seedofbilly Reviews

Skellig: The Owl Man (2009 TV Movie)

As good as the book? No. A fitting adaptation? Yes. A good film? Absolutely.

[9/10 · 12 April 2009]

Skellig was one of my childhood books and it has stuck with ever since I was 10 years old (at my school there were two camps for a little while, the Chamber of Secrets camp and the Skellig camp, I was in the latter). I was always sure that in the right hands it could translate into a great film, but was never sure who's hands those were.

My mind certainly didn't ever even consider Annabel Jankel, especially after she aided in the insulting filmic version of one of my other childhood loves (Super Mario Bros.). But, all in all, I was very impressed. Casting was near perfection, especially Tim Roth and John Simm, relative newcomer Skye Bennett also did very well in what was probably the most difficult role of them all (Mina). Kelly Macdonald was also on good form as the mother, however she didn't get nearly enough face time and a good few of her better moments from the book were omitted.

Luckily that and an amusing moment involved Michael's father desperately searching for the missing aspirin while in the grip of a hangover were the only parts cut from the tale. The ending felt a bit more blatant than it had been in the book, I would've like the 'dancing' scene and Skellig's curing of the baby to have felt more distant and dreamlike as they did in the novel. Still, Skellig himself looked fantastic and the production team did well to steer clear of the temptation of religious iconography, it was as David Almond likely intended it, a heartwarming tale of love, intrigue, the natural and the supernatural. All of those ideas translated perfectly, and I'm glad to see Skellig maintained his ever entertaining penchant for brown ale and 27 and 53.

Alien (1979)

Definitive Sci-fi horror

[10/10 · 12 July 2006]

The general consensus for horror culminated with science fiction now days is not a good one, in general when one is made it turns out badly, Chronicles of Riddick, AVP, resident evil, I could go on and on. I greatly respect all directors who willingly take on the challenge of creating any horror film, they're in my opinion some of the hardest types of film to pull off, generally they are either great or terrible, atmosphere is easy, whats hard is maintaining a solid plot to go around it, some films are in the middle, as it where, the hills have eyes and the new omen are prime examples, they are good attempts but I wouldn't rush to see them again. There is so much more to horror than being frightened, Alien wouldn't ever keep me awake at night, but I still think its a masterpiece. Another common mistake is just a total gore fest, those are fun, in a hideous way, but not generally good films, some are balanced, some go way to far and get away with it (evil dead) some go way to far and don't (Hostel). I know you might be thinking that those two films aren't so bad, but I only mentioned them because they weren't banned form viewing, I'm not even going to start about such things as driller killer and stuff you find in a psycho's apartment. And now we get to why Alien is the best film of its type, ever made. Because everything that horror should be came to together in the right way, the isolation, the build up to the aloneness, the betrayal, everything, one particularly good factor is the feeling of relief before the big crunch at the end, war of the worlds tried a similar tactic, but over did it a little, none the less, it works wonders. The production team were good (british of course) H.R. Giger provided some uniquely stylish and scary concepts and it spawn the chest-bursting scene which was 'one of the best scenes for sending the whole cinema into an uproar of all time' I agree with that, apparently people actually had to leave because it was that shocking, what amazes me is that in terms of plot twists Jame Cameroon was able to match it in shock factor in Aliens with the queen appearance, classic. Many people call alien one of the greatest science fiction films of all time, but I prefer to think if it in horror terms, it utilises science fiction to become one of the greatest films of all time.