SciFiNow-August2018

Details TBC // 122 m i n s // 3 August Directors Fabio Grassadonia,

Antonio Piazza Screenwriters Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza

Cast Julia Jedlikowska, Gaetano Fernandez, Corinne Musallari

Distributor Altitude Film Distribution

In 1993

12-year-

old Giuseppe

Di Matteo

was kidnapped by the mafi a,

held captive for 779 days

and murdered. Filmmakers

Grassadonia and Antonio

Piazza pay tribute to the boy

with a gorgeous supernatural

fantasy that recalls the work of

Guillermo del Toro in its poetic

visuals and the dread and

surreal fairy tale ambience of

Charles Laughton’s masterful The

Night Of The Hunter.

Luna has a crush on Giuseppe

(Gaetano Fernandez) and

so follows him into the forest

unaware of the lurking danger.

She’s an insular character, afraid

of her feelings who blushes

her way through confrontation

when Giuseppe fi nds her love

letter. When he doesn’t come

to school the next day Luna

begins to worry. The fi lm, loosely

based on Marco Mancassola’s

short story, switches between

Giuseppe’s grim incarceration

and Luna’s desperate search for

her fi rst love. The opening scenes

between the two are tinged with

an innocence and excitement

that establishes a beautiful bond.

The cinematography by

Luca Bigazzi adds sparkle to

the watery locale where Luna

explores an oppressive world.

Yet her belief in love and her

visions of where Giuseppe is

held keep her determined in her

search. Luna’s coming-of-age is

written with poignant insight, her

sadness permeating every inch

of the screen. As time passes

and the memory of Giuseppe

fades Luna becomes more

rebellious and angry at the lack

of concern within the community

and Julia Jedlikowska’s confi dent

performance oozes compassion.

Grassadonia and Piazza

blend melancholy and horror

with a haunting elegance. The

mix of dark fairy tale imagery,

strong performances and bleak

reality imbues a real sense

of sorrow that swirls with a

spellbinding beauty to deliver an

emotionally resonant conclusion

that doesn’t shy away from what

really happened to Giuseppe.

Katherine McLaughlin

★★★★★

The Night

Of The Hunter

Evil stalks two innocent children in Charles

Laughton’s dark fairy tale.

OR STAY IN AND WATCH...

SICILIAN

GHOST STORY

The innocents

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Although writer-

director Leigh

Whannell has made

short trips out of the

horror genre before, his

second directorial effort Upgrade

(following Insidious: Chapter 3)

feels like a big bold step for him.

Although it’s violent as hell and

there is a smattering of body horror

in there, it’s a sci-fi thriller fi rst and

foremost. It’s confi dent, stylish,

and although it has clear nods to its

predecessors, it’s unpredictable.

Logan Marshall-Green (The

Invitation, Prometheus) plays Grey,

an analogue guy in a near future

that seems to work nearly perfectly.

Until, that is, he and his wife

are attacked on their way home,

leaving him paralysed from the

neck down and her dead.

Frustrated by the cops’ inability

to fi nd the culprits, Grey is looking

to put an end to everything until

a genius tech designer reaches

out with an experimental and

completely untested chip that could

let him walk again: STEM.

The fact that he’s back on his

feet must remain a secret, but when

STEM reveals itself to be able to

communicate and help him on his

quest for vengeance, Grey decides

to take matters into his own hands.

The setup is the same as most

revenge fi lms, and early on you’d

be forgiven for wondering what it

is that sets Upgrade apart from the

rest. However, Marshall-Green’s

strong work keeps us invested

and Whannell’s deliberate pacing

heightens the impact once STEM

shows Grey exactly what it can

do: beat people to a pulp and get

creative with the killing blows.

Inventive tracking camera-work

glues your eyes to the screen

while Marshall-Green plays Grey’s

horror at the carnage absolutely

beautifully, resulting in gruesome

and shockingly funny set-pieces.

As our hero’s confi dence and

relationship with STEM grows,

Whannell sprinkles in some

cyberpunk paranoia to keep things

interesting and fi nds a way to

follow well-worn genre paths before

taking a sharp left turn. It’s a

highly entertaining B-movie that’s

smarter than it looks, and there’s

a real sense of glee both from the

writer-director and the star that

makes it a lot of gruesome fun.

Jonathan Hatfull

UPGRADE Vengeance rewired

Details 15 // 100 mins // 31 August Director Leigh Whannell

Screenwriter Leigh Whannell Cast Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel,

Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie, Linda Cropper Distributor Universal

RoboCop

A murdered cop is given a

whole new cyborg lease on

life in Paul Verhoeven’s brilliant

ultraviolent classic.

OR STAY IN AND WATCH...

★★★★★

REVIEWS CINEMA

W W W.SCI FI N OW.CO.U K T THERE ARE REFERENCES TO JAMES WAN AND BILLY FROM THE SAW FILMS IN UPGRADE, SEE IF YOU CAN SPOT THEM. |^075

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