Short film review: THE LAST HALLOWEEN (2013) Directed by Marc Roussel

With what could have been a familiar, well-worn concept, Marc Roussel's The Last Halloween defies expectations and delivers a fun (but not necessarily funny), scary and disturbing short straight out of our worst nightmares.
On what seems to be a normal Halloween night, a group of children go trick or treating. Dressed in the usual -if ragged - costumes of Ghost, Devil, Witch and the Grim Reaper, the neighbourhood they are canvasing is more than a little run-down. Although people are coming to their doors, the treats they are given are not the standard candy kind. At the first house, a woman pokes her head sheepishly through the only-partially opened door, sure to keep the security chain in place. Looking worried and hoping to get rid of them as quick as possible, she hands over a small tin of cat food. The next house is really dilapidated. Poking his head through a gap in the broken door, a babbling man (Julian Richings, who was Death in the TV series Supernatural), his face and head full of lesions spouts seemingly nonsensical gibberish. He hands over all he has: a half-eaten dead bird.

The children look bemused but move on. The next house seems more looked after. A perimeter fence keeps them from coming to the front door. A monitor allows the a man inside to talk to them. He isn't keen on letting them in, nor entertaining their tradition. His wife is worried they might need help, but he is having none of it; he's clearly afraid of "what's outside". But as they have not had a treat, what would the children's trick be?

 

The Last Halloween came as a complete surprise. The setting, which becomes more apparent as we progress through the 10 minute short, allows director Roussel (via an upcoming comic book by Mark Thibodeau) to concoct a unique tale around the annual tradition. Rest assured, things do get monstrous towards the end, with some great prosthetics by The Butcher Shop, but in the proceeding minutes the film manages to create an anxious atmosphere in which the viewer is not quite sure what's happening. The cinematography by Michael Jari Davidson is stunning. Fluid (thanks to the uses of Steadycam) yet imposing, it could easily have graced a multimillion dollar Hollywood production. Add to it a score (by Christopher Guglick) which is at times reminiscent of John Carpenter's best and you have a brilliant little flick. Roussel's earlier short, Remote (2010 - check it out here) was a big hit with fans and critics alike, and this short looks set to be a favourite too.

Expect it to be screened during the festival season, and the intention is to premiere it online just in time for Halloween. Check out the trailer below and enjoy!
        
8 out of 10

Retro review: The Soul Of A Monster (1944)

Doctor George Winson (George Macready) is dying. A selfless man, who always went the extra mile for others is at his deathbed from an infection caught when his glove tore. "It's a cock eyed world"; people on the street can't believe it. His wife, Ann (Jeanne Bates) won't believe it. Over the open fire in the room he is set to die in, she makes a plea to anyone - anything - that can save him.

 

Across the town, a strange woman is walking almost trance like, with purpose. She causes cars to almost run her over, electricity wires come falling down spraying sparks in her wake. She keeps on walking until she appears at the Doctor's room. Lillian Gregg (Rose Hobart) is there to take control. She has come to save the doctor when no medicine can help. "You called for me" She insists on everyone leaving, Ann, and the doctor's friends, Fred (Erik Rolf) and Dr Roger Vance (Jim Bannon). Having hours alone with Lillian does the doctor wonders, and he fully recovers within weeks, but he is a changed man. The nice, kind, generous man is no more. He is now cruel, foul tempered and suspicious. George even makes fresh flowers wither and die with just a touch.

Lillian however, has other plans for George. She begins using a her power over him to her advantage.
Back at work, with his assistant Dr Vance, things are getting tense. A minor squabble nearly breaks into a fight, and, holding George's wrists to protect himself, Vance discovers George has no pulse! While examining a young boy, George accidentally gets cut by a pair of scissors, but no blood! Could it be that bringing back George from the brink of death has robbed him of his mortal soul?

A rare Columbia Pictures release, The Soul Of A Monster is a strange little film. At times it feels like a lost Val Lewton classic, then it goes all preachy and could be a morality tale straight from of the Bible belt. It's the heavy handedness of the spiritual side of the film that lets it down, you are practically bashed over the head with metaphysics of the soul and how one who looks to any other 'God' for guidance is wrong and soulless.
Towards the end, characters end up saying the same lines that have just been spoke. A caption card at the end of the film says it all "For the man who walks with evil walks alone; he who walks with evil has no soul,no hope; he lives but a life without faith, and without faith there is no life."

Ok, so I'm not a 'believer' so maybe that's why this felt a little heavy for me, but by the end, it did feel like it was bashing you over the head with it! Enough already! Just show me the horror! Still, it's effective in it's atmosphere in parts and features some unusual jaunty camera angles and tricks that you don't often see in films of it's age (as Lillian appears, then disappears at the end the film briefly goes into negative) , while not living up to it's poster hype, doesn't drag on too much.
5 out of 10.