Post by Canetoad on Sept 15, 2007 3:39:51 GMT -5
THERE’s a lot of death in Subject Two. The catch is it’s the same bloke dying every time.
Our hero is medical student Adam (Christian Oliver) who we are introduced to as a very bright but slightly lost young man looking for direction, and apparently fighting a few inner demons.
He receives a mysterious e-mail from a doctor asking him to an anonymous meeting at a remote location in the mountains. The said doctor’s been reading Adam’s on-line blog and has decided he’d be a perfect assistant in a great undertaking.
OK, we’re not talking gloomy castles and Dr Frankenstein here, but a warm timber cabin surrounded by pine forest and snow. Lots of snow.
To cut a long story short, Adam duly meets the obsessive doctor (Dean Stapleton), and ends up dead for his troubles. As you do.
The catch is he doesn’t stay dead, because the doc has developed a serum that bestows effective immortality on its test subjects. Well sort of – Subject One is half buried out the front of the cabin with tubes stuck up his nose.
Poor old Adam ends up suffering a number of unfortunate demises, all of which he seems to ‘survive’.
The plot premise in very broad terms is a cross between Frankenstein and Stuart Gordon’s brilliant Re-Animator. But what sounds plain silly works considerably better than it should.
Subject 2 is decidedly minimalist (a cast of just 6 for starters), with all the events taking place in a simple cabin or against a snowy backdrop – all of which gives a very effective sense of isolation and unease.
The acting is first class, particularly Stapleton as the obsessive doctor, and the shot on digital cinematography is terrific.
More importantly, it’s not so much a horror film but a drama/thriller with very strong themes about the price of immortality.
The main fault is the pacing, which is at times near glacial. After an engaging and surprising first 20 minutes, the centre of the film becomes repetitive and perhaps tries too hard for style.
That said, overall it worked well enough for me to definitely hunt down director Philip Chidel’s next effort (in pre-production now) The House of Good and Evil when it’s released.
THREE STARS
Our hero is medical student Adam (Christian Oliver) who we are introduced to as a very bright but slightly lost young man looking for direction, and apparently fighting a few inner demons.
He receives a mysterious e-mail from a doctor asking him to an anonymous meeting at a remote location in the mountains. The said doctor’s been reading Adam’s on-line blog and has decided he’d be a perfect assistant in a great undertaking.
OK, we’re not talking gloomy castles and Dr Frankenstein here, but a warm timber cabin surrounded by pine forest and snow. Lots of snow.
To cut a long story short, Adam duly meets the obsessive doctor (Dean Stapleton), and ends up dead for his troubles. As you do.
The catch is he doesn’t stay dead, because the doc has developed a serum that bestows effective immortality on its test subjects. Well sort of – Subject One is half buried out the front of the cabin with tubes stuck up his nose.
Poor old Adam ends up suffering a number of unfortunate demises, all of which he seems to ‘survive’.
The plot premise in very broad terms is a cross between Frankenstein and Stuart Gordon’s brilliant Re-Animator. But what sounds plain silly works considerably better than it should.
Subject 2 is decidedly minimalist (a cast of just 6 for starters), with all the events taking place in a simple cabin or against a snowy backdrop – all of which gives a very effective sense of isolation and unease.
The acting is first class, particularly Stapleton as the obsessive doctor, and the shot on digital cinematography is terrific.
More importantly, it’s not so much a horror film but a drama/thriller with very strong themes about the price of immortality.
The main fault is the pacing, which is at times near glacial. After an engaging and surprising first 20 minutes, the centre of the film becomes repetitive and perhaps tries too hard for style.
That said, overall it worked well enough for me to definitely hunt down director Philip Chidel’s next effort (in pre-production now) The House of Good and Evil when it’s released.
THREE STARS