ENDHIRAN (INDIA/2010/S. SHANKAR)

A modern twist on the Pygmalion story, Endhiran concerns the endeavours of Dr. Vaseegran who constructs a high-powered android named Chitti in his own image. Despite sharing the athletic ability of Bruce Lee and the dance moves of Michael Jackson, Chitti is not regarded by the relevant authorities as a valuable contribution to the field as it lacks rational ability or emotions. When Vaseegran transplants a positronic brain into Chitti to help him relate to humans better, he gets more than he bargained for as Chitti’s newfound emotions lead him to develop strong feelings towards Vaseegran’s fiancée Sana. Attempting to win Sana back, Vaseegran foolishly goes into competition with Chitti’s superhuman powers, underestimating the android’s ability to mimic his master’s behaviour.

A huge success at the box office, grossing more than any other Indian film ever, Endhiran covers many genres and feels as if it was designed to entertain the widest range of people conceivable, although whether it fulfilled this goal is another question. Lead actor Rajnikanth, playing both Vaseegran and his robot analogue Chitti, has some great comedic turns but is unable to sustain interest for the film’s 155-minute runtime. For the casual Western viewer, there are plenty of WTF moments – a scene where a naked girl runs into traffic is particularly baffling – as well as a plethora of tongue-in-cheek movie references, although the proviso of satire has not saved the film from accusations of plagiarism. But for all its various flaws, this Kollywood blockbuster has undeniable entertainment value.

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME (USA/1932/IRVING PICHEL, ERNEST B. SCHOEDSACK)

Based on Richard Connell’s short story, The Most Dangerous Game follows a group of people who find themselves on a remote island for different reasons. Eve and Martin are siblings who, alongside two sailors, were the only survivors of a shipwreck. The four have been guests at the home of the Russian Count Zaroff when newcomer Bob, freshly marooned from a shipwreck, arrives on the scene. Bob and Zaroff appear to hit it off quickly, having both made a living through hunting, although Zaroff claims to have found an even more exhilarating prey on the island that he refuses to name. In a matter of days, Martin and both sailors have disappeared, and as Bob and Eve search the house for him, they learn of Zaroff’s horrific pursuit, correctly guessing that they are next in line.

Shot on a budget of $200,000, The Most Dangerous Game turned out to be more bankable than the 1933’s expensive King Kong, with which it shares actress Fay Wray, and certainly rivals it for entertainment value. The set-up is simple but brilliant, and even though the eventual outcome is obvious to the modern viewer, the suspense is kept up at a decent pace. As with many other contemporary films, the acting and screenplay are excessively camp, particularly Leslie Banks’ hammy portrayal of a Russian count, but fans of Béla Lugosi and early B-movies should recognise this is par for the course. Funny and sinister in equal parts, The Most Dangerous Game deserves a revival.

GHOST OF HANGING IN UTSUNOMIYA (JAPAN/1956/NOBUO NAKAGAWA)

Ryutaro is a spy employed by the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, who is the target of assassination attempts that aim to hand power over to his younger brother Tadanaga. Before learning of these plots, Ryutaro discovers himself in a predicament of his own when he rushes to the defence of a local girl who is caught between her boyfriend and a greedy businessman. The situation results in many violent one-on-one skirmishes between Ryutaro and the businessman’s many samurai defendants, one of whom enigmatically refuses to reveal his face or use more than just the one hand. Before long, Ryutaro’s top priority is not protecting Iemitsu as it should be, but rather unearthing the true identity of the mystery samurai.

Director Nobuo Nakagawa is well known for mixing the supernatural with diverse genres of film, and in Ghost Of Hanging In Utsunomiya, he does a sublime job of giving the chanbara (or samurai) genre a much-needed boost. While it may not be as subversive a work as some of its contemporaries, the film has a wonderfully simple premise, and Nakagawa uses the time to reinforce Ryutaro’s story with some colourful characters. With his bizarre hood and penchant for spinning walnuts in his fingers, the unnamed samurai walks the line between clown and sinister threat, and the scene where he reveals his true face is unusually tense. It may not be for everyone, but Ghost Of Hanging In Utsunomiya is a brilliant mix of history and the ethereal, making for great evening viewing.

CROSS OF IRON (UK/1977/SAM PECKINPAH)

Based on Willi Heinrich’s chilling novel The Willing Flesh, Sam Peckinpah’s World War II epic opens as a Wehrmacht platoon takes charge of a bewildered child soldier on the Russian Front. The group’s new commander, the ruthless Captain Stransky, orders for the boy to be shot without question, and continues to upset the balance in the group as he reveals he is only interested in earning himself the Iron Cross. Stransky takes liberties with his authority, often jeopardising the other soldiers’ lives, but soon meets a challenge with the embittered Sergeant Steiner, whom he had effectively usurped. Steiner puts Stransky in a vulnerable position by refusing to take instruction and, more importantly, threatening to expose his lies about leading the counter-offensive which would win him the coveted Iron Cross. Soon the conflict is reduced to the two men, their original roles all but forgotten.

The film is preceded by a montage credit sequence depicting events which contributed to the fall of Nazi Germany, reiterating the futility of the soldiers’ efforts, but Peckinpah shows compassion for the source material and kudos must go to him for portraying the war without glamorising it. However, despite some visually outstanding battle scenes, the film is robbed of emotional potential by the sheer theatricality of it all. The German soldiers’ accents, ranging from British to Slavic, are unconvincing enough to be distracting, and a scene where one soldier’s homosexuality is exposed is so overacted that it could be inferred that the entire battalion had tendencies.

[●REC]² (SPAIN/2009/JAUME BALAGUERÓ, PACO PLAZA)

Many critics have noted a movement to point-of-view horror as a new means of transferring fear to the audience by making the experience as interactive as possible. The Blair Witch Project kicked off the trend, and subsequent films such as Cloverfield and Paranormal Activity have capitalised on it. But it was Spanish horror [•REC] which really breathed life into the concept by bringing a camera crew into an apartment block plagued by a dangerous virus. On the success of the first installment, directors Paco Plaza and Jaume Balagueró threw themselves into this action-packed sequel, determined to turn the scares up a notch. The film starts where the last one left off, only this time we witness events through the lens of the SWAT team, who head straight for the notorious penthouse where the body of a possessed girl had been found before. The team, accompanied by a cautious doctor, systematically ransack each apartment, but no amount of testosterone can prepare them for the surprises that lie in wait.

The film generates a different atmosphere to its predecessor, which contrasted the animalistic behaviour of the infected with the genuine terror of those still in good health. This time round the only ‘humans’ are the SWAT team, turning the affair into something approaching a video game. The emotions are less sincere and the scares more ridiculous, but the experience is still unnerving thanks to some opportune video interference and top-notch sound editing. If [•REC] is Alien, then [•REC] ² is definitely Aliens.

ZOMBIELAND (USA/2009/RUBEN FLEISCHER)

Coy student Columbus is off on a road trip. Of course, this is no ordinary journey – America has fallen victim to a particularly dangerous strain of mad cow disease which has turned most of the population into hysterical zombies. After a road accident, Columbus bumps into tenacious buccaneer Tallahassee, and the two continue the journey together in his truck. On the hunt for Twinkies, they cross paths, and later team up with panhandling sisters Wichita and Little Rock. Taking refuge at Bill Murray’s house (of all places), the quartet begins to feel safe, and Columbus comes to realise his feelings for Wichita. The revelation is too intense for Wichita, as the next morning she flees the scene with her sister, hoping to reach Pacific Playland, an apparently zombie-free fairground. Determined not to give up, Columbus enlists Tallahassee’s help in tracking them down, but soon enough, the group is back to fighting for survival as the zombies return en masse.

The film is clearly played for fun, and there’s no refuting that it delivers this in abundance. Woody Harrelson as Tallahassee is the B-movie hero every zombie fan could’ve wished for. But there’s a lot about this aspiring cult comedy that doesn’t quite sit right. Columbus, played by gawky actor du jour Jesse Eisenberg, should by all rights have died ten minutes into the film. The ridiculous story about going to the fairground seems contrived purely to justify some reasonably cool effects. And perhaps most importantly, the script is annoyingly lopsided.

COLIN (UK/2008/MARC PRICE)

I will start this review by saying that I love watching low-budget films, regardless of their quality. Colin, purportedly made for just £45, generated much buzz after it screened at Cannes Film Festival. Shown from the point of view of the titular hero, the film sees Colin being attacked by a friend in the first few minutes, and shortly afterwards we discover that he has become a zombie. Once outside, he picks up the behaviours of the undead, learning to live off human flesh to survive, but is soon found by sister Linda and her boyfriend, who take him back to his mother’s house. From hereon in, we vicariously pick up information about who Colin was, and how he came to be in his current state.

It is tempting to champion a film like this purely for the facts, but the truth is that Colin is rather disposable (I admit, slight sour grapes on my part). This is a film that hangs solely on its concept, one that wasn’t entirely novel to begin with – Andrew Parkman’s I, Zombie apparently beat Price to the punch ten years earlier – and would probably have been made sooner or later by some other horror fan. Camerawork is terrible, in ways not excused by the premise. On a lighter note, a decent job has been done with the sound editing, and the special effects are brilliantly gruesome, so zombie fans will be sufficiently satiated. And it’s impossible not to laugh at a banjo-wielding zombie busker.