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SXSW Review: Free Fire

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Free Fire

Director, Ben Wheatley has yet to let me down. Since his film Down Terrace he has put out consistently challenging stuff. His latest film Free Fire is easily the best of these and that speaks volumes to how amazing this one is. Wheatley, also compounds the fact that he is one of the most interesting directors working today.

The setup is an easy one, some folks meet up in the middle of the night at an abandoned umbrella warehouse. The plan is to hand off some cash in return for guns. Simple, right? Well, not with this group, with the exception of Justine (Brie Larson) who looks to be the only sane one in the group, but more on that later. When confrontation is sparked between the two groups one gunshot is met with several gunshots echoing throughout the rest of the film.

Since the isolated gun fight lasts about an hour and ten minutes and the film is only an hour and thirty minutes, every bit of choreography is carefully conducted like a white-knuckle ballet for brutes. I’m a huge fan of single locations films, and this one sets the bar on how to go about making one. The filmmaking is an island onto itself in terms of both, ingenuity and fun.

The cast is tip-top and perfectly pitched, with a subtly underrated performance from Sam Riley as the a scuzzy, druggie who triggers the gunfight. All the characters are dressed in hyper-realistic wardrobe that allows the viewer to take in the stylized action in as a spectator watching a Roadrunner cartoon. Characters are wounded to big laughs, instead of heavy drama, or overdramatized death. Instead, a character is shot and screams “What was that? You fucking shot me!?” before returning fire, by the central point no one is left unscathed.

The laughs come as fast as the bullets fly. Surround sound goes a long way to give us some pretty hilarious moments where an off-camera character shouts obscenities at another. As the two groups of gussie-gunmen (and woman) crawl, shoot and dive their way around the warehouse, the sound design lends a hand in knowing where geographically each character is positioned. The brutality is constantly amped up leading from superficially getting winged to the more serious headshots or getting set on fire, the glistening violence is a perfect pairing for the stakes being raised through each moment of the film. With a case of money at the center of the room, these armed cage mice will become increasingly aggressive in order to reach the cheese.

This is a rare, perfect film. The way the action is treated is fantastic and a method we don’t see put to use enough. Since these are all bad guys it is fair to pick your favorite and hope they manage to be the one to get out of the building but in any case, you are in for a hell of a film. The amount of times, I was laughing out loud almost mirrored the number of bullets fired in the film and with a movie titled Free Fire one can only assume that is a ton of laughs. Free Fire holds itself high on my list of pulp crime films, it now takes its place among Reservoir dogs, Snatch and Pulp Fiction. Wheatley and crew have created a one of a kind experience that I can truly say is worth the time and money in order to experience it with a sold-out, loud theater.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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