The Man Who Laughs

Released from Eureka Entertainment, this classic silent film garners a new restoration in 4K as a part of the label's ongoing Masters of Cinema series.

Made in 1928, the film was made by Paul Leni famous German Expressionist director from the early 1920s and his cinematographer Gilbert Warrenton who had made The Cat and the Canary (1927). This film is considered an early entry into Universal Studios now famous purple patch of horror movie classics under the stewardship of producer Carl Laemmle. From the studio head down, along with art director Charles Hall and make up guru Jack Pierce this collaboration was married with a defining performance at its centre by Conrad Veidt.

Veidt plays Gwynplaine, a carnival performer whose face is mutilated into a permanent ghoulish grin by his executed father's royal court enemies. Gwynplaine struggles through life with blind Dea (Mary Philbin) as his companion, and despite his disfigurement Gwynplaine still considers himself unworthy of Dea's affection.

The make up on Veidt's role has been acknowledged as direct inspiration for the first portrayal of the Joker in the DC Comics of Batman in 1940 and has become common place in screen portrayals through the years culminating in Heath Ledger's Oscar winning turn in The Dark Knight (2008).

Featuring moments of humour, tragedy, doomed romance and swashbuckling fight scenes, The Man Who Laughs remains as one of the most stylish entries into the American silent cinema era. With the sound era about to burst prominently onto the scene and the monsters of Universal pictures being able to talk come 1930-31 with Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster; it is wonderful to see the richness and detail within the film's production from costume to sets to narrative construction.

The film has been restored from Universal's 4K transfer to Blu-ray and features a score by the Berklee School of Music along with featurettes by horror expert Kim Newman and a booklet by Travis Crawford and Richard Combs.

The Man Who Laughs is available now on Blu-Ray from Eureka Entertainment

Final Destination 5

We should learn that franchises never really die or pass on, especially in the horror genre.  After the last film in the franchise, where they did not even grant it a number - The Not So Final Destination - and the previous incumbent succumbed to the fad of 3D technology.  Your heart kind of went in the mouth as we heard of a fifth instalment.

Which is why it is all the more surprising and refreshing to see the fifth film, Steven Quale has kind of resurrected a franchise which was feared to be on life support.

The familiar conventions of the series are all here and present.  Aspiring chef Sam (Nicholas D'Agosto) has a weird premonition regarding a elaborate bridge collapse which in glorious CGI comes to life as pins and steel and concrete account for close to a hundred deaths.  Sam - after much convincing - saves the lives of on and off girlfriend Molly (Emma Bell) and two other workers from the factory where they all work.

Yet as told by coroner Tony Todd (Candyman), nobody can cheat death and so death comes a calling picking off the survivors one by one as this elusive stalker who uses all manner of creative crowd pleasing ways.

This is where the film comes to life through the death scenes, it seems to be the only reason you go to see the film yet the actors especially D'Agosto are able (and most importantly allowed) to inject some humanity and plausability into their performances, where other directors would insist on cheap histrionics.

Whereas, the previous films in the series were more about fate and second chances; this feature appeals to the scares of knowing when death is waiting for you.  The scariest thing may be knowing when you are going to die.

While there is nothing out of the ordinary in the scares, the humour that has run through the franchise remains yet the film as a whole is one of the best in the series.

Final Destination 5 is out on DVD from Warner Bros on Boxing Day on Blu-Ray, Triple Play, Blu-Ray 3D, DVD and Ultraviolet Digital Download.  HMV are also offering the triple play in an exclusive Steelbox presentation case.

The Thing (2011) Preview

The trailer is live, the website is live, someThing is alive.  Already out in America and doing big business, the prequel of The Thing (a prequel with the same title I hear you ask) is scheduled to open on December 2nd in the UK.




Click here to view the trailer

The directorial feature debut of Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Scott Pilgrim), Joel Edgerton (Fighter) and Ulrich Thomsen (In A Better World) - the trailer show us young graduate Kate Lloyd (Winstead) being transported to an Antartic research base where they have made a startling and frightening discovery of a specimen in the ice.

Choosing to go against protocol Dr. Sandor Halvorson (Thomsen) decides to break into the ice and yet it thaw out to do more tests, unbeknown to them all they have released an alien lifeform loose in the base with the ability to copy the DNA of a person it attacks, meaning there are deadly doppelgangers in the base and this Thing (because they are not sure what it is exactly) is killing them off one by one.



Winstead promises to be the last girl, although just a graduate she seems a lot smarter than the scientists and experts at the base; Edgerton, as Sam Carter, is the eye candy and strongest support and also a recognisable face now that he has had added exposure in the critically acclaimed and commerically successful Fighter.  Thomsen is acknowleged as a key figure in the Dogme movement providing a sterling lead performance in Thomas Vinterberg's Festen (1997), and Hollywood returns to the expert scientist being foriegn with the rationale coming from American brains, hence Kate's role at the base.

The film is as much a remake of John Carpenter's classic 1982 film starring Kurt Russell, following a similar plot and narrative.  Unknown being identified in the ice of Antartica, the researchers decide to explore and only serve to bring horror and chaos to the base by setting free an alien lifeform hellbent on destruction and devouring human beings.

This version; call it a sequel/prequel or remake promises thrills and spills combined with brilliant CGI monsters; employing typical genre conventions of horror and slasher films with Kate becoming our last girl, the trailer promises a film that will entertain and add to the Thing canon with it now being the third version following on from Howard Hawks' 1950s The Thing from Another Planet, with Carpenter's 80s version itself being a remake of that particular film.
For more scares relating to The Thing, click here

Or alternatively go to the film's website:

http://www.thethingmovie.net/

The film is released and produced by Universal Pictures

This post is sponsored by NBC Universal Pictures.