BURKE AND HARE (2010 - Cert 15)

John Landis' return from a 12 year break from cinema was an event in 2010 that didn't really get as much press as it should have done. A hiatus of over a decade from the man who brought us An American Werewolf in London, Blues Brothers, Trading Places and the affectionately remembered The Three Amigos, should really have been greeted by huge fanfare, but the waters barely rippled.

In many ways, the story of Burke and Hare, is classic Landis. Serial murders in Edinburgh between 1827 - 1831, committed solely for the purpose of selling the corpses to a doctor for research (a historic and brutal version of Cash Converters) is the perfect combination of the darkness of death and the farcical lengths people go to for economic gain, ideally suited to Landis' blackly comic visions.



He gets a good cast on board as well. Burke and Hare themselves are played by Simon Pegg, the film geek's leading man, and Andy Serkis, a brilliant actor with cult status for the choice of some of his roles. They couldn't be a better fit for a film heralding the return of a director held in such high esteem by film buff-dom. Isla Fisher is a good addition as well as the love interest, attractive but goofy and comedic in her own right. Tim Curry and Tom Wilkinson are present and correct as rival doctors trying to beat each other to advances in the medical profession. Christopher Lee has a little cameo, a couple of British TV comedy favourites turn up in Paul Whitehouse and Jessica Hynes. Oh and Ronnie Corbett plays the head of the militia. Remarkable.

So, great director, ludicrously dark yet true story, dependably decent and slightly mental, if unspectacular casting. It has to be a sure-fire black comedy hit.

Perhaps it should have been, but quite frankly it's all a bit of a mess. The story itself rumbles along at a good pace, predictable at times but with enough coming from leftfield to make it interesting. The narrative follows Burke and Hare, the killers, and has them as the 'heroes' of the piece. I liked the fact that we were being asked to side with the bad guys, rather than the usual tale of good vs evil. That isn't the problem though, it's the tone of the film, and more specifically the comedy that I take issue with. There are some nice dark comic touches as our heroes try to become murderers and have varying levels of success. But then Landis resorts to broad slapstick comedy and a whole host of lines that just don't cut the mustard. I did chuckle a few times, but this was mostly to do with Pegg's delivery rather than anything else. He could read the back of a cornflakes box and make it funny. Serkis is annoying, and barely trying, for the vast majority of his time on screen, Curry and Wilkinson are good fun, Fisher does well and is likeable, but the best turn in the film has to go to little Ronnie Corbett. He's not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, but he is a laugh and is never dull.

It all felt a little diluted...the true events should have given Landis and the writing team plenty to harvest, both in terms of comedy and interesting characters. Instead, the film relies on Simon Pegg's facial expressions and the noise of breaking bones for the majority of it's comedy, rather than the potential in the story of two Irish immigrants and the combination of the business theory of supply and demand and murder. The characters are two-dimensional at best, there solely to fall over or say funny things, which is a shame because the ending is braver than the rest of the film leaves you expecting and it would have had at least a bit of emotional impact if some care was made with creating characters instead of cardboard cut outs. This is made all the more frustrating when you consider that an American Werewolf in London is still one of the finest examples of doing this sort of thing properly. It makes me think it's more to do with laziness rather than anything else.

Massively disappointing as a Landis fan, a Pegg fan and a cinema fan. Worth a look though for Ronnie Corbett, and it's a shame that the best line of the film is used in the trailer.

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

How best to follow The Omen? Well an episode of Modern Family if it's up to the girlfriend. She couldn't possibly do back-to-back horror films. Once that was out of the way we were straight on to the John Landis classic An American Werewolf in London.



I've got very fond memories of this film as I recall it being one of the first films my parents let me watch that wasn't a PG. It used to scare the life out of me. I remember seeing the transformation scene and the murderous rampage. I was disgusted but I wouldn't dare look away. What were Mum and Dad thinking?

This was the first time I'd seen this film in a few years, probably since my early twenties, and what struck me on this viewing was the humour. Not just the well known black humour of Jack the decaying walking dead haunting his best friend. There is also the banter between the David and Jack in the opening scene which brilliant, two lads just enjoying themselves on holiday. Likewise between David and Nurse Price (the other scene I remember from my youth, Jenny Agutter and the shower) flirting over bad hospital food. David waking up in the wolf enclosure at London Zoo. As the title suggests, the home of this film is England and it has an underlying Englishness to it's sensibility and, particularly, it's humour.

This playful side really helps to give the characters a heart which makes the horror all the more shocking and frightening. The transformation scene is now part of cinematic history, and it still packs a punch with this film as old as me (ALMOST thirty). It looks fantastic and the physicality of the effects surpass any CGI. You really feel David's pain. Speaking of pain, his rampage where he slaughters 6 also lingers in the memory, most notably the murder at Tottenham Court Road tube. Late at night, when on the tube, I can't help but think of this scene and constantly look over my shoulder. The scene that I found impressive and the one that really struck a chord with me was the Piccadilly Circus carnage. I don't remember it being so graphic, people being crushed under cars, flying through windscreens, how they managed that all those years ago - a real achievement. Special mention should also go to the mischievously hideous dream sequences, they work their way up from a nude David running through the forest slaughtering and eating deer to a fantasticly sureal and striking scene involving nazi demons slaughtering a family. Brilliant stuff.

The film has humour, dark, dark humour, real horror, bloody horror but it also has a heart. There are some genuinely touching moments in this film. David looks across at the original werewolf as it is slain and all that remains is a middle aged man. David confronting the people he murders, the guilt being hammered home. However, the real moment that tugs at the heart strings is when Alex Price confronts the wolf in an alley and there is a split second or recognition in the eyes of the beast, before the animal instincts take hold again and he lurches forward. Then if the final frame doesn't get you, then you might as well be a lycanthrope.

Plus it has Alan Ford as a cabbie.

Timeless.