Top 50 Horror Moments In Film - 45, 44.
Dead And Buried - **1/2
Whilst hardly the best movie in the world, it does pertain to the "the first fifteen minutes are fucking awesome, but the rest is shithouse" rule of some horror movies around and about. I can't find any pictures of the first fifteen minutes, just merely the guy getting the syringe in the eyeball - which for some is enough to make you squirm. So from memory I'll try my best to describe what goes on.
A man is on a beach and is taking photo's of a girl. She's dancing with him, starts fooling around. It's quite harmless fun. Then all of a sudden, the poor fellow is maimed. He's strung up in a fishing net and set alight. The rapidity of this sequence, from good to bad, is what makes it so shocking. The film is only worthwhile viewing for these first few minutes, and then later on when the poor man is lying in his hospital bed - as seen above - and is finally offed with a syringe to the eye. What a way to die.
Zero Day - ***1/2
Overshadowed by a poor release and Gus Van Sant's superb film Elephant, Zero Day had the unfortunate problem of being related too strongly to the revolutionary Blair Witch Project style film making.
In short, Zero Day follows two teens who work their way towards Zero Day - the day when everyone at their high school will be obliterated. It's quite a chilling viewing and the performances of the teens are superbly believeable. Where the chilling part comes in is in the finale - much like Elephant's finale, only resonates stronger. What also assists is that these teens are so likeable, you kind of hope in a way that they won't do what they're planning to do. The fact that you can relate to them is daunting.
In a pretty paint by numbers finale, the teens leave their video camera running as they walk into the school armed with guns. They enter the school and start shooting. A student is able to make a call to the police and for the final ten minutes, we hear the plea's of the students and the 911 operator trying to coax the boys to stop their chaos. The boys finally shoot themselves after some deciding - a little more acceptable than the killing of one of the shooters in Elephant - and the film finally rolls to a finish.
Worth a look merely for the last ten minutes.
