Shudder continues to bring us great horror and thriller movies and I have not seen one bad movie that bears their logo. This one is no exception. This French movie is set in Africa where a trio of mercenaries saved a Mexican drug dealer from military putsch in Guinea Bissau. They travel to remote compound based by Saloum river in Senegal. There they try to recuperate and get gasoline for further escape to Dakar, but things are not what they seem.
Well, this movie is great for three reasons. First, it is filmed beautifully, exteriors are so fantastic, it just looks fantastic. The second are characters which are carefully written and I love the main storyline about mercenaries boss Chaka and his focus on having revenge for the past. Also, the movie touches themes about modern slavery in Africa, child soldiers and child molestation. Third, I love how movies suddenly twists from war torn thriller to Carpenter inspired horror about a group of people trapped in a compound trying to survive and get free being surrounded. The ending is bittersweet, kind of almost poetic but sad in lots of ways. This is a superb movie and possible one of the best Shudder releases that came out this year.
I was never a fan of that 77 and old school UK punk rock, but this band is something special. It was always a feeling in me that these bastards did not belong anywhere, not even in punk clichees, yet they embraced punk as a meaning of their music expression. This documentary shows linear history of these guys, with interviews and words of wisdom by the man himself singer Animal, the only original member in current line-up, but also original guitarist Magoo, bass player Winston and drummer PJ with help of many scene contemporaries and friends like Rat Scabies of The Damned or Stewart Copeland from Police. Like in any other docu, this shows partly interviews, partly archive footage and live action, but also reaches to band’s try to be new Duran Duran and that failed pop album, which by the way contains some really great songs in my humble opinion. There is no pathetic, no whining about good old times and stuff like that, this band was never about that, this is inspiring docu which shows you why you are still punk after all these years. Go see this one.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 