’s break it down to see what makes this flick different.

The terrible acting from all the cast members makes it somewhat amateur like but somehow it makes the story much more realistic. The investigators during their initial interviews claim to have shit lots of experience but freaks out at every single time something happens. There are moments where the scare factor gets high but the lack of execution on time makes the experience kind of predictable. I must give credit to the location, its crypt like darkness, the field of clustered crap and dust everywhere makes it the best haunted location ever in any horror flicks seen today. A slow start in the beginning may bring you down but worry not, it does pick eventually with a lot of tension and running around in the dark. Overall, we wouldn’t mind passing the DVD to my fellow smokers but try not to have high expectations.

So till my next words, light one for us. Download here

2.5 CIGGIES OUT OF 5

The Butcher (2008)

*Flick.. hisss...pufff......

Reviewed by Cigarette Smoking Man A

I won't lie when I say half of the movies reviewed is motivated by the covers alone. Its a well design/composed film cover that urge me to watch the film despite now knowing if its good or not. It's pretty dramatic, the cover, with a chainsaw-wielding maniac in a pig's mask. Also one of the reasons is that it's banned in Korea, which is rightly so, because this movie is so far out from the usual direction of korean cinemas, it's best suited for western audiences. The movie runs in the same line as movies such as french new-generation gore Martyrs, À l'intérieur and others. It's a POV movie helmed by director Kim Jin-Won (Interview here).

The movie starts off with 4 victims, bounded, completely unaware why they are being abducted. Little do they know they're part of the production of a snuff film, helmed by a maniac aptly-named, "The Director". One by one they are tortured and filmed with cameras fasten on the helmets they are wearing. It's interesting because what you see if what the victims sees while being tortured and killed off. On the other hand, a second camera is used to record the perpetrators side of the story. It's basically a story of survival on how the victim managed to escape the clutches of the captors.

There's 2 parts in this movie that traumatizes me to this day. One, is the part where the "Director" played mind games with one of the victims, giving him a sense of false hope of surviving. And second, a very prominent scene between 2 men. I won't reveal all, but if you enjoy being traumatized like me, or just to test your boundaries of how far your limit for the extreme goes, watch it. What makes the movie even scarier is the whole movie is shoot with a very raw, lo-fi, lo-production feel, to maintain its realism, to make it seem as if you are there on the event. I would say, if you can stomach A Serbian Film, Matyrs or any other gore movies, give this a go.

4 OUT OF 5 CIGGIES

I Saw The Devil (2010)

* Flick... hisss...... puff..... Now we are ready for the review.

Reviewed by Cigarette Smoking Man A

Korean cinema has come far than just sappy love dramas. Throughout my observation, Korea first came to attention with dramas like Winter Sonata that gain immediate international recognition with popular korean actors and cute-as-buttons korean actresses. On the other spectrum, Korea had also release thrillers such as Old boy, Chaser and Memories of Murder, all of which is high quality, extremely well-made movies that also established korean cinema as a powerhouse to be reckon with in the industry. To compare, I preferred Korean movies to Japanese ones, mainly because the pacing is much faster.

Then they came out with I saw the devil. Old boy, Sympathy for lady vengeance and Sympathy for Mr. vengeance is a trilogy of quality revenge movies by director Chan-wook Park and I thoroughly enjoyed all three for its art style and direction, not to mention rock-solid, gripping storyline. That being said, I saw the Devil runs in the same veins as a revenge flick but even better than the revenge trilogy. That's right. Director Kim Ji-Woon had succeeded in surpassing korea's best and most gripping revenge flick ever.

The premise of the movie is very simple. Fuck the complicated storyline with twist and turns. This movie is very, very straightforward and that's what makes it so damn enjoyable. A serial killer happens to kill a top secret agents fiancee and its up to the agent to avenge her. Simple as that. But the meat of the movie is the entire process on how the agent chased the killer and his method on inflicting pain to the killer. Expect superb acting by veterans Lee Byung-Hun and Choi Min Sik, both who are exceptional in their own movies and even better when they are working together. There's this one scene in the movie (I won't reveal much) that involves the inside of a cab and 3 murderers. That scene, you will have to see to believe, awesome camera work and action choreography. The movie is violent and gory, but not something that we gore-fans can't handle. Each gore scenes and violent altercations are there because it needs to be there, not to be there to satisfy gore fans. It's 2 hours long but because its so damn good, you won't feel it. Foreign release of the movie will have theaterical cuts, get the uncut blu-ray version. You will thank me.

For me to review any further would be me spoiling the movie for you. What I can suggest is watch the movie (like fuckin' NOW), cos' if you don't, you will be missing out on one of Korea's best thrillers. Download here

5 OUT OF 5 CIGGIES