Angel

I wasn't going to mention this Brit-horror oddity, but, on reflection it's arguably hinkey enough for more tweaked B-Horror obsessed misfits to give it a shout. Ray Burdis's 'Angel', sadly, had the potential to be a decent psychological horror film, all the lurid ingredients were certainly present, but the so-so execution, prosaic dialogue, and wildly inconsistent performances did much to clip this Angel's wings. On the plus side, the gamine, Jenn Murray's portrayal of cutesy kooky psycho killer Angel was suitably incandescent. Angel's increasingly demented interludes proved memorable, and the macabre flashbacks to her distressing childhood trauma were genuinely unsettling. Once I realised that 'Angel' was veering inexorably into Schlock Central I started to dig on it most righteously. This skeevey tale of bloody-minded vengeance is a creepy curate's egg, but one hopes that another equally twisted reprobate might share a modicum of my, perhaps, entirely misguided enthusiasm for, Ray Burdis's earnest misfire!

I did not find this movie appealing on any level. Even with horrors or thrillers that are disturbing you still would normally find something you liked about them.

Angel is a disturbed young lady who was horrifically abused as a child by her grandmother and grandmothers friends. The abusers wore masks and called the scene of the abuse a 'party'.

The characters in this movie are very one-dimensional, unlikable and lack depth or development. The story content is of course very dark but the path the movie takes just continues along on that darkness and doesn't let up.

The police and government become involved due to a cover-up whereby Angel shouldn't actually be free.

For me personally I did not enjoy the film, I maybe didn't understand what the makers were trying to achieve. To me it's just a film of misery and darkness.

This British thriller tells the story of Angel, a girl in the centre of a paedophilia conspiracy that goes deep into the heart of the UK government. Her mind cracked after years of abuse she is on a killing spree and several branches of law enforcement are after her for varying reasons.

One thing I'll say about Angel is it's smart, its well written and a very clever piece of cinema. Everything that happens is entirely believable and many parts could be considered almost a dark satire.

The trouble is its not very entertaining. We witness Angel on one side and the powers that be on the other leading to the inevitable showdown but when the credits rolled I found myself unimpressed with the film.

Well written, well created and exceeds most British pieces but perhaps it just needed a bit more time to develop. Something about Angel simply missed the mark.

The Good:

Very clever little film

The Bad:

John Hannahs presence is hardly felt

What the hell is with that cover?

I enjoyed this movie. Jenn Murray is quite believable as a victim of child abuse and her performance was chilling at times in the way she played Angel fighting her inner demons. Peter Hugo-Daly is the essence of evil as the depraved clown and sent shivers down my spine. The only downside to me is the amount of swear words in the dialog. I suppose they were put in to make it realistic but I believe that swear words are unnecessary in a movie as I know several people that won't watch a movie that contains swear words no matter how good the movie is.

The Plot kept me guessing until the very end.

The Film is inspired by the book Still Waters by NigelMcClery and not Core of Evil as stated on the Front Page here. The Book is also a very good read and sufficiently different so as to not spoil the Film. I can Recommend Both.

Still Waters (Angel) is almost a parody of classic sci-fi Species. It follows an enigmatic girl as she goes on a killing spree while a team of experts is chasing her. The delivery is astonishingly bad and highly unrealistic, it practically becomes comedy at times. Script consists of profanity spamming for every other sentences, which doesn't help the forced silly acting. The movie is a test of patience and endurance.

The problem starts with the main character Angel (Jenn Murray). Be it the direction or acting from Murray, she looks like a ludicrous imitation of mannequin. It's so terribly exaggerated with repetitive bland monologue and sudden burst of tantrum. This is supposedly to be a dangerous girl, yet she just looks odd as though she's is trapped in bizarre Halloween party for eternity, both the look and reaction are so fake.

Other characters don't fare better either. They are made of several crime drama clichés, the stern female investigator for example. She is the epitome of 80s macho template but now in lady form. The bravado is superficially overwhelming, she may just wear eyepatch and grow a beard. Surprisingly, John Hannah is here, though it doesn't help much with the feeble script.

Writing is sloppy, utilizing chain of curses for any development. Furthermore, the story is littered with irregularities, from surreal reactions to dumb characters. It tries to bring heavy issue like child abuse or psychological trauma, yet the presentation is too odd to be believable. There's no decent conclusion for the excruciating spectacle.

There's a term, uncanny valley, to depict CGI effect that almost mimics real human but eerily not enough and eventually looking like strange doll. This applies to this movie, it extremely fake and foolish, it's unbearable to watch.