“Syvälle Salattu” aka “Body of Water” (2011) -Finnish Horror

Hmmm? Time for another Review, and this time something a wee bit different than my usual Asian flavored films with a trip to scenic Finland for a look at director Joona Tena’s 2011’s psychological horror/ thriller “Syvälle Salattu” aka “Body of Water”.

My synopsis goes like this: “Environmental lawyer Julia Mannerla is tasked with reluctantly returning to her childhood home to help stop hydro-power developers from flooding the town and displacing the residents. Still dealing with her recent divorce, she and her young son Niko soon discover that a local folk legend about a water spirit in the lake is somehow deeply connected to old memories Julia had buried away in the back of her mind from all those years ago… and that the open hostility of the residents might not be the biggest danger they face by returning to Lake Hallow.”

Evil mermaid? Yep… seems to me this one plays on the myths of the Rusalka, mermaid sirens from old Slavic lore that lived in lakes and rivers and often lured the foolish or unwary to a watery doom. Yep. Sounds kinds creepy and fun… Then, of course, this wee lady likes all sorts of ghosts and spirits and odd folklore, and I’m super afraid of the water myself, so I’m certainly thinking this one has the possibility of entertaining me while completely scaring me silly. Want to know how it all plays out? Then you know what you gotta do, o’ Gentle Visitor!! 😉

“Belenggu” aka “Shackled” (2013) – Indonesian Horror/ Suspence

Time for another creepy movie Review from your Favorite horror obsessed Catgirl… this time a look at the recently released Indonesian psychological suspense thriller by director Upi Avianto , “Belenggu” aka “Shackled”.

Our synopsis for it reads like so: “Seemingly tortured loner Elang is haunted by dreams and hallucinatory images of bizarre murders involving a psycho killer in a bunny costume. His seemingly futile efforts to solve the mystery and save the lives of the sweet neighbor woman and her little girl he thinks are in danger have trapped him in a downward spiral and soon he himself becomes a suspect. In trying to prove his innocence and still save them, he will be forced to unveil a horrible and long-buried secret from his own forgotten past.”

A psycho killer… in Bunny costume? A hero who may… or may not have… a couple of screws loose in the mental department. All living together in a story that has more weird avant-garde imagery than a David Lynch film. Yep. Sounds like a crazy sort of movie that will have this wee lady going “Huh?” more than a couple of times…. (and my long suffering sweetie going “WTF??” a whole lot of times, Hehehe!!)

So… OK… sign me up, I’ll give it a look see…. And that means you, o’ Gentle Visitor, need only “Read On” to see if an Indonesian Killer Bunny movie might just be something you just absolutely need to see too…. 😉

“Nightmare” aka “午夜凶梦” (2011) – Chinese Psychological Suspense/ Horror

Whew!!  With all my Valentines Day festivities over, it’s back to our usual stuff here at the ol’ Litterbox and a new review for the recent Mainland Chinese film “Nightmare” aka “午夜凶梦”, the latest Psychological Suspense/ Horror to try to tip-toe between the lines and stay carefully within those strict Chinese prohibitions against ghost stories at the movies these days.

Our synopsis for it goes along these lines:  “Young surgeon Fang Lei (Zhou Xianxin) has been constantly tormented by weird dreams and incidences of sleepwalking since she experienced the tragic murder of both her parents as a child. One day, she meets by chance her best friend from her orphanage days, Angel (Gillian Chung), who is now married to Lei’s ex-boyfriend Zhou Feng (Wu Jianfei). When her next door neighbor Wang Quan (Victor Huang) becomes entangled in Lei’s complicated life, it seems to trigger a series of inexplicable and deadly things. First Zhou Feng goes missing, and then Lei finds herself being stalked by the creepy girl ghost from her childhood nightmares, all the while more people in those dreams begin to turn up dead for real. Is she the somnambulant murderer as she fears, or is there a more supernatural reason for it all?”

Well… that has a promising sound to it, but, as a Mainland Chinese film, I expected this one to be yet another of the recent “bait & switch” horror movies to come out of China the last year or so. Not that a truly good effort wouldn’t be worth a look mind you…. So with some measure of trepidation, I decided to give this one a chance. Ok then… without wasting any more time, let’s all see if it was worth my risk and maybe even yours… shall we?