Shocking horror

Rottentomatoes.com posted their annual 'Best Of 2009' list not long ago; most titles being fairly well known however there were some supposed gems in the horror field which I sought after, trusting the mighty RT (tongue firmly in cheek). Two of which were House of the Devil, a very well directed homage to 80's moody horror, filmed and packaged exactly as such, and Pontypool, an original 'infected masses' flick (a genre which is becoming increasingly derivative). I highly recommend both, but I write this post with the intention of explaining my lack of faith in the horror genre... I rarely see anything purely original anymore so I assume the trick is to make something that's still able to disturb or 'gross out' the viewer. Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell did an amazing job at comically provoking dry heaves, and Pontypool gave me a claustrophobic sense of invisible uncertainty with a very satisfying (un-Hollywood) ending. So maybe I'm expecting too much... I keep hoping for another Evil Dead or The Thing which I doubt will ever happen but I can still be glad that a handfull of solid films are still being released. Few and far inbetween perhaps, but I suppose that's how it always was and always will be...

Not having read Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel prior to seeing this film I was banking heavily on how much I loved the Coen Brother's adaptation of his earlier novel No Country For Old Men. The Road has a similar bleak feel and an equally close to hopeless journey (which is building to be Australian director John Hillcoat's signature style since The Proposition) where a father and son try to stay alive and head south towards a warmer climate in a post-apocalyptic North America.

I can really appreciate films like this which throw the viewer into a scenario without any explanation. We don't always need a strong political message or 30 minutes of exposition to understand what our characters are going through. Viggo Mortensen is strong enough here but perhaps not Oscar worthy as the rumours go, and his son Kodi Smit-McPhee (Romulus, My Father) acts well with an American accent and also resembles his on-screen mother to a degree. The CGI, set design and costumes were all top-notch, and the make-up was so convincing I wasn't aware both Robert Duvall and Omar from The Wire had roles till the credits..!

Unfortunately though, there were too many points at which I was taken completely out of the moment with distracting music cues, infuriating product placement, and some questionable casting choices (just like with last year's The Hurt Locker, Guy Pearce has a 'starring' role that lasts a total of 2 minutes). This may have been less obvious to your average movie-goer and judging by the TV spots it was aiming at a 'wider' audience, but it's still a worthy film I just can't help but notice the hammy Hollywood juice permeating through it's pores. Also I'm not sure how much creative freedom Hillcoat had so I won't blame this on him quite yet :p