BA_Harrison

Men & Chicken features a chicken with cow hooves and a stork with human feet. It's a weird film, and I'm not really sure how I feel about it. It's labelled as a dark comedy, but don't go in expecting to laugh a lot - if the film does elicit laughs, they'll most likely be of the uncomfortable kind, because the film goes to some very strange places. While I generally enjoy movies that travel down a path less trodden, I wasn't prepared for quite how bizarre this one was.

David Dencik and Mads Mikkelsen play brothers Gabriel and Elias, who discover that the man they called dad wasn't their biological father. This leads them on a journey to discover their real parentage, which takes them to an island where they meet their siblings - Franz, Josef and Gregor - none of whom are normal. The three men all have hare lips, just like Gabriel and Elias, and act in a bizarre manner, solving their differences with violence. They live in squalor in a large, run-down sanatorium full of animals, where Gabriel discovers the secret to their existence in the basement.

The plot explores theology and philosophy, but not in a manner that will bore your socks off, and throws in plenty of insanity about cheese, taxidermy, crockery, badminton and bestiality, with a message that we are all unique and special in our own way, no matter how bizarre we might seem. This quirky film certainly won't be for everyone, but is worth a watch if only for Mikkelsen, whose character possesses an abnormally high sex drive but cannot find a woman, so resorts to chronic masturbation (the reason for which is revealed in the final act).

5.5/10, rounded up to 6 for the excellent make-up: the hare lips look real.

Brazilian horror Our Evil was repeatedly recommended to me by someone on TikTok; when someone is THAT insistent that a film is worth my time, I have to give it a go - and they were absolutely right: Our Evil delivers tension, scenes of extreme brutality, some genuine pathos, and expertly crafted scares, with one scene in particular delivering a one-two punch that had me jumping out of my seat.

Ademir Esteves plays Arthur, who, in the film's opening, scours the dark web to find an assassin to carry out a hit. The man he contacts is Charles (Ricardo Casella), a psychopath who enjoys his work a little too much, the man killing innocent women for kicks in his spare time.

After Charles has fulfilled his latest contract, the film jumps back in time to show Arthur as a young man, who - as in The Sixth Sense - can see dead people, and who is so disturbed by his horrific visitations from the mutilated and decaying that he tries to take his own life. However, the spirit of a dead circus clown prevents him from doing so, telling Arthur that he must use his gift to save good souls from torment and to condemn the bad. And to say any more about the plot would be to spoil the film.

Along the way, we are treated to a woman being scalped and then shot in the head, two women being murdered by Charles after he procures them for sex, a couple of grisly female ghosts, and the sight of a woman tormented by a demon eating her own arm: sucks to be a woman in this film.

Our Evil does end on a happy note for Arthur and his adoptive daughter Michele, but Charles gets what he deserves (the credits roll before we see what happens to him, but we know it ain't gonna be nice!).

Zach Cregger's Barbarian was a promising horror debut, but didn't quite do it for me as a whole, never quite reaching the levels of lunacy I was hoping for. Cregger's follow up, Weapons, is far more satisfying, with an impressive Magnolia-style narrative structure that tells its story from several different points of view, before going totally bonkers for the final act. Cregger masterfully blends intrigue, suspense, dark comedy and horror to tell the story of a small town where seventeen school children, all from the same class, mysteriously disappear into the night leaving their distraught parents to suspect the kids' teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), of foul play.

The trailer for Weapons was very careful not to give too much away, which I really appreciated, so I won't delve into the plot any further, suffice to say that the film delivers plenty of surprises and becomes more and more crazy as it goes along, until finally revealing who or what is responsible for the disappearances. The first hour and a half is very slow burn, with little in the way of genuine horror, and more humour than I was expecting, but the way Cregger tells his story from the perspectives of very different characters keep things fresh until he finally lets loose with the craziness. Although not an out and out bloodbath, there are a handful of scenes that definitely deliver the nastiness, so fans of the gory stuff won't feel cheated, especially by the film's extremely grisly conclusion. Garner, who was in the dreadful The Wolfman and the disappointing The Fantastic Four, is great on this occasion, and she is given solid support from the likes of Josh Brolin and Benedict Wong, although it is Amy Madigan, as bizarre aunt Gladys Lilly, who steals the show - she's hilarious!

8.5/10, rounded up to 9 for the Justin Long cameo.