THE CRITIC-AL LIST
Reviews by Alan Jones
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

Salt
The Expendables
The Last Airbender
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Inception
Predators
The Twilight Saga:Eclipse
Toy Story 3
Hot Tub Time Machine
Iron Man 2
Repo Men
The Collector
Clash of the Titans
Shelter
How To Train Your Dragon
Kick-Ass
Shutter Island
Alice In Wonderland
The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The Rise OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Mans Marlind & Bjorn Stein. Starring Julianne Moore, Jeffrey DeMunn, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. Horror/Thriller, USA, 112 min.

Julianne Moore is one of my very favourite actresses. FAR FROM HEAVEN is a masterpiece, the pinnacle of her career and her finest performance to date. But every now and again she lends her inestimable talents to truly unworthy genre material like THE FORGOTTEN and BLINDNESS.

Her latest misstep is this supernatural dog’s dinner sporting a very confusing and unstable storyline. Actually I was expecting something far more intriguing and clever clogs coming as SHELTER does from the mind of Michael Cooney, THE I INSIDE and IDENTITY scriptwriter. For there’s no anticipated Big Reveal or Parallel Universe explanation this time out, SHELTER is just a common-or-garden possession tale that keeps on getting sillier and more protracted as it marches towards a telegraphed twist ending. Tricked out with lofty layers concerning the loss of faith it cannot properly support, and tarted up with mountain witchcraft mumbo-jumbo, it marks the American debut of STORM co-directors  (Mans) Marlind and (Bjorn) Stein. However some efficiently icy visuals, a few well-placed CGI body distortions and a NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD poster used as art direction do not a horror film make. Producers Mike Macari and Neal Edelstein were also responsible for AMUSEMENT and like that peculiar bust, SHELTER also emerges not fully formed, a package of Hollywood boardroom genre ideas barely held together with anything other than hope. Dr. Cara Jessup (Moore) has made a career out of defying the notion of multiple personality disorders. In courtrooms, her expert witness testimonies have resulted in the death sentence for many psychopaths hiding behind such a defence. Then her psychiatrist father (Jeffrey DeMunn) introduces her to a new patient, Adam (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), and her core ideals are shaken. For it turns out that all his personalities are murder victims, and they include her mugged husband. Soon her friends and family are getting itchy backs - from weird symbols being miraculously etched on their skin in snake venom – coughing up dirt and having their life force sucked out through their mouths by – who? One of Adam’s alter egos is clearly a demonic entity, but which one, and why are they doing it? Quite what witchery, faith healing and Cara’s daughter Samantha has to do with past events captured on old newsreel footage I’ll leave up to you to scoff in disbelief at. Do Cooney and the co-directors really expect us to believe the central concept that such a young girl as Samantha can be so committed an unbeliever because of her father’s death? Afraid so. Except there’s nothing else to be afraid of in this virtually scare free zone that is one of the lamest and tamest chillers in quite a while.

Alan Jones

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2010
__________________________________________________________