Movie Review: Audition (1999)

Directed by Takashi Miike

Starring Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiini and Tetsu Sawaki

Audition starts off with the main character Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) sitting with his wife while she lies on her deathbed. She passes away and he is left to raise his young son alone. Years pass, his son is nearly an adult and will soon be leaving home, and Aoyama seems to have gotten over the death of his wife. But he is lonely and with some coaxing from his son he comes to the realization that he might be happier if he took a wife. Not quite sure how to go about this, he consults with his movie producer friend and they come up with a pretty ingenious scheme for finding him a wife. A fake movie audition, where they line up 30 women to audition for a movie that will never be made, with Aoyama choosing the girl he feels is the right fit for him. He becomes entranced by one of the girls, Asami (Shiina) after reading an essay she writes for the audition. He immediately strikes up a relationship with her and soon discovers that his deceit is nothing compared to the skeletons Asami has in her closet. What plays out is a top notch thriller that slowly builds up to a fantastic horror show. The scene where Aoyama finally gets up the nerve to call Asami on the phone is just plain creepy, the phone is ringing, Asami is sitting quietly on the floor of a run down apartment and as the camera pans out we see a large canvas sack on the floor behind her, there is something inside it, and its moving. Asami smiles and picks the phone up.

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Movie Review: A Horrible Way to Die (2011)

The psycho-thriller has been really pretty hit and miss these days. There are some solid titles out there such as Bereavement and Simon Rumley's excellent Red White and Blue. Unfortunately, for every Red White and Blue you get a much more of the routine camcorder tripe. Director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barret attempt to be among the latter with the downbeat horror feature, A Horrible Way to Die.

Following a suitably spine-chilling opening sequence, A Horrible Way to Die goes on to introduce the main characters while their participating in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. The lead character, Sarah (Amy Seimetz) is a broken-down and scarred addict, looking for answers that don't come at the bottom of a bottle of whiskey. She meets a Kevin (Joe Swanberg) at one of her meetings and soon become fast friends.