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Desperate to see a decent horror film for a change, I tentatively watched Feast, and was amazed! It's tongue-in-cheek from the outset. The tone is very much From Dawn till Dusk meets Dog Soldiers meets Tremors.

The story is simple: low-lifes trapped in a bar while alien-lifes run amok and pick them off.

Looking for gore, yet something funny to lift your spirits? Get a big box of popcorn, some beers, leave your brain parked outside and watch Feast. Oh, and try to guess in advance which character buys it next.

My only question is...Why isn't this movie released in the theatres yet?

Ah, the 70's. A decade when filmakers made films for themselves and the audience, before the accountants infested the studios!

In that respect, Texas Chainsaw Massacre goes against the grain of any horror film made in the 80's or 90's, with the exception of most Asian horror and possibly James Cameron's Aliens.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a brutal, ugly film with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And succeeds all the more for it. The pseudo-documentary feel gives the film a distinctly unpolished look, whilst all the characters, even the teenage victims are, by degrees, particularly repellent. Especially the wheelchair-bound Franklin, of whom we are made to empathise with, not sympathise, in his isolation from the rest of the group. His disability is not patronised nor made any issue of, he is the 'runt' of the herd that is about to be slaughtered, and the film makes no apologies for it.

Having said that, the film does have one redeeming feature. It is a particularly effective eco-horror movie. The Sawyer (read: Saw Yer)family, having worked for generations in the local slaughterhouse, are unable to discriminate between human and animal fodder. Their level of innate cruelty knows no bounds: if it moves, torture it-then kill it! We actually start to think about what we are doing to animals every day in turning them into burger-fodder for the masses.

The anti-McDonalds/Burger King message is strong, and should make vegetarians of us all.

The quality of the acting in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is unsurpassed in any film of this genre, most notably, the hitchhiker whom the teenagers pick up early in the film.

Special note must be made of the soundtrack which shuns any derivative musical score in favour of a genuinely unsettling blend of industrial noise. Like everything else in this film it plays very much on the psych.

There is no redemption in the finale of this movie, nor are we given any rationale for the family's actions. Everything and everyone is working on a base animal instinct to survive and in that lies the brutality and success of this film.

Because of this, we come away thinking we've seen a lot more than what is actually shown. There is very little blood in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What there is, is the psychological reduction of the audience to their basest level: that of pure instinct for self-preservation.

For around 83 minutes we are witness to a survival horror stripped of all gloss and pretensions. And an audience stripped of their civility.

That Tarantino has a real passion for the movies, we all knew. That he loves his quirky left-of-center soundtracks we were never in any doubt. That he could successfully pull off another ultra-stylish genre-busting event movie whilst From Dawn Till Dusk and Jackie Brown, good as they were, still withered in the dazzling light of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction we wondered and wondered.

Has Quentin Tarantino, writer and director of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction still got what it takes? Has Kill Bill been worth the wait. Or is it merely a "good movie"?

Well relax. Because Kill Bill Vol.1 sees Tarantino back to his true form.

The story is simple. A basic revenge movie. But this is only a structure on which Tarantino can hang his stylish visual feast. From the outset, his influences come thick and fast; martial arts; 70's baxploitation; Akira Kurasowa; Alfred Hitchcock; Sergio Leone and many more. However, how many would have ticked the checkbox marked "Japanese Anime"? That many, huh?

Kill Bill is ultra violent, but in a graphic novel sort of way that is hard to take offence. Anyone who has seen 'other' Asian exploitation movies such as Battle Royale (with cheese!) and Ichi the Killer, even Monty Python and the Holy Grail, will know what to expect.

The film constantly surprises and always entertains. But the biggest revelation is Uma Thurman as 'The Bride'. She not only kicks ass, she also gives a performance which constantly walks a tightrope between seriousness and parody with such skill, she gives Johnny Depp in Pirates... a run for his money. So much so, the Tarantino/Thurman partnership could almost be the new Scorcese/De Niro for the New Millenia! We'll see.

To say Kill Bill 'kicks ass' is no measure of its success: Pulp Fiction doesn't 'kick ass'; Reservoir Dogs doesn't 'kick ass'. What they do do, however, is to showcase a blinding storytelling talent that excites and inspires a new generation of kids all around the World into being film directors like the movies of Peckinpah, Hitchcock, Kurasowa, Leone, Scorcese did for the present generation of filmakers.

Quentin Tarantino's unabashed passion for the movies is there for all to see. It excites, inspires and above all, rekindles OUR love in the movies.

That is success. That's what Kill Bill does.