DVD Review - Whiteout

Yesterday (25/01/10) saw the release of Whiteout on DVD and Blu-Ray starring the lovely Kate Beckinsale.

Beckinsale plays Carrie Stetko, a US Marshall based on an American outpost in the icy wilderness of Antarctica. Winter is approaching, bringing with it deadly storms and six months of darkness, and Carrie, having just handed in her resignation is looking forward to heading back home and away from the cold in three days time. Sadly her trip home becomes secondary when she is sent to the scene of a body found in the snow and finds herself investigating the first murder on the continent. She has 72 hours to solve the case and find the killer before she is stranded at the base for six months, but the circumstances of the death have much deeper roots than originally predicted. With a murderer who is willing to kill again, and storms that cause near blindness, Carrie could literally be near death and never know it.

I originally put Whiteout on my list of films to see at the cinema when it was first released and I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t see it. It certainly captured my attention when I saw the trailer the first time round. In any case, I’ve seen it now and though not the best crime thriller of the decade, it kept me on hanging on till the very end.

The movie could be considered to be a hybrid of sorts between a slasher and a crime thriller. The elements are there to allow the audience to follow the trail of evidence but whilst wearing the hat of detective, the audience is also witnessing the killer removing further people from the equation. Unlike a standalone crime thriller where in general we would follow the story via the crime scenes. The comedy consequence of this hybrid is that while shouting out wild accusations at the screen regarding any new character that pops up and slowly backtracking as their involvement becomes less and less likely:

“He did it, definitely!”

“Well he’s definitely involved in some way, I’m certain”

“Ok he’s not involved but that other guy definitely is!”

You’ll also be verbally questioning Carrie’s decision making:

“Why is she going out there!?”

“Don’t go there on your own!”

Tension is running high throughout the movie and in an effort to avoid the cliché; at times I was really on the brink of my sofa, something that I would attribute to the setting of the events. There is a real feeling of isolation thanks to the close confines of the outpost buildings and the horrendous storms outside. Despite questioning her judgement, as the only US Marshall on the continent, Carrie has to take a lot of suspense-filled solo walks into the abyss of her surroundings, unable to see more than six inches in front of her face, with a killer on the prowl, which does nothing good for your nerves.

The movie is based on a book of the same name written by Greg Rucka, a book I unfortunately have not read, which presents me with a problem; I don’t know how close the movie is to the original material. Though an enjoyable watch, the movie is a tad clumsy in dropping hints as to the identity of the killer or those involved, something that I would hope was a direct result of the direction of the film and not a result of the original text. I didn't have the killer pegged from the start but I had declared my suspicions over one character almost immediately and I was found to be correct, which ruined it a little for me. I like twists, and bluffs but Whiteout sadly doesn't have any.

Other than that slight disappointment it's a pretty solid film. It's a slightly above average story that has ups and downs in terms of quality but it's not awful. It also isn't perfect so for me it sits firmly in the middle of my scale. I give it 3  fur-lined jackets out of 5.

DVD Review - Sorority Row

Today (Monday 11th January 2010) saw the release of teen horror Sorority Row on DVD and Blu-Ray, which was playing to cinema audiences in September last year.

In Sorority Row a handful of sorority girls take a break from pillow fights in their underwear and plaiting each other's hair to play a prank on the brother of one of their number. While well thought out, the plan goes slightly too far when it results in the death of one of their group, Megan.

Deciding that it would be better for everyone if no-one knew of Megan's death, the girls hide Megan's body and crack on with college as if nothing happened. This is of course until they start to receive messages suggesting someone knows what they did, followed by a number of brutal murders of those involved.

Essentially Sorority Row is a slasher flick and despite my lighthearted synopsis it isn't actually a bad one. I feel that when removing remakes of old slasher films from the equation, there really haven't been all that many worth getting excited about in recent years. In fact the last one I remember really having any love for was "Scream". This is no "Scream" but it is certainly the closest to it out of all the latest slashers.

Sorority Row houses the essential elements of any teen slasher movie, namely the attractive female characters; many of whom wearing tight clothing or sometimes towels, the subtle hints at possible suspects leading the audience on a wild goose chase when trying to decide who the killer is, and of course the varied and gruesome deaths. What it unfortunately does not possess however is a satisfactory conclusion in the form of the "Killer Revelation". It might well be that you watch Sorority Row and class the killer as a stroke of genius because it took you so long to work it out, however to me, a killer who skips under the radar for as long as the one in Sorority Row does is someone with a rather poor motive and thus is an unsatisfying murderer. The movie is based on a book and I get the feeling that the book might have afforded more time to the character who turns out to be the killer, whereas the film skims over them a little.

Despite my dislike of the identity of the killer, I was pretty pleased with Sorority Row overall. It certainly gets the award for most original murder weapon (a multi-tool tyre iron) and the premise of the movie, i.e. the prank gone wrong, is quite a fresh plot in my opinion. Well as fresh as something can be that is based on a book. In any case, you'll enjoy Sorority Row if you're a fan of cheesy teen slashers. If not, and intelligent crime thrillers are your bag, you'll probably like Sorority Row about as much as I like typing "Sorority", which as yet has not been written correctly first time.

It gets 2 tyre irons from me. It would have sat at 3 if not for the terrible killer/motive.