_ Normally I would start my reviews with a little breakdown of the main plot of the film but with BREAK it is just another one of the same old slice and dice in the woods horror film. Basically four girls head into the woods for a camping trip after Sarah, the films main lead and the only one you really give a crap about, breaks up with her cheating boyfriend (yup we have seen this many times before and it never turns out well for our main girl).
On the way they ask directions from an odd looking gentleman with obvious face and teeth defects who looks like a hillbilly version of what wwe superstar Kane looked like in the film SEE NO EVIL (yup again we have seen this in ever killer in the woods still horror). The girls drive off and set up camp by a lake where they go swimming etc etc while being stalked by the deformed freak and his Weasel like co-killer. OH did I forget to mention they hunt girls in the woods and chop them into manageable chunks? As you have probably already guessed by now the girls will start getting hunted down one by one after a slow and agonising stalk and kill session, well not with this film, we only really see the main girl escape and are put through a tedious set of events.

BREAK is one of those films that is trying to break the mould (no pun intended) of this hunters hunting human prey style of horror film, which in my opinion it fails to do. Unfortunately BREAK is more of the same, and in all fairness other films in this overdone sub-genre. The acting was awful, the soundtrack was just as bad and the rape scene was totally un-needed. Our villains were freakishly menacing but not to the standard we are normally used to in horror now.

I get what the director was trying to do and I will admit I have seen worse films of this type before, however the storyline was predictable and both the main girl and the villains seemed to not have a brain cell to rub together (seriously having the main girl run from one of the killers and run into a tree knocking her out is a little bit of an insult to us horror fans don’t you think?)

If you like you woodland horror full of rape, stabbing and killers who look like the come from the reject pile of a hill have eyes talent spot, then BREAK is for you but for this horror fan I would rather re-watch WRONG TURN or even the sequels then watch this again.

Release date:  16th April 2012
Format: DVD   
Certificate: 18

Bestselling author Tsui Ting-Yin (Angelica Lee –KOMA, THE EYE), the creator of a trilogy of love stories, decides that the next step to take in her career is to write a supernatural novel. Finding inspiration hard, and with her ex lover back in town, Ting-Yin begins to find it hard to cope and that is when she begins to find strands of black hair in her apartment and the odd phone calls begin. While writing down the occurrences Ting-Yin finds reality and fiction are starting to collide. While wandering around her apartment building, in what seems like an attempt to get inspiration she finds herself trapped in an alternate reality. This dimension is the home of the unwanted and forgotten, from her novel ideas to the more personal. With only a small child for a guide Ting-Yin must travel to the Transit while running from the mysterious Recycle as it beings to delete what has already been forgotten.
_

_Now I do love my Asian horror cinema but when I was sent RE-CYCLE from my good friends over at Cine Du Monde I wasn’t sure what I would be getting. Quoted as a mix between THE MATRIX and INCEPTION my initial thoughts were it was going to be like CASSHERN but oh was I wrong. RE-CYCLE is what you would get if you mixed THE NEVERENDING STORY with SILENT HILL if it was created by the FINAL FANTASY team over at Square Enix. Now I’m not saying that that is a bad thing now, I love the FINAL FANTASY style feel of the last half of the film but personally from the way the film started I was damn sure expecting yet another THE GRUDGE or THE RING.

The world of deleted memories and ideas was a nicely thought out idea from the Pang Brothers, the men who brought us the Asian horror hit THE EYE, and you could tell that with RE-CYCLE they had opened their twisted minds to this new and exciting world. As a writer I know how twisted our minds can get and the Pang’s are right there with some shocking scenes, Including what I like to called the cave of fetuses as Tsui Ting-Yin tramples over just starting to form baby fetuses to escape the ghostly demon like RECYCLE.

_The film did at times feel like it was dragging, with some scenes getting slow and drawn out to death, however it makes up for it with a more out of this world sequence following it. The acting was passable, Angelica Lee just always seemed frightened to me but a round of applause has to go to the young actress Yaqi Zeng who played the role of Ting –Yu. It is always refreshing to see young actresses who outshine the main character.

If you like your horror full of fantasy then this Asian horror is worth a watch, but I will warn you it does drag an awful lot in places.

Release date:  23rd April 2012
Format: DVD   
Certificate: 18
Running Time: 108 mins
R.R.P: (DVD) TBA

__ In 1921 Post War England Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall – THE TOWN), a woman haunted by the death of her Fiancé, is making a living disproving supernatural occurrences with science fact and rational explanations. Arriving home after a case Florence is approached by history teacher Robert Mallory from Rookwood boarding school to investigate sightings of a ghostly child walking the schools halls. Remembering her fears as a young child she fells it her duty to take the job.

Setting her equipment up to disprove the ghost theory Florence begins to feel something watching her. Waving away the notion she quickly finds the culprit. However the child is adamant that he this was the only time he has pulled the prank. Wanting to prove her theory of foul play right Florence demands she stays at the school while the children travel home for half term. The further she delves into the schools dark past Florence is forced to face the demons of her past as well as the very real supernatural haunting that haunts Rookwood.

Since seeing the trailer for the cinema release i have been waiting patiently for THE AWAKENING to finally reach DVD and Blu-Ray. I do love a good paranormal horror but with so many supernatural films coming out recently, all being pretty awful or totally messed up due to a seriously bad ending, I wanted to see how a British film fairs against US supernatural films like INSIDIOUS and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY and as regular readers of snakebite will know I SERIOUSLY hated INSIDIOUS and the final fifteen minutes of PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3.

With THE AWAKENING you are basically given what it promotes, a good old fashioned ghost story with a feeling of SXITH SENSE set during the fallout of World War One, which I thought was a perfect time period to set the film as it keeps it different to films such as THE WOMAN IN BLACK.  The story progresses well and i didn’t find myself getting bored with this one like i have done previously in films like DEADLINE (god what an awful AWFUL film). THE AWAKENING does have a questionable conclusion, and you know me by now that if an ending doesn’t work (INSIDIOUS comes to mind) it will always get a bad review from me, however I thought it kinda worked as a whole.

Compared to the supernatural horror films with have had out over the last few years THE AWAKENING is my idea of a perfect ghost story. The acting was great and aside from the questionable ending you will not get a better film to top the sub-genre.

Extras:

DVD: Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Nick Murphy / Behind the Scenes / A Time For Ghosts / Trailer

BLU-RAY: Audio Commentary with Writer-Director Nick Murphy / Behind the Scenes / Anatomy of A Scene – Florence and the lake / A Time For Ghosts / Anatomy of A SCREAM / Deleted Scenes with Director’s Introduction / Interview with Director Nick Murphy / BAFTA Q&A / Trailer


Release date:  26th March 2012
Format: Blu-Ray & DVD   
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 106 mins
R.R.P: (DVD) £17.99 (Blu-Ray) £22.99