[Sicknero]

So having shamelessly raided Roshiq's post above for my afternoon's entertainment ...

No One Lives

Still a somewhat confusing film even when watched in English. Not that I have anything against confusing films per se, but this one just didn't work for me - some style, but little or no content to speak of.

I found it a frustrating film to watch - there were openings for some intelligent psychological exploration of the relationship between Driver and Emma (could have been an interesting look at Stockholm/Lima syndrome for example) but this to me was more or less ignored in favour of unconvincing and OTT kills. Nothing against OTT kills either, but I'd far rather have seen some deeper examination of the characters/relationships. It's almost as if the film wants to be a fun gore fest and an intelligent story but doesn't really succeed at either.

I spent half the movie thinking I might be in for some interesting and intelligent story-telling, but although it teases with a few moments/flashbacks it just doesn't develop what could have been an excellent storyline.

**SPOILERS**
Emma/Driver relationship ... I think, that Driver wanted to keep Emma and "create" her, i.e. make her into a killer like himself. But there's no examination of this, i.e. Why her? What did he initially see in her to make him want that? What else did he do with her during this process?

Emma the killer ... she kills (the copper at the motel etc) because she wants to kill Driver herself. It's rubbishy though that in the junkyard he's really pleased that she tried to kill him, while he seemed to completely ignore her shooting of the policeman earlier on.

The tracking device ... total guesswork here but I think it was probably a part of the 'creation process'. I'm thinking that he allowed her to escape several times from captivity but was always certain of recapturing her thanks to the tracker. Something about breaking her spirit, making her resign to being his.

So many silly plot holes ... This gang of apparently hardened robbers, who are about to torture and probably kill their latest victims, are suddenly panicked by somebody wanting to kill them? And are then overpowered by a slight girl who has supposedly been locked up in a car for goodness knows how long?? The suicide is totally unbelievable, and then they astonishingly fail to notice that Ethan has suddenly gained about 12 stone in weight??? Hmmmmmm....

Favourite moment ... the two guys who offer Flynn a ride, and then disappear from the story with no further mention of them or their fate (aside from the credit card). An indication of how good this film could have been.
**WAFFLE OVER**

The Seasoning House

British horror of the bleak and harrowing variety rarely disappoints and this one's no exception, I was absorbed pretty much from start to finish.

Rosie Day as deaf/mute Angel is very watchable, and Sean Pertwee is always enjoyable while Kevin Howarth is quite nicely ambivalent as Viktor. Several tropes (or cliches depending on your point of view I guess) but it goes quite nicely from nasty brutality to revenge flick.

My only real gripes are the setting (some indeterminate part of ex-Yugoslavia... to me that just seemed lazy for a film made last year), and the ending is pretty weak - it's barely an ending even, more like the film just stops.