STACK #135 Jan 2016

DVD & BD REVIEWS

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Not every gift is welcome. THE GIFT

No one loves you like your grandparents. THE VISIT

Release Date: Out Now

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Release Date: 21/01/16

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Joel Edgerton's first film as director lays the foundations for a traditional psycho-thriller, then expertly dismantles them. The Gift features a nice married couple (Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall), a mysterious stranger (Edgerton) who insinuates himself into their lives, and a pet dog. You'll do the math but won't get the solution you're expecting. The stranger, nicknamed Gordo, explains that he went to the same school as Bateman, who struggles to remember the guy some 25 years later. Gordo begins to leave gifts on their doorstep and repeatedly shows up while Hall is home alone. She

After arriving with a bang in 1999 with The Sixth Sense , M. Night Shyamalan rapidly ran out of viewer goodwill with subsequent films featuring ridiculous plots and tiresome twist endings. But we can finally cut him some slack because The Visit is actually a pretty enjoyable little thriller – yes, with a twist – that makes good use of the found-footage device. Teenage siblings Olivia DeJonge and Ed Oxenbould are sent to spend a week with grandparents they've never met, and soon discover that the old folks go berserk after dark. Shot as

thinks he's harmless but her husband is not so sure. To say more would ruin the surprises that follow; the best thrillers are those that play to expectations then make an abrupt u-turn, and Edgerton has crafted a smart and suspenseful exercise in viewer manipulation and misdirection. • See page 30

a documentary/confessional by budding filmmaker DeJonge, The Visit resembles a dark fairy tale that's played more for laughs than scares. And while it doesn't quite make amends for M. Night's prior crimes against cinema, it can certainly be considered a semi return to form.

Recast and rebooted. THE TRANSPORTER Refueled

A grim prairie tale. BONE TOMAHAWK

DVD&BD

Release Date: 27/01/16

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Release Date: 21/01/16

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Producer Luc Besson continues to get mileage out of the Transporter franchise. Joining three features and a spin-off TV series is this reboot (or refueling), with Ed Skrein ( Game of Thrones ) taking over from Jason Statham as courier Frank Martin. Although he lacks the physical presence and charisma of the Stath, Skrein's sleeker model proves adept at nimble martial arts moves, and the action accelerates at a relentless pace so as to distract from the recasting. This time it's Frank who's being taken for a ride when he's coerced into helping

Horror-westerns are something of a rarity, and good ones even more so. But this impressive debut feature from writer-director S. Craig Zahler is an example of how to successfully blend the genres. When the wife of a landowner (Patrick Wilson) is abducted by a tribe of inbred feral savages, whom even the Native Americans shun, the local sheriff (Kurt Russell) leads a rescue party on a five-day ride into the ominously named Valley of the Starving Man, where unimaginable horrors await them. It's The Searchers

a femme fatale (Loan Chabanol) who's seeking revenge on a Russian crime lord. As usual with these films, the plot plays second fiddle to the slickly shot and gravity-defying set-pieces, which require the same suspension of disbelief as the Fast & Furious films. Dumb but fun.

meets The Hills Have Eyes , with a stomach-churning dose of Cannibal Holocaust thrown in to colour the mix blood-red. A graphically violent climax more than compensates for the film's slow pacing, and guarantees a seal of approval from fans of hardcore horror.

JANUARY 2016

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