David Mankellow

Drag me to Hell/A Room for Romeo Brass

Another weekend passes and more films to talk about/review. This time (mainly due to lack of funds) I decided to watch a couple of DVDs in my collection i’d yet to view. These two movies couldn’t be more different. So here are the reviews of Drag Me To Hell (2009) and A Room For Romeo Brass (2000) .

Mental Gypsy Witch from Drag Me to Hell

Drag Me to Hell

I had wanted to see this film for a while. I’m never that impressed with scary films. I find it hard to get into them, not to mention I get annoyed by the stupidity of the characters. This is a film that is good according to the reviews i’d read. I nearly went to the cinema to see it at the time but for some reason I didn’t and so I was pretty excited to finally see the movie.

It starts with a scene set in 1969 where a Mexican boy, living in California, had been cursed by a Gypsy (also living in California) for stealing a silver necklace. He looked ill and his parents took him to a house where it looked like he was to be exorcised. At this point, some sort of demon came in, appeared to “punch” all of the people around, take the child and drag him to hell. It was here that I paused the DVD, went straight online and had to clarify what this film was supposed to be! For me that is not a good sign! Turns out that it’s sort of a scary black comedy. That was its saving grace really because if it was supposed to be a serious horror it would have been pathetic and if it was supposed to be a comedy it would have also been terrible!

The film cuts to modern day. A girl seems to have the perfect life, perfect boyfriend bla bla bla. She is a loan manager at a bank. The above Gypsy comes in and begs for a loan so that she can keep her house. For whatever reason she denies the loan and has a curse put on her. I know it’s a film but in any walk of life i’d be annoyed that security let someone in to see me looking like that! The film then rolls along where a demon is pursuing the girl and making her life a misery until it all comes to a head.

I have a problem with it. It’s nicely made and it’s jumpy in parts which is what you sign up for but I just didn’t like its lack of identity. It can never be taken seriously due to the ridiculous gore scenes and silly scenarios such as where she digs a grave in the rain. It’s raining so hard that the grave and graveyard fill with water and she’s struggling with this dead body. Again, I know it’s not to be taken seriously but there’s no real comedy anywhere else. It’s seems to want to be taken seriously elsewhere and then BOOM, an anvil is dropped on the witch and her eyes shoot out. In my opinion a black comedy like this should be like Dog Soldiers. There, the dialogue is funny and there is nowhere that you think “This is a serious film” yet it’s exciting to watch and jumpy in parts.

I feel that I may be missing something however. This genre of film is very culty and I’m not an expert on the subject. There are a hell of a lot of positive reviews from experts. The best way to figure it out is to see it.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Paddy Consadine and Andrew Shrim

A Room For Romeo Brasss

I like to support British film where I can. In my opinion some of the best ones around are made by Shane Meadows. I have decided to get as many of his films as possible and then watch them in chronological order. This way I feel that i’m getting a real feel for his progression as a writer and director. I started with TwentyFourSeven (1998) and moved on to the next one, A Room for Romeo Brass. I didn’t enjoy TwentyFourSeven that much. I thought it was very well put together. You could immediately see the direction style but the story was quite weak. I had heard that A Room for Romeo Brass was a vast improvement and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story is set somewhere in the East Midlands and surrounds two boys, Romeo (Andrew Shrim) and Gavin (Ben Marshall). They’re next-door neighbours and best mates. Romeo gets into a fight with some older boys, whilst trying to protect Gavin. Morrell (Paddy Consadine) comes to the rescue and gives the boys a lift home. Morrell, upon seeing Romeo’s sister takes a shine to her and starts spending time with the boys in order to get close to her. Whilst this is going on there is discontent in both of the boys’ households. Romeo’s Dad comes back and Romeo doesn’t like him or want to see him whilst Gavin has problems with his back and requires extensive surgery which puts strain on the family. Morrell comes across as an eccentric, nervous but kind character but something isn’t quite right about him. Eventually he shows his true colours and a series of events occur leading up to a big crescendo.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Meadows does a superb job of depicting normal, dysfunctional family life on a council estate. Additionally Shrim and Consadine perform their characters fantastically well. There is a lot more depth to the film in comparison to TwentyFourSeven. I took it that there was a real theme about male role-models to the boys. Romeo hates his dad for whatever reason and he attempts to come back into his life when at the same time Morrell seems to take over the male role-model side of things for him. On the other hand Gavin’s dad comes across as slightly horrible to start with but really he’s just a bit of an idiot and he really loves his family, this is proven at the end of the film.

The whole experience was refreshing and rewarding. The soundtrack was also very good. It is plain to see that this film was a real springboard for Meadows. If you are at all interested in British cinema I would definitely recommend this film.

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★