The Last Horror Movie Details

Disturbing

One of the more interesting and unsettling movie experiences of late - we seem to be watching a US mid-west set serial killer movie when the screen whites out and we meet Max(Kevin Howarth)who tells us he has recorded over the tape because he has something more intersting to show us.....

He is a serial killer in London who not only targets his victims randomly but has an assistant to film them as well....the film we are in fact watching.

Max is an articulate,intellegent fellow who just seems to have developed a taste for wholesale slaughter and one of the films cleverist elements is that he involves us not only in the voyerism that all has cinema comes with but asks us to examine our ethical choices as well.

At one point(apart a particularily brutal killing) he asks 'are we not appalled' but if we are as appalled as we seem to be....why are we still watching?

He teases us by cutting away from the more gruesome stuff then asks 'I bet you were craning your neck round to see what I was doing'........and its this duplicity with the audience that makes the film so effective.

At various points you think he has gone too far but with a sleight of hand we are re-assured that he isn't a complete monster(well not completly).

As a concept director Julian Richards has given us something that is thought-provoking,horrific and very funny(a lot of Max's asides are so reasonable on the surface they can't but provoke laughter) and the ending will have you peering out the curtains every time you hear a footstep(if you arn't already).

Howarth is exellent in the part - (no campy jokeness for him)and,although it does tread the same sort of path as Man Bites Dog,its still a very effective little movie.......and another welcome addiction to the British Horror Genre.

I guarantee you will be looking over your shoulder before your next film rental in the High Street.....