Pasha's Film Reviews Etc.

7/10 Two  young brothers and their parents move into a new home. Both students in their twenties, the brothers share a strong bond. One rainy night the older brother is kidnapped by some strangers. When he is back 19 days later he has no memory of what has occurred.  The younger brother suspects that something strange is happening in the house. Why is one of the rooms always locked? And why did his older brother suddenly lose his limp - an injury he received in a car crash a few years ago? Little by little he discovers that all is connected to a murder where the culprit had never been found... FORGOTTEN is an elegant murder mystery that starts off slowly, but gathers pace bit by bit - which is typical for Korean movies. The clever mystery has many revelations, peeling layer after layer, slowly getting to the core, and this is how I like my mysteries to unravel. The small crew of actors excels at changing their characters from caring t...

8/10 Last year had one of the arguably best books of Agatha Christie MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS being released, boasting a big budget and an impressive acting ensemble. There was a much quieter release of CROOKED HOUSE, about a family whose public profile is threatened by its patriarch's murder, without a doubt committed by one of the family members. Penned by DOWNTON ABBEY’s Julian Fellows, and directed by a Frenchman Gilles Paquet-Brenner, whose speciality is to direct big stars in smaller films, CROOKED HOUSE has all the qualities of a period drama, full of romantic innuendos, Femmes Fatales and soaked in dark Victorian atmosphere. I have been a big fan of Agatha Christie since I was a child. My mother read me THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD when I was only six and everything I learned about plot and character building is from her books. During her career Agatha Christie created a few twists than no one had ever done before her and other authors used ...

7/10 Based on a real criminal case from 1991, VERONICA is the story of a girl besieged by a demon only she could see, and her desperate efforts to protect her family. Growing up too quickly 16 year old Veronica has to look after her two young sisters and a baby brother. Her father is deceased and her mother is constantly at work, sleeping in late after the night shift. They live in a derelict apartment block, but the apartments are large and oddly shaped, which adds to the creepy settings when the story gets dark. Trying to reach out to her dead father Veronica and her two best friends arrange a séance with a Ouija board. Coinciding with the solar eclipse their game turns dangerous when something “from the other side” seems to slip in to our world. As things start spiralling out of control Veronica tries to do what she does best – keep her family together by any mean possible. But is that new challenge just too hard to bear? The cult director of Spanish horror cinema F...