Lameness Excuse # 1

Writing about good films, films I really love, for a weblog like this proves challenging. Reviewing trashy films, or flat-out weird films? – sure, great – I can talk about what happens in them, whether or not they were fun, crack wise, go off on a few tangents; job done. Really great films though, unique ones that don’t really fit into any canon or generic framework – they take a bit more effort. I feel the need to do them justice, to explain, to expound, to cross-reference, to fully get to grips with the totality of the elements that make the film special. And, more so than most other art forms, a LOT of different elements go toward making a ninety minute film. It’s a tough gig alright, perhaps going someway toward explaining why, despite it’s many fine and valuable proponents, “film writing” has never really taken off as a self-sustaining, independently entertaining form in quite the same way that “music writing” has, and I’m out of practice at it too.

Added to this, I’ve not had much time on my hands recently, with annoying crap (and probably some good crap) sapping my attentions from all directions as I try to get some quality writing time in, which as you may have noticed has starved this weblog of content a bit recently.

Because you see, a couple of months ago, I sat down at home with a bottle of wine, grabbed a few recently acquired DVDs, and treated myself to what turned out to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable accidental double bills in recent memory.

Two films that we should rightly have all seen many years ago, but for the uncaring tyranny of PAL/Region 2 DVD/video distribution. Two films made a continent apart with drastically different aesthetics, but that share a very specific theme: that of doomed, unfortunate children locked away from the rest of mankind, to whom they pose an unintentional threat. Two films that are also oddly linked by their status as low budget features that began life as exploitation/’b’ pictures, but ended up venturing into such unexpected, intelligent and engaging directions that they manage to render themselves wholly unique and unrepeatable artistic endeavours. Two films that were both initially punished for their audacity with studio hostility, botched, butchered theatrical releases, decades of neglect, and only a relatively recent rebirth as bone fide “cult classics”.

In short, two of the best films I’ve happened to see in years, and I really would not be able to live with myself if I ended up posting some jokey round-up of the ‘Tombs of the Blind Dead’ sequels or the later Hammer Dracula movies or that god-awful 28 Days Later sequel before I’d at least TRIED to share my profound admiration for these two movies.

First review is above, second one forthcoming.